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Speaker 1: Ah beaut force. If it doesn't work, you're just not

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Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to software Radio, Special Operations, military

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Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys and the community

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Speaker 1: softwrep dot com on time on target. So I actually

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Speaker 1: texted Rob before he was coming in for Power of

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Speaker 1: Thought because uh, Bold discourser Harley Davidson is a sponsor

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Speaker 1: of of what we're doing here at softcrep dot com.

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Speaker 1: And they were kind of curious in their fans of

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Speaker 1: your Who's like, does Rob drive motorcycles as a Harley guy?

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Speaker 1: And you told me that in fact you are. Yes.

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Speaker 1: I I used to own a soft Tail and I

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Speaker 1: love the Harley. It's my favorite bike. Get kind of

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Speaker 1: everyone that rides their favorite bike. We would actually have

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Speaker 1: an unofficial club that we would ride on the weekends

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Speaker 1: in Virginia Beach. A lot of guys from the command,

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Speaker 1: a lot of guys from other commands of different services,

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Speaker 1: and it just seems like a really good uh it's

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Speaker 1: a good way to it's great camaraderie, and it's really

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Speaker 1: good for decompression. You know it's it's it's good and

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Speaker 1: you can pretend you're a badass bunch of bikers for

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Speaker 1: a few hours every weekend that hell Like not to

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Speaker 1: go dark. But the Hell's Angels were a group of

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Speaker 1: former like military writers. I think it that kind of stuff.

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Speaker 1: I've heard a few things about them. Yeah, but the

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Speaker 1: by I mean, ever since I first showing the Navy

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Speaker 1: that Harley was huge like part of like military culture. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was, it was, it was. It was Harley. That's

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Speaker 1: just that's what you wrote, unless you got a custom

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Speaker 1: chopper made, whatever you wrote. I mean, the Harley that

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Speaker 1: was that was my favorite. Definitely. Yeah, just I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's straight up American. It is. It's America, That's what

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Speaker 1: it is. Yeah. And in a day and age where

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Speaker 1: a lot of things are manufactured over in China and Asia,

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Speaker 1: it's it seems like that's one of the last kind

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Speaker 1: of American legacy. It is. It's still a bad It's

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Speaker 1: something that you can see riding down the street with

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Speaker 1: an American flag on the back, and that just makes sense. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: definitely here you coming. Was there ever like a mission

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Speaker 1: that you went on where you got home and this

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Speaker 1: was something you look forward to doing and experiencing true freedom.

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Speaker 1: It was I was always looking forward to getting home

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Speaker 1: because we actually had overseas the gin house, those little

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Speaker 1: crappy bikes and we call them the g Hodgs because

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Speaker 1: it looked like she had she had five hundreds and

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Speaker 1: just writing those graphic little things. It's like to the

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Speaker 1: chow hall, or even on missions we take him, it's like,

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Speaker 1: I cannot wait to get home and get on over here.

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Speaker 1: Here just a thump, the sound of its starting and yeah,

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Speaker 1: so there you have it. I can't think of a

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Speaker 1: stronger endorsement than the man who shot Bin laden Um

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Speaker 1: also rides a Harley. That's about Americans, definitely. Yeah, that

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Speaker 1: was Rob O'Neil that you just heard, big Harley Davidson enthusiast.

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Speaker 1: Which is really cool because what we're doing this episode

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Speaker 1: is we're putting together some of the best moments on

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Speaker 1: this show from guys who have been there, done that

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Speaker 1: and seeing combat and compiling them and it's presented by

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Speaker 1: Harley Davidson, and we really love what they're doing. You're

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Speaker 1: riding in a formation outdoors with your brothers and sisters

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Speaker 1: on a mission to cover some ground. There's a reason

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Speaker 1: getting on a Harley Davidson motorcycle feels right to those

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Speaker 1: who serve. Check it out at h hyphen d dot

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Speaker 1: com backslash American Heroes. Harley Davidson All for freedom, Freedom

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Speaker 1: for All? Once again, that's h hyphen d dot com

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Speaker 1: backslash American Heroes. Uh. With that, we're gonna get into

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Speaker 1: some more Rob O'Neil and this is him talking about

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Speaker 1: the now very well known Bin Laden raid and what

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Speaker 1: better way to hear what went down from the man himself.

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Speaker 1: I do have to wonder with the U b L raid,

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Speaker 1: just getting back to what you said before, where you said,

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Speaker 1: you know, never would you think that you'd be the

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Speaker 1: guy on the raid and Seal Team six, Like what

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Speaker 1: do you credit that too? Of all the people who

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Speaker 1: went in the military, people going to special operations, you

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Speaker 1: get to be on that team, Like what are the

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Speaker 1: chances of it? And what do you think is the

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Speaker 1: reason that you were chosen to be a part of

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Speaker 1: a lot of it is just timing. A lot of

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Speaker 1: it would happen to be the We happen to be

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Speaker 1: in a situation where they would pick that team because

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Speaker 1: we had a team overseas that was already deployed. If

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Speaker 1: they stopped doing missions every night and started training on

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Speaker 1: something else, maybe someone will notice we had a team

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Speaker 1: that was on standby in Virginia Beach. But if they

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Speaker 1: if they're not home, then the wives would be like, well,

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Speaker 1: they're doing something. But we were on a we were

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Speaker 1: on our training part the four months, so we are

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Speaker 1: supposed to leave town and train, so we just happened

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Speaker 1: to be there. I happened to you know, I never

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Speaker 1: took any leave, any sorry, any shore duty in the Navy.

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Speaker 1: I was deployed the entire time. So I got to

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Speaker 1: a spot of a team leader at this command and

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Speaker 1: I had a I don't know, eleven or twelve deployments

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Speaker 1: maybe eleven at this time, and just happened to be

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Speaker 1: in a spot where I had done well. And I

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Speaker 1: must see, they wanted senior guys. They wanted to they

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Speaker 1: want to redundancy. Everyone needs to be a sniper, everyone

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Speaker 1: needs to be a breacher. Everyone needs to know this

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Speaker 1: in this so in case something happens, we can we

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Speaker 1: we can still hit everything that we have. And uh

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Speaker 1: so I got picked to be part of the team

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Speaker 1: and it was it was just it was, you know,

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Speaker 1: it was never laid out either, like you're gonna go

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Speaker 1: here and you're gonna be the appointment and you're gonna

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Speaker 1: shoot in Latton. It was never that because we had

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Speaker 1: a perfect plan that just went completely the ship, like

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Speaker 1: every plan, like we were training. We had some of

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Speaker 1: the best tactical thinkers coming up with the plant killed

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Speaker 1: bin Laden, and we had the perfect plan. And towards

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Speaker 1: the very end, the boss said, all right, what's the

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Speaker 1: worst thing that could happen. I think the youngest guy

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Speaker 1: in the room said, well, the helicopter could crash, and

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Speaker 1: and like everyone looked at him and he's like, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, let's talk about that. For like thirty seconds.

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Speaker 1: That happened, and so that put me in a spot.

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Speaker 1: I was gonna go on the roof, and our plan

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Speaker 1: was to jump onto the the balcony and take shots

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Speaker 1: through the window because the female analyst, um the kick

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Speaker 1: asks woman that found him, said he would be there,

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Speaker 1: so we're gonna pinch him. You know, these guys come here,

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Speaker 1: they come here, and we're gonna go down. But we

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Speaker 1: landed on the outside because that pilot saw him crash.

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Speaker 1: He just let us out and we made our way in.

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Speaker 1: And I was lucky there because now I'm in a

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Speaker 1: spot where other guys are already engaged in combat and

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Speaker 1: so I am not doing anything and I have a

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Speaker 1: front row seat to the Greatest mission, so I'm just

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Speaker 1: watching it. We're going through the house. I'm like eight

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Speaker 1: guys back. I'm watching guys do their stuff, like the breaching,

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Speaker 1: like from a kick to mechanical to explosive, and everyone

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Speaker 1: knows the whole house can blow at any time. It's

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Speaker 1: supposed to be is gonna We're all gonna die in here,

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Speaker 1: but no one's nervous. Everyone just you know, slow as smooth,

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Speaker 1: smooth as fast. I'm watching him and it's just awesome,

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Speaker 1: Like I'm seeing this up front, and I remember just

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Speaker 1: being so proud of the guys, but then just think

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Speaker 1: of God, they're fucking cool. Look at this. So yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean the woman told us we'd run into college,

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Speaker 1: and she's like, when you see college, which you will,

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Speaker 1: that's the last line of defense and the big guy's next.

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Speaker 1: So we saw the point man take care of Kaleede.

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Speaker 1: We kind of went to the second floor, and then

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Speaker 1: that's where everyone split off, because you've gotta clear the

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Speaker 1: threats the unknowns before you advance. And it's me in

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Speaker 1: one dude and he's looking up the stairs and he's

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Speaker 1: just talking. He doesn't know it's me, but he I've

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Speaker 1: got a hand on him, so, you know, just positive contact.

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Speaker 1: And he started saying, hey, we gotta go, We gotta

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Speaker 1: get up those stairs, and we gotta go. And and

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Speaker 1: I remember I can close my eyes and see it

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Speaker 1: and thinking specifically, thinking this isn't bravery. We're gonna die,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna blow up. I'm tired of thinking. Let's go.

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Speaker 1: So I squeezed and we went up and he moved

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Speaker 1: his curtain and saw what he thought were suicide bombers.

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Speaker 1: He jumped on him to absorb the blast, right, and

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Speaker 1: I saw that and thinking that that's the Brian. I

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Speaker 1: don't know how he doesn't have a medal of honor.

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Speaker 1: Still amazing me. And it happened so fast he did that,

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Speaker 1: and my tactics just told me to turn right, so

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Speaker 1: I turned right. There's been a lot of standing there.

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Speaker 1: So I shot him three times and it was over,

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Speaker 1: and I moved the wife. I saw his three year

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Speaker 1: old kid, and I remember as a father just thinking this,

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Speaker 1: this kid's got nothing to do with this. And I

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Speaker 1: picked him up and sat him because we're the good guys.

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Speaker 1: That's what we did. We all do that, and other

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Speaker 1: seals are coming in and I then I kind of

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Speaker 1: I'm standing there and I can I heard him take

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Speaker 1: his last breath, and other seals are coming in the room.

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Speaker 1: And one of my buddies came up and he goes, hey,

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Speaker 1: are you good, and I want, um, yeah, what do

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Speaker 1: we do now? And he said, well, now we go

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Speaker 1: find the computers. Man, We've done this hundreds of time.

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Speaker 1: And then ship you're right, I'm back and he goes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you just killed but Lon bro and that was it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was never gonna be me. It was

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Speaker 1: never you know. But but like I said, any Ranger

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Speaker 1: would have done that, any any any Delta guy if

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Speaker 1: I can, I can think of say that either. Um

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Speaker 1: he went left, I go right. That's how it works.

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Speaker 1: Any anyway, I just I got there because my guys

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Speaker 1: are so cool to get me into that spot. And

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Speaker 1: that's all it is. And that's like the life of

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Speaker 1: the Operators. Here's another excerpt. This is Nick Irving on

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Speaker 1: an earlier episode, UH, discussing Army Sniper School and Ranger Battalion.

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Speaker 1: Check it out. When I want to do Army Sniper School.

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Speaker 1: That was because I want to say, bumped into five weeks. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I want to say it was five weeks

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Speaker 1: when I went through, and maybe it was maybe classroom

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Speaker 1: you know, death block, power point and stalking ship, and

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Speaker 1: then you have thirty of actual shooting. And I mean

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Speaker 1: it was a gentleman's course for what it was. You

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Speaker 1: learned a lot, but I don't think that it compared

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Speaker 1: to anything to what you guys went through the Marines

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Speaker 1: or anything like that. It's just a you know, basic

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Speaker 1: course to get someone to understand the you know, new

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Speaker 1: relation formula, when formula moving targets and you know, that's

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Speaker 1: pretty much just to be get a baseline, you know,

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Speaker 1: comprehending that and you learn you're really I guess sniper

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Speaker 1: stuff when you get to if you want to go

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Speaker 1: to Sonic, if you're in the Special Operations Community, are

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Speaker 1: you know that's where you actually get the guess sniper

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Speaker 1: UM skill set and strong skill set. Yeah, and you

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Speaker 1: guys have a pretty good from what I hear in

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Speaker 1: the in the Ranger Regiment. And I want to be

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Speaker 1: clear on that too, because we get a lot of

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Speaker 1: questions from listeners. Um in the Army, you can go

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Speaker 1: to Ranger School and get your your tab and then

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Speaker 1: go back to your regular army. And if that doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean you're a ranger. I mean, if you're a ranger,

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Speaker 1: you're going to battalion, right neck. I got Maybe you

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Speaker 1: can you can explain it better than I can't, because

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Speaker 1: people all the time like, oh, my buddy's a ranger.

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Speaker 1: He does this. I'm like, no, he's he's not a ranger.

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Speaker 1: He's been through the school and has a cab, but

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Speaker 1: he's It's way different. And the reason I bring it

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Speaker 1: up is because I know, if you're you're a true

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Speaker 1: ranger at the regiment. You guys have a pretty good

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Speaker 1: sniper program in house too. Oh yeah, it's I'm completely

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Speaker 1: different from being just a tab ranger. I get the

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Speaker 1: question a lot too, and you're talking to someone's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'm a ranger too, and I'll look with batalion and

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Speaker 1: where were you stationed at I was with the eighty second.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, no, dude, different, different, different deal. But you

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Speaker 1: go in for an options forty contract and that's the

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Speaker 1: ranger contract. And I'm pretty sure they's cut down on

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Speaker 1: it from the guys who you know, ask me questions

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that. They've really cut back on who

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Speaker 1: they're taking in for the Ranger regiment um just I

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Speaker 1: guess because of budget cuts and our who knows what um.

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Speaker 1: But anyways, that you sign up, you don't recruited. You're

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Speaker 1: asked for your option forty contract and once you get that,

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Speaker 1: you go through the pipeline of you know, OSIT, which

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Speaker 1: is a combination of your basic and HEADSTAN treatment a

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Speaker 1: I t UM. You graduate that go on to Airborne school,

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Speaker 1: which is I want to say, three what is it Brandon?

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Speaker 1: Three weeks? I think it's three or four weeks airborne? Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I forget anyway, three weeks are yeah, I think he

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Speaker 1: had weeks and uh another recovery weekend And I love

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Speaker 1: thinking I had a flask and they were born. Man,

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Speaker 1: I mean we're a bunch of seal you know, funk ups,

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Speaker 1: just causing a bunch of problems for those black hats.

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Speaker 1: But it was a blast, man. I mean we were

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Speaker 1: in such a good shape coming out of buds and

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Speaker 1: going to that Airborne and just for us, man, you guys,

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Speaker 1: we're in you know, tip top physical shape and you

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Speaker 1: know we did you know, basic training and that was

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Speaker 1: pretty much it. So we had the hard hard times.

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Speaker 1: But huh do you have to finish the Airborn school

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Speaker 1: would you go to. I went through RIP program, which

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Speaker 1: was pretty much just to beat down success and we

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Speaker 1: started off with a little over a hundred guys and

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Speaker 1: graduated seven guys. And that's a ranger doc program, right, rip,

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Speaker 1: that's what that stands for, exactly. Yeah, and we changed

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Speaker 1: with that. I was gonna say, I think Eric and

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Speaker 1: I the hardest time we had in in junk school

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Speaker 1: is figuring out what to do with that. You one

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Speaker 1: army chick in your barracks arm and zero six. Here

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Speaker 1: we go again, Georgia. Yeah, just make sure Belief is

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Speaker 1: not listening to this. Uh yeah, yeah. I just told

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Speaker 1: her and the kids the tune and that he's on

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Speaker 1: the radio. It's going wrong. Yeah, man, yeah, I don't

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Speaker 1: know what. I don't know, Erica, good gun man and

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Speaker 1: I saw him like once that was it. And um

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Speaker 1: after that, man, we went through what was it ripped?

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Speaker 1: Will they changed ripped to RASK Now I think that's jeez.

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Speaker 1: I want to see five or eight weeks. I really

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Speaker 1: don't even know what RASP is. Um the timeline all

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Speaker 1: that is, but you get more of a I guess

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Speaker 1: learned how to do the kind of stuff you do

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Speaker 1: want to in Thecayon like demolitions and you know a

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Speaker 1: little bit of op order plans and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: We didn't get that training until we got to battalion

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Speaker 1: a few years ago. Was a rip. And once you

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Speaker 1: get the battalion, you have this little six months probation

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Speaker 1: TOM frame where you're always you know, under observation. You

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Speaker 1: can get kicked out at any time. Um, when you

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Speaker 1: can get kicked out. Your ten years in regiment, you

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Speaker 1: know with d U I or something like that. But

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Speaker 1: you do your six months and then you deploy, but

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Speaker 1: you don't really do much when your first deployment kind

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Speaker 1: of observed and watch how the guys work and how

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Speaker 1: missions go down and you know, ship like that. Then

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Speaker 1: you're going to range of school, which is sixty two days. UM.

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Speaker 1: It was somewhere around seven something from me seven or

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Speaker 1: eighty something. Out ended up recycling one of the phases.

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Speaker 1: And then after that the doors open up and if

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Speaker 1: you graduate, uh, you go to slappers. You can go

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Speaker 1: to sniper school or section if you want to. It's

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Speaker 1: about fourteen guys in that section. You can go to

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Speaker 1: Recky or Dog and you do your pre Sniper I

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Speaker 1: guess selection process before you get into snapper section of

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Speaker 1: battalion and they ship you off to all these different

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Speaker 1: schools train you up. And I mean, gee, I did

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Speaker 1: quite a few schools man, when I was in I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm sure how what the budgets cuts are? You know

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Speaker 1: they still do that, but it's fucking He was a

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Speaker 1: good deal man. Here's a message for those who run

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Speaker 1: toward the action, feel the need for speed, like the

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Speaker 1: rush of adrenaline. Harley Davidson Motorcycle. Lets you unleash that

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Speaker 1: part of yourself any day of the week. Harley Davidson,

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Speaker 1: all for freedom, Freedom for all. And we got such

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Speaker 1: stellar feedback from our interview with Delta Forces Mike vining

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Speaker 1: Uh And this is a great excerpt from that show.

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Speaker 1: This is Mike talking about what it means to be

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Speaker 1: an e O D Tech during Vietnam, what goes into it,

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Speaker 1: and some of the crazy things that he saw. I

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Speaker 1: was signed to the nine Ordinance Detachment D at Fukevin

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Speaker 1: was also known as Camp Gorvad. It was later changed

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Speaker 1: to Cap Casey, named after General Casey of the first

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Speaker 1: Calf who died I think in May vent his plane,

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Speaker 1: his helicopter and they ran into a mountain and everybody

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Speaker 1: on board his helicopter was killed. So they named Fire

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Speaker 1: Support Base after him. This for the job, we would um,

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Speaker 1: We're like a fire department. We had a ten man unit.

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Speaker 1: We would wait for the call to come in. Some

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Speaker 1: unit would request, usually through the brigade. First we supported

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Speaker 1: for all of first calves, First Calorie Divisions operations UH

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Speaker 1: in the northwest corner of three Corps. We supported a

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Speaker 1: little bit of First Infantry Division in our area and

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Speaker 1: one nine nine Light Infantry Brigade. So anybody called us

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Speaker 1: they had a booby trap, came across an enemy bunker

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Speaker 1: complex that was booby trapped, before they would move in.

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Speaker 1: They would call us. UM if they found some tunnels

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Speaker 1: and stuff that proved too dangerous, like in one case,

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Speaker 1: this office lieutenant went into a tunnel and there was

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Speaker 1: booby trapped. He was actually blown out of the tunnel

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Speaker 1: grenade and wounded and invact and meta act. So after that,

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Speaker 1: nobody would go into the tunnel. So then we went

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Speaker 1: into the tunnel. Um. You know, if they find dead

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Speaker 1: ordinance out in the field, like a five pound bomb

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Speaker 1: that didn't go off, they call us and we'd get

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Speaker 1: rid of it. And you know the enemy cash sites

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Speaker 1: were disposed of it. Any any problem like that with ordinance,

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Speaker 1: they would give us a call and we would fly in,

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Speaker 1: normally in two man teams. UH. They would provide us transportation.

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Speaker 1: We'd go to the helicopter pad, get on the helicopter,

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Speaker 1: go in, link up with the team. Sometimes have to

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Speaker 1: walk into the site and do the mission and fly

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Speaker 1: out and go to the next mission. Most missions just

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Speaker 1: were day missions, but some of the missions were as

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Speaker 1: long as a week. That must have been a pretty

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Speaker 1: interesting experience as a young man that, you know, you

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Speaker 1: suddenly have a lot of responsibility put on you and

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Speaker 1: you're working. It sounds like just you and one other guy. Yes,

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Speaker 1: we operated just usually in two man teams. Depending you know,

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Speaker 1: we might request morio d uh. Depending on the size

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Speaker 1: of the operation, would ask for help. But normally we

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Speaker 1: would fly in. We would have three days worth the

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Speaker 1: food and water that we would carry. I carried two

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Speaker 1: haversacks one to two haversacks of explosives, so either pounds

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Speaker 1: of C four priming systems and everything, and we'd fly in.

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Speaker 1: If we needed anything more than that, the unit that

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Speaker 1: was on the round would have to supply us with

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Speaker 1: more explosives bring it in. And after after your year

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Speaker 1: in Vietnam, you know, when you returned home, Well, could

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Speaker 1: you talk a little bit about coming back home and

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Speaker 1: I could take it. You wanted to remain in the military, No,

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Speaker 1: I didn't, really, I am Vietnam war was winding down.

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Speaker 1: When I got I was asked to extend, UH and

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Speaker 1: I was asked to do some work, classified work in

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Speaker 1: Cambodia where you'd wear civilian clothes. But everything was winding down,

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Speaker 1: so I didn't think the military was for me. So

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Speaker 1: I actually was discharged after and I was out for

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Speaker 1: two and a half years. UH. I went to Michigan.

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Speaker 1: I worked for its company that as a press operator

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Speaker 1: building stamping out body parts for Ford cars in Michigan. UM.

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Speaker 1: But after two and a half years of doing that

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Speaker 1: and seeing that this job was really a you know,

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Speaker 1: going nowhere is a good paying job, but really I

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Speaker 1: wasn't satisfied. UM, I tried to go back in. And

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Speaker 1: this is course after Vietnam, you know, the army was downsizing.

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Speaker 1: At first they said, um, I couldn't go back into

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Speaker 1: the army. They said they weren't taking anybody. But then

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Speaker 1: when I checked later, they said that I could go

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Speaker 1: back in, but it'd have to go back in as

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Speaker 1: e O D. And I said that's great. So I

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Speaker 1: went back in in October of seventy three and I

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Speaker 1: was assigned to the sixty three Ordinance Detachment EO D

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Speaker 1: at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. I was wondering if you

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Speaker 1: wanted to talk a little bit about your friend um

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Speaker 1: Ken Foster who passed away in what you know what

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Speaker 1: today the public knows quite well as an I E D.

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Speaker 1: At that time. I you know, I imagine it wasn't

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Speaker 1: something that's in the public consciousness the way it is today. No,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't uh one of the things you do and

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Speaker 1: O D is you do? Uh Secret Service, V I

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Speaker 1: P support You know all today all four services provide

388
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Speaker 1: support for bomb disposal, support for Secret Service, the military.

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Speaker 1: Does you know if they go into any place of

390
00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:21,240
Speaker 1: building that he's got there's a speaking engagement. It's the

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Speaker 1: military U D that worked with the Secret Service that

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Speaker 1: go in and help clear that area and then stand

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Speaker 1: by in case something's discovered. So nineteen seventy six I

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Speaker 1: spent the that year basically on the road doing Secret

395
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Speaker 1: Service support. The presidential campaign of nineteen seventy six. It

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Speaker 1: was in Quincy, Illinois in October of seventy six. I

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Speaker 1: don't recall the exact day, but we were Senator Bob

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Speaker 1: Dole was speaking in Quincy, Illinois. He was running for

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Speaker 1: Ford as Ford's vice resident. So we he was speaking

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Speaker 1: at the high school. And uh so after his speaking

401
00:22:08,119 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 1: engagement was done that evening, Ken Foster and I, who

402
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 1: were working as a two man team, we went out

403
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Speaker 1: to eat for supper and while we were eating, we

404
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:26,200
Speaker 1: heard explosions going off in town. So they County Sheriff,

405
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Speaker 1: the Secret Service and another two man you a d

406
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Speaker 1: team responded to these explosion site one at a bridge.

407
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Speaker 1: Uh there was four explosions at this um. There's three

408
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:45,760
Speaker 1: explosions at this cult compressor factory. And they just went

409
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Speaker 1: and responded, you know, just seeing a lot of damage

410
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Speaker 1: at the bridge and at the factory. But there at

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Speaker 1: that time there was no threat called in. There was

412
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Speaker 1: just these explosions going off in town. So the next morning, uh,

413
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Speaker 1: Senator Doe was leaving by charter plane. At the airport,

414
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Speaker 1: we searched all the luggage and stuff that was going

415
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Speaker 1: on the charter plane. And uh, while we were doing that,

416
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Speaker 1: a bomb threat came in against Senator Dole at the

417
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Speaker 1: airport and so, but we knew we had searched everything.

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Speaker 1: We did a good job, so we said there's nothing

419
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Speaker 1: more here to do. So they got on the airplane

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Speaker 1: and took off and everything was fine. County Sheriff asked

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Speaker 1: us to go out after we got released from Secret

422
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Speaker 1: Service support, to go out and look at the damage

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Speaker 1: and just to give our opinion of what took place

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Speaker 1: that night. So we went out there and at the

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Speaker 1: cold compressor factory, the fire they were doing, continued the

426
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Speaker 1: search the fire department was and then they found another

427
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 1: bomb that had not gone off. I E ed or

428
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:57,359
Speaker 1: back then. It was just a homemade bomb. It was

429
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:02,960
Speaker 1: several sticks of dynamite, a large alarm clock UH six

430
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:07,159
Speaker 1: vote battery. So they took a polaroid of it and

431
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,440
Speaker 1: where the bomb was actually placed in a trailer of

432
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: a truck. The whole trailer of this truck was a compressor.

433
00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: That's what they made at the factory. So they took

434
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: a picture. Then they closed the sliding door on the bomb,

435
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 1: and then when we got there, we were told that

436
00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,399
Speaker 1: they had found a bomb that had not exploded. And

437
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 1: then we sat look at the polaroid picture. But you

438
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:36,720
Speaker 1: had to walk down between these parked truck trailers narrow

439
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: and uh. So Ken Foster said he'd go down and

440
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:45,040
Speaker 1: do a recon. The Illinois Arson Inspector was there. He

441
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,120
Speaker 1: he wanted to go down and look at it too.

442
00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:50,639
Speaker 1: They were just going down for a recon. I was

443
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: getting the tools ready in case we have to do something.

444
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 1: So Ken went down. The arts inspector stayed out of

445
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:02,120
Speaker 1: little ways. Ken went down opening up the sliding door.

446
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:06,840
Speaker 1: And no, we don't know exactly what happened, but we

447
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: believe when he opened up the sliding door he looked

448
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: at the alarm clock. And what they had done is

449
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 1: took a screw put it through the face of the clock,

450
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:17,920
Speaker 1: and so it was when one of the hands on

451
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,680
Speaker 1: the clock hits the screw, it connects the I can't

452
00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: imagine that both time delay but what But what happens

453
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:35,440
Speaker 1: sometimes is these people there's usually paint or varnish on

454
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: the hands, so it doesn't make good electrical contact. So

455
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 1: we believe the bombs were all went off about the

456
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:47,480
Speaker 1: same time. This one had timed down but failed to

457
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 1: go off. It wasn't making good electrical contact. So I

458
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: believe Kan thought he needed to do something right then.

459
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: So normally what you do is remove the blasting cap,

460
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,680
Speaker 1: try to remove it out of the dynamite. I think

461
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,159
Speaker 1: that's what he was trying to do, and that slight

462
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,440
Speaker 1: movement just moved it enough so I made better electrical

463
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,119
Speaker 1: contact and it detonated, killing Ken instantly. That has got

464
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 1: to be one scary job. Yeah, I mean you're staring

465
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,400
Speaker 1: down the barrel of a gun, so to speak. Yes,

466
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: so yeah, but once they found that bomb, they stopped

467
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 1: searching for any other explosive devices, so before you know,

468
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 1: there was nothing. Ken was killed instantly. He was very

469
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,479
Speaker 1: close to the explosion site and um, so we had

470
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:38,920
Speaker 1: to continue to make sure the area was safe. And

471
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: then we got the corner down there and put Ken

472
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: in a body bag. So we had you know, there

473
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 1: was four of us on the team. We had drove

474
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:52,120
Speaker 1: up from four Bragg to Quincy, Illinois, and then only

475
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:57,679
Speaker 1: three of us, you know, drove back. So that's lonely. Also,

476
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: I didn't after that bomb went off and killed Ken,

477
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 1: another bomb threat came in at the high school, so

478
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 1: they had to evacuate the high school. So we went

479
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 1: to the high school and we contact you know, a

480
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 1: few teachers and people like the janitors and told them

481
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: to quit. You know, look at you know, go around

482
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,399
Speaker 1: the building in high school to see if there's something

483
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: there that's out of place, that's not normally supposed to

484
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: be there, because you know, we go into a high school,

485
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:30,200
Speaker 1: you know, we don't know what's supposed to be there

486
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:32,440
Speaker 1: and not supposed to be there. So the people that

487
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 1: worked there no better. So they did a search of

488
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 1: the building and found nothing, but had a couple more

489
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: bomb threats come in and then we were relieved by

490
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: another E O D team from Granite City, Illinois. What

491
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: was the motivation for the bombing, you know, I don't

492
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:57,960
Speaker 1: know that today. It was a two juveniles, teenagers and

493
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 1: a I think he was twenty eight year old, uh

494
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: that had planted the bombs there. The juveniles were acquitted

495
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: in trial. Uh. The the twenty eight year old. Trying

496
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 1: to think of what his sense was, it was a

497
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 1: he didn't he didn't get a sentence for murder. It

498
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: was for a manslaughter or charge because he didn't intend

499
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 1: to hurt anybody. He was just destroying property. I think

500
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 1: his ex girl, former girlfriend worked there. Um, she's the

501
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 1: one that actually tipped off the police and turned her

502
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 1: boy ex boyfriend in And so basically he had spent

503
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: a few years in jail. And just recently, the guy

504
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 1: who planted the bombs, his daughter contacted me just I

505
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: mean just maybe a month or two ago, and she

506
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: e mailed me. And and she was ten years old

507
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 1: at the time. Her dad did that, and she had

508
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 1: heard stories, but she never she never knew she was

509
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: I knew the truth. So she mailed me and wanted

510
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 1: to know the truth, what happened, What did her dad

511
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 1: do really do and all that. So I gave her

512
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 1: a copy of my report, and I gave her a

513
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: copy of the newspaper, clipping scan copies and gave it

514
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 1: to her. That was kind of interesting being hearing from

515
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: the guy who built the bomb's daughter asked, I mean,

516
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 1: it's kind of the past coming full circle. You know.

517
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: It is this gentleman was killed all those years ago,

518
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 1: Ken Foster, and you know it continues to haunt the

519
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: people involved. Yeah, And and his daughter apologized for her dad.

520
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 1: You know, it's just sorry that her dad did all that.

521
00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,719
Speaker 1: And each one of these experiences and Vietnam and then

522
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,040
Speaker 1: the presidential campaign I mean, it sounds like it was

523
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: a learning experience for you as an e O D

524
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: tech and UM, and I wanted to ask you next,

525
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: you know, how did you you know it's the nineteen seventies,

526
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 1: How did you initially hear or learn that there was

527
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: some sort of new outfit being stood up, that there's

528
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 1: some sort of counter terrorism endeavor? How did you come

529
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 1: to be involved in all of that? That's a good question.

530
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 1: I was actually getting bored with State side e O

531
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:35,960
Speaker 1: D going down to the hand garnade range and destroying

532
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,720
Speaker 1: the hand garnade that somebody throw down range that forgot

533
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: to pull the pin out, or and they would wait

534
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 1: till the end of the day to call and say

535
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: they got a dead grenade down at the and on

536
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:52,040
Speaker 1: the hand garnade range. Um, it was just getting boring

537
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: state side e O D in the nineteen seventies. So

538
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 1: I decided I wanted to go into Special Forces. I

539
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: took e m T training after Ken died. Um, there

540
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 1: was nothing I could have done even with e m

541
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 1: T training, but I didn't went through the U D

542
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 1: pro I mean the Emergency Medical Technician program UM. And

543
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:17,080
Speaker 1: then I wanted to go to Special Forces. As a medic.

544
00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 1: I put in a request for medic Special Forces school

545
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:27,719
Speaker 1: and it was approved and I had a school day. Meanwhile, UH,

546
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: sergeant major at our Control Detachment, he got wind of

547
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 1: a new unit being formed up at Fort Bragg and

548
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,880
Speaker 1: they were looking for some E O D texts to

549
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:44,040
Speaker 1: join the unit. They wanted six U U D texts,

550
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 1: preferably n C O s that had Vietnam experience. So

551
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: the Sergeant major gave me the phone number. I called

552
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 1: up and talked to an admin guy at Fort Bragg

553
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: at the okay, the old Butler's on Buttoner Road, the

554
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 1: old socade there at Fort Bragg, and they asked tell

555
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,440
Speaker 1: him who I was, you know a little bit about myself,

556
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 1: and they said, would you want to come for an interview?

557
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: And I said, sure, I'd come to. So I came

558
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:19,720
Speaker 1: to for an interview, and then two weeks later I

559
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: was assigned to this new unit being formed up at

560
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: Fort Bragg. Colonel Charlie back With was the commanding officer.

561
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,760
Speaker 1: And UH, that was the beginning of the first Special

562
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 1: Forces Operational Detachment DELTA. And at what point did you

563
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: get win? Did that like, actually this was kind of

564
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: a big deal. This UNID that you just volunteered for.

565
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 1: I got with the sergeant major uh gave me a number.

566
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,480
Speaker 1: I called, and within maybe two or three days I

567
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: had t d Y orders to go to Fort Bragg

568
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 1: for an interview. UM. I went from my interview. Two

569
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 1: weeks after the interview, I was signed. It was to

570
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,880
Speaker 1: the unit that was b March of nineteen seventy eight.

571
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 1: I was assigned. The units formed up in November of

572
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven UH on smoke Bomb Hill. They had

573
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 1: an old World War two m barracks that they started up.

574
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: Then then they got the stockade. There was about two

575
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 1: or three prisoners in the stockade. They put him in

576
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 1: the county jail, Comberland County Jail, and we took over

577
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 1: the stockade. So it was kind of and we had

578
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 1: to take you know, going there with torches, cut out

579
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 1: the jail cells and re and we did all the

580
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 1: work ourselves to remodify the stockade that turned it into

581
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: our headquarters. What was that like those first couple of

582
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,719
Speaker 1: years that you know, standing up any unit from scratch, um,

583
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: you know, as I helped stand up UM, you know,

584
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 1: my battalion in fifth Special Forces Group. I mean it's

585
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:11,239
Speaker 1: it's always a painful experience. Well what was that like

586
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 1: for you standing up this new unit and building this

587
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 1: new capability that America didn't have at the time. It

588
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,399
Speaker 1: was it was it was really interesting. It was a um.

589
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:24,960
Speaker 1: We they were getting ready as soon as we got there,

590
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 1: they were getting ready to start the first Operator Training

591
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: Course O t C one. So we went through, We

592
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 1: did the you know, we did a eighteen mile night

593
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: road march, the five event PT test, the swim test.

594
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 1: The O D guys that were selected to go through

595
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:45,400
Speaker 1: O t C we did not go through the selection

596
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 1: assessment course that the other guys did. We just jumped

597
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 1: in with it and through the Operator Training course and

598
00:34:54,840 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 1: so that was like a five month program, the Operator

599
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:01,720
Speaker 1: Training course. And then after we finished the Operator Training course,

600
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,719
Speaker 1: then the E O D folks that went through had

601
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 1: to go through and pass the Selection Assessment course that

602
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: fall fall of seventy eight, So we kind of did

603
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,920
Speaker 1: it backwards. We went to we went to O t C,

604
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,640
Speaker 1: then we went to Selection Assessment. Not only two of

605
00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:22,239
Speaker 1: us made it through Selection Assessment No TC one e

606
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 1: O D types and then we had to go to

607
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:28,200
Speaker 1: jump school. Yeah, you're right, so you did he in

608
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 1: reverse order? We did? And uh, what what did it?

609
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 1: What was OTC like at that point I learned in

610
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 1: a previous conversation you mentioned how, um, you know, a

611
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,360
Speaker 1: gentleman from the S A S had come down and

612
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:45,480
Speaker 1: helped teach marksmanship, and there's a lot of skill sets

613
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 1: that I've come to learn that the Brits were actually

614
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:50,279
Speaker 1: a little bit further ahead of us at that point

615
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 1: in time. They were um. Uh. Colonel Beckworth had spent

616
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,439
Speaker 1: time with the British s A S. So he would

617
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,640
Speaker 1: and he modeled us after the British S A S. Uh.

618
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:08,480
Speaker 1: The d c O. Bucky Burris, he he had actually

619
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,840
Speaker 1: gone through the S A S School, the complete school,

620
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,279
Speaker 1: and spent time with the S A S. So we

621
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: were our selection assessment, our training, everything was modeled on

622
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,200
Speaker 1: the British S A S. We had instructors come over

623
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:28,000
Speaker 1: from the S A S and teach us marksmanship where

624
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:31,880
Speaker 1: we learned how to double tap. The biggest thing that

625
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: we we would shoot. One of the things that was

626
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 1: funny is that three by five cards. Our targets were

627
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: three by five. I don't we shot up a bunch

628
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 1: of three by five cards, but uh, that was our

629
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,600
Speaker 1: main targets to hit hit that small of an area.

630
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 1: Did a lot of shooting. Usually all all the morning

631
00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:59,480
Speaker 1: were spent in some form of shooting, whether it be

632
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 1: out in a rain, shooting with forty five or shooting

633
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:06,799
Speaker 1: with our M three grease guns. That's what we had

634
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: for an assault rifle, was the M three grease gun.

635
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 1: And and back with had all of our sites cut

636
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 1: off our grease guns, so we had to instinctively fire. Um.

637
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:21,720
Speaker 1: So there was a lot of funny stuff. We played

638
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 1: a lot of football for Pt. Back with be out

639
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 1: there with the whistle, you know he was. He was

640
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:30,880
Speaker 1: on the football team when he went to University of Georgia,

641
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 1: so we were out there. We would play football through

642
00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:38,280
Speaker 1: the wall. Um. We did a lot of brick pete

643
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:43,080
Speaker 1: and brick pet is that we had these red bricks

644
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 1: and we would have to hold them straight out and

645
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: do different exercises arm strengthening exercises with these red bricks. Uh,

646
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 1: it was. It was quite interesting. Here's Chris Paranto on

647
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 1: the show better known by many as Tonto. If you

648
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:06,080
Speaker 1: saw Thirteen Hours, but this is the real Tonto talking

649
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 1: about the Benghazi attack, which he of course was there

650
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 1: for and then later on testifying before Congress to tell

651
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:18,280
Speaker 1: his story, this is what State Department did. They didn't

652
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:22,400
Speaker 1: They stopped moving, They stopped assets moving towards us. And

653
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 1: the leadership that was in charge, with Hillary Clinton, Patrick

654
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 1: Kennedy and Charlene lab they failed us. They failed the

655
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:30,760
Speaker 1: guys on the ground. The guys on the ground, Alex

656
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 1: Scott and Dave alec Anderson, Scott Lookland, Dave Aubin, Greg Hicks,

657
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 1: even the ambassador had been requesting more security and they

658
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 1: had been attacked twice before, along with the British ambassador

659
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:45,239
Speaker 1: who which we responded to those attacks. Well, two of

660
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:47,600
Speaker 1: the ideas we couldn't respond because our chief wouldn't let

661
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:51,320
Speaker 1: us go out the gate again. Uh So that's to me,

662
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: that's not political, that's just the facts. And I will

663
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,680
Speaker 1: say their names, and I will say yes, I don't

664
00:38:56,760 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 1: like when Hillary Clinton says fog a war. I see

665
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,439
Speaker 1: that when she says that she is not having idea

666
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 1: what she's talking about. There's no foggle warr in combat.

667
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,080
Speaker 1: There's not period. It's when you're in the in the

668
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: mix of it. It's everything is so vivid. It's like

669
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:11,560
Speaker 1: a sixth CeNSE. And I do say that as well,

670
00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:14,520
Speaker 1: But as far as getting into fault and blames and

671
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 1: saying oh this is I don't, I just say this

672
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,680
Speaker 1: is what happened, this is what I know, This is

673
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:22,000
Speaker 1: what I don't like about it. But what I try

674
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:24,600
Speaker 1: to get across people is not that it is dealing

675
00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 1: with adversity. It's overcoming obstacles. I mean, jeez, I saw

676
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,719
Speaker 1: Ronan bub Get blown up right in front of me.

677
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 1: I mean that was the one moment that I was like,

678
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:37,360
Speaker 1: holy crap, we just I just lost my buddies and

679
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:40,400
Speaker 1: for thirties, you know, for five seconds, my head I

680
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,799
Speaker 1: remember my head dropped and I went damn. And then

681
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 1: God kicked me in the back of the head and

682
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,399
Speaker 1: to get your gun back up. And that's where I said.

683
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: I try to say, hey, overcoming obstacles, when something bad

684
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:51,839
Speaker 1: is put in front of you, you've got to dig

685
00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 1: deep and you gotta fight through it. That's what the

686
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 1: speaking is about, and that's what I think Benhazi should

687
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:59,160
Speaker 1: be about. But brother, politics are part of it, because

688
00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:03,839
Speaker 1: politicians oiled us, and politicians the failure of politicians, whether

689
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 1: it was nefarious or whether it was just because they

690
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 1: were made bad mistakes to me, it doesn't make a difference.

691
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 1: They failed us, the gods guy's lives. And now I

692
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 1: think I get a little bit more political is because

693
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:17,960
Speaker 1: now and now Hillary Clinton now with a lot of

694
00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,719
Speaker 1: people on the left, have the nerve to call Pat

695
00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:24,160
Speaker 1: Smith a liar, to call Katie Quickly Gwinn's sister a liar,

696
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 1: to call Cheryl and Charles Woods liars for being told

697
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,719
Speaker 1: that this was due to a video and and all

698
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 1: other stuff. That's that's what's kind of pulled me more

699
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:36,800
Speaker 1: out of being a political now and being more political

700
00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 1: because that's they lost everything, and you have the nerve

701
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 1: to call family members who lost sons sacrificing themselves fighting

702
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:47,760
Speaker 1: for freedoms, thanny of the nerve to call them liars

703
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:50,719
Speaker 1: on national TV to the public audience. That it just

704
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:54,680
Speaker 1: that burns me up, It really does. So that's why

705
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 1: I'm getting a little bit more political nowadays. If you

706
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: had if you were able to sit down it's one

707
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,400
Speaker 1: of these people that you named Hillary Clinton and some

708
00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:06,239
Speaker 1: of these other uh Congression the congressional leadership, um, and

709
00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 1: if you were able to sit down with them and

710
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 1: ask them one question or a series of questions, who

711
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:12,200
Speaker 1: would you who would you direct that to? And what

712
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,800
Speaker 1: would be your line of questioning to that? Well, you know,

713
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:18,120
Speaker 1: you know I would sit down and I would It

714
00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:20,239
Speaker 1: would be it have you have to start at the top.

715
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 1: I mean, there's nobody else I had as you gotta

716
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:25,440
Speaker 1: start with the State Department. You gotta start off top

717
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:27,879
Speaker 1: with Hillard Clinton and you got and I would ask hers,

718
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: so why did you why did you turn assets down

719
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:32,399
Speaker 1: that were coming towards us? Why did you shut them down?

720
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:35,239
Speaker 1: Why did you shut that fift team down when they

721
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,920
Speaker 1: were getting preposition and moving to Cignella? Why did you

722
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:39,840
Speaker 1: not why did you tell the d O D to

723
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,280
Speaker 1: not spin up, not continue to spin up the fifteens

724
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:44,680
Speaker 1: and f sixteens out of Alvano airbations to the bay

725
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 1: and I let them come? What was the reasoning there?

726
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:50,720
Speaker 1: And if I didn't get a get answer or something

727
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: that it's you can you can tell people I don't

728
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: if I don't know why people can't just see it

729
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:58,399
Speaker 1: on TV. You can tell when somebody's not telling the truth,

730
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:00,600
Speaker 1: are telling a half truth. And that would just burn

731
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:04,360
Speaker 1: another line of questioning. Um. Also, it would be it

732
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:06,440
Speaker 1: would be why he did you say we didn't lose

733
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:10,040
Speaker 1: anybody in Libya. I remember when she said that. I

734
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 1: got an email from from from Ty's mom and I'm

735
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:15,279
Speaker 1: not going to read the whole thing because she asked

736
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 1: me to keep it, you know. I remember she asked

737
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,839
Speaker 1: me to keep keep it for the most part, keep

738
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:22,279
Speaker 1: it private. But there was one part and I asked

739
00:42:22,280 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 1: her if I could say this on on TV or

740
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:26,800
Speaker 1: radio wherever, and she said it was okay, and and

741
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:30,440
Speaker 1: her first line was a so Ms Clinton, my son's

742
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:33,800
Speaker 1: life doesn't mean anything. Obviously he didn't matter because nobody

743
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:36,320
Speaker 1: died in Libya. That's the sort of things that that

744
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 1: really bothered me because when politicians say stupid, stupid things

745
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: like that, then they have no idea the repercussions one

746
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:46,320
Speaker 1: it does to the family members. And I've seen that,

747
00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:48,440
Speaker 1: and I've seen that with Pat Smith too, and I

748
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:50,440
Speaker 1: want to say, do you have no ass? That want

749
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,799
Speaker 1: to ask do you have no soul? You have no heart?

750
00:42:53,239 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 1: That's that would be a question to was. That makes

751
00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:59,880
Speaker 1: me wonder like the Congressional Committee that they did the

752
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:01,880
Speaker 1: hearing with Hillary Clinton, I feel like that could have

753
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:03,800
Speaker 1: been so much more effective if I had someone like

754
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 1: you up there asking these questions because I think to

755
00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:09,440
Speaker 1: the average you know, viewer, washing Fox News or whatever,

756
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: this is just a bunch of old congressmen talking to Clinton.

757
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:16,239
Speaker 1: And I think it'd be so much more powerful if

758
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:18,040
Speaker 1: you had you and the rest of the guys who

759
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:22,160
Speaker 1: wrote the book thirteen hours asking those questions. I completely

760
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:26,800
Speaker 1: agree with you, Um, but politicians, and I do I think, honestly,

761
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 1: I do think Trey Goudy's doing a very good job.

762
00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:31,080
Speaker 1: He's keeping it and it's not letting it turned into

763
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:33,959
Speaker 1: a circus, which is what a lot of the Democrats wanted.

764
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:35,840
Speaker 1: They wanted it to turn into keeping Up with the

765
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:40,239
Speaker 1: Kardashians reality show type circus so they could invalidate it. Um,

766
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:42,920
Speaker 1: he's keeping it as professionals he can. But you're you're

767
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:44,719
Speaker 1: exactly right. I think a lot of the questions could

768
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:48,160
Speaker 1: have been more griss, could have been tougher. And again,

769
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:52,279
Speaker 1: just like Mitt Romney's campaign, the Republicans took the high

770
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:55,200
Speaker 1: road and and they could have made it a lot more,

771
00:43:55,719 --> 00:44:00,279
Speaker 1: a lot more aggressive. But again, he politics. I don't

772
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:02,320
Speaker 1: agree with politics. I don't want to be a politician.

773
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:05,040
Speaker 1: I don't like how they do business. Um, because I

774
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,319
Speaker 1: think a lot of times it's scratching each other's back,

775
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:11,799
Speaker 1: whether Republican or Democrat. But um, you know that's their realm.

776
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 1: That's what they did. I testified and I said what

777
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,600
Speaker 1: I needed to say. Behind closed doors. I was treated

778
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 1: with respect. I'll say that, even the even the Democrats,

779
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: especially Congresswoman Duckworth. Um, she used to fly at PATCHI

780
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:26,239
Speaker 1: helcop for me when I was at Ranger School. She

781
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:28,680
Speaker 1: came down and personally thank I mean so I I

782
00:44:29,239 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: my testimony actually was very respectful by the Congressman, the

783
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: U and Congresswoman, the council for the Democrats. They tried

784
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:40,759
Speaker 1: to they tried to play some games that I was

785
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:43,560
Speaker 1: a little bit. Uh that's tough because you've got kids,

786
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:47,279
Speaker 1: you've got lawyers that are really young, very very pretentious,

787
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 1: and and uh it's a it's a little bit gets

788
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:52,240
Speaker 1: a little bit snotty, and they're a little bit snobby.

789
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:54,839
Speaker 1: But it was far for the course. I was used

790
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:56,680
Speaker 1: to it, so I was able to handle my own.

791
00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 1: But the common and actually I'm to tell everybody, the

792
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,799
Speaker 1: Congressman and him and the majority of them did show

793
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: up for my hearing, even though it was behind closed doors.

794
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:09,320
Speaker 1: All of them were very respectful. This is a remarkable story.

795
00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 1: Um from an earlier episode with Ivan Castro. Now, Ivan

796
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:20,240
Speaker 1: lost his eye in combat and continue to serve actually

797
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 1: in the Army Special Forces and went on to actually

798
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:28,440
Speaker 1: run marathons. Could you believe that? So here it is

799
00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 1: in his own words, what a story? So fighting blind? Yeah?

800
00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:37,680
Speaker 1: How did I get hurt? I got hurt on September two,

801
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:41,400
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, and I was opportoon leader for

802
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 1: a a sniper platoon and I was on a rooftop

803
00:45:46,719 --> 00:45:50,279
Speaker 1: in in Iraq, a place called You Sophia. I had

804
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 1: just relieved my guys and motorounds came in and one

805
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:56,640
Speaker 1: landed um off the roof and the next one landing

806
00:45:56,800 --> 00:46:00,719
Speaker 1: five ft to my left, and the round, uh just

807
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:03,960
Speaker 1: tore through my body and unfortunately killed two guys in

808
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:07,960
Speaker 1: my unit. Do you want to talk a little bit

809
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:10,719
Speaker 1: Ivan also about like what that process was like when

810
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:13,520
Speaker 1: you got hurt. And then, UM, I take it you

811
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:17,600
Speaker 1: were like evacuated to the hospital in Germany. Yes, I was,

812
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:22,640
Speaker 1: so you immediately still on the under enemy fire. UM

813
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: My guys, the rest of my guys on my on

814
00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:27,759
Speaker 1: my team jumped up on the rooftop. They pulled me

815
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 1: over to the side got me off the rooftop, provided

816
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 1: first aid and UM. Once the the firefight ended, they

817
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:41,440
Speaker 1: called in Midovac aircraft and I was transported to Ballade

818
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,440
Speaker 1: and then from there to launch stool, Germany, and then

819
00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 1: from launch stool to Walter Read and finally but there's

820
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 1: a naval medical center where spanished several weeks and I

821
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:54,920
Speaker 1: see you and you know the more around had had

822
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:59,360
Speaker 1: just torn through me. It U broke my nose, shattered

823
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:01,520
Speaker 1: my right cheek bone and nuclear in my right eye

824
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:05,320
Speaker 1: for long, trapnel in my left I had a biolog

825
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:09,960
Speaker 1: bannerism on the left retiem ri lungs collapse, open bone,

826
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:16,320
Speaker 1: fractually humorous del toy muscle, torn pulmonary embolism, amputated finger,

827
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 1: and and a whole bunch of other open wounds, you know,

828
00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:24,320
Speaker 1: due to trapnel. He's got he he has the medical

829
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 1: records on you know his injuries. I mean no exaggeration,

830
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:33,600
Speaker 1: they feel about twenty ft of files. Um. He got

831
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:38,799
Speaker 1: intense care just on the battlefield and um, and then

832
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:40,719
Speaker 1: once he got to the hospital, he was you know,

833
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,239
Speaker 1: went through I don't know how many surgeries did you

834
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: go through, ivan any guess it was. It was over forty.

835
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:51,000
Speaker 1: You know, it was just you know, doing one surgery.

836
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: Let that hell doing another, um you know right after

837
00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 1: that one. Say it was surgery after surgery after surgery.

838
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: But you know, I've got to always think, um, it

839
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:06,279
Speaker 1: was a team effort from all branches of service, and

840
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:10,759
Speaker 1: from the men underground to the pilots, the medics on

841
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:15,040
Speaker 1: the aircraft you know, the Air Force folks transforming over

842
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: the Navy doctors you know, and and marines that be says.

843
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:22,920
Speaker 1: So it's it was a combined effort. And it's amazing.

844
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:29,120
Speaker 1: Our our modern military medicine. It's just cutting edge, you know.

845
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:33,920
Speaker 1: So it's I'm alive because of them. It's fascinating. I mean,

846
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:36,760
Speaker 1: it's it's incredible because I mean these are the injuries

847
00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:41,080
Speaker 1: that probably would have killed a soldier in years past. Um,

848
00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:44,720
Speaker 1: but I mean we have these medical training and medical

849
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:48,759
Speaker 1: technology today that can just do some incredible things. Yeah,

850
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:52,040
Speaker 1: it's absolutely right y and and just with the speed

851
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:55,120
Speaker 1: and so it was it was great. It was. I

852
00:48:55,560 --> 00:48:57,880
Speaker 1: I gotta say I received the best care a right,

853
00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 1: I surely did. So. I was gonna say that. You know,

854
00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:06,279
Speaker 1: looking through your book, Ivan, I know that what what

855
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:09,080
Speaker 1: got you through this is that you had one goal

856
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:11,719
Speaker 1: and that was to run a marathon and of course

857
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,800
Speaker 1: get back into combat, which you did, which is incredible

858
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,840
Speaker 1: in itself. And I'd love to hear about um running

859
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,080
Speaker 1: a marathon, especially for you know, being legally blind. Now

860
00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:23,120
Speaker 1: I know that you have someone they're guiding what you

861
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 1: along the way has to be an incredibly hard thing

862
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:31,120
Speaker 1: to do. And since then you've done two dozen including

863
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: the Boston Marathon where you were in and I want

864
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,120
Speaker 1: to hear about that. But just the process of of

865
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:40,680
Speaker 1: running that first marathon, how tough was it? Uh? How

866
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:42,520
Speaker 1: did you get to the point where you were able

867
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 1: to actually do it? And you know, how does it

868
00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:47,320
Speaker 1: compare to the ruck stack marches that you did in

869
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:51,480
Speaker 1: the army? Yeah? You know when you lose your sight?

870
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:55,160
Speaker 1: Uh you you'r we live in such a bubble that

871
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,600
Speaker 1: we don't know. You know, if you lose your legs,

872
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,520
Speaker 1: you don't know anything about prosthetics or if you have

873
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,240
Speaker 1: a spinal cord injury or cancer. And it's not until

874
00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:09,080
Speaker 1: that point in time that you come to realize that hey, wow, um,

875
00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:11,399
Speaker 1: you get smart on that and your family gets smart

876
00:50:11,400 --> 00:50:13,480
Speaker 1: on into And I didn't know anything about blindness and

877
00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:17,560
Speaker 1: and I I saw I had overheard a resident and

878
00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 1: maybe nurse talking about the Marine Corps Marathon shortly after

879
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,719
Speaker 1: I was in the hospital and came to and I

880
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,320
Speaker 1: didn't have any goals for being blind because you know,

881
00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: they had just told me and and that that process

882
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,759
Speaker 1: was long and hard and and once again it's my

883
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 1: physical therapist, my occupational therapist, my family and just friends

884
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:43,040
Speaker 1: that decided to help me on this mission. This new

885
00:50:43,080 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 1: mission I had, which was my first mission, you know

886
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:50,320
Speaker 1: after getting injured, was to uh have all my you know,

887
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 1: my thought process was to get over all my surgeries

888
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,320
Speaker 1: in one year. And the doctors they just laughed at me,

889
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:57,759
Speaker 1: said that's not gonna happen. This is not gonna be

890
00:50:57,840 --> 00:51:00,520
Speaker 1: a one year process. And when I told him that

891
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:04,160
Speaker 1: I wanted to run the Marine Corps Marathon, they looked

892
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:06,719
Speaker 1: at me and you know, they said, sure, you know,

893
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:10,200
Speaker 1: they just encouraged me, but they they really didn't believe

894
00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 1: that that it was going to get accomplished. So I

895
00:51:13,960 --> 00:51:17,000
Speaker 1: I bubbled up on my physical therapy, my occupational therapy,

896
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:23,080
Speaker 1: and and resistance training and from going of being bid

897
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:25,840
Speaker 1: bound and having two people standing up for two seconds

898
00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:27,919
Speaker 1: because I had lost so much muscle in my legs

899
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:31,080
Speaker 1: to be able to line up in the Marine corparrathon

900
00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:33,520
Speaker 1: and run that. And and I just want to let

901
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:37,759
Speaker 1: you know it's you know, since that first Marine Corps

902
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:41,279
Speaker 1: Marathon in two thousand and seven, I ran over um

903
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:44,759
Speaker 1: close to sixty marathons now and and to fifty. So

904
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:48,799
Speaker 1: it's been it's been more than two over two dozen.

905
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:52,480
Speaker 1: It's close to close to sixty. Take you to get

906
00:51:52,520 --> 00:51:54,920
Speaker 1: there to you know, recover from your injuries enough that

907
00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: you were able to participate in a marathon. It was

908
00:51:58,320 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 1: so I got hurt on September I can two thousand six,

909
00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:06,320
Speaker 1: and I ran the Army ten miler and the Marine

910
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 1: Corps Marathon the next October, October two thousand seven. And uh,

911
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:19,160
Speaker 1: and you know what, it's everybody, you know, they give

912
00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 1: they praised me for being able to do that, but

913
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:23,800
Speaker 1: it's a team effort. I could have not done it

914
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:28,360
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for great friends and family that that

915
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:30,799
Speaker 1: supported me on that and guided me the whole way.

916
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:33,440
Speaker 1: And and you're right, you know I did run Boston

917
00:52:34,239 --> 00:52:38,880
Speaker 1: on two thirteen, and um, yeah, it was it was

918
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 1: such an experience. And I was about half a mile

919
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:44,480
Speaker 1: from the finish line when when the bombs went off

920
00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:48,479
Speaker 1: in all the chaos and commotion, and uh, at that time,

921
00:52:49,160 --> 00:52:53,799
Speaker 1: you know, your instinct just you know, you you that's

922
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:56,440
Speaker 1: which turns on man, and it's like you want to

923
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:59,279
Speaker 1: run towards towards the gunfire, you know, and see what

924
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 1: you could do. And then you realize, man, I'm blind,

925
00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 1: you know what can I do? Uh? And it was

926
00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:08,480
Speaker 1: just you know, the guys I was with two good

927
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:13,080
Speaker 1: friends of mine, um, Colonel Mike Sullivan and Colonel Fred Duemore,

928
00:53:13,239 --> 00:53:17,400
Speaker 1: just too great SF just warriors and those guys you know,

929
00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:21,640
Speaker 1: they said, hey, there's too much chaos and commotion and uh,

930
00:53:22,239 --> 00:53:26,719
Speaker 1: you know we're not in the right protective protective posture. Uh,

931
00:53:26,960 --> 00:53:28,839
Speaker 1: you know, we just had shorts and T shirts fan

932
00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:32,480
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, we we decided it was just

933
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 1: best to boog you on out of there and and

934
00:53:35,239 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 1: helping what we could on the way out, you know.

935
00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:39,719
Speaker 1: So we were fortunate to get out of there on time.

936
00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:44,920
Speaker 1: We really hope that you enjoyed hearing these stories. There

937
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:48,360
Speaker 1: was some tragic stuff there, but also some inspiring words,

938
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:50,960
Speaker 1: I have to say, And it was a real honor

939
00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:54,160
Speaker 1: to talk to everybody who was a part of this show,

940
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:58,319
Speaker 1: um on previous shows and getting their story. It's great

941
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:01,520
Speaker 1: to re air some of that audio, especially for those

942
00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:03,399
Speaker 1: who haven't heard it, and you guys could dig back

943
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:07,080
Speaker 1: and hear those full interviews. Uh. Here's the Harley Davidson

944
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 1: way of helping our military enjoy some two wheels freedom.

945
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:14,360
Speaker 1: The Freedom Promise. It means the price you pay on

946
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,959
Speaker 1: a newer Uth Street or Sportster model is the money

947
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:21,320
Speaker 1: you get back on trade that's right by an eligible model,

948
00:54:21,640 --> 00:54:24,200
Speaker 1: and you'll get your purchase price back on trade within

949
00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:28,560
Speaker 1: one year from data purchase. Harley Davidson All for Freedom.

950
00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:32,880
Speaker 1: Freedom for All excludes tax, title fee and extras. Not

951
00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:36,040
Speaker 1: ava Elbow in all states. Check with your local Harley

952
00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:39,839
Speaker 1: Davidson dealer and we'll be back as always. Follow us

953
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:44,360
Speaker 1: on soft Rep Radio at softwarep Radio, on Twitter and

954
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:47,880
Speaker 1: Instagram thanks to the fine people at Harley Davidson, and

955
00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 1: keep checking out the podcast channel for all new episodes

956
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:55,720
Speaker 1: twice every week you've been listening to self rep Radio.

957
00:54:56,239 --> 00:54:59,759
Speaker 1: New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday for all of

958
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:03,360
Speaker 1: the great content from our veteran journalists. Join us and

959
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:06,799
Speaker 1: become a team room member today at soft rep dot com,

960
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 1: follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at soft rep Radio,

961
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:14,200
Speaker 1: and be sure to also check out the Power of

962
00:55:14,320 --> 00:55:19,279
Speaker 1: Thought podcast, hosted by Hurricane Group CEO and Navy Seal

963
00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:33,200
Speaker 1: Sniper instructor Brandon Webb, M