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Riding The White Bull The Making Of A Navy Seal From He Who Lived It Jack Ratliff · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: It's an amazing place to hang out. Ero dot net
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  Speaker 1: a r r oe dot Net because it's all about
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  Speaker 1: and producers of professional wrestling. That is a story because
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  Speaker 1: we can all relate every generation. Where is it All
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  Speaker 1: Level Sports on aero dot net A r r oe
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  Speaker 1: dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hello, Hey, how are you
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  Speaker 1: doing today? Are you doing fantastic? Looking forward to sharing
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  Speaker 1: a conversation with you, because you're giving us an insight
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  Speaker 1: to something that we've all assumed. And what I mean
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  Speaker 1: by that is is that so many people, and I
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  Speaker 1: talk to them all the time, they all think that
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  Speaker 1: a Navy seal is a former professional wrestler or an
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  Speaker 1: NBA or a or NFL player, And so you can
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  Speaker 1: relay with this, but you know the real story here,
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  Speaker 1: j act.
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  Speaker 2: Well maybe I'm no part of the real story anyway. Sure,
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  Speaker 2: but to.
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  Speaker 1: Get there, I mean, I cannot imagine the constant changes
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  Speaker 1: that a Navy seal has to go through. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of us will complain every day about change, but in
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  Speaker 1: the world of being a Navy seal. Isn't that like
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  Speaker 1: every ten to fifteen minutes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's not more often than that. Somebody asked
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  Speaker 2: me one time, did you ever think about quitting? And
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  Speaker 2: I said, yeah, about seven hundred times. Yeah, it's you know,
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  Speaker 2: the seals. It's ingenious. I think the way the training goes,
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  Speaker 2: although it is really tough, they're not in that first
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  Speaker 2: month six weeks of training. They're not looking for intelligence,
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  Speaker 2: they're not looking for courage, they're looking for tenacity. They
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  Speaker 2: just want the guy who clamp on and just won't
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  Speaker 2: turn loose. And first day out there, we forty five
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  Speaker 2: of us were addressed by our drill instructor and Murphy,
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  Speaker 2: and he said, so you think you may not have
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  Speaker 2: a body for this, He said, don't worry about your body.
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  Speaker 2: If you got the WheelPower the Navy, we'll give you
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  Speaker 2: the body. And that's exactly what happened. The guys that finished,
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  Speaker 2: you'd never picked out of the first forty five. We
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  Speaker 2: had a bunch of football players from UCLA. They were
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  Speaker 2: tough because about a weekend they said, who needs this craft?
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  Speaker 2: We're out here. The Marines came. They wanted another challenge,
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  Speaker 2: they didn't like the water that much, and they wrapped
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  Speaker 2: it was a bunch of guys that I wouldn't say
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  Speaker 2: gub but we were not particularly impressive. But if there
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  Speaker 2: was something mentally about my group that made it true,
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  Speaker 2: that made them just turn, you know, sometimes I thought
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  Speaker 2: you gotta be a little nuts to put up with.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not a kidding. Yeah, he was well adjusted,
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  Speaker 2: like say those football star and so he's saying, I
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  Speaker 2: don't need this in my life, and he's well adjusted
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  Speaker 2: enough that it's not a big deal for him to
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  Speaker 2: say they said to this, And so I think I
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  Speaker 2: had some kind of abnormal need person to prove myself,
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  Speaker 2: and I suspect that's true of the other guys he
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  Speaker 2: made it through.
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  Speaker 1: I think one of the greatest things that you that
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  Speaker 1: you bring forward here in the way of being transparent,
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  Speaker 1: is that you say that training to be a Navy
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  Speaker 1: Seal is not an abstract but deliberate. And I love
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  Speaker 1: that because I'm a third dawn in martial arts. I
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  Speaker 1: know what it took to get that third degree black belt,
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  Speaker 1: but it ain't no Navy seal. But I do love
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  Speaker 1: the idea that it's a mental journey because You're right,
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  Speaker 1: it has to come from that source of information as
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  Speaker 1: well as energy.
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  Speaker 2: You're exactly right. I think I said this is the book.
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  Speaker 2: I figured out pretty soon this whole thing was not
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  Speaker 2: about at the body. It was about mine. And once
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  Speaker 2: you figure that out, you know it makes it easier
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  Speaker 2: to stay. But you know, you learned to play a
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  Speaker 2: little tricks on yourself. I mean, because it's a mind game.
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  Speaker 2: You played mind games on yourself. The one that really
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  Speaker 2: helped me was I pretended I was a recovering alcoholic,
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  Speaker 2: and I would say, Okay, I won't quit today, and
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  Speaker 2: then sometimes I'd say I won't quit for the next
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  Speaker 2: three hours, and sometimes the next hour. It even got
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  Speaker 2: down to where at times I say, okay, I won't
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  Speaker 2: quit for the next ten minutes, and then I can quit,
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  Speaker 2: and then I'll get another ten minutes. So, and there
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  Speaker 2: were other mental tricks I played. But the other thing
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  Speaker 2: was just happenstance. I had a friend who started the training.
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  Speaker 2: He dropped out in the first couple of weeks, and
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  Speaker 2: he hated himself. He would come over to my barracks
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  Speaker 2: at night when I was trying to get ready for
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  Speaker 2: the next day, and he'd been drinking a little bit,
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  Speaker 2: and he was brightfully crying about what a cowardy was
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  Speaker 2: while he was a quitter cloning the rest of his life.
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  Speaker 2: And I tried to tell him, you know, it's not
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  Speaker 2: only common sense that you quit, and it didn't make
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  Speaker 2: a bad person. But anyway, he was amusance at the time.
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  Speaker 2: But later on, when I was staying about quitting, I thought,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the next four hours is not as bad
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  Speaker 2: as hating myself for the rest of my life like that.
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  Speaker 2: Oh hell did so. And I'm not saying that people
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  Speaker 2: do that. I don't know several people who didn't make
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  Speaker 2: through the training, and since eighty five percent don't, it's
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  Speaker 2: no black mark.
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  Speaker 1: They please do not move. There's more with Jack Ratliff
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  Speaker 1: coming up next, the name of his book, Writing The
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  Speaker 1: White Bull The Making of a Navy Seal. We are
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  Speaker 1: back with Jack Ratliff. So were you like me during
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  Speaker 1: those training when you would sit there and say, man,
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  Speaker 1: I've only got four hours to do here. I can
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  Speaker 1: make it through the four hours. I base everything on
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  Speaker 1: how many songs can I get in four hours? And
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  Speaker 1: I would go, oh, okay, six forty songs. Okay, dude,
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  Speaker 1: you can handle forty songs. This isn't going to be
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  Speaker 1: that bad. Just I mean, don't you love that mental
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  Speaker 1: game that you got to put yourself through?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I do. And you know, my hat's off to
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  Speaker 2: you if you're a black belt. I mean that takes
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  Speaker 2: enormous discipline and a lot of athletic ability. I don't
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  Speaker 2: I've known a few black belts. Now, my hat's off
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  Speaker 2: to you.
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  Speaker 1: Get But see, the thing about it is, jack, is
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  Speaker 1: that you can't turn it off. And that's one of
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  Speaker 1: the questions that I was going to share with I
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  Speaker 1: ask you about a navy seal. You could be on
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  Speaker 1: the everyday street. Do you not still live the path
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  Speaker 1: of a navy seal? It's always on, you know.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. There's this image that doesn't fit me.
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  Speaker 2: It's some people about this guy who's super macho and
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  Speaker 2: somebody is acting up in the or maybe somebody's holding
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  Speaker 2: up a supermarket and you subduing with your bare hands
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  Speaker 2: or whatever. I've never felt that way, and I think
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  Speaker 2: the danger is in getting too full of yourself. I
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  Speaker 2: never thought about that very much. Although those, as you say,
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  Speaker 2: those lessons come back. I've been in some high tension
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  Speaker 2: that was a litigation lawyer for clay years, and I've
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  Speaker 2: been in some high tension cases and find myself at
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  Speaker 2: three in the morning, after being that late for four
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  Speaker 2: days in a row, trying to get ready for the
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  Speaker 2: next day, and I would say, you know, this is
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  Speaker 2: nothing compared to Hell week. It does give you a
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  Speaker 2: little contrast to, you know, if you start rapping about
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  Speaker 2: the physical or even mental problems of daily living. So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I think it's helpful that way. But I've never thought
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  Speaker 2: of myself as a kind of a macho guy. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, another thing that was definitely uncool among the seals.
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  Speaker 2: I've read a couple of books, one of them particularly
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  Speaker 2: about this guy who was over in afghanistand by himself,
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  Speaker 2: and I guess I won't name the book, but he
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  Speaker 2: was test beating test meeting about how seals are just
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  Speaker 2: superhuman and all these things we can do. And I thought,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I'll bet some publicist or ghostwriter talked him
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  Speaker 2: into doing that. Nobody I never talked right away. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, and they didn't have to. They didn't have to.
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  Speaker 2: We hang out and going out out at the bars
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  Speaker 2: and so on. And I think one reason they didn't
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  Speaker 2: do that is they didn't really feel like they had
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  Speaker 2: anything left to prove, so different from when I was
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  Speaker 2: on the ship, because the sailors would go ashore and
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  Speaker 2: they didn't think it had been a good liberty unless
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  Speaker 2: they came back after a couple of test fights. Because
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  Speaker 2: they're kept up on that ship and with the seals.
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  Speaker 2: I felt like those guys, they use up all that
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  Speaker 2: testosterone day to day. They didn't need to go get
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  Speaker 2: the fight. And I guess the other reason it's, frankly
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  Speaker 2: is nobody wanted to take them home, so they didn't
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  Speaker 2: really have to go around chest beating. They just worked
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  Speaker 2: at most of the fields. Were very quietly confident. They
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  Speaker 2: weren't blusterers. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, the name of the book is Writing the White Bull. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I got to be honest with you here, Jack. I
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  Speaker 1: grew up in the state of Wyoming, where we rode
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  Speaker 1: the calves, and so when I saw Writing the White Bull,
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  Speaker 1: oh my god, those calves versus this white bull. That's
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  Speaker 1: two completely different lifestyles. And caves, dude.
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  Speaker 2: Well, in the book I talked about my first rodeo
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  Speaker 2: experience was not the right Well, it was writing on
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  Speaker 2: caves and a honky tonkin Cervelle Texas, and yes, you're right,
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  Speaker 2: it's a lot of difference.
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  Speaker 1: Wo writing the book, I can't imagine what that did
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  Speaker 1: to And you know Julia Cameron from the artist why
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  Speaker 1: he says cleaning out your closet. Did you feel like
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  Speaker 1: that you were cleaning out your closet by putting together
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  Speaker 1: the writing the White Bull.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good image. There are a lot of
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  Speaker 2: these thoughts I've had about what that was like and
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  Speaker 2: about how you get through it. And you know, I
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  Speaker 2: don't try to bore people with that kind of stuff,
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  Speaker 2: but I felt like it was something I really really
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  Speaker 2: wanted to say. You know, I mentioned in the book.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's nothing as boring as an old just
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  Speaker 2: beating soldiery old soldiers they ever died, They just talked
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  Speaker 2: to everybody else to do.
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  Speaker 1: Ah.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't want to be one of those guys. But
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  Speaker 2: so I decided to put it down. And frankly, one
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  Speaker 2: main motivation is I want something from their great grandchildren
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  Speaker 2: to read, so they have some idea about what their
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  Speaker 2: ancestor was like.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, because I don't have that from my father. My
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  Speaker 1: father was in World War Two. He left me absolutely nothing.
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  Speaker 1: What it can and it's almost like he did not
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  Speaker 1: want me to know what he went through in World
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  Speaker 1: War Two, So therefore I'm stuck with history books and assumption.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, she's carry a little slack because
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  Speaker 2: the guys I was never in combat, and I have
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  Speaker 2: enormous admiration for people who work, But those guys that
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  Speaker 2: came back from World work too, they didn't want They
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  Speaker 2: were a lot of hats. Yep, you didn't diagnose it
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  Speaker 2: back then, and so they just didn't want to revisit that.
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  Speaker 2: And so I can't understand. I can understand your frustration,
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  Speaker 2: but I can understand why he wanted to put that
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  Speaker 2: behind him and not open that box again.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow, where can people go to find out more
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  Speaker 1: about what you're doing, Jack, Because I talk with a
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  Speaker 1: lot of different groups that are all meeting on Zoom
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  Speaker 1: these days, and they're looking toward people like yourself that
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  Speaker 1: really know the path and it's going to help them
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  Speaker 1: with their own journeys serving this nation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah you say you're doing that on zooms.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's they all meet on Zoom. And that was
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  Speaker 1: one of the funniest things and one of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: things because I talked with a sergeant and he goes.
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  Speaker 1: I said, do you guys all meet in one place
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  Speaker 1: at a library or a home. It's on Zoom, Dude,
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  Speaker 1: it's on zoom. And I went, man, you could not
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  Speaker 1: ask for a better place to meet with people around
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  Speaker 1: the nation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I say that's right, and I think you got it. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you?
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  Speaker 2: Jack, Well, I've got a website, Jack rat LIFs dot net.
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  Speaker 2: And you can also buy the book on the website.
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  Speaker 2: And the book is it's distributed by Ingom Sparks, so
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  Speaker 2: it's in most bookstores, but it's also on Amazon Online
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  Speaker 2: and Barks and Noble. And the website tells a little
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  Speaker 2: bit more about me, and to be candidate's kind of
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  Speaker 2: boring because most of it was a resume when I
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  Speaker 2: was a love professor. It's a lot in there about
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  Speaker 2: my legal career and about the books I've I've written
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  Speaker 2: books before this one, but they were textbooks for law
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  Speaker 2: classes and they sold very well. But the reason is
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  Speaker 2: the students had to buy them. So I'm now in
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  Speaker 2: a different marketplace.
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  Speaker 1: Well, please come back to this show anytime in the future. Jack,
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  Speaker 1: And I really do mean that, because you've got stories
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  Speaker 1: and there are people that need to hear them.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you're so kind, and I thank you so much
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  Speaker 2: for this opportunity to talk about my book.
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  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, sir, Well, thank you