“Your Stripes Don’t Belong to You” – Lessons From a Special Ops Medic

Unknown Speaker 2:55 yeah when I was, academia, they had the hairiers and they would just without warning, just crank it. That thing, my God. I tend to I'm right there with you speak loud. I I'll tell you what I just got hearing aids I don't wear them right now. But guy. got some, it's that bad. And it's 100% from Kadena yeah when I was, academia, they had the hairiers and they would just without warning, just crank it. That thing, my. I tend to I'm right there with you speak loud. I I'll tell you what I just got hearing aids I don't wear them right now. But guy. got some, it's that bad. And it's 100% from Kadena. And yeah, and I've been mistaken for a UFC fighter. And people say I look like one. Don't look like a successful one, but look like one. No, you. bad. And it's 100% from Kadena Yeah, when I was at Kadena, they had the Harriers, and they would just, without warning, just crank it, yep. And that thing, my god, yeah, I lost my hearing twice. I had a two different blast injuries and lost my hearing. And I remember, I went to an army audiologist, and she put the hearing aids in, and she goes, you know, because they're super sympathetic, right? And she's like, how do you feel? And I go, Well, you know, honestly, I'm a little embarrassed I'm wearing hearing aids. And she goes, Well, you are. And I was like, Thanks, doc. Appointment over. She's like, well, that sounds good. Here you go, yeah, cry me a river. I got six other appointments. Get out my office, right? Yeah, I at Kadena. I had I messed up my baseline. I had to go back. I saw a navy doctor, and they were like, Yeah, this is not good. Like, if you don't come back and pass this, like, this is a problem. But I just was around that that aircraft, yeah, so luckily, I took some downtime where some hearing protection at work just made sure I didn't hear anything loud enough I went back and passed it, thankfully. But I was just Junior enough where medical separation was was possible. Yeah, you know, to make it to 20 years is not easy. No, it's same time. It's like a tough road, but it goes by really fast. Yeah, absolutely. So hey, I'm talking with Chief Jason Weiss here, and by the way, we're talking about UFC fighters before there's a UFC fighter who looks just like you. Yes, there. I can't remember his name. I don't want to say von der ley Silva. I know who you're talking about. Movies I could compare to him often. Gotten that a few times. You've got that extra, Unknown Speaker 5:01 that extra gene Unknown Speaker 5:04 of masculinity grow. Mag, Josh White 5:06 you just look like a beast. Like you look you do look tough. I'm not gonna lie, when I first saw you for the first time, I was just going to the ER to get the animal bite log, and I see you with a group of people. Maybe you just got there, you were touring something. And I was like, Who is that? I was like, He's not a medic. There's no way, like, this guy's got to be, like, special forces or something like, and then I saw that you had medic stuff, and I was like, what? Like, that guy's got a story, like, I just know he's got, like, he is not a normal medic, like, like an admin guy Unknown Speaker 5:39 who let this guy out of the cage? Josh White 5:43 I think you were a senior then too. So, God, here's a senior, yeah, here's a senior, and now you're chief. So congrats on that. Thank you. No surprise Speaker 1 5:52 there. That's very nice. You surprised me. Like, if you Josh White 5:55 weren't a chief, then I have no chance in hell. Unknown Speaker 5:59 It's surprised. I was the most surprised person in the room. Josh White 6:01 Well, I'm glad you're humble about it, but none of us are going to be humble. We all know. You know you're the guy to get it, to lead us. So just want to say congrats on that. Thank you. Thank you very much. So typically, I come in with some categories, some plans. We forego that, but I still do have the heroes gauntlet. So that's three random questions that I asked at the beginning. Okay? Now today is tech release day, right? Today's the day people find out, did they make it? Did they not? So you have a small group of people who are, I mean, feeling on top of the world right now. You also have a group of people who are questioning that whole year and what they could have done better, etc. I was hoping you could tell me a time where you were convinced you had it on lock. You were gunning for it. You felt good about it. You were ready, but you did not get it. Speaker 1 6:53 I got I gotta tell you, I don't looking back. I don't think I ever didn't make rank, and I felt I was ready for it, like I was robbed of it or anything. I always, I look at it through, you know, I always say, like, Okay, you get your, you know, usually the results are sometime middle of the week or towards the end of the week. So you get that, you know, I allow myself those few days to throw my pity party, right? You know, and and then I reframe my thought process and say, Well, what did I miss? Where am I missing? Where's myself, my soft points. And I'll usually take my package, release it, send it some people who I can find in with, you know, all over, different emphases and everything. Hey, what do you guys see and like? What do I need to be doing? And like, I remember first time I first or second time I tested for Master, I missed it by nine. And I was like, okay, I'm good, same course, and speed, continue on. And then the next year, I missed it by 60. Oh, my God, it was so and that's when we were testing the PDG and SKT, so it was like, mathematically impossible for me to make it. That's the worst. And so I was like, there was no chance I could have made so I was like, how did that happen? So I same thing through my pity party for a couple days, and then I brought my package to a couple people, have them look at it. And you get all kinds of anytime you get, you know, five different people in a room, you're getting your five different opinions. You should do this, you should do that, and but I just kept going, and I'd ultimately come to a point like, obviously, I may think I'm ready, or I felt like I should have had it, but somebody else saw something differently. So I need to adjust my fire and kind of figure out where, where I'm lacking, where I need to round myself out. Got to go. And kind of, I think it made me, took me two to make staff. I made tech the first time, which, I don't even know how that happened. Oh, wow, you're one of those, actually. No, I was one of those people too, yeah. But it took me several times to make master. It took me a few times to make senior, a few times make chief. So it was like, I was pretty that was just, I don't know, maybe a fluke. And you always think, you're like, Oh, they're gonna, you know, was that, right? Josh White 9:06 There's nothing. Actually, the biggest curse is making a rank your first time. It was for me. I made tech my first time. I told everyone I was gonna do it, you know? Everyone was like, that's not possible. That's the hardest rank. And then I did it. And then I was like, I got this, like, that's the where the curse came in. Like, I know how to do this. Now, you apply the same concept. And then I fell short, but, like, tremendously short. I was like, but that just that worked before, like, what's happening? So I think it's a blessing and a cursing, or a curse and a blessing for that reason. You know, you, you might think you had it figured out, but really things change, the role changes, the responsibility changes, and you suddenly could be behind, thinking that you were ahead. You know, that was me going into master. Yeah, Speaker 1 9:53 I was the opposite on that. When I went into tech, I pretty much knew I was going to make it, because I knew it was the hardest rank, and it was my. First swing at it, and I just wanted to get a good look and a decent score. So I kind of had some sort of baseline to look at, where if I thought I did great and I missed it by a ton, then I'm like, obviously I got to change the way I do things. But I was just hoping to get a decent score so I could look, have a good baseline and figure out what I need to do the following year to make it Josh White 10:18 right. You were telling the story about when you thought you might have made it, but it was the person next to you. Can you tell us that? Speaker 1 10:25 Yeah, I was working. It was first, first strike at a staff and I was working in a hospital. And great friend of mine, Courtney Schleifer, I used to work with her. She was another med tech, and both of us were sitting in the nurses station. And then came the the congratulatory party. Everybody jumps up, and we're standing there shoulder to shoulder, and they walk in, they do the speech about getting promoted. And I'm like, oh my god, this is it. And they walked up, and they shook her hand, and then they walked out. And I thought, is that tonight? Did I not make it? Are they? Are they going by because she her last names started with, well, at the time, it was gray, so it was g so I'm like, Well, maybe they're doing alphabetical order. Maybe they're coming back for me. And finally, the end of the day, I'm like, I don't think I made it. Speaker 2 11:14 Like, hello guys. Anybody here an extra 30 minutes? Unknown Speaker 11:18 Is the colonel still here? Are they coming back? Can I leave or Josh White 11:23 so why that made me laugh, it is why that made me Chuck a little bit is because that literally happened to me. So I was filling in for the exec at the Med group level crushing it. I was like, I'm killing it. This is part. This is going great. Had a great year, and at this point I was filling in for the shirt. So I was the exec, but I was filling in for the shirt, and that's the reason they asked me to be at this release, not because I made it right. I thought they were asking because I made it, not because I was the shirt. So they're like, it's hard, white. You have to, you have to be there. You have to, oh yeah, quick mirror, check, you know, throw a mint in. I'm like, this is this? Is it? I knew. I knew. I had a great year. I knew it. And I go out there and it's just one guy, and it's like, a new, like, no one knew him. He, like, he just got, he was just, like, working at a post office somewhere. He did that special duty. He just got back to the his career field, and they were notifying him and no one else. And I was convinced I was being asked there to get that right. Speaker 1 12:33 Everybody would think the same thing, right? I would have thought the exact same thing. So Josh White 12:37 my stomach just dropped. I was like, it's because I'm the shirt, not because I made it, yeah? Oh, my god. That was brutal. That was brutal. Yeah, I had. I learned a lot of lessons on my pursuit, about myself, on my pursuit for Master Sergeant, a ton of lessons about what I'm good at, what I'm bad at, you know, how to view life how to view success. You know, I was putting way too much on the rank versus what I could actually bring to the table. And once you get caught up in that, when the ego is involved, there's only one outcome, and that's disappointment. Yeah, it might be tomorrow. It might be a year from now, but if that's how you're seeing things, you are guaranteed to be disappointed at some point, absolutely. Speaker 1 13:24 Yeah. And if you're, if you're a person who you know chases rank, that's, it's obvious, right? And your stripes don't belong to you. They belong to everybody around you. So if you're personally chasing rank, you're kind of going against the intent of the stripes. It's like for increased responsibility. Doesn't mean, yes, it's increased responsibility on you, but it means more people depend on you. More people rely on you. But counter to that is I got to do, probably won't, probably one of my top 10 favorite things I've got to do, and that was, I was able to notify somebody. They made it the other day. Oh, wow, which is just, it's a I would ask. I would have to say it's probably, it's different. I'd like to say it's better than making it, but that's not really a fair statement. But it's different, but it is truly elating. Like, to be able to sit there and watch that joy wash over somebody and they're just like, because you know that feeling wherever you get you're like, you just like, you know, everything falls into place for a few minutes, and you're like, You're speechless. You don't know what to say. You don't know when to leave, you know, you sit in a room. Everybody's around. You're like, Can I go now? I want to call my you know, one call my spouse. Wanted to tell my friends and, you know, but it was, that was one of the funnest things. Yeah, it was awesome. I could Josh White 14:36 only imagine. I was just at dental yesterday and gave a young lady, a shout out, because I saw her on Facebook and made it. And I just happened to be at dental, and I saw her, and I was like, Oh, can I go in there? I want to congratulate her. And I was like, on behalf of the HeroFront Podcast, I formally congratulate, like, I made it, like, a whole, like, funny theatrical thing. She was like, Oh, my God, I know you. Yeah, this is all. So I didn't get to see, like, the very. Very special moment. But there is a lot of joy you get when celebrating others. You Speaker 1 15:06 know, the funnest, it really is, right, the greatest thing. And we, you know, I put them through a little bit of a hard time. You know, admit it, it wasn't like, hey, congratulations. I was like, Hey, man, look like, Unknown Speaker 15:19 you know, oh, so you you came in with a different Speaker 1 15:21 I did that thing, yeah. I was like, Look, you know, evaluating the positions, and we're trying to allocate Manning, you know, with rank to positions, and it's just not working out where you are, because you don't even need to find out what we're gonna do with you. And I know it's me, but you'll remember, you Josh White 15:39 made the you made the good news, like, a million times better, right? Well, that Speaker 1 15:44 was like, you know, it's, the problem is, is you made rank, so you no longer qualify for that position. You have to go to a different position. And he's like, he's like, Man, I thought I was getting fired. Oh, man. And big hugs. And I kind of know him, you know, socially a little bit, you know, we've gone out and done things. We did the golf tournament for the Chiefs group recently, and they were great guy, absolutely great guy. So they did all the more fun. Josh White 16:11 That's awesome. All right. Second question, you know, you're a mentor to an insane amount of people, I'm assuming, throughout your career. How long have you been serving? 24 years. 24 years. So in that 24 years, you probably had a tremendous impact. So my question to you is, who had the most tremendous impact on you? Speaker 1 16:33 There's, there's been a lot. And I, you know, I really can't single out anybody individually, because I, I tend to look at everything. I try to look at everything as a positive outlook and and not like touchy feely kind of stuff. But I can tell you, probably, like, one of my best supervisors was probably not widely regarded as a good supervisor, really. And the reason is, is because when you have a really good, good supervisor. It's so comforting. It's so it's such a nice productive thing to have. But when you if you have one that's maybe pulled in a few different directions, or maybe you don't feel like has your best interest in mind like you, it forces you to really research, read stuff, and find out what's right, and say, hey, well, I think I'm could be doing this, or I should be doing this. So it really forced me to educate myself a lot more, instead of just relying on somebody else to give me the information. But I've also had some fantastic supervisors, commanders across the board, who've taught me numerous things I remember, you know, shout out to retire chief Robbins. Jason Robbins, who was stationed at Whiteman, he Josh White 17:44 knows me very well, does he? I was the exec while he was serving at Whiteman. Oh, is that right? So all my flaws he's well aware of. He's Speaker 1 17:55 uh, so he and I worked shoulder to shoulder. He was the chief over at ASOC, and I was a functional manager over there. And I remember first time I talked to him, I asked him I was trying to get this, this initiative, through. And so I was like, What do you think? Like, I'm, you know, I got this in line, is what I'm trying to do. Kind of explain the whole thing to me. Goes, well, what's the reg say? Speaker 2 18:13 And I was like, he hit you at the old school. I'm like, Speaker 1 18:17 I'm not really, like a reg Thumper. I'm more of like, I want to get things done right, and by misinterpreted, what are you saying? You know, forward down to another initiative. I do it. He goes, What's the reg say? And what I didn't realize is that he was teaching me, because if you don't know the baseline, if you don't know the intent, then you can't figure out a way to move the initiative forward. So if you're trying to get something done, what does the reg say? How it's supposed to be done? And that's how you can move forward. So he's actually teaching me, but he didn't sit me down and tell me it was a teachable moment. He just let me figure it out, right? And after a while, I was like, I see what you're doing there. And he's like, You got to know your ground zero in order to move things forward. And if you need to get something past a reg or something supersede, you don't know what the reg says, what the guidance is, and you got to function within there. And I was like, Josh White 19:11 All right, thank you. Thanks for that lesson. Was painful one, but thank you. When that happened, senior, senior, okay, and he was already a chief. At that point, he was chief, Yep, yeah. His career is pretty insane. He's got Speaker 1 19:22 a great career. He's got, he's just, he's a phenomenal dude, great mentor, very positive. And I really enjoyed working with him. I still keep in touch with him now to this day. Now he's got the retirement beard and everything. He looks awesome. And, yeah, I really enjoyed working with him. But you know, Carl day, who I work with here. He was my chief prior to Chief Robbins. Oh, wow. And he taught me a lot. He was he was a great mentor to me. And there's a you know, his mentors across the board. I was over this morning briefing to the ALS class, and I was talking to him, I'm like, what's your what's your idea? Of leadership. And so they gave me a lot of feedback, and it's good when you get into, like, you know, almost like a, like a trust circle, where they can really hit you with some hard stuff, right? And that's mentorship too. Because now you hear from Airmen, senior Airmen, soon to be staff, a lot of them, maybe staff at the time, you know, staff going through ALS, and they tell you what they think a leader should be, and that's humbling. And it's also, you know, shines lights on some of your your spots, because you hear what, what they want from leadership, and they're telling you. So that's, that's mentorship, right there, absolutely. So it's kind of across the board. I get it from a lot of different areas, and I always try and pull it out. So I really can't single out one person. I could just say that, like everybody has taught me something in every establishment they you know, I've learned when I came here, it was so when I came to Eglin, I've been outside the med group for about 17 years. What? Yes, so in 2003 as an A 1c I worked at at the time, they had these positions for medics over at flying squadron. So I worked with an A 10 squadron for till 2005 2005 I went to ID and T school. I didn't T school. I got out. I went to survival school for a to be a survival medic. You're out in the field, by the way, one of the best jobs in the Air Force, hands down. It was phenomenal. Then from there, Speaker 2 21:21 I was jealous of you. I dmts. It was a great job. I didn't really, Speaker 1 21:26 you know I I didn't really know what it was. And once I got there, I was like, This is amazing. I'm outdoors all the time. And learned a ton about went through a lot of survival training that they they offer there, and was able to learn a lot, and the survival instructors are just phenomenal individuals. And everybody out there was great. From there, I got picked up for a like, a specialized mission unit with AFSOC, and I went over there and worked. And so I was basically with the Army for about another 10 years, which was outside the med group. And then from there, I promoted to senior, and then I went to absoc Match com as functional manager. And that's when my career field manager said, Hey, I'm gonna move you to Eglin. I'm like, Okay, ma'am, you like, I haven't been in a med group in a while. And she goes, I think you'll be fine. And I said, Okay. And so I came over here, and I, you know, going on two years now, haven't fired yet. And, you know, so I came here and it was, like, it was definitely a learning curve. And I had to really, really steep learning curve. And I had to come here and really learn about, you know, being back in the med group and all the, you know, systems in place and everything. So that was humbling. And so I learned everything from people here who have done careers into my group, very, very smart, well versed, and I talked to them. It didn't matter rank or time or anything like that. Like, hey, how do you do this? And what's this mean? And, you know, and everybody talking. So it was, you know, I learned a lot just mentorship from people being around me and, you know, thankful that they were able to put up with me. And they're probably like, Is this really a medic? Like, I have not been that. I'm very, I just go very like, open kimono. I'm like, I have not been into my group in a while. You know, can you just explain this to me? And everybody's really, really nice and helpful. So I appreciate them putting up with me, right? Josh White 23:16 I mean, you, you've, obviously, I'm looking around the room here. You've done some, I mean, this is tech sergeant, wise survival medic, yeah, I see it looks like maybe you hanging from a helicopter there. That's, that's like, yeah, you've clearly done some amazing things. And so, to come back to the medic, I could see that being a culture shock, because it's very regimented. Yes, it's very regimented. And, you know, you're kind of battling in your head like, how do I use all this experience I have and let it work for me here? How do I bridge the gap? You know, I think anyone coming back into a career field feels that dynamic, right? Yeah, so I think you've done a phenomenal job, though. I mean, ever since you got here, I've been seeing you everywhere. It's like five of you on this base. So you've been, you've been, you've been crushing it. You did fine. So what? How do you hope to end your career? I'm just, I guess that could be the last question out of the three heroes gauntlet is, you know, what's next for you? Ideally, how would you end your career? Like, what position within the Air Force? Speaker 1 24:28 So I've always had three rules to stay in the Air Force, and I was number one of these people who said, like, I'm gonna make a career out of it. I came in, I was gonna do my four years. I felt that was my civic duty, and I ended up getting Germany right out of the bat. You know, my first assignment, so that turned into five years. Tried to stay six years in Germany and put them there. Like, no, we're you need to move on. And I'm like, I'll stay here forever. I love this place, but I was number one these people. Was like, oh, what's your past 10 years? You have to do 20. I just, kind of, I just took it day by day, and I. Have three rules, and that's it's got to be fun, I got to be relevant, and I have to feel like I'm impacting. And those are my three rules, and it's not one and done. It's got to be all three. And I don't evaluate them day by day, because everybody has a tough day, but every month I look back and I'm like, Okay, this is still fun. I still feel like I'm relevant, like, and do I have an impact? And that's what keeps me going. So I never really looked at like, where I want to be as far as the next position I learned. I just, I just keep trying to move forward, keep trying to learn every day. And luckily, that's that's always put me in good positions where I've learned and moved forward. My next job, I'll be going to Alaska in August. Has a Squadron, Squadron, SEO, and so that'll it'll be a three year tour there, and we'll see what happens after that. You're focused on going there and just Josh White 25:54 you got a lot of time, you could go up to 30 years if you wanted, right? Yeah, I think so. And you're at 2320 Yeah, to 24 March, 24 Okay, so yeah, I'm actually kind of excited to see, you know, where you end up with your unique, diverse background. I'm sure you know you're gonna do something amazing you already have. But I'm excited to see like, how you navigate, Chief, because I call it prestiging. I've ever played Call of Unknown Speaker 26:25 Duty. My son plays it, yes. So in Josh White 26:27 Call of Duty, you have this option of prestiging. That means you've you basically start from scratch, like you're so good that you can start from scratch and work your way up again, but you get a different logo. Like, people know that you've turned your stuff in and you started over, like a badge. It's like a badge. And I call making chief prestiging, because as soon as you make chief, you're essentially starting over. I always thought chief was like, you know, like most people do, like, oh, that's the highest like, you're done that you made it cool. But it's actually this whole other world of you know, schools you could go to different education opportunities in so many layers of maybe you're working at a schoolhouse, maybe you're the Command Chief of a base. Maybe you're the Command Chief of an entire match com. Maybe you were a legislative fellow. You proceed, you're opening this door, and you're entering this whole nother world that I didn't even know existed till I started to get to know folks like you. So that's why I'm excited, because you prestige. Speaker 1 27:32 Very nice way of putting it. I appreciate that. That's, yeah, you definitely. It's a great opportunity, and really the what I view most of the decisions that I have an opportunity to be a part of are direct relation on the communication I have with boots on the ground as people at the flight level, airmen and NCOs who are right on those flights, because I can only advocate for what I know. What's going on there, right? And like, I tell my Hey, I'm not seeing patients every day, so don't let me make decisions in a vacuum, like I need to know what's going on, what are your hurdles, what's what's the problems? What can we do to make easier? Because that's what's gonna ultimately, I work for you. I gotta make decisions that help you, and the more you let me know what's going on, the better I can advocate for you. So it's like, oh, you know, it's like, I have, you know, between, you know, the airman hospital, I have roughly, like 500 bosses. Is the way I view it is like I gotta advocate for every one of them, and I need to try and find out what's going on with all of them to try to make things better for Josh White 28:32 them. Definitely, I think that's a great way to see it. It's a servant leadership mindset, which, in my experience, never leads you astray. Speaker 1 28:39 No, I think at the end of the day a lot like medicine. You know, at the end of the day doesn't matter what, and you're helping people, and so it's a good day, Josh White 28:47 right? Absolutely, I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about the relationship with your family at home, what they mean to you, because I've seen I've seen you on Facebook, I've met some of your family. It seems like you have a really special bond. So I was hoping you could kind of run me through, you know, your home life and your thoughts on them. Speaker 1 29:05 Well, my, my, my family is definitely my lighthouse, and that's what you know, keeps me going. I have a blended family. So I have five kids, two kids, two my boys are you know, my oldest and one lives in North Carolina with his mom. He lived with me up until about a year ago, and he's he's lived with his mom now. He'll be moving with me to Alaska. And my youngest son, who's been living with me for about the last four years, five years, he's going to live with his mom. And his mom and I have a fantastic relationship, and it's just like, hey, like, let's rotate kids, you know, they want to rotate. Let's rotate so they can kind of get a chance of living with both of us, like we have a very odd people view it as very oddly close relationship for a divorced couple, because, like, we, when I go visit North Carolina, I'll stay in her house. She comes out here, stays in my house. We. We still spend Christmas and Thanksgiving together with families and everything so and, you know, the kids think it's cool, but I'm like, you know, this is not entirely normal amongst people who know when they're married, but to them, it's totally normal. But yeah, I have a My kids are phenomenal. I brag on my kids. They're both competitive jiu jitsu fighters. My my youngest son, he just won cage match in Biloxi. So recently, as you saw, very, very proud of him. He's amazing, super humble and hard worker. And a lot of times people don't really see you know, that kind of ethic, and not really singling out him, but when it comes to, like, work, you know, the jobs we do, the jobs people are doing every day, it's like we see these singularial accomplishments that people have, but it's really not that, like, you know, with him sitting there on the stage with in the octagon with his arm raised, you know, everybody goes, Oh, that's awesome, but they didn't See the months and years that it took of rehab, diet, exercise, you know, missing out on doing certain social functions so he can train. He trains two and a half hours a night, five, six days a week. He's just a phenomenal athlete. And same with my oldest son, too. They're both just phenomenal athletes. But, you know, we don't see that with like, really, anybody see like, this person won this award? They How nice, but you didn't see the whole year it took them of just grinding them out and really getting there. So it's like, we kind of see accomplishments as the pinnacle, but not many people see all the work that it comes up to that. But it's like family, like family is everything, and I spent a lot of time, a lot of deployments, gone and missed a lot of their growing up. And so I'm kind of catching up on that, Josh White 31:49 right? I mean, you definitely are, you're, you're, you're literally in their corner. Speaker 1 31:55 My kids are, like, my best friends. It's like having, like, you know, a handful of your funniest best friends hang out with you all the time because they do the goofiest stuff, and they're super fun, and they're old enough now where they have these personalities and they say these funny things, and you're just like, No son, it goes actually, that is really funny, man. Or they'll say so I'm like, What are you? It's hilarious. We just have a really good time. Josh White 32:23 So that's awesome. I mean, they're you, you know what? I mean, like, I have a six year and a five year old, so I'm relatively new dad, and, yeah, when they start to joke like you did when you were a kid, like my son has my sense of humor, I'm like, That's me. Like, I'm raising myself. Like, this is trippy, man. Like having a kids is the trippiest thing you could ever do, because, like, there's, there's suddenly these humans in the world doing things that weren't there before. Speaker 1 32:50 Yeah, beautiful outlook on life. When I came through the gate once with my youngest son, Gavin, we rolled through the gate and he checked my ID, and he's like, have good day, senior. And he goes, do they call you that because you're old? And I was like, No, son, that's my rank. And so I had to explain it to him. So now what he sees, yeah, I'll come home, it'll be like, hey, senior, how's work. And I'm like, Don't call me that, okay? Because I know why you're saying it, right? Saying that. Try and call me old. Josh White 33:21 That is too funny. Um, I did meet one family member of yours. Do you remember that Air Force Ball at Speaker 1 33:30 the Air Force Ball? Yes, wasn't that? That was him, correct? Who was it? Thought Josh White 33:40 It Was he might have been there, but the person that was basically saying you had to come on HeroFront, Unknown Speaker 33:49 yeah, that was my son, Gavin. Josh White 33:51 Like, I just thought it was amazing that your family was like, so in your corner, so wanting you to come on, wanting you to share stories. Like, I thought that was kind of special, yeah, you know, to to have noticed, like, just how much they were, you know, hyped about you coming on here. I was like, This is amazing. Like, I hope, like, my family acts like that when they, you know, when my kiddos get older. Like, I really want that relationship with my kids, exactly how I see with you with yours. So that's why I wanted you to bring it up. I just thought it was a really special bond that you had with them. It's something that we should all strive to be as fathers, and you've been a great guiding light for me as well. Just watching what you do with your kids, how you interact with them, it's been great to see from for me as a relatively new dad? Speaker 1 34:41 Yeah, there. There's really no playbook to being a parent. And I would say the the most successful people ask me sometimes they're like, if they're just having kids, they're like, Well, what's it like? And I was like, Look, don't, don't take advice from anybody. You're like, you'll, you'll do. Line, but I'll just tell you one, just love your kids. Just love your kids, and everything will work out. You're gonna screw up, but you love them, and you're not doing it out of any kind of other reason except you love them. You make a mistake, big deal. They're okay. They're people. They understand it. They love you no matter what. And if you love them, you're always going to make the right decision, because your intent is always in the right place, right? Josh White 35:22 No, that's beautiful. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, when I think of you, Chief, I think of you know, I pick up on vibes pretty easily. So I knew right from meeting you that you have done things you've seen things you've I could just tell, you know, it's just something that I I've always been good at. And I look around this room here, you got survival medic. You got that a 10 up there, I see an airborne rocker, like Joint Special Operations university. But there's this huge gap when I think of you, or I don't know, like what all that is, right? So if you were okay with it, I was hoping you can kind of tell us some of these unique experiences that you've had with your unique career. Speaker 1 36:15 So yeah, so I was with, you know, like I said, I got picked up for worked with the I was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with the special mission unit, and I was under Joint Special Operations Command. And it's a support unit to forward operating units. And with that comes a lot of opportunity, and the opportunity when you get the understanding operational environment from the battlefield you and, you know, you get a lot of different types of training that you're afforded, that you're able to go to and, yeah, everyone was one of them. And, you know, numerous other training opportunities. And they really, it just gives you an open eye view of, you know, a lot of things, multiple deployments to, you know, different locations that were all learning experiences and, you know, just a lot of exposure to different so worked with the Navy a lot. You know, the army, predominantly, and surprisingly, I think majority of my deployments, very few were with the Air Force. Oh, hi. Maybe I'd say two or three out of eight deployments was probably with the Air Force. The rest were with Army, maybe. So you learn a lot of different things. You learn different verbiage, different cultures, yes, different cultures, absolutely, different jokes. Well, yeah, so like I said, being, you know, 10 years over there. My name was Air Force for 10 years. So you kind of end up, like, a little bit like, you know, because I noticed there, you know, I'm always an Air Force guy. There was only me and one other Air Force guy in the unit of 300 people. And so we, our name was Air Force, and you don't know, it's subtle, but it really kind of changes the way you talk a little bit, because you have to communicate with our to communicate with Army Navy, and they have different communication methods. And then, so I was never, you know, I was always the Air Force guy, and then I came back to the Air Force, but I didn't outside for so long, I didn't understand. It took me a little bit to kind of learn the lingo of the Air Force. So I always kind of viewed, for a couple years, I was like a man without a home. I was like, you know, before I was like an Air Force guy in an army unit, and then I went back to the Air Force, I didn't understand what anybody was talking about. So I was like, I gotta find a home. Figure out what people are talking about. That's Josh White 38:33 like, you just had so much variety. It was like, okay, like, where do I land? How do I translate? This is, yeah, that you had so much different experiences. It was hard to really identify yourself at that point and like, what culture do I, you know, embody today? Speaker 1 38:51 It was really fun, though. It's definitely a great learning experience being having that kind of exposure to, you know, operational environment and how, how that evolves, and especially as we going into a very, you know, tense era coming up, here is I would like, you know, I'm really appreciative of that experience, because it helps give me a now, look at that. I try and share it every time, you know, with people, and they'll be like, oh, here comes chief. Weiss gonna talk about national defense strategy and stuff. But I'm like, it's important. That's Josh White 39:23 one of those files right there. Yeah, I noticed that. I noticed, like, you had this organized. I'm sorry, I put them in one big stack, fine. Oh, but you had them laid out. I knew they were important to you, just by the way, you had them aligned, you know, on your desk. And then that was one of the documents I saw, Speaker 1 39:40 yeah, and I, you know, I try and take an opportunity, whether people think it's interesting. A lot of people, maybe not. But I, I try to, you know, people, I get opportunities talk to people and they say, why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? I'm like, Well, look, let me show you one thing. It's, it's international defense strategy, like it says we will do this, so we're just doing it. And. They're like, well, what's that? Josh White 40:01 Well, let me show you. I feel like you learned this from Chief Robbins. Speaker 1 40:05 It's, it was a lot of different input. But, you know, learning the importance of where we came from and what the basis of what we do every day, the national defense strategy is our Bible. It's the exactly what the components are going to do to defend America and support our allies. And it spells it out. So if you're ever curious about what we're doing in the world right now, or why it's it's written in pretty plain English, right? And you know, sometimes you can tie that because, especially I did, you know, operations up at a j3 level for a while. And if you want to go and do a forward operation in somewhere in the world, you've got to tie that to a local strategy, to a campaign plan, to the Air Force strategy, to the national defense strategy, and national defense strategy is referenced directly off the national security strategy. So if you can't tie all those together, that operation is not kicking off, and that's the first thing general wants to see, or the cocon wants to know, is, how does this stay in line with our strategy and what we're doing? So it takes a lot of the magic. I have people thinking like, oh, we just over here doing all these wild things. Like, no, this is very strategic. These are things are very laid out. They're very clear pathways. Josh White 41:18 No, I love that because, you know, I shared a little bit about my story with you before we started, and the biggest difference between me now and then is I had no purpose then, but I felt no purpose then, but I feel a tremendous amount of purpose now, and that has changed my life completely, that feeling and so that's why I think that's important, because you don't know your purpose. You don't know why you're doing this stuff. It's that's holding you back mentally. Yeah, right, knowing it is going to empower you. So I think it's very important that, you know, we share it, we talk about it, because it does answer a lot of those lingering questions that we have, that young airmen have in the back of their heads. Why are we doing that? That's weird. Why are we, why are we doing T, Triple C, like, what is that all about? That's crazy, which? That was a blast, by the way, that training, yeah, good. Speaker 1 42:13 We look at these things. And I really appreciate you sharing that story that was really insightful. I appreciate that. It was a very touching story. I'll remember that. And when you mention about purposes, we always, you know, I was trying to think about the purpose is more important than the problem. So, like, T Triple C being like, how am I gonna get all these days off work, you know, and kind of get out here and do this? Well, the purpose is, you know, to take care of people down range. They did a study back in 2009 and determined that the casualties that were coming out off the battlefield, 33% of the tourniquets that were placed were placed Speaker 2 42:50 improperly covered. Lives saved, lives saved. And Speaker 1 42:53 it's still to this day, the number one, number one cause of death in the Korean War was hemorrhage. In the Vietnam War is hemorrhage. When the World War Two was hemorrhage, wow, in the war on terrorism was hemorrhage. So it's like, we this is important. We train it because it's it's important. And it's a strap with Velcro. So I always tell people, if you can put your belt on in the morning, right, you can put on a tourniquet. And what was even more concerning of it is that 60% of the needle Thor economies that were using the chest starts is they were placed improperly. And that always resonated with me, because this is a medical skill, so this is what medics are doing. That means, like a medical skill, 60% were put improperly at the time they did this. So that's when the Air Force really started to identify these gaps and really start to drive these, you know, these are basic basics save lives. And you need to master the basics. You know, it's like 90% of the stuff we do is basic, basic operations, basic things, basic, you know, dexterity movements that we need to do, and that's what saves lives. The other 10% is, is Wazoo stuff, and it's, it's important, but you gotta master these basics. Josh White 44:04 If everyone had those basics down, that would eliminate that 33% we would hope, right? We would hope. Speaker 1 44:11 And there's, there's, you know, of course, there's a lot of variabilities to it. I'm not trying to wave a magic wand or, like, cast, you know, negativity on anybody, saying, like, you know, because of this, you cause somebody's life. It's just saying, like, this is some these are, this is just data. And this data saying, like, hey, well, we don't know if they would have lived or not, but we do know that these tourniquets were placed improperly, and we need to fix it. And they did, and that's when they really started to drive down on T, Triple C and some of these basic medical skills that, and getting people back, and getting that operational, that Battlefield mindset of like, we need to know this. So the purpose is much bigger than the problem. You know, that's what keeps, keeps us going. And speaking Josh White 44:49 of that, um, I tell airman this, really, in any good opportunity, especially training environments, is that that was tested on me, like I went to Israel. So as a T Triple C medic, not as public health, I went with she goes by Dr badass. She never wants her name said, because she's that humble. So I went with Dr badass, an idmt, a bio guy, and then me and we were all there to support this doctor with the med bag and to know it inside and out and how to help that idmt And that doctor with everything they needed, right when they needed. So we were doing drills in the dark. I could not and I remember I was thinking, thank God I took that training seriously, because now it's happening like, now I'm here. This is real now. It's all me now, and that's when you're really going to think back to that training and rely on it because, because you want it to be muscle memory, Speaker 1 45:43 yeah, absolutely, you you will default to your level of training. You will not rise to your level of expectation. So if you train like crap, you're going to perform like crap. And that's why we need to be doing, you know, realistic training, right? Because, you know, you just go through the motions. You're like, oh, and the trips are now, and I'll figure it out. You're not. You're not going to figure it out. You're going to default to your level of training, because your your dexterity goes, your critical thinking goes, and you're going to default to your level of training. You're going to default to muscle memory. And that's why a lot of these trainings we do, we have to do under stress, we have to do under loud noise, low light, high intensity physical training that will stress you, because anybody can do it in a controlled, air conditioned environment, but can you do it after? You know, when you're hot, you're sweaty, you're tired, and you're hungry, because most likely, when you have to perform these skills, that's what that's what you're going to be you're not going to be in an air conditioned room, and somebody's going to need a tourniquet. You're going to be in somewhere bad, and that person didn't need a tourniquet, and you're going to be able to perform it properly with very little thought, because you're gonna have to think of 100 different Josh White 46:46 things, right? Yeah, that training was the best I've seen. Really. I was blown away by the instructors that y'all picked were phenomenal. Speaker 1 46:54 So Joe Archangel, love that guy. Yep, he was, uh, he's an AFSOC medic, his prior, uh, Army medic, good friend of mine. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. And I actually called out to him. I He was living in Texas, and I knew we had a position open. I called him one day and I said, Hey, would you like to work at Eglin? And he goes, well, doing what? Awesome. And I go, Hey, I got Carl day out here too. Who He knew Carl day from being the AFSOC chief, and he's like, All right, well, I'll talk to him, and then we end up getting out, getting him out here, which was a huge win. He's a fantastic individual and very knowledgeable, and has a great history. And plus, I mean, he was a medic, and his last name is archangel and right, also the ASOC annual medical, medical, exercise they do every year, and have sock is named exercise Archangel after him. What? Yeah, which he's He's humble, and he'll never admit it, but I got the shirt that says exercise Archangel, unbelievable, and it's named after him that is, wow. He would never mention it, but I'm going to, I'm going to tell everybody Josh White 48:01 when I made the video on T Triple C, was able to make a video that, you know, it can be shown to any, any Meg group. Can use it. Many Meg groups have. He's one of the people I interviewed. I made sure to talk to him, you know, because I knew he's humble enough to avoid me. So I was like, You, ain't you ain't getting out of this. Speaker 1 48:21 Yeah, he's a phenomenal dude. I really Joe's a special kind of human. I Josh White 48:27 tried to get Carl day. The timing didn't work out by the time the video was due. But that guy is I heard him speak once, and I was like, Whoa, Speaker 1 48:36 yeah, whoa, motivational dude. I could not Josh White 48:39 believe what I was hearing. I was like, am I I feel like I should be paying this guy for, like, this is crazy, like, the stuff he was coming up with, like he was, he's a natural at that. Speaker 1 48:48 He's a phenomenal energy. And he just gets it, he understands it, and he's got no off switch, right? That guy is just in fifth gear all day. And I just look up to him, and I I talk to him frequently, or either for feedback, you know, like, hey, how things are going, or sometimes I need to bounce things off him. I mean, he's been doing it for so long. Hey, what about, how can you, what do you see here that I'm not seeing? And he's very blunt, right? I definitely rely on him for for feeling one of the many I rely on for feedback, Josh White 49:21 definitely. Yeah, he, he's one of those people you meet and you're like, I'm glad he's on our side. I'm glad he works on our team. Yeah, Speaker 1 49:27 he's a he's a fantastic individual. I do enjoy talking to him. So I got a question for you. Do you have a book that you go to or a book that you recommend people read or like, what's your top I know, I know you spoke about it. You have a lot of different books, and you get exposure to a lot of leaders who read a lot of different books. But like, for you personally, what's your go to? Josh White 49:52 So I have a few. Not ones you would expect, though. I mean, perfect. I'd say one is. Uh, it's an old school one kind of the alchemist. And you reminded me of that today. I love the alchemist because I read it before I joined the military, and it's very much a coming of age story, finding your place in life. And I needed that. I was looking for encouragement to join, because I would be, I am the fourth generation Air Force. You know, it started with Army Air Corps. To me, I really wanted to serve, but I was scared to leave. I'm not gonna lie, like I had, I had, it made, you know, I was living in a great neighborhood, great house. I had, you know, my family was happy. Had this big, happy family, like, all these friends, like, I really, it really took a lot of courage for me to even leave. And so I was seeking this information out, this information out this encouragement, I stumbled across that book, and you were telling a story earlier about a friend who essentially had a tragic car accident. But because of that accident, it led to a scan that found a cancerous tumor of sorts that they were able to remove in time. So then it kind of makes you wonder, what was that accident like meant to happen? Was I meant to find this so I could keep going? That's pretty much the whole concept of the alchemist. Like, yeah, he's trying to get this. Like, he's like a sheep herder or something. He's trying to get these animals through this, this valley and everything stopping them, like, weather, illness, everything. And then by the end, he realizes each one of those things actually saved his life so that he could fulfill this grand purpose. At the end, he sees now why those hard times happened. So I have to bring that book up, just because of that story you told. I was like, that's the alchemist. Yeah. I like the way of the Peaceful Warrior, another Coming of Age book that I gravitated towards about, like, discipline. How bad do you want your gold? Really, truly. How good do you think you are? Are you as good as you think you are? What can you work on? It's all about, like, humbling yourself on your journey. I like Jonathan Livingston, Siegel, I believe that was written in like, the 70s. That's to me. It kind of reminds me of the matrix. I like the matrix with with, like, I know the rules, but that doesn't limit me from doing something that has never been done before. Like, that's kind of the message I get from the Matrix where Neo can break through the barriers of the rules of the world. Yeah, you know. And Jonathan Livingston, Seagull is kind of that same concept. It's like, I'm we're all just seagulls fighting for this food. Like, don't you think there's more to life than just us fighting each other for food, and he starts to, like, just try to see how fast he can fly. So he would like, learn how to, like, hone his wings, because he was studying eagles and how they fly, how they narrow their bodies, and all the other birds are making fun of them. They're talking trash like you're Why are you wasting energy on this stuff, and he ends up like trans I think it goes like another planet. It gets a bit wild, but the overall message is like you are meant for so much more than fighting for food, like you have a much grander purpose, that you have unlimited potential. Don't sell yourself short. So that's why I gravitate towards that book. And then the last one I'll mention to you is Love is letting go of fear. So that book is written by a guy. He has a real unique name, Gerald Jim plowsky. It's very unique name. If you Google that title, you'll love is letting go of fear you'll see it, but it's basically like the most simple, broken down concept on how you're torturing yourself by trying to control things you can how you're not loving the people that deserve all your love. It makes it lays it out so anyone could understand, like, why you might not be happy or fulfilled. It writes it in like, a genius way. There's even like, Kid cartoon style drawings that he did like he he made it so easy for me to be like, I that's why I'm torturing myself. Like, just really made things clear about your negative trains of thought or how to treat people that you really love. But he essentially narrows it down to you're either afraid of something or you love something, like which one are you gonna pick? Yeah, because it all comes down to that a fear or love. Speaker 1 54:31 I just thought that was genius. It's like being mindful, just being in the moment, to control what you can you can only control, like your perception and your outcome Josh White 54:40 and anything else outside of that, it's going to cause you stress. It's going to cause you anxiety. Yeah, because it oftentimes doesn't work. It does sometimes, you know, you'll maneuver some things and hey, that worked just how I wanted it. But more often than not, you can't predict what another person is going to do or think. Of wild cards and trying to control the environment, the situation, the outcomes. I mean, that's, that's your fear and your ego, yeah, and that's not gonna, that's not sustainable on the long term. You will have to switch gears at some point. Speaker 1 55:19 Yeah. It's like, where you are doesn't define who you are exactly. I love that. Yeah, that's a it's cool. Do you have a book that you gift? Are you a gifter? Like I have Unknown Speaker 55:31 never gift a book, really? Have you seen the economy? Speaker 1 55:39 Like I may send you a discount code. Let's send you a book. Speaker 2 55:44 Um, no, I have, I don't, I don't think I've, I don't think I've done that. Um, I probably should, though, Josh White 55:50 yeah, if I, if I did, I would probably gift. I'd say probably the way of the Peaceful Warrior. Hmm, I feel like anyone could read that and get something out of it, because we're it kind of fits with our military mindset of discipline, honing your skills, honing the basics, and really getting that down while knowing that ego back, dialing that back, not letting that steer I think any military person could read that and learn something from it. So I probably need to gift that Do you own it? I do not do I need to get I gift it to you. Absolutely. Okay, I'll do your first gift. First one, you get that book. All right, that sounds good. We just got paid, right? Yeah, you're getting that book. Appreciate Unknown Speaker 56:37 it. Looking forward to it. Josh White 56:40 Okay, well, I want to hear some of your books, then Speaker 1 56:44 I have a lot. I'm not a big reader, just for the sake of time, so I do a lot of audio books, and I never thought I'd be at a point in my life. And I mean, take me back years ago, I would call myself crazy, where I can actually work out and run and listen to podcasts and but I rarely ever listen to music. Now, it's almost always because my time is so limited in the day, and I've got to, you know, you know, like, first for knowledge, but I want to time the read. And we're like, do all these things and in to separate them. So I got to figure out, what can I blend together? So I use my car ride. I used to it when I was in North Carolina, because it took me about 4550 minutes to get to work. So I just started listening to audio books. And Josh White 57:28 by the way, that's all I do now too. That's it. I'll even someone will gift me a book, because authors love podcast, and I will just, in turn, buy the audio book. Yeah, I won't even read the book. I'll just listen to that audio book like, yeah, read it, yeah. Because I just like you, I love doing chores with an audio book. I love doing the dishes while listening to something, mowing the lawn while listening to something. Like, that's like the best time to do it, yep. So I'm right there with you. So I have Speaker 1 57:55 a the daily stoic is probably a get book I've gifted the most. And I just, I just really enjoy the look. It's, it's a daily read, but a paragraph that applies it to life. It's really interesting and helps get a different look on it. Sun Tzu, The Art of War is, you know, classic, military classic, although you can't work out to that one, because it's very kind of Shakespearean, the way it's read. So it's like, the way of the warrior is to, you know, it's like this very Speaker 2 58:31 you're trying to get very hard to run last set of bench. You're like, why am Speaker 1 58:34 I listening to this in times of strength, this isn't helping. You're like, David Goggins, both of his books phenomenal, I believe. Read the first one. I need to read the second one. Second one is excellent. The first one, I think, is outstanding. I've read it, and I've got it on audiobook too, and probably a few times. There's another one called the Energy bus, which I've gifted a few times, which is a really cool book. I've played it for my kids. Oh, wow. And it's very applicable book for adults or kids. So really easy four hour audio book or something, but it's very applicable. There's chasing excellence by Ben Bergeron, where he was one of the more successful coaches for CrossFit game athletes. But he looks at it from more of a mindfulness standpoint on how to like a strong, strong athlete has a strong mind and overcoming your fears and kind of like the athleticism is part of it, but it's not the majority of it. It's a lot of you know, gratitude and outlook and purpose and meaning and mindfulness and controlling what you can so those are all really good aspects the Jordan Peterson, his books are great. I don't always understand most of them. Like, I can, I can only take them, and I gotta listen to him for short periods of time. And then I gotta, like, pause. And I gotta, because he is so dense the way he speaks. He's just like, he does not waste a line. So I'll listen to a couple minutes. I gotta be like, pause. I. To unpack all that, so just sit there in silence and run through it. Because he's just, Josh White 1:00:04 I love some of his speeches, to his clips on YouTube where I'm like, Oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. Like he talks about chasing happiness, and how people think it's rooted in money, but he's, it's shown that, like, I think he has, it's like, no more than $80,000 a year. Anything after that is not permanent happiness, yeah? Like, stop looking at that. Stop trying to be rich, to be had. Like, that's not you're doing it wrong. Like, the but the way he tells those stories, it's just like, hits, yeah? So I love his very deep I love his stuff too, and Speaker 1 1:00:36 the way he talks. And there's several more I listen to, but I'll leave it at that. That's probably a good little handful to go with. And then, of course, there's all you know, the Military Historical reading, like, Danger Zone, about face. Those are all really good. Any leader should be reading these kind of books, because they're very they're very impactful. They're they're good insight. And as much as we say, like, what was I saying? Go, like, History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. And if you listen to a lot of historical battles or strategic books, you realize that the game has not changed a lot, and you start to see things resurface, and then you start to put them all together. And you know that's it's just good for people to kind of have that kind of perspective. I believe Josh White 1:01:23 definitely, yeah, sometimes you think your problems unique to you, and you realize it's happened dozen times in the past. Speaker 1 1:01:30 Yeah, when I was talking to you, it's funny. I was talking to a panel earlier, we started talking about the, you know, the attributes of leadership and some of the not so great attributes of leaderships and their experience. And they had a room full of people, different afscs, all different career fields, all over the Air Force, and all of them had the same views. Somebody say, like, I view this as not a good leadership quality. People quality. And people have nod. Some people say this is a good leadership quality, and people have not. I'm like, Look at this. Like, we all work in different places. We all agree what good leadership should be, and what good people should good attributes people should have. And it really was interesting. So you notice the whole temperature of the room turn because now it's just like one group of people instead of a room full of people meet different AFSC. So it was like that quick of just like, Well, really, you guys deal with that too. We're all we're all people, right? I Josh White 1:02:22 love when I worked in honor guard. I got to do that every day, because you got folks from all over the base, yep. So that's a great eye opening talks that you have in that setting. Speaker 1 1:02:32 What an honor sounds funny. What an honor. Thing to do is be able to do honor guard like we when we send people out for it to do the Augmentee, they come back and say it was some of the most valuable experiences they've had, definitely, of being able to do that. So I, you know, that's a awesome opportunity ahead. It Josh White 1:02:53 is. It's, um, you know, I got to the point in my life where I wanted to do something most people couldn't do. I wanted to serve in a truly unique, purposeful capacity, and so honestly, honor guards, like, the last thing I normally would sign up for, like, that's a hard emotional thing to do. I absorb emotions, right? Like, all the movements I'm not naturally good at like that either. I have no rhythm, right? So it's like I was walking into, like, everything I'm not great at, but I but at my core, I wanted so badly to to do something to truly serve and know I made a difference. Yeah, and that's where I found it, especially the active duty funerals, which we did during my time seven, it all depends on their their home of record, where they're going to get buried so they could pass away across the world, but their home of record comes Missouri, which there's a lot of veterans, and so you're doing that active duty service, they just pop up. And I felt so much emotion, so much so that, like when I would even hear one's coming, I would get emotional, because I know what's going to happen. I know how it's going to look, how it's going to feel. You know, I start preparing myself immediately upon notification to start training right away for it, and because I know it's going to be challenging for everyone there. So we're gonna have to rely on those basics to get through it. Yeah, Speaker 1 1:04:23 and so impactful for the family. I mean, it's such a special moment. Josh White 1:04:26 It is you're you're there for them in a way no one else can be there for. You know, it's so unique, so much pride, that they'll carry with that flag, you know, forever. It's a powerful symbol. The whole thing is, is a powerful symbol. You know, every movement, every every you know, firing party, every flag fold. It's all a powerful testament to honor that person. So, yeah, it was a it was life changing, for sure. I took Speaker 1 1:04:55 my son to the honor guard graduation that we had here. And you know, they do. Ceremony. Every time this graduate, he thought it was amazing. And I was like, you know, I'm really trying to expose them more, since we've been gone so much throughout my career, trying to bring him a brand to Chief recognition ceremony. I brought him to the Air Force Ball. I bring him to, like, I try to bring him to a lot of these things. And brought him to the honorary That was insane. He's like, that was so cool. Except I forgot to tell him about the firing that they actually use blanks, and so watching him jump when they actually capped off that round was pretty funny. I was like, it scares the hell I told you they're gonna shoot. He's like, I didn't know it's gonna be that loud, Josh White 1:05:32 dad. So I'll tell you the craziest, like, loud one I've ever, ever encountered, was a, you know, we had someone from white men pass away. And, you know, we were like, you know, are we going to have honors here, or are we going to do the honors at his place of burial, which was not Missouri, the family opted to do it at Whiteman because so many people cared about this person. They want to be a part of it. And that was one of the very few. It kind of hit me in that moment, like, the base doesn't see us, right? Like everybody outside the base sees it, but everyone here doesn't see us do honors, right? Because the funerals are off base and for civilians. You know, this was one of the rare times that, like a full active duty group, were witnessing these honors, right? It's kind of a rare thing, but it was in a hanger, and when those rifles went off, you could hear it echo all the way down the flight line. I mean, powerful, yeah, that's usually if anyone's holding on to their emotions, that startle is when it all comes out. It's just something I've noticed, yeah, very impactful. It makes you jump for a split second. So if you were holding anything in, like it's out, it's you're just gonna let it all out at that point. Unknown Speaker 1:06:53 Yeah, they're really special ceremonies, for sure. Josh White 1:06:56 All right. So looking around the room, you clearly have done amazing things, very unique things like we were discussing, is there any particular story you know that you're allowed to share that was a trying time for you or something that took a lot of grit on your behalf to get through? Speaker 1 1:07:17 Oh, there's plenty, if I can think of, I don't know, we may need to come back to I'll think of something I definitely anybody who knows me is rarely ever, you know, at a loss for words. I always tell people, like, how much time you know, if they you know, if I go somewhere, speaking like, how much time do I have? Okay, you gotta give me, like, a five minutes in, because I'll just keep going. So we're like, all right, like, wrap it up, but I'll have to come back. There's definitely, there's definitely a lot, and I just have to think of one that would apply. Josh White 1:07:59 So yeah, and not trying to avoid the question. Oh, no, it's all good if don't want to babble, if it's something that you know you don't want to share too, you know, by all means, don't want to put you in a bad spot. No, Speaker 1 1:08:14 there's a there's definitely a lot that, but they all contributed to, you know, growth is, you know, the good and bad, and they all contribute to who you are. You kind of like a product of everything you've experienced. It's kind of wrapped up in one, you know, one concentrated can of you that's all made up of elements that you've experienced and people you've had interactions with. And, you know, good, bad and different, and everything in between is creating who you are. That's Josh White 1:08:42 why I love like offices like your most chiefs offices usually are they tell a story, you know, like, so those pieces of what you're talking about are throughout this room. You know, each coin, like, I can even see a four star general coin from here, there's a story behind that. Yeah, coin, each going away, gift, each certification. I mean, you had a knife on the wall right there. What is that? I don't know. Speaker 1 1:09:11 So, a knife, it was a it's a tradition within some of the places that I went with and the reason for the the knife is, the story goes back is the knife is symbolic, and it's one of the most reliable and dependable pieces of a battlefield kit. It's also your last line of defense. So it's symbolic of like leadership, reliability. You know, servant defense, because it's it's sharp, it's true, straight, highly effective. It's your last line of defense. And in many, many combats throughout history, including anywhere from about. All Mogadishu, the trench warfare in World War Two, to hand to hand combat in Vietnam, it's been used, and it's been highly effective. And so it's, it's a very important piece of anybody's kit. And so it was really symbolic of a lot of units you would get a one, one ones on. I really enjoy. I've got to I was deployed with it, an overseas unit, British unit, and they gave me a knife, which I really cherished, and they did a little inscription on and that's one behind you there. But I'm kind of like an old school sucker. Like, I like, I like patches and coins and not arbitrary ones, but I really like when somebody it doesn't matter what it is, it could be like, I don't even care, but somebody thought enough to think like, hey, I want you to have a piece of this right negative and like, those always mean a lot to me, and so that's why I don't have many coins. But all the ones that I do display mean a lot to me, and it's because they were given to me in real sincerity and or even done some joint exercises where somebody's giving me, like, their patch, and they're like, hey, like, thanks for everything you did. And they gave me a patch. I'm like, just patch right off their arm. But to me, it means so much, you know. And so I really, I really appreciate that. So that's why I try. And, you know, I like that stuff around me, because it kind of, you know, keeps me, keeps my head in the game of what's going on. It's like General McChrystal, like when he was not, I'm not comparing myself to by any means, but he had the story that I thought was interesting when he was in Afghanistan. He had a nail on the wall which he hung his kid on and he had one picture of his family, and he said that was it. He didn't keep anything else, because he's like, I wanted to be focused on the war all the time, because I was deployed, I had people under my command, and I wanted to make sure my focus was there. And so I thought that was interesting. So, you know, a lot of this stuff just helps keep focus of like, what we're doing, we work for everybody around us, and we need to make sure that, you know, everybody's taken care of, Josh White 1:12:05 definitely, yeah. I mean, it's definitely a good perspective to have a good time to, you know, reflect on every your experiences, everything you've been through. It probably ground you, you know, keeps it keeps you, you know, sharp, like that knife up there, which I already wrote. I had no idea it was that symbolic, which is, as you were explaining it, I was like, that's actually super powerful. So that's amazing. And then you have one behind me here, that was, you know, from a foreign military. That's even more impactful, right? Because that's like you impressed another country's team at that point. You know, with with however you earned that that's amazing, Speaker 1 1:12:47 or maybe I was just funny. You could have been funny. Maybe I don't know, maybe they felt sorry for I don't know, whatever it was I got the night I thought it's pretty happy. That's Josh White 1:12:55 how I got hired as that exec just made my commander laugh. That's Speaker 1 1:13:01 how I got hired. Think that's how I got most my promotions, right? Josh White 1:13:05 Yeah, a lot of joy and making someone laugh. It actually is a good approach. Yeah, you said having fun was one of your tenants, right? Yes, there you go. Speaker 1 1:13:14 I love if you're not having fun, then what do you do, right? You know, you got to appreciate what you're doing. You got to understand we're a very unique service. Or less than 1% of the world is in the arms services. And you know, we need to cherish that. We think it's really big, because it's our entire life. We look at the room, we see people in uniform. But really, if you draw out that perspective, and look at a 330 million people in the United States, and how many are serving in the DOD, I mean, it's, a fraction, right? And so it's very unique set. So if you're not having fun doing that, and not happy where you are, like, you should either reevaluate what you're doing or maybe just change your perspective. Because what, what anybody's doing in the military is really special no matter what you're doing, because nobody can do what you do. It doesn't matter what your career field do. Go like, Well, all I do is this, well, oh yeah. Well, nobody else can do that. I can't do it, so I need you to do it, you know, and that's a lot of the I think there's a lot of the humility and the humbleness that you get from working with like, small teams. Because small teams, you're never going to be the best, the most accurate shooter. You're not going to be the the biggest stud at PT, you're not going to be the smartest. Like, there's always some sort of variance that keeps you humble, and you need everybody on that team to do their job and and they're, you know, especially in those environments, they're not afraid to tell you they're in a very supportive way is like, I need you to do your job because I can't do your job. So you need to do it, and I need to be able to rely on you, and I don't have to think about it. So you can't just phone it in every day. You gotta go in and we say, like, every day is a job interview. And we we'd have a badge that would get into our our unit. And if you came back from a deployment or a TDY, and you're in the parking line, you're walking in, you run on one of your buddies, they're like, how to go? And you're like, um, you'd scan your badge and it'd go green, and the door would open. You're like, I guess it was a. K Josh White 1:15:00 still have a job. They didn't turn it off. Yeah, I like that. That's funny. All right, believe it or not, we've been talking for an hour and 12 minutes. Does it feel like that? No, no, Speaker 1 1:15:13 it was really fun. I always enjoy talking to you, so just another conversation, and I really enjoy it. Of course, we're in headphones, but it still feels like we're just having a normal conversation, which I think that's what this long form is supposed to be. But I really enjoy it Josh White 1:15:29 absolutely so as we, you know, come to an end here, a closing here, is there any sort of topic, story or final thought that you want to make sure we cover before we cut out of here. The Speaker 1 1:15:44 The one thing I want to touch on is that I think we get too wrapped up in maybe somebody else will do it, or it's not my job, or, you know, nobody's gonna listen to me because I'm only 20, or I'm only 25 or I'm only a staff sergeant, or I'm only a tech sergeant, and that's that's not the way we work. I mean, we need to understand that this is this family needs everybody to make this work, and everybody matters. And I don't mean that like, you know, fluffy language or anything, but you look at in 1776 the Declaration of Independence. John Adams was 18 years old. Oh, wow, 18 years old. George Washington was 44 Wow. I mean, that's Speaker 2 1:16:31 Paul Revere was 39 so that's 41 years Speaker 1 1:16:35 old. Wow. When they wrote so our founding fathers were probably an average age of like, 2528 years old. If you you could look up how old are the founding fathers? You stunned at how old they were and what we do, the decisions we make and how we do things, makes a difference. Like we we put the Tuskegee Airmen in battle, a unit of black pilots in a battle 20 years before we ended segregation in America. That was 1942 the segregation Act was 1964 Wow. We put people in the battle. We put we put a female and they said, Oh, well, you know, that's the way it's always been. You know, we're not going to do it. But we changed that, you know, they said we couldn't put women in the combat. We flew female pilots in 1993 and they said, You'll never make that happen. It's not this way. It's always been done. We put females in combat in 2000 I think, 2006 2009 with females in combat, they said it would never happen. We created space force like we make things happen. And these, these didn't happen from some general sitting behind a desk who says, hey, you know, it's a good idea. It came from, from younger people who said, Hey, like, we need to reframe the way we think. And leaders listened, and then they made it happen. So there's been huge, seismic changes. And when we talked about earlier, from the time we created a plane. The Wright brothers created a plane. To the time we had one in battle was seven years, eight years, 1901 and then 1909 we're flying them in aerial combat. It's like we've done amazing things, and we need not forget about that, not to go down too far, like the history lane. But it's like sometimes people go like, Oh, it's really, no, it's, it's not complicated. It's really simple. Like, Unknown Speaker 1:18:25 and it's still going, Unknown Speaker 1:18:27 Yes, like, Josh White 1:18:28 we like to think it's like, not us, that's, that's the past, that's history. You're writing it today. Yes, there's huge things happening in our lives today. You and I went through 911 that's why a lot of us joined or stayed in there. We continue to make things better, to break that glass ceiling, to do what was impossible. It's still going it's still happening today. Speaker 1 1:18:51 You constantly improve your foxhole, and you're not going to change the entire world in one sitting, but you move it a little bit further. Like to reference my crystal again, he said, they said, they said, what's the ideal chess board for you? If you had that battlefield was a chess board, how would you maneuver the pieces? And he said, the pieces would communicate with each other and maneuver. That's the ideal chess board, not me controlling them, but their inner communication and versatility and adaptation amongst each other and communicating with the pieces on the board and moving on their own, which Josh White 1:19:24 that was the concept from the Civil War. Really, I didn't know that. I mean, you're eligible to go to that course. There's a chiefs. One of the many, you know, cool opportunities that you'll get you could do is there you could actually go to the battlefield and learn all about the history of the civil war and how that ties to combat today. But they were kind of the reason they won the war was because they started they realized, like, hey, sending a guy on horseback to ask for permission, it's not working, because that's how it works forever. It was, like, very regimented, like you do not do anything. Unless you ask me, and then I asked my boss, like it was very regimented and in the civil world, that's where it changed. Where they were. They granted autonomy, trust. I need you to go do this. I trust you, and then report back to me. And they started approaching it that way. Yeah. They started communicating more. They started empowering each other more. A lot of those lessons from that Speaker 1 1:20:22 are applied today that probably set the model for the decentralized execution Exactly. Josh White 1:20:26 I think that's literally what they how they explained it. See it Speaker 1 1:20:30 rhymes, doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes, right? Josh White 1:20:33 It's still valuable to this very day. We do it because we've seen it done before, and I think it's very eye opening to know where a lot of those concepts originated, and they haven't changed. It's the communication still valuable. You know, empowering people still works. Speaker 1 1:20:52 Guess what? It didn't break. Works like the world didn't burn, right? We made things better. Absolutely, yeah, that's how that's good. I'll have to find out about that. Course, thanks for bringing that up with me on one more. I really find that interesting. You Josh White 1:21:05 would love it, especially, you know, like listening to books. You like history, you like leadership, philosophy, like you this, this is your bread and butter. Speaker 1 1:21:14 Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. Yeah. Get some more information on that, and I can Josh White 1:21:19 if you want to take a PA guy, to document it with you. I think that'd be great. Let me know. Speaker 1 1:21:23 Hey, if we find a way to sail that one through constantly improving our foxhole, develops you, develops me, puts out there together. I think it's good. I think we figured out the narrative. We Josh White 1:21:33 did. We got a point. We got a way forward, which, by the way, AI is getting crazy, not to go down a rabbit hole, but I use a program called otter.ai to give me transcripts, because then I can then take those transcripts and and do a lot with the transcript, like I can make articles out of them. But recently, it just incorporated an AI where there's a section that says follow ups really so like, exactly what I just said to you, Hey, we should do this. It would be like, on it would give me a checklist of what I need to follow up with you on based on this talk. And it would list it out, tell me that's not wild. I Speaker 1 1:22:12 love it as much as I'm cautious about AI. I'm excited about it too, because there is it, like, it's so darn convenient sometimes things you're just like, I really, really having a tough time hating this thing. Like, this is pretty Josh White 1:22:25 I mean, that's the balance, though it that's when, that's when it works. When you have the balance, where you meet it, you know, halfway, not give it the reins, yeah, yeah. So when you meet it halfway, that's, that's how it's supposed to work, Speaker 1 1:22:39 yeah. So I have the chess pieces communicate and move, but you still own the chessboard, right? Josh White 1:22:44 And they still follow up with you. Yes, they're still trust, but verify. Speaker 1 1:22:50 Yes, trust but verify. Very valuable piece of advice, right there. Josh White 1:22:54 I'm gonna put that on a t shirt. I'm gonna just, I stopped making shirts A while ago, but I need to, like, bring it back and put, like, really old school military terms on them, I think that would be sure to where it's at. Yeah, I would love that. All right, Chief, any did we cover everything you want to talk about, or is there anything Speaker 1 1:23:10 you did? No, I, I mean, I, of course, I can keep going on this, but I really enjoyed talking with you and getting a chance to speak with you. I really, I love your podcast. I love what you do, and you have a great opportunity to talk to a lot of people, and I learn a lot from it. And you're in a very unique position where you get to extract all this information from people that I think a lot of people don't have access to, and you're able, by position and how big your podcast is getting, that you're able to get this information out there, and leaders are constantly looking at reasons, like we spoke about general Garrity there earlier, about how do we get this information out to people? And you're the conduit to doing that. You're doing a great job with it. Thank you. I'm really honored to be able to have a chance to sit down and talk with you. Of course, always love talking with you. And yeah, you're doing great things. I appreciate, really appreciate you. And I'm not the only one saying that. I'm sure there's a ton of people out there who appreciate it and who are listening to you. Thank Josh White 1:24:06 you for saying that. I appreciate that. And Chief, you know, what I love about you is that you know you have this tremendous experience, right? You've clearly been through a lot of things, and you, you look like you look tough. I'm just gonna be honest like you don't look like the average medic. You look tough. But when, when you, when we sit down and we get to know you like you're so wise, you're so kind and loving to people that we talked about general Garrity checking, like all those leadership boxes. I feel that same way about you. Speaker 1 1:24:42 That's really nice. Thank you very much. I'm gonna carry that with me the rest of the day. That's gonna put fuel in my fire. Absolutely I appreciate that. That's a really Josh White 1:24:53 you're very unique. You're exceptional, and anyone who works for you gets to work with you, you know that's a blessing. For us. So I wanted to thank you for being you, for showing up for us every day the way you do, and for coming on the HeroFront Podcast and spending time with this audience. So I just want to thank you personally for that. Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. It's been an honor Absolutely. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to the very end, this was the hero's journey of Chief Jason Weiss, and we're out.