Episode 1: Jason Fox’s Car Confessions

[Music] something really weird happens when two people get to share a car Jay you get relaxed it's not saying things about yourself the power of persuasion from cars like this one to get people you know and love to tell some of their deepest and darkest and I cannot wait to do it you get to see it with yeah I can't believe it either now part of the reason that I'm in what feels like a Ford Transit round at the minute because I'm so high up it's because I mean one of be sexiest 4x4 out there I'm in a Land Rover Defender and I've never driven one of these cars before and it's kind of appropriate for today because this is the person who I'm going to meet favorite car and when you find out who that person is you'll totally understand why because I mean it's tough it's definitely used all over the world excuse me hunts welcome to London and I think this man has probably driven one of these in terrain appropriate conditions some of my ways Dominic Jason Fox now and I'm kind of excited you know he's a really interesting guy he's been all over the world done some pretty challenging things and well this is was his dream card it's a car that he's chosen and a car that he absolutely loves so hopefully I'm going to keep him sweet he's a big fella I want no problems okay tell me do it right yeah nice to meet you nice yeah I know I'm in the walls that you've selected you just pulled a face there which says to me that you know what this is like to drive make the things it's amazing off-road but yeah not great round London no geez all right let's get going shall we yeah let's do it Jason me thank you so much for doing this hey thanks for having me and I wanna thank you for letting me literally as we started as amazing why you love this car so reason the reason I picked is cuz it has it's it's played a key part in my life in my career it's like it is the it is the vehicle of the British military okay but I am aware that it is it's difficult to drive especially yeah stop in and start and in this big beast is one hell of a thing so how often did you find yourself behind the wheel of this car in in foreign territory a lot this is the workhorse of the British military in the air army yeah you have to fish this out of like a mud pit at any point yeah mud driven it through streams lakes or ponds got it sort of stuck but it's not very good against our kiss are you good at get out of Wow how's it gonna be in a grimy Street of Regents Park I reckon they grow I reckon it'll be all right as long as there's no like tight turns because this thing's got the turning circle of an oil tank hilarious did you ever driven it driven armoured vehicles armored personnel carriers yeah armored Land Cruisers like the Toyota Land Cruiser armoured ones of these yeah please get armored up what the difference between this and an armored the windows are thicker the whole thing's a lot heavier you've got to take into the weight rather than this yeah it's like few a few tongue whoa he's gotta let you know you got armored doors you got armored windows everything's heavier you can fit you know the I mean this rolls going around a corner doesn't it we're kind of leery so fumbles in that yeah imagine it like 10 times more top-heavy you know and there's got no pickup yeah at all but ya know we drove some you get to drive some quite cool fast cars and how much of a reset has it been driving in big cities in the UK versus spending the best part of a decade driving in sandy conditions in places like Afghanistan is madly different you got it although it sounds bizarre you know you go away to places like Afghan and you just you'd think it'd be restrictive because of the nature what's going on over there but actually you can go anyway you know you're in the desert you can drive you know whatever direction you need to to get a job done or you know let's go and have a look over there see what's going on you know you do that whereas you come back here and I I mean I loved Roy I love love love driving yeah I don't particularly like driving in London in in the heart of London right now it's pretty clear did it I know yeah yeah you just blew me my own internal sat-nav on roads do you ever have that thing where you're you know that the pressure of being a guy behind the wheel means that you have to know the way are you one of those people that just knows every Road and the city liter and I'd like to know anyway yeah I saw I've got a stupidly weird fetish of loving maps of I'm happy to sit on the toilet and read a map I'm just telling you years trying to paint a place yeah you understand how much I'm in better maps tell me about this book that you got cuz you've you written a book right uh yeah I have yeah it's your first one it's my first one probably my first one yeah so what are you were you covering is it your time in the forces of your time since leaving it's sort of like explaining the emotional side of warfighting and how that feels or how it felt for me yeah the smells the sounds the triggers that the the the emotional impact that you know extreme violence has on an individual and then how you then transition from doing that on a day almost a daily basis into never doing it again I'm wondering what your identity is after that so just how difficult did it get in terms of the things that you would experience I mean it got really did fear why's the fear is always there right it's a good thing you know it's a control measure fear they say a wrong fear of dying I suppose they're getting blown up shot you know there is a fear but it makes for me and for a lot of the guys I was serving with it makes you switch on but after a while it become I mean I can remember let's talk about extreme fear and emotion I mean being sound the back of a helicopter this getting shot you can feel bullets hitting that helicopters you're flying through the air you I could see the helicopter behind gain here you can feel the explosions of air burst rocket-propelled grenades pushing the energy of the explosion pushing the helicopter sliding it through the earth and actually what I'm wanted on the occasion I'm thinking now I'm sat next to a friend of mine and I I saw us squeezing my knees that hard I was hurting myself Bob let go the pain was still there look down actually what happened was I had all of his knees and he had all of mine in their confusion we were squeezing we had like this weird moment that was almost embarrassing it's over and then solve we were back in the moment and fear creeps in again I can vividly remember that because I was actually petrified and I was a senior guy as well well that stayed shot fear changing I think it did yeah I think on that tour that was that was doing my last tour and it did change me I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back I have to ask about that moment when you found yourself back home back in the real world on your own terms of the back of leaving leaving the military yeah what was it that you were actually dealing with and how difficult was it to adjust to life outside the military when you left I actually got medically discharged for it wasn't your choice now is diagnosed with PTSD and what they call chronic burnout so I had like I suppose I was suffering from mental health issues and I I think to begin with it was difficult to admit that especially as I've been quite I'd been a sort of a non-believer I'd heard a lot of stories about soldiers claiming to that PTSD off the back end of combat and as I I'm a you know I'm what's considered a veteran I've been in you know I've been on tours all over the globe and been involved in some hairy stuff but I'm alright yeah and then you saw a fast forward say six months to 12 months in towards the end of my career and I mean the biggest slice of humble pie because I'm matching yet having such comes in terms of the fellow I don't feel right right so you describe that feeling what was it that you are you didn't the way white feel what it looked I was I was getting a just done a tour of being away you know gone away warfighting come with that was in Afghanistan and I came back from that and I'm getting ready to do another tour and I would always look forward to it was you know I was always keen you know I felt belonging like I believed in what we were doing and then all of a sudden this this this tour is looming in the distance it's three months away we're doing all the training that build ups the build up stuff to you know prepare ourselves to deploy which is dude cool stuff and it would skydiving parachute you know all this sort of cool stuff that people think goes hand in hand with being a Special Forces soldier and I remember just dreading it it just saw it as a but a dark cloud in the distance it was slowly moving towards me and I didn't understand it and I didn't want that feeling I was at the time I was a senior team leader in a squadron which meant I was responsible for men and I was having to dig deep to motivate myself let alone them and I thought this isn't fair so I thought you know I'll go and see someone they'll get it squared away and I'll be back to normal and that wasn't to be the case as men why do you think we struggled to discuss our mental health I think it's it's been bred into us as blokes to just suck it up you know you're supposed to be the stronger person in certain situations I mean it's rife as well in you know in alpha male environments not to talk about but the problem with that is it just bottled it up and and actually the best thing that ever happens to me from for me anyway in my individual little nightmare that was going on it was about being honest and then actually talking about it and that as soon as he starts talking about it he suddenly realized you know actually on your own and it is a normal thing to experience how much has your life changed since you've become a civilian and then become mr. TV man yeah it is slightly different you know I've still got really really good friends or it's still in the military and we catch up and chat and they love what you've been doing now you know I'm almost a denim because I just get absolutely beasted I see banner is one thing but does anybody from your former life resent the life that you now have not I'm aware of everyone's made everyone's super supportive you know me in a friend a friend of mine we co-founded an organization now that helps primarily veterans sometimes serving members their families are dependent but also it's starting to branch out into other industries now as well so please it's pro sports you know you know when people retire what again it's all about that loss that loss of identity or the feeling of a lot of identity and and helping people find what the next focus is yeah so because of that they they're they're glad that I've done all I'm doing what I am doing at the moment and a lot of them are on board with me in them just as they're just as influential as as I am in that organisation sounds like you're doing an amazing thing I think you've got a lot to be proud of genuine have really loved talking to you man and now I going I'm fascinated by what it is that you're doing because mental health is really important to me and it seems as though you're actually coming good on on helping others which is a massive thing you know just put up over here thanks again hey I make it sorry about not at all gee it's been a pleasure this is lovely meeting you thank you yeah so I really loved today's conversation because well I was talking to a man who wasn't scared to be really honest about his experiences you know this is a man who has essentially had two lives he has experienced something really challenging and as a result he's using it to learn more about himself and essentially help other people which i think is incredibly brave you know men don't really speak about the things that they find difficult and when it comes to mental health I am incredibly passionate about sharing some of the more difficult things and as a result potentially helping someone and that really feels though what jason has been doing for a long time and hopefully will continue to do and I just feel really chuffed that he decided to share as much as he did with me the thing that I'm not glad about is that he's made me drive his quote unquote favorite car which is one of the most difficult things to drive in the sea its massive it's slow it's not automatic but you know what the conversation was so good we'll let you off foxy it's weird for me calling epoxy but deal with it saving a bit of fun isn't it well next time it's gonna be slightly different hopefully I won't be in a tank because next time I'm gonna be picking up and having a chat the lovely Katie for more videos like the one you've just seen do not forget to Like subscribe tell a mate send a carrier pigeon whatever it takes just make sure you come back

Channel: AutoTrader

Views: 145,571

Rating: 4.9352818 out of 5

Keywords: Autotrader, jasonfox, jason fox, reggieyates, reggie yates, land rover, landrover, defender, defender 110, special forces, specialforces, kylie minogue, kylieminogue, ptsd, car interview, interview, car, sas, 4x4, mental health, documentary, london, tesla, autotrader cars, driving, cars

Id: zPsjFxdV6tQ

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 27 2018