CS#74: Special Forces | Green Beret | Ranger | Sniper | MOH Museum Foundation | Darrell Utt
Combat Story
Ryan Fugit
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2022
⏱️ 138 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Call to Action: For former military, government and law enforcement, if you're looking for a high paying and meaningful job, check out our Trust & Safety Institute at www.trustsafetyinstitute.com.
Darrell tracked down PIFWICs (Persons Indicted for War Crimes) in Kosovo, was part of one of the craziest infils into Iraq you’ll ever hear, used a honeypot to lure out an HVT, developed a devastatingly effective HUMINT network, and led countless kill/capture operations, taking down dozens of HVTs and detaining hundreds of extremists and their leaders.
What’s great about Darrell is that he always put himself in harm's way ahead of troops, which is not always the case. His ODA unit earned the coveted Larry Thorne award which goes to the best Special Forces unit for the work they did during one deployment to Iraq. Darrell himself earned the MG Robert T. Frederick “Top Operator” Award, which goes to the top Special Forces NCO.
Since leaving the service, Darrell has taken on a role helping to build the future of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, which is on a mission to deliver “education, leadership, and inspiring spaces for learning and reflection, to preserve, share, and harness the stories, lives, and impact of Medal of Honor recipients.”
I couldn’t imagine anyone better to represent the stories and lives of our Medal of Honor brethren than Darrell. I hope you enjoy this interview chalked full of creative and gut-wrenching combat stories as much as I did.
Find Darrell Online:
- National Medal of Honor Museum https://mohmuseum.org/
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- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Show Notes:
0:00 - Intro
0:47 - Guest Introduction (Darrell Utt)
2:28 – Introducing The Trust & Safety Institute
3:17 - Interview begins
7:04 – Growing up in West Virginia from humble beginnings
13:16 – The significance of Camp Dawson training center in West Virginia
17:02 – Wanting to join the Marines and what led him to the Army
24:23 – Joining in 1990 as Light Infantry and feeling like he was missing out on Gulf War
27:36 – Tracking down PIFWICs (Persons Indicted for War Crimes) in Kosovo
39:04 - The transition into Special Forces ODA
42:52 - Combat Story #1 - Operation Ugly Baby in Iraq
59:58 - Combat Story #2 - Operation Thor's Hammer
1:16:04 - Combat Story #3 - Darrell’s “Happy to Be Alive” day story
1:49:30 - Combat Story #4 - Toughest day in Adhamiya ,Iraq in 2006
1:56:09 - Combat Story #5 - Carnage and violence in Adhamiya in 2007
1:59:49 - His work today with The Medal of Honor Foundation
2:07:08 - What did you carry into combat?
2:08:37 - Would you do it again?
2:11:28 - Help connect those who served with meaningful and great paying jobs after service
2:14:08 - Listener comments and shout outs
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We got to a certain point I was outside the vehicle and I was trying to fight from the engine block |
| 0:04.7 | you know because you actually had some cover there's like these four or five dudes up on the |
| 0:08.8 | rooftop that are firing down at us our 50 cow gunners firing a different way and these dudes are |
| 0:14.4 | up on the rooftop firing down at us so I'm engaged in these guys and we're we're going back and forth |
| 0:20.8 | I have you know in four so it's not like a 240 or a 50 cow so I'm trying to engage these guys |
| 0:26.7 | I'm trying to get my 50 cow gunner as attention so he can kind of shift over and help me out |
| 0:32.5 | and and I think that was another point when I really realized like hey this isn't the normal |
| 0:37.4 | engagement welcome to combat story I'm Ryan fugitive and I serve war zone tours as an army |
| 0:42.8 | attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15 year career I'm fascinated by the experiences |
| 0:48.6 | of the elite in combat on this show I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt |
| 0:54.0 | like on their front lines this is combat story today we hear the combat story of long time special |
| 1:00.4 | forces veteran ranger and sniper Darryl Ut who spent 26 years in the service most of that in special |
| 1:07.1 | operations across 10 deployments Darryl track down piff wicks persons indicted for war crimes in |
| 1:13.2 | Kosovo was part of one of the craziest infills into a rack you'll ever hear used a honey pot to lure |
| 1:19.4 | out an hbt developed a devastatingly effective humid network and led countless kill capture operations |
| 1:26.3 | taking down dozens of hbt's and detaining hundreds of extremists and their leaders what's great |
| 1:31.9 | about Darryl is that he always put himself in arms way ahead of his troops which is not always |
| 1:36.5 | the case his ODA earned the coveted Larry Thorne award which goes to the best special forces unit |
| 1:43.3 | for the work they did during one deployment to a rack Darryl himself earned the major general |
| 1:48.7 | Robert T. Frederick top operator award which goes to the top special forces NCO in the army |
| 1:54.9 | since leaving the service Darryl has taken on a role helping to build the future of the |
| 1:59.6 | national metal of honor museum foundation which is on a mission to deliver education, |
... |
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