CS#70: Navy SEAL & Marine Recon | DEVGRU | Skydiving Mt. Everest | Author | CEO | Mike Sarraille
Combat Story
Ryan Fugit
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2022
⏱️ 99 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Mike served in multiple leadership roles to include the Battles of Ramadi and Sadr City, to name just a few. Since retiring from service, Mike founded and is the CEO of Talent War Group, a specialized executive search firm and talent advisory; he’s co-author of ‘The Talent War: How Special Operations and Great Organizations Win on Talent’ and is the face of Men’s Journal’s ‘The Everyday Warrior.’
I stumbled across Mike when I saw posts about a recent expedition to the Himalayas where he did six free fall jumps over Mount Everest. Mike is a very, very humble but distinguished warrior leader and I hope you enjoy this insightful deep dive into the life of a Tier 1 and private sector operator and leader as much as I did.
Find Mike Online:
Mike’s Linktree
Mike on Instagram @mr.sarraille
ATTA Instagram @live_atta
Talent War Group Instagram @talentwargroup
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Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Show Notes:
0:00 - Intro
1:31 - Guest Introduction (Mike Sarraille)
2:34 - Interview begins
3:02 – Skydiving at Mt. Everest after retiring from the military
10:51 – Childhood in the Bay Area, joining the Marines, and what drew him to the SEALs
24:26 – How the leadership and examples set by the military motivated him and gave him direction
33:36 – Differences in BUDS and Marine Recon training
38:52 - Story of an experience with Johnny Kim and making a snap judgment while in training
45:10 - First experience in combat isolating and containing the Ramadi hospital where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was
53:50 – Being a Marine liaison (LNO)
55:31 – The importance of preparedness in leadership
1:01:23 – A hard lesson learned after deviating from procedure
1:13:35 – What he is doing today with his different companies, his book, and talent development
1:23:40 Shared Adversity and After Action Reviews (AAR) in the corporate environment
1:34:00 - What did you carry into combat?
1:35:49 - Would you do it all again?
1:37:15 - Listener comments and shout outs
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We're like, okay, this is not a good position. |
| 0:01.7 | It's compromised. |
| 0:02.5 | Let's go to our secondary. |
| 0:04.0 | Well, as we exit the building, |
| 0:06.6 | holy hell breaks out on us. |
| 0:09.0 | And I'm one of the first |
| 0:10.8 | in the building's located next to it like a street corner. |
| 0:13.9 | So about one-third of the, no, no, no, |
| 0:16.1 | I'd say about two-thirds of the patrol get around the corner. |
| 0:19.0 | And then a few not ID's, EFPs |
| 0:22.6 | are detonated on our foot patrol. |
| 0:26.2 | And they're lighting this up with machine gun fire. |
| 0:28.5 | And I'm like, when I heard the EFPs, I'm like, |
| 0:30.6 | oh my God, we just lost guys. |
| 0:34.3 | Welcome to Combat Story. |
| 0:35.6 | I'm Ryan Fugid, and I serve Warzone Tourers |
| 0:37.7 | as an Army attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer |
| 0:40.5 | over a 15-year career. |
| 0:42.3 | I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat. |
| 0:45.7 | On this show, I interview some of the best |
| 0:47.9 | to understand what combat felt like |
| 0:49.6 | on their front lines. |
... |
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