What Special Forces Selection Teaches You About Hunting Elk

Alright, so this one's a good one, dude. I sat down with my buddy Reid Cross — former Army Green Beret, ODA commander, and now the author of Nation Fall — and we get into it. Reid's got one of those paths you don't see every day: went from being, in his own words, a full-blown 22-year-old alcoholic bombing around Chicago in outside sales, to walking into a recruiter's office in a cheap suit and eventually commanding a Special Forces detachment. We talk about that whole transformation, what it actually takes to get selected, why he thinks the ODA is the best job in the entire military, and how that "figure it out with what you've got" mentality from the teams translates directly to being a better hunter. Speaking of hunting — Reid tells the story of his first elk hunt out in Arizona, and it is an absolute heartbreaker. Bugling bulls everywhere on night one, a 320-class six-by-six at 71 yards on the last morning... and a homemade arrow fletching that picked the worst possible moment to fail. We talk trad bows, why some military dudes never touch archery, bowhunting versus rifle hunting out West, and the mindset shift you need to actually be good at either one. We also get into his new book, Nation Fall — a novel that pulls straight from his time in some of the roughest corners of the world and asks the question: what would it actually take for something like that to happen here at home. Reid gets real about how he wrote it (three months, three to four hours of sleep a night, while working full time and still hunting season), his "burn the ships" mentality, and why he thinks more guys should just start writing instead of overthinking it. Oh, and he's about to be a dad — to twins. So we open with a little bit of that too. Buckle up. Sponsors onX Hunt This episode is brought to you by onX Hunt. If you remember the old Garmin Rino days where you could ping your buddy's location on the map — onX basically reinvented that with their new share feature. Head into the app, go to the Go Track section, and hit Share Your Location With Friends, and you and your hunting partner can see each other on the map in real time. Only works when you're in service, but for the hunts where you are, it's a genuinely useful new tool. 👉 Check it out at onxmaps.com 🔭 Maven Optics This episode is also brought to you by the good folks at Maven Optics — a direct-to-consumer optics company out of Wyoming that I've personally run for years. Binos, rangefinders, rifle scopes — Maven consistently delivers the best bang for your buck because you're skipping the big-box-store markup that comes with most glass. Great optics, great people, great company. 👉 Shop Maven at mavenbuilt.com and use code TRO at checkout for a special gift. Timestamps Time Segment 00:00 Intro — onX Hunt's new share/Go Track feature 02:15 Sponsor — Maven Optics (code TRO) 04:00 Catching up: Reid's twins are three weeks out, hospital scares, and turning down a work trip for the birth 08:30 The "Bozeman is overrated" bit, and planning a real hunt together 11:45 Pre-show notes: Reid teases his path into the military and a few hunting stories 14:30 Official welcome — becoming a dad to twins, "one and done" 18:00 Growing up fascinated with special ops, feeling like the weird kid 21:30 College, alcoholism, and hitting rock bottom in Chicago sales 25:00 The gout diagnosis and the interview that changed everything 28:15 Walking out of the interview and straight to the recruiter's office 31:00 From half-assing life to full obsession — the identity shift 34:30 First deployment: Kuwait/Iraq, the Mosul fight, and the reality check from the 82nd major 39:00 The switch flips — training obsessively for Special Forces selection 42:15 Making it through selection and the Q course 44:00 Why commanding an ODA is the best job in the military 47:00 SF vs. Rangers vs. SEALs — "hammer, scalpel, cancer" 50:00 What military discipline teaches you about becoming a better hunter 52:30 Getting back into hunting post-military, and falling in love with bowhunting 55:15 Why some special ops guys love bowhunting and others never touch it 58:00 The trad bow debate and javelina as the great equalizer 1:00:00 The first elk hunt story — bugling bulls, a busted stalk, and the fletching that ruined everything 1:04:00 Lessons on persistence, planning, and adapting on the fly (military and hunting) 1:07:30 (if extended) Nationfall — the premise, the writing process, and "burn the ships" 1:10:00 The audiobook, where to buy the book, and wrapping up (Note: adjust final timestamps slightly once you drop this into your editing software — approximate placement based on segment flow for the ~65-minute runtime.) 3 Key Takeaways Persistence beats talent, in the mountains and everywhere else. Reid's first elk hunt is a masterclass in things going wrong — six days of rain, a busted stalk, a fletching failure at the worst possible moment — but the real lesson is that the guys who succeed (in the military, in hunting, in business) aren't the lucky ones. They're the ones who keep absorbing failure and adjusting instead of quitting. A rigid plan is a fragile plan. Whether it's a Special Forces operation or a week-long elk hunt, the plan is never what actually happens. Reid's take: plan hard anyway, because the planning process sharpens your ability to improvise when — not if — everything falls apart. Identity crossroads happen more than once in life, and you get to choose which way you go. From leaving a directionless sales job to join the Army, to leaving active duty and finding a "void" that led him to write Nationfall, Reid's story is a reminder that big life pivots (military transition, career changes, becoming a parent) come with a real risk of drifting — and the antidote is throwing yourself fully into the next thing instead of half-assing it.