Combat Story (Ep 37): Ryan Hendrickson [Part 1] Green Beret | SF 18C | Silver Star | Author
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About This Episode
Join our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan for people who love and support our veterans, service members, and their families. It has info on a significant event in military and/or intel history, a funny military joke, an update on a current event I'm following, something I'm doing that week in my life, a book I'm reading, a look at an upcoming interview, a reflection on a past episode and more.
Today we hear the Combat Story (Part 1 of 2) of Ryan Hendrickson, a former Green Beret and Special Forces Engineer (18C) who served multiple combat deployments to Afghanistan and training deployments around the world, particularly in South America, as part of 7th Special Forces Group.
Before joining the Army, Ryan served in the Air Force and Navy, where he was one of the first ships on scene to support the USS Cole after it was attacked.
As a Green Beret, Ryan has a remarkable story in which he survived stepping on an IED that changed his life, but was unable to keep him out of the fight. After months of reconstructive surgery, he went back to the teams and Afghanistan, where he saved multiple lives and earned the Silver Star.
He is the author of Tip of the Spear and an adventure seeker who’s travelled most of the world. He still supports the war fighter as a contractor where he continues to save lives.
This is the first in a two part interview, covering Ryan’s life and combat up until stepping on the IED. In the second interview, we’ll touch on his recovery and several future combat operations, including the one in which he received the Silver Star.
I hope you enjoy his worldly and odd-defying Combat Story as much as I did.
Special thanks to Kevin Flike who introduced me to Ryan from their common background of overcoming combat injuries to live their dreams. (Interview with Kevin at https://youtu.be/qEEqBEFeut4).
Website Tip of the Spear https://ryanmhendrickson.com/ Instagram @tipofthespearrmh https://www.instagram.com/tipofthespearrmh/ Facebook Ryan Hendrickson(Rmh) https://www.facebook.com/ryan.hendrickson.1238 LinkedIN Ryan Hendrickson https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-hendrickson-a5a703150/ Book Tip of the Spear https://tinyurl.com/4ssh5z42
Follow on Instagram @combat_stories (https://www.instagram.com/combat_stories/) Email ryan@combatstory.com Learn more about Ryan www.combatstory.com/aboutus Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Show notes
Author
Chapters
- 0:00Intro
- 0:35Guest Bio
- 1:36Interview Begins
- 2:20Early Exposure to Firearms and Explosives
- 4:00The Nomad Lifestyle
- 5:49Life can get pretty ugly. It’s not always easy.
- 7:25Making new friends
- 8:49“I just buried myself in wrestling and football.”
- 10:37Ryan’s Father
- 14:11“Mistakes are there for a reason, regardless of how ugly they are.”
- 14:22The story of two old men
- 16:41“Which man do you want to be?”
- 17:17“You don’t control life, and you don’t control death.”
- 17:48“The beginning and the end of the book are already there. But what you fill that book with is up to you.”
- 20:03True Happiness
- 21:53The Hero
- 24:18Joining the Military
- 26:45Joining the Navy
- 30:05Traveling the World
- 31:18The USS Cole Experience
- 33:03“I saw death in that aspect, as in the enemy was killing Americans.”
- 35:14From Navy to the Air Force
- 38:53Trying to be a Good Husband
- 40:40Looking for more
- 43:02Becoming a Green Beret
- 44:02Following his Father’s Footsteps
- 45:22Getting Scammed
- 47:29Making new friends in Vietnam
- 50:34“I have yet to prove myself.”
- 53:39What is an 18C
- 57:23Meeting his ODA Team
- 1:02:15“I was nobody because of the fact that I had yet to prove myself when bullets are flying.”
- 1:02:53Combat Story #1: First deployment to Afghanistan
- 1:11:11“We fought all the time.”
- 1:11:35The Addictive Rush of the Battlefield
- 1:12:45Combat Story #2: The Life-changing mission
- 1:21:05“I can’t go back and change what I didn’t do.”
- 1:22:10The IED that changed Ryan’s life.
- 1:29:22“I was like, ‘I’m going to die here today.’”
- 1:30:19End of Part One...To Be Continued
- 1:30:35Shout Outs to the Combat Story Community
![Combat Story (Ep 40): Ryan Hendrickson [Part 2] Green Beret | SF 18C | Silver Star | Author](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.youtube.com%2Fvi%2FbTRi7YhEOP8%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
