00:00:17 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, everyone is Jarrel Martinez. Before we get into this episode, I wanted to let you know that you can listen to the entire season of Medal of Honor right now ad free with Pushkin Plus. Get all our incredible stories of courage with a Pushkin Plus subscription. Sign up and save on the Medal of Honor show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, slash Plus. Use the code twenty five for twenty five percent off an annual subscription. Okay, now to the episode. 00:00:52 Speaker 2: Since the dawn of time, running has been an act of escape. People ran to evade wild animals, to flee from warring tribes. Even in the modern world, we run to get away from things, the stresses of the job, the confinement of our apartments, the bang of trailing bloodhounds. But what you're about to hear is a story about someone who did the exact opposite. He defied the thousands of years of primal wiring telling us to run from danger and instead ran towards it, sprinted into harm's way without thinking to help another. I'm excited to share this story with you. Thanks for listening. 00:01:30 Speaker 1: Have you ever had a feeling in your gut that something was off, a sense of quiet that doesn't feel right, a movement at the edge of your vision that seems out of place, or just a weird vibration in the air. Florent Groberg had that feeling. 00:01:49 Speaker 3: I know there's something wrong, There's something that I can't put my finger on about it. 00:01:55 Speaker 4: I just don't like it. 00:01:58 Speaker 1: It was August eighth, twenty twelve, and Flow was in the Kunar province of Afghanistan. He was in charge of security for a colonel and other army officials. He and his team were escorting this group of VIP through a small city towards a meeting with local leaders. Flow was twenty nine, a dark haired, dark eyed guy, just shy, is six feet tall. He done walks like this one for months. It was his job to be on high alert, scanning everyone and everything. The air was hot and dry. The dusty road curved along a river which shimmered in the morning light. Rugged mountains loomed in the distance. The meeting wasn't far away, a little over half a mile, but as the group walked the sun baked streets, it felt like the air was crackling with tension. The team moved away from the river. Following the road through town, they passed run down buildings and abandoned cars, groups of people shopping and walking, and then Flow saw a young man dressed in black traditional clothes heading in their direction. That's normal, it was a busy city, a busy day. But this guy was walking backwards and he was getting closer. 00:03:15 Speaker 3: He just was out of place. I remember thinking, where did you come from? 00:03:20 Speaker 4: What is going on here? And at that point everything changes. 00:03:24 Speaker 1: The young man turned and faced them, and Flora Groberg began to run. I'm j R. Martinez and this is Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. It's awarded for gallantry and bravery and combat at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the way up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House. This show is about those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Flow Groberg's action in Afghanistan is a classic Medal of Honor story. Incredible bravery, a decision to put his life on the line and check this out. It all took place in just eight seconds. But there's another thing about Flow. He was a super talented runner, a Division I college athlete. He could run a mile in a little over four minutes. I can only do that in my car. But why does that matter? Hear me out? There's something really inspiring about elite runners. Some of it comes from how they're built, how their bodies consume oxygen, their stamina, their leg muscles. You could be borne with the raw materials to be fast, but you won't get fast. You won't reach that potential without work, a grinding focus to push your body harder, do the reps, take the strides, go further than you think you possibly can. Listen. I've done a lot of distance running, and there's plenty of times where the body tells the mind okay, let's just quit now. But you make it through the pain and you keep going. You keep the promise you made to yourself. That's how you get as fast as Flow grow Berg, and that speed would be the difference between life and death. Even though he would become a decorated American soldier. Flow Groberg was actually born in France. He was raised in a suburb of Paris to a mom from Algeria and a biological dad. He never knew. He adored his mom. They were super close, but there were two men who really shaped him growing up. The first was his uncle, Abdu. Flow's mom had a big Muslim family back in Algeria, and she took Flow to visit them often. Flow and her brother, Abdu had a tight bond. 00:06:08 Speaker 3: Everybody has that one individual that did drawn to and they want to be around him, and that's what I was towards this man. I just thought he was just as a kid, I thought he was incredible. 00:06:18 Speaker 1: Abdu was an he mom, a Muslim cleric, and he taught Flow about the things that meant the most to him, doing good, standing up for what's right. The other man in Flow's life was his stepfather, Larry. Larry met Flow when he was three and instantly became his dad. 00:06:36 Speaker 3: He took me in as his son, even though I wasn't his blood Swedish background, so he looked completely different than me. 00:06:43 Speaker 4: You know, he's about sixty. 00:06:44 Speaker 3: Two, blonde, green eyes, so people were always confused when I said, Hey, that's my dad. He gave me his name, and he taught me how to be the person that I am today. He just taught me how to be a good person, because he's a great person. Probably the most important part about him is that he was always there for me. If there's a hero that I have, it's going to be him. 00:07:04 Speaker 1: Larry was American, and when Flow was eleven, the family moved to the States. Flow was psyched. It was hard to learn the language at first, but he stepped up fast. They lived in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside of Washington, d c. 00:07:19 Speaker 3: By the time I was in high school, I was bought in. I was sold I knew at that point that I would rather stay in the United States one hundred times out one hundred over going back to France. 00:07:28 Speaker 1: Flow became a naturalized citizen, but in the meantime, life for his family in Algeria had gotten incredibly hard. A radical Islamist group known as the GIA was terrorizing innocent civilians, and so Flow's uncle Abdu changed this path. 00:07:45 Speaker 3: When these terrorists came in, he left his role as an e mom and he joined the army. 00:07:51 Speaker 4: Now. 00:07:52 Speaker 3: During the cease fire in February nineteen ninety six, he was shot. 00:07:54 Speaker 4: He was beheaded. 00:07:55 Speaker 3: He was dismembered, and he was putting a box he sent back to my grandfather, warning that anybody that defires their beliefs, they would be killed. 00:08:06 Speaker 1: Flow was twelve when Larry sat him down and told him the news. 00:08:11 Speaker 3: My reaction was just anger, and I went into my room. I picked up all my toys that I had collected over the years on my Gi Joe's, and I put them in a bag and I took them to the trash. 00:08:21 Speaker 4: That's the last time I played with toys pretending to be military. 00:08:25 Speaker 3: The next time I would pretend to be military, I would actually be military and wear the uniform myself. 00:08:32 Speaker 1: He made a promise to himself he would join the United States Army. At first, he considered enlisting right after high school, but then he discovered that he could run, I mean really run. He was among the best distance runners in the state, and he was recruited to the cross country and track teams at the University of Maryland. He was a great team player, fast on his own, but even faster when he was running a relay, passing the baton to a member of his squad. Competitive running is all about grit, and Flow knew that every long training day, every hill workout could shave a second or two office times. But then nine to eleven happened and Flow's life shifted again. 00:09:19 Speaker 3: I remember being very emotional, just like the rest of this country was very angry, confused, and in disbelief. I remember having comes to my father telling him, I'm going to drop out of school and I'm going to go join the units's army. I'm going to come an army ranger because i want to find, fix, and destroy these individuals. 00:09:36 Speaker 4: I want to be a part of the solution. 00:09:39 Speaker 1: But his father wasn't having it. Flow had made a commitment to his school and to his running teams, and his dad reminded Flow, Grobergs don't quit. 00:09:49 Speaker 4: When you start something, you finish it. That's what Grobergs do. 00:09:54 Speaker 3: Because if you find an excuse to quit and drop out of school because you are angry at the fact that he's individuals that this to our country, you will always find an excuse to quit everything that you. 00:10:06 Speaker 4: Start in life. 00:10:08 Speaker 3: If you quit now, you will quit on the army, you quit on yourself, you will quit in relationships, you will quit in everything you start. But if you learn to push on and accomplish whatever task that you started. 00:10:20 Speaker 4: No long run, you will be successful. 00:10:25 Speaker 1: So Flow stayed in school. He got even faster, but as soon as he graduated, he began sprinting towards his dream of joining the army. But he hit a hurdle right out of the gate. In order to get the security clearance to become an army officer, he had to renounce his French citizenship. He was happy to do it, but the paperwork took more than a year. Once that was behind him, he went to officer training and then Ranger School, one of the toughest programs in the military. I remember being at Basic training and we would be on runs and the drill sergeant would lead us in these cadences about being a ranger and Airborne. Have so much respect for those guys that go through that program. And here's a crazy thing. Remember Sal Junta from last season. Flow was in Ranger school with Eric Gayaddo, the sergeant who was on that hill in Afghanistan with Sal. When Flow was feeling like he couldn't hack it, Gayadado kept him going. They both made it through. Of the three hundred plus soldiers in his original Ranger school class, only sixty nine of them graduated, and by two thousand and nine, Flow was in Afghanistan. He was a lieutenant, which meant he was leading troops for the first time. 00:11:43 Speaker 4: I wanted to go out there and fight for what I believed in. 00:11:46 Speaker 3: But when I got there and someone told me, hey, by the way, you're in charge of twenty four lives. Make the right decisions and make sure that you're right type of leader for these men, because their lives are in your hands. 00:11:56 Speaker 4: That changed the whole ballgame. 00:11:58 Speaker 3: It was no longer about me, It was about them, and it was about accomplish in a mission. 00:12:05 Speaker 1: They were stationed near the border with Pakistan and a valley controlled by the Taliban. The action was really lentless and lethal. His tour was two hundred and seventeen days long, and during that timeframe his platoon engaged with the enemy more than two hundred times. That deployment ended then in February of twenty twelve, less than two years later, he was back in Afghanistan. By now he was a first lieutenant assigned to the fourth Infantry Brigade Combat Team. His job was to coordinate all air and ground movements for Colonel James Mingus as he traveled the country for high level meetings with Afghan leaders. 00:12:47 Speaker 4: The job was simple. 00:12:49 Speaker 3: I organized travels around a different forty five outstations and five provinces for the boss, and once we got on station, I ran his security. 00:13:00 Speaker 1: When they walked to meetings, Flow and his men would surround Mingus and any other VIPs in a diamond formation. Their only job was to protect them, literally using their bodies as human shields. They were always escorted by a perimeter team of US soldiers. If they were attacked or in danger, that escort team would stay behind and fight. 00:13:23 Speaker 3: In case we took fire from the enemy, my job was to collapse in diamond take them to safety while the twelve to fifteen escort all fought the enemy and allow us to maneuver out of the engagement area. 00:13:37 Speaker 4: So for six months, this was the easiest job in the world. 00:13:40 Speaker 3: I got to see Afghanistan from a completely different perspective, and I got to see the bigger picture, and I loved it. 00:13:49 Speaker 1: Then came August eighth. Flow had just gotten the news he was approved for promotion. It would be his very first day as a captain in the army, but it would also be the worst day of his life. For Flora Groberg, august A, twenty twelve started out the way he was expecting. Busy, but not crazy. 00:14:28 Speaker 3: We were going to the Kunat Provincial Security meeting. It happened every once at ten o'clock for years. 00:14:35 Speaker 1: That day Flow and his team would be protecting more than just Colonel Mingus. There were extra high ranking officers in the group, two battalion commanders, two brigade commanders, two sergeant majors, and an Afghan National Army general, plus a State Department diplomat and a Foreign Service officer from USAID. One of the sergeant majors was Kevin Griffin. Flow and Griffin were really close. He was Flow's mentor. He had a huge presence, confident but caring, plus incredible experience six combat deployments to four different war zones. He had a wife and two kids waiting for him stateside. Another of the group was Major David Gray, an Air Force officer who Flow also knew well. Biggest smile in the world with him was Major Tom Kennedy. He'd been in Afghanistan for less than two weeks, but he was an elite soldier. Both of those men had families too. The group landed at Ford Operating based FIAS and Assadabad, and right away things were off. 00:15:45 Speaker 4: When we got there. 00:15:47 Speaker 3: That outer security element that I always requested for, it wasn't there. They had left fifteen minutes prior, and I guess they had walked through our route and cleared it, but they didn't secure it. By secure, I mean they left. It's one on one, right rule, one on one. Once you clear an area, if you leave, it is no longer clear. 00:16:11 Speaker 1: Flow and his team were only supposed to protect the VIPs. If anything bad happened, they would take them to safety, not fight the enemy. That role was supposed to be for the perimeter team. But now there wasn't a perimeter team, not really. Where there were usually twelve to fifteen US soldiers today there were just two plus an American contractor. Flow and his guys would have to play offense and defense. 00:16:39 Speaker 3: And so I took in some Afghan National Army that were stationed at the base, and I put him up front of my patrol and I sped them out a little bit, and I switched the way we were configured for the first time in six months. 00:16:51 Speaker 4: I just didn't feel comfortable. 00:16:53 Speaker 3: I think part of it is I had so much leadership in this patrol and such little security that in the back of my head, I'm like, I don't like this. 00:17:02 Speaker 1: Flow positioned himself at the very top of the diamond. He was usually at the rear. The VIPs would be in the middle, except for Sarte Major Kevin Griffin. He saw what Flow was up against and he insisted on going to the back of the formation to help with the rear guard. The Afghan soldiers would be at the very top in front of the diamond. That way, Flow and his men could keep their eyes on them too, not that they didn't trust them, but things were dicey. They started their walkthrough with Sadabad. It was about one thousand meters to the Governor's compound where the meeting was being held. The road traveled along the side of a river and then it curved in towards town and a small bridge. 00:17:48 Speaker 3: As we maneuver through, everything was going well for about seven hundre years. We're about to reach that bridge when two motorcycles come from in front of us and they're going fast. We're going kind of looking forward, thinking like what the heck African National Army guy a point of our patrol did a heck of a job. Raiser's rifle started screaming at the guy. Guys dumped their bikes and started running away. Now that guy on Afgan National Army started chasing. 00:18:16 Speaker 1: Them, Flow in his team instantly raised their own rifles. The motorcycles had them spooted, and suddenly Flow noticed something else. 00:18:26 Speaker 3: We had a structures who are left and a kid walked out a structure when the motorcycles were coming. 00:18:33 Speaker 1: The kid, in his late teens or early twenties, was dressed in flowing black clothes. He sort of stumbled out of the building, almost as if he was drunk. Normally, the escort team would have stopped him, but today there was no escort. 00:18:52 Speaker 4: And he was walking backwards pallel to our patrol. It looked suspicious. Obviously he's a threat. 00:18:57 Speaker 3: Didn't see any weapon, But when he did a onet eighty and then another ninety degree turn and cut into our patrol, I knew at that point that there was something really fishy about what was going on, so I started yelling at him. 00:19:09 Speaker 1: The kid was just twenty or third thirty feet away, so without even really thinking about it, Flow started sprinting his runner's instincts kicked in. 00:19:18 Speaker 3: I went towards him as fast that I could. I yelled at him, no response. He never even looked at me. 00:19:23 Speaker 1: It only took a heartbeat for him to reach the kit, but it felt like an eternity. 00:19:28 Speaker 3: When I got to him, I hit him my rifle real hard across the chest, and I remember thinking, oh goodness, what is this? Is there something you know's what's on hand? So I let go of my rifle, which was slung to my kit, and I grabbed him by the chest. That's when I realized, okay, this is a suicide vest. 00:19:48 Speaker 1: Flow placed his hands on the guy's chest and started shoving him back away from the formation. 00:19:54 Speaker 3: I didn't care about my well being because I wanted to make sure he was far away as possible, as quickly as possible from everybody else. 00:20:01 Speaker 1: The suicide bomber had attached a fake right hand to the outside of his clothes to hide the fact that his right arm was actually tucked inside with his thumb pressing a trigger. All he had to do was release the button and the bomb would go off. By now, one of Flow's team members, Sergeant Andrew Mahoney, had run to Flow side. The two men pushed the bomber as hard as they could, trying to get him. 00:20:27 Speaker 3: Back, and so I just threw him as fire as I could, And when he landed at my feet, he detonated. 00:20:37 Speaker 1: A massive cloud of fire and dust and shrapnel filled the air. The explosion shook the city, but for a few moments, FLOW heard and felt nothing. 00:20:51 Speaker 3: Everything went black, and he threw me about twenty feet right side of the road. I've been waking up thinking what just happened. My head was just on fire, you know, spinning, And so I took my helmet. All the straps were loose, my helmet, took my pilmmet through it. We're looking at myself. There's blood everywhere and blood over myself. And I saw my leg. My foot's facing me. My fibula was sticking out. It felt like my leg was melting, but I couldn't feel anything. So I remember looking at my leg and thinking, oh, this is not good. Now. 00:21:25 Speaker 4: I remember closing my eyes coming back. Okay, this is not a dream, this is reality. I got hit. 00:21:31 Speaker 1: He knew one thing, a suicide bombing was usually part of a larger attack. More was probably coming. 00:21:40 Speaker 3: Started thinking all right, and I am in a kill zone and this is going to be followed up by a small arms fire. I was in that bush, so I remember looking for my rifle. I couldn't find my rifle. I took out my pistol. I made sure I had a round in the chamber, and I started dragging myself. 00:21:54 Speaker 1: Out, dragging himself across the dusty street, pistol in hand, still trying to do his job. But then out of the cloud of smoke, one of his sergeants came running. He dragged Flowed to a ditch to safety, and as the medic put a tourniquet around his leg, Flow could only think of one thing, the people he was there to protect, so he asked where they were. Colonel Mingus was safe, Okay, just a concussion. The Sergeant Major, Kevin Griffin, Flow's friend, his mentor, was gone. 00:22:30 Speaker 3: And that's when I got really, really angry, and I was just confused. How why no, I don't believe this. I need to see this. Get me out of his ditch, Get me up. I got a good leg, I can hop as I'm walking with them towards where Sar Major was at. There was a leg right here to the right it was just also blood everywhere, bodies, and I was just thinking, like, what the heck just happened? 00:22:57 Speaker 4: And when I got to SA Major, I. 00:23:00 Speaker 3: Noticed he wasn't alone, and he was laying there with Major Gray, Major Kennedy, and then one of the USAID individuals, Reggae a Delfata. 00:23:10 Speaker 1: They were lion in a circle in the middle of the street. 00:23:14 Speaker 3: And they were all killed in action. And that's when my life changed again. 00:23:23 Speaker 1: Almost everyone on the twenty eight man patrol had been hit in the explosion. Four had died. It was terrible, but it could have been so much worse because Flow had done two things. He moved the explosion further from the group, and he caused it to happen on the ground instead of the open air, where it would have caused more damage. Plus, while Flow didn't know this at the time, there had been a second suicide bomber. The first explosion caused the second one to detonate before it was in place. Had both gone off as planned, who knows how many more would have been killed, But none of that mattered to Flow. He had lost his friends, the people he was there to protect. 00:24:14 Speaker 3: I don't know how to describe a fils I had at that specific moment, But you can definitely combine anger, fury, sadness, devastation, everything into one ball of just suck. That would be the last time I would ever be in combat as an army guy. That would be the last time I would ever lead men in combat, would be the last time I'd ever wear a uniform in combat, And so my entire life changing him out of eight seconds. 00:24:57 Speaker 1: Two days after the suicide bombing and the Sadabad Flogrolberg opened his eyes. He wasn't sure what he was looking at. He knew he had tubes coming out of him. He assumed he was in the hospital. That would makes sense, But there was also a guy with long dreadlocks and tattoos standing over him, staring into his eyes. That made literally no sense at all, because that guy looked just like the lead singer of one of Flow's favorite bands. Flow thought he was hallucinating. Well he wasn't. Jonathan Davis, the lead singer of Korn, was really there in the hospital in Germany. Korn happened to be touring with the USO. Davis's grandfathers had both served in the military. I mean, who knew, He told Flow that he was proud of him and that everyone was rooting for him. Flow needed to hear it because the next day was Flow's first surgery, which would be followed by many many more, all to try to save his leg. From Germany, Flow was sent to Maryland. On the long flight overseas, he wrote apology letters to the families of the men who had died or been wounded. He felt responsible for their losses. His entire action had only taken eight seconds, but he kept thinking, why wasn't I faster? 00:26:31 Speaker 3: You love the men to your right, to you left, to your front of your ear, with everything that you have inside. 00:26:37 Speaker 4: You're willing to die for him. You will to die for your country. 00:26:40 Speaker 3: You don't want to die, obviously, but as part of responsibility, it's part of reality. I just did my job. Every single one of my guys did their job. They all went out there and were incredible. And that's it. It's just the reality of it. I tell you what, I didn't do the job well enough, because for my brothers died and so to me it will always be a failure. 00:27:03 Speaker 1: He went to Walter Read Hospital and over the next few months he had twenty seven surgeries to save his leg. He was we were totally sure whether it would still be attached when he woke up. He never slept more than a few hours at a time, but when he did sleep, he was back in the side of body yelling at the suicide bomber. Being awake wasn't much better. The guilt was overwhelming, but slowly, over time he started to realize something important. But the second chance at life came, the opportunity for another change, a new opportunity to do good in the world, even though he was no longer a soldier in combat. 00:27:45 Speaker 3: Now I have the responsibility to live my life to the best of my abilities for the rest of my days and make sure that iron it every single day. He's a reminder that I am on bard time. My life is no longer just mine. It represents my fourth brothers that didn't come home, and you know what it represents all the guys prior to that who didn't come home. 00:28:03 Speaker 1: He made a new promise to himself. He decided to be better for them. 00:28:09 Speaker 3: I'm not changing the world every day, but every day I tried to do something positive in the world, and I hope that eventually that builds up to me being a good person and earning the effect that I'm still in dissert. 00:28:20 Speaker 1: He would be in and out of Walter Reed for the next two and a half years. The doctors did save his leg, but the damage was permanent. His ankle was fused in place, unable to move the same way, but he started to move forward. After all, Grobergs don't quit right. He was thrilled when Sergeant Andrew Mahoney received a silver Star for his actions that day, but Flow never wanted recognition for himself. 00:28:49 Speaker 3: I didn't care about medals. I don't want to medal. I just wanted to go on my life, so I didn't hear anything. And I left the Army on July twenty third, twenty fifteen, with nothing, and that was good for me. 00:29:05 Speaker 1: He joined the Department of Defense. He went back to get his master's degree, and then he met Carson Ze, a gorgeous, dark haired girl who is the friend of a friend. 00:29:15 Speaker 3: There's a group of girls sitting in this satio and one of them drops her phone, so I pick it up. 00:29:21 Speaker 4: I'm gonna give it to look at him like wow, okay, hello. 00:29:24 Speaker 1: Hello, and that was it. They had just started planning to move in together when he got a call in September of twenty fifteen on the phone. Barack Obama, the President, was calling to tell Flow that he would be a recipient of the Medal of Honor. Carson was sitting next to him as he hung up the phone. 00:29:47 Speaker 4: I remember looking at her. 00:29:48 Speaker 3: I said, I think things are going to change again, baby, and she said, I think you're right. 00:29:52 Speaker 4: And did they ever. 00:29:55 Speaker 1: Flow had only one request for his Medal of Honor ceremony. He wanted the families of Kevin Griffin, David Gray, and Tom Kennedy to be there. If they weren't there, he didn't want to be either. 00:30:08 Speaker 3: I called the Gostar families asking them to be a par part of the ceremony and the reception, because this metal belongs to them, what in me. They're the ones that have to live with the consequences of August eight, twenty twelve more than I do. 00:30:20 Speaker 4: I'm here. 00:30:22 Speaker 1: They agreed to attend, along with so many of FLOE's friends and brothers and arms. His parents were there, of course, in Carson Io, all listening as President Obama spoke. 00:30:35 Speaker 5: Flow says that day was the worst day of his life, and that is the stark reality behind these medal of honor ceremonies for all the valor we celebrate, all the courage that inspires us. These actions were demanded amidst some of the most dreadful moments of war. That's precisely why we honor heroes like Flow, because on his very worst day, he managed to summon his very best. That's the nature of courage, not being unafraid, but confronting fear and danger and performing in a selfless fashion. He showed his guts, he showed his training. How you put it all on the line for his teammates. That's an American we can all be grateful for. 00:31:40 Speaker 1: No other way to put it. An American we can all be grateful for. That's so true and yet so interesting, given that this isn't the country of his birth, it's the country he chose. 00:31:55 Speaker 3: I hear a lot about the fact that I'm an immigrant. Then people would say, well, how could you do this? You know, for the United States of America. I got to live in a different country, and I came here and had an opportunity to truly understand how lucky I am and what to appreciate. And sometimes it's hard to appreciate something been their entire life. And I was lucky that I was born somewhere else, spoke a different language, and I got to come here immerse myself in something great, and I understand it, and I'm grateful for it. 00:32:27 Speaker 1: He's got a point. Maybe it does take an outsider to see the value in something we all take for granted, to see how much there is to fight for. To this day, Flow wears a bracelet with the names of the men who were lost, and in twenty seventeen, he and Carson returned to that base in Afghanistan. There's a memorial there to honor the men who died that day. They paid their respects together. The couple got married the following year. 00:32:58 Speaker 4: She's my life, man, She's everything. 00:33:01 Speaker 1: Flow and Carson now have two little kids. Flow works for a private investment firm that focuses on technology and national security. Can't run anymore. His eight second race, the most important race of his life, was his last. Those seconds mattered, but what mattered even more was his courage, his willingness to race forward for the sake of his team, for the sake of his country, as fast as he possibly could. Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins and Ryan Schwiker. Our editor is Lydia Jean Kott. Sound designed by Jake Gorski. Our executive producer is Gonstanza gayardro Fact checking by Arthur Gomperts. Original music by Eric Phillips. Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the American Legion, and the Army Matters Podcast. If you want to learn more about this story, take a look at our show notes, where we have some of the resources we use to put this episode together. We also want to hear from you. Send us your personal story of courage or highlight someone else's bravery. Email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin dot fm. You might hear your stories on future episodes of Medal of Honor or see them on our social channels at Pushkin Pods. I'm your host, JR. Martinez