0:00:00 – Opening
0:10:46 – Sean Parnell
5:00:12 – Final thoughts and take-aways.
5:08:49 – How to stay on THE PATH.
5:20:43 – Closing Gratitude.
192: Important Lessons of Outlaw Platoon's Long and Horrific Road w/ Sean Parnell
August 28, 2019
|In Podcast Episodes
My God man…. that opening story….. brought memories back that I had buried a long time ago. Had me in tears.
Just like you Jocko, Sean Parnell’s experiences is full tilt and no jock. I was part of the “Surge”, in 07 – 08 in Iraq. When you read about a day being a day and a minute being a minute with Sean’s accounts of his first day in Afghanistan it brought me back to my daily struggle and memories of this little Iraqi girl. In March of 08, I saw this brilliant flash of blue light tear through the ground as if lightening was being thrown from the ground by Zeus himself, the ground trembled under my feet as if it was earthquake. A VBIED was used on civilians at a fuel station, in Balad, Iraq. Besides hundreds of casualties with the pressing smell of burnt bodies mixed with diesel fuel that permeated in my nostrils, among the screams of mothers holding there babies, there was a bus load of children that was also in the immediate blast radius. Every child that was pulled out of the bus was bloody with and lifeless. One little girl still had a pulse yet faint and thready. I held her limp body with the feeling of thick warm fluid drooling down my chest and arms, she would try to talk as I looked into her dark brown soon to be extinguished eyes. I placed on the ground to do a primary assessment on her, her body lied in a decerebrate posture as I checking for wounds, her hair was matted with coagulated blood as I gently pressed around her cranium my third finger fell into a gaping hole on the left side of her head. Immediately a tear came flowing from my eye knowing I am going to be the last person this little girl will ever see. I held her close telling her it is okay and watched the gleam in her eyes disappear as her soul exited this earth, mine was scared for ever. I think about this little girl everyday. I did not know her from any other child that died that day. But, some where in those last moments of life our souls seemed to bond. This has become the most life changing moment in my life. In that small amount of time a second seemed to drag out to the point of being a rift in time and space tearing the fabric of my being. Shortly after that after that day I succumbed to a black heavy cloud that plumbed over me from the burn pits and was medevaced to Landstuhl, Germany and eventually medically discharged from the Army. To understand the hate and evil that would drive a person to commit such a heinous act is something my family can not and will not understand. Jocko listing to your pod casts and the people you bring on has helped me remember to suck it up and carry on. I refuse to let down the soldiers that gave it all. Being a Captain I should have never lost sight of that. With that I thank you. Now concerning Jiu Jitsu. I really like the way you say that it helps you learn how to out maneuver the aggressor. But here in Northern Maine there is no Jiu Jitsu. However, there is Ninjutsu and I have been at it for about 6.5 years. What are your thoughts on Ninjutsu? Again thank you.
I didn’t think it was possible to be more of a fan of jocko, but now I know he prefers the British version of The Office. I salute you sir
Amazing – Outstanding conversation! Thank you.
A really fantastic conversation about what it means to be a true servant leader. As a prior Marine, I salute you both and thank you for the roles you’ve played and the burdens you’ve both shouldered for your men.
a truly wonderful discussion on what it means to be a true servant leader I admire you both and thank you for the roles you’ve played and the burdens you’ve both carried for your soldiers as a former Marine.
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Nice article very good