Life Changing Moment in Combat | Leads to Life of Service | Force Recon | Non-Profit Founder | Jake Harriman
Combat Story
Ryan Fugit
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2025
⏱️ 94 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we have a fascinating Combat Story with Jake Harriman who is one of those guys who makes you feel incredibly lazy for not helping hungry people in Africa (seriously) and helping to heal the divide in America, one person at a time. It’s no surprise that Jake served alongside Todd Opalski (who long time fans of the show will know as the enlisted Marine Sniper who became a Marine officer, Force Recon leader, and was then invited to serve in the most elite unit in the US Military). You can’t help but do great things if you worked with Todd!
Jake is truly an incredibly humble but accomplished combat veteran. He’s a Marine officer who led a platoon during OIF I in Iraq where he had a life changing moment that altered the course of his life. It’s a sad but very powerful moment that anyone can relate to. He would finally be admitted into the storied ranks of the Force Recon community where he conducted a mix of recon and surveillance and direct action missions downrange, including one that I’m sorry to say involves helicopter pilots that made one particular DA really hard for Jake, but also taught him a profound lesson.
Despite many of Jake’s successes, he takes us through several moments of his life when he’s truly humbled from getting turned down at a chance to be a SEAL to being turned away from his audacious attempt to join the Force Recon community to being punched in the face by his team sergeant on an LZ.
After leaving service, Jake continued to serve in a different way. He completed an MBA at Stanford and then started a non-profit that has helped over 300K people in remote areas of Africa and, at the same time, helped fight off extremism in these areas. More recently, he created the non-profit called a More Perfect Union that’s mobilized 35K members across the US to heal deep divides in this country, looking to service members of all kinds to step in and lead, just from a different foxhole. You can find more and help at mpu.us (mike papa uniform dot us).
With that, I’m so excited for you all to hear this funny but powerful discussion with Jake Harriman.
Check out our Combat Story Newsletter at www.combatstory.com/newsletter
EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/combatstoryTry it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!
Find Jake Harriman Online :
mpu.us
Find Ryan Online:
🎙️ Connect with Ryan & Combat Story:
🔗 Ryan’s Linktree: https://linktr.ee/combatstory
🛒 Merch Store: https://www.bonfire.com/store/combats
📸 Instagram: @combatstory / combatstory
📘 Facebook: @combatstoryofficial https://fb.me/combatstoryofficial
📖 Learn more about Ryan: https://www.combatstory.com/aboutus
🎵 Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | There was like, it's screaming. |
| 0:03.0 | These guys had never been shot at before. |
| 0:06.0 | They were terrified, just yelling on the radio, and I couldn't hear. |
| 0:10.0 | They start banking these helicopters everywhere. |
| 0:13.0 | Those knuckleheads set us down in a kilometer radius around southern Baghdad |
| 0:19.0 | and dropped us all off the four complete different points. |
| 0:22.6 | Only one stick was on target. |
| 0:24.6 | The other three of us were, who knows where. |
| 0:27.6 | On my stick, it was me and DC and these other three guys. |
| 0:31.6 | They're setting a security perimeter, and I'm sitting there, and I'm ashamed that in all my training and all my real world missions, |
| 0:39.9 | I was just paralyzed. |
| 0:41.0 | I didn't know what to do. |
| 0:44.3 | And DC looked over at me. |
| 0:46.7 | He was this old kind of experienced guy. |
| 0:47.7 | He looked over at me. |
| 0:51.2 | He ran over at me and he punched me right in the face. |
| 0:53.5 | Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan Fugit and I serve Warzone Tours as an Army Attack |
| 0:56.5 | helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15-year career. I'm fascinated by the experiences |
| 1:02.0 | of the elite in combat. On this show, I interview some of the best to understand what |
| 1:06.7 | combat felt like on their front lines. This is combat story. |
| 1:11.6 | Today we have a fascinating combat story, Jake Harriman, |
| 1:14.6 | who's one of those guys who makes you feel incredibly lazy. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 21 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ryan Fugit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Ryan Fugit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.