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Episode welcome to the oldfashioned Masonic podcast where we talk all things Free Masons while drinking an oldfashioned I’m Brian and I’m Russ Russ we’ve got I want to call him a new Mason but not really new anymore new compared to us compared to us he’s new
So we have a new Mason and this being November and we’re celebrating Veterans I’m going to let you interview him or let you introduce him we will get into what we do well today on our podcast we have our brother Robert Wood welcome very much glad to be here so have you
Seen any of the episodes tell tell the truth I’ve seen I’ve seen a couple bits and pieces bits and pieces so everyone knows we kind of do a pre-con we find out what they know and see if they’re expecting some of the nonsense but those who watch know that we don’t do any
Nonsense but well wait a second I fully expected nonsense with you so most people do uh Fred Smith was one of our more nervous Nellies I think so and then he just settled right in he just settled right in so what we like to do on the oldfashioned Masonic podcast like to
Know as much about the man as we do the Mason so we’re going to start off nothing Masonic who is Robert Wood the man Robert Wood the man wow difficult question so I’d like to think that I’m an intellectual that uh Playboy um that uh is wealthy and and does great
Things in the world however the reality okay well all right I I didn’t know where that was going I was so excited though keep going the reality is uh I’ve turned into a fat old man that enjoys Golf and uh sits around the house using chat GPT to find the meaning of life
That’s kind of what I do did you find it I have not but it’s an amazing program so you get a chance are you using 40 or 35 40 you pay that 20 bucks a month for it I’ll tell you off what we’ve got it doing for us so but aming so you’ve
Talked about that marry kids I am married um no kids that I know of okay still waiting for a knock at the door but uh we’ll see what happens that that I mean you know what I’ve had that happen with a friend in my life that at 18 when his
Daughter was 18 he found out crazy and he paved the way for many of us yeah well there you go no kids no kids no kids no kids so uh where were you born where I’ll give you I’ll give you the readers dig I’ll give you the reader digest
First version of uh of me so uh born from into a military family so I moved all over the world my entire life and uh I ended up in Colleen Texas going through High School join the Army you go to Copper Cove High School I did not I
Went to Colleen two 5A schools I went to one of the two all right no Harper Heights or anything nope yeah so um I joined the army out of high school went to Desert Storm realized I needed an education so I went to K State uh the
Only real college in the state of Kansas okay um well I T to it I don’t have a dog in that hun so so uh I always wanted to be in law enforcement so after college I went into uh witch to PD join witch to PD for
About over a decade simultaneously I was in the National Guard after I got off active duty so I did both of them for a while and after 911 uh I started deploying overseas quite a bit more and uh just made more financial sense to go back active duty
So I’ve retired from the PD I’ve retired from the military and um uh joined the Masons about the same time I retired pre-o so that leads us into the next question so talk to us about your Masonic Journey from the beginning to today so it was uh it was
It was pretty amazing so I I met u a gal named Bonnie at the festival of trees uhuh and I’m not I’m not sure she she is I haven’t seen her since but uh Bonnie Bonnie caps B blond hair Bonnie caps yes she turned she turned me on to Doug
Chartier I don’t know if she he was the master of LOD at the time who was first joeck or or Doug uh it it was Doug then Jo Doug than Joe so she turned me on to Doug um Doug kind of held my hand through the process uh got me in touch
With Chris Collins who kind of helped me through the process and then uh when I became a Mason they assigned me to Joe Beck who uh found found out that I was a private pilot and uh got excited about that and wanted to take me up and got me
A tail wheel endorsement and I just started making like immediate friends and it was it was pretty amazing so the networking is pretty amazing inside the and I wasn’t trying it was just literally just everybody better that way it’s amazing yeah it’s natural when when
It works it works so so you went through became a Master Mason yep did you no so I went through became a ined Apprentice uh for over a year and then what H what happened after why would you why would it have taken you so long what was going
On around to 2020 yeah yeah so Co stopped all the progression uh so I got to a point where I was giving um uh oh my gosh what are they call interrogatories uh for to other lodges as an enter Apprentice um but once they opened it back up I think I made
Fellowcraft in masturbation within a month or something like that pretty quick listen cuz you have the cipher right it doesn’t it doesn’t take a lot not that much you’re right right right that’s great so you went through now you’re Master Mason those who weren’t picking up he was an
EA doing some lecturing EA equivalent and then some stuff so CU you you had nothing else better to do St everything you could um yeah it was it good group of people it was fun to be around I still went to study Club it was great
Time cuz I kept hearing you know there’s this dude that he’s learning all sorts of things really good looking guy good looking guy we heard that was first like oh so he’s goodl looking whatever yeah fat former cop but it’s okay that is great those are your words
Not mine yes sir yes sir yes so um now you’re a Master Mason at Albert Pike Lodge in Witchita Kansas so went through the Scottish right to see the degrees my father was a mason so and he was a Scottish right M and I wanted to see
What the degrees were about um then uh joined the the the shrine and uh joined a couple clubs in the shrine and nice really that’s about it yeah fun fact do you know who feed him ah your wife my wife did you know that though no I did
Not but yeah so EXC he may or may not have injured himself at The Shrine we’ll talk about that another time all right so what initially made you seek out the fraternity I mean why why the Masons yeah so like like I said my father was a
Uh was a Mason for all my life and I saw how it affected our him and our family both um and I he asked me if I wanted to get involved in D and I always told him no I had no interest in it but right uh
Later in life I I was always interested in in doing it just never had the time and yes that’s an excuse I get it but uh the reality is that’s the way the way I felt so when I retired I was sitting in my basement B watching Netflix and had
Nothing better to do so right yeah so early on you were an ENT Prentice you did a lot of things so have you progressed and and gotten proficiency cards have you done any of those things not me well you no I I still I still
Need to I still need to do the B card okay are people giving you fact about it yeah okay all right it wasn’t us and we whoever it is it reeks of Collins Garf Doug all of those guys we will just project that upon them okay you know you
Won’t know that you know you answered several of my questions before so I had to come up with it on it is true that’s why I I saw that you did that so I bumped ahead so at any point so it was taken such a long time to is was there
Any point you’re like man there may never open back up I just got to go do something else was there any point that you thought maybe you weren’t going to come back no because I I was excited in the beginning it was still exciting and meeting everybody so okay okay okay well
Good good good I I like that so while you’re in the military was tell me what was your favorite part did you have was was there an assignment was there a duty station what was maybe your favorite part or something you can it’s give us a
Little flavor and where did you end it rank because we didn’t really go there um so my favorite part was probably an assignment in Afghanistan and all the deployments aren’t necessarily you know never fun to be away from home right uh but I feel like I had the the a
Strategic effect on what I was doing so um I was an embedded training team leader uh with the Afghan National Army so we got to help train them on their decision Mak process their military decision Mak process um and then go take them out to to actually run those missions so it
Was so what’s your feeling today of what what finally transpired in Afghanistan this is completely off script it is off script you you went there but are you talking about the exit in yeah the exit and what’s what’s your thought are do you yeah so the the for you how did that
Affect you so so there’s a couple questions there uh what are my thoughts on it it was it was a horrible um it was a horrible exe horribly executed uh event and I think that there was probably I’m just assuming that there was a miscommunication between senior leadership that said I want you
Out by X date and everybody jumping through their butt to make it happen at the last second uh because there’s no lieutenant or captain in any advanced course throughout the military that would have written plan like that that was just absolutely horribly executed how it affected me is I had um several
People that had developed relationships with over there to uh to include uh interpreters that I’ve stayed in touch with over the years I mean I’ve lived with several interpreters that were signed to me that I went on combat operations with that are probably dead now so that I mean that’s kind of stuff
Yeah yeah so I mean that kind of stuff was a little bothering yeah yeah I agree so so uh you mentioned earlier you’re a police officer um so what did you find uh between the military and the and which top PD which career path did you maybe
Find a little more challenging and why they’re they’re very different yeah um and you work with different caliber of individuals at times I would say so uh yeah they’re it’s kind of hard to to align those two up um they were both challenging in their own ways okay so
The people were challenging um you know so like in the military it was always there were several senior Leaders with a lot of overinflated self worth so you’d have to uh appease massagi goes up and then also down the chain of command whereas a police officer you know
Regardless of where I go I’m I’m in charge so if I don’t like the way something’s happening I take people’s Liberty away within the confines of the laws regulations policies and procedures okay that’s fair I like that so we ask we’ve asked this question question a lot
Of people sitting between us and it’s just something sort of fun um living or dead who would you like to have a meal with that you have never shared a meal with before living or dead yep share I’ve never have never sat down to have a
Meal with it’s always when I hear this always a tough question because I’m still like I don’t know for sure there’s so many but first one first one out of the Dome that I’ve never shared me right takes out family man you know what I I really I really don’t know um
Anybody that inspires you that you go H you know we’ve had anybody from whaton Churchill Washington schz cough we a little isenhower to um no one’s picked up um the president current president yet or the former or the former you know probably Bush which one one or two the junior
Bush Junior Bush two yeah it’d be interesting what would you ask him uh probably a lot about Desert Storm because while I was there uh I got a very tactical view of what was happening didn’t fully understand one that’s more one than two oh do I have them backwards
How embarrassing yeah one one was Desert Storm okay yeah yeah one then yeah yeah I thought it would be one when you when you were doing that like yeah yeah yeah cuz I’d ask him a lot of different questions I mean he was the head of the
CIA for a while he would be in interest he would be I would take him over too for he was he was around a long time well he was in politics a long time yeah that’s true so here’s another one that we kind of ask if you could have a
Superpower just any sort of superpower what what would it be and why uh probably hearing uh so I could hear my wife when she talks um wow can we can we cut that no there’s no cut here there’s no cutting here anybody that knows God she knows where I’m here too that’s
That’s fine you think she’ll actually listen to your podcast proba not she doesn’t listen to me anyway and we’re not cutting that up that’s great that’s great so if an officer of Albert Pike would come to you and say we are in need and we feel as though
You would um be right to be uh to join the line Pike would do you have aspirations to do something like that so no I do not have aspirations to do it I’ve been in charge of people my entire life and honestly there’s something to
Be said for showing up to Lodge and and sitting down and enjoying the the fellowship and relationships and not being in charge of anything now that said if I’m asked to help I would help um just because I feel like it’s my obligation to help um but but
Aspirations no yeah I you know I’m just going to throw in a editorial here because I think Albert Pike you can beat me to it yeah I think Albert Pike needs guys exactly like you and just the fact that no you don’t have an aspiration but I
Think that you would serve our craft well being a lot the ones that don’t have aspirations are always your best leaders yeah yeah I mean you know that but but yeah you’re right but you Pike you know we could sure use them so let’s kind of go to per
Although you haven’t done it yet but you came out of the gate so proficiency is a really big big Topic in Kansas masonry so this is a would you rather not like my would you rathers that you know we don’t need to talk about that on talk
About that okay so would you rather have a line full of all ABC DF Masters unlimited card holders or a all a line of just Prof uh inspirational motivational leaders you have to have one or the other which one is it and why so inspirational and motivated and this
Is why um we we become we become proficient uh to ensure that the the uh the words are handed down right correctly and we’re very Draconian when it comes to uh you know word by word however we have ciphers so I mean I’ve been to several lodges where they’ve
Read out of the book not the I’m not saying that’s the right thing but it is a thing yeah uh the inspirational leaders can help attract and retain some of the folks that uh we need to get into Lodge and maybe potentially build the uh
The numbers in the in the lodge we agree we agree the perfect answer is a mixture of both right we agree we agree um more people even past Grand Masters have said nearly the same thing yeah very very much so so um today what what do you
Think is the the biggest issue problem facing masonry in Kansas and um then tell us how you’d fix it yeah but I don’t know that there’s a fix um I think the the time of Masons back in the day before the internet before um Communications being so fluid um they
Didn’t I mean people had more time right and uh I think being part of some of these organizations uh is not quite as sexy as uh being on the internet gaming or or whatever it is the kids are doing these days um I think that’s part of the problem
Um I’m sorry what was the first Just For Fighting For yeah so so one of the other problems is a lot of folks don’t know what it is and I was uh coming back from uh Liberal Kansas last week and uh one of the guys asked me about the tag on my
Truck with the Masonic emblem and I said yeah I’m a Mason I’m a Shriner you know not all not all Masons are Shriners but all Shriners are masons type thing and uh which segwayed into more of a dialogue and they were asking about the Scottish right and York right and
Whatnot and then they asked me some questions I didn’t know the answer to which I thought I knew but I didn’t um uh and it’s it’s just interesting that people that I thought were like super intellectual had no clue about what Freemasons were right or or were they
Just open to you know I want to do what I read on the internet and all that but what let me go to the source could that be too might be yeah CU I I think unless you have ever been exposed to it at all I there’s a lot of things that you’re
Exposed to but unless you actually have a family member or something right you just sort of drive by and you don’t spend I was so I was so ignorant about it so not that that’s a bad thing it’s just sometimes you just don’t think about it until you’re it’s right there
In front of you well here was my ignorance in the military when I was in a lot of Masons they were mostly black so I thought for years I thought it was like a black they said oh we’re it’s we’re fraternity Brothers I thought it was a black fraternity right and then
When I finally joined um uh reached out to a guy that he’s out of the DEA now but said hey Mike uh I so I join the M why didn’t you ever tell me about it dude I thought it was like a black fraternity and he said do you know how
Many times I heard that and and I said in our group we ran around name one one white guy that was in in that lot he said we didn’t have any and they weren Prince Hall isn’t that fascinating it was that was just what I thought of it as a as a
Young young man so so you haven’t really seen a lot of the podcast but we always end with this this being the holiday Seas I’m not sure he’s ever gotten to the end of one so this may be brand new right so the most important uh question
Of the podcast so one must go forever it was never invaded so folks on the screen you’re going to see turkey as moisture as dry as you like it pumpkin pie stuffing or dressing as some people call it and ham however you like it cook one
Has to go forever Robert it was never invented what is it and why it’s a tough one yeah it is not tough for him not at all well pumpkin pie is staying okay all right do your deductive reasoning I like it so it’s one of the bottom two um so
It’s either between dressing and ham yeah but it’s it’s a tough one so if I hadn’t only had to have one meat say get rid of the ham got to have the dressing I’m sorry that’s just me the Ham’s got to go okay I would have got
Rid of turkey what was yours turkey get rid of turkey yeah me too I I’ve made the proclamation this year in my house there is an weird weird for Thanksgiving I get it for Christmas ham no we’re we’re do away the turkey folks we have
To end on that I’m about to throw up thanks for watching the old fashioned Mas Sonic podcast cheers beef is what’s good for you what did you think of this episode to continue to promote Freemasonry hit that like button now don’t forget to smash that subscribe button and give us a
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