Jocko Podcast - 359: Defend Us In Battle. The Story of Medal of Honor Recipient, Michael Monsoor. With George Monsoor

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

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.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 359 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. There was a loud burst of gunfire, and Cowie fell to the ground exposed in the street. He had taken around to his right femur. The barrage of enemy gunfire continued to cascade toward him from multiple enemy positions, kicking up dust and sending ricochet and secondary frag of rock and concrete right at him. Cowie immediately returned fire but was unable to move quickly to cover because of the grievous injury to his leg.

Within seconds of hitting the ground, Cowie heard a new weapon enter the chaos. Michael Monsor, the automatic weapons gunner, broke from his covered position in an adjacent courtyard into the middle of the street. In that same moment, Michael sent a long burst of 762 millimeter rounds from. his Mark 48 machine gun into enemy positions. Although carrying a heavy load of equipment, Michael deftly moved to where Cowie lay wounded and bleeding. He stood in front of him and used his lean frame and armor as a shield to protect Kaui from incoming enemy fire.

This gave the wounded seal a reprieve he needed to continue to call for backup on his radio. Michael's technical acumen was apparent. as he swiftly engaged and suppressed enemy positions with his mark 48, effectively known as the pig. Every second and every round mattered. The other seal began to prepare Cowie to move while Michael engaged enemy insurgents. Let's move, the other seal shouted.

Michael grabbed Cowie's drag handle on top of his armor and began to pull him back to the courtyard while still firing his Mark 48. Cowie looked up at Michael as he dragged him across the road, but the perspective was not what he expected. Cowie felt as if for just a moment he had left his body below. He looked down upon the scene. As Michael dragged him, the snaps and ricochets of the heavy machine gun of enemy fire continued to hit the ground around them. Cowie couldn't believe that not one round had found its intended target. instantly the light seemed to shift then

Cowie saw them two large feathered wings wrapped from behind Michael around the trio as they moved him out of the street Cowie knew in that instant they were not alone in the fight then Cowie was looking up at Michael again he could feel the pain and hear the gunfire dust filled the air and the sun beat down upon them as they moved Once back behind cover, the other seal began working on his injured teammate. The enemy fire picked up again just as Michael finished reloading. Michael answered with a heavy volley into the enemy position.

JP and the rest of the squad along with their Iraqi partners joined the firefight minutes later. Lieutenant Seth Stone, the officer in charge of Delta platoon, was deep into radio comms, providing situation updates to the chain of command, coordinating with units in other sectors, and facilitating the movement of the responding soldiers, Marines, and Iraqi partners into the fight. And that right there is an excerpt from a book that has just come out, which is entitled, Defend Us in Battle, the true story of MA2 Navy SEAL, Medal of Honor recipient Michael A. Mansour. And the book was written by Michael's father, George Monsor, along with Rose Ray, who is an author and is also the wife of a seal. And the book was written by interviewing friends and family of Michael.

Many of the members of Tasking of Bruiser shared their stories to paint a picture of Michael's bravery. His character is skill as a seal. but of course Michael Monsor was much more than just a seal. He was a man of compassion, of humor, of love, and of faith. He was the best. And he set an incredible example for all who knew him and for anyone that hears his story. And it's an honor to have Michael's dad.

George Monsor here with us tonight to share some of this incredible story with us. George, thanks for joining us tonight. Thanks for having me on. It's an honor to have you down here. I know it's not that far of a drive, but I know it can be a little challenging sometimes. But glad you could make it down. I guess before we get, I guess we have to start at this story, maybe at the beginning with a little bit about you and your background. So you're originally from Wisconsin. Is that right?

Yeah, I was born in La Crosse and my family came from Lebanon. So there was that transition. So are you first generation American or are you second generation? Yeah, it's like half, half, overborn half. So I was half of that family. It was like 10 kids were born here and half was born on the other side. So yeah, so there's a whole kind of a different world, the Middle Eastern world and the American world. So, yeah, there's things that are always a little different.

And so you were, how long did you stay in Wisconsin for? Not very long. I think they asked us to leave like the first year. You know, they told us to get out of Wisconsin. Went to California. And then it was California. And so how old were you when you ended up in California? Pretty young.

Yeah, it was probably about one. And that's kind of, you know, where the rest of the family was born. I had two brothers and three sisters. My dad was in World War II, and he had a lot of problems after the war, and he couldn't hold down the job, and he ended up just being a gambler. So we had kind of a, you know, I mean, we didn't realize it wasn't the best, but our family was close, and my mom basically was the one that kept everything together. and we didn't realize we were poor until somebody told me in school. And so then as you're growing up, you're growing up in California in like the 50s and 60s then. Yeah.

That had to be pretty. Is it like, how does it compare with the movies? Well, we would watch these movies and our TV shows and you'd have Father Knows Bass and all these fathers are walking around with suits and ties. I look over my dad. He's in his scabies. He's been in the racing floor. The only thing you ever says to me is beer me.

So, yeah, I would look at the TV and I look at our family. Not quite the same. So you end up, I mean, you're going to school. Where did you go to high school? I went to St. John Bosco, and it's a boy school. I was fortunate. that I was a pretty good football player, so it was a good fit. It was pretty tough.

Those priests, these guys served in World War II, and they didn't put up with a lot of nonsense, and it was probably the best thing for me. They made it very clear what I could do and what I couldn't do. And then, so you played football, and what was your plan when you graduate, when you graduated? I mean, nowadays it's like, everyone has to go to college. college has to go to college. Did you have that plan?

Yeah, the plan was, because it was the college prep school, was to go to college. But it was an all-boy school. So my plan was different when I went to college. You had to make up for lost time? I was there. Anybody wanted to get on the back of my motorcycle, we're good. So I basically, my grades basically said to me, you're going to get drafted. So I decided to outsmart them and I joined the Marine Corps. Awesome. Yeah.

Yeah, you outsmarted them on that one, huh? So what year was it that you joined the Marine Corps? 68. I went 68 to 72. So, I mean, when you, Vietnam is full-blown in 1968 when you joined. No. Like, is it just known that you're going to Vietnam? Yeah.

especially in my MOS, it wasn't the MOS I wanted. I was that guy that was always trying to stay out of the fray, you know, stay in the metal, yeah. But anyway, the problem was if your grades weren't good, then you would go straight over as a grunt. I didn't want to be a grunt. So I kept my grades up, but the thing was every time you did well in school, you got another school. I did well in the tests and I got aviation school.

And then aviation school I did well and I got helicopters. Helicopters is not where you want to be in the Marine Corps. Even as you say like, oh, I went to school for aviation. And like that sounds like, that sounds like, you know, okay, you're going to go learn this trade and you're going to work on aircraft. Exactly. In Vietnam, that's a little bit different. It's a little bit of different outcome.

I got there and I says, hey, you know, this wasn't the deal. You know, when you sign up, they tell you one thing, but you don't always get what you want. And I certainly didn't. It was like, this wasn't the deal. And the guy goes, you'll have more schools. Don't worry about it. The last school I went to was Machine Gun, 50-Cal Machine Gun School. That was it.

What was the shock of boot camp like? Actually, playing Bosco football wasn't, the boot camp wasn't a big deal. We had a coach that carried a baseball bat. And I remember since it was a Catholic school, he told us why God gave his heads. And that was to punish the other players. And they had this bat, and we had the cages, and he would smack you in the head with the bat, just so you understood what you're supposed to use your head for. And I remember we had a game, I think it was Venice.

and we were just brutal. We weren't brutal on purposes. That's the way we were trained to hit. And the principal wrote a letter to the school after the game, just trashing. We didn't cheat or anything. We played a straight game, but we laid people out. So Rincor Booneckham was perfectly fine.

Yeah, it was fine. You know, I had a couple of problems. Just understand. it because they really, my family served World War II, Korean War, and as you know, my son's all served in the Marine Corps other than Mike. But I didn't get it. I was like, I thought you'd go in and, you know, you get paid, I thought at least minimum wage, and all the military stuff. It just wasn't used to because my father was definitely, you don't get a lot of discipline. from a professional gambler.

So it was another world for me. The most discipline I got was at St. John Bosco. But I remember on payday, you'd go in, you get a little bit of money to get your soap and those type of things. And so they gave us instructions. They said, you go in there, you march in there, you make a right turn, then a left turn,

then you send yourself in front of the CO's desk. He will push a book in front of you. you look down and look at that paybook and you will say the pay is correct sir and look straight ahead so I'm thinking okay you know I do it perfect and I look down and I say $36 where's your military very for $36 for $36. So they finally got my attention and got me squared away. I was a private for quite a while. So the last school you went to was 50 Cal School, but they sent you to the Hilo School.

And then what year did you deploy to Vietnam? It was, let's see, I think I was 19. So it was 69 and got back in, yeah, 69, August 69, I think it was. Yeah, I think it was August 69. And how was the deployment? How did you get over there? Did you take a charter aircraft over there? Yeah, we took a, I think it was a Pan Am.

That was just a zoo. I mean, the officers were in front, and the Snopies were in the back. And you could just see it on those stewardesses faces, which one they wanted to be, front or the back. It was a long flight, and it was 16 hours. And we landed, the only, we landed once for fuel in Hawaii. And they literally wouldn't let us get off. And they had the guards out there.

I'm thinking, they passing the message to us or what? And then we finally got in and started sorting out where we were going to go. And I was really fortunate in the long run because, you know, how this works, You just, you're a number, and these guys will go here, and these guys will go here. And I just skated through the whole deal. I ended up in only going there for just a little bit, and then I was simply at Okinawa most of the time. And I started feeling guilty because, you know, my friends were over there, and then when they were coming back, some big changes. And it really broke my heart.

God, I feel so guilty. I was just there for a blink. So, you know how you're in this service, and you just don't understand how certain things happen. You know, it's like how a close friend, you know, will go, or some of them come back, and they just screwed up. And it reminded me in my dad, and that's why I didn't get my dad until I was in the Marine Corps,

and I realized. I would go to the hospital at Veterans Hospital when he was young and had these breakdowns, but I still couldn't get it through my head what was going on. Then after I saw the vets coming back in Okinawa, where you're getting cleaned up, ready to go, you realize there's some guys that really got hit hard mentally and physically too, but mentally is really something that just doesn't go away. What did your dad do in World War II? Was he in the Army?

Was the Marine Corps, Navy? My dad was, it's actually a super athlete. He was a Golden Love champion. He was the Fleet Naval champion. And back then there was a lot of, that's where all the men were. But he was in the Navy and he was on, I don't know what they call them like a pom-pom guns or something. They're on an air battleship and his job was to protect the aircraft or the planes from the aircraft carrier. And a friend of his was telling me, my dad was.

take it just bad if they hit those ships. He just thought he had to get everyone. And he says that if they were taking fire, he would stay right on that gun. Yeah, the films of the World War II, U.S. Navy, is, it's crazy to watch those things. It's crazy to watch those. And they have actually both sides.

You know, they have the Japanese that are coming in and drop bombs. You can watch those films as well. Yeah. Yeah. And he was in all the big ones, you know, the midway and all that stuff. And so it just mentally wiped them out. He would have these just go off on us. Yeah.

Yeah, it's, I don't think we're ever going to have a naval war like World War II again, where it's where the humans are at such a massive amount of pressure. I mean, of course, something the Navy can always go bad. I mean, if a vessel, I mean, you don't even need a war. No, things can happen. But that World War II from a naval war perspective is just, it's horrendous. I was talking with my friends the other day, even just being, even just firing those big guns, these guys didn't have hearing protection. You know, right now they're doing all these things with football and CTE and, and, and, uh,

you know, traumatic brain injury, the TBI. They tell us now in the SEAL teams, we shoot these rockets, Carl Gustav Rockets, and they like rock you. You know,

it's like you just got cracked in the head. Yeah. And now they're, we used to just sit down as a range safety officer. We just sit there out there and shoot those things all day long. And now they're saying you can only shoot three a day

and all this stuff. But can you imagine being like your dad on a, on a naval vessel with the, You're just getting concussion after concussion after concussion. It's ruthless. Ruthless. It's, I don't think people understand how they just take it for granted.

You know, you're 18, 19 years old and, or even the seals. You guys are in a firefight. And then next day you go into another one. You're looking at policemen who were in a firefight for a half hour and they retire. You know, and it's like these kids are out there, and they just get up and do it and do it and do it. My wife used to worry so much when we'd have these ceremonies and should meet the seals. And she used to just think, how much are they carrying around? How much baggage are they carrying around?

And it's just people just don't realize how it can just wipe a guy out, have those memories come back, and they just, take it for granted. Like you say, pros, they got this for them and that. And you got these young kids that are life and death situations carrying 100 pounds on their back, 100 and some degrees. And that's like they do it again the next day. And the next day. It's crazy. And the next day. This country doesn't understand what these guys go through. They don't appreciate it. So you get done with Vietnam, your deployment to Vietnam, you come home, and you're planning the whole time you're going to do your four years and punch out? Yeah, that was the plan.

And it was funny. We were gone for 13 months, and the world really goes fast. I remember my buddy, we were sitting on the car, we're going to go get some beer. I wasn't even old. I think I was 20. and anyway, I go in to get the beer. And so as I go to leave, I stop and I go, hey, wait a minute, I need a church key. And the guy goes, a church key back then is what you used to open up cans of beer.

Oh, I see right. Okay. So, yeah. So, and the guy's looking at me, and he goes, you don't need a church. How do you open up the beer then? And he goes like this. He pulls the beer out from under the, or a soda from under the counter. He goes like this.

He goes, you go like this. You know. Oh, so the new cans had come out. I go back to the car and the guys, I go check this out, guys. The guys go, whoa, where have we been? Yeah, I've had some guys on that were POWs in Vietnam. And, like, you want, you know, these are guys that got shot down in, like, 1965, 1966, 1967.

They come back in 1973. It is a whole new world. I mean, it was a whole new world for them. And even the year, like, I mean, you must have been gone 69. That the world changed a lot in that year. Oh, yeah. I mean, when we got back, they really hated us. I was stunned.

How many people hated us? And I'm thinking, what did we do? People just come out and insult us. You know, I remember. I was at the airport, and back then you had to fly on your uniforms. And it was not a good idea all the time. You were like targets. And I had a woman up in San Francisco just rush up to me, and she's got her children.

And she just hates me, and I don't even know her. And she says, how do you kill babies? And it's like, and I started thinking, why should I take her seriously? It's like, well, we try to give them a little bit more lead, you know, because they're I'm sure she appreciated it. Oh, she didn't appreciate it. But, you know, it's like how long do we keep taking it? Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, they, it was weird the way they treated us. Virginia, I think they had signs, dogs and Marines stay off the grass. And I thought, when are we going to learn this lesson? These guys are called. And now they volunteer to do something that nobody else wants to do. Now they're treating them a lot better, which I totally appreciate. No, they're definitely, it's definitely a different world for us coming home now. So what did you do when you got, what did you do when you got out?

I was totally drifting. I knew I wanted, I wanted to start a business, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to. When I was younger, I was learning the contracting business. I was like a human wheelbarrel, you know. I just, whatever they wanted, loaded up, that's what I would do. So I got into contracting and then went to school at night and built a business. I had a partner that I went with ever since elementary school. So we built it up to about 60 guys.

And then from there, I bought a woman store for my sister. who went through a divorce and figured she needed an income about a store for her. They really didn't make enough money, so I ended up with four stores in the malls, and then I decided I would start manufacturing clothes. So it just kind of worked that way, and then I got a 300-seat restaurant, bar, entertainment. and everything was working just great, living in a nice house, had the kids, wife's happy. So what year did you meet, Sally? I met her before I went overseas.

Okay. She was a car hop. I remember watching her, and I just love the way she looked on those slacks, you know. What's a car hop? A car hop is back in the day, you would pull up at a restaurant in the parking lot and the girls would come out, had little cowboy hats on and stuff, and they had the menus. So you eat right in your car. Oh, okay.

And this is where a lot of the young guys would hang out, hang out in their cars, and go out and check everybody's cars. And, you know, it was just a real social thing. And I remember she bends down to take the order, and I see her face, and it was just weird. It was like her front teeth were just kind of turned in a little bit. And it just, I don't know, I just loved her face. And we knew each other for five years, on and off. When I came back, she was engaged to get married.

But it was my fault because I thought that I was going to go. to Vietnam and the life expectancy was not good sitting behind a 50 cal in a helicopter. So I didn't want her to waste her time. So I says, you know, why don't you go ahead and see other people? You know, I am, you know, so, you know, good luck. And I come back and I find out she's engaged in there. I was like thinking. And then I bumped into her at a party and they just started over again.

And it was nice. So she broke off the engagement? Yeah. Nicely done, George. I've apologized to her for years. I'm so sorry. Okay, so you had, you're just basically an entrepreneur. You've got restaurants, you got clothing manufacturing, you've got a contract, you've got all kinds of stuff going on.

Yeah. And we had a couple of race horses, which was a lot of fun. And it was good. So you had Sarah first. Sarah and then we had Jim and then Michael and then Joe. Joe we almost had in the car. But that was funny. I got to the hospital and the emergency side.

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 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. And because we're on the slope, I'm trying to get her out and the door keeps closing. And then so I kind of moved myself around and then I got my hand on the wheelchair. And I finally get her in and she sits back and then the weight pushes the wheelchair back, So, question is my hand. My hand is now right there down onto the asphalt.

And I'm trying to get her back up so I can get my hand out. But it all worked out. We got her in there as soon as we got her up to the elevator. They were right there. They took her and they told me to change my clothes. I ran in and Joe was already born. I want to read a section here from the book. When Michael was born, 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 theirs, his matted dark hair, contrasting his fresh soft skin. George knew Michael was the right name for him. 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 can. them to eternity in hell. 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,

and after some time had passed, the pediatrician walked into their room. Mrs. Monsor, Michael has jaundice, which is why his skin 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. 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. That was Sally. The pediatrician thought for a few minutes, as he could see the unwavering determination in her eyes

and that she was adamant about not leaving him. Well, Mrs. Montser, 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. 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. 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. 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. Like the asthma? 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 brothers and his sisters, our sister, and they're just excelling. 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. He would always compete. He would just find a different way to compete. And again, look, this book is Defend Us in Battle. It's just an outstanding book. I'm reading small chunks of it, but the stories are just fantastic to read. This one, I must admit, I felt like I had to read this wood here. It says, as he grew older, Michael was often the target of bullying at school as well

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. Even in his youngest years, he was keenly aware of the injustice that took place. One afternoon when Michael was around 9 or 10, his father took him to the racetrack to scout out some future horse prospects as their family raced thoroughbreds at the time. When they arrived, George began to chat with the trainer and Michael ran off to play on the place at campground.

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 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. They taunted the younger kids George called Michael back to him and looked at his tears tear-filled eyes come here Mikey. I know those kids are being bullies but not every wrong is yours to write. There's not always justice in the world. Sometimes you just have to move on, George told Michael. Dad, what is justice? Michael asked. His curiosity perked on hearing the new word. Justice is getting or giving what is deserved, whether it's reward or punishment, Mikey. George responded to his son, whom he always called Mikey when it was just the two of them.

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. 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. George asked Michael to stay nearby him and wait for him. But as soon as George was speaking with the trainer, Michael shot off to the playground with fire in his eyes. Those same boys were again back on the swings taunting the younger children. Michael ran straight up to them from behind and ripped each boy out of their swing.

at a time. 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. He knew if he could get to the top, the 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. 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. This time with the biggest grin on his face and eyes sparkling with excessive. He knew he was safe with his father by his side and it executed his plan perfectly.

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. Dad, I think that's justice. Yeah, when I was looking at him smiling, I was thinking who was smiling the most? because there was just this a special day for me and I know he felt so good that he outsmarted the bullies

and he just, that was just the beginning on him and bullies. Yeah, that was like a sly move. You know, that was the thing about Mikey is he was quiet, but you could tell he was plotting. He was, yeah. He was plotting.

So that was like the beginning of him plotting. moves on people. Trying to figure something out. Yeah. So you were doing good. I mean, going back to just family businesses, all this stuff got going on. You're living in Anaheim Hills, which is a nice spot. Nice view of the city. Yeah. And then economy hit. Economy and the IRS. Ouch. 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. You had to abide by it. Well, I didn't owe them any money, and so I fought, and it was an eight-year battle. But that battle really wiped me out. And I won. I got a little piece of paper that says, George Monster versus the IRS pay nothing. I might have been better off just to write a material.

But I was young. I think I was 30 or something, 31. And so I just, you know, that's wrong. And I'm going to fight for it. And maybe I should have negotiated. But that kind of money, 600 plus penalties like $800,000. Back in the 70s, you're talking about buying $7 or $8 million houses in today's market. Yeah. So anyway, I fought.

and it really crushed us business-wise. And it was amazing, really, how strong our family was. 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. And it kind of struck me as like, I thought I'd feel bad about it. But it was just the money was gone. I still had my family and just work around it.

And I took, my income definitely changed. 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. And so I just did that until I put some deals together. And it took a while. And you moved from Anaheim Hills down to, this is when you moved down to Garden Grove? Yeah, and this area wasn't the best.

But it was a good experience for my kids. And because they would see when they'd come to the factory with me. Factory was down in L.A. And that was a pretty rough area. And they would see looking out the window at, you know, some of these people had it really tough. And we used to have a bear of a mess. man that would sleep in front of our, uh, uh, front of the door on the porch every night. And, uh, he would, he wouldn't say anything to me. It was more of a grunt all the time. And he

had probably had some mental problems. He was just a huge guy. And I asked him, I says, are you sleeping here every night? And it was just a kind of a grunt. Was this of your house? No, this was at the factory and down in LA. And so I thought to myself, a guy that had been, I got no problem with them sleeping here at night because it was a rough area. So I put blankets out for him. And he stayed there for years. Every morning I would come in, bring him a big breakfast burrito. He still hardly say anything grunts.

And he would roll up his blankets and disappear all day. And then in the evening he'd come back. And the kids were fascinated with this guy. They wanted to be his friend, but he wasn't buying it. But anyway, they kind of saw that world. Now we're in an area where it's just a little bit of everything. It was sprinkling of all kinds of nationalities, and it was a lower income area. And the kids were like, and from a nice high school with all their friends are wealthy.

They all go to Europe and all that stuff, which I didn't really like them around those kids all the time. because I didn't want them to think this is the way it is. I wanted to see the other side. So it was a good experience. And you've met my kids. You know they're good with whoever. 100%. They just roll with whatever.

And the whole family's that way. So it was good for them. Sarah wasn't thrilled with it. Sorry, Sarah. But she ended up, you know, being a leader on the basketball team and all of the kids to grade in. sports and and it was just all in all I think it was one of the best things that happened well we've got a I guess it's a some kind of mythological thing in my family that started with when I was growing up

at Christmas time apparently my mother's dad when Christmas would be coming he would tell everyone it's going to be a lean Christmas and so that's what my parents would tell us like hey it's going to be a Lee Christmas. 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. Like, we didn't have any money. I'd be telling my kids it's going to be a lean Christmas. And, you know, we get like, I remember, you know, we get used presents.

Yeah. And I mean, I got my kids got used presents all the time. Used surfboards, used toys. Everything was just used because it's going to be a lean Christmas. Yeah. But you got a story that might, that when you moved. I think it might have been the first Christmas down to Garda Grove where you guys didn't have any money.

You were looking at a lean Christmas. It was late. And you got a story here about Mikey who goes out and I think he cut down. Like you didn't even have a Christmas tree. The deal was you guys were going to do no presents. We were just going to have a nice dinner. And we just started to get back on our feet. And I had a deal fall apart on me at Christmas.

And so my money's tied up and I can't get it out. And I just said, look, we just moved into a house still in Garden Grove, but it was quite a step up. And Michael is one of those guys. He just kind of, okay? He's plodding. He's plodding. And so we wake up and we walk out and there's this Italian Cyprus sitting in a bucket of dirt. You put a little sparkly things on there.

There might even been some lights up. And there's a little presence around it. And we're all coming in. You know, he's sitting down, sit down, you know. And he's giving us presents. And the presents were hilarious. I still have the rocks he gave me. Sally kept the scarf that he got with those throwaways at the racetrack.

And the kids got like fingernail clippers or little. little knives and we just roared. It was just so funny in the way he presented them, you know, and you're looking at your kids and you're thinking, these are strong kids, you know, they get it and they just roll with the disappointments, but it was a great Christmas. And then I remember when we're leaving the house, I don't know where we're going to go, but go out and I look at, get in the car and you're looking at the front of the house. And it's that cypress. So you get two cypress on one side, you got a cypress on the other.

And neighbors are thinking, well, they're ever going to fix that? You know, no, it's a memory. I think it wasn't fixed until somebody else bought the house. And so everyone's playing sports, Mikey, end up playing hockey. How do you get into hockey? That's not the Southern California sport. No, but for him, if it rolls, anything that rolls or slides, it was just him. I don't know.

He was like, remember the first time he was on skates. It was like I'm looking at this guy. He's jumping over stuff. Once he starts moving, it's like in his head, well, maybe I can do this. Maybe I can do this. It's like when we got him a bike. Next thing, he's building ramps, you know, see how high he can go. Ramps break.

He crashes and burns. He gets right back up and builds another ramp. And hockey, yeah, it surprised me, but he was still smaller than the other kids. And his edge was really how fast he was on wheels. And he just really liked the sport. He got his contact, but because he was on wheels, he could really hit these guys too, and he was quick. So if they hit him, he could come back and he felt everything was equal. And he loved the game, yeah.

And then he also played football as well. Yeah, he loved football, but he was, you know, he just, he wasn't a big guy. But he had, you know, he was one of those guys had a lot of heart, always working. And he took it really serious. No one was going to run past him. He was the defensive end. And that was his territory. Even if he had to pull the guy's face mask, he was not going to go any place.

I remember he did it And he's double-teamed and I see his head reach out Grab his guy's face mask And I was sitting just right off in the bleachers He can see me and he looks at me like You gotta do what you gotta do not on my side You got a sectioned here You say Michael's team was getting pummeled by their

Counterpart Junior Varsity team which included some of the varsity players One by one the JV players on his team began to remove their helmets and quit Walking off the field and defeat and shame They were not willing to be hewere humiliated any longer in front of their family or friends during the Garden Grove football scrimmage. The clock sounded its horn, loud horn for halftime, and each team jogged to the respective locker rooms. As George sat by his old 64 Gold Riviera. I love that car.

Michael ended up with it for a while. And waited for the game to resume. Michael walked past his father with barely a glance in his direction. George watched curiously as Michael moved around in the front of the car and opened the passenger door to get in. George confused as to why Michael is not headed back to the field, looked directly at him. What happened, Mikey? Why are you here?

Michael looked up at his father, his whole demeanor ripe with disappointment as he fought back tears. Dad, they just quit. The referee canceled the game because too many of our players quit. Dad, why would they quit? We still had a chance. We could have won. Mikey, you guys were down by 50 points.

I know, Dad, but the game wasn't over yet. We had a chance. He hung his head trying to fathom what had just transpired as he quietly repeated to himself. They just quit. Quitting was not something the Monsors did. They were always taught to follow through. Yeah, we were.

I mean, I had, when they wanted to play a sport, before I put him in that sport, we always had the same conversation. You join this team, you're here until the season's over. Whether you like the coach, whether you play or not play, you do not quit.

So they were raised that way. You make that decision, because one of them is, is children to understand they make these decisions, then they have to live by them. And it's just short little tests, but it was important that they started understanding. You know, you just, on a whim, decided you want to play football.

So he was raised like you don't quit. And all those kids, it was hard on them because they were just getting wasted. I mean, there was no first downs. There was no completed pass. They were just totally outclass. But Michael always figures there's always a chance. And if he would have got one touchdown, he would have felt like we have our dignity.

So that's, he was just, he did not like, he didn't mind losing as much if he gave everything. But just to lose, that just wasn't Michael. He used to have a thing. He, a bunk bed, he was on the bottom and Joe was on the top. And even on his inside, when you woke up in the morning, there was a little message. You know, never quit. And he carried that for, you know, his whole life. Yeah.

He was a believer in once you said it, then live with it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You go on to say here, Michael's linehearted determination grew stronger as he grew older. He played as a defensive end for the Argonaut varsity football team while he's in high school and was known for being one of the hardest workers on the field. Asthma continued to challenge, Michael, but he was not going to let it dictate how he lived. Sally remembers how Santa Ana winds coming in from the mountains.

Each fall would affect Michael's breathing. One afternoon she opened the door to his bedroom to find him wheezing. She asked him why he wasn't using his inhaler. I'm weaning myself off it, Mom. Although unable to fully rid himself of the ailment, Michael would not let it stop him from accomplishing what he set out to achieve. So he's just freaking tough. He is.

He's very determined. And I think all the way he was treated, you know, when he was younger. Bullies just, they have a sense. There's the weak one. And he just made it his life not to be the weak one. I mean, I remember when he was in the sixth grade, he told me, he says, it's going to be over.

He says, this will stop. Oh, this is the bullying he's talking about? He says, this will stop. And he just determined to get stronger. And even verbally, I mean, people didn't realize, if you know him, that his tongue was sharp when he wasn't as strong because he would go the other way and he would embarrass them. I mean, he had a very good mind and he would just trash him. And they know that whatever they would do, he would take it. I've seen him take these hits knowing he'd come

back and say what happened. And, you know, maybe his brother would say, hey, those guys, you know, went after Mike because he went after them verbally. And, you know, he would fight. but he was just outgunned. But he never would back down, even though it was little. And he had to pay, you know, all of them had to have discipline. We had rules in the family. And if he wasn't buying the rule, he would literally just, okay, I'll take the two days in my bedroom or whatever. And our bedroom, those bedrooms didn't have TVs and video games.

But I never beef about it or anything. You just take his medicine. There you go. Yeah. So he's playing football. How are his grades in high school? Here's Michael. I don't know.

Michael, in the sixth grade, it was determined they had very high IQ. And it was determined because we had a meeting, and the teacher says he just doesn't do anything. He ignores me, and he doesn't do his homework. And he goes, and as a matter of fact, there's his backpack. He can take it home. And he goes and gets it, and he says, you might have to take this home. And in the backpack had all these papers in it.

So he opens it up. The teacher opens it up. And he's looking at all the homework he did and the tests he took. And he goes, he goes, you know, I think your kid's really pretty smart. And that's when they started putting him into the higher classes. And he was fine with it. But then he got towards the end of high school. board and I get a letter from the high school, a registered letter. It says your son is all

F's and he's not going to graduate. I bring him into the office and I say, you understand how this family works, right? I have my job. You have your job. Wait, what's the office? This is in your house? You have the office? This is where counseling takes place with the children? Well, I spent a lot of time in there praying that I had some money in the bank and I just keep looking at it. Now it's still the same. And I says, you know how this works? I says, you have a job. And the job is to get through school. That's your job. And I said, you got straight Fs. They're telling me that you will not graduate. How do you think that's going to play out with me? And I said, you know you won't be living here. And you don't do your job. You don't live here. You're gone. And he just smiles. He says, don't worry, Dad.

I got this. And boom. He turns it around, straight A's all the way up. And then he smiles and he goes, I thought I got it. There's something about him that when he's bored, then he made it harder just to, you know, test himself. And the things he did when he was young was always testing himself. He just, it was almost like, since I had race horses, it was like having a young horse that she didn't allow him to get out of the stall. And he just wanted to run and wanted to run.

Michael wanted to run. But he couldn't. He just didn't, wasn't strong enough. And once he got stronger, he just wanted to run. And he did. So, so he graduates from high school. What was his plan when he graduated from high school? Because he graduated in 99.

Yeah. And a couple years later. Yeah. So what was he doing in the meantime? His plan was to go into the military, but he wanted to have a good time before he went into the military. So he had a good time. And then I remember telling him, you know, the good time's over. It's time for you to make a decision.

Was Jim in the Marine Corps at this point? Or had Jim already gone in the Marines? You know, I can't remember. I think Jim was in the Marines. Yeah, he was in the Marines. Another one that doesn't say anything to his dad. Hey, Dad, I'm going to join the Marines. What do you mean you're going to join the Marines?

He was, well, I'm going in tomorrow. What? And I knew Michael was talking about going in. I had no idea that that's what. was his plan. In the book, it says that it sounds like you're the one that had kind of told them about the SEAL teams where he'd asked you about it. He'd asked me about it.

And I remember, because we would drop guys off and we do practice things and being in the Marines to do with Navy guys. And then we had our recon guys. So we do a lot of the same things. You know, recon? Everyone forgot about recond. Anyway, so he was fascinated with it. You know, like any young kid, he wanted to hear about these guys.

I had no idea what was going on in his head. And because he was so sickly, he's the last guy I thought that would be a seal. You know, and I always thought to myself, he's got a great mind. And he's going to be one of those eggheads, and I'm good with that. But his mind was not thinking that way. And I was really kind of taken back when I found out after he graduated from Navy boot camp. His instructor told me. His instructor told you that he was going to try and be a seal?

He says, you got a great son here. He goes, this guy is great and he's definitely seal material. And what? Is that the first time you knew that he was going to try and go to Buds or he was going to Buds? Yeah, he talked about seals, but it never really registered that he was serious about that. And, you know, we teased him anyway because he went into the Navy because we were all Marines, whole family, all over back to World War II Marines. And it was like, I was good with it, the Navy.

But then the seal thing just caught me like, you know, and I still remember he had that funny smile like, yeah. So he's in the Navy. He ends up at Buds. And Buds is what it is. And what it is is is freaking brutal. And I'm going to go to the book here. It was now late fall 2001. The days were shorter.

The air was cooler. Michael was exhausted and decided to head home for the weekend to get some much needed rest in the midst of vigorous training. A lot of people. People don't know this. When you're at Bud's basic seal training, people think you get locked away on some island somewhere. No, you basically work Monday through Friday and then weekends, you recover. Yeah. But if you want to recover by drinking, you can do it.

If you want to recover by laying in bed and icing your knees, you can do that too. It's kind of up to you. And Michael decided he's going to go home. So George knew something was wrong as soon as Michael returned home. Michael wasn't walking right. And as George looked down and his first. He could see why Michael socks were bloody and Michael was miserable. Michael, what are you doing?

You're not gonna make it like that. Dad, I'm not quitting. Michael, you can't even walk and your feet are a bloody mess. You're leaving footprints all over the kitchen floor. I'm not quitting. Michael bandaged up his feet as best he could and headed back to Coronado prepare for training the following day. The bandages did little to keep the sand out of the lesions on his feet.

And every step he took was like running sandpaper across the open sores, bringing excruciating pain. Both feet were an absolute mess, yet Michael pushed on. The pain continued to build and was not only draining him mentally, but rapidly slowed his pace, affecting his ability to perform the required evolutions. He was disgusted with what had begun to creep into his conscious thought. He hated to see weakness in others, but hated it even more in himself. With every pain-filled step, it became clearer. He was forced to acknowledge what he had tried to ignore the reality that he would not be able to continue. It was the 24th hour of the first day of hell week, the third week of the six-month pipeline, and regarded as the most challenging week of Bud's training cycle when students are expected to run upwards of 200 miles and are allowed to, loud only three to four hours of sleep the entire week.

Michael stood up and did what he thought he would never do. He walked over to the notorious bell affixed to a pillar directly in front of the first phase office and rang it three times alerting the whole, compound that he was finished. Michael made a left face, walked achingly down the sidewalk that was already lined with helmets of those who had not made it to this point. When he reached the end, he made one more left face, took off his helmet, and placed it next to the others. He had quit.

Dang. Devastated. I remember when he told me and it's just, I mean, his eyes were just filled with tears. I just could not believe that he quit. He just couldn't believe. And it was just so sad, and I didn't even have words. You know, I kind of didn't want him to be a seal. Well, I didn't want him to be a seal.

But I knew how much it meant to him, especially at that moment. I just really didn't, I just, I could remember how when they were kids, I would tell him, you know, it's your defeat and how do you come back from the defeat that's what makes you the man or the woman is the way you come back and i couldn't even remember that i was struck by he was just so sad and so the next morning uh he's up making some breakfast and uh he says remember when you say Yeah, I'm going to be a seal. And then it began. I mean, he was back on track and he was going to be a seal.

So he ends up getting state. And again, like the book has so many good details of all this. Eventually, he ends up getting stationed in Italy. Yeah. In Achi Treza. And immediately, and he's with a couple other guys that are in the same boat he is in. Yeah. And, man, that program's tough.

Even so they began training. They began getting ready. They're swimming. They're running. They're cliff jumping. Getting into some of this stuff here. For Michael and his friends, they were determined to push themselves as hard as necessary to train their bodies for the rigors of buds. They were getting a second shot.

They knew they were not about to blow it. They would do whatever it took to be ready this time around. Michael's most tremendous. experience thus far in life was ringing the bell and quitting buds and he would not be satisfied without a second chance to prove to himself that he could do it he told his younger brother joe that this second time around they would have to drag his dead body off the beach before he would quit and that does not surprise me with michael uh scared is you know you know jo like yeah that could be true dad uh got some good stories in here about

Italy, they're in Sicily, they got nightlife. Michael's buying vehicles. He buys a Russian truck. He buys a Lancia. You say this, Michael also pursed to Lancia, an incredibly fast car with all-wheel drive and used to cruise it all throughout Italy. The higher the speed, the better until one afternoon

when Ali, that's one of his buddies, got a call from Mike, he had crashed it racing an Audi. They were flying down the Sicily Highway when Mike hit a wet spot and lost control. Lanzia spun and slammed directly into the concrete divider wall. Luckily, he wasn't hurt and was able to get it towed back to his home, but it was not looking good for the car.

Ali drove over to Mike's apartment to see how he could help. First, he saw the car. It was totaled. Then he saw Mike beer in hand, steak on the grill and not a care in the world. It was good while it lasted, Mike said, with his signature smile. That is Michael. That is 100%. I mean, this is just another.

Mike got so many accidents in Italy. He opted to pay $200 a day for extra car. rental insurance just to cover these shenanigans. He liked freaking vehicles and cars and motorcycles. That might have been my fault. I had a motorcycle when I was a kid. And I remember Sal always would get on. And then I would drive a little crazy and she'd reach up into my shirt and pull my chest

nose out. But Mike, when he was little, we had a 64 GTO. Oh, man. And that thing. from a dead stop, you know, or just, it would just scream, you know, and Mike was just a little guy, and he'd hold on the handle over the glove box, and you'd just go, Dad, go. And I'd burn through those gears, you know, and fish tailing, and he's just in heaven, you know.

And then we had this long en route to the freeway where you could kind of see the freeway before you got on, and you had this long ramp. And so he knew I could do it there. would. So I just burned through the gears and cars, he can smell the smoke from the tires. He's just a huge smile. We're going 100 miles an hour. It's like about half of that, give or take 50, you know, and he just loved the acceleration. And I didn't realize that it would have such an effect because he loved fast stuff. Yeah. And he just, he just, just did.

Yeah, including Lancy's. Yeah, so if parents read this, it's a great book for your children except for, you know, that kid slow it down a little bit. That might have been a mistake on my part. Fast forward a little bit here. It says, as the two years came to an end as he inch closer to heading back to Coronado for a second shot at buds. Michael felt strong and ready.

Michael still contended with his severe asthma, which caused him to be rarely without his inhaler. but he would not concede to this ailment in any shape or form. One afternoon as Chris, that's another one of his buddies talks about, and Mike ran side by side on one of their last hard runs. Mike pushed himself harder and harder to beat his friend Chris. As Chris pulled ahead, it pissed off Mike. He pissed off Mike grabbed his inhaler,

chucked it across the road and sprinted until he beat Chris and finished the run. That was the last time Chris ever saw Mike use his inhaler. He didn't have room for weakness. It was all or nothing this time around. He was mentally ready for Buds. It was like, bring it. I mean, and it sounds like his attitude going in, obviously, you know what to expect. You don't want to make that mistake.

Although one of my roommates was a former Bud's quitter. And he was back again. And I was like, well, you know, he's probably going to, he's a little older, you know, kind of. I was thinking, hey, you know, you. know he's guys going to be good to go. But sure enough, first night of hell week, he quit. So there's still no guarantee. It's what you change in your brain.

Yeah. And he was more prepared. I remember, I think the last thing I said to him when he left was, watch the sand. Because that really destroyed me. He just didn't take care of himself that first time around. So he was definitely determined. He was in good shape.

And mentally, he was determined. Yeah, he had a friend named Gabe Lynch. Yeah. And this kid was like an Oregon farm boy. So you had like the California kid. Yeah. They had some pretty good experiences that they talk about in the book, that you guys talk about in the book.

It says, Gabe and Michael were both part of boat crew three. They were close in height standing just around six foot one. Gabe recalls how Mike was always one to brighten the mood of the guys during the often exhausting days of being beaten by the ocean. surf while wet and sandy all day long. Gabe was the slower runner between the two of them. And he remembers Mike hanging out in the back with him as they would push through their four-mile timed runs. He would encourage Gabe then sprint back up to the front and finish easily in the

top tier of runners every time. That was the kind of guy Mike was always looking out for his buddies. He could see who needed a word of encouragement or action of support and would deliver it at just the right time. Sometimes that's all it took when a guy was delirious running on a few hours asleep for days on end. Even though Michael had not yet made it and become part of the Seal Brotherhood, Brotherhood itself was something he already understood in the depths of his core. He was not going to let his friends down. And he was always that way. When he was a little kid, when we were living in that other neighborhood, it was pretty poor. It wasn't uncommon for him to Christmas gifts and give him away to his friends. I'd see his friends playing with the gifts.

If you were his friend, and if you speak to his friends, they will say that he truly was a true friend and he was always on their side. And that's just the way he was. So the brotherhood was perfect for Michael. It was a perfect place. Yeah. The quick scene from Hell Week. just because this this sounded like Mikey, man. With paddles in hand, they begin to row in unison. They had just taken the first few strokes

in an evolution aptly named around the world, which entails paddling their small boats from San Diego Bay north through the channel around the tip of Coronado Island back to Bud's Beach and staggering 13 miles. As they paddled, Gabe couldn't hold back any longer. He started to doze off. And without missing a beat, Michael shouted over

to him from his side of the boat. Hey man, I love you, bro, but you need to wake up. That's all it took for to jar gave back to consciousness and help him focus. They end up secure in Hell Week. They lost about 75% of their people. Obviously, Michael made it.

It's just created Ray Baviera, another guy from Taskingi to Bruiser. It was the LPO of their Buds class. They're getting ready to go out to San Clement Island, is the third phase of training. It's the last phase of training. And before going out there, Michael planned a little boat trip.

And again, again, I'm going to fast forward to this part just because it's funny to read about it. Michael, being an avid adventure, had planned a spearfishing trip and brought Gabe and another buddy of theirs, Chris Kimbrell from their buds class along for the weekend.

Gabe knew how to spearfish like Mike, and they were naturals in the water. But for Chris, a Midwest landlocked boy, this escapade was not his forte. He was ready to go for it, though, and couldn't wait to see what the picturesque island had to offer. Chris was one of the first all suited up and couldn't wait to get going. Before Gabe had even dropped the anchor, Chris jumped in the water to see what he could find. Moments later, he burst through the surface, proudly holding up his spear.

There on the end of his six-foot Hawaiian sling flopped a beautiful orange fish. Chris yelled in triumph. Michael immediately dove to the water, tackling Chris, as he pulled. the spear from his hand. That's a, that's a Garibaldi. The state fish of California, it's super illegal to hunt, dude. Michael yelled at Chris.

There were other fishing boats all around. Anyone that could have seen the fish that Chris had on the end of his sling. Michael quickly snatched the fish from the tip of the spear and dove to the bottom. He found a large rock and wish. So that's just like classic. Poor Chris Cribbel,

Chris Cribble, who's, you know, a landlock guy. He didn't know. He didn't know. He's like, Look what I got. Yeah, this Garibaldi are everywhere. You see him.

You're like, oh, this is easy hunt. Oh, that's classic. Third phase, the last remaining block, again, fast forwarded. The last block before graduating Buds entailed instruction on seal weapons and tactics. Lasting around eight to ten weeks, the students covered land navigation, land warfare, ambushes and raids, patrolling, weapons handling, and marksmanship and demolition. Michael and his classmates were on San Clement Island focusing specifically on raids, ambushes and demolition. San Clemente.

Island is a rocky volcanic island off the coast of California with hardly any trees. Lots of cactus, no natural freshwater full of caves and caverns formed by gas bubbles in the lava when the island was molten mass as the men focused specifically on ambushes and raids, Ray Baviera, who continued as Michael's squad LPO through third phase recalls how Michael would find a way to make light throughout the arduous and non-stop evolutions, bringing humor to any situation, brightening anyone's move mood and that's something that everybody's everybody says that about Mike's like no matter what's going on he's just going to be sitting there put everybody back in a good mood 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 the seeing these guys are going on tilt, you know, and, you know, our family does that, you know, a little quip, this and that, you know, and he's always done that when things get real serious, and it kind of brings people down. So it says third phase was coming to close just a few weeks later, and as the men prepared to graduate, they were discussing what gift to give the command in their memory. They all wanted to leave something in their name from Bud's class 250 that was immovable and unique. They decided to give basic training command an enormous boulder with their names engraved upon it.

Now the class had to figure out how to track down a boulder, engrave it, and have it delivered to the command. Ray's wife, Maria, was back home in San Diego and took care of the logistics. What began as an idea quickly escalated into a four-ton boulder that would have to be delivered by a crane who would end up costing $7,000 in change. Each guy was given the option to back out after the final pricing was determined and not one guy did. They were all in this together. What the final gift became was something none of the Bud students would forget. And their memory forever lives on etched into the boulder that was engraved with the following words. The actions of the few dictate the fate of many by Alexander the Great.

And it also says the secret to buds is underneath this rock. So Bud's classes give gifts. two buds and depending on the class and what they do some of the some of the gifts are pretty awesome some of them are pretty lame yeah uh i think my gas class gave a pretty lame we gave a like a little speaking podium that's beautiful yeah the story behind it was one of the instructors was up at the podium talking to us and as he was talking to us he got mad and he smashed his hands down on the podium and the thing like exploded it like broke apart in all these pieces and he started yelling and we all go hit the surf and so we like had this special one made and the

funny part about that story is years later I I saw that guy the guy that had smashed his podium and it exploded like he was the incredible Hulk and I said he was a master chief by this time and I go hey master chief he's like hmm and I go win because he was a hard dude I go when my class was going through and you were the dive phase chief I said you smashed your hands on this podium and it like exploded I said was that like a was that like a set was like a trick thing and he looks at me and he goes negative it was oak reinforced I was like okay so people give these various different gifts and people give some some stuff's really cool probably the most famous one is the the the

from the Black Lagoon. It's a life-sized statue of the creature of the Black Lagoon, and it says, so you want to be a frogman, a little sign hung on it. But this was an awesome gift. It's this massive, freaking rock. Yeah, it's going to be there for a while. Oh, it's not going anywhere.

And so that's what they gave. I didn't see that until Ray showed it to Jimmy. We were invited to watch Hell Week with the seals. We watched it from on top of a roof on one of the buildings. And then I feel so sorry for those guys. It was like those poor guys. People should just see that. And these guys are doing it because they want to do it.

It's just amazing what they go through. But after that, then he showed me the rock. I knew it was there, but I never really, you know, I just, yeah, there's a rock, you know. And then it went over and showed me. And it was nice. And I could see where they were rubbing on the names. And obviously they were rubbing a lot on Michael, so it was kind of nice. It's awesome.

And it's in a really prominent spot. It's like as you leave the compound to go to the beach or come back, you go right by the rock. Michael graduated buds on September 2nd, 2004, back on Coronado Island, California. The graduation day was memorable for all the men stood proudly in their clean, crisp, dressed uniforms, and each weighted anticipation for their name to be called across the compound, a giant, Crane labored with a four-ton boulder carefully placed in a large rock in the much deliberated position Where its weight could not would not crush the buried utilities below it Michael's parents George and Sally as well as three siblings Jim Sarah and Joe

We're in attendance to celebrate the achievement George recalls the smile on Michael's face as he walked up to embrace him Fall in the ceremony He had this look on his eyes that seemed to say to me dad. I hope you didn't doubt me I told you I was gonna do this and I did it I told you so I loved seeing him like that again gave me so much joy. I never wanted him to join the SEALs, but I was so proud to be proved wrong by my son. I love it when my kids proved me wrong,

because it's kind of a challenge. I don't think you can really do that, you know. I don't know if you could do that. And I love it when they come to me and say, I did it. And you don't know nothing. And I mean, I'm sure they catch on, but to see my kids stick to something,

all of them, and then they accomplish it. It's just, you know, you feel great. How did you feel when he got through Hell Week the second time? You must have been like, okay. Thank God. Yeah, it was funny. I kind of, though his attitude, I really would have been surprised if he didn't.

Because he had these friends too. And once he makes these friendships, he's going to be with them and push them through. So I just I really I would have been more surprised if he didn't make it. Yeah, that's the wild thing. I mean, you start out with a couple hundred kids in your class. They're quitting so fast that they're just, you don't even know what's happening. And so you got to be a little bit careful because if you don't, if you get to know someone kind of while you're there and all of a sudden they quit. Yeah.

That all of a sudden you go, I'm alone. So for him to have some good friends rolling in there It's definitely nice and yeah Got another guy here Michael and Z went through all of buds together They graduated buds basic airborne seal qualification training Now assigned to seal team three Z to Echo Patoon and Mike to Delta Patoon

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 living life to the fullest. He was renting this house in Mission Bay, while the new guys, like myself, lived in one-bedroom, small one-bedroom apartment, said Z, laughing. A motorcycle and a stellar pal pad were not the only things Mike. set of 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-06. 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 just be like, hey, listen, don't go buy a Corvette. Don't go buy a Ford 350 Super Duty Harley-Davidson. Don't do that. It's hard to talk about it. I know, especially with the junkers that Mike had. So he's got that. Mike was living the dream in Southern California,

but he also understood his team was on short fuse to surge into combat areas in the Middle East. He knew the coming months would include a fire hose of information and intense training. His platoon was going to war and how fast he learned and integrated into a platoon and his role could mean all the difference. Yeah, he took that real serious.

When he was home, he was studying. He definitely got to the point where I do not want to make a mistake. I mean, it was like he really wanted to make sure that he was on it. Yeah, and it was so long ago for me. Like when you're a new guy, there is so much stuff to know. And you don't want to make a mistake. Everyone's watching you. And you just want to do good.

and you're going to be counted on. You know, these guys are going to be counting on you. So, and we also had a condensed workup because at the time the war was hot and heavy. This is now 2005 going into 2006. The, used to be 18 months to train and get ready to go on deployment. Well, for us, it was six months. Or sorry, 12 months.

Boom, and you're out the door. So they, it was, everything was compressed. And there was a lot of stuff being, being forced down the throats of everybody. and yeah there's a there's a story in here about the the Roger that which which so I'm I'm talking the new guys and it was a particular block of training where it's close quarters combat the instructors are it's live fire and close quarters which means you're shooting right next to guys right you know you're two feet from someone you're shooting 12 inches off their muzzle it is tight quarters it's super dangerous and so you've got to be heads up and the instructors have to be really hard to make sure that you don't mess anything up. And so I took the new guys and said, listen, when you're going through this block of training, those instructors tell you something. Your response is, Roger that.

I don't want to hear like, well, I was thinking this or I could have done where I didn't see, no, does you don't say any of that? When the instructors talk to you, you say, Roger that. And so we're going through this training. And as we're going through this training, you know, I'm friends with all the instructors. because all the instructors are like, all we're all friends, but the new guys don't really know him that well.

But finally one of the instructors, who's at Master Chief, he comes up, and he goes, hey, Janko, what's up with this Monsor guy? And I was kind of, I didn't really know something was wrong. And I go, what do you mean? Mike, he's good to go. He's like, well, what's up with his attitude? And I go, what do he mean?

What's wrong with his attitude? And he goes, every time I tell him something, or one of the instructors tell him, all he does look up at us and say, Roger that. That's all he says. 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 in the Humvees. And we're going through the block of training with Humvees. and 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. And, you know, Mikey's up there and I'm the vehicle commander. So I'm sitting in the passenger seat and he's up there. And like we get to our first time doing it. And we come up to an intersection and he's like, clear right. I could barely hear him, you know. And I look down at him. I look up and I kind of hit him on the leg.

I was like, hey man, you got to sound off. And he's like, he goes, Roger that. Next intersection, we pull up to it. And he's like, clear right. Super overcompensating. And I thought to myself, hold on a second. Yeah. Is he being a wise ass or, and then we pull up the next intersection.

Clear right. And here's the thing. He wasn't being a wise ass. I told him to freaking sound off. If you want it, you will get it. I got it. 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 Workup was land warfare at an island California By the salt and sea with a hundred 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 workup 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 weapons systems of the seal 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 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 Nyland 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. So it's, there's like a little gang mentality going on and part of it is like you're going to fight each other sometimes. Yeah. So they're having some boxing matches and I'm using that term very loosely. Yeah. They're not professionals. These are not professionals, but they'll set up like a tournament and generally or oftentimes it's just the new guys have to fight each other so this is going down and it says it says here it came down to mike the last standing new guy from delta so untasking a pruages there's two two platoons charlie and delta it came down to the last standing new guy in delta which was mike versus kevin lace the final remaining new guy in charlie kevin was huge a 225 pound tower of muscle loomed over most team guys and

At a height of six foot three. Mike was much smaller and more slender, but he wouldn't give up. He was a lean, scrappy dude, recalled Kevin. I remember hitting him as hard as I could, but there was no shaking him. We had no boxing form. We were street fighting at that point with boxing gloves on. I looked at him, and it seemed as if his eyes were crossed, and I continued to hit him over and over again, but he wouldn't stop.

He returned blow after blow right back. We got so into it that I'm sure we were both seeing red, but each of us refused to back down. Both platoons cheered and taunted as each man hit the other over and over again, clad in only their boots and camo pants. The two men continued to brawl. Neither could defeat the other. And in the end, the older men called it a tie. Kevin had hugged Mike once they stopped and cooled down.

You're a tough son of a bitch, Mike, Kevin said, laughing. Yeah. And Kevin Lace is just like a giant dude. Thick. And there's Mikey. And Mikey, he got jacked later, but at this point, just coming out of buds, he was pretty lean still. Yeah. Even though.

Oh, yeah, he was. Yeah. There wasn't, he wasn't a real big guy when he just got out. He was definitely lean, though. Yeah. Endurance-wise, a guy could go for a long time. But mentally, I'm not surprised that he hung in there because he went through those mental things as a kid, people messing with him and stuff. Mentally, he was just really very strong.

Yeah. Yeah. So we, that's what we're doing. We're going through this workup. We do land warfare. We do mobility. We do close quarters combat. We do urban warfare at Fort Knox.

We used to do it at Fort Knox. We do diving. We do jumping. We do a bunch of stuff back in San Diego. And we're working hard. That's what we're doing. And we actually at the beginning of our training cycle, we, We, as task unit, Bruiser, didn't know where we were deploying to.

No. Because there was three task units. One of them had already been designated to go to Iraq because they went to the Pacific. The last time. So it was between my task unit and another task unit to see who was going to go to Iraq. Of course, everybody wants to go to Iraq. Everybody wants to go fight. The other one, the platoon's going to do a different mission, but it's not fighting.

It was the Philippines, I think. It was. Because I said to Mike, I says, well, maybe you get lucky and go the philipzig. Philippines, he looked at me like you poor pathetic old man. No. Yeah, exactly. So no one wants to go to the Philippines. No one wants to go to the Southeast Asia.

Everyone wants to go to Iraq. And it's basically the commanding officer is going to pick. And we pushed hard. And we were supposed to go to Baghdad. Our original deployment was to go to Baghdad. And there was a mission in Baghdad. That was working directly with this group called the Iraqi counterterrorism force the ICTF Iraqi counterterror these are local I mean Iraqi guys and they had been really well trained they're probably the best well the best trained of all Iraqi troops they had really nice gear they had uniforms like they had everything and there was a there was a group of seals with them and there's a group of army army special forces guys all working with these Iraqis and I actually went on a pre-deployment

site survey, we call it. I went before we went on deployment to go and meet up with those guys, see what the mission was like, get a heads up on everything. Because that's where we were going, going to Baghdad. So I come back from that, we're prepared, we know what our mission is, and where everyone goes on pre-deployment leave. So everyone goes, you know, like, hey, we're okay, we're going on deployment soon. And that's when we got the whole deployment changed around.

and my commanding officer calls me in and he's like hey you're not you guys aren't going to Baghdad anymore you guys are going to go to Ramadi and well Ramadi we knew Ramadi was the worst place in Iraq

and everybody wanted to go there just like everyone wanted to go to Iraq well everyone wanted to go to Ramadi I mean the commanding officer said it to me like I was going to be sad now the the mission in Baghdad was a cool mission too and it was kind of all set up and running so it was kind of is like ready made like

you know what you're going to be doing ramadi was kind of the wild west still but when he he said it to me he was making it seem like he needed to convince me that hey this is what this is what's going to happen you know are you okay with that and I was like I realized the kind of the tone of his voice I's kind of like well you know sir I'm going to need some more people I'm going to need some more gear stuff out of play yeah but he was great and And then we reshuffled and we reshuffled and got ready to go. And I don't even, I don't think I even, I think, I don't even think we notified the guys because everyone was on leave and you couldn't tell them like on a, in a, on a non-secure net,

like, hey, we're going to Ramadi now. Like, it's classified. So it was the day everyone came back. We had another week or whatever. It's like, hey, everyone, we're not going to Baghdad anymore. We're going to Ramadi. And the guys were ecstatic. They're ecstatic.

And some of the stuff you cover in the book, Sarah and Sally come down to help Mikey pack up all this stuff. He takes his mom for a little ride in the Corvette. Got to read about that one. He did it on the motorcycle, too. But she was used to the bike with me. when I used to take a car on my bike so he was kind of disappointed

because she didn't get scared no she was a nice ride monkey have a nice day and be careful he goes up to Garden Grove spent the last couple days up there and I'm going to read this the time had come George and Michael awoke early in the morning

and drove back down the I-5 south to San Diego the trip seemed to pass much faster than either would have liked once they arrived in Coronado George gave his son a big final hug as he said goodbye with a kiss on the cheek. George felt a knot deep down in his stomach, but he refused to acknowledge it. The idea that this could be the last time he saw his son

was not something he wanted to think about. As George drove home, he recalled an evening with his son from two weeks prior. He lit up a Fuente cigar for Michael and himself on their front porch. They sat together in silence amid the cool air under the dark sky

while smoke slowly drifted in the light breeze. George's voice broke the silence to address what they were both thinking. Mikey, what if something happens to you? It's not exactly a walk in the park over in Ramadi right now. Please don't be a hero. Just do your job. Dad, no matter what happens, I have no regrets.

This reassurance from Michael helped, but George still did not want Mike to go. As a Marine vet, George saw firsthand what Ward did to all of those involved, and he despised it. He knew it was unforgiving and brutal and how he was. could degrade and break the spirit. He also knew that Mike had been trained well by men who understood what he could be facing. This brought some consolation to George. As they finished their cigars together that night, George and Mike, George looked at Mike and the man he had become. He was so proud of him from a determined little boy who fought against the injustice of bullies

and his own physical weakness of asthma. He persevered and overcame failure, adversity, and blocks of training he despised, such as free fall parachuting in communication school, all with focused conviction, and often a mischievous smile on his face. He definitely surprised me at that age, his maturity, and he knew who he was. He talked to kids at his age in their early 20s and stuff like that, and they're still lost. He had his morals. he had his beliefs

he's pretty rock solid and if there was things that he didn't like I remember like jumping out of the planes I used to do that too and he talked to me about it and then he says I don't like this I don't like it at all

and he says when he came back he planned on just doing that because anything that he was afraid of he would just keep doing it and doing it until he owned it and that's just the way he was and he didn't like communication school no it was hard and he was studying all the time

he says god I can't screw this up yeah yeah going to the book Mike loaded up his gear and followed his teammates to the waiting C-17 aircraft a C-17 multi-purpose aircraft can be configured for transport of troops cargo or a combination of both

this last configuration is often how special operations unit travel due to small footprint and nature of their mission sets to you bruiser was no exception and as soon as the aircraft was at altitude michael and his friends broke out their nylon hammocks and ground pads and settled in for the long flight taskinga brusier landed out to katum airport in iraq where they began to prepare for a short flight west to ramadi after the c-17 was unloaded each operator opened his war box and donned his combat equipment Michael had done this hundreds of times throughout workup and his prior training trips. This time was different. This was not training.

His enemy was now hardened war fighters whose will and resolve would be used to exploit weakness in order to win the war. It says here in the spring of 2006, the Battle of Ramadi was just beginning and it was already intense. The city was arguably the epicenter of the insurgency in Iraq and known throughout the area as the, the most dangerous city in the world, wrote Lafab and the officer in command of Charlie Batoon task unit bruiser. The al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi, declared during that time that Ramadi would be the capital of his envisioned Islamic caliphate in Iraq. Insurgents controlled over two-thirds of the city itself, and certain areas were nearly

impenetrable to United States and Iraqi security forces. U.S. Marines and army soldiers that were currently over there, battled continually with large groups of well-armed and well-organized enemy fighters. So far, 93 U.S. service members had been killed in action, and hundreds more were wounded in nearly 15 months of fighting. You remember Michael Fuente, I think his name was? Yep. He was telling me that the media would not even cover that. He was the only guy.

He says they were just blowing those guys away and nobody would go. the media so my previous deployment was in bagdad there was like hotels with CNN and you know all the news set up yeah Ramadi there wasn't anybody no there wasn't anybody and you know I just I just had a guy on the podcast named David Belavilla he's a medal of honor recipient from Fallujah um he was in the the second battle of Fallujah when the Marines pushed through. And he's one of the few people that did go to Ramadi as a reporter, as a journalist. And we're sitting here. You know his story.

You know about the second Battle of Fallujah. It was a brutal fighting. And David Belavia sits here and says, oh, Ramadi was way worse, which, look, I'm not trying to compare the two. No, but they were both. Yeah. But they were both. That story, those stories, yeah.

I definitely felt so bad for those Marines, you know, and then, Marmadi, like I, yeah. Michael would tell me that I told the family that he was just teaching the guys how March. Yeah. Yeah, but we could see the news every once in a while, you know. Or when the pictures came out on the Internet, you know, uh, Fuente when he had those, uh, pictures out. He was out there taking pictures.

And we saw him on the internet and it's like, um, is that Mikey? That doesn't look like you're training people how to march. Yeah, I don't see anybody marching. Not other than some guys, then they're not marching. They're running. They're running. They're running. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, so it was basically on as soon as we got there, you know, the one of the indicators of that. that was the couple days after so I'd I'd already been there for a little while with a few of the guys just we were we got there before the rest of the task unit but as soon as the whole task unit was there within a day I think it was like the night they got there we had like a little attack on our base and we end up the whole freaking task units on the roof of our building lighten up and engaging you know the enemy fighters out there and it was like a Okay, that's what it is. That's how it's going to be. Almost within a couple days of being there, I was going to meet the brigade commander, a guy named Colonel Gronsky.

And I was literally walking in to meet him. And as I'm walking in to meet him, we had already put out a sniper overwatch position. And Tony Afratti, the Charlie platoon chief, had shot and killed an IED in placer. in an area where the Marines had just hit a big IED and lost a bunch of guys. And as soon as that happened,

Colonel Gronsky looked at me. I mean, so that's how I meet him. He says, I think your guys just killed an IED in place or where I just lost Marines. Hey, Roger that, sir. He says, we need you out in Eastern Ramadi. Place called them a lob, out correct, Corregador.

And I said, Roger that, you know. And that's what we did as soon as, so as soon as I get back, we plan, all right, they need us in Eastern Ramadi. And I took probably two thirds of the task unit over to Camp Corregador, where the first of the 506 is. Again, as soon as we get, look, we've been on the ground for like a couple days. Now maybe it's been like six days and we're over there. We get to Camp Corregador.

The snipers are like, hey, can we get in the towers? Because there's towers around Camp Corrigador. I'm like, absolutely. Tell the army guys, are you good with us putting snipers? Colonel Clarks, absolutely. They start killing guys almost immediately. Um, enemy rocket teams, mortar teams, IED emplacers. Um, and at the same time where we're out at Camp Corregador for a couple days, the living

conditions are terrible out there. Living the life. It was like dirt floors. There's mosquitoes. Uh, you know, they're getting mortared, indirect fire on a regular basis. Just, just, just, it was just freaking horrible. No showers. Just, it was horrible.

And so we do this initial. mission out there and we come back to the bigger base and the army's like, hey, thank you for coming. Can we can you keep working with us? As a matter of fact, they're a company commander. These guys went out on patrol and this company commander with an army company commander, he comes back after his first patrol with my guys and I walk with him to the battalion commander and he tells the battalion commander, I don't want to do another patrol without seals with me. I want seals on every patrol. So Colonel Clark's looking at me like, hey, can you get some guys out here?

I said, let me sort it out. So now I'm talking to Seth. And, you know, Seth's like, hey, I want to pick the guys to go back out there. Because however it all shook out, Seth was the opportune guy or the, he had the, the, Laif had already been assigned a guy. This guy had already been assigned Iraqi troops to work with. Another guy been assigned Iraqi troops to work with. I think Seth's, the Iraqi troops Seth was supposed to work with originally quit.

Like they didn't show up. And so Seth was the guy that had the capacity. So I said, all right, you're going to go out to Camp Corregor. And he says, I just want to pick the guys I want to take. And I said, hey, man, it sucks out there. I said, how about we do this? Let's put a volunteer list up. And if anybody wants to go back out there, then you can get volunteers.

That way you're not forcing it down their throats. And says like, all right, so bring the task unit together. And I'm like, all right, guys, you all just came back from Camp Corregador. We're going to send an element out there for deployment. All I can tell you is it's going to suck. The living conditions are awful. The level of violence is extremely high, as you all saw. And if you want to go back there, then put your name on this list on the whiteboard.

And I walked out of the room and I came back 15 minutes later and everybody's name was on the list, including Michael's. Which meant that Seth got what he wanted, which was he just got to pick his guys. Yeah. And Mikey was one of the guys. There's no question he was going with Seth. Yeah, that would have surprised me if he didn't. Yeah. There was a, you know, Seth and Tommy D.

and Mikey were real tight. So I knew that those three were going to stick together. So he didn't care. Seth was a little shocked at Michael's decorating. I remember when he got back. He was telling me about his pad. Oh, yeah. Well, that's the good news is.

The good news is once they got over there and settled in, and we'll get to that part, but they eventually squared away, which seals are really good at, we've got some rough living, we'll fix it up. but so they end up taking this small element of guys out there to go to camp cragador move in there working with the first of the 506 the band of brothers which was awesome and they get settled into this operational tempo and settled into really what it is that they're going to be doing there and I'll just example of this they get settled into what they're

doing there, get settled into the combat operations, and real quickly, we go to the book here. The Army captain sat peacefully in silence in one of the only places set apart from the chaos and violence that was now Ramadi Iraq. He was a little old for the rank of captain, but that was not uncommon for a person with his specific duties in the military. He had spent years in formation and training and was now here in the thick of battle in Ramadi. The quiet was broken by a firm knock at the door. The man rose from his seat and moved to receive it. He opened the door to find a tall, brown-eyed, dark-haired young man patiently waiting. Are you a Catholic priest? I am, replied Father Halliday. Nice to meet you. I am a Catholic, and my name is Michael Monsor. I'd like to go to confession.

Father Halliday grabbed his stole and motioned Michael to follow him. Father Halliday was 40 years old at the time of his deployment to Ramadi and was an army chaplain with the first of the 506. His main mission was to assist the soldiers of Camp Corregador to worship according to their own religion and preference, but was an ordained Catholic priest and was happy to oblige Michael's request for confession. They sat down in the makeshift chapel. Michael had just arrived in Ramadi, and Father Halliday understood well the situation the men were facing on a daily basis. He thought it showed significant religious formation and conviction for Michael to seek him out after only recently arriving in Ramadi. Yeah, Michael, he took his face.

serious and he also, I mean, he knew he was in a place where he could lose his life and he wanted to be prepared everywhere, spiritually, physically, mentally. Yeah, and the, I mean, the fighting was, it was sustained urban combat and I mean, guys were getting wounded or killed just about every day. And the first of the 506, I mean, Charlie Company, the first of the 506, who Mikey spent a lot of time working with, they had had like a third of their company casualties in four or five months. So 50 guys, they were down. Not all of them were killed, but it was, it was, it was a war. Yeah. when we were in Fort Campbell

and their commander brought in some of the guys that worked with Michael in their stories and it's like you start realizing how many people they did lose and just how tough it was and I remember Sally breaking down hearing some of those stories

and thinking about Michael so it was people just don't get it how tough it was over there. Some of what they were experiencing here. They were in the middle of intense firefights on almost daily basis. The operating tempo, they were facing required hyper-focus and the guys completely undeterred, stepped up and went to work. We asked a lot of our guys, especially with the numbers of missions we were conducting while facing extreme heat, dehydration,

and exhaustion. It didn't phase them. They all stepped up and performed. Mike Sorrelli said, there were army and marine units also stationed in Ramadi that the seals were provided. providing assistance to and one of the large army battalions being the first of the 506. This was the descendant from the band of brothers from World War II. The battalion was huge and led by Lieutenant Colonel Ron Clark. His men more professional, talented, and worked incredibly well with the seals. Michael's troop commander, Lieutenant Commander Jaka Willink had instructed his men to use army, to use the army's uniform. A tricolor gray digital pattern called Army Combat Uniform or ACUs.

It was very different from the tri-colored desert naval special warfare uniform. The men wore it and even shaved their heads to match their army brethren. 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.

Yeah. 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. And it's like you're trying to set yourself apart. And we didn't want to do that. How often does that happen? We're, uh, I see you guys working with the Marines, but working with the army. Is that something that's, uh, uh,

unusual or not unusual? I would say it's not, it's not unusual. To this, to this amount on this, this much of a relationship working all the time, is a little less common. But, I mean, that whole deployment was, we didn't do any missions. Well, we did barely any missions

where we weren't with an Army or Marine Corps unit or at least adjacent to them. I mean, we were definitely adjacent to them. but yeah the ACU thing that was because that was because those guys were living with them and we just figured let's just win in Rome yeah it's starting to get into this little the order of battle for the seals would largely consist of word coming from the army 48 hours ahead of time informing them on what area of vermadi they would be patrolling the seals would then plan and provide sniper and overwatch during the army patrol even amid their overloaded operating

schedule. The men of Delta Patoon gathered supplies to build a home away from home in the tattered building where they would be spending the deployment. They nicknamed it full metal jacket. So the building that they lived in it called full metal jacket. If you see the movie full metal jacket, that's what this building looked like. A bunch of army guys living in there too. A plywood floor was laid. The walls were reinforced with sandbags. Foam was sprayed between the inner and outer layers for insulation. They framed and built out rooms for each man and installed a small AC unit to keep cool the air. Insert. Part of the building the men needed to watch their step in order to to avoid exposed rebar

The heat was miserable in May reaching upwards of 115 degrees and fixing up and finishing full metal jacket Was a welcome reprieve the men of Delta Patoon had this once barely standing building a home away from home by normal standards Nothing to write home about but nonetheless a haven in the midst of the heat Yeah and that's where Mikey built Mikey's little Yeah, he had and just to you know we were talking about this was probably a month in and I had the Marine or sorry the Army Special Operations Commander came to visit task unit Bruiser and I was briefing him on what was going on and I said my element in Corregador has been out their last 23 missions they've been

engaged by the enemy 23 straight missions. in a row. And as I'm saying that, almost as if on cue, one of the guys from my tactical operation center comes in and says, excuse me, sir, and I'm like, yes. And he says, just to let you know, the guys in Corregador are in contact with the enemy right now. And I looked at the Siege of commander, and I said, well, sir, make that 24. That's, so to go out 24 operations in a row and be an enemy contact, it's what you were talking about earlier. And I remember actually the 25th operation, I think it was the 25th operation.

They didn't have enemy contact because they did something like really small. And they broke their streak. But it was on. 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 the 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 Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, Anglico guys on the radio setting up for a strike on the enemy fighters.

He had pinned down. Cass in 30 seconds called out the controller, letting the guys know the jets were 30 seconds out from dropping. For Michael this seemed 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.

One away, ten seconds to impact, called out the controller. The dust was heavy, but Michael could still see to know that none of the five enemy had left the position. Suddenly a flash, then the car ripped apart and disappeared in a crew. cloud of black and gray smoke. Good hit. Stand by for BDA, stated the controller over the radio. The dust cleared. Where the sedan used to be was a crater with indistinguishable metal debris and other

scattered and other materials scattered in the area. Michael could make out three of the five enemy now, lying in peculiar positions near the blast site. Good hits. Five by EKIA. Michael heard the controller say. The original enemy position went quiet immediately after the strike. The seals, Marines, and scouts maneuvered to a seat.

and secure the building. The scouts entered and cleared it only to find that the enemy had left the area. All right, guys, there's nothing left here. Let's Charlie Mike, said Chief Fortin, and the SEALs and Scouts moved to reestablish their security position for the main element. So that's what they were doing. Yeah, I would get phone messages where Michael would call, we'd miss him to the message.

Just kick him back with my bros, send cigars. Critical information, send cigars. Exactly. There's really good examples of this throughout the book. Another one. Immediately enemy fire began to hit the wall around the rooftop. Michael repositioned toward the contact and fired. 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 continue to maneuver and flank. The rounds from Mike's 48 began to eat chunks out of the corners and ledges that the enemy were using as 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? yelled JP. I'm good to go. Damn, bro, carrying all that extra weight might save all our lives. J.P. smiled, but he was really dead serious. Michael's 48 continued to eat away at enemy positions.

An indistinct yell came from the right. Michael turned to see one of the enemy insurgents trying to cross the street towards the SEAL's positions. He sent a burst, and the enemy fighter fell against the hop pavement, motionless. With this, the momentum changed, and Michael moved from position to position, engaging the enemy on three sides. He was the only AW gunner on the roof, and although the other SEALs were holding their own as well,

the 556 millimeter M4 doesn't have quite the same effect as a 762 millimeter belt-fed machine gun. The enemy was losing and it began to show. The volume of fire had drastically decreased and was much more sporadic until only one enemy position was still active. The seals and scouts concentrated fire on the spot. The area went quiet and the men waited for another attack, but it never came. In all, Michael had fired more than 600 rounds of ammunition and was likely the reason that the security position was not overrun. Seven enemy lay dead without one seal or scout injured.

A lot of rounds. Yeah, I don't know. I think I've told you this story before, but I went over to Craigador to check in on everybody. And as soon as I get there, everyone's like, hey, go watch Mikey's video. So I'm like, cool. So I go over, I'm like, you know, go to Mikey's palace, which is his little room. You know, he's got, I don't know, he had some kind of like red curtains.

Right. orange. Yeah, those are orange. I don't know where. He probably took him from a house out in town. His brother sent him to him. Oh, there you go. He goes, we're saying, so I think this will fit.

Yeah, so I go in there and I'm like, Mikey, let me see your video. And, you know, he gets out and he's just showing it to me on his, he had a camera, a video camera. And but, you know, this is when the video cameras had just started to have their own little screens and their own little speakers, so I'm watching it. And this is the famous video, at least it's famous in our. our task unit where Mikey's like filming there's freaking everyone shooting there's bullets flying everywhere and then Mikey turns the video camera back at himself and he says it's the

muleab which was I've never seen that oh you haven't seen that oh man we got to get that to you yeah so mikey's filming this firefight and as he's filming you know it's a pretty good firefight and then he turns the camera back in himself and he's got a big smile on his face and he goes it's the muleb or welcome to the muleb or something like that which the The district was called the Malab district, but he says it's the Moolab. And so I'm watching it. You know, I'm like Mr. Serious,

and so I'm, but I'm trying to hold back, but I'm smiling. And then he gets done and he's looking at me. And I look at him, I go, I go, bro, what are you doing filming when there's a freaking gunfight going on? And he looks at me and he goes, I was Winchester, sir, which means he was out of ammo.

So he had already dumped like a, he dumped 1,000 rounds or probably 800 to 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and didn't have any ammo left. And so he's like, well, I might as well make some videos. But yeah, I mean, it's, when I got home, I remember I was talking to some of the Vietnam seals. And I went and talked to this one Vietnam seal.

It was a machine gunner of Vietnam. And, you know, I said, I said, you know, how many, like, how many engagements did you get in? And he said, oh, you know, we did whatever it was. He said, you know, we did 82 operations. and we got in seven gunfights. I said, how many times did you use all your ammunition? He's never.

And here it was. I mean, there was all machine gunners would run out of ammo on a, not a fairly regular, but definitely ran out of ammo because that was the scenario. That was the situation on the ground. And that's why he would take less water. He always took just what he hoped he could, you know, need, and he would substitute the water for ammo.

Yeah. And he'd be carrying radio. sometimes too. Yeah, so he's carrying a load. He has a sense of humor. It's the Mool-up. I can't believe you haven't seen that video. Oh, it's freaking classic.

Meanwhile, while that's going on, back to the book, Hey, Dad, it's Mike. Michael spoke happily into a satellite phone. He just returned from an op-but after showering and changing in his gear, he dialed home to check in. Mikey, how you doing? I'm doing good, Dad. We're still training Iraqi forces.

I'm pretty bored here. What's new at home? Michael is careful not to detail the true nature of the work. They conducted on a daily basis. He didn't want his parents to worry. He preferred to keep the amount of danger they faced to himself. As George and Michael discussed his gear and weapon, Sally walked over to George.

She was eager to hear Michael's voice. She had barely spoken to him since he left because every time he called, she made sure her children and husband had ample time with Michael on the phone first. She was also busy finishing up a master's degree in counseling, marriage, and family therapy. So any amount of time she had, to speak with Michael, she treasured.

Michael never discussed any of his combat operations with her. She knew he wanted to protect her from worrying. But she also knew better. She had walked past the hallway when her sons were on their computer looking at photos of Michael patrolling through the streets, and she instantly knew he was facing grave enemy day in and day out. She couldn't be there, but she could pray, and that's what she did.

She prayed the rosary, a collection of prayers based on the life of Christ. and honoring his blessed mother, whom war fighters have credited assisting them in epic battles throughout history. Sally wasn't seeking anything grand with her prayers. She simply requested protection for her son as she prayed it every single day. It was now Sally's turn to speak to Michael, and she held the phone tightly to her ear so she could hear her son clearly. How are you, Mike? I miss you. Did you receive the care packages we sent to you? We really enjoyed making them for you and your teammates.

They were great, mom. Thank you. Even the package full of female toiletries, you and your friends threw in there. Yeah, she had these women volunteers, and they did other charity work, and they sent stuff. And so nobody knows how that got in there,

but Mike says, you guys had kind of a crazy look when they opened that one. Up like, are women coming? Yeah. So my wife is at home. She got three kids. like, how old were they?

They were like maybe seven, five, and three or something like this. Maybe even six, four and two or something like this. She doesn't have time to do all this stuff. So finally I get, you know, everyone's getting a care package and all this nice stuff. I'm not getting anything. Finally, like two months of deployment, I get a package. And I still harassed my wife about this. I like honey roasted peanuts, right?

And so she sent me a planter's thing of honey roasted peanuts, but it was open and taped shut. It was open. It was half eaten. My freaking kids got into it. It was tape shot. That's what I got. I'm like,

thanks, darling. But I didn't ever get women's toiletries. Yeah. No one figured out where those came from, but they got a lot of women's magazines, too, from people. So I would contact anybody that would send things. We sent stuff, and people with volunteers, send stuff.

And, you know, it was just crazy. Guys would risk their lives to go out and get those packages, you know. Hey, women toiletries. doesn't we need. He says, I'm going to go ahead to bed now. I want to say hello to you guys. Mike's voice began to drift off. The day's operation had begun to hit him like a wall.

His body was now just registering the need for sleep. Of course, take care of yourself. We're all okay here. Michael, stay focused so you can come home safe. Sally said those words became her parting words every time she spoke to him. Stay focused. So you can come home safe.

We would lie in bed to just kind of looking at this year. and Sal would say, we all know that he's just not kicking back. It's kind of a charade here, you know, but we were pretty aware of how bad Ramadi was, but we knew he didn't really want to get into it. So we kept the conversation pretty light. Now when Mark got killed, did you guys,

did you guys become aware when Mark got killed? It went to the funeral. And that's where Sally met, Not Debbie. Debbie. But also, you know, I keep thinking K. Oh, from the book? Yeah.

Macawi. Macawi. Got it. Cowie comes up to her in his crutches and says, Michael saved my life. Michael saved my life. And it's when Sal was thinking, how could you save your life if he's just marching people around? And then he told her the story. And that's why it was like, yeah, we know a little bit better than that.

And of course, we had a conversation. I remind him, we don't really need heroes, just do a good job. And he says, don't worry. I remember him saying, we talked about his death. about Lee's death and everything and those guys took it pretty hard and I said we feel you're really going to be careful

and he goes don't worry he says if I go here I will be the one that decides I still remember that especially when he didn't have to he could have gotten out of that he decided and it just always sticks in my head

that conversation yeah I know that I mean My wife had no idea of what was going on at all. And but then no, 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 know, even Cowie got, cowie got wounded. But, you know, she just, I think she just thought it was anomaly. And like I said, I mean, she had, you know, she had three kids going on, freaking young kids and everything. But I think everybody, when Mark got killed, It was like, oh, wake up. Yeah.

And, yeah, I was looking through my emails a while ago, which is crazy to look through emails. And I have, like, all the emails. I was reading emails that I sent my wife. And, you know, it's like, oh, what is it? July 29th, you know. Then July 1st or July 31st. And then August 2nd, that's the day Mark died.

And there's, you know, my, you know, I sent an email August 3rd, like, hey, hope everything's okay. You know, something like this, but still nothing. And I think that was everybody, you know, kind of like what Mikey was doing. So you just don't want people to worry. But then that was just no way to hide that. Yeah. Well, we saw Cowie again. We invited some of the seals for Thanksgiving.

And we still didn't know the whole story. And then Thanksgiving, he said. says, So can I talk to you? And they went into another room. And he says, let me tell you what I saw. And then he pulls up his shirt and he has that huge tattoo.

He was, I swear, I swear, this is what I saw. So it was like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So,

Cowie, who is, was entasking a bruiser and was just a freaking awesome guy. That's the, the opening. story is Mikey dragging him out of the out of the street and he ended up getting a tattoo of of Mikey with these angels wings it's cowie was telling the story the other day and one thing I

he was saying it was like he was about to say something like he or maybe he was like hey I need and as soon as he was saying I need help like he felt Mikey's hand like grab his gear and start pulling him. He's like, that's Johnny on the spot right there. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not that, I'm not real religious, but things like this just hit me sometimes like, I don't know. I don't have explanations for some of these things. I think the older you get, you start to see more things that are just, can't really explain. It was the 15th of August. The Iraqi army, along with the U.S. Army would be conducting clearance of another portion of the Malab district.

The houses were tightly packed and clearance would likely be slow. The seals came prepared and were all set with cardboard shade, water, and a ton of extra ammunition. The men didn't know it, but they would soon have no need for the shade. As the call to prayer ended, Michael scanned the surrounding area with his

periscope. He glanced over to see his teammates to the right, each with their own as well. He smiled and continued to scan. It had worked out so well for Michael that a bunch of guys had them sent out. This is Michael ended up getting as like combat periscopes, which ended up being awesome.

Yeah, I remember Sarah was sending that out. She's looking at me like, were they playing games over there? Yeah. Imagine how nice it is when you don't have to poke your head up over a wall. Nothing to see here, guys,

just the Iraqi army and dudes getting unloaded, Michael called. Then the loudspeakers crackled on. That's weird, thought Michael. It seemed as though the prayers were going to start again. A voice came over the loudspeakers, but it sounded different this time. It was not the usual singing. It was speaking and the words were different.

What is that? Are they praying again? That doesn't sound like prayer, Chief Fortin said. I know it's not the same, Michael responded. The interpreter burst through the couple of door and onto the roof. It's directions. They're being directed, he blurted. What?

Who? asked Chief Fortin. The speakers. The enemy fighters are being directed on where to go. The interpreter replied. Oh, well, shit. Well shit jp Doug Mike do you have a shot to take out those speakers chief called Chief Fortin But the snipers had already been trying to work a solution no joy chief was the response Mikey I hope you brought a lot of ammo shit's probably gonna get real stupid real quick chief fortin said

Always mickey replied was that was that 12 hour Yeah, yeah that one what ends up happening. Coms chatter, but most of it was not pertinent to Michael. Most of the information flow from different units leaders back to the Joint Operations Center where the operation is being monitored. Michael's concern was keeping the enemy pinned

and if one of them was brave enough to try and move out in the open, dropping in him as tracks. The clearance was ongoing, but the insurgents currently attacking the seal position were relentless. And I fast forwarded to this. They just basically got like an all-out assault. This was not ideal,

but it also meant that they were not trying to advance towards the Overwatch position. It had been hours and neither side could get the upper hand. Michael moved from position, a position firing at multiple enemy locations. It looked as though this fight was not going to be over anytime soon and he wasn't wrong.

The entire engagement lasted 12 hours. I mean, imagine people have never served 12 hours. I mean, it's the way these guys stay together and then the next day they go up and do it again. It's people, I just don't. It's just remarkable what these guys do. Yeah, you know, a lot of times, you know, people talk about basic seal training. They talk about buds.

Oh, buds was hard. And look, it is hard. It's hard as hell. And it's a nightmare for guys to try and get through. But what you just talked about and what I usually try and explain to people is, oh, you saw an army guy get killed. you were in a firefight yesterday. You had rounds snapped by your head. You had like all these things happen.

I mean, on some of these engagements, JP dragged a Marine out of the street. I forget the number, but the Marine got shot, another Marine got shot, an Iraqi got shot, a seal got shot through his backpack,

through his water bladder, his camel back on his. So it was like, in one little, Engagement five people got shot and What do you do the next day you go out again? Yeah, and then the next day you go out again So yeah the look buds is hard. I get it, but this stuff right here and and look it's not just seals the Marines are going out every day The Army's going out every day and

Everyone's taking those risks and that's why the bond was so tight with the army in the Marine Corps in Ramadi because everyone was doing everything we could could to protect each other. And that's why that bond was and is so strong. Yeah. Yeah, I read some of Michael's emails. And his friends in the States crying that their girlfriend doesn't love him anymore, or her boyfriend left and they're having a tough time in college. And Mike writes back, you know, encourage them and the whole deal

and I'm thinking, really? They're having a tough time? Yeah. Yeah. It's it definitely is, and that's what I love about this book is you start to realize the I mean, this is what the daily life is like.

Captured it really, really well. And that's, I think that's important for people to read these type of books. I can get a taste. And these stories, as you said, they're from the guys that were there. These stories are real. And I think it would give the rest of the country just kind of a fingernail sketch of what these guys go through. And also if you have teenage children, they can see that guys like Michael, they're just like them.

They have problems when they're kids and they deal with bullies. and it's that determination and that strength that you build up in your life that prepares you for the world. Yeah, and, you know, the fact that the first time Mikey went to Buds, he quit. Yeah. And you know who else did?

Mark Lee, the first time he went to Buds, he quit. I didn't know that. And I always, you know, occasionally I'll talk to someone that had been to Buds and quit. And I usually tell them if they seem like they're a good person, I'll say, if they say they want to go back and I'll say, hey, you're to Mikey Monsor and they say, yeah, and I go, Mikey Monsor quit the first time he went. And now I'm going to be able to tell him, but when you get defeated, it's what you do. What's the quote I got to learn?

It's how you come back from defeat. So that's what I'm talking about. That's the man. We're going to add that in there. Whatever it is, it's the way you come back. It's always where you go. Because we've all had losses. And for me, when I have a bad loss, it just burns them.

Burns. It's there forever. Sometimes you forget about those easy wins, but you remember those losses. And usually, hopefully, you'll walk away with a lesson. And Michael just, when that happened, I just didn't surprise me at all. He was coming back. He will win. Yeah. So pushing a little bit further into deployment, we're getting towards the end of deployment. Michael gripped the phone close to his mouth. Hey, Dan, we're just about done here. I volunteered to stay for a few more operations so one of the guys could leave early his wife is having a baby soon It won't be long. I expect to be finished up in about a week I'll also be helping to do turnover with the incoming team Then I'm heading out my stuff is packed and ready to go

That's great news Mikey your mom and I can't wait to see you We're gonna celebrate and have a big party when you get back stateside George felt a great relief to learn that Mikey was so close to coming home and Almost silly for having thought that he meant may not see his son again. Take care of yourself and we'll see you soon. And that's something you told me 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. It was. He knew who had kids, who was married. And he would tell me, I worry about these guys. He goes, I don't want to be the guy that lost one of these

one of these guys who has children because he believed fathers, mothers is a two-person deal and he's always loved kids and he just would be so bothered knowing that on his watch

somebody lost a father and he would talk about I mean how many people really want to find out who's got kids in there but he he would want to know and he would keep it in the back of his mind 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 to 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 Eagle's Nest and set up mutual.

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 into 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 and the Marine Corps, recalls Mike Sorrelli. 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 helped, but the heat radiated for him. 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 scanned 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. 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 weapons fired 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 fire as 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 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 Corregador. When the wounded seals arrived, they saw the men from the first of the 506 lined up waiting to support whatever they could. Another testament to the bond that the two units 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 in 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. In 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 arch angel, the protector and guide of warfighters since time and memorial, and whom Michael had been named 25 years earlier. It's a bad day for the family. Remember Jim called me. You could hear him crying. Dad is bad. It's bad. It's bad. I said, what's bad? He says, Michael, my husband. Michael died from Monty. Police get a hold of Joe.

I tried to call Joe, and I finally got a hold of him. He was playing football in North Dakota, and I couldn't even tell him. Finally got a hold of him, I couldn't even tell him. I couldn't even talk. I said, call your brother. I guess when Sal saw him at the door, the Navy, she just knew.

It was a bad day. I just, because you had that call that says, I'm coming home. So now it's like, all you're planning is what we're going to do and we get together. Didn't happen. Well, so I had been tracking the operation. I was in the tactical operation center. And it was troops in contact, which was like, like I said, this was like an almost daily occurrence that guys would be in there. and then you know you go you hear wounded and now all of a sudden that's not common and um the kazavaks

get called and i can hear some of the radio calls and i i end up redirecting the kazovac to their location and and finally it was actually colonel clark god bless him he he called me and um he told me uh told me uh sirelli and dug he said They were wounded, but they're going to be all right. He said Benny was going to be okay. He said that Sorrelli and Doug were going to be, we're getting flown out. And he said, Mikey wasn't going to make it.

And, I mean, we sent guys to escort Mikey home. And we still had to finish deployment. We still had to turn over with the next guys. And thankfully, Andrew Paul, he's the guy that that had come home early. Yeah, Mike relieved him so he could have the baby.

And so he knew, I mean, obviously he was Mikey's you know, assistant platoon commander with Seth and and thankfully he was home so that he could be there. But I mean, as soon, I talked to Seth, Seth and Seth

had to go back out into town by the way they got back and Seth had to go back into the city because they left their Iraqis there they left a bunch of gear there and so Seth had to go back out gather up their Iraqis gather up all their gear come back and then he called me and he immediately he knew

he said hey Mikey jumped on that mickey jumped on a grenade and a few hours later I talked to Mike and Doug and they're in Germany and they're like hey he saved us that's the only reason we're here

and I talked to Seth and Seth was like drafting up the Medal of Honor and I was like do it I remember I did when Seth came to visit the house I didn't want to see him you was like I've had it with you guys I don't want to see it

Seth is hard to say no to him Because you can see the sincerity on his face to doubt. We can cry at any moment when we think of Mike. It's the way it is. I know, and man, Sarah, your daughter, what a, what a just awesome woman. Very strong. Very strong.

And I remember her. She said it to me, but I think I remember her seeing it later. People were, you guys were getting interviewed. She was getting interviewed. And she was basically, someone said, you know, you were. Are you surprised that this happened? And she said, no. Anybody that knew Mike, he's not surprised by this.

At what point did you hear about the medal? What happened was some guy from the newspapers called us about it. I didn't know what he was talking about. And we had gotten so many calls, all kinds of things. We had hate calls. We had newspapers, interviews. Most of the stuff we said, no. and we just want to be left alone.

In fact, we were so used to getting bad calls. I remember the president who was trying to call us because this is when they decided to award him. Sarah kept trying to tell me, would you pick up the phone? And I was thinking, I go, this guy keeps bothering me. Is this the same number?

I don't know what this asshole. wands and then she goes, Dad, would you just pick up the phone, you know? So that's when we knew it was real because you hear people, everyone is talking, you know, could do this and that, but, I mean, it's nice, but it's not your son. Yeah. And it's, it's, our family appreciated it, but, you know, that hole is still there. I think anyone who's lost a child, I don't care if it's, In the hospital, an accident, there's a hole.

And we're in a real sad family. And me and Debbie Lee were talking about it. It's just there. And it just hits you. Everyone's swell. Hearing kids playing the playground or something like that. It just hits you. You just don't get over it.

But we were treated very, very nicely. Surprising. Because I was in the Marines. And the SEAL family is totally different. And I was kind of shocked. I was like, almost too shocked. Okay, well, we'll leave us alone, you know. But 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 Dr. O'Winter talked about a ship and see we don't know anything about the Navy we're not into the ceremony

stuff and it was like yeah okay whatever didn't you know really think about it it was just in passing we thought and then a while later maybe six months later we get this thing where

they're going to name a ship after Michael we had no idea it was going to be like 10 years. I mean, it was just incredible. And it was like

fly here, fly there. And that's why my kids, we're not going any place. We didn't realize it was going to turn into a job.

And it was, everything was nice, but it's not something we really wanted. We were real happy to just go back to simple. Nobody knows

And so it was busy for the first couple of years, and finally it disappeared and it was okay. I would say, I would think, leave it to Mikey. He still got something going on. Even this book, people will talk to me. We'd have writers sitting on our porch wanting to write a book, and it must they had a dozen of them. We passed on all of them. and then just when one of the sailors did a book on Michael and gave it to his cemetery at the cemetery

and that's when I started thinking my grandchildren should have a book because they should see what it's like 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 really scary for them. And I thought it would be good that they could see their uncle had the same kind of problems. And he got through it and they can get through it too. So, and I would hope anybody who would read this the same thing, you know, a young man or reading this realizes he's got a long ways to go in his life. and he can pull himself together. Some guys, I hired a lot of young people in my time,

and some of them, they just never got that message. Now they're in their 30s and 40s, and they're still children. Yeah. It's weird, too. I got to admit, from my perspective, when you talk about Mikey, like, as a boy, by the time he was in the teams, which is when I met him, Yeah.

He was no boy. No. And then I was telling you this before we started recording, like, he was getting big. Yeah. So he cut the sleeves off all the shirts. Everybody started calling him sleeves because he was just like getting jacked. But I mean, he was, you know, even when we say Kevin Lace, Kevin Lace is a really big guy. But Mikey was also big.

So it's interesting when you put it all together. And like you say, the arc of the book, the Mikey I knew was just a badass. Right and he might have been a new guy and he might have been you know like young for the seal teams But he's a badass so to connect that to this guy who you know had asthma and got bullied and like 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 Risen up and at the same time that he had that he had that that quality, like there's literally no one else that you would rather have to watch your back.

Yeah. No, he was, if he said, I've got it, he meant it, you know. If he says you're my friend, you could take it to the bank. He will do everything that he can if you have a problem. And I remember Gabe talking about how close they were. Gabe was Greek and Michael being a Lebanese. He would call him his Lebanese brother. No, he called him his Mediterranean brother.

I would go out and choke on some olives or something. I don't know. You know, the stuff with the ship, I mean, it was, it was, see, I got to look at it from afar, right? I wasn't all mixed up in it like you guys were. To fly in all the time. Yeah. You guys, the keel, this is from the book,

the keel laying is the first of three ceremonies. in the life of a ship, symbolizing the ship's transition from a mere concept to a product that will one day become a U.S. warship. Navy tradition is celebrated special keel-laying ceremony for hundreds of years. And so it talks about the fact that

you guys went to Baffiron Works up in Maine and welded your initials onto this piece that goes in there. That's sort of the initial... There's just so much tradition that the Navy has. And it was, yeah, We would do those things and then Sal willed something in

on the bridge someplace, you know, and it's like Yeah, and they somehow got wood. Yeah. This guy, Captain Smith, who's 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 they got wood from the USS Constitution.

I know. It was like crazy. How do you do that? 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 who's introduced to Steve Gilmore, retired surface, naval surface warfare. Steve is a great guy. He's the best. He is

He's just on your side Oh, he's he's a hundred percent He helped me I'm very good friends with him And he helped me with everything I ever need help with And look I caused all kinds of trouble For that poor guy I was constantly constantly

Caustly caused him He would bail me out of all kinds of things So thank you Mr. Steve Gilmore 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 connected, with 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 threefold meeting. Every military member takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Another prominent military ethos states, I will defend the defenseless. And the St. Michael Prayer calls a. upon the mighty angelic soldier to defend us in battle. Have you been in the ship?

I have. When I talked to Scott, I was like, we wanted something for the seals, not to be forgotten. And that's why if you walk in, you'll see the pictures of those other seals. And 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.

No, they did a beautiful job. The ship was awesome. And they ended up with the, there's a flintlock pistol, which came from the Trident, all the thing, which is awesome. There's a Roman numeral three, which is like legit for Team 3. Scott did his homework. Yeah, no. He definitely. definitely did an awesome job with all that.

And eventually, the ship gets christened. And that was just awesome. Christening took place. That was up in Bath as well, up in Maine. That was when Sally broke the... That was fun for her. She was so... I just want to make sure I hit it hard enough.

I go, well, put my... face right there. I'm sure you'll be able to muster hitting that thing. And then finally you get the actual ship's commissioning. And this is when the ship becomes a U.S. Navy ship. But it says here, Major Halliday

was announced and approached the podium to give the invocation. He had flown in all the way from Korea for the special event. Upon finishing his opening prayer, the other speakers approached the podium. One after the other, they rendered their special remarks and honored the family of the ship's namesake

as well as the impressive ship itself. Then Major General, Ron Clark, who was formerly a lieutenant colonel, who's now a Major General. This is how long it's been. He's got the Major General. Who led the first of the 506, Red Currie battalion during the Battle of Vermonti,

walked commandingly over to the podium. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. The bravery and sacrifice of these warriors is the highest form of service to our nation. At a time when less than 1% of American citizens will ever don the

cloth of our nation in her defense, these men and women endured hardship, danger, and personal sacrifice every day to protect our country and our way of life. Let me be very clear. Our band of brothers was brought together through our fight against a tough and violent

enemy. In fact, we refer to SEAL Team 3, as army seals. It was the fight that brought us together, but really what defined our task force was one word. Love. A brotherly love that warriors in arms share in battle defined by selfless commitment to a mission

and selfless commitment unfailing to one another. There is no greater human emotion than the feeling to belong, to a team, to a unit, to a brotherhood, to a family. my association with these warriors has been the most meaningful professional relationships of my life anybody who served understands that i mean there are guys that i met in the service that i loved them as much as my own brothers and the kind of situation in romadi that's even deeper yeah debby lee will will explain that you know mark would tell you know mark would tell her, these guys are my brothers.

And she'd say, well, what do you mean? Like, you have a brother, you know? It's not the same. And then when Mark died and she met all of us, she realized, oh, you are brothers. Yeah. Put the seal squeeze on her, too. Finally, the ship's sponsor and sole woman on stage. Walk to the podium.

She smiled her humbled demeanor, evident to all in attendance. She began by sharing her heartfelt gratitude to all who were with them to honor her son. She continued thanking the men and women of the military, whom she regarded as the best in the world. Finally, without further ado, she gave an order that the crew had been eagerly awaiting to hear. Officers and crew of the USS Michael Monsor man our ship and bring her to life. That was a good day. That was awesome. We weren't the ship's crew, but they have.

task unit bruiser was the guys that ran up yeah and manned the ship yeah luckily we didn't have to drive anywhere with it or anything none of us know how to do any of that but but man it was just awesome to see that and and yeah you hustled pretty good I saw you guys out there go what was last time those guys read well so you know the guys before yeah they're like hey Jocko like don't run too fast because like some guys ain't can be doing too much right so of course

I'm all fired up with adrenaline and all hyped and I guess I went a little quicker than I showed up with you know wore some of the guys out and just to close this out Father Halliday stepped up to the podium let us pray Heavenly Father bless and approve

this newly commissioned vessel the USS Michael Monsor 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 Monsor ever know the unified patronage of the citizens of heaven, the creatures of earth, and every mission it undertakes to restore peace and sure freedom and enact justice for all. I've met so many really wonderful people over this. And Father Holiday was one. He also did a mass and baptized Joseph's son on that ship. Oh, nice. Yeah.

So there was just a lot of really great people. And as far as that, Sal and I were just some good times. Now is that Joseph's son Mikey? Yeah. Oh, Mikeys, yeah. It is the weirdest thing, right? So, as you know, I wrote this book, Mikey and the Dragons, right? And it's obviously, it's the Mikey's named after Mikey.

And my friend John Bozak, the artist. And I'm like, hey, you know, here's the story. And so he sends me the first pictures. And they're black and white, so I don't really think much of it. And then first color one comes. And in the book, he's got Mikey with blonde hair. And I'm like, hey, man, you know, like, Mikey's freaking Lebanese, bro.

He's black hair. But then when you look at the book and he's like talking me through it, you look at the book, like even the cover, like it's all black and he got this blonde head kid, makes a kid stand out. And I'm like, eh, all right, well, hey, I'm going to bleach out Mikey a little bit. Close enough. But then I meet little Mikey.

Yeah. And sure enough, he's a toe head. Yeah. I think I told you I was complaining to Joe. I says, Joe, you got three little girls and you got Mikey and they're all towheads. I says, you couldn't have given me one brown kid with a big nose? Seriously?

Oh, man. But, I mean, it is awesome seeing that ship and with this book that you just wrote with Rose. And Rose did a fantastic job. You know, she's married to a seal. So she captured a lot of stuff. She put up with a lot of stuff. Yeah. I'm sure it was a challenge.

Just trying to get stories out of guys. guys, everyone's on all different schedules. No, she did a great job. And because she's married to a seal, I think she captured it in a way that a normal author wouldn't have been able to. Yeah, when we talked, she pestered me for two years.

And Steve would go, I don't know, I think she's pretty good. Anyway, we talked, it was like, I said, we don't, we want real stories because she gave, They've sent in samples of other authors, and they wrote about the glory of war and all that, and I said, I want to vomit. I said, that is not what we're looking for.

We want real stuff. And so 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, after a couple of calls, they would open up to Rose. And I felt like as they opened up, they actually felt good about it.

And it kind of like let out a little bit of some of that pressure or what happened over there. And I was surprised how many said it was okay if they used, you know, their name. And so that's when I started thinking, well, then they probably feel pretty good about it. And these are all true stories. So I think it's a book that is worth reading. No, it's 100% worth reading. And that's a way for Mikey'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 all know the story. They're all fired up. I mean, they do an awesome thing. And it's written about in the book as well as, you know, when you pull into San Diego Harbor, off to your left-hand side is Rosecrans where Mikey's buried. And, you know, actually Mark's buried there and Cestones buried there. But when you pull in, they man the rails and they give the ship's salute, you know, to Mikey, which is just awesome.

So you've got the legacy carrying on with the crew with the ship in this book. And the young, you know, the young seals today. They're, this is what they're raised on. They're raised on. This is what a, 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 Mikey.

Well, you have those, I think you have marks in there. And Mikey's, when the seals come in, they see those displays. Yeah. And I actually think it's important. So people don't forget, no matter who it is. There are guys that really, they believed in what they did. these young sales should know that it's passed on to them. Well, thank you so much for writing this book.

Thanks to Rose as well. Thanks for coming down here. Echo, you got any questions? No, sir. No, sir. You just woke him up. Anybody that's listening, the books available, we'll have it on our website,

but you can get it on Amazon, you can get it wherever books are sold. Just get it. I mean, give it to it. to give it to everybody that you know. Give it to, like you mentioned, teenagers, for sure. Because I think they can understand. Even, you know, it's not like this pro thing where they're going to kids or parents are scared

their kids going to run out and join the military. It's the journey that he took and what he overcame. And these kids who are feeling, you know, insecure, they got to know that there's other guys out there just like them and they did it and they can these kids can also get through it and it's important and that's why I did it for my grandkids and I think I told you my my granddaughter she first weekend in boot camp and she I gave her one of these books for the trip and she read it and she said when I read the story she because I hate boot camp so much and she goes but I realized, you know, life is tough and it's a journey and we have to go through these things.

And Mike was my inspiration. She goes, we had to run a mile and a half and I've never run faster. And she goes, I just, she says, thanks, grandpa for writing the book. It's important. So eventually all the kids will get one and a couple of words I want to take out, but I don't know. It's a true story. So what about it do? It's surprisingly clean considering it's about a bunch of scenes.

But no, it's awesome. And any other closing thoughts? I think that gets us up to present date. No, I do want to thank you for the respect for our family and especially how much you helped out, Sally. She really appreciated the time where she couldn't get into the cemetery. And she says to me, she goes, I hope I didn't disturb him or anything. I thought he was on base.

And I go, well, what was he wearing? I think he was just wearing T-shirts and his shorts. And I said, I don't think that's the uniform of the day. No, that wasn't the uniform of the day. I think you're on vacation or something. I don't know. Yeah, I wasn't at work. Yeah, got a call.

and hey, if Sally wants to go and visit her son at Rosecrans, she's going to get in there. Yeah, she was thrilled. She was just so happy because it's like an hour and a half, two hours drive. And she didn't know that they closed up, you know, at that time. But I really want to thank you because she was treated very well with the seals and with you. And I also want to thank you for attending her funeral. It's very nice. It was an honor to be there.

an honor to help share this story of Mikey and thanks for joining us. Thanks for, you know, the sacrifice of you, your whole family. I mean, thanks for raising a son like Mikey and for sharing him with us. We won't forget him. We really appreciate the SEAL community. And like I said, we appreciated we were treated the respect from you and this family was important. And I just wanted to close that out because who knows when I'm going to see you again. And I really appreciate this moment.

So thanks, Jacco. Thank you. And with that, George Mansour has left the building. And once again, life is a gift. And if you want to support the podcast, 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, is it, is it Christmas season yet? Yeah. Technically, I think it's kind of the beginning. Even if you're having a lean Christmas. Yeah. Even if you're having a lean Christmas, just order the book today. And you can give it to everybody that you know.

So we'll just start with that. Support this book, please. If you want to further support the podcast while you're supporting yourself, go and get some JoccoFuel from joccofuel.com. You can get drinks, energy drinks, you can get protein, you can get joint warfare. A bunch of stuff that's going to help you, joccofuel.com. Also, you can get the drinks at Wawa. You can get everything at vitamin shop, the military commissaries,

Hanifords, dash stores in Maryland, Wakefern and ShopRoy. Circle K in Florida H.E.B. and Tejas. Murphy's in the southeast and Meyer in the Midwest. So if you need

Jocko Fuel, go there and get it or jacovuel.com. It's true. Yeah, George offline was asking about like, hey, do you have anything for joints and aches because I'm getting older? We do.

We do. Yeah, if you go read the reviews of joint warfare, it's legit. Yeah. So. Yeah. It's one of those things where, I mean, you know, when you're young, you know, you don't pay attention to that kind of stuff.

But if you maintain like solid health, join, you'll flow right into old adulthood and be fine. Trust me. Is that where you're at? That's where I'm at. Old adulthood. It is super cruel, too. Yeah. Honestly, it's kind of a double, it's kind of a double attack.

Yeah, yeah. They pair together well, as we say. So there you go, joccofield.com. Get it. Also, origin USA. Hunt. coming out. Yeah.

Yeah. Could you feel that once George started talking about factory and production, I was like, almost going to go down the path of all of a sudden we could be talking about Made in America and what it's like running production and what it's like to, you know, build or make clothing because that's what he was doing, running a factory. Yeah. So, but we luckily, I refrained from going down the path and talking about that. But we are making stuff in America

Origin USA.com. Go get some stuff there. Get hunt gear, by the way. We're making as fast as we can. Hey, look, we know you bought it. Is it for what is it still pre-order right now? No, no, no. We're shipping it out as fast as we can. Oh, it's just like I demand. Yeah, I haven't, but we've, we're shipping it out as fast as we can.

We're making it as fast as we can. We appreciate the patience. We're working it. That's what we're doing. But hey, jeans. Get those Delta genes. The Delta 68's. Delta 68's are just the deal.

Kind of 100%. Now look, if you live in Michigan, you live in Minnesota, you might get the factory jeans, which are a little heavier because it's wintertime. You might be feeling it. If you're in the southern America or in a warm place in the world, you're going to want those Delta 68s all day. All day.

And you're probably training jiu-jitsu. That's how it all started, by the way. The jiu-jitsu geese. You don't need to get one that's made in a communist country. You get one that's made by free people, not slaves. That's origin USA.com. Go get it. It's true.

Also, jaco store, Jocco store. We can get your shirts and hoodies and hats and stuff. Rashcards are on there as well. But yeah, discipline equals freedom. It's good. You want to represent. It's a good place to get your stuff. Can you get that thing that you're wearing right now?

Is that a jocco store? Yep. It's called. It's called team discipline. Team discipline. Yep. You named it. Yep.

You don't wear their naming shirts now. Well, they all have names. Okay. Actually, you know the shirt you're wearing right now? Your uniform, what is that tier? I don't know. I forget how the tiers work in the uniforms. Three?

I don't know if there's such a thing as a tier. Or what do you call it? There's like a, the dress. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then there's blues and whatever class A's or something like this. Okay, yeah, yeah. Well, either way. My general uniform.

That's your uniform, right? That shirt. That shirt is called Black Ops. I actually knew that. So I guess I knew this. Yes. I knew this show was called. But there's a white one called.

Declassified. Oh. And then now there's a new one. Cleverness. What's the new one? It's just like that. But instead of the dark gray, it's red. It's called Red Team.

Dang. Look at you. Can I get a gray one? Yeah. You know, what would that be called? Yeah, I don't know. We don't make currently make the gray one. But hey, I'll look into it.

I know a guy. And, you know, maybe we'll make that happen. A gray one, huh? Could be cool. Gray shirts because they don't get dirty, but they're cool in the sun. Call it gray area or gray operations. Isn't that a thing when it's not right or wrong? You know, it's like in the gray.

We call it gray area. Gray area. One of those things. Either way, yes, Jocco's store. We also have the short locker. These designs are interesting. The last one is called, or this month is called the Heavis. That's a badass T-shirt, by the way.

That's a good one. You know, Gary came up with them. Yeah, it was good. K dog. It's good. K dog all day. The heavies is good. Yeah.

That little section of that podcast. Yeah. It's a freaking good section. The heavies are rolling in. Yep. But yeah, that's a subscription scenario. You get a new shirt every month. People seem to like it.

So check that out also. It's called the shirt locker. It's on Jocco Store. And subscribe to the podcast and subscribe to Jocko Underground.com. This is why we're doing it. Because right now you see some social media activities that are going on right now. There's mayhem out there. Right?

Isn't there mayhem out there? It's mayhem out there's mayhem out there So we got to watch out for that And Well, you just got to watch out for that So That's where we have Jockle Underground We got a YouTube

You can subscribe to that Origin USA has some stuff on YouTube too Check that one out Psychological Warfare Flipside Canvas Dakota Meyer Something makes some cool stuff To hang on your wall Books already obviously

Defend us in battle Just order that book Just get it Only Cry for the Living by Holly McKay. Get that book. And then I've written a bunch of books too, but whatever. Kids books. You know, Mikey and the Dragons, let's give that one some props.

Mike and the Dragons overcome and fear. Obviously, Mikey, the character is named after Mike Mansour. About overcoming fear. Eshlam Front, we have a leadership consultancy. We solve problems through leadership. Go to Eshlamfront.com for details. Next event, Orlando. So April 3rd through the 5th.

That's the next muster. April 3rd through the 5th, 2023. It's going to come quick. That's the weird thing. It's going to sell out quick. Everything sells out. We oversold. The last muster, we oversold.

We had to like move the instructor seating to the behind the curtain type scenario. Yeah. So we won't make that mistake again, but we will sell out. So there you go. Orlando. April 3rd. through the 5th, 2023. And then Dallas is also in 20203.

We got the battlefield. We got FTCS. We've got all kinds of good stuff going on. Eschlonfront.com. We also have online training at Extreme Ownership Academy. Go to Extreme Ownership.com. We covered the stuff. I was there.

I was on there live today answering questions. Laif was on there live today answering questions. We have courses to take. So go to Extreme Ownership.com if you want to learn how to live your life. better especially your interactions with other humans and if you want to help service members active and retired you want to help their families gold star families check out mark lee's mom mama lee she's got a charity organization and she will be coming on the podcast very soon and if you want to donate or get involved with her organization go to america's mighty warriors dot org and also don't forget about

micah fink up there in the the north country with hero and Horses.org, helping veterans find themselves while they get a little bit lost out there in the wilderness. And speaking of social media, we're on social media. On the gram, on Twitter, it's a new Twitter these days. Nothing's changed really. Have you noticed any change yet? Besides the fact that you lost your Twitter account? Yeah, that's before.

You got hacked. I got hacked and then they abused it. They took it over. Yeah. They took it. The hackers took over my account to do a bunch of spam. stuff that's and then Twitter shut it down because it was a bot now but then luckily you said trig get it get it back your old handle so I registered again on my old

handle so I got it back so you're still at echo Charles still at echo Charles I wonder if that's that's gonna change because Elon's coming in eight dollars and this all this stuff is going on so yeah we'll see people are freaking out about all kinds of things the thing is all the social media Facebook the Graham Twitter you just got to watch out because the algorithm will grab you. That's what's going to happen. And once again, thanks to George Monsor for coming on board and really the entire Monsor family who I've been blessed to have gotten to know over the past 15 years. Just been amazing, an honor to know them. And it's an honor to be here and share the story of Mikey.

absolute hero and example for all of us. So thank you to the entire Monsor 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. field 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 and law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, border patrol, secret service, all first responders out there. You protect us here at home. And we thank you for it. And everyone else out there on Mikey's gravestone at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery he gives some advice on there. It's the same thing that he told his dad all those years before deployment. That no matter what happens, I have no regrets.

So let's go try to live like Mikey did. Work hard. If you get knocked down, get back up again and overcome. And of course, put others first. Live your life. And leave no regrets. and until next time, this is Echo and Jocko. Out.