SIZABLE IRAN STRIKE ON ISRAEL EXPECTED: WHAT IS THE PRESENCE OF THE US FLE3T? 3/4: To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision by Admiral James Stavridis USN (Author
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Risk-All-Conflicts-Crucible-Decision/dp/0593297741/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
At the heart of Admiral James Stavridis’s training as a naval officer was the preparation to lead sailors in combat, to face the decisive moment in battle whenever it might arise. In To Risk it All, he offers up nine of the most useful and enthralling stories from the US Navy’s nearly 250-year history, and draws from them a set of insights that we can all put to use when confronted with fateful choices.
Conflict. Crisis. Risk. These words have a distinct meaning in a military context that we hope will never apply identically in our own lives. But at the same time, as Admiral Stavridis shows with great clarity, many lessons are universal.
To Risk it All is filled with thrilling and heroic exploits, but it is anything but a shallow exercise in myth burnishing. Every leader in this book has real flaws, as all humans do, and the stories of failure, or at least the decisions that have been defined as such, are as crucial as the stories of success. In the end, when this master class is concluded, we will be better armed for hard decisions both expected and not.
1945 OILER PAMANSET EST CHINA SEA TYPHOON
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Bachelors with Admiral James Stavridis. |
| 0:09.1 | United States Navy retired. His new book is To Risk It All, nine conflicts and the crucible of decision. |
| 0:16.2 | We're taking lessons learned. We go now to lesson five, do not get emotionally involved. |
| 0:23.3 | I, just with Jim, this seems to be a filter that admirals have to go through when they, |
| 0:29.5 | because the examples in his book are Farragut and then Dewey learning from Farragut. |
| 0:35.1 | And then Halsey in the Lady Golf, and actually through his career, |
| 0:41.3 | the raid on the marshals in 42 and certainly the Doolittle Raid. And then Michelle Howard, |
| 0:47.4 | not get emotionally involved. What does that mean as an admiral, knowing you're going to be |
| 0:51.1 | blamed if something goes wrong? Well, let's start with the point that all of these stories give us any of us good lessons |
| 1:00.9 | because everyone sooner or later faces a moment where you must risk at all, be it at a mass |
| 1:07.4 | shooting, be it standing on a beach when someone's drowning in front of you, |
| 1:11.7 | be it when an ATV goes over the side on a mountain trail, you have to scramble down to help |
| 1:17.3 | someone. Everyone faces these moments. And so I'll start by not describing how admirals don't |
| 1:23.5 | get emotionally involved, but I'll quote from the greatest book of leadership ever written, |
| 1:27.6 | and that would be The Godfather by Mario Puzzo. Don't forget Don Corleone talking to Santino and saying, |
| 1:35.7 | never make the mistake of hating your enemies. It clouds your judgment. And that is pretty germane |
| 1:43.5 | in any walk of life. But yes, for admirals, it is |
| 1:46.9 | certainly true. And you mentioned four of them. All of them, to one degree or another, need to |
| 1:54.4 | detach themselves from the emotion of the moment. The one who fails to do so is Admiral, |
| 2:00.7 | Fleet Admiral Bill Halsey, |
| 2:02.7 | who becomes emotionally involved in what he sees as a competition with Admiral Ray Spruence. |
| 2:08.4 | That emotion leads him to make a terrible mistake at the Battle of Latee Gulf. The other |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.