we were getting shot at and we were shooting and so that that was scary and we all should have died but we didn't it's taken both arms to do this and I'm trying to get it and set it and lock it so I can grab my M4 and I tried to do that if they see this guy he just going to be like they they kill him and I got trucks rolling in multiple trucks and I'm like dude this is bad bad what were some of your most memorable near-death experiences and how did you how
did you mentally overcome whatever happened and and and be able to perform through that so the one of the most memorable I I refer to as my walk through the valley of the shadow of death that comes out of Psalm 23 but I have comared it and applied it to this story uh we had just been in a near Ambush this is uh right next to the pack Border in Afghanistan we had gone up a road which was actually a dried up creek bed that even in our you know amazing Humvees getting up to 4
miles an hour without high centering or blowing out a tire getting stuck you'd be doing very good to go four or five miles an hour so this is extremely difficult terrain to negotiate um and so there we got to bushed and whatnot and so that that was scary and it was a Zone contact and fight uh and that was a near-death experience uh but that wasn't the one I was going to tell is it all right to skip that whole story skip it okay so um and that that was where we were we were getting
shot at and we were shooting and so that that was scary and we all should have died but we didn't um it was the next day we were going to go do a like sensitive sight exploitation of we're going to Recon that area where it all went down why I don't know we're just going to go take a look at it um now that didn't make too good a tactical sense except that we just really lit some dudes up the day before who meant to kill us and we killed them instead so that went very
very well I accredit the entire grace of God because it was a pretty miraculous thing you shouldn't live through a near Ambush and we didn't just live through it we crushed uh and so that was cool you're going to make me go back aren't you I'm going to make you go back this sounds interesting walk us through it okay sure so um uh I am lead driver uh at that time which sounds a little bit lowly uh because at that time I was a team leader so I'm I think I'm a sergeant at this point
and I am driving uh down this terrible Road I'm vehicle number one in a convoy of at least four or five trucks as I'm going down I have all of a sudden income coming boom huge explosion uh front right and my uh tire is just exploded it it it's gone uh I don't know whether it was RPG or IED I don't know to this day uh but that's what happened and then automatic gunfire from both sides elevated position starts raining down on us and so that's really really bad near Ambush means inside hand grenade range
now nobody had a tape measure but just based on proximity and later Intel like it was it was right on that line of like they were they were close and i' already walked up that terrain the day before on the right side and so um I did what I was supposed to do as a team leader and a sergeant at that time you want a somebody reliable who's going to do the right thing as driver uh the driver in one of these humbe trucks if if if you is Target number one to the bad guy
if you you've got a vehicle Convoy going through someone and you kill the lead driver and you shut him down then the whole Convoy stops then you kill the rear driver and then it's just kill all the fish in the barrel so there's the book ends kill that driver kill that driver kill everyone in between uh and so uh I am I am selected to be the driver because I was a good driver and I was aggressive and I knew how to use the vehicle as a weapon and to take care of the guys and
I'm not going to lock up I'm not going to freeze up and so when this happened it was really difficult for me cuz I wanted to fight you know but I did the right thing and I punched it and that means get off the X if you're ever in an ambush uh military tactics 101 get off the Ambush get off the don't fight through the get off the X and so uh I punched it and and got off the X uh and so that that's tough because I'm uh I got this steering wheel and it's
wanting to favor right cuz I don't have a front tire so it's taking both arms to do this I'm trying to get it and set it and lock it so I can grab my M4 and I tried to do that and there was no chance at doing that and then there's this 50 cow from the M deuce up in the turret that is somehow jumped out of the can and it is hitting me in the face as we're driving through this and it's just a nightmare all gunfire is going out all over the way anyway
we we uh got down punched around the corner dismounted uh got down low behind whatever cover we could find which was just little rocks and pieces of defilade uh at that time we saw some of the bad guys who had uh ambushed us on the left side had uh kind of gone around the military crest of this they lit us up from distance now and then we just we we uh put them all down so uh that was that was that encounter now that wasn't the that was it was all fast and it was pretty
reactive and it kind of it was scary but for me it was kind of cold hard math it wasn't as uh memorable to me as this next part which isn't like guns flying anything that this one was actual like danger the next one was scary because it was a bit of a mind screw and it was perceived danger okay and so the second one was worse to me though anybody listening in or viewing this would be like dude the Ambush is worse I'm like all I can tell you is you know what the pucker Factor
was in either of the second either one of these and the second one though less dangerous was certainly a bigger pucker Factor because this is what happened the next day we wanted to go back into that a see exactly what had happened there um now that was the excuse the real rationale was probably hey let's go try to get shot at again and maybe we can kill some more bad guys so anyone Discerning of like hey why would you go back through the same spot there was nothing Mission critical why and it's because well we
came up with an excuse to dangle some bait out draw some fire and then hit them with a counter Ambush that they weren't expecting so we positioned some machine guns up on The High Ground that could overlook this entire Valley that we' got ambushed in the day before uh we had uh mortars uh ready and dialed in and we had aircraft on station so we have our nice we have our counter Ambush ready all we need is bait now I as uh a Christian you know had gained I had the respect of the dudes I
wasn't all like preachy or whatever but everyone knew all right John's a Christian and I think there was an unspoken sentiment that the Lord's going to take care of me um and I'd been in some brushes and so anyway I was selected as the bait and I was actually okay with it I'm kind of like okay let's do the bait thing and I feel like I'm Invincible until the Lord calls me home and so I was actually okay with this plan but it was a little bit nuts cuz I'm like dude we we almost all
died right there and now without any trucks and without any of my buddies I'm going to take two dudes with me and we're just going to walk up that Valley just the three of us we're just going to walk up there broad daylight oh good so uh I was the bait uh and so I was Strangely I was okay with it uh and uh so we just kind of start walking how are you okay with it that's this is what I want to hit how are you altering your mindset and overcoming the fear um I
think I think I was a little like I wouldn't mind another fight and I felt good of like I was scared I was scared I'm not minimizing that but um and so uh and as I'm walking up this Valley I'm like this is stupid this is crazy but I could do it you know and it was I was okay with the plan I don't it was scary but I'm good with it you know and so I don't know of um I had enough stress inoculation and I was okay and so I'm like I'm going to
just stroll up this so we did me and two buddies and so we had our our little modified wedge and we're just kind of pushing up the valley uh making sure we got our intervals spaced out head on a swivel and we're we're we're just taking a stroll up the Valley of the shadow of death um we get way up there and so I'm I mean maybe I'm 500 M away from my Gunners on top of uh the rid line so I'm kind of like man can they even help me about this uh and it's
about this time where my radio squaws and somebody says hey man you got movement from Pac Mill coming to you oh no no I'm sorry let me back up uh as I'm walking up there's a dude an older man uh he looks like 90 years old so he's probably like 45 and havek years like they made that climate that culture that uh that does not treat the body well these people fall apart from malnutrition and difficult so he starts strolling down and so we're walking toward each other I'm watching hands and I'm I'm pretty high
alert but I'm like and and my big thing is of like as the wind is hitting his you know mandress his AI mandress I'm like is there some type of bomb under there is this a suicide bomber cuz that makes sense but why is this guy walking down this Valley toward me in the middle of the day when everyone in this region knows what just went down here there's no way everyone doesn't know what happened here yesterday so this guy is dirty one way or another whether he's direct or whether he is walking down to
scout out gather intelligence in the report back no question this guy's dirty and so I grab him up you know we we hold him at gun we we do a search we maintain security and uh at this point uh I am letting him lean into my radio so our interpreter can speak back and forth to him it's at that time where um somebody comes in like hey you got movement on the pack uh Pac Mill border uh some looks like some trucks are rolling down in your location and I'm like oh no whereas I was
kind of okay with doing the walk which is already here brain for me I am way too far away to beat feet down I'm way too far away in this terrain it's going to take quite a while for me to get down and I got mountains on either side of me I am boxed in I am stuck in this Valley and here I've got this informant dude so even me hiding in the bushes if they see this guy you're just going to be likey there they are kill him and I got trucks rolling in multiple
trucks and I'm like dude this is bad bad so I ended up grabbing the guy and me and my uh uh two dudes my two Joe's who are with me we pushed up uh on to you know I don't know maybe 20 30 meters up as as much as I could get up I didn't want to go too crazy with it kick up a bunch of dust and so I needed to be kind of settled quick so the dust wasn't giving away my location by the time the trucks got to it so I wanted to
get up get behind some type of sparse vegetation CU there was vegetation but not a ton of it and I got down behind that and then uh I um I sat down behind the guy I put him in between my legs right here uh and I took out a knife and I showed him the blade and then I just put it up under his neck uh so uh you know and I I I even leaned out gestured of like sh hey everybody I'm Shawn Ryan click here to subscribe to the Sha Ryan Show YouTube channel
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