Dude, You Shot Osama: How One SEAL Changed History w/The Operator, Rob O'Neill :: Ep 72 Try That in a Small Town Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But most honors fade.
You know like, if it'ssomething in most occupations,
things that we do, you know likesomebody might come up to us
and say say hey, you got anyhits out anything on the charts?
Said, said no.
Said have you had anything in awhile?
So I'll have that.
You know, try that in smalltown thing.
They say well, that's a coupleof years ago, right.

(00:20):
I said yeah, I mean it's been.
You're like, oh Mike, drop Done.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
My buddy, Dakota Meyer, who's a Marine medal of
honor recipient.
Uh, one of the best things Iheard him say was uh, I never
want another nine 11, but I wishwe could have another nine 12.
Uh just just cause.
I mean there's a lot.
There's something a lot moreimportant than arguing stupid

(00:46):
politics the realization that Imean we had members of both
sides of the aisle singing GodBless America on the steps of
the Capitol on 9-11 or 9-12, andthey're certainly not going to
do that right now, and that's ashame.
I tell my daughters I've gotwell.
Three of them are in college.
One of them is an 18-month-old.
She doesn't understand.
But the three that are incollege, I remind them about
life's choices that if thatMarine recruiter wasn't at
Arby's at 1130 on a Wednesday,you wouldn't be alive because I

(01:08):
would have joined the Marine.
Corps and it didn't happen, andthat's God's plan.
My plan was different.
The Try that in a Small Townpodcast begins now.

Speaker 6 (01:23):
Welcome back to the Try that in a Small Town podcast
Coming to you from the PatriotMobile Studios, powered by
eSpaces.
We're here, we got TK KaloThrash.
I'm Kurt.
Today is going to be cool.
I know we say that all the time.
I promise you today we mean it.
Yeah, we mean it, we reallymean it.

(01:43):
Today we have Navy SEAL Robo'neill with us.
Rob uh has a pretty incrediblehistory, part of which includes
uh killing osama bin laden, whoyeah yeah, exactly no seriously.
I mean, that's not somethingthat you can say just hearing

(02:04):
you say he's coming on our showI know.
He's also been involved inquite a number of other missions
which I hope we get a chance totalk about, but you had
actually made the connectionright.

Speaker 5 (02:17):
How'd you make the connection?

Speaker 7 (02:18):
Actually, obviously I've been interested, I've
always had a big interest in inin the seals and the delta force
and what the special forces doand rangers and everybody.
They're incredible what they doand so I've always been really
interested in it and we've had,like you know, jason redmond on
the show is an incredible navyseal.
We've been fortunate enough tomeet some great members of the

(02:42):
seal community and they'vealways been incredible to us and
so I've obviously watched a lotof Rob's stuff and the story
and so I actually just reachedout and just reached out to him
and messaged him on Instagram.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
So just cold.
He hadn't come to any of yourshows, or anything.

Speaker 7 (03:01):
No, I just messaged cold, an alden corneal shows or
anything.
No, I just this was cold andthen his uh, I believe his uh,
um, his sister, I think, reachedout to responded back.
That's unbelievable and, um,that's amazing.
And so, yeah, it was uh, reallyincredible.
They, they big fans of thepodcast and stuff too.
They watched that and or shehad, and I get that, yeah, yeah

(03:24):
anyway, but it was pretty, butit but it was.
It was still, though, he, rob,gets asked to do this stuff
every day.

Speaker 6 (03:32):
Oh yeah, you know, so he didn't have to do it, and
absolutely and I mean literallywas just watching him two nights
ago on the new netflixdocumentary which, uh, america's
manhunt killing Osama bin Laden.
It's a whole new thing he'sfeatured prominently in the
whole thing going through.

Speaker 7 (03:49):
It's pretty incredible.
I'm going to check that out.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
I'm so thankful he agreed to come on here.

Speaker 7 (03:54):
I mean, there's a lot of other things he can be doing
, I know it and it's hisanniversary, so his wife already
hates us, which is getting inline with the other wives.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I think I would kind of be.
Just if I'm him, I would just bedriving around town, stopping
at red lights, rolling my windowdown, looking over and said do
you know, I killed something Ithought you did that too anyway,
like hey did y'all know I wrote, try that, yes what you do when
you, when you have a hit orsomething you know you, you go
up to a red light and you lookover and you think, man, if they
knew that I was one of the guysthat wrote Try this Ball Town,

(04:29):
they would, I mean, should Ibless them?
Should I say anything?
Should?

Speaker 5 (04:33):
I bless it gets you a free McDonald's number two.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
It's fun making fun of yourself.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
Oh my gosh, let's not wait any longer, let's get to
Rob.
Rob, thanks for coming on withus, brother.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah of course, thanks for having me.
I'm a little late, a week late,but thanks for the invite.

Speaker 7 (04:51):
Yeah, go ahead bud.
No, I was going to say you'refrom Butte Montana, is that
right?

Speaker 4 (04:58):
Yeah, butte, montana.

Speaker 7 (05:05):
Lived there for the first 19 years of my life and
then joined the Navy on accident.
So we used to play a clubcalled the Butte Depot.
Is that still there?

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Oh yeah, the Depot's still there, absolutely.
I like that place too.
It's a good spot for whateverit is you're into.
How long ago were you guysthere?

Speaker 7 (05:19):
That was in the early days, like when, I think
Hicktown was out, so it wouldhave been 2004, 2005, 2006,
somewhere in there.
I think Hicktown was out, so itwould have been 04, 05, 06,
somewhere in there.
I think we did it for a coupleyears.
We did it back to back.
It was one of her favoriteplaces to go.
It was great, great partiesafter.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, it was a good spot.
Butte Montana is a really goodspot too.
It's really good food up there.
The portion size is notconducive to a good diet and we
can put gravy on everything, butit's really good, really good
place, great people.
And no, you know, no sure Ilove, I love going back home any
chance I get to butte americawell, you said you joined the
navy by accident.

Speaker 6 (05:52):
I guess we're gonna have to lead with that?

Speaker 4 (05:55):
yes well it was.
It was one of those things.
Even after I joined the thenavy, I realized that, uh, most
the majority of theall-volunteer military is there
because they got dumped bysomebody, by a girl or a guy,
whatever it is.
And I got dumped by a girl.
I was in college, living mylife's plan, and the whole thing

(06:17):
is if you ever want to make Godlaugh, tell him what your plan
is.
I was going to play basketball,get an MBA and work for my
father and a bad relationshipgot dumped, and it was just time
to leave Butte Montana, and theeasiest way to leave is to join
the Marine Corps.
I had two buddies that joinedthe Marine Corps, ben and Jim,
that were two years older thanme.
They always wanted to beMarines and every time they came

(06:38):
home when I was still in highschool, they looked like Marines
.
I was still, you know, not 21,but I'd see them out in bars.
They look like tough guys,because in Butte Montana it
doesn't really matter.
And so I just you know, I sawtheir uniforms.
I want to be a Marine.
I'd seen full metal jackets.
I kind of basically know what aMarine is, and so I went to
join the Marine Corps.
There's a spot right there indowntown and all the recruiting

(07:04):
offices are right there and Iwent to join the marine corps
and his luck would have it.
Uh, the marine recruiter wasnot in the office, the navy guy
was.
And I went to see the navy guyjust because my two buddies that
were marines.
They told me a joke, but it gotme into the navy office.
They said the marine corps isactually part of the department
of the navy, it's just the men'sdepartment.

(07:24):
I went in there to ask him.
I was like if anyone's going toknow where the Marine is, the
Navy will.
So I said where's the Marine?
He said why do you want theMarine?
I said I grew up hunting.
I want to be a sniper andMarines have the best snipers in
the world.
And he said look no further, wehave snipers in the Navy.
And he kind of added you got tobecome a seal first, no big
deal, and then after that we'llsend you to sniper school.
He brushed over the seal thing.

(07:45):
I didn't know what that was andI didn't know how to swim
either.
But this guy I was looking athim, you know thinking.
I'm 19 years old, I'm kind ofnaive, but here's a professional
recruiter.
Why is he going to lie to me?
And I signed not knowing how toswim, and it just I signed not
knowing how to swim, and that'show it started.
Hold on, you legit.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
I'm sorry.
I was going to say you legitdidn't know how to swim or you
weren't like a competitiveswimmer.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
Well, I could keep myself alive because I'd been
fishing.
We'd go to Georgetown Lake butI didn't know any strokes at all
.
I mean, even the first timeafter I signed, obviously there
was some swimming.
So I figured, all right, Istill have my.
I was playing collegebasketball at Montana tech,
which is right there in Butte,and I still had my student ID
and they have a pool.

(08:31):
So I'm like I'll just sneak inthere, cause I've got a.
I've got a couple like fourmonths until I have to leave, so
I'll swim every day and I meanit's a 25 meter pool, so I'll
swim 25 down, 25 back.
I'll probably swim a thousandmeters and like gauge it from
there.
And everything was working okaywith that plan until I actually

(08:54):
entered the water.
And that's when the problemstarted and I was exhausted
without even getting the lengthof the pool.
I'm like man, I'm in a pickle.
I just signed a contract withthe government and I can't swim.
And one of my buddies whoactually went on to swim at
Notre Dame, he came in to workout and he said, don't take this
the wrong way, I love seeingyou here.
I've just never seen you in apool before, what gives?

(09:15):
And I said, oh, I joined theNavy yesterday.
I'm going to be a SEAL.
He said, no, you're not.
And he taught me thebreaststroke and the sidestroke.
And I was proficient enoughthat when I got to Navy boot
camp I could pass the test thatcould get you orders to go to
SEAL training Not a hard test,but going from not being able to

(09:37):
swim to doing that.
It was a 500-yard swim toqualify.
So I did get there.
But I'm a big believer in thebutterfly effect too.
This is how crazy life works.
Like the smallest decision youmake, even if it's like 3% off
of your path in 30 years, that'sgoing to be drastic, good or
bad, and that's the butterflyeffect.
And I tell my daughters I'vegot well.

(09:58):
Three of them are in college.
One of them's 18 months old.
She doesn't understand.
But the three that are incollege, I remind them about
life choices that if that Marinerecruiter wasn't at Arby's at
1130 on a Wednesday, youwouldn't be alive because I
would have joined the MarineCorps and it didn't happen, and
that's God's plan.
My plan was different.

Speaker 7 (10:17):
So what year was that that you enlisted?

Speaker 4 (10:22):
1996.
Okay, so I left from there andwent to great, great lakes,
illinois.
In january I joined in 95.

Speaker 7 (10:29):
I shipped out in january 96 okay, so you join up
and go in the navy.
So how long before that you youstart doing the seal training
and get into that program?
Is it was because it wasn'tright away, right?

Speaker 4 (10:45):
No, well it was.
It was right.
After bootcamp I the.
The one good piece of advice Igot at that point in my life was
get it in writing, because Idid have a buddy that I
graduated high school with it,joined the army to be a ranger.
But he didn't get it in writingand the recruiter just said
just said you can volunteer whenyou get there, which is a lie.
And so I got it in writing thatI would get an attempt actually

(11:05):
three attempts to get into SEALtraining and I got the.
I'd passed the test to get in,which is not hard I mean it
doesn't seem hard but two out of500 guys that tried out didn't
pass that test in boot camp,which is crazy.
But it's like a 500-yard swim,a mile and a half run, a couple
push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups.
But I finished that.
I went to a quick A school, andan A school is just your job or

(11:30):
your rate in the Navy.
You could be a boasters mate ora corpsman or a quartermaster,
signalman, whatever.
And I got air crew survivalequipment men which is fancy for
how to use a sewing machine.
I was taught by Marines how tosew for two weeks in Millington,
tennessee and then I shippedout to San Diego and I started
SEAL training.
So I joined in January 28th 96,and I was in Coronado in

(11:55):
mid-April to class up for SEALtraining basic underwater
demolition, seal training, class208.
And I got there and that's whenI realized I have no idea what
I just literally jumped intowith both feet.
But I got good advice from someinstructors there.
You know I listened to inbetween all the ass chewings and
the beatings and all the stuffthat they will give you a little

(12:17):
bit of advice, with therealization that maybe in the
unlikely event, as they say it,that you make it through
training, I might have to workwith you.
So they do want good people.

Speaker 7 (12:27):
So hell week is what you're.
You know, that's I mean.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
I've always had this.
Hell week is famous, but it'snot the hardest part, it's just.
People hear about hell weekjust because the name's cool and
because you're awake fromSunday to Friday without
sleeping.
But I mean, even that was amindset, because they taught
early on through negativereinforcement that long-term
goals are achieved throughshort-term goals.

(12:52):
That you know, if you look likeand I've said this before, it's
been quoted quite a bit not myquote, but it was told me that
at SEAL training I know you'veread the books, you've seen the
movies.
Regardless of what you've beentold, this course is not
impossible.
People graduate.
You need to realize that.
Look at me, I'm living proof.
This is an instructor saying tome I'm never going to ask you

(13:15):
to do anything impossible, but Iwill make you do something very
hard, followed by somethingvery hard, followed immediately
by something harder, day afterday after day, for nine straight
months, eight straight months,whatever.
That sounds like a lot, butdon't think about it that way.
Don't think about graduationday.
That's not how you achieve along-term goal.
Here's how you get through SEALtraining Wake up in the morning
on time, make your bed the rightway and then brush your teeth.
That's three wins.
You just started your early daywith three victories, not bad.

(13:39):
Make it to the, the 4 amworkout, actually.
Uh, and as I'm beating you,don't think about the pain.
Concentrate on your next goalin life, which is breakfast.
After breakfast, your next goalin life is lunch after lunch,
your next goal in life is makingit to dinner and after dinner,
do everything you need to do toget back inside that perfectly
made bed and because you tookthe time for yourself in the
morning to make your bed theright way, regardless of how bad

(14:01):
today was and it will will bebad, tomorrow is a clean slate.
Tomorrow is a fresh start andwhen you feel like quitting,
which you will do not.
Quit right now, never quitright now.
That's emotion.
Quit tomorrow.
If you can keep quittingtomorrow, you can do anything.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
Wow that's good.
That's amazing.
I'm making notes.
I'm making notes, rob.
Could you repeat that please?

Speaker 4 (14:25):
I mean that's not even SEAL training, that's life
advice.
And before Hell Week, on theSunday, right before we started,
the same instructor.
He said you're about to go towar for the first time and the
enemy is all your doubts, allyour fears and everyone you know
back home that told you youweren't good enough to do this.
Keep your head down, keepmoving forward and you'll be

(14:47):
fine.

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patriot rob, you may not be ableto tell I'm not sure what
clarity you have seeing us, butI'm a military man myself and uh
, it wasn't a seal, it was aregular army, you know infantry,

(16:18):
fort benning and all that.
But it was interesting when yousaid, uh, you joined by
accident or like people arerunning from stuff or you get
broke up with.
Because for me, I'd went to UTCfor supposedly a whole semester
but I only went for two weeks.
But I went to school the wholehalf a semester and spent my
dad's money.
But I was playing pool up inthe rec hall and gambling and
stuff, and so I knew I was goingto get in real trouble.

(16:40):
So I had to find a clean wayout some way that he wouldn't
get so mad at me.
So that, mixed with watchingRambo first blood.
I went and joined the armybecause of that and so I
wouldn't get in trouble.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
And I didn't get in trouble, but once I got there I
was like I'm not a regular, butI should've gotten in trouble,
you know, cause that's a lot.
Yeah, you know what that's.
That's so cool.
And I'm not even talking aboutseal training.
But the first day of boot campor basic training, um, I
realized that it doesn't matterwhat you look like or where
you're from.
We're pretty much the same andone thing we all agree on right

(17:13):
now and this is dudes from southcentral los angeles and long
island and south florida all weagree on is we both, we've all
made a horrible decision andwe're all terrified.
But once you like, but, youalso learn.
You can get used to anythingand you learn.
I learned personally in the navyhow to ask questions and, uh,
once you get in the groove andget used to being somewhere, man
, it's even right now with, with, with, with kids, I'm not sure

(17:37):
what to do in life.
There's an option right nowthey can get you on a bus, three
hots and a cot, and it's agreat.
I've been if I went throughjump school at Fort Benning.
I've worked with the Army quitea bit Any of the branch.
I don't have any experiencewith Space Force, but I mean,
that's just.
It forces you with lack of abetter term forces you to man
the fuck up, and you know yourmom's not here anymore, so what

(18:02):
are you going to do?
It wasn't for politics, or whydid we invade Iraq.
It's for the dude next to me,it's for the guy in front of me,
and I don't need to worry aboutwhat's behind me because
there's a guy defending me.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
It's like you can do that right now.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
It's awesome.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, it helped me.
I needed it, so that's reallygood.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
It's a wake up.
I I you know I I'm not a bigbeliever in the draft or
conscription, but a lot, of, alot of this younger generation
could use two years in the army.
That's, that's exactly whatcause.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
That's the exact extent I had.
I don't know if they have twoyears anymore, but it's kind of
a college buddy program orwhatever.
And I went home with a buddy ofmine who I thought was the
toughest guy in my town and I'velearned that he was not.
You know, because people breakjust in regular basic training,
not SEAL training or Ranger orDelta Force, just regular basic

(18:50):
training.
You have guys there that arejacked and they're crying at
night in their bed because theymade a huge mistake and they
can't get out of it.
You know it's nuts.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah.
And again, that's when theshort-term goals come.
You know, try to get some sleep.
And even in the boot camp orbasic training movies they don't
get it right.
You're not waking up at 5.
You're up at about 2.
Try to get some sleep, get ameal and get to know your
buddies.
But even though, being thetough guy right now too, when
people say would you do it again, I'm like no, not a chance.
No, but I know it's, it is, itis.

(19:22):
It is cool to see that.
And again, until I tell peoplethat get to get into hard
training like seals or Rangersor whatever, um, just because
you think someone's tougher thanyou, doesn't mean they are.
And if they quit, don't getemotional and think, well, he's
so tough that I can't make itbullshit, you can make it, he
quit, that's his problem, that's, that's just I.
I I got a buddy of mine, tomsatterley, who was at delta
force and uh, he joined beforeme.

(19:44):
Uh, he joined because he wasgoing to a john cougar melon
camp concert in indiana and hisbuddy had joined and he goes,
hey, pull over real quick, I'mgonna join the army too.
And he, like, joined, uh, to bea mechanic.
And then his first real missionin combat was blackhawk down
with delta and he's like he'ssaying I, I love these young
kids saying I just just want toget some.
Everybody wants to get some.
Until you're getting some,you're like I don't want to get

(20:05):
no more.
Wow, I mean, it's an option foranyone.
I'm joking.
If I had to do it again, Iwould tell younger Rob O'Neill
get straight A's, go to theacademy and learn how to fly
something cool, because being ina swamp with your friends looks
great on a poster.

Speaker 7 (20:32):
It kind of sucks to be there, right?
So you graduate, obviouslyseals and and how, how long
before you get your like firstassignment, like what is that?
Like you know?
So you graduate and that'sgotta be a huge achievement.
Obviously it is a hugeachievement and you're feeling,
are you waiting for what's next?

Speaker 4 (20:42):
you know well it was.
It was I graduated in decemberof.
90, was 97 96.
I graduated december 96, soobviously before 9-11, and there
weren't any wars on the horizon, like the cold war was over,
the the berlin wall was down.
All we had was bosnia, um, andso, uh, the east coast seal
teams, mainly seal team two,were assigned there.

(21:04):
So.
So I was like you know, I'mgoing to try to get SEAL Team 2,
which I did and maybe I get toBosnia, and then it's like you
know, I'll do my four years andthen I'll go back to Butte,
montana and tell my story atMaloney's Bar or whatever.
And so the assignments weren'treally there, it was mainly just
training with allies in case ofa war and for contingency.
So we spent a lot of time inEurope, a lot of time training

(21:26):
with the special boat service,the SBS, the Brits, the German,
german comp swimmers, theNorwegian Jaegers, things like
that.
But we're just training, we geta job here and there.
I you know we did get to Kosovo, some stuff in Liberia, but
that was pretty much it.
And and I I mean it wasintimidating at first because I

(21:48):
didn't know what navy seals did,but I mean there just wasn't a
lot going on and there were guyshere and there that did get
some and they were just legends.
There were guys, navy seals,that were assigned in somalia
with uh, with delta and therangers.
They got some stuff and youknow, here and there, but rarely
was there any shooting.
And then I actually justfinished like a 40-day stint in
kosovo, uh, I think I got backto Germany where we were staging
on September 10th 2001.
And we'd gotten our gearobviously turned over, ready to

(22:11):
rock and roll again and I'm upat the operations center.
And then they went to breakingnews and a plane just hit the
North Tower and they were saying, yeah, a small plane just hit
the tower and we're like it's apretty big building, it's a big
hole.
And then the second plane hit.
We're like, well, life as weknow it just changed.
So before I mean it wasintimidating to go to SEAL Team
2, but I didn't even know what Iwas getting into.

Speaker 7 (22:32):
Then I kind of saw it , and then 9-11, it's like, well
, you know they trained me tofight, and that's a whole other
round of training to go to SEALTeam 6.
Is that correct or am I wrongabout that?

Speaker 4 (22:46):
Yeah, yes, it's not really well-known either.
It's not in the movies andthere's a lot of prerequisites
to get there.
You need to, I think a minimumof five years at a SEAL Team
with a minimum of two overseasdeployments.
I did eight years and did fourdeployments and then I and what

(23:07):
you have to do is you have toapply, get approved by your team
and the way the teams are brokeup, or it's simple, the even
numbers on the East Coast, oddnumbers on the West Coast.
So you get approved by them,take a difficult screening test,
which is a long open water swim, a long run for time, a lot of
pull-ups, a lot of push-ups likethat, and then something as

(23:28):
simple as they'll take yourpicture and hand it around to
guys that are already there andthey simply give you a thumbs up
or a thumbs down and too manythumbs down, you're not even
welcome.
Then you have to pass an oralboard, which is like a really
bad job interview.
Then they give you thepsychiatrist for a while for the
psychological evaluation, and Ifinished a lot of tests and
they were so weird.

(23:49):
I asked the psychiatrist whatwas the point of the test and
she said oh, we're not trying tofigure out if you're crazy.
We're trying to figure outwhich flavor of crazy you are
for placement and then, if theylike you, you do another really
hard physical test and then theyinvite you to a nine month
selection course which is longerthan SEAL training, but I
thought it was harder.
But it's different because nowit's not a group of sailors who

(24:10):
want to become seals, these areexperienced Navy seals trying to
get to the tier one level.
So they, they, there's tests inin a very advanced, high
altitude, high opening jumps,nighttime jumps in stacks,
formations.
Uh hey, those that go about,you know, jump out of a plane,

(24:30):
go 11 miles to a spot that noone's seen before except on a
map.
Very difficult.
Guys get hurt there.
They'll get performance dropped.
There's a lot of safety issues.
I mean there's a lot oftechnique and stuff you need to
follow for skydiving.
If you're proving you're unsafe, they're going to kick you out.
Close quarters battle, which isthe SWAT team style entrance you
see on action movies, when guyscome in quickly and clear a
room, that's where we lose mostof the guys.

(24:53):
The entire course is based onthat and just moves from
environment to environment,because for us combat comes down
to an entry point, a door on ahouse, a hatch on a ship or a
cave, and so we just they comeup with situations that are
really really fast and there'sno solution.
But they want to see how youhandle a problem with no
solution and then, over and over, punishing you for mistakes you

(25:16):
didn't make, to see how youhandle making a mistake that
everyone knows you didn't make,because what they're teaching
you is again, extreme negativereinforcement and extreme stress
.
We just punished you for amistake that you didn't make.
Can you get over it?
And the point of the wholething which again is great
advice for life, whatever it isright now, that's bothering you,

(25:39):
get over it.
That's it.
I mean they're keeping itsimple.
And then we, you know thiscourse, this nine month course,
full of Navy SEALs, half of theguys don't make it, and that's
it.
I mean they're keeping itsimple.
And then we, you know it's a.
This course, this nine monthcourse, full of Navy SEALs, half
of the guys don't make it, andthat's saying something like
it's a.
It's a very, very hard course.
It's the hardest selectioncourse in the world, and I mean
it's even to the point wherethere are Navy SEALs that are
very experienced, that won'teven try out.
Because when you try out,you're taking the uh, the

(26:00):
insignia for Naval SpecialWarfare, that a warfare pin that
you wear tried as a Navy SEAL.
You're taking that and you'rebetting it that I'm going to
make it to SEAL Team 6 or I'mgoing to be the guy that tried
and failed, and that's a bigmove and there are guys that
failed and you're known as thatforever.
Or you make it and then, onceyou get there, you get the big
time missions.
These are the best specialoperators in the world and it's,

(26:29):
but it was it's.
It's cool because of themindset.
What I loved about it.
I woke up excited because everysingle day I get to go to a
place and work with people whowere better than me and that's
how every guy felt and nobodytried to undermine each other
for a promotion.
If, like, if somebody was outshooting me uh, be it on a
static range or a shoot andmaneuver or whatever instead of
calling them out or saying they,they cheated, it's like I want

(26:49):
to find out what.
What time does he wake up?
What type of a workout does hedo?
Does he work out before he goesto the range or after.
What's his sleeping habits?
How does he eat?
Go up to hey, you move thispouch from here to here.
What's the thought?
You?
You took off the leg strap foryour drop holes or you put it on
your hip or you move it to yourchest.
What?
What's your thinking behindthat?
I want to.
I want to get better and I wantto be able to teach my guys who
are coming up behind me to getbetter too.
How are you doing it?
So, really, really, reallyunique spot.

(27:10):
I mean even to the point where,when we first went, when we
first went to Iraq for combatcause, we'd been to Afghanistan
and then we got into Iraq.
That was, that was the all overthe news.
How dangerous.
I mean.
It was dangerous Vehicle-borneimprovised explosive devices,
house-borne IEDs, suicidebombers, gunfights.
But when we got there at SEALTeam 6, the first few missions,

(27:31):
first few gunfights, I waslooking at guys like, are we
missing something?
Because this is really easy andwe are crushing this enemy, did
they send us somewhere else?
That's how good the guys were,it was just cool somewhere else?
That's how good the guys were,and that's I mean, it was just
cool.
Like we we would.
We got to a point where we werechanging tactics the entire way
, going quiet, not talking, no,just all night vision, no lights
.
We we had this thing calledcounting coup that we got from

(27:54):
some.
You know, being from Montana,I'm familiar with some native
American, the warriors for binladen's house.
Uh, they used to do somethingwhere they would touch the enemy
and compete for how many of theenemy can you touch while
they're sleeping and leavewithout hurting them.
And so we would do that and wewould sneak in and I mean some
of the some of the most fun.
I hadn't come and talk aboutadrenaline.

(28:16):
When you're breaking intohouses, hunting people is
adrenaline.
And you go up to the, thesescary terrorists or whatever,
and I would test them for asuicide vest, like put a finger
down their chest.
If there is one, you deal withit.
If there isn't, the fun part isyou get to wake them up and
what I would do is I'd put myfinger on their lips and just go

(28:37):
, shh and they would wake up andI would watch America's most
hardened enemies.

Speaker 6 (28:45):
completely shit their pants oh my god, that's amazing
.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
You know there's such , I mean that we kind of jumped
we kind of jumped from bryce andgravy and boot camp to hunting
al-qaeda with our hands.
But kind of a lot went on inbetween there too.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
I gotta know how much , how much.
How much gun training,ballistics knowledge or whatever
before you enlisted did youhave before you went in?
How much did you learn once yougot in?
I?

Speaker 4 (29:13):
learned a ton.
When I got there I was shootinga .300 Winchester Magnum
growing up.
Well, when I got into highschool for elk and moose and
bears and caribou and I wasfamiliar with it but I didn't
For some reason, you know, itwas before Al Gore invented the
Internet, so I'm not lookingstuff up and wind charts.
It didn't seem, you know,because it didn't occur to me

(29:35):
that like if you put a rifle ina vice here and if you shoot it
and drop a bullet at the sametime, unless it's going up
they're going to hit the groundat the same time.
So you got to learn your, youruh uh calculations how the wind
affectsit.
Um, I, I, I, you know I would.
I would practice on milkcartons when I was hunting.
But then I realized, you know,you could get a much tighter
group of much, much moreconsistency, the differences

(29:56):
between uh uh precision andaccuracy, stuff like that.
Um, and you know I did go tosniper school before my first
deployment.
So technically the recruiterdidn't lie to me, they did send
me to sniper school.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
You already knew, I learned to breathe and you
already knew all that stuff yes,sort of.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
But I mean little little things like, uh, if
you're shooting a, uh, huntingrifle, a sniper rifle, the limit
, the amount of um touch youhave on it, like, if you can,
you know you're going to needyour cheek.
Well, but then you don't needyour whole hand on there, you
don't need your whole finger,you want the pad of your finger.
I learned about follow through.
After you shoot, you want tokeep it there back on your
target.
Let it go to a follow through.

(30:31):
Stuff like that, um and and.
Where I learned most aboutballistics was not shooting, it
was from spotting.
That's the know, the distance,and you're spotting for your
buddy and you know you're makingthe call, you're both kind of,
but you don't have range finders.
You're doing mil dots, you'redoing measurements and then

(30:53):
adding up the math and then whenyour buddy shoots, it's your
job to follow the trace and seewhere it goes.
The issue is if yourcalculation is wrong, it goes
high or low.
You got to know and you got tohave him adjust with his holds.
And the pressure now is on thespotter, because if the shooter
fails because the spotterscrewed up, the spotter's not

(31:13):
getting fired, the shooter isand you're kicked out of the
course.
I mean it's crazy.
That's different ways ofpressure they put on you and
then you got to redo it and thenyour buddy spots for you, you,
and hopefully he does a good joband hopefully you didn't fail
him.
But I learned I learned a lotmore um becoming a sniper than I
knew growing up.
Because I mean, and again, ifyou hit a milk carton at 300
yards, great, you're going tokill an elk, but I want it

(31:35):
tighter than that.

Speaker 6 (31:36):
The whole aim small, miss, small thing, yep, wow you
know I was going to say, rob,there's such a fascination,
including for me, with militarymovies, and you've actually been
, your team has been the subjectof quite a few of them,
including Lone Survivor, captainPhillips, zero, dark Thirty, of

(31:56):
course, which just from a movieperspective first, and, believe
me, we want to dive into someof those operations, but from a
movie perspective, which one ofthose did you think, or have you
seen them?
Which one did you think was?

Speaker 4 (32:12):
done well.
I think they were all done well.
I think Lone Survivor wasexcellent because it shows a
gunfight and how fast it happensand I've never been shot, but
just how how quick and violentand permanent it can be.
My only complaint about lonesurvivor was the mountains in

(32:35):
the movie weren't steep enoughbecause they filmed it in new
mexico, not in the westernhimalayas in afghanistan, which
is the scariest environmentimaginable.
Um, that, you know.
That great movie, captainPhillips, was awesome.
What I loved about that wasafter the snipers took the shots
to rescue him, all they showedwas the snipers putting their
bipods up and leaving, notsaying a word, which is accurate

(32:57):
, because that's how cool.
I wasn't one of the snipers onthat mission, but that was just
the way they responded.
I remember I talked to actuallyone of the guys who was in my
wedding who was the lead sniperon that.
That, just the way theyresponded.
I remember I talked to oneactually one of the guys who was
in my wedding who was the leadsniper on that that initiated
the fire.
This is before the bin Ladenraid and I talked to him and
said you realize that you justperformed the most historic
mission in SEAL team history andhis response to me was cool,

(33:21):
can we go home?
That's just how awesome he was.
And then zero, dark 30 wasfantastic.
Um, because it it sort of showedthe woman who.
Well, it didn't.
Sort of it showed the woman whofound him and as far as I know,
that was accurate as hell,because that's what she was like
.
It was a team of women thatfound bin laden, but there was
one in particular.
There was a hundred percentsure and nobody really wanted to

(33:43):
to bet on her.
They would say 80%, maybe 75%.
She'd say 100%, we'd finishedtraining for the Bin Laden raid
and we would finish 10, 12-hourday.
And we're talking around atwo-scale model about the
perfect plan and we'd get donewith that long, long day.
And she'd say all right, guys,osama Bin Laden right now is on
the third floor of this building.

(34:03):
I don't understand why we'renot going right now.
Sleep well.

Speaker 6 (34:07):
See you tomorrow.
So they did a good job withthat.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
Oh, she knew.
I mean, she convinced us.
I was 100% sure he was on thethird floor of that building.
So great movie.
And they did a really good jobwith the.
I could pick apart tactics allday long.
They had to Hollywood it up alittle bit, but the actors were
great, anything.
Chris Pratt's and I'm a big fanof and they like.
My only issue is they didn'thave big enough tattoos.
They had little fake tattoosand they were throwing
horseshoes and pop collars.

(34:32):
We didn't pull that shit either.

Speaker 6 (34:37):
Well, that's amazing.
And also, I just tell you, turnme on to your feature pretty
prominently in the new netflixsaying the american manhunt, uh,
osama bin laden, which Ithought was actually pretty well
done, um, taking us throughthat whole mission.
Which so back me up just alittle bit and maybe for our

(34:57):
viewers how long before you wentthat night did you know about
mission and when did you knowthat it was to get bin Laden?

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Well, we knew about three weeks that was bin Laden
three weeks before they had whenthey first told us because we
had just finished a rotation inAfghanistan.
And what we do after you know,you come back from war, you get
some time with your family andthen you start training again.
So we were off on you.
We had after war.
We give ourselves good dealtrips, like I took my crew to
miami for diving and we're doingdiving, we're doing tactics for

(35:30):
how to hit a mothership insomalia, but then we're on south
beach at night, like you knowgood deal.
Some guys were rock climbing butit happened to be in las vegas,
like they're having a good time, and they recalled, um, some
senior guys, like about 28 of us, uh, back from the trips and
then up to Virginia Beach andthe way it started.
This is about three weeksbefore the mission.
They said this is not a drill,this is real, this is not an

(35:53):
exercise.
We found a thing and this thingis in a house and this house is
in a bowl in these mountainsand this bowl is in a country
and you guys are going to gograb this thing and you, you're
going to bring it to us and showus, wow, and we're sitting
there and we've been, you know,the most experienced guys at the
command, and we're like, okay,cool, I mean, what is the thing?

(36:13):
Well, we can't tell you.
Okay, well, where's this bull?
Which mountains?
Can't tell you, okay, which?
How are we getting there?
Can't tell you, like, how muchair support do we have?
None, like, well, that's ananswer, so that's a positive no
air support.
Don't know what it is, don'tknow where we're going, okay.
And then they slowly let it out.
Then they brought us down to aplace in North Carolina, the

(36:39):
super secret base, and we walkedin there and the commanding
officer of SEAL Team 6, with thewoman that Maya was after, and
he said to us the reason youguys are here, this is as close
as we've ever been to Osama binLaden.
And that was cool, because I'mwith guys that have been to war
with a whole bunch.
And just look at it, like therewas no cheering and high fives,
it was just a room full ofprofessionals.
And I remember one guy goescool, are we going right now?
Like we don't need to train forthis, we're ready?

(37:01):
Meaning need to train for this,we're ready.
And uh, meaning everything'sready, the, the gears packed,
the guns are sighted and we'llgo right now, but they wanted us
to, uh, not not for us, but we.
They wanted us to show thepowers that be that we were
capable, because there was acouple different options and, uh
, you know, there was like theyhad an option of one super
secret bomb.
They could shoot at the pacer.

(37:22):
They called him in the yard.
Uh, which is never going towork, because it just doesn't.
Explosions never work the waythey're supposed to.
Uh, they said the air forcecould hit them with jdams, which
are joint direct actionmunitions, 2 000 pound bombs,
but they needed like 22 of them,which you're never.
You know, you're going to killa bunch of neighbors.
You're never going to know ifhe was there.
They actually said to us agroup of shooters um, we could

(37:42):
do a multilateral, multilateralmission with the pakistani
military, and every dude in theroom's like yeah, okay, you tell
the pac mail that we're goingafter bin lad.
You will literally never hearfrom him again.
And then they said, oh, there'syou guys and, and and that's
the one that we thought was good.
And um, they didn't want totell us because what they
president obama didn't even knowabout the helicopters they were

(38:03):
going to send us in on.
We didn't know about themeither until they sent us out to
I can't say where, but it wasout in Nevada.
And they showed us the superhelicopter, but so we knew the
whole way and it was just.
I mean, just the difficult partwas saying goodbye to the
families, because we're going ona mission, but it's a one-way
mission.
We're not coming back.
There's no refueling stationsinto Abbottabad, pakistan.

(38:26):
These pilots have been I mean,we have the four best pilots in
the world but they've only beenflying these helos for a week
and a half and we don't know ifthey work.
We don't know if they defeatradar.
This is first world defense, a90-minute flight in.
We're going to get shot down.
When we get there, there willbe a gunfight.
If anyone's going to blowhimself up, kill himself, his

(38:46):
entire family and everyone inthe house, it's bin laden.
And the one thing people didn'tthink about is we're going to
run out of fuel.
Um, we can't refuel.
I don't want to kill pakistanipolice because the, even though
their version of west point wasa mile away, it's not going to
be the west point cadets thatshow up, it's going to be the
local police.
I'm in their country.
I don't want to kill police whohave the night shift.

(39:07):
So we're going to have tonegotiate or something, or maybe
we can fly back out but we runout of fuel.
We got to run over the HinduKush mountains.
We're going to end up livingour short lives in a Pakistani
prison.
It's a one-way mission.
We were so convinced the guythat led me up the last set we
were down to two guys, the lastset of stairs and it wasn't
wasn't drawn up that way.
Just again, god has a plan foryou.

(39:29):
That was just our plan.
Before we left, he said look,don't take this the wrong way.
I'm going a hundred percent.
I just need to say it out loud.
If we know we're going to die,why are we going, which is a
fair question, and we talkedabout that every night.
We talked about that everynight.
We're not going for fame.
We're probably never going tosee the reward money, but we are
going for the first Americansto fight al-Qaeda toe-to-toe to

(39:49):
the death, and those are thepassengers on United 93 on 9-11.
We're going for the single momwho dropped her kids off at
elementary school on a Tuesdaymorning and then an hour later
she jumped to her death out of askyscraper.
Because that's a betteralternative than whatever the
hell's going on in windows onthe world at 2,500 degrees
Fahrenheit.
That we'll never know, and youknow.
This woman looked down and madea choice, maybe grabbed a

(40:11):
stranger's hand and her lastgesture of human decency was
holding her skirt down as shekilled herself.
She wasn't supposed to do that.
They weren't supposed to be inthe fight.
We're supposed to be in thefight and that's why we're going
oh, it's amazing.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
I was thinking about that.

Speaker 6 (40:27):
You know you're talking about.
One thing I learned about thatmission was that the helicopters
, yeah, had never been used,right as far as if, uh, they
could go past radar.
So you're flying into pakistanand you don't know whether
they're going to detect thehelicopters or not, right, no,
that, no, that's crazy to me.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Well, I mean, they'd been used against our radar at
the super secret training siteand they defeated them, which is
good.
But again, we don't know whatthey have and we could get shot
down.
But again, learning stuff intraining and all the drills, all
the stress is that if you'reworried about something that
your worry is not going toaffect, you're just wasting your

(41:07):
energy.
You need to take a deep breathand realize your worry is not
helping it.
So stop worrying.
And so what I was doing wascounting.
I was sitting on a trifoldhunting chair next to Cairo, the
dog and his handler, cheese,was next to me and I was
counting just to keep keep my.
I learned as a sniper whenyou're watching something,
because being a sniper is boring, uh.

(41:27):
And I learned to count just tokeep my mind occupied.
And, uh, I'm looking around thehelicopter seeing the I've been
to war with these guys foreverand I so I wanted to see what my
cool friends were doing to keeptheir mind off it.
And I looked down and one of mydudes actually put his
headphones on.
He was listening to music,music, and he fell asleep.
And I'm looking at my buddy andI remember these thoughts just
as vivid as ever.

(41:48):
I'm like you're asleepliterally on the ride to Osama
bin Laden's house, like you haveice in your veins, and I
actually understand why womenfind you attractive, that's just
awesome.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
That was going to be one of my questions.
I guess you answered it.

Speaker 5 (42:02):
I was like that was going to be one of my questions.
I guess you answered it.
One of my questions was what,and if you were listening to
anything on the helicopter rideover.
I mean just for a pregame.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
Yeah, I honestly was listening to.
There's a song called RedNation by the Game and Lil Wayne
and he talks about blood on thefloor, throwing blood in the
blood in the air, blood on theground.
I killed satan and we were redsquadron.
It's red nation.
It's time to kill satan andit's a badass song.
And I listened to that and onthe way out, um cheese, the guy

(42:39):
that was, uh, handling the dogcairo he had handled, he
listened, he had a playlist andhe handled other dogs and one of
his dogs was killed, um, on amission, and he said he couldn't
listen to this song ever againbecause it was playing when the
dog died, when he was right now,but on this one he listened to
it and it was a great day to bealive by travis tritt and I told

(43:00):
, I told travis that too andjust said thanks for being a
part of american history,brother, that's awesome that is

Speaker 7 (43:06):
awesome yeah so that's crazy.
So you're heading over there.
You're at middle of the night,right in when you, when you
headed for the mission, you saidhow long was it?
90 minutes flight.
Is that what you?

Speaker 4 (43:21):
said, yeah, 90 minute flight in, and then we wanted
to be on the ground for um 32minutes and we ended up being
there for 47 minutes justbecause, uh, we started finding
so much stuff there that wecouldn't leave.
And then we you know, it's likewe got to go plus, we had to
blow up a helicopter thatcrashed, landed in the front
yard and we had to call inanother helicopter well, that's
I was gonna ask.

Speaker 6 (43:40):
So there's two helicopters going in Right and
one of them crashes right asit's about to land, and I mean
so yeah, obviously you got to beprepared for anything.
You guys train for crazyscenarios.
Was there a scenario that youtrained for, if that situation?

Speaker 4 (43:58):
happened.
That was actually funny becausewe, when we were, when I said
we would would, we would trainall day on a site that looked
like his house, and then we gotdone, we would talk.
Someone had built a to-scalemodel of his house.
So we talk about it, whatever.
And one night the boss verytired, I don't know this guy
worked on no sleep, he, we, wecame up with the perfect plan,
we had the best tactical mindsaround.

(44:19):
And, uh, we had it, werehearsed it and then one night
the boss said what's the worstthing that could happen?
And the youngest guy in theroom said well, the helicopter
could crash in the front yard.
We're all like what the fuckman, why would you bring that
car on?
No, and uh, he's.
And he like backpedaled, he'slike I don't know.
Maybe we should talk about thatfor 30 seconds.
And that's exactly whathappened.
But we were able to take thatum, potentially catastrophic

(44:42):
event and turn it into somethinggreat Again, because our
perfect plan didn't come tofruition.
It was our preparation to getthere, and the way the
preparation works is don't talkyourself into an ass whipping,
don't overcomplicate everythingwhen I get asked, I mean you
keep it simple If you want to befast?
Slow down, man, stop doing somuch.
When people said, hey, that wasa big compound, how did you

(45:05):
guys clear it?
And I said well, if the guy infront of me went left, I went
right and we did that over andover and over.
That's it.
And I would tell guys intraining stop yelling about
everything.
Look, you don't need to yellfire in the hole because it
sounds cool.
If you see someone put a bombon a door, assume it's going to
blow up soon.
When you turn a corner andpoint up, I don't want to hear

(45:27):
you yell stairwell.
I'm going to assume it's eithera stairwell or you just ran into
a 15-foot Al-Qaeda guy and wegot a problem either way.
So just calm down, take awrap-off.
Slow down, slow is smooth,smooth is fast.
That's it.
But we did have the plan foreverything.
But here's a.
Here's a really cool part abouthow that administration did not

(45:49):
get political with this at alland they get shit.
Obviously, obama and hillaryclinton were there, but so was
secretary gates.
He was a republican.
Um, here's how it was just theright thing to do, because if,
if we screw that up which wealmost did, ob Obama's not
getting a second term.
It's just that simple.
He didn't make a politicaldecision.
He did what was right.
The coolest thing about it is Iwasn't there for this, but I was

(46:10):
told the conversation happenedwhen our plan was presented 23
minutes on the ground and blah,blah, blah, and then we get back
to.
We might negotiate or we'regoing to need someone to go to
Islamabad and talk to whatever.
And I guess Obama heard ourplan and he looked at the
secretary.
It was interesting.
He looked at the secretary ofthe Air Force and said what do

(46:31):
you need to rain hell onPakistan?
My guys aren't surrendering toanybody, which I thought was
like that is some South SideChicago politics.
So that's what we were able tobuild it up.
So we got a guerrilla package.
We got two more Chinooks, whichare the dual prop helicopters,
and they flew in 45 minutesbehind us and set up on a

(46:52):
mountaintop, so they're aboveeveryone.
But in case we need animmediate reaction force, they
can come in, which we did.
We had a quick reaction forcefull of Rangers right on the
border, two more Chinooks fullof Rangers and then another two
chinooks at a different forwardoperating base full of rangers.
And my experience in gunfightsis, when you get in a fight and
you really need help, there isnothing better than getting a

(47:13):
shit ton of army rangers becauseit's about to go down and you
are going to win hey, so I gottaask you this because you've
mentioned a couple times aboutthat operation that it was like
a one-way mission.

Speaker 6 (47:27):
So you're going through it, you get bin Laden.
You now have to well, I guessyou're gathering information
from the hard drives, computers.
You're trying to get all that.
You're getting back to thehelicopter.
At what point do you think wemight actually get out of this?
And I know the bride you haveto go through pakistani airspace

(47:47):
90 minutes to get back, so eventhat was tenuous.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
at what point are you saying, hey, we might make it
back, it's it's one of thosethings where, uh, now they know
we're here, um, we know theyhave f-16s because we sold them
to them, because they're ourallies, but they'll shoot us
down, um, but worrying aboutgetting shot I mean a jet
against the helicopters, noteven a fair fight, uh, but

(48:14):
worrying about them is not goingto stop them.
So I'm I'm literally sittingnext to, uh, the sniper that
rescued richard phillips.
That's how small that team is.
He's there for this.
We got rescued by another groupfrom SEAL Team 6, which no one
ever talks about, becauseanother helicopter with SEALs
came in.
The guy next to me was fromManhattan and he asked the

(48:34):
question.
Every Navy SEAL asked, even theguys in the house when it
happened who got him?
And I said I did.
And he said, on behalf of myfamily, thank you.
And I was like, okay, that'sdope, that's deep, I don't need
that shit.
And we're leaving, we have toget out, we have to fly 90
minutes to live.
But I don't want to think aboutthat because I don't want to
get my hopes up because we couldget shot down.
So I'm just going to start mywatch and I'm going to look at

(48:57):
it.
I'm just going to watch the andthey can hear that we're not in
a stealth helicopter anymore.
This is a loud flying schoolbus.
And we got to live for 90minutes.
That's all we got.
If we can live for 90 minutesacross the border of Pakistan
and Afghanistan, we get 50 moreyears.
I get to see my daughters again.
But we just took off and it'soh shit.
It's been 10 minutes, okay, andyou can hear it, the pilot's up

(49:19):
.
It's been 20 minutes, okay.
We got to get to 90, 30 minutes.
Now it's 40, 50 minutes, got toget to 90, 60, 70 minutes and
now you're starting to.
And then I love sports analogiesbecause I think you're better
off in life playing team sports,because you realize your team.
If it doesn't matter who getsthe glory, the team wins.

(49:40):
That's all that matters.
So I started thinking.
Living in New York, I startedthinking about a no-hitter at
Yankee Stadium, top of theseventh, where I don't want to
say anything, I don't want tojinx it 80.
It's been 80 minutes.
Then I started thinking aboutthe greatest event in the
history of, I think, all sportswas the 1980 Winter Olympics,

(50:00):
when USA Hockey was playing.
The greatest hockey team everassembled the Soviet Union who
hadn't lost a game since, likethe 50s, and they'd won every
gold medal.
They're winning games by 10goals and this team of American
college kids has absolutely nobusiness being on the ice.
But now they're winning.
It's 4-3 in the third, and youcan hear the crowd 10, 9.

(50:23):
We could still screw this up,but 6, third, and you can hear
the crowd 10, nine.
We could still screw this up atsix, five.
And then the pilot came overthe radio, as cool as pilots do,
and said all right, gentlemen,for the first time in your lives
, you're going to be happy tohear this.
Welcome to Afghanistan.

Speaker 6 (50:34):
And I and man.

Speaker 7 (50:35):
This is so.
This is such an incredible thisis such an incredible for us to
talk to you.
It's so honored and I got toask you and I know you've talked
about it over and over againbut can you talk about those
moments like leading up, rightbefore you got them, and the
moment right after when yourealized you got them and how

(50:56):
that looked to you?

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Yeah, the woman.
See, because the firsthelicopter crashed in the front
yard, we got out outside of thecompound, outside the walls.
My team was supposed to dropoff snipers and go to the roof,
but our pilot saw them crash, sowe were put out there.
We had to figure out a way toget in.
So by the time I got in thehouse, I just had a front row
seat to watch my guys work in ahouse that could blow up at any

(51:23):
moment, to watch my guys work ina house that could blow up at
any moment.
And I remember, look, you knowI got to and I tell people this
too I've gotten to a room,because I hope you're never in
this situation.
But if you find yourself in agunfight in a house, get out of
the hallway.
That's just good business,trust me on that.
So I'm in this room and I'mkind of peeking out watching my
guys, and they're not.
They could die at any second,but that's not stopping them.
They're not freaking out.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

(51:43):
They're doing breaching inorder.
They're checking the door,kicking the door, mechanical
breach, explosive breach,entering, finding people and
moving.
And the woman that found binLaden said I know you don't want
me to tell you what it lookslike in the house because I
don't know, but I will tell youthis.
There's going to the secondfloor.

(52:04):
You're going to run into Khalidbin Laden.
He's 20 years old.
That's his last line of defense.
Here's how cool this woman was.
She said, and if you can acehim you get a shot at the big
guy, which is cool.
So we got to that spot and hewas there and the stairs went up
and kind of came back and hewas there and he jumped back
behind his banister.
And now there's like seven guysin front of me and I'm looking

(52:25):
at the point man and I know thathe and another grown man are
both armed and they want to killeach other.
And normally in an urbanenvironment I'm going to grab a
few dudes and back them off,because when you're fighting up
he could throw stuff down.
I don't want them to blow up,but we're all going to die
anyway.
So I'm like like I'm just gonnawatch.

(52:49):
I gotta see how this goes down.
I wish I had popcorn.
This is so badass.
And instead of pinning thecorner, going quick he he was so
smart tactically he thought helearned how to say uh, come here
, come here in urdu and arabic,because he knew if he was the
guy that ran into khalid, hecould whisper khalid, come here,
khalid, come here in twodifferent languages, that that
Khalid spoke and he said that,whispered it and Khalid leaned
over the banister and went what,wow, wow.

(53:09):
And I was like that's, that wasthe most sound tactical move
I'd ever seen and that was thecoolest thing I'd ever seen,
until about nine seconds laterwhen I ran into Bin Laden.
But we, uh, we got up the umthe stairs to the second and
that's when everyone kind ofseparated because there's still
unknowns, there's differenthallways and rooms and unknown
people and you don't want tomove before you have it secure,

(53:31):
so they're securing this.
And then there's one guy now infront of me pointing up and
there's a curtain at the top ofthe last set of stairs and I'm
the number two man right behindhim and his job is to look up
and my job is to not control himbut to let him know, just
through positive contact, thatI'm there and my job is to look
for guys.
And I want, I want four dudesbefore we go up there, because
ben lon's going to be up there.

(53:52):
I'll take two, though.
And I got nobody.
There's no one there.
And he just started talkingdidn't know it was me, knew it
was one of his guys and he said,hey, we got to go, we got to go
.
And he said something like, allright, we're going.
And um, I I remember taking mylast breath and well, it was
actually my last joke.
I was ever going to tellbecause we're going to blow up
up there.
And, uh, because he, what hesaid to me in the story that I

(54:13):
remember was hey man, we gottago.
And he goes.
Hey, man, these bitches isgetting truculent.
And I remember my last jokebecause I consider myself a good
storyteller.
This is my last joke in life.
I whispered before I squeezedhim on the shoulder.
I don't think that word meanswhat you think it means.
And then it was like and itwasn't bravery on me, it was

(54:33):
like we're going to die now andI'm tired of thinking about
blowing up Go.
And I squeezed him and he wentup the stairs and he moved the
curtain and he ran into somepeople he thought were suicide
bombers.
So he jumped on him.
Uh, and what he did, rightthere was he's absorbing the
blast.
So the guy behind him can get ashot, and which to me is medal
of honor material.
And he jumped on him andbecause he, like I said he went
left, I went right and because Iwent right, because he did that

(54:57):
, there's osama bin ladenstanding there three feet away
and he's kind of holding amal,his, his wife, kind of holding
her.
I could have touched him and itwas very fast.
He was taller than I thought,taller than me, skinnier, I
remember he was really skinnyand his beard was gray and I saw
his nose.
Though that's his nose, that'shim, he's a threat, he's not
surrendering.
I had to take him out.
So I assumed he had a suicidevest on.
And the way you handle it likebecause I take some shit for

(55:27):
shooting him in the face, butbecause they're like you got to
identify I'm like, well, you'veobviously never dealt with a
suicide bomber.
I have, and I've seen him clackoff and it's loud, it's scary,
it's fast and permanent.
So I shot him in the face twiceand once more on the floor and
then I moved them all out of theway and and then I I like to
talk about the humanity of stuffbecause you know, for the seals
going in there.
These aren't break glass incase of war guys.

(55:49):
These are dudes, cut their ownlawn and and live paycheck to
paycheck wondering how they canafford the mortgage.
And most people in a combatzone are not combatants, they're
just there and they're justtrying to get on with their
lives.
So as I'm moving a mall, binlan's dead.
I can hear him taking his lastbreath.
I look down.
His two-year-old son, hussein,was there and I'm a father and I
look down at this kid and mythought was not for my safety,

(56:09):
it was this poor kid has nothingto do with this.
So I pick him up and move himand I'm going over to take a
picture.
I got to get a picture of hisface and the other SEALs are now
coming in the room and one ofmy guys looks at me and goes,
hey, are you good?
Because I'm kind of juststanding there.
And I go yeah, what do we donow?
And he laughs and he goes nowwe find the computers, man, we

(56:30):
do this every night, come onhundreds of times.
And I said, yeah, you're right,I'm back, holy shit.
And he said to me yeah, youjust killed Osama.
And so we went over, got apicture and then started looking
for stuff.
We we found about three officeson the second floor.
We had to put him in a body bag,carry him out and then, looking
at the watch, it's like, okay,um, we got to blow up that

(56:51):
helicopter.
We got to.
We didn't have our air forceguys with us, our combat
controllers, who do all theradio stuff, so we know how to
do it, but we're not as sharp asthe air force guys.
So if someone start calling inthat helicopter, someone get
outside and put some thermalbarric charges on that hell of
the other helicopter, we gotta,let's get the fuck out of here,
we gotta.
And then they get like, roundup all the people.
And it was standard.
You got to tell the uh through,we're lucky.

(57:11):
We had a guy that spoke arabicand we're just telling them uh,
you know, don't leave the house.
Even after we leave, you waitin here till the sun comes up
and the pakistanis will come inhere.
If you come outside, we haveplanes up top that'll blow you
up, which is a lie, but it keepsthem safe.
Fine, and um, put the bodyoutside.
The first team grabbed his body,got him on our helicopter that
we flew in on.
They went to a mountaintop torefuel with one of the chinooks

(57:34):
and then we called in the otherchinook and it came to get us
and then, uh, we hopped on andand I just again I got to
reiterate the bravery of that'sthose are more pilots, more air
crew and more SEALs.
They put their butts on theseats and they could have got
shot down and their familieswould have missed them as much
as they miss us.
I got in the room with KilbinLondon because the guy in front
of me but there were so manyheroes involved with that the

(57:56):
pilots deserve all the credit.
The air crew guy that broughtus in.
His job was to make sure thatthe thing could fly and the door
could open when we landedbecause he knew how to open the
door.
Could you imagine if wecouldn't figure out how to open
the door?
Like you got two helicoptersfull of assholes that can't get
out.
There's so much heroisminvolved with this mission and a
lot of guys don't get creditfor it.

Speaker 7 (58:17):
That's so amazing.
And you've been on the otherside of that, right In Operation
Red wing would, were you, or amI wrong that?

Speaker 4 (58:27):
you were part of the rescue mission.
For, yeah, I was, I was, uh, Iactually I, uh, I was one of the
guys.
I saw the, a lot of those guys,right before they died.
I was one of the last guys tosee some of those guys alive.
Uh, they had already insertedthe snipers up in the coringal
valley, which is basically themost dangerous place in the
world, and I was talking to theguys that were going to do the
raid.
So I, my buddy, dan healy, whodied on the plane I went to

(58:48):
sniper school with him and he'sfrom new hampshire.
So we we were on this base injalalabad in a tent and we were
talking about sam adams beer and, uh, I tried we don't be
another guy from team six triedto get on the mission and our
command in bogram said nowthere's no one from SEAL Team 6
getting on those helicoptersbecause there's missiles, we
know it, and they're going toget shot down if something goes
sideways, which I didn't believe.

(59:08):
And then we told them to have agood fight.
I was living in a safe house inJalalabad, afghanistan, which
is nuts.
If you were there today, that'sa very dangerous place too, but
we had a kick-ass little placewith a mini pool and we could
watch the shield every day.
But then, uh, you know, we wereoutside, uh, when sun came up
and a ranger came out and saidhey, your boys just got fucked
up and we got to go up there andthey're not going to fly us, so

(59:31):
go find vehicles or findwhatever.
And we're going to walk.
And so we commandeered vehicles, everything from humvees to
high locks and some donkeys, andwe tried to find as much box
water and shit and drove themtill we couldn't drive any
further than we walked up, uh,basically to 10 000 feet in 100
degree weather, um, humidity,just miserable.
And we were looking for thecrash site, looking for marcus

(59:53):
latrell, looking for mattaxelson, because I we'd known at
that point that danny deets andand murphy mike murphy,
lieutenant medal of honorrecipient were dead.
So we went to find axelson andlatrell.
We were up there for a longtime.
Um, they did fly guys in from mysquadron to the crash site.
We went back down, did run intosome taliban guys and we got to
use a10s for the first time onthem and I never I did it in

(01:00:15):
training, but not in combat.
Uh, an a10 is basically a gunas long as your house.
That the air.
The army brought to the airforce and said make this fly.
And they did, and it's.
It sounds.
It sounds like a dragon.
It's the one that shoots like Idon't know 4 000 rounds a
minute.
Uh, and it just it's a, it's an.
If you haven't seen an a10 whenwe're done with this, go online

(01:00:35):
and and a10 videos, you won'tbelieve it.
So we uh called some of themand we got.
We went back down to a safehouse in asada bed at
Afghanistan and then a guy cameup with a note from Marcus with
his name and his social securityand it was like well, we got to
go up there now.
And so we turn.
We were awake for about threedays.
Um, it's just a terrible.
I mean, this is like going backto the 10th century too.

(01:00:58):
It's it's.
It's a different world.
These are different people thatI don't know how they survive
up there.
But we were up on top of amountain looking for Marcus and
I remember looking at my guysand saying, after being awake
for three days and we're poppingpills to stay awake and whatnot
, I said this is why training isso hard, because if we were
going to quit right now.
Where are we going to go?
There's nowhere to go, we'rejust here.

(01:01:20):
And I guess, when you look back, that's why the instructors are
so hard on you, because maybeone day we'll be up on a on a
mountaintop in one of thosevalleys and I, I can't have you
thinking about quitting.
Even when we, uh, we, we, wefound out Marcus was, it was up
one more Ridge and then down theHill.
And one of my guys just stoppedand said, uh, I don't think I
can go any.
Just tell marcus's mom that, uh, we were.

(01:01:42):
We were so close to gettingthem but we couldn't because you
got tired and he goes, you'reright, you're right.
And he stood up and I go do mea favor, tell me that exact
speech in three seconds, becauseI don't think I can go any
further.
And we just kept going.
And then we got we're on ourway down and some, some badass
rangers flew in and grabbed him.
And then it's like, okay, theygot him.
Like well, shit, now where dowe go?
We're're just here, son of abitch.

(01:02:03):
It's not like the movie endsand the credits roll, it's like
now you've got to get out, right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Well, it's just amazing because you know, just
sitting here and listening toyou, I'm just thankful for guys
like you, as I'm sure everybodyis.
But most honors fade.
You know, like, if it'ssomething in most occupations,
things that we do, you know likesomebody might come up to us
and say say hey, you got anyhits out anything on the charts.
I said no.

(01:02:27):
I said if you had anything inwhile, so I'll have that.
You know, try that in smalltown thing.
They say well, that's a coupleof years ago, right.
I said yeah, I mean it's been aminute, but anything like that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
But you can say hey, I shot mic drop done you know
that honor stays forever it'sjust uh, it's just amazing it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
It is, I mean, it's an incredible honor.
I was honored to be a part ofthat team and honored to follow
the guy in front of me up thestairs and just just to be there
and and, uh, I mean just thepilots to get us there
unbelievable that, uh, yeah, Imean, I mean I'm, I'm never
getting rid of it.
I even you know we all gethaters online and they're like
hey, I'm rob o'Neill, I won'tstop talking about Bin Laden.
And my response is stop asking.

Speaker 6 (01:03:08):
I'll never talk about it again, so people ask me.

Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
It's like you got to imagine being me.
Every single dude I meet everanywhere asks me about Bin Laden
.
I went to the bank and I wentto the post office today and I
think I told the bin laden storyfour different times yeah, wow.

Speaker 7 (01:03:23):
You know what though it's?

Speaker 4 (01:03:24):
it's but it's.
But it's cool being in new york, because new york is awesome,
yeah it'd be fun but for but forus?

Speaker 7 (01:03:30):
no, but seriously for us and, and you know we've been
fortunate enough to know a lotof great seals, just like
yourself, like they, they'vealways come out to a lot of
shows.
And we go to, uh, virginiabeach and we, they always come
out.
We go to san diego and it'sit's our favorite.
Like jason redmond's, a goodbuddy of ours, he's come out and
he's awesome he's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
That dude is incredible.

Speaker 7 (01:03:51):
He's incredible and his family and it.
For us it's the least we can do, you know, but it is.
For us it is good to hear aboutit, even though you know maybe
you're it is good to hear aboutit, even though you know maybe
you supposed to talk about it ornot supposed to talk about it,
whatever.
Like it's one of those thingsin our country and our history

(01:04:12):
that it does mean a lot for usto to kind of hear what it was
like you know what I mean Likefrom you and those guys there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
No, I appreciate it.
I really appreciate that too.
Thank you, and I was justmaking light of it too.
I have a tendency to do there.
No, I appreciate it.
I really appreciate that too.
Thank you, and I was justmaking light of it too.
I have a tendency to do that.
No, it's I mean again.
Well, even when I got back fromthe, I mean my name dropped as
soon as it happened.
Like you don't keep that asecret.
Everyone was talking about it,but I told my kids.
So one of my daughters wasseven years old.
My daughter was seven years old, not allowed to talk about it

(01:04:42):
ever Still doesn't.
And we were sitting on.
It was seven days or somethingafter the mission.
We're sitting on our couchwatching TV and obviously
they're all talking about BinLaden, whatever we had on one of
the cable news networks andthey said, all right, right now
we're taking viewer email thecoolest story of where you were
when you found out Bin Laden wasdead and we'll put you on the

(01:05:03):
air.
And my daughter goes oh, my God, dad, you got to email him.
Just tell him you were in hisbedroom.
That's amazing.
I thought you so funny.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Yeah, I mean I would use that for the rest of my life
to even in comedy things.
I'd be laying in bed and to say, well, maybe you want to make
some sweet love and goes, no,not, not tonight.
And I'm like you do realize Ikilled many blood.
I mean there's so manyopportunities for it, you know,
and I mean, if you're 90 yearsold, I'd be using that, just
just I'm gonna, I'm gonna haveto my wife's kind of over it

(01:05:35):
already yeah that happens withall of our wives yeah yeah um

Speaker 4 (01:05:42):
man, what's funny too is that.
What was funny too is uh, I'llhear someone.
Someone will tell me a storyabout some dude that was lying
about being the guy that killedin a bar.
I'm like, well, did it workgood for him.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Yeah, right, uh that, that song, uh, I'm sure you're
familiar with it.
Uh, daryl worley, have youforgotten, do you?
You heard that?
song I know it's an older song Ithink I was looking that up
today that should be playedevery, every morning for
everyone who wakes up yeah, andit's just great, uh, as a wind

(01:06:11):
varble and daryl worley, rightthat, wrote that, and uh, and
just reading those lyrics andeverything, especially for you
guys, you know, listen tosomething like that.
Yeah and um, they say don'tworry about uh, uh, ben lyden
have have you forgotten?
And it's just so cool for asongwriter.
But one of the first things youthink is that's the best rhyme I
think I've ever.
Because I guarantee you, if youplug that into Rhyme Zone, bin

(01:06:36):
Laden doesn't pop up no, itdoesn't part of the algorithm,
doesn't want to come well.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
I mean even saying that, though, my buddy, dakota
Meyer, who's a Marine Medal ofHonor recipient.
One of the best things I heardhim say was I never want another
9-11, but I wish we could haveanother 9-12.
Just because, I mean, there'ssomething a lot more important
than arguing about stupidpolitics the realization that I
mean we had members of bothsides of the aisle singing God

(01:07:04):
Bless America on the steps ofthe Capitol on 9-11 or 9-12.
, and they're certainly notgoing to do that right now, and
that's a shame.
Yeah, agreed 100%.

Speaker 6 (01:07:14):
Hey, before we let you go, we have to ask you this.
The NFL season is upon us.
First of all, how are yourRedsk redskins?
I guess commander is going tobe, and second of all, are you
in the camp of trying to get theredskins name back?

Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
yes yes, I uh, I actually, I, um, I do not
believe in boycotting anything.
I I mean, I don't let politicsget in the way of my ice cream,
but with with the Commanders,it's like losing a family member
.
There's no love there.
I've been a Redskins fan myentire life and they took that
away and it's like I want to seethem do well, and I'd love to

(01:07:54):
see the Commanders win a SuperBowl.
It's not the same feeling as itwas when Mark Rippon won it, or
with Joe Theismann or DougWilliams or all the great
Redskins before.
I'd like to see him win, but Ilike fantasy football now
because at least I can cheer forsomething.
I think the only people whohave it worse than me is how
Cleveland snuck the Guardiansovernight.

Speaker 6 (01:08:16):
Dude Guardians is the worst name that has ever been
given to a team.

Speaker 4 (01:08:19):
Great Indians see that coming man and the Indians
man.
I mean Charlie Sheen, whoplayed in the best Navy SEAL
movie ever, was also the bestpitcher for the Indians ever.
They took that away fromeverybody.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
I'll never not call them Redskins Ever.

Speaker 4 (01:08:38):
I had a solution.
All they had to do was put apotato on the helmet.
Boom, you're the Redskins again.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
That's pretty good, that just happened.

Speaker 6 (01:08:48):
That's pretty good.
Hey, we got to get you out to ashow sometime.

Speaker 4 (01:08:52):
Come hang out, I'd love to I would love to, and I
promise from now on I will be ontime for everything.

Speaker 7 (01:08:59):
We can't thank you enough.

Speaker 5 (01:09:00):
It was worth the wait bro.

Speaker 7 (01:09:01):
Thank you so much, Rob.
Thank you and happy anniversarytoday, right.

Speaker 4 (01:09:06):
Yeah, we've been married eight years now.
She's wonderful.
She's downstairs waiting on me.
I hope that steak and lobstershe better be preparing.

Speaker 6 (01:09:16):
Good luck with that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
And I also hope you didn't hear me say that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Make sure you tell her the story again tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
That'll be real special oh yeah, yeah, oh,
there's going to be some BinLaden lovemaking tonight.
It's going to be the.
You know I'll come out of thebathroom like straight up Donald
Duck, in no pants but just ashirt saying where you been
Laden.

Speaker 6 (01:09:36):
And on that Rob, seriously it's been an honor.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
We appreciate you spending time with us.
Man, I don't even know what tosay.

Speaker 6 (01:09:40):
It.
I appreciate you spending timewith us.
Man, I don't even know what tosay.
It's beyond comprehension whathe and those guys do.
First of all, I'm like jackedup.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
I am too.
That's the most jacked up I'vebeen after any podcast.
Like we don't know what to sayIs it too late to join at 60?

Speaker 5 (01:09:57):
It is Maybe so.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
I can't enlist right now.

Speaker 6 (01:10:00):
You might be able to be an ice agent but it'd take a
while you know, just inspiring,it's, it's beyond inspiring and
you listen, it's kind of weird.
I do want to ask every questionbecause you know, we just have
that thirst for that knowledgeand then you kind of felt weird.
But it's like just hearing himtake us through the hallways or

(01:10:24):
walking up and then turningright and then bin laden's three
feet from his face.
Yeah, I mean that it takes mybreath away listening to the
whole thing and he's taking alot of shit for talking about it
, hadn't he?

Speaker 5 (01:10:38):
yeah, I think so and I think, I think that the world
needs to know every detail ofthat stuff.
He did it for all of us, theydo it for all of us.
I love being able to hear everysingle detail.
A hundred percent About whatthose guys have to go through.

Speaker 6 (01:10:58):
And Tully alluded to that and saying that to him, and
I thought that was greatbecause I agree it's like I know
there are sometimesconversations that they're maybe
not supposed to have post thoseoperations.

Speaker 7 (01:11:09):
but I'm with you and especially that one well, yeah
this is the mastermind of 9-11,yeah, and what he did to our bin
laden did, and I think he'sdone us all a service.
But I personally feel that way,by just letting us into the,
what it looked like, how ithappened, because, yeah, because

(01:11:29):
it means a lot like to the, tothe country and and all of us, I
, I, I'm with you.
I'm sure that you know, inthose circles it's, it's touchy,
but I'm, I'm grateful for himto tell a story because it's
nice to be able to hear it, andto hear it from him personally
is like a really cool.

Speaker 5 (01:11:50):
You could feel it yeah while I was in the
stairwell, you could feel it.

Speaker 7 (01:11:54):
Yeah right and how grateful he is for the pilots
and for his brothers with himand for the Rangers and for
everybody that was.
You know the other SEAL Team6-7 getting their back.
You know that was.
You know the other seal teamsticks out getting their back.

Speaker 6 (01:12:06):
You know, it's, uh, it's, yeah, it was great, that's
a great point he was.
He was quick to make sure, evenwhen we were praising him, that
he was quick to praiseeverybody else on the mission,
down to everybody the guy thatopened the door, you know oh,
yeah, yeah, because, like I said, any of those guys could have
died, their helicopter couldhave got shut down.
They've got families too.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
Yeah, so I mean everybody.
It's just crazy.
The excitement that he told thestory with it's almost euphoric
, and I can imagine too if youwere there and you made it back.
Part of it is just theexcitement that you did that and
you made it back to your family.

Speaker 5 (01:12:43):
As many times as he's told it, yeah, yeah, and it's
still the adrenaline is stillthere, yeah, but I think he
knows it means something.

Speaker 7 (01:12:51):
I think he can tell that, Like, if you know, people
want to hear it from him and Ithink that's a good thing,
especially in this scenario.
Mm-hmm, you know we should care.
You know we should care.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
That's the problem.
Like we should want to know andbe have an idea of how it
happened and who who killed them.
And it's nice to hear it fromthe guy who did it, you know,

(01:13:13):
and everybody that was therewith them, you know it was an
honor to have him.

Speaker 5 (01:13:17):
Yeah, it was a hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
Yeah, I had a funny bit I was going to open up with,
but it didn't work out.

Speaker 6 (01:13:22):
What was it?
You weren't going to show up atthe work on us.

Speaker 1 (01:13:24):
Well, because he said you know, he was going to do
this about 10 days ago and heforgot or, you know, had
something.
So I was going to open up withsomething like so you call
yourself a Navy SEAL, huh, youknow where, you're, on time and
every mission is super importantand never leave a man behind.
And you left us behind here for10 days stuck with unlimited

(01:13:48):
amounts of food and water andstill weren't even man enough to
come and face us.
You're resuming here, but itjust didn't feel right for the
comedy You'll get a little later.

Speaker 7 (01:14:03):
You want to open up with that?

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
against American Hero .

Speaker 7 (01:14:05):
Yeah, I know right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
Yeah, just once he came on, it was like, yeah, I'm
going to scroll down Note numbertwo.

Speaker 7 (01:14:13):
We probably felt comfortable service man to
service man.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
Yeah, because we are, you know, not quite equals, but
it's pretty close.
You know, just regular infantryand SEAL Team 6.
No, it's not even close.

Speaker 6 (01:14:26):
You know, speaking of that, though we've talked about
this before, but you being inthe service yet the on-time
thing escapes you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
Well now, that's a good observation.
I'll take that.
But I wasn't really late.
I hadn't been late yet.
I haven't delayed a podcast yet, so that's one thing I haven't
done.

Speaker 6 (01:14:52):
You are right.

Speaker 5 (01:14:53):
I am late.
For the pro-rights you aredangerously close, I know and
I'm getting what doesdangerously mean in that
situation.
Are we going to fire K-Lo ifhe's like a?
Minute late.
It's like a minute late.
It's like we're gonna.
We're gonna take a vote ifyou're in, or out anymore.

Speaker 6 (01:15:09):
It's like you're right.
We should give you credit wherecredit's due.
You have not actually held upthe beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
You haven't yet, that's true, not yet out of 70
episodes.

Speaker 5 (01:15:18):
Wow, we're coming that far, yeah right, this will,
yeah, but what our listenersdon't know, you're such a people
, pleaser I know it really rubs.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
It's a.

Speaker 5 (01:15:28):
It's a real dilemma, you're very militant about a lot
of things.

Speaker 1 (01:15:30):
Yeah, yes, it is a conundrum, it is it is um, but
you know, and my mom uh listensto this and she always hates
when I say it but I, I wasraised late.
I mean, we were late everywhereyou know, oh really.

Speaker 5 (01:15:43):
So you're gonna, you're gonna blame you, going to
blame your mom.
No, I'm not blaming her.
That's a new twist.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
She had Mom.
I love you.
Rob O'Neill's not blaming hismom.
Mom, you're the best.
I love you very much, but no wewere late.

Speaker 6 (01:15:55):
Part of your family culture is being late.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
And some people like I think when you grew up, you
were never late for anything,right, so yeah?
And you're always on time,always so, but I don't know if
that has anything to do with itor not.
But um, that's because I carewhat people think.
I do care, but um I always Ialways underestimate how long
it's going to take me to getsomewhere, like and you know,
I'm 57.
It seems you'd learn it, yeah,but anyway go work on it.

Speaker 5 (01:16:21):
That's a whole podcast.
That's a whole.
That's a whole another podcast,that's a whole another podcast.

Speaker 6 (01:16:26):
It really is, uh.
No, we're very, very thankful,uh for rob coming on.
That was an honor of honors.
Yes, it was absolutelyincredible.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
If you guys liked it, make sure you leave some
comments, uh, for us, and therebetter be a lot, because if
you're anything like us we werejust uh, I don't even know if
they had the cameras on us whilehe was talking, but most of us
just like slack job, we're likeI'm telling you, we're sitting
here and neil and I were talkinghe's like he, we're watching
him, you know, on the monitor,and every now and then I'd
remind myself, said, oh, we'redoing a podcast.

(01:16:56):
But I was, I was watching amovie, I was, so I watched it.

Speaker 5 (01:16:59):
I was right there with her.
It was was amazing.

Speaker 7 (01:17:01):
I can't believe we're hearing this story.
What they do is so incredible,every aspect of it.
The training to that point,getting on the helicopter when
you know you probably won't comeback, the whole thought process
, the taxing thoughts whileyou're trying to keep like he
said it was counting.
How do you keep your headtogether to do your job when you

(01:17:21):
get there?
Then one helicopter crashes andyou got to change the plan it's
a lot like you right before wego on stage.

Speaker 5 (01:17:31):
You know I'm saying I mean yeah it's just like that
it's, or the life-threateningsituations that you have like
when y'all, when you guys exitthe dressing room I mean, what
if my amp goes out?
What if my ear in ears quitworking?
And the life-threateningsituation of people throwing
stuff at you while you'replaying.
I mean I can relate, I cantotally relate.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
When I felt a little bit small and guilty is like
when he was talking about youknow, they've completed that
mission and it's 90 minutesuntil they get to safe air,
right, and it's 20 minutes andthen I just got to get to 90 and
and so on.
I'm sitting there thinking howmany times I've complained on a
commercial flight, like it'slike, oh my god, another hour

(01:18:14):
and a half in the air, I can'ttake this, but I'm not no wi-fi,
but I'm not worried aboutgetting shot at.

Speaker 5 (01:18:19):
We bitch about a lot of things, so it's just it's
just that they're I.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
I'm thankful that there's guys like him, so guys
like me can complain about acommercial flight and thankful
that the helicopter pilotsaren't late like you.
Right Like Rob will beep.

Speaker 7 (01:18:35):
I don't know, I got a late start.
Well, we'll be there.

Speaker 6 (01:18:39):
We'll be in Pakistan in I don't know, 30.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
I don't think I was going to wait for close.
Thank goodness you didn't go toflight school.
There would have been moreaccountability.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
I tried to go to flight school.
I'm glad you didn't.
No, not flight school, jumpschool, little difference.
Thank you for your serviceregardless.
Thank you very much.
You still get credit for that.
Thank you for your service.

Speaker 7 (01:18:59):
Absolutely.
So that's, why you get thatslack with being late.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
I'm working on it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:07):
No, you're not that's a freaking lie back to Rob we
gotta go.

Speaker 6 (01:19:15):
We do want to thank everybody for listening.
We want to thank Patriot Mobile, we want to thank eSpaces, we
want to thank Original Glory andseriously leave us some
comments, because I think we'regoing to get some good ones this
week.
Um also download.
Also.
Follow us on x.
Follow us on where else?
Insta tiktok yeah, can youbelieve we're on tiktok, isn't

(01:19:38):
that?
What is tiktok?
What is TikTok?
Okay, just follow us on.
Tiktok For TK.
Kayla Crash Curdue, call mewhatever you want, this is the
Try that in a Small Town podcast.

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