Navy SEAL Jason Redman and 79 Navy SEALs who died after the towers fell. HIT LIKE & SUBSCRIBE .

[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you we come from everywhere in America you know who these people are you just may not know them by name they're the people that bag your groceries that kid that's bagging your groceries today it could be an Army Ranger in a year could be a Navy SEAL could be a fighter pilot we don't come from some secret Camp that's underground and Appalachia where they hatch people that are going to be serving their country in incredible ways we're just people that are passionate about providing freedom to the rest of us even if if it's not thanked or fully realized [Music] I don't know that anybody could properly use the right words to describe Mark he was my youngest child and always had amazing sense of humor any of the his teammates that you talk to are people that knew him just said he always kept us in stitches in laughter you know even the night before his final mission he's supposed to be a tough macho guy and yet The Compassion the huge heart that he had and I think that's reflected in his last letter home he wrote this letter two weeks before he was killed that literally has impacted millions of people around the world said when's the last time you paid for a stranger's cup of coffee or a meal or can you imagine when you go to pay for something and find out it's paid for and he ends that letter and he says to my family and friends do me a favor pass on the kindness the love the precious gift of human life and I think that also shows who Mark was how much he valued life how much he valued the people that were in his life and enough that he was willing to sacrifice his life to give his teammates The Gift of Life my name is Debbie Lee and I'm the very proud mother of Mark Allen Lee the first Navy SEAL killed in Iraq [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign I was on pre-deployment leave meaning I was on a scheduled deployments leave period that you take a a week or two off before you go away for six months and I was on that leave period on 9 11. so I was already scheduled to go on a deployment for six months everybody can tell you where they were you know they might not be able to tell you exactly what they were doing but everybody has an impression of where they were and what they were feeling I was at school I just started school I'd left the shield teams in August to start a commissioning program it was at ODU I was actually leaving class at that time first class of the day and I was in the student center I was getting a cup of coffee I was staying with my brother and I was sleeping in a little bit later than usual for me my brother was working construction and he called me and we were in the Midwest and he called me and said hey uh you need to turn the TV on there's something going on an airplane just flew into the World Trade Center and I'll never forget it the young kid behind the counter hands me my coffee and he's kind of nervously laughing he says man the world's coming to an end and I'm like what are you talking about and he said that the Pentagon was on fire and a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center he couldn't he kept saying it this can't be real but it was real and by the volume of smoke and stuff I thought well it's not a small airplane but you know the first reports kind of said it was you thought you were in uh I thought you were in a movie scene I just remember that moment it was like a like a cold ice pick to my heart I was watching when the second plane hit and the moment that second plane hit to me I knew for sure we were at War and I just thought in that moment I said where I wore I said this is no accident this is an intentional act I remember sitting there going I can't believe it I can't believe what I saw and I picked up the phone and called the command and said hey what does it mean what do you need me to do and they were all stunned they're like well we're watching it too we don't know just stand by one of the worst Terror attacks that we ever faced besides Pearl Harbor as a country if it was taught being in school watching all that happen as friends were going off to combat and we started losing friends and who would know that you know almost 10 years later I'd find myself not only in combat but in intense combat and on the receiving end of uh of a enemy machine gun I remember talking to him a few times after my loving happened he said that's why we're here we're gonna take care of this we're here to present we believe that we existed uh for a war and we were looking for one so when this one showed up on our doorstep we we were more than ready to go and uh and I felt extremely uh privileged to be one of the very first people to go I was injured on August 12th of 2004. I was on a um on what we call a sniper stay behind mission where we uh we would hide out in an area that was bad uh as snipers and then see what the enemy did not knowing that we were there we were there to introduce some enemy that were uh we're creating a lot of trouble in the green zone of Baghdad and we had an idea where they were launching their rockets and mortars from so we went snuck into that area and hit out there since we had already kind of gotten up on the roof to position ourselves to attack these guys we were somewhat exposed and we figured it would be a matter of time before someone who sauce would shoot at us right at that time a uh a bad guy with a grenade popped up on the roof adjacent to us and perfectly through a grenade that I saw coming in and it was going to land right in the center of us [Music] my plan was to try to get off the platform I was on which was a a section of expanded metal over a set of air conditioning units so I just pushed a little harder and I jumped and cleared over him and thought well I'm just going to ride this down to the to the roof and yeah it just didn't work out so when I hit the roof my perception was immediately that there was an explosion that stunned me and then a moment later there was another explosion and that one sounded a little more muffled it was just kind of chaos there was uh you know there was the fragments from the grenade and smoke and and tissue I got up on my feet and tried to step in Direction where I just jumped off when I took a step my right leg bent at an L I was in denial actually when it happened I think I thought I could I could buff it out somehow so I reach down I grabbed my leg and I straightened it out it's like as soon as I saw that the pain caught up and and the pain I just can't even describe what that felt like I was laying on my back I was shocked to see my buddy's face pop over and look at me he said okay well I've got one guy up here and he's he's hurt really bad Four Guys grabbed him and just drugged him ahead of me towards the doorway I needed something to break the traction of my body armor on the on the Gravelly roof I remember you know being a kid on a slip and slide and I literally got in this guy's Blood Trail so I drugged myself inside the stairwell and there was a set of stairs in the landing and a set of stairs again that I had to go down so I positioned myself there I had signs that I was bleeding internally I could tell I was getting felt weak I just remember explosion after explosion after explosion his mom and I could kind of feel it coming and I was out kayaking with a really close friend of mine and I looked over at her and I did say I thought my husband was coming home in a coffin that ended up 90 amputating my right leg at the knee uh the only thing that maintained the leg on me was the skin and when he called me and he was wounded I said well obviously it's not that bad but how bad is it and he was like how do you know and I'm like I could feel it on the 19th I had my first surgery here in the United States I ended up having another surgery and doing Rehabilitation and having to learn how to walk again and all that over the winter about 405 people always talk about the courage that you know seals have when they go and do stuff but I think it takes a lot more courage to see somebody that I guess that you love almost die there was this incident that that really started to Define at least for me the the distance between those of us who were as a career fighting to protect people in the United States and the people that were enjoying that freedom and it happened on Election Day of 2004. I probably shouldn't have been driving that early but I wanted if I wanted to do it for myself as a statement I wanted to drive myself to the polling place cast my ballot and you know and get home that's probably not all the energy I had it wasn't long after I'd had my second surgery and I I had a lot of surgical Staples still in two big lines on my leg came back into polling place and as I'm heading home I thought you know I'm going to do myself one better I'm going to stop I'm going to get myself a cup of coffee and I'm gonna go home so I'd order my coffee a little funny Exchange some guy that I didn't know overheard it and making a conversation and he says to me so you voted yeah I did how about you yeah I voted I was thinking this guy was just doing the hey you know we'll keep the politics out of it and just you know you and I voted his next statement I just could it almost knocked me off my feet was there is no al-Qaeda in Iraq I said it's it's not true and I was kind of I felt betrayed in the conversation eventually I got to the place where I just said to him you know the problem is that you think your opinion matters as much as mine and on this particular subject it's never going to you know you think about that like how cool would it have been for a guy with with crutches and his leg weeping Zapped from a recent surgery to just jacked that guy one you know of course everybody sues everybody now so it's probably not a good thing to do but you know the world might have been a better place if you'd have walked into a fist that thing you just never know [Music] I started wondering what are we doing why are you know why are so many of us going back over and over again for people that can't just enjoy that Liberty that they have why do they have to take it to the next level and act like they're they're just as entitled to speak on the same level with the people that are out there doing the sacrificing and I saw it started to harden my heart a little bit I noticed it with my buddies who were having the same experiences as we talked amongst each other I was on Deck to deploy in in June of 05 and did redeploy Back to the war so less than a year after having my right leg 90 amputated I went back to the fight but when you retire then you're kind of empty you're like what do I do what am I supposed to do and I think over the years I started dwelling on the loss uh thinking about my friends that died either in training or in combat and and what and all the guys that were hurt and what that really means with that sacrifice meant it was hurting so bad he said I want to do something to try and ease this pain so what I wanted to do was um commemorate the day differently and sort of use a martial arts type thing or somebody directs energy at you and if you can time that energy properly you can direct it right back at them just as bad as they sent it to you so I started thinking about numbers and I started thinking about making it matter so people could find lots of detail in what I did and I thought well what if I shot Target from 911 yards on 911 and started shooting that Target right at the time that the first you know Tower was hit and do it in order of death for every one of the guys that we lost post 911 up until that date of uh 9 11 of 2012. the two guys that actually ran my the what we call the butts or the pits where the target goes up and down and the guys that actually check the hole in the Target they were both um former uh Naval special Warfare support Personnel so they had worked in SEAL Teams in some support capacity uh sometime in their life when Dave calls and says hey I got an idea you know I'm like yeah he said you know I could do something I could uh I've read the 911 report and we you know we kind of know from that investigation what the terrorists were doing I work for comprehensive technology that he thought might help and he says you know to help us get in the mood for how heavy this is and what we're doing you know he volunteered to send text messages out to all of us that were involved in this saying what those people did but it really did add something you know to be laying in bed getting ready to get up and have your phone blast and you'd look you have a text and you see what happened on the morning of 9 11 prior to uh you know the attacks so all the way down I'm packing the car with the weapon and the ammunition and supplies and Tracy and I are driving down and you know both of our phones go off and it was one of those things where you you really started to understand the enormity and the impact in a sense I wanted to see could we steal the day back you know do we have to do we have to let them Define the day he had that sense of a fuse burning almost the things start coming more and more closely you know reports such and such an airplane isn't responding reports such and such a plane is you know been taken over by that I'm on the gun we're on the yard line we were timing the first shot uh that would be for Neil Roberts to go at 846 which would have been the impact of the first airplane everything kind of gathered up into that moment and then the shot they recorded every time I fired and hit the target they knew what shot that was uh the time it was and then where it landed on the target I just shot and I if I hit the target then they would tell me who it was for I could hear it over the radio sometimes it's a sniper you know when it's you just know you're like yeah that one that's a good shot it's a really good shot and I felt that and I also you also know it's a good shot when the the second you break that shot you see from 911 yards away you see that Target frame go down I said to Tracy that was a good shot and you know what that was for Danny Dietz wasn't it Denny was not just a warrior that fought for our country but he was a wonderful person his laugh and pranks is something the guys remember vividly about him I felt it I said I'm gonna tell you something else I said that thing's gonna be the closest shot to the Target as we were saying by he leaned over the window and gave me a kiss and tears just started rolling without my cheeks and he wiped them off and said it's only three months and I'll be home and just remember when you get down and said I'm doing something special for my country they put the target back up and reported you know impact for Danny Dietz about an inch away or less from the X he could have been anywhere in that there's not really a way I could have known I felt he was there I realized that it wasn't about me it wasn't about him it wasn't about us it was about the freedom of our country and the things that needed to be done to avoid evil to come back to our Shores he just lived life to the fullest until his last breath the guys at the butt said listen um there's some stuff going on down here you need to come down here and see it I was really worried that something had happened to the Target like what what can't you tell me over the radio that I have to get in the car and drive 900 yards down the sea we drove down and it looked at the Target and there were two holes nearly right near each other there were a couple of guys that I had known uh in the teams that uh they were killed together on the same night I thought how crazy that was that their bullet holes were right by each other I couldn't have made that happen if I wanted to new uh who the rounds were for for Nate Hardy and Michael Coke there had been this long string of success me just nailing it I was in my groove I mean that's probably the longest part of the whole event where I was in my groove and then all of a sudden I missed but I just missed I mean it was teasingly outside just outside of the target elevation was perfect so I thought okay no big deal so I made my slight wind adjustment I fire again now I'm teasingly just off the target but on the opposite side of where the Miss was and I'm like the heck so I do it again and back and forth and I think there was a period of like six minutes there which represent a whole lot more than Six Bullets because I really felt I was on it I was I was in that Groove nailing the thing and I look I look at Tracy and I go who am I shooting this for she goes with Jeff Lucas and then I was like oh say no more I had the life they had while they were with the guys on deployment and the Father the husband and the best friend and for me it was more always the calming Factor The Rock Jeff was a friend of mine and in life he was probably one of the most prolific practical jokers I'd ever known he was definitely considered a very funny man the jokester side of Jeff I'm getting to experience it now I think at that point I started to think that there's only so much I could do with the equipment there's only so much I could do with my skill level but ultimately once I've done my best calculations and I physically I break that shot that bullet leaves the gun and from the time it passes the crown of the puzzle it's in the atmosphere and you know if there was something that could influence where that bullet ended up maybe that's where they had the influences in the atmosphere I was pretty exhausted at the end of the day and Jason said you know there's we saw some weird stuff down there and he said I'm you know I think it's just important to capture this let's just capture this so he made a graph it had every bullet by Bullet what time it was fired what the interval was between it and the last shot where it landed on the Target and he said because I just have this sense I had this weird feeling that these numbers will means that they don't mean anything to us obviously they might mean something to the families and that became Incorporated on the back of the art actually I think when you're part of the military it's much more than a job it is a lifestyle they get some spark that gets ignited with them some of them had a dream to become a seal and they had that Gene that said I'm not going to quit you have to be committed to it all the time I think sometimes that's why maybe there's a disconnect between the civilian population and the military you have the Hat when you come home and you try and be a good father a neighbor and brother and then when it's time to go back and do your job you know you take off the civilian hat and put back on your war helmet and you go out and do what you've been trained to do I got involved with a wounded wear remodel project we bid on one of the auction items that Jay's uh toast the heroes event uh Dave and Tracy had won a bathroom remodel I came onto the project about mid project I just come to work for VB homes and that project was about halfway completed when I have strange people in the house I try to sanitize the house as much as possible so that they don't really know my background or what I do and well I had noticed uh just some of the paraphernalia around the house you know uh military related stuff and and gun related stuff I had I learned that Dave was uh was a vet and he had been wounded in action I just broke the ice and said hey my brother's an artist and does a pistol Target art immediately was like well that's kind of convenient isn't you know I'm thinking to myself this guy just walks down how does he know that I'm even doing something with targets as an artist you're always looking for something original you're looking for that thing that you do that you can really call your own my brother gifted me with a little set of paints and that really got the ball rolling for me and uh I'm self-taught so I didn't go to school and I would just play around with all different styles and my dad kind of exposed me to targets by going to shoot his gun with them one day so uh that's kind of what started the whole Target thing it just took right off people started buying it immediately I find his website and and immediately the first thing I see I'm like oh uh I've recognized one of the art pieces because I was a fan of that show Californication art warehouses worked directly with film Productions and TV Productions and the art directors for these Productions go to these resource houses so that's how I ended up on any film or TV yes he said he thought his brother uh might be into it Dave contacted me online and uh told me he was thinking about doing this tribute project in in connection with Wounded wearing I had no idea what is attitude was towards the military towards the war would he be offended if I even asked I said absolutely I'd love to work with you on that I think that was an important part for me was giving that Target after I did all that work to to do my part and to put it in a tube and overnight ship it to him and say I trust you to make art out of this that will honor these guys I was trying to overcome that fear of giving what I had done to Woody and just trusting him I had a sense of of where I was going to go with this as soon as he made it known to me what he had in mind I had been saving front pages from the New York and LA times for over 12 years and I had all the front pages from both those papers for the entire week of 9 11. I mean they're so emotionally charged I actually burn those holes larger so that the red paint in the background they would be more visible the red halo draws the target into a more human dimension Dave wanted Woody to have the the latitude to use his artistic talent to really capture what that artwork uh represented and it was pretty amazing when the artwork was done and we saw the original pictures and how we had used the newspaper articles that had covered those 10 years and these significant moments that occurred since 9 11. so immediate I mean here you have this this visceral physical element of a bullet hole in a Target and the name of someone who was alive once he was no longer with us right next to that hole not only the ones I could see on the target as I was working with it but later on when I was working with those names and arranging them in this bar across the bottom of the piece was just really intense because you can't not think about you know who that name belonged to Heath was my firstborn and with that being said he taught me and I taught him we learned from one another and he was a caregiver he loved life when he would enter a room his smile would Light It Up the things that he did he kind of very focused and driven to I'm a seal you know so the swimming the biking uh the running he loves to shoot and he he just was driven in that direction oh [Music] so not a lot of people know it but my father wasn't initially supposed to be on the helicopter and while they were passing overhead one of the Chinooks was shot down killing all men on board including my dad if I could have the world know one thing about my father it was that he was a great family man he was a great family man to his Brotherhood to the seals and he was a great family man to his children his wife Tom wasn't a chatty Kathy he did not talk at length we talked on the phone for like an hour and a half and I was driving back it was late it was beautiful it's cold and snowing it was beautiful night sky and um I remember a shooting star I saw it in the dead on the windshield and I was like oh my gosh a shooting star hold on and I made a wish and um the last thing I told Tom was that I loved him the last thing he told me was that I love you kiss the kids I love them and he got up went to work that night and he didn't come home that was the last thing I said to him I didn't have to tell him that he already knew you know and then he had his daughter and his beautiful little daughter in this picture just says so much for me the last time we cut let's spend with Jason was Fourth of July 2008 we came in to visit and he was getting ready to deploy so he was packing up we were taking Jasmine back to Michigan and Jason he put her in this seat and buckled her in I know what kind of space was this though it was Fletch and he was ever going to see her again he just had that look and maybe he had that problem that he was not coming home for this one yeah and I'll never ever forget that look on his face when he saw his baby daughter leaving these are his last words written 13 days before he passed [Applause] if you are reading this things didn't work out the way I planned I'm typing this up because I'm too lazy to write it out by hand and that way I can change it when I need to where to start okay my life was short but a great one if I died doing something with the teams then I died doing the greatest job in working with the most talented hard-working and the greatest group of Warriors ever to walk this Earth I've made more memories and had greater experiences than 10 normal people [Music] put together [Music] most people get to choose how they live but now how they die and I consider myself blessed for that so do not feel sorry for me I made the choice consciously and I wouldn't trade it for anything and I would do it over in a second it's better to die on your feet then live on your knees I've tried to embrace that idea and I fought for what I believed in my country my family and mostly for the Brotherhood of men who fought alongside me so take a minute be sad and move on have a drink from me be happy and try to remember the good times you can't change it either way so you might as well enjoy it that's our history is that mine [Music] I usually arrive at a name for a piece near completion and I'll either know by the time it's complete or during the process it'll come to me but I wasn't really sure how I was gonna figure out a title for it and and when it was finally over I just my eye kept coming back to that line on that front page it was an article that just says a small town gives until it hurts and as I would think about the names and think about all the Lost involved in that I I just kept coming back to until it hurts on that front page it spider webs out because as you look at these newspaper articles that capture these battles that have occurred throughout from 2001 onto the present day you know the the name of the article was the town that gave until it hurts after this small town that lost you know so many of its Sons to him I think we all felt like we've worked on the art until I think that whether you're a gold star family member or a former teammate of one of these guys I think everybody can look at that piece of art and say yeah until it hurts kind of fits foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] we had gotten ourselves into a bad situation and I recognized it the enemy had moved in a field and we were seeing movement about 100 yards away I took my team and we moved into this field it was incredibly dense vegetation we didn't know how many there were we got word from the AC-130 Gunship hey you need a turn you're going to miss some of the guys that they could still see when we made that turn several of our guys on our Left Flank actually didn't make the turn so we got separated there was almost no Moonlight that night I was on the right flank with five other guys and as we started to step out two of my guys literally stepped on top of an enemy fighter and immediately engaged him which song of the entire firefighting two PKM machine guns immediately started firing on all of us from two different positions rounds were hitting all around me I could hear the Sonic crafts and bullets as they were going by all around me and that's when I took the first rounds across the body and two in the arm I couldn't get the tourniquet on just because I'd already lost so much blood from my arm wound that I was getting weak I tried to get up and move back to this one point of cover and that's when they opened up on me again and I took around through the face and suddenly I didn't feel any pain anymore reached off and I touched my face and I could feel my fingers really entered all I could see was the darkness the wetness I realized in that moment I'm really messed up and I remember laying flat on my back with that first fire mission came in I could feel the ground shake literally the ground in front of me was saturated with 25 millimeter machine gun rounds the road to recovery for a wound of Warriors a tough thing you know I probably would have been done in 15 surgeries but because I had so many infection problems it actually took almost 40 surgeries to put me back together and I remember asking the doctor in those first couple of weeks you know hey Doc hurry up and put me back together you know I got things to do I need to get back to my team and and I'll never forget to look on that doctor's face I was like how long is this going to take weeks months and she just shook her head at me and she said we're talking years I told myself hey this is medical Buds and you're just going to take it one Evolution at a time and you're gonna drive forward and then go to the next Evolution and I had some family members that came into the room and they were they were pretty upset with what they saw and understandably so but at the same time it almost started to get to a moment where I felt like there was pity and I decided in that moment that I would never have anybody feel sorry for me and I I wrote out this sign that said attention to all who enter here if you're coming in this room with sadness or sorrow don't bother the wounds that I received I gotten a job that I love doing it for people that I love defending the freedom of a country that I deeply love I'll make a full recovery what is full that's the absolute utmost I have the ability to recover and then I'll push that about 20 percent further through sheer mental tenacity this room you're about to enter is a room of fun optimism and intense rapid regrowth if you're not prepared for that go elsewhere about day later a friend of mine came by and it was up on a big bright orange piece a poster board and he attacked his Trident into the door on the bottom and from there it went viral when you're faced with a bad injury you know even people around you other seals sometimes can make life plans for you you know oh of course you'll never do this again and when you're in that position when you're an injured guy that's the last thing you want to hear anger and frustration will drive people to do things but if you if you have the right attitude about it um you know you can take that and turn it around and do something that's both tangible and intangible I was traveling across the country between Baltimore Johns Hopkins and up to Chicago for my surgery so I used to oh I'd be flying all the time and I used to talk about you know here I go again into the land of stairs and docks one day I finally got tired of it I got tired of people staring I got tired of people assuming I'd been in a motorcycle accident or a car accident and at this point we've been at War for six years and not thinking about that you know hey these severe injuries that you see that I'm carrying happen on the battlefield fighting for your freedom so I went home that night and I got on one of these make your own t-shirt websites and I created some T-shirts that said hey stop staring I got shot for your freedom just say thank you stop staring I got shot by a machine gun it would have killed you instead of me feeling like there's something wrong with me I'm gonna I'm gonna put something on my shirt that makes you think maybe there's something wrong with you so I think he made a machine a t-shirt that said I got shot with a machine gun what did your dad do for our country or something like that I put an American flag on the back and I called it wounded wear and I started wearing them everywhere I went and I had friends that saw them and they said you know you're on to something here you're not the only one that feels this way guys go wounded where I got bags when I got shot or blown up I ended up getting the clothing bag from wounded wear they got something that meant something whether it's an education or this clothing but that clothing and education also have the intangible of of continuance or or in the case it sounds silly but when you're a wounded guy and somebody gives you some specialized clothing that has some you know logo on it or something that you connect with you think hey it's somebody out there actually cares somebody actually gives a [ __ ] that artwork represents the American sacrifices it occurred since 2001. we took it to toast of the heroes in 2012. and we hung it in the room and I watched families of the Fallen these wives of guys I had served with that I knew there was power in it there was a spiritual Essence to this artwork and I watched as they'd reach out and they'd touch it and they'd they'd shine a flashlight and you they could see their husband's name written on the Target and that moment I realized how real it was nothing I think impacted me or prepared me for seeing them go up and touch uh the hole on the original art for their son or or father or husband and um at intimate contact I think completed that effect that I had with the performance art piece of it what Woody did giving that civilian perception of the loss to the total artwork and when you see people reaching out and touching a finger to it and making that final connection and that's that's the hole that was shot for my my son or my father my dad but I remember some gold star families looking and then gasping yeah at the at the number or the location you can't stand in front of that thing and look at it and not just be captivated when I looked at the yard now I see the power in it and uh and most people can't understand it until they come see it there's an aura about the art and it's because it represents these these 79 men who are willing to give their lives for the freedom of this country thought that somehow each family affected in the background was the reason that the names at the bottom are there that resonates with pride it resonates with pain it's my son's story it's all those other names it's every man and woman who's given their life for our country it's their stories their stories need to be told it's so deep it should be three-dimensional and it would go on forever it is by far pain pride and love for every person on that you know every piece what I heard the story behind it and then the shots for each fall I'm very touched I think it's amazing that someone would be that dedicated to think of these guys in that way and it's just so powerful it very much brought me back to that day to what happened to our country how we were attacked and then I went to the bottom and started to read the names and I didn't realize that you know there were the names of all of our fallen seals that were on there and obviously saw my son's name a very proud moment but again a tearful moment as a parent it is one of the most strange things to see your child's name on a granite wall or in a book or in a movie you know here are heroes our real heroes their names are here one of the great things about the art is it it uh it takes all these guys lives guys that we were friends with guys we served with um you know guys our wives hung out with their wives and our kids hung out with their kids and I think the American public gets this uh mythical view of the shield teams and they and and some of these movies and some of the even the books out there I think buy into that but the reality is is they're men their their husbands and brothers and Fathers and Sons and and they're human Tom and I willingly chose to sacrifice our family for millions and millions of other people I don't think that the the general population [Music] of states as an appreciation for the sacrifices that the men and women of armed forces are making foreign [Music] means a lot of things in the teams you sacrifice so much of your time and your health why do you want to be sealed Todd Grubbs a gentleman that I had began to develop a friendship with it was just a great Patriot he was a great example of American who had achieved the American dream he was successful but he understood from being in this area the sacrifice that so many people had made to enable what he had in life you can't do everything but you can do one thing you can live a life of purpose and serve others it's free I had a customer a friend of 20 years asked me one day to donate some gift certificates to a non-profit organization and her name was Brenda day and I've you know known her for 20 years and just part of that community and then a couple days later Stephanie's like hey there's a motorcycle ride this Sunday why don't you go do it and it was a wounded wear Poker Run motorcycle rally and the gift certificates that I had donated not knowing where I donated them to was actually at this winter event so he started coming out to quite a few of our events and he started sponsoring he started doing a lot of stuff and then one day I'm in my business and you know if anybody knows Jason he walks with a Bebop he's you know you know he's coming and I looked out and I saw this guy coming through the parking lot and he's kind of bebopping along and he gets closer to the door and I'm like holy you know crap that's that's Jason Redman and he walks in and walks up and he's you know he's bigger than life to me at that point and he's like hey man I just want to tell you thanks for donating to my organization I wanted to come by and meet me so at this event that we had the artwork the auction started going live and it started going higher and higher and higher she kept bidding on it at the auction that we went to it was done electronically you know so at about a certain dollar Mark you know I looked down and my wife is continually bidding she was actually bidding against Dave and his wife suddenly this piece of artwork went for seventeen thousand five hundred dollars then I find out that Todd and his wife Stephanie were the ones who won it I just kept going it's done so I I think it was a larger purpose it didn't have to do about money at that point for me it was like you know there's a reason why I'm at Jason you know and there's a reason why wounded where it came in our life and I had gone from you know being an employee to an employer and went from making an average income to doing really well in life just do hard work but I hadn't marked off that box where I was giving back and then you know like he talked about seeing the art sitting there and and knowing the story and just you know we kept our space because there were so many family members up at the art um it it didn't feel appropriate to be that close with them but watching them you know touch the art and and talk about their loved ones and you know they weren't they weren't sad about it they weren't crying they were you know they were proud and they were honored that their husband or father or brother was on the artwork as a civilian and I didn't know anyone personally that passed away in 9 11 but we were all whether we had someone there or not we were all devastated and to not like you talk about that closure so good all day here's something now you know why am I feeling this pain every year at 9 11 why am I having all this anger I didn't know those people but it was it was all of us every single one of us was touched and so now we have this art that we can't touch and see when the art was bought by a civilian it was actually probably the best thing that happened because Todd started to communicate to me how much that art meant to him and the dialogue that it was opening up when he would show it to friends and house guests and they started having this I started realizing that something about that art took us back to the place some people call it 912 that day after 9 11 where where Americans agreed on things the art is also about you know Bridging the Gap between people and a celebration of life and or that's how I've heard it and from the time you've made it to the till today that piece of art has touched a lot of people that you can't possibly ever meet and um and you know I've been privileged to do that because of you know this Facebook page I think it's more important that it went to a civilian family and and the reason why is I think that you know these these uh gaps that have divided us as a nation between those who have serve you know multiple times in a lot of instances and in people that are just enjoying the privilege of being in America without the having sacrificed in that way these gaps have been forming over the last dozen years or so between us and those aren't good of all of us involved and everyone's ideas and everyone coming in and saying how can we generate this figure like this wave and the relationships that we've formed um you know our friend plus Squall and in New York lost his two best friends in 9 11 and he couldn't go anywhere near it he couldn't still hasn't have the conversation he couldn't even begin to think about having the conversation and our friendship started because this art enabled him to suddenly be able to talk about it again uh my New Yorker yeah I guess I'm a New Yorker I guess you could say that it was a dark it was a dark day because nobody ever expected that and let alone to lose to lose your friends that day so it was a it was a tough day it was a really tough day Joe viggiano New York City police officer and his brother John viggiano a uh New York City fireman they both responded that day to the towers and uh both ultimately were killed I truly believe has been with me every step of the way from after the 11th and um just to really [Music] a really great guy unbelievable guy and became a New York City Cop because of that because of that day and because of him and it was um just give me a second he was angry he he sent me a an email on our message over Facebook and I'm sure he'll tell the story differently but he uh in his New York accent but he um basically just said you know what the blank is this thing and I explained it to him a little bit a couple days go by and then all of a sudden I get this message it's really really long and it's it's uh it was a very angry message about all the things that had occurred for him and uh I literally said to him in the message back I was like you know um yeah I understand how you can be mad at the person in front of you because their coffee's not hot enough I got it but if you let them win then you're never going to be able to come this anger you've got to learn to love again and I don't think I've ever said that to anybody in my life and it just kind of came out and I'm like send I didn't even know who he was and he sent me this email back and he's like man you're right and from that point forward he's done some things in his life that's changed his life and he's all completely changed his life you know at the time yeah I was angry I was you know I'm still um pissed I was pissed off I was pissed off I wasn't a cop anymore I was pissed off that the uh of the attack to our country and and and the many sacrifices made by many but it just at that point it just um just took me to a a whole different level which I didn't know at the time I just was just so focused on that piece of art and still focused on the towers because it just brought me back to that day so this is fish oh pretty much up close I've driven past it but never I haven't been this close the only time was was the uh I took uh Joe's family on a 10-year anniversary but none of this was here the only thing was there was the skeletons or the framework of that building there but other than that not to see it you know not to be up this close one of the things that Dave said to compelled me to buy the art was that um you know when they create a common ground where you know bringing civilians and Veterans together and kind of reset the day 911 and I think that me and you being here captures that me and you wouldn't be here if it wasn't it wasn't for the art yeah Navy special Warfare went before the day the towers fell that's right well I didn't know that and I think he will get this 13 years later that you know the men on this art fought for something that was real to me so I'd like to thank you for your friendship thank you bro I look at this art and it's made for the sole purpose of of bringing I feel people who have served to people like me ordinary or an ordinary person or Ordinary People and it's it's just you just don't you don't want to forget their sacrifices the ability to enable yourself to reverse it right to take that that horrible energy from that 911 and can to take that how that affects you personally and do something positive [Music] [Music] the Gold Star Family whether it be the spouse the mother the father um or the child they are the gold star family member of their um of their fallen hero I started volunteering for children who have lost parent line of Duty Gold Star children I fell in love with it I fell in love with the community I felt very powerful being able to help them to empower the children like me I know what it's like to have lost their father I know what they're going through and I know the trials and tribulations that they'll have to endure and because I have that perspective already I'm ahead of the game and I feel like I ultimately have a greater responsibility to prepare them for that and so if that means building relationships and empowering them giving them a voice showing them that other people care about them or just giving them resources and tools that will help them so probably the most important thing to the gold star families is we don't want anyone to ever forget our loved one we want them to know their name where they were from how old they were did they have a sense of humor you know were they quirky what were their favorite memories of who they were as parents I think what are your worst fears is your son's going to be for God and you know to be able to see that and it's not just don't forget the guys whose names are on that because there's so many more out there and one of the things we've talked about is all the support we got after Pat died I mean the seals were the community just surrounded us and and wrapped their arms around us I think as it's titled until it hurts I want people to understand that there is a huge pain that is carried by the families of those who sacrificed their lives for this country I want people to never forget never forget what happened to us on 9 11 as a nation when we were attacked and never forget those men and women that said we will stand up we will stand for this country we will defend her and those that we love [Music] the thing that's really interesting about it is the money that's spent if somebody buys or reproduction goes goes back to wounded wear and organization that directly impact the lives and people who were affected by War some child who lost his father May in part have his college paid for by somebody purchasing the art or by collectively people buying the art and uh and I think that kind of completes that Circle of taking the negative energy and doing something positive with it [Music] there's so much depth to what is actually in there there's so much depth to the 79 men who were willing to live greatly who were willing to go out there and sacrifice for all these different Americans so that you could have the freedom that you enjoy every day and I hope that this documentary will capture their story so it'll capture the story of the families they left behind [Music] and I'm always in awe how this whole thing is reaching out to to people and people are getting involved in ways that I I guess I I couldn't have even imagined [Music] it's almost like there's this wave and the wave has crested and it's you know it's fallen down and now the waters are stilling but like Todd said there's this whole group of people that are hurting the families um you know the men and women who have been hurt and now either they are they aren't still in service but they're still hurting maybe it's all about release you know and surrender and letting life happen [Music] we should all feel towards our brothers and sisters who fall to preserve our freedoms we should never forget those gold stars and we should always share the message of what the Gold Star Family represents to this country never ever let their sacrifices ever fade behind every hero behind every Warrior is a family that is grieving The Grieving never ends all of this came from your head to a rifle to a bullet to a Target at least every shot was worth it because you hit all 79 times you hit 79 shots on the board on the target so you recognize 79 falling Navy Seals that bridge that Dave's wanted to put in place not one that Todds wanted to put in place and all people that are behind the film you know for me I see that bridge all right and hopefully this documentary will bring that bridge even closer to everybody else's heart that sees it and I'm sure it will happen um I miss my son just like anybody whose son's name is on there they miss them too well first of all I would say that I really love you and I miss you but you're doing the right thing and I appreciate that I'm mad that we didn't get to spend as much time as we could have but I'm happy we got to spend as much time as we did even though you I can't see you physically you'll always be my dad and I'm glad you are reason we purchased this and I want to kind of see it through the end I mean I think the documentary does that but I think this is one stepping stone for this thing to do somewhere else [Applause] [Music] I feel it's my duty growing up in this country with all the opportunities and all the freedoms I've been given I want to be able to preserve those for the next generation and I want to do it the most elite way I can in a Brotherhood where you will die for the man to your left or your right without any hesitation foreign at this one point in time you know we're sort of a too pass intersecting you know you're uh you're kind of left of what I did and I'm getting a lot further down that path unfortunately but um but it's kind of nice to have those paths in our inner uh intermed and share this moment for for a little bit the seal Trident is one of the only emblems in the US military where the Eagles head is bowed and the reason why is even with all of the Fantastic ability we have in power where we try to be humble humility is important Pride will get you killed pride has you losing focus what you're doing and um anyways so when you begin training one day they're going to give you a white T-shirt tell you to put your name on it you have to earn your your brown T-shirt by getting through hell week but this is your starter shirt so if you do choose to go that route that's your first uh your first goal is to be able to get in a class where they let you wear that thing and warm up with the other guys appreciate it all right thank you I wish you luck man thanks foreign [Music] having it come at its core from a seal with my background and giving it to a civilian to process is I think one of the reasons why the art is powerful when people look at it it's not a memorial it's not a woe is me uh it's not a headstone that Art's not a headstone [Music] here I stand there's blood on my hands Fighting by my brother's side in this foreign land cause I take this [Music] long since I've been home I don't remember when I left a piece of me never to get back again [Music] okay every time out I got your back even if I know you can count on me I should fall into this dirty for me [Music] I'm chilling [Music] all gave some and some gave all Burns through my mind as I answer the call like so many others have done before to protect this flag [Music] I'll be with you the next time [Music] just know you can count on me [Music] [Music] sacrifice [Applause] [Music] like damn they'll roll my hands Fighting by my brother 's side foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: A Homestead in the Catskills

Views: 1,834,530

Keywords: September 11 Attacks (Event), Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell, American Sniper, Navy SEAL Sniper, 9/11, Wounded Warrior Project (Nonprofit Organization), Zero Dark Thirty (Award-Winning Work), Michael Murphy Navy SEAL, New York City Police Department (Government Agency), Danny Dietz, Matt Axelson, MIchael Murphy, Chris Kyle, History, Documentary, Jocko Willink, Jason Redman, New York

Id: dwZcMiw51ww

Length: 67min 11sec (4031 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2015