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Speaker 1: dot Fm, slash Plus. Now onto the episode. A dust
Speaker 1: storm rolled over the small city of Samara in central Iraq.
Speaker 1: The sky turned hazy red, and then as the sun set,
Speaker 1: a dark and moonless black. It was mid October two
Speaker 1: thousand and five, thirty one months since the US had
Speaker 1: invaded the country. American forces had captured Sata Mussein almost
Speaker 1: two years earlier, and still the war dragged on.
Speaker 2: A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as
Speaker 2: large as California could be longer and more difficult than
Speaker 2: some predict, and helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and
Speaker 2: free country will require our sustained commitment.
Speaker 1: American soldiers were settled into dozens of forward operating bases
Speaker 1: around a rock. Every day was a combination of monotony
Speaker 1: and dread. On that black October night, a convoy of
Speaker 1: two American Bradley fighting vehicles traveled through the dust storm
Speaker 1: up an unlit road. A Bradley is an armored personnel
Speaker 1: carrier that rolls forward on tracks, not wheels. It has
Speaker 1: a troop compartment in the back and a gun turret
Speaker 1: at the front. Bradley's were mostly used for scouting missions,
Speaker 1: and this night was one of those routine The Army
Speaker 1: troops stationed nearby had done the same trip dozens, if
Speaker 1: not hundreds of times in the balance between monotony and dread.
Speaker 1: This was monotony until it wasn't. Suddenly a deafening blast,
Speaker 1: a fiery explosion illuminated the night. The first of the
Speaker 1: two Bradleys had hit an ied, an improvised explosive device.
Speaker 1: If you've been watching from a distance that night, here's
Speaker 1: what you would have seen. An armored vehicle engulfed in fire,
Speaker 1: a soldier climbing out of a hatch and pulling a
Speaker 1: burning man to safety, then that soldier too, catching fire,
Speaker 1: a column of flame against the dark night sky. Over
Speaker 1: the roar of the explosion, you'd hear the screams of
Speaker 1: soldiers trapped inside the vehicle and then you'd see that
Speaker 1: first man turned back to the fire, him Malcolm Gladwell.
Speaker 1: And this is Medal of Honor Stories of courage. The
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the
Speaker 1: United States, awarded for gallantry and bravery in combat with
Speaker 1: the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty.
Speaker 1: Each candidate must be approved all the way up the
Speaker 1: chain of command, from the supervisory officer in the field
Speaker 1: to the White House. This show is about those heroes,
Speaker 1: what they did, what it meant, and what their stories
Speaker 1: tell us about the nature of courage. Each Medal of
Speaker 1: Honor action is by definition heroic, but the story of
Speaker 1: Sergeant first Class Allwin Cash is about a very specific
Speaker 1: element of heroism. Sacrifice, not the sacrifice that comes with
Speaker 1: being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or
Speaker 1: is the second decision that later turns out to have
Speaker 1: been courageous and fatal, a kind of sacrifice that's more intentional,
Speaker 1: more deliberate. We talk a lot about the acts of
Speaker 1: bravery for which people receive something a metal recognition, but
Speaker 1: there's always that flip side when someone loses something too
Speaker 1: the sacrifice. It can be surprisingly easy to gloss over
Speaker 1: what our heroes are giving up or the pain they're
Speaker 1: going through. But it's hard to miss in the story
Speaker 1: of Alwen Cash. If you want to get a good
Speaker 1: sense of who Alwen Cash was in Iraq, you need
Speaker 1: to talk to the people who served with him. General
Speaker 1: Gary Britto would be at the top of that list.
Speaker 3: We have some ordinary people that just do some extraordinary
Speaker 3: things when unexpected, and Cash was one of those.
Speaker 1: Brideau was Alwin's battalion commander in two thousand and five.
Speaker 1: Now he's a four star general in charge of training
Speaker 1: and leadership development across the entire Army, active Duty, National Guard,
Speaker 1: and reserves. He guides and shapes the culture of the Army.
Speaker 1: If anyone can tell you what makes a good soldier,
Speaker 1: it's Brito. He knew and liked Olwen, not just as
Speaker 1: a sergeant, but as a person.
Speaker 3: Very unassuming, very professional, newest stuff. And I had yet,
Speaker 3: and I'll use the word the gruffness that I respected
Speaker 3: and expected on noncommissioned officers.
Speaker 1: A non commissioned officer is one who hasn't gone to
Speaker 1: college or through officer training. Cash had enlisted in the
Speaker 1: Army right out of high school. He had grown up
Speaker 1: in a big family in a small town in Florida.
Speaker 1: He kept his dark hair in a buzz cut fade
Speaker 1: and wore a modest mustache. He was a country guy
Speaker 1: at heart, like.
Speaker 3: The fish, like to hunt, and he would bend your
Speaker 3: ear on that if you've given him an opportunity to
Speaker 3: do so.
Speaker 1: Albyn worked his way up the ranks, a real soldier's soldier.
Speaker 1: For a time, he was a drill sergeant at Fort Benning, Georgia,
Speaker 1: training troops. He was all about the basics, making sure
Speaker 1: everyone had the foundations down. Then he pushed his guys
Speaker 1: beyond those foundations to excellence. He was known for his
Speaker 1: brutally honest sense of humor. Nothing shook him. But the
Speaker 1: thing every person who served with Alwin will tell you
Speaker 1: he truly cared for the soldiers in his command.
Speaker 3: What I respected and I saw it shine and start
Speaker 3: any cash was the ability to connect to his soldiers.
Speaker 3: A platoon was about thirty five years people was ill,
Speaker 3: but he knew them, knew them by their name, knew
Speaker 3: them by their nickname, knew what was going on at home,
Speaker 3: disconnected to his troops.
Speaker 1: When he deployed to Iraq for the second time, in
Speaker 1: two thousand and five. The men who served with him
Speaker 1: saw him the way that General Breto did, as someone
Speaker 1: who connected, who cared.
Speaker 4: He was more like that big big brother.
Speaker 1: This is Gary Mills, who was in Alwen's platoon.
Speaker 4: You know he didn't tell me Who's something that he
Speaker 4: wouldn't do. I think it was a type of leader
Speaker 4: that you can argue with him, but one minute later
Speaker 4: you're going to have a beer.
Speaker 1: Alvin was only thirty five, but he'd seen a lot
Speaker 1: during his years in the service. He knew how hard
Speaker 1: it was to live an army life and have a family.
Speaker 1: He had a wife and three young kids back in
Speaker 1: the States. Here's Douglas Dodge, who was the second squad
Speaker 1: leader of his platoon.
Speaker 5: I was going through some marital problems and Sergeant Cash
Speaker 5: actually called my wife for Iraq and talked to her
Speaker 5: at length, and then came to my chew our little
Speaker 5: sleeping area and told me, hey, Dodge, go call your wife.
Speaker 5: And I was like, why, what are you talking about?
Speaker 5: And he said, I just had a long conversation with
Speaker 5: her about stuff that's going on with you two. I
Speaker 5: know you're having problems, and it's I want you to
Speaker 5: have your head clear while we're out here doing stuff.
Speaker 5: At the time, I was kind of angry because I
Speaker 5: was tired. I just wanted to sleep, But he had
Speaker 5: taken his time when he could have been sleeping, but
Speaker 5: he took his precious time to try to take care
Speaker 5: of me.
Speaker 1: So that's Olwen invested in his soldiers as whole people,
Speaker 1: willing to give up his personal time to help them.
Speaker 1: Unsolicited marital advice. It's not maybe the first thing you
Speaker 1: think of when you think of a hero, but it
Speaker 1: has everything to do with what will come next.
Speaker 3: One thing that really stuck out to me that evening
Speaker 3: was pitch pitch black outside. All the nights I was out,
Speaker 3: that was probably the darkest one.
Speaker 1: Forward Operating Base Mackenzie was in the middle of the
Speaker 1: desert north of Baghdad. You can picture it, hot, sandy,
Speaker 1: relentlessly beige concrete bunkers. The more than four hundred men
Speaker 1: who were stationed there lived in contained housing units trailers really.
Speaker 1: While some of the other American bases in the region
Speaker 1: had seen very little fighting, that wasn't the case here.
Speaker 1: Had been high for a while. Jimmy Hathaway was a
Speaker 1: company commander at FOB Mackenzie, as he remembers that things
Speaker 1: had been dicey in the Area of Operations, or as
Speaker 1: they referred to it, the AO for months.
Speaker 6: We'd just come off of racky elections that year. It
Speaker 6: had been a pretty rough time. Starting in September.
Speaker 1: There had been skirmishes around the base with the American
Speaker 1: troops engaging with small arms fire or IEDs a few
Speaker 1: days out of the week. The roads weren't safe, so
Speaker 1: the troops had to secure the roots for supplies coming in.
Speaker 6: We'd had a pretty big incident with a convoy that
Speaker 6: had been ambushed, and we knew that anytime a resupply
Speaker 6: convoy came into our AO that there was potential for
Speaker 6: loss of life, there's potential for damage to the vehicles
Speaker 6: if we didn't go out and secure it.
Speaker 1: The night of October seventeenth, two thousand and five, a
Speaker 1: patrol of two Bradley fighting vehicles was going to do
Speaker 1: just that, drive the main supply route to make sure
Speaker 1: it was clear, then drive right back. Leon Matthias was
Speaker 1: Alwens team leader at the base.
Speaker 7: I remember specifically the weather being really really bad, so
Speaker 7: it was like a dust storm moving through the area
Speaker 7: and there was redy hair, So basically metowacs weren't supposed
Speaker 7: to fly during that time period. But I just remember
Speaker 7: it was a night patrol and we have to go
Speaker 7: out because of a logistical convoy was coming in the
Speaker 7: following day.
Speaker 1: Alwyn was in the first vehicle of the patrol. He
Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to be.
Speaker 7: So normally on the patrol, the Petunia would lead out,
Speaker 7: so I would be the lead patrol and then Starting
Speaker 7: Cash would be the last vehicle in the convoy. But
Speaker 7: that night I had just recently come back off of leave,
Speaker 7: and Starting Cash said, hey, sir, I know you're just
Speaker 7: back off of leave.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lead the patrol tonight. It was a classic
Speaker 1: example of Cash going above and beyond for somebody else.
Speaker 7: So he drives, he drives around me, and I see
Speaker 7: him drive out, so I get back on my track
Speaker 7: and so I am now behind him driving down the
Speaker 7: road and we're going really, really slow, just because of
Speaker 7: the visibility.
Speaker 1: There were nine men in the lead bradley up front,
Speaker 1: there was Alwy and a gunner in the turret, plus
Speaker 1: a driver in the troop compartment. In the back, there
Speaker 1: were six men, an Iraqi interpreter and five soldiers, including
Speaker 1: Douglas and Gary Mills.
Speaker 4: We were just in the back, just having funl like usual,
Speaker 4: just getting my mind into you know, what was going
Speaker 4: to happen. Then and boom, it kind of happened quick.
Speaker 1: The Bradley had run over an Ied.
Speaker 5: We had been hit by enough IED's already that you
Speaker 5: knew when you heard it what it was. And I
Speaker 5: heard that slap. But then in the next instant, I
Speaker 5: was knocked unconscious. I was thrown into the ceiling of
Speaker 5: the Bradley, and I don't know how long I was unconscious.
Speaker 1: For Bradley's are armored vehicles. They're built to run over
Speaker 1: things like IED's and stay in the road. But something
Speaker 1: was different that night.
Speaker 4: But I woke up.
Speaker 5: Then we were all on fire.
Speaker 1: The fuel cell of the Bradley had ignited. Fire was
Speaker 1: surging upwards from the bottom of the vehicle.
Speaker 7: I am watching this vehicle in flames, so it wasn't
Speaker 7: as if it was a slow burn. It was literally
Speaker 7: He saw the explosion and the vehicle itself was in flames.
Speaker 1: Alwen wasn't injured in the blast, but as the fuel
Speaker 1: cell drained, he was drenched in gasoline. He knew what
Speaker 1: that meant he also could go up in flames at
Speaker 1: any time. Alwen got to the driver's hatch and opened it.
Speaker 1: He pulled the driver to safety, but the driver was
Speaker 1: on fire, so now Alwan was on fire as well.
Speaker 1: He extinguished the flames and then turned to the back
Speaker 1: of the bradley. There were six men trapped back there.
Speaker 1: The compartment was in flames. It was an oven.
Speaker 5: The first thing I remember is the pain from being
Speaker 5: on fire, and I could hear everybody screaming, and I
Speaker 5: just climbed up onto the bench seat because the floor
Speaker 5: was all fire and you couldn't see anything. All I
Speaker 5: could see was an orange glow.
Speaker 1: Alwin didn't hesitate. He went straight to the back of
Speaker 1: the vehicle. He'd already sustained second and third degree burns
Speaker 1: inside the compartment. Douglas reached for a tool and pried
Speaker 1: at the door, and I managed to.
Speaker 5: Get the troop door open, and I just kind of
Speaker 5: spilled out of the bradley onto the back road, and
Speaker 5: that's when I saw Sergeant Cash at the back of
Speaker 5: the bradley.
Speaker 1: Alwyn's uniform had burned so badly that it had melted
Speaker 1: onto his body.
Speaker 5: It was very surreal because he had his helmet on,
Speaker 5: his body armor on, and his boots on, but he
Speaker 5: didn't have anything else on because they had been burned
Speaker 5: off with him. And the only thing he asked me
Speaker 5: was where the boys at? And I just kind of
Speaker 5: looked at him and looked at the bradley and he said, hey,
Speaker 5: I get the boys out, and then he just instantly
Speaker 5: started climbing.
Speaker 1: In into the fire with no protection. Leon frantically called
Speaker 1: back to base. Then he and the men in this
Speaker 1: second vehicle raced towards the burning Bradley.
Speaker 7: By started cash. He's kind of the one that's going
Speaker 7: back from the Bradley, pulling people out one by one,
Speaker 7: and he just goes back over and over again.
Speaker 1: Alwen wasn't going to stop until every one of his
Speaker 1: boys was accounted for. He went in once and helped
Speaker 1: soldiers escape the troop compartment, and then he noticed that
Speaker 1: two others were missing, so he went back into the
Speaker 1: inferno again to pull them out, but where was the interpreter?
Speaker 1: Alwen went back into Bradley another time.
Speaker 7: The last person that got out was the interpreter, and
Speaker 7: his body was so lifeless he just pretty much drug
Speaker 7: him out of that track.
Speaker 1: Alwen had been critically injured back when he'd saved the
Speaker 1: first man, the driver, But he made the decision to
Speaker 1: go back into the burning troop compartment five separate times.
Speaker 1: He knew exactly what kind of sacrifice he was making,
Speaker 1: yet he did it willingly, methodically. By the time Gary
Speaker 1: Mills reached Olwen, seventy two percent of Alwen's body was
Speaker 1: covered in second in third degree burns.
Speaker 4: I seen sorry Cash laying on the ground now that
Speaker 4: he was burnt and everything, and he was just trying
Speaker 4: to make sure they hate, Hey, your guys all right,
Speaker 4: And I'm like, are you okay? You know, I mean
Speaker 4: you you're burnt. I mean, you're dude, worse than I am.
Speaker 4: But he was just making sure that we was okay.
Speaker 1: The forward operating base was only two miles away, but
Speaker 1: there was a dust stone. Remember, Everything seemed to be
Speaker 1: moving more slowly than usual. Finally, the metovac helicopters arrived.
Speaker 1: The interpreter had died at the scene, Several of the
Speaker 1: soldiers barely hung onto life all when included. Nevertheless, he
Speaker 1: was the last one to get on the metavac. He
Speaker 1: wanted to see everyone else get taken care of first.
Speaker 1: He waited until they all were safe, and even then
Speaker 1: he wouldn't get on a stretcher.
Speaker 7: He was like, no, I'm walking to this helicopter because
Speaker 7: if he wanted to walk off the battlefield, the.
Speaker 1: Meta of Acts lifted off to the highest level of
Speaker 1: triage facility nearby. Douglas was with Olwen.
Speaker 5: And there they began triaging and treating everybody, starting Cash.
Speaker 5: The whole time there I could hear him yelling, well,
Speaker 5: how are these are my guys? You know what's going
Speaker 5: on with them? Are they okay?
Speaker 1: Where are they at the most badly burned men were
Speaker 1: flown to Germany and then to Texas for more specialized care.
Speaker 1: Alwin was one of them, and Gary Mills was two.
Speaker 1: As soon as he was able, he insisted on seeing Alwen.
Speaker 4: They told me, no, I'm not supposed to go and
Speaker 4: visit you know anybody like no, I'm going to visit.
Speaker 4: I visited Saryn Cash and it was funny because, like
Speaker 4: I said, we were both messed up, and he still
Speaker 4: had jokes and just making sure I'm good it hits
Speaker 4: you because it was like, man, even in how bad
Speaker 4: a moment, it doesn't matter about it, no matter about
Speaker 4: everybody else.
Speaker 1: There was hope that all of the soldiers might make it,
Speaker 1: until there wasn't.
Speaker 4: That's when we started losing people and it just got
Speaker 4: hard and hard every day.
Speaker 1: Of the nine people in the Bradley, only three would survive.
Speaker 1: General Gary Britto remembers waiting to get news from the
Speaker 1: men in the hospital.
Speaker 3: Every single night. Did not want to get that phone
Speaker 3: call that somebody passed, and we did, Hey, how's he
Speaker 3: doing well? Staff Sergeant George Alexander this first one, second call,
Speaker 3: Doc Robinson, third call, especially Darren holl just kept up
Speaker 3: at night. We just didn't want to get it what
Speaker 3: you did. So we were really really just hoping, thank
Speaker 3: fingers crossed, will he survived, Just holding on for hope. Okay,
Speaker 3: don't die, don't die, don't die.
Speaker 1: In the hospital, Albyn kept his sense of humor and
Speaker 1: his sense of duty intact. Everyone who loved him knew
Speaker 1: how strong he was. As the weeks passed, they kept
Speaker 1: up hope, but he had the worst of the burns,
Speaker 1: and on November eighth, two thousand and five, Albin Cash
Speaker 1: died in the hospital in San Antonio. He was the
Speaker 1: last man to have gotten on the METAVAC and the
Speaker 1: last man to succumb to his injuries. He held out
Speaker 1: for as long as he could.
Speaker 5: He would say, it's going to be hard coming home
Speaker 5: without the guys you came here with. And who would
Speaker 5: have known that he would have been one of those people.
Speaker 1: Almost immediately, Britto put in for Alwin to get the
Speaker 1: Silver Star, one of the Army's top awards for bravery.
Speaker 1: It's a couple notches below the Medal of Honor. Britto
Speaker 1: was still in Iraq, trying to keep his troops together,
Speaker 1: boost morale, just survived the deployment. Everyone was exhausted at
Speaker 1: that moment. The Silver Star for Alwin felt like the
Speaker 1: right idea.
Speaker 3: There was a sense of numbness, just combat fatigue, and
Speaker 3: I didn't see it. Then I see it now.
Speaker 1: Let me take a second to explain what differentiates the
Speaker 1: Silver Star from a Medal of Honor. A Silver Star
Speaker 1: is the Army's third highest decoration, given for distinguished gallantry
Speaker 1: in action. The next step up is a Distinguished Service Cross,
Speaker 1: given for extraordinary heroism in combat, and then sitting at
Speaker 1: the top of the heap is the Medal of Honor.
Speaker 1: Each one carries a huge amount of prestige, but the
Speaker 1: Medal of honor has a stringent set of criteria. The
Speaker 1: action comes at the risk of life and limb and
Speaker 1: above and beyond the call of duty. In other words,
Speaker 1: not something that your commanding officer could order you to do.
Speaker 1: Those requirements might sound general, but in reality they're punishingly specific.
Speaker 1: There aren't a huge variety of things that perfectly tick
Speaker 1: all of those boxes. The iconic medal of honor worthy
Speaker 1: action is throwing yourself on a grenade. It's an act
Speaker 1: of pure selflessness and courage, done at a moment when
Speaker 1: the enemy is in full attack. In fact, one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty seven of the men who have been awarded
Speaker 1: the medal received it for putting themselves in the way
Speaker 1: of a grenade, and we've only had grenade since World
Speaker 1: War One. What Alwen did sounds very much like throwing
Speaker 1: himself on a grenade, doesn't it an act of supreme
Speaker 1: self sacrifice on behalf of others at a time of peril.
Speaker 1: You can't walk into a fire thinking you're going to survive.
Speaker 1: Alwin's skin was charred, his lungs were failing, and yet
Speaker 1: he kept returning to the inferno, knowing what that meant.
Speaker 1: When Bretto and Alwen's family and friends thought about how
Speaker 1: best to honor Alwen. They began to think that maybe
Speaker 1: he deserved something more than a silver star. Maybe he
Speaker 1: deserved the highest of all military honors.
Speaker 3: It was all my mind, just wait on me, all
Speaker 3: my mind. So I sort of think about it, think
Speaker 3: about it, said, I got to do this, not for me,
Speaker 3: not for the unit, but for Cash in his troops.
Speaker 3: This is earned.
Speaker 1: But there was a catch, a crucial one. There was
Speaker 1: a third essential requirement for Medal of Honor eligibility. The
Speaker 1: act of bravery has to take place in the field
Speaker 1: of combat. That's why throwing yourself on a grenade fits.
Speaker 1: The enemy threw a grenade at you, but almends Bradley
Speaker 1: ran over an ied an explosive device that could have
Speaker 1: been put there hours or even days before. That's not combat.
Speaker 1: If Brito wanted to put his hero up for the
Speaker 1: greatest of military honors, he needed to know more about
Speaker 1: what happened on that black October night. Alwend Cash had
Speaker 1: fought to the death for his men, and now Brito
Speaker 1: was going to fight for him.
Speaker 3: I just did not know the process. Thought I did,
Speaker 3: but did not know the process.
Speaker 1: He had no idea. What a feat of endurance it
Speaker 1: was going to be. We'll be right back. The success
Speaker 1: of a Medal of honor recommendation hinges on the nomination package,
Speaker 1: which takes an enormous amount of research, paperwork, witness statements, hundreds,
Speaker 1: if not thousands of pages alone. Among military medals, the
Speaker 1: medal of honor requires quote incontestable proof of the performance
Speaker 1: of the meritorious conduct. That's one thing if you're a
Speaker 1: professional historian. It's another if you're employed full time by
Speaker 1: the United States Army, moving up the ranks protecting your country.
Speaker 1: Bretto was learning on the job an Army officer with
Speaker 1: a side gig as a detective.
Speaker 3: So was honored to be part of it, a little
Speaker 3: angry that it was taking long, partly because of my actions.
Speaker 3: I own that and not understanding what had to be done.
Speaker 3: I remember one time I even asked myself, Gee, why
Speaker 3: didn't you talk to the right people the first time
Speaker 3: they could tell you? And I met these folks as
Speaker 3: I went up the ranks, said, was doing my job,
Speaker 3: doing our job.
Speaker 1: What Brito needed was for someone to give him evidence
Speaker 1: that there had been a battle at the crash site,
Speaker 1: proof that the soldiers were engaging the enemy. That meant
Speaker 1: painstakingly interviewing every survivor he could find, prodding their memories.
Speaker 1: But that meant forcing people to relive a night that
Speaker 1: they may not have wanted to relive, where many had
Speaker 1: been badly wounded, to revisit chaos, confusion, explosions, all under
Speaker 1: the shadow of darkness. General Britto submitted Alwyns pack. At
Speaker 1: once it was rejected. A second time it was rejected,
Speaker 1: sacrificing hours that turned into days, and then days that
Speaker 1: stretched to years. Britto searched for every last bit of
Speaker 1: testimony for over a decade, and then came a stroke
Speaker 1: of luck.
Speaker 3: A noncommissioned officer that I'd been trying to reach for many, many,
Speaker 3: many years, who had first hand witness knowledge of what happened.
Speaker 3: I found him should be embarrassed to see this. But
Speaker 3: in octoberfest we were attending a Fortpenning, Georgia, and I
Speaker 3: approached him and said, hey, would you be willing to
Speaker 3: provide your account?
Speaker 1: Britto had run out of options. This was his last chance.
Speaker 1: He had tried to get testimony from the veteran before,
Speaker 1: to no avail. The man hadn't replied he was battling PTSD.
Speaker 1: To go back was just too painful. But there he was,
Speaker 1: face to face with Brito by sheer chance. Britto said,
Speaker 1: just tell me what you saw that night, said.
Speaker 3: You write it. I'll give you write in a pen
Speaker 3: on a napkin. We'll get it done. And he did.
Speaker 1: And what did the soldier confirm that in all of
Speaker 1: the confusion of that October night he had heard guns firing,
Speaker 1: bullets pinging off the burning Bradley. It been an ambush,
Speaker 1: it was combat.
Speaker 3: And that account coupled with everything else, I cut it
Speaker 3: to the point of where the true requirements of witness statements,
Speaker 3: concept sketches, you name, it was all there. Then I
Speaker 3: just had to wait.
Speaker 1: Sixteen years after that red Knight sky in Iraq, on
Speaker 1: December sixteenth, twenty twenty one, President Joe Biden awarded all
Speaker 1: In Cash the Medal of Honor. His wife Tomorrow was
Speaker 1: there to receive it on his behalf.
Speaker 8: Sergeant Cash and his family gave everything for our country.
Speaker 8: The devotion to his memory in their years working to
Speaker 8: make sure that his courage and selflesses were properly documented
Speaker 8: and honored is a testament to the love he inspired
Speaker 8: on the legacy left behind. Sergeant first Class Cash is
Speaker 8: now the seventh individual to receive a Medal of Honor
Speaker 8: for his actions and operation of RACKI Freedom and the
Speaker 8: first African American to reach even since the Vietnam War.
Speaker 1: General Gary Briddo was there too. Of course, I think
Speaker 1: it's safe to say that nobody in the audience was
Speaker 1: as thrilled as he was.
Speaker 3: And I truth or lending told my wife at that moment,
Speaker 3: you know, if I retired tomorrow, I'm happy because of this.
Speaker 1: There are lots of tributes to Alwyn Cash out in
Speaker 1: the world. The post office in his little hometown of Ovido, Florida,
Speaker 1: is named after him. The Army Reserve Training Center in Sanford,
Speaker 1: Florida is named in his honor too, So is the
Speaker 1: memorial garden at Fort Stewart in Georgia. And just as
Speaker 1: may General Briddo went to the ceremony that named the
Speaker 1: entry gate to the training grounds at Fort Moore formerly
Speaker 1: Fort Benning for Alwen, those monuments will last long after
Speaker 1: the final man from Alwy's patoon is gone. But I'd
Speaker 1: argue that the memorials that truly matter are the ones
Speaker 1: you've been listening to. The voices of the men whose
Speaker 1: lives he changed, the ones that painted portrait of the
Speaker 1: soldier he was, and the extraordinary sacrifice he made. His
Speaker 1: burden that.
Speaker 7: He carried continually was we can bring everyone home, like
Speaker 7: as if most are in an organization and you have
Speaker 7: your teammates to your left and right. But he literally
Speaker 7: felt as if he had been entrusted with the service
Speaker 7: members that he was with in this cartoon, and in
Speaker 7: that was the constant dan through everything that he said
Speaker 7: ends it.
Speaker 1: Saying that you'll walk through fire for someone is a cliche.
Speaker 1: We've all heard it all in cash actually did it
Speaker 1: not once, but five times. Sacrifice may not be the
Speaker 1: element of heroism that's most valued by the Medal of Honor,
Speaker 1: but unlike gallantry in battle, it's the thing that the
Speaker 1: rest of us can actually relate to. We sacrifice in
Speaker 1: little ways all the time, or at least we should.
Speaker 1: When we give up a comfortable seat on the bus
Speaker 1: for someone who needs it more, when we take a
Speaker 1: few precious hours to help a struggling neighbor or a stranger.
Speaker 1: Those small acts of sacrifice are testament to our shared humanity.
Speaker 1: So I want you to picture that night in October
Speaker 1: two thousand and five. A column of flame on the horizon,
Speaker 1: a man returning again and again and again and again
Speaker 1: to a burning vehicle to save the people inside. And
Speaker 1: not in the silence of an empty desert, but in
Speaker 1: the middle of an ambush under attack from a hidden enemy.
Speaker 1: One last crucial detail that made all the difference in
Speaker 1: the world. That is heroism by any definition, and that
Speaker 1: sacrifice had a ripple effect. We've seen this over and
Speaker 1: over again in stories about the Medal of Honor. Someone
Speaker 1: commits an extraordinary act of courage and people become tied
Speaker 1: to it in a powerful way. It changes them. Remember
Speaker 1: Doug Mounroe, the Coastguard hero, and his best friend Mike Cooley,
Speaker 1: who raised and lowered the flag at his grave every
Speaker 1: day for forty years. What Gary Britdo did for Alwyn
Speaker 1: echoes that theme. He sacrificed his time over more than
Speaker 1: a decade to honor his fallen comrade. If you sacrifice
Speaker 1: yourself for those who serve, those who serve will sacrifice
Speaker 1: for you. Medal of Honor. Stories of Courage is written
Speaker 1: by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins, Constanza Gallardo
Speaker 1: and Izzy Carter. The show is edited by Ben Nadaph Haffrey,
Speaker 1: Sound design and additional music by Gorski, recording engineering by
Speaker 1: Nita Lawrence, fact checking by Arthur Gombert's original music by
Speaker 1: Eric Phillips. If you want to learn more about our
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor recipients, follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 1: We'll be sharing photos and videos of the heroes featured
Speaker 1: on this show. We'd also love to hear from you
Speaker 1: dm us with a story about a courageous veteran in
Speaker 1: your life. If you don't know a veteran, we would
Speaker 1: love to hear a story of how courage was contagious
Speaker 1: in your own life. You can find us at Pushkinbonds.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Malcolm Babo