Clip 026 | Life on the Tip of the Spear with Delta Force Operator Dale Comstock

0:00 Well, so there were there were a few other questions too. You know, one person was asking if you knew like Paul how Eric Haney, those guys, I know, all those guys, Randy sugar Art and Gary Gordon. Did you know that before they passed away? Yeah? Gary was actually on my team at one point. I know Gary really well. So yeah, all those guys, I know. You know, in a unit like Delta, you're doing such high, high level missions. You know, you're riding the edge, you know the whole time when someone when something happens where like when Gary Gordon and Sugart got killed in Somalia, how does the team take that? You know, how does the unit receive that information? Is it something like, hey, you know, it's kind of part of the

0:42 job, it's not unexpected, or I mean, how do how do you guys receive that because it's it is part of the job. It's not part of the job, but it's a real risk of the job. Yeah, you know, looking back, you know, you're right, we all accept it as part of the risk, right, we all know it's it could happen, high probability will happen. I've lost a lot of friends, lots of friends, man. And uh, but what I do know is this, every guy you know there's a delta operator or work with me, you know, in the capacity that we were in or there was oga or whatever, we all did that by choice. We all wanted to be in that position. We all wanted to be out there, hanging it out there.

1:26 Man. We wanted to take the risks we wanted. We wanted, and we also knew that it could cost them to our lives. And so I would argue and say that, you know, Randy and Gary and a lot of these other guys that you know have passed. I'm not gonna say they died with a smile on their face, but I am going to tell you they died doing what they wanted to do. And you know, given the option to die, you know, in a car crash or in a firefight, most guys say, let me dine in the firefight, you know.

1:53 And so dying and falling down the stairs or slipping on ice, so dying you know, in combat, you know, we'll take bet every time. And so they died doing what they love doing. And we all knew that, and we all know that, you know, And and so on one hand, sorry for the loss, which didn't happen. But on the other hand, you almost kind of envy him, like, damn, you know the guy, the guy went all the way to the edge man and you know, and uh and he made the ultimate sacrifice for you know, what he believed in, for America, for the unit, you know, for all the things that we you know, hold near and dear to our heart.

2:28 He finally made the ultimate sacrifice. So in one way, we kind of looked up to the guys like, damn, that's that's my hero, you know, And maybe I'll never reach that level. And of course, you know, we don't want to die. We got a lot to live for. But uh, me personally, man, I don't want to die sit in my chair, in my bed, you know, or car crash or slipping on the eyes, so God forbid. Like my commander, man, he guy's a Vietnam vet, Vietnam veterans, highly decorated and dies right on a damn lawnmow. A lot more runs over in general. And I wouldn't mention his name, but uh, you know, he was my squad and commander and munic commander, and so you know, you know, le's life, you know, But at the end of the day, we all

3:09 took it, you know, we all took it pretty well, you know, and we didn't spend a whole lot of time, uh, you know, delivering over it. You know. It's like when Okay gone to gone, stay focused on the mission. We got to continue to do what we've got to do, you know, And and we can't be anyway I Peter or slowed down by you know, these these heavy hearts. You know, He's got we gotta do what we gotta do. And I think that's the way of the warrior, you know, at least in the in the in the circles that I run, we all kind of just accepted. I had a friend, good friend of mine. He was a seal and he was with me as an o G a guy and uh think about o jays.

3:50 When I went down range, it was usually with one or maybe two other guys like me, and it was us, us and our band of merry mercenaries, you know who we were. And so you know, I got to know this guy really well. And I remember when he got married, he and his wife couldn't have any kids, and they really wanted their own child, so they adopted. Now there was a white couple. They adopted a little a little black baby girl. I think she was probably about six months at the time when they got her, you know, and he was so proud, so happy, you know, you know, got a daughter and you know, and it took him a long time to get there and when he got her and he was happy. And then less of a year later he was killed an ID attack. And back then, you know,

4:32 he's gone like that, you know, like totally unexpected. I'm like, wow, you know, I mean, for a minute that the guy was, you know, on cloud nine. He was happy as hell, and just like that, it's all over. You know, what a tragic story. But you know I felt, I felt, you know, heavy heart for that, and uh, you know, it's hard to kind of reconcile that at the end of the day, it's like, damn, you know, why did it had to happen? But I also know that, you know, his name was Mark. You know, he died doing he loved to do, and of course he wanted to be around for his new baby girl and his wife. But you know, on the other hand, he was doing what needed to be done, you know, for for us and for our country. My mom once asked me. She goes, you know,

5:12 son, she goes, why do you do what you do? She goes, you know, why do you have to be the one to go down range all the time and leave your family behind it? And I looked at her, I said, Mom, I don't do Who's going to do it? You know? You know, there's it's there's not so many, not a lot of people lining up to do this. And to those that are lining up, a lot of them can't do it. You know they're not They're just qualified. So you know, I'm in a place where I can do it. I've done it, and I enjoy doing it. It's not just me doing it, because somebody's got to do it. But if guys like me don't step up the plate, and who the hell is going to do it? Somebody's got to do it. And Mark did that.

5:46 He stood up to the plate and he risked it all and he lost it all. But hopefully his wife and his you know, his little girl, and she's got to be probably ten years old now at least. Man, you know, they'll be other people for that. Yeah, for sure, that's funny. Uh One, First, can you turn your can you turn your speaker down just a little bit. I'm getting a little bit of feedback.

6:08 But your your answer to your mom is the same answer I used to give people when they asked me whyle I was joining the Marine Corps. I'm like, someone has to do it, you know, are you gonna do it? No, Well, then I guess I will. You know, Like it's just, you know, somebody has to do it. It can't always be somebody else's kid, you know, or somebody else's brothers, you know whatever. So yeah, I totally respect that. I think we you know, we talk about warrior mentality and you know, guys going out that in that fashion, and we understand it, but it's probably a lot harder for the families to understand, you know, like, you know, it's just a I don't know, it's a it's a weird thing. Another another kind of question that came up, and I think it was in one of

6:47 the other video, the other videos comments I was talking about the during that raid on Model Prison, there was a group of Navy seals and pair of rescue guys that that jumped in and they were supposed to come in to do a reconnaissance mission, you know, prior to everybody landing, and I think I want to say it was either three or four Navy seals were killed as they hit the water. And do you know any details about that, because I've seen that they parachuted in and that they were just overweight, like their gear that they were carrying was overweight and they just couldn't ye or I've also heard that they go ahead. Yeah, so we're actually combining two different stories here. So the four seals that jumped in that was Grenada, Oh yeah,

7:35 yeah, so exactly, they were actually overweight, They had too much equipment on them, carrying too much AMMO, and basically when they popped shoots, they went under like anchors. And then in Panama it was real hot too. I believe where the seals got engaged there by I believe it was a an armored vehicle. I can't remember what kind of vehicle was, but some type of armored vehicle. They got engaged there and they lost some guys in that firefight also, and that was during the initial, uh, the initial raids. So yeah, two different stories, two different times. But yeah, one was a parachute you know, parachute related. These guys literally from all accounts, hit the water and just kept on going down, you

8:18 know, because just way too much weight, you know, which is interesting. We had to be a lot of weight, because even if your rucksack is loaded with gear and ammunition, there's enough air pockets in there to give it some buoyancy, you know, even your load berry equipment things like that, there's enough air pockets throughout to give you enough buoyancy. So if they didn't have any buoyancy, they must've liked been caring freaking you know, anchors in their in their rucksacks, because from all accounts, they went right to the bottom. It's you know, it's crazy too because these guys, this is their that's their job. Like you would think if anyone knew that they're going to be overweight going into the water and Navy seal would or that they

8:54 could handle it better than anybody. You know, when you were when you were talking about doing the Modello prison raid and you had issues with the tap tape sticking and stuff like that, you know, I think it just goes to show that even at these elite levels, shit happens, right, You can't always plan for everything. Is that something that you saw on a somewhat regular basis like, even though you're with Delta, you're still having to work through these little things that you know, you don't even consider all the humidity wherever is too much for the tape to stick. Absolutely man. So let me put it this way. When you look at the equipment today, the uniforms, equipment, all the gear that's out there in the US forces,

9:35 which by the way, a lot of foreign forces are now adopting the same stuff that we have. They're creating it as well. Right, all most of that had its genesis in the unit. For example, we were using Car fifteen's Okay, that's a Vietnam era vestigial weapon there, you know, But we were as a