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The Protectors® Podcast
Welcome to The Protectors® Podcast, where the valor meets the storyteller. Hosted by Jason Piccolo, a seasoned veteran and retired special agent, this series is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the courage and tales of those who pledge to protect us. Beyond the front-line stories of bravery and dedication, this podcast goes a step further, weaving in the perspectives of those who bolster and narrate the protector's journey—featuring a remarkable lineup including New York Times Best Sellers and acclaimed Hollywood actors.
The Protectors® Podcast offers a diverse array of voices, from those who wear the uniform to the authors and entertainers who amplify their stories. It's a unique blend that highlights not only the raw realities faced by our protectors but also how their sacrifices inspire the narratives we cherish in literature and film. Each episode is a testament to the interconnected worlds of service and support, bringing listeners an unmatched depth of insight.
Dr. Jason Piccolo is a retired federal agent, former U.S. Army Infantry Captain (Iraq 2006), and author.
Past Guests Include:- Sean Patrick Flanery - Andrews & Wilson- Mark Greaney- Stephen Hunter- Remi Adeleke - Florent Groberg - Clint Emerson - Travis Mills
The Protectors® Podcast
534 | Derrick Jackson | BOOK DISCUSSION: "Shadow One"
Derek Jackson shares his journey from Air Force jet engine mechanic to OSI special agent, revealing the intense personal and professional challenges of federal law enforcement, and how these experiences inspired his crime thriller novel "Shadow One."
• Starting as an enlisted jet engine mechanic before getting recruited to OSI
• Discussing the reality of FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) and the demanding training process
• Transitioning from mechanic to criminal investigator and the mental shift required
• Balancing investigative work with personal life and relationships
• Using music to inspire creative writing and developing characters
• Exploring how traumatic cases affect agents psychologically
• Turning real-life experiences into a crime thriller novel
• Finding the courage to follow your own path despite others' doubts
Find Derek Jackson's book "Shadow One" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and Walmart online.
Make sure to check out Jason on IG @drjasonpiccolo
Hey, welcome to the protectors podcast. We have Derek Jackson on today. Retired air force OSI. You know that's like the. I like to say it's the. It's the Hilton version of NCIS. Ncis, you know that's like you know Motel 8 and you know it's the Navy. You know you're never going to be able to stay in anywhere nice. But Air Force man, that's like the good digs. Actually, I should say it's like the four seasons. Hey, welcome to the show brother. Hey, jason, thanks a lot for the invitation, looking forward to a great conversation. Yeah, bro, so you started out enlisted, right?
Speaker 2:And then you got, from what I understand, you got recruited in OSI Right. So I enlisted in the Air Force right after high school. Initially I was a jet engine mechanic, so my first three bases I was working on transport aircraft and then I wound up working F-15 fighters at Tyndall Air Force Base. And then it was at Tyndall because for a few years, you know, the law enforcement bug was kind of following me around and I was interested in federal law enforcement and there was an opportunity within the Air Force, since I couldn't in my enlistment excuse me, I couldn't in my enlistment at that moment.
Speaker 2:The opportunity was with the Office of Special Investigations, the OSI. I didn't know a lot about what they did, you know, to me at the time I thought they were very secretive, to be honest with you, but I thought it was kind of cool. I just wanted to learn a little bit more about it at least. So I went over and introduced myself, asked for a briefing because you know I thought I may be interested in joining, and what I learned about the agency, I fell in love with it. I put in my package that took about six months, you know the background investigation, then the suitability investigation. You know, just because you can get a top secret clearance, it doesn't mean that they're going to want you to come work with them. So that's the importance of that suitability investigation. But after about six months that was all approved, good to go Went to, I think, five to six months of training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, fleet Tech brother, fleet Tech man. I've been there center in georgia.
Speaker 1:Fleetech brother, fleetech man, I've been there. Yeah, you know what let's? Let's talk about fleetech. One of my friends hit me. One of my friends hit me up today. They're like do you saw a picture of the chow hall food? I'm like food it. Was it really food?
Speaker 2:it was. It was so-called chicken breast every day with cheese on it exactly the chicken breast.
Speaker 1:It is like in a pan and it was like. It was just like a pan of hot water.
Speaker 2:So if anybody, does yeah.
Speaker 1:If anybody doesn't know, the federal law enforcement training center, aka flea tech, is in Brunswick, georgia, and if you're a federal agent outside of, like DEA and FBI, you go there and it's anywhere. Like me, I was there for border patrol, I was there for the 1811 course, I was there for follow-on courses.
Speaker 2:I think I spent like two years in that place, man that's a very long time yeah, unfortunately, the first time I went was during the summer and oh, you can imagine how hot it was oh, I remember that first time for me was january for the border patrol and the second time was May for testing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I started Then the follow-on courses were in January. I was like ooh, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:So you went through the regular 1811 course right as an Air Force OSI.
Speaker 2:Yep. So we had to go through two. Of course, the criminal investigator training program which, as she mentioned, 1811 course, kind of like a police academy for federal agents. 1811 course, kind of like a police academy for federal agents. You know your basic training. Right after that we started the Air Force basic investigations course at the same location. So that's another two, two and a half months of specific Air Force investigative training.
Speaker 1:And that must have been cool. You know, you come from such a diverse background I mean from mechanic to criminal investigator and now you're learning this. You've built a whole new identity, Right, and now you've got to get into that mindset. Ok, now you've got to go and do the investigation. So that must be a really cool feeling, man.
Speaker 2:It was. It was quite a transition, to be honest with you. You know the first 12 months. You know all agents start out on probation and it's challenging for everyone. You're learning, you know, a brand new career field. So much responsibility is placed on you and most people struggle with that time management because you're not working set hours. Okay, nine to five, I'm going home. No, you go home, you know, at the end of the day, but it's probably not going to be an eight-hour shift, I can guarantee you that. And so a lot of people struggle with that time management, being able to understand, okay, what is my investigation about and how do you know when you've reached the end of it. Because some people can dig themselves into holes and, you know, follow the shiny objects that lead them away from what they should be focusing on.
Speaker 2:So I was like everybody else. I struggled my first, you know, 12 months as a probationary agent, not just with the cases, but there was so much, you know, that they put on you in additional duties. You know I had to manage the weapons program, the ammunition program and coming off of you know the flight line working. You know F-15s. That was completely different than what I was used to. It was a completely different mindset, and when you go out and you meet people in the base and in the area, they don't care that you've only been on the job for two weeks, you know you. You're an agent, so you're supposed to know everything on day one. So it was quite challenging and you know, ultimately I kind of got up to speed where I needed to be and then my career kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1:That's really cool, man. And then you did that for a career, wise, and, and you're going to come back on a show We've already talked about that because I want to get into like a little long form with you today, but I do want to talk about your book and I want you know to kind of get into that a lot more than like your career, because there's so much to someone that doesn't fit into a 20, 25 minute podcast or even an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about it. You retire and then like, where did this writing bug come from?
Speaker 2:Honestly, it was a complete surprise to me. So after I retired from the Air Force, took a job in corporate security and then that's when I had the nine to five job I had so much free time after that and the things that we were investigating compared to being an OSI agent. Now I'm investigating company policies Great people that I work with. You know I really appreciate it. The pay was a lot better. You know there was a letdown. You know I didn't feel as fulfilled as I did when I was an agent. But I was thinking okay, this is the transition, it's time for this. And I found myself with a lot more free time than I did when I was on active duty. And so that's when I initially had the idea that I would start writing a book and I started working on it probably for about a month and I stopped. We had a restructuring at my company at the time. I decided I need to kind of focus on something else besides writing a book. But then things kind of calmed down for me in my work life and I came right back to it.
Speaker 2:I just had this story that I felt that I needed to tell and initially I wrote the screenplay and you know I got some feedback on the screenplay that you know I had a really good story but that I needed to get more attention and the way to do that was to turn the screenplay into a book. So, yes, I absolutely did it backwards, because usually you would write the book first. But you know I had to take it. You know, take my own route here and I started writing the book.
Speaker 2:The hardest day was the first day when I'm looking at the blank screen and that cursor is just sitting there, blinking, daring me to write something, sitting there blinking, daring me to write something. But once I finally found the nerve to go ahead and get started, you know the story kind of took on. You know what it wanted to become. I had a structure that I kind of wanted to follow and I thought I knew what the story was going to be as I started writing. But as I started to develop the characters even more and give them more background than what they had initially in the screenplay, the story kind of took, you know, its own route and shaped itself and I'm really proud of, you know the the final outcome of it yeah, I've noticed I've talked to a lot of authors and I talked a lot of military authors and a lot of them.
Speaker 1:They don't have a linear route. They don't have, okay, this, this protagonist is going to go from a to b to c to d to e to f, and then they have it all mapped out in their head and they have these big link charts and everything. A lot of it is really just writing on the go and using your imagination and you know, keep the baseline. You know. So you got, you know the big picture but overall the action, sequences and everything that goes with it, right?
Speaker 2:you know, for me, you know I will sit there. Ok, I want to go from. I'm writing a certain scene and I want to go from A to Z, but I wasn't wasn't exactly sure how I was going to get there. You know, what was the temperature of this scene? What's what's the vibe, what's the emotion? And early on I kind of struggled a little bit, to be honest with you, and I wrote a little bit and didn't really like what I had put down, didn't think it was good enough. And then what I started to realize was that as I was listening to music, certain songs, you know, unintentionally at first certain songs would remind me of certain scenes that I needed to write for the book. And as I just listened to that song over and over and over, the scene started to write itself and I was able to take the emotion that I received from the music and put that into the writing.
Speaker 1:Isn't it crazy how music is such an integral part? You were the first person I've talked to who mentioned listening to tunes.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's huge. It's huge man.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's huge man, like today, like my protagonist song is like. So I watched a TV show, daredevil, and they had this scene at the end of the the season where, um, uh, one of the episodes where there's it's TV on a radio staring at the sun, and that's like my protagonist song now. So anytime I'm doing anything where there's a gym or anything, I'll put that thing on and I'm like you know what this is cool? Now I'm thinking like when I write, you put the protagonist songs on. So you kind of get into the field Because, think about it. When you put like you know you got Hans Zimmer or one of those guys and you're like you know you're watching one of these movies and all of a sudden, like the music is such an integral part and can you imagine like now you're doing it, writing, and you're the first person I know that's actually talked about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a very big part of my book. Again, I didn't set out to listen to certain music. It's just, you know, as songs were playing and, to be honest with you, as I was getting bored and scrolling on TikTok, certain songs would jump out at me and I was like, hmm, let me listen to that again. Then I would end up downloading the song and then it would take me to places in my writing that I didn't think I was going to go. You know, I dare say, even though this book, you know it's got human trafficking, it's got drugs, it's got murder, you know sexual assault, all the things that you would expect from a crime thriller it has an overarching romantic story that goes along with it. And you know our main character has to make a decision early on in the book whether or not he's going to follow his dreams to become a federal agent or stay with the person that he's been in love with and that he's been planning to spend the rest of his life with, because she wants nothing to do with law enforcement at all, she doesn't want to be around it, she doesn't even want to take a picture of it, she wants nothing to do with it and she's really upset that he does so. You know, they come to a crossroads in their relationship and I guess you can kind of tell which direction he went, being that the book is based on him being an agent. But that relationship between those two kind of follows along throughout the book. That relationship between those two kind of follows along throughout the book and I wanted to tell not only the story of the investigations and how some of the tactics were carried out, but I wanted to tell the story of the people who were actually doing the job, to look behind the curtains and kind of expose a little bit to how the job actually affects the people who are doing these things, how they take it home, how it affects their personal lives and how their personal lives, you know, inadvertently get carried back into their job. You know, in a job like this and I'm sure you can relate when you're talking to people every day who have experienced the worst day of their life you know, in the Air Force and I guess in every branch, there are a lot of sexual assaults. I don't care who you are, how tough you are at some point when you're making someone relive that type of trauma, down to the smallest detail. What were you thinking when this happened? Yeah, you know what. What was going through your head. What did you tell him? What did he say to you? Were you making that person relive that in order to be able to to bring justice for them? It takes a toll on you, you know and I'm not comparing, you know, what I felt to the person who actually went through that. But you know, day after day, month after month of going, you know, putting yourself in their shoes, it kind of has an effect on you.
Speaker 2:And that's kind of what I wanted to show, because the main character in this book and I will tell you it is kind of based off true events from my life. It's a fictional story but you know there's a lot of truth into it. We can see how this character kind of goes down a dark spiral because he's trying his best to be a really good agent, but every time he tries to do something proactive it kind of bites him in his rear end, even when he's just out trying to meet people, trying to introduce himself. The people know who he is, but he has no idea who they are. And that comes to a head towards the end of our book here, when the hunters become the hunted and he has to figure out okay, is this really what I want to do? Because ever since I picked up this badge, there's been nothing but heartache and drama in my life. And he starts to think, man, did I really make the right decision? And he has to find it within himself, the strength to continue on.
Speaker 1:That is the key to all this world. Man, how many people were you at the academy with and this and that who become 1811s? And they have that loved one. That's like you know they're there, but then the career takes over, and the career takes over. And the career takes over because you want to prove yourself, you want to prove your mettle in the first few years and then you're all of a sudden you're into this like different world, and you're like did I make the right decision?
Speaker 2:Because on day one your life was never going to be the same. It can't be the same. You have to present yourself differently. You have to carry yourself differently.
Speaker 1:The responsibility that you have is tremendous and, like I said earlier, when people see you they don't care how long you've been on the job, they just know that you're on the job. That's a job series 1811, or if you're Air Force OSI enlisted, your job title is criminal investigator, so they look at anybody who has that title as an expert. It doesn't matter if you're an expert in anything, but you are an expert in everything.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you're the jack of all trades and people don't realize that. A lot of times it takes time to specialize it does.
Speaker 2:A lot of times it takes time to specialize. It does, and that's one of the things I really liked about OSI. Usually after your probationary year there's so many other areas that you could go into. For me I kind of went. It wasn't really a specialty, but it kind of turned into that. I went into counterintelligence. There are some people who go into counterespionage or polygraph. Some people get more into forensics. So there are other avenues that you can get into other than just criminal investigations. But there's nothing wrong with criminal investigations either.
Speaker 1:No, not at all. So tell us about the book. Give us the thousand foot overview of the book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the main character, devin, he is a jet engine mechanic. He is stationed in Hawaii at the moment and, as I mentioned, he gets called and says hey, the opportunity of a lifetime has been presented to you. You put your package in several months ago and you got approved. You have the opportunity to become an OSI agent. And he is so excited to go and tell his girlfriend, who he assumes will soon be his fiance and it doesn't go well. Like I said, she doesn't want anything to do with the police and that night they have to figure out are they going to stay together or is he going to follow his dreams? And he makes that decision and it kind of haunts her for a very long time because it seems like she turned her back on him. So he leaves, goes off to training and, as I mentioned, really struggles the first year. You know he put us to some very light situations but doesn't really have a mentor to help him along. So at about the one year mark he finds himself being stationed at Osan Air Base and this is when he finds the mentors that he's been looking for, the like-minded co-workers who don't want to just sit at the desk waiting for the phone to ring.
Speaker 2:Those type of people that say, hey, let's get up, let's go make it happen introduced themselves to some people who were engaged in an international drug smuggling ring, who also had ties to an international human trafficking ring.
Speaker 2:And so when they introduced themselves, not realizing who they're talking to, the bad guys kind of think that one of them has become a rat and sold them out to OSI, so they have to take care of the rat within to OSI, so they have to take care of the rat within, and then they're looking to see who they can take care of at OSI.
Speaker 2:And our characters have a really strong friendship, you know, at work and out of work. It's really fun to see how people you know not only the agents but just enlisted people interact with each other, how they spend their downtime, how they have different type of romances. That's going on and they begin to question if one of the members of their team is actually working with this crime syndicate who is involved with this human trafficking, because some of the things just aren't adding up. He's not where he's supposed to be, he's making some statements that seem a little bit questionable, and it has to be one of my best friends in the book and it's going to be interesting to see what happens with him. Can the team stay together, especially when the bad guys start targeting them? And they're going to have to find a way to put their team back together and find the strength to continue out their mission.
Speaker 1:I this book a lot just because of my background with Fletchian as a special agent. I like books that are rooted in reality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And yeah, yeah, they say that's a part, uh, beginning of the second chapter where he does his training at Fletchian. I didn't want to go too too far into it because you know there are people that are still training, but I touched on it a little bit and I think you'll be familiar with some of it, especially the searches and some of the work at the shoot houses.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's going to be fun. Man, that place has changed, but it hasn't changed over the past 20-something years. I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 2:I hope the food has changed.
Speaker 1:Oh no, the food has not changed at all, I'm sure. Okay, last question for you and this is what I'm starting to ask on every podcast is what is the best piece of advice you have ever been given been given, and why?
Speaker 2:The best piece of advice I've ever been given is to believe in yourself, and if you have to march to the beat of your own drum. When I was 17 and I, I told people that I was going in the Air Force. Grown men who had my best interest in mind told me don't go in the Air Force, do something else. You shouldn't. There's no place for you in the Air Force, and I felt that that's where I needed to be.
Speaker 2:When I made the decision that I wanted to cross train and become a special agent, people that cared a lot about me really tried to convince me not to do that. You really need to think about this thing. I'm not sure this is what you want to do, but it was in me to do it. And I heard some of the same voices when I said, hey, I'm going to write a book, and people kind of looked at me a little bit strangely, didn't think I was really going to be dedicated to it, until they read the book. And then they realized well, they were wrong about me going in the Air Force, they were wrong about me joining OSI. And once they read the book, they realized they were wrong about me writing a book. So the best advice I would give anyone is follow your heart and go where you think you need to go.
Speaker 1:I like that. You have to follow your mission, your own personal mission, and you have to find and, like in this book says, you have to find a partner who's going to follow that mission with you.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, brother, everybody, the book is Derek Jackson's Shadow One. It's out now on Amazon and I believe Barnes Noble as well, right, yes, Barnes, Noble Books A Million, and also online at Walmart.
Speaker 2:Oh, very cool man.
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