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Creators & Guests
What is The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast?
The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast was born out of a place of grief. Having lost my best friend from the Marine Corps in the early hours of 2023, I realized that this feeling was all too familiar. I wanted to do something, not only for the loss I felt, but for the loss I knew many families were enduring day to day.
We believe that a major way to relieve the stressors of life is to talk, laugh, cry, and share our experiences without fear of offense. We hope to attract veterans and first responders as well as anyone who is interested in knowing more about what it’s like to be in our shoes while we wear or wore those shoes.
PODCAST INTRODUCTION: Hello everyone, and welcome to Ghost Turd Stories. I'm your host, Troy Gent.
Ghost Turd Story's mission is to use humorous stories from veterans and first responders to reduce the burden of families whose veteran or first responder committed suicide.
Ghost Turd Story's vision is to use humor from veteran and First responder stories to prevent suicide within our ranks and reduce the burden of families whose veteran or first responder committed suicide.
We hoped to attract veterans and first responders as well as those interested in knowing more about what it's like to be in our shoes while we wear or wore those shoes.
TROY GENT: This is Troy Gent, your host and the creator of Ghost Turd Stories. Today I've got a special guest. His name is Chris Coates.
I served with him in three-seven India Company from 1998 to about 2000. Chris, it's good to talk to you again as always.
CHRIS COATS: You too.
TROY GENT: What's your history with the military? Where and when did you serve?
CHRIS COATS: I served on three-seven from 1996 to 2000. After I got out of the Corps, I went to college in Rexburg, Idaho and joined a little artillery unit. It's 148th FAA. It's part of the 116th Brigade Combat Team.
TROY GENT: Just so everybody understands, when I say three-seven and Chris says three-seven, it's 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division.
What was the dumbest thing you ever did while serving?
CHRIS COATS: There's plenty of them and all of them were the result of drinking.
I got into an altercation with my platoon sergeant. You were there as well. He was our platoon sergeant and I got a NJP out of that deal and that was probably the worst thing I did when I was in the Corps.
That hurt me on getting promoted to sergeant amongst other things.
TROY GENT: You made it to corporal before you got out?
CHRIS COATS: Yeah, I was a corporal and then I was eligible for sergeant and I got in trouble with that. At the tail end, I was score for sergeant again but I didn't really pursue it because I was getting out.
TROY GENT: Oh yeah. That's right.
So I remember one time… I was in the barracks. Someone told me, "Coats is down at the bowling alley and he won't listen to anybody. He's been drinking. Will you go down there and see if you can calm him down a little bit?"
We both were Jack Mormons at different times in our lives or at least weren't living the standards the church encourages us to live. So I go down there and you were being a little bit difficult, I guess I should say.
I was like, "Hey, Chris. You got to calm down. You're going to get in trouble."
You started pushing on me. You were like, "Come on, man. I'm going to fight you.”
And I was like, "Dude, I'm not going to fight you."
You were like, "I want to fight."
Yeah. Do you remember that?
CHRIS COATS: I don't remember the actual altercation but I remember that you were telling me about it.
Yeah, I'm sure there are plenty of those, but the example you set for everybody was amazing as far as not drinking and not doing a lot of the dumb stuff that we did. I really appreciated that.
That really planted a good seed in me and others.
TROY GENT: Even in the times when I've been a little less devoted to the standards of a Christian lifestyle, I've never abandoned my desire to continue to go to church and pay my tithing. I've been pretty far from perfect many times but I've kept going to church and I've always kept trying to stay close to that.
I'm really grateful that I could be in positions where I could set a decent example for people.
I think at the bowling alley I tried for a couple of minutes and after I realized that you were just going to keep being a punk, I said, "I'm out of here, man," and I went back to the barracks or something.
What's the dumbest thing you ever saw someone else do?
CHRIS COATS: Well, there are a few of those that I'll touch quickly on.
There was this kid. He was always doing kind of stupid stuff. We were breaching doors with a twelve gauge and doing some room clearing and stuff. He was up. He shot the mechanism on the door and his barrel flew off and hit the door.
I was like, "What the freak just happened?"
We stopped the whole thing. I was like, "What the frick are you doing?"
TROY GENT: So the round went off but it just shot the barrel off at the same time?
CHRIS COATS: Yeah, the barrel came off with it but I was just like, "How in the freak do you do that or how?"
But I guess he was cleaning it and he didn't tighten that nut on all the way on the end.
But the same kid, he ran into stuff like that all the time. It just drove me crazy but… We were doing combatives. We're doing boxing and he had this kid that I couldn't stand either. I wanted him to actually do good against this kid because I couldn't stand the kid.
But when he punched, it's like he slapped with the boxing glove. Slapped like a girl, you know?
I've never seen anything like that in my life but he smacked the kid with an opened boxing glove and smacked him like a girl and I was like "Wow, this is gonna be bad."
So this other kid just welling on him and I was like, "You need to stop. You're gonna get hurt. You need to stop. Just… Let's call it a day."
But everybody else was cheering it on and getting it hyped up. And the kid I'm talking about, he walked right into a really hard punch. It just smashed his nose. He actually picked this piece of blood out of his nose and a long piece of cartilage came out.
"Oh my gosh," I was like, "You should have listened when I told you to freaking stop."
TROY GENT: Was this the Marines or the National Guard?
CHRIS COATS: This was the National Guard in Fort Bliss, Texas.
There was a kid. We were over in Iraq and he randomly took out his nine millimeter and started shooting into a flock of sheep.
And I was like, "What the heck are you doing?"
TROY GENT: What was he doing?
CHRIS COATS: I don't know. He just....
TROY GENT: Did he get in trouble for that, or?
CHRIS COATS: From me he did but I didn't write him up or anything.
I was one of the team chiefs and I yelled at him but everybody else thought it was funny, I guess.
TROY GENT: Do you remember that run we did in Guam when everybody went out drinking the night before even the platoon commander? He took us on a run and we ran about seven miles down to that beach.
CHRIS COATS: I believe so. Is that when everybody was dehydrated?
TROY GENT: Yeah, let's see. We had a broken ankle I think. Several people puked and then there was one Marine with us. He managed to save his bowels till the bathroom on the beach but there was no toilet paper in the bathroom. He came out of the bathroom without a shirt on.
The platoon commander and platoon sergeant were like, "Where's your shirt at?"
He's like, "I didn't have any toilet paper. So I had to use my shirt."
CHRIS COATS: Everybody felt 3rd platoon cause he was always thrashing us for doing something.
TROY GENT: I came in two years after you so I was actually your subordinate. But the fact that we were both Mormons, we made a connection and after work hours we were more friends than anything else.
One of the boots, they told him to get out there and call formation and he got up there, our lieutenants this recon guy. He gets out there he starts calling formation he said, "Twinkle twinkle little star. Who's that boot with a golden bar?"
CHRIS COATS: Yeah, that was a good one.
GENT: He trashed us for that. Oh, man.
Did you ever see anyone sneak contraband or banned stuff and get caught and made an example of?
CHRIS COATS: I remember the whole Marine base getting shut down for a frag grenade that got taken from out in the field. It was missing. They shut down the whole Marine base for that and then it ended up on pull table in the duty NCO hut. That was a pretty funny deal.
PODCAST OUTRO: Thank you for listening.
Please tell your friends and family so that we can bring more joy and awareness to those struggling with suicide ideation and the families who desperately need help after the loss of someone they love to suicide.