This is Jocko podcast number 431 with echo Charles and me Jocko Willink good evening echo good evening

We rode behind the gun carriage

uniformed We rode behind the gun carriage. Uniformed soldiers and sailors with fixed bayonets

marched slowly before the case on

as rows of drummers pounded a mournful beat. The grim sea of people on Pennsylvania

Avenue was utterly silent but for the occasional whale of anguish. Behind us was a long file of black limousines carrying all the other members of our

clan.

Behind them, the sidewalk crowds stood nine deep all the way from the White House to

the Capitol Rotunda where Uncle Jack would lie in state. Mesmerized I studied the writerless ebony funeral horse

that followed the case on with empty boots mounted backward in the stirrups.

The symbol of a fallen prince looking back over his truncated life.

The Gelding's name I learned was Blackjack after General Pershing.

He was tall with the fiery temper of a thoroughbred stallion and his

rioting against the poor soldier who struggled to cling to his

bridle earned the horse national attention over the next two days.

Blackjack never stopped bucking, furiously throwing his head and dancing wildly as his

sleek coat shimmered black in the cold November sunlight.

I could see the Army brand on his neck.

I had a million questions.

Our mother told us that Jack was in heaven with God and with God's help he would watch over us and take care of the rest of the country.

More bullets reach my world.

As with Uncle Jack, there were many omens.

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