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Read part I of this interview...
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
But first, I want
to pick up our story where we left it yesterday. Marcus
Luttrell. He is the author of the book Lone Survivor. He is
a Navy SEAL. He was part of a SEAL team assigned to track a
Al-Qaeda leader that was believed to have ties to -- or --
or -- or that was being protected by the Taliban. They went
in, they were undercover, there were just four of them. They
were watching this Al-Qaeda leader. They were about a mile
away from him, undercover.
Marcus happened to
be hiding under a log when a goat herder found him. Now,
there are about 150 to 200 Taliban around the Al-Qaeda
leader. Well, the SEAL team is discovered by these goat
herders. Because of the rules of engagement and because
quite honestly that's who American soldiers are, we're
decent human beings, they didn't want to shoot the goat
herders so they let 'em go.
Forty-five minutes
later they found themselves surrounded, 360 degrees, by the
Taliban. Well armed. They were trapped. They were trapped
with their back up against this cliff. They actually -- they
got into a firefight, just four of our SEALs against 150 or
200 Taliban.
They are trapped,
they slide down this cliff. This is what he was telling us
yesterday. They slide down. Marcus is -- they're all --
they're shot up, Marcus at one point is -- his pants are
even blown off in an explosion that finally kills one of his
friend, the third member to die.
One member of the
team, he described yesterday, knew that they had to get a
call out to get reinforcements, to get helicopters, to get
help. So he went out, they couldn't get -- they couldn't get
a signal. This guy goes out into the open where the Taliban
is shooting him in the back, he makes the call, calls for
help for the helicopters.
He drags himself
back, dies there, but he got the call through. Now Marcus is
all by himself. He's actually blown away from the firefight,
so that's what really saves his life. He goes down another
hill. He's kind of trapped in between some rocks, hiding. He
sees the helicopter. He can't get his beacon to work so
the helicopter can't find him and he can't go out in the
open because the Taliban will kill him.
This is where we
left the story yesterday. We're going to pick it up now with
Marcus Luttrell. Marcus, what an honor to speak with you
again today, sir.
LUTTRELL:
(Unintelligible), sir.
GLENN: Okay, so we
left you last -- yesterday on the program. You were trapped,
you were so thirsty, your tongue was stuck to the roof of
your mouth, you were looking at the helicopter, you couldn't
get their attention. What happened then?
LUTTRELL:
Basically I had to wait there all day. The Taliban were
running around the mountain -- I could see them on the -- on
the farthest ridge and above me, and below me. So I couldn't
really move. Again, like I said, I was paralyzed from the
waist down, so I was pulled some rocks over top of me and
stuffed some mud in my legs to stop the bleeding from the
shrapnel and stuff that I had taken from the RPG. I still
had my rifle with me. So I sat there all day and I tried to
make communications with the helicopters, but it was -- just
wouldn't happen. And toward the -- I could hear the Taliban
move down into the ridge, actually, that we had fallen into.
You know, I was -- finish the job they had started with my
friends. And -- and there was nothing I could do. You know,
I couldn't move. I was just paralyzed.
I started to
regain feeling back in my legs, from there throughout the
day. It must have been -- eight hours, I can.
GLENN: Marcus,
tell me -- tell me where -- what was wrong with your legs?
Were you -- were you shot? Was it just from the fall? What
was going on? What was your physical condition?
LUTTRELL: When I
came to, I was upside down, sir, and -- I had frag and
pieces of metal and shards sticking out of my legs on that
-- I really don't know why I couldn't -- couldn't move. I
guess I had hit a nerve or pinched a nerve in my back or
something. Because when I -- when I rolled over and belly
crawled inside that mountain p I just couldn't -- I just
couldn't feel my legs.
GLENN: Were they
working or were you dragging myself.
LUTTRELL: No,
dragging myself. I drug mites to the side of that -- that
cliff. And I remember when I was packing my legs full of
that mud that I was laying in, I really couldn't feel
anything. And then as the day went on, you know, started
getting feeling back in my legs, I remember the pain started
coming back. That was kinda one of the down sides of getting
-- getting feeling back in my legs.
GLENN: Yeah. Okay,
so -- so now you're starting to feel the pain, and you're
starting to feel your legs again. You hear the Taliban
coming down to finish the job. Then what?
LUTTRELL: As the
day progressed and the -- and the fading light -- like I
said, I didn't have any -- my pants had been removed from
the -- from the blast. I didn't have a compass or GPS, so I
was using for a cardinal bearing on which direction I was
going to move.
I saw a glimmer or
shine on the -- on the far side of the mountain, and so I --
I reached -- I kind of leaned down into my scope of my gun
and I crossed the canyon wall there and saw a guy standing
there with a silver AK. I remember I was kind of -- that
struck me as unusual, I'd never seen one of those before.
And he was just kind of sitting there scouting everything
out, looking for me.
They knew how many
of us there were. Obviously they all did. It was them and
two other guys, and they were I guess a recon team is what
I'd say, trying to -- trying to find me. So I dumped him,
and then the other two guys came up, they had no idea where
I was at. I was suppressed, and I was locked in on that
canyon wall pretty good. And the rock they went and hid
behind, they hid on the wrong side, they hid on my side so I
could still see them. So I dumped those two guys. And I
stood up, as best I could, I started walking, crawling, kind
-- you know, I could only go about 20 yards before I'd have
to rest and then I just moved all night and well into the
next day up and down that mountain, trying to -- to get to
some water and to that military base.
I actually stepped
off a mountain completely two times. I fell 150 feet at
least once. I remember falling this particular tree, I was
blacking out. The next day, the -- the sun finally came up
while I was moving. And I guess the Taliban had been
tracking me all night. And they shot me again as I was
coming down the backside of this ridge, three weeks ago had
a -- tracked me down and once again got a shot off that --
that made contact with the back of my leg. And I fell at
least -- at least 2,000 feet on this one, if not a foot --
it was long. It was the longest one that I had -- that I had
gone down. And I landed face down in between these two
ridges. I rolled -- you know, I rolled over -- I couldn't
even move, I was -- I was in a lot of pain now, and I rolled
over on my back, I remember I was looking up, just kind of
wondering what the heck happened, and there was two guys up
on the top of this ridge taking shots at me with an AK, and
there was another guy to their left that was spotting me
out. And then I was on the ground --
GLENN: Marcus --
at what point, or did you ever say, I'm not getting outta
here?
LUTTRELL: No. That
wasn't really an option, sir, you know, I was just thinking
how pathetic it was these guys couldn't kill me.
GLENN: (Laughing.)
LUTTRELL: I didn't
want to -- I wasn't -- I never gave up. I just -- that
wasn't an option. I just -- I was like damn, why don't these
guys just get the job done, you know.
GLENN: (Laughing.)
They were pissing you off.
LUTTRELL: I was
getting tired, sir.
GLENN: Yeah.
LUTTRELL: And I
was really thirsty, and -- and I was hurt, I was hurt pretty
bad by this time. I was thinking, I mean, goddamn,
(unintelligible) thing, I wish these son of a guns could get
the job -- I was -- by that time I was trying to scream it
out loud, I was just like, you know, why can't you -- I
couldn't talk, though, because, you know, the mud and so
dang dehydrated, and also drink my own urine. That's how
thirsty I was.
So once I started
crawling up the ridge, trying to get away from these guys --
I wasn't going to sit there and die, you know. I mean I
wanted them to get it done but I wasn't going to give it to
them. I worked my way into this -- into a rock embankment
kind of like -- like, it was huge, big rocks, like pick up
trucks like stood on their tailgate on the -- on the -- on
the end, you know, and I worked my way into their and their
high ground turned into my level ground so the playing field
was equal. And as soon as that happened it was game -- it
was game over for them. I executed all three of them. Once
again was trailing me and the other two guys had walked up
on me, right next to the rock beside me. I let him get
within about ten feet of me, and I shoved a grenade in
between both of them and took off. So I crawled four more
miles -- I couldn't walk now -- I crawled four more miles
until I found water.
GLENN: Now, was
this -- this -- when you say crawling, hands and nieces, or
are you pulling or dragging yourself because your legs are
--
LUTTRELL: I was
hands and needs and dragging, both. I couldn't move. And --
my legs were so busted up. You know, and then once I got
shot I was -- you know, I just -- I couldn't move.
GLENN: Where were
you shot?
LUTTRELL: In the
back of my left leg.
GLENN: Okay. So
you drug yourself four miles.
LUTTRELL: Yes,
sir. Up and down those mountains. And finally got to some
water. And I don't know how I did it, but I somehow managed
to get to the highest point on the mountain. And I -- I
scoped down and was scouting out the area where -- and I
found this pool of water that I saw, that I wanted to drink
from. So I started to slide down the mountain to this
particular area, you know, which I thought was kind of like
a fountain of youth, so to speak, and my legs gave way and
just started sliding. And I mean I slid all the way down the
thing. I reached out to grab a tree, a little pine tree or
-- or whatever it was, to stop my fall, and all it did was
flip me upside down. So I took a header on the way down the
thing till finally I came -- I mean I landed in the water.
And I just remember trying to scream and -- but none of it
was coming out because all the mud and stuff in my mouth
and, you know, I was so dehydrated and I remember looking
over while I was sliding down the ground and my rifle was
sliding down beside him -- I couldn't throw that thing away.
I couldn't get rid of it. Every time something bad would
happen to me this thing was right beside me. So I -- you
know, can't explain it, sir, but just -- just lucky -- you
know, luck, I guess. I kind of took flight a little bit and
landed in this water, and then when I came to again, my gun
was still sliding down the mountain and it actually landed
on top of me. I remember the barrel hitting me in the face.
So I rolled over, and -- because the water woke me up, was
running to the back of my neck, instead of drinking the
water exactly where I was at, I remember crawling about 200
feet, you know, I was just like I'm going to go to that pool
of water that I found. And I took my gloves off and sat my
rifle down and washed my face and hands and then started
drinking. And it was the best water ever, ever had in my
whole life. I remember thinking -- I can die here, this is a
good place to die. I can -- nobody can get in here, no
helicopter or anything because I was deep in the mountains,
but, you know, at least I wasn't thirsty. That was the
thing. Being thirsty is the worst -- I never felt pain like
that before, you know, I've been through a lot of stuff, you
know, died -- almost died countless times, shot, you name
it, but that -- that feeling right there was the worst. And
as soon as I started drinking that water about three minutes
into it, you know, three more guys showed up and started
yelling at me. And I was just like, unbelievable. I really
got upset, I was okay, I'm going to go put my gloves back on
or what was left of them, I'm going to grab my rifle I'm
going to kill these guys real fast and I'll be right back. I
don't know I was talking about it, I was kind of out loud or
loud as I could, okay, I'm going to go kill these guys real
fast, I'll be right back. I was talking to that waterfall,
don't go anywhere, please, you know, I was still thirsty,
you know, I didn't get my fill, so sure enough, I -- I
strapped my gloves -- what was left of my gloves, I felt
with my grips because my fingers had been worn out on the
fall I had taken the day before, and I started crawling and
hobbling, you know, off the backside of this mountain, and
they were tracking me. And they pinned me. They pinned me
into this wall that I couldn't get around. I remember.
GLENN: Okay, now,
these are Taliban again?
LUTTRELL: Well,
that was my understanding at the time, sir, is that they
were, you know, Al-Qaeda or Taliban, so once they pinned me
against this wall, I couldn't move, and I just remember,
we're -- you know, when I go -- when I deploy overseas, I
wear this St. Christopher medal around my neck. I put it in
my mouth when I get into a gun battle, so I put my -- I put
that metal into my mouth, and I was just like, okay, let's
get it on, you know, I was cussing, I was just like, you
know, God give me strength, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff
I say before I engage. And I swung around to engage these
two guys -- to engage this once again, he dug me out of the
tree he could still see me and these other two guys were
flanking around and there was annoying I could do. I mean
actually in a spot where I couldn't engage. And then about a
minute and a half later, as I was scoping these guys who
came out of the corner, I had a guy in my crosshairs, you
know, a split second before I pulled the trigger three guys
came over this ridge behind me about 15 to 20 feet and
started screaming at me.
GLENN: Okay, stand
by, stand by. We're going to take a break here and we'll
find out what they were screaming here in just a second.
GLENN: We're going
to pick it up with Marcus Luttrell here in just a second. We
only have about 45 seconds before we go into a break. One of
the most amazing stories I think I've ever heard, I don't
even know if he's received a medal. You know, I told him
yesterday I think one of the most amazing things about this
story is that we haven't heard about it until his book came
out, Lone Survivor, and the media covered the helicopter
that was shot down. The media said, 19 soldiers lost, three
Special Forces and 16 on a chick automatic helicopter. You
remember hearing that story. But you don't remember hearing
what heroes these guys were. Luckily, there was a lone
survivor to tell the story and he'll continue to tell the
story. We haven't even gotten to the amazing part yet, the
just incredible part on who actually saved him. We'll get to
that here in just a second. And what lessons should we learn
from that? Coming up in just a second, and it's Closed Line
Friday. Your number to call is 888-727-BECK. Anything at all
on your mind, whatever you want to discuss, if you've been
hearing something this week and you want -- you want to get
it off your chest, you call now, let the nation hear your
voice. The number is 888-727-BECK. 888-727-BECK. Back in a
flash.
GLENN: I want to
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There's a couple things that we do now that are brand-new.
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Yesterday just a ton of people opened up the transcripts.
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There is something
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-- and I don't even think I've announced this to the
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not because we make money on it but because we love the
insiders and they've been so gracious to us for signing up
and being part of that, that this year, last year we had a
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-- I'm going to give them parts of the stage show. We've
rented a theater near in New York and we're going to just
have people come and you can watch the stage show and then
we might do some question and answer, and ad-lib and
everything else. But that is happening at the insider
convention. That is happening in New York City August 17th
and 18th. That's a weekend, August 17th and 18th. It is free
for insiders. You find out all the details at GlennBeck.com.
Okay. So Marcus now, you had -- you had people that were
screaming at you. You thought they were Taliban, or possibly
Al-Qaeda. You had them in your sights, you're about to pull
the trigger. You are a Navy SEAL, the rest of your team has
been killed, you've been tracked now in Afghanistan for
we're talking 24, 30 hours at this point?
LUTTRELL: Yes,
sir. Well, a little more.
GLENN: Okay. And
you are -- you -- you're just -- you just were refreshed
with water. You've been shot. You could barely walk. You've
drug yourself almost a total of seven miles. And who are
these people?
LUTTRELL: Well, it
turns out they were the -- the villagers. When I -- right
before I had taken a big fall into that water, stoked --
stoked out the area I could see the village in the distance,
and I guess they heard -- they heard me falling or for some
reason they were up there -- they were up there getting
water or whatever reason. When they start chasing me, and I
came -- I hit that wall that I couldn't get past and these
guys came over the ridge, when I swung around to -- to kill
this guy, again, he -- he was close enough where I didn't
even have to get to my sights. You know, I had my gun on my
-- at the low ready.
GLENN: He was
carrying a gun?
LUTTRELL: Sir?
GLENN: Was he
carrying a gun?
LUTTRELL: No, sir.
GLENN: Okay.
LUTTRELL: Neither
of them were. And immediately he threw his hands in the area
he was like okay, okay, American, American, kept saying. And
I didn't really understand what was going on. I -- I had a
big Texas flag, subdued Texas flag patch on my chest that I
wear on my -- my H-gear. And he was looking at that. And I
was -- he was just like okay, okay. I was just like what the
hell is going -- you know, I was looking at the whites of
his eyes. You know, I was ready to kill this guy. Because
the last guy who looked at me, you know, I put a bullet in,
like that, so it was kind of confusing. But he wasn't -- he
wasn't really, you know, like he was trying to -- he was
totally submissive. And then the two guys who were chasing
with the AKs came around the corner with them flung behind
their backs. I didn't even what was going on, but they
wouldn't approach me while I had my rifle up at the low
ready. And he just kept saying okay -- and I was yelling,
Taliban, Taliban, and they were like no, no. Making all
these hand gestures, this, that, and the other. I was
confused, sir. I didn't really know what was going on. So I
lowered my rifle but I -- I pulled a grenade out and the
jerked the pin out and I just sat on that, and I was all
right, if something goes wrong, screw these guys, gist going
to take us all out, because I wasn't for sure what their --
what their agenda was. And as they were walking toward me I
was just like hey, I've been shot, I need help. You know, I
was like I just had doctor or hospital, and they sat down,
they were, you know, looking around, he rolled me over, and
I could see the blood flowing from the back of my leg, he
made a face -- didn't speak any English, sir, whatsoever.
Except I remember this kid walking up, and he sat down, by
this time there was like five or six of them and he was --
he was looking at me and he made a gesture falling down,
they watched me fall down the cliff and they got a good
laugh out of that, and then he was -- one of the kids just
said, hydrate? And I was like where the hell did you learn
that word. I was like yes, hydrate so they gave me some
water. And then they picked me up and carried me about 200
yards down the mountain into their village, and from there,
they laid me down, the doctor had pulled some shrapnel out
of my leg, bandaged up the place --
GLENN: At what
point did you put the pin back in.
LUTTRELL: At one
point -- they kept trying to take my gun away from me. I
wouldn't let them. I never relinquished my weapon. I had the
grade in one hand with the pin wrapped around my pinkie
finger -- or my middle finger, and I had my rifle in the
other hand. And they carried me down the mountain like that.
Well, I kept that
as they worked on my leg and for about 30 to 45 minutes. And
eventually I was, okay, I couldn't hold the grenade in my --
put the pin back in the grenade, which is a -- you know, you
don't do that; that's kind of a big no-no. I didn't know if
it was going to go off or not, but I didn't care. Put it
back in my H-gear. And then they put me -- their local --
what they wear, I call it man jammies, I don't know exactly
what their proper term was.
GLENN: Who would
have guessed you were a Texan, man. All right. So now you're
-- now you're in man jammies.
LUTTRELL: Yeah.
They put these man jammies on me. I remember, I finally had
to use the restroom. I was like, I need to use the rest --
so they take me outside to use the restroom, and, you know
-- and their custom, you know, you have to squat, even if
you're a man to use the bathroom. So they were pushing down
on my shoulders, and I was, look, I can't -- you know, get
your hands off of me. Well, I fell, and they just thought
that was the funniest damn thing. And by the time I --
GLENN: It's like a
tribe of Jerry Lewis?
LUTTRELL: Right.
GLENN: Like
they're into slapstick.
LUTTRELL: Right.
The kid -- the adolescent and the young kids thought that
was great, because you know, I was trying to tie these
pants, you know, my thumb -- my hand's all busted up, I
couldn't tie these pants, I had to have someone tie the
pants for me, and they just thought that was great. With my
I turned around and my rifle was gone. So I freaked out, I
was like, I -- I was -- held my rifle, they were like
Taliban, Taliban. Like the Taliban is here? I look,
definitely need my rifle. This, that, and the other so they
dragged me into this room and I'm sitting on the edge of
this bed, kind of waiting for a second and then not two
minutes later the doors bust down and there's the Taliban
come in, you know. I really don't talk about what happened
after that. You know, they had me all -- they had me all
day. That's kinda when I found out about the helicopter
crash, and I'll just leave it at that. You know.
GLENN: Wait, wait,
wait, I'm not going to ask you specifics, I'm not going to
make you relive that, but were -- were the people that were
doctoring you in bed with the Taliban, or --
LUTTRELL: They had
actually moved -- that was the problem, sir, is that there
were some villagers that were sympathetic to -- the village
elder and Golan the Sorrow (sp) the sympathetic to keeping
me safe. And there were some villagers who wanted to turn me
over for the -- for the reward -- for the money that the
Taliban were offering up and the bounty, you know. That I
was big deal, they had an American soldier in their village
and the Taliban wanted me bad.
GLENN: All right,
so now they are doing whatever it is that they're doing.
LUTTRELL: Right.
GLENN: Do you
address this in the book at all or not?
LUTTRELL: A little
bit.
GLENN: --
happened?
LUTTRELL: I touch
on just a little bit but not -- you know, it's just kind of
one of those things I keep to myself.
GLENN: Sure. So
they had you for how long?
LUTTRELL: All day.
They had me all day, then they came -- I -- it was well into
the night, they came down to kill me. They were coming down
to kill me because the villagers, three villagers busted a
door down, and another one came in, and they carried me down
the mountain and tossed me in this cave for about 26 or 30
hours is my best guesstimate. I didn't know -- it was dark.
I didn't know -- I didn't know -- they left me there. I
didn't know what was going on. I mean -- you know, I lost my
mind on that day because there was gunfire going on, we had
rocks falling on top of me, and I couldn't move, I didn't
know where I was at or where any of those villagers were at.
I remember at the end, there was a guy -- I could hear
somebody coming up the trail towards that cave. It was like
in a wash, sort of, area. And just thinking like, you know,
I didn't have a gun or anything. A dirt clod in my hand. And
I seen an AK muzzle come -- come around the corner. You
know, I just lost it, I was just like, you know, I was so
upset that I couldn't do anything. Turns out it was a
villager coming to check on me, but I didn't know that at
the time, all I see was the damn gun muzzle. And when he
came around that corner, I -- I was like, you gotta get me
-- I was like all right, you know what? My Monday meter is
pegged -- I was thinking this out loud, get me the hell out
of here, I don't want to play this game anymore, I'm sick of
being here, you know, where his my mother, just like it was
-- I don't know who got pissed off at my life but whatever I
did, I was paying for it, kind of thing.
GLENN: Stand by.
We're going to -- we're going to pick the story up here in
just a second. Back in a flash.
GLENN: We're
talking to Marcus Luttrell. His book is Lone Survivor. He is
the lone survivor of a SEAL team that went into Afghanistan
to hunt one particular Al-Qaeda leader protected by the
Taliban. They were discovered, and it is -- it has been a
two-day, two-hour journey, and we're not at the end of the
story and yet we're going to have wrap it up because we've
gone to two hours. That's why there's a book on this.
Marcus, I've only got two minutes left and I hate to do
this. Can you -- can you tell us quickly in two minutes how
this story ends?
LUTTRELL: Yes,
sir. Ultimately, the villagers saved my life. They -- they
put their lives on the line and the lives of everybody in
their villager, their sons, daughters, they moved me around
from place to place. The Taliban encircled the village and
shot every day to come and get me and take me and they
wouldn't let 'em. So the collaboration between every force
-- Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, the SEALs to get me
out there --
GLENN: Have we
paid -- have we paid that village back?
LUTTRELL: Yes,
sir.
GLENN: What did we
do for them?
LUTTRELL:
Resupplied them -- while I was there I saw a resupply come
in and then we built a road in -- into their village and
generators and Golad (sp), one of the main guys who saved my
life, he got a job as one of the -- the Air Force Bases
there. In their -- in their custom, you don't just reward
one man, you reward the village and put it in his name so it
gave status. So as long as I was still -- you know, when I
was in the military, trying to keep up with it -- I went
back overseas to Iraq after all this happened, I kind of
lost touch with him, but from -- from me keeping tabs on
him, that's -- that's what I know that we had done for him.
GLENN: What an
amazing story, Marcus, and I know you came home and you
spoke to all of the families of the -- the helicopter pilots
and the crew of the helicopter, the Chinook that lost their
lives trying to rescue you and you met with all of the
family members of the -- the other three members of your
SEAL team. You are a remarkable man, and I -- I am so glad
to know that you are not unique, that we have military full
of people like you. Thank you so much for being on the
program, sir, appreciate it.
LUTTRELL: Thanks
for having me, sir.
GLENN: The name of
the book is Lone Survivor. It is the read of the summer.
Lone Survivor. Grab it now.
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