Rudy Reyes has become a very familiar face to TV viewers. Whether they remember him playing himself in HBO’s acclaimed miniseries Generation Kill or have been watching him put celebrities through the trial of a lifetime in FOX’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, there’s no doubt that he’s very good at what he does—not just his military career but being in front of the camera.
Now he’s hosting HISTORY Channel’s The Proof Is Out There: Military Mysteries alongside Ronnie Adkins, bringing his expertise to decoding some of the strangest things and most surprising stories in the military world. Ahead of the show’s second episode, I spoke to Rudy about what interests him about working in the television space and what has him so excited for his newest project.
Brittany Frederick: You’ve been on TV in some form or another for a long time now. What is it that intrigues you about being in front of the camera?
Rudy Reyes: I’ll boil it down to this. I come from very humble beginnings—a broken home and poverty and then ultimately being abandoned. I grew up in in a boys’ home. This country affords kids that focus hard on school and sports and do not get involved in drugs and gangs. If you’re able to do that, and you have that discipline, the military rewards you as well. I rose to the top in a Marine Corps with 300,000 Marines to a unit, to then become a Military Occupational Specialty of only 300 Marines. I’ll never forget where I come from.
When Generation Kill was made—the true story about my team leading the invasion in 2003—I had already fought in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001. I would later fight in Fallujah and Ramadhi in 2004-05. I saw the teamwork, the incredible friction and stress of creating [TV] production and to do it well. And I see in our culture that we look up to people in movies and in TV. So I represent any kid out there that comes from nothing, to say that if you work really hard and you’re disciplined, you can do anything in this world. That’s why I do it.
BF: You played a fictionalized version of yourself in Generation Kill, and you’re playing a very specific and intense role in Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. How does it feel to do The Proof Is Out There: Military Mysteries, where it’s just you connecting with the audience?
RR: This show is amazing. It’s a bit of broadcasting, mixed with interview, mixed with working with media and leading the audience on a journey of discovery. Plus, I get to work with Ronnie; I love working with this young, hungry, skilled, intelligent guy. Another reason I do what I do is to inspire the next generation of veterans to get into media. I love it.
The show is challenging in its own way. Our shoot days are very long and it’s quite cerebral. And when you’re working in the head [space], it’s sometimes difficult to keep the heart space open. But the best presenters and the best talent in the world are able to do both, so that’s my challenge.
BF: What was the approach you took with The Proof Is Out There so that you weren’t too cerebral with it? So that laymen watching at home can understand, but without sacrificing the nuances or details of the subject matter?
RR: It’s a mix of factual info-tainment and combat X-Files. I always try to remember to hold on to that mystery and magic, similar to X-Files. We’re burning through facts and nomenclatures going back from World War II, Vietnam, through modern combat.This includes weapons systems and airframes, submarines, but we want to connect to the people and we love learning from each other. Ronnie is very well-spoken and he’s very astute in his military knowledge. He’s got combat experience as well. We really bond there, and there’s a lot of trust and energy that goes back and forth. I think it’s palpable and it definitely comes across on the screen.
BF: Were there particular mysteries from The Proof Is Out There: Military Mysteries that excited you or resonated with you?
RR: I found the story about the pilot shot down in Desert Storm absolutely fascinating, because I fought through those battlefields and I know the area. I remember Iraq, Syria, and Jordan better than I remember my childhood in its totality, because it was so visceral to me. I vaguely remember hearing about this pilot story when I was a teenager. That we found DNA years later at a safe house, impromptu, that POW camp and then when testing the DNA and bones of the body that was found near the wreckage, it wasn’t him.
I was privy to the triple-letter agencies because I worked for them after I got out of the Marine Corps. I couldn’t help but have my heart break when thinking about his family and thinking about his last days. I thought revisiting this event was absolutely captivating. And why do these stories mean so much to me? I can compare it to what’s happening, for instance, in Israel and Palestine right now. Us caring about our people. {The United States] will do everything it takes to get them back home, or at least find out what happened to them. And I think that’s a testament to our country.
BF: That raises a good point. How do you honor these stories and do them justice while also making them exciting for The Proof Is Out There: Military Mysteries viewers?
RR: You know what’s interesting [is] the incredible dynamic between me and Ronnie. He’s like Walter Cronkite mixed with John Rambo. He tends to be very sharp with the information and nomenclature knowledge. I’m Latino, so I’m naturally passionate and I lean more in on the human component. The series gets into a story about the cosmonauts, and I’m thinking, I witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union. When we go back to the Space Race, everything was on the line for reputation, for perceived power. Did the Soviet Union cover up one of their astronauts burning in, which these Italians happen to catch on the radio? Really, really wild stuff, because it was cloak and dagger back then.
There’s a lot of things that we don’t know about. I mean, we’re still talking about the Kennedy assassination. The series looks to bring a mixture of Ronnie’s factual tone coming at you—he’s got a certain gravitas—with my touch on the human experience. What did that feel like? What was going through these warriors’ minds? Were they thinking of their families in their final moments? Were they thinking of God, country, corps? I find it absolutely amazing.
BF: What has been the biggest challenge for you in making this specific TV show? What would you consider your growth opportunity?
RR: This is the first time I’ve worked in a studio, where I have to catch cameras coming in for the lead and hit my prompters—boom, boom, boom. And then I look to Ronnie and ask, what do you think, man? And he says, this is what I feel and I think there’s more to it. Let’s dig deeper. Boom—then one of us hits on the media. There are many areas to be attentive to, which can be very challenging.
When I’m running operations on Special Forces, I’m in the moment and in charge of safety and leadership. This is what I did my entire career in the Marine Corps. Doing this program, it’s new disciplines. It’s challenges to keep the energy and to keep it fresh, and capture all the data as well.
BF: Audiences have gotten to become familiar with you between Generation Kill, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test and now The Proof Is Out There: Military Mysteries. Is there anything else you want them to know?
RR: What’s always fascinated me since I was a little kid is aliens and alien technology ,which I am intrigued even more now that it’s becoming mainstream. When I was a little boy, I learned the Dewey Decimal System and went to the library to get the UFO books. At first, they’re all kind of hokey until I found one called Communion: A True Story by Whitley Strieber. Christopher Walken played the lead when it was turned into a film. The story is about making a connection with an alien species and technology. Well, holy moly, now we’re seeing a Navy fighter pilot’s video of an unidentified flying object—which is now termed “unidentified aerial phenomena. The terminology alone changes the energy and the cultural imprint, because we’re really looking at this data.
I found the massive technological explosion in the last 70 to 80 years (The Manhattan Project) fascinating too, not to mention what I witnessed via our own supercomputers and the GPS tracking system, which we called the Blue Force tracker in 2003. You’re watching real-time forces of your own and those of the enemy plugged into visual collection data by satellites, aircraft and other units on the ground, to build a picture. It gave us such an edge in that invasion. The technology would later come out in the iPhone 10 years later. What’s been there before my [becoming] privy to the technology—because I only have a Top Secret clearance? There are far deeper things. Were we connected or somehow did we connect to aliens, or find alien technology? I’m very curious about that.
BF: I also wanted to take some time to talk about Force Blue. For TV viewers who aren’t aware, can you explain that organization a bit?
RR: When I was struggling really bad in my warrior transition, I realized what [was] really missing for me was purpose. We have aptitude and ability, we have training and knowledge, but purpose is the thing that holds us all together, and I didn’t have it. So I said where can I use my Special Operations abilities, because they don’t necessarily translate physically into the civilian world. As a combat diver, I recognized this while going on a diving trip for my mental health with some some other veterans. That gave me some buoyancy. One of my brothers said to me at the bar after we finished our dive, you know, Rudy, I’m so glad you’re here on these coral reefs because they’re all being destroyed. We’re struggling with pollution, climate change, and the massive shipping industries. Their anchors destroy all this. I said, well, we need to do something about it. Let’s use our combat dive skills and amphibious skills to do ocean conservation.
My program brings Special Operations combat divers from all around the world, all forces, and we train with marine biologists and ocean conservation scientists. We are sponsored by the NFL and Pepsi now, which helps push our mission to a larger audience. We bring conservation science and warriors together. We have mammal missions, shark missions, and we rebuild coral reefs. We also teach the children of the fallen ocean conservation and how to scuba dive. It’s really magnificent. I’ve done work in Washington, D.C. I’ve got legislation for our vocational rehab program, for every veteran. They have the access with government funds to get their Advanced Open Water scuba [certification]. They can come to me, do on-the-job training and then we deploy. We are a power and we are a force of change and healing, not just for the reefs and for the ocean, but for ourselves.
The Proof Is Out There: Military Mysteries airs Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on HISTORY. For more about Rudy, follow him at realrudyreyes on Instagram and Twitter, and visit ForceBlueTeam.org.
Article content is (c)2020-2024 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram.
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