[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you get to the solution quicker, because we're going back and forth on each other, we get to that final conclusion, and then you follow up with an email, because then it's black and white, and then you have like the confirmation of this is what we talked about. Documented. Exactly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's so good man. How this book has escaped


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I gotta admit, when I was a junior officer, I was so busy, so busy, you know, rabbit ears, you guys can't see that, like, with whatever I was tasked with. I never had time to read a book like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I read what books I was basically forced to read and I got through them as best I could. And the best leaders made me do those things because I was so darn busy. It wasn't a priority of me at 23 years old to do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But man, some of these things I learned first hand, and like as you're reading them, I'm like, yeah, well I absolutely know this to be true, but I learned it like by actually touching the hot stove myself, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and I think it's so important, we talk about training and how important training is for preparation, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At least, at the very least, hey, you gotta read this book. At the very least, okay, I mean, in the absence of that, it's like a complete failure, but at least, okay, you read these books, but you gotta find the time to do the training. Read the books, and then as a leader, sit down with you, what does that really mean? When we go out and we operate in this way, what are the lessons from this book that we can apply? Really do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the, in there he's saying, well if the enemy is, is fixed, right, you have to, it, it presumes,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there's a good reason to have an AW or two in each squad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well, cooperation, working together, but also, like, break the word in two pieces, it's co-operation, right? So you have two different elements that may even have different chains of command, right? You got an artillery unit, you got an infantry unit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, we saw this in Ramadi too. Here we are, a naval special forces unit with one set of communication method working with army and marines who use different types of communication who own the battle space. We were guests in their battle space and we had to co-operate, right? We had to co-operate. That meant communication, working together to ensure, you know, that synchrony of effort.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And without that, that's when, you know, we're, we're, we're going to be operating this here. Where are you, where are you going to be? Well, I don't need to tell you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not what we did. And that's part of why we had success there is because we co-operated with the army and the Marines.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the mats of justice. Very humbling. The last muster. Which is what got me back onto the mats.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? Yeah, well, and everybody else got really good and I got rusty. Yeah, yeah, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I drank, you know, I, uh, I was like dang.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a gift I give to like, uhm, friends of mine to give to like kids. Like, it's a bedtime story. It's so good. And there's something in there for all of us adults too. There is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, Muster's amazing, man. So good. And, you know, teams need to come together. You know, you, I mean, I've gone to events for years. There's nothing like Muster. You know, running a business, there's nothing like Muster. And I'll just tell you that you come as a leader, for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The value of bringing several of your other key leaders with you so you're all hearing the material together. It's one thing to go individually. Sure, that's great, but the tendency is to come back like Moses coming down the mountain with the tablets and everyone's, you're fired up and everyone's like, okay, but when they, when several of you hear it together, you can really implement change in your, in your organization.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'll tell you too, just something I've seen, cause I don't, you don't see this at other events. For those of you listening, Leif and Jaco basically, they don't basically eat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All day. No. Every break, so called, Leif and Jaco are sitting there talking to everyone. And that's something, the feedback that I see consistently is people are like, wow, Leif and Jaco and all the instructors are so accessible. So it's not like the sessions end and Leif and Jaco disappear back into their green room for a good cup of tea. They're out front meeting, so you get a lot of really good interaction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] None of us are promised tomorrow. Make as big of an impact you can every single day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Life and particularly recently, uh, passing on my grandfather and other friends of ours. At the end of the day, we're only here on this earth for a certain amount of time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think the biggest legacy that we can leave is how we impact the lives of other people. And that can be at a small level. It doesn't cost anything to say a kind word to somebody to offer some encouragement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To show an act of kindness to hold the door. That doesn't cost anything. And I think we can make a huge difference every day in just how we interact with other people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In kindness and in getting after it every single day. So that, when I meet St. Peter at the pearly gates and I meet my maker, he says, well done good and faithful servant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And truthfully, set that down, and, uh, they can read on it, use a toilet paper, whatever they want to do it, but I did not expect to make a commercial venture out of it. I, uh, I felt that would have been trading on, uh, the bodies I left behind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Weren't the ones who went over the top and who walked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And walked ahead. They fell or were hung up on the barbed wire. And they had no concept. Uh, they had a little bit of experience in the Boer War and a few other souvenir hunts. They had no concept of what they were doing to a generation. Uh, on both sides of the trenches.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The attack, general attack, I didn't like it when it came back, but the night patrols were regular, and then they wanted, some genius in the back said, they wanted to probe the enemy line. How you probe the enemy line, uh, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Controls are difficult enough, uh, without, uh, people waiting and with certain knowledge that you're coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as soon as you start messing around with the barbed wire, they know exactly where you are. And then they don't waste a whole lot of ammunition, but it doesn't take much to run through a machine gun to clean out some probes. So then when they didn't come back, the genius figured, hey, there must be somebody in those trenches. I can't grasp it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How, uh, that mentality went and how pompous those fucking generals were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, he felt guilty about that. He felt more like trying to explain the unexplainable to the families who knew exactly what had happened to their sons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the ten households as close as you can, uh, took care of. So when you've got a wound, then you're gone. So you're gonna...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just reading these parts makes me happy to know that some people will.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I took my space available. I took my young family on, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, anyway, in, uh, Washington, and in charge of Lend-Lease, which is a con job that, uh, FDR created because he wanted to get in the war, he believed firmly he had to stop Hitler and so on, and he, uh, so the Lend-Lease part was, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the same, I know the British Army or Irish Regiments or whatever you have, but the Irish, unfortunately, were paramount in the, in warfare, in English.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He decided to go to a doctor in Johns Hopkins, a good hospital in Baltimore. And, uh, so he asked me, you want to go for a drive? And I really worshiped him. He was big and all that stuff. So, uh, then we went to the hospital and I listened to this conversation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could hear him say something to my dad about, uh, uh, you won't have any more, you got a problem, we don't know much about it, it's multiple cirrhosis or, I'm not sure I even remember the name or I didn't remember it, and, uh, you wouldn't be doing any much more golf or, or, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was advertised throughout the fleet by order, and those who got through it were sent to get a degree. You had to learn to get a degree before you could fly an airplane to America, for America.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was running a one-man, two-man terminal in the industrial glass collected from around the country and then collected there and then pumped on the ships. And there were just two of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was a big combination of a big industrial pump and off on the side was a toilet. I said, Christian, Nelson, we got a toilet here. He said, that's for white folks. I said, you're gonna be shitting me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, what do you call those things when they have testimony or whatever, court reports, of course the suit, in every state and will break you. And, uh, so it goes on quite a bit in the book about, about that and the depth of the rot, uh, inside that guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was their commanding officer because, uh, they, uh, the supply officer had 50 chigga bears and, uh, they were, uh, they'd carry supplies up and they'd help carry wounded down and they were, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I won't say responsible for them, I suppose I felt that. But I felt we were going to have these people killed for us. And, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We could, uh, I mean, our rations in those days used to include when they're dropped to us or they're carried up a river. In a ration you get say three Lucky Strike cigarettes, something like that. I don't happen to smoke. Geez, I thought they were in heaven. Uh, but they weren't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, find out what the colonel was doing. I, uh, most of the time I didn't have an interpreter. But I felt more, more truthful. And then the fucking colonel said, uh, you can't just squat down with a bunch of gooks. And, uh, he, he was not my favorite guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of me, but certainly they were part of the Charlie Company 1st Battalion, 5th Marines when I got there, or the whole battalion. And, uh, so uhm, they didn't wear helmets, so I didn't wear a helmet. So then, uh, another officer came from the regiment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That job exposed a lot of disgust to the performance of the battalion commander who did not eat last.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lack of effort in trying to get decent supplies. Uhm, I got a trailer and a jeep and went and stole some from the army, but that's not stealing, so I'm just sitting in the fat asses. These are reserve places. I'm not belittling the army, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he missed the ball and hit him in the heart of the cord right in his face through the net. And, uh, so then...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll just talk about one of the, one of the, uh, cheeky bears you touched on there. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, and I happened to notice him before because he was a little older than some and carrying a full load and so on. So uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Marine intelligence or these useless generals, Almond and MacArthur and so on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But anyway, it was a massive, massive, uh, accumulation of forces. 700,000 were there, far more than before. And they moved at night. And they, uhm, had, this is the whole, I don't...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They needed some additional training. They were taken from China and so on and they were exhausted and semi-trained.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they were, they had, they had not humanly enough, could not carry enough. They had to carry it because the US Air, uh, carried much of the equipment. So they were, they had very small amounts of the ammunition, like 20 rounds per pan or something like that. But a lot of them. And they had a limited amount of food. So they had a, they had, from the time they launched that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the time to be out of ammunition food was seven days. So, and this is, the Chinese knew that. But they said if we did it with enough force, and could swamp the UN, at least we'd get a stalemate to end this thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I knew obviously none of that, and I knew the second or third or first if I had run around loose. But it was just later on that I was intrigued by that, and by the ferocity of this. And, you know, as usual we did our little...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I cut away the, ehm, the leather part between that and the trigger. So I figured if I could wake in the night, at least I could fire through the holster. I didn't really want to be hauled off as somebody's gift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One, one warning of that nature, taken by some attached combat photographer or whatever. There's unbelievable numbers of them. I thought people would lie about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really from the advent of the machine gun, uhm, and our ability to make these interlocking bands of fire, and you see the result of it, it really is true, it's a slaughter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you know better than that, I'm not the same thing, it's just, and I hope that that's a human trait, that at least somehow something reaches into you, and sticks with you, what you've done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We know very well, and not uncommon, I suppose, that he finished his marine career by signing over to the CIA. And there's just ways you could, an economics professor didn't go to the place where he went. So when the things got worse, he's a little guy, you know, with, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I think that's precisely the right to say, because it was an immensely effective life-saving, from our selfless point of view, tactic that he destroyed. He didn't delay it, he destroyed it. It's impossible to do this. Anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, making a move and, and, uh, we were outnumbered, we had these god damn geniuses on their side there and, and it just, uh, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They take your, uh, pants and then they put a blanket on and double fold it over you, because they had experience before with Marines getting as far as Hawaii.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I blew it, I guess. They explained to me the situation as you just described it there, but they said that, uh, you'll always have to, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, he didn't tell, he lied about his age. He was young. He wasn't young. But no one's gonna hire a fat old black man. So he, he, uh, said he was fat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know I'm only vaguely, vaguely, because I just, you know, when I was around there as an intern. Okay. But that was well above my thing. So anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I returned the call and they said they didn't want me to work there. So uhm, I decided to take a chance and I got a free flight with space available from Palo Alto to Tennessee to Memphis. I took a bus up and ran into a room with family left behind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what I think of that is great. As long as you put in the bill, every B-52 pilot has to also serve a year of penance. So, uh, he said, you son of a bitch. So, uh, he filed the bill without the restriction on the first front, so he didn't have to face the second one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He uhm, FDR fired everybody in the staff right away. But that's understandable. I mean, Truman did. Truman had never been allowed in the White House when he was Vice President. Never, not once.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The degree of stability was important and what his own personal views were, I don't know, but the, uh, but I think they were genuine, that he felt retaining the, uh, staff


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Particularly people like the congressional staff was, was very important to try to, as we ease into whoever, whatever the future lies. And, uh, that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, uh, was talking with, with Kenny O'Leary, I forgot which, Kenny I think, but I said, the only way it's going to work if at all is if the president calls her. And, uh, so I said, why don't you go in and tell him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, we were discussing some bill, and he was, he was paying his buddy boy stuff. That word, I knew I wasn't seeing that day. So I, uh, I wore, wore mine. And you could tell he knew I knew. He was a fake, and it was a fake medal. Really a fake medal, it's in the book.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that one, all of it, it was just, I started keeping track of it. I never made any notes when I worked in the White House before. But I had done, started doing that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Put that away, and I used to write four by six cards to myself each day. Uh, most days, not each day. About individuals attending meetings, it's very sensitive stuff. So I decided to help with it. So I started scribbling this thing, and one day, this nosy Christine,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Comes in and she's got a box. She's really found in the basement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I put those away, I thought I'd thrown them away. She found them and she started reading, totally into myself. She said, Jesus. So that's where we are on that project.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but this one was, he didn't hire me for that. A little before that was right after the death and so on, or if anything, soon I'd get out of there. But he handled Chicago police very well, he did it on a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, well, the deal was with, with, uh, with Levy. He's a pretty Machiavellian guy and he wanted me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And off in the distance I saw some people playing golf. Forced them playing golf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That pilot, uh, and the other pilots there, wore, uh, arms and legs, quick release tourniquets so that, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, he said, he said, what do you want to be at the other five years? He said, I know exactly what I want to be five years, what I am today, I'm my own fucking man, but I'm five years and I'm gone, and I was gone to today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dick observed that when he was, he came up from the, you know, and, uh, the Catholic Church is up on the top of the hill and in those days still a huge number of persons go to church there, or the Catholic Church. So, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dick, that is pretty separate. Dick, you won't believe me, but the Catholic Church takes, you know, church gate collections for worthy causes. They had a special church gate collection for, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For money to send down the hill to repair the Catholic, the Protestant church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A letter from, uh, Donahue. And he said, here's a check for, I don't know, fifteen hundred dollars to, uh, help fix the, uh, product, help fix your roof. But not for what goes on under, under, underneath it. That's vintage Donahue. Anyway, it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tip O'Neill's a friend of mine, she worked 12 years for the appointment secretary to, uh, to Tip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Italian ambassador, or whoever that was, wanted to see Tip. He says, let me check.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And by the time you find out that you need to get an appointment for two years from next Wednesday or something like that, it seems impossible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, he got, partly because he went down to play a hundred thousand people all white, uh, at age 18, rugby, and South Africa, and everybody fell in love with the place. So he asked me to come down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, O'Reilly was sensitive to how Bobby had gone down there and so on. He knew I was interested in that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we flew down, first class of course, and on his nickel, and if we flew into the airport, we noticed this big sea of, looked like a bunch of shacks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So then we landed and drove back into South, into Cape Town. I looked at the shacks, and they were, they were really shacks, and no windows or anything like that, and, and, uh, some tin roof bits and pieces they found by the street or whatever. There were hundreds of thousands of people, unbelievable, that lived there, so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thing was, was murderous, and, and we've done nothing about it. So uhm, and I described in some detail, and he later said he went to places he would never go and never did go, but, uh, and nor did anyone else in the, in the South African employee. But anyway, the, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He did have sex with a woman, alleged rape or not, but he didn't have any problem because he'd taken a shower afterwards. That's the president of the fucking country. And they get, uh, the times later, looking back on his years in service, when he was in office, if he had just permitted it,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man's help from two other persons, Charlie on the research and editing and much of the writing and then Christine because, uh, she reads back to me, uh, some that I've written and if it rings false, I can tell she looks at me the way you look at me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No joke, cuz guarantee you of that list, at any given time, you're not doing something on that list. You need to remind yourself what did you need to do to be successful later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's a piece there, I think the correlation is completely intact. There's also a little piece here too that, look, if you're in this position, you find out you didn't get what you were expecting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You shouldn't be too surprised. And if you are, where you actually need to start is with yourself a little bit. Before you go run into the boss, even in a positive light.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take a step back and say, hey look, this caught me off guard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't expect this. I thought I was going to get that promo. Okay? Didn't work out. Take a step back and you need to look at why you were caught off guard. Figure that piece out first. I'm not saying don't go to your boss and say I want to get better. You absolutely can do that. That's not where you need to start and I think the correlation is totally dialed in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, which you, you can't do if you have an ego. So the ego, when we say it infects everything, it infects everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you say this in all the books that you talk about in the podcast. I know you already said it, I'll be repetitive. You have to read every word of this book.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything, Jocko's skipping, you know, just out of necessity for time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything needs to be read, even in this sequence too, from strategy down to tactics. And even this, what seems to be small components of that actually feed into this larger thing. You have to read all of this, uh, when you get this every word.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That actually is, was true for the entire first part and it's permeates all throughout this is that leadership almost always is subtle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a subtle thing, not this loud, overbearing thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the things we get asked about a lot when we're talking about dichotomies is this phrase default aggressive. So it's the first mindset we talk about being aggressive with solving problems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But people take that with, I'm being aggressive so I am doing the right thing. No matter what it is, I'm being aggressive and that's what we have to do. And the idea of waiting, you know, a couple seconds, whatever the idea of waiting to be effective, the most common pushback was,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what you thought was happening, but what they were over there doing is they were assessing or they were considering, you even talked about a little bit between those two platoon commanders where you made a call, people write on that, that first platoon and it was the right call. He kind of did almost the same thing on that situation that the vacuum actually wasn't there to be filled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this idea of leadership being subtle, it's not as satisfying as people want it to be. And they want this thing where it's loud and spotlights on you and you jump in and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's everywhere in leadership is the subtlety of it and that really comes from


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What is universal in every company and every team I've ever been a part of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even in the military, experience has a ton of value. So if you and I are both kind of equal, experience level, pretty senior guys, 3rd to 4th squadron, 3rd to 4th platoon, and a brand new guy says something,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the organization is going to reinforce that ego because all those that have experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's that a whole, nobody else is gonna think you should, and so, and if you don't,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're almost going to be rewarded for squashing that new guy. And so that check of your ego, that part where it stings, it's going to sting even more the more experience you get because the people around you are going to expect you to crush that guy because that's how most organizations are. If you can detach in that situation,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now you're on a path where not only will that junior guy appreciate it, the rest of the people in the organization are going, wow, that's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, that's almost a, that, that tricky movie just talked about. That question comes up. We were talking in the last Q&A is, is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, how often do you think I'm wrong? And people are like, oh, you're wrong all the time. You're like, actually,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I'm always right because I have so much experience. The reason I'm almost never wrong is that I never make the claim in the beginning to put myself in the position. And the reason why I think that conclusion is so important is when as a leader do you think it's beneficial for you to be in a place where you cannot maneuver?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What does that mean for your team? You are the leader. There's the, and so it's not just about you and your inability to maneuver, to turn, to move to whatever is required is what essentially seals your fate and for the people. And the best way to be able to maneuver is, is like, well you say never dig in, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When people are having those conversations, you want those conversations. If you're the leader, you should be the one of the last people communicating about what you think we should do because more than likely, the minute you talk, nobody else is going to talk because you're in charge. People don't want to talk over the leader.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if you're listening, not, not waiting to talk, but actually listening, and you actually have the team that you think you have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's the inability to maneuver. If you think about, this is tactics, but you were thinking strategically all the time. All the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I go down the road of what I think we should do, what will this do to my ability to maneuver down the road?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and the more you grow as a leader, the more strategic your viewpoint and thinking needs to be, the more inner decision making is important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, there are times that a very small tactical thing, I don't want to iterate on that. I'm gonna kick in that door and I'm gonna go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The more you grow, the more strategic you need to think, the more iterative it has to be. And so, yes, I will never put my hand down and say always, I won't say that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the more you grow, the more experience, the more it shifts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Towards almost always in that direction, that iterative decision making is right almost all the time. Not always. The more you do it, the more that's the way you need to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The feedback you're looking for to know if you made the right decision is down the road of the decision. So you actually need to move in that direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you don't need to move that far to start getting feedback. And that's the feedback you need to see if you're right. Yeah, that whole section is, is, it's good to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way you describe that in the book, and we've talked about it a whole bunch, it's actually kind of intuitive for relatively new guys. So you're brand new to the platoon, you're brand new to the squadron. When I had my very first squadron, this wasn't that hard of a concept for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was like, all right, hey, I'm the new guy. I'm going to keep my mouth shut. And I'm actually am going to conform and I'm going to give whatever, whatever task. And when I got to my first squadron, I got the most menial task that you could get. It was called the coffee mess officer. So my job was literally to buy coffee.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sell t-shirts, and you know, it kind of goes cyclical, it just happened to be my turn. It is the most menial thing. And you know what? I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Crush that job. I just dove in ahead first. I just look for any way to get people to think Dave's on board the team. This is equally true in any position. And when I came back to that same squadron eight years later,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't start telling everybody how things, you being in charge doesn't mean you're on the team. As a matter of fact, if you're that bad as a leader, you'll get a mutiny. And so the same idea of conforming


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is true, whether you're the junior guy or the senior guy. If there are traditions, if there's things, if there's components of the team that you aren't, aren't aware of, even if you're the most senior person, that conforming, that showing everybody you're willing to get on board with that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gives you a mass amount of credibility, but you don't get to cash that in the more senior you are and go, well, I'm a senior guy, we're doing it this way. It's the same rule applies for the first day in your squadron or the most senior to include being a squadron commander. You don't want to walk in, tell everybody we're doing things differently now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just because you're in charge. Because they may nod and go, Roger that, boss. But they're going back and they're not doing anything you're asking them to do. That, that, this idea of being tactically smart about conforming, it, that never goes away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The difference is, is the leader that actually really cares. That truly cares about his people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is not- I'm not doing that- I'm not gonna put Jaco in charge just so I can crush his ego. I'm still actually doing it to try to help him out. That's the difference there. As opposed to-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The common denominator amongst the guy that's just growing and evolving and needs more responsibility and the dude that is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, as a leader, if you're listening to this, this isn't a punitive tool to destroy your people whose egos are out of control. It's a tool to help crush the biggest hindrance this person have to being individually successful and contribute to your team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as a leader, you need to care about that person and really want him to be successful knowing that the best tool to do that for him is, alright bro, you got a big ego, hey, let's put you in charge of this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally, and just for me, it's easy to get wrapped around the idea of fixing this person's problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what a good leader really does is looks at all his people, even the ones that are doing all the things that frustrate you is hey, I really need help. It's the same thing with my kids. I got my kids doing things that drive me nuts that I want to crush. But I'm actually doing it because I want them to be successful over time, not because I just want to prove the point of overwhelming them with responsibility to their breaking point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. And that's why the direct approach almost never works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and if your relationship actually is that strong...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That problem that you're dealing with would never get to an out of control state anyway. So, if you're contemplating the direct approach, it's such a narrow, narrow, narrow, uh, uh, time to use that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People are crazy. People are crazy. It's connected to what you were just talking about at the Rambo scenario too, is you used the word competition. Look, Piers, my assumption is that in the SEAL teams, it's exactly the same with just other things. When everybody gets to a fighter squadron,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or I want to go to a weapons school, I want to be a senior instructor. But everybody knows that's what you're competing about. And you might have nine guys all checked in and within the same time they're all peers. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't pretend like there's not competition amongst your team, all vying to have whatever that opportunity is. It's not Top Gun on the teams. It's, it's something else. It's whatever is relevant. So that competition is there. And so that is another component of why leading your peers is so hard because there is a competition piece of that too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The what got you there is the same thing that gets you to want to be successful there as well. I didn't get to my first squadron to say, well, my whole goal was just to be a pilot. I'm here. I'm done. I'm just going to ride this wave to shore. I got there. I'm like, okay, what's the next level on this mountain that I'm climbing, which was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That next thing, out of the nine guys in my squadron that were there, nine guys wanted to go to Top Gun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you're competing with them over things that are hugely important for them. So it makes that leading your peers thing even harder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When done incorrectly, you can actually torpedo the entire squadron when those nine guys are fighting against each other so much so that it undermines the squadron. And guess what? Nobody's going to Top Gun. None of those guys are going anywhere to include you. And that subtle art of leading your peers, if you can get that down early in your career, that carries you. That will carry you forever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because what you get on top of that is now you get more positional authority, more influence, it makes things a little bit easier if you got some credibility because you're in charge. But what you're leveraging is a skill you got at the beginning. That's part of the reason why those lessons you talked about early in the book are so important is that the foundation to be a good leader


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Starts way earlier than you think. You're on the clock the minute you show up to any team, even as a junior guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the right frame of mind gets you to absorb more things early on so you can leverage that moving down the road that is hard to do for a young person, especially when you're competing with the other eight dudes that want the exact same thing that you want.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those traps are so easy to fall into because you want to, you want to go hard as soon as you see that. Uhm, you talked about, you've talked about truth bombs in the past and people kind of feel those little subtle lies, those little kind of indications. You have to hold the high ground.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And know that sooner or later that approach that they're taking, that's a losing approach. And that instant gratification does not come. It's not going to happen that day. It's going to frustrate the hell out of you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you get pulled into that, you will lose. You will lose as well. You gotta stay on the high ground there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dude, I was just thinking about that, that section earlier of, of telling the truth. And there's a common thread in every type of boss. Do a really good job and support as best you can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good bosses, bad bosses, micromanager, laissez faire, wants all the credit, is afraid of be- If you do that, in almost every situation,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're going to get towards the outcome that you want. And if you actually have, if you have a hard time with your team walking back from a meeting where, okay, setting aside the one in a million cash off, just like stupid plan. Nobody really likes it. They don't really want to do it. They can't really get behind it. What does it say about you as a leader to come out of that meeting? Jocko and I go back and forth for hours. Hey, at the end, this is the planner moving forward. Hey team, hey, listen up. Here's what we're doing. Okay. All the grumblings push back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I can't go, guys listen, I understand, I understand some of those frustrations, but listen, here's the deal. We actually, we have a lot of influence here, a lot of control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The best thing we can do is get through this as quickly as we can, as effectively as we can, and move on to other things. What does it say about you as a leader when your people are like, no, we're not gonna do it, the plan is that stupid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most of it, almost all the time when I find myself and I've, I've implemented really dumb plans for my boss a million times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's kinda how it happens, and so if your people are pushing back so hard against the bad boss,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The problem probably isn't your bad boss. The problem really is with you, and the solution to that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the exact same solution when I work for the best leaders I've ever worked with in my career.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, I mean, you said it obviously. You're talking about tactics. The tactical decision is actually enforcing what matters, which is not winning that engagement, it's winning the war.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if I'm flying around in my airplane and I get engaged with three aircraft and I have...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 500 pounds of usable gas. And my wingman just went home with an emergency.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And nothing about that sounds sexy. None of it sounds rewarding. None of it sounds good in any way. And the story they want is like, Oh, I turn decisively and get, I will die. I'll be in a parachute. I'll be dead. Whatever it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Quitting tactics is actually just iterative decision making going, oh, you know what? This isn't work, this isn't getting me towards my goal and I'm just maneuvering in another direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The worst thing you can do is when we decide to fight in an aircraft, you and I have met, you're a bad guy, I'm a good guy, we decide to get to an engagement and we turn, we call that anchoring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there's a reason it's called anchoring. Because just like with a ship that has dropped anchor, guess what? You're not going anywhere. You are gonna anchor right there and you can't, and your decisions have now gone from an infinite number of decisions down to one. Which is I'm gonna sit here and turn until one of us dies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what that does to every other person involved in this engagement? The 50 other airplanes? Or the Sam?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They all know I'm right there. I have almost no maneuvering room. I have no options. And the likelihood that I'm going to anchor and survive are very, very small.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But people want that satisfying answer of never, ever, ever quit. We see this in the FTX all the time. Send me two more. They're dead too. Get the other two. Okay, then they're dead. And now you're saying it so plainly, but it's that mantra in their mind is never quit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't understand that you're talking about a tactical versus a strategic thing, and that's the biggest difference. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One, no different than you as a task unit commander looking down the sights of your rifle. So I'm now decisively engaged with one other aircraft. 100% of my attention is on that aircraft. 100%. I have zero bandwidth for anything else. And two, those fights


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 100% of the time, go from fast speed to slow speed. Because you're turning. So all your energy, all your maneuvering, all the G's slow that your plane's down. So you go from 4 or 500 knots down to usually about 115 knots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can have the most advanced airplane in the world when you're turning around at 115 knots. You're a Cessna. You're just sitting there slow compared to, and so you don't see anything else that's happening and you have no literal maneuver, maneuvering speed. So you're slow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can't, you're not paying attention to anything else. Cause if I stop looking at you, I look elsewhere, you're gonna kill me. It's, it's, you have no options. So anchoring and aviation is the exact same thing as digging in. And once you do it,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, now you and I might end up in a one on one fight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the other 20 airplanes aren't in that one on one fight and they're all going to focus on that and one of the two of us is going to get picked off by our, by our allies, by our friends. So you and I might be fighting one against one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's, yeah, if I get maybe a matter of time, but the likelihood, there is no such thing where the enemy takes off, let's want, launch one aircraft and then the Americans respond, we're gonna launch one aircraft. It never happens like that. So you might be in a one-on-one fight, but there's 20 other airplanes out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We thought, well, that's been a cycle. That was the Russian strategy in the 80s, just build a whole bunch of airplanes, 70s and 80s. And turns out that we discovered that with technology, we could build less that were way better. And I have a system that could take down six years for, you know, every, everyone of mine can shoot down six years. So then the strategy just shifted to technology.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And now we leverage that we actually don't think mass in and of itself is what we need to do. We actually need to have the ability to, guess what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Know more than you. Have more awareness and more information and be able to focus on much more than just one thing. And so...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, technology isn't just about being high tech, it's about giving the pilot more information about more different things that are going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is the exact same thing as, as a pilot, I no longer need to stare down the scope of my rifle. I don't need to look at my sights. I actually have a system that lets me look at 15 different things at the same time and have high fidelity information to decide on, I can think strategically in a one man fighter, which nobody ever thought was possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It actually is possible if you can detach, and you use a great language in here, you talk about detach, not just, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Physically, but detaching mentally. Aircraft now allow pilots to detach mentally in ways they never could before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would, I would still compare it much more to like a platoon commander on a platoon size, uh, uh, operation or a task you make that you're there, but you're, you're physically detached, but not like literally, you know, back away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The tool you have to have that conversation is, is, they have to trust you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes. The tool you have is trust, and the way you cultivate that trust is every other opportunity you have that you're not hamstrung by these things, you're telling them everything that you can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything you can possibly let them know the big picture. You've done that so much. You've made so many leadership capital deposits. So many that the time you go, hey man, look, there's a couple reasons why I can't do this. They go,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's got way less chance. And if you start with the indirect approach and it doesn't work, what you get to do simultaneously with this required escalation is to reflect on yourself as, hey, why am I not, what am I not doing that I can't get through to this person? You can actually start to look at what you're doing wrong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What am I missing here that this more subtle, indirect approach isn't getting through to this person I work with every single day?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and that is every bit as important, if not even more important than that required escalation, which you most certainly need to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is looking at why, what is it you haven't done, or what is the problem that you have created that isn't working out of the gates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You did the demo with the muster and I think we've done it too now. Uhm, there's actually


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sort of an ideal way that we should all aspire to be able to communicate with the closest people on our team that aren't doing the things we want them to do, which is when I can look at you or you can look at me and go, bro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is all the feedback that I need to hear from you. Look at me and go, bro. And I go,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got it. And I go solve whatever that problem is, whether it's I came in late to work, insert whatever the problem is. That is as a leader, what you're actually aspiring to is to be able to have a type of relationship that I can look at the people around me and say that one word. Or no words.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as funny, as humorous that interaction was on the stage and as funny as it might sound listening to it, that's totally a real thing. That's totally legit. Like you can have a close relationship with everybody in your team by which you can just look at them or kind of just say that one word and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It isn't a joke. It's real. And they'll go, dude, that's, that problem is handled. You will never have to come back here ever again about that thing ever. And it's done. And you move on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the depth of that you're talking about? What's actually required though during that time?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not what that 98.2 is. That 98.2 is... Man, they got a lot of people that have a lot of things to say here. I'm surrounded by probably a few smart people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somebody's gonna say something I haven't thought about and you need to listen actively for what those things are and that gets back to a comment from earlier in the book and a comment we've hit over and over again is you have to care about your people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to care about them and which means you have to trust them and believe in them and vice versa and somebody's gonna say something that is right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's not a game to wait till the end so you drop in your 2% and win. It's that you are armed with all what you have and then what they have too and actually makes you a better leader.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The caring about your people part is easy to say. That's really, that's hard. That is hard to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I agree with you, uh, Echo. I think the way you said that is actually pretty good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I got a chance to read this little advance copy and then I also read the final version right before you printed it. So I've seen it a couple of times and we've talked about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When, when you guys out there, when everybody's out there reading this, one of the things I did, and I started to think about this, is all those little indexes. There is a thread.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of every single thing in this book, every little index, every little story, whatever the situation is, that goes back to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The ultimate strategy for being successful as a leader, which is the threat of extreme ownership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so for each one of those things that you're going through it when you're thinking about, we were talking about ultimatums or yelling or all, every one of those situations, what you can look at is think, what is it that I've done?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is extreme ownership is embedded in every one of those things. And I think that's why I made such a big deal early on about having to read every single little thing in this book, all the different


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All that kind of the answers and the conclusions and solutions, they won't work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They won't work. And so for this field manual to work, what is required?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the ultimate strategy, which is you are responsible for everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can grab it and literally I'm on the, I'm ready, it's ready to deploy at any moment. Little curveball.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the can scenario, which was the Jocko Palmer powder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I tried it and I realized what it was and then how good the Jocko Palmer was. I have now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reduced my reliance on the cans, and I'm back on the powder a little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes. Strawberry Mulk. That's good, but. Is that the point that, so we did a muster where we laid out a single serve pack of all the, uh, mulks across all the tables?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are on the leadership path and you're training with us, uh, if online is an awesome resource to get additional reps and it is a great tool that we use in between working with clients. However, this is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Completely dual use, that if you are not even remotely engaged with Echelon Front and doing leadership training,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is still a skill that you can develop and you can go to EF Online and go directly to that as a resource and expose to all the things that we're teaching. All the things we're teaching clients and customers and all the people we're working with is actually available for anybody and it is a easy and guaranteed way


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To apply the principles that we teach everywhere, directly, at any time you want. It's an awesome, awesome resource.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep, cause we do recommend gi and no gi jujitsu. They're two different things. I think as time goes on, they become more and more like different from each other, which in my opinion is more of a reason to do both. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, worm guard. Yeah, and that's it. That's a system. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Try to do that in no gi. I don't even know if any of that applies to no gi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a whole system, man, yeaah. And that system is, does not exist in no gi, certain ones. Some do, some kind of do, so I'm saying it's like a big, you know, it's just very vast is what I'm saying. So, when you get your gi,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You gotta get an origin gi. 100%. Like you don't even have to ask anymore. Everyone knows already. Get origin gi. It's a monopoly. Really? Yeah. It's a monopoly on the market. Cause really what? You're not going to get a different gi. Is the monopoly and cornering the market the same thing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, I'm saying monopoly. Monopoly is like no choice, like consumers no choice, right? Monopoly? I'm kind of saying no choice though.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Guy at the airport, guy working at the airport straight up, asking about it. There you go. Straight up, asking about discipline, side of the blue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also don't forget to wear your kidmulk. Because you know when your kids- Back to school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Avenues of, uh, what do you call it? Desire? Yep. Is that the word? Nonetheless, yes, very good. Uh, kid approved, which is a good thing, of course. Uh, so yeah, all at originmain.com also.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jocko's store, it's called Jocko's store and this is where we all get our shirts to represent the path. Def core, discipline equals freedom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Approved. Yeah. Rash guards. Rash guards on there big time. Trucker's hats. Yup. Beanies. Dry fit. Dry fit. They're being produced. We'll talk about that. They're coming. They're coming. Be on the lookout for that. Hoodies. Lightweight and I wear the lightweight. What do you think? It looked good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And represent while you're on the path. It's good to represent, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah, that's a good one. Yeaah, two flavors on that one by the way. Not flavors, sorry. Two separate kinds of so, Trooper, so, Jocko, so. That's what Aiden's making up there. Also, we have a YouTube channel, official YouTube channel, Jocko Podcast. You can see the video version of this podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, it's, it's, yeaah, it's, yeaah, you could tell man, he, his, like every step of his journey, you could tell he was caring about stuff. You know, like he was, yeaah, you could tell a lot of it was, was affecting him from the beginning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't frozen. It's kind of interesting. No, if you look close, which I, I, uh, encourage you to do. Okay, this is what it is. When you're, okay, me and Dave, and you're talking about the one that you're saying, um, you know what, the Trump card, right? Like, yeah, if you want to go drink rather than train, then I don't want you on my team. Okay. So when you were saying that, me and Dave Burke, good deal, Dave, we were listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes. Okay, fair enough, fair enough. So uhm, so the reason I did that, or we, the reason we put your, did your face like that, or whatever, is uhm, because when you're saying that, like you give off a certain feeling, you know, like even when you say a bunch of stuff, you give off a certain feeling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So like as a person listening to it, it's like, what feeling am I getting? I see what you're saying. And I even see here how you're saying, I dig it man, but it gives you a certain feeling as a result. So I took that feeling and it was kind of a psychotic feeling. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Took that psychotic feeling the best I could translate it graphically into the video.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and true by the way. Also don't forget about OnIt. OnIt.com slash Jocko. This is where you can get your kettlebells, your rings, your clubs, maces, battle ropes, all kinds of fitness equipment. Typical stuff and atypical.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, well, actually way the worry kid gets more reps in my house. Yeaah, really? Gets more reps, yes. Check. I'm not saying it's better. Yeaah, I'm surprised.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, and that's good about the reps too because, you know how like, cause a big part of what you kinda can't teach, even in, like you can't teach this part of it, even like, I guess in Jiu Jitsu you kinda can, but uhm, like you can't teach being in the actual scenario, because you're emotional.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know? So like, it's like, hey, you know, you gotta, you know, there's this situation, what are you gonna do? You're gonna, and I'm oversimplifying the scenario for sure. You're gonna blame someone, you're gonna take blame, or you're gonna take blame with an excuse, kind of, kind of options, right? But, and it's like, okay, cool, I know it, I know it, that's a good scenario, I've been in scenarios.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But now when it's time to execute, you gotta, you know, you gotta contend with your emotions. But when you get the reps and those scenarios are kind of readily available in your head, even though you're kind of field defensive, you're like, oh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you know, like throughout the story, um, you know, there's little pockets of maybe like, oh wait, well, you know, small details. So you said the pilot was DOR. What does DOR mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay. It's crazy. Uhm, also I thought, you know the way you mentioned, like how you'd have, uhm, like challenges with your memory, like just going to the bathroom, like hey why am I here kind of thing. Yep. You ever watch the movie Memento?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He has long term and so he can do like habitual stuff, you know, stuff that I guess he uses a different part of your brain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's really good and it goes, uh, backwards. The movie goes backwards. So you don't, it's like you follow along with him. You know? So it's like, oh, how did he get there? And you don't know. You know, he'll just wake up in the room with an empty bottle and be like, I don't feel drunk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You snowboard. I don't, I don't know how to snowboard. And these may or may not apply to you because you're different I think, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know how to snowboard. I probably couldn't climb. I can barely climb my driveway over here talking about Everest and all these things. I don't have a hair salon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then at the, and then kinda as a, and it kinda, I guess with you, like, you were kinda always like that, right? Yeah, oh yeah. Like, you were like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make things happen in this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's good. Well, these are all elements of the path included on the path. So as far as jujitsu goes, if you do gi, you need a gi. If you do gi, which you should hand in it. I think you should. Oh, you can do one or the other, I guess, but ideally gi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, that's why you don't know about Cosmopolitan. So uh, Cosmopolitan, it's like the, if you think magazines, what do you think? People. Time. Cosmopolitan. Jujitsu. Jujitsu magazine. And Jujitsu magazine. Yes. But Cosmo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Zero percent chance. Yeah, that's, I mean, I guess one, what do you call it, those people who like, they learn, they yearn for the past? What is it, what is that kind of person?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the go-to. That's where you can get this good stuff. Also, we have a store. It's called Jocko Store. See, you're probably going to kind of figure out real quick. And so Jocko Palmer is not a genius name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How did that even happen? The thing is, big picture, long game, it does make sense. It's actually smart. I think you, the genius in simplicity, I think this applies here. So nonetheless, jocostore.com. This is where you can get your shirts and rash guards. Tank to all these stuff while you're representing on the path. Discipline equals freedom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was, okay, him and his other friends who he probably found annoying at the time. They were drinking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some argument ensued in the car. He beat them both up. Real bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nonetheless, he got that shirt, whether this means anything or not to us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also, that's not to be com-confused with you using trooper soap or Jocko soap gonna rehabilitate your drug situation either.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you want, if you want, I was gonna say, or I was saying, if you want to see what Kirsty looks like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it the kind of picture on Instagram, the kind where it's like, um, blurred out with the eyeball, with the, with the cross over it, where you gotta click on it? Probably. You know that one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's a prairie fire? What is it called? Prairie fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you so much for having me. It is a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Deep and profound honor to be able to sit here at this table with you guys.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and bring to light an MOS that's very not well known. And, uh, to bring to light the different sacrifices of the guys who did this job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's, there's nothing motivating to do with our job. Cause if you work in the medical field,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You do your best to ensure that guy will get home and, and have a normal life. You've really, with the grunts, you know, you train, train, train, try to prepare yourself. But for us, we never know where we're going to get until, you know, we open the bag.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Processing the remains and then we're dealing with and working with their, their unit members and taking, you know, their, uh, statements and so you have to play the role of a, like a funeral director in the,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's so hard to remove yourself from that because you may recognize that person you're working on from the chow hall or you know that guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and that had to happen to us several times. And that's where it really, really sucks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was Air Force. I grew up in the Air Force, traveled all over the world, spent seven years in Japan. When we left there, we went and visited some friends over in Clark Air Force Base over in Philippines, Subic Bay, went back to Thailand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He worked P.O.L., so he refueled airplanes, uh, he spent three tours in the Vietnam War, uhm, where he met and married my mom, but back then he was making, uhm, you know, he said he used to make napalm and stuff like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep, yep. They met and married, and she emigrated here, had, uh, had me and my two brothers, and yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We moved, uh, South Carolina for like three or four years. Then we moved to Illinois for a year and then we moved to Ohio. Uh, my dad found a job as a contractor at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was there for a few years, uh, they lost the contract during the Clinton years and then he got a job as a mailman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, I went to high school out there, graduated, and that's what led me to joining the reserves, the Marine Reserves, because I traveled as a kid, and I never had friends beyond three years, four years, and I didn't want that. I finally had a place where I


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had low, you know, I loved my, hanging out with my friends and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After I joined the reserves, they were like, hey.


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[Assistant] No, it was, he knew that it was something I wanted to do, but he was very cautious about it. He said, I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I was a kid, when I was over in Vietnam and in Thailand, I remember seeing a lot of those body bags getting loaded up on the helicopters and the planes. And I don't want you becoming one of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, I told him, I was like, Dad, if I died doing something that I wanted to do, I'd die doing something I wanted to do. And so he signed for me. I signed when I was 17 years old. And I knew I wanted to go in, and I never thought we would ever go to war. I just wanted to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I, I, uh, signed when I was still in my senior year and then I was on the adept program and I went in November of 1992 and graduated February of 93.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, there, back then we did a marine combat training, which is a four week condensed course of, you know, we're gonna do...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Humps, and we're gonna go out and shoot things, and then after that, that's when we separate the people who were doing, uh, like admin jobs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go away, you know, and they would go do their other school, but we would do the sea bag drag from one side of Geiger to the other side of Geiger. And then, you know, from there we'd start our, our infantry. So I joined up as an 0311 rifleman. Um, I didn't really understand what it was, you know, when I was in high school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 100 pound packs and, you know, going out for 27 miles and stuff like that. But, I was like, I want to shoot a 50 cal. Alright, cool. Alright, now you gotta clean it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't, uhm, we traveled so much as a kid, uhm, and I never really stayed in one spot for too long, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Growing up and having a mother that's Thai, I felt more trying to find my connection to my roots. And I grew up knowing about my uncle who fought in Muay Thai and so by the time we settled down in Ohio,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Met some people in the Thai Air Force. This was before Muay Thai was anything. And I started going to the backyard. He started training me on some stuff that I had no idea. It was so cool. And, uh, then from there, I just went straight into the Marine Corps. The only thing that I would really say that would prepare me for it was bailing hay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now it's back to the civilian sector. I checked into my unit, which was a MP company. Uhm, they had a small detachment of reinforced, which was, you know, basically most of this were grunts. And at the time, they were like, hey, you're, you're, something's called Graves platoon. I'm like, okay, what does that mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I had a beater car anyway, and if I was to drive anywhere else, it would, you know, it would look good like getting there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So uhm, yeaah, I stayed with that unit. Uhm, it, Grey's Platoon eventually turned into Mortuary Affairs. Uhm, and that's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's how I ended up being in that unit. And then what were you doing for a civilian job? Uhm, I bounced around from being like mall security and then I worked for a couple department stores. I ended up, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Work in, you know, lows, security, and then I applied for every...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Police job that I could. So, Dayton, PD, uh, Englewood, and Beaver Creek, and next thing I know, my dad said, hey, the post office is gonna be hiring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, uh, well sure, I'll go ahead and take that test. And, uh, I got a call back from them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like awesome, I get to work with my dad. Cause me and my dad when we were growing up, you know, he was always yelling at me, I was the knucklehead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I'm not listening to him, I'm gonna sneak out of my window, go hang out with my friends kind of thing at night. And uhm, here,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got to work with my dad and I got to know him in a totally different light. You know, more of a man to man and not as a father and son. And, uh, we became really good friends. And, uh, I really, really loved hanging out with him and, and, and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going to work with him in the morning and waiting on him at night and stuff. He'd always have a cup of coffee waiting for me in the morning and my mom would fix me a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, a little breakfast sandwich in aluminum foil, and so it was really cool. And, uh, yeaah, I really look fondly upon those days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two weeks in the summertime. One week in the month. Just as advertised. Right. Uhm, in, and every once in a while they might have another school pop up and by the time I picked up corporal sergeant, I was like, yeah, I'm going to do two of these a year. One, get my official


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like sergeants course out of the way, but then I want to go out to Bridgeport at California and, you know, snow ski and climb. I love that stuff. Go to Norway and go out there and see the Aurora Borealis and all that. I was like, man, this is so awesome. I love this stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is funny. Uhm, nobody updated it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nobody updated the manuals from World War II. So we were practicing stuff that were World War II techniques. Uhm, all the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the stuff, the diagrams on the inside was like a old


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Airplane, like, uh, like a bomber or something. If they would crash, you would have these big pieces and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, you know, and they'll talk about if you clean out a tank, which back then Sherman tanks, all steel, they blow up, stuff, everything's usually contained on there, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and that's how we thought it was going to be, but it was more, mostly,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Focusing on infantry skills, so we would do a lot of patrolling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we would patrol into an area, that's when we would set up a perimeter. And then we would do, uh, uh, quick cleanup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somebody's like, alright, you three guys, you're dead. Get on the litters, we're gonna carry you back now. That kind of thing. We really didn't know how to prepare for war.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And do our jobs. Nobody had seen anything like this since Vietnam, but nobody wrote it down either. That was the 90's panel. That was the 90's. You were just trying to look cool, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Marine Expeditionary Unit come over to, uh, Dayton, Ohio.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they were staying at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and they were flying to 53s and 46s all around and they were


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Practicing clearing out buildings and stuff and there, you know, and the newspaper said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're preparing for Baghdad. We're preparing to go into Iraq.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I thought, well, if anything was to happen, I'll be getting called up to that. You know, uhm, but that was kind of after they left, nobody started, you know, nobody's talking about it anymore. So, hey, go back to delivering mail.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Until I get my phone call and I always dreamt about it and how it could happen and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But how many times have they said, Oh, prepare for this. Oh no, stand down. You know, like, hey, we're going to go up to Vietnam and help clean it. No, we're not. Oh, we're going to go to Kosovo and help. No, no, we're not. You know, and then finally we're doing this. We're not going to get called up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Young dad. Young dad, you know, uh, first real job. It just got house, you know, and, and just lovin' life, you know. I didn't think, you know, anything was ever gonna happen. I was gonna spend my 20 plus years at the post office.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was it, and, and be happily married, and, like picket fences, and dogs, and you know, mom's apple pie kind of thing, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and then, and back in the 90s, they were talking about, you know, getting rid of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, all up until, uh, our Lieutenant Colonel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Decided to change the name and try to make it sexier now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, uhm, and he was able to save that. It convinced enough people over at the headquarters Marine Corps that we should save this little, uh, this little group.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People forget that, you know, even preparing for, for something like this, we would always come like out here to Camp Pendleton and we would get ready to get trained and, and they were like, oh, what do you guys do? Mortuary affairs. So what do you guys do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we handle decease. No, you guys are gonna be working at the kitchen. You guys are gonna be K.P. You guys are gonna do the mess duty for two weeks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, we're not. So we'll go out and get lost. We go out and take our stuff out to, you know, out to the beach, get lost, hook up with, uh, with a recon unit that was doing night inserts on Zodiacs. And that's what we did for two weeks, man. But, uh, yeah, everybody back then was, oh, you, nobody's going to die.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We won't even need you. I mean, look at the Gulf War.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no. That's how it actually started when we actually got deployed too. That was the attitude.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A very good healthy mix of, of guys who served back then during the golf where they were PFCs and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, we got guys who were supply guys. So we kind of got the idea of, you know, more of a bigger picture of what to expect as far as how the living conditions were there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, what was the mindset, you know, of being, cause most of us were just,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And hey, let's go ahead and fill sandbags. I love filling sandbags, you know, cause at home we don't fill sandbags, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, they had that leadership experience, but also they prepared us very well to handle the pressures that were about to come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we already resigned ourselves off if it was coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That most of us wouldn't make it. You know, uhm, shoot, when the shooting started, they pushed us up there. Each of our trucks out of the three units, I mean the three teams that we had, each of us had 1200 remains pouches or body bags.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, they're expecting us to fight and keep on fighting until we died in the other two units that we trained before we left the U.S.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those guys were supposed to come up and clean us up with another 1,200 remains, uh, body, you know, body bags after them. So they were expecting, you know, expecting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hellfire. And we're the first time that we were honestly looking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At combat resembling World War I stuff, but with worse stuff on the menu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, VX nerve gas. I mean, all the prospects was just, it was dire. It was bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In these vehicles, helicopters, there's so many components that are made with all these different composite materials and plastics and rubbers and, and you know, metals that they all look the same. They all look like human remains that are burned up and mangled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and it's very, very hard to tell the difference. Uhm, I never knew that until we worked with these gentlemen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, they, they pulled out a screwdriver and they showed us how to do it and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, just like I said in there, you can feel how, if you tap it, how, because if it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I can't. You know, you could feel that, alright, that's a solid piece. But if you're tapping something that's burnt flesh, it has its own kind of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When these catastrophic scenes are like this, you're literally looking at millions and millions of pieces. And to narrow things down, that was just a trick they showed us. And that, I've never seen anything like that before. And we were very, very fortunate to work with those guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As people were gearing up, they're loading up their vehicles. They're, you know, everybody's loading up on, you know, ammo, water, chow, and everything, high-fiving each other, you know, hugging, and here we are staring at everybody, you know, sitting on the bench, you know, waiting for everybody. Hey, can we please go? Hey guys, we like to play too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Literally, as soon as one side would be saying all clear, the other side would be saying gas, gas, gas, and it was just chasing each other all day long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it, it got stupid, you know. But what we found out, uh, later on was they were monitoring the Iraqi, uh, Scud missiles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And whenever they flip the radar on so they can get prepared to launch, they would call a gas attack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was flippin' off and flippin' on, flippin' on, you know. And, and as far as I know, from my position, you know, they didn't send any.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it was very, very annoying all day long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and I really could look out at these rounds being shot out and it looked like shooting stars going up in the sky and then you see them crashing down to earth on top of Saffron Hill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I could look at that scene playing out right in before us and mirroring it to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, Iwo Jima or Okinawa or D-Day is like, wow, that's just incredible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It just felt so connected to this brotherhood of a long line of people fighting for freedom and, you know, it's just, it was just all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That does feel good. That feels really good. Especially when we cross the border and we started seeing people that welcome us in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You would have these kids, no shoes on their feet, and you would not see a structure as far as the eye could see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You would not see a car or a donkey or a motorcycle or nothing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they would walk all the way from wherever they came from, all the way to meet us at the road and welcome us in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And whenever we stopped, because over there, the convoys were all mashed together and all jammed together, so we would sit there. And they would, even though we tried to keep them off our vehicles, they climbed up and they were so excited. They came up and was kissing our hands and, you know, kids were waving at us and stuff. And in one in particular, I wish I could find this picture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a little girl that they had dressed up in the best clothes that she had. She had a pink dress, white frilly laces on it, and white patent leather shoes. And her dad was crouched down behind her and she was just waving at us. And I realized what that American flag means to them. Because these people back in 1992,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, revolted against Saddam Hussein and he crushed that rebellion and diverted the Euphrates and Tigris rivers away from their homeland. So they didn't have any farm fields anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They didn't have anything. He was trying to snuff out a 5,000 year old culture and that's what he was doing. So those people will work, welcome us in because we were their only hope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their survival of their culture. And then at that moment, it just struck me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are here for them and we are that American flag means something. So something that, that people take for granted every day. You go down the street, you know, you see it over there outside of a building or people's front yards and you don't realize how


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's impactful how powerful that symbol is until you see somebody who is literally their, their, their culture is weathering away and we were their only hope and it was just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And everybody was, everybody was on top of everybody. We had no idea who everyone was next to us. Um, literally, a vehicle would pass by and would not see you until it was almost too late.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no, it, it started off slow, the wind started picking up and it was like, no, okay, now it's starting to get that, you know, where you, you know, you put your arms up like this and you can start to pick up your suit and start doing this stuff here and, oh, I'm sorry. And then it just got brown.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, we moved the very next day. Oh, okay, so it was just till the next day. Right, we moved, but it had had that sandstorm that whole night, and then after that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our tent had, not our tent, but our, uh, our canvas for our, our 5-ton ripped and it was blowing in the wind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we just sat there and just took it. And it was miserable. All of our weapons were jammed up full of, full of, it looked like wet concrete coming out of those things. And then we realized that we were still surrounded by bad guys with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] AKs and RPKs and, you know, RPGs and, you know, we knew that their weapons work in this stuff. And ours has a little bit of a problem with wet concrete inside of it. So, but yeah, it, it, it freaking sucked. But we moved, we moved the very next day and it was all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All a- a gigantic f- wall of fog.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can say from my own experiences that I love tankers. I love tankers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause you know, at that point, it was all foggy. Nobody knew where everybody was, we're still kinda...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, separate ourselves and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the grunts and all the, uh, you know, the tanks were way ahead of us. So when we started getting hit, they're like, oh, there's a unit out there we forgot, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They rerouted them and thank God they got there right at the right time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, yeaah, took, took em out. And, uh, we ended up being...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dug in on the side of the road a couple days, and the guy who the tank commander came up, jumped in my hole and thanked me for pointing out the bad guys. He goes, yeaah, that makes 80 for us now, alright.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's one thing that I, I, I, I just thank my drill instructors for because they pounded in our heads that all this chaos, war is that. War is chaos. It is confusion. They're trying to make you panic. As long as you don't panic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And keep your head above the water, and not sink, and keep on fighting. You know, stay in there. You know, get into that mode, slow your heartbeat down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Make good decisions. And you know, I learned that from my senior, you know, instructor who now I stay in contact with, which is pretty crazy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yeaah, I took that onto the battlefield and when everybody else was panicking around me, I was just singing Travis Tritt to myself and, okay, here's my ammo, alright, you know, okay, my point of aim, shift it, I'm good to go. Anybody pops up there, I got him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You do not ever want to put yourself in that situation. It's better to make sure that what you're shooting at is a legitimate target than make the wrong decision. It'll cost somebody their lives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, everything they were giving us tasted like bleach. They were pumping it straight out of the water that was around us.


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[Assistant] You know, right at that moment, we were fighting in a Nazaria. So we had a, we had a whole...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That wasn't thousands. You know, maybe, maybe a hundred, a hundred plus on the sides of the road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, not as thousands, but you know, death, you know, when we passed first part, started passing by, I'm gonna be like, oh, look at that, look at that guy there. Oh, wow, look at this, this burning tank over here. But when we got to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Finally, the 23, 24 days when we had those three guys in there, uhm, it became real. Even though it was real.


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[Assistant] But this whole time you prepare yourself and you don't want to do our job. We never want to be the ones that were busy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was the first time that we had went through and had to face that realization that we were needed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and the guys that we were bringing in, it was instantly you can connect to these people because they're wearing the same uniform as you. They just have the same, the same, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once they want to go and do the best job they can and go home to their families.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and then all of a sudden what made me start to feel guilty is that I knew that they were dead. And, and I could see the pictures of their family members that they carried with them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I feel that their, their family members don't know that this guy now is gone. You know, especially when you see pictures of their children, and it really kicks you square in the teeth, you know. So uhm, yeaah, that night, it, it, it just,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A job that was really important, but you had to be tough in a totally different way. A way that we haven't prepared ourselves before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we, uh, we were there at Camp Chesty, and, uh, the guy sitting at the white table, he was supposed to be the air traffic controller, said, that's the bird you need, here's your number, get on. We got on, started taking off, supposed to be 45 minute flight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About two hours into it, we're like, where the hell are we going?


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[Assistant] You know, and we weren't the only ones. We had a CBS News crew and a Navy Chief Master Sergeant, or a Navy, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeah, E9. So we got on there, spent about six or eight hours on the ground over there. And this is another funny story. So it was the first time I was able to call home. I called my dad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, it was in a phone trailer, and I'm sitting back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was like, Dad, man, this was so crazy out there that I saw this, I saw that. I was here when this happened. And yeaah, I watched the very first bombs happen and stuff. And my dad was always glued to the TV, especially with anything that was going on, you know. And I knew he was, he had been watching. And so I'm telling all these stories and I sit back in the chair and stretch and I look down in this,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nobody was talking on their phones. Everybody was glued to what I was saying. So you had these 20 people watching me and they're like, oh my God, look at this. Wow, that's crazy. But yea, huge contrast between our services and their position, their role as, as for us. And uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mobile training. Mobile training. Mobile training team. Uhm, our role was supposed to be to impart western style policing to the Iraqi police. Who were, who rumored not to do too much beyond sitting there and collecting bribes, drinking tea. Accurate rumors. Yep, yep. So, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He stopped in Baghdad. That was our first stop and that was like a little, uh,


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[Assistant] A refueling place with huge gigantic concrete barriers. They're probably four or five stories tall in a really small area. And we stayed the night there and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Different story, but I met a, a corporal who was with a, uhm,


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[Assistant] With a, with a, uh, L.A.V. unit. And I was like, man, I've never seen these things up close. I want to check it out and stuff. I got called to go to a meeting. And later on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, he was already racked out, so I missed my opportunity. But it turns out that...


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[Assistant] I found out later on just recently that he passed away, uh, within like a month or two. And in one of my...


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[Assistant] But we stayed there at that refueling area. And then we drove all the way out to Al Asad.


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[Assistant] I can't even tell. So it was a bunch. It was a bunch. I was with 3rd Battalion 4th Marines Weapons Company. Got it. So we were all moving in. Got it. And we were taking over for the 3rd ACR for the Army.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybody else, basically the day that we were all stacked up, ready to go, they just came over with a pallet and said, have at it.