Jocko Podcast #10 Eugene Sledge

Jocko Academy

Lessons from Jocko Podcast #10

• The Japanese were recovering from the shock of our pre landing bombardment. Their machine gun and rifle fire got thicker. Snapping viciously overhead in an increasing volume 😳
• When under fire: time has no meaning. It was impossible to judge how long it lasted.
• Jocko tells a story about receiving mortar fire: I’m on the roof so there is no cover. His friend asks do you think we can make it back inside? Nope. What should we do? Hope it doesn’t land in our quadrant. 👉That’s the feeling of hopelessness you experience.
• You picture this navy corpsman trying to treat this man and losing him and out there in the middle of the battlefield with tears streaming down his face - that’s what combat is.
• Shrapnel can be 1/2 inch thick and 9 or 12 inches long. Jagged shards of metal 😳
• The bodies were mutilated by the enemy. One was decapitated - his head lay on his chest. His hands had been severed from his wrists and also laid on his chest. They cut off his penis and stuffed it in his mouth. One was butchered. Chopped up like a carcass torn apart by a predatory animal.
• Rugged terrain. Suffocating heat. How we kept going and continue fighting I’ll never know.
• I was talking to a team the other day that wanted me to coach them and hold them accountable: I said listen I charge a lot of money and you would be stupid to give it to me. All you lack is discipline to work for the team and make it happen. Which team would win: the team that worked hard not because someone was holding them accountable but because they had the desire for victory?

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Book mentioned:

• With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge
• I Remember The Last War by Bob Hoffman
• A Guide To The Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William Irvine

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