"Lone Survivor" author Marcus Luttrell

an interview with Glenn Beck
o JUNE 22, 2007
  Part 2 of 2





o BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
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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 an 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 friends, 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 (unintelligible.) 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 pullimg 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, I just couldn't -- I just couldn't feel my legs.

GLENN: Were they walking or were you dragging myself.

LUTTRELL: No, dragging myself. I drug miles 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 looking 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 knees, or are you pulling or dragging yourself because your legs are --

LUTTRELL: I was hands and knees 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 wasn't anything 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 Chinook 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 tell you about a couple things that you may not know. There's a couple things that we do now that are brand-new. Our newsletter which is absolutely free, you can get it every day, and it includes transcripts from the show. Yesterday just a ton of people opened up the transcripts. And you can also see the video of it, or listen to the audio, whichever you prefer. But that happens every day. And a ton of people opened up the transcripts yesterday from our interview, which is continuing now with Marcus Luttrell. But you can sign up for the newsletter. You get it every day in your mailbox absolutely free. Just sign up at GlennBeck.com.

There is something else that I want to tell you about that is also free. The second annual national insider convention for insiders only -- and I don't even think I've announced this to the insiders yet. We're doing a special show for the insider convention. This is the second annual that we've done. This isn't something that we -- you know, this is something we do 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 little thing where we had a get-together, you know, and had a question and answer. This year I'm going to give them the -- 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, I scoped -- scoped 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, Just 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 on 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.

Please pass this on to all of your friends. Show them the transcript, ... go out and buy the book "Lone Survivor." The message should be heard. So please pass this on to your friends. The transcript available in a few hours at GlennBeck.com.


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END TRANSCRIPT




This was the Second of 2 hour−long interviews, and you can read a transcript of the First by clicking here.



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