One of my favorite things was diving the STB off the back of a submarine in the middle of the ocean right and knowing that that submarine is there in that spot right there right then to support you and you only as far as you be in the team right the element on that STB and then when you pull that STB off the back of the submarine and you look down and you know that there is thousands and thousands and thousands of feet of water below you

and you have no idea what's below you. That is one of my favorite things.

Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan Fugid and I serve WarZone Tourers as an Army Attack Helicopter Pilot and CIA Officer over a 15-year career.

I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat. On this show I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their frontlines. This is Combat Story.

Today we hear the combat story of John McCaskill, a Navy SEAL commander, turned mindfulness and meditation teacher. He spent a career in the Navy Special Warfare and militaries joined Special Operations Communities and served in Iraq, Afghanistan, off the coast of Somalia and in Panama.

One story that John shares in which shares the burdens and gut-wrenching aspects of combat was his association with Operation Redwings which many will recall from the book and movie Loan Survivor.

John is a Naval Academy graduate, holds a master's degree from the Naval Postgrad School and since retiring runs a consulting business that brings mindfulness and meditation to high-performing teams, to aid in dealing with stress, anxiety and depression, all while increasing focus, creativity and productivity.

He shares the benefits and opportunities both on this show and on his own podcast called Men Talking Mindfulness which as John described it is what happens when you combine a Navy SEAL

and a modern day hippie. I hope you enjoy John's honest, humble and challenging combat story as much as I did.

John, thanks a lot for taking the time to share your story today. My pleasure Ryan, thanks for having me.

So like many SEALs, I think you make every one of us look really lazy when you get out of the service.

You got your hands in several different efforts that we will get to here, whether it's mindfulness, it's consulting, it's nonprofit work, it's very inspiring and on top of all that, the family and the life that you led as a SEAL.

And as we get into that, I just wanted to start with as a kid, did you also have this kind of polymath upbringing?

Did you have a lot of irons and many fires like what was John as a kid like in that regard?

Yeah, I've never really thought about it until you asked that question, but yeah, I did.

I was a runner growing up. At first, I started with baseball here. Actually, I got a backtrack a little bit before I fully answered that question.

I was born in South Africa and in South Africa, cricket and soccer were my thing.

Until I was seven years old, moved to the States thinking that I was going to play a cricket here.

I don't even remember the rules of cricket now, but I went from cricket into baseball. It was somewhat of a natural progression.

Played baseball and I went to the young years and was involved in other activities in school, the various clubs and things.

And then when I got into high school, I started, I cut out baseball, cut out football, cut out basketball and started focusing on the running as far as athletics.

But then I was also involved in future business leaders of America and all the other extracurricular activities can be part of in school.

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