Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: My View on Non-Combatant Military Members | How to Get Your Life Back

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

>Join Jocko Underground Full Episodes< 00:01:06 — Do combat veterans view conscientious objectors/noncombatant medics as honorable?00:05:34 — My 3-year-old may have autism and kids are starting to make fun of him. How do I help him—and myself—handle it?00:24:30 — I got sober and used harsh self-criticism to stay disciplined. How do I shift toward self-compassion without losing discipline?00:33:03 — After several devastating life events, I’ve fallen into drinking, weed, and avoiding my goals. How do I get my head right and attack life again?00:40:00 — I’m a high-school strength coach burned out by an unsupportive administration. How do I stay committed to the kids while deciding whether to fight or build an exit plan?Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 231. Sitting here with Echo Charles, we have some questions from the front lines, from the trenches, and we will provide answers. Perhaps we will provide guidance. And at a minimum, we will provide some courses of action that you can execute in order to navigate properly through whatever challenges you are facing. So let's get into it. Big and small, by the way. Big and small challenges.

They all count. They all count. They all count. First question, Jocko. I have a question related to non-combatants. I come from a church background whose conviction is opposed to killing other human beings. We do understand the need for government and military action in the evil world in which we live. So we do not condemn those who take up the sword.

Our position during the Korean and Vietnam Wars was that we would serve in the military as non-combatants. And we were granted a one-A-O status. A typical example is a man named Gary Maibok, who was with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta. My question is whether those of you who are combatants view the service of these men as honorable or not. My father is a veteran, and I attend church services with men who served in Vietnam as combat medics. To me, they're the salt of the earth. Well, I agree with you. Absolutely.

And I think that's probably true of about 99% of combatants, war fighters. Gary Maibok, Maybach is a great example that he proved, you know, extraordinarily courageous soldier who routinely placed himself in harm's way to render aid to his wounded comrades. And so, yeah. When I think of that, when I think of what he's done, I don't think of him as a conscientious objector. I don't think of him. Is it a 1A, oh, status? I just think of a hero. That's what I think of.

So I salute everyone who serves their country, right? From teachers to State Department, police, fire, law enforcement. And certainly, I definitely salute those who put their lives at risk for our nation and put their lives at risk for their brothers in arms. And sisters in arms. And so yes, I, and I would say the vast majority of other, you know, combatants view these types of heroes as absolutely honorable and we're grateful for their service. I bet a lot of people, probably the most people have heard of Desmond Doss. He's a conscientious objector, Medal of Honor recipient. but he's not the only one Thomas W. Bennett conscious objector who repeatedly ran into fields

under withering fire to pull wounded soldiers to safety he was wounded severely and was also awarded the Medal of Honor Joseph G. LaPoint another one crawled through head enemy fire to treat wounded soldiers two of them and as he was treating them they were under attack he shield them with with his own body eventually an enemy grenade killed all three of them but he was also posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and these are just some examples of the types of heroes that have been conscientious objectors so with that thanks to those guys that served obviously and yes, do we, do we view them as honorably?

I know that I absolutely do. And that's what I got. Do we, because I, you know, I hear about this. And there's like movies and stuff made a real, the one with the Andrew Garfield, I think his name is where he's like non-combatant. Is there different like categories of non-cons, because you said consciousness objectors. Yeah. Is that the same as non-combatants or is it just one type of non-combatant?

Or is it same thing? I would say that a conscientious objector. is someone that is a non of like a voluntary non-combatant someone can be a non-combatant because they're a nurse right they're not necessarily a oh right right yes but they're still in the military yeah they're still in the military but a conscious objector someone that is um eligible to fight but chooses not to fight right because they object to killing someone yes I understand and yet they still step up and as you can see in these examples they rest their lives for their for their country so they go and do other stuff right like they help yeah these guys are all

Medics, yeah, and you wouldn't necessarily be a medic. There's other, there's other conscientious objectors that might work in supplier. They might work in, you know, the mess hall and serving people. It's just real, it's real obvious for them to go into medical, right? Because that's just like you're going to not just not kill someone, you're going to help people. Oh, yeah, okay. That, yeah, that makes sense because it's like a distinct differentiation. Like you can be a medic and still, you know, like fight.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Versus, okay, that makes sense now. Okay. Yeah, that's crazy. Next question. I have a three-year-old son who is already doing math and reading, but is very different than his peers. He's being evaluated for autism and is a special baby genius. At a preschool meeting last week, I saw other kids starting to make fun of it.

It crushed me. I'm afraid. How do I help him, and also me, with navigating this as his dad. Yeah, look, first of all, I think it's really important to know and understand that all kids get made fun of You know what I mean? Like all of them my kids got made fun of I got made fun of you got made fun of I would Hope I had a I had a I had a bowl haircut Oh yeah, hell yeah, I had a big giant gap between my front two teeth still do but it was even more pronounced when I was younger Oh for so I would catch some some some heavies on that one, but whatever I was like a little skinny when I was you know what I mean? You're just like

they're going to find it. And I think that helps kids out when they know that everyone goes through it. You know that you're not the only one that people are going to make fun of. Like this one's, so I think just, you know, saying, oh yeah,

people make fun of each other. It's just, you know, it's not nice, but just a lot, what a lot of people do. They're just, you know,

everyone's just trying to have fun. It can be mean sometimes. Yeah, sometimes they're mean. Yep. You know, like just having those kind of conversations, I think helps people.

But again, you got to remember a three-year-old. Like a three-year-old's not going to, compute a lot of this stuff. And by the way, there's a question whether he really computed when people are making fun of them that what they mean by that, like, what are they trying to insult him? What's the insult? Like, there's a bunch of things going on there.

But that being said, just knowing that other, that kids are mean and make fun of each other, that doesn't necessarily solve, you know, everything here. I remember how my kids a few times got like they were hurt sometimes when they got made fun of especially I would say my daughters my son was like to like just not caring uh but the girls you know you'd see and I remember thinking you know this is when they're in you know second grade first grade something like this and I remember you know thinking to myself oh this is their whole world they're you know you can't say like well you know don't worry about it like who cares if some kid makes me what I don't they don't they're like no this is the whole world the whole world the whole world

is this what's happening right there with these seven people in their class and three of them are laughing at her you know what I mean like that's so it is heavy and we do need to keep that in mind um also I would say the base of the pyramid here is having a good relationship with your son and what does that mean trustless and respect influence and care then you can have real conversations with him about things like why are people teasing you oh It's because people are insecure and they like to make fun of other people. And, oh, guess what? You're different.

And guess what? So is everyone. You know, everyone's different. Everyone's got their little idiosyncrancies. Some people have some. Some people have others. Some people are more extreme, but everybody's a little bit different. So you can have that conversation.

You can have the conversation that people can be mean. And we can still be nice. Even when people are mean, we can still be nice. And why are people mean? Well, it's because they're mean inside. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen, go to jocco underground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this.

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