this is jocko podcast number 262 with echo charles and me jocko willink good evening echo good evening the president of the united states takes pleasure in presenting the medal of honor to colonel merritt a edson united states marine corps for service as set forth in the following citation for extraordinary heroism and conspicuous intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the first marine raider battalion with parachute battalion attached during action against enemy japanese forces in the solomon islands on the night of 1314 september 1942 after the airfield on guadalcanal had been seized from the enemy on august 8th colonel edson with a force of 800 men was assigned to the occupation and defense of a ridge dominating the jungle on either side of the airport facing a formidable japanese attack which augmented by infiltration had crashed through our front lines he by skillful handling of his troops successfully withdrew his forward units to a reserve line with minimum casualties when the enemy in a subsequent series of violent assaults engaged our force in desperate hand-to-hand combat with bayonets rifles pistols grenades and knives colonel edson although continuously exposed a hostile fire throughout the night personally directed defense of the reserve position against a fanatical foe of greatly superior numbers by his astute leadership and gallant devotion to duty he enabled his men despite severe losses to cling tenaciously to their position on the vital ridge thereby retaining command not only of the guadalcanal airfield but also of the first division’s entire offensive installations in the surrounding area signed franklin d roosevelt and that is an example of the level of heroism that was required to achieve victory in the battle of guadalcanal which lasted from august 7th 1942 until february 9th 1943 six months and two days of just absolutely brutal and savage fighting and we’ve covered some of that in several books on the podcast and we even had dean ladd on the podcast who received a battlefield commission on guadalcanal and went on to fight at tarawa and saipan and tinian but i recently received a copy of a book from a podcast listener by the name of david i guess i’m a little cautious about giving out full names because i don’t know you know don’t know the background so a guy named david he sent me a buckle it’s actually not a book technically it’s a fleet marine force reference publication fm fmfrp 12 tac 110 the title is fighting on guadalcanal so thank you david for sending that to me and and the book is filled with all kinds of layers one of them being the the medal of honor citation that i started with there’s there’s an additional layer in this which is that this that this fleet marine force reference publication was put together by a guy named colonel red reader who was west point class of 1926 who led the 12th infantry regiment who win the d-day and he eventually was wounded and he received the the distinguished service crossing the silver star and the legion of merit and a bronze star and a purple heart and he retired in 1946 and then he worked as the athletic director back at west point and eventually became an author and he wrote a bunch of books including a memoir which is called born at revelly so i’m sure at some point we will cover that book on this podcast but for tonight i wanted to i wanted to go to this book which which is what i’m guessing is sort of the beginning of colonel reader’s writing career was to put together this this manual fighting on guadalcanal and it’s the direct lessons learned and let’s get right into it so here’s the forward to secure the point of view of the fighting men in the salman islands lieutenant colonel russell p reader jr that’s who i just mentioned of the operations division of the war department general staff was designated as my personal representative he reported to major general vandegrift united states marine corps and major general patch u s army on guadalcanal and discussed with many officers and soldiers their experiences in jungle fighting against the japanese the stories of these men as told the colonel reader have been printed for your information the american marines and doughboys show us that the is no superman he is a tricky vicious and fanatical fighter but they are beating him day after day theirs is a priceless record of the gallantry and resourcefulness of the american fighting man at his best soldiers and officers alike should read these notes and seek to apply their lessons we must cash in on the experience which these and other brave men have paid for in blood so that’s what this book is there’s an opening note from major general vandegriff just a very famous commanding general the first marine uh division he says i desire to thank general marshall for the message which he has just sent me i passed this message of congratulations on to my men my message to the troops of general marshalls in training for this type of warfare is to go back to the tactics of the french and indian days this is not meant facitiously study their tactics and fit in our modern weapons and you have a solution i refer to the tactics and leadership of the days of rogers rangers so there you go already we’re talking about we got to make some things a little bit different we gotta we gotta look at the way we used to fight and if you think about that attitude of fighting with the rangers with rogers rangers with the french indian war you know this is the big difference between you know the way the british wanted to fight which was we’re all lined up we’re standing in ranks and we’re going to shoot and then you shoot and then we shoot back at you we’re not doing that you know that’s that’s how we won the revolutionary war because we’re going to fight a different way the early form of maneuver warfare so that’s what this book is this is a bunch of just short anecdotal quotes from a bunch of marines mainly about what their experiences are on guadalcanal a bunch of great information gunnery sergeant h l beardsley company g fifth marines i’ve been in the marine six i’ve been in the marine 16 years and i’ve been in three expeditions to china and five engagements since i’ve been in the solomons i will say that this 1942 model recruit we are getting can drink more water than six old timers we have to stress water discipline all the time they don’t seem to realize what real water discipline is we have too many ncos and the marines who are nambi pamby and beat around the bush our ncos are gradually toughing toughening up and are seeing reasons why they must meet their responsibilities respectfully speaking sir i think that when officers make an nco they should go over in their minds what kind of nco will he make in the field water discipline there’s something you don’t hear very often you got to go deep into the field before you start talking about water discipline because guess what and i don’t know when did the word hydrate do you remember pre the word hydrate yes right yeah hydrate was a new thing yeah it’s a relatively new thing yeah as far as the expression hydrate rather i think even the idea because when i was a kid we didn’t under we didn’t have the word hydrate because hydrate seems like a proactive thing yeah right like like like you’re going to get ahead of the curve right you’re going to like yeah you need to hydrate you need to stay hydrated hydrate or die sure right never heard that hydrate or die that was like that was the camelbak remember camelback yeah that was their expression hydrate or died like the camelbacks the things with little hoes coming over yeah oh that was the oh camel back the brand they came back the brand had the expression hydrate or die that’s cool so but let’s face it what we’re saying here and you never hear this he’s saying don’t hydrate if you hydrate too much you’re going to die you’re going to run out of water you need to have water discipline yeah that’s that’s a totally different mindset now i will tell you when you’re going out along like a desert patrol where you’re not gonna get a water resupply you gotta have some water discipline that makes sense you know these guys fought when they needed to have water discipline big time but it’s interesting to hear that attitude you don’t hear you don’t hear that anymore everyone’s all about hydrate hydrate it’s a different mindset i’m sure maybe maybe there’s some doctors that will approach us and kind of give us the real deal on that yeah well it makes sense because you have two different scenarios like yeah if you have the luxury to be able to just hydrate at will then oh yeah hydrate or die for sure but you know water discipline that idea kind of seems like it would be under maybe two specific circumstances where you don’t have a lot of water just to go have you ever not had water yes uh yeah yeah yeah sure where you were almost gonna go down straight up dehydrated what happened uh well it was heat uh exhaustion okay so the thing is i had water but i didn’t get enough water okay well what was the scenario football bruh so there was like a gatorade thing on the side oh yeah automatic yeah yeah yes sir i was not out of water okay my body was up like low on water can you get can you get heat whatever he can yeah you can you can get a heat casually while you’re drinking water yes sir so so you were saying you were kind of close to that i guess that’s different from just straight up dehydration well dehydration is like levels right like you’re they say you’re two percent dehydrated if you’re even thirsty for water that’s what they say but so yeah you know it depends on what you’re trying to say you know we’re going to get some feedback on this one i can tell you yeah makes sense but the in you know in the field you’re talking about a situation where there’s two elements where limited water you don’t have unlimited water because you can’t carry unlimited water and then you still have to function in the event of unlimited water or not and let’s face it so there’s been there’s been a lot of times where i was thirsty right in the field there’s one time where i was in like a little bit of a bad situation where i could start feeling like oh this could be a problem and we were out we were out in the ozarks in arkansas doing this big land warfare problem and we we were expecting you know we had planned that you know there were streams you could see on the map and there was a couple so we you know okay we’ll be able to go this far and we’ll be able to get water from the streams and purify it and then we’ll go another distance and we’ll get some more well the first like two or three streams that we came across were empty they were dried up and so i was running danger close on water and i’ll tell you not having water to me is the second the second worst feeling in the world the worst feeling in the world is don’t don’t have air yeah but the thing is with don’t have air that’s only a bad feeling for like 30 seconds and then you’re passed down then you’re done yeah not have water is it takes a while yeah so when you try when you go too deep in the red zone there it’s not like you can just drink water and get out like air a lot of times like when you’re like let’s say you’re in the red zone air but you can still recover you just take a huge breath and you’re on the road to recovery but water you get like a for real heat exhaustion or a heat stroke is death but like heat exhaustion like a for real one uh and you drink water you’ll just throw it up yeah because your body can’t really take in that kind of water yet you got to do the iv thing you got to do this big process you know so oh yeah no water that’s so i’m sure someone will contact us and tell us like what the there’s got to be some minimum protocol because that’s the thing that i have you know you you gotta have some kind of minimum protocol like what’s the minimum amount of water you need yeah i hate being thirsty i would carry a lot of water yeah i would carry a lot of water but you know you know what you just made me think of you know when you’re caught in a triangle or something or you’re caught in a guillotine and you get out yeah and like how good it feels oh it feels so good feels so good all right i guess it’s really triangle triangles are hard to breathe but like a guillotine and a ghee choke you’re like having a hard time breathing yeah because it’s like a good rear naked you know you’re not it’s a different you don’t feel all panicky right cause you’re still taking breaths yeah you’re like oh good i’m good good night you’re right about the guillotine there because i think there’s two elements in the guillotine defense that makes you not breathe so like one it’s pressing against your windpipe so you can’t hardly breathe but another one you’re trying to tense your neck to resist like that that torque so when you tense your neck it’s like harder to actually take a take a deep breath you know it’s like those double things i’ve been training with dean list sure dean lister for a long time 25 years he showed me some guillotine defense the other day and i was like right you waited 25 years to show me this guillotine defense yeah i couldn’t guilting him and then he couldn’t guilty show these events i’m like why wouldn’t you show me that why would you not show me that bro yeah it’s probably like his soul mate yep and you know what he has so many things but he also he just thinks that everybody knows everything kind of you know so if you don’t ask him about it and the only reason he was showing someone else and i’m like what’s that defense he goes oh you just do this here and put this hand here and i was like you never showed me that yeah and he was like oh oh yeah it’s real obvious you feel like an idiot all right so there you go water discipline next i have just been promoted from first sergeant this is sergeant major b metzger fifth marines i have just been promoted from first sergeant in the fire fighting the marine first sergeant helps the company commander he checks up on the company as a whole even down to checking on the evacuation of the wounded i was able i was available to the company commander for any emergency orders during the firefight teach your soldiers sir that when a man is hit in the assault to leave him there too many of our men suddenly become first aid men your men will have to be rugged and rough and to win they must learn to disregard politeness and must kill so a couple things there first of all where i’m going deep on this so first of all this is what i used to when i used to teach when i used to teach the young seals about leadership i would teach roles and responsibility for every individual person inside of a platoon from a leadership perspective fire team leader squad leader platoon leader task unit leader company commander level and the senior enlisted guy which is the which is what he’s you know he’s he’s the company first sergeant and what you want to do and the way i used to explain it to guys and it’s the exact same thing that he’s saying you want to be the action arm for the leader for the commander right so the command so so basically you’re the guy with all this experience but if but if the if something’s going wrong like you got a problem you got to be the guy that the company commander can look at and go says go solve that problem and you have the capacity to do it because you’re not assigned any specific role so you should actually do your best to keep your comp to keep your company first sergeant like free from direct responsibility so that he can he can be your action arm to go make things happen that’s that’s number one number two is prioritize and execute right everyone wants to help out the wounded guy you can’t you gotta win first you can’t you can’t do that and then i mean let’s face it this is total war and these guys are just in a different level you you gotta disregard politeness and you gotta just kill people that’s where we’re at that’s what’s so interesting about about with the old breed by eugene sledge and in the in the hbo series the pacific they portray eugene sledge he’s kind of like this very nice very polite guy that’s how they portray him and then you see videos of the real guy the real eugene sledge that’s exactly what he’s like you know he’s kind of like a southern gentleman young very nice very kind and you know those guys were getting thrown into this savagery and and that’s what this that’s what this that’s who this message is for you gotta disregard politeness and kill now eugene sledge we should probably we should probably do that book again but eugene sledge you know he had to he had to put some things in check himself and he watched guys ripping japanese soldiers teeth out that were gold and like you know pissing on the and he saw crazy stuff and he had like a line that he didn’t cross over but he also understood it so even a guy that’s as nice and and a good of a person which eugene sledge apparently was even he realized like this is this is next level there’s another situation this is normal platoon sergeant h r strong company a fifth marines some of my men thought their hand grenades were too heavy they tossed them aside when no one was looking later they would have given six months pay for one hand grenade there you go short term versus long term got to carry that little extra weight to the hand grenade platoon sergeant f t o farah company b5 marines after the japs had been located my platoon has gained the element of surprise by moving in fast with bayonets and hand grenades in turn they have surprised us by being in a defensive position on the reverse slope of a ridge i think the snipers look for bar bar men and then colonel edson said no doubt about this and one engagement in one platoon every bar gunner was hit so this idea that you could locate them this is sort of like in jiu jitsu when you get let’s say you get the mount position you immediately go for the arm lock sometimes that’s enough to do it right whereas if you get mount and you’re like okay i got the mount that person’s going into a defensive position and now they’re going to set up for it and so what he’s saying is if they locate the japanese immediately they they go at them with grenades and bayonets which the good thing about grenades and bayonets is now you’re they can’t really locate you because of your because of your muzzle flashes and where you’re shooting you’re just getting in there with grenades and bayonets which is you know you think about modern warfare you don’t think of the tactic of hey when we make contact we’re going to immediately attack with bayonets and grenades that’s what kind of war this was platoon sergeant r a zolo company c fifth marines sir i would like to tell you that that a man’s keenness or dullness of i may determine whether or not he will live ten men in my platoon were killed because they walked up on a 37 millimeter gun i went up later after the gun had been put out by our mortars to help bring back the dead the japanese gun was so well camouflaged that i got within four feet of the gun before i saw it corporal w a mccluskey company d fifth marines sir the other day on bloody ridge rifleman protecting our light machine guns pulled out and left us we were doing okay at the time but their pulling out caused our whole outfit to withdraw i think the men in the these rifle companies should receive some training in the work and in the mission of the machine gun company they should be able to act more intelligently what does that mean you should have your team cross train no matter what business you’re in well no matter what kind of team you have you should cross train and the interesting thing about that we’ve read that we’ve read about this before when people see other people running away you’ve got a pretty good chance that those people are going to run away too this is just mob mentality second lieutenant andrew chisik fifth marines i think that in the regimental supply there should be extra canteens so when the out when an outfit gets in a place like the table plateau where there is no water an extra canteen of water can be issued sir this would be really this would really help our men stay in there and and what’s interesting this is all like done like an interview so that’s why they keep saying things like sir they’re talking directly to this guy and he’s just putting the quotes in there they’re talking to colonel reader marine gunner e s rust fifth marines i hate to admit it but it’s the truth when we got here a lot of our young men were confused at night they were not used to the jungle at night they could not use their compasses at night and we did not have enough compasses we have learned that when we get off the beaten trails it seems to confuse the japs and we have better success so what does that mean you gotta train at night platoon sergeant jcl hollingsworth company h fifth marines when we moved around on these jungle trails we have learned to have men at the rear of each platoon who carry light loads so they can quickly so they can get their weapons into action quickly to help overcome ambush fire from the rear that’s so what you want to do as a human as a human that’s strategizing in the world is you want to have an element that’s flexible and can move quickly to help you overcome situations so whether you’re in business whether you whatever situation you’re in you want to have a specific element that is designed to move quickly and give support where it’s needed could go left could go right could go north could go south could go east could go west why do you why do you need that because you can’t predict the future so you should design your plans so that the the design of the plans is inherently flexible put the big rugged men into the heavy weapons company i’m just throwing that out there for all the young men going in the military they’re going to saddle you up with that pig gun and you’re going to carry it from some of our new men were so scared of our hand grenades when they first when they were first issued that they jammed the down the cotter pin later in action they could not pull the pin i noticed as i get and i pointed out pointed this out to my platoon that when a man gets hit the men close by get to yell and corman corman corman they get so excited sometimes that they actually forget to use their own first aid packets in first aid training teach correct use of injecting morphine and procedure of tagging because what are you gonna do when the corpsman gets hit i’d give 75 for a pair of tennis shoes to rest my feet and for use in night work classic i have only been in the marine corps four years but i have learned that you have got to develop a sense of responsibility in the men wearing chevrons right got it you got to develop that responsibility in action we have had unauthorized persons yelling cease firing or commence firing this caused confusion platoon sergeant george e ajo ajo company fifth company f fifth marines i put five years in the us army before joining the marine corps sir i like the marines better than the army because the average marine officer is closer to his men than the average army officer whom i observed we have comradeship in the marine corps also the marine enlisted men are more spartan-like i believe sir we baby our soldiers too much in peace time i hope we are not doing this now and then here’s a here’s a comment from from colonel reader here i asked colonel edson what and edson is the guy that we read the medal of honor um citation from i asked colonel edson what kind of a sergeant aho was and he told me that he was one of the outstanding men in his regiment and that he was a very rugged individual i heard that i was like i can picture this dude you know he gets described as you’re in guadalcanal with marines and you in that environment with the toughest bastards in the world you get you get described as a quote very rugged individual you know george e a hoe platoon sergeant company f fifth marines doesn’t play around he continues on in our training for this jungle warfare we had a great deal of work and hand-to-hand individual combat use of knife jiu-jitsu etc let’s face it when i read that i got very very you know we were feeling good about it wait what’s the year on that 1943 yeah that’s uh that’s the tradition jiu-jitsu it’s not the president okay well maybe it is actually because 1925 that’s on it yeah but this is pre-judo no it’s not pre-judo so it’s jujitsu let’s let’s take it for what it’s worth anyways your excitement’s gonna go down just like mine did because he says this with the exception of bayonet fighting we have not used this work i’ve been in many battles since i hit the island and i’ve never seen anyone use it okay so did some hand-to-hand training oh well i think maybe just out of sort of gp i would have found a way to get my hand to get my bring the jets every man should have a watch that’s a good one just to kind of let you know i mean think about you’re going to warn you have a watch our battalion commander major walt wants every last man in our battalion to know as much as he does about the situation it pays think about that you’re in a leadership position you should try and get every last man in your team to know as much as you do about the situation it will pay off he also says this get rid of gold bricks it’s better to be short-handed having good men around than having a lot of undependables you familiar with the term gold brick no not in this context anyway what context are you familiar with it in a regular gold brick which is like a gold bar okay got it got it got it so that’s the difference a gold bar is made of gold a gold brick is a brick painted like gold gotcha have you ever seen the big lebowski yeah yeah but like once a long time ago the term is heavily used in there goldbricker yep so a gold brick is not it looks like good yeah you’re just here for show kind of looks good utility yeah all show no go all that good exactly man i got a book i just read for this podcast that we’ll be covering in the future but there’s a guy that shows up in the korean war and he’s all squared away he’s all he’s all like right and tight everything’s good to go and the older combat vets are like i don’t think so and the one younger guy that’s kind of that’s a badass that’s actually writing the book he says oh yeah this guy’s going to be good to go and sure enough the older veterans that were looking at him he was suspect he was they were suspect because he was like everything was kind of perfect kind of like that conversation we had the other day about you know music and everything being perfect and if it’s too perfect it’s not real right well that’s kind of the impression these guys got oh this guy’s totally perfect well guess what happened when the bullets started flying he had a he had a trick knee and all of a sudden he couldn’t right get after it so to me that right there gold brick gotcha corporal j s stankus company e fifth marines unnecessary firing gives your position away and when you give your position away here you have to pay for it man i went on like the crazy i’ve gone on crazy change it’s about giving away your position unnecessary firing and i’m not talking about combat i’m talking about in conversations in leadership situations where you give away your position yeah you take shots at echo echo says you know i’d like to use this plan over here and i go that plan doesn’t make any sense and now all of a sudden you know where i stand why would you do that why wouldn’t i say well explain to me more about your plan and then ask you a question about it because if i if i give my position away all of a sudden you’re you’re not even you’re already like defensive i’m causing problems why do that and by the way you might now attack me because i just gave my position away now you might start throwing shots at me so when you say here’s my plan and i say your plan doesn’t make any sense i just gave my position away i don’t think your plan makes sense there’s my position whereas if you say here’s my plan and i say why do you want to put guys over here or why do you want to move this over here and you start answering my questions i haven’t given my position away you’re not defensive you’re trying to explain it to me maybe your plan makes sense but i just didn’t understand it so don’t give your position away not in guadalcanal and not in the meeting with your with your team the men in my squad fire low at the base of trees there’s too much high firing going on i have i have observed japs often get short of ammunition they cut bamboo and crack it together to simulate rifle fire to draw our fire they ain’t supermen they’re just tricky bastards second lieutenant h m davis fifth marines in parentheses promoted on the field of battle do you understand what that means i think so okay so you understand that there’s enlisted guys in the military and there’s officers yeah so basically the enlisted guys have not gone to college the officers well i guess the enlisted guys may have gone to college especially nowadays there’s a lot of enlisted guys that have gone to college but the in these days most likely the enlisted guy hadn’t gone to college so they went through a regular training pipeline and you’re sort of the workforce of the military than the officers they’ve been to college and they’ve been through some kind of a training program to make put them into a leadership position is that kind of like at a company the difference between a guy who has a great uh resume degree blah blah blah comes in at a certain high position versus the guy who worked his way up through like the mail room so so uh a little bit but let’s say a construction site you’ve got a guy that went to college for civil engineering and he’s he’s overseeing the whole project right and he’s oh he got his degree three years ago but then you’ve got a guy that’s been working construction since he was 14 years old and now he’s been doing it for 28 years and he’s the foreman or he’s any of those people in between right right that’s that’s kind of the breakout so to get promoted on the field about a battlefield promotion to be get commissioned is it’s pretty powerful that means that when all this mayhem was going on they skipped you through like entire an entire spectrum of promotions to the next completely different level it’s hackworth actually in korea got battlefield promoted like you’re so good we’re gonna take you we’re gonna put you in charge yeah so it’d be like if it’d be like if you showed up as the the brick carrier and you did such a good job and then they said well you can start putting you did that and you did something else and the next thing they promoted you to the guy that was the civil engineer put you in charge of the whole project so that’s so when you hear about second lieutenant h m davis fifth marines promoted on the field of battle we’re talking about full legit says travel light for example the hell with all the mess equipment we used our mess cup and spoon for the first 15 days here and enjoyed our chow [Laughter] you don’t have to live like a gentleman in jungle warfare our mess equipment is too bulky for this type of warfare makes noise there you go and then he says this not every man can lead a battalion find out who can lead your battalions before you go into combat areas and then colonel edson in parentheses remark by colonel edson says i would like to concur in that statement so the medal of honor recipient the the commander of that battalion he says i’d like to concur with that yep there’s something that’s so pure and just unmercifully beautiful about combat when it comes to like hey we cannot we don’t we can’t afford to play around it’s kind of cool when i was in in sri lanka which we covered on like podcast three or something working with those soldiers that were fighting against the tamil tigers and if they had someone that was good they’d be like you’re promoted you’re gonna be in charge if they had someone that bad you’re not in charge anymore they didn’t care about anything there was no hr department there was no hey we’re gonna document what mistakes you made and we’re gonna counsel you they’re like no you made like five bad calls in a row you’re done yeah and you young recruit that’s been doing great you’re you’re in the game you will put you in charge it was very cool and and that’s what happens in war it doesn’t so much happen in peace peacetime in an advanced and in an advance in the jungle it’s hard for a platoon leader to keep control of his men corporals and their men must be taught to act individually it’s a little something that we like to call decentralized command you are not going to be with everyone you can’t control them it doesn’t work platoon sergeant c m fagan company if marines i haven’t been fired at many times by snipers and i haven’t seen one yet i i threw that and there’s a lot i skipped over some of these but there’s a lot of people complaining about snipers um the sabres which the japanese officers carry have proved to be worthless i killed two japs who came at me with sabers and i got them first by shooting them [Laughter] you remember that scene in indiana jones yes you know all scenes what is it which one uh some guy comes out and he’s swinging a sword around like kind of a real skill like hey i got the sword and we’re gonna fight yeah and and uh indiana jones kind of like shrugs his shoulder and just pulls a pistol out and shoots him that’s what i when i heard this i was like well yeah if you got a gun he’s making a statement hey a gun is better than a saber yeah well thank you the we agree but this isn’t new yeah it’s kind of obvious on this the that scene indiana jones yeah hey you asked for it so here you go the uh that scene in real life they were gonna have or or the original script or whatever they were gonna have this epic kind of battle sword battle but indiana or harrison ford had to use a bathroom real bad so he pulled that out as a little improv and they just kept it cool there you go good to know never mind the bottle of water canal let’s hear about the bathroom battles on the set of indiana jones that’s different you know i have a seat but uh then he says this but i wished i had in reserve a good jungle knife i don’t even i don’t mean a bolo which we should have for cutting trails but a knife with a 12-inch blade of good steel we could use this against the these japs as well as cutting vines that catch us at night and then says note many men expressed their wish for a jungle knife such as described here this desire is being omitted in further remarks to avoid repetition so everybody was like give us a big ass knife corporal fred carter company if marines on the river we got to firing at each other because of careless leadership by the junior officer so we had a little blue on blue situation we are curing ourselves of promiscuous firing but i should think new units would get training to make the men careful there you go these guys had a little blue on blue situation and he’s saying i should think new units would get training to make the men more careful yeah that’s what i did when i had a blue on blue friendly fire situation came back and said i’m gonna train people so this doesn’t happen to him we learned not to fire unless we had something to shoot at doing otherwise discloses your position in waste ammunition he says i have been charged twice by the japs in bayonet charge our marines can outbay and not fight them and i know our army men will do the same in the note by colonel edson incidentally in the last push we executed we executed three bayonet charges sergeant oj marion company l fifth marines a platoon guide you crawl in the advance unless you are to charge and make it the the reason for this is that all men hit are hit from the knees up except for ricochets we have crawled up to within 25 yards of a machine gun firing over our backs the japs don’t depress their machine gun men get killed rushing to help a wounded man if the wounded man would crawl about 10 yards to his flank he can generally be aided in safety as the japs seem to fire down lanes in the jungle colonel edson said we have taught our men that in the best way to aid a wounded man is to push ahead so that the wounded man can be cared for by the corpsman the men have been the men have to be trained individually for when the fire starts the corporal can’t see all of his men and further when the order for an attack is given any number of men are unable to see the man on his right or left you so you see sir it takes guts for the men to get up and move forward when the signal is given the men have to depend on on on one another and have confidence in each other so again you can see these guys have you ever been triple girl i guess you have triple canopy jungle like real thick jungle yeah yeah obviously um it’s really you can take five steps and you can’t see that another person you know and that’s what these guys are seeing for the first time well not for the first time but they’re seeing hey somebody gets five feet away from me i can’t see them anymore they have to know how to act on their own they have to be ready to utilize decentralized command he says i was in one advance when the japs let us come through and then rose up out of covered foxholes and shot us in the back the best cure for that is rearguard looking towards the rear corporal ev corporal fr mcallen company l fifth marines sometimes the information doesn’t get down to us and then we are really in the dark when we get the orders and information we can get in there and pitch better again sure you keep your people informed my platoon is the best one in the company because we are all like a baseball team our lieutenant is like the captain of the team he is close with us and we like him and yet respect him we have a wonderful platoon i’m not bragging that’s a fact and then here’s the note in parentheses when i read this to colonel edson at the end of the day he was so delighted that he sent a runner to find out who corporal mcallen’s platoon leader was give that guy a promotion and here’s the interview with colonel merritt edson himself and again this is the this is the guy who received the medal of honor that i read at the beginning of this podcast he says if i had to train my regiment over again i would stress small group training and the training of the individual even more than we did when we were in training so there you go everyone is stressing that people need to be able to think for themselves and make things happen there must be training in difficult observation which is needed for the offense it is my observation that only five percent of the men can really see while observing yeah what what’s crazy about that is they they do drills especially them in sniper school where they put like stuff out in a field like a canteen and a knife and a notebook they put all this stuff in a field and then they give you then they then they bring you out to the field and you get to sit in position you gotta look and you gotta see you gotta they’ve had it kind of hidden partially hidden so they’ll put 10 items out there and you’ve got to sit there with your notebook and you kind of got to write down all the items that you can see and what their location is and somebody that’s really and there’s different people have different levels of skill at actually observing things so some some people get oh they get nine they get eight they get ten some people see like three or four things so to actually train for that is important the other crazy thing about this is i was talking about this on ef online the other day it’s hard it’s hard to see and sometimes things that you think are so obvious other people aren’t seeing and sometimes if you think what you’re doing no one can see they can all see it so if you think you’re making some little tactical move that no one’s seeing you’re wrong you’re making if you’re making some little maneuver to get the promotion or whatever and you think that it’s all good no one can see it yeah you’re wrong everybody can see it yeah everybody can see it you know who can’t see it you can’t see that they can see the offensive is the most difficult to support as you cannot tell exactly where your troops are so scary whether the japs will continue to fight as they do now i don’t know they defend on the low ground in the jungle they dig standing trenches extremely well camouflaged and he goes into some really like tactical level stuff talking about the need for a rifle grenade the need for a knee mortar um why that would be good because it gives the platoon commander kind of at hand weapons he says this i suggest that you have maneuvers with ball ammunition which is basically do maneuvers with real bullets and then he says even if you get a few casualties i was like dang we now in the seal teams we do live fire training all the time and not only that we do incredibly complex maneuvers with live fire and it it’s so beneficial that you’re just used to it you know you’re used to it you really learn about paying attention and safety and how to keep your distance and all those really important things but if you the the other thing i will say we got when i first came in the teams that’s all all we did was live fire and it was sort of like the thing you know it’s sort of like that’s as good as it gets like we’re doing live fire it was one of those things and it was you know you’d go well it’s live fire and we you do so much of it that it became so it wasn’t really it’s just it was just normal right live fire was just totally normal it’s how you operate but once we got simunition and like the the high speed laser tag systems that’s when you got you have to do both but that’s when you got good at actually combat because when you’re going live fire you’re not going against anyone but paper targets they don’t move but you have to do it um yeah so he goes into more details about the kind of boots that they have and he says the same thing that everyone’s been saying in your training put your time and emphasis on the squad and platoon rather than on the company battalion regiment so train at the lowest levels your principle of the command post up and to the front is certainly true here in your scouting and patrolling and your training in patience which you should have have the men work against each other so he’s saying the same thing you have to do something where you’re actually going against other humans not just against paper targets same thing for squads and platoons and their problems develop better snipers it goes on to a bunch of things uh smoking lamp once the smoking lamp goes out and it gets dark you have to be quiet yeah um he goes into this example in the raiders we adopted the custom of dropping all rank and titles we use nicknames for officers all ranks use these nicknames for us we did this because the nips caught on to the names of the officers and would yell or speak at night this is captain joe smith talking a company withdrawal to the next hill so we adopted nicknames with code words captain walt became silent lou my nickname was red mike an example of the use of these nicknames as code words is one night the japs put down smoke and they yelled gas we were too green at the time and two of our companies withdrew leaving a company exposed on two flanks he says a value of night training is that it lets men learn the normal noises of the woods at night woods are not silent at night he says the japanese is no superman he has the same limitations that we have they have the advantage of experience with proper training our americans are better as our people can think better as individuals encourage your individuals and bring them out so this is any team right you either train your team to think or you train them to obey and certainly the japanese leaned toward what they wanted was obedience both our riflemen and machine gunners must be taught to shoot low well i can tell you that’s what i got taught too shoot low this leadership business resolves itself down to being hard-boiled by that i mean getting rid of the poor leader even if you like him personally because this is a life and death affair this goes right on down to the non-comms you can see they just did there’s no you could allow no slack for poor leadership like you know it’s peace time i can tell you when when i first got to the to the tears bro the amount of seal officers that got fired when they were in a seal platoon was very very small very small number of seal officers that would get fired and then after the war started it would happen this is what would happen it was not like it happened often but it happened a lot more happened a lot more because you’d be looking going this isn’t just a deployment over to you know train someone or you know this is going to be we’re going to war um so that was um that was colonel edson now we get to major lou walt commanding officer 2nd battalion 5th marine and there’s a note from colonel edson colonel edson told me that major walt was one of his best leaders and one of the best men he has ever seen in action major walt is a young man of about 35 years of age he’s extremely rugged and looks like a fullback on a football team i talked to him over 20 minutes before i was able to make a single original note as his ideas seem to echo colonel edson’s so that’s pretty cool you got the the battalion commander saying all the same stuff that the regimental commander was saying here’s a little report that major luke walt gives at 6 30 p m they smoked our two right companies and when the smoke had enveloped these two companies they broke out they came out in mass formation 20 abreast yelling bayonets fixed automatic weapons working rear ranks throwing hand grenades they were trying to escape to the sand pit at the mouth of the river in order to cross the river to get back our right front company had just completed a double apron barbed wire fence when the japanese hit the left flank of the right company they killed nine out of the first 10 men 9 out of the first 11 men they hit then they hit the barbed wire two of our heavy machine guns opened up shooting down along this barbed wire fence and dispersed their attack it got dark quickly like it does here there was smoke japs and marines all mixed up three officers were swinging their two-hand swords there was hand-to-hand fighting all night long we mopped them up at daybreak we killed 78 japs they killed 12 marines and wounded 26 of us the has a great deal of respect for our hand grenade and is a valuable weapon to us do you ever practice throwing it in wooded country scary throwing grenades in the woods yeah because you can hit a tree you can hit a branch he says and this is always a common theme about the japanese the is not an individual fighter he won’t fight with a bayonet unless backed up with a dozen other japs here’s where we get to this pure leadership as in the basic field manual each man should know the objective i make my platoon leader designate an objective every 100 yards in the jungle and they work to it and reorganize they don’t push off for the next objective until they get word from the company commander this method we have found ensures control i control my companies exactly the same way i set up objectives for each company when the companies reach their objective they report after the reorganization we go ahead i think reserves and the attack should be kept up close so they can be committed immediately platoon sergeant c c ardent [Music] and there’s a note in here it says when when colonel edson sent for his best fighters he did not include platoon sergeant ardent after i got through talking to these men two of them came up to me and said sir did you did not see sergeant arden he has more patrols and does more scouting than any man in the regiment could we get him for you sir and so here we go cece ardent and he seems like the kind of guy when i was reading this i was like i know this kind of dude so here’s this this dude i practice walking quietly over rocks twigs grass leaves through vines etc i practiced this around the bivouac area i received instructions in scouting and patrolling in quantico but i still practice this around here in the biviwack area i believe because i practice this is the reason i am still alive some of the other ncos laughed at me because i’m always seeing how quietly i can walk around because i go out and practice on my own but they have stopped laughing because i have been on more patrols than any man in the regiment and i am still alive when i am scouting and come to an opening in the jungle and have to cross it i generally run across it quickly and quietly going slow here may cost a scout his life different types of terrain calls for different methods so i totally know that guy just obsessed and i love it go ahead you thinking like the like jiu-jitsu guys do that too you know you know guys like they stand up and they do like a technical stand even though you know they’re just doing they’re keeping it real yeah yeah or when they give you a hug they like fish for underhooks like they’re always doing that thing you know yeah yeah but i think this is the guy that’s like stan you know not just that this is the guy that’s and and you know i when i when i first got in and actually the whole time i was in it was like okay i got to do this again i need to do this better i gotta get better at this but i i i did that kind of in a broad way right like like i kind of wanted to be good at everything you know whereas it’d be like someone whereas there’s some guys that would get really into one thing yeah you know it’d be like someone that just works on you know deep half guard they just get obsessed with deep pap card and that’s what they’re working on like that’s all they’re drilling that’s all they’re doing this is colonel amore l e r sims commanding officer seventh marines first marine division and he says is the army stripping down to essentials and equipment teach not to waste ammunition learn to make every shot count try to get the japs on the move keep them bouncing around don’t let them get set when you let them get set they’re hard to get out this is such a good philosophy to have whenever you’re in a competitive moment against another person or against another business or against another team don’t let them settle don’t let them you know like we talked about earlier you get them out and go for the unlock look sometimes you think well get there an established position i get it i get that philosophy but if you can and you can get there and you can go for it you’re gonna catch them off guard don’t let them prepare go he says our battalion commanders in the seventh marines know that in reporting information at once and if they need help to ask for it and not just try to pull things through that they are enabling regiments to act as a team in the right manner and in the right direction so he’s saying listen the battalion commanders knew that they needed to get the information the correct information up the chain of command as quickly as they could so that they so that the chain of command the senior leadership could support them and if you needed help you needed to ask for it a regimental commander cannot be impatient don’t push your battalion commanders unless you feel there is reluctancy on their part our great leader general van de grift gives me a job and lets me handle the situation with a regiment in my own way he is not impatient with me impatience would ruin the best plans a mapped plan may not turn out to be feasible so we have learned here not to be impatient and then he says it has been impressed upon us here that the logistics have to be correctly planned the science of logistics turns out to be your life logistics wins wars here’s a thought i would like to leave you with the regimental commanders pick your officers for common sense basic field manual knowledge is fine but it is useless without common sense common sense is of greater value than all the words in the book i am too deep so that’s a statement right there right common sense isn’t that amazing promote and put in leadership positions people that have common sense then he says i am too deep in my battalions in regard to battalion commanding officers that is each one of my battalion executive officers is a potential battalion commander the reason for this is if the battalion commander gets killed or sick i won’t be caught out on a limb he says i make my staff officers get out of this cp not to snoop so they go get out of the command cup post and go to the front lines and he does that quote not to snoop on the troops but to help the battalions and equate themselves with the general situation insist on night training but don’t train day and night if i were training my regiment again working seven days a week i would train three nights and four days our orders to our marines on the perimeter defense are this is this is kind of epic our orders to our marines on the perimeter defense are you stay on your position and do not pull back if they bust through you will plug up the hole but you stay there and then he says this regiment can out yell the japs out fight them out bayonet them and out shoot them this yelling as in hand-to-hand action is important it’s like a football team that talks it up the japs yell at us marines we’re gonna kill you more blood for the emperor the marines yell back you blank blankety blank blank blankets and it just has blood that’s little underlying you blank blankety blank blank we’ll kill you japs more blood for franklin they’re just yelling at each other you know that was like when we had cowboy on and cowboy could hear the north vietnamese army commander yelling hey get ready to get ready to uh assault and he’s telling telling lynn black here they come he just gave the order to assault sometimes that’s how right like if you’re close i think it was life who said when they were like in a gunfight and they were so close they were they were yelling at each other well you could definitely hear people talking yeah yeah i saw a video i have to ask leif like what particular instance that was yeah he i saw a video it was online of uh some fights from army guys i think in afghanistan they’re kind it looked like a kind of a jungle there’s parts of afghanistan that look like that yeah like not a thick yeah you know but like it was like trees in there and they were in a gunfight and they were you could hear them yelling at you and i think you there it was in a different language and stuff and they’re just the same deal blankety blank blank but it’s crazy because in football yeah that’s how too yeah you know it’s like it’s all talking trash the whole time yeah even the referee is saying hey be quiet be quiet no fat the referee is no factor because you can’t do nothing for you he’s talking and everyone’s yelling at each other right and depends certain teams are more hostile than others whatever um just depends on the personality of the team but yeah that goes on but it’s all like it’s all within like sportsmen like you know some of it’s funny some some of it’s like kind of you know so there’s there’s a certain it’s kind of the culture you know but it’s crazy to understand that like this guy’s trying to straight up kill you and you’re trying to kill them so that blankety blank blank is like the real deal you know damn this next section is about the commanding officer of the first battalion seventh regiment us marines first marine division you might know who that is it’s lieutenant colonel louis b puller from podcast 121 we went through his book which is called marine in podcast 122 we talked about his son lewis puller jr so if you want to check out those podcasts there is that’s a podcast that will stay with you i’ll put it to you that way um so what he says this is one of the most yeah this is the most iconic marine of all time chesty puller and he says and this was kind of cool because like this is it’s cool because the way this is written you can tell that this guy was taking notes like there was someone there sitting there writing down word for word what these guys were saying so this is chesty puller talking and he says in handling my companies i take the company commander’s word for what is going on you have to do this to get anywhere in order to get a true picture of what is going on in this heavy country i take my staff i make my staff get up to where the fighting is this command post business will ruin the american army and marines if it isn’t watched hell our platoons and squads would like a command post in the attack if they are not watched as soon as you set up a command post all forward movement stops [Music] that’s a good one it’s a good one to think about mentally for you for us for me right you as soon as you set up a command post like okay i’m good i’m good in this spot forward progress stops don’t do it he says the walkie-talkie that japs have operates why why can’t we have a similar one and then he says this to hell with the telephone wire advancing with the troops we can’t carry enough wire we received an order this advance the advance will stop until the wire gets in this is backwards [Music] so you know because they didn’t have good radio communications they they would run a wire an actual wire so they could talk to each other on these little field telephones well obviously it’s not easy to run that wire out there and you’d see you ever seen vid you know movies of guys they got the little wire and reel they’re running out avoiding getting shot i mean it’s a total nightmare but then you get these commanders saying hey don’t advance anymore until you get the wiring position and chest he’s like look we know where we’re going let us go he said the staffs are twice as large as they should be the regimental staff is too large i have five staff officers in the battalion and i could get along with less the officers have to dress and look like the men one time the commandant of the marine corps asked me why our patrols failed in haiti i replied because of the officer’s bedding role in haiti at that time the officer had to have a pack mule and the enlisted men saw the officers lying around in luxury the patrols were actually held up for this pack mule your leaders have to be up front those that won’t get up there and are not in physical shape to keep up with the men will cause plans to fail it’s okay to say that an outfit cannot be surprised but it is bound to happen in this type of warfare so therefore your outfits must know what to do when ambushed so he’s saying like hey look you can say hey we’re not going to get surprised but guess what you are so you better know what to do then he says calling back commanding officers to battalion and regimental uh cps to say how are things going is awful that’s a statement that’s a complete statement if you call me back from the front line to say how’s it going it’s awful each company is responsible for its flank this is a time tested and proven formation which worked if attacked from the flank face and adjust the good little good little thing to think about in marching or in camp i just noticed like now that i’m reading chesty puller i’m getting more fired up i’m channeling chesty in marching or in camp i think i’m doing what i think he sounded like in marching or in camp we’ve learned here that you must have an all-around defense there you go he’s just making statements he’s not even he’s just he’s just rattling things off we need more entrenching shovels give shovels to the men who have wire cutters you need both the wire cutter and shovels i wish we had had the m1 rifle and when we get relieved from guadalcanal i’m going to make every effort to get it i consider it my imperative that the army and marines be equipped with knee mortars and only carry one type grenade have the hand grenade fit in the knee mortar and be of use as a hand grenade and also as a rifle grenade you need a rifle grenadier and each squad for use against enemy machine gun nests i did in some of the other guys i kind of skip through uh some of their when it gets re it starts getting real granular but i wasn’t going to skip chesty puller because because chesty puller the following is the result and so that’s it that’s that’s uh what we get from chesty but then the following is the result of a conference with five of the best ncos in the first battalion or the seventh marines these ncos were selected by lieutenant colonel polar here’s some comments from them the japanese fire is not always aimed it is harassing fire and scares recruits get the recruits so they are used to overhead fire japs who have infiltrated signal to each other with their rifles by the number of shots we get these birds by constantly patrolling he says if one of the guys say if you shoot their officers they mill around talking about the japanese if you shoot their officers they mill around their ncos are poor you can tell their officers by their sabers and their letter leather plates which is like some kind of legging i had to look that word up plateaus p-u-t-t-e-e-s it’s like a legging but this is again this is something that you hear a lot about the japanese is that once their officers are dead they because they’re very centralized command micromanaged so if you killed their if you killed their officers all of a sudden the the rest of the troops are just kind of milling around they don’t know what to do lieutenant shepard seventh marines also promoted on the field of battle we salute you lieutenant shepard i would stress in training teamwork between the leaders and all units liaison between support plans and all leaders liaison between artillery and the infantry if i were training my unit again i would really have some high class patrol training i would do everything with these patrols i could possibly think of to include losing them and making them go across country without maps or compasses the japanese do a lot of yelling at times and other times they are deadly silent one night some japanese got in our marching column we discovered them and bayonetted them at another time i heard i myself heard a japanese yell in good english k company forward the japs don’t like our men yelling back at them okay next we get to master gunnery sergeant r m foul seventh marines and he’s 24 years of service he said we learned not to get excited or go off half cocked where there’s noise the japanese make noise to mislead us they shot off some firecrackers at the start but we have learned that where the noise is he ain’t you never hear him move he sleeps in the daytime and does his work at night officers and ncos during shelling should move around and talk to the men quiet them down if you don’t do this some of them will walk around with their fingers on their triggers and they get to imagining things and along this line we learned to post double sentinels one man to quiet another sheesh imagine that you gotta you gotta put two people on watch because you got one of them’s gonna freak out all my time in the marines i’ve seen men bunch up and i’ve talked about this and make my ncos talk about this all the time the men seem to fear separation i talked about that in leadership strategy and tactics i got a whole section called don’t botch up and i don’t didn’t just talk about it from the battlefield perspective but what happens is the way i the reason i had to talk about it in there is because yes people bunch up on the battlefield and they do it because they’re they’re afraid and because you want to hear you want to be close like i want to get to you to hear what you have what’s going on but what happens in from a leadership perspective is people bunch up mentally in from the lead so echo you have an idea i like to crowd in with your id and put my ideas in there we all want to get together we want to talk we got to give our input it’s like man give that person some space let that plan develop a little bit don’t bunch up don’t crowd it this one says the japs are man monkeys and they run around considerable in order to compete with these man monkeys from japan you got to be in excellent shape and you’ve got to be tough we can lick them and we are doing it all the time sir so yeah you’re saying they’re like in great shape and they’re able to move around through the jungle very quickly well i suppose it’s like when uh when joe rogan calls some fighter like a gorilla or whatever right yeah or a monster yeah monster animal yeah the animal check man monkeys lieutenant colonel frisbee executive officer 7th marines i hope the army is being toughened up we toughened up by bivouacking not camping at the combat ranges we lived at these combat ranges in order to teach platoons to keep off the road we made platoons march in the field alongside the road when they moved from one combat area to another hey what’s bibiwacking um sleeping in the woods not camping but you know setting up a small area to sleep in you’re not like put pitching a tent it’s like a uh just a makeshift sort of we’re gonna sleep here like not even at camp like less so just kind of for sleeping for rest yeah it’s not like in a bad way or a necessarily a good way more just like to get sleep like hey we’ve been patrolling all right we’re in a good spot hey we’re gonna be wack here for the night okay you know half guys on security other half guys get you know put your head down get some sleep gotcha probably a good defensible position here’s lieutenant colonel n h han khan second battalion seventh marines and by the way medal of honor from haiti it pays in the attack in the jungle to use the heavy machine guns there is a difference of opinion as you have noticed on this matter it’s hard work yes but don’t overlook the value morale and otherwise and don’t forget about the high rate of fire if you ditch the heavy machine guns and substitute the lights in their place you must remember that you will be up against the japanese machine guns as we all know i’m a huge fan of machine guns yes sir and apparently so is lieutenant colonel be careful about withdrawing the men unless all the men know what it’s about if you don’t do this you’re liable to make the man panicky we already talked about that mob mentality can happen you must realize that there is such a thing as not attacking when ordered to do so we have got to get to a point where the men go ahead when ordered and damn the hindmost corporals must be indoctrinated with leadership to overcome this and all ranks have got to have the hate like i said this is a different time man you’re going against a different enemy we’re talking about you have to hate the enemy that’s where we’re at [Music] here’s a conference with three second lieutenants and five old ncos of 2nd battalion 7th marines the basic principle of leadership in the u s marine corps is that the individual is told of his responsibility in different situations and is held to it you got to have confidence in each other when signals to move forward are given you must have confidence that the men next to you will move forward even if you cannot see them we have that kind of confidence in this battalion there’s a quote here which i am in full agreement with it says we love the heavy machine gun period we have two american indians we use as talkers on the telephone or voice radio when we want to transmit secret or important messages it’s awesome be mean and kill em kill him dead our platoon our motto in this platoon is no prisoners second lieutenant d a clark 7th marines promoted on the field of battle this officer was interviewed in the hospital where he was recuperating from wounds we have a lot of trouble in my platoon with water discipline we also have trouble with men bunching up in order to talk to each other they seem to do this even though it means death major abuse assistant g3 on the gen on general van der griff staff we have had to multiply our unit of fire in hand grenades by five [Music] the yellow color on hand grenades is poor why can’t they just be painted black as the yellow color enables the japs to throw them back you ever seen that color combination it’s it’s in a very it’s very common in the military it’s like an olive drab but then the writing is in yellow yeah and like even the grades no one listened to this guy because the grenades still have like a yellow band around them it’s it’s it’s not like a bright yellow but it’s definitely a yellow yeah wait why is that why is it yellow that’s just how they mark them i mean there’s no particular reason it looks kind of dope i almost actually leadership strategy and tactics i almost went in fact the reason i didn’t go because this olive drab the reason i didn’t go that same exact yellow is because you couldn’t really read it clearly enough yeah that’s kind of a bummer i should have just stuck with it huh yeah like claymore might do claymore mines are they yellow it says front towards enemy yeah actually yeah yellow mar i think yeah yeah so it’s very it’s a common thing it’s the common stencil color is this olive drab green and it’s a faded yellow it’s like a drab yellow he says this i am being sent back for a rest we have been in action continually here from august 7 1942 until this date november 26 1942 what we all marvel at is how general van de grift can stand it so much better than we do it must be his character we’ll have to do like a full-on podcast on general van der griff major ben j northridge co second battalion 164th infantry if i could train my men over again i would put officers and men in slit trenches and drop bombs nearby to overcome fear we were all scared to death at first let’s overcome this fear how about firing some captured 25 caliber ammunition out of captured rifles to let officers and men know the sound also captured machine guns ammunition out of their captured machine guns got to get used to that sound luckily we do i mean luckily we have ak-47 so we can do that no problem no factor we know what that ak sounds like lieutenant colonel frank richards ceo 1st battalion 164th infantry he says if i were training my battalion again i would have training in patience i would have patrols wait for the enemy to expose himself they move around too they have to relieve themselves and they have to get food i would have the men in this patient’s training made be made to sit still for hours at a time captain john a gossett ceo company h 164th infantry teach the men the capacities of the hand grenade and handling men and that crazy dude that this guy is here in guadalcanal and here’s the two notes that he’s got he says you gotta learn the capacities of hand grenades and how to handle men i thought i knew how to handle men but since i’ve been here i have revised my ideas as i have learned a great deal i have learned the primitive rough and tumble way you can’t pat all men on the back you have to be rough with some men in order to get results it is not my nature to be rough but i am forcing myself and i have learned which of my men i can pat on the back and which i have to deal with in the hardest manner everyone’s the same everyone’s different captain john a dawson commanding officer company b 164th infantry if i could train my company again i would have some maneuvers on which the men were deprived of food water and comforts in order to find out which ncos and men can’t take it i would relieve these people this type of maneuver would teach men to know and expect hardships it will lessen the shock when they come up against the real thing in the presence of the enemy it is important that the entire squad know how to operate the bar not just two men reason think of the bar men who are wounded get killed and become sick and have to be evacuated again cross training lieutenant john s graves platoon leader company c 164th infantry the biggest thing i have learned since i hit this island is that leadership and initiative is so important here the platoon leader can only be in one spot at a time and men must be trained to act correctly on their own i’ve never seen this type of training yes decentralized command that’s just post that on your brain sergeant w v damas squad leader company c 164th infantry sir i would like to say that there is no place for recruits here we need trained soldiers who have initiative and and know what is the right thing to do the jungle is so thick that squad leaders cannot get around all of the time to see men and tell them what to do this is the common theme this is colonel b e moore commanding officer 164th infantry note when i saw colonel moore he was interviewing a patrol and patrol leader who had just come back they had been on a reconnaissance for 15 hours the patrol leader had been met at an advanced position and as he had valuable information of the enemy he was conducted by jeep to the observation post of the artillery where he directed artillery fire then returned to the colonel where he made his report the patrol and its leader were nearly exhausted colonel moore had on hand a small sample bottle of brandy which he issued one small sample bottle to each two men he made them dilute this brandy with water in their canteen cups it was noticeable that this helped them the following interview took place after the patrol had been dismissed one could not be around colonel mar colonel moore very long without realizing that he is a leader and regimental commander in every sense of the word taking care of his people and he says the greatest problem is leaders and you have to find some way to weed out the weak ones the platoon leaders who cannot command who cannot foresee things and you cannot act on the spur of the moment in an emergency are a distinct detriment leadership and this is the last thing we’re going to read from this book he says many of the junior leaders have not used their heads at times in their training i recommend you put them up against situations where they must use their heads he says the good leaders seem to get killed the poor leaders get the men killed the big problem is leadership and getting the shoulder straps on the right people not one man and 50 can lead a patrol in the jungle if you can find out who the good patrol leaders are before you hit the combat zone you have found out something i have had to get rid of about 25 officers because they just weren’t leaders i had to make the battalion commander weed out the poor junior leaders this process is continuous our junior leaders are finding out that they must know more about their men the good leaders know their men the good leaders know they’re men obviously that’s not new we’ve heard it before in fact we’ve heard all this before and what’s crazy is they’d all heard it before right like these principles have been around these principals been around forever but they still made mistakes they still had to relearn those lessons and they still had to make every effort like this manual to pass those lessons on and what should we do we well what we should do is we should make our best effort to receive those lessons remember those lessons just as we should remember these brave men who learn these lessons in blood what do you got echo charles you know i always like so there’s kind of two ways you can go with like all of this stuff where it’s like you hear it over and over and over again right which should sort of reinforce it so you kind of got to be careful to not regard it i guess maybe this happens subconsciously sometimes where you just you know you hear something over and over again and then it just becomes sort of just noise like i already know that you know what’s weird about me yeah i know a lot of things when you say that like i can’t relate to it yeah because every time i hear these things i’m like there it is yep yeah i’m like there it is it’s a reinforcement it’s it’s it’s i’m hearing it again it’s a little bit of different angle but i know what that means you know like that last little section it’s so crazy to read that it’s so crazy to read that this guy’s saying in training you i recommend you put them in situations where they must use their heads i teach that all the time at echelon front we were like oh you want to train your leaders you got to put you can’t give your leaders problems that there is a rote memorizable solution to you actually want to make them think i always bring up a story with the germans the germans would give their subordinate leaders in training they would give them problems that could only be solved if they broke the rules which means there’s no format to what they’re getting them to try and do so how can you get your people you need to put your people in situations where they need to think so every time i look and this is lessons that i’ve taught before but i hear it i’m like there it is yeah maybe because you like apply it so maybe often or maybe it made like such an impact for because of like your experiences and stuff or maybe both i don’t know but so it’s always sticking with you so you’re always like looking to like reinforce to make it better to improve on this very thing that you’re actually practicing yeah you know what’s interesting so my last three years in the in the i was running that training so i got to see and i always say that the training that i ran was the best leadership laboratory in the history of the world and i would be willing to go toe-to-toe on anyone that thinks that they’ve seen him better i will not not not to fight him but i would be interested if there was someone else that says oh we did we had a leadership situation where this is what we got to see and therefore we have a really good understanding of of leadership as well i’m sure there’s other things that are out there i’m telling you the when i was running that training it was freaking awesome because you’re seeing platoon after platoon after platoon after platoon with different leadership you could see the good leadership versus the bad leadership you see what worked what didn’t work it was the best leadership laboratory and i i i learned but i got to take the lessons that i learned and see them applied and when they when they applied them well did things would go well if they didn’t apply them well things would go bad so obvious it was so obvious and what’s interesting is now at echelon front i kind of get to do the same thing because it’s hey i work with a business here’s what’s happening in their market here’s what’s happening in their expansion here’s what’s happening as they grow so we get to see oh here’s the leadership here’s what you need to do and then i it’s like this is the mistake that you’re making this is where you need to move and so i like you said i i’m very lucky because i continue to get to work directly in this environment that i’ve been completely and utterly engaged in for you know i mean for a long long for decades and and and yet that i guess maybe that’s why when i see these things i think to myself like yes like i get it just just more reinforcement and yeah so do you like it what like straight up like okay so we’ll we’ll call this maybe oversimplify simplifying it leadership right do i like it yeah are you serious right now oh yeah man you got it i absolutely love it okay i love it and you know what i love it in the way that what i love about it is it is a continual challenge to it’s it’s it’s it’s solving a problem and getting the grass it’s kind of like jiu jitsu and that you get out there you learn a move you see a move you use the move it works it doesn’t work you make adjustments on it it’s a very similar thing but yeah i love it because it’s super complex and yet it’s super simple right and the gratification is is extraordinary because people you know like people say i did what you just told me to do you know i did it in the last meeting and fred’s on board now and you’re like well that’s awesome yeah and and this was a problem for someone that was a legitimate not just a challenge but like a threat to their lifestyle right a threat to their business a threat to their corporation and you’re like hey here’s this here’s okay do this report back let me hear what you got okay here’s the report okay here’s the reaction i got okay good that means continue moving this oh no that means go over in this direction so to be able to to be able to be lucky enough to take all these lessons that i learned and be able to apply them on a daily basis it’s ridiculous it’s freaking awesome because like it’s do you like leadership well i i knew the answer and maybe it was kind of a semi-rhetorical question but uh if because some people they don’t they don’t like it they they see it as a necessity and stuff like that but they don’t really like it so and then it’s a spectrum for sure it’s like sales you know like sales for example where some people they just love it and every little tip every little thing every little like established like element of successful stuff they’re all up all about it no well people can be into all kinds of stuff right yeah jiu-jitsu guitar drawing oh yeah reading i mean yeah so if there’s a certain philosophical element that has like with stood the test of time and they’re reading it here reading that man it’s going to reinforce their thing they’re going to be into it and it’s going to be just in their head they’re going to apply it any chance that they get even if it’s this much of a little development they’re going to apply it boom it’s ready it’s down because they enjoy it and that’s part of their jam but if let’s say you don’t really like it it’s like a like a chore or whatever right you know there’s certain type introvert type people who are in a leadership position who kind of don’t like it they’d rather someone else deal with the people or something like this for sure and then so those are the ones that might be i don’t know but they might be the ones that are going to be making these mistakes over and over again because they’re not consciously like actively trying to implement these lessons that are just in someone like your case just straight up being reinforced yeah but for them it’s it’s almost like not even getting in it’s kind of like yeah i heard that before whatever i heard that before whatever i’m too busy like not caring almost in a way like i’m too busy like caring about the things that i care about and like yeah i think i think where oh there’s a lot of misconceptions and i i wrote about this in leadership strategy and tactics but here it’s it’s on like the cover flap or whatever um leadership is the most challenging of human endeavors it is often misunderstood it can be bewildered mystify and frustrate even the most dedicated practitioners leaders at all levels are often forced to use theoretical guesswork to make decisions and lead their troops it doesn’t have to be that way there are principles that can be applied and tenets that can be followed there are skills that can be learned and maneuvers that can be practiced and executed there are leadership strategies and tactics that have been tested and proven on the battlefield in business and in life so that’s what i think people miss out on is they miss out on the fact that it’s not it’s it’s kind of like any any skill set that you want to learn you want to learn how to play guitar you’ve got to learn the chords you’ve got to learn notes you want to learn jiu jitsu you got to learn an arm lock you got to you want to learn how to play basketball you got to learn how to dribble you couldn’t expect why would anybody expect that they could walk out on a basketball court without ever practicing and be good at it now what now let me ask you this have you ever watched uh some like a skateboarder or a bmx guy or a mountain biker or a surfer and been like oh that looks you you think in your weird mind that you could actually do what they’re doing right yeah not the skateboarding guys but yeah the other guys yes guys are crazy but but you think oh like oh like i can see myself doing that so i think people look at leadership sometimes and there’s things that are happening oh yeah i would do the same thing or whatever it looks easier than it is yeah and so you have to be careful of that and maybe that’s why i continue to enjoy reading and learning about it because i see how hard it is i see every day what a challenge it is for people so if i can take one thing away from a book that i can use as a tool to help someone else maneuver through a challenging leadership situation i i love it i love adding that capability yeah yeah makes sense to me so speaking of learning and improving and getting better uh what other suggestions might you have for us i do mister yeah kinda like me echo zane charles it’s kind of like me saying hey exercise will help improve every other aspect of your life true unlike any other thing or whatever sure that thing sure i’ll say it over and over again whatever it helps reinforce it hopefully hopefully it doesn’t become noise oh yeah i will give you some credit right now for taking what i just said which is um it was a pretty meaningful moment and what you just said is you’re going to continue to read the same stuff over and over again on the porch section of the podcast what’s good for the goose is good for the the other guy you don’t understand what i’m saying anyway we’re working out that’s going to improve your life mm-hmm health fitness what if you just tried to say things in a different way sometime like maybe people would be more interested in it it’s possible it’s possible uh nonetheless we are still working out regardless i always say it yeah i worked out today did spots what oh good job i had pull-ups today by the way we’re in the process of the let’s call it the new garage gym of justice we are probably two months out maybe right now so we’re getting there really yeah if anybody if anybody you know uh maybe a year and a half ago there was a transition where i was i moved into a temporary holding facility for myself that meant a temporary workout facility in my home and that was all a strategic move to long term have a much better sort of facility facility improved yes so we’re getting there i’m looking forward to unveiling that i might even do you know the um i’ll get people that say hey show us your gym yeah gym tour like jim tour i’ll tell you what i will when i when the new gym is complete or at least like when it’s kind of getting close we’ll do a little we’ll do a little um facility tour yeah so you’re thinking so what are you to do or you’re saying a month or two more months two months ish maybe maybe three maybe two and a half no maybe two okay we should we’re getting there we’re getting close we’re getting close so improvements across the board straight up facilities personal health all that stuff that’s good and important that’s what we’re looking for is what we’re going for anyway we’ve got supplements for you if you if you need them which you don’t need you know that’s a spectrum but these things will 100 help you yeah i’m gonna go ahead and said say that you pro you need you need to get joint warfare and krill oil for sure yeah i’m not sure of it well if you’re listening this podcast which means you’re getting after it right okay if you’re not listening to this which we don’t care you’re then you don’t need it right sure you legitimately don’t because you’re like on your own program you’re probably watching tv you don’t need joint warfare and super krill if you’re to to strengthen your thumb to press the remote control yeah you’re not a little bit different yeah you can just get whatever more more french fries more cheetos that’s what you can get yeah if you’re in the game you may want to get super krill you may want yeah you should you need to get super curl you need to get joint warfare and the reason i say need is because if you don’t take it you have issues you will have issues that’s it don’t just get get away from the issues yeah yeah it’s like one of those things like you ever play uh you played soccer before right soccer baseball football right you wear certain kind of shoes called cleats really cleats so when you when you go play when you suit up you put on your cleats you don’t put on tennis shoes no i mean look is it possible to put on tennis shoes do you need cleat that’s the thing do you need cleats depends on what you might need right exactly and that’s exactly what i’m saying okay so clarification accepted look look if you want to stay on this path and not worry about your joints giving out on you and they can oh they can get give out on you for sure they can bother you ache they can ache when you’re not even exercising straight up they can but if you don’t want to worry about that kind of stuff that’s when you take the joint warfare and the super krill oil 100 just take it every day like i do every single day so far since our last talk anyway i’m glad you’ve tightened it up yes sir also discipline and discipline go kind of the same thing just different uh delivery different modalities of delivery yes sir big time so yeah oh you know the powder there’s the powder there’s the pill there’s the energy drink i’m just call it energy drink healthy energy even though it’s barely related to the common what’s commonly considered an energy drink is it when i think of energy drink i think oh massive amount of sugar massive amount of caffeine massive amount of chemicals yeah to keep it from going getting spoiled that’s what i think of when i think of an energy drink and i think of a pink orange and yellow can that it’s in yeah silver maybe yeah that’s what i think of yeah so that’s an energy drink now it is very strange to say that what we have which has no sugar it’s sweetened with monk fruit it’s got 95 milligrams of caffeine so it’s got caffeine in it but that’s the same as a cup of coffee it’s not some crazy amount that gets you all psycho jittery and you have a big crash from and there’s no preservatives in it because we pasteurize it so what we’re really talking about are two totally different things one of them has a bunch of bad stuff in it the other one has a bunch of good stuff in it yes so so why are they both called energy drinks i’m not 100 sure one of them should be called an energy drink the other one should be called poison next question not to get too analytical on here but i think i know why because you and you know some of us we think of energy drinks not as what the whole energy drink we just think of the stigma not just the stigma but the stigma is a very significant portion and rightly so by the way put some if there’s some stuff that’s straight up bad for you that should mean something yeah that’s what i think yeah so you know you think about those kind of things and rightly so like i said but you know you know they’re like hippie people that will say like oh that’s bad energy yeah that’s different so now i’m kind of feeling like there’s such a thing as like bad energy drinks that drink has bad energy we got the good energy and the clean energy to me that’s in play too i think so so you know if you consider the stigma of energy drinks and it’s not an unfair stigma it’s not it’s fair it’s accurate it’s a fair stigma if you consider that and you associate it with the word energy drink yes when you look at choco discipline go citrus psycho jocko all these flavors if you look at that then yeah they’re not going to be very similar in that way because we don’t have the stigma over here no stigma energy drink without the stigma how about that there you go there you go boom look at that one on go to jackalfuel com you like that one yes sir chocofuel com that’s where you can get it that’s that’s part of origin main yeah i’m talking kind of the same deal you can also get them at wawa the energy drinks the stigma the unstigma stigma-less energy drink at wawa and the vitamin chop as well also milk milk don’t forget about milk vitamin d three cold war jackal white tea i’m just drinking some what that white tea right now drinking some of that and i’m drinking a discipline go so i’m kind of getting after it all vitamin chop wawa and origin main com also got some we we talked about jujitsu a little bit today fortunately let’s say it was not required to be put into use in guadalcanal no right luckily we still had we had our bayonet we were able to just stab people in the neck and didn’t have to choke them but had it been required we were happy that people were trained in jiu jitsu yes sir and we even if we don’t have to use it even if you don’t have to use it ever in your life in a real situation believe me you’re going to want to have it so train some jiu-jitsu and when you train jiu-jitsu you’re going to want a ghee to train in you’re gonna want a rash guard to train in and you’re gonna want those things to be made in america and you’re also gonna want them like you’re gonna want the best possible ones that you could get because you’re kind of making a commitment in your life to jiu jitsu you’re going to look at yourself in the mirror and say you know what we’re going to do this we’re going to gain a skill that will help me in all aspects of my life do you ever or you know how like you look at yourself and you kind of have like a little bit of an identity varying levels of identity whatever do you part of that identity are you like a jiu jitsu person for me yeah uh i would say yes yeah but see how you just said i would say yes some because it’s a spectrum for sure and not one one is not better than the other by the way well the reason i said that is because and we’ve talked about this on the podcast if it wasn’t here’s why i actually it’s just a yes because if it wasn’t for jiu jitsu i wouldn’t have be where i am because i wouldn’t have been able to figure out a bunch of stuff right like did you see for me the physical part the knowing how to submit people or whatever that is as far as what i got from jiu jitsu this is going to sound crazy that part the actual being able to fight and beat people up of all the beneficial things i got from jiu jitsu that part is 20 the 80 benefit that i got from jiu jitsu was an understanding of the world now it ties into combat it ties into leadership and that those things also participated in in providing me with that 80 percent yeah but the jiu jitsu was the factor that allowed me to see it yeah so yeah that makes sense i think i would agree with that so yes i’m a jiu jitsu person yeah so yeah i feel like if i if i look my identity i’m not not a jiu jitsu person but i’m not like i’m a jiu jitsu you know like if i if you meet someone someone’s not gonna be like oh yeah that’s a jiu jitsu guy that’s not the first thing they’re gonna you’re not known as a jiu jitsu guy yeah but people know you do everybody knows you do jujitsu even though they also they also know you do other things other things yeah that are significant i think that’s why you when i look at you i don’t see okay jiu jitsu guy even though you’re straight up jiu jitsu yeah no one’s gonna say like i yeah he’s not nodded but then because you have all these other things that you have like straight up like for lack of a better term significant prowess like in you know i don’t know about all that it’s just i don’t have significant prowess in jiu jitsu even i’m still working on that one what is prowess really like doing good at yeah yeah there you go okay were you worried well i think that yeah did i totally miss you anyway i think that might be the first time i’ve ever said that out loud the word process nonetheless nonetheless that discipline go kicking in getting the brain cells working whether you want to be a jiu-jitsu person or just have jiu-jitsu be part of your life you should definitely make it part of your life you’re going to need a geek you’re going to need rash guards go to origin maine com and unfortunately for all of us we can’t just walk around in our geese unfortunately unfortunately so you got to get other clothing you can also get that other clothing at originmaine com jeans american-made boots american-made jeans with american denim rivets that are from america oh guess what everything i’m talking about without compromise made in america you go to the brass buttons even the brass the brass what buttons the brass buttons those are significant sure look at them they’re like yeah they’re legit kind of legit i mentioned the rivets i didn’t mention the the brass buttons yes sir origenmaine com you’re good yes sir also speaking of other clothing in jacqueline’s store it’s called jocko story that’s where you can get t-shirts hoodies hats all discipline equals freedom good all this stuff to represent while you’re on the path heartburn jam yeah you got that coveted cough homie zebra i know you’re gonna say i know you’re gonna say that anyway um also on the t-sh uh also on jacob’s store i was i wait i know we’re we’re over covered now but when when when i had covered and then you had kovit i was a little bit happy because i was like cool we can still record podcasts we can’t have any guests but at least we can still go in there and record no factor yeah yeah this is true a little bit happy no no offense like you know covid plus covet doesn’t equal more it cancels itself out right yeah kind of thing all right well i’m clear we’re all clear nonetheless chocolate store also on jackal store we have a t-shirt club working title t-shirt club get a t-shirt every month different varying levels of layers on these t-shirts they’re inside they’re they’re easter eggs in the shirts in the not literal easter eggs but easter eggs the expression easter eggs stuff that like if you listen you kind of know you know anyway interesting shirts you get one every month cool club check it out if you want choco store dot com also subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already i think it’s important varying levels of importance at chocolate store can’t you also just get rash guards and just like a t-shirt like this t-shirt that i’m wearing hardcore condos yes you can fully i mean you don’t have to like go on there and join the club no no not at all that’s an optional club right there that we made it’s a good club i mean people seem to like it maybe if anyone look let’s face it echo tried to come up with like hey we’ll just call it the t-shirt club okay that’s good if anyone can come up with something better than that which i’m sure most people can please let echo know that you have a better name you know even if it was called like the pickle head club or whatever people would be like a little bit more into it yeah well i don’t know what the pickling club but yeah i i do agree i see what you’re saying and i i i can’t disagree on that one okay all right cool we’ll bring the people together also yeah so subscribe if you haven’t already and leave a review if you’re in the mood and go ahead be creative with a review if you want it’s good these are all all good things also got some other podcasts yep we got some other podcast jocko unraveling podcast we got the grounded podcast we got the warrior kid podcast and also if you wanna if you wanna join and support kind of at the next level you can go to jacounderground com where we have a sovereign a sovereign virtual land that we rule and that cannot be taken away from us no matter what happens so if you want to support that we’ve got some extra things going on there we got some we got some alternative podcasts that we’re doing we got a little q a if you’re in there you can go to jockowunderground com and join that so we can connect check it out and you can also check out youtube videos that echo charles makes and you can give him some feedback on in the comment sections well i saw a comment the other day that said does jocko read these comments here’s your answer yes i read the comments the reason i read the comments is so i can attempt to give echo charles feedback about the level of explosions fires smoke tanks eagles aircraft that he puts in the videos yes yeah explosions are kind of like banana cream pie you’re not gonna eat banana cream pie for breakfast lunch and dinner you just have one piece of banana cream pie after dinner maybe see yeah see i see you understand i see the look on your face ready you understand i’m doing i’m avoiding carrying on to this topic hey look i am subscribed to subscribe to uh the youtube channel called jocklepodcast boom there you go yep good also psychological warfare um look into that one if you’re having moments of weakness look into this psychological warfare is an album with tracks jock each track is jocko telling you explaining to you the the methodology the tactic to get past that moment of weakness easy with these 100 percent accurate and uh effective 100 that’s what psychological warfare is can you get that wherever you get mp3s you can get some visual reminders of the path by going to flip side flipsidecanvas com dakota myers company awesome company makes really cool stuff to hang on your walls got a bunch of books bunch of books leadership strategy and tactics field manual i talked about it today about face david hackworth which i wrote a forward to the code the evaluation the protocols the discipline equals freedom field manual brand new version out way the warrior kid four field manual get it we have the warrior kid one two and three that’s the whole series mikey and the dragons extreme ownership and the dichotomy of leadership also have echelon front leadership consultancy where we solve problems through leadership go to echelonfront com for details on that we have ef online where we do leadership consulting live online we have leadership courses so if you want to get deeper into the principles that we talk about here you can go into that online training program and improve your leadership skills go to efonline com i’m on there all the time so as the rest of the echelon front team we have the muster coming up in phoenix march 3 and 4 orlando may 25th and 26th las vegas october 28th and 29th those are our 2021 dates go to extremeownership com if you want to go to that ef overwatch if you need executive leadership inside your company go to ef overwatch and if you want to help service members active and retired you want to help their families you want to help gold star families then check out mark lee’s mom mama lee she’s got a charity organization and if you want to donate or you want to get involved then go to america’s mighty warriors dot org and if you didn’t get enough of my belligerent beliefs or you need more of echo’s speculative speculations then you can find us on the interwebs on twitter on instagram which just echo i’m talking about what you call the gram yes and on facebook echo is at aqua charles i am at jocko willink i’m also on parlor now by the way okay new platform and i am at jacqueline and thanks to all the branches of service the army the navy the air force the marines the coast guard thank you for fighting battles out there so that we don’t have to and thanks to police and law enforcement and firefighters and paramedics and emts and dispatchers and correctional officers and border patrol and secret service and all first responders thank you for providing us protection here at home and to everyone else out there look we heard these lessons before remember them you know them be disciplined take initiative train your people train your people from your front line troops to your senior leaders you want them to take initiative and practice so you get better make sure the team knows the objective you know these things remember these things remember these lessons and also remember where these lessons came from and remember the men who sacrificed everything for us and until next time this is echo and jocko out
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