Jocko Podcast - 554: Maximum Efficiency On The Front Lines of Battle and Life

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

>Join Jocko Underground Full Episodes< Breaking down raw, firsthand combat lessons from U.S. Army soldiers fighting their way through World War II—lessons written in the field by men who had just experienced the consequences of good decisions, bad decisions, aggression, hesitation, discipline, and leadership.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 554 with Echo Charles and me. Jocko willing. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. I was running through some lessons learned, some combat lessons learned. One particular was dated 16 June, 1944. And the location, you know they have on, when you post something on social media, you can choose a location. Oh, yeah, yeah, like you tagged.

Yeah, you can tag a location of where you are. Well, this particular document has. Had that on it and what it wrote was in the field. So already had me in a good place mentally Because when you get these fresh lessons learned from people that had just fought significant battles You know that they're going to be solid So that's what we have and and I read as I was reading through these I thought man some of these are really worth sharing with the people So this is a

A document that eventually became unclassified from headquarters two-core U.S. Army and two-core. Of course, this is the core that landed in North Africa for Operation Torch in November of 1942. They got beat to Kazarin Pass. They reorganized under General Patton, and that's when they started to achieve some victories, multiple victories, back-to-back victories,

won the Battle of El Qatar. Eventually, they pushed the Axis, forces out of Tunisia, which kind of pretty much ended the fighting in North Africa. And then they participated in the invasion of Sicily under General Omar Bradley. And they did some hard fighting in the Italian mountains, including some grueling battles like Mont Casino. And that's so after that battle is when they captured these lessons. And they went on to help finish the war in 19. In Italy they fought the spring offensive and they were eventually deactivated in October of 1945

But they certainly had some some intense combat experience and from that some intense Lessons which they captured in raw form as another reason why I wanted to read this because a lot of it is first person accounts It's just quotes from the captain the lieutenant the sergeant the colonel The private and that's when you know you're getting the real goods right? So let's get into this headquarters two core in the field 16 June 1944 subject lessons learned two divisions and separate unit commanders two core one a detailed analysis is lessons learned during the two core advance is being made this study will be published at an early date rather than wait for the publication of the detailed compilation I wish to give you my comments now so

they can be acted upon. And he gets right into it. Towns must be taken from deep flank and rear. Out of the gate. That's just opening, opening stanza. Don't do frontal assaults, deep flank and rear. That's what we're doing. The usual practice of battering towns with air and artillery serves little purpose

and is extremely wasteful of ammunition and time. That's a weird one because it's a good lesson learned. We're probably relearning it right now. When you bomb the shit out of people, it's not as effective as you think it's going to be. And the case and point was this, was the blue-on-blue that we had, and my guys in a building

and having 150 rounds of 50 cows shot at them from freaking 30 meters away. And Matt Hasby got fragged, but other than that, like everyone was okay, if you would have asked your standard human, Hey 150 rounds went into this building. They think, oh, yeah, everyone's dead.

So it is, and the same thing happened. You know, when they talk about the Battle of Britain and World War II, the Brits were getting bombed by the Germans. And everyone talks about how devastating it was, but the morale of the British people actually increased during that time because, you know, when you get bombed, you ever had something where it's like a near miss? Some, something happens in your world,

and it's a near miss and your confidence kind of goes up. Look, it can have you the thing. We're like, oh gosh, we're lucky there. But that oh gosh we're lucky there is at least as often or sometimes more often like bro, I'm kind of indestructible You know what I mean? I can kind of do anything Yeah So that's why they're saying when when people are dug in and they're in reinforced buildings or they're in the basement And they have sandbags all of a sudden these bombs that you that seems so devastating

Like they don't have as big of an impact look at when the Jap when the when the when the when the Marines and the Navy would bomb the island campaign, they would bomb and bomb and bomb. And the Japanese would hardly take any casualties because they're dug in. And it seems so effective. But it's just not as effective as you think it was. And here it is this guy putting that word out. He says the delay caused by small detachment, by small enemy detachments is out of all proportion to the numbers and means at our disposals, meaning like little scraps of people.

can really cause a disruption. The combined, and he kind of explains why here, the combined use of armored and infantry units has been too cautious. The over-emphasis placed on firepower of tanks during the period when the weather and terrain conditions prevented full use of our armor has not been overcome and mobility has not been restored to its proper importance in the employment of tanks.

Too often, a column of tanks has remained inactive on a road held up by a single SP or AT gun. So anti-tank gun. This, the time lost waiting for infantry to arrive, deploy, and attack the gun could have been reduced by 50% or more by a rapid deployment and movement of the tanks or by a wide envelopment, which would in most cases have resulted in the capture or destruction of the gun. Likewise, relatively large groups of infantry have been long delayed by a small enemy group with a machine gun or to a stride a road. again the time wasted waiting for seven for the arrival and action of tanks could have been materially reduced by early and wide deployment so what he's saying is like oh you get like there's an anti-tank weapon and you need infantry to go attack that and so everyone just waits when they

could run the flanks with the tanks and same thing vice versa you got a machine gun which a tank can just roll up to but we're waiting and waiting and waiting for the tank to show up the infantry guys could have flanked her. So he's basically saying be more aggressive, which is going to be a very common theme you're about to hear in this. Too often, next one, too often commanders of all echelons waited for orders. Hmm. The rapid advance made the maintenance of communications difficult and resulted in instructions

being issued and received based on out-of-date information. Under such conditions, commanders must act on their own. responsibility initiative and judgment inactivity is inexcusable so we're being default aggressive and we're using decentralized command that's what we're getting that right there waiting for someone to tell you what to do the communications down the battlefield changes you got to you got to freaking get after it next we must be prepared mentally and tactically for a change in the character of combat when we next go into the line for we may encounter strong

and bitter resistance. At some date or place, the German may seek to make a stand, but our constant pressure should greatly hamper him from getting set. The main bodies following our mobile advanced detachments must be kept so in hand that they can be employed rapidly in accordance with simple and prepared plans. So they kind of know, you know, they're not on German territory yet, but at some point The Germans are going to lock in. And we got to be ready for that.

And when they lock in, we can't let them lock in. You got to keep on them. What he's called? Constant pressure. This is for the Jiu-Jitsu theory and practice as well. This is a business theory and practice as well. And then finally he closes out with speed, not haste, is still the great factor. So out of the gate, you can see where this is coming from.

And you can see it's just how all these things line up with, you know, decentralized command default aggressive keeping things simple that's what we're doing to make it prioritize and execute cover move that's what this is all about um fast forward a little bit here lessons learned in combat this starts off with infantry operations no attempt will be made to discuss tactics since the basic principles employed by gangus con are still in vogue today we're still doing the same thing the prompt shock action So this is the first element in here. Shock action.

The prompt follow-up of a shock action by infantry is of paramount importance. Now we get into the first-person accounts. Major Warren C. Chapman, 133rd infantry. In many instances, our troops have not taken advantage of shock action, and it has cost us many casualties. By the term shock action, all caps, I mean artillery concentrations, mortar fire, bombing attacks, tank fire, bazooka fire, and hand grenades. All must be followed aggressively and with no delay.

Artillery concentrations and barrages are practically useless unless they are followed closely enough so that the rifleman can close with the enemy before the enemy front line soldier realizes that the fire has lifted and runs back to man his guns. In following the artillery closely, you may have some. some casualties from your own artillery, but in the long run, your casualties will be much lower. This is classic cover and move. And it's such aggressive cover and move that they're like, hey, you may even take some casualties

from your own weapon systems. And you can see, he's saying, listen, you can bomb the hell out of some element, but unless you're advancing under the cover of fire, if you just give them time, they'll pop right up and they'll still be there. Because it's not gonna, it's not gonna do the damage that you think.

It'll definitely get their heads down, but if you're not advancing under the cover of that fire, you're not really gaining anything from it other than wasting a bunch of ammunition. So it's a bad move. It's funny shock troops. So I was at in a platoon back in the day and we were hitting some targets in a fake city, you know, like a fake urban environment. And there was several streets in this urban city and one of the streets on the other side of the streets there was only the facade of buildings do you know what I mean by a facade of buildings

like you ever seen the old Hollywood cowboy movies and like it's just the front of the building but there's no back to it so they had built something like that and the trading guys the trade at enemy was using those facades and we were given some target

and as we were given this target I said, hey, here's what we're going to do. We're not going to go through the city. We're going to run around this whole range compound. And we're going to enter from the back of the facades where these guys don't even have any walls protect them. And we did it. We smoked them.

But it was just shock action. It was like, oh, we totally surprised them. We just killed them all because they didn't, we came from somewhere. They didn't expect us. And we came very rapidly. And they had no cover. And we annihilated them. Shock action.

Shock troops. Sometimes just the absolute violence of action is one of the best advantages you can have on the battlefield. And listen, this applies to everything that you're doing in your life. Being super aggressive and making things happen has a winning characteristic of its own. And I'm not telling you to run to your death every time and we'll get into that. But just remember, the default aggressive mindset, which is seven out of ten times, is going to be better. Three out of ten times, like, you've got to take a tactical balls.

I get it. Continuing on, there is no fire more devastating and morale-shattering than well-directed tank fire. German tanks gave us very little trouble in casino, but at dawn one morning, they drove up one mark six and started firing at my O.P. Needless to say, I was scared and was sitting in a corner saying my prayers and trying to call the artillery. I stayed in that corner two until five minutes after the last round was fired before I went back down the trail with the phone to try and splice it on the line.

During those five minutes, the enemy could have come into the building and found me in the corner with very little fight left. This is him openly admitting. You know, you get that cover, you get that fire coming on you. You're just curled up in a ball. As soon as that fire stops, he's out there trying to make things happen. in casino the battalion used on average 500 grenades a day hell yeah

one of our methods of advancing was to throw a grenade into a room and then get into the room with the Tommy gun right after the grenade went off if there are any Germans in the room that who are still alive were found lying on the floor with no fight left that's some good CQB tactics right there little section about street fighting a sergeant off arthur norman 133rd infantry i'm experienced most i'm experienced mostly in village fighting the main thing is not to miss a house and when you do and when you go back in to take it you want to be certain not to miss a room or any other place a person can hide

when you go up to a house you want to go to the side where there are the fewest windows and where you have the most cover it's this is like day one when you get to a seal team and you're learning close quarters combat it's like you can't leave any uncleared space um cleared space that that's like a a term you know it's a term you got to watch out for and that's coming from world war two okay now we get into uh major warren c chapman once again 133rd infantry snipers weren't employed freely by both sides and I sometimes am inclined to think that the Germans had more success than we did. During lulls, our men got careless and became excellent targets. On the beachhead at Anzio, the opposite seemed to hold true.

In the house-to-house fighting or room-to-room fighting, most of the men preferred the Tommy gun because of its size, preferred the carbine to the rifle for working in close quarters. For defense, machine guns, both light and heavy, and bars, BARs, were placed. with forward elements. So that idea, even in World War II, getting that little bit shorter of a weapon, get a little bit easier to move inside the houses. Not that, you know, you don't have infantrymen with Mark 48 machine guns

entering buildings and getting after it. I mean, it happens. In many cases, no man's land consisted of about a 10-yard space between two houses. This was ideal for playing catch with grenades, A grenade that explodes on impact could have been used. That's a very interesting. I'm surprised that that doesn't exist.

It still doesn't exist. Like a grenade that you just throw and when it impacts, it explodes. That doesn't exist. It's all time fuse. And I'm sure there's a bunch of good reasons for that, you know, from a demolition perspective. But you hear all kinds of stories of guys throwing grenades and the enemy throwing them back. Because of the time. Yeah, because the time fuse.

And you also, I mean, you know, you can cook, you're not supposed to. But in combat, like you cook off a grenade for like two seconds, you know, 2001,0002 before you throw it because you don't want the other person to pick it up and throw it back. Comes with some tradeoffs there. Oh, there's some definite tradeoffs. But like World War II guys, they would get in some grenade, you know, some grenade. Hot potato scenario. Contested scenarios.

Some hot potatoes definitely going down. Yeah, the ones that I, the ones that I, explode on impact kind of remember you know those fireworks those little fireworks they're the little white things yeah yeah yeah wra whippersnappers yeah it's kind of like seems like that right yeah but you know those things they don't go off sometimes you know throwing about a mushy target yeah exactly right well i would imagine in the chaos of battle yeah it'd be a lot of mushy targets yeah yeah for sure so i don't know that's my theory yeah you definitely would have to put something super sensitive but at the same time how sensitive yeah because even when you throw

something right you're putting like a little shock value on it right yeah exactly yeah it's a good idea but it's probably there's a reason why it doesn't exist at least as far as I know yeah yeah yeah I'm sure yeah the the the safety part of that whole idea would have to be pretty sophisticated because almost like you would need like first it would need at least a little bit of a timer a little bit yeah because you need a safe arming distance that was what you're talking about A safe arming distance, meaning when you pull the pin or whatever, you need to be able to have a little grace period. A little two, three seconds to figure some shit out. Exactly right.

Because you figure, I don't know, you know, me, yeah, you know, I was here in San Diego. I'm not in the military. You know that about me. But it seems like when there's grenades flying, just the concussion of the grenade, even guns, is like a physical, you know, freaking imposition. that might set off some of those types of... Yeah, especially inside buildings. Oh, yeah. There's a huge...

Have you ever shot... You know, when you take... Let's say your Desert Eagle 50 Cal, when you shoot that outdoors compared to when you shoot it indoors. That's a huge difference. It's a huge difference. In fact, like, I...

There's a... I like shooting indoors much less than I like shooting outdoors. You know what I mean? Just because of that little concaught, you're like... Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, fully.

Annoying. Um, next counterattack. Every soldier actively engaged against the German army knows its method of counterattack late in the afternoon to disorganize our forces prepared, preparatory to executing in withdrawal under the cover of darkness. The principle of counter attacking the counterattack has evolved, has been evolved in the division with excellent results. So they know what the German SOP is and they just get ahead of it. Like your Oudalup is oh, you're going to attack us in the afternoon. Okay, cool. Watch this.

We're attacking you first. Captain Richard H. Sugar's 135th entry says, in numerous incidents, we have been too slow in taking advantage of our enemy. Again, if you think the enemy's doing something, you've got to act first. Major Fred H. Lipucci, 135th infantry. It is recommended that immediately following any such spoiling attacks, the enemy be pursued vigorously, either by passing through the disorganized assaulting troops with a reserve or by rapid reorganization. This, I believe, will enable us to pass through in or around the retreating enemy force and will prevent him from establishing himself on a new terrain feature. that idea of being a little, when someone's a little bit off balance

and pressing, it's like when in Jiu-Jitsu, I remember I figured this out from my old instructor Fabio Santos. I was watching him. This was when I was a white belt or maybe, yeah, I think it was a straight-up white belt. And I saw that when someone,

let's say, passed his guard and was looking to mount him, he was escaping that position before the person got them out. And that's when I realized, oh, you can't let somebody settle. Never let anybody settle If they settle, it's a problem

I mean to this day You can't let somebody settle It's even more Now we got those black belts You know they'll settle on you You're not going anywhere Yeah so you can't let people settle It gives them the opportunity to reorganize

It gives them the opportunity to reassess It gives them the opportunity to redistribute their ammunition All this stuff is happening Because you're catching your breath You cannot take that time to catch your breath You've got to push And even though it seems like it's gonna be backwards like well we're not ready yet no you're more ready than they are that's the thing

and and by the way if you're both equally unready but you go on offense you're going to win so keep that in mind next here first lieutenant burgess b wilson 133rd infantry of all the lessons learned on the field of combat each only emphasizes the teaching found in the field manuals every time a cardinal rule was broken a casualty resulted i was a little surprised at that one because a lot of times you know you don't know what the field manual and you have so much but this is world war two deep into world war two these people are passing word the fundamental principles of combat when you disobey them you're going to take casualties little thing here on the night attack attack plans must be the essence of simplicity

masterly conceived double envelopments generally only recruit result in friendly forces shooting up each other. So I'm going to say that again, a double envelopment is like when you're going to completely surround the enemy or you're going to make these big maneuvers too much. It results in friendly fire. What do we have to do? The essence of simplicity. Attacks have to be the essence of simplicity. Second law of combat leadership. Simple.

That's why. Lieutenant Colonel Joe L. Burn, born, 168th infantry. The best laid plans of mice and men often run agaft now and then. Minefields and booby traps sometimes curse many changes in a pre-planned night operation. An attack seldom progresses exactly as planned. Therefore, you must have flexibility. The best played plans of mice and men run agaft now and then. Simple, simple, simple.

And the other key component that I always talk about when I talk about planning is flexibility. You cannot have super rigid plans. And by the way, this is very tricky when we're talking about this right here. So a night attack. You want to keep it simple and it has to be quarter. Like there's things you have to coordinate and coordination The more coordination you have guess what the more complex things get and then when you get to a point when you get things really complex Now we can't be flexible anymore. So there's a there's a tug of war you have to play

Always and lean towards simplicity and that usually gives you more flexibility, but you have less control right everything's not gonna go perfect anyways People get people chase the the the dream of the Perfect things are gonna go perfect and that's just a dream. You know even something as simple is when you do Let's say simultaneous hits on a target and you try and get everyone to be in the perfect position before The three to one assault and now everyone you know now both targets are getting hit at the same time That that sounds pretty easy does that sound pretty easy? Yeah, yeah right like hey you're gonna go hit target B I'll go hit target a You know we'll both get in position once you're in position to get in position to get Give me a call on the radio and when I'm in a position I'll call and I'll say three to one attack right?

Yeah. Seems pretty easy. Yeah. How hard can that be? Yeah. Now you get someone that gets a little hung up on a fence and now it takes some extra three minutes to clear. Now you got guys that are sitting outside the other target. Yeah.

So I would always plan things like there's a there's a thing called the last cover and concealment. Which is, hey, once we leave this position, you know, your target, you're going to have to go 40 meters to get to the building. to get to the target and I'm gonna have to go 30 or maybe you have to go 100. But I'm gonna coordinate on that. So that way you're in there chilling. You're covering concealed. You don't have to worry about anything.

You're, hey, Jonk, are you ready yet? Nope. Okay, we'll sit here longer. But once you're outside that building, you can't sit there all day. So is it gonna be a perfect, like simultaneous hit? No, because it took me seven seconds to go my last 30 meters and 40 meters and it took you nine or 12 or whatever, but they're gonna be,

close. And that was another thing is like, guaranteed the time you need that radio to work, it ain't working. The time you need me to come up and say three, two, one. So guess what the signal is for you to go? You want to know what the signal is? Yeah. A big boom.

When you hear a big boom, it's go time. Yeah. If you hear a big boom, go. Because that means I went. Yeah. So go and get it. That's funny that, you know, when you run a 40, 40, 40, or dash for time at first they'd say you know ready set go or in market take go right

but technically it's like okay you got an account for that that lag right the reaction of the time whatever so what they started doing was the guy would start the timer right when they'd see the runner move so it's kind of that same thing right when you hear boom right when you see boom you know that and that's how they time hand timing yeah the Olympics they don't even use a real gun anymore. It's all like fake because guys could hear the mechanics of the gun. There's all these things. And even,

even it started with, you know, if I was closer to the gun than you were, I would get a little bit of a jump start. Yeah, fully. So now they have like a fake gun that is just specifically designed to get an even start. I heard this kind of, this is a crazy thing where they have it computer measured where they account for the lag

between the sound of start. This might even be in swimming. I don't know. I could be wrong, but whatever. There's a lag between the gun, quote unquote, the gun, and the movement of the racers, right? And if you're within that lag, they counted as a false start,

even though technically you started after the actual sound. Oh, yeah, because they know that a human can't react that quickly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that. Yeah, that's kind of crazy. So that's how baked into real life this non-synchronous you know, thing is. Yeah.

It's a little trickier than it seems. Yeah, yeah. Captain Frank M. Cockett, 168th Infantry. It is my belief and others share the same opinion that some men are afraid of the dark. To be left alone and lost is nerve-breaking. Second lieutenant, Santo Labella, 135th Infantry. I was ordered to attack a certain hill with my platoon at daylight. The terrain was wide open.

We had no cover whatsoever. The enemy allowed my platoon to proceed about halfway across the valley floor, then opened up with mortars, artillery, machine gun, and 20 millimeter fire. My platoon dispersed. I lost control and the platoon was scattered until dark. When attacking an objective, if there isn't any cover root, covered root approaching the objective

the attack should be held off until dark what a nightmare it's kind of it's the fire discipline of the Germans just to wait just to wait

like let them keep coming let them get in the open all right now the entire platoon is out in the open cool start shooting on them first lieutenant Jimmy North 135th

infantry a heavy concentration of small arms fire is demoralizing to the enemy at night. If you can get a man to pull the trigger, the sound of his rifle and the rifle on the right

and on the left will give him sufficient confidence to pull him right up to the objective. That's covering fire. And getting people to engage. It's like a comfort, like a comforting, a comforting feeling,

getting to shoot back at the enemy. 1st lieutenant harold c bishop 168th infantry it is of great importance in defensive positions to gain intelligence through reconnaissance and combat patrols the following faults were common with many of our patrols one carelessness in carelessness in moving forward resulting in discovery by enemy at distances of as much as 200 yards. Lack of aggressiveness, partly due to fear of AP minds or enemy ambush and partly due to lack of orientation of patrol members by patrol leaders, resulting in doubt as to mission and methods, inability to capture prisoners due to the above factors. But sitting in an OP, you have to get out there. Sitting in a command post, you have to get out there. You have to get patrols out there. Again, this is just begging you to be aggressive. begging you not to sit back on your heels

and think that everything is cool. It's not. I used to say when we would be doing land warfare when I was in training, training detachment, and there'd be a big gunfight, you know, a big paintball gunfight would happen,

and then it would stop, and I'd walk over and I'd be like, you know, to the leadership, I'd say, what do you think's going on right now? And he'd be like, oh, I think, we probably killed him. And I'd go, no, they're maneuvering on you right now. And you could see their face going,

damn it. You know, because that's what's happening. You have to assume that if the enemy's not making noise, the enemy's not shooting at you, they are maneuvering on you. That's what they're doing. They're in some dead space. They found a little ravine to get into, and they're maneuvering on you.

So you have to aggressive, you have to stay aggressive. Captain Reed B. Huff, 135th infantry. Be careful in sending patrols along the same route. Oh, we heard that lessons in our entire lives. Defense of operations, First Lieutenant Harold C. Bishop, 168th infantry improvement of positions must be continuous each man must have a foxhole standing

type for fighting purposes a slit trench is is much loss much less satisfactory and offers less protection although it is advisable to have one in the immediate vicinity of the foxhole for a man to sleep in digging in and continually improving your position how often is it we get into a situation in life where we stop trying to improve our position. Like this, that's kind of the standard. That's the standard deal. And that's not the right deal. You got to continuously improve.

You've got to continuously improve your position. Always. This section is about command post and observation post operations. The CP is the center of all operations and the OPE is a business establishment for the purpose of observing and destroying the enemy. Established observation post should not be subjected to the carelessness of commanders and their staff. Major Allison M. A. Conrad, 135th infantry. Control of movement in and around the O.P. must be continuous. It is fatal to relax this caution for one moment. Even in a unit as battle schooled as this one, I have seen occasions when excessive movement around the O.P. And in one instance, a CP brought immediate enemy fire, which caused unnecessary casualties. What do we used to call this?

Like, camping trip. Like, you get it into an observation point. And these are obviously bigger than what we would do in the SEAL teams. We didn't SEAL teams. One of our OPs might have like four or five guys in it. And then you'd have an element that's 200 yards away that has much more. But that little observation post, oh, you got to be, you got to keep it. You got to keep, you got to keep that movement down.

Technician fifth grade, Ernest J. Langell. Langley, 135th infantry. While under combat fire, one can never feel too safe. In one instance, our battalion had moved up and relieved another unit, and after the unit had oriented us as to the situation at hand, we settled down for the night, feeling quite safe as they had informed us that the enemy hadn't shelled the immediate vicinity of the CP. They had been there for 30-some days without their CP being shelled.

well the next day the first sergeant and other non-coms commenced to instruct the men not to do any unnecessary walking around and not to hang out their towels shirts or anything that could be observed by the enemy we stayed in this CP for two weeks without drawing a single shell but finally a few of the men apparently forgot or disregarded their instructions and hung out a couple of white towels to dry and sweat shirts also as a result our CP drew enemy artillery fire costing the lives of three men private first class william woodrow 135th infantry if you can see the enemy he can certainly see you do the things you have been taught when observing the enemy can see you you can see him he can see you this is a this is the field discipline activity right here this is what it's all about having good field crafts having discipline in the field. Light discipline, sound discipline. That's what the professionals are doing.

The unprofessionals, because they're hanging up a sweatshirt. Second Lieutenant Clarence E. Spike 133rd Infantry. It has been my experience all through the Italian campaign that the American soldier is inclined to bunch up in groups. The dough boy of this war seems to think that as long as he has

number of his companions close to him he is fairly safe and by the way this is not just some random thing this is the herd instinct that we have as as animals animals want to be together that when we are pack animals so we feel safer in a pack and this is this is you know don't bunch up this is something we've talked about this is a totally critical element of modern warfare don't bunch up don't bunch up don't bunch up I just have to say this all the time. Even with paint balls, people bunch up. In October, 1943, we're advancing in Italy.

In the approach march, it was a fairly dark night, and the men were walking on each other's heels when they should have been spread out. Suddenly, boom, a large caliber shell hit the column and wiped out the majority of a whole platoon of Company K. Had the men been at proper interval, damage would have been a great deal less. Staff Sergeant Harold F.

Mushchamp, 133rd infantry. One lesson I have learned in combat is, there is no foxhole better than the one you are in. That makes sense. Next up, Sergeant George E. Christensen, 133rd infantry. The 60 millimeter mortar is of very little value against well-prepared positions. When setting up your gun never set it up on the forward slope of a hill nor in a draw as these are usually zeroed in by enemy artillery or mortars and then he underlined this

Whatever you do use a little common sense Right we have to use a little bit of common sense with what we're doing and it's funny because there's some things in in war fighting that instinctively are very correct. I would say more so than in fighting. Like if you give an eight-year-old boy a squirt gun and you say, all right, I got a squirt gun. I'm going to hide in this room. Come and get me. There's a decent chance that what that eight-year-old kid that's never trained, there's a decent chance he does some tactically sound things. Now, Contrarily, like in a fight, you tell an eight-year-old that's never trained before, he's not going to have the instincts. Like, he might have the instincts to, like, throw big punches.

But even his punches, it'll throw big, big looping punches. You know, just there's a lot of fisticuffs of hand-to-hand combat that is a lot less instinctive than, oh, I'm sneaking up. It's almost like our hunting, our hunting instinct. are better than our fighting instincts. Yeah. So it's good to remember that. And by the way, sometimes we get so wrapped up in,

in, you know, modern tactical things that, like, you know, I had this funny story that J.P. tells is like we were out in desert training. And, you know, there's, you have protocols of where you're supposed to walk on patrol. You know, what's your distance is supposed to be from other guys. And I'm watching JP, JP's like 20.

I mean, he's probably 22 or something like this. Young, he's a one platoon guy at the time. And I'm watching him walk. And he's just, he's following the protocol kind of to a T. Like he's in the exact right position according to the spacing that you're supposed to have. And I walk over to him and I'm like, hey dude, like, why are you kind of standing out in the open right now?

Instead of, well, why are you standing the open right? He's like, well, this is the protocol. I go, if you were 10 years old and we were playing Army, where would you be? And he was, I'd be over by that, that, that, that, those bushes right there. And I go, be your 10 year old self. Be your 10 year old. Because even a 10 year old knows, I'm standing out in the open right now.

We want to move cover to cover. A 10 year old knows to move cover to cover. If I told you I was going to get you with a squaric on and we were 10 years old, you would move cover to cover instinctively. And by the way, occasionally you'd be like, oh, the hell with it. I'm going to charge. And that can be right too. But you wouldn't walk slowly towards me in the open, right?

This just wouldn't do that. So whatever you do, use a little common sense, please. Staff Sergeant John T. Cowell, 135th Infantry. There have been many instances of rushing into a situation without full knowledge of what is happening. We experienced situations where a little more time and preparation would have saved time, material, and lives. This is why it's seven out of ten. You as a leader got to know, hold on a second.

I'm not sure what we're looking at. Hold on. Let me take a minute. Now, if you have to, if it's 50, 50, you're like, wait, should we go or not? I'm leaning towards go. So when you say seven out of ten, you mean like seven out of ten, we should go? Seven out of ten, you should go. Yeah, yeah.

If you're looking at something like, wait a second, what should we do? Now, if you see clearly there's some things that you don't know what the threat is, probably a time to take that tactical pause. But if you're like, hey, I'm pretty sure I've got this figured out, forget it. Because the more you sit, the more they set up, the more time passes. It's just generally speaking, action is better than inaction. Generally speaking.

And by the way, if you make an iterative step, right? Maybe you don't say, hey, everyone charged, but maybe you say, hey, get some high ground over there. Let me send it, let me put a machine gun over on this building. Get some eyes on this set. Do that. Take some iterative steps. Don't run to your death.

take some iterative steps towards what you think might be the good move second lieutenant dean p hamilton 133rd infantry my company was ordered to advance one afternoon and along and along with the order came information that the high ground to our left was occupied by friendly troops we advanced with that assurance and we were caught in a heavy heavy flanking fire that supposedly from that supposedly occupied ground and had to withdraw or be trapped but The lesson I learned from that one experience is never depend on reports, no matter how official for protection of your flanks. Always take it for granted that both flanks are open and occupied by the enemy. First Lieutenant John V. Pendergrast, 135th Infantry.

In several instances where my platoon was advancing through vineyards, where visibility was limited to 15 or 20 yards, we forced the enemy to surrender even though we had never seen him. after being fired on from positions hidden from our view we would open up with every available weapon in that general direction and advance abreast in that manner several occasions on several occasions the germans waived white flags and came out with their hands up simply because we threw so much lead near his positions that he was afraid to expose himself to fire at us a man also forgets about being fired being afraid if you can get him to start shooting that's the second time we've heard that And that's just action to me, you know, action. And that's cover right there. Like imagine this. You can't see through the wine freaking vineyard vines. You can't see. Oh, we took fire from over there.

Everyone shoot in that direction and we're going to move forward. That's covering movement right there. And you can see the Germans are like, they're not even going to stick their heads up. Even though they probably know that the Americans can't actually see where they are and engage them with pointed, aimed shots, but who wants to just go ahead and stick their head up under a massive barrage of fire? The answer? No one.

Technical Sergeant Roy Walker, 135th Infantry. On the night of July 7, 1944, Company G attacked and took Hill 163 completely surprising the jerrys. We immediately began to dig in the hard rock for the dawn would soon overtake us. Dawn broke and everything was quiet. Too quiet. To our front, a single Jerry jumped up, started running like hell to his lines. One of our riflemen fired and missed. Then another took him took upon himself to fire.

Soon the whole company was placing its whole firepower on the single Jerry. The whole Jerry army let loose with small arms and 88s resulting in many casualties and deaths just because we had given away our position. strength and firepower on a single jerry. We learned by experience to hold and control your fire until it is needed. It's definitely something we need to watch out for. We get super excited. That happens in MMA fights where a guy gets like a little bit rattled. And the other dude just unloads everything he can and gases.

Like, not only did you gas and I'm okay, but now you know that you gassed and you know that I can survive your best. He's like when you see a Like a striker get taken But down by a you know A quote unquote striker gets taken down by a quote unquote Grappler in the first round And it's all over him And like positionally

But the dude avoids that submission This is like Sean Strickland right He just that first round I wish I put money on that fight I wish I put money on that fight I didn't I'm very nervous about putting money on fights I have not done well.

Okay. I've had insider information on fights and just been like, oh, I know that I know what's going to happen here and I've lost with insider information. How do you get insider? Insider information. Like I train with fighter A. Fighter A is trained with Fighter B and Fighter C. And Fighter A is just like, oh, Fighter B is going to kill him.

I've trained with both those guys. This guy's way better. Oh, cool. Thanks for telling me. insider information i'm gonna go back yeah yeah and this is back in the day when i was betting like 200 bucks and it was like pretty significant you know pretty significant to throw 200 dollars down the drain even if you bet like 20 bucks like the fight seems like way more nerve wracking yeah yeah but the strickland fight i trained with strickland like in in in just in grappling and like oh he's a good

freaking grappler you know what i mean and and and not only not just that he's that he's a good wrestler and so yeah I was tempted I also feel like I jinx I jinx things if I bet on them like that's the other thing I've taken away like I have insider information I know I'm gonna win and they lose like that's that's me that's all me you know I'm bad luck you know what I'm saying so a lot of times when I'm very excited about a sporting event I can't say anything because I feel like I'm in it I feel like I jinx it makes sense seems real but I don't know I could go I should think back on some things I've straight up jinxed, but I didn't jinx Sean Strickland.

I didn't bet on it. I didn't tweet about it, you know? Let it play. I just let it play out. And I had that, I felt like pretty good insider information. That it was going to be hard for this Cosmoat to submit. Like you get taken down. Like you might get taken down for it, but you get submitted.

Yeah. Yeah. Generally speaking, that's like a, that's completely correct where you spend energy, mental, emotional, physical energy on like getting this thing. And you're like, oh, wait, I think this is my opportunity. You know, I'm going to kind of send it, send it. And then you fail. And in a split second, you run all the numbers.

Like, oh, man, that's what it took for me to be like three quarters of the way successful and then fail. I don't even think I have that much. By the way, yeah, that was everything I had. Right. That was everything I had. I got to spent it all. I spent it all. And this dude doesn't seem to care.

And by the way, Sean Strickland did not seem to care. Didn't seem like he spent much of anything. And even if I do have something left, I'm like, bro, I'm going to spend it again and then fail again because this guy seems like he didn't really spend much. So you're like even more behind than him. And I think for a cosmos. Also, he'd been so, like, dominant, you know? And all of a sudden, Sean Strickland was just like, what? Yeah.

Like, oh, you got good positions on me in one round? Yeah. Let's see what happens the next round. So real. Yeah. Good, good work, Sean Strickland. Yeah, that can kind of be for anything, too, where, you know, you're making this attempt at whatever, you know, even stuff at work or whatever. You're making these attempts, you're putting in all this energy or whatever, and then it comes out junk.

For sure. And you don't even want to do it anymore. Yeah. It happens in anything. Yeah. It happens at anything. When you dump your load and you're like, okay, that was everything I got. And I still came up short.

Yeah. You see that wrestling too? Like someone almost get pinned, almost get pinned, almost get pinned. And then they gave every effort that they could to pin somebody. And then that person didn't get pinned. And now the offensive person is now exhausted. Yeah. It's like, oh.

And it's reassuring, too, for like Strickland coming out of that first round. like hey dude you just had me as dry as I'm going to be and you're as fresh as you're going to be and you got me for four minutes on the ground and I'm still here that's that's very good it works both ways sometimes so like even okay I'm going to use you as the example let's say you have my neck you're a little guillotine that you like to do and let's say but the grace of God and I put in all this energy to like endure and and then escape it. Finally get out.

I'm like, ooh. And then like three seconds later, I'm back in it. I'm like, oh, I don't have it. I don't have all that energy anymore.

See what I'm saying? Even if I do, like, I can just look forward to this happening again and then I really won't have it. See what I'm saying? So it's like you're mentally defeated because of just the numbers themselves,

emotional physical numbers, you know? I think about in those particular scenarios, like I can. this is not an easy survival for you. No. You're not like, oh, cool, Jocco's working real hard, but I'm not, no,

you're like, you're not breathing clearly, you're using your arms. I got in some kind of a war the other day with somebody, some kind of a submission war. And it was just like both of us, we got dug, both of our arms were just smoked. But yeah,

that can happen. And that's why, but I think what's important to remember is, Number one, you know, maintained conscious control over what you're doing. You know, and good fighters will do that. Good fighters will be like even with a submission, like even when I train fighters right now, it's like, hey, what's your next move? Because if you're in ADCC or UFC BJJ and you get someone's foot and you think they're going to tap just because we all tapped in practice to that, dude, they didn't tap into that.

Go ahead. Break my ankle. I don't care. I'm going to win this. And what actually breaks the ankle? You know what I mean? Because like, now listen,

there's kind of sickening videos now on the interwebs of just heel hook ACL compilations where it just goes and you can just see it go, you know? So it definitely can happen. But also how many, if they made compilations of all the people that get caught in the heel hook or get caught in a straight foot lock or whatever. And it looks like you're like, oh gosh, oh gosh. And then they get out and they keep fighting

because it literally did not do what it's supposed to do. So there's a little bit of mystery there. So when you're in a competition and you try and submit someone and then it's not working, if you just keep cranking on it, you're going to use up a lot of energy. And when they finally get out, they're going to have this confidence.

Like, go ahead. When, yeah, those things just, they just occur and you have to pay attention to what you're doing and the other thing is when you get out of that you gotta go hard at someone

like you can't you can't sit back like if you escape my guillotine the best thing you could do is like try and like attack me right but you don't you're always like so relieved you're like oh gosh

but what do I do I freaking go I go again I go right for your neck again too by the way I'm not like oh I'll try a sweep now no no it's like this is what I'm doing yeah so being also remembering you know it's like when someone when there's some problem on the battlefield or in the on the sport field right like oh man it's really hot in here like hey we're at this grappling event it's super hot it's hot for you but it's hot for the opponent too it's really cold outside we're on a we're on a mission it's freezing cold outside

Yeah, it's cold for the enemy too. Yeah. So you got to keep that in mind. And when you have that moment, when you feel tired, they feel tired too. They just used all their energy to try and get out of your guillotine. Yeah. And they're breathing hard. You're so right about being conscious of it because I've felt that before where, yeah, like if I escape a submission or whatever,

and I feel like it was a battle to escape it. But then I automatically shoot, you know, whether, be a guard pass or whatever. It's like you feel it worth. Like if you, you're conscious of, okay, now I'm about to escape, you know that moment right before you escape.

And you're like, okay, I feel this, this is about to be successful. So let's get ready for that next move or whatever. And every time that I've done that, you can feel the success. You can feel that little opening.

That's a good way to go about it. Yeah. That's a good way. Because by the way, yeah, because when you escape, if that person was hanging on for the life of them

and when they finally escape, they're going to have that lapse in intensity and focus. Yeah. And that's when your opportunity is. So you ever did like circuit? Because this is obviously this is a mental thing. It goes without saying, but I'm analyzing how it works mentally.

You've ever done like circuit training, right? Mm-hmm. Like you got this circuit, that circuits. So I found that when you're doing the circuit, you don't really get tired. I don't feel tired. doing the exercises. I feel tired between the exercises.

And so I'll start, you know, I do the circuit, right? And I'm thinking to myself, oh, shoot, I'm making really good time right now. And the way I feel, I feel like I'm really energetic. I think I'm going to do good. And then right when I finish this one movement, I feel all the fatigue just dump on me real quick. And I'm like, oh, this is a mental thing. I feel like, you know, I like just that feeling of, okay, I'm going to relax now, you know, rather than often. But mentally

And I think it I mean, not I'm saying Not I'm saying how loud It goes without saying Where like physiologically It follows your mentality You know

Yeah It's like when you're rucking You take a break Yeah Like you're totally good to go You're tired But you're like fine And then you take a break

Yeah And if you take too long of a break Everything's just cold And miserable That's everywhere Even You know how they They say

And I agree with this And I've experienced it Both sides Where if you let's say You work You know 8 hour shift or whatever at your work,

and then you plan to go to the gym after work, don't go home first because it's that same thing. Next up, you know, there's a bunch of different sections in this. This one's about rations. Every effort should be made to augment the C or K rations, which must be of necessity be fed to the frontline soldier. The C or K type ration is an emergency ration

and is not designed to feed troops over long periods of time. Staff Sergeant John DeVosste's, 133rd infantry while troops are on the line kitchen should be able to draw materials to make pastry such as donuts cookies cakes etc to go with the man's k or sea rations whatever it may be it builds up the morale and tells them that their kitchen crew is thinking of them and not sitting in their beds staff sergeant delbert f leet 133rd infantry when bringing rations up to the end up to the company always be sure not to bring fire down upon the area or vicinity of the company by pulling in too fast with the vehicles. Always pick a secluded spot where the enemy cannot observe your movement.

That's hardcore right there. When you're like telling the food guys, like, hey, bring us food, but don't make a spectacle out of it. If you get seen, we're going to get bombed. That's when you're hardcore. There's a section on interrogation. interrogation technique could only be improved by actually practiced, by actual practiced and much was learned in this respect, especially after we got a clear picture of what information the S2 and G2 are after and just where and how we fit into the picture. We found that it often works out better if two interrogators work on one prisoner at the same time. The main advantage being that it keeps the prisoner on the hop, not giving it.

him too much time to think and also two interrogators can think of more than one it goes on to tell the story two prisoners from the seventh company two hundred eight two hundred and eleven p gr were brought in together since both had polish names we took them on together it turned out that one was a polish pole hating the germans and was forced to fight while the other one considered himself a german and was an ardent nazi our fears that the Nazi would spoil our willing prisoner proved unnecessary as we as the two wanted to show each other up and tried to outdo each other on the amount and exactness of the information they had. That's pretty wild.

And then we get into this last section here, which is about personnel. So what we're dealing with human beings. The lessons presented in the previous chapters, and by the way, this is like a hundred page document. I didn't read a lot of it. The lessons presented in the previous chapters have to do with operations and technique employed in fighting the war, while this final chapter has to do with the individual fighting man and his problems.

One of the quickest lessons learned by the individual is that continued discomfort is not a necessary requisite to gain the status of a battle-hardened combat soldier. the advantages of a feather bed in a villa over a pup tent on the ground are soon recognized as the soldier learns to preserve himself for the period in which hardships are unavoidable basically saying like hey if you have the opportunity to be in good conditions be in good conditions it's like the old infantry saying which we used in the seal team as well is like what was it uh don't don't don't stand if you you can sit don't sit if you can lay down don't lay and if you get the chance sleep hey if you get a what is he called a pillow bed what a feather bed if you can get in a feather bed rather than a ground pad get some dude i see you you have a look of full approval on this i just think it's funny because when you're in the moment i think in certain environments the culture is says the opposite you know so like you know like the guy who's always taking a nap you know he's looked

that is lazy. Are you taking this personally? But, well, I've noticed this. I've noticed this for a long time where, yeah, you know, someone's like basically recovering so they can be in good physical condition, you know, like that's so their state of, but yeah, they're going to be sitting down, right? Rest in, whatever.

But it's like, oh, wait, why are you sitting down? In fact, I remember. football you'd get punished for sitting down or or like you know go down on one knee right and then some people be you know let's say it's their first year yeah they slouch and they go back on their foot you know kind of thing and then they'd get in trouble for it like bro what they guys recovering between freaking plays is what I'm saying like what up but I don't know it's frowned upon looks lazy so I'm glad my man is illustrating that there when it's uh you got to get that feather bed my homie I'm with it I'm with it whatever bro you know how like um whatever so I

I saw these videos on like private jets, right. They're just talking about private jets and all the stuff. And they have a thing in there called altitude. Like there's a, it's called altitude. So it's like it's whatever, the pressure or I don't know, something where the atmosphere in the private jet is like you're low. So what that does is cause it's less fatigue. So let's say you have a, you know, you have a speech or something that you've got to be spot on with. you know, maybe a Q&A, you know, you know, after the speech, you know?

So you got to be sharp, you see what I'm saying? But it's across the country. So yeah, you can fly in that coach, you know, see what I'm saying? With that recycled air, you know, that freaking high altitude scenario. Or you take the private jet. People would be like, oh, freaking diva private jet. Oh, or is it? You see what I'm saying?

Because you don't, you have way less fatigue. Now you go to your little speech and you're going to be sharp. You see what I'm saying? So I agree. Hey, maybe this is a little bit. is personal. Maybe this document is literally for me. Maybe just drink a go when you get on the ground. Yeah. Or you want to pay. What did you say? You said across the country? Across the country wherever. That's a hundred grand. So you might want to just have a go. I have some good night when you

get on the coach airplane. They're so in fear of. Yeah. What I'm saying is. But you see what I'm saying. So okay, cool. We can have the go. But as far as recovery goes, if you want to be at your best, these things make sense to me okay I will order one feather bed for echo Charles good thank you there was a dude I think oh no it's JP JP had like what's what's like a thing to clean yourself with it's kind of like a yeah the luth yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah if he had one of those dude he got some hell for having that thing JP's it but he's in your mode yeah he's like hey I need this for you know recovery refreshment break you want to be the best person you can be under all these

It's that good skin replenishment out there. Look, if we're trying to get excess skin, excess bacteria off of our body so we can perform our best, that's what we're doing. Luf all day. So what I'm saying? Okay. Well, I don't know. I don't use a loof. I'm way too tough for that.

So now you're tougher than JP. No. This is what I'm here. JP. I have a word with you about that one. Which kind of reminds me, too, where these are, this is like a cultural thing. thing because it's like, okay, oh, yeah, you're sleeping on the job, right? You're sleeping on the job. Let's say I'm going to take my lunch break, right? And I'm going to go take a nap. Like, oh, what's he being lazy or something

like this, right? Okay. But if I put the word power in front of my sleeping, now it flips it, literally 180, right? So it's like, oh, oh, you got to take a nap? What are you tired? Whatever? Better branding. Better branding on a power nap. I'm going to take a power nap. And actually, I remember you said that. Yeah, power nap's a real thing. Oh, yeah, yeah. Wait, well, I said it to you when. It was a long time ago. We were in New York. We're going to do,

it might have been the live podcast. I forget. Oh, and I was like, I'm going to take a power now. No, no, no, no. You told me, um, okay, this is literally it played out. Okay, and I'm totally remembering this now. Okay. And you made a video.

You're like, okay, you know, me, I'm getting, and this is your video. So this is me being jockey right now. Video on myself. Oh, look at me. I'm getting in the zone. And I'm getting the zone. I'm about to, you know, go on this thing and do this thing or whatever. And look at echo.

and then you pan over to me laying down on the couch, lazy, or whatever you said, all this stuff. I'm like, okay, that's funny. It was a funny video. And it looked funny because I was like splayed out all lazy. But later that day, actually later that in that moment, it was like a few minutes later, you're like, actually that couch is good if you want to take a little power nap before we start. And you were serious. I was like, oh, that's weird because just the second ago, see what I'm saying? A little bit different branding.

Maybe I had a double standard one for you. and one for me. Yeah, sure. No, it was, to me, it was like how it looks versus the reality of it. And if you wanna, you wanna overcome that look of laziness, all you gotta do is like, just like I said, branded different.

Is this in New York? Was this in New York? Yeah. Dude, that was, what was crazy about that was, you never know what the hell I'm gonna talk about. And like I do, obviously. And I had this like whole, like super crazy, heavy podcast about Seth Stone.

Yeah. and you had no idea what I was gonna do it. I'm like, I'm like wondering if I'm able to get through this thing. Yeah, you know, and you're just over there, just not giving a shit about it. You're just like, oh, I'm gonna talk about frigging whatever, jujitsu. So it's pretty funny that I was actually probably trying to get myself a little bit,

you know, like levity in the situation by having some fun. because I was like, actually we talked about it. When did you realize, you said like when I came out or something, like you looked at me and you were like, oh shit, like this is going to be heavy.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, your whole demeanor kind of changed. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. But yes,

I always look at it as this is part of the process. Knapping, feather beds, you know. Lufras. Yeah. Or well, you know,

that one's a new one for me, but I understand where J.P. 's coming from with it. Seems same. Well, Captain Fresh. It did damn good work. There you go. Maybe that sniper, you know, has to have some fresh, you know.

There's some word. I wish I knew it. I've seen it before. Like it's removing a layer of skin kind of. Yeah. What's it called? Exfolio. Yes, yes.

Maybe JP needed just like to be a little bit sharper. Exfoliation is going to go a long way over in Ramadi. Yeah. By the way, using a louvra in. He's literally taking a shower in a shower tent Like with just moon dust everywhere Getting mortared regularly by the way Didn't didn't that shower tent literally get hit

I think I'm pretty sure that that shower tent literally got hit I didn't don't quote me on that Yeah, but Something like that happened Yeah I think he got hit when he was walking over there Yeah I forget but no doubt I mean Camp Corregidor got mortared all the time and it was not a big base it wasn't like you're on this massive base like camp romadi was

bigger was much much bigger so it got mortared a lot but it was huge so you you know you'd hear this the sirens go off but you and you might hear the distant you know explosion but you still just be like kept going about your business now we did get camp mark lee got hit with mortar got with a mortar like in our compound and it blew holes into our water tank and luckily thank god i mean it could if it would have hit one because we were in tents yeah you know if if if it would have hit one intense it would have been mass casualty um i think leif's tent actually got hit but again no one did so that's like we had to get a new water uh water tank And these are like a massive water tank, like bigger than this room.

Yeah. And luckily our CBs were able to go and make that happen, which meant that I think they stole it from somewhere. It's making it happen. Making it happen. The CB's that's one of the skill sets of CB's. Yeah. It's just like acquiring shit that you need. And they acquired it.

Yeah. That's freaking legit. I think you're right though. I think I do maybe take it a little bit personal. Yeah. You're sensitive to this. I think so now. Now that we've explored it, I mean, as far as in regards to me.

Because you also, bro, you don't. You may say that, but you don't care. Because there's times where you're just like, no, you just don't participate in activities because you're not participating in because they could interfere with your rest. Echo Charles not required for these activities. That's the most part. But yeah. So yeah, but that part's right too. But every once in a while, I'll see, I'll find it in a, you know, this is hindsight where I'm like, hey, wait, I feel like I might, this might, this might.

might bother me a little bit more than it maybe should. And like, and this is what will happen sometimes. Like, let's say someone will call me, right? It'll be in the afternoon. I know it's only jokes. That's the thing. That's where I got to really tighten my whole shit up because I know the joking. But people will be like, let's say call or, uh, or whatever.

They'll see me in the afternoon. They'll be like, oh, hecko, whatever. You know, good to hear from you or whatever. Did you just wake up? They'll say that. Like I've been sleeping all day. Yeah. You're sensitive.

What the hell's wrong with me? All right. Cool. Yeah. And the other thing. This you know the whole sleep thing like people think oh you you do not recovery like you don't believe like no actually I I understand sleep is good for you sleep is great sleep as much as you can but also the people that are like If you have gotten less than six hours of sleep it's the equivalent of having three alcohol drinks it's like no

Yeah, no I've done freaking all kinds of crazy very complex cognitive acts acts while on zero freaking sleep yeah Zero. Now, I also, I know that I do have a little bit of a genetic, um, um, predisposition to not need sleep. Because when I go like toe to toe with someone where we're not sleeping, like, there's no one that's ever been like with me like for the whole time. You know, it's like always you can see. Oh, they're fading now. Yeah.

And I don't know what that is. But yeah, I've never had anyone like, oh, like waking me up. but I'm waking a lot of MFers up over the years. I used to have, I had an assistant batuqueur who was a freaking awesome guy. And when he would be falling asleep like while we were working. And I would wake him up by going,

you're losing the bubble, you're losing the ball. And he would look so like shell shocked to what I would say to him. Like I would let him, you know, when you're watching something, you'd see like their eyes start to go like with a little kid. They start doing that and I'd let it I'd let it go and I'd let it be

Like I'd let him sleep You know I'd let him get past just like the head Because you know when your head falls a little bit And you kind of wake yourself up I would let him do that Until he stopped doing that And he actually went to sleep And then I'd freaking grab him

You're losing the ball between him Be all shell shocked You're wrong for that man You know that was kind of mean But yeah that's just like like I said I don't know why that is But I've always been that way And, you know, like, oh, is it gonna catch up with me?

Probably, you know? I guess. Like, if I haven't been recovering properly for my whole life, then it's probably at some point I'm just gonna like get, you know, just fall off the cliff. Yeah. And just not, you know, we just not wake up, just die. Just be like, yep, that was it.

Should I slept more. Yeah, I feel like to do it. I would like to see more. I can't. You know, it's like, oh, it's not like I'm, I'm actively going, oh, I want to sleep this amount of time, but I'm going to actively sleep less. Like, no.

Even when I go, like, I'll go somewhere where there's no, you know, I'm going where there's no thing that I have to get up for, right? I'll go somewhere in the mountains, right? And I'm in a cabin in the mountains. I'm not, you got no work to do. I'm with my wife. And it's like, okay, well, what time I'm going to wake up? Well, oh, no alarm clock, no nothing.

Nothing to get up for at 433 my eyes open and I'm just like ptf ptm So it's not like some and you know that's just the way it is so I'm not you know over here And I think I said this the other day, but you know if I if it's if it's like if I'm gonna get less than four hours of sleep Like five hours of sleep it's kind of like yeah I'll try and sleep in more and so and then I will like like I think six six and a half hours for me is kind of what my body expects and needs and is programmed for. Yeah. So. Yeah, it feels like if you're like cumulatively, you know, jamming yourself up for, you know, sleep deprivation over time or whatever, there'd be so many symptoms in science.

And I don't think, uh, giving, even giving your lifestyle or whatever, you know, you're mental and physical like. Yeah, yeah, we should already see them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. But no, I'm down for that. We're going to find out.

Yeah, we're going to find out. We're going to find out. All right. We'll sleep as sleep as much as you can. Get your freaking feather bed out and your lufra and make it happen. All right. This next section is about replacement procedures. It is an invaluable aid in the training of replacements in that it provides them training

and conditioning in the presence of battle itself common to the conditions which they will fight. So you have to make your training as close to. battle as you possibly can. Second Lieutenant Robert T. Hunter, 135th infantry, it is difficult for an officer without combat experience to take over, to take command of a platoon in a battle-wise engagement experienced outfit. He is subject to his own doubt and misgivings as well as to the doubts and misgivings of the men under him.

So we're talking about a new guy showing up, no combat experience, and what's going to happen. He may be faced with the problem of taking command of a rifle platoon in a rifle company right in the middle of an attack. His predicament may be further complicated by the fact that all his past experience has been limited to staff positions or a headquarters unit. The normal tendency is to attempt to stress his ability by taking immediate initiative in the attack, an attitude of I'll show you all I've got what it takes isn't it crazy I wrote about this in leadership strategy and tactics like however many years later 70 years later his tendency is to stress his ability by by showing his initiative in the attack I'll show you I've got what it takes the result is generally one officer casualty or for or frequently fatality so if you show up and

you're a new guy and you're like I'm going to show you guys what I'm made of follow me watch I'm going to give the orders here you're going to be a casualty or you're going to be dead remember that that no experienced combat platoon expects a raw recruit and that's what he is to his men to be to personally be the first man to jump out and land the assault of the regiment or and sorry, and lead the assault of the regiment on hill ump the bump. So they don't expect that of you. They don't exist. This is exactly what I wrote in leadership strategy and tactics.

Like, don't act like you know everything. You don't. And everybody knows that. They are expecting him to be as green as he is and as scared as he is. He will be hitting the ground every time he hears a shell go over some buck private. Oh, sorry, until some buck privately casually mentions, it's okay, Lieutenant. Those are ours going over to greet Jerry. That was about as like hardened combat, you know, in Ramadi when, when, when, when, when,

when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, when, we, when, when, we, when, just showed up for, like, to come visit and they get off, just go running for the bung. You just it's outgoing. You act like the hardest M. F or anyone would ever seen. Act like, like, like Sergeant Barnes in platoon. You know what I mean?

The outgoing goes, you see a guy's shutter, you're like, that's outgoing. Yeah, yeah. You know, just like you're the baddest MF or that ever walked to earth. Because you guys can tell the difference, like, so naturally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's outgoing. Hell yeah. Just get a grip, you know.

Continue on. Far better. Let him take a deep breath. Swallow hard for five minutes. Forget all the saluting and chewing outs he used to be so good at back in the States and Thank the lad let him find out who among his noncoms have the most combat experience and learn their secrets Give them full regard don't be afraid to take and ask their advice Don't beat it don't try to be a world beater I always thought that was a modern term

Don't try and be a world beater. The first few days, take it easy, ask a lot of questions, and learn as many answers as possible. With luck on his side, he may last the week out. If he lasts the week, he will have soon enough, learned enough, and done enough in his own natural way to carry him through from then on indefinitely. That's just great advice. Just great advice. You don't got to act like you know everything. You don't have to step up and try and prove yourself.

You should just be asking questions trying to learn. You can say in a week. Like this combat stuff. This isn't some freaking crazy rocket science. There's some basic principles you've got to learn. You can take a week to learn them. And once you learn it, you're probably going to be fine. But those first couple days, if he survives the first week, if he survives the first week, man, let's survive the first week, man.

Let's worry about that. Let's not worry about, you know, train. to act like the the the the sergeant york over here staff sergeant andrew nordhill junior 133rd infantry i have found that recent replacements lack sufficient knowledge of automatic weapons the bar is a very important weapon and should be stressed in basic training most replacements don't have the slightest idea of how a rifle crack sounds when fired in his direction german weapon should be used for this type of training so that the individual soldier can distinguish them by sound. In other words, training should include more of battle drills with overhead firing.

Last but not least, they have a tendency to bunch up on March or another formations. So familiarizing yourself of what that enemy fire sounds like is what we are doing. 1st lieutenant Donald C. Johnson and 1st Lieutenant Clifton R. Farnham 135th infantry There's not enough training giving for scouting It takes a brave, quick-thinking man

To be a good scout The type of men which we are receiving As replacements at present are very poor It seems that every man That is incompetent in other type units Is put in the infantry This results in the high. high percentage of casualties among platoon leaders and good non-commissioned officers.

The platoon leader has to be the first scout and also lead these replacements up to the fighting positions personally or they don't see or they seem to disappear about the time you need them most. Half of my platoon at present has had different training than that of an infantry rifle company. And first lieutenant Robert Lodgy, 133rd infantry. All men in the squad should be given an opportunity to train to training to lead the squad. The replacement private of today is the NCO of tomorrow in combat. So you got to get you guys leading out of the gate. That's so important. So important. Let them step up and let them lead things during training, please. Now we get into morale. It is believed that the word morale is the most misused in the official language of the

U.S. Army today. Actually, it is far more than the U.S. So actually, it is. It is far more than USO shows and donuts. The word seems to bring to mind. It is confidence in self, unit espree, and a will to carry out orders all bound together by superior leadership. The former should properly be called entertainment and has its proper place as a medium to relax the individual, thus simplifying the installation of a high state of morale. It is well to note that in victory, however small the engagement, morale is highest,

while in defeat, it is at its lowest ebb. That's interesting. They talk about morale. It's like, oh, the USO and the shows that they're going to put in on and all that stuff, that's just entertainment. That's not morale. It'll relax you a little bit, which will open up an opportunity for morale, but it's not morale itself. And you can throw all the damn shows and concerts.

and USO tours at the troops, but if they're losing, it doesn't help their morale. So keep that in mind. Second Lieutenant Roy L. Humphrey's Jr. 135th infantry. There's been a lot written about morale since the start of this war. I've seen the effect of USO shows, mail, food, etc.

These are all big items, but the largest factor in combat is leadership, especially that displayed by platoon leaders and NCOs. On the front, there are innumerable difficulties such as bad weather, poor food, long marches, to mention a few. When a unit has been on the line for a long time, these things grow in importance. Leaders must be on guard and must not allow their men to believe that they are getting a raw deal. If the leaders can instill in their men an aggressive spirit and maintain strict discipline throughout the campaign, they will find the morale of their men a lot higher when the campaign nears a conclusion.

You know, he's not saying give them more donuts. He's not saying give them more U.S.O. shows. He's saying, hey, discipline and aggression. That's what keeps the spirit high, the morale high. What a mistake it is. You know, with your kids, buying them the freaking donuts, letting them watch the movie late, all that stuff. It's a short-term win.

Oh, dad, you're the best. Cool. Look at me in three months. Where are you at? Dad, what did you do to me? I'm sick. I'm weak. I have no capabilities.

We're not doing that. Hard training is the best thing for morale. That's what it is. Not donuts. Not USO shows. Not video games for your kids. That doesn't help. It might open up an opportunity for good morale.

It's not going to give them high morale. Lieutenant Colonel Harold, Harold L. Stipp, headquarters. 34th Infantry Division. Enlisted men appointed officers in the field of battle because of outstanding performance of combat duties have proved far more competent than the replacement officers received. This is not due to lack of ability in many cases of replacement officers, but due to the lack of experience which can only be gained on the battlefield. Let's we get those David Hackworth, Mustang officers, getting battlefield commish.

Reports indicate that men are far more willing to follow battle-tried enlisted men who are commissioned than a new replacement officer. Reported confidence in leaders gained from this source proves that fighting efficiency of the small frontline elements is greatly important. improved. Experience within this command has proven that no battlefield appointee has ever been reclassified for inefficiency or inexperience while this is not true of the officer replacements received through normal replacement channels. I mean, you can't do anything better to screen somebody for combat leadership than put him in a combat leadership role. Like, you're not giving

a commission to some sergeant that was, that wasn't a badass, right? So you get, of course, there's None reclassified. That's shocking. That's amazing. They're all just, hey, they get commissioned. They're doing their job. Outstanding. And by the way, like in the military that I saw,

oftentimes the prior enlisted officers were some of the best officers. Unfortunately, they were also sometimes some of the worst. You know, it depends on what that, depends on how that commission landed on them, right? If it landed on them saying, hey, you know, you've got an opportunity to lead now, you need to prove yourself. Cool. Usually it worked out pretty good. If it landed on them like, I finally got what I deserved.

I should have been in charge all along. Watch out. And they have a different kind of unprove myself. I want to prove how awesome I am, right? As opposed to proving that you're worthy of this, this leadership role. Two different things. carrying on here in order to weld an efficient fighting unit those who are who are ineffective mediocre non-aggressive and without professional knowledge must be eliminated reports received from

both officers and men have stressed this point and believe me that a more liberal system and believe that a more liberal system of eliminating the type of officer above referred to be inaugurated So we cannot have ineffective, mediocre, non-aggressive officers out there leading troops. We need them system to get rid of them. This is the wartime scenario. Boy, the peacetime military just, it's rough. It's rough. You're not getting tested.

No one really cares as much as they do. You know what I mean? Like when it's the 90s and you got some officer that's kind of a turd, but you know what? Where are you going to go? You're going to go to deploy to Guam for six months or whatever. You're going to deploy to wherever. And it's like you're going to be doing some administrative training. But when people's lives are taking, it's like, no, hold on a second.

What is this dude doing here? What is this guy's problem? He shouldn't be here. Now, that's not the right at. I'm not saying that's the right attitude. The right attitude is like regardless, because you never know when your call is going to come. You don't know when that's going to happen. By the way, when the leader gets successfully deployed,

because there was nothing going on and kind of got let slide. That doesn't go in his record. You know, six years later, when he's in another leadership position, people don't know that he was crap and now there's a war going on. So we've got to use caution there. And to close out this book, and we have this. As in the case of officers, a system should be established by which misfits, incompetence,

those who have let down because of extremely long periods in active combat can be reassigned to non-combatant units eliminated from the service or other disposition made of them upon recommendation of a unit commander concerned so there's going to be guys like they're going to be burned out even those we've got to have a way to reassign them certainly if they're misfits or their incompetence like we need to get of them this will ensure maximum efficiency in the front lines creating greater drive and follow through resulting in the taking in of objectives with less casualties this has long been a fault in combat elements in which no adequate answer has yet been found and

about which there is constant complaint and criticisms how do we get rid of the people that are not aggressive that don't make things happen. And if we have people that are good, we're going to take less casualties. That's what we're doing, man. That's what we are supposed to be doing. I know that's kind of like, you know that attitude I just talked about, even that I saw in the military, in the entire military, certainly saw on the SEAL teams is when there's a war, all of a sudden everyone raises the bar, right?

Every bar got raised when I went from the pre 9-11 to the post 9-11 the bar got raised People are now looking for maximum efficiency on the front lines Right the whole everything should be stricter everything should be tougher and I think it's interesting you think about that not just from a combat perspective, right? Because in combat right? We want to select the best guys. We want to weed out the incompetent and losers we want to keep the guys that are been on the front lines we got to keep them fresh it's the same thing in the business in the business world right we got to we want to select the best people of course we want to get rid of people that aren't up to par if people need a rest you need to give it to them but also in in life in life are you operating with maximum efficiency

What about your your daily habits? Are you selecting the best, the absolute best daily habits for yourself? Have you weeded out things that are inefficient or causing competency or just a waste of your time and a waste of your effort? What are you doing to, you know, speaking for us? Like how are you getting the correct amount of rest that you need? So in war, we raise the bar. when combat is imminent. And yet in life, like a lot of times

you don't see combat being imminent. You don't see war being in it, but you are at war. So it's easy to let things slide. You know, it's easy when you're not going into combat, it's easy to kind of lower the bar and let some people on your team that maybe don't deserve to be there.

Maybe you even keep some people on the team that aren't really A players. Maybe you burn out your top people, you're putting all the work on them, right? that can happen it's and it's but it's easy for this to happen in our personal lives as well right because we let bad habits creep in and we keep bad habits that we should be getting rid of and we let good habits that are strong at some point we let them fade away we don't give them the proper rest and recovery and this is a recipe for disaster so do not allow that monitor your people

and monitor yourself, monitor your own habits, your own standard operating procedures for your life so that you can operate with maximum efficiency. That's what we're doing. Maximum efficiency, got to clean out some of the bad and elevate the good. And with that, some of the best habits that we can have.

The one, early on in this whole podcast game, you said that there's nothing better that a human can do, just across the board, then work out, then train, then condition yourself,

then be strong, then work out, running, sprinting, jujitsu, swimming, lifting, throwing,

just basically getting after it. This is going to have a positive impact across the board. All facets. All facets. Yeah, but what if I, you know, what if I do intellectual work, all facets? It's true. Well, what if I, you know, if I work at a computer, this isn't going to help me?

No, it is going to help you. It is going to help you. The physical activity will help you in everything that you do. That's a habit you need to put front foremost in your life. So please do that. By the way, when you're getting after it in this methodology, you're going to need fuel and we we happen to recommend

Jocko fuel. We released some pumpkin spice activity today. Your jam. Oh my jam now. It's your jam now. It is. It's tasty. It's so good. It's good. But we didn't you know we didn't maintain

kind of the the pumpkin spice latte vibe right yeah we're more hardcore yeah way more hardcore right yeah so 30 grams of protein ready to drink get some check it out joccofuel.com we also have energy drinks we got the healthiest energy drinks we got other people that are now trying to make their energy drinks kind of like ours yeah can you lay mum so you know I uh imitation is the best form of flattery that the deal yeah yeah something so yeah we get that but guess what we've made ours even better We made them taste better, more efficacious ingredients in them.

They're just all around. We're always improving. We've got hydration, we've got protein drinks, we've got protein powder. We got joint warfare. We got time war. We got everything that you need. Greens, everything that you need. So if you need to fuel your efforts, go to joccofuel.com or go to any, any store around you

you and get yourself some jaco fuel there. And if they don't have it, just ask them. Say, hey, where's the JoccoFuel at? We want some, and they'll get some. So check out joccofuel.com. Also, since we are training, let's talk about origin USA.com. OriginUSA.com where we're making jihitigis. We are making rash cards, training gear, jeans, boots, hoodies, t-shirts, everything that you need.

But it's not just everything that you need because you can get everything you need kind of anywhere right now. But what we have is everything that you need is 100% made in America, 100% made in America, which means that these freedoms that these soldiers in World War II fought for, you can buy stuff that is made in this country, not made by a communist country, not made by a tyrannical country, not made by a country that doesn't care about the workers and doesn't care about the environment but made by an outstanding American company

built by freedom check out origin USA.com and get yourself the real goods the American made goods It's true I've been seen recently you know the Made in America thing

I think Pete was putting it forward there you know where it's made in America but it's not really made in America That's not how origin is. No, no. No, you get the buttons from the jeans. Those buttons made in America.

Zippers. The zippers. The zippers. The thread. The cotton picked from the field from the ground. Yeah. American. America.

Yeah. So it's different. You know, it's the real deal made in America. It is indeed. Understand that. Also, don't forget about Jocco store. This is we're representing while we're on the path. Discipline equals freedom.

We represent that. That's kind of like the whole foundation of the whole thing, discipline equals freedom. It certainly is. I would agree. Yeah. Death core. To the core.

Also good. You know, things don't always go good. See what I'm saying? They don't go the way you want them to go. I was going to see what kind of always do go good from my perspective. If you understand it deeply, yeah, you can understand that. Hey, good, it's a thing. See what I'm saying?

If things seem to not go your way, you say good, you'd be surprised what good can come from it. So anyway, we're representing that. I go, Charles, just breaking it down like a champ over here. I'm here to tell you, bro. I'm here to tell you. Anyway, you want to represent. Go to Jocco store. We got your shirts. It's a big one. We got some hoodies on there. It's fall. Temperature dropping. So you'll see more like hoodies and those types of options for you. But, you know, all of them, you're representing. So you're good to go either way. So I'm saying. Stand by to get some. That's kind of a sleeper one. But a lot of people. where I see people representing hard on now.

I'm going to tell you. We will be coming out with new stuff. So these new things, right, that we kind of come out with, you know, I'm kind of, I don't like go crazy with it. So they're kind of limited. So you kind of got to jump on them when they drop, as they say. So, but don't worry, don't worry. You just put your email on the little email list on the front of the store, on the bottom,

talkstore.com on the bottom there. but email I'll email you the day that they come out so you can grab it see what I'm saying ahead of everybody That's nice of you I'm here to tell you don't worry I won't spam You already know that I don't spam I don't believe in any benefits

Of spamming people No benefits Yeah there's no benefits so I won't spam you don't worry about that But yeah if you want to be in the know when it comes out boom Do that I'll hook you up also the short locker New Design every month This month has or next month sorry August Wait September is kind of a sporty one all set

We'll say That's all I'm going to say But if you want to check it out Go to Jocco store Click on the top Where's this shirt locker You can kind of see what it's all about You can kind of see a hint of the design

For that month You know just see what it's all about It's a subscription scenario You get a new design every month It's going to people seem to like that one as well We like it man It's all on jocco store.com Also a bunch of books

Put Your Legs on by Rob Jones Need to Lead by Dave Burke I've written a bunch of books Adult books about leadership about discipline. I wrote a novel. I don't think you should say adult books. Oh, that's right.

It's like a thing. Yeah. I think it's, what would you call them? I think it's just books. No, you're right. You're right. Yeah.

And then kids books. That's on me. Yeah. So I've written books for children and books for everyone. Everyone else. Everyone else. Yeah, they're not, they're not the, the, whatever, the smut. You ever heard that word before?

for. It's old school, but yes, I've heard it before. Yeah. So these are not smut. These are about leadership. These are about discipline. There's one about a laundromat and things that unfolded. No pun intended from a laundry mat.

That's called Final Spin. Check out those books as well. Also, we have Eschlon Front. We teach leadership and we solve problems through leadership. We have events. We also have embedded consultants. for leadership that will work inside your company to help you get things squared away.

Go to ashlamfront.com for that. If you wanna learn these leadership principles from the comfort of your own home, you can check out extreme ownership.com. This is where we have online training to learn the skills of leadership. Also, if you wanna help family members active and retired, you wanna help their families,

you wanna help Gold Star families, check out Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee. He's got an amazing charity organization. If 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 also, Jimmy May's organization, beyond the brotherhood.org,

check out warriors need.org. Strongholdrescue.org. We got a lot of people who are trying to support. A lot of great organizations out there, people doing good stuff. So check those out. If you want to connect with us, check out jocco.com and then on social media.

I'm at jocco willink echoes that echo Charles just just don't spend too much time on there it's literally just a freaking waste of your life don't let it get you thanks to all the soldiers sailors airmen and marines that are currently deployed around the world capturing lessons learned as you all fight to defend freedom we are grateful for your service grateful for your sacrifice each and every one of you also thanks to our police law enforcement firefighters paramedics demt dispatchers correctors correctors Officers Border Patrol Secret Service as well as all other first responders. We're grateful for what you do here on the home front to keep us safe and everyone else out there You heard it throughout this book and that is take action and it's interesting that in a time of war Generals and colonels and captains and sergeants would have to be encouraged to take action it seemed because it seems obvious right if you want to move if you want to win you got to move you have to go but the unfortunate reality is we tend not to move we tend to be stagnant we tend to wait we tend to stall we tend to allow inertia to put its hooks in us and prevent us from doing what we know we need to do and that is take action that is go do the thing

That is be aggressive and make things happen. So this is your final warning to go get after it. And that's all we've got for tonight. And until next time, Zekko and Jock out.