Ep 508: Blackwater: The World’s Most Infamous PMC with Morgan Lerette

Ones Ready sits down with Morgan Lerette —author of Guns, Girls, and Greed—to talk about life as a Blackwater mercenary during the chaos of Iraq and Afghanistan. From getting recruited as a broke Air Guard kid, to standing on flight lines wondering if forklifts win Bronze Stars, to suddenly pulling convoys through Route Irish with Navy SEALs and Rangers, Morgan lays it all out: the absurd, the grim, and the downright sketchy. We dive into the wild days of unarmored Peugeots with body armor for window panels, hooker stories from Jordan, and the not-so-fun reality of PMCs running missions with zero backup. And just when you’re laughing at zebra-striped POW underwear, Morgan drops the hammer on the modern PMC industry moving kids across the border. Buckle up—this one goes from hilarious to horrifying in record time. Part two is going to be even spicier. Best place to get the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0D5JM... ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 – Welcome back to Ones Ready 02:00 – Blackwater mercenary origins and pipeline discounts 05:00 – Morgan’s “construction worker” to Air Guard journey 09:00 – Forklift heroes and Bronze Stars 13:00 – How a Security Forces guy landed at Blackwater 18:00 – Fallujah, no backup, and calling Bragg from a Nokia brick 22:00 – Corkscrew flights, Peugeots with steel plates, and sweaty armor 27:00 – Protecting diplomats with “creative” ROE 32:00 – Contractors vs State Department nerds 38:00 – QRF reality: escort service and car bomb season 42:00 – The flashbang fail and Iraqi cell-jammer pranks 44:00 – Guns, Girls, Greed—why Morgan’s book pissed off Blackwater 47:00 – Hooker tales and Harvard economics majors 49:00 – Custer’s Battles and the Wild West of PMCs 53:00 – The ugly truth: PMCs moving kids at the border 58:00 – Durable goods, cartels, and why trafficking beats drugs 1:02:00 – Why foreign-funded PMCs are a ticking time bomb 1:04:00 – Zebra-striped underwear POW story to close it out 🎯 Call-to-Actions: 👍 Smash that like button if you survived Route Irish 🔔 Subscribe so you don’t miss Part Two with Morgan 💬 Drop a comment—what shocked you most: the Peugeot rides or the border trafficking? 🌟 Leave a review on your podcast app to boost the show 🪖 Join the Ones Ready Membership for insider access 👕 Grab the latest merch at onesready.com and rep the team Join this channel to get access to perks:    / @onesready   Collabs: Ones Ready Merch: onesready.com 18A Fitness - Code: 1Ready (https://shorturl.at/aDAu8) ATAC Fitness - Follow the URL: https://shorturl.at/D8tNM CardoMax - Code: ONESREADY (cardomax.com) Danger Close Apparel - Code: ONESREADY (dangercloseapparel.com) DFND Apparel - Code: ONESREADY (DFNDUSA.com) Hoist - Code: ONESREADY (drinkhoist.com) Kill Cliff - Code: PODCASTKC20 (killcliff.com) S4FE-D - Code: ONESREADY (s4fe-d.com) Modern Athlete Strength Systems: Warfighter: ($49/month) https://marketplace.trainheroic.com/w... Warfighter Elite: ($199/month) https://marketplace.trainheroic.com/w... The views and opinions expressed by the OnesReady team and all guests are those of the team and themselves, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the DoD. Any content provided by our Podcast guests, bloggers, sponsors, or authors is their opinion and is not intended to malign the DoD, any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone.