SEAL Teams to Orange County Cop with Travis Kennedy | Mike Drop - Episode 78

About this video

Ritland interviews Travis Kennedy, a former Navy SEAL with 12 years of service and three deployments (two combat deployments to Afghanistan), who is now a law enforcement officer in Orange County, California. Kennedy shares his path to becoming a SEAL, recounts his BUD/S experience (starting with Class 266, rolling to 267), and discusses his first deployment to Afghanistan in 2010, including a tragic helicopter crash during turnover that killed several teammates. He describes conducting village clearances, supporting element operations on mountaintops, and his current work in law enforcement on night shift.

Key takeaways

• Kennedy recounts being rolled in BUD/S second phase for failing the four-mile timed run, emphasizing that the recovery period during rollback actually helped him return stronger and perform better in subsequent training
• Kennedy describes his first deployment turnover in Afghanistan (September 2010) being marked by tragedy when a helicopter crash killed Team 3 operator Brandon Looney, Adam Smith, Dennis Miranda, Blake McClendon, and air crew, with leadership immediately putting the team back to work the following week
• Kennedy shares his experience as a night shift law enforcement officer in Orange County, explaining that he prefers night shift because it involves dealing with different clientele (criminals rather than routine calls) and provides more action-oriented police work despite the challenging sleep schedule

Episode details: published November 26, 2021 · 302.1K views · 2:39:15 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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