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P
UNCHING
O
UT
S
CRUFF
F
ACE
A
fter the funeral we went to a local bar for the wake proper.
As always, there were a bunch of different things going on at our
favorite nightspot, including a small party for some older SEALs
and UDT members who were celebrating the anniversary of their
graduation. Among them was a celebrity I’ll call Scruff Face.
Scruff served in the military; most people seem to believe he was
a SEAL. As far as I know, he was in the service during the Vietnam
conflict but not actually in the war.
I was sitting there with Ryan and told him that Scruff was holding
court with some of his buddies.
“I’d really like to meet him,” Ryan said.
“Sure.” I got up and went over to Scruff and introduced myself.
“Mr. Scruff Face, I have a young SEAL over here who’s just come
back from Iraq. He’s been injured but he’d really like to meet you.”
Well, Scruff kind of blew us off. Still, Ryan really wanted to
meet him, so I brought him over. Scruff acted like he couldn’t be
bothered.
All right.
We went back over to our side of the bar and had a few more
drinks. In the meantime, Scruff started running his mouth about the
war and everything and anything he could connect to it. President
Bush was an asshole. We were only over there because Bush
wanted to show up his father. We were doing the wrong thing,
killing men and women and children and murdering.
And on and on. Scruff said he hates America and that’s why he
moved to Baja California. 9/11 was a conspiracy.
And on and on some more.
The guys were getting upset. Finally, I went over and tried to get
him to cool it.
“We’re all here in mourning,” I told him. “Can you just cool it?
Keep it down.”
“You deserve to lose a few,” he told me.
Then he bowed up as if to belt me one.
I was uncharacteristically level-headed at that moment.
“Look,” I told him, “why don’t we just step away from each
other and go on our way?”
Scruff bowed up again. This time he swung.
Being level-headed and calm can last only so long. I laid him out.
Tables flew. Stuff happened. Scruff Face ended up on the floor.
I left.
Quickly.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but rumor has it he showed
up at the BUD/S graduation with a black eye.
F
ighting is a fact of life when you’re a SEAL. I’ve been in a few
good ones.
In April ’07, we were in Tennessee. We ended up across the
state line in a city where there’d been a big UFC mixed-martial-arts
fight earlier that evening. By coincidence, we happened into a bar
where there were three fighters who were celebrating their first
victories in the ring. We weren’t looking for trouble; in fact, I was in
a quiet corner with a buddy where there was hardly anyone else
around.
For some reason, three or four guys came over and bumped into
my friend. Words were said. Whatever they were, the wannabe
UFC fighters didn’t like them, so they went after him.
Naturally, I wasn’t going to let him fight alone. I jumped in.
Together, we beat the shit out of them.
This time, I didn’t follow Chief Primo’s advice. In fact, I was still
pounding one of the fighters when the bouncers came to break us
up. The cops came in and arrested me. I was charged with assault.
(My friend had slipped out the back. No bad wishes on him; he
was only following Primo’s second rule of fighting.)
I got out on bail the next day. I had a lawyer come in and work
out a plea bargain with the judge. The prosecutor agreed to drop
the charges, but to make it all legal I had to get up there in front of
the judge.
“Mr. Kyle,” she said, in the slow drawl of justice, “just because
you’re trained to kill, doesn’t mean you have to prove it in my city.
Get out and don’t come back.”
And so I did, and haven’t.
T
hat little mishap got me in a bit of trouble at home. No matter
where I was during training, I would always give Taya a call before
I went to sleep. But having spent the night in the drunk tank, there
was no call home.
I mean, I only had one call, and she couldn’t get me out, so I put
it to good use.
There might not have been a real problem, except that I was
supposed to go home for one of the kids’ birthday parties. Because
of the court appearance, I had to extend my stay in town.
“Where are you?” asked Taya when I finally got a hold of her.
“I got arrested.”
“All right,” she snapped. “Whatever.”
I can’t say I blamed her for being mad. It wasn’t the most
responsible thing I’d ever done. Coming when it did, it was just one
more irritant in a time filled with them—our relationship was rapidly
going downhill.
Taya:
I didn’t fall in love with a frickin’ Navy SEAL, I fell in
love with Chris.
Being a SEAL is cool and everything, but that’s not
what I loved about him.
If I’d known what to expect, that would have been
one thing. But you don’t know what to expect. No one
does. Not really—not in real life. And not every SEAL
does multiple back-to-back wartime deployments, either.
As time went on, his job became more and more
important to him. He didn’t need me for family, in a way
—he had the guys.
Little by little, I realized I wasn’t the most important
thing in his life. The words were there, but he didn’t
mean it.
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