Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
In a gripping episode of “The Shawn Ryan Show,” hosted by former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan, Tim Kennedy, a renowned Master Sergeant and Green Beret, revealed the harrowing realities of combat.
Kennedy, also a New York Times Best Selling Author and retired UFC fighter, discussed his experiences with a directness that sheds light on the brutalities of war.
Kennedy recalled his first engagement as a sniper, describing it as “sad, like all war is.” It involved a young boy, around 11 or 12 years old, whom he shot while the boy was moving between resupply points.
“He was carrying a 1875 lever action British rifle,” Kennedy noted. This event led him to hang the rifle in his office, not as a war trophy, but as a reminder of the profound consequences of war.
“It reminds me of two things,” Kennedy explained. “One is every time I hear a politician say like why do you need a gun? Like what is the importance of the Second Amendment? We have F-16s and F-18s and M1 Abrams. I think back to a little boy, a peasant, a nomad that had been kicking the American Special Operations ass in this Valley for three days.”
“And he’s running around with an 1875 musket. One man with a rifle protecting his own land, how powerful he is and the power of the Second Amendment and how this insurmountable force of one, one good guy with a gun, how powerful that that is. So, that’s one reason.
“And the second is to remind me of the cost of war. It’s never the way that you want it to be. It’s never the way that it is in the movies. It is horrible. It is young. It is pain,” he continued.
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Kennedy’s reflections extended to a broader critique of war’s representation in media and politics. He expressed a desire for his son never to face the agonies of war, emphasizing, “War is horrible, not like in the movies.”
The interview took a more intense turn as Kennedy recounted an incident involving women and children casualties caused by a grenade he threw. “This guy had barricaded himself with women and children,” he said, underscoring the tragic complexities soldiers often encounter.
Kennedy also detailed his nightly routine during combat operations, where he would use thermal imaging to engage targets for hours. “Every night, I’d splash rounds into every heated body on the battlefield,” he said somberly.
Concluding the interview, Tim Kennedy reflected on the burdens of combat, “This is war. F*ck war.” His words painted a vivid picture of the stark realities faced by soldiers, far removed from the glorified portrayals often seen in popular culture.
Kennedy, apart from his military career, has made significant contributions through his company, Sheepdog Response, and his involvement in Save Our Allies, assisting over 17,000 American allies during the Afghanistan withdrawal. His commitment to service continues through his various ventures, including Apogee Strong, an alternative education program.
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read this several times and it seems he is saying guns are bad and put them down you can’t win……….
Then you are misreading his comments. He doesn’t say that at all, in fact quite the opposite.
Great interview. Tim Kennedy is the real deal.
Tim Kennedy espousing the merits of the second Amendment is hypocrisy. He’s the same guy who said that Americans shouldn’t have semi auto AR15’s or AK47’s. He’s one of those ‘I support the second amendment but…’ types.
I have seen the exact opposite in his X feed, rebuking that belly-crawler Eugene Vindman’s call for banning “weapons of war.”
You can find a good representation of his views by watching the Lance Armstrong interview with Kennedy. The entire video is available to watch last I checked. Kennedy believes in gun control as long as it’s the control he thinks is best. He’s fine with bargaining our rights away.
You saw one thing, I saw another. I won’t disagree that inconsistency is a reason to be suspicious.
Fair enough 🙂
How was he able to get that rifle back home? I didn’t think they could bring anything like that back home from overseas.
Back then ;60s-70s
Antiques are exempt from import restrictions.
So any soldier could send a firearm back home if it’s an antique? I have never heard of that and know/work with dozens of veterans, I’ll ask around, thank u.
Depends on the ROE of the particular deployment. If the ROE is, follow Federal law that states antiques are not legally considered firearms (which I think was the rule for the latest sandpile wars) then OK. The rifle Kennedy brought back is evidence of that.
Other deployment, like to the 1st Gulf War, most troops were allowed to bring back only propaganda leaflets they found. Nothing materiel.
One could also run into the “it’s to much trouble, just leave it soldier” or the LT who is a recent university grad of a Marxist social-justice program (see Spenser Rapone, West Point 2016) who sez “no way will I sign off on that, Comrade, there are too many gunz in the US…”
So with a dozen vets you may get a dozen different answers. When I brought guns home from my German tour in the 90’s I had to go through a determination from ATF whether the requested imports were legal. I’d assume something similar went on here.
That’s awesome, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say Tim is proof of that. He’s been knows to stretch the truth, kinda like him lying about him being “pro 2A” when he believes that only him and his highly trained Buddy’s should be the only ones allowed to keep and bear arms, to hell with the rest of us lowly plebs.
SOF gets away with a ton of stuff. Hell, the 10th Group guys had a bar in their clubhouse on the range at Panzer Kaserne in Germany.
Kennedy is carrying some heavy memories and he should be heard by all Americans especially the DC war hawks.
It should be noted that Trump is the first POTUS in years that did NOT start any new long time military commitments.
It should be noted that the fake # 46 POTUS (genuine POS) plunged the US into a very dangerous proxy was with Russia without ever trying any reach any diplomatic solutions. What kind of occutists are in the WH controling the fate of humanity?
It should be noted that the fake POTUS nerviously checked his watch at as the caskets of the 11 Marines, 1 Navy Corpsman and 1 Army soldier were returned to the US at Dover. He was probably having a fit craving some icecream.
It should be noted that the fake POTUS ordered the Marines who were not killed or maimed to clean up the area of the Kabul Airport including the days of accumulated human execrement by tens of thousands of local tribesman and their famalies. He did NOT want to offend the the Taliban and have anyone who was not an American to be forced to pick up after the Afghans that hitched a free ride to the US and Costco.
Just a few more reasons why the US military cannot get close to the recruiting numbers under the the child molester in the WH.
Re: your comment on Ukraine, spoken like a true appeaser. Biden’s an authoritarian and fool (much like Trump), but Russia’s 2022 invasion followed upon its 2014 invasion which followed upon it’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, etc etc etc. Putin’s no Hitler, but you definitely sound like a Chamberlain.
Oh, so I “definitely sound like a Chamberlain”? How profound, then you must be Churchill who led the world into WWII, supposedly over the violation of Poland’s sovereignty. Wait, the Soviet Union signed the Molotov, Ribbentrop Pact where the Soviets also overran Poland and the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithunia. Before that Finland. Seems like a whole lot of appeasement to the USSR. Why did Churchill fail to declare war on the USSR for those invasions?
So what did Poland (and throw in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania the 6 Rebuplics of Yugoslavia) get for all Churchill’s phony concern over Poland. A wave of tens of millions of Soviet rapists and over 50 years of communism. Poland suffered a horrible fate so the truth is that Churchill, FDR and D.D. Eisenhower et cetera were hardly noble heroes that “saved the world” and gave a flip over Poland or freedom. Still unconvinced? How does ‘victorious’ Britain look today? How about the US after winning two World Wars? Why did Churchill and FDR appease Stalin in Yalta? In contrast to Churchill, FDR and Stalin, Chamberlain looks like a visionary. Except of course to the gullible masses that fall for con game of “professional” historians and believe everyting that they are force fed.
And so now on too the topic of the Ukraine. CIA puppet Barry Soetoro interfered with the duly elected Ukrainian goverment of Viktor Yanukovych and have been trying to topple Putin for years. The “pussy riots” are just one example of attempts to destabilize Putin. Also, whenever the west invaded Russia it was always through the Ukraine and thus Putin wanted a gaurantee just like the Cuban missile crises. I guess in your mind JFK was “appeaser” when he tried to aviod a nuclear conflict. The US under Obama and Biden would not even negociate, that is insane. That whole region has has Russian and Ukrainians mixed together like Alsace-Lorraine and certainly Russia has vital interests.
What are the intrests of the globalists? Selling of farm land to international finance? Selling beutiful Ukrainian girls into sexual slavery? In 2014 the faction of Ukrainians who chose to support the puppet regime of the CIA cutoff water from the Crimea which was not restored until 2022. You mentioned those two years. The 2 CIA puppets (Obama and Biden) forced Putin at every point. General Fynn, Mantafort and Trump were looking to handle Putin differently then the two CIA puppets and all three have had massive legal problems since.
Your comments on Russia, spoken like a true globalsis lackey.