WEBVTT - Hour 1: The Pointe 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:12.799 This is a Jesse Kelly show. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.880 It is the Jesse Kelly Show. 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:21.600 Let's have some fun. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.440 On a Thursday and get ready. 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:32.440 For a show tonight. Why because it's history time, baby. 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.959 It is the eightieth anniversary of D Day. I am 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.080 going to tell a history story tonight about it. A 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.600 portion of it you may know, you may not know, 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:46.320 but either way, I'm gonna do it. And it ain't 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.080 gonna be five minutes. And I gotta let you know 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.600 right now that I'm a liar. I told you last 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:54.480 night I think it was, or the night before that. 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:56.560 I thought it would be the start of the second hour. 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.520 Forget that crap. We're starting right friggin now. We are 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.640 going to tell a history story. And yes, I understand 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:09.000 there's some news today. Joe Biden is out there. He's 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:14.440 talking about Vladimir Putin. He's justifying his decision to launch 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:19.559 missiles into Russia. It's really bad. I understand that's out there. 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:21.360 I get that. I've heard. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.000 He said the supply of high precision weapons to Ukraine 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.600 for strikes on Russian territory is direct participation. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:29.000 In this war. 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:31.720 He went on to say that this is the way 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:36.200 the serious problems and again talked about Russia's nuclear capabilities. 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:37.720 Does that concern you? 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.040 I've known them for over forty years. Yeah, we're in deep 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.680 trouble and we're going to talk about that. I am 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:50.320 also going to address Hillary Clinton's comments today about D Day. 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.160 They were despicable, as you can imagine. After all, it's 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:58.559 Hillary Clinton. In fact, I wonder, I wonder which has 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.680 a bigger body count? What will set aside that for 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.040 a moment? What, Chris? We're just asking questions. And yes, 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.399 I heard Biden's comments about D Day today and all 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.720 these other things, and I'm going to get to these things. 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.959 Trump talking about retribution, would he do it? Would he 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.400 not do it? Teachers emails? So that we are going 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.760 to get to this stuff. But I've got to let 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:24.120 you know right now it's gonna be a bit. I 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.440 want to talk about D Day. I want to talk 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:37.680 about heroes, history, fear, sacrifice, And we're doing that right 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.240 friggin now. Why because I want to That's why. So 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.480 buckle up now. I want you. I want you to 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:53.120 imagine something. Three am. Alarm goes off, it's time to 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:59.480 get up. You get up. Obviously it's dark out. You're nervous, 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.399 You go down to the chow hall with all your friends, 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.960 and you know you should eat, after all, it's going 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.840 to be a long, long, long day ahead of you. 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.440 But you understand that there's a decent chance you're going 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.280 to die that day, and so are your friends, and 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.440 so you tend to not be that hungry. You shovel 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.520 as many eggs powdered eggs into your stomach as you can, 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:26.600 and then you go get your gear, weapon, kid, everything 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:31.320 you need. You and your buddies you go down to 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:37.600 the shore. It's cold out, it's dark, rainy. You have 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.320 these boats sitting there, and these are not pleasure boats. 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.720 There are boats that are actually run by the English. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.040 They're landing craft for you and your friends. You're about 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.800 to get on these boats. You're careful not to step 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.960 in the water because the water is freezing cold too, 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.280 and you're already shivering from nerves and the cold outside. 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.840 You don't really want to get wet, but you and 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.960 your friends you stack onto these boats. They're not big, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.240 and about twenty five of you are getting onto these boats. 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.200 You get onto the boat, boats are all around you 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:21.200 and you begin motoring across the English Channel in the waves. 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.000 It is not calm. The weather has been dreadful. The 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:27.880 weather was dreadful the day before. The weather is about 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.440 to be dreadful again. The seas are rough. To put 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.719 it mildly, Remember that water you wanted to keep off you. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:40.000 It's soaking you. The waves are pouring over the side. 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.480 You are seasick, most of your friends are. And the 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.520 waves are in the very least deluding the amount of 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.440 vomit that's in the bottom of the boat. You and 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.599 your friends, while you're not lighting cigarettes or trying to 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.080 make jokes or praying to God, are having to use 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.400 whatever you can find to bay water out of the 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.440 boats just to keep them afloat. In fact, you just 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:07.760 watch one of them, with some of your buddies in 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.599 it capsize. It's upside down. You don't know if any 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.560 of your friends are alive. But the timetable being what 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.000 it is, means you have to keep going. And did 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:23.479 I mention it's dark early in the morning and soon? 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.719 I say soon? But takes you about an hour to 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.360 cross this channel with the waves and the vomit and 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.039 the nerves and the fear, And soon you can see 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.839 out ahead of you like it's a scene from Lord 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:41.760 of the Rings a long cliff. You know you're approaching 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.479 the shore and the cliff is dark. In fact, it's 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:46.680 so dark out that when you first see the cliff, 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:52.240 the cliff looks black. Only as you get closer and 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.760 closer and closer to the cliff, the cliffs start shooting 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:03.200 at you, little flashes, tracers coming out at you. Your 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.359 buddy beside you just got hitting the guts, doing the 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.080 best you can to patch him up as the waves 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.920 still come over the side. Another boat beside you takes 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.839 a direct hit from an artillery round or mortar round. 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.920 You don't know, but everyone in that boat is now 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:23.880 pink missed. They're gone. And you know your job that 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.960 day is to land on a narrow spit of beach 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.360 underneath that cliff and climb to the top of it 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:38.119 and kill everyone on top, or die trying. We're about 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.240 to tell a little story today about and I'm going 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.159 to screw up the pronunciation of this, because apparently no 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.560 one knows how to pronounce it, including me. I have 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.600 always called it point to hawk, I've heard it called, 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.440 and I've done so much on this over the past 0:06:54.480 --> 0:07:01.080 twenty four hours. Point d ho poind'hoe point too. I've 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.799 heard it. We're just gonna call it the point for now. 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.200 And what is it? Okay, Well, we'll get back to 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.400 what it is in this story, but first let's do 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.840 a setup for how we got here. How did these 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.040 brave men in the Second Ranger Battalion find themselves in 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:23.600 this situation at all? And remember this is eighty years 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:28.000 ago today, and there are precious few of these men alive, 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.000 and man, do they deserve all the respect in the world. Okay, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.680 so forget about that. We'll come back to that exact story. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.320 We'll come back to that moment. Let's do a little 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:42.160 setup for what was going on. First D Day was 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:47.200 called Operation Overlord, But what was the deal? People get? 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.440 The World War Two can confuse people on how the 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:56.320 timeline adds up. It's an odd kind of a timeline, 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.640 especially if you listen to this show for any of time, 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.640 where you find the Pacific portion of World War Two 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.320 to be fascinating. It's weird when you find out, wait 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:14.280 a minute, D Day was in nineteen forty four. The 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:19.080 Pacific War had been going on for years before we 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.720 finally launched into Europe and gained a foothold into Europe. 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:27.200 Our guys, remember when we had that talk in the 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:31.280 Pacific about our guys dying on Pelulu. We'd been marching 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.560 through the Pacific fighting the Japanese, and finally we were 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.160 fairly close to the Philippines. We'd already fought our way 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.360 through Guadalcanal and all these places, and we were almost 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.840 to the Philippines and we stopped in Pellu. And Pelolou 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:45.840 was this terrible, terrible fight, and it was awful and 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.959 things like that. Pelolu was actually not very well known, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.120 not talked about that much in the United States of America. 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.040 Why all that fighting, all those islands, all that takeover, 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.320 it had already happened by the time and Pelelu happened. 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.240 That was day day. You see how different the timelines 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.040 line up. We kind of tend to think in our minds, 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:10.760 oh well, well, of course we're fighting back against the 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.720 Japanese at the same time we're killing those dirty Germans. 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.760 It didn't work that way at all. Now, there are 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.520 many many reasons for this, but one of the main 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:24.880 reasons was Hitler had fortified Europe. That is something you've 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.280 probably heard of before, or at least you've heard that phrase, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.160 but what does that actually mean. Well, remember, let's focus 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:38.480 on Germany for a moment. Germany. The Germans traditionally are 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:44.720 outstanding militarily. I need to stress this point. A lot 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.760 of the leaders, most of the leaders of the World 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:52.719 War Two German Army, they were guys who were officers 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.600 in the World War One German army, and the World 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:01.720 War One German army was a maze. There are people 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.439 I'm not enough of an expert to argue this point, 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.280 that there are experts I have listened to, In fact, 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.400 the experts I've talked to who will argue until they're 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.280 blue in the face that the World War One German 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.880 army is the finest army that has ever taken the 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:21.960 field in the history of the world. That's how incredible 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:28.880 the Germans were at fighting, organization, logistics, aggressive battle tactics. 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.360 They were very, very, very good at what they did, 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.439 and the evil of Nazism overshadows a lot of how 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.880 good they were at what they did. I'll continue on 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:43.079 with our D Day talk on this eightieth anniversary of 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:48.040 D Day. In just a moment. Maybe you're eighty, maybe 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:53.200 you're forty, however old you are Pain is part of 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:53.959 life now, isn't it? 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:54.200 Though? 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.160 It just is. We don't want it to be though. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:00.520 We don't want to wake up and our foot hurt. 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.760 Oh man, my next sore, oh my wrist. We don't 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.920 want to live with pain. And you don't have to 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:12.600 live with pain every day, that nagging, aching pain. You 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.240 don't have to live with pain because relief factor is 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:20.040 there that tomorrow morning when you wake up and something sore. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.400 I want you, as you're rubbing it, as you're looking 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.160 at it, I want you to say to yourself, relief 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.640 factor is going to make this better. Relief factor is 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.480 all natural. You take it for a few weeks, it 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.880 builds up in your system. You take relief factor for 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.600 three weeks and tell me how that pain feels. It 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:43.720 helps your body fight that inflammation. Go get some three 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:48.480 weeks one eight hundred the number four relief or relief 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.120 factor dot com. We continue with D Day next. 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.080 He doesn't care if you believe him, but he's right. 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:05.520 Jesse Kelly. It is the Jesse Kelly Show on a Thursday. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.760 In case you're just now joining us, good news, you 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.040 didn't miss that much. We're doing D Day history today. 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.000 I was kind of doing a setup on D Day, 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.960 eightieth anniversary of D Day, And in fact we're gonna 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.680 tell a more specific portion of D Day. We're not 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:22.400 gonna do a general rue. I'm just doing a general 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.400 overview right now to set us up. Also, I do 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:30.600 need to remind you that tomorrow is Ask Doctor Jesse Friday, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:35.080 all three hours. I answer whatever questions you email into 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.240 the show. They can be about anything. I don't care, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.120 but we just have fun on Fridays. Jesse at Jesse 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.800 kellyshow dot com is where you email those questions. Ask 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.080 me anything. All right, Back to D Day, Okay, So 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.840 Hitler his German army, they were very very good in 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.120 the very beginning, not because of Hitler, who was really, 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.200 frankly a moron. But Hitler's generals leading the Wehrmacht were 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.000 very capable men, very experienced men, and they had won 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.400 some victory they weren't supposed to win. The Germans were 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.800 not supposed to win the Battle of France on paper. 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:13.160 We all look back now, we make fun of the 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.360 French ah the French gave up on paper that French 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.280 army should have defeated the Germans. The Germans were just 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.640 better faster, smarter, It just got the job them. So 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.880 while we had already been fighting in the Pacific for 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:32.600 some time, a couple of years, while figuring out how 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:38.760 do we get into Europe? And remember, getting into Europe 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:44.200 with an army is way different than getting into Europe 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:48.080 with one dude or with a unit. How do you 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.360 get a beach head? Where do you get a beachhead? 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.920 You have to have a beachhead, Remember a beachhead. It's 0:13:55.960 --> 0:14:00.199 simply you landing on the shore and taking enough land 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.720 on the shore that you can bring all the men 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.000 in equipment and the food and everything else you need 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.240 on and begin a military campaign. How do you do that? 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:15.079 When the German army is so good at fortification, at battle, doctrine, 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.720 at these things, where do you even go? Do you 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.960 try to come up from underneath? We tried that and 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.080 there was horrible fighting in Italy. It was called the 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.440 soft underbelly of Europe. It was by no means the 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.960 soft underbelly of anything. Now, when the Italians were fighting it, yeah, 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.120 it was a soft underbelly of Europe. But as soon 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.720 as the Germans came in and said, gosh, you guys suck, 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.160 and the Germans took over those positions. I mean, my goodness, 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:44.720 Italy is it's a natural fortification. It's all mountains and 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:46.920 valleys and rivers. You don't want to fight a bunch 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:48.920 of Germans on the side of a friggin mountain when 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.600 they're dug in. This is very hard. Where do you go? 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:56.920 Eventually it was settled on by Roosevelt, Churchill and others 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.720 that the only way you could possibly do this was 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:05.240 across the English Channel. Across the English Channel going to 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.520 northern France. Now, remember the other guy gets to say too, 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.040 the other guy thinks too. The other guy's trying to 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:20.160 figure out what you're doing. So Hitler had three thousand 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:24.960 miles he had to fortify along his Atlantic Wall. Now, 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:30.200 Germans are what they are. They're engineers, they're organized. There 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.080 are people that are really really good at this kind 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:37.640 of thing, and they make three thousand miles of hell 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:44.080 it's three thousand miles of pillboxes, barbed wire tunnels, rail 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.840 lines back and forth to supply troops, bombs, bullets, everything else. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:53.480 The intricacy of the defenses in Northern France and World 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:58.240 War Two are honestly amazing. It is amazing. It is 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:04.200 extensive what the Germans said done so America. They were 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.800 getting ready to launch. Now, let's pause on America for 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:08.920 a moment, because we're gonna go to the unit we're 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:14.600 specifically talking about today, the Rangers. Everyone knows who Army 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.840 Rangers are now, rightfully so, as much as it pains 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:23.320 me to do so, Rangers are studs. Rangers are studs. 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:26.480 The marine in me wants to just totally besmirch the Army, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.080 But I'll be honest with you. I love Army Rangers. 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.120 I have a bunch of Army Ranger friends, and they 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.440 are studs then. And now you meet an Army Ranger, 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.200 you're meeting somebody. They were considered then. In fact, if 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.280 you read stories about them now, they'll call the Rangers 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.040 that were starting then the first of the special Forces. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.520 They were considered a special elite group. Here's what was 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.760 going on. The United States Army knew by this point 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.440 in time, the military knew that we were going to 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:02.520 be going in through northern France. We'd been flying planes 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.200 overhead trying to get what kind of terrain are we 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.320 dealing with. We'd been dealing with French resistance fighters, who 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.840 deserve all the credit in the world. We love to 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.960 mock the French, and I love doing that too, because 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.560 who doesn't like to mock the French. But the truth is, 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.840 France itself has an incredible history of war and the 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.760 French resistance fighters in World War Two after France fell, 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:29.760 the guys, the men and women who decided to be spies, saboteurs, 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.600 they are amazingly brave and a lot of those people 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.440 they died doing what they did. They died, a lot 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.280 of them died having their fingernails pulled out. That the 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.680 French resistance is an underrated part of World War Two 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:44.879 that people don't talk about. Well, the French resistance was 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.480 feeding us intel two and we're going to come back 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:49.280 to that in a little bit. Hey, this is the 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:51.280 type of train, this is it, this is that. And 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:53.680 as the Army was looking at what they had, they 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:58.600 figured to themselves, man, we really need we need some 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.960 specialists here. We are going to need more than just 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:06.800 normal ground troops for what we're about to do. Yes, 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.080 we need normal ground troops. We need guys who can 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.760 go in on gliders, airborne troop types. We need guys 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.040 who can scale cliffs and fight while they're doing it, 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.960 and so the idea of these rangers began, and we'll 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.040 come back to them in just a moment. Hang on 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:30.560 fighting for your freedom every time the Jesse Kelly Show. 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:37.800 It is The Jesse Kelly Show on a Thursday, the 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.359 eightieth anniversary of D Day, and we are doing the 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.159 best we can to honor those men and their sacrifice 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.719 by telling their story, a more specific story about D 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:51.160 Day than is normally told. 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.639 I'm kind of giving an overview and then we're gonna 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.800 keep zooming back in on the specifics. But right now, 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.560 let's get back to those specifics we're talking about. The 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.720 rain Army realizes they're going to have to navigate some 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:08.720 extremely hostile terrain when they go into northern France, and 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.440 cliffs are going to be part of that. Now, let's 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.800 pause for a moment. How much experience do you have 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.600 climbing cliffs. I do not have a lot, but I 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.720 will tell you my experience in what it was in 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.639 the Marine Corps. I've explained many times, when you're in 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.520 an infantry unit, any kind of an infantry unit, you 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.080 spend all your time training and training for different kinds 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.119 of combat. They're going to send you to the jungle. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:36.679 They're going to send you to the desert. They're going 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.399 to send you to the mountains. They send us to 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:44.200 mountain warfare training. Almost every Marine, probably every infantry Marine 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.480 goes to mountain warfare training. I did it myself with 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:52.280 my unit. As part of mountain warfare training, we had 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.960 to climb cliffs, climb mountains. We had a rock climb, 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.720 we had to climb up them, and we had to 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:03.960 repel down them. I personally am not a huge fan 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.919 of heights. I used to be flat out scared of heights, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:13.840 but because of Marine Corps mountain warfare training, they essentially 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.119 beat that out of you. You don't have it, I mean, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.240 you don't have an option when you're repelling off of 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.360 an eighty foot cliff without any kind of a harness. 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.880 It's just you and your pack on in a rope. 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.080 You gotta got up. You gotta got up, I mean 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:30.960 no other way. And so yeah, and I will tell 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.600 you this, climbing and going down. We'll focus on going 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.119 up because that's what these rangers are gonna end up doing. 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:46.200 Climbing itself with nobody else there is exhausting and it's terrifying, 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:50.439 the fear of heights, which is really the fear of 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:54.840 falling is one of, if not the most reasonable phobias. 0:20:55.440 --> 0:21:00.880 I don't want to fall from some high place. I sawes. 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.720 I saw marines have mental breaks. I won't call it 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.840 breakdowns because they ended up getting their stuff together. I 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:14.440 saw marines have mental breaks in mountain warfare training in peacetime. 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:21.040 No bombs, no grenades, no Germans, nothing but support all 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.880 around them. You get halfway up a sixty foot rock 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:30.119 face and you get yourself stuck, or you get yourself 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.040 This happened a lot. In fact, this happened to me. 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:39.840 You get yourself exhausted. It's so physically grueling, physically exhausted 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:42.200 that you can be climbing up and doing fine in 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:44.560 your techniques, fine, and you even have a route picked 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.720 and you're going, but it is so taxing on your hands, 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.600 your forearms, your legs, if you're not holding your feet 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.760 the proper way. It's very tempting to keep your heels 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.520 above your toes. That's a human nature thing. Well, if 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:01.800 you do that, your legs will be shot. You have 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.280 to keep your heels below your toes as you climb. 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:08.040 It's just it's exhausting. This is in peacetime, you can 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.480 find yourself stuck on the side of a cliff exhausted. 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:15.200 Now let's go back to these rangers. They decide they're 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:20.720 gonna start some rangers. They begin training in Tennessee. They 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:25.600 bring in two thousand men. These are picked from the 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.639 cream of the crop from the army. And it was 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:31.960 all volunteer. If you were a stud with some army 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:35.040 unit and you wanted the opportunity to be a ranger, 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.000 you signed up and you volunteered, and they wanted to 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.199 go see what you were made of. How brutal was it. 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:45.480 Two thousand of the best signed up and walked in. 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:51.919 Five hundred walked out as rangers. It was brutal training 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.720 they put them through, and the rangers. I was actually 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:57.080 listening to some one of these old rangers this morning 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:58.600 when I was on the way in. It was funny 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:03.360 talking about it. Said we were doing so much mountain 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:07.359 climbing and cliff climbing. He said, we weren't stupid. We 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:10.240 figured out wherever they're sending us good memory. They didn't 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:13.520 know wherever they're sending us. Wherever we're going, it's going 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.600 to involve some climbing. I know it's going to involve climbing. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:21.000 And the heights alone were breaking. Men, men were quitting, 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.680 men were falling. Men couldn't handle it. And they take 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:29.040 these two thousand men and whittle them down to five 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:33.919 hundred rangers. These rangers eventually are trained up, ready to 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.639 go and off to Europe. They go. Now, let's pause 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:41.000 on Operation Overlord or on the Ranges for a moment 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:44.560 and go back to Operation Overlord, because this is what's happening. 0:23:44.640 --> 0:23:48.679 As we prepare for the invasion. Hitler knows we're coming. 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:52.240 He's got spies all over England. He's got planes overhead. 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:56.040 The Germans were not fools. They knew we were coming somewhere. 0:23:56.240 --> 0:23:59.200 They knew we had large quantities of troops and gear 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:01.639 in England. They knew we were going to trust across 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:05.359 the English Channel. They're not stupid. The question was where. 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:10.160 So we did many, many, many different things to attempt 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:13.320 to deceive the Germans. And there are fascinating books written 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:15.320 about this. I won't go into a bunch of detail 0:24:15.320 --> 0:24:19.160 about it. Paten, Jewish producer Christians, brought this up. Where 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:23.640 was Patent during all this? Remember, Paten, he had already 0:24:23.680 --> 0:24:26.320 been he was already a legend by this time because 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:29.520 he had already been fighting in Africa, beating up Rammel 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:33.679 and the Germans in Africa. Patten was a legend, so 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:38.480 Paten would be the natural leader for an invasion like this, 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:44.520 except Patten had been sidelined. If you've ever seen the movie, 0:24:44.600 --> 0:24:47.440 or maybe you've read the book, you understand what happened. 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:51.000 Patten is one of these old school, hard charging types, 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:53.520 the kind of general you'd want leading you in combat. 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:58.760 Paten uh not a man who was a big believer 0:24:58.800 --> 0:25:02.760 in PTSD, if you will. Patten walks into a hospital. 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:06.280 He goes in to visit his wounded men. Guys are there, 0:25:06.640 --> 0:25:11.040 shot to pieces, missing limbs, and Patten comes across a 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:17.520 guy who doesn't have any physical injuries, and Patten just 0:25:17.600 --> 0:25:20.680 kind of a I lib the whole thing here, says 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:23.760 what's wrong? Why are you here? You're right beside a 0:25:23.800 --> 0:25:26.359 guy who doesn't have a leg Why are you here? 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:30.480