Scars and Stripes: An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself

This weeks book landed on my radar courtesy of Bad News Network, which has….sadly…gone off the air. BNN was a quick, weekly rundown of current news and events brought to us by Nick Palmisciano and Ranger Up. And since Nick co-wrote Scars and Stripes: An Unapologetically American Story of Fighting the Taliban, UFC Warriors, and Myself by Tim Kennedy and Nick Palmisciano, it should surprise no one that he mentioned it quite a bit in the months leading up to the release on June 7 before BNN went off the air. And the accompanying cocktail was an easy pick, it is Stars and Stripes which is 5 Blueberries, 1 oz blueberry vodka, ¼ oz absinthe, ¼ oz lemon juice, ¼ oz simple syrup, 1 dash raspberry brandy, ginger beer, and a sugar cube for garnish. So lets do this.

What can I say about this book…all good things. Truly, this is the sort of biography that just makes you think….

Yeah. That.

So this will be tough, because I want to sum up the book, without giving away any spoilers that makes people go…maybe I don’t need to buy and read this book, she already told me what’s in it. Not included is his DOB, which is basic biographical info on the internet, so let me try this.

Tim Kennedy was born September 1, 1979 in San Luis Obispo, CA and was the middle child and second son. He is, like so many of the best of us, Generation X. Hell yes. And the childhood he describes is pretty much like a million Gen X memes posted on Instagram or Facebook. You know the ones that say when I was five I died, and my mom made me walk it off. Or the ones that say I left at dawn on my bike to look at a dead body and all my mom said was don’t you bring a dead body back here. That’s the kind of childhood he had.

Which was pretty normal for generation X, we all grew up more or less free to do our own thing, as long as we didn’t kill anyone or bring home a dead body. Although, judging by the acknowledgement sections at the end of the book, his parents didn’t know half the stuff he got up to as a kid until, well, now. Which is also pretty common for Gen X.

Now, Kennedy was homeschooled, and his mom included things like cooking and fine arts, so his dad, for the PE portion, enrolled him in martial arts, and Kennedy started pretty young in the MMA world. As he points out in the book, MMA is mostly love of the sport on the amateur level, so pretty much everyone worked in addition to the MMA stuff, so Kennedy decided to become a police officer, like his dad. He made that decision while a teenager and where he grew up, you had to be 21 to join the force, so he started as an EMT, then became a firefighter at 20, then joined the police academy at 21.

Through a combination of Bad Tim Decisions, he ended up graduating the academy, but unable to join the police force, which, coupled with a bunch of other Bad Tim Decisions, led him to almost killing himself. I say almost not just because it obviously did not happen, but because I am not entirely sure, based on his description of events, that his heart was in the attempt, it’s just that, like all young dumb kids, by the time he realized how deep in the clink he was, the decision was almost made for him. Lucky for him and us, he was anti-climactically rescued at the last minute, thanks in no small part to an observant person who realized something was off, and called for help.

And shortly after that attempt, he got the call that the Army, which he had sought to join right after 9/11 but had not been able to start training because of the glut of recruits following that event, was opening up a new program, the 18 X-Ray program, which was intended to be a direct pipeline to special forces, for young guys who already had a pre-dilection towards athletic ability, which was actually the same program Edward Snowden was in before injury had him medically discharged from the Army.

Unlike Snowden, Kennedy went all the way and eventually graduated the program, joining his first special forces team in Iraq, just in time to help with the missions to take down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was the number two guy in al Qaeda, right behind bin Laden, and a seriously bad guy. Look, I know there are a lot of people who think we had no business ever going to the middle east, and some days I am one of them. Then I read books like Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote about the serious problems with fundamentalist Islam and I think…

So, personally, I remain mixed on this one. I typically ascribe to the libertarian non-aggression principal, and I know that America is not exactly completely innocent here, although it’s been better than a decade since I read Ghost Wars by Stephen Coll, and would need to re-read it to review it and draw the connecting dots, but by and large, fundamentalist Islam is not conducive to life in a free society. As laid out quite concisely in Hirsi Ali’s book. Anyway, back to this one.

After returning from Iraq, his boss in the Army tells Kennedy that to be even better at his job, Kennedy needs to complete Ranger training. And because of Bad Tim Attitude early in Iraq, the boss says if you don’t graduate first in your class, don’t come back. Which kind of pissed Kennedy off but also kind of lit a fire under his buttocks to be all he could be, and he finished Ranger training top of the class. Then he finished sniper training and went to Afghanistan.

H O L Y S H I T! His chapters in Afghanistan were some of the most edge of the seat reading I’ve been through in a while. About the only saving grace that kept me going is that we know the hero lived…because he then wrote this book. And I could not help but think…and I mean absolutely no disrespect to Kennedy or any of our troops…but the real heroes are their wives…who send their men overseas knowing they might never see them again. So military wives….Ginger Kennedy…Skol!

Now, intermittently, sort of peppered throughout his military career, Kennedy continued MMA fighting as a side gig. And sometime after returning from Afghanistan, shortly after a televised MMA fight, his chain of command decided he had to pick between the army and MMA fighting. And after some soul searching and some serious heart to heart with friends, he resigned from active duty and transferred to the TX Army National Guard, so he was still in the military service, but no longer full time, leaving him to pursue MMA full time.

While they were both military, MMA is where Kennedy and Palmisciano connected, and Ranger Up was one of if not the absolute first sponsor that Kennedy had in MMA. He does, throughout the book but especially in the chapter called Prizefighting, go into the highs and lows of MMA as a sport, and he explains why and how he went all in, and why and how he decided to hang it up.

And when he decided to hang it up after a pretty messed up loss, and I agree he was robbed on that one, Kennedy started exploring other career options. One thing he tried was Hollywood. Not exactly the typical, I’m going to be a star type, but he was cast in some reality shows, which he talks about some, then the talks A LOT about Hunting Hitler, which he was a part of for all three seasons. Since I don’t have cable television, I didn’t know what that was, and I had to look it up, and it’s on my watch list now. Also, yes. Hitler died in the bunker. Put a bullet in his head. And had those in the bunker burn his body so it couldn’t be used as a trophy. That was covered in Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. And I think when I was in Berlin a VERY long time ago, I was told Russia has his skull. Anyway, he talks about Range 15, which if you haven’t seen it, definitely has the makings of a cult classic, right up there with Evil Dead and Cemetery Man. I saw it in the theater with my husband and laughed so hard I cried. Good times.

And then, because he is not content to just play a hero on TV…probably because he is a real-life hero, Kennedy has started his own company…companies… one of which is Sheepdog Response, which teaches personal self-defense, among other things. And he helped work on private task force with DeliverFund to help combat human trafficking. That chapter also broke my heart. But philanthropically, I believe I read in there that if you are a survivor of human trafficking, you can take the course for free. Which is amazing. I think I read that in there. For the love of God, I’m only reviewing the book. If I’m wrong on that memory, that’s on me, please don’t blame Sheepdog Response or Tim Kennedy for my booze-soaked brain.

And because he…and Nick…are real life heroes, in August 2021, when the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan occurred, they both went to Afghanistan to help with evacuations. As civilians. How many of us, sitting safely at home here, did that? On the flip side of that tart statement…how many of us would have been nothing more than a liability in that situation? Probably better if we stayed home. But we can help solve the problem by turning over our elected officials this November. Just saying…first recourse is the ballot box.

This book was SO GOOD! It was just a roller coaster from the word go and I lost track of the number of times I laughed, then cried, then laughed through tears, as he just pulls you along on this wild ride that has been his life. And all the lessons he learned throughout it. Sometimes he’ll explicitly spell out the lesson, and other times, you have to infer it from context, but the lessons are there. Today’s generation needs some of these lessons. And I LOVE how he truly was humble enough to know when he messed up, but cocky enough to be honest about it. A rare combination that not everyone can pull off. And he’s nowhere near done yet! Seriously, I want a sequel. And I want a Nick book. I want to know about West Point, Duke University, Ranger Up, and where’s Nick now? We’ve heard nothing since BNN went dark. I miss BNN.

If I had two things, I would want to see in a second edition, they would be this. A page of acronyms. I’m pretty savvy with military acronyms thanks to my day job, but there were a couple I had to stop and google. So, a page at the very front of the book with the acronyms listed out and what they mean would be great for the civilian fans of Nick and Tim. And I would LOVE to know the colonel’s name…the one in Afghanistan. Read the book, and you too can be frustrated by Nick and Tim’s professional discretion.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on June 19, 2022, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.