The Mark Geist Interview

welcome to the everyman show you know evil doesn't run on the schedule evil will attack you when you least expect it and that's why one of our values here at the everyman shows to make sure you are equipped when evil comes knocking at your door and today we're really excited here to have with us mark guys who saw evil attack and did something about it he's going to be joining us for a three-part series entitled stand up and fight mark played the character of Oz and 13 hours you probably saw that and he was a part of saving many American lives in the fight of Benghazi on September 12th 2012 that movie 13 hours directed by Michael Bay gave us a true detailed account of the events that took place and how a special group of men did what was necessary to save innocent lives we are stoked to have him with us to share a story and discuss how his faith led him on the battlefield mark I want to thank you for joining us hey thank you for having me well we just we want it we want to jump right in and just maybe you can start by telling her listeners a little bit about your background and how did you end up in Benghazi I try to keep it as succinct as possible but you know I grew up in eastern Colorado out on the plains it was farming and ranching I was rodeoing as a kid and just really the good life I mean I loved what I did and where I was at and graduated high school went in the Marine Corps as was in the Marine Corps for 12 years got out and become a police officer I was a deputy sheriff did crimes against children for about three years and did some vice of narcotics work and then I took a job as a chief of police in a small town finished that out and I started my own business doing bounty hunting and bail bonds and when the work kicked off in 2001 I just started trying to find a way to get over there and ended up heading over there in 2004 as a private security contractor can you tell us a little bit about what a private security you know there's a lot of different jobs for the security contractors especially in places where there's people out there to want to kill Americans and when I first went over I was a diplomatic security officer or a contractor for State Department I protected State Department personnel and while they would go out and do their meetings and things like that and you know take care of State Department business and after that contract I started training Iraqi SWAT teams Wow and lived with about 600 Iraqis out in Baghdad and another job I did that is out there is I was a security adviser to dr. I at allowi he was one of the former Prime Minister's of Iraq plow and then I ended up working for the CIA who I like to say is the Culinary Institute of America that's how I ended up protecting case officers as they go about their job and you know there's a lot of jobs for security contractors but most of its in training either local Nationals right contracting on US government contracts or protecting US personnel we saw a little bit of that in the movie 13 hours and so when did you get the call like who who called you for this job in Libya well I had been in another one of those countries and ends in Stan and Stan's and it was I was looking for the next place to go okay and I mean just the way I am I was looking for that I want to go to the roughest and toughest my because my next one after that leap was I was trying to get into Syria if we'd ever get into there wow that's just so what's going through my mind is is you knew that the situation in Libya was super unstable when did you know when you got that contract and you're in in Benghazi that kind of a larger fight was coming your way when did you know out of most of the countries I've been in Benghazi was seem to be pretty calm really I mean there was a lot of malicious because in and around Benghazi there was probably 10 or 12 15 militias and each one of them you know they were vying to control because there was no government assets or government you and not us but Libyan government infrastructure so you had one militia that controlled the airport and anything that come in out of there they taxed it I mean if it was the Seaport another way i trolled that tax at Overland traffic I mean that's how they were making their money off the people and Wow the average Libyan that I met I mean they were glad that Qaddafi was gone they were out right I mean you know they were just worried about the same thing most of us are worried about they wanted to get their kids to school safely they wanted to be mailed to make a dollar without the government taking three-quarters of it out of their back pocket right and live a safe life they were glad that he was gone yeah but then the militia came in well yeah well yeah the militias are gonna do the same thing I mean you know you get rid of one dictator there's gonna be the next I mean it's and they're all fighting for that power you're doing your thing you're a contractor in Benghazi and then the news comes that ambassador Stevens mm-hmm ambassador come down well initially he was gonna come down and the whole reason that he came down has never been a pilot earlier in latter 2011 that had got shot down a u.s. price rate and this local was able to find him and hide him out and get him back to US forces well this same guy had a school in Benghazi and he was opening an english-speaking section of it so the Ambassador came down to do the ribbon-cutting ceremony because to honor the guy that helps say that's why he was there that's why he was there Wow he was there for a ribbon-cutting that ceremony for a school yep and so what's first news that you get where are you what's going through your mind what's first news you get that something bigger is going on well you know it was 9/11 so we're all expecting anything I mean right most of the places we go as contractors it's always nervous I mean you always got to be aware of what's going on and expect the unexpected but so we pretty much shut down operations that day had we told the Ambassador and his security team that they should stay inside we invited him to come over and stay at our place instead of at the consulate just really we had more security there within last minute I ended up having to go out in town with a female case officer we're gonna go out on what I call it dinner date right and now we've went out to meet a couple local Libyans and in the middle of that dinner I get a phone call from Tyrone and he says hey you need to get back to Phoenix there's something going on and so I had to gather her up got her in the car and headed back so you get back to the annex safely mm-hmm and then what's the discussion right there what's going on who meets you what do they say well initially I can hear what's going on over the radio right and one of the key things I heard that and I didn't know what was going on back at our annex at first but you could hear the guys from the State Department come over the phone and they said hey if you don't get here now we're gonna all die and that was you know you could hear the fear and the panic in their voice and you know that just made me want to drive faster but I've got to keep a low profile I'm trying to make sure I avoid any of the impromptu checkpoints that come out I make it back avoiding a few of those I get it who's doing those checkpoints you never most of it's you don't know any one of the militias could be doing okay and we're gonna assume that you know we didn't know which militia was attacking his right the consulate at the time but I figured it's gonna help them out where were you in your faith at this point you're strong believer because it seems like there was so much action that was going on around her life for the all the previous years well you know I was I was blessed I mean my parents they I mean they got a divorced when I was 16 but I was blessed they raised me in the Methodist Church from when I was young we'd go to I mean I thing was is you know it's God family country and my the core for me I mean that's how it kind of went right that's right amen and you know we had to church every Sunday I sang in the church choir I had a wonderful youth pastor and his wife that were just very instrumental in helping me build that foundation of my faith you know and and by no means was I always walk in the straight and narrow I mean more on every man's show back and forth you know but the nice thing isn't to me what I've learned in over the years is that the key is building that foundation our children for men that is right our job is to build that foundation for our family because what we give them when they're young is going to get them through all those trouble times as they get older you was talking about that where our children's pastors let's pick him up at the airport we were talking about family in the car and in particular we were talking about the dad thing mm-hmm yeah and and actually we were talking about marks exposure to President Trump and his family and actually going on a hunting trip with with his sons yeah and watching Don jr. mm-hmm and his kids and we that just kind of put us into a little discussion about family respect yeah the father the centrality of the father and and even in your own family you know you've had an up and down because of your military career you know you were detached a little bit you were always deployed and always in the overseas and God has blessed you with with the five-year-old yeah you have a five-year-old over yeah yeah not me I get a do I get a really try hard not to make the same mistakes I did the first time by being gone all the time so yeah or at least having her with me when I'm traveling that's the key right it is that quality time it just centers you I feel as a father I have two kids myself yeah you have three and just when they're able to travel with us it makes a world well we were talking about the larger discussion you know in our country right and the disintegration of the family and when there's not an intact dad in the home to model and mentor and message what it means to be a man and then the chaos and dysfunction that comes from a 70 to 80 percent fatherlessness rate in metro urban cities and then whether that you're a boy and you're trying to figure out what a man is you're a girl and you don't have a dad who's spending time talking you know appropriate affection our job is with our daughters is show them the man that they're gonna marry that's right we got to be that person so now each one of us has a choice in my mind is you're gonna I mean you are they're gonna be that person now you can either be the person you want to be that you really wanted to get married to or you can act like the person that you don't want her to get married to right I mean you know and that's it's it's easy spend time with them you know what can you imagine the guy that marries his daughter oh my god watch this movie my dad my dad's the guy right there who says we're gonna bring handle on these guys did max martini play you pretty close yeah he did a book he did it seems to me like he did a pretty you doing a wonderful job I mean when he first got he was one of the latter actors to get that part I always tell everybody's because they were trying to find somebody good enough to play me or doppelganger yeah you know we got to talk a lot on the phone we were on set we got to talk a lot and you know what really impressed me with the actors and the seriousness not only the actors but Michael Bay as well took to the movie was they really wanted to get to know us not just our tactics and how that was but are as people yeah as people because that you know and at first I'm like well you know what do you care about how I grew up in this thing he was because I can take that and channel that into your character I play you yeah and I mean they did a great job all of them did it how much time did you spend on set well it took about 70 days to film it and we were on set one of us either myself Tigger Tonto was on set for 40th and it was filmed in Malta Malta yeah any I mean I'm gonna give a shout out for Malta if you you want to go to a beautiful vacation he's talking about how it's like yeah you gotta go there doing it yeah that's right let's come back to just you know that moment where you're coming back to the to the the CIA base and your whiskey or other case officer and you and you hit there what's the what what now tactically strategically are you guys now the situation and who's given the orders well when I first get back I mean Bob the chief of bass he's on the phone a couple of the other people are on the phone and I mean they're it's like herding cats they're running everywhere my concern is their safety because I know that if they're attacking over there there's a good chance they're coming here and I've got two other guys that are kind of helping out watching the cameras that we had set up and things like that but it was pretty much all on me at least that's the way I felt because everybody else was out of the base right they're all over the consulate trying to still search and find the ambassador's body well I'm sitting there thinking okay I got to get all these people in one building I got them they're finally got them kind of settled in why I wanted him there they're still trying to get on the phone talking to people I didn't know who because I didn't care at that point right I'm looking for bad guys you know my next thought was okay worst-case scenario what if the guys don't make back from over there then I've got to take care of these 20 some-odd people when did you feel the sense of we don't have any support you know I I guess I just never expected it Wow and I mean it's I will - I work for I'm expendable I am that's just I mean I've chose that job that's kind of the mentality I had support for the ambassador and Shaun Smith that's another story but I knew and I think it's part of the military training or my mentality is I knew I could depend on the other five guys that were with me that night and that's what I didn't worry about what couldn't come if they're gonna send something then when it gets there then I can utilize that asset when it arise if it doesn't then I'm gonna utilize what assets I have on hand until then how did and this is we normally don't go here on the show but how did politics obstruct the response and who finally released you guys to go save some lives there's a lot of possibilities on the politics and I mean I'm glad I wasn't in Washington when it happened because then I wouldn't have been there to do what I would help save life but the ultimate thing that you know the straw that broke the camel's back for us is Bob had told him to stand down and not go twice and the third time he said that that's when they came over the radio and said if you don't get here now we're all gonna die that was it and there were some yes that's that point forget about it yeah we don't care what anybody else says we're gonna go Wow and everybody jumped in and was gone man so there was no the chain of command was the need yeah the right thing to do sometimes isn't the crew well the the right thing to do is the right thing to do sometimes it's not the correct thing at least as in following orders or whatever that sometimes you still got to do the right thing you did a moral thing right yeah did you know each other yeah well I had been there about 45 days tig had been on his third trip he had done one or two I'd done a trip in Tripoli and a trip is usually two to two and a half months maybe three months and so ticket been there and then he was in Benghazi for you know probably 120 days at a time okay Tyrone had been there awhile jakka's came in about the same time I did talk to have been there a lot longer you guys had spent a lot of time together and when that moment came you guys were as one yeah well never trained together before okay right but you were come in there we come in there as a group I mean not as a group but we come as individuals to make a group when okay so your group has to form right like right away yeah and what you have going for you is your training training professionalism yet and you know ultimately it's a deep desire whoo yeah to serve your country yeah that's right and to save lives all right no that is so good so come in now you guys are like okay we're going you're back they come back uh-huh they come back and you know what do they say all they said was all they asked me is where did I have guys because I the State Department guys had come back first I got three of them were still combat effective I got them up on the rooftops to be eyes when they came back I said I got holes here here and here and they just felt so well they were there you were assessing what you had there you were getting people in the right spot you were looking at the perimeter you were saying where do I need people exactly so when they came back you're just like I need you here I need you here I need you here were you kind of like the the kind of the ground ops driver at that point yeah that was the general yeah you know I mean Tyrone was ultimately the team leader and when he come back I just felt him in on what we have and he said he takes over right and but everything's already in place because we didn't really have to talk a lot because in our downtime in the you know the month before so we would always get together and we'd put up a whiteboard and one of us would play the bad guy okay how are you gonna attack this I would fix it we were doing some contingency yep always doing contingency stuff I mean you know just kind of I call it my six piece prior planning prevents piss-poor performance prior planning prevents piss-poor performance planning present prevents piss-poor performance can we roll that into prevention piss-poor performance getting the guys to that's what no that is there's you know the way I mean there's all I look at right there because it does I mean you know you had to do prior planning in our lives I mean we had a plan for our children and that's the foundation we got a plan for ourselves and me I mean that's where prayer comes in and that relationship that we establish with with our Lord and with Jesus Christ and building that because you know every day we're gonna face something there's going to be the devil is gonna come out of some way and the closer we come to God the more he's gonna come after so we got to have that prior planning and keep that faith and that's where you know I had a friend of mine and he he doesn't he believes in a higher power you know and he's like well you know hypocrites go to church Mike where else would you want them to go I mean seriously you know because we're all gonna send right that's I mean God's foresaw that this is this is this is awesome prior planning prevents piss-poor performance that preaches you know that we got so the Bible the Bible is so clear and it says you know hey we got an adversary and the Bible has his dossier has his file he's a bad guy he's roaming he's looking for a place to get at us since a weakness that's right and it and he knows our film yep and he knows how to he knows how to attack we talked a lot about that you know on the everyman show all right so so Tyrone comes back you've sort of got the sort of strategic layout and kind of plan and and now it's just positioning everybody and everybody gets in their spot and you know we start hearing cars and vehicles pulling up on our north and eastern perimeter and you know first thing we do is there was one of the militias it was called Feb 17 and they had that name because that's when the revolution started there were 17th and that's how they got they were kind of like the militia that over that every all the other militias gathered under kind of when they came at that time at that time well they've kind of they were part of them were hired I mean that militia was hired to help protect them over at the consulate which they all ran when it happened that's a whole different story there it is oh my goodness and so you know Bob had said that he'd been trying to get a hold of him so we first thing we hear vehicles hey Bob step 17 who are they setting up on outer perimeter he's like don't know haven't got ahold of him yet they're gone you know oh that's our first line of defense really that's why you held us back because I mean that's what's going through your mind I was gonna ask you did you know who the enemy was everybody else but us if not that way yeah that's I mean for the most part it's that way if you're pointing a gun at me or you're carrying a gun you're an enemy seem like a lot like a gun bearing gun so write that enemy there you go I mean point yeah so now they're gone nope no first line of defense they're not coming to help game changer yeah so we know that we gotta handle it ourselves and about this time we start seeing people move up through the bushes and there's a couple buildings on that side we had night-vision goggles yeah you start no time what time this is about one o'clock in the morning okay started by by the guys left at 9:30 right around 9:30 ish okay so you know we're into this the team from Tripoli has landed they've were able to acquire an airplane on their own and they've landed at Benghazi Airport you know they land there they've got a bag of money to help write their way or can you know get their way in and a bunch of guns I mean you think airport security bet here at LAX I mean that's a whole different story so you're telling me those guys that showed up on the plane in Benghazi uh-huh they weren't authorized to come in I wasn't up there so I don't know if somebody gave him specific orders to or not to go but they knew what they needed to do and they showed up what okay now we're getting to Ground Zero yeah here it's 1:00 in the morning what's the first wave where does it come from it's coming from those that guys that we're seeing on the eastern side and what had happened is Tonto and DB were in a rough one of the on top of one of the rooftops that covered that area I was in the northeast corner and Teddy had been in the southeast corner and he was moving over my way and we were using our infrared lasers to identify where we saw targets so we're dancing those lasers off each other so I knew what TIG was seeing or tonta with CNB they knew what I was seeing and um and everybody's got night vision right and then all sudden out of the blue this here comes this things and it had sparks from it flying over the wall and Tigs kind of coming up and it landed between me and TIG and it blew up there was an AED yeah luckily I didn't have any shrapnel and it blew up and that's when we opened up on them and TIG come running up but he jumped up put his gun barrel about right here I can't hear out of this here very well so I'm just unloaded we started taking out targets in right you know and it didn't last long there was about 20 of them I think is lasted maybe 7 to 10 minutes and they pulled back they decided that you know the wolf guarding this door had a few more teeth than what was guarding over at the consulate I think they thought they were gonna have an easy Same Same Same yeah they had no idea right and why was why did they did you knew they were coming there next I mean I I can't say I knew that knew that but you can tell me I knew that there's Americans there and they knew you were there well they follow the because the State Department guys have you seen the movie they yeah and they take it right instead of taking a left as we told them drive through an ambush and so they're driving through and that's I think that's how the guys found out exactly what I see they followed them over right but I mean I don't know that for sure you know one of the things when you watch 13 hours which I didn't understand which people until they see the movie they really don't get it how many waves mm-hmm that you guys withstood without help I I was wondered if they were gonna run out of ammo you know we were I mean that we were comfortable with because we just got in a shipment in Oh God two weeks I was about there yeah exactly we had about 60,000 ounce so I figure you know there was three Marines two Navy SEALs and Army Ranger there was at least 40,000 people that could be it wouldn't be waking up the next morning if that's what they sent at us so wave one comes it's seven to ten minutes long it starts with an AED no shrapnel you guys unload a volley on the 20 or so guys how how does the battle evolve from there you know what we're starting to feel pretty good I mean we had got that five guys go over and push over 40 armed insurgents off the consulate they were able to rescue the five security guys I mean unfortunately we found some Smith's body he was deceased already but we couldn't locate the ambassador's body and they made the tactical decision to come back to the annex we got back no one's you know we didn't have anybody killed or injured after facing over 40 armed insurgents and then the 20 that attacked us so we're feeling pretty good our guys from Tripoli that had landed at the airport they're trying to know they're there out there and we get word that they're trying to make their way to us and they're basically in a negotiation with one of the militias to get vehicles because they didn't know how to get to us and of course that militia knew that what was going on so what better way to I mean I'm gonna pull I'm gonna hard bargain that one and get as much money how do you kiss right so well you know we're starting to hear movement again and then we get a phone call from a phone that the Ambassador had and it was a local Libyan saying that the Ambassador was at the hospital and he was alive our first thought was yeah exactly that same thing you know we're thinking they're going over there to go go out that's the first thing that comes to me is they're trying to draw us out because you know after if the ambassador was in the smoke or anything over there in that building the chances of him surviving more in five or ten minutes and that kind of smoke and heat yeah it's almost impossible so we weren't sure we were gonna verify and so we say aye we got an asset to go over there and walk into the hospital what we found out is that the little bit later was that the he was deceased and that the hospital had been taken over by Ansar al-sharia which was the militia that was attacking us that's where they were taking all their dead and wounded so well there are a bunch of militias that came together for this attack it was just one that we know of this one how do you know do you know how many people roughly were attacked all right can you I don't know I mean it's it's I've heard estimates anywhere from a hundred to three hundred but I mean you know I don't know whatever it is hope whatever it is there's a whole lot less of them so you wave one you you you get this call and then now there's this how long the incubation period between wave 2 um it's getting out about 2 o'clock and that's when we start hearing movement again and is it dead silent pretty much yeah it's just so you can hear movement here yeah you can hear cars the feet footsteps cars you know bushes and stuff rustling up against the clothes and all sudden the vehicle comes barreling down the road to our back gate which is on our eastern perimeter and we have a jersey barrier you know it's what I've seen a block about 25 30 feet out blocking that so they can't come up all the way to it guy stops jumps out and he's got his arms thrown back like he's gonna throw something and I catch him out of the corner of my eye and I put three rounds into him and he drops and what he's throwing was another eye Edie I got it and it landed short of our back gate right they were hoping to breach the back gate and come in right and that kind of opened it up so we were back at it again yeah and this time they were coming at us with about 40 guys and in the mean it was one of those comical things I guess it happens sometimes in firefights is in the middle of it Bob gets on the radio and says hey Feb 17th says you're shooting at him yeah they were using they were using right I guess if they had your frequency well Bob was on the phone with he had their phone number their commander so somebody's telling the committee I mean I think it was a bunch of BS so yeah so TIG gets on Iranian says well how about you tell them to quit shooting at us what question yeah except right yeah and Bob's like well I guess you could keep shooting at it Mike thanks for your permission Bob let's talk about Bob for a second because the movie depicts him as a prick yeah and that really didn't support your efforts and and support your security team how realistic was that you know the each one of us had a different relationship with each one of the people there I mean I can put up with anybody and I always figure I mean you know instead of bumping heads with him and arguing I can always find a way to make it seem like it's his idea and if he thinks it's his idea then he's all for it that's you know he was a good guy I've had a thirty odd year career serving this country he'd done a lot of stuff across the country but he was not made to be there that night right right situate circumstances overwhelmed it yeah and that relationship that's depicted in the move he's probably more indicative of Tonto and his relationship ending yeah yeah you know I mean cuz toss was a great guy I mean he's a hard charger he's that guy you want in your corner yeah but he gets wily in downtime he's all wound up yeah you know he's got trouble kid every night and you know if you keep it in busy yeah hey what can I get into what what kind of what can I get into you yeah in this chaos and and in the firefight what what is guiding your thoughts well you know what's what's in your mind I mean during the firefight yeah you're just as putting them down before they get to us I mean it's just taking care of business that's right you know it's it's the downtime in between that you start thinking about home and family and and things right I love that in the movie too because that was kind of like you know in between waves their scenes of you guys talking and you're just you're just talking about home you're talking about family mm-hmm and and and how is that I was saying to myself like that's probably pretty good thing to do in the middle of all that just gonna help to decompress right you know and yeah that's right and then you know and and as you saw I mean Tonto and TIG you know they'll throw out their funny comments every now and then their jokes a little bit and a lot of times that's another way that people deal with stress yeah you know absolutely we're always talking about this on the show that in the midst of battles you know you need battle buddies mm-hmm need battle buddies in every man we have a lot we'd launched a lot of men's groups and part of it is where guys are like icebergs you know you only see the tip but below the waterline otherwise there's all the stress and pressure you know that they're walking around with it's kind of like a duck it Thomas Hawk on the water but their legs are busy as heck going there's a crazy you know exactly and what's weird is is that when the midst of battle you back into a battle buddy you have to hear you you're fighting the same fight you know you're fighting the marriage fight you're fighting the professional life the work life the bills the mortgage the temptation the lust the whatever it is I mean we're we're learning from the battle of Benghazi that not only does that work in the middle of killing bad guys in fighting a real battle with bullets it's also super good for everybody listening to us today if you know got a battle buddy you're gonna you're that all that pressure inside it's gonna leak out somewhere probably not good and you're gonna make bad decisions that's right you know our men right the men people it's useless if you don't talk about it we always talked out on our show guys sometimes don't talk about and that's when it blows up like a volcano like you said they do something bad well Satan loves secrets yeah he does Satan loves secrets he loves you living a double life he loves that gives him power and and and that's why there's such a battle over well I don't talk about that because this is my image you know and and so well okay good for Satan because you're not talking about it then makes the problem worse not better no one knows what's going on you eat nobody can help you right because they don't know so your buddies who are next to you I mean even Christian guys right who are spinning it in Christian circles you know they don't they're not transparent they don't say what what's really going on those moments in between I thought that was one of the best parts depicted in the movie the movie depicts it you know I mean us as being the Warriors that we are but I mean that same warrior can have that compassion that love their family and dealing with those things through my seven and a half years of contracted I mean you know me and my wife had split up for about a year Wow well I don't and you know be completely transparent that's where my daughter came from this but then you know as an out of relationship or situation well you know and at just those are some of the perils that happen when you're gone all the time and they there are no you're there right I almost every one of us there probably had a broken relationship at some point I'm not interesting because we talk about that a lot too when you're when you're isolated versus connected you know that's a devil's playground it is it is you know because you forget you're not rooted you forget who you are you had I mean like Jesus said you know foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man is enough a place to lay his head you know and when you don't have home and that's that's why Jesus wanted to get home right you know and we all we all want to get home and I think there's guys listening to us right now and you know what you're isolated you're you're you're not connected you're alone in your pressure that's right and and and isolation is is kills isolation in the spiritual life well knowing the double uses that embarrassment of whatever you're going on in your life and to keep you in the shot you in the shot you know yeah that's made for and that's you know and I mean there's there's like a song there's a seat at the table for you yeah right you were talking about that that that spiritual song we were in the car you were talking about there's a seat at the table for you God has a seat at the table for everybody doesn't matter what you've done that's right you're not gonna have done something that he hasn't seen before he knows you're already gonna do it yeah don't let that keeping it in the shadows keep you from entering heavens place well and that's where that's where you know guys I mean especially you know whether you're returning from battle or and things you did there and things it's hard to process there or whether you're just battling lust and a relationship outside of your your marriage you know those those things that those decisions that we made that were unhealthy and caused harm right in our in our primary relationship you're you and guys idealize you you know they what you just shared a little bit about your own life and being in the battle and being a contractor and being deployed and getting isolated and in that isolation you know Satan attacks he does your wife got lonely she got Iceland okay she got isolated you got isolated and in that isolation you know you you reach out because you want that connection mm-hm and I know that you know just there are guys listening right now there they're in conflict with their wives or if they're separated from the rest whether it's emotionally or physically and and and that's when the devil loves to put thoughts yep you know in your head well it's even or or if you're in conflict I didn't sign up for this yeah if only she were a little bit more like me things keep going different you know in this relationship or you know she doesn't understand you know those type of things which then gives the permission slip to jump into sin and and get your get your isolation and lonliness you know your needs met oh and the other side of that is you know being able to forgive her you know I mean both sides make mistakes and you know well I can't live with that I can't live with her having done that how am I gonna face my friends with if they know you know that's something that you guys are gonna face well I always look at it I mean if Jesus is big enough to forgive me for everything I've done I mean what's right how am I not able to forgive somebody else you're living testimony this is what's so cool about this is a battle as a battle as a battle mm-hmm doesn't matter if it's with bullets or with the devil or for relationships and that's why I love the language of the Bible where it says but you man of God fight the good fight of the faith if you're a man of God you fight you know have these cupcake kids sending me emails going why don't you so much military language in your in your preaching why are you so militant blowing that's our identity Paul is trying to motivate a guy your age and he's calling him a man of God identity and he's supposed to put his energy into the fight right it says take hold of that spiritual life to which you're called and so this is so good so let's let's kind of now where we went from the fight to the spiritual and how there's a parallel and coming back what was the pivotal moment for you in the battle you know cuz I know I mean I'm looking at your arm right now and and everybody in the movies like ah got it you know yeah what's the pivotal moment in the battle for you well after that second attack we knew the guys were coming in from Tripoli and our plan was to get all the non shooters out and we were gonna get them out over the airplane because the airplane wouldn't carry everybody it wasn't big enough and the closest the airplane about an hour away okay okay and so we were gonna the six of us we're gonna stay there and kind of hold down the Alamo okay it's kind of like he thought of it right and sure look that way yeah yeah I was so I had moved up to relieve ty for a little bit he went down got his go back which is just you know it's our go-to shot back right when something goes bad it's the thing I can grab and I got any water food that's what I've got right and we're getting ready and that's when me and him really start talking about our family and our kids because I mean Jackie just found out that day that his wife is for a gap right who's gonna have a baby you know and that was his I think it's his third child and ty had a baby boy his name's Kai my baby girl was seven months old taking out a set of friends that were about two weeks older than my little girl a boy and a girl Tonto and DB both had young children so it was just kind of us talking about that this is getting on stores by 5:30 in the morning and the guys from Tripoli end up coming in and all of them going into the building except for one and that was Glen Glen Doherty and I never 19 Oh Glen I never met him or anything I kind of knew him by reputation actor yep yeah and Glen was that I mean he he's a surfer California sir I mean he's from the East Coast but he is a California surfer former Navy SEAL laid back but if there's a gunfight he's gonna get in it I mean he ain't gonna leave nobody behind he said get up on the rooftop and that's where he came and him and Ty had served together also on the team okay so he come up and I got to meet him he had kind of walked over and tying him we're talking and it's getting on a time of mourning where you know when you see the black sky but then right along the horizon it's starting to turn blue you can start seeing silhouettes days coming up and it's also time for call for prayer I had kind of turned to Ty and said you know if they're gonna attack is it's gonna come soon and not probably five minutes later call for prayer goes and immediately after that an RPG rocket hits our back wall right in front of us we're elevated and it's down in front of us about 25 30 yards right 25 35 feet and a mortar hits also right on top of the wall our outer wall and then they open up with a machine gun a small arms fire Dave Ubben he's one of the State Department guys he was in the opposite corner over by where our ladder is and right in front of where that mortar hit and he yells out that he's hit yeah you know I tie immediately opens up with a belt-fed machine gun I'm opening up with my assault rifle and I kind of glanced over and I can see Dave he's sitting on this box that you had to step on to get over the wall and he's got it holding his head down and you screaming out that he said you know everything in your body wants to go over to help to help them right but you can't because if you do that that's one less gun in the gunfight right and that just leaves it but you know it leaves a weak point in the perimeter so you know for us and especially in small units its self aid buddy aid first aid right you know and and and that cell-fate I mean that's kind of the same thing with us Cade with our faith I mean you got to take care of yourself first and then you got to be there for your in it because if you don't take care of yourself you're not going to be there to help your battle buddy or your fire team so you got it right you know that's how I kind of look at that and that's right so we're trying to I'm shooting and about that time I changed magazines and as I'm coming back up I had knelt down to change mags I'm coming back up and a mortar hits about 15 feet to my right okay and it knocks me back and as I'm didn't knock me all the way back I just kind of fell back a little bit and as I stood up I noticed that tie is in a fetal position of my feet and at this point I realized that I'm injured because I bring my arm up to grab my gun and from about well you can see it right here it's hanging off at about a ninety degree angle and I'm just trying to swing it to get up there because I think I got to get it and get my gun in the fight another mortar hits I see Glenn go down I try to get back in the fight and then the third mortar hits and that's the one I really felt any paint on I felt like I got stung by like a thousand bees and I figured this hardhead Marine better get some cover because if a fourth one comes you're not gonna make it right and I died I kind of got down and tried to get as small as I could and everything just goes quiet and what didn't realize what happened until later after I got out of the hospital I got to see some of the drone footage and the militia that had brought Glynn and his team down had taken off when the attack happened and they took off in the direction where the mortars are coming one they either realize that's where it's coming from honestly I think it was divine intervention because you know they could yeah when you were at your most vulnerable point you guys were down you guys were hit you guys are injured I was wondering you're stunned and those mortars or yeah he kept firing it would've killed everybody inside did you think that you're gonna make it I never thought I wouldn't Wow I mean I did and if I didn't then that's that you know it's God's will I guess I mean that's just but I can never let those thoughts in because you know I right after that I set up there's still the dust and debris coming down and I immediately went and pulled the tourniquet out and started to put a tourniquet on and I got distracted in the haze and everything in the paint and I started thinking a tie because I got to take any ties right over there I got to check him so I crawled over and checked it see if I could find a pulse on him and I couldn't find nothing and I couldn't see Glenn so I sat back up and I was gonna get and I still kind of distracted shock setting in and I see a shadow come up over top of the rooftop and that was TIG and TIG comes up over and first thing he runs into his Dave Dave's arm is almost severed like mine his leg left ankle was almost severed off as well Wow so ii got two tourniquets put on him saving his life and he comes over to me and he always says he's coming over me cuz he heard some whining over there but but he comes over and he says and i remember it after he told me i'm sitting there lifting my arm up to put it back in place and I can't get it to stay and he's like hey you might want to quit playing with that you're not gonna make it any better oh he grabs my tourniquet puts it on and he stands me up he says hey can you get off the roof by yourself I'm like I know I have to because you know I don't think Glen and I are still alive but in the back of my mind there's still that hope that they are right so and I know TIG needs to take care of them can't worry about me so I walk over the ladder that's another guys coming up at this time he helps me sit up on top of the ledge and you know I'm thinking okay now how am I gonna get off here so I hooked my good arm around it yeah I kind of slide off and I'm thinking okay I'm gonna slide around my legs will land on the ladder I'll climb down no problem got it covered well Murphy's Law right right what can go wrong will go wrong certain ufff my legs didn't hit where I intended and it kind of fell half down the ladder catching myself with my good arm and pulled myself back up and then walked around and another guy come up took me inside and we laid me down inside and he went back up top and then all the case officers are there so I did instruct them to make sure to get all my clothes off because I knew I was bleeding from other spots right I think we ended up finding 2030 holes I got hit in the neck three times in the chest about ten or fifteen times up and down each body it's all shrapnel right know from the mortars mm-hmm Wow okay so um it's like I'm living the movie now so I'm like the sun's coming up at this yeah the sun's coming up and then you're really hurt and so it goes quiet mm-hmm that militia pulls out and they go back to where the mortars are coming from and then do they press the attack or returning back and they come back to help us all the bad guys are scared off it's daylight now getting on about seven o'clock we end up getting Dave off we load up get Dave off the roof get him treated you know there's an hour or so goes by we get loaded up in some vehicles and you know the militia that helped us get out of there was a Qadhafi loyalist militia Wow I mean wow yeah so that the militia that attacked us was one of the militias that we actually helped overthrow Gaddafi a male figure with that so yeah okay that's the world we lived in maybe that's why was it a Delta team that came in or three guys from said I need a bag of cash yeah a big suitcase full of cash because probably paying them all off who's gonna help me for this amount well and and the other thing is is they know the situation in the air any of the guys that just attacked us were guys that we had helped overthrow Qaddafi these guys went back in America's favor so if we help him out you know I'm sure we can get back into some favor hmm but I end up riding in the back of a on a stretcher in the back of a Hilux pick-up which is like a Toyota Tacoma yeah and we had a convoy have probably 30 trucks 30 gun trucks no I had to be thinking they're gonna get hit again on that on the right out you know I didn't think so because the I mean the militia that was with us I mean these were they had their heart Disqus probably ten dishka trucks which are 50 Cal machine guns oh wow okay I mean don't be these guys aren't playing and every vehicle yeah but I did get on I think CNN from them because one of them took a picture of me in the back of the truck and somehow I saw that on CNN later after I got out of the hospital I'm laying in yeah but oh my gosh we get in and it's our God I we jumped on the plane all the non-essential personnel yeah headed out and the rest of the guys waited for that plane to come back because we still in any contact with anybody on how everybody's getting out we're just doing it on our own and did you guys head to Germany well we're getting to Tripoli I got to Tripoli I had my first operation by a Libyan doctor I had to go in cuz I had a piece of shrapnel about a millimeter for my carotid another one about a millimeter for my femoral artery and in my arm they put all that stabilized everything in a Libyan hospital the rest of the guys well that's going on a c-130 lense and they're thinking hey okay finally the last an American plane comes up takes a right turn and goes in parks and he's got a Libyan flag on the back so still no Americans well luckily they went over and were able to negotiate a finder's fee this is the world we live in honey it's right thank goodness for greenbacks right where's something yeah Ryan that Libyan aircraft Libyan pilots flew them back to triple-a triple-a and that's kinda how we got the name of the book is that was about 10:30 in the morning from 9:30 to 10:30 I was 13 hours and it's 13 there's 13 miles from the airport to the cottage at the annex well I think I should talk about one sensitive topic before we talk about your foundation a shadow warriors project PTSD you know it's very serious well it's 80s something it's not a disorder I mean it's a brain injury post-traumatic stress right right you put disorder on it and guys start feeling like it get a label yeah I agree with you what I want to talk about though is pts some veterans have a hard time with it and then go deeper deeper in themselves and you know sometimes bad things happen but can you talk a little bit about pts and your relationship with Jesus and how that has allowed you to find healing I know it's probably an ongoing process and it's an everyday process but can you talk about your experience with your faith and pts well in any of that I mean you know my biggest problem with I guess if you want to call it pts is I just don't have patience for stupid stuff anymore you know and I think it all affects each of us differently right but one of the big things that's always helped me in dealing with it because this wasn't the first time I'd ever gotten into a firefight right I mean I'd been in out of the Middle East for seven years or for nine years I'd been there seven of it I mean I eight or nine ten very significant firefights 15 20 different explosions I mean all that stuff but I think a lot of it for me is having it goes back to what we started out talking about it's having that foundation and that relationship with Jesus Christ I mean you know people feel bad for this happened and or they feel bad because you know if and I know guys that somebody they were supposed to be in a certain spot and they weren't and their buddy was and he got killed and they didn't right and you know I mean an example is being tie up on the rooftop these were 81 millimeter mortars right they have a kill radius of 22 feet they were French 80 once I was within 15 feet of three of them and I was in between the blast and tile it's crazy yeah I mean I should have died three times and I didn't tie I did I mean can I explain it other than God's will God has a purpose for me I mean I think we're all invincible until God's done with us and if you survived you survived for his reasons and it's your responsibility to find that reason and serve him find that relationship with him turn to him because he's going to give you the strength to get through whatever you need and you know it's so much with society tells us as men that to have that relationship with God to be that Christian man you know what we're always depicted in the movies and in TV is you know that funny guy you know the one that's a little bit quirky or whatever you know you're not the the guy's guy right well I can't find a person that's any tougher than Jesus Christ right I mean he could have said hey God forgive me of this burden and God would have done it but he didn't he took he took this spot on the cross for us thank God he did and people just need to understand that and accept it I mean it's I don't know how to put it any other way that God loves you and he's there for you and all he needs is for you to step up and say hey I'm here well that's one of the that's one of the things where if Jesus doesn't suffer um I don't know if I'm in you know if he doesn't suffer but you know if God can take an unjust death and trial and scourging and bring my forgiveness in my salvation and my heaven and my purpose out of that upside-down mask backward thing that happened to Christ that's right he certainly can use a guy who comes out of a firefight a guy who's who's who has a lot of relational pain maybe some broken relationships and God can take that that thing that was upside down and backward and turned it into a purpose because that's what the way you're living now mark and we talked in the car I mean God is using you bringing so much purpose out of your heart still tickin yeah and you're saying let it come exactly let it come to come I mean because that's I just think that's it's my way of continuing service to the people that's right right that's my whole life has always been you know anybody in the military you're there because most of us are there 90% of us are there because it's our sense of service right and that service can continue and having that purpose a service because that's what we're made about that's what we are serve the people and serve your family your kids and it doesn't have to be like me out on the stump speaking and things like that sharing the story I mean you know the little seed that God plants is something small and he can make it great that's awesome so true so let's talk about shadow war yeah let's talk about your services on there tell us about it yeah well as private security contractors we have a workmen's comp policy right and anybody who's dealt with that understands how wonderful that is pretty another of fast so you know I mean I'm because there's a contractor the day I left Benghazi which was the morning of the 12th mm-hmm my pay stops I'm not getting paid no more Wow so it's not like if I'm in the service and I get injured I go and I still get paid and get benefits and all that I don't get nothing I get a file of workman's comp policy until I mean I'm injured I was in the hospital from why not from the 12th till October 6th well I used to be left-handed I'm not anymore I gotta fill out the paperwork you leave one fight and you enter another write cease you know and the pay that you get is a third about of what you were making you know contractors get paid well but we also pay for our own insurance and my premiums to go to work for two months with $15,000 that's your premium that's my insurance premium just because of the type of work you did right as the type of work you did right so shadow warriors helps veterans or people that have come out of contract well I'm an out of contract work that are not it help the families because you don't help the family there's no support for the families the contractor gets you know you get a workman's comp policy but we're gonna there to help the families I mean the first thing we want to do is if you've been injured or killed we want to make sure the family's taken care of because your life is gonna I mean dramatically change it's traumatically changing anyways you don't need the burden of bills all of a sudden having to worry about where the money's coming from what's gonna happen well you're not gonna get the pays right away so great so our first thing is to do that is to take care of them and you know next thing you know the wife now has to be the primary care provider family that's right she may not have the education we want to help them with that and we're also setting up a college fund for the kids of those contractors so they can apply for a scholarship where can our listeners go right now to donate to your cost its shadow warriors project.org and tells you a little bit more about it you know and there's a donate button there and you know I'm one of the first questions people ask is you know how much how much money are you getting for it well me and my wife don't take a salary and we're the two that there's a phone number at the top on the web page if you call that number you're gonna get my wife Wow she'll be one answer that's awesome I mean we don't have anybody else out we have a board but we're the ones that do it and take care of it Wow we got a guy like right now an example is he was working in Israel and he was swimming and got caught in an undertow pulled up against the rock scene it bruised his c4 and luckily an IDF soldier was there and pulled him out of the water Wow now he's a quadriplegic because it bruised his spine the insurance company immediately said well we're not because you weren't working oh my goodness well so there's no liability to the insurance company for bad faith that's federal workman's comp for you so he ends up being the kind of guy who was he was in the hospital down in Atlanta mm-hmm at the Shepherd Center and they didn't know nothing about the insurance issue and he didn't say nothing cuz that's just I mean you take care of your own you deal with whatever comes in right he checks himself out and goes home his wife picks him up takes him home Wow right and he has four kids that he's taken care of so the name of that website was well shadow warriors project shadow work so we want everybody to go to shadow warriors project.org and we also want you could also go to our website everyman ministries.com there'll be a direct link if you're a veteran give them a call if you are a person that feels that you can help by donating to this cause and help the veterans please do please give your biggest support now and if you're somebody I mean if you may not think you don't know if you fall in to our parameters give us a call anyways cuz yeah you'll get it we very nice absolutely I mean absolutely made a lot of resources through a lot give us a call we find your help that's awesome well we are running out of time and this has been absolutely nominal amazing yeah yeah let's pray it out and perhaps listeners like absolutely father we thank you so much I'm just talking with mark we understand on a human level that freedom is never free that there are people like him and all over the world who are defending freedom in hours of maximum danger and so god we thank you for our men and women of the military are ex-military our contractors people who are standing in the gap against evil and Jesus directly to you thank you for standing in the gap for us thank you that you said yes you said yes to giving your very life to win our spiritual freedom and you shed blood and we're so grateful for that Lord we pray for any man who's going through a spiritual battle right now we ask that you help him remember how much he is loved and that he can reach out to you right now and invite you into his life and and that can change things and so we thank you God for the show we thank you for mark we ask for a blessing on his family and his children and Lord we thank you for this time and Christ's name we pray amen

Channel: Every Man Ministries

Views: 46,442

Keywords: everymanministries, every man ministries, everyman ministries, kenny luck, sermon, men, christian men, man, christianity, State Department, Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Ambassador, 13 Hours, Mark Geist, Army Ranger, Marines, Benghazi, Terrorism, War on Terror, CIA, Military Contractor, Kris Tanto Paronto

Id: 9f4uMRajmdo

Length: 59min 55sec (3595 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 18 2018