The Nick Bare Podcast
122: How Nick Lavery Returned to Combat as the First Above-The-Knee Amputee
Mon, 26 May 2025
In honor of Memorial Day, we sit down with Nick Lavery, a former Special Forces Green Beret who shares his remarkable journey from sustaining severe injuries in Afghanistan to becoming the first above-the-knee amputee to return to combat. Nick discusses the insider attack that led to his injuries, his unwavering determination to rejoin his team, and the disciplined, team-based mindset that guided his recovery and return.CHAPTERS:03:47 Nick Lavery's Book and Unique Audiobook Approach07:50 The Importance of Team and Mission12:09 The Genesis of 'The Machine' Mentality22:15 Nick Lavery's Journey to Becoming a Green Beret32:12 Humility and Emotional Regulation in Special Operations42:52 Understanding the ODA Structure47:27 Objective Secure: Tactical and Personal54:38 The Reality of Using a Prosthetic01:00:25 The Attack01:25:24 Life Changes and New Perspectives01:30:31 Embracing Failure as a Path to Success01:34:14 The Discipline of PreparationORDER NICK LAVERY'S BOOK:Objective Secure: The Battle-Tested Guide to Goal Achievementhttps://www.amazon.com/Objective-Secure-Battle-Tested-Guide-Achievement/dp/057835201XLISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK:https://open.spotify.com/show/4RnIeiCXa6KuIaTfVDOUgxPRE-ORDER MY UPCOMING BOOK GO ONE MORE HERE:https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210FOLLOW:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFEhttps://bpn.team/memberIG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness
Chapter 1: What happened to Nick Lavery in Afghanistan?
Today's guest is Nick Lavery, and I just finished having the conversation with Nick. And this was one of my favorite podcast episodes to date. On March 11th, 2013, Nick was stationed in Afghanistan, just weeks away from returning home from a deployment. And he was attacked from an insider attack, a green on blue situation and nearly lost his life.
And through that attack sustained multiple injuries that resulted in an above the knee amputee to his leg. Nick was the first above-the-knee amputee to return back to combat as a special forces operator, a Green Beret on a team, on an ODA. And in my conversation with Nick, we talk about his journey to becoming a Green Beret, the injuries he sustained from the attack
on his deployment, and then his journey back to duty, back to the teams. It's an amazing, remarkable story. Great values and lessons to take away from this conversation that you can apply to your life, regardless if you are in the military or not.
I am blown away by Nick and his life and his perspective and the way that he just ruthlessly attacks his goals by placing the mission first, placing the people first, placing the team first. So let's dive into today's episode.
Chapter 2: How did Nick become the first above-the-knee amputee to return to combat?
Nick, it's been a long time coming. Long time, man. Yeah. Welcome, brother. Thanks. Good to be here, man. I appreciate you.
Your story is remarkable. And I think that's the only way to describe it. And I use the word remarkable very rarely. I'm a big fan of the author, entrepreneur, speaker, Seth Godin. He's a world-class marketer. And he says that the word remarkable is so unique and should be used so rarely that it is almost the opposite of great.
You know, where good is the enemy of greatness and remarkable is the opposite of great. But, you know, I've read your book. I know... A lot of, not all of your story, but I just want to acknowledge before we dive into this conversation that what you've been through, what you've done, your mindset, your approach, your consistent effort to keep just driving forward, it is truly remarkable.
So it's an honor to sit here with you. Thanks, man. I appreciate that. You'll have me thinking about that.
remarkable is the opposite of great concept for a while that's i haven't heard that before but uh i'm humbled that you would even put me in the in the conversation of that man so i appreciate it no yeah thank you yeah it's something i think about often ever since i came across that like how unique that word is yeah and it should only be used like on that special occasion sparingly yeah yeah
So what I loved, I finished reading your book, Objective Secure, and I loved so many aspects of it. I found it so unique because I listened to the audio book. Oh, cool. I found the audio book approach so different and unique, the way that you and Eric kind of brought it together.
Yeah.
I really enjoyed it. Yeah. from like the extra kind of like podcast interview inclusions, but also the fact that like he read the parts that were very personal to you and you read the parts that were more objective guidance driven. How'd you come up with that concept?
I'm so glad you asked this question. I don't think I've ever really even shared this openly.
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Chapter 3: What is the 'Machine' mentality?
Yeah. Well, after reading the book, because you explained that in the beginning of the approach you guys took, and after getting through all the content, it makes so much sense because the one thing that I shared with our team internally after I read this book is how important an effective team is and not making the mission about yourself.
And you could have easily taken the approach of writing this book and recording the audio book and made it about yourself. Made it your story and positioning yourself as the hero. But you didn't. And I think that's what some of the best leaders do.
entrepreneurs and like brand builders do is they don't position themselves as the hero i learned this from author donald miller you don't position yourself as the hero you position yourself as the guide and the listener the viewer the consumer they are the hero and whether that was the intent or not i mean it's my assumption that's just one of your core values
That's what you did with this book where you could have very easily made it, I'm Nick Lavery. This is what I've gone through. Sympathize with me and listen to my story. But you didn't. It was like, I'm going to use this experience to guide and help people along the way. So after I read this, I went back to the BPN team. I sat with the brand team earlier this week.
And it just reinforced this value and lesson. That's really what I want to drive a lot of this conversation towards. It's going to be my objective in this discussion is that it's important to be the most effective, skilled, talented individual possible. But for what purpose and what reason? What is the why? And if you have a collective group of people, a team, if you will,
it doesn't matter how skilled or talented the individuals are. If they don't know how to contribute to the mission of the team, it's an ineffective team. And as I'm just letting this all sink in and think about it, how it's applicable to the military, but also just building a business and creating culture and building teams and operations and systems,
I end up on your website, Team Machine, and I go to the About section, and I read this. I'm like, oh, this just ties it all together, where it says, we believe that power exists in the collective rather than in the individual, that nobody achieves greatness alone, and that victory lies within the machine mentality, the team mentality. Can you just speak on that for a little bit?
Because I think that's so powerful and all of these people in the world right now are so focused on self-improvement. How do I become the best version of myself? How do I succeed? How do I win? But the reality is like we can do so much more as a team, as a collective unit.
Yeah, and I think that goes both ways. It works more in a cyclical fashion where individual development is essential, as you mentioned. No one can do the work for you. No one can get you up out of the warm, cozy bed. No one can put in the extra rep. No one can run the extra mile. Like you have to do that stuff yourself. So we do live quite aggressively in the realm of personal development.
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Chapter 4: What is the ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha) structure?
Chapter 5: How does emotional regulation impact special operations?
They don't necessarily have to be pursuing the exact same desired end state, but they have ambition, they have drive, they have a sense of passion and purpose. They're like going after life. Those are the types I would argue you want to kind of surround yourself within that circle. The whole machine mentality thing, it's a real interesting story.
I'll tell it quickly is on my first deployment back over back in Afghanistan, after I was wounded and lost my leg within a couple of weeks, the locals, as we were going out and doing our thing, started referring to me as Palawanemoshina, which is Dari for the machine fighter. And that just became like this nickname. And they're trying to process like all of this walking into their village.
And this can be a difficult thing to process here in Texas. You go to a place like that, and I'm like a cyborg from another planet, like Terminator 2, like reincarnated. So that's what became what they referred to me as. And it was kind of like a running joke.
And we'd go to a new village or a new area and like the kids would come out and they'd immediately be saying, oh, Palawanamashina, Palawanamashina. Like it's the machine is here. None of my teammates called me that. It wasn't a nickname. It was just kind of a thing while we were there. Next year, next deployment, we're in Eastern Africa. Same thing happens. So whole different part of the world.
And now the locals there and some of our partner force there are referring to me as machine. So that's kind of the genesis of it. It became about me as an individual. I kind of ran with that concept a little bit. because it was just tied to me and some of the things that I was able to accomplish. But then as I reflected on it more,
I'm like, I'm not where I am literally right now had it not been for hundreds of other people that enabled me to do the things I needed to do to then accomplish the things I just decided I wanted to accomplish. I'm not who I am without them. So I just continued to analyze this one word that kept coming out in my mind because it was being thrown at me so regularly. It's like machine.
I started thinking, what is a machine at the end of the day? If you use an engine of a truck, what is a machine? Well, machine is a series of different components that when brought together to work in harmony can create something powerful, like an engine.
So a machine is a singular entity, but what gives it its life force, its ability, is all these different components that have to work together together. in a system to then create the end state you're looking for. I'm like, that's what a machine is. It's not an individual, it's a team. So I see those words as almost synonymous and that's how we've continued to run with it.
But that being said, I'm really curious on your opinion and perspective about people who consider themselves self-made? How do you respond and react to that?
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Chapter 6: What are the challenges of using a prosthetic in combat?
I was John Rambo reincarnated when I graduated the Q course. And I got that little green hat on my head. And I'm like, all I need, guys, is a ride. And I'm going to fix this whole GWAT problem myself. Beyond confident, almost full-blown arrogance. And it took me a minute to kind of start to realize that humility is a bit of a superpower.
And those that are at the absolute best of their game absolutely have it and deploy it almost automatedly. I need to be more like that. I have a lot to learn, a lot to figure out. And there comes the honesty, the self-awareness, the gratitude, and some of those other elements of humility.
I don't know from personal experience, obviously, but I would assume- that could be common to newer green braids that join the team. Because you're the tip of the spear. You're brand new and it's like, you feel like you can dig down the world, but there's so much experience and wisdom to be gained and humbled along the way. So I'm going to get ahead of myself a little bit, but I'll bring it back.
I promise. You were talking about when you were on your first deployment back in after losing your leg, you were considered the machine. Did that put a target on your back when you guys went out into the villages, into the towns, into combat? Were people like, I'm going to take down the machine because of the way he looks in this vibe around you?
Yeah, there was an interesting... ongoing discussion about that exact thing. Once it became more and more of a trend and in those pockets of the world, while technology exists, you know, to a degree, it's mostly word of mouth as that spreads, but it moves fast. Like that line of communication can move fast because they've really mastered it over, you know, millennia in that area specifically.
There were discussions of this, of, hey man, like, are you this like known figure that's now maybe a higher threat risk to what we're doing because people want to capture you or kill you and say like, we killed the machine. Is this a concern that we need to have? And it was kind of thrown around almost jokingly at first.
And then towards the tail end of that first Afghanistan trip, it became like a legitimate discussion. So it was something we were cognizant of. It didn't affect what we did or how we did it. In fact, you had plenty of my team guy knucklehead brothers that were like, good, we want us to have an additional target because we want more people to come and try to play the game. They want to duke it out.
So it's like, great, let's make this louder so that we can go find ourselves in contact, which is also very common amongst team guys, especially in those environments. So- Was it a concern? I can't say it was a concern. It was something that we were aware of, but it really didn't change anything. It's like chumming in the ocean for sharks. Kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah.
06.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of 'Objective Secure' in Nick's journey?
Chapter 8: How does teamwork contribute to success in special operations?
I'm so glad you asked this question. I don't think I've ever really even shared this openly.
so eric and i um and to back up a little bit eric was really the genesis of this book project he brought this to me uh actually it was in 2020 and i was in dive school which ironically i'm wearing a combat diver t-shirt right now i was in dive school down in key west just getting my ass kicked it's a six-week course it's absolutely brutal and he calls me out of the blue and i'm hanging on by a thread down there physically and mentally i got a couple weeks left and
we go back and forth real quick. And he just says to me, Hey man, I've been thinking about this and I think you need to write a book. And I just hung up on him. I'm like, I am in no position to entertain anything even remotely close to this right now. followed up, eventually I decided to pursue it. It was in 2020, so we're mid COVID, all the gyms are closed, the fight house is closed.
So I have all this extra time and energy on my hand that I have to reinvest somewhere and decide to write the book. So it was even while I was writing the manuscript that Eric and I were talking about doing an audio book version together. We knew we wanted to do that together at some point. And then once we got to a position to be able to start taking that idea seriously,
The more obvious route to take would be for me to share kind of the more personalized stories and then Eric to read more of the objective stuff. That was the way we were going to do it. It was maybe a week before we went into the recording studio to record it. And I hit him up and I said, hey, man, I think we may be going about this the opposite way. Just hear me out.
I think they don't want to flip the script literally. And without hesitation, he goes, no, I think you're right. I was thinking the same thing. Because I want those stories to be able to be translated into the mind and the heart of somebody else.
And I thought that coming from a vantage point outside of my own could maybe enable that, but maybe more significantly, I wanted the emphasis of my voice, which is where most people are coming to the book for, to be driving at the points that I wrote that book to create. This is not, as you read, this isn't an autobiography. This isn't like the Nick Lavery story. There are
experiences i went through in there but my intent behind that was to drive the principles into people's minds so if we looked at it from what are they more likely to take away from what i read or what you read odds are i may have at least a slight advantage being the author i got this unique voice 51 49 me versus you what do we want to prioritize the stories or the associated messages it's the latter cool i'm going to read that
Yeah, I listened to your audio book after I recorded my audio book a few weeks ago. Okay. And I was like, shit, I should have done this different. It was genius. I almost wanted to go back and rerecord my whole audio book. But you know how painful of experience. It's tough. That is. Yeah, it's tough. Holy crap.
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