While on a path that he hoped would lead to wrestling stardom, Chad Lail's journey took a four-year long detour when he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during the Iraq War. The decision forced Lail to scale back on wrestling and shift his focus to the real-life dangers of serving his country.

As a marine, Lail's duties included being a truck driver and machine gunner while enduring deployments to countries in Europe and the Middle East. Lail, going by the name Phil Shatter, still wrestled on the independent circuit when he wasn't deployed or undergoing 14 grueling weeks of boot camp on Parris Island. Even though it cost him years of development, Lail has no regrets

"I don't regret serving my country at all," said Lail. "It got me out of my hometown (Hickory, NC), it was 2001 when I decided to join so I was right out of high school. I didn't know what to do or where to start or how to go about being a professional wrestler. So I decided to join the Marine Corps and it got me out of my hometown and let me see the world and let me realize there's a lot more to this thing (life). So I don't regret it at all."