Rough Transitions: A message to the vets

[Admin]

Published on Aug 12, 2016
Excerpt from JOCKO PODCAST #17. A message to the Vets transitioning back to the world. All episodes on iTunes.
Narrator: Jocko Willink, Video Director: Echo Charles
Join the conversation on Twitter: @jockowillink @echocharles www.jockopodcast.com

[jbendett12]

Stellar.

[TMFO125]

My name is Taylor, and I am 100% P and T veteran. I was injured in 2009 while serving in the Navy as a Master at Arms. Jocko's words and therories have given me the direction to own myself. I have changed my life in so many ways. Every experience is worth hearing. It all has meaning. Jocko helped me reawaken the warrior inside of me. Default aggressive. I am proud to be me again. Only because i earned the right to be proud of me. I have felt self hatred. I have felt all of the bad in this world. I have become the good in my world. The only thing I can control is me, and if a man can not control himself, he controls nothing. I control me again. My injuries do not define me. I make my own path now. i make my own choices and OWN them. Good or bad. I am the architech of my own destcruction as well as my own future. Choose your path. I choose mine. #[e-mail]

[dharrison21]

I found this forum at the right time. I just got home from a funeral of an old squad leader of mine in Afghanistan. Brown took his own life due to issues unknown by his brothers. While at his funeral I was able to reconnect with quite a few old buddies from the army. One of which is Ssg Levi Crawford who runs a non profit “rivers of recovery” the organization sponsors ptsd,Tbi, mobility impaired veterans going through a hard time coping with the transition. Rivers of recovery travels Arkansas, fishing the many rivers we have. The organization is run by Levi who is a Purple Heart recepient from the Afghanistan war. Levi’s vehicle was struck by 2 RPGs and Levi was injured badly. Instead of giving up on his recovery, levi decided to not only recover and live a full life himself but now dedicates his time to insuring other veterans facing the same problems can also receive help recovering. If you know anyone that would benefit from this service please contact them at riversofrecovery.org.

[Hooligan]

Woke up this morning feeling that all to familiar feeling of impending doom and anger it’s been something of the norm for me the past thirteen years and I’m ok with that. I get up put my boots on do the morning workout and head out to the job, it doesn’t get easier but I push through. The problem I have is I have an hour long drive to work and all I think about is my brothers... the ones that took easy way out and the ones that are right there on the edge ready to do the same. In the Marines I was an 03 and I was leader, at my current job I’m a leader but when it comes to the guys I served with I can’t seem to help them and lead them away from the abyss. So this is my question how do I pull someone back and help them get locked on to the life they are living now and cope with the life that they lived?

[mynewunit]

The truth is you don't get to make that decision for them. I understand your heart for your buddies. Here are a few things you can try.
1. Focus them in the next mission. Give them something to focus on. A little productivity, a little success, a little control and they should start steering their life onto the right path. Just like you did. They might need an obvious goal. They might need someone to drag them to a gym, or an event, or a job interview, VFW, councillor, coach.
2. No step too small. Help them by cleaning your room. There are options. If they need a touch of the corps, try dragging them to a GORUCK event. Or a softball league. I taught a buddy guitar lessons for 3 years to keep tabs on his mental state.
3. Have an end to your involvement. If you are going to focus on helping a buddy get his life together, know when you are going to reduce your efforts. If it goes well or if it goes horrible. I maybe it is a text 2 times a week and coffee once a week for 2 months, or till he stops drinking, stops missing work, or misses 2 meetings and stops answering your texts.
Let me know if you need help. I am working with 3 guys presently. Texting another one is something I could handle. Even if that is you.

Brian McLean
Message me for my cell #.

[Na]

Hi,

I need help of some sort I think. I ran into a problem. In 2016 there was a cyber problem at my college. Thats just when I noticed it. It was probably there before. There was a key logger on the computers I tried to report it and they threatened to sue me if I speak out. Heres the thing, I have family members that work in Europe. I had friends that travelled to the US and the first thing anyone did was try to pin the blame on me. They started using fb accounts to pick fights over the internet. I tried to reach out to a friend I knew in the city and someone else showed up. This was after I lost my email and that person was the last one I was close to in that area. Enough ppl knew of the connection to be able to orchestrate that event. It was orchestrated. It 100% was. The harassment got worse and worse. I had to drop out of college, enough people knew what happened to make it very difficult for me to get a job afterwards. They systematically destroyed my life. If its a scam, or a hack it has serious implications. I need help, I don't know what to do. Please answer me. No one ever answers back when I try to talk about this.

Im afraid they'll sue me if I try to report it again, The first time I tried the police refused to take down a report. The school allowed people to threatend to beat me up and did nothing. I had breakins and they did nothing. I keep landing wierd jobs and its like everyone keeps expecting me to do something but what, I don't know. There were teachers at the college that said its happening bc of something to do with my family but they were the same ones that were trying to find any scapegoat and my relationship with my family is almost non-existant at this point. It wasn't that great to begin with. I don't know how to fix this. I am losing jobs randomly.

I'm having too many weird conversations with people I never told about this. If I don't say what they want I just get fired or not hired. Help please. I don't know what to do about it. I don't know how to stop it. I don't know how to respond or get my life back under control. They have to fix the computers. Get away from this idiotic mentality that its justified to hack. Theyre weakening the system. It cannot be fixed by ME. I only know this bc I stumbled into it. But if you have a ton of important information in one place and shitty protocols or idiots working there, its not going to be secure. Its just not. They're going to destroy my life. This is not normal.

ALso small note all these assholes are forgetting, you do NOT enable anyone to get away from their shitty family by destroying their ability to. I had just moved AWAY to COLLEGE to get the hell away from my drama. I was going AWAY. The guy who said that is an assholes who legitimately likes taking advantage of bad situations and creating them to take advantage of them. What am I supposed to do if they refuse to take down the report bc it looks bad? Why did this happen why is it still happening. Why am I loosing jobs I'm OVER working for. They are promoting ppl that are literally doing less. I got fired from one for being the person yelled at. I am not joking or exaggerating. WTF?!
I feel like Im in a battle, except Im not a soldier, I have no training, I have no means of getting anything to fight this with and I just want to go live under a rock for the rest of eternity. WHAT do I DO?

1. I go to the police again, tell them the whole thing again and hope it goes better. Sure except I already asked and chances are it will end up in a legal case - which I can't afford bc I am BROKE.
2. I keep taking wierd jobs to make ends meet and keep getting yelled at and randomly fired.
3. I go see if I can actually become a hermit.

Has the entire world gone mad at once? You cannot combat cyber security problems by destroying the lives of the people trying to report them. You cannot do any of this. This shit doesn't know boundaries. And the people that work there know that. They know for fucks sake.
What did I do wrong? What was it have some basic faith in the system?!

How the fuck am I supposed to report crimes if I get sued for the report? How the hell am I supposed to risk a lawsuit when I can barely afford rent?

I don't even know how the hell I'm still alive. Half a year ago they were threatening to stab me. WHY, why does no one see how easy it is to create problems in society like this. Why would anyone do this rather than fix the God damn problem. Do you know what this feels like? Do you know what it feels like to feel like there is nothing you can do and eveyone would rather beat you down than NOT. I didn't even ask them to help, I just expected them to act normal. I watched your thing with Dr Peterson...I don't remember the context anymore but basically at some point he says "you told them the truth, but under what context?" Fuck the context. You can justify a lot of shit with "context". I didn't have context. I told the truth bc its the god damn right thing to do. If everyone did I fraction of what I did, everything would be better. Everything! none of this needed to happen. none of it needs to continue. what part of scam is difficult to understand?


It was not my job to "protect" a guy I barely knew. I just tried to report a crime. How the hell is this my fault? When, when did it become ok to lie this much. They lie and they encourage other ppl do so. Crimes lead to more crimes, more victims. People die. War kills more good men and women then anything else. This is shit. Its not the answer. They're firing people for nothing. HOw do you not see that instability creates problems in society and enables all sorts of corruption. They're doing it on purpose to create a problem. They are. They really are.

You can't take a fucked up person and make them see the light. Only a moron would think that.

Please someone reply something useful. Anything at all. I'm so tired of the silence. I'm so tired of losing my internet connections whenever I speak of this. I'm so tired of losing sleep and crying over these fuckheads. Im tired of going to interviews where ppl are already mad at me. They destroyed my life.

You successfully put together all this stuff, help me do something too. I can't afford your bootcamp stuff, it was over $1,000 according to your sales girl. But advice helps, someone to talk to helps, someone who answers helps. My internet connection can go down but this won't disappear. That's something at least. I don't have anyone to talk to about this. I need a solution not a "there, there". I was fine this morning. They keep firing me randomly. This is the 4th job I'm losing in a similar fashion. No explanation, nothing. Except I now feel a lot less comfy with the idea of trying to speak out again. A lot less.

[Na]

I cannot just accept that my life now consists of just getting my ass kicked everywhere I go. Also, I now have a horrible headache too.
I cannot just accept that someone can fuck up another persons life to this degree and that's somehow "ok".

The place when I met that dude, it was a job and they were already doing wierd shit. As in they would ask me for feedback of who's been helpful from my coworkers and then NOT tell them of the positive feed back. I honestly think they're legitimately trying to sink the business. I can find no other explanation. And he had problems at home too. A lot of people do, a LOT, especially now with the economy in the gutter. They are finding kids that are ambitious and with some kind of challenge and trying to use them. I told the truth. I did. If I had done what they "suggested" and changed my story or did anything other than be honest I would have legal problems now. You're supposed to report fraud. You're supposed to.

[albert12]

My name is Taylor, and I am 100% P and T veteran. I was injured in 2009 while serving in the Navy as a Master at Arms. Jocko's words and therories have given me the direction to own myself. I have changed my life in so many ways. Every experience is worth hearing. It all has meaning. Jocko helped me reawaken the warrior inside of me. Default aggressive. I am proud to be me again. Only because i earned the right to be proud of me. I have felt self hatred. I have felt all of the bad in this world. I have become the good in my world. The only thing I can control is me, and if a man can not control himself, he controls nothing. I control me again. My injuries do not define me. I make my own path now. i make my own choices and OWN them. Good or bad. I am the architech of my own destcruction as well as my own future. Choose your path.