Jocko Podcast - 317: Self-Reliance, Self-Control, and Initiative. What We Learn from "Infantry Squad Leader: Combat Leadership" Manual

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

0:00:00 - Opening0:02:03 - Infantry Squad Leader: Combat Leadership2:06:49 - How to stay on THE PATH.2:29:25 - Closing Gratitude.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 317 with Echo Charles and me Jocco Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. All right. The Marine Corps, specifically the Marine Corps Institute has, well, they seem to do this on a regular basis. They put out manuals with some incredible insight about leadership, about human nature, about combat, not just about. combat at all the things that they put out applied directly to business and to life in general and I'm going to read some excerpts today from a manual that was actually designed for remote learning and

I think these days when we think of remote learning we think of Zoom calls but this is old school remote learning where you get a book read a book read a section learn about something take tests inside the sections. It's a it's one of those. It's a remote learning old school remote learning where you'd get a book, a manual, fill in answers, read sections. This particular class is called infantry squad leader combat leadership. And I'm just going to review some of the texts. If you go online, you can go online and get this manual and there's questions and there's quizzes and there's, it's a full on course. But the text that's in it, It's a very well-written text and addresses things that apply to everything that everyone does all the time.

Every day. Stuff we all have to contend with. So here we go. Infantry squad leader from the Marine Corps Institute. Bad leadership. It starts off a little cover letter from the director of the Marine Corps Institute. the subject course provides instruction for all Marine NCOs on the conditions of combat and how they can begin to prepare their Marines for combat.

Now, if you aren't a Marine and you're a business leader or you're a football coach or you're a parent in a family, I think you're going to see this applies to you to 100%. And I don't know you and I can throw around 100% from time to time, just sort of A little bit much. 100%. But I'm telling you this one right here, 100%. So it starts off. And this is what I like about.

The Marine Corps thinks through some stuff. Here's something they fought through. It starts off with this. Congratulations on your enrollment in a distance education course from the Distance Learning and Technologies Department of the Marine Corps Institute. Since 1920, the Marine Corps Institute has been helping tens of thousands of hard-charging Marines like you improve their technical job performance skills through distance learning. By enrolling in this course, you have shown a desire to improve the skills you have and

master new skills to enhance your job performance. They're building you up just as you read this. You're getting in the game. Here's your personal character. Actually, he's going to tell you what your personal characteristics are. You are properly motivated. You have made a positive decision to get training on your own. Self-motivation is perhaps the most important force in learning or achieving anything.

Doing whatever is necessary to learn is motivation. You have it. That's a good tactic, by the way. You seek to improve yourself. Now, again, does this apply to just Marines in combat? How many human beings are looking to improve themselves? Everyone. You seek to improve yourself.

You are enrolled to improve those skills you already possess. and learn new skills. When you improve yourself, you improve the core. You have the initiative to act. By acting on your own, you have shown you are a self-starter willing to reach out for opportunities to learn and grow. These are like the most positive attributes

they can put on a human being, and they're just throwing them. How about this one? You accept challenges. You have self-confidence and believe in your ability to acquire knowledge and skills. You have the self-confidence to set goals and the ability to achieve them,

enabling you to meet every challenge. You are able to set and accomplish practical goals. You are willing to commit time, effort, and the resources necessary to set and accomplish your goals. These professional traits will help you successfully complete this distance learning course. I was actually thinking we were going to go into like a whole other realm of living. But it is going to help us with this distance learning course as well. Starts off a little section called characteristics of combat. Every Marine is a warrior, a potential combat leader.

you may be in combat tomorrow, regardless of how well your unit is trained, you must harden yourself for your first action. You do not need to experience combat in order to understand the essential requirements for leading your Marines in combat. However, it's fundamental, it is your fundamental responsibility to physically and mentally prepare yourself and your Marines for battle. Now, are we just talking about Marines? What about life?

What about life? You may be in a hard situation tomorrow. That's what's going on. So you got to prepare for that. So this starts off with an excerpt. This is probably the longest excerpt that I'm going to read. It's from a book called The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sayre. It's a book that we actually haven't covered on this podcast.

I'll go into a little bit of why that is, but here we go. We had just witnessed two or three major assaults. From the screams of anguish to our left, we concluded that a great many of our men had been killed. We had emptied five magazines and were warming our fingers on the hot metal of the machine gun. Our sixth and last magazine had been attached and we were anxiously waiting for fresh supplies. The night was continuously lit by the explosions of thousands of Russian shells, which made movement extremely difficult. Our trenches, which in any case were not deep enough, extended only to certain positions.

The others had to be reached by leaps and bounds, altered. With plunges to the ground and writhing on our stomachs across dozens of yards of snow Mixed with chunks of frozen earth From time to time we could see four figures moving toward us jumping from crater to crater carrying shells for our 50 millimeter mortar and magazines for the Spandau They were still about 40 yards away when their shadowy mass was surrounded by a flash of white light We never heard any cries a few minutes a few minutes minutes later, I was sent out to crawl to the point of impact.

The sergeant ordered me to bring back at least two magazines. I had just arrived at my destination when I heard the Russian assault cry, followed by a shower of grenades and mortar shells. The ground shook beneath me in a manner which defied all predictions. I felt like a pee inside a ferociously beaten drum. I was lying flat on the ground among the bodies of comrades killed only a few minutes before unable to see any of the supplies I'd been sent to fetch. Then I heard the sound of a tank.

The darkness all around me was broken by streaks of light and large pink and yellow explosions. In a momentary beam from some headlight, I could see a small sign marked S-157. I opened my mouth wide as prescribed because I could hardly breathe and lay where I was frantically groping for something to hang on to in the diabolical setting where horizontal and vertical alternated to the rhythm of the lights which slashed the darkness.

I thought that I could recognize the uproar, the crackle of the weapon I had operated with Weiner before I had only left a moment ago and felt that my sanity might be close to collapse. I could see no escape from my situation and lay glued to the ground with my head down like a trust animal waiting for the butcher's axe. So it goes on a little bit further with this section, which is out of that book, The Forgotten Soldier. And we haven't covered that book on that podcast, The Forgotten Soldier. We probably will at some point. There's some disputes about the veracity of the book. And the author, I think I just reading a little bit more about this last night.

The author, Guy Sere, there's some important details that he misses, that he just gets it wrong. One of them is there's some patch that they had in this unit. And it was this highly regarded patch. and he talks about how they sewed it onto their right sleeve or left sleeve or something like that. And people that were in that unit said no way would anybody that was in that unit ever make a mistake about where to sew that patch on.

That's one of the types of things. Or there's certain weapons that he talks about that weren't there. He talks about an aircraft that didn't exist at this time. So there's some things in there that there's some details that were wrong and some of the veterans that fought fought in the same battles as him have called Mount Sinai. This guy's not telling the truth about some stuff. And then there's other veterans that talk about the battles or that he writes about and say, hey, the only way he would have

know this stuff is if he was there. And here's the thing, memory is not accurate. And people's memories aren't accurate. And certainly people's memory about intense combat operations isn't accurate. And he eventually made a statement about that and kind of said that. Said, hey, if you want to know the historical details, go ask a general. That wasn't an, actually, I'm about to go off a little bit. He doesn't say that. He says, go ask a military historian, go ask a general, because that's what they do. I didn't want to do that.

My book is about the emotions of a combat soldier. But the reason they put this in here is to get a good account of the chaos and mayhem and fear inside of combat and then you roll right into this section here, which is called fear of combat. It starts off with this. We have all experienced fear. In combat, fear can dominate the situation unless you and your Marines can control it. Extreme fear brings out your instinct for self-preservation. Survival drive. Survival is a very strong drive, which generally will be a priority concern to any Marine. As I was reading this, and again, I'm reading these things, in the context of life.

And fear is something that people contend with every single day. And it's on all kinds of different levels. But whether it's fear of presenting in front of a client, whether it's fear of asking for a raise, whether it's fear of confronting some situation, whether it's fear of going to a jiu-jitsu class for the first time. Like there's all kinds of fears that people face on a daily basis. and here's some good information that, yes, it'll help you if you're a combat Marine,

but it'll also help you if you're a human. Specific sources of fear. Peace time training may not prepare your Marines for the reality that combat is often a matter of kill or be killed. Some of the specific sources of fear in combat are possibility of being killed, wounded, or captured. Fear of killing, noise and sights of combat, apprehensive that you might not measure up as a Marine under fire. And the last one is fatigue. So possibility of being killed, wounded, or captured. This is a natural source of fear and always will be present in your Marines.

It may lead your Marines to run away from battle or do irrational things in battle. There is no sure way to know which Marine may be subject to such an extreme reaction to fear to this fear until you get into combat. Fear of killing. This is not uncommon. Our society is a peaceful one by nature. We are raised to respect the rights of all human beings. beings and have to and to have respect for life. To forget these facts is to ignore the reality of our culture.

Another one is the noise and sights of combat. These elements have a traumatic, shocking impact on the senses. This causes confusion and a sense of chaos that can become particularly unnerving. No peacetime training can completely prepare you and your Marines for the carnage and emotional impact of combat. To ignore this aspect of combat is to create a lack of understanding that could prove totally debilitating to your Marines. One thing I like about this is no punches are pulled. Hey, guess what?

The carnage and emotional impact of combat, you're not going to be able to train for that 100%. You can't completely train for that. It's not, it doesn't sugarcoat. And then the last one is the apprehension that you, might not measure up as a Marine under fire or let your buddies down may be common among your Marines. All of your Marines want to be successful. Their fears may play on this desire and they may be deathly afraid of letting you or their

fellow Marines down. This particular fear may serve as a positive factor by keeping your unit cohesive during battle. It could be detrimental if the fear overcomes the desire to succeed. And they've got a quote in here from SLA Marshall, Met Against Fire. When fire sweeps the field, nothing keeps a man from running except a sense of honor, the bound obligation to the people right around him of fear of failure in their sight, which might eternally disgrace him.

So it's interesting to think about, so this is like it says a positive factor. So how does it become a negative factor? It becomes a negative factor when your fear of letting people down doesn't allow you to actually go. and do something. So if you obviously on the battlefield, that could be a thing. Hey, I'm not going to go. I don't want to take charge of that. I don't want to step up because I don't want to make a bad decision. I don't want to let my friends down. And it can happen in everyday life. And this does happen in everyday life, right? People don't want to look stupid. People don't want to have people say, oh, you know, Jocco failed. Jocco is a loser. So instead, I just don't try anything.

So we have to be careful of that. This is the, I think. think a good thing to think about is even though people let's say you try something echo charles and you fail i might even verbally oh echo see he's a loser but you know what i think subconsciously and in some cases consciously everybody knows everybody respects that you got you know you got a you took a swing right took a swing at bat and especially if they're cowards that you guys that you know you got up you You took a swing, right? Took a swing at bat. And especially if they're cowards themselves.

And it's really easy to sit in the audience and watch and poke fun. Yeah. Right. Don't be that person that sits in the audience and poke's fun. Get up to bat. Don't be afraid of looking bad. My point is don't be afraid of looking bad because you don't actually look bad. When you make an attempt, when you step up, people respect it.

Even if they try and bring you down, they're lying. They're just trying to bring you down because they know that you stepped up and they didn't. Don't be afraid of that. And the last source of fear is fatigue. Both mental and physical fatigue is a source of fear. As you become exhausted, your ability to reason may begin to deteriorate. As you become more and more tired, you may become indecisive and slow in carrying out your orders. When confronted daily and constantly with the stress of combat coupled with fatigue,

you and your Marines may feel helpless and unable to continue the fight. And they've got a quote in here from Major General Hart. From a book called Determination in Battle, it says, There's no doubt that troops, however well led, can only take the stress of battle for so long. Then they break. Ask any commander at any level who tries to overdraw the account is courting to Zazard. The mental and the physical constantly interact. Therefore, physical fatigue, hunger, disease, thirst, and above all, the stress of adverse climatic

conditions can reduce the physical state of the soldier to such an extent that his will to fight will be broken. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Echo Charles. Yes, sir. Do you agree with that? I agree with that 100%. Do you feel like I'm pretty? personally attacking you right now yeah I do 100% yeah that that is a disturbing thing but

this is something that you don't fall prey to it quite as much but man in the early days of jiu jihitsu and by early days I mean when you were like a purple belt you didn't like getting tired at all no it used to really bother you I still don't like getting tired but I think you know when you can kind of reconcile the whole big picture where you know you know, this kind of, it's obvious now where like, okay, the best way to fight your fear is to get used to that thing that, you know, that you don't like or whatever. So, yeah, so yeah, you conditioned. But this is how I know that I still don't like it. Where, like, if I didn't, if I haven't done any conditioning for a while and I'm like, I got to get back into conditioning that first day, I'm like, oh my God, this is, I can feel it.

It's like, is it, I wouldn't call it a fear of the conditioning, but, yeah. ever had a work yeah like you know okay you know how you talk about the 20 rep squats right you know when you got the 20 rep squats coming and you know that pain is coming you know you know you know you know you kind of get the butterflies a little bit before that I mean I don't know if you do uh I don't get the butterflies I get like the I get rationalization you know so I'll be thinking I you know what I don't this is this really kind of the workout that's really good for you you know what I mean I'll like start having all these conversations with myself yeah and it just lies

Yeah, and that's part of it too, but mine was for real, like, I'll be nervous of the conditioning. Like, I don't, because, and maybe this has a lot to do with, like, the kind of workouts that I've always, like, done or whatever, where you kind of have a standard where, you know, okay, so if I have four exercises, that I'm to do as part of a conditioning circuit. I have four exercises, and I do one, I do the other, do the other, the other, and I have a time to rest in between, like, you know, 20 seconds or 30 seconds, or do them all with no rest and then rest, 30 seconds or whatever. To me, if I don't, if I have to rest more than the 30 seconds, like, I can't go. You know, like, I can't, like, you know, 30 seconds comes and I can't go because I got to rest more. I failed the workout. It's like going for a PR and failing it, right? How long?

How do you measure the 30 seconds? I have a clock going. What do you press start when you get to the end of whatever you're doing? No, so you just have the stopwatch going. Uh-huh. So you start it, and then you do it, and you keep the stopwatch at that first circuit. Mm-hmm. So when you're done and you're back to the first circuit or you're finished the last circuit, you see and you do the math in your hand.

Oh, you just run the math. Yeah. Do you ever do workouts where you're not thinking straight, like as far as running math? Because sometimes when I'm not running math, man. Oh, yeah. It's an added thing. There's just some things going on where it's not happening. Yeah.

Yeah. 30 seconds is easy, though. Yeah. To run the math. But, oh, yeah, it's an additional mental thing. That kind of is like. A little mental conditioning for effort. Yeah, a little bit.

But I'll be nervous, though, before it. Like if I don't, if I haven't been doing it for a while, I'll be like kind of nervous. Like, what if I can't do it? You know, it's my workout. Well, hell, what am I scared of you? But it's like, I'll have that thought. It's weird. All right.

Well, that's an effective fear, which is the next section here. Effects on the squad. Fear is infectious. It can destroy the effectiveness of your squad, recognize fear, and deal with it promptly. Boy, is that important as a leader. Automatic body reactions. physically your body reacts when threatened or when you anticipate danger listed below are automatic body reactions to fear trembling heart pounding irrational laughter sweating tunnel vision auditory exclusion fight or flight response have you ever been trembling in fear before

not that I can what about so when you're getting ready for one of these workouts that you're scared of I'm not trembling in fear now have you ever I remember sometimes we were getting ready to do an op like I look at some people in the room and sometimes they not I'm trembling no but like shaking like tapping their foot real hard and just that kind of stuff you know moving around a lot yeah super nervous well that makes sense 100% yeah you're going on a military operation yes sir I understand that but no I haven't been on a military operation so you know what I guess in football games before football games I'd yawn all the time for No, yeah, that's one of those things. It's like involuntary, yeah, where it's weird, but.

What about your stomach? Yes. You know, like I'm feeling a little bit sick. Yeah, so it'd be, and it wouldn't be my stomach. I'd have a weird gag reflex. And remember Scott Catlin? Oh, yeah, yeah. So he would, like, every once in a while, he'd be at the tournament with me or whatever,

and he'd be in training with me and stuff a lot. So in the tournaments, like before my first match only, I'd have a weird gag, like, almost like I want to throw up. And I didn't feel consciously nervous, but... Obviously, you were. Obviously, yeah, my body was like, I wouldn't, like, throw up, but I'd have a weird gag thing, and he'd be like, don't start that shit now.

And actually, you know what, though, what I messed up here is that this is... I guess it's not. It's not... It is fear. I was going to say maybe this is just about fatigue. Because it says fatigue causes fear. I was thinking that this was just fatigue, but no, this is actually just what fear does to you.

Some psychological reactions to, inability to make decisions, obsession with minor details. Oh, I've seen that. before. Lack of confidence, breakdown of discipline. In psychology

for the incompetence, military incompetence, he talked about how some leaders would become obsessed with details. That's because they were just scared. Yeah. We need to do this again. Let me go.

Let me get. Yeah. Something to watch out for. Some extreme reactions to fear occur when the individual has confronted a situation. Where death appears to be imminent during such instances two basic forms of behavior have been observed Aggression and rage one freezing under fire two

Go into some details aggression and rage from combat motivation by Anthony Kellett was this is a statement from a German soldier on the Eastern Front during World War II describing how German soldiers reacted when overrun by Russian hordes The quote below describes aggression and rage we fought like a rat Which do not hesitate to spring with all their teeth bared when they are cornered by a man infinitely larger than they are And then freezing under fire the other end of the spectrum from men against fire by SLA Marshall came the term freezing under Writing about action in Omaha Beach World War II the quote below describes the freezing under fire They sat there numbly in the line of fire their minds blanked out their fingers too nerveless to hold a weapon fight or flight that's what we're talking about and here's some conditions that stimulate fear you got to overcome your own fears though you share the same risks in fear you must be able to

overcome your own fear and provide the leadership necessary to achieve success in combat the Marines you lead are your Marines you have lived trained sweated and grown into an effective fighting unit together before you face a violent brutal and cunning enemy you must understand the conditions that stimulate fear, inspire confidence, and encourage in your Marines. There's a quote here from battle leadership, Captain Von Schell, which we covered on like, I don't know, maybe the fourth or fifth podcast here. In peace, we learn how to lead companies, battalions, regiments, even divisions and armies. We learn in books and by maps how one fights and wins battles, but we are not instructed

in the thoughts, the hopes, the fears that run riot in the mind of the frontline soldier. There are three conditions that stimulate fear. Unexpected, unknown, and feelings of helplessness. That's a good breakdown. Yes, it is. Unexpected. Oh, unknown. Uh-oh.

And helplessness. Oh. Yeah. And I think that's the tired part, right? Where tired fatigue is like. Part of fear. Yeah, because you know you're going to be helpless. Straight up.

Unexpected. Enemy actions that appear as a surprise will have a powerful impact upon your Marines. Being surprised by the enemy has been described as causing the, quote, will that controls fear to sag and crumble, end quote. When your Marines begin to sense that they do not have control over their situation, they may begin to panic. At such moments, you must exert a strong influence upon them to maintain control over the unit's actions. Surprise is a big deal.

And you know, I can't help but think of this. I also think of the other end of the spectrum, the opposite end of the spectrum, which is what you want to impose surprise on your enemy. Right? You want to, that's one of the speed, surprise, and violence of action. Like one of the mottos of the SEAL teams

and really of combat in general. Because that's what it does. It's just, it's the same thing. And, you know, like on the mats, that surprise thing, that's when you get caught unknown your Marines will worry about what they have not seen and what they do not know you will have a tendency to think the enemy is much greater in strength or ability but really is not do not be deceived as to enemy strength or

capabilities through exaggerated impressions this is Mikey and the dragons right the dragons you think the dragons are all be big and scary but they're not and this is something important to think about because The context here is like, hey, you're leading troops and they're scared of the enemy. They're scared of your competitor. They think the competitor's got all the advantages. They don't. Feelings of helplessness.

You, and it's got that capitalized, you must prevent this from taking hold. Act to direct and inspire the response against the enemy. Everyone has a job that must be accomplished, ensure that everyone is doing what must be done. And this is key. action is a way to prevent this condition from taking hold. Keep your Marines busy. Now look, I don't like saying keep people busy. And they do actually talk about this a decent amount in this book,

but I have to admit that it is true. The same thing that causes an individual to get obsessed with some details is the same thing when you're, they're trying to distract their mind from what's going on. So you can actually utilize activity. to prevent this, but also, so there's one thing like, oh, I can see that Echo's nervous about tomorrow. Hey, Echo, can you do me favor

and help me load up the vehicles with water? And you're like, okay, because now you're thinking about that. That's one part of it, like almost an administrative part of it. But then also, if there's something happening, if we're in a gunfight and you start freaking out or you start to look scared, You know, echo, get over there, pick up security in that door. Okay, now you got something to do.

You got, you know, so there's an administrative way to do it, and there's also an active moment to actually give people direction. And as soon as we're taking action, we're moving in the right direction. We're moving in the right direction if we're taking action. One of the worst things we can do is let the team sit there and dwell over what's unfolding around us. Let's do something. There's an example in here. he was firing behind a log his face was gray his eyes were dull and without hope he stopped firing

and looked around it didn't do any good he said his voice was flat and he was speaking to no one in particular i got three of them but did do any good they just kept coming they just keep coming platoon sergeant casimir palakowski known as ski said what the hell are you beef that you get paid for it don't you the kid managed to grin as ski crawled on down the line the boy now a man was once more squeezing him off that's from a book called guadal canal diary richard trigascus leadership role additionally the first shock of realizing that the enemy actually intends to kill you is a powerful factor that everyone will face. Until this threshold is crossed and your Marines become accustomed to functioning under fire,

you must act decisively to ignite the confidence and individual actions that will transform fear into an aggressive response. Your presence as a leader has tremendous value in overcoming fear, particularly at night, adverse weather or during lulls in the action. During these times, imaginations run wild. and your Marines think they may be alone or isolated. So again, taking action and influencing there to be action in these moments when people are nervous or scared, that's a great move to overcome fear.

Next section is stresses of combat. And again, these are extreme examples. This is combat examples. But they're stress in every job. They're stress in every business. They're stress in life. Killing the enemy that's trying to kill you is only half the battle. to your Marines enduring discomfort, fatigue, and the other hazards and stresses of combat is what

must be done so they can succeed in combat. Sources of stress and combat, fatigue, discomfort, casualties, boredom. As you become for fatigue, as you become increasingly tired, you will lose the ability to make decisions rapidly. You will become more easily confused, disoriented, and ultimately ineffective. You must understand the effects of fatigue on yourself and your Marines and when to provide for rest, especially amidst the chaos of battle. Here's some key indicators of fatigue.

Reckless disregard for safety or self or fellow Marines. Excessive caution or unwillingness to expose oneself to risk. Failure to fire weapons. Lack of concern for the condition of weapons or other equipment. Lack of concern for personal cleanliness. So all those things are what we need to watch out for as leaders. When people are not engaged anymore. Develop, here's some things you can do.

Develop a sleep plan for your unit to ensure that everyone, including yourself, gets a minimum of four hours of sleep per day, situation permitting. Rest is preventative treatment that keep senseless casualties from occurring. So there you go, Echo Charles. Got to make sure, make sure. I want you to make sure you get four hours. Yes, okay. All right.

Hey, listen, for those people that are freak out. Because I wake up early and think I hate sleep. I don't hate sleep. Sleep is good for you. You should sleep a bunch. It's when you heal. It's when you get strong. It's how you maintain your mental and physical health.

So you should sleep and you should sleep a lot, which is why I thought it was kind of funny that they said, hey, look, hey, at a minimum, you've got to get four hours. I will say that's a number, though, in extreme situations. four hours is something that you can maintain function on for a long period of time I know I can under four hours and it starts to chip away at me after a while

but if I can sleep for four hours I'm kind of stoked a little bit no and on a normal day you know like normal day to day life I sleep like six hours you know because that's what the body needs

some people is eight some people it's five you know different Marines Adversely suffering from the effects of being cold, wet, hungry, thirsty, or weary Will determine their ability to fight well Marines tend to develop a high tolerance for enduring the extremes of weather without much support However, there is a point where morale is affected and your unit's actual ability to fight becomes questionable

At the first opportunity to provide dry clothing protection from the elements food and water There you go. Sources of stress in combat The following excerpt from Battle at Best by SLA Marshall describes how taking care of your Marines pays its dividends in combat. And again, we covered SLA Marshall on this podcast. I forget what number. And there's some definite concerns with the veracity of him and some of the information that he put out. But as I said, when we cover it on the podcast, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. This is a really interesting case.

At dark on 8 December, the snowfall ceased and the cold intensified. Down along the canyon road near the water gate, a brisk wind was piling the drifts as high as a man's head. At the battalion CP, which was partly sheltered by the canyon wall, the thermometer read 30 degrees below zero. up on the wind-swept crags where Abel Company was clearing Chinese dead from the bunkers to make room for its own ranks and at the same time preparing to evacuate its own casualties down the iced slopes of the mountains. It must have been a touch colder than that, though there was no reading of the temperature. All batteries had frozen. Weapons were stiffening.

The camp long since had been. had run out of water because of the freezing of canteens. To ease their thirst, the men ate snow and seemed to thrive on it. But of the many problems raised by the weather, the most severe one was getting an average good man to observe what the field manual so easily describe as a, quote, common sense precaution. For example, prior to marching, Captain Barrow of Abel made certain that each of his men carried two spare pairs of socks but that safeguard did not of itself ensure his force though the men with feet sweated from the rigors of the day were all at the point of becoming frostbite casualties by the hour of the bivouac

and here's what here's what captain barrow said i learned that night that only leadership will save men under winter conditions. It's easy to say that men should change socks. Getting it done is another matter. Boot laces become iced over during prolonged engagements in snow drifts. It's a fight to get a boot off the foot. When a man removes his gloves to struggle with the laces, it seems to him that his hands are freezing, his impulses all against it.

So I found it necessary to do this by order. Staying with the individuals until they had changed then making them get up and move about to restore circulation that process simple-in-telling consumed hours by the time barrel was satisfied that his command was Relatively snug it was wearing on toward midnight right then his perimeter was hit by a counterattack an enemy force in platoon strength Plus striking along the ridgeline from a prop from 1081 in approximately the same formation which Barrow would use used during the afternoon. All that needs to be told of his small action is summed up in Barrow's brief radio report. They hit us.

We killed them all, all that we could see. We have counted 18 fresh bodies just outside our lines. And by the way, this is Captain Barrow that became the 27th Commandant. So he had to go person to person and physically make sure they were doing exactly what he told them to do. because the tendency is to curl up into a ball and die. And, you know, we covered some of the, or one of the prison camps in Korea. And that individual specifically talked about that decision.

Is there was people that just, they just gave up and they're not going to do anything else and they're not going to try and they just accepted death. And the guys that lived were the guys that said, no, I'm not going to give up. but these little things like you know your feet are sweating and your socks are wet from working all day climbing up this mountain and then you get up there and you're going to be up there for a while you have to change your socks or else you're going to freeze and your ices are laced up and it's

colder than 30 degrees below zero there's another source of stress in combat casualties seeing a fellow Marine go down has a traumatic impact upon you and your Marines brutal combat is brutal and casualties are to be expected. The shock of seeing your buddies wounded or killed and the possibility that may happen to them adds to the fear and apprehension of the survivors. It increases your Marines' reluctance to take risks and obey you.

How individuals respond after their unit is taking casualties is a key indicator of their effectiveness of their training, self-discipline, and preparation for combat. Proper care for your wounded has a great effect upon morale, assuring your Marines that if they are, hit their fellow Marines will take care of them.

There's an unwritten code among Marines that if wounded and unable to fend for yourself, another Marine will come to your aid. And look, that exists in the Marine Corps, but that should exist in your team, too. In your organization, someone has a problem, someone has an issue, someone has a sick kid, someone has, they get sick themselves. And you take care of them, that's going to help them. It's going to bring your unit closer together. It says your Marines need to recognize that the quicker they take the objective, the

quicker their fallen comrades get help. Stopping to take care of your fellow Marines during the assault will bog down the unit. During the assault, Marines cannot stop to aid a fallen comrade. The corpsman will take care of the casualties in the best possible manner until you are able to send for help. That's something we learn basically day one. Win the fight. That's also a prioritize and execute scenario.

That's probably the first prioritize and execute thing that I ever learned. you got to win the fight at the first opportunity leaders and comrades should look for casualties every marine must be accounted for dead and wounded are removed from the combat area as soon as possible and there's got a section here about boredom in combat the squad leader should fight inactivity and boredom with the same tenacity used against enemy troops that might be a bit strong look i don't want my troops to be bored

but i'm going to be more tenacious against the enemy than i am against boredom The boredom and that inactivity produces can negatively impact your squad if they become complacent. When the time comes, when the time for combat comes, this inactivity may result in a less effective unit. And there's another thing. One thing that I think is good to think about, if you push somebody, if you're giving someone something to do, kind of making, almost making it up. Not quite, but like, hey, we're going to run this battle drill again. Hey, we're going to do another briefing. Hey, we're going to review this.

Hey, we're going to maintain our weapons again. If you're doing that kind of stuff, you should give them time for it. Hey, right now we got an hour. Relax. You should give them a specific amount of time to stand down, to relax, to take a knee, whatever. I think that is important too. If you're trying to keep them busy all the time, that's not smart. you need to find a moment to go okay hey we got a half an hour everybody take your take your rock off relax

yeah see here it says keep your Marines occupied by delivering intelligence briefs reviewing the rules of engagement rehearsing immediate action drills during the lulls and pace of operations by doing so you prevent disciplinary problems by turning your squads thoughts away from them themselves to the work at hand again good yes I like it I agree with it however comma you got to give people a little bit downtime. Is that kind of parallel whatever to the idea of, you know, okay, so you go to the gym, we'll say, right? So let's say you want to go to the gym after work, not before work, right, after work. So if you, let's say as a routine, you go from work, you get off work, and then you go straight to the gym, that's better than going home first, decompressing a little

bit, then going to the gym, right? You know, I don't know if what you're talking about is the same thing, but it's 100% true. I think so, though, because there's, you know, when you get like downtime or whatever, like too much downtime essentially, right? Like where it's not like you have to rest and recover from work to go to the gym unless you do it. That's a whole different thing. I'm talking about the idea that you come home from your office, you know, and you're

physically not exhausted, maybe mentally or, but whatever. You go straight to the gym because you don't give your mind, just like I always said, a chance to think about like yourself your own like how am I feeling that man the mood and it's like it kind of creeps up on you you know when you have that downtime but if you go straight to the gym you're like hey we're still we're still moving you know yeah you don't get a chance to that's true that is that is accurate and then if you take that to the extreme where you all of a sudden you're not getting any rest at all you don't have any downtime then do you got to watch out for that yeah that's almost like the idea that let's say your your job is like super physically demanding like you're

What would you say a drywall hanger or so? Drywall hangers getting after it. Yeah, well, that's one that you said you did. Either way, let's say you did, you know,

11, 12 hours of that. Let's say roofer. Roofer. Yeah. And the hot sun even. Boom. Okay, go home,

take a little snoozer even. Then hit the gym. You can be kind of like refreshed a little bit. I bet you'd be better off just going straight there. Sometimes. I think so. Sometimes. I think there's plenty of people here at our gym where they're coming off of a long day of

working construction. And then it's like right onto the mats. You know, I think that's a better move. Bro. For me, it's a better move. Mentally, it's a better move, I think. Physically, you go recover a little bit. That's what I think.

But you're driving here, you know, you got like a half an hour or whatever. That's what I'm saying. Mentally. Because when you're driving here, you're thinking about training more than you're thinking about relaxing. I'll tell you that. You go home, have a snack, turn on the TV, just for a little bit. You're letting the window close. That was one of the better conversations we once had.

was you're letting that window close. Yeah. It's like, oh, it's getting a little bit smaller. Oh, can't make it. Oh, you know, I got a little too busy. Yeah. Sometimes my wife will wake up early. Hell yeah.

And like, there's that, you know, whatever, that gravity of, you know, she's, oh, you know, talking to me and stuff. Oh, right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But we have workouts to do, you know. I know.

But yes. Or like, I'll come back. down to the house to like grab some more water or something because I'm in my garage you know and then I go back down to like grab some water and she's awake and she's like having a cup of tea because she's from inland and she's like oh morning and I'm like and there's that gravity you know yeah kind of wish she honestly no offense to my way I kind of wish she wasn't away because I kind of want to like hang out with her a bit you know yes and I have to not oh yeah that's real that's real even with us when we show up

here, whatever, we want to talk about some stuff, you know, do this, do that. Yeah, the workout thing, especially with your wife, because even if you don't want to talk to your wife, I'm not saying that's my case. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, even if you don't want to talk to her. Hypothetically, you can't just disrespect her and be like, yeah, cool story. I'm busy. She knows what you're doing.

You're working out. Take a minute. Talk to me. I'm your wife, you know, for better or worse, all this stuff. And you're over here just dissing me for like some curls or whatever you're doing in there. You see what I'm saying? And that's what it really does feel like when you're doing it. So yeah, I can jam you up, man.

I hope my wife sleeps. I like it when she sleeps later, you know. Gets her rest, yeah. Get some rest, girl. I dig it. Get some rest. Success in combat. The focus of this study unit is to teach you the important factors of leadership so you can perform better as a leader in both peacetime and in combat.

The way that you respond to these leadership challenges is crucial to achieving success in combat. Factors to success. As an infantry squad leader, you control the lives of 12 Marines. They look to you for instruction and guidance. This part is important. Your most casual remark will be remembered. Your clothing, vocabulary, and method of leadership will be imitated. They're listening.

And it has impact. When you start making little cracking jokes about the LT, those jokes have a lot more impact when they're coming from you as a squad leader. What's the LT? The lieutenant. Oh, gotcha. When you're cracking jokes about the VP of sales, your little sales team is that those have more impact than you think.

This is something I always had to be careful to when I went from being, maybe it's even to this day when I went from being an E5 in a platoon E5 mafia where everybody is a target everybody in the entire chain of command is a target for ridicule and then all of a sudden when I became you know like an officer

assistant platoon commander platoon commander I had to freaking dial that back you just can't be going dropping napalm on that chain of command over every little thing and it's tempting because it's funny and that's what you're used to. I had to dial that back. Leif always cracks up when I go E5 on somebody, you know.

I start dropping the hammer on someone. Yeah. Hey, this is a side note. Okay, so you always talk about that like the E5. Yeah. It's like a thing. Yeah. E5 mafia.

And I've heard of E4 or I think. Yeah. And then E6, of course. What's with E5? That sounds, to me that sounds pretty high. Like there's E1, right? Is there an E1? There's E1, but you're not an E1 for very long.

You're like in boot camp, you're probably going to make E2 out of boot camp. E3, you should be pretty much, you know, within maybe, I don't know, a year. Then you're E4. So now you could be E4 for like a few, a couple of years, you know, maybe two, three years. So you may or may not have done deployment. This is also back in the day. Guys make rank faster now than we did. So back in the day,

the E6 was a leadership position. Okay. E5 was the boys and the new guys were kind of E4s. Maybe even E3s occasionally. So essentially, I don't think there's an E3 in a seal platoon today at all. I don't think there is. I think there's barely any E4s. It's mostly E5s and now you'll have multiple E6s in a platoon.

But back in the day, an E6 was an LPO. He was the leading penny officer. Then you had a chief penny officer. Then you had the assistant platoon commander and the platoon commander. So you had those were the senior people. We called them the top four. Okay. And then you had new guys.

You had four or five new guys, which were probably E3s. No, they were probably E4s, maybe an E3. And then you had the group in the middle. Right. And these were the E5 mob. So they were not, when you say they're, E6 leadership position. So E5 is not a lead.

Like they're not anyone's boss. They're just the guys. Now they might be one per. They might be a new guy's boss. Like when I was an E5 mobster, I had an E4. That was a new guy. That was a radio man. Yeah.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm trying to, trying to draw a comparison. And actually, part of the time I was an E5 mafia, I was an E4. Yeah. Because I didn't make E5 very rapidly. So, yeah. But that E5 mafia is like the people that are doing the work.

Right, right. When you were a bouncer, how many bouncers were there? I don't know. 15. Okay, this is it. Now, one of them was in charge, right? Yeah. Maybe two of them.

Hey, this guy's in charge of the shift or whatever. So those guys are in charge of the shift. Then you had a couple like new guys that kind of sucked or whatever. But then you had a core group of guys that kind of if you could say something, people are going to have to listen. There you go. That's your E5 Mafia. Yeah, you know what it was? And now that I'm thinking of it, it's there's the door guys.

they're all called door guys, but the guys who worked the front door, which is usually the one and two. And then like a kind of a guy who would switch out, someone who's doing well. And then there's the rest of the guys who worked, you know, inside. And then, yes,

there were like new guys who were like still learning. Kind of like hey, bro. Yeah, who, yes. And kind of the same thing where you could tell them, hey, go change the toilet paper in the bathroom. You know, like go do the worst. Yeah, exactly right. So yeah, I got you.

Yeah. So, yeah, five is kind of high. though is what I'm saying it's like well I can tell no it's not kind of high but in a seal platoon you're a mid level but you're kind of just a shooter too you know you don't you're not one of the top four yeah so it's not like kind of high and right now everybody I think I think everybody in the seal teams right now is an E5 if you make it through buds I think you become an E5 it's kind of legit you know back in the day he was saying no sorry bro you're E3, you're an E4.

Back in the day, if you're on a ship and you're an E3, you had to work in the dishwasher for three months. And we did one deployment. We had an E3 in our platoon, and we somehow got him out of it. Got him out of doing that. But I was an E4 for my second platoon. So even though I should have been an E5, or I was in the E5 Mafia, but I was an E4. But even in that platoon, there's a bunch of E4s.

on the E5 mafia. What is E stand for? Enlisted. Enlisted. And then if you're an officer, it's an O. So you got O1, that's an ensign. O2 is Lieutenant Junior Grade. See, that's weird.

I've never heard of O anything. All I heard was E1. I think I've even heard of E1, E2, E3. Yeah, because people talk smack about the O, like, oh, that guy's an E1. Interesting. And then you become in the Navy, O3 is lieutenant, and then O4 is lieutenant,

But in the army, that same rank is called a major. So when in Ramadi, the army guys, a lot of army guys would call me major, right? So then some of the, some of my guys would call me the mage. That makes sense. Yeah, so there you go. And then captain isn't very high or it is high? Captain in the Army and the Marine Corps is an O4, captain or sorry, is an O3 in the Army. in the Army and the Marine Corps,

which is a company commander in charge of 150 guys. A captain in the Navy is much higher. It's an 06. And they could be in charge of multiple ships. So a captain in the Navy is much higher rank

than a captain in the Army or the Marine Corps. A captain in the Navy is a colonel. A full bird. You ever heard that expression? Probably in the movies. You hear that. full bird colonel so a full bird colonel which means they have an eagle on their collar is a full captain you don't really say full bird captain because you don't need to

because the reason you say that is in the army and the Marine Corps you could be a lieutenant colonel which still has a silver oak leaf which makes you a lieutenant colonel so if someone's got the full bird that's why you because you can still call someone that's a lieutenant colonel you might just call them colonel because you're not it's a big mouthful to say colonel Or sorry, it's a big mouthful to say, Lieutenant Colonel, hey, Lieutenant Colonel, what are we doing? But if you say, hey, Colonel, that's totally acceptable.

So we want to let your boys know, like, hey, this guy's a full bird colonel. Big deal. Got that full bird colonel coming in. Yeah, I understand why I understand now why I was so unclear about everything. Because it's like, same words, different, you know, armies different than Navy, but same words, you know. Well, sometimes Lief and Seth would get called capital. by army guys by marquis that's you see those two bars like oh that's a captain if you're in the army that's a captain yeah so you're not thinking lieutenant because the lieutenant is a lower

rank yeah check all right this section breaks out two things there are two fundamental types of factors that affect success in combat one factors over which you have little or no influence that you must try to understand endure and explain to your marines And number two, factors that you can influence directly through your leadership. And it goes into a bunch of things that you have little to no influence, political guidelines and rules of engagement, availability and quality of replacements, location, weather, terrain, public reaction and support, type of conflict, enemy action, duration.

You don't have control, very little control over those things. And it goes into talking about the political guidelines. do what you're responsible, making sure your Marines abide by them. Here's an important part. They say pass through the chain of command information that might be useful in correcting deficiencies with rules of engagement procedures. So if you've got some rule of engagement that doesn't make sense, you are responsible for sending that a chain of command. And by the way, if you work in a factory and there's some part of the manufacturing line that doesn't make sense, you are responsible for running that up the chain so it can get corrected. little control over who's going to replace you obviously no control of very little

control over location terrain weather so it it lists goes into a little bit of detail on those things then it goes into factors that you can influence morale motivation discipline of spree decor proficiency morale is the mental and emotional condition enthusiasm confidence or loyalty of an individual or group regard to the functions or tasks at hand, the squad leader who taps into this valuable resource and keeps it to the forefront throughout the adverse conditions of combat will always prevail. That's a strong word always. Motivation is a byproduct of morale.

If your Marines are enthusiastic about being part of the squad and have confidence in their squad leader, then they will have the incentive to drive on through adversity. Discipline. Discipline is defined. in the dictionary as quote to bring under control in combat we speak of discipline in troops we speak of the Marines ability to disregard the natural tendencies of self-preservation and at times put them in harm's way if necessary and I would expand on this right now but they expand on this in a beautiful way they'll talk about discipline in a beautiful way coming up as pretty decor is the unit spirit

describes how devoted and loyal they are to the team proficiency Proficiency is being knowledgeable and skillful in your craft. Imagine a unit being so confident in their ability to perform that it affects all of the aforementioned factors. Now you have our unit ready to fight. Morale and motivation is the cornerstone of discipline. Spree to core and proficiency. If you instill high morale and motivation in your Marines, this can lead to success in combat. Morale makes up three quarters of the game, the relative balance of man-parency.

balance of manpower makes up only the remaining quarter that's Napoleon Bonaparte morale makes up three quarters of the game in combat you know that's one of those ones you go well yeah because you know if you're thinking you know your football team against another football team and they have great morale but you guys are better players yeah right well it's probably not going to work out too well but because this is what I was thinking about last night I was like well you know, where's that going to really carry you in a football game? But then I thought, what if your football game was played for months? You see what I'm saying?

Yeah. And it wasn't about how big and strong you were, but it was about, hey, we're going to be, we're going to maneuver faster than you. We're going to walk further than you. We're going to keep working while you're resting. Like, we're going to keep our weapons clean. Like all those things. Like, that's how you win.

Yeah. And all those things have to do with morale. So it might not make a sense in a short engagement in a physical game. It can have an impact for sure. I would almost say you were right to begin with in a football game as far as the example. I mean, you're right either way. But if your morale is low, the other team is high, but you have a better football team, your morale is going to be low for a reason.

Like essentially like, oh, you know, it's like there's going to be in low morale. It's going to be a lack of confidence. I'm sure there's going to be a lack of motivation. And according to the book, lack of proficiency, which negatively affects your morale. So when you know you're not that good, your morale's down. Exactly right. So like I said, it's for a reason. So their morale is good.

What if like everyone, your morale, if you're a better, quote unquote, better football team is going to be for a reason. And then whatever that reason is, I don't know, it's your hypothetical. I don't know. But think of a realistic one. Maybe people are arguing about this and that so they're not working together as a team. Oh, the morale on the team itself? Like what can hurt the morale? Exactly right.

on the better quote-unquote team. Yeah, like you blew a game. Like you blew the last game. Like you shouldn't have missed the field goal and you did and you were a better team than them. But then they won morale could be down. Yeah. And you're arguing with your team.

Quarterbacks is blaming everyone. They hate, you know, maybe their best guy is injured. And that, you know, now everyone's not as confident. And like maybe they're starting, you know, all this other stuff. And they're tired because they've been drinking, you know, all this stuff. So technically there's, I'm just saying that's a big factor a lot of them. So technically they,

They are maybe a better team. But the morale is so low for these specific reasons. The other guys, they've been working hard. They even got a strategy in place, a secret strategy. I told you about this one time. This team was, we were technically better than them, but they were like saying, oh, we're going to kick their ass. We're going to kick their ass.

And they're telling the whole island, essentially, we're going to kick their ass so bad. Was this high school? Yeah. And I was like, what? This is uncanny the way they're saying this so much, you know? And then, but they had a little plan. And they did.

They beat us, too, with a plan. What was the plan? It was to do these weird quarterback keep plays with no huddle. So it's just essentially that surprise kind of thing. And then just keep going, going, going. So they'd go quarterback keep. And we'd kind of stop it. Then they go, no huddle, quarterback keep.

And we're scrambling. And we kind of stop it. But they gave it a little bit more. And they just kept doing it, kept doing it. For the whole, but didn't you figure out a solution for it after they did it four or seven or nine times? I think. Or was it too late? I think our morale went down in that first flare.

to be honest with you. I forget how it. So their morale was high. Very high. They actually beat you. Yeah. For that reason. I'm always surprised in football that there's not more sneakiness.

Yeah. I think a lot of sneakiness and I feel like we might have talked about this too. With football, there's so much history behind the way plays work that sneakiness usually comes with an element of risk that's equal. So, yeah, if you do a trick play. Like there's a, there's teams that could sort of lend twice. more sneakiness, but they lend more towards a risk as well. So like one of the mainstream sneaky plays is called the reverse,

where it's like you give the ball, there's many ways to do it, but a standard one would be, you give the ball to the running back and an outside run. And instead of keeping running, the wide receiver who's way over there, he comes around this way, so he's acting like he's running and he gives it to the wide receiver going the other way. So the defense says all this momentum going this way with the ball

and the reverse just comes around with, but he's a single guy because he has no blockers. If he had blockers, everyone would see the blockers, going over there and they'd be like oh wait this isn't you know this so they'd be the risk being that if somebody picks it up and reads the play then he's getting annihilated probably behind the line because he has no blockers exactly right or the what's the one there's like a hook and lateral which has a big risk on now and then a pass back to the quarterback that's another one where like you give it to the running back and he runs and he doesn't go past

the line the quarterback does the quarterback runs around the other side on a on a pass pattern essentially a receiver so he goes down and and he doesn't and he doesn't go and And then now the running back has to throw the ball to the quarterback, which is huge risk, by the way. Brother, they're going to pick that thing off. And the quarterback got to catch it. Got to catch it. He has to be open, by the way, because if he's not open, who's going to throw it to?

Another wide receiver? Usually it's like, you know, you put your eggs all in one basket a lot of the time. And then nowadays people are kind of hip to trick plays, so they kind of wait for it to develop and now the risk goes up, you know, so that's probably why. I'm sure back in the, in fact, Joe White, back in the day, like 1940s football, That's all kinds of weird place. All kinds of trick plays. Yeah.

So morale, you guys lost. The other platoon team was hyped on their morale. Your morale was immediately crushed and then you were all embarrassed. Then you just lost. So even in football, it can be, morale can be three quarters of the game. Yeah, I think so. It says morale is the confident, resolute, willing, and often self-sacrificing and courageous attitude of a Marine to accomplish the tasks expected by the squad. Morale is based upon

pride in the achievement and aims of the squad, faith in you as a squad leader, a sense of participation in the squad's work, devotion and loyalty to the other members of the squad, confidence in the ultimate success of the squad. Whichever army goes into battle stronger in soul, their enemies generally cannot withstand them. That's the Greek warrior, Xenophon. more than 2,000 years ago. Morale tends to fluctuate even among the best Marines. It must be your constant concern because it is the foundation of discipline.

You must recognize the extreme importance morale has to the combat effectiveness of your squad. Morale tends to fluctuate even amongst the best Marines. That's something that's important to note. I'll tell you, it affects, it fluctuates less. it can't fluctuate. But man, you get some motivated troopers.

It's hard to even bring them down a little bit there's in the game. And they help everybody. It's so helpful to have somebody kind of motivated in the game like somebody with high morale. Like, we got this.

And it kind of takes someone who can deal with adversity, right? Yeah. So, and I was thinking... Which, by the way, is a decision. Yeah. And it's a learned decision too. Yeah.

You can be like, look, I know what's happening right now. I can see what's happening. I can see the negativity start to drag down. And you can say, hey, I'm not letting this happen. On me. And you get crazy. So, but that guy who's getting crazy and he has to be kind of used to adversity in one way or another or at the very least know how to deal with it.

That's what, yes. So it kind of brought me back a little bit to a conversation we had recently about guys quitting who you whatever it may be Where you would think no way this guy's gonna quit because he's he's a stud But this guy's probably not you get an you know in MMA and sports and whatever In Dick Marcinko's book who recently died the rogue warrior He wrote a book came out in 1992 when I was a new guy in the terms But he called these people gazelles right yes yeah and he said gazelles

they're used to winning. They're run and they win and they run and they're just good athletes and they're just winning, winning, winning. And they show up at buds and I can promise you there's going to be some shit you lose. And you hit that adversity wall and you've been a stud your whole life. And all of a sudden, I'm sure there's multiple psychological things

that can unfold. One of them might be, you're used to winning and now you lose and you get down there. But also, hey, this is the hardest thing I've ever done. It's harder than I thought it was going to be. Or I failed this thing and now what's going to happen? If I failed this thing and I'm only two days into this gig, I got six more months of this. And I already fail.

No, I'm not cut out for this. I'm not totally not used to it. It's totally like an imposition on their whole sensibility and that's just not used to it. But so you could in a way kind of track it back to morale. Really? That individual's morale gets crushed. Exactly right. So you get a guy who's used to adversity.

He's like, hey, this won't crush morale. I've been here before. I know I can fight back out of this. I know this is going to end. I know guys who know about adversity, but the guy who doesn't, the guy who wins every single time, never failed ever in his thing,

you know, and just things come natural to him. Oh, bro, you like, that guy get crushed one time. Morale is down. Yeah. Damn. That might be the situation on them.

Could be. So morale is kind of, because in the beginning, you'd think morale, that's just you having a bad attitude about stuff. Your morale is low. Like if, say, oh, hey, my morale is bad, you know, I don't have good. You're kind of, on the surface, it kind of comes off as that. Like, bro, just, I don't know, fire yourself up. Like, essentially, like, make a decision to have a better attitude. When you think about this, the buds, when I was going through buds, they would say false motivation is better than no motivation.

Yeah. I kind of agreed with it. Yeah. You know? Yeah. You know, like, you hear someone start getting fired up, whether they're faking it or not. It's like, hey, that guy seems to be stoked. Let's go rock and roll. Yeah, exactly right.

And you know how like you guys will say like, hey, if you have like the no bad team's only bad leaders, right, the boat crews, right? Where you get a guy who's kind of like, hey, it's all good guys. We're going to do this. And he's kind of motivating everybody. Even if they were kind of like beat down, their morale kind of gets. gets more high. On the Academy online the other day,

I was talking about how you frame things up. And this is a skill that you can attain over time. But if you gave, if you were my boss and you gave me the worst assignment ever, by the time I'm telling the team, I frame that thing up in a totally different way. It is not the worst job. It's a challenge.

It's an opportunity to look awesome. We're going to do better. And everything's like, I'm going to frame things up all day. long in an uplifting morale moment. I'm definitely not framing something up as bad. Like, we're going to frame this up. And the thing is, it's not a lie.

It's the truth. You can't lie to your team. You can't lie to them and be like, well, hey, everyone, this is going to be great. We just, hey, everyone, we got to work this weekend. Aren't you excited? You know, if you've just been out in the field for two weeks and then you get back and the boss says, hey, you guys got to do a dog and pony. weekend. What do you mean? Or we got a congressman coming in and we got to show them our new

capabilities and your platoon's doing it. Right? You can't be like, hey everyone, this is Jump for Joy. No, but you can, but you can frame it in a true way. That's, listen up. Hey, the boss just talked to me. They want the best platoon out here to represent and do this dog and pony. We're going to do what we're going to knock this guy's socks off. He's going to think that every seal is a damn Terminator robot when he gets down walking through this stuff. We're going to get more money for the entire community by kicking ass. You know what I'm saying? It's a different game.

I'm fired up right now. I'm ready to do a dog and pony show for a congressman. So you got to frame stuff correctly. Like your kids if they don't like math. Mm-hmm. You can't be like, no, math is fun. But you just lied to them in their frame. They're like, okay, I can't really relate to you at all.

I can't believe you. Not to mention my trust level is going down. Yeah. Right? Like even a five-year-old knows that this is not fun. Yeah, right? There's a rare person that thinks it's fun, but it's like one in a billion.

Freaking Lex Friedman just got fired up looking at a problem when he's six years old. He's like, oh, hell, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Me, not happening. Lex, good to go. You needed a better frame up on that one. Yeah, like Lex framed it up in his mind.

That's his good frame up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, no, but when you say, hey, when you get good at this right here, it's going to make you smarter. Yeah. This is, you're going to be able to dominate. You're not going to have to worry about school when you're dominant in math.

You got to learn this problem. And people are like, oh, I can dominate here. Do you? All right. Characteristics of morale. Major General William Slim, quoted by John Masters in the Road Pass, the Road Pass Mandelaia,

provides an example of how morale can be affected in combat. Again, some of these things are really good. quote we have already trained our men to the highest possible level of skill with their weapons and in the use of minor tactics but in the end every important battle develops to a point where there is no real control by senior commanders every soldier feels himself to be alone discipline may have got him to the place where he is and discipline may hold him there for a time cooperation with other men in the same situation can help move him forward self-preservation will make him defend himself to the death if there is no other way but what makes him go on alone determined to break the will of the enemy opposite him is morale pride in himself as an independent thinking man who knows why he's there and what he's doing absolute confidence that the has been done for him and that his fate is now in his own hands the dominant feeling on the

battlefield is loneliness gentlemen and morale only morale individual morale as a foundation under training and discipline will bring victory and that's see that's what's important what what I read this a couple times what's important here is to remember that as the leader, you're the one that's developing their morale. You're bringing together that unit. You're training them to the utmost. You're imparting the benefits of self-discipline. You're rewarding those things. And you build this creature, this beast that has this morale that's so strong that they're not going down. Here's some specific indicators of morale. Response to shortages. care of equipment and weapons, rumors, excessive quarreling.

You brought that one up earlier with the football team. Personal hygiene, standards of military courtesy, personal appearance, personal conduct. So like the response to orders, how do they respond with, hey, we're almost out of water. Oh my God, we're all going to die. You know the movie aliens? Yes, sir. We're all going to die out here, man. Right?

Because there's a shortage of whatever. We don't know if any backups coming. We're all going to die. that's bad morale so bad morale is essentially the beginning of the end so it's kind of like the end of the rope kind of a thing

of course you can turn it around but bro it's the beginning of the end unknown it's kind of a critical factor when there's when there it says this or when they're running when you're running low on whatever on on equipment

or food or water it says the squad with high morale and strong unit cohesion will divide what is available and become an even stronger outfit because of it The unit that does not have this quality is not acting cohesively as a team and will disintegrate quickly. Failure to properly maintain equipment and weapons indicate that a Marine does not care is becoming excessively fatigued or is lost all discipline. On the other hand, if you fail to provide the means to keep your Marines gear properly maintained, you can erode their morale.

You got rumors clearly. There's a lack of information. you need to tell your team what's going on. Otherwise, they're going to make it up, and it's not going to be good. Cooperation, mutual trust, and confidence in one another's ability can be adversely affected when your Marines quarrel amongst themselves. Excessive quarreling is a sign that something is wrong and must be fixed.

I was going to say, this is like a chicken or an egg thing. Like, when things start going bad, people start to argue. And when people start to argue, things start going bad. I guess it's not it's a downward spiral. I don't know which one starts first chicken to the egg, but when you start hearing people arguing amongst themselves, you're going to have problems and it's not going to get better. You know, keeping it clean as far as hygiene goes. It says regardless of how miserable the circumstances may actually be we must do what we can

to make conditions habitable. It talks about this. Standards of military courtesy units that have pride and confidence in their leaders maintain high standards of military courtesy at all times changes show that poor discipline and lack of respect may indicate low morale keeping it professional it's interesting that they talk about standards of military courtesy but if you want to translate that to the civilian world you want to translate it to your family it's how you treat each other because sure in the marine corps salute means you know i respect you or calling you sure or whatever staying attention to all those things But when you're a civilian, if you want to keep your team's morale high, even when things are going sideways, you don't yell at your team.

You treat them with respect. You ask them what their ideas are. You know, like, that's what you do. So treating people with respect is a way to maintain high morale. It says this about personal conduct, moodiness, sullenness, quiet withdrawal, or any sudden, unexplainable change in one of your Marines' behavior. your may indicate that something is wrong and there's cause for concern. That's the way you're acting. Now listen, does that mean you want to be Pollyanna and have a big smile in your face?

Hey, guys, we're about to be overrun. Yay. Like, no, that's not what we're talking about. Hey, I'm going to have to fire a bunch of people from our company. No. But going into that, listen to the, it's interesting that they say this, sullenness and quiet withdraw and moodiness. So none of those say be happy.

They don't say that. None of them say jump for joy. But if you're acting sullen, if you're if you withdraw, if you have an unexplained change in your behavior, man, being consistent is so important from a leadership perspective. That's why,

you know, I was getting interviewed a little while ago and they were asking me about resiliency. And I kind of said that, Um, this was, this was Travis Mannion's sister, Ryan. And she was, she's got a podcast about resiliency and I was on it. And she was asking me about resiliency and I was like, hey, I don't think too much about it. And I think it's kind of a little bit natural for me to be resilient.

And I shouldn't have said natural or maybe I didn't say it, but I, but that's the feeling I get. But what I ultimately said was, listen, I feel like I'm fairly resilient because I don't have low lows. and the reason I don't have low lows because I don't have high highs. I'm not getting all excited. Well, yay! No, I'm not doing that. But I'm also like, oh, no,

I'm not doing either one of those two things. I'm staying in a limited emotional box where I'm not getting too crazy with a victory and I'm not getting too crazy with a defeat. So I think that's that lines up very well with this. If you're the person that shows how happy you are, everybody's used to that. And now when you start being sad, they're going to go, oh, geez, Echo's all bummed out.

Something's wrong. Yeah. Or even not as happy. Like if, you know, these guys who are super fired up and then, you know, something cool happens and they're like, yeah, right on. And they're not as fired up. You're like, oh, something's wrong. Even though they essentially express happiness, just not enough. Happiness.

You ever kind of back to the professionalism? And, you know, they're talking about in the military. Like, okay, so what is your? your wife call you normally darling darling not you by your name huh not generally yeah barely ever actually yeah mine either and I don't really call her by her name that much it's some other stuff we don't have to go into it but I don't want to hear the things sometimes if I call her by a name she'll be like don't call me by my name like kind of half joking you know because it kind of sounds but also what if what if she what if you were downstairs

and she was like echo right you know exactly right or if if we're going through some things or in some sort of almost like an argument or whatever. Like, yeah, she won't. She'll, thankfully, it's been multiple, multiple, multiple years. It's to sense anything like that. But even then, let's say you're on bad terms with your wife. And usually she calls you, I don't know, darling, babe, whatever they call, we call each other. And then they call you your name.

You kind of, it's like a little assault on your set, like kind of like, oh, there's something wrong. So when morale is down, boom, you kind of, that part breaks down a little bit. It's a little bit disrespectful. Yeah, to call you, but you. Yeah. So that's it. That's why consistency. Yeah.

And keeping yourself in check and making sure that you're not allowing these emotions to creep out. Yeah. And cause people to look at you and think, oh, Echo's really concerned right now. Things are going bad. Yeah. Echo's all swollen right now. Things, that's what's going to spread. Yeah.

That's going to affect the morale of everybody. what's with that with calling someone who you know good by their legitimate name what that is you know how like okay so in the family you know the old thing where if they call you like the parent calls the kid by their first and last name oh yeah yeah you know that that means they're in trouble like that kind of stuff yeah why is that uh i think it's because of what we're saying right now yeah i think it's like a step up in in in in lack of affection yeah It's like almost the opposite, you know, in a small, tiny way where it's like the better terms we're on, the more loose I'm going to be with what I call you. I'll call you more of like fun stuff, you know.

I'll call you by a nickname or a fun name or a pet name, whatever you call it. And then when things are bad, okay, now you're kind of reduced to your legitimate name, your official name. Okay, let me ask you this, tangential. But if you ever hear people when they use your name a lot when they're talking to you? Yeah. It's weird, right? It is weird. It's like we're trying to establish a weird salesy type like thing where I know you.

Like you know, you know, Echo. Like I don't think I've, other than saying good evening echo, I don't think I've ever said your name about this podcast. Because it's a little bit weird, right? Yeah, I mean, and even when you do, you see my first and my last name with in, which indicates like a small like, it's like humor. Like a joke almost. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But even you'll be like you echo Charles. Like it's a joke. Oh, you know where I do say some.

names on this specific podcast is if someone else is here and we're having a three-way conversation, I might say like, well, if I was to say to you, hey, Mike, or I might say, well, that's right, you know, Fred. Yeah. Because I want everyone that's listening to know that I was saying that to Fred. Yeah, but that's different than what you're talking about. It is different. It is, I've always, it seems a little bit strange.

It seems like something you would learn at like a, at like a mastermind sales course to like, touch them on the shoulder and say their name a bunch so they feel closer to you. It doesn't do that for me. If you're trying to sell me something, don't say my name because it's probably going to like send me the other direction. Yeah, it's not natural. Like it doesn't feel natural at all. But some people, that's just how, that's just how they talk.

Yeah, but I think that's because they've been ingrained to do that. I don't think it's normal. Yeah. Almost like it's like overly professional almost. Yeah. That's the thing, Echo, is when you're doing something. Right? It's so weird.

Kind of uncomfortable. It's so weird, right? It's weird, Echo. All right. So I'm glad I confirm that. It is confirmed. If you listen to a podcast, you can hear people do that sometimes. If you listen to a podcast, you'll hear someone saying, you know, and it's sort of like, that's kind of strange.

Yeah, especially when it's when they're the only two. Yeah, yeah. We're the only ones here, Echo. Or if you're scolding up. I just wore out that joke in five attempts. If you're scolding someone, then. it then it rolls out. That's true.

I bet you some of those scolding videos that we have of you and me, I probably use your name more often than that. No, I think I'll use your name. Oh, really? Because you're not scolding. You're just trying to make fun. Okay. I think.

I don't know. If I remember. Appearances. If a Marine begins to look sloppy, a behavioral problem may be the cause. Likewise, if conditions prevent your Marines from washing, shaving, or obtaining clean uniforms for prolonged periods, morale can drop. This is one of those things where, again, in the business world some hey here's our dress code hey we got a presentation

you're gonna get look sharp smart move smart move hey and I can tell you I'm not one of these people that is going out and getting whatever whatever a tailor to make my suit or whatever yeah in fact I don't really like wearing suits at all sometimes fighters wear suits have you noticed that oh yeah that's old why is that the box no no no I'm not like a UFC. Yeah, I know, but it kind of, or it felt, it feels like it came from the old school, the boxers, right? I feel like I might be disconnected, like, and wrong or whatever.

Yeah. You know, like, I look at a fighter, and they're putting a suit and tie on to go to a press conference. Yeah. I feel like in a million years, I wouldn't have done that. But I do think there's kind of two camps on that. And then there's a rare few that are kind of in between where some guys, that's their jam.

They wear suits because they're, because they're a quote unquote sophisticated professional. Or that's the image. And then there's guys like Nick Diaz who's, you know, just as good, if not better than everyone who will probably never wear a suit. So it's, I think there's two camps for sure. Yeah, there's definitely two camps. I've fallen to Nate Diaz camp on that one.

I'm just going in a T-shirt to the press conference. Probably showing up late. Yeah. Yeah, you could show up. But you're like that in real life too, though, where, you know, you you're probably going to wear slippers or flip flops as we call them here and shorts and a shirt unless you have to wear something else yeah that's true so watch out for that with your people that's a that's a kind of a classic thing too though right like even in the movies where it's like

if they want to indicate visually that this guy has just let himself go his morale is down he's down and out what his beard unshaving yeah his clothes may or may not be dirty like that kind you know type yeah Characteristics of motivation motivation answers the question why do Marines fight motivation is based on a psychological factors such as needs desires and impulses that cause a person to act for a Marine Commitment and pride in the unit and the core is generally the basis for combat motivation I was when I was starting to read this chapter I was like thinking about the fact that I always say motivation no factor because Motivation is a feeling it's fickle comes and goes And then I was thinking, okay, well, how are they going to talk about this? And there you go.

And I've talked about this on the podcast. Motivation is why you're doing something. And it's important to understand the why. A motivated Marine will do what needs to be done and will know the right thing to do with effective leadership and attentive concern for maintaining high morale motivation will also be high. However, motivation is much more than just an indicator of morale. It is a key element that must be understood by everyone in your squad. In combat, motivation has.

special significant to Marines. S.E. Smith's U.S. Marine Corps in World War II provides an illustration of this motivation. Quote, in a foxhole, in the center of the tenuous line, he had done much to hold. PFC John Arons,

an able company automatic rifleman lay quietly, his eyes closed, breathing slowly. Arons was covered with blood. He was dying. Next to him laid a dead Japanese sergeant and flung across his legs a dead Japanese officer. Arons had been hit in the chest twice by bullets and blood welled slowly from three deep puncture wounds inflected by bayonets. Around his foxhole sprawled 13 crumpled Japanese bodies.

As Captain Lewis W.W. Walt gathered Aaron's in. to his arms to carry him to the residency the dying man still clinging to his B.A.R. Said captain, they tried to come over me last night, but I don't think they made it. They didn't, Johnny. Walt softly replied, they didn't. End quote. And then it goes on to say, what will motivate your Marines to fight like PFCRNs? What causes them to have this measure of tenacity and the ability to continue to fight when others would give up. Numerous historian sociologists and psychologists have studied behavior under fire in an effort to find out why we fight as we do in explaining what motivates a Marine to persevere in battle.

Many experts have concluded that the following facts are significant. Unit cohesion, tradition, commitment, aggression, patriotism, rewards, and punishment, social identity. In the unit cohesion section, it says, cohesion is perhaps the most powerful motivational factor in combat common experiences and shared hardships stimulate and foster closeness among individuals as a unit the result in a unit that is able to maintain tactical cohesion and achieve success in combat if your Marines know their mission it is their faith in you and their fellow Marines that will carry them over the top charging into the teeth of the enemy this is I'll get asked a lot about you know how do you bring a team

It's like you got to do hard things together. So it's one thing that's cool about the FTX program that we run. It's it's challenging. It is mentally challenging. There's actually almost no physical challenge. So that's not what I'm talking about. It is mentally challenging. And you will you will get put in situations where you have to make very tough decisions

under pressure and when you get to do it yourself and you watch someone else do it and they do a call or a bad call or a good call. It does definitely help out. unit cohesion I always thought or kind of came to the conclusion or whatever that the way you get close somebody is to do hard things like basically you have to go through the whole spectrum of things hard easy good and bad and you go through all that together and still emerge without breaking up or we're not being friends or whatever so a lot of times if you're forced in a situation with this what do you call when the interest is the same for everybody

aligned interests or common interests, common goal. They're kind of forced to be in the environment, so they go through the hard times, the fun times. They go through the whole spectrum of things. And a lot of times in the military in battle, they go through the really, really hard times. And then which kind of, you know, on the flip side, can precipitate really, really good times as well.

For sure. You know, when you're triumphant with the guy with next you, in hard times, that's a really, really good time. So if you have that consistently, boom, that bond. And same thing with like, it's funny when you, when you started talking about good times, I was kind of like echoes being stupid. But then I thought about it. It's like, oh, no, that's important. Like just hard times.

Cool. You're going to forge one part of unity. But also like having fun and having good times is also a way that forms a certain part of the unity. Yeah. I think that a group that only has good times, you don't get tested. Yes. You got to go through some hard shit too. Yeah.

100%. And that's what it always felt like where you got to go through the whole spectrum. of ups and downs kind of together over a period of time. Even if you don't go through it over a period of time, if you get the whole spectrum, you'll have a closeness

that's kind of hard to replicate, you know? But if you do it consistently, like for a long time, yeah, you'd be, that's why brother and sister a lot of time or like two brothers who grew up together, like really close or whatever,

that's why it's like, oh, that's a different kind of relationship because it kind of, like me and my brother are twins, so we literally went through everything together. Literally. So like the first time of whatever experience, the first time was the first time for both of us. You know, so like the opposite time, we wound up being really, really close.

But that was kind of like that's where I'd always feel like, you know, I can go through an experience by myself. And then a thought that's going to be really close in my mind. Like it won't be a lot of time we'll go by before I think, oh, I wonder what he would think about this. Or I know what he would think about this, you know? Or you know it like this, boom, you know? Like, and you get those kind of thoughts with the people that you're super close with. Yeah, and the heart of the combat, the tight of the bond. Because also, to your point, the heart of the combat, the better the times are when you're not in combat anymore.

Yeah. And you kind of stretch out that spectrum, right? So it's like more, it's deeper or whatever. Check. This is an important thing that we've covered on this podcast before. This is a quick quote. Four brave men who do not know each other well will not dare. They're attack a lion.

For less brave, but knowing each other well, sure of their reliability and consequently of mutual aid will attack resolutely. There is the science of organizations of armies in a nutshell. And that's from battle studies by Ardenne Depeake, who we covered on this podcast, battle studies. But that's such an unimportant thing. Remember, he's like, that's the science of building an army. working together. That's why at Eschon on front we talk about building relationships

because if we have a relationship, if I have a relationship with three other people, we'll take down a lion. If I don't know these dudes, we're not, I'm not stepping forth. It's not happening. You ever watch the movie Speed?

Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed. Keanu Reed and Send. I was on a boss or something I never watched it. Okay, so. Really dumb. So there's a part at the end where they like kind of,

I don't know, fall in love for lack of a better way. way it turned putting it and they even say can you edit that out for this podcast i don't like talking about that what love anyway they they say uh i think they even mentioned it earlier where you shouldn't get into relationship based on extreme experiences oh because it's like whatever the reason or whatever but that goes with kind of what you're saying because when you go through these crazy experiences it brings you closer together that's like the what like like chaz and the wedding singer when he starts going to funerals to pick up girls.

Oh, yeah, that's sad. No, no, the wedding crashers. Wedding crashes. Okay, okay. He says, grief is the nature's most powerful Afrodeciac. There you go. These extreme situations.

Yeah, go through these extreme situations. Tradition, marine values and attitudes are stressed from the day, the first day the Marine Corps and are constantly reinforced. We are told over and over again a Marine never quits a Marine never surrenders a Marine never retreats Marines never leave the dead wounded. These are values become ingrained into the very being of every Marine from the last parallel Corporal Martin Russ USMC. The average Marine, if such a condition exists, is definitely not the lad represented on the

recruiting poster. More likely he is a small, pimple-faced young man who, because it has been so skillfully pounded into him in boot camp believes he can lick the world. Commitment. There's a quote in here about commitment. Men take a kind of hard pride in belonging to a famous outfit even when doing so exposes them to exceptional danger. This is an essential element in the psychology of shock troops. Talks about aggression. Compassion for the enemy and non-compatence is a characteristic that is not uncommon among Marines in the battlefield. However, you must recognize that a aggressive fighting style is our trademark seek to maintain this determination and

initiative as long as necessary to accomplish the mission and overcome the enemy understand that you will bolster the confidence of your Marines by accomplishing the mission at the lowest possible cost in casualties patriotism every Marine must be convinced of the right richness of their country's cause rewards and punishment the purpose of our system of rewards and combat is intended to reflect the recognition of Marines as warriors this recognition of heroic efforts and sacrifices on behalf of your fellow Marines as an important leadership responsibility. When it comes to combat, there is no amount of pay or any medal that can adequately award

any Marine for risking their life to achieve a particular objective. When Marines who have experienced combat are questioned, they tend to respond that their greatest fear was being perceived as less than adequate in the eyes of their fellow Marines. Their only reward was the respect, praise, and respect. Recognition which came from within their unit. That is no doubt. I've talked many times about what reputation means in the SEAL teams. And that's where you get that reputation.

How do you behave in tough situations, in combat situations, even in tough training situations. Social factors affecting Marines primary group, which is their fire team squad or platoon, are significant aspects of achieving combat motivation. Marines will often identify with friends who are from their same home state or same geographical area. This helps build unit cohesion. So getting the guys to work together. This section, discipline, spree, decor, and proficiency are significant factors that you as a leader can develop in your Marines. These, along with morale and motivation will influence your success in combat.

Man, when you're skilled at something and you practice and you train, It just helps in every aspect. Proficiency is so important. And obviously discipline. And I said earlier that we're going to get into a little bit of this. Discipline is the willful obedience of orders. Discipline is exemplified by a situation where the individual has been taught to sacrifice their interest for the common good and respond from a sense of duty which is more important than individual rights or wants.

Now, what you and I talk about a lot in here. the common good. This is, you know, discipline like self-discipline is when you're going to do something that's good. Not for you right now. Not the donut. Not the sleeping in, but what's good for the common good?

That takes discipline. When the moment comes for a leader to send a Marine in harm's way, there's not room for discussion. Discipline ensures prompt accomplishment of assigned missions and spawns initiative which guides your Marines' actions in the absence of order.

Morale and motivation provide the foundation for discipline. More than being a simple mechanism for maintaining order, discipline is the essential condition within a unit that allows to overcome the extreme fear and fatigue of combat. And this is the part that I wanted to get into. The three types of discipline. First off is self-discipline. Self-discipline is the most important quality to develop in your marine. Self-discipline means that the individual has a sense of personal duty to their unit, fellow Marines, and nation. This type of discipline will hold your Marines sturdy against anything the enemy may throw at them because they have a firm inner conviction that they will not let their fellow Marines down.

That's what we want. That's the most important quality to develop in Marine is self-discipline. Then it goes to unit discipline. Unit discipline is the behavior that results from the expectations of Marines in your squad. It arises from a form of peer pressure where a Marine knows that for an individual to belong, one must uphold the standard. This quality of discipline will hold the Marine steady while in the company of other fellow Marines. And then it gets to this, and this is why I wanted to cover this.

Imposed discipline. Imposed discipline, this is probably the most important part of this book. Imposed discipline is behavior that is motivated primarily by your immediate supervision. Do it because I said so. It is a direct order to perform. Now, you've heard me say this many times. We don't want imposed discipline. And we definitely want to impose things on people.

But here's the Marine Corps saying, you know, hey, do it because I said so. And then they continue. This discipline influences your Marines to accomplish unpleasant or incomprehendant. or inconvenient tasks. And then it says this, under extreme combat conditions, you may be required to resort to imposed discipline. It says the words required to resort to it. This is not what we want to be doing.

And by the way, it's under extreme combat conditions. So if you're working in a finance company or you're working on a construction site or you're working on a manufacturing line and you think as a leader you better use imposed discipline, you're probably wrong. And then it gives the example. This was the only way that Captain Barrow was able to force the necessary actions on the ridge in Korea

that we referred to in the unit study. Imposed discipline lacks the permanence of unit discipline and the special strength of self-discipline. So imposed discipline is like a last. Resort in extreme situations. Your Marines demonstrate discipline through initiative self-reliance, self-control, and obedience. The Marine Corps style of warfare requires intelligent leaders with a penchant for boldness and initiative down to the lowest level. It is the Marines' duty to take initiative as the situation demands. I like the fact that they start off by talking

about initiative because that's what discipline you have to act or not act, but it's what you personally do it's your own personal initiative talks about self-reliance talks about self-control obedience self-reliance and self-control pretty straightforward obedience is when your Marine responds without question when all of your Marines respond to your orders as a team a sense of unit is unit is created whereby everyone recognized that their role is to contribute to something more important than one anyone individual an unorganized mob of Marines is useless in a crisis the strength to overcome the extreme crisis of combat

is greatly affected by your squad's ability to respond as a team. A squad is capable of dealing with the chaos of combat only insofar as the individual Marines actions are part of the total squad effort. We obedience, right? This is, this is, I'm surprised they didn't go a little bit more into, you know, these situations where you're in extreme scenarios

because otherwise obedience is what is occurring, not because you have given direction, but because everyone knows what we're trying to accomplish. That's how a good unit should work. A good unit should work. We get into an enemy contact, and everyone knows what to do, not because they're obeying,

but because they know what to do. They know why it's important. When you're at a company, and you've got to keep quality up on your manufacturing line. People are not going to do it because you told them to do it and they are obedient. That's why it's happening. No, they've got to understand that the quality of the product is what supports the reputation of the companies,

which is why people are buying the product, which is why we get to make the product, which is why the product is selling, which is why I have a job. When they understand all those things, you don't need to tell them what to do. They're doing it. They get it.

So that's the kind of obedience that we want. Not obedience that's coming from an external, but obedience because we understand what the mission is. I think that's an important facet there that didn't really come out in their explanation. A little section on a spree decor, the unit spirit and character of the group. Not the individual.

This is us working together. Some indicators, expressions from Marines that show enthusiasm, and pride for the unit, good unit reputation among other units, strong competitive spirit, willingness to participate by the members in unit activities, pride in the history and traditions of the unit. Those are all good things. Here's some ways to improve this esprit of core.

Be the symbol of fighting spirit you want to develop. Start new people off right by ensuring them their welcome into and reception by the unit. Train your Marines as a team. Develop the feeling that the company. As a team must succeed. Instruct them in history and traditions. This is something I explain a lot to companies. You've got to explain what's happening, where you've been, what you've achieved.

Use appropriate, proper ceremony, slogans, and symbols. Use competition wisely to develop a team. Try to win in every competition. Use decorations and awards properly. It says this, make your Marines feel they are invincible, that no power can defeat them, and that the success of core and country depends on them and the victory of their unit. Now we've got to be careful because we've got to watch out for arrogance, right? Invincible is a strong word.

Invincible is definitely a strong word. Proficiency. I mentioned this is so powerful because I think it helps your confidence so much. Proficiency is advanced in knowledge and skill. The example they give here is once again from the book Battle Leadership by Captain Von Schell. In peace, we should do everything possible to prepare the minds of our soldiers for the strain of battle. We must repeatedly warn them that war brings with its surprise and tremendously deep impressions. We must prepare them for the fact that each minute of battle brings with it a new assault on nerves.

As soldiers of the future, we should strive to realize that we will be faced in war. with many new and difficult impressions, dangers that are thus foreseen and already half-overcome. I'm going to say that again. Dangers that are foreseen are already half-overcome. You know what's coming, man. You're already halfway there. Already halfway there. In preparing for combat, of course, they go through a section.

What do you need to know? Friendly capabilities, enemy capabilities, the face of combat. combat and mental and physical fitness. This is straight Sun Su, right? Know your enemy, know yourself. Friendly capabilities. This is not limited to knowing yourself and your job. This includes knowing your Marines, equipment, and weapons.

Know the techniques of combat and the tactics that are used by a unit of your size. You gotta know the same thing about the enemy, enemies capabilities, their weapons, their troops, their equipment. The face of combat says the goal of this. courses to help you understand the battlefield environment, although that is not possible to realistically recreate the battlefield in training. You and your squad should learn as much as possible about the actual conditions of combat during training. You know, this is something I wrote about this and I can't remember if I wrote about it in leadership strategy and tactics or in the forward

to about how I knew when there was no war, I knew there was like a gap that I was missing. I knew there was something I didn't understand. You know, the big, the big mesh. There was some element, and I just tried to read to try and understand it. So I could figure out what I was looking at, what I was in for. Building and maintaining morale and motivation in combat, belief in the mission is the source of morale and motivation. That's why in extreme ownership, we wrote a chapter called Believe.

You've got to believe in what you're doing. You've got to believe in what you're doing. Developing this belief not only involves developing your squad's confidence that the job must and will be accomplished. It also involves a deeper understanding that their individual sacrifices and efforts are necessary and relevant. What do you got to do? Instill confidence. Leadership from the front is particularly effective. Your Marines will always respond when they see that you are willing to take the same risks as them.

Make sure you're assigning people to the right jobs. make sure they get rest, food, quarters. Remember four hours a night, you know, we got to keep that going. And it says here, aside from providing food, rest, and quarters, you must also be concerned with attention to duty. You must check to see that positions and weapons are properly located equipment and weapons are maintained and that you attend to the numerous other details that make an effective combat unit.

This requires that you have discipline and develop a habit of training, and critiquing so that lessons learned do not have to be relearned. Maintaining morale and motivation. Know your Marines. Who's married, who has kids, how many siblings they have, what special circumstances are they under? Provide a break and routine. This is kind of attached to what I was saying earlier,

but I like this example. When possible, provide an opportunity for relaxation and recreation. At Conthien in 1967 during a prolonged period under artillery enemy fire, one unit held a tobacco spitting contest judging accuracy and range. Everyone participated in some humorous situations resulted. So that's a good one. Isn't tobacco, have you ever seen tobacco? There's like actual tobacco competitions.

Have you ever seen that before? Oh, no, I have not. What do you do, spit? Yeah. That, that, what they just said, accuracy and range. Like they, I remember that, I remember this. Accuracy and range. That there, there's like little tech.

To do it though so one like there's a what it called split finger technique or like you do some thing It was weird. It was odd yeah. It was it was kind of gross but I remember that being a thing Check there's a section here In it's this is again how to maintain morale and motivation this is probably one of the most important things Include subordinates in the decision-making process whenever possible again Leif and I wrote about this and You never have all the answers, and some of your Marines may have good ideas. Listening to your Marines is not required to use their ideas, but it will improve their morale to know that you are willing to listen to them.

And by the way, they're going to listen to you more. They're going to listen to you more. Maintaining discipline, crucial elements, health, check the physical condition of your Marines, foot inspections, changes in clothing, hygiene enforcement. Overall, personal cleanliness must be continuous. Proper care for cuts, blisters, minor wounds. Rashes and other conditions directly reflect a unit's level of discipline a unit's health discipline or lack of will affect its ability to fight Man check on your people make sure the weapons and gear is

Maintained appropriately make sure that people are staying in the game make sure they're keeping their helmets on and their their their weapon close at hand all that stuff That's all important for discipline just like treating people with respect maintaining that military courtesy Rehashes on that combat may not require spit and polish, but it does not remove you from the obligation That you have toward your seniors disciplines what separates your squad from a mob of armed civilians Like that Gotta like that and building a spree to core Marines are competitors whatever the event or sport they like to be challenged and they like to win If you engage your Marines in competition against another unit, your Marines will band together to overcome the challenge, which will build a spree decor.

It's so good to have competitions. Whatever you're doing, you've got a sales team. Let's get some sale teams competing. You've got competition on your manufacturing line. Let's see you can have the most squared away workspace in the office. Let's see you can have the most squared away job site at the construction company. And let's judge it. High standards come from teaching your Marines and then consistently correcting them.

It's a bit strong when I read that. Like, dude, you don't want to be constantly correcting everyone. I guess it says consistently. Consistently correct. Even that, I'm going to back off a little bit. I'm going to focus on what matters, but I'm going to pay attention if there's some slack happening. I'm not going to let it get out of control. But don't expend a ton of leadership capital on that.

Don't let that happen. foster team thinking as a leader your squad consists of three fire teams each with its own personality and capability during platooners squad training have your fire teams compete against one another let the losing fire teams do the winners clean up like those are the kind of

things good to go talks about when you train train for the conditions of combat this is something that's important is the way you do the way you train impacts everything that you do

And you'll mimic what you do in training with everything that you do. So for instance, we had rules when I was running trade at. Like as soon as we rolled out of the gate, one of these platoons rolled out of the gate, it was a tactical mission. And so there was no like, oh, hold on a second. We got a flat tire. No, it's like you've got a flat tire. You're changing that thing. It's tactical.

You got some word to pass. Do it tactically. There's a vehicle gets stuck. Hey, hold on. We got, no, no, no. It's freaking tactical. So that's how you keep that. And even like a resupply, oh, we need more water.

We just don't walk up to the freaking water buffalo and start filling our canteens. No, you figure out a place to resupply. You set up a resupply. When you say it's tactical, like what? It's not like a nonchalant scenario kind of thing. Like, kind of like it's, you stay disciplined with the way you. Stay disciplined. Stay disciplined.

all kinds of opportunities when you're doing that type of training to just to just like okay well it's kind of go admin I understand matter of fact we used to say that hey don't go admin right now yeah yeah it's almost like you're pausing the actual training yeah but you're saying no this is still part of the training the training is still on and you know what the trade at guys my guys influence that so if my guys were koking and joking it would It would immediately, well, not immediately, in a lot of cases, it would transfer over to the platoon. So if you got your, if your trade at guys are like shooting the shit because we're not part of the platoon that's supposed to being tactical, it like spreads. Yeah, yeah.

I can see that. So we would all act like we would be tactical. Yeah. There's so many. I had a little moment of memory because JP and I were out of, an FTX and in the FTX we do at Eschlam Front we use this high-speed laser tag system which is really cool but in trade at a lot of time we use paintball or sim munition which is shooting paint rounds and so one of the things that you could do as an instructor is as a like let's say a platoon's

walking down the street or they're walking down a hallway and I was grading them or watching them I would go up and sort of like cover my face and kind of crouch down as if I was about to get shot with paintballs. And you'd see like the the platoons we get so hype. Like you could see they're just instantly going to full alert mode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they think they're about to get shot. And yeah, we'd have like I'd have like a little like, uh, put my hand up over my face

just to kind of hide from the impact of this ammunition. And you do that one like the training is not going on kind of a thing or when would you do that? Let's say a platoon is walking down a hallway. During a training exercise? Okay. And they, of course, there's a. thought in their mind like, hey, we might get shot at right now.

But when they see me covering up my face and covering up like my groin with my hand because I don't want to get shot. Sure. Or if they see JP like holding his face and putting his hand over his crotch because he didn't want to get shot, as soon as they see that out of the corner there are, they're like, oh, it's coming. Because, you know, we're a trade at. We know what's coming.

Yeah, you're the instructors. You're not. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. There's actual like pranks on YouTube. I said I don't really condone the pranks, but you can watch them on YouTube where people will do that kind of stuff where just in public like to people just in public like they'll Like cover themselves just like like something like coming or something like that. Yeah, and then and watch the people react for sure

exact same way. So it seems like an element of nature there where it's like yeah, of course and then you it's not just an element of nature of trade at because you are probably about to get shot. But that's important as a trainer that you maintain that high level of professionalism and you can't be coaking and joking when you expect the platoons to be tactical and you're sitting around like an idiot. There's an example in here from Chesty Puller from the book Marine, which we covered on the podcast. Bad news only increased the tempo of puller's training. He cornered Colonel Pedro de Ball, the great gunner who commanded the 11th Marines. And he said, Colonel, you'll be starting artillery training. next week. I want you to let me know when you'll fire. I want to get my troops under it as often as I can. Every day afterward, the men of one seven were in the field and the 11th Marines were firing.

Shells streamed overhead until the wush of flying metal became as familiar as rifle fire. There were many bursts nearby, but no accidents. Polar was the only battalion with such training. He's just taking his guys out, getting him conditioned to, well, to freaking bombs going over your head. Good stuff. And the last little section here that just talks about fitness, physical and mental fitness. Combat is physically grueling. The demands made on your squad are going to be extreme and vary with the environment in which you are operating. Routine physical training in Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton is not going to prepare your Marines

for the oppressive heat and humidity of Okinau or the extreme cold for Norwegian winter. Demanding but creative combat-oriented physical training will serve as a better way of getting your squad into shape. And then it says mental fitness. Map exercises, tactical exercises without troops, and professional reading all help to prepare you and your Marines for decision making in combat. These forms of training are not exclusive to officers

and senior NCOs. They are a way of practicing war fighting intelligently without having to bring your entire squad into the field. And you do get better at decision making. You do. I would got to see that all the time trade it and I still get to see it with with leaders that we work with at Eslam front they get better at taking a step back to get better at detaching

they get better at analyzing things and they get better so that and also that mental and physical fitness that we're talking about is not just for you as an individual it's for your teams that's what it's for and if you're a leader you're responsible for your teams and that means whether you're working in business whether you you're working in the military, whether you're a first responder, or whether you are a mom or a dad, because you've got a family and you're responsible for the physical and mental fitness of your troops. So there you go. And I think this manual reinforces the fact that combat is like life. And it's like life. It's just amplified and intensified because obviously there's more at stake. But the lessons

apply, the discipline, the mental and physical fitness, telling the truth. Telling the truth. truth so we're not getting rumors leading from the front confronting your fears supporting other people having discipline not imposing discipline on your team asking your team questions letting them come up a plan all these things are in here universal lessons for being a better combat leader and really universal lessons for being a better human being speaking which echo Charles we're trying to be better human beings across the board yes we are we're on the path on the program. That's what we are.

I don't like saying on the program that as much because it indicates that like it's kind of this unique like you're on the program versus you're off the program. Like you don't like you don't necessarily have to be on the program the whole time. The path is just a way. It's the way.

So we're all on the path. We're working out reading. We're listening. Listening more than we're talking. Hopefully. We hope so. Yes. We hope so.

Through that path, you will need supplementation Or it'll put it this way. It'll benefit you a lot. You'll be that much better off on this path because it's not always easy. Trust me, I know. So yes. So let's start with energy drinks.

If you're into energy drinks, got good news. We've got healthy energy drinks called Discipline Go. Speaking of unique. That's a unique thing, by the way. A healthy energy drink doesn't exist except right here. There you go. Yep. True story.

There's other people that are like, oh, ours is healthy, but we put 350 milligrams of caffeine. into it. Yeah. It's not healthy. You can't call that healthy. Can't put a label on it calls it healthy. You can't put sugar in there and say it's healthy.

You can't put chemicals in there and call it healthy. That doesn't work. That's not the truth. I agree. Yeah. So we have something legitimately healthy. Yep. Good to go.

Yes, sir. Yep. Discipline go. Boom. Many flavors. Eight of them, if I'm not mistaken. I think mango is the best one. Seems to be.

Seems to be what the robots like as well. That's, you know, many. many entities like the mango. It's a good one, you know. But hey, choose for yourself. But the good news is there's options what I'm saying as far as flavors go. Again, a healthy one. There's no real energy drink out there like it.

And look, you can have an energy drink. Boom. Get the opposite side. Yep. Also, discipline go is also a pre-workout. There's a pre-workout form. Okay, for the last few days, I drink coffee. Are I addicted to coffee?

I don't think so. How many cups a day? One every day? Two, like two. Oh, okay, two every day. Maybe three, but it's all at once. Like in the morning. Okay, whatever.

Yeah, it's like a big coffee, whatever. I'd say almost every day. But if I don't have it, I'll get a headache or nothing like that. So I don't know that I'm addicted to coffee. Okay, so what's up with that pre-workout? So for the past three days, I have no coffee. But I worked out first thing in the morning. Actually, more than three days.

Yeah, more than three days. But I work out in the morning. So I'm not going to drink a coffee, then do the pre-workout, you know. It's like it's kind of double, what do you call double dipping unnecessarily. So you're going straight to the pre-work? Straight to the pre-workout. One scoop and a half, by the way. Okay.

I don't get the weird, here's the thing, the jitter of the coffee, and it's not really a jitter for me anymore. It's more of just a little buzz kind of a thing. You don't get that from the pre-workout. I don't even mind the jitter, by the way, that buzz or whatever. I don't mind that. But I did notice that you don't get it. But I'll tell you what you do get.

A kick-ass workout. So you don't even need the coffee, you see what I'm saying? Yep. So anyway, yeah, so you can use it as a pre-workout. Again, it's powder. It's good. It tastes just as good. It makes it with whatever you want, water.

Whatever. But very good. This will help you on the path when you're working out. Trust me, you want to be that much more better off when you're on it. Trust me. Also, we've got some protein. This is high quality protein. Desire.

Yes, sir. And it tastes very, very good. If that means anything to you, if you want to choke down low quality protein, that tastes kind of junk, this is not the one for you. But this one is good. Yeah, you're going to want. that gratification of just eating something that tastes delicious. You know the, you ever seen the meme or whatever it is that's like,

oh yeah, you can eat whatever, whatever, and it's like, oh, that face you make one, now I want something sweet, right? I haven't seen that mean. There's a mean, and there's funny ways of presenting it, but it comes all different forms or whatever. But it always reminds me of that, you know? It's essentially usually someone who's like, let's say they overconsume, we'll say that. And, you know, I'm super full, but now I want something to eat kind of a thing.

Like, that's a thing or whatever. Well, it seems to be a thing for me because I'd be drinking milk. Even after I have a straight up tomahawk steak. I think that's why it's a mean is a, you know. I'd say more, I would say 65% of the time when I get done eating something that is like steak. I still want to have a little bit of a little deserable. I want to have a little milk. I'm getting on the milk train.

Do you drink milk just in general? Like, oh, I'll just have a cup of milk or glass of milk. It's going to have milk in it. Because why would I even, that's like just one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. No, but you know how like, okay, so I'll tell you this. I guess if I was going to, if I was going to, let's say we had a little scenario happening where I was going to have a chocolate chip cookie. Right. Then milk with no milk would be in play.

But you know how some people drink milk with dinner? That's the norm? I had a keto peanut butter and chocolate cake the other day. Pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. Very shockingly amazing. But I also had a little bit of milk, milk, regular milk, because that was kind of the, that was where I was feeling.

Yeah. But the keto chocolate peanut butter cake credit was given. True. Trying to be, what's the purpose of keto chocolate chocolate? coconut peanut butter cake because then you're not there's there's there's two things look I could tell you that hey you know you want to stay in ketosis and all this stuff I wasn't even in ketosis when I did that right but here's the thing when if you if right now if you and I sat down and ate a piece of like whatever just giant chocolate cake filled with

sugar I would feel like crap would you feel like crap maybe in two hours yes probably I would feel I would feel like crap and like two hours I'm whatever what's the word lethargic lethargic yeah yeah two hours or maybe even like he isn't it probably doesn't even take an hour immediately yeah I'm not immediately but you're like oh I just doused my system with freaking sugar yeah and you feel like crap yeah when you when I had this and I've had several keto-ish desserts yeah right and that they're good and then you go I still feel pretty freaking good, you know? So that's why.

I understand. Yeah, I'd rather have that. And I'm telling you, they're, they're kind of like mook. You know, you can have a milk, like it's a milkshake. Yeah. You can have one of these and you're not like, oh, I still really want a real peanut butter freaking chocolate cake or whatever. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yes, certain things don't pair well, though, with, like, chocolate cake or keto chocolate peanut butter cake or whatever like it's too much chocolate like let's say milk didn't exist right you eat a chocolate chip cookie you drink some white milk yeah you don't want chocolate milk with no it's too much doesn't pair well exactly right we're too much i pair some stuff every once in like but here's the thing my pairing is kind of off when i eat chili you know like chili

chili and rice maybe some cornbread if we're lucky um i like milk with chili is that that's weird right That's the jam. It seems like a good call. I think it's a good call, yeah, for sure. When I was a kid, my mom would make spaghetti, and I would just sit there at the table, like the rest of the family would be done, gone for an hour,

and I'd be saying they're just eating spaghetti, and I would have a gallon of milk and just pouring glasses of milk, just pounding it. You know that time frame when you're, I don't know, 13, 14, 15, 16, your stomach is literally a bottomless pit. You cannot eat enough.

You can't my mom said I used to be like a sleep in the car when I was like 12 or 13 and just wake up and be like can we get food right now and my mom said if I didn't if we didn't get over to a Mickey D's stat then I start getting hangary I understand fully and that is a thing that's weird that and you I never thought about that specifically but I do remember we're like okay so I have this cousin Eben Eben Charles by the way. E-B-A-N? E-B-O-N, if I'm mistaken. E-B-O-N. I forget how to spell it. Nonetheless, Evan.

So he came to visit and we're the same age. So he would, or he would maybe a year older than us. I forget. So I think same age. And I remember because we're in like six or seventh grade, but he was huge, he's huge, like tall dude, super tall. And he would drink a whole half gallon of juice.

You know the calf content. The whole thing, you just drank it. I was like, bro, like, I can understand, like, that that juice is delicious. And I said, but, man, I'm not, like, I'm not ready for that. That's a lot of juice to drink just in one go like that. And that's a lot. Two years later, I remember drinking a whole half gallon of juice. Oh, yeah, because you were in the zone.

Yeah, well, because I grew up to, you know, I don't think I was even his size, but I was like, at that time, I was like, yeah, maybe 14, 15 years old. So I drink the whole thing. And I remember thinking, oh, yeah, Eben was pounding this juice the same way, but I get it. Now, bro, when you're thirsty, you just want to pound that juice. See what I'm saying? But yes, and yes, I am thinking your stomach is kind of like a bottomless pit. You eat the whole thing, a cereal. Whole thing.

Like, it's nothing. Jocco's over. You're just pounding milk. Yeah. Whole for shit gallon. Nonetheless, mulk. Put milk in there. Get on the milk train.

Yeah. And there's a good, a lot of cool little recipes you can add to the flavors if you want. It's not necessary. Totally necessary. But if you want, you can enhance that monk if you like. Also, for your immunity. and for things that you don't want to worry about. Try a workout.

Try lift weights. If you're into lifting weights. Which you should be. I think you should be. Doctors think you should be. From what I'm understanding more and more, resistance training and weights, in my opinion, the best form of resistance training is the healthiest thing you can do for you. Barring, like, ailments, you've got heart things, situations, all this stuff.

And, of course, cardiovascular has a lot of health benefits. But as far as like immunity, balance of hormones. Mones, cognitive, like all these benefits, resistance training. From what I understand has proven to be the best one. We're lifting. If you're lifting heavy and you're, let's say your joints aren't all that will say or they're bothering you or whatever, your body will not let you lift heavy. It'll try to be like, hey, let's not lift heavy.

Yeah. Yes. It's bad. It's bad. And it's your body telling you that. And it's your body actually saying, hey, look, we wish you. could, but you can't. Yeah, it's kind of like, is your body going, hey, you're old now.

Just forget about it. Just give up. D-O-R. Yeah, maybe not the D-O-R, but, but kind of along those lines. You see what I'm saying? Let's say the morale of your body tends to lower and lower when your joints. Oh, yeah. All this stuff.

And it's a natural mechanism. Dude, I surfed yesterday, my shoulders were, uh, it's weird. They were just sore, not like, uh, injured or anything like this, but like that motion. Yeah. And I'm not too much I've been surfing like every day. for a couple, maybe like a week. And my shoulders are tired, sore, but not sore, injured. Like, oh, I can't paddle.

Right, right. You know, so it's, there you go. And those shoulders got some miles on them, man. And we're just joint warfareed up. I understand, yes. So for these ailments, joint warfare, super krill. That'll keep everything in the game. And then there's the vitamin D3 and the Cold War.

That'll keep your immunity in the game, which you need. By the way, I don't know if you need that. Strong immunity, strong, strong life, man. Boom. 100%. Boom. But yeah. Yeah, you can get this stuff, by the way.

You get this stuff at jugglefuel.com. You can get this stuff. You get the drinks at Wawa. We got some other convenience stores coming online pretty quick. We're already in a bunch more, but I should put together a list of those. So, yes, Wawa, you can get all the stuff at vitamin shop as well. Go in there if you want to try something out. There you go.

If you subscribe to any of this stuff, which I recommend, then you can subscribe on joccofuel.com and you'll get shipping for free. Because look, let's face it, we're competing with big, there's a big company around I've heard of that's shipping stuff for free. It's true. Even though they charge you money, kind of.

They do actually, not kind of, they do charge you money. Yeah, yeah, the membership. So free shipping, what does that really mean? It means I paid you money and your shipping. Was that free? Pre-paid shipping. Who are we, what are we doing? Is that where we're at?

Yeah, that's where we're at. Yes, sir, it is. So we're not going to charge. you to subscribe you subscribe and you get free shipping we're giving you a better deal yeah than some of those other big companies it's essentially just a recurring it's not even like a paid subscription yeah discount subscription essentially boom win win good to go yep good to go um also origin usa this is where you can get your american made stuff so jeans boots some athletic gear durable goods

probably he's coming out with some good pants bro he had some um like what color were they like green like whatever he made a post Pete or origin we got all kinds of stuff coming bro it's a next uh print camo and I think they're like camo jeans we're we've got stuff coming

we are we are investing look when we say we're gonna we've been when we say this is rebuilding America and rebuilding manufacturing America does that mean when we make money we go oh cool he made money let's go uh you know buy a freaking new corvette right no we're not buying corvettes no tell you what we're doing we're buying more factory we're buying more equipment we're buying more material we're reinvesting back right back into this this mission so when you get a pair of jeans thank you because it's going to allow us to make more jeans it's going to

allow us to make we're bringing out a whole line origin hunt you probably heard me talking about it on Joe Rogan we got all that is in full swing full swing getting that stuff designed getting it we're doing the test various of the various layouts that we're using so this stuff is coming yep and it's gonna be made in America a hundred percent that's what we're doing so we appreciate the support origin USA dot com we are we meaning you listen to this right now It's not just us at the company. We can't rebuild manufacturing in America without the support of you.

It just will not work. It will not work. If you don't believe in rebuilding America, then this thing fails. If you don't believe in bringing manufacturing back to America, this thing fails. When you support, though, we're going to be unstoppable. And you know what? I'm willing to bet. Pete's willing to bet.

In fact, we're betting the farm. We're betting everything. We're betting everything that America will come together and help us bring manufacturing back to America. And listen, we are in an economic war. We are in an economic war with China. This is factually what's going on. We are in an economic war with China. And you and me and origin, we are on the front lines of the economic war.

We are the shock troops. So we appreciate the sport origin USA.com. Some jiu-jitsu stuff on there as well. Best geese in the world, literally the best geese in the world. And kind of by far. Because speaking of combat, you want to be in economic combat we want to win. You also want to win on the mats of justice. So get yourself an origin geese.

I know there's a lot of them out there. A lot of people, if you're going to look, if you're training jujitsu, which you should be, if you're not training jiu-jitsu, start training jiu-jitsu. And then get an origin gee, represent. Otherwise, again, you might be winning the combat front on the mats, but now you're losing the economic war against China. Think about that. Like, oh, cool, I'm winning.

I can beat, I can tap this person. Oh, but my nation is losing a war against another communist regime. Is that where you're at? Origin USA, people. Yep, it's true. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's go.

Bring it. Also, Jocko's store. It's called Jocco store. So you go to jocco store.com. This is where you can get your shirts, hats, hoodies, some shorts on there. Discipline equals freedom. Represent while you're on this path.

Stand by to get some. Stand by it gets on. Good. All day. Good. All day. Also, there's a short locker. That's our subscription service.

It's a good one. Some good designs on there. Good designs coming out. Got a Valentine's Day design. It's actually not. You got to be kidding. It is not a Valentine's Day design. Unapproved.

It's totally. Here, I shouldn't even have said Valentine's Day. No, I shouldn't have. But it does come out in February. Because I'm mad about it now. There's the color red on it. How about that? There's no color on it.

Is the color red from blood dripping from a sword? That's classified. Nonetheless, there's some good designs on their past and present, of course. If you're a member, you can even buy it. And you're like, hey, what about the past designs? Do I have access to those? Because they come out once a month and they're kind of gone. They're not gone anymore.

You do have access. Once you're a member, you have access to the past design. So boom, that's the added benefit and upgrade. Right on. Just by becoming a member. There you go. Subscribe to this podcast. Also, don't forget about the unraveling podcast.

Just recorded another episode with DC. And we are also just set some things up so that we can start doing more of those. And we're also going to do, we're going to start talking about what's going on in the world a little bit more timely. So when things happen. Look, we're not going to chase the 24-hour news cycle because I'm not chasing the 24-hour news cycle because at least 80% of the 24-hour news cycle is bullshit that doesn't matter. But there is 20% that is strategic that needs to be talked about that needs to be explored. And so DC and I are going to start putting that out more often. So be ready for that.

That's the Jocko Unravelling podcast. We also have the grounded podcast. We've got the Warrior Kid podcast. We also have Jocko Underground. Jocco Underground.com. Again, we, look, we don't know what's going to happen with all these platforms. There's massive influence in the tech world that is controlling the platform that you're listening to this right now.

And we don't know what they're going to do with it. We don't know if they're inserting advertisements into when we're trying to put out some word or we're trying to explain, you know, what's going on in the world. So we have jocco underground.com. If we ever need it, it's there as a contingency. If you want to be there and you want to help us support, then go to jocco underground.com. It costs $8.18 a month.

If you can't afford that, we still want to support you. So if you can't afford that email assistance at jocco underground.com, we'll figure it out. But we appreciate your support there as well. We have a YouTube channel. And on the YouTube channel, Echo makes videos. and then I usually get him the key element that makes his videos good. Look, they'd be good.

Thanks, Chuck. They would be good, but usually there's one little element that needs to be added in there. And I'm always here for you. That's where you come in. Assistant Director. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. Also, the video version of this podcast, by the way.

If you want to see what T-shirt Echo Charles is wearing, then you can do that. Any moment. It's true. Yeah, so, yeah, there you go. Also, psychological warfare, which is an album with Jocko on each track telling you how to get through your moment of weakness. This is an effective tool. It's a digital tool. So, yeah, you can get that wherever MP3s are offered.

Flipsidecanvus.com, Dakota Meyer, making awesome stuff to hang on your wall. Got a bunch of books. Final spin. Leadership, strategy, and tactics, the code, the evaluation of protocol. Discipline equals freedom field manual. Way the warrior kid. Way the warrior kid. One, two, three, and four.

those books for every kid that you know you will do so much to enhance their life and get them moving in the right direction Mike and the Dragons for the little kids about faced by Hackworth I wrote the forward on the new version extreme ownership and the dichotomy of leadership that I wrote with my brother Laif Babin who I also have a leadership consultancy with called Eschelon Front where leadership is the solution go to Escalonfront.com if you want us to come and help you with your company if you want to come to one of our live events And you can also check out our online training the academy called extreme ownership.com

If you want to learn to take ownership of your life, of your business, of your family, of your fitness, of your health, then go to extreme ownership.com. I'm on there two, three times a week live to interact. You had a question for me. Just go on there and ask it. Extreme ownership.com. If you want to help service members active and retired, their families, gold star families, check out Mark Lee's mom. Mama Lee. She's got an amazing charity organization and she helps veterans and their families so much. Go to America's mighty warriors.org if you want to donate or you want to get involved. And if you want any more of my lame lectures or you need any more of Echoes disorienting declarations. You can find us on the interwebs. On the gram, on the Facebook, on the Twitter, on getter.

Echoes at Equit Charles. I am at Jocka Willink. And to the Army, Navy, Air Force. And for this manual today, especially for the Marine Corps. Thank you for being leaders doing the toughest job in the world, and that is going into combat. And to our police and law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, Border Patrol, Secret Service, and all first responders,

Thank you for doing what you do here at home. Also an incredibly tough job, which is keeping us safe. Thank you. And everyone else out there, think about all these factors, not just for leading Marines, but for leading yourself. And it says in the look, the self-discipline is the most important quality. It is your personal duty to yourself. And if you develop this discipline, than like a discipline marine you will hold sturdy against anything that's thrown at you

based on that firm inner conviction that you will not falter you will not flounder you will not fail and to demonstrate that discipline to demonstrate that discipline you have to show self-reliance you have to have self-control and you have to have initiative to make things happen take some initiative, go out there and get after it. And until next time, this is Echo and Jocko. Out.