Ranger K9 Handler Julian McDonald | Mike Ritland Podcast Episode 125

About this video

Former Army Ranger and K9 handler Julian McDonald discusses his military service, including eight combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. McDonald shares his childhood in rural Arkansas raised by his Vietnam veteran grandfather, his troubled youth and expulsion from high school, and his journey from joining the Army after 9/11 to becoming a Special Operations canine handler. He recounts his relationship with his military working dogs Beno and Leica, his observations about the Afghanistan conflict after reading about the opium trade, and his current work running Swamp Fox K9 and supporting the Doco Project.

Key takeaways

• McDonald attributes his discipline and work ethic to being raised by his Irish Vietnam veteran grandfather, who taught him manners, accountability, and to ‘have a plan to kill everybody in the room’
• After reading about Afghanistan’s heroin production on his first 2006 deployment, McDonald developed questions about the war’s underlying motivations beyond combating terrorism, particularly when encountering foreign fighters and opium operations
• McDonald maintains an intense daily routine starting at 4am with gym work, steam room calisthenics (100 pushups and 450 ab reps), followed by hours of dog training, viewing discipline as essential to his identity as a former ‘human hunter’

Episode details: published January 30, 2023 · 123K views · 4:22:58 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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