CHiPs TV star and Hollywood producer, Larry Wilcox, explains how the search for spiritual truth is a part of who we are as humans. He also shares how experiencing the horrors of war in Vietnam as a Marine at 18 years of age made a positive impact on his soul.
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I am very proud to have served with the few, the proud, the
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Marines, the evolution of such a person, his character, his quiet
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honor, and his core beliefs comes from many experiences that
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shed a unique light on something called truth.
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Truth can change with geography and can change with history and
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time, but one's inner truth and war is searing and more, clearly
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defined. This definition of Truth runs
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deeper than a Spectators death. Ignition.
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Perhaps my joining, the Marines was a positive adding enormous
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amounts of clarity for my soul. So what had thank you for
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bringing that quote up. I hadn't seen it or heard it in
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a long time. But basically, it came back to
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when I went into the Marine Corps and before chips and
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before producing and all the other things that I've done in
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the film business, I ended up in Vietnam and I was sitting on the
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In Danang, Vietnam in 1967 and I was reading Life Magazine about
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9th Marines getting the, you know, what?
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Kicked out of them and blowing up and bloodied and bandaged all
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on the DMZ in an area, called con thien.
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And then sitting, in that Old Red Dirt, waiting as Marines
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were getting off c-130s and helicopters and many of them
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bandaged heads covered eyes covered with gauze.
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And Lionel, man, I'm going into this nightmare and they read my
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name and my serial number which I won't repeat on here.
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But Wilcox. I was 18, 18 now, wow.
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And so they call my name and my stereo number Wilcox.
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Con thien. Oh man, I don't want to go to
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Conte and right on the DMZ. So we got in a C-130 and flew up
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to an You're called dongha and then to con thien and cut to the
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quote. So what happened over the next
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13 months is that, you know, we all learn a combination of
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disorders, psychological disorders, according to their
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books. If you will everything from
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denial to transference, do you name it?
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And as those layers complicate themselves and put various
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layers on the onion if you will. Will often never gets unpeeled.
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And as a result, you meet someone who isn't really, who
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you think they are, they learn to acclimate and or adapt in war
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puts you in a different circumstance.
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It strips you naked and the reason is is because it just
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shows your raw weaknesses and vulnerabilities and of course,
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string Yeah, Marine Corps helps a lot with that is training you
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to be resilient and tenacious and show heart and strength and
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insight and even intellect at times, but more importantly
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compassion. And so when you are exposed to
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death or traumatic injury, and screaming and yelling, and
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crying and blood, and, Lotions and every kind of sensual effect
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to your Trauma Centers and Trigger centers are taking
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place. And you begin to discard all
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your former swag, your former identity, your former lying to
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yourself, you're all the camouflage and lipstick that
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you've used. Be something with some
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self-esteem and identity of your past.
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You're just nothing except your soul which to me is Really your
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God. Your God is there then and when
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you're that naked and that vulnerable or others.
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Are you see that this individual is either going to be there for
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you or cower or remove themselves from the conflict,
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mentally or physically, and you see a lot of different
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characters under those circumstances, when a guy's
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walking, Its first day in Vietnam, he's usually the first
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guy that's going to be assassinated, it's a scary time.
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You know he's extremely vulnerable and it's okay it's
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good to be scared that false bravado will help a little bit
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but not for long. So what I meant by that, long
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story short, is that when it's stripped, you naked, you reflect
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on yourself and what you really are and your inner belief in
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yourself and your prayers to God to say you know put a golden
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shield around me and if it's my time God take me.
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But if it isn't, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to work my
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butt off to survive this under the worst possible
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circumstances. In the other thing is you have
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to make sure that rage doesn't overtake your body because
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watching your fellow men get killed or hurt or you know,
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bushwhacked and in the bush causes rage inside you.
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And, you know, rage and emotion get in the way of logic and
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that's why Marine Corps training, and Seal training.
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If you will, is mostly about logic and a little about
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emotions. So, stripping down and somebody
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to the raw nature allows you to either perform or not perform.
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And then, you know who to align with in the future because that
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strategic Alliance May dictate whether you're here tomorrow or
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not. Yeah, that's kind of it.
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Yeah. And that's what causes.
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I haven't served and I appreciate your service for
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sure, especially in the war situation.
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But that's what makes lifelong Brothers, right?
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Is that you're out there? Not just living together, like
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frat brothers, your life. Depends on each other.
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It seems like veteran, specially War veterans.
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Come out as lifelong. Comrade friends.
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There's a Brotherhood there from what they experience that,
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nobody else would understand even if they hear the stories
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and it seems, if they can adjust back to normal life with the
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post syndrome issues and, and facilitating back into work and
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family to normal frame of mind. After that, the ones that can
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send you have a very strong faith because you're faced with
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mortality from the get-go at At a young age would you say that's
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that's accurate. I think so, yes, I think that
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that camaraderie, if you will is doesn't happen initially, I
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mean, bootcamps hard enough. In the Marine Corps, very
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difficult, very physical and sometimes violent.
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And so, you know, when you're done with boot camp, you feel
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like you passed the grade in some respect, we had all, you
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know, the whole spectrum of people in the Marine Corps boot
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camp. Good and bad.
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Bad people that shouldn't have been there in people.
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That should have been there. People that were there because
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they wanted to wear the dress blues and that's all and she
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couldn't have been there. But, you know, they were
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physically and mentally punished to make sure that they were
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ready to confront that issue their issue.
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And of course the war issue but that camaraderie I think you
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know that happens and it happens out of time-honored.
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It's either time on order it is and I always tell people my sons
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That, you know, make sure that you let time honor your
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signature because words don't mean anything much anymore.
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And and, and so show that your signature is time-honored.
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It's a template. So that's what happens in.
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I think in the military is each person earns in a real
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reciprocity of respect and that's a great feeling when you
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have that, that faith in that trust.
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Yeah, if you don't mind, I'm going to read something else.
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Else that you wrote you're very you're very insightful.
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I'm a fad and unless I haven't seen it you haven't written in a
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while but this one's from 2015 and all right.
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I'd like your response to this. You wrote in a blog article for
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me the church is good Soul, cleansing it provokes and probes
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you. It did.
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That does not mean you are saintly or better but it is good
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for all people, including children and parents.
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I often wonder People do not discuss philosophers more.
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I often wonder if they ever dig deep into their pain crevices of
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their brains. I often wonder why people seem
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to handle talking about Freud and sex, but get nervous.
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When you talk about Jesus, his writings are really a simple
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blueprint for life. Yet we run from such direct or
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indirect suggestions. Now it is politically correct to
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say God but do not say Jesus or on the other hand you can say
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spiritual. But never start saying Jesus,
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ladies and gentlemen. Come on, take a moment to read
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probe and Ponder. Some of the words of Jesus, take
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some time and attend some various religions, and listen,
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you don't have to be anointed, you don't have to roll on the
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floor. You don't have to be reborn.
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You don't have to become a Jew or Christian or whatever.
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But the probing of your soul and the harvesting of your thoughts
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is nurturing your energy and your being, this is your
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signature. And it's that last line.
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This is explain a signature residence and what you meant by
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that. I love it.
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Yeah, I forgot about that also. But thank you.
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Well, you know, I I'm a real, first of all, I'm a real big
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believer in self-reflection and, you know, self-reflections about
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readdressing and cleansing your system if you will.
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I often tell my children that, you know, your reality or your
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choices of thought, so why do you choose that reality?
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You wallowing in your misery or are you going to confined a
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solution? And so, as a result of that, I
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think that I actually made a kind of a sarcastic joke today
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on Facebook, and I said, you know, this old guy, Joe Blow,
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Joe Blow often says something and I said, I don't know about
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Joe Blow, but, you know, It seemed like people have
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misunderstood what love is anymore?
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What, what happened to the word love?
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I mean, Joe used to say something about faith, hope and
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love. But it now we have, bro, and
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dude, and hay and other profanity profane names ride,
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which I won't go into right now. And my whole point was, you
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know, Jesus said all this stuff. If you get caught up in saying
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Jesus, unfortunately, he's the The author and that's number
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one. So if it's easier for you to
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allow me to call Joe Blow, I'll say Joe Blow and talk about
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Corinthians 10 or 11, right, and I'll do whatever you want.
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But my point is, it's simple. Just go there and allow it to
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cleanse. You now, the answer your
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question, your resonance signature, which I actually like
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those words I forgot I used them but your resonance is really
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important. Is that Spirit that that Rhythm
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that those cycles of amplitude, that you give off out into the
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world who you are. Sometimes simplified in the word
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Karma. They feel that Karma that energy
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coming from you and you know, as a cowboy we used to always look
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at a horse and say he has a bad high and be careful when you get
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on him. And and usually those horses had
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a lot of white in the eye and they were very dangerous, right?
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And with a person you look at them immediately and you know,
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if the resonance signature is there or not, and you may not
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know, immediately that it's God's resident signature, but it
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sure in Furs such and that resonance signature makes you
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want to hug that person and feel good about being vulnerable and
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honest candid with them. And it's just I think it's a
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great statement about where people were, we all know.
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Should be a need to be for peace, joy and love.
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Yeah, I appreciate that. That's that's beautiful writing
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and and words and response. So obviously your identity you
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know for those listening to that weren't around watching
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television of the 70s, like I was, there's a a team, there's
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chips, you know, there's only a few things you watch because
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there wasn't cable television during the day soap operas then,
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6:00 news. And so You only had eight till
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even by 9:00 you're getting warnings at your kids should be
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in bed, you know, you know, your kids are doing and so you know
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it was a big deal to watch a television show.
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So you waited every week for it and chips was one of those, so
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Jon and Ponch are iconic and it American culture.
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So you've been identified with that and you seem to have
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braced, it looks like dear life and I don't run from it which is
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fun and I appreciate you being on, but I'd like to Acted in the
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time asking you. This question, I can't imagine
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that at the end of the day, if this was your last day on Earth,
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your last few minutes you would reflect.
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And think, you know, I sure hope I'm remembered as a great.
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John Baker, that is Larry Wilcox in a reflective moment like
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that. I know, it's this pretty
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intense, but about the Breather last, what do you hope not that?
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We'll Remember You by boat. What do you hope that you lived
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that you felt like your life you did, right?
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Oh, good question, you know? First of all, You know, in
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Christian history. Oh, often they talk about.
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You can't rule your country. If you can't rule your state and
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you can't rule your state, if you can't rule your city and you
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can't rule your city. If you can't rule your family
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and you can't rule your family if you can't rule yourself.
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So, you know, I'd like to think that I I didn't consummate 100%
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of ruling myself, but a large percentage, I Say that I learned
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to govern myself is really what the word was not rule.
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And so I think I covered myself with the goal of being a good
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father and I think that if I could make my children, my
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Offspring better human beings in myself, then I had accomplished
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something so that was the first and I think I did that, you
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know, I think the children are, I don't like to talk about my
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children because they have private and individual lives,
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but I think I, you know, made them The most important word is
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sympathetic. They understood the empathy and
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it's very important. And I think I was an empathetic
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and always will be an empathetic person.
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I care for human beings and I care for their struggle and
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their pain. And and so, in one sentence, you
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know what, I think I want to be remembered as you know, good,
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father, that was sympathetic to mankind.
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That's that's, you know. Gnu.
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I've done a lot. I did a lot of things in my life
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and you read my bio. You know, I got a lot of merit
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badges, I call them in for a long time.
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I chase merit badges and I thought, wow, you know, you did
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this and you did that to do all these things that I thought I
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have accomplished in it as you get older.
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You realize instead that's really about lack of self-esteem
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or conflict in your personality doesn't mean anything.
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Love means anything, when you look into someone's eyes and
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they sparkle with the love that you put on them and vice versa
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and God's love if you will. So that's, that's all there
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really is show, empathy, show, love, put your signature on your
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life so that people trust you and and understand forgiveness
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because the other just Harbors descent anger and illness.