Jocko Podcast - 46: Jeremiah “JP” Dinnell & Jocko Discuss War, Fighting, and Life

Episode Date: October 26, 2016

0:00:00 - Opening 0:07:30 - JP Dinnell Intro 0:19:50 - BUDS 0:24:50 - Deployment 1:12:13 - Loss of a Team Mate 1:36:10 - Getting out of The Teams, MMA is a stress reliever. 1:52:12 - Relationship rough patch. 2:08:12 - Living in the Moment 2:18:10 - Internet, Onnit, JockoStore stuff 2:37:00 - ClosingSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 46 with Echo Charles and me Jock Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. There is a little survival instinct. It's very subtle. But I would notice it sometimes in a combat situation. when guys are thinking that enemy fire at any time could open up and kill them you'd see some guys subconsciously they just they just try and make themselves a little bit of a smaller target

they just kind of slouch their backs down a little bit and they just kind of bow their head just a tad it's not a it's not a bad thing to do I don't think guys actually Think about it. I don't think they consciously do it. I think it just kind of happens It happens when you think you could get shot at any moment It's likely a good instinct to have And when we first got to Ramadi We were out on patrol and I saw one of my guys on a real patrol is my first time seeing this particular guy on a real patrol guy on a real patrol and it was in the Malab district of Ramadi which was just an enemy

controlled cesspool of violence with threats everywhere and as I saw this guy he was standing straight up just standing straight up his head was held high as a weapon was at the ready he was scanning he was hunting there was no slouch in his back there was no lowering of his head there was no fear apparent on his face or in his posture he was just boldly facing the threat standing tall now you've heard me talk about some of my guys in task unit bruiser that I worried about. I just some of the guys, I thought that they basically had

too much courage, too much bravery. And it just didn't seem like that kind of attitude was survivable. Day after day, after day, after bloody day in Ramadi. Somehow,

some way, through some divine providence, this particular brave soul did survive and actually thrived in that environment, in the Battle of Ramadi with Task Unit Bruiser. Now, Tasking a Bruiser was made up of two seal platoons, Charlie Petun and Delta Petun. And Charlie Petun, we've talked about before.

Laif Babin was the platoon commander, Tony Afradi, who's been on the podcast, BTF Tony, he was the platoon chief. And the lead sniper for Charlie Patoon was Chris Kyle. And in the other platoon, Delta Patoon, where Andrew Paul, who's also been on the podcast, he was the assistant platoon commander. And the point man and sniper, the lead point man and lead sniper for Delta Paltoon, was that guy, was the guy that I just described walking through the literal valley of death with his head held high.

And his name is Jeremiah Donnell, also known as J.P. Dinell, that's what I always called him. And we have him as a guest on the podcast tonight. Now, when JP was in Task Unit Bruser, he was a kid. When we were in workup, I think he was 22 years old. When we deployed, he was 23 years old. And I love JP. He was like a brother. And to be quite honest, he was like a little brother to me.

And I loved his aggressiveness. And when we were going through workup, he would just straight up execute anything I told him to do. Anything. Like a hyper-aggressive Terminator robot. I would look at him and say, JP, take that room, or JP, get on that high ground, or JP, get those prisoners out of here,

and he would just get after it and make it happen and just destroy or out-maneuver anything that was in his way. One time we were going through Mount Training, which is urban warfare, so we're in kind of a fake city with buildings and all this. And there was a building across the street, and we were taking massive paintball fire.

Again, it's just training, but we're getting shot up with paintball. And in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, if this is real, we're getting killed. And I know that we need to get aggressive to stop this and say, I'm kind of give the command of, hey, we need to hit that building across the street. And like, as the last word is coming out of my mouth, I see JP just bust out of the door of the building we're in, go running across the street with this gun blazing, just caveman smashed through the door of the target building, goes in there and I just see muzzle. flashes he's just machine gunning people and I thought to myself okay J.P. can bring it at least he can bring

it during training because courage against paintball in training is actually not that big of a deal at all in fact it's borderline meaningless but it is an indication now courage in Sustained combat is another thing and J.P. proved himself as a true warrior over and over and over again during the Battle of Ramadi. And I'm honored to have my brother, J.P. Dinell, on the podcast today. J.P., welcome to the show. Thank you for having me here. and we have to start with trying to understand where you come from how much time do we have where you grew up and yeah and all that and it's pretty cool I mean I know I know your mom and dad

and I've actually grappled against your dad yeah it's one of his highlights he loves that he talks about it all the time I think of a role with you strong strong strong Man. Scary, strong. Yeah. Like, well, and how old, so how old is he now? He is 54, 55. No kidding.

Yeah. So 10 years ago, he was my age. Yeah. So when I grappled with him, he was my age. Yeah. And I thought he was all old. No. And right now, if you called me old, I'd be pissed.

Yeah, I know you would be. So Mr. Donnell, I apologize. I thought you were old back in the day. Nope. He grabbed the hold of my head. And you were my age that I am right now. Oh, that's crazy. isn't it yeah sorry to interrupt yeah no that's true so talk talk talk about where you come from

what was like growing up all that stuff um I had a good life my parents are awesome you know um very hard workers um you know grew up tied on money you know my my dad did construction and framing in the 80s and my mom taught step aerobics not a lot of money there it's so but uh they they just they constantly worked for our family. It was awesome. Now we, you know, every Sunday we were at church, you know, not having a lot of money to go out and do stuff. We'd go for for drives. You know, that's what we did. Our family, we'd go for drives and just go, you know, see the, you know, we're in Northern California, Sacramento. Within 20 minutes, he can be in the foothills. And it's

beautiful. We'd go to my grandparents' property. You know, my dad's parents were a very big part of our life as well growing up. Grandfather's Old World War II vet was on the destroyer. On A Destroyer, my grandmother is an amazing woman, you know, wakes up every morning, still at 5 a.m. to pray for everybody in the family. They have five acres up in the foothills, the pasture with horses. So for kids, it was awesome. You know, brother and sister. My parents, you know, they didn't wait for having kids, you know, I had me. And then, you know, I think it was like 15 or now 17 months later, my brother comes. then 17 months later, I thought my sister comes. So, you know, I'm a dad and you have kids.

Irish twins, they call that. Yeah. It was just like, boom, boom, boom. You know, awesome, you know, my brother and my sister, like two of my closest best friends still, you know. We just always used to grow up playing Navy SEALs, you know. Where did you get? Okay, so going into the next question,

which I am always curious is how did you hear about the, teams um actually my brother saw something on tv there's some special about the forming of the seals and the you know jfk's speech and all this stuff and he had my parents record it and we would watch that every morning that we could you know we're young you know we're trying to go to school and my brother's popping that in the vCR and so every weekend we definitely watched it and then we would, you know, dress up in camys and paint our faces and stuff that we got from old Army Navy Surplus Store or just from garage sales and we would go play Navy Seals, you know, and we'd go up to my grandparents as like a haven, you know, and it's, it's funny now, like, I didn't know what I was

doing, but I used to like do make up little gilly suits and I would have my parents drop me off at the front entrance of my grandparents' property. I'd wait until I got up to the house and I'd say, hey, I want to see if you can see me sneaking up there. I would try to stock up to my grandparents' house. Good training. I mean, yeah. And, you know, so that, you know, it's a really good life. You know, all my, all my aunts and uncles and cousins, you know, we're all really close and just really close family. You know, my uncle, one of my closest uncles, you know, he's a cop back where we grew up and, you know, he's still serving the community. He's a legit badass. And, And, you know, so I was surrounded by a lot of good people that didn't know anything other than working hard.

Like, you just have to work hard. There's no excuses for that. There's no handouts. Like, you've just got to get after it. And that's just kind of how I learn about the teams. And, you know, as you get older in high school, you kind of forget about that stuff. But, yeah, it was a pretty good solid base. Great life.

Did you enlist right out of high school now? Yeah. Yeah. I was in a senior year of high school. Didn't you break your leg or have some weird situation? I broke my hand. Broke your hand. Yeah, so my hand was in a cast.

How'd you do that? Well, you know. I think it's interesting that you just told this story of this kind of, you know, picture-perfect childhood with all this goodness around you. But just, I'll just go straight up tell people, J.P. might crack a few people once in a while if they need it when he was a young kid. Yeah, definitely never went out looking for it and starting it, but if it was there, you know, anyways, we had a party with my buddies. And, no, actually, we were just, like, kind of hanging out at the house and, I don't know, hop and some guys, like showed up.

Yeah, got in a fight. Anyway, it's got in a fight, broke my ham. Don't, you know, like a smart young man, don't go to the hospital that night. My hand's, like, ballooning up. Well, you know, the next day we're going to go whitewater rafting. Sounds like a good plan. So, I mean, I can't not do that with all my friends. So I just put my hand in the river the whole time because I'm like, that's like ice, right?

I get home. I thought my mom was going to just beat me. She's a short little, just thin athletic woman. And I was just like terrified. You're afraid she was going to do some step aerobics on your head. Yes, exactly. She was going to get after it. And so I go, you know, so she's like, yeah, we're going to hospital.

And so we go there and they're like, yeah, you broke your knuckle, this bone, and fractured the wrist. And I'm like, okay. So I get in a cast. Of course, my dad's pissed off, you know. And he's just like, you know, it's my senior year. I'm getting close to graduation. And there was no talk of college. I played water polo my senior year.

And one of the JCs was, or my coach said, hey, you know, if you go to this J.C., UC Davis, you know, you could be going over and playing over there. I just knew college wasn't what I wanted to do. At the time, it just wasn't for me. I wasn't going to waste time or, doing something I just wasn't driven to do. And, you know, my dad's like, what are you going to do? What are you going to do with your life?

And I was like, I don't know, I'll probably be a whitewater rafting guy and live up in the mountains. And he's like, what are you going to do with your life? You're like, nothing wrong with that. But, you know, he's like, no, like you're, no. And because one of my best friends did that. Which it was just cool, chill lifestyle. Seems cool.

Yeah. It would be great for the soul, right? And so anyways, my dad was like, what about the military? Like, what about being a Navy SEAL? You used to always talk about it. And at the time, all I could think about was just like the regular Fleet Navy recruiters that would come to the high school. And this was pre-9-11.

So nobody's really very motivated. And, you know, they would come to the high school, but they never really engaged with the students or anything. So I was like, that's the Navy? I don't know. Go to work that next day. And because I'm going to cast to have me at the front register. And for the first time ever, I noticed,

across the street is a Navy recruiting office. I was like, I'll go in there. So I went in there and, of course, they're like, oh, what are you going to do, blah, blah, blah. What are you here for? I was like, I was thinking about joining the Navy, you want to be a Navy SEAL. They all start laughing.

I was like, check. I would piss. Like, I was like real mad. They're like, well, you know, all the SEAL wannabes have to talk to petty officer so and so. And yeah, when he said the SEAL wannabe part, I was fired up. And then he goes, and we can't do anything with your cast on.

I'm like, right, Roger that. They're like, you know, if you want to come talk to him, he'll be on Thursday. It was on Tuesday. So I go, go back to work. I'm just staring at the Navy recruiting office the whole time, just doing. So I'm like, dude, I'm in good shape, you know, like I'm a very good athlete. Like, I can do this and go back home. And I'm telling my dad, my dad's like, hey, how, you know, how's work?

Am I good? I was like, hey, I'm joining the Navy. And I can't go do anything for boot camp with this cast on. Like, I don't know. Like, you know, in my mind, I'm like, I'm going to leave for boot camp tomorrow. something like that, right? And so he's like, cool, go start the bathtub, start soaking it. I'll get some tools out of the garage.

And so my dad comes in there and he has like some like sheet metal shears and something else. And we just got out there and we cut off my cast. Dude, I thought my mom was going to beat my dad. She was like, what? Of course I was like, yeah, I'm joining the Navy. I'm going to go be a Navy seal. So all of a sudden I cut off my cast and now her baby boy is leaving to, you know, go join the military. Terry and she was my poor mom you know and so I go back on Thursday I walk in they look at me

they look at my cast not being there they're like you need to talk to petiosterstone so I'm like all right roger that and so that just started the rest of the process and um you know a lot of rehab my parents had a cafe um they sold that um so me and my dad could do construction together to spend as much time together as possible and my mom was able to spend time with her mom that was passing away And that's how I rehab my hand. And my dad would actually wrap my hand up in some of my old kickboxing wraps and boxing wraps, tape it up. And then we would tape the hammer to my hand because I couldn't grip it. Like I could not grip anything.

And, you know, that's what he did. Because I'd see my old man go to work with a cast on and he would have to tape tools to his cast to work. I mean, your dad's not the kind of guy that's going to let broken limbs stop him from getting a good days of work in. No, you just tape that tool to your body and make something happen. So that's what he did with me. And it was awesome. And he knew, like, I wanted to go to buds and I was going to go to buds. And so he would push me to my absolute limit every day at work.

Like, I mean, every day. I mean, I would be pissed, sometimes borderline crying because I was so mad, not like tears of, like, you know, pain or whatever. But I was so mad at him. And he'd see it. And he'd throttle back a little bit. And he'd make me go, you know, some days, like, I'd come in to work hungover sometimes. And he would be like, hey, I need you go rent a. a 90 pound jackhammer.

There was no need for a 90 pound jackhammer. Yes, there is. Needs a jackhammer your brain back into reality. And so for eight hours, I would be jackhammering concrete with a 90 pound jackhammer while he was doing what he was doing. And then, I mean, it was awesome, though. I mean, he would push me to the absolute limit.

And my mom and him were awesome with communications and helping me out with stuff. And it was good. And so then I left September 5th, 2001. I had a seal contract. I was in Buds. I'm sorry, I was in boot camp when 9-11 happened. And, you know, I was just weird.

I was so pissed. Did they tell you guys about it? Yeah, we're on lockdown. And they're like, hey, the nation's being attacked. We give you guys more info and we're like, what? Of course, you have all the weak-minded people in there that start crying. Like, I'm 18, right? Yeah.

Like, barely 18. And there's just grown men crying. Like, I didn't sign up for this. I'm like getting fired up. Like, you need to shut up, sit down. Like I'm just like... He's looking for a battle axe at this point. Yeah, I'm like, how do I go to Bud's right now?

Do I have to finish boot camp? Can I just go? You know? But yeah, so I was in boot camp with 9-11 happened. And I always felt like, well, I didn't feel like I knew that being a Navy SEAL is what I needed to do. And what I wanted to do. And it's what God wanted me to do. And just everything just fell into place.

You know, it was pretty awesome. So then you go to Buds. You went to buds right around the same time as Laif and Andrew Paul. I was one class behind them. They were class 241. I was class 242. But you ended up in SQT with those guys. Yeah.

Yeah. Awesome. Which is the training after you get through the basic seal training, buds, which is where you do pushups and all that stuff and do pull-ups and have a boat on your head and all that stuff. A bunch of people quit. Then you go to something a little bit more advanced called SQT where you actually learn some seal stuff. skills. Yeah. And then you check into a team.

And then you get, so you check in a team three. Yep, checking in team three. And knock out your first platoon as a new guy. What was that like? It was, uh, it was good. It was cool. You know, I checked in team three. And, uh, you know, it was like, hey, we need some volunteers to go to a driving school.

It's an off road, Hummer racing and navigation school. I was like, how do I get my hand up fast enough for that? And it just worked out great. Like I literally checked into the team. Is the team's ridiculous? It is. I mean, you're 18. years old and they're like hey we're going to send you an off road racing school for free and we're

going to get a bunch of money to go there by the way so you can buy good meals yeah you're going to go for a month two weeks straight is going to be off road driving racing and two weeks going to be navigation i was like i literally just you know i just come back from kodiak alaska we're doing our cold weather training so i was up there i was gone for a month come back legitimately for a couple days and you know my girlfriend at the time was like oh you're back i'm so happy and then all And I was like, hey, I'm leaving tomorrow. And I mean, I was just like, I was just happy. You know, I was like, yes, this is awesome.

This is legit. I'm in the teams. Like, I'm getting to do stuff, you know. And went out there. There's a freaking war going on. Yeah. And I just wanted to be as well equipped as possible. And one of my good bros, Derek Benson, you know, he was killed on extortion 17.

He's from Northern California as well. And he was one bus class ahead of me. He had checked into team a little bit, to Team 3 prior to me. We both went to that driving school together. And that's where we just became like best friends, you know. So it was awesome. It was a good time out there.

You know, learned a lot. And, you know, there's older team guys out there too, you know, that I got to actually interact with and, you know, just guys not from my platoon. So they weren't so hard on me because I was a new guy. For the same time, like I was just learning the balance of the teams. Because I'm a little overly nice and social. and I like to talk to everybody and be everybody's friend. And when you're a new guy in the SEAL teams,

that's usually not the best thing when you're like, hey, how are you doing, buddy? And they're like, shut up. Or like, why are you talking to me? And I'm like, because we're going to be friends. Like, we're going to war together. Let's be friends. So, but it was cool.

And then I come back and then all of a sudden, we're headed out on our first trip. And we're headed out to Shaw's to do shooting school. and I remember we're getting ready to fly out there and I just see this big huge Native American dude I'm like I hope he's in my platoon you know what I mean I'm just like you're drawn to like just awesome warrior looking guys right

and he's just very stoic and just I was like dude I really hope he's in my platoon and he was it's my boy Steve Chira you know he lives out in Vegas and you know he's an awesome old guy to have in the baton you know and then the rest of the other guys in platoon um you know they're still active duty so i'm not going to drop their names um you know my boy pepper was his nickname he was like the perfect old guy to have because he was so hard on you like

you were just waiting for him to whoop your ass but he also mentored and guided you and and actually taught you stuff you know and it wasn't just i'm going to hammer you because you're a new guy he's like i'm going to hammer you because you're a new guy but show you what you need to be doing and why what you did was wrong. So I was fired up, super fired up. So we go out to the Chaws, you know, your first trip, super overwhelming. You know, you're just a little nervous as it is. And they even told us like, hey, this is usually a trip where you want it to be halfway

or towards the end so you can get a solid grass for what you're doing and grow. But we got after it. It was awesome. Like I said, all the older guys were solid. We had a really weak LPO and he actually got fired on that trip. So I was a little just, you know, concerning to me at first. Okay, my first LPO and then he's a complete turd. It's one of the myths of, definitely of the SEAL teams,

is when you're coming in, you think every guy is a hardened combat warrior. And then you get in and you look at some guys and you go, wait a second, that's not, that's not who I was thinking I was going to be working with. And of course, on the other end of the spectrum, you meet guys where like, I want to be like that guy. So you guys wrap through that workup and you go on your first deployment. How was that first deployment? You went to Iraq on your first appointment, right?

Yeah, well, for the second half. First half went to Guam, which was disheartening. You know, I'm like, dude, there's a war going on. Let's go to war. Oh, cool, you're going to go to Guam. But, you know, it's part of it. You know, it's just part of it, you know. Part of the mission.

Part of the mission. Yeah, again, military people deploy all over the world all the time to maintain stability. and that includes all units of the military, even special operations. So seals, sometimes you get deployed to places where there's no, you know, really visible threat. Yeah. And it's not what seals generally want to do. Yeah. So we did training.

We cross-trained with a couple different countries. You know, some other platoon went to the PI. We were in Guam. You know, we went to Thailand to work with the Thai Seals for nine days. And I mean, it was cool getting to see how other countries do stuff. And now that I look back at it, it did give me a much bigger picture, you know, overview of stuff. But at the time, like, I'm not even 21. Like, I'm just wanting to get after it, you know.

And it didn't for the first half. But then we rip and we go to Iraq. I'm like, yes, going to Iraq. Well, I knew what we were headed over there to do. But I was hoping there would be, you know, the ability to do a lot of different stuff and ended up doing personal security. for some higher dignitaries over there during the elections. And I mean, it was cool. You know, looking back now, you look at what you did and you put that on your resume.

People are like, what? Wow, you did that? To me, I was thinking, well, you know, that sucked, you know, but it didn't. It was also very good. It's a very good learning experience. And it was part of the mission. And the problem is when they had a gap in that protection, you know, some team guys came to do it and team guys do what they do and they just knocked it out of the park.

what team guys now have the mission for that and but it was cool you know we worked with some different units some Marines and Army guys and they were phenomenal over there as well and it was it was awesome to be able to learn from them you know guys I've been on their you know a couple deployments already and the wars hasn't really even really kicked off and it was good you know and then our chief got fired I was just like geez but the headshed It was solid, like our OIC, AOC, who became the Delta Platoon commander, solid dudes, you know. And so we just had to weed out some of the weak ones. Right on.

And that's the nature of that mission, you know, is defense. And I don't want to be on defense ever, right? I won't be on offense. It's where I want to be. So it's a tough mission for the guys to mental, I mean, of course, you would never know this from their, from their professional. But no one was saying jumping up and down saying hey great we get to be on defense Yeah, all the time Yeah for a long period of time and the fact that the guys did perform so well and And that we kept the mission again like you said

We kept the mission because we did a good job not that we were jumping up and down excited about doing it because we don't even be on defense We want to be on offense Yeah, absolutely And I look back I'm like you know some of the thing and I did get to do a pretty cool thing there And then, I mean, we got to see all of Iraq, you know, I've got to go up to northern Iraq up in Kurdistan. Oh, yeah, because those dignitaries were traveling around. Well, he was Kurdish and he was from northern Iraq. And it was gorgeous up there, you know.

We actually sit in, you know, so I had a little come to Jesus talk with one of the older guys. You know, he was just kind of reeling me back in because I wasn't very happy. I was pissed that other guys were out doing direct actions, DAs. I want to be doing that. And, you know, my boy Pepper, you know, he talked to me and he sat me down. He's like, man, this is a big picture thing, you know. And this is part of it. He's like, and you're a new guy.

He's like, I know you want to get after. I know you're aggressive, but it's a good deal, you know, like, yes, it's not the ideal thing that we want to do. He's like, but this is not a bad deal. You know, we're in civilian clothes and fully armored SUVs, you know, getting a trial around with this guy. And he just was like, you just need to change your mindset, you know, And he's like, you need to stay focused because after this deployment, it might be something completely different, you know. And he's like, just stay the course, stay focused and, you know, get the mission done. And that was an awesome talk.

I needed that. You know, I just needed that guidance and mentorship because I was young, you know. Yeah, for sure. Pepper's an older guy. He had had a good amount of experience. And, you know, he just knew what I needed to hear and, you know, roughed me up a little bit and continued on, man. It was good. It was awesome.

Learned a lot from it. Yeah. Yeah, so you get back from that deployment. Yep. And this is when you start, this is when we formed up when we started working together. Yes, sir. And T.U. Bruiser. Yep.

Again. You went to come back from, or, well, I'd come back from deployment. And then all of a sudden it was like, hey, we need snipers. I'm like, how fast is my hand get up for this one, you know? And literally gone, like again within a week. And went through the NSW short course, which, you know, we didn't get our sniper certificates from that. because we didn't do everything, but I didn't care. You're giving me sniper guns.

You're, you know, I know how to use them. They're doped in. I get to kill savages. Okay, you know. You know what's crazy is, remember when they used to try and they had rules about how much we could be gone from home? Remember those days? Oh, we violated all those.

Yes, we violated them. But then young guys in the teams and a lot of old guys, too, they literally are raising their hand for everything. Like, yeah, get me out of here, man. Oh, you're going to send me that school? Or are you going to send me on another deployment? And it's weird because there's some people that, you know, a guy that's married and has a family, they're, they don't want to do that anymore. And they shouldn't have to.

But they blanket apply the rules across the board to everybody. Because I'll tell you what, when you're 19 years old and you're in the single teams, you don't want to be at home any night of the week. You want to be either on deployment or getting trained and getting after it. That's what's awesome. Yeah. But they blanket those rules, which is a bummer. Yeah. I mean, I was just fired up.

And to go to go to a sniper school, you know? Like, because, you know, it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It's a huge deal. And one of the older guys in the platoon, he's still active in the team. So I won't say his name, but he's one of my really good buddies. And I really looked up to him. We did an awesome mission together on that first deployment.

Oh, I know you're talking about. Yeah. He's one of my favorite guys. The badger. Yeah. The badger. And, you know, he's just an awesome guy. And he was a sniper, you know.

He would always talk to me about a little thing. And I was just, and even before I went, he was like teaching me stuff and he's like, yeah, you know, this, this, this. So I don't know if he had a say in me going there or what, but I went. I was super excited. And then also Chris, you know, Chris was a big influence as well. He was a successful sniper on that, his second deployment, my first. From Fallujah. Yeah, and you're just hearing about what he's doing in Fallujah.

And I was like, please, please, Lord. Like, I just want to do this so badly. And you hear Chris, you know, telling stories and hear other people telling stories about Chris, you know. And I even had a buddy who was back from Sacramento. He was a Marine officer in charge of Chris and those guys over there. So he's telling me stories that were just like, I was like, what? You're like, dude, this is awesome. And so anyways, we got to the short course.

It was legit. It was in the summer out in the mountains and the desert doing everything. Guys are blacking out on their stocks because it's 120 degrees and you're trying to do a four-hour stock in a gilly suit. and but uh which was awesome because it prepared us for romadi it's like dude the worst stuff you know you're just okay you know and um you know had a great time the instructors were pretty solid you know and um and then all of a sudden it was like because we had a condensed workup you know they're like hey we got to get gone so normally what it would take 18 months we had to condense into 11 months and, you know, all of a sudden then we're headed out to our desert training facility.

Our desert training facility for our first trip. Yeah. And that's where we met for the first trip. First met. Yeah. I had heard about this guy, Jock. And guys were fired up because we're like, dude, this guy is fired up. He's just, you know, think it was just a, you know, this bigger stoic guy that was

professional who had a good amount of experience in the teams and who just wanted to get the fight. And I was like, yes, this is what we need. You know, it was pretty apparent when I first met you that you wanted to get in the fight too. Yeah, I might have been bandaged up a little bit from smashing out a car window. Yeah. But, you know, yeah, some some idiots downtown and spit on like, what were you saying I was saying to you when I saw that? So when you saw it, you know, you're like, hey, I'm Jock. I was like, I'm J.P. You're like, I know who you are. I was like, I know that. You know, it's kind of like, uh, Okay.

And you're like, so what's up the wrist? And I was like, I got a couple of stitches. And you're like, from what? I was like, I, you know, smashed out a car window with my elbow and I got caught. He's like, huh, you're going to stop doing that stupid shit? I'm like, yeah. He's like, you need to be training here with the guys and with us and focused on workup. And he's like, if you want to fight, we fight.

You know? And I was like, Roger that, sir. And I was like, I'm going to go work out. Because I remember I was walking to the gym. You know, I just changed out the bandages. I had stitches and staples in my arm. I had all bandaged up and trying to get after it. I was going to go work out.

And there I see the silver bat gorilla. It was awesome. It was good. And you just set the presidents. You know, you set the tone for, hey, yeah, it's cool to be aggressive and want to fight and get after it. But you do it in the right place and the right time. And don't forget, you know, at the end of the day, we're going to war to kill bad guys.

That's the number one focus. Yeah. And it was just like, that just kind of really opened up my eyes. So it was cool. Yeah. And that workup was, that workup was awesome. They're so excited. Yeah, it was so much fun.

I mean, just the energy there. I mean, everyone was ready to get after it. And you, you drove it in all of us, you know? I remember you coming up to me when we're in between Iads. And you're like, hey, every time, like, someone gets the door, I want you to be the dude that's as loud as possible. You told me to go put to tape JP on the back of my helmet. You're like, I always want to be able to find you. And, you know, maybe you did, maybe you didn't.

Oh, no, I did. I mean, that's legit right there. So, hey, I'll tell you right now. I say this all the time. Well, I shouldn't say, I say this all the time. But there's people that have certain qualities, right? Certain qualities, whether they're leadership qualities, whether they're skills at art or at speaking or at basketball.

Right people have certain qualities. You had a good ability. You had a great ability to get command of something and make something happen very quickly, right? And that's it's a because you're loud. You're loud, number one. Number two, you're aggressive. Number three, you can take whatever that problem is and like get it into some quick words. You can simplify it into something quickly and say it.

And as soon as I saw that you could do that, because we have to get people to perform fairly complex things in chaotic situations. But when I saw that you had that skill, I said, okay, he's a guy that I can utilize. And that his platoon commander can utilize and that the whole troop can utilize to handle certain situations when there's some chaos going on and something needs to be straightened out. So what I want you to do is take some rigors tape and I want you to write JP on your helmet. So whenever I'm looking around on my night vision or during the daytime and I see, you just see a bunch of helmets that look the same. Now I know it's JP. When I see him coming, I go, JP, make this happen right here. And JP can make it happen right there.

I still had that helmet with the tape sitting in my garage on the shelf That's awesome cool That's awesome Yeah So we get we get obviously orders Two weeks prior to deployment That we're going to Ramadi

We had thought we were going somewhere else We thought we were going to Baghdad We thought we were going to have kind of a cookie cutter deployment Of what the teams had been doing for a few years And we find out two weeks Before deployment that we're going to Ramadi And How did you find out that I

call? Did the Delta atoon commander, did the chief call you? How did you find out we were going to Ramadi? Because you guys were all on leave. You remember? I don't. I don't think they even told us to tell you got back. I mean, because it was all over the news what was going on over there. You know, so I don't, you know, I don't think they told us.

Yeah, I probably didn't tell. I know I told you know the leaders. Yeah. And said, hey guys, standby to get some. Yeah. Yeah. Because I remember we found out we're on leave we came home, came back to San Diego, and we're getting to roll out. And that's when we found out where we're going. And we were getting right,

and we all had our families. We had our families, you know, the day we're shipping off to say goodbye. And there's a couple guys, like, reading, like, news reports and articles about the area we're going to. And I'm, like, trying to, like, pull my mom away so she doesn't hear this, you know what I mean?

And my dad's just, like, listening, like, getting fired up. He's like, yes. And, you know, my dad, You know, you could tell as a father, he's very excited for me. My mom's terrified, nervous. But my dad was nervous as well. Rightfully so, you know, like your son's going off to war in combat.

But he was just, it was this mix of emotions for him. And so he was like trying to hide like the nervousness by saying, when are you leaving? Come on. We've been waiting. It's about time for you to go. Get out of here. I just remembered when I got told when they said they, when the commanding officer brought me. in and he's like and he was trying to sell to me going to Ramadi instead of going to

Baghdad he's like proposing it as like hey you know this could be good and inside I'm like oh my God I'm like so and I remembered I bargained for something there's something there's something that I said well well we want this if we can do this then we can make it happen I think it was gear or some kind of gear swap we did but but anyways I remember them trying to sell it to me and I knew I was in such a good position because it's like someone trying to sell you free money. You know what I mean? I was like, oh, you want a scooter money?

Okay, let me think about that for a second. And inside I'm going, don't blow it. Just act cool. Poker face. Don't get too excited. Just, you know, maybe you might be able to leverage something. Just relax inside. Like, okay, you know, I think we can make it happen.

I need a little bit of this. I might need a couple more support personnel out there to give us a hand, getting acclimated and getting the turnover done. But if I can get five or six more personal, I'm just gathering logistics support. for my troop. That's what I was bargaining for. I was gathering logistics support for the troop,

getting more C-Bs to come help us and more intel guys. Like, as long as we can have this and that. And he's like, yeah, I'll talk to them. We'll see if we can make it happen. And it happened. Yeah. The CEO was awesome.

Solid dude. Yeah. So, I remember, yeah, because I got in trouble when I went home on leave during Christmas time. Am I seeing some kind of a pattern of trouble? here or you know if you want to say that you know what but I just you know what

I just you know what of my best friends didn't have the outlets one of my best friends in the SEAL team when I was younger right we were the same way we were maniacs and one time he got in a really big trouble and the the platoon commander who's one of my favorite guys and a guy that inspired me to go the officer route because he was a prior enlisted guy and he was an awesome guy and he was made the tune awesome for us that guy so I'm thinking he's gonna he must be so angry at my buddy that got in big trouble like borderline international incident and I kind of said hey you know are you mad at him for what happened or what do you think of this and he goes he said something along the lines

of he's a warrior you can't stop these things from happening it's it's in your guys's blood we have to just deal with it the best we can. Yeah, and you guys did. That's what I always, that was always my attitude. You know, I look back now, I'm 33 and I'm like, man, but, you know, you learn from your mistakes and you make sure you don't, you know, pay them again. I got, you know, I got, I was up in Reno. I got arrested for, you know, like older guys started to fight with me and my friends. And I was with non-team guy friends.

They're super passive guys. And he's an older, like, much bigger guy, you know, and, you know, it was coming at me. He had a bottle on his hand. It was just, yeah, anyways, do some damage to him. He ends up in the hospital for a long time. I get rolled up. I get arrested. I go there.

They're looking to my wallet. They're like, security clearance, still team three. And I'm like, yeah. And the cop goes, why didn't you tell me this when we're out there? He's like, I would have dropped you off around the corner. I was like, well, I didn't want, you know, I'm not going to try to pull that card. I made a mistake. He's like, well, you're here now.

So we have to deal with it. So I go home. I remember I tell the LPO about it. He's like, all right, we got to go tell the chief. And chief's like, oh, we got to go to the OIC. We got to go tell the command master chief. Command master chief. You know, and off the master chief was press on and bro.

Two phenomenal leaders. I mean, just couldn't get better, higher listed leaders ever, right? So, of course, you know, they're hearing the story and they kind of like give me the rundown. And then, you know, Master v. Preston goes, J.P., you think you're the first team guy to get arrested for fighting? Let me tell you some stories. He just kind of, he's like, hey, we just got, we got to fix this. You know what I mean?

He's like, obviously, there's clearly self-defense. And he's like, whatever you need from us. Yeah. That was good. Cool. Whatever. What I do is I make the mistake is I go back home on Christmas leave shortly after that and I got a wet and reckless.

So not a DUI, but you know, whatever, close enough. I was an idiot. And, yeah, I'm superman. You know, I'm only 22, you know, I'm not even 23 yet. And, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, We were crushing the work up. So it was my, I was built. I felt even better about life and everything else like that.

And we know we're going to war. And, you know, I just made a mistake. And, you know, pay the consequences. You know, I come home. And I'm like, oh, dude, what do I do? I'm like, they're going to kill me. I was like, I'm possibly not going to deploy. And I remember I broke down.

Like, I just broke down like emotionally. I'm like, I just threw everything away, you know, like, for what, you know? And I was really upset. And I went and told the badger, you know, about it first. I was like, hey, man, I need some advice. I was like, you know, I think I can take leave and take care of this on my own and everything. He goes, yeah, I think we can. He's like, but if not, you know, it's a big risk, you know.

He's like, dude, we have solid leadership right now. Now is the time that you just get your butt kicked for this and just deal with it. You know, he's like, dude, just take what comes at you. And I'm like, all right, bro. you know, I was like sick to my stomach. I was like, well, I don't know how this is going to turn out. We go to the LPL. He's like, you bobble.

I'm like, right, yep, reg that. Go the chief. Chief, same thing. I'm, um, go AIC. It was Andrew Paul. And Andrew Paul was like, JP, really? Like he was diso. What hurt is how disappointed he was.

Everyone is disappointed. Like, you're better than that. And I was, you know. And then so we go back over there to go talk to Mass. Chief Yardroom Presson and I was just like I was so ashamed like I was just you know I just got the chills

I was disgusted myself you know so you know they got through they're like all right well we're gonna have a Chief Review Board see if you get to keep your Trident stay in the teams I was just like try not to throw up right then and there

I'm like like go back to the platoon space like how do you even function the rest the day after that like I was like so I'm looking at the badger I'm like maybe we shouldn't have said this. You know what I mean? I was like, dude. So anyways, long story short,

they had the Chiefs Review Board. And luckily, they were doing remodeling over at the compound. So I was two rooms over, but the ceilings were open and vaulted. Oh, yeah, that's right. So I could hear them all talking about me beforehand. And of course, he had a bunch of like,

it was all the Chiefs in the Command. And, you know, there were some Chiefs there that, you know, we're support personnel. They're like, screw this kid, let's blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, blah, blah. And then like Yarbrough goes hold up like the kids are good kid I was with him at SQT you know he made a mistake and so like I remember him taking my back because he's like oh really let's get rid and he starts pulling up like other guys that had made mistakes he's like

what about when he did this and what about when you did that he's like no he's good and press on's like nope we're keeping them we're going to crush them but we're keeping them so I go in there and luckily I'd heard that and so I went in there and just you you know, face the man and, you know, the whole rest of workup. I know, I was on restriction. You know, we're on the road. We're awesome trips. We're going to Vegas for a work trip.

And guess who has a curfew? Do you have a curfew during that? Oh, I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Like, if I was to go get out food, I had to be back within a certain time frame. You're like, oh, wait, actually, guess what?

They serve food here. So you don't need to leave the building. You can get room service because you don't need to be sitting down at the tables. And I'm like, you know, but whatever. You know, I dealt with it. it's good that you had that kind of sense of fear in there. I mean, just looking back, I can tell you right now, you could have, like,

you could have committed a broad series of crimes against humanity, and I would have still taken you on employment. And I basically told, bro, that for sure. Like, hey, I don't give a shit. Yeah. You know, it's just, I was very lucky and blessed. We were blessed to have, you know, good leaders like you and bro and press on, and those guys that were just like, hey, man, guys make mistakes.

we're going to, we're going to fix it. You know, it's not like you guys are like, oh, no big deal. You're like, oh, cool. Hey, you got to learn. You got to learn from it, you know. And, you know, I definitely learned from it. And the CEO was super cool. And the CEO stood by what you guys stood.

And that said a lot to me about him as a leader as well because he trusted you your guys' judgment. And I remember he comes out like towards the end of our deployment when we've been getting it. We've been getting it the whole time. He's like, man, I'm really glad I listened to them and kept you around. So it was just awesome. It all kind of turned around because it was basically, you know,

You guys were like, hey, we're going to hold it where it's at, and we'll see how he does on deployment. And when he comes back, we'll hammer him if we need to. So, yeah. All right. So we go on deployment. Yep. And like you said, like people are reading the newspaper.

I mean, I knew because I was reading all the intel. I mean, I was totally read in and was trying to explain to you guys and telling you guys, standby to get some. We show up there and do some, do some, you know, basically the forces almost instantly, we divide into five different teams and we end up doing big operation over in eastern Ramadi. And that kind of set the tone and carved out of little space for a certain crew. And actually, in the retirement speech that I gave, you know, I talk about, hey, we're going to send some guys over here. If you want to go volunteer, you got to put your name on this list.

And of course, everyone put their name on the list, which made it go back to the original plan, which was the Delta platoon commander, saying, you know, these are the guys will take. I need whatever, eight guys. I'll take these guys. And, you know, had a little make sure that we weren't making anything too unbalanced.

But obviously, obviously he wanted you with him. And so you guys roll out to Corregor with the first of the 506 band of brothers. Yeah, those guys. are phenomenal. Yeah. Love those guys.

Talk about full metal jacket. A blown out old school. Yeah. I think it was old school or like a university. It was like a university. It was just completely blown out like walls. I mean, there's more bags of sand than concrete, I think. They're holding the place up.

You know, we had the Army of Marines living with us in there. And I remember we show up. We're just like, dude. Yeah. When I went there for that big first kickoff, Yeah, that place was just dirt floors Mosquitoes everywhere

Bugs everywhere Yeah I don't even think there was AC No, there wasn't It was like one dangling light in every room Yeah That was hard living But that was all but that was all

One big room They had like they had like a sheet of plywood That divided the big room That we all ended up eventually Like building our own rooms into Yeah I remember getting over there And you know guys like kind of

I was so fired up I'm like yes I'm in I'm in it. Like this is horrible. It's horrible because there's a fight going on right here. You know what I mean? Like the nice built up bases, there's not a fight there.

Where it's like horrible, you know there's a fight. I was just super excited. Yeah, Craig Ador was awesome. And there was guys with the first of the 506. That place was getting mortared every day. That place was getting attacked every day. I mean, remember when we first went there and it's like, I said, um, because like, can we, can we go up on the walls?

Can the snipers go up on the walls and like defend? And I was like, um, yes. And we did. Yeah, you guys went up and started whacking people almost immediately. It was awesome. He didn't even have to leave base to kill guys. Yeah. What kind of joy is that right there?

It's like the best Christmas present ever. But it was also the same time. It was like if you want to go grab chow, you have to be in full body armor, helmet, and your gun. Because the gun got constantly attacked. You know, there's a couple times you hear, do you just hear the incoming mortars and you're sprinting to try to either get, you're like, when you're in the middle, you're like, do I go back? Do I go to the chow hall? Are they aiming for our building this time?

You know, I remember there was one time I was going out to take a shower. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I know. Just make one and go. And this is a complete, I had my angels God thing. And we come back from an op and guys are smoked, right? And most guys are just like, I'm just going to get into bed, like my baby wipe shower and just lay down. I just wanted to actually just go take a shower, right?

And so the Army guys are awesome. They gave us the code so we could use it on our type. When we came back, you know, instead of the standard scheduled Army Shower Times. So I go out there, I get to the shower tent, I'm like, I forgot my lufus sponge. You know, so I can actually, like, try to, like, wash with my soap and all everything. Hardcore J.P. Dinell. In combat. You know what you got to bring to combat with you?

You got to bring your lufus sponge. That's what I'm talking about. You got to claim the body. You know what I mean? So anyway, so I go back. And as I'm walking back up the steps to get into the, thing shower tent gets hit by three mortars oh yeah destroyed gone like i was just like okay that was the shower tent that was like 20 meters from full metal jacket right yeah i legitimately was just like in there and

i was like oh i remember i was like oh just put this off in my hands and i was like nope that was complete i had my angels you know god was like no you need to get out of here and so i walk back and i'm literally taking the last step like into that little dark hallway and I was like okay where's my baby wipes so I got to get some baby and that's what was so crazy is like something like that it was just like okay shit now I'm pissed you know and so baby wiped it up and until we got that fix we're doing bottle of water showers you know you poke holes in the top of a water bottle and your buddy squeezes it over you and that's how we showered yeah yeah it was awesome yeah and that's another thing the uh the the

Well, the Army guys from the first of 506, I mean, obviously they're living that way too, but every day you'd see them, they're always in the squared away uniforms, always, you know, shaving every day. No slack, no fucking slack whatsoever. Exactly. Exactly. And that was the attitude that you guys went over with. Yeah, we know. I made sure our guys had shaved heads because I was the acting LPO. Uh, the Badger was the acting chief. And we, I mean, we rocked the Army can. Yeah. We put you guys in Army uniforms. Army camis. And we all had shaved heads and we shaved every day. You know, we just looked like the army. I mean, because who cares about a haircut and a shave, you know, unless I needed to have a beard,

which, I mean, I have a red beard. So who am I blending in with Russians or Irish? You know what I mean? Like I'm in Iraq. You know what I mean? Like a bright blue eyes and a red beard.

Oh, you must be a local. Like, we're being attacked by leprechaids. Giant, lepracons. Giant tattooed leoprachons. And so,

you know, We just shaved their heads and got after it. And I mean, dude, you know, like why? That doesn't matter. That doesn't make you a less effective, you know, either way, you know. And you could tilt that, you know, you could flip side that. The other way, it's like, hey, well, if I have long hair and a beard, what does that matter? It really doesn't.

But it's the Army's battle space. And we respect it and love those guys. They were phenomenal guys to work for. So why are we going to do something that is just to piss them off? You know, why? Who cares? Like, so we just shaved. and, you know, had her, kept their heads shaved, which is awesome, actually, because your,

your helmet stuck to that, like a little brillo pad, and it didn't move around a lot. And, you know, and then the Marines that were with us, the Anglico guys, those phenomenal guys, you know, they started doing the same thing. They were shaving their heads. And my boy, Nick Hobbs, you know, he was with us. He's out. He's an awesome stud Marine. And, you know, we always joke about it.

He's like, man, like, he's like, I just remember, like, just we all, like, just would hang out in our free time. And he's like, you come really close with someone. when they're standing in their like boxer breeze and you're having to pour water over them for them to shower and we're up on the rooftop right like doing bottles of water shower and it's just just funny man like I miss those days yeah you know yeah and just so everybody knows now I mean just to kind of give an overview if you don't know what the what the overall operations that were taking place were pushing in the the camp Corregador which we've been talking about which is where this building full metal jacket was was on eastern Ramadi and the first of the 506 was responsible for the eastern part of Ramadi the really the southeastern and then some other sections but where the seal platoon was or the seal squad now is basically a smaller group was working was inside this area called the malab district and as the first of first the 506 would do big clearance operations you guys would go out and primarily do sniper overwatch although you of course you did you did other stuff you

did clearances and all that, but the primary mission, thank God you went to sniper school because you were the lead sniper and you did a lot of, a lot of sniper work over there. Yeah, it was awesome. We got just right place, right time, you know. It was just, that's all I can really explain. Now we worked to get work and we, you know, we pushed the envelope constantly, but I mean, we're no better than anybody over there. We were just hungry.

You know, we wanted it so bad. And I remember when we showed up there, the colonel, you know, I won't say his name, but he was awesome, you know. Awesome. I mean, I wish he was running for president. Absolutely. I mean, I would, I would vote for him. And obviously, I would vote for him instantly. Yeah.

He was just unbelievable leader. I would go on the campaign trail. Yeah. Like in a heartbeat. No doubt about it. Anyways. Um, awesome guy. And, you know, you talk about communication from leadership.

You talk about a guy that can say his name, by the way. He's a general now It's very obvious who it is The commander of the first of 506 During the Battle of Ramadi A guy by the name of Ronald Clark Ron Clark was just an unbelievable leader

And Yeah just an unbelievable leader Ronald Clark 2020 Yeah But awesome awesome guy But he You know he had the ability to communicate with us To where we wanted to help him

Of course And he was just like hey guys I need help, you know, and that's one thing I learned later on in life is like when I was doing sales, I'm like, people don't want to be helped, but they want to help. And he knew that, you know, and so he's like, guys, I need help. We're losing guys every day. This is what we're going on. Hey, here's your ROEs. Please go get some. And we're like, oh, yes. Like, this is it. And we had that connection with them. And, you know, just being able to go out and work for them was phenomenal. And just, it was awesome. I mean, the Delta platoon commander. formed such a good relationship with those guys and was and you know my relationship with him yeah i mean he was um just solid dude and wanted to get after it yes wanted to get after it and wanted to get after it and wanted to get after it as much as humanly possible yeah and then some and then a little bit more yeah and with a little bit more on top of that so yeah it was a great great combination and yeah Actually, you did a lot of those operations too.

So, yeah, kind of the standard, what we called standard. It wasn't that standard at the time. Daytime presence patrols gets them. When I did that, I carried the Mark 46, oh, 556 belt fed action. And it was awesome. You know, you have 200 rounds on the gun. And I threw another 800 rounds on my front. And I had another 200 in the back.

So 1,200 rounds with body armor, grenades, smokes, water. And that's when I was telling that story in the beginning, He's like one of those first big operations we did out there. And that's where that's from. That's where that memory's from is seeing you walking and being, okay. Guess all those way that he acted during training with paintball, he's going to act the same way right here with his life on the line. Either walked, it was cool because I either walked a point or rear security

because I was a machine gunner, you know, and you want a machine gun up front and you want one in the back because they're coming from the rear. I just remember that, you know, first push that you were talking about, the first real firefight I got into just cut these dudes in half and it was awesome and everything the colonel told us

was going to happen happened hey usually within this amount of time frame they start coming out here's what they do they come around the corner then they distract you and they do this and this is when the attack happens and like clockwork

I mean these savages were just coming at us exactly how we were told it was going to come at us and I think that helped us gain even more respect for the army that we worked for because they could have just been like, hey, go get some. But they're like, hey, go get someone and come back so you can continue getting something.

Yeah, no, the turnover that we would get from those guys was phenomenal. And the professionalism that they had, like what you're talking about. Like the Charlie Company commander, Crazy Joe. And he was freaking awesome. And one of the things that he would do,

and this is when I said, oh, this guy's on the next level. He's doing something that I never even thought of. Every time he went on patrol in the Malab, He was recording it. He was video recording it. And then he'd come back and review every street corner, every building, every signpost. He knew everything about it.

He knew that city. He took his job like so seriously. It was phenomenal. I remember the Delta platoon commander had told me that he was doing that or we knew that. And it really emphasized us to, hey, we need to know this area just as well. And it, I mean, it didn't take long. I'm not trying to be cocky or anything, but within a couple weeks,

like, I didn't need my map. Like, I knew that city, you know what I mean? Like, now, I had the map on me to, so if I needed to look at it and be like, oh, I'm at this building and, hey, we're pushing over here so I can scan real quick and go. But, like, I knew exactly where I was at all times because those guys did.

And we needed to know that. You can't have a delay in communication when you're in a firefight, you know, or if guys are down, you know, and there's just, you know, just, hair and over the radio when cowie got shot just like i'll never forget that you know and knowing exactly where they're at and there's a little confusion leaving and i was like no we need to go this way

and legitimately just started running that way you know because you just hear mike opening up and the badgers trying to pull them out you're just your boys are in a firefight and you just don't know what's going to happen and we're trying to get there as fast as we could and it was just like we got, I mean, we legitimately got there as fast as we could. And it was because we knew we had to be prepared, you know? And can you imagine if we didn't know where exactly they were or where we were and you're just sitting there like trying to listen to a map, you know, read a map when you hear your boy over the radio like, hey, I've been shot, been shot.

And you just hear a huge machine gun just going off. And you're just like, but dude, the boys we were with Delta Platoon Commander, deep breath, JP, where we're at? You know, he knew where we're at, but he's like, hey, where do we need to go? you know exactly and you know because he's a he could have gotten us there but he wanted me to get us there because I was a no appointment about other things and he doesn't need to be worried about that because he's working two radios trying to get in cat you know he's got to figure out like hey let's get some tanks in here to mow the city down to get our boy out and get them to the hospital you know

and so the story that jp's talking about right there is like this first significant casualty that we had we had some other guys get fragged a little bit but that was the first one uh cowie yeah yeah How he got shot and about lost his leg. They were able to save it. Now he's a stud. Yeah. Still. Yep.

But, uh, Cheetahs. What is it? Cheetahs or leopards don't lose their spots. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah. He's still a warrior inside and out.

Solid. Yeah. He's a guy I tell the story about where, like, when I went to see him in Charlie Med's, all morphed up. We rolled in there and I, like, went to shake his hand, like a bro handshake. and and like when I grab he reached up he grabbed my hand and he like pulls me down right and he and he's like in my ear and he goes let me stay oh yeah he was I'm like I'm like hey bro you're about to lose your leg I'm like I didn't tell him that yeah but I was like hey bro let's make sure you get healed up and I think you're gonna have to leave to do that and he's like just he's like let me stay he goes I don't care all all clean you know but just let me stay you know but just let me stay And I was like, bro, we're, uh, it's just go get healed up.

If you have to go, go get healed up. We'll bring you back. And of course, he didn't heal up fast enough because it was pretty jacked up. He got an armor piercing round and his leg that entered like down by his knee and exited up by his groin. Yeah. It hit the femur, right? Yeah. Yeah.

He's nasty. He's lucky to have his leg. Absolutely. I mean, he's legitimately lucky. So I've got to get him on the podcast sometime. His whole life is awesome. All right. Well, you know what?

You know what I was thinking? Well, you know what I was thinking? besides the kind of urban sniper operations you were doing and presence patrols, you did a cool op that was a little bit more. Like, Leif and I were talking about how, oh, you know what? It's not like you see in the movies because these sniper overwatch positions. We'd have a bunch of people with us. You know, we have 20, 15, 20, 10, 30 people.

You have a lot of people to be in these buildings and hold security and all that. Whereas in the movies, they always portray like two guys out in the middle of nowhere. And we always go, yeah, no, that's not that realistic. But you guys actually did one off right down. Yeah, we did. Full on. Full on. It was pretty awesome.

Yeah, so up in Northern Sofia, we're getting just hammered by mortars, you know, just constantly. We knew that's where they're coming from. So we get dropped off a little outstation north of, you know, the Malab district. And we just did a patrol. there was a long patrol up there and I remember we're hugging the river trying to stay as close to the river as we can

you know you go from the dry just dead city to this lush vegetation and you're trying to patrol through that and I'm just like oh dude all the guys in Vietnam all those guys like just got after it

like I've always respected them but that just brought a new level of respect like because we have night vision they didn't most of the time, you know. And it is hard for people understand that that area north of Ramadi that was like well irrigated by the river, by the Euphrates River, it looked like Vietnam.

Yeah. It had palm trees. It had like patties and dikes and all that stuff. It looked like Vietnam. Yeah. And Leif was talking about the other day. And he's like, yeah, there was like the bowl pulling a plow type situation. Straight up like Vietnam.

Yeah, it was crazy. So anyways, we go up there and, man, it was. We had dogs that were following us. So I can't say his name. He's still in. But he always, he carried a suppressed MP5 with subsonic rounds. So here's our dog killer. And it was pretty funny.

And so he just, you know, these are bad savage dogs. Don't worry. And so we're getting up. You know, they're, you know, bark and giving away our location. So we, you know, handle them. We keep going. And we get set up. at night and you know we get a O.P. set up and you know we're right on the river like that's right

on the river because we we know if we need the boats to come in support us they can come in we can get a fast extract out of there and um you know so being the badger we you know we have change out into all of our stuff you know like we're carrying gear for like three to four days right like it's almost physically impossible to carry that much water like and all your ammo and all everything else like that. And so we get it done and we change out, getting our gilly suits. And I just remember like thinking like, dude, this is legit. This is it. Like you see like the ambient light like coming in through the trees where we're all like hidden and vegged up. The guys are set their perimeter. We're in our, we're in our gilly suits. And we just boom. And one of the other guys like, dude, is awesome.

You know, you guys were there and we're turning around. He goes, and you guys are gone. Like you just disappeared in the dark and, you know, we went and got set up, you know. Like I said, you know, the badger was, you know, he was a sniper before, you know, so I learned a lot from him. And but at this time, we both had a good amount of experience of actually on the gun and whatnot. And so he was, you know, no ego with him. You know, I mean, he's just so like easy back. He's like, hey, man, this is what we're going to do? What do you think?

I'm like, yeah, let's do it. And then they're saying, I'm like, hey, maybe we should change up that. He's like, all right, yeah, let's do that. And so we end up veging up in this area that, I mean, it was the only, the opportunity. for where we had to be wasn't ideal. You know, we legitimately were on the other side of these bushes out in the open. It was like thick bushes around us so we could veg up and blend in, but we were out there by ourselves.

And we knew that. And we, after we did a recon, we told the guys like, hey, this is the only place we can go. This is legitimately the only place we can go to be able to, you know, get these guys. And so our contingency was if something happened, we are going to have to wait a while before the guys could actually move to a position to provide cover. fire and you know everything else like that and we're like all right cool you know not a big deal you know and so we're like cool we have our pistols and sniper rifles you know what I mean and so we go off we get vegged up we you know help veg each other get ourselves into position rifles are laying like kind

of underneath the drag bags which are vaged up and we had our pistols out just because I mean there's I know people can't see us right now but there's the distance from me to you we had people walking past us and it was just one of those things so three four five meters away is, yeah, five meters. There's people walking by. Yeah, just walking by us. And we're out there, you know,

all throughout the night, the day, you know, it's one of those things we're like, all right, I have to pee. You know, you're not trying to drink too much water because you don't have to use it. But at the same time, you're like, it's hot, so I need to. Luckily, since it is that hot,

you're in a gilly suit, you're sweating most of it out anyways. But, you know, a couple times we had to pee, so you like slightly roll over, dig a hole, relieve yourself, cover back up and lay back on top of it, you know.

It was good, though. You know, we actually got mortared at that position. And we got lucky. You know, we definitely had our angels there because, you know, it messed up our radios temporarily. And everything around us was just kind of tore up, like all the bushes and everything. And we didn't get hit by one thing. And, you know, it was just like, hey, what do we do?

Do we stay here? Do we move to them? Well, our radios were jacked up. So, you know, luckily, you know, they didn't move to us, you know, and start laying down cover fire while we're trying to move back to them. So we just waited a little bit, made sure, like, we weren't trying to get suckered out or, you know, ambushed or anything. And then we just slowly made our way back to the group. We told him what happened. I mean, dude, me and him were pretty jacked up from that.

Like, we were throwing up, like, just a blast and everything else. What are you? 20s, you think? I did, honestly, I have no idea. There was a couple of them. But, like. If they rocked you that hard. than they were big.

We were throwing up the whole patrol back. Oh yeah, they were big. Yeah, I mean, we were both throwing up. Um,

we both were, we both had blood in our, our urine and stool. Yeah. After that and it was just, I mean, yeah, it was,

but you know, whatever. I mean, we got the guys and, you know, we called in, uh, counter stuff and we came back and

everyone was happy because they didn't get mortared. The base didn't get mortared for a while. Because I remember after that, the laundry guys, you know, these guys were there doing the laundry. Like, they were so stoked that we did that and we're like man we're we're stoked we got to do that you know what I mean that's awesome they would come and like come and pick up our laundry for us and we're like dude no we're good like this is awkward like you know what I mean like you know go pick up your boys laundry like we're good but it was it was really cool to be able to do that you know something completely outside of the box that we hadn't been doing the whole time so we're able to go from and it just came from good planning we had like I said we had solid leadership so

We had good plans in place. Yeah. Yeah, and it was the amount of sustained combat operations for the whole task unit was, was, was, damn, it was an incredible op tempo. Yeah. And it was just like op, op, op, op, every day to one unit, two, unit three elements going out for all the time. Yeah. So we start getting towards the end of this deployment. and obviously Mark got killed on August 2nd and and then September 29th Mikey gets killed.

Yeah. And we're, I mean, we're, we're not done operating by any stretch because we did a bunch more operations, but it was definitely winding down at that point. Yeah. We had to start thinking about redeployment. Yeah. And, I mean, we were all packed up. I remember because we weren't out at, I had a Corrigador anymore.

Yeah. We had guys that were, you were one of the guys that had come back from Corregador as we started trying to filter guys back to consolidate. I was so mad I had to come back. You know, I think about every day when I fill this finger, because I, you know, I cut my finger down to the bone. And they actually had to Kazvakni out to go get. get surgery on my finger because they thought I was going to lose it because we tried to work on it

across the street at the aid station which those guys are phenomenal combat medics over there and when they were like dude we need a bird for you you're going to lose your finger um delta platoon commander and the badger were like dude we have yeah absolutely you know so i went back grab some gear and um you know i feel that every day it's just hard um like that was the only op i wasn't on you know and every time we went out, I always said a group prayer for the guys. It didn't matter if it was like, hey, we have to go right now. Delta platoon commander or the badger or someone would be like, hey, we got to get JP real quick. I'd say a group prayer and we'd roll.

And that was the only one that I wasn't a part of. And, you know, Mikey was my Adub gunner. You know, he was always next to me when I was doing my sniper overwatches. And he was next to me when I was rocking point, you know, because you needed a dub gunner. And JP might have gotten a little crazy towards a lot. half of the deployment and started a walking point with the 300 wind mag and mikey was there and i wasn't there you know and i don't know so well the good news is you got to go home with him yes yeah got a escort his body home which was unlike anything else you know you're like cool you know

you get to be a part of that but also the same time you're like this is really shitty to be a part of You know what I mean? I don't know. I was just like, yeah, I wanted to be there and make sure everything went well. And I just remember us flying back and just just staring at the flag over his coffin, you know. And some guys would, you know, lay next to the casket and we'd lean up against it. Yeah, it was just getting to bring him home was important to be a part of that. But, you know, everybody felt so much guilt.

and we all try to keep each other accountable on that you know it's like hey man this is war you know Mikey saved a lot of lives you know and we made an impact over there and so it wasn't like it was for nothing and what he did i mean the guy's lives that he saved they all now have families and kids you know a couple of them had kids mike had the easy out And just like he always did, he never took the easy road. He took the harder road, the road that would actually make a difference. And this time I was alive of those guys around them. And it was just the ride back, I mean, you're just thinking about all that.

And, you know, it was also kind of a blur as well. You know, like I remember, you know, I just like just rubbing the flag, you know. the flag's always been very important to me i remember graduating how we can just sing the the flag fly and then you hear it in the national anthem and just seeing it over one of your boys caskets was just brought a new level of connection and love for that amazing flag that we have and I just sat there and I just would just rub the flag, just rub it, you know, because I had flags that I carried with me on every deployment, every mission. I still do that sometimes.

Like my wife, Amanda, will just, I'll be doing something and I'll find a flag and I'll just, I just kind of rub it. And she's like, she knows, you know, she's like, that's like my little trigger, you know, I'm just, my trigger point on, I'm just, I just started thinking about things again. And, you know, I've taught my kids. Aiden, Cora and Nola to love and respect the flag. Like whenever they see a flag, they're like, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, it's your favorite thing. Daddy is Daddy's favorite thing, you know.

They love getting American flag T-shirts and shorts. They saw some American flag cowboy boots. Of course, my daughters want those now. And I've been honest with my kids, you know. My boy, Aiden, I call my bonus boy. He's my stepson. I love them just like mine. you know, he asked me about the flag and why is it so important to me.

And I've told him, I'm like, you know, it's been draped over a lot of caskets of my buddies that didn't make it home that were killed overseas. And he's such a special kid. And he was just like, that makes sense. And, you know, and he just, he sees a flag. And I explained to him why a flag is at half mass. And he's even said, hey, I'm sorry, that flag's at half mass. Like, he doesn't know why, but he knows something happened.

And he knows what it does to me and guys like you, whatever. The flag's at half mass, something horrible has happened. And he knows that, you know. And so I just remember, you know, I think he went to Bethesda. And then we continued on to San Diego. And just tried to mentally reset for a couple of days. You know, you're back in San Diego. It's awesome.

But it just didn't. Yeah. It had nothing, you know, because you knew you're waiting to receive one of your boys' bodies, you know. So it didn't matter where we were. It didn't matter that we were in San Diego. Like, we didn't want to be in San Diego. We want to be back overseas still, you know. When we went to Habania to put him on the bird and casket was open.

Yeah. And we were just firing by And I remember you were ahead of me We were walking into like a mill van It wasn't like a one-way thing It was a cold mill van It was a cold mill van And

You were ahead of me You know you were one You were literally right ahead of me And you walked in And you know you You know you took your last look at Mike And you put your hand on the casket And you turned around and I was right, you know, we were just looking at each other.

And when I saw your face, the look in your face, I was super worried because I could tell that you were tore up. And I said to myself, hey man, Jocko, you need to get your fucking game together right now and be strong. And you were. And that's what we needed. and guys like the Delta platoon commander super strong for us but you saw them hurt I mean everybody's hurting you know

it was you know that deployment you can't not be close with somebody you know and especially someone like Mikey man like he he knows I like my sleep so he would make sure I didn't get my sleep just because Mikey didn't sleep and we were we you know our rooms right next to each other

you know I was back in this corner he was over in this other corner and there's a sheet of plywood between the two of us and he was always like what's up homes he's like hey homes you sleep in i'm like yeah i'm trying to homes he's like he's like cool and he'd open up the tarp you know the little cammy you know tarp that i had over for my door and just come in and sit on the edge of the bed i'm like what's up buddy he's like nothing just want you know he'd just talk about family stuff and you could tell a lot was on his mind and you know and uh and he's like hey you want to watch the newest episode of thirsty traveler my parents sent me the thirsty traveler i was like no but i'm awake

so i guess we're going to watch the thirsty traveler because there's a couple times where i'd be like hey bro like i'm trying to sleep like just go do your own thing you know what i mean and he had a little hole that he carved into the plywood between our rooms and he would crack kim lights and push them through and they'd fall right next to where i was sleeping and i'm like i'm going to strangle this guy but it was my boy mike you know like he was my boy um you know we were real close in the work up and then obviously deployment you know we should ride street bikes together and anyway so deployment he was just fun it was just i say all that said is he did that with everybody yeah it was hard not to be close to him it was um you know there's a different connection when you're

at when you're legitimately in war with your boys. You know, that's why all the Army and Marine guys that we served with, like, any time I see, I still see some of them once in a while. I randomly ran into one of them up in Ohio. And I was just like, dude. And I just, I was up there on sales trip and I just ditched my sales team guys, you know, because I wanted to hang out with them, you know, I just, and then there's been other trips where I, same thing, another one, my boy, Nick Hobbs, you know, ran into him.

I was with my sales team. And it's like, come on, you know, it's just. That connection is just, it's hard to explain. I mean, you guys know how it is doing jih Tzu and combat sports where you're rolling with guys and you're legitimately, you're helping guys cut weight and just all this stuff. Like there's that bond in that connection. Take that times it by a thousand and then add some more and that's the connection you get with these boys in combat. So it was just real hard. I mean, and part of it is that's just who I am.

Like I wear my heart on my sleeve. I just connect and attach to people very closely. And, you know, Mikey is just, it was, it was really hard. And that's the look that I saw on your face. That's the look that I saw on your face. I was like, and I know, I mean, obviously, I know what kind of personality you have. I knew what kind of personality you have. And I saw that look of devastation.

And it was the first time, because we'd been together. I mean, we were, we heard the news. We, you know, but it was the first time that I saw your look where it was almost like that was the first time that you really realized that Mikey was gone. That was it. Yeah. Maybe I'm right or wrong. But from the look in your face, I was like, okay,

he is devastated right now. And that's what I thought to myself. And again, I mean, I don't, I saw you as my little brother, mean for sure. I don't mean that in any kind of derogatory way in any sense, but I literally saw you as like my blood little brother. Yeah. And so to see you just devastated like that.

And I knew that. You were looking at me like, okay, what's Jocko gonna do? And I knew that I knew what I had to do was I had to show like, listen, this is what we do. This is who we are. Get your shit together, Jocko, and handle this. And not saying I didn't, you know, not saying I was a robot, but I knew that I had to maintain strength. You have to. And find that so that you guys could go, all right, we're going to be okay.

what have we what's been pounded into our mind since buds win the fight like if you're in a fight win the fight win the firefight right and right then that our fight was you had to keep the guys together you know that's why it's all is self-aid buddy aid right you get shot you get hurt you take care of yourselves because if you're in a firefight your boys are going to win the firefight first before they can take care of you that's just part of it that's how we operate and You had to do that. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, you're in that highest leadership position. Like, yeah, it just. And the same thing. Like, I had to get myself together, you know, just because other guys in the platoon, like I thought or at least I felt like they looked up to me as well.

And, you know, especially after deployment, you know, I just, you had to keep your stuff together, you know. And it was just a weird, weird, you know, I don't know, it was first time I ever experienced that, you know, at that level. So. And then. You know, obviously, Mikey's funeral, which you were at, I obviously wasn't there because, like you said, we were still, you know, most of us were still in Iraq. Yeah. And had to, had to finish out the deployment and do the turnover with the guys that were coming in from Team 5. And, you know, that was another thing was just, you know, I mean, I talk about all the time, like, and even when we were talking prior to, prior to recording today, you know, I was like, hey, this is, this is kind of blurry to me.

Like, I was asking you who went home with you. And I was like, okay, you know, these guys are gone. Okay, here's what I got to do. I got to focus on the next thing. I, like, couldn't get dragged down or think about that anymore because I had to, like you said, I had to do my work. I had to do my job. And, you know, I think that's the good thing is for guys that were able to go to the funeral

and everything, it's like you get to, you get to get that, like, bit of closure. Yeah. A lot of, you know, the guys that were still over there, we were just, we didn't get that. You know, until we got home. Yeah. We got home and, you know, get to go see Mikey's grave and, and meet with his family and get to know his family and get to be together again as a troop. And so all those things are kind of how you go from that anguish. Yeah.

Or I should say, for me, the buried anguish of, you know, that you have to bury on deployment. When you get home, you go, okay, now we can get this stuff out and discuss it and at least maybe not discuss it. I don't need to say anything to you, JP. I don't need to talk to you about it. You know, I know, but we can settle it, you know. And I think when guys don't do that, when guys don't think about it, when they keep it buried all the time,

that's when it can be really problematic. You know, you got to face the fact and you got to be okay with it eventually that, hey, this is what happened. Yeah. And, you know, when we talk about like, who's I guess you could say you know who's to blame and I told this to multiple people matter fact I told everybody you want to blame somebody you blame the fucking moosh yeah they're the

ones that did this absolutely yeah that's what happened yeah and what we're going to do is continue to kill more of them continue to go kill more of them yeah so that deployment obviously was a was it was a was a game changer for us yeah for a huge impinges on our lives and, you know, everything really that we're doing to this day. And you got home, I moved over to, you know, take over the training command there. You started another workup, but you got hurt. Yeah. So, you know, I was just, the desert, I smoked, you know, just, you know, coming home

from that deployment, you know, initially just still kind of messed up. Well, not still kind of. I was messed up with the whole Mikey thing. I remember I went and told Yarbril, I was like, hey, I just want to be. go paycom like just let me reset he's like okay and then he he knows and he knows me he's like all right cool yeah roger that knowing that's not what he's going to do and uh i'm driving back up to sacramento on leave he's like hey um i know you said you want to go to paycom but yeah we need to get after it again so you're going to go to iraq again or possibly afghanistan i was like yeah roger that yeah

i don't even know why i said that you know like it was just it was one of the things where you're just like I you know go to paycom go to Thailand are you going to stay in Delta platoon No they switched it all up so I remember that but there Yeah yeah yeah so yeah I was gonna be Offer a Bravo platoon It's so after our deployment with TU Bruiser

They took it instead of keeping it together Because there was all this experience and these two platoons Instead of keeping it together they just split everybody apart In a different platoon so other other platoons would have these guys in their platoons with a ton of combat experience guys are pissed yeah everyone was pissed like super pissed but yeah so we start work up and um rip my shoulder out a joint my right one and it was a bad one not like i'd done that multiple times before like i mean we're out at nilean the you know doing our desert warfare getting it on and my shoulder came out and i just relocate the shoulder and

you know suck it off a little bit and keep going and this was a bad one so ended up having when you have surgery, like, all right, cool, you know, you have surgery, you'll miss a little bit of workup, but, you know, we'll catch it up and we'll get going. And when I had surgery, they punctured my break on the nerve or did some damage to it. So I would actually drop stuff. And you can't be in an active duty platoon when you're dropping stuff, you know, randomly. Because I was at rehab and I just couldn't grab onto stuff or I would just drop stuff. So then they pulled me.

And I went to Buds for a little bit. bit as an in-doc instructor and a good time over there learned a lot about you know just professionalism and you know things change and evolve and you know so went over to trade it with you guys and you and uh z you guys pulled me over there and it was awesome you know stepped into uh assaults and where we're doing all the cc and urban warfare training and and Trade it was awesome. You know, I'm working for you again, which is I'm like, yes, we're getting after it. As it should be.

Yes, absolutely. And I learned a lot at Trade It about good leadership and bad leadership. You know, there's some guys that trade it that hadn't really done anything. And Jocko was pushing those guys out of there. Not in a bad way, but just like, hey, man, like, you're not going to be, you know, the war has really been going on for a while. training, you know, combat is getting intense. Training needs to be intense. And it needs to come from guys that actually have experience or are willing to listen

to the guys that have the experience and apply that, you know. And so it really shaped and changed the platform of training for all the West Coast SEAL teams. And so I was super proud to be a part of that. And I learned a lot about leadership and growth. You know, I learned good bosses and bad bosses and actually ended up becoming the LPO for for them out, or I guess it's now called South. You know, so I ran all the urban warfare training for a year. And that was awesome.

I got to learn actually how to work with guys and actually manage guys, you know, effectively, like, and which it's funny, you know, you get on the outside and you're like, man, what you do on the outside is no big deal, you know, compared to the teams where you're, like, in charge of like 100 plus role players and 17 instructors and logistics for travel and hotel and make sure all the training is set up and managing the guys that need to be talking with the other units that we're talking to and at this time i'm still only 24 you know maybe 25 i don't even think i was 25 oh no i was 25 you know and maybe and uh so i just learned a lot about that and uh that was pretty cool and then uh i spent a lot of time at cc which every good team guy loves of course

urban warfare land warfare and cc you know and um you know had some really good bosses over the there as well. My boy, Chuckie, he's still in, so I'll respect his name as well. We actually lived together, and I worked for him. And that was a huge lesson of, you know, which we all have in the teams is balancing personal and professional. Because the teams are very tight. You know, you could go out and drink it with your bosses, hang out with them, and then at work the next day. But different when you're living with somebody. And, man, I was late for work. One day we're on the road. And I was like, okay, man, I'm running a little late. He's like, he better not be late, you know?

Something along those lines. So I get there, I'm like a minute late, right? Dude. I ended up on, like, restriction. Not like really full-on restriction, like military things about it, but it was like, he was like, yeah, you've got to do this. Basically, I was a little go-to guy where I got to do all the work, you know. And it was good, though, you know, he is, I expected that of him.

Like I knew, like I made a mistake. I got to pay the man. And he, you know, I put him in a hard position, you know, which was unfair to him. And, you know, you can't be doing that to your boys, you know, like, you can't take advantage. I was like, oh, my buddy's my boss so I can do this. No, my buddy's my boss. I'm going to work even harder for him. And, you know, and that's what, you know, I was, again, a little upset with myself.

And, you know, there's a couple times, like, he'd have to sit me down and we'd just talk. He's like, hey, man, you know, you can't be doing the stuff. You need to be focused on this. And he really helped with my professional development, you know, really helped and helped me learn a lot of stuff that I was able to apply to the outside and be successful. And, you know, he's still a great friend of mine. He's got a beautiful family. And it's just, it's just, it's awesome seeing him grow over the years. Yeah, he's still kicking ass in the team.

Dude, he's a legit boss. Like the type of guy, you're like, I really want to work for him, you know. And so I just took a lot of the stuff that I learned from him and I've applied it to the out. outside and it's been awesome and you I mean you ended up on the outside because you made a decision to to get out yeah and I'm a quitter yeah the joke is in the seal teams if you know no matter what you've done or how long you've been in for if you ever get out of the seal teams you're a quitter so that's what they tell you so you decide to get out a bit pretty much based on your family right yeah I got out you

I'd already had a failed marriage. You know, I have a son that's here in California that I'll ever get to see. And, you know, I met Amanda and just, I mean, she's the love of my life. She's amazing. She deals with me and deals with me very well. I give her big props for that. Absolutely. Nice work, Amanda.

Yeah, she's, you know, you watch the movie 300, you know, the queen. Yeah. That's her. Right. A hundred percent, you know. and you know she was going to move to san diego with with aiden and i was super fired up about that and then uh she was pregnant i'm like okay cool still still happening and then pregnant with twins she's like ert nope i'm not leaving mom in my support group i remember i was so mad and it caused a

lot of issues because i held on to that anger longer than i should have you know and um i was just so angry and upset but now that i look at it you know she's a small small town Mississippi girl. Yeah. I mean, she's gorgeous, you know, she's awesome,

but she's a small town girl. And, you know, sometimes we're back home. She'll be driving. She's like, hey, you can drive.

You know, because she doesn't want to drive in the traffic on, you know, the road, the main roads. And I think about that, I'm like,

that's like, no traffic here in San Diego. So it wouldn't have been fair. And then all of a sudden, it's like for me to expect her to move to San Diego with Aiden. And,

A, you know, I'm taking him away from his dad, so that wasn't really fair, and I could relate to that. And, you know, her parents are awesome. So then all of a sudden, and her friends, you know, she's a good support group. And it's like, you know, I was just like, man.

And a couple of things didn't work out when I had screened. You know, I had another surgery when I was out. And I just took it as, hey, you know, this is maybe the time I need to move on. It's a good chapter in my life, an amazing chapter that I'll never forget. And it's very important. It's who helped mold me as a man. but I absolutely was not going to I was not not going to be there for Amanda and the kids you know and so I got out and there's a lot of guys that are upset about that in the teams you know and

talking about me yeah you and a couple other guys yeah a couple other guys are still active you know but so I got out and it was a rough transition you go from I'm born and raised in Sacramento California and lived in San Diego my whole life or I'm sorry I lived in San Diego the whole time in the Navy and then I'm in North Mississippi. Yeah awesome just I just man you talk about culture shock it's cool to go visit you know I used to always love when we go out there for work but you're leaving up to two weeks and now all of a sudden I'm living there and it was just nothing bad with the South or where I live it just for me It was a huge change.

And I go from being a seal to now I'm doing sales at a financial job, a financial company, which, of course, I get after it because I have to provide for your family, but just the transition. And I made the mistake of not reaching out to people and asking and help it. You know what I mean? Like one of my boys who's still in, Lowe's, you know, go by his little nickname. I did reach out to him a couple of times. And he was real solid. He would reach out to me.

He'd be like, hey man, how you doing? How was JP really doing? You know? And I'd talk to him about stuff. He's like, man, that's not good, bro. Like, we need to, you know, whatever. And there's times where he's like, all right, well, you know, you just know what you need to do. And, you know, Chuckie, same thing.

Chuckie would reach out to me as well. And he'd come out there for training and he'd come over and hang out with the family and the kids. You know, he's my boy, you know. And so I found a gym and a new MMA gym was opened up, like right around the corner from the house. And I was like, oh, boom. Yes, you know what I mean And came really close With a couple of guys

Jake and Zach Underwood They're actually from Union City Same city, Aaron Vaughn was born and raised in So they already knew about him And I didn't tell him what I did You know, they had no idea what I did And I was like yeah They're like Union City

I was like oh cool I know Aaron Vaugh And they're like How do you know Aaron Vaugh? I'm like oh we used to work together Like well what do you mean you used to work with them You know and I told him like what oh cool and uh you know a couple other fighters from the gym joe pass andy and teddy like just bump boys you know like out there they became like they became my team guy buddies out there

like they're cut from the same cloth as us you know and just down to earth guys that legitimately always they have my back out there and they it was weird because i never really explained much to them about my time in the teams but they knew i was having a hard time transitioning and they were just there for me you know they're just there at the gym they'd push me to my limits You know, they're like, hey, you're going to start fighting. I'm like, awesome. You know, and so, you know, I have seven amateur MMA fights and just a challenge of cutting weight

and just training with the boys and sparring. And, you know, I do it as a stress reliever, which is funny, you know, because, like, you watch some of my YouTube videos, and the announcers was like, yeah, and Jeremiah Patrick says he trains as a stress reliever, that's unique. Like, they don't know how to, like,

you know, they don't have to react to it because everyone else is like, I'm going to be the next USC champion and I had a horrible life and I hate my parents and I'm just you know I'm like yeah I have an awesome life I make really good money and um I just want to have a little stress reliever you know it's funny you know like I wasn't fighting to turn pro because I need to make money I was just like there's my stress reliever and it was being around guys that were like-minded again it's fighting yes there's fighting is fun and sometimes you can't get a machine gun to fight with it's fun to fight with your fists

Yeah. And it's fun. I mean, it's in your, it's in your, it's part of your instinct as a human. Yeah. Oh,

it should be. Well, yeah, man. Yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess for some people,

it's not. But for the people that I know, it's part of their instinct as a human. Yeah. You should be able to defend yourself. You want to be able to fight, you know? You should.

You watch little kids, little six year old, seven year old kids. Get after it. You bring any random six year old or seven year old boy into a jujitsu place and put them on a room with with padded walls. and padded floor and you say do whatever you want they're gonna end up attacking each other

that's the way it works that was my daughters like I got him in Jiu Jitsu two weeks before they turn three it was most of the owners of gym and Joel he's a former team one guy he's a part owner of the gym he's a five-time world champion

and I believe his Ghee four-time world champion no Ghee I don't think he's had one point scored on him in the last five years dude yeah that's savage just bringing the team guy reputation into Jiu-Jitsu world you know that's true poor just just tell is it Joel gingery I don't know team walk he's so solid how old he's he's 50

something how the hell do I not know him he must have been the teams are the same I mean I was at team one for like eight years maybe it's when you went to the east coast huh I don't know anyway super solid guy I remember you when you started when you started fighting yeah and you were like I'm getting you like I'm gonna fight you know because you sent me text too yeah oh yeah you sent me a text like hey I'm gonna I'm I'm starting to train and then like a month later you're like dude I'm I'm getting into it and then a month later you're like bro I can't believe I didn't train with you all the time because I was a but like I'll train with anybody anytime and you would train with me like once a month when you could have been training with me seven days a week I was furious I was I was laughing inside and I was also pissed and I was like I tell people that I'm like yeah so I basically could have been doing jihitsu since 2005 yeah I was I was I was laughing inside I was just I was just I was just Yeah. And people like, what? I'm like, yeah, I could have, but, you know, I just, I guess I never really got like the taste like I like to stand. I don't know. I'm an idiot. That's why I did. Yeah. I'm just an idiot. And then you called yourself, you called yourself an idiot when you were talking about your youth before. And I realized that when I bring team guys on here when they talk about like their past, the term idiot comes up all the time. I know I do it. I'm like, I was an idiot. Yeah. And Tony's like, I was an idiot. It's just like, classic. you know you know I mean like and then when I tell people like yeah you know since 2005 with jocco I could have been rolling and training all the time and then when you opened your gym you know guys

like echo and his brother and Dean Lister and you know no I was there but I was always doing the stand-up stuff oh and I was doing jiu-jitsu just to do jihitsu I didn't do anything of the MMA stuff you know now I look back and I just legitimately get upset about it sometimes I'll tell people like yeah I could and they're like you're an idiot you know what I'm like They're like Jocko, Dean Lister, and, you know, like, it's just whatever. I mean, hey, everything happens for a reason. I mean, I've done pretty well so far. I'm six and one.

And, you know, the guys out there are solid, you know, solid coaches. Yeah, you felt good last night. Yeah. Because we trained last night. Yeah, I hadn't done anything in like 16 months. Yeah. You know, I had that injury. And I went into my last fight.

You know, my coaches were like, do I'm pulling you. And Joel, dude, he's such a legit badass, just tough. Like, people are terrified of them. But he has the other side. that people don't realize team guys have where he's like, hey, I'm pulling you from this fight. Like, I can't let you get hurt. You know, like the nurturing, like, you've got to take care

of your boys. Because I went into it with a facial fracture from here down to here. All these teeth are still numb from it. I had deviated septum, crushed sinuses, and a herniated disc in my neck. What'd you do, get in a fight with a bear? Yeah, sparring Teddy Holder, you know,

who knocked out Tiago Silva. Yeah, that's one of my boys. And Andy Uruk, Bellator fighter, I mean, Zach, all these guys. I mean, just they get after it, you know. And, you know, I hope they get after a little bit less in your sparring sessions from now on. Yeah, we learned that. Well, and also it was pretty.

That's old school, man. I'm telling you right now. That is old school. You don't need to spar like that. No, we know that. And you know, and the guys have changed it up. Guys are legitimately changed up because guys were getting knocked out in fights. And anyway, we could talk.

That could be a whole other podcast, but they get really changed it up. And so, but I, you know, when I got. got the call for that fight, I had fought not too close before that with this guy, a tough, tough guy. You know, ours was like a grudge match. You know, everyone thought we hated each other and, you know, we just, do we sold so many tickets. It was insane.

Like we each sold over 110 tickets. So you're like that, you're like the Connor McGregor of amateur fighting. It's the Conor McGregor of the mid-south. Where the mid-south thinks it's like the next big thing. And that's like, you know, and so, um, so anyways. me and that guy uh danny shell good guy you know he's awesome uh dude he really is a really good guy you know i mean but we just we'd get after it on social media just a you know just because we're bored i guess in that uh but it came down you know we had a tough fight you know what i mean and um yeah

i mean it was it was awesome like you watch it we're just what weight do you fight at i've fought anywhere between 170 to 205 my first fight what are you walking around that right now uh 2 15 Nice. Not nice. Not a good $2.50. I tried to be gentle over here. No, that's fine. You don't have to.

You fast bastard. Yeah, exactly. You used to walk around, like, in the, in the, in Teeter Bruiser, you were like 185. No. Like, that was my heaviest. Like, I couldn't break 185. Like, I was trying to, like, do, like, all the bodybuilding list.

Like, get as big as I could. I could never break 185. And then my dad's like, dude, wait until you get your 30s. Like, whatever. He's like, oh, okay. Because you're. body has legitimately done everything. Mine has at every age increment. And then, yeah, you get big. But my first fight fought at 205, but I only weighed 190 because I was going to fight at 185 for my first fight.

But that's why I normally don't go by Jeremiah Addenal on, like, social media because guys started Googling Jeremiah Adanel. You know, I testified against Jesse Ventura with the whole Chris Kyle thing and whatnot. So you Google Jeremiah DeNell. There's a bunch of Navy SEAL stuff out there. And so that's why I changed my face. Facebook page is Jeremiah Patrick, just because, you know, fighters would look that up. I had, like, my coaches were like, they didn't want to tell me. And I knew there was something weird with Jake and Zach and my dad. Like, I knew there was something going on.

My fighter backed out. Oh. And then they were trying to find, like, another fighter. And then he backed out. I think it was like two or three guys. I had sold on my first fight over 100 tickets also. Like, I had people flying in from California, driving out, like, like, drive for East Coast, West Coast. Washington, you know, my aunt and uncle were flying out.

It's like first amateur fight. This is ridiculous, right? Should have just traveled somewhere where this better be a good show. Exactly. I flew out for Washington, so. Yeah, exactly. You know, and I remember telling my buddy Jake, I'm like, dude, I don't care if it's a heavyweight. Get me a fight.

Like, I can't not fight. You know what I'm in? Like, all right, we'll find him. So I found some good. He had a good amount of fights already. And like he cut down to 205 and I weighed in with. It's flip-flops, my cut off cammy shorts, all my stuff in my pockets at 191. And that was awesome.

It was good. Good little first fight. Got myself way too amped up for it. You know, I should have gone in. That one's on video, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I sent it to me. Yeah, I was looking at him in the second round. I was looking at that fight and I'm like, yes, this is the JP that's extremely amped right now. Yeah. You know, I finished him in the second fight, second round. TKO and the second fight finished that guy in the first round third fight Which was hilarious had me as the main event on this card for the third fight

That's what you get when you're selling a hundred tickets I know yeah yeah we're with you the main event Yeah that's yeah not good for adding just unneeded stress you know you have you know what you know what no kidding like in watching your your fights and everything You do have the I mean you have this anyways but you you have like a level of charisma that makes people want to watch you fight because you're just fired up and you have a good level of charisma it's like you know you're like I compared you to Connor McGregor jokingly

but it's a reality if you watch some of your fights it's like yeah I could see in the mid-south people going I want to go watch Jeremiah to know get after it punch him in the fights yeah like dude you should come watch

some fights in the South it's hilarious some tickets man I think I can get you a ticket bro but you know so the fights have been awesome My fourth fight I lost. I actually went into that fight. I was in the hospital or not the doctors.

In and out of the doctors almost hospital like the week prior. I was cutting down to 170 again also with hand foot mouth disease. Is that your method of cutting weight? Get yourself hand foot mouth disease. Dude, I would not recommend it at all. I had to take this medicine to numb my mouth and throat just to drink water. So it did help with cutting weight except for it was horrible. Amanda was legitimately

taking care of me like everything And she's helps She preps all my meals You know I come home from the gym And she you know You get out I mean are you You think you're gonna fight again

Yes Check you know Got to heal up but yeah It's been good You know I mean you and you also had a rough Rough rough A little rough patch with Amanda right

Yeah Yeah we did You know I get a little emotional Think about that sometimes is just, you know, we're so lucky what we have. We got a second chance, you know. We actually fallen had a divorce, moved out.

Dang. Had my own house. You know, she was doing her own thing. I was doing my own thing. And, you know, I just came down to lack of communication, which when I really look at it and we both look at it and we were both just being selfish, which, like, I try to think that's not me. And with Amanda, like, that's not her.

You talk about somebody who's not selfish. That's her, like, to an extent, but we just, I don't know. Yeah, well, it's bizarre too. And because you are, I mean, in the teams, you were obviously extremely selfless. And, but I see how these things happen. For whatever reason, with your team guy bros, it's like, I'll do anything for you. And I've had situations with you where I've been like, hey, I need this. this right now and you've been like I'll be there in three minutes and 30 seconds and I'm like okay

cool you know and and but for some reason guys don't always guys and girls both don't always do the best job of translating that selflessness into that relationship at home so it happens but I'm glad that you guys were able to kind of yeah I mean through that man yeah like I said you know it's about a year you know we're doing a own thing and um you know we just kept getting drawn back to each other and there's a kids and you know everyone says oh my kids are so smart dude our daughters and aden are incredibly intelligent like you know my daughters will be five in january so this time frame you know they're they're three you know and they know what's going on you know and they're trying to be like hey you know you know my daughter nola's like well you know daddy if you

a mommy didn't argue so much maybe we could all live together and to hear that from your kids you know I was just like it was rough it was really hard and you do anything for your kids you know so what do you think is the key element that made you go you know what jackass idiot you need to get in the game here and make this work like what and in what method did you use where you said okay next time that she does this I'm going to counter instead of attacking or instead of getting defensive I'm just going to be like all right so what made me get back in the game is I still loved her like I was just just I'm still you know head over heels in love with her and head over and heal in love with my

kids and I didn't want somebody else raising my kids and Aiden you know like I would still pick him up and take him to school you know even though you know okay so there's a pretty clear answer then what did you have to change to make it work when you went back when you when you said hey all right I'm gonna in your own mind what did you do differently that's made it successful we put each other first boom and we learned to communicate you know and I was sitting in Amanda you know I don't know we both just had like this come to Jesus with somebody like I can't remember who I was talking to I don't know who she was talking to and you know she's crafty she's smart she knows how to deal with me you're right so she calls and she knows it's my weekend it's all obviously she's calling me to talk to kids and

she's like hey can I talk to girls I'm like yeah absolutely so I put on a speakerphone she's like hey girls I love you. Hey, girls, do you want daddy to pick me up for a church so we can all go together? Dude, I was so pissed. And the chorus, the girl's like, yeah. And she was like, I was like, cool. Hey, outside in five minutes, or I'm driving. Still going to keep driving, you know. She's waiting outside in this dress.

Looks stunning. Just, I was like, all right. And that was at the beginning, you know, and then we just learned to communicate with each other and we put each other first. And, you know. Cover and move. Exactly. Maybe a lot of cover and move.

There's a lot of cover and move. And we legitimately have to put each other first instead of, you know, just doing it as a team. I'm like my focus. And I don't do this all the time. I'm not trying to act like we have this perfect relationship and everything's phenomenal now. But we legitimately try to put each other first and almost everything that we do to try to take care of each other. And out of all the arguments that we've ever had or anybody else has ever had with their significant other, it was because it was too complicated. Something was complicated and messed up

And so we just had to simplify things Let's just go ahead to You know law combat number two Exactly we got one covered Yeah cover move keep things simple Cover move keep things simple Yeah and I know what you're talking about You know what that is

That's when you when you take a look at this argument That you're in and you go wait a second What are we arguing about right now? Oh we're arguing because I put my spaghetti In the microwave before you did You know what? I'm sorry Yeah I'll let you have the spaghetti first.

Let's simplify it. Because that little thing of who's using the microwave first, all of a sudden spirals into, you know, a major blowout if you're not careful. It's over something stupid. That's what I'm saying. But I mean, she's an alpha female. I'm an alpha male. So of course we're just like at times we just want to challenge each other.

But then we're like, no, this is stupid. Yeah. You know. Hey, I got an idea instead of challenging each other. Why don't we work together and take over the world? I know. That's our plan right now. And we're doing it.

And then, you know, I mean, and then just legitimately figuring out what it was priorities in our life. Like we just had to be, so we could be on the same page. Echo. Prioritize, execute. Exactly. Boo. Yeah. Look at that.

And I was, I've talked to a couple of people different people about this, you know. You know what? You know, it's awesome that you're saying this because I've heard a bunch of times from people that been like, oh, extreme ownership saved our marriage. But I've never, I've always said, cool, thanks. But I've never said like explain that to me. Yeah. But now you're explaining to me. And it absolutely does.

I mean, I always thought they focused on the ownership part, meaning, oh, don't worry, hey, I'm going to take ownership of this. I'm going to, I made a mistake. Here's what I'm due to fix it. I'm sorry. It's my fault. Yeah. I always thought that that's just what they were talking about.

But you're going ahead and applying other laws of combat to your marriage and making things happen. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and you know, Amanda's the one that, you know, just recognize a lot of these short that we're having and would just communicate it with me and should be like, hey, if you're upset with me over something, I probably didn't mean to do that on purpose. So just let me know. That's a good point. And so, yeah. That's simple. Yeah. I know. And so as far as us prioritizing

things like we just, you know, and we still, we need to get like an actual full on detailed, detailed game plan for what we're doing. But we realized what was important and what wasn't important. And some of these certain things, like the things that truly weren't important. I don't think twice about it, and she doesn't either. And we just focus on our goals for her business, my business, raising our kids the right way, trying to be involved in the church as much as possible, trying to give back to others. Like, those are our priorities, not the stupid, like, well, you said you're coming home at 10, but you stayed out drinking wine with your girlfriend until 11.

Who cares? She came home to me. She was relaxing with her girlfriends since I've been gone for three weeks for work. she should have stayed out all night and just relaxed you know what I mean like hey have a sleepover at your friend's house so you don't have to wake up to the kids three times during the night that's what I should have done you know and she's done the same with me you know like there's a couple times where I'm just like super stressed out or whatever and she's like hey you know what do we need to do like what do she's like you what do you know what you need to go work out I'm like yeah but we need to go do this

right now and she's like no what we need to do is you need to go work out and I can handle this That's awesome. And it's just been awesome. You know, night and day, like, I think about it, like, dude, she's such a hard worker, you know, and she runs everything. And then she'll make sure I have a cup of coffee, like, on the nightstand, like, next to me in the morning. So where I wake up, you know, and it's just like, you woke up early to go do that.

So now, like, I'll try to, like, do stuff for her or whatever. It's just, it's awesome. One-upsmanship. Yeah. Of kind acts. I don't know. I hope my wife doesn't start that game with me. I'll lose.

It's hard, though, with her because she is, she's so thoughtful and crafty. Like, all of a sudden, like, you know, I don't know, she's, it's awesome. So life has been good, you know, it's really turned around. I mean, there's a real dark time. I'm not going to allow it. Like, there was, the divorce was rough, you know, and there's some other times before that that was real rough. You know, I was drinking a lot, taking painkillers just because I had injuries. Yeah.

But I was like, oh, well, I have an injury, so I can take his painkiller. Oh, I can take two to three. and drink at the same time. I was just trying to numb a lot of stuff that was going on, which is not the path to go. It's not the path to go. At all. And we know that. And, you know, one of the things I'm,

I mean, there's so many things I'm pretty sure that Amanda helped me through, but I remember when I went to the VA, because I was having a real hard time sleeping and just my body's all out of whack. Turns out I had, like, my body wasn't producing testosterone anymore. I didn't know that, right? So I didn't know that, but so I go the VA. I come home with like a bag of,

like no kidding like eight different meds that they wanted me to start taking i was like okay so i take it first day i'm like oh my like she had like get me out of bed for me to go to work because i was like a zombie and it started and then like the second day and then that stuff started becoming really addicting like i wanted that like numb feeling and she was just like you're not the same person like quick like she recognized it and uh we got off like i I was able to, and I wasn't even on that stuff for like a full week. And it was so hard for me not to take it. Like she had to straight up like help me detox.

Like, I'm not saying detox in a bad way, like somebody who's like, but it was bad, you know, and she identified that right away. That's the thing. And it was just like, oh, I know. And it was just like, nope, like we're flushing this. Like this is gone. Like we'll figure something else out. And she's always been the one to, you know, figure something else out and make, make sure we, you know, work as a team on it. So it's been awesome, man.

She's amazing. is awesome and where does this where does all this leave you right now what do you got going on right now so um started my own company called never settle consulting you know i did sales a financial company for a while a lot of good relationships my sales team was awesome but i wanted to do my own thing um i wanted a little more fulfillment it was taking time away from me being able to do what i wanted to do to be able to grow and you know and spend more time with my family um because i had a second chance you know i had a second chance with Amanda and with my kids and I wanted to do something that fulfilled me that would help us grow. You know, so I started never-settled consulting, teaching tactics, combatives, and shooting to

law enforcement, trying to work out some stuff with some smaller military units and groups and for private civilian groups as well and able to incorporate leadership and sales team-building events into that, you know, just doing what I love, like what I'm decently good at, you know, as well. And so I've had a couple buddies who said, hey, I need a second instructor for this. You know, so I helped teach a long range shooting course for NRA outdoors and then taught a

carbine course for them as well. So it's been good, you know, it ties up and downs. You know, I've worked with a couple of clients that I thought was going to be a long-term thing and it didn't, but hey, it's business. You're out on your own. You learn your lessons and you just keep moving forward and

you know, a lot of people are like, why never settle? Like, they're like, I get it. It's awesome. And I was like, well, I just miss being in the SEAL teams. I miss being around guys that, for the most part, legitimately did not settle with average or, you know, a mediocre lifestyle. Like, you just didn't happen. You know, you're always constantly driving and pushing each other to be better, to be stronger, to be faster, to be smarter, you know.

I remember multiple times, like, you would come in and be like, hey, have you ever heard of this website? I'm like, no, you're like, you need to start reading it every morning. I'm like, okay. So I go in and I'd print off. the articles and I'd read them and highlight them and jockey later on he's like hey did you hear about this I'm like yeah actually boom yeah and so you know I just miss being around that you know and that's not in the for the most part you don't find that in civilian life outside you know in business you don't and I really wanted to be able to have an impact like I want to work with veterans that have issues

that are going through problems I want to give back to law enforcement you know because they have a hard job, man. And they're underfunded. They're under trained. And I just, I wanted to give back. You know, and I enjoy that. I like doing that stuff. And it gives me freedom to be able to choose, you know, to help out with different

projects and help people. And, you know, a man has been super supportive. And, you know, the other logo of never settle is win the fight. No matter what, you just win the fight. And it's not a physical thing. It's life is a fight. We all go through our fights. We just have to establish what we,

we want, like you talk about, the commander's intent. Like, if you don't have your own commander's intent for you and your family, you're screwed. You're going to wander around and you're just going to waste your life away. And so I just, you know, and then underneath, it's in Latin, you know, sign met to which means without fear. You know, fear is the opposite of faith. Like you read about Mikey, you know, you know, fear is no match for my faith. And I believe that. And I want others to believe that. And I don't think a lot of people out there, believe that and if we can paint that message and I would love you know for my company to be it more of like a lifestyle you know and dude some dude went and got my logo tattooed on his calf because he's like

I wanted to be a reminder and he'd be incorporated his kids names into the tattoo he's like dude's a daily reminder for me not to settle for average and just get after it and I'm like all right I'm doing something right hopefully you know and so Amanda is super supportive of it you know and she's just doing everything to help me out with it and you know she has her business and she still takes the time to help me grow mine. So it's awesome, man, just helping people figure out what they want in life. Like, because I don't think a lot of people will take the time to establish that. And, you know, I think if we can help that and if we can help veterans and if we can

help the youth figure out what they want out of life and where they need to go, that I think, you know, we can actually make an impact in this nation. And that's important right now. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. And I guess that kind of brings us up to speed for this or up to present day with with where J.P's at right now been a pretty good chunk of time Um, that's probably about good for tonight. And obviously, thanks for coming on the podcast. I mean, one of the, one of the best things for me about this podcast is that there's heroes like you that people don't know about. And there's heroes from the past that people don't know about and being able to bring heroes like yourself and Heroes from the past to the present time and let people know and introduce that

There's warriors in the past you need to know about and there's warriors walking with us today that you need to know about And that's one of my favorite things about the podcast is having the opportunity to do that And if if you like listening to this podcast well guess what? I believe Echo Charles can tell you how to support the podcast. I have a question. Oh, man. Here we go. Hot seat.

Why are I going to flank me like that? I remember the day I met you a long time ago before I actually knew you real good. You know me real good now? Is that the deal? Oh, oh, dang. But like you always, and actually listening to you now, like you kind of realize, like you live in the moment a lot. Yeah. Yes.

Like I remember we were sitting at the when we had sushi that night. Yeah. The first night at May, like, when was that? Like, oh, seven or something. 2007. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember you, and you had another guy with you.

I forget. Yeah, my buddy, um, cart. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember, um, we're all talking, but, you know, everyone's talking. And I hear you kind of on the side of you're like, like, this is good, man, you know, you know, you're doing sushi with good people, you know, we're doing so, you know, kind of like you're totally, it's like you're explaining to him, but you're explaining to yourself. What am I experiencing right now?

And how good is this? How cool is this? Almost like you had this stuff coming up, but you're living in that moment. Just like with the stories with them. Like you mentioned like the angie saw the ambient light coming down. This is awesome. This is awesome. Yeah.

Why is that do you think? Or I mean, is there a specific reason do you think? Because a lot of people not like that. You know how like they'll be like, oh, we're about to do this. I'm excited or that thing happened and that's whack or whatever. And they don't really, you know what I mean? I've always been like that. You know, my parents taught us just to enjoy what you have, you know.

It doesn't have to be material stuff. Just enjoy the life that you have. And I've also always realized that people have it a lot worse. And then after two deployments, you know, because I met you after my second deployment, like, I'd seen the worst. I'd seen evil firsthand. I'd seen actual oppression, not what some of these idiots are talking about right now, you know. I'd seen, you know, kids with underwear on and sandals in the streets, and that's all they had. And I've seen, you know, women holding their kids crying.

You know, I've seen guys use kids as human shields because they're cowards. And I'm getting to sit and enjoy sushi in San Diego, California, with my best friend, Curtis, from high school. And a new group of guys that I met, you know, through other team guys. And I'm like, man, life is good. We were with the cake nuts, by the way. Oh, cake nuts makes it other appearance on the Jopal podcast. Solid dude. Like, he tried to rip a tree out of the ground once, right?

Probably. No, he did. Someone convinced him that he couldn't pull a tree out of the ground, so he tried. Yeah, Jeremy probably tried to convince him that. I think you're right on that. Yeah. Also, second thing, did they find out why you were, you had like, you weren't producing. Yeah, just the pituitary gland.

The sack around with my pituitary gland was damaged and destroyed pretty bad. From the blast or something? Yeah, from that blast and just multiple other like explosions and blast overseas. I mean, we use breaching charges that open up doors. You know, where you're in a gunfight and the machine gun is legitimately going off right next your head. That's providing like cushion that there's times after gun fights. Like I felt like I was just drunk. Yeah.

I felt like I was drunk just because I was just out of it. And so just that much. And then just combat sports and other stuff like that. And so, you know, when Amanda finally got me to go to the VA to get my levels tested, you know, normal male were supposed to be between 600 to 900. I was 81. Yeah, it was bad. And they were just like how, like they called. I didn't answer my phone because I was at work.

And I was on the online or something like that. And they called Amanda. Like, he needs to come back in right away. So of course they freak my wife out, right? She thinks I'm dying or something like that. And then so I go and they get it retested again. It was 87. And they're like, are you on steroids right now?

I'm like, look at me. Don't look like I'm on steroids. Now, granted, like when I was younger, you know, I'd taken some real strong supplements from like max muscle and different places like that that had them available. And I'm sure that might have had an effect. But, you know, I don't know. I mean, I know.

Like, I try to like get, you know, own up to some of the mistake. You know, because Jocker used to joke, he's like, JP just wants to be 205 pounds walking around. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. Well, now I wish I could get down to two. But, you know, so yeah, my levels were really messed up. And they're like, how do you even get out of bed?

How do you do this and this? I'm like, well, I have a family I have to provide for. I really don't have another option. So just got to get out there and get after it. We call that BTF. Just BTF and throughout the day. Yeah, that's crazy. And that's another part.

remember how we talk about where that's the part that you don't really hear that much about just those little detail like you say in a gunfight if the machine gun is right here and it hits you kind of like someone's hitting you physically you know no it's it's a shock to your system yeah yeah i mean i've been uh i was actually going through some videos and i'll try to get you guys some of these the other day where i'm laying down on the sniper rifle and we're in a big firefight and they come and straddle over me to start firing off rockets and i'm getting that bull glass coming down just crushing me. And then Mikey, you know, right next me with the A-W gunner.

He's like, ah! I'm just like, oh my goodness. I'm going to like me coloring crans for Christmas next year or something. Like, by the way, when you fire a rocket in training, you put on two levels of ear protection. I had none. You don't need ear pro in combat. Your ears naturally squeeze. It's pretty awesome.

Yeah. Yeah, I remember. One of my friends who went through sniper school, too, he'd talk about the, I think it was like the 50-Cal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, bro, the thing is like, just shooting it is like you're getting punched in the face. Oh, it is. Just shooting it. Yeah.

Well, I mean, considering we mount those to the tops of Hummers, and if you don't have your foot on the brake and it's in park, it'll move the vehicle. And even that, and you see a vehicle going, do, do, do, do, like, just moving. And, you know, I was also a lead driver. So there's times where the machine like 50 cowl is right over us in the front like the barrels like sticking out and you're getting that blast You're like oh I mean it's just but it's part of it you know I mean like I would not change any of that Yeah, it's crazy like those details like to to someone who hasn't been that's kind of a big deal Because you watch movies and the guy shooting and the guys reaching across the guy shooting the guy in the street corner and all this stuff And then if you know those details you're like whoa whoa you skipped over this whole big kind of element of this situation

Yeah You know? And I just, so much respect, you know, the guys that are still in the teams. You know, I just did under 12 years in the Navy. I didn't, you know, I didn't do my full time. You look at these guys that do 20, 22, 25 years. Like, I'm just like, dude, the hats off to those guys, you know. And like, the guys that are still, it's the same guys that I deployed with.

You know, it's weird me talking about it. Like, I did anything special. Like, as a team, we did something special. Yeah. And those guys are still in the fight. You know, they're still deploying. They're still doing workups. You know, they're battling divorces.

They're, you know, dealing with new babies being born and, you know, taking care of their wives and, you know, family. And it's just like, just so much respect to those guys. And, you know, you look at all the other branches that we served with. And with those guys just, dude, 18 month appointments. 18 month appointments. Oh, hey. You get to go home for two weeks halfway through.

Yeah. Guys are going home to like their families moved out. Yeah. Like gone, like have no idea. But I mean, you know, you know, you hear that. I mean, a couple guys came home They came back from on leave And I was like, how was it?

It's like, well, my wife and kids are gone I don't know where any of my stuff is And I'm like, so jacked up Do you want a hug? I don't know what to do. Yeah, yeah, it's it is You know, JP and I were talking about that earlier Like, we're visible.

Well, I'm definitely visible And I was telling JP like, you will now be visible More visible. I mean, he's been maintained A pretty low profile And tried to. Yeah, because if your fighting has a little bit of profile but like you know you're gonna be more visible and when you get visible

people automatically think that you're special in some way and like I'm telling you there's nothing special here definitely not for me because you know like like I did 20 years in the Navy but okay great there's guys that do 30 years that guys that do 14 different deployments there's guys that you know get wounded and then you like JP just said you branch that out to all the services. And, you know, I'm another guy. And we're just other guys where we have a little bit of a higher profile. But that's not due to our, you know, anything special that we did. Just just with the way things shook out at the end. So I always want to make that clear.

And like law enforcement, they're doing it every day. Like my uncle. I was telling you about like every day. Now we do a workup and then we just go get after it for six months and come home to a workup, go get after it. But he's like legitimately getting after it every day for 15 plus years. And you're like, it's a 23 year deployment.

Yeah. To a combat zone. Yeah. With limited resources, limited support. Limited training. Limited training. And a, and a hostile environment on both the criminal side and actually,

oftentimes on the civil side of people that are, you know, lashing out at police officers from that whole other angle now. So, unfortunate. You're done with your questions, Mr. Charles. For now, yeah. Okay. But I do have good news, though. You do?

My curle oil came in. Oh, got that krill oil. That's good news. That is good news. We are happy about that. You take cruel oil? I take shark cartilage. Is that the same thing?

No. No, that's like what? Glucosamine. It's good for your joints. My dad got me on it, but I'll get on what you guys have. I'll give it a run. Yeah. If you do or when you do, On It's the best one.

Okay. Well, is that the best one? It's the best one. Straight up the best one. Everyone knows that or most people know. How do I get it? Where do I go? You go to Onit.com.

But if you're done to support the podcast. Yeah. I know you are because you're here. Yeah. Go Onet.com slash jaco. And support your wallet 10% off. Dude. Savings and the best.

Boom. Get some. Someone asked me, this is a night yesterday day before. They were like, hey, I know, I know, you know, you guys are down with Onnit and all that stuff. But is that the only supplements you take for real? I was like, yeah, that is. Crill oil, alpha brains sometimes shroom tech. Worry bars too, but I don't know if that's a supplement.

Dude, those are so good. It definitely supplements your need food intake. Yeah, big time. Tasty. But yeah, you can support that way if you're in the mood to also the Amazon if you this kind of I was trying to analyze the whole Amazon thing like how does that kind of fit in the whole I mean we kind of know how but okay so you click through when you do your shopping at Amazon you click through before you do your shopping Clips through the website jococopodcast.com or jocco store.com so boom you support that way but so how does this fit in right so it's kind of like okay we're here putting out this message right And people who like click through or they buy shirts or something like that, they're kind of like the backup, kind of like the reinforcement, you know. They're actually the full on supporting mechanism. Never mind the backup. Yeah. So they're all the field. They're all the battlefield with us.

That's a bad one. That's like they're like the reinforcement. You know? They're the full on support mechanism. The enforcement. Yes, the enforcement. Yes. Very good. Very good. And yeah, man. So so the Amazon click through, that's a good on good way to support this podcast, you poor. And of course, subscribe, right? Yes. Yeah, I used it. Yeah, you did use it. So I'm getting asked this a lot, right?

Yeah. And I'm just going to lay it out there. So podcast, Shboha, where does that come from? It's a really quick story. Here's where it comes from. There's a guy whose name is Henach Larange. Henato Laranja. Just for clarity.

Okay, for clarity. But those of us that speak with a fake Portuguese accent from time to time would just say Hanach. Right, right. Yeah, that's a real. So anyways, there's a video production company called FlixPoint Videos, which is Echo Charles's company. And they did a series that starred this Brazilian Jiu-Ditsu master, Hennach-Lorange. And my son actually was very into the Hennach program.

and in being into the program, he started to adapt his own fake Brazilian Portuguese accent. And since he speaks no Portuguese whatsoever, he just simply does the pigeon of it. And he adds words or parts to words that he thinks in his mind sound like they might be Portuguese. That's correct. So one day he said to me in a broken,

imitated fake Portuguese accent. He said, Dad, are you going to record that podcast, you boha? And I said, yes I am. And then that is where it came from. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't have any spelling.

It's just my 13-year-old son with his comedic vibe going on. Yeah. So, and so, but, he where he how he got that from or what he got that from is podcast that's like the just podcast that's podcast and boa this two things right right poha's like poha is like this expression it's like it means something specific but it's it's ultimately it's an expression but ultimately let's be clear

here it's also a very bad word yes yes it's it's like the worst swear word i don't think it's the worst it's a very bad swear word in portuguese yeah that that's poha poha yeah it's like It's a mix, yeah. So there's that, then there's Boa, which means good. Which Boa means good, right? Exactly. So, you know, your son's thing, I don't know if it was pooha or boa. I'm assuming pooha because Henato says pooha all the time.

Yeah. So that's what he did. But he also says boa from time to time. Yeah. And my son, when he says it, is podcastchi boha. Yeah. So I'm not 100% sure, but that's where it came from. Yep.

When we're going to listen to that podcasti boa right here. Yeah. That's what we're going to do. That's crazy what our kids. Stey. Yes. Indeed. And still, when you think of it, that's still kind of an ambiguous explanation, really.

So where does that leave us? You know, like, okay, so what does it mean? The thing is, is meaningless. Although, I guess it does mean that we're talking about this particular podcast, you boy. Yeah, and we're excited about it. Yes, we are. And there it is.

So, back to the support thing. You know, subscribe. If you haven't already, that's a good way to stay in the game. You know when the new one comes out it just boom on your phone listen ready I know I am You know me too and you know I'm on it YouTube channel for video coming out I think I'm gonna do a more of a comedy video see how that goes over Well won't go over well with me obviously Hey we've got the the heavy podcast and everybody loves it and let's get after it and let's crush people and let's do the darkness and you're gonna do a comedy video is that where we're going with this? Yeah, yeah

All right, man. Just to see how it goes over. We'll trust that judgment, I guess. Yeah. We'll let the troopers decide on that one. Yeah. Also, Jocko Store. That's where, you know, we slang these shirts.

But it's less about selling shirts. It's more about, hey, if you want to support the podcast, you want to wear a cool shirt with multiple layers, by the way. I talk about the layers, but let's just say, I don't want to go into a big thing about the layers. Please don't. But there's more to it than just the saying, you know, discipline equals freedom.

What does that even mean? It sounds cool. What does that mean? Anyway, there's a meaning. Darkness, there's a meaning. And all the shirts have a cool meaning. What's the meaning behind the t-shirt that says, the one that you're wearing with that just says Jocko podcast? That's just the meaning.

Well, if you look on the back, you can see the meaning. Oh. There you go. What are you going to find about? That's the layers I'm talking about. Anyway, women's stuff coming out. Tank tops are already out, but the women's T-shirts are coming out as well. Just kind of give all the girls or the women and a small update.

Some girls with some women were at the muster They certainly were Asking about some stuff I told them in force Yep they're enforcing in force Got some new patches the two the three by two So they can fit on the you know the standard Velcro situation And I think and there's like a tan color right

It's like the official kind of color that sometimes you can't For the troopers that are going out into the desert I believe that's FDE federal dark earth Yeah good because I was trying to Google that and find out and there's a bunch of them yeah FTE FTE FD E so I got the new SIG 320 in so sick and of course I had to get one for Amanda so each have SIG 320 compact FTE FTE FTE yeah actually that's coincidentally really helpful I was looking for a long time for that

awesome yeah rash cards are good too look at it on multiple layers like I said just trust me on that And that, those are the ways to support if you're in the mood to support. You can also support the podcast by buying some jocco white tea. Yes. If you want to just improve every single aspect of your life. No, if you want to get some tea, you can get it. If you don't think you like tea, you probably will like this tea. Because even though it's technically tea, it doesn't actually even taste like tea.

it tastes like a nectar that you need to try. I can't explain it. I agree with that. I agree with the last couple days at the muster. And man, that was awesome. It's tasty. And plus,

as we know from the Amazon reviews, it is added. There's a guy who deadlift went from 400 pounds to 8,000 pounds. So that's a 7,600. pound increase in your in your deadlift and so that's right there again that's good to go so get yourself some some amazon too also when you're on amazon you can pick up you can get yourself a copy of a book called extreme ownership that I wrote with my brother laf babin and the thing is if you have a copy that's cool get a couple more you want to have them on standby because sometimes

you're just you're just dealing with someone at work and all of a sudden you realize that they're not taking ownership of something, it's no problem. You're not stressing out. You're just reaching your desk, you grab a copy. You go, hey, why don't you take a quick look at this right here? Up the chain of command, down the chain of command. Now when you do that, now you're going to make

their life better, because they're going to be able to figure some stuff out. You're also going to make your life easier because now your surrounding personnel are in the game. And you're taking extreme ownership in and of it to that action. Because remember, you know how

like a lot of people that's the question that is deep that is deep no because that's the question people out there be like hey what do I do when my colleague is not taking extreme ownership you're like whoa whoa whoa see the just the the mere nature of you saying hey you're not taking extreme ownership so you oh now you're only you're saying hey I recognize this situation of you doing and not doing certain things let me take action what can I do to take extreme ownership over this situation right it's true that is true yeah that is true also you know As you are on Amazon, just nod your head a little bit and say thanks to Brady Lanter, Brady Trooper, who has been the backside support to the podcast, Shiboha, with all kinds of stuff.

So shout out to Brady for getting after it. Technically, he's getting after it technically. Technically and technically. Now, you just talked about the muster, too? We just had to muster in San Diego, California. It was freaking awesome. Yes. It was really cool.

We had a bunch of people there. The guy that helped run the event named Matt, he's been running events for 20-something years. And he came up to me two hours into the event. This is after people were PTing at 445 in the morning. This is after everyone was in their seats at 0-800, ready standing by to get after it. No stragglers. Like when I say no stragglers, I mean no stragglers, zero. 350 people, boom, in their seats, ready to rock and roll.

He came out to me during the first little break, and he says, I've actually never seen anything like this, where an entire conference is so just on board in the game and getting after. Because I've never seen this in any kind of conference. Thanks. Major problem. Okay, I come down. The schedule says, hey, Echo, film some stuff, right?

That's, you know, kind of the loose. order. Commanders and two. I look at the schedule. Hey, four, optional, optional 445 workout a.m. Okay,

I'm gonna be honest. I'm not used to the 445 AM. It's cool. Don't get it wrong, but I'm just not used to 445 filming, workouts, whatever. Being awake.

So I'm like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go. I'm gonna show up on time. I'm gonna show up ahead of time. But really, though, optional, really, first day, let's face it,

how many people are really going to be at this thing? Maybe 25, 30? And people are traveling to 20. You know what I mean? Yeah. And we had guys from the UK, you know, five different countries were represented. 42 different states.

Like, it was insane. So people are all over. Yeah. There's issues. There's no way. I was like, I was even, I'm not a morning person like you. Like I'm usually a guy that's up until two or three working on stuff. Yeah.

So I was like, I got to get up. I was like, dude, I'm here with Jock and Leif. I've got to get after it. I was like, I'm going to be pissed. There's like five people out there. Yeah. I'm thinking 10. 20 would be

solid. But I pull around. I'm ahead of time, by the way. I'm pulling up at like 428, you know, 429. I come around the corner and I see a straight up riot. Like, not rioting, but like the type of crowd that's like

in a protest or something. Guy's stretching, you know, I'm like, dang. So I go at a park, like, on the side I come. And you guys already had worked out already. Yeah, yeah. So what people were ready. Yeah, what Laif and I did was we went, I said, hey, Laif. We might get contingency is there's a 150 people.

We're not going to be able to direct this thing. If we're doing it, we need to get in leadership position. So we need to go work out before the 0 445 must work out. We need to go work out before that. Optional, by the way. So we went and hit it before. And it was a pretty hardcore workout. It was one of those workouts where it can suck as much as you want to suck.

And of course, we want it to suck bad. So we're dripping with sweat. We come walking over. And it's the same thing for us. We are walking back from the workout area, which was down by the San Diego Convention Center. We're walking back to the hotel. We're in a little jog.

We turn the corner. Now we're really close. We start walking. And we see the same thing. We see like all these people. And it was, you know, 250 or 300 people are ready to rock and roll at four. It's only 428, right? The sun's not even up.

It's nighttime. It's night time. It's not even thinking about coming up. Yeah. It's straight up nighttime. So we got after it. And that was a good representation of the attitude that was at the muster.

And the other funny thing was people kept, when people would ask questions, they'd say, oh, I just got promoted in this new position. And this is going on. And then someone would also say, you know, I just got promoted three times in the last six months. And I wanna know. And so you're thinking, okay, all these people are just

fast track, they're in the game, they're on it. It's just, it was really an awesome event. Great job with the video, with Charles made some really killer videos for that and it was awesome those videos were awesome like very captivating you know me sitting there in the crowd yeah it was just like there's a couple times I had to get up you know the first day I stood in the back first sat in back and I had to get up and I'd pace because I was just like so connected it just brought me back you know or just emotional connection and then you know everyone else is the same thing the second day I'm sitting up there front row and I can't stand up in pace right now but just everyone you're just watching other people and it's just

Dude, great job. Those videos were insane, man. You were in one of those. I know. I had the doctor's mask on, so nobody recognized it. Yeah, on the deal. That's right. That's right.

Somebody asked me about it, they're like, pretty blonde and the guy holding twins, babies, I'm like, yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's the rough transition video. Yeah. So the rough transition video that Echo made is the person holding the baby. The babies.

The babies. The twins, yeah. Yeah. That's that's JP right there. So there's a little layer right there, isn't there? Now that's what you're talking about. Yeah, if you're kind of on the inside, you're going to see them and you're going to recognize them. That's, I think, the fun part, one of the many fun parts.

Awesome. And a also, so if you like what we're talking about here and you want to continue, maybe you didn't get enough of this today, you want to keep talking to us, you can actually just find us cruising. Cruising hard, apparently. On the interwebs, on Twitter, on Instagram. And you know we even on that Facebooky. Echo is at Echo Charles. And I am at Jocka Willink. And Jeremiah J.P. Donnell is at where you at?

On Twitter, J.P. Danelle, Instagram would be never settled consulting. and Facebook page Never Settle Consulting LLC. So if you like the page, it will put out any upcoming events or anything that's going on. Just try to connect with people through social media. Awesome.

Dig it. Echo. Any final thoughts from you? I don't. Really good to see you again, man. I mean, we've kept in touch. Yeah, online is still. But, man, really good to see you again.

Oh, if you go to never settle consulting.com, that will be up in the near future as well. But you can contact me through the social media, but the website will be up and running soon. But yeah. But yeah, it's great seeing you again, bro. Like coming out here,

I was like, you know, I got the call from Jocko. And I, you know, turned out of a couple different gigs or, you know, switch some work around.

I was like, yeah, I got to get out of here. And Amanda was like, yeah, yeah, don't be an idiot. You're going. You know,

we'll find a way. And it was awesome. You know, able to work it out. And I'll be on the podcast. You know, I just appreciate you guys having me out man of course awesome you got any final thoughts yeah um obviously i just want to thank um all the troops

overseas uh all the troops that are home uh the family members of the troops that never made it back we appreciate you guys uh all the law enforcement officers out there firefighters medics you guys are getting after it serving your community every day and of course i want to thank amanda um just for her continued support and love and my kids you know love those kids um I look forward to the day where they're old enough where they can actually listen and process this. So Aidan, Cora, Nola, I love you guys. And, yeah, it's awesome. Well, thanks for coming on.

Appreciate it. Obviously. Thank you. And thanks for everything you've ever done for me, brother. I appreciate that. Above and beyond anything I could have ever hoped for the kind of performance and the kind of attitude and the the bravery and the courage. Always.

Thank you. Thank you. Always. Thank you. And you know, the other day when we were at the muster, we were in that big crowd. And we'd kind of,

we'd kind of turned the corner and we were getting to the area where we were going to start the workout thing. And I knew, I just assessed real quick. And I said, I'm going to need some help getting some organization stuff going on here.

And we really didn't have a plan for 300 people. We had a plan for 30 or 40 people. Way different. And so I'm sitting there and I'm going into, okay, what am I going to do? Got to prioritize and execute. I need some help.

And it's just dark, you know, dark 4 o'clock in the morning. So I just yell out. I go, JP. And instantly I hear some distance away I hear, yes, sir. And I look up where that came from and I see JP and he like made quick eye contact with me. I see him moving, you know, down the stairs.

He's coming to me. And in that split sense. second that split second I remembered all the times that I had called your name and I had asked you to do what needed to be done and you always stepped up without question without without regard for your safety or for your own security you always stepped up just with your the mission and the team and your brothers in mind. Always putting others before yourself like so many others in our task unit did.

Like Mark and Mikey and Ryan. And like the many soldiers and Marines did in the Battle of Ramadi and in the rest of Iraq and in Afghanistan. And on battle, all over the world Throughout history putting others before themselves with their heads held high and everyone else that is out there listening

Think about that think about putting the mission Before your own needs think about putting others before your own needs think about putting others before your yourself and think about walking through the world with all the threats and challenges in front of you think about walking through the daily battles that you face with your back straight and your head held high scanning for what is next so you can engage this is echo and jaco and my brother jp dennell