When Private Pain Becomes Politically Weaponized - with Michelle Black

Barb Allen Speaks

Losing someone you love is painful enough even in "normal" circumstances. But imagine if that person's death was on video, published for the world to see, and then politically weaponized? Imagine if the people responsible were seen celebrating, and if the people who were supposed to have your back turned on you, instead?

All of that and more is what my guest on this episode went through.

Michelle Black is the widow of Staff Sergeant Bryan Black, one of the four Green Berets who died in Niger on October 4, 2017. The media reported the attack before the military informed her of her husband's death. Then bodycam footage of her husband's death was broadcast for the world to see - including Michelle, her two sons, her husband's parents, and the other family members of those killed alongside her husband. As if all of that was not difficult enough, the military also publicly denounced the actions of her husband's unit that day, implying that the Unit had "gone rogue" and had not been following orders.

That was the last straw for Michelle. Faced with her own grief and struggling to lead her two children through the very public pain they were in, Michelles still knew she had to do something to clear the record and restore her husband's legacy.

So while it would have been easier to simply dull her pain, Michelle turned into it, instead. She met with the men who served with her husband, and survived that ambush. She heard the truth behind what happened that day. She challenged military officials with that truth, and she withstood blistering assaults on her own sanity, in the course of this.

Michelle put everything she learned into a book. That book, titled "Sacrifice- The Green Berets, a Fateful Ambush, and a Gold Star Wife's Fight For the Truth, is available now.

In this interview with Micelle Black, Michelle shares her story as the widow of a man who, like so many others, gave his life in service of our country and its freedoms.
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