meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Mike Drop

We Suck at Combatives: How One SEAL Chief Rebuilt the Teams' Fighting Program | Ep. 290 | Pt. 3

Mike Drop

Mike Ritland

News, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Politics

4.96.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Randy Rozzell returns to close out his conversation with Mike Ritland, pulling back the curtain on what it took to rebuild Naval Special Warfare's combatives program from the ground up. From hand-to-hand fights for his life on deployment to standing in front of admirals and master chiefs and admitting the Teams sucked at close-quarters combat, Randy held nothing back. He also opens up about life after the Teams — navigating the Covid fallout inside San Diego Fire, his journey to black belt, moving to Texas, and why he finally wrote the book he never thought he'd write. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Right, home from work, walk the dog, kids are back.

0:05.0

Mom!

0:06.0

Up the stairs for something.

0:08.0

Ugh, back down, no idea what I went up for.

0:12.0

Mom, what's for dinner?

0:14.0

Chop, sizzle, done.

0:17.0

Hello Fresh can't slow life down, but it makes bringing everyone together around the table a whole lot easier.

0:23.4

So it's phones down, forks up.

0:25.5

Hello Fresh.

0:26.5

Bring back dinner time.

0:30.1

So from the time, like from your first, I guess your third marriage when that started, had you been training, grappling,

0:39.7

et cetera, like during your operational years at the command other than or outside of any

0:44.8

of the SEAL combative stuff, or did you start it after that?

0:49.1

I dabbled in it a little bit, but never like seriously to say that I was anywhere good at anything.

1:01.5

I really didn't deep dive into it until I became the chief of combatus.

1:07.7

So I guess the burning question is how do you get put into that position?

1:11.7

Yeah, I would like to say that, you know, I was hand-selected like everybody likes to say.

1:16.9

They wanted me.

1:18.1

Yeah, pure God's grace.

1:22.0

I'd actually, when I was leaving the team, I was, you know, I was a chief.

1:29.2

And the chief detailer, you know, you fill out your form just like you do as an E6 and everything else.

1:35.6

And I had put in to go to Buds and to SQT.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mike Ritland, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mike Ritland and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.