Latino veteran Rudy Reyes knows exactly what it looks like when someone reaches the point where they think they cannot take another step, or another breath, for that matter. For five seasons of FOX’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, the Mexican American former Recon Marine has been one of the imposing military veterans tasked with pushing celebrities toward that breaking point. They are dropped into unforgiving environments, deprived of their normal comforts, and put through exercises inspired by Special Forces selection.
The screaming, heights, exhaustion, and physical punishment make good television. That’s what has driven Special Forces for five seasons. Reyes, however, believes something more interesting happens after the celebrities become too exhausted to maintain the personas audiences know.
“It’s really a human revelation program utilizing the military mindset and selection to get to the core of what it means to be alive and to be human and to be American,” he told this reporter in an exclusive interview.
His words come from experience. Long before he became one of television’s toughest instructors, the highly decorated combat veteran survived a difficult childhood, war, and years after leaving the military, a personal collapse that brought him frighteningly close to ending his life. “I was at the end of myself about 11 years ago,” Reyes said.
‘Those medals I earned in blood. It meant nothing’
Born in Missouri in 1971 while the man he considered his father, U.S. Marine Rudy Reyes Sr., was serving in Vietnam, Reyes and his three brothers eventually spent part of their childhood at the Omaha Home for Boys. He joined the Marine Corps at 26 after already distinguishing himself in martial arts.
He went on to become a Recon Marine team leader and scout sniper, serving one tour in Afghanistan and two in Iraq and leading more than 50 patrols behind enemy lines. His unit, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, was among the forces at the front of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
That story later reached television.
Reyes portrayed himself in HBO’s acclaimed 2008 Iraq War miniseries Generation Kill, based on journalist Evan Wright’s reporting and book about the Marines of First Recon during the invasion. Reyes also served as a military adviser on the production.
But surviving combat did not mean Reyes simply left the war behind. He described what happened years later when depression, drugs, alcohol and the loss of custody of his son converged. “If you look at my dress uniform, you see all those medals, and those medals I earned in blood. It meant nothing,” Reyes said. He revealed that he put a pistol in his mouth, and then he felt God’s presence telling him things were going to be OK. He called his brother César.
“I said, ‘Come get the guns.’ I dumped the cocaine in the toilet. I dumped out the vodka in the toilet,” Reyes recalled. “I said, ‘Rudy Reyes, it starts now. You’re going to get yourself back together.'”
That history makes the emotional component of Special Forces particularly personal for him.
Five seasons of celebrities being pushed to the edge
When Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test premiered on FOX in January 2023 it was clear that it was going to operate very differently from a conventional reality competition. Up to this date, there are no audience votes or weekly eliminations. Recruits can voluntarily withdraw, be removed for medical reasons, or be dismissed by the directing staff, and more than one person can ultimately pass selection.
The show’s previous recruits have included athletes, actors, reality stars and public figures ranging from Hannah Brown, Carli Lloyd and Dwight Howard in Season 1 to Tyler Cameron, JoJo Siwa and Tom Sandoval in Season 2. Season 3 took Brody Jenner, Kayla Nicole, Cam Newton, Denise Richards, Landon Donovan and others to Wales for ocean warfare training. Jenner and Nicole ultimately passed selection.
Season 4 moved the experiment to Morocco with a cast that included Shawn Johnson East, Andrew East, Johnny Manziel, Teresa and Gia Giudice, Kody Brown, Brittany Cartwright, Jussie Smollett and Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia. Johnson East and Gia Giudice were the two recruits who ultimately passed.
Now the experiment has moved again.
Season 5 takes ‘Special Forces’ into the Malaysian jungle
Season 5 premiered Sept. 24 and places 15 celebrity recruits in Malaysia, where jungle warfare creates an entirely different set of problems.
The eclectic original cast includes former NBA player Matt Barnes; boxing champion Alycia Baumgardner; Full House star Candace Cameron Bure; actor and former Baywatch star David Charvet; Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Brandi Glanville; Collin Gosselin; actor Oliver Hudson; former NFL star LeSean McCoy; figure skater Maxim Naumov; actress Ruby Rose; former congressman George Santos; comedian and social media star Hannah Stocking; Selling Sunset’s Bre Tiesi; and father-daughter real estate personalities Mauricio and Alexia Umansky.
The attrition has already been brutal. Glanville became the first recruit to leave after being medically withdrawn following a helicopter jump in the Sept. 24 premiere.
Three more disappeared in the Oct. 1 episode. McCoy voluntarily withdrew after making clear he was unwilling to deal with the course’s outdoor bathroom conditions. Santos withdrew while suffering from leg pain and numbness he attributed to sciatica. Rose also voluntarily withdrew after physical and emotional struggles, including concern over aggravating a previous serious neck injury.
That leaves 11 recruits entering Episode 3: Barnes, Baumgardner, Cameron Bure, Charvet, Collin Gosselin, Hudson, Naumov, Stocking, Tiesi, Mauricio, and Alexia Umansky.
Episode 3, appropriately titled “Trust,” airs Oct. 8. The recruits will be paired for hand-to-hand combat before being forced to trust one another during an exercise conducted on the edge of a cliff.
The men putting them through hell have actually lived it
The celebrity cast changes every season, but Reyes is part of a remarkably consistent directing staff. He is joined again in Season 5 by Mark “Billy” Billingham, Jason “Foxy” Fox and Jovon “Q” Quarles. Reyes, Billingham and Fox have been with the U.S. series since its first season, while Quarles joined in Season 2.
The days filming Special Forces can stretch to 20 hours, Reyes revealed. When exhaustion arrives, sometimes it is the celebrities with no military training who motivate the decorated Marine.
“Seeing what these recruits are doing with no indoctrination and not exactly spring chickens themselves, I say, ‘Come on, Rudy Reyes, you can keep going. Let’s go, let’s go,'” he said.
Then Reyes slipped naturally into another part of his identity. “If we can have a little bit of pride, let’s have a little Viva la raza. Let’s keep going.”
Reyes’ Latino identity is more complicated than his Missouri birthplace might suggest. His family is from the border, he explained, and his mother happened to be in Kansas City visiting his grandmother Carmen when he arrived earlier than expected.
“We got a contingency of Mexicanos. We got some Mexicans in Kansas City,” Reyes said, talking about generations of Mexican workers who came to the area around the railroad and meat industries. “All my family’s from the border, but that’s why I was born in Kansas City,” he said.
His childhood included abuse and neglect. Reyes recalled being six years old and praying for help while enduring an abusive environment. Eventually, he said, he learned to rely almost entirely on himself.
The military gave that toughness somewhere to go. “I was rewarded with my discipline and my aggression and my hope to be something more than I was born as,” Reyes said.
His post-military life eventually took him far beyond television. He worked as a counterterrorism contractor for the Department of Defense and trained wildlife-preserve rangers in Africa in anti-poaching tactics. He also helped found Force Blue, an organization that brings former Special Operations veterans together with marine scientists for conservation work, including coral restoration.
“It’s an honor to represent and to have the support and the love from my country, my Latino community and my military,” Reyes said.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test Season 5 airs Thursdays on FOX, with episodes available the following day on Hulu. Episode 3, “Trust,” airs Oct. 8.
© {{Year}} Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
