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Speaker 1: A deadly winter storm whipped across the Jagged Hill in
Speaker 1: North Korea. It was the last day of November nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty and it was more than twenty degrees below zero.
Speaker 1: The Marines of Company G tried to find a foothold
Speaker 1: on the hill. It was pure ice. They kicked their
Speaker 1: frozen guns, hoping to get them to work. They tried
Speaker 1: to carve fox holes in the rock hard ground. They
Speaker 1: searched for some way to shelter from what was coming,
Speaker 1: and they had to do it fast. They heard the
Speaker 1: sound of bugles and whistles. The Marines knew what that meant.
Speaker 1: They were about to face an onslaught of enemy soldiers,
Speaker 1: and they were totally and completely outnumbered. UN forces had
Speaker 1: been trying to hold this ground for days. Many had
Speaker 1: already been wounded or killed, and some had snuck off
Speaker 1: the hill. They knew certain death when they saw it,
Speaker 1: but not the men of Company g There was something
Speaker 1: that kept them going. It sure wasn't food. Their cans
Speaker 1: or rations were frozen solid. It wasn't adrenaline either. It
Speaker 1: was their captain, Carl Sitter. He moved from one position
Speaker 1: to the other. He checked their guns, but mostly he
Speaker 1: talked to them. He told them they could do it,
Speaker 1: They could fight off the enemy. They could survive and
Speaker 1: hold that heel. Secretly in his heart, Carl believed that
Speaker 1: he might not survive. In fact, he was pretty sure
Speaker 1: he would never make it home, but he had faith
Speaker 1: that his men would. I'm j R. Martinez and this
Speaker 1: is Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of
Speaker 1: Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States,
Speaker 1: awarded for gallantry and bravery and combat at the risk
Speaker 1: of life, above and beyond the call of duty. Each
Speaker 1: candidate must be approved all the way up the chain
Speaker 1: of command, from the supervisory officer in the field to
Speaker 1: the White House. This show was about those heroes, what
Speaker 1: they did, what it meant and what their stories tell
Speaker 1: us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Carl Sitter
Speaker 1: wasn't your typical marine. He wasn't an amazing physical specimen,
Speaker 1: all muscle and rawn. He was kind of pudgy, round
Speaker 1: faced and kind. But he had a superpower, a talent
Speaker 1: for taking care of his men, shepherding them through the
Speaker 1: worst days of their lives, inspiring them. They knew for
Speaker 1: sure he would never leave them behind. And that's the
Speaker 1: crazy thing. Carl wasn't really supposed to be there. His
Speaker 1: story of leadership is filled with crazy good luck and
Speaker 1: crazy bad luck. His story is about fate and faith,
Speaker 1: the kind of faith that can keep you alive against
Speaker 1: impossible odds. When Carl Sitter got to Korea in nineteen fifty,
Speaker 1: he wasn't supposed to be leading any marines at all.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to be a Special Services officer. And
Speaker 1: if you don't know what that is, it's the officer
Speaker 1: in charge of equipment. And Carl's case, that equipment wasn't
Speaker 1: guns or ammo. It was basketball's football and jockstraps. Not
Speaker 1: exactly the job he'd wanted. Carl was only twenty seven,
Speaker 1: but he was pretty out of shape, so out of
Speaker 1: shape that his superiors had him in a desk job.
Speaker 1: But Carl wanted to be on the front lines, so
Speaker 1: he pushed and pushed. But Special Services was the most
Speaker 1: the Brass would give him. It was a demotion. Still,
Speaker 1: Carl didn't complain. It was a job in the war,
Speaker 1: and he took it for a second because right after
Speaker 1: he got to the base in Japan with all that equipment,
Speaker 1: a typhoon blew it into the water, all of it gone,
Speaker 1: and that's how his career in Special Services ended. The
Speaker 1: Brass had no choice but to give him the job
Speaker 1: he'd wanted in the first place, on the front lines,
Speaker 1: so he was given command of Company G. When his
Speaker 1: Marines looked at him, they couldn't quite believe this dumpy
Speaker 1: guy was going to be their leader. He didn't have
Speaker 1: a six pack, but he had something that a lot
Speaker 1: of other guys didn't experience. He had enlisted when he
Speaker 1: was just seventeen years old, right out of high school.
Speaker 1: He served in World War II, rising quickly through the ranks,
Speaker 1: and by the time the Marines landed in Guam in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty four, he was a lieutenant and had received
Speaker 1: the first of what would be four purple hearts. But
Speaker 1: he also picked up a habit wearing his pistol holstered
Speaker 1: over his heart. Here's why. During one battle he felt
Speaker 1: the slam of a bullet into the left side of
Speaker 1: his chest. He thought, this is it. I'm going to die.
Speaker 1: But wait a minute. He was definitely alive. So he
Speaker 1: touched his chest and he felt warm blood. But he
Speaker 1: also felt the cold steel of his pistol. It had
Speaker 1: stopped the bullet. He would wear the pistol there for
Speaker 1: the rest of his combat career. By the time the
Speaker 1: war was over, Carl had a Silver Star and a
Speaker 1: life in the core. Sure, maybe he'd gotten a little
Speaker 1: soft since World War Two, but that didn't mean he
Speaker 1: wasn't keen to fight in the next conflict, Korea.
Speaker 2: On Sunday, June twenty fifth, communist forces attacked the Republic
Speaker 2: of Korea.
Speaker 1: That's President Harry Truman.
Speaker 2: We know that the cost of freedom is high, but
Speaker 2: we are determined to preserve our freedom no matter what
Speaker 2: the calls.
Speaker 1: At first, it looked like the United Nations forces would
Speaker 1: make quick work of this new war. General Douglas MacArthur
Speaker 1: led them into South Korea, and they easily drove the
Speaker 1: North Koreans back above the thirty eighth parallel, but then
Speaker 1: MacArthur decided they should try for a second victory, this
Speaker 1: time in the north. By the winter of nineteen fifty,
Speaker 1: UN troops had landed in North Korea and were moving inland.
Speaker 1: They went up treacherous mountain passes and straight into a trap.
Speaker 1: They didn't know that around four hundred thousand Chinese troops
Speaker 1: had secretly crossed the Manchurian border to aid the North Koreans.
Speaker 1: Some were battle hardened veterans, and most were so called
Speaker 1: volunteers who had been forced into combat. They didn't have
Speaker 1: enough weapons, they were fed very little, but there were
Speaker 1: so many more of them, and on the night of
Speaker 1: November twenty seventh they attacked. Chinese soldiers surrounded the group
Speaker 1: of Marines who had gotten the farthest into the mountains,
Speaker 1: and the Americans realized they were outnumbered by the thousands.
Speaker 1: General MacArthur ordered a hasty withdrawal, but then those withdrawing
Speaker 1: troops got trapped. They were miles inland near the Chosen
Speaker 1: or chang Jin reservoir. There was only one road out,
Speaker 1: and the Chinese forces captured it. They were hopelessly stuck.
Speaker 1: Reporters were there to witness the mayhem.
Speaker 3: Here, thousands of Marines and other United Nations forces are
Speaker 3: trapped by overwhelming masses of Chinese Reds who encircle them
Speaker 3: near the chung Jin Reservoir.
Speaker 1: Carl and Company G were in North Korea, but far
Speaker 1: from the fighting that didn't last. Stephen Olmsted was a
Speaker 1: young Marine private in Carl's company.
Speaker 4: Then we got the word, you guys are going to
Speaker 4: join up with your parent thet time.
Speaker 1: They were going to bring ammunition, food, and supplies to
Speaker 1: the trap Marines.
Speaker 4: The people up around the reservoir desperately needed reinforcements, particularly
Speaker 4: some more tanks.
Speaker 1: Most of the troops were near the UN force's last
Speaker 1: best foothold, a town called hagaroo Re. It had makeshift
Speaker 1: hospital facilities and to have constructed airstrip. It was their
Speaker 1: only hope to unite the separated groups of Marines. Hagaroo
Speaker 1: Re had to be held at all costs. Carl's men
Speaker 1: would have to fight their way there up the main
Speaker 1: supply route, that dangerous mountain road. Then they would clear
Speaker 1: the path for all the UN troops to retreat to
Speaker 1: the port and get out of North Korea and they
Speaker 1: would be outnumbered ten to one. There's something important you
Speaker 1: need to know about the Battle of the Chosen Reservoir.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just the enemy that was deadly, it was
Speaker 1: the weather. It was the coldest Korean winter in one
Speaker 1: hundred years. Raymond Davis was there, like Carl. He was
Speaker 1: commanding a group of marines.
Speaker 5: The snow cames of Tempture dropped to forty below zero
Speaker 5: into the mountains. My Weather Service said that wind chill
Speaker 5: was something like seventy below zero.
Speaker 1: Weapons froze, shut truck batteries.
Speaker 5: Died, faces covered with the ice. The radios wouldn't work.
Speaker 5: They were frozen food, frozen water, frozen terrible conditions.
Speaker 1: And the men didn't have the right gear. After all,
Speaker 1: everyone including leadership, had been sure they'd be home by Christmas.
Speaker 1: Their coats were thin. On their feet, they wore something
Speaker 1: called shoe packs. They weren't winter boots, just rubber soles
Speaker 1: and a leather top. They made your feet sweat when
Speaker 1: you marched and freeze when you stopped. Tons of men
Speaker 1: got frostbite.
Speaker 5: Anytime I find a marine down, get him on his feet,
Speaker 5: because he'd freeze to death.
Speaker 1: And now Carl and his men were going deeper into
Speaker 1: the mountains. Carl's company had joined forces with Colonel Douglas
Speaker 1: Drysdale of the British Royal Marines. On November twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: they all set out for the un camp at Hagaroo Re.
Speaker 1: Here's Stephen Olmsted again that private in Carl's company.
Speaker 4: We boarded trucks and there was kind of like an
Speaker 4: old Western movie going through what is later called Hellfire Alley.
Speaker 1: Hell Fire Alley is right on one side of the road.
Speaker 1: There were steep drop offs going down thousands of feet.
Speaker 1: On the other side, Chinese fighters held the high ground.
Speaker 1: They turned that mountain road into a shooting gallery.
Speaker 4: We're going to jump out and gauge them, drive them away,
Speaker 4: and go and do it all over again.
Speaker 1: Carl was focused and calm as they made their way
Speaker 1: towards Hagaroo Re. At one point they came under intense fire.
Speaker 1: The Chinese had set up a road block up ahead
Speaker 1: and company g sitting ducks. Unless they got out and
Speaker 1: cleared it, their trucks would explode where they stood. Now
Speaker 1: we don't have access to recordings of Carl, but he
Speaker 1: was interviewed many times during his life. Our editor and
Speaker 1: good friend of the podcast, Ben Nadaf Hoffrey, is going
Speaker 1: to read his words here. This is what Carl told
Speaker 1: leather Neck Magazine in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 6: I yelled for everybody to get off the trucks, and
Speaker 6: it seemed like anybody close to me was getting shot,
Speaker 6: like I was protected by an invisible shield, and I
Speaker 6: wasn't being hit.
Speaker 1: Carl didn't have time to marvel at his survival. As
Speaker 1: the bullets rained down. He raced to the front of
Speaker 1: the convoy. He had to check in with Drysdell, but
Speaker 1: when he got there, he discovered that Drysdell had been shot.
Speaker 1: He could no longer lead the group. Command to Carl,
Speaker 1: in case all of this action has wiped your memory,
Speaker 1: let me remind you Carl wasn't even supposed to be
Speaker 1: on the front lines, and he certainly wasn't supposed to
Speaker 1: be leading this group of men on this deadly mission.
Speaker 1: But he didn't question it. He had a sense that
Speaker 1: if he was there, it was for a reason. By
Speaker 1: this point it was night. The surviving Marines cleared the
Speaker 1: roadblock and jumped back in the trucks. They rattled forward
Speaker 1: through the dark, unsure of how far they had come
Speaker 1: and how much further they had to go. Tracers and
Speaker 1: explosions lit up the night as they inched towards Hagaroui.
Speaker 1: Then they saw the distant lights of the marine encampment.
Speaker 1: Carl breathed a sigh of relief. There were tents on
Speaker 1: the side of the road. They had to be Americans.
Speaker 1: They weren't. Chinese fighters jumped out of the tents and
Speaker 1: the Marines were right back in the battle. Three of
Speaker 1: the trucks went over the side of the road on fire,
Speaker 1: lost for good, and the rest of the convoy hit
Speaker 1: the gas and made it out of the ambush, and
Speaker 1: at nine pm they finally reached Hagaruri. The twelve mile
Speaker 1: journey had taken twelve hours. Of the nine hundred men
Speaker 1: who started out that morning, one hundred and sixty nine
Speaker 1: were killed, one hundred and fifty nine were wounded, and
Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty one were missing or captured. That
Speaker 1: left them with less than a third of their fighting force.
Speaker 1: Once they got to camp, Carl told his men to
Speaker 1: get some rest. They would have to sleep on the
Speaker 1: frozen ground.
Speaker 6: Half the people didn't have sleeping bags. I didn't have one.
Speaker 6: I gave mine up.
Speaker 1: When they woke up the next morning, they were covered
Speaker 1: in snow.
Speaker 6: You could see all these holes where people had melted
Speaker 6: through the snow while they slept.
Speaker 1: They were freezing and exhausted. But if the un troops
Speaker 1: ever wanted to leave the chosen reservoir, Carl and his
Speaker 1: marines would have to fight again. They had to take
Speaker 1: East Hill. East Hill rose about five hundred meters above
Speaker 1: the valley floor. It was the high ground. Whoever controlled
Speaker 1: East Hill controlled that one road in and out of Hagarui. Plus,
Speaker 1: if the Chinese took East Hill, the Marines would never
Speaker 1: be able to finish the airfield. That means they would
Speaker 1: never get more supplies. They wouldn't be able to bring
Speaker 1: out their wounded, and they're dead.
Speaker 4: If we had not controlled it, physically controlled it. First
Speaker 4: Marine division in all likelihood put him in annihilated.
Speaker 1: Carl would be going to relieve Major Reginald Myers. Myers
Speaker 1: had been fighting on East Hill for two days. He
Speaker 1: and his men were just barely hanging on. Myers needed
Speaker 1: help badly. Here's what interests me as a leader. Myers
Speaker 1: was the opposite of Carl Sitter, a tough marine with
Speaker 1: an old school way of leading his men. If he
Speaker 1: felt they weren't moving fast enough, he'd just well, I'll
Speaker 1: let him tell you. You kick them and you shot
Speaker 1: at them.
Speaker 5: Rather you pulled your pistol out and you fired the
Speaker 5: sh in the air and did everything.
Speaker 1: You could to get him removed. Basically, you treated your
Speaker 1: men like cattle, which is how a lot of guys
Speaker 1: treated soldiers. But let's be honest, that didn't always work.
Speaker 1: A lot of Meers' men had gotten off the hill
Speaker 1: as quickly as they could. They took wounded soldiers down
Speaker 1: to the aid station and somehow never managed to go
Speaker 1: back up, And now Myers was down to just seventy
Speaker 1: five men. So on the morning of the thirtieth Carl
Speaker 1: and his marine started up that icy hill, slipping and crawling,
Speaker 1: passing the bodies of fallen soldiers as they made their
Speaker 1: way higher. The Chinese machine guns kicked up dirt and
Speaker 1: shards of ice around them, but finally they got to
Speaker 1: the top, they began to dig in. They tried to
Speaker 1: carve out fox holes in the ice, but their tools
Speaker 1: snapped like machsticks. They knew the counter attack was coming,
Speaker 1: and at ten thirty that night it did a Chinese
Speaker 1: illumination grenade went off, and the sky turned to a
Speaker 1: sickly green, and the dim light, the Marines could see
Speaker 1: the hill below them. There were so many men climbing
Speaker 1: up it looked like the ground was moving. The sound
Speaker 1: of their bugles and whistles cut through the icy air.
Speaker 1: Carl told the Richmond Times Dispatch in nineteen ninety three
Speaker 1: that it was the scariest sound in the world.
Speaker 6: If you're not afraid, you're stupid. I think everybody was afraid.
Speaker 1: Carl's men looked up at him with hopelessness. They were
Speaker 1: so outnumbered, but Carl knew what his job was, not
Speaker 1: to force them like myers, not even just lead them,
Speaker 1: but to motivate by understanding what they were going through.
Speaker 6: Those people were depending on me, and when they depend
Speaker 6: on you, you have to live up to their expectations.
Speaker 1: And soon enough the enemy soldiers were right on top
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 6: It was hand to hand grenades that night. You're all
Speaker 6: hepped up and the bugles screaming and people screaming. It
Speaker 6: seemed to me they kept coming and coming.
Speaker 1: It was a free for all, everyone shooting at close range,
Speaker 1: and when the bullets ran out, they hit each other.
Speaker 1: With helmets, stabbed them with bayonets. Carl was hid in
Speaker 1: the face and chest by grenade fragments, but he kept
Speaker 1: shooting back with that pistol he kept holstered on his heart.
Speaker 1: The blood froze on his wounds, but against those crazy odds,
Speaker 1: Carl's men held the lie. They held that hill all night.
Speaker 1: Once the sun came up, Carl had a view across
Speaker 1: the valley and what he saw was awful bodies everywhere
Speaker 1: and about a thousand more Chinese troops forming up to
Speaker 1: get back into the hills. He knew they would return
Speaker 1: that night, and he knew he didn't have enough men.
Speaker 7: To take them.
Speaker 1: So he had a crazy idea. He called down to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hill and asked for any able
Speaker 1: body man to be sent up east hill. Cooks and
Speaker 1: supply people and engineers answered the call. This ragtag crew
Speaker 1: made their way up to join Carl and his marines.
Speaker 1: Carl was already an improbable leader, and now he was
Speaker 1: leading men who weren't even supposed to be fighting. But
Speaker 1: if anyone could inspire them, it was Carl. In nine
Speaker 1: nine nine, he told a Richmond Times Dispatch reporter that
Speaker 1: he had total faith in those men, even if he
Speaker 1: wasn't sure he would survive.
Speaker 6: I had no doubt we were going to get out
Speaker 6: of there, but I didn't know if I personally would
Speaker 6: make it.
Speaker 1: As darkness descended again, the enemy returned in full force,
Speaker 1: just as Carl had feared. The hill was rocked with
Speaker 1: mortar fire. The Chinese soldiers attacked, and group after group,
Speaker 1: their numbers seemed endless. All through that long night, Carl
Speaker 1: exposed himself to fire again and again, just so he
Speaker 1: could take care of his guys. He went from foxhole
Speaker 1: to foxhole, adjusting machine guns, telling his men to stay
Speaker 1: strong and hang on. Once again, he was wounded, hit
Speaker 1: with an in the face, chest and arms, but he
Speaker 1: would not leave. All of his other officers had been hit,
Speaker 1: or evacuated or killed. He felt it was his duty
Speaker 1: to stay.
Speaker 6: They knew that I wouldn't leave them, and when they
Speaker 6: believe in you, then things can get done that maybe
Speaker 6: under normal conditions would never get done. But these were
Speaker 6: abnormal conditions, and people had faith in themselves and their
Speaker 6: units in the core, That's what all boils down to.
Speaker 1: And then just before dawn, the attack slowed. As the
Speaker 1: sun rose, it was quiet. They were alive. Carl Sitter
Speaker 1: had led his team of supply guys, Cook and Maarines
Speaker 1: through the darkest night. He had believed in them, and
Speaker 1: so they had believed in themselves. Carl and his marines
Speaker 1: would spend one more night on East Hill, but the
Speaker 1: attacks wane. Soon the airport at hagaroo Ree was open.
Speaker 1: Reinforcements and supplies were finally on their way. Carl had survived.
Speaker 1: Only ninety six of his men walked off that hill
Speaker 1: with him. He took no personal credit for the victory.
Speaker 1: Maybe he thought this is why he had that invisible
Speaker 1: shield around him on the road to Hagaroori, this is
Speaker 1: why God had saved him when so many others had fallen.
Speaker 1: Carl's grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. Religious faith was core
Speaker 1: to the family, and I think that faith helped Carl
Speaker 1: feel like he could do what he needed to do.
Speaker 1: The UN forces fought their way back down those mountain
Speaker 1: passes towards the port. The men must have all been
Speaker 1: shell shocked by that point, exhausted, but Carl's leadership didn't waiver.
Speaker 1: He made sure that his men knew that they mattered
Speaker 1: and that he would not leave a single person behind.
Speaker 1: Stephen Olmsted remembers it well.
Speaker 4: I felt that if I were a hit, killed, or
Speaker 4: badly wounded, my fellow marines, the guys on my right
Speaker 4: on my left would get beyond the hill and take
Speaker 4: care of my body, And that meant a lot.
Speaker 1: On December eleventh, the last American forces reached the port
Speaker 1: of hung Na, where ships were waiting to take them home.
Speaker 7: Company G was decimated, badly shattered, men and men frostpitten
Speaker 7: beyond belief in the terrible cold, are put aboard platons
Speaker 7: for a safe harbor.
Speaker 1: Carl had survived, but the battle had changed him. It
Speaker 1: had shown him how fleeting life was, how fragile we are.
Speaker 1: There was something else that struck him that all the
Speaker 1: men noticed. As bad as it had been for the Americans,
Speaker 1: the Chinese soldiers had it even worse. They had been
Speaker 1: cannon fodder. It seemed like no one in their leadership
Speaker 1: expected them to survive. Here's Raymond Davis again.
Speaker 5: They didn't have our children, didn't have air. We found
Speaker 5: whole Chinese units frozen to death, tennis shoes and no shocks.
Speaker 1: Carl's heart went out to those enemy fighters, even after
Speaker 1: after what he had faced. He felt sympathy and respect
Speaker 1: for them. He saw their humanity. Carl eventually returned to
Speaker 1: the States. He got promoted again, and then he got
Speaker 1: the call to go to his commanding general's office. He
Speaker 1: was going to be awarded the Medal of Honor by
Speaker 1: President Truman. Carl and Reginald Myers, the major who had
Speaker 1: started the battle on East Hill, both received the medal
Speaker 1: at the White House. Reporters were there to film it.
Speaker 3: Two marine officers received from the President's hands the nation's
Speaker 3: highest award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Major Reginald Myers
Speaker 3: is joined in the occasion by his family. Both he
Speaker 3: and Major Carl Sitter were cited for their heroic conduct
Speaker 3: during the disastrous retreat from the chung Jin Reservoir a
Speaker 3: year ago in Korea.
Speaker 1: But Carl didn't believe he did anything particularly special.
Speaker 6: Or I had the easy job, because as commanding officer,
Speaker 6: you're worried about the troops and hoping your past training
Speaker 6: and everything will give you the knowledge to go ahead
Speaker 6: and do the right thing, and you hope the mission
Speaker 6: will be completed. The hardest position was some private down
Speaker 6: there in a hole, and the only thing he knows
Speaker 6: is someone's coming.
Speaker 1: Carl stayed in the Marine Corps for a total of
Speaker 1: thirty years. He had a full life, a family, two
Speaker 1: boys and a girl, and after he retired from the service,
Speaker 1: he and his wife Ruth settled in Richmond, Virginia. Carl
Speaker 1: worked with the Department of Social Services. He retired again,
Speaker 1: but he had spent the decades since Korea thinking about
Speaker 1: why he had been spared when so many others had died.
Speaker 1: He wondered what God wanted from him. Was fighting in
Speaker 1: wars really what he was put on this planet to do.
Speaker 6: What war does is destroy people on both sides, and
Speaker 6: it takes many years to get back what we destroyed.
Speaker 6: We don't really win anything by war, and so he.
Speaker 1: Dug into his faith. What he found there was a
Speaker 1: core lesson.
Speaker 6: God says we're to love everybody.
Speaker 1: So in nineteen ninety seven, when he was seventy four
Speaker 1: years old, he decided to get a master's degree in
Speaker 1: Christian education. He knew he was too old to be
Speaker 1: a minister. His plan was to volunteer to help the elderly,
Speaker 1: but then his friend Bill Crawford passed away. Crawford was
Speaker 1: a Medal of Honor recipient from Pueblo, Colorado. Carl had
Speaker 1: grown up in Pueblo too, so Carl flew out to
Speaker 1: the funeral. It was a cold and windy day, but
Speaker 1: Carl insisted on joining the procession to the cemetery, standing
Speaker 1: outside for the service, brave the elements being there to
Speaker 1: honor his friend's heroism and service. After all, he stood
Speaker 1: out in far worse weather than that. When he got home,
Speaker 1: Carl came down with the cold. The coal turned to pneumonia.
Speaker 1: He died three weeks later at the age of seventy seven.
Speaker 1: What I love about Carl's story is how grounded it
Speaker 1: is in faith. Not faith in higher power necessarily, though
Speaker 1: he certainly had that. I'm talking about faith in the
Speaker 1: potential of others. Carl's men had faith in him, and
Speaker 1: he had faith in them. It was a virtuous circle,
Speaker 1: and that circle made them all stronger. It inspired them.
Speaker 1: That was Carl's superpower. It's an amazing way to lead,
Speaker 1: and more than that, it's a beautiful way to live.
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor. Stories of Courage is written by Meredith
Speaker 1: Rowlins and produced by Meredith Rawlins and Jess Shane. Our
Speaker 1: editor is Ben nadaf Hoffrey Sound design and additional music
Speaker 1: by Jake Gorsky. Our executive producer is Constanza Gayarto, fact
Speaker 1: checking by Arthur Gomperts and original music by Eric Phillips.
Speaker 1: Production support by Suzanne Gabber. The rest of the team
Speaker 1: includes Carl Catel, Greta Cone, Christina Sullivan, Sarah Nix, Nicole Optenbosch,
Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, Morgan Ratner, Jordan McMillan, Keira Posey, Owen Miller,
Speaker 1: Amy Haggerdorn, and Jake Special thanks to the Congressional Medal
Speaker 1: of Honor Society and the Korean War Legacy Foundation. This
Speaker 1: is our last episode of this second season, but we
Speaker 1: want to keep hearing from you, so please send us
Speaker 1: your personal story of courage or highlight someone else's bravery.
Speaker 1: Email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin dot Fm.
Speaker 1: You might hear your stories on future episodes of Metal
Speaker 1: of Honor, or see them on our social channels at
Speaker 1: Pushkin pots. I'm your host, JR. Martinez