Philosophy From the Front Line
Oct 5, 2026 · 53 min · 11 segments
In this episode of Philosophy from the Frontline, host Rob Robinson talks with Jonathan Buthorn—a Marine Corps veteran, 20-year NYPD sergeant/detective, and now a licensed social worker and…
One, you know, one of the things that, uh, for those of you that have never done a deliberate decontamination mission, that is hard work.
Like it seems, it seems like, Oh, is it easy? Whatever, you know, because like most people think mop gear, put your mask on that kind of stuff.
And we probably, I probably drove past you at some point when, uh, when we were both in Iraq, cause I did my first tour was Oh three Oh four as well.
And so it's, it's a very, very small, you know, it's a small window of time, but a huge battlefield.
So like we probably crossed each other maybe twice in that time frame, who knows, but you know, one of the things that, that is incredibly difficult is, uh, you know a lot of people that were impacted by 9-11 right so yeah
people that were at West Point because I graduated from there and so like the people at West Point that were the classes during 9-11 they were impacted significantly you know by that event one because the first part of it is like yeah I'm coming to college like maybe I'll be I'll be in the army but I don't know if I'm going to go to war well things got really serious at that point you know and and It's it's very surreal to talk about it now because we're 25 years removed.
Like there is an entire generation of kids that grew up without understanding, you know, the impact that that had on our nation, you know, and the call to service and the numbers of people that, you know.
guys that were stockbrokers, people that were working at fortune 500 or fortune 100 companies that were like, you know what, I'm going to go serve in some capacity, you know? And for some of us that were already on that path, like you were already on that path of service, right? Like I'm going to be in a Marine Corps.
And you know, Even to this day, like I can remember exactly where I was when it happened,
think most people, you know, most people between the ages of probably like 35 and 55. really really know where they were you know when the towers came down and that was a you know it's a tragedy and it's uh it's impacted a lot of people's lives and and this really dovetails into you know your topic of what you what you're doing now but you know so it seemed like your transition on the marines was fairly easy because like you were you were basically in it anyway you know so and then you went back into the law enforcement so uh sounds like you had a lot of transitions internally within law enforcement and that's that sounds i don't know if it's typical or atypical but it sounds kind of like a military career you know like hey i start off as a platoon leader i end up being an xo i go to staff and i do all the different gates right but there comes a point where you have to decide like hey is this the end for me or do i continue and you know what led you to decide like hey you know what i've done 20 years in law enforcement And that's a long time.
Like you, you know, you do anything for 20 years, you'll be above average at it.
One, you know, one of the things that, uh, for those of you that have never done a deliberate decontamination mission, that is hard work.
Like it seems, it seems like, Oh, is it easy? Whatever, you know, because like most people think mop gear, put your mask on that kind of stuff.
And we probably, I probably drove past you at some point when, uh, when we were both in Iraq, cause I did my first tour was Oh three Oh four as well.
And so it's, it's a very, very small, you know, it's a small window of time, but a huge battlefield.
So like we probably crossed each other maybe twice in that time frame, who knows, but you know, one of the things that, that is incredibly difficult is, uh, you know a lot of people that were impacted by 9-11 right so yeah
people that were at West Point because I graduated from there and so like the people at West Point that were the classes during 9-11 they were impacted significantly you know by that event one because the first part of it is like yeah I'm coming to college like maybe I'll be I'll be in the army but I don't know if I'm going to go to war well things got really serious at that point you know and and It's it's very surreal to talk about it now because we're 25 years removed.
Like there is an entire generation of kids that grew up without understanding, you know, the impact that that had on our nation, you know, and the call to service and the numbers of people that, you know.
guys that were stockbrokers, people that were working at fortune 500 or fortune 100 companies that were like, you know what, I'm going to go serve in some capacity, you know? And for some of us that were already on that path, like you were already on that path of service, right? Like I'm going to be in a Marine Corps.
And you know, Even to this day, like I can remember exactly where I was when it happened,
think most people, you know, most people between the ages of probably like 35 and 55. really really know where they were you know when the towers came down and that was a you know it's a tragedy and it's uh it's impacted a lot of people's lives and and this really dovetails into you know your topic of what you what you're doing now but you know so it seemed like your transition on the marines was fairly easy because like you were you were basically in it anyway you know so and then you went back into the law enforcement so uh sounds like you had a lot of transitions internally within law enforcement and that's that sounds i don't know if it's typical or atypical but it sounds kind of like a military career you know like hey i start off as a platoon leader i end up being an xo i go to staff and i do all the different gates right but there comes a point where you have to decide like hey is this the end for me or do i continue and you know what led you to decide like hey you know what i've done 20 years in law enforcement And that's a long time.
Like you, you know, you do anything for 20 years, you'll be above average at it.
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