tell us a story about buds so-so buds is the basic SEAL training that you see on
TV and that you see carrying people carrying logs on their heads and boats
around and do them push-ups and pull-ups and getting wet and Sandy and the reason
that I don't talk about buds a lot is because it's not it's a tiny tiny
fraction of what the SEAL Teams is all about hmm and in fact when you get in
the SEAL Teams you realize that buds is nothing more than a screening process to
weed out people that don't really want to be there but if you compare it to
what you have to do once you get in the teams it's actually nothing because
there's no way that you can compare hey you got to go get in cold ocean water
and then roll around in the sand Oh No and and I always think back to the first
time when I was in new I was in at Camp Corregidor and I'm rolling out on the
first major operation we were doing in the Milaap district of her body and
there's tires burn in the street there's smoke you can hear the gunfire it
getting wet and Sandy and being cold is a joke compared to that hmm so that's
why the the whole buds thing is is something that I just it's not that big
of a deal and I think I think some guys try and turn it into a big deal
especially if that was kind of a highlight of their career was going
through SEAL training yeah but if you were in the teams and you deployed
overseas then that shouldn't be the highlight of your career shouldn't be
the highlight of your knowledge shouldn't be the highlight of your of
your that the man test that people like to consider Bud's not a man test means
you didn't quit being cold good job it's and to that point I think
it's you know for those folks that didn't really get tested in combat or
didn't get a chance to go out on the battlefield and experience the gist
incredible physical nature of combat and how difficult it is then you know buds
is like everything so they talk about buds all the time and so it's kind of
this legendary thing it look it's a great training program it's been around
for a long time it it screens out the people that don't have the
characteristics as Jocko said that we think are gonna be successful and it
works and we should keep those standards high and we should push that I thought
butts was a pretty good time we had some great times and BOTS
I love the guys I went to bullets with most of them and but it's it's got
nothing on combat and you know it's interesting that some of the the big
political discussions today you know one of them one of them is the integration
of women into the SEAL Teams into special operations into infantry units
and everyone's always focused on you know well if they can meet standards and
and if they're you know if if they can make it to the training and they should
be they should be you know they should be able to go out and serve right and
they're focused on training and the people they're talking about training at
the highest levels cuz they don't know what it's like to be in a real combat
and real combat is infinitely harder than the toughest I mean why are we
talking about integrating the NFL well you got huge big strong guys that are
smashing each other and yet that's you know maybe you get a concussion maybe
you tear your ACL maybe you break your your elbow you know or snap up a snap
your wrist you're not gonna get killed very rarely does someone get killed in
the football game right and word combat is is infinitely harder than that in
fluent in that and and so you know and unlike a football game that's over and
you know just a couple of hours you're talking about something that can last
weeks months even years and and it's just the physical nature of combat
cannot be overstated it is incredibly difficult and when people are shocked to
hear that I'm not gonna tell me some stories about bugs carry some logs man
don't don't quit okay I mean it's it's make it through you know yeah its combat
well you're you're and you'll see it two guys who excelled in buds because
they're great athletes sometimes I'll go to the battlefield and like I remember
the first time that an AED I saw an AED going off about a block away from me
and we were sitting on the rooftop and a sniper positions my first appointment
before jock and I were working together and all of a sudden there's a hundred
fireball that goes up in the air I mean the blast wave hits me and just knocks
me on my ass and frag just metal fragments and shards
of concrete and stuff is just raining down all over the place from from a
block away you know from us and it was it was a damn that is that is not
something I want to be standing on around in a vehicle only hit that thing
and and when you see something like that like just the the kinetic energy of a
rounds coming in and just you know think of the biggest strongest guy you can
imagine with a sledgehammer you're smashing a wall next to you and you know
multiply that times seven or eight hundred rounds a minute for a belt-fed
machine gun and I mean it's incredibly difficult and dangerous and overwhelming
and so you see some of the toughest guys I did well buds are like ooh
not necessarily eager to go out in that and so it's a whole new level of
difficulty and and it's it just it can't be overstated so I think that it's it's
the difficulties of combat again kit just cannot be overstated people need to
understand what the reality that is like I think this idea that America is not
gonna oh we kind of dictate the nature of wars and you know as we've been told
the tide of war is receding and it's just not true as Jacko's said in his
retirement speech the nature of war does not change and we're gonna always have
to fight horse we're gonna always have to be a difficult conflicts we don't get
to choose that and so we better be ready for those those difficulties in the late
90s we would hear that from from senior leadership that you know look the the
direct action mission we're not really doing these those anymore why would we
do direct action mission when we can send an ax Tomahawk missile and then oh
why would we do a reconnaissance when we can send over a drone and why would we
go clear buildings house-to-house when we have technology that can put bombs
right into buildings so this idea that we're gonna have the ground wars are
over we need to move on to the next phase of warfare and and adapt to a new
way of doing things and of course what was it eight years later sometime
xi happened we spent 15 years in Afghanistan and whatever ten years in
Iraq that on the ground doing those very missions that everyone thought we would
never do again so so yes the nature of war does not change and it's not about
technology either you know some of the guys that don't make it to that training
think oh man if I just if I could just get through somehow and I'll get all
this cool gear and I'll have night-vision and lasers and I'll be
badass it's like it's not about that and and while we need to when you invest in
technology certainly and equip our military accordingly it's the people
that matter it's leadership at all levels that
matter you know one of the one of my favorite quotes from the hero the
Pacific War who was in charge of the entire it was the commander-in-chief of
all forces US forces the Pacific I got em Chester Nimitz Fleet Admiral Chester
Nimitz good ol boy from from Central Texas and he said our armament must be
adequate to the needs but our faith is not primarily in these machines of
defense but in ourselves and I mean that's that's just exactly true and we
kind of we've got to always push those standards keep those standards I prepare
people for the difficulties of real actual combat and just how physically
demanding it is and crushing it can be and and be ready so then we can execute
and we can win next next back to Budds real quick that's how long is Budd six
months right yeah but 27 weeks or so because a lot of
money said it's like you know hell week right that's the time where do you don't
sleep that much or whatever I think some people think that that's but you know
like you just don't sleep ever and it's all hard they drowned you and then they
bring you back yeah