Green Beret | 10th Special Forces Group | 18D Special Operations Combat Medic | Ryan Neel

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======= Today we hear a remarkable Combat Story from longtime Special Forces Green Beret and 18D medic, Ryan Neel, who spent close to 25 years in the Army, most of that in Special Operations, to include nine deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo.

We spend a lot of time on Ryan’s combat experiences in this episode, starting right away with the story of how Ryan nearly died on his first Iraq deployment. I found Ryan through Darrell Utt (who many will recall from our interview #74 at https://youtu.be/Qzv6lISLnwA), who was a former Green Beret alongside Ryan. Oddly enough, both Darrell and Ryan share the same “Alive Day” as they both nearly died on the same day in April 2005.

Darrell described the event in the following way: “Ryan was 15 meters away when a tanker truck rammed through the gate and detonated 500 gallons of diesel fuel, 20 x 155mm HE Artillery shells, and ¼ metric tons of TNT…despite having multiple types of injuries and being trapped in his room while it was on fire for 2 minutes, his teammates kicked the door down and after a quick self-assessment – he proceeded to provide medical treatment to four SF brothers, two interpreters, three Peshmerga guards, reset security, and directed Iraqi & US reinforcements…And, yes, he has the actual terrorist video footage of the attack!”

Show Notes: