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Woman 1: If they need a home, they can get a home loan. If they need education, they can get education. If they were hurt in service, we pay compensation. If you weren't hurt in service, but you fell on hard times, we give you pension. There's just an array of benefits out there for Veterans, and we really want to make sure that all the Veterans know what's out there. Woman 2: Choose VA today. Narrator: For more information, visit VA.gov or call 1-855-948-2311. [Music] Tanner Iskra: Oh, let's get it. Monday, September 27th, 2021. Borne the Battle brought to you by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The podcast that focuses on inspiring Veterans stories and puts a highlight on important resources, offices, and benefits for our Veterans. I am your host Marine Corps, Veteran, Tanner Iskra. However you listened to Borne the Battle, be it Apple Podcast, Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, the player inside the blog on blogs.va.gov. Hope you're having a good week outside of podcast land. End of summer, moving into autumn. Some places around the US it's already autumn. However, if you are in a place with warm weather, make sure you enjoy the last taste of warmth before leaves turn. One new rating and one new review came into Apple Podcast. This one is from RJ08-12. It's almost like a R2D2 type of thing. It says "Great perspective. Love the podcast. As a VA employee who does not interact with the public, I very much enjoy hearing the stories about our wonderful Veterans." RJ08-12. You know, that's one of the missions of this podcast is for VA employees to know who they're serving. And it's great that you're listening and, and take in that. So, appreciate you listening. Appreciate the review and yeah. Appreciate you. As you already know, I'm looking for that next review. If you haven't yet, please consider writing one for Borne the Battle on Apple Podcasts. Doing so does help us climb higher in the algorithms, giving more Veterans a better opportunity to discover and listen to the interviews, our benefits breakdown episodes, and hear what's in our news releases. It's also the best way for me to communicate with you. News releases. We have two for you right now, as one has already become passe and is outdated. I digress. First one says for immediate release, the Department of Veterans Affairs launched a new initiative with community dental care providers to help improve dental care access for Veterans enrolled in VA healthcare who are currently ineligible for VA dental services, VETSmile. Connecting Veterans with dentists in their communities, started early July to help eligible Veterans access free or discounted dental services at pilot sites in New York city and New Jersey through dental care providers at New York University College of Dentistry, Zufall Health Center and Rutgers School of Dental Medicine. So, all in the Northeast right now. VETSmile is a community provider collaborations for Veterans pilot program. Say that three times fast. It's a pilot program currently for eligible Veterans who do not have regular dentists. Partnering dental care sites will provide dental care and services. Depending on the community provider. The services offered to eligible Veterans will include acute emergency dental care, preventive oral care, treatment of oral disease, dental restoration, and orthodontics and periodontics. Additionally dental care partners provide Veterans with oral health education to encourage adoption of routine oral hygiene practices. VETSmile expects to serve 3,900 Veterans through 9,000 Veteran patient visits. In the first year, the numbers are expected to increase as the pilot reaches other geographical locations. So, it's in the Northeast right now. It's eventually going to expand. The program will carry on for the next five years and will be assessed for scaling and an extension. Sustained partnerships with the American Dental Association, the National Association of Community Health Care Centers and VA Dentistry support the development and success of the pilot. To learn more about VETSmile program, visit www.innovation.va.gov/careandpayment/pilots/VETSmile. All right. And the last one says, "For immediate release, the Department of Veterans Affairs Caregiver Support program is extending eligibility through September 30th, 2022, for Veterans who are legacy participants, legacy applicants, and their family caregivers participating in the program of comprehensive assistance for family caregivers, otherwise known as PCAFC. This extension applies to Veterans who are participating PCAFC before October 1st of 2020, individuals who applied for PCAFC before October 1st of 2020, and those who are accepted into the program after October 1st, 2020. So, not applied but were accepted into the program after October 1st, 2020, the extension will provide a VA and additional year to conduct required reassessments of this cohort. The program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers offers enhanced clinical support for family caregivers of eligible Veterans who incurred or aggravated a serious injury in the line of duty and meet other eligibility criteria. Benefits under PCAFC include education and training, enhance respite care, counseling, a monthly stipend, CHAMPVA if eligible, and certain travel expenses among others. All legacy participants, legacy applicants, and their family caregivers will be reassessed based upon new eligibility criteria resulting from the final rule, which became effective October 1st, 2020. The department will initiate a large-scale effort to complete reassessments for this cohort. This effort will begin within the next several weeks. The earlier VA conducts reassessments, the sooner it will be able to assist with discharge planning for PCAFC participants who do not qualify under the new eligibility. Discharge planning may include engaging the Veteran and family caregiver and other services to include participation in the program of general caregiver support services, which provides caregivers with education, training, peer support mentoring, coaching, and self-care. Questions about PCAFC should be directed to the local VA facility, caregiver support program staff, or the caregiver support toll free phone line at +1 855-260-3274. To find your caregiver support team or caregiver support coordinator, you can use the va.gov facility locator. All right. If you know Black Rifle coffee, article 15, range 15, you know this week's guest. He is an Army Veteran, a former Ranger with three combat deployments, and he is now an entrepreneur, writer, producer podcast host, singer, motivational speaker, and an actor with a current role on Mayans MC on FX. He's an overall entertainer. He"s Army Veteran, Vincent "Rocco" Vargas. Enjoy. [Music] Tanner Iskra: I'm digging the new setup that you got there for the podcast. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Thank you. Tanner Iskra: I love the background, everything that you got going on there. And I enjoyed watching the process of you making it, because while you're making your set, I was throwing soundproofing up behind me and calling it a set, you know. But it was like we were building that at the same time. It was cool seeing that, that whole process. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, it's been tough and learning how to do this on my own. And then, you know, I found Streamyard worked really well for what I'm doing, and it's just been fun, man. It's actually more fun for me just doing it all by my own. It's my own baby. You know, you kind of nurtured a little bit more and you start to find what works, you know, and right now it's kind of in a cool place. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Gotcha. It was fun watching your show today cause, you know, I was like, �Well, maybe I can do some research. And I was like, I didn't know you were a pitcher. I didn't know you had your own autobiography. So, it was good to actually listen to it and go, "Okay, there's some things I'm learning here." Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, yeah. Tanner Iskra: Cause, I know you were doing the baseball card stuff and I've been noticing it on the gram. I'm like, "Okay, he's going to trading cards again like, I was in high school." I used to trade, like in poker with my friends. Trading cards. And then I'm one of the few Mariners fans you'll ever meet being a grown-up in Washington State. When you had the Griffey one, I was like, yeah that's cool. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I used to live in Washington when I was stationed in the military. Tanner Iskra: Fort Lewis? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Yeah. And so, I used to go watch the Rainiers play all the time. The Rainiers is their minor league team. I think it's their AAA team. I think you go from Rainier and then you get pulled up. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: [To his son] Yeah, what's up? Go ahead. My son's here. He's here cause it's summertime. Tanner Iskra: Oh, I know you said you were doing it on your own. I was like, well, you got some kind of set pieces, I guess some people there [Laughter]. Vincent Vargas: No, I don't. They're helping me. So, we're shipping cards, right? As part of doing these breaks. And so, they're getting paid to help me ship. Tanner Iskra: Speaking of childhood memories, you know, the first place here we always go on Borne the Battle is back to that time that every Veteran shares that time that we all decide that military service is going to be the next step in our life. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Tanner Iskra: And I say in that way because you know, like Vietnam Veterans, sometimes they didn't have that choice. But for you, what was the - when did you know that military service was going to be the next step in your life. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: When I lost everything else. Right. When I lost the one dream I ever had in my life was to be a professional baseball player. The one thing I ever thought I was good at was baseball and playing with styles, writing poems about it since I was five. You know, that was everything for me. You know, I didn't date girls until a late of age because I was married to the game, is what my coach used to say. And I believed in that. Right. I believe that anything outside of the baseball, the game, would be a distraction to what the dream is, you know? And then I kind of just let life and notoriety kind of take charge. And that comes from its insecurities. It comes from not being mature enough to handle, you know, everything that comes with playing college, baseball. You know. You become a name, or you become a character. Right. And so, back in the day when I was in high school, coach named me "Goat." They actually - it was "Goat head," right? "Goat head" was kind of this joke that I was this kind of this-I'm just that guy on a team, who's just a knucklehead. Right. And that name slowly kind of turned into "Goat" and not greatest of all time. You know. Just like you're a damn goat, you know what I mean? Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] Well, you've got a head for it. I can see it. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. And that kind of, you know, that name carried a persona that was, you know, a party animal, that was very immature. I played hard and party hard, you know. it's just this college baseball world. So that name followed me throughout college. Tanner Iskra: Where'd you play at? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: First year, I played in the Valley Community College and then Glendale Community College. And then I went to - played a summer up in Chico, to a team called Chico Stix and got a full ride to any NAIA college in Kentucky. Tanner Iskra: Do you remember the Chico Heat? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I know, I used to go watch them play all the time. Tanner Iskra: Did you really? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Tanner Iskra: I was a bat boy for the Grace Harbor Gulls back in the day. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Are you serious? That's funny. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Western baseball league. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, we'd go watch them all the time. It was, you know, it was a small dream too. If I didn't make it to the show, I'd at least be able to play for the Chico Heat, you know. I played some, it's kind of weird. I played on the summer team that was that we played against independent pro teams and we're all trying to get picked up, you know, things like that. And so, I've played a kind of like around here and there. And, you know, once that dream ended, you know, it was a lot of things came crashing down on my life at the same time. I was 19 years old, and I got my girlfriend pregnant. Who at the time, we just weren't really having the greatest of relationships already. One, I was immature. Two, we were both just young. And then all the sudden she's pregnant. And we're just like, "Oh, now what?" I felt like everything was falling apart. And if I kept going down the route with that relationship, I was going to lose completely my career. Eventually I did, it was just immaturity. I wasn't ready to handle all this stuff. You know, I was 20 years old, had a baby, in college in Kentucky. No mother, father, family, or anyone to kind of do checks and balances on me. You know what I mean? And I allowed this name that followed me all the way to Kentucky, "Goat," to kind of be my persona. And it's very funny. Cause, when I talk about this, it's very similar to Veterans and trying to find their identity. I was in this phase from 17 to 22 of thinking I was something I wasn't. Tanner Iskra: Already having to deal with something like that. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. I already thought I had to be what they wanted me to be. And I didn't realize till later, until after I lost everything, like that's all-it was a BS thought process, right. It was an unhealthy thought process. I enjoyed the attention I got from people saying, "Yeah, man, let's go play the game and let's go party after. Right. This thing that I was like, "Yeah." Instead of like, "Well, if I didn't do good, let's go practice harder." you know, whatever. Or "Let's focus on school." So, eventually I became academically ineligible. And it was kind of that big shift in my life. Like what next? I have a daughter in LA that I wasn't even able to pay for. I couldn't afford diapers for, you know, my mom told me that she'd be like, "I had bought her more diapers." like, Jesus. That's hard for me to take because I'm a man who believes in a family and I wasn't even, you know, that relationship was hard to figure out, you know. Everything was just weird. Right. Like, I didn't know if I wanted a relationship with that woman because it just, you know, it just was a kid. It wasn't really-I kind of felt pushed into it now all of a sudden, you know. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Baseball didn't work out. So, I'm like, "Well now what?" And I was like watching the war on TV. And I was like, "That's something I could do to come and answer all these little voids in my life." Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] And provide and do all that. So, that was like right around '03. So, you had nobody in baseball as like a mentor, like, "Hey." It was like, there's nobody on the team that was like, "Okay, you did bad. Let's not go drink tonight. Let's actually work." Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: No. No, I had an old coach in Glendale. We called him Sarge. He was an Army guy that, you know, became a coach. And he now is one of the head dudes of YMCA down in Los Angeles, California. Really good dude. He was probably the only dude that's ever kind of been like, "Hey dude, you're screwing up and you got a lot of skills. Like you got a lot of talent, but you're screwing up." Tanner Iskra: Gotcha. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I also didn't have that from my dad much. My dad was a big worker, you know, he worked so much. And at the time, it's the generation of him, I don't think was that heart-to-heart talk. You know, it was just the, you know, you're not in prison, you're not in gangs. Tanner Iskra: My job is to provide for you. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Right. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. I totally get that. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And he does a lot of more mentorship now, as we're older. I think it's like, a lot of that old school mentality kind of just fizzled away and he's seen how, you know, we're all raising our kids differently. Now he's more engaged and I'm like, "Where were you with that when I was younger, big guy?" [Laughter] Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] Well, it's good that he's adapted at least for the grandkids too. You know. My biggest influence was my grandfather. So that's good to hear that he's adapting and going, "You know what, let's go back to-let's go back to it." So, you were talking about seeing the war on TV. Did anybody else push you into it or was it just like, "Hey, I see this on TV, I'm going to go do this." Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: No, man. I just genuinely - I was sitting in there next to a guy who used to be in the Navy and we're having beers, and I was watching a Marine put the flag over the Saddam statue and pulling it down. I think everyone kind of remembers it at the time. It was a very, very memorable video. And I think it was CNN or Fox, whoever it was, was interviewing his family and his family's crying out of just pure joy and proud of their son of being such an iconic moment. And it was kind of that self-reflection moment, man. Where I'm like, man, I don't know if my mom and dad could ever say there's anything in my life currently that they're extremely proud about. You know, I've kind of just kind of slept walked through my life right now, and not really done anything with it besides playing a big man sport and not even doing that well, you know. And all these things that are crashing down at the same time. I think my family's just kind of like more like worried. Like, what's this kid gonna do with himself, right. He's got a kid on the way. He just got kicked out of college. You know, he's living in Kentucky, you know. All these weird moments in my life that they were just probably like, "What is he doing?" And I knew that, and I felt the pressure of that. I felt the pressure of like wanting to make my parents proud. But knowing that nothing I'm doing right now is right. You know. Tanner Iskra: And that was the sobering moment, seeing that statue fall down. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Watching how proud his family was of him, is what it was. Tanner Iskra: Gotcha. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That was it. Not the fact that he was doing that was so cool, but it was the fact that his family was proud, ate me alive. It ate me alive. Cause I just feel like I'm more on the disappointment side of my family. It sucks. You know what I mean? Being that guy, you know? So that, that haunted me a little bit. I woke up the next morning, went straight to the recruiter. Tanner Iskra. Wow. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I know nothing about the military. Absolutely nothing. Tanner Iskra: Wow. Wow. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Here's my path. Most people don't know the full story of this is that what do you know as a kid of the military? You know Navy Seals. They're the greatest marketing guys in the world. I went straight to the Navy Seals side of thing. I went straight to the Navy and said, I want to be a Navy Seal. And they were like, there's no slots for Navy Seal. You'd have to pick a different job. You'll be an underwater welder. I'm like, that don't sound cool at all. I'm like, "Nah, you know what, let me go talk to these other dudes." Went to the Air Force. I had too many tattoos at the time already. And they were like, "Nope." And I was like, "Okay" [Laughter]. Tanner Iskra: I had a no insurance ticket. That was a reason they denied me. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Really? Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] I got a whole story about that when I first took over the podcast and the previous host interviewed me. It's in their archives. Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That's so funny. Tanner Iskra: I basically walked in. They basically said, "No, we're not even going to send you to MEPS. Wait till that's paid off." And then the Marine Corps said, "I'll pay that." And I was like, "That's the brotherhood of the Marine Corps. They take care of their own." Also, kind of like the mafia. But yeah, that's how I joined the Marine Corps. They paid my no insurance ticket. [Laughter] I'm sorry, you were talking about the Air Force." Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Somebody told me "no, you're good." Think about, you walk into a hallway, and you got exactly like this, Army on the left, Marines on the right, Navy back here, and Air Force back here. So, it's kind of like you choose. What's your path? And this is in a small city of Owensboro, Kentucky is when I decided to kind of show up. And so, I right away, like I said, Navy Seals sounds cool. That didn't work. Cause, I didn't like what his answers were putting me in. Like, I don't want to do underwater, whatever the heck, welding. And then I went to the Marines and I'm already seeing on the Army's door it says, "Potential $20,000 bonuses" and I'm like, man that sounds - Tanner Iskra: Diapers. [Laughter] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Diapers. So, I go to the Marines and say, "Listen, what's the hardest thing you guys got?" and like, "We've got Marine housing." I was like, "Cool, man, what kind of bonuses you got?" The bonus is being a Marine [Laughter]. And I was like, "Nah, I'm good, man. I'm good." Look, my father's a Marine. So that guy was so familiar to me, that I was like, "Nah, hell no, I'm not doing this." [Laughter]. Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] Due, I ate that up, the thing, because I was like, I almost went Army CAV. Cause, it has like a $30,000 bonus or something. And, yeah, but the other ones just paid my 600, you know, the recruiter just kind of slipped me 600 bucks to pay my no insurance ticket. I took 600 bucks instead of 30k [Laughter]. Go ahead. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. I was just like, the guy reminded me, which my dad, my dad was just so still to this day, like, "Marines" you know, and I was like, "No, I'm good." So, I went over to the Air Force they said no right away. Walked in and they're like, "Nope." I'm like, "Okay, my bad." Walked out. [Laughter] I was kind of turned off by it all. And I went outside, and I called my friend at the time to come pick me up. Like, "Dude, I'm at the darn recruiter. Come pick me up." I am at the recruiter station. And as I'm sitting there waiting for the ride, the Army recruiter shows up in his car, just dropped off someone it seemed like. He was like, "What are you doing here?" I was like, "You know, I was thinking about enlisting, but, you know, I don't know." He goes, "Well, why don't you come with me, man, let's go back there." And he was like, "What do you think?" I was like, "I don't know. I just wanna do something tough. Obviously only I played sports my whole life. I wanted to see what physical, you know, you can push me." And I ended up taking my test. And I took my test, and I scored a 108, you know, like a week later, whatever I scored a 108. And I wasn't high enough to get Special Forces. So, I went Ranger. And so that's kind of the story, how it goes. And I got a $20,000 bonus. Tanner Iskra: There you go. Get them diapers. So, looking at the years of your service, you came in and actually got out the same year as I did. That was '03 to '15. You became a Ranger, like you said. You served in three combat deployments, With the 2nd and the 75th battalions. Did you hit both Iraq and Afghanistan? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, my first deployment was in '04, was Afghanistan, and then '05 was Iraq, and then '07 was Afghanistan again. Tanner Iskra: So, boom, boom, boom. You also became a Drill Sergeant. While you were in, give me either your best friend or your greatest mentor. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That's pretty easy. Sergeant Barraza. So, I'll clarify a little bit real quick. Active duty. 2003-2007, got out. Went to Reserves. Got activated again 2010 for a year as a Drill Sergeant, and then still-currently in, at '18. I'm getting medically retired this year sometime. Tanner Iskra: Gotcha. Okay. Gotcha. Cool. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. You know, my greatest mentor is Sergeant Barraza, who was killed in 2006. You know, when you talk about when you have these visions in your head of what the Marines are, what an Army Ranger is like, we all kind of have this persona in our head, what we expect that would be. And I remember showing up the Ranger battalion and remember, I'm an extremely good athlete. I knew that from the beginning, I knew that from basic training, realizing like, man, I'm smoking a lot of people because of the athleticism. And I get to Ranger Battalion, and I'm looking around and I don't realize Rangers are usually very, very small dudes. You know, the average Ranger, is probably around 150 - 170. I'm already walking around 210 - 220. Right. So, 150 - 170 to a 210 - 220. I'm a monster around a lot of these young dudes, little guys that are incredibly good runners, but you know, you give a guy a basketball, some of these kids can't dribble. Right. You throw a baseball and they're like, "What the hell was that?" Right. Like you don't realize, I thought everyone in the military was these super athletes. And so, when I got there, I was like, whoa. It was a little discouraging for me. Cause I'm like, I'm going to go to war with this dude who can barely run. You know. But in the end of the day, these guys were good at being Rangers, you know? Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And it was kind of just like, I didn't see this GI Joe stud I imagined until I saw Sergeant Barraza. He walked out and I was like, holy smokes, that's a Ranger. That's a damn Ranger. That dude is a scary bastard. You know, physique, cockiness, like this is confidence and cockiness blend. That was just so perfect where I couldn't tell, you know, where one started and the other one ended. Right. It was just like, he's so good at what he does. Oh. And he knows he's good at it. You know what I mean? Tanner Iskra: And you can identify like, that's where I want to be. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. That was the guy I was like, "How do I get around him? How do I become more like him? How do I-and by chance, man, to be honest, by chance, I became a ammo bearer attached to his squad. Tanner Iskra: Well, I'm not surprised that you were carrying an ammo. You're talking about, everybody's like, I'm 170. You're like you're coming at 210 total. Yeah. Yeah. [Laughter] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: "Hey, big guy." [Laughter]. Tanner Iskra: Carrying the ammo. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And so, my team leader in the gun team was good friends with Barraza, so he pulled us into the 1st squad and right away I knew, me and Barraza had a connection. It was something about, I think we're both big Hispanic dudes and he kind of was starting to mentor me from that early on as he mentored everyone under him. But I felt there was something connecting between us because I kind of, he always threw these little jabs at me and I was like, oh, this guy gets it. Like he knows I'm just as competitive and want to be there. You know? And we would play these. We would do these Army Ranger tab versus non tabs, sports. And he'd be like, "Vargas, get your team together." It was like, he knew I was already-look, man. I was 23 years old showing up as a brand new Private, right? Like, so I'm a mature compared to most of these youngsters. And I was an athlete, so he'd seen me play sports. And so, it was his teams versus my teams and get your teams together. And you know, this bond, it continued and manifested into even more where our families got connected. Right. Where I was invited to a wedding. The only non-NCO was invited to a wedding with all these other NCO is because I was one year older than most of these guys. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Barraza was one year younger than me. But man, if that dude didn't understand leadership, I don't know where he got it from. You know what I mean? He treated you like a person, disciplined you when you needed to, taught you how to be the best and you expected to be the best. There was something so awesome about how he mentored that I didn't have in my life. And, you know, I continued till today to develop and also raise my kids in a manner that would Sergeant Barraza make him proud. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Thetis awesome. So, he was in your squad. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: He was the squad leader, and I was attached to him. Yeah. Tanner Iskra: At the end of every episode, we do like a Veteran of the day. Shoot me a bio. I'll make sure he's at the end of your episode for the Veteran day. Absolutely. So, you got out on '07. You know, and you were still doing stuff until about '15. And you were running. Starting small businesses, acting in shorts, Drinkin' Bros came around 2015. What was it like? I guess, you know, I thought it was '15, but what was it like getting out in '07? You know, versus what kids get out today? There was probably-I mean, I don't think, and I think it's fair to say this, that the VA, non-profits they didn't know what they were asking for what America was getting with this influx of Veterans in like, '07. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. '07 was, it was interesting. Cause, I was in Arizona at the time and, you know, I didn't really think to go to the VA for anything until I started to have my own issues. You know, just the drive in from Washington to Arizona. There's these mountain, Superstition Mountains that give you this eerie feeling of Afghanistan. And I already had a few of these weird episodes where I kind of just daydream and just let myself like, and you're sitting and thinking like, this has to be a bad spot to get sniped. And you know what I mean? Like you find yourself in these kind of these daydreams of like a situational awareness that kind of-you're like, "Whoa, that's not normal." Like there's something weird there. And then the drinking started to get really big. And you start getting calls from your friends and, you know. I got the call from one of my soldiers that, you know, Leroy Petry saved his life, you know. And Leroy Petry, we all know now is a medal of honor recipient, right? So, one of my soldiers was saved and it ate me alive to know that I wasn't there. Right. The FOMO, the fear of missing out was eating me alive. The ideas that I might have left guys hanging, because I chose to get out and do selfish things like, you know, take care of me and my family. Tanner Iskra: Have a life. [Laughter] Move on. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Exactly. All those things they built me to believe that I was wrong for leaving. I started to believe them, you know, and there was no major nonprofit out there helping guys. It was just, you know, figuring it out. And so, I ended up going to the VA and the first thing, you know, they put me into the OEF/OIF category, and I knew I needed some kind of counseling. And the first counseling I ever had was a group counseling. And I walked, I walked out. I was like, first break later, I'm going home. Because I, at the time wasn't ready for counseling. I at the time was still very egotistical. Still. It was too new for me. I was too fresh. I had way too much bravado of thinking, "I'm an Army Ranger Goddammit." You know what I mean? Like, I'm better than this. You know, and - Tanner Iskra: You're still figuring it out at that point. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. It was too fresh, man. It was like, you know, you rip the band aid off and you still just didn't understand what was going on. You know? And so, you know, I went to school full time because I needed to pay the bills and, you know, going from an E5 in Ranger Battalion with jump pay and an NCO pay, going out into the civilian world, like it's hard to find something that matches. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent Vargas: So, I had to work full-time, and I had to go to school full-time just to try and get myself back to - I still had an AAFES card I don't think I paid off until 2015. You know what I'm saying? Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Like when you live paycheck to paycheck for so many years, and Washington Mutual used to let you overdraw a hundred bucks, it was like every paycheck that was happening, you know? And so, you know, me and my wife at the time were just trying to figure out how to maintain ourselves. It was not easy. And so, she ended up having to get a job. And then by that time, you know, my drinking, you know. I would, I knew the schedule of buddies who were getting off shift and see if they can drop me. I knew their route home and they could just drop me off a 6 pack or a 12 pack, or even a bottle of some kind of whiskey. And this became kind of a systematic thing that I was doing until you know, this thing. And like, I'm a gamer, right. I'm not a video gamer. When I say a gamer as I know when it's time to turn it on. I applied for the Border Patrol. And when I knew I had to go to the Academy, it was like I turned off the switch. it's like those guys that drink till 4 in the morning they turn on, they're like, "All right, water at my face and let's go for the ride." You know what I mean? And, you know, it was kind of like that where, like I knew it was time to turn it on. And so, I started training for it. And I got myself in a good enough shape to go to the Academy and figured it out. Tanner Iskra: You found a purpose. Opened up, and you were kind of wandering meander. it's funny that you talked about gaming as a better therapy than what that initial therapy was. I'm a big gamer myself. I see it as therapy, you know, a hundred percent. You know, you talked about that initial time of walking into the VA and walking out. I did the exact same thing. I have shoulder issues. I have like shoulders of a 60-year-old. And I knew what worked for me. Like I knew from the DOD trigger point therapy, you give that to me, you give me a couple of sessions, I'm good for six months to a year. Like, I don't need anything else. And I walked in and it's amazing how one person can turn you off of an organization that's over 400,000 people. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Tanner Iskra: You know, so I walked in, and it was a very bad experience, and I didn't walk back in for another four years. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, it's very similar. Tanner Iskra: So, I totally understand that feeling. And then coming back, it did seem like a very different place when I started actually working for the VA. Going to a different-and then really taking control of my own health and like going, "Okay, you suck, but you're not the only one." you know, and then just hunting for the right person. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: It's funny. You know, I'm in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the VA here is actually really, really cool. Really cool. I felt like they were very attentive, and things get done faster. I struggled at some other VA's, you know. I mean, I'm not putting them on blast or anything. But El Paso, it was tough. And I think it was cause there's such a big influx of Veterans in El Paso. Right. And you're right next to that base. And so, I had a heart issue and, you know, I didn't get a call until two years later after I moved out of El Paso to go to my cardiologist. Tanner Iskra: Wow. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And I was like, "What happened?" Tanner Iskra: That was probably before the advent of community care where you can-if you don't get an appointment within two weeks, you can go in town. Vincent Vargas: Yes. Now, you know that's in place. It's changed a lot of things. And I, sometimes I request it. I said, "Look, I'd like to go outside of it because it's just what's comfortable for me." you know? But yeah, it was tough in El Paso because I just felt like there's so many, it was just bombarded left and right. Look, man, you have Fort Bliss, which is huge. You know what I mean? And all those Veterans who retired, and all the Veterans who retired before then are still-and so, it was an uncomfortable feeling to show up there and you'd leave there very agitated and frustrated and like, you know. All the same old, you know, ideologies of "Oh, the VA." But I got to Salt Lake and I was actually thoroughly impressed. And still, I like the VA here in Salt Lake City. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. The community care was definitely a game changer for me. And we actually broke that down in a benefits breakdown episode 251. So, if you're listening to this and you want to check that out, breaks the whole thing down of how it all works. So, around 2015 though, you really started running, you started doing stuff, Drinkin' Bros came up. How did you prepare yourself for that trip? That type of transition. And did-you know, I was talking to Billy Mills, Olympic gold medalist in 10,000 meters. The last time where they had the Tokyo games in like 1964. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Nice. Tanner Iskra: Lakota warrior. Good dude. Also, in the archives. He talked about dealing with the sports transition, like ending a sports career. Very similar to you. And then how he related to ending his military. Now he did it at the same time. He did both at the same time. Was there anything that you took from your sports transition into your military transition that helped? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I'm going to say no and yes. Right. I speak to a lot of professional athletes as well on my podcast, and all of them are like, "Hey, I--crazy story, I'll talk about that later. But there's a baseball player that reached out to me, I actually knew who he was. And he was like, he read all my stuff and he call me. I'm like, "Dude, we know each other." He forgot that we knew each other. We'll get to that. You know, very blessed to play a high level of baseball and played for so many years, a game that is built off of losses, right. The game that you're a good ball player if you bat 30%. I was raised to learn how to lose. I was raised to learn how to bounce back. That's plain and simple. Tanner Iskra: Yep. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And so, transitioning out of the military is hard because death, right? Losing friends. Yeah. You don't have that in sports. Right. This is a different level of transition. And so, transitioning out of the military, losing friends, and learning how to cope with that, it was the hardest part and still-survivor's guilt. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That was to me still to this day there's moments where I'm like, "What the hell am I doing here?" You know what I mean? I imagine some of my buddies would be doing way more cooler things than I would. And so, I think part of that is what my motivation and drive is and why I do so much is that I feel like I'm filling those voids of guilt. I'm filling those voids of these insecurities that I'm not good enough. And why am I'why was I given an opportunity? You know. And I just fill it with more stuff. You know what I mean? I think being an athlete in college and transitioning out and figuring that out, it was hard. And I think that also kind of helped, I guess pad in the blows, you know, soften the blows from getting out in the military. But the difference was the dynamic of the camaraderie that is life and death. That level was something I didn't expect to happen, and I didn't expect to still deal with. And so, there's always going to be that little bit of difference and that little bit is heavy. Tanner Iskra: Sure. But it added some resiliency a little bit. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: For sure. Tanner Iskra: Like, having experience in transitioning through life. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Right. Exactly. Like I understand what I had to do personally. Like I had to figure it out, you know what I mean? I had to stay busy and partly my kids were the ones who saved me, because if it wasn't for having kids and feeling the obligation to make sure that they have food on their table and a house over their head, I wouldn't have been so damn motivated. I think a lot of guys struggle with transitions because they don't have nothing to drive them. Right. There is no driving factor to make sure they just get up in the morning. The stagnant is what kills so many people because one year leads to 10 and you're like, "I still haven't done anything." And so, I didn't have that because the drive of trying to give my kids a better life and give them more opportunity would meant that I had to go work and meaning I had to go work, man, that kept me busy, meaning I kept my mind shut off for the time being until I paid those bills. And then that Friday night, Saturday and Sunday were my days of [Vomiting sounds]. Drinking vomit. Right. Just complete blah. Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: This binge drinker, like this functional alcoholic. You get work done and then, you know, when you have these days off, it's like, well, now you're incoherent, you know? Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Did your friendships help with this, this time as well? I know. Cause you guys seem like you've somehow you fit a tight group between you, Matt Best, J.T, Evan, Ross Patterson, that whole group when it first came with, when Drinkin' Bros first came about. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, I mean, I'm going to jump right in and say this, my early friends after the war, did not help. They were all part of the problem, you know. Because we were all were struggling, dude. And no one had an answer. When I met Matt, JT, and those two, those guys were a better answer. Right. As much as we were partying and drinking, we were also accomplishing something huge. Tanner Iskra: How did you all meet up? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Well, me and Matt served together. We deployed multiple times together, Iraq and Afghanistan, you know? And so, when Matt was doing some other stuff in the business space, and I helped them get connected to a t-shirt company that me and my buddy used to deal with in LA. And then, you know, we just stayed connected. Rangers, it's a small world, especially when you deploy together, your kind of just all know each other. And then I moved to, I got lateral transfer to SOG Special Operations Group in the Border Patrol in El Paso. By chance, Jared Taylor is stationed in El Paso and that by chance, Jerry Taylor and Matt became friends through film and editing in partnerships. They created the rap battles. Matt would fly to El Paso and film those. Matt flew to El Paso for the second time to film another rap battle. I was there. We had beers, boom reconnected. And he's like, "Hey dude. You're always kind of a funny dude in Ranger town. You want to jump in some of our videos?" I'm like, "yeah, why not." Boom. There you go. The birth of Article 15 clothing, which they already established, they already had the business partnership. I came in and gained a small percentage of the company just because I was-it hit. Right? We put a couple videos and they blew up and was like, "Yeah, why not keep them on board?" And boom. So, I stayed on board. At the time I was working as a Border Agent in Special Operations Group, you know, just doing things I believed I was super proud of and happy for. Tanner Iskra: But this was a side hustle that you were like- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, as side hustle that turned into my permanent-excuse me. Tanner Iskra: All good. It's all good. I got the beeper. [Laughter] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: This is a side hustle that turned into my permanent gig. And it was because why would I, why did I even do Border Patrol? One, I didn't even know that job existed, to be honest as a kid. But two, my squad leader that I told you that was a mentor wanted to be a Border Agent. So, I was living his dream for so long and I was happy, dude. I was happy cause I was doing the same thing I would do in the military. But now I'm doing a medical job for a tactical team. I'm trying to be the best medic I can for them. I think it's a void that was in the Border Patrol at the time, a shooting medic, like a really good shooting medic. They can join a team and, you know, kick doors too. So, I was proud to be a part of that and help, you know, revamp their selection program and things like that. But it wasn't for me, you know? When I felt the thrill, I got from being in front of camera from filming in entertainment, that was something that spoke to me since I was young. Tanner Iskra: You talked about writing poems as a kid. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Oh, at 5 years old, I wrote a poem about freaking baseballs. And as I said the stars in the sky were the home runs of the greats in baseball. That was a poem as a fifth grade, as five years old in T-ball. I'm talking about the home runs in the sky. Those stars are homerooms from Babe Ruth and some of the greatest. You know what I'm saying? My mind has always been like that. Right. Tanner Iskra: Artistically inclined. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. And so, I did theater in college and realized man, I'd like it, but baseball's first, you know? And, and so it all kind of got pushed to the wayside. Which sparked that again was Article 15 clothes. Being on film was getting this feedback. Like, man, it's so funny watching you. It's so natural, you know, I'm like, cool. Tanner Iskra: You know, the early days of the podcast, everybody's listened to Drinkin' Bros. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: All of that. Real quick though. All that started in 2013. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And that was like the slow transition out of the Border Patrol. Yeah. Tanner Iskra: I was an early adopter to Drinkin' Bros. I think it was like 2015 or something. It's like during one of my long-I was working out at Charlotte, and I was making drives to DC to see my in-laws, parents or my father-in-law, my mother-in-law. My wife turned it on for me during one of those trips. And I think the first episode I listened to was like you all had a fight with Harambe or something. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: [Laughter] Tanner Iskra: It was like a Harambe episode where you guys- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, like how would you fight him? Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] And then hearing that like, "I'd take him." Like, I was like, oh my God, these guys are hilarious. And then how you guys just said, "Strike force energy." I don't know what it is. Still sticks in my brain. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Everybody, dude. That's what Ross Patterson has a way with words and how he articulates things. He gets "Strike force energy" and I'm like, oh my God, does he have to say it like that? But everyone's like- Tanner Iskra: But you guys would always join in and try like your own version of it. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a lot, especially when I got out. I was just getting out at the time. And as there weren't many Veteran podcasts in the podcasting space, like you guys hit it when there wasn't anybody there. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Everything we did at the time was, we did it when no one was really doing it. Tanner Iskra: Yes. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: We really were the trailblazers of a space that we didn't realize, you know, needed. And, you know, we didn't know it realize we were that as good as we were. Tanner Iskra: Yeah, no, it actually that was that. And there was a wrestling podcast with Bruce Prichard. Those were the two first podcasts I listened to, and it inspired me to be a podcaster. You know, because I saw a spot where I learned, or I was like, I know we can make a podcast where people can learn about Veteran benefits, Veteran resources. And at the time there was an opening there. Now it's so oversaturated but with, you know, lots of hosts, lots of shows. But I'm just happy to be a part of that community. And for me, it all started with that episode. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Oh, I appreciate it, man. I'm glad it wasn't the first episode [Laughter]. Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] I would have been like, "Oh, what's this podcast. Oh God, these guys are terrible." Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That was the hard part about it, man, you know. As I matured right, as I got out of the phase of just, you know, the drinking - partying phase, you know, I was, throughout the whole thing, all this have been happening in my life and I'm thinking about transitioning out of a federal job that have seven years on, that has a retirement, that has the 1st and 15th paycheck. I'm in a position that I've always wanted to be in the medic for the number one team, you know. it's like, I'm everywhere I ever wanted to be, but I'm still feeling some emptiness inside. Right. And then my personal life, wasn't going so hot either. You know, I'm a single dad of four kids. I had a relationship that didn't work out and I'm like, "How am I going to navigate that? How am I going to navigate being a good Border Patrol agent on a special operations team that is deployable?" Tanner Iskra: And being a single father- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Right? Single father and a business that is flourishing, that is matching paychecks. What do you do? Right. And at the time, matching paychecks was a fluke, right? Because it was just like, we were on the high horse. Everyone was excited about it. It didn't take long for that to even itself out and really make things really uncomfortable and weird. Right. But those were reasons why I had to, at some point say, "Stop, what exactly do I want for myself?" Because the podcast is blowing up. The podcast is blowing up. We are the second fastest in iTunes history to a million downloads. Second fastest. That is crazy. Tanner Iskra: That is crazy. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Four dudes who have no clue of a podcast. And just talking, we didn't show up with the list of things we want to talk about. We just said, hey man, you know that was a crazy day. Yeah. Cool. Boom. Go. And wherever it went, wherever it went. And it did so well, but you know, at one point it became this thing where we were shock value who can say the craziest weirdest thing. And that started to turn me off because at the same time all this is happening, we're getting people reaching out to us and saying, man, you're saving my life. You changed my life. You know, all these things. And I was like, man, as where I'm going in my life, I like that more than I like creating this shock value BS humor. In my head, I was like- Tanner Iskra: You wanted more of that, you know. "Where can I take that?" Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yes, I loved it. It was more inspiring. It was thrilling to hear that these weird things we were doing on camera are saving lives. Like how do we get more of that? Cause that is fulfilling. That is what I need. And I felt the purpose for. And the other side of like this, you know, these kind of immature jokes and stuff all the time. And this dark humor that Veterans just understand. I was like, I'm not really convinced anymore. And I shifted, I just completely, my heart shifted. I also was like do my kids - what happens when my kids see this content, you know? 10 years from now, how do they feel about it? How does that look as a dad? You know, all these things started really trying to eat me alive. Look, I don't regret any of it, but I'm glad I shifted gears when I did, because, you know, I kind of needed to, for myself, but I need to for them. And that's where it all kind of went different, Tanner Iskra: You're getting older, more experiences, things are changing. You know, and really the community is changing as well. Of course, you had guys that were like, "Hey, you changed my life." But I could see where you're like, where can I get more of that? Do you see the Active Duty and Veteran community changing? Like when we got out, like post 9/11, that Bro-Vet thing towards the end of the wars. Now it's a, "I never deployed." It seemed like the taste of the Veteran community has changed, even since we got out like five years ago. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: For sure. I mean, I think we were a part of it, and we were probably a big reason for like this kind of Bro-Vet time. Yeah. I'm not necessarily completely proud of that sometimes. Sometimes it's like eh. Tanner Iskra: Some needed it though, some gravitated to it, you know? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Right. Yeah. And I think, you know, what's cool now is seeing like back then there wasn't a lot of Veteran entrepreneurs. There was, you know, a handful that you could probably mention. Now there's thousands and thousands. And I think it's cool to see that these Veterans are starting to realize like, "Oh, I'm not in this bubble that we want to portray ourselves as I can actually do really cool things." And so, I think it's moving in a really good space where guys are really starting to see mental health and awareness and starting to really do healing and wellness, you know, and those things that I think are very valuable, I think. We're definitely starting to knock down those walls of the machismo and tough guy that doesn't do counseling. And now realizing that like, hey, we are all human. Tanner Iskra: You can still be that, that guy, but still go recognize what you need inside. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, I think it's, it's a really cool shift that that needed to happen. I think it, you almost forced it to happen. You had to, you know, we're going to keep having these, these, these sad stories of our brothers and sisters taking their lives, unless we start shifting ourselves and our thought process, our mindsets, you know what I mean? I think, you know, the intentions of Drinkin' Bros was, it was always a beautiful intention. Drinkin' Bros, really to the root of it was, we didn't want to see Veterans drinking alone. We wanted to create a community where you can reach out, be like, hey, I'm having a rough day, I'm going to be at this bar. And someone shows up and drinks to you. Like the root of it, the intentions were gorgeous. Tanner Iskra: And you saw that in the, in the Facebook groups. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Big time, all the time. You still find it now. You can still find it now. Now if I said, "Hey man, I'm having a rough day and I want to go hit some golf balls." I have five dudes say, "Yeah." It's still that. But you know, the shift in my life even more now that I'm sober, two and a half years, going towards three, you know, the Drinkin' Bros, I guess, labeling, we didn't really think about it. Tanner Iskra: Drinkin' Bros but I'm sober. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, I need a podcast on the non-drinking bro, and it was just more of like it's okay to be sober and still be part of the community. it's okay because it's community. Tanner Iskra: A hundred percent. So, I mean, I think the culmination of what that original group was, was Range 15. Hilarious movie, lots of cameos, William Shatner, Danny Trejo, Keith David. That was all crowdfunded, right? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. It was 100% crowdfunded. And, as well as sponsors, you know, we had sponsors that jump on board and stuff like that. So, we're like product placement. Tanner Iskra: Good product placement. Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. I wouldn't say good, just product. Tanner Iskra: Strike force energy. So was your first acting gig really Pitch Perfect? That I saw in your gram. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: 100 percent fake, I edited it. Tanner Iskra: Okay. Okay. Cause I didn't see a credited anywhere when I was doing my research, I was like, "Wait, hold on. What is this?" Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I saw that scene and I was like, "Oh, I can, I can edit the scene to something really funny." Tanner Iskra: Again, with the, the entertainment, the artistic side, that's awesome. Well, was Range 15 where you got the acting bug? Because the crew, they all seem to be doing their own thing now. I think Ross is the only one from the original crew with Drinkin' Bros. JC sometime is there doing it, you've got your own podcast now. I've listened to a couple of Vinnie Rock. I was, I was actually interviewing a Veteran that is a video game tester for Bethesda, Tommy Davis. it's not out yet. But it'll be out before yours. So, it's probably in the archives if you're listening to this right now. So, I was getting ready for that when I listened to your episode with Free, the VR video game tester or VR video game dude, definitely interesting episode. What else do you explore on that podcast? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Everything, man, I just like to have a good conversation with people doing things that are, to me that are awesome, fun, cool. Like, you know, it's just like my personality, man. I'm all over the place. And I like to interview people that are, do all, all kinds of things, you know? Like today I talked about kids in sports because, you know, I just wanted to bring up the topic. Cause I have my kid in sports right now and watching some of these parents and how they, how they, you know, sometimes I think they live through their kids, their kids, you know, careers, you know, I kind of want to step back and give my opinion on that because I'm a guy who did that too. Right? Like I'm not, I'm not free and clear of that same thing. I've done it. You know what I mean? I have an eight-year-old daughter that, that can't stand if I'm coaching, cause she's like "No, no, no." You know, and so I've learned from an 18 year old, what I'm not going to do for my now one and a half year old, when he turns into the age of, you know, and in, in those you learn from friends, you learn from experience, you learn from just putting yourself out there and then, you know, you have to also know like, oh, that was wrong. Tanner Iskra: It's just the years, and just the years that you put in, like you said, 18 to, what do you say, one and something. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, I have a one-and-a-half-year-old right now. Tanner Iskra: One, some change. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: He's, he's going to be an athlete. He's a crazy kid that loves playing sports already. Like it's weird, you know? And I'm like, okay. I just got them, man. Tanner Iskra: He just started walking, man. What do you mean he's going to play sports? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: You haven't seen the video of this kid kicking a soccer ball into the goal and clapping, there's a video I have of him hitting off a tee and smacking mom right in the head with a ball. Like this kid is crazy. Tanner Iskra: Alright, I'll check it out. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Not exaggerating dad like "My kid's going to be the greatest," but this kid's probably going to be greatest. I'm not going to lie. Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] Oh, man. Speaking on your podcast, we both have a shared guest, Miquel Vega. He also works on with you with on Mayans MC. Again, great Borne of the Battle episode. It's in archives. Check it out when you have the chance. He's also the one that clued me in that UFC ref Mike Beltran is also a Veteran, I had no idea. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, he is. He's actually a really good buddy of mine. Him and my dad, so my dad's a big cut man in boxing for many years. I mean, I'm talking like he's going to retire from, from that work role soon because he just doesn't move as well. We grew up in the fight game, my whole life. Mike is one of the guys that my dad mentored when he was early on and Mike didn't know me and my dad, you know, are related. He just thought my dad was my dad and here's me. And, as he's getting into acting more, me and him had a conversation, he found out I was a Veteran. And so, we, we connect, and he goes, "Let's go to dinner sometime homeboy." I'm like, "Yeah, let's go." And we sat at dinner, and I said, "Hey, man, I don't know if you know Mike, but my dad is Carlos Vargas." He's like, "Get the heck out of here." And he was just shocked. He goes, "Dude, I get it, I see it now. Where the character that you have is very similar to your dad's." My willingness to go out and help other actors get into the game and, and, and just help, you know, here's, here's the acting coach I use. And here's what I think, you know, all these little just kind of little nuances in acting that everyone kind of wants to ask questions, you just don't know who you can be mentored by. You know, I was helping them in acting in this space. We're trying to try to help, help navigate his world. And my dad did the same thing probably 10 years prior while he was getting into the referee. Tanner Iskra: Wow. That is incredible. That's incredible. Okay, Mayans MC. You know, when I was watching the pilot on FX, when I, when I still had FX, I was like Rocco, actor. Like real actor. Okay, it's obviously going to be an early death. This is just shock value and it hasn't happened yet. I mean, no matter of fact, you're still, matter of fact, you probably got the biggest fandom quote of all time that links the Mayans to the Sons of Anarchy. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Tanner Iskra: So how did you get into, I mean, okay, Drinkin' Bros podcast, actor, legit actor. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, it started, I say this, I did theater in college because I really, I did enjoy it. When we did, we started in YouTube films, it starts to kind of spark back in my heart. Like I wanted to see where it can go. I knew right away I was gonna, I was going to try and get outside of YouTube. I didn't want to stick around there for a long time. I just didn't know how to navigate that. So, at one point, me and Jared were sitting in room. Matt was deployed at the time doing contracting, me and Jared were like, "Let's do a movie." Like, why wouldn't we just, why wouldn't we, you know, again, let's do it. So, I had a screenwriter reach out to me named Billy J, outstanding writer. I said, "Why don't we fly you out to El Paso? And let's start writing the first version of a zombie film?" because it only made sense for us to do a silly zombie film, right? Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: So, he flew out and he wrote this incredible script that would have cost probably a hundred million to film because he was just like, man, like helicopter is burning. And you know, it was like, it was better than World War Z. You know. Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] That's great but- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: We're sitting on the script, and we don't know, we thought it was perfect. Like this is great, you know. And then Jared's a good, not a good friend but he was a big fan of Roth Patterson's work. He reached out to Ross Patterson. At the time you know, we, we have a lot of people following what we did and so, Ross Patterson kind of like what was like, "Yeah, I'll, take a look," you know. And so, he gave us a rate and what it cost for him to fly out and actually helped do a rewrite. Doing rewrite of a script is not cheap, you know what I mean? Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And, but we were able to make it happen, you know, and as a company we were doing well at the time, Article 15, you know? And so, we, we flew him in, and he helped us get the first rewrite of, of Range 15 in a space where we could actually probably afford. Right. And that's kind of what he did is really made it, so it's like shootable, and then boom, we crowdfunded and made a movie and this whole process I'm like, this is what I want to do. Like this is it, like, I think this is awesome. All the creative juices are flowing, you know, like I'm in and I was studying acting. I was reading books. Like no one knew this. I was just like, I was geeking out on exactly what I would love to do. Tanner Iskra: Yeah Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Then we go to film Range 15 and Nick Palmisano, original owner of Ranger Up. He's one of our partners in Range 15, you know, he was in the van. He's like, "Rocco, how are you feeling?" I said, I said, "Nick, genuinely, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life." I told him that, day one of filming. This is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. And I don't know if he knew how serious it was, but I was a hundred percent dead serious. So, when we were done filming with Mayans, I went and filmed. I got a camera guy together and I wrote this piece on, on a transition called The Long Way Back. And I entered into film festivals and, you know, we got honorable mentions in the GI film festival- Tanner Iskra: Oh yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: The same GI festival were Range 15 actually won an award as well. Tanner Iskra: Yeah, that used to be here in DC for many years. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That's exactly, I flew out to DC to do it. And when I was there, I met Jamie Keller who was a comedian and I told him, I said, "Look, dude, I genuinely want to figure this out. He said, we'll come out to LA and film Dads In Parks." And so slowly taking steps towards the dream of being an actor. I didn't know how to navigate it. So, I, the only thing I did know is like, we've already produced a movie. I'll just produce a short film. I've already produced a short film; well, how do I keep going? You know? So, then I became a writer and kind of a co-producer of helping with Dads In Parks. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And, and that started seeing success. You know, Jamie's like, "Let's write some more." and so cool. And so, we did a couple more. I flew back for the second round of Dads In Parks. At the same time, Mayans MC was casting the last couple guys for the pilot of Mayans MC. Tanner Iskra: How do you, how do you know about that? Like, how does the casting- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: It was a big, it was a buzz in Hollywood already. Everyone knew Mayans is casting. It was this Hollywood buzz. Everyone knew. I have a buddy in Hollywood. that's a big actor, that I texted him. I said, "I heard Mayans is casting. I'm interested. How do I get involved in that?" This is not very common. Hollywood doesn't work this way. He's big enough to, to say, "Hey, I actually know the casting director, by chance." He goes, "All I can do is open the door. It's up to you to close it." I said, "What do you need?" So as an actor, our resume is not just a resume, right? You have a resume, that's a film resume, all the things you've ever acted in wrote, produced, directed everything. And then you also have a headshot, which those are kind of our photos, but you want a photo that looks similar to the character that you're trying to audition for. And then you also have an acting reel, which I had the Dads in Parks, some of Range 15, which not a lot, not a lot was usable because you know edgy, it was right? Tanner Iskra: Good death, good death scene. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: You know I had my Long Way Back, I had the Dads In Parks and I had a few of the film, the videos that we did with, with Matt, JT on Article 15. Chopped them up to look good to show that I have some kind of range as an actor, boom. Sent a forward and genuinely it's one of those right place, right time, right look. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Did you, did you cut your own real? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I can't remember if I did, I don't think I did. My buddy, Tim, I think my buddy Tim, who, who does a lot of editing is one who'd cut the first one for me. Tanner Iskra: Gotcha. Cool. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And, you know, just, I just put together anything I thought would be decent enough to show. My Long Way Back, there was no words being spoken. It was all emotion on the face. It was a, you know, it was this really artsy kind of thing. You know, it's a poem on top of a, it's a spoken word poem on top of black and white film. Tanner Iskra: Got you. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: You know, and so there was enough to show there was range there, enough to intrigue them, to say, "Bring him in." Did the first audition. Never done an audition in my life. Never. Like I did one when I was 18 and it wasn't like this. It was kind of like, just read the paper. I was like, oh no, I'm good. So, I'm dyslexic, reading issues, right, I cannot read very well. I do way better now better than I ever have, but- Tanner Iskra: Sure. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: The insecurities are still in there. So, like, when I get asked to do, I'm like, oh my God, am I going to, am I going to reverse something. You know, unite always looks like untie. You know what I mean? Tanner Iskra: Like I got you. No, I got you, I got you. Pressures on you, okay, those little fears come back, I got you. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: So, my wife read it for me, read it for me, read it for me, read it for me. She recorded it audio for me. I listened to it, audio all night showed up, did the audition and the casting lady gave me a hug, a kiss on the forehead, gave my wife a hug kiss on her forehead. She goes, "That was great. Loved it. Thank you for your service. I love that you were border patrol agent. Well, we'll get back to ya." And I was like, oh wow. That was cool. I'm wondering if everyone gets those kisses on the forehead, right? [Laughter] You know, this is Hollywood, you know, what do you, I don't know- Tanner Iskra: [Laughter]She's an actor too, God. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, I don't know. And so then--- Tanner Iskra: That's amazing, that's your first audition. It's amazing. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, it's crazy. And they called me back. I flew back from El Paso at the time only had like 700 bucks in my account. The ticket was 500 bucks, flew back to California. And I told my wife, "Like, I really just think, we have a good shot at this. This could-- and you know, at the time, dude, I had no real job. You know, I walked away from Article 15 Clothing. I walked away from, from everything that was like what I was doing, because I really wanted to dedicate on what I want to do. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: You know? Tanner Iskra: Big leap of faith. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Big. I'm talking $700 in my account, bro. Like I was trying to figure out what to do next. And I flew to LA and spent $500 of it on that ticket. And four days later I'm on set and on the first pilot of the Mayans. Tanner Iskra: Wow. That's incredible. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I don't recommend that. I don't- Tanner Iskra: I mean, did you have a mortgage at the time? And like I mean you had other bills. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: No man. I had the house that we owned in El Paso. I had my cars. I mean, look, I was having to find ways of supplementing that, whether it was a speaking engagement, whether it was more book sales, whether it was T-shirt sales of my own thing. Tanner Iskra: Hustle, hustle. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. I landed the History Channel Show and I had them. I asked them to pay me up front for half of this. I'm just telling them like, "Look, here's the truth, dude. I can't survive. I need this. You know, I'm trying to figure it out." And then it all kind of started compiling in a good direction. Tanner Iskra: Wow, that's amazing. That's amazing. So, you're on Mayan's now, you've got the Vinnie Roc podcast. You've taken the podcast to Twitch as well with Vinnie Roc gaming. You know I thought that was very interesting because as a gamer, I'm a casual observer of e-sports. I'm fascinated by that entire community. I've even, I even pitched, you know, I, I watched the industry grow- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Tanner Iskra: When I was working out in Charlotte, I pitched an ELEAGUE to NASCAR when I was there. They're doing it now. They've been doing it for a couple of years. You're doing live streams there. What are you learning about that community? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I love- Tanner Iskra: In Twitch. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, the Twitch community is cool, man. I mean, those are very loyal people. They know your schedule; they want to jump on board. They want to support. They want to sub. You know, it's just a, it's a good community. I love Twitch. It's my, you know, it's, it's the less the least sensitive of all platforms that I can stream. You know, Facebook, Facebook and YouTube take down some of my stuff if I use a video that's like, I don't know, semi licensed or something. The other day I posted a 32nd clip of-besides the one the day of the Olympics. I get that one. My bad, you know. You know what I mean? Tanner Iskra: But you think you would get, if you're reporting on it, like there's a fair use if you're reporting or satirizing, right? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: right? Yeah. But no, you can't use it. They got me, but there was something else I posted. I think it was like, oh, I did a short, short video and showing an audition. One of those, those emotional auditions from like, America's Got Talent. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And they nixed me on that too. And I'm like, but Twitch, Twitch doesn't, Twitch lets it ride. You know what I mean? Because it's good, like I'm only playing less than 30 seconds and I'm thinking that's the safe buffer zone, but, you know, I think it's cool. Cause I'm able to, you know, I've integrated my own life with, with just videos that I can show and introduce and have some fun with. And it's been a really cool experience and the people, it grows every week, it grows every week, more people show up and they comment, and they interact and it's an interactive podcast. I'm not here with a list of things I want to talk about. I show up with a few things and then we just go back and forth. I communicate with the people viewing- Tanner Iskra: I've noticed that big time. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And to me it's really a community of us waking up and drinking coffee and talking. And I like that, you know, that's more me. I love interviewing people too, but if I'm just going to wake up and hang out, let me hang out with my people that want to just hang out and you know, it's turned into something that's really fun and, and you know, I enjoy doing, and I will continue to do this until I just don't have the time to, and I don't see that happening. Tanner Iskra: Is it cathartic for you in a way? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. Tanner Iskra: Got you. Before we leave, I want to talk about your relatively new business venture, Better in Another clothing line. It's geared around being a better Veteran, which, you know, how did you come up with a clothing line with that kind of purpose behind it? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I, you know, I've kind of struggled the past few years of, of wanting to see more Veterans push other Veterans in a positive way. Right. And not anything other than pushing other Veterans to do. Hey boys, keep it down. But pushing other Veterans. To, to do good right. To do to push them to do more. You know, I got really frustrated watching. I sit back and watch all this man. I see every influencer. I see every company, every business. I see every nonprofit and you know; I have to sit there and intelligently think of like, what's right, what's wrong in my heart? What do I enjoy? What do I hate? You know, and who do I follow? And who do I not? You know? And, and you realize real fast that social media is our biggest influencer, man straight up. Like what people watch every day is social media. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, I don't care what it is. People get their information from there. And if all you're ever seeing is these negative ideologies of Veterans, Veterans' suicide, Veterans' alcoholic, Veterans it's exhausting to watch. And it actually is demoralizing. Tanner Iskra: Oh, a hundred percent. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And I don't want to do it no more and I don't want to, and I've never been that, right? Like I've always been a positive push. I've always been happy. I've always tried to keep this thing going of like keep going, keep pushing, keep pushing. And I was like, "Well, what kind of brand represents that in me and what I'm trying to give back?" I said "Beteran" in, in an accident when I was trying to talk too fast of all these ideas, my buddy was like, "That's cool, man I like that, the Beteran." And I was like, "Yeah, man, I liked that too." Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] That's cool. That just came out like that. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And I held it. I held it for I've had that idea, that name, that, you know, that moniker, whatever for over a year, not knowing what to do. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And, you know, instead of saying you want just put it out there. You know, when I started here in this office and I was printing, I was pumping out shirts and shipping them and everything. And then, you know, I try to go bigger with it. And it just didn't work, right? Like the goal, here the goal is for Beteran is to really change the ideologies. Right? We are not broken, you know, we are not that, in all the influence out there are not showing. What we can be, in my opinion, we don't give our young Veterans something to look forward to and excited about. We actually give them something to be scared about and fearful of, you know, because we promote suicide. Right. And, and I say that in, in, not in a joking manner, like we have hunger hat on a subject that is the negative aspect of a Veteran. There's no other business that uses negativity for marketing. There's no other organization, besides all the 22s, I'm saying no other outside of the military world, no one promotes the worst thing. Do you see police officers promoting police brutality? No. So, what we do for some weird reason, somebody decided to promote the negative, that people will feel bad for us. And that will get their attention. Tanner Iskra: It's easy to make, to create sympathy and market of that. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. And that's what we did. And instead of like, wait, we've never been taught. We've never been taught to back down. We've been taught to find a way to be successful and complete the mission. But somehow once you get out of the military, be careful, you might be a statistic. And that is disgusting, man. That is the worst thing we've ever done. That's the worst thing as a community, even the civilian communities that want to help that thought that was a great thing. They didn't realize that. No one realized that for some reason, in all these organizations jumped on it and said, you know what? This is right. And feel bad. And I'm like is anyone else watching this? Because I feel like this is crazy. Tanner Iskra: It's building victims. It's completely building victims. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: A hundred percent dude. One hundred percent. And that is weird to me that we would ever say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to support this. Let me, let me support you." Like why would you support that? I don't want to support anything that focuses on that because what I want to do is make sure a guy gets out of the military and be like, hey, you know what you can do? You can be a business owner; you can be a federal agent. You could be an actor. You can be anything you want- Tanner Iskra: Anything you want, anything. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Anything you want. Tanner Iskra: You're not a victim unless you allow yourself to be. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Exactly. So how do you do it? It's called hard work, hard work, direction, figure it out, take a step back. Say here's how I get to there. One step at a time. That's how you do it. Maybe check the alcohol a little bit because the world has told you and your military community has told you that you drink for all these different reasons. And it's not true either, okay. I have these guys, like, "Let's take shots to remember our brothers and sisters who died," or how about let's get successful, let's get a degree, let's get a job, let's get a career. How about that? Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] And then we can build a platform and we can talk about our friends. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yes! Tanner Iskra: You know. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yes! How about you show them how much you value the life that you have by doing great things with that? Because that to me is showing how much you love and respected that, not drinking. That's something that we were taught and it's not necessarily correct. Tanner Iskra: Not necessarily. I mean, yeah, it can- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Comradery is part of part of drinking is comradery and community. And I get that a hundred percent, a hundred percent. But when you see too many of your friends on the anniversary, date of the death of your brothers, getting arrested, getting legal issues, getting so drunk that they're depressed and suicide. Tanner Iskra: That's not helpful. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That's a problem there. There is a problem there, right? Like everything in moderation, everything in moderation. Tanner Iskra: A hundred percent. So that's what the brands about? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: A hundred percent, yes! We are about trying to try to just push guys in a positive way, not talk about the negative. Inspire, motivate, you know, entertain. There's so many things I want to do with Beteran. And it's just so hard to get them all done at the same time. Tanner Iskra: Well, you know, it takes time to grow and, and, and I love that you said, "I tried to go big, and it didn't work out." And like that didn't crush you. Like, you're still going, you know what I mean? Like it's like, it's like you had a goal. Okay. It didn't work out, learn from it, move on. Like, that's what I seen. And I love the passion that you have. I can tell, like, I'm all, I'm all like, you know, motivated now because I see the passion that you're talking about. Like, when you talk about this, your, your tone changes, dude. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, man. Tanner Iskra: Like your tone totally changes about building better people. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Tanner Iskra: You obviously have a passion for that. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: A hundred percent. There is a shirt on Beteran called "Give a damn." why is that? Because how many of our Veteran, like companies have made a shirt? That says, "No Fs given." Tanner Iskra: Okay. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, no, no, that's, I, I do care. I care. Right. And that's part of me is like, I care, and you should too. And you should care about your communities, care about where they go and how you inspire and motivate. Tanner Iskra: That was the whole reason. If I was to take this podcast, that was the whole reason I was taking this podcast. Like if I was going to take this podcast, it was to help people, you know, when I was like, and if you don't allow me to help people in the way that I see fit, I wasn't going to do it. And so, I, I do appreciate that the VA, it is a hundred percent of the sponsored VA podcast, but they pretty much let me like 99.5% of the time, allow me to take that in that direction. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Beautiful. Tanner Iskra: You know, so it's, it's, that's why I was like, I saw that you got a unique strategy, like how you were, how were you, how you were getting this brand out there, giving away bikes and trucks and, and- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Now we are going big. That was the one thing, it didn't work. It didn't work. It was, you know, I should have stuck to my guns and keeping it very organic and slow and small. And I just let it just grow. But I felt like, man, people need to know about this. People need to feel it. They need to see it. So, I'm going to throw more money at it and just do crazy thing. And it was so unlike me, actually, the whole time we did that, it was uncomfortable for me. Cause like, I don't want to be a car salesman. You know what I mean? Right. I'm saying I don't want to be that. I don't want people. I don't want people to perceive me as that. I don't want to give off that, but it turned into that because we were really trying to sell more shirts to help pay off the cost, offset the cost of the bikes. And it was wrong. It was the wrong answer. And I'm actually bringing everything back to a warehouse here in Salt Lake City. I'm going to start from the ground up and I'm continue to, to turn this into a, you know, I believe in a thing, and I don't know why I didn't follow my own belief systems in business, but I believe in a thing, I call slow burn. I'm going to be here for a long time because how I approach everything is a slow burn Tanner Iskra: Blues musicians. You're at the blues musician. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, I don't care about like fame, never cared about it. And still don't, you know, that doesn't, that isn't, that doesn't get me off. I don't care about like - I don't care about any of this stuff. Right. And so, if you take an approach to like, really, if you're chasing things too hard, I believe you lose a little bit of like the genuine, morals values. Kind of like ideologies in with you have. Mine are in place and I want to keep them there. I want to be grounded. I want to be there with my family, they're primary number one. And I want to just make enough money that they can survive. And so, yeah, if I can do those. Cool. So then why do, I don't need Beteran to be a multi-million-dollar company. I just needed to exist in a space for someone who's looking and when they find it, they'll believe in it. And if that inspires them and motivates them, and then, then I've done my part. But I was trying to go so big and win, like this wind that's chasing this wind that I was like, thought like I needed. And I realized, like, I should've stuck to my guns. Tanner Iskra: Maybe there's a lesson in there about learning about yourself. Maybe it was for a reason. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I believe that. And then, you know, some of my partners like, "Oh, you don't think it's a little embarrassing?" I'm like, "No, I'll own my losses, dude. I lost. That one didn't work." Tanner Iskra: Yeah, but I love that, it does. Like I said, I love that it doesn't crush it. You know, I love that it didn't crush you that you're like, okay, it's never like, you're still you, you're still charging on, that's good stuff. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Just pivot and keep going. Tanner Iskra: That's it. Acting, entrepreneurship, making music, author, you wrote a bio. Dude, you're involved in a lot of stuff. Anything that you've done in your post-military career, anything that maybe we did or didn't cover, any advice to anyone that's listening to this? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. Be a relevant parent. Tanner Iskra: I love that. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That was my biggest accomplishment. Right. Is realizing that I was paying the bills, but I wasn't mentoring my kids. You know, the same argument we had from the beginning of the podcast was like, my dad wasn't mentoring me, and it wasn't his fault. He didn't know, his dad didn't mentor him. But we're at a time where our kids need mentorship. Our kids need us to guide them, to give them morals, values, manners. To let them know it's okay to lose. Like all these things that we're learning in the military that we're we take home and don't share because for some reason we think they won't understand. We just gotta reword and revise our training and give it to our kids. If they, to get them to be better, stronger little warriors in society and be successful, you know? And I didn't think about that until I became a single dad, and my kids were like, "Man, dad, you're really funny." Like, yeah. But how do you not know that? Right. How do you not know? What did I do wrong? And it was like, I wasn't being a dad. I wasn't being me. I was giving them this disciplinary bill-paying person, this, you know? Tanner Iskra: What exactly what your father was. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Right. I was, I was, I was a character in the life that that's dad, but I mean, I didn't even teach my kids how to ride a bike, dude. You know what I mean? Like I was so irrelevant in their growth. I would recommend every Veteran out there, everybody listened to his podcast to be relevant in your kid's life, to teach them about the birds and the bees, to teach them about wins and losses, teach them morals and values, things that you messed up in life. And that you would, you would wish for them to learn from your own mistakes. Like, just like you raise your soldiers. This is a quote of mine. I always say is like, I raised my soldiers, like I raise my kids, I raise my kids like a raised my soldiers. I mentor them. I mentor every single one of them. I'm going to give them my job in the military. I teach every soldier to do my job to the fullest. I don't care if you're E1 or E5. You'll know my job because when dad's gone, you're going to have to step up, you know? And so, I teach my kids that. I teach my soldiers that. You know, and, and I would recommend everyone out there, who's just a dad paying the bills to take a step back and say, you know what? They deserve your time. They deserve your mentorship. You have a lot of experiences in life. And last thing you want them to do is go learn from their friends who have no clue about life. Geez. Almighty. My son was like, "Yeah, my, my buddy said this." I'm like, "Your buddies doesn't know. Your buddy is a liar." Tanner Iskra: Y'all are just on the street, looking at each other. No, no, no. Very, very, very good. I love that. I love that. I gave like career and then you were like family. I love that. Love that. Vince, is there a Veteran non-profit or Veteran in the Veteran community whom you've had an experience with or have worked with that you'd like to mention. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. You know, there's-it just worked from the other day, his name's Cody Alfred. Cody Alfred, that is a guy that has probably one of the most colorful careers in the Marines. Tanner Iskra: Really? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And has gotten out to try and figure himself out and to be able to watch him through his transition and growth. I feel like he's done it faster than most because his willingness to just shed all the ideologies, he was taught in the Marines and just allow himself to, from the ground up, learn. He's, he's an incredible person to watch and he's still figuring it out, you know, but I think he is great because his intention is right. His heart is in a good place. And to me, like that's, that's great. What he does is awesome. And then the second one- Tanner Iskra: What does he do? What- Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: He's just a positive spirit, man. Really, he helps guys. He's there. You can reach out to him. He's working on setting up workshops for Veterans, but he himself is going through it. But he's going through it where we can all watch and it's been so cool to see the vulnerable, you know, of, of a guy of his stature. And I say stature, like he has an incredible Marine career. I'm talking special operations, like high level- Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: He's one of the greats and for him to be a Marine at that, and willingness to be so vulnerable, I think it's incredible. And the other, and there's another Marine out there that I look up to too, and we're buddies is, Nick Koumalatsos, a great, great guy, puts out great content, always out there to try and help Veterans always out there. You know, that's a, that's a seven-figure business guy. He's figured it out. You know, he was the first person to ever give me the opportunity to speak publicly. Tanner Iskra: Really? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. And I now get paid to do this. He was the guy that said, "Okay, come on." Flew me out to fricking Wilmington, North Carolina, said "Go." And man, that was the beginning of me speaking. Tanner Iskra: What did you speak about? What was the first thing you ever talked about? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: I talked about, I talked about my transition. I talked about why I joined the military. You know, I said it's because I wanted to give my daughter a future, because I want to make my family proud, you know, and I wanted to serve my country. Right. These things, that's just like, I needed to do something bigger than me. And I talked about the biggest thing in that whole speech was, my identity was an Army Ranger, and, you know, that was, and, and what I like to say, and people use this ideology all the time was like, you know, that was a chapter of my life. And now I'm excited to write the new chapters. This was before all the acting and everything. And so, I really loved that he gave me that opportunity and it's kind of changed my life. Tanner Iskra: Absolutely. A hundred percent. I hate -- hate's a strong word, but I very much dislike, like. Like you know, "That was the best time of my life. We'll never get those days back." or it's like, for me, it's like, I see that. And it's like the high school quarterback mentality, stop it. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah, I still got money. I actually said it in that speech, call it the Al Bundy, the Al Bundy. He's talking about your four touchdowns in one game. You know what I mean? In high school. And you're now a shoe salesman and you're still telling people that same story, like, bro, you, you stopped growing. It's the same. It's the same as someone else who's a different, a different metaphor that I laugh because, oh, he, he used the Uncle Rico. Tanner Iskra: Yes, Uncle Rico. I was going right there. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Recently I spoke to a lot of young Veterans, and I used the Al Bundy and half of them didn't know who Al Bundy was. So, I'm like alright I'm getting old. Tanner Iskra: You know, he played a Veteran in Modern Family. Yeah, and I love that, that it was just part of his story, and they didn't like dramatized that like, PTSD, or I wrote a paper on this, and it was like, when I was still in college, it was like, you know, I was tired. Like you were talking about, you know, the, the victim mentality, you saw that in Hollywood's. I mean, you see in politics, you see it in nonprofits, you see it in business, you see it in film and video. And that was kind of what I was focusing on. And I was like, you know, I was tired of - that was like, right, when thank you for your service came out or something like that, the one with Miles Teller. And I was like, I am sick of that movie. I'm sick of that same narrative. And then, and then I was watching Modern Family, I normally didn't watch it, but I saw that Ed in his role was just a Navy Veteran. I was like, that's what I want to see. It's just a part of his life and he was able to just move on and be a human being, that he pulled out every once in a while, like when it suited his character. But it didn't, it wasn't the narrative. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That's the hard thing about film. I believe film has always kind of 10 years behind, of social and economic kind of like realities. You know what I mean? At one time, every time there was an Asian person who was behind the counter of a liquor store. Every time it was a black guy, it was a gang banger. Every time it was a Mexican, it was a cholo, right? Like, you know, it's some film goes through this kind of late blossom of reality. And so, everything is- Tanner Iskra: And then they try too hard. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: For sure. Right. So, like, you know, you see, you know, there was an actor and, you know, we kind of got into it, you know, just behind closed doors about, you know, he made a film that he said he wanted to make it for Veterans, and he wanted to help them. And I said, but you didn't help them. You actually-you, you continue to push the stigma that we're all broken. And you know that's wrong, that's wrong. And it's like, and I get it because as a civilian, they might not completely understand that, but then you should have asked. Tanner Iskra: Get an advisor. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Get an advisor. Cause I would, and if there's a Veteran, they're like, "Yeah, this is a good story. Tell him, like, what are you talking about?" You don't get how much these influence people. You know people are influenced by film and television. So now they believe that we're all broken. People believe it. I actually sat with a very big writer, and we were talking and I'm eating lunch. And he said, "Hey, Rocco, with your experience, I know you write, why don't you write a Veteran film? I was like, because my Veteran film will probably be something that Hollywood wouldn't want right now." I And he's like, "What do you mean?" And I told him, I said, "Every film about a Veteran, is that he's broken." That's false. That's not true. That's what everyone thinks. And that's what you guys want to believe. And you think you're doing us a favor by telling that story, but you're not. And he was like, "I never thought of that." Like I know. I know. And so, yeah, no, I agree. I don't like the push of the negative, you know? Yeah. I don't know. So hopefully, hopefully I get to a place where I can change that. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. I think like my people like yourself and, and, and you know, where we can all change that. Rocco, what's one thing that you learned during your time in the military that you, you apply to what you do today? If you were to pick one thing. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Yeah. That's probably how I do leadership, right? I think that's it. You know, I - it took me while to dissect how sharp Barraza was a leader. And I recently wrote something called Leadership Equals Love, and I really believe good leadership roots from love. The care and love of the person to make good decisions for them to stay alive is what we do as parents, as what we do as leaders in the military. They won't say that, they don't word it that way. Right. You don't yell at your soldier in combat because you hate the kid. It's because you love them, and you would hate to see them get hurt. And so, you use this form of leadership that's going to motivate the kid to listen. It's all rooted from love. And so, I think I've learned that more than anything, and I continue to try, and you know, to dissect the leadership and try and understand it even more and more every day. Tanner Iskra: Very good. Very good. Well Rocco we've, were coming up on an hour and a half. We've gone through like a lot. Is there anything that I've missed or haven't asked? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: No, man. Tanner Iskra: Is there like a parting shot to anybody that's listening, that you'd like to share? Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: No, I just, you know, I just want my people, men, women, Veterans, and to just go out there and stay motivated, you know. Like, look we're on the VA podcast. And so, if I'm on the VA podcasts, you know, there's a lot of people out there that don't want to use their VA benefits, who don't want to even apply, that don't want to show up. There's a lot of negative ideologies about the VA, but to be honest, you deserve those benefits. You deserve the opportunity to, to take care of yourself and your family and your kids. And so, it would be very selfish of you not to try and go and get the services that you deserve- Tanner Iskra: That you earned. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: That you earned. And so, you look, I'm currently using the VOC rehab. I'm taking one class every five weeks. I go to University of Arizona global campus. And because of my VOC rehab, I also get an extra stipend of like $600 a month, which is really beautiful because what I do every time that shows up, I buy my family a really beautiful dinner. You know, I buy some little things for the family. I buy some stuff for my schooling. I, you know, those are things that like, I appreciate, I appreciate it. And I, and I want to give my family the opportunity because they're dealing with me sitting there late at night, writing a paper, screaming at the damn screen. But you know, there's opportunities out there. And I think you guys should really look into those, you know. My kids, you know, they get benefits for college and all these different things. That if I didn't look into, if I didn't research, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't even know. And it helps. Tanner Iskra: All right. Well with that, I'm going to leave the conversation with that. Rocco, it's been great, finally knocking this out of the park. I appreciate your time and we're out. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Thank you. Tanner Iskra: We're out. [Music] Man 1: Strength is something earned, not given. Dedication means pursuing your passion every day. Healing is something we do together. And together, we put Veterans first. Search VA Careers to find out how. [Music] Tanner Iskra: Want to thank Rocco for coming on Borne the Battle. For more information on Vargas, you can see his list of credits on IMDB [Link: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6975382/] and on VincentRoccoVargas.com/about [Link: https://vincentroccovargas.com/about/] This week's Borne the Battle Veteran of the Week is - was a mentor to Rocco. This comes by the way of Fallen Heroes Project [Link: https://www.fallenheroesproject.org/]. Army Staff Sergeant Ricardo Barraza of Shafter, California, was a soldier who enlisted in the military immediately after his high school graduation. "He always thought of the rest of his people, not to have glory, but for everyone. He respected that uniform," said his mother, Nina Barraza. Barraza graduated from Shafter high school in 1999. Friends described him as an outgoing athlete who played football, basketball, and ran track. He was awarded best defensive back as a sophomore, said this former football coach, Belton Banks. "He was someone who wanted to succeed and do well. He mainly wanted to make his mother proud of him," Banks said. He also loved fishing, but his mother joked those fishing trips were just often an excuse for grabbing a beer. His grandfather would carve wooden guns for him when he was young. And the lure of action would have led him to police work, if he hadn't decided on the military. Sadly, SSG Barraza was killed from small arms fire, when he helped evacuate a building in Iraq. He died on March 18th, 2007, in Ramadi. He is survived by his mother, Nina Barraza and father Francisco Barraza, as well as all of his friends and family. Army Veteran, Ricardo Barraza. We honor his service. That's it for this week's episode. If you yourself would like to nominate a future Borne the Battle Veteran of the Week, so we can all learn their story, you can. Just send an email to [email protected]. Include a short write-up and let us know why you'd like to see him or her as the Borne the Battle Veteran of the Week. And if you liked this podcast episode, hit the subscribe button on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, iHeartRadio, pretty much any podcasting app known to phone, computer, tablet or man. For more stories on Veterans and Veteran benefits, check out our website, blogs.va.gov [Link: http://blogs.va.gov]. And follow the VA on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, RallyPoint, LinkedIn. You can find the newest information on all of those platforms. DeptVetAffairs, US Department of Veterans Affairs. No matter the social media, you can always find us with that blue checkmark. And as always, I'm reminded by people smarter than me to remind you that the Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast nor any media products or services they may provide. I say that because the song you're hearing now is called "Machine Gunner," which is courtesy of the non-profit Operation Song, and was written by Marine Veteran Mick McElhenny, Nashville songwriter Jason Sever, and Mykal Duncan. Have a great day. Thank you for listening. We'll see you right here next week. Take care. [Music] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: So, there I was. In the room with Kurt Sutter, the creator of Sons of Anarchy. Surrounded by a bunch of guys who had tattoos all over their necks, hands, and all over the place. And it's the first time we're all meeting, and I see them all looking at me and thinking "Who the heck, is this dude?" Right? And I'm looking around like, I know that guy, I've seen him on the show. And I've seen this guy. So, I know all these dudes, know who they are and where they've been. And Kurt Sutter says - - and I'm reminding you my background, law enforcement and the military. Tanner Iskra: Yeah. Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: Corrections Officer. Right? Everything opposite to what's about to come out from Kurt Sutter's mouth and he goes, "I pride myself in this room. You guys have more prison time than screen time." [Laughter] And everyone looks at each other and they're like, "yeah!" They're giving each other kind of bumps. Very honest, real room. Tanner Iskra: [Laughter] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And they're looking at me and they kind of gave me this shoulder bump, like "Yeah, man." Tanner Iskra: And you're like, nah. [Laughter] Vincent "Rocco" Vargas: And I'm like, oh shoot - how am I going to break it to them? And that was a really awkward moment in Hollywood. Later on, that night we went to the BBQ and one of the guys knew who I was and said, "Hey, man. You're a Veteran, aren't you?" And I was like, yeah. "Yeah, man, it's really cool they gave you an opportunity like this." And I told everyone my background that day. And everyone was just, really beautiful about it. We all took our paths, we all went certain directions, and we all found ourselves back in a place where we all wanted to be. Working our butts off and you know, there's no harm no foul. We are all just sort of, living life and working towards trying to find happiness.