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Speaker 1: If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're

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Speaker 1: listening to Software Radio Special operations, military news and straight

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Speaker 1: talk with the guys in the community. Hello and everyone,

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Speaker 1: welcome back to Software Radio. I'm your host this afternoon,

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Speaker 1: Steve blis Rary, and we want to welcome everyone back

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Speaker 1: to Software Radio. We have a great guest lined up.

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Speaker 1: It's a guy that I've seen on many occasions when

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Speaker 1: we were down station in Panama, but I've never asked

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Speaker 1: we talked to him, so this uh was the first.

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Speaker 1: We were talking earlier, uh, you know, before the podcast started.

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Speaker 1: But Rick Lamb is going to join us here and

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Speaker 1: in just a moment. But before I bring him on,

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Speaker 1: I'll give you a little a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: bio on Rick. Rick was you know, we used the

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Speaker 1: term loosely in special operations a legend in the special

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Speaker 1: operations community, but this one's well deserved. Rick's a member

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Speaker 1: of the Ranger Hall of Fame, the Commando Hall of Fame,

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Speaker 1: and he's been and I want to say, to range

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Speaker 1: of battalions, four or five special Forces groups, a bunch

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Speaker 1: of theater Special operations commands, and a and a bunch

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Speaker 1: of those uh s F units that begin with a J,

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Speaker 1: so we'll just leave it at that. Um, he's joining

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Speaker 1: us today. He now works for Global Soft Foundation. And

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Speaker 1: as most of you know, Stu Braden, who's the the

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Speaker 1: CEO over there, and I work together and Panama, Rick

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Speaker 1: was down there around the same time, so we all

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Speaker 1: kind of chewed the same dirt at one time or another.

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Speaker 1: But we want to welcome him to the podcast. Rick,

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Speaker 1: how you doing this Afterno, I'm doing great, Steve. I

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Speaker 1: I can't complain all. It's it's generally a good day

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Speaker 1: to be Rick. So in Florida looking outside the window

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Speaker 1: and just yeah, I look outside and it was like,

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Speaker 1: I really don't have that much to complain about, you

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Speaker 1: know when I look out and I see the weather

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Speaker 1: and got the swimming pool in the backyard, and you know,

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Speaker 1: it's just the weather down here. It's just suits me

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Speaker 1: to a t. For those of us who you know,

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Speaker 1: used to be in Panama, this is very similar, it is.

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Speaker 1: And that was you know, those were the that was

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Speaker 1: in the decision matrix of where I was going to

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Speaker 1: retire because I spent six years in Panama and I

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Speaker 1: love that climate. The wife loved it too, So uh,

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Speaker 1: it was either here Savannah, and I think we toyed

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Speaker 1: around with, you know, somewhere further north, but we we

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Speaker 1: came down here to Tampa just fell in love. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I love Savannah as well. And I'm sure being from

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Speaker 1: the range of Itatalion, you're a lot more familiar with

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Speaker 1: Savannah than I am. But that's just a beautiful city.

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Speaker 1: I mean that it's like the hidden gem of the South. Ipink, Oh,

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Speaker 1: it is it. And they love their rangers too, and

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Speaker 1: there's quite a good community. So uh and then uh

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Speaker 1: and then here you know, with the with the McDill community,

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Speaker 1: that uh, that's that's one of the hard things for

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Speaker 1: guys as they get out, you know, they they missed

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Speaker 1: the guys, they missed the purpose. And you know, we

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Speaker 1: used to laugh at him, Remember guys to get out

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Speaker 1: and they stayed near Benning or Bragg or somewhere and

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Speaker 1: we're like, no, man, I'm going to the mountains and uh,

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Speaker 1: here we are. Oh yeah, because they you know, especially

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Speaker 1: at Fort Bragg, you know all the old sergeant majors

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Speaker 1: who retired, you'd see them all the time like come on, guys,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of loose a little bit. And now

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Speaker 1: we all do the same thing, right, so exactly. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was, yeah, I was telling you about my buddy

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Speaker 1: Dave or Tiez. It was SF medic, a great medic,

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we used to always make fun

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Speaker 1: of those old guys. And then right before you know,

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Speaker 1: he retired and I got out and you know, we

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Speaker 1: we were talking with some other guys that we were

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Speaker 1: telling old stories and telling lies and you know, general

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Speaker 1: s F stuff, and uh, you know, one of these

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Speaker 1: young guys came up to us and said, wow, you

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Speaker 1: guys are really old, and we were like, hey, when

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Speaker 1: did we turn into those old guys who used to

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Speaker 1: make fun of That kind of happened overnight? Oh it,

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Speaker 1: did you know what? Uh? So I think when we

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Speaker 1: first came down here, right, they just retired. I'm like

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Speaker 1: forty four and probably in the best shape of my life.

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Speaker 1: And uh, you know, my wife, she's a little Korean gal,

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Speaker 1: and we we go down to mcdillan. She goes chuggy,

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Speaker 1: she's everybody here's so old. You know, we're going through

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Speaker 1: the p X and everything. Now we are there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's that's that's it, man. I mean, it happens so fast.

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Speaker 1: It seems like one day, you know, you're the young

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Speaker 1: guy on the team, and uh, the next thing, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's like, hey, where'd all this gray hair come from?

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Speaker 1: And you know, guys telling me I'm a fo g.

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Speaker 1: You know, well that's true. That is a fact. And

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Speaker 1: it is it's seasons and it uh you know, the

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Speaker 1: things that didn't hurt then hurt now. Oh yeah, So

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Speaker 1: it's it definitely is. I mean, it's just it's just

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Speaker 1: different seasons, different chapters, and and I think that's part

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Speaker 1: of the allure to being around the guys as Uh.

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Speaker 1: It was as you get older, they've they've as you're

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Speaker 1: a young man, you know, they've walked, like you said,

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Speaker 1: you the same dirt. And uh, now as an older guy,

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Speaker 1: you know, they've they've walked the same real estate. So uh,

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Speaker 1: I mean linking up with stew again after years, I

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Speaker 1: remember him as a crazy captain. It was all the

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Speaker 1: young maybe a staff startant down there in Panama. Uh

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, bumped into him again. I followed

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Speaker 1: him into Charlie one ten, uh, you know, and when

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Speaker 1: he was leaving the company and bumped into him again

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Speaker 1: at Sacom. So it's been the been the guys that

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Speaker 1: you that you just keep bumping into throughout your career,

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Speaker 1: and here we are. You know, he's uh, he's the

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Speaker 1: crazy retired colonel and I'm the crazy retired star major,

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Speaker 1: and you just fall into those roles. Yeah. Well, I

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Speaker 1: had just come out of the warrant course and I

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Speaker 1: got down to Panama and so they put me in

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Speaker 1: Alpha Company and so talking to Kevin Haggin's and I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you knew Kevin, and Kevin's talking to me, and

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Speaker 1: and then he's smiling, and I was like, what's up, sir,

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Speaker 1: And He's like, I think you're gonna fit in with

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Speaker 1: Stu Brady. I'm gonna put you on team. So that

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Speaker 1: was one of all the nonsense was going, right. That

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Speaker 1: was right in the middle of all that with Noriegan.

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Speaker 1: So I get out there with stew And and now

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Speaker 1: I'm meeting the guys on the team and they were like, oh,

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Speaker 1: the captain will be in here in just a second.

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Speaker 1: He was. They were in the interior of someplace, and

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Speaker 1: so I'm waiting on him and he comes in with

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Speaker 1: you know, Oakley's and green string around him, with the

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Speaker 1: shoulder holster and no shirt on, no hat and yeah,

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Speaker 1: and that's when we had some command. Some general from

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Speaker 1: the fifth Mac came around to the team and and

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Speaker 1: he's like, can I ask you guys a serious questions?

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Speaker 1: She was like yeah, you know, yeah, bro, you know

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Speaker 1: Stu is go ahead. He's like, does everyone in Special

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Speaker 1: Forces not wear a hat and carry a different weapon?

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Speaker 1: It was like pretty much, you know, it was It

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Speaker 1: was perfect that you guys were you were Alpha Gators

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Speaker 1: in Alpha Company because you know you're Kenny Mac. The

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Speaker 1: legend that you will us was. It was the perfect

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Speaker 1: steady hand shard major to have a guy like come here, Braden. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well then you know we uh Stu left, It was

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Speaker 1: like a year and a half. Two years later he

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Speaker 1: left three seven and went to uh, you know, the

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Speaker 1: fail course and he was getting his U his advanced

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Speaker 1: degree and something or other. But so then Dave Ortiz

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Speaker 1: and I have down in Bolivion and they were like,

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Speaker 1: we need a fail officer. So Dave and I looked

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Speaker 1: at each other, we know just the guy. So we

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Speaker 1: called stew up and and he's like, hey, what are

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Speaker 1: you doing? And I was like, you got an assignment yet?

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Speaker 1: And he's like no, they want to put me in,

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Speaker 1: you know, some disgusting place. I forget where he said

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Speaker 1: they wanted to put him, and like, no, no, no no,

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Speaker 1: we got just the place for you. So him and Kelly,

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Speaker 1: you know, we got them fast track down there. So

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Speaker 1: Stu became one of the the guys down in Bolivia

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Speaker 1: and we had a blast while he was there, you know.

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Speaker 1: And that's what actually makes stew so good, is it? Uh?

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Speaker 1: I mean he's he is um, he has widely traveled

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Speaker 1: and he spent a lot of time overseas. He uh,

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Speaker 1: he was he he actually did some time I think

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Speaker 1: at the schoolhouse. I think in uh what is it

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Speaker 1: the command General Staff College there leave Worth. So he

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Speaker 1: got the he got the mentor and meet a lot

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Speaker 1: of guys that um, you know that that we're on

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Speaker 1: the up and coming that they would then you know,

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Speaker 1: subsequently become commanders his time forward over in uh at

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Speaker 1: soccure when they stood up to you the NATO Soft

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Speaker 1: headquarters in the school house. I mean again, he got

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Speaker 1: got the chance to to groom and mentor a bunch

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Speaker 1: of guys that ended up commanding a lot of the

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Speaker 1: NATO Soft units. So when he fell into this, uh,

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Speaker 1: we had this idea, this epiphany that you know, so

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Speaker 1: comed being U you know, part part service, you know,

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Speaker 1: with service responsibilities, part of geographic or you know global

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Speaker 1: combat command. UM, you know, with the doctrinal type you know,

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Speaker 1: man train, equip responsibilities. And they had no advocate. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, the Army's got you know, the UH Association

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Speaker 1: United States Army at USA, you know, the Navy, the

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Speaker 1: Navy League, but so calm with its uh it's g

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Speaker 1: c C and service like responsibilities, you know, with troops

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Speaker 1: from the Navy, Air Force, Marines and just being you know,

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Speaker 1: back to back to back deployed for the last twenty years.

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Speaker 1: They had no advocate. So again that's what the Global

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Speaker 1: Soft Foundation uh, you know global being we we do

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Speaker 1: international and US saw from across the board and it

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Speaker 1: uh he's been at about seven years now and really

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Speaker 1: now starting to catch stride with a lot of the

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Speaker 1: things that he's doing. Yeah, there was two of us

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Speaker 1: from software. There were just up at UH the symposium

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago up in Tampa. We missed

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Speaker 1: you there by the way. We were hoping to link

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Speaker 1: up with you, but I was I just had surgery,

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Speaker 1: so I was I was curled up in the fetal

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Speaker 1: position for myself. Yeah. Well, yeah, you were missed that day.

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Speaker 1: But it was great. It was great on a couple

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Speaker 1: of things. I mean, the the the Global SOOFT they

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Speaker 1: put on a great program and they went all out

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Speaker 1: for this, but it was just after the past year,

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Speaker 1: it was just really nice to have a bunch of

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Speaker 1: people all in the same room and you get to

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Speaker 1: sit down and talk to people. You know. It sounds

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Speaker 1: strange to say that, but you know, after a year

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Speaker 1: of COVID, I mean it really you you don't realize

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Speaker 1: how much you missed that stuff. Oh, that's that's true. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And I tell you the Uh, it's great to have

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Speaker 1: the technology to do stuff online, but there's nothing like

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Speaker 1: sitting down and breaking bread or or having a drink

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Speaker 1: with you know, some im getting to know him. No

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Speaker 1: a face. I mean you can run through your rolloex

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Speaker 1: and aims and uh and not be able to put

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Speaker 1: a face on it these days, and it's it's uh

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Speaker 1: totally different if it's if it's in person. Yeah. And

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Speaker 1: one of the things I like too is is is

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Speaker 1: the fact that you know, as you a lot of times,

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Speaker 1: if you're online and you're discussing a problem set or

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Speaker 1: a requirement, you you don't have the ability other than

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Speaker 1: sending a guy a point of contact hoping that they'll

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Speaker 1: link up at some point in time, but put at

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Speaker 1: these in in person events. You know, guy says, man,

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Speaker 1: I've got this problem set, I need this capability, and

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Speaker 1: you can walk over to a guy that he can

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Speaker 1: you have from academia, they can either expound on it.

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Speaker 1: You know, a guy from industry that that has the

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Speaker 1: widget that you need, or an international uh partner that's

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Speaker 1: what that's got the same problem set and the same requirement,

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Speaker 1: and you guys can can join forces there. So it Uh,

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Speaker 1: it really is a unique way of doing business, you know,

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Speaker 1: just bringing that community together, whether you're in uniform, you're

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Speaker 1: out of uniform, uh, you know, you have an interest

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Speaker 1: in niture, in the intelligence, or you're in some type

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Speaker 1: of business. Uh. To bring all that stuff together is

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Speaker 1: a is a neat thing to watch. Yeah and yeah.

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Speaker 1: Up there when we were there for the symposium, one

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Speaker 1: of the more intriguing parts of it was the well,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you know Dennis Blasco who's a China expert,

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Speaker 1: and Dennis had a couple of academia guys up there

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Speaker 1: with them, and they had a Korean s o f

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Speaker 1: retired general was there. Yeah, virtual and talk about a

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Speaker 1: nice blend of guys talking with you know, their piece

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Speaker 1: of the pie kind of thing. It was great. It

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Speaker 1: was really really great. Well you know, and also you

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Speaker 1: you talk about the you know, the quality of the people.

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Speaker 1: I mean Chunn and Bum here's the guy you pluck

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Speaker 1: out of Korea, I mean, retired three star general. He

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Speaker 1: was He saved saved part of the Korean um you know,

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Speaker 1: national leadership during the Rangoon bombings. I mean he had

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Speaker 1: he had run North Korean insurgents to ground who had

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Speaker 1: come to come ashortness marine. I mean the guy was

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Speaker 1: like he took i think the first contingent of Koreans

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Speaker 1: off in Afghanistan. I mean, so you get quality guys

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Speaker 1: like that and again speaks fluent English and uh just

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Speaker 1: a just a super super guy and uh and Stu

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Speaker 1: has a knack of just knowing those guys be able

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Speaker 1: to bring him in. Yeah, well it's his way. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, he could talk to anybody, as we said,

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Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, he could get down and dirty with

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Speaker 1: the grunts on the ground or you know, talk to

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Speaker 1: you know, high level U cabinet member and they all

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Speaker 1: seem to like him. I mean he has that likability

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Speaker 1: that goes a long long way in this business. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: something that I just I just recently became aware of too.

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Speaker 1: But you know, his father passed away. Yeah, so we

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Speaker 1: did a little um. He was a calve guy, So

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Speaker 1: we did a little um little you know, calves send off.

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Speaker 1: And when we're up at the rain, it for Bragg

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Speaker 1: and uh you did a toast and and uh you

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Speaker 1: have read the poem Fiddler's Green, you know, because no,

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Speaker 1: no cavalrman die and go to hell. They all go

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Speaker 1: to a bar called Fiddler's Green, and uh and they

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Speaker 1: and they drink at the bar right and then uh,

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Speaker 1: they get on their horses and they head head to hell,

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Speaker 1: you know, if they're following the infantry guys. And uh,

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Speaker 1: but they run out of liquor in their canteens, so

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Speaker 1: they have to turn around and go back to Fiddler's Green.

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Speaker 1: And that's why none of them. So we're we're gonna go.

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Speaker 1: We're reading this poem. And Stew's dad was a stone

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Speaker 1: cold stud as well. I mean he was a calve guy.

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Speaker 1: Uh went in with the first cab in Vietnam and obvious,

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Speaker 1: so the the apple didn't fall far from the tree,

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Speaker 1: so you can you can see a lot of a

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Speaker 1: lot of Stew's dad and Stu have never known the man. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: funny story while we were tying in Panama, UM, Stu

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Speaker 1: was on the phone with his dad and he was like,

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Speaker 1: hold on a second. He was like, he wants to

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Speaker 1: talk to you, and I was like to me, so,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah. So I get on there and I

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Speaker 1: say hello to his father and his father said, so

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Speaker 1: you're Stuart's XO. And I said yes, sir, and he said, son,

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Speaker 1: you have my undying gratitude, And boy do I feel

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Speaker 1: sorry for you because my son's a handful. Thanks dad.

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Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, I I never actually got to meet

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Speaker 1: him face to face, but I did talk to him

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Speaker 1: on the phone. That Yeah, I met him on mountain

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Speaker 1: of a guy just like Stew. I mean, they get

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Speaker 1: cut from the same cloth. I did see that video

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Speaker 1: of you guys doing that send off for his dad.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was really cool. But let's talk about

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Speaker 1: your career a little bit. Entered the Army back in

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Speaker 1: eight which puts you in my time frame with the

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Speaker 1: airborne enlistening Airborne ranger enlistening. Yeah, actually I had it easy.

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Speaker 1: I was you know, my dad was a history buff

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Speaker 1: Civil War, Korea, Vietnam and he he uh, World War two.

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Speaker 1: I mean, so there was a lot of that literature

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Speaker 1: around and then the uh we we and there was

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Speaker 1: the family stories, right, so uh you know that. I

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Speaker 1: remember John Rendon tell me one day that you know,

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Speaker 1: people love stories, that's why you got Facebook. And uh

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Speaker 1: we've we've been telling stories, you know, for millennia, ever

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Speaker 1: since we were in caves. And we know this because

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Speaker 1: there's cave drawings, you know. And I had to laugh

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Speaker 1: because it's it's true. I remember, you know, hearing stories

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Speaker 1: about you know, James lamb and in the charge of

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Speaker 1: the light brigate at the Battle of Balaklava, you know,

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Speaker 1: and and his uh, his brother John comes to the

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Speaker 1: States and has a son named James, who ends up

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Speaker 1: fighting in the Civil War with the under the ninety

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Speaker 1: nine Indiana and uh you know his kid, Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: my grandfather ends up on the Mexican Punitive Edition as

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Speaker 1: a seventeen year old kid. Uh. They pulled him back

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Speaker 1: to Iowa. By that time he turns like eighteen, and

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Speaker 1: then he joins the army again and goes over on

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Speaker 1: the American Expeditionary Force in World War One. So he's

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Speaker 1: got like three three sons, you know. One uh joins

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Speaker 1: the Marines in forty two, and he's in World War

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Speaker 1: two Korea, Vietnam. And then my dad he's the middle guy. UM,

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Speaker 1: he was in He was in during the Korean War,

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Speaker 1: didn't deploy the Korea, but I was in uniform. My Uh,

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Speaker 1: I still got great memories of him and Harry bone Twill,

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Speaker 1: you know, cleaning a nineteen eleven and an then one

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Speaker 1: car being on the back stoop. And then his younger

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Speaker 1: brother was in during Vietnam and uh so you know,

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Speaker 1: every every guy like that I respected um or loved,

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Speaker 1: you know, was war uniform and and took a gun

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Speaker 1: to work. So when I uh in high school, I

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Speaker 1: joined the Iowa Guard because my dad was in the Guard.

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Speaker 1: His his younger brother was in the Guard. And so

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Speaker 1: I go to basic and a I T and my

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Speaker 1: first platoon sergeant is my uncle. He's got he's got

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Speaker 1: a Recmplitude in the thirty fourth Division there in Iowa.

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Speaker 1: And we're up at like Camp McCoy and Wisconsin, and uh,

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Speaker 1: we're all cammed up, you know, and we had. We're

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Speaker 1: doing our our pre combat checks and you're checking to

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Speaker 1: see if anything's uh it was is shining or rattling.

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Speaker 1: And we're sitting in these two files and we have

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Speaker 1: sand bags over our head, and he's going through the

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Speaker 1: center of the two columns. We're in this GP medium

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Speaker 1: tent and he's going through you know, who's got point,

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Speaker 1: who's got trail, who's uncompassed, who's alternate compass, whose pace

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Speaker 1: alternate pace? You know, what are the what are the

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Speaker 1: critical nath points? You know, when did we change asthmas

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Speaker 1: And he's just he's from the time we leave the

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Speaker 1: line of departure, you know, up through uh you know,

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Speaker 1: you hit hitting the objective and then uh successful, you

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Speaker 1: know x fill. He was just going through like the

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Speaker 1: dirty doesn't right and uh And we've got sand bags

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Speaker 1: on our heads. And the reason we have sand bags

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Speaker 1: on our heads is because we started this forty five

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Speaker 1: minutes before e n T in evening nautical twilight. Because

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Speaker 1: it takes forty five minutes for the rods and the

356
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Speaker 1: cones and your eyes to adjust to the darkness. So

357
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Speaker 1: forty five minutes we're wearing sandbags, so our rods and

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Speaker 1: cones have already adjusticed. So by the time we hit

359
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Speaker 1: the LD the line of departure, and they're counting us

360
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Speaker 1: through the wire, you know, we gotta jump on Charlie

361
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Speaker 1: because our eyes are already adjusted. So so that's my uncle.

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Speaker 1: And so one day, you know where he sits down

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Speaker 1: and he goes, because I'm in college at this point, right,

364
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Speaker 1: and he goes, do you like college? I said no,

365
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Speaker 1: and he said I didn't think so, and he said,

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Speaker 1: you need to do this for a living. And uh

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Speaker 1: so he walks me through the Airborne Ranger and listen

368
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Speaker 1: an option to get me out of the Guard and

369
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Speaker 1: then the active duty and then I report to uh,

370
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Speaker 1: you know, Fort Benning for a I t go to

371
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Speaker 1: jump school and then off to a first Ranger battalion

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Speaker 1: and Savannah and uh and yeah, so I had it.

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Speaker 1: I had it pretty easy, man. I just that That's

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Speaker 1: all I really ever wanted to be. Yeah, that's um,

375
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Speaker 1: that's that's really cool. I remember when I signed in

376
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Speaker 1: the Fort Bragg, you know, uh to go s F.

377
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Speaker 1: My uncle's brother, Um, he was a Sante raider and

378
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Speaker 1: a sergeant major by this time, and uh so I

379
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,639
Speaker 1: want to go see him and he was like, do

380
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:23,080
Speaker 1: yourself a favor when you get out to camp called

381
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Speaker 1: don't tell anybody who you know we're related to. And

382
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Speaker 1: I was like, okay, because because it's gonna be hard enough.

383
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Speaker 1: So he said, if you tell any of those guys

384
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Speaker 1: out there that we're related, it's just gonna be a

385
00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,199
Speaker 1: lot tougher run. So just keep it between us. And

386
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Speaker 1: I was like that sage advice right there, because you know,

387
00:21:45,040 --> 00:21:48,359
Speaker 1: they I always uh, I reported into the Rangers right

388
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,280
Speaker 1: in the h and there was there was some hazing,

389
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:55,000
Speaker 1: but but I always took it that they messed with

390
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:58,159
Speaker 1: you because they liked you. You know, the guys that

391
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: they didn't like that you just weren't cutting it. They

392
00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:04,840
Speaker 1: just get rid of him. But I remember walking on

393
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Speaker 1: to uh, you know, I met my fire team leader,

394
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,280
Speaker 1: Corporate Dojer, and uh, I love this kid. He was

395
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Speaker 1: young guy, and I mean there was it was probably

396
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Speaker 1: like two years difference between us and the only the

397
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 1: only difference was that, you know, he had spent those

398
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Speaker 1: two years in the first range of Battalion and I

399
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,440
Speaker 1: had not, So I mean there was a big, a big,

400
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Speaker 1: you know, um wide information gap. So he comes up,

401
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,359
Speaker 1: but he goes, I'm corporate, dojer, I'm your fire team leader.

402
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 1: You know I'm where You're an alpha fire team, first

403
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:39,720
Speaker 1: Squad Deppetun Charlie Company and uh so, and I mean,

404
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:42,280
Speaker 1: you know, the first fifteen seconds he he tells me

405
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:44,040
Speaker 1: who I am and what I do? You know, and

406
00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:47,080
Speaker 1: that my motto is following me and do as I do.

407
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:50,160
Speaker 1: And he says, you're a rifleman, and uh, there's forty

408
00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:51,960
Speaker 1: guys in this partunion. They're accounting on you to be

409
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:56,120
Speaker 1: the best rifleman in this battalion. And the he hands

410
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 1: me that little remember this little blue training circulars, a

411
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 1: little tcs at you know that came with every weapon.

412
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:04,080
Speaker 1: And he hands me that and he says, I want

413
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: you to know every every spring, every every pen um.

414
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:09,520
Speaker 1: He says, I want you to know everything about this

415
00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 1: weapon and be truly an expert. And he he goes,

416
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: it's the M six ten A one. It's a lightweight

417
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: gas operated air cool magazine fed shoulder fire weapon lit'll

418
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,960
Speaker 1: fire automatic or semi automatic or you know, uh yeah,

419
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 1: the automatic or semi automatic by use of a selector switch.

420
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 1: I mean he just quotes like the first paragraph and

421
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:31,320
Speaker 1: uh and he goes, he goes, Now, when you become

422
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:33,880
Speaker 1: an expert with this, and I'll be watching, He says,

423
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a bipod and I'll issue you

424
00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: a magazine pouch and and three more thirty round magazines

425
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:43,919
Speaker 1: so everybody else carries at seven, I get uh, you

426
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:50,159
Speaker 1: know eight or nine rather and uh or ten? Yeah, yeah,

427
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,639
Speaker 1: so you know you get three magazine potches or everybody

428
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 1: else carrying too. And uh so when he says, because

429
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,879
Speaker 1: then your mission, we'll go from you know, targets to

430
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 1: area targets, and you'll you'll operate this weapon in full

431
00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,200
Speaker 1: automatic with a three to five round burst. And he said,

432
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:09,320
Speaker 1: once you've identified and become an expert with this, I'm

433
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,160
Speaker 1: gonna put an m to a three forty forty millimeter

434
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,160
Speaker 1: grenade launch or any of it. You'll be a gretted Ere.

435
00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:17,040
Speaker 1: And he just walks me through all the steps and

436
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:19,680
Speaker 1: he said, finally, you'll take my position as the fire

437
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:22,120
Speaker 1: team leader. He says, because I'm gonna move out to

438
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:24,399
Speaker 1: to be the squad leader. And and and that was

439
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:28,200
Speaker 1: the coolest thing that I ever heard, because he's telling

440
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,720
Speaker 1: you exactly what's expected, exactly what you need to do.

441
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: Uh and and he's not threatened by me doing well

442
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 1: and and going after his position, because he actually wants

443
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,880
Speaker 1: me in his position, because he's moving out to take

444
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 1: certain chandler's position as the squad leader. If you if

445
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 1: you compare that to any other industry that's out there,

446
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 1: any other business is out there, you know, the uh,

447
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: it just it doesn't compare. No, And that's one of

448
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 1: the things that businesses are finally starting to learn now

449
00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:01,400
Speaker 1: is as how you know, especially and special operations how

450
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, we trained our replacement, you know, and

451
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 1: they don't do that in business, and they're starting to

452
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,439
Speaker 1: catch on that that's the way to go. But I

453
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you, you know, you're a young guy

454
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,280
Speaker 1: in the range of Battalion. You were there for the

455
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 1: Iranian hostage rescue mission. Pure yes, yeah. Our our company

456
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: commander was again kind of like a Steve type of guy,

457
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 1: just this wild eyed captain and Dave Grange and again

458
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 1: his father, I think, had jumped into Normandy as as

459
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,600
Speaker 1: a young paratrooper World War Two and uh so, yeah,

460
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:43,760
Speaker 1: he was he was from military stock. Uh he was

461
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 1: a Lima Company ranger in Vietnam, and so he hit

462
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 1: us right about the time they take the embassy and

463
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 1: uh again, you know we were we were Infantry seven

464
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:57,440
Speaker 1: dash eight, you know, if a few manual seven dash eight,

465
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,240
Speaker 1: you know, the inf Troop two Inn squad. And that's

466
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:02,399
Speaker 1: how we task organized, that's how we had our mission sets.

467
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: But but he did things a little bit different. And

468
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,400
Speaker 1: one day he brought us into the day room and uh,

469
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:09,119
Speaker 1: you know, back in that day, they had a day

470
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:11,439
Speaker 1: room with a pool table and a foodsball table, you know,

471
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 1: in a place for the guys to go and watch

472
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 1: movies or whatever and just take a break. And uh,

473
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 1: and he wanted to know who the best snipers were,

474
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:22,000
Speaker 1: you know, who the who were guys that owned jeeps

475
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 1: and drove off road vehicles. Who were the guys that

476
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 1: drove motorcycles and had licenses to drive them. Who were

477
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 1: the best machine gunners? Um. Then he wanted to he

478
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:33,679
Speaker 1: was actually looking for the strengths that he knew he

479
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:37,480
Speaker 1: would need when he retasked organized the company to actually

480
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 1: have now have motorcycles to be on jeep teams and

481
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: uh and then retask organized, you know, for to have

482
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,360
Speaker 1: a jump clearing element, to have an airfield clearing element. Um.

483
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:51,640
Speaker 1: I mean the guy taught us how to drive trains.

484
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:53,399
Speaker 1: He taught us how to drive bulldozers, you know, and

485
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: in the event that you had to move things off

486
00:26:55,560 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 1: of the airfield, we the you know Paul climbers climb

487
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 1: up and chopped the electricity to it was it was

488
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 1: very interesting to watch how he thought, um, how he

489
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,040
Speaker 1: played our strengths and then how he retask organized for

490
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:13,880
Speaker 1: all the missions that we would need to do, uh

491
00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:17,280
Speaker 1: to to execute the Iranian hostage rescue and uh and really,

492
00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:21,160
Speaker 1: I mean that guy was the father of modern the

493
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,120
Speaker 1: modern day ranger because a lot of those t tps

494
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:26,400
Speaker 1: that uh, you know that the guys had to actually

495
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,400
Speaker 1: think up. How are you going to get him on aircraft?

496
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 1: Are you gonna get him off the aircraft? You know

497
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 1: that we when do you do your your your checks,

498
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:35,719
Speaker 1: on your on your nods, you know, when you chamber around,

499
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,159
Speaker 1: when you when you fire up your your radios, you know,

500
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 1: all these kinds of things to include ratchet strapping the

501
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: vehicles down and when you pop chains and how do

502
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 1: you you know, drive them on and off the ramp. Uh.

503
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,639
Speaker 1: You know, not everybody had There wasn't a set of

504
00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,360
Speaker 1: nods for every man. There wasn't a radio for every man.

505
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:55,679
Speaker 1: So so a lot of those things that you know

506
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:59,959
Speaker 1: survived to the ranger missions of today. Uh, we're actually

507
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:06,120
Speaker 1: invented under Dave Grange and Charlie Company. Yeah, and Grange

508
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:08,920
Speaker 1: is another one that's I mean, you ask any ranger

509
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 1: about Dave Grange and you know he's right there under

510
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,960
Speaker 1: maybe you know some of the guys from World War Two,

511
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:23,360
Speaker 1: but William O. Darby and Dave Grange. Yeah, yeah, Darby Grange,

512
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:25,879
Speaker 1: you know guys like that. I mean, that's a pretty

513
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: heavy company there. But can you talk about anything that

514
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: went on on the ground while you were down there? Yeah,

515
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 1: Actually the UM I was there, there were two, two

516
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 1: separate missions. I mean you had the the guys that

517
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 1: went to Desert one and I think we had about

518
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 1: a platoon minus of the guys that were going to

519
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,960
Speaker 1: secure UM the air field or the It was actually

520
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,920
Speaker 1: just a dirt strip, you know, there was it was

521
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 1: a road in the middle of the desert. And again

522
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: if you look at the way that UM you know

523
00:28:56,560 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 1: that the mission was stovepiped and think every element in

524
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: their Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, they were the best

525
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:04,480
Speaker 1: in the world at what they did. But but actually

526
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 1: putting it all together, you know, underneath the chain of command,

527
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: command and control. Um, that's that's where we started, Beau.

528
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 1: There were there were some subtle nuances, you know, putting

529
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 1: an Airborne Army ranger on an Air Force or Marine

530
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 1: Corps helicopter and then taking that Air Force and Marine

531
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 1: Corps helicopter on and off of a carrier deck. You know.

532
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: So so all the different things that that they've since

533
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,480
Speaker 1: you know that the one has figured out. Um, you

534
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 1: know they were they were they were kind of you know,

535
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 1: flying blind in that day. You know, different aircraft, different capabilities. Um,

536
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: the whole air refuel piece. So so the Charlie Company

537
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: had one platoon that that went in with the the

538
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: C one thirties, the refuelers and then also the waiting

539
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 1: on the paved lows that we're gonna come in and

540
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: refuel there in the desert. And uh, you know intel,

541
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 1: we didn't have a lot of a lot of intel.

542
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,479
Speaker 1: So yeah, the typical and I learned this lesson at

543
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 1: least three different times throughout my career that uh, you know,

544
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 1: in America, we have yards with fences, so we think

545
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 1: that you know, if there's no fence, that nobody lives

546
00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: there right, not realizing that no, there's people out there

547
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 1: that live in that desert and they traverse it. So

548
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,720
Speaker 1: uh so a bus shows up I think they pulled

549
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 1: that over a um there was like a I think

550
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: a tanker truck that it was coming through and it

551
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: wouldn't stop. So kid by the name of Robert Rubio,

552
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: you know, boom blows up the tanker truck. But again

553
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: as it is that starts falling apart. The the mission

554
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: has already done because the a couple of the birds

555
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 1: um one had to shut down I think on the

556
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 1: actual uh in the actual desert itself, and another one

557
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: got lost, so so they'd get they had gotten lost

558
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: in this uh, this sandstorm. So they were late coming

559
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 1: in and the time of the year was that, you know,

560
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 1: we went at the time when we had the maximum

561
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: amount of darkness so that we could get in there,

562
00:30:57,480 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 1: refuel and then go to the go to the hide

563
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: side up in the mountains. But but they were unable

564
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,320
Speaker 1: to make the timelines and they didn't have enough aircraft

565
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 1: now to actually do the mission. So they had already

566
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: called the mission. And then in the in the the

567
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 1: haste I guess to get out of there to get

568
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: the birds refueled. One of the one of the helicopters

569
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: clipped the the C one thirty refuel bird and that

570
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: caused this massive fire and that's where most of the guys,

571
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: most of the guys were killed. So they just just

572
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,240
Speaker 1: the ability to put all that stuff together. Uh and

573
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 1: actually came out in the Holloway Commission because they Admiral Hallway,

574
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 1: retired Navy admiral, he was tasked to UH to actually

575
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:41,800
Speaker 1: do the after action report, and so he came out

576
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: and he said, you know, these guys were the best

577
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: in the world at what they did, you know, in

578
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: each individual service. But we need to bring them together.

579
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 1: We need some type of organization that does a man training,

580
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 1: equip resource. They need their own budget, you know. And

581
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: he's described in so calm and so if we want

582
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: to do this again, we want to be able to

583
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:05,720
Speaker 1: have an organization that does that. We also need a

584
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: dedicated command and control that we're we're able to uh

585
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: to command and control these that we know, you know,

586
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 1: within reason, the logistics with the capabilities of all the

587
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 1: different services and uh so as they're looking at those

588
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 1: organizations that they need, the Army, you know, which loves

589
00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 1: the hates off. I mean, because you know, for us,

590
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: we're kind of a distraction. Um, you know, we're not

591
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 1: worth the money they spend on us, and especially when

592
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:34,479
Speaker 1: you're up against a new B two bomber or aircraft carrier,

593
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:37,360
Speaker 1: a big old tank. So the army sat on it,

594
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: or on our arm but the Defense Department sat on

595
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:41,680
Speaker 1: it for a long time until the non cooing Amendment

596
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 1: cranks up and actually legislated us so common into existence

597
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,959
Speaker 1: some four to six years later. And uh so, so

598
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: that was the uh you know, the was it the

599
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 1: I think Schumaker called it, you know, one of the

600
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 1: most successful failures, and that you know, we learned a

601
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 1: lot and we're able to set up you know, and

602
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: and it actually built the force that we enjoy today

603
00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 1: with the ability to have our own our own funding,

604
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: our own school houses, our own ability to train you know,

605
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 1: man train, equipped and resource. So yeah, all that happened.

606
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: There was a second part of that mission, uh man, sorry,

607
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 1: which our Mansaria, which was actually the the X filled

608
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: air air field there in Iran, and that's the one

609
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 1: that I was on. So but we learned a lot

610
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: of good lessons from that and uh it actually you know,

611
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,360
Speaker 1: kind of gave us the impetus to to get serious

612
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: about what we do. You know, we'd being soft and

613
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 1: uh and and gave us the capabilities that we have today. Yeah,

614
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 1: I was. I was kind of lucky that that I was.

615
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:48,479
Speaker 1: I was able to um, you know, I I touched

616
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: soft it at just a couple of places that you know,

617
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 1: in those missions that again had lasting impacts. I was.

618
00:33:55,640 --> 00:34:00,080
Speaker 1: I was very fortunate. Yeah, and today the guys, you know,

619
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: they worked showing your operations now like there's it's nothing,

620
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,120
Speaker 1: no big deal, and uh, you know that's where all

621
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: of that came from. So you know, it was tragic

622
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,919
Speaker 1: the way it turned out, but in the long run,

623
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: it caused the Pentagon that finally take a good hard

624
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:28,720
Speaker 1: look at things and we have what we have today. Grudgingly, grudgingly. Yeah, yeah,

625
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 1: you know you uh. And then then in um, I

626
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: wasn't in uh Grenada, but if you Grenado was like

627
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:39,960
Speaker 1: prior to know the non Cooin Amendment. But if you

628
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,239
Speaker 1: look at Grenada, there was a lot of a lot

629
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 1: of issues again that resurfaced. You know, the Defense Department

630
00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:49,760
Speaker 1: was sitting on these these recommendations from Adduel Holloway weren't

631
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 1: willing to make a decision. Um. I think when we

632
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,719
Speaker 1: launched our seals, the seals never made it ashore. By

633
00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: many of the seals drowned out out there in the ocean.

634
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:03,400
Speaker 1: The aircraft over shot the drop zone and the proponents

635
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 1: of the rangers were dropped into the water. Um you

636
00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:10,320
Speaker 1: know they I think that the National Mission guys were

637
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: wearing you know, hockey helmets and and or no helmets.

638
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,920
Speaker 1: They were carrying you know, submachine guns and you know,

639
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:22,560
Speaker 1: stuff that they had that they had pioneered for you know, planes, trains, automobiles,

640
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,359
Speaker 1: you know, close in uh fighting, but then when you're

641
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 1: up against a Cuban dude with an a K forty seven,

642
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 1: you know, and again another lesson to learn. And again

643
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:35,680
Speaker 1: the aircraft, um weren't used to working with our soft guys.

644
00:35:35,719 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 1: So as they're flying into the valleys, you know, you

645
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:42,240
Speaker 1: quickly realized that from from the ridge lines on either side,

646
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: you know, the enemies got fire on you. So so

647
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: a lot of those lessons were relearning. And I think

648
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 1: really the Grenada was the impetus for None, None and

649
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 1: Cohen to step up and say, hey, we gotta do this.

650
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:56,440
Speaker 1: And then that's when uh, you know, so calm and

651
00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 1: the services came in well excellent. And before we go on,

652
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:04,439
Speaker 1: I just have to read a quick spot ad for

653
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:09,360
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654
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,160
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655
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,200
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656
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657
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:21,640
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658
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 1: veteran suicide issue that's going on, there's a lot of

659
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:28,520
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660
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:30,759
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661
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662
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,600
Speaker 1: they deserve. And sometimes we all need some support. So

663
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:41,440
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664
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:44,359
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665
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:49,160
Speaker 1: to prevent suicide. Check it out. It's how we reached

666
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 1: Coaching Tool today. Thanks. So we're back here with Rick Lamb.

667
00:36:55,080 --> 00:37:00,400
Speaker 1: We're talking about ricks. You know, military career. After you know,

668
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:02,319
Speaker 1: you spent some time in the range of Italian you

669
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 1: ended up with the u N Support group in Korea

670
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: and that's uh an interesting story because during quote unquote

671
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 1: a time of peace, you ended up with the Silver star,

672
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 1: and could you tell our listeners a little bit about this.

673
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: It was it was all dumb luck and timing, I

674
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,920
Speaker 1: mean the story of my life. But uh yeah, I

675
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: reported to Korea and and again the Ranger, the Ranger

676
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:34,920
Speaker 1: of Mafia, and I'm supposed to go to second Infantry Division.

677
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: So I'm at the Turtle the turtle farm there, and

678
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 1: all the all the guys that are going into Korea

679
00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 1: are called turtles, you know, the all the new guys.

680
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:44,880
Speaker 1: Because the place where you in process is literally across

681
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:47,279
Speaker 1: the street from the place where your out process there

682
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 1: on Camp Coiners, so it takes you three sixty five

683
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,320
Speaker 1: days to walk across the street. So you're a turtle

684
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:55,200
Speaker 1: the the and then the turtle ditches are the big

685
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 1: when they have the monsoon range over there, you know,

686
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,879
Speaker 1: the the drainage ditches on either side of the road.

687
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: They were like tiger traps, you know, for for a

688
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 1: kid who's inebriated. So they call those turtle ditches. So

689
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 1: I'm at the Turtle farm and uh incomes an old

690
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: platoon sergeant from first Ranger Battalions Arnold Ways and he goes, lamb,

691
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 1: you're coming with us, and uh so they take me

692
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 1: up to the United Nations Command of Support grouped up

693
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:26,800
Speaker 1: there in the Joint Security Area, and it was a

694
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 1: it was an infantry battalion and uh, you know you had, uh,

695
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 1: you had four companies within that within that battalion and

696
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 1: each or I'm sorry, platoons rather within the within the

697
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 1: js F company, the Joint Security Force Company had the

698
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 1: four platoons and they were they were fifty rock you know, uh,

699
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 1: Republic of Korea soldiers and uh US guys. So it

700
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: was a truly joint platoon and about forty guys, right,

701
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:54,400
Speaker 1: So we had a we had both the US and

702
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:58,120
Speaker 1: a Korean platoon leader. I had a platoon sergeant who

703
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:01,000
Speaker 1: was an old LIMA Company rangers starting Dave Mark, who

704
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:04,759
Speaker 1: forgot more about soldiering than than I ever knew. It

705
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 1: was our steady hand as the platoon sergeant. And so

706
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 1: my alpha fire team leader was a Korean kid, uh

707
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: let and uh. And then I had a my Bravo

708
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:19,080
Speaker 1: fire team leader was it was a young American kid.

709
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:21,399
Speaker 1: But I had like eleven guys in the squad back then,

710
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 1: so it truly was joint. The start major was a

711
00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:29,959
Speaker 1: was a fifth group guy in Glenn forsythe and because

712
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:32,279
Speaker 1: I was back before we branched, So you were you

713
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,560
Speaker 1: were levin Bravo Sierra if you were wearing a Green beret,

714
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:39,120
Speaker 1: a victor if you were wearing a Ranger tab. And

715
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:41,080
Speaker 1: then you could go back and forth between. And so

716
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 1: they were going down and they were cherry picking at

717
00:39:42,719 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 1: the at the Turtle Farm, anybody who had been in

718
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:47,880
Speaker 1: the Rangers, who was SF, who was airborne, had been

719
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:50,839
Speaker 1: in division, anybody with any combat experience, and they were

720
00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:52,719
Speaker 1: they were cherry picking the guys and then dragging them

721
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,319
Speaker 1: up to the j s A. The cool thing about

722
00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:56,839
Speaker 1: the j s A was you were you were right there.

723
00:39:56,880 --> 00:40:01,120
Speaker 1: I mean, you're the southern wire on on the compound

724
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,400
Speaker 1: was was actually the southern end of the military, the

725
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:09,760
Speaker 1: DMZ rather, so you're our little fourth there. Camp Kittie

726
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 1: Hawk was was in the d m Z. And so

727
00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:14,880
Speaker 1: our our day to day job was was in the

728
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 1: the militarized zone. And we we did a rotation where

729
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:19,800
Speaker 1: you're either on a Quick Reaction Force, you know forty

730
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,279
Speaker 1: Mampatune there was a q r F two days, you're

731
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 1: you're up in the Truce Village man and the bunkers

732
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 1: and the checkpoints, pulling security in the truce village. You

733
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 1: had two days where you were doing ambushed patrols and

734
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: then a couple of days where you're doing training, and

735
00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:36,719
Speaker 1: then you had two days off. So it was like

736
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,920
Speaker 1: an eight day work week and you just rotate between

737
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:44,800
Speaker 1: these uh these different jobs basically, so uh and everything

738
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 1: was like staff sergeant run So it was kind of

739
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 1: like being at UM being at Derby week UM in

740
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 1: the rangers doing ranger school because you'd have we had

741
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:57,560
Speaker 1: had a little covered squad bay where you do your

742
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 1: you plan your patrols and general of this. You know,

743
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:02,799
Speaker 1: the staff sergeant, the squadly you guys that would plan

744
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:04,839
Speaker 1: them and you go through your pre combat checks. And

745
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: this was back in the old days when uh you

746
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,360
Speaker 1: didn't have computers, not every man had a radio. And

747
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:13,359
Speaker 1: uh so if you wanted to go there to guard

748
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 1: you know, outposts, you know old Vietnam style, you know,

749
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:19,759
Speaker 1: fire bases and in the demilitarized zone or lett and

750
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,239
Speaker 1: call your and you had to physically drive up there

751
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:24,719
Speaker 1: and coordinate the passage. You're friendly forward unit. You had

752
00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 1: to coordinate your mortar fire, you had to coordinate your

753
00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 1: artillery fire by going south to meet the Red Legs

754
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 1: and uh so all this stuff is going on and

755
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:36,520
Speaker 1: the sergeants are running at all, your your testifying your weapons.

756
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: So it's really and you're carrying live ammo, you know,

757
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:42,600
Speaker 1: back in that day and you're carrying you know, live

758
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:46,720
Speaker 1: ammo six out of every eight day work week, which

759
00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:50,760
Speaker 1: was just a great, great place to be. Company commander

760
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 1: was a kid by the name of Bert mitzs Ala,

761
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:59,719
Speaker 1: the ranger guy and just a very very smart you know, uh,

762
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: you know, a detail oriented kind of guy, right, so

763
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 1: he was he was constantly testing the guys, you know,

764
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 1: I mean he was. He's one of those hands on

765
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 1: kind of guys, you know, led by by moving around

766
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,320
Speaker 1: and he would uh he would actually uh you know,

767
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:17,120
Speaker 1: react the guys, give him the trucks and time them

768
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:18,920
Speaker 1: see how fast it took us. Because so you if

769
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:21,560
Speaker 1: you're on the they expected us to be in that

770
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,800
Speaker 1: truck within a matter of minutes. So consequently you you

771
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 1: come out of your gear and lay it on the

772
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:30,000
Speaker 1: on your seat in the truck, um in reverse orders

773
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:32,160
Speaker 1: that you can put it on quickly as the trucks

774
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: moving and uh, because you know you expected account and

775
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: then go. But just just an awesome, awesome cat so

776
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:42,400
Speaker 1: on on on the particular day of the firefight, the

777
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:46,839
Speaker 1: everything that we did that day had been rehearsed, and uh,

778
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:50,640
Speaker 1: you know, so we would rehearse taking down the q

779
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:52,719
Speaker 1: r F site, which was in the d m Z.

780
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,320
Speaker 1: You know, we'd have to stop short, provide security, move forward,

781
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:58,440
Speaker 1: you know, breach the gate, cleared the building, and you

782
00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:00,440
Speaker 1: so do it. You you do all that stuff just

783
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 1: by rote memorization. You know, how the trucks would move,

784
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:06,600
Speaker 1: how you would move dismounted. So on that that particular day,

785
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:09,799
Speaker 1: I think we're down. We're eating lunch in the chow hall.

786
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,280
Speaker 1: We're about a kilometer or two south of the Truce

787
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:16,440
Speaker 1: village and normally we would have moved up within three

788
00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 1: but on that particular day there was nothing going on.

789
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,560
Speaker 1: So we're down in the base camp and one of

790
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:23,960
Speaker 1: the Rocks soldiers he comes over, he goes, they started

791
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:28,560
Speaker 1: lamb the The old man's in the the tacticle operations center.

792
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:30,759
Speaker 1: He's in the Sivilian clothes, but he's got all his

793
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,839
Speaker 1: battle rattle on. And so I said, okay, he's gonna

794
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:36,320
Speaker 1: react us. He's gonna he's gonna have his load trucks,

795
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 1: and I said, just everybody quietly, get it. Stop what

796
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,279
Speaker 1: they're doing, get up and go load the truck. I'll

797
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 1: go see what's going on, because I so wanted to

798
00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:45,800
Speaker 1: just have him turn to me and go load trucks

799
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 1: and like just given the thumbs up like it's done.

800
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:52,400
Speaker 1: So uh so I could talk. And he turns to

801
00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:54,440
Speaker 1: me and he goes load trucks. That's it is done.

802
00:43:56,360 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: But but he's not laughing serious. You can hear gunfire,

803
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:04,680
Speaker 1: you cackling in the background on the radio. And he

804
00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:07,640
Speaker 1: goes load trucks, Get get into the DMZ, goes shots fired.

805
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:10,799
Speaker 1: We've got men down. There's a there's a rushing defector

806
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:14,640
Speaker 1: somewhere in the in the south of the military Demarcation

807
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 1: Line and uh and the North Koreans have pursued him.

808
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: He said, so you need to uh get in there,

809
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 1: you know, secure the secure our guys, you know, secure

810
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 1: the southern part of the NBL, secure the clear. It

811
00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 1: pushed the North Koreans out, grabbed this Soviet guy and

812
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:34,359
Speaker 1: get him get him in able back here. And I mean,

813
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:36,759
Speaker 1: so it's just you know, he's just doing short burths, right,

814
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 1: And I said, hey, so we don't have a portune leader,

815
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 1: patoon sergeant. They went down because we're gonna do an

816
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 1: ambushed patrol that night. So they're down with the red

817
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 1: legs coordinating the the artillery because you had to actually

818
00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,799
Speaker 1: take an ascetate overlay you with your frequencies and call

819
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:54,200
Speaker 1: signs and uh and all your routes and and actually

820
00:44:54,239 --> 00:44:58,080
Speaker 1: coordinate that in person with the the artillery guys. And

821
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 1: he goes, yeah, I know, I just dispatched my driver

822
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:02,960
Speaker 1: because that day. You know, back in that day, if

823
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,960
Speaker 1: you were away from your jeep, you're away from your radio.

824
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:09,080
Speaker 1: Didn't have cell phones. So he dispatched his jeep. He says,

825
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:12,080
Speaker 1: I will meet you up there. So we we loaded,

826
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:16,360
Speaker 1: we go up and he sent that patoon into combat

827
00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:20,480
Speaker 1: with staff sergeants and uh so we get in and

828
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:23,600
Speaker 1: we do, you know, get get the trucks and formation serpentine,

829
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:27,879
Speaker 1: get the get the know the perimeter out and we say, okay,

830
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:30,640
Speaker 1: we're gonna send gun heavy up to secure the HLZ

831
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 1: to get the wounded out. It's also the high ground

832
00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:34,360
Speaker 1: and it protects our flank and it ties in with

833
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,160
Speaker 1: the guys that are already in the in the d

834
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: m Z and then we'll take three squads you know too,

835
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: two abreast one, uh, you know, fifteen meters to the

836
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 1: rear and prepared to maneuver left or right. And it's

837
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:49,560
Speaker 1: just seven dash eight stuff. And uh so the old

838
00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:51,520
Speaker 1: man shows up and then he I mean this where

839
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:53,800
Speaker 1: I love this guy because he's like he was everywhere.

840
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:56,280
Speaker 1: He's up checking the guns, he's tied in with the flanks,

841
00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:59,440
Speaker 1: he's back with me, he's he's pushing pushing guys left right,

842
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 1: and just you know, the typical dude that was like

843
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:05,080
Speaker 1: everywhere and just an awesome guy to to this day.

844
00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 1: You know, we still stay in contact. But yeah, we

845
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 1: ended up basically rolling their flank. So as we um

846
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:14,480
Speaker 1: as as the North Koreans came in, you know, the

847
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:19,439
Speaker 1: Soviet kid had run Matusak, he had run uh all

848
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:23,600
Speaker 1: the almost to the checkpoint and was hiding in some

849
00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: scrub and we saw him and grabbed him and that

850
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:30,439
Speaker 1: was about the time the jeep shows up. So it's

851
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:32,760
Speaker 1: just again perfect timing. We throw him in the jeep,

852
00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:35,600
Speaker 1: send him back down to Seoul, and uh and then

853
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,880
Speaker 1: we continue to continue to push, you know, make contact,

854
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 1: this movement to contact, and so we ended up rolling

855
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:44,840
Speaker 1: the flank of the because as they came across, you know,

856
00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 1: they were somewhat linear, and we just happened to roll

857
00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:49,719
Speaker 1: their left flank. So it was like shooting turkeys in

858
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:54,400
Speaker 1: a barrel. We pushed into this um, this sunken garden area,

859
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:57,520
Speaker 1: and they had scrambled out of that and into another

860
00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:00,600
Speaker 1: sunken garden. We'd actually um when they him across, you

861
00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: were a full up infantry patum with a double basic load.

862
00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:07,360
Speaker 1: So uh you know, we we basically had twice the

863
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:11,719
Speaker 1: ammunition that you would normally carry. And uh the North

864
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:14,520
Speaker 1: Korean kids for passards, they when they came across, they

865
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:17,480
Speaker 1: had like a pistol or a scorpion or an a

866
00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:20,960
Speaker 1: k with a magazine and it, and uh so we

867
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:24,560
Speaker 1: just they just ran dry. And uh so we we

868
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:27,439
Speaker 1: came to a point where, you know, we weren't gonna

869
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 1: shoot on armed guys anymore. So we told them, hey,

870
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,640
Speaker 1: but now now is the time for you to surrender,

871
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:35,239
Speaker 1: and they actually did so they surrendered, they put their

872
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:37,280
Speaker 1: hands up. I think there was at least three, maybe

873
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:40,799
Speaker 1: four dead by that point. And uh, right at that

874
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:43,120
Speaker 1: lull of fires, we're coming out of our last cover

875
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 1: and concealed to uh to you know, flex stuff these

876
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:50,360
Speaker 1: guys and and take them prisoner. We get the word

877
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:54,160
Speaker 1: that CP. Soul said stop and uh you know, let

878
00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:56,000
Speaker 1: them go, let them get their bodies, let them get

879
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:57,600
Speaker 1: their guys, and let them you know, get the hell

880
00:47:57,600 --> 00:47:59,640
Speaker 1: out of South Korea and then you just just clear

881
00:47:59,719 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: the the NBL. You know, let him save face. They

882
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 1: made a mistake, they realized it, and let him get

883
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 1: the funk out. So, uh we we had lost one kid,

884
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: uh um John Young Ki was was a young I

885
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 1: think corporal Korean kid shot right in the eye. All right,

886
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:21,000
Speaker 1: well guy, so he he died early on. And I

887
00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:24,120
Speaker 1: think Mike Burgoyne was a young sergeant who was shot

888
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:27,239
Speaker 1: in the throat and which you know, we we thought, okay,

889
00:48:27,239 --> 00:48:30,000
Speaker 1: their marksmanship is pretty good because they're all head shots, right,

890
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 1: and uh so we ended up again pushing pushing them out.

891
00:48:36,719 --> 00:48:41,080
Speaker 1: And what happened was that you know, everything is there,

892
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:43,400
Speaker 1: there's there's at least at that time, there was about

893
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:47,560
Speaker 1: a brigade size element right around um you know there

894
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,279
Speaker 1: in our area, the U S sector, and there was

895
00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: there was a brigade out of that was it Camp

896
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,520
Speaker 1: Liberty Bell, which was out of the first of the

897
00:48:57,640 --> 00:49:01,000
Speaker 1: ninth the man choose, we had our guys they're kitty Hawk,

898
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:03,200
Speaker 1: and then you had a from the second I D

899
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:05,480
Speaker 1: there would be a battalion up at Warrior base in

900
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:07,480
Speaker 1: the tents and and every that's those are the guys

901
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:10,719
Speaker 1: who would that would uh run the firebases or letting

902
00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:13,040
Speaker 1: callier and then they would do the patrols in their

903
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:15,360
Speaker 1: sector of the d m Z. And so there was

904
00:49:15,400 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 1: a better part of three battalions on the road induced

905
00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:22,120
Speaker 1: the halves and five tons sitting on stacks of ammunition

906
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: and are they're like in a berserk or rate where

907
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:27,839
Speaker 1: they're beating the side rails ready to go to their

908
00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:31,040
Speaker 1: battle positions. And so it's serpentine down the MSR as

909
00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:33,239
Speaker 1: far as a lot as the I can see. And

910
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:38,680
Speaker 1: they had they had um uh planes up that are

911
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:42,680
Speaker 1: shooting camera images across the the NBL and there's a

912
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:46,680
Speaker 1: similar size North can Korean contingent on the other side

913
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:48,840
Speaker 1: of the bridge and no return. So it was fixing

914
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:51,640
Speaker 1: to get really ugly as they start feeding battalions into

915
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:54,600
Speaker 1: this fight and they said stop, you know stuff that

916
00:49:54,640 --> 00:49:57,319
Speaker 1: you're doing and uh and let them go, which was

917
00:49:57,360 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 1: the oddest thing, you know, because you had to go

918
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:01,360
Speaker 1: you had to flip the s which from uh you know,

919
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:09,400
Speaker 1: get some to uh what just happened. So yeah, and

920
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 1: you were awarded a silver star and your c I B.

921
00:50:13,600 --> 00:50:17,440
Speaker 1: Which during a time of quote unquote peace as we

922
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:21,520
Speaker 1: all know there really isn't. But you know, that was

923
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:26,480
Speaker 1: pretty interesting day, there wasn't it. Oh it was, And

924
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:29,200
Speaker 1: I mean it actually happened fairly early in my tour,

925
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: so it uh, it just set the stage for the

926
00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:34,640
Speaker 1: rest of the rest of the tour because the but

927
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:39,759
Speaker 1: prior to that, it wasn't as tense. And uh but

928
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 1: then after after that fight, I mean, everybody knew that

929
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:45,240
Speaker 1: we had because what would happened. I think some years earlier,

930
00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 1: I think it was seventy six, they had an axe

931
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:50,040
Speaker 1: murder and uh to where it was. It was the

932
00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 1: tree dropping incident Exack JSF guys had gone forward their

933
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:57,279
Speaker 1: escort and a tree trim in detail and the North

934
00:50:57,360 --> 00:50:59,400
Speaker 1: Koreans came out. They had axes and I mean it

935
00:51:00,520 --> 00:51:03,240
Speaker 1: and the two officers that were killed I think Bona

936
00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:05,880
Speaker 1: Foss and I can't remember the other general's name, but

937
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:11,480
Speaker 1: they were they were armed and but there they were

938
00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:17,279
Speaker 1: they were practicing such restraint that they allowed themselves to

939
00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 1: be actually, you know, chucked to death rather than pull

940
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:25,879
Speaker 1: a pistol. So is the as as that I think

941
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:27,920
Speaker 1: as that time wore on, you know, every I think

942
00:51:27,960 --> 00:51:30,479
Speaker 1: every guy from that time forward said that's not gonna

943
00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:33,160
Speaker 1: be me. And so when we went in, you know,

944
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:36,000
Speaker 1: with the double basic load, it was it was kind

945
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,279
Speaker 1: of game on infantry stuff and not so much guard duty.

946
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Well let's fast forward a few years. You're

947
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:50,280
Speaker 1: now s F guy, you're signed down a Panama Charlie

948
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:55,400
Speaker 1: Company and you know, as we all know what happened

949
00:51:55,400 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 1: on the December there because of noriega Um. You know,

950
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 1: you were down in Panama. Like I said, we were

951
00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 1: all kind of chewing the same darted at certain points

952
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:10,120
Speaker 1: down there, but were you were part of the Charlie Company,

953
00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:14,480
Speaker 1: guys who are in extremist forces, guys who took down

954
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:18,000
Speaker 1: the radio station where you're not correct, yeah, yeah, and

955
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:20,440
Speaker 1: and and this this ties back to Korea that the

956
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:23,919
Speaker 1: you know, star Major Glenn Forsyth was an SF guy,

957
00:52:24,239 --> 00:52:27,160
Speaker 1: and uh so he called about four or six of

958
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:29,480
Speaker 1: us together as where our tours are starting to close

959
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:32,279
Speaker 1: in Korea, and he says, you guys are next your

960
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,839
Speaker 1: next step in your military careers is you're all going

961
00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: to group. I see how you interact with the Korean

962
00:52:38,239 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 1: soldiers and you guys got a knack for it, and

963
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,440
Speaker 1: you're all going to group. The recruiters gonna come up.

964
00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:45,959
Speaker 1: You'll do your PT test or swim test, your road march,

965
00:52:46,520 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 1: you're five mile run and he said, I know all

966
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:51,279
Speaker 1: your scores. You will do your best, and uh and

967
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:53,840
Speaker 1: we're off the group. So, uh so I go to

968
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:55,680
Speaker 1: the Q course and I get through the Q course

969
00:52:55,719 --> 00:52:57,640
Speaker 1: that I put Panama, Panama, Panama because there was a

970
00:52:57,640 --> 00:52:59,920
Speaker 1: guy in the Q course that had come up from

971
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:02,200
Speaker 1: ANIMI was a Commo kid that was going through the

972
00:53:02,280 --> 00:53:05,040
Speaker 1: Q course and uh so he says, man, he got

973
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:06,680
Speaker 1: to go to Panama. There in El Salvador. You know

974
00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:09,200
Speaker 1: they're there, Nicko Rockwather doing all these things. And so

975
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:11,719
Speaker 1: I put Panama, Panama, Panama, and then ended up in

976
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:14,799
Speaker 1: Panama and uh and it's like what happen? I ended

977
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:18,560
Speaker 1: up in in Sea Company and again just with you

978
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:21,480
Speaker 1: know John Humphries, Chris Sett's, I mean the you know

979
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:25,160
Speaker 1: Bill Painter, the Dan wheelis you know Huliu di Filippo.

980
00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:27,880
Speaker 1: I mean, the guys were just it was an awesome team,

981
00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:31,120
Speaker 1: you know, and I, you know, I had some degree

982
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:34,000
Speaker 1: of street creds going in until I got on that team.

983
00:53:34,120 --> 00:53:36,759
Speaker 1: And then I must have spent like the first you know,

984
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:40,040
Speaker 1: a few months just in the corner watching as these

985
00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:43,319
Speaker 1: guys just an awesome team, very seasoned guys in and

986
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:47,239
Speaker 1: out of Salvador. But yeah, we ended up yeah, because

987
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:50,400
Speaker 1: Blue Spoon was the mission prior to UM just cause,

988
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:54,000
Speaker 1: so we actually did a lot of the target folders

989
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:57,240
Speaker 1: on on some of the the you know, the targets

990
00:53:57,239 --> 00:54:00,239
Speaker 1: that we were going to take down. Specifically, I think

991
00:54:00,239 --> 00:54:02,120
Speaker 1: are are going in mission was going to be the

992
00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 1: president and the vice president of Panama, and prior to

993
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:08,640
Speaker 1: the invasion, we were going to go in. And remember,

994
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:11,160
Speaker 1: things started deteriorating real fast. You know, that navy kid

995
00:54:11,160 --> 00:54:15,040
Speaker 1: get killed and and uh, you know, finally President Bush

996
00:54:15,040 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 1: just said, all right, this is it. But but you know,

997
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:19,839
Speaker 1: we had we had been planning for this as the

998
00:54:19,920 --> 00:54:24,560
Speaker 1: places deteriorating for a while. So the night before the invasion,

999
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:28,520
Speaker 1: they actually got this great idea where they called in

1000
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:32,200
Speaker 1: Dhara and uh, you know, the president and the two

1001
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:35,800
Speaker 1: vice presidents and said, hey, listen, come to the embassy.

1002
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:37,880
Speaker 1: We're gonna have dinner. And so as soon as they

1003
00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:40,000
Speaker 1: got into the embassy, they said, we're locking you down.

1004
00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:42,280
Speaker 1: So so our our d day mission to go secure

1005
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:47,279
Speaker 1: these guys and bring them back um didn't happen. So

1006
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:50,319
Speaker 1: now we're up for lines of communication and uh and

1007
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:54,040
Speaker 1: I think the we had just hit I think a

1008
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:58,279
Speaker 1: TV station and uh. And we came back to the

1009
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,719
Speaker 1: we're launching out all Brook and one of the kids,

1010
00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:04,799
Speaker 1: Brad Smith, I think, uh, spoke fluent Spanish. His dad

1011
00:55:04,800 --> 00:55:07,600
Speaker 1: was an SF guy. He's on the radio and the

1012
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:10,160
Speaker 1: little transistor radio, and he hears in Oriega, you know,

1013
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:13,240
Speaker 1: saying vava grab kitchen knives and uh and fight back.

1014
00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 1: And so some wise guys said, what frequency is that?

1015
00:55:17,080 --> 00:55:19,640
Speaker 1: You know what radio station? Another guy runs and gets

1016
00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:21,839
Speaker 1: a phone book and they look in the phone book

1017
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:23,719
Speaker 1: and they realized that the radio station is just right

1018
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:25,879
Speaker 1: down the street on Balboa. So it was truly wasn't

1019
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:29,480
Speaker 1: an inn extremist operation. To where the the planes were are.

1020
00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:32,480
Speaker 1: Their aircraft were already raged with fast ropes. We identified

1021
00:55:32,520 --> 00:55:36,800
Speaker 1: the building. Uh, they identified assault teams, and we fast

1022
00:55:36,920 --> 00:55:39,279
Speaker 1: roped onto the top of the this I think it

1023
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:43,480
Speaker 1: was like a thirteen or fourteen story building, and uh,

1024
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:45,560
Speaker 1: they dropped the fast ropes on on top of the

1025
00:55:45,600 --> 00:55:47,839
Speaker 1: building and we run over and so they were gonna

1026
00:55:47,880 --> 00:55:52,080
Speaker 1: blow the box there at the with the radio tower.

1027
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:54,839
Speaker 1: And we get over to the door and it's one

1028
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:58,280
Speaker 1: of those one hour doors. You know, it's the solid core,

1029
00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:03,120
Speaker 1: you know, metal code, you know, it's super good tolerance

1030
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:05,720
Speaker 1: on the So it would take us an hour literally

1031
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:08,800
Speaker 1: to beat this door off its hinges in order to

1032
00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:12,359
Speaker 1: gain access into the to the building unless we blew it.

1033
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:14,919
Speaker 1: So then the demo guy he's like, man, I don't

1034
00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:17,960
Speaker 1: have enough charges to knock out this radio tower. Uh,

1035
00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:22,399
Speaker 1: and breached this door. So we're rummaging around. It's night.

1036
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:25,960
Speaker 1: We grabbed the fast rope and we tied around this

1037
00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:28,719
Speaker 1: this big old industrial air conditioning unit up on top

1038
00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:31,520
Speaker 1: and we throw it over the side and then we're

1039
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:34,360
Speaker 1: looking over, you know, peeking over, and there's a balcony

1040
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:36,480
Speaker 1: about where the end of that fast rope is Danklin

1041
00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:38,400
Speaker 1: and we fast roped on to the top of that,

1042
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:41,040
Speaker 1: I think me and Brad Smith, and then we breached

1043
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:45,760
Speaker 1: the uh the glass door basically on that the sliding

1044
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:48,480
Speaker 1: glass door on the balcony, got into the office building,

1045
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:50,640
Speaker 1: ran upstairs, let the boys in, and then we we

1046
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 1: ran down to the to the radio station because we

1047
00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:55,960
Speaker 1: think Noriega is in there, right that at least there's

1048
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:59,080
Speaker 1: a possibility, we're hoping, but it's a tape. So they

1049
00:56:59,280 --> 00:57:02,800
Speaker 1: so they destroy the uh, you know, the broadcast facility.

1050
00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:05,680
Speaker 1: They dropped the antenna and uh. So as we're going

1051
00:57:05,680 --> 00:57:08,800
Speaker 1: down to Xville the at that time, the city is

1052
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:11,720
Speaker 1: on fire. You know, it's just everybody's going there's there's

1053
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:16,960
Speaker 1: remember this uh, this volkswagon. There's got a big sofa

1054
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:20,200
Speaker 1: on the roof, and there's there's guys. You know, they're

1055
00:57:20,200 --> 00:57:22,360
Speaker 1: trying to hold this this sofa on the roof of

1056
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:25,040
Speaker 1: this little volkswagon as they're going through and there's h

1057
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:27,720
Speaker 1: and everybody's giving us the USA number one signal, but

1058
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:29,960
Speaker 1: there's there's guys in the street. They're shooting down. I

1059
00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:33,200
Speaker 1: think J. J. Johnson and I were running across the

1060
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:36,400
Speaker 1: street to uh to secure onto the beach, to secure

1061
00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 1: the landing zone for the helicopters come and pick us up.

1062
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:42,600
Speaker 1: You know, rounds are skipping around everywhere. It was just

1063
00:57:42,600 --> 00:57:46,480
Speaker 1: just a frantic night. But yeah. So the radio station

1064
00:57:46,600 --> 00:57:49,440
Speaker 1: was like, uh, I think are one of our first targets.

1065
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 1: And then we get this call from the Rangers and uh,

1066
00:57:53,920 --> 00:57:56,320
Speaker 1: they said, hey, we need a Spanish speaking team to

1067
00:57:56,400 --> 00:58:00,200
Speaker 1: go up to Panona May because the third Battalion just

1068
00:58:00,280 --> 00:58:03,640
Speaker 1: jumped into Rio Hato and they were gonna push out

1069
00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:05,800
Speaker 1: from Rio Hato and they're gonna start taking down the

1070
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:09,080
Speaker 1: concerns for the Concerns or the you know, the the

1071
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:13,960
Speaker 1: headquarters for the different um, you know, Panamanian forces outside

1072
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 1: of Panama City. So we we got our own black

1073
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:18,560
Speaker 1: hawk and they flew us up there. We had to

1074
00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 1: I think we had a reinforced a team and uh

1075
00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:24,120
Speaker 1: we went up and we linked up with the Rangers,

1076
00:58:24,800 --> 00:58:27,760
Speaker 1: and I mean, because I love the Rangers, right, they said, hey,

1077
00:58:27,800 --> 00:58:30,320
Speaker 1: we're gonna uh you guys, we're gonna go in there

1078
00:58:30,280 --> 00:58:32,720
Speaker 1: and we're gonna, uh, we're gonna surround them. You guys,

1079
00:58:32,760 --> 00:58:34,880
Speaker 1: go in you speak Spanish. If they don't want to

1080
00:58:34,920 --> 00:58:37,560
Speaker 1: come out, we're gonna kill them. Um if they change

1081
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:39,280
Speaker 1: your mind as they come out, and we're gonna kill them.

1082
00:58:39,280 --> 00:58:42,440
Speaker 1: And so as we're talking to we're like, hey, we're

1083
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:45,120
Speaker 1: in between like you and all this killing and uh,

1084
00:58:45,160 --> 00:58:47,200
Speaker 1: you know, so we're we're we're a little bit you know,

1085
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:50,320
Speaker 1: uneasy about the control majors here. And so the guy

1086
00:58:50,320 --> 00:58:52,560
Speaker 1: asked you what do you what do you suggests? And

1087
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:55,720
Speaker 1: we had just done this training where we used a

1088
00:58:55,760 --> 00:58:58,280
Speaker 1: series of camel lights to control movement. You know. Then

1089
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:01,479
Speaker 1: so you'd have an area where uh, red cam lights

1090
00:59:01,480 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 1: in a box, you know, basically a large, large area

1091
00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:06,000
Speaker 1: that would say, all right, anybody within this red area

1092
00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:08,280
Speaker 1: is has not been searched or he's just had a

1093
00:59:08,320 --> 00:59:10,920
Speaker 1: cursory search. And you have a blue area, which is

1094
00:59:10,960 --> 00:59:13,240
Speaker 1: like a wash area, right, anybody that's in that area

1095
00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:16,400
Speaker 1: is getting searched, and there's priorities of work and people

1096
00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:18,200
Speaker 1: you don't know how to search. And then anybody in

1097
00:59:18,240 --> 00:59:21,000
Speaker 1: this green area has been searched, and you can do

1098
00:59:21,000 --> 00:59:23,120
Speaker 1: it out of a perimeter. You can bust bust the

1099
00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:25,920
Speaker 1: perimeter in half and and you use this series of

1100
00:59:25,960 --> 00:59:28,320
Speaker 1: kim lights and then train the different portunis to do

1101
00:59:28,400 --> 00:59:30,560
Speaker 1: the priorities of work and you can, you know, within

1102
00:59:30,640 --> 00:59:34,840
Speaker 1: relatively short order, the you can you can you can

1103
00:59:34,840 --> 00:59:37,200
Speaker 1: make the thing safe. And then all all muzzles are

1104
00:59:37,240 --> 00:59:39,160
Speaker 1: pointing in a you know, in a three D sixties

1105
00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:41,040
Speaker 1: degree and you can fight out of the perimeter. So

1106
00:59:41,080 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 1: we we just kind of messed around with this technique

1107
00:59:44,440 --> 00:59:48,920
Speaker 1: a few months earlier down in Colombia, and uh so

1108
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:52,400
Speaker 1: we briefly to the Rangers and they're like, well, it's

1109
00:59:52,400 --> 00:59:55,200
Speaker 1: a great plan, but man, it's kind of complex. You know,

1110
00:59:55,280 --> 00:59:57,160
Speaker 1: we've never done it before. I don't know if I can,

1111
00:59:57,840 --> 01:00:00,360
Speaker 1: you know, if I could control it. So you know,

1112
01:00:00,480 --> 01:00:03,360
Speaker 1: outsteps uh one of the Ranger guys who had been

1113
01:00:03,360 --> 01:00:05,120
Speaker 1: in first bat and they said, we'll just let Rick

1114
01:00:05,240 --> 01:00:08,480
Speaker 1: do it, and uh, and I say, I wasn't looking

1115
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:10,800
Speaker 1: for a job. I was just trying to make a suggestion.

1116
01:00:12,240 --> 01:00:14,960
Speaker 1: So so we ended up they said, all right, the

1117
01:00:15,080 --> 01:00:18,120
Speaker 1: SF guys will do it. Uh they'll they'll take care

1118
01:00:18,120 --> 01:00:20,360
Speaker 1: of you know, setting it up and everything and and

1119
01:00:20,360 --> 01:00:23,880
Speaker 1: and and working it and uh but if it goes bad,

1120
01:00:24,080 --> 01:00:25,600
Speaker 1: they just need to get the hell down because they

1121
01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:28,520
Speaker 1: we're gonna kill everybody. So the uh we ended up

1122
01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:30,800
Speaker 1: I think calling and what had happened was I think

1123
01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:33,240
Speaker 1: there was one of the guys and I don't know

1124
01:00:33,240 --> 01:00:35,880
Speaker 1: if this is wives tale you know, or you know,

1125
01:00:35,960 --> 01:00:39,560
Speaker 1: old old story, but one of the guys I think

1126
01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:42,800
Speaker 1: who was in the back at the socks at eight.

1127
01:00:43,200 --> 01:00:47,240
Speaker 1: We we've worked with the Penonam guys before, because you

1128
01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:50,800
Speaker 1: know the jumping the Jumping Ambassadors, which was the team,

1129
01:00:50,800 --> 01:00:53,600
Speaker 1: you know, the parachute team out of a third battalion there.

1130
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,800
Speaker 1: They won the Noriega a couple of couple of times.

1131
01:00:56,840 --> 01:00:58,600
Speaker 1: And they said, these guys are Pennonyma, they're pretty good

1132
01:00:58,600 --> 01:01:00,840
Speaker 1: skydivers in the we've worked them before. We don't we

1133
01:01:00,880 --> 01:01:04,439
Speaker 1: don't think they want to fight, and so they still won't.

1134
01:01:04,520 --> 01:01:06,760
Speaker 1: We just call them. So that's why it was called

1135
01:01:06,800 --> 01:01:08,760
Speaker 1: the mob Bel. You know, the mob Bel was the

1136
01:01:08,920 --> 01:01:12,320
Speaker 1: uh was the you know, the company, the telephone company

1137
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:14,480
Speaker 1: at the time. So they just picked up the phone

1138
01:01:14,800 --> 01:01:16,760
Speaker 1: and called the guy as a Penona man and said

1139
01:01:17,040 --> 01:01:19,280
Speaker 1: what are your intentions? And they said, we don't want

1140
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:21,120
Speaker 1: to fight, We want of surrenders. So they said, okay,

1141
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:25,400
Speaker 1: we need a formation on the soccer field. We need uh,

1142
01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:27,600
Speaker 1: you know, list of who's there, list of who's not there.

1143
01:01:27,640 --> 01:01:28,960
Speaker 1: We need all your sense of items and we need

1144
01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:30,680
Speaker 1: the keys your arms from so lock everything up in

1145
01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:33,680
Speaker 1: your arm room. Gives the keys with the inventory and uh,

1146
01:01:33,800 --> 01:01:38,040
Speaker 1: you're your list of a personnel present for duty those

1147
01:01:38,120 --> 01:01:41,040
Speaker 1: not there and uh, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll come, we'll come,

1148
01:01:41,080 --> 01:01:43,200
Speaker 1: get your squared away. And so that's basically how we

1149
01:01:43,240 --> 01:01:45,720
Speaker 1: walked in and found him. We'd we'd take them out,

1150
01:01:45,800 --> 01:01:48,080
Speaker 1: you know, the team would usher them out, put him

1151
01:01:48,080 --> 01:01:51,040
Speaker 1: in the dirty area. The rangers that would put pust security,

1152
01:01:51,480 --> 01:01:53,600
Speaker 1: uh squad from the rangers would would then pick up,

1153
01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:56,320
Speaker 1: you know, um, the files that we would drop off,

1154
01:01:56,440 --> 01:01:58,720
Speaker 1: take them through the wash area and make sure that

1155
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:01,360
Speaker 1: they were that they were patted down and searched, you know,

1156
01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:03,440
Speaker 1: thoroughly searched, and then put him into the clean area

1157
01:02:03,720 --> 01:02:06,960
Speaker 1: again with rangers pulling security. And we took about eight

1158
01:02:07,040 --> 01:02:10,960
Speaker 1: prisoners all during the hours of darkness, and uh, within

1159
01:02:11,040 --> 01:02:13,760
Speaker 1: just just a few hours, without it without firing a shot.

1160
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:16,320
Speaker 1: And there was only one point and that whole thing

1161
01:02:16,360 --> 01:02:19,920
Speaker 1: where it started kind of looked like it was going

1162
01:02:19,960 --> 01:02:22,760
Speaker 1: to break down because the guys, the rangers were in

1163
01:02:22,800 --> 01:02:25,720
Speaker 1: this this darkened perimeter and uh, you know, they're doing

1164
01:02:25,720 --> 01:02:29,640
Speaker 1: all their stuff on nods and the Panamenians didn't. They

1165
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:32,040
Speaker 1: all they saw was just the same three or four

1166
01:02:32,520 --> 01:02:35,920
Speaker 1: s F dudes and so but the good thing is

1167
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:38,080
Speaker 1: that we spoke Spanish, so we could hear him say,

1168
01:02:38,080 --> 01:02:39,680
Speaker 1: you know, we can take these guys. Man, I only

1169
01:02:39,720 --> 01:02:41,440
Speaker 1: see like four of them. What do we do it?

1170
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:43,800
Speaker 1: And uh, and we need to get out of here, man,

1171
01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:45,760
Speaker 1: I don't know what you It started breaking down right,

1172
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:49,640
Speaker 1: So we called up the A C. One thirty said hey,

1173
01:02:49,640 --> 01:02:52,760
Speaker 1: we need you to burn our our position and uh,

1174
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:55,480
Speaker 1: you know we we mean, you know, we need to

1175
01:02:55,720 --> 01:02:57,640
Speaker 1: We asked him to light up our position. Is what

1176
01:02:57,720 --> 01:03:01,000
Speaker 1: it was that we met with, you know, white light,

1177
01:03:01,880 --> 01:03:05,320
Speaker 1: dred candle lot xenon searchlight. With the guys on the

1178
01:03:05,360 --> 01:03:09,480
Speaker 1: plane thought that we wanted them to light up the

1179
01:03:09,640 --> 01:03:12,360
Speaker 1: soccer stadium where all these kids were. So there was

1180
01:03:12,360 --> 01:03:13,720
Speaker 1: some bag of forth where we're like no, no no, no, no,

1181
01:03:13,840 --> 01:03:17,080
Speaker 1: no no, we don't want you to fire, we want

1182
01:03:17,080 --> 01:03:19,880
Speaker 1: you to light up with your candle light search And

1183
01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:22,560
Speaker 1: so as soon as they lit up the area, they

1184
01:03:22,640 --> 01:03:26,360
Speaker 1: saw how many rangers were out there, and uh, they

1185
01:03:26,440 --> 01:03:28,560
Speaker 1: just went back down, your head down, boat up, shut up,

1186
01:03:28,600 --> 01:03:30,720
Speaker 1: and uh and that was that was the closest we

1187
01:03:30,760 --> 01:03:37,520
Speaker 1: had anything anything going south. Yeah, that's uh, I remember

1188
01:03:38,360 --> 01:03:41,440
Speaker 1: you know that. You know when you tell people that story,

1189
01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:47,240
Speaker 1: people don't believe that. Oh, you know, handful of SF

1190
01:03:47,320 --> 01:03:51,200
Speaker 1: guys got a whole battalion the surrender. But that's the

1191
01:03:51,240 --> 01:03:56,400
Speaker 1: way it was back then. But luckily nobody was hurt there,

1192
01:03:56,520 --> 01:04:00,040
Speaker 1: and uh, it was shortly after that. It was a

1193
01:04:00,080 --> 01:04:03,400
Speaker 1: sad day for the guys in three seven when you know,

1194
01:04:03,440 --> 01:04:07,520
Speaker 1: they they moved most of the battalion, with the exception

1195
01:04:07,560 --> 01:04:12,320
Speaker 1: of Charlie Company, back to Bragg. And that's when you, uh,

1196
01:04:12,480 --> 01:04:16,160
Speaker 1: you did something that nobody really had done at that point.

1197
01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:19,760
Speaker 1: You went back to the Rangers. From that stuff. Tell

1198
01:04:19,960 --> 01:04:23,000
Speaker 1: tell our listeners a little bit about that. And you

1199
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:26,680
Speaker 1: know there's a story, right so the uh I was

1200
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:29,240
Speaker 1: I put four sevens, you know, which is the paper

1201
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 1: we're asking for a transfer back to the Rangers. And

1202
01:04:32,880 --> 01:04:34,840
Speaker 1: uh but in the meantime, you know, since I had

1203
01:04:34,840 --> 01:04:37,520
Speaker 1: reported to Panama, you finished the key course and reported

1204
01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:41,000
Speaker 1: into Panama, Special Forces branched and we became our own branch.

1205
01:04:41,080 --> 01:04:44,960
Speaker 1: So we're now eighteen Series Special Forces guys. The Rangers

1206
01:04:44,960 --> 01:04:48,880
Speaker 1: are eleven, you know, Series Infant treatment and and the

1207
01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:51,440
Speaker 1: two don't mix anymore, I mean a separate career paths.

1208
01:04:52,440 --> 01:04:54,920
Speaker 1: I put in these these requests for transferring over when

1209
01:04:54,920 --> 01:04:57,080
Speaker 1: I leave Panama bes out down there about six years.

1210
01:04:57,440 --> 01:05:00,480
Speaker 1: This is ninety two by then, and I wanted to

1211
01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:02,479
Speaker 1: get reassigned to the Rangers, and they said, we can't

1212
01:05:02,520 --> 01:05:06,320
Speaker 1: do it. So I'm going I think from third Battalion.

1213
01:05:06,400 --> 01:05:10,360
Speaker 1: I was assigned the first h third Battalion, seventh Group.

1214
01:05:10,400 --> 01:05:12,320
Speaker 1: I was assigned the first Battalion, seventh Group at BRAG

1215
01:05:12,960 --> 01:05:16,960
Speaker 1: but I'm still in Panama. I'm on uh, I'm on leave. Basically,

1216
01:05:17,040 --> 01:05:20,360
Speaker 1: you know, we'd already packed out of our house. We had, um,

1217
01:05:20,440 --> 01:05:24,360
Speaker 1: we've done a lot of uh. My wife and I

1218
01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:26,920
Speaker 1: were actually on the Pacific side in a hotel at

1219
01:05:26,920 --> 01:05:29,520
Speaker 1: this point, waiting on the Freedom Bird to take us,

1220
01:05:29,760 --> 01:05:34,960
Speaker 1: take us up to Brad. So I end up getting

1221
01:05:34,960 --> 01:05:38,640
Speaker 1: a phone call and it's the team. The my team's

1222
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:41,240
Speaker 1: over on Fort Sherman and you had they had that

1223
01:05:41,280 --> 01:05:43,480
Speaker 1: air strip out there Fort Sherman and they're doing the

1224
01:05:43,480 --> 01:05:46,160
Speaker 1: fault and extraction. So they've got you know, the style

1225
01:05:46,280 --> 01:05:48,240
Speaker 1: birds are out there with the with the big hooks

1226
01:05:48,320 --> 01:05:51,080
Speaker 1: on the front, and uh, they've got the big you

1227
01:05:51,120 --> 01:05:52,560
Speaker 1: know like in the in the if anybody's seen the

1228
01:05:52,560 --> 01:05:54,000
Speaker 1: movie The Green Beret, you know, where they put the

1229
01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:56,160
Speaker 1: guy in the suit and he's tied up to a

1230
01:05:56,160 --> 01:05:58,640
Speaker 1: balloon and then the plane comes and snags the balloon

1231
01:05:58,680 --> 01:06:00,560
Speaker 1: and they yanked him into the back of the C

1232
01:06:00,720 --> 01:06:04,160
Speaker 1: one thirty. They were they were actually practicing that on

1233
01:06:04,160 --> 01:06:06,480
Speaker 1: on the airfield and so they said, rack man, you

1234
01:06:06,520 --> 01:06:08,480
Speaker 1: gotta come out and see this when we think we

1235
01:06:08,520 --> 01:06:11,200
Speaker 1: can do a live yank and uh, so like, oh,

1236
01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:15,640
Speaker 1: I gotta do that, you know there. So they said, well,

1237
01:06:15,640 --> 01:06:17,800
Speaker 1: you know, you you poop yourself when when they yank

1238
01:06:17,880 --> 01:06:20,480
Speaker 1: you up. And at the last minute, the I think

1239
01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:22,640
Speaker 1: was s F commander use of so said, now we

1240
01:06:22,680 --> 01:06:25,520
Speaker 1: ain't doing a live yank, but we were doing the

1241
01:06:25,560 --> 01:06:31,160
Speaker 1: two pound you know mannequins, the sand bags. So we're

1242
01:06:31,160 --> 01:06:33,120
Speaker 1: out there and we're doing you know, they're they're dropping

1243
01:06:33,120 --> 01:06:35,120
Speaker 1: the they're dropping the canisters and we're firing them up.

1244
01:06:35,160 --> 01:06:37,200
Speaker 1: We're operating the balloon and we get the whole thing

1245
01:06:37,240 --> 01:06:39,840
Speaker 1: going on and they're they're coming and yanking. He's, uh,

1246
01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:43,960
Speaker 1: these uh you know test dummies, right, and so uplocked

1247
01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:47,040
Speaker 1: the rangers. So third Ranger Battalion just jumped into the

1248
01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:54,040
Speaker 1: tune drops on and uh. The the battalion commander was

1249
01:06:54,200 --> 01:06:58,400
Speaker 1: my former company commander, uh Captain Keneely, So he's now

1250
01:06:58,440 --> 01:07:02,080
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Kenneely. The guy that he had relieved was

1251
01:07:02,080 --> 01:07:05,680
Speaker 1: was Dave Grange. So, Dave Grange is now the the

1252
01:07:05,680 --> 01:07:09,800
Speaker 1: the Ranger commander, the Range Regiment commander. He's the r

1253
01:07:09,840 --> 01:07:11,800
Speaker 1: c O. So Grange is the r c O. Jumps

1254
01:07:11,800 --> 01:07:14,760
Speaker 1: in with Canneely, who's the commander of a third Ranger battalon,

1255
01:07:15,160 --> 01:07:16,919
Speaker 1: and they jump in and they do the twelve mile

1256
01:07:17,000 --> 01:07:20,640
Speaker 1: road march up to the airfield there because they're going

1257
01:07:20,680 --> 01:07:22,960
Speaker 1: to go through the jungle school and they come out,

1258
01:07:23,080 --> 01:07:26,280
Speaker 1: they'll see the faulton extraction thing going on. And the

1259
01:07:26,280 --> 01:07:28,440
Speaker 1: Grange goes, lamb, when are you coming back to regiment?

1260
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:31,240
Speaker 1: And I said, hey, sorry, I've tried, and you know

1261
01:07:31,320 --> 01:07:34,480
Speaker 1: it's eighteen. So he turns to Leon Guerrero and he goes, LG,

1262
01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:36,760
Speaker 1: just get Land back in the in the regiment. And

1263
01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:39,560
Speaker 1: LG goes, hey, sir, I mean it's it's harder than

1264
01:07:39,960 --> 01:07:42,439
Speaker 1: just getting him back in the regiment. So he goes,

1265
01:07:42,600 --> 01:07:43,960
Speaker 1: he goes, what are you doing now? I said, I'm

1266
01:07:44,200 --> 01:07:46,160
Speaker 1: I'm onna leave. You know, I'm gonna report into Bragg

1267
01:07:46,280 --> 01:07:48,840
Speaker 1: next week and uh so, you guys, how much leave

1268
01:07:48,840 --> 01:07:52,240
Speaker 1: do you have? And uh so, so I got forty

1269
01:07:52,240 --> 01:07:55,479
Speaker 1: five days. He goes, all right, don't sign in. He says,

1270
01:07:55,560 --> 01:07:58,120
Speaker 1: I'll come up to Brag and we'll meet you at

1271
01:07:58,120 --> 01:08:01,200
Speaker 1: Bragg and we'll go see um Downing. And I said, sir,

1272
01:08:01,280 --> 01:08:03,840
Speaker 1: they will burn you know, they'll castrate me if I

1273
01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:07,400
Speaker 1: walk to the office. And uh he goes, okay, we'll go.

1274
01:08:07,480 --> 01:08:09,760
Speaker 1: We'll go and see Dick Potter first, because Dick Potter,

1275
01:08:09,800 --> 01:08:11,800
Speaker 1: I think had it wasn't even SF command there, it

1276
01:08:11,840 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 1: was like Special Forces Integration Command is the forerunner of

1277
01:08:15,520 --> 01:08:19,439
Speaker 1: of s F Command. So we go see Dick Potter

1278
01:08:19,520 --> 01:08:22,120
Speaker 1: and and and Potter says the old man Downing who

1279
01:08:22,400 --> 01:08:25,280
Speaker 1: is at Yusasak. He doesn't like the fact that the

1280
01:08:25,400 --> 01:08:27,840
Speaker 1: Rangers and the s F guys have split. And we

1281
01:08:27,880 --> 01:08:30,479
Speaker 1: always thought in the SF we thought that you know,

1282
01:08:30,520 --> 01:08:33,759
Speaker 1: an other Rangers like this, and uh so, but Downey

1283
01:08:33,880 --> 01:08:35,679
Speaker 1: didn't like the fact that they had split. He liked

1284
01:08:35,680 --> 01:08:37,840
Speaker 1: the cross polonization. So he wanted to do this thing

1285
01:08:37,880 --> 01:08:40,960
Speaker 1: called cross Walk. And so cross Walk would take a

1286
01:08:41,000 --> 01:08:43,960
Speaker 1: kid that was that started out in one of the battalions,

1287
01:08:44,439 --> 01:08:46,840
Speaker 1: went to and they would they would identify him. So

1288
01:08:46,920 --> 01:08:49,360
Speaker 1: when he becomes a squad leader, you know his his

1289
01:08:49,479 --> 01:08:51,160
Speaker 1: the next move is go to the Q course would

1290
01:08:51,120 --> 01:08:53,519
Speaker 1: be a junior weapons guy, gets some advanced in in

1291
01:08:53,680 --> 01:08:57,600
Speaker 1: field schools and some other, um your weapons courses, and

1292
01:08:57,600 --> 01:09:00,360
Speaker 1: then he goes back. He takes a patoon and the Rangers,

1293
01:09:00,360 --> 01:09:01,880
Speaker 1: and then from there he goes back he becomes a

1294
01:09:01,920 --> 01:09:04,880
Speaker 1: senior guy. Uh, senior weapons if you will, and then

1295
01:09:05,040 --> 01:09:06,760
Speaker 1: and then back and forth. And so I got to

1296
01:09:06,840 --> 01:09:10,280
Speaker 1: do that and uh and it was awesome. I ended

1297
01:09:10,360 --> 01:09:14,160
Speaker 1: up going to uh third Ranger Battalion with Kenneeli, who

1298
01:09:14,160 --> 01:09:16,679
Speaker 1: had uh you know, had been my company commander prior.

1299
01:09:17,240 --> 01:09:18,680
Speaker 1: And so when I signed him. By the time I

1300
01:09:18,720 --> 01:09:20,559
Speaker 1: get up there and I get signed in the I

1301
01:09:20,600 --> 01:09:23,120
Speaker 1: go over to see CANNELI and he was dead. The

1302
01:09:23,360 --> 01:09:26,840
Speaker 1: uh he had him in the first Ranger Battalion commander.

1303
01:09:27,360 --> 01:09:31,519
Speaker 1: We're out at Salt Lake, UM and had there was

1304
01:09:31,560 --> 01:09:34,559
Speaker 1: one of those two crap those two Blackhawks crashed and

1305
01:09:34,600 --> 01:09:40,320
Speaker 1: they lost both the bottalion commanders. So so we uh yeah,

1306
01:09:40,320 --> 01:09:43,680
Speaker 1: I missed servant under him again, but again got got

1307
01:09:43,720 --> 01:09:49,040
Speaker 1: two years uh at at third Range Battalion. And actually

1308
01:09:49,080 --> 01:09:54,800
Speaker 1: the st. Major who uh Salinas was the was the

1309
01:09:54,840 --> 01:09:56,479
Speaker 1: seventh Group guy. I don't know if you remember Reggie

1310
01:09:56,520 --> 01:09:59,519
Speaker 1: Sealinus or not. I went through these Reggie, did you

1311
01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:02,840
Speaker 1: really got? And so so Reggie's the third range of

1312
01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:06,519
Speaker 1: Battalion Major and so I go in, I reported and

1313
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:09,040
Speaker 1: uh and I'm supposed to go to a platoon and

1314
01:10:09,080 --> 01:10:12,640
Speaker 1: he goes not so fast, and he says, I just

1315
01:10:12,680 --> 01:10:15,360
Speaker 1: fired my Battalion Ops guy who was a master shortan right,

1316
01:10:16,080 --> 01:10:18,840
Speaker 1: and uh, and I'm only starting first class. I'm supposed

1317
01:10:18,880 --> 01:10:20,760
Speaker 1: to be a tune sort and he says, I know

1318
01:10:20,800 --> 01:10:23,640
Speaker 1: you got oh, and I I know you've got, you know,

1319
01:10:23,680 --> 01:10:27,880
Speaker 1: operators intelligence. Of course, he says, I need you to

1320
01:10:27,880 --> 01:10:32,000
Speaker 1: to run the Battalion Ops shop until I get a replacement.

1321
01:10:32,400 --> 01:10:34,479
Speaker 1: And he says it could be six months, could be

1322
01:10:34,520 --> 01:10:37,439
Speaker 1: a year. And so I ended up in Battalion Ops,

1323
01:10:37,520 --> 01:10:39,200
Speaker 1: which was awesome because then you can you can kind

1324
01:10:39,200 --> 01:10:41,479
Speaker 1: of pick the company you wanted to go to and

1325
01:10:41,800 --> 01:10:43,200
Speaker 1: you know, learn how to because I'm you know, I'm

1326
01:10:43,280 --> 01:10:46,480
Speaker 1: using I just spent six years in in SF and uh.

1327
01:10:46,640 --> 01:10:49,040
Speaker 1: You know there were people within the range of Battalion

1328
01:10:49,080 --> 01:10:51,839
Speaker 1: that didn't know if I knew how to get a haircut,

1329
01:10:51,880 --> 01:10:56,519
Speaker 1: you know. So so it was good. It was a

1330
01:10:56,520 --> 01:10:59,439
Speaker 1: good way to get in, get in there, and get

1331
01:10:59,479 --> 01:11:01,439
Speaker 1: after it. I it up in Alpha Company as a

1332
01:11:01,439 --> 01:11:03,960
Speaker 1: patine stard. But but initially when I went to Somalia,

1333
01:11:04,760 --> 01:11:09,519
Speaker 1: I was the battalion ops are yeah, and and Somalia, Um,

1334
01:11:10,320 --> 01:11:12,840
Speaker 1: you got shot in the head, didn't you. Yeah, it

1335
01:11:12,960 --> 01:11:15,600
Speaker 1: was it was an RPG UM that that kind of

1336
01:11:15,600 --> 01:11:17,960
Speaker 1: skidded off the roof, you know, the hood of the

1337
01:11:18,000 --> 01:11:21,040
Speaker 1: vehicle and then exploded on on one of the buildings.

1338
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:23,840
Speaker 1: And uh. And you know how everything slows down when

1339
01:11:23,880 --> 01:11:27,960
Speaker 1: you're when all the blood goes your eyes and and

1340
01:11:27,960 --> 01:11:30,280
Speaker 1: then everything just kind of slows down the and you

1341
01:11:30,280 --> 01:11:32,920
Speaker 1: can actually track the RPGs is going across the front

1342
01:11:33,479 --> 01:11:35,879
Speaker 1: and uh. Yeah, so I took a piece of shrapmul

1343
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:39,160
Speaker 1: off of that. But you know, and it was because

1344
01:11:39,160 --> 01:11:43,240
Speaker 1: I had the I was the ops guy in the talk, right,

1345
01:11:43,439 --> 01:11:45,920
Speaker 1: so my job was to uh and this was back

1346
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:48,280
Speaker 1: before computers, I mean it was it was really really

1347
01:11:48,360 --> 01:11:53,960
Speaker 1: was analog type stuff. And so when the we had

1348
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:57,040
Speaker 1: these big set of satellite imagery up on the wall

1349
01:11:57,600 --> 01:11:59,880
Speaker 1: and then we gritted it right, and so the entire

1350
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:02,479
Speaker 1: wall was the entire city. And then each each one

1351
01:12:02,520 --> 01:12:06,280
Speaker 1: of those grids had a had a sub um sub

1352
01:12:06,320 --> 01:12:09,879
Speaker 1: picture that was that was um you know, in large

1353
01:12:10,240 --> 01:12:12,280
Speaker 1: to where the guys could do their actions on the objective,

1354
01:12:12,360 --> 01:12:14,040
Speaker 1: so you can go in there and you get so

1355
01:12:14,080 --> 01:12:16,280
Speaker 1: the rangers would come in. We said, we we gotta

1356
01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:18,400
Speaker 1: hit we think he's here in this building. See a

1357
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:21,280
Speaker 1: circle that and uh. So then the rangers come in

1358
01:12:21,280 --> 01:12:22,639
Speaker 1: and they look at their routes and they can draw

1359
01:12:22,680 --> 01:12:25,160
Speaker 1: their routes out, you know for primary altar in the contingency.

1360
01:12:25,560 --> 01:12:27,559
Speaker 1: And then the guys are going in on the X.

1361
01:12:27,760 --> 01:12:30,160
Speaker 1: You know, the uh they're gonna put the security out

1362
01:12:30,160 --> 01:12:33,479
Speaker 1: of either fast rope or air land. They can they

1363
01:12:33,479 --> 01:12:35,400
Speaker 1: can look for their fast rope hl zs or their

1364
01:12:35,400 --> 01:12:39,960
Speaker 1: airline h l zs. You get the uh conboy guys

1365
01:12:40,000 --> 01:12:42,280
Speaker 1: going in and uh and then the air guys, you know,

1366
01:12:42,280 --> 01:12:44,240
Speaker 1: they start working the air corridor. So you can work

1367
01:12:44,280 --> 01:12:47,439
Speaker 1: all of that off of the off of the series

1368
01:12:47,479 --> 01:12:50,360
Speaker 1: of satellite images. And it was just the leadership that

1369
01:12:50,400 --> 01:12:52,519
Speaker 1: would come in right well. The well, the guys were

1370
01:12:52,520 --> 01:12:54,960
Speaker 1: loading vehicles, you know, topping off water, making sure that

1371
01:12:55,160 --> 01:12:57,439
Speaker 1: you getting in convoy march order. They're they were doing

1372
01:12:57,479 --> 01:13:00,599
Speaker 1: the pre flights on the on the aircraft and so

1373
01:13:00,680 --> 01:13:03,080
Speaker 1: my job was to as they're as they're going through it,

1374
01:13:03,080 --> 01:13:04,760
Speaker 1: as I'm on to dry a race board, and I'm

1375
01:13:04,760 --> 01:13:08,120
Speaker 1: actually drawing out you know, the actions on the objective

1376
01:13:08,160 --> 01:13:10,280
Speaker 1: and where the helicopters are going, and where the where

1377
01:13:10,320 --> 01:13:12,559
Speaker 1: the vehicles are going, and you know where the breach

1378
01:13:12,600 --> 01:13:15,479
Speaker 1: point is and uh. And it was one of those old,

1379
01:13:15,520 --> 01:13:17,400
Speaker 1: you know, high speed dry race boards where you could

1380
01:13:17,439 --> 01:13:19,920
Speaker 1: actually print the picture that you just drew. So I

1381
01:13:20,000 --> 01:13:21,720
Speaker 1: was the old man Garrison when he would slap the

1382
01:13:21,760 --> 01:13:24,480
Speaker 1: table and said, go, you know, I'd I'd hit the

1383
01:13:24,560 --> 01:13:27,719
Speaker 1: hit print and then I'd do like thirteen or fourteen copies,

1384
01:13:28,040 --> 01:13:29,360
Speaker 1: and then the boys would run them out and they

1385
01:13:29,760 --> 01:13:33,760
Speaker 1: brief everybody either curbside or or bird side, and then

1386
01:13:33,800 --> 01:13:36,559
Speaker 1: they go do their thing. Now we're watching it because

1387
01:13:36,560 --> 01:13:39,560
Speaker 1: we had we had an oriyon that was up overhead

1388
01:13:39,720 --> 01:13:42,800
Speaker 1: and you can just see it deteriorating and you can

1389
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:45,840
Speaker 1: see that they had assembled quickly, that that they had

1390
01:13:45,920 --> 01:13:49,400
Speaker 1: massed quickly. That uh, I think we had the kid

1391
01:13:49,479 --> 01:13:52,080
Speaker 1: fall the blackburn I think had fallen off the fast rope.

1392
01:13:52,160 --> 01:13:56,479
Speaker 1: So he's uh, he's you know, a casually that's coming in.

1393
01:13:56,920 --> 01:13:58,720
Speaker 1: So we had to dispatch guys out there. And so

1394
01:13:58,960 --> 01:14:01,960
Speaker 1: the I end up to can every able bodied ranger

1395
01:14:02,479 --> 01:14:05,200
Speaker 1: off of the wall or awful whatever job he was in,

1396
01:14:05,640 --> 01:14:08,559
Speaker 1: and we had kids cutting cash offt to get back

1397
01:14:08,600 --> 01:14:11,679
Speaker 1: into trucks, and so we took a convoy out initially

1398
01:14:11,680 --> 01:14:14,759
Speaker 1: to pick up Blackburn and the guys and then uh second,

1399
01:14:14,800 --> 01:14:17,320
Speaker 1: let me let me get this dog real quick. Yeah,

1400
01:14:17,360 --> 01:14:24,840
Speaker 1: that's okay. Take your time while Rick is uh calming

1401
01:14:24,880 --> 01:14:28,000
Speaker 1: down this dog. Let me read our other ad for

1402
01:14:28,120 --> 01:14:33,320
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1403
01:14:33,360 --> 01:14:36,440
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01:14:36,439 --> 01:14:38,960
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1405
01:14:39,479 --> 01:14:41,760
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1406
01:14:41,760 --> 01:14:45,639
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1407
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1408
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:49,880
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1409
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1410
01:14:53,320 --> 01:14:56,200
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1411
01:14:57,000 --> 01:15:01,200
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1412
01:15:01,680 --> 01:15:05,040
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1413
01:15:05,080 --> 01:15:08,679
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1414
01:15:09,240 --> 01:15:13,120
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1415
01:15:13,120 --> 01:15:16,839
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1416
01:15:17,200 --> 01:15:19,040
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1417
01:15:19,120 --> 01:15:21,720
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1418
01:15:21,840 --> 01:15:25,240
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01:15:25,479 --> 01:15:29,400
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1420
01:15:29,840 --> 01:15:36,040
Speaker 1: Thank you. So Rick to get the dog calm down. Yeah,

1421
01:15:36,040 --> 01:15:38,439
Speaker 1: I think mama took him in the locked him in

1422
01:15:38,439 --> 01:15:43,120
Speaker 1: the back room. So he said, before time out, I

1423
01:15:43,439 --> 01:15:46,280
Speaker 1: had to put my English bulldog in the other room

1424
01:15:46,320 --> 01:15:50,160
Speaker 1: because she snores so loud. I really didn't understand how

1425
01:15:50,200 --> 01:15:52,720
Speaker 1: loud it was. But then it came through loud and

1426
01:15:52,720 --> 01:15:55,240
Speaker 1: clear on the podcast, so it sounded like we were

1427
01:15:55,240 --> 01:16:00,400
Speaker 1: boring some of my family members here, because yeah, dogs

1428
01:16:00,400 --> 01:16:04,439
Speaker 1: can still really loud. But yeah, you're, you know, filling

1429
01:16:04,520 --> 01:16:09,320
Speaker 1: us in about um you know, you're you're taking somalia

1430
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:14,759
Speaker 1: and you know you were going out to uh recover

1431
01:16:15,360 --> 01:16:19,599
Speaker 1: one of the rangers. I remember seeing that Blackburn did.

1432
01:16:19,760 --> 01:16:23,320
Speaker 1: Did he uh did he come through that alright? Or

1433
01:16:23,400 --> 01:16:27,040
Speaker 1: was he seriously yeah, the I believe he did. I

1434
01:16:27,080 --> 01:16:29,760
Speaker 1: believe he he did a full recovery. I'd have to

1435
01:16:29,840 --> 01:16:32,439
Speaker 1: check that, but but but I want to say he

1436
01:16:32,479 --> 01:16:36,160
Speaker 1: did because we initially um got them and uh that

1437
01:16:36,280 --> 01:16:38,400
Speaker 1: those guys and took him back to the compound and

1438
01:16:38,439 --> 01:16:41,000
Speaker 1: then we uh we were sent out a second time

1439
01:16:41,280 --> 01:16:43,559
Speaker 1: because we're gonna meet the guys from the Tenth Mountain,

1440
01:16:43,640 --> 01:16:45,519
Speaker 1: the q r F that we're coming down from the north,

1441
01:16:45,960 --> 01:16:47,960
Speaker 1: and we both got repulsed. I mean, the whole city

1442
01:16:48,080 --> 01:16:50,720
Speaker 1: was just on fire at that point, so we got repulsed.

1443
01:16:50,880 --> 01:16:53,400
Speaker 1: Uh that the that that one of the I can't

1444
01:16:53,400 --> 01:16:56,360
Speaker 1: remember the K two traffic circlin was and just we

1445
01:16:56,360 --> 01:16:59,120
Speaker 1: we actually, you know, they went back up north because

1446
01:16:59,120 --> 01:17:01,679
Speaker 1: they had they had doze to an end run around

1447
01:17:01,680 --> 01:17:04,720
Speaker 1: the west end of the city, and so they went

1448
01:17:04,720 --> 01:17:06,559
Speaker 1: back up north and they went around the west end

1449
01:17:06,600 --> 01:17:10,160
Speaker 1: of the city, met us at the at the airfield

1450
01:17:10,640 --> 01:17:12,320
Speaker 1: and then there was a back door into the port

1451
01:17:12,400 --> 01:17:14,560
Speaker 1: facility off of the airfield. So we went over to

1452
01:17:14,600 --> 01:17:16,599
Speaker 1: the port and that's where we linked up with the

1453
01:17:16,720 --> 01:17:20,759
Speaker 1: uh the Malaysian Anti Personnel cares in the Pakistani tanks

1454
01:17:21,520 --> 01:17:25,960
Speaker 1: and had a quick um, you know, brief on on

1455
01:17:25,960 --> 01:17:27,960
Speaker 1: how we're gonna move and uh, you know, what our

1456
01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:31,559
Speaker 1: actions on enemy contact we're gonna be. And at this point,

1457
01:17:32,360 --> 01:17:35,280
Speaker 1: because we had we had been out twice and we

1458
01:17:35,320 --> 01:17:37,880
Speaker 1: had lost two vehicles, you know, a vehicle each time.

1459
01:17:38,120 --> 01:17:41,519
Speaker 1: And the second time we went out, like my uh,

1460
01:17:41,560 --> 01:17:44,320
Speaker 1: my driver Easter Brooks, he was like the AMMO n CEO, right,

1461
01:17:45,040 --> 01:17:47,559
Speaker 1: the great kid. Yeah. But but but I mean the

1462
01:17:47,600 --> 01:17:53,479
Speaker 1: AMMO n CEO, the the the the Commo guys, the

1463
01:17:53,479 --> 01:17:57,680
Speaker 1: the um the cooks, they're all they've all been to

1464
01:17:57,760 --> 01:18:01,080
Speaker 1: ranging school, so you know, they're all they're all ranger kids.

1465
01:18:01,640 --> 01:18:04,200
Speaker 1: And uh so we were able to uh So. It

1466
01:18:04,240 --> 01:18:06,400
Speaker 1: was just a good team. They just never worked well,

1467
01:18:07,080 --> 01:18:10,400
Speaker 1: were worked together, they worked well, never never as a

1468
01:18:10,439 --> 01:18:12,640
Speaker 1: as an integrated team. So they so they were they

1469
01:18:12,640 --> 01:18:15,400
Speaker 1: were easy. So I figured, Okay, now we're gonna get um,

1470
01:18:16,000 --> 01:18:19,759
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a uh you know, a personnel vehicle.

1471
01:18:20,439 --> 01:18:23,800
Speaker 1: But they gave us this open top cargo hummer and

1472
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:27,720
Speaker 1: uh so, and they said, your your mission is to

1473
01:18:27,760 --> 01:18:31,519
Speaker 1: be the ground security for the Pakistani tanks. So every

1474
01:18:31,560 --> 01:18:33,840
Speaker 1: time the convoy stopped and the tank would go into

1475
01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:36,479
Speaker 1: a position, we'd have to push out in front of

1476
01:18:36,479 --> 01:18:39,160
Speaker 1: it and uh and keep people you know, off the

1477
01:18:39,200 --> 01:18:42,160
Speaker 1: tanks basically. And so I was scared to death that

1478
01:18:42,200 --> 01:18:43,720
Speaker 1: I was gonna lose one of those kids, you know

1479
01:18:43,760 --> 01:18:46,639
Speaker 1: that uh he would just disappear in the night or

1480
01:18:46,680 --> 01:18:48,720
Speaker 1: he would miss the ride, you know, as well as

1481
01:18:48,760 --> 01:18:51,800
Speaker 1: the convoys begins to move. So I spent my my

1482
01:18:51,880 --> 01:18:55,240
Speaker 1: whole night. They're just running around counting hedge, touching, touching

1483
01:18:55,600 --> 01:18:57,640
Speaker 1: foreheads and you know, getting faces and making sure that

1484
01:18:57,640 --> 01:19:00,759
Speaker 1: I had everybody and but every you know, we didn't

1485
01:19:00,760 --> 01:19:06,000
Speaker 1: have a gun, so we'd have a Most of the

1486
01:19:06,040 --> 01:19:08,920
Speaker 1: hummers had either Mark nineteen or fifty cow on it,

1487
01:19:09,080 --> 01:19:12,840
Speaker 1: so you know, generally the fifty cow go through the

1488
01:19:12,960 --> 01:19:15,799
Speaker 1: U through the the intersection. You know, they're lighting stuff

1489
01:19:15,840 --> 01:19:17,760
Speaker 1: up on either side, and then we go through right

1490
01:19:17,760 --> 01:19:20,880
Speaker 1: behind them. After everybody's head is coming up and they're shooting.

1491
01:19:20,920 --> 01:19:23,880
Speaker 1: So you can just hear, you know, the rounds pinging

1492
01:19:23,920 --> 01:19:25,840
Speaker 1: on the on the vehicle. I mean all of our

1493
01:19:25,960 --> 01:19:28,439
Speaker 1: all of our tires were flat. I mean the oil

1494
01:19:28,479 --> 01:19:30,839
Speaker 1: pan had had a hole in it. We was those

1495
01:19:30,840 --> 01:19:33,800
Speaker 1: are tough trucks. They kept kept rolling on the on

1496
01:19:33,840 --> 01:19:36,920
Speaker 1: the run flats. But we finally took an RPG that

1497
01:19:37,080 --> 01:19:40,880
Speaker 1: skidded off the hood of the vehicle and the Easterbrooks

1498
01:19:40,920 --> 01:19:45,360
Speaker 1: had got wounded like the the intersection before, and so

1499
01:19:45,400 --> 01:19:47,400
Speaker 1: we did the dead driver drill pulled him out of

1500
01:19:47,400 --> 01:19:49,200
Speaker 1: the seat, you know, and then I'm over as the

1501
01:19:49,240 --> 01:19:51,599
Speaker 1: t C I I jump in. You know, we're working

1502
01:19:51,680 --> 01:19:54,880
Speaker 1: the working the hand throttle and uh and he was

1503
01:19:54,880 --> 01:19:57,360
Speaker 1: wounded in the hands. So I'm I'm steering with my

1504
01:19:57,400 --> 01:20:00,559
Speaker 1: knee and uh and and bandage in his hand with

1505
01:20:00,600 --> 01:20:04,479
Speaker 1: a with a pressure dressing and uh. So I just

1506
01:20:04,560 --> 01:20:07,880
Speaker 1: pushed my helmet back and wiped my forehead, going oh man,

1507
01:20:08,560 --> 01:20:13,840
Speaker 1: and this sucks. We get hit again. The RPG goes

1508
01:20:13,880 --> 01:20:17,360
Speaker 1: across and I'll followed my eyes and bam, I remember

1509
01:20:17,360 --> 01:20:19,600
Speaker 1: my head, you know, kind of snapping back. And I

1510
01:20:19,640 --> 01:20:22,719
Speaker 1: saw this spurt of blood go onto the running blackout drive.

1511
01:20:23,280 --> 01:20:25,560
Speaker 1: So I saw it, you know, running onto the uh

1512
01:20:26,040 --> 01:20:29,040
Speaker 1: the lights on the on the dashboard, and I'm like, oh,

1513
01:20:29,400 --> 01:20:32,559
Speaker 1: damn it, I just got killed and uh and then

1514
01:20:32,600 --> 01:20:36,479
Speaker 1: everything goes to this pristine point of light right and uh,

1515
01:20:36,880 --> 01:20:38,840
Speaker 1: you know, sounds of the battlefield are gone, you know,

1516
01:20:38,880 --> 01:20:41,120
Speaker 1: the prickly heat. You don't feel that anymore. I don't

1517
01:20:41,160 --> 01:20:45,720
Speaker 1: hear any Uh. I'm not uncomfortable. I'm feeling uh yeah,

1518
01:20:46,080 --> 01:20:51,160
Speaker 1: I'm dying. And so and then the next thing I

1519
01:20:51,160 --> 01:20:53,720
Speaker 1: remember is the uh, the kids in the back or

1520
01:20:54,479 --> 01:20:56,719
Speaker 1: because because I I stood you and you do you

1521
01:20:56,560 --> 01:20:59,400
Speaker 1: you kind of you do go through your life, you know,

1522
01:20:59,479 --> 01:21:02,519
Speaker 1: and you regrets and everything is as as you're ed

1523
01:21:02,560 --> 01:21:05,759
Speaker 1: you're passing over and uh, and then you feel guilty

1524
01:21:05,840 --> 01:21:08,439
Speaker 1: for all this stuff. You're screwed up and and uh

1525
01:21:08,479 --> 01:21:11,599
Speaker 1: and then you start, you know, kind of uh dealing

1526
01:21:11,640 --> 01:21:13,880
Speaker 1: for a second chance. And I'm thinking, man, because my

1527
01:21:14,040 --> 01:21:16,840
Speaker 1: son was literally born the day that we left, so

1528
01:21:17,000 --> 01:21:19,080
Speaker 1: I got got to hold in like thirty minutes and

1529
01:21:19,120 --> 01:21:21,160
Speaker 1: then handing back to his mom. And then you know,

1530
01:21:21,200 --> 01:21:23,000
Speaker 1: we had to get on the get on the vehicle

1531
01:21:23,000 --> 01:21:26,519
Speaker 1: and deploy, and so I'm thinking, man, what's gonna happen

1532
01:21:26,560 --> 01:21:28,320
Speaker 1: to those guys? You know my wife, you know there's

1533
01:21:28,400 --> 01:21:31,360
Speaker 1: a new kid. You know, he'll never know me. Then

1534
01:21:31,400 --> 01:21:34,519
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, bamp power back up and uh,

1535
01:21:34,640 --> 01:21:37,920
Speaker 1: you know, the lights are back, and I'm feeling uncomfortable,

1536
01:21:38,320 --> 01:21:41,080
Speaker 1: got got the splitting headache and uh and the kids

1537
01:21:41,080 --> 01:21:43,040
Speaker 1: are hitting me in the back of the k pot

1538
01:21:43,120 --> 01:21:47,120
Speaker 1: going do not stop here, You're all you can hear

1539
01:21:47,160 --> 01:21:50,600
Speaker 1: all the ping, ping, ping ping, So I we're just

1540
01:21:50,640 --> 01:21:53,519
Speaker 1: pushing the helmet forward, you know that the onto my

1541
01:21:53,600 --> 01:21:56,920
Speaker 1: forehead because I could I had blood draining into my

1542
01:21:56,960 --> 01:22:01,960
Speaker 1: eye and uh, mashing the accelerator and then it's like, uh,

1543
01:22:02,160 --> 01:22:05,120
Speaker 1: it's about I think, and we didn't get out of

1544
01:22:05,120 --> 01:22:08,240
Speaker 1: the until about zero six the next morning. So by

1545
01:22:08,520 --> 01:22:11,040
Speaker 1: the end of the day or the beginning of the

1546
01:22:11,080 --> 01:22:14,400
Speaker 1: next morning, it was it's like you're you're you're on

1547
01:22:14,439 --> 01:22:16,000
Speaker 1: an all night drunk and you get that kind of

1548
01:22:16,080 --> 01:22:18,840
Speaker 1: second wind, you know, about the time the sun comes up.

1549
01:22:19,080 --> 01:22:22,559
Speaker 1: That Uh yes, it was. It was surreal. I remember

1550
01:22:22,640 --> 01:22:26,640
Speaker 1: just going to the Yeah, we got to the it

1551
01:22:26,720 --> 01:22:28,519
Speaker 1: got to the point where we had to ditch our truck,

1552
01:22:28,880 --> 01:22:31,040
Speaker 1: so I didn't do the full Mogadishu mile. You know,

1553
01:22:31,520 --> 01:22:34,640
Speaker 1: I crossloaded the guys into vehicles that were given me.

1554
01:22:34,720 --> 01:22:36,720
Speaker 1: A lot of the kids were wounded by that, so

1555
01:22:36,760 --> 01:22:38,800
Speaker 1: we crossloaded into any vehicle we could find. But they

1556
01:22:38,840 --> 01:22:41,080
Speaker 1: were everybody was working and they were just packed in

1557
01:22:41,280 --> 01:22:44,719
Speaker 1: like sardines. So we ended up running beside the vehicles

1558
01:22:44,800 --> 01:22:47,240
Speaker 1: for a while. And uh so I didn't I didn't

1559
01:22:47,240 --> 01:22:48,840
Speaker 1: have to run all the way to the stadium. I

1560
01:22:48,880 --> 01:22:51,920
Speaker 1: did like the Mogadishu half mile because the tenth Mountain

1561
01:22:52,439 --> 01:22:55,519
Speaker 1: there were some kids in a hummer and they grabbed

1562
01:22:55,600 --> 01:22:57,640
Speaker 1: us and bandais Is up and threw us in the

1563
01:22:57,680 --> 01:23:01,400
Speaker 1: back of their hummer. And so I got of the stadium,

1564
01:23:01,439 --> 01:23:03,320
Speaker 1: and I mean there were seventy five kids that were

1565
01:23:03,640 --> 01:23:08,240
Speaker 1: you know in some you know, dead dying and wounded,

1566
01:23:08,760 --> 01:23:11,280
Speaker 1: and they were laid out in the treage there, and

1567
01:23:11,479 --> 01:23:14,120
Speaker 1: so they started bringing the helicopters in and uh they

1568
01:23:14,120 --> 01:23:16,080
Speaker 1: were packing us in as many as they could. And

1569
01:23:16,600 --> 01:23:18,320
Speaker 1: there was a guy on the floor and I'm so

1570
01:23:18,520 --> 01:23:20,320
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the seat and I'm looking down between

1571
01:23:20,320 --> 01:23:21,840
Speaker 1: my legs, and there's a kid on a stretcher. You

1572
01:23:21,840 --> 01:23:24,920
Speaker 1: know what we're talking and uh So we get to

1573
01:23:24,960 --> 01:23:27,880
Speaker 1: the hospital and because I was ahead wound, so I

1574
01:23:27,960 --> 01:23:31,800
Speaker 1: was on one of the first lifts and uh so

1575
01:23:31,840 --> 01:23:33,720
Speaker 1: we get to the hospital and they're they're all apologizing

1576
01:23:33,760 --> 01:23:36,920
Speaker 1: because you know the kids that are in the emergency room,

1577
01:23:36,960 --> 01:23:38,360
Speaker 1: I mean, they're just running back and forth. And then

1578
01:23:38,439 --> 01:23:40,599
Speaker 1: you know those guys, guys going out on the table,

1579
01:23:40,680 --> 01:23:42,320
Speaker 1: and uh so they said, hey, we'll get to you.

1580
01:23:42,360 --> 01:23:45,320
Speaker 1: We'll get to you. And so I finally asked, can

1581
01:23:45,360 --> 01:23:47,519
Speaker 1: I get some bedded iron scrubs, because you know, I

1582
01:23:47,760 --> 01:23:50,640
Speaker 1: don't feel bad at this point. And I go in

1583
01:23:50,720 --> 01:23:53,360
Speaker 1: and I cleaned up my face and and it doesn't

1584
01:23:53,360 --> 01:23:55,800
Speaker 1: look too bad. I'm just swollen on my forehead. And

1585
01:23:55,920 --> 01:23:58,360
Speaker 1: so then I started thinking, you know, it's probably a

1586
01:23:58,360 --> 01:24:00,960
Speaker 1: piece of concrete from the wall that kind of snapped

1587
01:24:00,960 --> 01:24:02,800
Speaker 1: back and hit me in the head, and and uh

1588
01:24:02,920 --> 01:24:05,280
Speaker 1: that's all it was. So I go back to uh

1589
01:24:05,640 --> 01:24:08,320
Speaker 1: and I get my my gear and catch it right

1590
01:24:08,360 --> 01:24:12,120
Speaker 1: on the helicopter, go back to the hangar because I'm thinking, yeah,

1591
01:24:12,160 --> 01:24:15,439
Speaker 1: I got I got a two o'clock m duty at

1592
01:24:15,439 --> 01:24:19,080
Speaker 1: the radio, watch right, and uh so I had to

1593
01:24:19,280 --> 01:24:22,320
Speaker 1: tend to right. So tend and uh ten pm to

1594
01:24:22,360 --> 01:24:25,559
Speaker 1: two am. It was my shift in the talk And

1595
01:24:25,600 --> 01:24:27,639
Speaker 1: as I go in, I lay down, I go to sleep.

1596
01:24:27,680 --> 01:24:31,679
Speaker 1: I get up and about two days later, um, Doc

1597
01:24:31,720 --> 01:24:34,639
Speaker 1: Marsh goes by because here you lamb. I said, yes, sir,

1598
01:24:35,120 --> 01:24:37,280
Speaker 1: and he goes, you're a wall. He said, you never

1599
01:24:37,360 --> 01:24:39,320
Speaker 1: walk out of the hospital like that. He said, you know,

1600
01:24:39,400 --> 01:24:41,960
Speaker 1: we could, we could court martial your dumbass if we

1601
01:24:42,000 --> 01:24:45,479
Speaker 1: wanted to, but we're not gonna. Uh he said that

1602
01:24:45,479 --> 01:24:48,479
Speaker 1: you need to go back to the hospital and uh so,

1603
01:24:48,680 --> 01:24:50,280
Speaker 1: I said, And so he said, what happened? I said,

1604
01:24:50,280 --> 01:24:52,360
Speaker 1: as probably piece of concrete. And he goes, follow my finger,

1605
01:24:52,400 --> 01:24:55,680
Speaker 1: you know, he traces his traces my eye movement with

1606
01:24:55,720 --> 01:24:57,760
Speaker 1: his and he goes, now, he said, that's an entrance wind.

1607
01:24:58,360 --> 01:25:01,400
Speaker 1: I said, no ship, And so we go in there

1608
01:25:01,439 --> 01:25:05,439
Speaker 1: and they do the CT scan and bigger and stut

1609
01:25:05,439 --> 01:25:09,439
Speaker 1: gartmenter's uh about even with the temple. So it uh

1610
01:25:10,000 --> 01:25:12,519
Speaker 1: it went in the middle of the forehead, clip the

1611
01:25:12,600 --> 01:25:16,680
Speaker 1: left front lobe and uh and then stopped between the

1612
01:25:16,760 --> 01:25:19,280
Speaker 1: left and right front lobes about you know, two or

1613
01:25:19,320 --> 01:25:23,799
Speaker 1: three inches in behind the temple. And they're they're showing

1614
01:25:23,840 --> 01:25:26,280
Speaker 1: this on the on the CT scan and they go, man,

1615
01:25:26,280 --> 01:25:28,920
Speaker 1: we're looking at a dead man. There's there's no way

1616
01:25:29,000 --> 01:25:31,280
Speaker 1: you should be alive. And so I'm getting worried. I'm like,

1617
01:25:32,479 --> 01:25:34,120
Speaker 1: am I going to die? And the guy goes, yeah,

1618
01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:37,360
Speaker 1: I'm afraid. So and these are young, you know, young doctors,

1619
01:25:37,840 --> 01:25:41,240
Speaker 1: you'll probably fresh out of med school and uh, I'm like, man,

1620
01:25:41,280 --> 01:25:43,200
Speaker 1: I just had a baby, and you know, I'm almost

1621
01:25:43,240 --> 01:25:46,280
Speaker 1: crying here. And they started laughing or going, well, everybody's

1622
01:25:46,280 --> 01:25:55,320
Speaker 1: gonna die one day. Stop. So so I like, I,

1623
01:25:55,520 --> 01:25:57,120
Speaker 1: you know, I stood up and then I went down

1624
01:25:57,120 --> 01:25:58,800
Speaker 1: on my knee and then I fell on the ground.

1625
01:25:58,800 --> 01:26:01,840
Speaker 1: I started, you know, flopping around, and they're calling for

1626
01:26:01,880 --> 01:26:04,000
Speaker 1: a crash card. And then when they came with a

1627
01:26:04,040 --> 01:26:06,800
Speaker 1: crash card, I jumped up and said, got you. But

1628
01:26:08,040 --> 01:26:11,439
Speaker 1: you know, Dr humor. But yeah, so they they sent

1629
01:26:11,479 --> 01:26:14,639
Speaker 1: me home and I ended up going to a launch

1630
01:26:14,680 --> 01:26:17,560
Speaker 1: tool and then from launch tool down to uh to

1631
01:26:17,680 --> 01:26:19,439
Speaker 1: Keisler and and that was a sad thing because all

1632
01:26:19,520 --> 01:26:21,719
Speaker 1: you know, all my buddies are getting off at Walter

1633
01:26:21,800 --> 01:26:24,400
Speaker 1: Reed and they're they're like, no, not so fast, go

1634
01:26:24,520 --> 01:26:26,280
Speaker 1: sit down, and they take me to launch tool or

1635
01:26:26,320 --> 01:26:29,720
Speaker 1: not launched tool, but Keisler Air Force Base where they

1636
01:26:29,720 --> 01:26:33,320
Speaker 1: had this Air Force kid and he was captain and

1637
01:26:33,520 --> 01:26:35,880
Speaker 1: it might have been a major, but he had cut

1638
01:26:35,960 --> 01:26:38,559
Speaker 1: his teeth at Cook County Medical when he was in

1639
01:26:38,640 --> 01:26:42,200
Speaker 1: med school as uh so he was like the front

1640
01:26:42,280 --> 01:26:45,920
Speaker 1: trauma dude, and uh he ended up, you know, popping

1641
01:26:46,000 --> 01:26:49,519
Speaker 1: my nugget and uh because they take it forward and

1642
01:26:49,560 --> 01:26:51,280
Speaker 1: they cut into the airline and then they kind of

1643
01:26:51,320 --> 01:26:54,000
Speaker 1: peeled the skin down and then they they'll cut a

1644
01:26:54,280 --> 01:26:58,000
Speaker 1: cut about a battalion coin sized piece of skull out

1645
01:26:58,520 --> 01:27:00,360
Speaker 1: and then they go in there and they start breeding

1646
01:27:00,400 --> 01:27:02,880
Speaker 1: the tissue because they're trying to get the shrapnel but

1647
01:27:02,920 --> 01:27:06,400
Speaker 1: they couldn't get to it, and uh so he just

1648
01:27:06,520 --> 01:27:08,000
Speaker 1: left it in there, you know, he cleaned up what

1649
01:27:08,040 --> 01:27:11,360
Speaker 1: he could and sewed it back up and then it

1650
01:27:11,400 --> 01:27:13,800
Speaker 1: got infected. And I end up staying there for a

1651
01:27:13,800 --> 01:27:15,559
Speaker 1: couple of months, you know, just until they could kill

1652
01:27:15,560 --> 01:27:17,799
Speaker 1: the infection because they didn't want to do a second surgery.

1653
01:27:18,840 --> 01:27:20,760
Speaker 1: And uh and then you know, made a made a

1654
01:27:20,800 --> 01:27:24,160
Speaker 1: full recovery after that. So because as he was digging,

1655
01:27:24,200 --> 01:27:25,599
Speaker 1: he said, you know, he came in, you had all

1656
01:27:25,600 --> 01:27:27,120
Speaker 1: your faculties. I didn't want to be the guy that

1657
01:27:27,160 --> 01:27:29,960
Speaker 1: shut you down, so so we just left it in.

1658
01:27:30,439 --> 01:27:33,719
Speaker 1: And uh, sometimes if you tune a hand one it'll

1659
01:27:33,760 --> 01:27:37,800
Speaker 1: it'll it'll beat. But other than that, so it's still

1660
01:27:37,800 --> 01:27:41,679
Speaker 1: in there. Yeah's still in there. Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah.

1661
01:27:41,720 --> 01:27:45,360
Speaker 1: My dad was a tank destroyer commander on World War

1662
01:27:45,400 --> 01:27:50,240
Speaker 1: Two and his his tank got hit and blown up

1663
01:27:50,439 --> 01:27:54,960
Speaker 1: and by the Germans, and he had so much travenel

1664
01:27:55,000 --> 01:27:58,240
Speaker 1: in his knees and he had some in his hands

1665
01:27:58,880 --> 01:28:01,040
Speaker 1: that when we go to the airport you go through

1666
01:28:01,080 --> 01:28:05,240
Speaker 1: the metal detector. He set it off and then the

1667
01:28:05,280 --> 01:28:06,880
Speaker 1: guys would be like, oh, would you come back, and

1668
01:28:06,880 --> 01:28:08,960
Speaker 1: he's like, take the one and run it over my knees.

1669
01:28:09,000 --> 01:28:14,040
Speaker 1: And they were like do you have you know, uh,

1670
01:28:14,240 --> 01:28:16,200
Speaker 1: metal in your knees And he's like, I got lots

1671
01:28:16,200 --> 01:28:18,800
Speaker 1: of metal in my knees, you know, it's from a

1672
01:28:18,840 --> 01:28:21,280
Speaker 1: German eight eight and the guys who are just wavings

1673
01:28:21,320 --> 01:28:24,880
Speaker 1: through go on and yeah, that's a hard one to

1674
01:28:24,920 --> 01:28:27,639
Speaker 1: talk you And I can remember. I can remember Grange

1675
01:28:27,760 --> 01:28:30,599
Speaker 1: because Grange had had a wound from Vietnam on his neck.

1676
01:28:30,640 --> 01:28:33,160
Speaker 1: He was peppered, you know, uh where a grenady going

1677
01:28:33,200 --> 01:28:35,840
Speaker 1: off and every now and then a piece of metal

1678
01:28:35,880 --> 01:28:39,400
Speaker 1: would would come out of his neck, you know, like

1679
01:28:39,560 --> 01:28:41,040
Speaker 1: was it and it was a little piece of Travenel.

1680
01:28:41,920 --> 01:28:46,000
Speaker 1: Jesse Leigh start Major Lee came in, uh because I

1681
01:28:46,000 --> 01:28:48,080
Speaker 1: want to say when I was waiting on the metal

1682
01:28:48,120 --> 01:28:50,880
Speaker 1: back bird right, the that's when the you know, the

1683
01:28:50,920 --> 01:28:54,160
Speaker 1: Golden beebe came in. They had that that mortar it

1684
01:28:54,320 --> 01:28:56,920
Speaker 1: hit and took out like the chain of command that

1685
01:28:56,960 --> 01:29:00,639
Speaker 1: we're on a fire barrel. And uh so Doc Marsh

1686
01:29:00,680 --> 01:29:04,240
Speaker 1: I think was down, jesse La was down, Harold went down.

1687
01:29:04,720 --> 01:29:05,960
Speaker 1: I mean, let you a lot of the a lot

1688
01:29:05,960 --> 01:29:08,439
Speaker 1: of the I mean, I think I can't remember the

1689
01:29:08,560 --> 01:29:11,200
Speaker 1: uh the sucom commander was there and it just stretched

1690
01:29:11,200 --> 01:29:13,560
Speaker 1: and said I'm going I'm going to my going to

1691
01:29:13,640 --> 01:29:16,400
Speaker 1: my quarters and so you know he wasn't there, but

1692
01:29:16,560 --> 01:29:18,559
Speaker 1: uh so I remember, you know, jesse Lay came in

1693
01:29:19,160 --> 01:29:22,560
Speaker 1: and Uh, Matt Ryerson had taken the brunt of the

1694
01:29:23,200 --> 01:29:25,200
Speaker 1: mortar round, so he was he had a lot of

1695
01:29:25,200 --> 01:29:28,200
Speaker 1: Matt Ryerson on him. You know, there was his blood.

1696
01:29:28,720 --> 01:29:30,519
Speaker 1: So they just cut all his uniform off. But he

1697
01:29:30,560 --> 01:29:34,320
Speaker 1: also had shrapnel in his neck, and so he's buttass

1698
01:29:34,439 --> 01:29:37,559
Speaker 1: naked and uh, you know, just being being the trusty

1699
01:29:37,560 --> 01:29:40,439
Speaker 1: star major that he was, and uh, he told him

1700
01:29:40,479 --> 01:29:42,720
Speaker 1: just just get you know, don't I don't need any anesthesia.

1701
01:29:42,880 --> 01:29:44,920
Speaker 1: Just get to get the four steps and pull that

1702
01:29:44,960 --> 01:29:47,160
Speaker 1: stuff out. And you can actually hear it, you know that,

1703
01:29:47,400 --> 01:29:49,759
Speaker 1: because you know the four steps are you know, they're ridged,

1704
01:29:50,240 --> 01:29:52,280
Speaker 1: so you can hear it, like grinding on those pieces

1705
01:29:52,320 --> 01:29:54,519
Speaker 1: of metal as they're pulling them out of his neck,

1706
01:29:55,760 --> 01:29:58,559
Speaker 1: a little metal bowls and said that. He goes, all right,

1707
01:29:58,840 --> 01:30:01,840
Speaker 1: bandage it up. I'm going to the hangar, and he goes.

1708
01:30:02,080 --> 01:30:05,880
Speaker 1: He goes, LAMB, give me your uniform, and so so

1709
01:30:05,920 --> 01:30:08,559
Speaker 1: I go over because I've been you like hospital, Jammy's right,

1710
01:30:09,160 --> 01:30:12,240
Speaker 1: So I give him my uniform and the shirt fits fine.

1711
01:30:12,240 --> 01:30:15,280
Speaker 1: But he's an older guy, older me anyway, and so

1712
01:30:15,320 --> 01:30:20,160
Speaker 1: he's a little widen the hips and the he grabbed

1713
01:30:20,200 --> 01:30:23,599
Speaker 1: some galle He says, give you your pants, great journey goes,

1714
01:30:23,880 --> 01:30:25,720
Speaker 1: I don't mean those, but give me a pair of

1715
01:30:25,720 --> 01:30:28,519
Speaker 1: your pants. And so he was able to scrape up

1716
01:30:28,520 --> 01:30:33,600
Speaker 1: a uniform to get back to work and uh yeah memories,

1717
01:30:34,320 --> 01:30:38,280
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, and uh you know later on you you

1718
01:30:38,400 --> 01:30:44,559
Speaker 1: ended up going back to s f um I did. Yeah, yeah,

1719
01:30:44,720 --> 01:30:48,120
Speaker 1: you you went to Germany and sure enough, first of

1720
01:30:48,160 --> 01:30:53,080
Speaker 1: the tent. Now that's where you linked up with Mr Braden. Yeah.

1721
01:30:53,320 --> 01:30:57,200
Speaker 1: But but I actually went to third group because when

1722
01:30:57,439 --> 01:31:01,040
Speaker 1: whenst yeah, when the Haiti thing was going on, right

1723
01:31:01,120 --> 01:31:03,800
Speaker 1: the uh they actually I was, I was scheduled to

1724
01:31:03,840 --> 01:31:08,559
Speaker 1: PCs to third group, and uh so they held me

1725
01:31:08,840 --> 01:31:13,240
Speaker 1: as um because you know it was I would I

1726
01:31:13,280 --> 01:31:15,559
Speaker 1: took a patun and then came out on the eight

1727
01:31:15,600 --> 01:31:18,320
Speaker 1: list and got promoted to eight and then ended up

1728
01:31:18,360 --> 01:31:21,840
Speaker 1: right back in battalion ops. And uh so when when

1729
01:31:21,840 --> 01:31:24,200
Speaker 1: Hey rolls around, you know, we're taking the battalion down

1730
01:31:24,200 --> 01:31:26,920
Speaker 1: and we'd already done all the rehearsals and we're gonna

1731
01:31:26,920 --> 01:31:32,519
Speaker 1: actually jump in a far fob site. Um that would

1732
01:31:33,680 --> 01:31:36,720
Speaker 1: so is the first and second battalion. We're coming in

1733
01:31:37,000 --> 01:31:40,560
Speaker 1: off of the aircraft carriers, then their helicopter, you know,

1734
01:31:40,600 --> 01:31:43,160
Speaker 1: the third battalion would jump in on just east of

1735
01:31:43,200 --> 01:31:45,880
Speaker 1: Porter Prince set up a far you know, before their

1736
01:31:45,920 --> 01:31:50,000
Speaker 1: refueling site, and uh so we would secure that. So

1737
01:31:50,040 --> 01:31:52,240
Speaker 1: once they dropped the first and second battalion guys off

1738
01:31:52,280 --> 01:31:54,400
Speaker 1: and Porter Prints, they'd come in. They land at the

1739
01:31:54,400 --> 01:31:56,360
Speaker 1: far fob, they pick up the third battalion guys and

1740
01:31:56,400 --> 01:31:58,680
Speaker 1: then would they take us into Porter Prints to hit

1741
01:31:58,680 --> 01:32:01,840
Speaker 1: our targets. So you know, if you remember the we

1742
01:32:01,880 --> 01:32:04,320
Speaker 1: didn't we ended up not doing a forced entry operation

1743
01:32:04,600 --> 01:32:06,960
Speaker 1: and so so they had held me over to do

1744
01:32:07,040 --> 01:32:10,200
Speaker 1: that operation. And then when when they ended up negotiating

1745
01:32:10,200 --> 01:32:13,080
Speaker 1: a settlement, they said, Ricky got a PCs. So I

1746
01:32:13,120 --> 01:32:17,080
Speaker 1: walked into third Special Forces Group and they had already

1747
01:32:17,080 --> 01:32:19,599
Speaker 1: deployed to Haiti. So when I get down to when

1748
01:32:19,640 --> 01:32:21,160
Speaker 1: I get to the third Group, they sent me down

1749
01:32:21,160 --> 01:32:23,280
Speaker 1: to Haiti and I pick up a team uh down

1750
01:32:23,280 --> 01:32:26,520
Speaker 1: in the Lacai, which I mean that was in retrospect,

1751
01:32:26,560 --> 01:32:29,120
Speaker 1: that was one of the best deployments that I was

1752
01:32:29,160 --> 01:32:32,920
Speaker 1: ever on. And uh just the that that was where

1753
01:32:33,000 --> 01:32:36,479
Speaker 1: where you could truly see an a team shine And

1754
01:32:36,680 --> 01:32:39,400
Speaker 1: because we're out in the middle of this uh nowhere

1755
01:32:40,240 --> 01:32:44,040
Speaker 1: and uh we're in charge now, right, I mean everything

1756
01:32:44,040 --> 01:32:47,320
Speaker 1: from security, to electricity, to running water to to you

1757
01:32:47,400 --> 01:32:51,800
Speaker 1: name it. And initially when when the combat operation was on,

1758
01:32:51,840 --> 01:32:54,120
Speaker 1: everybody knew that, Okay, I'm gonna take this concern. I'm

1759
01:32:54,120 --> 01:32:56,160
Speaker 1: gonna kill everybody in front of me. We're gonna hold

1760
01:32:56,160 --> 01:32:58,360
Speaker 1: this for a for a short period of time until

1761
01:32:58,360 --> 01:33:01,080
Speaker 1: we're relieved. I mean so, so from a combat perspective,

1762
01:33:01,120 --> 01:33:03,960
Speaker 1: you know, the jobs easier. But then as you walk

1763
01:33:04,000 --> 01:33:10,400
Speaker 1: in and uh the mission changes to foster democracy and

1764
01:33:10,720 --> 01:33:13,960
Speaker 1: uh so we're we're cranking on the radio headset. We're going, hey,

1765
01:33:13,960 --> 01:33:17,680
Speaker 1: what what does this mean? Foster democracy? And they're like, well,

1766
01:33:17,960 --> 01:33:20,960
Speaker 1: you know, foster democracy. And so we're trying to figure

1767
01:33:20,960 --> 01:33:23,360
Speaker 1: it out. And again that's where the A team is. Uh.

1768
01:33:23,479 --> 01:33:26,720
Speaker 1: In my medics, Sean Piatt, smart kid. He looks at

1769
01:33:26,760 --> 01:33:29,360
Speaker 1: me and he goes star lamb. He said, it can't

1770
01:33:29,360 --> 01:33:31,000
Speaker 1: be that difficult, he said. When I was in college,

1771
01:33:31,000 --> 01:33:33,439
Speaker 1: you know, they had this thing called Maslow's hierarchy and needs,

1772
01:33:33,439 --> 01:33:35,040
Speaker 1: and he's said, right now, they're scared, and you just

1773
01:33:35,080 --> 01:33:37,680
Speaker 1: needs security. He said, Once we provide security, then they're

1774
01:33:37,680 --> 01:33:39,400
Speaker 1: not gonna be scared anymore than they're gonna say, you

1775
01:33:39,400 --> 01:33:42,080
Speaker 1: know what, I'm hungry, So we gotta get the food.

1776
01:33:42,200 --> 01:33:44,400
Speaker 1: The food role on it. We gotta get food into

1777
01:33:44,479 --> 01:33:47,000
Speaker 1: him because once they're fed, they're gonna say, you know what,

1778
01:33:47,040 --> 01:33:48,720
Speaker 1: it's raining and I need a roof over my head.

1779
01:33:48,920 --> 01:33:50,240
Speaker 1: He says. All these things are going to change and

1780
01:33:50,280 --> 01:33:54,559
Speaker 1: it depend on their circumstances. So we're like, all right, Pias,

1781
01:33:54,600 --> 01:33:57,960
Speaker 1: look at the big brain on Pias. We uh we

1782
01:33:58,320 --> 01:34:01,080
Speaker 1: asked for when we get trucks and uh and they

1783
01:34:01,120 --> 01:34:03,320
Speaker 1: give a structure. We have to man teams that we

1784
01:34:03,360 --> 01:34:05,880
Speaker 1: go down, we see the mayor, We get the Haitian

1785
01:34:05,920 --> 01:34:10,320
Speaker 1: constitution translated into uh into English because it's in creole, right,

1786
01:34:10,880 --> 01:34:13,640
Speaker 1: and uh, so we figure out how their government is

1787
01:34:13,640 --> 01:34:15,840
Speaker 1: supposed to run. And so we sent our two man

1788
01:34:15,840 --> 01:34:18,920
Speaker 1: teams out to the different districts and we have civic

1789
01:34:19,080 --> 01:34:21,400
Speaker 1: classes and we say you, you're an elected guy, and

1790
01:34:21,439 --> 01:34:23,519
Speaker 1: this is what you're supposed to do. And basically it was,

1791
01:34:23,560 --> 01:34:26,160
Speaker 1: you know, you take the grievances of your um, your

1792
01:34:26,240 --> 01:34:28,080
Speaker 1: your your your area out here, and then you come

1793
01:34:28,120 --> 01:34:30,800
Speaker 1: together into capital city. We're gonna run this meeting. And uh.

1794
01:34:31,040 --> 01:34:33,559
Speaker 1: We taught them how to do Robert's rules of orders.

1795
01:34:33,600 --> 01:34:36,720
Speaker 1: You know, be recognized, you know, old business, new business,

1796
01:34:36,840 --> 01:34:39,519
Speaker 1: and uh, we'll thinking how to run an agenda. We're

1797
01:34:39,520 --> 01:34:42,680
Speaker 1: gonna do three things and uh, this guy killed my

1798
01:34:42,680 --> 01:34:44,600
Speaker 1: goat ten years ago. What we're not going to discuss that.

1799
01:34:44,640 --> 01:34:46,040
Speaker 1: What we're gonna do is, you know, we want to

1800
01:34:46,040 --> 01:34:47,720
Speaker 1: do security, you want to do electricity, you want to

1801
01:34:47,760 --> 01:34:50,800
Speaker 1: do running water, and uh, you know, then then we'll

1802
01:34:50,800 --> 01:34:52,599
Speaker 1: go to roads, we'll go to infrastructure and those kinds

1803
01:34:52,640 --> 01:34:55,160
Speaker 1: of things. And so we were able to kind of

1804
01:34:55,560 --> 01:34:59,439
Speaker 1: to do this. And so one day, you know, the

1805
01:34:59,439 --> 01:35:03,400
Speaker 1: tenth Mountain rolls in in Porter Prince and the tenth

1806
01:35:03,439 --> 01:35:08,320
Speaker 1: Mountain Division Star major is Jesse Lee. So uh so I, uh,

1807
01:35:08,439 --> 01:35:11,559
Speaker 1: I drive into uh Porter Prince to see Jesse and

1808
01:35:11,720 --> 01:35:13,559
Speaker 1: uh and I said, you know what I said, we're

1809
01:35:13,560 --> 01:35:16,479
Speaker 1: out there in the hinter land. I said, it's pretty secure,

1810
01:35:16,600 --> 01:35:20,000
Speaker 1: but you know, up until when it's not. And you know,

1811
01:35:20,080 --> 01:35:22,000
Speaker 1: you guys don't know what we look like. We don't

1812
01:35:22,000 --> 01:35:23,840
Speaker 1: know what you guys look like. You've never been on

1813
01:35:23,840 --> 01:35:26,200
Speaker 1: our h l z s. You know, you've never been

1814
01:35:26,240 --> 01:35:28,360
Speaker 1: to our safe house because we had we had actually, um,

1815
01:35:28,720 --> 01:35:34,320
Speaker 1: there was a vacation place, I mean at one time

1816
01:35:34,640 --> 01:35:36,439
Speaker 1: and then it flooded out. There was three ft of

1817
01:35:36,760 --> 01:35:38,360
Speaker 1: dirt in there. And we we actually went to the

1818
01:35:38,439 --> 01:35:40,280
Speaker 1: lady and we said, hey, we'll get the pool back up.

1819
01:35:40,560 --> 01:35:43,120
Speaker 1: We'll get the gym back up, we'll get the you know,

1820
01:35:43,160 --> 01:35:46,080
Speaker 1: your mess haul back up, your restaurant back up, and

1821
01:35:46,120 --> 01:35:49,120
Speaker 1: we'll get this bungalow over here on the on the compound.

1822
01:35:49,160 --> 01:35:51,280
Speaker 1: We'll get it back up or landscape. But we'll clean it.

1823
01:35:51,320 --> 01:35:53,439
Speaker 1: You know if you uh, if you do the laundry,

1824
01:35:53,479 --> 01:35:55,080
Speaker 1: cook of some meal, you know, we start doing that

1825
01:35:55,240 --> 01:35:58,920
Speaker 1: SF thing. And so we had a nice walled compound

1826
01:35:59,000 --> 01:36:02,639
Speaker 1: with a generator and we had it secured the typical

1827
01:36:02,720 --> 01:36:04,559
Speaker 1: one way in, one way out. You know, we knew

1828
01:36:04,560 --> 01:36:08,960
Speaker 1: where the where the breaking the wire was, we had

1829
01:36:09,000 --> 01:36:11,479
Speaker 1: the link up locations, but but none of the q

1830
01:36:11,680 --> 01:36:13,519
Speaker 1: r F knew it. So I said, why don't you

1831
01:36:13,520 --> 01:36:16,519
Speaker 1: give us a portune a week and we'll take that

1832
01:36:16,600 --> 01:36:18,760
Speaker 1: petun and uh, they can spend a day at the

1833
01:36:18,760 --> 01:36:21,559
Speaker 1: beach and uh because we had a little little beach

1834
01:36:21,880 --> 01:36:23,840
Speaker 1: area so they can do a little R and R.

1835
01:36:24,520 --> 01:36:27,760
Speaker 1: We'll take them on security patrols for a day. We'll

1836
01:36:27,800 --> 01:36:29,320
Speaker 1: do a day at the range with him, and then

1837
01:36:29,320 --> 01:36:31,280
Speaker 1: we'll do a day of just you know, running through

1838
01:36:31,400 --> 01:36:33,800
Speaker 1: our area and just they know, you know where the

1839
01:36:33,800 --> 01:36:36,120
Speaker 1: link up points are and where our our safe house is.

1840
01:36:36,320 --> 01:36:38,040
Speaker 1: And I said, it will be a good a good

1841
01:36:38,080 --> 01:36:40,680
Speaker 1: tour for them, You're rather than sitting to hangar over here.

1842
01:36:40,680 --> 01:36:42,840
Speaker 1: And we'll just rotate a squad per day and then

1843
01:36:43,160 --> 01:36:44,400
Speaker 1: at the end of the week we'll give it back

1844
01:36:44,400 --> 01:36:48,560
Speaker 1: to you. So we started doing that and lo and behold,

1845
01:36:49,600 --> 01:36:53,200
Speaker 1: some a team gets in trouble doing something dumb. Right,

1846
01:36:53,880 --> 01:36:59,679
Speaker 1: So the General Scott used to stock commander ranger guy

1847
01:37:00,360 --> 01:37:03,200
Speaker 1: didn't like SF he's coming down to do headhunting, right,

1848
01:37:04,040 --> 01:37:06,960
Speaker 1: and uh, he's got a jerk or not. And so

1849
01:37:07,000 --> 01:37:10,040
Speaker 1: they said, lamb, you got him. Just speak ranger to him,

1850
01:37:10,720 --> 01:37:12,559
Speaker 1: keep him out of trouble, you show him what you

1851
01:37:12,560 --> 01:37:16,600
Speaker 1: guys are doing, and then send him home. So he comes.

1852
01:37:16,600 --> 01:37:18,880
Speaker 1: So that's about the time that jesse Ley gives me

1853
01:37:19,240 --> 01:37:23,479
Speaker 1: his reconvoys, and his reconvoys have motorcycles and they got

1854
01:37:23,600 --> 01:37:25,840
Speaker 1: you know, hum v So we got additional trucks, we

1855
01:37:25,920 --> 01:37:29,280
Speaker 1: got motorcycles. So we did we did a picket fence,

1856
01:37:29,680 --> 01:37:32,120
Speaker 1: you know, we did. Uh, we had we had motorcycles

1857
01:37:32,160 --> 01:37:33,800
Speaker 1: on the intersections, you know, we had we had a

1858
01:37:34,240 --> 01:37:36,519
Speaker 1: cat team crisis Action Team at this parallel and the

1859
01:37:36,720 --> 01:37:39,760
Speaker 1: convoy and we retreated him like the VP that he was.

1860
01:37:39,840 --> 01:37:41,840
Speaker 1: We took him to our our compound and we had

1861
01:37:41,840 --> 01:37:43,400
Speaker 1: a we had a full up jock, you know, we

1862
01:37:43,439 --> 01:37:45,559
Speaker 1: had a big overhead imagery, we had all that everything.

1863
01:37:45,560 --> 01:37:47,280
Speaker 1: We told him what we were doing, how we'd and

1864
01:37:47,280 --> 01:37:49,000
Speaker 1: then we took him to go see the mayor because

1865
01:37:49,000 --> 01:37:50,920
Speaker 1: the mayor loved this. We had just cleaned the park

1866
01:37:51,680 --> 01:37:53,960
Speaker 1: and we had we had gotten donations from some of

1867
01:37:53,960 --> 01:37:56,760
Speaker 1: the local businesses, and then we had a bunch of

1868
01:37:56,800 --> 01:37:58,800
Speaker 1: you know, the people volunteer to clean the park. We

1869
01:37:58,920 --> 01:38:01,000
Speaker 1: repainted and then we had the the high school band

1870
01:38:01,040 --> 01:38:03,640
Speaker 1: come and play, you know, for the grand opening. And

1871
01:38:03,640 --> 01:38:06,160
Speaker 1: it's like right across the street from her, from her house,

1872
01:38:07,160 --> 01:38:11,400
Speaker 1: and so we go to the uh her place by

1873
01:38:11,400 --> 01:38:13,000
Speaker 1: this time the company command and it's our major there

1874
01:38:13,040 --> 01:38:15,360
Speaker 1: because they're gonna go upstairs and uh you know talk

1875
01:38:16,200 --> 01:38:19,360
Speaker 1: you introduce the old man to the mayor and uh

1876
01:38:20,439 --> 01:38:22,519
Speaker 1: so all the Haitians come out as soon as they

1877
01:38:22,520 --> 01:38:25,639
Speaker 1: see the convoy. We're packed into the point of where

1878
01:38:25,720 --> 01:38:28,439
Speaker 1: you know, now my guys are pulling security right and

1879
01:38:28,479 --> 01:38:30,599
Speaker 1: we're packed into point where the convoy can no longer

1880
01:38:30,640 --> 01:38:34,600
Speaker 1: move and uh, so I'm getting the slash across the

1881
01:38:34,680 --> 01:38:36,800
Speaker 1: throat from the star major Who's that means I'm gonna

1882
01:38:36,840 --> 01:38:38,680
Speaker 1: kill you unless you get these people out of here,

1883
01:38:38,720 --> 01:38:42,400
Speaker 1: because it's time to leave. And so I I make

1884
01:38:42,439 --> 01:38:45,240
Speaker 1: a sign like a gun sign with my finger, like

1885
01:38:45,240 --> 01:38:48,240
Speaker 1: would you want to shoot him? And uh just like no, no, no,

1886
01:38:48,320 --> 01:38:50,880
Speaker 1: shaking his head and so I choke up on the

1887
01:38:50,960 --> 01:38:53,880
Speaker 1: roof of the hummer and uh and I do you know?

1888
01:38:53,880 --> 01:38:56,879
Speaker 1: Because Haiti is divided in two parts, the Dominican Republic,

1889
01:38:56,920 --> 01:38:59,519
Speaker 1: who are Spanish speakers on the east, and then the Haiti,

1890
01:38:59,560 --> 01:39:01,920
Speaker 1: which is the French speakers on the west. And so

1891
01:39:01,960 --> 01:39:04,400
Speaker 1: I figured the odds were pretty good about fifty fifty

1892
01:39:04,479 --> 01:39:06,840
Speaker 1: that there was gonna be a Spanish speaker somewhere in

1893
01:39:06,840 --> 01:39:09,479
Speaker 1: that audience. So I jump up on the hood, you know,

1894
01:39:09,560 --> 01:39:11,240
Speaker 1: the seventh group guy so speak a little bit of

1895
01:39:11,280 --> 01:39:15,960
Speaker 1: Spanish and Spanish. I said, who here speaks Spanish? And

1896
01:39:16,040 --> 01:39:18,599
Speaker 1: this kid says, I do. I's all right. An't used

1897
01:39:18,600 --> 01:39:21,240
Speaker 1: to translate, So I said, who here wants to see

1898
01:39:21,240 --> 01:39:24,559
Speaker 1: a white man dance? And they just went crazy. They're

1899
01:39:24,560 --> 01:39:27,040
Speaker 1: all laughing and they start singing, you know, and the

1900
01:39:27,280 --> 01:39:29,479
Speaker 1: uh and and now the star Major is really mad

1901
01:39:29,479 --> 01:39:31,840
Speaker 1: because he's looking out there, like what the heck is

1902
01:39:31,880 --> 01:39:34,920
Speaker 1: going on out there? And so I start dancing on

1903
01:39:34,960 --> 01:39:37,679
Speaker 1: the on the hood of this humpy and I'm trying

1904
01:39:37,720 --> 01:39:40,120
Speaker 1: to do the robot and the raggedy Andy. I'm trying

1905
01:39:40,120 --> 01:39:42,519
Speaker 1: to do a little bit of moon walk and uh

1906
01:39:42,760 --> 01:39:44,519
Speaker 1: and and so I just stopped in the middle of it.

1907
01:39:44,560 --> 01:39:46,840
Speaker 1: I go, stop, stop, stop, said, I can't do any

1908
01:39:46,840 --> 01:39:49,160
Speaker 1: of my power moves on the hood of this truck

1909
01:39:49,760 --> 01:39:52,920
Speaker 1: and uh and we're a full battle rattle too, I said,

1910
01:39:52,960 --> 01:39:54,759
Speaker 1: but but I can do it over there in the park.

1911
01:39:55,280 --> 01:39:57,160
Speaker 1: And there's a big old picnic table, there's a bohello

1912
01:39:57,240 --> 01:39:59,120
Speaker 1: over there, and I can I can show you some

1913
01:39:59,120 --> 01:40:02,160
Speaker 1: some power moves over in the park. So we just

1914
01:40:02,200 --> 01:40:05,200
Speaker 1: pied Piper everybody over to the park. And now that

1915
01:40:05,240 --> 01:40:07,640
Speaker 1: allowed the convoy to go out and so on. On

1916
01:40:07,680 --> 01:40:10,800
Speaker 1: the way out, the as they drive by, because they

1917
01:40:10,880 --> 01:40:14,360
Speaker 1: left me there, they just they did dispatch one of

1918
01:40:14,360 --> 01:40:17,720
Speaker 1: the infantry kids to be my security, and we ended

1919
01:40:17,800 --> 01:40:20,400
Speaker 1: up walking home. But but I seen this big grin

1920
01:40:20,520 --> 01:40:23,679
Speaker 1: on Scott's face, and then I get a note later

1921
01:40:23,760 --> 01:40:26,960
Speaker 1: from him that says, I understand now what special Forces do.

1922
01:40:28,560 --> 01:40:30,439
Speaker 1: But that whole trip was like that. It was just

1923
01:40:30,680 --> 01:40:32,679
Speaker 1: I think we spent three or four months down there

1924
01:40:33,200 --> 01:40:35,679
Speaker 1: and they actually cried when the guys left because the

1925
01:40:35,680 --> 01:40:37,640
Speaker 1: mayor said, this is the best it's run since the

1926
01:40:37,680 --> 01:40:40,880
Speaker 1: Marines were here. So yeah, yeah, Haiti, so I did.

1927
01:40:40,960 --> 01:40:43,559
Speaker 1: I did a tour in Haiti with the third group

1928
01:40:43,840 --> 01:40:46,839
Speaker 1: worked Africa for a while. We did the African Crisis

1929
01:40:46,880 --> 01:40:51,080
Speaker 1: Response Initiative, which I think is now a coda, I believe,

1930
01:40:52,400 --> 01:40:54,160
Speaker 1: you know where where you would we would train up

1931
01:40:54,320 --> 01:40:58,479
Speaker 1: battalions in Africa to do a crisis response um you know,

1932
01:40:58,479 --> 01:41:01,400
Speaker 1: peacekeeping either Chapter six, chap or seven. And there was

1933
01:41:01,439 --> 01:41:03,720
Speaker 1: an equipment package with that and then so it was

1934
01:41:03,760 --> 01:41:06,360
Speaker 1: it was great we get the um that that was

1935
01:41:06,400 --> 01:41:09,720
Speaker 1: a good uh a good tour there. In third Group.

1936
01:41:09,760 --> 01:41:12,080
Speaker 1: I ended up going down to you know, getting selected

1937
01:41:12,120 --> 01:41:15,200
Speaker 1: for because as cross for Crosswalk, I was supposed to

1938
01:41:15,200 --> 01:41:18,720
Speaker 1: go back UM as an E eight to UH one

1939
01:41:18,760 --> 01:41:21,000
Speaker 1: of the Ranger battalions and my plan was to serve

1940
01:41:21,000 --> 01:41:24,120
Speaker 1: in all three Ranger battalions and all five Special Forces Group.

1941
01:41:24,600 --> 01:41:26,080
Speaker 1: So what I was trying to do was get an

1942
01:41:26,080 --> 01:41:29,360
Speaker 1: assignment to second Ranger Battalion on the West Coast as

1943
01:41:29,400 --> 01:41:32,479
Speaker 1: a first sergeant and then I popped for E nine

1944
01:41:32,640 --> 01:41:35,000
Speaker 1: for the academy, and so that was the end of

1945
01:41:35,040 --> 01:41:38,040
Speaker 1: my cross what career ended up going to the Sergeants

1946
01:41:38,040 --> 01:41:40,600
Speaker 1: Major Academy and then out of there I had like

1947
01:41:40,680 --> 01:41:44,679
Speaker 1: the choice job, which was going to Korea, right and

1948
01:41:44,800 --> 01:41:49,560
Speaker 1: it was going to be the the assaud k um

1949
01:41:49,760 --> 01:41:54,400
Speaker 1: Sartain Major UH for Detachment kay Over in Korea. And

1950
01:41:54,720 --> 01:41:58,479
Speaker 1: right like maybe two weeks before we're getting ready to

1951
01:41:59,240 --> 01:42:02,720
Speaker 1: going to cut the orders, um stor Major Bishop comes

1952
01:42:02,720 --> 01:42:06,080
Speaker 1: down and he goes, hey, they're doing Piffwick stuff with

1953
01:42:06,120 --> 01:42:08,680
Speaker 1: the SIF over in Charlie one ten and they need

1954
01:42:08,680 --> 01:42:10,920
Speaker 1: a steady hand and he says, I want to send

1955
01:42:10,960 --> 01:42:13,719
Speaker 1: you over there. And I thought, okay, they're doing stuff

1956
01:42:13,720 --> 01:42:17,400
Speaker 1: from Bosny and Kosovo score and this. I went home

1957
01:42:17,479 --> 01:42:19,280
Speaker 1: to my wife because she's from Korea. You know, she's

1958
01:42:19,280 --> 01:42:21,439
Speaker 1: all happy, but she's gonna be home home and Sould

1959
01:42:21,439 --> 01:42:23,719
Speaker 1: where her family lives. And I said, baby, you never

1960
01:42:23,960 --> 01:42:26,360
Speaker 1: you never believe this. The Army screwed us again and

1961
01:42:27,120 --> 01:42:29,240
Speaker 1: going to Germany. And that's where I link open Stu

1962
01:42:31,080 --> 01:42:34,720
Speaker 1: and I'm sure there's there's probably enough stories and that

1963
01:42:35,640 --> 01:42:38,599
Speaker 1: part of your career to fill up three or four

1964
01:42:38,640 --> 01:42:44,120
Speaker 1: more part podcasts. Oh yeah, it was what a great run.

1965
01:42:44,240 --> 01:42:47,200
Speaker 1: I mean they because at the time, you know, Bosnia

1966
01:42:47,320 --> 01:42:50,720
Speaker 1: was still in Kosovo and they were heating up, and

1967
01:42:50,720 --> 01:42:52,080
Speaker 1: you had the j d O s in there. The

1968
01:42:52,720 --> 01:42:55,400
Speaker 1: actually the guys were doing a lot of good stuff.

1969
01:42:56,680 --> 01:43:00,960
Speaker 1: That's where I got. I got probably the uh, the

1970
01:43:01,000 --> 01:43:04,160
Speaker 1: worst asked tune that I've ever received as as an

1971
01:43:04,160 --> 01:43:08,360
Speaker 1: E nine. Um who was the Who's the He was

1972
01:43:08,360 --> 01:43:13,800
Speaker 1: a master startan made brigadier. He was the great guy.

1973
01:43:13,800 --> 01:43:18,320
Speaker 1: He just passed away not too long ago. Tractor roll over. Um, oh,

1974
01:43:18,360 --> 01:43:24,040
Speaker 1: I know he's saw guy. I mean DSc um, super

1975
01:43:24,800 --> 01:43:27,080
Speaker 1: super guy. I thought that just blurted out his name

1976
01:43:27,080 --> 01:43:29,840
Speaker 1: here in a minute. But very serious guy. So he

1977
01:43:29,920 --> 01:43:34,240
Speaker 1: was actually um he had the the gesota over there

1978
01:43:34,720 --> 01:43:38,760
Speaker 1: at u at at Leasta at Leasta in um Bosnia.

1979
01:43:39,000 --> 01:43:40,840
Speaker 1: And so I was cutting up with somebody and I

1980
01:43:40,880 --> 01:43:43,400
Speaker 1: walked into his talk and he didn't say a word.

1981
01:43:43,439 --> 01:43:46,720
Speaker 1: He just looked at me and our eyes met and

1982
01:43:46,720 --> 01:43:49,360
Speaker 1: and as he looked at me like, men are doing

1983
01:43:49,439 --> 01:43:51,559
Speaker 1: serious business in here. If you want to take your

1984
01:43:51,600 --> 01:43:55,240
Speaker 1: jackassro somewhere else, I'd appreciate. He didn't say a word.

1985
01:43:55,240 --> 01:43:57,200
Speaker 1: That's that's all he said with his eyes. And I

1986
01:43:57,280 --> 01:43:59,280
Speaker 1: just kind of, you know, sulked out of there. But

1987
01:43:59,439 --> 01:44:03,040
Speaker 1: yet gray guy. Also guy, he was actually the sock

1988
01:44:03,560 --> 01:44:05,599
Speaker 1: commander of the stock down in Panama. What's do when

1989
01:44:05,640 --> 01:44:08,759
Speaker 1: I were there too? Uh oh and I can't remember

1990
01:44:08,760 --> 01:44:12,960
Speaker 1: his name. Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about too.

1991
01:44:14,920 --> 01:44:17,320
Speaker 1: It's gonna drive me crazy now if I can't remember

1992
01:44:18,720 --> 01:44:23,479
Speaker 1: barge Well, Elden barge Wall, Yes, a soft legend. Yeah,

1993
01:44:24,280 --> 01:44:28,040
Speaker 1: so I'm sorry for gim me Eldon. Yeah, because he's

1994
01:44:28,120 --> 01:44:29,720
Speaker 1: up there with the big ranger, this guy looking down

1995
01:44:29,760 --> 01:44:35,240
Speaker 1: like seriously, hey, you know we're getting older now, we

1996
01:44:35,240 --> 01:44:38,000
Speaker 1: we we have built in you know, a little bit

1997
01:44:38,040 --> 01:44:43,960
Speaker 1: of yeah, you know, excuse in there now. So but then,

1998
01:44:44,120 --> 01:44:46,880
Speaker 1: you know, you retired as the command side, you made

1999
01:44:46,880 --> 01:44:48,880
Speaker 1: you a fifth group, and you ended up in the

2000
01:44:48,920 --> 01:44:52,599
Speaker 1: Middle East, so you you kind of did everything, yeah,

2001
01:44:52,600 --> 01:44:54,280
Speaker 1: you know, And and again I was I was just

2002
01:44:54,400 --> 01:44:58,640
Speaker 1: fortunate about the time when I was I was going

2003
01:44:58,680 --> 01:45:02,800
Speaker 1: to retire in Germany and uh and I actually put

2004
01:45:02,800 --> 01:45:06,000
Speaker 1: in the paperwork to retire, you know, in theater. And

2005
01:45:06,280 --> 01:45:08,360
Speaker 1: because we had done a they did they would do

2006
01:45:08,400 --> 01:45:12,800
Speaker 1: a staff ride with soccer every six months and uh

2007
01:45:13,040 --> 01:45:15,160
Speaker 1: and we a lot of guys had motorcycles over there,

2008
01:45:15,200 --> 01:45:18,200
Speaker 1: so we would, uh, we would take our motorcycles and

2009
01:45:18,240 --> 01:45:22,920
Speaker 1: we would go to these different cemeteries around Europe and

2010
01:45:23,040 --> 01:45:24,920
Speaker 1: uh so you know, the ride over there was great.

2011
01:45:24,960 --> 01:45:26,760
Speaker 1: But then we did into our dress uniform. We had

2012
01:45:26,760 --> 01:45:28,439
Speaker 1: the company guide on and we go in and we'd

2013
01:45:28,439 --> 01:45:31,400
Speaker 1: we'd we'd lay you know, a wreath or a flag

2014
01:45:31,520 --> 01:45:33,760
Speaker 1: or something. So one year we we did Normandy, right,

2015
01:45:34,040 --> 01:45:36,360
Speaker 1: and we did the bike ride to Normandy. But we

2016
01:45:36,400 --> 01:45:39,280
Speaker 1: had an old the General John Ron, who's down here

2017
01:45:39,280 --> 01:45:40,960
Speaker 1: in Florida. In fact, you and I gotta go go

2018
01:45:41,080 --> 01:45:43,880
Speaker 1: see him once they opened back up, because he's he's

2019
01:45:44,000 --> 01:45:46,840
Speaker 1: like ninety eight years old, still sharp as attack. But

2020
01:45:46,920 --> 01:45:51,120
Speaker 1: he was Captain John Ron. We went ashore on dog

2021
01:45:51,160 --> 01:45:55,599
Speaker 1: Red Omaha Beach and uh yeah, just a terrific dude. Man,

2022
01:45:55,680 --> 01:46:00,280
Speaker 1: he was. He's the real deal. And so you know,

2023
01:46:00,320 --> 01:46:02,960
Speaker 1: John Ron was gonna come over and as part of

2024
01:46:02,960 --> 01:46:05,080
Speaker 1: the staff, right, we're gonna go to dog Red and

2025
01:46:05,080 --> 01:46:06,920
Speaker 1: then walk the bluffs and go all the way into

2026
01:46:07,040 --> 01:46:11,559
Speaker 1: into veer Ville and uh and so I met him

2027
01:46:11,560 --> 01:46:13,960
Speaker 1: at the airport and we brought him in and it

2028
01:46:14,120 --> 01:46:16,760
Speaker 1: was you know, I had been to France, but maybe

2029
01:46:16,800 --> 01:46:19,000
Speaker 1: once or twice. So there's this one part where you're

2030
01:46:19,000 --> 01:46:20,719
Speaker 1: coming out of Paris and I think you're on seven

2031
01:46:20,760 --> 01:46:23,240
Speaker 1: and you're going, uh, you're going down, you know, towards

2032
01:46:23,280 --> 01:46:26,000
Speaker 1: the beaches, and um, you know, one way it takes

2033
01:46:26,040 --> 01:46:27,519
Speaker 1: you to con another way way it takes you to

2034
01:46:27,560 --> 01:46:29,280
Speaker 1: pay you and if if you make the wrong turn,

2035
01:46:29,360 --> 01:46:31,839
Speaker 1: then you've gotta circle back. And so I'm I'm asking

2036
01:46:31,880 --> 01:46:34,760
Speaker 1: my uh and my my map. Guy, I said, am

2037
01:46:34,800 --> 01:46:36,760
Speaker 1: I am I going left? Here? Am I going right?

2038
01:46:37,400 --> 01:46:39,760
Speaker 1: And uh? The general from the back seat he goes,

2039
01:46:39,800 --> 01:46:42,720
Speaker 1: you want to stay to the right, and uh, so like,

2040
01:46:42,720 --> 01:46:47,680
Speaker 1: oh you you'd be back here before he goes, uh,

2041
01:46:47,680 --> 01:46:49,240
Speaker 1: I was well out of you know where were you're at.

2042
01:46:49,720 --> 01:46:51,839
Speaker 1: And he goes the Invasion match. He said, I studied

2043
01:46:51,880 --> 01:46:54,360
Speaker 1: the Invasion match. And he says, you know, over here

2044
01:46:54,439 --> 01:46:56,920
Speaker 1: is Calvados and this regional beer is this And he goes,

2045
01:46:56,920 --> 01:47:00,360
Speaker 1: Calvados is famous for horses and apples and says they

2046
01:47:00,360 --> 01:47:03,160
Speaker 1: make this apple liqueur called Calpatos. So I'm gonna I'm

2047
01:47:03,160 --> 01:47:04,800
Speaker 1: gonna buy a bottle and he said, no, I can't

2048
01:47:04,840 --> 01:47:07,280
Speaker 1: drink it. He said every court martial that I uh

2049
01:47:08,000 --> 01:47:11,759
Speaker 1: presided over in France had something to do with that liquor.

2050
01:47:11,760 --> 01:47:14,120
Speaker 1: And he said, I refused to drink it even today.

2051
01:47:14,240 --> 01:47:18,840
Speaker 1: But uh an incredible guy. But but you know, through

2052
01:47:18,840 --> 01:47:22,719
Speaker 1: these going to these cemeteries, I run into General Lozinski retired,

2053
01:47:22,760 --> 01:47:25,679
Speaker 1: you know, old Rangel Lozinski. So he's got American Battle

2054
01:47:25,720 --> 01:47:29,320
Speaker 1: Monuments Commission and uh so I put my name in

2055
01:47:29,640 --> 01:47:33,680
Speaker 1: to be the deputy director of the Normandy Cemetery there

2056
01:47:33,680 --> 01:47:37,920
Speaker 1: at Coville and get it. And so I'm gonna retire.

2057
01:47:37,960 --> 01:47:40,120
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that job. The only stipulation was, you know,

2058
01:47:40,120 --> 01:47:42,040
Speaker 1: I had to learn how to learn to speak French.

2059
01:47:42,080 --> 01:47:44,600
Speaker 1: And they had a tutor that would almost guarantee that

2060
01:47:44,600 --> 01:47:47,920
Speaker 1: you're going you're gonna learn within that time timeline. And

2061
01:47:48,360 --> 01:47:50,439
Speaker 1: they run those those cemeteries. You know, they have an

2062
01:47:50,439 --> 01:47:52,760
Speaker 1: officer as the director and the list of guys the

2063
01:47:52,800 --> 01:47:55,480
Speaker 1: deputy and uh that would have done all the PCMs,

2064
01:47:55,760 --> 01:47:58,719
Speaker 1: you know, the prevent emintenance checks and services on the stones.

2065
01:47:59,080 --> 01:48:01,080
Speaker 1: You know, you're keeping those up, you're keeping the grounds.

2066
01:48:01,160 --> 01:48:03,120
Speaker 1: They had trees that they harvest, I mean, so you're

2067
01:48:03,160 --> 01:48:05,800
Speaker 1: running the patuna. You know, forty frenchmen to just make

2068
01:48:05,800 --> 01:48:08,080
Speaker 1: it so. And then you're doing all the uh what

2069
01:48:08,120 --> 01:48:12,760
Speaker 1: do you call it them, the the events, you know,

2070
01:48:12,840 --> 01:48:14,880
Speaker 1: for the for the different and then also you know,

2071
01:48:14,880 --> 01:48:16,840
Speaker 1: talking to the guy that was there, he was an

2072
01:48:16,840 --> 01:48:18,639
Speaker 1: old s F star major that was going to another

2073
01:48:18,680 --> 01:48:22,719
Speaker 1: cemetery down in closer to France. But he said, also

2074
01:48:22,760 --> 01:48:26,400
Speaker 1: you'd get um letters from somebody, you know, uncle Bann

2075
01:48:26,439 --> 01:48:29,200
Speaker 1: or grandpa or somebody. You know, they they died, they're

2076
01:48:29,200 --> 01:48:30,800
Speaker 1: buried there, but we don't know much about it. So

2077
01:48:30,840 --> 01:48:33,120
Speaker 1: you do a rubbing of the stone and then you'd

2078
01:48:33,120 --> 01:48:35,400
Speaker 1: find out, you know, go through the archives and you

2079
01:48:35,439 --> 01:48:38,480
Speaker 1: know he was initially fell here, was was in turn disinterned,

2080
01:48:38,520 --> 01:48:41,200
Speaker 1: and then in turned here and so it was just

2081
01:48:41,240 --> 01:48:45,479
Speaker 1: a great great place. But then the towers fell and

2082
01:48:45,680 --> 01:48:49,840
Speaker 1: uh so I was stop lost. But Scotty Brazil had

2083
01:48:49,840 --> 01:48:51,960
Speaker 1: already shown up. So now he's sitting in my company.

2084
01:48:51,960 --> 01:48:54,400
Speaker 1: So I can't go back to Charlie company. So they

2085
01:48:54,400 --> 01:48:57,720
Speaker 1: sent me. They pinned me CSM and then I go

2086
01:48:57,880 --> 01:49:02,840
Speaker 1: to Jibouti and stay end up the uh the JTFHA

2087
01:49:03,040 --> 01:49:05,920
Speaker 1: for the Horn of Africa, and in that I ended

2088
01:49:06,000 --> 01:49:11,000
Speaker 1: up working with the Alpha one five and Bravo uh

2089
01:49:11,280 --> 01:49:14,799
Speaker 1: second Battalion third, you know, the other two crisis response elements.

2090
01:49:15,520 --> 01:49:18,040
Speaker 1: And I actually end up getting assigned to First Battalion,

2091
01:49:18,320 --> 01:49:20,599
Speaker 1: fifth Group, who was already in you who came into

2092
01:49:20,720 --> 01:49:25,519
Speaker 1: theater UH seven months later getting ready for the Iraq invasion.

2093
01:49:25,600 --> 01:49:28,760
Speaker 1: I just took you know, theater air from JABOUTI and

2094
01:49:28,760 --> 01:49:30,960
Speaker 1: then went over to met what met up with first

2095
01:49:30,960 --> 01:49:34,760
Speaker 1: Battalion in UH. I think they were in Jordan's at

2096
01:49:34,800 --> 01:49:38,040
Speaker 1: the Hotel five I think, and then we ended up

2097
01:49:38,080 --> 01:49:40,920
Speaker 1: doing the doing the the push into Iraq and oh

2098
01:49:40,920 --> 01:49:44,240
Speaker 1: three the first Battalion, and that's that's what I decided

2099
01:49:44,280 --> 01:49:46,479
Speaker 1: to hanging up. I actually called my wife and once

2100
01:49:46,520 --> 01:49:48,240
Speaker 1: we got back from Jordan, and she's like hung up

2101
01:49:48,240 --> 01:49:52,519
Speaker 1: on me twice because she's she's still sitting in Germany

2102
01:49:52,800 --> 01:49:57,960
Speaker 1: and I had actually left her your plus in Germany

2103
01:49:58,000 --> 01:50:00,840
Speaker 1: in housing and I'm not even assigned a us U

2104
01:50:00,880 --> 01:50:03,960
Speaker 1: S Army Europe anymore. And they're telling her, hey, you

2105
01:50:04,000 --> 01:50:06,280
Speaker 1: get moved to Fort Campbell. She said, I've never been there,

2106
01:50:06,760 --> 01:50:08,479
Speaker 1: and that yeah, she was just fit to be tied.

2107
01:50:08,520 --> 01:50:13,080
Speaker 1: She says, I'm done, and uh, you could you could

2108
01:50:13,080 --> 01:50:15,799
Speaker 1: go ahead and serve in your your last ranger Battalion

2109
01:50:15,800 --> 01:50:17,880
Speaker 1: and your last special wards of the group. But you

2110
01:50:17,680 --> 01:50:20,599
Speaker 1: you're gonna do without me, So I cut my losses.

2111
01:50:20,640 --> 01:50:24,200
Speaker 1: She's a good gal. She's a keeper and uh then retired.

2112
01:50:26,920 --> 01:50:31,519
Speaker 1: Explained to our listeners what it was like, real quick.

2113
01:50:31,760 --> 01:50:34,200
Speaker 1: I know, we I asked you for an hour, we've

2114
01:50:34,240 --> 01:50:38,400
Speaker 1: got we've already gone two hours about real quick, explain

2115
01:50:38,479 --> 01:50:41,840
Speaker 1: to our listeners what it was like standing up on

2116
01:50:41,880 --> 01:50:44,240
Speaker 1: the stage there to be inducted in the so Calm

2117
01:50:44,280 --> 01:50:46,880
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. I know you also were inducted in

2118
01:50:46,920 --> 01:50:49,200
Speaker 1: the Ranger Hall of Fame. Tell us a little bit

2119
01:50:49,240 --> 01:50:53,800
Speaker 1: about those you know, humbling because the uh. In fact,

2120
01:50:53,840 --> 01:50:56,320
Speaker 1: I was just working on on a project today for

2121
01:50:56,400 --> 01:50:59,280
Speaker 1: Chelsea are marketing gal. So as we do our our

2122
01:50:59,360 --> 01:51:03,200
Speaker 1: seventh and versary reception here in Tampa on the seventeenth

2123
01:51:03,200 --> 01:51:06,280
Speaker 1: of May, which you're vititude the UH and any of

2124
01:51:06,360 --> 01:51:09,400
Speaker 1: the listeners that that that are that are nearby can

2125
01:51:09,520 --> 01:51:11,400
Speaker 1: come on down and UH, well it'll be at the

2126
01:51:11,479 --> 01:51:15,480
Speaker 1: Armature Works on seventeen May, and it's our seventh anniversary.

2127
01:51:16,280 --> 01:51:19,800
Speaker 1: And so Chelsea wants to do around a golf you know,

2128
01:51:19,880 --> 01:51:22,120
Speaker 1: nine holes of golf, and so she said, let's do

2129
01:51:22,240 --> 01:51:27,120
Speaker 1: some kind of historical soft something and so you know,

2130
01:51:27,200 --> 01:51:29,160
Speaker 1: she she said, could could you work something up? And

2131
01:51:29,200 --> 01:51:31,439
Speaker 1: I and I say, yeah, yeah, we'll just do uh,

2132
01:51:31,680 --> 01:51:36,840
Speaker 1: We'll do like a soft icon per hole. And so

2133
01:51:36,920 --> 01:51:39,120
Speaker 1: I'm doing this research, you know, and every every soft

2134
01:51:39,280 --> 01:51:41,200
Speaker 1: icon gets uh gets a hole of golf and you're

2135
01:51:41,240 --> 01:51:44,960
Speaker 1: gonna learn about the about the soft icon and so

2136
01:51:45,080 --> 01:51:47,479
Speaker 1: you know, I start with William O. Darby on hole

2137
01:51:47,560 --> 01:51:50,920
Speaker 1: one and our major tyrone adult utterly you know a

2138
01:51:51,040 --> 01:51:55,280
Speaker 1: Sante raider, uh William Yarborough. You know the guy that

2139
01:51:55,400 --> 01:51:58,040
Speaker 1: designed the jump wings and the Bara trooper uniform and

2140
01:51:58,200 --> 01:51:59,760
Speaker 1: uh you know the guy that got us the green

2141
01:51:59,840 --> 01:52:04,360
Speaker 1: b start. Major Galen Kittleson, I mean Kittleson was in

2142
01:52:04,479 --> 01:52:07,920
Speaker 1: three you know the pow Rescus, not only Sante but

2143
01:52:08,479 --> 01:52:10,760
Speaker 1: two during World War Two, you know, the one with

2144
01:52:10,880 --> 01:52:15,320
Speaker 1: the Rangers hit Cabanitouan and uh Sydney Shack Now, I

2145
01:52:15,320 --> 01:52:18,720
Speaker 1: mean a kid who was in the camps uh as

2146
01:52:18,760 --> 01:52:22,479
Speaker 1: as as a as a Jew in the concentration camps

2147
01:52:22,520 --> 01:52:24,680
Speaker 1: and was like days away from being gassed with the

2148
01:52:24,720 --> 01:52:30,599
Speaker 1: rest of his family. And when he escapes and I

2149
01:52:30,640 --> 01:52:34,400
Speaker 1: met General's Shack. Now he was a very humble man

2150
01:52:36,360 --> 01:52:38,000
Speaker 1: and you're right, and I mean the fact that he

2151
01:52:38,040 --> 01:52:39,880
Speaker 1: had because he went into the camp when he was

2152
01:52:39,920 --> 01:52:42,679
Speaker 1: like seven and he doesn't get to the States until

2153
01:52:42,800 --> 01:52:45,960
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifty And I'm so the first time he

2154
01:52:46,000 --> 01:52:48,599
Speaker 1: goes to schools, he's got to learn English and he's

2155
01:52:48,600 --> 01:52:51,080
Speaker 1: got to learn uh. That's the first time he hit school.

2156
01:52:51,080 --> 01:52:53,360
Speaker 1: But he he ends us. I mean, you know from

2157
01:52:53,400 --> 01:52:55,640
Speaker 1: a list of guy going to o CS as a

2158
01:52:55,720 --> 01:52:58,880
Speaker 1: D seven and coming out the other end uh as

2159
01:52:58,920 --> 01:53:03,320
Speaker 1: as the two starts way and uh, you know Harry Beale,

2160
01:53:03,439 --> 01:53:07,559
Speaker 1: the first Seal, Chapman, the young controller kid that just

2161
01:53:07,600 --> 01:53:10,280
Speaker 1: got the Medal of Honor. I mean, you got Merritt

2162
01:53:10,400 --> 01:53:14,320
Speaker 1: Edson who was World War One marine who ends up

2163
01:53:14,520 --> 01:53:17,759
Speaker 1: World War Two, you know, forming the uh the Marine Raiders.

2164
01:53:18,080 --> 01:53:20,720
Speaker 1: And then you got John sing Lab. So so those

2165
01:53:20,720 --> 01:53:22,960
Speaker 1: are the guys that will have each one round of

2166
01:53:22,960 --> 01:53:25,040
Speaker 1: golf that the guys will learn about as they're going

2167
01:53:25,080 --> 01:53:28,360
Speaker 1: to UH to play golf. So those are the guys

2168
01:53:28,479 --> 01:53:30,920
Speaker 1: that that you're that you're hanging with when you're in

2169
01:53:30,960 --> 01:53:33,000
Speaker 1: the Ranger Hall of Fame. In fact, I think Adderle

2170
01:53:33,200 --> 01:53:35,920
Speaker 1: was in was in that induction. So that the one

2171
01:53:35,960 --> 01:53:40,160
Speaker 1: word is humbled and not worthy because you're standing there

2172
01:53:40,160 --> 01:53:42,759
Speaker 1: and you're truly just surrounded by legends. I mean, another

2173
01:53:42,760 --> 01:53:45,120
Speaker 1: guy that was in that Ranger Hall of Fame class

2174
01:53:45,200 --> 01:53:49,000
Speaker 1: was the Navy seal that I can't remember his name.

2175
01:53:49,240 --> 01:53:51,680
Speaker 1: He got shot in the eye and he's laying there

2176
01:53:51,680 --> 01:53:56,000
Speaker 1: in the hospital bed and uh, the guy comes in.

2177
01:53:56,040 --> 01:53:57,840
Speaker 1: He says, what are you gonna do now? I mean,

2178
01:53:57,880 --> 01:53:59,280
Speaker 1: you can't do the seal thing. He says, I want

2179
01:53:59,280 --> 01:54:01,400
Speaker 1: to do. I want to go to the FBI. And

2180
01:54:01,439 --> 01:54:03,800
Speaker 1: they said, well, if you can make if you can

2181
01:54:03,840 --> 01:54:05,400
Speaker 1: make it, all the standards will put you in this.

2182
01:54:05,560 --> 01:54:09,400
Speaker 1: We did a full career in the FBI afterwards. Loner guy.

2183
01:54:09,439 --> 01:54:12,000
Speaker 1: So so yeah, it's just it's humbling to be up

2184
01:54:12,000 --> 01:54:14,720
Speaker 1: there because you just think, man, I've been I've been

2185
01:54:14,760 --> 01:54:18,120
Speaker 1: surrounded by heroes of my entire life and I was

2186
01:54:18,160 --> 01:54:22,040
Speaker 1: just fortunately a little bit rubbed off, well a lot

2187
01:54:22,080 --> 01:54:25,920
Speaker 1: of it rubbed off. So you know, now you're you're

2188
01:54:26,000 --> 01:54:28,840
Speaker 1: one of those legends. So we're really pleased we got

2189
01:54:28,840 --> 01:54:32,680
Speaker 1: to spend some time with you today. A quick funny

2190
01:54:32,720 --> 01:54:36,400
Speaker 1: story General Downing, because I you know, General Downing loved

2191
01:54:36,400 --> 01:54:40,920
Speaker 1: his Rangers, but he loved his s guy. Um, so

2192
01:54:41,560 --> 01:54:44,400
Speaker 1: we were tasked to go down and train some Paraguay

2193
01:54:44,400 --> 01:54:48,600
Speaker 1: and guys in the early mid nineties, and they had

2194
01:54:48,640 --> 01:54:52,200
Speaker 1: just had a coup, as so often happens in South America,

2195
01:54:53,080 --> 01:54:56,360
Speaker 1: and no one really knew who was in charge of

2196
01:54:56,440 --> 01:54:59,680
Speaker 1: the military down there. So General Downing, Yeah, I have

2197
01:54:59,760 --> 01:55:02,280
Speaker 1: to go over and get briefed by the General and

2198
01:55:02,800 --> 01:55:05,360
Speaker 1: I'm going down there with my intel sergeant and you know,

2199
01:55:05,360 --> 01:55:08,360
Speaker 1: we're doing our site survey and so we're going down

2200
01:55:08,400 --> 01:55:10,960
Speaker 1: there and we're gonna find out, you know, what the

2201
01:55:11,040 --> 01:55:14,160
Speaker 1: losses and we're gonna train the Paraguayan guys for what

2202
01:55:14,240 --> 01:55:18,000
Speaker 1: they need. So General Downing tells us before we leave,

2203
01:55:18,640 --> 01:55:20,800
Speaker 1: find out who's in charge down there, because we really

2204
01:55:20,840 --> 01:55:23,880
Speaker 1: have no clue. So okay, so we get down there.

2205
01:55:24,000 --> 01:55:26,720
Speaker 1: The guys from the embassy meet us, we meet the

2206
01:55:26,720 --> 01:55:30,280
Speaker 1: Paraguayan commander of this SF unit we're gonna be working with.

2207
01:55:30,880 --> 01:55:33,880
Speaker 1: Everything's great. So then they were like, well, it has

2208
01:55:33,920 --> 01:55:36,640
Speaker 1: to get approved by the Army Chief of Staff, and

2209
01:55:36,680 --> 01:55:38,800
Speaker 1: we're like perfect, because this is the guy we want

2210
01:55:38,800 --> 01:55:40,880
Speaker 1: to find out what is So they bring us in

2211
01:55:40,960 --> 01:55:45,080
Speaker 1: this room, this big long conference table. They give us

2212
01:55:45,120 --> 01:55:47,160
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee. We're waiting for the General we're

2213
01:55:47,200 --> 01:55:49,160
Speaker 1: at one end. They put his coffee at the other

2214
01:55:49,400 --> 01:55:51,600
Speaker 1: where you need binos to find out who the guy

2215
01:55:51,720 --> 01:55:54,760
Speaker 1: is at the other end of the So, so we're

2216
01:55:54,760 --> 01:55:56,920
Speaker 1: sitting there and you know, it's kind of awkward at

2217
01:55:56,920 --> 01:55:59,320
Speaker 1: first because he walks in, and then he was like,

2218
01:55:59,360 --> 01:56:01,080
Speaker 1: I can't even of you guys down there, come on

2219
01:56:01,160 --> 01:56:04,400
Speaker 1: up here. So we're all talking Spanish and first and

2220
01:56:04,440 --> 01:56:07,360
Speaker 1: then in perfect English, he's like, hey, let's work on

2221
01:56:07,440 --> 01:56:09,800
Speaker 1: English for a while. So I haven't spoke English for

2222
01:56:09,840 --> 01:56:13,280
Speaker 1: a long time, and it was perfectly on accent, and

2223
01:56:13,760 --> 01:56:17,560
Speaker 1: my you know, my intel sergeant and I just looked

2224
01:56:17,560 --> 01:56:21,520
Speaker 1: at each other like, wow, this guy speaks really good English.

2225
01:56:21,520 --> 01:56:25,400
Speaker 1: And where to school? Yeah, And he said to us,

2226
01:56:25,600 --> 01:56:27,800
Speaker 1: didn't they tell you who I am? We're like, to

2227
01:56:27,880 --> 01:56:32,520
Speaker 1: be perfectly honest, no, because nobody really knows is in charge.

2228
01:56:33,240 --> 01:56:37,160
Speaker 1: And he's like, well, you guys worked for Wayne Downing, right, Yeah.

2229
01:56:37,360 --> 01:56:42,800
Speaker 1: He's like Wayne was my roommate at West Point, no way,

2230
01:56:44,040 --> 01:56:46,920
Speaker 1: and uh So we were looking at each other and

2231
01:56:46,960 --> 01:56:48,960
Speaker 1: I know, all right, it's got big because we just

2232
01:56:49,000 --> 01:56:51,520
Speaker 1: sat there like what and he's like, yeah, I was

2233
01:56:51,560 --> 01:56:53,960
Speaker 1: an Allied officer at West Point. And he was like,

2234
01:56:54,320 --> 01:56:56,680
Speaker 1: let me tell you what, I love the United States,

2235
01:56:56,680 --> 01:57:01,000
Speaker 1: but winters in New York you can keep them. And

2236
01:57:01,520 --> 01:57:04,760
Speaker 1: and he's like, Wayne was my roommate. So we were like,

2237
01:57:05,000 --> 01:57:08,800
Speaker 1: holy crap, right, so you know, and he's like, before

2238
01:57:08,840 --> 01:57:11,960
Speaker 1: you guys take off and go back to brag, come

2239
01:57:12,000 --> 01:57:14,160
Speaker 1: by my office. I got some stuff I want you

2240
01:57:14,200 --> 01:57:17,800
Speaker 1: to bring up because you know, when you guys come back,

2241
01:57:17,840 --> 01:57:20,600
Speaker 1: I would love Wayne to come down and visit. So

2242
01:57:20,640 --> 01:57:24,080
Speaker 1: we're like, okay. So he gave us this big bag

2243
01:57:24,120 --> 01:57:26,280
Speaker 1: of stuff to give the General Downing. So we get

2244
01:57:26,320 --> 01:57:29,240
Speaker 1: back from our site survey and you know, we have

2245
01:57:29,320 --> 01:57:31,120
Speaker 1: to go brief to staff again. You know how the

2246
01:57:31,600 --> 01:57:34,640
Speaker 1: drill is. So we're in there and the staff is

2247
01:57:34,680 --> 01:57:37,520
Speaker 1: asking all these questions. In General Downing interrupts. He goes

2248
01:57:37,720 --> 01:57:40,520
Speaker 1: a chief that, uh, you know, do we know who's

2249
01:57:40,520 --> 01:57:43,400
Speaker 1: in charge down there? And I said, as a matter

2250
01:57:43,400 --> 01:57:48,080
Speaker 1: of fact, and you roll roommate. He's like, come again,

2251
01:57:48,560 --> 01:57:51,600
Speaker 1: and I said, General san Diego and he goes, well,

2252
01:57:51,840 --> 01:57:55,040
Speaker 1: wait a minute. Last year he was a lieutenant colonel. No,

2253
01:57:55,160 --> 01:57:59,120
Speaker 1: he's got four stars. Now he's in charge of the

2254
01:57:59,200 --> 01:58:02,240
Speaker 1: military and he is. And then he was like, okay,

2255
01:58:02,360 --> 01:58:06,240
Speaker 1: staff can go. He's like I need to talk to chief.

2256
01:58:06,280 --> 01:58:08,760
Speaker 1: He throws them all out, he goes, get the funk

2257
01:58:08,800 --> 01:58:11,960
Speaker 1: out of here. Sandy Sandy Sandiegos a four star. I said,

2258
01:58:12,000 --> 01:58:14,960
Speaker 1: he's the chief of staff. So he's like, oh, he

2259
01:58:15,360 --> 01:58:17,560
Speaker 1: calls his aid in. He's like, find out when the

2260
01:58:17,600 --> 01:58:20,640
Speaker 1: chief's gonna be down there. We're going to visit. He's like,

2261
01:58:20,680 --> 01:58:22,800
Speaker 1: we got to spend some time with him. He goes,

2262
01:58:22,840 --> 01:58:26,000
Speaker 1: he's a great dude. He speaks a great English. Yeah,

2263
01:58:26,080 --> 01:58:30,800
Speaker 1: he told us all about that. So what else did

2264
01:58:30,840 --> 01:58:33,680
Speaker 1: he tell you? Yeah? So, you know, we we went

2265
01:58:33,720 --> 01:58:38,640
Speaker 1: down there, they treated us like absolute gold. I've never

2266
01:58:38,680 --> 01:58:43,240
Speaker 1: been treated better on any deployment anywhere. Um, the guys

2267
01:58:43,320 --> 01:58:45,600
Speaker 1: we were working with were awesome. We we trained him

2268
01:58:45,640 --> 01:58:47,760
Speaker 1: up to a certain degree and then they went over

2269
01:58:47,840 --> 01:58:51,480
Speaker 1: with the Delta guys and they got their training level,

2270
01:58:51,880 --> 01:58:54,280
Speaker 1: you know, increased to the level that they were looking for.

2271
01:58:54,360 --> 01:58:57,280
Speaker 1: But you know, in general, down and came back. And

2272
01:58:57,360 --> 01:59:00,640
Speaker 1: every time I've seen him after that, he always wink

2273
01:59:00,720 --> 01:59:03,800
Speaker 1: at me and he was like, so, when's the next

2274
01:59:03,840 --> 01:59:07,880
Speaker 1: time we're going on in the vecture. But he was

2275
01:59:08,720 --> 01:59:12,640
Speaker 1: tremendous guy, and uh yeah, I was sorry to hear

2276
01:59:12,680 --> 01:59:15,520
Speaker 1: about him passing a few years. Yeah, me too, ill

2277
01:59:15,560 --> 01:59:20,360
Speaker 1: you know, and that's actually the last thing I'll shut

2278
01:59:20,440 --> 01:59:22,520
Speaker 1: up after this. But the h that's when I found

2279
01:59:22,600 --> 01:59:25,760
Speaker 1: in my entire career is that there was always you know,

2280
01:59:25,840 --> 01:59:28,240
Speaker 1: a guy like Grange or Murk or you know, just

2281
01:59:28,400 --> 01:59:31,200
Speaker 1: somebody that was that that would shepherd me through that

2282
01:59:31,640 --> 01:59:33,640
Speaker 1: you know, that was a bit rambunctious when I was younger.

2283
01:59:34,160 --> 01:59:38,720
Speaker 1: They would take that, you know, that that exuberance, if

2284
01:59:38,720 --> 01:59:41,600
Speaker 1: you will, that that overabundance of energy, and they'd focus

2285
01:59:41,680 --> 01:59:45,200
Speaker 1: it to uh two two better ends. And I mean

2286
01:59:45,240 --> 01:59:49,640
Speaker 1: they and they took the Abrams Charter seriously, you know,

2287
01:59:49,720 --> 01:59:51,520
Speaker 1: to where the you would start in the Rangers, and

2288
01:59:51,520 --> 01:59:53,400
Speaker 1: they go out and make the army better. I mean

2289
01:59:53,400 --> 01:59:55,320
Speaker 1: they all live by a standard. I mean, you know,

2290
01:59:55,360 --> 01:59:58,840
Speaker 1: the standards that the guys keep and how hard they

2291
01:59:58,880 --> 02:00:01,360
Speaker 1: trained and and it uh. I tried to put it

2292
02:00:01,400 --> 02:00:04,480
Speaker 1: together once. I just I called it the soldiers Promise,

2293
02:00:05,240 --> 02:00:07,360
Speaker 1: and it kind of reads that the people of the

2294
02:00:07,440 --> 02:00:11,040
Speaker 1: United States expect me to be an elite warrior capable

2295
02:00:11,080 --> 02:00:13,200
Speaker 1: of doing things with my hands and weapons better than

2296
02:00:13,240 --> 02:00:16,400
Speaker 1: anyone else in the world. I will not violate that trust.

2297
02:00:17,320 --> 02:00:20,360
Speaker 1: Live by the Special Forces and Ranger Creed committing their

2298
02:00:20,360 --> 02:00:22,880
Speaker 1: words to my memory. Wherever I go, I will make

2299
02:00:22,920 --> 02:00:25,520
Speaker 1: it apparent that I am the best. I will learn

2300
02:00:25,520 --> 02:00:28,160
Speaker 1: the lineage and honors of Special Operations Forces and be

2301
02:00:28,200 --> 02:00:32,120
Speaker 1: a proud contributor to that heritage. I will show disdain

2302
02:00:32,640 --> 02:00:35,440
Speaker 1: for those who have no respect for themselves, their detachments

2303
02:00:35,440 --> 02:00:38,400
Speaker 1: to their unit. They are not worthy of my respect, trust,

2304
02:00:38,480 --> 02:00:41,240
Speaker 1: or friendship. I will study the art of war, learning

2305
02:00:41,240 --> 02:00:44,520
Speaker 1: the lessons of those who fought before me. Combat application

2306
02:00:44,560 --> 02:00:47,720
Speaker 1: will dictate everything that I do. I will possess and

2307
02:00:47,800 --> 02:00:50,320
Speaker 1: nurture the soul and mind of a warrior. I will

2308
02:00:50,360 --> 02:00:53,200
Speaker 1: be a master of my profession, the profession of arms.

2309
02:00:53,960 --> 02:00:56,160
Speaker 1: I understand that those who do not know history are

2310
02:00:56,160 --> 02:00:58,839
Speaker 1: doomed to repeat it, and those who do not revere

2311
02:00:58,880 --> 02:01:01,560
Speaker 1: the warriors that sacrific eyes before them are condemned to

2312
02:01:01,600 --> 02:01:05,000
Speaker 1: live a life with no heart, no soul, no conscience,

2313
02:01:05,120 --> 02:01:08,800
Speaker 1: no honor, and no purpose. I'm prepared to die for

2314
02:01:08,920 --> 02:01:11,560
Speaker 1: my teammates in my unit. I will become a rock

2315
02:01:11,640 --> 02:01:14,640
Speaker 1: when my mates are weak. No one will stumble because

2316
02:01:14,680 --> 02:01:17,680
Speaker 1: I failed to motivate. I will fill with rage at

2317
02:01:17,720 --> 02:01:20,080
Speaker 1: the sound of battle, knowing that the selfless acts of

2318
02:01:20,080 --> 02:01:24,080
Speaker 1: the individual soldier will always carry the day. I understand

2319
02:01:24,080 --> 02:01:27,840
Speaker 1: that all men die, but few men truly live. I

2320
02:01:27,920 --> 02:01:31,320
Speaker 1: choose to make my life the stuff of legend, in

2321
02:01:31,320 --> 02:01:34,000
Speaker 1: the shadow of every team mate, lies of family. I

2322
02:01:34,080 --> 02:01:36,040
Speaker 1: understand that the council of a loved one is an

2323
02:01:36,080 --> 02:01:39,600
Speaker 1: aspect of warfare older than time itself. I will take

2324
02:01:39,600 --> 02:01:42,160
Speaker 1: care of my teammates and their families because our collective

2325
02:01:42,200 --> 02:01:45,360
Speaker 1: lives depend on it. I realize that carrying means making

2326
02:01:45,400 --> 02:01:49,560
Speaker 1: times tough, because tough times will ensure survival. A hardship

2327
02:01:49,600 --> 02:01:52,400
Speaker 1: born by one will be born by all, and trust

2328
02:01:52,480 --> 02:01:55,920
Speaker 1: in me will be sacred. If I am unwilling to sacrifice,

2329
02:01:56,440 --> 02:01:59,000
Speaker 1: unable to commit to the principles and lifestyle but fitting

2330
02:01:59,000 --> 02:02:02,440
Speaker 1: a professional soul, I understand that I must leave, and

2331
02:02:02,560 --> 02:02:05,120
Speaker 1: doing so, I will join the masses of citizenry who

2332
02:02:05,160 --> 02:02:07,840
Speaker 1: depend on others to keep them free. All this I

2333
02:02:07,880 --> 02:02:10,880
Speaker 1: swear to that which I hold sacred. So it really

2334
02:02:11,000 --> 02:02:16,480
Speaker 1: is just that easy. Huh well, uh, Rick, You know,

2335
02:02:16,920 --> 02:02:19,480
Speaker 1: we want to thank you for for taking the time

2336
02:02:19,520 --> 02:02:23,160
Speaker 1: because you embody every one of those And you know,

2337
02:02:23,200 --> 02:02:25,840
Speaker 1: like I said it at the outset, you know, we

2338
02:02:25,880 --> 02:02:30,080
Speaker 1: throw the words legend around a little too liberally at times,

2339
02:02:30,160 --> 02:02:33,440
Speaker 1: but when it comes to certain people, I think it's

2340
02:02:33,480 --> 02:02:38,240
Speaker 1: well deserved in your amongst those people. UM, and it's

2341
02:02:38,280 --> 02:02:41,240
Speaker 1: been a real pleasure I finally get a chance to

2342
02:02:41,240 --> 02:02:44,400
Speaker 1: talk to you. I know we've passed and I'm sure

2343
02:02:44,920 --> 02:02:48,680
Speaker 1: you know cross paths more than once. But it's been

2344
02:02:48,720 --> 02:02:51,720
Speaker 1: a lot of fun for me this afternoon, when I

2345
02:02:51,720 --> 02:02:54,040
Speaker 1: I appreciate and I'm looking forward to seeing you down

2346
02:02:54,120 --> 02:02:56,800
Speaker 1: here in uh in May on the seventeenth at the

2347
02:02:56,920 --> 02:03:00,000
Speaker 1: at the reception. Yes, I look forward to that as well.

2348
02:03:00,080 --> 02:03:02,600
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to make that I know, I UM.

2349
02:03:02,680 --> 02:03:08,160
Speaker 1: That weekend I have uh SF Association meeting elsewhere in

2350
02:03:08,160 --> 02:03:10,360
Speaker 1: the state, but I'm gonna try to zip up there

2351
02:03:10,440 --> 02:03:13,440
Speaker 1: on the seventeen as soon as that other thing is over.

2352
02:03:13,600 --> 02:03:17,200
Speaker 1: So I look forward to that. I UH and meet

2353
02:03:17,280 --> 02:03:22,560
Speaker 1: you in person, so and and the great people at GLOBALSOF.

2354
02:03:23,880 --> 02:03:26,400
Speaker 1: You know's all you do. I mean, especially the uh

2355
02:03:26,800 --> 02:03:31,000
Speaker 1: because it hit home, you know with the the I know,

2356
02:03:31,200 --> 02:03:33,800
Speaker 1: the commercials you did about you know, reaching out the

2357
02:03:34,080 --> 02:03:39,000
Speaker 1: UH there there. I mean, nobody our age anymore. UM.

2358
02:03:39,280 --> 02:03:41,800
Speaker 1: Mrs tries to miss a phone call or a text

2359
02:03:41,840 --> 02:03:45,040
Speaker 1: message from a buddy because you know that might be

2360
02:03:45,080 --> 02:03:47,120
Speaker 1: the last one he's gonna send you, or the or

2361
02:03:47,160 --> 02:03:49,560
Speaker 1: the time that he's reaching out, you know. So it uh,

2362
02:03:49,680 --> 02:03:52,440
Speaker 1: it truly is a and it's it's all goes back

2363
02:03:52,480 --> 02:03:54,840
Speaker 1: to that lack of purpose. So thanks for thanks for

2364
02:03:55,200 --> 02:03:58,400
Speaker 1: doing everything you do. Brother. Yeah, and you know, it

2365
02:03:58,480 --> 02:04:01,480
Speaker 1: was a shocker last year. One of our old you know,

2366
02:04:02,080 --> 02:04:04,920
Speaker 1: comrades from three seven took his own life last year

2367
02:04:05,000 --> 02:04:09,880
Speaker 1: and uh Bob Bob Jarman. And I was shocked when

2368
02:04:09,920 --> 02:04:12,400
Speaker 1: I heard that because I had just spoke with them

2369
02:04:12,440 --> 02:04:18,680
Speaker 1: maybe two weeks before, and everything seemed great with him. Yeah. Yeah,

2370
02:04:18,920 --> 02:04:22,880
Speaker 1: it shows that some guys are hurting inside and we

2371
02:04:22,960 --> 02:04:25,920
Speaker 1: all have to look after each other because our numbers

2372
02:04:25,960 --> 02:04:30,480
Speaker 1: get fewer. Unfortunately, that is a fact. Man is great,

2373
02:04:30,480 --> 02:04:34,320
Speaker 1: Lincoln up, Yes, absolutely. Before we go, I just wanted

2374
02:04:34,360 --> 02:04:37,080
Speaker 1: to read one more quick thing. If you want to

2375
02:04:37,120 --> 02:04:39,640
Speaker 1: get soft Reap on your phone, download our free mobile

2376
02:04:39,640 --> 02:04:43,480
Speaker 1: app and get easy access to our articles, podcast gear reviews,

2377
02:04:43,920 --> 02:04:47,520
Speaker 1: all perfectly formatted to your device. Please subscribe to softwap

2378
02:04:47,560 --> 02:04:50,080
Speaker 1: dot com to get access to our library of e

2379
02:04:50,240 --> 02:04:53,880
Speaker 1: books and our exclusive team room forms and content available

2380
02:04:53,880 --> 02:04:58,400
Speaker 1: in all your Apple and Android devices. We want to

2381
02:04:58,480 --> 02:05:01,160
Speaker 1: thank all of our listeners us for hanging with us

2382
02:05:01,200 --> 02:05:03,920
Speaker 1: this afternoon. It's been a blast. We want to thank

2383
02:05:03,920 --> 02:05:08,000
Speaker 1: our guests, Rick Lamb from Global Soft, member of the

2384
02:05:08,120 --> 02:05:11,520
Speaker 1: Ranger and Commando Hall of Fame from So Calm. Rick,

2385
02:05:11,640 --> 02:05:16,000
Speaker 1: Let's do this again real soon. Yes, yeah, it's been

2386
02:05:16,000 --> 02:05:18,800
Speaker 1: an honor man, Thank you much. The honor has been

2387
02:05:18,840 --> 02:05:22,320
Speaker 1: ours so but yeah, thanks again for listening. We'll be

2388
02:05:22,360 --> 02:05:42,160
Speaker 1: back with another podcast real soon. Love been listening to

2389
02:05:42,400 --> 02:05:43,360
Speaker 1: self red lyd