Then, after he’d left the military, there was the time he and four friends capsized in 60ft waves while trying to row the Atlantic. It was high intensity.”, “I came back from a high tempo tour where we were fighting on a regular basis - people were getting killed, people were losing bits of body parts”. There are many things that the British military are brilliant at. “Ah, I’ve stitched myself right up there,” laughs Foxy. He signed up at as soon as he could, joining as private at the age of 16 - fresh-faced and eager to get out there and, as he puts it, “do cool shit”. It all sounds amazing. The last time he’d been a civilian, he was about to take his GCSEs. “I was thinking: ‘I don't like this, what’s up? “I was getting ready to go on the next tour, doing cool shit in the build-up, and it seemed like there was a black cloud in the distance.” The feeling was an unfamiliar one to a man who’d spent his entire career - since the age of 16 - enjoying cool shit. I did an Ireland tour, but there was fuck all really.” He realised, however, that while he loved the nuts and bolts of soldiering (“the actual doing it, like being like a kid running around in the dirt”), he was less enamoured with what he calls “the bullshit - the parading, the pomp and ceremony, all of that”. I've always wanted to do this, I've always been up for it. And he swears like, well, a trooper. The best. In Spring 2013, Jason Fox got out of his car in a clifftop carpark at a notorious suicide spot, and “headed towards the precipice with purpose”. “‘Fucking hell, he’s got a gun’ - as I walked into the courtyard, someone actually shouted that. All of which made his PTSD diagnosis, and subsequent medical discharge, all the more shocking. For the first decade or so of his military career, “cool shit” is largely what Foxy did. Then there’s Rock2Recovery, the social enterprise he founded with fellow ex-serviceman Jamie Sanderson, which aims to help other PTSD sufferers through music or outdoor adventures. All rights reserved.

All market data delayed 20 minutes. “You’re a journalist right,” says Jason, “and if you’re not a journalist, then what are you? ©2020 FOX News Network, LLC. After President Trump suggested in a recent tweet that perhaps the election should be delayed due to coronavirus because mail-in voting could expose the election to fraud, senior adviser Jason Miller assured the American public in a "Fox News Sunday" interview that this will not happen. Shrugging off near-death experiences with a laugh before chatting about beer and football? But if it was difficult for those around him to comprehend, for Fox himself, it was catastrophic. “My dad was one, but he said I shouldn’t go to Sandhurst. I find myself wondering how much of an impact Jason Fox’s decision to talk like this might have. Somewhere along the way, however, he’d lost sight of how to use those techniques, and how they could help him mentally. Photos: Dan Medhurst, Jason Fox cracking into Kiln's fine cuisine. "The election is going to be on November 3. or redistributed. Conversation meanders off onto the relative merits of craft beers, and the recent helicopter crash which killed Leicester City’s chairman, before returning to the incident in question. It was in the 90s, when there wasn't really loads going on. “OK yeah, it burns and it hurts, but I always try and turn things into a positive. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller on the state of the presidential race, mail-in voting, MSNBC's Maddow, Hayes seem to laugh at CNN's Jeffrey Toobin, Trump launches $55M ad blitz in final stretch, Laura Ingraham: Biden's 'nice guy' image is the 'Trojan horse' the far left needs, Sean Hannity: Biden ‘noticeably missing in action’ should 'alarm every American'.
“I think the main thing is to try and have a slightly juvenile approach to those situations,” Fox says. It all fits with the special forces stereotype set out in those “behind enemy lines” articles FHM used to run in the late 90s, or the novels of Andy McNab. He's refused to say that he would run for a second term, so it really does matter who is picked. Photo: Dan Medhurst, "I felt like I'd lost my military mojo," says Fox, explaining the run up to his medical discharge. He had a reputation for running further, lifting more, and being generally indestructible. As you’ve trained for this, it’s what you introduce yourself as. War is all black and white - you've got someone that's trying to kill you and vice versa”. In fact, if being tough-as-nails was all there was to him, there’s an argument that Fox wouldn’t be on TV at all. Foxy rose rapidly to the rank of Sergeant, and in a unit that numbers only 250-odd active members, he was universally admired. Being on the ground, getting his hands dirty, that was what it was all about. Indeed, our special forces are famously among the best in the world, frequently called upon to give assistance and training to allied armies, or resolve sticky situations that the majority of us will never hear about. Having survived so many scrapes with death himself, he’s now helping others step back from the brink. More recently still, there was the incident during filming for The Real Narcos , his latest Channel 4 show, when Pablo Escobar’s personal hitman “Popeye”, a charming individual who talked proudly about his 257 kills, pressed a pistol to Fox’s temple to demonstrate his technique. When you're in it, you're in it, you just take every second as it comes. You have to be in that dark place, but allow your mind to wander.”. One man who’s all too familiar with that world is Jason Fox. But Fox is more than just a Ross Kemp with hair, or a Bear Grylls without the artifice. Photos: Courtesy Jason Fox / Penguin Books, These days Jason has his fingers in many pies. “The real world is far more brutal than going to war,” he says at one point, and while that sounds extreme, for soldiers emerging from the armed forces, that all too often seems to be the case. “You make light of moments like that, and getting in helicopter crashes and all sorts,” Foxy offers by way of explanation, because you have to.

“It’s like Buddhism - people look at a blade of grass and just see the blade of grass. “Exactly, yep,” says Foxy. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. “Don't think about it going into it. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller had a contentious interview with "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, but he did clear up a major point … ", TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN REJECTS CLAIM BIDEN ONLY WANTS TO 'REDIRECT' POLICE FUNDING. Certainly, it’s difficult to imagine him having the following (hundreds of thousands on Instagram and Twitter, not to mention IRL fans) that he currently enjoys. He’s easy to chat to - surprisingly soft-spoken, self-deprecating and quick to laugh, with a conspiratorial storytelling style that draws you in. Fox at the counter in Kiln. Jason Fox is describing the closest he’s ever come to dying. Add that to his ten years as a marine and Foxy was, as he puts it, “trained up to fuck”. Battle Scars: A Story of War and All That Follows, by Jason Fox, is out now on Penguin Books. From a mental point of view, how do you condition yourself to deal with intense physical discomfort or pain? Miraculously, he wasn’t hit, but “when I talk about that night with my mates they're like: ‘it looked like you were tap dancing across the yard’. Photos: Dan Medhurst, "I've always wanted to do this, I fucking love my job," says Fox, in action here in the sea and the air. Meanwhile, Biden is expected to announce his running mate this month, and Miller noted that who he selects is of great importance, given speculation over how long Biden would remain in office if he wins in November. We (myself, Fox, and Amuse photographer Dan Medhurst) are sitting at the counter of Kiln in Soho, a buzzy Thai-fusion establishment, recently voted the UK’s best restaurant. ©2020 FOX News Network, LLC. Plus, he explains, there’s an appeal to the simplicity of war and soldiering. “It was like that moment in the Ali G film, the bullets sort of went around me,” Fox says. Photos: Courtesy of Jason Fox / Penguin Books, Left: Filming for SAS: Who Dares Wins. “We thought, errr, that’s a bit of a insult,” he chuckles. Two of us are fine, but the man who’s just been telling us how extreme pain can be turned into a positive says: “Mmm... yeah... ish…” Half a second passes before we all crack up again. In the end, he pulled back from the brink.

But the idea that you have put yourself mentally in the moment, without focussing on what’s come before or what is to come, is what meditation teachers or mental health professionals would call mindfulness. “There's sort of scientific proof that music, mountains, and water are the things that people find therapeutic,” he explains. So when the chance came to join the special forces, who are often on active service even in peacetime, he jumped at it.
“Children don’t care about what’s happened previously, or what’s happening in the future, children just care about now. The infamous forced marches across the Brecon Beacons, the being chased by dogs, and the hours in stress positions meant he was ready - both physically and mentally - for anything. You can follow Jason Fox on Instagram or Twitter. And despite the fact that he left the service six years ago, Foxy still looks every inch the professional hardman - over six foot of pure muscle, with tattoos poking out from under the sleeves of his t-shirt, and biceps that move like shipping containers being stacked as he reaches out to shake your hand.

And then, of course, there was that incident in the courtyard. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Jason Miller, Trump campaign senior adviser, joins Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday.'. Photo: Dan Medhurst, Battle Scars: A Story of War and All That Follows. But he was nothing if not prepared. But in recent years, the armed forces have stood accused of being less adept when it comes to dealing with mental illness. To hear his story, you might think he’s on his ninth life, but there’s every chance that Jason Fox’s latest incarnation could be his most significant yet. Instead, he says, “you’re living in the moment”. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller on Sunday cleared up a major point of controversy regarding November's presidential election, noted the significance of Joe Biden's running mate, and rejected the notion of the campaign accepting foreign assistance. But as he relates in Battle Scars, it was a close-run thing.

“I eventually found someone I could work with, who I could talk to, and I was like fucking hell, I need to stop lying to myself.” There’s a particular moment in the book that he describes as break-through. Having watched the open kitchen preparing food for the past half an hour, it’s hard to know how to whittle the menu down. His burgeoning TV career (he’s just been filming the fourth series of the smash hit Who Dares Wins) is something he’s rightfully proud of. By this point our food has arrived, and Foxy takes a second to chew on a mouthful of noodles and gather his thoughts before continuing. The ex-special forces star opens up about life, death, and his struggles with PTSD Undoubtedly one of the reasons he’s become so popular is his ability to talk about his own issues on such a public-facing platform. So instead, we order another beer, because this conversation is far from done. At first, Miller appeared to deflect, stating that it was "a silly question" while then turning to how the Clinton campaign received assistance from former British spy Christopher Steele in 2016.