This is Jocko podcast number 467 with Echo Charles and me Jocco Willink. Good evening, Echo.

Good evening.

The previous day we'd visited mass graves. Whole sections of forest cleared of trees with long,

deep pits carved out of the soil and filled with bodies, as many as 1,500 people in each.

Nearly all that I saw were women and children with their hands bound behind their backs.

They'd all been shot in the head.

Some of the bodies had been burned, or at least someone had attempted to set fire to them,

which is what people do when they want to cover up a mass execution.

But bodies don't burn well.

Crimes like that are hard to hide.

Having seen those mass graves, I appreciated having a few moments to pause and think about and pray while we waited in our land cruiser

at the side of the country road.

But the quiet buzz around our little internet cafe was interrupted when sea sprays

phone rang.

In addition to gathering evidence about possible war crimes committed by Russian troops, we were looking for a wounded and captured U.S. Marine.

America wasn't in the war, not officially at least, but my guess was that there was as many as 4,000 former U.S. servicemen doing what they could do in Ukraine.

Some like the Marine who had been caught by the Russians had come to fight.

Others like Sea Spray and me had just come to help.

We carried no guns and rode around the country in our specially modified vehicle,

rescuing people who couldn't rescue themselves and providing Ukrainian troops with whatever support we could.

Sometimes that was as simple as free medical supplies,

some of the fastest free Wi-Fi on the planet,

...