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Mike Drop

Tu Lam: How a Vietnamese Refugee Became a Green Beret & Call of Duty Character | Ep. 298 | Pt. 1

Mike Drop

Mike Ritland

Politics, Society & Culture, News, Personal Journals

4.96.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2026

⏱️ 83 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Former Green Beret Tu Lam served over 23 years in Special Forces, deploying to 27 countries, and is the founder of Ronin Tactics and author of The Way of the Ronin. In this episode, Tu shares the full arc of his extraordinary life — from being born in Saigon and escaping war-torn Vietnam as a child refugee on a wooden fishing boat, to becoming one of the most elite operators in the U.S. military. They dig into the Bushido code, the warrior's path, faith, addiction, and what it truly means to surrender. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:05.0

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0:10.0

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0:13.0

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0:15.0

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0:19.0

we're there, bringing 160 years of experience to help you move forward.

0:23.6

HSBC, opening up a world of opportunity.

0:30.6

Jungle warfare was my thing. I was really good at.

0:33.6

I was that guy who would go to these foreign countries, train not just the commando stuff,

0:40.5

but I would do martial arts with the indigenous force too.

0:44.4

And I wanted to really be a combat diver.

0:46.4

I thought it was really cool.

0:47.7

But God, you know, had a different plan for me.

0:50.2

I kicked this guy, he was a Malaysian, tried to kick him like a mouillet.

0:55.0

He checked it and broke my, shattered my ankle.

0:57.0

That put me out of Greece Gugo.

0:59.0

So I went to my sergeant major with a cast and I said, I want to try out for the six teams.

1:05.0

He allowed me to do it.

1:07.0

Then I passed.

1:08.0

I did fight on the side in Okinawa.

1:10.0

So Okinawa, he had these dojos.

1:12.6

And I trained in a lot of these dojos and that opened me up to that fight world.

...

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