I was fortunate to have a Facetime session with Logan. This story is in Rogue format so enjoy reading.

Q).  How did RD start?

A). We sent an idea to Ranger Up. There was a Ranger School YouTube video that came out when we were in Afghanistan that had a cutout that said “Fuck Special Forces”. We thought it would be funny to wear t-shirts around the SF guys that said Fuck Special Forces with the Ranger Bat logo. I love Nick, he is one of the few professional people in the industry I really listen to and respect for advice. He has always been really cool with us, but did not go for the shirt.

So we came home, said fuck it, and made the shirt anyway. We ended up making a different shirt. A tribute shirt, because one of our Commanders was diagnosed with brain cancer.

We decided we did not like paying full price for the kit and wearing other people’s stuff. Re-integration has always been hard for us People just do not understand being amped up 24/7 running three missions a day in Helmand Providence and Kandahar Providence.

Coming back to the corporate world and someone saying:

“Yeah, we gotta do a project and its really important.”

“Well, what’s the project and when is it due?”

“Well, we are going to redo some marketing stuff and it’s due in a month. We gotta hurry, this is serious, we are going to light a fire under some asses.”

Then I am like, what are you talking about? You’re special, I don’t even know what is wrong with you people.

So, there are a lot of integration issues when you come back. Understanding the difference in somebody coming to you and saying, “Hey, I need this now” and others not getting it. Rogue was a way for me to try and drag people out of that zombie mentality. . . Of not being able to think outside of the box, not being able to innovate. The common answer of the Zombie Mentality question for “Why are we doing this” is “Well, we’ve always done it this way”.   That’s not the American way. America was built by people taking risks, going into the unknown and celebrating the explorer. People that took risks; people who climbed mountains when nobody even climbed mountains.

I was really disgusted with stagnate people. I would skydive, SCUBA dive, or do a GORUCK. People would be like , “Oh, I wish I could do that”. Well what’s stopping you? You’re the only thing between you and doing something worthwhile. This is where Rogue came from and it just kept going. We started doing t-shirts, patches, and kits. We have a lot of stuff coming out this year. Writing, podcast, interviews, gear reviews, it hasn’t stopped yet and I don’t think it will.

Q). How do you do a podcast?

A). I Googled it at BestBuy. I bought this huge mic, its a big ass mic. Honestly I bought it because I liked the way it looked. I have a mic! Now I am going to tell people what I think.

(He just showed me the mic on FT. It’s huge.)

Q). What sir, in your terms, is a Rogue to you?

A). Someone who isn’t satisfied with being average.

Q). What is this Rogue Den?

A). I am in a million groups, just like you are. I get added to a new group everyday. I was bored one day and I made a post that asked,  “Who would like to be a part of a semi-secret group?” There were 400 responses. So I made a group and called it the Rogue’s Den. Just because Rogue’s Den is something that has been around forever. It has gone from there. We are over 500 something strong right now. So far it’s been great for everybody as far as I am concerned. It’s taken a little bit to get use to because of the wide variety of people in there. You have surgeons, lawyers, a spectrum of military, police, fireman, house wives, people  I went to high school with; all walks of life. A place where people can share skill set and things that are lacking in America.

(Me): I have noticed you have a huge interest in the lock picking kits you sell on your site and the skill set involved.

(Logan): Exactly. I just signed up Lindy and I for a class to make a knife out of rail road spikes. There are so many skill sets out there, that I have skill set ADD. I want to learn everything. I think that is what a lot of people want to do. Hopefully we can all share some stuff and move it forward.

Q). Do you remember when we first met and where?

A).  GORUCK Trek, we drank beer on the deck, made fun of people. I was actually making a video and that picture is in the video. It’s a great picture.

(Me): Someone had cigars and you gave me one. Look, I am a lightweight with pipes and cigars. I felt as though I had smoked a blunt. I had to get someone to help me down the stairs because I was about to fall down.

(Logan): People under estimate cigars…

Q). Ok Sir. You are still serving your country. Would you mind sharing with us your background and what you’re currently doing. Or is it top secret?

A).  Sure. Look, anyone telling you it’s classified is full of shit. If you’re really that secret of a squirrel, you have a fucking cover story. So shut up. I am going on almost 20 years – I passed 19 ,I think, in June. I have been on active duty, I have been in the Guard, Reserves, artillery, infantry, SOF civil affairs, and now I am an Intelligence Officer. I have ran the gamut of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and I am still trying to figure it out.

I was about to make Master Sergeant. If I had made MSGT, they would have probably taken me out of the field.

(Me). That sucks

(Logan). I had a buddy that said you just finished your degree, if you commission you can basically start your whole degree over again and stay in the field another 10 years. You can’t go into any SOF branches as a LT. You cant do anything SOF until you are 0-2 promotable.  I picked intel, it plays into other things I do on the side. I can hang out there, pin pretty quickly then decide what I want to do.

Q). May I refer to you as a officer, as a zero?

A). Yes… It’s a huge change. I could talk to you for a hour about the difference in being enlisted, Senior NCO, then a officer; it’s a whole different set of worlds and what you can and can’t do and what you should and should not do as a leader. As a senior NCO you kinda do whatever the hell you want. Everyone is like, its SGT First Class Whatever. He is just doing his thing. As a LT, you can’t just walk in and tell everyone to shut up.

(Me). I know exactly what you’re talking about my Gunny would tell my Captain, “Hey sir, your uniform looks like shit. Go unfuck yourself.” I was a LCPL thinking Gunny is crazy.  If he was a Lt Col. though, Gunny would be like “Oh sir, your (shitty) uniform looks great. You look fantastic.”

(Logan).  Yes, as a Senior NCO I did not recognize officers ’til they made Captain. Now I am an officer, I walk into a room and they are talking about CA. Which is kinda my thing. Someone will be having a conversation and I will make a suggestion. Everyone looks at me and and says just shut up Lt. I am like, I will kill all of you. I have more time in a parachute then you have in the Army. So shut up.

Q). What is your favorite item on the RD website?

A). The drinking horn.

(Me). It’s sealed with beeswax?

(Logan). Yeah, I gotta buddy that is a Odinist. He is a pagan, obviously he follows the Norse ways. He hand carves them all. Then coats them with beeswax. To me, you can have all the money in the world and have what you want, but when someone hand makes something, they have literally given a part of their life to make it. They have given away time in their life they will never get back to make you something. Things like that are really cool to me.

It hearkens back to a different time when people were explorers and more interesting. Willing to risk themselves for what they believed in or what their friends were doing. When they would go out to be Vikings there was no guarantee they would sail there safely, survive combat and everything that came with it, and then go all the way home.  You’re talking about I love you enough, we are all going to jump in a boat to go someplace, fight a bunch of dudes and come back. Just because we like each other. It’s cool we will go do that.

I always make the joke that the modern military is, with its deployments, as close to Viking as you will ever get to go. We all get together, we go somewhere, and we break a bunch of stuff, we kill bad people, we take what we want usually, and we come back.

It ties back to that horn. The horns are just really cool. There is something about when you get four or five people around, drinking out of horns at a campfire. Its just cool, I love it.

(Me). A few weeks ago I was facetiming Coz and Patrick. One had a skull and the other a drinking horn. I was like WTF I have a stupid glass…

(Logan). When I go on trips there are usually three or four people that have them. Gunny has huge one that has his rank from the Corps on it and the EGA. He can put whatever you want on them. We run around his hunting camp drinking beer out of horns and talking about guns.

Q). Whiskey or Bourbon?

A). Whiskey.

(Me). Whiskey?

(Logan). Because I am learning about it. You know I really never had bourbon ’til Afghanistan. We had just come back from a mission and we tossed a couple back – hypothetically, because that would be illegal in a combat zone to drink.

(Me). Sir, it is illegal.

(Logan). In my dream when this happened. I had never had bourbon. So I got an impromptu bourbon class in the middle of Afghanistan. Smoking a cigar with a bunch of buddies. I am trying to get back into it and I am learning about the different kinds of whiskey.

(Me). Is there a particular brand that is your favorite?

(Logan). I know its not Jameson. There are a million freaking fan boys now. I hate fanboys.

Q). This one I am a little fearful of asking due to what you might say. Glock or 1911?

A). Glock

(Me). I love you so much.

(Logan) I have never had a 1911. I don’t believe in single stacks or small boners.

Q). What is next for RD? A podcast with a bad ass mic, evidently.

A). My ADD kicked in and I am going to do a podcast evidently. We have all sorts of stuff coming from the jacket with Triple Ought Design. The old school motorcycle jacket that is awesome. I designed a backpack about two years ago and a whole bunch of everyday concealment stuff. Trying to find a manufacturer is real hard. When you don’t know about the manufacturing world.

(Me). That is a rough boat to ride.

(Logan). Dude, the first t-shirt I designed I wont even wear it. It feels like crap. I have that experience going into making other things now. So I am a little more hesitant in saying lets just make this.

(Me). I have used several screen printers for the Bomber Bash. This last year was so hassle free. I met her through GORUCK.

(Logan). That community is the best thing they ever built. When I worked there, I told them the best product they have is their community.

(Me). It is how I met you and a lot of great people. I am working on a story about my GR1 that will post the day after this interview. I love that pack, it suits me perfectly.

Q). So, we have a podcast, a jacket with Triple Aught Design, EDC gear, and packs. Are you doing some events?

A). We are doing some events. In the spring we are going to do a camping sky diving event at Spaceland. 

(Me). Where is that again? Spaceland?

(Logan) Yes, at Spaceland in Georgia. They call it Spaceland. It is in Rockmart, Georgia. They have a huge area. Camper set ups, even if you don’t want to jump. You can come hang out.

(Me). I am not fucking around with jumping out of a airplane brother.

(Logan). Haha, you don’t have to. That is the good thing about that location. The people who do not want to jump can just sit around and drink, bullshit, and we can bust out the lock picks, throw axes at stuff, we can do whatever we want. Just hangout.

We will do all the stuff we want to do. Where other companies are, well I am not really sure about that. I am like quit being a pussy- let’s do this. We are going to shoot at each other with airsoft, involve all kinds of different skill sets, team building, a lot more writing this year, it’s not going to stop.

I am learning how to turn a railroad spike into a knife. It will be pretty cool making some videos of these things.

Q). These are very specific questions. I deem them very important. What is your favorite color?

A). Gray.

(Me). Ok gray, hold on “gray” or “grey”?

(Logan). Grey.

Q). Who is your favorite Marine? Besides Chest, Mathis and Gunny Brent?

A). Well..

(Me). Wait is it General Al Gray? Is this where Grey came from?

(Logan). No, ummm, I am trying to think of one.

(Me). My God man, you’re looking at him!

(Logan). I already said you… I said you.

(Me). This stupid iPhone… I am listing myself anyway.

Q). Ok I think this is number 12… The skull mugs on the web site. Are those real skulls from your enemies? It says ceramic. But I assumed that was some sort of legal thing.

A). Yeah, we shrink the skulls down. We are doing some changes on those. We are doing some logos on them. You know everyone is always throwing around that meme of “What’s wrong with society is that we don’t drink from the skulls of our enemies anymore”.

So I wanted a skull mug and Todd Sharpe wanted one too. This goes back to the community behind Rogue. Why I think we will do a lot better with other things because we grow off each other. He was like, I want a mug too. We went all over Etsy and all over the internet, they all looked stupid. They were little kid Disney versions of a skull. So Todd found this guy on Etsy and he tells him I want a skull mug.

This guy is a musician too, he is on tour all the time. He made a mould and he sculpts them all. So now he is redoing the mould to have the Rouge symbol carved into the skull. He asked if I wanted it to look nice or artistic. I said no, I want it to look like you picked up your enemies skull took a knife and carved a Rogue symbol in it. Out of pure spite so they know who did this, even in the afterlife.

Q). This is the last question. My cousin is about 10 years younger than me. We worked construction together and stayed in shitty motels. He would save every dime and never put it in a bank. He kept all of it in cash on his person so we called him Bank. His real name is Glenn he is a General Contractor in Florida. Does beautiful work.

I sent him a link to your website and was telling him about you. Well, Bank has a question for you.

If you could do anything different starting your business would you?

A). For a long time I did not bug my friends for help. I felt like that was taking advantage of our friendship. I would never say, “Hey, let me send you a shirt. I want you to wear it. Give us a shout out.”. Looking back when people have hung out with me. They have said let me wear your stuff. Adam Baldwin is a buddy of mine. He wears our stuff. He asked let me wear your stuff. Do you not want me too wear it?

I said of course I do I just did not want to ask. I felt like it was abusing our friendship. People want to help you. But they think if you don’t ask, You’re not wanting them to represent you. That’s not the case.

Same with military service. I always tried to stay low key and out of the spotlight. I am realizing since we formed the Den. People want to hear about you. Its not being pretentious to share things if people want to know it. There is a difference in being humble and not sharing anything. That has been a lesson I have had to learn. I think if we had learned it sooner, it would have put us in a better situation. I am one of those people that thinks there is plenty of room at the table for everybody. You should want to help people.

http://www.roguedynamics.com/

I would like to thank Logan for sharing his story with me and his service to our country. I had a great time chatting, Sir.