When Governor Rick Perry announced he was running for president there were two bearded men standing behind him: Marcus and Morgan Luttrell. Marcus Luttrell was (as much as you can ever use the word “was” in this context) a Navy SEAL and the sole survivor of Operation Red Wings. His story was made into a bestselling book and popular movie called Lone Survivor.

Perry has a long history with Luttrell, a history that speaks to Perry’s class and humanity.

Before he became immortalized as the “Lone Survivor,” a Navy SEAL­ who escaped a 2005 Taliban ambush on a mountain slope in Afghanistan, Marcus Luttrell was a broken man in search of a haven.

He found it one day in spring 2007 when, struggling to recover his body and mind and with the horrors of war still raw, he showed up unannounced at the Texas governor’s mansion and asked to see Rick Perry.

Over the ensuing months, a virtual father-son relationship blossomed, the two men said. The governor and his wife, Anita, helped bring Luttrell back to health. Perry used the power of his office to find Luttrell a spine surgeon to fix his back. The Perrys gave him a spare bedroom — “I was the creepy guy in the attic,” Luttrell recalled. The governor took him bass fishing, the first lady counseled him about his love life and, as Luttrell became ­famous — first with a best-selling memoir, “Lone Survivor” and ­later in the movie adaptation — they were his rock.

“When I came into the Perry family, it was one of those deals where it was the only family I had,” said Luttrell, who was born in Houston and grew up in Texas near the Oklahoma border. “I didn’t have that father figure growing up like that, somebody who genuinely cared about me. . . . Governor Perry taught me how to be a good man.”

Luttell being a white male combat veteran — and neither gay nor transexual — caused some confusion. I’ll give you Sean Davis from The Federalist:

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced the launch of his 2016 presidential campaign today, complete with a freshly painted C-130 behind him and Navy SEALs to his left and right. An editor for the far-left publication The Nation (editor– this is George Zornick @gzornick), however, was completely perplexed by the men, one of whom was portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in the blockbuster hit Lone Survivor.

…

Zornick wasn’t the only one bewildered by the men standing with Perry, though. Zac Petkanas, a Media Matters executive who previously served as the communications director for the disastrous Texas gubernatorial campaign of Wendy Davis, also had no clue who Luttrell was.

…

It didn’t stop there, though. An editor for the liberal outfit ThinkProgresswas also completely baffled as to the identities of the men standing with Perry. Judd Legum wondered aloud why this strange man he didn’t recognize looked “so glum”.

And then you have the various leftwing twits on Twitter weighing in. Ana Marie Cox took valuable time out from thinking about anal sex to send this:

And then there was this asshat:

Marcus Luttrell, American hero but to the left he is a “sweaty security guard.”