Ep. 74.5 • Mark Mason Part 2 • The Wild West Years of the SEAL Teams: 30 years in the breach.
Liberty RiskShow Notes
A murder case that's suddenly back in the spotlight. A man calling himself a "Navy SEAL" who never earned his Trident. An Afghan donkey that wanted absolutely nothing to do with the war. And somehow, we still had hours of stories and life lessons with Mark Mason left. Part 2 picks up right where we left off. Early in this second half, we get into the Dusty Turner case, which has been getting renewed attention since Turner's release from prison and appearances on several podcasts. But Mark has a perspective on the story that's a little different: he personally knew Turner and Brown from BUD/S (2 guys on the east coast who ⚰️ a 23 year old girl at a bar and then hid her body). Mark tells the story of encountering both men during training, the immediate gut feeling he had about them, and what guys who had previously trained alongside them were already saying at the time. The crew also explain an important distinction between graduating BUD/S, being assigned to a Team during the old probationary period, and actually earning the Trident. From there, because this is still a Mark Mason episode, we're right back off the rails. Mark takes us deeper into his 27 years in the Teams, with more deployments, ridiculous personalities, battlefield improvisation, overloaded desert vehicles, equipment drops that go spectacularly wrong, bureaucracy getting worked around in increasingly creative ways, and an Afghan pack donkey that repeatedly decides it has better things to do than participate in the war. There are stories about plans going sideways, making do with whatever you've got, and the kind of problem-solving that probably looks insane everywhere except a SEAL platoon halfway around the world. And somewhere between all the shit talking and side quests, Mark keeps sneaking decades' worth of experience into the conversation: leadership, recognizing character, trusting your people to think for themselves, learning from the guys who came before you, and what changes when you go from being one of the new guys to being responsible for everyone else in the room. It's another three hours of old-school SEAL stories, war stories, questionable solutions to legitimate problems, great leadership lessons, and friends remembering an era when figuring it out yourself was apparently part of the job description. We thought Mark Mason was going to be one episode. Six hours later, we learned our lesson. This is Part 2.
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Liberty Risk Hosts for this episode: ✖️ Ryan Williams - https://www.instagram.com/invictus5326 ✖️ Kevin Kent - https://www.instagram.com/therealkevinkent ✖️ Kris Groves - https://www.instagram.com/krisgroves_
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🏴☠️ Want to hang LIVE with Kevin, Nick & Ryan? Join the Liberty Risk Patreon crew: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LibertyRisk
🏴☠️ Want to hang LIVE with Kevin, Nick & Ryan? Join the Liberty Risk Patreon crew: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LibertyRisk