Many jobs require some form of on-the-job training, working with colleagues so employees can go back to their jobs with more knowledge and confidence than before. However, in the world of special operations, where on-the-job training is constant, insights into how to best use new technology don’t always make it to the frontlines.
In special operations, operators are often deployed covertly in small teams into hostile foreign territory. That can make consistent communication and keeping them well-supplied challenging.
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That’s where Building Momentum helps out. It’s a small business that specializes in training operators how to use the tech they have available to them in new ways.
Building Momentum was co-founded by former special operator Brad Halsey. Halsey was in the Navy and served in Iraq before being injured.
“That surgery went bad,” Halsey said. “And so I was a disabled veteran. And so after that, I was like, ‘You know what? I want to use my brain instead of my broken body to make a living.'”
In 2008, Halsey spent a year in Iraq, learning firsthand what soldiers fighting on the edge needed to win. This is where Building Momentum began.
“I had a lab in Baghdad that I made a lot of technology and solutions from, that I pushed out all across the country,” Halsey said.
Building Momentum is now at the forefront of giving special operations forces the unique on-the-job training they need to complete covert missions in the modern world. The group teaches things like how to 3D print a spare part in the field or build aerial drones with sticks.
“So today, we’ve trained almost 10,000 service members across every organization except for Coast Guard,” Halsey said. “Because we haven’t stumbled across that yet. And Ukraine is sort of validating all the stuff that we’ve been doing for almost 10 years now.”
Building Momentum is prototyping new designs on the fly, using what’s available for service members at that moment.
“You know, how do you go out onto the economy and build a drone in Thailand,” Halsey said. “How do you do this stuff with what you have around you? What can you what can you resource and source very fast to make that solution?”
The organization offers a number of Innovation Boot Camps (IBCs) for its clients. The initial weeklong course is an introduction to things like 3D printing, robotics, circuitry and coding. From there, Building Momentum tailors the instruction to the clients.
“So we’ll listen to what they’re saying,” Halsey said. “Recently, we just did autonomous boats out in Japan, because the Marine Corps saw what Ukrainians were doing, they saw how the South China Sea is a really important thing to understand right now. And so we built, we showed them how to build these 12-foot boats that autonomously go out and drop sensors off, and come back to shore all on their own.”
Chris Sargeant, a newly retired Marine spent the last part of his 20 years in service doing a fellowship with Building Momentum.
Sargeant said one of the best things the company does for its clients is challenging not just how they approach a problem, but their entire thought process around it.
“As a Marine, especially in the more complicated [Military Occupational Specialties] is explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), which, I’m an EOD tech by trade, or in the special operations community,” Sargeant said. “MARSI, Rangers, Green Berets, I came from MARSOC [where] failure is looked at very negatively, right? So if you fail, you failed, right … Them enabling you to fail, fail fast, learn from it and view it as a positive thing, in my opinion, is, is huge.”
Sargeant said it’s his hope this way of thinking — of trying new solutions and failing fast — permeates into the ranks of the regular military.
Halsey also said if the concepts Building Momentum teaches could be more ingrained into the institutional knowledge of the military as the whole, it would benefit the entire fighting force.
“Let’s imagine we push everything out to the right, and we’re going into some crazy, you know, a post apocalyptic thing, or whatever,” Halsey said. “It’s still going to be all these clever solutions that people will be doing, because all the big toys will be broken, all the big things will be done, all the satellites will be down or name a thing, you know, name some horrible thing. And now it’s going to be a race to the clever, it’s always going to be a race to the clever and technology has made it so accessible.”
Building Momentum may be a veteran-owned small business, however, it does corporate events too. There are some boot camps coming up this summer and fall where individuals can participate in a class.
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[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IF YOU’VE BEEN IN THE WORKFORCE LONG ENOUGH–
ODDS ARE YOU TOOK SOME ON-THE-JOB TRAINING AT SOME POINT.
MAYBE YOUR COMPANY SWITCHED TO A NEW SOFTWARE PROGRAM…OR YOU WERE PROMOTED AND NEEDED NEW SKILLS.
YOU PROBABLY SPENT TIME WITH COLLEAGUES IN THE SAME BOAT AS YOU… SO YOU CAN ALL GO BACK TO YOUR JOBS WITH A LITTLE MORE KNOWLEDGE AND KNOW-HOW THAN YOU HAD BEFORE–
AND MAYBE SOME MORE CONFIDENCE TOO.
IN THE WORLD OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS THOUGH…WHERE ON-THE-JOB-TRAINING IS A CONSTANT…SOME OF THE BEST TECHNOLOGIES, AND THE INSIGHTS IN HOW TO BEST USE THEM…DON’T ALWAYS MAKE IT TO THE FRONTLINES.
AND THAT’S WHERE BUILDING MOMENTUM COMES IN…A SMALL BUSINESS WITH A BIG IDEA–TRAIN TIP-OF-THE-SPEAR OPERATORS HOW TO USE TOP-OF-THE-LINE TECH IN THE MOST OUT-OF-THE WAY PLACES.
U.S. GENERAL JOHN PERSHING–THE COMMANDER OF US EXPEDITIONARY FORCES IN EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR I SAID INFANTRY WINS BATTLES…LOGISTICS WINS WARS.
IN A MILITARY SENSE–LOGISTICS IS BASICALLY GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE AND EQUIPMENT IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME…AND MAKING SURE BOTH WORK WHEN THEY ARRIVE.
BUT IN THE WORLD OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS…WHERE OPERATORS ARE OFTEN DEPLOYED IN SMALL TEAMS, COVERTLY INTO HOSTILE FOREIGN TERRITORIES…
IT’S NOT LIKE YOU CAN JUST RADIO HQ FOR MORE SUPPLIES…IN THOSE SITUATIONS–IT’S A RACE TO THE CLEVER.
Brad Halsey
We want them to be able to go into the, you know, Radio Shack of Morocco and figure that stuff out.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
AS THE CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF BUILDING MOMENTUM…IT’S BRAD HALSEY’S JOB TO MAKE SURE HIS CLIENTS CAN NOT JUST RUN THE RACE…BUT WIN IT.
HE WAS A SPECIAL OPERATOR IN THE NAVY AND SERVED IN IRAQ BEFORE BEING INJURED
[BRAD]
And then that surgery went bad. And so I was a disabled veteran. And so after that, I was like, you know what? I want to use my brain instead of my broken body to make a living.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
SO HE DID. HALSEY WORKED FOR RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND THINK TANKS, DEVELOPING WHAT HE SAYS WERE SOME AMAZING TECHNOLOGIES.
[BRAD]
And so this was, you know, post-September 11. We were in Iraq, we were in Afghanistan. And I was just really frustrated that all the technologies I was working on for DARPA, for the agency, for you know, all these organizations, none of that was actually going anywhere, it was just going on to the Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know, like warehouse shelves.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IN 2008, HALSEY SPENT A YEAR IN IRAQ–LEARNING FIRSTHAND WHAT SOLDIERS FIGHTING ON THE EDGE NEEDED TO WIN.
BRAD
2:19 I had a lab in Baghdad that I made a lot of technology and solutions from, that I pushed out all across the country.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FROM ITS HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN BAGHDAD…BUILDING MOMENTUM IS NOW AT THE FOREFRONT OF GIVING SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES THE UNIQUE ON-THE-JOB TRAINING THEY NEED TO COMPLETE COVERT MISSIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD–
LIKE 3-D PRINTING A SPARE PART IN THE FIELD OR BUILDING AERIAL DRONES WITH STICKS.
Looking at your your client list. I mean, SOCOM, JSOC, Rangers, EOD, Space Force, I mean, Airborne, you guys are helping to train, like, at the edge. You’re helping to equip folks at the edge.
Brad
Yeah, so today, we’ve trained almost 10,000 service members across every organization except for Coast Guard. Because you guys know what you did. No, because just we haven’t stumbled across that yet. And Ukraine is sort of validating all the stuff that we’ve been doing for almost 10 years now.
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
STUFF LIKE PROTOTYPING NEW DESIGNS ON THE FLY–USING WHAT’S AVAILABLE AT THAT MOMENT.
Brad
you know, how do you go out onto the economy and build a drone in Thailand? You know, how do you do this stuff with what you have around you? What can you what can you resource and source very fast to make that solution?
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
BUILDING MOMENTUM OFFERS A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT IBCs FOR ITS CLIENTS…OR INNOVATION BOOT CAMPS.
THE INITIAL WEEKLONG COURSE IS MORE OF AN INTRODUCTION TO THINGS LIKE 3D PRINTING, ROBOTICS, CIRCUITRY, CODING…FROM THERE, BUILDING MOMENTUM TAILORS THE INSTRUCTION TO THE CLIENTS.
Brad
So we’ll listen to what they’re saying. Like recently, we just did autonomous boats out in Japan, because the the Marine Corps saw what Ukrainians were doing, they saw how, you know, the South China Sea is a really important thing to understand right now. And so we built, we showed them how to build these 12 foot boats that autonomously go out and drop sensors off, and come back to shore all you know, on their own right
Chris Sargeant
in my opinion, that’s where that’s where building momentum shines is that tailoring of the courses,
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
CHRIS SARGEANT IS A NEWLY RETIRED US MARINE. HE JUST GOT OUT WITH 20 YEARS AND TWO DAYS. HE SPENT THE LAST PART OF HIS SERVICE DOING A FELLOWSHIP WITH BUILDING MOMENTUM.
HE SAYS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS THE COMPANY DOES FOR ITS CLIENTS–IS CHALLENGING NOT JUST HOW THEY APPROACH A PROBLEM–
BUT THEIR ENTIRE THOUGHT PROCESS AROUND IT
[CHRIS]
As a Marine, especially in you know, the, the more complicated MOS is like explosive ordnance disposal, which I I’m an EOD tech, by trade, or in the Special Operations community. MARSI, Rangers, Green Berets, I came from MARSOC it failure is looked at very negatively, right? So if you fail, you failed, right? By getting the back in the line, you can try again later, right? Them enabling you to fail, fail fast and learn from it and view it as a positive thing, in my opinion, is, is huge, right?
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
CHRIS SAYS IT’S HIS HOPE THIS WAY OF THINKING–OF TRYING NEW SOLUTIONS AND FAILING FAST– PERMEATES INTO THE RANKS OF THE REGULAR MILITARY..AT LEAST TO A CERTAIN EXTENT.
CHRIS AND BRAD BOTH SAY IF THE CONCEPTS BUILDING MOMENTUM TEACHES COULD BE MORE INGRAINED INTO THE INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF OUR MILITARY AS A WHOLE…IT WOULDN’T JUST BENEFIT SPECIAL OPERATORS…BUT THE ENTIRE FIGHTING FORCE.
[BRAD]
Let’s imagine we push everything out to the right, and we’re going into some crazy, you know, a post apocalyptic thing, or whatever, it’s still going to be all these clever solutions that people will be doing, because all the big toys will be broken, all the big things will be done, all the satellites will be down or name a thing, you know, name some horrible thing. And now it’s going to be a race to the clever, it’s always going to be a race to the clever and technology has made it so accessible,
[RYAN ROBERTSON]
WHILE BUILDING MOMENTUM MAY BE A VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS THAT WORKS WITH SOME OF THE MOST ELITE WARRIORS ON THE PLANET….
THEY DO CORPORATE EVENTS TOO…AND THERE ARE SOME BOOT CAMPS COMING UP THIS SUMMER AND FALL WHERE INDIVIDUALS CAN TAKE PART BY BUYING A SEAT IN THE CLASS AS WELL…MIGHT JUST HAVE TO SCHEDULE A TEAM BUILDING RETREAT FOR THE GUYS HERE AT THE SHOW.
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