This is Jaco podcast number 14 with Echo Charles and me, Jaco Willink. Good evening, Echo.

Good evening. Now, I want you to imagine yourself in the moment, the moment just prior to the battle.

Now, I don't want you to think that because you're a soldier that this training has made you into some kind of a superhuman or maybe into a different kind of being because it hasn't.

The training that you've been through hasn't changed the fact that you're a human being. All warriors are human beings.

So, this is you I'm talking to. And I want you to think about that time before you are going into the battle because that's the time when you can actually think when you're waiting to go.

And if you're going to feel fear, this is where you feel it because you have time. The preparation is done. The planning is done. The briefing is done. The gear is prepared. And you are dressed. And you are ready to go.

And now you're just waiting. Waiting for the call or for the signal or for the command to execute. And so you have time to think. And in fact, all you can do at that moment is think.

And if you're in Iraq, maybe you're waiting to go into the Malab district or Romani where there's been vicious IEDs and casualties happening every day from months on end.

Or if you're in Vietnam, maybe you're in a helicopter and you're about to take part in an air assault on a known enemy stronghold.

Or if you're in the Korean War, maybe you're hearing the whistles. The whistles signaling a coordinated attack by the red army. And you're just waiting.

Waiting for the shooting to start. Hey, if it's World War 2, maybe you're just off shore and you're in a landing craft and the sound of explosions and gunfire in the distance on the beach where you're headed.

The beach you're waiting to hit.

And if it's World War 1, perhaps you're waiting in you're at Tenenberger, Verdun or the Som, but you're waiting to go over the top out of that trench.

And into almost certain death. And in that moment, what do you think about?

You think about family, friends, you think about your life, do you think about death? You think about that girl you wish that you would have asked to marry?

Maybe you're thinking, how did I get myself into this? Or maybe you're thinking, how do I get myself out of this?

Or maybe you're just sitting there rethinking the plan and the sequence and the orders you were given?

Maybe you're thinking about your friends getting killed or wounded. Maybe you're thinking about yourself getting killed or wounded.

You could be thinking about so many different things. But one thing is certain. Whatever you are thinking about, whatever those thoughts are, those thoughts are clear.

Those thoughts are an insight into your true nature, into your being, into your soul.

And maybe that's the thing. Maybe that's the thing we miss about combat. And you know, we always hear about the adrenaline rush and the excitement and the challenge of combat.

But what about the cleansing of the mind against a backdrop of death? It seems like there's some purity that can only be revealed by the horror and the blood and the violence of impending combat.

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