how you prepared mentally what kind of discipline you had routines in and out
of battle how I prepared mentally routines in and out of battle yep what
kind of discipline you had and routines in and out of battle I'm gonna fall back
on mental routine I think is probably your your your biggest because the
physical one is easy okay you you come back so battle doesn't mean
you know you're in gunfights all the time you know like like we say the first
stand and still were patrolling right you know which is just a static Patrol
so you know you got to make sure your gear is good you got to make you know
are your batteries changed right you guys like there's all the ways the
checklist checklist check shows checklist as a leader it actually makes
it easier I found because now I have a reason to check their stuff and check
that their routine so my routine stayed solid right because I think I had other
guys I had to worry about
so rest is a big one I just have to order my guys to go to ground because
they were so because there's only three of us and I used to might bury
especially I'd be like Barry you need to be useful I need you to sleep so my
routine was like make sure enough rest makes you because you know that the
saying mission before man sure except when the man is the mission so I need my
man to be good yeah and I'm gonna say if you abuse your man too much you won't
accomplish the mission yeah like you know you you know you know the sacrifice
the body well let's wait let's think about that because the body what is what
needs to get this thing the only there's only three of us and in our case you
know of your sniper you're you might be alone you might be with one or two other
guys I can't afford to have a guy run headfirst through a doorway to get
through it because I need him to be useful after you know if you have a
platoon sure you sacrifice Smith he runs through the door hey okay you got 29
more guys I can go through the door so my routine was always like you know make
sure everything's topped up mmm keep an eye out you know do that do
the mental checklist and then visualize visually out of battle I would try to
you know I'd be on my I'd lay on my bunk and I'd have my ID I'd always end up
with my right foot crossed over my left foot and my my my arms up here on my
chest and I'd have my head back and I would be going okay so okay we go down
you know and if contact left and I would try to like you know visualize these
things you know cuz as the team leader I had the radio and I was security cuz my
boys when they're in position you know my spotter is spotting my shooter is
shooting so like they're 12 o'clock so I'm now everything and everything the
rest of the clock for them and for myself so I was constantly rehearsing
mentally what what could happen I'm calling and I'm practicing a call for
fire I'm practicing and calling in an air strike I'm practicing a nine liner
I'm practicing I just a grit what do you guys do you guys use that Lauren's the
nine line four nine nine line is a casualty evac call for fire nine line
yeah no no but grit and I group range
indication fire yep yep so my first even with all the visualization my first
actual grit in a battle was did buds about to debate get over there it's
supposed to be six three three hundred by that tree you know all you know
fart for effect or at your own time or something like that calm cool collected
voice but you know the guy was like forty meters away and was addicted and
my sniper was actually looking over him wave he's like you know I'm looking at
that stuff and I was like fuck it and I just shot him myself but but my point is
that even with all that practice and visualization and training you know that
was my first attempt so I was always just trying to make sure that my routine
off off the battlefield was putting my mind back but in a controlled setting
mm-hmm you know and and all and and then also like I said make sure okay
yeah how much sleep did you get k good good good and that's the routine that
you know that you got to get the guys to relax especially like for me I had to I
just had to make sure because I only had me and two other guys I couldn't afford
to lose one of them whether it was to exhaustion or malnutrition or
dehydration or sprained ankles or whatever you know so I just I just did
my best to keep keep that checklist going and and visual and I would
encourage them to do the same I'd be like hey what are you thinking about
over there oh you know whatever it'll be like hey want you to think about it you
know remember when you may think making that shot and you missed or whatever
like try and visualize try and think about what you did you know there's a
lot of steps that go into pulling the trigger you know and and then you know
just think about that think about how it happened and encourage that you know I'm
a big fan of of meditation and yoga and all that stuff like if any like I think
an hour side of the world we've lost a lot of that stuff and I know we try to
get it back and got people that do it or tree-hugging you know spandex wearing
weirdos or whatever but yoga and meditation and stuff like that's all
warrior culture from the past yeah you know like samurai meditate you know
ain't warrior monks fasted and prayed that's that's just meditation and and
they looked inside themselves a lot to try and you know a samurais job was
pretty tough call him a pussy for meditating make sure I'm there so I
could watch and and I and I firmly believe that that type of stuff keeps
you functional for when you hit the battlefield you know that self you know
as Grossman calls it the self reflection self inoculation as well so that was my
routine it was just a constant rotation of thoughts and then but the actions
were always to prepare the but you know the the situation for what was coming so
it makes sense yeah okay yeah the one one thing that I
that's actually a really practical thing that I did that and that is I had this
is again this is just like a real practical thing I had two cots right
slept in a cot slept in one cot something one caught the other cot was
all my gear and it was just laid out gone body armor you know everything was
right there and when I when I got dressed to go out
all that thing was empty and so never forgot anything when I came back
everything went right back on the cop spot same spot everything squared away
so those that to me was and I figured that out really quickly okay just gonna
I don't want ever want to forget anything
here's I'm gonna do I'm gonna put everything that I need right here so not
I had I didn't think of it around my you know how I said I would sit there mm-hmm
right foot over the left all around me because we had a cot we had a cot we
didn't we couldn't afford to yeah I remember
but around I had we all had two by fours around us because we were in like a fob
we built ourselves and each nail had its so I had my my chest rig my rifle my
ammo pouches and a you know like and then all around and but that was what I
would when I would go through my stuff that's what I mean like I would hang it
up open up the pouch okay everything's there close it next pouch make sure top
up my mags all that stuff and I would make sure I'd make get the guys to do
the same thing and when you're ready to go out and operation all your nails are
empty that means you've got everything yeah but the biggest thing with roots
like people people call it routine and they think there's magic to it right
there's not it's it's just making sure you do the same thing over and over and
over again you know as as magical as Navy SEALs and snipers want to be like
it's not really that it's not that mystical I guess it's a it's just a lot
of repetition you know the routine is that you repeat the same actions because
that what's meant that's what makes you good at him ya know still I was telling
you when we were driving over here some point how we used to try and do
everything yeah when you would fire weather like no we'd hours together five
or six Humvees lined up for an operation they'd all be lined
ready to go and then everyone would like get the word it'd be like load them up
and then you just see everyone would just get in the zone
boom you see ever get into vehicles and then we'd start the vehicles at the same
time there's no reason to do that no but there is I know there have loves dog
types there's no there's no definable reason why you would do that but our
deal was you know okay starting up in three two one start up and then you hear
all the vehicle start up once and it's just like all those little things would
all those little disciplines would lend themselves to the team being more
disciplined those ignition switches might as well have been the switch and
each guys mind yep you know as the as that vehicle is starting everyone's
brain is going to into combat mode and work together at the same time
synchronized from the word go when that I love it when you told me that that was
I was like yeah badass thing to watch bunch of Navy imagine what your Navy
SEALs load up and they have vehicles all stare at the same time I'd run I'd be
like I'm not fucking these guys I'm out here it was it was an awesome sight with
my guys when I was at a ski - commander you know I'd be sitting on bases guys
were rolling out and I'd stand out there and salute him like just like old school
hikes but and it's you know it was and they loved it and they loved you for it
but I thought well I love those guys but the the those guys I mean every time you
rolled out in the streets of Ramadi there was a decent chance gonna make it
and blown up there was a dude gunfight was almost guaranteed to happen but that
guys getting blown IEDs was a real issue for you guys and and I was thinking
about this today the IDS there was we had statistically the most heavily ID'd
road in all of Iraq was route Michigan called from one end of the one ended
Ramadi to the other and there was IEDs all over the place there was I mean it
was it was ridiculous and we didn't hit any IEDs while we were there which I was
thinking about that today because I was thinking about my EOD contingent read to
you guys and I never told him like hey we
never had an ie D thank you never told him that
so you credit them with that I credit him with part of it yeah yeah part of
the briefings that they gave part of the now there was some close calls lace
platoon and as a matter of fact it's in the book when they the EOD guys were
watching the front door that couldn't quite keep an eye on it but they were
they did a really good inspection of it when they came back out they're like
something looks different they went out there there's a 120 millimeter mortar ie
that would've taken out I don't know four or five guys there was a time where
we went over we went over an ie D we'll the point man navigator in the vehicles
was like hey I think there's something specific suspicious actually got out of
the vehicle to look at it you're like mmm you know looking back what do you
think about that decision-making process you know maybe that wasn't a good one
anyways we decided oh I don't think it is we drove over it and about half an
hour later the ie D clearance team found a triple stack 120 so that's everybody
in the vehicle dead if you hit it so yeah IEDs were massive threat the number
of guys that were killed and wounded by IEDs and Ramadi was ridiculous there was
a hole there was a vehicle graveyard you know vehicles that had been blown up
and then dragged back in with I mean it was it was massive I mean I want to say
50 to 100 vehicles are you spiled up and including em wraps which are the
mine-resistant vehicles those things are they're broken in half what kind of bomb
do you got to put together to do that we Boosh we got real lucky and I know
this sounds weird my rotation they had conventional mines so any person any
tank and there was the occasional ie D but it was usually SV and and in the
city SV means a suicide vehicle so our our regimental sergeant major and his
driver were killed by a suicide vehicle-borne IEDs
and I stepped on a landmine if I had stepped on an ie D I would in vaporized
but the rotation I can't that replaced us their sister battalion that's when we
did the intelligence says guys from Iraq started showing up and we went from
losing a tire maybe having one guy get killed through a penetration in the hall
or whatever - we had a whole lab go up and seven out of the ten guys in it were
killed and it was like like like that's how quickly it escalated yeah and
suddenly it was an issue for our guys as well almost every vehicle we had hit a
landmine on my tour and that's the only time I was ever really scared over there
when I was walking or in a helicopter or even out on a four-wheeler no problem
when I had to drive on the roads in a vehicle that's when I was like my that
pucker factor was the highest for me ever
IEDs man like that and the guys that would go out everyday and deal with that
shit like ID clearance guys Fox man like my hat always came off to those guys
yeah like talk about a nerve-wracking job yeah great yeah
what's that movie with uh with the EOD guy I don't look hurt locker I'm like
everybody who does that job says it's a total bullshit movie but yeah could you
imagine though that's your gig well like we had embedded VOD you guys with us and
SEOs usually have a OD Navy EOD guy basically like the two guys are guys
were like they go through our training with us they bring well they don't go
through the basic training the basic SEAL training but they go through
everything else yeah and our guys are like supporters the once our guys our
guys were like other seals you know right they were that good yeah and but
yeah it's not it's amazing but and the guys that are with us that with us and
so they're not quite it's their primary job for us but it's not their primary
job right right whereas the guys that you're talking about the guys that did
route clearance oh if anybody's listening to this
podcast right now if you did route clearance in Iraq or Afghanistan thank
you Jaco and Jodi say thank you because you saved us so many times cuz we drove
down those roads all the time my guys drove down those roads all the time and
you found all those bombs that saved saved our lives and in so many lives
kept the supplies rolling have even kept a local populace safe and you know how
much credit and glory those guys get no not a lot none and there was the in in
Ramadi there would be the the big vehicle like a buffalo you know a
buffalo it's like a giant MRAP you have to climb a ladder to get into it so
there'd be guys in there that would disable the bombs from inside they'd a
big robotic arm and they would do that but behind them would be a contingent of
Marines in Humvees and I'd say oh yeah oh yeah we're just support get some
devil dogs Marine Corps doesn't play around they're like oh you need you need
support cool just getting Humvees and roll behind it
but there's gonna be big bombs blowing up yeah we're in the Marine Corps yeah
no factor would be loved I love Marines