[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Battles are fought by platoons and squads. Place emphasis on small unit combat instructions so that it is conducted in the same precision as close order drill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution 10 minutes later. Common theme.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's actually got a section here called Needless Requirements. There is a tendency, and I used to see this in the military and I see it in businesses now. This is the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Needless requirements. There is a tendency for the chain of command to overload junior officers by excessive requirements in a way of training and reports.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You will alleviate this burden by eliminating non-essential demands. You go to any business and they've got reports that people are generating and meetings that they're attending and conference calls. That's what this is about. Those are needless requirements. Get rid of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, or you just call him on the phone. Yeah. Yeah. But meetings, make your meetings 20 minutes long if you have to schedule them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Show up on the meeting, ready to, you don't need to learn anything, let's know what we're gonna talk about. Let's talk about the decision. Because that's what everyone needs to get on the phone for. It's for the decision.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You sh- you can get informed by reading a quick bulleted list. So don't go over those bullets with me when I- I already did that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sidebar, take it somewhere else. You've angered Echo, people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Needless requirements, and they're thinking about the needless requirements they fulfill on a daily basis, and it makes them angry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like they feel like they don't have time to do their job and we felt like that in the military. Are you serious? We have to do...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, fill out this document, attend another call with the so and so commander. Just tell me, you know, give me the highlights and let me do my work. I got a job to do here, people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In order to close with the... Infantry must move in order to close with the enemy. It must shoot in order to move. Again, there's cover and move. When physical targets are not visible...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The fire of all infantry weapons must search the area occupied by the enemy. Use marching fire. It reduces the accuracy of his fire and increases our confidence. Shoot short. Ricochets make nastier sounds and wounds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's something that they used to have us do all the time in the SEAL teams. So you don't, you make sure you're shooting low. If you're gonna make a mistake, aim low so the rounds hit in front of where the enemy is and they ricochet up and they hit him with all kinds of frag and rocks and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To halt under fire is folly. To halt under fire and not fire back is suicide. And this is what we just talked about in Jiu Jitsu. To halt under fire, that's what you're doing. When you let me keep scrambling, when you stop scrambling, that's when I'm going to get a little... You're halting under fire. You're halting under fire. And guess what? It says here that that is suicide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Move forward, out of fire. Officers must set the example.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Few men are killed by the bayonet. Many are scared by it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bayonets should be fixed when the firefight starts. Bayonets must be sharpened by the individual soldier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The German hates the bayonet and is inferior to our men with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our men should know this. Little psychological warfare here, you gotta sharpen your own bayonet, you're better at it than the enemy, put that thing on the end of your gun when the firefight starts and get ready to get some. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Care of men. Officers are responsible not only for the conduct of their men in battle, but also for their health and contentment when not fighting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An officer and this is where he's going back to the CEO and how they act. An officer must be the last man to take shelter from fire and the first to move forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Similarly, he must be the last man to look after his own comfort at the close of a march. He must see that his men are cared for. The officer must constantly interest himself in the rations of the men.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He should know his men so well that any sign of sickness or nervous strain will be apparent to him, and he can take such action as may be necessary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we're about to uh, wrap this up here with a couple more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Such as this right here. Command Leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is a, this is actually another letter of instruction. So again, this is just what you want to know what, how general Patton fought. Here it is his own words on what he wanted his men to know as they prepared for combat. Leadership, full duty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Each in his appropriate sphere will lead in person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any commander who fails to obtain his objective and who is not dead or severely wounded has not done his full duty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's your, there's your, there's your standard. If you're not dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or severely wounded and you haven't achieved your objective, objective?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You haven't done your full duty. Visits to the front. The commanding general or his chief of staff should visit the front daily. The function of these is to observe not to meddle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In addition to their own specialty, they must observe and report anything of military importance. Remember that praise is more valuable than blame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if you're gonna go to the frontline troops, don't go up there and blame them. Praise them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Remember too that your primary mission as a leader is to see with your own eyes and be seen by your troops while engaged in personal reconnaissance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In carrying out a mission, the promulgation of the order represents not over 10% of your responsibility. The remaining 90% consists in assuring by means of personal supervision on the ground by yourself and your staff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Proper and vigorous execution and that's one we already talked about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you put together the plan. Yeah, you disseminated the plan. That's great. Your job is to make it happen and ensure that it happens. Take ownership of it and execute it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are only a form of data plane from which you build as necessity directs or opportunity offers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he's saying that plan is just a, just something to build off of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As necessity directs or opportunity offers. I got asked this the other day at a, at a, at an event, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When do you know when it's time to change the plan? When necessity directs?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plans should be made by the people who are going to execute them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Formal orders. Formal orders will be preceded by letters of instruction and by personal conferences.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The WHOLE purpose of the operation will be made clear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that if during combat, during combat communication breaks down, each commander can and must so act as to obtain the general objective.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There you go. So if you understand what the overall broad mission is when we go out to attack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all of a sudden, you're separated from us or you don't, can't communicate with us anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What the broad mission is, the whole purpose of the operation, which later ended up being called the commander's intent. That's what we called it in the.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the modern military, as long as you know what the commander's intent is, what the intent of the operation is, then you can execute on your own. You don't need any more direction from me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Use every means before and after combat to tell the troops what they are going to do and what they have done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reiterating. Discipline. There is only one kind of discipline. Perfect discipline. If you do not enforce and maintain discipline, you are potential murderers. You must set the example. Condition. High physical condition is vital to victory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Core and division commanders than there are tired core and divisions. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Men in condition do not tire. So you gotta be in shape.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And here's the close, and this is the last one. And it's the shortest one. And it's probably the most important one to remember from General Patton.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do not take counsel of your fears.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what he had to say about courage to all of his troops as they embarked on this


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Intense combat, day after day, week after week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You wanna know what you do with your fear? Do not take counsel of your fears.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good question, obviously. And it's a question that we get a lot. I get a lot. Uh, I actually did a video, we did a video like this and Tim Ferriss put it out. So you can look for that if you kind of want to hear another version of this. Maybe we could link to it on Jocko podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so self-defense. We're talking about true self-defense here. First and foremost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most important thing, and I actually didn't say this on the last video, but I should say it now, is situational awareness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And putting yourself in good situations where bad things are not going to happen to you. And doing that to the best of your ability, being aware of your surroundings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's of the very important first step in self-defense. Second.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, if you are a person that really needs to defend yourself and you live in a horrible area and there's violent people around,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you might be a small, a very small person, or you might be elderly, or you might have some sort of a physical limitation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then how you're gonna defend yourself is using guns. Using a gun. So, I mean, that's just, that's just the way it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe you can't have a gun, maybe you don't have a gun, and you don't always want to have to pull a gun out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even though a gun is a great deterrent, and most people, if they see that you have a gun, are not gonna want to fight you anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But obviously you can't be just yanking a gun out at anything that happens and you don't always have them with you, for instance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, in certain places, you're not allowed to have a gun. Certain states, you're not allowed to have a gun in the, in the water. If you're surfing, you're not allowed to have a gun. Uh, so what do you do? How does Jujitsu stack up against these other martial arts? I say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you should learn jujitsu first. It should be the first martial art that you try and learn to defend yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a reason for that. There's a bunch of reasons for that. Number one...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And sort of a base reason, but Jujitsu is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Probably the most complex to learn. There's the, it's the most three dimensional.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Martial art, it's not linear. It's very three dimensional. There's a ton to learn and it's infinite in what you can learn. So you want to get into it early because it's going to take longer to learn. But that's, that's actually a secondary reason. The primary reason to learn jujitsu first is because of the nature of self-defense situations. So,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are born with our primary form of self-defense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we learn it from a very young age and our primary form of self-defense will keep you safe from most of these situations and that is running.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you think of, now think about this, you're kinda chuckling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because you don't understand the gravity of what I'm saying, because it's very accurate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're talking about self defense. We're not talking about offense. We're talking about defense. How do you stay safe?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I wanna fight and punch you. Runaway. I'm not holding on to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So all these kind of attacks, they're a disconnected attack. I'm not holding on to you. So run away from me. Get out of there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When somebody grabs ahold of you, you can no longer run away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you have to be able to make them un-grab you. Let go of you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how do you do that? You do that by knowing how to grapple. And grappling is jujitsu. So that is why the first thing you should learn is jujitsu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because if someone's not grabbing a hold of you, run away from them. If someone's trying to square off and, and go toe to toe with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Run away from them. If there's five guys that want to fight you, run away from them. If someone pulls out a knife on you, run. But here's the deal. If that person knocks you down and gets on top of you, you can't run anymore. So what do you have to do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get them up and off of you and get away from them or submit them and put them to sleep or break their arm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is why you should start with jujitsu. Pretty straight forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once you know Jiu Jitsu, absolutely. Learn Muay Thai. Learn wrestling. Learn boxing. Learn Krav Maga.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Learn a screamer and learn everything you can about fighting. Do it, of course. But set your base with the one that you're gonna need if somebody grabs you. And that's Jujitsu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other thing about jiu-jitsu is it's pretty easy to add in some of these other more


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If somebody grabs you and pulls you to the ground and you want to get away from them, yeaah, you can, you need to know your body positions, but it's pretty easy to decide you're going to bite their ear off or take a big chunk out of their face with your teeth or jam your fingers into their eyes. It's not hard to augment that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So these are all things that you can do within jujitsu that jujitsu does not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hamper that ability to be savage in your attacks on people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've tried all, all those people have come to me and I've gone through them all. No factor. The pressure points, the this, the that. Doesn't work. Sorry. Sorry to tell you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And also going against someone that's completely untrained, you can have some sort of success with some of this stuff. But not against a determined attacker. Not at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Angie Jitsu is fun. It's creative. It's a good workout.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It ups your confidence, it gets you used to combative situations where you're going 100%.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It gets you used to having someone grind on you and try and smash you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It inoculates you to the terror of having somebody grinding up on you and trying to smash you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Organization you're working in and you've, how do you lead up the chain of command?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even in a paramilitary organization, which, you know, infers that this is a very hierarchical structure and it's chain of command driven.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how do you possibly get your boss to do what you want them to do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not easy, but simple. It is, it is hard to do. It does take a lot more


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does take a lot of tact, takes a lot of patience. So number one, you gotta build trust. You gotta build trust with your, the people that are above you in the chain of command. You gotta build a relationship. You gotta be proactive. You gotta stay ahead. You know, when I joined the military, I, one day just told my dad, hey,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the way, I joined, I enlisted in the Navy. I'll be gone in three weeks or whatever. My dad just looked at me and shook his head and he says, You're gonna hate the military because you hate authority. You don't listen to anybody. And I was kind of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You do listen to people and you do have a chain of command, but he was right in the fact that I didn't like to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's what you need to do here. You have to start that. Start that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To have more knowledge and good foresight of what's gonna happen. Now you gotta be careful that you're not showing up the boss. You can't be flaunting in their face and I already did that, you know, because I'm so much better than you. That's not the goal here. The goal is to build confidence, not to build animosity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't want to build animosity. You want to build trust. You want to build confidence. You want to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make that person start to realize how good you are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Be careful not to throw it in their face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and sometimes people do cling onto the traditions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they use the traditions to shut down evolution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's bad, because what they're really doing is they're protecting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their world, they're protecting their existence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a big hard wall to get through. Now, most people do have traditions and traditions, what are traditions built on?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do we build traditions, are there traditions of failure, and we're proud of that? Are there traditions of losing? No, no, no. The traditions are proud traditions. The traditions of winning, the traditions of excellence. And in some way,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Traditions of excellence and traditions of winning and traditions of domination have to be tied in some way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To evolving and to adapting and to getting better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because that's how we win. That's how we dominate. So you have to find that hole in the tradition, that part of the tradition that implies that what we do in our tradition is we get better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We win. And you take that and you carry that, that lead, that little crack in the armor of tradition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you're gonna be the best, does the best stagnate? No, the best evolves. And again, you gotta be careful. You can't throw this in their face. You gotta say, hey, you know what? Our tradition is that we're the best. We make things happen and we get things done. And we always do it better than everyone else. So you know what? Here's one way we could do it better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, the most important thing though is you gotta continue to build that relationship with your superiors. You're constantly trying to build that. I've said this before and I'll say it again, no matter who I ever worked for, I had the same relationship with the crazy boss, with the knucklehead boss, with the loser, with the great guy, had the same relationship all the time and that was they trusted me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Didn't matter who I worked for. So you gotta build that relationship of trust.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've also gotta be careful that as you're trying to be proactive and as you're trying to get things done, that you're not looking to do it for your own ego to get credit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because that disturbs the people at the top. It makes them say oh he's just trying to shine, he's just trying to look good, screw him, throw his ideas out. That's what you gotta watch out for. So that's your ego.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't make your ego fight their ego because they've got an ego too. You want to let your ego go. Build that relationship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make the change slow. It's gonna be slow, steady, and it's gonna take persistence in the long war.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You gotta have patience. Tradition doesn't break down overnight. Tradition takes time to morph. So you gotta be ready for that long war. And don't get frustrated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're part of a winning team. You're part of a team that has a proud tradition. You just gotta add to that tradition and that's gonna take time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First of all, if you have nothing, if you're building from zero, the first thing you need is pull up bars, a pull up bar, and a dip bar. Uh, somewhere to do dips and somewhere to do pull ups.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's what you need. Now be careful if you're listening and you're like, okay, I'm going to go buy a pull up bar and a dip bar. Don't get the little flimsy looking things that cost $129.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't want that. It's almost worthless. It's better than nothing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's almost worthless, you wanna get a legit?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can go, you can go pretty cheesy on dip bars, but pull up bars you can't. Pull up bars you need something legit strong. You can bolt it to your wall, but you need a nice pull up bar with a, with a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I still have a pull-up bar that I bought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've had it ever since and it's bolted on to my squat rack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's all it is. A piece of, you know, two inch pipe and that's what you do pull ups on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and also it's gotta have some weight to it so you can do kipping pull-ups so you're not, the thing's not shaking all over the place. You get, you see these, I mean this is just going total cheeseball, the things with like the foam.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Handles that just rotate and fall off and they're just, it's just a nightmare. What you need is a pipe. That's what you need is a piece of pipe from Home Depot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and then you need somewhere to do dips. Now, one thing that you can do that will cover both of these is you can get rings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can have, you can adjust the height of the rings and you can do dips and pull ups on rings. And then you can do muscle ups as well. So rings are almost a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, if there's one thing you could have, if you could have one piece of equipment for working out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It'd probably be smart to go with just wooden rings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because that they are that flexible and you can do that much different stuff. I mean, you can do dips, you can do muscle ups, you can do pull ups, you can do push ups.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can do all kinds of stuff. You can do levers. You can do front levers, back levers. There's all kinds of gymnastics moves you can do. I mean, you could basically work for the rest of your life on rings and be good to go. So rings are a way of handling the whole pull up and dip bar situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, and that's why it's pretty much the number two thing for me is, is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pull up our dip bar slash rings because those are all gonna kinda get you those basic body movements to build your strength.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, once you get past that, now it's time for a squat rack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's gotta have a squat rack. And as soon as you have a squat rack now, my squat rack


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has a pull-up bar on it, which I bolted on myself. My squat rack is the same, you know, when I bought my first house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bought a squat rack, still have the same squat rack. Bolted a pull up bar onto it, still have that. I modified it a little bit and made dip bar so I had a dip bar on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Back in those days. And then the next thing that you need is you need, uhm, an Olympic lifting bar and, and bumper plates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you can do your squats, your cleans, your clean and jerks, your deadlifts and all your basic strength movements.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, after that for me, I think kettlebells.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, so now you have, you can do your swings.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can do your farmer's walks, you can do your snatches, you can- I mean there's a-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Psychotic conditioning, metabolic conditioning with the addition of kettlebells as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At this point, if you only have one set of rings, I have three sets of rings, and I have one that's high for muscle ups, I have one that's medium for dips, and I have one that's low for pushups, and I just have those all the time so that you don't have to adjust them because I guess I'm too lazy to want to adjust my rings all the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like rowers. The Concept 2 rowers. I have one. I've had it for a long time. They're a brutal workout. I think that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can just destroy yourself very easily and very quickly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think, like a, like an air dyne or an aerosol type bike, I don't have one of those, I'm probably going to get one very soon. But I think those are outstanding as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't say jump rope earlier, that's another good kind of cardio, kind of metcon, kind of get after it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then maybe some medicine balls. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And after that, I mean, I think, you know, the question was essential equipment. To me, that's sort of my list.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then from there it just becomes fun. You know, it becomes what kind of other implements can I bring into the situation that are gonna...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These, these are pretty good. And this is all stuff that's pretty common nowadays. There's a bunch of different places to get it and make it happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well everyone that's listening to this podcast wants to just peak physical conditioning in a broad array of, of environments and tasks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The people that are asking these questions are listening to this podcast. They're into physical fitness. They want to be healthy. They want to be jujitsu players. They want to be fighters. They want to be able to functionally move well. They want to stay healthy. They're not just getting their bodybuilder on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't have any elaboration. There's one more thing you probably added a bench on there. Is that what you'd add on? Anything else?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you can get a squat rack. Then you, the squat rack's gonna come with a pull up bar and a dip bar somehow, so you're good there. Then you, then you gotta get the bar and bumper plates, right? Which you can escalate, you can start with a, you can start with just a bar. And, you know, two,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 25 pound bumper plates. And then every month buy another 45 pounds or 100 pounds or whatever and you're good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That kinda works against you. It's interesting that you use that. Like, I say, hey, I have a home gym.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm able to work out sometimes only because I have a home gym.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, in other words, if my time is in a day, I'll get up super early and if I wouldn't be able to hit my own gym quickly in 30 minutes and get a workout and I wouldn't be able to get, it would take me 30 minutes to get to gym and back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I recommend if you make a home gym, you do it in a positive way to increase your discipline. That's what I recommend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so this is a question that I was actually not gonna do because I was a little bit uncomfortable with it. And then I was like, okay, why are you uncomfortable with it? It's not that big of a deal. It, it, although I will say like, it does make me feel uncomfortable to think of people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thinking of me in a heroic way or whatever, uh, that does feel strange to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, as far as being on Rogan and Ferris and Sam Harris and doing some of these podcasts, uh, it's,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it was, it was really cool. It's definitely, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, meeting people all the time as I travel and meeting people that have read, read our book and, and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've gotten a lot out of it, you know? And that, that feels very rewarding. You know, it feels very rewarding. It feels great when someone says, hey, you know, I used this chapter or hey, your book. I mean, people are saying that, okay, your book changed my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I take that with a grain of salt, but it feels, it feels good, it feels positive, you know, it feels, I like that, you know, I wanna help people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that feels good, but as far as


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not like, like my social media presence, which I had zero before and now I have it and it's, it's not really that big of a deal because it's just me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when we talk about doing this podcast, we don't talk about how we should act or how I should act to get more people to listen to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm only doing what I'm doing because this is me. And I'm not going to be different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In order to achieve anything else. I'm only going to be who I am. And that's why


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thought of people putting me on a pedestal or whatever. That's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that it might be how...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How I get presented. You know, by the media. How I get presented.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even on this podcast, when I'm on this podcast talking to you, we're talking about specific subjects that we are interested in and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not, you know, I could see where someone might think, oh, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jocko is this super, you know, super human and, and no, I know I'm not. So if I come across like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's only because you're seeing a sliver of me that appears that way. Right. You know, I'm not saying I'm, I know I'm not totally normal as well. I mean, I know I'm not a normal person. I know I'm a little bit to the, to the edge of, you know, being a little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, a little bit extreme-ish in some ways. And I know a lot of that just has to do with my habits as a person. Uh, but the fact of the matter is that no matter what happens and no matter what I come across,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And no matter what people might perceive me as, I don't perceive myself as.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've been on the battlefield and I've been confused and I've been outmaneuvered and I've had my guys killed. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I don't know, because I'm not acting any other way than I acted a year ago or, you know, four years ago. I'm just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I do? I train jiu-jitsu. I workout. I wake up early in the morning. I try and get smarter. I, uh, try and do better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, so yeaah, I'm just gonna, you know, I'm me. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I actually, I'll tell you, this is interesting, is that people that I interact with now,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I, I enjoy it and I get something out of it. I'm taking away, they're giving me as much inspiration as I'm giving them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't want to say her name because I, I mean, it's, uh, I don't know how I don't, I don't like to disrupt people's privacy. I mean, she's on Twitter, but she's a, uh, clearly a little bit of an older lady. She's, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's a cancer survivor. I mean when I say older, I mean she's in her, at least in her sixties.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and she put a picture on the internet the other day on Twitter of her at the gym and she's got, you know, like a kettlebell, uhm, a medicine ball, and an oxygen tank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she's, yeaah, I gotta bring my oxygen tank because of, you know, I don't know specifically why, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Amen. If she can bring an oxygen tank to the gym and get after it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that's inspiring and, and I can get up and get after it and do my piece. Just, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just as, at least just as well as she could. And so I think that that's, I think that's what's been interesting about this is seeing other people that are fired up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, that's, that's another thing that kinda happened early on in this journey for me. I have not a bunch of friends, but one of my friends who's a CEO.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I was just about, I think I had recorded the Tim Ferriss podcast and I knew it was going to be released and I knew it was going to be heard by people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when I did, when I got back, I texted my friend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what I meant by that was one of these guys that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, oh I'm a Navy SEAL and I'm the biggest, baddest guy cause there's plenty of those guys out there and now I'm gonna be one of those guys. And so I said, I said, I'm gonna be one of them now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sorry. And he wrote me back and he said, that's awesome. And we got so many guys running around saying all kinds of stuff. You should be out there representing. You should be. And he went on to say something even more powerful. And he said, you know what? There's a lot of people in this world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I needed a father figure. And that's what you were for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For you to go out there and be out there in the world and be that role model for other people. It's awesome and you should do it. And I love the fact that you're doing it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I did look at the role models that people look at and I said to myself, and again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A dozen podcasts on the stupid things I've done in my life and talk about the mistakes I've made growing up and all the just, I mean, I'm


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's another thing, like when you, when people see me on the podcast or hear me on the podcast or they read the book,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're not seeing the idiot, you know, growing... dummy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little bit of advantage, maybe I was a little bit ahead in some cases, but man, I didn't, you know, and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, when I got that text, that was a series of texts from, uh, from my brother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That really gave me a different attitude on this whole thing and it made me feel more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the fact that I was selling out, and that I was now gonna be out there in the public view. And, and all this being said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At some point, I'm probably gonna go right back to the, to the cave that I came from. And I'm, I'm, I don't want.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, I don't have what Patton had, which is like this huge desire to be famous. I have no problem not being, I was unrecognizable to the world for my whole life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the fact that I'm a little bit recognizable now, it doesn't make me feel great. It doesn't do anything for me. I'm just just doing what I do. It's not my goal, but there is there a goal to try and help some people out there? Yes. And I think hearing that from that body of mine made me solidify that goal a little bit. And again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not to try and say, hey, be like me. No, it's to say...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Learn from what I learned from. I did some dumb stuff. I've been through some stuff that most people don't have to go through. So, if you can take something away from it, awesome. You know, don't worship me by any stretch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, let's work together and see if we can get better as a team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it definitely was a hard thing to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Abusers. Abusers and worthlessness, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and you just don't want to have anything to do with them. Yeaah. And when you're, when you're doing it, regardless of how much you don't want to have anything to do with them, mhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have something to do with them because you're doing it too. And it's very difficult for me not to feel like that. Now obviously I've gotten over it. I mean I've gotten over it to a point where I'm saying, okay, these are kind of the acceptable parameters that I operate within.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Open a door of observation, I would say. Not to, not to knock on people's door and enter, but just to open the door of observation and say this is how I try to live.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is the steps that I take to try and live that way. Observe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you want to enter my house and hang out with me, come on in. As long as you're like-minded and you have the same sort of goals, then come on in. And you know what? You're gonna make me stronger. You're gonna bolster me up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So many people now, they're posting pictures of their watches on my Twitter. When I wake up, I'm looking at 50 to 100 watches every day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and so, like this podcast, I didn't, you know, we just kinda did it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I went on with Tim Ferriss and just kinda did it. I started Twitter. I had no idea what that was going to be. And so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's fun for me to be adventuring into things that I don't know the outcome of. And this is one of them. And Twitter is one of them. The book was one of them. And, you know, I don't know what's around the corner next. And I don't know where this is going.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I will stay with the principles that I believe in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that's what makes it an interesting ride. Where's that going to go? We'll find out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I've talked about this before and it's kind of what we were talking about a couple minutes ago as well and that is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First of all, with the man in the cave and this idea and this thought of the enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and that was a thought that used to drive me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can haunt me and make me get up early and work hard to push myself. Because I knew that somewhere out there, there was an enemy. A real enemy. A real man. A person. A human.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was waiting for me and that was preparing for me and therefore I needed to prepare for him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I needed to be ready. I needed to be the things I always talk about. I needed to be stronger and faster and smarter and better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that when we did meet, on the battlefield.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that thought, that thought of the enemy, yes, it absolutely fueled me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when I was a leader, in the SEAL teams, in charge of men, it was even more profound. Because I was thinking about that rendezvous.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I felt that burden. The burden of responsibility.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To prepare those men and protect those, those men, those, those frogmen, those warriors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it, it was my burden to train those guys and prepare them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It may have made me a little bit crazy, a little bit paranoid, a little bit over the top.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The drive now and the motivation now is not really from the enemy anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now it's from my friends, my brothers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For us and for me. And those guys, they gave their lives for us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every day we have, every sunrise, every thought and every smile and every laugh, it's a gift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thanks for subscribing. Thanks for reviewing. Thanks for supporting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To remember. The brave men and women.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make sure you get out there and you get after it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And at the same time you talk about like the word, you don't get sent to the nice places and the people complaining, they don't get sent to the bad places. That's right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought it was interesting how a lot of the stuff, actually most of the stuff that Tim was talking about was like what we were just kind of recently talking about. The reading stuff, the stop drinking stuff, the uhm, obviously the hard work stuff or whatever, but it was, it was, I thought that was interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yea, on it. You know all about on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right. So do you, do you find you get, because you, you know, we, I don't want to hash it out too much, but like your podcast went from non-existent to number one and about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like six days, something crazy like that. Like you, you left the Joe Rogan podcast. Right. Did you, did, started your own hit number one. And like, now like, do you get too much correspondence? Like how do you keep up? Like I've noticed you are, you're like, you must make Twitter a daily task. Oh, I have to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And would you ever consider getting someone to do it for you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No. Like, not answer, but like, take it all in, record it, like so you don't have to check yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 100% with you. I've had people tell me to hand my stuff over and I'm like, uh, uh, cause that's me. There's one reason why I interact with Jocko on Twitter. It's cause I know it's Jocko.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Guess who you unf- Guess who I unfollow on Twitter? When I realize- Oh, that's not-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I love you man, but, uh, I ain't getting up at four. That's just me. I don't have any legs, so I got an excuse. Right? But, uh, but it's, I feel the same cause it's like, it's, it's a duty now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've put ourselves in a position where others turn to us, so now we gotta turn to them, and if we don't show up, uh oh, who are we letting down? It's not that I'm letting me down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it's that you're gonna let down all, what do you got, like 25,000 Twitter followers or something? I think it's 40 something. Yeah. That's 40,000 people that are waiting for your 4am. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that's, that's good, but it keeps you, keeps you on, keeps you sharp, right? It keeps you on the days. I say it, I got days where I'll look at my prosthetic legs and I'll be like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Last thing I want to do is put those things on today. And then I'll think about everybody else that is in my position.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And says, and I get it because I get the same thing, right? Oh, Hey man, thanks for being who you are. And I'm thinking about them. Well, they're going to get up. So who am I?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and I love when I front, like, when I'm following guys like you though, helps me go, I'm a lazy bitch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How humbling is it when somebody feels like that around you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, no, but it's, to think that you can have that, you, like, in my case, me, Jody Mitick, the guy who just wanted to be a soldier and somebody is that, like, fired up to meet me that they're shaking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Damn, well I gotta, I gotta keep, I gotta keep my game up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did it, did it take you, this is a personal question on my end, did it take you a while to say, like when somebody would say


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You inspire me and, and thank you for being who you are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you accept that at first? Or did you have to tell them like, no, no, no, no. Like you just said, like, I'm nothing special.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But how long did it take you before you would accept that compliment without, without dismissing it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And helping with homework, and making lunches, and, and, and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just, I asked because it took me a while because I, I, I had a real hard time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With people looking at me like that. And I actually would, I would be like dismissive of it at first. I'd be like, nah nah, what are you doing? What are you talking about? I'm just, I'm nobody special. Like don't, don't, don't say that. And I realized I was being a bit of a dick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By completely dismissing their feelings for, for, for the situation. And, and then it was until I, until I realized though, and then that's when I realized I went, oh, this is, this is real. These people actually do feel this and I'm, who am I to dismiss their feelings? You know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I started trying to use it to be stronger and realize like, you know, like this is real. Like people are looking up to me, so now I gotta live up to that role.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With, with the legs and everything. I was just trying to accept not having legs. Never mind that I had a woman come up to me and say, uh, I had like, I had several actually, but this, this was like maybe the first, I think she said, I lost a hundred pounds because of you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm like, first of all, you don't even look like you weigh a hundred pounds. And I'm like, huh?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that was the one that really in my mind, like at that moment I went, okay, there's, I gotta, I gotta reevaluate what's going on here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm, I can't just dismiss this as, I'm just Jodie Middick anymore. Clearly, clearly there's something going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. It's amazing. I love, I love it. I love humans. Humans are such, we're such a species that study. You know, like, so anyway, I, I know we wanted to get to the interwebs, but I wanted to have that discussion with you before we moved on because, uh, it was just important to me to hear that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mental exercises. So we touched on this very, uh, briefly in the last, uh, episode, which was on the book where I talk a little bit about sniper training.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, visualization is probably your biggest tool. In my experience. Train. Train the shit out of it. Train, train, train. And when you think you've trained enough, keep training. But, when you're not training, think about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think about it. The more you think about it, become in tune with yourself. Okay, I'm gonna get a little spacey here, a little earthy. Just sit there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause you know what you do when you're a sniper? You fucking sit there. You have a lot of time to yourself. And you can't really talk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause you got a job to do. And what you gotta do is you just gotta...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now my heart rate's gonna go up here, but I gotta do my best to make sure it doesn't overwhelm my motor functions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can control it pretty easily if you prepare yourself for that moment. But it's all about preparation, training and visualization. Uhm, even like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even making the shot, you know, like Tim Kennedy was on here, right? And he talked about dry firing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Consider dry firing, that this is your dry firing for, for your, for controlling yourself. For your brain. For your brain, exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and uhm, it only comes from experience. Now I guess there's probably some exceptions to the rule out there that are just born to be cold-blooded killers the second they get behind a barrel, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But for me it was visualization and just preparing to accept the feelings that were coming and also overriding them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause that, they could still be happening, but you can still control yourself with the right kind of preparation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coming from you especially, you're the, in your case, you're the boss. So if you're calm, cool and collected.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That translates to your troopers. It absolutely does. So when we, when, and it would, for us as well, when we were doing Overwatch, you know, six to six, three movement to your left.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, I'm freaking out. Uh, they would, it would all be, it would be lost, but you're that, you're that voice. Because we're over, snipers are Overwatch. We, they, the troops feel better when they know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, the sniper's doing Overwatch, okay, we can, we're gonna be okay. So if I got on the radio and talked the same way, so, you know, nope, okay, yeah, just fire 400 meters north, you know, fire for effect, roger that, you know, like you gotta, that's a good point, I never even thought of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My favorite part about that is, uh, he's like, yeah, we'll be in the river. And the guy's like, uh, say again?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll be in the Hudson, Roger out. And like the plane, it's like real time you're watching the video and he's just like, yeah, yeah, we're in the river, we're in the river.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know we're spending a lot of time on the first question, but that's what saved my life. Oh, staying. If I had gone into shock, dude, I'd be dead. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I say it in the book, I say, I did my best to go into the zone. So I know I'm bleeding it and I know this and I know that, but in my mind, it was let the system do its job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just kept saying, talking to myself, you know, visualizing what, okay, so the chopper is going to come in, you know, and I just visualized each step and my, my, but the whole point to it was I couldn't have my pulse, you know, jackhammer, otherwise more blood's lost, more blood loss. And then you're, and what happens, right? Blood gets sucked into your core when you go into shock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and that sucks it out of your brain, sucks it out of everywhere where you, where you know, I, I needed to stay conscious, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So anyway, long, long answer for one question, but this is also something, you know, you gotta learn. Practice. Keep practicing it. You'll figure it out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, I think they're talking about the, uhm, universality of service, which means, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone must be able to deploy. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't realize what it meant until I lost my feet and instead, in my mind, you know, this was something else. Okay, I can't deploy anymore, but I can go to the sniper school and teach the next generation of snipers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sure, but you're not gonna get promoted, and this and that, no more, you know, like, huh? I was supposed to get promoted to sergeant, like what are we talking about here?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So university service says if you are not deployable, you're not employable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can't be promoted and you can't get any courses and this that and the other thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So because of it, we lose a lot of corporate knowledge, right? So I would, like I said, I was a, what we call a master sniper, an advanced sniper. And that doesn't mean I get access to the Canadian temple of sniper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sniperdom to see the secret 13th scroll or anything. It just means I'm allowed to do the paperwork and hand out qualifications and stuff like that. Now it is a very difficult qualification to achieve and they spent a lot of money getting me there and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That value is completely erased with my injuries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're unemployable. Okay. So under that system, you get however many years to recover from whatever your injury is. At that point, if you're not recovering or going to recover, they will then begin the process to release you from the pain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're convinced that it's required because of the size of our military, where my take is, I believe, the opposite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of the size of our military, you want guys like me doing the training, the guys with the experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The guys who want to be there to train the guys and can't deploy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For as long as possible. Now, I'm not saying put me in a spot and leave me there for 15 years to become a dinosaur.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But allow me to pass on the knowledge I have and remain useful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but, and they say you can, for the limited number of years, and they offer these things that they call extensions and that. You're not gonna get promoted, so forget about a better pension, you're not gonna do this, you're not gonna do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the dichotomy as the word that I, I, I never used to use that word as much. I used it as one of the few people use it, but not nearly as much as since I started listening to the Jocko podcast. The dichotomy of it is that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are version of the Pentagon. I'm going to get a lot of trouble for saying this, but there's a whole lot of people who's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Physical fitness probably keeps them from being able to do anything and they're not being, they're not getting, they're not being booted. No. And it's one of those like open secrets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I'm saying? And, uh, and I'm sorry if people get mad at me for that and stuff, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm willing to run half marathons and, and, and do crossfit without legs and stuff like that. And you still don't want to promote me or keep me? Well, I'm going to point out a few issues with your system. And I, I don't blame the military, right? Like the military is a system. Like we said, the big green machine will roll on with or without you. At some point you got to worry about you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's, at some point I just started worrying about, more about me than about, than about mommy, the big mommy military. And, but then I, you know, when I look back over my shoulder every now and then and I go, tell me that guy over there is deploying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Show me what, show me his med, med chair. How many pull ups can he do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so anyway, it's, um, I believe it, I'm sure someone somewhere thinks it's a good idea, but I think the military, the Canadian forces should re-examine what it actually means. Cause it's very black and white. Yeah, that's. And there's no room for, um, oh, well, okay. So here's an exam, real quick example and we can move on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We used to have, uhm. We're in no rush, Jody. We used to have a thing we called acting lacking. So you were acting as sergeant lacking qualification.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it would be a way to like, promote guys that maybe can't quite get, you know, maybe they have an injury or something. And uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they got rid of it as we went back into combat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we can't make an exception so you can't get promoted. So I was one of them. I was on the cusp of being promoted sergeant. Just had to come home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And do, uh, what we call, it's called a small arms course. It makes you an expert in all small arms in the infantry. And how to train with them, to train troopers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you get promoted sergeant and when you learn some sergeant leadership stuff as well, but, um, I was number one in my regiment to go do it. And when I got, after I got wounded, they're like, yeah, sorry, man. I'm like, well, can I just be acting lacking? So my pension is better. Like, oh yeah, we don't do that anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's, I can see why. I mean, we're only in combat. Guys are getting smashed all the time. So why would you want to promote them? You know, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The administrative side of the military can be very, uh, heartless sometimes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Telling this to some medical colonel and she was like, huh? She's like, I promoted a guy who was in a coma the other day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't, we don't give a shit down here. If you, if we think you deserve it, you get your promotion because we know it makes things better for you when you get out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bitter about not getting promoted? No, I'm, I'm, I'm over it, but. I'm bitter you didn't get promoted. How you like them apples? Yeah, thank you. But you know, at the same time, there's a lot of amazing people in a lot of, uh, difficult spots of leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, you gotta pick your battles too. Yeaah. Right? So anyway, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is awesome. It is awesome, but was he gonna get promoted?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it, it's, it's a policy. Again, they defend it. They think it's necessary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What are you gonna do? Big green machine just keeps on rolling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On, on AWP, when I was still a sniper I actually had a much easier time of this, uhm, I'm, I'm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm ADD in a lot of ways and, uh, whatever I want to focus on. ADD doesn't mean that you can't focus on stuff. It just means like when the teacher tells you to focus on something, you're busy doing other stuff. And so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? It's not a deficit disorder, it's that I don't give a shit what you're trying to show me. But that right there, that's what I want to look at. So, I uhm, I had a way of just, I would, like if I had to watch a crossroad, I watched, that crossroad was my whole world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it wouldn't matter what was, now it doesn't mean I wasn't situationally aware. But I would watch that crossroad like my, my life depended on it. Or somebody's life depended on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I have another, what I, what I found actually, and this is one of the reasons why, uh, I'm starting to meditate again. I'm seeing a therapist again. Um, I'm listening to Jocko podcasts and reading extreme ownership. Um, no, I'm, I'm being serious. Is that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I appreciate it. In my civilian post-military, post-wounded, post-addiction, um, phase world, I've, I've lost a little bit of my ability to, to, to, to push out the input I don't want.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have a hard, I used to read a book a month at the minimum. And I'm not talking like a book, I'm talking like a book. You know that I showed you I had the 33 laws of war?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Achieving that, that zone of zero distraction. And I'm trying to get it back because it's really, I get a lot done. You know, I have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have my politics, I have the book, I do keynote speeches, uhm, I have my kids, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have all my hobbies, you know, I'm trying to support veterans, support charities that support veterans.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, and I still get a lot done, but I could get so much more done if I could turn off...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some things in my mind sometimes. And I don't know what, what's happened or what, if this is what an addict's brain is like now, or if it's just, I'm always seeking something. I get bored easily. That's part of the ADD. I've always had that. But when I found something and latched onto it, I used to be like just, I was 100%


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Focused until I became, you know, I got as much of that as I could and then I would move on to the next thing. And, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I gotta be honest. I've, I've visualization though, going back to the first question is one way that you can do it. And I've started meditating to get my mind back into that state. I used to do a lot of yoga.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I used to do a lot of mindfulness, uh, not training. I don't know what people could, now it's called mindfulness training. Back then I think it was just called reflection or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. Well, when I'm done the bodybuilding show in November, I will start jujitsu. Oh, you, you might actually be starting jujitsu tomorrow. Uh, my friend. Just don't hurt me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone I know who starts jiu-jitsu hurts something. That's why I'm holding off. But, and I would, I will definitely come let you, uh, ragdoll me. But, uh, my point is that I've lost it and I'm probably the last guy to give you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Advice right now on how to lock out the world because I have to put on headphones and crank music to get through a workout.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right now. And, and I know this. I know I'm detrimental in it, and I, and I, and I'm aware of it, and I'm trying to correct it. And, uh, and it bugs the shit out of me. It really does. It makes me feel like less of a person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why I want to run in my training. No offense, dude, but I want a psycho running my combat training.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How consistent are you making that happen though?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like when I, when I, your book isn't, I mean it's thick, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I should have been able to read this in two or three solid days of reading. Yes. And I told you how successful I was. Yes, not very. And that bugs the shit out of me. And it's a, it's a, it's a, uh, it's a fail. It's a, it's a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, we're getting, we're way off the question, but physical tasks, sure no problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it's visceral, it's real, I can feel it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to sit down and read the report on the sewer charges that are going to be coming in on the tax report for the city next year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really, but I'm wondering if my brain hasn't replaced the OxyContin with social media. Yeaah. Like I had to quit drinking because, okay now we're way off the thing, but the hardcover came out last September and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yeaah. Okay yeaah. I already said it. I already said it. I already said it. So anyway, the hardcover came out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I drank every day from the day it came up. So we had 450 people at the event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, uh, Kevin Newman, my buddy, who's a, he's a well-known news anchor in Canada, does an interview with me on the stage, and we get a standing ovation, we go out, we celebrate, me, the president of the company, my editor, we have a good night the next day. If I wasn't having one drink, I was having ten. And that went from September to the New Year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, you know, I was sleeping in because I'm hungover and I'm not going to the gym and, and I went, hang on. What's going on? Cause this is it. Cause I have my job as politician. I'm daddy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I'm friend, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm advocate and then, you know, the, the book is, it's a job, right? You know, selling a book's a job, full-time job. I need nine days a week and 36 hours a day to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I had to make, that's one of the reasons why I decided to do the bodybuilding thing. Cause I'm like, well, you can't drink and it'll be right till November. Cause I need that. So I'm trying to figure out if my brain is looking for a new habit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause I was diagnosed before as like anti-addictive, if that's even a real thing, but I had a doctor tell me once, he's like, you're pretty much an anti-addictive personality. Like you won't get addicted to stuff. And there I was addicted to Oxycontin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even though it's a physical thing more than a mental thing, but I still wouldn't trust me with a pill right now. Yeah. Anyway, I think we got way off track, but I just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you have four kids, you train every day, you get up at four in the morning. I gotta get up at four in the morning. That's it. That's my answer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sorry to riff on you guys on that man, like I know you wanted to do the questions, but when that guy, when that, like the first question was easy because I'm like, oh, I'll just talk about what I used to do. And that one was like, well, if I was to try and answer right now, I'd be lying. I'd be a liar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I can't, I have my moments still, don't get me wrong. I'll have moments where I'm like, this has to get done and I'll...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you, Jaco. So whoever asked that question, uh, thank you for asking it. Although I went off and talked about me for the most of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just remember like, I'm the guy that, in Kosovo, I quit smoking in a day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just, I just, I even had a pack in my pocket for like a week. I was just like, oh yea, okay, just throw those out. I want that guy back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm in search. I think it's been 10 years since I was wounded. I think I'm going to find them again, probably on the stage for this bodybuilding thing or something, but I just, I just couldn't answer that question without talking about that because I don't, I wouldn't have been truthful at this point in my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think is probably your, your, your biggest because the physical one is easy. Okay. You come back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So battle doesn't mean, you know, you're in gunfights all the time, you know, like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like we say, first stand and still we're patrolling, right? You know, it's just a static patrol. So...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you gotta make sure your gear is good, you gotta make, you know, are your batteries changed, right? You gotta, like, there's always the checklist, checklist, checklist, checklist. As a leader, it actually makes it easier, I found, because now I have a reason to check their stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And check that their routine, so my routine stayed solid, right? Cause I had other guys I had to worry about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so rest is a big one. I, I used to have to order my guys to go to ground. Cause they were so, cause there's only three of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I used to, my, Barry especially, I'd be like, Barry, you need to be useful. I need you to sleep. So my routine was like, make sure enough rest, make sure, cause you know that the saying mission before man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sure, except when the man is the mission. So I need my man to be good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In our case, you know, if you're a sniper, you're, you might be alone. You might be with one or two other guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't afford to have a guy run head first through a doorway to get through it, because I need him to be useful after.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if you have a platoon, sure, you sacrifice Smith, he runs through the door. Hey, okay, you got 29 more guys, I can go through the door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, so my routine was always like, you know, make sure everything's topped up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keep an eye out, you know, uh, do the mental checklist and then visualize.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Out of battle, I would try to, you know, I'd be on my, I remember I'd lay on my bunk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'd have my, and I'd always end up with my right foot crossed over my left foot and my, and my, and my arms up here on my chest and I'd have my head back and I would be going, okay, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, we go down, you know, and contact left and I would try to like, you know, visualize these things, you know, cause as the team leader, I had the radio and I was security cause my boys, when they're in position, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My spotter is spotting and my shooter is shooting. So like there, 12 o'clock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm now everything, everything, the rest of the clock for them and for myself. So I was constantly rehearsing mentally what, what could happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm calling an, I'm practicing a call for fire. I'm practicing an, calling in an airstrike. I'm practicing a nine liner. I'm practicing, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just a grit. What do you guys, do you guys use that? We'll use a nine line. Nine line is a casualty evac.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, no, no, but grit, like group range indication type of fire. So my first, even with all the visualization, my first actual grit in a battle was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for, for effect or at your own time or something like that. The calm, cool, collected voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, you know, the guy was like 40 meters away and it was like, and my sniper was actually looking over him. Wave. He's like, I'm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I'm looking at that stuff, and I was like, fuck it, and I just shot on myself, but, uh, but my point is that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even with all that practice and visualization and training, you know, that was my first attempt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I was always just trying to make sure that my routine off, off the battlefield was putting my mind back but in a controlled setting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then also, like I said, make sure, okay, yeaah, how much sleep did you get? Okay, good, good, good. And that's the routine that, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You gotta get the guys to relax. Especially, like for me, I had to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just had to make sure, cause I only had me and two other guys. I couldn't afford to lose one of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whether it was to exhaustion or malnutrition or dehydration or sprained ankles or.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whatever, you know, so I just, I just did my best to keep, keep that checklist going and, and visual, and I would encourage them to do the same. I'd be like, hey, what are you thinking about over there?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, you know, whatever. I'd be like, hey, why don't you think about, uh, you know, remember when you made, like, we're doing, making that shot?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you missed or whatever, like try and visualize, try and think about what you did. You know, there's a lot of steps that go into pulling the trigger, you know, and, and, um, and then, you know, just think about that, think about how it happened and encourage that. You know, I'm, I'm a big fan of, um, of meditation and yoga and all that stuff. Like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If any, like, I think in our side of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The world, we've lost a lot of that stuff. And I know we try to get it back and got people that do it are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tree hugging, you know, uh, spandex wearing weirdos or whatever, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yoga and meditation and stuff like, that's all warrior culture from the past. You know, like samurai meditate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, ain't warrior monks, uh, fasted and prayed. That's, that's just meditation. And, and they looked inside themselves a lot. To try and, you know, a samurai's job was pretty tough. Call him a pussy for meditating. Make sure I'm there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I can watch and, and I, and I firmly believe that that type of stuff keeps you functional for when you hit the battlefield, you know, that self, you know, as Grossman calls it, the self reflection, self inoculation as well. So that was my routine. It was just a constant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rotation of thoughts and then, but the actions were always to prepare the bot, you know, the, the situation for what was coming. Does that make sense?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I had, I didn't even think of it around my, you know how I said I would sit there right foot over the left all around me because we had a cot, we had a cot. We didn't, we couldn't afford to Canadian army. Okay. Sorry, man. Um, but around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had, we all had 2x4s around us because we were in like a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I had my chest rig, my rifle, uh, my ammo pouches, and then, you know, like, and then all around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, but that was what I would, when I would go through my stuff. That's what I mean. Like I would hang it up, open up the pouch. Okay. Everything's there. Close it. Next pouch. Make sure to top up my mags, all that stuff. And I would make sure I'd make, get the guys to do the same thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. But the biggest thing with route, like people call it routine and they think there's magic to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, there's not, it's, it's just making sure you do the same thing over and over and over again. You know, as, as, as magical as Navy SEALs and snipers want to be, like it's not really that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not that mystical, I guess. Uhm, it's just a lot of repetition. You know, the routine is that you repeat the same actions because that's what makes you good at.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We got real lucky, and I know this sounds weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My rotation, they had conventional minds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So any purse and any tank. And there was the occasional IED, but it was usually SV, uh, and, uh, and in the city. SV means, uh, suicide vehicle. So, uh, our, uh, our regimental sergeant major and his driver were killed by a suicide vehicle born IED. Yep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I stepped on a landmine. If I had stepped on an IED, I would have been vaporized. But the rotation that replaced us, our sister battalion, that's when


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The intelligence says guys from Iraq started showing up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, we went from losing a tire, maybe having one guy get killed through a penetration in the hull or whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, uh, we had a whole lav go up and seven out of the ten guys in it were killed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was like, like that's how quickly it escalated. And suddenly it was an issue for our guys as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost every vehicle we had hit a landmine on my tour. And that was the only time I was ever really scared over there. When I was walking or in a helicopter or even out on a four wheeler, no problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I had to drive on the roads in a vehicle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's when I was like, my, that puckerfactor was the highest for me ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] IEDs man, like the, and the guys that would go out every day and deal with that shit. Yeah, the IED clearance guys. Fuck man, like my hat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybody who does that job says it's a total bullshit movie, but like, could you imagine? Oh, that's your gig.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anyway, questions from the interwebs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know what? I'll tell you about her. So Alana is, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I say, her dad was in the army, and he, he, he's from Ireland, he emigrated to Canada, joined the military, and, uh, he was an airborne commando, and, and Canada, back in the day, like that was,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he got, uh, kicked in the spine with a steel toe boot. Yeah. And, uh, finished with a broken, uh, vertebrae. And, uh, but, you know, so I always say she was drafted into the military at birth and, uh, cause she grew up on bases all over the world, Germany, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She has more citations for saving civilians than she does for saving soldiers. She happens upon... She's like one of those, uh, angels, I guess, that just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One, a woman, so here's one, a woman had a heart attack behind the wheel, drove into a ditch, Alana was right behind her, drove, stopped her car, jumped in the car, pulled her out, dead. Alana brought her back to life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right there at the side of the road. No equipment, anything like that. Just skill. Skill and determination, and kept her alive until the paramedics showed up and took over. Just got a decoration for that. Uhm, you know, she helped save my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and, and a lot of my friends, and uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One time we were driving and we came upon a scene and we, uh, we were in my truck and Alo is still a baby. Still in our baby seat and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I look up and I, and I see it, I think she, she might have been on her phone, I don't know what she was doing. And I see you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Scatter cars, car parts everywhere, and one lone cop standing in the middle of it like a squirrel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And not because he's scared or anything, he's just, he's the only guy. He's the first on the scene. And I look and I'm like, okay, something bad happened here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, and I see one vehicle in the middle of it all and I went, Alana, they need you. And she went, huh? I said, you see that van? They need you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She jumped out, jumped head first through the, this van was crushed. And she went in there and there was a four year old little, three year old little girl, uh, that had been hit when the car was t-boned. She stabilized the little girl's spine, uh, kept her alive until the firemen showed up. Uh, they extracted, she, she was in command of the scene. They, they were like, they, they, I guess,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was doing my best to help the cop with traffic and stuff like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, and deal with some of the other like minor injuries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the fireman, like, the first guy to put his head in, he's like, I kind of heard like, well, who is this? And then all I hear is Atlanta like, I need this and I need like, she's barking out all these orders.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, okay, hang on. So they're running, they're getting all this stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they get the board and they put the little, the girl, the girl ended up passing away unfortunately, but uhm, zero hesitation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's, that's my wife. Fucking hero. And, uh, you know, she, uh, retired from the military last year and is going through, um, she's probably gonna get mad at me for saying this, but she's going through it. A lot of soldiers go through the transition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She just, she's just having a tough time figuring out who, who's Atlanta Gilmore if she's not a soldier. And she's an amazing mom, uh, she's an amazing wife, and uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's an amazing person, it's just, in her mind, she needs to find the new her. And, uh, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm trying to help her the best I can, but you know, I can only do so much and at some point she'll figure it out. She's coming around pretty good right now, I think. She's starting to like, volunteer a little bit here and like, get out and do some stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I'm pretty, you know, I'm just proud of her, you know, for the most part.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I don't have any decorations for saving people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like, either do I. Like, you know, uh, you know, like, I think about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I, what I saw, I saw a lot of destruction, but honestly, it was mostly the enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that I caused. And I'm like, it's easy to step over him. Like, he doesn't look like me, he doesn't talk like me, he doesn't dress like me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't even know that, you know, I didn't know nothing about that guy. Step over him, carry on. She rolls up. Let's just take my case. She knows me. I'm Jody. I'm her buddy. We watched a family guy together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I used to, you know, her ex-husband and I used to, we're buddies. You know, like, you know, all these things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she would, whenever she would roll up to a scene, it was to clean up the mess the enemy made of us. And she knew most, we're a tiny army man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And our, our brigade for us is like 3,200 guys. Maybe, maybe maybe 2,500 in 2006. So she knew most of the guys that she put into body bags or like in my case, she says after they loaded me on the helicopter,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it flew away. She was just sad because she knew that what I was going home to because of my injuries, right? She was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exactly. She knew what a nightmare you were about to go through. She knew what I was and who I was and what I was now going to be like have to become and accept.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she says that, she said that in an interview, she had never said that to me. And I read an interview she gave once and she said, yeah, I just, I was just devastated for him because of what he was going to go home to. This big, tough, strong, proud guy had to go home without feet. She's just like, ugh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I guess she said something like, you know, if nobody else looks after him, I guess I gotta. God damn it, she did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Always have been i think this might be where i might be a little bit like you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does that make sense? Yes. You know what I'm saying, right? I know, I can see it. Okay, you know. I don't miss people cause I know I'm gonna see them again. Even my daughter, I love my daughters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Love my daughters and I'll walk in the house and they're better than puppies, right? They jump on me and I get daddy daddy. It's my, the seven year old still does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I get kisses, I get hugs, I get, where were you? You were gone so long. But like today, I haven't spoken to them. And I don't miss them. I know that they're out there. Like, but on a certain level, when I do get home, I'm real happy to be home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when I'm away from home, you're in the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, especially for this, I guess, because I'm here to promote the book and I'm here to hang out with you guys, so I'm like, I'm looking forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's like when my dad was crying in the parking lot before I went on my first mission ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To me, it was like, what's the big deal, dude? I'll be back in six months. And, and you know, my best, my best buddies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the, the guys that I was happy didn't die in combat. I've talked to them every three to six months.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I just talked to the leader of that green bray team that I worked so much with just the other day after two years of not actually speaking, you know, a couple of messages on Facebook and this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is no such thing as email. Email in 99, first of all, I didn't even have an email. And so there's one guy on base who is the geek.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he would go back to the main camp where they had the interweb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Come back with it and print it off on the clerk's computer for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder if our type of thinking about it is a response from the fact that we just didn't have it the first time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By between 99 and 2006, in 2006 I had a sat phone in my pocket for every, everywhere I went. I could have called home all day, every day, but I didn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I was like, well, first of all, it's a treat. And second of all, I got a lot of work to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One time I was on the phone and a shot went over my head.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey dad, I gotta go. Hey, you know, and he's, and then, I think, uh, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your guy, Chris Kyle, in his book, he talks about being on the phone and then a gunfight starts. Yeah. And his wife listens to the gunfight cause he forgot to hang up the phone. Are you kidding me? Putting your family through that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I think maybe our, our situation is that we came from the generation where that just wasn't an option anyway. So I would love to talk to some of the newer guys about this, about this subject.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what he does for a living. You know exactly what he does for a living. Ops can take a while. He's like, he's like, yeah, but usually he gets back to me and I'm like, obviously he's on a long op.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The fridge might break and she'll go get a new one. And there's nothing you can do about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, if you don't like the color she picked, say, thanks for getting the new fridge honey. Thanks for taking care of that. Cause I was busy doing, protecting freedoms and democracy of the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you body build? No. No. Okay. So I've worked out since, you know, I was 16 with weights, right? But I always, so my first mission in Afghanistan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I was a driver slash bodyguard, and remember, animal stack?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The supplement, which was basically steroids.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we would order, we ordered a shit ton of animal stack, and because we had a lot of downtime, we watched, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, like 24 of the series on DVD and we worked out.