00:00:17 Speaker 1: Pushkin. 00:00:24 Speaker 2: A recruiter was scanning a crowd of young men. They were at boot camp for the Marine Corps Reserve. You know, just a bunch of guys with buzz cuts at the start of their training. It was nineteen sixty five and the war in Vietnam was starting to heat up. Nobody knew how long it would last, but they knew they needed troops on the ground. So the recruiter looked out at these guys and he asked if anyone wanted to. 00:00:50 Speaker 1: Go to war. 00:00:52 Speaker 3: I think it was the second or third week we were there. They called us. Set us, all setting in a room, sitting down on it, and they said, everyone who would want to be a regular marine, raise your hand. 00:01:01 Speaker 2: Richard Pittman had been waiting for this exact moment. He had been told, all you have to do is put your pinky in the air, and they'll take you out of the reserves and end too battle. 00:01:13 Speaker 3: You know, so I stuck my little pinky in air. 00:01:17 Speaker 1: Pittman was twenty tall and strong. 00:01:20 Speaker 2: His friends called him Rick, and he was one of those guys who played a million sports in high school. Thick head of hair, rosy cheeks. Rick was determined to serve on the front lines. 00:01:33 Speaker 3: Because of my scores, I've qualified for seven different fields, engineering or communications and some other things. But I said I wanted to be in the infantry. I remember one of my child instructors said, you're a strange individual. You know where you're going. I said, yes, I do know where I'm going, and infantry is what I want to do. And so that's what I did. 00:01:55 Speaker 2: Rick Pittman was heading to Vietnam, but he shouldn't have even been allowed to raise his hand. 00:02:01 Speaker 1: He shouldn't have gone to war at all. I'm Jr. 00:02:09 Speaker 2: Martinez and this is the Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. 00:02:13 Speaker 1: The Medal of Honor. 00:02:14 Speaker 2: Is the highest military decoration in the United States. It's awarded for gallantree and bravery and combat at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the way up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer. 00:02:30 Speaker 1: In the field to the White House. 00:02:33 Speaker 2: This show is about those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Rick Pittman didn't just go to Vietnam. He did something so brave it sounds more like a movie like Rambo, but this. 00:02:52 Speaker 1: Is real life. 00:02:53 Speaker 2: But like I said earlier, he shouldn't have even been there. According to military rules. He should have been disqualified because Rick Pittman was blind in one eye. But this isn't a story about his eye. It's about a man who felt it was his duty, not just as a Marine, but as a person to act and nothing, I mean nothing was going to hold him back. When Rick Pittman got to Vietnam in the summer of nineteen sixty six, the war was picking up. He was part of the fifth Marines that trained in California, and when they shipped out, reporters were there to watch them go. 00:03:46 Speaker 4: Sixty six was a year of new beginnings. This March in the Sun had its beginning ten thousand miles away at Camp Pendleton, California, where the fifth Marine Division came back into being for the first time since. 00:03:59 Speaker 5: World War Two. 00:04:01 Speaker 4: After a few weeks of intensive training, it would soon be on its way to Vietnam to support our total military effort. 00:04:08 Speaker 2: Everyone was still so optimistic about this wore Rick loved the training. He was just happy to be in the service. Here he is talking about it years later, I. 00:04:19 Speaker 3: Mean through survival school and jungle training in the Philippines and in Okinawa and all that, it was fun. 00:04:26 Speaker 2: Oh and by the way, that creaky noise you hear, that's his leather jacket covered in military patches even decades later. This man is a badass. So training was fun, as he says. But when the Marines of Company I came ashore in Vietnam, Rick felt things shift. 00:04:48 Speaker 3: Just something hit you. This wasn't fun anymore. I mean, you were about to go up against an enemy, but you couldn't quite comprehend the seriousness of it. But when you hit that beach and it ramp drops, it's all business. That was the moment that I knew all the fun and games, so to speak, was over. 00:05:09 Speaker 2: The man had landed close to the DMZ, the demilitarized zone that separated North Vietnam from South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese Army or NVA were pushing south, trying to grab more territory. The Marines were going to be part of something called Operation Hastings. 00:05:29 Speaker 6: Back in May, it became evident that the North Vietnamese were building up in this area to the south, to the DMZ. 00:05:38 Speaker 2: That's a Major General Lowell, English, who was leading the fight. 00:05:42 Speaker 6: We had reason to believe that there was a division command post in this area, and our purpose was to find it and to destroy it. 00:05:52 Speaker 2: But the mission to locate the NVA command post wasn't easy. On July twenty second, just a few days after they landed, Company I faced the enemy in the creek bed. 00:06:03 Speaker 1: Eight marines died. 00:06:05 Speaker 3: We weren't prepared for the consequences of war. It shocked me the firsties that we took, and it was like the hammer dropping, you know, and people were dying. That changes your life from that time forward. 00:06:20 Speaker 2: But Rick still wanted to be there. He felt he had no choice morally. That's because of two things. The first was John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in nineteen sixty one. 00:06:32 Speaker 1: I'm sure you've heard of it. 00:06:34 Speaker 5: The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor, we'll light our country and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country. 00:07:01 Speaker 3: And I heard him say that, ask not what your country can do for you, But what you can do for your country. That was motivating to me because it made sense. That's why I try to join the service, because I was doing something for my country. 00:07:16 Speaker 2: Rick had grown up in a housing project in Stockton, California. He was the oldest of four kids. His dad left the family when Rick was little, and his mom worked multiple jobs, barely scraping by. There wasn't any money for Rick to go to college. Regardless, he wanted to serve, so when he graduated high school in nineteen sixty three, he decided, I'll become a Green Beret and he went straight to the Army recruiting center. 00:07:45 Speaker 7: Army was the first physical I had taken, and they said, you're out of here. 00:07:48 Speaker 3: You can't to see how you're right. I was kind of shocked. 00:07:52 Speaker 1: This kills me. 00:07:53 Speaker 2: I mean, Rick was totally blindsided, no pun intended by the news that he couldn't see out of his right eye. Why because it never stopped him from doing anything. 00:08:04 Speaker 3: I don't know if I ever knew that I was blind, because I did everything I wanted to do. I played baseball, basketball, football, everything, and my mother never said, you know, don't do this because you're blinding on so I was shocked. 00:08:17 Speaker 2: Okay, so the green Berets were out. So he went to the Navy, same deal, then the Air Force, then the Marines. Nobody would take him. So now I'm going to tell you the second reason Rick was so desperate to join the military. He had a brother, Robert, who was two years younger than him. They were tight and they were super competitive, you know, typical brothers. And in nineteen sixty five, when Robert graduated, he joined the Marines. 00:08:48 Speaker 3: I said, well, that's it. Because the way I was raised, it was my responsibility. I was the older brother. I should have been in the service in sixty three, two years before him, or a year before him. 00:08:58 Speaker 2: Anyway, Rick wasn't about to let his little brother beat him to the punch. So we went back to the Marines again and again, and. 00:09:08 Speaker 3: I went to the Marine Corps recruiter so many times. The guy just you know, I think he tried to get rid of me. He just told me in nineteen sixty five, he said, let's try the reserve. Sometimes the reserves will lower the qualifications during the time of the war and you can get in maybe serving a reserve capacity. So I said, okay, the recruiter I had also told me. He says, well, you know, when you get the boot camp, they ask all the reserves who wants to be a regular marine, And he says, if you're really set on being a regular, you raise your little pinky and you're down the road. 00:09:43 Speaker 2: Now Rick had a plan, and then he upped his odds just a little bit more. 00:09:49 Speaker 1: He told this story once to a live audience. 00:09:52 Speaker 7: The final test in those days, before you went into the enlistment room was to take an eye test. So the examiner told me to cover my right eye and read the chart, and they gave you a little paper towel you had to cover your eye with. So I covered my right eye read the chart, and he said, okay, very good, I'll cover the other eye and. 00:10:12 Speaker 3: Read the chart. 00:10:13 Speaker 7: And so I changed hands with the napkin and covered my right eye with my left hand. 00:10:19 Speaker 2: And clever Rick made it into the reserves. And then he raised his little pinky and got into the core. Oh and one of the first things he did when he got to Vietnam he figured out where Robert was. Turns out he was stationed close by, so Rick went and paid him a brotherly visit. 00:10:40 Speaker 1: When I went back to my Company. 00:10:42 Speaker 7: I asked my first ardant about I had heard about an old law that two brothers couldn't be in the same combat area at the same time, and he checked it out and he got me the information. He wanted to know why, and I said, go to my brother's back at July and the first Arten basically said not anymore. 00:10:58 Speaker 2: Rick got his brother sent back to the States. He wanted to serve and he wanted to do it first. JFK had asked what Rick could do for his country. Wow, he was finally doing something. And on July twenty fourth, Rick was a part of Operation Hastings, going into the wilderness, finding the enemy and learning what it really meant to take action. On July twenty fourth, nineteen sixty six, Rick Pittman and the rest of Company I woke up in the Jungles of Vietnam with a new set of orders. 00:11:52 Speaker 7: We were told were moving up to set up a radio relay point for the whole operation because the area that wream was mountainous area with several valleys in between, and they need a unit to become a radio relay point. 00:12:05 Speaker 2: In other words, they would be setting up communications deep and territory that the NVA had been whole for weeks. It was summer and it was hot as they set out that morning. Their first challenge was climbing a steep hill that led into the wilderness. It was tough going, guys scrambling up single file, sometimes on their hands and knees. 00:12:27 Speaker 3: We were supposed to move up this hill to establish the radio relay point, and we were just moving up a trail. I was the last one in the column. I was what they called tailoring Charlie from my squad, and I was the last one in the company. 00:12:45 Speaker 1: Rick's job was to guard the rear. 00:12:48 Speaker 2: Yet a sense that NVA soldiers were all around watching them make their way into the jungle. Then his squad came face to face with three of them. 00:12:57 Speaker 3: We killed one and wounded one and captured one, and we reported that, and we just were told to keep moving to the front, so we took them with us. 00:13:07 Speaker 1: At the top of the hill was a clearing. 00:13:09 Speaker 2: Below it, on the far side was a jungle trail weaving through tall bushes. One by one, the line of marines jumped down to follow that path deeper into enemy territory. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire echoed through the trees. The front of the line had hit an ambush. Dozens of enemy soldiers had been hiding and waiting. 00:13:33 Speaker 1: The Marines raced forward to help their brothers. 00:13:36 Speaker 3: Everybody took off to the front, and so I, you know, only smoked and took off after him. They were kind of jumping off the trail that we were on to a lower level. 00:13:47 Speaker 2: Rick got to the jump off point ready to follow. Then someone caught his eye. 00:13:52 Speaker 3: There was a guy sitting there with the machine gun and some ammunition, and I could hear, you know, marines calling for more firepower and help. 00:14:02 Speaker 2: That marine with the machine gun wasn't moving, even though the guys down the trail needed help. 00:14:07 Speaker 1: Rick couldn't believe it. 00:14:09 Speaker 3: I guess. I asked him if he was going to use it or whatever. He didn't give me an answer, So I just took the machine gun from him and some ammunition, and then me and a corman started off after the rest of their company. 00:14:21 Speaker 2: The two men raced toward the gunfire. A corman is a medic, so the guy has called him Doc. 00:14:27 Speaker 3: I told Doc not to move unless I moved first. I'm going to go. I'm going to fire, then you come up. I don't know exactly what happened. The next thing I knew, Doc is over me. He jumped over me, and he's going down the trail and he he gets hit and he was killed. I took those positions under fire that killed him and was able to destroy them, and then continued farther on towards the front of the company. And when I got up to where the I guess the main elements werever just casualties everywhere, wounded and killed, and I was firing wherever the fire was coming from. I just continued to go forward and marines everywhere. They're in a prone position, but some of them firing with one arm, some of them laying on their sides even though they're wounded, and some seriously they're still continuing to fire. 00:15:27 Speaker 1: Rick couldn't stop to help any of them. 00:15:30 Speaker 2: He had to keep pushing to the front where the NVA soldiers were concentrated. 00:15:35 Speaker 3: Actually, remember somebody screaming, we need more firepower, and it turns out I had the last functioning machine gun. 00:15:42 Speaker 2: He kept shooting and moving forward. Gunfire was coming at him from three sides. 00:15:48 Speaker 3: When I got to the where I thought was the front of the unit, my gun ran on ammunition. I just opened the gun, refed a new belt in it, closed it. In my mind at that time, it was like the war had just stopped. I don't recall any conscious thing. I don't recall any noises, I don't recall anything at that time. When I was changing the belt in the gun and then I loaded it, I looked up and there were North Vietnamese coming right at me. I mean, I don't even know how many, thirty to forty whatever, I know there was a lot. And it was like the best way I can explain this, it was like we surprised each other. Turns out the lull and the fighting was is that. I guess they had thought they had either killed or wounded everyone, and they were just waiting to see if there was any more fire coming, if anybody was moving, or you know, I don't know what, but they sent maybe a platoon up to find out what the hell's going on, you know, and then it just boom, I'm there and they're there, and so you know, it just started shooting. 00:16:56 Speaker 2: It was like the sounds of war instantly went from mute to deafening. Shouts and bullets ripped the air. As Rick tried to hold off the enemy. 00:17:06 Speaker 3: My machine gun took a couple of rounds and quit fire, and I thought that was it. I checked it, and I looked up and there was the Vietnamese and I didn't have a gun, and right almost at my feet was an AK forty seven. So I just assumed that it was ready to fire, and luckily for me, it was. And so I kept firing with the AK forty seven until it ran out of ammo. And then I had a forty five from somewhere, and I kept shooting the forty five and then I was out of ammo. 00:17:36 Speaker 2: Just in case you weren't following along, he shot a thirty pound machine gun, then an AK forty seven, then a pistol, all while standing in the jungle at the front of the line alone, until Rick ran out of ammunition. 00:17:53 Speaker 3: It was an old, damn, what I'm going to do now kind of thoughts, you know. 00:17:57 Speaker 1: But he wasn't about to stop, not Rick. 00:18:00 Speaker 3: I had a grenade, and after the explosion, they just left. I don't know whether they pulled back I killed them all or I don't know, you know, they just slept. 00:18:14 Speaker 2: The jungle got a little quieter, and in that silence, Rick looked around him. 00:18:20 Speaker 3: Seemed like there were casualties everywhere. 00:18:23 Speaker 2: It was a miracle he was still alive. During the firefight, his helmet was shot off. The survivors started the grim work of dragging the wounded up the trail they needed to get them to the top of the hill. It was the only place with enough of a clearing for a helicopter to land, their only chance to metavac out. 00:18:43 Speaker 3: I tried to help wound you guys and get some guys out. Our radio man was wounded severely, but he begged me not to move him, so I just pulled him off the side of the trail and covered him up with brush. 00:18:55 Speaker 2: When the helicopters came, they took fire from the NBA. The choppers couldn't land, so the men dug trenches and settled in for the night. It was pouring rain, and then suddenly a mortarshell hit the crest of the hill, dropping among them wounded. Some got injured, even more others died. Dawn came and the choppers tried again. They were able to lower cormen to help the wounded. They also dropped chainsaws so the survivors could clear space for them. To land, and amazingly there was a camera crew recording the rescue. 00:19:33 Speaker 8: Anyway, helicopters it again. 00:19:35 Speaker 3: This time we're on our white side. 00:19:38 Speaker 9: A lot of hell's up here. 00:19:41 Speaker 8: Drop off rout. 00:19:46 Speaker 7: The next day was probably the hardest day because we actually were treating our wounded and recovering our dead marines, and to see the body bags was. 00:19:58 Speaker 3: The hardest thing. 00:20:01 Speaker 2: And then the survivors settled in for another night they would hike back out. 00:20:06 Speaker 1: On July twenty sixth. 00:20:08 Speaker 3: When we walked out, there wasn't There wasn't many of us. 00:20:15 Speaker 2: Two hundred and thirty Marines had gone up that hill two days earlier, only seventy six return. Rick had acted with undeniable bravery, but he would never stop wondering if he had done enough. Rick finished out his tour in Vietnam. He wanted to stay in the Marines, make a career out of it, but there was his bad right eye getting in the way again. 00:21:00 Speaker 3: I got an eye infection from a parasite that I had brought home from Vietnam, and when the ophtalmologist saw my bright eye, he went what we called the Marine Corps high and right. Man. I want to know what I was doing how long I had been in the Marine Corps, where I had been, how long did I have left on my enlistment, and that I should have never been in the Marine Corps. Well, that was on deaf fears, because I knew that. 00:21:27 Speaker 2: I mean, obviously, Rick knew he was blind in one eye. It was even in his official paperwork. By then, he'd been promoted, done all the right things. But in the military, a rule is a rule, even for a guy who stood in the middle of a jungle trail and fought to the last bullet. 00:21:47 Speaker 3: They medically discharged me for. 00:21:51 Speaker 7: Being disqualified didn't meet the eye requirement, And so I was a tad perturbed by that, and I had some choice words with the review board. 00:22:03 Speaker 2: Nothing he said made any difference. By then, Rick was married to a young woman named Jerry Burke. He had met her years before, back when she was still in Pigtails hanging out with his sister. They moved his Stockton and Rick looked for a new job, but he wasn't having any luck. Then one day he noticed his car was being tailed. 00:22:27 Speaker 3: One afternoon, I was on my way back home and I noticed this Marine Corps sedan behind me, And when I would turn, it would turn. You know. As I was going back to my apartment, I thought, holy socks, and this is sixty eight. You know, a lot of guys going to Canada. I thought, oh my god, these people think I'm a deserter. 00:22:47 Speaker 1: You know. 00:22:48 Speaker 3: I went all the way home and I went in my apartment, and that probably wasn't this fast, but I remember, I think my hand was still on the doorknob and there was a knock on the door. 00:22:57 Speaker 2: It was three men in uniform. Rick was a polite guy, so he invited them in. 00:23:02 Speaker 3: I said, well, what is this about? And they said, we're going to tell you something that you can tell no one else except your wife obviously. And then they said we're going to be flying you to Washington, Deceit to receive the Metal honor. And I mean, I couldn't comprehend for what, you know, I didn't, I had no clue. 00:23:24 Speaker 1: They asked if he wanted them to read the citation as proof. He did. 00:23:29 Speaker 3: At first, I had a hard time remember what the hell a they talking about. I didn't know if they were talking about me or they were talking about somebody else. But yeah, it turns out it was me. 00:23:40 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was him. He didn't think he had been all that brave. 00:23:45 Speaker 3: Things happened so fast that your training just took over. You just, you know, you just react. I just reacted. 00:23:54 Speaker 2: Soon he and Jerry were heading to Washington, d C. His mom and his siblings went to even his little brother, Robert, who was still in the Marines. Would you have to imagine made Rick crazy. President Lyndon B. Johnson welcomed them to the White House. The ceremony took place on May fourteenth, nineteen sixty eight. 00:24:16 Speaker 8: Sergeant Pittman quickly exchanged his rifle for a machine gun and several belts of ammunition, left the relative safety of his position, and unhesitatingly rushed forward to aid his comrades. 00:24:31 Speaker 3: The whole time, I just couldn't I couldn't believe it was me. I mean, it's you know, their poor kid from stock in California stand in front of the President of the United States. I guess I was stuttering, you know, and he just said, just relax on, this won't take long. 00:24:46 Speaker 9: They will place their names now in a new Hall of Heroes as a memorial to all who have earned their country's high stowed for courage in combat. 00:25:02 Speaker 3: And then we came back to Stockton, unemployed and back to reality. 00:25:06 Speaker 1: After that, he tried to become a police officer. 00:25:11 Speaker 2: That had been another childhood dream, just a different way to do something for his country, but he was turned down. Why the eye. He was working as a truck driver when two other Medal of Honor recipients came knocking on his door. 00:25:27 Speaker 7: Colonel Van Winkle and First Stardant Howard Jimmy Hard came to my home and said, we heard you'd like to go back in the Marine Corps, back. 00:25:35 Speaker 3: On active duty. 00:25:37 Speaker 7: I said, no, I can't because of the eye requirements, and they said, well that can change. A month or so later, the Commandant of the Marine Corps waved the eye requirements for me and I was able to reenlist and stay in until October nineteen eighty eight when I retired. 00:25:52 Speaker 1: You mean that's all it took. 00:25:56 Speaker 2: Back in the Marines, he worked as a recruiter and a military policeman. It's worth noting that very few Medal of Honor recipients re enlist, but the Marines felt like home to Rick. 00:26:08 Speaker 3: To me, there's nothing better to have done a job and to have done it well. The Marine Corps only enhanced that. The Marine Corps. They tell you to do something, even if it's wrong, but do something. Don't just sit there. You can't. To me, you might as well bellinum sighting on the house. 00:26:27 Speaker 1: Don't just sit there. It's kind of Rick's motto. 00:26:31 Speaker 2: Despite his medal, he never thought of himself any differently, certainly not as a hero. 00:26:37 Speaker 3: There's nothing special about a Medal of Honor recipient. We're just Joe Blow, so to speak. We just a guy at that sat on the bench during high school, you know, never got to start a game, or a guy that carried towels, the guy that just sat there in class and never voiced an opinion or raised his hand. I'm just a guy who has a medal, and that's that's all I am. 00:27:05 Speaker 2: In the fall of nineteen eighty two, the Vietnam War Memorial was erected in Washington, DC. Rick Pittman went to see it, and that's when he finally realized how many men had died in that ambush. 00:27:18 Speaker 3: I didn't want to find out until I went to the Vietnam Memorial to the wall, and when I saw a couple of names that I knew, and they were in my squad, and then the day of the action, and then all the names that were right there together differentult helped it shocked, just because we were all buddies, you know, we were all close, and there was a lot, just a lot of cash. 00:28:01 Speaker 2: He was haunted by the feeling that he hadn't done enough, but then something happened that helped him see the value in what he had been able to do. A friend called him and told him to look at the most recent issue of leather Neck magazine and. 00:28:18 Speaker 1: A marine from company. 00:28:19 Speaker 2: I talked about how Rick had saved his life on that jungle trail in nineteen sixty six. 00:28:25 Speaker 3: I always wondered, I have a metal, but did it do any good? You know, especially after I saw the number of people who had been killed the mound that I just always said, you know, what was it worth? And then you find out that you know, it was worth a lot. A lot of people wouldn't be here, a lot of families wouldn't be here if not for my contribution. So I feel good about that, but it's still painful to hear the citation. 00:28:54 Speaker 2: He finally started to feel not exactly worthy, but useful, and being useful had always been the point. I mean, he sure wasn't going to sit there like aluminum sighting. Rick had four daughters and a lot of grandkids, and they were all absolutely devoted to each other. His girl saw him as ten feet tall and bulletproof. He was their personal hero. He passed away in twenty sixteen at the age of seventy one. Rick Pittman believed that you couldn't just sit there and do nothing, not on the battlefield and not in life, no matter what people tell you about your abilities, no matter if they think you can or not. Rick believed in defending freedom the way JFK had envisioned it back in nineteen sixty one. How the glow from that fire could truly light the world. 00:29:50 Speaker 3: When you're preserving someone else's freedoms, I think you're preserving your own. You're helping to preserve your own. 00:29:57 Speaker 1: To him, it was the point of America. 00:30:00 Speaker 3: The whole thing about this country is freedom. The very basic rights that human beings have is what this country's all about. I mean, it's so basically we even wrote it down in our constitution and in our laws and everything. It's there. Freedom of the piss, freedom of speech, freedom to the symbol freedom. Break down the line, and you know, if we're not careful, we could lose that. 00:30:26 Speaker 2: Don't just sit there, he would tell you protect it. Thank you all for listening and supporting our show. Over the past year, we've gotten emails from some of you sharing great stories of courage. We want to shout out Lisa Cavalari's great uncle, Marine John Joseph Kelly. Kelly received the Army and Navy Medal of Honor for his actions in nineteen eighteen during World War One. He was one of seven Kelly brothers, some of whom also served in World War One. Thank you for sharing, Lisa. If you have stories or people you'd like to highlight, email us at Medal of Honor at pushkin dot fm. Your participation helps us make great episodes, so please follow the show, share it with a friend, or leave a review. These are all zero cost ways to support us. Find us on social media at pushkin pots or find me at IMJR. 00:32:01 Speaker 1: Martinez Medal of Honor. 00:32:04 Speaker 2: Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins and Ryan Schwiker. Our editor is Lydia jen Kott. Sound design by Jake Gorski. Our executive producer is Constanza Gayaddo. Fact checking by Arthur Gomperts, original music by Eric Phillips. Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and the Pritsker Military Museum. They have a series of interviews with Medal of Honor recipients on their website. Just visit Pritzker Military Museum dot org. That link is in our show notes, where we also list other resources we use to put this episode together. I'm your host, JR. Martinez. We hear you. You want to listen to the episode, not the ads. If you're ready to lose the interruptions and hear the full season of Medal of Honor right now, join Pushkin Plus. You'll get our entire network, including Medal of Honor, Revisionist History, and Heavyweight, completely ad free. You'll be supporting our small independent team. Sign up and save on the Medal of Honor show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, Slash plus. Use the code MOH twenty five for twenty five percent often annual subscription