Combat Story (Ep 28): Elliot Ackerman - Marine | MARSOC | CIA Paramilitary | Best Selling Author
About This Episode
Today we hear another Combat Story from Elliot Ackerman, a decorated Marine infantry officer, Special Operations operator, CIA Paramilitary Officer, Silver Star and Purple Heart recipient, and best-selling author.
As many will recall, Elliot was our first guest on Combat Story long before we ever did video interviews. That first interview remains one of my favorites and covers an incredible inside look at his role as a Platoon Leader in Fallujah II in 2004 (link to first interview: https://youtu.be/sphSdmOusI0) and the true grit and determination it required. It was that battle that earned him the Silver Star.
In this second interview, we pick up where we left off from Round 1 as Elliot describes being one of the first members of Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) and his subsequent deployments with this unit.
We also dive into his national bestselling book, Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HDR55GN/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1), where Elliot describes revisiting, both in mind and body, his combat experiences.
It’s a fantastic read and in the interview he shares moments from the book that include returning to the very buildings he occupied in Fallujah years earlier and another experience having an unthinkable meal with a former Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leader as they shared their memories on the frontlines fighting against each other.
Elliot is a special Marine who survived five deployments and fought at the highest levels. I hope you enjoy this next set of combat stories with Elliot as much as I did.
Instagram - @elliot.ackerman https://www.instagram.com/elliot.ackerman/ Website - www.elliotackerman.com Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning - https://tinyurl.com/dcw28kvn Books - https://tinyurl.com/6jcbd9hb
Show Notes
Best Selling Author
Chapters
- 0:00Intro
- 1:01Elliot introduction
- 4:53Moving to Special Operations
- 6:16Talking your way to the military school
- 7:18Marine Corps having no SOCOM component
- 8:32Force Recon vs MARSOC
- 9:39Go to Ranger School or something else?
- 10:51Strategy session to lead the class
- 12:59“I never would have guessed how profound those relationships would be throughout my life.”
- 13:56Why Marine’s exist
- 15:44Amphibious Reconnaissance School
- 18:15Marine operations
- 19:03Taliban incident
- 19:53Horrible nightmare of the planet
- 21:57Places that Elliot was deployed
- 22:34Dangerous mission
- 25:00The ambush
- 26:22“I didn’t know at the moment, we lost it. All I see is us pushing through the kill zone.”
- 28:12Heavy fight and casualties
- 28:56“We don’t really analyze them as to what their moral implications are.”
- 31:02We’re two teams
- 34:35Contribution in the military
- 35:44Being a great commander
- 37:41Going on a mission leaving your child
- 38:35“I’ve come to understand what it means to be a father to my own children.”
- 41:32Leaving the military and started writing
- 44:57First Book
- 46:16Hiring former democratic activists in Syria
- 47:42Story of Al Qaeda in Iraq
- 48:46Protesting in jail
- 51:08Out of translation
- 52:05“There will be an end-of-days battle and the Armageddon is coming.”
- 53:52"We've once chased each other around a rock and hands chasing each other around the map."
- 55:01“You can either try to see someone’s humanity, or don’t ever want to see it again.”
- 57:04“He went to Cairo on a Thursday, protested on Friday, thrown into the Egyptian prison on Saturday, and get evacuated by the State Department on Sunday.”
- 57:49“It’s an experience so large that you shrink to insignificance when you are close to that experience.”
- 59:05“Has my desire to have purpose diminished over the years?”
- 1:00:27“I am one who was able to repurpose successfully.”
- 1:01:27“What makes them more insidious is this purposelessness after having these immense purposeful experiences at a very young age.”
- 1:02:48“When you are there in the military, going halfway across the globe is such as process.”
- 1:03:56“I want to stand on this rooftop where a friend of mine have been killed.”
- 1:05:08“I wanted to go this house where our platoon have been surrounded for a day.”
- 1:06:26“All that was between the Almighty and us was just sitting there—in this little destruction city.”
- 1:08:36“If we are in a Cold War with China, we are in the foothills.”
- 1:09:38“They are making their case to you, as a reader, before God how they see the world in this conflict is playing out.”
