Rob Jones (The Horrors of War, Adaptive Athletes and Refinding Purpose) - Episode 67

Behind The Shield

James Geering

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Fitness

4.9 • 667 Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rob Jones lost both legs after an IED explosion whilst serving as an Engineer with the Marines. Refusing to let his injuries define him, Rob became an elite athlete competing as a rower in the Paralympics. Rob's latest adventure saw him completing 31 marathons in 31 days. We talk about adaptive athletics, mental trauma, his charitable ventures and much more.

Rob Jones is a retired US Marine, combat leader, and now a leadership instructor and speaker with Echelon Front. He spent five years in the Marine Corps, with deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a Combat Engineer, Rob specialized in finding hidden Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the enemy’s most deadly weapons. On a mission in July of 2010, while executing an IED sweep, Rob stepped on an IED, which resulted in double above knee amputations of his legs. He spent the next year and a half in physical therapy before retiring from the Marine Corps in 2011. Upon his retirement, Rob was forced to adapt to a new way of being a leader. To do this, he turned to the world of sports.

In 2012, he competed in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England, bringing home a bronze medal in rowing. In 2013, he became the first double above knee amputee to ride a bicycle across the United States, riding 5,181 miles from Bar Harbor, Maine to Camp Pendleton, California. In 2017, he ran 31 marathons in 31 consecutive days in 31 different cities.

Throughout this journey, Rob has relied upon the principles taught at Echelon Front to turn the darkest moment of his life into a life of impact—more meaningful than he ever could have expected. Rob now brings his experience to Echelon Front to help teams of people take Extreme Ownership and overcome the challenges they face in business and in life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome, guys, to episode 67 of Behind the Shield podcast. My name is James Gearing. And this week,
0:05.7	I bring to you an incredible man who I think is an inspiration and really sets the bar as to
0:13.7	the challenges of life. Rob Jones was an engineer with the Marine Corps out in Afghanistan and was
0:19.5	caught in an IED explosion lost both
0:22.2	his legs and instead of letting that injury define him and make him crumble he decided to use it as an
0:31.6	inspiration Rob has been an Olympian with the rowing team. He has done 31 marathons in 31 days and is just
0:42.0	basically hatching more ways to show everyone that their injuries don't define them and that
0:49.2	life is not over when we get challenges. So this was an incredible episode yet again, so many great minds on this
0:55.7	podcast. But Rob was truly inspiring. I'd love talking to him and the positivity and
1:02.8	inspiration from this man was mind-blowing. So before we get to the interview, as always,
1:07.9	if you could go to iTunes, I implore you to give us a review, give us
1:12.2	a rating. I hear five out of five is the way to go in the podcast world. It makes us more visible.
1:18.0	And then again, just pick an episode. Think of a friend who would be inspired by that particular
1:23.3	guest and share it. If we all share the three people, they share the three people before you
1:28.3	know it, every first responder is going to hear this podcast. So without further ado, I introduced
1:33.5	to you an incredible man, Rob Jones. Enjoy. All right, well, welcome Rob to the Behind the Shield podcast.
2:03.6	Where are we finding you today?
2:05.6	I live in Vienna, Virginia. It's right outside D.C.
2:10.6	Okay. And was that where you were born?
2:12.6	Well, no, I was born in Columbia, Maryland, which is close to here. And then I grew up in Loudoun
2:19.7	County, Virginia, which is just a little bit further west of where I am. So I'm in my home area.
2:26.4	Okay, fantastic. So what was your family life like when you were young?
	...

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