Delta Force & Ranger Regiment Commander | Pete Blaber (throwback ep)

original airdate 11-3-23

Pete Blaber looks back on his path from the Ranger Regiment to Delta Force, including operations in Panama, Colombia, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and the leadership lessons he carried from each. We also dig into his reconstruction of the Pat Tillman friendly-fire incident, the command failures that set the conditions for it, and why accountability and common-sense leadership matter so much in combat.

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00:00 – Start
01:09 – Growing Up Outside Chicago
02:48 – Cross Country, Endurance & Learning to Push Through Pain
05:45 – Desert One Inspires Him to Join the Military
07:07 – Trying to Figure Out How to Get Into the Army
08:38 – “I Want to Join Delta Force”
09:04 – OCS & Becoming an Infantry Officer
10:16 – The Fastest Route to Ranger Regiment
10:36 – First Assignment in Korea
11:56 – Joining 2nd Ranger Battalion
12:22 – The Ranger Battalion Commander Who Shaped His Leadership
13:28 – What a Healthy Command Climate Looks Like
15:12 – “The Best Welfare for the Troops Is Getting Them Home”
16:09 – Learning to Stay Calm on the Radio
17:52 – Company Command in the 7th Infantry Division
18:14 – Invading Panama
19:48 – The Friendly Firefight That Changed His Thinking
22:15 – Realizing They Had Been Shooting at Another U.S. Unit
25:21 – Learning Leadership as a Young Lieutenant
27:18 – The Sergeant Major Who Taught Him “Don’t Be in a Hurry to Die”
29:31 – Learning From Bad Leaders
31:07 – Preparing for Delta Selection
32:45 – Passing Selection & Joining the Unit
34:10 – Delta Force in the Early 1990s
35:54 – Counternarcotics Becomes a Major Mission
36:35 – Hunting Pablo Escobar in Colombia
38:17 – Building Teams Around Skills & Personality
39:08 – Learning How to Find People Who Don’t Want to Be Found
40:36 – From Colombia to Mogadishu
41:16 – Why He Distrusted Helicopter-Centric Assaults
42:24 – Black Hawks vs. Little Birds
43:16 – The Low-Visibility Approach He Wanted in Somalia
46:10 – The Hunt for Pablo Escobar
48:27 – How Colombian Forces Ultimately Found Escobar
49:25 – Arriving in Mogadishu After the Battle
49:53 – Searching for Mike Durant
52:00 – What Happened After Black Hawk Down
53:52 – Personality Conflicts & Interoperability Problems
57:51 – Somalia Becomes the Final Nail on Helicopter Assaults
58:48 – How Somalia Changed CQB & Special Operations
1:00:21 – Taking the Fight to the Enemy Instead of Sitting Still
1:02:20 – Bosnia: The “Living Laboratory” for Human Hunting
1:04:58 – Learning Low-Visibility Operations in Bosnia
1:07:11 – Humor, Creativity & Problem Solving in Combat
1:10:01 – Brainstorming Unconventional Ways to Stop a Target
1:19:52 – Transitioning From Career Stories to Common Sense Leadership Matters
1:20:41 – Why Pete Wrote the New Book
1:21:00 – Commanding Delta in Iraq
1:22:34 – Four Operators Wounded on a Baghdad Target
1:27:22 – A Ranger Asks Pete for Help
1:37:15 – Getting Access to the Pat Tillman Investigation
1:40:00 – Discovering the Pattern of Toxic Leadership
1:42:50 – Reconstructing the Pat Tillman Mission
1:43:15 – The Terrain Where Tillman Was Killed
1:45:02 – Why Pete Considered the Area Extremely Dangerous
1:50:00 – The Sync Matrix & Pressure From Higher Headquarters
1:59:59 – The Order to Split the Platoon
2:00:32 – The Platoon Leader Explains Why the Order Makes No Sense
2:02:06 – How Splitting the Platoon Broke Up Organic Teams
2:04:05 – Sending Troops Out Without Reliable Communications
2:09:57 – Why Rangers Are a “National Treasure”
2:14:49 – Who Pat Tillman Really Was as a Soldier
2:16:25 – How Toxic Leadership Set the Conditions for Disaster
2:16:54 – Reconstructing the Day Tillman Was Killed
2:17:29 – Entering the Canyon
2:18:49 – Serial 2 Struggles Through the Terrain
2:26:41 – Crossfire Begins Raining Into the Canyon
2:28:45 – Tillman Moves Into Position on the Spur
2:29:57 – Tillman Takes Fire From the South
2:31:30 – The Position That Became the Most Dangerous Place on the Battlefield
2:35:25 – Serial 2 Opens Fire Toward Tillman’s Position
2:35:42 – Pat Tillman Is Killed
2:36:03 – Why the Rangers Couldn’t Hear Him Yelling
2:38:08 – Could They Actually See Tillman’s Position?
2:40:02 – How the Investigation Judged the Rangers
2:43:40 – Why Pete Believes the Shooters Were Put in an Impossible Situation
2:45:19 – Accountability for Senior Leaders
2:47:04 – “The Cover-Up Was Worse Than the Incident”
2:47:51 – The Decision Not to Tell Kevin Tillman the Truth
2:49:57 – What Leadership Should Have Told the Tillman Family
2:53:54 – What Happened to the Senior Officers?
2:55:14 – Promotions Instead of Accountability
2:56:05 – Why Pat Tillman Was Revered by His Platoon
2:57:40 – Are Senior Officers Protected From Consequences?
3:02:09 – Audience Questions
3:05:44 – Lost Platoons & Conventional Wisdom
3:08:08 – Were Delta Snipers Involved in Escobar’s Death?
3:09:27 – Where Advanced Force Operations Came From
3:13:16 – Other Innovations From the Special Operations Community
3:19:58 – Military Working Dogs & the Evolution of the Program
3:21:49 – How Intelligence Support to Operators Has Evolved
3:22:40 – Could Pack Mules Still Have a Place in Modern Warfare?
3:24:11 – Closing Thoughts
3:24:30 – Pete’s Books & Leadership Trilogy
3:25:43 – Where to Find Pete’s Maps, Photos & Firefight Reconstruction

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