Delta Force Legend Reveals What War Really Does to a Man | PBD Podcast #873

John McPhee (0:00)

In beginning of war, I wanted to kill everybody.

Patrick Bet-David (0:05)

Did you have a reaction the first time?

John McPhee (0:07)

I fucking loved it. Are you kidding me?

Patrick Bet-David (0:08)

You loved it. So on any given day, what could be the high-loan number? I'm keeping you guys to count.

John McPhee (0:15)

Who got time for all the counting? There's certain bad guys where like, however the night pans out, like I could really care if this guy lived or died the night.

I was good at it. I could save lives every day. When I would go out, I felt like, God, less guys got hurt. Where else should I be? Who else needs me more?

Patrick Bet-David (0:37)

What's the closest call you ever had?

John McPhee (0:39)

I know what I can do.

You guys didn't have a chance to begin with. We dealt with a lot of people, family, kids. Like, you come get a man of the house, he's got a family. You gotta deal with them too.

Patrick Bet-David (0:51)

Were they as bad as the stories we read about?

John McPhee (0:53)

Oh, for real, they needed to die. I don't feel bad about them at all.

I felt at ease. Like, I knew maybe this is what I was supposed to do. I don't know, but we were decimating those guys. So I stopped counting on my first day.

Patrick Bet-David (1:18)

This has never been talked about before, so I know a lot of people that follow your stories closely. And you may get upset at me for starting with this, but I think it's very important for you.

John McPhee (1:25)

I doubt it.

SPEAKER_3 (1:26)

I doubt it. I want you to get upset.

Patrick Bet-David (1:27)

I want you to get angry at me. So here's a guy that's Delta Force, Sergeant Major, fully decorated. I contacted my guy that was former Delta Force. I asked him about you. He says, this guy's a full-on badass. All these things about you that scares the shit out of everybody, the enemy, right? And you come in today, your only request from us is Pop Tarts.

You ask for Pop Tarts?

John McPhee (1:52)

Yeah, I like Pop Tarts.

Patrick Bet-David (1:53)

Pop Tarts?

We've never had a Pop Tart request. How long has that been a thing with you?

John McPhee (1:59)

Man, well, I love them brown sugar Pop Tarts.

Patrick Bet-David (2:04)

The brown sugar Pop Tarts.

John McPhee (2:06)

Every time I talk about this, I'll get a, man, I got Pop Tart underwear, socks.

Patrick Bet-David (2:10)

Literally?

John McPhee (2:11)

Seriously, right? Pop Tart t-shirts. Like, people send me Pop Tart stuff, but the Pop Tarts comes from when I went out alone.

I flew my pick, started out in Assadabad and I told my boss, I was like, hey, we don't got no beef jerky, no, no, you know, we're who we are. You know what I mean? I know wherever the main hub is, right? Bagram, I know they got this stuff and the other guys are just eating it up while we're out here kind of like eating vegetables. I don't even know what they are and some goat. You know what I mean? Like with some dude cooking it who's sketchy also. So I was like, he's like, if you want you want Pogi, you got to get it yourself. Schedule everything yourself. I'm not lifting a finger kind of deal. I'm like, I'll do that. I mean, what a good experience for me. So I scheduled the Chinook to come in, pick me and my pickup truck up. We fly us at night to Bagram, park at the Chao Hall, see my man and our squadron cook, like, yo, fill up the truck for the boys. You know what I mean? And then, so that's when they asked me to go on a solo mission. I was actually kind of looting pop tarts at the time. You know what I mean?

Patrick Bet-David (3:30)

Do you miss it? Like, do you tell... When I watch you telling these stories, do you ever, like, have you fully disconnected or do you still miss it in your year?

John McPhee (3:39)

I don't know. I think I moved on on a lot of stuff. I mean, when I retired, I was talking to a friend and I'm like, you know, he was in Ranger Battalion with me and we were kind of like kind of like talking my highlight reel because I hadn't talked to him in a long time, what he'd been up to kind of deal, right? And I was just thinking like, man, what am I going to do now?