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GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN: This week
was a big week. If you read The Lone Survivor, if you read
Marcus Luttrell's book, you know what a hero looks like, and
one of those heroes was honored by the highest award of the
land, one of the Navy SEAL Team 10 that fought in
Afghanistan with Marcus Luttrell who is with us now. Hi,
Marcus.
LUTTRELL: How are you, sir?
GLENN: Good. How has this week been for you? Has it been
bittersweet, has it been tough? What has this week felt like
to you?
LUTTRELL: I would
say all of the above, sir. I mean, there were times where I
was happy to be here and watch what was going on and then
there's other times where I just wanted to go home, you
know, and hang it up. It brought back a lot of emotions and
it was tough.
GLENN: Marcus, can you -- I mean, I hate to do this because
last time I asked you this question, we were on the air
together for three days, I think, two or three days in a
row. Can you sum up in a very quick fashion, for anybody who
hasn't read your book yet, exactly what happened and who the
man is that was honored by the President this week.
LUTTRELL: Yes, sir. Basically we were out in Afghanistan on
an operation that we had, take down a high-value target and
things went bad on us. We got in a major engagement with a
Taliban militia and about 45 minutes into the firefight we
had already taken one casualty and all the rest of us had
been shot up pretty bad and there was no way for us to make
communications with anybody. And because of this, our
lieutenant, Michael Murphy, took it upon himself to break
cover. The only cover we had was on a -- we were in this
draw coming down two mountain peaks and the only way we
could make communication was to get out of the middle of the
draw, called Fatal Funnel. We had to push back and forth
from side to side every now and again to find cover and once
you went out in the middle there, you took rounds.
GLENN: And that's the only place you could get a cell phone
signal?
LUTTRELL: Yes, sir. And that's what he did. He pushed out,
made the call. He took two more shots to the back, dropped
down, regained his composure, stood back up, finished the
call, the transmission to bring in our reinforcements. And
then flanked left again back in the side of the mountain,
started fighting again and then by that time they had
already come over the top of him.
GLENN: Did you talk to him before he went out or did you
know he was going? Did you see him make this decision? I
mean, he knew he was going to die.
LUTTRELL: Yes, sir. As far as -- I didn't get a chance to
talk to him. I had already -- I pushed past him about 20 to
30 yards, which was -- you know, Matt Axelson and I had
fallen off this bolder that he was above us on and he came
over that decision on his own. I remember I was shooting
back up a hill and Matt had walked past me and sat down
behind me and he had taken a round to the head and I had
turned around to look at him and to see what was going on
and when I came back -- when I turned -- we started getting
shot at pretty bad. When I turned back around, I looked up,
Mikey was out in the middle there on the phone and I saw him
take the two rounds. I started shooting back over the top of
him and I just remember thinking, you know, what are you
doing, man. And I was trying to yell up at him. Finished the
call, then he went left again. And we were screaming back
and forth but there wasn't any major lines of communication
between the two of us.
GLENN: And he -- what amazes me is -- I mean, after he had
been shot in the back and everything else, I mean, I think I
would have been a guy who was screaming in the phone, come
get us, come get us, and he was not doing that. In fact, he
said thank you, the last words he said into the phone was
thank you, right?
LUTTRELL: Yes, sir.
GLENN: Who was this guy? Who was he as a man? Who was he?
LUTTRELL: You know, that's kind of hard to put into words.
If you look at the guy and hung out with him every day, he
was just a -- he was just a good friend. You know, he was
funny and extremely intelligent and witty. You wouldn't
think that he was someone or -- that would do what he did. I
mean, you obviously knew it, but most people, when we were
walking around and if we would introduce ourselves and
people would ask us what we do for a living, we never say
I'm a Navy SEAL. First of all, no one ever believes that
anyways. And secondly, it's just, that's kind of part of the
job. You know, you are just kind of a quiet professional,
just make up something. But when it came time to go out into
the -- you know, he was very compassionate for his family
and his friends and very low-key but when we had to jock up
and go out in the field to do what it was we do, he was the
best and he was vicious.
GLENN: Marcus, when you -- because you came back and you met
with his family and you told them the story. Was it the
first time that they had heard the story? Did you just sit
in their living room and tell them the whole story?
LUTTRELL: I tried, sir, but it wasn't really that easy. I
just got out of the hospital and it was still --
GLENN: Pretty fresh?
LUTTRELL: Yes, sir, not that it's not still today but, you
know, I walked in and the first person I saw, you know, was
his mother. She greeted me at the door and then I and the
rest of my platoon with me. We walked in and we sat down and
it didn't come out right off the bat. We just, there were
some family members there. We just came in and they fed us
and we sat around for a little bit and then we walked into
another room and, you know, his mother walked up to me and
she just, you know, she grabbed me by the face. She was
looking at me and she was like, did he suffer? And I was
like, no, ma'am, he didn't. He went out fighting as hard as
he did when he went in and that was pretty much, you know,
the extent of it.
GLENN: Have any of the families talked to you one on one
about your book? What is their reaction to the book?
LUTTRELL: They tell me thank you, you know, for putting it
on paper and letting everybody read about it.
GLENN: Marcus, you're one of the good guys, man. I just
can't tell you how many people in my audience just love you
and pray for all of the troops. You're just such a great
example and we -- you know, the sad thing is, Marcus, is you
guys exist everywhere. You're not -- I mean, I don't mean to
-- I don't mean this as a slam. You know as well as I do
you're not that unique.
LUTTRELL: No, I'm not. I'm not an anomaly.
GLENN: This is the way these guys are.
LUTTRELL: This is just one situation, sir. This happens all
the time. That's the reason I'm part of a team. I'm not an
individual and I mean, everybody out there can -- I'm not
unique.
GLENN: You know, the story came out yesterday that violence
in Iraq is down 70% because now we have the boots down on
the ground and we're not tying people's hands. You've got to
be frustrated when you see -- two things -- when you see --
I know you lived it. Your own hands being tied. You are down
on the ground. The troops know what to do. The troops know
how to fix this, don't they?
LUTTRELL: Yes, sir.
GLENN: So you've got to be frustrated when you see
Washington tie their hands. And are you still just as
frustrated when you see good news coming out and no one
covering? I mean, a 70% reduction in violence in Iraq since
June. It looks like we've turned the corner in Iraq.
Everybody was on the bandwagon saying what a nightmare this
was. You couldn't hear anything but this on the news for
months and months and months and now that we've turned the
corner, you don't even hear crickets. There's nothing about
the good news.
LUTTRELL: Right.
GLENN: Frustrate you?
LUTTRELL: Well, we turned the corner in Iraq a long time
ago, sir. I guess I'm just jaded. I mean, I'll put it out
there; no one's going to listen kind of thing. That's not
what it's about. We've got to go do our job anyways and if
you spend the whole time worrying about, you know, people
not understanding or not knowing, then you just, it took
away the focus of what we were doing over there.
GLENN: What institution do you have faith in? What do you
still believe in? What keeps you going, Marcus? Knowing what
you know and knowing what you know about Washington?
LUTTRELL: Well, I walked outside and see the red, white and
blue flying on that pole out there and I mean, you -- the
guys who went before me to make sure that thing's still up
there, I mean, I'm kind of a history buff and I talk to
these guys and it's just like why would I -- that's not as
matter of fact. We were at a ceremony and this guy walked up
to me. He was trying to tell me, you guys, we're real proud
of you, what you're doing, I know it's a hard war and I was
saying, you passed it to me. You think for one second I'm
going to turn my back on you and let you down after
everything you went through? I mean, this engagement, those
guys where 30,000 people die in a day. There was 4,000
people died in Iraq total and I was just like, hey, man,
that's my job; that's what I'm here for. We had 50 New York
firemen down for the ceremony, too, and we were talking
about it. Just like, hey, when 9/11 happened, it's like,
hey, you're passing the flag to us; we'll take it from here.
You think I'm going to look at it and say, I can't do this
anymore; it's too hard? If we give up, then bad stuff's
going to start happening and that's not going to happen
while I'm around or while my buddies are around. It actually
means something for us to take time out of your day to get
your head out of your butt.
GLENN: Marcus Luttrell, man, you are my favorite guest, man.
I just love you to death. You are the best. Thank you very
much and God bless you and your family.
LUTTRELL: Thanks for having me, sir. Take care.
GLENN: Bye-bye. Marcus Luttrell, Lone Survivor. Unbelievable
book. If you haven't read it yet, please buy a copy.
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