Jocko Podcast 323: When Times Get Truly Desperate, FIX BAYONETS and GO. 20th Maine. The Civil War.

this is jocko podcast number 323 with echo charles and me jocko willing good evening echo good evening also joining us tonight is jason gardner good evening jason good evening the inspiration of a noble cause involving human interest far and wide enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before and which they were not capable of alone the consciousness of belonging vitally to something beyond individuality of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where in space and time greatens the heart to the limits of the soul's ideal and builds out the supreme of character it was something like this i think which marked our motive which made us strong to fight the bitter fight to the victorious end and made us unrevengeful in that victory we rose in soul above the things which even the declaration of independence pronounces the inannual rights of human nature for the securing of which governments are instituted among men happiness liberty life we laid on the altar of offering or committed to the furies of destruction while our minds were lifted up to a great thought and our hearts swelled to its measure we were beckoned on by the vision of destiny we saw our country moving forward charged with the sacred trusts of man we believed in its glorious career the power of high aims and of strong purpose the continuity of great endeavor the onward upward path of history to god [Music] every man felt that he gave himself to and belonged to something beyond time and above place something which could not die these are the reasons not fixed in the form of things but formative of things reasons of the soul why we fought for the union and this is the spirit in which having overcome the dark powers of denial and disintegration having restored the people of the south to their place and privilege in the union and set on high the old flag telling of one life and one body one freedom and one law over all the people and all the land between the four great waters we now come as it were home we look into each other's eyes we speak in softer tones we gather under the atmosphere of these sacred thoughts and memories like the high pure air that shines down upon us today flooding these fields fields where cloud and flash and thunder roll of battle and shrouded us and them in that great three days burial to celebrate this resurrection to rear on these far away field memorials of familiar names and to honor the state whose honor it was to rear such manhood and those are remarks that were delivered on october 3rd 1889 by general joshua chamberlain who with the 20th maine led the defense of the left flank of the union army on a hill known as little round top during the battle of gettysburg and joshua chamberlain was an incredible soldier an incredible leader a warrior a scholar a thinker he's most well known for his deeds as a military leader he received the medal of honor for his heroic leadership there in gettysburg that was only part of his life he served served only four years in the army but during that time he participated in some of the fiercest fighting of the war over 20 engagements including fredericksburg chancellorsville gettysburg spotsylvania cold harbor petersburg and five forks he was wounded six times during battle two of those times nearly fatal he was chosen by grant to receive the first flag of surrender at the appomattox courthouse on april 12 1865. then went on to be elected governor of maine four times served as president of bowdoin college he was a lawyer he was a real estate developer at the age of 70 even though his health had been severely impacted by his war wounds he volunteered to lead troops in the spanish-american war he was denied by the secretary of war he wrote and he wrote a book called bayonet forward my civil war reminiscences and we're going to cover it today jason and i have had the privilege of walking the battlefield of gettysburg we do an event at echelon called ef battlefield and during that event we we look at all the different leaders and there's a bunch of different leaders and with a bunch of different personalities the good the bad the ugly we got mead and lee we got beaufort and long street hancock and yule sickles and stewart and and every one of those [Music] people and and there's many more that we we discussed there on the battlefield there are complex people in a complex situation making complex leadership decisions some right some wrong some insignificant some completely consequential but for me the one individual that stands out from all those leaders is joshua chamberlain with so many lessons to learn and we're going to explore explore some of those today as we go through some highlights of his book does anyone stand out more than joshua chamberlain when you go to gettysburg i mean they all stand out mead stands up lee stands out long street buford they all have these dynamic moments good and bad but as far as just overall when you look at the whole thing together just from gettysburg chamberlain is he stands out in an epic way the whole experience of being on that battlefield is almost impossible to put into words because there's there's more to it it's not like we're in a classroom and we're learning about the history of stuff there isn't there's there's something that i can't explain that you feel when you're there and he he touched on this in a speech that he gave later and i was like oh okay what he said was in great deed something abides on great fields something stays forms change and pass bodies disappear but spirits linger to consecrate the ground for the vision place of souls and irreverent men and women from afar and generations that know us not and that we know not of heart drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream and low the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom and the power of the vision pass into their souls and that's what it's like you're there and you feel like you're part of something that's bigger than you and the it's just an it's it's it's an immensely yeah i'm i'll say it it's it's a life-changing experience to go to that battlefield as an american yeah there's [Music] there's something spiritual that goes down for lack of a better word i don't know what other word to use i'm not even 100 sure i know what the words natural means i think that's the best i don't know what else to say when when you when you walk on that battlefield and when you know what happened and when you know the cost and when you know what the consequences were we're going to be to win or lose there that everything that we have and the course of history as we know it in the course of free people in the world like it all is there in this one little area where thousands of of of men stood toe-to-toe sometimes literally against their relatives and you know you when we walk that battlefield we point that out certain battles where there's literally relatives fighting against each other and just to know the course of human history and and that that point in time and how important it was it's it is it's like a spiritual thing to be there um possibly the most decisive battle of the civil war because if things had gone the other way it would have affected the election and all and and when you actually walk there and you see that things were literally held by a thread yeah i mean case in point the 20th main on the left length of the union army attack after attack after attack and we'll get to it um all right i'm going to go to the book going to the battle of fredericksburg this is virginia december 11th through the 15th 1862. by the way i didn't check on the weather but december 1862 this was crazy so we make boots right at origin the they they the boots that these guys wore were boots called single last boots and what that means is they don't have a left foot and a right foot there's just one shape for the boots and it's a wooden sole so it's a piece of wood with leather attached to it and you get a left and right is the same that's like the comfort level that these dudes are in it's a freaking nightmare here we go so we were held in reserve it may be thought that we were glad to be kept out of the fight at least for the present but i take occasion to say that in forming for a great fight it is not regarded as a very special favor to be held in reserve the holding is most likely not for long and it holds itself a peculiar stress and strain waiting and watching intent and anxious stirred by the pulse of manhood and the contagion of comradeship conscious of the strength to help but forbidden to strike all this wears sorely on every generous spirit this guy is such a freaking incredible writer it's mind-boggling but that is such a great thing and as soon as i was reading i was like this is the first thing i'm going to read in this book because only if you've been sitting on the battlefield when there's something happening and you can't do anything or you're being held quote in reserve and you know what it feels like to be like oh i want to go help but i can't and my what does he say my manhood wants to go help but i can't but then he gets this then he says this and that other not unmanly impulse if the worst is coming let us meet it may have its part two in the drama it is really less trying to go in first and deliver your blow in the flush of spirit and strength with the feeling that if the worse comes you will be reinforced or relieved then to be held back till some dire disaster calls when the life and death grapple clinches and you must recover lost ground or die trying that's another crazy thing like when you're in the reserves hey if everything goes good you're not doing anything and if everything goes bad you're gonna go jump into this freaking mayhem and get some the worst place yeah the worst possible place or on the other hand you can be called to advance in triumph over a field already carried something then is lacking to the manly sense of service rendered according to strength so this reserve for him is a lose-lose situation you're either getting called into a freaking blood bath in which case this is gonna be horrible and you didn't have the chance to strike when you were like ready to rock and roll or they're gonna win and you know you just get to roll in there and be like well you guys did a good job high five you know that's got to be an uncomfortable feeling uh [Music] it says um this is this is good or bad depending on your reserve state of mind we could plainly see the fierce struggle of our second and nine core lines first steadily moving forward in perfect order and array the flag high poised and leading checked and broken somewhat on each successive rise under the first range of shot and shell no musket replying this would for this would have been worse than useless but bright bayonets fixed ready at the final reach to sweep like a sharp wave crest over the enemy's rock-like barrier so he's watching this unfold and you can see the you can see the soldiers kind of coming up out of the rise of you know coming up on a little a little knoll and then sinking back down and they're watching this he says right on then reaching the last slope before and beneath the death delivering stone wall suddenly aloomed by a sheet of flame and in an instant the whole line sinking as if swallowed up in the earth the bright flags quenched in gloom and only a writhing mass marking that high tide halt of uttermost manhood and supreme endeavor so these guys march up to that wall and then you know however many confederate soldiers just engage and that blast of those rounds at close range and it just immediately stops them then a slow backflowing with despairing effort here and there to bear back broken bodies of the brave glorified by the baptism of blood i'm just gonna go throw out some little i gotta go english major here for a minute but that alliteration right there that alliteration there to bear back broken bodies of the brave glorified by the baptism of blood this guy gets an a plus on that good lord freaking incredible again and again the bold essay repeated by other troops with similar experience and thickening ridges of the fallen marking the desperate assays there we stood for an hour witnessing five immortal charges tears ran down the cheeks of stern men waiting almost wishing wishing to be summoned to the same futile glorious work [Music] so there's these guys standing up in reserve watching five charges watching guys get mowed down they're crying as they're watching their friends get killed and wishing to be called in to do their duty just to get it over with yeah yeah if you're standing in line to go into a meat grinder yeah do you want to be the first one or like 30 back watching it come slow good grief now came the call for the reserves burnside despairing of the left and seeing the heroic value on the right at last exhausted in unavailing sacrifice ordered in the fifth core griffin's division to lead first came the silent departure of our first and second brigades whose courage our eyes could not follow we waited in expectation not in fear for that has little place in manhood when love and duty summon but eager to do our best and make the finish few words were spoken among officers however endeared to each other by confidence is deepened by such pressure of life on the borders of death as war compels the sense of responsibility silenced all else [Music] silence in the ranks too one little word perhaps telling whom to write to griffin gave us a searching wistful look not trusting his lips and we not needing more now rang forth the thrilling bugle cry third regrade to the front i don't know man i don't know if i have any comments you know like this guy is such an incredible writer and [Music] the way he conveys this it just doesn't need anything else the story about this night was what really i highlighted on this battle and struck me when they eventually have to hold up for the night yeah even on bodies oh yeah first comes the charge we were directed straight forward toward the left of the futile advance we had seen so fearfully cut down the fences sued compelled us to send our horses back the artillery fire made havoc crushed bodies severed limbs were everywhere around in streets door yards and gardens our man be our men began to fall and were taken up by the faithful surgeons and hospital attendants who also bring courage to their work now we reach the lines we were to pass for the further goal we picked our way amid bodies thickly strewn some stark and cold some silent with slowly ebbing life some in sharp agony that must have voice though unavailing some prone from sheer exhaustion or by final order of hopeless commander the living from their close clung bosom of the earth strove to dissuade us it's no use boys we've tried that nothing living can stand there it's only for the dead on we pushed up slopes slippery with blood miri with repeated unavailing tread we reached that final crest before that all-commanding countermanding stone wall here we exchanged fierce volleys at every disadvantage until the muzzle flame deepened the sunset red and all was dark we stepped back a little behind the shelter in this forlorn foremost crest and sank to silence perhaps such as human weakness to sleep so as they're marching on this assault where they've watched five charges fail as they're stepping over bodies and limbs and guys some laying quietly dialing and dying and some screaming out in agony and some laying wounded are looking up at them and saying stop it's no use don't go we already tried it and they press on and they basically get into a gunfight at that wall and then it gets dark and this is the this is the part that you're talking about is a cold night bitter raw north wind swept stark slopes the men heated by their energetic and exciting work felt keenly the chilling change i rose at midnight as we advanced over that stricken field the grave conglomerate monotone resolved itself into its diverse several elements some breathing inarticulate agony some deer home names some begging for a drop of water some caring for some for a caring word some praying god for strength to bear some for life some for quick death we did what we could but how little it was on a field so boundless for feeble human reach so they're just up there laid up sleeping with with the dead and the dying by the way i'm not reading this whole book you and i were talking earlier on i said hey it's going to be hard it was hard for me to pick out like what am i going to read because literally this book you could just read the entire thing just do the book i could just do that and just call it just be like hey i'm just going to read this whole thing um and maybe i will do that this is probably there's no way this is being protected by copyright or anything like that because it's too old so maybe i'll just do an audio book get that out there as well my dad just tried to get a copy of it and it wasn't readily available he had to get it like from an outside seller on amazon oh the book itself this one yeah yeah it won't it'll be reprinted now which is awesome but me i'll have to just go straight audio book on this thing hats off to you because there's some words in here i'm not used to yeah it's it's not that bad there's worse he's he he even though they're definitely i i think there's definitely words that are challenging but it's still he speaks pretty plainly you know uh i mean compared to some stuff from back in the day it was really back in the day uncle charles he's a plain speaker but man it's funny i never picked up on that alliteration and he's i didn't pick up on it because i haven't been reading it out loud as soon as you start reading out loud that alliteration have you ever read the sheamus haney version of beowulf no okay so beowulf the way it's written in what is it old english um god i hope i got that right yeah it's old english it's written the way that they wrote it's written with alliteration so all the sounds are and it's like the same vowels right and so when sheamus haney did the translation into modern english he managed to find words to make the whole thing have that same alliteration throughout the book it's it's powerful that guy's got to be a wizard oh yeah yeah he's he seems super smart i think he's like one of the most uh recognized you know they there's that thing people do where they're like hey what's the one person that you'd like to have dinner with dead or alive like to fill out those questions definitely you could sit for hours yeah with uh joshua yeah and just listen to him talk because it's like it took me a second it was like getting in a cold swimming pool to get used to it and then once i was used to it i was like gosh i really like the way that he speaks yeah and and then you know sometimes i'll i would send like text iris like hey i'm going to endeavor to get the kids ready for school and then my efforts will be pointed towards ensuring that the horses are fed uh yeah no he's and mimicking because his stuff is awesome yep um the so these guys are up there all night it's a it's a horror show it's a horror show um no big deal just sleeping on dead guys fast forward a little bit awakened by the sharp fire soon came a storm of bullets from the front and flank to route us from our slight shelter in the hollow between the two outermost crests of the manifold assault not suff this not sufficing the artillery took up the task trying to rain down shell upon us and sweep solid shot through our huddled group we had to lie flat on the earth and only by careful twisting could any man load and fire his musket against the covered line in the front before long we saw two or three hundred of the enemy creep out from the right of their stone wall and take advantage of a gully bank where the ground fell away from our left to get a full flank fire on us the situation was critical we took a warrant of supreme necessity we laid up a breastwork of dead bodies to cover that exposed flank behind this we managed to live through the day no man could stand up and not be laid down again hard i saw a man lift his head by the prop of his hands and forearms and catch a bullet in the middle of his forehead such recklessness was forbidden we lay there all day hearing the dismal thud of the bullets into the dead flesh of our life-saving bulwarks no relief could dare to reach us reinforcements we did not wish so they get flanked and they have to build a wall of their dead friends to protect them fast forward a little bit they get ordered back to fredericksburg knight came again and midway of it the order to remove and take respite within the city we had to pick our way over a field strewn with incongruous ruin men torn and broken and cut to pieces in every indescribable way cannon dismounted gun carriages smashed or overturned ammunition chests flung wildly about horses dead and half dead still held in harness accoutrements of every sort scattered as by whirlwinds it was not good for the nerves that ghastly march in the lowering night just after midnight of this miserable day we were summoned three regiments of us to set forth on some special service we knew not what or where something very serious we must believe we were bound for the extreme front to form a picket line to cover the center of the field while the army was to take some important action colonel ames commanded our line the regiment coming under my charge the last order came in low tones hold this ground at all hazards and to the last a strange query crossed our minds last of what no dictionary held that definition as a general term this reached the infinite we were pretty well buried and braced for the coming dawn when a strange clatter came up from the left rear and a gasping voice called where is the commander of these troops i acknowledge that responsibility get yourselves out of this quick as god will let you the whole army is across the river was the message heard no doubt by the whole hostile picket line this was a critical moment something must be said and then and done quickly steady in your places my men i ordered one or two of you arrest this stampeder this is a ruse of the enemy we'll give it to them in the morning this was spoken with no suppressed or hesitating tone but pitched for the benefit of our astonished neighbors in double darkness in our front my men caught the keynote of my policy trusted my discretion and held themselves quiet talk about badass quick thinking too so he's up there freaking with their picket line where they're expecting this massive fight and somebody comes up on horseback and says hey the whole entire army's across the way get out of here as quick as you can go and he knows this guy's an imposter and just stays calm and cool and says it loud enough so that the enemy can hear him uh i stepped back to the staff officer and rebuked him severely for his rashness pointing out to him the state of things vexed at having to moderate even this even my stress of voice he explained he had had such a time getting over the field on up to hit this front line he'd almost lost his wits so that was a union guy no oh yes yes yeah and he was quick enough to go hey arrest this enemy guy and he's like hey come here buffoon yeah yeah you almost made everybody run away i stepped back to the staff officer reviewed him severely for his rashness even cooler hitting out to him the state of things vexed at having to moderate even the stress of my voice which something that we talk about all the time is like staying calm and that's an important thing and even the way you speak is going to impact other people around you and he knows that vexed is a word that i need to use more yeah vexed is a good word uh one of my friends growing up he had another friend that oh no he had a uh adopted brother that was from like um somewhere in the islands like jamaica or something and he would do something that would make his his brother mad his brother would say you're vexing me [Laughter] so i think that's a good good time for this um good let's let's bring back that word uh order comes to leave so eventually they do get they do get the order to leave it was a dreary retreat down those rec strewn slopes it was hard enough to be stumbling over torn up sods groups of the dead or forms of the solitary dying muskets dropped with quick relax or held fast with death's convulsive clutch swords bayonets cartridge boxes fragments of everything everywhere but when a ghastly gleam of moonlight fell on the pale faces fixed and stark and on open eyes that saw not but reflected utter most things it sent a shiver through us i'm not used to fighting in the dark right can you imagine this these guys they they're completely in the dark yeah yeah and we we always with night vision or we could put flares up or whatever yeah it's just dark what a mess the potential for blue on blue and some of the stuff he talks about where he like he's trying to straighten up his guys and winds up talking to a confederate soldier about where he's dated it's freaking nuts dude is crazy yeah it's kind of at least the other people can't see either i guess yeah no one can no one can see did you ever go on any of those did you ever go to the jungle in the night yeah i went down into jungle training in panama yeah i did that and then basically we learned like you're not doing anything at night you could stop yeah you have to stop and you could patrol real quiet and slow but like once you got into an iad it was a total disaster that's why the guys like the seals and nom that would patrol at night and set up an ambush they probably pop flares they well i don't think they patrolled very far either no it's true because you had to move so slow right one of the vietnam vets was telling me that they wouldn't go further than like 500 yards into the jungle and that was and that would take like two hours three hours and typically up a canal so they were in the water most of the way and then out a little bit it's a little easier to move in the water yeah and it's the moon has a big impact in the desert but in the jungle it's a lot less of an impact none like because you're under a triple canopy um did you go down to panama yeah yeah so that you got those black palms black palms which essentially is like why get barbed wire just plant black palms everywhere black palms are a tree that are just covered in little thorns they're not little they're pretty big and what sucks is when you're moving at night and you grab a hold of what you think is a tree to help you step over something and you just end up with nine black palm freaking thorns in your hand yeah i don't i don't know how you can do it you just gotta you gotta stop and wait yeah you gotta move slow but at least like after a while your night vision could adjust and you could be like okay i can we can move but as soon as we did an eye ad at night and you're shooting and your night vision is just out the window that's when it was just that's when it's complete blackness they had us do like three eye ads at night just so we knew what it was like and what the risks were we were doing some training for a while called the emp training right what if we go to war with someone and there's we don't have night vision or any of that other stuff and so that was great because some of the vietnam vets were contracting for us and they were talking about being able to smell the enemy they're like we'll walk down trails and we got our hands on the guy's shoulder in front of us because we can't see and we we don't want to risk getting lost and then sometimes we could smell the enemy coming before they actually showed up and they the example he gave was uh there was a female with the vietnamese and he could smell her shampoo and then just start shooting you know it's like when you can they're that close that you're smelling them before you're seeing them it's just crazy um he's got a section here to he says why we lost why the battle was lost [Music] he says perhaps the main cause and he goes into some other details i'm going to jump a little bit here he says perhaps the main cause of this great disaster the commander of the center grand division did not put his men in they were sent by superior orders in detachments to support other commands as a forlorn hope at various times and places during the unexpected developments or rather the almost inevitable accidents of the battle it should not have been a disaster franklin with his 60 000 men should have turned lee's right whereas he attacked with only two divisions and at one at a time and did not follow up with this whole force with their splendid initiative this is you know all about prioritizing execute you know you're doing a little bit trying to solve this problem trying to solve that problem trying to solve another problem it's like what is our major problem and not keeping things simple either that's true too yeah when franklin failed it was rashness to to expect sumner to carry the formidable heights beyond the city made impregnable by lee's best skill and valor that front might have been held still under menace while sumner reinforced perhaps by the main body of hooker's grand division might have concentrated upon lee's left above the city and flanked the formidable bastions crowning the heights that entrenched his front with all that earth and manhood could do that battle was not fought according to burdenside's intention and that his plan was mutilated by distrust and disharmony among his subordinates commanders does not exonerate him this is going back to napoleon right look just speak if i tell you to do something i tell if i tell jason to do something i tell echo to do something and you guys don't like me or you don't like my plan and so you go do something else that's not your fault that's my fault for not fixing it and not getting you engaged in the plan and not letting accepting your input and asking what your opinion is it is the first great trust and place of a chief commander to control reluctant and incongruous elements and to make his and to make subordinates and opponents submit to his imperial purpose now i'll tell you what's the best way to get someone to submit to your imperial purpose is by saying hey justin how do you want to assault this target yeah that's the best way not by saying hey here's here's what i'm imposing upon you to do and you can take those words the wrong way and i don't think that's how he met him like you could take it like hey you just need to impose your will which is actually what he just said impose your will on the imperial purpose but i think he meant them in the way that you get people to do that by getting them involved with the plan and letting them take ownership and letting you know you're climbing that ladder of alignment yep that we talk about yes and and look if i say hey no jason this is what we're doing and you're like hey roger that got it boss i don't agree with this plan but i'm gonna execute it we're good like you can be like hey there's times where you and i might disagree about something i go hey listen we don't have time to figure this out we gotta go and we gotta go now so take five vehicles and go to the north side of that build that of that compound and you're like got it that that's okay like we don't have time to discuss this now if you were like hey jocko that's a bad call we shouldn't do that i'd be like now i'm starting to question myself well okay what does he see that i don't see what does he understand that i don't understand so can you say listen this is what we got to do we got to do it now time is of the essence yes but if you're still getting pushback there's a problem you can't overly trust yourself as a leader i never freaking trust myself like i'm always thinking what am i what am i not seeing what does jason see that i don't see what does echo understand that i don't understand what pers what perspective do they have that i don't have here and here's one of the things about doing what we we talk about gettysburg right and sure i can learn a lot from the things that that chamberlain did and hancock and these other guys what i really need to do is pay attention to when i'm acting like sickles and just not paying attention and pushing the line out even though i was told not to when i'm doing that or when you know i'm behaving like lee and i don't understand my subordinates perspective and i'm giving them obtuse directions you know and you always want to identify yourself with the heroes in any story where the most growth is going to come from is where you go wait how am i like these people that really screwed this up and how can i fix that yep and you will see yourself in in your past you'll be like oh i know when i did that and you'll see it in your present like oh i think i'm doing that right now and then hopefully that will prevent you from making these mistakes in the future and truly when you when you walk the grounds and you start to see what they see saw and see what they were looking at and then you get to walk to the other person's perspective and see oh what does he mean by that order it's it's it's very powerful to experience it and not just hear about it for sure um he says bernstein attempted a vindication somewhat on these lines but too late he prepared an order removing from command several of his high-ranking but too little subordinate generals and made ready to prefer charges against them for trial by court martial so after this went down he's like oh we're gonna fire some people and then this but lincoln again interposed his common sense advice and the matter was passed over you could see lincoln just a badass like hey listen bro i i know freaking jason and echo dude do exactly what you want him to do now you want to fire him but uh you're the guy in charge court martial is a little more than firing him yeah yeah yeah what's really cool about his observations through this battle and some other battles is it gives you an insight to what has made the seal team so successful and what made it successful is our ability to debrief stuff basically where we take off rank we're like hey what did we do right where what did we do wrong what were our shortcomings and he brings that out in this one and other ones where he's just laying it out it's like hey here were some of the issues like communication obviously is a huge issue a guy is getting word of something on a dynamic battlefield that's happening as it happening then he's giving new orders and by the time they get back and forth everything has changed yeah can you imagine like someone's flanking you and then you go to tell someone you know hey hey echo go tell jason that i'm getting flanked cool 30 minutes later you get the word that i'm getting flanked and you say well you know uh shift left and echo comes back to me 30 i'm already done i'm already flanked it's over i either did something or i didn't do it but the whole thing it's so that's why decentralized command is so important in all these battles and knowing and understanding you can tell when we get into some of these other battles like how well that worked in some situations and how how you know chamberlain in some cases kind of decides what he's gonna do based on the orders that he thinks are gonna be the most effective for the situation that's going down that's another weird thing you get to at gettysburg which we're about to talk about but at gettysburg sometimes the situation and we go into some good depths on this when we go out there but you know one guy takes initiative and it turns out good and everyone's clapping him on the back like he's a hero another guy takes initiative maybe in a little bit different manner and things go sideways and everyone calls this guy a jackass well well there's reasons for that and once we start to talk about the differences between person a takes initiative and it's good person b takes initiative and it's bad oh wait wait a second why was that good here and now it's bad um i actually have that leadership strategy and tactics this first platoon i did i like made a call even though i was a new guy and my chief said hey good job three platoons later i make a call and my oic is like bro what are you doing like i didn't want to do that and you have to dissect why was it good for me to take initiative here but bad for me to take initiative here oh not because the leaders were different it's because i was doing i was making wrong assessments so [Applause] all right gettysburg through blood and fire at gettysburg by the way yeah i'm i'm feeling sorry for anyone that that doesn't get this book i'm obviously only reading chunks of it but um it's awesome here we go in a moment the whole core was marching was in marching order rest rations earth itself forgotten one thought to be first on that gettysburg road the iron-faced veterans were transformed to boys they insisted on starting out with the colors flying so that even the knight might know what manner of men were coming to redeem the day this is as these guys are getting my order to gettysburg i kind of had to had to talk about that um there's a race to little round top and again there's more detail about the whole battle and look we would have to read the whole book to really paint the picture of what's going on so i don't want to get into the game or the i i don't think i'm skilled enough as a human to convey the whole battlefield is unfolding so well if you go watch like a 20 minute video or seven minute video on gettysburg and understand the scheme of maneuver you'll be able to put some of this stuff in context um but here we go this is the race to little round top in another instant a staff officer from general warren rushed up to find sykes our core commander to beg him to send a brigade at least to seize little round top before the enemy's surging waves could should overwhelm it other supplications were in the air calling for aid everywhere are vincent soldierly and self-reliant hearing this and treaty for round top weighted word from those superior but taking the responsibility ordered us to turn and push for round top at all possible speed and dashed ahead to study how best to place us so there's some decentralized command happening he like hears hey we got to take this cool i got it and then goes up ahead to see all right once we get up there i'm gonna put the people in the right position we broke to that right and rear found a rude log bridge over plum run and and a rough farm road leading to the base of the mountain here as we could we took to the double quick so these guys run run to this position so little round top is a hill it's on the left flank of the union which has pretty much taken this ridge line to to stand and fight against the confederate forces fast forward a little bit as we neared the summit of the mountain the shot raked the crest that we had kept our men below to save our heads although this did not wholly avert the visits of treetops and splinters of rock and iron while the boulders and clefs and pitfalls in our path made them seem like the replica of the evil den across the sweetly named plum run and when you go to when you go to gettysburg you can see this area they call the devil's den it's just a crazy outcroppings of rocks and trees it's it's like the craziest it looks like a uh a paintball battlefield like setup thing yeah if you've been to disneyland that tom sawyer island where they're all the boulders and they're just full of caves yeah that's what it is yeah these guys are up above that reaching the southern face of little round top i found vincent there with an intense poise and look he said with a voice of awe as if translating the tables of the eternal law i place you here this is the left of the union line you understand you are to hold this ground at all costs i did understand full well but had more to learn about costs the regiment coming up right in front was put into position by quite an uncommon order on the right by file into line both that we should thus be facing the enemy when we came to a front and also be ready to commence firing as fast as each man arrived this is a rather slow style of formation but this time it was needful knowing that we had no support on the left i dispatched a stalwart company under the level-headed captain morrell in that direction with orders to move along up the valley of our front and left between us and the eastern base of the great round top to keep within supporting distance of us and act as eggs and cheese of the battle should require so these guys are getting in position as basically as fast as they can sounds like like a peel into position kind of yeah yeah and then the the then pushing those guys out there across that little valley sketchy yeah uh but i think that they must have been there must have been less trees there and they they had to have visual visual eyes on them yeah there there definitely was um it's not as wood there's not as wood as it is today uh so these guys are on so so chamberlain and his men are on little round top and then their little round top goes down and then it goes back up on the other side and that's the the other side is big round top and this guy captain morrell takes a small group of guys like a dozen guys or something he runs into those berdan sharpshooters over there and but the the supporting distance you know for me supporting distance means that you can shoot you know we you can help me with your guns and i can probably i can see you and hopefully i can yell to you i don't know if you could yell over all this noise but uh supporting distance that's a doctrinal term it's like the essence of cover and move by the way because hey if you go out there by yourself and you go too far away well now you're not any help to us and you're not neat you're gonna not gonna get any help from us either and they they had to have that lineup what we call line of communications um where they could at least see somebody yeah yeah and these guys probably had some pretty good hand and arm signals i would think to be able to communicate i mean even we have pretty freaking good hand and arm signals [Applause] here we go the 20th main regiment had 358 men equipped for duty in the ranks with 28 officers they were all well-seasoned soldiers and what is more well-rounded men body and brain one somewhat important side note must have place here in order properly to appreciate the mental and moral attitude of the men before us 120 of these men from the second main were recruits whom some recruiting officer had led into the belief that they should be discharged with their regiment at the end of its term of service in their enthusiasm they had not noticed that they were signing enlistment papers for quote three years of the war end quote and when they had been held in the field after the discharge of the regiment they had refused to do military duty and had been sequestered in a prisoner's camp as mutineers awaiting court martial so he's got 120 guys that had signed up hey i'm gonna go work for the whatever the 13th main and then they thought they were going to work with the 13th main well the 13th main stands down they fight a bunch of battles with them too they fight a bunch of battles but then it stands down and then they go hey we're oh cool that regiment stood down we're going home and they're like no no you signed up for three years no we signed up with that regiment yeah then that regiment's done yeah but you signed up for three years so now these guys are pissed on principle by the way even in ancient times guess what that recruiters were out there doing they're fisting and the recruiters even back in the day the recruiters were lying to these fools getting them in there so these guys are pissed they're vexed and they're waiting court-martial and he's and so here we go the exigency exigency of our movement the last of may had not permitted this semi-civil treatment and orders from the secretary of war had directed me to make these take these men upon my roles and put them to duty this made it harder for them to accept as they had never enlisted in this regiment however they had been soon brought over to me under another guard of the 108th pennsylvan 118th pennsylvanian with fixed bayonets with orders to me to take them into my regiment and quote make them do duty or shoot them down the moment they refuse so guards bring these guys over at point of bayonet and say hey you got these guys not my problem anymore this is like the shitty team guy that's like hey jason i got a guy for your platoon you want him um and he tells them hey take these guys make him do duty or shoot him these had been the very words of the core commander in person the responsibility i thought gave me some discretionary power so i had placed their names on our roles distributed them by groups to equalize companies and particularly to break up the esprit de corps of banded mutineers so that's a brilliant move he takes him and says okay you three guys are going this platoon you four guys are going this platoon he breaks them up then i then i had called them together and pointed out to them the situation that they could not be entertained as civilian guests by me that they were by authority of the united states on my roles as soldiers and i should treat them as soldiers should be treated that they should lose no rights by obeying orders and i would see what could be done for their claim it is pleasant to record that all but one or two had gone back manfully to duty to become some of the best soldiers in the regiment as i was to prove this very day so he treated them with respect he talked to him said listen i understand you got some claims i get it but hey if you act like a soldier i'll have you get my back right now and i'm have your back and all but i guess two stood up and incredible yeah that's leadership by the way the other leader who attacks them and disparages them has to guide them at bayonet this is the thing i get all the time you know the i always have to bring up the vietnam draftees and just how you know some people when people tell me about whatever group they're working with it's the millennials it's the union it's the the the craft people it's the it's the nurses it's the doc they take all these groups of people whoever they are whatever business we're working with yeah and they're like well the thing is with the nurses the thing is with the millennials they factor in these groups that no this is the worst group of people ever right because they don't want to listen or they think they deserve this they think they deserve that and i was just my go-to is like i think the hardest group of human beings in the his in history to deal with was the vietnam draftees because the vietnam draftees didn't want to be there they didn't believe in the war and they could die doing their job yeah i'm i'm running through my head right now guys were drafted in world war ii and other wars they were drafted but none of them were as unpopular as the vietnam and it was you know it's debatable whether the vietnam war was an existential threat so that that like is and top it off with that the massive drug problem and all the other issues that were coming to a head inside the ranks and then you've got to deal with that yeah and that trumps anybody else's issues with unions or nurses or anything else yeah it's any group i i you know nurses teachers uh you name the group and there's some leader not all leaders but there's a bad leader out there that says well you know the thing is with our software engineers is they think they deserve this they say it about every single group you know the thing with millennials they they think oh oh you know the this this uh gen x folks they think they built all this so they think everybody says that's about everyone so here's the deal if you were a good leader in vietnam and you had draftees which you did you the good leaders loved the draftees and they had no issue hackworth's one of them because i love what he says he's like they would actually tell me when i was screwed up yeah and he's comfortable enough in his own skin to be able to have someone telling me screwed up and go oh okay well let me see if i am screwed up or instead of just going home you know shut up or fire and and and general mukayama when he was working for hack said he i said well what did you think your draft he said i couldn't tell who was draftees and who wasn't i mean come on treat people with respect listen to what they have to say take their input have their back and you can take guys that are prisoners and turn them into soldiers that are about to fight and sacrifice in the matter of a dozen hours because he got these guys like 12 hours before getting to gettysburg or maybe a little bit longer but it's a quick turnaround time we're not talking about months where he's serenading these prisoners trying to get them to change their minds you know what else is amazing is imagine this you're about to go into combat and up comes the 118th pennsylvania and goes hey bro not my problem anymore this is your problem now there's a lot of people that say yeah what are you kidding me i'm not taking these guys or yay put them over there lock them to a tree right what i'm not dealing with this right now instead he goes okay this is what i got cool i'm gonna work with it what a what an awesome attitude i know i was i was i would we i definitely took people in platoons or in the train tradet where's like hey we got this issue cool sunrise let me let me let me work with this dude let me let me figure out what's going on instead of being like i don't want him hey man let's figure out what's going on with this guy chances are he's probably a halfway decent dude that just has some issues going on he's probably going through a divorce maybe done six back-to-back deployments i don't know what's going on but you don't either when i ask you these questions you don't even know what's happening with him you're just telling me he's got a bad attitude why does he have a bad attitude like let give him to me give him to me i put him in charge of cleaning the head right another example from strategy and tactics yeah we'll put him in charge of something yeah well we did he still has a bad attitude what was it or cleaning the head cleaning the bathrooms on the second deck [Laughter] let him run a dive all right so here we go i released the prisoners and provost guards all together and sent them to the companies all but the drummer boys and hospital attendants went into the ranks even the cooks and servants not liable for such service asked to go in others whom i knew to be sick or foot sore and had given a pass to fall out on the forced marches of the day and night before came up now that the battle was on dragging themselves along on lame and bleeding feet finding their regiment and their places where need is greatest and heart's truest think of that for a second like you just pointed out these guys didn't even have shoes that were fitted for left foot or right foot and they're dragging themselves up to the meat grinder saying put me in coach and bleeding feet i forget what the forced road march was to get here but it was long it was no joke these guys are hurting when they show up it's hot hot was you know it's july july they're in wool uniforms the enemy had already turned the third core left the devil's den was a smoking crater the plum run gorge was a whirling maelstrom one force was charging our advanced batteries near the wheat field the flanking force was pressing past the base of the round tops all rolling toward us in tumultuous waves it was a stirring not to say appalling sight here a whole battery of shot and shell cutting a ragged chasm through the series mass flinging men and horses like drift aside there a rifle volley at close range with reeling shock hands tossed in the air muskets dropped with death's quick relax or clutched with the last convulsive energy men falling like grass before the sky others with manhoods proud calm and rally there a neat little group kneeling above some favorite officer slain his intense spirit still animating the fiery steed pressing headlon with our empty saddle to the van here a defiant regiment of ours broken slaughtered captured or survivors of both sides crouching among the rocks for shelter from the terrible crossfire where there was no rear but all advancing all the frenzied force victors and vanquished each scarcely knowing which surging and foaming toward us death around behind before and madness everywhere it's a it's we haven't even gotten to like the real stress so he's just showing up yes insane the picture that he's painting yeah so he's on little round top now and this is what he's looking at just complete and utter chaos and mayhem [Applause] and that chaos and mayhem back to the book it soon reached us still extending two brigades of hood's division had attacked texas and alabama the fourth alabama reached our right the 47th alabama joined and crowded in but gradually owing to their echelon advance soon seven companies of this regiment were in our front we had all we could stand my attention was sharply called now here now there in the thick and smoke lieutenant nichols a bright officer near our center ran up to tell me something queer was going on in his front behind those engaging us i sprang forward mounted a great rock in the midst of his company line and was soon able to absolve the queer impression into positive knowledge thick groups in gray were pushing up along the smooth dale between the round tops in a direction to gain our left flank there was no mistaking this if they could hold our attention by a hot fight in front while they got in force on that flank it would be bad for us and our whole defense how many were coming we could not know we were rather too busy to send out a reconnaissance if a strong force should gain our rear our brigade would be caught as by a mighty shear blade and cut and crushed what would follow it would be easy to foresee this must not be our orders to hold that ground had to be liberally interpreted that front had to be held that rear covered something must be done quickly and coolly i called the captains and told them my tactics to keep the front fire at the hottest without special regard to its need or immediate effect and at the same time as they found opportunity to take side steps to the left coming gradually into one rank file closers and all then i took the colors with their guard and placed them at our extreme left where a great boulder gave token and support thence bending back at a right angle the whole body gained ground leftward and made twice our original front we were not long in doing it this was a difficult movement to execute under fire requiring coolness as well as heat of rare quality where my officers and men i shall never cease to admire and honor them for what they did in this desperate crisis so he had been told told to hold specific ground and not give it up and you know he says what did he say takes this this liberally he had to adjust it because he understood the intent was to make sure that little round top got held not just the front but little round top as a whole so he had to adjust from just facing one direction to where he's got troops that are facing not just in front of him but also to his left flank and then a little bit behind him because he saw that the the confederates were making a move trying to flank meantime the tremendous blow of the fourth and fifth texas struck the right of our brigade and our 16th michigan reeled and staggered back under the shock confusion followed vincent felt that all was lost unless the very gods should intervene sword aloft and face a flame he rushed in among the broken companies in desperate effort to rally them man by man by sheer force of his superb personality he restored a portion of his line and was urging up the rest don't yield an inch now men or all is lost he cried when an answering volley scorched the very faces of the men and vincent's soul went up in a chariot of fire and that agonizing moment came tearing up the 140th new york gallant o'rourke at the head not waiting to load a musket or form a line they sprang forward into that turmoil met by a withering volley that killed its fine young colonel and laid low many of his intrepid officers and a hundred of his men this splendid regiment as by a providence we may well call divine saved us all in that moment of threatened doom to add a tragic splendor to this dark scene in the midst of it all the indomitable hazlitt was trying to get his guns 10 pounder rifled parrots up to a working place on a small summit close beyond finally he was obliged to take his horses entirely off and lift his guns by hand and hand spike up the craggy steep once he launched death and defiance wide and far around the roar of all this tumult reached us meanwhile on the left and heightened the intensity of our resolve meanwhile the flanking column worked around to our left and was joined with those before us in a fierce assault which lasted with increasing fury for an intense hour the two lines met and broke and mingled and the shock the crush of musketry gave way to cuts and thrusts grappling and wrestlings the edge of the conflict swayed to and fro with wild whirlpools and eddies at times i saw around me more of the enemy than of my own men gaps opening swallowing closing again with sharp convulsive energy squads of stalwart men who had cut their way through us disappearing as if translated all around strange mingled roar shouts of defiance rally and desperation and underneath murmured entry uh and stifled moans gasping prayers snatches of sabbath song whispers of love names everywhere men torn and broken staggering creeping quivering on the earth and dead faces with strangely fixed eyes staring stark into the sky things which cannot be told nor dreamed how men held on each one knows not i but manhood commands admiration there was one fine young fellow who had been cut down early in the fight with a ghastly wound across his forehead and who i thought might possibly be saved with prompt attention so i sent him back to our little field hospital at least to die in peace within a half an hour in a desperate rally i saw that noble youth amidst the rolling smoke as an apparition from the dead with bloody bandage for the only covering of his head in the thick of the fight high born and pressing on that they shall see death no more so you've got this just incredibly intense assault on this hill you've got the hill just about to be overrun when this guy vincent strong vincent rallies his troops and holds the line and then dies and then as right as the line's about to get broken again o'rourke from the 140th new york brings his troops up same things able to hold the line they ain't they don't even get a chance to load their muskets they're just injured just dive into the fight continues on when that mad carnival lulled from some strange instinct in human nature and without any reason in the situation that can be seen when the battling edges drew asunder there stood our little line groups and gaps notched like saw teeth but sharp as steel tempered in infernal heats like a magic sword of the goths we were up on the appointed and entrusted line we had held the ground at all costs but now that the smoke dissolved we saw our dead and wounded all out in front of us mingled with more of the enemy they were scattered all the way down to the very feet of the baffled hostile line now rallying in low shrubbery for a new onset we could not wait for this they knew our weakness now and they were gathering force no place for tactics now the appeal to must be to primal instincts of human nature so they go through this they hold the line barely and as the smart smoke begins to clear they're looking at over the field down the hill and they see all their wounded a bunch of enemy wounded and dead and then they see the enemy starting to gather and muster for yet another attack continuing on first it was to gather our wounded this is the human instinct he's talking about first it was to gather our human our wounded and bear them to the sheltered lawn for saving life or peace in dying the dead too that not even our feet should do them dishonor in the coming encounter then such is heavenly human pity the wounded of our country's foes brothers in blood for us now so far from other caring born like refugee and sucker by the drummer boys who'd become angels of the field so they go out and start trying to help they're dead they're wounded and then the confederate soldier wounded in this lull i took a turn over the dismal field to see what could be done for the living in ranks or recumbent and came upon a manly form and face i well remembered he was a sergeant earlier in the field of antietam and of frederickberg and for refusing to perform some menial personal service for a bullying quartermaster in winter camp was reduced to the ranks by a commander who had not carefully investigated the case it was a degradation and the injustice of it wrankled in his highborne spirit but his well-bred pride would not allow him to ask for justice as a favor i had kept this in mind for early action now he was lying there stretched on an open front so what he's just said is he's got this guy that he remembers that fought well at antietam and fraud at fredericksburg and he had he was probably just a freaking btf tony type dude that was just a freaking badass and somebody told him to do some dumb [ __ ] he's like i'm not doing that and he gets reduced in rank now he was lying there stretched out an open front where a brave stand had been made face to the sky a great bullet hole in the middle of his breast from which he had loosened his closing clothing to ease the breathing and the rich blood was pouring in a stream i bent down over him his face lightened his lips moved but i spoke first my dear boy it's gone hard for you you shall be cared for he whispered tell my mother i did not die a coward it was the prayer of home bred manhood poured out with his lifeblood i knew and answered him you die a sergeant i promote you for your faithful service and noble courage on the field of gettysburg this was all he wanted no word more i'd i had him born from the field but his high spirit had passed to its place it is needless to add that as soon as a piece of parchment could be found after that battle a warrant was made out promoting george washington buck to sergeant the silence and the doubt of the momentary low were quickly dispelled so all that took place while there was a lull in the fire the 47th alabama had rallied to our right we were enveloped in fire and sure to be overwhelmed in fact when the great surge struck us already i could see the bold flankers on their right darting out and creeping catlike under the smoke to gain our left thrown back as it was it was for us then once for all our thin line was broken and the enemy were in the rear of the whole round top defense infantry artillery humanity itself with the round top and the day theirs now too our fire was slackening our last rounds of shot had been fired what i had sent for could not get to us i saw the faces of my men one after the other when they had fired their last cartridge turn anxiously toward mine for a moment then square to the front again to the front for them late death to the rear what they would die to save my thought was running deep i was combining the elements of a forlorn hope and it just communicated this to captain spear when a captain spear of the wheeling flank on which the initiative was to fall just then brave warm-hearted lieutenant melcher of the color company whose captain and nearly half of his men were down came up and asked if he might take his company and go forward to pick up one or two of his men left wounded on the field and bring them in before the enemy got too near this would be a most hazardous move in itself and in this desperate moment we could not break the line but i admired him with a glance he understood i answered yes sir in a moment i am about to order a charge so they're almost out of bullets that's a that's a freaking crazy thought as you're in command and as guys run out of bullets they look at you like i'm out and then they look back to the front and this kid comes up saying hey boss can i go out there and recover some of my wounded guys before the enemy gets too close and he knows he can't give that order but he says well in a moment not a moment was about to be lost five minutes more of such defensive and the last roll call would sound for us desperate as the chances were there was nothing for it but to take the offensive i stepped to the colors the men turned toward me one word was enough bayonet it caught like fire and swept along the ranks the men took it up with a shout one could not say whether it was from the pit or the song of the morning star it was vain to order forward no mortal could have heard it in the mighty hasanah that was winging the sky nor would he wait to hear it there are things still of the first creation whose seed is in itself the grading clash of steel and fixing bayonets told its own story the color rose in front the whole line quivered for the start the edge of the left wing rippled swung tossed among the rocks straightened changed curve from scimitar to sickle shape and down the bristling arches swooped down upon the seared host down into the face of half a thousand two hundred men so it's about a thousand or so sorry it's about 500 people against 200 and all he had to say was bayonet that imagery is just incredible his description of it more alliteration it's just in sane he says it was a great right wheel our left swung first the advancing foe stopped tried to make a stand amidst the trees and boulders but the frenzied bayonets pressing through every space forced a constant settling to the rear moral moril with his detached company and the remnants of our valorous sharpshooters who had held the enemy so long in check on the slopes of the great round top now fell upon the flank of the retiring crowd and it turned into full retreat sung amidst the crags of the great round top so that's lucky as the confederate soldiers are starting to fall back now they're now who's on their flank but merrell and the guys that had gone up on the on the big round top at the first dash the commanding officer i happened to confront so this is as this is going down at the first dash the commanding officer i happen to confront coming on fiercely sword in one hand and big navy revolver on the other fires one barrel almost in my face but seeing the quick saber point at his throat throat reverses arms gives sword and pistol into my hands and yields himself a prisoner i took him at his word but could not give him further attention i passed him over the custom custody of a brave sergeant at my side to whom i gave the sword as an emblem of his authority but kept the pistol with its loaded barrels which i thought might come in handy soon as indeed it did ranks were broken many retired before us somewhat hastily some threw their muskets to the ground even loaded sunk on their knees threw up their hands calling out we surrender don't kill us as if we wanted to do that we kill only to resist killing and these were manly men whom we could befriend and by no means kill if they came our way in peace and goodwill charging right through and over these we struck the second line to the 47th alabama doing their best to stand but offering little resistance the lieutenant colonel as i passed and a fine gentleman was the lieutenant bulger introduced himself as my prisoner and as he was wounded i had him cared for as best we could still swinging to the right as the great gate on its hinges we swept the front clean of assailants so that's it i mean that's the that's the famous charge bayonet charge from little round top down little round top and those guys from the alabama have been running all day in wool uniforms they were out of water they hadn't had water in hours they they had a couple guys trying to go and try and find water and they got run up and they're just this just it's an incredible clash and the way chamberlain talks about this and he talks about that we could be friends with these guys if we weren't fighting and he keeps that in his mind it's something that um i was not able to do on the battlefield i had a little bit of hatred in my heart when i went to war but this guy he's at peace the whole time and i think that's what what makes him such that is what makes him such an incredible leader and person yeah to go through that to lose all all these guys and still as soon as these guys surrender be like yep okay i'll treat you fair enough yep i mean i think that's definitely easier when it's you know you're fighting america other americans i mean i guess they were confederates but um you know you have these guys had so much in common with you know when we when we fight all of a sudden we're fighting against a person with a different language a person with a different culture person from a different country it's a slippier slope it's weird it's way slightly easier way slippery to start to fall into that stuff which is which is not the best way to do it because when the the next thing that you the next step that you're on when you go down there is to lose respect for the enemy and then you get complacent and that complacency always comes back to bite you yep this is going forward a little bit he has to get them to stop because they're charging and they're too much he says too much motivation he says it was no light task to get our men to stop they were under the momentum of their deed they thought they were on the road to richmond they had to be reasoned with persuaded but at last faced about and marched back to that dedicated crest with swelling hearts not without sad interest in service was the return for many of the wounded had to be gathered up there was a burden too of the living nearly 400 prisoners remained in our hands two for every man of ours at nine o'clock the next morning we were withdrawn being relieved by our first brigade but we were sent to support anything but a place of rest our new position was in support of hancock's troops near the left center of the union line which proved to be the point aimed at by pickett's charge that afternoon so they they kind of said hey look these guys just made a stand on little round top and they lost a bunch of guys and we're going to give them a little breather so instead of putting them out on a flank again we're going to bring them right into the center of the union line where they're probably not you know probably not going to see anything we should be okay and that ends up being the spot where pickett's charge literally takes place and unless i'm mistaken the guy that makes it the far from furthest from the confederates was hancock's best man in his wedding yeah yeah incredible yeah they have that they have that monument the high water the high water mark of where the confederacy made it to they have a thing this is where this guy made it to the furthest north he says it was certainly a narrow chance for us and for the roundtops had we not used up our ammunition and had we continued to meet the enemy musket to musket this give and take would have soon finished us by reason of the enemy superior numbers that's an incredible debrief point so he's saying look if we would have had enough ammunition and we would have just sat there and trade shots with them they had more people so eventually they would have they would have taken us they had what 500 people we had 200. we don't just trade war of attrition we're going to lose violence of action right he just deployed violence of action the college professor understood it and that's like that's what we were always taught yeah on day one in the seal teams yeah there's a that's what we get taught we get taught speed surprise and violence of action there was a vietnam vet that had broken service obviously and he came back in the teams um and did a platoon chief slot man i think he he was almost 50 when he did a platoon chief slot and i remember i was in the training cell we were running an operation for him and we had kind of a big target and they were set up and he was briefing his geyser doing a little sand table before they were getting ready i was land grading them they're getting ready to go hit the target and he goes boys there's a lot to be said for violence of action let's get online and mow this target down and they did it was so impressive oh that's so good um he goes on with a little bit more debrief or had the 15th alabama alabama continued their onset not regarding our preposterous demonstrations they would have walked over our bodies to their victory or still again if one more confederate regiment had come up on our flank we must have been rolled into a zero figure and swallowed up in the envelopment it was a psychological success a miracle in the scheme of military science that's an interesting way to describe it a psychological success you you definitely hear those that the bayonet is a psychological weapon there you go those brave alabama fellows none braver or better in either army were victims of a surprise of their quick and mobile imagination damn like it got to him in that split second yep continues on here we had gone up the round top slopes to bid farewell to our dead we found them there on the sheltered lawn where we had laid them on the velvet moss fringed by low cedars that veiled the place with peace and beauty i rode up near and flinging the rain upon my horse's neck dismounted to bend over them for a soldier's farewell there they lay side by side with touch of elbow still brave bronzed faces where the where the last thought was written manly resolution heroic self-giving divine reconciliation or where on some young face the sweet mother look had come out under death's soft whisper we buried them there in a grave alas too wide on the sunny side of a great rock eternal witnesses of their worth the rock and the sun rude headboards made of ammunition boxes rudely carved under tear-dimmed eyes marked and named each grave and told each home he goes on to say i thought of those other noble men of every type commanders all who bore their wounds so bravely many to meet their end on later fields and those whose true hearts further high trust were to be laid nor did i forget those others whether their names are written on the scrolls of honor and fame or their dust left on some far field and nameless here nameless never to me nor nameless i trust in god where they are tonight i sat there alone on the storied crest till the sun went down as it did over the misty hills and the darkness crept up the slopes till from all earthly sight i was buried with those before but oh what radiant companionship rose around what steadfast ranks of power what bearing of heroic souls oh the glory that beamed through those nights and days nobody will ever know it here i am sorry most of all for that the proud young valor that rose above the mortal and then at last was mortal after all so there's gettysburg um and what's crazy is you think that that's gettysburg like um epic heroic beyond mythical scenario that unfolded in real time for this guy and for his troops and then what do they do march because it's not over [Applause] going forward now to petersburg and again get this book there's so much detail in here that i'm not covering here we'll do an audio book just randomly checking with echo charles my my editor over here get to do a light main accent oh that'd be good wouldn't it oh sure um man you're right i should have been doing a down easter this whole time would he have talked like that though that's hard to say it certainly doesn't seem like it um but you know we could have you know it's a very subtle it can be subtle it could be just a little bit would have been subtle um so here we go to petersburg because i i don't know what else to tell you about gettysburg other than going if you get the chance to go there go there and don't rush and take your time and you will have a spiritual experience that's what i'm going to tell you about about gettysburg and and by the way that's one story because there's so many things like everywhere you look at gettysburg there's there's little round top style battles that are just make or breaking the future of our country yep going back to the book when on the evening of june 17th under the sharp attack of our second and ninth chord the enemy drew in the outer line of their defenses they left on an outlying crest near the deep cut of the norfolk radar railroad and advanced artillery post commanding the approaches from our side to the fortifications at reeves salient from this position early on the 18th they opened a strong slant fire on our division then drawn up for an assault in our immediate front north of the railroad our attack was thus delayed while our own batteries were getting into position to support this assault so we're going into an assault our line however was held in place perhaps to take the enemy's attention from the movement of our guns cover move is happening this raking fire along our ranks was very trying to the nerves which is a very mild way of saying things freaking raking fire from cannons is trying to our nerves as well as to our judgment of the tactics which held us there when we were not allowed to move forward nor hit back i am not saying to get back so he's not saying he wanted to leave he said he wanted to fight but he's getting told no no hold that you got hey we're getting we're getting freaking raked with fire here just hold what you got our men were going down fast and for no good that we could see it was therefore a welcome piece of information when our core commander came along with the euphemism statement that this was quote very annoying end quote which remark prefaced the suave inquiry if i thought i could carry that position i understood the purport of the mild inquiry thought indeed was required but the meeting was action so let me translate that for you they're they're getting raked with fire this commander comes up and says this is annoying he's like yeah no [ __ ] and he says do you think you could you know you could assault that position and the the what did he say the uh he understood the that what that inquiry meant was like hey man can you make this [ __ ] happen and he knew that the meaning was action so he says recon ordering the situation i could see no likelihood of being able to hold this place for long nor my judgment was of importance to hold now that the batteries were dislodged which had annoyed our troops in the designed assault moreover i discovered that the position was completely commanded by the enemy's main works at the salient three or four hundred yards in our front were plainly seen several strong earth works with 12 or 15 guns so disposed as to deliver a smashing crossfire over the ground between us and just across the plank road was a large fort with heavy guns ready to sweep the crest we were occupying between these works was a solid entrenched infantry line of at least 3 000 men we were a mile away from the rest of the army and i prepared to quote take care of myself i hurried up three batteries entrusted to me running up the guns up under the cover of the crest leveling slight platforms on the hither slope so that the men could work their guns taking advantage of their recoil at discharge to reload and then easily run them up again the muzzles lying in the grass all as yet unperceived by the enemy and made them ready for what might happen this position would be of use in case of a general assault by our army and this is what i looked for they're in a freaking hard situation i mean that's what this is spelling out at this juncture what was my astonishment at receiving a verbal order through a staff officer personally unknown to me directing me in the name of quote the general commanding end quote to assault the enemy's main works in my front with my brigade so the reason i kind of had to set up some of that military stuff there was was because about what because of what's about to happen so he's standing there he sees this is like a really tough situation there's 3 000 people they got flanking guns they're gonna be in a bad way and this freaking random guy that he's never seen before says hey the general commanding says assault frontal assault he says this this was certainly a compliment to my six splendid regiments but i think you will justify my astonishment as well as my backhanded courage and recklessness of personal consequences in presuming to send back to the general a written statement of the situation with the opinion that that position could not be carried with a single brigade even of gettysburg veterans so he sends back to the general hey bro uh no that doesn't sound like a good idea like me by myself with my regiments is not gonna make this happen grant general grant grant had lost all patience that morning and his chief subordinates were excited and flurried in a manner i had not seen before [Laughter] i however received a courteous answer saying that the whole army would join in on my right but the single brigade was to make the assault and prove the prophecy and the prophecy here is that grant's not listening so he gives push back and says hey i'm telling you this isn't going to work and this is another thing we saw at gettysburg where uh longstreet was saying hey we don't want to assault the union line right here it's not a good call and generally he's like no we're doing it oh no it was it was he was trying to set up the flanking maneuver generally he wasn't listening he pushed back twice yeah pushed back twice grants the same thing here he you got you got freaking chamberlain saying hey bro i wrote you a note i don't think we could take this with a single brigade even of gettysburg veterans grant had lost all patience that morning and his chief supporters were excited and flurried in a manner i had not seen before this is almost i wonder if that's as funny to people that don't understand what a staff officer is like in the military and how they freak out when the senior leadership says we need to make this happen how do we make this happen we have to make this happen it gets worse too every level that it calms down it's magnified yep yep and less listening and more telling yeah [Applause] so he says in such an assault musketry was not to be thought of it must be a storm of cannonade a rush of infantry with pieces at the shoulder over the works and banned at the enemy at their guns it was desperate deadly business the bugler sounded the charge under that storm of fire the earth flew into the air men went down like sky swept grain a wall of smoke veiled the front i thought it necessary to lead the charge with full staff following but in 10 minutes not a man was left mounted my staff were scattered my flag bearer shot dead my own horse down to cheer and guide the men where no voice could be heard nor rank distinguished i picked up the flag and bore it aloft till close upon the enemy's works a mini ball cut me through and the red cross came down to the reddened riddled earth so the red cross is is the their their symbol and there's they call it colors a lot um but this is the flag of these various unions sometimes they're talking about the american flag sometimes they talk about the confederate flags have the same thing but this maltese cross looks like an iron cross kind of that's their that's what they have at the 20th main um and it's important to note that these flags they were very representative of like the pride and honor of the unit but beyond that they were like a signaling device yeah it's communication it's communication that like hey here's where we're at we are going forward so if the flag goes down it's a signal that we're not going forward if the flag is up and going forward it's a signal that we're going for if you take the enemy's flag it's a signal to the enemy that you just got your ass handed to you and now we're winning so that flag is is much more kind of uh it's not just symbolic i should say it's hugely symbolic and it's functional it's totally functional so when they talk about these scenes and there's plenty of scenes where you're gonna see the colors the flags come into play this is one of them he sees that he can't even pass any word there's no word to pass no one can hear him there's too much noise too much chaos so he personally runs grabs the flag and charges forward and then he gets cut then he gets shot he says i saw my men rush past me to the very muscles of the gun then torn in pieces and trickling back the enemy rushing out beyond our left to flank our batteries on the crest behind us i had only strength to send two broken regiments to support the batteries before i saw that all else was lost in the midst of this turmoil i lay half buried by clods of turnip or earth for an hour when the shrouding smoke lifting i was born from the field by some of major bigelow's men of the ninth massachusetts battery on the crest when you picture that field air and earth cross cut with thick flying hitting plunging burying bursting missiles you will not wonder that we did not succeed in bayoneting the enemy at their guns inside their works you will rather wonder that some of my men got near enough to fall within 20 feet of them bigelow's a beast too he's another one that we talk about at gettysburg yeah and it's just it's it's incredible where he like it boggles my mind that he he gets shot in the pelvis essentially and this is this you know civil war and he survives and what do we know he's going to be back out on the field fighting in like six months yeah this um so what happens here so he's he's he has to leave the field because he's severely wounded um and at petersburg it begins nine months of trench wharf basically of trench warfare they call it a siege but it's it's more like just a prolonged battle there's 125 000 union soldiers around petersburg there's 60 000 confederates trying to hold it between the two of them they take about 50 casualties over this period you're starting to see some breakdown in the confederate side like 25 000 confederate desertions so that's what's going on meanwhile while that's happening uh here's what's going on with chamberlain and this is this is actually taken from a sort of a memorial yeah it's like a eulogy or a memorial art it's in memoriam it's a it's an article basically and it says at petersburg on the 18th of june he led an attack on a strong position from which a heavy artillery fire was directed on his advance now listen before we just jump into this reminder here you this is just a classic case leadership situation you've got a trusted commander proven leader by the way a medal of honor recipient that just freaking led the the holding of the round tops what maybe a year but prior this guy is respected and they went to multiple battles in between so here he is and he's saying hey boss i don't think this is a good idea and you say shut up and go and this is the result so when your subordinates are pushing back don't think that you're right and they're wrong maybe think that they're right and you're wrong is there a chance you're right maybe but where's grant where's grant right now i don't know where he is he's probably in the rear somewhere with the gear you know he's in the rear with the gear i'm out here on the front line i'm observing the enemy positions i can see how they're laid up i understand the terrain way better than grant does and now he's telling me no you know what you shut up in charge don't worry the army's going to have your back bro no let's not do that by the way if there was some reason and i can articulate if i say hey jason i want you to assault this thing hey boss doesn't look like a good idea and i say hey the reason i'm having you assault that is because as you assault that we're actually sending some troops over here to this other position and that's our main objective and you go got it if you can articulate that okay but if you can't even articulate a reason other than hey shut up and do what i told you that's probably not a good indication if your best defense in an argument is to say shut up and do what i told you that's probably an indication that you don't have a good argument because you're probably wrong so this is the kind of lessons that we can learn from a leader and you know what chamberlain here's a discredit to chamberlain hey i'm not going hey well i'm not doing this it doesn't make any sense i'm gonna go talk to grant i'm leaving right now could he have pushed back harder he sent one note could he have pushed back hard he thought that the army was actually coming in on the right true i mean if he if he has a relationship with grant and he's like okay i buy that there maybe they're coming in and he's got a bigger plan for me and that's probably why yeah and that seemed to gratify him that okay if you're gonna hit them with the you know just like i just said to you if like hey jason you need assault that you're like hey bro it doesn't seem like a good idea and i say yeah but don't worry i'm gonna get your flank over here and we're gonna run them up and you go cool got it because now you know that you're gonna have to commence the assault make some progress but then you're gonna get relief very quickly and we're gonna have the upper hand very quickly so now you understand it and it makes sense so yeah maybe maybe that was the case what we can learn from that is there's a time to push back and there's a time to push back hard there's a time to [Music] maybe ask questions ask earnest questions um and either way there's there you're you're losing when you push back there's a way to push back to that you're because you're going to lose capital with the leadership capital with the person yes and if i tell you to shut up and do something i'm losing a ton of leadership capital too and you have to realize that so two things are important one is make sure that you're building up leadership capital with everybody around you so that you can actually make withdrawals on that bank account yeah because you built it up you know what's weird is i just kind of like left myself out in in the air i left my flank out i said there's a time to push back and there's a and i i was like wait because to me there's always a time to push back there's oh if you're telling me to do something stupid now look if we're in a fire fight and you look at me and you say hey jocko get in that building over there i'm gonna do it unless i see something crazy right i'm going to do it i'm not going to push back then because we're we're at the moment of truth right those moments are very rare they're very very rare where i we i have to just trust you now look we built trust over time so if you tell me take that building i know you're telling it to me for a good reason so i guess there's a time to push back i guess the other the other part of that is there's a time to make sure you understand the bigger picture because you either have to push back or you ask the question say wait a second jocko why do you want me to assault that building it doesn't make any sense and i say here's why because as you salt that building we're going to commence these other operations it's going to keep the enemy distracted and then we're going to have the upper hand and you go ok cool got it so there's a time to push back there's a time to check yourself and make sure you understand the bigger picture yourself and if there's no bigger picture the bigger picture doesn't make sense then maybe you have to say look i'm not doing this on the battlefield though everybody's a chess piece and it may be that you're gonna you your chess piece is getting taken and that's probably what he realizes like okay well he told me they're coming from the right and this is lousy for us but they're willing to make that sacrifice um it's it's really difficult to parse apart yeah the it is difficult to parse apart i mean we could probably find more research and get more just more information behind the decision-making process but the lesson is very clear and look you're right there's times where especially in an all-out war like this hey this chess piece just like in chess literally sometimes you move the knight and it gets taken by the bishop but now the bishop is in a blocked position so you made the good move you sat there are times in battle where that happens i mean when you look at d-day some of those initial people hitting the beaches they were they were in a huge situation to be sacrificed that's what was about to happen look were they suicide no not quite but damn that should be very well they're telling him to hold the the left flank uh on little rounds potted at all hazards but that needs no explanation right yeah that needs no explanation hey you didn't even need to ask why oh this is where on the that's what he vincent says to him you're on the extreme left do you understand he's like yes i understand i know what that means that means if i go we if i fall we all fall um but that pushback thing is so important such an important part of leadership such an important part of leadership you know the the the story i talk about dichotomy of leadership or maybe it's extreme ownership but push yeah it was a dichotomy it's like pushing back when they when my leadership told me you have to take this many iraqis with you there's a ratio and i said hey that doesn't make sense and my leadership said cool jocko thank you for telling us because i articulated to them what the scenario was and you hadn't been pushing and that's what i was talking about with the leadership capital you weren't pushing back all the time and we need more rental cars on this next trip hey uh you know this this or that you're just like roger that all the dumb stuff you're just knocking it out yeah oh yeah we got administrative stuff cool easy we'll do it and so the only and this is the mistake people make with the push and back is they're pushing back all the time on stuff that doesn't matter and then it undercuts them when it actually does matter and yeah i mean you were in my freaking sister task unit and so you saw me doing that kind of stuff like hey roger that yup got it yep leaning into it yeah we'll we'll handle that yeah no factor and that's how i was able to build up that leadership capital yes so that when the pushback mattered i got listened to which is important it's shocking that you got chamberlain as your guy that's pushing back on you and you're like don't worry about it so like i said this this battle where petersburg in battle petersburg where joshua chamberlain gets wounded it ends up in nine months of trench warfare um what's he doing during that time go into this memorial piece that was written about him at petersburg on the 18th of july he led an attack on a strong position from which a heavy artillery fire was directed on his advance many of his men were swept down and chamberlain's horse was killed by a shell the attack was pushed with vigor and while leading it on foot chamberlain fell shot through by a ball which passed through the body from hip to hip severing arteries and fracturing bones he was carried from the field and taken to a hospital in annapolis where for two months he lay at the point of death after the general had been taken to the field hospital the regular surgeon in charge declared the case hopeless companion a.o shaw surgeon of the 20th maine after an exhausting day's labor rode through the woods at night and finding the general remained with him watching and caring for him and performing a surgical operation he found necessary until his patient seemed out of immediate danger his friends who were cognizant of the case have always felt general chamberlain's life was saved by dr shaw's skill and faithfulness in his last illness dr shaw attended his old chief with the same faithfulness he had shown in caring for him so many years before at the end of five months and before he could mount a horse or walk a hundred yards chamberlain resumed command of his brigade before he was taken from the field he was assured of his promotion after his arrival at annapolis he received a telegram as follows to lieutenant colonel joshua chamberlain 20th main infantry special order number 39 first colonel j l chamberlain 20th main infantry volunteers for meritorious and efficient services on the field of battle and especially for gallant conduct in leading his brigade against the enemy at petersburg on the 18th in which he was seriously wounded hereby in pursuance of the authority of the secretary of war is appointed brigadier general of the u.s volunteers to rank as such from the 18th day of june 1864 subject to the approval of the president that's signed by ulysses s grant this is the only instance in the war of promotion on the battlefield the terrible wound received on the 18th of june 1864 caused him suffering throughout his life and at intervals incapacitated him for work of any kind resuming his command under conditions that would have amply excused him from active service he was at once employed in operations along the weldon railroad road his condition was so severely affected by the hardships of duty and the inclemency of the weather that at the end of the month his core commander insisted on his going north for treatment while recuperating he declined many offers of attractive positions in civil life after a month in the care of surgeons he stole away from them and leaving his room for the first time made the painful journey to the front and took command of a new brigade composed of new york and pennsylvania regiments bro you folks from maine i am in awe at your tenacity and vigor it's freaking awesome you know so we're approaching two hours deep right now i'm thinking um we break now and um and pick it up with another podcast we'll be picking it up as he gets back he gets back to the military operations on white oak road so well so much stuff to talk about here um hey look if you're interested in this stuff we do we do this review of the battlefield of battlefield review the next one that we're doing in gettysburg is may 11th and 12th you actually get there on the 10th or may 13th and 14th that's at gettysburg uh we're there for two days we spend so we do we basically do two iterations of it back to back i could do a hundred iterations back to back of it uh and actually after that we're doing in august august 16th and 17th and then august 18th and 19th we're doing little bighorn which we've covered on the podcast that battle and some of the people that fought there we're gonna do it we should do another one we'll do a podcast about about do podcasts about crazy horse um but if you want to come to those things go to ashlandfront.com that's where we that's where we yeah and look at events so that's what's up echo yes quiet today just taking it all in it's an elevated how hard is it to listen when i'm reading this stuff well depends on what you mean by heart but yeah like you i realized that even though i was like oh this guy's such a great writer then i read it out loud and i i'm kind of translating it a little bit yeah you know yeah it's probably needed yes okay yeah so even even like you get even a guy nowadays right you know you get these guys they like to use big words on purpose you know to sound smart and you know whatever whatever um even then you find your brain like okay he just said this and you're trying to essentially it's a form of translation essentially that's kind of what it was like yeah actually it was a lot of what it was like yeah i felt like that i i i was doing that and i was doing that naturally i hadn't planned to do that at all and i probably should have prepared a little bit more to say hey here's what you're about to hear because that's the same thing that happens with i hate to say it speaking of trying to sound smart but like when you read shakespeare if you don't know what's happening and you just read it it's a different language it's close to middle english so it's kind of a different language and then once you know what it means and what those words mean and why their sentences are formatted a certain way you go oh wow there's so much more meaning behind these things and i think that's probably the case with this book obviously not to the extent that shakespeare is but to say oh what does that actually mean and then read it again and listen to it again and say damn that's an incredible piece of writing it's like jumping into a cold swimming pool yeah it's a little bit weird for a little bit and then you get used to it you're like oh okay i get it this is this is good um or getting used to like cormac mccarthy writing without any punctuation punctuation marks and it just takes you a second and then you get used to it the weird thing about cormac mccarthy is his styles between books is so radically different i think the best example that being the road and then and then blood meridian like when you read the road that is a straightforward book it's kind of what i leaned towards in final spin yeah was just like i don't like a screenplay yeah and and then and i think he i think he wrote the purpose yeah i think he wrote it with some intention of screenplay but then when you read blood meridian you need a dictionary on hand like no unless you're uh a doctor a botanist a a history professor and you know and a religious um you know minister you're gonna miss a bunch of stuff in there i mean just the oh yeah and also a geologist because he's got weird rocks he's talking about and freaking like you gotta have a a dictionary on standby yeah i feel like i use less dictionary reading bayonet forward than i used when i read blood meridian no i mean you know like it's words like salient yeah and things like that that people aren't used to that you gotta go thank goodness you can just pull it up on you yeah i've got a dictionary app on my on my on my phone i must say and it's very useful uh but hey if you want to come check some of the stuff out you know we're covering one angle today we're with uh with joshua chamberlain we cover a bunch more angles on these events so if you want to come check that out echelonfront.com we got if you want to support us while you support yourself remember that old theme yes support it's not old it's current it's current huh i think today that's my opinion you know but yes it is current in my opinion so if you want to support the podcast while you support support yourself we have a mutually aligned focus here yeah uh you can check out jockofield.com get all kinds of good stuff for your for your life what's your latest and greatest freaking mulk creation you still you still throwing it in your morning coffee little what are you throwing there vanilla no i'm cutting back on the milk in my morning coffee um i'm just using it just straight anymore just straight yeah it's so tasty yeah i'm i've been i've been mixing the banana and the peanut butter doing this elvis thing i can't stop i can't i feel like that's what kind of kill was one of the you know factors that led to elvis death right because this this dude was like look he had a bunch of factors right yes sir he hit a bunch of factors but one of the factors was an excess of peanut butter banana fried sandwich cause that can't be good for you he was unhealthy as hell that's the sad thing is just someone should have been like bro hey let's go let's go one every three days on the fried sandwiches right i tell you my latest thing is that the the discipline go in the pills oh yeah it's a winner every morning that's just like with my coffee oh really okay and then if i'm speaking how many did you take in the morning okay on a regular day on a day that i'm speaking 45 minutes before i speak i take two oh yeah and it is hating me when i come up and i am on fire yeah and so typically what i'll suffer from and i don't know why this is it's either getting older or or traumatic brain injuries but i'll do a lot or you're just dumb i'm just that's my problem and it's like i'll do a lot of word searching where i'm like oh you know this or that i nope two of those things 45 minutes later for the next hour and a half i am cognitively on fire i'm pulling all the words down i need it's awesome you know when i have to sometimes because i'll you know before the podcast i'm i'm going i'm going uh going with a can at least sometimes too but like when you're speaking you can't because you gotta pee yeah i know that's the the drawback uh but man when i gotta read a lot i'm gonna have to hit an afternoon go can of gun because you're starting to just starting to not be you know in the in the mood for reading dude on a freaking whatever sunday saturday and you already worked out you rolled the jiu jitsu you know you got that post jiu jitsu fatigue yes you know what i'm talking about it's like you leave jiu jitsu with a hype kind of hyped you don't leave tired i never leave i mean i'm tired physically but mentally in the game 1.5 hours later do i do not feel like freaking reading a book at all that's what i was gonna say they're like that po would you call post jiu jitsu fatigue or whatever right yeah it's i was gonna say it's kind of nice to be honest when you don't got nothing to do yeah yeah yeah if you got something to do you look at that as like an opportunity to cruise [Music] that's true it's true it's nice the opportunity to cruise is good uh so anyways jockofield.com you can check out some of that stuff you want to get uh some gear for yourself and you want to support america you want to support america yeah check these out i see jason gardner's wearing his uh brand new how old are they uh a couple months old no two weeks ago oh two weeks ago yeah yeah they were awesome the american bison boots with the crisp black christie soul loving it yeah and and i'd read you know like rogan was talking about they took a little bit of break in so i was nervous about that i put some oil on them and wore them for a day and a half no issues yeah if you get that leather so so good out of the gate we also make jeans and sweatshirts and hey i just so when i got the boots i got the built pants pants yeah the work pants yeah dude those things are like comfortable like pajamas i've never like i put on other work pants it's like putting on cardboard yeah and you put these things on you're like oh wait a minute i'll see you know about the durability that that remains to be seen but they are so comfortable and then the way the pockets are lined out really well thought out yeah freaking legit and i love the fact that you that you're wearing them up on the freaking uh whatever you call your compound up there up north every day yeah those things are just like you're wearing them for pajamas probably in case you gotta go like kill a bear in the middle of the night or something or you have to clean up after your wife killed the bear so check this out there's there's some military guys up there training right now and uh um i'm flying down here last night uh iris sends me a text and she the kids had after school archery so she went to go pick them up from school she's driving home from school and this this military unit that was up there the guys had hit a deer and they pulled over and they were kind of standing there they didn't know what to do and iris could see them and could see the deer flopping around in the middle of the road pulls the car over grabs a 38 out of the car and we care we we carry guns in the car for this reason because deer get hit all the time on the road and you want to put them on your misery so i can only imagine what these guys saw is she just walked pulls over these these are special operations yes they are yeah crack crack two shots what's going on peacock re-holster [Laughter] they're like oh uh i'm like right on baby that's freaking legit iris iris gardner podcast 70 by the way go listen um go listen to that hey what do you do with the deer afterwards you just call it off into the woods or what oh no they have they have a thing you just call fish and game oh and it's been hit on the road and then um those guys actually took it and and and butcher it out uh a lot of them get hit this time of year because of the snow and it winds up that they wind up being great food for the um the eagles and a lot of the raptors and other wildlife because they're they're looking for stuff to eat too so nothing gets wasted she got some amazing photographs of some bald eagles recently that were eating one of those roadkill deer that is a legit story iris his kids are looking at it like it's no big deal mom's taking care of business oh yeah so if you want to get those pants go to or anything else all made in america by the way which got a new factory um yeah so that's awesome we got a big factory in north carolina now so our capabilities are going to increase we're going to continue to invest back into the business back into the factories back into the people it's just awesome so if you want to support all that go to originusa.com don't support well straight up just don't support companies that are that are supporting the communist regime don't do it instead support american companies origin usa.com and here's the deal yeah that it costs more but when you when you buy something that's a premium product over the long haul it costs you less because it lasts longer and then you're reinvesting that into your community which is our country right so yeah so do you just just don't be like those corporations that that to to make five dollars on a pair of pants ship stuff overseas spend a little bit extra money get a quality product it will actually cost you less over time and then you're supporting your community yeah and it's so much better for the world what do i mean by that well when you're with all these factories that are overseas they have no they have no regulatory environment that they're operating in they're just dumping whatever they don't use into the rivers and it's killing everything america there's rules there's rules not just for the environment there's rules for the worker there's all kinds of rules that we have in place here so yeah is it going to be a little bit more expensive yes it is is it going to be a better product hell yeah it is is it going to help america those communities and the world yes it actually is so we appreciate that jacquelinestore.com yep it's true did you make up that name yeah or did you just make up the t-shirt it was a collaborative uh effort with the name the naming on that one yeah for sure but good news is regardless of the name this is where you can get our apparel if you want to represent on this path no we're all on display equals freedom good some new jiu-jitsu stuff on there too yeah do we have a section now official it's a fish what's the latest of the jujitsu section dean lister's foot shirt that he made up by the way oh yeah so that's an awesome shirt does it say foot backwards no oh you didn't go full layers huh well that's not a layer in the enlisted foot let's face it dean lister came up with it so it's going to be pretty direct in a lot of ways you know if it would have said foot backwards correct me if i'm wrong i would have said tough pretty tough because he's tough yeah peter greek you know pete the greek yeah he's he's now saying um why would you ignore five percent of the body wrist lock the world dude he's the last dude yeah sure he makes a good point yeah yeah but yes jack will store some good stuff on there short locker is a subscription thing don't forget about that kind of cool yeah good reviews on those especially the latest too i got one that um you'll see it but you came up with the design idea you did 100 long time ago in what way you just came up with it make a shirt like this and you told me the idea i can't tell you surprised you can't even tell me i made it up right yeah i know that's why it's going to surprise you more all right we'll put it this way i'll give you a hint there's a stoner gun involved oh you made that shirt all i gotta say dude i wanna can i see it i need to see it what the shirt it's being printed right now check i guess it looks good yes jacquelinestore.com it's good awesome hey uh subscribe the podcast check out jockonderground.com look there's let's face it yes it's getting wild right now with this stuff with uh suppression of voices things are getting crazy so if you don't want to if you want to have a backup plan to listen to us go to jockowunderground.com it's eight dollars and eighteen cents a month if you can't afford that just email assistance at jacquelineground.com there's censorship happening i don't know when they're gonna censor me maybe it's we shouldn't be talking about war or talking about america in a positive way and we're going to get censored for that so when that happens we'll be on taco underground.com uh we got a youtube channel we got psychological warfare flipside canvas i written a bunch of books ashland front we talked about that a bunch um leadership consulting go to go to echelonfront.com if you want to check out the battlefield review with us we have online training academy it's called it's at extreme ownership.com we're on there i'm on there once two three times a week jason's on there all the time leif the whole crew we're all on there they're so cool answering questions going through these details of what we're talking about when we talk about leadership leadership is a skill it's a skill it's not just something you know how to do it's not no one just knows how to lead it doesn't work you have to learn it and so go to go to extremeownership.com we also have a couple charities we support if you want to help service members active and retire we've got mark lee's mom mama lee she's got a great charity organization if you want to help out you want to donate go to america's mightywarriors.org and also check out heroesandhorses.com micah fink got a great organization going that is doing some incredible things for veterans and he's an awesome guy so that's cool if you need more of us we're on social watch out for the algorithm the algorithm is a is a thing it's an active like enemy of this of of you it's debatable what part's debatable what the algorithm yeah the algorithm is designed for specifically it doesn't always get it right but it's designed to show you what you want to see more specifically it's designed to show you what you want to see so that you click on and watch more it's trying it's so it is your enemy so where i be so be careful it could be viewed as what like the um a deal with the devil kind of a thing like can you get what you want you can use it to your advantage though oh yeah fully fully yeah you can't but you have to use caution i mean yeah you can use um fire to your advantage but you have to use caution and that's especially um with you jason that's a very a very pertinent item so you can use fire you can use guns to your advantage if you have to uh eliminate or put a deer out of its misery yeah you can also be a jackass with guns so it's kind of like a um double-edged sword dichotomy so so we are on the social media watch out for the algorithm is the warning jason's at jason and gardner on instagram with a period there's jason period and period gardner on instagram he's also jason n gardner no periods on twitter and for the twitter for the gram and facebook echo's addictive charles i am at jocko willink and to all the military personnel out there around the world representing the flag and all that it stands for all that it's supposed to stand for and protecting those ideals around the world thank you and thanks also to our police and law enforcement firefighters paramedics emt's dispatchers correctional officers border patrol secret service and all the first responders out there thank you for keeping us safe here at home and remember for everybody else that there are some times when the odds are stacked against you when things are falling apart and when you're not sure how much more you can take or what you can do there are times when things get truly desperate and sometimes in those scenarios the best thing to do is like joshua chamberlain and the 20th maine is not to sit there and wait to die but instead attack so fix bayonets take action and attack and until next time this is jason and echo and jocko out

Channel: Jocko Podcast

Views: 83,754

Keywords: jocko willink, podcast, discipline, defcor, fredom, leadership, extreme ownership, author, navy seal, usa, military, echelon front, dichotomy of leadership, jiu jitsu, bjj, mma, jocko, victory, echo charles, flixpoint

Id: BZXktWUPTU0

Length: 141min 27sec (8487 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 03 2022