[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what you have to do, you have to make time. There's plenty of time to read.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's plenty of time to read. You probably don't want to read as badly as you're, as you think. If you wanted to read that bad, you'd make time. You make time to breathe, somehow. If you can make time to breathe, you can make time to read. That's the best.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm reading, I'm always have to be reading a book to read a book for the podcast, right? I had only read the first maybe ten books that we read, that we did on the podcast. We've done a hundred or something now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, then you say to yourself, okay, so you know when I read? All the time. Go to bed, reading. Wake up, reading.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, uh, going in an airplane. What are people doing in an airplane?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You watch a movie, I know you sleep, they do all this stuff. I sleep sometimes in an airplane, but if I'm not sleeping, guess what I'm doing? Reading, prepping for a podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think those two are really, uhm, what's the word, stimulating to the brain?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you actually get this weird like, well I actually, like I'm gonna learn a little something from this right here. I'm gonna take something away from this. I'm gonna veg out. I'm going to escape from my world right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And know that if they put up a video that has, if they put up a thumbnail of a video,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's, that's so, and what do you get out of it? You watch it for 20 minutes. Short game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, you get nothing out of it. You get a book, you read, you learn. You write something. That's what you do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sad how much time you can waste these days with the distractions and the people trying to get that time from you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Progressive, you know. Productive. Progressive. Progressive. Progress your life. Valuable. Valuable. All those things. Check.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, to be perfectly clear about this, I wasn't taking ownership of the situation so that I could keep my job. It wasn't a political maneuver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To set myself up to look good. I was taking ownership of the situation because I was the leader of the situation that took place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was the guy responsible for what was happening. I was taking ownership because that was the correct thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yes, I could have been fired. And if I would have been fired, I would have accepted it and I wouldn't have done anything different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, again, this is sort of similar to a couple questions ago, like that's, extreme ownership is not about avoiding trouble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I talked about that at one of the musters. If, if in the back of your mind, if in the back of my mind I think, you know what, if the platoon makes a mistake, I can just blame it on them, I'll be good. Well now I'm not really that worried about their plan, cause I got that little out if I need it. I'm not worried about if the guys understand the rules of engagement, cause I got that little out if I need it. I'm not that worried about deconfliction, cause I got that little out if they screw it up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I have an out for myself, and so I don't really...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Put 100% effort into the planning and of the, of what we're doing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's my fault. Guess what? Hey guys, do you understand the ROE's? Let me talk to you about them again. Hey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what you have to do. So my, my idea hasn't changed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In fact, if I would have blamed someone else and then kept my job and someone else gotten fired.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maintaining that position, knowing that I had sacrificed someone below me in the chain of command for my own good. That doesn't sit with me, man. I wouldn't have been able to do that. I wouldn't have been able to do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Saying it was this guy or it was that guy. It'd be like this guy in the previous one. Well, it's Bill's fault.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And not only that, when you're, when you see people acting that way, everybody can identify that that's a bad thing to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is an intro- this question, I- I had to pull out because, well you're gonna see it's very- I think it's a question that maybe you might be even more suited to answer than me. But go ahead, proceed. Interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As far as the, as far as the thing, the way you do anything is the way you do everything, that's partly true. But at the same time, guess what, you gotta prioritize and execute.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and there are some things that are not as important as other things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, there's chalk on it. There's some sweat stains. I don't go in there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That does, I don't care if those mats are clean or not. Doesn't matter to me. Right? I have to prioritize there's much, much, much more important things than whether my mats in my garage gym are clean. Doesn't matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why we got people to clean those mats after classes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a priority. The ones at my house that just me don't matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a minimum standard to hold the line, and as far as doing things the most efficient way, I try and do things the right way. I try and do things the right way, which generally, that coincides with the most efficient way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you see the meme? Yes. There's a couple memes. There's a couple memes about you and the soy sauce moles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something, it was this black and white photo of, of soy sauce bowls. Oh yeah, yeah. What did it say?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then focus on those things and don't worry about some other things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? Because generally you gotta go forward and back on a vacuum anyways. You know what I'm saying? You can just rerun that same track.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're not weaknesses. In fact, it actually takes strength to be able to deal with these types of situations and these types of emotions. The weak move would actually be to cut those emotions off completely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because you cannot let the emotions overwhelm you. As a matter of fact, if you get overwhelmed by your feelings, then you can't do your job properly, which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In its own right is inhumane because now you're not able to treat the patients that you're trying to save. Because you're getting too emotional about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To recognize if you're going too far in one direction or the other. You have to do a self-assessment. You have to look and see and make sure that you see the people you're treating as people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause that's also gonna be a problem. You can't afford emotionally to do that. You can't go through that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to, like you said, you have to detach, normally you do a good job with that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've seen guys get wounded, I've seen guys get killed, I've been around a lot of death.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the same time when it's over and the time was appropriate, it's like you gotta connect with what happened and make sure that you are dealing with it appropriately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, I always thank firefighters and paramedics and EMTs and, and police and military, but, you know, paramedics and EMTs, you're only showing up if someone is in a bad way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I know that's hard physically and it's hard mentally and it's hard emotionally, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Find the balance. Keep yourself balanced. Make sure you're not going too far in one direction or the other. And thanks for doing your job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what it is. How bad, how bad of a situation is the person?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's what you have to avoid is getting to this point you gotta, you gotta do your best to stay emotionally detached enough that you can do your job but at the same time you can't be looking at other human beings as if they're just a piece of meat. So, hard job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we got time for one more quest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You, you wanna know what those are, those ideas are worth?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you don't execute on them, you know what those ideas are worth? They're worth nothing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ideas by themself have zero value. Unless they can be brought to life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those people end up old and bitter and angry because they didn't execute their great ideas. And so here's what you do. You execute. You actually make things happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And sometimes, I'm gonna tell you, when you execute your idea, it revivals the fact that your idea isn't all that good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not the brilliant idea you thought it was. And some people are actually afraid of that, and that's what stops them. But I'm not afraid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But don't let these ideas just wander aimlessly around in your head. Get em out!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bring them to life. Put them into the world. Run with them. Get some friends and family. Or partners.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And whatever path you take, whether you force yourself to execute or you bring people in to help you, whatever path you're gonna take, do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like I said, you've gotta remember that there's no guarantee that when you pour life into idea, into an idea, there's no guarantee that that idea's gonna come to life too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you might have to let it die. You have to let the dream die because some ideas aren't good enough to live. That's just the way it is, but... But you know what? At least give it a chance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You got anything that could possibly help us execute?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most of the time. What's the maximum age for starting jujitsu?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A month ago, it had a month of solid jujitsu to try and learn what was happening, how these people were choking me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah. We have people all the time starting to just to all ages. From...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're not around, cause that is actually a scary thing. I used to, I used to be a little bit nervous about that when my kids were real little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They know how to rear nook, naked choke, you know. Oh, maybe my five-year-old daughter slaps her rear naked choke on my two-year-old son.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not like a knife. All I'm saying is, if you got little tiny kids, below like 2, 3, 4, 5. Yes, you teach them basic moves. You need to explain to them that the moves are real.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they do work. And that's, I always warn the little kids about that. Once kids are a little bit older, they understand. Because it happens to them and they know what's going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So be careful with that part of jiu-jitsu for the little kids, but whether kids are 4 or whether you're 60 or 70 or 80 years old, go get your jiu-jitsu on. Gonna need a gi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you're also investing in this great country as we rebuild manufacturing inside our country. Bringing back the old New England factories that they sent overseas. We're bringing them back. We're actually bringing them back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are buying equipment back from overseas. We're bringing it back here on ships.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are making that happen. Also, we got genes. Here's the deal. I talked to Pete. Pete Roberts. Origin. I said Pete.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How many people do you know that do jujitsu? And he's like, oh, a hundred? I said, how many people do you know that own a pair of jeans? And he said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 200 million? I said, we need to make jeans. Everyone wants jeans. Everyone needs jeans. Everyone would want jeans that are not only high quality, but also made in America, sewn by craftsmen in Maine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Denim. American denim. I like it. Cotton. Cotton.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People like joggers. And you can also get supplements. We have supplements. We have joint warfare. We have krill oil. We have discipline. We have discipline. Go. According to JP Donnell, when he takes discipline, go. He can see people's thoughts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you got discipline for pre-workout. Curl oil, joint warfare, keep the bones, the tendons, the joints, the ligaments, keep all that stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some people don't even know what moque is. And it's really easy to explain. Moque is moque.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause how can this be good for you? That's the question. How can this be good for you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's true. Mint chocolate, peanut butter chocolate. Vanilla gorilla. Darkness. The chocolate darkness. And then there's, this is, uh, what I believe to be kinda epic. Warrior Kid Mulk. Yes. Cause Warrior Kid Mulk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can go to your grocery store and you can buy something that will flavor the milk so that your kids will drink milk. But while you're drink, while you're giving the milk, you're also giving them poison.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah. So, we don't want to give our kids poison, we want to give them power. How do we do it? We got warrior kid mulk, we got strawberry and chocolate, they taste amazing, they are...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Engineered the best possible food that your kid's gonna eat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think about it, you can say, oh, you want some dessert? And they'll get all excited. Here, have a strawberry milkshake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what do they think? Thank you. Can I have more? And you know what you say? Sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can have all you want. Because this is protein and probiotics and vitamins. This is everything you're supposed to be eating as a child to grow up and be strong and the world


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you gonna retire the rash guard that you wore today? When we were training? No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I thought it was funny though, for all my jiu-jitsu career, you know, if I have a good role with someone and I, and I, and I, you know, do good against them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you come in today with, uh, with a good, positive attitude on what the outcome was going to be? Yea. So you were feeling good today?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't, I don't hold it against you, I just accept it. But sometimes you actually think, like, today's the big day, and when I see that look, yeaah, I think, I think okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny because I can see that dichotomy in your face. I can tell that you're mad, but I can also tell that it's fun. You know? But you do get frustrated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I don't like? You know what I don't like is when I tap someone out. Let's say I'm in, I'm in half guard and I tap someone out with something and I let go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then I'm like, okay. Cause you know, I mean, I did whatever move I did, and then I let go, you tap, and then I let go of it, and then it's like, we'll just keep going.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I don't know why, I'm like, why would we keep going? You just submitted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, and there's other, the other thing is sometimes people, I think you've done this to me, like maybe ten times. No, maybe five times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I understand sometimes you want to learn what just happened, right? Like they put me back in that position. Yes. Cool. That's what that part is. Yeah. I get that part too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That whole thing of, cause let's face it, it's a big, there's a lot of things that go on. There's a lot of things that happen from, from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we start rolling, or you start rolling with someone, to someone submits, there's all kinds of things. Especially you're starting standing, you got a takedown to contend with, you got guard passing, you got guard recovery, you got sweeps, you got all these things to get to this point where you can actually submit somebody. And all of a sudden we're just gonna skip 85% of that battle, which by the way, from my perspective, all that time, all that battle,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like we just jumped to the end of the good song that has the guitar solo. Like, no, you gotta listen to the whole song, man. You appreciate that thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's part of what bothers me. Yeah, it's not up to me. I think part of what bothers me is I think to myself, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] White tea. Jocko white tea. Available. Drinking it right now from the can, which it comes in. Tasty and good for you. And also the tea bags, you can get that stuff on Amazon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also you got Warrior Kid Soap from IrishOaksRanch.com. There's now Trooper Soap. Yep. With the Rope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so irishoaksranch.com Aiden is up there making soap on his farm. And what he wants us all to do is stay clean.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also Psychological Warfare on iTunes, Google Play, MP3 platforms, everywhere. This is a album where I can help you in little moments of weakness get over that moment of weakness and get yourself to stay on the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a little company owned by my brother Dakota Meyer. Podcast 115 by the way. Absolutely an epic podcast to hear and listen to and to be a part of with Dakota.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we became good friends after that and he's got this company, flipsidecanvas.com and he is making pictures.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the social media. And Dakota will make it happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also we got some books. Mikey and the Dragons. Mikey and the Dragons is about a little kid that's trying to overcome some fear. And he does it by reading a book. The book.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's called The Dragon Prince. Check it out, Mikey and the Dragons. Also, Weigh the Warrior Kid. One, two, and soon to be three. That's a series of books about a kid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's havin' kinda normal trouble that kids have, but he's got an uncle. Uncle Jake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a powerful thing. If you can actually help someone live a better life, there's a manual on how to live your life. It's called the Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual. It's not a normal book. It's not normal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He said this book is the biggest risk that he has ever taken in his publishing career.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he also said, or actually my agent told me, once the book came out, the book


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which means every single book that got shipped got sold. This does not happen. And then they're backordered and they had to make more. Now the book is still selling like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The audio version of that book is not on Audible. It's on iTunes, it's on Amazon Music, it's on Google Play and other MP3 platforms. Of course, there is Extreme Ownership, the first book that I wrote with my brother, Leif Babin, about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The combat leadership principles that we learned on the battlefield and how you can apply them to your business and life and we followed that book up with a book called The Dichotomy of Leadership, which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, some people are saying it's better than extreme ownership. Read it, judge for yourself, tell us what you think. I think if you read extreme ownership,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you read dichotomy, a lot of things are going to fall into place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, we got Ashland Front, which is our leadership consultancy. We solve problems through leadership. That's what we do. It's me, Leif Babin, JP Donnell, Dave Burke, Flynn Cochran, Mike Cirelli, Mike Baima.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And our latest addition to the team, Master Chief Seal Retired Jason Gardner. Go to echelonfront.com if you want us to come work with your company. The muster. We got three musters this year. All musters ever have sold out. These are going to sell out well. As well, there's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] May 23rd and 24th in Chicago. September 19th and 20th in Denver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] December 4th and 5th in Sydney, Australia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go to extremeownership.com. If you want to come to these things, just go and register. I had friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Friends that said, hey, you know, I didn't really sign up. Can you just give me a couple tickets? And I'm like, actually no, I can't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because we can't fit any more people in the building. So no. So, I can't help you if you wait too long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Register. Get on it early. EF online. This is our interactive leadership training. If you want to get everyone in your company aligned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have that training. You can go to EF online. It's interactive. It's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to make decisions, it's choose your own adventure, it's tests, it's, it's briefings, it's everything, and it's awesome. So check out efonline.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, EF Overwatch, where we are connecting proven leaders from the spec ops and combat aviation communities with companies in the civilian sector. Now, here's the thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You might think, well I've got to hire somebody that's experienced in this industry. That's a good thought. I understand where you're coming from. What I recommend you try.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is instead of hiring a person that has experience in the industry, hire somebody that has experience in something more important, that is leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even more time with Echo Charles and myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because for some reason you think 500 hours of podcast isn't enough for you. We are out there, we are lurking on the interwebs, on Twitter, on Instagram, and on Facebook-y.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In uniform for your service. That's our military personnel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also our police and law enforcement, correctional officers, border patrols, all first responders and tonight especially the firefighters, paramedics, EMTs who face suffering and death on a daily basis and they learn how to handle it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They learn how to stay balanced, they learn how to detach, but not too much. Thanks for all of you for providing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Us, the freedom and security that we enjoy every day, and to everyone else that's listening, you have ideas, you have dreams, and you have vision, and that's cool. That's awesome. But none of that means anything, unless you execute.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, execute, move forward, take action.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know what, maybe your idea works and maybe it doesn't and if it doesn't then try another one and maybe none of them will ever work and that's fine because in the end at a minimum you know at least you went out there and got after it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is Jocko Podcast number 163 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sizzles of pain hit me in waves like pulses of electricity. A bullet has torn off my left arm. After I get hit, I reach over to grab my left hand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hunt around feeling only the gear on the far left side of my body. No arm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bullets kick dirt in my face. Through my night vision goggles I see green blooms of light strobing the darkness. Muzzle flashes from automatic weapons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 10 meters away, an enemy machine gun opens fire again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is a belt-fed Russian-made crew-served weapon, probably a PKM.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They sound like giant zippers tearing open when the gunners go cyclic. Like now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The air around me erupts with sharp cracks. The miniature sonic booms of 7.62 millimeter bullets speeding past me at 2,500 feet per second.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A spurt of dust blows across my face again. Several bullets pass so close to my head that I feel shock waves as they go by.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With my right hand I key the radio handset I have mounted on my chest. Troops in contact! Troops in contact! I call to my command. We have three severely wounded, including me. Static greets my words.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The PKM gunner, PKM gunner finds the range. Bullets crack around me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The terrorist eases up on the trigger, but only for a second. I hear him unleash another burst.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those right there are some excerpts from the opening chapter of a book called The Trident.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is written by a retired SEAL officer by the name of Jason J. Redmond.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not only of bringing the reader to the front lines in some pretty chaotic combat situations, but equally important


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It brings the reader into the challenges of leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Outstanding. So, uh, I wanna try and start, you know, a little bit at the beginning so people get a little bit familiar with where you are. Everyone always wants to know where people are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where people came from, how they grew up, I'm going to the book right here. I came from a family with a rich tradition of service. So in retrospect, this made sense. My dad was a U.S. Army Airborne Rigor at Fort Campbell during the Vietnam War. My paternal grandfather


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was young and naive and had a long road to travel before I could truly understand what my grandfather and great uncle gave for the country. But that idealism became a very big part of me. I wanted to carry a rifle for a living.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My dad watched this desire grow in me and decided to focus it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My freshman year in high school he sat me down in our tiny living room and said, you know Jay, we had these guys come through airborne school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were US Navy, called SEALS. They jumped out of airplanes, swam, they blew stuff up. Given how you love the water, maybe you ought to look into them. So your dad planted the seed, huh?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially boys, and I think it has to do with, I'm gonna prove myself. That's what I think. Hey, I'm gonna prove myself. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the ways that you prove yourself is by proving that you're willing to sacrifice in a way. And what better way when you're 16 years old to prove is like, oh watch what I'll do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll drink, I'll drink this whole bottle. And I think that leads to young males doing a lot of dumb stuff and it sounds like you're right on board.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I will say this, just to kind of add to that point, from my perspective, if you've got someone that's aspiring to do something, you know, higher,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they're not good people, we'll try and rip those things and pull them down and pull them off that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So how, and then you end up, so you graduate high school and go to recruiter and boom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, I mean, any other particular things around the recruitment process? Yeah, the recruitment process.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He'd quit the program, and the Navy required an escort for anyone who rang the bell during Hell Week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His room's nightlight cast an orange glow across his face. His skin was waxing and he looked hollowed out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At length he answered in a slow, earnest tone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dude, it was so cold I would have poured gasoline all over myself and lit a match just so I could have been warm for a few seconds before I burned to death. He stepped back without another word and slammed his door.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Check. Check. So, uh, anyways, I mean, then you get to, you go through Buds, uhm, and Buds is cool, and you write about Buds a little bit in here, but you don't spend a bunch of time on it because, as we know, Buds is not a huge part of our careers in the SEAL teams, and I'm gonna jump right, right ahead to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once the gear was stowed, all we wanted to do was get out on the town and blow off some steam. Work hard, play hard. That was our pre-911 mantra.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The 90's teams. Work hard, play hard. Uh, I always have to explain to people how cool it is being in the teams, being an E5 in the teams. Were you an E5 or an E6 at this point?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah, you know, you get to be an E5 in a single platoon, you know, you've got, if you, if you're not looking for a lot, a lot of responsibility, you won't find it, but you won't, you know, you're a little bit above some of the crap work. So it's not a bad place to be. And that's where you were doing, doing deployment after deployment, three deployments to South America and doing the training gig.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is also the time during one of these trips where you met your future wife.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You did alright, man. Uh, along, along the course of this, uhm, you apply for the Seeming to Admiral program, which is the same program I did. I think you were a couple years behind me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I watched the towers fall. I recognized the magnitude of the moment and left school in a daze, fully aware that our country was heading to war, with three years of college ahead of me. I feared I'd miss my chance to be a part of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A few days later, I drove back to my old SEAL team to see my former CO and mentor, Commander Vince Peterson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Commander Peterson sat listening quietly as he, as I explained my desire to come back. He was a legend in the SEAL teams. He had been a former Marine before joining the Navy and headed to SEAL training at the age of 36.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I sat down with him and asked him to put me back in the platoon, he looked me dead in the eye and said, Red, this will not be a short war.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's going to go on for years and we're going to need strong warriors and leaders for upcoming battles. You need to stay in school. Then come back and lead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is what's interesting, I recently saw the guy that I called. And I saw him and his wife, who I know as wife, and she's a great person. And I was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Telling her this. Telling her this. And you know what she said? It was so awesome to hear. She goes, do you know how many calls he got that day?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, there was zero unique about Jaco calling the CLD tailor and saying, sir, get me back to a team right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were just training and training and training and be like training for a game and training for the Super Bowl and never getting to play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You, so you actually did a great job in college and you, you were in ROTC too, right? I was. Yea, see I got the real scam deal where I just went to college and wasn't wearing a uniform. I was like far enough ahead of you that I got the deal. Yea, you were in the original program.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she's like, oh, so what's going on now? Cause then I could call, cause you weren't allowed to call. So I said, well, we're doing this and I'm in charge of the thing here. It's called the regimental commander. And she goes, oh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything had changed, and as our platoon went through its training cycle, I always felt like I was playing catch-up. I made mistakes and exercises that I never made in the 90s. It made me edgy and tense, feeling the pressure of trying to be a leader and drinking from that training fire hose at the same time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In our time off, I drowned my frustrations and boos and routinely, routinely made an ass of myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] None of this was helping my credibility with the men I was supposed to be leading, but I didn't see that at the moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It also didn't help that Senior Chief Pete Carey and I despised each other almost from our introduction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was a good skilled seal, and I respected his tactical abilities, but I felt his people skills were lacking. Rough and abrasive at times, his leadership style clashed with mine, which set us on a collision course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The senior chief and the AOIC are supposed to work closely together to make sure the team functions effectively. The AOIC and that's assistant officer in charge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is also supposed to learn from the chief's tactical experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That never happened in our platoon. Instead, I refuse to humble myself and listen to the senior chief.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the pre-deployment workup wore on, I wouldn't con- we w- we couldn't conceal our dislike for each other. The feud spilled out into the open and culminated with a public screaming match in Europe after a tactical exercise with some NATO allies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the weeks that followed my arrival within the team, our relationship became the cancer in our locker room. By the time we got to Afghanistan, we refused to be civil to each other. I had lost touch entirely with what it meant to be a leader. During the daily briefs we would openly take shots at each other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different platoons structure things in different ways. In our platoon, senior enlisted members acted as fireteam leaders with chiefs and some more experienced officers acting as the assault force commanders. I'd been assigned as neither.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I'd taken a step back, I might have realized that I hadn't given my boss as much confidence in my leadership, but I didn't see that. I only felt slighted and embittered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I always, when someone's giving me critique points, you know, and of course, and it's every single, I say every single person on earth doesn't like receiving critique, like, and I always joke about the fact that even when someone asks for criticism,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I put all that aside and I say, wait a second, there's a reason that they're telling me this. There's gotta be some truth to it. I like, I'm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of my favorite things about, uh, this book is the fact that it, it reveals the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pete Carey would be the perfect mentor, and he'd just be able to come along, and then you'd be the perfect recipient, the perfect mentee, ready to learn, and everything is just perfect, and it's actually completely untrue. And what you have in the SEAL teams, actually, in the, like in the civilian sector,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we have a lot of issues around this exact kind of thing. And it does completely derail not just leaders, but it derails platoons. And I, I mean, we would dis-ban platoons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, it has, it has zero to do with the E4s, E5s, and usually the E6s, and it has 100% to do with the senior E6s, the Chiefs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the officers inside the platoon that just are disasters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it does happen, and I think the fact that you, the fact that you talk through some of these issues,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are, I mean that's what, that's what's very revealing about the SEAL teams in this book is like, hey, we got, you know, we got the same issues that they have in other, or any other team, any other organization.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now you're on deployment in Afghanistan. And I always, oh I always mention this. I haven't mentioned it yet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pause. Meaning, hey, you guys aren't gonna do anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's a great story and how that unfolds is great and people should read so they can learn lessons from that. But then I'm gonna go skip a lesson here. You are in the chow hall and you're sitting with some of your boys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In time, I learned there is nothing more dangerous on the battlefield than an immature and arrogant officer who feels he needs to prove himself. It can lead men to their death. And what you're looking at is you happen to be sitting in the chow hall with the commanding general.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And these guys kinda, your, your boys kinda egg you on to go talk to them about, hey, why are we, why are we standing down, and you're an ensign at this point?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, so here we go. I walked over and stood beside the General's table. Excuse me, General. Ensign Redmond, Naval Special Warfare. Do you have a couple minutes?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His aides glowered up at me. Stamped on their faces is, who the hell are you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I continued, I know there was a miscommunication with our first mission, but we know the enemy's out there and we'd really like to take the opportunity to go after them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] General's noncommittal, but remained polite. I don't think his aides took their eyes off me through the entire conversation. I could feel them boring holes through me. I thanked them for their time got up and headed back to my table. The other two operators were gone. Why hadn't they stuck around?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the contrary, the, the contrarian situation is literally if you focus on yourself instead of your people and your mission, you will fail. You will, you, and you know what? Fail is a strong word.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you guys are operating again, and here you are out on an operation. You're in an Overwatch position on a hilltop, going back to the book. Between bursts of gunfire, I heard him report, troops in contact, troops in contact, we're facing at least 20 enemy fighters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A wash of static followed. Then I heard Joker add, one of our Afghan soldiers is wounded. We need reinforcements.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] J, here's your chance. Your teammates are in trouble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 1000 feet below. The slope was steep, perhaps 60 degrees in places. Getting down there would be a serious climb. Once at the bottom, we'd have to maneuver to the sound of the guns through broken terrain and vegetation. That would complicate approaching our guys without getting shot by accident.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I called to Fred and asked if the Western Overwatch team was still in place. Gunfire erupted over the radio as he keyed his mic and answered, I think so. Okay, good. That gave us eyes above and control of the high ground over there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the moment, Jay. Go prove yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If it had been anybody else, I might have thought twice about his call, but my own personal quest to prove myself coupled with my intense hatred for him clouded my judgment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I ignored him and we pressed on as we dropped further into the valley.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I pushed this thought to the back of my mind. The boys need help. Focus on that. But where was the fight?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sounds of battle echoed all across the valley making it difficult to calculate distance and direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A broken transmission filled my earpiece. I couldn't tell what it was, but I recognized JD's voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were aircraft overhead waiting to join the battle with rockets and bombs, yet they could not make their runs because of my decision to go into the valley.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I should have thought about our air assets, but I was too blinded by my own ambition with my combat inexperience on full display.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once we were consolidated on the North Ridge and our security was set for what would surely be a long night ahead, JD came looking for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he approached I could see he was livid. What the hell were you doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Indignantly, I told him I was trying to go to the aid of my brothers. He looked at me like I just spit on his wife.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a stupid thing you did, Red. You could have gotten people killed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He turned and stalked off. I watched him leave and struggled with my own thoughts. Had I really made that big of a mistake? No. No way. I went to help. When is that ever wrong?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From a, from a tactical perspective, people make mistakes like this, like it can happen, and it can happen, and you know, I talk about being able to detach and that's something that I definitely learned in the SEAL teams and it was, I think,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you fully knew, hey we've got air overhead, and they're in a firefight, and if I go down there we won't be able to use air support.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You wouldn't have done this. Even, even a 60 gunner, you know, even a pig gunner would say, oh, okay, no, I need to, I need to let that, that unfold. But, you know, your excitement to get down there and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And get in the fight is definitely, you know, that's something that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That can grab a hold of, of anyone if they're not careful. And again, it's what we just talked about with you at that moment, put yourself ahead of the mission, ahead of the team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and then, yeaah, I mean this idea of ownership and, and,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when I, when I kick off, uh, the book that I wrote with Leif, Extreme Ownership, you know, kicks off with a blue on blue. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I think if I would have said, hey, this wasn't my fault, blame it on someone else, I think I would have gotten fired in about three seconds. Uhm, because it's just a bad situation to unfold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yeah, you planting the flag on that is, is rough. And, and I, I mean, your humility and putting this out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're still a team guy that's trying to do a good job. It wasn't like you were trying to do a bad job. So, to recognize like, hey, even if you're well-intentioned, if you don't pay attention to these things,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They can grab hold of you and they can pull you in the wrong direction and you look up and you're, you're...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're planting your flag and putting up your defenses around an indefensible position, which is where you ended up here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rough. Uh, going back to the book, back at Kandahar, I heard the first whispers about me floating around the team. The men had nicknamed me Rambo Red.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Though some may think being compared to Stallone's lone wolf silver screen icon was a compliment, within our community, it was a supreme insult. In the SEAL teams, there's no room for individualism.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The foundations of our success rest on mutual cooperation and communication. A lone wolf like Rambo could destroy a team with catastrophic effects on the battlefield.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At worst, I was starting to expect something more than a wrist slap. But nothing like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was being sent back to the rear, out of combat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nothing can ever be more humiliating for a warrior.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I heard rumblings that Senior Chief Carey wanted to see my trident taken away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Behind the scenes, he was pushing for a Trident review board to determine my fate. The months of infighting between us had been bad enough. Now he was trying to destroy my career.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ensign Redmond had demonstrated a consistent pattern of bad decision making. I thought again about my screaming match with senior chief Kerry during the NATO exercise. When it ended, what did I see in the eyes of, what did I see in the eyes of my teammates? Embarrassment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This wasn't really about one moment in the valley, was it Jay?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had to face that fact. I rubbed my anking temples. I felt like my head was going to explode from the pressure building inside of it. My life was being destroyed and I had made myself vulnerable to these attacks with my own actions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I was allowed to continue to operate, stories of this deployment would circulate through the teams. If I go to my next platoon with my reputation in tatters, who would follow my lead?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sitting neatly on the wooden crossbar on the floor beside my bed, my holstered Sig Sauer P226 sat well oiled and cleaned. I leaned over and pulled it out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I knew a round was already in the chamber, but I drew back the slide and took a look to make sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We called a suppressed check and it confirmed what I already knew. My gun was ready to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I held the pistol, I thought of the great samurai warriors who, if disgraced, would commit ritual suicide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of me willed my hand to raise the sig to press it firmly to my temple. My life is over. There's nothing left but an honorable exit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I glanced over at the desk and saw a picture of my beautiful wife, Erica.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The image of her face riveted my attention. Her easygoing smile, her eyes alight and lively, always quick to laugh and offer love and compassion. What would this do to her?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After all she'd sacrificed for me, would my death snuff out the life of her gorgeous eyes?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the bullet I put in my temple, I'd leave her the burden of my failed career and a ticket to a lifetime of grief. The kids would live under that cloud as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that's what they did. It's, it's, you know, when I was reading this part,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's gonna be, it's, it's, I don't think you could have, I don't think a human being, I don't think you could explain, I don't think Will Shakespeare could explain to someone that's not in the teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like for people like you and me that grew up literally whole adult life in the SEAL teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the highlight of that moment of being deployed in combat, you just lost your comrades in arms from your task unit. And to be told, okay, you can't do this job anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, like you said, and again, I think it's gonna be hard for people to understand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've just gotta say this in case someone hasn't heard me say it before. When you're in that storm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's... Team guys, there's no mercy in a SEAL platoon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, or you can't help them. They think they're gonna sit on the X and just get shot up. That's the way it's gonna be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good man. Uh, and one of the things that they do to fix you in the SEAL teams is send you to Ranger school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, often times we use it in the SEAL teams. Maybe punishment is the wrong word. In some cases I know it's been punishment. Occasionally a guy will want to go there, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I failed to represent my community as anything but that stereotype.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We should have given you a boat, swabby. Another growl. Not surprising, seals don't know how to navigate anyways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I failed at something I once took great pride in. Not so good without your Gucci gear, are ya? Another sneered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a miracle. The colonel in charge of ranger school happens to be friends with, uh, Vince Peterson, who we talked about earlier, and that's not his real name, but he's a legendary


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Battle of Way City, by the way, just a, just an awesome guy, and for whatever reason, miracle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And here we go, going back to the book, you're sitting there talking to the Colonel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so here you go, your conversation with Captain Vince Peterson. Red, do you really think Ranger School is punishment? It is, sir.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Red, have you ever thought that maybe there is an opportunity here?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sir, you have a chance to learn something of value, if you're willing to take it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't know what to say to that. I'd not been trying to learn anything since Afghanistan. I'd been trying to defend and justify. You're getting ready to throw your career away red


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Besides, do you really wanna go through your life having ended your career this way? You can recover.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You control your destiny and your future. You can earn back the respect of the guys if you give them something to respect, if your actions demand respect. I hadn't looked at it, my situation from that angle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get back in that course, finish it, then come back with your head held high and show that you have the ability to lead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Picking up cigarette butts 13 years in. 13 years in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I filled my bag with litter, the bitterness flared again. I've put 13, I've put in 13 and a half years. I was a member of one of the most elite special operations units in modern history. Millions of dollars were spent preparing me, training me, outfitting me to handle the toughest battlefield tasks our nation can face. And my own brothers have reduced me to this. I stopped and thought about that statement. Where was the personal responsibility in it? Vince Peterson's word came back to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have an opportunity to learn here if you're willing to take it. I served with good men whom I respected. They turned their back on me. Or did they?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What did all this say about me? A door suddenly opened in my mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sun Tzu once said, if you know your enemies and you know yourself, you will never be defeated. I didn't know myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I found another cigarette button flicked into my bag, the bitterness over being forced into this sort of work evaporated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Far from a humiliating burden, it was giving me clarity I surely needed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I went off on one of our admin guys who had congratulated me after I received it, instead of being grateful receiving any sort of acknowledgement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'd thrown the award at him. I might as well have thrown it in the face of Captain Peterson, who was my CEO at the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That incident stuck with my peers who witnessed it, and for years after when I ran into one of them, they'd remind me of it. Jason Redman. Navy achievement metal thrower. Vanguard of leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When, when you say that, what I think about is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the minute you look at yourself and you say, wait a second,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I actually control everything that's going on right now. Everything. People's perception of me is based on my behavior, not theirs. And that's what, that's what I liked what uh, what Peterson said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I had put down my pride, I would have seen it. And I would have learned a lot from him. That never happened. I failed to manage our relationship and it poisoned the entire platoon. It also hurt my reputation with my teammates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My self deceit finally collapsed. Carrie had not done this to me. I'd done this all to myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was being punished less for the decision I'd made and more for the way I'd fiercely refused to take responsibility for it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The more I railed against those aligned against me, the more I deserve to be punished.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wasn't betrayed by my teammates. I betrayed them with my selfishness. It was time to grow up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, I'm harping on this a little bit, but just the fact that this book is so powerful because to, to, to,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Walk through that transition and I'll tell you, anybody that's read Extreme Ownership or anyone that listens to this podcast is going to be especially


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's so powerful to actually hear from your perspective, from someone that was in that exact position and doing those things to hear you saying it and be able to witness the turnaround. It's uh, it's powerful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You kick ass in ranger school. You're not honor man, because you find out that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's a, that's a, I don't know if that's, uhm, happens in all the military, but in the SEAL teams, there's, there's a lot of letters that get shredded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And part of it is like a cover your ass like when I was a commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you screw up again and everyone knows that this has happened multiple times and you haven't been counseled about it, I look like an idiot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And not only do I look like an idiot, I am an idiot if I'm not documenting that you screwed something up. So I'm gonna document this and make sure that you know I've got it documented. But by the way, I'm not trying to kill your career if you can turn around and you can get back on the path. Cool, this thing's going in the shredder. But here it is. Gotta get some ways to go before this thing goes in that shredder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're assistant platoon commander and things are going good and you, you were a lot more self aware. And again, you have to read the whole book to get all these details about that transition. You were a lot more self aware.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I may have lost my way years ago but through God and a willingness to work hard and learn my strengths and weaknesses, I had earned my way back into


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The brotherhood and you detail some, some good missions, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some pretty hot missions, you know, you guys got some pretty good gun fights. And you're getting towards the end of deployment and you're TU commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's, he, you have a little conversation with him and he says we're gonna have you run as ground force commander on the next one. For a second.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What this really meant, failed to register. Really? JP in the date, at this point in the book, JP is a guy, he's your task unit commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] JP nodded, yeah I spoke to Eric and Paul and we all agree you're ready for it besides this will help get you up to speed to be a platoon commander.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had done it. My career was back on track at last. I knew some in our community would always hate me for my mistakes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After years of selfish focus on myself, I'd finally understood what it meant to lead men of this caliber.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what was required of a man in order to be part of this most elite of all fraternities. The letter in the safe would be destroyed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For an instant, the horizon ahead held no boundaries. And again, I skipped. This was not like an easy process, man. You worked your way right back up. You started with small jobs. You made some mistakes that you, you know, that you, you talk about the, uh, you late.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, I'm sorry I'm not gonna go into everything, but you know you had a pretty dynamic, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Head counts not accounted for, people and you took charge of the situation and that probably is what


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of these next coming missions, we're gonna make you the ground force commander and what that means for civilians is that means


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're in charge of everything. You're gonna go out, you're gonna be the, this, the, the main leader, the senior leader, not even the main, they're gonna be the senior leader, the guy in charge of everything that's happening on the battlefield. That's what the ground force commander is, and you're now being, it's the end of deployment, you're being told, look, you've, hey, we want you to be the ground force commander on one of these upcoming operations and,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is the ultimate trust for someone to give to a subordinate is, hey, I want you to go out and take my job that I would normally do. You go do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the mission comes down, it's one of those missions where you guys are kinda like, this probably isn't gonna go down, it's sketchy intel, high visibility if it goes, and you're thinking, cause we get a lot of those, you know, oh this is gonna happen, and you get used to getting all amped up, and then eventually you don't even get amped up anymore, you continue with your daily routine, go to the gym, workout, whatever, and this particular case,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Definitely you guys had the intel that bad guys expected, security team expected, enemy security team expected, and, and again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty intense, pretty quick. Once you've, once you've hit the target, you've got it secured. Now we've got some squirgers, meaning some folks that we think have run away from the target building. Again, I'm not gonna go into the full detail of the mission, which you did a beautiful job of explaining what this was like in the book, and that's why... people just get the book so they can read it, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I looked back at Al and the rest of my team behind the tire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I lay less than 50 feet from the enemy machine gun that engaged me. I drifted in and out of consciousness the entire time, awake in a fog of confusion, one minute out, cold the next.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember nothing of this and I didn't know Al had even moved me to the tire until months after the firefight. The medevac bird arrived a few minutes later and the guys helped us aboard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He left part of his personal security detail behind to fight a battle he had no stomach for himself. And they died to the last man after inflicting three casualties on us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Months later, another SEAL team ran the Al-Qaeda commander to the ground and killed him. Justice served.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My nose was almost completely destroyed and we need a full reconstruction. They would need to repair my shattered jaw, implant a titanium plate to replace the ocular floor, and would have to repair the damage to the rest of my facial bones on the right side.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was still under the impression they could fix me right up and get me back into the teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There will be progressive surgeries. Each one will need to be fully healed before we can move on to the next one. She went on to explain that there was no roadmap for the extent of the, because of the extent and nature of my wounds. My case was highly complex and I would require extensive bone and skin grafts in the years ahead. After she left, I struggled to keep my spirits up. This was news I did not want to hear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While I was dozing, I heard them whispering to each other. I only got fragments of the conversation, but it was enough. They were full of pity for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When Erica returned and my relatives departed, I wrote down all that had happened. Recounting it sent me into a fury again. I tore off the sheet of paper and handed it to her. Then I thought for a minute and added, never again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were men and women in this complex who were far more badly wounded than I was. Missing limbs, burned, suffering brain trauma or eyesight loss. I would be grateful for what I had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are coming into this room with sorrow, or to feel sorry for my wounds, go elsewhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The wounds I received, I got in a job I love. Doing it for people I love. Supporting the freedom of a country I deeply love.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am incredibly tough and will make a full recovery. What is full? That is the absolute


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Up most physically my body has the ability to recover.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This room you are about to enter is a room of fun, optimism, and intense, rapid regrowth. If you are not prepared for that, go elsewhere. From the management.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No doubt about it, man. And, and the, the unfortunate opposite of that is when you start allowing yourself to be negative and you start listening to people that want to be negative and be, and drag you down, you can easily


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You had yourself in that direction as well. So when you make a choice and make a decision on which one of those two directions you wanna move in, up or down,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and it's just one of those things that we all take for granted every single day and you know, I've had multiple prisoners of war on this podcast and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, they're eating a ball of rice once a day or ball of rice twice a day that has chips of wood in it for three years, for six years. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the daily things, and, and, and that always gets me thinking about the daily things that when I talk to my friends that have been wounded, it's like, it's the daily, everyday things, and as a matter of fact, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we had Jim Webb on, and he was talking about one of his friends that had been wounded in Vietnam. And he's like, that's the daily Kurds. Like that guy was courageous in Vietnam.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Daily courage. And so, just thinking about you in that situation, man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They'd act ashamed or embarrassed or they'd set expressions of pity on their faces. Internally I raged at them. Are these the people I sacrificed for?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coming back from a ship, coming back from Chicago on one trip, I just broke. Everyone who stared at me, I treated with a sudden BOO!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going to the Oval Office, you ended up meeting President Bush with your family. Uhm, and then,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mike was a fellow seal who had jumped on a hand grenade thrown onto a rooftop. He had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And saved two of his teammates in a firefight in Ramadi. He shielded his brothers with his own body and paid the ultimate price for that devotion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was deeply moving to be there to see Mike's family receive his posthumous medal of honor. But while I was there, I met another seal named Ryan Job. He'd been part of the team three.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And had served with legendary sniper Chris Kyle in Iraq during the 2006 campaign.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ryan had been a Mark 48 machine gunner for the team and during a firefight that spring a bullet had struck his weapon then hit him in the face, destroying his right eye.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He survived and reached Bethesda, much as I would a year later, but nerve damage cost him his vision in his left eye.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The prospect of spending the rest of his life blind had to have been terrifying, though he never showed it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, that's where I met you for the first time. Obviously, uh, Mikey and Ryan and Chris were all with me in Task Unit Bruiser and you came out for the, for the Medal of Honor ceremony for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crazy to sit there and look at both you guys that have been, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Both been shot. Unfortunately, Ryan, you know, he lost vision in both eyes, which obviously could have happened to you, uh, very easily. And thank God, you know, it didn't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a very small club. We decided to call the club shit. Seals hit in the head.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just hit me like a ton of bricks. By the summer of 2009, I was starting to run low on the available patches of skin for grafting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My body was roped with scars from surgical sites and over a do- a dozen grafts. That to me, I'm thinking to myself, I mean, you're running out of skin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To graft, to do damage repair to your face. What is that process like?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hadn't known Ryan incredibly well. I wouldn't call him a close friend. We talked on the phone occasionally. We shared a common experience and discussed our notes on recovery and we shared a twisted sense of humor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But above all I respected his spirit and relentless energy to recapture all he could out of life. He made the most of every moment and achieved things most people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With their eyesight. Intact. Never would. In 2008 he climbed Mount Rainier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I heard about that, I was blown away in the climbing community. The 14,000 foot volcanic mountain in Washington state is considered one of the most difficult to summit in all North America.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who he had married, he and Kelly were getting ready to have a daughter together. Ryan had started a new life, found a fresh path to blaze, and had built something from the ruins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then with the snap of cosmic fingers, it was all stolen from him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're still looking at unknown numbers of surgeries ahead at the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and the other thing that was crazy about Ryan was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I'm not gonna say he was out of the woods. I mean, but he was pretty damn far out of the woods. And that's why, you know, to lose him like that was just a fucking nightmare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To change magazines to operate your weapon. So you're going to a bunch of different people trying to see who is, who can make this happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You finally find a guy that's, you know, you think you have a good lead on somebody that can make this happen and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The drive home was a quiet one for me as I deliberated whether or not to roll the dice one last time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the time I turned off the freeway for Virginia Beach, I knew it was not worth the risk. My days as an operator were over. Part of me always suspected this might happen. This might happen. Now it was confirmed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ryan's death reminded me that nothing is guaranteed in life. It can be taken away in a heartbeat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The life you've built with everything you've got can come apart in an instant from circumstances far beyond your control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You either adapt and overcome or you become a casualty of those twists of fate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, you're not, we can't do this. This is what, you got what you got. This is where you're at. And the idea of getting back operational again is gone. And it's funny, you and I were just talking about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Medically dropped, not gonna be able to come back. And so, Dream is gone. And it's interesting, you're talking to him, and you'd been through it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Been through it. And your attitude was, okay, what am I gonna do now?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This golden emblem had driven my life. I focused on it. I coveted it. I became enamored by it. I almost lost it and then I earned it back before I sacrificed my body for it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Only then did I finally understand what it truly represented.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It carried the spirit of warrior poets like Mike Murphy, Mike Monsoor, and Chris Kyle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you continue to do that obviously every day with what you're doing and how you're doing it and how you're taking the lessons that you learned and bringing them to more people, spreading the word broadly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bring us from, you know, the end of your career into where you are now and where you're focused right now and what you're doing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's probably a pretty good place to rap. Where do you, where can people find you? Where should people locate you and when they wanna, when they wanna hear from you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Awesome. Echo, speaking of making people better, do you have any quick recommendations on how, you know, we can improve ourselves? Sure. This is Echo Charles by the way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and Jay is about to start training jiu-jitsu. Boom. So yeaah, he's gonna need a jiu-jitsu gi. So we need to get that hooked up. Where are we gonna hook him up with a gi from?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I started saying, why would a human being in 2019 buy


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Want to. Don't forget about the Warrior Kid podcast. A lot of people say that's the best podcast for kids ever. You hear that a lot. From kids.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything. Yes, yes. That's the, uh, that's why I love the warrior kid books. This is a message for a 10 year old. And guess what? I've had, I have many adults that say thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] YouTube channel. Echoes makes a bunch of videos speaking of arrogant. He thinks his videos are great and he posts them on there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We got some books, okay. First of all, book, I again read a bunch of excerpts today, but not even close to putting, giving justice to this book, The Trident by Jason Redman. We will have it up on the site, right? Yes, sir.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Jocko's store website looks all cool. Yes it does. Why is that? Well, you know, various reasons. Okay, cool. That sounds great. Uh, we also got some books. Mikey and the Dragon's kids book for kids between the ages of four and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 100. Yea, 100. So get Mikey and the Dragons, Weigh the Warrior Kid, and Mark's Mission. Those are out. And we have book three, which I completed, is being drawn by the artist right now, John Bozak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talking about don't go too far in one direction or the other as a leader or you will blow it. Echelon Front's my leadership consultancy and what we do is solve problems through leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whatever problems you have in your organization, I 100% guarantee they are leadership problems. That's what they are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's what we do. Me, Leif Babin, JP Daniel, Dave Burke, Flynn Cochran, Mike Cirelli, Mike Baima.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go to echelonfront.com if you need help with leadership in your team or organization. The muster, speaking of leadership, this is our leadership conference.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 2019, this is when it's going down. May 23rd and 24th in Chi-town.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna get stakes there too. And then December 4th and 5th in Sydney, Australia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna go there and yes, we're gonna get stakes there as well. Look, all these events have sold out completely and all these are gonna sell out too. So if you wanna come, go to ExtremeOwnership.com to register.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes. You have to make leadership decisions in the online training. Once you learn the principles, you have to try and apply them to combat and business situations. So that's efonline.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Check it out. You can get it as an individual or you can get it enterprise version for your whole company. So that's that. And EF Overwatch, where we're connecting combat proven leaders from the spec ops community and from the combat aviation community with companies in the civilian sector.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Continue this conversation. Ask questions. Give us answers. Tell me what I mispronounced.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tell me what historical fact I got wrong. Hit us up, we're on the social media.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Brother, thanks for coming on and obviously thanks for your service to our country. Thanks for what you did for the teams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thanks for doing that. Amen. Overcome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And of course, thanks to all our military personnel that are standing watch around the world to protect our freedoms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who continue to sacrifice bravely every day for the freedoms that we all enjoy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to everyone else out there that's listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So don't allow yourself to fall short. Don't allow yourself to give anything less than everything you've got to take the fight to the enemy, whoever and whatever that enemy might be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is Jocko Podcast number 188. With David Burke and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening Dave. Good evening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And on the last podcast, number 187, Dave and I dug into the first two chapters, we tried to make it to three, we only made it to two, of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication, MCDP 1 DAC 3 Tactics. So if you haven't listened to that podcast,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's 187, then go there and start because now we are going back to the book starting with chapter 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here we go. Chapter three is called gaining advantage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like the other chapters, it starts with a couple quotes. The first quote.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In war, the power to use two fists is an incredible asset.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To feint with one fist and strike with the other yields an advantage, but a still greater advantage lies in being able to interchange them to convert the feint into the real blow if the opponent uncovers himself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wounded in World War I, you know, last podcast we were talking about how you made it through World War I and then you, and then you involved in World War II, right? Crazy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] B.H. Ladell Hart is one of those guys who was wounded in World War I, took a couple years to recover, and then went back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the World War I, battled the Somme, wounded again, gassed. Wounded, gassed, taken off the line and his entire battalion was wiped out. So, he ended up being a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A writer, a military theorist, and I'm sure I'll cover some of his books on here at some point. They're really interesting books and he had a very interesting perspective, very, very


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would say contrarian perspective on warfare, especially contrarian in regards to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the other quote that this starts with is, the challenge is to identify and adopt a concept of war fighting consistent with our understanding of the nature.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In fact, one that will exploit these conditions to advantage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you hear, they've mentioned it, the uncertain chaotic, they keep saying that over and over again. I think they're trying to tell us something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To look at those uncertain, chaotic things and say to yourself, good, we will exploit these things that are happening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm actually super excited. I'm saying those of us and I'm actually talking about myself. When I see chaos, I actually get excited and love it. For some reason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, here we go, getting started, gaining an adva- gaining advantage. A basic principle of martial arts is to use the opponent's strength and momentum against him to gain more leverage than one's own muscles alone can generate, thereby gaining an advantage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The same concept applies to tactics. We strive to gain advantage over our adversary by exploiting every aspect of a situation to help us achieve victory, not by overpowering him with our own strength.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This chapter will discuss several different ways of generating leverage to gain advantage over the enemy. This is one of those things that when I saw it, when I read this, and when I read this for the first time,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wasn't training jujitsu. When I read it for the second time, I was. This had a whole nother meaning. This had a whole nother meaning when I read this and actually understood it. I was talking with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you, when you learn a move. So if, if I show you a move, Dave, and you've been training jiu-jitsu for a year and a half, you're gonna pick up


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 12% of it, 20% of it, maybe the first time. I show it to Dean one time and he captures 90% of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because he has that. Like you try to explain some maneuver. Yeaah. We could do this drill. Like you could explain to me the way that you would do a maneuver in a, in a jet plane. And I would understand 10% of it. Maybe 4% of it. I don't know. Whereas you explain it to one of your


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Old teammates from Top Gun, and they're gonna, they're gonna understand 90% of that. Oh yeah, yeah, okay, I understand all that other stuff, and now you're just telling me this little tiny detail that I didn't know. Cool. Got it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what it was like reading, that's what it's like reading this book for me when I read it later when I did Jujitsu. Everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you, when you, when you know the way broadly, you see it in all things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Back to the book. Consider the American Indian ambush technique. A small number of warriors would draw superior force of pursuing cavalry into a canyon or similar closed terrain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There a larger force of warriors lying in wait would quickly surround and ambush the soldiers who thought they had been pursuing a retreating enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By exploiting the cavalry's initial advantages of strength and momentum, the American Indians were able to seize the initiative and gain advantage through the use of this classic ambush method.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's basically what they're describing. Hey, we're gonna surround you completely and shoot you. I used to set that up where I would capture the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The friendly seals that were going through my training captured them in a fire sack. It would be a bloodbath.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Combined arms, the use of combined arms is a key means of gaining advantage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A no win situation. We combine supporting arms, organic fires, and maneuver in such a way


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That any action the enemy takes to avoid one threat makes him more vulnerable to another. This is what we do in Jujitsu. We got the triangle, armlock, sweep combination happening no matter which way they're caught in that dilemma. Which way are they gonna get tapped out or swept or end up in a worse position.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the use of combined arms at the squad level would be the squad leader positioning, squad automatic weapons and grenade launchers to provide support by fire while infantrymen with rifles assault the position. The firepower from the automatic weapons keeps the enemy in their fighting holes while grenades make those holes untenable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the best examples that I can think of when I think of combined arms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Effectiveness being used effectively was when we were in Ramadi and the enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] would utilize combined arms attacks. So, for example,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] US and Iraqi forces, US and Iraqi friendly forces had


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Outposts. We had checkpoints. And what the enemy would do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is they would start off from a very covered position. This is a, a low, a low threat for them. Way to attack is you get into a, you get a couple buildings away. You can either start with mortars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or you start with machine gun fire. So there's a, let's say there's an Iraqi checkpoint. And there's a couple Americans there, but it's mostly an Iraqi checkpoint. First thing the enemy does is start lobbing mortars in. What does everyone do when mortars start?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once you take cover, now the enemy gets up with their machine guns and gets a good position. When you start to reveal yourself, they're there with machine guns. Now that they've got the machine guns rockin' and rollin', and you've got your head down even deeper, out come the RPGs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the RPGs are coming in and slamming direct fire into your position. And while that all is happening, in comes a vehicle born IED that rolls all the way through the gates and detonates and blows up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that is what, that is a classic use of combined arms dilemma. You, you, doesn't matter what way you go, you're gonna be in trouble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's a couple things. Number one, obviously we see this in jiu-jitsu and you get stuck where the person's coming at you with multiple attacks. Now, to your point, if I do a, if I


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Attempt to sweep you, but I don't actually attempt to sweep you. I just faint at sweeping you. You don't have to really defend it because I didn't really do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So therefore, if I try and sweep you, if, if I want to get a reaction from you, I actually have to try and do it. And like you just said, if you don't defend it, you're getting swept. So you have to actually do it. It can't just be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not that you can't feint, not that we don't, you know, do little, uh, feints, and, and false moves to, to set people up, because you do that all the time, you do it in combat. But if you really want to get a reaction from them, you gotta commit to that movement, it's gotta be real.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's the same thing when you're dealing with human beings. Yeaah. You know, when I say, if I deliver an ultimatum to you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the project wasn't done, and I go, Dave, if you don't finish this project on time, you're fired. If I say that, I have to actually do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and that's, that's the important thing. So the other part that you mentioned was you're, you're, you're in this dilemma. What, what are you going to do? And you said you've got to do something. And that is true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the best case scenario, if I'm, if I'm attempting to catch you in the combined arms dilemma or in an armlock,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The best case scenario for me is you don't react, and then you just get, you just get crushed by whatever that first initial salvo is. What, what I would, the worst thing for me,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Out in this surrounding area. And as soon as the machine gun fires, I'm clacking off claymores. And in one second, like the SOG guys, they would have their claymores set up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if they get attacked, the first thing they're doing is igniting claymore. So that, that immediately there, they get fire superiority from the claymore going off. So what can we do? And more important, how can we set ourselves up?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Preemptively, so that when these things unfold, we have an immediate action drill that puts us from the defensive to the offensive very, very quickly. When we learned


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Immediate action drills in the SEAL teams we were learning from the Vietnam guys. When they got contacted in the jungle, the very first thing they did was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You saw guys, it was the same thing. Oh, we get contacted and it was a great story that Tilt told was everyone dumps their mag and then there's silence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because everyone dumped their mag on both sides. The, the, the NVA and the, the SAW guys, they all dumped their mags, and then there's silence, and then it's who can get reloaded the quickest. But what they did in that moment is take away the advantage of the enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause the enemy is attacking them, and their immediate reaction is, oh, you're gonna shoot at us? You're gonna try and get us in some kind of a combined arm dilemma? Okay, cool, watch this. Cause they're waiting for the B-40 rockets, that's what their goal is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The strengths of the arms complement and reinforce each other. At the same time, the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of each arm are protected or offset by the capabilities of the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In each separate unit, to be a one-handed puncher.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By that I mean that the rifleman wants to shoot, the tanker to charge, the artillery man to fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then with the brass horn, then with the clarinet, and then with the trumpet, there would be a hell of a lot of noise, but no music.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get harmony in music, each instrument must support the others. To get harmony in battle, each weapon must support the other. Team play wins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cover and move. You, you gotta cover and move. Do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First law of combat cover move. Why is it the first law of combat? Because that's what teamwork is. Cause you have to work together. If, if you're not working together, if you don't have a team that's working together, you don't, none of the other. None of the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maneuver. Maneuver provides us a means to gain advantage over the enemy. In too many battles, one or both sides have sought to gain advantage in combat through firepower and attrition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In World War I, one side would rush across no man's land under murderous fire in an attempt to push an opponent off desired terrain. If the attack succeeded, and few did,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The evicted forces counterattacked in the same manner, usually reoccupying the same terrain they had before. These battles were firepower and attrition contests. And the advantage lay with the side that had the most personnel and equipment to expend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To the tune of 60,000 casualties in one day. The cost in casualties and equipment was high and often produced no decisive results. We want to avoid this type of engagement.