Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting you. This week, here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks so much for joining us here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have a great conversation lined up for you. Our guest for this show leads rescue missions of Americans
and some of the world's most dangerous regions. He and his team are responsible for rescuing over seven thousand people across thirty five countries during six hundred and sixteen donor funded operations. To talk more about this work and why it's so vital, especially during this current moment in time, let me bring in Brian Stern, founder and chairman of Grabel Rescue, which you can learn more about and support at graybul Rescue dot org. Brian, thanks so much for ticket a
few minutes to come on the show. Before we get into the work you're doing with this new organization, I want to start with a little bit about you your time as a multiple tour combat veteran of the United States Army and Navy, also a nine to eleven first responder Purple Heart recipe, and tell us a little bit about how you got to this point in your career. Uh yeah, thanks, thanks for having me. I am one hundred years
ago. I joined the army kind of weird. I'm the uh you know, the military is a family business, meaning most people joined because their father or their uncle, or they knew somebody. It was not that way. I just thought it would be a good way to you know, kind of uh be a problem for my parents. Joined the army as a kid and found myself. I found myself in army intelligence, especially, was a thing called counterintelligence, which is it's is threat based, meaning in the intelligence community
is very interrogative. Where are the tanks, where are the bad guys? How many bad guys are there? Counter Intel is much more threat based, and we we do offensive and defensive things to prevent or detect or exploit the bad guys. So I did that for a long, long, long time. I was working in New York. On the morning in nine to eleven, I was in both collapses. I was at the base the tower is more or less when tower two got hit. So when I came out of
work that morning, tower one was hit. Tower two was not hit. It would get hit very soon thereafter. And I've basically been deployed and fighting one way or the other since since about noon on nine to eleven, pretty much. So I went all over the world, did all kinds of cool things, supported and daring freedom, Iraqi freedom. I did evasions. But my real kind of claim to fame as I liked doing weird things. So, you know, I never wanted to be a general. I never wanted
to be an admiral. I was never I was never that guy. I like to go places where the generals and admirals are not, so there was just more fun and working on problem sets that were hard, just difficult, right, just difficult in places that aren't atypical. So, you know, lots of guys like me went to Afghanistan. But the way you do operations in Afghanistan is different than how you do operations just next door in Pakistan,
let's say, or in Latin America, or in Europe or wherever. So I was kind of gravitated to maybe not the most popular things, but things that I thought were harder or more cerebral and in some cases more impactful. Did that forever went from the army. I had a break in the army. I had a break in the military service, still working for the government.
Found myself in the Navy, was worked with seal teams and all kinds of cool stuff, units that don't have names, things that we don't talk about, lots of classified things, lots of very sensitive things, things that they've made movies about. In some cases, things that they've made fake movies about that you are happy that they're fake, but actually they're real, because some really scary stuff out there. And I've been doing that for pretty much
my whole life, one way or the other. I've always considered myself a servant of the nation, whether I'm in a uniform or not in a uniform, or if I'm leading grayble or whatever. I've always kind of thought of myself as a servant of the people. People say those words sometimes, a lot of politicians say those words. Depending on the politician, that may or
may not be true. But for me, I've always been I don't know, just just just my DNA was woven that way to be part of something bigger than myself and give back and do things that maybe other people don't have the stomach for or don't how to do, or think that they know but really they don't, or whatever. But I've always gravitated towards the strange and unusual, you know, the island the Misfit Toys is kind of what I've always been attracted to. Even to this day, we certainly thank you for
that service. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Brian Stern, founder and chairman of Gray Bull Rescue, which you can learn more about and support, and they do need your support at gray Bul Rescue dot org. So this all leads you to that moment in twenty twenty one when the United States withdraws from Afghanistan and you see Afghans and especially Americans trying to escape the Taliban. Step us through that experience, which put you on the path to do what you
do now rescue Americans from these different places. Well, it's kind of nine to eleven. As a nine to eleven first responder, you know, nine to eleven. I tell people it's like having a kid. It's a life changing experience. Yeah, that impacts you every single day, you know. And it's funny you say that because obviously what you did is incredible. Following nine to eleven. I did not go down that road, but I do tell people I would not be doing what I'm doing right now, if not
for nine to eleven. It fundamentally changed my life, my interests and all of that. It had such a profound impact on so many people in so many different ways. Yeah, you know, that's one of the one of the terrible things about Americans about us, is that we tend to respond to negative things with more efficiency than positive things. Right, when someone yells at you, you remember that way more than someone says good morning, yeah, right, right, right, nine. It could be the same person,
but you'll remember the time that they yelled at you. So, you know. So you know, nine to eleven is woven into the fabric of almost everything I do in life. It just is. I thank God every day that I survived. I live every day like it's September twelfth. I should not be here. Lots of people, lots of people didn't make it, and I was. You know, It's one of those just you know, divine intervention moments. Fast forward almost twenty years later to August twenty twenty one.
I was actually working on a keynote speech for the twentieth anniversary of nine to eleven. It's in the withdrawal of Afghanistan got really nasty. The second third week of August. Just a few weeks later was the twentieth anniversary of nine to eleven. I was in my living room and in Florida, and I was working on my speech. And it's a tough thing to talk about, it really is. It's a very emotional thing for me, you know. And then you're talking about the twenty years of war. You know.
I've lost a lot of friends along the way. Even more friends have been tore up with no arms and no legs. So working on this speech is is hard. It just it's just hard. I'm working on my speech. I'm watching the fall in Afghanistan on TV, and as an Afghan, this is very emotional for me. Right I'm watching the Afghans that we promised that we would help them. We promised for year, twenty years, twenty years, and you know, if you help us, we will, we will,
we will take care of you. And watching us not honor that agreement, that agreement that I personally made to hundreds of Afghans myself, and watching us welch on that deal if you will, this is a very emotional thing
to be watching and writing. It turns into breaking news. I was watching TV breaking news and there's a C seventeen, the big military plane, and it's the footage that you're talking about where Afghans are falling from an airplane that as a better idea, as a better option, as a better thought, than to stay where they are. And it struck a chord with me because the last time I saw that was on the morning of nine to eleven. At the point at the time, media was drawing a parallel between the fall
of Afghanistan and the fall of Saigon. Well, if you're a student of history, as I am, that makes absolutely no sense. There's almost no similarities or whatsoever. So I wants talking about the fall of Saigon as it were, comparing it to the fall in Afghanistan kind of silly, and it's breaking news. I watch this and I go what planet am I on?
That? Twenty years later, almost to the day, almost to the day, twenty years later, the amount of people that have died and sacrificed and orphans that have been made on all sides, on our side and the bad guys side, how many, how many Afghans were pressured into doing bad things that we had to kill them. Twenty years later and we're right back where we are full circle to talibanner and control, and innocent people are jumping to their deaths as a better plan. And I said, I can't watch.
I cannot do it. I can't do it. I can't be a spectator and watch this on TV. I just can't. I know how to do things. I know I can help people need. My phones are exploding from every single Afghan that I ever met that still had my number, begging me for help, saying you promised, you promised, all this stuff. And I said, you know what, I'm not going to watch this on TV. I'm just not. I can't. It's against my religion. I bleed red, white and blue. I don't care about politics. I care about
our American values. I care about our reputation. I care about our handshake. I care that we made a deal and we're stiff and people. I care about all these things. And I said, I'm not going to be a spectator. I got some friends together and I said this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna pack our stuff and we're gonna go forward. Okay, We're gonna go to Uzbekistan and open up the northern border. And everyone said, you're out of your mind, and I said, I don't care.
You know you think I'm wrong. I know I'm right. This is what we're doing, and that's what we did, and that's exactly what we did. And my team and I, one way or the other had been forward deployed all over the world pretty much ever since then, Afghanistan becomes a thing. At the time, going back August twenty twenty one, the game was figure out ways to get people to the Marines at the gate, and
then the Marines will let them in and get them on airplanes. The secondary of Finch, General Austin, a former sent Come commander and Secretary Stay Tony B. Lincoln uh and a couple of other senior leaders. They get on and they say August thirtieth will be the last day for US troops in Afghanistan. When that happened, I got a hold of my whole team and by now we're busy. Now we're there, we're doing things, and I tell
them our entire calculus has to change, and they go, why. I go, getting an Afghan who we know, an interpreter, a source, a judge, whoever, getting that person and their family to the Marine at the gate to get them on an air Force plane. That's awesome and that's
hard. But once the marine vrien and once the air force brieves because sectary Offensive Secretary said said they're going to this entire thing goes sideways and everything changes because there is no marines anymore and there is no air force and the Taliban are going to run the DMV. Right, the Taliban are in charge.
Now what do we do with that problem? And these people's lives they're at stake here and again we're joined by Bryan's and founder and chairman of Gray Bull Rescue, which you can learn more about and support at gray Bull Rescue dot org. If they don't get out, they very well could be and some of them were murder. I mean, what happens is is heos That's what
happens. We had made had we had a very deliberate conversation right around this time about who should we try and get out because you can't rescue the world, you just can't. Everyone that lives in Afghanistan doesn't want to be there, even when we were there, they don't want to be there, right, So we had this discussion about who are we going to rescue? And as the boss, what I said, is is it has to be someone who we know, and if it's someone who we don't know, they have
to know someone who we really know and trust. So, meaning my interpreter is, Okay, he's going to vouch for his family, that's fair. If he's not a friend down the road who I've never met before, it needs to be someone who I know and trust. We had a discussion about Americans, and my instructions to my team were that's not for us, and everyone said, well, and I go, Look, we've got Navy seals, we've got Green berets, we've got a trillion dollar a year national security
budget. We've got the CIA, We've got DIA. We can see golf walls from out of space. There are a whole units that wake up every single day with the express mission of how do I rescue Americans from bad places? Right? Captain Phillips has meant a few of them. Jessica Buchanan has met some more of them. Osama bin Laden has met some of them too, right. So, right, So we have men, We have brave men, the best in the entire world, that wake up every single day.
They go to the rains, they work out, they eat good. They do push ups, they carry telephone polls, hoping that their beepers go off to rescue Americans. That's what the that's what they dream of. Surely we won't need to deal with that. That's what Therefore, let's focus on Afghanist. In twenty five years in the intelligence business, I have never been that wrong about an assessment in my career. Okay, Abby Gate happens. Lots of thirteen brave Americans get killed, a whole lot more get tore up,
real bad, real bad, and the whole calculus changes. General Donahue great, great, great officer, phenomenal, real national treasure for leadership. And I mean just a guy that who I shook his hand once and was like an awe. General Donahue is the last man, last American soldier in Afghanistan. Right around then is when all the Americans started reaching out to us saying help. And I couldn't believe my years, I couldn't believe it.
We were where it can't be. It can't be that we're leaving Americans behind. It just that's doesn't compute. We don't do that ever, ever, ever, ever, Captain Phillips will tell you that when he was taken when he was taken hostage by a couple of Somali pirates. We sent a seal team with Giant with two flat deck boats, helicopters, a parachute jump, and a Tom Hanks movie. Right, Yeah, that's what happens when you take an American hostage. It's the biggest mistake of your life. We don't
leave our people behind. What we did. We did and a lot of them, So everyone leaves and we have to figure out ways. How do you land an airplane under Taliban rule? Actually, that's not so hard. What's really hard is is how do you take off? Of course, the Taliban won a three hundred million dollar air of US A three to twenty as an asset. It's like breaking in to jail. That's easy. Breaking out
of jail is hard. Right. We figured out a way, using some unconventional tactics to figure out away to not only land an airplane, to not only take off an airplane, but to do it legally under the Taliban. My team and I got the first landing clearance under Taliban rule under Taliban rule period period Numero uno. And on that first mission, you've saved the one hundred and seventeen stranded Americans in one day, in one day at the time,
at the time, that was the largest. Uh well its eventually you talked to but most people would say that that was the largest private rescue of American citizens from a war zone in history. Now I thought at the time, I thought that would be the most gnarly thing that we ever did. Twenty five years the intelligence business. Again, I was fast forward to October twenty twenty three. We we double our number with two hundred and ninety three
Americans out of Israel. That became that became the undisputed largest private rescue of American citizens from a war zone and history. Okay, so in between those we do all kinds of things. We do land ops, we do air ops, we do we do uh we break people out of jail from the Russians, we do babies in Ukraine. We do the first rescue of Americans in Ukraine pistols land And at five point thirty in the morning, I had I had a sprinter van filled with American citizens out of the city in fifty
eight minutes. Okay, the Tampa Fire Department would struggle with that. This is international in a war zone with Russian cruise missiles landing all over the city, fifty eight minutes out of Keith, Okay. All kinds of things, all kinds of things we do. Premature babies that got stuck in Ukraine from Atlanta, Georgia that got stuck. My good friend Sash Respector and his boys
Lenny and Moisha. It's another crazy story, all kinds of things. We go into Sudan, right, the US embassy gets evacuated and same song, different verse. US government leaves. They leave behind sixteen thousand American citizens in the middle of a very terrible civil war. Yet again we land the first plane for American citizens of that war. Doumero Uno Right, Maui happens.
Team and I Forward deployed to Maui. We do two thousand, four hundred percent more operations in Maui in the first six days than the entire Department of Defense combined. And that's what I want to touch on, because this goes beyond just these conflict zones. And again I'm Ryan Gorman joined by Brian Stern,
founder and Chairman of Gray Bull Rescue. You can learn more about all the work they do which we're talking about right now, and support that work at Gray Bull Rescue dot Org. So, Maui, you have the fires in Florida, you have a hurricane Ian and the flooding there on the southwest coast of Florida. So you've gone beyond these conflict zones and you've dealt with
natural disasters too and rescuing Americans there. Well, yeah, because if you think about it, so we're not Gray Mike team and I as my team and I we are. Our specialty is doing operations like this, plain strains, automobiles, helicopters, boats, big planes, little planes, all kinds of stuff. We are Our expertise is doing things where the government is not. That that's our that's our space that we work in, what we call
the gray space. That's why we're called grapel this space. We're not competitors of the government. We work where they're not. You'll never see a picture of me or any of my teammates next to UH an American soldier helping him do anything. That's not what we do. We don't augment. We're in lieu of So it doesn't matter to me, it really doesn't. It doesn't matter to me where an American may be in trouble. It's kind of irrelevant.
Actually, if you're an American stuck in Lehaina, Maui and you can't get out, or you're an American stuck in in Malova, Ukraine and you can't get out, or you're there an American stuck in Porter Prince Hadian you can't get out. Would I know to be true that you're American and you can't get out? That's all. That's really the beginning and the end of, you know, of my decision making when we go do analysis, you know, should we or should we not do an operation? It's a very
binary discussion. Are they American? Yes or no? Yes? Are they in trouble? Yes or no? Yes? Can we get there? And can we do an operation? Yes? Is anyone else coming? No? Tucking our bags, let's get out of you, let's go. And I think it's important to note that when you go into these different areas, whether it's Ukraine or Afghanistan, this is not like what people will see in movies of these rescues where you're going and guns blazing and things like that. You're
having to do it a very different way because the cavalry's not coming. If you get into trouble. There is no net, There is no net, there is no help. You know, we are my team and I are the absolute end of the road, last resort. You call us after you've called everybody already. Have you had people who you've rescued when you show up, They're like, this is it everybody else? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
I'm more than one occasion. You know, we we've had. You know, you know, people always ask me, you know, well, when you're in the field, what kind of gun do you carry? Right? Like, you know, what do you carry You're in all these crazy places, you know, what do you carry? Right? And people are usually shocked to hear that I work unharmed, and they're like how how what
do you mean how? And I explained, if it's like me and one or two other people three hundred four hundred miles behind enemy lines, surrounded by Russian bag guy, I would need a dump truck of AMMO to survive. Yeah, you know, you know, I did an operation of this place called Malova, Ukraine, and we're working we're working this other place called pri Verrigan Zaparigia, surrounded by bad guys, you know, between between me and
anything that looks like a friend is thirty one hours away. You know at my day, you know, I can hold my own in a gunfight, but yeah, I don't know anyone that's killed three four thousand people in one shot. You know, my shoulder would get tired, right, So you know, those are the kinds of numbers that we're talking about. So it's much more like a magic trick. It's seemingly but not the half the time we do these things. The bad guys see it later and they're like,
wow, we had no idea happens all the time. We broke this kid out of jail. We broke this kid out of jail. He's the first American victim of war crimes alive since World War Two. Young kid from Detroit, Michigan, gets arrested by the Russians. He asked for help. Help doesn't come. He's right in the invasion corridor and he gets arrested by the Russians. Eleven counts of espionage, tortured, beaten, the whole nine yards. His case is the first indictment in the history of the United States.
The Department of Justice was able to bring indictments for war crimes against foreign powers for the first time ever in the history of the United States. This is our case and we we we took him. He wasn't released. Brittany Grinder was exchanged right amicably. This wasn't bad. The Russians still had his underwear, they still his passport. Uh, we took him. Today the Russians
have no idea how we did it. It's amazing. I do want to note and again we're joined by Brian Stern, founder and chairman of Gray Bull Rescue, which you can learn more about and support a Gray Bull Rescue dot org. These stories you're telling us, these missions that you go on. We only have a couple minutes left, and I want to make sure we get to this. This can't happen without the help of everyone listening. That's the thing is. Helicopters in Haiti, the rescue Americans cost money. Boats
during Hurricane e it cost money. Helicopters in MAUI cost money. I can't get Russians to, you know, betray their country because I'm a nice guy. Doesn't work that way. Airplanes in Afghanistan and today cost money. All these things, travel, body armor, helmets, night vision intelligence vehicles,
all those things, they all cost money. If you're If one of your listeners wants to do us a favor and they're in the night vision business or the body armor business, or the boat business, or you own a car, you own a car dealership, go to grabule Rescue Dot or push to contact need button. I need your help. We need gear, We need comms, We need laptops, GPS, strobes, landing lights, all kinds radios, all kinds of stuff. It all costs money or has to be
donated in kind. We don't get anything from the government, so my team and I love to do the work, but we need your help. Our motto is, don't be a spectator. That doesn't mean you got to give us a million dollars. One dollar is good too if you can. If you own a Chevy dealership and you want to donate us a suburban, we need we need. We need suburbans for hurricane ops, for domestics, for
natural disasters, all kinds of stuff, all kinds of stuff. You can donate us your your travel points from your Marriott thing, all kinds of stuff. But it all costs money, It all takes resources. My team and I we rescued over seven thousand people since August twenty twenty one. That's what we admit to. Number is actually a lot bigger. We've done six hundred operations all over the place. We're the only people to rescue Oskar kidnapped Americans
out of Gaza. January twenty twenty four, five American kids trapped in Gaza. Got them out. The FBI tried for months, couldn't figure it out. We did it. They're from Campa, Florida. You can meet them. Google it. I have the receipts. Google anything I say. You could see it for yourself. Don't take my word for it. No problem. It's all out there. It's all out there, but we need your help. Not being a spectator means being an American. I don't care if
you're a Republican. I don't care if you're a Democrat. On my team. I got Republicans, Democrats, Muslims, Christian Jews, men, women, skinny, Harry Bald we got them all. We got them all. If Paul Revere were alive today, he would have a grable patch on his
horse because we're just Americans doing what Americans should do. My oath of enlistment when I joined did not have did when I join the Army did not have an expiration date commitment many years ago to the people and my team and I all of us do at GRABEL, I actually make my people do an oath so that we don't forget why we do what we do. As a reminder the work you do is absolutely incredible and it's vital and everyone can support that
work at gray Bull Rescue dot org. Brian Stern, founder and chairman of Gray Bull Rescue, Brian, really want to thank you for your service of this country and for taking a few minutes to come on the show. We appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you all right, and that's going to do it for this edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap things up, I want offer big thanks to our guests and of course to all of you for listening. I'm your host,
Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you again real soon.