Jocko Podcast 250: Giving Up VS Holding On Just a Little Longer. Lessons Under Stress. "About Face"

2020-10-08T09:43:17Z

Join the conversation on Twitter/Instagram: @jockowillink @echocharles 0:00:00 - Opening 0:01:46 - More lessons from "About Face", by Hackworth. 1:59:32 - Making The Path a routine. 2:15:30 - How to stay on THE PATH. JOCKO STORE Apparel: https://www.jockostore.com/collections/men Jocko Fuel: https://originmaine.com/nutrition Origin Jeans and Clothes: https://originmaine.com/durable-goods/ Origin Gis: https://originmaine.com/bjj-mma-fit/ 2:34:25 - Closing gratitude.

AI summary of episode

so I just I look at this is like an understanding process do you understand this area do thank you I'm not even sure I understand so hack worth goes a wall because he wants to fight more back to the book any man who's wild enough to go a wall to fight is just a kind of man we want our outfit said captain John Paul van when I stopped at his eighth Ranger camp fresh from my breakfast out of the 25th Recon company the eighth Rangers was a great spirit at outfit recently rebuilt after being decimated the night the Chinese entered the war after I'd explain my situation the whole outfit accepted me with open arms the Rangers were elite troops four runners of the special forces their mission was raids long reconnaissance patrols ambushes and other special jobs that conventional troops were not trained to handle their history went back to Rogers Rangers before the Revolutionary War during World War II there've been six Ranger battalions whose brave and daring feats are unmatched to this day historically such all volunteer specific specially trained units had been misused task either with impossible missions for organizations their size or placed with palace guard combat duties well beneath their skill and ability when I arrived at the eighth Ranger camp the unit was chasing guerrillas behind the main lines morale was high and the guys were spoiling for a good fight but during the time I was there there was nothing much to my way of thinking anyway that seemed to be happening I was impatient to get in the thick of it and as proud as I was to be a Ranger guerrilla hunting was not my idea of infantry combat little did I know then the starring roles that guerrilla hunting and Ranger seal John Paul van would have later in my life besides the word was that the eighth Rangers was going to be broken up soon and something in me said to move on so I did until I saw a sign by a road that proclaimed wolf-hound right-white rear well if that's not a guarantee for a good fight I don't know what is I thought and high-tailed it to the battalion CP the 27th Infantry Wolf-Hound Regiment was a colorful unit itself the outfit had gotten his name during a stint in fighting the communist in Siberia during the Russian Revolution and Korea the wolf-hounds were known as the fire brigade because whenever there was trouble they were sent into save the day they weren't a special unit just a group of guys who thought they were good so they were good I had to highlight that because I just teaches you something about leadership and about morale and about attitude and about a speed of core you get guys and you convince them that they're good and they think they're good they get good they become good I'd see members of the outfit regularly over the last months whenever the 25th Recon had sent their portions of the division was sent I've been sent their portion of the divisional front but it's a good thing this renegade kind of soldering was not only sanctioned but encouraged by the twenty-seven's regimental commander and fire chief world war two paratrooper Colonel John iron-micolus Michaelus who would go on to four stars understood what made men fight he was known from morale boosting slogans like your lean your mean your rough your tough your professional killers and pre-battle pep talks like you're not here to die for your country you're here to make those other so-and-so is die for theirs the wolf hounds prad proud combat record showed that they believed him and they'd eagerly adopted their commanders no nonsense brand of soldering i was more than ready to do the same the second battalion's exo pointed the way up the road to where the rifle companies were deployed the first unit i came to is company g where i reported to first sergeant Edwin rager i can always use another sergeant this giant of a top kick roard then and there he assigned me to third puttune finally with the assurance that i'd be picked up on the morning report so i wouldn't be considered a walther a or mma i joined my new family at first it was not the happiest of unions i should have realized it wouldn't be easy it's always a bitch to join a unit particularly one as tight as the wolf hounds as an individual replacement and for some reason it's even worse when you're an nco or an officer you don't know anyone and no one trusts you until you've proved yourself in battle you get all the lousy details and only the worst battlefield horror stories you're just the new guy you're just fresh meat and add insult to injury though i'd been a squad leader in acting platoon sergeant in in Italy and a sex and leader in the 25th recon now in the in the third of the g i found myself an assistant squad leader i was damned unhappy with the emotion i probably had more non-com experience than any of the squad leaders in the platoon but the fact was that in their eyes i was untried and all protests the contrary fell on deaf ears doesn't matter who you are hack worth checking into a new unit got to prove yourself it didn't help i didn't help my cause that any that evening soon after my arrival when just at dusk i got caught in a right in a rice paddy right smack dab in the middle of a blistering chink mortar attack i started to run but slipped and fell in the patty when i finally got back to my foxhole i discovered that my water repellent outer trousers were covered with human shit which the Koreans used for fertilizer on surprisingly the guy sharing my whole was unhappy about this as i was i took off the trousers and made due for the night with two pairs of long johns and two pairs of OD trousers i had on an underneath then i sat out until it was my turn to go on guard leaving my foxhole partner to contend with the lingering aroma of my accident guard was grew a grueling ritual mainly because everyone was so tired each squad had its own sector normally four foxholes each about four yards apart the two guys shared a hole and took turns throughout the night searching into the darkness you'd look until you got tired then glance at your buddy sacked out at the bottom of the hole then you'd look a little longer until while you thought should i wake him now has he had enough sleep few guys had a watch us to own a watch in an infantry squad during the first Korean winter was a luxury beyond imagination it's like because where you're at it's a place in your mind too you know how like even if you're you're making progress but you're used to not making progress you know when you're really used to it can happen like with like if you have like a certain amount of money in your bank account your a kid or young man whatever if you're used to having like you know 20 dollars in there yes exactly right that's a good way to develop a pattern is you just automatically assume and do it every day just automatically as part of the day you know not like all I want to try to get a workout into it you know it's not that it's like that's like that's it's more of a given you know kind of thing is a weird thing that I'll say to people like how do you sure or you know like every day it's just all that's sort of just what you do every single day it's like right it becomes that you know and boom you're a new person boom just like that just like that you know like we're all in the path we're working out every day hey look you joins get sore you know it's like you know I actually read once four years ago in a muscle and fitness magazine that you know five days in a row is a bit too much to work out you should take that whatever day off you always can find 80 million ways to rationalize it's not the Bulgarians actually on their periodization cycle they only took you know like there's a million different I was reading about Michael Phelps and even though he trained hard there was always one day a week that he would just rest like everyone's got a million different rationalizing things that you can put in your head and I mean really to think like I can't have ice cream on the suffering well in your kind of addiction I'm assuming you know like I've the only addiction I've really dealt with as far as like seeing people as like a cigarette scenario where they're like craving a cigarette so much I mean there's certain levels of suffering for sure like you can go deep into human suffering for sure but really to some people like not having a drink the suffering you know when they're like or have a craving for ice cream or something like this it's like it's and it's like man if you can just imagine kind of what Jocca would say right now you know because you could legitimately have a tweaking your knee you could and then varying levels it could be like almost like hey if you start doing this squat routine that you have planned like you we will make it work for sure you know Well could they be interpreted as organized you know like you know the kind where those two guys let's say not military maybe like I don't know your friends in the neighborhood and you don't like them you know. yeah mentally man that's a big deal mentally where that's part of like essentially like your life you know it's part of like who you are you know like that's the discipline but I was too weak to tired too cold to get the words out the jeep spun around and headed back up that fire swept road pass Colonel Merch right into the jaws the whole god damn communist army we stopped the medics calmly sontored out to pick up the other casualty they took all the time in the world or so it seemed while the enemy used the large red cross markings on the Jeep for target practice the jeep's canvas size were sides were being ventilated the slugs were passing above and below my litter I felt totally helpless and score that whoever the wounded guy was I would hate him for life which from the way things were going was not going to be long it turned out he was a buddy through the Hawaiian mafia connection a handsome six footer named Ray Mendez I almost kept my kept to my word though when I found out his critical wound to be a slug in the thigh when he'd been hit he'd rolled up in a ball blooded squirted out of his leg all over the front of his jacket and someone had concluded that he had taken it in the gut oblivious to the fight raging on all signs of our thin skin ambulance jeep Mendez became chirpier and chirpier as we headed out of the battle area he sang praises of his million dollar wound and spun dreams about his in imminent return to the islands me one big war hero bra he said the regimental collection collecting station was jammed with casualties the surgeon who bent over my litter was covered with blood like a butcher we're going to bypass division clearing and send you straight to mash at Sioux want he said you're on your way home the next stop was quick mash was near the emergency runway at Sioux want the dock there wrote on my wounded leg and you know like i was i always tell people when you when you go on the steel teams your first platoon leaves a big mark on you and definitely your first two platoon and the teams have become a lot more similar than they used to be all the different steel teams there are a lot more similar than they used to be they used to be they used to have much more of their own personalities team one the nickname for team one which is where i was was stallog team one because it was you know you had uniforms and inspections and you had you everyone had short hair and they inspected your hair cuts and all the stuff team five was kind of you know they were kind of wild kind of just do you know they had no inspections it seems like it being a new guy as hard being a new guy is very hard you cannot you cannot do these kind of things socks when you do everyone's watching you you know kind of when you're a new guy kind of kind of back off a little bit you know what i'm saying you like just take take a wrap off so what's another dead body it's almost as if you don't care in this case we just leaned forward kept walking and tried to ignore the song in our heads the ones the troops called the bug out blues so this is the life of a ground pounder at often think the risks were higher in the recon company but life in George was far more harsh at least in recon we frequently rode on the backs of our tanks in thus kept warm in the infantry it was just a plotting grind one foot after the other until the column stopped and we'd flopped down the sound sound asleep before our heads touched the ground in recon we were seldom hungry because we stashed rations on the tanks in the infantry growling bellies were our constant companions in the infantry many men lost their will to live frequently guys would just quit drop out of the moving column and plunk down on the side of the road sometimes with the Chinese within sight you'd say come on buddy get up let's go you're going to be captured and he'd say I don't care I can't go another step a day felt like a week and the more tired and infantry became the the more tired and infantry man became the more he wanted to lighten his load first would go the souvenirs then his extra ammo next would be the bulky gear the field coat the pile jackets and the down sleeping bags even though he'd new heat freeze that night in the infantry I found you live for right now you don't give a damn about tomorrow because you don't even know if there'll be one getting it's weird but they were also sort of they seemed like shy for lack of a better one like team three was just kind of like they were just doing over there doing their thing they were also disconnected because they were deploying to south west Asia back then and team one and team two were deploying to south east areas so they were a little bit disconnected which made them seem a little bit more shy i guess i don't know that's the right word you're almost kind of used to like the warmth that you can imagine you know and to have that warmth kind of just taking away meaning you got to shift your plan back to like the reality whatever man that can see all that could be hard he's even got the fantasy of like hey the war vet for sure but what I do or sometimes if I have the strength uh is all imagine like you know how like all come with you with an issue like a work that's in excuse or something and you always have some work around for the excuse every single time like somewhere so you spelled each other based on the honor system and you only asked for relief when it was impossible to keep your eyes open any longer then your buddy would ask for a sit rep and that was it you'd be a sleep almost before you'd zipped up your feather down fart sack that's what they call a sleeping bags if you didn't pick that up the last time i used it guys didn't have watches what's happening i asked when my foxhole partner woke me from my turn not a thing he replied and he was out like a light still inside my sack i sat in the darkness in the edge of the hole got my eyeballs unglued and tried to remember where i was i was fantasizing about smoking a cigarette drinking a hot cup of coffee eating a charcoal black rare steak and getting a squad of my own wind to my amazement i saw man lying prone immediately to my immediate left rear i woke up my buddy there's a goddamn shake almost on top of us we whispered through our options we could toss a grenade blasting with a rifle or crawl out and getting with a knife we decided on the third alternative because the guy who's right in the middle of our squad position and rifle fire or a grenade could easily start a firefight among our own guys the chink wasn't moving and his back was to us my buddy covered me while i crawled out of the foxhole with my trusty m1 and ten inch razor sharp bayonet attached i crouched in a crouched position i silently slipped up behind the enemy soldier when i got within sticking distance i drew my rifle and thrust it with full force branches crackled and it was over i'd bayonet in my own frozen stiff trousers which i'd earlier hung over a bush behind our foxhole to dry the next morning i had to put the shitty things back on again now with a hole in the ass as well and for some reason the fresh meat was the only one in the squad who didn't think this was very funny my hands are not really worse I feel like my capacity maybe my enthusiasm sometimes less but that might be just because I got more stuff going on as an adult you see I don't know no the last if you're joints of sore don't worry joculous when did you become an adult how are you I want to say like mid 30's I think it was mid never to be honest but I don't know I think it's a slowly slow gradual we're still heading there kids kids kids kids move that forward when you have kids you start to become an adult pretty quickly and he's in Europe back to the book gradually most of the world war two warriors went back to the states and the post war wild west feeling of lawlessness went to and it'd been great fun for a kid to be part of the hell for leather spirit that made up the 752nd the 752s but like the tightening of a screw one turn in a time each day the unit became more military the who gives a damn attitude of the remaining 752 combat leaders and troopers replaced by the exacting discipline of the peace time army for the next four years i learned my trade one year with the recon company of the tank battalion in the poe valley and three more months with trees united states troops and this were the anacronum trust comes from trees united states troops the illustrious unit whose five thousand hand picked members Walter Winshal called quote the chrome plated soldiers of Europe we worked hard during those years long merciless days of training repeating training repeating repeating repeating until we got it right our transformation into soldiers inspired and monitors by those battle savvy n n c o's who well knew that discipline and tactical proficiency on the battlefield were the direct results of discipline and combat skills instilled on the parade and training grounds at night it was down on our hands and knees all of us hand waxing the barracks floors until we had enough money to chip in and buy a buffer you could eat off those floors just as you could just as you could almost be blinded by the brass belt buckles and brown boots that each of us wore polished every night to a dazzling finish the only way out of these activities was sick call

Most common words

Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jockel podcast number 250 with echo channels and me, Jockel willing. Good evening echo.
[00:00:06] Good evening. So on the last podcast number 249, we were reading the newest edition of the book about
[00:00:13] face by Colonel David Hackworth, which has a written forward in it written by me. And if you haven't
[00:00:20] listened to 249 yet, just go back right now and listen to that one first. And we ended up
[00:00:27] reading some of the book, but we just started to scratch the surface and look, I was prepping
[00:00:32] for this podcast and saying, you know what, we should read a little bit more. Read a little
[00:00:38] bit more from the book, talk about it a little bit more. And just as things start to pick up in the
[00:00:45] Korean war, we just start to learn these incredible lessons. So we're going to take one more look at about
[00:00:50] face today picking up. It actually picks up, you know that when you write a book, they
[00:00:58] want you to have like the big action scene in the beginning. Why? Did not know that, but I understand.
[00:01:04] Right. Right. So they want, you know, the reader to not, you know, to pick up the book and invest
[00:01:09] something into the book. So this book starts off with a big time action scene that we actually
[00:01:13] read last time. So this is a later chapter, but it actually predates the big action scene of February
[00:01:22] six, which is this battle where he gets wounded and you get shot in the head. David Hackworth
[00:01:27] gets shot in the head and all this may happen. So this is actually predates that with him kind of
[00:01:35] showing up in Korea. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to talk through some of these things.
[00:01:40] And I'll just slow it down and talk about some of the things that I pull out of this book. So here we go.
[00:01:45] Back to the book. The course of the Korean War had changed dramatically since it's lightning
[00:01:52] fast beginning. At the start, US forces hopelessly outnumbered outgunned and undertrained had been
[00:01:58] driven back by the North Koreans into the tiniest corner of South Korea beyond the Nat-Tong river.
[00:02:05] There, the eight army dug in its heels, determinedly holding what was known as the Pusan
[00:02:12] perimeter until September when MacArthur's daring amphibious invasion at Inchon severed
[00:02:17] the North Korean armies lines of communications and chopped its legs out from under it.
[00:02:21] No longer was the enemy ineffective fighting force and our certain defeat along the lines of
[00:02:26] Dunkirk in 1940 suddenly appeared to be surefire victory. Units of the eight army smashed out of
[00:02:37] Naktong perimeter. Spirits were high as we raised North beyond the 38 parallel beyond the North Korean capital of
[00:02:43] Pyongyang to within spitting distance of the Yallu River. The dividing line between North Korea and
[00:02:50] North Korea was being blocked further north of the weather worsened and enemy resistance increased.
[00:02:56] It was like compressing a spring. The night the Chinese came. I was in a foxhole in the centre
[00:03:04] of my scout section's defensive position. Now let's think about that. The night the Chinese came.
[00:03:11] That's a scary thing. Every time I read about the Korean War, which we've covered several
[00:03:18] Korean war memoirs on this podcast, what a savage scenario that was. It's called the Fragotten
[00:03:28] War. I did that piece on Memorial Day and talked about the Fragotten War and just about
[00:03:38] how anyone that was there could never forget what those guys went through in any way.
[00:03:44] You pay any attention to it whatsoever. You realize that we should always remember what sacrifices
[00:03:51] were made in the Korean War and a lot of it. This sentence right here, the night the Chinese came.
[00:03:59] So here we go. The night the Chinese came. I was in a foxhole in the centre of my scout sections defensive position.
[00:04:06] The sector was densely covered with screw pines and scrubbokes. My foxhole buddy and I were sitting on the
[00:04:12] edges of our hole when we saw and it was like right out of a cartoon, a row of small trees moving toward us.
[00:04:21] We chopped them down along with a little China men creeping along behind each one with hand grenades, but that was just the beginning.
[00:04:29] The next thing I saw was what I could only describe as a wave, a human wave of Chinese crashing over us.
[00:04:38] For the next three hours they came. Walto Walchina men, many of whom did not even have rifles.
[00:04:47] Only long lances tipped with bayonets. Others were armed with US Thompson submachine guns or Russian drum fed.
[00:04:56] Assault rifles for the main. They were sorry shots with no understanding of basic infantry tactics, but what the Chinese
[00:05:03] lacked in proficiency they made up for numbers and their presence heralded the start of the largest and most
[00:05:10] bitter retreat in US Army history. So that's crazy. Right. You've got these Chinese coming and they've got spears.
[00:05:23] And can you imagine, imagine people coming at you for 10 minutes.
[00:05:28] Right. Like can you imagine enough people that they can come at you for 10 minutes. Now imagine 30 minutes.
[00:05:34] And you imagine how many people that is now imagine three hours of people coming at you.
[00:05:46] Upon my arrival in Korea, I'd been assigned the 25th recon company as replacement scout section leader.
[00:05:51] It was an army mistake. My military occupational specialty was infantry, not armored recon and it had upset me to know
[00:06:00] end because 25th recon guys were not eligible for the C.I.B. regardless of how much infantry combat they saw.
[00:06:07] So the C.I.B. is the combat infantryman badge. And that's what you get when you direct combat in the Army.
[00:06:13] And it's let's say that's like a serious mark of pride in the Army because that means you've been in the shit.
[00:06:22] So you can see a little bit of ego creeping out from David Hacworth because he's like, what are you kidding me?
[00:06:27] We're just recon and we're not even eligible for getting the C.I.B.
[00:06:32] This is garbage.
[00:06:34] Continuing. Add to that, my carthro's brilliant stroke at Inchon.
[00:06:39] The war had seemed over-save for the victory parade.
[00:06:43] And I'd been sick that after all I'd gone through to get here, I'd missed the guts of the whole damn show.
[00:06:49] This is just once again. This is typical be careful what you wish for.
[00:06:52] He's thinking after Inchon, Americans had such a leg up that, ah, I missed it. I missed the war.
[00:07:01] I hadn't wanted to show up in another occupation force.
[00:07:05] So in the Army, when he joined the Army, he went to Europe.
[00:07:09] And World War II was over. And so he showed up there and he was just, you know,
[00:07:13] standing around and starting, standing guard duty and stuff like that. They were training, but whatever.
[00:07:18] He wasn't getting the combat that he wanted.
[00:07:20] So he's afraid when he shows up in Korea, oh, they did this big move in Chon.
[00:07:25] You weren't not going to get in the combat.
[00:07:28] I hadn't wanted to end up in another occupation force. Still, Sergeant Combat, and that's the nickname that he earned himself.
[00:07:36] Even when there was no combat when he was in Europe, but he was just so fired up.
[00:07:42] They called him Sergeant Combat.
[00:07:44] Only in a new theater, in my heart, I'd secretly wish the war would continue long enough to let me get involved in at least one good fight.
[00:07:52] My wish came true only too well.
[00:07:56] My first real firefight. And this is good, too. It's always good to hear this, right?
[00:08:01] Because there's such a huge amount of difference between your first firefight and your next one.
[00:08:09] Just like any, anything that we do, anything that you do is a human being that learning curve,
[00:08:14] when you see something for the first time, is the steepest learning curve you're going to get.
[00:08:18] So it's always good to think about these things.
[00:08:20] My first real firefight had occurred just before the Chinese came on a dull, overcast day.
[00:08:25] The scout section had set up near a secondary road. We spotted a squad of North Korean soldiers.
[00:08:30] Weapons at sling arms coming out of the tree line. They were good-looking troops, but asleep at the switch.
[00:08:35] They didn't see us. It was an amazing sense of power I felt.
[00:08:39] Ultimate power, I suppose. Just watching them come and holding that weapon in my hands.
[00:08:44] We let them get within about 30 yards before we cut loose.
[00:08:49] I dropped four guys, point blank with my M1, each dead with a six o'clock sight picture in the chest, just like the good book said.
[00:08:58] I felt no guilt, few of us did. I'd been trained too well and besides, the enemy had been utterly dehumanized throughout my training.
[00:09:09] They aren't men, they're just gooks. I fought.
[00:09:14] As the four enemy fell and a fierce firefight began, we knocked off the point element of a much larger enemy force and stirred up a hornet's nest.
[00:09:24] Okay, note on Gooks, the term, and this is in the book, it's an asterisk. The term Gook is derived from the Korean word, Han Gook, which means Korean person.
[00:09:36] So I know that it's an insensitive term. It's in the book.
[00:09:42] What is six o'clock sight picture mean?
[00:09:46] Just where he's lining up his weapon, the site on his weapon, six o'clock sight picture, basically a point of aim point of impact.
[00:09:56] So he's just aiming, I guess, like, towards the bottom of his, he's lining up the bottom of his sight on their chest.
[00:10:06] He's simply saying, like, made good shots, essentially like, like, lined up perfect.
[00:10:14] And like the good book says, I'm sure he's referring to, you know, army marksmanship manual, which says, you know, once you get this, you set the six o'clock of your sight onto the point of impact you want to hit.
[00:10:24] And I could be wrong about this because I'm not 100% sure, but it's something, meaning hey, he took the good solid sight picture that he's supposed to get.
[00:10:34] And on that he was taught, boom, hit him in the chest.
[00:10:38] But here's what sketchy is. These were just the point element, a bunch of people behind him.
[00:10:44] Following the lead of a lot of the older veterans earlier in the day, I'd placed several clips of Ammo on my rifle sling.
[00:10:53] I liked the look. It was kind of John Wayneish. And it seemed to make sense, a new clip only seconds away.
[00:11:00] Taking up my prone firing position, the sling had flopped on the rain so ground. Now as the firefight got going, I grabbed for a clip, only discovered that it and the rest of them were clogged with mud.
[00:11:10] But let's were flying in my brain, stalled out. I vaguely remembered an old tale about how well the M1 worked under any battlefield condition.
[00:11:17] Quickly knocking off the bigger pieces of muz mud, I oozed the clip up into my rifle. I got one round off the weapon jammed.
[00:11:25] And for the next few minutes, I sat in the ditch, field stripping, cleaning and reassembling the thing, while my first real combat went on without me.
[00:11:33] Our field artillery fire took the starch out of the North Korean advance, and we were able to scoot, ask with no friendly casualties.
[00:11:41] Other that is, then Sergeant Combat's bruised pride. My first firefight had been my first screw up. I didn't know until much later that you generally don't walk away from that one.
[00:11:54] What was that say? Be prepared. So here he is in his first firefight. He's got the cool guy band-lear scenario going on with his weapon and his mags.
[00:12:05] And it doesn't work out well. That's why you've got to rehearse things. How they're going to actually be. You can't just do something for the first time in combat and be like, oh, this will be fine.
[00:12:16] No. A few days later, five of us had been out on a reconnaissance patrol. It was a very black night saved for the US fliers that hung eerily over the battlefield.
[00:12:27] Very quiet, but for the occasional wine of artillery fire, the odd burst of an automatic weapon. We had moved about a mile into enemy territory when we heard motors, leaving the patrol. I crawled to a mound near the edge of the road for a first hand looked.
[00:12:42] Through the darkness, silhouetted by the artillery flares, I could see four enemy vehicles. A file of infantry was walking on each side of the motor column with more infantry walking in front.
[00:12:52] They were so close that I was sure the vehicles engines prevented them from hearing my pounding heart. They passed by. I was about to return to the patrol when I saw a lone North Korean soldier. His weapons long tracing a telephone wire.
[00:13:07] As he passed my position, I parted his hair with a submachine gun magazine and dragged him back to the patrol. So he knocked this dude out.
[00:13:18] Think about that. Like a massive patrol goes by, you find one lone guy and take a magazine out of your gear, hit him on the head with it, knock him out, and then drag him back to your patrol.
[00:13:33] The light wasn't far off when we headed home. Progress was slow. Initially we had to pack our zoned out prize.
[00:13:40] We later he awoke stumbled along diligently, but at least under his own steam. When we thought we had made it, we ran into a large enemy force moving down the road information.
[00:13:52] They were jabbering excitedly and dragging machine guns behind them on squeaky wheels. We were about six yards from the road.
[00:13:59] I lay on top of the prisoner, covered his mouth with my hand and pressed my trench knife hard against his throat.
[00:14:06] I thought the cold steel would be enough to convince him to be good, but it wasn't. Old habits die hard. He started squirming around.
[00:14:15] My hand was muffling his cries to his comrades. When he tried to bite it, I had no choice. I slid his throat.
[00:14:23] And lay there on top of him for what seemed like a bloody eternity until the road was clear, and we could hotfoot it back to the US lines.
[00:14:34] There you go.
[00:14:36] Welcome to combat.
[00:14:39] I hadn't wanted to kill him. I would have rather the capture the guy. A live prisoner's worth of thousand dead, armbraze.
[00:14:47] But I was probably as scared as he was, and in a millionth of a second I had to decide and it was either him or my patrol.
[00:14:57] You know when people talk about the split seconds decisions you have to make in combat?
[00:15:02] There you go. What am I going to do? I'm going to kill this guy.
[00:15:08] Killing that guy in one other incident probably hammered home most of that career was not some training maneuver that I was really in war, boots and all.
[00:15:17] The other occurred when we were digging in on a small knob overlooking a main north south road.
[00:15:23] Dinging in was a task of a frontline trooper performed at least once a day went on the move.
[00:15:28] Usually spent to time cursing your commander for always choosing the hardest ground in the town, and then moving the line just when you'd finished your whole.
[00:15:37] Some of us thought it was an army plot to keep us in shape. For myself, I'd rather have done a million push-ups.
[00:15:43] But on this particular occasion we'd gotten some great dirt. It was soft and loose, a breeze to dig, and I was about two feet down in no time.
[00:15:54] Then my shovel hit something mushy. A few quick scrapes revealed an all-of-drab green material.
[00:16:02] A few more uncovered a decaying corpse of a man with bright red hair and a 24th division patch on his moldy fatigue jacket.
[00:16:11] The soldiers hands had been tied behind him with communication wire, and he'd been shot in the back of the head.
[00:16:18] Three more bodies were found by other troopers on our little knob all killed and buried the same way.
[00:16:28] Company was notified. They said the men had probably been killed at the beginning of the war.
[00:16:33] That was when the 24th division had fought along this road. We were instructed to dig out the dog tags and provide eight digit grid coordinates where each body was found.
[00:16:44] The atrocity did little from morale, but a lot for fighting spirit.
[00:16:49] There would be no love lost for an enemy as savage as the North Korean Reds.
[00:16:55] So much for the Korean police action. I and my friends thought this was all out war with no quarter given.
[00:17:07] He talked about dehumanizing the troops and I've talked about dehumanizing the enemy.
[00:17:13] That is something that absolutely the military will try and do.
[00:17:18] And it's a very crazy fine line to walk because as you dehumanize the enemy, you're also possibly dehumanizing this civilians that are in that area.
[00:17:27] And so you have a very sketchy scenario that can unfold.
[00:17:31] But they still have to do it to some level because otherwise you've got people, the US military, that in their mind, you know, it's a syndicula, whatever beliefs they have.
[00:17:41] They don't want to do it. And you're trying to convince them that it's okay because these aren't even people.
[00:17:46] They're not even humans. That's dehumanizing.
[00:17:50] And I've said before, and this is the type of thing that makes it very clear, you know, I've said that the, we didn't really, in Iraq,
[00:18:00] we didn't really have to dehumanize the enemy because the enemy dehumanized themselves with things that they did to the local populace torture, murder, rape, just complete in utter savagery.
[00:18:15] And that's the same thing that's happening right here. You know, you're finding Americans that have been bound executed in the back of the head and buried in shallow graves.
[00:18:30] Continuing on, now that the Chinese were in the conflict, the recon companies mission was to provide a reconnaissance screen in front of the 25th Infantry divisions with draw.
[00:18:41] In other words, to delay, deceive and disorganize the undeniable communist advance. So the Chinese are coming now.
[00:18:49] They've got the numbers, they've got the masses, they've got America on its heels, get the 25th ID,
[00:18:57] Tropic Lightning, by the way, Station Hawaii, I went out and spoke at the honor of speaking to the 25th ID just a historic group of soldiers.
[00:19:15] Chinese had struck the 8th Army like a giant steamroller, crushing many units and mulling most others. Eighth Army's commander Lieutenant General Walton Walker, who had said in July of 1950, as the first real Southward began,
[00:19:30] quote, there will be no done Kirk, there will be no baton, a retreat to Busan would be the greatest butcheries of history. We must fight until the end.
[00:19:42] And quote, now found himself directing yet another brave but bloody withdrawal to the South.
[00:19:50] Only seven years before General Eisenhower's forces were similarly surprised and smashed, but that time we'd had patten to save the day.
[00:20:01] In my heart of hearts, I kind of wished someone would get the idea to use our recon company to be the spearhead to bastone for the Korean conflict, but it was not to be in just as well.
[00:20:12] Unlike the 750 second recon, which had 17 M24 light tanks, we were a light skin force with only 6 M24s in the whole company.
[00:20:22] Divide these up amongst three identical potuins, and it wasn't exactly the punch Lieutenant Colonel Crayton Abrams had in 1944.
[00:20:31] Still, we had plenty to do to keep us occupied, exchanging ground for time.
[00:20:37] The drill went that we would hold a position until the enemy was breathing hot and heavy down our necks and we would break contact and run like hell.
[00:20:45] Leap frogging through another recon, puttune, a rifle unit that was set up behind us in the same way, so they're doing a cover and move as they're retreating.
[00:20:55] Trading ground for time.
[00:20:58] It was a dangerous game with no room for error and we found ourselves playing it day after day after day.
[00:21:04] They were strange dudes the Chinese, seemingly with no sense of personal peril as a bold statement, seemingly with no sense of personal peril.
[00:21:17] That's a human instinct of self preservation and they didn't seem to have it.
[00:21:24] When Seth Stone went into Saadar City, that was in 2008, we had fought in Ramadi in 2006.
[00:21:33] I was talking to him while he was there after the first couple operations that they ran.
[00:21:38] He said something similar, I don't remember the exact quote of what he said, but what he was trying to explain to me was,
[00:21:44] the fighters in Ramadi were perhaps better fighters more tactically skilled.
[00:21:50] He said, but he's like these guys in Saadar City, they don't care.
[00:21:55] They don't care if they die and they are just coming.
[00:21:58] And it's a different type of threat and it's a different scenario that's your under.
[00:22:05] It was not unusual to see them jump on a U.S. tank holding grenades and then scramble around looking for some opening to toss them in.
[00:22:13] Of course, if the tank was buttoned up, it was impossible and the tank commander inside would simply call another tank nearby two quotes,
[00:22:19] scratch my back, which at which point the second tank would spray the first tank with 30 caliber coaxle machine gunfire and wash the hitchhikers off.
[00:22:31] But there were always other Chinamen to take the dead ones places.
[00:22:35] It was a grim fact that we were constantly reminded of as we were moving south.
[00:22:40] Moral dropped with every rearward step of the humiliating retreat.
[00:22:46] That is the just important to remember that when things aren't going right, when you're in a leadership position and things aren't going right.
[00:22:53] And you have to retreat or you have to take a tactical withdrawal or you have to undo some of the progress that you've made or you have to abandon some of the work that you've done,
[00:23:01] which this is not just talking about war.
[00:23:03] I'm talking about any scenario business life.
[00:23:06] You've got when you have to retreat, you have to pay attention to them or all the troops because it sucks.
[00:23:13] It sucks and what it sucks is it sucks the morale right away from the troops.
[00:23:18] They've put forth this effort, they fought and bled when they've worked really hard to get to a certain point and now you're leaving.
[00:23:24] We kept falling back away from the Yalu Beyond Pyong-King until we'd refocused the 38th Parallel and we were back in South Korea.
[00:23:35] The only thing I think running faster than the 8th armor were the rumors.
[00:23:40] The Marines were cut off at a place called the Chosen Reservoir in the North and were being zeroed out.
[00:23:47] The US Army 10 Corps had surrendered.
[00:23:51] Boats were waiting at Pusan Harbor to take us to Japan.
[00:23:54] These are all just crazy rumors that are going around partially true, partially untrue.
[00:23:58] Maybe meanwhile while winter had arrived but winter gear had not.
[00:24:03] MacArthur had said we'd be home before Christmas.
[00:24:07] I guess his supply people believed him because the Chinese had caught us with our pants down and they were summer trousers.
[00:24:16] Feet and leather boots froze.
[00:24:20] Gloves and mittens were scarce as good-looking girls are field jackets where it's thin and protective as page one of the newspaper.
[00:24:29] We were slowly freezing to death in the bitter below zero weather while the Chinese gangas cons mighty hordes marched on seemingly unstoppable.
[00:24:41] Logistics wins wars and here you are.
[00:24:44] It's crazy to think about this compared to either Napoleon's march into Russia, which we've covered on this podcast with the memories of an Napoleonic foot soldier.
[00:24:56] And however you know we don't need winter stuff we should be done by winter and then same thing with the Nazis going into Russia.
[00:25:04] Installing around freezing.
[00:25:06] How come we don't learn these lessons? How come?
[00:25:09] You know this is something to do with I was talking about the other day.
[00:25:13] When you come up with a freaking plan you need to have a negative attitude.
[00:25:17] You need to have a negative attitude. You're attitude can't be where you're going to be home by Christmas.
[00:25:22] That's just wrong. Your attitude has to be this could take five years or more.
[00:25:29] We need to be ready for the worst case scenario.
[00:25:33] Going in there and thinking we'll be home by Christmas.
[00:25:36] Like let's say if that if if if MacArthur uttered that one time which he did.
[00:25:43] Think of the effect and impact that has on the rest of the chain of command.
[00:25:47] Think of the impact that that has on the whole supply logistics chain.
[00:25:51] When they go I know it's going to be over by Christmas.
[00:25:54] I guess it's not really that important that we get good boots for the men.
[00:25:58] I guess it's really not that important that we get good warm jackets for the men.
[00:26:04] Just a little hint of that.
[00:26:07] Yeah. I feel like I kind of fall into that trap a lot of times when you go in somewhere.
[00:26:13] And you know what that is?
[00:26:15] That is an extreme form of decentralized command. It's an extreme form of
[00:26:22] Commanders intent.
[00:26:25] Right. So so lately I've been talking about the fact that culture is.
[00:26:30] Culture is like the most premier highest form of decentralized command and commanders intent.
[00:26:38] Because if our culture is for instance, hey, we always take care of the customer.
[00:26:44] Right.
[00:26:45] Then you echo Charles as a frontline guy working at a cash register.
[00:26:50] You can make a decision on what to do with the customer because you know that our customer is the most important thing.
[00:26:55] If you know that listen, we always treat civilians with the utmost respect.
[00:27:02] That's our culture.
[00:27:04] When you get into a situation where there's a wounded mom and a house with a building.
[00:27:10] You make that a priority and you take care of them and you get met a vacuum and casualty care for that individual.
[00:27:15] Right.
[00:27:15] Because that's our culture.
[00:27:17] So culture is like the highest form of decentralized command.
[00:27:21] What happens?
[00:27:23] When you give commanders intent just by saying something is innocent as will be home by Christmas.
[00:27:30] Think of how that reverberates throughout the organization.
[00:27:35] Everybody goes out.
[00:27:37] That's not what good.
[00:27:40] Because you can think about the herkily and efforts that it takes to get, you know, 200,000 warm jackets and pairs of boots and specific sizes.
[00:27:48] That's the no no joke.
[00:27:49] You can't just snap your fingers and that happens.
[00:27:51] It's going to take effort.
[00:27:52] It's going to take effort at every level.
[00:27:54] People stepping up to make things happen.
[00:27:58] You know, like in a communist country when I remember when the Polish were kind of striking against the against the against the
[00:28:06] communist regime there, they would just make little small mistakes and factors.
[00:28:12] You can prevent things from happening by just doing a little bit just by just dragging your feet just a little bit.
[00:28:19] Because if you drag your feet just a little bit, hey, maybe it's not that big of a deal.
[00:28:24] But if there's a hundred people and you're all dragging your feet, we're not making progress anymore.
[00:28:29] So you picture an entire supply chain that hears, eh, it'll be over by Christmas.
[00:28:35] How much efforts put being put forth?
[00:28:37] You know, sure.
[00:28:38] Do you have some really great people in there somewhere that are going to get after it?
[00:28:41] Yeah, you do.
[00:28:42] Does that overcome the other 94% of the people that are dragging their feet and it's not that big of a deal?
[00:28:48] And hey, I'm going to still head home at four o'clock today.
[00:28:51] Man.
[00:28:52] You know, you have the jacket thing.
[00:28:55] But, you know, like when you go somewhere, I don't know, the park, carnival, whatever.
[00:29:02] And you kind of don't account for the weather or, you know, like when the sun goes down.
[00:29:06] You do account for the weather.
[00:29:08] But I know where you go.
[00:29:10] Yeah, like to me, the weather is I look outside and boom, that's the weather.
[00:29:15] Yeah.
[00:29:16] But meanwhile, my wife is like, oh, bring the jacket, bring the water just in case they get thirsty.
[00:29:22] And you get there, you know, whatever all the stuff she's bringing these bags.
[00:29:26] I'll stick around and eat bags.
[00:29:28] You know, I don't need all this stuff on the park.
[00:29:30] You don't need to meet really.
[00:29:32] And so did she let you learn your lesson each and every time?
[00:29:34] Yeah, pretty much.
[00:29:35] Yeah.
[00:29:36] You go there and there's the thing that in my, I mean, in my particular case, which, you know, maybe this applies to others as well, where I won't learn the lesson every single time because sometimes I'm like fine.
[00:29:46] You know, sometimes I do make it all.
[00:29:48] You read the course.
[00:29:49] You read and force the lesson of being a slacker.
[00:29:52] Yeah, it's exactly right.
[00:29:53] So, right.
[00:29:54] This is not an easy lesson, right?
[00:29:56] Okay.
[00:29:57] So, we live.
[00:29:58] Collectively, you and I, at this time, we live in San Diego, California.
[00:30:02] And what's interesting about San Diego, California is if you go out to dinner.
[00:30:08] Let's say right now, what is it?
[00:30:10] October, 2020.
[00:30:12] If you go out for dinner at six o'clock at night, the sun is still up.
[00:30:20] And it's, it's warm outside.
[00:30:22] It's 80 degrees.
[00:30:24] Yeah. There's no need for a jacket isn't even conceivable.
[00:30:28] But if you're going to eat outside, and the sun's going to go down, it is going to get chilly.
[00:30:32] It's going to get chilly.
[00:30:34] It's going to get 50 degrees.
[00:30:36] Yeah.
[00:30:36] That's going to happen in, you know, three, four hours.
[00:30:40] So, yes.
[00:30:42] When you, you know, when you used to, that scenario being the case, it like it's easier or whatever.
[00:30:48] But man, yeah, it does kind of take this weird mindset.
[00:30:50] I had that exact scenario happen, by the way.
[00:30:52] Like the, like a week ago, whatever, my wife's birthday.
[00:30:56] We go to this rat, it's called like sea level.
[00:31:00] I don't know, one of these, you know, I've been there.
[00:31:02] Yeah, no, actually, yes, some of the guys there said that you've been there.
[00:31:08] After, so I was like, all right, cool.
[00:31:12] But one of our people works there.
[00:31:14] Yeah.
[00:31:16] Yeah.
[00:31:16] One of our GG2 people.
[00:31:18] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, fully.
[00:31:20] Yeah. So I go there. So we go and, you know, it's more.
[00:31:24] It's kind of high. It's been hot.
[00:31:26] So I'm like, all right, same tactics, right?
[00:31:28] Look outside. What's the weather? Like, oh, we're sitting outside.
[00:31:30] Cool. I look outside. Weather, hot, sunny, whatever.
[00:31:34] And here's the thing. My wife kind of felt that she didn't fall for her.
[00:31:38] But she kind of was like, kind of was feeling the same thing.
[00:31:42] So it's like whatever. No jackets, it didn't bring jackets for the kids.
[00:31:46] Nothing like that. So we go in there and our seats are, yes, outside.
[00:31:49] But covered.
[00:31:51] So a little bit of an ocean breeze going through there.
[00:31:53] And here's the thing, what's it called?
[00:31:55] I wouldn't call it cold, but it was something.
[00:31:57] Like you had like chicken skin, everyone's in a while.
[00:31:59] You wanted that lightweight.
[00:32:01] Light, light, light, light, light.
[00:32:01] It would have been perfect.
[00:32:03] What have been perfect.
[00:32:04] And here's the thing is it wasn't about me.
[00:32:06] It was about the kids.
[00:32:07] Yeah.
[00:32:08] But he out's.
[00:32:08] You did you trick it at four year old.
[00:32:10] And a seven year old that's just slightly uncomfortable and chilly.
[00:32:14] They might not throw attention, but you're going to hear about it.
[00:32:17] You can learn this lesson.
[00:32:19] It's a good lesson.
[00:32:21] You seem to have to learn it over and over again.
[00:32:23] Some of my kids know it.
[00:32:25] They think, you know, they're bringing.
[00:32:27] I was going to meet my, meet my family.
[00:32:29] Like I, I think we were recording one day.
[00:32:31] And I was going to meet my family somewhere,
[00:32:33] eating outside.
[00:32:35] COVID.
[00:32:36] You got to eat outside and whatnot.
[00:32:38] Right?
[00:32:39] So, but my son actually just showed up with a sweatshirt for me.
[00:32:45] Tread it right and full credit.
[00:32:47] Oh, it's full credit on that one.
[00:32:49] Yeah.
[00:32:50] Because that's like.
[00:32:51] And really the whole reason is like,
[00:32:53] bro, why do I want to?
[00:32:55] Why am I going to wear myself down carrying this jacket when I probably won't need it.
[00:33:00] Why am I going to carry this, you know, bag of.
[00:33:03] Additional clothing when we're not going to need all this stuff.
[00:33:06] Why this big.
[00:33:07] Bottillal water, you know.
[00:33:09] Brother is water there.
[00:33:11] You know, like bring all this stuff.
[00:33:14] load like you know anyway so yeah but again like yeah that mindset you're
[00:33:19] gonna get jammed up or potentially get jammed up in the you know in the future
[00:33:23] you gotta plan for that kind of stuff which I think my wife is like that's her
[00:33:28] whole jam. It's like what do we need what she'll overdo it you know but I'll
[00:33:32] underdo it I think like the answer the solutions right there in the middle.
[00:33:36] How do you guys can find a balance?
[00:33:38] We're gonna be responsibly evaluate future scenarios yes.
[00:33:43] They were not only short on cold weather gear continuing on back to the
[00:33:48] book food was in short supply. All spare time was spent scrounging one of the most
[00:33:52] modern armies in the world became an army of days past foraging and living off
[00:33:57] the land we kicked in the walls of houses searching for rice and kimchi,
[00:34:01] hidden in false walls and secret caches we cooked what we found in our steel
[00:34:07] pots. When nothing else was available we take the sea rash and packets of
[00:34:11] sugar powder coffee powdered milk and chocolate we'd stored for days like
[00:34:15] squirrels and the pockets of our fatigues mashed all together with snow on our
[00:34:19] helmets and tricking our trick ourselves into believing it was ice cream.
[00:34:22] Trying to beat the elements became a war in itself it was so bitterly cold
[00:34:27] you couldn't sleep you had to keep moving stomping feet and flexing fingers
[00:34:31] 24 hours a day those who didn't were saying goodbye to their hands and feet and
[00:34:36] in some cases their lives for a while every day a couple men were evacuated
[00:34:40] because of frostbite black toes and fingers to be caught off at the hospital.
[00:34:44] Grenades knives and ammo would freeze fast to the fox hole brim weapons froze
[00:34:49] too you'd have to kick the bolts of the M1 and Browning automatic rifles to get
[00:34:54] them back we seldom had rifle patches to clean our weapons most of us cut
[00:34:58] little squares out of our shirts or trousers to do the best we could.
[00:35:02] Gun oil was a luxury usually beyond our reach we lubricated our weapons with
[00:35:07] motor oil or the frozen lard of sea rations and took to keeping them with us in
[00:35:13] our fart sacks at night staying alive became our only concern and we did man is
[00:35:20] most adaptable when we passed through villages if a house had a lot of wood
[00:35:24] doors window frame even the most beautiful hand carved furniture we burn it
[00:35:30] one piece at the time finishing off the job by throwing a thermite grenade on
[00:35:34] the fat roof and standing by until the whole structure was burned to the ground.
[00:35:38] Our orders were to destroy anything the enemy could use gladly we thought
[00:35:44] to ourselves and we could stay warm while we did it.
[00:35:47] At night we would carefully obsessively bundle stack and restack
[00:35:51] canling wood while waiting for daybreak when we could light our fires the
[00:35:55] fault of those friendly flames allowed us to make it through the night instantaneously
[00:36:01] at first light thousands of tiny fires which spring up across the front and around
[00:36:05] each huddled a cluster of shivering men it was probably as bad in the Chinese camp
[00:36:10] except that at least the chinks were prepared with winter gear down trousers and
[00:36:15] jackets long overcoats that blended in with a snow and down mittens that we
[00:36:20] liberated and war until our own supply people came through.
[00:36:24] It was a frigid brutal soul destroying time.
[00:36:29] I knew then how the winter mark, I knew then how the vermark must have felt during
[00:36:35] World War II or how Napoleon's army must have suffered years and years before
[00:36:39] that when each made their horrible winter retreat from Russia.
[00:36:46] Like I said, it's just it's savage frigid brutal soul destroying time and this is coming
[00:36:54] from the perspective of a guy that you know served multiple combat t-tours in Vietnam
[00:37:00] as well.
[00:37:02] By the time we reached Seoul the North Korean capital once a bustling city of millions was
[00:37:07] virtually deserted and empty gray tomb.
[00:37:10] Most of its inhabitants and those in the northern villages on its outskirts had left
[00:37:16] and headed south with a few possessions they could carry clogging the roads with walled
[00:37:21] the wall human misery.
[00:37:23] On one occasion American fighter planes must have concluded that the horrors of desperate
[00:37:28] civilians were Chinese columns moving south.
[00:37:32] P-51s had strafed the refugees and for at least a mile they were dead littered across
[00:37:37] the road.
[00:37:39] Retreating vehicles had to push the bodies out of the way.
[00:37:44] It was here that I realized it was only the guys on the ground who saw and understood
[00:37:50] the real horrors of war.
[00:37:53] To air force pilots war as a remote thing they make their kills from hundreds or thousands
[00:37:59] of feet in the air.
[00:38:01] Even the guys who fly on the deck do so in a flash dropping their loads and flying
[00:38:06] away without seeing the results.
[00:38:08] The way homes and people are blown to smithereens or the effects of Nepal.
[00:38:13] That night they didn't have to listen as we did in the winter of 1950 to the whale of
[00:38:19] the Gooks cries of civilian refugees begging to be let through American lines or see
[00:38:25] in the morning when they were allowed to pass through the dead they'd left behind.
[00:38:30] Those who'd frozen the death in open rice patties overnight.
[00:38:35] The pilot when he finishes his days work flies back to his base.
[00:38:41] The guns goes to the club has a big stake and if he wants to forget the days combat he
[00:38:47] can drink himself into a stupor.
[00:38:50] The frontline fighter can't do that.
[00:38:52] He lives with death and the horror of the battlefield every day and every night it is his
[00:38:58] cross to bear.
[00:39:08] We continued retreating.
[00:39:11] Gray, rotting bodies, the unforgettable smell of death, rats feasting on the dead and growing
[00:39:18] boulder by the day.
[00:39:21] This, the flotsome jetsome of war, let us through soul.
[00:39:26] Our unit's mission was to fight a rear guard action in the center of the city.
[00:39:30] The scout section rifle squad set up at a downtown intersection.
[00:39:34] We took over a bank of drugs to our two other corner buildings for my command post.
[00:39:39] I'd use the bank's manager's plush office, which was a welcome diversion from the cold
[00:39:45] and snow.
[00:39:46] The bank vault was locked tight.
[00:39:48] As the self appointed new bank manager, I authorized the guys to open it with their 3.5
[00:39:53] anti tank pazuka.
[00:39:55] Two rounds later the door swung open as easy as a sea rash and can in the hands of a hungry
[00:40:00] trooper, the vault contained thousands of dollars in small Korean notes.
[00:40:05] All the big stuff was gone.
[00:40:06] I told everyone to cash in.
[00:40:08] No withdrawal forms needed, I said.
[00:40:12] And they did.
[00:40:13] We had the laugh at the propaganda leaflets at the Chinese mortar down upon us from the hills.
[00:40:18] They occupied on the high ground around soul.
[00:40:21] Quote American capitalists running dogs of Wall Street.
[00:40:24] They accused.
[00:40:26] How right they are, I thought, as we stuffed our pockets and packs.
[00:40:29] And even made hobo sacks to carry our spoils of war.
[00:40:34] It was strange watching the Chinese brazenly looking down from those hills about 600 yards
[00:40:40] away.
[00:40:41] Our infantry weapons were out of range preventing a little selective sniping, but we were
[00:40:45] able to put some effective fire on them with the M24's main gun and had the great
[00:40:50] fun of taking pot shots with the turrets 50 kel.
[00:40:54] The Chinese went to ground and shy of a cheerless Christmas.
[00:40:58] We slipped out of the sad, near-dissorted soul.
[00:41:03] My sections new found wealth was the first thing to be tossed on the side of the road.
[00:41:07] Bokey Dollars meant nothing, meant little to worn out troopers, and it had been just
[00:41:12] a game anyway.
[00:41:15] South of Seoul, we found ourselves caught in a friendly battle zone.
[00:41:19] A railway yard being blasted to kingdom come by demolition-toting engineers and air force
[00:41:23] bombers.
[00:41:24] The railroad flat cars complete with brand new vehicles and tanks which would have been distributed
[00:41:29] to the front lines had it not collapsed, were being blown sky-high to keep them out of
[00:41:34] enemy lines.
[00:41:35] To us in the middle the challenge of this army obstacle course was not only to avoid our
[00:41:40] own flying debris, but also the enemy incoming which was pouring in throughout the operation.
[00:41:46] Yeah, that's a scary sight.
[00:41:49] So you've got, and it shows you that I guess it shows not scary.
[00:41:52] It's the desperation of the situation that you're in that you've got however many numbers
[00:41:57] of vehicles that we're going to be shipped up to the front time and now we're just blowing
[00:42:00] them in place so that the enemy does capture them.
[00:42:02] You want to talk about a moral, a morale crusher.
[00:42:10] We came upon the number of freight cars with sealed doors.
[00:42:14] One of the guys pride one open reveal an entire car load of PX supplies soap, cigarette,
[00:42:20] after-save lotion.
[00:42:21] Obviously, goodies needed by our re-election on comrades.
[00:42:26] And we decided to help ourselves.
[00:42:28] Someone drove a brand new three-quarter ton truck off a nearby flat car so we had a way
[00:42:33] to get away with how to get to carry out our loot.
[00:42:36] It fell about four feet and crashed to the ground, springs breaking, fenders collapsing,
[00:42:41] but it's still ran.
[00:42:42] That's a comic scene, right?
[00:42:44] You've got this vehicle on a flat pit, out of flat freight train and just drive it off and
[00:42:49] Duke's a hazard style.
[00:42:53] We loaded our spoils onto the truck even as telephone poles and large chunks of steel
[00:42:58] rain down around us.
[00:43:00] Then we jumped aboard ourselves and unass to the place.
[00:43:03] Eight recon men bouncing along and light in a truck right out of the grapes a raft.
[00:43:09] We motored by a batowing infantry hiking south down the road.
[00:43:12] Hey, how you fix for cigarettes we called and aquavelva anyone as we threw all the
[00:43:17] troopers a little something. We ran out of goodies about the same time our mobile pack
[00:43:20] p.x ran out of gas and we reluctantly turned to the return to the backs of our tanks with
[00:43:25] the rest of our platoon.
[00:43:28] We were young.
[00:43:29] Sometimes the war was great fun, like a game of cops and robbers or cowboy and Indians that
[00:43:35] you played as kids.
[00:43:41] You know, it's from a maturity level, right?
[00:43:44] It's something that's just so it's important to remember man that you're dealing with people
[00:43:51] that are 1920 years old, 21 years old.
[00:43:53] I mean, hack worse one of the older guys.
[00:43:57] Most of these guys, a lot of these guys, when you go into the military, it's young kids.
[00:44:05] When I went in, I was 18 years old.
[00:44:10] I'm a, you know, my judgment, you know, when you talk about, so what is it?
[00:44:14] Development of the prefrontal cortex, right?
[00:44:17] Which has a man doesn't develop until you're something like 25.
[00:44:22] Yes.
[00:44:23] So you gotta find your way through seven years of military service where your freaking
[00:44:28] decision-making process is not fully developed yet.
[00:44:32] That's how dumb shit happens.
[00:44:34] Yeah.
[00:44:35] Makes sense.
[00:44:36] You do dumb shit.
[00:44:38] That's why leadership is so important in the military.
[00:44:41] But the thing is, sometimes the military leaders are only 23.
[00:44:44] They're still not even there yet.
[00:44:51] Continuing on, the politics or purpose of the war was not our concern.
[00:44:57] We didn't understand or care about the big picture anymore than we really understood the
[00:45:00] risks of combat.
[00:45:01] Of being killed or going home without a leg.
[00:45:04] After a while, you stop worrying if the next minute you were going to get it.
[00:45:07] Instead, you just prayed for a clean wound so you could get out of there.
[00:45:10] A million dollar wound to get you home.
[00:45:14] You know, it was crazy.
[00:45:15] We had Dean Ladon and he was going into Tarua where the Japanese had a freaking island
[00:45:23] fortress.
[00:45:25] And I asked him, I was like, were you worried about getting wounded or anything?
[00:45:28] And he's like, no, that would be someone else.
[00:45:33] That's the deal, man.
[00:45:35] It's not going to happen to me.
[00:45:40] After we retreated across the Han River, my platoon was given the mission to outpost a
[00:45:46] long, lonely stretch of the South Bank.
[00:45:48] It was Christmas day.
[00:45:50] And although there were no Chinese inside, it wasn't a particularly jolly time.
[00:45:54] General Walker had been killed two days before in a freak, cheap, truck accident very similar
[00:45:59] to the one that had killed his former World War II boss General Patton.
[00:46:04] Still, paratroop general, Matt Ridgeway had taken over as the new commander of the Atharmi
[00:46:11] and World Wars we would retreat no further.
[00:46:14] It was a good word, but my platoon had a more immediate concern.
[00:46:18] We were starving.
[00:46:20] A personal recon of the area revealed a village nearby whose only occupants were a half
[00:46:25] a dozen scrimmagey looking chickens, one long burst from my borrowed M2 carbine gave us Christmas
[00:46:31] dinner in the form of three decisively dead birds that we plucked and threw on an open
[00:46:35] fire.
[00:46:36] We ate them unseasoned and undercooked.
[00:46:38] They were very, very raw, in fact, but wonderful to us.
[00:46:43] And we gobbled them down and huddled closer to the fire, thinking how lucky we were.
[00:46:50] No sooner had we finished than a recon company, Jeep, and trailer bounced across the field
[00:46:55] to our positions.
[00:46:57] Christmas dinner, turkey, cranberry sauce, and all the trimmings had arrived.
[00:47:03] Only the American army could do that.
[00:47:05] Unfortunately our chicken appetizer had left all of us with roaring gut aches.
[00:47:11] But we wolfed it down anyways because it was good because it was there and because none
[00:47:15] of us knew if this meal would be the last.
[00:47:18] The enemy took soul just after the new year.
[00:47:21] The bridge across the Han had been blown.
[00:47:24] For a few days later the chinks got a bridge head across and we once again headed south
[00:47:29] in zero degree weather with our tails between our legs so much for no more retreats.
[00:47:37] I began to think about all the general's proclamations concerning this war that we
[00:47:44] be home before Christmas that the Chinese would not intervene, that we'd hold here and
[00:47:49] we'd hold there.
[00:47:50] All of it was bullshit.
[00:47:52] And I started to wonder how they could possibly make so many dumb statements when each
[00:47:56] invariably fell apart when put to the test.
[00:48:03] Then I thought well, maybe they just don't know.
[00:48:07] We never saw a general on the front.
[00:48:10] We seldom saw a kernel, a lieutenant kernel, or a major either.
[00:48:15] And at the squad level we only on the rarest occasion saw a captain.
[00:48:20] So how could the brass know how defeated its army was if it wasn't there to see or if they
[00:48:27] weren't there to see an exhausted guy lie down on a road and just give up.
[00:48:32] How could they know how cold and ill-equipally were if they weren't there to see blue,
[00:48:39] gloveless hands stick to the frozen metal of weapons?
[00:48:44] How could they know how steep and rugged the terrain was if they never climbed a hill?
[00:48:54] Little leadership lesson there, massive leadership lesson there.
[00:48:57] You have to find out what's going on with the front line troops and you can't rely on reports
[00:49:02] and you know I was reading some other sections of this book.
[00:49:07] And the temptation to just listen to the reports of front line troops in any organization
[00:49:14] is a massive temptation and it's the wrong thing to do.
[00:49:18] Because of course, when you're in charge, of course your subordinates are going to polish
[00:49:22] that thing up for you.
[00:49:24] Make it look all good.
[00:49:26] Make it look all good.
[00:49:27] That's what they're going to do.
[00:49:31] You can't roll eye on that.
[00:49:32] You have to go down there.
[00:49:36] And the other thing you have to do is you have to be able to admit when you don't know
[00:49:39] something.
[00:49:42] You have to go to the front line troops, they'll polish their report.
[00:49:46] That's why they do it just to show like, hey, we're doing a good job now here, kind of
[00:49:51] thing or they don't want to get any one in trouble or like we'll be there.
[00:49:56] Not to go super philosophically deep on you right now, but a lack of moral courage.
[00:50:03] A lack of moral courage to report to your boss, my men are frozen, starving and they're
[00:50:10] ready to give up.
[00:50:12] Because what you're doing is you're, you're the leader.
[00:50:14] And so you're putting yourself on report for not being a good leader.
[00:50:18] Right?
[00:50:19] Because there's no bad teams only bad leaders.
[00:50:22] Oh, like the leader of the front line.
[00:50:24] So, yeah.
[00:50:25] So if I'm a leader on the front, if you're general echo and my guys haven't eaten and
[00:50:29] their morale is breaking, I don't want to tell you that.
[00:50:34] Because then you'll be like, well, what's wrong with you?
[00:50:36] How come?
[00:50:37] Because guess what?
[00:50:38] Fred over there, he's like, my men are doing great.
[00:50:41] Because he has no moral courage to actually tell the truth about what's happening.
[00:50:44] Yeah.
[00:50:45] And then that puts pressure on me.
[00:50:47] We're now I'm thinking, oh, oh, I mean, Fred's doing well.
[00:50:50] Maybe my guys, maybe my guys can do better and okay, you know what, general echo?
[00:50:56] We're fine.
[00:50:57] Yeah.
[00:50:58] Yeah, that's true.
[00:51:00] So it's a lack of moral courage.
[00:51:03] Yeah, it seems natural too now.
[00:51:06] Now that I'm kind of thinking and I like that.
[00:51:07] Of course, yeah, if you're in charge of the guys over there, you don't want to be like,
[00:51:12] yeah, we're not doing good.
[00:51:15] Yeah.
[00:51:16] Even like, it's kind of seems like even in like social scenarios.
[00:51:18] Oh, for sure.
[00:51:19] Sure.
[00:51:20] Like, hey, so how's that?
[00:51:22] How's Mary Dlyne for, I don't know, whatever the situation is?
[00:51:26] And you want to be like, oh, I'm struggling through this Mary Dlyne.
[00:51:29] Kind of thing like you just like, you don't want to say that.
[00:51:31] If in fact, you're struggling through Mary Dlyne.
[00:51:33] I'm just saying.
[00:51:34] Yeah, it seems like, yeah, that seems a lot more natural.
[00:51:37] Yeah, obviously, to happen in the business world too, because, you know, the, oh,
[00:51:42] Echo, how's your sales going with your sales team down there?
[00:51:44] Yeah.
[00:51:45] You know, you don't want to say what's not going very well, because you're putting
[00:51:48] yourself on report for failing because you are the leader.
[00:51:52] But if there's stuff, what you should say, what you should say is, hey, boss, here's
[00:51:57] what's going on.
[00:51:59] My troops, they're over fatigue right now.
[00:52:02] We need food and we need some warm weather gear, because at look, there's some
[00:52:06] motivate, there's some motivated guys that want to make it happen.
[00:52:10] But when they can't even load their weapon because their skin is freezing to the
[00:52:14] bullets, that is a problem.
[00:52:18] A problem that no amount of motivation can cure.
[00:52:21] We need gloves.
[00:52:22] Like that kind of thing.
[00:52:24] You have to be able to frame it correctly.
[00:52:26] Yeah.
[00:52:31] Back to the book, still we kept retreating, exchanging ground for time.
[00:52:36] We were always cold, always hungry, always tired.
[00:52:39] We were also filthy.
[00:52:40] It was too cold to even consider washing.
[00:52:42] So we got to sue Juan and found ourselves with a few days to rest.
[00:52:46] We decided to take that abandoned city by storm as in Seoul.
[00:52:50] Everyone had left sue Juan and a great hurry.
[00:52:52] So we could pretty well help ourselves to whatever we needed.
[00:52:56] My section took over a house.
[00:52:58] We scrounge around and found an old fashioned Korean bath.
[00:53:02] One of those stand-up jobs about Chastai with a wood furnace beneath it.
[00:53:06] We filled the tub, built a rowing fire, and one by one jumped in.
[00:53:09] Each of us skimming the other guys dirt off the top of the water.
[00:53:12] I was last.
[00:53:14] The water was almost black by then.
[00:53:16] We all kinds of crud floating around, but I didn't care.
[00:53:18] I might not have gotten clean.
[00:53:20] But for the first time in weeks I was warm.
[00:53:23] Just after we left Suwan, my platoon was ordered to establish a night blocking position
[00:53:27] to stride a north-south road that paralleled a railroad track.
[00:53:32] The scout section in rifle squad were set up in a defensive line that ran from the road
[00:53:37] through a rice paddy and onto a railroad trussle.
[00:53:40] Our machine gun was set up on the trussle pointing straight down the tracks.
[00:53:45] A little high ground, where it could put plunging fire directly in front of deployed
[00:53:50] troops and flanking fire on the road 50 yards away.
[00:53:53] Our platoon leader stayed with the 2M-24 tanks on the road behind him was the 81 millimeter
[00:54:00] mortar squad.
[00:54:01] It was late at night, almost quiet.
[00:54:03] We were locked in cocked and pros at this deadly delaying game now.
[00:54:08] I moved between positions, having whispered conversations with the guys.
[00:54:12] It was a habit I had to keep myself awake and make sure the men stayed awake too.
[00:54:17] I was at the machine gun which was manned by a stud of a Hawaiian trooper named Sheldon
[00:54:24] when we saw the enemy coming.
[00:54:26] There was at least a company and maybe more behind for a breast double timing quietly
[00:54:30] down the railroad track.
[00:54:32] When they were no more than 50 yards from the machine gun, Sheldon left loose along
[00:54:37] bursts that cut a wide swath into their unsuspecting ranks.
[00:54:41] A burst of machine gun fire was the signal for the infantry tanks and orders to join
[00:54:45] the fray.
[00:54:46] The scout section of rifle squad immediately poured fire into the enemy formation.
[00:54:50] The enemy panicked.
[00:54:51] They did not fire one round and return.
[00:54:54] Instead they broke ranks and high-tailed it to the rice paddy, running right into the rifle
[00:54:59] squad's grazing fire.
[00:55:01] It was great to see.
[00:55:02] We were cleaning the clock of an enemy force at least 10 times our size.
[00:55:06] Like young rommel did, I thought, in 1914 when he ambushed and destroyed almost a complete
[00:55:11] British rifle company with a handful of soldiers simply by using initiative and surprise
[00:55:17] two of the key elements in battle.
[00:55:20] The mortar was plopping rounds of high explosives right on top of the confused reds.
[00:55:25] Meanwhile our tanks main guns which were loaded with anti-personnel grapeshot hadn't
[00:55:30] fired anything at all.
[00:55:33] A white star cluster flitter popped and hovered over our positions.
[00:55:38] This was our signal to beat feet in retreat and we didn't need a second invitation.
[00:55:43] We scrambled to waiting vehicles and quickly moved to and through US lines.
[00:55:50] We'd taken no casualties but I still couldn't understand why the tanks guns hadn't fired.
[00:55:57] The enemy had been hurt badly but not destroyed.
[00:56:00] If those tank guns had been employed we've completely wiped them out.
[00:56:05] The sun was coming up as the platoon pulled into the abandoned chonin school yard that served
[00:56:11] as the base for recon company.
[00:56:12] I went over to our platoon sergeant Anne and asked him why the tanks hadn't been used.
[00:56:18] He looked away and sort of bowed his head as if he was embarrassed which was very strange
[00:56:23] behavior for this rugged, highly decorated warrior.
[00:56:28] Better see the lieutenant young sergeant.
[00:56:31] Why didn't the tanks fire?
[00:56:33] I asked my regular army platoon leader moments later.
[00:56:36] I didn't want to give our positions away he replied.
[00:56:40] I couldn't believe it.
[00:56:43] Give your positions away.
[00:56:44] Bullshit I cried.
[00:56:46] The sergeant didn't talk to officers like that but I didn't care.
[00:56:50] We had the closest thing to a glorious victory that I'd seen that tanks stuck their
[00:56:55] noses into this goddamn war that I'd seen since the tanks stuck their noses into this
[00:57:00] goddamn war and now this pissant weak lieutenant you were just too yellow to do your
[00:57:06] job.
[00:57:07] I shouted and stormed back into my scout section in a rage.
[00:57:11] I grabbed my pack and rifle.
[00:57:13] I'm leaving this outfit right now I told my platoon sergeant I'm not waiting for orders.
[00:57:18] I'm going a wall.
[00:57:20] I came here to fight not play hide and seek and where I come from officers like you've
[00:57:26] got here would have been drummed right out of the officers corps.
[00:57:31] With that I headed for the road.
[00:57:36] So that's just mayhem right.
[00:57:38] They don't actively assault the enemy with all the firepower that they had.
[00:57:43] The guard gets pissed off.
[00:57:45] So he goes a wall.
[00:57:46] Now normally absent without leave what someone's trying to do is they're trying to
[00:57:50] share responsibility.
[00:57:51] You know they're a hippie or they're a bum and they're trying to get out of there.
[00:57:54] They're they're what for whatever reason they're trying to leave.
[00:57:57] They're trying to get away from the army.
[00:57:59] He's going a wall because he wants to fight more.
[00:58:05] There was an expression in there and I've heard it before their ranks like he referred to
[00:58:12] like we shot bullets into their ranks and then they broke rank.
[00:58:16] Like what?
[00:58:17] A simple information type thing lined up which is crazy to think about.
[00:58:23] It's crazy to think about in modern war a group of individuals being in ranks.
[00:58:30] So in ranks is like you know for across and whatever 30 deep that's the rank.
[00:58:33] It's a specific formation of some lengths or is it just sort of just them over there
[00:58:39] in that whatever.
[00:58:40] I mean the fact that he's saying in ranks means that they're in a legitimate formation.
[00:58:46] You know they're probably moving down this road.
[00:58:50] They don't think there's any Americans there to interfere with them.
[00:58:53] So they're just in ranks walking because it's an efficient way to walk.
[00:58:57] But it's not an efficient way to fight.
[00:58:58] Yeah, it doesn't seem like you.
[00:59:00] It's an efficient way to get mode down by machine gun which is exactly what happened.
[00:59:04] Yes, I could see that.
[00:59:06] Well yeah and so when they broke ranks they all ran in different directions.
[00:59:10] Yeah, you know.
[00:59:11] So well let me ask you this as far as just in the spirit of understanding what that means.
[00:59:15] Because it sounds real cool in my opinion.
[00:59:17] Like I could just be throwing out that expression.
[00:59:20] Sometimes the time not in a military sense but you know I don't know.
[00:59:24] Well they do use it in a non-military sense.
[00:59:27] Let's say there's 20 people and we're we come up with a plan and we're going to go forward
[00:59:33] with this new plan and then echo decides it's going to do something different.
[00:59:36] There's an expression.
[00:59:37] Oh echo just broke ranks.
[00:59:38] Oh okay yeah, exactly right and that's kind of what I was sort of trying to figure out.
[00:59:42] Like could I use it in that way?
[00:59:44] Yes you can.
[00:59:45] Because it sounds really cool when instead of like oh yeah I just started shooting at all
[00:59:49] of them you know I shot into their ranks you know like that sounds way cooler.
[00:59:55] But so could it be even loosely used in an official on an official situation of just
[01:00:03] a group of people there you know.
[01:00:05] Yeah.
[01:00:06] Right like they weren't.
[01:00:07] That's a little bit necessarily in a specific formation but they were over there.
[01:00:10] I would say that was a bunch of people.
[01:00:13] Yeah.
[01:00:14] I would say that was a crowd of people.
[01:00:16] Right right.
[01:00:17] You say there's a bunch of people in ranks.
[01:00:20] They're organized.
[01:00:21] Yeah.
[01:00:22] Well could they be interpreted as organized you know like you know the kind where those two
[01:00:27] guys let's say not military maybe like I don't know your friends in the neighborhood and
[01:00:31] you don't like them you know.
[01:00:33] They're a bunch of cousins or whatever you don't like them.
[01:00:36] And they're over there on the corner right and you have maybe you and your brother whatever
[01:00:39] right you guys don't like them they don't like you whatever and then you see them over
[01:00:43] there on the corner assembled not for any specific reason but they're together you
[01:00:47] know could you could you in theory refer to them as on the corner in ranks in theory
[01:00:53] yes you could but it wouldn't be accurate.
[01:00:54] Two people is not going to court look.
[01:00:56] No the cousins let's say there's five.
[01:00:58] Five cousins.
[01:00:59] Even five you're it's going to have a hard time getting you know being in ranks
[01:01:03] not not to me they're in ranks so you're asking me for permission to use this word and
[01:01:08] then you're just what I tell you know you're just doing it anyways.
[01:01:10] Yes sir cool say whatever you want to say it's your you're the one that's going to look.
[01:01:16] You're the one that's going to look dumb.
[01:01:17] And I didn't want to say it but like this is where we're at and you sounded like you
[01:01:22] really did want to say it but if I had to if I pause if those guys the right thing
[01:01:27] you do call my friend dumb well I guess it is my friend wants to act dumb he's going to
[01:01:32] get called up in the interest decide what you're going to call something look if there's
[01:01:36] five cousins on the corner altogether cruising and me and my brother start running
[01:01:43] at them aggressively and they scatter they broke ranks okay I'll do that there you go
[01:01:48] so then now I guess I'm done because they you know don't have to be in some form of
[01:01:52] ranks yeah so I just I look at this is like an understanding process do you understand
[01:01:58] this area do thank you I'm not even sure I understand so hack worth goes a wall
[01:02:06] because he wants to fight more back to the book any man who's wild enough to go
[01:02:12] a wall to fight is just a kind of man we want our outfit said captain John Paul
[01:02:16] van when I stopped at his eighth Ranger camp fresh from my breakfast out of the
[01:02:21] 25th Recon company the eighth Rangers was a great spirit at outfit recently rebuilt
[01:02:26] after being decimated the night the Chinese entered the war after I'd explain my
[01:02:31] situation the whole outfit accepted me with open arms the Rangers were elite
[01:02:35] troops four runners of the special forces their mission was raids long reconnaissance
[01:02:41] patrols ambushes and other special jobs that conventional troops were not
[01:02:45] trained to handle their history went back to Rogers Rangers before the
[01:02:49] Revolutionary War during World War II there've been six Ranger battalions whose
[01:02:54] brave and daring feats are unmatched to this day historically such all volunteer
[01:03:00] specific specially trained units had been misused task either with impossible
[01:03:05] missions for organizations their size or placed with palace guard combat duties
[01:03:11] well beneath their skill and ability when I arrived at the eighth Ranger camp the
[01:03:16] unit was chasing guerrillas behind the main lines morale was high and the guys
[01:03:21] were spoiling for a good fight but during the time I was there there was nothing
[01:03:27] much to my way of thinking anyway that seemed to be happening I was impatient
[01:03:32] to get in the thick of it and as proud as I was to be a Ranger guerrilla hunting
[01:03:37] was not my idea of infantry combat little did I know then the starring roles
[01:03:44] that guerrilla hunting and Ranger seal John Paul van would have later in my
[01:03:49] life besides the word was that the eighth Rangers was going to be broken up
[01:03:54] soon and something in me said to move on so I did until I saw a sign by a road
[01:03:59] that proclaimed wolf-hound right-white rear well if that's not a guarantee for a
[01:04:05] good fight I don't know what is I thought and high-tailed it to the battalion
[01:04:10] CP the 27th Infantry Wolf-Hound Regiment was a colorful unit itself the
[01:04:16] outfit had gotten his name during a stint in fighting the communist in
[01:04:20] Siberia during the Russian Revolution and Korea the wolf-hounds were known as
[01:04:25] the fire brigade because whenever there was trouble they were sent into save the
[01:04:30] day they weren't a special unit just a group of guys who thought they were good
[01:04:36] so they were good I had to highlight that because I just teaches you something
[01:04:41] about leadership and about morale and about attitude and about a speed of core you
[01:04:46] get guys and you convince them that they're good and they think they're good they
[01:04:50] get good they become good I'd see members of the outfit regularly over the last
[01:04:56] months whenever the 25th Recon had sent their portions of the division was sent
[01:05:02] I've been sent their portion of the divisional front and I'd always been knocked out
[01:05:06] by the because these guys acted more like pirates on the high seas than as a
[01:05:12] regular army regiment to begin with the wolf-hounds were their regimental crust
[01:05:17] crest on their fatigues like their metal of honor their spirit was just
[01:05:21] incredible they were so totally non-military in terms of what I was a custom to
[01:05:26] they seldom wore steel pots they modified their gear to make it more functional
[01:05:32] and simply got rid of things that weighed them down unnecessarily along wooden
[01:05:36] handle of the entrenching tool for example was caught off so it wouldn't rub against
[01:05:40] your leg the packs were thrown away and you carried a tramp's rule which was
[01:05:45] quickly grounded when you got into a fight BARs were stripped of bypods and
[01:05:49] carrying handles and scabbards were tossed with the bayonet living permanently at
[01:05:54] the end of the rifle grenades were carried in canteen covers you could fit five and
[01:05:59] if you wanted to carry a captured weapon go for it so these guys are got a little
[01:06:07] little bit of rebellion in them got a little rebellious attitude which is a good thing
[01:06:12] got to be balanced but it's a good thing this renegade kind of soldering was not only sanctioned
[01:06:18] but encouraged by the twenty-seven's regimental commander and fire chief world war two
[01:06:25] paratrooper Colonel John iron-micolus Michaelus who would go on to four stars understood
[01:06:34] what made men fight he was known from morale boosting slogans like your lean your
[01:06:41] mean your rough your tough your professional killers and pre-battle pep talks like
[01:06:47] you're not here to die for your country you're here to make those other so-and-so is
[01:06:51] die for theirs the wolf hounds prad proud combat record showed that they believed him
[01:06:57] and they'd eagerly adopted their commanders no nonsense brand of soldering i was more than ready to do
[01:07:03] the same the second battalion's exo pointed the way up the road to where the rifle companies were deployed
[01:07:11] the first unit i came to is company g where i reported to first sergeant Edwin rager
[01:07:17] i can always use another sergeant this giant of a top kick roard then and there he assigned me
[01:07:26] to third puttune finally with the assurance that i'd be picked up on the morning report so i
[01:07:31] wouldn't be considered a walther a or mma i joined my new family at first it was not the happiest
[01:07:39] of unions i should have realized it wouldn't be easy it's always a bitch to join a unit particularly
[01:07:46] one as tight as the wolf hounds as an individual replacement and for some reason it's even worse
[01:07:52] when you're an nco or an officer you don't know anyone and no one trusts you until you've proved
[01:07:58] yourself in battle you get all the lousy details and only the worst battlefield horror stories
[01:08:05] you're just the new guy you're just fresh meat and add insult to injury though i'd been a squad leader
[01:08:12] in acting platoon sergeant in in Italy and a sex and leader in the 25th recon now in the in the
[01:08:19] third of the g i found myself an assistant squad leader i was damned unhappy with the
[01:08:26] emotion i probably had more non-com experience than any of the squad leaders in the platoon but the
[01:08:32] fact was that in their eyes i was untried and all protests the contrary fell on deaf ears
[01:08:38] doesn't matter who you are hack worth checking into a new unit got to prove yourself
[01:08:46] it didn't help i didn't help my cause that any that evening soon after my arrival when just
[01:08:51] at dusk i got caught in a right in a rice paddy right smack dab in the middle of a blistering
[01:08:57] chink mortar attack i started to run but slipped and fell in the patty when i finally got back to
[01:09:02] my foxhole i discovered that my water repellent outer trousers were covered with human shit
[01:09:08] which the Koreans used for fertilizer on surprisingly the guy sharing my whole was unhappy about this
[01:09:14] as i was i took off the trousers and made due for the night with two pairs of long johns
[01:09:20] and two pairs of OD trousers i had on an underneath then i sat out until it was my turn to go on
[01:09:27] guard leaving my foxhole partner to contend with the lingering aroma of my accident guard was
[01:09:33] grew a grueling ritual mainly because everyone was so tired each squad had its own sector
[01:09:39] normally four foxholes each about four yards apart the two guys shared a hole and took turns
[01:09:48] throughout the night searching into the darkness you'd look until you got tired then glance at your
[01:09:53] buddy sacked out at the bottom of the hole then you'd look a little longer until while you thought
[01:09:59] should i wake him now has he had enough sleep few guys had a watch us to own a watch in an infantry
[01:10:07] squad during the first Korean winter was a luxury beyond imagination so you spelled each other
[01:10:13] based on the honor system and you only asked for relief when it was impossible to keep your eyes
[01:10:17] open any longer then your buddy would ask for a sit rep and that was it you'd be a sleep
[01:10:25] almost before you'd zipped up your feather down fart sack that's what they call a sleeping
[01:10:32] bags if you didn't pick that up the last time i used it guys didn't have watches
[01:10:40] what's happening i asked when my foxhole partner woke me from my turn not a thing he replied
[01:10:46] and he was out like a light still inside my sack i sat in the darkness in the edge of the hole
[01:10:51] got my eyeballs unglued and tried to remember where i was i was fantasizing about smoking a cigarette
[01:10:56] drinking a hot cup of coffee eating a charcoal black rare steak and getting a squad of my own
[01:11:03] wind to my amazement i saw man lying prone immediately to my immediate left rear i woke up my buddy
[01:11:11] there's a goddamn shake almost on top of us we whispered through our options we could toss a grenade
[01:11:17] blasting with a rifle or crawl out and getting with a knife we decided on the third alternative
[01:11:22] because the guy who's right in the middle of our squad position and rifle fire or a grenade
[01:11:27] could easily start a firefight among our own guys the chink wasn't moving and his back was
[01:11:34] to us my buddy covered me while i crawled out of the foxhole with my trusty m1 and ten inch
[01:11:39] razor sharp bayonet attached i crouched in a crouched position i silently slipped up behind
[01:11:45] the enemy soldier when i got within sticking distance i drew my rifle and thrust it with full force
[01:11:53] branches crackled and it was over i'd bayonet in my own frozen stiff trousers which i'd
[01:11:59] earlier hung over a bush behind our foxhole to dry the next morning i had to put the shitty things
[01:12:04] back on again now with a hole in the ass as well and for some reason the fresh meat was the only
[01:12:10] one in the squad who didn't think this was very funny so that's how he that's that's the impression
[01:12:16] he makes his freaking stabbing his own pants and it's own shit covered pants in the middle of the night
[01:12:23] being a new guy as hard yeah it seems like it being a new guy as hard being a new guy is very hard
[01:12:30] you cannot you cannot do these kind of things socks when you do everyone's watching you you know
[01:12:39] kind of when you're a new guy kind of kind of back off a little bit you know what i'm saying
[01:12:43] you like just take take a wrap off yeah that whole first impression thing just in general
[01:12:49] yeah because like the new guy you don't have any evaluation criteria like there's no like you didn't
[01:12:55] you're not judged on anything because you don't have anything you know and then you start doing
[01:12:59] these weirdo things having your pants you're like okay well that's the how this guy is he steps
[01:13:05] his own pants in the dark sometimes like yeah so yeah you're weird you're weird and then so
[01:13:09] now you got to kind of make up for all that stuff by doing a bunch of awesome stuff you know
[01:13:14] but i guess even beyond that look okay so let's admit that it's hard but i guess what i'm saying
[01:13:20] is air on the side of not doing dumb shit you know what i'm saying like if there's something
[01:13:27] i could maybe do this and it might make me look good but just think about you know once again
[01:13:33] be negative when you plan be negative when you plan think yourself you know that might make me look
[01:13:38] might make me look cool but also if this goes sideways it's gonna look real dumb have you ever
[01:13:45] seen like fail videos yeah sir right yes very often yeah i mean those are a legitimate thing
[01:13:53] right yeah yeah in the addiction by the way so how many of those people in the five seconds
[01:13:59] before they attempt their whatever they're attempting how many of those people are actually thinking
[01:14:05] this is gonna look real good yeah yeah so there's there's two of them there's one girl one
[01:14:11] guy and then the same thing so it's like oh yeah i'm gonna jump in this icy pond yeah you know with
[01:14:16] my the guy obviously has his swimsuit on the girl and his swimsuit whatever they're two separate
[01:14:21] videos is one same but the same thing so they go you know the girls like oh my god come to you
[01:14:25] for this type of action to spread this is where the whole world wins right now
[01:14:32] this is the ultimate failed video yeah so one of them for sure they they're endless and then i love
[01:14:37] them but you know great lessons in these videos you know so yeah now we're talking about
[01:14:43] freaking philosophical lessons we get from failed videos yes i brought it up they go deep i brought it
[01:14:48] up yes yeah i'm guilty yeah so you know the girls like hey okay ready the guy in the camera
[01:14:55] may or may not be in on it whatever says okay one two three go the girl jumps off this little
[01:15:01] pier which is you know maybe two three three feet down into the water the icy water right and the
[01:15:06] ice is just so thick that it doesn't even break so she just like god slams on to the ice
[01:15:11] so you can really badly her oh yeah that's the thing it's like that's the you can break your neck
[01:15:17] yeah are you back or you're teleporting oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah you can break the neck a lot diving
[01:15:23] into shallow pools you know water pond water yeah luckily they they weren't trying to dive in
[01:15:31] they're just getting all okay cool yeah i feel a little better about it now yeah i don't think
[01:15:37] that wouldn't be a good idea even if it was thin ice to like dive that's like some next level like
[01:15:42] hot smart that's the next level fail yes sir but no you can still get hurt imagine jumping off
[01:15:49] this table onto concrete slippery con that's essentially what it is you know yeah so you mean ice yeah
[01:15:57] let's check the ice slippery con doesn't break doesn't crack and here's the thing i'm assuming
[01:16:02] they didn't get injured i'm sure it hurt for sure on a couple levels but when you watch it it's real
[01:16:08] funny because you think they're gonna like do like a cannonball whatever and it's like it's real funny but
[01:16:14] yeah man it's that thing if you're the new guy and that's what you do it's like man yeah you're the
[01:16:18] guy who jumped on that ice and like jam yourself up you know yeah just kind of reassess in those
[01:16:24] five seconds before you're about to do something just think and look i'm not saying you don't have
[01:16:29] to have courage you gotta try things you know but just think maybe this isn't gonna quite
[01:16:34] turn out the way i wanted it to yeah and chance that this goes a little bit wrong and if you're a
[01:16:41] new guy you don't have that much leadership capital to spend on recovering from this yeah so just
[01:16:47] I'm got a grisks and sense back to the book the war seemed lost at best it was hopelessly confused
[01:16:58] i'd thought wars at least American wars had happy endings like capturing Berlin and Tokyo
[01:17:06] all we were doing was yo-yoing back and forth across the Korean peninsula defeat the victory
[01:17:12] then defeat and defeat with g company two we were retreating shuffling along heading south cold
[01:17:18] or sometimes the temperatures were 20 degrees below zero and more tired than we'd ever been in our
[01:17:24] lives one day a snap-fall had us waiting through mud on both sides of a mire that had once been
[01:17:31] a road jieps and trucks slosh through it to each vehicle trying and vain to miss the
[01:17:36] rudder the vehicle in front so it's not become bogged down one jeep stalled and would not restart just as
[01:17:42] our column was passing by the driver in lieutenant passenger unass the thing the lieutenant
[01:17:47] called for help to push it over to the side but before we could slosh through the quagmire and give
[01:17:52] him a hand he whipped out his pistol and aimed at one of the tires i figured his daddy must have
[01:18:00] been an old horse soldier and hit this guy was going to follow through with the cab tradition of
[01:18:05] shooting his disabled mount and for sure pal pal pal but the last shot missed the tire it
[01:18:12] glanced off the rim and boomerang back to strike the lieutenant right between the eyes we push the
[01:18:18] jeep and the warm still body off the road and then return to our column soon the temperature
[01:18:24] dropped the road turned to ice and we just kept heading south that hadn't met anything
[01:18:29] through the lieutenant's death for openers what he done was dumb but more than that we'd become a
[01:18:36] moon fighting a war on the ground is like a working in a slaughterhouse at first the blood the
[01:18:42] gore gets to you but after a while you don't see it you don't smell it you don't feel it
[01:18:48] so what's another dead body it's almost as if you don't care in this case we just leaned forward
[01:18:56] kept walking and tried to ignore the song in our heads the ones the troops called the bug out blues
[01:19:07] so this is the life of a ground pounder at often think the risks were higher in the recon company
[01:19:14] but life in George was far more harsh at least in recon we frequently rode on the backs of our
[01:19:20] tanks in thus kept warm in the infantry it was just a plotting grind one foot after the other
[01:19:26] until the column stopped and we'd flopped down the sound sound asleep before our heads touched the
[01:19:30] ground in recon we were seldom hungry because we stashed rations on the tanks in the infantry
[01:19:36] growling bellies were our constant companions in the infantry many men lost their will to live
[01:19:44] frequently guys would just quit drop out of the moving column and plunk down on the side of the
[01:19:50] road sometimes with the Chinese within sight you'd say come on buddy get up let's go you're going to be
[01:19:56] captured and he'd say I don't care I can't go another step a day felt like a week and the more tired
[01:20:03] and infantry became the the more tired and infantry man became the more he wanted to lighten his
[01:20:09] load first would go the souvenirs then his extra ammo next would be the bulky gear the field coat
[01:20:15] the pile jackets and the down sleeping bags even though he'd new heat freeze that night in the
[01:20:21] infantry I found you live for right now you don't give a damn about tomorrow because you don't
[01:20:27] even know if there'll be one getting it's weird I know you like to talk about the
[01:20:37] the long game versus the short game versus the the strategic moves versus the tactical moves
[01:20:44] but it's interesting when you think about what's happening right now with a human being and with
[01:20:49] human beings in general as we encounter stress as we encounter pain and suffering we start to focus
[01:20:57] on just a short term just a short term win and think about that in up from a life perspective I mean
[01:21:05] here you are you know it's going to be freezing tonight you know it's going to be freezing but you
[01:21:09] don't want to carry this down sleeping bag anymore so you just leave it think about how crazy that is
[01:21:16] but we make decisions all the time that are that stupid but we want that short term gratification
[01:21:24] one a lot of cases relief like short term relief which I guess as far as the game goes
[01:21:31] same thing so it's like relief gratification you know whatever yeah like there's a difference
[01:21:37] but in the games for as the games concerned that's what you're going for you know and like
[01:21:42] like a craving right yeah craving like that's a relief from that's been crazy that's throwing away
[01:21:48] your you're down sleeping back that's what it is it's gonna feel good right now like you just
[01:21:55] got rid of three pounds yeah and deep by the way back in the day like these down sleeping bags you
[01:22:00] know like nowadays things are feather lights you know this is probably four or five pounds which is
[01:22:06] a big difference in your whole math thing I think about what that does think about the
[01:22:11] you're right man it's a craving right it's when you say I really want to eat those cheetos you
[01:22:16] just not like I just want to just let's cheetos are going to be good yeah even when you
[01:22:23] after you eat your you're I don't know chicken salad or whatever cheetos still sound kind of good you know
[01:22:29] it's still like a little little thing that you just dump in this might my down parka yeah that could
[01:22:36] keep me warm yeah but I think what it has to do with see there's there's this difference
[01:22:42] what it has to do with is like one is caused by suffering and you just get into this mode of just
[01:22:48] basically surrender maybe that is what happens in life maybe you get to a point we just kind of
[01:22:53] surrender to where you're at it's kind of accept like hey this is just me yeah and now you know
[01:22:58] cheetos no cheetos whatever don't know yeah that's a good way of putting it accepting where you're at
[01:23:05] yeah it's like because where you're at it's a place in your mind too you know how like even if
[01:23:11] you're you're making progress but you're used to not making progress you know when you're really
[01:23:16] used to it can happen like with like if you have like a certain amount of money in your bank account
[01:23:21] your a kid or young man whatever if you're used to having like you know 20 dollars in there yeah
[01:23:28] like just constantly that's sort of the baseline or whatever and then you're like then you get 100
[01:23:34] hundred or 500 900 oh but you're used to having 20 it's like yeah like I'm making progress
[01:23:40] I'm saving money but you're used to having 20 so then you go out by that big screen TV there's a
[01:23:46] chance that I'll have that down the 20 exactly right accept where you're accept your place accept it
[01:23:52] you can't do that basically yeah like you have to like actively maybe like raise your
[01:23:59] frill raise your standard now when you get the 900 and there now the new standard is I don't
[01:24:04] I'll make your realistic I guess but 800 should be the standard like the baseline now you know
[01:24:10] so sure you got some wiggle room maybe you're not perfect maybe it's new to you okay but the standard is 8
[01:24:16] like you start going below 8 that's the same thing as having negative kind of attitude but you
[01:24:20] got a really established in your head you know it's hard though very because people are where they are
[01:24:25] and they kind of get used to it that's why they that's why they are where they are because they're
[01:24:30] literally used to you know not like pretend you used to it is it good to get well never mind is it
[01:24:37] it's good to get that new standard and actually stay there long enough that you feel it yeah
[01:24:43] you get used to the new standard that's the tricky part yeah you feel good but then you're like
[01:24:47] oh well and then you go back to your normal ways yeah first craving that comes about satisfying the
[01:24:53] craving relief from the create however you want to put it like even like when you say suffering it's
[01:24:58] kind of like what does that really mean you know I mean there's certain levels of suffering for
[01:25:02] sure like you can go deep into human suffering for sure but really to some people like not having a
[01:25:09] drink the suffering you know when they're like or have a craving for ice cream or something like this
[01:25:14] it's like it's kind of like so it's suffering you know that's really horrible stretches and
[01:25:20] I mean really to think like I can't have ice cream on the suffering well in your kind of addiction
[01:25:26] I'm assuming you know like I've the only addiction I've really dealt with as far as like seeing
[01:25:31] people as like a cigarette scenario where they're like craving a cigarette so much and it's like
[01:25:35] and they kind of seem like you're kind of suffering okay my my contention here is that not
[01:25:43] having ice cream we cannot equivocate that to suffer I understand yes bottom line is let's be
[01:25:56] careful that we aren't thinking short term let's hang on to our sleeping bag let's carry the extra weight
[01:26:03] because in the long run it's gonna pay off yeah that's what I'm getting it that seems like
[01:26:07] obvious suffering where you're like hey I'm gonna need that tonight you know I'm gonna literally
[01:26:12] need that to stay alive possible yeah not the kind where or that would be that'll serve nice tonight
[01:26:18] that would be cool tonight it's not that I'm gonna need that tonight or I risk death and yet right now
[01:26:24] my suffering is still bad I got to get rid of it to not have it tonight I do it oh yeah I
[01:26:29] mean that is back to the book now and then if we were really lucky we'd stop in a village and
[01:26:37] command commandeer and abandoned house for 10 or 20 weeks a Korean home had hard Adobe mud floors
[01:26:45] under which lay an oven the purpose of which was to provide central heating for the entire house
[01:26:50] of course American soldiers had no idea how these things worked and the first time around we built
[01:26:56] the biggest fire we could and went to sleep shivering and bitching that the gooks didn't know
[01:27:01] how to do anything right it turned out though that the previous occupants of the of our temporary
[01:27:06] abode had the last laugh throughout the night the floor's got hotter and hotter until some of the
[01:27:11] guys jackets spontaneously combustion and the ammo we made on the floor blew up snow never looks
[01:27:18] so good so you're going one extreme to the other on most nights though to stay off the cold we'd
[01:27:24] employed the old soldiers tricks from the bleak frozen days of valley forge one was to stuff
[01:27:31] hay and a poncho and wrap it so tightly around two guys to keep in the body heat another was
[01:27:36] to fill your steel pot with coals and embrace it all night long a practice that continued despite
[01:27:41] a number of tired soldiers who died this way from a situation another was to put a slug through your foot
[01:27:49] in other words shoot yourself in the foot I'd thought about that one most of us did
[01:27:55] but it always seemed to risky you might blow your foot off you might get caught and court
[01:27:59] marshalled but one bitterly cold night when I would have done anything to get out of that place
[01:28:04] I came up with a perfect solution if I emptied most of the powder out of a grenade I could
[01:28:10] toss into my foxhole and blame it on a sneaky china man better yet if I chip the trench on the
[01:28:16] side of the foxhole with my bayonet I could contain the damage to my leg only all I'd have to
[01:28:23] do would be lay my body in the trench and stick my leg in the hole toss in a frag grenade and bang
[01:28:28] million dollar wound it was a wonderful idea somehow a lot better than the one I'd often saw
[01:28:34] during a firefight when a guy would stay in his hole in wave his arms or kick his legs like a
[01:28:38] corpus dancer hoping to catch a slug and the first boat back to the states and I spent all night
[01:28:43] digging away working on the trench and thinking how war might be back in Santa Monica
[01:28:49] the war vet who got it in the leg I chipped and chipped away on the frozen ground completely
[01:28:55] forgetting about the cold the time the fact that I needed some sleep or that my buddy who was sleeping
[01:29:00] me on uh sleeping behind the hole may have had enough find the it was ready I hoisted myself into
[01:29:06] the trench prepared the grenade and dangled my leg in the hole and I was just about to pull that
[01:29:11] pin when I saw the most beautiful sight a sight that every infantry man and Korea dreamed of seeing
[01:29:18] it was the sun slowly rising they meant the terrible night was over it meant I could light my
[01:29:24] fire and be warm again so I forgot my little trench and for a moment forgot the other thing
[01:29:32] the sun meant the beginning of yet another long day another step south the never ender ending
[01:29:38] bitter taste of defeat in all our mouths so this is hack this is freaking hack worth
[01:29:47] who just went a wall to go because he didn't think his true for fighting hard enough he gets to
[01:29:53] the front lines he's he's is where he wants to be and even hack is thinking about either shooting
[01:29:59] himself or in the foot and then beyond thinking about he comes up with a scheme with a grenade
[01:30:04] and he actually executes the entire plan other than the actual event itself and the only thing
[01:30:09] it stops him is that the sun's coming up that's that's freaking insane yeah and I'll tell you
[01:30:18] you know when I take away from that hold on a little bit longer the sun's gonna come up
[01:30:24] hold on a little bit longer the sun's gonna come up I posted something about that the other day
[01:30:28] because I was watching the sun go down and go through seal training when the sun's going down
[01:30:36] and you know the instructors will be they blind you up and they say good night say good night to the
[01:30:41] sun jense it's gonna be a long cold wet night and they're just making trying to make people think
[01:30:47] hey you got whatever however many hours gonna be dark for 12-8-9 it's gonna suck
[01:30:54] it's gonna suck and that's what they want you to think about how much it's gonna suck
[01:31:01] but if you're in the back of your mind you go yeah the sun will come up in the morning
[01:31:05] they can't stop that from happening yeah to get in that tough situation remember
[01:31:13] the sun's gonna come up you can get through it man yeah you got to admit though man I kind of
[01:31:19] felt for a little bit when he's like digging the thing and thinking about how warm he's gonna be
[01:31:24] it's like yeah yeah it's full fantasy out stretch the front of him yeah you know what I'm saying
[01:31:30] yeah yeah and then I mean it and then then the standard starts to get shifted kind of like oh yeah
[01:31:35] you're almost kind of used to like the warmth that you can imagine you know and to have that warmth kind
[01:31:39] of just taking away meaning you got to shift your plan back to like the reality whatever
[01:31:44] man that can see all that could be hard he's even got the fantasy of like hey the war vet yeah
[01:31:50] you know hape got yeah got got it in the leg he's got his whole fantasy planned out he's ready to
[01:31:55] execute on this thing and this guy is like born for a yeah and that's how shitty this situation gets
[01:32:04] yeah and that's like another thing it says like how like how bad should he get get people are thinking
[01:32:10] oh yeah imagine what somebody that doesn't really want to be there imagine what's going through
[01:32:16] their freaking minds you back to the book and then as if overnight everything changed it turned out
[01:32:27] that despite the fact that I never saw a general on the battlefield apparently one lieutenant general
[01:32:32] Matthew Ridgeway had been all over the in England the eight army front assessing the situation and
[01:32:40] making his plans I wrote in an open Jeep he would later write in his memoirs and would permit
[01:32:46] no Jeep with the top up to operate in the combat zone writing in a closed vehicle in a battle area
[01:32:53] puts a man in the wrong frame of mind it gives him an erroneous sense of warmth of safety his
[01:32:59] mental attitude is that of an ostrich poking his head in the sand also I held the old fashioned
[01:33:06] idea that it helped spirits of the men to see the old man up there in the snow and sleet in the mud
[01:33:13] sharing the same cold miserable existence that they had to endure as a consequence I damn near froze
[01:33:20] and quote nevertheless Ridgeway per persevered with no quarter given he banned the word retreat
[01:33:31] from the English language at least in so far as correspondence could describe our miserable
[01:33:37] truck to the south quote I'm more interested in your plans for attack he told a staff officer
[01:33:44] when the latter offered up those for another withdrawal he even he recognized even before we did
[01:33:50] that the Chinese offensive was running out of steam and sought to take advantage of it with deep
[01:33:55] patrols to the north to find out exactly how stretched the enemy was operation wolfhound was the
[01:34:01] first of these and the fire brigade under the command of Colonel Mike Alas or Mike Alas
[01:34:08] one of general Ridgeways World War II airborne protigase was on the attack once more
[01:34:14] so now you have a totally different situation the guide goes to the front line and he actually sees
[01:34:18] what's happening and not least he see what his troops are going through but he also sees what's happening
[01:34:22] with the Chinese he sees them start to get fined out he sees maybe there's not as much pressure as he
[01:34:26] originally saw so he can say look all right we're done retreating here we go back to the book
[01:34:34] two platoons of G company and elements of the 89 tank battalion made up one of the task forces
[01:34:39] named for and commanded by our own company commander Jack Michaelie task force Michaelie was given the
[01:34:46] mission of taking suwan and on the 16th of January it did just that the enemy was totally unprepared
[01:34:53] for the daring daylight assault George was outside of artillery range captain Michaelie
[01:34:58] an old horse caveman approached suwan in the only way possible frontally downer road never
[01:35:05] probed for mines and fast my platoon the third was not involved in the blitzkreeg operation at all
[01:35:11] but when the other guys came back having killed 150 enemy without a catch to give their own
[01:35:16] in high spirits and with stories of captain Michaelie's centering across the streets of suwan
[01:35:20] while enemy machine guns slugs flooded all around him all around went sky high we were ready to take
[01:35:27] on the world meanwhile i got my squad and immediately said about instilling it with the trust
[01:35:37] standards and beliefs about the way things should be done so so he is now given a squad
[01:35:45] because he just showed up there and even though he's a new guy and even though he stabbed his own
[01:35:48] pair of shit covered pants with the bayonet the middle of the night he is still given a squad
[01:35:55] so i have to back up a little bit so he talks about this trust capital capital capital you
[01:36:01] capital you capital t when he first got in the army as i mentioned he went to europe when he went to
[01:36:09] europe he was not in combat because the war was over but there was these old timers there and
[01:36:17] he explains i'm gonna abbreviate a little bit but he kind of talks about what it was like and where
[01:36:24] he developed his i want to say his personality really and you know like i was
[01:36:32] i always tell people when you when you go on the steel teams your first platoon leaves a big
[01:36:37] mark on you and definitely your first two platoon and the teams have become a lot more similar than
[01:36:44] they used to be all the different steel teams there are a lot more similar than they used to be
[01:36:51] they used to be they used to have much more of their own personalities team one the nickname for
[01:36:57] team one which is where i was was stallog team one because it was you know you had uniforms and
[01:37:04] inspections and you had you everyone had short hair and they inspected your hair cuts and all the
[01:37:08] stuff team five was kind of you know they were kind of wild kind of just do you know they had
[01:37:16] no inspections and they were just kind of they had the they had the image of being more wild
[01:37:23] then team three was sort of a little bit in between but they were also sort of
[01:37:29] they seemed like shy for lack of a better one like team three was just kind of
[01:37:33] like they were just doing over there doing their thing they were also disconnected because they
[01:37:37] were deploying to south west Asia back then and team one and team two were deploying to south
[01:37:42] east areas so they were a little bit disconnected which made them seem a little bit more shy i
[01:37:47] guess i don't know that's the right word but they were just a little bit more different they were
[01:37:50] all kind of on their own program team one on one under the spectrum stallog team one team five kind
[01:37:56] of wild team three somewhere in the middle the everyone had their own personalities and team and the
[01:38:00] east coast had their own personalities too and they kind of lined up a little bit
[01:38:04] except for the fact that team two and team one were sort of the traditional old school ones
[01:38:09] that's why when i went from team one to the east coast i tried to go to team two and i did
[01:38:15] team four was more like the wild one teammate was kind of in the middle that's back in the day
[01:38:20] now the teams are very similar because they all kind of were on the same rotation you're going the same
[01:38:24] types of deployments so they're much more similar but wherever you spend your early days leaves an
[01:38:30] impression on you and that's kind of what happened to hack he shows up into this environment and
[01:38:36] i'm going to go into it here back to the book gradually so now we're going back in time it's the
[01:38:41] end of world war two the fighting's over but he's he's deployed and he's in Europe back to the
[01:38:47] book gradually most of the world war two warriors went back to the states and the post war wild
[01:38:52] west feeling of lawlessness went to and it'd been great fun for a kid to be part of the hell
[01:38:58] for leather spirit that made up the 752nd the 752s but like the tightening of a screw one turn
[01:39:06] in a time each day the unit became more military the who gives a damn attitude of the remaining 752
[01:39:13] combat leaders and troopers replaced by the exacting discipline of the peace time army for the next
[01:39:20] four years i learned my trade one year with the recon company of the tank battalion in the poe valley
[01:39:26] and three more months with trees united states troops and this were the anacronum trust comes from
[01:39:34] trees united states troops the illustrious unit whose five thousand hand picked members
[01:39:41] Walter Winshal called quote the chrome plated soldiers of Europe we worked hard during those years
[01:39:50] long merciless days of training repeating training repeating repeating repeating until we got it right
[01:39:57] our transformation into soldiers inspired and monitors by those battle savvy n n c o's who
[01:40:04] well knew that discipline and tactical proficiency on the battlefield were the direct results of
[01:40:10] discipline and combat skills instilled on the parade and training grounds at night it was down on
[01:40:17] our hands and knees all of us hand waxing the barracks floors until we had enough money to chip in
[01:40:23] and buy a buffer you could eat off those floors just as you could just as you could almost be
[01:40:29] blinded by the brass belt buckles and brown boots that each of us wore polished every night
[01:40:34] to a dazzling finish the only way out of these activities was sick call but rarely was it used as an
[01:40:40] excuse it took as much effort to see the dock you had to strip your bed cram all your perfectly
[01:40:46] pressed clothes into a duffle bag see the supply sergeant and then the first sergeant not to
[01:40:51] mention the lion's share of a month's pay you'd spend having your clothes repressed when you came
[01:40:55] back as it did to continue with the normal routine punishment was needed out by a process known as
[01:41:02] n c o justice for I love saying that for crimes such as a uniform of less than starched
[01:41:10] perfection a bed that didn't bounce a quarter or even a mildly insubordinate smirk the sentence
[01:41:16] could range from 50 pushups to double timing around the parade field holding a 9.5 pound m1 rifle
[01:41:22] over your head yelling I'm a shithead I'm a shithead until you collapse we rarely saw an officer
[01:41:30] above our platoon leader and he was seldom with the truth because of administrative duties but no
[01:41:36] one seemed too concerned about it above and below the chain of command it was well recognized
[01:41:41] that as fathers teachers older brothers and chief tormentors in trees the n c o core had no equal
[01:41:52] so that's what he's talking about when he's talking about this trust attitude of discipline
[01:41:58] and training hard that's where it comes from so now we're back to Korea we're back to him
[01:42:07] getting a squad and here's what he does meanwhile I got my squad and immediately said about instilling
[01:42:13] it with my trust standards and beliefs about the way things should be done I got out of a
[01:42:19] notebook and wrote down each man's name rank and serial number his blood type weapon number
[01:42:23] next of kin and whatever training combat experience he had I started demanding that rifles
[01:42:28] be cleaned and that shoulders shape up if I saw soldier walking around without his weapon the next
[01:42:33] thing he knew he'd be on the deck crawling to it while I stood by kicking him and telling him
[01:42:37] that with each kick was that he was being hit with a slug brutal stuff I'd learned it in basic
[01:42:44] training will lieutenant cramer at the fort knocks rifle range kicked my arm until I positioned it
[01:42:50] correctly under my weapon but that's how a guy learns besides better my foot and a mythical
[01:43:00] slug than an enemy slug and a goodbye friendly foot arm or life that's how a guy learned
[01:43:11] you want to talk about a politically incorrect unpopular thing to say
[01:43:15] yeah I remember when I was a new guy I remember some of the older guys saying to me you know
[01:43:28] sometimes people need to get beaten so that they learn and you know what I said
[01:43:34] that's correct it's actually accurate I hate to say it because everyone hate right I don't hate to say
[01:43:40] it it's the truth what sometimes you need to learn a lesson the hard way and if you don't think
[01:43:49] it's a big deal whatever it's a big deal yeah so that's what he said that's how a guy learns
[01:44:01] once again what do we have we have 18 19 17 21 year old men who's what is it the frontal cortex
[01:44:12] what is it the frontal lobes they're not really they're not fully developed yeah they understand
[01:44:18] physicalness physicality yeah that's one of those things that it's kind of universally
[01:44:26] like understood you know pain is not good you know some people can take more pain than others
[01:44:33] for sure but after a while it's like we all kind of don't like pain yeah of course of course
[01:44:38] this weirdos whatever but for the most part they're like these things that if you start to threaten
[01:44:45] it's like you know it's valuable to people here's the other thing this is a this is a
[01:44:50] fucking harsh environment right this is war you're getting people ready for war you're getting
[01:44:56] people ready to kill you're getting people ready to freeze you're getting people ready to suffer
[01:45:00] you're getting people ready to have to march for miles and miles and miles with no food with no
[01:45:07] sleep like this is what the job entails and if you think you can pamper someone and that's
[01:45:15] going to effectively prepare them for those type of situations I don't think that's accurate yeah
[01:45:20] thank you're at about that back to the book my guys thought I was crazy and a prick to boot
[01:45:28] they still didn't believe I paid my my battlefield dues little did they know that they were doing
[01:45:35] the pain in spades from making me get that sergeant combat feeling all over again
[01:45:43] then came six February which we talked about in the last podcast part of another reconnaissance
[01:45:48] enforce mission code named operation thunderbolt which turned into a full-scale attack and I never
[01:45:53] got a complaint again so after his performance we which we talked about in 249 what he did to
[01:45:58] lead that day back to the book in fact the reaction was the direct opposite no longer was either hard
[01:46:06] ass sergeant who arrived out of the blue with strange ideas of discipline and training now I was just
[01:46:12] hack hack the great fighter who'd gotten shot in the head courageously saving lives and
[01:46:18] inflicting punishment on the enemy it was a great relief knowing I would not have to prove myself
[01:46:25] to anyone anymore but what I didn't know at the time was that the name I made for myself on six
[01:46:32] February 1951 was one I'd have to live up to for the next 20 years so he and this is a story that
[01:46:44] gets repeated throughout his life he kind of shows up somewhere he has the hard core mentality
[01:46:50] people kind of question it but then they see how it enables them and and and protects them in combat
[01:46:57] and then they're kind they're they're down for the cause back to the book it seemed ironic that the
[01:47:02] thing that saved my life on that day was the very thing I hated most in Korea the cold the blood kept
[01:47:07] pumping this is when he's referring back to when he got shot in the head the blood kept pumping but
[01:47:12] it froze almost as soon as it came out of my head after the dock patch me up with the car
[01:47:16] lile bandage I radioed captain Makai uh Michaelie and gave mcitrep I'd already appointed another
[01:47:23] ncota skipper lible tune Michaelie told me that to head for the road behind which gill crest
[01:47:29] platoon was fighting he would send a litter Jeep there to pick me up the platoon dock always worried
[01:47:35] about his flock wanted to tag along I told him I'd make it police to one of our dead's m ones
[01:47:40] and headed off I kept low using the rice paddy walls and irrigation ditches for cover I probably
[01:47:46] wouldn't have felt that if I'd gotten hit again anyways because during my run back down the drainage
[01:47:50] ditch I'd fallen through the ice and been soaked from the waste down the water and zero degree
[01:47:56] weather it turned my lower torso into a block of ice my head was spinning and my balls were frozen
[01:48:03] and I wasn't sure which one worried me more then I came upon pfc Charles the guy I had
[01:48:09] earlier tasked to take the two North Korean POWs we'd captured during that morning to the old
[01:48:14] man foreign terrigation Charles was sitting in a drainage ditch by the road eating a can of sea rations
[01:48:21] at his feet where the prisoners stretched out in the ditch dead each from a single bullet in the
[01:48:27] back of the head I was outraged why'd you kill them they tried to escape he said simply
[01:48:34] but I didn't believe him besides he continued I wasn't going to risk my ass to get two gooks out
[01:48:40] of here there wasn't much I could do I told him to report back to the platoon Gilchraas later told
[01:48:46] me that Charles had received word only days before that his brother had been killed in action
[01:48:52] over in the second division not too good a choice for an escort hack he'd remark drawing on his
[01:48:59] pipe I continued on small arms a machine gun fire was skipping down the road I gave it all a
[01:49:06] big miss and kept to my little ditch I headed south until I met Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Merch
[01:49:12] our old battalion CEO who was controlling the battle from his tactical CP behind the roadside
[01:49:17] no a few hundred yards from the front there I was placed on a litter in a medical Jeep and as we
[01:49:23] bump down the road all I could think was howl a you howl a lua got it made I'm leaving this god damn
[01:49:29] place or so I thought because just then the jeep's radio crackled on first platoon George company got a
[01:49:37] serious wound real bad get their fast he'll be on the side of the road I couldn't believe it let me
[01:49:43] how I'll wait here so there's he's getting out of it on this Jeep and all of a sudden over
[01:49:48] the radio says hey we need that jeep back here and hack where's sinkin let me out bro let me out
[01:49:53] I'll wait here I thought but I was too weak to tired too cold to get the words out the jeep spun
[01:50:00] around and headed back up that fire swept road pass Colonel Merch right into the jaws the whole
[01:50:06] god damn communist army we stopped the medics calmly sontored out to pick up the other casualty
[01:50:11] they took all the time in the world or so it seemed while the enemy used the large red cross
[01:50:15] markings on the Jeep for target practice the jeep's canvas size were sides were being ventilated
[01:50:21] the slugs were passing above and below my litter I felt totally helpless and score that whoever
[01:50:26] the wounded guy was I would hate him for life which from the way things were going was not going to be
[01:50:32] long it turned out he was a buddy through the Hawaiian mafia connection a handsome six footer named
[01:50:40] Ray Mendez I almost kept my kept to my word though when I found out his critical wound to be a
[01:50:47] slug in the thigh when he'd been hit he'd rolled up in a ball blooded squirted out of his leg all
[01:50:52] over the front of his jacket and someone had concluded that he had taken it in the gut oblivious
[01:50:57] to the fight raging on all signs of our thin skin ambulance jeep Mendez became chirpier and
[01:51:03] chirpier as we headed out of the battle area he sang praises of his million dollar wound and spun
[01:51:08] dreams about his in imminent return to the islands me one big war hero bra he said
[01:51:14] the regimental collection collecting station was jammed with casualties the surgeon who bent over
[01:51:20] my litter was covered with blood like a butcher we're going to bypass division clearing and
[01:51:26] send you straight to mash at Sioux want he said you're on your way home the next stop was quick
[01:51:32] mash was near the emergency runway at Sioux want the dock there wrote on my wounded leg
[01:51:38] oh my wounded tag emergency air evac which somehow scared me and before I knew it I was strapped
[01:51:46] down to the deck of a sea 47 we took off just at dark why don't they close the goddamn door
[01:51:54] I thought it had to be open because I'd never been colder I was shaking like a jackhammer
[01:52:01] I couldn't feel my hands or feet a flight nurse stayed right with me another anonymous son
[01:52:07] ominous science or he's getting like they put air evac immediately he's like oh god that
[01:52:12] means I must be really wounded bad he's got this flight nurse staying right with him
[01:52:15] she piled on blanket after blanket with no effect just as I was reaching the point where I
[01:52:20] didn't know if I could take it anymore we landed in Busan and it was another world paradise in fact
[01:52:26] a heated ambulance was waiting as they loaded me in I felt like that old bull weafel who lived in
[01:52:34] the red hot fire mighty warm but nice I'd found a home I fell asleep and didn't wake up again
[01:52:40] until I was being winched aboard the hospital ship USS Haven in Busan Harbor I opened my eyes
[01:52:48] and everything I saw was white clean and oh so warm medics were starched the nurses all look
[01:52:56] like Doris Day I was stripped placed in crisp white sheets with soft blue blankets I was safe
[01:53:03] and suddenly starving a medic came down to the immediate rescue with a delicious hot meal I wolfed
[01:53:10] it down just in time for the next wonder of wonders a beautiful young nurse in a tight little white
[01:53:16] outfit who came to clean me up why did I join the navy I thought except for my bath in the
[01:53:23] Korean tub I hadn't washed in more than two months I was caked with dry blood Korean mud and
[01:53:30] got only knew what else each time the nurse scraped off one filthy layer she'd have to change the
[01:53:35] sheets and start again it took four sheet changes with no help for me because as a head wound I
[01:53:40] wasn't allowed to move it all next the poor girl had to shave off my ratty beard bad hygiene and
[01:53:47] ingrown hairs had covered my face with foil like pimples it was too terrible to be funny
[01:53:53] watching the nurse bobbing and weaving all over the place to avoid flying debris every time that
[01:53:58] razor hit one of the anti-personnel mines buried in my cheeks the next few days were a haze sleep
[01:54:05] really hard sleep people standing over me having whispered consultations blood IV X-ray after X-ray
[01:54:12] doctors probing asking questions how many fingers do you see I slowly regained my strength
[01:54:17] someone somebody commondured my wall from watch I never saw it again the sleep was good I caught
[01:54:23] up on months of it lost but then I started getting restless the ward those spotlessly clean and
[01:54:31] staffed with talented dedicated dedicated prose was an extremely depressing place we were all head wounds
[01:54:39] most either terminal or vegetable cases it was amazing that many it was amazing that many young
[01:54:48] boys all of them were still sucking in air one guy had tubes running out of everywhere he'd
[01:54:54] caught a slug right between the eyes I wanted out I'd had my little vacation I told the
[01:55:01] docs I'm ready to return to my platoon there's nothing wrong with me the doctors probably
[01:55:07] thought that the bulleted done some pretty serious damage to my brain nobody wanted to go back to the
[01:55:13] front they didn't realize that the guys in third platoon were my brothers my family and I love them
[01:55:24] I'd only been with them three weeks it was true but in combat that's a lifetime and I didn't
[01:55:30] want to leave them out there alone if by being there I could help keep them alive keep them out of a
[01:55:37] head wound ward I want to go back I kept telling them well he did go back he healed up
[01:55:56] he healed up pretty quickly and went back to his platoon by mid-march so he was out for maybe a month
[01:56:06] and a half and you know this book is just incredibly good what by the way that's page 69
[01:56:17] of a 800 page book that's where we're at page 69 of an 800 page book just in Korea he's going to get
[01:56:24] two more purple hearts he's going to get battlefield commissioned he's going to take command of a
[01:56:30] new radar unit he's going to go on offense against the enemy he's going to get awarded three silver
[01:56:36] stars then he's going to go back to America he's going to volunteer for another tour with the 40th
[01:56:44] infantry division and then that war is going to end and he's going to stay in the army and he's going
[01:56:50] to go through all the political things that you have to go through to move up the chain of command
[01:56:54] and then he's going to eventually deploy to Vietnam as a battalion operations officer as a battalion
[01:56:59] commander he's going to go there with with SLA Marshall and then he's going to go and he's going to
[01:57:05] be a battalion commander for the 439 infantry and eventually he conducts his his famous or his
[01:57:17] infamous interview depending on how you look at it with the issues and answers where he
[01:57:24] disparages a lot of the senior army and a lot of the civilian leadership after which he is
[01:57:35] drummed out of the army rapidly and all the I mean these events that take place they're all
[01:57:42] documented with such detail and it just gives so much information about leadership, about human
[01:57:55] nature, about the way people act, about why people do what they do, there's so much to learn from this
[01:58:04] book so we're almost at two hours right now what an honor it was for me to have written the forward
[01:58:12] to this thing this book that had such a huge impact on me check it out check out the book
[01:58:17] one thing that's cool about it is you don't have to look it's 800 pages long you can you don't
[01:58:23] have to read the whole book in one sitting you know the story I just told you the story the story
[01:58:28] is about a guy that's that that freaking loves his troops throughout his career and you pick it
[01:58:33] up anywhere and you read what he's going through for two or three pages I guarantee you'll get
[01:58:37] a lesson out of it it's it's that good and you don't have you don't have to read the whole thing
[01:58:42] at once you will you'll want to because you'll want to know what's going to happen like I said
[01:58:47] we we're on page 69 right now and by the way we skipped a bunch I skipped a whole section because
[01:58:53] he got he kind of talks about the the opening action scene that I talked about but then he kind
[01:58:58] of goes into how he ended up in the army and goes through the world but too and he goes through the
[01:59:02] trust troops and all that then he picks back up with Korea so we didn't even cover we probably
[01:59:07] covered 40 pages out of a 800 page book so check out the book it will teach you valuable
[01:59:22] leadership lessons and it will teach you how to become smarter as leader and it will teach you how to become
[01:59:28] a better person about face Colonel David Hackworth speaking of being better echo Charles yes
[01:59:40] do you have any let's say hecumen nations sure hecumen nations well actually back to the
[01:59:46] Hawaiian guy me one big war hero bra yeah it's not me he didn't say me what do you say I
[01:59:53] because in pigeon no well yeah I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure I'm
[01:59:57] maybe remembered it incorrectly backwards was wrong is what I'm here okay I'm just saying
[02:00:05] in pigeon you don't say me I might have read it wrong no he has to be says yeah he says me one big
[02:00:10] war hero bra yeah so he views I'm correct pigeon I want a big war hero bra okay also
[02:00:18] trying to remind me like this just totally never thought about this but when I'm realizing
[02:00:25] in pigeon you say one and set up a like a like hey toss me a beer whatever toss me one beer one beer
[02:00:32] yeah it's weird it's like a subtle difference right there tossing one beer no no no no no I
[02:00:38] say I like but one is like you know like in non pigeon we'll say like better term you say one
[02:00:48] as it only when the option of more than one is considered in the scenario you know but in pigeon you
[02:00:56] just say one just means a whether two or more whatever is considered or not drop it seem seen
[02:01:02] toss me one beer I want big war hero as opposed to I'm two big war heroes they see
[02:01:10] I'm saying I'm a big war you see you see the translates right that's why you're here man
[02:01:17] they're working down that pigeon if need be yes yes all right so okay becoming better so
[02:01:23] I was thinking about this the other day you know my neighbors are over and they ask hey do you
[02:01:28] work out every day I was like yeah well I try to you know the whole deal you work out every
[02:01:36] day right juggle every day like seven days a week I mean that's kind of the plan that you're
[02:01:41] still I will try and work out every single day sometimes you have a travel day you know the
[02:01:48] flights at six fifteen I got to bed at eleven do I am I gonna get up at three fifteen or or no even
[02:01:54] earlier than that three no my body could probably use the extra sleep more than it could use the
[02:02:00] workout yeah but I know that there are days like that out there so therefore I don't voluntarily
[02:02:07] take days off yeah so and kind yeah I dig it same deal more or less you know but why like why do
[02:02:19] work out every day I'm not saying you shouldn't I'm just saying you ever think about like why do you work out
[02:02:24] every day you know and then like how do you work out every day like what like why why why I work out
[02:02:31] every day so I can say and shape bro yeah but you don't have to work out every day to stay and shape okay
[02:02:36] things there has to be more to it than that I think it's good for you mentally and physically
[02:02:41] just see there you go mentally right mentally that's so that's such a broad thing to say though
[02:02:47] too and I mean that in a good way I don't mean it like whoa that's a copper I'm not saying that
[02:02:52] I'm saying like that's yeah mentally man that's a big deal mentally where that's part of like
[02:02:59] essentially like your life you know it's part of like who you are you know like that's the discipline
[02:03:05] yeah and there's a lot of things like that but they seem like real small because so many people do it
[02:03:11] you know like you know some people they they make their bed every single day right there's that
[02:03:16] and then there's like okay then you get all the way down the spectrum like obvious things like
[02:03:21] all I brush my teeth every day I would it you know but man you're essentially if you want to
[02:03:28] call it the path like working out every day beyond the physical benefits and you know whatever
[02:03:36] being stronger whatever working out every day is like it's one of those things where if you can adjust
[02:03:44] your standard to that in that way that's a good thing that it that'll yeah that'll keep you that'll
[02:03:51] keep you in a place that's like I guess that's why we call it the path it'll keep you on the path
[02:04:01] yeah I think that developing a pattern is very positive right so it'll stick into the pattern
[02:04:07] yeah once you deviate let's face it you lose momentum and that's a good way to develop a pattern
[02:04:15] as far as staying in shape working out because let's face it like working out a lot of times
[02:04:19] like we can consider that as like kind of low on the priority list for a lot of reasons and I understand
[02:04:25] but if you're the cold thing is like no I work out every day the same way I freaking brush my teeth
[02:04:32] every day you know it's like part of the day I floss my teeth every day yeah yeah so it's like one of
[02:04:38] those things that started when I joined the navy what floss they said floss your teeth every day
[02:04:42] I was like okay and I started doing it every day yeah see and that's good it's the reason I
[02:04:50] laugh is because it's funny how it's like that simple for you yeah like good like they're just
[02:04:54] those you floss oh yeah you get told that your whole life but then they're like okay
[02:04:58] they say foster tea every day oh yeah Roger that so yeah hey how about this workout every day
[02:05:03] every single day it's good move well but it is a good way what you're what you get I feel like
[02:05:08] there's some place where you're going with this I feel like this is a building up to some
[02:05:11] statement yeah and here's it's not building up to statement it's kind of rude because I was thinking
[02:05:19] you had some kind of philosophical yoree command yeah I mean but basically what your saying is
[02:05:25] workout every day I have a head of it's not that long as it's kind of made to be wondering
[02:05:29] I'm telling you why you should work out every day because let's face it like if you just say hey
[02:05:33] workout every day where there's a lot of pushback you can get like no you need rest days no you need
[02:05:38] you know like there's you know this is big philosophy to it but working out every day just like
[02:05:43] how you said which I'm glad you did by the way it's it's a it's a mental thing yes and of course
[02:05:49] physical but this obvious yeah some mental things so and then you additionally you said to you know
[02:05:55] make it a what a routine or whatever like it's just part of your day develop a pattern
[02:06:00] develop a pattern yes exactly right that's a good way to develop a pattern is you just
[02:06:04] automatically assume and do it every day just automatically as part of the day you know not like
[02:06:10] all I want to try to get a workout into it you know it's not that it's like that's like that's it's
[02:06:14] more of a given you know kind of thing is a weird thing that I'll say to people like how do you
[02:06:21] sure yeah or like what do you say to yourself I don't say anything yeah I don't even
[02:06:26] it's a weird thing I don't even think about it yeah I don't sit there and be like well you know
[02:06:31] I have worked out for five days straight so I really probably don't actually need to work out today
[02:06:36] I could you you know it's like you know I actually read once four years ago in a muscle and fitness
[02:06:40] magazine that you know five days in a row is a bit too much to work out you should take that
[02:06:44] whatever day off you always can find 80 million ways to rationalize it's not the Bulgarians actually
[02:06:51] on their periodization cycle they only took you know like there's a million different
[02:06:55] I was reading about Michael Phelps and even though he trained hard there was always one day a week
[02:06:59] that he would just rest like everyone's got a million different rationalizing things that you can
[02:07:04] put in your head yeah even though there's a good go that's that's the rationalizing thing
[02:07:10] there's a there's a TV show that it's called alone and it's TV show going alone they put
[02:07:18] people out in the wilderness I heard about it on Joe Rogan because he had one of the winners on the show
[02:07:23] and I didn't even hear that I just heard Joe Rogan mentioned it he was like yeah the show
[02:07:28] was crazy they put them out and so I was with my wife and my youngest daughter and they were
[02:07:33] looking for something to watch and I go I go well hey there's a show called alone it's about
[02:07:39] being alone in the wilderness long story short but everyone quits and you you the show goes on until
[02:07:47] only one person is left everyone else quits so they're in different places there alone in the wilderness
[02:07:55] they're alone in the wilderness oh with each other though no there alone yeah yeah yeah
[02:08:00] alone so as you watch this you see people and they have cameras with them so they're talking to
[02:08:07] themselves and it's been funny to watch because you can see people when they're gonna quit and
[02:08:14] you're like oh they're rationaling so now now I've got my youngest daughter who's 11
[02:08:20] when someone starts rationalizing she says oh he's rationalizing because you know someone will say
[02:08:27] no I could stay out here for a long time but you know I really miss my family yeah yeah and you
[02:08:31] know he's rationalizing or or I just don't know if it's worth you know what this is doing to my body I've
[02:08:37] done some stuff to start tough to my body and I'm sort of think about even though the money would be
[02:08:42] nice but so we start rationalizing and the reason I mean you'd see that in zeal training
[02:08:50] in zeal training you'd see someone say you know I don't know if I you know I've actually probably
[02:08:56] going to get married and I don't know if it's the right thing to do to put my girlfriend through this
[02:09:00] and you're like okay yeah yeah for sure definitely don't want to put your wife through this
[02:09:06] go quit go quit so it's so easy to rationalize things rationalization is the enemy and that
[02:09:14] brings me back to where I started this which was I'm not thinking about it because I know that my
[02:09:21] I know that my rationalization my powers of rationalization can can win I can get to myself
[02:09:28] 48 times I just quoted a muscle and fitness magazine from 1987 that said that the Bulgarians
[02:09:35] ensure that they get at least one complete day of rest for every five days of working out you can
[02:09:40] support any crap that you want to support if you just want to rationalize or do yourself be irrational
[02:09:48] be irrational shut up do what you're supposed to do
[02:09:53] yeah that a rationalizing is I'm very successful person in regards to rationalizing everyone is
[02:10:05] you also know your own you know what to say you know how to like you're into being healthy right
[02:10:14] and you're like yeah you know I did see that I did want just watch that YouTube video and they talked
[02:10:19] about the value of rest actually is more important it's actually more important you know then diet
[02:10:27] and lifting the most important thing is rest and I think I've been really I don't think I think
[02:10:34] I think I actually in order to truly have discipline I need to have the discipline just to not work
[02:10:39] out today yeah that's going to take discipline these are all lies they're all just lies they're all
[02:10:45] just rationalization yeah I I like today I was lifting today but I was rationalizing prior to lifting
[02:10:55] I was rationalizing I've been sitting there like observing myself rationalizing and what I had to
[02:11:01] do is actually I was feeling a little tweak in my leg in my knee no very minor but I was like well you
[02:11:08] know maybe I did you know just let that thing heal up don't want it and it's like no actually shut up
[02:11:13] and I I lifted lighter but I didn't rationalize yeah I was like okay cool but hurt like good
[02:11:21] you know it's a stretch of calm thing to combat rationalizing and I will all just shut up and do what you're
[02:11:30] supposed to do that's one thing yeah yeah for sure but what I do or sometimes if I have the strength
[02:11:38] uh is all imagine like you know how like all come with you with an issue like a work that's in
[02:11:43] excuse or something and you always have some work around for the excuse every single time like somewhere
[02:11:49] and it's like man if you can just imagine kind of what Jocca would say right now you know because
[02:11:56] you could legitimately have a tweaking your knee you could and then varying levels it could be like
[02:12:01] almost like hey if you start doing this squat routine that you have planned like you we will make it
[02:12:06] work for sure you know but you can also use your other life right just some other stuff pistols
[02:12:11] oh yeah you know how about that how's that sound oh yeah and a lot of times like that other stuff
[02:12:16] like man I'd rather battle through the pain to be honest okay so when you go surfing sometimes
[02:12:21] it's like cold miserable maybe the waves aren't that great but you know you should go
[02:12:26] yeah so stoner and I we had this rule for a little while when we got to our surf spot
[02:12:32] we could either go surfing or if you don't want to go surfing that's fine but now you have to swim around the
[02:12:39] pier so it's like that's the deal so guess what you do you go surfing and you know you should
[02:12:46] go surfing anyways even if you get two good waves it's worth it and you got to work out you know
[02:12:51] you got to paddle but you're either going to so you should have an alternative like hey you can
[02:12:56] either work out today or you can whatever whatever some miserable thing is that sucks worse than
[02:13:04] working out yeah right yeah I'm gonna come up with that thing yeah so and actually actually do
[02:13:10] that but it's still working out so it's like a version of that it's a it's a perfect uh uh it's
[02:13:16] analogous to your surfing thing it's either do the work out plan or do this metcon and it's a specific
[02:13:23] metcon this two of them if I did this one the the last time I did metcon I do this other one that's
[02:13:29] it they're just two so it's like either do the full workout or do the metcon so if it's like man
[02:13:34] if you're if you think your journey is tweeter whatever you can do the metcon that's cool yeah
[02:13:38] you like that there you go and it's like it's right on the borderline of the workout and the
[02:13:43] metcon suck the same yeah equally yeah but you know sometimes you're just not in the mood to do that
[02:13:49] workout yeah and then sometimes you're really not in the mood to do the metcon so it's weird how
[02:13:53] sometimes you want to do sometimes you would prefer to do a metcon and sometimes you would prefer to
[02:13:59] lift heavy right it's okay it's okay what's not okay is I don't feel like lifting heavy so I'm
[02:14:05] just not gonna do it or I don't feel like doing a metcon so I'm just gonna do anything yeah
[02:14:09] exactly what you want to do that I like that option you can either do this or that and I do that
[02:14:13] to a certain level you know if I if I just whatever I don't feel like doing anything that's
[02:14:18] gonna be a metcon scenario I bet cool I'm gonna lift heavy you know and I'm gonna grind it out
[02:14:24] too and I'm not like I'm gonna say oh well I'm just gonna you know yeah no I'm gonna get some
[02:14:28] that's why I like the metcon because the metcon is very specific like you either did it or you
[02:14:32] just didn't do it correctly you know kind of thing like it has the the rest in between
[02:14:37] each rest basically circuit training yeah essentially and I got to do a certain weight a certain
[02:14:42] amount of reps per thing it's so it's there it's not like oh I'm gonna go like or I'm gonna
[02:14:47] slack it's kind of hard to slack because it's like real glaring if you do so yeah you're choosing
[02:14:52] one or the other I don't care what you're in the mood for a night in the mood for like you got to
[02:14:55] do one you know but if you so I always have that in play always yeah and it works yeah it's good to
[02:15:02] give yourself a shitty alternative yes yes it is in these cases yeah well anyway hopefully
[02:15:12] we are on the path whether you're working out every day or not I'd say I recommend to
[02:15:18] work out every day here's the thing if you're hurting yourself or something like that don't do
[02:15:22] that work out yeah yeah for sure like do something that's gonna injure you yeah but don't do nothing
[02:15:29] don't do nothing do a very deliberate yeah work out every day and the point is there too is like
[02:15:34] that it after while it does just become normal yeah like just like making coffee or you know like
[02:15:41] every day it's just all that's sort of just what you do every single day it's like right it becomes
[02:15:45] that you know and boom you're a new person boom just like that just like that you know like we're
[02:15:50] all in the path we're working out every day hey look you joins get sore I get it right my knees actually
[02:15:56] sore actually sore but I did squat super hard yeah you know the kind where mentally you go into like
[02:16:06] getting yeah whatever in squats too and so mentally you kind of it's almost like a you turn off
[02:16:15] a certain part of your mind you know so and you're just your body just has to like basically
[02:16:19] facilitate their ass but then when you're done when your mind switches back on you're like just
[02:16:25] in pain you know how you got to basically pay the price of mentally afterwards you're sitting
[02:16:29] on the road to recovery which is cool but you know it was one of those scenarios and yeah my knees
[02:16:35] were weird strangely sore on the inside I don't know oddly it's fully healed now too by the way
[02:16:42] those two days ago nonetheless point is the next few joints get sore mine too jocals too when you get
[02:16:48] older we're all getting older I know no matter how old you are we're not getting older no but like
[02:16:54] everyone goes oh it's because you're getting older no because you're not taking care you're taking care
[02:16:58] less yeah and also like when when I was younger you have sore yeah it's not worse yeah my hands
[02:17:06] are not really worse I feel like my capacity maybe my enthusiasm sometimes less but that might be
[02:17:13] just because I got more stuff going on as an adult you see I don't know no the last if you're
[02:17:18] joints of sore don't worry joculous when did you become an adult how are you I want to say like
[02:17:24] mid 30's I think it was mid never to be honest but I don't know I think it's a slowly slow
[02:17:32] gradual we're still heading there kids kids kids kids move that forward when you have kids
[02:17:39] you start to become an adult pretty quickly yeah yeah yeah yeah certainly I mean I mean you've got
[02:17:45] like human that now rely on you for your food for their food so I've got for everything and everything
[02:17:52] yeah like the roof yeah like and health health for the guidance life yeah whole freaking
[02:17:59] existence bunch of things we're talking about yeah it's wrecking second switch on the adult
[02:18:03] circuits for sure how old you're oldest seven yeah so I was probably right probably mid 30's
[02:18:09] you started kind of moving in the direction of yeah I think so too nonetheless I don't have
[02:18:15] sore joints at the moment that is because when I was trying to tell our everyone the people
[02:18:22] our people joc was supplementation called jockel fueled the joint stuff is joint warfare
[02:18:29] there is also super krill oil which has other health benefits by the way but anyway in combination
[02:18:35] this will keep your joints in the game working out seven days a week working out five days a week
[02:18:41] whatever working out nine days a week all of that stuff these will keep them together the whole
[02:18:49] time you can be worried about your gains not your joints they check them out hey also vitamin D
[02:18:57] now we're in the midst of the pandemic and everybody is saying take vitamin D thankfully
[02:19:05] we may go out of the day vitamin D three get some of that you can also get cold war which is
[02:19:11] immune health which again these are products that we've had and it's pretty cool that a lot of
[02:19:18] people are recommending them right now so you can stay healthy and then on top of all this working
[02:19:25] out that you're doing your prior to need some what echolex to call additional protein yes additional
[02:19:32] well because you know there's a debate if you will to be an animal lifestyle of how much protein
[02:19:39] you should know so if you want a supplement protein I read out of the list of this right now
[02:19:46] yeah but for zero yeah you know there's four in the last it doesn't matter because for those six
[02:19:54] people there you go there you go there you go there you go there you go there you go there you go
[02:20:00] yes nonetheless if you're going to sell them in protein you might as well have it in the form of
[02:20:03] dessert that's a smoke is I know strange name I get it unless supplement you're protein like a
[02:20:10] dessert but that we got some kids protein to warrior kid protein because why would you feed
[02:20:16] your kid something that's actual poison you wouldn't do it you'd get them warrior kid milk they will
[02:20:20] love it you will love that they're having it they will be healthier stronger smarter better they're
[02:20:26] going to have a massive deadlift first sure just a hundred percent white tea we got that and we
[02:20:33] also got these cans of what we call discipline go is it an energy drink you know what it is because
[02:20:41] it gives you energy but it gives you real energy not a not a lie not just a not just a massive
[02:20:49] hit of caffeine 300 milligrams of caffeine look you you inject 300 milligrams of caffeine into a piece of wood
[02:20:56] and it starts to get excited but after a little while it's like very quickly it's back to just
[02:21:02] being wood you put a bunch of sugar into into a rat and it gets all excited that's fake energy
[02:21:09] this real energy it's got it's not got no sugar in it but it still tastes good sweet with
[02:21:15] my paparoma yeah well here's the thing the blah blah and I get it and I understand why you said
[02:21:20] blah blah because it's like yeah these are all these numbers and all this stuff will
[02:21:24] but man I kind of looked into it I did look into it by the way and so preserve it is sweet
[02:21:31] and there's like these things that is the things that make normal energy drinks bad for you yeah
[02:21:36] yeah the ones that are bad for you and you know there's a bunch of energy drinks so I can't
[02:21:40] say so it's hard to for me in the spirit of accuracy to say all all energy drinks are all this
[02:21:45] are all that but the preservatives and artificial sweeteners are straight up plays in straight up
[02:21:54] but they do sweeten or they do preserve or do you know and there's these list of very specific
[02:21:59] things that they put in the only reason they're in there is not to help you yeah it's to help
[02:22:04] the drink it helps the drink yes so whatever I'm trying to say is we don't have any of those
[02:22:10] things in order to not put chemicals in there to preserve it we paste your eyes it like what
[02:22:17] you do with milk yes so and in order to sweeten it we've only got monk fruit which is good for you
[02:22:24] monk fruit is good for you so anyways all these different items you can get it you can get
[02:22:29] origin main dot com you can also get them at the vitamin shop and we're a little we're about to
[02:22:37] enter a new market in the world you know when people say oh I really wish this stuff was available
[02:22:44] here or there I mean we're moving in that direction it's starting starting with vitamin shop
[02:22:49] next thing we're going into is a place called wawwaw which is a convenience store most of East Coast
[02:22:55] we're starting in Florida and Virginia if you live in those areas be on the lookout because
[02:23:02] you'll be able to walk into a waw and clean out the shelf clean out the shelf get yourself some
[02:23:09] dyspongo try the different flavors and yeah you'll get that little you'll get that little
[02:23:15] mid-morning heater and that you won't be supposed to drink crash really like yeah yeah and and being
[02:23:26] in the in the store is like especially like a convenient store scenario whatever it's it makes it it
[02:23:32] does this is a big deal in this sense where right now and I get it like you you or here shipment you
[02:23:38] know you get it whether it be online or whatever or find a vitamin shop for sure but when it's
[02:23:43] out the store you can just sort of stop and get one kind of thing on the way here on the way there
[02:23:49] whatever it makes it a whole different process yeah way more convenient if you were probably
[02:23:55] why they call it convenient stores by the way yeah unless that's a good that's good news right there
[02:24:01] yeah so dyspongo so what it's called in the can I don't know if you mentioned that for those who
[02:24:05] may not have known that got it thank you so anyway yes or origin mean dot com yeah get it there also other
[02:24:13] stuff it origin mean is do you get the keys if you don't have one get one from there American made all
[02:24:17] good what are we doing without a jitter geet at this point I have no we should definitely be having a
[02:24:22] jitter geet that's for sure also jeans american denim also some hoodie some other clothing items on
[02:24:30] there American made boots works of art i've heard them be referred to as works of art made in a
[02:24:37] American just made Pete Roberts isn't so happy well it's accurate i agree with the statement yeah they are
[02:24:44] this is works of art and also the preservation of a culture of creation and manufacturer that's
[02:24:54] what's happening this is a loss this is a dying art a dying capability that is now being preserved
[02:25:04] whether it's the the manufacturing of the cloth to make the geese whether it's the manufacturing of the
[02:25:12] boots whether it's the the sewing and fabrication of the jeans all of it is a preservation of a manufacturing
[02:25:23] a manufacturing thread that ties America together so we're not going to let it die by the way and we
[02:25:33] appreciate you all helping us keep it alive so yes or domain calm so we can get this stuff also
[02:25:41] jac was dark jac was stored I just made like kind of a statement and there you go yeah so yeah
[02:25:45] that's where you can get this stuff but it's true okay there you go i'm sorry i'm sorry
[02:25:50] you're gonna get these pieces of art you started it man that was so tricky deep bro it was deep
[02:25:57] and man thank you so much for for for saying that you're welcome anyway jac was my services
[02:26:03] and then jac for fully appreciated you are that epic my speech was yes sir there was
[02:26:08] jac started calm we we can get our shirts this one he goes for you don't
[02:26:14] deaf core to the core by the way good good get out all these shat you well well if you want to
[02:26:20] represent while you're on the pad jac was stored back onto the book back to the book all day that's
[02:26:24] a shirt oh yeah also hoodies on there some tank tops other items so we're adding I we got a
[02:26:31] hardcore recondos on there back in stock by the way yeah yeah speaking of David and we didn't
[02:26:37] even get this part about face but I think we all know the the the the what he called the legend
[02:26:43] or the what he called it when everyone's sort of the cannon who's that what is called the cannon
[02:26:47] is like a big book or a big work of art i mean a big work of right the part of the story
[02:26:53] that's like you know they became the crux of the story perhaps no i thought it's like legendary
[02:26:59] legendary iconic part of the story like one of them yeah anyway why they're called called
[02:27:05] the hardcore rather than the hopeless yeah yeah hardcore condos yes sir no slack
[02:27:13] yes so we got that sure we got we got some cool stuff continuously adding items on there maybe
[02:27:17] like once a month month once every two months maybe so anyway check in there if you like we
[02:27:22] do have an email list if you want to get emailed for new stuff um basically just new stuff that's
[02:27:29] it pretty much work your kid soaks on there too yes sir which is legit yes that's all we use now
[02:27:36] and here's here you know what's weird the um the compliments that I hear personally and online
[02:27:42] is that it smells real good there you go it doesn't seem like that was like one of the things
[02:27:48] that were or that eight in and then we're like trying to like push just the byproduct of excellence
[02:27:53] just doing it and that is the case for sure yes we're good even though it smells good which I
[02:28:00] agree with but even more important it can help you it can help your family
[02:28:06] stay clean stay clean subscribe to the podcast don't just subscribe to this podcast we got
[02:28:12] some other podcast we got the jockel unraveling podcast we got the ground in podcast we got the
[02:28:15] warrior kid podcast we got our YouTube channel if you want to see Eccles YouTube videos that he
[02:28:21] makes we makes everything explode and blow up and catch on fire except if it's a long video in
[02:28:26] the vertical just let you be bored with that which is fine with we got an album called Psychological
[02:28:31] warfare which is me talking about moments of weakness that we may need to overcome you might need
[02:28:37] a little help overcoming that when you should harass you realize you might be trying to
[02:28:40] rationalize we can fight through that together press play you press play you have it on there you
[02:28:46] have a little MP3 on there you press play on your phone and then all of a sudden you stop
[02:28:53] rationalizing and you start doing you flipside canvas if you want to not rationalize visually
[02:29:01] get yourself some get yourself some things to represent I know that life just told me that he
[02:29:07] hooked up the echelon front HQ building in Texas with some flipside canvas works from the walls
[02:29:18] we also have some books hey first of all this book right here about face written by Colonel David
[02:29:23] Hackworth I wrote the forward one and honor check it out this is a book you can refer back to
[02:29:29] forever I'm still reading it I have been reading this book for approximately
[02:29:34] I would say approximately 20 years approximately 20 years and I'm still reading it
[02:29:42] we also have the code the evaluation the protocol written by myself Dave Burke Sarah Armstrong in the
[02:29:48] mix on that one leader substrategy and tactics field manual all the answers are in there
[02:29:57] all the answers are in there they really are get that book you can look up oh you got a
[02:30:01] problem with your employees acting a certain way cool go to leadership strategy oh your boss you're
[02:30:05] having a hard time leading up a good cool go in there check it out oh your morale is down for your
[02:30:09] truth okay go in there check it out all the answers are in there leadership strategy in tactics field manual
[02:30:16] we got way the warrior kid one two three we got far on the way be checking out for it we'll have it to
[02:30:22] pre-order as ASAP it's it's it's the final version is with the printers at this time oh okay yeah
[02:30:32] so we're there we also want to know you know sometimes we collectively cause shortages of certain
[02:30:41] books so if you want to get way the warrior kid for please pre-order it so that you don't get caught
[02:30:48] at Christmas time with no book for your little warrior kid don't forget about Mikey in the dragons
[02:30:54] speaking of warrior kids don't forget about the discipline he goes freedom field manual there is a new
[02:30:58] addition out the new addition I wrote a bunch more for it we added it in there it's got a new
[02:31:10] cover it's got a photograph by echo Charles on the cover the photograph is of my head which we which you
[02:31:19] took of me yes you think that there was there a big like setting up a lighting and all this stuff no
[02:31:26] I was standing in echo Charles's hallway we just got done recording the podcast and his living room
[02:31:30] and he goes hold on a second turn around and he's holding a camera and he goes click click
[02:31:37] and one of those two shots is echo's iconic picture that is on the cover it's bigger how
[02:31:45] I show you the new one yeah I have one you have the it's not a completed one it's actually you have
[02:31:51] a fake one okay I'll bring you the real one yeah I'll bring the real one so they made it look a
[02:31:57] little bit more and you know I'm I'm an old school hardcore kid from
[02:32:02] dude and so things had a certain look to them and this one kind of moved in that direction a
[02:32:07] little bit being a little bit like my old school hardcore days DIY things happen you got a good
[02:32:14] track record with covers I could say yeah yeah yeah well thank you I appreciate it so there's all
[02:32:21] those books plus there's extreme ownership plus there's an economy of leadership which I wrote
[02:32:26] with my brother Dave Babin we have Escelon front which is a leadership consultancy we've solved
[02:32:31] problems through leadership that's what we do go to Escelon front dot com if you need help in your
[02:32:38] business we have EF online where we are providing leadership instruction through an online platform
[02:32:45] answering questions there's all kinds of things to do on there there's courses to take
[02:32:53] there is EF Overwatch where we are taking people from the military and putting them into civilian
[02:32:59] companies in leadership positions people let understand the principles that we talk about here
[02:33:04] and finally if you want to help if you want to help out our military members active members
[02:33:11] retired members their families gold star families if you want to support then check out
[02:33:17] Mark Lee's mom that's Mark Lee from tasking to bruiser his mom momally she has a charity
[02:33:24] organization if you want to donate or you want to get involved go to america's mighty warriors dot org
[02:33:33] and if you if you feel the need if you just feel the need to hear more of my unbearable
[02:33:44] bellowing or you maybe just need a little hitter a little dose of echoes modeled me and drinks
[02:33:54] which we certainly got plenty of today you can find us on the interwebs on twitter on instagram
[02:34:00] which echo just so he knows what i'm talking about he refers to instagram as the gram
[02:34:07] facebook echo is adeclatra us and i am at jockel willink and thanks once again
[02:34:15] to my mentor Colonel David hackworth for everything he did for me for his soldiers
[02:34:22] for the army and for america and thanks to all the military personnel out there right now
[02:34:30] right now right at this moment while you're sitting there listening to this podcast while we're
[02:34:36] sitting here making this podcast there are military personnel out there right now holding the line
[02:34:42] against evil and protecting our way of life and the same thing to police and law enforcement
[02:34:49] firefighters and paramedics and EMTs and dispatchers and correction officers board of patrol
[02:34:54] secret service all other first responders thank you for holding the line and protecting us here at home
[02:35:01] and everyone else out there you know we have to remember that in life most of the time
[02:35:17] we don't have the luxury we don't have the luxury of a colonel or a captain or a lieutenant or a
[02:35:24] sergeant hackworth in our lives we don't have someone there to keep us in line to make us
[02:35:34] do push-ups and give us a good swift kick in the ass when we slack off what we have to do is we have to
[02:35:44] be our own sergeant hackworth we have to be our own mister infantry we have to be our own hard
[02:35:52] core recondo to hold the highest standards and allow no fucking slack that is our charge as leaders
[02:36:08] as people as human beings so go out there and get after it and until next time this is echo and jocco
[02:36:24] out