[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a great guy, I mean not just, I mean it's cool to be honor man, it means you're a good athlete, but this guy was also beyond that, was just a great guy, extremely motivated, his name was Keith Kamura, and he was practicing breath holds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he was, he was, you know, after we went through seal training and he had gone to a seal team and served and he'd come back to be a seal instructor and he was practicing breath holds during a, during an evolution for the students.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was doing breath holds, he stayed down there, he had a shallow water blackout, and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He, he died. And it was awful. I mean, what a, what an incredible, incredible guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, we also had some SEALs in 2015, uhm, that were in Virginia Beach, you know, young studs getting after it, training super hard, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, they both died in, in the pool in Virginia Beach. And again, you know, these are frogmen. These guys are pushing themselves and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, trying to make themselves better and they pushed that envelope and that's what SEALs do. And they pushed it and they went over the line and unfortunately they were training together at the same time. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You gotta be safe. You, you got, don't train alone. And don't train...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you do your evolutions and then when you're done, okay, now it's my turn to train, you stay out and you watch me. It's one up, one down. That's the, that has to be the standard. Again, people don't,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't play around with the water. You know, I've had shallow water blackouts and you, they just come and that's it. You're unconscious. And, and if you, if someone's not there to drag you out, you're going to drown. You're going to die. That's it. And again, it's sort of, you can tell that they're coming a little bit and you get used to them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's sort of like getting choked out in jujitsu. Yeah. You know, you've been choked out before, right? Yeah, many times. Yeah. So you think you're going to make it. Yeah. And then, and then you don't and you can push it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So be very, very careful when you're doing this. Always have a swim buddy, swim to the lifeguard, all that stuff. Uhm, now,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The question back to the question, beyond the safety portion, is how do you get more comfortable in the water? You spend time in the water.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Swim, surf, spearfishing, snorkeling, scuba diving, survival floating, breath holds treading water, just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's how you get comfortable in the water is by being in the water. Give yourself little challenges. Swim with, swim with t-shirts in your hands. Swim with your clothes on. Swim. D-jock while you're no- just all those things to get to be in the water and do things and swim and that's how you get more comfortable in the water and you'll rapidly increase


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you'll get better at it, you'll get more comfortable. Again, be careful when you're doing it. The water will kill you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, what does de-jock mean? Oh, uh, it's a term that, as far as I know, comes from buds from SEAL training, where when you put your scuba gear on, they call it jocking up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So jock up in your gear, and then in the SEAL teams it becomes, it's a term that means any type of getting your clothes on. Getting your gear on, getting your clothes on, getting dressed. Putting your jock strap on. That's what it is. I don't know if that's where it comes from.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can, but they used to play, you know, remember that like little kids game hangman?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where you fill in the letters. Well, whenever the class would make a mistake, they would put, they'd have jock up written on the board and they'd put one letter in and then when you spelled out all of jock up, then they would make you do jock up drills, which are not fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, but the jock up drills involve ridiculously stupid and hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were like, the Geneva Convention called and said, bro, no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, let's go to the next question. I don't want to talk about that one anymore. You're losing me on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, ego drives you. Absolutely. It makes you want to win. It makes you want to perform well. It makes you proud of your achievements. Makes you want to be number one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those are all good things, and I fully, fully have those myself. I mean, my ego will keep me up at night trying to win at some ridiculously meaningless thing in the world. Especially when I was younger. It was kinda stupid. Uhm, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The ego can also get you in trouble, get you in trouble really, really quickly. For instance, I mean, you can, your ego can make you sabotage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your coworker, that's on the same team as you, so that you can outshine him. Right? That's ego. You can vote down a plan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chase... some material items. Some thing, something that you don't...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really need, maybe in some cases it might even be something that you don't actually even want.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's just fueling your ego. Which is, which is a really bizarre thing to see. It can make you step on your subordinates, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It can make you undercut your peers. Cause that ego flares up. It can make you, your ego can make you dig in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dig in on some stupid ideas that you've had. Those are the kind of things that ego do and all those things are negative. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, it wasn't like I was gonna win. The only way I could beat people in things was by outworking them. Other than that, it would be hard for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll give you a good case in point. I remember when, when I was going to SEAL training, there was people, there was guys that would like brag about it. They were going through the same SEAL training class, same BUDS class as me, but they would like brag about it and like you could hear them talking to let's say some random person. Like, yeah, we're on the SEAL training. I wasn't bragging about that. I was like, hey man, I'm a lucky I'm here. And


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I realize that a lot of those people quit because they were comfortable. They, they just being able to say like seal training, they were already good with it. They were like, Oh yeah, I did what I'm supposed to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Me, I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to say anything until I made it through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so what I'm saying is, similar to what you're saying, they were satisfied just by being able to throw that out there. That was enough for them. So for someone that's willing to cheat and win, or they're willing to step on someone, man, that doesn't feel good to me. That's never felt good to me. Like if I gotta step on someone, I don't even want it. I don't want that victory. Don't want it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Back to the ego point, when you start feeling like you're doing some of those negative things, that's when you gotta...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Put your ego in check. That's what you gotta support your coworker instead of sabotaging. That's when you gotta pick the best plan out there instead of picking your own. That's when you say, you know what? I'm happy with what I have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead of chasing things that I don't even need. You know what I'm talking about with people?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's another big one is like, when I talk about subordinates, instead of cutting down your subordinates, you start lifting them up. You start making them shine. You start giving them the credit. Making them shine even brighter than yourself. That's, that's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a beautiful thing when you can put your ego in check and you can make that happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Making your own boss look good, having an open mind to new ideas. Those are the things, that's how you put your ego in check. Those are the things that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those are the, those are the hallmarks of having your ego in check. Now sometimes people don't know when


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They need to put their ego in check, and I think there's one really easy indicator to know when you need to just at least


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do an assessment of your ego, and that is when you come into conflict with another person. Cause, cause, a huge percentage of conflicts that you have with other people are ego.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so when you feel that conflict, whether it's about positioning, whether it's about an idea, whether it's about a plan, whether it's about whatever it's about. But if I'm in conflict with you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just check your ego. And there's a good chance that you're gonna be able to take that thing, get a hold of it, and aggressively put it in check. It's hard. Your ego is a tough bastard. Your ego, man, that thing wants the spotlight. It wants to shine. It wants the glory. And it's, it's driven. You know? That's a lot of you high achievers out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what's driving you, and that's not a bad thing. So when it comes time to harness that bad boy, it can be a challenge. But it's very rewarding when you make it happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's rewarding in a long term gratification. It's not immediate gratification. Generally, you know, you're given, you're given your subordinates all the credit for some, for some project that they did. And you know that, you could actually know that you did


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The bulk of the work, but you give it away. That's not gratifying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's immediate gratification that you're looking for. No, you say, hey boss, you know what, don't put the accolades on my head. Look at my team. Let's crown them because they really did a great job. And I'm just here to help them. There's no gratification in that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when you get feedback a week later, a month later, six months later, people want to come and work for your team. Now your team gets picked for another project. That's the long-term gratification that you get when you keep your ego in check.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is an example. I don't see this all the time, but I do see it sometimes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We see as the common trait that makes people successful is when they're taking ownership instead of blaming other people. So that's what this guy did with the roofing company and I'm gonna take ownership of all the mistakes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the, the concept of extreme ownership, it means taking ownership of the mistakes, taking ownership of the problems, but it doesn't stop there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is simply where you start. Cause the real true ownership that you need to take is you need to take extreme ownership of the solutions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of implementing the solutions, of creating and implementing the solutions. That's what you need to take ownership of. So, in a situation like this, like for instance, Oh, I took ownership of everything, so my team became entitled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, now, first of all, in, in that statement in its own, right? If I say, hey, we failed because my team became entitled, what did I just do? Blame them. I blame them. For becoming entitled. Why did they become entitled? I allowed them to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What am I gonna do to solve that? I either have to change the way I'm treating them, maybe there's a couple cancers in there that have that attitude and I need to fire those people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or replace them or get them retrained. Or put some ownership on them. So that they realize, oh, okay, oh, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna lose my job if we're, we're gonna fail this mission or the company's going out of business if I don't do this right. So you gotta...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the mistake there. What do I, so you've identified the problem, you've taken ownership of it. Hey, we, we, hey, we gotta make sure we get our jobs done on time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay boss, well you didn't order the gear in time and you didn't do this and now we're behind so it's not our fault. And by the way, pay me. If that's the attitude your employees have, you got a problem as a leader. So what is the problem? How do you fix that problem?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing is about ownership is taking ownership of the problem doesn't fix the problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? It doesn't fix the problem. You still have to come up with the solution. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what it is. When we talk about extreme ownership, we're definitely not just talking about owning the problems, but like I said, owning the solutions and owning the implementation and actually carry to its, to its furthest


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when your, when your company's not doing the right thing, yeaah, you gotta take ownership of the mistakes that happen. You got, you got employees that are acting wrong, yeaah, hey, it's my fault that they're acting wrong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You got deadlines that you're missing. Yes, it's my fault that we missed the deadlines. Now you gotta go back and ask yourself the question, how do I make the deadlines? How do I fix those employees? You gotta solve those problems that are out there. Otherwise, extreme ownership doesn't do anything for you. And we've talked about this before as well. And that is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's taking ownership of things is not a, it's not a shelter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not, it doesn't provide shelter. It doesn't. And some people think it does. They go, hey, you know what? Hey, we missed, uh, we missed, uh, we failed on our mission. It's my fault.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so, you know, let's move on. No, no, no, actually, no, we don't move on. You failed in your mission. How are you gonna fix it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Extreme ownership does not, does not give you any mercy whatsoever. That's what's hard about it. And by the way, the thing that, the thing that extreme ownership that makes it hard is because the previous question, it attacks your ego.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey guys, this is my fault, let's move on. You're saying this is truly my fault. We failed because of me. And these are the things we're gonna do to fix it, and I'm gonna own it until we get it done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this question is, is, is a really good question and I appreciate it because you can see the guy, uhm, that asked it, he clearly is motivated, wants to do well, but he, he, again, my fault for not explaining this well enough, he thought that just taking ownership would solve the problem. No!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to take ownership AND solve the problem. As a matter of fact, the taking ownership part is the initial part that lets the rest of it happen. And that's why we emphasize it so much, because most people, they just don't take ownership. They're not even close.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This guy, he's close. He's taken ownership. Now he's gotta realize, okay, I took ownership. I realize that it's my fault. And again, it's not just him saying, uh, uh, well, it's my company, so it's my fault. And so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hope this works out. No, I don't hope anything. You fix it. You make it happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, again, I appreciate this question because I could see in his earnest asking of the question, like he's like, man, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here's what you did wrong. You know, you, you made the first step, which is the hardest step. That's the positive here. One of the most positive things about this guy is he's made the hardest step, which is, okay, this is my fault.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The follow on is what he missed. Now how do I fix it? What do I do to implement it? You got lackadaisical entitled employees. That is your fault. So how do you fix them?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you have people that you, they know exactly why they're doing what they're doing and they still aren't getting in the game, you need to find some more people to come and work for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some different people. Some people with better attitudes and bring them on board with the right attitude.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you take ownership of things, people don't, there, there's a small chance there's a couple knuckleheads like these, the idiots that this guy has working for him, that are entitled. Now, I shouldn't say that. Because,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He may have provided the environment to become, like he might have been the easy button, and every time they say, hey boss, I can't fin- hey boss, I can't come in late today, can you finish up that roof by yourself?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he's like, hey, you know what, I'm gonna take ownership of this, right? He goes, okay, I'm gonna take ownership. Don't worry about it. I got it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now he does that 4 days in a row. He's worked 16 hour days. He's starting to get broken mentally and physically. You ever done roofing before? You ever done any roofing? Yeaah. Yeaah. That's hard work. Especially in the summertime when the blazing sun. 14, 16 hour a day. I had to do- I pulled a chimney off my little-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they're not part of the team, if they're not on board, how are you gonna fix that? And if you, and what I was gonna say is if you become the easy button all the time, then that allows them, it fosters the attitude of, hey, you know what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, this is on Jaco, he's the one, he's still gotta pay me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, no, actually, let me tell you how it really works. You know how I pay you regardless of what you do? Well, eventually I don't pay you anything because you don't work here and I don't have a business anymore. So if that's where you're at, I don't want you here. And I will do this myself and I'll schedule my jobs appropriately so I can do it all myself. If you want to get in the game and be part of this team, which you should, then


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is what I need from you. Here's the expectations. This is why.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See, so you gotta get in their heads. You gotta get them out of that mindset and into the right mindset so that you can dominate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Classic, classic, you're right, classic example. If I approach you and I'm like, echo, dude, you're just entitled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What, what attitude do you have now? Now you're like, oh, what are you talking about? I'm entitled. I'm entitled? Yeah, you're damn right I'm entitled because look at what I've been doing. I've been, no, whereas if I, if I take a different approach with you and say, man, look, I think you've got a lot of potential.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is how I wanna grow. Do you kinda wanna get in the game with me? Cause I think you might- You see what I'm saying? That's all it takes!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's hard running a small business. It's hard work. You are the buck stops with you whether you like it or not. Because even if you, hey you know what, even if you don't want to take extreme ownership if you're a small business owner,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eventually, it's gonna get put on you. It's on you. It is on you. So it's, it's, uh, it's great. I love, I love the small business owners getting after it out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. So, first of all, it's important to recognize that those people exist everywhere. And everybody's gotta deal with me. If you run into one of these people,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't get all surprised as if they're a lone ranger out there being negative. No, there's negative rangers all over the place. So, you gotta know how to deal with them. And it's, so when you're dealing with someone like that, first of all, confronting them


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, as you can probably predict, is not usually the best option because all you're doing is you're, you're attacking their heavily defended position, which, which is not good. So one of the techniques that I use when dealing with these kind of people is I absorb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I absorb their critiques. I absorb their toxicity. I absorb their negativity. Now, obviously this takes a little bit of strength, right? You can't be taking stuff personally. You have to, in order to learn how to absorb things, you gotta say, okay, I'm just gonna do this for the team, right? But it looks like, for instance, when they say, oh, this is horrible. I don't say, no, it's not horrible. I don't just go right back at them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I say, yeah, you know what, we definitely got some room for improvement, right? So I kind of just deflected it and I kind of just absorb it, right? Absorb it a little bit. Cause what they want to do is they're lashing out, right? They're throwing the negativity. They like those explosions. They like to see it hit something and blow up. That's what they're doing. That's how they roll.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you're gonna absorb it, you're gonna catch it and pull it in, right? So when they're like, Oh, we can never do this! I don't say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We can absolutely do this, no, cause you didn't, you're just, you're gonna create the explosion that they're looking for. And Saddam Hussein, you know what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We might not be able to do it, but I'm gonna give it a good solid try.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't say no. This is the most brilliant thing I've ever seen. I don't do that. Don't go head to head. I'm gonna say, you know what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's definitely some room for improvement the next time around. You're right, a hundred percent. Ooh. Yeah, you just got deflected. And those reactions...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They disarm these ultra-negative people and it kinda takes their, their


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fight from the men, it also makes them look like emotional extremists. So with the group, right? When somebody calls that out in the group, then they're coming across all extreme and you just absorb it and negate it a little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It negates their view, or it, I shouldn't say negate, because negate means like totally lie, cross out. When you just absorb it and deflect it a little bit, the rest of the team goes, oh yeah, you know, oh, Echo, he's just super emotional, he's a negative. They see him for what he is, which is helpful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For you. Right? And then once I'm done absorbing their attacks and taking some of those shots, no big deal, then I'm gonna start to override them somewhat with some, with some positivity, which is gonna be directed at them. Right? So they were all negative, but I'm gonna say, hey, what you did there really worked well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or, you know, good job on that. I don't know, I never could have figured that out like you did. Right? So I'm gonna start getting in their head a little bit and start


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Filling their head with some positive stuff, that's right. That's what I'm gonna do. Man, you figured that out better than anybody. Nicely done. And I'm bringing them...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the dark side over to the light. That's what I'm doing, I'm bringing him over. And, actually I used to have the funniest, uh, one of my favorite guys in the SEAL teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was my, he was my first deployment to Iraq. He was the senior enlisted guy in our task units. And actually, we're just bros.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When one of us would start getting a little off the reservation on something, like getting all addicted to some idea or something, the other one we would, we would be looking, like, I'd be telling him, like, we need to do this and this is bullshit, we need to do, and he'd look at me like, he'd be like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Come back, come back to the light. Come on, come on. We're over here. It's okay. We're all gonna be okay. So when I would start getting negative, he would start pulling me back to the light, right? And same thing with, with me with him, he would get, he would get all, you know, get all...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Matter of fact, he's the guy, um, remember when we talked about, well. Simplify, repeat, that guy? No, simplify, amplify, and repeat. That's him, that's him. He would also have to bring me back from the dark side and I'd have to do it to him too if he started getting a little too negative.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to give them some ownership, some ability to make changes, some ability to have some kind of a positive impact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the mission. So I'm gonna pick something that I think they can step up and handle, right? Something that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is within their grasp and realm and ability, and I'm gonna give it to them. And, and then I'm gonna give them, I'm gonna give them, I'm gonna kinda overload them with help and with assistance and with guidance to make sure that they win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's gonna start spinning them in a more positive direction. Yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that's my way to deal with the big negative people out there. Just absorb and slowly counter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, I- So for this one, I kinda had to look up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This stuff to remember exactly what it was and the, like the INJT or INTJ stuff is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Introverted intuitive thinking judging. This is part of this, um, Myers-Briggs type indicator that refers to one of 16 psychological types, right? So it's sort of a graph that you can figure out these, what type of, of 16 different psychological types.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That there are. And so, so for this one in particular, this INJT, which like I said is introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judging. And I went to the interwebs for this. And it said that as an INTJ,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your primary mode of living is focused internally where you take things in primarily via your intuition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Speaking of self-fulfilling prophecies, this is kind of one of them. And you know, as far as I'm concerned, your personality and anyone's personality is not set in stone by, by any stretch. And of course, can you have some natural tendencies as a person?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, you, you do have some natural tendencies, and if your brain


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] was on autopilot, you would steer towards those personality traits even more, but luckily,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our brain is not on autopilot and you have your hands on the wheel and you can control your mind and you can, in this case, you know, step back and, and, and get a grip on things that, you know, according to the question that cause friction, right? If, eh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As if, as an ingat, you are supposedly too demanding, and these are little quotes that they had. If you're too demanding, or not open to other people, or not open to other ideas, here's what you do. Real simple. Get less demanding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? If you have a hard time listening to other people, listen to other people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you, and this was another quote I got from the INJT personality matrix, if you are supposed to have a low tolerance of emotion in others, then...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get more tolerance for emotions in others. This isn't hard. You identified what the issues are. You've heard me say this all the time. Listen to other people, treat them with respect. These things are not doing that. So do them.


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[Assistant] That's, that's really simple. There's no reason to you, for you to fulfill this prophecy of being a person that's not open to others' ideas. A person that's not, that has low tolerance for other people. There's, there's no reason for you to be overly demanding. You don't have to be this way.


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[Assistant] Just because that's your personality type, allegedly, that doesn't mean you have to be that way. Anyways, it's kinda like, uhm...


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[Assistant] You know the, the, the horoscope signs? Right? Sure. Do people even talk about those anymore?


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[Assistant] Well, you read your horoscope, but the- the-


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[Assistant] So, so, when I, well, when I, it hasn't happened in a while, but when I was younger, uhm, people would say, you know, like, oh, what sign are you? And I'd say, uhm, you know, I'm a Scorpio.


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[Assistant] And they'd go, oh, oh, no, no, no, I have, yeaah, for sure, you're a Libra all the way, definitely, cause you have this and you're that. And I'd go, actually, I'm kidding, I'm, I'm, I'm actually, um, Virgo. And then they wouldn't trust me anymore and think I was a bastard and whatever. But, uh, my point is, according to some random zodiac calendar,


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[Assistant] It's, you can place those, like, overlays on anybody and you can kind of make them fit. And that's what I'm saying, is like, I'm not saying that the, that the


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[Assistant] E-N-T-P or E-S-J or L-M-N-O-P or whatever. I'm not saying that the Myers-Briggs thing is just wrong. I think it's, I think it's good to have a framework. I think it's fine to have a framework and say, oh yea, I recognize this trait in myself or yea, I recognize that trait in myself or I recognize that trait in someone else and then you can deal with it. I think that's good. But what I don't, what I don't accept


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[Assistant] Is saying, this is what I am and therefore.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I'm not gonna change. No, wrong answer. If we all just accepted who we are, you know, you're not gonna make any progress, you know? So, you find some weaknesses in your personality, and you fix them. That's...


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[Assistant] That's what I'm saying. Adapt yourself, evolve, get better, stop creating fiction, friction, stop creating division, be humble, listen, take input, all those things. And I'll tell you one last thing is if you really are, uh, the,


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[Assistant] I n t j, then that means that you're smart, it means you're thinking, it means you're pragmatic, it means you're an analytical person and you're supposed to be. All those things. So if you are.


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[Assistant] Then realize that in order to be a successful member of the team, you need to put all those little characteristics in the check. Pragmatically.


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[Assistant] Yeah. It's mind control. Yeah, man. It's mind control. You got, I mean, obviously you get some people that have some significant, you know,


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[Assistant] Uh, mental problem. Okay, I understand, but like.


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[Assistant] This person that's writing a logical question, they got mind control. They just need to say, you know what? I'm gonna be more open to other people's emotions. I'm gonna listen to other people's ideas. Ready? Go. Do it now.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Oh, I'm rejecting Echo's, Echo's idea at point blank range. Okay, that's a signal. I need to not do that. Echo, I am open to your idea, let me hear it. Right? It's that easy.


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[Assistant] Next question. Is this the last one? I think maybe make this the last one up.


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[Assistant] And it can be horrible and heart wrenching.


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[Assistant] To people around you, what are you going to do?


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[Assistant] How are you going to lead? Are you going to get angry?


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[Assistant] Are you gonna get frustrated? Are you gonna lash out at people? Who are you gonna lash out at anyways? Are you gonna start going down the spiral of negativity?


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[Assistant] Are you gonna let this horrible situation dictate the way you feel and the way you handle it?


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[Assistant] Are you gonna fall over and fall down and fall apart?


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[Assistant] Are you going to face this issue with courage? And with resolution?


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[Assistant] Absorb that impact. Absorb that negativity. Draw fire.


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[Assistant] Draw fire. That's, that's when a member of a platoon, for, for tactical reasons, steps into the open to draw enemy fire. Maybe to give another part of his team, uh, the chance to move or, or distract the enemy. But that's what I say. Draw fire. Bring that pain to me. I can handle it.


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[Assistant] And if not the battle, and if not the war, we will win because our spirit. It will never surrender.


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[Assistant] Yes, let's close this thing out a little bit before we do that though. Let's talk about how the people that are listening to this, if you want to listen to more of it.


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[Assistant] What's the best way to support the podcast? What's the best way to get in the game here with the boys?


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[Assistant] You're, you're actually, uhm, trust level. I know man. You're, you're starting to cost yourself there. I know man. I think it's my fault actually. No man, you've been


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[Assistant] Where you're getting as you're gonna make more videos. Is that what you're gonna say? Now, uh, yeaah. I'm gonna tell you, just trust me on this.


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[Assistant] Everybody that listens to this podcast wants you to make more videos. Don't feel any pressure about that. Maybe that's just not your, maybe you just don't, you know, you don't want to make it happen. That's okay.


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[Assistant] I really want you to know that, we all, all of us,


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[Assistant] We all want you to make more videos. That's the vote from us troopers over here. So you got your thing. You know, hopefully you can find some time and make some badass videos.


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[Assistant] Well, hopefully it can motivate you enough to find some discipline to make some


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[Assistant] And subscribe to the podcast. Right? You gotta subscribe to the podcast. That's the most basic, right? On iTunes, yeah. Yeah, that's the most basic level of, of joining. Yeah. The movement. Is that Tuesday night? Maybe around 11 o'clock?


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[Assistant] Wednesday night a little icon comes up with a little one next to it that you get a new, a new podcast to listen to, which is...


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[Assistant] I go, yes, I get to listen to the podcast. And I know some people said it was weird. I listened to the podcast. I have to listen to the podcast so I know, A, what we talked about, B, what we could do better, C, where we need to get better. All those things. So I gotta listen to it.


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[Assistant] Now this might be a backhanded compliment or not, I'm not sure.


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[Assistant] On the podcast, everybody loves it.


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[Assistant] Everyone goes nuts. Yeah. And I'm not trying to say that you don't say cool things often, cause I think you say a lot of cool things, but the ones that people capture and they go, yeah, echo said this and they do like, they just flood the interwebs with echo Charles's greatness.


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[Assistant] What did you say before we recorded? You said something like, pretty legit before we recorded today.


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[Assistant] What did you say? I don't know. Yeaah, you do know what you said. You should say it again. You get all the people excited.


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[Assistant] Okay, always record. Always record. Tenacious D fans out there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Alright.


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[Assistant] So, so, so, if you listen, then you know, right? And if you don't listen, then it makes no sense.


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[Assistant] Exactly right. There could be some shirts that make no sense to anybody.


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[Assistant] Did you see, so I put out the, uh, my old band when I was a kid, and I tweeted this picture of the t-shirt.


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[Assistant] That we had made, my buddy had the silkscreen still. So I held it up to the light, I took a picture, I posted it.


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[Assistant] Who when I was a kid, Charles Bronson, I thought that he was the man, and I thought he was the man because he had awesome movies, but I didn't care about that. He was a war hero. He was a-


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[Assistant] No, it doesn't even kind of look like Charles, it straight up looks like Charles Bronson. Yea, it is Charles Bronson. Well yea, they won't know though. I wonder if we get sued by the estate of Charles Bronson.


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[Assistant] I don't know. His likeness. Yeah, we'd be definitely using his likeness.


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[Assistant] Yeah, uh, yeah. But actually his wife, Jill Ireland, she's, she died as well. I don't know who's, I don't know, I don't know who's left of the Bronson family. I don't know.


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[Assistant] Maybe we could, that'd be a good way to get in contact with them. Start producing their shirts and get sued by them.


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[Assistant] Well, there's a lot of people that are, are, have experienced the 19% increase in their jiu-jitsu skills or strength levels.


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[Assistant] What sucks is, so now all my training partners, or at least a lot of them, are wearing trooper rash guards when they fight me. So I'm having to fight these guys that are coming at me and they all look the same. They're all monster guys with trooper t-shirt or trooper rash guards on. It's not fun. I'm getting beat up by my own people.


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[Assistant] And I know you thought of this and I know we thought of this, but you know, it's October right now. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Girls t-shirts. Girls t-shirts. You're getting abused by the girls.


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[Assistant] For all the military guys and law enforcement, they need, they need three by two. And this is, I should have told you that and made it a little more clear. But, anyways. We live and we learn.


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[Assistant] And it's sold, it's sold a lot better. It's sold, it's selling amazing and we got a massive order on the way. And we've also got some restock coming.


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[Assistant] It came originally in these really nice tins that cost a lot of money to make and so that's cool. You wanna have one of those tins, but if you're doing your reload, you're gonna be able to buy in the next few weeks, you're gonna be able to buy a reload, a box with a hundred in it. A hundred.


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[Assistant] You don't need another tin. You can use the same tin to refill it. So that's common. And, you know what, if you're uncertain,


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[Assistant] And let's see also, if you haven't gotten Extreme Ownership book by myself and my brother Leif Babin, just go ahead and grab that book and own that book. Take Extreme Ownership of the book Extreme Ownership and you'll be good to go. And also if you have it,


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[Assistant] It's a leadership conference, we're gonna be talking about combat leadership and the application of those principles from combat and how you use them on the battlefield, how you use them in business, and how you use them in life. So.


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[Assistant] Register. Come on out. We'll see then. It's getting close. Obviously, Leif's gonna be there. Andrew Paul, who's on the podcast, is gonna be there. Echo Charles will be in the house. So come on out and let's, let's crush that. As always, if you do want to keep it real,


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[Assistant] Real, real with Echo and with myself, we kind of roll deep on the interwebs and we're there on Twitter for me, primarily Twitter.


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[Assistant] Out there. You. Listening. Engaging. Troops overseas and that are deploying overseas to hunt down evil. Thank you.


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[Assistant] Police and law enforcement with an incredibly hard job risking your lives to keep us safe. Thank you.


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[Assistant] Firefighters, of course, that literally run toward fire.


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[Assistant] Thank you and to the working men and women.


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[Assistant] Thanks to each of you for what you are doing.


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[Assistant] Want some supplements, the kind that work, obviously. Uhm, Onnit has the best ones, so you go to Onnit.com slash Jaco, you get 10% off. Boom.


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[Assistant] That's one way. Also, before you do your Amazon shopping, of course, go to one of the websites, right? JockoStore or JockoPodcast.com. Click through the Amazon link there before you do your shopping.


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[Assistant] Or to make that part easier, we have this, the trooper tool. It's just this little extension thing you can put on your browser. You get that on any of the websites as well. You just click on it. It's called, uh, the...


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[Assistant] Jocko store trooper tool chrome extension. Just click on that. Confirm it's on there. It'll automatically do it for you. So you don't have to remember. It's good. Also, if you like the shirts that we have, boom, that's the one discipline equals freedom is a good one. But yeah, get some of those. That's how you can support.


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[Assistant] Lining up. I know man, it's crazy how many people I see their reason to join is to go fight these bad guys. It's not, cause I don't have anything better to do or nothing. It's like, nah, I wanna, I wanna quit my job and go fight.


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[Assistant] Help move that process along. Yeaah. We could, or we could just talk about Jocko White Tea for like 10 minutes.


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[Assistant] You know how like, you're like, ah, you know, it's a mellow night. I should just call it and go to bed or something. Then I'd make like, you know, what's the, the mellow one, chamomile, whatever. Yeah. I'm not into tea, like I said. So I was like, all right, well, hey, you know, Jocko tea.


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[Assistant] It was like a random Saturday and I was like, I'm gonna do like how you do, put it on ice and see if I can't get my refresh on, you know, outside or whatever.


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[Assistant] So I was looking over like the instructions. So lemme, just in case you don't read the instructions, I think they're pretty straight forward. I think if you've ever had tea, people know.


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[Assistant] If you took the time to read the instructions, this is what you would read. Brewing instructions. Boil eight ounces of water. Pour water over one bag of Jocko white tea. Brew for three to five minutes. Enjoy over, or enjoy hot or over ice. Get after it. So get after it is part of the instructions.


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[Assistant] It may be even more into tea, cause there's like, you know, it's like, you get into, or I did, I'm not gonna say this is what happens, but I'm saying, you're like, okay, I like this tea, I like the brand, you know, so you, and then you appreciate the experience when, when it goes down, you know, you're more familiar with it now. Now when I see people drinking tea, I'm like, yeah.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, or they could switch over to the old discipline equals freedom kind of situation and you know, I'm just saying theoretically that could be something. Yeaah, that's good. Nah, you did good, this is good man, this looks good. Yup, yup.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and Amazon's not mad at us. They were just like, hey, the trooper tool's too heavy. It's too heavy.


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[Assistant] Yeah, this trooper tool thing is too much.


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[Assistant] Cool. Yeah, if you want to support this podcast in that way.


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[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, thanks. Uh, but yeah, it's on jocostory.com and jocopodcast.com. Click through.


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[Assistant] Obviously, the obvious way is subscribe to it on, on, uhm, on iTunes. Right, if you haven't already. And then, and also the YouTube. Again, and I say this all the time, putting more videos on there. It's cool cause I'll put little excerpts, you know, where,


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[Assistant] Because people on Twitter and stuff, they'll be like, hey, uh, can you just isolate this one excerpt of, you know, the Mark Lee speech, the, you know, just random ones they'll say, or they'll be like, hey, release this excerpt. I want to make a video, you know, and you can get the videos from YouTube and stuff.


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[Assistant] There you go. Alright, well hey, we're one step closer. Yeah. And, you know, expect it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But, I'm on it. I'm on it. I like that. Speaking of being on it.


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[Assistant] Be on it with yourself. Okay, so on it is supplements. We all know that. A lot of people, a lot of people don't think that I work out just because they don't, they don't see me. They hear my voice. So like, oh, I obviously doesn't work out. But Jocko obviously works out. Jocko does sit, take supplements. So people are like, oh, what does Jocko take?


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[Assistant] And Jocko takes alpha brainy. There you go. Is strong bonus from on it? It's from on it, yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, there you go. So yea, these are actual supplements. I take the exact same thing. Not the strongbow except for the strongbow.


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[Assistant] Yeah, he's, when does he compete? Uh, I don't know. Next week. Yeah, yeah, that's right. He's competing somewhere, yeah. He's good, man. Yeah, this early on too. Even if he wasn't this early on.


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[Assistant] Anyway, we'll talk about Taylor, uh, soon. Even more.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but yeaah, get, okay, Ana has the best supplements, we all know that. All legit, cause a lot of supplements straight up don't work.


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[Assistant] Some supplements rely on the placebo effect. Literally rely on that. Like that's it's effectiveness. That's why it's effective. Because of the placebo effect. Not on it. You can find out about this stuff on the website. But if you want 10% off, those supplements that you're gonna get on it.com slash Jaco. 10% off.


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[Assistant] So yea, do that man. Support yourself at the same time. That's what I like to think.


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[Assistant] Jocko store has some new items. So, oh, hey, this is weird. If you look on Instagram, you posted a picture today.


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[Assistant] That's my dad's birthday by the way today. Happy birthday Echo's father. Happy birthday BC.


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[Assistant] William Charles Jr. goes by BC, uncle I happy birthday dad love you. Uhm, so on my dad's birthday, Jocko posted a picture on Instagram October 2nd and one of the comments, I just read it.


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[Assistant] A little while ago. Um, it says, Hey, where do I get that good shirt or where do I get a Jaco shirt? That's an interesting question, right?


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[Assistant] Yeah, and uh, and we say it a lot, but nonetheless, no one's obligated to listen to me talk about Jocko's story.


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[Assistant] How's it? I'm gonna stick with good evening, I think. I like that. There it is. But to answer that question, let's say, let's say someone else had that question. Where do I get a Jocko shirt? I'll tell you where you get a Jocko shirt. JockoStore.com


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[Assistant] Yeah, we got creative on that one. It's a store from Jocko. It's online.com. JockoStore.com. Yes, we have shirts there, uh, we have travel mugs, you know, the kind you can, you bring with you.


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[Assistant] Sure, yep, if you choose to. Yes, exactly. And, uh, some, some bumper stickers that are kinda cool. They're on JockoStore.com as well. Uhm, there's some other sticks on there, cool. We have patches. Okay, here's the thing about the patch, uh, about patches.


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[Assistant] Someone online said, hey, get the velcro patches. And man, I'm just not as familiar with the velcro patches. We already had these other two patches. One is a jujitsu patch. The other one is a jujitsu patch, but it's all purpose patch.


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[Assistant] You know, you can iron it on, but you sew it on. It's four inches by three inches. The Velcro patch. I'm like, that's a good idea. The Velcro patch. Let me get the same thing for it's four by three. It's a Velcro patch. So it's cool for that. But you explained to me those Velcro patches are interchangeable. The standard is three by two, three across.


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[Assistant] So, just understand the Velcro patch currently, right now, is 4x3.


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[Assistant] Yeah, nonetheless. They're on Jocko's store as well. Uhm, the Jujutsu Patch is there too, like I said. Rashguards are there. Big time. All on the Jocko's store. Somewhere on Backorder. But, they're there in full effect for sure. And they're good.


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[Assistant] Bro, I'm from Kauai, we don't know about that kind. And that's what you're, what you're saying. You don't understand what a hoodie is. Yeaah. From Kauai, like, we, we kinda, we know what a hoodie is. Yea, but you don't know what a hoodie is. We don't know, yea, you right. So we're making hoodies.


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[Assistant] Yes, so I made, we made it with consultation from Jaco and some New England people.


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[Assistant] Interesting, for lack of a better term, my wife is one of those hoodie people. You know the kind where she wears a hoodie every single day, even when it's not cold. She'll be like, oh, it's like a comfort zone thing, you know? It's just a bunch of them. I don't even know how many. She even took Greg Train's Victory Hoodie. And she uses that one, that one's like one of her many.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Yeah, I agree. So uhm, yeah, so there it is. We're gonna have that coming out. That should be within the next two to three weeks.


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[Assistant] I think that's a fair amount of time to say. And be accurate. Uhm, so yeaah. There it is, jocostore.com. In the event of you wanting to support this podcast in that way, get some stuff. Get one thing, two things, whatever you want.


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[Assistant] It's a special day. Every day is a gift. Every day is awesome.


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[Assistant] What would be a good step in making that?


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[Assistant] Definitely, I mean it brings back so many memories just thinking about all the stuff that we carried and, uh, with us and, uh,


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[Assistant] And the, the burden of the, you know, just the heavy, you know, we used to joke about stuff, body armor back, you know, and the body armor is just biting into your traps after you've had it on for hours and hours of the helmets, just the vice down on your head. Uh, and obviously we had to train and prepare us that we, we could, we could prepare to have those things on for hours and hours on end and be able to deal with that. And, um, in fact, I remember you being the only guy in the universe that actually liked


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have an M4 with a 10 inch barrel which we use for close quarters combat, you know, house clearance.


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[Assistant] And, uh, as you know, that was like the primary weapon and we get to remodeling. I was like, hey, I gotta carry my 14 inch barrel, which is longer and it's got an M203, a grenade launcher on it. So you got a 40 millimeter grenade and that's what becomes, comes a lot heavier based on that. I just, I needed that to be able to throw some 40 Mike Mike down.


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[Assistant] You know, we had to focus so much on doing a roll-up assault where we're loading up in vehicles. So you're not, you don't have to carry much on your


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[Assistant] These IDs are so dangerous and killing people. So what do you do? You get out of the vehicle and you patrol, which means if you're going into an area and you gotta carry everything on your back and you gotta carry enough water and all the stuff you gotta have for the next 24, even 48 hours,


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[Assistant] It's a lot of stuff and one of the, the first patrols, uh, I've done a few patrols on kind of the outskirts of town, you know, but, but that city center where it was Al-Qaeda controlled battle space and US troops were dying almost every day in this horrible, violent place.


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[Assistant] We've been on the ground for, uh, I think a couple weeks, uh, in, and, uh, and we were teaming up with a Marine unit from 38 Marines, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, outstanding group of warriors who've been on the ground for a month or two prior to us getting there and they were


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[Assistant] These guys were in the thick of the fight and they were, they had adjusted their tactics and learned how to go out there and conduct these patrols. And so we were teaming up with them to go into an area called


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[Assistant] The tactic that we learned from the Marines, which is, listen, the bad guys, they want to blow you up in the streets. They're going to try to target your vehicles. They're going to try to ambush you. So when you're in a building in a sniper Overwatch position and you're behind concrete walls, like stay in that position.


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[Assistant] Stay in that position, unless you have an urgent surgical casualty, you've got to get out right now or you're going to be overrun, only in an extreme situation. So we're not going to call in the QRF because they're going to blow up the vehicles and that's what they want you to do. And, and they taught us some of those things that were, uh, that helped keep our guys alive and certainly helped us perfect our, our, uh, our


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our tactics, techniques and procedures to be able to, to go deep into those areas and, uh, and.


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[Assistant] Do some real damage to the enemy, uh, and most of the time bring our guys out.


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[Assistant] Uh, and, and, you know, we were excited to go in and work with them. So I've got a, you know, we got a, about a squad of, uh, of SEALs going in. We got some Iraqi soldiers and we're going to team up and we're going to put in some mutually supporting sniper Overwatch positions, uh, and remain, you know, uh,


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[Assistant] Through, through the, we're going in nighttime, we'd remain through the day, and we'd come out the next night. So, I'm like, hey, I'm going in there, we may be in there for 24 hours, it could even be longer if we get delayed. And you know what? This is a bad area, nobody can come, come get us out. So I'm loading out for World War III.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, my first time going to these areas, I mean, I'm packing hand grenades and extra mags. And you know, our typical loadout was two hand grenades. And I think I added a, I added like three or five extra hand grenades that I was bringing. So I put that in my bag. I'm bringing, I've got extra, you know, my typical.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm getting, I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready to get some. And uh, you know, I'm thinking, man, if we're getting overrun and we're loading up on it. So it's like one more thing, one more thing, you know, extra mag here, extra mag there. So, you know, I've got.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got those extra hand grenades, I've got the extra smoke grenades, I've got uh, you know, I've got flashbang grenades, I've got, I've got, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, and I was typically, you know, I'm, I'm loading that out. So, so I've got a bandolier of 12 of those things. I think I had six more on me, um, in, in, in a pouch on my waist. Uh, so literally, I mean, I'm rolling in like John J Rambo stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next few days, uh, and, and what that's gonna bring you. So uhm, so you gotta, gotta carry that water in. You know, we carry these liter and a half bottles that they had. I think I had probably 10 or 12 of those bottles too. So I'm like, I don't want to run out of water, so I'm gonna be a bunch more, you know, than even thought I needed. So it's a ridiculous amount of weight that I'm carrying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so we load up, I mean, I'm, I'm having a hard time even just, you know, picking this bag up, putting it in. So we load up in our vehicles, we drive, we meet up with the Marines, we're loading up into their big, uh, seven ton trucks that they took in and they put the troops in the back, these huge vehicles. And that was, they would kind of drive you on the outskirts of the bad areas on roads they'd cleared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and hopefully you were protected in the, you know, in those, in those vehicles from the armor. Then we unloaded, we unloaded from the vehicles once we got to a point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you don't want to run out of ammo, but you also, you know, you, you can't, if you can't move, then, then it becomes even more dangerous. So we start to patrol and we're moving in the area and, and, and the Marines who'd spent time on the ground, as I talked about, I mean, they're, they're a method of patrol because there were a lot of enemy snipers out there. And even though it's nighttime, you know, there's still some street lights and things like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So their method of patrol is two man shooter pairs, and those guys got each other's backs, you got two guys covering two different directions, and they're holding on a street corner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and then they're waiting for the next shooter pair that's up to the next block from them, and they sprint all out, mad dash sprint as fast as you can go, as fast as you can run from one corner to the next corner. So it's maybe 100 yards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sprint as fast as you can. And some of those blocks, maybe it's 50 yards, some of them it's 100 yards, but, you know, and this is how they patrol into the city. So it's, it is, your sprint, hold, sprint, hold, sprint, hold, and you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man, I am smoked. I'm having so hard time keeping up. And, and just my hats, these, these young Marines that are just getting after it, carrying heavy, heavy equipment and gear and the, the radio men and the guy carrying his, you know, his 40 Mike Mike. And they're, of course they're carrying the two, uh, 240 Bravo machine gun, which is a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A belt fin machine gun that was much heavier than what our Mark 48's lighter machine guns were for our medium machine guns. But uhm, those guys were just awesome. Just awesome trying to work with them. But I am, I am.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Having one hell of a time trying to keep up with these guys. So what does that do to your uh, is that due to your leadership? Capability when you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm supposed to be in charge. I'm supposed to be thinking about the bigger picture and be able to detach and all the things that we talk about sitting back and thinking about, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I can't, I'm, I'm focused at this point on putting one foot in front of the other. Just head down one foot in front of the other and just try to keep up. You know, and here I am, the guy just having a hard time keeping up and it was, it was humbling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here I am, a seal, a team guy, thinking I'm in shape, and uh, you know, and I'm in an area where, you know, I'm not acclimatized to this kind of brutal heat. Even at nighttime, it's 95 degrees outside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we were half, you know, half mile off the river. So it's, it's, it's humid along, along the river. So, uh, it was, it was horrible. And I was realizing like this, I got my ass kicked. I mean, it was by the time we got back from that, it was, I knew I was going into.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it doesn't matter how tough you are, you're not going to be able to power through that, right? Physically, uh, and so that's what, you know, that's a nightmare scenario for me that here I am the leader and yet if I can't keep up, someone has to carry me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was, uh, that was just gonna be a horrific disaster. So, you know, we, we went through that operation. We were out there for, uh, you know, remain throughout the course of the, the, the, the day, daylight we got shot at, we shot at some bad guys and, uh, and then we came out, you know, the, the next night and, uh, I got back from that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm carrying way too much stuff. I can't, you know, it's, it's, sure, I don't want to run out of ammo, you know, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How much more dangerous is it for me to be carrying so much stuff that I can't even keep up on our patrol? I can't move fast when I need to and if bad guys start shooting at us, I can't get my guys off the street, you know, or I can't move, run across the street or run up the stairs and, and so I recognize right away like I've got to, I gotta pare this down and I gotta carry just the essential stuff and maybe


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A couple of contingency plants, like maybe I got one extra grenade in my backpack, uhm, and maybe I don't even need that, you know. Uhm, what do I really absolutely need?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, don't want to run out of water out there, so maybe I got one extra bottle. Don't need four, you know, uhm, with me. And, and that enabled me, like, to, to recognize that I've, I've got to carry only the essential stuff because you can absolutely get overwhelmed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and part of that too, if you're, you know, we were training, we trained at land warfare at the time. You know, what was, the attitude was, we do land warfare in the SEAL teams, so we don't, we don't wear helmet and body armor from now on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we'll go out and patrol across the desert and do that stuff. We wear helmet, body armor when we do CQC, close quarters combat in the, in the kill house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, here we are in an urban environment, like, gotta, gotta be able to do both. I'm foot patrolling, and then we're clearing houses. So, gotta have that stuff, uh, and you just recognize how you just cannot carry all that stuff with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was the rude awakening for me, and the other piece of that was physical training. You know, here I was thinking I'm in shape, I'm a team guy, you know, uh, we train hard, we push the envelope, and yet...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, at the heat of the day, um, you see guys out doing tire flips, doing, doing, you know, sprints, running, uh, working out to get acclimatized, to be ready for those, those worst case scenarios. And we recognize that we thought we were good and we had to step it up to an even.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, good training, awesome training. I prepare you for those worst-case scenarios, but we, it was humbling and we'd see, you know, we'd have great team guys, brothers who showed up, you know, in Ramadi and want to go out on patrol with us. Uh, guys who we knew were incredibly fit, great athletes, kept themselves in shape.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They'd be falling back, you know, they'd be having a hard time keeping up. They'd have, they had to learn that same lesson that I learned, uh, and then you'd see them out there getting after it, like training and pushing the envelope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and I think that was a lesson that, uh, you know, we learned some great tactics from the Marines and also got, it was, uh, my hats off to those young Marines that were, that were getting out there in the thick of it. They taught me some, some, uh, some great lessons there that enabled us to go forward and, and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really, uh, push, you know, push the envelope, going deep in areas that nobody could get into, uhm, and setting up the sniper overwatches and helping protect the soldiers and marines that were building those combat outposts, uh, but we had to be physically fit and we had to carry only the essential


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's something you actually taught me, uh, in, in Ramadi. You know, we...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you, you can't, you had been a bad guy and had those good, the experiences of these capture kill raids and, and uh, it, it always seemed like we're, we're going in this house. We don't know what's in that house. We know, we believe a bad guy to be there and maybe he asked some people. So, so I'm going to put 25 assaulters in that house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, I'm gonna put as many people as I can. And then you're like, hey, Leif, I don't think you need that many people. And initially I was like, that's great, why would I not want to take them all? And then you recognize like 25 people in the house, there's a lot more mayhem. There's a lot more chaos. There's people bumping into each other. And you're like, yeah, maybe, maybe 14 guys is all I need, you know, for this particular target. And guess what else?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And training in, you know, land warfare, you know, is that that awesome block where you go out and learn how to patrol, uh, which we've talked, you know, you talked a lot about the podcast and certainly we talk about with that's not front, you know, where it's man camp out in the Southern California desert in this rugged environment with just sharp rocks and, and yeah, act this with spines and rattlesnakes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No doubt. And I, you know, thank God that we, we get tested like that. And that, you know, that kind of training, uhm, is, uh, is something that's, that's kept SEALs alive on the battlefield and enabled us to, to accomplish some, some great things for a long time. And I remember that first ShakeOut patrol.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's administrative, right? So you're like, hey, let's work on this, let's that. So it's, it's not like you're, you're in the game acting like you're in enemy territory the whole time. And it's, you know, so you're kind of talking with instructors and figuring things out. So yeah. So they're like, oh yeah, just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know, I didn't have my gear situated, I grabbed some stuff that I had from advanced training, uh, what we call SQT, so qualification training from, from like two years before that. Uhm, and, uh, I had these two canteens that had been filled with water, uhm, in that gear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I don't think I emptied that water in like two years.


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[Assistant] So there's probably a little algae growth and some nastiness going on in these canteens. So I just like throw it up, go shake out patrol, you know, and then we were rushed because they were, they were like, Hey, we got to get this going. We got to get this going. So we, we arrived, you know, guys are trying to get settled. They're like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, get out, you know, get your gear on, let's get over there. It's, it's, so, so we throw our gear on and I throw on that gear with it, those canteens, you know, there's, there's two-year-old water in it. And we're, uh, and we're, we go, we take off in the patrol. And what we didn't know was that, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This ShakeOut Patrol was, uh, was a man test. It was a man test. And what we like to use in the SEAL theme is called the Mud Suck, which is basically a sucker punch, right? They put together a patrol that was, it took hours and hours. Well, it took the whole night. The whole night. It took the whole cycle of darkness. The whole night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and no one had, I mean, several guys didn't have any water. I remember, I remember Ryan Job had like no water at all. And, uh, I remember him like, you know, just struggling, was like, hey, hey, uh, sir, do you have, do you have some water?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I actually, I actually, I got so thirsty, right, that finally I was like, I gotta, I gotta drink something. And, uh, so I, I, I...


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[Assistant] I, I take a big sip of this thing and it just immediately projectile vomit that up, uh, that stuff back up. Uhm, and, uh, I, I, I think I, I gave one of those canteens to, to, to Ryan because he was so desperate. But I asked you for water. How'd that work? Didn't I ask you for water? I was like, I was like, hey,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just so everybody understands, like, it is, it is pretty, if you can't carry your own stuff in, right, it's pretty taboo to have to have to like, depend on somebody else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now it turns into a 72 hour operation. We're gonna, we're gonna stay here longer than we thought. So you gotta have, you gotta be squarely, you gotta be thinking about that. And, you know, thank God we had, uh, such awesome, amazing leaders like, like Tony Afrati, you know, that has been on this podcast and that people love. Which is why we can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank God, I appreciate as much as that sucked, and as much as people were complaining about that at the time, those kind of training scenarios where we didn't see it coming, and it was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be, it got us ready.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, to, to, uh, for those, those long range patrols in Ramadi. And when we got there, like you said, we thought, we all thought we were going to drive. And they were like, well, we can't drive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man, that's the best way to get killed if you want to try to drive into some of these areas. So park your vehicles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Walk in on foot, uh, and again, we, we, we know, we learn, we only had to carry the essential stuff, but we also knew we had to carry some firepower too. Cause one of the things that we did in Ramadi was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I think oftentimes special operators can get a little spoiled where, you know, if you're going out on a mission and it's got some higher profile and you've got, you know, you've got aircraft supporting you and, and you know, you're going to have all this, uh, you've got close air support set up where it's, it's just dedicated to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and here we are, we're, we're, you know, we had 40 SEALs in tasking at Bruiser, so I'm leading a 16-man SEAL platoon and maybe a couple other augments, uhm, you know, with SEALs and our EOD bomb disposal technicians and Iraqi soldiers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we're just one tiny unit out of 5,600 troops, Marines and soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, Brigade Combat Team. So uhm, there isn't dedicated aircraft to us. You know, there isn't a QRF that's a quick reaction force that's dedicated just to us to come out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had to make sure that, uh, that we carried our own firepower into those areas. In an area where we knew that the tanks may have a hard time getting in there to us, even if, even if in the emergency scenario. And we didn't want to be overrun. You know, 50 enemy fighters trying to overrun our position and we only got, you know, 8 or 10 or 12, 12 guys in this position with, you know, some Iraqi soldiers who,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're pretty much worthless when it came to, uh, to beating back an enemy attack, uh, like that. So uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is my driving a big thousand pound VBID truck bomb into their position. Horrible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had to carry all kinds of that, that firepower with us. We had to carry it on our backs. So the belt fed machine guns, the guys carrying those, those, uh, the machine guns that we're going to beat back enemy attacks. Uhm, Carl Gustaf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, uh, probably a lot heavier than what we needed. Uh, our, uh, our leading petty officer would just man up, BTF and carry that thing in. Um, and he figured out pretty quick though that I think the first time he tried to carry it in, he's, uh, he was, they were on a long range foot patrol and going into an area that was, this area was a rural area, a little bit outside the city. And.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So now, you know, we were used to patrolling the city streets in this rural area, uh, MC1 that was kinda out east of, of Ramadi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now you're talking about patrolling in through farm fields and flooded, flooded areas where you might be an ankle or knee deep mud. It looked like Vietnam. It looked like Vietnam.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was not anything that we expected to do, certainly. So we just had to prepare for that contingency and figure out a way to operate in that environment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, but, but, you know, our LPO is carrying that, you know, carrying that big man, uh, rocket. Uh, but he recognized right away, like, initially he tried to carry some rounds in his backpack, and, you know, each of the, uhm, I don't even know what this thing weighs, but it's, it's gotta be, what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's gotta be, I think the weapon itself probably weighs 25 pounds and each of the rounds because it's gotta weigh 10 or 12 pounds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, maybe 15 pounds, I don't know. But, so when you put that thing...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you load that thing, uh, initially carried it in loaded and then put it around in his backpack and it just weighed him down. He couldn't do it. So, uh, you know, it was hard, hard keeping up. So we recognize I'm going to carry it empty. I'll carry it in my hand. I'll put one round in my backpack that I can use and then we'll put another. I always carried around for in my.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my rucksack as well, you know, that I could hand off to those gunners if they needed it. But that gave us some firepower.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be able to, to beat back an enemy attack and we had to carry that stuff in on ourselves. So it just, it took, you know, one or two guys that could man up and do that. And our LPO was, was the guy to BTF with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Airburst means that, uh, it explodes over the top of, so bad guys are shooting at you from a roof top, right? Like, and they're hiding behind a wall. Uhm, you could like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We carried it in buds. There you go. We did it for our comp shots and buds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No one could have been able to write that unless they'd been there. You know, unless they'd been a part of that. Uhm, and, uh, you know, what that was like for us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first thing I remember about, about being in karate is just the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The stench. You know, there was always the stench of something burning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Always the sense of something burning. And whether it was civilians burning trash, because there's no trash pickup in this total war zone city, and you see these giant trash piles everywhere, and certainly there was a stench of that garbage all the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, so they'd be burning trash and a lot of the burning was a burning vehicle in the street. They got IED, you know, that was an explosion that went off. That was, that was a building that was on fire because the tanks hit it with a main gun round.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and uh, you know, or, or, or the bad guys had driven a truck bomb into a position and just, just smoke in the air and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I remember that stench of burning, and I remember the stench of the trash.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The garbage, uh, and, and sewage, raw sewage, that was always a, a stench as well, and uh, that kind of takes me back there, and the kind of haze in the air that you get, that kind of Iraqi haze.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, sometimes you'll smell a similar smell or things like that. It'll just kind of take me right back to, to, to be in that environment. Uhm, yeaah, those, the stench I think is, is of that. But it was, it was also a stench that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We loved as well, cause you know, this is what we dreamed about our whole life.


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[Assistant] And I remember Tony and I talking about that, you know, just, just, uhm, this is where we wanted to be, right? I mean, every, people in T.U. Bruiser, our, our boys were ready to get after it and be a part of that. And, and, uh, you know, where else would we want to, want to be that in that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Incredibly difficult environment. You know, this most dangerous battlefield.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I remember those mountain areas and going out there with you, you know, you're running that training when I was at...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when I was an operations officer and executive officer at the SEAL team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It took me right back there. It took me, the smell, you know, the stench, we'd hear the, the call, the prayer, you know, comes out and you'd see the graffitied walls and it was, it was so much like that and it was awesome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was a big metal pipe across, uh, across, you remember we called it shit creek. That was actually the official name on the map. Yea, on the map. Because it was literally like a creek of raw sewage. And there was a big metal pipe and we often patrolled across this pipe. Uhm, you know, it was the one where you didn't have to jump it, you could actually just walk across.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And later actually, uh, some of the army guys had burned the grass out there and there was, there were IEDs all around it. We didn't even know we were there when we first patrolled in. Uh, but one guy was with us. He slipped off the pipe and fell into the.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the one thing missing too from, uhm, you know, from, uh, that we couldn't recreate in that mountain area that you were running, it was so awesome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, just the heat, like the, the heat was overwhelming. And I think that's, that's what really got guys, even guys that were in really good shape, who, who were, you know, great athletes, uhm, if you weren't acclimatized to that, did, did, it just didn't matter, uhm, until you really got acclimatized, uhm, it would crush you. And I remember that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going in, you know, even, like I said, at night time, it's still like 95 degrees outside and, and you know, when the sun's coming up, there'll be a little bit of breeze kind of early morning. You get a little bit of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coolness, and we're talking, it's like high 90s, right? But you know it's gonna hit 117, you know, for the high of that day. And you're sitting on the rooftop and, and my, my rucksack is still, uh, covered with tar. Where, you know, the, the, the tar starts creeping out of the rooftop and just melting into your bag and sticking onto your weapon and your gear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolutely brutal. On that same operation, I remember we were running out of water. Cause we were out, we had moved out 300 yards or so down the street and set up in that big 4 story apartment building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were running out of water, so we had to do, so I remember we were doing a daytime, I was like, we grabbed a couple guys, we had a stretcher, we had a foldable like Israeli stretcher that we opened up, and me and three other guys are,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course we had our gear on, and we were doing this 300 yard sprint carrying a stretcher that probably weighs like 150 pounds. We were bringing enough water for like 20 guys, and it was, you know, and food, and uh, it was, I don't think I, I mean,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, eye protection, so either like, like ballistic glasses or, uh, and what guys have been wearing previously was the goggles that you wear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it, it was, you know, those tanks would come in, they'd crunch up the concrete, so even if it was, even if it had been previously paved, now you're gonna, you got, you got sand, you know, dirt, and, and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it just, I remember it getting in everything. So we park our vehicles. I remember it particularly at Combat Outpost Grant, you know, right in the heart of just South Central Ramadi. Uhm, and it was patrolling out of there. You were in like knee deep moon dust.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, now, and we're patrolling out into a sniper Overwatch position, moving out at night time, and not only is it dusty and getting all over stuff, it gets in your weapons, and, and you know, you have to constantly clean them, and, and, uh, but, I remember we'd get to where we were going, you know, get in an Overwatch position,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you'd often have to take your boots off and just dump out like a pound of sand of that moon dust that had gotten inside your boots. That got in through the little holes in your little trouble boots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's where it came from. We're not talking about like, uh, on the beach, you know, in Hawaii. We're talking, this is like, if you walk through this stuff, it's all over you. It gets everywhere. There's literally walking through it and there's like a cloud of dust coming behind you. It's so fine. It's getting your mouth in your nose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can absolutely relate to that. I mean, it's, it's the... It's something you and I talked about, right? When we got home. When we got home, it was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You called it the burden, right? We got, we got home and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We, all of a sudden we could relax, like there weren't, weren't people trying to kill us, right? There, there were, when we arrived back from that deployment to Ramadi, and we're back in San Diego.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and you, and just the recognition that, it's not just from our personal, like, hey, people aren't trying to kill me, but like, I no longer am carrying the burden of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, for, for these worst case scenarios, have we, have we planned? You know, have we rehearsed these things? Have we trained? Have we thought through what the enemy might do? How could they hit us where we hadn't even foreseen it? You know, that, that burden that you just carried all the time. And, and for me, you know, man, after, after Mark got killed and Ryan got wounded, it was just, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, four months into our deployment, it was just this recognition, like, man, we're...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That can happen at any time. And I knew it could happen at any time, but prior to that. You know, it wasn't that we got complacent or that, but it, but it was, we'd gotten away with it so many times that you all, you, you start kind of, kind of see like maybe we can make it through this thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Without losing people as, as, uh, and just going out there and, and you know, as you've talked about, you can just only get lucky so many times, like with all that evil and all that horribleness out there that, uh, that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It can happen at any time and that's the strain that I think that I certainly I felt it for other guys felt when you see that your your brothers killed or wounded when you've had close calls and you recognize like just how uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How close we are to death anytime, anytime we're rolling out there. That, uh, uhm, that is a strain. It is a strain on you and it's something that wears on you. Uhm, and I think, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me, it was just always, always worried about like just the, the, and when you see the violence of it, you know, the vehicle graveyard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That we rolled out through every time we're driving out the gate and just the twisted hulks of metal that used to be a vehicle that carried men or women in them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, and those were US troops that were either killed or horribly wounded that were in that vehicle that were destroyed. Or if you see an ID go off and there's a hundred foot fireball in the air and just frag, you know, the metal fragments raining down, you know, for a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I wrote about in the book the biggest, strongest guy you can imagine just smashing the wall with a hammer next to you as hard as you can. An inch from your head. An inch from your head, just throwing concrete fragments everywhere and there's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, and, you know, now it's 700 to 800 rounds per minute.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of that, of that coming in at you with a belt fed, belt fed machine gun. Maybe there's multiple ones shooting at you. RPG rockets, just this rocking explosion, this rings your bell. You know, even if it's just on the wall outside, you know if one of those things hits the window.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and, and detonates on the bars on the window. It's gonna just frag everybody in the room. It's gonna be horribly wounded or killed. So that, that was a strain all the time. And, you know, I think the difference for us though is, is the,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and, and, and it, you know, there isn't, there were some, certainly some guys, uh, and you talk about leadership that we learned, right, the guys carrying those heavy machine guns, the, the belt fed machine guns and all the gear that were them. And they're like, man, do I have to carry this thing? You know, as a leader, we had to remind them why that was important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, they got that love-hate relationship. The machine gunners, they love to shoot that machine gun and they're awesome at it. They hate to carry the machine gun, right? It's a, it's that love-hate relationship. And uhm, so when they're going in on a full patrol, that's a, you know, a mile full, you know, mile and a half full patrol into a, to a tough area and they're carrying all the heavy weight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They get focused on that. So you gotta, you gotta help them recognize like this is, this is why you're such a critical part of the team and why we gotta have these machine guns. Um, so you gotta do, you know, as a leader or something we had to do all the time, but I think for these guys in Vietnam, they're, you know, they're,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're driving or flying into an area, patrolling into an area that's, it seems like they're seeing, they're seeing new terrain all the time. You know, for us in Ramadi, it was this tiny city that was, it's like what, three by three miles, you know, across? You're talking about just the central, central Ramadi piece of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very small. And we're going into the same areas all the time. You know, J street, the J block, you know, Papa 10. Uhm, you know, these areas that, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going down baseline road and, you know, to 20th street and these areas that we, we got to know and we understood, you know, where the, the, the, uh, the bad guys were operating out of and we'd been in so many of these buildings and we, so then we had to have the, we had to mix it up and not patrol down the same streets every time and try to come in and do some misdirection stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but we got to know these areas. Uhm, and, you know, even though it was a small area, you know, these tanks might be less than a mile away from you. Maybe they're even a half mile down the road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, in that environment, if there's, if there's, you know, 35 IEDs that could destroy any one of which could destroy the tank between you and them, half a mile away, they might as well be a hundred miles away. Doesn't matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, we had to plan for those continues. We had to be ready, but that was a strain that I certainly remember well. And I remember that conversation as I'm sure you do coming back and recognizing like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow, I didn't even realize how heavy that strain was until we got back and it was, it was lifted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When an operation was going on, right, and vehicles were lined up, like, you know, the vehicles were lined up on the, we had this, that main street, you know, outside of the, uh, the, uh, the TAC, Tactile Operations Center, and, you know, where your office was, and, and, uh,


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[Assistant] I remember that, that bond that we had in Task Unit Bruiser, you know, so often you get, well, the SEALs are doing their thing and you got the support personnel that are running the radios and the CBs that run the camp and they just do different stuff and they don't, you know, what was so awesome about Task Unit Bruiser was that you line those trucks up and we know we're going out, you know, we're going out at operation.


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[Assistant] And, and if you were weren't, if you weren't coming on the op, I know you would, you would always be out there. You know, out there shaking everybody's hands and talking to them. And not in a way of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, not in a way that there was morbid, right? But in a way of like, just the respect and knowledge that anytime we're going out, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At any one time, there may be, there may be, uh, any of these guys that are rolling out may not be coming back from this. They may be coming back in a body bag. And, uh, and that we had to be ready for that all the time. Because it was almost a daily,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, uh, our, our, uh, operation specialist, you know, chief coming out there. I remember all those guys just lined up, shaking hands, talking to people. It was just that, and for the few ops that, you know, that I didn't go on with another, another, uh, uh, if we had something else going on and another unit's going out with our guys.