THE ED MYLETT SHOW - True American Hero-w Robert O’Neill ⁣

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

The man who killed Osama Bin Laden⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Words are not adequate to describe this interview, this man or this story. It truly is, the greatest story of our time and I was honored and privileged to sit front row, and get my friend Rob O’Neill to reveal details, He had never spoken of prior. ⁣ ⁣ @mchooyah gives all the credit to his team, and you will hear stories of bravery, family, vulnerability, pressure, intensity, and courage like you never have before. ⁣ ⁣ The story of how the man who killed Bin Laden even got into the military, never mind the @usnavy and the Navy Seal Program will blow your mind! (he couldn’t swim when he signed on!)⁣ ⁣ We cover the entire mission in detail and great specificity, both from the technical and human side. We cover leadership, execution, teamwork, and training (this is loaded w business and team-building insights )⁣ ⁣ If you have seen the movie, Captain Phillips? ... incredibly… Robert was also a part of that mission and we cover the story behind that as well.⁣ ⁣ Quite simply, it’s one of the greatest interviews you will ever see in your life,⁣ on any topic, at any time.⁣ ⁣

This is the admiral show. Welcome back to Max out everybody. This is Ed Mylett. Today is not a normal program. I have a true American hero sitting across the table from it here today. So if you don't recognize this face, let me tell you who he is. This is Robert O'Neill. And we've had a lot of sports people on here, a lot of entertainers that in most people's

minds are heroes. And then in life you meet a real hero. He doesn't consider himself one, but he is one. And so let me give him the proper introduction just so you know who this man is. 52 decorations in the military, two silver stars, four bronze star medals with Valor, joint service combination medal with Valor, three presidential unit citations, two Navy Marine and Navy core combinations with Valor, service, 400 different combat missions, 400. If you've watched the movie Captain

Phillips, this is the first guy onto the boat. When the Somali pirates had that boat, if you've watched lone survivor with Marcus Lutrell, he was on that recovery mission and by the way he also killed Osama Bin Laden. And so thank you for being here. I appreciate that and like you mentioned too, it's not a hero thing. I was very fortunate to be with incredible teams. I know you mean. From all branch of the service. Then everyone was there. And the captain Phillips thing, I wasn't one of the, was not one of the shooters. I was the lead jumper for that. And the snipers that were there with really no time. We're just

were watching to make sure nothing unsafe happened when they shot which is incredible Yeah, and amazing journey all because of right place right time right place right time and right man Which we're gonna tell it today and so also thank you for your service It was not just being here. So thank you. How's that for a hero everybody? And so we're gonna get into the mind of this man today We're gonna talk about team building what he's up to today And obviously some of the great things that you've been a part of on the teams you were part of. And so all great things happen as being a part of a team. Both you and I know that. But then there's blessing when when we when the opportunity arrives,

we meet it with our preparation, which is what you did. That's exactly right. To meet it with your preparation, never the perfect plan because that's never going to happen. Like we we'll get into a later too, but the bin Laden raid, we had the perfect plan because that's never going to happen. Like we'll get into it later too, but the bin-lon rate, we have the perfect plan and nothing came to fruition. Nothing worked. Everything, the worst possible thing to happen happened. Wow. Okay.

Let's get right into that. Okay, let's do that first. Let me ask you before we get to that. I'm just curious. Why did you get in the military in the first place? That's another one too. It was never a plan. I was going to, I was actually playing college basketball and I was going to work with my dad when I got out of college and I got dumped by a girl and wanted to leave but Montana.

Come on. The first line in my book, The Operator, it says, I owe my career as a Navy SEAL to a girl. And that was an accident too because I didn't want to join the Navy. I wanted to join the Marines. Okay. I didn't want to join the Navy, I wanted to join the Marines. So I'm a hunter and I wanted to be a sniper. And Marine snipers call us half cock, you know, just kick ass. The uniformed Marines. So I went to join, and again, as luck would have it, the Marine Recruitment wasn't in there.

The Navy guy was sitting there. And the only reason that I went to the Navy guys, because I had two friends I grew up with, Ben and Jim, who were Marines, two years older. And they told me that the Marine Corps is actually part of the Department of the Navy. It's just the men's department. So I went to ask a Navy guy, where's he come back from lunch, and he goes, why do you want the Marine?

And I said, well, I want to be a sniper. And he's this clever recruiter. He was wearing a khaki, he's a Navy chief. Clever guys. And he goes, oh, we have snipers in the Navy looking a little further. And he slowly said, or quickly said, you need to become a Navy SEAL first, no big deal.

Then we'll send you to Sniper School. And I didn't know how to swim. Come on, all right. And this guy talking me into it, because I remember being so dumb, I'm like, I'm naive, but this guy's a professional recruiter. Why would he lie to me? Oh my gosh, that's great.

And that's it. And then when I got in, he showed me the videos. I'm like, holy crap. I mean, I don't know these straw, I can't swim. And I said, well, I'll be positive about it. I'll just, I'll go to San Diego. I'll see this cool training. I probably won't make it.

But then I'll go to the fleet and be in the Navy and have sea stories when I come back home to Melonies Bar. It'll be a Montana. But then I made it through. Are you mean, Sirius? That's what happened. So you ended up because the other recruiter no shows.

She wasn't there. We didn't know I was coming in. I just went in to leave town. Because of the girl. Yeah. Oh my god. And that story is kind of common. Well, both of them, that people went to join the army, but they went down, they joined

the Marine Corps. And like it's so funny, like 80% of the all-volunteer military is there because someone dumped them. That's unbelievable. And you became a Navy SEAL but couldn't swim. Well, I learned, I had five months from the time I signed to my left and I had a friend I went to high school with with his swim and Notre Dame. I rented him by luck too at the pool. He was like, I've never seen you at the pool before. What's going on? And I said, I just joined

the Navy. And I'm going to be a SEAL and he goes, oh, not like that, you're not. And he's teach taught me like the breaststroke. Unbelievable. So you know the breaststroke. I'm a sidestroke. Okay that's incredible. So I have the theory I tell people all the time I say that life doesn't happen for you or to you it happens for you right and these things all it's amazing that the guy who ends

up killing the most evil person of our time of the the modern time, ends up in the seal program by mistake by default because of a girl. If you figure this, a semi-decent-shaped white kid that can't swim from buty Montana becomes a Navy seal and ends up in Bin Laden's bedroom just because of a positive attitude. It doesn't matter what you look like or where you're from, you can do anything. Just keep your head in it. Avoid the negativity. Oh my God.

That's it. Oh my god. And that's proof. I mean, I call my book The Operator, not because I'm calling myself The Operator. I'm talking about the life of the operator. Every ranger, every green beret, every navy seal. And they all, the soarage are similar. And it's the two things, positive attitude, sense of humor.

Sense of humor? I did know that about you right when we met, too. Like, that's, I gotta say one thing about this book, The Operator, like, if you have not read it, I have, but if you've not read it, this is like, this is something once you start reading it, it's just the truth too. You cannot stop reading this book. It's actual real stuff. I read the book in a day, and I'm telling you, I was trying to get rid of other appointments I had to finish reading this book. I had a similar experience. My wife Jessica talked me into reading the audio book, too,

because she said, no one can tell your stories. You have to do it. And as I'm in the booth, they can hear every gurgle. And I read this book. I remember thinking, this is pretty good. I'm going to book it. You can go with your own life. It's my name.

This is pretty good. OK, so we now we know that life definitely happens for us. And that also the big things in our life never show up the way we envision that. And like in other words, when you were a 12 year old boy, this was your dream, your picture of what was gonna be a defining moment of your life was not being in a room

with Osama bin Laden, right? This is how amazing how when you just chase your dream, bust your ass, have positive attitude. Even being at a SEAL team, that could potentially get bin Laden when he was, we didn't know where the hell he was, and we were in Iraq fighting, and we would mess with people,

I was a battlefield interrogator, which means you take the house down, you get the man, and you question them, basically, you know, whatever waterboarding and all, and you know that stuff, but I remember messing with guys, and I would say like, who's the man at the house, where's the mosque, and I would say, where's the song bin Laden, and we would both laugh, like, no one knows where he is.

So even as a member of that team, it's incredible. We're not gonna ever, I'm never gonna get him. That's incredible. I'm never gonna be there. It's gonna be the army guys that get him. That's incredible. Okay, but you do get him.

So let's walk through that for a second. Okay, because you talk about preparation, positive attitude preparation. So you start, did you know when you were prepping? Yes. That you were prepping for him? They told us about three weeks before we left that it was been long.

And that was one of the coolest things, because at first, they started off with, they called us, we were all on, we just finished the deployment. I think it was my 12th combat deployment. And we run a diving trip in Miami. And we were always good about that too. After deployment, after war, we would do a training trip,

but it was always a good deal. Like diving in Miami, climbing in Vegas. Right. But the diving in Miami, by the way, the other thing we're being a seal is wanna say, you don't like sharks. I respect them now. I had a run in with one one time and that's enough.

But no, I mean, anyone that's been in the ocean has had a positive encounter with a shark and don't realize it. They're out there. They don't mess with you. They really do. It's usually by accident or a juvenile, a young, great white. The problem with the great white is he's curious and if they bite you, it's a, he's the

word devastating. It's unbelievable. Are you listening to this? It's unbelievable. I've never been attacked by a shark. I've seen them. Okay, so you're prepping. But we're so we're diving in Miami and they called the senior guys back.

Okay. So that was one of them. My number two was, my boss was there. And we sat in a room and the first thing they said as well, here's the deal. This isn't a drill. We found a thing and this thing is in a house. This house is in a bowl in some mountains near a lake in a country. And you guys are going to fly in there and you're going to get this thing

and you're going to bring it back. That's it. And so it actually started off, okay, no problem. What's the thing? Can't tell you, okay. Where's the bowl? Can't tell you what country can't tell you? How are we getting there? Can't tell you? And then we're like, how much air support do we have? And they said, well, none. And we're like, well, at least that's an answer. So we assumed it was Kadoffi. Because the air of Sprangestart at this March 2011, not even go kill Kadoffi because the Arab Spring started its March 2011 Not even go kill Kadoffi but like recover him or whatever they want to do but then eventually we started to put two and two together and and

We they drove us down to they gave us a day with a day at home with our kids and we drove down and then the commanding officer from from my Seal team he walked in the room as commas ever and said all right guys the reason you're here is this is as close as we've ever been to Osama bin Laden. What happened here body when you heard that? A little bit of a little bit of goose bumps but I've heard reports of chairs and high fives. It was I looked around and everyone is professional. These are very professional Navy seals and the first question was cool. Are we going right now? Let's do it. We're ready. And they said, well no you need to we need to show you everything. And then there are like five options.

Are we going to bomb them this way, bomb them that way? And they actually said, are you going to do a multilateral mission with the Pakistani military? And everyone laughed like, seriously? Right, right. You tell them that we're going to get them on. He's gone. He's gone. You will never find them.

And then they wanted us to train as a unilateral option. So the powers that we need wanted to see us train. Just to understand that. We knew we could go, we've been doing it every night for years. So we just started training, they had a site there and we're training on it, whatever. And we went there, we went to a place out west

that I'm not allowed to talk about. And then we forward launched to Jolabat Airfield just in case the president gave us the green light. And the president of Obama was really cool about it because there was one person that was sure, Ben Laden was there, and she was the famous three-liter agency woman. She was funny, and she was just that awesome,

because she would be like 100%. He's in this house on the third floor, why aren't we going now? Really? He's there. Is she the same as he's searing the movie? Yeah, looks a little different. Attractive, but different. Oh, total.

Total. Jessica Cheste nailed it. But yeah, my president Obama was one, and he was just cool later. He said, look, after hearing about your training, I wasn't 100% sure he was there, but I was 100% sure you guys could go in, find out, come back. Oh my gosh. That's why we got to call. How long was the training, the prep before you were?

Two weeks. Two weeks. And so then you ultimately end up getting a phone call, do they gather you in a room and say, we're going tomorrow or what? Well, we trained in two different areas. We had a train on those stealth helicopters that the pilots who don't get nearly enough credit,

because they'd never flown those before. Yeah. Didn't know about those before. But we knew we were going to go over there. I think it was on a Monday or a Tuesday. Just to be there, in case they call us, we're ready to launch from Afghanistan the closest base to the border. Okay. And so we knew we were going before it's stage.

And that's when we say goodbye to the kids, which is hard. Because we didn't think we were coming back from that mission. We thought it was, if we get the green light, it's a one-way mission. Let's talk about that for a second. You thought you were going to die. Yes. In fact, you knew you were going to die. I knew we weren't coming back.

And your teammates also know this as well, right? Yes, everyone was very... Why did you know that? Because there's... Well, we don't know if the technology works. We don't know how good their air defenses are. Maybe the young kid that's very aggressive is on the radar that night.

There are no checkpoints. People don't understand when you do a long range helicopter mission, they're usually checkpoints to refuel. They're none of those. So we have to be exact with the pounds of weight that we have. So we get shot down. If anyone's gonna blow himself up in his entire family

when the team's in the house, it'd been long, we'll do it. Margar himself in his entire family. We run out of fuel, and there's 23 guys in Pakistan. We invaded them, we have nowhere to go. We end our lives in a Pakistani prison. We don't know what's going, so, but we accepted it, and the way that I,

the way that I always explained those. The guys are not great scenarios. And, but we're going because we, I had a guy on the way that I the way that I always I was not great scenario. And but we're going because we I had a guy on the team that actually he ended up being the guy that was in front of me going up the stairs the last set of stairs that said don't get me wrong. I'm not I'm going 100% going on the mission, but I have to say this out loud to hear it. If we know we're going to die, why are we going? What did you say?

So we had a conversation a bunch of us and what we decided was the best way to put it into perspective we know we're going to die, why are we going? What did you say? So we had a conversation, a bunch of us, and what we decided was the best way to put it into perspective is we're not going after being law and for fame, we're not going after being law and for money. We are going for the single mom who dropped her kids off at elementary school on a brilliant Tuesday morning, and 45 minutes later she jumped to her death out of a skyscraper, because that was a better alternative than 2500 degrees Fahrenheit inside her last gesture of human decency was to hold her skirt to her knees so that no one could see her underwear as she killed herself and we said she wasn't supposed to do that she's not supposed to be in the fight we're supposed to be in the fight and that's why we're going

and then if you think about it too it's's almost like the the Braveheart speech. If I could give every day from being 34 to 90 If I lived in 90 and I looked back on that one day and I didn't go Yeah, I would give all those days to go on this mission. This is why we're here. This is what we're doing This is why we joined this is not a movie though. You're real man. Oh, yeah, and these are real decisions And it was just the it wasn't fear on this one. It was focused. And even when we launched, it wasn't the, because we'd been to war every single guy had hundreds of missions. But before this one, we all hugged each other. And it just, uh,

Did you really? And you fed earlier, I was gonna ask you about this, because I say, good night to my children, but I'm gonna see them again. You've literally said goodbye. Goodbye. Looking in the eyes. And you're,

And every time you've done anything, there's one daughter that was. Goodbye. Looking in the eyes. And you're at the time of you don't you think? There's one daughter that was always involved. I have three daughters. I don't want to talk about them too much for having some reasons here. But one was just there all the time. And when I left for that, she was seven. And I wrote her a letter. But I didn't write it to the seven-year-old. I wrote it to the 27-year-old. I'm really sorry I missed your wedding. I know you were beautiful. Thank you for taking care missed your wedding. I know you were beautiful. Thank you for taking care of your sisters. What we did was normal.

And one of my regrets in life is that when I get soon, and when I finish these letters, I wrote them to everybody in my family. I had a hand on them too. I had to find someone I could trust on the base. Because the guy's going with me. They're not coming back either. They're dying too.

Oh my gosh. And I, definite instructions, what to do when you'll, he didn't even know what we were doing. You couldn't tell him. But it's like, you'll know, you need to keep these. As soon as I got back, I shredded them. And I wish I would have kept them. You wish you would have kept them.

Yeah. I just don't want to read them again. It wasn't a happy talk. That's got to be an amazing experience even to this day. I have been writing those letters thinking. It's a tough one. Tears are hitting the page. Is that right? Yeah. And this is something they're going to keep forever. It's a tough one. Tears are hitting the page. Is that right? Yeah.

And this is something they're going to keep forever. Oh my gosh. Yeah, of course they are. And I'm writing them. This is the last communication with them. And then, then we're on. And it's just, I mean, it was. The feeling was so cool because when President George Bush

addressed the world on 9-11, his quote, and I have a tattoo, it says, freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward and freedom will be defended. And when he said freedom would be defended, he meant everyone, and that team represented everyone. Oh my gosh brother. Yeah, not crazy.

Unbelievable. That's the intensity that we've, it wasn't, we weren't scared. We were fired up. You were going there to die, but you were fired up and, we're gonna kill him too. And he deserves it.

Oh my gosh. So you get the call, and now, as I understand it, there's this helicopter right over and it's not a short moment. It's 90 minutes, right? And so there's all kinds of situations that could happen on the way over there as well. I'm curious. That's one of the pilots coming too because they're flying very low. Okay. And they're flying technology that they're not, you know, they flown helicopters. They're the best four pilots in the world. In the world. And Army, I'll give Army a shout out. They're the best four pilots in the world. And Army, I'll give Army a shout out. They have the best helicopter pilots in the world.

That's what I love about the military too. The best Air Force in the world is the US Air Force, the second best Air Force is the US Navy. The US Army. They're the smart guys. They're the guys that need to get us there. And we're in back and was really unique about this team. As guys have been in comment so much,

we realize you gotta get rid of the noise. Get rid of the stuff that doesn't matter like getting shot down you worrying about that will not stop it so knock it off so guys fell asleep guys fell asleep on the ride to bin Laden's house my god yeah oh my god and you have a focus and sleep I'll miss sleep guys put their iPods in chill I was counting you count it and now that I've read enough about military stuff, not being a military person, that that's actually something kind of the senior guys

passed down sometimes to junior guys. Did you learn that from somebody? I learned it on my own as a sniper in Kosovo. Because right around 9-11, we were in Kosovo, there was obviously stuff going there in Bosnial. And we, snipers not really a great work, but we were observing different areas. So basically you're hiding and you're looking through a scope for four hours on, four

hours off. And as you're looking, it's four hours of looking, it's like, I just count. You count. Okay, so, did you not then eventually sort of repeat that phrase to yourself, too? Well, I did, because that's how I remembered it. Was we were 80 minutes in and we'd back to the South. And I was just like, you know, 456, 457, 458 freedom itself was attacked this morning by a face of scale. I don't know how I remembered it.

God bless you man. And yeah, so then that's when it sort of sunk in. It's like, I'm actually on this mission. You were, that's when it sunk in. Yeah, we're going after, and then it got better because we open the door at two minutes out, they'll go to the aircrew. Yeah.

And that's how other people that don't get credit. They put their butts in the seat too. The aircrew guys, we wouldn't figure the doors out. These guys did it. So they open the door and then you see the city and there's lights, this is a resort town. There's a golf course. Is that right?

And it sort of hit me and I was like, this is some serious Navy SEAL. Shit, we're about to go out. Oh my god. Yeah, we're like, and then everything was great and then it all hit the fan. Helicopter crash landed in the front yard. Yes.

And did you know that? No, no, no. So this be everyone understand this. So the helicopter in front of you crashed. This was clearly not part of the plan. It was a crash landing. Crash landing. He crashed on the wall or something.

Yeah, the pilot was so good that, unless in a second, he realized he couldn't hover. Then he realized if he tries to power up, he explained this to me, I'm not a pilot. That if he tries to power up, it's gonna roll. And everyone dies. He knew if he spun it, he could put the tail on the wall and pin it to the ground.

That's unreal. That's unreal. Save everyone's life. That's unreal. You know what I'm saying real. Save everyone's life. That's unreal. You know what I'm saying, too, is we'd practice fast-rope, which is, you know, they put the rope out in your slide down like a fireman's bolt. So much that like my tendons were done.

Yeah. We practiced fast-rope and more than I've ever trained. The only person that fast-rope on the bin Laden mission was the pilot. Because when he crashed it, he had to get the rope and set it down. Oh my god. And so that happened, and then our pilot saw that.

You didn't know. We didn't know. And so our plan was they were going to put our snipers and our dog Kyro outside and then they're going to put us up on the rooftop. And we knew our team would be coming from the bottom. We're from the top. We're going to get them that way. He can't get out.

That's the perfect plan. Never happened. Our pilot saw that and as we were going to let, he put right back down. And just because of the effective communication nonverbal communication I guess we're getting out here. I remember putting my right foot on the ground and saying I guess we start the war from here. My gosh. And then we go to the Northeast corner. We knew the place inside of it. It was nice that we trained so much because we knew everything about it. We knew there was a double door on the Northeast corner.

So we went over that. Our breacher took a, I think, a seven-foot charge of C6, put it on the door, and he blew it in an open, like a tin can, but there's a brick wall behind it. So it's a fake door. Fake door. And the breacher actually said, failed breach. This is bad, and I said, no, this is good. That's a fake.

He's in there. Oh, it's good because that means he is here. He's baking a door. He's there. That means it's due here. And it was funny. We'd actually, we talked about senses of, we'd joked about crap like that. Like, what if we get in the house and the hall,

we get smaller and smaller and smaller and also the door's this big and like, I've been lotting you. Yeah. But you're, there's not a lot of that going on. So on the way over, there's no ra ra session on the way over. Everyone's getting in their focus, they're sleepin', they're counting it.

I had one of my guys say, no, I'm not nervous, we do this every night. We fly some, we fuck with some people, we fly back. He just goes, this is a longer flight. Okay, so this is the wrong, though. So then we, now when we got to this point, we heard the helicopter saying, we thought they were saying dash one going around, dash one going around, meaning they came into hover,

this dash one we're dashed to, and they took fire, so we thought they were going around. Race track, re-attack, but what they were saying was dash one going around meaning they came into hover and this dash one were dash two and they took fire So we thought they were going around race track re-attack But what they were saying was dash one going down down down down so we said to them because we thought they were flying We're just okay. There's another. There's a car port is what we called it another double door that we knew worked Because the imagery showed them driving in a not of it and we said all right We're gonna blow the car port now, okay, and they said don't blow it. We'll just open it the other guys because they because they're inside now. But we didn't know that. And it didn't make sense. And the door open, and then the thumb comes out. Now, this is another point in life. It didn't make sense why they're there, but that doesn't matter, because they're there. We'll just, we'll just, let's deal with the problem,

we'll talk about it later. We're worrying about how this happened. We're just here. So we should go in. None of it, well, I didn't, and a couple other guys on the helicopter, we're just here. So we started going in, another one, well, I didn't, and a couple other guys on the helicopter, we didn't know they crashed, but they're in there. So we started, now my guys have been in gun fights, they already killed three of the terrorists before I got in there, and I was fortunate because of my position now, I'm in the back, I have a front row seat to the coolest mission in modern history. Yes. So we could win, and we're looking down a long haul, we're in Binlon's house. Yes. And we're looking around for bombs and stuff, when's it going to blow up?

Yes. But I was so impressed. My guys were so cool. No one cared about the bombs. They're doing their job. And I remember thinking about how cool they are, and they're thinking slow as smooth, smooth as fast. Watch these guys work.

And as I'm thinking this, I ducked into a room to look down the hallway, because don't stand in a hallway. They'll shoot down the hallway. The guy next to me said, helicopter crashed. And now I'm thinking, we had two big helicopters, two Chinooks, 45 minutes behind us, full of other seals.

In case we need to, whatever. So I'm assuming they crashed, they got shot down, because they're not stealth helicopters. So I said, what helicopter crashed? And he goes, bro, our helicopter crashed in the front yard, you walked right past it. Wow. And as I'm processing this, bro, our helicopter crashed in the front yard. You walked right past it. Wow. And as I'm processing this, one of our snipers from my helicopter,

he was running around the entire compound to keep a plumber. He had a dog with him and a dog handler. And he got to that famous spot where the tail was hanging over. Yes. And he came over the radio and he didn't know it crashed him. He said, guys, beyond alert. They are definitely ready for us. They have a, they have a training mock up of our super secret helicopter in the front.

And there's a pause. No way. And the boss goes, no, you jackass. That's ours. We crashed. No way. And he comes over and goes, yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Oh, my God. And I'm in the house. Like, what are we talking about? That's crazy. And so you're hearing this. You're looking down this hallway. Probably at the end of that hallway somewhere is Osama bin Laden, right? Well, the hallway is going to be a stairwell. A stairwell.

What's your heart rate right now? You find, are you serious? Yeah, we've been, because of your preparation. Well, yeah, we've been in so many fights before. It's like you didn't really get adrenaline. You're more aware, but it's just more exciting. It's not scared. OK.

At this point, there's a series of emotions that happen right here, because the female analyst who found Bin Laden said, I don't know what the inside of the house looks like, but you will find some stairs. And when you find the stairs, you will run into Khalid Bin Laden, who's 20 years of his son. And here's how cool she was. She said, that will be the last line of defense. If you eliminate that threat,

you will get a shot at the big guy. That's awesome. So we got in through the door. They breached it. We're going up the stairs. And I'm about eight guys back. So I'm still in the back. They sock-a-lead, he was armed,

and he ducked behind a banister. Now it's dark. It's very quiet. We don't talk to each other. And there's a guy up for the point men. And normally in an urban environment, in a house fighting upstairs, I'm gonna grab all the guys back

and let like two or three handled it. Cause if they chuck a grenade, they come down. Don't fight up. And, but now I'm like, I'm gonna die anyway. And I gotta watch this. I gotta see how it's gonna pin the thing, was he gonna run that on, and we're just sitting there and he he whispered to Khalid he said Khalid come here Khalid come here in two different languages

he knew come here in in in Erdo and Erbeck. He's that why he was where he was? No he just was that smart operator and that confused Khalid so Khalid leaned his head over to ask what? He shot him. Oh my gosh. I never would have thought of that. That was really cool. It was brilliant. That was the coolest thing I'd ever seen in my life up until about a minute later. But what's about to happen, right?

Yeah, so we go upstairs, stepped over Khalid, and then we got to the second floor, and then there's a final stairwell going up. The point man stayed there, he's gonna keep security, and other guys are gonna clear the second floor, because you don't wanna move past it, clear that. And then that's everyone in front of me, and on guys are gonna clear the second floor, because you don't want to move past it, clear that. And then that's everyone in front of me, and on the last guy, I added a what we call the two men.

So the one man's there, I'm the two man, and that's when I put my hand on his shoulder, because his job is to look forward, my job is to look behind us. And when we have enough guys, I will squeeze you, so you know without looking, it's time to go. But it's just us, we're out of guys. We don't have enough guys in the house this big. And he started talking. He's like, hey, we gotta go.

We gotta get up there. Because there's a curtain at the top of the stairs. And he's seeing people moving behind it. They've gotta be suicide bombers. Maybe we can beat him. Maybe we can beat him. So he's convincing me. We gotta go.

And finally, and I don't know what he was thinking. He's just a complete badass. But I wasn't thinking bravery. I'm thinking, all right, we're going to get blown up now. Man, I'm tired of thinking about it. Let's get it over with. And so I squeezed him.

We're at the stairs. Let's go. Let's go. Him and me. We're at the stairs. He opened the curtain, and there was two or three people that turned out to be women, but when they're suicide bombers, it doesn't matter. So he jumped on them, and he tackled them.

He's dying. He's jumping on the bed. He thinks he's dying. He's still going for an egg. He's absorbing, absorbing as much of the blast as he can for the guy behind him. He didn't know it was me. So because, and this is simply how I got there, because he went that way, my job is to go that way, based on our tactics. I wasn't, I wasn't bravado. I just turned and there's some of the londstani there. And he's got his hands on his wife's shoulders and he's sort of pushing her. I don't know what he's doing, but when I go through the rules of engagement,

the levels, escalation of force, I can close my eyes and see it. It's he's taller than I thought. He's skinnier than I thought. That his beard is shorter and gray. That's his nose, that has been laden. He's not surrendering, he's a threat.

I need to kill him. And the way you hand, I've gotten a little criticism about, well you shot him in the face and what about recognition, people that say that and I've never dealt with a suicide bomber. I've dealt with suicide bombers very fast, very sudden, loud, scary and permanent. So I shot him in the face twice, shot him again, and I've moved his wife. Why do you have his hands on her shoulders? I don't know, I don't know if he was using his shield. I don't know if he was using his shield.

I don't know. But I've moved his wife to the bed to sit her down. And when I looked over his two-year-old son was standing there. And as a father, I remember thinking this poor kid has nothing to do with this. And he shouldn't have seen that. So I picked him up. Oh my gosh.

And I put him next to his friend. Other Navy SEALs are now coming in the room. And that's when it hit me. So I'm him up. Oh my gosh. And I put him next to his friend other Navy SEALs are now coming in the room and That's what hit me So I'm I'm standing there and a buddy of mine saw me just and it's kind of depicted in the movie. It's pretty funny They came up to me and he said are you good? Mm-hmm, and I said no. Um, what do we do now? I'm not gonna days and he said he laughed. He smiled. This big smile. He goes now we go find the computers We do this every night and I went went, yeah, you're right, I'm back, holy shit.

And he goes, yeah, you just killed a somber lot, and then your life just changed. Oh, that was it, then we get back to work. And it was just awesome because how cool the guys are, it's not like, hey, this guy killed a lot, no cares, we got him. We got him. But then the emotions were not brave,

let's get it over with, to complete shock, to now we might live. We might get to see our kids again. Oh my God, look at face. That's the first time in face change. So we gathered this stuff, they had about three offices in the second floor, we're gathering everything from anything electronic, smashing hard drives to get, or smashing towers with hard drives, anything. And then we put him in a body bag, myself and three of the guys walked him out. You walked him out.

Yeah, we carried him out. Can we go back for a second? I just want to ask you, when you shot him, I'm just curious, there's this moment. So you, it's him. Yeah. You've got your finger on a trigger, I suppose. Is there any, can you remember, can you process, was there any emotion at that time, any thought in your mind, or are you

just executing what you've been prepared to do? I was, I had a feeling he was off to the right when I turned and when I saw him, had he like had no shirt on and surrendering, he's getting taken alive. Yeah. But there's just, there is such a, suicide bombers have, uh, by terrorists have less than a second to convince you not to kill them. Of course. And it's just, it's one of those things. It's a different dynamic. You get into Russia at that point, is your adrenaline finally kicking in these moments, or are you just executing what you're doing? Do what we do. The motions came, you know, 10 seconds later. Okay. So, um, yeah, so you're,

now you're like, we might get out of here. Yeah, now let's find the stuff as quick as we can and leave. Okay. So we find the stuff we brought him out.'re like we might get out of here. Yeah, now let's find the stuff as quick as we can leave Okay, so we find stuff we brought him out you carry him out of there Yeah, we actually carried him out and put him at the feet of the sniper who initiated the fire rescue in Richard Phillips Which is really cool? Mm-hmm, and then I remember actually running back in the house and saying guys it is time We've got to leave forget about the women and children Let's go because we had the guns with us, we took the guns that we found.

And then we get on the helicopters. And when we got out there, there was a dude that was tweeting a Pakistani dude. He's outside live tweeting, and I forget his name, but you can still see it on the internet. And he sang stuff like, why are the Pakistanis doing military drills on a Sunday night? No.

And I'm looking at this guy, his face is lit up with his phone. And normally in a combat zone, I rack Afghanistan, if someone's outside of a target with a phone out, you shoot him because they're setting off a car bomb. But I looked at this guy and I'm like, they have no idea over here. No way.

Yeah, so then we get the helicopters and we fly out. It's not the same helicopter. No, it's different. The guys that I talked about that I thought got shot down came in to get us, which is awesome. Seals getting seals. Yeah, so we get on the helicopter. I talked about that I thought I shot down, came in to get us, which is awesome. Seals getting seals. Yeah. So we get on the helicopter, I'm sitting on top of the sniper with the Captain Phillips thing.

Well he was cool too, because he had a little problem dealing with that, something that high profile after he killed, you know, and you know there's jealousy in there with guys at that level and I kept telling him, and you were a hero. Don't listen to to the negativity you're a hero and and like I would always give him Copenhagen I used to dip at the time. So now I'm laying on top of him and I'm Still processing what just went down. He hands me Copenhagen says hey have one of mine now you know what it's like to be here Seal next to me from the other seal team that came to get us. He, I know him well, he's from Manhattan. And he asked me the first question

that every neighbor CL asked when they found out about the mission, he said, who got him? And I said, I did. And he said on behalf of my family, thank you. Now we're flying out. And you realize we got 90 minutes. And you're still in there airspace. Well, we just took off, right?

We have not 90 minutes. Yeah, you're in Pakistani airspace though. We fly now, right? But if we cross the border in 90 minutes, we have 50 years of life. So we take off. Everyone starts to watch as no one's talking. You're just looking at your watch. 10 minutes. It's been 20 minutes. It's been 30 minutes. It's been 40 minutes. And then you start to think like the no-hitter you're watching get pitch to Yankee Stadium top of the six. I'm not going to say anything but 50 minutes, 60, 70, 80. And then I love sports analogies. I was, it's like miracle on ice when you can hear the crowd counting down when the Americans are beating the Russians. Lake Plasa 10, 9. And then the pilot came over the radio, it's cool as pilots already,

he said, all right gentlemen, for the first time in your lives, you're gonna be happy to hear this. Welcome to Afghanistan. My God. So then we cheer, and then we get back. We land, the other guys came in, because they had to stop and refuel the other stealth bird.

They land, we're all there, known as her. Oh my gosh. I had a brief talk with the, here's my one problem with the movie, the Zero Dark 30. At the end of the movie, they have the woman that found him go up to the body and she gets emotional and she cries and she leaves. That's not what happened.

We get back, I'm talking to the point man, we kind of debrief each other on what the hell happened on those stairs because it's him and me. And then he goes, well, hey, there she is. He goes, you need to give her something because you own this, this is what he said. So we walk over and I pull the magazine out on my gun, holding the bullet to kill bin Laden. I jacked the last one out and I said, do you have room for this in your backpack? And she looked up, cool as average goes, yeah, I think so. Then we were the ones that walked her over to the body. And as we're walking over and starting to sink in that, that that this woman gave her life for him.

She, no husband, no kids, 20 hour days for years to find this guy. Then it's like, well, this is historic too. This is like Evojima. This is Norman. This is Washington Cross in the Delaware when he took fight the Hessians. So I got to save some cool.

So we walk over and we look down and all I said was, is that your guy? She looked down for a second and a half and said, well, I guess I'm out of a fucking job. And really save that awesome. Come on. That's how cool she was. This is the best story I've ever heard of you. No, that's the best story of all time. So we hear the best story of all time. Thank you. I mean, thank you. It's incredible what happened. And what's cool is I just got to watch everything. The guys were working.

I turned a corner shot three times and we left. Well, brother, OK. You should have seen those guys breaking those doors down. So cool. But one quick thing, just about the families, because we got back to see the kids, we were a year to the day after the bin Laden raid. I had my kids at Great Wolf Lodge, which is a water park.

And we have the news on, one year anniversary, we're all getting changed to go swim, have a great day, and they got beer there, so I'm excited. And the news is on, and they said, okay, it's the one year anniversary of the night bin Laden was killed. So we're taking viewer email right now,

the best story of where you were when you found out that I was dead. Tell us, my daughter flipped out of the way. She goes, oh my god, Dad, you've got the email now. And tell them you were in a bedroom. I was in the bedroom. Oh my god, I've just, it's, look, I've sat across from a lot of people

and I've heard a lot of stories. I mean, even look at our guys, it's just like, it's just unreal. And the way you tell it with such incredible humility is just beyond belief. And I understand clearly that this would not have happened just with you. It was honestly all the preparation,

the intelligence, the team building, all of those things. But it's hard even for me to process how humble you are about having. I mean, I first want to thank you. On behalf of all of these families who lost so many people, and it's just unreal to me that the caliber of man that's involved in this mission and how humble they are about it just absolutely blows my mind. I'm looking at even our folks.

It's just unreal. And to this day that you still have this sense of humility about it, you know. I mean, it was obvious that the team, the people that found them, the pilots, like the guys that went in, we're smart enough to carry guns in a sledgehammer. And we got, I mean, obviously I'm down top in the open.

They, the guys there were just, the team was incredible. Who thinks that this guy walks into a military recruiting office Is going to do a different branch of the military Can't swim ends up becoming a seal ends up doing 400 different combat missions Probably the most significant of all of them is this one and you end up being the man God called on whoever called on to be the point man to And this man's life is just called on whoever called on to be the point man to end this man's life is just un-freaking believe it's a crazy story it's to the point now to with it's

like there's no way we did that I just know the story yeah yeah we how did that happen I can close my eyes and see it I can see something on anytime I want I can close my eyes and and smell the stairs what it was like going up that last few steps of life. But then getting life after I can die. When you squeeze this man, you're probably dying. Yes, right? You're probably dying.

We're gonna go down below. They're waiting for us. They're baiting us in. That's when they're setting off the house born improvise explosive device. This is it. I'm done worrying about it. It's interesting for me.

It's a bizarre takeaway of the things I'm listening to your story. And obviously I can't relate to any other because I'm not that caliber of a man. My emotions wouldn't be as calm. I don't have your preparation. I don't have your mindset. I don't have your background.

It's interesting that the point that still gives me fear is I hear the story. I'm just saying that maybe no one's told you this before is this the regular guy, right? Is now he's dead, right? My fear level almost increased there to oddly. So like you were executing a plan prior. Now he's dead.

The part that you said that, you know, we might really live, that was the part where, just for me, my fear went up like, now we're in this house, clearly this event's taken place. Probably someone knows this has been happening. There's a clock ticking. Then I'd be more, I'd be afraid when I got on the helicopter.

Oh yeah, because I think I'm here. Right, now I'm the unknown's happening too. I have heard stories and again, probably classified. I don't know the truth, but I have heard stories that they did have air support. Okay. Helping us get back. We didn't know that.

I knew there were jets on the border, but that's not gonna help us back here. But I think if an American and an F-15 lights up a Pakistan again and F-16, I think they will turn around. But I don't know. But let's take away some lessons from all of us. It's the best story I've ever heard, and thank you for sharing it with me. I feel blessed that I'm with you.

Thank you. I mean that. Can I ask you some hard things? Oh, absolutely. Just to just curious of your opinion. That's the best time. I'm curious of your opinion of a few things. And I've just always wondered this.

Are you, I did not know that you showed her his body. That's fascinating to me. When I heard the whole story of what happened there, the part of me that went, that sounds odd to me, was the fact that he was dumped in the ocean afterwards. Yeah. And you confirmed that? Yeah, I am. dumped in the ocean afterwards. Can you confirm that? And do you or do you not know?

We gave him, in Bogom Airfield, to some of our army counterparts that brought out and put him to sea, and I've seen the coordinates. I wasn't there for the burial, but I have heard from people that it definitely happened. And you believe that stuff? Oh, yeah, 100%. I believe it.

It's just interesting why we would do that. 100% I believe it. It's just interesting why we would do that, because they said they don't want to shrine to bin Laden. But if you do a little research and realize he was a Wahhabists, they don't do shrines. They don't do names on anything, because you do not have a shrine to false idols. It's just a law.

That's why you can't even draw a picture of Muhammad, because he's not a law. He's a messenger. And that's, so that that I don't know now. We do have pictures There are a lot of pictures and they're in a file cabinet and Langley and I really hope to get released is that right So that's a someday at some point that would be classified stuff and somebody will see it. Okay, someone will need to get elected Yeah, or something Okay, but they'll definitely and I mean I've seen the pictures I Know people in Congress I've seen the pictures.

I know people in Congress who have seen the pictures. Okay. The other way though, the body thing I did just simply because I didn't see it, but I know that. Yeah, okay, you know what happened. And then the second thing I'm just curious about, this is a hard question because, and I'm not going to debate you on it or anything like that, I'm just curious of your opinion. Okay.

Because you and I are talking off-camera about our political beliefs. We both have some really conservative beliefs and some pretty liberal beliefs. Yes, both of us do, right? We're not one way or the other, but I'm curious that the story that you hear, and I are talking off-camera about our political beliefs. We both have some really conservative beliefs and some pretty liberal beliefs. Both of us do, right? We're not one way or the other, but I'm curious that the story that you hear is that there was probably some enhanced interrogation stuff that made them led to the intelligence. A, do you believe that's true? Yes, I notice.

That is true. And so how does that paint your feelings about those tactics going? Because right now, when this release will be a little bit after, but this is pretty of it. It's a prominent thing right now in the media right now with a lady heading into the CIA and her taking a lot of flack for those techniques that probably produced the story you just told me.

How do you feel about that? Enhance interrogation works. And it's administered by doctors. It's not like they have them in a cage and someone's whipping them. They're a stress-position sleep deprivation and water boarding. That's not like they have them in a cage and someone's whipping them. They're a stress-positioned sleep deprivation and waterboarding. That's a serious school for us.

Survival evasion resistance escape. They teach you what it's like. And the thing about waterboarding, not being tortured, is that as soon as you decide, it all ends, and there's no damage. It just really, really sucks. But you figure out, well, if I just tell them stuff, they're going to not do it.

Now, torture doesn't work, and I'll admit that because it's so, but tortures power drills and blow torches. You're saying anything to make them stop. With water warnings, it's over and you're good. And then you have tea. That's it. And even guys like, I know the doctor who interrogated Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9-11, and what Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, and these leaders are not kind of, don't get me wrong, they're

very charismatic. They're people love get me wrong they're very charismatic and their people love them and their true believers yes they're doing it for religious reasons yes and clead shake Muhammad said to dr. Mitchell I don't know why you guys think he just come in here and bring cookies and win hearts and minds he explained to them that this is what we're doing like he cut off Daniel Pearl's head with these blessed hands is the way he said it. And because he's going to heaven and it's a very selfish thing to do. And he even asked him to the point where why do you why do the senior leaders never blow

themselves up? Why is it always junior guys? And he said he explained it in some sort of pyramid scheme where if you can convince someone to do it, you get more of their heaven. Is that right? I started calling it anway for Allah. Oh, my God. But that's what he's calling it anway for Allah. Oh my God. But he's like, we believe.

This is what, and actually believe this. This is what waterboarding works, and it led to been lunch. And have they captured you while you were there, you probably weren't going to just be waterboarding. No. Right? Well, we have. And I don't mean by just waterboarding,

but there's probably something coming far more severe for you guys. We have a saying that in gunfights, save at least one bullet for yourself, because you do not want to get captured. I mean, just cutting your head off is a nice way out. They're sadistic. I don't know. I don't know.

I'm like thinking about it. Yeah. You're making me think about it as you say, which by the way, makes the story more compelling when you squeeze him, because there's all kinds of things that could happen. You could have been blown up there. You could have been captured. It's just it's unbelievable. So thank you so much.

Now, I want to continue the conversation a little bit because you have a chance. This is team building. Yeah. This is leadership. This is execution. So there's all kinds of people in the business space that can tell you some, it's sort of silly

even to say right now. Some theories about how to build a team and how to execute and how to prep. And then there's like real-world business application. And then there's like real-world, change the world team building, business preparation, and execution of a plan, which is what you've been a part of. And so talk a little bit for a second.

First off, in your case, they can learn from you. In other words, you don't have to just watch this interview. They can get access to you. You can come and tell them the different venues just for a second. First off, in your case, they can learn from you. In other words, you don't have to just watch this interview. They can get access to you. You can come and tell them the different venues just for a second. I want to make sure they know one is your book. Right? That's a huge place. Second place, those you come speak. Yes. And when he speaks, just so you know, he's not only a great speaker, but like when you listen to him speak, you're going to write pages of stuff. It It's not just anecdotal stories like you've just heard. Every story is related to a point of building a team. So, how do they find you to speak, number one, and where do they find you on social media

as well? I work with leading authorities out of Washington, DC. That's leading authorities, I believe, or Lauthorities.com. I'm leading authorities, Google search, I'll do that. RobertJoneal.com, because if it's not a keynote presentation, and I do authorities, I believe, or L authorities.com, leading authorities, Google search, we'll do that. RobertJoneal.com, because if it's not a keynote presentation, and I do stuff, I show up for workshops or even dinners just to sand around and talk, so RobertJoneal.com is there.

And then the social media is the funny one. It's so fun. It's Micuya, MCH, O-Y-A-H, and the reason it's Micuya happened. The reason it's Micuya is,AH is because in sealed training people say, who ya? You stop saying when you're done with training, just like shit mate. I love the word shit mate, but you say it all the time.

But anyway, MCHOYAH is the Irish who ya. O'Neil's Irish and MCHOYAH is the Irish who ya. And so buddies of mine convinced me to get on Twitter just because the seven of us couldn't mess with each other. And tweet stuff out with seven followers. And then my name leaked, it's killing Ben Laden. I woke up with like 15,000 followers. That's so crazy. All right, I guess I'm keeping Mikuya.

That's why it's entertaining and informative social media, too, you need to follow him. Yeah, there's more entertainment than anything. I'm not, I would agree with that. This is informative, that stuff's more entertaining, but it's awesome stuff. I use the long long flights to keep myself entertained. It's so good in your content.

Like for me, you know, I've been in this space for a long time. For me, they're honestly to you. Like I really learn things when someone speaks. I really learn things because I believe, like if I go to a gym, I want to be trained by someone who's fit. I've always think it's funny when I go to a gym and the trainer there isn't in shape themselves.

Or I want a business mentor, but they're not successful or wealthy themselves. Like show me your results. I think we can safely say that you understand leadership, team building, and execution of a plan in preparation. I think that's it. And that was just because of my mentors

that I had working places, because I would, even the first few gun fights I was in watching my senior guys, senior Navy SEALs, how cool they were, and I was like, well, I want to be that cool. Well, I'm going to do what he does. I want to be that cool. I'm gonna do what he does. I'm gonna learn from him, what are his habits?

And what is different about, be real firm. Just a second here, take the humble hat off. Marcus Lutrell, yourself, the SEAL who was in front of you, any of the SEALs on this raid, any of them anywhere. What, because you meet, you know those guys, and then you know other guys. You went to high school, what they really good do. Right, I do. What? Because you meet, you know those guys, and then you know other guys. You went to high school with a really good dude. Yeah, I did.

What's the difference? The difference is, I think the thought that every day I get to go to work with people who are better than me, and I'm not gonna undermine them. I'm gonna try to beat them. And a lot of, I mean, these are complete alpha guys, but they knew that it was important as a team to be nice to each other, be good to each other.

I had bosses, two things one of my bosses would say is he'd say, please, and thank you. You don't need to say that in the military, and he would always say nobody ever worked for me, they worked with me. And just that's the mentality of a team, it's almost like, I mean, it's weird because guys do get credit for stuff,

but as long as you don't care who gets credit, as long as the team succeeds, that's kind of the mentality. And I mean, guys show up on TimeStayLate and the gears always write, they're just meticulous. Meticulous, you think that's a big difference. Well, I mean too, with the Captain Phillips raid. Yeah.

That team had never done a rescue. We were designed to rescue since 1980, so over 25 years it had never been done. And the snipers that took those shots, three days prior were in their beds in Virginia Beach, and their guns didn't need to be sited in for the most difficult shots of their lives, but their guns were sited in for the most difficult shots of their lives because they were prepared. It might happen.

I mean, it's a long weekend. It was my birthday when we left. I mean, I'll just take a day off and take care of my gear on Tuesday, but we didn't do that because that's a shortcut. This is not about that for a second. I want you to picture this because these are humans. So you hear the story and it is a movie, but it wasn't a movie when it happened. He's like a real man. He has real family. He had a real upbringing. He has real insecurities, real weaknesses and strengths, real, I mean, even fears, right? So this is a real person

likes you, right? And so he's been able to achieve extraordinary things in his life. I wanna take this moment now, for you just to picture this for a second. Tell them the story, and I love this, about where you were and what you were doing, because it humanizes this, you know,

I think people see you, and I think they think I'm just not like him. And there are things about you that you've built that are muscles mentally and physically you've built that are different than other people, many of which you're not even aware of. Because it's probably because who you are, right? But he's also a father, he's a husband, he makes mistakes in his life, right? He's all these different things. Tell him just picture this.

You guys have all probably seen the movie Captain Phillips, right? So he was a part of that. I just want you to picture this for a second. Just think about it. You think a James Bond movie and you think this stuff is sort of bizarre. It doesn't really work this way. And then just when you picture this, tell him where you were and what you were doing when you got the call to go do it. It was my birthday April 10th and it was good Friday. And my daughter's Easter Tea Party at her preschool. In line, in a buffet line with sailors and Marines who have kids in the class and we're getting cookies and cupcakes for them and bringing them tea.

And I was walking over to my daughter when I got the message that didn't say it like this. We had a code, but that Captain Richard Phillips had been taken by Somali pirates and you guys are going right now. And we'd been selling this technology, that like I said, we never done it. We trained for it all the time, but from the time you get the message to the time wheels up and we're going, we sold it. We've been selling it for decades, four hours.

We were wheels up in three hours and 59 minutes. Oh my gosh. So we got to make it like this, and then 15 hours and 46 minutes after I got the message, we're in the Indian Ocean with a full head count. 103 guys. And like, they're saying, but just to back up, there were guys out there that were mowing their lawns when they got the call.

Like these are real guys, the can of four of the mortgage. And they're mowing their own lawn, and then they're off. Unreal. And you don't know what's gonna happen when you go over there. It's just like, it's, it's, the reason it's so inspiring for me, like mind blowing number one, you're carrying a little pink cupcake,

15 and a half hours later, here we go. We're in. It's game on, right? And so for me, it's so inspiring because I do think you're a real person. Like I don't think you're a regular guy. I did, right? And so people that listen to this, if he can come from where he came from,

this is crazy and it's not overstating. And I know you hate hearing this, but altered world history. That crazy. Altered world history, right? From Montana, carrying cupcakes that is daughters elementary school on his birthday. What could you do in your business? What could you do in your body? You can do anything. There's a couple of sayings I love. I'm all about moving forward. And one of my sayings is I'm as old as I've ever been, but I'm as young as I'll ever be.

Which means life starts now, right now, starts. I had an instructor before Hell Week. Hell Week is in training when you wake up on Sunday and you do Navy SEAL training until Friday. It's miserable. Like your body starts to bleed by Wednesday because you're so saturated from the ocean, right here. Mother ocean, it's not kind.

And he gave me advice to get through Hell Week, but it's great advice for life. He said, you were about to go to war for the first time and the enemy is all your doubts. All your fears and everyone you know, back home that told you you weren't good enough to do this. Keep your head down, keep moving forward no matter what never quit you'll be fine.

That's it, and that's what he told me before Hell Week. And now that's life, keep moving forward. You're gonna make me say, we talked about failure. That's how you learn. And I fail, I fallin' down, get up, dust off, look yourself in the mirror, be honest. Why did I do that? What do I learn?

I don't, but it's all good advice because, it's like, you know, you're gonna screw up. Tell me anyone that's not screwed up. Pretty much every day. So it's like, it's never a no fail mission, but it's like a no lose. Like you don't, you win or you learn. Unreal, brother. Like I it's like, it's never a no-fail mission, but it's like a no-loose. Like, you know, you win or you learn. Unreal, brother.

Like, I don't even, that's crazy. So let's talk about these guys in the remote and their lines. I'll be honest with you, man. I've done a lot of interviews. I know a lot of people. I've interviewed a lot of successful people. Like, you don't catch me species very often. So I want people to get access to you.

I want, yeah. I think it's an amazing time in history, which hasn't existed before, where, I mean, honestly, there are people driving in their car right now, walking out of their gym, and they're getting access to a man who's altered world history for freaking free, and they can come here, you speak, for pennies on the dollar, and be in a room with you, and meet you,

and have their life altered and inspired and moved. There's never been a time in history where people who have achieved great things can say, hey, I'm just like you, I'm a goofball, I was at my daughter's elementary school, I make mistakes, I fall down, you know, I didn't even mean to be in the Navy SEALS in the first day. It's just unreal. I don't give you such hope and such inspiration. But I want to talk for a second about some of the good work you do because I want people to know this

too. These guys that are mowing their lawns and these men that are at their end women by the way who are at their daughter's elementary school and can't pay the mortgage even sometimes active duty struggling. Then leave the military. Now this man just so you know you know And I just say this on your behalf Left short of his 20 years and so there aren't I believe aren't health benefits that come your way There's nothing that comes your way which is sort of amazing to me And I just say this on your behalf that someone who's had 400 combat missions has been decorated with valor as many times as you have Change the world on multiple missions. We don't have a way to give you some health insurance

and to take care of you. And so because that's the way it is, and you don't need to comment on that, I say that on your behalf, that's crazy. But because that is the way it is, you've got involved and started something charitably that helps people when they transition out to find courage.

So talk to them a little bit about your foundation. Yes, I started a foundation called Your Grateful Nation. So that's your gratefulnation.org. And we transition the right now special operators, because we're individualized, which is kind of a small group, transition them to their next career. So we find out where they want to live, the industry they want to be a part of,

we'll make the introduction to that company, and then we have a mentorship program seven to nine months, and then they're trained, and these employers now are saying that these guys don't realize what they're bringing to the table, even without a college degree, but they're bringing the stress management, problem solving, team building. The one word they use all the time is the loyalty,

because they're not getting that from people with a degree right now, the colleges aren't teaching that kind of stuff, but they get them and they put them in charge of anything, like major projects. We have guys working from Merrill Lynch, we have a guy that wanted to live in Phoenix and work for Fox Sports, he's doing that.

And we're talking Green, Burranger's, TF 160's, pilots, Navy Seals. And so yeah, I started that because I didn't realize what I was capable of when I got out, but I learned through mentors that their stuff out that people were interested in are interested in so now and it's even amazing to talk to the guys Even the guys that retire they're like well, what am I qualified for? It's like you they would almost rather go back to war than fill out a resume because war makes sense to them But they don't realize the combat is solving problems. Oh my gosh, and that's so your great foundation

We do that the best email I get once twice a week is when they one tell me who they transitioned to where and then from one of the spouses saying without your great foundation, we wouldn't have gotten the second career. And they realize the too funny things they realize what they're worth. Yeah. Then they also realize what they're fair share and taxes. Yeah. Right now you're going to learn that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to learn about all this rich pay all the taxes. Thanks. So

you the amazing thing about thank you for doing that work. The amazing thing about it is these are men who are, and women who are a part of the greatest team and then became some of the greatest on that team as special operators. Like these are the, the most elite of the elite, like this gentleman across from me. So let's finish with just a couple tips. Thank you so much for today. Oh, great, great, great, great, great. So, let's talk a little bit for a second about team great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great it just, it's interesting, but part of me thinks,

man, like you certainly end up with pretty damn good talent by the time you get to see those and step our operators. But what are some of the keys in building a team that people out there should know about you? Um, morale. Moral is key, that when people feel like they are part of the solution they're gonna work harder. Effective communication.

Because a lot of people disagree with this, but I always thought that if our people know what they're doing and why, a lot of people don't want to say why, because they want to compartmentalize it. I think they should know why they're doing it. And when you're done saying what you're saying, stop saying it. The noise that comes with everything.

Just get the message out there. We're good. One of my favorite quotes that I don't know where to give credit is never pass up the opportunity to shut up. For people that lead to, they realize that a lot of the work gets done because your team is there. Sometimes with the boss to show up, the work still gets done.

But if the people don't show up, not a lot of work's gonna get done, stuff like that. Be good to each other, the emotional thing, try to keep your emotions in check because your body always follows your mind. And it's like the, say the nasty text message, you wanna send someone, type it up because it's gonna make you feel better, do not hit send for 24 hours.

I'll say check. And if you're still a man 24 hours, legit. You literally should have told me that like three years ago. Oh, I believe you're on the big one. Yes, stop tweeting that. It's just're still a man 24, I'm just legit. You literally should have told me that like three years ago. Oh, I believe you. I'm the big one. Yes, stop tweeting that. What do you do? This is like that.

But yeah, so just the morale being high, the emotionless conversations that hopefully you can have, the realization that your plan, the plan's not gonna work. The way Murphy shows up, anything that you do can get you killed including nothing. Like you're still like that. Yeah. And then the never quit, you know,

are you having a bad day, are you having a bad moment, you're milking into a bad day? And the best advice I have for people is get over it. Just get fix it and get over it. This is so gold brother. I don't know, you're like, it's interesting, you talk about the why,

and it's like, oh, where's that come from? Well, you end up with the guy at the point man in front of you or at least you're getting ready to go in the mission and say, no, tell me again, like, why are we doing this? And you like it? And you told him why and that visual of that mom. Yeah. Hold me for a second.

So we have these conversations. And that's it, that's why we're doing. Probably of all of this, it surprises me the most that you did have some of those conversations. That and also the emotion lists. Another point you just made, helicopter right over. Yes. Where guys are sleeping and they're just getting in their state, they're getting focused, they're counting.

Like, that also has applications. And then, and then over meeting, you're so right, like even in business, I watch so a time, there's this book I read called Death by Meetings. Like when you're done saying something, stop freaking saying it and go execute. All right. Last question. Don't be humble for a second. Okay. Okay. Be real with me here. What's different about men like you? In other words, if I want to be a person like you, none of us, including myself, are victims. Nobody owes us anything. You can get it, but you got to go get it. And that was the key. When guys would say it's stopping the victim.

In your position, I assume your brothers all come from this victim thing. Different socioeconomic background. Oh totallyconomic background, different ethnicities. Some had great families in hand. You know what I mean about ethnicities too, is it didn't matter who you were, 85% of you are not gonna make it. That's it. 85% of the white guys, 85% of the black guys,

you're not gonna make it. Oh my gosh, crazy. If the system just works that way. That's a pretty damn good equalizer to look past skin color Isn't it? Well, none of us are gonna make it 85% of us aren't gonna make it and we're depending on each other if we're going to make it So it really doesn't matter what you're religion your faith your political views are when you have a common purpose and a common mission and a common thing You want to accomplish yours was 85% of us aren't gonna make it. It's interesting how you come together It's interesting how you gel. It's interesting how all your

differences aren't differences. They're similarities. They don't care if you're gay or straight, black or white, Muslim or Christian. We come together in a mission. So that's one of the great lessons for the country too, is that if we could unify in a common mission, a common dream, a common goal. Yes. Yes. All most of these things you see on the news every single night were the pitting us against each other would go away in about one second if we get a common goal. Common goal.

Well even with, I got a friend who's the, did 20 years as a Navy SEAL, one of the best SEALs ever, and then is transgender. Yes. And it's just funny the way people try to get a rise out of us. They're like, what do you say to your buddy that's trans, gender you go, I don't know, say nice kids bro. Exactly right. Whatever. I love't know, say nice kids bro. Exactly right. Whatever.

I love it. I contribute to the mission. I hope like probably now, it's just move forward. I didn't think I would get there. This is actually now my favorite part of the interview because you can have one of the thoroughbred studs of all time. I'm one of these, the things you'd say, a white successful businessman guy.

And we're both telling you that we don't care about those things. We care about coming together, making a dream happen, making the mission happen. A team in the mission. A team in the mission. So, man, I love that. Such a great lesson for you building a company, for our leaders and politics, for our people in the media when we're chasing something in common, when there's a common mission, the differences go away.

And that's the way I want to be chasing. My favorite conversation, literally. That's very cool. Thank you. Man, look. My favorite conversation, literally, I, you know, that's very cool. Thank you. Thank you, man. Look, hey, all respect. Thank you, brother. All respect to the people who have been on my show.

I love all of them and I hope one exceeds this someday. I really do. But I'm not leading that way just yet. But as of now, and I'm wonderful to hear that's reciprocated. So, brother, like, really thank you so much. Thank you. God bless you and thank you for your service. And thanks for sharing this to the audience.

Absolutely. Thank you, thank you, brother. Follow this man man Robert O'Neill on all of his social media book him to speak at your gigs Go get his book title of the book again is the operator I read it in a day one of my favorite books I've ever read and again, I want to remind you all this to all this comes to you for free all I ask for is review the program Share it with people if you're on YouTube give it a like but if you're on iTunes, give it a review. And every day on Instagram, when I make a post, there's a two-minute drill called a max out, two-minute drill. If you make a comment, you get engaged with Hashtag, max out, I get you a winner every day. That could be gear, it could be a coaching call with me. It might be access to one of my guests, but every day we surprise a guest with a win. So make a comment every day on my social media. Thank you,

everybody. Thank you everybody. Thank you Robert and Max out. you