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