Jon Macaskill, who spent 24 years as a Navy SEAL, is the special guest on this week’s episode of The American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast.
Jon Macaskill spent 24 years as a Navy SEAL, leading special operations, and deploying to war zones including Iraq, Afghanistan, and off the coast of Somalia. He was in the Joint Operations Center the night of Operation Red Wings, the Afghanistan mission that claimed 19 American lives, including men he called his own.
Ten years later, in 2015, a Navy psychologist told Macaskill he should try mindfulness and meditation.
He laughed.
“I was like, what? No, man. I’m this badass special operator. Why are you telling me to do this woo-woo stuff?”
But in time, Macaskill embraced mindfulness. The retired Navy SEAL commander, Naval Academy graduate, leadership coach and co-host of the Men Talking Mindfulness podcast is this week’s special guest on The American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast.
Operation Red Wings
Born in South Africa and raised in Ruston, La., Macaskill enlisted in the Navy in 1996 as a parachute rigger before earning an appointment to the Naval Academy. He graduated with the class of 2001, and four years later, he was in Afghanistan when Operation Red Wings unfolded.
“Those were my boys,” he says. “Those were my guys. Being in the Operations Center was the last place I wanted to be when all that was going down.”
The mission ended with 19 Americans dead. Macaskill carried the weight of surviving it. He was present enough to know what was happening, but powerless to change the outcome. A decade of self-medication, prescription drug abuse and darkness followed.
“I got to a point that was really ugly,” he says. “And I sought out some counseling.”
That psychologist convinced him to think of mindfulness not as therapy, but as a performance tool. “He said, OK, what if I had a pill that I could give you that would improve your performance? I was like, yeah, doc, give me that pill. It wasn’t a pill. It was mindfulness and meditation.”
He started practicing it. And then something else happened.
“I found levels of peace that I hadn’t had in years — or decades, even.”
Now, Macaskill helps reframe mindfulness.
“Hypervigilance is a high level of situational awareness,” he explains. “Mindfulness is a high level of situational awareness. Where mindfulness takes an extra step is that you go on the inside as well.”
Mindfulness can be life-changing of life-saving for veterans managing PTSD, intrusive thoughts, sleep disruption, or similar issues.
Mindfulness, as Macaskill teaches it, isn’t necessarily meditation though meditation is part of it. It’s being present with your dogs on a morning walk. It’s having a real conversation instead of staring at 27 browser tabs. It’s noticing when a 5-year-old’s meltdown about shoes is pulling you toward a reaction that has nothing to do with shoes.
“I’m a 48-year-old man,” he says. “Who does the emotional regulation fall on? It should be me, not her.”
Red marks the spot
Macaskill describes how he chose to be visible about his own mental health treatment while still in uniform. He kept a large wall calendar and blocked off days in red for mental health appointments where his sailors could see it.
“I had guys come up to me: ‘Hey boss, is everything OK?’ I’m like, yeah. I’m going to go visit my psychologist. I’m going to go have some therapy. I’m going to talk through some things and I’m learning some tools that are helping me.”
Some of them started seeking mental health support of their own. That’s leadership.
“Going to the gym is not about fixing yourself,” he explains. “It’s about maintaining yourself. Mental health appointments can be there to both maintain your mental fitness and get a tune-up if you need it.”
Also in this episode, Tango Alpha Lima hosts Adam Marr and Joe Worley discuss:
• The DOJ dropping the hammer on a towing company targeting servicemembers.
• The start of American Legion Boys Nation.
• Myths and facts about meditation and mindfulness.
Don’t miss this inspiring conversation. Subscribe to the Tango Alpha Lima Podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Join a community that celebrates authentic veteran stories and proves that service is a lifelong commitment.
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