Will Cain Country - Secretary Hegseth Prioritizes Warriors Over Ballerinas (ft. Jocko Willink & Jeremy Judd)

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Featuring Guest Host - Author of ‘Behind The Badge’ & FOX News Contributor, Joey Jones Story #1: Retired Navy SEAL, Author of ‘Extreme Ownership,’ and Host of the ‘Jocko Podcast,’ Jocko Willink, and Joey dive into the military’s recent surge in recruitment under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the value of humility in leadership, and the cultural shift in how Americans prioritize family and values over politics, such as the exodus of the In N Out Burgers owner from California to Tennessee .Story #2: Retired Maine game warden, Jeremy Judd, shares moving stories from his 20-year career as a game warden in Maine. Judd speaks candidly about the emotional toll of recovering drowning victims, the critical role of life jackets, and the often misunderstood powers and responsibilities of game wardens. Story #3: Joey and The Crew test their knowledge about the origin of professional sports team names following yesterday's discussion with David Wells. Subscribe to 'Will Cain Country' on YouTube here: Watch Will Cain Country! Follow Will on X: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good afternoon, this is Will Cain Country. I'm your fill in host today, Joey Jones, and we've got a fun show. Just like the last two days, great guests, great topics, and it's the middle of summer, so we're going to talk about what people are out there doing. Listen, this is Will Cain Country, and we're streaming live on Fox News Facebook page, FoxNews.com, Fox News YouTube channel, on terrestrial radio across the country, on demand on Apple or Spotify. Guys, if you can listen to something, you can listen to Will Cain Country.

So I hope you are, I hope you're tuning in and let's get started. So today we're going to bring in, in just a minute, I'll go over the show real quick. We're going to bring in Jaco Willink, a buddy of mine, Navy Seal, a leadership, just guru, I guess. But we're going to talk about some stuff. I've teased every single day this week that we were going to talk about In-N-Out Burger moving to Tennessee, because I think it's a big story. I haven't had a chance to get to it with any guests. I think Jaco is the great guy for us. We're going to talk about In-N-Out Burger moving to Tennessee, because I think it's a big story. I haven't had a chance to get to it with any guests. I think Jaco is the great guy for us.

We're going to talk about that with him. Then Trump says that Coke needs to change. It needs to be healthy. Make America healthy again. That's big words coming from a man who has a Coke button on the resolute desk. Then of course with Jaco, what is the warrior ethos in life, leadership, and love? He's got a lot to say about that, and I can't wait to talk to him about it.

But stick around for the whole show. I've got Jeremy Judd, a Maine game warden, coming in. He's gonna talk to us about what it means to go in and dive in some of these places and things where floods and things have hit the water, people have died. He's gonna talk about the myths and facts of being a game warden.

And then we're gonna talk a little bit about my book, Behind the Badge. He's one of the most important chapters in there and he's just a great guy. He carried me around on his back in Maine when I was up there hunting. So he's just a he's a solid dude. And then I'm gonna talk to Pat and Dan about sports, some history, maybe a little quiz, maybe a little education. We'll see. We'll see how much we know and and how much you guys will shake your head at us. So let's get it started. I want to bring in Jaco.

What's up brother? How's it going? Good to see you, man. Yeah, man. It's good to see you too. Thanks for coming on today. I know you're a busy guy. There's a lot I want to talk to you about, but I think first,

I think like the most obvious thing that I would like to talk to you about is where our military is today. My friend, and I think you know him pretty well, Pete Hegseth is Secretary of Defense, which is kind of weird, because really he's like our peer in war. And he's the top guy now.

And I worked with him at Fox, but just to know that there's a lower, mid-level infantry officer making these decisions. Look at recruitment, man. It is through the roof. I think we've got some assets here to show just about that. We've got this tweet here from Mark Wayne Mullen, the Senator, says,

the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force have all reached their recruitment goals months in advance. What do you think about that? Do you think that's because of Pete and the kind of the mindset he's brought in? I think it's because of Pete. I think it's because of the administration at large. And I'll tell you what, when people ask me about this, I like to tell people that I didn't

become a ballerina, Joey. When I was a little kid and I was walking around, I didn't have any urge to become a ballerina. I had an urge to carry a machine gun. And so when I saw recruiting videos or recruiting posters and they showed Marines or soldiers or frogmen with machine guns, I looked at the picture and said, oh yeah, that's cool. That's what I want to do. Sign me up. Sign me up. I see a guy with a machine gun. That's what I want to do. I'm a kid, you know, 14, 15, 16, 17 years old when I finally enlisted. And, you

know, for a while, some of the recruiting that was happening was not geared toward young men that wanted to carry machine guns. It was targeting. I don't even know what it was targeting. But if I would have been 17 years old and I would have seen some of these recruiting posters or recruiting advertisements that I saw in the previous administration, I don't know if I would have joined. And the only thing I ever wanted to do since I was, since I could remember wanting to do anything was put on a camouflage uniform, paint my face with cami paint and carry machine gun. So I think that is a big, a big plus the way they're doing it. They're showing actual war fighters that they're showing what the job is, and I think that's great. And I think that the attitude with the young men

that are coming up right now that are looking to join the military, they feel like it's a place that it's where they want to go. No, you're right. Yeah. I love that you're talking about your experience being recruited because I know you're a little bit older than me. So your recruitment was, I would probably late 90s early 2000s is that when you joined around that time frame? Hey bro I appreciate it I was I joined I joined I signed the paper in 1989 but I didn't leave until oh no I guess it was 1990 I left September 13th 1990. That's what that that, look at that jujitsu and eating right. You look so young. I had no idea.

I really thought you're a little bit closer to my era. Cause I guess I joined 2005. So I mean, 1990, it wasn't that much before then. But my point here is when I joined, we were in the middle of this war. And so, you know, they need everybody they could take. And I always tell this story about how, I went to the Army and they're like,

hey, we'll set you up for college when you're done. And I went to the Navy and they're like, hey, we got the best healthcare, I think is what they told me. And you'll have, you'll probably rate to have healthcare for the rest of your life. And I went to the Air Force and they're like, hey, we'll teach you a skillset,

a job that you can use when you get out. And I went to the Marine Corps and they go, well, I don't think you have what it takes to be one of us, but you're welcome to try. And the reason why I say that is not to be disparaging to those other services because like Navy SEALs haven't changed their recruiting and army Rangers haven't changed their recruiting, but those big services, half a million people, they did go through some struggles, but the Marine Corps stayed pretty consistent. And it's this idea that maybe the key to it the whole time

was come do this challenge, not this is what we'll do for you. Yeah. And what kind of person would you want to be next to you in combat? Would you want someone that signed up because they wanted to get their college paid for, they wanted free healthcare? No, you want somebody that by your side in combat

that is doing that job because that's what they want to do. So I think that's a huge difference. And I think it's just a mob mentality. You know, when you start seeing those kinds of people are joining up, people that see those people that are joined up say, yep, I'm going to. I love it, man. I mean, I love to see it. I like for Pete to get some credit, President Trump to get credit, but honestly, just for our country. I think it's good for our culture. I mean, we talk about in this country how, I mean, we used to say this joke when I was

in combat, like, man, Israel would have won this war in six days, because we knew our history. And it's like, this idea that that's a country where you have mandated mandatory military service and that service looks different. It's not like it is here. You're not necessarily carrying a rifle for two years, but you have to serve your country. And it's like, we don't do that here.

Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it isn't, but it is a good thing when people want to serve their country. It is a good thing when we can hit our numbers, when we have enough of this cell phone generation that wanna go serve and sacrifice. Yeah, and I think, you can see this is stuff that's coming directly from Secretary Hegseth.

Some of the things that he's doing, where, you know, the downsizing of the flag officers. Look, you kind of have to be an insider to know what that means. You kind of have to understand the military. Yeah. But that trickles down. The kind of getting rid of some of these programs

that are not focused on war fighting. When someone that wants to serve their country in a military category recognizes that they're going to be focused on lethality, that's what they want to do. So I think that's been really good. I think the whole DEI thing was just a huge distraction. And I think that people that are joining the military, they don't want to be worried about that kind of thing. They want to worry about fighting wars. So I think all those little changes that have been made, and plus, let's face it, the secretary is a really good communicator. He's just a charismatic guy, and I think people like to see that as well. Did you see his drone commercial? He did.

He is a good communicator and he's my buddy and I love him to death. But the drone commercial was kind of funny. Did you see it? I haven't seen it, no. No, it's very TV like. It's a lot of fun. You could tell he was having fun with it.

And I was like, I don't know. This is either bad ass or cheesy as all get out. And I think it was kind of both, which is awesome because he also leaves himself vulnerable. like he goes out and works out with these guys Chances are he's not the fastest runner and he's probably not doing the most pull-ups and it's like he's also willing to like let Them see he's a he's a dude and maybe that's good. Maybe it isn't but I like it No, I think it's great and and that's a good way to earn respect. It's also shows he's a humble guy You know, like you said shows he's a humble guy.

You know, like you said, he's not gonna be the fastest runner. He's not gonna be able to do the most pull-ups, but he's out there. He's humble enough to get out there with the troops. And that's always inspiring. You know, even when I was a young enlisted SEAL, when we would have one of our senior officers come out

and actually participate in the evolution, whether it was parachuting, whether it was fast roping, whether it was diving, to see them get out there and get in it, get in the mix with us, was always, it was always inspiring and it, it, it, it allowed us to give some respect to these people. And I had other commanding officers where you'd never see them in the field and of course when that happens respect goes

down. So to see the secretary out there doing PT early morning, I think it's outstanding. Well you know there's some other like new stuff I want to talk to you it's outstanding. Well, you know, there's some other like new stuff I wanna talk to you about, but I mean, you know, your bread and butter is leadership and like a warrior ethos and you really spread that message both on, you know, in a corporate level and down on a basic like, hey, listen to the Jocko podcast level.

Let's talk about that for a minute, that leadership element cause okay, if a general wants to come down and do PT with us, like, you know, there's a right way and a wrong way, right? There's the way that's like get out of the way and let him do his thing, and then there's let him like come in and be one of us for this PT element or exercise, whatever it is, and like when you see Pete, he's not out there saying, hey we're gonna run real slow so we have a bunch of cameras, it's like, hey I'm gonna go do whatever it is

you were planning to do and if I can do it, I will. And it's like, speak to the difference there in that leadership element. Does that make sense? Yeah, and the other huge piece is, and I'm sure you could imagine this, so we got the Commodore coming down or we got the Colonel coming down.

We're gonna get to the parade field early and we're gonna clean everything. We're gonna paint the rocks and we're gonna sweep up and like, it turns into a big chore. And by the way, we're going to inspect your haircuts and your uniforms because the skipper's coming down. If that's the environment that you're creating, you're creating a fake environment where when you show up everything's been, you know, they put make-up and put lipstick on the pig. Obviously that's not good. And you can tell even by watching these videos, look, I'm sure they square stuff away,

but you can tell that they're doing what their standard PT is. They're doing kind of their normal protocol and he gets to see what it's like on the front line. So I think the way he's doing it, again, it appears to me, look, I'm sure there's things going on behind the scenes. They're gonna make sure that, you know, they got the right number of people there.

They're gonna make sure there's no gear adrift, what we called in the Navy, a bunch of trash sitting around. They're gonna make sure that, you know, they got the right number of people there. They're going to make sure there's no gear adrift, what we called in the Navy, a bunch of trash sitting around. They're going to make sure that things are clean, but you can tell that it's not overly staged that he's not there and people aren't being driven to do a bunch of extra work because he's showing up. I think he probably tells them he wants to see what's happening and they're showing him. What makes a good leader? What is a good leader?

If people are listening, chances are the majority of people listening and watching aren't in the military. Most of them aren't veterans. But I think leadership is important in your family, in your community, in your church, in your job. The Marine Corps has all kinds of wisdom on leadership. But I want to hear from you. What is a good leader?

Yeah, you know, you mentioned it's an important thing in your family. It's obviously what I learned is that leadership is the most important thing in the battlefield when I was in the military. And then when I retired from the military, I definitely saw it's the most important thing in business. And yeah, as a husband and as a dad, let's see, my oldest is 25. I've been married for almost 30 years, you know, to an awesome woman.

But leadership is the most important thing there as well. And if you were to ask me, of course, you know, I talk about what the most important characteristic of a leader is, and that the most important characteristic of a leader is to be humble, and to make sure that you have an open mind, and make sure you listen to other people. But then if you take it one step further,

really what we think about when we think about our leader is someone that cares about their people, right? And I'm sure you had leaders in the Marine Corps that didn't care about you. And maybe they pretended, maybe they put on a face, but you don't wanna work for that guy. But when you have a leader that's truly concerned about you and wants to take care about you. And maybe they pretended, maybe they put it on a face, but you don't wanna work for that guy. But when you have a leader that's truly concerned about you and wants to take care of you

and the rest of the people on the team, that's the leader that we respect and that we wanna work for. So taking care of your people, and listen, it can be very difficult in the military and business, there's times where you as a leader are gonna put your troops at risk to accomplish the mission.

And of course you have to do everything you can to mitigate that risk. You've gotta try and figure out ways to accomplish the mission where you put the least amount of risk to the force. But at the end of the day, you are at some times gonna put your troops in harm's way. There's no two ways about that.

And same thing in business. I mean, there's times I work with businesses all around the country, and there's times where a business leader, in order to, you know, save a company or allow a company to continue to survive, they have to get rid of people that they care about in order to save the company. And I usually bring up that example of, you know, you hear of World War II where on a Navy ship, they get hit with a torpedo or something, and they have to close various parts of the ship off where now it's going to be flooded and the people that are in those chambers of the ship are going to die, but

the men have to do that in order to save the ship. So yes, there are times where you're going to put your people in harm's way and there are going to be times that you have to do things that are going to hurt people. But the underlying tone and the underlying theme of what's driving you as a leader has got to be to take care of the people. And so I think that's the most important thing. We saw that again when I had great leaders that I worked for. The primary thing that when I think back and remember what they were like is that they cared about us. And when I think about the bad leaders, it's not even that they didn't care about us, it's that they cared about themselves more than they cared about us. And that was just incredibly revealing. You can't fool young

Marine or young SEAL or young soldier in pretending that you care about them. They see through all that and they recognize what's happening. So you wanna be a good leader, take care of your people. I always think that like the worst leader, you're right. The worst leader is somebody who doesn't care enough to lead, but then it's also those that wanna please everybody.

Cause then the tail ends up wagging the dog, right? They change course, they're not consistent because they just want everybody to be happy. Yeah that's not going to work out well and and what's interesting about that is and you know this from the military you say the tail wagging the dog well when when when the leader makes a small decision at the top that has a huge impact on us guys down or down on the front lines you know if they if they, hey, we're gonna use boats for the mission tonight, we start prepping boats, it takes us four or five hours to get our boats ready.

And then they say, oh, actually, we're gonna use helicopters. Now we gotta de-rig our boats, we spend another four or five hours working, getting that stuff done, and then they go back the other direction, it causes real problems. So yes, inconsistency is certainly problematic.

That being said, if you have a leader that is locked in and won't change their mind when they're presented with new evidence, well, that's a problem as well. So, you know, I wrote a book called The Dichotomy of Leadership, and that's what it's about. Like you don't wanna go so far in one direction that you never change your mind and you're staying the course no matter what,

but you don't wanna be so far in the other direction, which is what you're talking about, where you change your mind and you're staying the course no matter what, but you don't wanna be so far in the other direction, which is what you're talking about, where you change your mind every three minutes. So that's what makes leadership difficult. It's not an automatic formula you can just look at and apply the formula. You actually have to think through things. You know, you spend your time with big time CEOs

and small time businesses trying to get their ship right, trying to save the ship like you said. Is leadership the void in America now? Is our culture counterintuitive to real leadership? Part of good leadership is having people that are good at following and dedicated in that way as well. Are we in a crisis of that or do you see a resurgence? Where are we?

No, I don't see any issue. I see what, I don't think leadership has changed that much. And I work with companies all over the country and actually internationally as well. And just like in the military, there's good leaders and there's bad leaders. They've existed since the beginning of time and they'll always be here. You know, one of the examples I like to bring up is pretty much everyone I know has seen the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. And even back then, you had, you know, Captain Sorbell versus what ended up being

Major Dick Winters. And it's the traditional classic. You've got a tyrannical leader yelling and screaming, doesn't listen to the troops, imposing his plan on everybody and they hated him and they had a mutiny. And then you have Dick Winters who was a quiet guy, a humble guy, listened to his troops

and of course they wanted to work for him and they wanted to do a good job for him. And I see that all the time with companies today, young, old, new, it doesn't matter. The leadership is a skill that people need to learn. Some people are born with a little bit more than others, right? There's some natural attributes that you can have for leadership, just like you can have natural attributes that'll make you a better basketball player. You know, if you're, if you're six, nine, you have a little bit of advantage in basketball over someone that's

five, nine. But hey, if you're 6'9", and you don't have any basketball skills, and you go against someone that's 5'9", and has played basketball his whole life, he's gonna beat you. And it's the same thing with leadership. There are definitely some attributes you can be born with that make leadership a little bit easier for you,

but if you don't work on those skills, you'll be in the same boat as somebody that has no skills at all. So leadership is a skill. It's always been a skill. And what I see in America today is, yep, there's good leaders and bad leaders just like there's always been.

This is Will Kane Country. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back with Jaco Willink. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling saying I do. Who wants his last parachute? I do.

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your podcasts. Welcome back to Will King country. I'm Joey Jones in for Will. We're back with Jaco Willink. It's so funny, my buddy Luke Vinson is 5'5 and he was a hell of a Marine. And he's like, man, if I were six foot tall, I'd be running the world. But you know, I pretty much go unnoticed. And it's so he makes fun of our buddy Amos. It's like 6'3.

He's like Amos walks into the room and he just commands respect. And it's like, he's like, if I had that height, I'd be running the world right now. And it's just funny when you talk about attributes, sometimes you're, sometimes you're born with it and it's rather not you do something with it that really defines your character. And so even when you get that like leg up, you know, all pun intended, it's still your decision to go do something with it, you know? And it's when we do have those leaders that come, I'd say Donald Trump's one of them that come and they answer the call and they don't just go through what could be an easy life.

I think we should do a better job at recognizing that. Yeah, one of the natural attributes that I like to joke about is having a loud voice because some people are born with a louder voice. It's a genetic thing and I know this because I got four kids and you sit around my dinner table and you're going to have a hard time hearing anything because these kids are all, they all have very loud voices. And I was, again, I was blessed with a loud voice

and you know this better than anybody, when you're on the battlefield, having a voice that can project so people can hear you is a required deal. You have to have that. And I had a young SEO officer that he wasn't born with a loud voice. He was really quiet and I was talking to him

and I think he thought I was a little crazy. I said, listen, if you can't project what you're saying, you're not gonna be able to do this job. And he was looking at me, he's stunned. We're going through training. And finally, I put him out on a training mission and I'm watching to see if he's learned how to project his voice. And you know, something happened in this training event where he had to make some calls

and I'm watching him. I'm thinking, this is the moment of truth is he can be able to get the word out or not. And he grabbed one of his guys, he grabbed one of his guys, big mouth Bill and he said, Hey Bill, tell everyone to get into building 47 now. And Bill goes, tell everyone to get into building 47 now. And Bill goes, hey everyone, get in building 47 now. And everyone started executing. There you go. And I realized that that was a solution.

Yeah, you know, he just found someone that had a complimentary skill that he was lacking and he had that guy make that call and he was able to lead. So look, no one's born with every skill that you need to be a leader. You're going to have shortfalls. And that's why you got to build a team around you that's complimentary to the skills that you're lacking.

Man, that's such a great example. Cause in that is some humility, right? Like he, he had the, the wherewithal to know it doesn't have to be me saying it, you know? And to me that's humble. Like that's accepting what your shortcomings are and finding a solution. And man, you know, I get chills because I don't know, I don't know if I get to see those leaders as much anymore. And I'm glad that you're out there kind of at least preaching a good word and influencing people that run businesses that have an effect on our lives.

One of those businesses that I'm real excited about, I think people think this is a joke, but it's actually to me me it's a big deal. So In-N-Out Burger is, in my opinion, the best fast food place west of the Mississippi. If you're on the East Coast, I think that you gotta give it to Chick-fil-A. But west of Mississippi, I think In-N-Out Burger's awesome. The company's ran really well, simple menu,

all those things. I think the burgers are better than Whataburger, and I don't care if Texas is listening. But we've got this clip, and this is the- I wanted to avoid these controversial subjects. I wanted to avoid controversial subjects between In-N-Out and Whataburger. Hey, I'm neutral. I'm neutral. Don't be neutral. You're a California guy. Let's listen to the... I believe she's the CEO. She's at least the owner of In-N-Out Burger talking about leaving California. There's a lot of great things about California,

but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here. Now, the bulk of our stores are still going to be here in California, but it will be wonderful having an office out there. So the reason why I bring this up, you own a business or businesses in California. And when she's talking about moving, so, you know, and Newsome's office put up a post, I think we have it.

And basically they're like, they're kind of doing damage control saying, well, they're not actually leaving California. They are what it says they're not leaving California they're consolidating what they have in California and moving their second headquarters to Nashville Tennessee. Okay fair enough but she's moving to Tennessee like she I the way I understand this is like she's like hey you can't raise a family in California as easily as you can in some of these other places. So the controversy or the real point here is you know are people making decisions now maybe based on like their home life and what's best for their family instead of just what's good for business and have you ever felt like you needed to make that decision?

Yeah California is I mean as far as a business environment, to run a business in California is extremely difficult. The regulatory environment out here is extremely strict and I have multiple businesses and the only one that's actually headquartered in California is I have a gym. I have a mixed martial arts gym called Victory MMA and it's in San Diego so there's no getting around that. That's where it is. And it's very difficult, very difficult to have a business out here. The taxes, the cost, like I said,

the regulatory environment, it's very difficult. And look, was it Lindsay Snyder's not the first person to, not the first CEO to take her company and move to a different state, you know, primarily Texas, Tennessee, some of these other states. And there's a reason for that. The business environment in California is terrible. I mean, we could run through the list of what is it, Hewlett Packard, Tesla moved out.

Tesla was going to build that massive battery factory here in California, and they just moved it over to the border to Nevada. So to think that this is just, you know, some, some anomaly that this woman is moving her business out of her business headquarters out of California. That's not true. People leave California because it's a terrible business environment. As far as the family life goes, it's, it's, it depends on where you are. You know, a lot of people forget that California is an agricultural state. Like the

vast majority of California is fields where we grow food. And that's what it is. So those people that are out there, hardworking people out there, raising crops and whatnot, like they're here. It's a great environment for that in terms of what we get for weather. So that's good. But the, and the families in those areas, they're, they're, they're awesome. They're awesome people. And that's what the majority of California is. However, as we know, there are some very small pockets with very large populations in California that are, pockets with very large populations in California that have just done a terrible job in managing their areas. So whether it's San Francisco in Northern California or Los Angeles down here in Southern California, those are just, if you go there, it's sad. It really is. It's sad to

see the way those areas have been managed. I live in San Diego, California. San Diego is amazing and it's a beautiful place to live. It's got, it's just an incredible place. And California as a whole, when you look at California, when you look at what we have in California, the Redwoods, the Sierra Mountains, you know, Mammoth Mountain, Tahoe, we got the ocean, we got Malibu. It's it's an big sir. We got Death Valley, the deserts. We've got every type of environment that you could possibly want here. It's incredible. Natural resources are phenomenal. And yet there's just a couple of pockets of. You know, do I want to say just crazy people that are running these areas?

I don't I don't want to be that bad, but there's people that just don't understand what damage they've done. And I think there is, I think the pendulum is going to swing back in the near future, where we start to bring some people into the political realm here that actually will understand how to run a state, how to run a government, and we can put California back on the map and be winners again. Listen, I'll be the first to tell you California is probably the most beautiful piece of property God made in this country. I mean really it's the only place you can go surfing in the morning and snowboarding in the afternoon. I mean it's a cool place. Full disclosure, I'm about to take my family on a vacation there.

We're going to start in Anaheim and end in Sacramento. We're going to, unfortunately, do the Disneyland thing, but we're also going to do Sequoia and Yosemite and see some of those things, giant trees and parks and stuff. Man, thanks for joining. What else you got going on? I want people to know more about you. Where can they find you? Where can they listen to you?

Where can they get involved with you? Yeah. a bunch of different things going on as you know. I got Jocko Fuel, we make clean supplements, we make good stuff that's actually good for you and RFK Jr. did not have to convince us to make stuff that was good for you. We use the best ingredients for our stuff at Jocko Fuel. I have an American-made clothing company, Origin USA. We make all of our clothing, boots, jeans, T-shirts, hoodies, we make it all, not only do we make it in America, but it is sourced 100% from American-made materials. So check out originusa.com.

Of course, I have a podcast. I just put out my 500th podcast today. And man, we'll see what I'm doing next. I kind of I'm gonna I'm kind of looking what I'm gonna do now so that's where I'm at that's what I got going on. I you know your podcast is awesome I've listened to it for years I got to check out the origin USA stuff I got to check that out you were gracious enough to have me out there I've seen your gym and and man you're just a you're a guy's guy man I really appreciate you for out. You were gracious enough to have me out there. I've seen your gym and Man, you're just you're a guy's guy man. I really appreciate you for it

And by the way, how did we how do we not get you out on the podcast for your latest book? That's ridiculous I apologize. I didn't see your book. I will not turn it down already out Next time man hit me I'll get you a copy in the mail and you read it. Let me know if you want to talk about it. How about that? Awesome brother. Alright brother appreciate you man. Great to see you man take care. Yes sir alright guys that's Jocko Willink just a leader's leader a good friend and a great guy to have on the show because you never know where you're gonna go but it's always gonna be truthful. This is Will Kane Country we're gonna take a quick break

we'll be right back with another guest. because you never know where you're gonna go, but it's always gonna be truthful. This is Will Cain Country. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back with another guest. ["No Frills"] ["No Frills"] ["No Frills"] No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express.

Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrails.ca. I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com. ["Wild Cane Country"] Welcome back to Wild Cane Country.

I'm your host today, Joey Jones. I've been here for a couple of days now. It's my last day sitting in this chair and as one of the last guests here this week, I wanted to bring in a good friend of mine and that's kind of been the theme this week so the producers have done a heck of a job putting the show together. It's easier to have a conversation when you're talking to somebody you know somebody that you kind of are off-camera with off-air with and understand kind of who

they are and you're not just asking them questions on a computer screen that you think they want to answer. This next guy guys is exactly that for me. If you haven't read my book Behind the Badge or bought it, no big deal. If you get a chance to, if your buddy has a copy or you want to go on Amazon and get it on sale, that's cool. But you should read it. It's not about money or anything like that. It's the stories in this book. There are nine stories of first responders and they're all people I know really well. The reason why I wanted to put the book out there is I was sitting around campfires hearing

these stories of what they've been through and why they did it and why they're still doing it. With all the adulation and praise that I get for having gone to war a couple of times and lost my legs, I'm like, why aren't we singing their praises? Why aren't we telling their stories? Why don't we have this passion in our country for the first responders that take care of us day to day, that take care of our family more than anybody

in the military probably ever will. Why aren't we telling their stories and giving them some of the praise and admiration that we give, rightfully so, to military members, especially those that lose their life in combat or are injured or sacrifice in some way. So with that idea and writing this book behind the badge, one of the first three chapters is one of the most important,

and that's the chapter on a guy named Jeremy Judd. So Jeremy Judd had a career as a game warden in the state of Maine. And if you don't know anything about Maine, it is an absolute wilderness. It's not just a Northeen in the state of Maine. And if you don't know anything about Maine, it is an absolute wilderness. It's not just a Northeastern state. They have everything. They have the big bears, they have the moose,

they have the big lakes, they have the big forest, and there's a lot of ways to be in danger up there. And in ways that I didn't know about until I talked to Jeremy about it. So without further ado, Jeremy, thanks for joining me today. Yeah, absolutely. Glad to be here. Good to see you, Joey. Yeah, man, I don't know if you can see me or not,

but I'm wearing that hat you gave me, Maine Warden Service. So I want to just kind of give people a lay of the land of what your background is and how you ended up in the book. And just tell us about yourself a little bit. Well, I was born and raised in Maine, grew up hunting and fishing and you know as a young person in the outdoors you kind of always look up to game wardens and it was always a dream of mine to become a game warden.

I met some early on in my young life and you know I'm very fortunate to have worked with those same people and be friends with them today. You know I got hired with the warden service in 2003. I left them in 2023 or 2024. All kinds of blends together. But during that career, I had a very successful career, was recognized countless times, belonged to several specialty teams to include the dive team and the canine team. But I had a lot of proud moments in that 20 years. You know, there was, I was working, I was covering Fox and Friends, hosting Fox and Friends a couple of weekends ago and we had a report on these floods that happened in Hunt and Kerrville, Texas. I mean, it's probably the saddest thing I've ever had to do sitting in a chair.

Not just because of how many lives it took, but those lives were innocent and young. There were young girls at camp. And the first thing I thought about and it was you because the most I guess profound thing you've ever said to me and you said it in such an honest and non-salant way was I was on the dive team for several years and the thing about that is you don't find people alive underwater and that I mean that kind of haunts me just hearing it. It sends chills down my spine. And so you did that for several years. And so I'd love for people, you know, we sit here and we hear these stories and it's, I don't think we think about the people that are out there searching to rescue and recover.

We think about the families and their loss, which is tremendous. But we don't ever really consider the fact. I mean, even the plane crash in D.C. when the military helicopter hit the plane, the reporting was it was sub-freezing temps, and they're out there trying to recover the bodies, which means somebody in a wetsuit was risking their life, not to save a life, but just to bring a body home for mom and dad or husband or wife or the kids. And just tell us about that so we have more perspective on it.

Patience is very similar to what happened in Texas. Probably not in the mass casualty numbers, but you know I remember a young mother had lost her three-year-old daughter and she fallen into a raging river and we looked for weeks and weeks and weeks to bring her home. And and this was a three-year-old little girl and and it took us weeks to find her. And of course Mother Nature, you know, left her pretty beaten up and decomposed. And it's just something so unimaginable that you can't describe it to people. You can't describe those feelings.

What those first responders did down there in Texas, it's just, it's unbelievable. I mean, they are remarkable people to get up every day and go out and face that trauma knowing that they're going to they're going to see really, really horrible things. And, you know, and I've dealt with it for 21 years, to some degree, been involved with many flood situations. You know, if I can give people any advice, I remember it was called the Patriot's Day flood up here and there was a bunch of houses below a dam and we were going to lose the dam and it was going to take the houses away. And we're trying to explain to people that we need you to leave. We need you to leave these houses because you're not going to survive.

And they just refused to do it. And they fought with us over it. And to the point where we had to make the decision, we can't force them out of their homes and we left them. And you know, thank God the dam didn't break and they didn't lose their lives. But you know, when these tragic situations happen, you know, I urge the community to not forget their first responders, understand what they're going through, be patient with them. first responders, understand what they're going through, be patient with them, and if they ask you to do something,

don't question it, just do it. Man, I wanted to, it's some heavy stuff. So I wanted to hit what I consider to be a high note. And I grew up hunting and fishing, and I never wanted to see a game warden. Not because I was breaking the law, but because I didn't take the time to know the Law well enough to know if I was breaking the law

So I never you know like you think you know what you can do and what you can't do but like Kenya You know and so you know you got to know when you can shoot and when you can't stuff like that And when you can put food out stuff like that But there's there's these myths that always people always say about game wardens I've never I've never really had one walk up on me. So I wanted to ask you some myth or facts questions for people at home especially those that hunt and fish to better understand what authority a game warden has. So if you wouldn't mind to indulge me here I've got some that I've heard all my buddies say for years and years

and I want to know if they're true or not. And so the first one is can you really confiscate someone's vehicle or boat or gun if they're true or not. And so the first one is, can you really confiscate someone's vehicle or boat or gun if they're breaking the law hunting? Absolutely. I've done it myself many times. All right. And so you can just take it. So if he's out there and he's using these things

to break the law or even if it's parked on the side of the road, you can still take his truck? It has to be used in the Commission of the Crime so if it was across a whole country I'm talking about laws to the state of Maine you cannot night hunt in the state of Maine so if you're out driving through fields shooting deer we absolutely can seize your ha. Noted. The next one is one that I've always heard which is that the game warden has so much authority they can arrest

people other cops can't. So like you can arrest a sheriff or an elected official and like a patrol cop can't. Is that true? Not true. Okay. That one is a myth. In the state of Michigan, yeah one is a myth. In the state of Maine, yeah, that's a myth. Yeah.

Well, then I may try to become sheriff one day, so then I don't have to worry about you guys as much. All right, and this is the last one, and this is one that I've heard as well, which is that you can search a vehicle or a boat without a warrant, so you have more authority than a regular cop in that way. Well, again, in the state of Maine, there's a thing called regulatory authority. So when you're driving your motor vehicle down the road,

law enforcement officer needs some type of articulable suspicion, something that there's something not quite right. They just can't stop you. So a game warden has a regulatory authority. So if you're out on your boat, the game warden can flag you down. And it's basically for a compliance check a safety check they can search but as far as you know they

can search for the gear that's like life jackets fire extinguishers you know horn devices things of that nature as far as just doing a full-blown search on someone's vessel for say hey someone's catching too many fish. They have to have, they have to build probable cause and they would have to, there's all kinds of search warrants and it's search warrants exceptions. So they would have to follow more protocol. They just can't go on someone's boat

and start opening coolers up and saying, ha, I gotcha. So this is the last thing I want to talk to you about, because you talk about in the book, you talk about how so much of your job was also on the water. And I don't think a lot of people think about that. And I know different states handle it differently as far as different types of natural resource officers,

but you talk about doing like full fledged investigations on boating accidents. And it got me thinking, we're in the middle of summer, everybody's getting ready to get their last couple of days on the lake end before they go back to school. How dangerous are boats? And what I mean by that is do people sometimes not respect them the same way they do vehicles

and probably should? I mean, I've got some stats here and, you know, there were nearly 4,000 reported accidents resulting in almost 600 deaths in 2023. Those are kind of big numbers. I mean, I don't think people really respect boats and boating the way they should. Yeah, I know. I would agree with that. I mean, you know, drowning is a huge issue. People fall overboard. They have too much to drink. They, you know, and, you fall, you fall out of your car, you land on the ground. You fall out of your boat, you land in the water.

If you can't swim, you drown. You know, we encourage people all the time to wear personal, you know, flotation devices, other known as life jackets. But you know, it's hot out, it's 9,500 degrees. Who wants to wear a jacket, right? They've come up with a ton of alternatives to those hot jackets. You know, we encourage people to wear them.

They do save lives. I've said this for many, many years. I've dove for eight years for the state. I brought a lot of people back to their families and I've never ever brought someone off the bottom with a life jacket on. Man, that's, I mean, that's an impactful statement. That goes right there with the idea if you don't find them on the bottom alive.

It is a life jacket. My son is about to start driving. He gets his license tomorrow. I was riding with him yesterday and I said, son, I just don't think you're ready. He looked at me like I broke his heart and I said, listen, this is not about punishing you. It's about you get one chance at life in a life or death situation. I think knowing guys like you are why I think that way,

I don't know if I would have that foresight and perspective if I hadn't talked to you and heard the stories. It's not about living in fear, it's about living smartly and understanding what can hurt you. Man, thanks for doing what you've done for so long. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you.

And real quick, if people read the book they're going to learn about Tundra, your dog Tunny. We don't have a lot of time, but I know it always puts a smile on your face. Tell us about Tunny real quick. Well she was a pretty special partner. You know I was very fortunate to get her at a young age. Trained her for her first year as a duck hunter. She was remarkable with that, so I thought maybe she could do more. So we put her on the canine team. I had her for 14 years. She worked with me for 12 of those 14. She found 23 people, which is a huge number. You know, Maine is full of woods and people get lost frequently and can easily get hurt by being lost in these woods to hypothermia, to injury, all kinds of stuff. And she was she was just too. She made me look good in those that time frame. You know, I'd put her on the ground and I'm a pretty fast paced guy and I knew I just had to be

patient and let her work and she'd make me look good. And she absolutely did for a long time. She was a real joy and a real pleasure to have. What kind of dog was she? She was a Black Lab. I'm telling you, man. I've got a Black Lab female puppy downstairs

and I got her because I read about Tunny and it inspired me to maybe have that type of companionship and partnership with a dog the way you talk about and I hope people I think dogs are really special man and to find one to to be as gifted as Tunny was I think that's a godsend. Yeah I'm very very very fortunate I've had several good dogs and I got one in the back seat. It's just a real, real, you know, I absolutely love them. Okay, that's awesome, man. Listen, I'm gonna go ahead and let you go.

I'm talking to a guy that's been a game warden in the state of Maine. It's a rural area. We had some connection difficulties, but we made it work. And I just can't appreciate you enough buddy Sounds good. Thank you, Joey. Yes, sir All right That was jeremy judd main game warden in my book behind the badge an amazing individual a diver a canine

Operator and an all-around just hero and uh, so this is will kane country. We just wrapped up our second interview We're going to be right back. Porter MasterCard. Enjoy more freedom, more flexibility, more rewards, more of all the things you love. Need I say more? Get your ticket to more with the new BMO VI Porter MasterCard and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit bmo.com slash VI Porter to learn more. It is time to take the quiz. Visit bemo.com slash VI Porter to learn more. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes.

We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at the quiz.fox, then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. All right, guys, we're back here on Will Kane Country. I'm your guest host today, Joey Jones, and we just wrapped up a second interview.

Had a couple of really amazing men on today. Jaco Willink, Navy Seal, a lot of you know him from his book, Extreme Ownership. And then Jeremy Judd, main game warden who was kind of a special operator in the warden service, a dive team, a K9 guy, and a buddy of mine. Cool, J. He's in my book, Behind the Badge. Yeah, I'm going to bring in the guys now.

We got obviously 10-full Pat and two a days Dan. I got the explanation on the nicknames a couple of days ago. I'm like, is it okay if I use the nicknames when I bring you guys in, or should I just call you Pat and Dan? So what do you guys think about Jaco and Jeremy? Jaco's great, man. A lot of good wisdom, a lot of good energy. I mean, what you guys did is, you know,

we appreciate your service to this country. It's really great hearing you guys talk about it. It's fascinating. And I think for the audience as well. And Maine Game Warden, that's pretty cool, man. Like, I love going up to Maine. Me and my wife hike a lot up there and it's really cool I've never done hunting and stuff. I want to go duck hunting with you one time. I think it'd be great Absolutely, but yeah, I think that's pretty cool interview

So has it real quick you said you want to go duck hunting with me one time as will never invited you duck hunting Not yet. Is he he hasn't he literally made it a New Year's resolution? For himself and he went one time never invited any of us never invited us. Yeah, I eat duck Look, I don't know where I don't know where both of you guys are But I'll tell you this if you want to go duck hunting I get more days off than will and I'm happy. Yeah, we'll make it happen. We'll rub it right in his face. We're going with Joey, man. Will's working too much.

Yeah. So, Pat, I think you've got some sport stuff for us. And I love sport stuff. I know that you guys do too. What's this all about? So, I was inspired by our conversation yesterday with David Wells, you know, and talking about the Cleveland Indian and Washington Redskins origins.

Both teams were actually named after Native American people of Native American descent. So I thought, I wonder what other kind of crazy names are out there in the sports world. Can you and Dan guess the origin of those teams? So I put together a little quiz. Nice. All right, so the first one we'll start with,

I'm gonna go a little easy on you guys. The Anaheim Ducks, what do you think gave them their name are you gonna like let one of us guess and then the next time the other guy guess so I'll take you yeah yeah yeah yeah so the Anaheim Ducks are named after the Mighty Ducks right they're named after the the movies right Disney movie exactly nailed it it. Best movie franchise of all time. Gordon Bombay. Yeah, baby.

The best coach of all time. Yes. I mean, he's better than Coach Carter. He's better than Zell. He's the best. That was Amelia's best work. So Dan, this one is the Los Angeles Dodgers. How did they get their name?

They were the Brooklyn Dodgers because I'm in New York City and I should know that. Yes, but they were actually originally known as the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, shortened it because of everybody dodging trolleys in Brooklyn. Fascinating, interesting. Yes. Oh, I see how that just happened.

Now they just have hipsters in Brooklyn and no more trolleys. I thought it would have been like dodging baseballs because they just couldn't catch them. That's actually good. That's a good What else you got? It's a good guess The I'll save this one for Dan. It's a little trickier the Chicago Blackhawks I

Know that one for you Those are those Native Americans right black hawk Indians. Yep. It is But it's actually I know the little it is named after the Blackhawk Indians But it was actually the Blackhawk division and World War one infantry Division that the owner was a part of and they were named after the Blackhawks Let them come for the Blackhawks number one those They're like the sleeping giant of crazy Yeah Number one, those fans are crazy. They're like the sleeping giant of crazy. And number two, like imagine going out,

like that would be Aunt Jemima on steroids, like not knowing the history. I hope they do go after them just for the repercussions. That would end it forever. You'll get canceled for trying to cancel, for sure. That's it. I hope they do. That would be perfect.

Yeah. So Dan, I'm gonna give you the Arizona Cardinals. How did they get their name? I've never been to Arizona my life. So I don't know if they have the bird the Cardinals there. I'm gonna go the state bird See for they actually moved from st. Louis and then Chicago before that. Yep They were but they were actually not named after a bird. They're named after in Chicago before that. Yep. But they were actually not named after a bird.

They're named after the color Cardinal Red, because their owner called their faded jerseys Cardinal Red. So they were the Cardinals after their jerseys. Yeah. That's a good little tidbit. There's a lot there to unpack. Yeah. I mean, I guess eventually you've got to have a mascot.

So just bring the bird in. Exactly. And so that's why it's like, you think some of these things are like, you know They go without saying but it's a little more than that I learned I have one that I actually just learned recently about a team name my favorite team actually and the pitcher that was on Our show yesterday David Wells the origin of the name Yankees Just the word Yankees, you know the northern Yankees. I found it very fascinating. Yeah Do you know it, Joey?

Well, I know what in the South, I know that it's like a Civil War era, the Yankees. But I don't know if that's the origin of that. Because I know that the Brits call us Yanks as well. So the origination is the Dutch settlers started New York City. So Jan was the name for John in Dutch. So, Jankees became kind of the nickname for someone in New York area.

So, the Yankees are actually just John in Dutch. So, you're telling me my name is Yankee. That's the worst thing I've ever heard in my life. You just challenged my entire identity. I'm gonna have to think about this a little bit. You better get a Yankees hat man because it's very apropos. Never. Never. You got more on that. We need to move on. We got two more for you. We're moving on. Pat, I need another quiz question. We'll get two more for you, one for you, one for him. I'll give you the San Francisco 49ers. You go Joey, I don't know.

That's Gold Rush. Yeah, that's Gold Rush. Is it? That's right, 1984, or 1949 Gold Rush, or 1849 Gold Rush, yes. Fascinating. Exactly. I didn't know that. And Dan, you get the Cleveland Browns.

What were they named after? Watched to know that my family's from Cleveland. It's a name, Arthur Brown. I'm glad. I'll give it to you. It's Paul Brown, your first coach and co-founder. Yeah. But they were not named for the color.

They were named for the man. Right. Yes. Right. So. Good quiz. Fun little quiz. I like it.

Yeah. I've got one for you guys. OK. You got it? You ready? Ready. Yeah. So the Negro League baseball team in Atlanta before there was a Major League baseball team was called the Atlanta Black Crackers. Have you ever heard of them? Where are you going with this? You know what they're named after? No, I'm just

at the... I've heard of the name but I don't know what their name is. So that was the first professional baseball team in Atlanta they played over in Fulton County. And I used to have, I bought their t-shirt and it's funny because Cracker's like a bad term for white people. Yeah, yeah. But they're the black Crackers because the crack of the baseball bat, I presume.

Yeah. But there's a lot of cool history there. I would imagine. Yeah. That's interesting. But like it's, you know, when you think about baseball teams, like now we've got the Savannah Bananas playing, you know, whatever version of baseball is akin to Harlem Globetrotters. Spatula Red Party baseball.

All these minor league teams now, yeah, yeah. And now all these other teams though, they're getting these funny names. Like you got the Rocket City Trash Pandas and the Macon Bacon. Connecticut, yeah. And I think like the professional sports teams need to embrace that. getting these funny names like you got the Rocket City Trash Pandas, Making Bacon. Connecticut. I think like the professional sports teams need to embrace that. Yeah, Connecticut we have the AA team for the Colorado Rockies, the Hartford Yardgoats, which is actually a railroad term. I love it.

Yeah. I do love AA, AAA baseball. It's fun to go to a game, bring the kids, that kind of thing. It's a pretty good time. We can go watch the Gwinnett Stripers named after a striped bass, and we'll watch the best Braves players they have are on that team because they're always hurt. Let's do it. Best bang for your buck. That's what we do in Jacksonville.

That's a little bit of an underlying insult to myself there, but that's just the season we're having. So I have one more for you, Joey. I forgot about this one, but is right right down your alley potentially okay the Calgary Flames how did they get their name? Wow I don't know. The fire of 1782. Sounds like a trick question. We'll say yeah I don't know. Big fans't want to guess that it's so stupid. So they were originally the Atlanta Flames, and then it was a reference to the torching of Atlanta in the Civil War.

Sherman was a war criminal. Nobody can dispute that. He absolutely committed war crimes. I'm not saying the South should have won or anything like that, but just very specifically, Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman, one of the best generals in the Civil War, was also I'm not saying the South should have won or anything like that, but just very specifically, Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman, one of the best generals in the Civil War, was also a war criminal and I can't be a Georgian and not say that. I just need to put that out there.

He also was probably one of the greatest minds and he had a lot of consternation about the war and like there's a lot of things to admire about him, but he absolutely ran through Georgia and torched the shit out of us and took everything and defeated our will to fight. And that's a big reason why the North won the war. I mean, he was a genius, but we don't get over that easily and we don't watch going with the wind because of it. Sounds like it's still a touchy issue with you. I'll take it.

Alright guys, this has been Will Cain Country. Thanks for the quiz. Thanks for letting me host. I appreciate you two. I appreciate the audience most. And thanks Will for letting me sit here. Will Cain Country. Listen ad free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcast and Amazon Prime members.

You can listen to this show ad free on the Amazon Music app. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at FoxNewsPodcast.com.