173: Butch Whiting: CEO of Kryptek Outdoor Group, talks about he evolved from his childhood interest in the military, to leading soldiers in Afghanistan, to starting his own business and how all of these experiences connect.
Butch Whiting
Why was it that pushed today’s guest butch Whiting to go into the military at a young age? “I was inspired to go into the military by my grandfather on my dad’s side. He was the first sergeant in the 81st Airborne in World War II. So, from the age of four years old and on I was hell-bent on becoming an officer in the Army because he constantly told me, you need to become an officer.”
On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Butch Whiting, CEO of Kryptek Outdoor Group, talks about his grandfather’s influence in his pursuit not just the military, but also his education. “He was obviously a senior NCO. He also saw the advantages of having a college education, which is not always a prerequisite if you do green to gold. But somewhere along that route you need to get an education as well, and I think that was really what he was driving for. I was one of the very first family members to actually go to college and I got an Army ROTC four-year scholarship and went to Gonzaga University.”
What You Will Learn:
What got Butch Whiting excited about helicopers? “The helicopter aspect of it was later on. I didn’t go to college now, hey I am going to go to Army Flight School and become a helicopter pilot. I was actually introduced to that when I was a sophomore at Gonzaga University and we did an air assault on a local guard unit in Hueys, and it was super, super exciting for a young guy like I was in college. I started talking to the pilots after we did this mission and they basically started to explain to me, you can go to Army Flight School. You have to be selected. But it is an option and an opportunity.”
Butch Whiting expresses the passion he felt about helicopters at the time “I became consumed by Apache Attack Helicopers because it fit my mentality of benign basically a hunter and I was super enamored with what is the most lethal weapons platform on the battlefield, and so you have to hold your breath, because you don’t know what you are going to be assigned, what branch you are going to be assigned when you come out of college.”
What was Butch’s path to Army Flight School? “The OML is based on your performance, your leadership capability that gets evaluated the summer after graduation, your GPA. There are a whole bunch of factors that come in to generate that OML, and they just start to fill in the quotas. So, you might have a year where they need a project that they know they need 50 commissioned officers in Army Aviation. They start to fill those in and once they get to 50, then you are going to go to your second choice. So, for me I put down Army Aviation, Armor, Infantry, and fortunately I was able to get a slot in Army Flight School. Then you are back to competing again.”
What was the reason Butch Whiting left his role in the military in 2008? “At the end of the day, the reason why I separated was not because I didn’t love what I was doing. It was because I was gone so much from my family. At one point I had my oldest daughter who was 6-years-old. I was gone four out of her six years, and my youngest was 4-years-old and I was gone three out of four.”
What was it like being in the cockpit of an Apache Helicopter? “We were forced back in to use these techniques that really hadn’t been employed since Vietnam. Running fire. Diving fire. High-energy tactics is what that was called and it was simply because you didn’t have enough power to do what we were trained to do before 911, before we went into Afghanistan.”
Kryptek Outdoor Group
What were the inspirations for Butch Whiting’s company Kryptek Outdoor Group? “The war on terror accelerated everything across the entire spectrum for war fighters. So, from weapons to communications and just systems in themselves, platforms, vehicles, body armor, you name it, there is just this giant snowball of improvements that are starting to happen, including into apparel. The lead on the apparel improvements was really happening at the spec ops level that then would spiral down. But we saw a lot of those improvements that were happening and going, dude, that would be epic to have in the backcountry elk hunting.”
Military-Inspired Hunting Apparel
During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, “We saw pocket placement that was designed simply for guys that are sitting like we are now in an aircraft and you need to access certain things which is no different from a guy sitting in a tree stand or a deer blind. How smart would that be to have in the hunting market?”
Links to Additional Resources:
Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com Emilia’s Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/ Butch Whiting: Linkedin Mark Pattison: InstagramMike Ramos: Former Olympic Decathlete who went through addiction to overcome and find his way running a pancake house in Montana...
Daddy Saturday: Learning how to be intentional with our kids and end abandonment to raise our children to be better adults. The author and
Leon Logothetis: Author, TV Host, Cause Adventurer, Motivational Speaker & Philanthropist overcame depression and became an advocate for kin
Gary Vitti: Former Head Trainer of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1984-2016, Author of the book "32 Years of Titles and Tears From the Best Sea
Anthony Trucks: Retired NFL Player for the Buccaneers, Redskins, and Steelers, President & CEO of Anthony Trucks Industries, Author, Speaker
Gus Frerotte: Retired NFL Quarterback for the Broncos, Dolphins, Vikings, Redskins, Bengals, Lions, and Rams who overcame high school injuri
Patrick Sweeney: Fear Guru, Keynote Speaker, Author, and TEDx Speaker helping companies create a culture of courage, shares how he managed t
Chris Waddell: American Paralympic Sit-Skier and Wheelchair Track Athlete, and Founder of One Revolution shares how he went from being paral
Peter Cetera: American singer, songwriter, bassist, and an original member of the superstar rock group Chicago who has found his summit from
Leigh Steinberg: CEO and Chairman of the Board at Steinberg Sports and Entertainment in Orange County, California Area talks about reaching
Floyd Landis: Former Tour de France cyclist winner who was stripped of doping overcame this widely reported setback and reestablished himsel
Aaron Hale: Former War Hero who was blown up by IED bomb and went blind in Afghanistan discusses his journey of recovery, extraordinary achi
Conrad Anker: Legendary Mountaineer, Filmmaker of Meru, and Discovered George Mallory on Mt Everest
Coach Jim Johnson: Retired High School Basketball Coach and Teacher at Greece Athena High School, Motivational Speaker, Professional Speaker
Luis Benitez: Challenge yourself and change your world! Pro Mountaing guide, Climbed the 7 Summits multiple times & involved in multiple n
Pastor Richard Dahstrom: His faith was renewed while hiking in the Alps. Now an inspirational Pastor at Bethany Church in Seattle. Big be
Scott Svenson: Co-founder and CEO at MOD Pizza and the Founder and Ex-CEO of Seattle Coffee Company went from creating a coffee company that
Marala Scott: Oprah Winfrey called her one of the 5 global ambassadors of hope! She is a true blessing and will brighten your day...
Mark Gainey: A champion runner in high school led Mark to being part of the Harvard rowing team and taught him about the principals of team
115 Alan Arnette: If you don't succeed, try, try again and that is what Alan did.
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
NABOR® TALKS
U.S Property Podcast
Aligned Money Show
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money