#91 - Henry Dick Thompson Survived The Impossible Mission

Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1nNm2rxY-Q

A woman’s voice broke through his encrypted radio, reading his team’s obituaries. Twenty-two men surrounded by 800 enemy soldiers—and somehow Dr. Dick Thompson survived to tell the story.

Code-named “Dynamite,” Dick led recon teams deep behind enemy lines in Vietnam. The North Vietnamese called him “completely nuts,” and they weren’t wrong. He chained seven claymores together, slid 150 feet down a rope with bare hands to save a crew under fire, and once called in cluster bombs on his own position—fifteen landed inside his perimeter, none detonated.

But this conversation isn’t just war stories. It’s what combat taught him about fear, stress, leadership, and faith. Dick explains the psychology of battle, why “stress sweat” smells different, how box breathing saved his life, and why adapt became his team’s defining rule.

Tim and Troy go straight into the hardest questions: making irreversible decisions, coming home to protesters spitting on him, the difference between killing with a knife vs. a gun, and whether surviving fifteen unexploded bomblets is anything but divine intervention.

Dick doesn’t flinch. He talks about the voice that saved his life, the smell of an ambush, the illusion of being bulletproof at nineteen, and the leadership principle that works in boardrooms and battlefields alike: lead from the front.

This episode will change how you think about stress, decision-making, and what the human body can do under extreme pressure. Dick’s wisdom applies far beyond combat—to every impossible choice and every moment you must decide whether to freeze or move.

Dr. Dick Thompson is a combat veteran, psychologist, Mensa member, and author of the Code Named Dynamite series. Today, he trains law enforcement, first responders, and special operations forces in stress management and high-performance leadership.

GET DICK'S BOOKS: "Code Named Dynamite: Book One" and "Book Two" "The Stress Effect"

https://www.hpsys.com/SOGCD.html

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Trailer 00:52 Intro 01:28 Introducing Dr. Dick Thompson 02:30 A Harrowing Encounter in Vietnam 18:16 Growing Up in a Military Family 22:10 Joining the Military and Early Missions 24:53 Experiencing Combat and Leadership 37:33 Understanding and Managing Stress 40:44 Returning Home and Coping with Civilian Life 45:04 Recon Missions: The Reality of Extraction 49:45 The Psychology of Combat: Predictable Reactions 53:21 Stress Management Techniques: Box Breathing 56:45 Survival Strategies: Outnumbered but Not Outmatched 01:03:35 Leadership in Combat: Leading by Example 01:05:36 Premonition and Rescue: A Heroic Descent 01:17:35 Close Quarters Combat: The Brutal Reality 01:23:21 Claymore Tactics: Psychological Warfare 01:27:15 Fragmentation Days and Psychological Warfare 01:28:09 Mastering Invisibility in the Jungle 01:29:33 The Art of Stealth and Survival Tactics 01:37:57 Miraculous Survival and Divine Intervention 01:48:30 Brotherhood and Covert Operations 01:52:18 Emotional Intelligence and Leadership 01:58:15 Final Reflections and Book Recommendations

SPONSORS: ElevenLabs: Thanks to ElevenLabs (https://elevenlabs.io/) for supporting this episode and powering Tim’s voice.

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