Behind the Uniform: Remembering Operation Redwing

The Team Never Quaid Podcast is sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federal is here to help all of its members succeed with their finances. You can learn more at navyfederal.org. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Team Never Quaid Podcast. Thank you guys for listening in each week as we really appreciate each and every one of you. And if you enjoy listening, please share your support by hitting that like button or subscribing wherever you get your podcast. So if you listened in last week, you know that I mentioned that we were going to release the second half of Jonathan Harman's episode today. And while that is still such an amazing episode and a definite must watch, we have now decided to release that one next week so we can give a voice to the families of those who lost somebody on this day 18 years ago. As many of you know, today marks the 18th anniversary of Operation Redwing. Through the years, we have had many events honoring those men lost. But to this date, one of the most powerful things that we have ever been a part of is a video that we put together called Behind the Uniform. This is such a powerful video made of family members sharing about their loved ones. This video is put together for the 15th anniversary and we really hope to continue to learn about these heroes and share their stories with your family, keeping their memories alive. We will always remember you and we will never forget. So let's get to it. Hello, I'm Laura McGreeby, Macon Ernie. My husband was Michael McGreeby who was the OIC in charge of Echo Platoon at the time of Operation Redwings. Well, 15 years later, it feels like yesterday, some days and it feels like 100 years ago, some days, but I want the world to remember he was just an amazing human being and no matter how bad things got, he always had a smile on his face. No matter how hard things were, he always never gave up. He was always making me smile and the most important thing to him was his family. He loved being a seal and it was, I'm sure it was something that he was born to do, but the number one thing in his life was me and me and Molly, his daughter. And every day, every day he could call me, he could and just ask about what she was doing. She was a baby. When it happened, she was 15 months old and now she's 16 years old. I cannot believe it, but I just want the world to know what just like what an amazingly positive and humble and amazing guy. My name is Shahir Funtan Westfall. Wife of the late Jacques Funtan killed an Operation Redwings back on June 28, 2005. Jacques was a seal with seal team 10 at the time and was his sixth year as a seal out of his 16 years in the Navy. So we were rounding it out, getting to the end of the line. Well, so we thought you never know nowadays, but thought that was his last deployment and he was going to be coming home. But to all of us that knew him, he was more than a seal. He was more than a Navy guy. He was not only a husband, but a father to a beautiful daughter. He was a son, a good friend and a brother, and an avid golfer loved golfing. I think if he wasn't going to get his dream to be a seal, he would want to go out on tour and golf. I mean, he constantly had a golf club in his hand. He'd broke a couple of lights in our house at times, always swing in the club around and watching golf. And he loved his city of New Orleans. That's where he was from. He loved good food and appreciated good food and expensive wine. And despite his taste for expensive wine and food, he still just drank poor's light, which his dad and I still laugh about to this day. That's such expensive taste and other things. But hey, I like it too. Not that he's poor's light, but just a family joke with that. And he loved his New Orleans sates and his LSU Tigers. Huge, huge fan of both of those teens. But he, another thing that was just so funny and amazing about him besides his personality and how he was always making me laugh and I just always enjoyed having him around. But his mind for sports was like anything I've ever seen. The amount of statistics he kept in his head, of sports and not just his sports teams, but all sports teams and all sports across the board was often like joked with him about how much he could retain up there and just all the useless knowledge in my opinion that he had. Just loved being around his friends, his family. I know he loved me, loved his daughter. We loved him, we miss him and I know that he loved being a seal and he loved this country and he would do it all again in a heartbeat. But you know, like I said, besides just being a hero and he is, he is our hero. But he is also just an amazing man and somebody who was and still is loved and missed every day. My name is Aaron Taylor. I was married to Jeffrey Scott Taylor. He was a corpsman with CLT-10 during Operation Red Lines. Jeff and I had married about 14 days before he deployed and at the time of his death, we had been married for about 90 days. Jeff was one of the funniest people I had ever met. He was an adrenaline junkie. He loved base jumping and skydiving. And I remember one of the first times we had gone base jumping. I heard somebody, you know, one, two, three base and jumping off the side and I thought, oh, that's his friend because he landed in a tree. I'm like, I'm going to go sit in the car because I don't want to be a part of this. And then I came out and I realized it was him that was stuck in the tree and he had like branches through his arms and but he loved it. He was like, that was awesome. I'm going to do it again. But he was really humble. He loved what he did before he deployed. He had considered getting out and it was a really tough decision whether he wanted to stay in or get out and I told him that I supported whatever he wanted to do. But when it came down to it, one of the things that he said to me was that you can't feel the picnic table with three legs. And he said, I've trained with these guys. I've deployed with these guys and I'm going to finish this out. And he was the happiest. He'd ever been over there. Like every time we would talk on the phone, he'd be like, it's awesome. I love it. And I'm like, how can you love this? Like, but he did. He loved it and all the guys when they came home said like, oh, he was so happy. And he tried to stay the entire six months because Mormons were allowed to do six more rotations. But he had not taken some sort of class. And so they made him. They were going to make him leave after three months. But he re-enlisted over there and he was setting with me to do this human general program and just absolutely loved what he did. And he lived wholeheartedly and without regret. And I am envious of his ability to do that. Hi, my name is Patsy D. My husband was Danny D. He was stationed with a CV team two. He was the comms guy for team 10. And he died in Operation Redoing on June 28, 2005. One of the things that obviously sticks out to me and it was to pick it clearly in the book and open the movie. He had a heart of a lion. He was tough as a male. And he loved his country and he lied to his last breath. And that brought me comfort because I know that he did it for this beautiful country. And for us, for me, to make sure that the enemy would not come to our soil. On the same token, he was very humble. He was very generous. He was very just. He was a brilliant, very smart man. He self-taught himself everything. He self-taught to draw and would draw in pain at the command. There are logos and he will be requested at other teams to come out and do their logos as well. And that always was just handwriting books and books. That's one of the things we used to do in the weekends. We would get coffee and just go to Barnes and Nobles and spend hours. Just I would watch him read books. And he would just learn incredible things that he would come home and do. You know, built things and he had a workshop in the garage. And he also was very kindhearted and caring for humans. He would come from a 12-hour day at work and exhausted of training and just seeing and working and all that stuff. And he would come around 6 p.m. and he would take off his uniform and go next door to the neighbor. And help him build a fence. And that's just the way he was. He never complained or anything. You know, he knew that somebody needed his help and he would go and help him out. One of the things that would amaze me about him is how he was able to switch from being a feel and being this badass guy to coming home and just be in my husband. And just be in your regular neighbor next door. You would never know that he was a feel. I mean, that was just something that he carried in his heart and we knew that he was. But you would never know if you'd know that he was a feel. He loved this dog. At the time, I just got out of the Navy in February. He deployed in April. And one of the plants that we had was the start of family when he got back from deployment. And that was the main reason why I got out of the military. And unfortunately, I didn't happen. But he loved me two amazing dogs and those were our babies. And I miss them every day. You know, I'm very happy with my life because I had a second chance to rebuild it. And I live full, heartedly for him. And I'm able to accomplish everything that he's not able to accomplish. And I'm just grateful that I was able to spend time that I did with him. And just watch him grow into this incredible person. And watch him do what he loved. And for that, I'm honored that I had that chance. So I would like to say thank you to everybody that even after 15 years, they still love this story. They still love these men. They still remember them. They still talk about them. You guys have not allowed our husbands to die. You have carried them in your hearts. You have shared the story. And for that, I'm very, very thankful. Many people don't have that. You know, once you pass away, your loved ones carry you. But America has not let them go and be forgotten. Okay. Okay, so Marcus and I just got done with this sick workout this morning from the Fitbot app. If you're looking to change up your workout routines, this app is for you. Every day, you don't know what to expect. But yet the workouts keep coming and kicking our butts every single day. 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Hi, I'm Cindy. I'm the surviving spouse of Mad Axlison. I wanted to just share something with everyone that I don't think many people know. Something that's kind of funny about Mad. One of his favorite shows was Friends. And he killed me probably knowing that I'm sharing this, but we had all of the DVD box sets for every season. And it wasn't because I wanted to buy it. It was because every time a new season came out, he wanted to buy it. But I think the reason why he really loved Friends was because of the groups of friends that he grew up with and how important his friends were to him and those relationships that he built throughout his life. So growing up, he was involved with his church's youth group. So him and his older brother were only a couple years apart. So their youth group, Friends, was quite big and robust. And I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of them throughout the years. And just such a good group of girls and guys. And then when he went away to college, when I met him, I also met him through some of his friends. And I could just see the love and the care that each one of them had for each other, the unconditional love that Matt had for each and every one of them. It was one of the reasons why I fell in love with him. And then I think as he was transitioning from college and thinking about what he was going to do next, he was a polyside major, he was a huge history buff. And I know that he felt that he needed to, that he wanted to serve his country. And that one of his friends from his youth group growing up was actually a seal. So he grew up hearing stories about his adventures and the camaraderie that he had with his other teammates. And I think that really, it was something that Matt thought about. And thought, you know, I think this could be a great opportunity for me to kind of continue that, you know, find that group of friends and also serve my country. So, you know, that's when he decided to go into the teams. And there he met, you know, a great group of guys as well, you know, loving all of his brothers. And I just, you know, wanted to share that. I know that all of his friends all throughout his life meant so much to him. And I know how much they meant, how much Matt meant to them. So it's just something that I, I loved, I loved how much he loved everyone that was in his life. Hi, I'm Rhonda and I want to thank you for this time and remembrance of our men and that we get to share a little insight on some things that are more personal, not the men in the uniform. Many publications and things have been written about the the the valor and the bravery and the honor and the heroism, but things that I remember and the stories told, you know, behind the scenes of you knew my husband, Jeff, were that he was a big child. I loved funny, not prankster, not very serious and the stories go on and on and on. And I was always the person to count on. It's my own when the situation was rough. And we did that on the field and in the house. I definitely missed that person in my life who, when times are down, would bring a joke and lighten that the atmosphere and the mood and that Jeff always had a joke and always saw the brighter side and always saw the lighter side of life. And that's what I hope they thought we can remember. I'm Norminda Healy and I'm the wife of Daniel Healy. Again, I like to thank everyone for giving me this chance to kind of tell you about the other half of Dan's life other than him being a private professional. He was also a great husband, a wonderful father. Yes, he was a silent warrior, but a lot of people knew that Dan was not quiet. He was loved to be the life of the party. He was always there for everyone. He had a really funny side of him. He loved playing golf. I think a big part of his life was not just a seal, but the people that were there, they were his brother. They were his family, just like us. And he would do anything for them as he did. And just like he was with the family. Dan was honest. He was sometimes brutally honest at times, but for the good, you know, to help people out. And one night I was cooking and my daughter Nia and Dan had this conversation where she was telling them, you know, I want to be like you, I want to be a Navy SEAL. And you know, though, I thought you were just going to just want to be awesome. And she said, hold that to you. But, you know, I kind of cringed because I thought, oh, no, what is he going to say to her? Is he going to say, you know, no girls allowed? But he just told her, you know, it's hard work. You have to be dedicated. You have to have be mentally and emotionally and intellectually, you know, ready for this. And you can't quit. And she says, I could do all of that. I want to save the world just like you. And he turns around and just tells her, you know what? I believe you can. And it just meant a lot to her. And it meant a lot to me too because it's just something that he always did. He always encouraged people. And, you know, I just missed that about him and I missed him. I couldn't miss him. That beautiful soul. My name is Chase Patton. I am one of three of Shane's brothers. The way that I would describe Shane's personality was that he was pretty electric. I mean, whether you knew Shane your whole life or you'd only met him for five minutes or in passing or whatever it was, something about him you just always remember. And he was always very playful. He choked around a lot. He cracked a lot of jokes. He would try to play pranks on you all the time. Anything he could do to kind of, you know, to make you laugh, he was all about keeping a smile on everybody's face. And, you know, growing up in school and everything, I mean, we skateboarded everywhere we went. We didn't even ride. We wouldn't. We refused to ride bicycles. We just skateboarded everywhere. He was into baseball. I mean, he played on the baseball team for Boulder City High School. He was a pitcher. He even was in a band when he was in high school. He was in a punk rock band. So he played guitar and things like that. He did so many different things that he just, everybody just loved everyone. I mean, all the people even in Boulder City that I grew up with him speak so highly of them. And I've never once heard one negative story. He really does seem like he was one of those people that everybody just truly loved and they just couldn't get enough of his personality, like his laughter and the sound of his laugh and the way he carried himself and he always seemed like a natural leader or one of those people that you kind of just always looked up to no matter what. And you know what was crazy to you another thing about him that he was just good at everything. It didn't matter what it was. You thought you were great at basketball or you thought that you had a bigger bench press than him or whatever. He just could somehow be. It didn't even make sense. And even like as a when I was a little kid, you know, like me and my younger brother, Dean would play video games or whatever it was. And we thought we were the greatest and we knew that Shane had never even touched. You know, he had hadn't even played. He, you know, goes to work and does whatever before he would come from school. And he would come home and he would just slaughter us. Like it wasn't even like, you know, like, and I've heard that story numerous times with other people who were like, man, Shane just came out of nowhere and, you know, this bassist pickup basketball game we were playing and knowing Shane never really played basketball ever. And he could get your hoops no problem. But I don't know what it was. It was almost like somehow he was just Mr. Perfect and you couldn't ever understand why. Or it was like, how did you get these jeans? And I didn't get those jeans. Like what's going on? You know, like it just didn't make sense. And man, but we loved them for it, you know, he was just, he was, he was a real American for sure. He absolutely loved everything about this country. He loved his freedom. He loved his family. He loved his brothers. He loved his guys and teams. He loved everything about being in the military. He absolutely loved it. More than anything in the world. I miss that guy. More than I can even describe, you know. A tension military members and their families. Are you ready to tackle homeownership in today's challenging market? Look no further, the Navy Federal Credit Union. You're trusted ally and financial solution. They understand the unique needs of the military community and are here to help you succeed. 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Take advantage of their expertise and let them guide you through home ownership journey. Visit navyfederal.org today to learn more about their offerings and how they can support you. Terms and conditions apply and their loans are subject to approval and eligibility requirements. My name is Judy Gore. I'm the mother of Shema Skor that was scaled in 2005. When he was 17, he was trying to decide what he was going to do on his life. So, he went to the army recruiter and talked to them. Well, he comes home one night and he says, Mom, I need you to find this paper because I have to go to Columbus, Ohio and talk to the recruiter. I said, OK, so that's what he told me. I just had to sign this paper, but he didn't tell me what the paper was about. So, he comes home that night and he says, Mom, I'm in. And I said, you're in what? And he says, I'm in the army now. And I said, No, no, no, no. And I started crying. My husband called. He was on the road. He calls and said, What is wrong with you? And I said, you talked to your son right now. I said, he joined the army and I was finding him in. He said, No, I said, Yes, he did. My second son, Courtney got married in Hawaii in 2004. And Shameless was able to get leave because they never took leave. He had so much leave left. And meet us in Hawaii and watch this brother get married and stand up for him. So, that was pretty awesome. We're so happy about that. And that was 2004. And Courtney was killed a year later. So, he's killed a year after Shameless. So, it's been a pretty tough time. But we tried to get through it every day. His birthday was May 28th and this was right before he was killed. I told, gave everybody his address overseas. And he called me, actually, text me. And so, Mom, I got so many birthday cards. He says, I don't know how that happened. I said, I don't need there. I said, people like you. And he said, Well, the guys were really jealous because I got all these cards. So, that was pretty funny. Oh, he was putting together a 67-year special. And it was all packed in his garage when they went to move. And he had just bought a house with drinking Georgia. So, the guys went there and they had to. He had baggies and everything else to put the card together. But he never told him what color. He was good. He never told us what color he was going to do it. So, when we went down to visit in Savannah, Georgia with the other team members, they said, told us what color they wanted that done. And it was great. The great mustang on going in 60 seconds. So, we got the car painted and got the car put back together. Courtney got to only work one at one day before he was killed. And Charlie and I had to finish it. So, that was pretty tough. But that gave us something to do. I'm Maureen Murphy. And I'm going to speak about my son, Michael Murphy. And you know, I just want to let you know that he was born on Mother's Day weekend in the bicentennial year of 1976. And they wanted a picture of us for it was my first Mother's Day. So, he made the paper like two days after he was born. And when he was five years old, he was like, he was really like a smart little kid. He was very adventurous. And one day I went outside and opened the garage door and there was all this wood in my garage. I mean, brand new wood. And all of a sudden, I saw a track from my house to my next door neighbor's house. My thought would be nice to build the tree house with the wood that he found in my neighbor's garage. So, I had to bring all the wood back. And I said, you know, John, this is an hour's and he said, but it was just laying there. I figured I could make a tree house. So, I said, no, he really can't do that. So, one day, the same neighbor had a plum tree. And it took him years to finally get plums on it. And Mike had such a good heart. He didn't realize that the plums had to ripen. So, he climbed the tree at four and a half, five years old. He climbed the plum tree and picked every one of the plums, put him in a pale and knocked down the door and said, here's your plums. And he said, I picked them for you. My neighbor loved him. And then as he got older, he actually taught his brother how to shoot. And we only had like a BB gun at the time. And I was making dinner one night and I said, oh, you know, I'm going to make a pizza. But I couldn't find my pizza can. So, I'm looking around and also, and I hear this pew, pew. And then from my kitchen, the two bathroom windows are up ahead. And I hear pew. So, I look at my glass door and I hear the peening again. And I look up as I see the barrel of the BB gun slowly coming back into the house. And of course, I said, what do you guys doing? And of course, the typical answer was nothing. So, I look out in the yard and there's my pizza pants, spray painted red at their heels. And that is the target. And then he loved football. But Mike was not really a big kid in high school. So, he always dressed up with the football gear. He always sat on the bench. He was very patient. I always used to say, you're like cream. You rise to the top. Like, he's always low key about everything. And then it was the last football game. And the coach turned around and said, put Murphy up there. And the last game, they had a televised issue. And Mike went, got a touchdown. He was really good at tackling people down and everything. And then the announcer said, this kid is really good. And he did very well on the SATs. And so, the coach said, where was he sitting on the bench? Because he's, he never really, you know, he just waited till it was his turn. So, there was a nice video about him running all over the track and everything. And then Mike came home and he said, mom, did you have something to do with that? And I said, no. And he said to me, you know, did you have to say about the SATs? Because he was really smart. And so they were like, wow, he's smart. And he can play football. When he went to Penn State the first week or two, he said, mom, can I take John with me? So I thought, okay, now John was about eight, but he only looked like about five. He looked really young for his age. And he would take him to school and everything. And, and he would, you know, leave him at the house with some other person at the, you know, at the room would watch John. And he called me up one day and he goes, mom, John is the best chickpea. Everybody loves John. And he says it's a great way to get chicks. So I always had a plan, whatever he did, you know, and, and John had a great time going up to the college for a week. And then I go pick him up. And his legacy, I think, is if you want a good friend, Mike's the good friend. My name is Claudia. And I am James says older sister. And, I guess, I guess the way that I would want people to remember James is by considering just how much desire he had for life and how fun he was. I mean, I think he's the type of person who would always push you to try something that scared you a little bit in a good way. And if you knew him, I feel like you can't help but also remember that he had this real easiness and openness to loving people and making them feel very appreciated and included, which is something that, you know, right now in the world we could use a little bit more of. One of my favorite memories of him is from when we were really little. And we would every couple of weeks my dad would drive us to the Korean grocery store, which in Florida was probably about 40 minutes from where we lived. So for us, probably being under the age of 10 at the time, it was kind of a long car ride there and back. And we would be in the back of my dad's van and my brother and I just passed the time. We never really listened to the radio, but we would sing together really loudly. And so one of my favorite memories is just being there and singing, you know, Billy Joel's for the longest time. So we would be just belting that out at the top of our lungs. And my dad never minded. So we would be at our highest volume. And it was just something that we really enjoyed. And I'm not even sure that we were introduced to it by way of Billy Joel. I think we saw it on Alvin on the chip, Alvin and the chipmunks, one of their episodes. And so that was what we, that that was like, you know, our introduction to popular music sometimes by way of Saturday morning cartoons. And I just remember him being someone who could be right alongside you, helping you just kind of savor everything about life that was very good and meant to be relished. So that's something that I really appreciated about him and I hope that people who knew him will continue to remember about James. Knowing now that so much of my ability to relate to people and appreciate people was shaped by who James was as a person, you know, I can appreciate that now in a way that I couldn't when I was younger. So I think in high school, when I would like hang out in his room at night and we would just be, you know, talking about all sorts of things into the night. I recall seeing a couple books on his death sum paperback books and I think some of them might have been either biographies or stories from Navy SEALs and there was something about the kind of the extreme tests that you would have to pass in order to not only carry that title, but to also be in a position to serve in the way that is unique to Navy SEALs that really appeal to him. And so he was already someone who tested himself a lot in terms of whether he could not only, you know, keep up with others, but to see how far he could push himself. And so when it came to the appeal of the Navy SEALs and what was asked of them and the fact that it just, there's nothing, there's nothing compromised in the qualities that you have to have in order to become a Navy SEAL. You know, it's just, it will ask everything of you. And I feel like that appealed to him because he was willing and eager to give his whole self to something that he was not just passionate about but felt like was a purposeful way to dedicate his life. And so yeah, all of those things combined made it so he was kind of hooked on the idea from, I don't necessarily consider it an early age because it was high school, but when you start to get more and more serious about it in college, my dad and I, I think at a certain point, we posibly thought, okay, this is not, you know, some passing, you know, a flight of interest. I think he just really surprised all of us, including our extended family with the idea that he was going to keep pushing forward with it. So, you know, it's a really, it's a huge source of pride for us, but I think when you know the person, again, going back to what you're talking about right now, when you know the person behind the warrior, it is not necessarily the fact that he became a Navy SEAL that makes this like so, so proud of him. It's kind of like, and it's icing on what was already a very, very wonderfully built cake. And I'm sure he would be rolling his eyes right now if he knew that I was using a cake metaphor to try to describe him, but, you know, he was, he was a wonderfully well-rounded person as it was. And so, the fact that he would take everything that he had in terms of his opportunities and what he could give to whatever he ended up dedicating himself to, and putting that all towards becoming a Navy SEAL and serving alongside people that, that I know he respected and admired so much was, it was just a good example for us of how to live your life in a way that is really intentional and meant to be about more than just yourself.