Okay, I previously mentioned about the interview Glenn had with Marcus Luttrell. It concluded last Friday and I think it was a really good bit to get an idea what his book is like. I had gotten the book on Saturday and it took me a little over 24 hours…late Sunday evening…till I read the very last sentence. I was fairly blown away by the story. It was the most heroic and harrowing of combat I have read in a couple of years. It also had one of the most detailed accounts of going through BUD/S that I have read. Those of you that are thinking about going through BUD/S and being SEALs, the chapters of BUD/S alone is worth having the book…well not really, nothing compares to what happened on Operation Redwing.

While many have a hard time relating to the thoughts and actions of Marcus and his teammates, it was easy for me to understand and many times I know I would have done the same. Actually, reading the book and seeing it through Marcus’ eyes brought me back almost ten years from now…wrapping up high school and motivated to become a Navy SEAL myself. There was no way I was going to fail even though that’s what the stats said I was up against. I’d never know…the bombing of my ship put me in a dilemma and I found myself deciding that it was my calling to stay with the Cole. I’ll never know if I could’ve been a SEAL.

Glenn has both transcripts of his Thursday and Friday interviews with Marcus on his site. Of course, for those of you who don’t like reading, I have both interviews put together and as one of the audio bits on my Talking Head on my website. Please take the time to read or hear the interview. My Talking Head has basic control (play, pause and stop) and the interview is about an hour and fourteen minutes…so check your time before you start listening as I currently have no way of moving the time throughout the audio.

Of course, I do highly encourage his book which is (sometimes sold out) in your typical bookstores.

Last week, while I was lurking the streets with Tony, it was brought to my attention that the sole survivor of a compromised and deadly SEAL Team mission in Afghanistan had written a book, Lone Survivor, mainly about that event and that it was coming out in stores. Being a former Sailor and still keeping in touch with people, I was quickly affected by the story of a down helicopter in Afghanistan with no survivors. As the days went by, the story was pieced together to how the helicopter was a victim of a rescue operation for a SEAL Team on a mission. I made a note to myself to buy that book before the end of the month.

This morning, I found out suddenly that Glenn was going to have that lone SEAL, Marcus Luttrell, on his show on the first hour. Of course, we in Dallas only get hours two and three of Glenn’s radio program. Thanks to me being an Insider, I logged online where I could access the first hour. While I have gotten some good detail as to what happened that day in Afghanistan, they were from outside sources and I really wanted to hear this firsthand account. The interview didn’t strike me as deep as it did Glenn, understandably. Mainly because about half of the stuff in the interview I already knew and also, being former Navy and coping with a tragic incident of my own helped me understand the things Marcus said. Remember that I got into the Navy with my mind, heart and soul being set on being a SEAL and for roughly four years in high school it was a near obsession for me and I was already in a basic mindset. Those that went to Poteet with me can probably confirm this.

Nevertheless it was an awesome interview. I encourage people to get the book. The interview couldn’t be finished on time so Glenn is having him back tomorrow (Friday) to finish the interview. If you can get on the radio, I encourage you to see if Glenn can be heard where you’re at and listen in. The interview transcript of this morning’s interview is already on Glenn’s site if you want to get up to speed. I also hope to have both today’s and tomorrow’s interview loaded on my Talking Head on my site by this weekend.

So I just came out from having a rather pleasant week off last week. It felt great to have an entire week where I was woken out of sleep by the gentle intensifying glow of dawn (that’s about the best I can do, I can only really oversleep if I’m extremely exhausted…like when I saw Sean in San Antonio last year…or inside a windowless closet).

Tony had come by the weekend prior and his visit to Mesquite would coincide with my little vacation. Coincidence? I think not! Lol, this had been planned obviously. After a short weekend of eating all the fake food possible (he prefers Jack In the Box to Whataburger…not that there’s anything natural really going either way), plus a gun show (in Dallas Market Hall…ugh, but it’s the only one around while he’s there) and a little bit of Maximum Tune 2 (he beat me in VA with his initially tuned car, now he gets to see my Moon China outfit fully tuned RX-8)…the weekend was over and it was time to get SERIOUS…

…and by serious, I mean going to a stage show by Glenn Beck! Glenn’s summer show, An Inconvenient Tour (hmmm, what was this inspired by…), stopped over in Dallas. It was Glenn’s first time to visit the area and his first stop into the state of Texas, which he loves to do. Also showing up was John and Sandra, of course we know that Christine wasn’t going to pass up seeing Glenn as well. All of us were in the Orchestra floor in the Meyerson Center, Christine and I got second row seats (I RULE!) and everyone else was in the back. But those of you in the Meyerson know, there aren’t really any bad seats in there to sleep through listen to the symphony and other shows. As usual, Glenn had us laughing in no time. My last blog post had one of my favorite parts of the show. Now that I THINK I know how to put videos to my blog, I’ll try to put one at the end of this post. *fingers crossed*

After that, it was pretty much showing Tony around the metroplex. He was really looking for a simple, low maintenance job and an apartment. He figured he’s just look around and get a few applications and brochures. He ended up having an apartment in Mesquite on hold for him and was offered a simple, low maintenance job…and it doesn’t get any more simple as a mall security guard…especially when Christmas shopping comes up! All throughout we went and saw amusing things and showed him that finally, the idiot driver syndrome that I experienced on both coasts has finally come to TX. We’ll probably be buying a Hummer with .50-caliber machine gun turret on the roof shortly. So if you see a big Hummer with a just-as-big-gun on the top (with me behind said gun), take the hint: don’t cut us off!

It wouldn’t have been a visit either without some shooting, and we got that taken care of. I have noticed a dramatic reduction in quality over the budge ammo lately. Seems to be getting dirtier and dirtier as I buy them. Oh well… Don’t really know any significance to anything really. We’ve been all over, Garland to Irving…Lewisville to Frisco. It was a good week off of relaxation and fun. Tony’s time in the Navy is winding down and he’s made a rather big step of leaving the structured environment and establishing him a small piece of Texas for the next part in his life. Away from home and the place he called home, but I think he’ll be alright. Me…I’m just thinking when I’m gonna take my next vacation!

You can see my pictures of Glenn on my site.

Okay…can’t help myself…just went to Glenn’s site and saw he did a video clip of the last bit to his show on there. This is a story of how one of his daughters had started to date someone and what Glenn did when he met the guy.

Why does this sound like something I would do?

Well, it’s definitely starting to hit the summer momentum as far as weather goes out here. Pretty nice. Anyhow, it’s been some time. Two weekends ago, Allen made a short stop over here. His Navy time is pretty much done and he’s moving from Virginia to California. Making a short weekend stop to Texas just seemed a logical idea. Even with a place like Dallas that doesn’t have much going on sometimes, there wasn’t enough time to go around places. Maybe next time…but it was good to spend a bit of time with a great friend of mine as he starts a new chapter of his life, life out of the Navy.

Anyhow, that’s all for now. Just a short fill in…I’ve got other things to mention, but I’ll probably bring that up over the weekend or something. Adios!