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Speaker 1: So it's a memorial Day, and obviously on moremorial day,

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Speaker 1: we take a moment, We take a day to remember

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Speaker 1: the fallen, to remember the heroes who have paid the

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Speaker 1: ultimate sacrifice to defend this nation, defend our country. We

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Speaker 1: honor the families who have lost loved ones in the

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Speaker 1: pursuit of freedom to protect this great country. But beyond

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Speaker 1: taking the time to remember, shouldn't we also reflect? And

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Speaker 1: shouldn't we also reflect on mistakes that we've made as

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Speaker 1: a country and things we could change moving forward, and

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Speaker 1: being more judicious with the lives of our military men

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Speaker 1: and women. Shouldn't the people in charge shouldn't their sole

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Speaker 1: duty with our military men and women be to avoid casualties,

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Speaker 1: avoid sending them to unnecessary wars, so that we have

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Speaker 1: less men and women who have to pay the ultimate

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Speaker 1: sacrifice in the pursuit of freedom. So that's why I

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Speaker 1: wanted to do this Memorial Day. Not only honor the

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Speaker 1: fallen and honor their bravery, and honor the people who

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Speaker 1: give everything this country that they love and that we love,

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Speaker 1: but also take a time to reflect. And one of

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Speaker 1: those wars is Afghanistan. You know, it was the longest

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Speaker 1: war in American history twenty years. We lost so many

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Speaker 1: service members, so many service men and women in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: So what are the lessons we could learn there, What

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Speaker 1: should we take from that and do differently moving forward?

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Speaker 1: And who better to talk to than Sean Parnell. He

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Speaker 1: is a former US Army airborne ranger who served in

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Speaker 1: the legendary tenth Mountain Division for six years, retiring as

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Speaker 1: a captain. He received two Bronze Stars, one for valor

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Speaker 1: and a Purple Heart as well. He wrote the New

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Speaker 1: York Times best selling book Outline Platoon, and he also

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Speaker 1: wrote Man of Ward. Outlaw Platoon details his sixteen months

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Speaker 1: in combat in Afghanistan. Sixteen months in combat in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: While he was there, his platoon repeatedly was outnumbered, repeatedly outgunned,

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Speaker 1: and they displayed such tremendous bravery, to the point that

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Speaker 1: over eighty five percent of his platoon received Purple Hearts

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Speaker 1: for wounds that they incurred in battle. Sean was also

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Speaker 1: injured in battle, day in and day out, fighting for

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Speaker 1: freedom in the mountains of Afghanistan. He was twenty four

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Speaker 1: at the time. Can you imagine being twenty four and

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Speaker 1: leading a platoon in the mountains of Afghanistan, day in,

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Speaker 1: day out, outnumbered, outgunn fighting bravely and fearlessly next to

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Speaker 1: your brothers in the military and in the Army. So

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Speaker 1: we're going to get Sean Parnell's take on what lessons

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Speaker 1: we should learn from Afghanistan, what we could be doing

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Speaker 1: different moving forward, and how we can truly honor, to

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Speaker 1: the best of our abilities, the men and women who

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Speaker 1: have paid the ultimate sacrifice and the pursuit of freedom.

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Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy this conversation.

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Speaker 1: He's an absolute hero, and he's an absolute badass, Sean Parnell,

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Speaker 1: Sean Hearnell, you are such a badass and such an

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Speaker 1: American hero. It's an honor just to have you on

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Speaker 1: the show. So I really appreciate you taking this time.

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Speaker 3: Oh well, thanks, Lisa. I don't know if i'd call

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Speaker 3: myself a badass, but I was in the Army for

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Speaker 3: a time and I was surrounded by badasses every day,

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Speaker 3: so I guess I was pretty lucky.

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Speaker 2: I'll call you bad ass. I'll be the one.

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Speaker 1: I'll do it because you can be humble. I will

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Speaker 1: take the humility out of it for you. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're recording this before but this is going to air

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Speaker 1: on Memorial Day and obviously a day to honor the

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Speaker 1: individuals and so many who have paid the ultimate sacrifice

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Speaker 1: and the name of defending freedom, defending this great country

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Speaker 1: that we love. But shouldn't we also take this time

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Speaker 1: to learn lessons from, you know, wars like Afghanistan, and

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Speaker 1: also use it as a time to be more judicious

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Speaker 1: in sending our military men and women to war.

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Speaker 3: I think so, I mean, and you know, I think

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Speaker 3: I think it speaks directly to the importance of you know,

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Speaker 3: warriors coming back, you know, American men and women who

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Speaker 3: fight our wars coming back and being involved with regards

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Speaker 3: to where our country goes and the decisions that we

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Speaker 3: make pertaining to the future of America and the wars

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Speaker 3: that we get ourselves involved in. You know, after I

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Speaker 3: spent time in Afghanistan back in two thousand and six,

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Speaker 3: in two thousand and seven, we were there for what

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Speaker 3: like twenty years. You know, it's a long long time

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Speaker 3: that I think most of America, America, it's difficult to

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Speaker 3: wrap your mind around that length of time, you know,

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Speaker 3: And so I feel like, you look at what happened

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Speaker 3: in Afghanistan and all the blood, the treasure that we

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Speaker 3: spent there. Right after twenty years there, you look now

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Speaker 3: and it's like, well, what do you have to show

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Speaker 3: for it? You know? And look, I tell you this, like,

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Speaker 3: I'm proud of my time in Afghanistan. I don't regret

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Speaker 3: it for a second. I joined after September eleventh. One

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Speaker 3: of the best experiences of my life was serving this country.

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Speaker 3: So I am not a victim in any way. I'm

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Speaker 3: a volunteer and I would do it all again in

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Speaker 3: a heartbeat. And I'm proud of what we did in Afghanistan,

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Speaker 3: you know. But I and critics, critics would say, you know,

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Speaker 3: when I say, well, what'll we have to show for

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Speaker 3: critics would say, well, look, I mean, you know, look

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Speaker 3: at what you do, what you built for the Afghans.

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Speaker 3: You wells in the villages. You know, little girls know

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Speaker 3: how to read, and you know, boys are part of

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Speaker 3: the economy now and they understand what what freedom, freedom is,

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Speaker 3: even if it was just for a brief time. And

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Speaker 3: I would just say that, yes, that is all true,

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Speaker 3: but I would rather have my friends alive, you know.

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Speaker 3: And you look at what's happening today and the Afghani

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Speaker 3: things in Afghanistan just collapsed what like less than a

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Speaker 3: year ago, Lisa, right like August twenty twenty one, And

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Speaker 3: it seems like you have members of Congress on both

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Speaker 3: sides of the Aisle, in the House and in the

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Speaker 3: Senate that are clamoring to go right back into the

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Speaker 3: fight in Ukraine, which from a geopolitical standpoint is it's

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Speaker 3: far more complicated than Afghanistan. Without even taking a breath

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Speaker 3: after the Afghan War and saying, wait, is this really

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Speaker 3: worth it? Should we take time to hit the reset

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Speaker 3: button as a country and figure out if, if this

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Speaker 3: fight is worth Americans dying for, Because that's the question

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Speaker 3: that American moms and dads need to ask themselves, Lisa,

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Speaker 3: is like, is Ukraine so important that you are willing

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Speaker 3: to sacrifice your son or daughter for that. If the

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Speaker 3: answer to that question is no, then we shouldn't be

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Speaker 3: doing anything for Ukraine. And look, Lisa, I feel bad

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Speaker 3: for the people there. My heart aches for the civilians

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Speaker 3: and children who are caught in the middle. Like this

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Speaker 3: is not me saying like we should ignore it completely,

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Speaker 3: Like nobody, like a few people in this country understand

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Speaker 3: that the humanitarian disaster and people stuck in the middle

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Speaker 3: of the flight than me. I get that, But but

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Speaker 3: again I would say I would rather have American sons

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Speaker 3: and daughters alive. You know, I think we need to

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Speaker 3: take care of ourselves here at home a little bit. First.

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Speaker 1: We just see politicians, you know, beating the drums of

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Speaker 1: war with Ukraine, and Joe Biden said something today about

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Speaker 1: Taiwan about you know, you should take military action. But

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Speaker 1: you just hear these politicians and it almost there's a

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Speaker 1: callousness to it, to be honest, because it doesn't take

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Speaker 1: into account that, as you pointed out, it's would they.

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Speaker 2: Send their son or daughter?

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Speaker 1: You know, it just it doesn't take intoccount Like I

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Speaker 1: just lives, American people should be the most important to us.

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Speaker 1: That lives, the precious lives our military men and one.

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Speaker 1: It should be the most important to us, and it

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Speaker 1: just doesn't. It doesn't seem to be the case. And

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Speaker 1: it makes me sad.

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Speaker 3: Look, you're right, Lisa, I mean, you're right. It's I

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Speaker 3: think part of the problem is that you you only

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Speaker 3: have zero point four percent of the people in this

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Speaker 3: country who served this country during Iraq and Afghanistan, so

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty years of war, so longest period of war

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Speaker 3: in American history, only point four percent of the country

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Speaker 3: actually experienced what it means to protect and defend freedom.

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Speaker 3: And so I think as a result, you have, you know,

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Speaker 3: most of America, ninety nine percent of America who enjoy

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Speaker 3: freedom on a day to day basis in this country,

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Speaker 3: and you have less than half of one percent who

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Speaker 3: protect it. So there's there's a significant gap between those

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Speaker 3: two groups. And I think that's part of the reason why,

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Speaker 3: you know, you have politicians who really never served anything

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Speaker 3: but themselves for the majority of their lives, talk so

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Speaker 3: callously about sending American sons and daughters into the fight

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Speaker 3: because the reality is they don't have any real understanding

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Speaker 3: of what that means for American families who are actually

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Speaker 3: doing the fighting. Like, for example, when I got back

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Speaker 3: from Afghanistan, a sixteen month combat deployment, sixteen months, like

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Speaker 3: four hundred and eighty five days, It's like if you

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Speaker 3: had a kid, it's like, have a good first grade year,

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Speaker 3: have a good second grade year. I'll see you on

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Speaker 3: your way to third grade. That's crazy, you know. And

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Speaker 3: you know, we got back, we hit the reset button.

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Speaker 3: You know, most of we weren't even back for a

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Speaker 3: couple of weeks, we already had to go right back

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Speaker 3: down to Fort Polk, Louisiana. So we got back home,

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Speaker 3: hugged our families, went back to do trading down to

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Speaker 3: Fort Polk, Louisiana, and prep for another combat deployment to

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Speaker 3: Afghanistan that was nine months later. I mean, it's an

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Speaker 3: incredibly heavy burden that we that we place on a

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Speaker 3: very very small percentage of Americans, and most of the

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Speaker 3: time our politicians are unaffected by that. But I guess

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Speaker 3: it sounds cool when you're up there at the podium,

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Speaker 3: you know, hey, of China invade Taiwan, like We're going

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Speaker 3: to get involved militarily, with no real understanding in the

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Speaker 3: geopolitical consequences or the all out for the American people

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Speaker 3: or how that would affect people who serve. I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's it's just irresponsible, especially Lisa, when you consider just

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Speaker 3: how much suffering there is here within our own borders

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Speaker 3: at home that I think a lot of our attention

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Speaker 3: should be focused on.

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Speaker 1: Well, and I think President Trump really changed at least

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Speaker 1: my thinking on foreign policy because what he was able

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Speaker 1: to show us is that you can be strong, you

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Speaker 1: can flex muscle, you can deter the bad guys without

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Speaker 1: setting troops, without invading, without beating the you know, the

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Speaker 1: the drum beat. For Warren, you can do it like

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Speaker 1: he did when he was sitting with President she, you know,

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Speaker 1: having chocolate cake, telling him he's sending fifteen done tamahook missiles.

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Speaker 2: This ye it right.

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Speaker 1: It's such a fall or remove or striking these peace

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Speaker 1: deals on the Abraham Accords. It just changed the way,

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Speaker 1: you know, I thought about things because he just showed

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Speaker 1: us a different path.

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Speaker 3: He really opened my eyes to you know, there there

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Speaker 3: is a different way, you know, and when you're in Washington,

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Speaker 3: I mean really, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, there

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Speaker 3: there is group think right where everyone sort of thinks

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Speaker 3: the same way about a lot of things. And I

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Speaker 3: think that's why you hear a lot of people talk

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Speaker 3: about the uniparty, you know, where you have you know,

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Speaker 3: people like you know, as ideologically different as Adam Kinsinger

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Speaker 3: and Ted Cruz both talking about the importance of defending Ukraine,

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Speaker 3: to even certain Democrats talking about the importance of defending

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Speaker 3: our ally Ukraine even though they're not an ally. You know,

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Speaker 3: it's like you see, you see these certain groups of

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Speaker 3: people that think alike, Lisa, And what I always admired

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Speaker 3: about President Trump is it takes an unbelievable amount of

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Speaker 3: mental toughness to resist that type of pressure and group

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Speaker 3: think right and and Washington, President Trump was I mean, gosh,

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Speaker 3: at any given moment in d C. In the White House,

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Speaker 3: both Republicans and Democrats were fired up in anger at

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Speaker 3: President Trump for different reasons. And that's what I admired

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Speaker 3: about him the most. And that's ultimately why I think

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Speaker 3: the American people sent him there, Because there is a

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Speaker 3: level of dissatisfaction in this country that if people just

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Speaker 3: got outside the Beltway or New York City or LA

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Speaker 3: and they took a stroll through you know, Middle America,

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Speaker 3: they would feel that sense of discontent about the direction

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Speaker 3: of our country. And President Trump tapped into that. And

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Speaker 3: you look at what he was able to accomplish in

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Speaker 3: four years in the face of I mean, what that

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Speaker 3: man faced in the White House was criminal. It was criminal.

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Speaker 3: I mean, now we're learning of what Hillary Clinton did,

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Speaker 3: it was like maybe legitimately criminal, I don't know. But

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Speaker 3: the things that he was able to accomplish in four

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Speaker 3: short years I never thought possible. And you know, the

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Speaker 3: Abraham accorrors and peace in the Middle East. Never thought

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Speaker 3: that was possible, but he did it. And yeah, like

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Speaker 3: you said, it really opened my eyes to a new

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Speaker 3: way of being and that you know, we don't have

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Speaker 3: to deploy and get locked down and like it almost

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Speaker 3: become cliche now in these in these forever wars, but

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Speaker 3: that's really what they are. I mean, twenty freaking years

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Speaker 3: in Afghanistan is a long time. I mean twenty years.

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Speaker 3: I mean think about it like this, Like I'm forty

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Speaker 3: years old. That's half of my life. We were in Afghanistan,

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Speaker 3: like half of my life. The only profession, the only

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Speaker 3: thing that I've known is war in Afghanistan. Lost thirty

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Speaker 3: five plus friends there. I mean, that's a long time.

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Speaker 3: And I think what President Trump showed us was that

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Speaker 3: it doesn't have to be that way. We can still

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Speaker 3: have peace as long as we're focused on the right

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Speaker 3: stuff and focusing on ourselves at home. And unfortunately, a

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Speaker 3: year and a half of Joe Biden, he's unraveling that

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Speaker 3: pretty quickly.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I never thought it could get this bad. This,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's really sad. But I but

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Speaker 1: I honestly think I think the turning point for him

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Speaker 1: was because you know, people thought he would restore order,

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Speaker 1: he do all these things, and obviously people like us

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Speaker 1: knew he wasn't going to do and he wasn't capable

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Speaker 1: of it. But his ratings really started to take a

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Speaker 1: nose dive after Afghanistan. And it was the disastrous exit,

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Speaker 1: the abandoning like the Bagroum airfield before getting our people out,

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Speaker 1: getting thirteen service members killed, leaving Americans behind, And I

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Speaker 1: think that was the turning point.

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Speaker 2: And when that all was going down.

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Speaker 1: You tweeted out that the Afghan toabacles on the suits,

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Speaker 1: not the boots. Talk about that disconnect in the military

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Speaker 1: between the suits and the boots and how that played

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Speaker 1: out with Afghanistan so disastrously.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it was so frustrating to me. And part of

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Speaker 3: what I do like coming back home after I got

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Speaker 3: back from Afghanistan was there was realizing very quickly that

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Speaker 3: a lot there are a lot of men and women

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Speaker 3: here who serve this country that needed help. And you know,

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Speaker 3: there's a way in which you come back from war,

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Speaker 3: and war changes you and some pretty deep and fundamental ways,

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Speaker 3: and you get you know, you come back and you

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Speaker 3: meet and talk to your family and you feel like

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Speaker 3: your family doesn't know you because you've changed, and you

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Speaker 3: talk to your best friends. And there was a moment

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Speaker 3: for me like where I'm from Pittsburgh and so like

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Speaker 3: the first thing I do when I get back from

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Speaker 3: Afghanistan is like text my buddies, you know who I

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Speaker 3: went to college with and stuff. And like I open

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Speaker 3: up my like little flip phone and text them and

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Speaker 3: they text me back their address and like look at it.

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Speaker 3: Read the address. I'm like, oh my gosh, Like these

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Speaker 3: dudes are still living in the same address they've been

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Speaker 3: living at for ten years, and I just got back

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Speaker 3: from Afghanistan feel like a totally different person show up

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Speaker 3: at their I show up at their apartment. I walk

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Speaker 3: in and like they're like all sitting in the same

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Speaker 3: spots on the couch, like drinking the same Iron City beer,

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Speaker 3: talking about the same girl problems. And I'm like Simpson's

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Speaker 3: posters on the wall and family Guy magnets on the fridge,

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Speaker 3: and I'm thinking to myself, like, oh my god, like

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Speaker 3: nothing has changed here at home, but I'm a different

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Speaker 3: person in every way. And so if I was feeling

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Speaker 3: like that, there are probably millions of Americans feeling like

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Speaker 3: that who come home for more and just feel like

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Speaker 3: they're different, and maybe they feel like exiles in their

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Speaker 3: own country. And so I started doing everything I could

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Speaker 3: to make sure that, like the war is really what

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Speaker 3: I guess I'm getting to Lisa, is that the war

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Speaker 3: for a lot of veterans really starts when you get home.

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Speaker 3: And I wanted to just help veterans come home in

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Speaker 3: the most productive way possible and not just survive on

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Speaker 3: a day to day basis, but but really but thrive,

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Speaker 3: you know. And when I tweeted that about Afghanistan, about

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Speaker 3: it being on the suits and not the boots, was

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Speaker 3: really it was in that spirit, because I knew there

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Speaker 3: would be a lot of veterans thinking like, what the

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Speaker 3: hell was all this for? You know, why the hell

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Speaker 3: did I Why did I lose my best friend in

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Speaker 3: this country? Why did I go to this country and

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Speaker 3: sacrifice a piece of myself there? You know? Why did

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Speaker 3: we do all of this just to have some moron

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Speaker 3: in the White House throw it all away? Because I mean,

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Speaker 3: quite honestly, he's a bumbling idiot. Leadership matters, and he's

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Speaker 3: a commander in chief, so that the term commander predisposes chief.

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Speaker 3: His job at first and foremost an obligation to our

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Speaker 3: American military, and it was a dereliction of duty of

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Speaker 3: the highest order of what he did in Afghanistan. And

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Speaker 3: it's not just it's not just leaving Americans behind, which

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Speaker 3: is horrific, horrific enough, right, I can't even believe I

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Speaker 3: have to say this, but the sacrifice that twenty years

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Speaker 3: of Americans bled the ground red in Afghanistan just to

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Speaker 3: seed it back to the Taliban in a few weeks.

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Speaker 3: I mean, that's a that's a crime. It's a crime,

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Speaker 3: and it's it's gonna do unbelievable moral damage to people

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Speaker 3: who served there, that the ramstifications of which I don't

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Speaker 3: think we fully understand yet. And so it's just like

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Speaker 3: unbelievable to have to witness the fall of Afghanistan in

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Speaker 3: the speed at which it fell here in America after

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Speaker 3: having been there for twenty years. And again, never ever, ever,

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Speaker 3: ever would have happened under President Trump, or really any

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Speaker 3: American president that could speak in coherence sentences without having

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Speaker 3: to read off a sheet of paper. I mean, just unbelievable.

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Speaker 3: And you can't help but think, you cannot help but

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Speaker 3: think like I used to joke around in the campaign

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Speaker 3: trail when I was running for the House in the Senate,

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Speaker 3: well mostly when I was running for the Senate, but

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Speaker 3: about like just to utter incompetence. But I don't think

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Speaker 3: it's incompetence. I think it's I think it's intentional. I

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Speaker 3: think that this is you can't be this good. I mean,

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Speaker 3: he's Joe Biden in his administration, a bunch of Obama

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Speaker 3: appointees two point zero right back in the White House,

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Speaker 3: some of which are Sermont in the same cabinet positions.

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Speaker 3: It's like they're unbelievably efficient, ruthlessly efficient at destroying almost

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Speaker 3: every pillar in this country, I mean every pillar the country.

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Speaker 3: Like it's unbelievable that the level of which they're failing.

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Speaker 3: And I think Afghanistan was just one of those pillars.

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Speaker 1: Well, I think we all just felt such amount of

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Speaker 1: shame with the way that we exited, just the loss

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Speaker 1: of military men and women, or those thirteen service members

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Speaker 1: and just leaving Americans behind. Quick commercial break back with

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Speaker 1: Sean Parnell on the other side, talked about sort of

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Speaker 1: you know, the challenge with coming home when you've been

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Speaker 1: at war like that out I'll say one of the

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Speaker 1: most rewarding experiences I've ever had in my career was

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Speaker 1: doing an honor ear flight for Vietnam war vets from

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Speaker 1: Wisconsin for Fox and Friends. And I went on this

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Speaker 1: trip with them, and I'll tell you it was just

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Speaker 1: such a movie experience talking to these like big, strong

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Speaker 1: guys who were just brought to tears of just feeling

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Speaker 1: the honor of having served because they didn't get the

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Speaker 1: welcome they deserved when they came home. And so just

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Speaker 1: doing the interviews with them and seeing these you know,

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Speaker 1: grown men and you know cry and just it was

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Speaker 1: just incredibly moving and I learned a lot from it.

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Speaker 1: It was just a really you know, humbling and just

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Speaker 1: incredible experience, you know, spending time with them and just

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Speaker 1: being able to bless them and being part of this

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Speaker 1: with the trip.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, Vietnam vets are I mean, we owe them

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Speaker 3: so much, and obviously because as you mentioned, they didn't

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Speaker 3: have the welcome home that we did. And so much

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Speaker 3: of the reason why my generation was welcomed home was

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Speaker 3: because after like what these Vietnam what the Vietnam era

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Speaker 3: went through, they made themselves a promise and never allow

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Speaker 3: another generation to veteran to experience what they did, and

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Speaker 3: because of that, like we had by and large, a

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Speaker 3: very positive homecoming, you know. And when I talk about

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Speaker 3: feeling like an exile in your own country, I should say,

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Speaker 3: like almost everybody that you talk to says thank you

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Speaker 3: for your service. I am not again, Like, we're lucky

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Speaker 3: to live in a country like America and come home

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Speaker 3: to people that appreciate you. And that that is because

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Speaker 3: of Vietnam veterans who went through hell when they came back,

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Speaker 3: went through hell in combat, through hell, and they came

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Speaker 3: back and then but didn't give in. And they they

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Speaker 3: they made a promise to you know, subsequent generations of

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Speaker 3: Americans when they came home from the fight, and that

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Speaker 3: promise was to never allow what they went through to

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Speaker 3: happen again. And I mean, really, my generation is standing

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Speaker 3: on the shoulders of giants with them and World War

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Speaker 3: two veterans and Korea veterans before them. So yeah, we're lucky.

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Speaker 3: We're lucky to live in this country. But there's still

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Speaker 3: a lot of work to do, that's for sure.

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Speaker 2: I can't imagine how it doesn't change you.

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Speaker 1: I particularly some of this stuff uf that you endured,

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Speaker 1: you know, I know you very humbly. You know, didn't

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Speaker 1: take me saying that you're, you know, a complete badass

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Speaker 1: and a hero, But you really are. I mean, you

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Speaker 1: retired a highly decorated captain. You're awarded two bronze stars,

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Speaker 1: one for valor and a purple Heart. You wrote the

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Speaker 1: New York Times best selling book, Outlaw Platoon. It's about

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Speaker 1: your time serving as commanding the Army's tenth Mountain Division

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Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. As you mentioned, you served in combat for

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Speaker 1: sixteen months. You guys were repeatedly out numbered, repeatedly outgunn Yeah,

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Speaker 1: your platoon killed over three hundred and fifty enemy fighters.

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Speaker 2: Why do you think your platoon.

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Speaker 1: Was able to be so effective in the face of

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Speaker 1: so much That's a great question.

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Speaker 3: I think when you look at the things that the

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Speaker 3: American military can bring to the fight, you know, like

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Speaker 3: we've got lots of cool and sexy technology, Like we've

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Speaker 3: got great guns and weapons, and we've got air superiority

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Speaker 3: helicopter and fixed wing aircraft and all that. Believe me

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Speaker 3: when I tell you all that really really helps. But

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Speaker 3: I think really our secret weapon was the love and

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Speaker 3: brotherhood that we shared for one another. You know, we

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Speaker 3: we spent a lot of time training leading up to

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Speaker 3: our deployment in Afghanistan, and I feel like I was

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Speaker 3: very blessed to lead one of the most diverse platoons

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Speaker 3: that you can imagine. And it's funny when you hear

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Speaker 3: a lot of these politicians talking about diversity in America

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Speaker 3: being a strength, and it's like, well, of course, diversity

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Speaker 3: is a strength, but not in and of itself. What

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Speaker 3: makes America so truly exceptional is that we unify beyond

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Speaker 3: like our many differences, right, It's not just diversity for

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Speaker 3: diversity's sake. And really, my platoon was a microcosm of

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Speaker 3: that strength. Like we had black next to whites, Christians

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Speaker 3: next to atheists, Democrats next to Republican, rich next to poor,

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Speaker 3: young next to old, or we were like as wildly

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Speaker 3: different as you can imagine. Yet there were no real

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Speaker 3: hyphen There were no hyphenated Americans out there in Afghanistan

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Speaker 3: patroling those those mountains. And it was the very fact

433
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 3: that I think we were able to put aside all

434
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:16,439
Speaker 3: of our differences and unify beyond them into one cohesive

435
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:19,920
Speaker 3: fighting force. That that that was what allowed us to

436
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:24,359
Speaker 3: go through sixteen months of absolute hell. Sixteen months of

437
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:30,879
Speaker 3: heavy combat and and make it. You know, you know,

438
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 3: we made ourselves a promise. I think what drove us

439
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:36,880
Speaker 3: every day on the battlefield, Lisa, it was was the

440
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 3: fear of of not the enemy, but the fear of

441
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 3: letting each other down. You know. I would have soldiers

442
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:48,359
Speaker 3: that would get that would get shot in the head.

443
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 3: A soldier that got shot through his helmet, his helmet

444
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 3: slowed the round down enough where it penetrated his skin

445
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 3: but not his skull, and skirted around the side of

446
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 3: his doll and back out the other end. And that

447
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,400
Speaker 3: guy went back to the base, wrapped his head up,

448
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 3: and was back out on patrol twenty four hours later. So,

449
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:16,600
Speaker 3: when you're when you're serving with men or Americans that

450
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:19,719
Speaker 3: have that much like that, the level of toughness and

451
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 3: tenacity and dedication to duty that someone that someone like

452
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 3: that has, how do you fail somebody like that? Like

453
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 3: if you twist an ank, or you you take some shrapnel,

454
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 3: or you get maybe a shot, but it's a grazing wound,

455
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,800
Speaker 3: Like how do you how do you how do how

456
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 3: do you not saddle up when you're surrounded by men

457
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 3: like I just described? And so it was the fact

458
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,400
Speaker 3: that we were able really to unify beyond our many

459
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,880
Speaker 3: differences in fear of letting each other down. That really

460
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 3: drove us to accomplish I think, extraordinary things and and

461
00:25:53,800 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 3: really I mean it, like my platoon really just accomplish.

462
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,159
Speaker 3: It was just one unbelievable triumph of the human spirit

463
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 3: after the next. I mean, we were not like Navy

464
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 3: seals or anything. You know, we were light infantrymen. So

465
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:12,119
Speaker 3: we were in the tenth Mountain Division and we were

466
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,399
Speaker 3: light infantry. I mean, we were real well trained and stuff.

467
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:19,360
Speaker 3: Don't get me wrong, but you know, we weren't special forces.

468
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 3: You know, the most of the jobs that a lot

469
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 3: of these kids had, like prior to carrying a machine

470
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 3: gun and the mountains of Afghanistan, the job prior to

471
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,880
Speaker 3: the military is like high school shortstop. Yet these kids

472
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,760
Speaker 3: were It's just accomplished unbelievable things. And I think it's

473
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 3: because we relied on one another, and that's what's what

474
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,360
Speaker 3: allowed us to get through it all.

475
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,199
Speaker 1: And you're twenty four at the beginning right of this standing.

476
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 2: I mean, how do you do that at.

477
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,160
Speaker 1: Twenty four and be responsible for all these brave men

478
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: that you just talked about I mean, what an incredible

479
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:54,200
Speaker 1: amount of responsibility.

480
00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 2: I was an idiot when I was so so God

481
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:01,119
Speaker 2: did you do that? But how do you know?

482
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:04,399
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know. You just you know.

483
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 3: I had a conversation with my mom, uh when I

484
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 3: got back from Afghanistan and maybe a couple of years after,

485
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 3: and my youngest brother, I'm the oldest of four, and

486
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 3: so my youngest brother was like like helping my middle

487
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 3: brother move down to Texas or something like that or

488
00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 3: and my mom was like, Oh, I'm nervous that your

489
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,199
Speaker 3: younger brother, Andy's gonna have to drive drive, you know,

490
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:29,439
Speaker 3: his brother's car all the way down to Texas. And

491
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:32,880
Speaker 3: I'm like thinking, like, ma, Andy's twenty three years old,

492
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 3: Like I think he'll be all right. I was leading

493
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 3: people in Afghanistan at twenty three years old, you know,

494
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:42,440
Speaker 3: So I don't I don't know, you know, yeah, yeah,

495
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,239
Speaker 3: it was just like it was just something that we

496
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,239
Speaker 3: were laughing about it, you know, I don't after So

497
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:52,720
Speaker 3: I think part of that, Lisa is like I was

498
00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 3: a sophomore in college when nine to eleven happened, and

499
00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 3: that that hit me that like, like it did millions

500
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 3: of other Americans, you know, And I think if you

501
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:05,199
Speaker 3: live through nine to eleven, you can probably tell me

502
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 3: exactly where you were and what you were doing and

503
00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 3: what you had plans to do that day. And the

504
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,280
Speaker 3: only thing like I was kind of like a I

505
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 3: was kind of a screw up as a kid, Like

506
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 3: my grades were okay, but I didn't really know what

507
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 3: I wanted to do as an elementary education major. But again,

508
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:22,919
Speaker 3: as a sophomore in college, I must have changed my

509
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:27,120
Speaker 3: major a few times. Like, but when nine to eleven happened,

510
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,399
Speaker 3: I knew that I wanted to join the army, go

511
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 3: in the infantry, go to airborne school, go to ranger school,

512
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,679
Speaker 3: like be on the front lines of our collective response.

513
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 3: And you know, I just knew. I knew it in

514
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 3: my heart of hearts that that was that was the

515
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 3: path that God intended me to walk at that specific

516
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 3: moment in my life. And that's I think. I think

517
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 3: this is my faith in God and that that was

518
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:01,000
Speaker 3: my purpose. I think that that's how I was able

519
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 3: to do it. And you know, twenty three, twenty four

520
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 3: years old, when you when I just feel like, when

521
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 3: you know what path you're meant to walk, and you

522
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 3: know that like, no matter how bad things get, this

523
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 3: is where you're supposed to be. I've got no regrets.

524
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 3: I just think it gives you a sense of clarity,

525
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 3: you know, about what you're supposed to do. And and

526
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,760
Speaker 3: in my case, it was lead troops in Afghanistan at

527
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 3: twenty three, twenty four years old, you know, and as

528
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 3: horrible as that combat was, I mean, seriously, like we

529
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 3: we like anythink back to two thousand and six. You don't,

530
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 3: I don't know if you were doing stuff at Fox

531
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 3: back then. I sure as hell wasn't that.

532
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 1: I mean, it was like a staff.

533
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 3: I can't.

534
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think twenty four.

535
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 1: I think it was like working on Capitol Hill doing

536
00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:52,960
Speaker 1: you know, like nothing of nothing like you were doing.

537
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 2: It wasn't a note. I'll tell you how much you know.

538
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean we're probably we're probably the

539
00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:01,120
Speaker 3: same age, you know, I am, so I'm a little

540
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 3: older than you.

541
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 2: I'll take those couple of years.

542
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 3: But you know, I don't know. I feel like it

543
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 3: was the path I was I was meant to walk,

544
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 3: you know, and you know, get back and you see

545
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 3: I was able to take a company command and then

546
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 3: did a Battalian Attachment Command, and so at the age

547
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:25,000
Speaker 3: of twenty eight years old, I ended up being in

548
00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 3: charge of like eighteen or nineteen hundred like people, where

549
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 3: I was in charge of training young soldiers to go

550
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 3: to war and taking care of the wounded when they

551
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 3: came home, and then looking after the families who were

552
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 3: left back at home, and then ultimately doing the casualty notification,

553
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:45,480
Speaker 3: which was ten times worse than combat. So I've seen

554
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 3: both sides of the fight. I've seen I've seen combat

555
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 3: up close and personal, and I've seen the fallout here

556
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 3: at home. And what I was saying earlier is that,

557
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 3: like no one expected michaeltoon or are, experience in Afghanistan

558
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 3: leads to be like what it was like if you

559
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 3: think back to two thousand and six and if you

560
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:08,880
Speaker 3: were a congressional staffer working on the hill or something

561
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:11,960
Speaker 3: like that back then, then you know, the talk back

562
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 3: then was the Iraq War and whether or not there

563
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 3: were weapons of mass destruction there or should we should

564
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 3: George W. Bush send more troops to the surge in

565
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 3: Iraq or not, should we even be there or not?

566
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 3: So at the time, Afghanistan was just a stability and

567
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 3: support operation. We had no idea what we were getting

568
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 3: ourselves into, and man, like we just got thrown into

569
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 3: the meat ground. Or we were an eastern Afghanistan about

570
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 3: five clicks five kilometers from the Pakistan border. Our mission

571
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,040
Speaker 3: was like about as simple as you can. You can

572
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 3: get find Asama bin Laden, close with and destroy the enemy,

573
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 3: that's it. And man, we just got attacked every single day.

574
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 3: We were outnumbered every single day. I mean my base,

575
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 3: my base probably we took four thousand rockets in four

576
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty five days, four thousand, you know, hundreds

577
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 3: of direct fire engagements. We just sort of this like

578
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:13,160
Speaker 3: got thrown in there. You know, so much of the

579
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 3: focus of this nation was on Iraq that we couldn't

580
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 3: even get up armored humbis because all it was going

581
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 3: to Iraq. Like we were supposed to come home after

582
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 3: a year, we got extended for four more months, sixteen months.

583
00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,240
Speaker 3: Why because the soldiers that were supposed to replace us

584
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 3: in Afghanistan got sent to Iraq and supported the surge.

585
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 3: So we were sort of like an afterthought and we went

586
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,960
Speaker 3: through absolute hell and ultimately, Lisa that that's why I

587
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 3: wrote the book, because I thought to myself like, oh

588
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:46,480
Speaker 3: my god, like nobody knows in this country, and nobody

589
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 3: knew how bad Afghanistan was way back in two thousand

590
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 3: and six. Nobody. And I just felt like it was

591
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 3: my job as the leader of that platoon to make

592
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 3: sure that the legacy of my soldiers that was kept alive.

593
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,400
Speaker 3: And you know, even if Outlaw Platune ended up being

594
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 3: a word document on my computer that I emailed all

595
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 3: of my troops that like maybe once every ten years

596
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 3: we read through and drank beers or whatever like that

597
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 3: would be that's worth it. At least their experiences on

598
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,600
Speaker 3: the page preserved forever. I didn't know that. I didn't

599
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 3: know that it would take off and become a bestseller

600
00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 3: in its first week, and I was I feel like

601
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 3: I was also lucky. It was also maybe it was

602
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:29,280
Speaker 3: a state when out Laul Patune came out. Do you

603
00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 3: remember that story way back in the day where soldiers

604
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 3: at Bagram'm got in trouble for like burning a Koran

605
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:37,600
Speaker 3: or something like that, and that was like all over

606
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 3: the news. It was like headline news for like a week. Well,

607
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 3: outlawl Butatoon came out at that exact time, and I

608
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 3: was like the young kid with an Afghania with a

609
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 3: new Afghanistan book, and you know how that goes on

610
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 3: Fox News stuff like that. Like I was a duke

611
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 3: guy with the books, so I was able to go

612
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 3: on there and promote it and the rest is history.

613
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 3: I was just, it was just it was just a

614
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 3: blessing to be able to have that opportunity own tell

615
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 3: tell the story of my troops.

616
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 2: You had talked about.

617
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 1: You know, obviously we had superior you know, equipment, being

618
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: the US, but you're on their terrain and you're in

619
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 1: the mountains. How difficult is it to try to navigate

620
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:15,839
Speaker 1: that when you know you're you're on their home base, right,

621
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 1: you're in their mountains.

622
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 3: That is that's another great question. It was. It was ridiculous.

623
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,120
Speaker 3: I mean, it's another thing about Afghanistan. Like if you

624
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 3: want to go back to a time where Jesus Christ

625
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,759
Speaker 3: walk the earth, had the AK forty seven, like the

626
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 3: icon walkie talkie type radio and a pickup truck, and

627
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 3: you've got Afghanistan there. When we were there, there was

628
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 3: like one paved road in the entire country, no running water,

629
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:45,439
Speaker 3: no electricity, no economy. All all fighting age males would

630
00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:48,799
Speaker 3: do all the men in the villages that we were

631
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 3: around would cut down wood all summer and prep for

632
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:54,600
Speaker 3: the winter, and that was it. That's all like there

633
00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 3: was nothing, nothing, and it's just all tribal. And so

634
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 3: when we were where we were in Burmel, like Burmel District,

635
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:06,279
Speaker 3: was that we were in the valley, our base was

636
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 3: in the valley, but fighting up in the mountains. I

637
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 3: mean we're probably at fourteen fifteen thousand feet there, you know,

638
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 3: in the Hindu Kush mountains. And so if you if

639
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:16,240
Speaker 3: you're like a football fan, that's like playing a football

640
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 3: game at Mayahai Stadium times three. And the enemy that

641
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 3: we faced over there again, like you hear the media

642
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:30,680
Speaker 3: talk about and you certainly saw this during the collapse

643
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 3: of Afghanistan, but the media talks about the Taliban as

644
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:37,239
Speaker 3: if they're a monolithic force and they are not. I mean,

645
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 3: you have so many different enemy factions that you face

646
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 3: over there on a day to day basis, whether it's

647
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:48,839
Speaker 3: the Heikkani Network or Hekmatia or al Qaeda or Taliban

648
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:51,839
Speaker 3: or just crimes that happened on a day to day

649
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:54,680
Speaker 3: basis like any other country. That like any other country

650
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 3: in the world. And as a young leader you've got

651
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 3: to like navigate all that somehow be almost like you know,

652
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 3: an ambassador, an American ambassador with a gun, you know,

653
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:10,160
Speaker 3: ready on a moment's notice to either you know, fire

654
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 3: your weapon in defense of your troops or cradle a

655
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:17,360
Speaker 3: baby in a village where you're doing a humanitarian distribution.

656
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 3: I mean, it was one of the most complex, rugged

657
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 3: environments that I certainly have ever been in. And you know,

658
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:26,839
Speaker 3: you add to that the fact that all of those

659
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:31,720
Speaker 3: enemy factions that I just told you about, like most

660
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 3: of those most of the enemy that we faced in

661
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 3: Afghanistan cut their teeth against the Russians in the eighties

662
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:41,719
Speaker 3: and then fought in the Afghan Civil War in the nineties,

663
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:44,399
Speaker 3: and then against us in a post nine to eleven era.

664
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:49,720
Speaker 3: And you know, the average Afghan that we were fighting

665
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:53,600
Speaker 3: had ten years combat experience on an eighteen year old

666
00:36:53,600 --> 00:37:00,239
Speaker 3: American private. You know, this was not a group of

667
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:05,680
Speaker 3: farmers with pitchforks or some sort of bragtag insurgency that

668
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 3: they just mustered up at the last second. Now, the

669
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:12,800
Speaker 3: people that we fought there, the level of tactical acumen

670
00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 3: that they displayed on the battlefield on a day to

671
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 3: day basis was just as good, if not better than us,

672
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 3: And they weren't weighed down with one hundred pounds of

673
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,720
Speaker 3: gear like we were, and they knew the terrain better

674
00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 3: than we did, at least initially, because what you know,

675
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:32,640
Speaker 3: as obviously, being in Afghanistan for sixteen months sucked something fierce.

676
00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:37,000
Speaker 3: It was horrible. But what was interesting is this, I

677
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 3: don't mean to sound crass, but we killed so many

678
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:44,920
Speaker 3: of them over there that we were getting intel in

679
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,759
Speaker 3: May of two thousand and seven that Pakistan families were

680
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:52,120
Speaker 3: sick and tired of sending their sons into the fight.

681
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:56,279
Speaker 3: They were no longer going to commit male fighters to

682
00:37:56,360 --> 00:38:00,319
Speaker 3: the war in Afghanistan. And what we saw is that

683
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:02,319
Speaker 3: a lot of the new fighters that had replaced the

684
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 3: older ones that we had killed didn't know the terrain

685
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,919
Speaker 3: as good as us. So it was a real odd

686
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,719
Speaker 3: dynamic where at first they were better than us, they

687
00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 3: were faster than us, they knew the terrain, but slowly

688
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 3: over time, because we never broke contact, we never surrendered,

689
00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 3: We always pressed the enemy. We would never give them

690
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:24,040
Speaker 3: that moral victory on the battlefield. We just slowly whittled

691
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,160
Speaker 3: away at their force and killed them one by one

692
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 3: to the point where at the end of sixteen months

693
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:32,879
Speaker 3: we knew the terrain better than they did. And all

694
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,799
Speaker 3: of this culminated in an attack probably in January. It

695
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:41,600
Speaker 3: was early January of two thousand and seven. We had

696
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:44,240
Speaker 3: built my Peltooia had built or my company had built

697
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 3: the first combat outpost. And I'm sure you've seen, like

698
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:51,440
Speaker 3: you know, can't remember some of the movies' names that

699
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,320
Speaker 3: the movie where you see in Afghanistan a combat outpost

700
00:38:55,360 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 3: getting overrun. Probably every year after I was in Afghanistan,

701
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:04,120
Speaker 3: a combat outpost had been overrun, Lisa, and and like

702
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 3: I was highly critical of that strategy because like all

703
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:11,040
Speaker 3: they would be manned with almost no combat power, with

704
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 3: like a squad and all they would they would just

705
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:17,399
Speaker 3: be simply relegated to a defensive position. There and all

706
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 3: along the border of Afghanistan you had like a main

707
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:22,840
Speaker 3: base with what they call cops, like combat outposts, and

708
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 3: it almost looked like a modern day version of the

709
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 3: magine O line, thinking like, well, if we have all

710
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 3: these bases along the border, there's no way the enemy

711
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,800
Speaker 3: will be able to get bias and that's complete BS.

712
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,799
Speaker 3: So anyway, like they tried to attack this base that

713
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 3: we had built, and we ended up kill killing I

714
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:41,600
Speaker 3: think like two hundred plus fighters just in that one

715
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 3: engagement decisively because we caught them just prior to them

716
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:50,360
Speaker 3: kicking off the attack. And I mean, I would wager

717
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,960
Speaker 3: to say that from a strategic and tactical standpoint, back

718
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:55,880
Speaker 3: in two thousand and six and two thousand and seven,

719
00:39:56,040 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 3: we had we had decisively won the fight in Afghanistan.

720
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,279
Speaker 3: And then we shifted from a counter terror emission, which

721
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:07,560
Speaker 3: the basic premise of a counter terror mission is going

722
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 3: after and killing the enemy, and through killing the enemy,

723
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:14,600
Speaker 3: you secure the people to counterinsurgency mission, like after the

724
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 3: surge in Iraq. You know, I think there are the

725
00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 3: strategists that would say that surge in Iraq was successful.

726
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:23,359
Speaker 3: I think I would tend to agree at least that

727
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,879
Speaker 3: in the moment back then, it was pretty successful. Well,

728
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 3: they tried to implement that exact same strategy in Afghanistan,

729
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:32,480
Speaker 3: which is an entirely different country, and once we shifted

730
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:37,720
Speaker 3: to counterinsurgency, we lost the initiative and Afghanistan went slowly

731
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 3: downhill from there.

732
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 1: We've got more of a Memorial Day episode, But first,

733
00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 1: since October seventh, the attacks on Israel have increased, with

734
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 1: Iran and its proxies launching an attack of hundreds of

735
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:51,000
Speaker 1: drones and missiles. Israelis are living with the harsh reality

736
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 1: of terror every day. The International Fellowship of Christians and

737
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,400
Speaker 1: Jews is on the ground now addressing all ergent needs

738
00:40:56,640 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: and that's why I'm partnering with IFCJ today well praying

739
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,200
Speaker 1: for the best. IFCJ is preparing for the worst by

740
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:05,239
Speaker 1: packing emergency bomb shelter kits that can be delivered immediately

741
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 1: to those in desperate need. Your life saving donation today

742
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 1: will help assemble and place these kits with enough food

743
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 1: and life saving emergency supplies for twenty people huddled in

744
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:14,240
Speaker 1: a bomb shelter.

745
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:15,880
Speaker 2: The cost to put.

746
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 1: Together and distribute these kits is two hundred and ninety

747
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:21,239
Speaker 1: dollars each. Your gift now will help save lives, and

748
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: thanks to a matching challenge gift from a generous IFCJ supporter,

749
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:27,360
Speaker 1: your gift will double an impact to help provide twice

750
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 1: the support. The number to call to make your gift

751
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,279
Speaker 1: is eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ. That's eight

752
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:36,799
Speaker 1: eight eight four eight eight IFCJ or four three two

753
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: five or go online to support IFCJ dot org to give.

754
00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: That's one word support, IFCJ dot org. Take us back

755
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,319
Speaker 1: to you know, June tenth, two thousand and six, your

756
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:52,280
Speaker 1: your your platoon was out numbered by almost ten to one,

757
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 1: ended up leaving you with injuries.

758
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:56,920
Speaker 2: You know, talk about that day and what happened.

759
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:02,440
Speaker 3: So June tenth, we had been tasked, we're tasked with

760
00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 3: finding a high value target, and we had been out

761
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:09,799
Speaker 3: for a week up until that point. And we sat

762
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 3: up and what we call an observation post, and we

763
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 3: were just watching infiltration routes from Pakistan into Afghanistan. We

764
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:21,240
Speaker 3: knew that this al Qaeda leader was using a cave

765
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 3: complex to navigate from Pakistan into Afghanistan, which is how

766
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:29,320
Speaker 3: he was avoiding like our intelligence and reconnaissance and surveillance drones.

767
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:32,680
Speaker 3: So we pershed up on the hill. We laid our

768
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,320
Speaker 3: sites in on this cave site which which he thought

769
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 3: he was using, and set in for the night. Woke

770
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 3: up the next morning and all throughout the night I

771
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:46,600
Speaker 3: applauded target reference points and confirmed them with our base.

772
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:49,880
Speaker 3: That target reference point is like when you've got artillery

773
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:52,800
Speaker 3: at your base, you want to be able to artillery

774
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 3: is basically like big guns, and you want to be

775
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:56,239
Speaker 3: able to get those guns into the fight as fast

776
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,720
Speaker 3: as humany possible should you make contact with the enemy,

777
00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 3: and the best way to do that is not like

778
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 3: trying to plot it in the middle of a fight, right,

779
00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:06,880
Speaker 3: I think is the best military commanders would look at

780
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 3: a map and pick key terrain and say, okay, this

781
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:13,520
Speaker 3: hilltop here is key terrain. If the enemy takes this hilltop,

782
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 3: they'll be able to attack us here easily. So I'm

783
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:18,759
Speaker 3: gonna plot this hill it's target reference point one. And

784
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 3: then you can coordinate with the with the guns and say, look,

785
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:24,640
Speaker 3: this is my target reference point one. When I say

786
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:27,000
Speaker 3: fire TRP one, this is what I mean, and you

787
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:29,799
Speaker 3: just you set in target reference point one through ten

788
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 3: prior to even leaving, and so I had been I'd

789
00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:35,960
Speaker 3: studied those throughout the night. The sun crested the hill

790
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:39,960
Speaker 3: the next morning, and I remember walking out and looking

791
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:44,359
Speaker 3: at some mountaintops to directly to our east that were

792
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 3: a lot higher than the one that we were on,

793
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:49,000
Speaker 3: and I just thought to myself, that's not a good

794
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 3: tactical position to be in. And so I don't have

795
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,799
Speaker 3: the man power to occupy those hills with troops. In

796
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 3: a perfect world, you would just occupy terrain that was

797
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 3: higher than you with boots. But I didn't have that.

798
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,880
Speaker 3: I just had one platoon. So I figured I'd occupy

799
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,600
Speaker 3: those hilltops by fire, and if enemy was watching us,

800
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:10,799
Speaker 3: they would think twice about setting in there, because I

801
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:13,319
Speaker 3: know that I have those positions dialed in. And so

802
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:16,920
Speaker 3: I fired those target reference points with my forward observer,

803
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:21,960
Speaker 3: watched those watched the rounds land on point and on target,

804
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:26,399
Speaker 3: and I remember walking back to my truck and it's

805
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 3: just like somebody threw a veil over my entire world,

806
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,839
Speaker 3: and I remember. I don't remember much, but I do

807
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 3: remember waking up in a smoldering hole about twenty feet

808
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:43,760
Speaker 3: from where I had been standing, laying flat on my back,

809
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,840
Speaker 3: and I couldn't see, I couldn't really hear, but I

810
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:51,880
Speaker 3: could feel this stinging on my face and it just

811
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,880
Speaker 3: felt like like like someone was slapping me. And as

812
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,759
Speaker 3: I blinked my eyes open, I see one of my

813
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:02,839
Speaker 3: team leaders, Tim Stalter, slapping me and trying to get

814
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:06,520
Speaker 3: me to wake up. And I finally wake up, opened

815
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:08,879
Speaker 3: my eyes. I look at him. He's got this big

816
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:11,279
Speaker 3: smile on his face. I'm like, what do you smile at?

817
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:13,879
Speaker 3: What's going on? He goes, Sir, He's like, you got

818
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:17,040
Speaker 3: blown the f up, And he started laughing, like what

819
00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:20,920
Speaker 3: the hell is he laughing at? And I remember just

820
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:23,440
Speaker 3: like looking beyond him at these trees, because we had

821
00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:25,839
Speaker 3: these big, huge trees up on the hilltop with us

822
00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:27,640
Speaker 3: that a lot of my men were taking cover behind,

823
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:30,759
Speaker 3: and the tops of these trees that looked like they

824
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:35,040
Speaker 3: hadn't been touched since the prehistoric era, they were just

825
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 3: getting blown to smithereens, like just crazy. And I remember

826
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:42,960
Speaker 3: looking to my left hand, which was shaking, and it

827
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,680
Speaker 3: just like kind of laying in the Afghan dust, and

828
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:51,600
Speaker 3: I could see rounds landing between my fingers, like like

829
00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:54,399
Speaker 3: the level of fire that we were being hit with

830
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,920
Speaker 3: was like nothing I've ever seen before or felt before

831
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,200
Speaker 3: like it like I felt like laying there on the

832
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 3: ground with one of my souldiers on top, like if

833
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 3: I moved even one centimeter to the left of the right,

834
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 3: I'd get shot. And that's how heavy the fire was.

835
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:12,040
Speaker 3: And I remember looking to my left and I see

836
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 3: my platoon Sergeant Greg Greeson, and his back is like

837
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 3: covered in blood and he's pointing to himself like saying

838
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 3: that he's hit. And all around my perimeter. I had

839
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,239
Speaker 3: five gun trucks on the hilltop that day, and I

840
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,719
Speaker 3: had twenty four soldiers on the ground along with one interpreter.

841
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 3: But all along the perimeter, at every one of my trucks,

842
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 3: almost everybody was hit. Like my platoon sergeant was hit.

843
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:37,960
Speaker 3: He's my number two and chain of command. Squadly Er

844
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,960
Speaker 3: Phil Baldwin was shot in the leg. He wasn't really

845
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:43,839
Speaker 3: trying to deal with that injury, but he was trying

846
00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:47,560
Speaker 3: to furiously stop the bleeding of his team leader Bennett Garvin,

847
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 3: who was shot in the arm. I watched Mike Emrick

848
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:52,839
Speaker 3: up on the up on his fifty caliber machine gun

849
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:54,560
Speaker 3: up on a truck. He got shot in the head,

850
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:57,160
Speaker 3: fell in the truck, popped back up without a salman on.

851
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:00,880
Speaker 3: I mean, it was it all held was breaking loose.

852
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:07,439
Speaker 3: Within sixty seconds of getting attacked that day, almost every

853
00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 3: key leader in Mi Paltuna had been hit, including myself.

854
00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 3: And as I sat up, like the stalter of the

855
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:17,880
Speaker 3: kid that had brought me back sat me up straight,

856
00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 3: and I remember feeling this like clear liquid leaking out

857
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:23,640
Speaker 3: of my nose and my ears, and I didn't know

858
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:25,200
Speaker 3: it at the time, but it ended up being like

859
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 3: serebral spinal fluid. I had fractured my skull very slightly

860
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:32,959
Speaker 3: after getting blown up, and I just remember thinking, well, okay,

861
00:47:32,960 --> 00:47:35,879
Speaker 3: I'm not bleeding, it must be something else, and got

862
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:39,839
Speaker 3: up and got back into the fight. And I'm trying

863
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,919
Speaker 3: to figure out at this point, like how many people

864
00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 3: were injured, how many of my trucks can drive, what

865
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:49,719
Speaker 3: weapons systems are up versus down? How many rounds of

866
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:51,799
Speaker 3: ammunition that we have left, Like I've got to get

867
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 3: the artillery at the base firing back on these guys.

868
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:57,880
Speaker 3: I should be calling for air support. I got to

869
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:01,280
Speaker 3: get back to my truck to do it all. Looking

870
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:03,800
Speaker 3: at those hilltops that I had called for fire on, Lisa,

871
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:09,720
Speaker 3: the enemy had emplaced three machine gun nests on each

872
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:12,040
Speaker 3: hilltop that I called for fire on, So they had

873
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:16,160
Speaker 3: six machine guns dialed in on our position, and they

874
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,200
Speaker 3: were firing in what was like an X, like if

875
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,360
Speaker 3: you had to draw an X over my hilltop. My

876
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:24,799
Speaker 3: hilltop was right where that where the X intersected, so

877
00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 3: they had us in a wicked crossfire. They were at

878
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 3: an elevated position, so they were hitting us with what's

879
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 3: called plunging fire, so they were arcing the rounds down

880
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 3: on top of us. The reason why people do that

881
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:37,719
Speaker 3: is because if you're like taking cover behind a rock

882
00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 3: or something, you want to be able to like drop

883
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:41,400
Speaker 3: the round in on top of them. So it just

884
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:46,080
Speaker 3: minimizes minimizes your an enemy's ability to take cover. And

885
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:48,719
Speaker 3: I'm watching them hit us with plunging fire and thinking like,

886
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:52,359
Speaker 3: holy hell, like how the hell do they know how

887
00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:55,080
Speaker 3: to do that, you know? And I'm watching the guns,

888
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,399
Speaker 3: the support by fire positions that they had, the two

889
00:48:57,440 --> 00:49:01,120
Speaker 3: separate ones. They weren't just firing all at the same time.

890
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:03,759
Speaker 3: One gun would fire and stop, the next gun would

891
00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:06,040
Speaker 3: fire and stop, the next one, you know, and so

892
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:08,120
Speaker 3: on and so forth. And the reason why they did

893
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:11,319
Speaker 3: that is because if they fired those guns on like

894
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:14,480
Speaker 3: a cyclic rate, their barrels would melt. So they were

895
00:49:14,560 --> 00:49:17,520
Speaker 3: firing and letting their barrels cool like all the way

896
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 3: up and down the line. Again, never fought like that's

897
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,960
Speaker 3: what we do, Lisa, that that's how we fight. And

898
00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:29,880
Speaker 3: so the enemy had hit my position with airburst mortars

899
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:32,759
Speaker 3: to keep the head keep our heads down, while they

900
00:49:32,920 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 3: simultaneously in placed two separate support by fire positions, and

901
00:49:37,719 --> 00:49:40,400
Speaker 3: the next step is I'm trying to like unpack everything

902
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:43,040
Speaker 3: that's happening. And really, like when you're in a moment

903
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:45,439
Speaker 3: like that, it's like remember, like you ever look through

904
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:48,160
Speaker 3: like a kaleidoscope when you're a kid, and you turn

905
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:50,840
Speaker 3: the kaleidoscope and you see all those colors move around

906
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,920
Speaker 3: like that, it's all sort of happening at once. That's

907
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:56,719
Speaker 3: like that. It's like being like that. It's like combat

908
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 3: is like that, a million different things happening all aroun

909
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:02,359
Speaker 3: around you, all at once, and I'm trying to figure

910
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 3: out what they're going to do, and I'm thinking, oh

911
00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:06,839
Speaker 3: my god, like I vower them, I'd attack, and no

912
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:10,600
Speaker 3: sooner did I did? I think that they did from

913
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 3: both of those hilltops, two platoon size elements like forty

914
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:18,160
Speaker 3: men plus so rushing down those hilltops and up to

915
00:50:18,239 --> 00:50:21,719
Speaker 3: our position. But it wasn't just like a human wave

916
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:26,439
Speaker 3: attack again. They were one fire team moving, the other

917
00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:29,959
Speaker 3: one shooting, and they were bounding and with squad leader

918
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 3: like giving fire team commands. It was the craziest thing

919
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:36,759
Speaker 3: I've ever seen. So I ended up getting to my

920
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:40,160
Speaker 3: truck and calling for fire. I called for fire danger

921
00:50:40,200 --> 00:50:42,319
Speaker 3: close on our position, which essentially means like right on

922
00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 3: top of us ourselves. The whole intent of that is

923
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:48,480
Speaker 3: to just try to keep them off of us and

924
00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:52,160
Speaker 3: give give my men some time to react, reload, consolidate,

925
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,680
Speaker 3: reorganize and fight back. And I'm watching these rounds land

926
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 3: with ruthless efficiency and like vaporize, like these guys as

927
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,240
Speaker 3: they as they they bounced towards us, And it didn't

928
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:05,560
Speaker 3: matter how many rounds landed, they had people to replace them.

929
00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:09,560
Speaker 3: It's just it was just an unrelenting assault in our position.

930
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 3: And they got so close to us that that we

931
00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:15,600
Speaker 3: had to blow clay More minds, Like we put claym

932
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,200
Speaker 3: More minds in around our positions just in case, like

933
00:51:18,239 --> 00:51:21,080
Speaker 3: we're about to be overrun, so we're like blowing clay

934
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:25,040
Speaker 3: More minds like people. All my squad leaders are saying

935
00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 3: they're going black on ammunition. Every member of my platoon

936
00:51:28,719 --> 00:51:32,080
Speaker 3: is hurt. I've got all these casualties out there stranded.

937
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 3: You know. I'm watching my medic try to carry one

938
00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:37,200
Speaker 3: of my one of my squad leaders back to the

939
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,799
Speaker 3: casualty collection point. He lifts up this guy. I watch

940
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:43,360
Speaker 3: him get shot in the face. He falls down. I

941
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:46,600
Speaker 3: think my medic is dead. He's this Jose Pantoha. He's

942
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:49,239
Speaker 3: this kid from Mexico. He came to America because he

943
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:51,960
Speaker 3: loved He loved the country and wanted to serve the country.

944
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 3: And I remember he got shot in the face. Was

945
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:56,920
Speaker 3: even a citizen of the country, who's supposed to get

946
00:51:56,920 --> 00:51:59,359
Speaker 3: his citizenship July fourth, a month later, I'm like, oh

947
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:01,479
Speaker 3: my god, he just got shot before he can become

948
00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:04,879
Speaker 3: a US citizen. But he got back up. The entire

949
00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:07,640
Speaker 3: left side of his face was completely destroyed, but he

950
00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:11,960
Speaker 3: got one of my squad leaders to the casualty collection point.

951
00:52:12,160 --> 00:52:14,759
Speaker 3: That was the kind of day it was, Lisa and

952
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:21,200
Speaker 3: we That fight took probably eight at least eight hours.

953
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 3: We dropped probably eleven two thousand pound bombs and at

954
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:29,720
Speaker 3: the end had to bring in a B one Strategic Lancer,

955
00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:32,439
Speaker 3: a B one bomber to drop like probably ten more.

956
00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 3: And what had ended up happening, Lisa, was that I

957
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:42,400
Speaker 3: called for fire on those target reference points earlier, but

958
00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:44,560
Speaker 3: it looked what we had come to learn is that

959
00:52:44,680 --> 00:52:48,400
Speaker 3: the enemy at night had planned to attack us, and

960
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:51,480
Speaker 3: I had hit him just before they were going to attack.

961
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,920
Speaker 3: And so it was like hitting a hornet's nest with

962
00:52:55,040 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 3: a baseball bat or something. They were already in position

963
00:52:58,760 --> 00:53:01,319
Speaker 3: ready to attack us. I just hit him before they

964
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:04,080
Speaker 3: hit us, which I guess hindsight, being twenty twenty, I'm

965
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 3: glad that I did, because it would have probably not

966
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:11,040
Speaker 3: gone as good for us as it did, as even

967
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,520
Speaker 3: though it wasn't I mean, all things considered, it wasn't good,

968
00:53:14,600 --> 00:53:16,719
Speaker 3: but I would have much I was glad that we

969
00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:20,760
Speaker 3: attacked first, you know, and every one of my trucks

970
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:23,359
Speaker 3: was destroyed. They had to be towed off the hill

971
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:30,160
Speaker 3: top and got back to the base that day after

972
00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:34,560
Speaker 3: like that long, long firefight, and I think like every

973
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:37,320
Speaker 3: member of my platoons got treated. We took another platoons

974
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:40,520
Speaker 3: trucks and went right back out after the enemy. After

975
00:53:40,560 --> 00:53:42,520
Speaker 3: we got back, went right back out after them to

976
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:45,239
Speaker 3: hunt them down. And we said in that night, and

977
00:53:45,280 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 3: we did. We hunted them all down and we got them.

978
00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:52,640
Speaker 3: We killed probably, oh man, we probably killed probably killed

979
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:55,239
Speaker 3: like one hundred people that day, like bad guys tried

980
00:53:55,280 --> 00:53:59,880
Speaker 3: to attack us. And so but that's the kind of deployment,

981
00:53:59,920 --> 00:54:02,480
Speaker 3: that's the kind of employment that we had. It was

982
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:05,480
Speaker 3: absolutely hell I look back on it, You're like, you

983
00:54:05,520 --> 00:54:07,160
Speaker 3: asked me, how did you do it? And the answer is,

984
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:09,839
Speaker 3: I have no freaking clue. I can't believe I lived

985
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:12,239
Speaker 3: through it. I can't believe I made it through all that.

986
00:54:12,920 --> 00:54:15,120
Speaker 1: You know, Seana, as we recount this and as you

987
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:18,759
Speaker 1: look back, and you know, talk about those times, and

988
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:22,200
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about Ukraine going on now, you know, Taiwan.

989
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 2: What should our lessons?

990
00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:27,880
Speaker 1: What lessons should we learn from Afghanistan as a society.

991
00:54:27,920 --> 00:54:30,120
Speaker 1: What do you hope that politicians learn? What do you

992
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 1: hope the country learns from our time in Afghanistan?

993
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:36,920
Speaker 3: Just be more careful with America's sons and daughters. You know,

994
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:43,160
Speaker 3: I I know, I know that freedom is worth fighting for,

995
00:54:43,719 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 3: freedom is worth dying for America. My god, if we

996
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,880
Speaker 3: were attacked, I'd be the first in line, ready to

997
00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:56,880
Speaker 3: ready to fight back. But we should not be getting

998
00:54:56,920 --> 00:55:02,880
Speaker 3: ourselves locked down in these fights take twenty thirty forty years,

999
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:08,399
Speaker 3: costs tens of thousands of American lives or wounded Americans,

1000
00:55:08,440 --> 00:55:11,440
Speaker 3: people whose lives are changed forever. You know, if you

1001
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:14,200
Speaker 3: lose a loved one in Afghanistan, the ripple effect from

1002
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:18,880
Speaker 3: that is profound you have family members, moms, dads, sisters, brothers,

1003
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:23,040
Speaker 3: spouses that will never see that person again. And the

1004
00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:26,840
Speaker 3: whole that that leaves in people's hearts, the void that

1005
00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:30,800
Speaker 3: it leaves in their lives, is something that it lasts forever,

1006
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:36,520
Speaker 3: like every second of every day. And again, please don't

1007
00:55:36,560 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 3: misunderstand me. This is not like a poor me thing. Again.

1008
00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:42,080
Speaker 3: I would do this again in a second, but every

1009
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:44,920
Speaker 3: second of every day the war in Afghanistan is with me.

1010
00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:48,479
Speaker 3: Doesn't mean that I'm broken, has nothing. You know, I'm fine,

1011
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:51,200
Speaker 3: I can handle it. I do it all again. But

1012
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:54,359
Speaker 3: it's it's like spywear on your computer. It runs without

1013
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:58,759
Speaker 3: you even knowing, you know, like my troops that I

1014
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:01,960
Speaker 3: lost in Afghanistan, and first thing I think about when

1015
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:03,799
Speaker 3: I wake up and the last thing I think about

1016
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:07,000
Speaker 3: when I go to sleep. And over twenty years in

1017
00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:10,520
Speaker 3: that fight, lost so many people in that country that

1018
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:14,399
Speaker 3: I wish we're still here. And I think, what's even

1019
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:19,000
Speaker 3: more tragic than that is that in however many combat

1020
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:21,799
Speaker 3: deployments that my men went on, and they there are

1021
00:56:21,840 --> 00:56:24,400
Speaker 3: some of my soldiers even went on combat deployments after

1022
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,840
Speaker 3: the one that I took them on. I mean, we

1023
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:30,960
Speaker 3: probably we've lost in my small unit, we've lost more

1024
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:35,080
Speaker 3: people to suicide than we have to combat. What does

1025
00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:37,680
Speaker 3: that tell you about the way in which we take

1026
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:40,200
Speaker 3: care of our soldiers or are our men and women

1027
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:43,080
Speaker 3: who serve this country here at home. Not that the

1028
00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 3: VA isn't amazing, Like I'm grateful and glad that we

1029
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:49,319
Speaker 3: have the VA, but the problems that we face here

1030
00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:52,000
Speaker 3: are far greater than you know, maybe going to see

1031
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:56,239
Speaker 3: a doctor or you know, being given some drugs in

1032
00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:59,000
Speaker 3: a paper bag and hey, send on your way. You know,

1033
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:03,319
Speaker 3: I'll be high of a grateful nation. The problems that

1034
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:09,400
Speaker 3: veterans face here at home are largely existential problems, cultural

1035
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:12,720
Speaker 3: problems that I think America as a country needs to face.

1036
00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:17,560
Speaker 3: And so what I'd like I'd like to see is

1037
00:57:17,600 --> 00:57:20,320
Speaker 3: that I'd like to see our politicians be more careful

1038
00:57:20,960 --> 00:57:25,800
Speaker 3: with America's sons and daughters. Number one. I'd also like

1039
00:57:25,880 --> 00:57:29,640
Speaker 3: to see America like our country as a whole. And

1040
00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:32,160
Speaker 3: that means like these little communities that we all live in,

1041
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:35,640
Speaker 3: like do everything that we can to recognize our men

1042
00:57:35,680 --> 00:57:37,400
Speaker 3: and women and serve and that and I think it

1043
00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:39,720
Speaker 3: needs to we need to go beyond like thank you

1044
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:43,840
Speaker 3: for your service. Like I think we need to to

1045
00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 3: bring these people like into a high school gymnasium and

1046
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:50,600
Speaker 3: have them tell their story if they're willing, in front

1047
00:57:50,600 --> 00:57:52,919
Speaker 3: of a bunch of high school students, so that those

1048
00:57:53,040 --> 00:58:00,440
Speaker 3: kids not only learn about what it means to defend freedom,

1049
00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 3: the legacy of that soldier and the people that that

1050
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:07,080
Speaker 3: person lost lives on in the and and the people

1051
00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:10,160
Speaker 3: that hear that story. Like as I just think as

1052
00:58:10,160 --> 00:58:13,600
Speaker 3: a society, we need to do more with regards of

1053
00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:17,800
Speaker 3: bringing our our men and women home, and so yeah,

1054
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:20,720
Speaker 3: be more careful with America's sons and daughters in American

1055
00:58:20,880 --> 00:58:24,440
Speaker 3: society getting in the fight from a cultural standpoint to

1056
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:26,120
Speaker 3: appreciate and love our bets.

1057
00:58:26,480 --> 00:58:28,440
Speaker 1: Well, that's why you really wanted to have this conversation

1058
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 1: with you, you know, one not only to just you know, obviously, uh,

1059
00:58:34,080 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 1: to honor that you know, those who have served and

1060
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:39,120
Speaker 1: have lost their lives serving this country and defending this country,

1061
00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:42,440
Speaker 1: but really just sort of bringing awareness to what it

1062
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:45,720
Speaker 1: takes and what you guys go through and and why

1063
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:48,200
Speaker 1: we should be judicious and why we should be careful

1064
00:58:48,600 --> 00:58:50,120
Speaker 1: with our people's lives.

1065
00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 2: And I think are you know, our lives.

1066
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:54,440
Speaker 1: Are the most or military men and women or our

1067
00:58:54,480 --> 00:58:57,360
Speaker 1: own people, like their lives. That's the most important thing, right,

1068
00:58:57,400 --> 00:58:59,680
Speaker 1: That's a most cherished asset. Like we left a bunch

1069
00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:01,640
Speaker 1: of webs whatever behind in Afghanistan.

1070
00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:03,840
Speaker 2: Obviously that's a challenge, but it's.

1071
00:59:03,680 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 1: The lives, it's our people that we should cherish and

1072
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:08,640
Speaker 1: be careful with. And so you know, that's why I

1073
00:59:08,680 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 1: really wanted to have this conversation with you about that.

1074
00:59:11,880 --> 00:59:14,280
Speaker 2: And again, your ir Pula two was sober. Over eighty five.

1075
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:17,520
Speaker 1: Percent receive purple hearts for wounds they incurred in battle,

1076
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:18,959
Speaker 1: and I wanted to get you on this real quick

1077
00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:21,640
Speaker 1: before we go. You talked about sort of that that

1078
00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:24,440
Speaker 1: brotherhood that brought you guys together day in and day out,

1079
00:59:24,480 --> 00:59:27,440
Speaker 1: didn't matter what you're facing. You know, you looked beyond.

1080
00:59:27,480 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 1: It wasn't about looking at you know, race or religion

1081
00:59:30,680 --> 00:59:32,160
Speaker 1: or any of these other things. You just saw them

1082
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:34,280
Speaker 1: as you know, your brother more or less. Right, And

1083
00:59:35,040 --> 00:59:38,400
Speaker 1: now it's like we're sort of injecting all these things

1084
00:59:38,400 --> 00:59:41,120
Speaker 1: in the military, whether it's critical race theory, whether it's

1085
00:59:41,160 --> 00:59:43,480
Speaker 1: things like you know, gender pronouns and what kind of

1086
00:59:43,520 --> 00:59:46,720
Speaker 1: impact does that have on our military?

1087
00:59:47,600 --> 00:59:52,400
Speaker 3: It's it's devastating. It's devastating because again it's not like

1088
00:59:52,440 --> 00:59:58,640
Speaker 3: the military is not about diversity, Okay, like it, I'm

1089
00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:04,680
Speaker 3: grateful to have intellectual diversity in my platoon or in

1090
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:08,520
Speaker 3: my units that I commanded. I'm grateful to have racial

1091
01:00:08,560 --> 01:00:11,280
Speaker 3: diversity or people from a lot of different backgrounds, like

1092
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:14,760
Speaker 3: that makes us better. But the problem with a lot

1093
01:00:14,840 --> 01:00:18,400
Speaker 3: like critical race theory being injected into the military or

1094
01:00:18,440 --> 01:00:20,680
Speaker 3: some of these others, like I got these people with

1095
01:00:20,760 --> 01:00:23,240
Speaker 3: their pronouns and their bios and stuff and all this

1096
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:25,440
Speaker 3: other stuff, and like, hey, do what you want to do.

1097
01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:29,400
Speaker 3: But the military is about unifying beyond those differences, not

1098
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:33,800
Speaker 3: celebrating them. So anytime, Like, the whole point of going

1099
01:00:33,840 --> 01:00:37,480
Speaker 3: through basic training, right, the whole point of it, Lisa,

1100
01:00:37,680 --> 01:00:40,280
Speaker 3: is you go in there an individual. You know that

1101
01:00:40,920 --> 01:00:43,440
Speaker 3: you come out a member of a collective team. The

1102
01:00:43,480 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 3: whole point, the reason why you have drill sergeants screaming

1103
01:00:46,960 --> 01:00:49,200
Speaker 3: in your face and yelling at you the whole time

1104
01:00:49,320 --> 01:00:52,400
Speaker 3: is to whittle down, break down your sense of individual

1105
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:56,560
Speaker 3: self and teach you in a very like rubber meets

1106
01:00:56,640 --> 01:01:00,840
Speaker 3: the road kind of way that the individual doesn't matter

1107
01:01:00,880 --> 01:01:03,760
Speaker 3: here anymore. What matters is the collective, and you're only

1108
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:09,960
Speaker 3: as fast as your slowest person. And going to Afghanistan

1109
01:01:10,080 --> 01:01:12,280
Speaker 3: the way that we did and experiencing the things that

1110
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:16,800
Speaker 3: we did, if that, if our dedication to our team

1111
01:01:16,840 --> 01:01:20,760
Speaker 3: and our unit wasn't first and foremost, we would have

1112
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:24,560
Speaker 3: not survived. One hundred percent guarantee you, we would have

1113
01:01:24,640 --> 01:01:29,840
Speaker 3: not survived. And so this focus on oh, like, oh,

1114
01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:32,080
Speaker 3: look how diverse we are, because this is this is

1115
01:01:32,080 --> 01:01:35,200
Speaker 3: is a strength. Yeah, kind of it is. But it's

1116
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:38,360
Speaker 3: only a strength in a military if you unify beyond it,

1117
01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:42,040
Speaker 3: that's where the strength is. And so I think it's

1118
01:01:42,080 --> 01:01:44,400
Speaker 3: I think it's dangerous. I think it's real dangerous.

1119
01:01:44,480 --> 01:01:46,160
Speaker 2: Is there anything else you want to leave us with

1120
01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:47,160
Speaker 2: before we go?

1121
01:01:47,480 --> 01:01:48,840
Speaker 3: A lot of people You're going to see a lot

1122
01:01:48,840 --> 01:01:51,880
Speaker 3: of people on Memorial Day talk about like, well this

1123
01:01:51,960 --> 01:01:54,720
Speaker 3: isn't for barbecuing, you know, And I would just say, like,

1124
01:01:55,520 --> 01:01:59,440
Speaker 3: you celebrate Memorial Day the way that you want, because,

1125
01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:06,560
Speaker 3: you know, I feel like my soldiers who haven't been

1126
01:02:06,720 --> 01:02:10,439
Speaker 3: who you know, who didn't make it back, they don't

1127
01:02:10,480 --> 01:02:13,640
Speaker 3: get to celebrate at all, you know, And I think

1128
01:02:13,680 --> 01:02:16,360
Speaker 3: it's incumbent upon all of us. I think it's really

1129
01:02:16,440 --> 01:02:21,840
Speaker 3: our duty and responsibility to live freely and enjoy the

1130
01:02:21,880 --> 01:02:25,680
Speaker 3: freedom that they sacrifice themselves to protect. I mean, of course,

1131
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:28,400
Speaker 3: you know if you get them in it, like you know,

1132
01:02:28,440 --> 01:02:30,360
Speaker 3: if you're drinking a beer or walking on the beach,

1133
01:02:30,480 --> 01:02:32,280
Speaker 3: or reading the book, or just sitting on your deck

1134
01:02:32,360 --> 01:02:35,400
Speaker 3: or watching your kids play, like just say a sign

1135
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:37,720
Speaker 3: in prayer, and just for the men and women who

1136
01:02:37,720 --> 01:02:40,920
Speaker 3: didn't come home. But you celebrate the way that you

1137
01:02:40,960 --> 01:02:43,720
Speaker 3: want in America, because that's what the men and women

1138
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:46,160
Speaker 3: who sign up and volunteer to serve this country, that's

1139
01:02:46,200 --> 01:02:50,080
Speaker 3: what they gave their lives to do. So just just

1140
01:02:50,320 --> 01:02:54,840
Speaker 3: don't forget, never forget them, and have a good Memorial Day.

1141
01:02:55,160 --> 01:02:56,920
Speaker 2: Sean, it's an honor to have you on the show.

1142
01:02:57,120 --> 01:02:59,439
Speaker 1: You are a hero, and I thank you so much

1143
01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:02,640
Speaker 1: for your service us here and just sharing what you

1144
01:03:02,680 --> 01:03:05,640
Speaker 1: went through in Afghanistan and the braviy of your platoon

1145
01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:08,800
Speaker 1: with my audience and me, And thank you so much

1146
01:03:08,800 --> 01:03:09,520
Speaker 1: for coming on the show.

1147
01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:10,560
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.

1148
01:03:10,640 --> 01:03:23,280
Speaker 3: Well, thanks for having me, Lisa, thank you so much.

1149
01:03:23,200 --> 01:03:25,040
Speaker 2: For listening to this episode.

1150
01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:27,520
Speaker 1: I think I was one of the most fascinating conversations

1151
01:03:27,560 --> 01:03:30,200
Speaker 1: I've ever had with anyone in my entire life, And

1152
01:03:30,240 --> 01:03:32,400
Speaker 1: I just think it's so helpful to reflect back with

1153
01:03:32,440 --> 01:03:35,480
Speaker 1: Sean about what he went through with his platoon and

1154
01:03:35,560 --> 01:03:38,640
Speaker 1: what show many people went through in places like Afghanistan

1155
01:03:38,760 --> 01:03:41,000
Speaker 1: during a time of work. You know, we're either disconnected

1156
01:03:41,040 --> 01:03:43,000
Speaker 1: from it, you know, when we're here in America and

1157
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:45,840
Speaker 1: we're living our everyday lives, and they're out there on

1158
01:03:45,920 --> 01:03:48,920
Speaker 1: the battlefield fighting for freedom, fighting for their own lives

1159
01:03:49,000 --> 01:03:51,400
Speaker 1: and the lives of the rest of their platoons. So

1160
01:03:51,520 --> 01:03:54,280
Speaker 1: I think what better way to honor the fallen than

1161
01:03:54,400 --> 01:03:57,320
Speaker 1: talk to someone like Sean. Forrenell, I hope you enjoyed it.

1162
01:03:57,560 --> 01:03:59,800
Speaker 1: I loved it. I want to thank you guys for listening.

1163
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:02,280
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the podcast. Tell your friends, tell

1164
01:04:02,320 --> 01:04:04,560
Speaker 1: your family, you know, share on social media. We'd really

1165
01:04:04,560 --> 01:04:07,720
Speaker 1: appreciate it. And I also just thank anyone who's listening

1166
01:04:07,720 --> 01:04:09,560
Speaker 1: who has served or who is a family member who

1167
01:04:09,560 --> 01:04:12,000
Speaker 1: has served, And if you have a family member who's

1168
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:12,320
Speaker 1: paid the old