An author and former Navy SEAL is doing his part to give back to the community with the Patriot Tour, traveling the country and speaking with Americans about perseverance and not giving up.
Marcus Luttrell, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was seriously wounded in a 2005 attack that left every other member of his four-man reconnaissance team dead. In 2007, Luttrell published "Lone Survivor," which talked about his life as a SEAL and focused on Operation Redwing.
A film version of the book was released in 2013.
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Luttrell is now working with the
Patriot Tour, a group of former soldiers and military family members that is touring the country and spreading messages of perseverance. He appeared on
Newsmax TV's "Newsmax Prime" Monday to discuss the tour.
"It started a few years back and the idea for it actually started a little further back than that with me and one of my teammates, Chris Kyle, before he was killed and ultimately we decided to kick it back up and get back on the road," Luttrell tells host J.D. Hayworth. "So it's me and a bunch of my teammates that I started with. Their stories were so impactful in my life that I wanted them to be on the tour and we just travel around from city to city and kind of tell our stories.
"The reaction, the response that we get from most people is, 'I never knew that you could push the human body that far.' Each of these guys that are on stage, I mean every one of them, have been knocked down hard and stayed down and had to for a little while but everybody, the unique thing about it, gets back up and keeps pushing forward."
Also participating in the tour is Kyle's widow, Taya. Kyle, the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history,
was shot and killed by a fellow veteran at a Texas gun range in 2013.
He penned the book "American Sniper," which was released on the big screen last winter.
"Her story is amazing," Luttrell says of Taya Kyle. "So it's just kind of gleaning a little perspective on the ins and outs of military life and then some of the stuff that we went through before and how we are applying that to our everyday life once we're out and most of us are successful."
Luttrell tells Newsmax the members of the tour are often approached by younger Americans asking about joining the military.
"They're like, 'Hey, I want to do this and I want to do that, can you give me some perspective in this?'" he says. "Everybody on the team is like, 'I'll lend you mine, this is what I know, this is what I went through, and this is how I had to deal with it and I've got a lot of teammates that did this and did that as well.'"
He does, however, suggest that kids "enjoy life, enjoy being the age you're at."
Luttrell tells Hayworth the best lesson he can give to anyone is to keep getting back up when you get knocked down.
"No matter how hard you get hit, always get back up," he says. "Because eventually one of two things is going to happen: you're either going to overcome what's in front of you or you're going to die trying. That's what I've learned."
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