June 8, 2025 • 39 mins
"Grit To Glory" recounts Green Beret Darrell Utt's journey from the back woods of West Virginia to his leadership role with ODA 043 in Baghdad during some of the most intense fighting.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
We all owe them, but very few of us know them.
They are the men and women of our military and
first responder communities, and these are their stories.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
American Warrior Radio is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
WELLO, folks, Welcome to American Warrior Radio. This is your host,
Ben Bueler Garcia. American Warrior Radio broadcast from the Sallencer
Central studios of the nation's largest suppressor dealer, and ready
to make your silencer buying journey as simple as possible.
Visit Silencercentral dot com or call them at eight six
six six four zero three two seven zero. Be sure
to check Silencercentral dot com to confirm if owning a
(00:46):
silencer is legal in your state. The word grit is
not much in common use anymore, at least not in
the civilian world. I wish it were. Life can be
an unforgiving business, and it certainly is not fair. There
will be things one can control, many they can't. Preparation, planning,
training can help, but sometimes a distinction between the winners
(01:07):
and the also rans it's just pure grit. Today we're
going to introduce you to one such story. Darryl went
from dirt poor childhood to a leader in one of
our most elite special Forces. Part of his time with
the Green Berets included service in the heart of Baghdad
during one of the deadliest periods of that war. He
chronicles much of it in a book titled Grit to Glory.
We can learn a lot from this man. Please stay tuned, Darryl.
(01:29):
Welcome to American Warrior Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Very much honored to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, Darryl, I really enjoyed the book, and I'll get
back to this maybe once or twice during the interview.
I enjoyed it because it really struck me. It's two
books that you know, there's the combat stories that you share,
and of course some of the intricacies of that situation
there in Baghdad at the time that I think a
lot of civilians still don't understand. But then your last
(01:54):
chapter of the book is almost like a separate book,
so we'll dedicate some time to that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You introduce us to Darryl Utt your early years by saying,
the only silver spoons in my family were the ones
that used to hit me, and burger king was quite
the big occasion.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Apparently it was burger king and McDonald's. For sure.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You spent a lot of time out in the woods,
and do you think in retrospect that served you well
in the Green Berete. It certainly couldn't have hurt during
robins Sage Right.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh, yeah, I felt like I was Once I got
my feet underneath me in the military. I started looking
back and reflecting BBG, and I felt like I was
built for the military. I was built for the infantry,
built for special Forces, you know, with the time in
the woods, like you said, you know, the hunting, the fishing,
the trapping, all of those things, all of those skills
(02:46):
that I kind of probably took for granted a little bit.
Didn't realize how invaluable those skills were until going through
Special Forces training, and there's training where you're doing navigation
and you're all by yourself, you're out in the woods,
it's cold, it's dark, you're hungry, all of those things.
(03:07):
I'd basically done those things, and I didn't realize how
much of an advantage I had until I started seeing
how other guys reacted to that that maybe had never
been in that situation before, and they're thrust into it
when they're going through Special Forces assessment and selection, and
they don't really have such a great time at it,
and it's difficult, it's tough. I realized then, man, what
(03:31):
an advantage that I had because of my upbringing. So
for sure, man, definitely definitely an advantage. Darrel.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Did you always plan on joining the military, and if so,
why the army and then why special Forces?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Not really, but like we've alluded to, you know, come
from humble beginnings, very poor family from West Virginia, blue collar,
didn't really have a lot of options. They were shutting
a lot of factories down in West Virginia, which is
what happened to my dad. You know, he worked in
a glass factory, and as soon as plastic started becoming
(04:05):
more and more predominant across our country, glass was going
out of style quickly. You know, of course, they ended
up shutting down Owen's, Illinois, which was the glass factory
that he worked at. I saw that as a young
man and didn't see a lot of opportunities. I wasn't
the best and the brightest student in school, and luckily
I had a football coach that was a Special Forces
(04:28):
guide National Guard, and you know it was a sergeant major,
so he was able to mentor me and take me
under his wing. And I'm very grateful for that mentorship.
So between him and my dad, it was basically like, hey, this,
this could be a good option for you. You know,
we didn't have the money to send me to college
(04:48):
and I probably wouldn't have done any good anyway. So
the military was it seemed like a great option, and
it was something, you know, as an eighteen year old,
I was like, oh, man, I'm going to get away
from this place. There's nothing here, you know, kind of
a little bit of a mister know at all, I
guess in kind of a way that I thought I
knew what I was I was really getting into. But
(05:09):
it was a way for me to leave where I
was from, where there weren't a lot of opportunities, and
it was it was a good opportunity for me to
make something of myself, and I took advantage of that.
But the Army wasn't my first choice, and no disrespect,
but I really wanted to join the Marine Corps. That
was something that had intrigued me as a boy growing
(05:29):
up because my dad had made a comment and said, hey,
no one in our family had ever served in the Marines,
and I saw that as like a challenge in a
way like, oh man, no one in my family, And
of course I come from a family a lot of
you know, a lot of my uncles and grandfather and
(05:50):
you know, they'd all served in the war. I had
an uncle that was served in the Air Force, and
eventually so I had, you know, there was military service
in my family. And when I heard that there was
no one that had ever served as a marine, I
was very intrigued and I had the Marine posters in
my room, I had the Marine sticker on my car.
In high school, I wore the Marine free recruiting T shirts.
(06:12):
I thought I was gonna be a Marine, and it
didn't work out that way. You know, I tried to
join the Marines. I had a medical a medical thing
I had assist in my left wrist, and that kind
of prevented me. But there was also some other stuff
going on with the recruiting and promises and things like
that that didn't work out on the Marine side, and
(06:34):
I got a little disenfranchised. And no disrespect to the Marines,
because I love the Marine Corps and support the Marine Corps,
but for me personally, it just didn't work out. And
after that whole incident happened at the MEP station, the
Military Entrance Processing Station in Beckley, West Virginia. After that
whole fiasco with the Marine Corps, I came back, I
(06:56):
got my cysts removed, and then I started to talking
to the Army recruiter and joined the Army. So this
would have been back in. I joined in early nineteen
ninety and actually left for basic training about a month
and a half after I graduated high school. So yeah, there.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Are we got just a couple minutes for the first break.
And I'm curious. There's a scene in A Band of
Brothers where one of the characters says that he joined
the paratroopers because if he was going to go to war,
he wanted to serve with the best. I get from
your book that you kind of had the same compunction
about going to with the Green Berets once you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Were in the area. Yeah, yes, sir, that's exactly right.
You know, I was the first time that I was
around special Forces that I was actually exposed because I
was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, back in ninety three
ninety four, and although there are special Forces there, I
never saw them, so I knew I didn't know they
existed I was, you know, a younger man in the military.
(07:54):
But the first time that I saw active duty Special
Forces was on Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and that was fifth
Special Forces Group. That's where they're stationed. Obviously they're headquarters,
and I started seeing them as a young infantry sergeant,
squad leader, team leader, and I was like, man, you're
exactly right what you said. BBG. Like, if I'm going
(08:16):
to go to combat and put it all on the line,
then I want to be a guy. I want to
be with guys of this caliber that are doing this
type of training constantly training, And it looked like it
made a lot of sense. They weren't doing the full
battle rattle like we were with all of our gear
and kit. It just seemed like they're a lot more efficient.
They were a lot more smarter, a lot more competent.
(08:37):
That was my observations as a young man, and that's
what that's what pushed me over the top to go
to go give it a shot.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
And you made it through the first time you talk
about grit. When you were training for the assessment course,
you broke a bone and the minute the cash came off,
I went right back at it. But you did make
it through everything, including the Q course. Okay, right the first.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, sure did. I had a little bit of a
hiccup with that same fibula that I broke back in well,
I think it was January of ninety six. I broke
my left fibula training to go to selection. So that
kind of pushed me back a little bit because I
had to wear a cast and I had to get
healed up and I started training. Made it through selection fine.
(09:28):
I did have a little bit of an issue with
that left fibula going through the Q course, so that
kind of held me back a class. But yeah, other
than that, I was good to go. I had a
good run and very fortunate.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Okay, Daryl. When we come back, I like you to
share some of your experiences there in Bagdad. Ladies and gentlemen,
there's your host, Bendela Garcia. We're talking with Darryl Upp.
We'll be right back. Welcome back to American Warrior Radio, Lasier. Gentlemen,
(10:13):
this is your host, Ben Buler guard Sie. We're talking
with Daryl. Darryl's got a great book out called Grit
to Glory.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
It's full of combat stories, but also there's just a
lot of lessons there that can be taken out of it,
whether you're in the military plenty on joining the military,
or like me, just a sibling out there, you know,
fighting the battle of life, Darryl. So, for our listeners,
an ODA is comprised of how many soldiers twelve guys,
okay in every case for.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
The most part, I mean, if if it's a full ODA.
I was a little bit balked up for that rotation
in two thousand and six, but a standard Operational Detachment
ALPHA Special Forces ODA Special Forces teams twelve men.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Okay, So you're assigned your ODA. Forty were assigned to
Camp Apache, which, as I understand, that's just outside of Bagdad. Now,
you had kind of a rough start. It's one of
the first leadership lessons you had when you started to
hear these whispers that your team had developed a undeserved
reputation as just a bunch of hard partiers and not
really serious, and that you took that very serious.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I took that very serious because of all the time
and experience I had up to that point. I mean
I felt like I was built for that moment there
and Bagdad in six and you know, fifteen years in
my career, I was a master sergeant. I had multiple
combat rotations and other deployments underneath my belt, you know,
(11:41):
just a lot of experience. And my experience told me
that if I let that rumor go unchecked, that we
were probably going to get benched. A bunch of us
was going to get fired, and we were going to
be ineffective, and basically another team was going to come
in and take over the mission. You know, when when
you're in combat like that, the stakes are very high
(12:03):
and it's a lot like probably you know, professional sports team, like, hey,
there's a ton of people out there that are chomping
at the bit to get to where you're at. And
the way that we viewed Baghdad in two thousand and six,
we were in the super Bowl like this was it,
this was our moment. And that's what a lot of people,
(12:23):
I don't think, really understand about the military or combat deployments.
I mean, a lot of people definitely view them as
super Bowls, and we were in the super Bowl of
super Bowls because we were in Baghdad in six. There's
a lot of teams that were in that country that
were all over the place, and they weren't seeing a
fraction of the combat that we were getting ready to see.
(12:45):
And we all knew that. So we were all chomping
at the bit. We were hungry, and I felt like
that I had to make a decision. I had to,
you know, I had to put my big boy pants
on and make a big boy decision to keep what
we had and to keep our team whole.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And you found the source of those undeserved rumors. And
it comes back to one of the first lessons you
were taught by one of your mentors, if you will,
and I'm going to paraphrase this quote because we're our
family show, Darryl, but if you're going to be a leader,
you have to be able to look your mom right
in the eye and say, Mom, I love you, but
you were fired. And so you got rid of that
part in the phrase the cancer. But then tell us
(13:25):
about the hard Hit award. You took it a step further.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, well that was not the only That was the
first punch in the face, but there was another punch
in the face right after that with a lost piece
of equipment. And after that second punch in the face,
which the readers can read all about with a very
sensitive missing piece of equipment. That was probably the second
punch in the face. But after that I had a
(13:49):
sledgehammer with me, and I felt like we needed an
extra extra, a little bit of motivational, extra, little push,
and I kind of on the fly developed what called
the herd Hitter Award, and it was a sledgehammer, and
anybody on the team could be recognized with receiving the
hard Hitter Award except for the top three leadership, which
(14:12):
would be myself, my captain, and my warrant officer. So
the rest of the team was eligible. Even though the
leadership wasn't eligible, we were still voting members. So every
week we would have a team meeting and we would
do a vote for the hard Hitter Award. And it
could be anything BBG. It could be somebody that was
(14:36):
just doing great work, you know, the small stuff that's
unseen behind the scenes, making sure the vehicles are ready
to go and have gas and you know all those
type of things. Or it could be like a combat
operation or a combat act where someone engaged the enemy.
I mean, it could really run the full gamut of things,
(14:58):
and it's really hard to press a bunch of a
personalities meat eaters if you will, on the team every
single week, and that award really grew. It grew way
more than I thought it ever would. It really became
like a very prideful kind of thing, and it was
(15:18):
a huge honor. And I allowed guys to decorate the
sledge and you know, they could put coins on there,
they could put sayings, they could put quotes, and it
really kind of grew to this kind of a beast
kind of thing. But a lot of guys were fighting
for it and they were very honored to receive it
(15:39):
from their teammates because it really meant something. There was
no politics involved, you know, to convince a bunch of
individuals on the team to vote for someone and to
do it consecutively over and over, and if I may,
you know how much this award meant to the men
(16:00):
of ODA zero four to three and to the team members.
The person that ultimately received that award was killed tragically
back in twenty fourteen, and you know, he was our
hard hitter for two thousand and six. We had another
version of that award in two thousand and seven, but
(16:21):
in twenty fourteen, I'd basically forgotten about the hard Hitter award.
And the member that received that. I think it's special
to talk about it on Memorial Day because you know,
we're talking about one point two to one point three
million people, you know, service members that have lost their
life in battle since the American Revolution, all the way
(16:43):
up to g Watt. But when we buried Dave, you know,
I'd basically forgotten about the Hard Hitter Award. I knew
that he had, you know, he had earned it, he
had won it. But the family didn't forget that award,
and they knew what that sledge hammer meant to Dave,
and it went in the casket with Dave when when
(17:07):
we buried him, That's how much that award meant to
Dave and to his family. And I was like, man,
that was that was really heavy on my heart. So
to even kind of honor Dave on Memorial Day here,
you know, he was killed back in you know, twenty
seven November twenty fourteen in Afghanistan. You know, he was
(17:28):
he was our hard hitter, and he was in fact
a hard hitter. He was he was, he was a
top notch guy and he went out fighting and slinging lead.
So I just wanted to give a little honor to
h to. Dave wrote in here on this Memorial Day,
he was the definition of grit. You know. I always
(17:48):
like to say grit, you know, the three d's determination
despite difficulty h And that was Dave, you know, because
he came into he was probably like one of our
youngest guys and newest guys on the team, and he
was an absolute warrior, absolutely what.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I encourage folks to read the book. There's a lot
in there. In fact, some of the One of the
things that made me chuckle is, you know your I
don't know if hazing is the right word, maybe initiation
or some of these that actually went badly wrong, you know,
didn't survive for us contact with the enemy. But when
we come back, I'd like to talk just real quick, Darryl,
if you give us acquaint our listeners with that particular
(18:27):
dynamic there and Bagdad at the time, the Sunni versus
of the Shea, and then we'll talk about some of
your missions that really stood out in the book for me.
We don't want to give the whole book away, but
I think we just touched on some of those things
that I found very fascinating. Ladies and gentlemen, there's our
hosts Ben Biler Garcia here.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
In American Warrior Radio. Don't forget.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You can find over six hundred podcasts at American Warrior
Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Lasion and gentlemen, there's
your host, Ben Buler Garcia. We're coming to you from
the Silencer Central Studios. Adding a silencer can make shootings safer,
more enjoyable, and improve your accuracy. Begin the process by
visiting Silencercentral dot com to see if owning a silencer
is legal in your state. They can then walk you
through the permitting process and ship your new silencer right
to your front door. Called Silencer Central today at eight
(19:31):
six six 't four zero three two seven zero, or
visit silencercentral dot com. We're talking with Daryl ut. Darryl
is a retired Green Beret. He's got a great book
out called Grit to Glory and Daryl real quick if
you'll just because one of the factors involved in Bagdad
at that time, you and your ODA were thrown into
(19:54):
kind of a hornet's nest, and that really you're in
the middle of a sectarian civil war between the Sunni
and the Shia. So readers died just version, and there
weren't I don't want to say there weren't bad guys
and good guys, because there certainly were. But readers died
just version.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Who was who? Yeah, it's a great question, right you
were working. Yeah, it's a great question BBG. And it's
the whole heart of this book, Like it's the so
what of the book. It's like, hey, what's the so
what of Grit the Glory? There was a ton of
special forces teams in Iraq from two thousand and three
all the way till the ten till the end. There
(20:32):
was a ton of special forces in Afghanistan from you
know one early oh two all the way until the end, Like,
what's the so what? The so what? For me? Uh?
And I thought was such an interesting aspect of this
book is you know, we were the special forces team
at ground zero at the start, at the ignition of
(20:54):
a civil war, you know, going into Iraq, and you
know we were there from January sixth to August six
We were already going into a situation that was extremely chaotic,
extremely violent, extremely dangerous, extremely deadly every adjective you want
to put in there. And yes, of course there were
(21:15):
Sunnies killing Shia, Shia killing Sunnies, and pretty much everybody
else wanting to kill Americans, and they were gravitating towards
that part of the world and that part of the
country to do exactly that. But what was really significant
for me as part of this book was, you know,
(21:35):
we got there in January. The next month, al Qaeda
militants bombed and destroyed a Shia mosque in Samara on
February twenty second, two thousand and six, and then the
violence exploded as a result of that. It ignited a
full blown civil war in the country of Iraq, and
(21:57):
the media and the mill terry tried to kind of
put a lid on that and be like, hey, it's
secretary and violence. It's not a civil war, no, man.
It was a full blown civil war that ignited, and
it made everything even more dangerous, even more deadly, even
more chaotic. We started seeing it playing out in the streets,
(22:18):
We started seeing it, you know, in the way that
we did our targeting. You know, it ignited a full
blown civil war and the attacks back and forth only escalated.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And it was yeah, and Darrel, I bring that up
because one of the chapters or the stories in the
book that really struck me because it was so heartbreaking,
but also it was heartwarming with what you and your
team did, and to me, it talks about one of
the specialties of the Green Bereys, which is really getting
in and interacting and integrating with the locals.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
There was a situation one of.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Your racket team members relatives, was killed, but because the
other guys were controlling the hospital, they would not release
his body. So you guys loaded up there, drove down
there in full full gear and weapons and said, no,
we're solving this problem right now. And I just thought
that that was really I could I got the sense
from the book that that really advanced your relationship with
(23:19):
your partners there in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
But it was just the right thing to do. Man,
it was the human thing. Yeah, I appreciate that, and
it definitely humanized you know, it definitely humanized things because
up until that point it was probably a little bit
robotic and hey, this is what we're here to do.
We're going to stick with the mission and all of
those type of things. But when that situation happened and
(23:41):
I was able to kind of take a step back myself,
and you know, the team leader and the warrant and
some others on the team and say, hey, you know,
is there any doubt in anyone's mind if that was
an American, we wouldn't go over there and get that
American right now, no matter what the cost, Is there
any doubt? It's like no, of course not. It's like, well,
(24:02):
this is our teammate as well. He's not an American,
he's an Iraqi. He's actually a civilian, but he's on
our team. He works at our compound, he supports us,
he was supporting us when he got murdered in cold blood,
and just because he's a Shia and he's at a
(24:23):
Sunni hospital and that's the reason they're not going to
release the body. Like, hey, we're not We're not going
to do this. If we can do anything at all
in our power to go over and get our person back,
our person, even though he wasn't an American, but he
was ours, he was our teammate. If we can do
anything at all to help, then we're going to do this.
(24:47):
And keep in mind, BBG, I mean, this is one
person in a sea of thousands, tens of thousands that
was killed because of this type of violence. But it
was something that you know, and I think it goes
back to the Great Code, and one of the principles
of the Great Code is control what you can control.
You know, we couldn't control all the other people that
(25:09):
were getting tortured and killed and you know, but this
was something that we could control. We were able to
go over to the hospital and recover our person, even
though that was painful, but it was, like you said,
it was the right thing to do. We were able
to go back over there and recover him and ultimately
(25:30):
go through the process that they the Muslims go through
to cleanse the body and all those type of things
and take them back to the family so they could
do a proper burial, because if it wouldn't have been
for us, that would have never happened.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, well that's why I think it's the right thing
to do, and it really I really appreciated that just
a couple of minutes again, Eric, for we have to
take the next break. But one of the other missions
that struck me that you relate and grit to glory was,
you know, green Bridge, you got to adapt, you got to overcome,
you got to be great. And there was one high
value target that you wanted to get, but you had
(26:05):
to get him out of his his stronghold, if you will.
So you used what is commonly known as a honey trap.
You got one of your allies, a woman, an ally
who had a sexy voice apparently, and she basically talked
him out of his area and right into your paws.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Huh. That's it. Basically, it was catfishing before catfishing was
a thing, because this is all the way back in
two thousand and six. But you're exactly right, BBG that
you know, this guy had a very powerful network and
it was really hard to and it was a hard
area to work too, because he was in Solder City,
(26:44):
which is just a very very tough place to work
a lot of a lot of different reasons why because
it was just a it's I mean, it was just
a tough little city to kind of work into because
you would typically eat a bunch of you know, explosive
devices on the way in, you would probably get in
a firefight while you're there, and you would eat improvise
(27:05):
the explosive devices on the way out. And then because
of the political repercussions, because the Prime Minister was Shia
Solder city was Shia, so it was often off limits
to us because they thought we were like, hey, why
are you guys targeting the Shia. This is an al
Qaeda thing. Let's get let's go after the Sunnies. And
that was something that we had to deal with. It
(27:26):
was it was definitely PhD level Special Forces work because
the the the power at that time in Iraq was
Shia and they didn't want us targeting other Shias. But
we started getting a lot more Shia on our targeting
deck and this was one and it was just a
very tough area. We had. We had a lot of
(27:46):
information on him, we had a cell phone number, we
had all kinds of stuff, but he was just a
very difficult target to get and we had to get
super creative and we didn't have all the assets that
the higher level units tier you know, like a Tier
one unit like Delta or Seal Team six or the
British essays. We didn't have all those assets that they have,
(28:07):
so we had to h to innovate, which is another
principle of the Grit code, embrace innovation, and that's what
we did.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
You got creative and I really appree, you know, it's
one of the one of the chapters or the stories
that made me chuck a little bit, because you know,
here's this maybe considered himself higher than now sort of
guy and he fell for maybe one of the oldest
tricks in the book. And I hope that woman got
some kind of a metal out of that.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Darrel.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
When we come back, I'd like to kind of switch
gears a little bit and talk more about the Grit
Code and some things that you learned in your years
and the service and the Green Brace that our listeners
can learn from and take some get some takeaways from this.
Ladies and gentlemen, there's your host, Ben Bueler Garcia. We're
talking with Daryl up. The book is the Grit Code.
We'll be right back. Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Lason, gentlemen,
(29:14):
I'm joined by Daryl Darrel as a retired Green Berets.
He's got a great book out called The Grit to Glory.
I was going to call it the Grit Code, but no,
that's what we're going to talk about now. It's called
Grit to Glory. You can find that wherever you find
your favorite books or local bookshop, Amazon, places like that. Daryl,
there is I mentioned earlier. I really part of what
I enjoyed about the book was, you know, it was
interesting and enlightening to read your combat stories and just
(29:37):
all the creative things and some of the tough things
that you and your oder did there in Baghdad.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
But then I.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Get to the last chapter and it's almost like it
was a whole different book. And you have developed what
you call the Grit Code, and it's got eight elements.
Control what you can control, eradicate arrogance, possess an extreme
work like adapt a no surrender mindset, embrace innovation, calm,
(30:05):
breeds calm, relentlessly execute, and courage is contagious not We
don't have time to really delve too much into all this,
but I do want you to share this, and I
tell you one of the things that really jumped out
at me in my personal life, Darryl, is that the
thought about, you know, control what you can control. And
that's that's something I've always really struggled with, and it's
(30:26):
hard for me to let go and say, hey, you know, BBG,
there's just you know, there's nothing you can do about
that right now, man, So you know, just focus your
energy somewhere else, and so I just I just personally
want to say I really appreciated that element of the
Gret Code.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, that's awesome. And to be honest with you, BBG,
I have to go back and and refresh myself on
these principles of the Great Code, even though I grew
up with a lot of these and I learned a
lot of these the hard way. But as you you know,
continue on with life and you get busy, and you
get up into different things, you know, things go a
(31:02):
little bit haywire, and I feel like for me, I'm
a work in progress and I constantly need to go
back and get refreshed on these so the Grit Code,
and I can't claim full credit on this, BBG. You
know this, I had a very talented co author. Her
name is Miss Laura Nonguti, and she helped put all
these together for me. And you know, this was definitely
(31:24):
a collaborative effort. We did a great job working together.
But the Grit Code, in its simplest forms, it is
a blueprint for life. It's not a blueprint for green
berets or for military soldiers. It's a blueprint for life
for everyone. And I think everyone can learn a little
bit from some of these principles of the Grit Code.
(31:47):
And three of the ones that I love to share,
even though I kind of changed the words a little bit.
Three of the ones that I love to share with
like a high school students in particular, I love to
share possess an extreme work ethic eradicate arrogance, and adopt
(32:08):
a no surrender mindset. And I typically change the words
a little bit because I say, hey, guys, if you
can do these three things as you leave high school
and you go on to college and you go on
to the next stage of your life, if you can
remember these three simple things, you will be ahead of
ninety five to ninety eight percent of your peers. And
(32:30):
that is this work hard, be humble, and don't quit.
And if you you realize kind of how that change
the words a little bit, I mean you'll see those
are three elements, three main elements of the Great Code.
You know, work hard, be humble, don't quit, and you
will go very far. And I think that message resonates
with the younger generation. And by the way, it's one
(32:53):
of it's really a treat for me to be able
to talk to the high school kids and to share
some of the lessons learned. And I think that's a
big reason why, you know, I wanted to write the book.
I wanted to share some of these lessons, not just
to the high school kids, but to all those people
that want to learn a little bit more about the military,
or maybe future Green Berets or young Green Berets, or
(33:16):
maybe people that like history. I mean, I think there's
something in this book for everybody, male or female.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Okay, well yeah, you're I mean your words, not mine.
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, Darrel,
I started the show with the idea that you know,
we don't hear the grit very much anymore, and we
really need to. And you'd say, I guess in today's
world in particular, you're talking about these young people really
very often. That's that's what separates the finishers from the
(33:45):
folks that don't quite make it.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you.
And I think our younger generation need to know, like, hey,
you're probably gonna get that punch in the face at
some point, and that's just kind of a figure of
speed there, but you're going to get dealt something that's
not comfortable. That's going to hurt a little bit, and
you're going to have to absorb that, and then what
(34:10):
you do with that, what you do after that, is
what's really going to matter the most. You know, are
you going to melt and curl up in a ball
and wait for someone to come rescue you, or are
you going to dust yourself off and get back up
on your feet and stay after it. You know, that's
what's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Well, one of the other things that struck me, Daryl,
and I want to give you some time, you've got
some events coming up. But in our pre correspondence before
the interview, something I often hear, particularly with special operators
special forces folks, is when they're transitioning to the civilian world,
a real sense of loss of mission and loss of
(34:52):
purpose and loss of tribe, but finding that other purpose
driven mission can still change lives, right, and to some extent,
I think that's what you're kind of doing out there
with your speaking engagements. At least that's my take.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Darryl.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, Yeah, you're exactly right, and I think it's so important.
I think for a lot of people they think that
once they hang up the uniform it's like, man, it's
all over. Like no, man, it's really it's a new chapter, bro,
It's a brand new chapter to go out there and
find something that really gets you gone, like what wakes
you up in the morning. And not all of us
(35:29):
find it right away. I mean, it's taken me a couple,
you know, few jobs to really find something. I'm working
at a company now, Rope Solutions, and we do coaching
in the oil and gas industry. And I'm also I
have my own LLC G to G, which is Leadership
and Resilience Consulting. It's where I do a lot of
my public speaking and book events. But that gives me
(35:52):
a lot of purpose. You know. Some of the things
that I've done that's made my heart the happiest. I
didn't receive a dime. I spoke to some kids in Weatherford, Wetherford, Texas,
and I've spoken to some other school groups. Didn't receive
a dime for those, but it made my heart so
happy and just to be able to share. Did I
(36:12):
get through to all those kids, Probably not. Some of
them were just like, man, who's this old dude, You know,
who's this old ball dude? What's he talking about? What's
he done with his life? But I know there were
a couple that listened and it got through. So that
really gives me a lot of joy and makes my
heart happy.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
So Eric three minutes, Where do people find you?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I'm building my website right now, getting ready to actually
to invest a little bit of money into that, so
I'll have that up and running hopefully at some point
in the next next couple months. But my biggest platform
right now is LinkedIn. You can find me at Darryl
d a r r e l ll dash ut. I
have a lot of followers. I do a lot of
posting on there. I do a lot of you know,
(36:57):
I just have a lot of engagement. A lot of
people reach out out on my DMS and send me
messages or they want a copy of the book, like
hey man, I know I can go to Amazon and
get a copy of your book, but I want to
sign copy so I can do that. I'm also on Instagram.
I'm at Darryl d a r r e lll dot
ut on Instagram, so you can find me there. And
(37:18):
I have a lot of events overcoming BBG. If I
can go through a few of them, really we have time,
so I'm going to be up in Providence, Rhode Island,
June eighteenth for whiskey and War stories at the Providence
University Club. I'm going to be up there with my
old commander, retired Lieutenant General Ken Tobo, and some others
(37:39):
from the Green Beret Foundation. I'm going to be on
the Attention Now podcast on Friday, twenty June. That's Dave Diaz.
I'm doing another speaking engagement at Texas Westland University. It's
a Youth League conference on Wednesday, sixteen July. I'm going
to be in Saratoga Springs, New York fourteen to September
(38:04):
fourteen to seventeen September at the twenty twenty five FBI
National Academy, doing a keynote there. Celebrity Softball in Frisco, Texas,
October third and fourth, I'll be a participant. Come out
and get a copy of the book, and we'll do
some pictures. Let's see. I'll be at the Heroes and
(38:26):
Home Golf Tournament in Woodlands, Texas, nineteen to twenty October.
That's another event I'm doing with the Green Beret Foundation.
I'll be doing a keynote at the Washington County Ohio
Veterans Hall of Fame Ceremony, Marietta, Ohio, one November. And finally,
I'll be at the Washington State Crop Improvement Association seventy
(38:47):
eighth Annual Conference, twenty twenty five Keynote speaker, fourteen November,
Airway Heights, Washington. So be there's probably going to be
a bunch more in there, but I'd love to see
you guys. If you need any thing, please reach out
and give me a holler outstanding.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Well, you know, between the podcasts and our terrestrial stations,
I'm sure there's some folks will be in the air
and encourage them to go out and find you. And hey,
buy a copy of Rich and Glory and bring it
with Please see, you know, see if we have dryl
autographed that, Daryl. It's been a real pleasure. I appreciate
you spending your time with our listeners today.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Thank you, BBG. It was a great honor.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
There you go, folks, another great show. Please share these
important messages with your friends. Until next time, Ladies and gentlemen,
all policies and procedures to remain in place.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
You've been listening to American Warrior Radio archived Episodes may
be found at americanwarriorradio dot com or your favorite podcast platform.
We all owe them, but very few of us know them.
They are the men and women of our military and
first responder communities, and these are their stories.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
American Warrior Radio is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
WELLO, folks, Welcome to American Warrior Radio. This is your host,
Ben Bueler Garcia. American Warrior Radio broadcast from the Sallencer
Central studios of the nation's largest suppressor dealer, and ready
to make your silencer buying journey as simple as possible.
Visit Silencercentral dot com or call them at eight six
six six four zero three two seven zero. Be sure
to check Silencercentral dot com to confirm if owning a
(00:46):
silencer is legal in your state. The word grit is
not much in common use anymore, at least not in
the civilian world. I wish it were. Life can be
an unforgiving business, and it certainly is not fair. There
will be things one can control, many they can't. Preparation, planning,
training can help, but sometimes a distinction between the winners
(01:07):
and the also rans it's just pure grit. Today we're
going to introduce you to one such story. Darryl went
from dirt poor childhood to a leader in one of
our most elite special Forces. Part of his time with
the Green Berets included service in the heart of Baghdad
during one of the deadliest periods of that war. He
chronicles much of it in a book titled Grit to Glory.
We can learn a lot from this man. Please stay tuned, Darryl.
(01:29):
Welcome to American Warrior Radio.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Very much honored to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, Darryl, I really enjoyed the book, and I'll get
back to this maybe once or twice during the interview.
I enjoyed it because it really struck me. It's two
books that you know, there's the combat stories that you share,
and of course some of the intricacies of that situation
there in Baghdad at the time that I think a
lot of civilians still don't understand. But then your last
(01:54):
chapter of the book is almost like a separate book,
so we'll dedicate some time to that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Now.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You introduce us to Darryl Utt your early years by saying,
the only silver spoons in my family were the ones
that used to hit me, and burger king was quite
the big occasion.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Apparently it was burger king and McDonald's. For sure.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
You spent a lot of time out in the woods,
and do you think in retrospect that served you well
in the Green Berete. It certainly couldn't have hurt during
robins Sage Right.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh, yeah, I felt like I was Once I got
my feet underneath me in the military. I started looking
back and reflecting BBG, and I felt like I was
built for the military. I was built for the infantry,
built for special Forces, you know, with the time in
the woods, like you said, you know, the hunting, the fishing,
the trapping, all of those things, all of those skills
(02:46):
that I kind of probably took for granted a little bit.
Didn't realize how invaluable those skills were until going through
Special Forces training, and there's training where you're doing navigation
and you're all by yourself, you're out in the woods,
it's cold, it's dark, you're hungry, all of those things.
(03:07):
I'd basically done those things, and I didn't realize how
much of an advantage I had until I started seeing
how other guys reacted to that that maybe had never
been in that situation before, and they're thrust into it
when they're going through Special Forces assessment and selection, and
they don't really have such a great time at it,
and it's difficult, it's tough. I realized then, man, what
(03:31):
an advantage that I had because of my upbringing. So
for sure, man, definitely definitely an advantage. Darrel.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Did you always plan on joining the military, and if so,
why the army and then why special Forces?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
No?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Not really, but like we've alluded to, you know, come
from humble beginnings, very poor family from West Virginia, blue collar,
didn't really have a lot of options. They were shutting
a lot of factories down in West Virginia, which is
what happened to my dad. You know, he worked in
a glass factory, and as soon as plastic started becoming
(04:05):
more and more predominant across our country, glass was going
out of style quickly. You know, of course, they ended
up shutting down Owen's, Illinois, which was the glass factory
that he worked at. I saw that as a young
man and didn't see a lot of opportunities. I wasn't
the best and the brightest student in school, and luckily
I had a football coach that was a Special Forces
(04:28):
guide National Guard, and you know it was a sergeant major,
so he was able to mentor me and take me
under his wing. And I'm very grateful for that mentorship.
So between him and my dad, it was basically like, hey, this,
this could be a good option for you. You know,
we didn't have the money to send me to college
(04:48):
and I probably wouldn't have done any good anyway. So
the military was it seemed like a great option, and
it was something, you know, as an eighteen year old,
I was like, oh, man, I'm going to get away
from this place. There's nothing here, you know, kind of
a little bit of a mister know at all, I
guess in kind of a way that I thought I
knew what I was I was really getting into. But
(05:09):
it was a way for me to leave where I
was from, where there weren't a lot of opportunities, and
it was it was a good opportunity for me to
make something of myself, and I took advantage of that.
But the Army wasn't my first choice, and no disrespect,
but I really wanted to join the Marine Corps. That
was something that had intrigued me as a boy growing
(05:29):
up because my dad had made a comment and said, hey,
no one in our family had ever served in the Marines,
and I saw that as like a challenge in a
way like, oh man, no one in my family, And
of course I come from a family a lot of
you know, a lot of my uncles and grandfather and
(05:50):
you know, they'd all served in the war. I had
an uncle that was served in the Air Force, and
eventually so I had, you know, there was military service
in my family. And when I heard that there was
no one that had ever served as a marine, I
was very intrigued and I had the Marine posters in
my room, I had the Marine sticker on my car.
In high school, I wore the Marine free recruiting T shirts.
(06:12):
I thought I was gonna be a Marine, and it
didn't work out that way. You know, I tried to
join the Marines. I had a medical a medical thing
I had assist in my left wrist, and that kind
of prevented me. But there was also some other stuff
going on with the recruiting and promises and things like
that that didn't work out on the Marine side, and
(06:34):
I got a little disenfranchised. And no disrespect to the Marines,
because I love the Marine Corps and support the Marine Corps,
but for me personally, it just didn't work out. And
after that whole incident happened at the MEP station, the
Military Entrance Processing Station in Beckley, West Virginia. After that
whole fiasco with the Marine Corps, I came back, I
(06:56):
got my cysts removed, and then I started to talking
to the Army recruiter and joined the Army. So this
would have been back in. I joined in early nineteen
ninety and actually left for basic training about a month
and a half after I graduated high school. So yeah, there.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Are we got just a couple minutes for the first break.
And I'm curious. There's a scene in A Band of
Brothers where one of the characters says that he joined
the paratroopers because if he was going to go to war,
he wanted to serve with the best. I get from
your book that you kind of had the same compunction
about going to with the Green Berets once you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Were in the area. Yeah, yes, sir, that's exactly right.
You know, I was the first time that I was
around special Forces that I was actually exposed because I
was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, back in ninety three
ninety four, and although there are special Forces there, I
never saw them, so I knew I didn't know they
existed I was, you know, a younger man in the military.
(07:54):
But the first time that I saw active duty Special
Forces was on Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and that was fifth
Special Forces Group. That's where they're stationed. Obviously they're headquarters,
and I started seeing them as a young infantry sergeant,
squad leader, team leader, and I was like, man, you're
exactly right what you said. BBG. Like, if I'm going
(08:16):
to go to combat and put it all on the line,
then I want to be a guy. I want to
be with guys of this caliber that are doing this
type of training constantly training, And it looked like it
made a lot of sense. They weren't doing the full
battle rattle like we were with all of our gear
and kit. It just seemed like they're a lot more efficient.
They were a lot more smarter, a lot more competent.
(08:37):
That was my observations as a young man, and that's
what that's what pushed me over the top to go
to go give it a shot.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
And you made it through the first time you talk
about grit. When you were training for the assessment course,
you broke a bone and the minute the cash came off,
I went right back at it. But you did make
it through everything, including the Q course. Okay, right the first.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, sure did. I had a little bit of a
hiccup with that same fibula that I broke back in well,
I think it was January of ninety six. I broke
my left fibula training to go to selection. So that
kind of pushed me back a little bit because I
had to wear a cast and I had to get
healed up and I started training. Made it through selection fine.
(09:28):
I did have a little bit of an issue with
that left fibula going through the Q course, so that
kind of held me back a class. But yeah, other
than that, I was good to go. I had a
good run and very fortunate.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Okay, Daryl. When we come back, I like you to
share some of your experiences there in Bagdad. Ladies and gentlemen,
there's your host, Bendela Garcia. We're talking with Darryl Upp.
We'll be right back. Welcome back to American Warrior Radio, Lasier. Gentlemen,
(10:13):
this is your host, Ben Buler guard Sie. We're talking
with Daryl. Darryl's got a great book out called Grit
to Glory.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
It's full of combat stories, but also there's just a
lot of lessons there that can be taken out of it,
whether you're in the military plenty on joining the military,
or like me, just a sibling out there, you know,
fighting the battle of life, Darryl. So, for our listeners,
an ODA is comprised of how many soldiers twelve guys,
okay in every case for.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
The most part, I mean, if if it's a full ODA.
I was a little bit balked up for that rotation
in two thousand and six, but a standard Operational Detachment
ALPHA Special Forces ODA Special Forces teams twelve men.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Okay, So you're assigned your ODA. Forty were assigned to
Camp Apache, which, as I understand, that's just outside of Bagdad. Now,
you had kind of a rough start. It's one of
the first leadership lessons you had when you started to
hear these whispers that your team had developed a undeserved
reputation as just a bunch of hard partiers and not
really serious, and that you took that very serious.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I took that very serious because of all the time
and experience I had up to that point. I mean
I felt like I was built for that moment there
and Bagdad in six and you know, fifteen years in
my career, I was a master sergeant. I had multiple
combat rotations and other deployments underneath my belt, you know,
(11:41):
just a lot of experience. And my experience told me
that if I let that rumor go unchecked, that we
were probably going to get benched. A bunch of us
was going to get fired, and we were going to
be ineffective, and basically another team was going to come
in and take over the mission. You know, when when
you're in combat like that, the stakes are very high
(12:03):
and it's a lot like probably you know, professional sports team, like, hey,
there's a ton of people out there that are chomping
at the bit to get to where you're at. And
the way that we viewed Baghdad in two thousand and six,
we were in the super Bowl like this was it,
this was our moment. And that's what a lot of people,
(12:23):
I don't think, really understand about the military or combat deployments.
I mean, a lot of people definitely view them as
super Bowls, and we were in the super Bowl of
super Bowls because we were in Baghdad in six. There's
a lot of teams that were in that country that
were all over the place, and they weren't seeing a
fraction of the combat that we were getting ready to see.
(12:45):
And we all knew that. So we were all chomping
at the bit. We were hungry, and I felt like
that I had to make a decision. I had to,
you know, I had to put my big boy pants
on and make a big boy decision to keep what
we had and to keep our team whole.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And you found the source of those undeserved rumors. And
it comes back to one of the first lessons you
were taught by one of your mentors, if you will,
and I'm going to paraphrase this quote because we're our
family show, Darryl, but if you're going to be a leader,
you have to be able to look your mom right
in the eye and say, Mom, I love you, but
you were fired. And so you got rid of that
part in the phrase the cancer. But then tell us
(13:25):
about the hard Hit award. You took it a step further.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, well that was not the only That was the
first punch in the face, but there was another punch
in the face right after that with a lost piece
of equipment. And after that second punch in the face,
which the readers can read all about with a very
sensitive missing piece of equipment. That was probably the second
punch in the face. But after that I had a
(13:49):
sledgehammer with me, and I felt like we needed an
extra extra, a little bit of motivational, extra, little push,
and I kind of on the fly developed what called
the herd Hitter Award, and it was a sledgehammer, and
anybody on the team could be recognized with receiving the
hard Hitter Award except for the top three leadership, which
(14:12):
would be myself, my captain, and my warrant officer. So
the rest of the team was eligible. Even though the
leadership wasn't eligible, we were still voting members. So every
week we would have a team meeting and we would
do a vote for the hard Hitter Award. And it
could be anything BBG. It could be somebody that was
(14:36):
just doing great work, you know, the small stuff that's
unseen behind the scenes, making sure the vehicles are ready
to go and have gas and you know all those
type of things. Or it could be like a combat
operation or a combat act where someone engaged the enemy.
I mean, it could really run the full gamut of things,
(14:58):
and it's really hard to press a bunch of a
personalities meat eaters if you will, on the team every
single week, and that award really grew. It grew way
more than I thought it ever would. It really became
like a very prideful kind of thing, and it was
(15:18):
a huge honor. And I allowed guys to decorate the
sledge and you know, they could put coins on there,
they could put sayings, they could put quotes, and it
really kind of grew to this kind of a beast
kind of thing. But a lot of guys were fighting
for it and they were very honored to receive it
(15:39):
from their teammates because it really meant something. There was
no politics involved, you know, to convince a bunch of
individuals on the team to vote for someone and to
do it consecutively over and over, and if I may,
you know how much this award meant to the men
(16:00):
of ODA zero four to three and to the team members.
The person that ultimately received that award was killed tragically
back in twenty fourteen, and you know, he was our
hard hitter for two thousand and six. We had another
version of that award in two thousand and seven, but
(16:21):
in twenty fourteen, I'd basically forgotten about the hard Hitter award.
And the member that received that. I think it's special
to talk about it on Memorial Day because you know,
we're talking about one point two to one point three
million people, you know, service members that have lost their
life in battle since the American Revolution, all the way
(16:43):
up to g Watt. But when we buried Dave, you know,
I'd basically forgotten about the Hard Hitter Award. I knew
that he had, you know, he had earned it, he
had won it. But the family didn't forget that award,
and they knew what that sledge hammer meant to Dave,
and it went in the casket with Dave when when
(17:07):
we buried him, That's how much that award meant to
Dave and to his family. And I was like, man,
that was that was really heavy on my heart. So
to even kind of honor Dave on Memorial Day here,
you know, he was killed back in you know, twenty
seven November twenty fourteen in Afghanistan. You know, he was
(17:28):
he was our hard hitter, and he was in fact
a hard hitter. He was he was, he was a
top notch guy and he went out fighting and slinging lead.
So I just wanted to give a little honor to
h to. Dave wrote in here on this Memorial Day,
he was the definition of grit. You know. I always
(17:48):
like to say grit, you know, the three d's determination
despite difficulty h And that was Dave, you know, because
he came into he was probably like one of our
youngest guys and newest guys on the team, and he
was an absolute warrior, absolutely what.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I encourage folks to read the book. There's a lot
in there. In fact, some of the One of the
things that made me chuckle is, you know your I
don't know if hazing is the right word, maybe initiation
or some of these that actually went badly wrong, you know,
didn't survive for us contact with the enemy. But when
we come back, I'd like to talk just real quick, Darryl,
if you give us acquaint our listeners with that particular
(18:27):
dynamic there and Bagdad at the time, the Sunni versus
of the Shea, and then we'll talk about some of
your missions that really stood out in the book for me.
We don't want to give the whole book away, but
I think we just touched on some of those things
that I found very fascinating. Ladies and gentlemen, there's our
hosts Ben Biler Garcia here.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
In American Warrior Radio. Don't forget.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You can find over six hundred podcasts at American Warrior
Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Lasion and gentlemen, there's
your host, Ben Buler Garcia. We're coming to you from
the Silencer Central Studios. Adding a silencer can make shootings safer,
more enjoyable, and improve your accuracy. Begin the process by
visiting Silencercentral dot com to see if owning a silencer
is legal in your state. They can then walk you
through the permitting process and ship your new silencer right
to your front door. Called Silencer Central today at eight
(19:31):
six six 't four zero three two seven zero, or
visit silencercentral dot com. We're talking with Daryl ut. Darryl
is a retired Green Beret. He's got a great book
out called Grit to Glory and Daryl real quick if
you'll just because one of the factors involved in Bagdad
at that time, you and your ODA were thrown into
(19:54):
kind of a hornet's nest, and that really you're in
the middle of a sectarian civil war between the Sunni
and the Shia. So readers died just version, and there
weren't I don't want to say there weren't bad guys
and good guys, because there certainly were. But readers died
just version.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Who was who? Yeah, it's a great question, right you
were working. Yeah, it's a great question BBG. And it's
the whole heart of this book, Like it's the so
what of the book. It's like, hey, what's the so
what of Grit the Glory? There was a ton of
special forces teams in Iraq from two thousand and three
all the way till the ten till the end. There
(20:32):
was a ton of special forces in Afghanistan from you
know one early oh two all the way until the end, Like,
what's the so what? The so what? For me? Uh?
And I thought was such an interesting aspect of this
book is you know, we were the special forces team
at ground zero at the start, at the ignition of
(20:54):
a civil war, you know, going into Iraq, and you
know we were there from January sixth to August six
We were already going into a situation that was extremely chaotic,
extremely violent, extremely dangerous, extremely deadly every adjective you want
to put in there. And yes, of course there were
(21:15):
Sunnies killing Shia, Shia killing Sunnies, and pretty much everybody
else wanting to kill Americans, and they were gravitating towards
that part of the world and that part of the
country to do exactly that. But what was really significant
for me as part of this book was, you know,
(21:35):
we got there in January. The next month, al Qaeda
militants bombed and destroyed a Shia mosque in Samara on
February twenty second, two thousand and six, and then the
violence exploded as a result of that. It ignited a
full blown civil war in the country of Iraq, and
(21:57):
the media and the mill terry tried to kind of
put a lid on that and be like, hey, it's
secretary and violence. It's not a civil war, no, man.
It was a full blown civil war that ignited, and
it made everything even more dangerous, even more deadly, even
more chaotic. We started seeing it playing out in the streets,
(22:18):
We started seeing it, you know, in the way that
we did our targeting. You know, it ignited a full
blown civil war and the attacks back and forth only escalated.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And it was yeah, and Darrel, I bring that up
because one of the chapters or the stories in the
book that really struck me because it was so heartbreaking,
but also it was heartwarming with what you and your
team did, and to me, it talks about one of
the specialties of the Green Bereys, which is really getting
in and interacting and integrating with the locals.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
There was a situation one of.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Your racket team members relatives, was killed, but because the
other guys were controlling the hospital, they would not release
his body. So you guys loaded up there, drove down
there in full full gear and weapons and said, no,
we're solving this problem right now. And I just thought
that that was really I could I got the sense
from the book that that really advanced your relationship with
(23:19):
your partners there in Iraq.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
But it was just the right thing to do. Man,
it was the human thing. Yeah, I appreciate that, and
it definitely humanized you know, it definitely humanized things because
up until that point it was probably a little bit
robotic and hey, this is what we're here to do.
We're going to stick with the mission and all of
those type of things. But when that situation happened and
(23:41):
I was able to kind of take a step back myself,
and you know, the team leader and the warrant and
some others on the team and say, hey, you know,
is there any doubt in anyone's mind if that was
an American, we wouldn't go over there and get that
American right now, no matter what the cost, Is there
any doubt? It's like no, of course not. It's like, well,
(24:02):
this is our teammate as well. He's not an American,
he's an Iraqi. He's actually a civilian, but he's on
our team. He works at our compound, he supports us,
he was supporting us when he got murdered in cold blood,
and just because he's a Shia and he's at a
(24:23):
Sunni hospital and that's the reason they're not going to
release the body. Like, hey, we're not We're not going
to do this. If we can do anything at all
in our power to go over and get our person back,
our person, even though he wasn't an American, but he
was ours, he was our teammate. If we can do
anything at all to help, then we're going to do this.
(24:47):
And keep in mind, BBG, I mean, this is one
person in a sea of thousands, tens of thousands that
was killed because of this type of violence. But it
was something that you know, and I think it goes
back to the Great Code, and one of the principles
of the Great Code is control what you can control.
You know, we couldn't control all the other people that
(25:09):
were getting tortured and killed and you know, but this
was something that we could control. We were able to
go over to the hospital and recover our person, even
though that was painful, but it was, like you said,
it was the right thing to do. We were able
to go back over there and recover him and ultimately
(25:30):
go through the process that they the Muslims go through
to cleanse the body and all those type of things
and take them back to the family so they could
do a proper burial, because if it wouldn't have been
for us, that would have never happened.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, well that's why I think it's the right thing
to do, and it really I really appreciated that just
a couple of minutes again, Eric, for we have to
take the next break. But one of the other missions
that struck me that you relate and grit to glory was,
you know, green Bridge, you got to adapt, you got to overcome,
you got to be great. And there was one high
value target that you wanted to get, but you had
(26:05):
to get him out of his his stronghold, if you will.
So you used what is commonly known as a honey trap.
You got one of your allies, a woman, an ally
who had a sexy voice apparently, and she basically talked
him out of his area and right into your paws.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Huh. That's it. Basically, it was catfishing before catfishing was
a thing, because this is all the way back in
two thousand and six. But you're exactly right, BBG that
you know, this guy had a very powerful network and
it was really hard to and it was a hard
area to work too, because he was in Solder City,
(26:44):
which is just a very very tough place to work
a lot of a lot of different reasons why because
it was just a it's I mean, it was just
a tough little city to kind of work into because
you would typically eat a bunch of you know, explosive
devices on the way in, you would probably get in
a firefight while you're there, and you would eat improvise
(27:05):
the explosive devices on the way out. And then because
of the political repercussions, because the Prime Minister was Shia
Solder city was Shia, so it was often off limits
to us because they thought we were like, hey, why
are you guys targeting the Shia. This is an al
Qaeda thing. Let's get let's go after the Sunnies. And
that was something that we had to deal with. It
(27:26):
was it was definitely PhD level Special Forces work because
the the the power at that time in Iraq was
Shia and they didn't want us targeting other Shias. But
we started getting a lot more Shia on our targeting
deck and this was one and it was just a
very tough area. We had. We had a lot of
(27:46):
information on him, we had a cell phone number, we
had all kinds of stuff, but he was just a
very difficult target to get and we had to get
super creative and we didn't have all the assets that
the higher level units tier you know, like a Tier
one unit like Delta or Seal Team six or the
British essays. We didn't have all those assets that they have,
(28:07):
so we had to h to innovate, which is another
principle of the Grit code, embrace innovation, and that's what
we did.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
You got creative and I really appree, you know, it's
one of the one of the chapters or the stories
that made me chuck a little bit, because you know,
here's this maybe considered himself higher than now sort of
guy and he fell for maybe one of the oldest
tricks in the book. And I hope that woman got
some kind of a metal out of that.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Darrel.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
When we come back, I'd like to kind of switch
gears a little bit and talk more about the Grit
Code and some things that you learned in your years
and the service and the Green Brace that our listeners
can learn from and take some get some takeaways from this.
Ladies and gentlemen, there's your host, Ben Bueler Garcia. We're
talking with Daryl up. The book is the Grit Code.
We'll be right back. Welcome back to American Warrior Radio. Lason, gentlemen,
(29:14):
I'm joined by Daryl Darrel as a retired Green Berets.
He's got a great book out called The Grit to Glory.
I was going to call it the Grit Code, but no,
that's what we're going to talk about now. It's called
Grit to Glory. You can find that wherever you find
your favorite books or local bookshop, Amazon, places like that. Daryl,
there is I mentioned earlier. I really part of what
I enjoyed about the book was, you know, it was
interesting and enlightening to read your combat stories and just
(29:37):
all the creative things and some of the tough things
that you and your oder did there in Baghdad.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
But then I.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Get to the last chapter and it's almost like it
was a whole different book. And you have developed what
you call the Grit Code, and it's got eight elements.
Control what you can control, eradicate arrogance, possess an extreme
work like adapt a no surrender mindset, embrace innovation, calm,
(30:05):
breeds calm, relentlessly execute, and courage is contagious not We
don't have time to really delve too much into all this,
but I do want you to share this, and I
tell you one of the things that really jumped out
at me in my personal life, Darryl, is that the
thought about, you know, control what you can control. And
that's that's something I've always really struggled with, and it's
(30:26):
hard for me to let go and say, hey, you know, BBG,
there's just you know, there's nothing you can do about
that right now, man, So you know, just focus your
energy somewhere else, and so I just I just personally
want to say I really appreciated that element of the
Gret Code.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, that's awesome. And to be honest with you, BBG,
I have to go back and and refresh myself on
these principles of the Great Code, even though I grew
up with a lot of these and I learned a
lot of these the hard way. But as you you know,
continue on with life and you get busy, and you
get up into different things, you know, things go a
(31:02):
little bit haywire, and I feel like for me, I'm
a work in progress and I constantly need to go
back and get refreshed on these so the Grit Code,
and I can't claim full credit on this, BBG. You
know this, I had a very talented co author. Her
name is Miss Laura Nonguti, and she helped put all
these together for me. And you know, this was definitely
(31:24):
a collaborative effort. We did a great job working together.
But the Grit Code, in its simplest forms, it is
a blueprint for life. It's not a blueprint for green
berets or for military soldiers. It's a blueprint for life
for everyone. And I think everyone can learn a little
bit from some of these principles of the Grit Code.
(31:47):
And three of the ones that I love to share,
even though I kind of changed the words a little bit.
Three of the ones that I love to share with
like a high school students in particular, I love to
share possess an extreme work ethic eradicate arrogance, and adopt
(32:08):
a no surrender mindset. And I typically change the words
a little bit because I say, hey, guys, if you
can do these three things as you leave high school
and you go on to college and you go on
to the next stage of your life, if you can
remember these three simple things, you will be ahead of
ninety five to ninety eight percent of your peers. And
(32:30):
that is this work hard, be humble, and don't quit.
And if you you realize kind of how that change
the words a little bit, I mean you'll see those
are three elements, three main elements of the Great Code.
You know, work hard, be humble, don't quit, and you
will go very far. And I think that message resonates
with the younger generation. And by the way, it's one
(32:53):
of it's really a treat for me to be able
to talk to the high school kids and to share
some of the lessons learned. And I think that's a
big reason why, you know, I wanted to write the book.
I wanted to share some of these lessons, not just
to the high school kids, but to all those people
that want to learn a little bit more about the military,
or maybe future Green Berets or young Green Berets, or
(33:16):
maybe people that like history. I mean, I think there's
something in this book for everybody, male or female.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Okay, well yeah, you're I mean your words, not mine.
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, Darrel,
I started the show with the idea that you know,
we don't hear the grit very much anymore, and we
really need to. And you'd say, I guess in today's
world in particular, you're talking about these young people really
very often. That's that's what separates the finishers from the
(33:45):
folks that don't quite make it.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you.
And I think our younger generation need to know, like, hey,
you're probably gonna get that punch in the face at
some point, and that's just kind of a figure of
speed there, but you're going to get dealt something that's
not comfortable. That's going to hurt a little bit, and
you're going to have to absorb that, and then what
(34:10):
you do with that, what you do after that, is
what's really going to matter the most. You know, are
you going to melt and curl up in a ball
and wait for someone to come rescue you, or are
you going to dust yourself off and get back up
on your feet and stay after it. You know, that's
what's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Well, one of the other things that struck me, Daryl,
and I want to give you some time, you've got
some events coming up. But in our pre correspondence before
the interview, something I often hear, particularly with special operators
special forces folks, is when they're transitioning to the civilian world,
a real sense of loss of mission and loss of
(34:52):
purpose and loss of tribe, but finding that other purpose
driven mission can still change lives, right, and to some extent,
I think that's what you're kind of doing out there
with your speaking engagements. At least that's my take.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Darryl.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, Yeah, you're exactly right, and I think it's so important.
I think for a lot of people they think that
once they hang up the uniform it's like, man, it's
all over. Like no, man, it's really it's a new chapter, bro,
It's a brand new chapter to go out there and
find something that really gets you gone, like what wakes
you up in the morning. And not all of us
(35:29):
find it right away. I mean, it's taken me a couple,
you know, few jobs to really find something. I'm working
at a company now, Rope Solutions, and we do coaching
in the oil and gas industry. And I'm also I
have my own LLC G to G, which is Leadership
and Resilience Consulting. It's where I do a lot of
my public speaking and book events. But that gives me
(35:52):
a lot of purpose. You know. Some of the things
that I've done that's made my heart the happiest. I
didn't receive a dime. I spoke to some kids in Weatherford, Wetherford, Texas,
and I've spoken to some other school groups. Didn't receive
a dime for those, but it made my heart so
happy and just to be able to share. Did I
(36:12):
get through to all those kids, Probably not. Some of
them were just like, man, who's this old dude, You know,
who's this old ball dude? What's he talking about? What's
he done with his life? But I know there were
a couple that listened and it got through. So that
really gives me a lot of joy and makes my
heart happy.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
So Eric three minutes, Where do people find you?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I'm building my website right now, getting ready to actually
to invest a little bit of money into that, so
I'll have that up and running hopefully at some point
in the next next couple months. But my biggest platform
right now is LinkedIn. You can find me at Darryl
d a r r e l ll dash ut. I
have a lot of followers. I do a lot of
posting on there. I do a lot of you know,
(36:57):
I just have a lot of engagement. A lot of
people reach out out on my DMS and send me
messages or they want a copy of the book, like
hey man, I know I can go to Amazon and
get a copy of your book, but I want to
sign copy so I can do that. I'm also on Instagram.
I'm at Darryl d a r r e lll dot
ut on Instagram, so you can find me there. And
(37:18):
I have a lot of events overcoming BBG. If I
can go through a few of them, really we have time,
so I'm going to be up in Providence, Rhode Island,
June eighteenth for whiskey and War stories at the Providence
University Club. I'm going to be up there with my
old commander, retired Lieutenant General Ken Tobo, and some others
(37:39):
from the Green Beret Foundation. I'm going to be on
the Attention Now podcast on Friday, twenty June. That's Dave Diaz.
I'm doing another speaking engagement at Texas Westland University. It's
a Youth League conference on Wednesday, sixteen July. I'm going
to be in Saratoga Springs, New York fourteen to September
(38:04):
fourteen to seventeen September at the twenty twenty five FBI
National Academy, doing a keynote there. Celebrity Softball in Frisco, Texas,
October third and fourth, I'll be a participant. Come out
and get a copy of the book, and we'll do
some pictures. Let's see. I'll be at the Heroes and
(38:26):
Home Golf Tournament in Woodlands, Texas, nineteen to twenty October.
That's another event I'm doing with the Green Beret Foundation.
I'll be doing a keynote at the Washington County Ohio
Veterans Hall of Fame Ceremony, Marietta, Ohio, one November. And finally,
I'll be at the Washington State Crop Improvement Association seventy
(38:47):
eighth Annual Conference, twenty twenty five Keynote speaker, fourteen November,
Airway Heights, Washington. So be there's probably going to be
a bunch more in there, but I'd love to see
you guys. If you need any thing, please reach out
and give me a holler outstanding.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Well, you know, between the podcasts and our terrestrial stations,
I'm sure there's some folks will be in the air
and encourage them to go out and find you. And hey,
buy a copy of Rich and Glory and bring it
with Please see, you know, see if we have dryl
autographed that, Daryl. It's been a real pleasure. I appreciate
you spending your time with our listeners today.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Thank you, BBG. It was a great honor.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
There you go, folks, another great show. Please share these
important messages with your friends. Until next time, Ladies and gentlemen,
all policies and procedures to remain in place.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
You've been listening to American Warrior Radio archived Episodes may
be found at americanwarriorradio dot com or your favorite podcast platform.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com