Special Forces Team Sergeant in Iraq | Green Beret | Grit to Glory Author | Darrell Utt (Rd 1)

Combat Story

Ryan Fugit

History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2024

⏱️ 129 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we have round one of a fantastic two-part Combat Story with a former guest: Darrell Utt, a long time Green Beret and retired Master Sergeant.

Darrell just finished writing a book (Grit to Glory) going into great detail about one deployment when he was a Team Sergeant with ODA 043 in 2006 to Iraq that includes all the highs and lows of leading a team of elite Green Berets.

We met with Darrell two years ago for an episode (#74) watched by over a 100K+ people and this time around we get into more of the moments, experiences, and emotion in some of the fighting that Darrell has unearthed while writing the book.

If you pre-order his book before Veterans Day (2024), you get a signed copy of the book and one of the coolest challenge coins you’ll find. Pre-order the book at ballastbooks.com/purchase/grit-to-glory/. You can find Darrell on the socials at darrell.utt on Instagram or darrell-utt on LinkedIN.

If you haven’t seen the first episode, don’t worry, you’ll get all the context you need in this one to be up and running and I’m sure you’re going to enjoy his very real, raw, and down to earth storytelling as much as I did.

Darrell on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/darrell.utt/?hl=en

00:00 Intro

00:35 Darrell Utt Bio

03:09 Writing the Book: Challenges and Inspirations

10:12 Morgue Day: A Haunting Memory

19:26 Growing Up: Building Grit and Resilience

21:15 Family Struggles and Finding Strength

32:44 Military Path: From Humble Beginnings to Special Forces

44:53 The First Marine in the Family

45:16 Mentorship and Military Service

45:48 Challenges in Joining the Marine Corps

47:48 Receiving the Green Beret

50:28 Reconnecting with Influential Figures

54:08 Operation Ugly Baby: The Initial Invasion

01:06:05 Cultural Encounters and EPW Camp

01:18:03 Navigating Mosul and Military Strategy

01:26:13 Strategic Reflections and Military Planning

01:27:18 Looted Infrastructure and Insurgency

01:29:04 Early Signs of Trouble in Iraq

01:31:11 The Ba'ath Party Dilemma

01:33:22 WMDs and Misconceptions

01:35:27 2006: A New Team and Mission

01:47:20 Challenges and Leadership Decisions

02:03:57 Owning Up and Moving Forward

02:07:44 Conclusion and Upcoming Content

#usarmy #veterans #combat #specialforces

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're trying to figure out the rules of engagement. Hey man, everybody's armed. If they fire at our vehicle, we're all going to die. Because we're in soft skin vehicles. There's no protection. AK-47, hot knife through butter.
0:15.1	Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan Fugent, and I serve Warzone Tours as an Army attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15-year career.
0:23.3	I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat.
0:26.7	On this show, I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their front lines.
0:32.1	This is combat story.
0:34.9	Today we have around one of a fantastic two-part combat story with a former guest,
0:39.7	Darrell Ut, a longtime Green Beret and retired master sergeant. Darrell just finished writing a book
0:45.1	going into great detail about one of his deployments when he was a team sergeant with ODA
0:49.2	043 in 2006 to Iraq that includes all the highs and lows of leading a team of elite green berets.
0:57.0	We met with Darrell two years ago for an episode watched by over 100,000 people,
1:01.9	and this time around we get into even more of the moments, experiences, and emotion
1:05.6	in some of the fighting that Darrell has unearthed while writing this book.
1:09.8	If you pre-order his book before
1:11.3	Veterans Day, you get a signed copy and one of the cooler challenge coins you're going to find.
1:16.2	You can order it at ballastbooks.com. If you haven't seen our episode from 2022, don't worry,
1:21.7	you get all the context you need in this one to be up and running. And I'm sure you're going to
1:25.8	enjoy his very real, raw,
1:27.9	and down-to-earth storytelling as much as I did.
1:31.2	Daryl, thanks so much for coming back on round two, taking the time to share even more
1:35.8	stories with us.
1:37.0	Yeah, round two.
1:37.9	Happy to be here, man.
	...

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