Taya Kyle, wife of “American Sniper” Chris Kyle, joined Breitbart News Daily on Tuesday to discuss her new book, American Wife: A Memoir of Love, War, Faith, and Renewal.
A recent New York Times article described “a widening rift among Navy SEALs, provoked by what leaders and many in the ranks describe as rampant commercial and personal exploitation of a brotherhood that once prized discretion.” The Naval Special Warfare Command has asked its operators to cut back on public appearances, while the Pentagon felt it necessary to restrict their involvement with movies, TV shows, and video games.
Taya Kyle saluted her late husband’s quiet humility, and said he embraced the older SEAL tradition of calm, kindness, and stoic courage.
“He just would not be ruffled, and he was aware of everything, but he did bring that sense of calm in a chaotic situation, and he also brought the sense of fun in stressful situations,” she said, after SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon recalled how Chris Kyle’s security company swooped in to save the day for him years ago, when a film premiere drew an unexpectedly massive crowd, and security was suddenly needed.
She recalled how people meeting Chris for the first time found his “humble and kind” demeanor “disarming,” given his fearsome reputation as a Navy SEAL sniper.
Taya hoped that her book would help teach the virtues of humility and perseverance to “men and women, in service and out of service” by sharing her journey of discovery with Chris — a journey in which the couple came to understand that “life just delivers hits – not just one big one, but multiple hits, and I think we’re all kind of looking, how do we have love in the midst of all our trials and tribulations? How do we keep our faith? How do we find renewal?”
She said that to her, as for most people, renewal is a “revolving door,” because she doesn’t know anyone who gets their life completely on track and says, “Good to go, everything’s good, boy, you’ve finally arrived at your destination, and everything is smooth sailing.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Kyle observed. “It’s a constant adjusting, and constantly trying to make sure that you’re the best person you can be, and you’re the kindest person to the rest of the world that you can be, and to not let the suffering that you have impact who you are to the world, because we all suffer, and I think people need to remember that. Hopefully we’re not victims, we’re just all on this journey together, and we all take our hits. So how do we help each other?”
Taya said that her husband’s humility was one of her favorite qualities about him. “He was a cowboy, and he just never cared for fancy things. He was a humble person by nature,” she said. “One of the things that’s cool is the SEALs, their insignia has the eagle’s head bowed, and it’s the only place you see it, in America’s symbolism, that the eagle’s head is bowed. That’s to represent humility. That’s ingrained in them too: ‘We are quiet operators, we don’t get recognized.’”
She said that tradition of quiet, humble strength persists despite the SEALs higher visibility in news media and pop culture. “If you do hear a SEAL who’s bragging about being a SEAL, chances are he’s one of those guys that the rest of them are like, you know, shying away from, because he’s not living the code or the creed,” she advised.
“The majority of them are very humble. Certainly Chris was, to the point where it was disarming, and it was beautiful,” Taya recalled. “Even having a book out, which is not something he wanted to do – it was something other people were writing about him. That’s one of the reasons he wanted to give all the money away, was to show ‘this isn’t about me, it’s about the other people.’”
“People would meet him at book signings, and they’d say sometimes, you know, their knees were shaking, or they were really nervous, and he’d be like, ‘Man, you should see mine. Mine are too.’ Because he wasn’t used to being in front of people. It wasn’t his comfort zone. But he handled it really well,” she said.
In addition to her book, which now has a paperback edition available in popular bookstores across the country, Taya Kyle recommended listeners pay a visit to the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation website, to support the foundation’s mission of “helping the marriages of first responders and veterans.” She said she is also keeping Chris’ Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages up and running
“Those sites end up being sort of a joint effort of people supporting each other,” she said. “It’s been pretty cool. I really love to see the connections that are being made, for the work that we’re doing too. It makes it feel like it’s definitely worth our time that we’re putting into it, but it’s also a good way to honor Chris’ life, and I think that’s important.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00AM to 9:00AM EST.
You can listen to the full interview with Taya Kyle below:
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