Jocko Podcast - 522: How Discipline and Leadership Will Make You Survive 40 Months as a POW.

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

>Join Jocko Underground< Examining the wartime leadership of Air Commodore Leonard Burchill, a Canadian POW who protected and unified fellow prisoners under brutal conditions. His story illustrates extreme ownership, integrity, discipline, and selfless leadership, showing how character, competence, and comradeship sustain teams through the harshest adversity.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko Podcast number 522 with Echo Charles and me. Janko, Wielink, good evening, Echow. Good evening. In April, 1942, this officer was shot down and captured after sending out this warning from his patrolling seaplane that a large force of Japanese warships was approaching salon. Throughout his three and a half years as a prisoner of war, wing commander, Burtjel, as senior allied officer in the prisoner of war camps in which he was located continually displayed,

the utmost concern for the welfare of his fellow prisoners on many occasions with complete disregard for his own safety he prevented as far as possible japanese officials of various camps from sadistically beating his men and denying prisoners the medical attention which they so urgently needed typical of his splendid gallantry was when in the negato camp he called a sit-down strike in protest against ill-treatment of his men on another account when the Japanese wanted to send some sick prisoners to war to work wing commander Birchel found it necessary at great personal risk to forcibly prevent the Japanese non-commissioned officer in charge from making these prisoners work as a result

Wing Commander Birchel spent several days in solitary confinement nevertheless the sick prisoners of war did not have to work knowing that each time he forcibly intervened on behalf of his men he would receive brutal punishment wing commander birchel continually endeavored to improve the lot of his fellow prisoners he also maintained detailed records of personnel in his camps along with death certificates of deceased personnel the consistent gallantry and glowing devotion to his fellow prisoners of war that this officer displayed throughout his lengthy period of imprisonment are in keeping with the finest traditions of the royal canadian air force and that right there

is the citation making air commodore leonard birchall an officer of the order of the british empire in nineteen forty six so this guy leonard birchel was born july sixth nineteen fifteen in ontario canada he graduated from the royal military college of canada in nineteen thirty seven he eventually uh deployed to salon which is modern day sri lanka in nineteen forty two and april fourth He was out patrolling in a seaplane. He cited a major Japanese fleet that you just heard about in that citation. He radioed back intelligence to headquarters. It kind of gave the British forces a heads up of this imminent attack.

But his aircraft were shot down. Some of his crew members were killed. Him and the remaining survivors were captured. And he spent about 40 months in Japanese, various Japanese prison camps. and during those years of suffering, as the site, as stated in the citation, Birchall displayed incredible courage, incredible tenacity, incredible leadership. And he was not only appointed as an officer of the order of the British Empire. He also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for initially reporting that Japanese attack.

After the war, continued his career, eventually became chief of air operations in the Royal Canadian Air Force, became commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada, and he played significant roles in Canada's participation in NATO and NORAD. Eventually he retired. He took a leadership role at York University. But in September of 1997, he gave a speech to the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Studies up in Winnipeg. And I found a copy of this speech and I read through it. And it's just, it's freaking classic.

So much good information in there. The copy that I used is from the Canadian Air Force Journal, Volume 2, Issue 1. It's the winter of 2009. So I'm going to be reading from that. Great. They just took the speech and put it in there in writing. And it's so many good lessons from this thing. So again, here's this speech from

Commodore, Air Commodore Leonard Birchall. and he starts off with a little bit of humor. I apologize for my copious notes, but at my age, and this past July, I became 82 years young. There are three serious losses which you encounter in your physical capabilities. First, your eyesight grows dim,

and you will note rather strong lenses in my glasses. Second, your hearing is not too good, and I admit that I am in need of a hearing aid. Third, and I'll be damned if I can never remember what the third one is. Thus, I must stick closely to my text I will wander all over the place. Actually, there is a fourth serious loss in our physical capabilities, which we old chaps encounter,

but we do our utmost not to even think about that one, let alone discuss it as whenever we do, all we do is sit around and cry. You will note that is necessary for me to take frequent sips of water. And this is due to the fact that during my indoctrination into Japanese culture, which was administered with severity by clubs of various sizes, all too often, I would zig when I should have zagged, and the damage to my throat is finally caught up with me resulting in my having to have a series of drastic throat operations and intense radiation treatments, leaving me with a perpetual dry mouth and throat. So I ask you you, please bear with me. So here you have this 82-year-old guy, clearly very sharp.

Always given this speech. I'm going to fast forward a little bit. Napoleon once said, there are no bad men, only bad officers. The question then is, have I been a good or bad officer? And here there is no set criteria or standard. Some believe that the best measure of success is the rank you attain, but I do not accept this. Some of the finest men I have met served with and held in the highest regard were not necessarily

those who were the most senior. This is something that happens all the time. Like people think, oh, he was a general or he was an admiral, he must be an awesome leader. Like, not so much. You cannot judge the ability or the traits of a person based on the rank. Because there's some of the things that you have to do. Some of the, there's like a whole, there's a whole path you can take to achieve high rank that has nothing to do with good leadership.

It actually has to do with like screwing people over and looking out. for yourself that happens now sometimes usually usually they get caught at a certain point and they don't make it as far as they want to but sometimes they do yeah sometimes they do and even they don't make it as far as they want to they still made it further than they should have so you got to watch out for that one thing I do recognize as a measure of success is leadership as everyone I have held in high esteem has had that quality and this I believe to be essential for success in any walk of life. This guy's talking about leadership. As a member of the armed forces and regardless of rank, the opportunities for development and use of leadership are immense. And the

satisfaction you will derive is equally so. There's an old adage, however, that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. Or the other version, you can lead a horse to drink, but you can't make him water, which I don't really understand that 100%. thus while you will have these opportunities the success you will achieve depends entirely on the amount of effort you put forth nothing is ever free in this life or handed to you on a plate the price you must pay is hard work total effort and self-sacrifice that's what we're talking about hard work, total effort,

and self-sacrifice. Can you make any sense of that? The other version, you can lead a horse to drink, but you can't make him water. I wonder if there's a term for maybe watering a horse means like it's getting watered.

It's like drinking. That's like a more cowboy way. I'll have to check with Iris Gardner and see if watering a horse means they drink. Yeah, no. Big question mark for me too. Okay.

going on here. I would now like to give you my concept of leadership and the reasons for my beliefs. I noticed that point number four, and he had talked earlier that they've got, they were given all this thing to read that had eight points of leadership. So he kind of refers back to that a little bit. He says, I noticed that point number four of the teaching point is leadership versus management, which would obviously call for a definition of those terms. The most succinct one I have heard for leadership is being able to tell

someone to go to hell and have them look forward to the trip. That's fired up, you know, where you got your boys, you got to tell them, hey, we're going to go to do this thing. It's going to suck. And guys are like, let's go. That's leadership. As opposed to, whereas the one for management is being able to keep three balls in the air with one hand while protecting your own with the other.

So the manager is looking out for himself, you know, move these balls around over here and with one hand, but I'm going to protect my own balls with my other hand. If you ever have to lead troops into combat, and I pray this will never happen, you will find that you appear before your men stripped of all insignia and outward signs of authority to command. So there you go. When you're in combat leadership, you're naked. You're stripped of all your authority, all your outward signs, all your insignia.

This is very close to we're up with the council and I was talking about basically like the primordial order of leadership and how there's just like a pecking order in the world. And if you're not paying attention to that and you think you're higher on that pecking order than you actually are, it's going to be problematic. If you know where you are, if you know where you are and other people, you see yourself the same way other people see you, you'll be okay. Like if I'm like, hey, I'm not quite the best, but I'm in this position because I, whatever, I went. to college or I've been here longer or whatever the case may be. And you're like, okay, I know I don't really deserve to be here, but here I am, you'll be okay. But when you think like, you're damn right, I'm here, that's what we have a problem because you don't get that. That insignia is not real. You can see it. Yeah. Your leadership is judged not by your rank, but by whether your men are completely confident that you have the character, knowledge and training that they can trust you with their lives.

now men are shrewd judges of their leaders especially when their lives are at stake and hence your character and knowledge must be such that they are prepared to follow you to trust your judgment and carry out your commands man it's so people leaders all the time very common that they underestimate how shrewd of judges their troops are and they think they can get away with things and they think that the team doesn't notice oh it's no big deal i just kind of look out for myself over here a little bit no one will see oh they'll see yeah they will absolutely see who was it telling us to oh yeah Andrew Paul told a story um at the muster they were like getting using buds and they were getting they were just waiting for chow yeah and it was cold they're wet

and it's cold and like one of the officers moved out of the shade into the sunlight and was like giving orders and directing people and he's thinking no one noticed but but the the class is like bro checked out that dude he's just trying to look out for himself that little tiny thing yeah didn't they call him sunshine they called him lieutenant sunshine yeah uh continuing on let us now examine these two major things which the men look for in their leaders the first is character and here i believe that the prime ingredient the absolute cornerstone is integrity integrity integrity is one of those words which many people keep in the desk drawer labeled too hard. It is not a topic for the dinner table or cocktail party. You can't buy it or sell it. When supported with education,

a person's integrity can give them something to rely on when their perception seems to blur, when rules and principles seem to waver, and when they are faced with hard choices of right wrong you know that's really important the fact that you think let's say you're in combat there's going to be things you you face in combat that are not from the book there's no there's no reference you can make like some shit happens that you couldn't predict no one could predict and it happened and now you got to deal with it and you so you can't rely on any instructions that you were given you can't rely on the rules of engagement you can't rely on the on the on the law of armed conflict you can't rely on the regulations that you're under you can't rely on anything because this is a

weird thing that just happened. And by the way, this happens in business, do it happens in life. Somebody's going to do some shit that you don't expect. And then it boils down to, okay, integrity.

Are you going to do the right thing right now? Are you going to use good judgment? It's something to keep them afloat when they are drowning. If only for practical reasons, is an attribute that should be kept at the very top of a young person's consciousness. Without personal integrity, intellectual skills are worthless.

And by the way, personal integrity is like, going out into the sun when everyone else is freezing. Yeah. Actually, that story was a good one because it really like brought to light that concept. Because when you think about it like, oh yeah,

this guy. So everyone was cold. Everyone was standing in line, but that line happened to be in the shade, right? And the guys are already cold. Meanwhile, so this guy like kind of pretends that he has some stuff to do,

you know, some orders to put out. Yeah, exactly right. So. and how Andrew Paul explained it was kind of like you could tell he was just like making stuff up to do you know like keeping himself busy because he could do it from a position that wasn't in the shade it was in the sun so you could get warm or whatever and kind of when you think about you're like also Andrew Paul said it was like it was like a four meter square of sun yeah yeah he like found it like it might not have been so obvious if like it was just a little bit in the shade and then it was a huge area that was son up but no no he was in that little four meter square so yeah yeah and And it's kind of like, you know, on the surface, you're kind of like, yeah, like, who cares? Like, what does that have to do with anything? You know, like, I mean, I would be more you would think anyway, if you weren't there and you didn't understand really what you get from the actual experience.

You think, oh, well, like, it has no bearing on me, you know? Like, what should, like, should I be in the, like, it has no bearing, you know? But when you're there and you're in a cohesive group and you see someone just in principle, like, hey, I'm going to get this. for me with a disregard for the rest of the group, you know? It kind of brought it's like a perfect little illustration. It's such an illustration. Yeah. And not to mention the

metaphor like of that spotlight going right on him. Yeah. And he doesn't even realize it. He literally has a spotlight on him, you know, and the rest of the group is in the shade in the dark or whatever. That's great. Continue on. As the ancient Roman philosopher,

Epictetus said in the field manual he produced for the Roman soldiers in approximately the year 50 AD, it is better to die in hunger, exempt from guilt and fear than it is to live in affluence with perturbation, meaning like the agitate, the anxiety, the guilt of what you've done.

So it's better to be cold and stand with the class than it is to be warm and freaking be guilty. But I will tell you that I think a lot of people, when they make those little decisions, they don't know. They think that people don't see. They're not like, oh, they, I don't care. I'm going to go get warm.

They don't think like that. They think like, oh, I can get away with this. And that's why they allow themselves to do it when it's so obvious. Yeah. And in a way, I mean, this kind of, the point here is kind of like with a judgment thing, a little bit of a chain. But we talked about this too where you can almost kind of understand, like when it comes to just the nature of a person where,

you're right he doesn't like let's say lieutenant sunshine right he's like oh i'm still going to do what i'm supposed to do you know i'm just going to sort of you know kind of like it's going to be a little bit more yeah you know color outside the lines just a little bit you know it's going to have no bearing on anything or whatever and they don't realize they're not detached or you know where they can't see themselves and how they look to others right and this brother this there's big examples of this and small examples of this like and ever in between so and we talked about this too where it's like, yeah, when you, let's say someone videotaped the whole scenario, just one wide shot, right?

And it's, and then showed it to lieutenant sunshine, right? Later, he'd be like, bro, I didn't realize I looked like that. Like, I know how I felt. I know I felt like I wasn't going to like betray no owner. I'd just get a little warmer. That'll help me, you know, in my whole thing. You know, we got to, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying, you know, like, bro, I'm trying to do the best I can, kind of a thought, you know,

whether that's a justification or not. but when you see it all in the frame you know like the way other people see it yeah you're like oh brow that looks way worse you know and then it can kind of like add to that guilt you know so bad but if you totally get away with it it might have a little guilt but when you when you kind of detach or when it's when it's brought into perspective i think that's what you really feel it when people start calling you lieutenant sunshine yeah exactly right check uh Continue on. This means that you must demonstrate the utmost honesty in everything you do in your dealings with superiors and subordinates alike, both on and off duty. It is this that inspires your men to carry out a similar integrity. When they know your word is your bond, then confidence and trust will permeate the entire unit. The men will feel they can come to you, their leader, with the bad news as well as the good news. Never shoot the messenger as this will just do.

discourage others from giving you honest feedback needed for you to command. You must report the good, the bad, the and the ugly up the chain of command to your superiors. There is no substitute for honesty in our profession. What we do is just too important. So that, that right there, like the way you're behaving as a leader is going to impact everything that everybody else does and telling the truth about what's happening and being open to receiving the truth without being mad about it this is what you have to do yeah that's that's a hard one yes the um that's like the old like oh if i had a if i had a booger in my nose you know

you got to tell me you got to tell me but it's kind of hard you know and a lot of people say they want you to tell them but they don't really want you to do oh yeah they want you to pretend it's all good and it's you know that's that's that's a real disadvantage you know i kind of get some of that where people don't want to tell me they're too tired. Like they like this happened overseas, you know, guys didn't want to tell me like, hey, dude, I need a break or, you know, so I always had to fish for that.

You know, I kind of had to fish and I had to air on the side of like, they're more tired than they're telling me they need whatever more than they're letting me know. Yeah. Because people are oftentimes on very good behavior when I'm around. You know, everyone's taking ownership. Everyone's covered moving. but it's difficult for that to be how people behave all the time.

Yeah. Because let's face it, these principles are simple, but they're not easy. Yeah. Yeah. And man, that's actually if you can kind of separate them into actually too.

Because like not that what you're talking about is, oh, that's real. That's 100% real. Because you have like a, this standard of being, you know, where and everyone's trying to live up to that standard,

right? And if they admit they're tired or admit they're kind of cold or something like this where it kind of, like, oh man, you're not living up to the standard. That's kind of, it's not even really officially established. It's just sort of out there. Yeah, it's just out there, bro. It just kind of follows you.

That's what we're doing. Right, exactly right. So it can be hard in that way. Yes. You know, and then you're at risk of like compromising performance or whatever, but it's a little bit different than if I'm like, hey, that decision you made like wasn't that good, you know, that's way hard. Actually, I don't know what's harder.

I guess it depends on who you are, but it's different. It is different. Like, who's going to step to Jocco and say he made a bad move? And he shouldn't make that move in the future. Like, bro, that's kind of hard, you know? Yeah. Well, that's what I always had to watch out for it. And that's why me establishing that, hey, if I'm doing something wrong, let me know.

And whether it's a little tiny thing. And Leif explains this really well. And it's the same way with Stoner. But, you know, from the beginning, I wasn't like, hey, we're doing it my way. I was like, hey, well, what do you think? Why do you want to do it like that? Because that way they got used to, they knew I was. wasn't going to freak out.

I wasn't going to beat them down. Matter of fact, I'm reading another book right now, and there's a military leader who is just shutting all of his commander, all this subordinate commanders down, just shutting them down. And now they're all just like, well, I guess we're just going to do whatever he says. And that's not going to turn out well. Right. So you have to be very careful that when someone tells you something,

you are so open-minded to it. You're thankful. You have to be thankful for it. And then you have to, as often as you can, you have to take their ideas and implement them. That's like the goal. You've heard me say this a thousand times. My goal is when someone tells me an idea,

whether, and by the way, it's not just my subordinates, my peers and my boss. My goal is to use their idea. Yeah. And what that does is it formulates and lets them understand that,

oh, I can come to them with the good, bad and the ugly. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. You do do a good job with that, letting people kind of do their idea.

Yeah, I wanted to do their idea. But yeah, But it's funny because you'd be surprised. You know, like I've been in this outfit for a while, you know, even before all the, you know, books and all this other stuff. And I see through that time, keep in mind, I think you knew this. Like, I didn't know all this about you before when we just, before, let's say before 2014, we'll say. I didn't know any of this.

I just knew that you're in the military. You're just some, you're in charge of some training. I don't know what training. And you're Jiu-Jitsu. That's it. That's kind of it, more or less or whatever. Knew about that guillotine, son. You knew about the guillotine.

Yeah. And, you know, some personality stuff or whatever. But so I didn't know all this stuff. So I just knew you as more of like not a boss scenario, more of just like a training partner with some wisdom, you know, here and here and there kind of a thing. So in that very specific position and kind of in a way, a unique position, I get to watch people just do backflips and switch. personalities when you're around versus not around still right all literally to this day just watch it I'm like bro but you I know like I'm used to it now but it is interesting because you do do a great job of like you know like not getting mad and like you know like if someone has bad news

or you know someone has some critique you're just like yeah you just roll right right with it but I think I'm used to it since I've kind of been around it for years and then some people they're just not quite it's almost like they don't get it quite yet you know yeah i had someone delivered like some bad quote unquote bad news to me the other day and they'd come from a different organization and they were like um were like like nervous talking to me and i was like oh it's all good look and hey no no no no no no no factor no one died well you know we'll get straightened out and then she was like oh this is a lot different than what i'm used to and i was like in what way and like you're not in anyone? Well, no. So it's very difficult, but it's something that you as a leader have to

nurture is that you're you listen, you don't judge, you don't react, you don't freak out, like all those things, which by the way is so common dude. It's so common. It's so ridiculous. Yeah, I was telling somebody this actually I know it was it doesn't matter though where this guy was saying, hey, if I act a certain way, tell me you know, because sometimes, like I don't realize I'm acting a certain way like mean or whatever or a defensive or whatever you know he said sometimes I don't realize I'm doing this until like way later or like days or weeks afterwards and I realized oh wait maybe I could have been nicer or something like that so let me know right and I'm thinking that so time went on and I actually did let this person know and they just

got mad at me for it yeah right so it's kind of like I'm trying to think like okay I understand the dynamics of it because when you're in the moment you know it affects you emotionally but at the same time, how can you not ignore? Or put it this way, it helps to not ignore the fact that, hey, if you're acting a certain way that's destructive to your own world and you don't know about it in the moment, that's really important information. So wouldn't you want to know about it? Don't forget that part of it because I understand the feeling, you know?

It's like someone coming to you and telling you you're doing the wrong thing. Like, who are you to tell me how to be, you know? Yeah. And so then what you got to do is you got to figure out a way that you can deliver that message in an indirect approach where the people hear it and they go, oh, like he might be talking about me. It's nice if you have a podcast to actually deliver that message to the indirect approach. Yes, it does.

Oh, that's what you got to do, though. You got to figure out how to frame things properly so people can hear them. Because if you just beat them down with it, like I'm sure whenever this person did this thing, maybe if you would have said like, hey, dude, do you remember when you asked me about that? with it, but you're making them aware that like, hey, do you think about what you're doing right now? Even you explain this right now is really putting into, for me, right?

I'm learning in real time, by the way. It's really putting into perspective how important it is as the leader guy to be approachable in that way. Because if you're not, like you run this risk too where you could be like, the person could come with the indirect approach, right? But if you're, let's say you're on the other side of the spectrum of this, right? Where you're kind of sensitive and, ooh, no one can tell me nothing. You better, you know, you embrace the yes, man.

You know, you're that kind. We'll say. Even if someone comes with an indirect approach. Yeah, still piss you off. Oh, yeah. You run the risk of getting just as pissed because you're kind of like, wait, wait, wait, so what are you saying? You know, you see what I'm saying? Like they're, bro, that ego is a foul thing.

It really is a foul, foul thing. You know. Got a bunch of out for that thing. Yeah, it's like they make you pay for anything, any little thing that makes me feel a certain way that I don't like, you'll pay the price for it. Yeah, I wrote about leadership strategy. tactics. It's such a good setup. I'm like, I say, you know, how do you handle it when someone that you do not respect comes and critiques you? What do you do? And I'm like, oh, you listen to them.

And you say, okay, how can I take their information that they're giving me and how can I help utilize this to help me become a better leader? Yeah. It's really hard for people to do that. Yeah. It's really hard for people to do that. In the spirit of figuring this out and kind of maneuvering your way through it. It you can break it down to this is a shift from a short-term payoff to a long-term payoff because I've been in that situation and and this was a unique situation because it was with a person that like I'm not saying I didn't respect this person but in that context that we're in I really didn't and you know there's some arrogance there like kind of like there's a sense of competition you know so this person telling me

hey, I was doing the, I made the wrong move here. And his move was better. See what I'm saying? It was like really obvious that that was going on. So I'm like, shoot, for me to take the high road right now and really admit to myself that, but he's kind of right. You know, would be such a massive loss for me right now in the moment. Probably the most massive, you know, person to person, little undercover loss that I can imagine.

Dang. Yeah, yeah. Short term. Yeah. Long term. Yeah. You know, but here, and here was the, here's what was the other painful part that I think,

I'm saying this because it's kind of one of those things to look out for. And as far as the feeling and the, the, the pitfall, you know. Me taking the L gave him a W short term and long term. Gave him a W because it was a creative decision. You know, in my thing. So for me to be like, okay, you're right. Okay, I take that L, but I got a better product, right? that I put out.

But at the same time, he knows that he's the one who corrected me on my product. You see what I'm saying? So he takes the double. It's actually not you. But no, no, no. If it was you, that's a good context. You know, like I would welcome mears. This one was someone who's like, you know, one of these freaking, what do you call

him, couch, armchair quarterback type. So it was like one of those scenarios. Sure. So anyway. But the thing is that the whole point was if you can endure that. It actually doesn't matter because you will win end up on top exactly right, but it's a long-term thing and you might take some short-term L's which actually don't matter by the way. They don't matter. Yeah, they don't matter. Yeah, like that's literally what there's so much and by the way, when someone looks at you and you get a really like a legit good recommendation on something and you decide not to take it because of ego It's so bad. That's so bad when you go. Oh, that's a good point. I think that would improve the thing and you go to go home to take that board you get elevated. Yeah, even though you feel like you took an L

You're actually taking a w. You're like, oh, yeah, make sense. I'll do that. Right. So easy to do that. It's just so easy to be like, oh, that's good. Well, no, I'm saying, oh, it's not a fall into that. It's easy to go bad.

But it's actually not that hard to be like, hey, dude, that's a good point. And there's nothing better than like any type of criticism you get. You go, oh, yeah, yeah, I do screw that up. This is such an easy way to get a W instead of a loss, even though it feels like a loss. It, you win. Yeah. my saying that's a good point man it's I like your plan better let's go with that yeah you see no everyone goes oh wow you echo must be really secure in what he's doing to just be like oh yeah

that's a good point actually doesn't feel that way though I'll do you and better sometimes sometimes people depends on your relationship with them some people will be like yeah you see but you're still right yeah he'll be like you see but and and that person might feel good about themselves like they got over but you're right I think they will elevate you they won't be like all that guy's ignorant They'll be like, oh, well, yeah. You know, you kind of down. But isn't that weird, though? As far as figuring out how all this stuff works, it's really a version of discipline

because that's what discipline is, right? It's like where you're kind of controlling your emotions. Yes. You're indexing on the big picture of the long term. That's what discipline is. You know, all the way down to like a diet, you know, like if you go diet, right, it's kind of like, yeah, you could take the W now and eat that yummy this or that or whatever. What's called a donut.

Yeah. what it is. Oh yeah, that's big short-term W. But, you know, a long-term loser is one might say. But if you switch it around, there's your discipline right there. So I'm saying? So same deal. It's the same exact thing. Nope. It is. And just a note, it's like one of the, you ever heard that the crazy person doesn't know that they're crazy, right? So if you're a leader and you think no one can see what you're doing, I'm telling you, people can see what you're doing. Now, if you're over there just thinking like no one can see this little move that I'm making. If you're thinking that, I'm telling you everyone can see it. Just like if you're a crazy person and right

now you're like, I'm not crazy. You're kind of crazy. So let's be careful. It continues with integrity here. Integrity also means having the courage to take full responsibility for your actions and those of your subordinates. This sounds pretty like an awesome concept. By the way, this is too, that he made the speech in 1997. So I'm glad he's not here to sue me for extreme ownership, right? To take full responsibility for your actions and those of your subordinates. Don't quibble. Don't try to shift the blame.

Don't look for scapegoats. If you or your command has fouled up, then fess up and press on. In doing so, you will set the right example for your men and earn the respect of your subordinates and superiors alike. Nothing destroys a unit's effectiveness and leadership. quicker than the leaders not taking the sole responsibility for their actions and the first sign of this is usually careerism the CYA factor which very often has the tendency to appear first in the higher headquarters so I mean I couldn't have written this paragraph any better than he said it right and by the way you know like this is all my deal it's his deal but this is universal this shows a universality of taking ownership once started it rapidly feeds on itself and spreads like wired wildfire down through the entire organization. At the first indication of this selfish, self-centered, self-serving attitude, you must take

every possible step to root it out and replace it with integrity. So he kind of wraps integrity around taking ownership and responsibility in the whole nine yards, which is awesome. Going on to the second major thing which men look for in their leaders is knowledge and training. It is essential that you ensure you have the necessary, you have the necessary, you have the knowledge, information, and training necessary for you to properly and assess and solve the problems which you will face, which will face you and your men. I started getting a little nervous

when I was reading this. All this must be done to the very best of your ability, regardless of the size or importance of the problem. Never accept the second best or mediocre solution because you think the problem is not worth your time and effort. So now I'm like thinking, oh, so you got to, you got to know everything. I'm kind of thinking this might not be the best paragraph. But then he says, If you don't have the necessary knowledge and information, then go get it by asking for assistance, advice, guidance, doing research until you are satisfied. You have everything you need to reach the best solution. Now, you can't do that if you're not humble. You cannot do that if you're not humble.

Then carry out the solution with your full effort and determination. So there you go. If you should know what's happening. If you don't know, ask questions, figure it out. Another point that the men look for in you as their leader is your concern and effort on. behalf of the welfare of those who serve under you. You must prove beyond any doubt that you are fair and just in your dealings with them and that you genuinely like and respect them. In all circumstances, you must place their well-being ahead of your own regardless of the cost to yourself. Boom. No

sunshine for you. Get in the shade with everybody else. And finally, one other and perhaps equally important factor is that once you're accepted as a leader, your men will not only follow you, but will also emulate you to the best of their ability, your character and behavior. That is why a leader must at all times and in all places set and maintain the highest of standards. That is the sad and real truth of the situation. If you are in a leadership position and you are acting like a jackass, your team is going to act like jackasses too. And I can, when I acted, when I was in leadership position, I acted like a jackass. Guess what?

Other people are going to follow you. Whether it's your family, whether it's your people at work, whatever it is. You act like a jackass people are going to people getting on board of it. Remember a guy at the muster, there's several musters ago. He was saying, he's like, you know, I'm a guy. I like to joke around and, you know, I like to have fun and I don't like to take things seriously. You know, I like to have a good time. And I'm having a trouble with my subordinates like, they don't take me seriously.

I'm like, bro. Do we really need to answer this question? And that's the same. Like what you do, your team is going to emulate. They're going to try and do the same thing. So you have to be very, very careful about stuff. Carrying on. Let us now put these bits and pieces into service life.

And this is what's incredible is you're going to see that these things that he talks about is how he lived. And he talks about it here. Let us now put these bits and pieces into service life and see the results in actual practice. and doing so, I would like to use the life as a P.O.W. to demonstrate the reasons for my beliefs. The great social historian, the Durants, have said that culture is a thin veneer that superimposes itself on mankind. This is very true. And when men are stripped of this veneer and every other vestige of civilization are treated and live as animals, as we were forced to do as POWs, then the laws of the jungle soon take over.

It is in this environment that the true basics of leadership emerged for me. Perfect. The laws of the jungle. And here's the thing. The laws of the jungle, you can't allow those things to thrive. You have to bring in leadership because the laws of the jungle ain't good. The laws and jungle don't work. They work at an animal level,

but they don't work at a human level. And you got to know that they're there. They're like there in the background operating system. The laws of the jungle. That's why like, oh, there's a physical component when I'm talking to you. You and I could be talking about a video. There's a physical component that's in,

no doubt, it's part of the element, right? So you've got to be aware of that. There's got a hierarchy. There's a pecking. The things are always happening. When I first arrived in Japan, courtesy of the Japanese Navy, I was sent to a special,

questioning camp under the Japanese Navy at a place named Ophuna, a suburb of Yokohama. This was a special interrogation camp where we were placed in solitary confinement in small cells, no speaking aloud, and we were questioned and beaten every day. We were not considered as POWs, but rather we were still on the firing line and could be killed at any time. I was moved from this camp after six months when they brought in a U.S. Catalina crew, shot down out of Dutch Harbor and I was sent to the starting up of the work camps in the Yokohama area The first working camp I went to was located in a baseball stadium in the center of Yokohama which had been built by the standard oil company

We were housed in a large indoor area under one of the grandstands and I arrived there the same day as the first batch of prisoners from Hong Kong There were five officers of with this group of approximately 300 POWs in Hong Kong the Japanese had raped and bayoneted nurses, women, and children, killed doctors and patients in the hospital wards, operating theaters and recovery rooms, bayoneted, mutilated, shot, and beheaded POWs just to amuse themselves, humiliated and degraded them in every possible way, no medical treatment or supplies for the sick and wounded, the lowest possible living conditions, and way below starvation diet. We were joined two months later by 75 POWs from the Philippines, and these were some of the survivors from the Baton death march, where over 16,950 POWs were killed over two-thirds of the total number of POWs involved.

All these prisoners, both the Hong Kong and Philippine POWs, had then to endure the hell ships where thousands died en route from Hong Kong and Manila to Japan. In one ship alone, the Arzan Maru out of 1,800 POWs, only eight survived. The Orico Maru started out with 1,619 POWs, and only 200 survived that trip. The order sent down by the Japanese Tokyo headquarters to Hong Kong and Philippine camps was to send their best and healthiest prisoners to work in Japan. Now, as you all well know, when a commanding officer gets an order to send his best men, this is when he unloads all his deadbeats, no-gooders, troublemakers, sick, wounded, incompetence, etc. Now I found myself to be the senior POW in this brand new working camp and faced with over 375 very hostile, belligerent POWs.

This gave me some concept of how Daniel felt when he walked into the den of love. lions. So he's got a rag-tag crew. I was the senior POW and all the working camps that I was in, but this was a title in name only. As with no means of physically exerting discipline, you had only vast inherent responsibilities for the health and well-being of all those in the camp, but no means to enforce your decisions. The nature of military discipline encompasses two basic forms. The imposed discipline and the discipline which the individual decides is necessary, which is self-discipline. Field Marshal Sir Archibald Wavel in his book, Soldiers and Soldiering, describes as follows. Discipline makes a man do something he would not do unless he has learned that is the right,

the proper, and expedient thing to do. At its best, it is, instilled and maintained by pride in oneself in one's unit in one's profession and only at its worst by fear and punishment so this is a very interesting take on discipline and it's sort of ties into what you were saying like discipline is strategic thinking what I don't want to do it right now but in the long run it's the right thing to do or I don't want to do it right now but for the team it's the right thing to do or I don't want to do it right now, but for the unit, it's the right thing to do. That is a critical thing. That's a critical component, especially in a military situation. And what he's saying here is like,

listen, my rank means nothing. We're in a freaking prisoner camp. What are you going to do to me? What are you going to do to me? I'm in a freaking prisoner of war camp. And we're going to get to a little bit. There's a little bit of animosity towards their leadership. Because think about it, you're a freaking private soldier. You're out there in the Philippines. Next thing, you know, you're getting rolled up like what what who the hell is in charge of this freaking shit you see what I'm saying so you're like wait a second you told me to go over here now I'm a prisoner of war what the hell's wrong with you so there's some of that which I never thought too deeply about that but that frustration from the front line troops going dude what what are you to why am I listening to you you just got

us all captured screw you so he's got to overcome that challenge as well and he goes on so so he's saying like discipline self-discipline you want the troops to like step up and do things for themselves. You don't want them to be doing something just because they're afraid. And you don't want to do something because otherwise you punish them. And he goes into that a little bit more. In our case, punishment was completely out of the question. The conditions and environment in which we existed reduced our health to the very razor edge of complete collapse. And we needed every bit of our health, strength, stamina, and reserve to barely keep living from day to day.

Having to undergo punishment on top of all this would have been tantamount to issuing a death sentence. Thus, the authority we had was only that which the men wished to give us when and if they felt like it. So this is leadership. This is the core of leadership. You have no means to back anything up. And if you should always be thinking that, you should always be thinking, I, I,

I'm only going to be able to lead in the way that they let me lead when they feel like it, if they feel like it. As officers, we were singled out by the Japanese for special treatment. Every method possible is used to degrade us in front of the men in order to counter any control or discipline we might try to develop. Yeah, not only is it like a tough situation, you've got these other freaking Japanese imperial people that are trying to undermine what you're doing. from the men's point of view all officers were under great suspicion and here we go they felt they had been let down and that the incompetence of their officers was responsible in large part for their being prisoners facts another sad factor was that after being captured unfortunately a lot of the officers prime concern had been for themselves they had taken the best quarters furnishing clothing

and supplies available, and only after they had taken what they wanted or considered their share as an officer, did the troops get what was left? Bruh. Yeah. You think the shit's not going sideways? Imagine the person outranks you,

and now all of a sudden they're taking shit from you. There's ass-beaten's happening. You see what I'm saying? Yes, I did. This was particularly true in the distribution of food, Since the POWs were on a starvation diet, food was of the greatest importance as it meant life or death. And when the officers took more than their equal share of the daily ration per prisoner, it not only meant that it drastically reduced the food left for the men, but also the men's chances of survival.

This isn't like, bro, I get some extra fries on my plate. This is like, I don't get this morsel of bread and I'm going to die from it. The first night we were in Yokohama camp, we, the five officers, from Hong Kong and myself decided that we had to share the privations, maltreatment, and work at least equally with the men, and that this could be done by, this could only be done by demonstrating that we took on an obviously greater share than the men, not just the same. We need to take on more. We immediately set up a system whereby the food and everything else we received was dished

out in full view of the men. If anyone thought that he had less than an officer, he was free to exchange his share for the officers. No questions asked. It's freaking legit. The officers were always the last to take up their share. The men tried us on by eating some of their food and then changing it for the officer's bowl or for an officer's bowl. But in no time flat, the troops themselves sort of this. sat this out and woe betide anyone who tried it so they said oh you know i'm going to take a couple

bites from my rice bowl and then say hey echo you got more rice than me trade and you're like okay so they just did it no questions asked but then the troops go dude what are you doing to now now you're screwing over this guy now you're screwing over the officer so the troops the gang started to police themselves yeah those that's interesting those little ways of keeping it fair like with like a portion yeah so i do i started this with my kids where they were like, let's say, I don't know, there's like a cookie or something like this.

And I'll be like, hey, there's just one cookie. I'll say, it's a big one of them cut it in half and the other one gets to choose. And I said, you guys can figure out who wants to do what. Because either way, you know, you kind of want to be the chooser, really. But if you're not the chooser, now you're motivated to cut it perfectly

because you know they're going to, you see what I'm saying? So it's like one of those self-policing kind of scenarios. For sure. But yeah, that's a good one right there. You can just trade whenever you want. That's it. Well, that's basically what you're doing. Hey, I'm going to cut it in half, but you can pick which one.

That's the same thing. It's a little easy with a cookie, not a damn morsel of rice. But hey, that's echo Charles. We're bringing the examples from the real, the quote, real world. Here we go. In fact, in a way this backfired as when the Japanese reduced an officer's ration because he was sick or as punishment, the men themselves made certain that the officers took.

received his fair and equal share and in some cases more than his share so again this is not the rules of the jungle these are the rules of a team trying to survive together cigarettes I was surprised about this cigarettes became the currency of POWs and with the horrible conditions and starvation under which we lived the addiction of to tobacco increased beyond belief I've never used tobacco so I don't know what that addiction is I've seen people freaking be addicted to tobacco both cigarettes and chewing tobacco but this is crazy it seemed that when you were smoking you could to a limited degree blot out the reality and ease the continual terrible pangs of hunger men who were starving never without intense hunger 24 hours of the day and every day of the

year knowing that their very lives dependent on small bits of food we got would still trade away their food for cigarettes we the officers gave up smoking which was no easy task in itself But in this way, we removed ourselves from any criticism and were able to put our ration of cigarettes into the ration for the men and also create a small supply for our doctor to be used in keeping the heavily addicted from trading away their food. Anyone offering to buy or sell food for cigarettes was reported by the men themselves to the doctor who would then talk to those involved and take remedial action. In this way, our lives were made much more bearable. And many lives are saved again. The laws of the jungle are, bro, if you're going to give up food for cigarettes, you're going to die. But the laws of the team and leadership are, hey, we need to help the team.

Another immediate action we took whenever it was whenever a Japanese guard started to beat up a prisoner, the closest officer would jump in between them. The prisoner would get lost as quickly as possible and the officer would take the beating. Sometimes the guard would become bewildered to find he was beating the wrong man and would stop, whereas sometimes he would become infuriated and take it out on the officer. We just had to take our chance and hope for the best. That's going to prove, you know, that's earning leadership capital. Obviously in a big way. A word about dress and deportment. Clothing was an absolute premium as we only had what we had with us when we were captured.

The only clothing issue we were given was what the Japanese had captured and then did not want for themselves or could not use in any other way. Believe me, the pickings were very slim indeed. We lived in rags and tatters. The clothing issues we were given all went to the men. But again, in short order, the men made certain that every officer had one good shirt, tie, tunic, trousers, and hat to wear whenever we had to parade in front of the Japanese. We were given one square inch of soap per week with which to do all our laundry and to keep our bodies clean. There was no hot water and even cold water was in very limited supply. We were allowed one hot bath and sometimes only a warm bath once a month.

The supply of razors, razor blades, hair clippers, scissors, needles, threads, and all other such normal items were only those which had been brought into the camp by the men after their surrender. It was therefore impossible to maintain the normal standards of cleanliness in addition we were out of the camp for about 12 hours of the day doing Cooley labor on starvation diet the result Was that we were sick starving cold filthy infested with lice fleas and bed bugs But unable to find the time energy or means to do very much about it Despite all this through the height of ingenuity and imprompt We still managed to keep ourselves as best we could when we turned out on parade it may have been in rags and tatters But we were clean as clean upright formidable proud of our heritage and still as undefeated as we could possibly be You know you just roll through this roll through this paragraph like whatever you know no big deal

Dude sick Bro, when I'm sick, it's like, it's, okay, that's just like one thing. Yeah. Hungry. Like, not just hungry, you know, oh, I haven't eaten yet today. Yeah. Like sometimes you come into the podcast at 10 o'clock in the morning and you're quote unquote hungry. Or I come in and I'm quote unquote hungry.

Yeah. Because I didn't freaking chow down, you know, a big giant breakfast and a mulk. Yeah. And we complain about that. Imagine being on a starvation diet for years. cold again cold we don't complain about being cold imagine just being perpetually cold filthy infested with lice bro yeah infested with fleas infested with beg bug bed bugs like every one of these things is awful every one of them and that's what they're doing and yet when it came time to turn out

for parade they stood up with their with their shoulders up their chests out undefeated as we could possibly be. Here, may I quote, from Field Marshal Slim in writing about his World War II campaign in the jungles of Burma, in which he said, quote, at some stage and in some circumstances, armies have let their discipline sag, but they have never won victory until they have made it tout again, nor will they. We have found it a great mistake to belittle the importance of smartness in turnout, alertness of carriage, cleanliness of person, saluting or precision of movement, and to dismiss them as naive, unintelligement, parade, square stuff. I do not believe that troops can have unshakable battle discipline without showing these outward signs which mark the pride men take in themselves and their units.

and the mutual confidence and respect that exists between them and their officers. It was our experience in a tough school that the best fighting units in the long run were not necessarily those with the advertised reputations, but those who, when they came out to battle, at once resumed a more formal, disciplined, and appearance. And he says, how true, how true. So that way that you carry yourself This is one of those things man It's like the way that you carry yourself the way that you present yourself

That stuff makes a difference And anybody says it doesn't make a difference is wrong They're just wrong You have to present yourself in a disciplined manner How true how true He goes on to say here it was a long hard process for us POWs But slowly the confidence faith and self-respect was restored not only in the men, but also in ourselves as officers.

The first winter in Japan, 1942 to 1943, was the worst as we tried to climatize ourselves to the living conditions, the cold winter in unheated barracks where we only had one blanket each, the daily coolie labor, the starvation diet, and the total absence of any medical treatment. Approximately 35% of all the POWs in the working camps in Japan died that winter. And yet in our camp, with its average of 375 POWs during these first two years, we lost only three men, less than one half of one percent per year, giving ample proof of the success of the efforts made by that entire camp. Again, this is the laws of the jungle, man, 35 percent. You're going down. Let us now look at the mutual concern for one another or comradeship, which developed and which is such a vital part of leadership.

I believe the good book says greater love hath no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends. This to me defines the comradeship we developed, and I may give you one example. Medicines were practically non-existent as we were never given any medical supplies whatsoever by the Japanese. Isn't it like you think about when's the last time you put like bassetration on some freaking cut that you had? You know, because that was getting a little bit infected. You drop some peroxide in there. Or you had freaking ringworm. And you're like, cool.

Go to get the lammocil or whatever, the little bleach on there, bleach it out. Put the lammicle on. The ringworm's gone, you know, in three days. We just don't even think about that. Yeah. Just no medical treatment. No medical treatment. The Red Cross medical supplies sent to Japan for use by POWs was taken by the Japanese military

repackaged and sent to their combat troops. After the war, the Allied forces, found warehouses all over Japan filled with Red Cross medical clothing and food supplies which had been sent for use by the POWs and which had been stored to be used by Japanese troops in the event of an invasion of their homeland. Our only hope was to pool whatever meager supplies we had in camp. It used them for the maximum benefit of all. This had to be done in complete secrecy as the Japanese confiscated any medical supplies

they found and treatment of POWs by our own doctor was absolutely forbidden. This presented a very great problem as everyone hoarded whatever medicines they had. While you may not have the right medicine or drug for whatever illness you encountered, at least you had a chance to bargain or trade for the one you did need. Our starvation diet, on our starvation diet, we had no resistance whatsoever to any disease or infection. We suffered at all times from the ravages of malnutrition and its medical consequences. Barry, Barry, Pallagra, blindness, gangrene, etc. Once our doctor got going on, once our doctor got going on secret sick parades,

the men soon believed in us and started to turn in their bits and pieces of medical supplies to the doctor. A detailed account was kept of our camp medical supplies as to where they came from, who gave them, and how much we had, how much we used, and on who. these accounts were available and could be seen at any time by anyone in the camp. A little transparency there. So you can imagine all these guys hoarding these little tiny little bits of medical supplies they had and they eventually got everyone to turn it all in so we can not take care of the individuals, but take care of the team.

This is the law of the jungle being overtaken by teamwork. Cover and move. One POW from Hong Kong had smuggled in three morphine pills, which he turned into the doctor and, As these were the only painkillers we had, it was agreed that a unanimous vote of the entire camp would be necessary before one could be used. The reason for this was that you never knew when it might be your turn to need such help to get over that last big painful hump, and hence you had better have a say as to how and when they were used. Once they were gone, there just wasn't going to be anymore. Time and time again, the doctor would decide to use a pill in such cases as drastic surgery due to gang green, as all this had to be done without any.

anesthetic. That means we're talking about amputations with no anesthesia. He also recommended that they'd be used in a case of the three men we just lost before they died when there was nothing more we could do for them. This is amazing. In every instance, the unanimous decision was obtained from the camp only to have it vetoed by the man who was to receive the pill. So every time a person was dying or needed anesthesia or was going to get their arm cut off, the whole camp would vote, yes, give them the morphine, and they'd say, nope, save it. I was separated from that camp after two years, but I understand that those three pills were still unused at the end of the war.

Yeah, that kind of makes, you know how like you had a party? Mm-hmm. Okay. Hang out, Super Bowl party. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe you had these muffins or something like this. love the muffins and it's like oh there's one more you know everyone had some muffins right but

there's only one more left everyone wants it but no one wants to be the guy to take the last muffin you see what's kind of the same scenario yeah for sure so what but of course the extreme version of it but just a little bit whatever that that's that's um that's like a football party muffins versus the freaking amputation moriffie it's different i'm gonna let you i'm gonna let it be no no but in principle it's the same thing and in fact it kind of glitory shares light on the power of that principle. See what I'm saying? Even, okay, I understand you don't want to be the last guy to take the muffin or whatever

it is, right? I understand that because, again, it's not that big a deal. It's like what? I go without a muffin. That's an easy sacrifice for the team. You see what I'm saying? And for my reputation as like, you know, a guy who's not greedy. Yeah.

Right? Not a muffin muncher. No, not a muck. But in the case of morphine, that's a huge, huge sacrifice. Yet that principle is still that powerful that you won't even take some come on bray Amputation and you're still not taking the morphine gang green bra that's a powerful principle is what I'm saying it is indeed I'm saying that's real a word about our stealing Because this was one of the main ways to our survival our camp worked at many various jobs each day and it was possible on the lot on a lot of jobs to steal things which were not only of

benefit to the camp, but also to the Japanese with whom we worked. A good example was an oil factory where they crushed peanuts, coconut, soy beans, et cetera, to make various cooking oils and lubricant oils from castor beans. This was a gold mine for us as we stole peanuts and coconut for food and as we set up making soap in the boiler plant of the factory by making trays out of old tin, stealing coconut oil and caustic, which we then cooked up on top of the boilers. The coolies we work with knew what we were doing. So we marked trays with their name on it.

When their tray of soap was done, we would cut the slab of soap in half and give them half. We would then smuggle the soap out of the job and back to camp. We were searched inside the factory by the factory guards before we left the job. And then again, outside the job by the army guards before we got in the trucks or marched back to camp. At the camp, we were searched once again inside the camp by the guards. If at any time during this entire process we were caught, we never implicated the Japanese workers. They knew this. So they trusted us even more than they did their own fellow workers.

Other items of great value to the Japanese were because of strict rationing. In addition to the soap, was sugar, salt, and cooking oil. These items we stole not only from the factories, but also when we were loading or unloading railway cars, ships, and barges. We were able to steal, we were able by stealing at one job and trading with the Japanese coolies with whom we worked on other jobs to get a meager supply of drugs, which were available on the Japanese market to supplement our own supplies. As for the men who did the stealing, stealing, we set up a system whereby anything of value

to the camp, such as food, trade goods, etc. The man doing the stealing would notify the officers and an officer would go out to work on the job with him. If the man got caught, then the officer would step in and say that he had ordered the prisoner to steal. In this way, the officer took the giant share of the bashing, solitary confinement and other punishment if the stealing was successful then half the goods was turned into the camp supplies and used for the sick to trade with for the coolies for medicine here again

complete records were kept and anyone could see them at any time to ensure just how goods were being used so who's the coolies cooos are just like slave workers I don't know if they're prisoners I don't know if they were like Japanese like literal like criminals or something in Japan or what type of what country they came from, whether they were Chinese that had been brought over as slaves or Filipinos

that had brought over by slaves or whether they were just like Japanese, lower class Japanese that were being enslaved, but that's what a coolie is they're kind of like slaves. They're like elevated slaves. A few words on the pride and self-respect of the men no matter what

their original background or the results of the degradation and environment in which which we existed, I was far from being the ideal prisoner. And when one of the Japanese guards consistently beat up the very sick prisoners, I went after him and beat him into the deck. I shall not go into the aftermath of that affair. Suffice it to say I was extremely lucky to barely survive the punishment and not be killed. When the beatings of the sick started up again, the men said, I should try something

else as we would never live through that punishment again. So we held a sit down strike. and after I'd received a terrible beating, but also the insurance that the sick would not have to go to work, did I give my order for the men to go to work? My hour of glory was very short-lived in that I was removed from that camp within an hour and sent to a severe discipline camp at Omori, Tokyo,

to show me the error of my ways. There I was set up as a very bad example, and it was the kiss of death for any prisoner to even look at me in front of the specifically selected sadistice. guards for the first two weeks I worked all day sewing bits of fur together and then all night in the cookhouse here the punishment was the stand on the hot brick ovens in bare feet and holding two large buckets of water with our very painful berry berry feet this was sheer hell I slept in little short naps wherever I could out of the sight of the guards about this time the POW camp

of can Canadians in Yokohama which had no doctor and who's senior peer was an RSM ran into a bad session of sickness a group of the sick were moved to another camp But in route they stopped off at the discipline camp for a few days the day they arrived They heard that I was in the camp and the Canadian sergeant in charge of them came to me in the shop where the officers were Sowing the bits of fur together He threw the first salute between POWs that I had that had been seen in that camp and explained that the Canadians had heard about my efforts on behalf of the POWs and as I was the first Canadian officer they'd met since leaving Hong Kong, they would like to hold a parade for my inspection. I tried to explain what this would mean, but to no avail. Reluctantly, I agreed, and he said they would be formed up in a few minutes.

They formed up in the open dirt area, which we used for roll calls, parades, and forming of work parties. They were dirty, sick, ragged, starved. Some had to be held up by their comrades, but they were all there. As I expected, no sooner had we got started. Then the storm broke in all its fury and the guards came charging into us like a bunch of raving maniacs, swinging fists, clubs, rifle butts, and kicking the daylights out of those who fell down. None of us minded. And when it was all over, we crawled back into our huts to lick our wounds and to have a damn.

Good laugh at the Japanese. I guess one interpretation would be that it was an act of defiance and that may be right Bear in mind that these men were from the reserve units out of Montreal and Winnipeg and in a majority of these cases their military background was practically nil All had been reduced to the lowest state of civilization by their maltreatment and horrible environment and yet there was a pride in each of these men such that I had never seen before or expect to see again. It made me proud to be admitted into their ranks. I might add that news of this parade spread like wildfire throughout the working camps in Japan and the rise in morale amongst POWs

made life hell for the Japanese guards. So epic. Epic. And this is kind of portrayed, you know, a lot of this stuff, have you seen the movie Bridge on the River Kwai? It's a great classic movie. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid. There's commando activity happening.

There's, you know, British soldiers in this, in that movie, it's British soldiers for the most part. And they're doing this. They're doing this type of behavior, you know, falling out, showing the proper military respect. And there's catching beat downs from the Japanese guards and whatnot. But this is just heroic effort. And you can see how important. it is to the troops that they just want to they want to be inspected by the officer you know like that's what we're doing you can't break us the ormori discipline camp was on a small island out of

the Tokyo harbor made from the silt and sand dredged up from the Tokyo harbor and it was about 50 feet 50 feet from the mainland there was an anti-aircraft battery battery on one of the on one end and a searchlight battery on the other with our camp sandwiched in between we were housed in the standard prefabbed single-story wood buildings used by the Japanese military and we were right opposite the main fighter base at hadina airport which protected the Tokyo Yokohama area with no markings whatsoever to show we were POWs we were extremely vulnerable and so whenever a single B-29 came over obviously on a photo recchi we would run out into the open parade area and unbeknownst to the Japanese we would form the letters P-O-W in hopes that this would show

up in the photos. Fire bombings and firestorms wiped out the entire area around our camp and the only thing that saved us was the 50 foot of water separating us from the mainland. The whole area around us was flat as a pancake exactly like our Northland after a big forest fire with no food, water, electricity or places to work. The Japs started to move some of us out into the outlying areas and I was the and as one of the bad actors, I was one of the first to go.

They took a bunch of us from various camps in the Tokyo area and put us into railway box cars. We were jammed so that we had to take turns standing and sitting. It was cold, no food, water, or sanitation facilities, and we were there for over 48 hours, bro. 48 hours in a box car where you're packed in like sardines and there's no bathroom. No food, no water, no bathroom.

Many of us had amoebic dysentry or diarrhea and life soon became grim to say the least. We were taken up into the mountains northwest of Tokyo and here we ended up on a siding where we were able to get out and lie down on the ground. This was the first opportunity I had to see what prisoners were there, their physical condition and then the sad realization that once again I was the senior POW. There was a total of 280 POWs, a real mixed bag and the physical condition. was the worst I'd ever seen. Some were blind from a lack of vitamin A. Some had lost a hand or a foot from Barry Berry, followed by gangrene.

All were skin and bones from prolonged malnutrition. As we were the first batch out of Tokyo camps, the commandants had unloaded all their sick, invalids, and misfits. We were now jammed onto flatbed trucks and taken off to our camp in the mountains at a place named Suwa. As it was high in the mountains, it was cold, especially at night when we might even have a thin coating of ice on any open water.

The camp was only half built. Some of the buildings had no roof. Some had no side walls. There was no kitchen, cooking, or sanitation facilities. The wiring consisted of a single line running through the camp with one or two 40-watt bulbs in each building. It was pouring rain, everyone was soaked, cold, miserable, starving, and filthy beyond belief. The barracks were of little protection and there was no straw on the bare boards for us to

lie on. The floors were just mud. The next day we tried to fix up the camp. We found that we were on the side of a mountain which was all terraced with rice and vegetable patties. Our water supply was a small creek that ran down through the patties and then through the camp. Since the fertilizer they used was human excreta, we had to set up a system that would at least boil our drinking water. We tried to make our barracks as airtight as possible with mud, strong grasses. We had no heat whatsoever. And we set up the most basic washing and latrine facilities. The work detail started at once.

The prisoners left camp at 7 a.m. each morning, walked down to the side of the mountain and up the side of the next one to get to an open-faced mine where they dug out ore, which was some kind of white metal. The path between the camp and the mine was all broken rough stone. And with no shoes, only wooden clogs. The number of our seriously infected feet went completely. out of control. Our food ration was the lowest I had encountered, and with no medicines or medical treatment, this was indeed a death camp. The first week, three men died and our number of seriously

ill doubled. It was our conservative but well-considered estimate that we would be extremely lucky if just one of us would survive the coming winter of 1945. As the war started to go against the Japanese and the Allies began their island hopping campaign toward Japan. The orders had gone out from Tokyo headquarters to all military that they were never to retreat, but rather fight to the last man even with suicidal attacks. The kamikaze aircraft was a good example of this philosophy. Also, the orders were that at the first sign of a landing and attack on their area, they were to kill all POWs, internees, sick, wounded incompetence, et cetera, so that every able-bodied

Japanese could fight to the death without hindrance. In the POW camps, we had to dig trenches, and machine guns were placed at each end. We were then to be marched into the trenches, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. Anyone trying to escape would be killed by machine guns. Proof of this policy was more than evident in the Japanese occupied islands, which were overrun by the Americans where they found all the POWs sick and wounded captives and Japanese all massacred by the Japanese as they retreated. With a Japanese surrender, we took over our camp to ensure our survival and concentrated on getting ourselves physically fit enough to get out of there and into

the hands of the allies. We took over all the food we could find and ran a kitchen on a 24-hour basis. We bought a pig, a horse, and a cow which we slaughtered and put into the stew pot. Believe me everything went in with the possible exception of skin and hooves we scoured the countryside for all medical supplies we could beg borrow or buy just to or just expropriate so that our doctor and his helpers could work day and night to bring seriously ill back to as good as health possible we got yellow paint and painted big POW signs on the roofs of our buildings we made flags out of old bag sheets and colored them with crayons we put these up on flag poles and we waited the u.s. Navy planes soon found us and we were showered with bundles from heaven containing clothing,

food, medicines and goodies such as cigarettes and chocolate bars. When the doctor felt we were as fit as he could get us, we made our move and came out overnight by train to Tokyo. When we couldn't find any Allied forces near the Tokyo Railway Station, we moved over to the station for the electric train and went to Yokohama. here we went outside the station sat down and flew our flags on some bamboo poles we had liberated it was not all that easy you must remember that we had some prisoners who were blind some minus a foot or a hand some unable to walk on feet painful from berry berry and all of us at the end of our

endurance thus we had to commandeer trucks wagons bicycle trailers anything that we could lay our hands on to carry our sick and invalids the healthiest POWs carry the japanese guards rifles just in case we met up with trouble as once we left the relative safe confines of our camps we are on our own and god help us we didn't have to wait long outside the yokohama station before a jeep came by with a u.s army officer and a big radio on it we identified ourselves the chap got on his radio and we were soon inundated with buses trucks and ambulances which took us down to a reception center set up in yokehama docks we were then told to get out and go into the dock area The next thing I knew our senior POW NCO called the troops to attention

formed them up into marching order, turned the parade over to me, and we marched into the dock area with our homemade flags flying. We were dirty, tired, clothing in rags and tatters. Many of the men had to be supported or semi-carried, but they were all there, all those who could possibly walk as defiant, proud, a force that could never be beaten. The first thing was to strip of us of all our clothes and throw them into an incinerator. Next, they removed all our body here and put us through a delousing station. From there, we got into a hot shower with lots of hot water and soap. While stark naked, we were confronted by a horde of doctors and nurses who segregated us into groups depending upon our medical condition, then into a room with all the clothes in the world

where we could take as much of everything we wanted. Finally, we were given a thorough interrogation by a team of intelligence. and war crime officers all this time this was going on there were Red Cross girls going around dishing out cigarettes and chocolate bars I was taken to the hospital ship USS Marigold as I was on my feet and don't even remember going on board I do recall that I was taken into a cabin which I had all to myself this is the first time since being captured that I was all on my own except when I was in solitary confinement I had pajamas and clean ones too the first time in

three and a half years. I was clean, really clean, and clear of lice, fleas, and bedbugs for the first time in three and a half years. And finally, I had absolutely no responsibilities for anyone other than myself for the first time in three and a half years. Our camp was unique in having 100% survival from the instant that the war ended until we were recovered by Americans. This was only due to the full cooperation and self-discipline of our country.

all the men in that camp. By way of explanation, the Americans were very cautious and stayed in the Yokohama Dock area until they were certain that Japanese military and civilians would accept the surrender and not kill POWs and internees

as they had been ordered to. A large part of the Japanese military would not accept surrender and vowed to fight to the finish, while a tremendous number of civilians who had lost members of their families, especially in the fire bombing, were very hostile.

For those POWs who were inland, such as ourselves, you either had to wait a long period of time to be recovered or try and beat your way out. I'm afraid that in the majority of camps, it was every man for himself. And in a lot of cases, this was fatal. The civilians retaliated as they did the military. Some POWs ate poisonous food or drank wood alcohol and died. Others started out on journeys far beyond their physical capability and died en route to freedom. You must remember that it was most difficult, if not impossible, to control men who had been through four.

years of sheer and utter hell especially when there was absolutely no way of enforcing any discipline during the war over 30% of all the POWs and internees taken by the Japanese were either killed or died in the prison camps and thus never did make it home here I think the epitaph on the memorial in the Allied Wargrave Cemetery in Kohima Burma where over 1500 Allied servicemen are buried sums it up very well when you go home home tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today yeah even even the fact that you know he doesn't explain it in too much detail but the fact that when they were done when the war was over they stayed there they got food they got healthy they got checked by a doctor and then they

moved as a unit with with their own people with guards to get out but a lot of the other prisoner camps he's talking about like oh the war's over it's every man for themselves and they're just going to go for it they're not healthy enough and a bunch of them died so that disciplines again that's like the law of the jungle yeah versus the team law and the leadership law and trying to do things together because we're stronger together now he kind of gets into the leadership portion of this catchphrases are wonderful things that by way of trying to summarize this whole thing if I had to use one to define my concept of leadership it would be The three Cs, character, competence, and comradeship.

First is character. Is my firm belief that the true and solid foundation is integrity, or as Shakespeare had Polonius say in Hamlet, this above all else to thy own self be true. And it must follow as the night, the day thou canst not then be false to any man. Say what you mean, which is telling the truth as against the telling. of lies and mean what you say which is integrity having the moral fiber to face the issue issues of right and wrong and then the courage to stand up firm and strong regardless of

consequences to yourself that's character that's number one the second competence having the necessary knowledge education training and judgment to make and to make the full use of them no matter how large or small the problem to ensure that you have given it your fullest consideration Once you have done this and made your decision, then to carry it out with the very best of your ability, know what you are doing and how to do it. Number three, comradeship, taking a full interest in your subordinates, having true respect and concern for them to the extent that at all times and in all circumstances, you put their welfare and their well-being ahead of your own, regardless of the cost or inconvenience to your. yourself. Those are the three Cs. Once these are firmly in place, then those other important aspects such as discipline and self-discipline, pride in yourself and your unit, self-respect and respect for both your superiors and subordinates, proper dress and deportment at all times,

all these will develop and strengthen as they feed on one another until what I call true leadership emerges, live by these precepts, and as a member of the Canadian forces devoted to the well-being of your fellow Canadians and the preservation of our Canadian way of life, you will not only attain true self-respect, but also the respect of everyone with whom you associate. You can never have a better goal in life. Canada needs you. You who will be the leaders, the protectors and defenders of our country, and in the future, and in the world, and in the world, the years 2000 AD it needs to it needs your youth courage and energy but there's also a desperate need for your self-discipline your discipline your mind your character your integrity in

short your leadership as I look around this room I have absolutely no qualms about the future of our service admiral bull halsey the famous world war two admiral of the fleet of the U.S. fleet in the Pacific once said, quote, there are no great men, there are only great challenges. Ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet, end quote. As the history of our service shows, there has never ever been, nor will there ever be any shortage of ordinary men and women, such as are gathered here, who are ready, willing and most capable

to take up the challenges they will be forced to face. Per ardua adastra through adversity to the stars. This is the heritage which has been entrusted into your hands. Guard it well as I have every confidence you will. Ladies and gentlemen, it has been an honor and privilege to have shared these thoughts with you. Bon chance and merci bien. So, as I said, lots of very good lessons in there. Lots of reiterations of principles you heard before.

True leadership. The three Cs, character, competence, and comradeship. I also find it interesting that he quotes Admiral Holsey. There are no great men. There are only great challenges. Ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet. And it kind of reminds me that if you're not, like in many cases,

we will not reach our potential unless we're forced to do it. You know what I'm saying? Like that's unfortunate. Unfortunate. Like what are the chances that you echo Charles are going to get put in some circumstances that are so dramatic and so severe that you are forced to rise to a level that that is imperceivable to you right now? Yeah. You know, I talk about, you know, we had Alex Honnold on the podcast.

And he climbed L-Cap with no ropes, right, free solo. And for a while, I was saying that that was the greatest feat that any, greatest physical feet than any human has ever accomplished. But later, I, like after I said that once, I was like, hold on a second. It's not. It's the greatest physical feat that a human being has ever voluntarily, like, engaged in. But when you look at, you know, any one of these prisoners of war, They what they did was infinitely harder than him climbing El Cap, but they weren't they weren't

volunteered. They were forced by circumstances into these situations. And so we have to voluntarily put ourselves in situations that are going to be so adverse and severe that they make us better that they make us push ourselves. That's what we got to do. That's what we got to do. That's the that the role that rolls right into the uh through adversity to the stars. That's the official motto of the royal Canadian Air Force right. But you don't get that. to the stars without adversity. We have to step up. We have to lean into adversity.

We have to look for those challenges. And by the way, when you're, when you come up against these challenges, whether it's like having to avoid a muffin at the Super Bowl party. The last muffin. The last muffin, right? You can,

you can then reach back into history and you can think about the incredible suffering that has been endured by human beings. throughout history and you can use that as a testament to why you, to why you can step up and you can endure more and you can achieve more than you ever thought. So that's what we're doing. Yep.

Yeah, it's kind of like a little bit of a metaphor. Not even a metaphor. It's actually just a principle that applies to so many things. So like, yeah, your day to day, how many times in your day to day? day do you have to dig deep? Yeah, yeah. You know, yeah, probably that 20 rep squat day. Yeah, yeah.

But that's, that there's something to be said for that. The 20 rep squat day because the, I mean, obviously depends on how much weight you're doing. But the real 20 rep squat day, that has probably more value than you might notice on the surface, you know, because if you're not used to digging deep, you can be like, there's no way I'm going to endure that. And even if I do, I ain't going back. Not even like, not like, not like, that's why like, you know, when you're a kid and you do like. sports or something. You got to run conditioning. You're like, bro, this sucks so bad right now. But it's like, I don't want to be the guy who doesn't do it or quits or just some lame stuff, you know? So you can, you kind of learn to kind of start to accept this, you know, this adversity. And then it's like, yeah,

like you can kind of drop on it when you have to get something done. And you recognize kind of how it all works too after a while. But if you're not used to it, bro, it's such an assault on you. And then you kind of, you know, you can't deal with it. Yeah, that's one of things you got to watch out for, you know, however when it's really easy for us in this day and age to kind of avoid the discomfort you know when you can press a button on your phone and you can have freaking whatever food show up in 38 minutes i'm whatever you dream of it will be at your house in 38 minutes and by the way your your house is temperature controlled your couch is comfortable it's got a special pillow for your head it's got a like a weighted blanket or some shit you know what i'm saying like gets crazy it's the pursuit

pursuit of comfort is out of control. And so if that's the, if you're living in that world and you're not testing your adversity, then you're going to, when that adversity hits you, which it will, you're going to have problems. And by the way,

you're just not going to get anything done. You're just not going to get anything done. Yeah. And that's one, that's something that'll, to me anyway, it's recognizable more often where, because you can kind of stay in that little gray comfort zone,

you know, and kind of make it. You know, I mean, you'll have these little issues here and there that you're like, all right, I'll have to kind of deal with it, whatever.

But yeah, you won't get anything done. If you see something like kind of like drastic to get done, right, you'll get it done way easier when you're used to this kind of. Or you'll just get done like kind of the minimum standard. Yeah. You just get the minimum.

Like you'll pay the rent. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. You'll, you'll just pay the rent. Yeah. But you're not going to like improve.

It's not going to get better. You're not to know. You're not to know. You're not to. You're not going to like this little story. I'm about to tell you. But, and I still do this from time to time.

So we'll get. Yeah. Okay. You'll get, we'll get crab legs from time to time, right? You know, crab legs for dinner or whatever, for some special thing. Whatever, Christmas dinner, we'll say. And so what I'd always do for whatever reason, I think I recognize this principle as far as crab legs go. So, you know, you got to peel the crab legs or whatever.

You got to crack them and take the crab leg meat out of the shell. So I would take it all out of the shelf first. You know, the typical protocol is crack one, eat one, crack one, eat one, you know. But I would take them all out of the shelf. shell first and I'd have this pile of deshelled crab legs and you can just enjoy the crab legs. See what I'm saying? That's like getting getting a big thing done rather than just keeping your head above water. So what I'm seeing?

Meanwhile, everyone's cracking shells and doing, you know, doing all this stuff. Meanwhile, my shells days are gone. All I got is this pile of just, you know, fruitful crab legs. You see what I'm saying? Where I'm telling you, right? You can kind of like organize your life like that. You'd be good to go. Crack those shells, bro.

In principle. In principle. So you'm saying? Basically, you're front-loading the work, right? And putting yourself through this adversity where now you can get the full benefit and pay off from that adversity. Rather than crack one, eat one, crack one, you know, like living minute to minute, day-to-day, you know, kind of a thing. That's what I'm saying. Don't let that happen, man.

Lean into the adversity. That's what we're doing. And by the way, when you do lean into the adversity, when you push yourself mentally, physically, you're gonna need red at fuel. That's true. You need the right fuel. Hey, check out joccofuel.com.

Get whatever you need. I am currently drinking a go and a hydrate because I already did the deaf reset. I did a workout. Then I did the deaf reset workout, which was wooden leg. It was three minutes of jump squats, three minutes of lunges,

three minutes of jumping jacks, two minutes of jump swats, two minutes of lunges, two minutes of jumping jacks. one minute of jump squats one minute um yeah okay you do three minutes of jump squats like out of the gate you're smoked you're smoked because that's it's one of those things that's absorbing all the all the energy that you have yeah each jump like three minutes of jumping as high as you can my by the end of those three minutes my vertical jump was going to the extent of my toes you know what

I'm saying it's exhausting but yeah so you're gonna need fuel right now I am deep with a hydrate and a Jocko fuel go energy drink. We got everything that you need. We got Time War, which I highly recommend. We got Joint Warfare, got Super Krill. We got everything that you need. We got collagen and colostrum. We got all the products that you need to fuel your goals.

We got creatine. I'm currently stacking 20 grams, 10 in the morning, 10 at night. Where are you at? About 15. Oh, so you stepped it up. Before you were 10 to 15, did you step up? More than anything, I actually reevaluated it Because you know like how you scoop it.

Oh yeah, you do heaping scoos. Yeah. So yeah, I think I'm at 50. Okay. Feeling good though. Two scoops. Always strong. Creatine inhydrate.

Always running off that, especially in the morning. Check, there we go. So check out joccofuel.com. Also check out origin usa.com. You don't need to buy stuff that's made by communism. You can get stuff that's made by freedom. We make our jeans, our boots, or who make everything here in America. OriginUSA.com.

Get yourself a pair of Delta Gines. Delta 68's. That's what I recommend. Freaking comfortable, cruising, whatever you're doing. Active cruising, squatting. Get squatting those things all day.

So that's what we're doing. Check out origin, USA.com. Not only made in America, but made from materials that are American materials. So this is what we're doing. Our forefathers

fought and sacrificed and died for our way of life and we need to reinvest in that way of life. We need to keep the ability to manufacture, which we lost for a little while, but we're bringing it back. OriginUSA.com. Check it out. Be American. It's true. Also jocco store.com.

Disillin equals for it. Look, we're representing on this path, whether you're doing Def Reset or not, by the way. Actually, I didn't talk to you about this. Maybe, because this is a grand prize winner, right, for Def Reset. Maybe I'll offer like a prize from the store. Actually, I know I'm good offer. I just don't know what yet. Got to be worth it, though.

You can't be like, oh, here's a, you know, one patch or something. A little bit bigger. Anyway, Jocko store. This one equals freedom. Shirts, hats, hoodies, good. We've got a few versions of these now. The stores, the store got developed, by the way. Look it to you.

So anyway, jocco store.com is where you can get this stuff. Some good stuff on there. Some new stuff coming, too, by the way. So sign up for the email. I noticed you made an Instagram account for the Jocco store. What is it, jaco. Dot store? Jocco.

And then in, I would say in about, 12 next year this time I'm gonna change it to just Defcore Mm-hmm see what I'm saying that that by that time everybody just gonna know you see I'm saying okay jocco store right now are you waiting well you know I feel like it's kind of Straight forward no but you're like you're putting all this effort into getting the word out but then you're gonna change the word That don't make no sense to me I'm gonna slowly change the word through the content but hey look I don't know I just thought of that like just now because really that's what it is but I just feel like if it's jocco store it's kind of like clearer, you know, they're like, okay, this is the jam. You see what I'm saying.

Um, yes. So when you go on there, oh, yeah, follow on Instagram. Hey, if you're on Instagram, you want to, so here's the thing. You're taking, you're putting up pictures and stuff from like, BTS, whatever they say. Sometimes. Yeah. So it's like, okay, so if you're going to be on Instagram and I found this out kind of naturally, which is a good deal.

The gram. Yeah. So you can make the algorithm work for you. You just got to be disciplined with your. Consumption diet. See what I'm saying? So what I would do is like I would like watch these little you know little video editing tips, right? Just out of interest.

And then after a while, that's all I'm seen, which is good. See what I'm saying? So that's what I try to do with this with this jocco dot store. That's the username there. So if you follow that if you follow Jocko store, your consumption diet is going to be on the path. See what I'm saying? Either way, some good stuff. Whether you follow or not, some good stuff on there, jocco store.com.

Also the shirt locker, which is the membership scenario or subscription scenario. Get a new design every month. That's a good one. So check that one out. We got some books. I've written a bunch of books about leadership. A lot of the principles that we talked about today are in these books. Also, Rob Jones wrote a book called Put Your Legs on.

Also, Dave Burke wrote a book called Need to Lead. So we got plenty of books for it. We've got kids books, Warrior Kid books. We've got some Warrior Kid podcast coming back at you. Want to go live with some Jocko with some Warrior Kid podcast. Ask Uncle Jake's going down. Also, don't forget about Ryan Mannion's book, things my brother used to say. Check that out.

It's a great kid's book. Also, we have Eshalom Front. We teach these leadership principles that we talk about today. We teach them. Teach them inside your organization. We can spend months for your organization. We can spend a day with your organization, anything in between. So check out at Eshalomfront.com.

If you need help inside your organization, also check out Extreme Ownership.com. It is our leadership training online. So you have access to it. You can go on there and check out some of the courses. Check out some of the live interactions that we do every week. So there you go. Check out extreme ownership.com for that. And if you want to help out service members active and retired, you want to help out their families. You want to help about Gold Star families. Check out Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee. She's got an amazing charity organization. It is America's Mighty Warriors. If you want to help or you want to donate or you want to get involved, go to America's Mighty Warriors.org. Also check out,

Heroes and Horses.org. And then, of course, my brother, Jimmy May, has got an organization and beyond the brotherhood.org. If you want to check us out on social media, we're on there. I'm at Jocco Willink. Echoes at Echo, Charles.

You can check out all the stuff at jocco.com. Just be careful because there's an algorithm there. It'd be nice if you could program your own algorithm. But I guess you would have to do that. Like, you'd have to manually do it, but they wouldn't accept you to manually do it because you're not as interested. They wouldn't know what you're really interested in.

It's going to be this one. Yeah, so you've got to be disciplined. I wish you could like a like downvote something that you don't want to see any more of. You can. Okay. But even that takes discipline. Like who has the heart to downvote it without. Is it like a thumbs down?

Yeah. And then I think you can click on. In fact, you can click on something. Like don't show me anymore. I have to see it. Yeah, it'll say not interested in this. Okay. And then they'll stop doing it.

Okay. I'll need to get into that. Remember the time I corrupted. I think it was a good deal. Dave Burke's search. page or I corrupted it. How? I think you search for like some wonky stuff.

And then if cops and then you click on it and watch it click on it. I did it. So I jammed him out. He was like whatever, but you can. Were you showing it to like, oh, you just did you do it by accident or did you on purpose? On purpose. So yeah, I know it was bad.

I know. But it was, it was a small part of a greater joke that we were doing because I was like, you know how you be like, hey, let me see your search page. It kind of says a lot about your. personality will say and then so I go on his search he's like oh yeah he doesn't know even the deal he's hardly everyone so he's just got jet planes

yeah I did I was like jet planes and like I don't know some like family dad stuff I was like probably you such a dork so and I changed it yeah and he was like what the hell is all mad or whatever not really mad but you know yeah and then I'm pretty sure he's the one who told me that where you can just downvote no no actually no she told me you can down vote but I'm sure that's how he fixed it I'm going to check into that downvote. Downvote stuff, man, curate your thing.

Well, we're on there. Don't spend too much time on there. And we're also, thanks. We're thankful. We're thankful to all military personnel and tonight, especially to our allies. And in this case, specifically our Canadian allies who have fought and bled and died alongside us

for the cost of freedom. Also, thanks to our police, law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, border patrol, secret service, as well as all other first responders, who fight and serve here at home to keep us safe. And for everyone else out there, let's remember these lessons from Air Commodore,

Colonel Leonard Burchall. It's the way that you purport yourself, your behavior, your appearance, your mannerisms, and even more important, your integrity, your selflessness. These are the foundations of pride, but more important, the foundations of self-discipline, the standards that you've,

set the standards that you hold that's where discipline is originated and it applies to everything that you do every little thing that you do every minute of the day that is the standard that is the discipline and that's all we've got for tonight and until next time this echo and jocco out