Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. Today I’m joined by Terrence Bennett. Terrence is a navy veteran who is here to talk about his transition out of the Navy and into his career in, in the tech world. So welcome to the show, Terrence. I’m glad to have you here. Thanks.

Terence Bennett: Yeah, really happy to be here.

Yeah,

Scott DeLuzio: absolutely. So, uh, for the viewers, for the listeners who are maybe not familiar with you and, and your background, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Terence Bennett: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so yeah, so I spent, um, I spent four years down in, uh, Annapolis, Maryland, um, before [00:01:00] commissioning, uh, in the Navy. Spent two years on a destroyer out of Pearl Harbor, including about, um, six months off the coast of Iraq doing security operations, um, with the Iraqi Navy.

Um, I was actually out in Bahrain during Arab Spring, which really motivated me to better understand geopolitics and everything else out there. And I ended up making a jump over to intelligence, um, truly thereafter. Was an Intel officer for about five years, finishing up at N C I S and then, uh, made the jump over to Google.

Um, and we’ll, we’ll chat a little bit more about that, but that’s really kind of its own interesting kind of, uh, chapter. Spent two years in Google Cloud, then two years in, um, uh, on Google’s red team doing cybersecurity work before I got, uh, getting the itch to go into the startup world. And so that’s where I am now.

And I’m leading a small, uh, software company called Dream

Scott DeLuzio: Factory. Yeah, that’s awesome man. I. I’m really interested in hearing all of this, uh, the transition into tech and what, what you’re doing now [00:02:00] because, uh, everybody’s career path is different and, and when you get out of the military, um, you know, you, you, a lot of times you think you got everything together and then.

Curve balls get thrown your way and, and all that kind of stuff. So it’s, it’s gonna be really interesting, I think, to hear more about that. But, um, you know, your, your time in the Navy is, you know, to me kind of interesting as well, uh, just talking about your, uh, your time with N C I S and, and, uh, when. When you talk about that, the, the show immediately comes to mind.

Um, you know, and I, it, I can’t help but ask, you know, how much of the show, if you, if you even watch the show, is, is stuff that, uh, you’re like, yeah, that never has ever happened. Or this is stuff that like happens all the time, you know? What is your experience like if you ever watched that show? So,

Terence Bennett: um, ironically the only show I’ve ever seen of N C I S was on the watch floor as a joke in the middle of the night.

One night we, we put the show on one of the big TVs to watch. Cause like none of us have ever seen it. Um, you know, like as with all tv, it’s, it’s [00:03:00] largely fabricated. I think the mo, the only accurat...