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Combat Story

Special Ops Chaplain and Army Green Beret, 270 Jumps and 400+ Flight Hours, Strategic Advisor to 8 Four Star Generals - George Youstra

Combat Story

Ryan Fugit

History

4.81.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2023

⏱️ 109 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Join our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan for people who love and support our veterans, service members, and their families. It has info on a significant event in military and/or intel history, a funny military joke, an update on a current event I'm following, something I'm doing that week in my life, a book I'm reading, a look at an upcoming interview, a reflection on a past episode and more!

Today we have a unique and very interesting Combat Story with former Green Beret and later Command Chaplain at Special Operations Command, George Youstra. Do not be fooled by the Chaplain title, George's stories are powerful and show a side of the military very few who have not served will ever see.

George accumulated over 400 flight hours, primarily in the F-16, at the urging of his boss at the time, General Breedlove, so he could better connect with and serve the pilots and airmen he was assigned to. After building his reputation as a Chaplain within the Air Force fighter community, he was given a call sign, “Saul,” which is perfectly suited given his role and stature.

In his career, George was a personal advisor to eight Four Star Generals and helped drive religious efforts at both tactical and strategic levels in multiple combat theaters, particularly within the Special Operations community. I had no idea how critical the Chaplain’s role would be for combatant commands at the strategic level, which is something we dive into in this episode, in addition to the tactical experience just being present for soldiers and airmen about to go into harm’s way, on the verge of taking their own lives, supporting brothers-in-arms who just lost a best friend, and wrestling with their spirituality in the heat of combat.

At SOCOM, George served as the principal and personal staff advisor to the Commander, Directors, and headquarters staff in areas related to morale, ethics and spirituality, to include advising on the role and impact of religion in the strategic environment.

With that, I hope you enjoy this incredibly insightful and moving conversation with one of the few Chaplains to have seen combat himself as a Special Forces officer, as much as I did.

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- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
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- Instagram @chaplainustra https://www.instagram.com/chaplainustra/?hl=en
Suicide Prevention Hotlines:
Call: 988
Text: 838255
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Show Notes:
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Guest Introduction (George Youstra)
02:12 - Interview begins
02:45 - Childhood
04:45 - George's Marine Father
06:18 - Religion and the Military
08:48 - Path to the Chapalain Core
12:24 - Time in the Army
13:08 - Strom Thurmond
22:30 - Time in Special Forces
24:27 - Time in South America
29:30 - Challenging Operations as a Green Beret
34:30 - Going down the Chaplain path
37:16 - Training as a Chaplain
39:34 - Differences between Army and Air Force
42:21 - What makes a good Chaplain
50:04 - Day in the life of a Chaplain downrange
54:59 - Goals of a Chaplain
01:02:28 - Assistance with Mental Health
01:08:31 - "Saul" callsign
01:10:10 - Working with Fighter Pilots
01:18:47 - Perspective of leadership
01:22:40 - Leadership lessons
01:26:04 - Different religions in combat
01:37:58 - Most courageous act
01:41:37 - Sentimental items
01:43:03 - Do it all again
01:44:35 - Administering last rights
01:45:18 - Closing thoughts
01:46:19 - Listener comments and shout outs

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Going back to Iraq in 2007, I had a young airman come in one night, he's in my cubicle

0:07.0

office which was a shipping crate, shuts the door, locks it.

0:11.0

He sits in the chair across from me and this is right at the time that I'm going to struggle

0:15.6

with a lot of these things, takes his gun, cocks it, puts it in his mouth, says Chaplin.

0:20.4

He'll give me one good reason not to pull the trigger and don't tell me Jesus loves me.

0:25.8

Welcome to Combat Story.

0:26.8

I'm Ryan Fugid and I serve Warzone Tourers as an Army Attack Helicopter Pilot and

0:31.0

CIA Officer over a 15 year career.

0:33.6

I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat.

0:37.2

On this show, I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their

0:41.3

front lines.

0:42.6

This is Combat Story.

0:44.2

Today we hear a unique and very interesting combat story with former Green Beret and

0:48.7

later Command Chaplin at Special Operations Command George Eustra.

0:52.7

George accumulated over 400 flight hours, primarily in the F-16 at the urging of his boss

0:57.5

at the time General Breedlove, so he could better connect with and serve the pilots in

1:01.3

airmen he was assigned to.

1:03.0

After building his reputation as a Chaplin, within the Air Force Fighter community, he was

1:06.6

given a call sign, Saul, which is perfectly suited given his role and stature.

1:11.4

In his career, George was a personal advisor to eight four star generals and helped drive

1:15.7

religious efforts at both the tactical and strategic levels in multiple combat theaters,

1:20.8

particularly within the Special Operations community.

...

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