The Armored Heart
How a Green Beret Learned to Lead with Love—and a Shoelace
Two Green Berets run a series of marathons tied together by a shoelace. One of them is blind, the other a man who carries death without feeling it, which is part of why the Army kept promoting him.
Fred Dummar was twelve when his brother John died and twenty when his sister Anna died. He enlisted at seventeen and spent the next thirty years becoming a man who could carry death without feeling it, which is part of why the Army kept promoting him. Then in 2003, on the open ramp of a C-130 over the Black Sea as he flew through the night into the invasion of Iraq, he felt a hand on his shoulder that belonged to no one and a voice telling him not to be afraid. It was the most real thing that had ever happened to him. He told no one, then he led from it anyway, encountering Kurdish fighters, Green Berets, Afghan commandos, and a task force pulling people out during the fall of Kabul. He called it leading with love and never once talked about the source. In 2007, another Green Beret, blinded in Iraq, handed him one end of a shoelace and asked him to run. It took thousands of miles over the next decade, and everything that happened in it, before Fred could name where the love came from.
Fred "Doom" Dummar
Fred "Doom" Dummar spent twenty-nine years in the Army, retiring as a colonel in 2015. He enlisted at seventeen and spent most of his career in Special Forces, fighting alongside Kurdish Peshmerga, commanding Green Berets, and advising Afghan commandos. He has run marathons tethered by a shoelace to Ivan Castro, a fellow Green Beret blinded in Iraq. He writes Guide to Human on Substack. He and his wife Rebecca have four children.
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