SEAL Team 6 Operator Recounts One of the Most Dangerous Gunfights of His Life

Looking back on this is one of the most

dangerous things I've ever done. Because

you knew the guy in there had a gun. And

Jay hears something in the bushes and I

think he believed at the time it was the

guys. And he screamed out, "Hey." And

when he did, that dude let off the

biggest Hollywood belt-fed burst I've

ever heard. Everybody dropped. I dove

behind the tree and he pounded on that

tree for what seemed like an eternity.

We're laying on top of people and Jay's

prepping for a fire mission. He's asking

for 25 mic mic and 40 mic mic. He said,

"No, it's too close." And he said,

"We're going to [ __ ] die anyway.

Juliet Alpha, send it." Gave his

initials. They started dropping it and

you could feel it.

And we go back to the firefight you were

referencing was uh the one with Jay

Redmond and those guys. Um

That was September 10th.

Um

So, almost on the anniversary.

And uh

Everything that could have gone wrong

went wrong.

But in a positive way. Um

Zero loom. There wasn't an ounce of

moonlight out, nothing. And for the guys

that don't run around with night vision,

um those things aren't perfect. They're

not, man. You don't have any ambient

light out there.

Like

They don't work very well. They just

don't. So, we were going back to the

exact same spot, two houses down from

where that thing happened. So, we called

it the karma house.

Good bad karma, here we go.

And we were going to land on the X.

Going to blow the front door and take

this thing down hard. That's what we did

back then.

Um So, flying helos right to the front

door and this is what we're doing.

And we knew from

past experiences exactly what kind of

resistance we were going to meet. And we

planned for the worst. Like I went in on

that thing completely knowing in that

first room I was going to get shot.

>> Damn.

>> Like they had belt feds, they had

suicide vests. Like these guys are

committed for sure.

If we go in right now,

that first room is going to be sketchy.

And we landed on the X and we ran

through that thing like

we've done a a other times and it was no

one there.

Dry hole.

And we get an update that all those guys

had left and had ran out the back.

And now they're in adjacent essentially

a cornfield.

But if you imagine them

Imagine endless field of nothing, just a

plowed field.

And then right in the middle of it is

about 500 yards of

6-ft tall

I don't even know what you call it. It's

like straw but it's not. I mean you

can't see anything. Um and they were

trying to walk us down on top of this

guy. So we all switch over. It's um

by six or seven of us.

And we all get online and we're all

starting to walk down.

Um we've all switched over to fires and

we're listening.

And

two of the new guys and one of the EOD

guys had not switched over to fires.

They were

we literally interlocked arms. That's

how bad it was. You couldn't see [ __ ]

We couldn't lose anybody inside there.

Um we'd never walked through the palm

groves before. We didn't have a dog. We

we didn't have the experience.

And looking back on this is one of the

most dangerous things I've ever done.

Because you knew the guy in there had a

gun.

Like for sure.

You knew that uh they run around with

SBs and you know they're committed. So

now we are walking on there. So if you

imagine just a

a big open field with a big

sparkle in the center of it and we're

going to walk towards it.

And we're going to walk until we find

this guy.

Okay.

So we do.

Completely committed interlocked arms

and we are walking forward and we're

getting the updates.

15 ft.

10 ft.

You're standing on him.

And you see everybody looking down like

he's not here.

Third person from the right, you are

standing on him.

And we all look over to the right

nothing. Like

what the [ __ ] So, we're all on a line

standing right there

and Jay calls an audible. He's like,

"Home maneuver element, take a right

hand turn cuz we know there's an an open

field. We just have to cross and now

it's completely open now we can

re-gather our [ __ ] and we can assault

from this side

and vice walking through all this all

this crazy brush, we can approach it

from the open side and just walk in the

brush a little bit, maybe call them out,

do something else."

And when we turn right, this element

stayed. They didn't get the word.

So, now we have a bad guy,

our element, and then another element.

Now, we're in a Polish ambush.

We turn, we walk out, and we enter

this beautiful manicured open field.

There's not an ounce of cover anywhere

in it. There's not a rut. There's

nothing. There's not a rock. There's a

single tire

and it's about 20 ft Yeah,

30 ft from the edge of the uh from the

edge of the brush line.

It's just out there and we're standing

there

and a team guy gaggle

standing around like wondering

what the [ __ ] Is this guy really there?

Is it a dog? Is it some animal? Like

these guys are clearly lost and we don't

realize that

that bad guy is in there, probably 6 ft

inside, and he's looking at us.

And we're from

middle of the wall.

And we're close.

We're having a full on conversation and

um at one point we're trying to relay to

the other guys cuz now we know we've

lost three. Now, they're lost in

brush country. We have to re-consolidate

them so we can deal with this guy cuz

now we know the reality we've turned the

entire profile.

Blue forces, bad guy, blue forces.

We've got all the rest of the guys over

here on on the west side.

And now we're trying to do a link up.

Like we have to get them around to

re-consolidate with us.

Um the blue force picture and knowing

where everybody is is um

is challenging at times. But you really

have to know then.

We basically walked right up to the

edge. It's um

You know,

Jay's there, our corpsman, our Turk, the

JTAC, and a guy we'll just call Maddie,

is standing there with me,

and we're all in kind of a team guy

gaggle,

and

Jay hears something in the bushes,

and I think he believed at the time it

was the guys,

and he screamed out, "Hey!"

And when he did, that dude let off the

biggest Hollywood belt-fed burst I've

ever heard.

>> Holy [ __ ]

>> dropped.

It was like um

we used to do the new guy scenarios.

You know, you're doing land warfare, the

first contact, and all the head shed

dies. Just

And now you've got to drag around like

you know, playing war games. That's what

it was like.

Everybody hit the deck.

And there was a tree probably

30 ft

that way, and I remember I turned, I

heard it, watched them drop, and I was

sprinting so fast to that thing. I

remember the dust kicking up in front of

me when he was tracking me.

Um I dove behind the tree, and he

pounded on that tree

for what seemed like an eternity.

Um

I was on my back looking up.

I mean, you can imagine, helmets

cockeyed, there's no ambient light, I

can't see [ __ ] through my nods, um and

there's just dirt blowing all over me. I

mean, I am consumed by this. I don't

even know where he's at now. I don't

know if he's on his feet chasing me

down. Like, I'm just overcome with

withering [ __ ] fire.

Um and then it stops.

And he pans back over, and he starts to

engage the dudes.

Um

this thing goes on for um for a little

bit, and we're trying to reconsolidate.

Um the JTAC has went out, and he's

trying to grab people now. He's behind a

tire.

I remember looking over and seeing um

Jay,

and I remember him sitting upright, and

I watched him get shot one more time, um

right in the face,

and it looked like that was it. He hit

the ground so hard and you knew he was

dead.

Um

So

there's an audible has to be made. We

have the JTAG and behind this tractor

tire. And I mean it's a

It's a tractor tire. It's not big. It's

about that high off the ground.

Serves no purpose.

And he's behind it and I'm directly

adjacent from him looking at him.

Like I have an out out this way. I can't

because we have all these dudes are shot

up.

And I remember it was like the scene

from Black Hawk Down. Come to me. [ __ ]

you. Come to me.

Ready? Yep.

And I got up and I ran as fast as I

could and I dove um

like a baseball slider in behind that

thing and it

it was such a sigh of relief

to feel another human next to me.

Um I was so thankful that he was there.

And now we have to figure out how to get

out there and bring those people back

here.

And this whole thing's happening very

very fast. Um

So Jay's been shot multiple times. He's

uh he's discombobulated. He's talking.

And this guy's still trying to shoot him

but he can't see [ __ ] because it's

black. So if you're quiet, he can't hear

you.

But the bravest thing I have ever seen

in 17 years happened on that night. Um

I watched Maddie get up and run forward

after he'd already been shot

and grab our corpsman as he's dragging

him backwards

just like out of the movies. Corpsman

pulls out his pistol and he's shooting

into this bush line.

Um and Maddie gets shot again.

Boom. Spins him around and dumps him.

He gets back up, grabs him and gets shot

again, dumps him, he gets back up and

continued to drag him back until we got

them all back to the

tractor tire, you know, we're all

pulling them in there. We basically just

dog piled on them.

Just plates on plates. Um just trying to

build up a human wall

to not let these people be shot again.

Um and he's still shooting at us the

entire time. He hasn't let up. Um, he

just doesn't know where we're at now.

So, if we can keep everybody quiet,

we've got hands over mouths, like people

are screaming. We had uh the corpsman

got shot through tib/fib, shattered his

leg.

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>> Matty got shot through the brachial

artery, hit his humerus and shattered

that, and it flipped over the back of

his neck.

And I remember, cuz we talked about it

later and it made sense, he looked very

confused at one point um in between

dragging the corpsman back, and he said

he was looking for his arm.

Um when it broke, it snapped and went

over his neck and he looked down and

just saw this.

Um

couldn't see it. Um I mean, there's no

moonlight, you can't see anything. You

can't see under nods right there, it's

just gone. You look down and there's a

stump there. So, he doesn't know.

He's been shot in the leg. Um

Jason shot in the leg and the

um in the side plates.

I think he took a double stack to the

elbow, so it blew out his entire arm,

and then he took one through the face

that

basically removed his jaw, removed his

nose, um and you could look inside him.

It was as as bad as it could have been.

Um so, we get them back and we go into

TCCC mode.

Tourniquets on there, we're packing

wounds, we're doing that, and thank God

for that course. My [ __ ]

Um

I don't know where we'd be without that.

Uh the live tissue training and all

that.

That was um

I was so prepared for that. Um we were

in and out of that blowout kit so fast.

To uh And I I joke with Matty about it.

He was um

I put the tourniquet on him, he was

begging for me to stop.

I was like, "Two more. Two more turns."

Finally got the blood to stop. And then

I had my fingers inside his arm

feeling out that thing. Um

the medics working on J and um

the corpsman putting on tourniquets,

pressure dressings, all that. And I

remember having a distinct conversation

with Matty. He's begging me for quick

clot.

He's like, quick clot. Over and over and

over.

Remember from talking to uh the surgeons

during the training. He's like, if you

dump quick clot in there, the only way

to remove it is to cut it out.

And it's inside of his bicep.

And

I mean, to me, I have the bleeding

stopped. I have it under control.

And I'm not pouring quick clot in you

because they're going to have to cut it

out of you. Like, I'm saving you. You're

not dying here.

Like, you don't need that quick clot.

Um we had a bunch of hemostatic

dressings. Like, I'm packing this thing.

It's fine. And uh he wouldn't shut the

[ __ ] up about it.

So, I told him, yeah. And I grabbed a a

thing of quick clot. And I mean, this is

underneath a tractor tire where rounds

are coming over. I was like, I've got

it. And I pretended like I did it. And I

went like that.

And uh

He's like, thank you so much.

So, yeah. I You never got quick clot.

Um

So, the next thing we are we have

tourniquets on them.

We are talking about what we're going to

do now. And he is still engaging.

And the JTAG J um

start to prep a fire mission. And it's

close. Um it's the closest uh

at that point is the closest uh fire

mission to coalition forces the entire

war.

>> No [ __ ]

>> Yeah. 40

>> Estimate.

>> Um

10 m, 15 m.

>> 10 [ __ ] meters.

>> I mean, close enough where you could

take a

grenade and throw it.

>> Holy [ __ ]

>> I mean, like it was

And they started walking them in. By

this time

the other element we had had maneuvered

away.

Um nobody was firing because we didn't

have um

we didn't have a picture. We didn't know

where this dude was coming from. We

didn't know where our forces were.

And we thought

we thought that if we were to engage

this guy, we would have hit our own blue

forces. So, there's a big hole in the

fire and we were basically just being

withered.

Like we were we were just getting chewed

up.

Um I mean, strobes getting shot off

helmets like it's like it's in there.

And they're everywhere but hitting human

beings. So, we've essentially taken the

tractor and we stacked up plates in

between them on our sides and now we're

just working on people.

We're laying on top of people um doing

whatever we can.

And Jay is calling for a fire mission

and he's asking for 25 mic mic and 40

mic mic and basically to start walking

it in.

And I remember a distinct conversation

they said, "No."

They said, "It's too close." And he

said, "We're going to [ __ ] die

anyway."

"Juliet Alpha, send it."

Gave his initials and he they started

dropping it and you could feel it. Boom

boom boom boom.

Boom. You could

You could feel the vibrations start to

get closer and closer and start to

bounce you off the ground a little bit

and kept coming, kept coming, kept

coming. And then they started going

tally on target. And uh I mean, you

could hear that dude the impacts. You'd

hear him smack.

Um you could hear him screaming and it

was very satisfying.

I just let him go.

Like let him go.

Like we're not walking back up that tree

line again. Let that dude die.

We called in um

we called in for a medevac. They landed

right on the X um right there where we

were. We loaded him on there and I

jumped in.

Um the corpsman had already been shot.

So, we had him,

Matty and Jay Redmond.

Um and we talk about the typical team

guy [ __ ] sometimes and if this happens,

just put me out of my misery. You know

what I mean? Like

>> Yeah.

>> If I get hit by an IED and it blows my

dick off, just finish me. Like people

say that [ __ ]

>> Yeah.

>> That would have been one of the times.

Um

if my face looks like this,

put me down.

And he was the most coherent, the most

calm dude I have ever seen.

Sitting upright,

leaning forward, letting [ __ ] pour out

of his face so he could breathe.

Um and he didn't say much, man. Um I

don't know if the shock hit him. I don't

think he knew how bad it really was.

Um,

so I'm working on Matty in the helo.

We're kind of doing the whole comb

thing.

Running down his fingers, we're finding

bullet holes, we're trying to patch all

this stuff up, and we get him back, um,

those helo pilots flew that bird so

fast.

Um, I thought they were going to suck us

out of the bird. Like we had to shut the

doors. I've never been in a 60 that flew

that fast, ever. I mean, to this day.

That thing

that thing was in a full attack mode the

entire way back. It was the fastest [ __ ]

I've ever been in.

And thank God for it. Um,

some of the stuff you don't think about,

like, um, the tourniquet's slipping.

Like,

now the compartment syndrome sets in,

all the blood's getting pushed out, and

now it gets loose. Now he starts blowing

blood all out of it. Like, it's in my

mouth, it's all over me. Like, I'm

covered in it head to toe. Like, it's

I mean, it looks like a scene out of

Black Hawk Down in the back back of the

helo. Like, there's just med kits

everywhere, and just people laid out.

It's like another dose of reality, you

know.

Some guys do get shot, and

if you're if you're not trained to

handle that situation, you won't.

You won't You won't rise to that. Like,

if I wouldn't have been through TCCC, if

all those dudes wouldn't have played out

that exact scenario hundreds of times in

training, I don't know what would have

happened.

Like, it's a testament to how good those

dudes were prepared, that JTAC,

the balls he had

>> Yeah.

>> to drop that. The confidence he had

and that AC-130 crew.

Like, if you miss that thing, like,

you're first round for windage. It was

so close it could have killed us.

It's like, that's the confidence. Um,

it was humbling, man. To get back from

that thing, I remember we, um,

we dropped those guys off. I wasn't

there for the rest of the target, what

happened after that. Um, I was probably

gone for an extra 2 hours, and I came

back from the debrief, and I walk in,

and

yeah,

I'm an emotional [ __ ] wreck. Um

I would have sworn that Matt going to

die for sure. Like Jerry looked like he

was dead.

Um I never thought he'd make it.

I mean, just the way his face looked

like it looked so bad.

Um

But outside of his arm, no real

life-threatening injuries. Um

outside of a [ __ ] ton of cosmetic stuff.

I mean, he was really lucky way to get

shot.

Matty was a

He's a different animal. He got a bad

infection.

External fixators, you know, it's all

over the place in the hospital.

Um

A very surreal moment. Um

especially for that deployment. Just

that's how we're going to end this whole

thing. It's just a somber way to go home

on that deployment. And I never really

got to process it. I didn't have time.

Um just the whole reality of

what had happened, kind of what we'd

been through then together as a group.

Um being in firefights is one thing.

Like being in that is completely

different. I just helpless.

I couldn't shoot back. I couldn't do

anything.

I could just lay there

and put my plates in front of that guy

and hope he shoots me and not you.

I can give you a tourniquet.

Outside of that, man, outside of moral

support, like we're all just in this

together.

And

I would have bet anything there's no way

we would have walked away from that.

There's no I thought we were dead after

initial contact.

It was so close. It was so violent.

Um

And I think it was kind of that um

not lackadaisical attitude cuz we were

definitely wired tight for that, but

it's not reality until it's reality.

Like

that's not going to happen.

Yes, it is.

Whether you want it to or not, it's

happening right now.

So, um

yeah, a lot of good lessons learned from

that.

Um a lot of stuff that I carried with me

my entire life. Even in training.

Cuz you know, a lot of guys will put on

this Hollywood show during training.

They'll um they'll run out there and

they'll like try to to the princess or

some kind of crazy [ __ ]

No, sometimes you have to.

Sometimes you have to get up and you

have to say cover me and you have to go

out and do that and sometimes you have

to call in danger close fire missions.

Sometimes you have to run out there

being shot already and drag back a dude

to save his life.

Like there's no arguing with that.

That's the most heroic [ __ ] I have ever

seen.

Ever.

Um

I mean to this day.

Like

if I had one defining moment where I

stood back and I was just starstruck.

That's it.

Like

Like if I had to if I had to capture a

you know, a 30-second clip of you want

to be a Navy SEAL.

Why do you want to be one? Because

people will do this for me.

That'd be it.

That'd be Jay calling fire mission,

Maddie running out there grabbing back

to Cormant.

Dragging him back and

it's a badass move.

>> That is some

heavy [ __ ]

>> Damn.

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