Chris Kyle is an American hero. He saved countless American lives while on the battlefield. And when he came home, he gave everything he had --- including his time -- to his foundation and other returning military vets. He probably thought he had plenty of time to worry about saving for college, etc, but as it turns out he was robbed of that chance. Chris Kyle stepped up for America, it’s time for America to step up for him.
Here’s a couple really cool ways you can help: buy 1791’s Heroes shirt or donate directly through Mercury One.
You can also send a check to Mercury One by mail at: Mercury One, PO Box 140489, Irving, TX 75014. Be sure to put "Chris Kyle Fund" in the memo line.
On radio, Glenn called for listeners to help the Kyle family. You can watch the video at the top of the page, and the full transcript of the segment from radio is below.
Radio Transcript:
GLENN: This week has been a very, a very bizarre week. It started on Sunday for us. Sunday morning I got up and my wife said to me, "Honey, Marcus called," Marcus Luttrell. She said, "Marcus called, or texted me late last night." And I said, okay, I'll call him today. Then I go out to the front and our security detail is there getting ready to take us to church and I said good morning to the boys. And I said, good morning, guys. And they said, sir, have you heard the news? And I said, what news? And they said, the American sniper Chris Kyle was killed. And I said, oh, my gosh. Marcus texted late last night; that must be what it's about. I said, how did he die? And he said, he was at a gun range and he was apparently helping out a vet and he was shot to death on the gun range.
And my shock of that, I think the first thing I said is, what the hell is happening to us? Here is an American hero, a guy who is ‑‑ really will be talked about for 50 years. He is ‑‑ he really is our red baron. Everybody knows the red baron. The only reason why you know the red baron at this point is he was some sort of a flying ace. But this is our red baron. This is our defy who is a ‑‑ who has done stuff that nobody else in the history of man has ever done. The best sniper to ever live. And he makes it back, he writes a best‑selling book, it's a huge best seller, everybody reads it, he's everywhere. He doesn't take any of the money from that book. None of it. And what happens? He comes home, he takes that money, and he, instead of taking it, he gives it to an organization to help vets who are returning and are having a hard time adjusting.
I mean, here's a guy who really put his money where his mouth is. He takes his time. He's traveling, in three years that he's back from the Service, he travels all the time to speak and to help vets. He's constantly on the frontline of helping now. He spent his time in the military killing to protect. Then he comes back and he spends his time out of the military trying to protect. Trying to help. He gives all of his time and all of his money. Now he's a young guy. So he thinks, I'm going to be around for a long time. It's almost kind of the Tesla story where he gives up everything because he's like, you know, there will be something else. And then his time runs out.
So now his family is not protected. Now his family is in the position to where they don't have any money. And I suppose you could say, "Well, that was irresponsible of him," or you could say, "That guy just knew they would be taken care of." Our founders did similar things. They spent all of their time away from their children. I mean, John Adams was gone, gosh, I mean, how long was he away from his kids?
PAT: 14 years.
GLENN: 14 years he was away. And it's not like he's getting, you know, leave where he can come back. I mean, he's gone for 14 years. His kids didn't even know him. And our founders, because we've talked about it an awful lot, because we work very hard to do what we do. And if we were doing it for money, we'd be despicable people. We would. Because of the way we have ‑‑ the time that we have spent away from our family.
My sister is in town and she just ‑‑ I started to talk to her and she's like, stop it. Stop. I get it. And I said to her, I started to say to her, "I think about you every day and I love you so much and I want to call you every day. I want to talk to you. I want to spend time with you. I just don't have any time." And we have talked about, especially when we were in New York, that the Lord will make it up. Somehow or another he'll make up whatever deficit. As long as we're doing the right thing. As long as we're on his work. And we also have to keep things in perspective. And we've done all that we can do. He will make up the deficit.
Well, Chris did do all that he could do. Now, the Lord doesn't ‑‑ you know, all of a sudden it's not like, "Oh, my gosh. Hey, kids, money from heaven." That's not the way it works. We're his hands. Each of us. We were sent here for a reason. And we're his hands.
So I would like to ask, and I did earlier this week, and this audience is so amazing. I asked this week, can we help this family? Can we raise some money to honor his family, to help his family? Because Jesse Ventura is coming and suing the family because Chris said he punched him in the face and Jesse said that never happened. And all of the SEALs and everybody else that was there said, "Oh, it absolutely did happen," but Jesse Ventura's crazy. So once Chris dies, Jesse goes after the family and says, "I'm going to take the money from the estate." There is no money.
So Mercury One put together a fund, and Marcus Luttrell, the Lone Survivor, is putting together a trust so nobody can get this money except the kids. I asked you this on I think Tuesday. Here it is Friday and this audience in $10, $20 bills, has raised $375,000 ‑‑ $381 now ‑‑
STU: $383,000 now.
GLENN: $383,158 ‑‑ 300 ‑‑
STU: $383,158.
GLENN: $383,158. It's almost incredible what you've done, almost $400,000. My goal was to raise $500,000 and that's an incredible number. I'd really like to make a million because a million would take care of everything that they have, including the taxes, take care of everything that they would need to take care of, put their kids ‑‑ put his two kids through school and they wouldn't have to worry. His kids are 6 and 8. Could we be the Lord's hands here? Because the government's not going to do it. In fact, they are holding his funeral at Dallas Cowboys stadium on Monday and everybody's going to be there. Everybody's going to be there... except one. I don't believe the president of the United States is coming.
Now here we have an American hero. Here we have a guy who has saved countless Americans. He comes home. He self‑sacrifices. He dies at the hands of a guy he's trying to help: And our president isn't going to be there. I don't think he would be welcome anyway, but that's saying something.
We tried. We were going to cover and carry the live coverage on TheBlaze and ‑‑ but it's far too expensive for us to do it at this point. We felt it would be better because we made donations and we felt it would just be better to cover it not live but cover it in many different ways than spend all that money. We'd rather put ‑‑ I think we put $50,000 in towards the family, and I would like to ask you if you had $5 or $10 if you would go to MercuryOne.org and donate.
Now, there's something else. I'm taking my signed copy of his book, American Sniper. I collect rare books and signed books, and this one is signed by a legend, and he died. This one will be a definite collector's item, and I've taken it off of my library shelf, I only have one, and I am putting it up for auction on Monday, proceeds for the family. And I would ‑‑ I would ask on Monday that you would bid on it if you're interested, with all the proceeds going to them.
The other thing I asked my team last night, if we could make ‑‑ if 1791 could make ‑‑ because they make the best T‑shirts. They are just the greatest T‑shirts. And I asked 1791 if they would make a Navy SEAL heroes T‑shirt. All of the profits will go to the family, and that's available now. Just went up a few minutes ago at 1791.com. It's a blue T‑shirt, says "American Heroes" and has the SEAL triton on it. And that will go to Chris Kyle's family and also a portion of it goes to FITCO Cares foundation. That is his foundation to help Navy SEALs. I think the best way to honor him is to continue his work. Take care of his family first but also continue to take care of veterans. He believed in it so much, he died trying to do it. The T‑shirt is available right now at 1791.com, or you can make a direct donation at MercuryOne.org, or you can ‑‑ you can wait on ‑‑ until Monday and bid on that book as well. But we'd like to ask you to get involved.
You think the president ‑‑ I mean, I think I would be, quite honestly, you know, if this, if this president, if I would die ‑‑ and he wouldn't, but if I were his ‑‑ if this would happen to me and this president decided to show up, I think my family would ask him to leave. Because they would be like, "We don't want you here," only because it would become a circus and he would use it. He would use my death to wrap himself into it. And now I'm not saying that he would ever do it with me. I'm just saying if I were ‑‑ if I were Chris.
STU: Right.
GLENN: This president would come in there and use this funeral to make himself look good.
STU: Sure.
GLENN: So I don't even know if he would be welcome. I'm sure ‑‑ I can't speak for the family at all but I mean, I know there's a lot of guys ‑‑ I know there's a lot of guys in the SEAL community that, you know, are like, yeah ‑‑
PAT: Hard fans.
GLENN: Not really a big fan of this guy.
STU: I think the appropriate thing to be would be to let the family make that decision. If you want me there, I'm there.
GLENN: Right.
STU: I mean, if you're the president of the United States and this guy's done what this guy did for this country, I mean, you left that up to them. And you don't feel offended if they say no, but you're more than happy to be there if they want you there.
GLENN: You remember when the SEALs ‑‑ you remember when the transport went down and all those SEALs died and one of them, in his will, said I want Ted Nugent to play at my funeral?
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: And the president decided that he was going to come and so he just went, and he then said, "I don't want Ted Nugent at this funeral" and so he overrode the family and the dying wishes of the SEAL? It was in his will: I want Ted Nugent to play. And Ted was ready. Ted chartered a plane and he was like, I'm there. I'm there. As soon as he found out: I'm there. The president shows up and disinvites Ted Nugent and overrides the family. Can you imagine that? The balls this guy has.
If you're in Texas, come. If you're not in Texas, we'll ‑‑
PAT: Is it just open to ‑‑
GLENN: I think it's ‑‑
PAT: ‑‑ anybody?
GLENN: It's a funeral. So I think it's pretty open. It's not like they have 50,000 friends that are ‑‑
STU: Right. If you're going to Cowboys Stadium, I would assume you would, you know ‑‑
GLENN: I don't know if I'm ‑‑ I'm not involved in this at all. So I just know that it's at Cowboys ‑‑ I know that I'm going to be there and that's all I know. So I just assume that, you know, it's not like all the other churches were booked. But I don't know if there's another place, a smaller place in Cowboys Stadium that you could use? I don't know how that's going to work.
STU: Just as far as the fundraising goes, you might need to be a little diligent. I've been trying to do a donation here as we've been sitting here and it was not going through for much of that time because everybody's been pounding this website. So just, you know, it might take you a little time.
PAT: That's a great sign.
STU: I mean, that's a great sign. I mean, this audience does this every time we talk about these sort of things.
GLENN: Yeah, but this is different. My understanding, this is a faster raise of money than any of the hurricane stuff that we did, any of the stuff that we've done in the history of Mercury One. This is the fastest raise of money for anything. And I think it's because we relate to this guy and we appreciate not just him but all of the Navy SEALs. And we want them to know that we love them. You know, it's not just this guy.
You know that Marcus has buried 67 of his friends? Can you imagine that?
PAT: Yeah, it's incredible.
GLENN: In, like, five years that you have attended 67 funerals of people that you knew and loved and work with? My gosh, it just never ends. Never ends. Show this community that while the government may fail us, while the government isn't paying attention to our vets, while the government has a whole bunch of red tape, there's no red tape with us. And if you need ‑‑ if you want something that is a reminder of this, get the American heroes T‑shirt at 1791.com. Get the book off my shelf, my copy, only one I have. Get my copy on Monday. Or you can just make a donation at MercuryOne.org.
