The True Story Of What Really Happened On November 10 | #58 | The Way I Heard It

Mr. Rowe, I was the Commanding Officer of the Marine unit that reinforced the embassy in Tripoli after the ambassador was killed. I briefly met the man that you referenced in this video that was denied permission to go to Benghazi. He was a damn fine Soldier and a good leader. Thank you for recognizing him in this story.

I sang this song one time in an Irish pub just outside of Philadelphia. When I finished singing a man walked up to me with tears in his and said that was absolutely beautiful. He then told me that his uncle was the cook on board the Edmund Fitzgerald that night. I asked him what his uncle’s name was and he told me it was Seamus McCafferty. Since then every time I sing that song I respectfully dedicate it to the memory of Seamus McCafferty. That was an unforgettable moment. I raise my glass to the memory of Seamus McCafferty and the genius of Gordon Lightfoot. Rest in peace brothers.

Courage is not the absence of fear....... It is experiencing fear, yet acting anyway

Our friend Brad Lambeau was an Air Force radar man in Duluth. He was vectoring Phantom F4s into the storm to find the Fitz Gerald. Brad said, "be sure to tell everyone that those pilots were all volunteers in that mad storm search. Please pass this on. Brave men in ships and planes, one and all!

As a younger man in the winter of 93, I found myself off the coast of kodiak Island on a crab boat that was quickly losing the battle with boeyancy with the cold dark briny water of that cold January night. Facing the prospect of a watery grave we dawned our survival gear as the boat sucomed to the waters rushing in. As the sole survivor of ship wreck that song has haunted me for a long time. Thanks for sharing.

What a beautiful tribute. And btw-those men will NEVER forget what went down at Benghazi and quite frankly, neither will we.

Men of courage & men of valor without a doubt ! More such are needed today! And a Happy Birthday & Semper Fi to my Marines!

Grim determination in the face of absolute tragedy is what makes legends.

Mike, the way you do these (I am only 4.5 minutes into it), takes me back to Paul Harvey’s ‘The Rest of the Story’. During the summer months, when I was a kid, I listened to him every weekday, on WGN’s ‘The Noon Show’, I believe it was called. My dad and I would come in, for lunch, he would turn the radio on and we would listen to the market prices, Orion Samuelson and Paul Harvey. Good memories! You are an American icon, just like Paul Harvey.

Thank you, Mike for your continued effort to illuminate the good in mankind. I started listening to the podcast back in the early days when I would push my son around in his stroller. You made a new dad shed more than one tear, and many laughs on those walks. I couldn’t wait to return and share with my wife the gems I learned. Fast-forward 13 years and my son, now 14, is the biggest Mike Rowe fan having consumed your book, watched Something to Stand For, and countless episodes of your shows. He’s a good kid—you’d like him. He’s a young patriot and even volunteers at the senior center/local veteran group. You’ve even influenced him to apply to the local vocational school for high school next year. The trades are in fact cool again, thanks to you.