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

>Join Jocko Underground Full Episodes< https://app.redcircle.com/shows/64a89f88-a245-4098-8d8d-496325ec4f74/exclusive-content 00:01:06 — Do combat veterans view conscientious objectors/noncombatant medics as honorable? 00:05:34 — My 3-year-old may have autism and kids are starting to make fun of him. How do I help him—and myself—handle it? 00:24:30 — I got sober and used harsh self-criticism to stay disciplined. How do I shift toward self-compassion without losing discipline? 00:33:03 — After several devastating life events, I’ve fallen into drinking, weed, and avoiding my goals. How do I get my head right and attack life again? 00:40:00 — I’m a high-school strength coach burned out by an unsupportive administration. How do I stay committed to the kids while deciding whether to fight or build an exit plan? Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

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

• 0:23Speaker 01

  Big and small, by the way.

• 0:24Jocko Willink?

  Big and small.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  They all count.

• 0:26Jocko Willink?

  They do, indeed.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  All right, first question, Jocko Echo. I have a question, I have a question related to non combatants. I come from a church background, whose conviction is opposed to killing other human beings. We do understand the need for government and military action in the evil world in which we live, so we do not condemn those who take up the sword. Our position during the Korean and Vietnam wars was that we would serve in the military as non combatants. And we were granted a A, or sorry, granted a 1A0 status. A typical example is a man named Gary Maybach, who was with the 9th Infantry Division in Mekong, in the Mekong Delta. My question, hell yeah.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  My question is whether those of you who are combatants view the service of these men as honorable or not. My father is a veteran and I attend church services with men who served in Vietnam as combat medics. To me, they're the salt of the earth.

• 1:27Jocko Willink?

  Well, I agree with you, absolutely. And I think that's probably true of about 99% of combatants, warfighters. Gary Maybach, Maybach is a great example of that. He proved, you know, extraordinarily courageous soldier, who routinely placed himself in harm's way to render aid to his wounded comrades. And so, yeah. When, when I think of that, when I think of what he's done, I don't think of him as a conscientious objector, I don't think of him as a 1A0 status. I just think of a hero. That's what I think of. So I salute

• 2:10Jocko Willink?

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

• 2:54Jocko Willink?

  Thomas W. Bennett, conscious objector, who repeatedly ran into fields under withering fire to pull wounded soldiers to safety. He was wounded severely and was also awarded the Medal of Honor. Joseph G. LaPointe, another one. Crawled through heavy enemy fire to treat wounded soldiers, two of them. And as he was treating them, they were under attack, he shielded them with, with his own body. Eventually, an enemy grenade killed all three of them, but he was also posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

• 3:35Jocko Willink?

  And these are just some examples of the types of heroes that have been conscientious objectors. So with that, thanks to those guys that served, obviously, and yes, do we, do we view them as honorably? I know that I absolutely do. And that's what I got.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  Do we, because I, you know, I hear about this, and there's like movies and stuff made of it, the, the one with the Andrew Garfield, I think his name is, where he's like, non combatant. Is there different like categories of non, because you said conscientious objectors? Is that the same as non combatants, or is it just one type of non combatant?

• 4:18Jocko Willink?

  I would say that a conscientious objector is someone that is a non, of like a voluntary non combatant. Someone can be a non combatant because they're a nurse, right? They're not necessarily a conscientious objector.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  But they're still in the military.

• 4:32Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, they're still in the military, but a conscious objector is someone that is eligible to fight, but chooses not to fight.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 4:39Jocko Willink?

  Because they object to killing someone.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  Yes, I understand.

• 4:42Jocko Willink?

  And yet they still step up, and as you can see in these examples, they risk their lives for their, for their country.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  So they go and do other stuff, right? Like they help.

• 4:49Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, these guys are all medics. Yeah. And you wouldn't necessarily be a medic. There's other, there's other conscientious objectors that might work in supply, or they might work in, you know, the mess hall and serving people. They, it's just real, it's real obvious for them to go into medical, right? Because that's just like, you're gonna not just not kill someone, you're gonna help people.

• 5:09Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, okay. That, yeah, that makes sense, because it's like a distinct differentiation. Like you can be a medic and still, you know, like, fight.

• 5:17Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Versus, okay, that makes sense now, okay. Yeah, that's crazy. Um, next question. Jocko Echo. I have a three-year-old son, who is already doing math and reading, but is very different than his peers. He's being evaluated for autism and is special, and is a special baby genius. At a preschool meeting last week, I saw other kids starting to make fun of him. It crushed me. I'm afraid. How do I help him, and also me, with navigating this as his dad?

• 5:53Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, look, first of all, I think it's really important to know and understand that all kids get made fun of. You know what I mean? Like all of them. My kids got made fun of, I got made fun of, you got made fun of. I would hope. I had a, I had a bowl haircut.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Bowl, oh yeah, hell yeah.

• 6:11Jocko Willink?

  I had a big giant gap between my front two teeth, still do, but it was even more pronounced when I was younger. So I would catch some, some, some heavies on that one. But whatever, I was like a little skinny when I was, you know what I mean? You're just like, they're gonna find it. And I, I think that helps kids out when they know that everyone goes through it. You know that you're not the only one that people are gonna make fun of, like this one's... So I think just, you know, saying, oh yeah, people make fun of each other, it's just, you know, it's not nice, but just a lot, what a lot of people do, they're just, you know, everyone's just trying to have fun. It can be mean sometimes, yeah, sometimes they're mean, yep. You know, like just having those kind of conversations, I think helps people, but again, you gotta remember, a three-year-old, like a three-year-old's not gonna compute a lot of this stuff.

• 6:56Jocko Willink?

  And by the way, there's a question whether he really computed when people are making fun of him, that, what they mean by that, like what are they, are they trying to insult him? What's the insult? Like, there's a bunch of things going on there. But that being said, just knowing that other, that kids are mean and make fun of each other, that doesn't necessarily solve, you know, everything here. I remember how my kids a few times got like their, they were hurt sometimes when they're, when they got made fun of. Especially, I would say, my daughters, my son was like two, like, just not caring. But the girls, you know, you'd see, and I remember thinking, you know, this is when they're in, you know, second grade, first grade, something like this. And

• 7:38Jocko Willink?

  I remember, you know, thinking to myself, oh, this is their whole world. They're, they're, you know, you can't say like, well, you know, don't worry about it, like, who cares if some kid makes, you know, like, they don't, they're like, no, this is the whole world. The whole world is this, what's happening right there, with these seven people in their class, and three of them are laughing at her. You know what I mean? Like that's, so it is heavy, and we do need to keep that in mind. Um, also, I would say the base of the pyramid here is having a good relationship with your son. And what does that mean? Trust, listen, respect, influence, and care. Then you can have real conversations with him about things like, why are people teasing you?

• 8:22Jocko Willink?

  Oh, it's because people are insecure and they like to make fun of other people. And oh, guess what? You, you're different. And guess what? So is everyone. You know, everyone's different. Everyone's got their little idiosyncrasies. Some people have some, some people have others, some people are more extreme, but everybody's a little bit different. So you can have that conversation. You can have the conversation that people can be mean. And we can still be nice, even when people are mean, we can still be nice. And why are people mean? Well, it's because they're, they're mean inside. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen,

• 9:04Jocko Willink?

  go to jacood underground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms, so we are not subject to their control. And we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko Podcast, which will remain as is, free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we, but we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors. And we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now, where we'll be able to utilize to

• 9:49Jocko Willink?

  strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So thank you, it's jacood underground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you, just email assistance@jacood underground.com and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.