Republican Rick Perry's political action committee has released a new
video highlighting the extraordinary relationship that has emerged between the former Texas governor, who is weighing another White House run, and Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose battlefield heroism in Afghanistan was detailed in his best-selling memoir
"Lone Survivor."
In an
interview with The Washington Post and an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California earlier this week, Perry and Luttrell described their story at length.
Story continues below video.
Luttrell, 39, deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 with Navy SEALs and was part of a four-man mission to find and kill a top Taliban leader in eastern Afghanistan.
Taliban forces ambushed the four-man team, and Luttrell's three colleagues were killed. Although he was badly wounded, Luttrell evaded capture. He was sheltered by an Afghan tribe before being rescued by U.S. forces.
The next year, while undergoing physical therapy at Naval Base Coronado near San Diego, Luttrell met Perry and his wife, Anita, who were vacationing in the area. Luttrell gave the Perrys a "dog and pony" tour of the naval facilities, he told The Post.
The governor kept in touch with Luttrell, sending him emails during a subsequent deployment to Iraq and extending him an open invitation to visit him in Austin. In 2007, Luttrell took him up on it, showing up at the governor's mansion.
When the Perrys moved into a temporary residence later that year during the mansion's renovation, the couple turned part of those quarters into a bedroom for Luttrell.
At the time, Luttrell was dogged by mental and physical ailments and addicted to painkillers. He was not getting the help he needed from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Perry intervened and called Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who made Luttrell eligible for Tricare, a healthcare program servicing military service members and retirees.
Perry said it angered him that there were many other veterans in the same position as Luttrell who did not have a governor to intervene on their behalf.
"He needed stuff done, and all they were giving him was a sack of pills," Perry said.
Luttrell, who had a strained relationship with his father, told the Post he in effect adopted Rick and Anita Perry as parents.
"When I came into the Perry family, it was one of those deals where it was the only family I had," said Luttrell, a Houston native. "I didn't have that father figure growing up like that, somebody who genuinely cared about me ... Gov. Perry taught me how to be a good man."
Luttrell got married in 2010. He and his wife, Melanie, now have two children, and Perry is their godfather.