September 6, 2024 • 32 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Every morning when I wake up, I have a text
wedding for me from Marcus Latrell, who is known as
the Lone Survivor, which was the name of the book
he wrote about his experience in Afghanistan when by all
rights he never should have survived. Everyone else involved in
that campaign died.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
He lived to tell the.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Story and share the story of the heroism of his mates.
Anytime Marcus is on the show, it's a treat, but
it's always kind of an odd thing because I feel
like I should show him the respect he's due and
be formal with him, because that's how most of you
expect me to be.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
But we're buds.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We laugh and joke and talk in what President Trump
wants called locker room talk, and we goof around together,
and so I think there has to be a balance
of that. I have not gone back to listen to
this interview since it first aired quite some number of
years ago, so I'm going to be listening as you
(01:03):
do normally. I'll listen to the to the discussion. I
don't like the term interview because an interview suggests your
passing judgment. I'd like to discuss you think you'd rather
hear two people talk, wouldn't you, than someone ask a
question and then formally answer a question. But anyway, he's
been on several times. But here's our conversation with our
dear friend, the Loan Survivor, Marcus Latrell. The movie opens
(01:26):
Today's Paul Loan Survivor. It's the story of four Navy seals.
The only one to survive was Marcus Latrell. He's our guest.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Our guest guest, Mark Marcus Trell, Marcus Marcus.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I got to ask you, did you ever expect when
you were I have to say a hello to you
from your former frat brother at sam Houston State University,
Scott Kutaj. Did you ever expect back in ninety nine
or at sam Houston State University that you were going
to end up being the subject of national talk shows
and now a big movie about the life you've lived.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh no, sir, absolutely not. I mean you know what
I mean. You know my attorney brothers the only that
you know I'm kind of I'm a quiet guy, country boy.
So I never in a million years thought my career
as a Navy seal would lead down this road. Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, the movie opens this weekend. It's Loan Survivor Mark
Wahlberg as you on screen.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
What was that like?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It was pretty cool, you know, getting to meet him
and watch him work. I mean, he really is a
professional and a great actor. He's been around a long time,
so we kind of when we came on set for
the first time. When we met up, I was more
concerned with the other actors and making sure that they
did they got as much information as they possibly could,
(02:41):
not only from me, but other teammates who knew the
guys and their family members so they could portray those
guys the best way they could. And they absolutely got
that done. You know, when it came time to me,
I was just one of them deals where I knew
Mark was a pro and I wasn't at this, so
I I was like, hey, look man, I'm gonna be
back here in the shadow. You need anything, I'm here
for you. Other than that, I'm just going to stand
(03:03):
out of your way. I think the only thing we
actually sat down and a greed on was the fact
that he doesn't need to do a Southern accent because
I would never try to imitate a bust A Yankee accent,
and it just and he got a good we got
both got a good laugh at it because you never
now and again he tried to pull out some kind
of Southern draw or whatnot, but uh, it was funny.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
One of the things, Marcus Latrell is our guest, one
of the things that was important about this movie, important
to you, was the guys actually trained for a period
of time, and and you were involved as a technical advisor.
They actually went through some military training to kind of
get themselves into the mode for this.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Absolutely, we showed up to this sept for pre production
about a month early and put them through the wringer.
I mean we worked them from sun up to sundown
with verbiage, weapons and tactics, everything they needed to know
to get this this this part right. And let me
tell you, they stepped to it. We didn't have any
(04:02):
problems of them. I mean there were no divas on
set or anything like that. And then even after production started,
I mean they were constantly asking questions and training every day.
So I mean what you see on film and these
guys and how they move and communicate and everything like that,
they got it down. I mean they worked hard and
actually became a team that was neat to watch.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You have praised Peter Berg and the work he did
with this movie, particularly the fact that he went and
saw the families of Danny Deet's and Matthew Axelson and
Michael Murphy. How much did that mean to you that
your three fallen brothers he went and actually met their
family and really understood their grief and their experience. And
one of the things he said is what stars they
were to their families.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And that was a surprise to him absolutely. I mean
not just the visiting the family members. I mean Pete
put out from the first time we met, and he
took control of this whole thing. You know, he was
embedded with us overseas in Iraq. I mean he came
to our training sessions, constantly asked questions, and in the
beginning it was tough because we just don't open up
just anybody, especially Hollywood director. But he swallowed his pride
(05:08):
and kept on coming, and eventually we opened up to
him and got what he needed, and I think that
enabled him to make a really great movie.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You've said over and over again that this movie is
about the three guys that didn't make it out and.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That you did, and you get to tell their story.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
But I asked our listeners to email in questions, and
one of them said, can you ask Marcus Latrell? He
broke his back and he pulled himself out one body
link that is at a time, and that meant a
lot to me as an individual. And here he was
a Navy seal and you understand how great those guys are.
Why did they choose to leave that scene out of
the movie.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I think time with the That was the one thing
that I had to learn dealing with with film production
in Hollywood and everything like that. Everything is regulated and
under time constraints, money constraints, location, and overall safety for
(06:03):
the cast and crew, and it was just one of
those things that because of time constraints and everything that
just got pulled out. I mean, in the movie is
an hour and change two hours long. A gunfight in
real life was over three hours. I think they had
me in the village for two days or something in
(06:23):
the movie of the daytime extract. I was in the
village for four days and it was a nighttime extract
under fire. So it was just one of the things
where we were just under the gun.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Kind of your.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Wife, Melanie has said that the first two times she
saw the movie, she just watched it for accuracy, and
the third time she went in like the rest of us,
to watch it and let it wash over her. She said,
she started bawling and gave you a big hug because
then it kind of hit her what you'd been through.
What was your reaction when you got through looking through
the technical and you just watch it as a human
having been there.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I would watch the scenes certain certainly, just kind of
I don't have to see something or read something that
had that come tumbling back on top of me. But uh,
I was real critical of it. I would watch a
scene I was like, oh, yeah, I remember that happening,
But I also remember being knocked out. And when you're
knocked out, you just don't jump back up and get
(07:17):
back on the gu I mean you real literally had
to pick your brain up off the and keep it
from shaking inside your head. And that's when the difference
between a movie and in reality is you bounce back
real quickly and whatnot. I think they still did a
fantastic job for traying what happened up there, but yeah,
it was it was just one of the situations where
(07:41):
I would just remember what was going on and in
a movie, you know, you had the visual and the
in the auditory when you're in theater and watching it,
and what was what was hitting me hardest? For the smells,
because that's the thing that really takes over over there,
the smell of blood, fire, burnt burnt hair, stuff like that.
(08:02):
If you figure out some way to throw that into
the film, it would really affect people.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
We'd have to add another dimension to really experience what
you experienced. You called for six or seven miles with
a broken back.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You were the only of the four to be able
to get away.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You say you laid down to die several times you'd
been shot. The number one question I got from listeners was.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What sustained you? What was going through your mind to
get you through that moment.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Obviously reverting back to my training and the way I
was raised. You know, no matter how my father always say,
no matter how hard you get hit, if you get
knocked down, if you get knocked out, you always get
back up and go at it as hard as you
possibly can, kind of like getting thrown off a horse,
first thing I do is get back up on it. Well,
I mean I was still alive, I still had air
(08:50):
in my lungs. So it's you know in our mission
statement that if there's still one guy alive the op
goes down, you know, you do everything you can survive
and get back so you can climb back up on
the horse. And that's what I try to do. I
never thought, I never felt sorry for myself. I ever
broke down. I didn't dwell on the fact that my
teammates were dead or anything like that. No negative stuff.
(09:15):
I would try and keep that out of my head
as much as possible. Obviously, there were some situations where
I was like, man, this is getting bad. I don't
know if I'm wanta maga, And then I would just
talk to myself and tell myself to quit being a
whimp and get up.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
The book was published in two thousand and seven Loan
Survivor bestseller. The movie was made, it took years.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The director was working on other projects. It opens today
Loan Survivor.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
More of our interview with the Loan Survivor Marcus Latrump
coming up next. Michael can please only one liberal per day,
and today is not your day.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Everybody out there listening, who is between the ages? Of
eighteen and forty probably knows somebody who left after high
school and went off to war. No doubt, the most
(10:20):
riveting story to be told of that was by Navy
seal Marcus Latreull.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The movie opens today. Loan survivor Marcus Latrell's our guest.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You've been training to be a Navy seal since you
were twelve years old with Green Beret Billy Shelton. Do
you since that this was what you were destined to do.
It's almost as if your entire life has prepared you
for this moment.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I hope not. I hope this doesn't define me as
a man. Obviously, my name is synonymous with the Operation
red Wing, and when I meet a lot of people,
all you want to talk about is Operation red Wing.
Books out, movies out, people chat about it and everything
like that. But we were talking about this the other day.
It doesn't define me. It doesn't make me who I am.
(11:03):
It was just something that happened in my life, just
like it happened in real life, and then the book
came out. It's just one more wrong on the ladder,
and the same thing with the movie. I hope that
people go and watch it and take something away from it.
It's not in your face kind of a deal. It's
not trying to deliver a message. There's no politics, religion.
It's not an anti war, it's not a pro war thing.
(11:24):
It's just about, you know, nineteen or excuse me, twenty,
all American guys getting out there and doing a job
that we said we do.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So give me.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
A moment into your life when the doors are closed
and the TVs are off, and you're not giving speeches
or signing autographs or answering questions, what.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Do you do for fun?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Well, I grew up on a ranch, so I'm married
now with kids, and I enjoyed the quiet time. I mean,
I just can't wait for this to be over so
I can go back to living a normal life and
no cameras or media or anything like that. Get back
on the ranch, wake up in the morning, and go
to work. I mean, you know as well as I do.
If you're not, if there's nothing to do on the ranch,
(12:07):
you're just being lazy.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
If your son acts or your daughter Addie says they
want to be a Navy seal and they're ready to.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Sign up, what do you do?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Well, Luckily I could tell my daughter that they don't
take women, but.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That may change by them. You know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I don't get me cranked up on that one, but
it's nothing against women. Trust me, I'm not a sexist
at all. But if my son rider's up to do that,
then I'll get him ready for it. I mean, if
you come into my house, there's no metals on the wall.
There's very actually, very little proof that I was ever
(12:44):
in the military, and I'm not going to throw that
in his face. It's kind of one of the deals
my father said to me. He goes, you know, I
hear in my shoes. You don't have to fill them,
but they're there for you to walk in them if
you need them. And that's kind of to deal with
my son. You know, if it comes down to it
and he decides he wants to go that route, and
by all means, I'll do everything in my power to
get him ready for it, and in the unlikely event
(13:05):
he makes it through the training and you know he'll
I think it'll just bring us that much more closer together.
We would share that kind of that craft.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I recently met with a group out at Camp Hope.
One of the mini groups dealing with folks coming back
with PTSD and in the case of Chris Kyle is
on our minds. And there are a lot of these
young men that were just like Marcus Latrell that left
and they came back and they're hurting and it doesn't
seem that anything can get through to them, and it
is a real crisis. What should we be doing about that?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I think the biggest thing that I noticed is the
isolation of the guys when they come back. I mean,
everybody just automatically assumes that they have a problem, and
you just can't come at it like that. And to
in my advice to the veterans, I mean, if you
sent I mean, hospitals are great for what they do.
They're designed to patch you up, savior life and then
get you on your way. A lot of these guys
spend year, two years in the hospital. Man, you start
(14:04):
to die all over again spending that much time in
the hospital and you sit around listen to somebody who's
supposed to be a medical professional telling you that you
have a problem, that you are messed up mentally. I mean,
I would imagine you start to believe it, but you
know in your mind, and I kind of The way
I do it is I go back to that, to
my mindset of what I was like bere right when
(14:24):
I was going into the military, that drive that I
had h wanting to be a Navy seal, the strength
and and and everything that I had going for me
back then, and I just try to go back to
that place. Granted my body doesn't hold up like it
it should at my age and everything like that, in
my mind it's just as sharp as it always was.
(14:45):
So that's that's both the blessing and a curse because
I miss being in the seal teams. I miss I
missed my teammates, and I missed the job. Moreover, I
just missed my teammates.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You've written another book, which was released in May of twelve.
What can can we expect from you in the future?
Are there more books in you?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's funny should bring that up. I was talking to
my wife the other day about it, and I had
this idea of a book a while ago that I
was going to write, and it's basically just a manual.
It's when of those little bit he read our little
binding books, probably one hundred pages long, one hundred thy
pages long, and the title of it is. If you
want to date my daughter, read this book. And I
just go around to all my teammates who have daughters.
(15:24):
I'm like, all right, give me the scenario of the
first boyfriend who walks in the door. What are we
going to do? And then you know our reference movie
quotes in and I'm like, okay, this is the way
you think. Then you need to watch.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Your daughter's fifteen months old and you're already obsessed with this.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Oh man. When my daughter was born, I screamed at
the doctor to put clothes on her.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Somebody's her.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, what's going on here? Man? In my head, my
daughter was born to the age of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
That is generally a bad indicator.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And I'm as guilty as you are that we were
bad lads as young men.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Oh good guy, And I mean everybody always tells us too,
it's going to come back to haunt you. And you're like,
that's not And then as soon as your daughter comes
on the deck, You're like, great, there we go.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
You have become I don't want to use the term
celebrity because that minimizes you. You have become a symbol
an icon to a lot of Americans of what is
right with this country.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Tell me about a call that you received.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
A person that you met, and you said, I've been
a fan of that person my entire life and now
they reached out and said they were a fan of mine.
That you just thought, Wow, this is a charmed life.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's a tough one, man. I mean, I mean, you
know about me. You know, I don't get into all.
I've never been starstruck or anything like that. I appreciate
them for what they do and the accomplishments that they have,
but I've never in a million years lost my mind
crying can I have your autograph or your underwear or
something like that. You know, that never never crosses my mind.
(16:52):
There's I've heard since the pre release of the movies
and stuff like that. Uh, there have been some some
people that that I've heard through the grape vine that
have watched the movie or that are supporters of me
and Howard Stern and people that you would never expect
to hear about. And you know that that's crazy that
(17:17):
it's reached that many people. I guess the funniest phone
call that I've ever got was right when I got back.
I was I was pretty busted up. I was all
banished up, and I was at the ranch and my
mother was was cooking me lunch. And a phone call
came in and my mom answered the phone, and you
I could hear her rumbling in there and talking and whatnot.
(17:37):
She hung out the phone. She came back into the
to the to the breakfast room, and I was like,
who is that? And she goes, it was President Bush
And I go, what do you want? It was it
was senior, not junior. And I go, well, what do
you want? And he goes, he just wants to talk
to you to see how you're doing. He said, he's
grateful for everything. I go, well, what happened? He goes, well,
I told him you were eating lunch to them, and
(18:01):
I told him to call back in ten minutes, and
he did. He called back in ten You know you
can never. I don't care who you are. You ain't
going against mom, right, No, No.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It's a great story though, it's a great story. It's
it's a story about real people. I mean that that's
what happened. You were eating lunch. She's a mom. She
wanted you to finish your lunch.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Right, Yeah, I was. I was hurt, and now I
had lost a lot of weight and everything like that.
She was trying to fat me up and heal me up,
and she didn't let anybody anybody come anywhere near me.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
How are you today, physically? How are you?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I'm good. I had my last surgery. Uh, actually it
was it was a year this November, so that's good.
I've kind of beat the sight. Normally, I have a
surgery a year just so I can keep walking.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And it's all the back.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
My back, yes sir, and my knees are gone, and
uh probably with my shoulder, my neck, and I keep going.
But it's not important, is it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Is it chronic pain?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yes, sir? Yeah, no. It was one of them deals
where the doc said that, you know, you're going to
be in pain for the rest of your life. Some
of my inabilitating, so but for the I don't really
concentrate on that too much. I'll walk in and have
a spasm and it will jerk me out of bed
or something like that, but I'll let it run its
the course, and I just you know, get up and
keep going. And if I got to have another surgery,
(19:15):
will so be it. Don't have one, and you know,
I just keep trucking along. Right now, we're doing my brother.
He just got extract out of Afghanistan. He's in the
hostel right now having surgery. So we're dealing with him,
and I'll focus on myself whenever, whenever my brother's better.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
More of our interview with Marcus Latrell coming up next.
The movie opens tonight, and my own account is very good.
It's Loan Survivor, the movie adaptation of Marcus Latrell's book
is harrowing tale of what happened to him and three
of his buddies that didn't make it out from Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
He's our guest, Marcus Latrell.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Marcus Latrell tell us about the Loan Survivor Foundation, something that.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I started back when I got out, closer to when
I got out. It was just in the beginning. It
was a way for me to reconnect with my military roots.
Kind of a deal I all spawned from my own experience.
I was in the hospital for a while. Then they
asked me what I could do, what they could do
for me to make me better, and I said, send
me home to my ranch. I went home and I
(20:22):
got better. I was around my family and my friends,
and they didn't cut me any slack, and you know,
I just got back up and was better, And I
thought to myself, you know, if that would work for me,
it could definitely work for other people. I mean, I'm
not special in any way. So we started the foundation
and then it just caters to veterans, not only veterans,
but their family, because you could bring a veteran out
(20:44):
and work with him, and then you send him back
to a broken family and they just digress this. So
we bring the whole unit out and work with them
out at the ranch. Let them go fishing, hunting, horseback riding,
or just sit around and do nothing if they wanted
something about being out in the country. That's peaceful and therapeutic.
And it's done a lot of great things for a
(21:06):
lot of people. I mean, we're just we're moving around along.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It means something if it comes from your mouth. So
don't tell folks if you would, about the boot campaign
with whom you've partnered.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
That also came about right kind of close to when
I got out. It was five Texas women. They had
heard the story about my team and just decided they
want to do something. It's probably one of the best
ways I've ever heard to support the military. So they
went and they got a deal with some military contractors
for boots for our military boots, and they put their
(21:35):
logo on it. And basically the whole gist behind it
is buy a pair of combat boots, get your picture
taken in it, and sort of walk a mile in
our shoes kind of a deal. And man, that thing
has grown exponentially, like you know, like wildfire. I mean's everybody, celebrities,
I mean just yeah, everybody is getting on board with
(21:56):
this thing, and it's it's it's a good deal, man.
I mean, the money goes where it needs to go to.
I don't I don't take any some organizations, you know,
it's they got deep pockets for themselves. I just never
could understand why you would take money, donated money that
was supposed to go to the troops. And that's a
different talk, I guess altogether.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
But yeah, I can.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Only imagine how many invitations you must get and how
hard it must be because you physically cannot do them. Logistically,
you cannot do them all. And I know that's got
to be.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Difficult for you.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
It is sometimes especially when I when I can't walk
or I'm having a real uh my, for some reason,
my pain threshold is not up or something like that,
and I know I got to go do something. Thanks
the good Lord. I very rarely miss anything. If I
tell somebody I'm going to be there, I'll be there.
There have been some situations though, where I was in
the hospital and I just couldn't make it, And for that,
(22:49):
I'm sorry, but I take it with a grain of salt.
Kind of the beautiful thing about having a wife now
and she she covered down on me pretty good. So
she tick and chooses my battle. And then when something
comes up and she can, she can be a pit
bull where she wants to be.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I had a person asking I promise I would. I
would bring it up to you the story at your house,
the four guys that came and and killed Daisy and
you chased them, And what troubled people the most was
why were you carrying nine millimeters brettas Why that choice?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Uh? I keep those pistols in my truck for like,
if I run up on a pot of pigs or something,
truth to be told, I keep in my truck and
case to get stolen.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And those are your throw down guns thrown all right?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Well, a lot of people want to know about your
favorite gun.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
All right, now, I'm carrying a predator Predator Tacticle forty five.
It's kind of a nineteen eleven design. Man, it's a
it's a great firearm, and that's what I carry.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Your brand, your ex bertise, your your endorsement, and particularly
if you were involved in developing it would be worth
a lot to a company that made tactical gear.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Is that something you would do?
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Think? So?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, you kidding me? You know that?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Oh man, the Marcus Latrell official holster, can't you hear it? Now?
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Yeah? Bo, you're probably better at selling something, you know,
like pool cleaning gear like that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Something you know? What would you like to do? What
have you not done that? You go? Well, this would
be this would be really neat to do.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Have a normal life. I'd like to go home and
be at my house and the only expectations I have
or to make sure my wife and kids are happy
and just work, just live out my days however long
that may be, just peaceful and quiet.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Does it exhaust you as all this, especially what you're
about to go through with the movie hitting and all
the interviews you're going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Does it mean does it wear you down?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Sure, I mean my stama is pretty good. It's I
guess it's more of the thing. It just keeps pulling
me away from the house. And I don't like that.
I did that for a career, and I promise that
I I mean, I would never get married while as
in a team, since I would never be around. Well,
I'm married now and I'm I'm hardly ever around and
(25:20):
it's so far, so good. My wife's good with it,
but I'm not. I don't like being a wayframer, and
so it just kind of gets old. I'm heads off
to everybody who does, who lives that life. I just don't.
I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Marcus Latrell's our guest.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I've had a number of parents who emailed in and
said my kids want to do my son wants to
do Special Forces, or young people saying I want to
do Special Forces? How do you know who's cut out
for that? What should I be doing to prepare for that?
And we talked about you prepared from the time you
were twelve. If someone I think a lot of people
want to, very few can and and the Seals will
will will weed those out themselves. But when you, what's
(25:57):
the thing you got to have? You know a lot
of seals. You've own a lot of seals. He's been
a seal, Yes, sir, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
To answer that question, you would save the government millions
of tax bang dollars trying to figure out why one
guy makes doing one guy doesn't. I think the overall
concept behind it is the willingness to step outside yourself
and commit to the kind of team environment, to sacrifice
yourself for the betterment of the team. Willing, you know,
(26:25):
being able to give your life for another man, and
saying to yourself, no matter what happens to me, I'm
not gonna quit. You're gonna have to kill me to
get me out of here. That was a mentality I
had pretty much mentality every one of the guys that
I went to training had to. And you mean everybody
can tell themselves that they're like, oh, I'll do that, Okay,
we'll see. And then the beauty about our training pipeline
(26:47):
is it finds everybody's weakness. I don't care what your
strengths are and how strong you are, and if you
think you're strong and everything, eventually it's going to find it,
and it's going to exploit it the entire time you're there.
Once they find it, and you've got to be able
to accept that you're gonna get beat down, You're not
gonna pass everything, You're not gonna be the best at everything.
And a lot of guys who have never had any defeat,
(27:07):
you know, they've never been tested. They don't know how
to deal with that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
More of our interview with Marcus Latrell coming up next,
Proud to Be a Barry Brigader.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
A Marvel display of poison leadership, The Michael.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Barry Show, Astonishingly Liberal.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
The last part of our interview with Marcus Latrell. The
movie opens tonight Loan Survivor. Marcus Latrell, what's your greatest regret?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Not being able to finish what I started? I didn't
get a chance to finish out in my career like
I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
What are you most proud of.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
My family?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
When people go and see this.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Movie Movie Long Survivor, which opens this weekend, what do
you hope they take away from it?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I've been asking that question before him. I guess the
same reply would be that that it's not a movie
that tries to throw something in your face. And I
don't know if I think we talked about it, not
religion of politics, no pro war, anti war, hind this,
that and the other. I think people go in with
thinking one thing and hopefully they come out they pull
(28:25):
something from it. Whether it's no matter how hard it
an gets, I'm not going to quit. Whether it's that
there's good people in every part of this world, whether
that it's you know, American men and women are willing
to fight to the death because they said they would.
I mean, you keep going on and on.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You're a man of incredible intestinal fortitude. You you responded
to getting knocked down literally in life in a way
that I think most of us we really gravitate to that.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
We don't know you personally.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
We know a guy who is is this sort of
you know, this dream that we live out, this amazing
thing that you've done, and you represent what we all
I think, want to be. When you look back on
your life, who made the most difference? Who is the reason,
Marcus Latrelle is that Who is that person.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That invested in you?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I'd have to say, you know, God, my face pretty strong.
And then after that, it's my brother. He's been with
me since the womb and he's never left my son.
And because of that, I mean, he's been with me
through every up, through every down, and never once wavered
in his love for me. That's probably why we're best
(29:43):
friends to this day.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
That's a great story. It's a great story.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I know you have a busy day. I know you
have a lot going on. I really appreciate you giving
us the time. But more importantly, I really appreciate that
throughout everything you've done, I've always since that.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
It was not for you.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It was for Danny Deet's and Matthew Axelson and Michael
Murphy and a lot of folks out there whose names
will never be splashed across the scene and across the screen.
And I really sense that you have such a love
and respect for those people, and you have turned that
it has become your ministry. And for that and for
all of those that was the one thing people said
(30:21):
more than anything else when I asked for questions to
give to you, was I don't have a question. Just
tell him, thank you, thank you for the son that
didn't come home, thank you for the guys that are suffering,
thank you for everything he does and continues to do.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
So that's my message from all of us. Thank you,
Marcus la Trew.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I appreciate it, and tell all your listeners that thank
you for having me on the program and listening to
my story. All right, Bud, thanks for the commitment, and
not ever forgetting about my teammates.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You got a big voice. Continue to use it, yes, sir,
all right, looking forward to seeing that be good. I'm
gonna see that this weekend. I'm going to head out
and see that this weekend. Loaned the movie adaptation of
Marcus Latrell's book about what he and his fellow Navy
seals went through in Afghanistan in two thousand and five.
(31:12):
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(31:33):
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Executive producer is Chad Nakanishi. Jim Mudd is the creative director.
(31:58):
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Director of Research is Sandy Peterson.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
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Speaker 2 (32:09):
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we take all the credit for ourselves. God bless the
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(32:30):
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if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD, call Camp
Hope at eight seven seven seven one seven PTSD and
a combat veteran will answer the phone to provide free
(32:50):
counseling
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Every morning when I wake up, I have a text
wedding for me from Marcus Latrell, who is known as
the Lone Survivor, which was the name of the book
he wrote about his experience in Afghanistan when by all
rights he never should have survived. Everyone else involved in
that campaign died.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
He lived to tell the.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Story and share the story of the heroism of his mates.
Anytime Marcus is on the show, it's a treat, but
it's always kind of an odd thing because I feel
like I should show him the respect he's due and
be formal with him, because that's how most of you
expect me to be.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
But we're buds.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We laugh and joke and talk in what President Trump
wants called locker room talk, and we goof around together,
and so I think there has to be a balance
of that. I have not gone back to listen to
this interview since it first aired quite some number of
years ago, so I'm going to be listening as you
(01:03):
do normally. I'll listen to the to the discussion. I
don't like the term interview because an interview suggests your
passing judgment. I'd like to discuss you think you'd rather
hear two people talk, wouldn't you, than someone ask a
question and then formally answer a question. But anyway, he's
been on several times. But here's our conversation with our
dear friend, the Loan Survivor, Marcus Latrell. The movie opens
(01:26):
Today's Paul Loan Survivor. It's the story of four Navy seals.
The only one to survive was Marcus Latrell. He's our guest.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Our guest guest, Mark Marcus Trell, Marcus Marcus.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I got to ask you, did you ever expect when
you were I have to say a hello to you
from your former frat brother at sam Houston State University,
Scott Kutaj. Did you ever expect back in ninety nine
or at sam Houston State University that you were going
to end up being the subject of national talk shows
and now a big movie about the life you've lived.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Oh no, sir, absolutely not. I mean you know what
I mean. You know my attorney brothers the only that
you know I'm kind of I'm a quiet guy, country boy.
So I never in a million years thought my career
as a Navy seal would lead down this road. Absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, the movie opens this weekend. It's Loan Survivor Mark
Wahlberg as you on screen.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
What was that like?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It was pretty cool, you know, getting to meet him
and watch him work. I mean, he really is a
professional and a great actor. He's been around a long time,
so we kind of when we came on set for
the first time. When we met up, I was more
concerned with the other actors and making sure that they
did they got as much information as they possibly could,
(02:41):
not only from me, but other teammates who knew the
guys and their family members so they could portray those
guys the best way they could. And they absolutely got
that done. You know, when it came time to me,
I was just one of them deals where I knew
Mark was a pro and I wasn't at this, so
I I was like, hey, look man, I'm gonna be
back here in the shadow. You need anything, I'm here
for you. Other than that, I'm just going to stand
(03:03):
out of your way. I think the only thing we
actually sat down and a greed on was the fact
that he doesn't need to do a Southern accent because
I would never try to imitate a bust A Yankee accent,
and it just and he got a good we got
both got a good laugh at it because you never
now and again he tried to pull out some kind
of Southern draw or whatnot, but uh, it was funny.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
One of the things, Marcus Latrell is our guest, one
of the things that was important about this movie, important
to you, was the guys actually trained for a period
of time, and and you were involved as a technical advisor.
They actually went through some military training to kind of
get themselves into the mode for this.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Absolutely, we showed up to this sept for pre production
about a month early and put them through the wringer.
I mean we worked them from sun up to sundown
with verbiage, weapons and tactics, everything they needed to know
to get this this this part right. And let me
tell you, they stepped to it. We didn't have any
(04:02):
problems of them. I mean there were no divas on
set or anything like that. And then even after production started,
I mean they were constantly asking questions and training every day.
So I mean what you see on film and these
guys and how they move and communicate and everything like that,
they got it down. I mean they worked hard and
actually became a team that was neat to watch.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You have praised Peter Berg and the work he did
with this movie, particularly the fact that he went and
saw the families of Danny Deet's and Matthew Axelson and
Michael Murphy. How much did that mean to you that
your three fallen brothers he went and actually met their
family and really understood their grief and their experience. And
one of the things he said is what stars they
were to their families.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And that was a surprise to him absolutely. I mean
not just the visiting the family members. I mean Pete
put out from the first time we met, and he
took control of this whole thing. You know, he was
embedded with us overseas in Iraq. I mean he came
to our training sessions, constantly asked questions, and in the
beginning it was tough because we just don't open up
just anybody, especially Hollywood director. But he swallowed his pride
(05:08):
and kept on coming, and eventually we opened up to
him and got what he needed, and I think that
enabled him to make a really great movie.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You've said over and over again that this movie is
about the three guys that didn't make it out and.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That you did, and you get to tell their story.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
But I asked our listeners to email in questions, and
one of them said, can you ask Marcus Latrell? He
broke his back and he pulled himself out one body
link that is at a time, and that meant a
lot to me as an individual. And here he was
a Navy seal and you understand how great those guys are.
Why did they choose to leave that scene out of
the movie.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I think time with the That was the one thing
that I had to learn dealing with with film production
in Hollywood and everything like that. Everything is regulated and
under time constraints, money constraints, location, and overall safety for
(06:03):
the cast and crew, and it was just one of
those things that because of time constraints and everything that
just got pulled out. I mean, in the movie is
an hour and change two hours long. A gunfight in
real life was over three hours. I think they had
me in the village for two days or something in
(06:23):
the movie of the daytime extract. I was in the
village for four days and it was a nighttime extract
under fire. So it was just one of the things
where we were just under the gun.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Kind of your.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Wife, Melanie has said that the first two times she
saw the movie, she just watched it for accuracy, and
the third time she went in like the rest of us,
to watch it and let it wash over her. She said,
she started bawling and gave you a big hug because
then it kind of hit her what you'd been through.
What was your reaction when you got through looking through
the technical and you just watch it as a human
having been there.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I would watch the scenes certain certainly, just kind of
I don't have to see something or read something that
had that come tumbling back on top of me. But uh,
I was real critical of it. I would watch a
scene I was like, oh, yeah, I remember that happening,
But I also remember being knocked out. And when you're
knocked out, you just don't jump back up and get
(07:17):
back on the gu I mean you real literally had
to pick your brain up off the and keep it
from shaking inside your head. And that's when the difference
between a movie and in reality is you bounce back
real quickly and whatnot. I think they still did a
fantastic job for traying what happened up there, but yeah,
it was it was just one of the situations where
(07:41):
I would just remember what was going on and in
a movie, you know, you had the visual and the
in the auditory when you're in theater and watching it,
and what was what was hitting me hardest? For the smells,
because that's the thing that really takes over over there,
the smell of blood, fire, burnt burnt hair, stuff like that.
(08:02):
If you figure out some way to throw that into
the film, it would really affect people.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
We'd have to add another dimension to really experience what
you experienced. You called for six or seven miles with
a broken back.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You were the only of the four to be able
to get away.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
You say you laid down to die several times you'd
been shot. The number one question I got from listeners was.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What sustained you? What was going through your mind to
get you through that moment.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Obviously reverting back to my training and the way I
was raised. You know, no matter how my father always say,
no matter how hard you get hit, if you get
knocked down, if you get knocked out, you always get
back up and go at it as hard as you
possibly can, kind of like getting thrown off a horse,
first thing I do is get back up on it. Well,
I mean I was still alive, I still had air
(08:50):
in my lungs. So it's you know in our mission
statement that if there's still one guy alive the op
goes down, you know, you do everything you can survive
and get back so you can climb back up on
the horse. And that's what I try to do. I
never thought, I never felt sorry for myself. I ever
broke down. I didn't dwell on the fact that my
teammates were dead or anything like that. No negative stuff.
(09:15):
I would try and keep that out of my head
as much as possible. Obviously, there were some situations where
I was like, man, this is getting bad. I don't
know if I'm wanta maga, And then I would just
talk to myself and tell myself to quit being a
whimp and get up.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
The book was published in two thousand and seven Loan
Survivor bestseller. The movie was made, it took years.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The director was working on other projects. It opens today
Loan Survivor.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
More of our interview with the Loan Survivor Marcus Latrump
coming up next. Michael can please only one liberal per day,
and today is not your day.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Everybody out there listening, who is between the ages? Of
eighteen and forty probably knows somebody who left after high
school and went off to war. No doubt, the most
(10:20):
riveting story to be told of that was by Navy
seal Marcus Latreull.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The movie opens today. Loan survivor Marcus Latrell's our guest.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
You've been training to be a Navy seal since you
were twelve years old with Green Beret Billy Shelton. Do
you since that this was what you were destined to do.
It's almost as if your entire life has prepared you
for this moment.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I hope not. I hope this doesn't define me as
a man. Obviously, my name is synonymous with the Operation
red Wing, and when I meet a lot of people,
all you want to talk about is Operation red Wing.
Books out, movies out, people chat about it and everything
like that. But we were talking about this the other day.
It doesn't define me. It doesn't make me who I am.
(11:03):
It was just something that happened in my life, just
like it happened in real life, and then the book
came out. It's just one more wrong on the ladder,
and the same thing with the movie. I hope that
people go and watch it and take something away from it.
It's not in your face kind of a deal. It's
not trying to deliver a message. There's no politics, religion.
It's not an anti war, it's not a pro war thing.
(11:24):
It's just about, you know, nineteen or excuse me, twenty,
all American guys getting out there and doing a job
that we said we do.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So give me.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
A moment into your life when the doors are closed
and the TVs are off, and you're not giving speeches
or signing autographs or answering questions, what.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Do you do for fun?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Well, I grew up on a ranch, so I'm married
now with kids, and I enjoyed the quiet time. I mean,
I just can't wait for this to be over so
I can go back to living a normal life and
no cameras or media or anything like that. Get back
on the ranch, wake up in the morning, and go
to work. I mean, you know as well as I do.
If you're not, if there's nothing to do on the ranch,
(12:07):
you're just being lazy.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
If your son acts or your daughter Addie says they
want to be a Navy seal and they're ready to.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Sign up, what do you do?
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Well, Luckily I could tell my daughter that they don't
take women, but.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That may change by them. You know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I don't get me cranked up on that one, but
it's nothing against women. Trust me, I'm not a sexist
at all. But if my son rider's up to do that,
then I'll get him ready for it. I mean, if
you come into my house, there's no metals on the wall.
There's very actually, very little proof that I was ever
(12:44):
in the military, and I'm not going to throw that
in his face. It's kind of one of the deals
my father said to me. He goes, you know, I
hear in my shoes. You don't have to fill them,
but they're there for you to walk in them if
you need them. And that's kind of to deal with
my son. You know, if it comes down to it
and he decides he wants to go that route, and
by all means, I'll do everything in my power to
get him ready for it, and in the unlikely event
(13:05):
he makes it through the training and you know he'll
I think it'll just bring us that much more closer together.
We would share that kind of that craft.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I recently met with a group out at Camp Hope.
One of the mini groups dealing with folks coming back
with PTSD and in the case of Chris Kyle is
on our minds. And there are a lot of these
young men that were just like Marcus Latrell that left
and they came back and they're hurting and it doesn't
seem that anything can get through to them, and it
is a real crisis. What should we be doing about that?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I think the biggest thing that I noticed is the
isolation of the guys when they come back. I mean,
everybody just automatically assumes that they have a problem, and
you just can't come at it like that. And to
in my advice to the veterans, I mean, if you
sent I mean, hospitals are great for what they do.
They're designed to patch you up, savior life and then
get you on your way. A lot of these guys
spend year, two years in the hospital. Man, you start
(14:04):
to die all over again spending that much time in
the hospital and you sit around listen to somebody who's
supposed to be a medical professional telling you that you
have a problem, that you are messed up mentally. I mean,
I would imagine you start to believe it, but you
know in your mind, and I kind of The way
I do it is I go back to that, to
my mindset of what I was like bere right when
(14:24):
I was going into the military, that drive that I
had h wanting to be a Navy seal, the strength
and and and everything that I had going for me
back then, and I just try to go back to
that place. Granted my body doesn't hold up like it
it should at my age and everything like that, in
my mind it's just as sharp as it always was.
(14:45):
So that's that's both the blessing and a curse because
I miss being in the seal teams. I miss I
missed my teammates, and I missed the job. Moreover, I
just missed my teammates.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You've written another book, which was released in May of twelve.
What can can we expect from you in the future?
Are there more books in you?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's funny should bring that up. I was talking to
my wife the other day about it, and I had
this idea of a book a while ago that I
was going to write, and it's basically just a manual.
It's when of those little bit he read our little
binding books, probably one hundred pages long, one hundred thy
pages long, and the title of it is. If you
want to date my daughter, read this book. And I
just go around to all my teammates who have daughters.
(15:24):
I'm like, all right, give me the scenario of the
first boyfriend who walks in the door. What are we
going to do? And then you know our reference movie
quotes in and I'm like, okay, this is the way
you think. Then you need to watch.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Your daughter's fifteen months old and you're already obsessed with this.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Oh man. When my daughter was born, I screamed at
the doctor to put clothes on her.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Somebody's her.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yeah, what's going on here? Man? In my head, my
daughter was born to the age of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
That is generally a bad indicator.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And I'm as guilty as you are that we were
bad lads as young men.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Oh good guy, And I mean everybody always tells us too,
it's going to come back to haunt you. And you're like,
that's not And then as soon as your daughter comes
on the deck, You're like, great, there we go.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
You have become I don't want to use the term
celebrity because that minimizes you. You have become a symbol
an icon to a lot of Americans of what is
right with this country.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Tell me about a call that you received.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
A person that you met, and you said, I've been
a fan of that person my entire life and now
they reached out and said they were a fan of mine.
That you just thought, Wow, this is a charmed life.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's a tough one, man. I mean, I mean, you
know about me. You know, I don't get into all.
I've never been starstruck or anything like that. I appreciate
them for what they do and the accomplishments that they have,
but I've never in a million years lost my mind
crying can I have your autograph or your underwear or
something like that. You know, that never never crosses my mind.
(16:52):
There's I've heard since the pre release of the movies
and stuff like that. Uh, there have been some some
people that that I've heard through the grape vine that
have watched the movie or that are supporters of me
and Howard Stern and people that you would never expect
to hear about. And you know that that's crazy that
(17:17):
it's reached that many people. I guess the funniest phone
call that I've ever got was right when I got back.
I was I was pretty busted up. I was all
banished up, and I was at the ranch and my
mother was was cooking me lunch. And a phone call
came in and my mom answered the phone, and you
I could hear her rumbling in there and talking and whatnot.
(17:37):
She hung out the phone. She came back into the
to the to the breakfast room, and I was like,
who is that? And she goes, it was President Bush
And I go, what do you want? It was it
was senior, not junior. And I go, well, what do
you want? And he goes, he just wants to talk
to you to see how you're doing. He said, he's
grateful for everything. I go, well, what happened? He goes, well,
I told him you were eating lunch to them, and
(18:01):
I told him to call back in ten minutes, and
he did. He called back in ten You know you
can never. I don't care who you are. You ain't
going against mom, right, No, No.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
It's a great story though, it's a great story. It's
it's a story about real people. I mean that that's
what happened. You were eating lunch. She's a mom. She
wanted you to finish your lunch.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Right, Yeah, I was. I was hurt, and now I
had lost a lot of weight and everything like that.
She was trying to fat me up and heal me up,
and she didn't let anybody anybody come anywhere near me.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
How are you today, physically? How are you?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
I'm good. I had my last surgery. Uh, actually it
was it was a year this November, so that's good.
I've kind of beat the sight. Normally, I have a
surgery a year just so I can keep walking.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
And it's all the back.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
My back, yes sir, and my knees are gone, and
uh probably with my shoulder, my neck, and I keep going.
But it's not important, is it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Is it chronic pain?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yes, sir? Yeah, no. It was one of them deals
where the doc said that, you know, you're going to
be in pain for the rest of your life. Some
of my inabilitating, so but for the I don't really
concentrate on that too much. I'll walk in and have
a spasm and it will jerk me out of bed
or something like that, but I'll let it run its
the course, and I just you know, get up and
keep going. And if I got to have another surgery,
(19:15):
will so be it. Don't have one, and you know,
I just keep trucking along. Right now, we're doing my brother.
He just got extract out of Afghanistan. He's in the
hostel right now having surgery. So we're dealing with him,
and I'll focus on myself whenever, whenever my brother's better.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
More of our interview with Marcus Latrell coming up next.
The movie opens tonight, and my own account is very good.
It's Loan Survivor, the movie adaptation of Marcus Latrell's book
is harrowing tale of what happened to him and three
of his buddies that didn't make it out from Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
He's our guest, Marcus Latrell.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Marcus Latrell tell us about the Loan Survivor Foundation, something that.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I started back when I got out, closer to when
I got out. It was just in the beginning. It
was a way for me to reconnect with my military roots.
Kind of a deal I all spawned from my own experience.
I was in the hospital for a while. Then they
asked me what I could do, what they could do
for me to make me better, and I said, send
me home to my ranch. I went home and I
(20:22):
got better. I was around my family and my friends,
and they didn't cut me any slack, and you know,
I just got back up and was better, And I
thought to myself, you know, if that would work for me,
it could definitely work for other people. I mean, I'm
not special in any way. So we started the foundation
and then it just caters to veterans, not only veterans,
but their family, because you could bring a veteran out
(20:44):
and work with him, and then you send him back
to a broken family and they just digress this. So
we bring the whole unit out and work with them
out at the ranch. Let them go fishing, hunting, horseback riding,
or just sit around and do nothing if they wanted
something about being out in the country. That's peaceful and therapeutic.
And it's done a lot of great things for a
(21:06):
lot of people. I mean, we're just we're moving around along.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It means something if it comes from your mouth. So
don't tell folks if you would, about the boot campaign
with whom you've partnered.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
That also came about right kind of close to when
I got out. It was five Texas women. They had
heard the story about my team and just decided they
want to do something. It's probably one of the best
ways I've ever heard to support the military. So they
went and they got a deal with some military contractors
for boots for our military boots, and they put their
(21:35):
logo on it. And basically the whole gist behind it
is buy a pair of combat boots, get your picture
taken in it, and sort of walk a mile in
our shoes kind of a deal. And man, that thing
has grown exponentially, like you know, like wildfire. I mean's everybody, celebrities,
I mean just yeah, everybody is getting on board with
(21:56):
this thing, and it's it's it's a good deal, man.
I mean, the money goes where it needs to go to.
I don't I don't take any some organizations, you know,
it's they got deep pockets for themselves. I just never
could understand why you would take money, donated money that
was supposed to go to the troops. And that's a
different talk, I guess altogether.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
But yeah, I can.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Only imagine how many invitations you must get and how
hard it must be because you physically cannot do them. Logistically,
you cannot do them all. And I know that's got
to be.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Difficult for you.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
It is sometimes especially when I when I can't walk
or I'm having a real uh my, for some reason,
my pain threshold is not up or something like that,
and I know I got to go do something. Thanks
the good Lord. I very rarely miss anything. If I
tell somebody I'm going to be there, I'll be there.
There have been some situations though, where I was in
the hospital and I just couldn't make it, And for that,
(22:49):
I'm sorry, but I take it with a grain of salt.
Kind of the beautiful thing about having a wife now
and she she covered down on me pretty good. So
she tick and chooses my battle. And then when something
comes up and she can, she can be a pit
bull where she wants to be.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I had a person asking I promise I would. I
would bring it up to you the story at your house,
the four guys that came and and killed Daisy and
you chased them, And what troubled people the most was
why were you carrying nine millimeters brettas Why that choice?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Uh? I keep those pistols in my truck for like,
if I run up on a pot of pigs or something,
truth to be told, I keep in my truck and
case to get stolen.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And those are your throw down guns thrown all right?
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Well, a lot of people want to know about your
favorite gun.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
All right, now, I'm carrying a predator Predator Tacticle forty five.
It's kind of a nineteen eleven design. Man, it's a
it's a great firearm, and that's what I carry.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Your brand, your ex bertise, your your endorsement, and particularly
if you were involved in developing it would be worth
a lot to a company that made tactical gear.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Is that something you would do?
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Think? So?
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, you kidding me? You know that?
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Oh man, the Marcus Latrell official holster, can't you hear it? Now?
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Yeah? Bo, you're probably better at selling something, you know,
like pool cleaning gear like that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Something you know? What would you like to do? What
have you not done that? You go? Well, this would
be this would be really neat to do.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Have a normal life. I'd like to go home and
be at my house and the only expectations I have
or to make sure my wife and kids are happy
and just work, just live out my days however long
that may be, just peaceful and quiet.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Does it exhaust you as all this, especially what you're
about to go through with the movie hitting and all
the interviews you're going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Does it mean does it wear you down?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Sure, I mean my stama is pretty good. It's I
guess it's more of the thing. It just keeps pulling
me away from the house. And I don't like that.
I did that for a career, and I promise that
I I mean, I would never get married while as
in a team, since I would never be around. Well,
I'm married now and I'm I'm hardly ever around and
(25:20):
it's so far, so good. My wife's good with it,
but I'm not. I don't like being a wayframer, and
so it just kind of gets old. I'm heads off
to everybody who does, who lives that life. I just don't.
I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Marcus Latrell's our guest.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I've had a number of parents who emailed in and
said my kids want to do my son wants to
do Special Forces, or young people saying I want to
do Special Forces? How do you know who's cut out
for that? What should I be doing to prepare for that?
And we talked about you prepared from the time you
were twelve. If someone I think a lot of people
want to, very few can and and the Seals will
will will weed those out themselves. But when you, what's
(25:57):
the thing you got to have? You know a lot
of seals. You've own a lot of seals. He's been
a seal, Yes, sir, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
To answer that question, you would save the government millions
of tax bang dollars trying to figure out why one
guy makes doing one guy doesn't. I think the overall
concept behind it is the willingness to step outside yourself
and commit to the kind of team environment, to sacrifice
yourself for the betterment of the team. Willing, you know,
(26:25):
being able to give your life for another man, and
saying to yourself, no matter what happens to me, I'm
not gonna quit. You're gonna have to kill me to
get me out of here. That was a mentality I
had pretty much mentality every one of the guys that
I went to training had to. And you mean everybody
can tell themselves that they're like, oh, I'll do that, Okay,
we'll see. And then the beauty about our training pipeline
(26:47):
is it finds everybody's weakness. I don't care what your
strengths are and how strong you are, and if you
think you're strong and everything, eventually it's going to find it,
and it's going to exploit it the entire time you're there.
Once they find it, and you've got to be able
to accept that you're gonna get beat down, You're not
gonna pass everything, You're not gonna be the best at everything.
And a lot of guys who have never had any defeat,
(27:07):
you know, they've never been tested. They don't know how
to deal with that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
More of our interview with Marcus Latrell coming up next,
Proud to Be a Barry Brigader.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
A Marvel display of poison leadership, The Michael.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Barry Show, Astonishingly Liberal.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
The last part of our interview with Marcus Latrell. The
movie opens tonight Loan Survivor. Marcus Latrell, what's your greatest regret?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Not being able to finish what I started? I didn't
get a chance to finish out in my career like
I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
What are you most proud of.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
My family?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
When people go and see this.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Movie Movie Long Survivor, which opens this weekend, what do
you hope they take away from it?
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I've been asking that question before him. I guess the
same reply would be that that it's not a movie
that tries to throw something in your face. And I
don't know if I think we talked about it, not
religion of politics, no pro war, anti war, hind this,
that and the other. I think people go in with
thinking one thing and hopefully they come out they pull
(28:25):
something from it. Whether it's no matter how hard it
an gets, I'm not going to quit. Whether it's that
there's good people in every part of this world, whether
that it's you know, American men and women are willing
to fight to the death because they said they would.
I mean, you keep going on and on.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You're a man of incredible intestinal fortitude. You you responded
to getting knocked down literally in life in a way
that I think most of us we really gravitate to that.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
We don't know you personally.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
We know a guy who is is this sort of
you know, this dream that we live out, this amazing
thing that you've done, and you represent what we all
I think, want to be. When you look back on
your life, who made the most difference? Who is the reason,
Marcus Latrelle is that Who is that person.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That invested in you?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I'd have to say, you know, God, my face pretty strong.
And then after that, it's my brother. He's been with
me since the womb and he's never left my son.
And because of that, I mean, he's been with me
through every up, through every down, and never once wavered
in his love for me. That's probably why we're best
(29:43):
friends to this day.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
That's a great story. It's a great story.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
I know you have a busy day. I know you
have a lot going on. I really appreciate you giving
us the time. But more importantly, I really appreciate that
throughout everything you've done, I've always since that.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
It was not for you.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It was for Danny Deet's and Matthew Axelson and Michael
Murphy and a lot of folks out there whose names
will never be splashed across the scene and across the screen.
And I really sense that you have such a love
and respect for those people, and you have turned that
it has become your ministry. And for that and for
all of those that was the one thing people said
(30:21):
more than anything else when I asked for questions to
give to you, was I don't have a question. Just
tell him, thank you, thank you for the son that
didn't come home, thank you for the guys that are suffering,
thank you for everything he does and continues to do.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
So that's my message from all of us. Thank you,
Marcus la Trew.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I appreciate it, and tell all your listeners that thank
you for having me on the program and listening to
my story. All right, Bud, thanks for the commitment, and
not ever forgetting about my teammates.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You got a big voice. Continue to use it, yes, sir,
all right, looking forward to seeing that be good. I'm
gonna see that this weekend. I'm going to head out
and see that this weekend. Loaned the movie adaptation of
Marcus Latrell's book about what he and his fellow Navy
seals went through in Afghanistan in two thousand and five.
(31:12):
If you like the Michael Berry Show and Podcast, please
tell one friend, and if you're so inclined, write a
nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions, and interest
in being a corporate sponsor and partner can be communicated
directly to the show at our email address, Michael at
(31:33):
Michael Berryshow dot com, or simply by clicking on our
website Michael Berryshow dot com. The Michael Berry Show and
Podcast is produced by Ramon Roebliss, The King of Ding.
Executive producer is Chad Nakanishi. Jim Mudd is the creative director.
(31:58):
Voices Jingles, Tom Voolery and Shenanigans are provided by Chance MacLean.
Director of Research is Sandy Peterson.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Emily Bull is.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Our assistant listener and superfan. Contributions are appreciated and often
incorporated into our production. Where possible, we give credit, where not,
we take all the credit for ourselves. God bless the
memory of Rush Limbaugh. Long live Elvis, be a simple
(32:30):
man like Leonard Skinnard told you, and God bless America. Finally,
if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD, call Camp
Hope at eight seven seven seven one seven PTSD and
a combat veteran will answer the phone to provide free
(32:50):
counseling
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