Jocko Podcast 359: The Story of Medal of Honor Recipient, Michael Monsoor. With George Monsoor

2022-11-10T15:00:06Z

Underground Premium Content: https://www.jockounderground.com/subscribe Join the conversation on Twitter/Instagram: @jockowillink @echocharles Jocko and George Monsoor. George Monsoor is the father of Michael Anthony Monsoor (April 5, 1981 – September 29, 2006), a United States Navy SEAL who was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.[1] He enlisted in the United States Navy in 2001 and graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training BUD/S class 250 in 2004. After further training he was assigned to Delta Platoon, SEAL Team 3. Delta Platoon was sent to Iraq in April 2006 and assigned to train Iraqi Army soldiers in Ramadi. Over the next five months, Monsoor and his platoon frequently engaged in combat with insurgent forces. On September 29, 2006, an insurgent threw a grenade onto a rooftop where Monsoor and several other SEALs and Iraqi soldiers were positioned. Monsoor quickly smothered the grenade with his body, absorbing the resulting explosion and saving his comrades from serious injury or death. Monsoor died about 30 minutes later from wounds caused by the grenade explosion.

AI summary of episode

so I know it always concerned him because he just didn't want to lose a father it was the 28th of September and the first of the 506 had one last request Operation Kentucky Jumper the SEALs would be providing overwatch for Combat Outpost Eagle's Nest while the external wall of the Combat Outpost was being reinforced in addition the first of the 506 would be conducting a clearance in the same area which the SEALs would cover as well the insert would take place at night the two elements would leave cop eagles nest and set up mutually supporting rooftop overwatch positions in two prominent houses much like they had been doing for the entire deployment the men had conducted this type of operation many times and at this point it seemed like this one would be much the same so they push in they do this overwatch around 11 a.m the army moved out of the area having finished operations for the day the SEAL overwatch positions remained in place and would extract under the cover of darkness later that night other than the first of the 506 doing clearance ops and us being in the area providing overwatch it was kind of a somber day Doug said referring to how the day was going in comparison to other similar operations they had completed based on most of the previous operations the likelihood of the firefight was low of another firefight was low the temperature was reaching 115 degrees and they would stay there until late in the afternoon and only begin to cool when the sun dip below the horizon as the morning turned into day and then early afternoon Michael Doug and Mike S talked of heading home and what was next for each of them there was a sense of excitement we were proud of what we did we were proud of our relationships we had built with the army in the Marine Corps recalls Mike Surrelly the men talked of their families Doug would be headed back to Georgia to see his three sons Mike S was ready to get back to his two-year-old little girl Michael listened as the guy spoke of heading home he was ready as well sniper school heading into his next platoon snowboarding trips and driving up the coast to see his family in Garden Grove Doug recalls how cool and relaxed Michael was he just had a real calming sense to him you could tell instantly what a great person and warrior he was to this point it was the most one on one time Doug had spent with Michael as the day continued on the intense heat had begun to wear on the men the shade material help but not but the heat radiated from surfaces all around them not even the light breeze brought reprieve the air was stifling dry and filled with dust the lack of activity and the heat induced lethargy degrading the men's awareness boom an explosion rocked the rooftop Michael ran back over to the position between Mike S and Doug what was that RPG asked Doug sure seemed like it Mike S replied the anger on Michael's face was apparent as he searched for the insurgent responsible for the attack Mike S moved out of his loophole and called the other element we just took an RPG searching for the shooter now what have you guys got Doug rolled into the open spot as it had a better field of view than his loophole Michael sat on the chair between the two with his mark 48 resting on the wall of the rooftop Mike S continued updating the other element while Michael Doug and Benny scan the area they saw nothing no enemy movement suddenly an object just barely cleared the lip of the wall and hit Michael in the chest it bounced off and rolled to the ground directly in front of him Mike S looked over at what had just landed next to the group then up at Michael Michael stood so quickly and with such force that the chair he was sitting on sailed across the rooftop and impacted the opposite wall Michael looked at Mike S and yelled grenade and so uh what was good about the seals is she couldn't call them they wouldn't give her the time of day i would call them and tell them what i'd like to do and we had a lot of stories but a lot of the guys they didn't want to share those stories it was personal and so i respect that but some of the guys uh after a couple of calls uh they would open up uh to uh to rose and uh i felt like as they opened up they actually felt good about it and it kind of like let some let out a little bit of uh some of that pressure what happened over there and i was surprised how many said it was okay if they used uh you know their name Mike S watched in disbelief as Michael the only one of them who had an out to escape the blast instead lunged forward dropping directly onto the grenade Seth's element had heard and seen the two blasts from their overwatch position and were already moving when the call for help came in the men urgently picked up the pace when they heard the amount of enemy automatic weapon fire that their friends were receiving they broke out from the main house the main entrance and headed west initially it was all quiet at their position but within 15 seconds of hitting the street all hell broke loose enemy rounds snapped and skipped around them they moved from cover to cover returning fires they closed the distance to the other overwatch position they were only two blocks away but to the wounded seals it seemed like it took forever for the other element to arrive hold on Mikey hold on Mike S said as he and Doug continued to assess and aid Michael suddenly a seal from the other element burst onto the roof and headed over to Doug Mike S and Michael he was followed by Seth and the other seals one of the strongest seals grabbed Michael and hoisted him onto his back Seth grabbed Doug and the others took Mike S they could hear the 25 millimeter auto cannons of the Bradley fighting vehicles begin to fire effectively suppressing the enemy and providing cover for the seals to load their wounded Mike S directed the group as they moved down the stairs and into the alley to the waiting Bradley's Doug Mike S and Michael were loaded onto the into the back along with one of the seals from the other element he stayed to continue to aid Michael while the Bradley's extracted them and headed back to Camp Corregidor when the wounded seals arrived they saw the men from the first the 506 lined up waiting to support whatever they could another testament to the bond that the two units and shared Doug Mike S and Michael were loaded onto stretchers and brought into the aid station on the camp Doug and Mike S were given shots of morphine for the first time since the grenade explosion they finally had reprieve from the physical piercing pain the reprieve however was short lived the atmosphere in the room shifted the mood had darkened and the two men could feel it then they overheard the nurse say it Michael was gone and that sobering moment they became aware of what Michael had given them he had freely exchanged his life for theirs it was September 29th the feast day of st. Michael the art a arch angle the arch angel the protector and guide of warfighters since time immemorial and whom Michael had been named 25 years earlier it was a bad day for the family remember Jim called me to hear him crying dad is bad it's bad i said what's bad he says uh Michael Michael died from Monty please get ahold of Joe tried to call Joe and i finally got ahold of him he was uh playing football in north dakota and uh i couldn't even tell him finally got ahold of him i couldn't even tell him i couldn't even talk i said just call your brother oh he's he's he's a hundred percent uh he helped me uh i'm very good friends with him and he helped me with everything i ever need to help with and look i caused all kinds of trouble for that poor guy i was constantly constantly caused that he would bail me out of all kinds of things so thank you mr steve gilmore uh but he was able to connect captain smith with a bunch of different people captain smith sat down for hours with each group learned as much as he could in order to create something remarkable that would inspire his future crew members they would collectively come up with the the connected with it with uh uh something that connected the family with the navy as well as the ship's unique components and so this is for the motto of the ship became i will defend which carries a three-fold meaning every military member takes an oath to support and defend the constitution another prominent middle military ethos says i will defend the defenseless and the saint michael prayer calls upon the mighty angelic soldier to defend us in battle have you been in have you been in the ship i have when i talked to scott i was like uh we wanted something for the seals not to be forgotten and uh that's why if you walk in you'll see the pictures of those other seals and uh it was important to us that those seals aren't forgotten because sometimes congressional medal of honor people forget about these people well pain is the same and we wanted to remember them on that ship so he did a good job for us i would get uh phone messages and where uh Michael would call would miss the message just kicking back with with my bros uh send cigars critical information sends cigars exactly uh there's there's there's really good examples of this throughout the book another one immediately enemy fire began to hit the wall around the rooftop Michael reposition toward the contact and fire the enemy were using the cover of surrounding houses effectively and continued to harass the security position it was clear this was not like other attacks it was well coordinated the enemy was careful not to engage from the same spot for too long and continued to maneuver and flank the rounds from mikes 48 began to eat chunks out of the corners and ledges that the enemy were using his cover the short rooftop wall was beginning to degrade as well however and bullets were penetrating the plaster in some areas the men stayed low and continued to engage Michael was glad he had prepped his extra ammo ahead of time it looked as though he would be needing it soon Michael and the other seals on the rooftop were not the only ones taking fire the iraqi army scouts were trying to exit the house to maneuver on the insurgents but were pinned inside every time one of the scouts tried to exit the house a hail of bullets hit the area around the exit on the rooftop the situation was not improving and it looked like ammunition might soon become a problem not for Michael he continued to engage multiple enemy positions stopping only to reload and reposition Mikey how's your ammo yell and i guess i went a little quicker than i showed up you know wore some of the guys out uh and just to close this out um father halloweday stepped up to the podium let us pray heavenly father bless and approve this newly commissioned vessel the USS michael monsoor and its crew send your holy angels as custodians and guides may michael and the arch angel ever defend it in battle be its protector against all enemies and ravages of foul weather may this vessel and crew always know the friendship of the creatures of the deep the camaraderie of the winds and the enmity of the tides and may the USS michael monsoor ever know the unified patronage of the citizens of heaven the creatures of earth and every mission it undertakes to restore peace ensure freedom and enact justice for all i've met so many really wonderful people uh over this and uh father halloweday was uh was won uh he also did a mass and baptized uh joseph son on that ship i mean that thanks for uh uh for raising us on like mickey and for sharing them with us we won't forget it well we really appreciate the seal community and like i said we appreciated uh the way we were treated the respect from you and this family was important i just wanted to close that out because who knows when i'm gonna see you again and i really appreciate this moment so thanks jacko thank you and with that george monsoor has left the building and once again life is a gift and thanks for listening we appreciate it and if you want to support the podcast well first of all get the book like i said i read like little pieces of the book the book has a bunch more in it they did a great job writing it so order the book what is it is it christmas season I think that's important for people to read these type of books uh I can get a taste and these these stories as you said they're from uh the guys that were there these stories are real and uh I think it would give uh the rest of the country just kind of a fingernail sketch of what these guys go through and also if you have you know uh teenage children they can see that guys like Michael they're just like them they they have problems when they're kids i mean give it to give it to everybody that you know give it to like you mentioned teenagers for sure because i think they can understand and it even you know it's not like uh it's not like this pro thing where they're gonna kids or parents are scared their kids are going to run out and join the military it's the journey that he took and what he uh overcame and these kids who are feeling you know insecure and you got and again you interviewed a bunch of people for this the deafening noise the machine gun fire suddenly erupted from an enemy insurgent position to the right Michael dropped into his field of fire identifying the enemy position immediately sent back a long burst with his mark 48 contact right multiple seals yelled as they sent round after round toward the enemy Mike sprinted to the closest position to cover which was a courtyard wall of a nearby house and picked up fire the other seals and the Iraqi army scouts moved into courtyard and began returning fire as well changing yelled Mike as he stripped out an empty ammo box and loaded a full one just as he closed the feed tray cover five enemy fighters moved to flank Michael and his team they are flanking to the west Mike yelled as he fired at the maneuvering insurgents he caught them halfway through their movement and had them pinned behind a small vehicle hold them there Mike JP yelled Mike could overhear the marine angler the marine air naval gunfire liaison company Anglico guys on the radio setting up for a strike on the enemy fighters he had pinned down cast in 30 seconds called out the controller letting the guys know the jets were 30 seconds out from dropping from Michael to seem like an eternity he had the best vantage point to keep the enemy where they were as the other seals and scouts were still engaging the original enemy position he conserved his ammo knowing a reload may give the insurgents just enough time to maneuver away from their current position which could cause the close air support strike to have to abort and start over he continued to send five to eight round bursts into the vehicle yeah we'll see heard about people are freaking out about all kinds of things the thing is all this social media facebook the gram twitter you just got to watch out because the algorithm will grab you that's what's going to happen and uh once again thanks to thanks to george monstor for coming on board and and really um the entire monstor family who have been blessed to have gotten to know know over the past 15 years um just been amazing an honor to know them and it's an honor to be here and and share the story of mikey uh absolute hero an example for all of us so thank you to the entire monstor family and thanks to all the people from the military in general the army navy air force marines as you could probably tell we had an incredible relationship with all of them and we thank you for supporting us on the battlefield and in the past and now those that are still active duty out there protecting us today thank you and we also want to thank our police law enforcement firefighters paramedics emt's dispatchers correctional officers border patrol secret service all first responders out there you protect us here at home and we passed on all of them and then just uh when one of the sailors did a book on michael and gave it to a submissive at the cemetery and that's when i started thinking my grandchildren should have a book because they should see what it's like um you know they got to understand that michael uncle michael went through some of the same things they went through you know it just doesn't happen you've got to have you know you've got to be able to figure things out you have to be strong enough because when you're a kid you're bullied or you're you know you're not sure of yourself the world is is really scary for him Got another guy here Michael and Z went through all of Bud's together they grab they graduated from Bud's basic airborne seal qualification training now assigned to seal team three Z to Echo platoon and Mike to Delta platoon the weeks were busy training and the weekends were spent riding their bikes and that's motorcycles by the way chasing girls hanging out with the guys after a day of riding they'd often come back to connect and unwind at bar Dynamite a small bar in Mission Bay where they'd grab drinks with friends including Gabe and other freshly minted and another freshly minted seal Tommy D. Mike was Mike was living life to the fullest he was renting this house in Mission Bay while the new guys like myself lived in one small bedroom small one bedroom apartment said Z laughing a motorcycle and a stellar pal pad were not the only things Michael set his sights on he was eyeing his next car and he knew exactly what he wanted just received a contract bonus that he used to buy a silver 2004 Corvette Z zero six Michael could never be a financial advisor this is like the classic thing I tell guys not to do when they get their bonus I should go hey listen don't go buy a Corvette don't go buy a Ford 350 super duty Harley Davidson don't don't do that it's hard to talk about I know Yeah, he thought it was actually important, especially if people are getting stressed out, like in Buds, he can see it on their faces and he thought, you know, he's seeing these guys are going on tilt, you know, and, you know, our family does that, you know, they'll equip this and that, you know, and he's always done that when things get real serious and it kind of brings people down. and I go what do you mean what's wrong with his attitude and he goes every time I tell him something one of the instructors tell him so all he does look out up at us and say Roger that that's all he has and I go hey bro I told him that's all he's supposed to say and he's just following that to a T that's what he's doing and when he would say that the guys that he's with are like kind of smirking like no one knew if he was a smart ass or he's just following your orders that's a I'll tell you so here's another similar story we're you were in the Humvees and this we're going through the block of training with Humvees and the the gunners call out you know like clear right like you come up to an intersection and the gunners which is Mikey call out clear right or clear left i mean they do an awesome thing and and it's written about in the book as well as you know when you pull into san diego harbour off to your left hand side is rosecrance where mickey's buried and you know actually marx buried there and sestones buried there but when you pull in they they man the rails and they give the the ship salute you know to mickey which is just awesome so you get the legacy carrying on with the crew with the ship in this book um and in the the young you know the young seals today they're this is what they're raised on they're raised on this is what uh this is this is the ideal seal this is a guy that works hard that's never going to give up and that's going to take care of his brothers and that's that's mickey but he was a badass so to connect that to this guy who you know had asthma and got bullied and like like while i knew mike mike was not getting bullied by anybody you know what i'm saying so he had overcome all that and and and like you said um it risen up and at the same time that he had that quality like there's literally no one else that you would rather have to watch your back oh a little while ago was that Mikey was always telling you about who's married and checking in on who has kids and that was a big concern is was he knew who had kids who was married and he he would tell me I worry about these guys he goes I don't want to be the guy that lost one of these uh one of these guys who has children because he believed fathers mothers is you know a two-person deal and uh he's always loved kids and he just would be so bothered knowing that on his watch somebody lost the father and he would talk about I mean I mean people really want to find out who's got kids in there and they somehow got wood this guy captain smith is a great guy captain scott smith who like took this with the utmost seriousness of course because he's the first commanding officer of this ship and he got they got wood from the uss constitution like crazy how do you do that uh you have this here each naval warship has its own crest and motto and captain smith who's the first commanding officer took meticulous efforts to honor the ship's namesake with each one for the crest he was given parameters of simply using a shield the rest was up to him he knew exactly what to do in order to make sure the ship honored its names it's the ship and namesake perfectly there were a handful of people family teammates and friends he would need to talk to was introduced to steve gilmore but uh i was really taken back by you know these guys coming over and checking on the family and it was a good thing at what point did you hear about the ship i was about i remember uh dr o winter talked about uh a ship and see we don't know anything about the navy uh we're not into the ceremony stuff but that was a you know that attitude that Roger that attitude man that's um that that was it you know that was he was gonna he was gonna get it done one of the first blocks of training work up was land war for out at Nile in California by the Salton Sea with a hundred and seven degree summer average it's a scorching place to train and sure enough we were out there in the summertime this combined with a schedule rocky mounted terrain scarred with washes makes the literal and figurative crucible of the work up here's where the platoon will work on the tactics techniques and procedures of fighting in open terrain as well as demolitions rockets and mortars and all the different small arms weapons systems of the sea arsenal a platoon is normally made up of 16 to 20 operators each having a specific role to include snipers preachers communicators and automatic weapons gunners to name a few although specialized within the platoon each man is still responsible to be proficient at the other jobs Michael and the other new guys could not wait to jump right in and get started Michael caught on very quickly especially with his automatic weapon the mark 48 each of the new guys were being watched closely by the older men in the platoon his LPO Doug Wallace remembers how that even though Michael is quickly picking up on the tactics and performing all tasks efficiently and without complaint it was always with humility and a willingness to learn more misery loves company and Nile and is a block where there's many reasons to complain of our intense conditions Mike never did once not one time it showed great character and understanding on his part especially for a new guy Doug said and then there's another section here the battalion was huge and led by lieutenant colonel Ron Clark his men were professional talented and worked incredibly well with the seals Michael's troop commander lieutenant commander jockel will he could instructed his men to use army to use the army's uniform a tricolor gray digital pattern called army combat uniform or acu's it was very different from the tricolor desert naval special warfare uniform the men wore it and even shaved their heads to match their army brethren this was not only this not only increased the cohesion of the two units but also had a very practical purpose by blending in with the army unit the seals did not stand out as special forces the enemy had begun to target soldiers that looked or dressed differently than the average so that's why when people see pictures of that element they're wearing they're wearing army uniforms um that's what it is they wanted to blend in and wanted to not stand out and wanted to form a relationship with the army you know there's just just you know sometimes in special operations you know you can wear all this Gucci gear yeah the so my wife is at home she got three kids they're like how old were they they were like maybe seven five and three or something like this they're maybe you know six four and two or something like this I'm like absolutely tell the army guys were you you good with us putting snipers Colonel Colonel Clarks like absolutely they start killing guys almost immediately enemy rocket teams mortar teams IED in places and at the same time where we're out at Camp Corregador for a couple days the living conditions are terrible in the life it was like dirt floors there's mosquitoes you know they're getting murdered indirect fire on a regular basis just just it was just freaking horrible so uh i i think it's uh it's a book that uh is worth reading no it's uh it's a hundred percent worth reading and that's a way for mickey's legacy to you know to carry on you carry on the ship and it's great when you meet the ship and the ship's crew they're they all know the story they're all fired up and I you know it was just crazy guys would risk their lives go out and get those packages you know hey women toiletries just what we need uh he says I'm gonna go head to bed now I want to say hello to you guys Mike's voice began to drift off the day his operation had begun to hit him like a wall his body was now just registering need for sleep of course take care of yourself we're all

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Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jocko podcast number 359 with Echo Charles and me,
[00:00:04] Jocko willing. Good evening Echo. Good evening. There was a
[00:00:09] loud burst of gunfire and Cowie fell to the ground exposed in
[00:00:14] the street. He had taken around to his right femur. The barrage
[00:00:18] of enemy gunfire continued to cascade toward him from multiple
[00:00:21] enemy positions kicking up dust and sending ricochet and
[00:00:24] secondary frag of rock and concrete right at him. Cowie
[00:00:29] immediately returned fire but was unable to move quickly to
[00:00:32] cover because of the grievous injury to his leg. Within
[00:00:36] seconds of hitting the ground, Cowie heard a new weapon enter
[00:00:40] the chaos. Michael Montsour, the automatic weapons gunner broke
[00:00:46] from his covered position in an adjacent courtyard into the
[00:00:50] middle of the street.
[00:00:54] In that same moment, Michael sent a long burst of 762
[00:00:58] millimeter rounds from his Mark 48 machine gun into enemy
[00:01:02] positions. Although carrying a heavy load of equipment, Michael
[00:01:07] definitely moved to where Cowie lay wounded and bleeding.
[00:01:12] He stood in front of him and used his lean frame and armor as a
[00:01:16] shield to protect Cowie from incoming enemy fire.
[00:01:22] This gave the wounded seal a reprieve he needed to continue to
[00:01:26] call for backup on his radio. Michael's technical acumen was
[00:01:30] apparent as he swiftly engaged and suppressed enemy
[00:01:33] positions with his Mark 48, effectively known as the pig.
[00:01:40] Every second and every round mattered. The other seal began to
[00:01:44] prepare Cowie to move while Michael engaged enemy
[00:01:48] insurgents. Let's move the other seal shouted.
[00:01:52] Michael grabbed Cowie's drag handle on top of his armor and began to pull him
[00:01:56] back to the courtyard while still firing his Mark 48.
[00:02:02] Cowie looked up at Michael as he dragged him across the road
[00:02:05] but the perspective was not what he expected.
[00:02:10] Cowie felt as if for just a moment he had left his body below.
[00:02:16] He looked down upon the scene as Michael dragged him the snaps and
[00:02:22] ricochets of the heavy machine gun of enemy fire continued to hit the ground
[00:02:26] around them. Cowie couldn't believe that not one round
[00:02:29] had found its intended target. Instantly the light seemed to shift.
[00:02:36] Then Cowie saw them two large feathered wings wrapped from behind Michael
[00:02:43] around the trio as they moved him out of the street.
[00:02:48] Cowie knew in that instant they were not alone in the fight.
[00:02:54] Then Cowie was looking up at Michael again.
[00:02:58] He could feel the pain and hear the gunfire dust filled the air
[00:03:01] and the the sun beat down upon them as they moved.
[00:03:05] Once back behind cover the other seal began working on his injured teammate.
[00:03:11] The enemy fire picked up again just as Michael finished
[00:03:15] reloading. Michael answered with a heavy volley
[00:03:19] into the enemy position. JP and the rest of the squad along with their
[00:03:24] Iraqi partners joined the firefight minutes later.
[00:03:27] Lieutenant Seth Stone the officer in charge of Delta Platoon was deep into
[00:03:30] radio comms providing situation updates to the chain of command
[00:03:34] coordinating with units in other sectors and facilitating the movement
[00:03:39] of the responding soldiers, Marines and Iraqi partners into the fight.
[00:03:49] And that right there is an excerpt from a book that has just come out
[00:03:56] which is entitled Defend Us in Battle the True Story of MA2 Navy Seal
[00:04:02] Medal of Honor recipient Michael A. Monsour.
[00:04:07] And the book was written by Michael's father George Monsour along with
[00:04:12] Rose Ray who is an author and is also the wife of a seal.
[00:04:17] And the book was written by interviewing friends and family
[00:04:21] of Michael. Many of the members of Tasking a Bruiser
[00:04:25] shared their stories to paint a picture of Michael's bravery.
[00:04:30] His character is skilled as a seal.
[00:04:34] But of course Michael Monsour was much more than just a seal.
[00:04:40] He was a man of compassion, of humor, of love, and of faith.
[00:04:49] He was the best.
[00:04:52] And he set an incredible example for all who knew him
[00:04:57] and for anyone that hears his story. And it's an honor
[00:05:02] to have Michael's dad George Monsour here with us tonight
[00:05:08] to share some of this incredible story with us.
[00:05:12] George, thanks for joining us tonight.
[00:05:16] Thanks for having me on. It's an honor to have you down here.
[00:05:21] I know it's not that far of a drive but I know it can be a little challenging
[00:05:27] sometimes.
[00:05:30] But glad you could make it down.
[00:05:33] I guess before we get, I guess we have to start at this story
[00:05:37] maybe at the beginning with a little bit about you and your background.
[00:05:41] So you're originally from Wisconsin, is that right?
[00:05:45] Yeah, I was born in La Crosse and my family came from
[00:05:51] Lebanon. So there was that transition. So are you first generation American or
[00:05:58] second generation? Yeah, it's like half. We're born half.
[00:06:01] So I was half of that family. There's like 10 kids.
[00:06:06] We're born here and half was born on the other side.
[00:06:09] So yeah, so there's a whole kind of a different world,
[00:06:15] the Middle Eastern world and the American world. So
[00:06:19] yeah, there's things that are always a little different.
[00:06:23] And so how long did you stay in Wisconsin for?
[00:06:27] Not very long. I think they asked us to leave like the first year.
[00:06:34] You know, they told us to get out of Wisconsin.
[00:06:39] Went to California. And then it was California. So how old were you when you
[00:06:42] ended up in California? That's probably about one.
[00:06:46] And that's kind of where the rest of the family was born. I had
[00:06:53] two brothers and three sisters. My dad was in World War II and
[00:07:01] he had a lot of problems after the war. And he couldn't hold down the job.
[00:07:06] And he ended up just being a gambler. So we had kind of a, you know, I mean,
[00:07:13] we didn't realize it wasn't the best, but our family was close.
[00:07:19] And my mom basically was the one that kept everything together.
[00:07:25] And we didn't realize we were poor until somebody told me in school.
[00:07:32] And so then as you're growing up, you're growing up in California
[00:07:36] in like the 50s and 60s then. Yeah. That had to be pretty.
[00:07:40] Is it like, how does it compare with the movies?
[00:07:45] Well, we would watch these movies and our TV shows and you'd have
[00:07:52] Father Knows Bass and all these fathers are walking around with suits and ties.
[00:07:58] I look over at my dad. He's in his skib. He's reading the racing for him.
[00:08:02] The only thing he ever says to me is, beer me.
[00:08:07] So yeah, I would look at the TV and look at our family.
[00:08:10] Not quite the same. So you end up, I mean, you go to school.
[00:08:16] Where'd you go to high school? I went to St. John Bosco. It's a boy's school.
[00:08:23] I was fortunate that I was a pretty good football player. So it was a good fit.
[00:08:28] It was, it was, it was pretty tough. It was priest. These guys served in World War II
[00:08:35] and they didn't put up with a lot of nonsense and it was probably the best thing for me.
[00:08:41] They made it very clear what I could do and what I couldn't do.
[00:08:45] And then so you played football and what was your plan when you graduate, when you graduated?
[00:08:52] I mean, nowadays it's like everyone has to go to college, has to go to college.
[00:08:55] Did you have that plan or? Yeah, the plan was, because it was the
[00:08:59] college prep school, was to go to college, but it was an all-boy school.
[00:09:02] So my plan was different when I went to college.
[00:09:07] You had to make up for lost time?
[00:09:10] I was, anybody wanted to go in the back of my motorcycle? We're good.
[00:09:15] So I basically, my grades basically said to me, you're going to get drafted.
[00:09:22] So I decided to outsmart them and I joined the Marine Corps.
[00:09:26] Awesome. Yeah, you outsmarted them on that one.
[00:09:36] So what year was it that you joined the Marine Corps?
[00:09:38] 68, I went from 68 to 72.
[00:09:41] So, I mean, when you, Vietnam is full blown in 1968 when you joined.
[00:09:48] Is it just known that you're going to Vietnam?
[00:09:50] Yeah, especially in my MOS, it wasn't the MOS I wanted.
[00:09:57] I was that guy that was always trying to stay out of the fray, you know, stay in the middle.
[00:10:03] But anyway, the problem was if your grades weren't good, then you'd go straight over as a grunt.
[00:10:11] I didn't want to be a grunt. So I kept my grades up.
[00:10:15] But the thing was, every time you did well in school, you got another school.
[00:10:21] I did well in the tests. I got aviation school. And then aviation school, I did well.
[00:10:26] And I got helicopters. Helicopters is not where you want to be in the Marine Corps.
[00:10:32] Even as you say, like, oh, I went to school for aviation.
[00:10:35] And like, that sounds like a, you know, okay, you're going to go load in this
[00:10:39] trailer, you're going to work on aircraft. Exactly.
[00:10:41] In Vietnam, that's a little bit different. It's a little bit of a different outcome.
[00:10:45] I got there and I says, hey, you know, this wasn't the deal. You know, when you sign up,
[00:10:50] they tell you one thing, but you don't always get what you want. And I certainly didn't.
[00:10:54] It was like, this wasn't the deal. And the guy goes, you'll have more schools.
[00:10:58] Don't worry about it. The last school I went to was machine gun, 50-cow machine gun school.
[00:11:04] That was it. What was the shock of boot camp like?
[00:11:08] Like, actually, playing basketball, football wasn't, the boot camp wasn't a big deal.
[00:11:19] We had a coach that carried a baseball bat.
[00:11:24] And I remember since it was a Catholic school, he told us why God gave his heads.
[00:11:28] And that was to punish the other players. And they had this bat and we had the cages and
[00:11:34] he would smack you in the head with the bat just so you understood what you're supposed to use
[00:11:41] your head for. And I remember we had a game, I think it was Venice, and we were just brutal.
[00:11:50] We weren't brutal on purposes. That's the way we were trained to hit.
[00:11:54] And the principal wrote a letter to the school after, you know, after the game, just trash.
[00:12:00] We didn't cheat or anything. We played a straight game, but we laid people out.
[00:12:07] So, when he caught boot camp, it was perfectly fine.
[00:12:09] Yeah, it was fine. I had a couple of problems.
[00:12:15] Just understanding it, because I really, my family served World War II, Korean War.
[00:12:22] And as you know, my sons all served in the Marine Corps other than Mike.
[00:12:26] But I didn't get it. I was like, I thought you go in and, you know, you get paid,
[00:12:35] I thought at least minimum wage, and all the military stuff. It just wasn't used to because
[00:12:42] my father was definitely, you don't get a lot of discipline from a professional game.
[00:12:48] So, it was another world for me. The most discipline I got was at St. John Bosco.
[00:12:53] But I remember on payday, you go in, you get a little bit of money to get your soap and those
[00:12:59] type of things. And so they gave us instructions. They says, you go in there, you march in there,
[00:13:06] you make a right turn, then a left turn, then you send yourself in front of the CO's desk.
[00:13:13] He will push a book in front of you, you look down and look at that paybook,
[00:13:18] and you will say, the pay is correct, sir, and look straight ahead. So, I'm thinking, okay,
[00:13:27] I do it perfect. And I look down and I say, 36 dollars.
[00:13:34] Where's your military buried? And I for 36 dollars.
[00:13:47] So, they finally got my attention and got me squared away. I was a private for quite a while.
[00:13:58] So, the last school you went to was 50 Cal School, but they sent you to the Hilo School.
[00:14:02] And then what year did you deploy to Vietnam? It was, I think it was 19. So, it was 69.
[00:14:14] And got back in, yeah, August 69, I think it was. I think it was August 69.
[00:14:21] And how was the deployment? How did you get over there? Did you take a charter aircraft over there?
[00:14:27] Yeah, we took a, I think it was a pan am. That was just a zoo. I mean, the officers were in front,
[00:14:39] and the snow peas were in the back. And you could just see it on those stewardship's faces,
[00:14:45] which one they wanted to be, the front or the back. It was a long flight and it was 16 hours.
[00:14:53] And we landed once for fuel in Hawaii, and they literally wouldn't let us get off.
[00:15:00] They had the guards out there. I'm thinking they pass the message to us or what.
[00:15:05] And then we finally got in and started sorting out where we were going to go. And I was really
[00:15:12] fortunate in the long run because you know how this works, you just, you're a number and these
[00:15:18] guys will go here and these guys will go here. And I just skated through the whole deal. I ended up
[00:15:24] in only going there for just a little bit. And then I was simply at Okinawa most of the time.
[00:15:32] And I started feeling guilty because, you know, my friends were over there. And then when they
[00:15:38] were coming back, some big changes. And it really broke my heart. And I got, I feel so guilty.
[00:15:46] I was just there for a blank. So, you know how you're in this service and you just don't understand
[00:15:55] how certain things happen. You know, it's like how a close friend, you know, will go and or
[00:16:04] some of them come back and they just screwed up. And it reminded me of my dad. And that's why
[00:16:10] I didn't get my dad until I was in the Marine Corps. And I realized I would go to the hospital
[00:16:16] at Veterans Hospital when he was young and had these breakdowns. But I still couldn't get it
[00:16:20] through my head what was going on. Then after I saw the vets coming back in Okinawa where you're
[00:16:26] getting cleaned up, ready to go, you realize there's some guys that really got hit hard mentally
[00:16:32] and physically too. But mentally is really something that just doesn't go away.
[00:16:38] What did your, what did your dad do in World War II? Was he in the Army? Was he in the Marine Corps?
[00:16:42] My dad was, he's actually a super athlete. He was a Golden Glove champion. He was the
[00:16:48] Fleet Naval champion. And back then there was a lot of, that's where all the men were. But he was
[00:16:54] in the Navy and he was on, I don't know what they call them, like a pom-pom guns or something.
[00:16:59] They're on an air battleship and his job was to protect the aircraft or the planes on the aircraft
[00:17:08] carrier. And a friend of his was telling me, my dad would take it just bad if they hit those ships.
[00:17:18] He just thought it was, he had to get everyone. And he says that if they were taking fire he would
[00:17:24] stay right on that gun. So yeah, the films of the World War II, U.S. Navy, is, it's crazy to watch
[00:17:34] those things. It's crazy to watch those. And they have actually both sides. You know, they have the
[00:17:38] Japanese that are coming in and drop bombs. You can watch those films as well. Yeah. And he was
[00:17:42] in all the big ones, you know, the Midway and all that stuff. And so it just, it just mentally
[00:17:50] wiped them out. He would have these just, just go off on us. Yeah. It's, it's, I don't think we're
[00:18:00] ever going to have a naval war like World War II again, where it's, where the humans are at such a
[00:18:08] massive amount of pressure. I mean, of course, something the Navy can always go bad. I mean,
[00:18:14] if a vessel, I mean, you don't even need a war. You know, things can happen. But that World War II
[00:18:21] from a naval war perspective is just, it's horrendous. I was talking with one of my friends
[00:18:27] the other day, even just being, even just firing those big guns, these guys didn't have hearing
[00:18:33] protection. You know, many, you know, and right now they're doing all these things with football
[00:18:38] and CTE and, and, uh, you know, traumatic brain injury, the TBI. They tell us now in the SEAL teams,
[00:18:47] we shoot these rockets, Carl Gustav Rockets and, and they're bit, they, they like rock you, you
[00:18:53] know, it's like you get, it's like you just got cracked in the head. And now they're, we used to
[00:18:59] just sit down as a range safety officer. We just sit there out there and shoot those things all day
[00:19:02] long. And now they're saying you can only shoot three a day and all this stuff. But can you imagine
[00:19:06] being like your dad on a, on a naval vessel with the, you're just getting concussion after concussion
[00:19:12] after concussion. It's ruthless, ruthless. It's, I don't think people understand how they just take
[00:19:21] it for granted. You know, you're 18, 19 years old and, um, or even the SEALs, uh, you guys are in a
[00:19:30] firefight. And then next day you go into another one. You're looking at policemen who were in a
[00:19:37] firefight for a half hour and they retire, you know, and it's like these kids are out there
[00:19:44] and they just get up and do it and do it and do it. And my wife used to worry so much when we
[00:19:50] would have these ceremonies and she'd meet the SEALs. And she used to just think, how much are
[00:19:55] they carrying around? How much baggage are they carrying around? And, uh, it's just people just
[00:20:01] don't realize, um, how we can just, uh, wipe a guy out, have those memories come back and, uh,
[00:20:10] they just take it for granted. They, like you say, pros, they got this for them and that. And they
[00:20:15] got these young kids that are life and death situations carrying a hundred pounds on their back,
[00:20:21] a hundred and some degrees. And that's like to do it again the next day.
[00:20:26] And the next day, the next day, the next day, the next day, the, this country doesn't understand
[00:20:33] what these guys go through. They don't appreciate it.
[00:20:38] So you get done with Vietnam, your deployment to Vietnam, you come home and you're planning
[00:20:43] the whole time you're going to do your four years and punch out. Yeah. Uh, that was the plan. And
[00:20:49] it was funny. We were gone for 13 months and the world really goes fast. I remember, uh,
[00:20:57] my buddies were sitting in the car. We're going to go get some beer. I was, uh, I wasn't even
[00:21:02] old. I think I was 20. And, uh, anyway, I go in to get the beer. And, uh, so as I, as I go,
[00:21:10] leave, I stop and I go, Hey, wait a minute, I need a church key. And I go as a church key,
[00:21:15] a church key back then is what you used to open up. Okay. So yeah. So in the guys looking at me
[00:21:22] and he goes, you know, your church, how you open up the beer then. And he goes like this,
[00:21:28] pulls the beer out from under the, or soda from under the county. He goes like this. He goes,
[00:21:32] you go like this, you know,
[00:21:34] oh, so the new cans and come out. I go back to the car and, uh, and the guy, I go, check this out,
[00:21:44] guys. The guys go, whoa, where have we been? Yeah. I've had some guys on that were POWs in
[00:21:53] Vietnam and like you want, you know, these are guys that got shot down in like 1965, 1966, 1967,
[00:22:00] they come back in 1973. It is a whole new world. I mean, it was a whole new world for them.
[00:22:10] And even the year, like, I mean, you must be gone 69. That the world changed a lot in that year.
[00:22:17] Oh yeah. I mean, uh, we got back, they really hated us. I was stunned. How many people hated us.
[00:22:23] And, uh, I'm thinking, what did we do? It was come out and insult us. Uh, you know, I remember, uh,
[00:22:32] uh, I was at the airport and back then you had to fly on your uniforms and, uh, it was not a good
[00:22:38] idea all the time. You were like targets. And I had a woman is up in San Francisco, just rush up to
[00:22:44] me and she's got her children and she just hates me and I don't even know her. And, uh, she says,
[00:22:51] she says, she says, how do you kill babies? And it's like, and I started thinking, why should I
[00:22:57] take her seriously? It's like, well, we try to give them a little bit more lead, you know, because
[00:23:03] they're quick. I'm sure she appreciated it. Oh, she didn't appreciate it. But you know, it's like,
[00:23:09] how long do we keep taking it? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, they, uh, it was, it was weird the way they
[00:23:16] treated us, uh, Virginia, I think they had signs dogs and Marines stay off the grass. And I thought,
[00:23:24] when are we going to learn this lesson that these guys are called and now they volunteer to do
[00:23:30] something that nobody else wants to do. Now they're treating them a lot better, which I totally
[00:23:35] appreciate. No, they're definitely, it's definitely a different world for us coming home now.
[00:23:40] Yeah. So what'd you do when you got, what'd you do when you got out? Uh, I was totally drifting.
[00:23:54] I knew I wanted, I wanted to start a business, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to.
[00:24:00] I, when I was younger, I was learning the contracting business. I was like a human
[00:24:05] wheelbarrow, you know, I just, whatever they wanted loaded up. That's what I would do. So I got into
[00:24:12] contracting and, uh, then went to school at night and built a business. Uh, we did, I had a partner
[00:24:22] that I went with ever since elementary school. So, uh, we built it up to about 60 guys. And then
[00:24:28] from there I bought a, uh, a woman's store for my sister, uh, who went through a divorce and, uh,
[00:24:38] figured she needed an income up about a store for, they really didn't make enough money. So I ended
[00:24:43] up with, um, uh, uh, four stores in the department in the malls. And then I decided I would, um,
[00:24:52] um, uh, start manufacturing clothes. So it just kind of worked that way. And then, uh, I got a,
[00:24:59] a 300 seat restaurant bar entertainment and, uh, everything, uh, was working just great.
[00:25:06] Moving in a nice house, had the kids, wife's happy. So you, what year do you meet? Howie?
[00:25:11] I met her before I, uh, I, uh, I went overseas. Okay. I, she was a, uh, car hop.
[00:25:24] I remember, uh, watching her and, uh, I just love the way she looked in those slacks.
[00:25:32] What's a car hop? A car hop is, uh, you, at, back in the day, uh, you would pull up into,
[00:25:41] at a restaurant in the parking lot and the girls would come out and have little cowboy
[00:25:45] hats on and stuff. And they had the menu. So you eat right in your car. And this is where a lot
[00:25:50] of the young guys would hang out, um, hang out in their cars and go out and check everybody's
[00:25:55] cars. And, you know, it was just a real social thing. And I remember, uh, she bends down to
[00:26:02] take the order and I see her face and it was just weird. It was like, um, she had her front teeth
[00:26:08] or just kind of turned in a little bit and it just, I don't know. I just loved her face.
[00:26:15] And, uh, we knew each other for five years, uh, on and off on and off. When I came back,
[00:26:21] uh, she was engaged to get married, but it was my fault because I thought that I was going to
[00:26:28] go to Vietnam and the life expectancy was not good, uh, sitting behind a 50 Kallin in a helicopter.
[00:26:34] So I didn't want her to waste her time. So I says, you know, uh, why don't you go ahead and see
[00:26:40] other people? You know, I am, you know, so, you know, good luck. And I come back and I find out she's engaged to get married.
[00:26:47] And then I bumped into her at a party and, uh, they just started over again. It was nice.
[00:26:58] And, uh, so she broke off the engagement. Yeah. Yeah. Nicely done, George.
[00:27:02] I've apologized to her for years. I'm so sorry.
[00:27:09] Okay. So you had, you're just basically an entrepreneur. You got restaurants,
[00:27:13] you got clothing manufacturing, you got a contract, you got all kinds of stuff going on.
[00:27:18] Yeah. And, uh, we had a couple of race horses, which was, uh, it was a lot of fun.
[00:27:24] And, uh, it was, it was good. And, uh,
[00:27:27] So you had Sarah first Sarah and, uh, then we had Jim and then, uh, Michael and then Joe.
[00:27:35] Joe, we almost had in the car.
[00:27:41] That was funny. I got to the hospital and, uh, the emergency side, it was at, uh,
[00:27:48] it was at Long Beach Memorial. And at that time you had to park on a slope and I just pulled the car up and,
[00:27:56] uh, and I ran into the hospital and I said, my wife's having a baby. Get ready. And I grabbed a wheelchair and I go out there.
[00:28:04] And because they were on the slope, I'm trying to get her out and the door keeps closing. And then, uh, so I kind of moved myself around.
[00:28:12] And then I got my hand on the, on the wheelchair and I finally get her in and she sits back and then the weight pushes the wheelchair back,
[00:28:21] pushes my hand. My hand is now, uh, right there down onto the asphalt. And, uh, I'm trying to, uh, get her back up so I can get my hand out.
[00:28:32] But it all worked out. We got her in there as soon as we got her up to the, uh, into the elevator. They were right there. They took her and
[00:28:40] they told me to change my clothes. I ran in and Joe was already born.
[00:28:43] Uh, um, I want to read a section here from the book, uh, when, when Michael was born.
[00:28:53] Um, you say this in the book, as they gazed upon their second son in the bright hospital room with his inquisitive brown eyes looking right back at
[00:29:02] theirs, his matted dark hair contrasting his fresh soft skin. George knew Michael was the right name for him.
[00:29:10] Sally wholeheartedly agreed. He was named after St. Michael, the archangel who in the Old Testament cast out of heaven, all of the fallen angels led by Lucifer and condemn them to eternity in hell.
[00:29:23] He was a soldier full of strength and feared nothing. It was a perfect fit. The hospital staff performed their newborn well checks on little Michael.
[00:29:32] And after some time had passed, the pediatrician walked into their room. Mrs. Montsour, Michael has jaundice, which is why his skin
[00:29:39] has a yellowish tint. It's caused by an excess of pigment. Typically because of obstruction of the bile duct, you will be discharged today, but we will need to keep Michael and put him in an incubator until his levels get lower.
[00:29:53] Sally looked back at the doctor. She'd heard what he was telling her, but before she could help herself, she blurted out, doctor, I'm not leaving my son.
[00:30:01] That was Sally. The pediatrician fought for a few minutes as he could see the unwavering determination in her eyes.
[00:30:07] And that she was adamant about not leaving him. Well, Mrs. Montsour, we'll let you take him home, but you have to agree to set a protocol of treatment in the home, including sitting with him by the window in the sun for two to three hours a day.
[00:30:19] If you follow our instructions and he continues to improve, he will not need to stay or come back to the hospital. Thank you so much. I will. I will do everything you need. Sally replied.
[00:30:30] So there's, there's Mikey arrives on the scene and he ends up having asthma too. Yeah, it just, it was like from day one, Mikey, Mikey's was like always had a problem and got through that and his skin got better.
[00:30:49] And then as he got a little bit older, we realized he was having breathing problems. And then we found out he had asthma, but being Mikey, it wasn't, it's never just a little bit. I mean, it's always full blown and it was rough for years.
[00:31:06] Like the asthma?
[00:31:08] Yeah, I mean, we would check on him every night, fearful that he would stop breathing. And he, you know, he just, it was just so small and so weak because he really couldn't exert himself. He's looking at his, his brothers and his sisters, our sister, and they're just excelling.
[00:31:30] And he's just trying to keep up. They would race in the pool and people are thinking they're swimming, but no, Mikey couldn't swim because he would get so exhausted moving all those body parts. So he would race them by hand over hand along the side of the pool.
[00:31:49] He would always compete. He would just find a different way to compete.
[00:31:56] And again, look, this book is Defend Us in Battle. It's, it's just an outstanding book. I'm reading small chunks of it, but the stories are just fantastic to read.
[00:32:08] This one, I must admit, I felt like I had to read, I had to read this one here. It says,
[00:32:14] As he grew older, Michael was often the target of bullying at school as well as on the playground and began to hate it. He felt profoundly for himself, the effects of someone victimizing someone less able to defend themselves in order for them to gratify their own desires.
[00:32:27] Even in his youngest years, he was keenly aware of the injustice that took place. One afternoon when Michael was around nine or 10, his father took him to the racetrack to scout out some future horse prospects as their family raced at thoroughbreds at the time.
[00:32:40] When they arrived, George began to chat with the trainer and Michael ran off to play on the play sec campground.
[00:32:45] As he played with the other children, George noticed three older boys pushing the other children or children around, including Michael. They made a show of it in an effort to demonstrate to all the children that they were in charge.
[00:32:56] They took over, they took over the only three swings and refused to get off any of them for the smaller and younger children to use. Not your swing, it's mine now.
[00:33:06] They taunted the younger kids. George called Michael back to him and looked at his tears, tear filled eyes.
[00:33:14] Come here, Mikey. I know those kids are being bullies, but not every wrong is yours to write.
[00:33:20] There's not always justice in the world. Sometimes you just have to move on, George told Michael.
[00:33:25] Dad, what is justice? Michael asked, his curiosity perked on hearing the new word.
[00:33:31] Justice is getting or giving what is deserved, whether it's reward or punishment.
[00:33:36] Mikey, George responded to his son, whom he always called Mikey when it was just the two of them.
[00:33:41] George could see his son taking in his words, yet his son's question continued to cut through his thoughts as they headed to their seats to watch the horse race.
[00:33:51] He could see in Michael's eyes that the issue was not resolved. After the action packed race, they returned to the area where they met the trainer.
[00:33:59] George asked Michael to stay nearby him and wait for him.
[00:34:03] But as soon as George was speaking with the trainer, Michael shot off to the playground with fire in his eyes.
[00:34:08] Those same boys were again back on the swings taunting the younger children.
[00:34:12] Michael ran straight up to them from behind and ripped each boy out of their swing one at a time.
[00:34:18] He then sprinted up the play structure and began to climb the ladder that led up to the rocket ship that had multiple layers of slides and ladders.
[00:34:25] He knew if he could get to the top, only one bully could get to him at a time and sure enough, they chased him right up after and one by one, he kicked each boy backwards over and over as they tried to attack him.
[00:34:36] When he could no longer defend himself, he initiated his escape plan. He leaped through the top rocket opening down the slide and ran as fast as he possibly could back to his father.
[00:34:43] This time, with the biggest grin on his face and eyes sparkling with excitement, he knew he was safe with his father by his side and it executed his plan perfectly.
[00:34:53] George and Michael got into their car to head back home and George glanced across at his son who sat in the passenger seat, victoriously grinning back at him.
[00:35:02] Dad, I think that's justice.
[00:35:06] When I was looking at him smiling, I was thinking who was smiling the most because it was just a special day for me and I know he felt so good that he outsmarted the bullies and that was just the beginning on him and bullies.
[00:35:29] Yeah, that was like a sly move. That was the thing about Mikey is he was quiet, but you could tell he was plotting.
[00:35:37] He was.
[00:35:38] He was plotting. So that was like the beginning of him plotting moves.
[00:35:43] Trying to figure something out.
[00:35:47] So you were doing good. Going back to just family businesses, all this stuff going on. You live in Anaheim Hills, which is a nice spot.
[00:35:56] Nice view of the city.
[00:35:58] And then economy hit.
[00:36:00] Economy and the IRS.
[00:36:04] Ouch.
[00:36:05] And the IRS, back then, before George Bush Sr., they were, they had carte blanche. They did what they wanted and they would accuse you of something and too bad.
[00:36:21] You had to abide by it.
[00:36:23] I didn't owe them any money and so I fought and it was an eight year battle.
[00:36:29] But that battle really wiped me out and I won. I got a little piece of paper that says George Montser versus the IRS, pay nothing.
[00:36:39] I might have been better off just to write them a check.
[00:36:43] But I was young. I think I was 30 or something, 31.
[00:36:48] And so I just, you know, that's wrong and I'm going to fight for it and maybe I should have negotiated.
[00:36:56] But that kind of money, $600 plus penalties like $800,000. Back in the 70s, you're talking about buying seven or eight million dollar houses in today's market.
[00:37:09] Yeah.
[00:37:10] So anyway, I fought and then it really crushed us business wise and it was, it was amazing really how strong our family was.
[00:37:22] Because we went from a pretty nice life to me coming home one day after the banks called me and said, I have been gutted and I had $29 in my pocket.
[00:37:33] And it was kind of struck me as like, I thought I'd feel bad about it, but it was, it was just the money was gone.
[00:37:44] I still had my family and just work around it.
[00:37:49] And I took, I went, my income definitely changed.
[00:37:53] Got a job working as a security guard and I took the job because they paid every Friday and I wanted to make sure my kids had groceries.
[00:38:03] And so I just did that until I put some deals together and it took a while.
[00:38:09] And you moved from Anaheim Hills down to, just when you moved down to Garden Grove?
[00:38:13] Yeah. And this area wasn't, wasn't the best.
[00:38:18] But it was a good experience for my kids and because they would see it when they had come to the factory with me.
[00:38:26] Factory was down in LA and that was pretty rough area.
[00:38:30] And they would see looking out the window.
[00:38:32] It's, you know, some of these people had it really tough.
[00:38:35] And we used to have a bear of a man that would sleep in front of our, in front of the door on the porch every night.
[00:38:46] And he would, he wouldn't say anything to me.
[00:38:50] It was more of a grunt all the time and he probably had some mental problems.
[00:38:54] He was just a huge guy and I asked him, I says, are you sleeping here every night?
[00:38:59] And it was just a kind of a grunt.
[00:39:01] Was this of your house?
[00:39:02] No, this was at the factory and down in LA.
[00:39:05] And so I thought to myself, a guy that big, I got no problem with them sleeping here at night because it was a rough area.
[00:39:12] So I put blankets out for him and he stayed there for years.
[00:39:18] Every morning I would come in, bring him a big breakfast burrito.
[00:39:22] He still hardly say anything to grunts and he would roll up his blankets and disappear all day.
[00:39:29] And then in the evening he'd come back.
[00:39:31] And the kids were fascinated with the sky.
[00:39:34] They wanted to be his friend, but he wasn't buying it.
[00:39:36] But anyway, they kind of saw that world.
[00:39:39] Now we're in an area where it's just a little bit of everything, a sprinkling of all kinds of nationalities.
[00:39:47] It was a lower income area and the kids were like, from a nice high school with all their friends are wealthy.
[00:39:59] They all go to Europe and all that stuff, which I didn't really like them around those kids all the time
[00:40:05] because I didn't want them to think this is the way it is.
[00:40:09] I wanted to see the other side.
[00:40:11] So it was a good experience.
[00:40:13] You've met my kids, you know they're good with whoever.
[00:40:16] 100%.
[00:40:17] They just roll with whatever and the whole family's that way.
[00:40:20] So it was good for them.
[00:40:23] Sarah wasn't thrilled with it.
[00:40:25] Sorry Sarah.
[00:40:28] She ended up being a leader on the basketball team and all the kids to grade in sports.
[00:40:36] And all in all, I think it was one of the best things that happened.
[00:40:41] Well, we've got a, I guess it's some kind of mythological thing in my family that started with when I was growing up at Christmas time.
[00:40:52] Apparently my mother's dad, when Christmas would be coming, he would tell everyone it's going to be a lean Christmas.
[00:40:59] And so that's what my parents would tell us like, hey, it's going to be a lean Christmas.
[00:41:05] And then you know when I was raising my kids and I'm in the Navy and I, you know, I got three kids then four kids.
[00:41:11] I didn't have any money.
[00:41:12] I've been telling my kids it's going to be a lean Christmas.
[00:41:16] And you know, we get like, I remember, you know, we get used presents.
[00:41:20] And I mean, I got my, my kids got used presents all the time, used surfboards, used toys.
[00:41:26] Everything was just used because it's going to be a lean Christmas.
[00:41:30] But you got a story that might that when you moved down, I think it might have been the first Christmas down the garden Grove where you guys didn't have money.
[00:41:37] You were looking at a lean Christmas and you got a story here about Mikey who goes out and I think he cut down like you didn't have a Christmas tree.
[00:41:46] The deal was you guys were going to do no presents.
[00:41:48] We were just going to have a nice dinner and we, we just started to get back on our feet and I had to deal fall apart on me at Christmas.
[00:41:58] And so my money's tied up and I can't get it out.
[00:42:02] And I just said, look, we just moved into a house still in Garden Grove, but it was quite a step up.
[00:42:10] And Michael is one of those guys.
[00:42:14] He, he just kind of, okay.
[00:42:17] He's plotting.
[00:42:18] He's plotting.
[00:42:19] And so we wake up and we walk out and there's this Italian Cyprus sitting in a bucket of dirt and you put a little sparkly things on there.
[00:42:35] There might even been some lights up and there's a little present surrounded and we're all coming in, you know, sit down, sit down, you know.
[00:42:44] And he's giving us presents and the presents were hilarious.
[00:42:50] I still have the rocks he gave me.
[00:42:53] Sally kept the scarf that he got with those throwaways at the racetrack and the kids got like fingernail clippers or little knives and we just roared.
[00:43:05] It was just so funny and the way he presented them, you know, and you're looking at your kids and you're thinking,
[00:43:13] these are strong kids, you know, they get it and they just roll with with the disappointments, but it was a great Christmas.
[00:43:23] And then I remember when we were leaving the house, I don't know where we're going to go, but go out and I look at the car and you look in the front of the house.
[00:43:31] And it's that Cyprus.
[00:43:34] So you get two Cyprus on one side, you got a Cyprus, the half on the other.
[00:43:42] Cyprus, you know, you get your your kids and your neighbors are thinking, they're ever going to fix that.
[00:43:49] You know, no, it's a memory.
[00:43:51] I think it wasn't fixed in till somebody else bought the house.
[00:43:56] And so everyone's playing sports.
[00:44:00] Mikey and I playing hockey.
[00:44:02] How do you get into hockey?
[00:44:03] That's not the Southern California sport.
[00:44:05] Anything that rolls or slides, it was just him.
[00:44:10] I don't know.
[00:44:11] He was like, I remember the first time he was on skates, it was like, I'm looking at
[00:44:15] this guy, he's jumping over stuff.
[00:44:18] Once he starts moving, it's like in his head, well, maybe I can do this, maybe I can do
[00:44:22] this.
[00:44:23] It's like when we got him a bike.
[00:44:26] Next thing he's building ramps, you know, so you know, high he can go.
[00:44:30] Ramps break, he crashes and burns.
[00:44:32] He gets right back, builds another ramp.
[00:44:35] And hockey, yeah, it surprised me, but he was still smaller than the other kids.
[00:44:41] And his edge was really how fast he was on wheels.
[00:44:47] And he just really liked the sport.
[00:44:49] He got his contact, but because he was on wheels, he could really hit these guys too, and he
[00:44:55] was quick.
[00:44:57] So if they hit him, he could come back and he felt everything was equal.
[00:45:02] And he loved the game, yeah.
[00:45:05] And then he also played football as well.
[00:45:07] Yeah, he loved football, but he was, you know, he just, he wasn't a big guy, but he had,
[00:45:13] you know, he's one of those guys had a lot of heart, always working.
[00:45:18] And he took it really serious.
[00:45:19] No one was going to run past him.
[00:45:22] He was the defensive end.
[00:45:23] And that was his territory.
[00:45:26] Even if he had to pull the guy's face mask, he was not going to go any place.
[00:45:31] I remember he did it and he's double teamed and I see his head reach out, grabs the guy's
[00:45:36] face mask.
[00:45:37] And I was sitting just right off in the bleachers, he could see me and he looks at me like, you
[00:45:42] got to do what you got to do.
[00:45:44] Not on my side.
[00:45:45] You've got a section in here.
[00:45:48] You say Michael's team was getting pummeled by their counterpart junior varsity team,
[00:45:51] which included some of the varsity players.
[00:45:54] One by one, the JV players on his team began to remove their helmets and quit walking off
[00:45:58] the field and defeat and shame.
[00:46:00] They were not willing to be humiliated any longer in front of their family or friends
[00:46:03] during the guard group football scrimmage.
[00:46:05] The clock sounded its horn loud horn for half time and each team jog to the respective
[00:46:11] locker rooms as George sat by his old 64 gold Riviera.
[00:46:17] I love that car.
[00:46:19] Michael ended up with it for a while and waited for the game to resume.
[00:46:22] Michael walked past his father with barely a glance in his direction.
[00:46:26] George watched curiously as Michael moved around the front of the car and opened the
[00:46:29] passenger door to get in.
[00:46:30] George confused as to why Michael was not headed back to the field, looked directly
[00:46:34] at him.
[00:46:35] What happened, Mikey?
[00:46:36] Why are you here?
[00:46:37] Michael looked up at his father, his whole demeanor ripe with disappointment as he fought
[00:46:40] back tears.
[00:46:41] Dad, they just quit.
[00:46:43] The referee canceled the game because too many of our players quit.
[00:46:45] Dad, why would they quit?
[00:46:47] We still had a chance.
[00:46:48] We could have won.
[00:46:49] Mikey, you guys were down by 50 points.
[00:46:52] I know, Dad, but the game wasn't over yet.
[00:46:54] We had a chance.
[00:46:55] He hung his head trying to fathom what had just transpired as he quietly repeated to
[00:46:59] himself.
[00:47:00] They just quit.
[00:47:01] Quitting was not something the Montsourges did.
[00:47:03] They were always taught to follow through.
[00:47:07] Yeah, we were.
[00:47:09] I mean, I had, when they wanted to play a sport, before I put them in that sport, we always
[00:47:14] had the same conversation.
[00:47:16] You join this team, you're here until the season's over, whether you like the coach,
[00:47:21] whether you play or not play, you do not quit.
[00:47:25] So they were raised that way.
[00:47:26] You make that decision because one of them is children to understand.
[00:47:32] They make these decisions, then they have to live by them.
[00:47:34] And it's just short little tests, but it was important that they started understanding.
[00:47:39] You know, you just on a whim decide you want to play football.
[00:47:43] So he was raised like you don't quit.
[00:47:46] And all those kids, it was hard on them because they were just getting wasted.
[00:47:53] I mean, there was no first down.
[00:47:55] There was no completed pass.
[00:47:57] They were just totally outclassed.
[00:47:59] But Michael always figures there's always a chance.
[00:48:03] And if he would have got one touchdown, he would have felt like we have our dignity.
[00:48:08] So that's, he was just, he did not like, he didn't mind losing as much if he gave everything,
[00:48:14] but just to lose that just wasn't Michael.
[00:48:17] He used to have a thing.
[00:48:19] He bunk bet.
[00:48:20] He was on the bottom and Joe was on the top and he even on his inside, when you woke up
[00:48:27] in the morning, there was a little message, you know, never quit.
[00:48:30] And he carried that for, you know, his whole life.
[00:48:34] Yeah.
[00:48:35] He was, he was a believer in once you sat it, then live with it.
[00:48:39] Yeah.
[00:48:40] You go on to say here, Michael's line harder determination grew stronger as he grueled
[00:48:45] or he played as a defensive end for the Argonaut varsity football team while he's in high school
[00:48:50] and was known for being one of the hardest workers on the field.
[00:48:52] Asthma continued to challenge Michael, but he was not going to let it dictate how he
[00:48:56] lived.
[00:48:57] Sally remembers how Santa Anna wins coming in from the mountains each fall would affect
[00:49:00] Michael's breathing.
[00:49:02] One afternoon she opened the door to his bedroom to find him wheezing.
[00:49:04] She asked him why he wasn't using his inhaler.
[00:49:07] I'm weaning myself off it, mom.
[00:49:09] Although unable to fully rid himself of the ailment, Michael would not let it stop him
[00:49:13] from accomplishing what he set out to achieve.
[00:49:16] So he's just freaking tough.
[00:49:18] He is.
[00:49:19] He's very determined.
[00:49:21] And I think all the, the, the way he was treated, you know, when he was younger, bullies
[00:49:28] just they have a sense.
[00:49:30] There's the weak one.
[00:49:32] And he just made it his life not to be the weak week one.
[00:49:37] I mean, I remember when he was in the sixth grade, he told me, he says, it's going to
[00:49:40] be over.
[00:49:41] He says, this will stop.
[00:49:43] Oh, this is the bullying?
[00:49:45] Yeah.
[00:49:46] He says, this will stop.
[00:49:48] And he just determined to get stronger.
[00:49:52] And even verbally, I mean, people didn't realize if you know him that his tongue was sharp
[00:49:58] when he wasn't, you know, as strong as he would go the other way.
[00:50:03] And he would embarrass them.
[00:50:04] I mean, he had a very good mind and he would just trash them.
[00:50:09] And they know that whatever they would do, he would take it.
[00:50:12] I've seen him take these hits knowing he'd come back and say, what happened?
[00:50:17] And, you know, his brother would say, Hey, those guys, you know, went after Mike because
[00:50:23] he went after them verbally.
[00:50:25] And you know, he would fight, but he was just outgunned, but he never would back down.
[00:50:29] He was little and he had to pay, you know, all of them had to have a discipline.
[00:50:34] We had rules in the family.
[00:50:36] And if he wasn't buying the rule, he would literally just, okay, I'll take the two days
[00:50:43] in my bedroom or whatever and our bedroom, those bedrooms didn't have TVs and video games.
[00:50:50] But I never, never beef about it or anything.
[00:50:53] You just take his medicine.
[00:50:54] There you go.
[00:50:56] Yeah.
[00:50:57] He's playing football.
[00:50:59] How were his grades in high school?
[00:51:02] Here's Michael.
[00:51:03] I don't know.
[00:51:04] Michael in the sixth grade, it was determined they had very high IQ and it was determined
[00:51:11] because we had a meeting and the teacher says he just doesn't do anything.
[00:51:18] He ignores me and he doesn't do his homework.
[00:51:21] And he goes in there.
[00:51:22] As a matter of fact, there's his backpack.
[00:51:23] He has to even take it home.
[00:51:25] He goes and gets it and he says, you might as well take this home.
[00:51:28] And in the backpack had all these papers in it.
[00:51:31] So he opens it up.
[00:51:32] Teacher opens it up and he's looking at all the homework he did and the tests he took.
[00:51:38] He goes, he goes, you know, I think your kid's really pretty smart.
[00:51:45] And that's when they start putting him into the, to the higher classes and he was fine
[00:51:51] with it.
[00:51:52] And he got towards the end of high school, he's bored and I get a letter from the high
[00:51:57] school registered letter that says your son has all F's and he's not going to graduate.
[00:52:05] Bring him into the office and I say, you understand this family works, right?
[00:52:09] I have my job.
[00:52:11] You have your job.
[00:52:12] Wait, what's the office?
[00:52:13] This is in your house.
[00:52:14] You have the office.
[00:52:15] This is where counseling takes place with the children.
[00:52:17] Well, I spent a lot of time in there praying that I had some money in the bank and I just
[00:52:22] keep looking at it.
[00:52:23] Now it's still the same.
[00:52:24] And I says, now this works.
[00:52:27] I says, you have a job and the job is to get through school.
[00:52:32] That's your job.
[00:52:34] And I says, you got straight F's.
[00:52:37] They're telling me that you will not graduate.
[00:52:39] Do you think that's going to play out with me?
[00:52:42] And I says, you know, you won't be living here.
[00:52:45] You don't do your job.
[00:52:46] You don't live here.
[00:52:47] You're gone.
[00:52:49] And he just smiles.
[00:52:51] And he says, don't worry, dad.
[00:52:54] I got this.
[00:52:56] And boom, he turns it around.
[00:53:01] Straight A's all the way up.
[00:53:03] And then he smiles and he goes, I got it.
[00:53:06] There's something about him that when he's bored, then he made it harder just to, you
[00:53:14] know, test himself.
[00:53:16] And the things he did when he was young was always testing himself.
[00:53:21] He just, it was almost like, since I had race horses, it was like having a young horse that
[00:53:27] she didn't allow him to get out of the stall.
[00:53:31] And he just wanted to run and wanted to run.
[00:53:33] Michael wanted to run, but he couldn't.
[00:53:36] He just wasn't strong enough.
[00:53:39] And once he got stronger, he just wanted to run and he did.
[00:53:46] So he graduates from high school.
[00:53:47] What was his plan when he graduated from high school?
[00:53:49] Because he graduated in 99.
[00:53:51] Well, and we're in a couple years later.
[00:53:53] Yeah.
[00:53:54] So what was he doing in the meantime?
[00:53:55] His plan was to go into the military, but he wanted to have a good time before he went
[00:54:02] into the military.
[00:54:05] So we had a good time.
[00:54:08] And then I remember telling him, you know, the good times over, it's time for you to
[00:54:13] make a decision.
[00:54:17] Was Jim in the Marine Corps at this point?
[00:54:22] Or had Jim already gone to the Marine Corps?
[00:54:23] You know, I can't remember.
[00:54:25] I think Jim was in the Marines.
[00:54:26] Yeah.
[00:54:27] He was in the Marines.
[00:54:28] Another one that doesn't say anything to his dad.
[00:54:32] Hey, dad, I'm going, I'm going to join the Marines.
[00:54:36] Well, would you even join the Marines?
[00:54:38] He was, well, I'm going in tomorrow.
[00:54:40] What?
[00:54:41] And I knew Michael was talking about going in.
[00:54:48] I had no idea that that's what's his plan.
[00:54:53] In the book, it says that it sounds like you're the one that had kind of told him about the
[00:54:58] Seal Teams where he had asked you about it.
[00:54:59] He had asked me about it.
[00:55:01] And I remember, because we would drop guys off and would you practice things and being
[00:55:08] in the Marines to do with Navy guys?
[00:55:09] And then we had our recon guys.
[00:55:13] So we do a lot of the same things.
[00:55:15] Recon?
[00:55:16] Everyone forgot about recon.
[00:55:20] Anyway, so he was fascinated with it.
[00:55:24] You know, like any young kid, he wanted to hear about these guys.
[00:55:27] I had no idea what was going on in his head.
[00:55:32] And because he was so sickly, he's the last guy I thought that would be a Seal.
[00:55:38] And I always thought to myself, he's got a great mind and he's going to be one of those
[00:55:44] eggheads and I'm good with that.
[00:55:47] But his mind was not thinking that way.
[00:55:51] And I was really kind of taken back when I found out after he graduated from Navy Bootcamp.
[00:55:58] His instructor told me.
[00:56:01] His instructor told you that he was going to try and be a Seal?
[00:56:03] He says, you got a great son here.
[00:56:06] He goes, this guy is great and he's definitely Seal material.
[00:56:11] And what?
[00:56:12] And is that the first time you knew that he was going to try and go to Buds or he was going
[00:56:19] to Buds?
[00:56:20] Yeah, he talked about Seals, but I never really registered that he was serious about that.
[00:56:27] And we teased him anyway because he went into the Navy because we were all Marines.
[00:56:33] A whole family all the way back to World War II Marines.
[00:56:37] And it was like, I was good with it, the Navy.
[00:56:42] But then the Seal thing just caught me.
[00:56:46] And I still remember he had that funny smile.
[00:56:51] So he's in the Navy.
[00:56:56] He ends up at Buds.
[00:56:59] And Buds is what it is.
[00:57:03] And what it is is freaking brutal.
[00:57:06] And I'm going to go to the book here.
[00:57:08] It was now late fall, 2001.
[00:57:11] The days were shorter.
[00:57:12] The air was cooler.
[00:57:14] Michael was exhausted and decided to head home for the weekend to get some much needed
[00:57:18] rest in the midst of vigorous training.
[00:57:19] A lot of people don't know this.
[00:57:20] When you're at Buds, basic Seal training, people think you get locked away on some island
[00:57:24] somewhere.
[00:57:25] No, you basically work Monday through Friday and then weekends you recover.
[00:57:31] And if you want to recover by drinking, you can do it.
[00:57:35] If you want to recover by laying in bed and icing your knees, you can do that too.
[00:57:40] It's kind of up to you.
[00:57:42] And Michael decided he's going to go home.
[00:57:44] So George knew something was wrong as soon as Michael returned home.
[00:57:47] Michael wasn't walking right.
[00:57:48] And as George looked down at his feet, he could see why.
[00:57:51] Michael's socks were bloody and Michael was miserable.
[00:57:53] Michael, what are you doing?
[00:57:54] You're not going to make it like that.
[00:57:55] Dad, I'm not quitting.
[00:57:57] Michael, you can't even walk and your feet are a bloody mess.
[00:57:59] You're leaving footprints all over the kitchen floor.
[00:58:02] I'm not quitting.
[00:58:04] Michael bandaged up his feet as best he could and headed back to Coronado Prepair for training
[00:58:09] the following day.
[00:58:10] The bandages did little to keep the sand out of the lesions on his feet.
[00:58:13] And every step he took was like running sandpaper across the open sores, bringing excruciating
[00:58:19] pain.
[00:58:20] Both feet were an absolute mess, yet Michael pushed on.
[00:58:24] The pain continued to build and was not only draining him menly, but rapidly slowed his
[00:58:28] pace affecting his ability to perform the required evolutions.
[00:58:32] He was disgusted with what had begun to creep into his conscious thought.
[00:58:36] He hated to see weakness in others, but hated it even more in himself.
[00:58:40] With every pain filled step, it became clearer.
[00:58:42] He was forced to acknowledge what he had tried to ignore, the reality that he would not be
[00:58:47] able to continue.
[00:58:49] It was the 24th hour of the first day of Hell Week, the third week of the six month pipeline,
[00:58:55] regarded as the most challenging week of Bud's training cycle when students are expected
[00:58:59] to run upwards of 200 miles and are allowed to only 3-4 hours of sleep the entire week.
[00:59:06] Michael stood up and did what he thought he would never do.
[00:59:09] He walked over to the notorious bell, affixed to a pillar directly in front of the first
[00:59:13] phase office, and rang it three times, alerting the whole compound that he was finished.
[00:59:20] Michael made a left face, walked achingly down the sidewalk that was already lined with
[00:59:24] helmets of those who had not made it to this point.
[00:59:28] When he reached the end, he made one more left face, took off his helmet, and placed
[00:59:32] it next to the others.
[00:59:35] He had quit.
[00:59:38] Dang.
[00:59:40] It was devastated.
[00:59:47] I remember when he told me, and his eyes were just filled with tears, he just could not
[00:59:57] believe that he quit.
[00:59:59] He just couldn't believe it.
[01:00:04] It was just so sad.
[01:00:07] I didn't even have words.
[01:00:12] I kind of didn't want him to be a seal.
[01:00:14] Well, I didn't want him to be a seal.
[01:00:15] But I knew how much it meant to him, especially at that moment.
[01:00:21] I just really didn't.
[01:00:23] I could remember how when they were kids, I would tell them, it's your defeat, and how
[01:00:29] do you come back from the defeat?
[01:00:31] That's what makes you the man or the woman is the way you come back.
[01:00:35] I couldn't even remember that.
[01:00:37] I was struck by it.
[01:00:39] He was just so sad.
[01:00:41] The next morning, he's up making some breakfast.
[01:00:49] He says, remember when you say, I'm going to be a seal.
[01:00:59] Then it began.
[01:01:02] He was back on track, and he was going to be a seal.
[01:01:10] He ends up getting state.
[01:01:11] Again, the book has so many good details of all this.
[01:01:15] Eventually, he ends up getting stationed in Italy, in Aci Trezza, and immediately, and
[01:01:22] he's with a couple other guys that are on the same boat he is in.
[01:01:27] Man, that program's tough.
[01:01:34] They began training.
[01:01:35] They began getting ready.
[01:01:37] They're swimming.
[01:01:38] They're running.
[01:01:39] They're cliff jumping, getting into some of this stuff here.
[01:01:46] For Michael and his friends, they were determined to push themselves as hard as necessary to
[01:01:49] train their bodies for the rigors of buds.
[01:01:51] They were getting a second shot, and they knew they were not about to blow it.
[01:01:55] They would do whatever it took to be ready this time around.
[01:01:57] Michael's most traumatic experience thus far in life was ringing the bell and quitting
[01:02:01] buds, and he would not be satisfied without a second chance to prove to himself that he
[01:02:05] could do it.
[01:02:06] Michael told his younger brother, Joe, that this second time around, they would have to
[01:02:10] drag his dead body off the beach before he would quit.
[01:02:13] That does not surprise me with Michael.
[01:02:16] It scared his brother.
[01:02:19] You know, Joe was like, that could be true, dad.
[01:02:25] Got some good stories in here about Italy.
[01:02:28] They're in Sicily.
[01:02:29] They got nightlife.
[01:02:31] Michael's buying vehicles.
[01:02:33] He buys a Russian truck.
[01:02:35] He buys a Lancia.
[01:02:37] You say this, Michael also pursed a Lancia, an incredibly fast car with all-wheel drive
[01:02:42] and used to cruise it all throughout Italy.
[01:02:44] The higher the speed, the better, until one afternoon when Ollie, that's one of his buddies,
[01:02:47] got a call from Mike, he had crashed it racing an Audi.
[01:02:51] They were flying down the Sicily highway when Mike hit a wet spot and lost control.
[01:02:54] It was on.
[01:02:55] Lancia spun and slammed directly into the concrete divider wall.
[01:02:58] Luckily, he wasn't hurt and was able to get it towed back to his home, but it was not
[01:03:02] looking good for the car.
[01:03:03] Ollie drove over to Mike's apartment to see how he could help.
[01:03:06] First, he saw the car.
[01:03:07] It was totaled.
[01:03:08] Then he saw Mike beer in hand, steak on the grill, and not a care in the world.
[01:03:13] It was good while it lasted, Mike said with his signature smile.
[01:03:16] That is Michael.
[01:03:17] That is 100%.
[01:03:18] I mean, this is just another.
[01:03:24] Mike got so many accidents in Italy, he opted to pay $200 a day for extra car rental insurance
[01:03:29] just to cover the shenanigans.
[01:03:32] He liked freaking vehicles and cars and motorcycles.
[01:03:36] That might have been my fault.
[01:03:37] I had a motorcycle when I was a kid and I remember Sal always would get on and then
[01:03:43] I would drive a little crazy and should reach up into my shirt and pull my chest nose out.
[01:03:51] But Mike, when he was little, we had a 64GTO.
[01:03:57] That thing, from a dead stop, it would just scream.
[01:04:04] Mike was just a little guy and he'd hold on to the handle over the glovebox and he'd
[01:04:08] just go, Dad, go.
[01:04:10] I'd burn through those gears and fish tailing and he's just in heaven.
[01:04:19] We had this long on-route to the freeway where you could see the freeway before you got on.
[01:04:24] He had this long ramp and so he knew I could do it there and I would.
[01:04:29] So I just burned through the gears and then he can smell the smoke from the tires.
[01:04:36] He's just a huge smile.
[01:04:38] He said, Dad, we're going 100 miles an hour.
[01:04:41] I was like, about half of that.
[01:04:43] Give or take 50.
[01:04:44] I don't know if I can get on feet.
[01:04:45] But he just loved the acceleration.
[01:04:48] And I didn't realize that it would have such an effect because he loved fast stuff.
[01:04:56] Yeah.
[01:04:57] And he just did.
[01:04:59] Yeah, including Lancia.
[01:05:01] Yeah.
[01:05:02] So if parents read this, it's a great book for your children except for that kid slowed
[01:05:08] down a little bit.
[01:05:09] That might have been a mistake on my part.
[01:05:13] Fast forward a little bit here.
[01:05:15] It says as the two years came to an end as he inch closer to heading back to Coronado
[01:05:18] for a second shot at Buds, Michael felt strong and strong and ready.
[01:05:22] Michael still contended with his severe asthma, which caused him to be rarely without his
[01:05:26] inhaler, but he would not concede to this ailment in any shape or form.
[01:05:31] One afternoon as Chris, that's another one of his buddies talks about and Mike ran side
[01:05:35] by side on one of their last hard runs.
[01:05:37] Mike pushed himself harder and harder to beat his friend Chris.
[01:05:40] Chris pulled ahead, it pissed off Mike, he pissed off Mike, grabbed his inhaler, chucked
[01:05:45] it across the road and sprinted until he beat Chris and finished the run.
[01:05:50] That was the last time Chris ever saw Mike use his inhaler.
[01:05:53] He didn't have room for weakness.
[01:05:54] It was all or nothing this time around.
[01:05:57] He was mentally ready for Buds.
[01:06:01] It was like bring it.
[01:06:05] I mean, and it sounds like his attitude going in.
[01:06:08] Obviously, you know what to expect.
[01:06:10] You don't want to make that mistake.
[01:06:12] Although one of my roommates was a former Buds quitter and he was back again and I was
[01:06:21] like, well, you know, he's probably going to, he's a little older, you know, kind of,
[01:06:25] I was thinking, hey, you know, he's guys going to be good to go.
[01:06:28] But sure enough, first night of Halloween, he quit.
[01:06:30] So there's no, there's still no guarantee.
[01:06:33] It's what you change in your brain.
[01:06:34] Yeah.
[01:06:35] And he was more prepared.
[01:06:36] I remember, I think the last thing I said to him when he left was watch the sand because
[01:06:42] that really destroyed me.
[01:06:44] He wasn't, he just didn't take care of himself that first time around.
[01:06:50] So he was definitely determined.
[01:06:52] He was in good shape and mentally he was determined.
[01:06:57] Yeah.
[01:06:59] He had a friend named Gabe Lynch.
[01:07:02] And this kid was like an Oregon farm boy.
[01:07:04] So you had like the California kid.
[01:07:06] Yeah.
[01:07:07] They had some pretty good experiences that they talk about in the book that you guys
[01:07:11] talk about in the book.
[01:07:12] It says, Gabe and Michael were both part of boat crew three.
[01:07:16] They were close in height, standing just around six foot one.
[01:07:19] Gabe recalls how Mike was always one to brighten the mood of the guys during the often exhausting
[01:07:23] days of being beaten by by the ocean surf while wet and sandy all day long.
[01:07:29] Gabe was the slower runner between the two of them.
[01:07:31] And he remembers Mike hanging out in the back with him as they would push through their
[01:07:36] four mile time runs.
[01:07:37] He would encourage Gabe, then sprint back up to the front and finish easily in the top
[01:07:41] tier runners every time.
[01:07:43] That was the kind of guy Mike was always looking out for his buddies.
[01:07:46] He could see who needed a word of encouragement or or action of support and would deliver
[01:07:50] it at just the right time.
[01:07:52] Sometimes that's all it took when a guy was delirious running on a few hours of sleep
[01:07:56] for a for days on end.
[01:07:59] Even though Michael had not yet made it and become part of the seal brotherhood, brotherhood
[01:08:03] itself was something he already understood in the depths of his core.
[01:08:07] He was not going to let his friends down.
[01:08:12] And he was always that way.
[01:08:16] When he was a little kid, when we were living in that other neighborhood, it was pretty
[01:08:22] poor.
[01:08:23] I wasn't uncommon for him to take a Christmas gifts and give them away to his friends.
[01:08:28] I'd see his friends playing with the gifts.
[01:08:31] If you were his friend and if you speak to his friends, they will say that he truly was
[01:08:38] a true friend and he was always on their side.
[01:08:40] And that's just the way it was.
[01:08:42] So the brotherhood was perfect for Michael.
[01:08:47] Perfect place.
[01:08:48] Yeah.
[01:08:49] The quick scene from Hell Week.
[01:08:55] Just because this just sounded like Mikey, man.
[01:08:58] With paddles in hand, they begin to row in unison.
[01:09:01] They had just taken the first few strokes in an evolution aptly named around the world,
[01:09:05] which entails paddling their small boats from San Diego Bay north through the channel around
[01:09:09] the tip of Coronado Island back to Buds Beach, a staggering 13 miles.
[01:09:13] As they paddled, Gabe couldn't hold back any longer.
[01:09:15] He started to doze off and without missing a beat, Michael shouted over to him from
[01:09:20] his side of the boat, Hey man, I love you, bro, but you need to wake up.
[01:09:25] That's all it took for you to jar Gabe back to consciousness and help him focus.
[01:09:31] They end up securing Hell Week.
[01:09:33] They lost about 75% of their people.
[01:09:36] Obviously, Michael made it.
[01:09:42] Got Ray.
[01:09:43] It's just great.
[01:09:44] Ray Bobviera, another guy from from Tasking to Bruiser.
[01:09:47] It was the LPO of their Buds class.
[01:09:52] They're getting ready to go out to San Clemente Island, which is the third phase of training.
[01:09:57] It's the last phase of training.
[01:10:01] Before going out there, Michael planned a little boat trip.
[01:10:05] Again, I'm going to fast forward to this part just because it's funny to read about Michael
[01:10:11] being an avid adventurer had planned a spearfishing trip and brought Gabe and another buddy of
[01:10:15] theirs, Chris Kimbrell from their Buds class along for the weekend.
[01:10:20] Gabe knew how to spearfish like Mike and they were naturals in the water, but for Chris,
[01:10:23] a Midwest landlocked boy, this escapade was not his forte.
[01:10:27] He was ready to go forward though and couldn't wait to see what the picturesque island had
[01:10:32] to offer.
[01:10:33] Chris was one of the first all suited up and couldn't wait to get going.
[01:10:36] Before Gabe had even dropped the anchor, Chris jumped in the water to see what he could find.
[01:10:41] Moments later, he burst through the surface proudly holding up his spear.
[01:10:45] There on the end of his six foot Hawaiian sling flopped a beautiful orange fish.
[01:10:49] Chris yelled and triumphed.
[01:10:51] Michael immediately dove to the water tackling Chris as he pulled the spear from his hand.
[01:10:55] That's a Garabalbi, the state fish of California.
[01:10:58] It's super legal to hunt, dude.
[01:11:00] Michael yelled at Chris.
[01:11:02] There were other fishing boats all around.
[01:11:04] Anyone that couldn't have seen the fish that Chris had on the end of his sling, Michael
[01:11:08] quickly snatched the fish from the tip of the spear and dove to the bottom.
[01:11:12] He found a large rock and wish.
[01:11:13] So that's just like classic for Chris, Chris Cribbell, Chris Cribbell, Brell, who's, you
[01:11:20] know, a landlock guy.
[01:11:22] He didn't know.
[01:11:23] He didn't know.
[01:11:24] He's like, look what I got.
[01:11:25] Yeah, this Garabalbi are everywhere.
[01:11:26] You see him going, oh, this is easy hunt.
[01:11:29] That's classic.
[01:11:33] Third phase, the last remaining block again, fast forwarded the last block before graduating
[01:11:37] buds entailed instruction on seal weapons and tactics lasting around eight to 10 weeks
[01:11:42] of students covered land navigation, land war for ambushes and raids, patrolling weapons,
[01:11:45] handling and marksmanship and demolition.
[01:11:47] Michael and his classmates were on San Clement Island, focusing specifically on raids, ambushes
[01:11:51] and demolition.
[01:11:54] San Clemente Island is a rocky volcanic island off the coast of California with hardly any
[01:11:59] trees, lots of cactus, no natural fresh water, full of caves and caverns formed by gas bubbles
[01:12:04] in the lava when the island was molten mass as the men focused specifically on ambushes
[01:12:10] and raids, Ray Bobbierra, who continued as Michael's squad LPO through third phase recalls
[01:12:14] how Michael would find a way to make light throughout the arduous and nonstopped evolutions
[01:12:19] bringing humor to any situation, brightening anyone's mood.
[01:12:27] And that's something that everybody, everybody says that about Mike.
[01:12:30] No matter what's going on, he's just going to be sitting there, putting everybody back
[01:12:35] into a good mood.
[01:12:36] Yeah, he thought it was actually important, especially if people are getting stressed
[01:12:41] out, like in Buds, he can see it on their faces and he thought, you know, he's seeing
[01:12:47] these guys are going on tilt, you know, and, you know, our family does that, you know,
[01:12:54] they'll equip this and that, you know, and he's always done that when things get real
[01:12:58] serious and it kind of brings people down.
[01:13:06] So it says third phase was coming to close just a few weeks later.
[01:13:13] And as the men prepared to graduate, they were discussing what gift to give the command
[01:13:16] in their memory.
[01:13:17] They all want to leave something in their name from Buds class 250 that was immovable
[01:13:21] and unique.
[01:13:22] They decided to give basic training command an enormous boulder with their names engraved
[01:13:26] upon it.
[01:13:28] Now the class had to figure out how to track down a boulder and grave it and have it delivered
[01:13:32] to the command.
[01:13:33] Today's wife Maria was back home in San Diego and took care of the logistics.
[01:13:36] What began as an idea quickly escalated into a four ton boulder that would have to be delivered
[01:13:41] by a crane who would end up costing $7,000 in change.
[01:13:45] Each guy was given the option to back out after the final pricing was determined and
[01:13:49] not one guy did.
[01:13:50] They were all in this together.
[01:13:51] What the final gift became was something none of the Bud students would forget and their
[01:13:57] memory forever lives on etched into the boulder that was engraved with the following words,
[01:14:01] the actions of the few dictate the fate of many by Alexander the Great and it also says
[01:14:07] the secret to Buds is underneath this rock.
[01:14:09] So Buds classes give gifts to Buds and depending on the class and what they do some of the
[01:14:20] gifts are pretty awesome some of them are pretty lame.
[01:14:22] I think my class gave a pretty lame.
[01:14:26] We gave a like a little speaking podium.
[01:14:29] That's beautiful.
[01:14:31] Yeah, the story behind it was one of the instructors was up at the podium talking to us and as
[01:14:37] he was talking to us, he got mad and he smashed his hands down on the podium and the thing
[01:14:44] like exploded and like broke apart and all these pieces and he started yelling and we
[01:14:48] all go hit the surf and so we like had this special one made and the funny part about
[01:14:54] that story is years later I saw that guy the guy that had smashed his podium and it exploded
[01:14:59] like he was the incredible Hulk and I said he was a master chief by this time and I go
[01:15:04] hey master chief he's like hmm and I go when because he was a hard dude I go when my class
[01:15:11] was going through and you were the dive phase chief I said you smashed your hands on this
[01:15:16] podium and it like exploded.
[01:15:18] I said was that like a was that like a set was like a trick thing and he looks at me
[01:15:26] and he goes negative it was oak reinforced and I was like okay so people give these various
[01:15:35] different gifts and people give some some stuff's really cool probably the most famous
[01:15:39] one is the the creature from the black lagoon it's a life-size statue of the creature the
[01:15:44] black lagoon and it says so you want to be a frog man little sign hung on it but this
[01:15:49] was an awesome gift it's this massive freaking rock.
[01:15:53] It's going to be there for a while it's not going anywhere and so that's what they gave
[01:15:59] I didn't see that until a race showed it to me we were invited to watch hell week with
[01:16:07] the seals we watch it from on top of a roof on one of the buildings and then I feel so
[01:16:13] sorry for those guys it was like for the poor guys people should just see that no and these
[01:16:20] guys are doing it because they want to do it this is amazing what they go through but
[01:16:25] after after that then he showed me the rock I knew it was there I never really you know
[01:16:31] I just yeah there's a rock you know and then it went over and showed me and it was nice
[01:16:36] and I could see where they were they were rubbing on the names and obviously they were rubbing
[01:16:42] a lot on Michael so it was kind of nice.
[01:16:45] It's awesome and it's in a really prominent spot it's like as you as you leave the compound
[01:16:50] to go to the beach or come back you go right by the rock.
[01:16:56] Michael graduated buds on September 2, 2004 back on Coronado Island California the graduation
[01:17:01] day was memorable for all the men stood proudly in their clean crisp dress uniforms and each
[01:17:06] weighted in anticipation for their name to be called across the compound a giant crane
[01:17:11] labored with a four-ton boulder carefully placed in a large rock in the much deliberately
[01:17:15] position where its weight could not would not crush the buried utilities below it.
[01:17:22] Michael's parents George and Sally as well as three siblings Jim, Sarah and Joe were
[01:17:26] in attendance to celebrate the achievement.
[01:17:28] George recalls the smile on Michael's face as he walked up to embrace him following the
[01:17:31] ceremony he had this look on his eyes that seemed to say to me dad I hope you didn't
[01:17:36] doubt me I told you I was going to do this and I did it I told you so I loved seeing
[01:17:40] him like that it gave me so much joy I never wanted him to join the seals but I was so
[01:17:44] proud to be proved wrong by my son.
[01:17:47] I love it when my kids prove me wrong because it's kind of a challenge I was I don't think
[01:17:53] you can really do that I don't I don't I don't know if you could do that and I love
[01:17:58] it when they come to me and say I did it and you don't know nothing and I mean they I'm
[01:18:05] sure they catch on but to see my kids stick to something all of them and then they accomplish
[01:18:10] it it's just you know you're you feel great.
[01:18:15] How did you feel when he got through hell week the second time you must have been like
[01:18:18] okay thank god.
[01:18:24] It was funny I I kind of though his attitude I really would have been surprised if he didn't
[01:18:31] because he had these friends too and once he makes these friendships he's going to be
[01:18:38] with them and push them through so I just I really I would have been more surprised
[01:18:44] if he didn't make it.
[01:18:46] Yeah that's the wild thing I mean you start out with a couple hundred kids in your class
[01:18:52] they're quitting so fast that they're just there you don't even know what's happening
[01:18:57] yeah and and so you got to be a little bit careful because if you don't if you get to
[01:19:03] know someone kind of while you're there and all of a sudden they quit yeah that all of
[01:19:08] a sudden you go I'm alone so for him to have some good friends rolling in there is definitely
[01:19:12] nice and yeah.
[01:19:17] Got another guy here Michael and Z went through all of Bud's together they grab they graduated
[01:19:22] from Bud's basic airborne seal qualification training now assigned to seal team three Z
[01:19:27] to Echo platoon and Mike to Delta platoon the weeks were busy training and the weekends
[01:19:34] were spent riding their bikes and that's motorcycles by the way chasing girls hanging out with
[01:19:37] the guys after a day of riding they'd often come back to connect and unwind at bar Dynamite
[01:19:43] a small bar in Mission Bay where they'd grab drinks with friends including Gabe and other
[01:19:46] freshly minted and another freshly minted seal Tommy D. Mike was Mike was living life
[01:19:55] to the fullest he was renting this house in Mission Bay while the new guys like myself
[01:20:00] lived in one small bedroom small one bedroom apartment said Z laughing a motorcycle and
[01:20:06] a stellar pal pad were not the only things Michael set his sights on he was eyeing his
[01:20:10] next car and he knew exactly what he wanted just received a contract bonus that he used
[01:20:16] to buy a silver 2004 Corvette Z zero six Michael could never be a financial advisor this is
[01:20:27] like the classic thing I tell guys not to do when they get their bonus I should go hey
[01:20:31] listen don't go buy a Corvette don't go buy a Ford 350 super duty Harley Davidson don't
[01:20:36] don't do that it's hard to talk about I know I know especially with the junkers that like
[01:20:40] that so he's got that Mike was living the dream in Southern California but he also understood
[01:20:49] his team was on short fuse to surge into combat areas in the Middle East he knew the coming
[01:20:54] months would include a fire hose of information intense training as platoon is going to war
[01:20:58] and how fast he learned and integrated into platoon and his role could mean all the difference
[01:21:03] yeah he took that real serious when he was home he was studying he definitely got to
[01:21:10] the point where I do not want to make a mistake I mean it was like he really wanted to make
[01:21:17] sure that he was on it yeah and and it was so long ago for me like when you're a new
[01:21:26] guy there is so much it's just stuff to know and you don't want to make a mistake everyone's
[01:21:34] watching you and you just want to do good and you're going to be counted on you know
[01:21:39] these guys are going to be counting on you so and we also had a condensed work up because
[01:21:45] at the time the war was hot and heavy this is now 2005 going into 2006 the used to be
[01:21:52] 18 months to train and get ready to go on deployment well for us was six months like
[01:21:57] 12 months boom and you're out the door so they it was everything was compressed and
[01:22:02] there was a lot of stuff being being forced down the throats of everybody and yeah you
[01:22:08] there's a there's a story in here about the Roger that which which so I'm I'm talking
[01:22:15] to new guys and it was a particular block of training where it's close quarters combat
[01:22:20] the instructors are it's live fire and close quarters which means you're shooting right
[01:22:25] next to guys right you know you're two feet from someone you're shooting of 12 inches
[01:22:29] off their muzzle it is tight quarters it's super dangerous and so you've got to be heads
[01:22:35] up and the instructors have to be really hard to make sure that you don't mess anything
[01:22:40] up and so I took the new guys and said listen when you're going through this block of training
[01:22:46] those instructors tell you something your your response is Roger that I don't want to
[01:22:51] hear like well I was thinking this or I could do what I didn't see no does you know say
[01:22:55] any that the instructors talk to you say Roger that and so we're going through this training
[01:23:02] and as we're going through this training you know I'm friends with all the instructors
[01:23:05] are like all we're all friends but the new guys don't really know him that well but finally
[01:23:09] one of the instructors is a good as a master chief he comes up he goes he goes hey John
[01:23:14] Haco what's up with this Montsour guy and I was kind of I didn't really know something
[01:23:19] was wrong and I go what do you mean Mike he's you know he's good to go he's like what's
[01:23:25] up with his attitude and I go what do you mean what's wrong with his attitude and he
[01:23:29] goes every time I tell him something one of the instructors tell him so all he does look
[01:23:32] out up at us and say Roger that that's all he has and I go hey bro I told him that's
[01:23:37] all he's supposed to say and he's just following that to a T that's what he's doing and when
[01:23:43] he would say that the guys that he's with are like kind of smirking like no one knew
[01:23:49] if he was a smart ass or he's just following your orders that's a I'll tell you so here's
[01:23:55] another similar story we're you were in the Humvees and this we're going through the block
[01:24:02] of training with Humvees and the the gunners call out you know like clear right like you
[01:24:09] come up to an intersection and the gunners which is Mikey call out clear right or clear
[01:24:13] left and you know Mikey's up there and I'm I'm the I'm the vehicle commander so I'm sitting
[01:24:20] in the passenger seat and he's up there and like we get to our first time doing it and
[01:24:26] we come up to an intersection and he's like clear right I could barely hear him you know
[01:24:31] and I look down at him or I look up and I kind of hit him on the leg I was like hey man
[01:24:35] you got a sound off and he's like he goes Roger that next intersection we pull up to
[01:24:42] it and he's like clear right super over a compensating and I thought to myself hold on a second
[01:24:49] yeah is he being a wise ass or and then we pulled the next intersection clear right and
[01:24:56] in here's a thing he wasn't being a wise ass I told him to freaking sound off if you want
[01:25:01] it you will get it I got it but that's but that was a you know that attitude that Roger
[01:25:08] that attitude man that's um that that was it you know that was he was gonna he was gonna
[01:25:14] get it done one of the first blocks of training work up was land war for out at Nile in California
[01:25:26] by the Salton Sea with a hundred and seven degree summer average it's a scorching place
[01:25:31] to train and sure enough we were out there in the summertime this combined with a schedule
[01:25:35] rocky mounted terrain scarred with washes makes the literal and figurative crucible of the
[01:25:39] work up here's where the platoon will work on the tactics techniques and procedures of
[01:25:43] fighting in open terrain as well as demolitions rockets and mortars and all the different
[01:25:47] small arms weapons systems of the sea arsenal a platoon is normally made up of 16 to 20
[01:25:52] operators each having a specific role to include snipers preachers communicators and automatic
[01:25:56] weapons gunners to name a few although specialized within the platoon each man is still responsible
[01:26:00] to be proficient at the other jobs Michael and the other new guys could not wait to jump
[01:26:05] right in and get started Michael caught on very quickly especially with his automatic
[01:26:09] weapon the mark 48 each of the new guys were being watched closely by the older men in
[01:26:14] the platoon his LPO Doug Wallace remembers how that even though Michael is quickly picking
[01:26:20] up on the tactics and performing all tasks efficiently and without complaint it was always
[01:26:24] with humility and a willingness to learn more misery loves company and Nile and is a block
[01:26:29] where there's many reasons to complain of our intense conditions Mike never did once
[01:26:34] not one time it showed great character and understanding on his part especially for a
[01:26:38] new guy Doug said and then there's another section here so it's there's like a little
[01:26:46] gang mentality going on and part of it is like you're going to fight each other sometimes
[01:26:50] now so they're having some boxing matches and I'm using that term very loosely.
[01:26:57] This is not professionals but they'll set up like a tournament and generally or oftentimes
[01:27:04] is just the new guys have to fight each other.
[01:27:09] So this is going down and it says here came down to Mike the last standing new guy from
[01:27:14] Delta since so in tasking approvers is to two platoons Charlie and Delta it came down to
[01:27:19] the last standing new guy in Delta which was Mike versus Kevin Lace the final remaining
[01:27:25] new guy in Charlie. Kevin was huge 225 pound tower of muscle loomed over most team guys
[01:27:32] at a height of six foot three Mike was much smaller and more slender but he wouldn't give
[01:27:36] up he was a lean scrappy dude recalled Kevin I remember hitting him as hard as I could
[01:27:42] but there was no shaking him we had no boxing form we were street fighting at that point
[01:27:47] with boxing gloves on I looked at him and it seemed as if his eyes were crossed and I
[01:27:52] continued to hit him over and over again but he wouldn't stop he returned below after
[01:27:56] blow right back we got so into it that I'm sure we were both seeing red but each of
[01:28:00] us refused to back down both platoons cheered and taunted as each man hit the other over
[01:28:06] and over again clad in only their boots and camo pants the two men continued to brawl
[01:28:11] neither could defeat the other and in the end the older men called it a tie Kevin had
[01:28:16] hugged Mike once they stopped and cooled down your tough son of a bitch Mike Kevin said
[01:28:22] laughing yeah and Kevin Lace is just a like a giant dude thick and there's Mikey and
[01:28:31] Mikey he got jacked later but at this point just coming out of Buds he was pretty lean
[01:28:36] still yeah even though yeah he was yeah there wasn't he wasn't a real big guy when he just
[01:28:43] got out he was definitely lean though yeah endurance wise a guy could go for a long time
[01:28:49] but mentally I'm not surprised that he hung in there because he went through those mental
[01:28:54] things as a kid people messing with him and stuff mentally he was just really very strong
[01:29:00] yeah so we that's what we're doing it we're going through this work up we do land warfare
[01:29:08] we do mobility we do close quarters combat we do urban warfare at Fort Knox we used
[01:29:15] to do it Fort Knox we do diving we do jumping we do a bunch of stuff back in San Diego and
[01:29:20] and we're working hard that's what we're doing and we actually at the beginning of our training
[01:29:27] cycle we as task unit bruiser didn't know where we were deploying to know because there
[01:29:34] was three task units one of them had already been designated to go to Iraq because they
[01:29:40] went to the Pacific the last time so it was between my task unit and another task unit
[01:29:47] to see who is going to go to Iraq of course everybody wants to go to Iraq everybody wants
[01:29:50] to go fight the other one the other tunes going to do a different mission but it's not
[01:29:53] fighting it was the Philippines I think it was as I said to my kind says well maybe you
[01:29:57] get lucky and go the Philippines he looked at me like you poor pathetic old man no yeah
[01:30:06] exactly so no one wants to go to the Philippines no one wants to go to the southeast Asia everyone
[01:30:13] wants to go to Iraq and it's a basically the commanding officer is going to pick and we
[01:30:19] pushed hard and we were supposed to go to Baghdad our original deployment was to go
[01:30:25] to Baghdad and there was a mission in Baghdad that was working directly with this group
[01:30:32] called the Iraqi counterterrorism force the ICTF Iraqi counter these are local I mean
[01:30:38] Iraqi guys and they had been really well trained they're probably the best well the best trained
[01:30:43] of all Iraqi troops they had really nice gear they had uniforms like they had everything
[01:30:48] no and there was a there was a group of seals with them and there's a group of army army
[01:30:53] special forces guys all working with these Iraqis and I actually went on a pre deployment
[01:31:01] site survey we call it I went before we went on deployment to go and meet up with those
[01:31:07] guys see what the mission was like get a heads up on everything because that's where we're
[01:31:11] going going to Baghdad so I come back from that we're prepared we know what our mission
[01:31:16] is and where everyone goes on pre deployment leave so everyone goes you know like hey well
[01:31:22] okay we're going on deployment soon and that's when we got the whole deployment changed around
[01:31:26] and my commanding officer is calls me in he's like hey you're not you guys aren't going
[01:31:33] to Baghdad anymore you guys are going to go to Ramadi and well Ramadi we knew Ramadi
[01:31:40] was the worst place in Iraq and everybody wanted to go there just like everyone wanted
[01:31:45] to go to Iraq well everyone wanted to go to Ramadi I mean the commanding officer said
[01:31:49] it to me like I was going to be sad now the the the mission in Baghdad was a cool mission
[01:31:56] to and it was kind of all set up and running so it was kind of is like ready made like
[01:32:02] you know what you're going to be doing Ramadi was kind of the Wild West still but when he
[01:32:06] he said it to me he was making it seem like he needed to convince me that hey this is
[01:32:11] what this is what's going to happen you know are you okay with that and I was like I realized
[01:32:16] the kind of the tone of his voice I was kind of like well you know so I'm going to need
[01:32:19] some more people I need some more gear but he was great and and then we reshuffled and
[01:32:31] we reshuffled and got ready to go and I don't even I don't think I even I think I don't
[01:32:38] even think we notified the guys because everyone was on leave and you couldn't tell them like
[01:32:45] on an in a on a non-secure net net like hey we're going to Ramadi now like you it's classified
[01:32:52] so is the name everyone came back we had another week or whatever it's like hey everyone we're
[01:32:57] not going to back down anymore we're going to Ramadi and the guys were ecstatic they're
[01:33:03] ecstatic and this some of the stuff you cover in the book Sarin Sally come down to help
[01:33:12] Mikey pack up all this stuff he takes he takes his mom for a little ride in the Corvette
[01:33:19] got read about that one he did it on the motorcycle too but she was used to the bike
[01:33:24] with me when I used to take her on my bike so he was kind of disappointed because she
[01:33:30] she did get scared down she was nice right Mikey have a nice day and be careful he goes
[01:33:40] up to Garden Grove spent the last couple days up there and I'm going to read this the time
[01:33:49] had come George and Michael awoke early in the morning and drove back down the I5 South
[01:33:53] the San Diego the trip seemed to pass much faster than either would have liked once they
[01:33:57] arrived in Coronado George gave his son a big final hug as he said goodbye with a kiss
[01:34:01] on the cheek George felt the knot deep down in his stomach but he refused to acknowledge
[01:34:06] it the idea that this could be the last time he saw his son was not something he wanted
[01:34:10] to think about as George drove home he recalled an evening with his son from two weeks prior
[01:34:18] he lit up a Fuente cigar for Michael and himself on their front porch they sat together in
[01:34:23] silence amid the cool air under the dark sky while smoke slowly drifted in the light breeze
[01:34:31] George's voice broke the silence to address what they were both thinking Mikey what if
[01:34:35] something happens to you it's not exactly a walk in the park over in Ramadi right now
[01:34:40] please don't be a hero just do your job dad no matter what happens I have no regrets this
[01:34:49] reassurance from Michael helped but George still did not want Mike to go as a marine
[01:34:54] vet George saw firsthand what Ward did to all those involved and he despised it he knew
[01:35:00] it was unforgiving and brutal and how it could degrade and break the spirit he also knew
[01:35:04] that Mike had been trained well by men who understood what he could be facing this brought
[01:35:10] some consolation to George as they finished their cigars together that night George and
[01:35:14] Mike George looked at Mike and the man he had become he was so proud of him from a determined
[01:35:19] little boy who fought against the injustice of bullies and his own physical weakness of
[01:35:23] asthma he persevered and overcame failure adversity and blocks of training he despised
[01:35:29] such as free fall parachuting and communication school all with focused conviction and often
[01:35:35] a mischievous smile on his face he he definitely surprised me at that at that age his maturity
[01:35:58] and he knew who he was talk to kids at his age in their early twenties and stuff like
[01:36:06] that and they're still lost he had his morals he had his beliefs he's pretty rock solid
[01:36:14] and if there were things that he didn't like I remember like jumping out of the planes
[01:36:19] I used to do that too and we talked to me about it and then he says I don't like this
[01:36:26] I don't like it at all and he says when you came back he planned on just doing that because
[01:36:31] anything that he was afraid of he would just keep doing it and doing it till he owned
[01:36:36] it and that's just the way it was and he didn't like communication school no it was hard and
[01:36:44] he was studying all the time I said God I can't speed this up yeah going to the book
[01:36:54] Mike loaded up his gear and followed his teammates to the waiting C-17 aircraft to C-17 multi-purpose
[01:37:00] aircraft can be configured for transport of troops cargo or a combination of both though
[01:37:05] this last configuration is often how special operations unit traveled through the small
[01:37:08] footprint and nature of their mission sets to you bruiser was no exception and as soon
[01:37:13] as the aircraft was in altitude Michael and his friends broke out their nylon hammocks
[01:37:17] and ground pads and settled in for the long flight tasking a bruiser landed out to catam
[01:37:23] airport in Iraq where they began to prepare for a short flight west to Ramadi after the
[01:37:28] C-17 was unloaded each operated opened his war box and donned his combat equipment Michael
[01:37:33] had done this hundreds of times throughout workup and his prior training trips this time
[01:37:38] was different this was not training his enemy was now hardened war fighters whose will and
[01:37:43] resolve would be used to exploit weakness in order to win the war
[01:37:57] says here in the spring of 2006 the battle of Ramadi was just beginning and it was already
[01:38:02] intense the city was arguably the epicenter was inarguably the epicenter of the insurgency
[01:38:08] in Iraq and known throughout the area as the most dangerous city in the world wrote Leif
[01:38:14] Bab and the officer in command of Charlie Patu task unit bruiser the al-Qaeda leader
[01:38:20] in Iraq Abu Musab Zarkawi declared during that time that Ramadi would be the capital
[01:38:27] of his envisioned Islamic caliphate in Iraq insurgents controlled over two thirds of the
[01:38:32] city itself and certain areas were nearly impenetrable to United States and Iraqi security forces
[01:38:38] US Marines and Army soldiers that were currently over there battled continually with large groups
[01:38:44] of well armed and well organized enemy fighters so far 93 US service members had been killed
[01:38:50] in action and hundreds more were wounded in nearly 15 months of fighting you remember
[01:38:59] Michael Fuente I think it was yeah was telling me that the media would not even cover that
[01:39:07] he was the only guy says they were just blowing those guys away and nobody would go the media
[01:39:13] so my previous deployment was in Baghdad there was like hotels with CNN and you know all
[01:39:20] the news set up Ramadi there wasn't anybody no there wasn't anybody and you know I just
[01:39:27] I just had a guy on the podcast named David Belavia he's a Medal of Honor recipient from
[01:39:31] Fallujah he was in the second battle Fallujah when the Marines pushed through yeah and he
[01:39:39] he's one of the few people that did go to Ramadi as a report as a journalist and we're
[01:39:45] sitting here you know his story you know about the second battle of Fallujah yeah it was a
[01:39:51] brutal fighting and David Belavia sits here and says oh Ramadi was way worse which I look
[01:40:00] I'm not trying to compare the two no but they were both yeah but they were both that story
[01:40:04] yeah the stories yeah I definitely felt so bad for those Marines you know and then Ramadi
[01:40:13] like yeah Michael would tell me that he told the family that he was just teaching the guys
[01:40:21] how to march yeah yeah but we could see the news every once in a while you know or when
[01:40:29] the pictures came out on the internet you know for when he had those pictures out he's
[01:40:37] not to take pictures and we saw him on the internet and it's like that doesn't look like
[01:40:45] you're training people how to march yeah I don't see anybody marching not other than
[01:40:49] some guys then they're not marching they're running yeah I mean so it was basically on
[01:40:59] as soon as we got there you know the what one of the indicators of that was the couple
[01:41:06] days after so I'd I'd already been there for a little while with a few of the guys just
[01:41:10] we were we got there before the rest of the task unit but as soon as the whole task unit
[01:41:14] was there within a day I think it was like the night they got there we had like a little
[01:41:20] attack on our base and we end up the whole freaking task units on the roof of our building
[01:41:27] lighten up and engaging you know the enemy fighters out there and it was like okay that's
[01:41:35] what it is that's how it's going to be almost within a couple days of being there I was
[01:41:43] going to meet the brigade commander a guy named Colonel gronsky and I was literally walking
[01:41:52] in to meet him and as I'm walking in to meet him we had already put out a sniper overwatch
[01:41:57] position and Tony a fratty the Charlie platoon chief had shot and killed an IED in Placer
[01:42:04] in an area where the Marines had just hit a big ID and lost a bunch of guys and as soon
[01:42:09] as that happened Colonel gronsky looked at me I mean so that's how I meet him he says
[01:42:15] I think your guys just killed a an ID in Placer where I just lost Marines hey Roger that sir
[01:42:19] he says we need you out in eastern Ramadi place called the Malab out correct Corregador
[01:42:25] and I said Roger that you know and that's what we did as soon as soon as I get back
[01:42:31] we plan all right they need us in eastern Ramadi and I took a probably two thirds of
[01:42:36] the task unit over to Camp Corregador where the first the 506 is again as soon as we get
[01:42:43] look we've been on the ground for like a couple days now maybe it's been like six days and
[01:42:48] we're over there we get to Camp Corregador the snipers are like hey we can we get in
[01:42:53] the towers because there's towers around Camp Corregador I'm like absolutely tell the army
[01:42:57] guys were you you good with us putting snipers Colonel Colonel Clarks like absolutely they
[01:43:02] start killing guys almost immediately enemy rocket teams mortar teams IED in places and
[01:43:11] at the same time where we're out at Camp Corregador for a couple days the living conditions are
[01:43:16] terrible in the life it was like dirt floors there's mosquitoes you know they're getting
[01:43:25] murdered indirect fire on a regular basis just just it was just freaking horrible no showers just it was horrible
[01:43:32] and so we do this initial mission out there and we come back to the bigger base and the
[01:43:40] army's like hey thank you for coming can can we can you keep working with us as a matter
[01:43:46] of fact their company commander these guys went out on patrol and this company commander
[01:43:50] with a couple with an army company commander he comes back after his first patrol with my
[01:43:55] guys and I walk with him to the battalion commander but then he tells the tank commander
[01:43:59] I don't want to do another patrol without seals with me I want seals on every patrol
[01:44:04] so Colonel Clarks looking at me like hey well can you get some guys out here I said let me
[01:44:09] sort it out so now I'm talking to Seth and you know Seth's like hey I want to pick the
[01:44:17] guys to go back out there because I however it all shook out Seth had the had was the
[01:44:23] opportune guy or the he had the the laif had already been assigned a guy this guy had been
[01:44:29] already been assigned Iraqi troops to work with another guy been assigned Iraqi troops
[01:44:32] with to work with I think Seth's the Iraqi troops Seth was supposed to work with originally
[01:44:38] quit like they didn't show up and so Seth was the guy that had the capacity so I said
[01:44:45] are you're gonna go out to camp Corregidor and he says I just want to pick the guys I
[01:44:48] want to take and I said hey man it sucks out there I said how about we do this let's put
[01:44:55] a volunteer list up and if anybody wants to go back out there then then you can get volunteers
[01:45:01] that way you're not forcing it down their throats Seth's like alright so bring the task unit
[01:45:06] together and I'm like alright guys you you you all just came back from camp Corregidor
[01:45:12] we're gonna send an element out there for deployment all I can tell you is it's gonna
[01:45:17] suck the living conditions are awful the the the level of violence is extremely high as
[01:45:25] you all saw and if you want to go back there then put your name on this list on the white
[01:45:30] board and I walked out of the room and I came back 15 minutes later and everybody's name
[01:45:34] was on the list including Michaels which meant that Seth got what he wanted which was he just
[01:45:40] got to pick his guys yeah and Mikey was the was was for the guys there's no question he
[01:45:47] was going with Seth yeah that that would that would have surprised me if he didn't yeah
[01:45:54] no so there was a you know Seth and Tommy D and Mikey were real tight so I knew that
[01:46:04] those three were gonna stick together so he didn't care Seth was a little shocked at Mikey
[01:46:10] was decorating I remember when he got back he was telling me about his his pad oh yeah
[01:46:17] well that's the good news is the good news is once they got over there and settled in
[01:46:21] and we'll get to that part but they eventually squared away which seals are really good it
[01:46:26] seals good it we got some rough living we'll fix it up but that but so they end up taking
[01:46:32] the small element guys out there to go to camp Corregidor move in there working with
[01:46:37] the first the 506 the band of brothers which was awesome and they get settled into this
[01:46:45] operational tempo and settled into really what it is that they're going to be doing
[01:46:50] there and I'll just example of this they get settled into what they're doing there get
[01:46:59] settled into the combat operations and real quickly we go to the book here the army captain
[01:47:05] sat peacefully in silence in one of the only places set apart from the chaos and violence
[01:47:10] that was now Romadi Iraq he was a little old for the rank of captain but that was not uncommon
[01:47:15] for a person with his specific duties in the military he had spent years in formation and
[01:47:19] training and was now here in the thick of battle in Romadi the quiet was broken by a
[01:47:25] firm knock at the door the man rose from his seat and moved to receive it he opened the
[01:47:30] door to find a tall brown eyed dark-haired young man patiently waiting are you a Catholic
[01:47:35] priest I am replied Father Halliday nice to meet you I am a Catholic and my name is Michael
[01:47:41] Montsour I'd like to go to confession Father Halliday grabbed his stole and motion Michael
[01:47:47] to follow him Father Halliday was 40 years old at the time of his deployment to Romadi
[01:47:52] and was an army chaplain with the first the 506 his main mission was to assist the soldiers
[01:47:58] of Camp Corregor to worship according to their own religion and preference but was an ordained
[01:48:02] Catholic priest and was happy to oblige Michael's request for confession they sat down in the
[01:48:08] makeshift chapel Michael had just arrived in Romadi and Father Halliday understood well
[01:48:13] the situation the men were facing on a daily basis he thought it showed significant religious
[01:48:17] formation and conviction for Michael to seek him out after only recently arriving in Romadi
[01:48:23] yeah Michael he took his face serious and he also I mean he knew he was in a place where
[01:48:35] he could lose his life and he wanted to be prepared everywhere spiritually physically
[01:48:44] mentally yeah and the I mean the fighting was it was sustained urban combat and I mean
[01:48:55] guys were getting wounded or killed just about every day and and the first the 506 I mean
[01:49:01] Charlie company the first the 506 who might he spent a lot of time working with they had
[01:49:07] had like a third of their company casualties in four or five months so they 50 guys they
[01:49:15] were down not all of them were killed but it was it was it was war now when we were
[01:49:28] in Fort Campbell and their commander brought in some of the guys that worked with Michael
[01:49:35] and their stories you know and it's like you start realizing how many people they did lose
[01:49:42] and just how tough it was and I remember Sally breaking down hearing some of those stories
[01:49:49] and thinking about Michael so it was people just don't get it how tough it was over there
[01:49:56] some of what they were experiencing here they were in the middle of intense
[01:50:07] firefights on almost daily basis the operating tempo they were facing required hyper focus and
[01:50:14] the guys completely undeterred stepped up and went to work we asked a lot of our guys especially
[01:50:20] with the numbers of missions we were conducting while facing extreme heat dehydration and exhaustion
[01:50:25] it didn't faze them they all stepped up and performed Mike Sarelli said there were army
[01:50:31] and marine units also stationed in Ramadi that the seals were providing assistance to and one
[01:50:35] of the large army battalions being the first the 506 this was the descendant from the band of brothers
[01:50:42] from world war two the battalion was huge and led by lieutenant colonel Ron Clark his men were
[01:50:47] professional talented and worked incredibly well with the seals Michael's troop commander
[01:50:52] lieutenant commander jockel will he could instructed his men to use army to use the army's
[01:50:57] uniform a tricolor gray digital pattern called army combat uniform or acu's it was very different
[01:51:04] from the tricolor desert naval special warfare uniform the men wore it and even shaved their
[01:51:10] heads to match their army brethren this was not only this not only increased the cohesion of the
[01:51:15] two units but also had a very practical purpose by blending in with the army unit the seals did
[01:51:20] not stand out as special forces the enemy had begun to target soldiers that looked or dressed
[01:51:25] differently than the average so that's why when people see pictures of that element they're wearing
[01:51:33] they're wearing army uniforms um that's what it is they wanted to blend in and wanted to
[01:51:40] not stand out and wanted to form a relationship with the army you know there's just just you know
[01:51:48] sometimes in special operations you know you can wear all this Gucci gear and it's like you're
[01:51:53] trying to set yourself apart and we didn't want to do that how often does that happen where I see
[01:51:59] you guys working with the Marines but working with the army is that something that's uh unusual or
[01:52:06] not unusual I would say it's not it's not unusual to this to this amount on this this much of
[01:52:14] relationship working all the time yeah it's is a little less common uh but I mean that whole
[01:52:23] deployment was we didn't do any missions well we did barely any missions where we weren't with
[01:52:29] an army or Marine Corps unit or at least adjacent to them at I mean we were definitely adjacent to
[01:52:36] um but yeah the ACU thing that was because that was because those guys were living with them
[01:52:43] and we just figured let's just win in Rome yeah
[01:52:52] starting to get into this little the order of battle for the SEALs would largely consist of
[01:52:56] word coming from the army 48 hours ahead of time informing them on what area of Ramadi they would
[01:53:01] be patrolling the SEALs would then plan and provide sniper overwatch during the army patrol
[01:53:07] even amid their overloaded operating schedule the men of Delta Platoon gathered supplies to build a
[01:53:12] home away from home in the tattered building where they would be spending the deployment they
[01:53:15] nicknamed it full metal jacket so the building that they lived in called full metal jacket if you
[01:53:19] see the movie full metal jacket that's what this building looked like a bunch of army guys living
[01:53:23] in there too a plywood floor was laid the walls were reinforced with sandbags foam was sprayed
[01:53:29] between the inner and outer layers for insulation they framed and built out rooms for each man and
[01:53:33] installed a small AC unit to keep cool the air in certain parts of the building the men needed to
[01:53:40] watch their step in order to expose to avoid exposed rebar the heat was miserable in May
[01:53:45] reaching upwards of 115 degrees and fixing up and finishing full metal jacket was a welcome
[01:53:51] reprieve the men of Delta Platoon had this once barely standing building a home away from home
[01:53:57] by normal standards nothing to write home about but nonetheless a haven in the midst of the heat
[01:54:01] yeah and that's where Mikey built Mikey's little yes he had it and just to you know we were talking
[01:54:11] about um this was probably a month in and I had the Marine or sorry the Army Special Operations
[01:54:20] Commander came to visit Task Unit Bruiser and I was briefing him on what was going on and I said my
[01:54:31] element in Karegador has been out their last 23 missions they've been engaged by the enemy 23
[01:54:41] straight missions in a row and as I'm saying that almost as if on cue one of the guys from my tactical
[01:54:48] operation center comes in and says excuse me sir and I'm like yes and he says just to let you know
[01:54:53] the guys in Karegador are in contact with the enemy right now and I looked at the the Sieges
[01:54:59] Sodev commander and I said well sir make that 24 that's to sort of go out 24 operations in a row
[01:55:08] and be an enemy contact it's what you were talking about earlier and I remember actually
[01:55:14] the 25th operation I think it was the 25th operation they didn't have enemy contact
[01:55:19] because they did something like really small and they broke their streak but it was
[01:55:28] it was on and you got and again you interviewed a bunch of people for this
[01:55:35] the deafening noise the machine gun fire suddenly erupted from an enemy insurgent position to the
[01:55:40] right Michael dropped into his field of fire identifying the enemy position immediately sent
[01:55:44] back a long burst with his mark 48 contact right multiple seals yelled as they sent round after
[01:55:49] round toward the enemy Mike sprinted to the closest position to cover which was a courtyard
[01:55:53] wall of a nearby house and picked up fire the other seals and the Iraqi army scouts moved into
[01:55:59] courtyard and began returning fire as well changing yelled Mike as he stripped out an empty ammo box
[01:56:05] and loaded a full one just as he closed the feed tray cover five enemy fighters moved to flank
[01:56:10] Michael and his team they are flanking to the west Mike yelled as he fired at the maneuvering
[01:56:15] insurgents he caught them halfway through their movement and had them pinned behind a small vehicle
[01:56:20] hold them there Mike JP yelled Mike could overhear the marine angler the marine air naval gunfire
[01:56:27] liaison company Anglico guys on the radio setting up for a strike on the enemy fighters he had pinned
[01:56:32] down cast in 30 seconds called out the controller letting the guys know the jets were 30 seconds
[01:56:38] out from dropping from Michael to seem like an eternity he had the best vantage point to keep
[01:56:42] the enemy where they were as the other seals and scouts were still engaging the original enemy
[01:56:47] position he conserved his ammo knowing a reload may give the insurgents just enough time to maneuver
[01:56:52] away from their current position which could cause the close air support strike to have to abort
[01:56:56] and start over he continued to send five to eight round bursts into the vehicle one away 10 seconds
[01:57:02] to impact called out the controller the dust was heavy but Michael could still see to know that
[01:57:07] none of the five enemy had left the position suddenly a flash then the car ripped apart and
[01:57:12] disappeared in a cloud of black and gray smoke good hit stand by for BDA stated the controller over
[01:57:18] the radio the dust cleared where the sedan used to be was a crater with indistinguishable metal
[01:57:23] debris and other scattered and other materials scattered in the area Michael could make out
[01:57:28] three of the five enemy now lying in peculiar positions near the blast site good hits five by
[01:57:33] e k i a Michael heard the controller say the original enemy position went quiet immediately
[01:57:39] after the strike the seals marines and scouts maneuvered to assess and secure the building
[01:57:44] the scouts entered and cleared it only to find that the enemy had left the area all right guys
[01:57:49] there's nothing left here let's charlie mike said chief fortin and the seals and scouts moved
[01:57:55] to reestablish their security position for the main element element
[01:58:02] so that's what they were doing yeah i would get uh phone messages and where uh Michael would call
[01:58:09] would miss the message just kicking back with with my bros uh send cigars critical information
[01:58:17] sends cigars exactly uh there's there's there's really good examples of this throughout the book
[01:58:31] another one immediately enemy fire began to hit the wall around the rooftop Michael reposition
[01:58:36] toward the contact and fire the enemy were using the cover of surrounding houses effectively and
[01:58:40] continued to harass the security position it was clear this was not like other attacks it was well
[01:58:45] coordinated the enemy was careful not to engage from the same spot for too long and continued to
[01:58:50] maneuver and flank the rounds from mikes 48 began to eat chunks out of the corners and ledges that
[01:58:55] the enemy were using his cover the short rooftop wall was beginning to degrade as well however
[01:59:01] and bullets were penetrating the plaster in some areas the men stayed low and continued to engage
[01:59:06] Michael was glad he had prepped his extra ammo ahead of time it looked as though he would be
[01:59:10] needing it soon Michael and the other seals on the rooftop were not the only ones taking fire
[01:59:15] the iraqi army scouts were trying to exit the house to maneuver on the insurgents but were
[01:59:20] pinned inside every time one of the scouts tried to exit the house a hail of bullets hit the area
[01:59:25] around the exit on the rooftop the situation was not improving and it looked like ammunition might
[01:59:29] soon become a problem not for Michael he continued to engage multiple enemy positions stopping only
[01:59:34] to reload and reposition Mikey how's your ammo yell JP I'm good to go damn bro carrying all that
[01:59:42] extra weight might save all our lives JP smiled but he was really dead serious Michael's 48 continued
[01:59:48] to eat away at enemy positions an indistinct yell came from the right Michael turned to see one of
[01:59:53] the enemy insurgents trying to cross the street towards the seals positions he sent a burst and
[01:59:57] the enemy fighter fell against the hop pavement motionless with this the momentum changed and
[02:00:02] Michael moved from position to position engaging the enemy on three sides he was the only AW gunner
[02:00:08] on the roof and although the other seals were holding their own as well the 556 millimeter
[02:00:14] m4 doesn't have quite the same effect as a 762 millimeter belt fed machine gun the enemy was
[02:00:20] losing and it began to show the volume of fire had drastically decreased and was much more sporadic
[02:00:26] until only one enemy position was still active the seals and scouts concentrated fire on the spot
[02:00:31] the area went quiet and the big men waited for another attack but it never came in all Michael
[02:00:37] had fired more than 600 rounds of ammunition and was likely the reason that the security position
[02:00:42] was not overrun seven enemy lay dead without one seal or scout injured
[02:00:50] a lot of rounds yeah I don't know I think I've told you this story before but I was so I went
[02:00:55] over to Kregor to check in on everybody and as soon as I get there was like hey go watch my
[02:01:00] go watch Mikey's video so I'm like cool so I go over I'm like you know go to Mikey's palace
[02:01:08] which is his little room you know he's got I don't know yet some kind of like red curtain
[02:01:13] right orange yeah those are orange I don't know what he probably took them from a house out in
[02:01:17] town his brother sent him to him oh there you go he goes we're saying so I think this will fit
[02:01:23] but yeah so I go in there and and I'm like Mikey let me see your video and you know he gets out
[02:01:31] and he's just showing it to me on his he had a camera a video camera and but you know this is
[02:01:35] when the video cameras had just started to have their own little screens and their own little
[02:01:38] speakers so I'm watching it and this is the famous video at least it's famous in our task unit where
[02:01:44] Mikey's like filming there's freaking everyone shooting there's bullets flying everywhere
[02:01:49] and then Mikey turns the video camera back at himself and he says it's the moolab which was
[02:01:55] oh you haven't seen that oh man we got to get that to you yeah so Mikey's filming this firefight
[02:02:01] and as he's filming you know it's a pretty good firefight and then he turns the camera back at
[02:02:06] himself and he's got a big smile on his face and he goes it's the moolab or welcome to the
[02:02:12] moolab or something like that which the the district was called the moolab district but he
[02:02:16] says it's the moolab and so I'm watching it you know I'm I'm like mr. serious and so I'm but I'm
[02:02:22] trying to hold back but I'm smiling and then he gets done and he's looking at me and I look at him
[02:02:26] I go I go bro what are you doing filming when there's a freaking gunfight going on and he looks at me
[02:02:32] and he goes I was Winchester sir which means he was out of ammo so he'd already dumped like a he
[02:02:39] dumped a thousand rounds or probably 800 to a thousand rounds of ammunition didn't have any ammo
[02:02:43] left and says like well I might as well make some videos but yeah I mean it's when I got home I remember
[02:02:51] I was talking to some of the Vietnam SEALs and I went and talked to one Vietnam SEAL that was a
[02:02:57] machine gunner Vietnam and you know I said I said you know how many like how many engagements did
[02:03:04] you get in and he said oh you know we did whatever it was he said you know we did 82 operations and
[02:03:12] we got seven gunfights I said how many times did you use all your ammunition he's never
[02:03:19] and here was I mean there was all machine gunners would run out of ammo on a not a fairly regular
[02:03:24] but definitely ran out of ammo because that's the that was the scenario that was the situation on the
[02:03:29] ground and that's why he would take less water he always took just what he hoped he could you know
[02:03:37] need and he would substitute the water for ammo yeah and he'd be carrying radio sometimes too
[02:03:42] yeah which is carrying a load
[02:03:47] yes it's a humor oh yeah it's the mood love I can't believe you haven't seen that video
[02:03:51] oh it's freaking classic uh meanwhile well that's going on back to the book hey dad it's Mike
[02:04:00] Michael spoke happily into a satellite phone he'd just returned from an op-ed after showering and
[02:04:04] changing in his gear he dialed home to check in Mikey how you doing I'm doing good dad we're still
[02:04:09] training Iraqi forces I'm pretty bored here yeah what's new at home Michael's careful not to detail
[02:04:15] the true nature of the work they conduct on a daily basis he didn't want his parents to worry he
[02:04:19] preferred to keep the amount of danger they faced to himself as George and Michael discussed his gear
[02:04:25] and weapons Sally walked over to George she was eager to hear Michael's voice she had barely spoken
[02:04:30] to him since he left because every time he called she made sure her children and husband had ample
[02:04:34] time with Michael on the phone first she was also busy finishing up a master's degree in counseling
[02:04:39] marriage and family therapy so any amount of time she had to speak with Michael she treasured
[02:04:45] Michael never discussed any of his combat operations with her she knew he wanted to protect her
[02:04:51] from worrying but she also knew better she had walked past the hallway when her sons were on
[02:04:56] their computer looking at photos of Michael patrolling through the streets and she instantly
[02:05:00] knew he was facing grave enemy day in and day out she couldn't be there but she could pray and
[02:05:07] that's what she did she prayed the rosary a collection of prayers based on the life of Christ
[02:05:13] and honoring his blessed mother whom warfighters have credited assisting them in epic battles
[02:05:18] throughout history Sally wasn't seeking anything grand with her prayers she simply requested
[02:05:25] protection for her son as she prayed it every single day it was now Sally's turn to speak to
[02:05:31] Michael and she held the phone tightly to her ear so she could hear her son clearly how are you
[02:05:36] Mike I miss you did you receive the care packages we sent to you we really enjoyed making them for
[02:05:40] you and your teammates they were great mom thank you even the package full of female toiletries
[02:05:45] you and your friends threw in there yeah these she had these women volunteers and they did other
[02:05:50] charity work and they sent stuff and so nobody knows how that got in there but Mike says you
[02:05:57] guys had kind of a crazy look when they open that one up like are women coming yeah the
[02:06:07] so my wife is at home she got three kids they're like how old were they they were like maybe seven
[02:06:13] five and three or something like this they're maybe you know six four and two or something like
[02:06:17] this so she doesn't have time to do all this stuff so finally I get you know everyone's getting a
[02:06:21] care package all this nice stuff I'm not getting anything finally like two months into pulling
[02:06:26] it I get a package and I still harassed my wife about this I like honey roasted peanuts right
[02:06:32] and so she sent me a planters thing of honey roasted peanuts but it was open and tape shot
[02:06:38] open it was half eaten with the kids got into it it was tape shot that's what I got I'm like thanks
[02:06:43] darlin but I did never get women's toiletries yeah no one figured out where those came from but
[02:06:52] they got a lot of women's magazines too from people because I would contact anybody that would
[02:06:57] send things we sent stuff and people volunteers send stuff and I you know it was just crazy
[02:07:05] guys would risk their lives go out and get those packages you know hey women toiletries
[02:07:09] just what we need uh he says I'm gonna go head to bed now I want to say hello to you guys
[02:07:17] Mike's voice began to drift off the day his operation had begun to hit him like a wall his
[02:07:21] body was now just registering need for sleep of course take care of yourself we're all okay here
[02:07:25] Michael stay focused so you can come home safe Sally said those words became her parting words
[02:07:30] every time she spoke to him stay focused so you can come home safe we would lie in bed just kind
[02:07:42] of looking at the ceiling and saw with say we all know that he's just not kicking back you know it's
[02:07:50] kind of a charade here you know but we were pretty aware what was how bad Ramadi was but we knew he
[02:07:58] didn't really want to get into it so we kept the conversations pretty light now when Mark got killed
[02:08:05] did you guys did you guys become aware when Mark got killed went to the funeral and that's where
[02:08:12] Sally met Matt Debbie Debbie but also I put you know I keep thinking Kay
[02:08:22] uh oh oh from the book yeah Matt Cowie McCowie got it Cowie comes up to her in his crutches
[02:08:31] and says Michael saved my life Michael saved my life and that's when Sal was thinking how could
[02:08:38] you save your life if he's just marching people around and then he told her the story and that's
[02:08:45] why it was like yeah we know a little bit better than that but and of course we had a conversation
[02:08:54] I remind him we don't we don't really need heroes just do a good job and uh this is don't worry
[02:09:05] if I remember him saying uh we talked about his death about Lee's death and everything and
[02:09:14] those guys took it pretty hard and he and I said we feel gonna be careful and he goes don't worry
[02:09:20] he says if I go here I will be the one that decides I still remember that especially when he he didn't
[02:09:30] have to we could have gotten out of that he decided and just always sticks in my head that conversation
[02:09:38] yeah I know that uh I mean my wife had no idea of what was going on um at all and but then no
[02:09:51] because she didn't even give you a full can that's true that's true I'd say she has no clue but you
[02:09:58] know even Cowie got Cowie got wounded but you know she just I think she just thought it was anomaly
[02:10:03] and and like I said I mean she had um she had a you know she had three kids going on freaking young
[02:10:08] kids and everything but uh I think everybody when Mark got killed it was like oh wake up yeah and and
[02:10:18] yeah it's I was looking through my emails a while ago which is crazy to look through emails and I
[02:10:23] have like all the emails I was reading emails that I sent my wife and you know it's like oh uh what is
[02:10:30] it July 29th you know um then July 1st or so July 31st and then August 2nd that's the day Mark died
[02:10:42] and there's you know my you know I sent an email August 3rd like hey hope everything's okay you know
[02:10:48] something like this but still nothing um and I think that was everybody you know kind of like
[02:10:54] what Mikey was doing is so you just don't want people to worry but then that was just uh no way
[02:10:58] to hide that you know what we saw Cowie again uh we invited some of the sales for Thanksgiving
[02:11:07] and uh we still didn't know the whole story and then the Thanksgiving he says uh so can I talk to you
[02:11:14] and they went into another room and he says let me tell you what I saw and then he pulls up his shirt
[02:11:21] and he has that huge tattoo because this is what I swear this is what I saw so it was like you know
[02:11:30] yeah yeah so Cowie who is uh wasn't asking a bruiser and was just a freaking awesome guy
[02:11:41] that's the the opening story is Mikey dragging him out of the out of the street and he ended up
[02:11:49] getting a tattoo of of Mikey with these angels wings it's Cowie was telling the story the other
[02:11:59] day and one thing I he was saying it was like he was about to say something like he or maybe he was
[02:12:06] like hey I need and as soon as he was saying I need help like he felt Mikey's hand like grab his
[02:12:11] gear and start pulling him he was like that's Johnny on the spot right there yeah yeah I'm
[02:12:18] I'm not that I'm not real religious but things like this just hit me and sometimes like I don't
[02:12:24] know I don't have explanations for some of these things that uh I think the older you get you start
[02:12:30] to see more things there just uh can't really explain but
[02:12:40] it was the 15th of August the the Iraqi army along with the U.S. Army would be conducting
[02:12:45] clearance of another portion of the Malab district the houses were tightly packed and clearance would
[02:12:51] likely be slow the seals came prepared and were all set with cardboard shade water and a ton of
[02:12:57] extra ammunition the men didn't know it but they would soon have no need for the shade
[02:13:01] as the call to prayer ended Michael scan the surrounding area with his periscope he glanced
[02:13:06] over to see his teammates to the right each with their own as well he smiled and continued to scan
[02:13:11] it it worked out so well for Michael that a bunch of guys had had them sent out this is Michael
[02:13:16] ended up getting his like combat periscopes which ended up being awesome yeah I remember
[02:13:22] Sarah I was uh was sending that out just looking at me like like really playing games over there
[02:13:28] yeah imagine how nice it is when you don't have to poke your head up over a wall yeah
[02:13:33] nothing to see here guys just the Iraqi army and dudes getting unloaded Michael called then the
[02:13:38] loudspeakers crackled on that's weird thought Michael it seemed as though the prayers were going
[02:13:43] to start again a voice came over the loudspeakers but it sounded different this time it was not the
[02:13:47] usual singing it was speaking and the words were different what is that are they praying again that
[02:13:53] doesn't sound like prayer chief Fortin said I know it's not the same Michael responded the interpreter
[02:13:58] burst through the couple a door and onto the roof its directions they're being direct directed he
[02:14:04] blurted what who asked chief Fortin the speakers the enemy fighters are being directed on where to
[02:14:10] go the interpreter replied oh well shit oh well shit JP Doug Mike do you have a shot to take out
[02:14:20] those speakers chief called chief Fortin but the snipers had already been trying to work a solution
[02:14:26] no joy chief was the response Mikey I hope you brought a lot of ammo shits probably gonna get real
[02:14:31] stupid real quick chief Fortin said always Mikey replied was that was that the 12 hour
[02:14:45] yeah yeah that one what ends up happening comms chatter but most it was not pertinent to Michael
[02:14:50] most of the information flow from different units leaders back to to the joint operation center
[02:14:56] where the operation is being monitored Michael's concern was keeping the enemy pinned and if one
[02:15:00] of them was brave enough to try and move out in the open dropping in in his tracks the clearance
[02:15:04] was ongoing but the insurgents currently attacking the seal position were relentless and I fast
[02:15:09] forwarded to this they're they just basically got like an all out assault this was not ideal but
[02:15:14] also meant that they were not trying to advance towards the overwatch position had been hours
[02:15:18] and neither side could get the upper hand Michael moved from position a position firing at multiple
[02:15:23] enemy locations it looked as though this fight was not going to be over anytime soon and he
[02:15:28] wasn't wrong the entire engagement lasted 12 hours I mean imagine people have never served
[02:15:36] 12 hours I mean it's the way these guys stay together and then the next day they go up and do
[02:15:44] it again it's the people I just don't it's just it's just remarkable what these guys do yeah you know
[02:15:51] a lot of times you know people talk about basic seal training they talk about buds oh buds was
[02:15:58] hard and I look it is hard it's hard as hell and it's a nightmare for guys to try and get through
[02:16:06] but what you just talked about and what I usually try and explain to people is oh you
[02:16:12] saw an army guy get killed you were in a firefight yesterday you had rounds snapped by your head you
[02:16:21] had like all these things happen I mean on some of these engagements uh their JP dragged a marine
[02:16:28] out of the street I will I forget the number but the marine got shot another marine got shot
[02:16:35] an Iraqi got shot a seal got shot through his backpack through his uh water bladder his camel
[02:16:42] back on his so it's like in one little engagement five people got shot and what do you do the next
[02:16:51] day you go out again yeah and then the next day you go out again so yeah the look buds is hard I get
[02:16:59] it but this stuff right here and look it's not just seals the Marines are going out every day the
[02:17:04] army's going out every day and everyone's taking those risks and that's why the bond was so tight
[02:17:11] with the army and the Marine Corps in Ramadi because everyone was doing everything we could
[02:17:16] to protect each other and that's why that bond was and is so strong yeah yeah I read some of uh
[02:17:26] Michael's emails uh and I was his friends in the States crying that uh his girlfriend their
[02:17:37] girlfriend doesn't love him anymore or her boyfriend laughed and they're having a tough time in
[02:17:42] college and I'm and Mike writes back you know encouraging them and the whole deal and I'm
[02:17:48] thinking really they're having a tough time yeah yeah it's uh it it definitely is and that's what
[02:18:02] I love about this book is you start to realize the I mean this is what the daily life is like
[02:18:08] captured it really really well and that's I think that's important for people to read these type of
[02:18:13] books uh I can get a taste and these these stories as you said they're from uh the guys that were
[02:18:20] there these stories are real and uh I think it would give uh the rest of the country just kind of a
[02:18:29] fingernail sketch of what these guys go through and also if you have you know uh teenage
[02:18:36] children they can see that guys like Michael they're just like them they they have problems when
[02:18:42] they're kids and they deal with bullies and it's that determination and that strength that you build
[02:18:48] up in your life that prepares you for the world yeah and uh you know the fact that the first time
[02:18:56] Mikey went to Bud's he quit yeah and you know who else did Mark Lee Mark Lee the first time he went
[02:19:03] to Bud's he quit and I always uh you know occasionally I'll talk to someone that's that had been to
[02:19:09] Bud's and quit and I usually tell them if they seem like they're a good person I'll say if they
[02:19:15] say they want to go back and I'll say hey you're at a Mikey Montsourne they say yeah I'm gonna go
[02:19:19] Mikey Montsour quit the first time he went and now I'm gonna be able to tell him but when you get
[02:19:23] defeated it's what you do it's what's the quote I gotta learn it's how you come back from the feet
[02:19:30] come back from the feet so that's what I'm talking about so that's the man we're gonna add that in
[02:19:34] there whatever it is it's the way you come back it's always wake up because we've all had losses
[02:19:39] and for me when I have a bad loss uh it just burns them burns it's there forever you sometimes you
[02:19:46] forget about those easy wins but you remember those losses and usually hopefully you'll walk away
[02:19:52] with a lesson and uh Michael just when that happened I just didn't surprise me at all he was coming
[02:20:00] back he will win yeah so pushing a little bit further into deployment we're getting towards
[02:20:08] the end of deployment Michael gripped the phone close to his mouth hey dad we're just about done
[02:20:12] here I volunteered to stay for a few more operations so one of the guys could leave early his wife is
[02:20:17] having a baby soon it won't be long I expect to be finished up in about a week I'll also be helping
[02:20:22] do to do turnover with the incoming team then I'm heading out my stuff is packed and ready to go
[02:20:30] that's great news Mikey your mom and I can't wait to see you we're gonna celebrate and have a big
[02:20:34] party when you get backstage side George felt a great relief to learn that Mikey was so close to
[02:20:39] coming home and almost silly for having thought that he may not see his son again take care of yourself
[02:20:46] and we'll see you soon and that's something you told me uh oh a little while ago was that Mikey
[02:20:55] was always telling you about who's married and checking in on who has kids and that was a big
[02:21:00] concern is was he knew who had kids who was married and he he would tell me I worry about these guys
[02:21:07] he goes I don't want to be the guy that lost one of these uh one of these guys who has children
[02:21:14] because he believed fathers mothers is you know a two-person deal and uh he's always loved kids and
[02:21:22] he just would be so bothered knowing that on his watch somebody lost the father and he would talk
[02:21:30] about I mean I mean people really want to find out who's got kids in there but he he would want to
[02:21:36] know and he would keep keep it in the back of his mind so I know it always concerned him because he
[02:21:43] just didn't want to lose a father it was the 28th of September and the first of the 506 had one last
[02:21:54] request Operation Kentucky Jumper the SEALs would be providing overwatch for Combat Outpost Eagle's
[02:22:00] Nest while the external wall of the Combat Outpost was being reinforced in addition the first of
[02:22:05] the 506 would be conducting a clearance in the same area which the SEALs would cover as well
[02:22:09] the insert would take place at night the two elements would leave cop eagles nest and set up
[02:22:15] mutually supporting rooftop overwatch positions in two prominent houses much like they had been
[02:22:20] doing for the entire deployment the men had conducted this type of operation many times and
[02:22:25] at this point it seemed like this one would be much the same so they push in they do this overwatch
[02:22:40] around 11 a.m the army moved out of the area having finished operations for the day the SEAL
[02:22:45] overwatch positions remained in place and would extract under the cover of darkness later that
[02:22:50] night other than the first of the 506 doing clearance ops and us being in the area providing
[02:22:56] overwatch it was kind of a somber day Doug said referring to how the day was going in comparison
[02:23:01] to other similar operations they had completed based on most of the previous operations the
[02:23:07] likelihood of the firefight was low of another firefight was low the temperature was reaching
[02:23:11] 115 degrees and they would stay there until late in the afternoon and only begin to cool when the
[02:23:16] sun dip below the horizon as the morning turned into day and then early afternoon Michael Doug
[02:23:24] and Mike S talked of heading home and what was next for each of them there was a sense of excitement
[02:23:31] we were proud of what we did we were proud of our relationships we had built with the army in the
[02:23:36] Marine Corps recalls Mike Surrelly the men talked of their families Doug would be headed back to
[02:23:42] Georgia to see his three sons Mike S was ready to get back to his two-year-old little girl
[02:23:48] Michael listened as the guy spoke of heading home he was ready as well sniper school heading into
[02:23:54] his next platoon snowboarding trips and driving up the coast to see his family in Garden Grove
[02:24:00] Doug recalls how cool and relaxed Michael was he just had a real calming sense to him
[02:24:06] you could tell instantly what a great person and warrior he was to this point it was the most one
[02:24:12] on one time Doug had spent with Michael as the day continued on the intense heat had begun to wear on
[02:24:22] the men the shade material help but not but the heat radiated from surfaces all around them not
[02:24:28] even the light breeze brought reprieve the air was stifling dry and filled with dust the lack of
[02:24:33] activity and the heat induced lethargy degrading the men's awareness boom an explosion rocked the
[02:24:42] rooftop Michael ran back over to the position between Mike S and Doug what was that RPG asked Doug
[02:24:52] sure seemed like it Mike S replied the anger on Michael's face was apparent as he searched for the
[02:24:57] insurgent responsible for the attack Mike S moved out of his loophole and called the other element
[02:25:01] we just took an RPG searching for the shooter now what have you guys got Doug rolled into the open
[02:25:07] spot as it had a better field of view than his loophole Michael sat on the chair between the two
[02:25:13] with his mark 48 resting on the wall of the rooftop Mike S continued updating the other element while
[02:25:19] Michael Doug and Benny scan the area they saw nothing no enemy movement suddenly an object
[02:25:27] just barely cleared the lip of the wall and hit Michael in the chest it bounced off and rolled
[02:25:32] to the ground directly in front of him Mike S looked over at what had just landed next to the
[02:25:39] group then up at Michael Michael stood so quickly and with such force that the chair he was sitting
[02:25:44] on sailed across the rooftop and impacted the opposite wall Michael looked at Mike S and yelled
[02:25:51] grenade Mike S watched in disbelief as Michael the only one of them who had an out to escape the
[02:26:00] blast instead lunged forward dropping directly onto the grenade Seth's element had heard and seen
[02:26:11] the two blasts from their overwatch position and were already moving when the call for help came in
[02:26:16] the men urgently picked up the pace when they heard the amount of enemy automatic weapon fire that
[02:26:21] their friends were receiving they broke out from the main house the main entrance and headed west
[02:26:26] initially it was all quiet at their position but within 15 seconds of hitting the street all
[02:26:30] hell broke loose enemy rounds snapped and skipped around them they moved from cover to cover returning
[02:26:35] fires they closed the distance to the other overwatch position they were only two blocks away
[02:26:40] but to the wounded seals it seemed like it took forever for the other element to arrive
[02:26:45] hold on Mikey hold on Mike S said as he and Doug continued to assess and aid Michael suddenly a
[02:26:52] seal from the other element burst onto the roof and headed over to Doug Mike S and Michael he was
[02:26:59] followed by Seth and the other seals one of the strongest seals grabbed Michael and hoisted him
[02:27:03] onto his back Seth grabbed Doug and the others took Mike S they could hear the 25 millimeter
[02:27:11] auto cannons of the Bradley fighting vehicles begin to fire effectively suppressing the enemy
[02:27:18] and providing cover for the seals to load their wounded
[02:27:26] Mike S directed the group as they moved down the stairs and into the alley to the waiting
[02:27:30] Bradley's Doug Mike S and Michael were loaded onto the into the back along with one of the seals
[02:27:36] from the other element he stayed to continue to aid Michael while the Bradley's extracted them
[02:27:42] and headed back to Camp Corregidor when the wounded seals arrived they saw the men from the
[02:27:49] first the 506 lined up waiting to support whatever they could another testament to the bond that
[02:27:54] the two units and shared Doug Mike S and Michael were loaded onto stretchers and brought into the
[02:28:01] aid station on the camp Doug and Mike S were given shots of morphine for the first time
[02:28:07] since the grenade explosion they finally had reprieve from the physical piercing pain the
[02:28:14] reprieve however was short lived the atmosphere in the room shifted the mood had darkened and the
[02:28:20] two men could feel it then they overheard the nurse say it Michael was gone and that sobering
[02:28:30] moment they became aware of what Michael had given them he had freely exchanged his life for theirs
[02:28:40] it was September 29th the feast day of st. Michael the art a arch angle the arch angel
[02:28:48] the protector and guide of warfighters since time immemorial and whom Michael had been named
[02:28:54] 25 years earlier
[02:29:03] it was a bad day for the family
[02:29:08] remember Jim called me to hear him crying
[02:29:13] dad is bad it's bad i said what's bad he says
[02:29:19] uh Michael Michael died from Monty please get ahold of Joe
[02:29:29] tried to call Joe and i finally got ahold of him he was uh
[02:29:33] playing football in north dakota and uh i couldn't even tell him finally got ahold of him i couldn't
[02:29:42] even tell him i couldn't even talk i said just call your brother and i guess when sal saw him at
[02:29:50] the door the navy she just knew it was a bad day i just uh because we you had that call that says
[02:30:03] i'm coming home so now it's like all your planning is what we're going to do when we get together uh
[02:30:14] didn't happen
[02:30:20] i uh well so i had been tracking the operation i was in the tactical operation center and and it
[02:30:29] was troops in contact which was like like i said this was like a almost daily occurrence that guys
[02:30:35] would be in there and then you know you got you hear wounded and now all of a sudden that's not
[02:30:42] common and um the kazovaks get called and i can hear some of the radio calls and i i end up redirecting
[02:30:50] the kazovak to their location and and finally it was actually colonel carc god bless him
[02:30:58] um he he called me and um
[02:31:14] yeah he told me uh
[02:31:19] he told me uh serelli and dug he said they were they were wounded but they're going to be all right
[02:31:25] he said benny was going to be okay he said that serelli and and and dug we're going to be for
[02:31:33] you know getting flown out and he said and he said mikey wasn't going to make it
[02:31:47] and um
[02:31:47] um i mean we sent guys to escort mikey home and i mean we still had to finish deployment we still
[02:31:57] had to turn over with the next guys and and thankfully andrew paul he's the guy that that
[02:32:08] had come home early yeah mike really ate them so he could have his wife could have the baby
[02:32:13] and so he knew i mean obviously he was mikey's you know assistant platoon commander with seth and
[02:32:22] and and thankfully he was home so that he could be there but i mean as soon i talked to seth seth
[02:32:31] and seth had to go back out into town by the way they got back and seth had to go back
[02:32:38] into the city because they left their iraqis there they left a bunch of gear there and so
[02:32:42] seth had to go back out gather up their iraqis gather up all their gear come back and then he
[02:32:47] called me and he immediately he he knew um he said hey mikey jumped on that mikey jumped on a grenade
[02:32:57] and a few hours later i talked to uh mike and dug and they're in germany and they're like
[02:33:07] hey he saved us that's the only reason we're here and um i talked to seth and seth was like
[02:33:19] drafting up the medal of honor and i was like do it
[02:33:28] and i remember i did when seth came to visit the house and you want to see him you know it's like
[02:33:34] i've had it with you guys i only want to see it seth is hard to say no to because you can see
[02:33:41] the sincerity on the space and i don't know the family we just worked it out but
[02:33:52] we can cry at any moment when we think of mike that's um it's the way it is i know uh
[02:33:58] uh and man sarah your daughter what a what a just awesome woman very strong very strong and i remember
[02:34:09] her and i don't know she said it to me but i think i remember her seeing it later people were you
[02:34:14] guys were getting interviewed she was getting interviewed and she was basically someone said
[02:34:20] are you know you are you surprised that this happened and she said no anybody that knew mikey
[02:34:24] is not surprised by this um
[02:34:33] yeah uh
[02:34:40] when at what point did you hear about the medal of honor
[02:34:44] uh what happened was uh
[02:34:47] uh some guy from the newspapers called us about it and i didn't know what he was talking about
[02:34:55] and we hadn't gotten so many calls all kinds of things we had hate calls we had uh newspapers
[02:35:04] interviews most of the stuff we said no and uh we just want to be left alone in fact we were so
[02:35:11] used to getting bad calls uh i remember the president uh was trying to call us because
[02:35:20] this is when they decided to award him um the medal and uh sarah kept trying to tell me um
[02:35:30] would you pick up the phone and i was thinking this is i go what's this guy keeps bothering me
[02:35:36] it's just the same number i don't know what this asshole wants and then she could stab would you
[02:35:42] just pick up the phone you know so that's when we knew it was real because you hear people everyone
[02:35:48] is talking with you you know to do this and that but i mean it's nice but it's not your son yeah you
[02:35:56] know and uh it's uh it our family appreciated it but you know that hole is still there i think anyone
[02:36:07] who's lost a child i don't care if it's uh in the hospital an accident there's a hole and we're in a
[02:36:14] real sad family and me and debbie lee we're talking about it it's just it's just there and it just
[02:36:21] hits you everyone's smile hearing kids playing the playground or something like that it just hits
[02:36:27] you it's you just don't get over it but uh we were treated very very nicely surprising
[02:36:37] because i was in the Marines and uh the seal family is totally different and i was kind of shocked
[02:36:45] i was like almost too sorry okay well leave us alone you know but uh i was really taken back by
[02:36:53] you know these guys coming over and checking on the family and it was a good thing
[02:37:02] at what point did you hear about the ship i was about i remember uh dr o winter talked about
[02:37:11] uh a ship and see we don't know anything about the navy uh we're not into the ceremony stuff and it
[02:37:19] was like yeah okay whatever uh didn't you know uh really think about it it was just in passing we
[02:37:27] thought and then a while later maybe uh six months later uh we get this thing where uh they're going
[02:37:35] to name a ship after michael we had no no idea it was going to be like 10 years i mean it was just
[02:37:45] incredible and it was like fly here fly there and that's why my kids were like we're not going any
[02:37:52] place we didn't realize it was going to turn into a job and uh it was everything was nice and uh
[02:38:00] uh but it's not something we really wanted uh we were real happy to just go back to
[02:38:08] simple nobody knows this and so it was it was busy for the first couple years and finally it you
[02:38:14] know it disappeared and it was okay but um oh my goodness i would think leave it to mikey
[02:38:22] he still got something going on and even this book people will talk to me uh we'd have a writer
[02:38:32] sitting on our porch wanting to write a book and what's the hat it does and we passed on all of them
[02:38:39] and then just uh when one of the sailors did a book on michael and gave it to a submissive at
[02:38:45] the cemetery and that's when i started thinking my grandchildren should have a book because they
[02:38:51] should see what it's like um you know they got to understand that michael uncle michael went through
[02:38:59] some of the same things they went through you know it just doesn't happen you've got to have
[02:39:04] you know you've got to be able to figure things out you have to be strong enough because when
[02:39:09] you're a kid you're bullied or you're you know you're not sure of yourself the world is is really
[02:39:16] scary for him and i thought it would be good that they could see their uncle had the same kind of
[02:39:20] problems and he got through it and they can get through it too so and i would hope anybody who would
[02:39:26] read this the same thing you know a young man or reading this realizes he's he's got a long ways to
[02:39:35] go in his life and um he can pull himself together some guys uh i hired a lot of young people in my
[02:39:43] time and some of them they just never got that message now they're in their 30s and 40s and
[02:39:50] they're still children yeah so um yeah it's it's weird too i i i gotta admit from my perspective
[02:39:57] when you talk about mikey like as a boy by the time he was in the teams which is when i met him
[02:40:04] yeah he was no boy no and and and then i was telling you this before we started recording like
[02:40:10] he was getting big yeah so he cut the sleeves off all the shirts everything's hard to call him
[02:40:16] sleeves because he was just like getting jacked but i mean he was you know even even when we say
[02:40:21] kevin lace kevin lace is a really big guy but mikey was also big so it's interesting when you
[02:40:29] put it all together and like you say the arc of the book the mikey i knew was just a badass right
[02:40:35] and he might have been a new guy and he might have been you know like young for the seal teams yeah
[02:40:41] but he was a badass so to connect that to this guy who you know had asthma and got bullied and
[02:40:49] like like while i knew mike mike was not getting bullied by anybody you know what i'm saying so he
[02:40:55] had overcome all that and and and like you said um it risen up and at the same time that he had that
[02:41:05] quality like there's literally no one else that you would rather have to watch your back yeah
[02:41:12] no he was if if he said i've got it he meant it you know if he says you're my friend you could
[02:41:21] you take it to the bank he will do everything uh that he can if you if you have a problem and i
[02:41:26] remember gabe talking about how close they were gabe was uh was greek and michael being uh lobanese
[02:41:34] they would he would call him his lobanese brother no they call him his Mediterranean brother
[02:41:41] i'm gonna go out and choke on some olives or something i don't know uh you know this the
[02:41:49] stuff with the ship um i mean it was it was i see i got to look at it from afar right i wasn't
[02:41:57] all mixed up in it like you guys were flying all the time yeah uh you guys the keel this is from
[02:42:02] the book the keel laying is the first of three ceremonies in the life of a ship symbolizing
[02:42:06] the ship's transition from a mere concept to a product that will one day become a us warship
[02:42:10] navy tradition is celebrated special keel laying ceremony for hundreds of years and so it talks
[02:42:17] about the fact that you guys went to bath iron works up in main and and welded your initials onto
[02:42:23] this like piece that goes in there that's sort of the that's sort of the initial there's just so
[02:42:29] much tradition yeah that the navy has and it was yeah we would do those things and i and then
[02:42:35] sal welded something in uh on the bridge someplace you know and it's like yeah and they somehow got
[02:42:44] wood this guy captain smith is a great guy captain scott smith who like took this with the utmost
[02:42:50] seriousness of course because he's the first commanding officer of this ship and he got they
[02:42:55] got wood from the uss constitution like crazy how do you do that uh you have this here each
[02:43:03] naval warship has its own crest and motto and captain smith who's the first commanding officer
[02:43:07] took meticulous efforts to honor the ship's namesake with each one for the crest he was given
[02:43:12] parameters of simply using a shield the rest was up to him he knew exactly what to do in order to
[02:43:18] make sure the ship honored its names it's the ship and namesake perfectly there were a handful of
[02:43:24] people family teammates and friends he would need to talk to was introduced to steve gilmore
[02:43:28] retired surface naval surface warfare he's the best uh he he is he's just on your side oh he's
[02:43:37] he's he's a hundred percent uh he helped me uh i'm very good friends with him and he helped me
[02:43:43] with everything i ever need to help with and look i caused all kinds of trouble for that poor guy i
[02:43:47] was constantly constantly caused that he would bail me out of all kinds of things so thank you
[02:43:52] mr steve gilmore uh but he was able to connect captain smith with a bunch of different people
[02:43:59] captain smith sat down for hours with each group learned as much as he could in order to create
[02:44:03] something remarkable that would inspire his future crew members they would collectively come up with
[02:44:08] the the connected with it with uh uh something that connected the family with the navy as well as
[02:44:14] the ship's unique components and so this is for the motto of the ship became i will defend which
[02:44:20] carries a three-fold meaning every military member takes an oath to support and defend the constitution
[02:44:25] another prominent middle military ethos says i will defend the defenseless and the saint michael prayer
[02:44:32] calls upon the mighty angelic soldier to defend us in battle have you been in have you been in the
[02:44:40] ship i have when i talked to scott i was like uh we wanted something for the seals not to be forgotten
[02:44:51] and uh that's why if you walk in you'll see the pictures of those other seals and uh it was important
[02:44:58] to us that those seals aren't forgotten because sometimes congressional medal of honor people
[02:45:05] forget about these people well pain is the same and we wanted to remember them on that ship so
[02:45:12] he did a good job for us no they did a beautiful job the ship was the ship was awesome and they
[02:45:18] ended up with the the there's a flintlock pistol which came from the trident other thing which is
[02:45:23] awesome there's a there's a roman numeral three which is like legit for team three scott did his
[02:45:28] homework yeah i know he definitely um definitely did an awesome job with all that and eventually uh
[02:45:37] the ship gets christened and and that was just awesome um christening took place that was up in
[02:45:51] bath as well up in main that was when uh sally broke the that was fun for her she was so for
[02:46:02] i just want to make sure i hit it hard enough i go well put my face right there
[02:46:10] i'm sure you'll be able to pet muster it and that thing
[02:46:14] uh and then finally you get the actual ships commissioning yeah and this is when the ship
[02:46:20] becomes a us navy ship but it says here major hallowday was announced and approached the podium
[02:46:26] to give the invocation he had flown in all the way from korea for the special event upon finishing
[02:46:31] his opening prayer the other speakers approached the podium one after the other they rendered their
[02:46:35] special remarks and honored the family of the ship's namesake as well as the impressive ship
[02:46:40] itself then major general ron clark who was formerly a lieutenant colonel who is now a major
[02:46:47] general this is how long it's been he's definitely a general who led the first of 506 red cur he battalion
[02:46:52] during the battle of vermonti walked commandingly over to the podium we few we happy few we band of
[02:47:01] brothers for he today that shares that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother the bravery and
[02:47:10] sacrifice of these warriors is the highest form of service to our nation at a time when less than
[02:47:15] one percent of american citizens will ever don the cloth of our nation in her defense these men
[02:47:20] and women endured hardship danger and personal sacrifice every day to protect our country and
[02:47:25] our way of life let me be very clear our band of brothers was brought together through our fight
[02:47:32] against a tough and violent enemy in fact we refer to seal team three as army seals it was the fight
[02:47:40] that brought us together but really what defined our task force was one word love a brotherly love
[02:47:49] that warriors in arms share in battle defined by selfless commitment to a mission and selfless
[02:47:55] commitment unfailing to one another there is no greater human emotion than the feeling to belong
[02:48:03] to a team to a unit to a brotherhood to a family my association with these warriors has been the
[02:48:11] most meaningful professional relationships of my life then you can anybody who served understands
[02:48:23] that I mean there are guys that I met in the service that I love them as much as my own brothers
[02:48:30] and the kind of situation in Ramadi that's even deeper yeah debbie lee will will explain that
[02:48:40] you know mark would tell her these guys are my brothers and she'd say what what do you mean like
[02:48:46] you have brother you know it's not the same and and then when mark died and she met all of us she
[02:48:52] realized oh you are brothers yeah put the seal squeeze on her too finally the ship sponsor and
[02:49:04] soul woman on stage walk to the podium she smiled or humbled demeanor evident all in attendance she
[02:49:12] began by sharing her heartfelt gratitude to all who were with them to honor her son she continued
[02:49:18] thanking the men and women of the military whom she regarded as the best in the world finally without
[02:49:23] further ado she gave an order that the crew had been eagerly awaiting to hear officers and crew
[02:49:29] of the USS michael monsoor man our ship and bring her to life that was a good day that was awesome
[02:49:36] and they we weren't the ship's crew but they had task unit bruiser was the guys that ran up yeah
[02:49:45] and manned the ship yeah luckily we didn't have to drive anywhere with it or anything because none
[02:49:51] of us know how to do any of that but but man it was just awesome to see that and and yeah you hustled
[02:49:59] pretty good i saw you guys out there for their goal was last time those guys read well so uh you
[02:50:06] know the guys before yeah they're like hey zharko like don't run too fast because like some guys
[02:50:13] ain't doing too much right so of course i'm all fired up with adrenaline and i'm all hyped and i
[02:50:19] guess i went a little quicker than i showed up you know wore some of the guys out uh and just to
[02:50:25] close this out um father halloweday stepped up to the podium let us pray heavenly father bless
[02:50:31] and approve this newly commissioned vessel the USS michael monsoor and its crew send your holy
[02:50:36] angels as custodians and guides may michael and the arch angel ever defend it in battle be its
[02:50:44] protector against all enemies and ravages of foul weather may this vessel and crew always know the
[02:50:49] friendship of the creatures of the deep the camaraderie of the winds and the enmity of the tides
[02:50:55] and may the USS michael monsoor ever know the unified patronage of the citizens of heaven the
[02:51:01] creatures of earth and every mission it undertakes to restore peace ensure freedom and enact justice
[02:51:09] for all i've met so many really wonderful people uh over this and uh father halloweday was uh was
[02:51:19] won uh he also did a mass and baptized uh joseph son on that ship yeah so there's just a lot of
[02:51:27] really really great people and um as far as that sal and i were just some good times well
[02:51:37] now is that is that joseph son mickey yeah well mickey's yeah it is the weirdest thing right so
[02:51:44] as you know i i wrote this book mickey and the dragons right and it's obviously it's the mickey's
[02:51:49] named after mickey and my friend john bozak's the artist and uh i'm like hey you know here's the story
[02:51:56] and so he sends me the first pictures and they're black and white so i don't really think much of it
[02:52:03] and then first color one comes and in the book he's got mickey with blonde hair and i'm like hey man
[02:52:09] you know like mickey's freaking lebanese bro he's black hair and but then when you look at the book
[02:52:16] and he's like talking me through it you look at the book like even the cover like the it's all black
[02:52:19] and he got this blonde head kid makes the kid stand out i'm like yeah all right well hey we're gonna
[02:52:24] bleach out mickey a little bit but then i meet little mickey yeah and sure enough he's a toe head
[02:52:31] yeah i think i told you i was complaining to joe i says joe you got three little girls and you got
[02:52:40] mickey and they're all toe heads i says you couldn't have given me one brown kid with a big nose
[02:52:45] seriously oh man um but i mean it is awesome seeing that ship and and with this book that you just
[02:52:58] wrote with rosen rose did a fantastic job you know she's married to a seal so she captured a lot of
[02:53:03] stuff she put up with a lot of stuff yeah i'm sure it was a challenge just trying to get stories out
[02:53:09] of guys everyone's on all different schedules no she did a great job and and because she's married
[02:53:15] to a seal i think she captured it in a way that um a normal author wouldn't have been able to yeah
[02:53:21] when we talked um i'm she pestered me for two years and steve are going i don't know i think
[02:53:28] she's pretty good anyway uh we talked it was like um i said we don't we want real stories because
[02:53:40] she gave a synion samples of of uh other of authors and they wrote about the glory of war and all
[02:53:48] that and i said i want to vomit i said that is not what we're looking for we want real stuff
[02:53:55] and so uh what was good about the seals is she couldn't call them they wouldn't give her the
[02:54:01] time of day i would call them and tell them what i'd like to do and we had a lot of stories but a
[02:54:07] lot of the guys they didn't want to share those stories it was personal and so i respect that
[02:54:12] but some of the guys uh after a couple of calls uh they would open up uh to uh to rose and uh i felt
[02:54:22] like as they opened up they actually felt good about it and it kind of like let some let out a
[02:54:29] little bit of uh some of that pressure what happened over there and i was surprised how many said it
[02:54:35] was okay if they used uh you know their name so that's when i started thinking well then they probably
[02:54:41] feel pretty good about it and it's these are all true stories so uh i i think it's uh it's a book
[02:54:49] that uh is worth reading no it's uh it's a hundred percent worth reading and that's a way for mickey's
[02:54:57] legacy to you know to carry on you carry on the ship and it's great when you meet the ship and the
[02:55:02] ship's crew they're they all know the story they're all fired up i mean they do an awesome thing and
[02:55:08] and it's written about in the book as well as you know when you pull into san diego harbour
[02:55:14] off to your left hand side is rosecrance where mickey's buried and you know actually marx buried
[02:55:19] there and sestones buried there but when you pull in they they man the rails and they give the the
[02:55:25] ship salute you know to mickey which is just awesome so you get the legacy carrying on with the crew
[02:55:31] with the ship in this book um and in the the young you know the young seals today they're this is what
[02:55:39] they're raised on they're raised on this is what uh this is this is the ideal seal this is a guy that
[02:55:43] works hard that's never going to give up and that's going to take care of his brothers and that's
[02:55:48] that's mickey well you have those i think you have marx in there and and and mickey's is uh when
[02:55:55] the seals come in there they see those displays yeah and i i actually think it's important so people
[02:56:01] don't forget um no matter who it is there are guys that really uh they believed in what they did and
[02:56:08] these young seals should know that um it's passed on to them well thank you so much for writing
[02:56:18] this book uh thanks to rose as well thanks for coming down here uh echo you got any questions no sir
[02:56:24] no sir you just woke him up
[02:56:31] anybody that's listening the books available will have it on our website but you can get it on amazon
[02:56:36] you can get it wherever books are sold just get it i mean give it to give it to everybody that you
[02:56:41] know give it to like you mentioned teenagers for sure because i think they can understand
[02:56:47] and it even you know it's not like uh it's not like this pro thing where they're gonna
[02:56:54] kids or parents are scared their kids are going to run out and join the military
[02:56:58] it's the journey that he took and what he uh overcame and these kids who are feeling you
[02:57:05] know insecure they got to know that there's other guys out there just like them and they did it
[02:57:12] and they can these kids can also get through it and it's important and that's why i did it for my
[02:57:17] grandkids and i think i told you my my granddaughter uh she first weekend um in boot camp and she i gave
[02:57:26] her one of these books uh for the trip and she read it and she said when i read the story she
[02:57:33] hate boot camp so much and uh she goes but i realized you know life is tough and there's
[02:57:42] it's a journey and we have to go through these things and mike was my inspiration she goes we
[02:57:47] had to run a mile and a half and i've never run faster and she goes i just she says thanks grandpa
[02:57:55] for writing the book it's important so eventually um all the kids will get one and a couple of words
[02:58:00] i want to take out but i don't know it's a true story so what am i gonna do it's surprisingly
[02:58:08] clean considering it's about well yeah i don't know yeah uh but but no it's awesome and uh any
[02:58:15] any other closing thoughts i think that gets us up to present date no i do want to thank you for uh
[02:58:22] for the respect for our family and especially uh how much you helped out sally i mean she uh
[02:58:31] she really appreciated in the time where she couldn't get to the uh into the cemetery
[02:58:36] and she says to me she goes i hope i didn't uh i didn't uh disturb him or anything i thought he
[02:58:43] was on base and i go oh is he wearing him i think he was just wearing t-shirts and his shorts
[02:58:49] and i said i don't think that's the uh the uniform of the day uh no that wasn't the uniform of the day
[02:58:58] i think you're on vacation or something i don't know yeah i wasn't at work yeah we got to college
[02:59:03] and hey if uh sally wants to go and visit her son uh rosecrant she's gonna get in there yeah
[02:59:10] she was thrilled she was just so happy because it's like an hour and a half two hours drive
[02:59:15] and uh she didn't know that uh they closed up you know at that time but uh i really want to
[02:59:21] thank you because she was treated very well with the seals and with you and i also want to thank
[02:59:26] you for attending her funeral it was very nice it was an honor to be there and it's a
[02:59:33] an honor to help share this story of mickey and thanks for joining us um thanks for you know the
[02:59:41] sacrifice of you your whole family i mean that thanks for uh
[02:59:59] uh
[03:00:08] for raising us on like mickey
[03:00:12] and for sharing them with us we won't forget it well we really appreciate the seal community and
[03:00:19] like i said we appreciated uh the way we were treated the respect from you and this family was
[03:00:26] important i just wanted to close that out because who knows when i'm gonna see you again and i really
[03:00:33] appreciate this moment so thanks jacko thank you and with that george monsoor has left the building
[03:00:44] and once again life is a gift
[03:01:05] and thanks for listening
[03:01:06] we appreciate it and if you want to support the podcast
[03:01:16] well first of all get the book like i said i read like little pieces of the book
[03:01:20] the book has a bunch more in it they did a great job writing it so order the book
[03:01:30] what is it is it christmas season yet or yeah technically i think it's kind of the
[03:01:35] even if you're having a lean christmas yeah even if you're having a lean christmas just
[03:01:39] order the book today and you can give it to everybody that you know so we'll just start with that
[03:01:48] support this book please um if you want to further support the podcast while you're supporting
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[03:02:48] do yeah if you go read the reviews of joint warfare it's legit yeah so yeah so it's one of
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[03:03:27] yeah i could you feel that once george started talking about factory and production i was like
[03:03:33] almost gonna go down the path of all of a sudden we could be talking about made in america and what
[03:03:38] it's like running production and what it's like to you know build or make clothing because that's
[03:03:43] what he was doing running a factory yeah so uh but we luckily i refrained from going down the path
[03:03:52] and talking about that uh but we are making stuff in america origin usa dot com go get some stuff
[03:03:58] there get hunt gear by the way we're making as fast as we can hey will we know you bought it is it
[03:04:04] what is it still pre-order right now no no we're shipping it out as fast as we can oh i haven't
[03:04:09] i demand yeah i haven't but we've we're shipping it out as fast as we can we're making as fast as
[03:04:14] we can we appreciate the patience uh we're working it that's what we're doing but hey genes get those
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[03:04:40] or in a warm place in the world you're gonna want those delta 68's all day all day
[03:04:46] and you're probably training jujitsu it's how it all started by the way the jujitsu gays you
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[03:04:57] not slaves that's origin usa dot com go get it it's true also jaco's store jaco's store
[03:05:03] just so we can get your shirts and hoodies and hats and stuff rash guards on there as well
[03:05:09] but yeah discipline equals freedom it's good you want to represent it's a good place to get
[03:05:13] your stuff can you get that thing that you're wearing right now is that a yes sort of jackel
[03:05:17] store yep it's called deluxe it's called team discipline team discipline yep you named it
[03:05:23] yep you don't really naming shirts no well they all have names okay actually you know okay so you
[03:05:29] know the shirt you're wearing right now your uniform what what is that tier i don't forget how
[03:05:34] the tiers work in uniform three i don't know if there's such a thing as a tier or what do you call
[03:05:40] there's like a the dress oh yeah dress blues and whatever class a's or something like that yeah
[03:05:47] well either way my general uniform that's your uniform right that shirt that shirt is called
[03:05:52] black ops i actually knew that so i guess i knew this yes i knew this shirt was called but there's a
[03:05:55] white white one called declassified oh and then now there's a new one cleverness there's a new one
[03:06:01] it's just like that but instead of the dark gray it's red it's called red team dang look at you
[03:06:08] can i get at a gray one yeah i don't you know what would that be called uh yeah i don't know we
[03:06:15] don't make currently make the gray one but hey look i'll look into it i know a guy and you know maybe
[03:06:19] we'll uh make that happen a gray one huh could be cool gray shirt gray shirts because they don't get
[03:06:25] dirty but they're cool in the sun call it um gray area or gray operations isn't that a thing when
[03:06:32] it's not right or wrong you know it's like a gray we call it gray area one of those things
[03:06:38] either way yes jockels store we also have the short locker these designs are
[03:06:42] are interesting the last one was is called or this month is called the heavies that's a bad
[03:06:50] ass t-shirt by the way yeah carry k-doc the heavies is good yeah that little section of that podcast
[03:06:59] yeah freaking good section the heavies are rolling in yep but yeah that's a subscription
[03:07:05] scenario you get a new shirt every month people seem to like it so check that out also there it's
[03:07:08] called the shirt shortlock it's on jockel store yeah and subscribe to the podcast and subscribe to
[03:07:13] jockel underground.com this is why we're doing it because right now you see some social media
[03:07:17] activities that are going on right now there's mayhem out there right isn't there mayhem out there
[03:07:21] it's mayhem out there there's mayhem out there so we got to watch out for that and well you just
[03:07:28] got to watch out for that so that's where we have jockel underground we got a youtube you can subscribe
[03:07:34] to that origin USA has some stuff on youtube to check that one out psychological warfare flip side
[03:07:39] canvas dakota meyer something makes some cool stuff to hang on your wall books already obviously
[03:07:45] defend us in battle just order that book just get it only cry for the living by holly mckay get that
[03:07:53] book and then i've written a bunch of books too but whatever kids books you know mickey and the
[03:07:58] dragons let's let's give that one some props mickey the dragons overcoming fear obviously
[03:08:03] mickey the character is named after mike monsoir about overcoming fear uh echelon front we have a
[03:08:12] leadership consultancy we solve problems through leadership go to echelonfront.com for details
[03:08:17] next event or lando april third through the fifth that's the next muster april third through the
[03:08:24] fifth 2023 it's going to come quick that's the weird thing it's going to sell out quick everything
[03:08:30] sells out we oversold the last muster we oversold we had to like move the instructor seating
[03:08:38] to the to the behind the curtain yeah type scenario yeah so we won't make that mistake again
[03:08:45] but we will sell out so there you go orlando april third through the fifth 2023 and then dalis
[03:08:51] is also in 2023 we got the battlefield we got ftx we got all kinds of good stuff going on
[03:09:00] echelonfront.com we also have online training at extreme ownership academy go to extreme ownership
[03:09:05] dot com we covered the stuff i was there i was on there live today answering questions
[03:09:09] laif was on there live today answering questions we have courses to take so go to extreme ownership
[03:09:15] dot com if you want to learn how to live your life better especially your interactions with other humans
[03:09:22] and if you want to help service members active and retired you want to help their families gold
[03:09:25] star families check out marg lees mom mama lee she's got a charity organization and she will be
[03:09:32] coming on the podcast very soon and if you want to donate or get involved with her organization
[03:09:41] go to america's mighty warriors dot org and also don't forget about mica fink up there
[03:09:47] in the the north country with heroes and horses dot org helping veterans find themselves
[03:09:56] while they get a little bit lost out there in the wilderness and speaking of social media we're on
[03:10:03] social media on the gram on twitter it's a new twitter these days and nothing's changed really
[03:10:09] isn't you haven't noticed any change yet besides the fact that you lost your twitter account yeah
[03:10:14] there's a hacked i got hacked and then they abused it they took it over yeah they took it the hackers
[03:10:19] took out over my account to do a bunch of spam stuff that's and then twitter shut it down because
[03:10:25] it was a bot now but then luckily you said try get it get it back your old handles or registered
[03:10:33] again on my old handle so you got it back so you're still at echo charles still at echo charles i wonder
[03:10:38] if that's us going to change because elon's coming in eight dollars and this all this stuff is going
[03:10:43] on so yeah we'll see heard about people are freaking out about all kinds of things the thing is all
[03:10:48] this social media facebook the gram twitter you just got to watch out because the algorithm will
[03:10:52] grab you that's what's going to happen and uh once again thanks to thanks to george monstor for
[03:10:59] coming on board and and really um the entire monstor family who have been blessed to have gotten to know
[03:11:06] know over the past 15 years um just been amazing an honor to know them and it's an honor to be here
[03:11:18] and and share the story of mikey uh absolute hero an example for all of us so thank you to the
[03:11:29] entire monstor family and thanks to all the people from the military in general the army navy
[03:11:38] air force marines as you could probably tell we had an incredible relationship with all of them
[03:11:45] and we thank you for supporting us on the battlefield and in the past and now those that
[03:11:54] are still active duty out there protecting us today thank you and we also want to thank our police
[03:11:57] law enforcement firefighters paramedics emt's dispatchers correctional officers border patrol
[03:12:03] secret service all first responders out there you protect us here at home and we thank you for it
[03:12:10] and everyone else out there on mikey's gravestone at force fort rosecrans national cemetery
[03:12:21] he gives some advice on there and it's the same thing that he told his dad all those years before
[03:12:27] deployment that no matter what happens i have no regrets
[03:12:35] so let's go try to live like mikey did
[03:12:40] work hard if you get knocked down get back up again and overcome and of course put others first
[03:12:50] live your life and leave no regrets and until next time this is echo and jocco out