 Life is about constant evolution always better today than we were yesterday Welcome to the only easy day was yesterday the official Navy SEAL podcast. I'm your host Scott Williams And today we have with us the command master chief of naval special warfare center one Joaquin Martinez a SWIC and That stands for a special warfare combat crewman and welcome to the show Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you guys having me here. So it's honor to be here. Thank you Yeah, it's an honor because he was in our very first episode So we're doing a little bit of a reprieve role back then you were not the CMC But that was 2018 right April 2018. I think we did our first episode and he was here to tell us a little bit about SWIC and that's kind of something we want to talk about today today's topic is my experience as a Navy SWIC A lot of people still don't know what SWIC is and So we want to talk about that today, but first let's start back in the beginning How did you come into the Navy? What did you do in the Navy before you became a SWIC? So let's just start back in the very beginning. Yeah, I came in the Navy in 1992 Prior to me coming in here. I was actually working at a pizza place. I was a young father believe it or not very young and We decided to come in to the Navy. I had a cousin that was already in he was an OT There's most people probably to recognize what that rate rating is because it's long gone He was an OT ocean system to system technician and he kind of inspired me to come in So I decided to join initially I was only on a two-year program the two-year program They were offered at the time was apprenticeship programs seaman airman and fireman So I came in for two years and where was your recruiter in upland, California? So I'm from Ontario, California, and it's the next city over of so upland up in California I went to Chaffee High School and I graduated from there and like said 92 But I had joined the delayed entry program at the beginning of the year Yeah went to delayed entry program was in it for about seven months prior to me coming in in September of 92 so actually next week marks my 31st year in the Navy Wow, so I've been in for quite a bit But really that's what inspired me my cousin coming in and and the fact that I was already a dad And I needed to do something When I came in for two years I got to the end of the year mark and I was up for if what we consider e4 third-class petty officer And I had to make a decision. Am I ready to get out at two years with the wife and the kid? Or do I stay in a little longer and I made e4 and decided to relist for two years I think after that I was command advance what we call materiously advanced program now I was command advanced at my three-year mark to e5 or second-class petty officer and at that point I just I just felt like I had to stay and it was kind of like no no turning back at that point Yeah, I remember you had told us about the first time you had seen Sweat guys in action. Can you tell us about that again? Yeah, hearing about swick First was we had a chief chief. Oh thought was his name He was on board the USS Nimitz. He had previously done a tour at SBU 12 We used to talk to us about all time on how they would you know insert or deliver seals off the boats And they would do different things So he already kind of planted that seed and it was probably about 96 95 96 time frame we were actually in port San Diego was on the USS Nimitz at the time and We were on force protection duty that day and I was a lifeboat coxswain back then it was a motor whale boat I was a coxswain for a motor whale boat and for those of you that are a little bit older motor whale boats were They are about 26 foot long and they basically went about seven knots max speed, which is not very fast at all This particular boat had no reverse on it because it was broken and had them to fix shit Well, the the force protection drill was the fact that we were gonna have some Harassment from some SBU guys back then now SBT and they came over and they essentially came to the ship And I had a guy hunkered down with an m14, you know blank fire, of course, which we absolutely did nothing with that These guys came in with their cool high-speed boats They started doing some blank fire with m60s at the time 50 cows and completely obliterating us All I could do is just drive forward and afford motion around the ship just pretending we were guarding something But I think once I saw that I was like wow, that's really what I want to do I was also the and they were doing better than seven knots. I imagine they yeah, especially Yeah, I think in reverse they did better than seven knots just looking at them And the way they can make their jet wash fly up and just you know, they was just really cool to see and especially when they Head out of there. I mean it was just a blink of an eye. They were there and then they were getting out of there Probably making about 40 knots on the way out like those power boats. You see in the races. Exactly. Yeah So it's very very inspiring to see that and I think that further planted the seed But I didn't bite off on until I decided what I was gonna do with my military career to begin with So I think after I got off the Nimitz I convinced my wife to come down to San Diego on some shore duty after that Which I kind of got closer to the to the goal and once I was on shore duty I actually started training and put in a package to actually go to the program and and went to the program in 2000 and Yeah, that's that's then I actually went back to when I got first orders I went not back, but I went to special boating to I was my first assignment. Wow Let's take a little bit more of a intimate look at the community itself You've been a boat guy now for how many years? 23 23 years risen up through the ranks. You've been through everything first tell me About the deployments because we always get this question from from the people who follow us out there What do you guys do out there and and what's it like? You know, are you always on your boats and is it coastal? Is it river? What is it? So tell us kind of give us an overview of what you might do out there on an operation Yeah First off we have three three boat teams the three boat teams one located here in San Diego Our west coast would co look at it with the west coast seal teams We have one on the east coast co located with the east coast seal teams and one down south At SPT 22, which is located in Stennis, Mississippi. They are really assigned to the riverine Such either focused on wherever they're required that could be different AORs or areas of operation We on the west coast now are really primarily focused on Pacific Central Command and then you have the east coast I'd say, you know, you're European command southern command area of operations where they generally farm out to You know the first deployment I went I think I can highlight experience And I think I think I'm gonna highlight it because today we're actually getting back to where we were back then I think the global war on terrorism changed a few things Think NSW Naval Special Warfare really went to a full-on land SA campaign Swicks never did. Swicks usually stayed in maritime where we're at. We're talking in the Philippines We're talking anywhere. There was water. We kind of stayed down there while seals Mainly went to a lot of land deployments So for my first deployment, I was actually deployed on an arc bravo Which is out of okinawa. I was deployed to okinawa. So it was a detachment And that was about seven guys at the time. I was in a rib detachment And we no longer have ribs except at the training command and we were deployed there September 11th happened. We were co located with the seal platoon And after September 11th, we got we got embarked on the arc It was the USS Jordan Mertown at the time Which is an awesome experience to be able to integrate with a fleet And a few other folks and you know meet people and kind of just share that mission Now we floated around the pacific for about a month and a half with them As as a contingent out there. So didn't really necessarily go anywhere at that time It wasn't until the following deployment went to san com when everything kicked off with you know the iraq iraq piece But but the the bottom line is that you know, we were there co located on white beach We were on land boat stage there aside from being embarked on a ship Anytime we had to go somewhere we loaded our boats We we fly for the most part or like I just mentioned now with the navy or with the navy We can actually embark on them and then take us to wherever we need to go I think there's a little bit of everything there's a little bit of ship life that you may encounter There's a little bit of you know living on land and in a an afford operating base or some type of base That is temporary or with a host nation host nation being Other forces from you know different countries It just depends on on where your deployment is taking you and what the mission is at the time So you could be operating out of like a foreign naval base or a foreign port Absolutely Or you could be operating off of you know one of the one of the amphibs As part of a detachment with them when you're doing these operations And you're away from that particular base Is it mostly coastal type operations? I'd say generally it's mostly coastal now again We do have a boat team that's dedicated to staying close to the rivers tied to the rivers And I think that mission is important and in working with a lot of foreign foreign forces That's their main thing but I'd say coastal I mean if you look at the the world You know, I think it's most of it's covered with water And so it's safe to say that there's a lot of area to cover for for swicks to cover Actually more than probably more than we have capacity for to be quite frank. So yeah lots lots of coastal Now we know that swick drive around in these fast boats And they've got some nice big guns on them pretty cool stuff And we've always heard that they Deliver special operations forces Or or extract them as necessary, but there's more to it than that, isn't there? Yeah, absolutely. I think in today's age as well Swicks or have become more independent on mission sets that they are they're doing themselves So it's not necessarily just about Delivering other soft forces. It's really about completing missions Using just the detachment and a couple augments if you will to that What we call, you know, we can start bolting on to the detachment to kind of help accomplish missions So there's not a whole lot of integration at times when it comes to what swicks are doing We're doing a lot of independent operations now, which is huge. I think if you look back From when I first came in I I don't think you would ever see that right? It was always unified unified unified In what I mean by that is you always had a silplatoon mainly and a detachment working together. Yeah Now we are still working towards that all the time We are training all the time together And we are making sure that we're never Going to lose what we bring as a full package together. It's important that we always maintain those ties But general I think because of the mission sets nowadays. I think that we're looking more towards Unilateral missions with swicks at this time and simultaneously, you know other forces, you know to include our team our team guy brothers I mean, they're doing their portion their piece of the puzzle as well Their unilateral mission sets and we're doing the same thing. Yeah, but we always train to come back together so the deployments are About the same length as a regular navy deployment You know six plus months Yes, six plus months. I I'd say that's that's about average I think depending on where you go you may find yourself and in an exchange A joint combined exchange training event somewhere overseas what that means is you're you're actually just flying Or or going off to a particular location working with the foreign force as an example. There's different there's different smaller deployments or TADs temporary assigned duties as we call them that you might find yourself for the most part six months as a normal Deployment cycle. So you mentioned earlier that you came into the navy You were already a father. So you've brought up a family in the navy life And they've had a chance to experience for quite a while now the NSW community Tell us a little bit about that what that family support picture looks like You know, it's that's actually an important piece to me right now My family yeah, my daughter been with me the whole time I consider her You know the first dependent I actually had because I wasn't married till actually I attended bootcamp So she's the longest serving and by the way, she's still dependent. She's married to a service member too now So she's actually serving Well, he her husband serving overseas and they just got stationed out there a while back So they're now experiencing overseas life for them. So I'm real happy to see My daughter has embraced, you know, and it's not about the just the navy culture What I love about my kids and what I love about what Sometimes this community does it's about the patriotism. It's about the willingness to serve It's about the willingness one to be out there Supporting our troops at all times because it's an important aspect of what we do I really appreciate how my daughter does it I mean She says something bad on tv and she's calling me right away dad Did you see just what happened like don't tell me it's important to her that she just highlights How much of a patriot she truly is the same thing with my son. He's one of my biggest supporters I think that there's times when it's been hard like working long hours doing things, you know at work That you just can't get away from And and of course it's frustrating to families at times when you're like man, you missed this you missed that And one person that's been in my corner a sounding board to everybody. It's my son My son has been a phenomenal sounding board to make sure everyone understands like hey, I've been with dad Been to work with dad plenty of times. I see, you know, what he does day in and day out. I see whatever so he can kind of Relate like what happens here to everybody and so He's a big supporter as well and as long as my wife as well as my wife, too We've been married for over 30 years now. Uh, not easy for anybody coming in, you know It's not easy, but You it takes a service member. It takes, you know, it takes one Person it takes the spouse to kind of work it out together. We talk about balance And balance is is something that I think that is is something that you can strive for to have work in home life balance I've I've learned though over time that there needs to be a interbalance Between like say myself or a service member if you don't have that interbalance then then you can never truly find Balance in my opinion and and I've I've had I've had help along the way, which has been helpful to me so well as a command master chief you're you know now in the unique position of Having that overview of the nsw family situation Here for this command nsw center You have a special relationship with the ombudsman to the families So you understand the family picture even better than most do How is nsw setting up its family support apparatus? How does that work? I feel like nsw in particular has one of the strongest preservation of the family and force programs I think out of anybody and I really believe we have keep people positioned To actually help facilitate helping family members all around In conjunction with ombudsman and for those that you know may not know ombudsman is a volunteer Normally a spouse of a service member at the assigned command or assigned unit that will actually Volunteer to help be the liaison between other spouses, right? It's a very important position and as a command master chief I've had to work closely with mine At when I was in spt 12, I probably had the closest relationship I ever had With my ombudsman and it was phenomenal because I just knew that where I lacked in Understanding how to support a spouse that I can turn to my ombudsman Who can in turn? Turn to all the resources that we have in the life of the warrior family support network is awesome Yeah, because I can imagine there's all kinds of problems that crop up when you're deployed and she's at home with kids or without and The military thing is relatively new and Um, she doesn't know what happens when You know something goes on with your pay and who does she turn to Isolation is a choice, right? And if the ombudsman is reaching out to all of the new spouses At the command and saying hey just I'm here if you need anything Here's my phone number call me if you have any problems things you can't figure out that goes a long way towards giving not only Some relief to the spouse but some peace of mind to the service member as well So they can kind of keep focused on what they're doing on deployment Absolutely, and I think that We we do a great job as well I believe in actually having what we call pre-deployment Seminars and dinners right right before so we actually bringing everybody together with all the resources We brief them ahead of time. Hey your service member is going to be gone for X amount of time We're going to introduce all the resources that we have We do that to make sure that it's fresh on everyone's mind who to turn to and the event that something bad goes wrong At the same time to Making yourself available as a command mashee if there's a leader in the community is highly important I can't tell you how many times I've actually fielded calls from from wives, you know husbands Mainly mostly wives, but I think that There's you know, what's important to some spouses At times may seem, you know, not Nearly as difficult as things, you know happened But to be able to help them out and direct them in the right thing I think it's important and really the the end game there the key thing to note is The fact that we're keeping the service members that are doing the deed out on deployment We're making sure that they Are able to do their job because not worried about what's happening at home They're able to focus on what's happening out there because they know They have support out there, you know back home with the kids the wife and kids or the husband and kids Well support also means social support, right? Absolutely keeping those activities going so that people don't feel that sense of Isolation that they're part of a command community that looks out for each other and their friends You know the their kids Do things together Really important to the mental health Of the family that you leave behind while you're on deployment Yeah, we have family redness groups as well And so separate from the ombudsman family redness groups are designed to really bring families together We do have family days to where we actually We'll bring everybody's like one big company picnic if you will if you're in a civilian world We have balancers. We have all kinds of stuff and it's equally important to have those that are at the command present Come visit as it is to have Spouses that have deployed service members, right have them come in So we're never leaving them out Christmas parties, you know, like I said family days a few other events We're always making the point to get the word out to them so they can be involved even if their Spouses are deployed, right? That's that's an important part of of nsw culture and nsw life You're the first SWIC command master chief for naval special warfare center. What's the best part about this job? Definitely what I talked about before Best part is is taking care of people. I think that's where I thrive as command master chief And that's what I want to do first and foremost and it's not just on the spouse side and you know taking care of families It's actually career progression too And I think that's important to bring our sailors up and in granted I'm a SWIC And you know, we have seals in nsw But I think the combat service support ratings within our within our lifelines And you know, that's all the above any any navy rating that's assigned To us I have a vested interest in in Making them Uh progress up in the ranks, right? I feel that's where I also thrive because I care about their advancement their well-being All the above at the end of the day I want them to Exceed and excel where they can and just be the best Best them so to speak You've been around long enough now um and seen a lot of changes at nsw and Now even the first Women to come into the nsw force into this SWIC community What's that what's that been like? What are your impressions so far? I well for one I was actually and I think lad the first very first podcast I did I was actually still sitting as this SWIC Training senior listed advisor at the time. I was actually sitting that I had the opportunity of actually seeing the first SWIC candidate go through at the time And she de-selected herself. I think in the first week of training, but I was I was very impressed to see Where she was at the time We all lacked somewhere and I'd say hey if you looked back at you know the time I went this way I'd probably lacked in a few areas of physical fitness and a few other things, right? You know, I wasn't necessarily the fastest runner swimmer and all that But I what I saw was I saw an individual who Actually was very good in the water and and I'd say probably about 80 percent better than some of the The other male candidates that we had in there, right? So it really Made me realize or made me You know reinforce my thoughts on like okay if anybody can if anybody doesn't matter who Can get through these pathways these or pipelines as we used to call them Then we need that person. We need that person's skill. We need the person's grit You know resiliency. We need it all so I think that seeing the first two females graduate from the from the pathways I think that is absolutely, you know a great thing for the community I think it provides a little more, you know, the buzzword diversity, right? And that's one thing, but I think it just reinforces that we all come from different backgrounds Shapes, you know colors creeds would no matter what we're all different, but we all Have one goal in common and I think that just screams america to me So I'm I've been very impressed to see some of the candidates come through here in their capabilities Well, I I know there was some some talk about how We would have to change the standards to accommodate Women and all I all of that I saw us do was go through And validate The standards to make sure that they're actually operationally relevant And not just sort of a you know bs thing that we throw out there for make it hard for people to do They were they went through and made sure that they were all good and valid to what we actually Need to do out on deployment because of that they found that they were, you know, basically gender neutral standards as well None of those required you to be a male When we lifted the ban in 2016 I believe it was a do d level and we were able to accomplish that here at NSW a little bit later since we Made the necessary modifications here We started to see They kind of trickled in at first but we started to see the female candidates come in on on both sides seal and swick and our first two graduates are our swick and And now they're out In the teams and they're at their training and and doing their thing and I and I think the community Looks like it seems to have adjusted pretty well. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, going back to your your comments about the Looking at these standards and making sure that they're relevant. I was actually part of that at that time that was the The Senior listed advisor at the swick training center as I noted and so yeah I saw the process and I think that we went through and Verified and validated that the standards were general neutral neutral period And I think that was that happened and there was no waving of standards at all standards essentially In some areas they said hey, maybe you should consider this consider that for efficiencies That's about it. Nothing changed at all. So I think that I go back to this if anybody can meet the standard Then they should probably be here Provided they have the right character the right competence the whole nine yards So let me go back to what I think is the most important question And your answer I think will be satisfying to People who want to know more about swick I want to talk about your personal experience in the teams You've gone on deployments. You've been everywhere different kinds of boats different places What has been Your favorite moment your profound moment in the teams describe that to us I I've had a lot of favorite moments. It's going to be hard to nail just one down, but I will say this I feel and I think it's safe to say it's probably true Is that swicks are entrusted with a little more authority and accountability of what they do swick leaders are actually Tasked ultimately as chief pediatrists to be assigned as What we call debt lcpo used to be detachment commander debt oic That's a lot of authority and responsibility put on our chiefs unlike any other service Any other command in the navy? What that means is that our guides go out and they actually are responsible for the admin logistics and operations Of a detachment at the chief pediatr level And I think for me Being able to lead Folks overseas alone and unafraid as a chief pediatr swick Is probably one of the best things I did and I'd say I going back to my mark 5 Detachment commander aka detachment lcpo tour leading chief pediatr Was probably one of the best because I I traditionally saw a mark 5 detachment and I saw a lot of I'd say pockets of personalities and pieces and I always wanted my guys to be one cohesive unit So we had 14 swicks in one detachment and about seven Combat service support ratings in there to include a couple cbs some engineers all that And I think the highlight of that me was was just finishing the deployment after a two-year cycle And just having one last to get together And just all being able to get along have fun and all that but when I reflected back in the whole time It was just awesome to lead People And capacity as a as a swick seren chief at that time, you know, I don't know if that answers the question fully But I'll say that Being able to lead An nsw as a swick has has been awesome for me. Yeah at the enlisted level At the enlisted level. Yes, it's amazing So talking about the mission of the center Which is training assessment. What do you think of this new crop of Candidates that we've got coming through these days? Well for one I I definitely want to put my faith in that we have a bunch of young americans that are willing to step up And join our armed forces all around and I don't care if it's navy marine corps army air force I'm really passionate that we do have young americans still willing to serve For me this mission is important as well because I believe we are producing the next greatest generation in this country I say that The greatest generation generally known as those that fought in World War two There was a good amount of americans that stepped up from all different Background stepped up to actually take the fight to germany and to japan Back then I believe we're facing some things right now in our country that Could be bigger could be huge and I think that we need to Remember that we still need people to serve. I believe the people that volunteered to come here to this to this training pathways I believe that they are part of what's going to be the next greatest generation in my opinion I think we need a good amount of young americans to actually Join the military and armed services right now because they will be a part of something big And they should be swick I I agree now. Don't get me wrong Swicks definitely, you know where my heart's at Right. I have a little bit of fleet time in me too. So I understand the importance of the navy. I think that I love it, but I definitely Value what I've done as a swick and I would have never done the things I have done Or been to the places I've been if I was not a swick. So I'm very proud of that Well, I appreciate you joining us here today Folks that was command master chief Joaquin Martinez The command master chief of naval special warfare center. I'm scott williams and this was the only easy day was yesterday the official navy seal podcast