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Speaker 1: Morning, you're about to enter the arena and join the

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Speaker 1: battle to save America with your host Sean Parnell. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: welcome to Battleground Live. It is Monday, and this is

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Speaker 1: a special Memorial Day edition of Battleground Live. And I'm

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Speaker 1: so so glad. I know it's a holiday, I really do.

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Speaker 1: And you all are probably doing barbecues and picnics and

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Speaker 1: spending time with your families, or maybe you're just spending

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Speaker 1: a day and you know, reflection and thinking about those

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Speaker 1: who've given their last full measure for this exceptional country

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Speaker 1: that we call home. Either way, I just wanted to

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Speaker 1: thank you for being here with me today. It means

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Speaker 1: a lot, you know. I'm doing a Memorial Day show

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Speaker 1: because I just believe it's so important to talk about

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Speaker 1: Memorial Day and to honor the sacrifice of those that

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Speaker 1: we lost. And if we don't talk, if we don't

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Speaker 1: talk about it, if we don't take our thoughts and

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Speaker 1: put them into words about what it means to live

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Speaker 1: in a free country and what it means to live

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Speaker 1: in America and the true cost of freedom, then those

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Speaker 1: legacies will be lost. And so I will always do

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Speaker 1: a Memorial Day ceremony for if for no other reason,

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Speaker 1: it's to keep the legacy of my troops alive. And

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Speaker 1: so let me do a quick weekend update because even

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Speaker 1: though it's a Memorial Day, I'd like to do a

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Speaker 1: weekend update for you on Mondays And so my family

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Speaker 1: we celebrated, celebrated, but we spent time together and sort

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Speaker 1: of celebrated the Memorial Day holiday. Yesterday, everyone comes over

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Speaker 1: to Fort Parnell. We do what we do best. We

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Speaker 1: eat and we talk, and of course An Cindy was there,

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Speaker 1: and I'm proud to say that she had her first

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Speaker 1: opportunity at bottle feeding the goats, So kudos to an Cindy.

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Speaker 1: Of course, she tells me I'm not allowed to share

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Speaker 1: a picture because she didn't like her hair in the picture.

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Speaker 1: And guess what, I respect that. I gotta respect the

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Speaker 1: hair wishes, you know, I get it. So she fed

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Speaker 1: the goats, she loved the goats. And I'm also proud

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Speaker 1: to announce the new names of our kids, not the

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Speaker 1: five kids that are crazy in Fort Parnell, but the

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Speaker 1: two baby goats. Their names are Zeke and Ellie, and

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Speaker 1: we love those little things. It's amazing how much joy

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Speaker 1: two little goats can bring to a family. So now

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Speaker 1: we've got two goats, We've got a dog, two cats,

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Speaker 1: five kids, a crazy, not crazy, maybe sometimes crazy, feisty wife.

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Speaker 1: We got lots of great things going on here in

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Speaker 1: Fort Parnell. Okay, So today I'm on the show, shifting

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Speaker 1: from the weekend up date, We're gonna talk about coming home,

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Speaker 1: three like three very important parts of Memorial Day that

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Speaker 1: I all believe are intertwined together, coming home, honoring the fallen,

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Speaker 1: and the importance of veterans needing to talk about their service.

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Speaker 1: And so if you have a friend or family member

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Speaker 1: who's a veteran, or even if you're just a veteran

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Speaker 1: or had the honor of serving this country, you got

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Speaker 1: to listen to this because this is a message. This

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Speaker 1: last segment just for you. Okay. So part of the

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Speaker 1: reason why I want to do a show about Memorial

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Speaker 1: Day is obviously I want to honor the legacy of

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Speaker 1: the fallen, but it's there's just a lot of misunderstanding

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Speaker 1: about what Memorial Day is. And I promised myself I

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Speaker 1: wasn't going to talk about politics today, but I'm violating

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Speaker 1: that promise now because ilan Omar and Representative Corey Bush.

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Speaker 1: The leaded their tweets about Memorial Day because these two

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Speaker 1: diversity higher morons have no idea what it is. And

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Speaker 1: again they're representing, They're trying that. These are people who

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Speaker 1: represent their constituents, some of whom are veterans, and they

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Speaker 1: don't even know the difference between Memorial Day Veterans Day.

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Speaker 1: So here's elon Omar. On Memorial Day, we honor the

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Speaker 1: heroic men and women who served our country and wrong.

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Speaker 1: We owe them more than our gratitude. They have more

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Speaker 1: than earned access to quality mental health services, job opportunities,

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Speaker 1: housing assistants, and the benefits they were promised. Well, I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's all well and good, except for that's not the

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Speaker 1: point of Memorial Day. Here's Corey Bush. This Memorial Day

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Speaker 1: and every day we honor our veterans in Saint Louis.

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Speaker 1: We must invest in universal health care, affordable housing, comprehensive

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Speaker 1: mental health services, and educational and economic opportunities for our

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Speaker 1: veterans as we work to build a world free of

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Speaker 1: war and violence. Both posts by representatives who serve in

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Speaker 1: the Halls of Congress have been deleted, so needless to say,

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Speaker 1: there might be a gap of understanding with regards to

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Speaker 1: some of the struggles that maybe perhaps our veterans go

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Speaker 1: through them. Looking in the chat, and Dorry chimes in

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Speaker 1: as if right on crude, they are right on q

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Speaker 1: they are morons, and she would be right they are more.

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Speaker 1: Try not to be political, but this is a political show.

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Speaker 1: It is what it is. Okay. Let me tell you

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Speaker 1: coming home from war, having experienced this myself, and this

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Speaker 1: ties to the larger theme of Memorial Day and what

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Speaker 1: it means. But coming home from war is not easy.

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Speaker 1: It never has been easy, and it never will be,

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Speaker 1: nor is it Just like for thousands of years, the

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Speaker 1: story of veterans coming back or warriors coming home from

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Speaker 1: war have been just part of our collective unconscious as

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Speaker 1: a society, as a people, as a humanity. In fact,

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Speaker 1: warrior is one of the world's oldest professions. Since the

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Speaker 1: beginning of time, people have needed, there have been those

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Speaker 1: in their society who have to rise up to defend

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Speaker 1: their communities, in their society at large from enemies. Warriors

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Speaker 1: have always existed, so the journey home for war has

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Speaker 1: always existed as well. But the reason why that journey

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Speaker 1: can be so difficult for so many veterans, especially here

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Speaker 1: in America, is because that because war changes you, folks,

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Speaker 1: it changes you. And it's tough in America because only

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Speaker 1: point four percent have served this country during what was

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Speaker 1: twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the longest

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Speaker 1: period of war in American history. So less than half

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Speaker 1: of one percent of Americans served this country during the

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Speaker 1: longest period of war in our nation's history. I mean

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Speaker 1: that is profound. And those point four percent, they continually

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Speaker 1: deployed one deployment, two deployments, three deployments, deployment. So a

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Speaker 1: very heavy burden has been carried in this country by

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Speaker 1: a very small percentage of Americans, and with every successive deployment,

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Speaker 1: that burden gets heavier and heavier. And it's not that

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Speaker 1: we don't live in an amazing country. We do. We're

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Speaker 1: so lucky to live in a country where we come home.

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Speaker 1: And Americans truly mean it when I say thank you

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Speaker 1: for your service. I'm grateful for that. Everybody that I

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Speaker 1: served with is grateful for that as well. But there

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Speaker 1: is still a lack of understanding in this country that

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Speaker 1: exists in the form of a canyon almost between those

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Speaker 1: who enjoy freedom on a day to day basis and

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Speaker 1: those who rise up to protect it. And I'll never

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Speaker 1: forget what it was like for me. Just to give

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Speaker 1: you a sense of what it's like to come home.

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Speaker 1: Came home from sixteen months in Afghanistan to Fort Drum,

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Speaker 1: New York and a basketball court of all places, and

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Speaker 1: clean dress uniforms. Went home on my two weeks R

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Speaker 1: and R. Right. So the first thing that I do

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Speaker 1: when I get home on leave after sixteen months of war,

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Speaker 1: right times where I thought I was not going to

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Speaker 1: come home, Times where I thought, man, it's just a matter.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be dead here. It's just a matter of

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Speaker 1: when and a question of how. That's it. I convinced

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Speaker 1: myself of that. So, needless to say, war had changed

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Speaker 1: me in a very deep and fundamental way, as is

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Speaker 1: typically the case with veterans all across our country, serving

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Speaker 1: all the way back to World War One and even

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Speaker 1: before it's just serving in war. It's just like that.

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Speaker 1: It just changes you. Now. I remember first thing I

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Speaker 1: did when I came home was call my buddies, people

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Speaker 1: that I went to elementary school with, people that I

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Speaker 1: went to high school with, people that I went to

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Speaker 1: college with. And I hey, were you all living right now?

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Speaker 1: Because again, sixteen months of life changing things for me

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Speaker 1: felt like an eternity. So I figured, hey, they're probably

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Speaker 1: live in a different address. Nope, living at the same

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Speaker 1: address that they lived at for ten years. And so

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking, okay, still at the same place on the

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Speaker 1: south side of Pittsburgh. And so they text me the address.

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Speaker 1: I look at it, I laugh, and I drive down

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Speaker 1: to their place, and of course, what we're gonna do

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Speaker 1: is we're gonna go out in the South Side. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna have a few beers, just like we always did, right,

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Speaker 1: And I walk into their place and it's literally decorated

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Speaker 1: in the exact same way. Every one of my buddies

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Speaker 1: are sitting in the same spots that they have always

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Speaker 1: sat in on the couch for what seemed like since

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Speaker 1: I've known them. They are still drinking Iron City beer

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Speaker 1: out out of what I believed is the same beer

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Speaker 1: cooler that they've used since we were in college, talking

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Speaker 1: about the same girl problems, with the same Simpsons posters

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Speaker 1: on the wall and Family Guy magnets on the fridge.

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Speaker 1: And I'm thinking in that doorway as I look at this,

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Speaker 1: and first of all, this is not an indictment on

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Speaker 1: any of them. I mean, I'm just telling you my experience, Like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, nothing has changed here at home, but

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Speaker 1: I'm a fundamentally different person in every single way. And

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Speaker 1: I felt like, not to sound like a big pansy

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Speaker 1: or anything, but I felt like, holy smokes, my friends

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Speaker 1: are completely different people than me now, people that I'd

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Speaker 1: know in all my life. And so we go out

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Speaker 1: to the bar and we're at this place called Casey's

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Speaker 1: in the South side of Pittsburgh, and you know, they're

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Speaker 1: just asking me about my deployment, which is totally normal,

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Speaker 1: by the way, and they start asking me about what

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Speaker 1: it was like, and I started telling them what it

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Speaker 1: was like, and pretty soon I found myself sitting around

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Speaker 1: that table by myself, because guess what, war is a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a buzzkill. War as hell, that's not

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Speaker 1: a catchphrase, it's real. And so while there are Americans

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Speaker 1: out there that would like that, they want to hear

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Speaker 1: what war is like, it ain't easy. And I get it.

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Speaker 1: I'm not a victim of any of this experience. It's

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Speaker 1: just war is a buzzkill. That's how it is. And

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Speaker 1: so in that moment, I just said, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk about my experience anymore. And

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Speaker 1: I started thinking about it more, and eventually I made

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Speaker 1: the decision to reverse course and write the book because

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Speaker 1: I realized how important telling the story, telling the story

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Speaker 1: of my troops really was in terms of their ability

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Speaker 1: to come home. But I want to just take a

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Speaker 1: step back from my own personal story because I was

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Speaker 1: just leading to this, leading into something that I think

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Speaker 1: is really important, and that is the times that we

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Speaker 1: live in today. If you think about World War Two

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Speaker 1: and you think about that time and that moment in

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Speaker 1: time where literally the world was at stake, you'd be

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Speaker 1: hard pressed to walk into a neighborhood at the height

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Speaker 1: of World War Two and find a family that was

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Speaker 1: not affected by that war in some way, whether they

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Speaker 1: had women serving on the home front, you know, women

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Speaker 1: serving maybe as nurse is on the battlefield somewhere maybe,

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Speaker 1: or in hospitals that supporting the war effort, or Rosie

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Speaker 1: the riveter working in manufacturing, or American sons fighting on

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Speaker 1: the battlefield against the Germans or the Japanese. Everybody was

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Speaker 1: affected by that war. So everybody had skin in the day,

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Speaker 1: in the game, even American corporations. You look at GM

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Speaker 1: and traditionally how they operate today making automobiles for America,

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Speaker 1: an American automobile manufacturer. Well, they were busy making tanks

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Speaker 1: and jeeps for the war effort. You think about during

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Speaker 1: twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We had

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Speaker 1: a shortage of Humbi's that were up armored, but GM

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Speaker 1: was churning out one civilian humbye after the next four

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Speaker 1: celebrities back then you remember, so like you think you

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Speaker 1: see the difference in priorities of a country at the

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Speaker 1: height of World War Two, in the country at the

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Speaker 1: height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistans. So just

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Speaker 1: give you a sense of sort of just a difference

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Speaker 1: in what it was of the time period in America, right,

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Speaker 1: And so that leads me to the whole idea of

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Speaker 1: leaving leaving somebody behind, you know, the idea that we

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Speaker 1: don't leave people behind. That is beaten to our heads

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Speaker 1: as trainees when you're in basic training or whether you're

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Speaker 1: in ranger school. Hell, leave no man behind, Never leave

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Speaker 1: a fallen comrade, Never leave a fallen comrade. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is in the warrior ethos. This is in the

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Speaker 1: Ranger Creed. It's in everything that we do. Even if

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Speaker 1: we have somebody fall out of a run, the entire

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Speaker 1: formation turns around, picks up the slowest person and puts

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Speaker 1: them in the front of the formation. We're only as

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Speaker 1: fast as our slowest person. And so when you deployed

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Speaker 1: to combat, and over twenty years of war, American veterans

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Speaker 1: lose people that they love and care about, people that

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Speaker 1: they become unbelievably close to, people that become as close

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Speaker 1: to them as their actual brothers and sisters. And when

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Speaker 1: you compare, when you take hate the idea of never

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Speaker 1: leaving somebody behind, and you have somebody that's insanely close

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Speaker 1: to you that you love, and you come home and

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Speaker 1: you have that desire to keep their memory alive, it's

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Speaker 1: you almost create a circumstance where if you move on

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Speaker 1: in life or find the next mission in life, and

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Speaker 1: you make a conscious decision to say, hey, look, I

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Speaker 1: was a warrior then, but I'm hanging the rifle over

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Speaker 1: the mantle, I'm putting the boots in the closet, and

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Speaker 1: I'm going to transition to do something something else. There's

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Speaker 1: a fear that happens in the Hearts of our veterans

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Speaker 1: where they say, holy smokes, if I move on, it

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Speaker 1: means I'll forget, And I don't leave people behind, because

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Speaker 1: forgetting means leaving their memory behind, and in that moment,

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Speaker 1: some veterans can get stuck. Some veterans can get stuck.

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Speaker 1: So on this Memorial Day, it's critically critically important for

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Speaker 1: you all to understand that dynamic and understand that it's tough.

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Speaker 1: Part of the reason why veterans struggle when they come

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Speaker 1: home is because they have a reticence to move on,

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Speaker 1: because if they move on, it means forgetting. But the

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Speaker 1: truth is is that you just have to find another

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Speaker 1: mission that allows you to continually recognize the legacy of

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Speaker 1: those you lost and recognize their sacrifice. And that brings

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Speaker 1: me back to why I originally wanted to do a

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Speaker 1: show today in the first place. Many people were asking me, Hey,

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Speaker 1: why do a show on Memorial Day? Well, this is why,

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Speaker 1: because I feel now, after having been lucky enough to

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Speaker 1: come home, that it's my duty and my obligation to

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Speaker 1: talk about those who didn't come home. They don't have

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Speaker 1: a voice anymore. I'm sure they'd love to spend time

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Speaker 1: with their family and their friends and their loved ones,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sure their loved ones would love to have

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Speaker 1: them back. They don't have a voice, so I have

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Speaker 1: to be their voice. And if you're a veteran listening,

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Speaker 1: I encourage you to take up that same mission. Do

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Speaker 1: whatever it is that you do in your professional life,

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Speaker 1: try to find a way to make that professional life

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Speaker 1: consonant with keeping the legacy of your fallen service members alive.

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Speaker 1: That will help you immensely. And that brings me to

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Speaker 1: the actual core of the show, and that is remembering

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Speaker 1: those that we lost. And I'm going to talk about

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Speaker 1: two soldiers in Michaeltoon today. Now I've lost so many

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Speaker 1: people in support of these words, it's impossible to talk

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Speaker 1: about all of them, but I'll talk about two, Jeremiah

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Speaker 1: Cole and Jeffrey Hall. Tell you a little bit of

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Speaker 1: stories about both of them. The best way for us

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Speaker 1: to honor the fallen is to really understand what it

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Speaker 1: truly means to come home from war. And that's why

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Speaker 1: I sort of let in with that, because it provides

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Speaker 1: context to this conversation. First, I want to tell you

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Speaker 1: about a kid named Jeremiah Cole. Jeremiah Cole was a

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Speaker 1: forward observer in Bravo Company, second Battalion, eighty seventh Infantry Regiment,

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Speaker 1: That is the unit that I served with in Afghanistan

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Speaker 1: as part of the tenth Mountain Division. We were in

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Speaker 1: the third brigade combat team, the Spartans. The motto of

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Speaker 1: our brigade was with your shielder on it. Now, anybody

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Speaker 1: who's watched the movie three hundred, the motto with your

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Speaker 1: shielder on it was typically said from Spartan wa to

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Speaker 1: their husbands as they marched off the war I had met.

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Speaker 1: Come back either victorious with your shield or come back

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Speaker 1: dead being dragged on your shield. So it gives you

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Speaker 1: a sense of the kind of tenacity that our battalion,

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Speaker 1: our brigade was to fight with in Afghanistan. But Jeremiah

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Speaker 1: Cole was a forid observer and his job was to

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Speaker 1: help me the lieutenant call for fire or any platoon

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Speaker 1: that he was attached with. And Jeremiah Cole was an

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Speaker 1: extraordinary kid. He was always happy and he had just

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Speaker 1: so happened to have a son just before we deployed

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Speaker 1: to Afghanistan. And he asked our battalion commander asked this

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Speaker 1: company commander, Company Commander asked battalion commander, can I stay

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Speaker 1: home and be there for the birth of my son?

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Speaker 1: And I had a similar conversation with my battalion commander

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Speaker 1: because my grandfather had passed away like the day before

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Speaker 1: I was supposed to deploy to Afghanistan, and I asked him, Hey,

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Speaker 1: can I go home for my grandfather's funeral? And my

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Speaker 1: battalion commander told me, of course you can't. We're going

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Speaker 1: to be in Afghanistan for a year. Take care of

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Speaker 1: your family now, because when you get to Afghanistan, your

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Speaker 1: men are going to need you fully committed in there

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Speaker 1: for them. And I was so grateful that he did that.

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Speaker 1: I ended up making it to Afghanistan, being boots on

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Speaker 1: the ground first in Afghanistan with my troops, but the

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Speaker 1: point was well taken that he wanted me fully committed

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Speaker 1: to my troops. So take care of your family here

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Speaker 1: at home stateside while you still can. And Jeremiah Cole

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Speaker 1: has answered to Jeremiah Cole, a young Ford observer and

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Speaker 1: Bravo Company was no different. So Jeremiah Cole was there

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Speaker 1: for the birth of his newborn child, and I know

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Speaker 1: that he probably loved to have that. Jeremiah Cole. Again,

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Speaker 1: this is hard to describe a guy that was just

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Speaker 1: happy and laughing all the time. And so he gets

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Speaker 1: to Afghanistan, and when he gets to Afghanistan, he's a

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Speaker 1: little overweight, because when you have a newborn baby sometimes

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Speaker 1: that's that's how it goes, you know. And because he

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Speaker 1: had gained a little bit of weight, he was not

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Speaker 1: allowed to patrol. And that might sound cruel, but it's

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Speaker 1: not cruel because when you're in Afghanistan, you're at fifteen

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Speaker 1: thousand feet and if you're overweight and you're sucking air

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Speaker 1: and you're trying to acclimatize it just and you're not

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Speaker 1: moving fast, it just puts you at risk. So our

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Speaker 1: company commander and our first sergeant said, you can't patrol yet,

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Speaker 1: but you just got to get yourself in shape before

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Speaker 1: we let you go out on patrol, which is perfectly reasonable.

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Speaker 1: So instead of slacking, instead of crying in his beer,

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Speaker 1: instead of whining, Jeremiah Cole took that in stride, and

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Speaker 1: Jeremiah Cole worked his ass off in the gym just

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Speaker 1: to get to a point where he could patrol with

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Speaker 1: our fellow soldiers. It killed him not to be able

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Speaker 1: to patrol with all of us that we were out

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Speaker 1: there at risk and he was. He felt bad too.

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Speaker 1: I remember he felt like letting you all down because

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Speaker 1: I came here overweight. But we all understood because the

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Speaker 1: guy just had a kid. We get We totally got it.

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Speaker 1: So he threw himself into getting into shape. He was

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Speaker 1: in the gym twice a day. And not only that,

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Speaker 1: Jeremiah Cole looked for ways to support the mission. So

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Speaker 1: there's a life lesson there. Sometimes shit hits the fan.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes in life you're thrown a curveball. But just be grateful,

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Speaker 1: just stay positive, do everything that you can to stay

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Speaker 1: in the fight and contribute to the mission in a

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Speaker 1: positive way. And that that was what That was what

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Speaker 1: I when I think about Jeremiah Cole, that's what I

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Speaker 1: think about. And So while we deployed, my platoon deployed

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Speaker 1: in Afghanistan, we had two interpreters. One was Abdul and

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Speaker 1: one was Yusef. And both of these interpreters my soldiers

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Speaker 1: got very close to and probably too close, and you know,

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Speaker 1: we were excited new culture. You know, Afghanistan was a

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Speaker 1: new place and I was certainly new to that area

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Speaker 1: as well. A lot of my non commissioned officers had

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Speaker 1: already been to combat before, had already been to Afghanistan before.

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Speaker 1: But for a lot of my troops, myself included, they

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Speaker 1: thought it was great and they were doing everything they

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Speaker 1: can to learn the culture. And the way that we

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Speaker 1: did that was through our interpreters. And so we had

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Speaker 1: Abdul whose family was murdered by al Qaeda and the

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Speaker 1: Taliban after nine to eleven, so in order to avenge them,

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Speaker 1: he took up arms with the Americans to fight with us.

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Speaker 1: And then we had Yusef who was kind of a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a mystery, but still had been fighting

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Speaker 1: with the Americans since back to probably two thousand and four,

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Speaker 1: since we invaded Afghanistan in the wake of nine to eleven.

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Speaker 1: The people have been working with Americans for a very

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Speaker 1: long time. A couple months into the deployment, Abdul's family

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Speaker 1: got a night letter, which was basically a letter nailed

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Speaker 1: to their door that threatened their family, and when he

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Speaker 1: learned of this, he rushed out of the base. Against

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Speaker 1: our wishes. We wanted to go down there and secure him, right.

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Speaker 1: We wanted to make sure he was secure going down there,

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Speaker 1: but him being the patriarch of his family and charged

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Speaker 1: with protecting his little brothers and sisters and his mother.

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Speaker 1: He rushed down there on his dirt bike, was ambushed

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Speaker 1: on the way down and was assassinated. And that was

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Speaker 1: tough because for a lot of us, that was the

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Speaker 1: first experience with death with someone who had operated with

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Speaker 1: us on a regular basis. And so that left our

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Speaker 1: platoon with Yusef, who is now with Abdul's death, had

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Speaker 1: stepped into the lead interpreter role on our bet on

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Speaker 1: our base, which was also which was also what came

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Speaker 1: with it was a pay raise in more access. So

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Speaker 1: not only was he just assigned to every platoon, drive

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Speaker 1: around with the commander, drive around in my truck, so

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Speaker 1: he would hear radio communications in the trucks between commanders.

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Speaker 1: Head interpreter. He didn't have a security clearance or anything

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Speaker 1: like that, but if you're out on a mission with

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Speaker 1: a patrol, you hear that stuff. It's just how It's

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Speaker 1: just how it happened back in the day. And so

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Speaker 1: we operated, We looked for bin Laden, we close with

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Speaker 1: and destroy the enemy, and all the while Yusuf was

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Speaker 1: with us until one day in August of two thousand

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Speaker 1: and six. I was set to go home on R

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Speaker 1: and R leave and every soldier is mandated to go

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Speaker 1: home two weeks rest and relaxation with the family. And

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Speaker 1: that's what I did. And I will never forget that.

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Speaker 1: I met Jeremiah Cole on the flight line who is

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Speaker 1: coordinating what they call the ring route, the CH forty

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Speaker 1: seven bird that would come in, drop off supplies, and

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Speaker 1: pick up sold and fly them back to bases they

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Speaker 1: were supposed to be at. You know, on the ring

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Speaker 1: route was Ford Operating Base burmel FOB Tilman up in

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Speaker 1: the north, and then you had orgone which was our

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Speaker 1: battalion headquarters, and Sealerno which was our brigade headquarters, and

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Speaker 1: BOGRAM which was the division headquarters. They were all along

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Speaker 1: what they call a ring route. So the helicopter would

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Speaker 1: fly that ring route, pick up and drop off soldiers

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Speaker 1: at each base and drop off supplies as they flew

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Speaker 1: those routes pretty much every day, depending upon the weather. Well,

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Speaker 1: Jeremiah Cole was on the flight line and he was

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Speaker 1: coordinating flights and the landing of the birds, because that's

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Speaker 1: part of the job of the Ford observer, at least

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Speaker 1: when we were deployed. And I remember I get out

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Speaker 1: there on the flight line. I had just come off

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Speaker 1: of a mission where we got in this huge firefight.

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Speaker 1: I had dirt covered all over my uniform, bloodstains because

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Speaker 1: one of my troops had been shot, and I didn't

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Speaker 1: have time to change or take a shower, so standing

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Speaker 1: out there on the flight line, just covered head to

431
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 1: toe looking like complete and total hammered shit. And I

432
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:00,199
Speaker 1: walked to the flight line and I see Jerem my

433
00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:02,400
Speaker 1: Coal with his big shit eating grin on his face,

434
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 1: which is always the case, always smiling, and he's got

435
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:09,399
Speaker 1: these big yellow shoes on, these big yellow shoes on

436
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:11,920
Speaker 1: that He's like, I got them, sir, I ordered these shoes.

437
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 1: I'm like, Cole, you look like freaking big bird. He

438
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,080
Speaker 1: was using these side in the gym. He was running

439
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 1: and he's like, well, hey, say I'm big bird. All

440
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 1: you want, I'm going out on patrol when you get back,

441
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 1: you know, so the bird lands, he goes, I'll see

442
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,680
Speaker 1: you when you get back, you know. Salute, salute, run

443
00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 1: on the bird. I flew out, went on leave, and

444
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:34,400
Speaker 1: a few days into the leave, I realized that Jeremiah Cole,

445
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 1: much to like my horror, had been killed and I

446
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 1: didn't know how he had been killed until a little

447
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:48,120
Speaker 1: bit later, but come to find out that Yusef had

448
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:52,800
Speaker 1: been targeting command elements of our company. He was in

449
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:57,159
Speaker 1: contact using satellite phones on our base, telling us he

450
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 1: was contacting his family, and since there was a language barrier,

451
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,720
Speaker 1: I didn't know any better. But really what he was

452
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: doing was talking with Irany and ied cells and giving

453
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,159
Speaker 1: them the locations of our observation posts and hoping that

454
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 1: one of our officers or leaders in each of the

455
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:14,560
Speaker 1: platoon non commissioned officers officers would drive over this anti

456
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 1: tank mine, this plastic Italian TC six anti tank mind

457
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 1: that no amount of metal detectors could detect. And so

458
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 1: my truck had just been tasked with an observation post.

459
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 1: One day, my amazing platoon sergeant was in the truck

460
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,320
Speaker 1: because he was in charge of the platoon in my absence,

461
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,879
Speaker 1: and he had his he had our soldiers in the truck,

462
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:37,879
Speaker 1: and my truck rolls up right over the mine and

463
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: boom blows up kills Jeremiah Cole instantly on one of

464
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: his first patrols outside the wire after he busted his

465
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,200
Speaker 1: ass to get into shape and blew everybody else completely

466
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:49,120
Speaker 1: out of the truck and injured them and wounded them.

467
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: The truck was completely destroyed. My soldiers were pretty messed up,

468
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 1: and Jeremiah Cole was dead and I missed it. I

469
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: wasn't there to experience that pain with the platoon. I

470
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 1: wasn't there for his funeral on the base. It was

471
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 1: just a really, really tough time. But Jeremiah Cole was extraordinary.

472
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: He was an extraordinary American, and we should all endeavor

473
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:20,640
Speaker 1: to never forget that man died on August sixteenth, two

474
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: thousand and six. Sixteen August two thousand and six seems

475
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:31,440
Speaker 1: like an eternity to go eternity ago, but we've got

476
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: to keep his memory alive. And that brings me to

477
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: Jeff Hall. Talked a little bit about Jeff Hall on

478
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 1: the Wendy Bell radio program this morning. But Jeff Hall

479
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 1: was another extraordinary American who was a leader at MI

480
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: Peltoon in charge of third Squad. Jeff Hall was a ranger,

481
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: had a ranger tab on his shoulder. He was confident.

482
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: He was a highly effective squad leader. Guy Drobaharley, drank

483
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 1: top shelf whiskey, just seemed invincible. He was great out

484
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:04,040
Speaker 1: on patrol. I will never forget that we were doing

485
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:06,800
Speaker 1: a battalion mission in November of two thousand and six,

486
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: after taking eleven months of rocket fire, a one twenty

487
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 1: two rocket fire. I wish I could show you. I

488
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 1: have this picture somewhere. The rocket tube is six feet

489
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 1: long and fires a rocket about this big. We were

490
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 1: getting pounded with those rockets effectively for months and months

491
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: and months, and one twenty two rockets are no joke,

492
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,240
Speaker 1: and we finally called a battalion mission to go out

493
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: and find the people who were shooting rockets at us

494
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: and find them and kill them. And so we got

495
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:37,959
Speaker 1: the entire battalion online and our job was just to

496
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: close with and destroy the enemy all the way from

497
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,160
Speaker 1: our base, all the way to the pack board, push

498
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: them into Pakistan, trap them there for the winner, give

499
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 1: the troops rest and reset new unit was supposed to

500
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: come in. It would give them time and space to

501
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,160
Speaker 1: learn the area of operations. I mean, that was the plan.

502
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:58,000
Speaker 1: And of course my patune was tasked with being the

503
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: tip of the spear for that entire mission, which meant

504
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: that my platoon was going to be going back there first,

505
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 1: which means that my platoon was going to be the

506
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 1: ones getting our ass shot off every step of the

507
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: way as we as we closed with the enemy and

508
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: push them to Pakistan, and I'll never forget we drive

509
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 1: back there. We were supposed to drive in the low

510
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 1: ground and use the heavy guns and armored trucks in

511
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 1: the low ground while the Afghan National Army with the

512
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: Marine Corps advisors walk the ridge lines right and of

513
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 1: course the Marines are walking and we're driving. We're right

514
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 1: at the mouth of what we call our line of

515
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 1: demarcation for this mission. It was along this route we

516
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 1: called Transam route. Transam was at that time one of

517
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 1: the most dangerous roads in all of Afghanistan. And we're

518
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:48,239
Speaker 1: just sitting there waiting for the green light to go

519
00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: in this mission to start to start our push towards

520
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: the pack border. And before we get the green light, okay,

521
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:58,080
Speaker 1: we're in the low ground. Afghan National Army with the

522
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 1: Marine advisors are on the high ground in the high

523
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: ground while we take the logan round about five Afghan fight,

524
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: I mean they were foreign fighters, terrorists run out of

525
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: the Wadi system about one hundred yards from us. They've

526
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 1: got their Ak forty sevens in the air They're dressed

527
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 1: completely in black from head to toe and they're just

528
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: waving their AK forty sevens looking at us, and we

529
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: were so stunned. We were like, it was unbelievable, because

530
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: you really didn't see the enemy in Afghanistan until you

531
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:35,160
Speaker 1: killed them. I mean, they were so good at staying concealed,

532
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: so to see them was jarring. And it had immediately

533
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 1: dawned on me because my first instinct was go chase them,

534
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: and then this little voice in my head said wait stop,

535
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 1: just because it was so crazy to see them out

536
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 1: in the open. And no sooner did I say wait, stop,

537
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: But the Afghan National Army saw them and just bolted,

538
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,800
Speaker 1: and you could hear the Marines on coms trying to

539
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: tell them to stop, but they were already moving. They

540
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 1: chase those five foreign fighters, and they chased them straight

541
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: into the teeth of what was a very very complicated ambush.

542
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 1: And as part of that ambush, one of the marine advisors,

543
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: he was a lieutenant friend of mine, got shot right

544
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 1: in the upper right in the upper thigh, and it

545
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:27,000
Speaker 1: had nicked his femoral artery and he was bleeding out

546
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: really fast, and he was trapped behind two sets of

547
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:32,320
Speaker 1: enemy lines. So the enemy had an outer court on

548
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: and an inner cord on and they were all around

549
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 1: the Marines in the Afghan National Army who were fighting

550
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: and shooting back. And of course Mychaeltoona is sitting there

551
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 1: and my battalion commander walks up and he goes to me.

552
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 1: He goes, what the hell is going on? I said,

553
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: it looks like the Marines in Afghan National Army got

554
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,840
Speaker 1: baited into an ambush and they're pinned down. And he

555
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:50,520
Speaker 1: looked at me and he said, are you ready to go?

556
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, send me in. We'll go get them.

557
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 1: So we drive headlong into this ambush and we make

558
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:58,400
Speaker 1: a left hand turn where they baited us, and just

559
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 1: all hell is breaking loose. Well, of course, we drive

560
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 1: into an ambush and on either side of us or

561
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 1: cliffs so high that my gunners can't traverse their guns

562
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 1: up to the top of the hilltops to hit the

563
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: top of the hills. So we start getting pounded. Are

564
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:13,440
Speaker 1: people in the turrets are getting shot in the head.

565
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,080
Speaker 1: They're surviving somehow, but they're getting shot in the head.

566
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 1: We take a pounding so much so that I had

567
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 1: to break contact get my wounded out of there and

568
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 1: was ready to go right back in when Sergeant Hall said, no, no, sir,

569
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 1: don't do that. Let's take a deep breath and let's

570
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 1: think through this. This is obviously a baited ambush for

571
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 1: us as well. Send me in with a squad and

572
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 1: I will get that marine out of this is Sergeant Hall, right,

573
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 1: he's got a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and

574
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: typically Sergeant Hall fashion, I said, okay, what's the plan here?

575
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 1: Because our trucks were completely shot, like they were completely shot,

576
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 1: not really functional, they weren't going to last the night.

577
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 1: So Sergeant Hall's plan was was he was going to

578
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: take a squad plus which means a little over an

579
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 1: infantry squad up the hilltop directly towards the weakest portion

580
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:05,960
Speaker 1: of the enemy lines, fight through both of them, get

581
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: to the marine issue or deliver medical aid to that marine,

582
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,919
Speaker 1: and bring in what they call a jungle penetrator, which

583
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: was a Blackhawk helicopter with was a long cable at

584
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 1: the end with a litter on it. And I'm thinking like, well,

585
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,399
Speaker 1: that's a bold plan, but let's give it a try, right,

586
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,040
Speaker 1: And so I'm evacuing my casualties on the ground. I'm

587
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:30,800
Speaker 1: patching up my truck so that they would be mission capable,

588
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 1: and I'm watching Sergeant Hall go up that hill, and

589
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,320
Speaker 1: I've got to force myself and a couple of others

590
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: a force to pull quick reaction if need be. And

591
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:43,400
Speaker 1: I needed to stay on the ground because what I

592
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: was going to do is be a part of the

593
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,279
Speaker 1: ground evacuation right go right back into the kill zone

594
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:53,799
Speaker 1: should something happen to Sergeant Hall, and Sergeant Hall ended

595
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:58,280
Speaker 1: up long story short, fighting through two sets of enemy lines,

596
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: getting to that marine, stopping the blood flow in his

597
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 1: for moral artery, got a jungle penetrator in from a

598
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: black Hawk helicopter, got the marine loaded on the litter

599
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 1: onto the black Hawk helicopter, where he was brought to

600
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 1: a cashty collection point at another base, probably one hundred

601
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,560
Speaker 1: miles away. And in that process the rate of fire

602
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:25,320
Speaker 1: is so intense the two Apache helicopters had taken rounds

603
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 1: and had to fly off station because they had hit

604
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 1: these Apaches fuel tanks. This was no joke. So somehow

605
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 1: Sergeant Hall pulls off this miracle of a mission, comes

606
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,720
Speaker 1: sauntering down the hill and he's got the cigarette hanging

607
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 1: out of his mouth and he points his finger in

608
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: my chest and he said, sir, don't even put don't

609
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:46,880
Speaker 1: even think of putting me in for an award. He's like,

610
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 1: because I am just doing my job. The award was

611
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:53,800
Speaker 1: getting that marine. My reward an award. Only only award

612
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,760
Speaker 1: that I need is getting that marine out of there safely.

613
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you I will never I will never

614
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 1: forget that as long as I live. This guy just

615
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:09,439
Speaker 1: pull off this miracle mission. And so we go through

616
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 1: sixteen months of hell. Somehow we make it back by

617
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,719
Speaker 1: the skin of our teeth, and Sergeant Hall is set

618
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 1: to go right back to Afghanistan nine months later, even

619
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,400
Speaker 1: though he just had a new baby with his wife,

620
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 1: set to go back. And this is what I mean

621
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 1: when I let in with the show. A very heavy

622
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,759
Speaker 1: burden was carried by a very small percentage of Americans

623
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,439
Speaker 1: just like Jeff Hall, and thousands of others just like him.

624
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: He didn't bitch, he didn't gripe, he didn't moan, He

625
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,239
Speaker 1: just took it and stride. I'm sure he didn't like it,

626
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:45,400
Speaker 1: but he was gonna have to leave his wife and

627
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 1: his new baby girl behind to go on what was

628
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 1: a second deployment to Afghanistan nine months after a sixteen

629
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 1: month tour. Well. During this time, the rules of engagement

630
00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 1: had changed in Afghanistan so substantially that US soldiers weren't

631
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 1: allowed to even shoot back. They not not only are

632
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:08,280
Speaker 1: they were they rolling into combat with one hand tied

633
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 1: behind their backs with restrictive rules of engagement, they had

634
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,720
Speaker 1: two hands tied behind their back because they weren't allowed

635
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 1: to return fire in the vicinity of an Afghan compound.

636
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 1: They were forced to drive the same routes day in

637
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,560
Speaker 1: and day out. And anybody that's served in combat will

638
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,480
Speaker 1: tell you that that creates a pattern. And patterns in

639
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,640
Speaker 1: combat are dangerous because the enemy is always watching you,

640
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 1: and when they watch you, they start putting in IEDs.

641
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:35,239
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened. And on June first, two

642
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,799
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, Jeff Hall was leading a patrol to

643
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: do humanitarian assistance for a village with children that was

644
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:48,840
Speaker 1: really really struggling. An en route to that, his uparmored

645
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:53,680
Speaker 1: Humbye rolled over a mine that I think killed almost

646
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: everybody in the truck, but the gunner, Sergeant Hall was

647
00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 1: included in that group. Sergeant Hall left behind a wife

648
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:07,319
Speaker 1: and a brand new baby. And if it it's not

649
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:10,880
Speaker 1: for all of us sitting here listening, bearing, just just

650
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:16,719
Speaker 1: listening to the stories of Sergeant Hall's heroism. I wonder

651
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 1: what you know, his family will never forget, right, his spouse,

652
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: this child will never forget him. But my biggest fear

653
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 1: is that Americans will forget, not if I have anything

654
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,239
Speaker 1: to say about it, but my biggest fear is that Americans,

655
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:37,840
Speaker 1: you know, aren't necessarily tethered to these wars like the

656
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:42,080
Speaker 1: American military has been. They will forget. And that is

657
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 1: what keeps me up at night more than any of

658
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 1: the experiences that I had in Afghanistan. Americans not fully

659
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 1: understanding and then forgetting about the sacrifice of so many

660
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:56,080
Speaker 1: is what worries me. And that's part of the reason,

661
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 1: another reason why I'm doing a show on Memorial Day,

662
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: because it's just so important. And that leads me to

663
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:06,359
Speaker 1: the last part of this show. And if we rap

664
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:09,120
Speaker 1: a little bit early tonight, that's okay, it's a holiday.

665
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,719
Speaker 1: But that leads me to the blessing what I call

666
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:16,759
Speaker 1: the blessing and the curse of living in a free society.

667
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:24,400
Speaker 1: We all say, every responsible American parent or American period says,

668
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:27,439
Speaker 1: do you know what, I'm gonna work my ass off

669
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 1: to make sure that my kids have it better than me.

670
00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work my ass off to leave a better

671
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:37,240
Speaker 1: country for the next generation than the one that I had.

672
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:44,680
Speaker 1: Every American that is worth their salt says that because

673
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: of that, with each successive generation, therefore, it stands to

674
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,440
Speaker 1: reason that they would have it easier than the generation before,

675
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:57,759
Speaker 1: which is an amazing thing because living in a free society,

676
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:00,440
Speaker 1: we have that privilege and we have that right, and

677
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 1: that's an amazing thing. But the problem is is that

678
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 1: over time we have things so good and things are

679
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:11,040
Speaker 1: so free that if we're not deliberate about teaching our

680
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 1: children the cost of freedom and that what we have

681
00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:16,680
Speaker 1: in this country and the freedom that we have here

682
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 1: is not free, that they won't recognize that what we

683
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:24,800
Speaker 1: have here in this country is rare. So the blessing

684
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:28,239
Speaker 1: of living in a free society is an extraordinary, amazing

685
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:33,160
Speaker 1: life without fear of being killed by some warring neighboring

686
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 1: tribe like in Afghanistan, where every single day you have

687
00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:38,239
Speaker 1: to wake up with that fear hanging over your head,

688
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 1: or you're afraid of the Taliban showing up in the

689
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: middle of the night delivering a night letter, or killing

690
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,840
Speaker 1: your spouse because you walked outside without a burka on.

691
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:49,840
Speaker 1: We don't have to worry about that here in America.

692
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 1: So it's a blessing that we live in a free society.

693
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:57,319
Speaker 1: But the curse is is that if people don't recognize that,

694
00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 1: freedom is not free. And that's what brings me to

695
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 1: the fact that veterans, veterans, you've got to talk about

696
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:14,759
Speaker 1: your service. You have to, you know, for thousands of years,

697
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: and I mentioned this briefly on Wendy Bell, but I'm

698
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 1: going to recap it here today. Veterans warriors who come

699
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: home from the fight in societies like the Greeks and

700
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 1: the Romans would elevate their warriors to positions of power

701
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 1: and importance in their society so that they could educate

702
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:41,760
Speaker 1: at every level in their society, teachers, doctors, politicians, leaders,

703
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 1: advisors to politicians, so they could educate those people on

704
00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 1: the cost of war, which would essentially give them a

705
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 1: role in society after war. And the function the other

706
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,439
Speaker 1: function that would also the other function that it would

707
00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:02,799
Speaker 1: also give political leaders is the ability to not make mistakes.

708
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:06,200
Speaker 1: The same mistakes over and over again. But the problem

709
00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:09,799
Speaker 1: here in America is that we do not do that. Yes,

710
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:14,439
Speaker 1: we have veterans serving in Congress, but not nearly enough

711
00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 1: veterans or in positions of power and influence in this

712
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,239
Speaker 1: country where they can advise both Democrats and Republicans on

713
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 1: the true cost of war. And if we don't have that,

714
00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:29,560
Speaker 1: we will continually find ourselves in wars that are frivolous, pointless,

715
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:34,480
Speaker 1: with no real, clearly defined victory, with politicians who clamor

716
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:39,720
Speaker 1: to get ourselves into war without recognizing the cost of it. So, veterans,

717
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 1: if you're home, I don't care. It is not a

718
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 1: time you know. Douglas MacArthur was somebody who I admire,

719
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:51,920
Speaker 1: but I disagree with him. You cannot just put your

720
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:55,440
Speaker 1: boots in your uniform in the closet and just fade away.

721
00:42:55,480 --> 00:43:01,560
Speaker 1: When you come home. America needs you in the fight

722
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:09,080
Speaker 1: for freedom. They you can't just go away. You, of

723
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:13,680
Speaker 1: all people, you understand more than most. And it doesn't

724
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 1: matter what generation you served, but you understand more than

725
00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 1: most the stakes. You understand what freedom means. And I'm

726
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:26,480
Speaker 1: talking Democrat or Republican. I don't care if you love

727
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:28,839
Speaker 1: this country, and you believe in freedom, then you have

728
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 1: to look at what's happening here in America and abroad

729
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:33,759
Speaker 1: and say, wait a second, this ain't a good thing.

730
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:38,800
Speaker 1: My country needs me. I can't tell you how often

731
00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:41,400
Speaker 1: I go out there and I talk to veterans who

732
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,959
Speaker 1: the community that I love. They're just like, they're disgusted

733
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:49,319
Speaker 1: by the political situation in this country. So what do

734
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:51,000
Speaker 1: they do? They say, I don't want to have anything

735
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 1: to do with that. I just want to live my

736
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:56,120
Speaker 1: life without the government bothering me. I just want to

737
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:58,880
Speaker 1: raise my family. I want to enjoy the freedom that

738
00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 1: I fought to protect. I want to live the American

739
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:05,040
Speaker 1: dream that my soldiers and fellow servicemen and women died

740
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:08,359
Speaker 1: to give me. But the problem is is that our

741
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:11,440
Speaker 1: best and brightest, the people who serve this country, you

742
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:14,680
Speaker 1: bled for this country, have become detached for the most part.

743
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: But we need you in the fight. We need you

744
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,720
Speaker 1: in the fight. And it doesn't matter. By the way,

745
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, it does not matter. People will say

746
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: to me all the time, while Shawan, you deployed the

747
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 1: combat you fought, I didn't deploy. That doesn't matter. You know,

748
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 1: we can't there's no competition between service. It doesn't matter

749
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:44,320
Speaker 1: if you raised your hand to volunteer to serve this country.

750
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:49,120
Speaker 1: You're an exceptional American and you have a perspective about

751
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:51,239
Speaker 1: what it means to live in America that most do

752
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:56,040
Speaker 1: not have. And therefore your country needs you. You cannot

753
00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:58,839
Speaker 1: do what MacArthur tells you it told you to do

754
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:02,040
Speaker 1: in his famous Way West Point speech of fading away.

755
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:04,880
Speaker 1: Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. Do not

756
00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 1: fade away. Your country needs you. But anyway, folks, thank

757
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:18,279
Speaker 1: you for being with me on this special commemorative commemorative

758
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:21,680
Speaker 1: edition on Memorial Day. I'll never forget my troops. Never

759
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,759
Speaker 1: forget the Outlaw Platoon, Never forget the tenth the third

760
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:29,560
Speaker 1: Brigade of the tenth Mountain Division. Never forget Second Battalion,

761
00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 1: eighty seventh Divitory Regiment. Never forget anyone, it doesn't matter

762
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:37,879
Speaker 1: what generation. Never forget those who gave their last, full

763
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:46,400
Speaker 1: measure and devotion of their love for this country. We

764
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:50,480
Speaker 1: can't forget them. So even if you don't know somebody

765
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:55,840
Speaker 1: who perished fighting for America, look somebody up on the internet.

766
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:58,320
Speaker 1: Say a prayer for them, Say a prayer for their family,

767
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 1: but Jeff endeavor to never forget. And more just as

768
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:08,840
Speaker 1: important as that, make sure that you live a life

769
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:15,160
Speaker 1: that is worthy of their extraordinary sacrifice. Earn it every

770
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 1: single day. We live in an amazing country. Tens of

771
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:24,320
Speaker 1: thousands millions of Americans never set foot in America again,

772
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:28,360
Speaker 1: but fought for the freedom that you have. Do not

773
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:31,560
Speaker 1: waste it. Every day that you wake up and you

774
00:46:31,640 --> 00:46:35,960
Speaker 1: draw breath, Earn it. Live the life that they would

775
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 1: have wanted. That's how they want you to live. So anyway, folks,

776
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:45,239
Speaker 1: thank you for thank you for joining me today. I'm

777
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 1: so grateful. Make sure you smash that like button, that

778
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:51,719
Speaker 1: little green thumb beneath this video. It helps the show immensely.

779
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:56,960
Speaker 1: And also listen quick admin note no show tomorrow, even

780
00:46:57,000 --> 00:46:59,319
Speaker 1: though I'm always about doing the show because I want

781
00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:02,720
Speaker 1: to be there for you. I'm hosting Jesse Kelly's nationally

782
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:06,920
Speaker 1: syndicated radio show from six o'clock tomorrow night to nine pm.

783
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:12,240
Speaker 1: And that's on He's on like two hundred stations nationwide.

784
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:15,439
Speaker 1: But you can listen to it live on the iHeartRadio app.

785
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:18,160
Speaker 1: So please go over there and support me. I'm gonna

786
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:19,920
Speaker 1: try to figure out a way to live stream the

787
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:22,200
Speaker 1: full three hours like Wendy Bell does, but I've not

788
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:24,359
Speaker 1: been in their studio before, so I'm not really sure

789
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:25,880
Speaker 1: how to do it. But I'm gonna look into that

790
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:27,840
Speaker 1: for you all so that I can still live stream

791
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:31,279
Speaker 1: here for you. But if not, I need the battle crew.

792
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 1: I want you listening. I would love to hear your

793
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 1: feedback after the show, but make sure that you catch

794
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 1: me tomorrow on Jesse Kelly's three hours of conservative talk

795
00:47:42,719 --> 00:47:46,480
Speaker 1: radio nationally syndicated show from six to nine. Don't forget

796
00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:50,600
Speaker 1: no show tomorrow. But as always, folks, thank you. Enjoy

797
00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: the remainder of do everything you can to enjoy the

798
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:59,080
Speaker 1: remainder of your Memorial Day holiday, because those who did

799
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,720
Speaker 1: not make it home to enjoy the blessings of freedom

800
00:48:02,760 --> 00:48:07,400
Speaker 1: here in America would want it that way. So as always, folks,

801
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:10,560
Speaker 1: you know, God bless you, stay in the fight, keep

802
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 1: the faith, take action in your community to save this country.

803
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 1: And as always, folks, God bless you all, and God

804
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:21,759
Speaker 1: bless this amazing, exceptional country that we call home. Take care.

805
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 1: See you if you listen to jesseic Kelly, see you tomorrow.

806
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:28,520
Speaker 1: If not, see you Wednesday. Take care, good night,