Semper Fi – Battles in Iraq and Beyond

The Jack Carr Channel

Jack Carr

Society & Culture

4.9 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 114 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s guest is Billy Birdzell, founder of Horatius Group, an independent investment bank focused on creating exceptional outcomes for founder-led and family-owned businesses, and Horatius Impact, a non-profit dedicated to training and equipping scouts to defend endangered species like rhino and lion from poachers in Africa. Billy began his career as an infantry and special operations officer in the United States Marine Corps. On September 11, 2001, he was in New York City — an event that would forever shape his path. Soon after, he deployed to Iraq, meeting his platoon in combat and leading Marines through the fight to Baghdad. In this conversation, Billy and Jack discuss what it means to lead in the chaos of war, the relentless push to “just keep moving forward,” and the weapons and gear that defined those early battles. They revisit the Battle of Najaf in August 2004 and the historic January 2005 elections in Iraq, reflecting on the cost and meaning of those moments. Billy shares his journey from conventional infantry operations to Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC), his experiences training for special operations, attending French language school, and deploying to Africa. The two also look back on their long friendship and Jack’s transition from the Teams to becoming an author, before diving into Billy’s post-military mission — building Horatius Group and Horatius Impact, and his ongoing work in Africa protecting wildlife and empowering local defenders on the frontlines of conservation. FOLLOW BILLY LinkedIn: @BillyBirdzell Website: https://www.horatiusgroup.com FOLLOW JACK Instagram: @JackCarrUSA X: @JackCarrUSA Facebook: @JackCarr YouTube: @JackCarrUSA SPONSORS CRY HAVOC – A Tom Reece Thriller https://www.officialjackcarr.com/books/cry-havoc/ Bravo Company Manufacturing - https://bravocompanyusa.com/ and on Instagram @BravoCompanyUSA THE SIGs of Jack Carr: Visit https://www.sigsauer.com/ and on Instagram @sigsauerinc Jack Carr Gear: Explore the gear here https://jackcarr.co/gear

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the Danger Close podcast is brought to you by Cry Havoc.
0:04.4	From New York Times number one bestselling author, Jack Carr.
0:08.6	Cry Havoc, a Tom Rees thriller. Order Now.
0:12.5	We're going north, and as we're crossing into Baghdad, there's a big canal there.
0:17.5	I think we had the worst Amtraks in the Marine Corps and they asked the Amtrakers like,
0:23.0	do these things float? And they're like, we don't really know. So all right, you know, here we go.
0:27.5	So we, you know, closed them and swam the tracks and thank God we didn't have any, you know,
0:35.0	issues there. But as we're going, my Amtrak is now on point so I got my
0:41.1	GPS and my Mac but I'm gonna do a good job I'm like super focused on nav and so
0:46.9	on and so forth and I hear through the headset tanks and I turn to my right
0:53.9	and we're looking at a battalion of Iraqi
0:57.0	armor so I'm looking down the muzzle of multiple T55s and T62s.
1:02.0	Let's dive into, what was your path into the Marine Corps?
1:17.6	I mean, we have been dear friends ever since we met up in, not Frankfurt, but what
1:23.0	is our base called Stuttgart outside in. In Stuttgart, in 2007.
1:29.3	Is that, I have my date right?
1:30.7	Yeah, it was 7, 18 years ago.
1:33.1	That's almost, we're creeping up on 20 years.
1:36.2	All buying a blink.
1:38.0	That's crazy.
1:39.7	Oh, man, we've almost done each other for 20 years.
1:42.3	We were in the job together.
	...

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