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Speaker 1: So it's a Memorial Day, And obviously on Memorial Day

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Speaker 1: we take a moment, we take a day to remember

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Speaker 1: the follow and to remember the heroes who have paid

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Speaker 1: the ultimate sacrifice to defend this nation, defend our country.

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Speaker 1: We honor the families who have lost loved ones in

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Speaker 1: the pursuit of freedom to protect this great country. But

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Speaker 1: beyond taking the time to remember, shouldn't we also reflect?

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Speaker 1: And shouldn't we also reflect on mistakes that we've made

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Speaker 1: as a country and things we could change moving forward,

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Speaker 1: and being more judicious with the lives of our military

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Speaker 1: men and women. Shouldn't the people in charge shouldn't their

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Speaker 1: sole duty with our military men and women be to

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Speaker 1: avoid casualties, avoid sending them to unnecessary wars, so that

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Speaker 1: we have less men and women who have to pay

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Speaker 1: the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of freedom. So that's

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Speaker 1: why I wanted to do this Memorial Day. Not only

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Speaker 1: honor the fallen and honor their bravery, and honor the

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Speaker 1: people who give everything for this country that they love

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Speaker 1: and that we love, but also take a time to reflect.

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Speaker 1: And one of those wars is Afghanistan. You know, it

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Speaker 1: was the longest war in American history twenty years lost,

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Speaker 1: so many service members, so many service men and women

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Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. So what are the lessons we could learn there?

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Speaker 1: What should we take from that and do differently moving forward?

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Speaker 1: And who better to talk to you than Sean Parnell.

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Speaker 1: He has a former US Army Airborne ranger who served

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Speaker 1: in the legendary tenth Mountain Division for six years, retiring

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Speaker 1: as a captain. He received two Bronze Stars, one for

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Speaker 1: valor and a Purple Heart as well. He wrote the

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Speaker 1: New York Times best selling book Outline Platoon, and he

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Speaker 1: also wrote Man Award Outlaw Platoon details his sixteen months

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Speaker 1: in combat and Afghanistan. Sixteen months in combat in Afghanistan, well,

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Speaker 1: he was there. His platoon repeatedly was outnumbered, repeatedly outgunned,

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Speaker 1: and they displayed such tremendous bravery to the that over

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Speaker 1: of his platoon received Purple Hearts for wounds that they

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Speaker 1: incurred in battle. Sean was also injured in battle, day

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Speaker 1: in and day out, fighting for freedom in the mountains

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Speaker 1: of Afghanistan. He was twenty four at the time. Can

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Speaker 1: you imagine being twenty four and leading a platoon in

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Speaker 1: the mounds of Afghanistan, day in, day out, out numbered out,

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Speaker 1: gun fighting bravely and fearlessly next to your your brothers

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Speaker 1: in the military and in the army. So we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get Sean Parnell's take on what lessons we should learn

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Speaker 1: from Afghanistan, what we could be doing different moving forward,

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Speaker 1: and how we can truly honor, to the best of

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Speaker 1: our abilities, the men and women who have paid the

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Speaker 1: ultimate sacrifice and the pursuit of freedom. I hope you

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Speaker 1: enjoyed this conversation. He's an absolute hero, and he's an

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Speaker 1: absolute badass, Sean Parnell. Sean Carnell, you are such a

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Speaker 1: badass and such an American hero. It's an honor just

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Speaker 1: to have you on the show. So I really appreciate

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Speaker 1: you taking this time. Oh well, thanks, Lisa. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if i'd call myself a badass, but I was.

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Speaker 1: I was in the Army for a time and I

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Speaker 1: was surrounded by badasses every day, so I guess I

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Speaker 1: was pretty lucky. I'll call you badass, so I'll be

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Speaker 1: the one. I'll do it because you can be humble.

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Speaker 1: I will take the humility out of it for you. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know we're recording this before. But this is gonna

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Speaker 1: err on Memorial Day and obviously a day to honor

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Speaker 1: the individuals and so many who have paid the ultimate

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Speaker 1: sacrifice in the name of defending freedom, defending this great

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Speaker 1: country that we love. But shouldn't we also take this

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Speaker 1: time to learn lessons from you know, wars like Afghanistan,

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Speaker 1: and also using it as a time to be more

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Speaker 1: judicious in sending our military men and women to war.

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Speaker 1: I think so, I mean, you know, I think I

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Speaker 1: think it speaks directly to the importance of you know,

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Speaker 1: warriors coming back, you know, American men and women who

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Speaker 1: fight our wars coming back and being involved with regards

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Speaker 1: to where our country goes and the decisions that we

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Speaker 1: make pertaining to the future of America and the wars

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Speaker 1: that we get ourselves involved in. Um. You know, after

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Speaker 1: I spent time in Afghanistan back in in two thousand

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Speaker 1: six and two thousand and seven. UM, we were there

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Speaker 1: for what like twenty years. You know, it's a long

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Speaker 1: long time that I think most America, most of America, America,

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Speaker 1: it's difficult to wrap your mind around that length of time,

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Speaker 1: you know. And so I feel like, you look at

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Speaker 1: what happened in Afghanistan and all the blood, the treasure

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Speaker 1: that we spent there, right after twenty years there, Um,

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Speaker 1: you look now and it's like, well, what do you

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Speaker 1: have to show for it? You know? And look, I

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Speaker 1: would know you this, like, I'm proud of my time

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Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. I don't regret it for a second. I

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Speaker 1: joined after after September eleven. One of one of the

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Speaker 1: best experiences of my life was serving this country. So

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Speaker 1: I am not a victim in any way. I'm a

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Speaker 1: volunteer and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

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Speaker 1: And I'm proud of what we did in Afghanistan, you know. Um.

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Speaker 1: But and critics, critics would say, you know, when I

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Speaker 1: would say, well, what will we have to show forward,

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Speaker 1: critics would say, well, look, I mean, you know, look

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Speaker 1: at what you do, what you built for the Afghans,

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Speaker 1: you wells and villages. You know, little girls know how

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Speaker 1: to read, and you know, boys are part of the

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Speaker 1: economy now and they understand what what freedom, freedom is,

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Speaker 1: even if it was just for a brief time. And

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Speaker 1: I just say to that, yes, that is all true. Um,

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Speaker 1: but I would rather have my friends alive, you know. Um,

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Speaker 1: And you look at what's happening today and the Afghan

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Speaker 1: you know things, and in Afghanistan just collapsed what like

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Speaker 1: less than a year ago, Lisa, right, like August two

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Speaker 1: thousand and twenty one. And it seems like you have

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Speaker 1: members of Congress on both sides of the Aisle, in

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Speaker 1: the House and in the Senate that are clamoring to

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Speaker 1: go right back into the fight in Ukraine, which from

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Speaker 1: a geopolitical standpoint is just it's far more complicated than

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Speaker 1: than Afghanistan. Um without even taking a breath after the

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Speaker 1: Afghan warrant, saying, wait, is this really worth it? Should

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Speaker 1: we like take time to hit the reset button as

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Speaker 1: a country and figure out if, if this fight is

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Speaker 1: worth Americans dying for, because that that's the question that

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Speaker 1: American moms and dads need to ask themselves. Lisa's like,

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Speaker 1: is Ukraine so important that you're willing to sacrifice your

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Speaker 1: son or daughter for that? If the answer to that

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Speaker 1: question is no, then we shouldn't be doing anything for Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: And and look, Lisa, I feel bad for the people there.

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Speaker 1: My heart aches for the civilians and children who are

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Speaker 1: caught in the middle. Like this is not me saying

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Speaker 1: like we should ignore it completely, Like nobody, like a

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Speaker 1: few people in this country understand that the humanitarian disaster

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Speaker 1: and people stuck in the middle of the fight that

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Speaker 1: the me. I get that. But but again I would

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Speaker 1: say I would rather have American sons and daughters alive.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think we need to take care of

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Speaker 1: ourselves here at home a little bit. First. We just

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Speaker 1: see politicians, you know, beating the drums of war with Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: Udu Biden said something today about Taiwan about you know,

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Speaker 1: you should take a military action. But you just hear

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Speaker 1: these politicians and it almost there's a callousness to it,

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Speaker 1: to be honest, because it doesn't take into account that,

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Speaker 1: as you pointed out, it's it's would they send their

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Speaker 1: son or daughter? You know, it just it doesn't take

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Speaker 1: an account like I just lives or American people should

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Speaker 1: be the most important to us. That lives the precious lives,

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Speaker 1: or military men and one should be the most important

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Speaker 1: to us, And it just doesn't. It doesn't seem to

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Speaker 1: be the case, and it makes me sad. Look, you're right, Lisa,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you're right, it's it's well, I think part

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Speaker 1: of the problem is that you only have point four

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Speaker 1: percent of the people in this country who have served

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Speaker 1: this country. During Iraq and Afghanistan's twenty years of war,

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Speaker 1: so longest period of war in American history, only point

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Speaker 1: four percent of the country actually experienced what it means

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Speaker 1: to protect and defend freedom. And so I think as

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Speaker 1: a result, you have, you know, most of American of

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Speaker 1: America who enjoyed freedom on a day to day basis

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Speaker 1: in this country, and you have less than half of

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Speaker 1: one percent who protected. So there's there's a there's a

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Speaker 1: significant gap between those two groups. And I think that's

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Speaker 1: part of the reason why, you know, you have politicians

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Speaker 1: who really never served anything but themselves for the majority

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Speaker 1: of their lives talk so callously about sending American sons

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Speaker 1: and daughters into the fight because the reality is they

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Speaker 1: don't have any understanding of what that means for American

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Speaker 1: families who are actually doing the fighting. Like for for example,

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Speaker 1: when I got back from Afghanistan, sixteen month combat deployment,

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Speaker 1: sixteen months, like four five days, It's like if you

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Speaker 1: had a kid, it's like, have a good first grade year,

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Speaker 1: have a good second grade year, I'll see you on

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Speaker 1: your way to third grade. That's crazy, you know, And

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Speaker 1: you know, we got back, we hit the reset button.

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Speaker 1: You know, most of we weren't even back for a

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks. We already had to go right back

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Speaker 1: down to Fort Polk, Louisiana. So we got back home.

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Speaker 1: Hugger families went back to do training down at Fort Polk,

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Speaker 1: Louisiana and prep for another combat deployment to Afghanistan that

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Speaker 1: was nine months later. I mean, it's an incredibly heavy

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Speaker 1: burden that we that we place on a very very

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Speaker 1: small percentage of Americans, and most of the time our

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Speaker 1: politicians are unaffected by that. But I guess it sounds

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Speaker 1: cool when you're up there at the podium, uh, you know, hey,

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Speaker 1: of China invades Taiwan, like We're gonna get involved militarily,

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Speaker 1: with no real understanding in the geopolitical consequences or the

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Speaker 1: fall lot for the American people or how that would

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Speaker 1: affect people who serve. I mean, it's it's just irresponsible,

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Speaker 1: especially Lisa, when you consider just how much suffering there

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Speaker 1: is here within our own borders at home. I think

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Speaker 1: a lot of our a lot of our attention should

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Speaker 1: be focused on well. And I think President Trump really

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Speaker 1: changed at least my thinking on foreign policy because what

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Speaker 1: he was able to show us is that you can

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Speaker 1: be strong, you can flex muscle, you can deter the

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Speaker 1: bad guys without sending troops, without invading, without beating the

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Speaker 1: you know, the the drum beat for war, and you

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Speaker 1: can do it like he did when he was sitting

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Speaker 1: with President She you know, having chocolate cake, telling him

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Speaker 1: he's sending Tomah health missiles. Right, it's such a fall

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Speaker 1: or striking these peace deals on the Abrahambichords. It just

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Speaker 1: changed the way, you know, I thought about things because

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Speaker 1: he just showed us a different path. He really opened

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Speaker 1: my eyes too. You know there there is a different

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Speaker 1: way you know there and and when you're in Washington,

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Speaker 1: I mean really when whether you're a Democrat or Republican

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Speaker 1: there there is the group sink right where everyone sort

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Speaker 1: of thinks the same way, um about a lot of things.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's why you hear a lot of

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Speaker 1: people talk about the uniparty, you know, where you have

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Speaker 1: you know, people like you know, as ideologically different as

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Speaker 1: Adam Kinzinger and Ted Cruz both talking about the importance

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Speaker 1: of defending Ukraine, to even certain Democrats talking about the

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Speaker 1: importance of defending our ally Ukraine, even though they're not

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Speaker 1: an ally um um. You know, it's like you see,

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Speaker 1: you see these certain groups of people that think alike Lisa.

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Speaker 1: And what I always admired about President Trump is it

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Speaker 1: takes an unbelievable amount of mental toughness to resist that

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Speaker 1: type of pressure and group think, right. And and in Washington,

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Speaker 1: President Trump was I mean, gosh, any given at any

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Speaker 1: given moment. Uh in d C. In the White House,

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Speaker 1: both Republicans and Democrats were fired up in angry at

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Speaker 1: President Trump for different reasons. And that's what I admired

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Speaker 1: about him the most. And that's ultimately why I think

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Speaker 1: the American people sent him there, Because there is a

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Speaker 1: level of dissatisfaction in this country that if people just

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Speaker 1: A and they took a stroll through you know, Middle America,

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Speaker 1: they would feel that sense of discontent about the direction

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Speaker 1: of our country. And President Trump tapped into that. And

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Speaker 1: you look at what he was able to accomplish in

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Speaker 1: four years and in the face of I mean, so

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Speaker 1: what that man faced in the White House was criminal.

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Speaker 1: It was criminal. I mean, now we're learning of what

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Speaker 1: what Hillary Clinton did. It was like make legitimately criminal,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. But but the things that he was

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Speaker 1: able to accomplish in four short years I never thought possible,

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Speaker 1: and you know, the Abraham Accords and peace in the

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Speaker 1: Middle East. Never thought that was possible, but he did it.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, like you said, it really opened my eyes

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Speaker 1: we don't have to deploy and get locked down, and

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Speaker 1: like it's almost become cliche now in these in these

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Speaker 1: forever wars, but that's really what they are. I mean,

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Speaker 1: twenty freaking years in Afghanistan is a long time. I

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Speaker 1: mean twenty years. I mean think about it like this,

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Speaker 1: Like I'm forty years old. That's half of my life.

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Speaker 1: We were in Afghanistan, like half of my life. The

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Speaker 1: only professor, the only thing that I've known is war

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Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. Lost thirty five plus friends there. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's a long time. And I think what President Trump

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Speaker 1: We can still have peace, um, as long as we're

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Speaker 1: focused on the right stuff, um, and focusing on ourselves

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Speaker 1: at home. And unfortunately, a year and a half of

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Speaker 1: Joe Biden, he's unraveling that pretty quickly. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's really sad. But I but

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Speaker 1: I honestly think I think the turning point for him

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Speaker 1: he do all these things that obviously people like us

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Speaker 1: knew he wasn't going to do and he wasn't capable

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Speaker 1: of it. But his ratings really started to take a

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Speaker 1: nosedive after Afghanistan. And it was the disastrous exit, the abandoning,

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Speaker 1: like the back Roum airfield before getting her people out,

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Speaker 1: getting thirteen service members killed, leaving Americans behind, And I

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Speaker 1: think that was the turning point. And when that all

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Speaker 1: was going down, you tweeted out that the Afghana baccles

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Speaker 1: on the suits, not the boots. Talk about that disconnect

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Speaker 1: in the military between the suits and the boots and

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Speaker 1: how that played out with Afghanistan so disastrously. It was

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Speaker 1: so frustrating to me. And part of what I do

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Speaker 1: like coming back home after I got back from Afghanistan,

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Speaker 1: was was realizing very quickly that a lot there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of men and women here who served this

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Speaker 1: country that needed help, and you know, there's a way

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Speaker 1: in which you come back from war. War changes you,

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Speaker 1: um and some pretty deep and fundamental ways, and you

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Speaker 1: could you know, you come back and you meet and

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Speaker 1: doesn't know you because you've changed, and you talk to

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Speaker 1: your best friends. And there was a moment for me

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Speaker 1: like where I'm from Pittsburgh and so like the first

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Speaker 1: thing I do when I get back from Afghanistan is

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Speaker 1: like text my buddies, you know, who I went to

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Speaker 1: college with and stuff. And like I opened up my

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Speaker 1: like little flip phone and text them and they text

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Speaker 1: me back their address and like look at it. Read

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Speaker 1: the address. I'm like, oh my gosh, Like these dudes

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Speaker 1: are still living in the same address they've been living

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Speaker 1: at for ten years, and I just got back from Afghanistan.

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Speaker 1: Feel like a totally different person show up at there.

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Speaker 1: I show up at their apartment. I walk in and

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Speaker 1: like they're like all sitting in the same spots on

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Speaker 1: the couch, like drinking the same Iron City beer, talking

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Speaker 1: about the same girl problems. And I'm like Simpson's posters

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Speaker 1: on the wall and family Guy magnets on the fridge,

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Speaker 1: and I'm thinking to myself, like oh my god, like

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Speaker 1: nothing has changed here at home, but I'm different person

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Speaker 1: in every way. And so if I was feeling like that,

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Speaker 1: there are probably millions of Americans feeling like that. You

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Speaker 1: come home from more and just feel like they're different,

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Speaker 1: and maybe they feel like exiles in their own country.

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Speaker 1: And so I started doing everything I could to make

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Speaker 1: sure that, like the war is really what I'm I

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Speaker 1: guess I'm getting to Lisa, is that the war for

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Speaker 1: a lot of veterans really starts when you get home.

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Speaker 1: And I wanted to just help veterans come home in

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Speaker 1: the most productive way possible and not just survive on

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Speaker 1: a day to day basis, but but really, but but thrive,

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Speaker 1: you know. And when I tweeted that about Afghanistan about

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Speaker 1: it being on the suits and not the boots, was

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Speaker 1: really it was in that spirit, because I knew there

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Speaker 1: would be a lot of veterans thinking like, what the

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Speaker 1: hell was all this for? You know, why the hell

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Speaker 1: did I Why did I lose my friend in this country?

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Speaker 1: Why did I go to this country and and sacrifice

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Speaker 1: a piece of myself there? You know? Why do we

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Speaker 1: do all of this just to have some moron in

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Speaker 1: the White House throw it all away, uh, because I mean,

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Speaker 1: quite honestly, he's a bumbling idiot. Leadership matters, and he's

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Speaker 1: a commander in chief, so that the term commander predisposes

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Speaker 1: chief his job at first and foremost an obligation to

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Speaker 1: our American military. And it was a it was a

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Speaker 1: dereliction of duty of the highest order of what he

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Speaker 1: did in Afghanistan. And it's not just it's not just

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Speaker 1: leaving Americans behind, which is horrific, horrific enough, right, I

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Speaker 1: can't even believe I have to say this, but the

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Speaker 1: sacrifice that twenty years of Americans bled the ground red

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Speaker 1: in Afghanistan just to seed it back to the Taliban

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Speaker 1: in a few weeks. I mean, that's a that's a crime.

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Speaker 1: It's a crime, and it's it's gonna do unbelievable moral

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Speaker 1: damage to people who served there that the ramisifications of

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Speaker 1: which I don't think we fully understand yet. Um. And

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Speaker 1: so it's just like unbelievable to have to witness the

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Speaker 1: fall of Afghanistan and the speed at which it fell

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Speaker 1: here in America after having been there for twenty years. Um.

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Speaker 1: And again, never ever, ever, ever would have happened under

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Speaker 1: President Trump or really any American president. They could speak

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Speaker 1: in coherent sentences without having to read off a sheet

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Speaker 1: of paper. I mean, just unbelievable, and you can't help

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Speaker 1: but think you cannot help, but think, like I used

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Speaker 1: to joke around in the campaign trail when I was

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Speaker 1: running for the House and the Senate um well mostly

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Speaker 1: when I was running for the Senate, but like about

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Speaker 1: like just to utter incompetence. But I don't think it's incompetence.

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Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's intentional. I think that

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Speaker 1: this is you can't be this good. I mean, he's

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Speaker 1: Joe Biden, and in his administration a bunch of Obama

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Speaker 1: appointees two point over right back in the White House,

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Speaker 1: some of which are sermon in the same cabinet positions.

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Speaker 1: It it's like they're unbelievably efficient, ruthlessly efficient at destroying

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Speaker 1: almost every pillar in this country, I mean every pillar

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Speaker 1: strengthening country. It's unbelievable that they the level of which

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Speaker 1: they're failing. And I think Afghanistan was just one of

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Speaker 1: those pillars. Well, I think we all just felt such

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Speaker 1: an amount of shame with the way that we exited.

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Speaker 1: Just the loss of military men and women are sort

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Speaker 1: of the thirteen service members and just leaving Americans behind.

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Speaker 1: Quick Commercial break Back with Sean Parnell on the other side,

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Speaker 1: talked about sort of you know, the challenge with coming

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Speaker 1: home when you've been at war like that. I'll say

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Speaker 1: one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had in

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Speaker 1: my career was doing an honor air flight for Vietnam

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Speaker 1: war vets from Wisconsin for Fox and Friends. And I

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Speaker 1: went on this trip with them, and I'll tell you

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Speaker 1: it was just such a moving experience talking to these

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Speaker 1: like big, strong guys who were just brought to tears

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Speaker 1: of just feeling the honor of having served because they

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Speaker 1: didn't get the welcome they deserved when they came home.

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Speaker 1: And so just doing the interviews with them and seeing

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Speaker 1: these you know, grown men and you know cry and

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Speaker 1: just it was just incredibly moving, uh And I learned

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Speaker 1: a lot from it. It It was just a really you know,

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Speaker 1: humbling and just incredible experience, you know, spending time with

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Speaker 1: them and just being able to bless them and being

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Speaker 1: part of this with the trip. Yeah, well, Vietnam vets

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Speaker 1: are I mean, we owe them so much. And obviously,

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Speaker 1: because as you mentioned, they didn't have the welcome home

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Speaker 1: that that we did. And so much of the reason

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Speaker 1: why my generation was welcomed home was because after like

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Speaker 1: what these Vietnam what the Vietnam era went through, they

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Speaker 1: made themselves a promise to never allow another generation of

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Speaker 1: veteran to experience what they did. And because of that,

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Speaker 1: like we had by and large, a very positive homecoming,

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Speaker 1: you know. And I when I talk about feeling like

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Speaker 1: an exile in your own country, I should say, like

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Speaker 1: almost everybody that you talked to you says thank you

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Speaker 1: for your service. I am not again, like we're lucky

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Speaker 1: to live in a country like like America and come

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Speaker 1: home to people that that appreciate you. And that that

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Speaker 1: is because of Vietnam veterans who went through hell when

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Speaker 1: they came back, went through hell, and combat through hell,

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Speaker 1: and they came back and then but didn't give in.

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Speaker 1: And they they made a promise to you know, subsequent

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Speaker 1: generations of Americans when they came home from the fight,

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Speaker 1: and and and that promise was to never allow what

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Speaker 1: they went through to happen again. And I mean, really

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Speaker 1: my generation is standing on the shoulders of giants with

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Speaker 1: with them and and World War Two veterans and career

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Speaker 1: veterans before them. UM, so yeah, we're we're lucky. We're

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Speaker 1: lucky to live in this country. But there's still a

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Speaker 1: lot of work to do, that's for sure. I can't

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Speaker 1: imagine how it doesn't change you, particularly some of this

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Speaker 1: stuff that you endured. You know, I know you very humbly.

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Speaker 1: You know, didn't take me saying that you're, you know,

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Speaker 1: a complete badass and a hero, but you really are.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you've retired at highly decorated captain. You're awarded

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Speaker 1: two Bronze Stars, one for valor and a purple Heart.

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Speaker 1: You wrote the New York Times best selling book, Outlaw Platoon.

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Speaker 1: It's about your time serving as commanding the Army's tenth

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Speaker 1: Mountain Division in Afghanistan. As you mentioned, you served in

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Speaker 1: combat for sixteen months. You guys were repeatedly out in

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Speaker 1: our ber, repeatedly outgun. Yeah, your platoon killed over three

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Speaker 1: fifty enemy fighters. Why do you think your platoon was

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Speaker 1: able to be so effective in the face of so much? Um,

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Speaker 1: it's a great question. I think when you look at

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Speaker 1: the things that the American military can bring to the fight,

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Speaker 1: you know, like we've got lots of cool and sexy technology,

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Speaker 1: like we've got great guns and weapons, and we've got

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Speaker 1: air superiority helicopter and fixed wing aircraft and all that.

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Speaker 1: Believe me when I tell you all that really really helps.

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Speaker 1: But I think really are our secret weapon was the

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Speaker 1: the love and brotherhood that we shared for one another. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, we we spent a lot of time training

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Speaker 1: UM leading up to our deployment in Afghanistan. And I

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Speaker 1: feel like I was very blessed um to lead one

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Speaker 1: of the most diverse platoons that you can imagine. And

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Speaker 1: it's funny when you hear a lot of these politicians

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Speaker 1: talking about diversity in America being a strength, and it's like, well,

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Speaker 1: of course diversity is a strength, but not in it

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Speaker 1: of itself. What what makes America so truly exceptional is

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Speaker 1: that we unify beyond like our many differences, Right, It's

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Speaker 1: not just diversity for diversity's sake. And really, my platoon

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Speaker 1: was a microcosm of that strength. Like we had black

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Speaker 1: next white Christians next to atheists, Democrats next to Republican, rich,

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Speaker 1: next to poor, young, next to old. We were like

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Speaker 1: as wildly different as you can imagine, Yet there were

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Speaker 1: no real hyper there were no hyphenative Americans out there

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Speaker 1: in Afghanistan patrol on those those mountains. Um. And it

430
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:10,440
Speaker 1: was the very fact that I think we were able

431
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 1: to put aside all of our differences and unify beyond

432
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 1: them and the one cohesive fighting force that that that

433
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,360
Speaker 1: was what allowed us to to go through sixteen months

434
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 1: of absolute hell, sixteen months of heavy combat, and and

435
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:32,240
Speaker 1: make it you know, um, you know, we made ourselves

436
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:33,960
Speaker 1: a promise. I think what drove us every day on

437
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,959
Speaker 1: the battlefield, Lisa was was the fear of of of

438
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:42,000
Speaker 1: not the enemy, but the fear of letting each other down.

439
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 1: You know. Um. I would have soldiers that would get

440
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 1: that would get shot in the head, a soldier that

441
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 1: got shot through his helmet, his helmet slowed the round

442
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,680
Speaker 1: down enough where it penetrated his skin but not his skull,

443
00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 1: and skirted around the side of his all and back

444
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 1: out the other end. And that guy went back to

445
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: the base, wrapped his head up, and was back out

446
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 1: of patrol twenty four hours later. So when you're when

447
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: you're serving with men or Americans that have that much

448
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,639
Speaker 1: like that, the level of toughness and tenacity and dedication

449
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,679
Speaker 1: to duty that someone that that someone like that has

450
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 1: how do you fail somebody like that, Like if you

451
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: twist an anc or you you take some shrapnel or

452
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,399
Speaker 1: you get maybe a shot, but it's a grazing wound,

453
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 1: Like how do you how do you how do you

454
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:39,160
Speaker 1: how do you not saddle up when you're surrounded by

455
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: men like I just described. And so it was the

456
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,440
Speaker 1: fact that we were able to really to unify beyond

457
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 1: our many differences in fear of letting each other down,

458
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:53,119
Speaker 1: that really drove us to accomplish I think extraordinary things

459
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 1: and and really I mean it, like my platoon really

460
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,399
Speaker 1: just accomplished. It was just one unbelievable triumph of the

461
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 1: human spirit after the next. I mean, we were not

462
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 1: like Navy seals or anything. You know, we were light infantrymen.

463
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:13,080
Speaker 1: So we're in the tenth Mountain Division. We were light infantry.

464
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: I mean, we were real well trained and stuff. Don't

465
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: get me wrong, but you know, we weren't special forces.

466
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 1: You know, the most of the jobs that a lot

467
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:25,399
Speaker 1: of these kids had, like prior to carrying a machine

468
00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 1: gun in the mountains of Afghanistan, the job prior to

469
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: the military is like high school shortstop. Yet these these

470
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,680
Speaker 1: kids were just accomplished unbelievable things. And I think it's

471
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: because we were led on one another and that's what's

472
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: what allowed us to get through it all. And you're

473
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: twenty four at the beginning right of this painting. I mean,

474
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 1: how do you do that at and be responsible for

475
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: all these brave men that you just talked about. I mean,

476
00:26:52,359 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 1: what an incredible amount of responsibility. I was an idiot. Yeah,

477
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,479
Speaker 1: but how do you know? I don't know, I don't know.

478
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,679
Speaker 1: You just you know. I I um had a conversation

479
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: with my mom when I got back from Afghanistan and

480
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of years after, and my youngest brother,

481
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 1: I'm the oldest of four, and so my youngest brother

482
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: was like like helping my middle brother moved down to

483
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 1: Texas or something like that or and my mom was like, oh,

484
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 1: I'm nervous that your younger brother and he's gonna have

485
00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,240
Speaker 1: to drive drive, you know, his brother's car all the

486
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: way down to Texas. And I'm like thinking, like my

487
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:33,640
Speaker 1: and he's twenty three years old, Like I think he'll

488
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 1: be all right. I was leading people in Afghanistan at

489
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: twenty three years old, you know, So I don't I

490
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:43,280
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, Yeah, I was just like it

491
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,360
Speaker 1: was just something that we were laughing at about it. Um,

492
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 1: you know, I don't after so I think part of

493
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:53,840
Speaker 1: that Lisa's like I was a sophomore in college when

494
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,520
Speaker 1: nine eleven happened, Um, and that that hit me that

495
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 1: like like it did some millions of other Americans, you know.

496
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: And I think if you live through nine eleven, you

497
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 1: can probably tell me exactly where you were and what

498
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:08,239
Speaker 1: you were doing and what you had plans to do

499
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:12,439
Speaker 1: that day. Um. And I the only thing, like I

500
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:14,639
Speaker 1: was kind of like a I was kind of a

501
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,119
Speaker 1: screw up as a kid, Like my grades were okay,

502
00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:18,679
Speaker 1: but I didn't really know what I wanted to do

503
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 1: as an elementary education major. But again as a sophomore

504
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: in college, and I must have changed my major a

505
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: few times, like um, but when nine eleven happened, I

506
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,360
Speaker 1: knew that I wanted to to join the army, going

507
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,199
Speaker 1: the infantry, go to airborne school, go to ranger school,

508
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: like be on the front lines of our collective response.

509
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 1: And you know, I just knew. I knew it, um,

510
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 1: in my heart of hearts, that that was that was

511
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 1: the path that God intended me to walk at that

512
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 1: specific moment, in my life. And that's I think. I

513
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 1: think this is my faith in God and that that

514
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: was my purpose. I think that that's how I was

515
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: able to do it. And you know, years old, when

516
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 1: you when I just feel like when you know what

517
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,959
Speaker 1: path you're meant to walk, and you know that like,

518
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 1: no matter how bad things get, this is where you're

519
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 1: supposed to be. I've got no regrets, um, I just

520
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: think it gives you a sense of clarity, you know,

521
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: about what you're supposed to do and and and in

522
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:30,160
Speaker 1: my case, it was lead troops in Afghanistan a years old,

523
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: you know, um. And as horrible as that combat was,

524
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: I mean seriously, like we we like an you think

525
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: back to two thousand and six. You I don't, I

526
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 1: don't know if you're doing stuff at Fox back then,

527
00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 1: I sure as hell wasn't. I mean, I'm trying to

528
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 1: I think it was like working on Capitol Hill doing

529
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: you know, like nothing of nothing like you were doing.

530
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: It wasn't of no, I'll tell you that much. You know,

531
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean we're probably we're probably the

532
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: same age, you know, so I'm a little I'm a

533
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 1: little older than you, but you know, I'll take those

534
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: a couple of years. But you know, I don't know.

535
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: I feel like it was the path I was I

536
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: was meant to walk, you know, and you know, get

537
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 1: back and you see, I was able to take a

538
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: company command and then did a b a time were

539
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:23,960
Speaker 1: detachment command, and so at the age of eight years

540
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 1: old end up being in charge of like eighteen or

541
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: nineteen hundred uh like people, where I was in charge

542
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 1: of training young soldiers to go to war and taking

543
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 1: care of the wounded when they came home, and then

544
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 1: looking after the families who were left back at home,

545
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 1: and then ultimately doing the capture notification, which was ten

546
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: times worse than than combat. So I've seen both sides

547
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 1: of the fight. I've seen I've seen combat up close

548
00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 1: and personal, um and I've seen the fallout here at home.

549
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:56,920
Speaker 1: And when I was saying earlier, is it like no

550
00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: one expected Michael Tune or or are experience in Afghanistan

551
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: leads to be like what it was like if you

552
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: think back to two thousand and six and if you're

553
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: a congressional staffer, are working on the hill or something

554
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: like that back then, then you know, the talk back

555
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 1: then was the Iraq War and whether or not there

556
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 1: are weapons of mass destruction there? Or should we should

557
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 1: George W. Bush send more troops to the surge in

558
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 1: Iraq or not? Should we even be there or not.

559
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: At the time, Afghanistan was just a stability and support operation.

560
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,200
Speaker 1: We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into,

561
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: and man, like we just got thrown into the meat ground.

562
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,479
Speaker 1: Were an eastern Afghanistan about five clicks five kilometers from

563
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: the Pakistan border. Our mission was like about as simple

564
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 1: as you can. You can get phind Osama bin laden

565
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: close with and destroy the enemy, that's it. And man,

566
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:53,960
Speaker 1: we just got attacked every single day. We were outnumbered

567
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: every single day. I mean my my base, my base

568
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: m hmm probably took four thousand rockets and four five days,

569
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,880
Speaker 1: four thousand, you know, hundreds of direct fire engagements, and

570
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: we just sort of just like got thrown in there,

571
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 1: you know, were the so much of the focus of

572
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 1: this nation was on Iraq that we couldn't even get

573
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 1: up armored humb beast because all that was going to Iraq.

574
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: Like before, we were supposed to come home after after

575
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 1: a year, Um, we got extended for four more months,

576
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 1: sixteen months. Why because the soldiers that were supposed to

577
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: replace US in Afghanistan got sent to Iraq and supported

578
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: the surge, just so we were sort of like an

579
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 1: afterthought and we went through absolute hell. And ultimately Lisa

580
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 1: that that's why I wrote the book, because I thought

581
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 1: to myself, like, oh my God, like nobody knows in

582
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: this country, and nobody knew how bad Afghanistan was way

583
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,719
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and six. Nobody, And I just

584
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 1: felt like it was my job as the leader of

585
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 1: that platoon to make sure that the legacy of my

586
00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 1: soldiers that was kept alive. And you know, even if

587
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: Outlaw Betune ended up being a word document on my

588
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 1: computer that I emailed all of my troops that like

589
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 1: maybe once every ten years we read through and drank

590
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 1: beers or whatever like that would be that's worth it.

591
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 1: At least their experiences on the page preserved forever. I

592
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 1: didn't know that. I didn't know that it would take

593
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 1: off and become a bestseller in his first week, and

594
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 1: I was I feel like I was also lucky. It

595
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,000
Speaker 1: was all sort of maybe it was a state Um

596
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: when Outlaw Betune came out. Do you remember that story

597
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 1: way back in a day where UM soldiers at bog

598
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 1: where I'm got in trouble for like burning a Koran

599
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: or something like that, and that was like all over

600
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 1: the news. Um, it was like headline news for like

601
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 1: a week Outlaw Betune came out at that exact time,

602
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,760
Speaker 1: and I was like the young kid with an Afghanis

603
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: with a new Afghanistan book. Then you know how that

604
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: goes on Fox Dudes and stuff like that. Like I

605
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 1: was a dude guy with a book, so I was

606
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: able to go on there and promote it and the

607
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: rest is history. I was just it was just it

608
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: was just a blessing to be able to have that opportunity.

609
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 1: You tell, tell the story of my troops. You have

610
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:06,600
Speaker 1: talked about. You know, obviously we had superior you know, equipment,

611
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: being the US, but you're on their terrain and you're

612
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 1: in the mountains. How difficult is it to try to

613
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,759
Speaker 1: navigate that when you know you're you're on their home base, right,

614
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:19,440
Speaker 1: you're in their mountains. That is a good That's another

615
00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:22,440
Speaker 1: great question. It was. It was ridiculous. I mean, it's

616
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,360
Speaker 1: another thing about Afghanistan, like do you want to go

617
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,640
Speaker 1: back to a time where Jesus Christ walk the earth

618
00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:30,680
Speaker 1: at the a k forty seven like the icoon walkie

619
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:32,879
Speaker 1: talkie type radio at a pickup truck, and you've got

620
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,879
Speaker 1: Afghanistan there. When we were there, there was like one

621
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:41,320
Speaker 1: paved road in the entire country, no running water, no electricity,

622
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 1: no economy, all all finding age males would do all

623
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,240
Speaker 1: the men and in the villages that we were around

624
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,359
Speaker 1: would cut down wood all summer and prep for the winter.

625
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,800
Speaker 1: And that was it. That's all like there was nothing, nothing,

626
00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: and it's just all tribal. And so when we were

627
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:04,799
Speaker 1: where we were in Burmel, like Burmel District, was that

628
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:06,760
Speaker 1: we were in the valley, our base was in the valley.

629
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:08,960
Speaker 1: But fighting up in the mountains, I mean we're probably

630
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 1: at fourteen fifteen thousand feet there, you know, in the

631
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:14,279
Speaker 1: Hindu Kush mountains. And so if you if you're like

632
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:16,520
Speaker 1: a football fan, that's like playing a football game at

633
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 1: Marahei Stadium times three. And the enemy that we faced

634
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 1: over there again, like you hear the media talk about

635
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: and you certainly saw this during the collapse of Afghanistan,

636
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 1: but but the media talks about the Taliban as if

637
00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 1: they're in monolithic force and they are not. I mean,

638
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 1: you have so many different enemy factions that you face

639
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:43,200
Speaker 1: over there on a day to day basis, whether it's

640
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:48,719
Speaker 1: the Hakkani network or hak Matier or al Qaeda or Taliban,

641
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 1: or just crimes that happened on a day to day

642
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 1: basis like any other country. That like any other country

643
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 1: in the world. And as a young leader you've got

644
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:00,879
Speaker 1: to like navigate all that somehow and be almost like

645
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,600
Speaker 1: you know, an ambassador, an American ambassador with a gun,

646
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:09,080
Speaker 1: you know, ready on a moment's notice to either you know,

647
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 1: fire your weapon in defense of of your troops or

648
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 1: cradle a baby in a village where you're doing a

649
00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:20,920
Speaker 1: humanitarian distribution. I mean, it was one of the most complex,

650
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:24,600
Speaker 1: rugged environments that I certainly have ever been in. And

651
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 1: you know, you add to that the fact that all

652
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: of those enemy factions that that I just told you about,

653
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,880
Speaker 1: like most of those most of the the enemy that

654
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 1: we face in Afghanistan cut their teeth against the Russians

655
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:40,440
Speaker 1: in the eighties and then thought in the Afghan Civil

656
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 1: War in the nineties and then against us in a

657
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 1: post nine eleven era. And you know, the the average

658
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,719
Speaker 1: Afghan that we were fighting had ten years combat experience

659
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: on eighteen year old American private you know, Um, this

660
00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: was not a group of farmers with with pitchforks or

661
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 1: some sort of rag tag insurgency that they just mustered

662
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 1: up at the last second. Now, the people that we

663
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 1: fought there, the level of tactical acumen that they displayed

664
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,799
Speaker 1: on the battlefield on a day to day basis was

665
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 1: just as good, if not better than us. And they

666
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 1: weren't weighed down with a hundred pounds of gear like

667
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 1: we were, and they knew the terrain better better than

668
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 1: we did, at least initially, because what you know, as

669
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: obviously being in Afghanistan for sixteen months sucked something fierce.

670
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:36,320
Speaker 1: It was horrible. But um, what was interesting as this,

671
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:38,920
Speaker 1: I don't mean to sound crass, but we killed so

672
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: many of them over there that that we were getting

673
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:48,640
Speaker 1: intel in May of two thousand and seven that Pakistan

674
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 1: families were sick and tired of sending their sons into

675
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:53,960
Speaker 1: the fight. They were they were no longer going to

676
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 1: commit male fighters to the war in Afghanistan. And what

677
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: we saw that a lot of the new fighters that

678
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:04,240
Speaker 1: had replaced the older ones that we had killed didn't

679
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 1: know the terrain as good as us. So it was

680
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:10,120
Speaker 1: a real odd dynamic where at first they were better

681
00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:12,280
Speaker 1: than us, they were faster than us, they knew the terrain,

682
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 1: but slowly over time because we never broke contact, we

683
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:19,839
Speaker 1: never surrendered, We we always pressed the enemy. We would

684
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 1: never give them that moral victory on the battlefield. We

685
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 1: just slowly whittled away at their force and killed them

686
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:27,319
Speaker 1: one by one, to the point where at the end

687
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:30,719
Speaker 1: of sixteen months we knew the terrain better than they did.

688
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:36,600
Speaker 1: And and all of this culminated in an attack, um,

689
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:39,840
Speaker 1: probably in January. It was early January of two thousand

690
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: and seven. We had built my pet tune had built

691
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: or my company had built, the first combat outpost. And

692
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen like you know, uh, I can't

693
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:53,200
Speaker 1: remember some of the movies names that the movie where

694
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 1: you see in Afghanistan a combat outpost getting overrun. Um,

695
00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 1: probably every year after I was Afghanistan a combat outpost

696
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 1: had been overrun. Lisa and and and like I was

697
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,839
Speaker 1: highly critical of that strategy because like all, they would

698
00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: be manned with almost no combat power, with like a

699
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 1: squad and all they would David just be simply relegated

700
00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 1: to a defensive position. There and all along the border

701
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 1: of Afghanistan, you had like a main base with what

702
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: they call cops like combat outposts, and it almost looked

703
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 1: like a modern day version of imagine O line thinking like, well,

704
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,080
Speaker 1: if we have all these bases along the border, there's

705
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:31,240
Speaker 1: no way the enemy will be able to get bias

706
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:35,399
Speaker 1: and that's complete bs um. So anyway, like they tried

707
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:38,040
Speaker 1: to attack this base that we had built and we

708
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:40,479
Speaker 1: ended up killing, killing, I think like two hundred plus

709
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 1: fighters just in that one engagement decisively because we caught

710
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: them just prior to them kicking off the attack. And

711
00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 1: I mean I I would wager to say that that

712
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 1: from a strategic and tactical standpoint, back in two thousand

713
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 1: six and two thousand seven, we had we had decisively

714
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 1: won the fight in Afghanistan, and then we shifted from

715
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,560
Speaker 1: a counter terror mission, which the basic premise of a

716
00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:08,680
Speaker 1: counter terror mission is going after and killing the enemy,

717
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:11,759
Speaker 1: and through killing the enemy you secure the people UH

718
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: to counterinsurgency mission, like after the surge in Iraq. And

719
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:18,799
Speaker 1: you know, I think there are there are the strategists

720
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: that would say the surgeon Iraq was successful. I think

721
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,440
Speaker 1: I would tend to tend to agree, at least in

722
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:27,000
Speaker 1: the moment back then, it was pretty successful. While they

723
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:29,920
Speaker 1: tried to implement that exact same strategy in Afghanistan, which

724
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:34,320
Speaker 1: is an entirely different country, and once we shifted to counterinsurgency,

725
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:38,480
Speaker 1: we lost the initiative and Afghanistan went slowly downhill. From there,

726
00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:40,759
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break and then more

727
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 1: on Sean's time at Afghanistan on the other side. Take

728
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:49,960
Speaker 1: us back to you June tenth, two thousand six. Your

729
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 1: your platoon was outnumbered by almost tend to one, ended

730
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 1: up leaving you with injuries. You know, talk about that

731
00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 1: day and what happened. So June tenth, um we had

732
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 1: been tasked, we're tasked with finding a high value target,

733
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 1: and we had been out for a week up until

734
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:11,680
Speaker 1: that point. And we sat up and in and what

735
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:14,040
Speaker 1: we call an observation post, and we were just watching

736
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:18,359
Speaker 1: infiltration routes from Pakistan into Afghanistan. And we knew that

737
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:22,759
Speaker 1: this al Qaeda leader was using a cave complex to

738
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 1: navigate from Pakistan into Afghanistan, which is how he was

739
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:30,960
Speaker 1: avoiding like our intelligence and reconnaissance and surveillance drones. So

740
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,359
Speaker 1: we perched up on the hill, we we laid our

741
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 1: sites in on this cave site, which we what she

742
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: thought he was using. UM, and set in for the night.

743
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 1: Woke up the next morning, UM, and all throughout the

744
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,839
Speaker 1: night I had plotted target reference points and confirmed them

745
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 1: with our base at A target reference point is like

746
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 1: when you've got artillery at your base. UM. You want

747
00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:54,720
Speaker 1: to be able to Artillery is basically like big guns,

748
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,000
Speaker 1: and you want to be able to get those guns

749
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,200
Speaker 1: into the fight as fast as humanly possible should you

750
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:00,839
Speaker 1: make contact with the enemy. And best way to do

751
00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:03,480
Speaker 1: that is not like trying to plot it in the

752
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 1: middle of a fight, right, I think is the best

753
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: military commanders would look at a map and pick key

754
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 1: terrain and say, okay, this hilltop here is key terrain.

755
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:14,759
Speaker 1: If the enemy takes this hilltop, they'll be able to

756
00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 1: attack if you're easily. So I'm gonna plot this hill

757
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 1: it's target reference point one. And then you can coordinate

758
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,560
Speaker 1: with the with the guns and say, look, this is

759
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:25,719
Speaker 1: my target reference point one. When I say fired t

760
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:27,839
Speaker 1: RP one, this is what I mean, and you just

761
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:31,520
Speaker 1: you set in target reference point one through ten. UM.

762
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:33,520
Speaker 1: Prior to even leaving, and so I had been I

763
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 1: had studied those throughout the night. The sun crested the

764
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 1: hill of the next morning, and I remember walking out

765
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: and looking at some mountaintops to directly to our east

766
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 1: that were a lot higher than the one that we

767
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,400
Speaker 1: were on, and I just thought to myself, that's not

768
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,279
Speaker 1: a good tactical position to be in, and so I

769
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:56,040
Speaker 1: don't have the manpower to occupy those hills with troops.

770
00:42:56,040 --> 00:43:00,080
Speaker 1: In a perfect world, you would just occupy terrain it

771
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:02,319
Speaker 1: was higher than yours with boots, but I didn't have that.

772
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 1: I just had one platoon. So I figured I'd occupy

773
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,279
Speaker 1: those hilltops by fire, and if the enemy was watching us,

774
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:11,440
Speaker 1: they would think twice about setting in there because I

775
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 1: know that I have this position styled in. And so

776
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 1: I fired those target reference points with my forward observer,

777
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 1: watched those, watched the rounds land um on point and

778
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:26,799
Speaker 1: on target. Remember walking back to my truck and and

779
00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 1: it's just like somebody threw a veil over my entire world,

780
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:35,480
Speaker 1: and I remember, I don't remember much, but I do

781
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 1: remember waking up in in a smoldering hole about twenty

782
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 1: ft from where I had been standing, laying flat on

783
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:47,640
Speaker 1: my back, and I couldn't see. I couldn't really hear,

784
00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: but I could feel this stinging on my face and

785
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:55,480
Speaker 1: it just felt like like like I was someone was

786
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:58,719
Speaker 1: slapping me. And as I have blinked blinked my eyes open,

787
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:01,240
Speaker 1: I sid one of my team leaders, Tim Stalter, slapping

788
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,239
Speaker 1: me um and trying to get me to wake up.

789
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,920
Speaker 1: And I finally wake up, open my eyes. I look

790
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 1: at him. He's got this big smile on his face,

791
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:12,600
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what are you smiling at? What's going on?

792
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 1: He sir, He's like, you got blown the f up?

793
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,200
Speaker 1: And he started laughing, like what the hell is he

794
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:22,839
Speaker 1: laughing at? And I remember just like looking beyond him

795
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:25,280
Speaker 1: at these trees, because we had these big, huge trees

796
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:26,960
Speaker 1: up on the hilltop with us that a lot of

797
00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:29,799
Speaker 1: my men were taking cover behind, and the tops of

798
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:32,760
Speaker 1: these trees that looked like they hadn't been touched since

799
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:36,520
Speaker 1: the prehistoric era. Um, they were just getting blown to

800
00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:41,600
Speaker 1: smithereens like just crazy. And I remember looking to my

801
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:44,359
Speaker 1: left hand, which was shaking, and it's just like kind

802
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:48,080
Speaker 1: of lane in the Afghan dust, and I could see

803
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:53,000
Speaker 1: rounds landing between my fingers, like like the level of

804
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:56,200
Speaker 1: fire that that we were being hit with was like

805
00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:59,279
Speaker 1: nothing i've ever seen before felt before like it. Like

806
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 1: I felt like laying there on the ground with one

807
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:04,719
Speaker 1: of my soldiers on top, Like if I moved even

808
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 1: one centimeter to the left of the right, I get shot.

809
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:11,640
Speaker 1: I And that's how heavy the fire was. Remember looking

810
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 1: to my left and I see my platoon sergeant Greg Greason,

811
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,200
Speaker 1: and his back is like covered in blood and he's

812
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:20,279
Speaker 1: pointing to himself like saying that he's hit. And all

813
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:22,640
Speaker 1: around my perimeter, I had five gun trucks on the

814
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:25,719
Speaker 1: hilltop that day, and I had twenty four soldiers on

815
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:29,400
Speaker 1: the ground along with one interpreter. But all along the perimeter,

816
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: at every one of my trucks, almost everybody was hit.

817
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 1: Like my platoon sergeant was head he's my number two

818
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:39,640
Speaker 1: and chain of command. UM squadly or Phil Baldwin was

819
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:42,960
Speaker 1: shot in the leg. Um. He wasn't really trying to

820
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:45,160
Speaker 1: deal with that injury, but he was trying to furiously

821
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:48,440
Speaker 1: stop the bleeding of his team leader, Bennett Garvin, who

822
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:51,359
Speaker 1: was shot in the arm. I watched Mike Emrick up

823
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: on the gun, up on his fifth the caliber machine gun,

824
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:55,239
Speaker 1: up on his truck. He got shot in the head,

825
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:58,759
Speaker 1: fell on the truck, popped back up without his helmet on. Um.

826
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:02,240
Speaker 1: I mean it was all hell was breaking loose. Within

827
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: within sixty seconds of getting attacked that day, almost every

828
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: key meter in my opportune had been hit, including myself.

829
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:14,640
Speaker 1: And as I sat up, like the stalter of the

830
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 1: kid that had like brought me back stat me up straight,

831
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:22,359
Speaker 1: and I remember feeling it's like clear liquid leaking out

832
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:24,319
Speaker 1: of my nose and my ears. And I didn't know

833
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:25,880
Speaker 1: it at the time, but it ended up being like

834
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:30,200
Speaker 1: strebral spinal fluid. I had fractured my skull very slightly

835
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 1: um after getting blown up, and I just remember thinking, well, okay,

836
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,560
Speaker 1: I'm not bleeding, I must be something else, and got

837
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 1: up and got back into the fight. And I'm trying

838
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,640
Speaker 1: to figure out at this point, like how many people

839
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:46,319
Speaker 1: are injured, how many of my trucks can drive, what

840
00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 1: weapons systems are up versus down? How many rounds of

841
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:52,480
Speaker 1: ammunition that we have left, Like I've got to get

842
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:55,360
Speaker 1: the artillery at the base firing back on these guys.

843
00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 1: I should be calling for air support. I got to

844
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,640
Speaker 1: get back to my truck to do it. All. Um,

845
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 1: looking at those hilltops that I had called for fire on.

846
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:09,800
Speaker 1: Lisa the enemy had emplaced, uh, three machine gun nests

847
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:12,320
Speaker 1: on each hilltop that I called for fire on. So

848
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:15,240
Speaker 1: they had six machine guns dialed in on our position,

849
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 1: and they were firing in in what was like an X,

850
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:21,719
Speaker 1: like if you had to draw an X over my hilltop,

851
00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 1: My hilltop was right where that where the X intersected.

852
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:27,520
Speaker 1: So they had us in a wicked crossfire. And they

853
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 1: were at an elevated position, so they were hitting us

854
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: with what's called plunging fire. So they were arching the

855
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 1: rounds down on top of us. Um. The reason why

856
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:37,640
Speaker 1: people do that is because if you're like taking cover

857
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: behind a rock or something, you want to be able

858
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:41,520
Speaker 1: to like drop the round in on top of them.

859
00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:45,799
Speaker 1: So it just minimizes minimizes your an enemy's ability to

860
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 1: take cover. And I'm watching them hit us with plunging

861
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 1: fire and thinking like, holy hell, like how the hell

862
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:54,719
Speaker 1: do they know how to do that, you know, And

863
00:47:54,760 --> 00:47:57,200
Speaker 1: I'm watching the guns, the support by fire positions that

864
00:47:57,239 --> 00:48:00,480
Speaker 1: they had, the two separate ones. They weren't just firing

865
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:03,560
Speaker 1: all at the same time. One gun would fire and stop,

866
00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: the next gun would fire and stop, the next one,

867
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:08,000
Speaker 1: you know, and so on and so forth. And the

868
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:10,440
Speaker 1: reason why they did that is because if they fired

869
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:14,359
Speaker 1: those guns on like a cyclic rate, their barrels would melt.

870
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:17,399
Speaker 1: So they were firing and letting their barrels cool. It's

871
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:19,280
Speaker 1: like all the way up and down the line again,

872
00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:22,680
Speaker 1: never fought like that. That's what we do, Lisa, that

873
00:48:22,840 --> 00:48:27,439
Speaker 1: that's how we fight. And so the enemy had hit

874
00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 1: my position with air burst mortars to keep the head

875
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 1: keep our heads down, while they simultaneously in placed two

876
00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:39,120
Speaker 1: separate support by fire positions. And the next step is

877
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:42,160
Speaker 1: I'm trying to like unpack everything that's happening. And really,

878
00:48:42,239 --> 00:48:44,719
Speaker 1: like when you're in a moment like that, it's like

879
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:47,279
Speaker 1: remember like you ever looked through like a kaleidoscope when

880
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:49,880
Speaker 1: you're a kid, and you turn the kaleidoscope and you

881
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:53,080
Speaker 1: see all those colors move around like that, it's all

882
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:55,319
Speaker 1: sort of happening at once. That's like that. It's like

883
00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:58,359
Speaker 1: being like that. It's like combat is like that, a

884
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:01,760
Speaker 1: million different things happening all around you all at once.

885
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:03,840
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to figure out what they're gonna do,

886
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:05,799
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, oh my god, like a viour them,

887
00:49:05,840 --> 00:49:09,160
Speaker 1: I'd attack and no sooner did I did? I think

888
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:13,799
Speaker 1: that they did from both of those hill tops. Two

889
00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:17,439
Speaker 1: platoon sized elements like forty men plus so rushing down

890
00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:20,520
Speaker 1: those hill tops and up to our position. But it

891
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:24,399
Speaker 1: wasn't just like a human wave attack. Again. They were

892
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:28,359
Speaker 1: one fire team moving, the other one shooting, and they

893
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:32,719
Speaker 1: were bounding and with squad leader like giving fire team commands.

894
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:35,480
Speaker 1: It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. So I

895
00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: ended up get into my truck and calling for fire.

896
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:41,960
Speaker 1: I called for fire danger close on our position, which

897
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,680
Speaker 1: essentially means like right on top of us, ourselves. The

898
00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:48,279
Speaker 1: whole intent of that is to just try to keep

899
00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:50,360
Speaker 1: them off of us and give our give give my

900
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:54,120
Speaker 1: men some time to react, reload, consolidate, reorganized, flight back.

901
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:57,920
Speaker 1: And I'm watching these rounds land with ruthless efficiency and

902
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:01,040
Speaker 1: like vaporized like these guys as they that they they

903
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: bound towards us. And it didn't matter how many rounds landed,

904
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:07,799
Speaker 1: they had people to replace them. It's just it was

905
00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:11,759
Speaker 1: just an unrelenting assault in our position, and they got

906
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,359
Speaker 1: so close to us that that we had to blow

907
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:16,800
Speaker 1: claim more minds, like we put claim more minds and

908
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,600
Speaker 1: around our positions just in case, like we're about to

909
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,440
Speaker 1: be overrun. So we're like blow and claim more minds,

910
00:50:22,560 --> 00:50:26,120
Speaker 1: like people. All my squad leaders are saying they're going

911
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:29,719
Speaker 1: black on ammunition. Every member of my comple tune is hurt.

912
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:33,520
Speaker 1: I've got all these casualties out there stranded. You know,

913
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:36,120
Speaker 1: I'm watching my medic try to carry one of my

914
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:38,959
Speaker 1: one of my squad leaders back to the casualty collection point.

915
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:41,200
Speaker 1: He lifts up this guy. I watched him get shot

916
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:44,400
Speaker 1: in the face. He falls down. Um, I think my

917
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:47,640
Speaker 1: medic is dad. He's just Jose Panto has this kid

918
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:50,520
Speaker 1: from Mexico. It came to America because he loved He

919
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:52,759
Speaker 1: loved the country and wanted to serve the country. And

920
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 1: I remember he got shot in the face. Wasn't even

921
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:57,680
Speaker 1: a citizen of the country. Who's supposed to get a

922
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,359
Speaker 1: citizenship July four, a month later, I'm like, my god,

923
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:02,239
Speaker 1: he just got shot before he came to become a

924
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,560
Speaker 1: US citizen. And but he got back up. The entire

925
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:08,200
Speaker 1: left side of his face was was completely destroyed. But

926
00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:10,280
Speaker 1: he got one of my squad leaders to the casualty

927
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:14,319
Speaker 1: collection point. Um, that was the kind of day it was.

928
00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:21,120
Speaker 1: Lisa and we That fight took probably eight at least

929
00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:26,400
Speaker 1: eight hours. We dropped probably eleven two thousand pound bombs

930
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:28,800
Speaker 1: and at the end had to bring in a B

931
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:32,040
Speaker 1: one Strategic Lancer, a B one bomber to drop like

932
00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:36,800
Speaker 1: probably ten more. And what had ended up happening, Lisa,

933
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:41,440
Speaker 1: was that I called for fire on those target reference

934
00:51:41,480 --> 00:51:44,640
Speaker 1: points earlier. But it looked what we had come to

935
00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:49,000
Speaker 1: learn that the enemy at night had planned to attack us,

936
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:51,560
Speaker 1: and I had hit him just before they were going

937
00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:55,000
Speaker 1: to attack, And so it was like hitting a hornet's

938
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:58,720
Speaker 1: nest with a baseball bat or something. They were already

939
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 1: in position ready to attack at us. I just hit

940
00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:04,000
Speaker 1: him before they hit us, which I guess the hindsight being,

941
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:08,040
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I did, because it would have probably

942
00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,319
Speaker 1: not gone as as good for us as it did,

943
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:14,000
Speaker 1: as even though it wasn't I mean, all things considered,

944
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:16,840
Speaker 1: it wasn't good, but I would have much I was

945
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:20,799
Speaker 1: glad that we attacked first, you know, and every one

946
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,200
Speaker 1: of my trucks was was destroyed. They had to be

947
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:27,680
Speaker 1: towed off the hill top uh um that and got

948
00:52:27,719 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 1: back to the base uh that day after like that

949
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:35,680
Speaker 1: long long firefight. And I think like every member of

950
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:38,400
Speaker 1: my platoons, I treated we took another platoons trucks and

951
00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:40,880
Speaker 1: went right back out after the enemy, like after we

952
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 1: after we got back, went right back out after them

953
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:45,839
Speaker 1: to hunt them down. Um. And we said in that night,

954
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:47,560
Speaker 1: and we did. We hunted them all down and we

955
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:51,080
Speaker 1: and we got them. We killed probably oh man, I

956
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:54,600
Speaker 1: probably killed probably killed like a hundred people that day,

957
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:58,920
Speaker 1: like bad guys trying to attack us and so um.

958
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:01,719
Speaker 1: But that's the out of deployment. That the kind of

959
00:53:01,760 --> 00:53:04,840
Speaker 1: deployment that we had, it was absolutely hell. You know,

960
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 1: I look back on it, like you asked me, how

961
00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:08,239
Speaker 1: did you do it? And the answers, I have no

962
00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:11,359
Speaker 1: freaking clue. I can't believe I lived through it. I

963
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:14,160
Speaker 1: can't believe I made it through all that, you know, Shota,

964
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:16,640
Speaker 1: as we recount this and as you you look back

965
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:19,719
Speaker 1: and and you know, talk about those times, and you know,

966
00:53:19,719 --> 00:53:22,920
Speaker 1: we talked about Ukraine going on now, you know, Taiwan.

967
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:26,759
Speaker 1: What should our lessons what lessons should we learn from

968
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:30,520
Speaker 1: Afghanistan as a society. What do you hope that politicians learned?

969
00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:32,960
Speaker 1: What do you hope the country learns from our time

970
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:37,000
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan? Just be more careful with America's sons and daughters.

971
00:53:37,360 --> 00:53:42,880
Speaker 1: You know, I I know, I know that freedom is

972
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:48,280
Speaker 1: worth fighting for, freedom is worth dying for. America. My god,

973
00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:51,120
Speaker 1: if we were attacked, I'd be the first in line,

974
00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:55,320
Speaker 1: ready to ready to fight back. Um, but we should

975
00:53:55,360 --> 00:54:00,680
Speaker 1: not be getting ourselves locked down in the fights that

976
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:06,880
Speaker 1: take forty years, costs tens of thousands of American lives

977
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:11,040
Speaker 1: or or wounded Americans, people whose lives are changed forever.

978
00:54:11,719 --> 00:54:13,600
Speaker 1: You know, if you lose a love one in Afghanistan,

979
00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:19,680
Speaker 1: the ripple effect from that is profound. You have family members, moms, dad's, sisters, brothers,

980
00:54:19,719 --> 00:54:23,719
Speaker 1: spouses that will never see that person again. And the

981
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:27,000
Speaker 1: whole that that leaves in in people's hearts and the

982
00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:30,000
Speaker 1: void that it leaves in their lives is something that

983
00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 1: it lasts forever, like every second of every day and

984
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 1: and again, please don't misunderstand me. This is not like

985
00:54:38,640 --> 00:54:41,120
Speaker 1: a poor me thing. Again. I would do this again

986
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:43,920
Speaker 1: in a second, but every second of every day the

987
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:47,000
Speaker 1: war in Afghanistan is with me. Doesn't mean that I'm broken,

988
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:50,080
Speaker 1: has nothing. You know, I'm fine, I can handle it.

989
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:52,719
Speaker 1: I do it all again. But it's like it's like

990
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:55,719
Speaker 1: spy wear on your computer. It runs without you even knowing,

991
00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:59,840
Speaker 1: you know, UM, like my troops that I lost that

992
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:03,279
Speaker 1: Afghanistan first thing I think about when I wake up

993
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:04,880
Speaker 1: and the last thing I think about when I go

994
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:09,680
Speaker 1: to sleep. And over twenty years in that fight, lost

995
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:11,759
Speaker 1: so many people in that country that I wish we're

996
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:15,760
Speaker 1: still here. UM. And I think, what's even more tragic

997
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:20,279
Speaker 1: than that is that And however many combat deployments that

998
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:22,640
Speaker 1: my men went on, and and they there are some

999
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:25,359
Speaker 1: of my soldiers even went on combat deployments after the

1000
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:28,520
Speaker 1: one that I took them on. UM. I mean, we

1001
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:31,640
Speaker 1: probably we've lost in my small unit, we've lost more

1002
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:35,719
Speaker 1: people to suicide than we have to combat. What does

1003
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:38,359
Speaker 1: that tell you about the way in which we take

1004
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:40,879
Speaker 1: care of our soldiers. There are our men and women

1005
00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:43,680
Speaker 1: who serve this country here at home. Not not that

1006
00:55:43,719 --> 00:55:46,120
Speaker 1: the v A isn't amazing, Like I'm I'm grateful and

1007
00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:48,759
Speaker 1: glad that we have the v A. UM, but the

1008
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,880
Speaker 1: problems that we face here are far greater than you know,

1009
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:55,680
Speaker 1: maybe going to see a doctor or you know, being

1010
00:55:55,719 --> 00:55:58,080
Speaker 1: given some drugs in a in a paper bag and

1011
00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:00,840
Speaker 1: hey sent on your way, you know, on behalf of

1012
00:56:00,840 --> 00:56:05,279
Speaker 1: a grateful nation. The problems that veterans face here at

1013
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:11,239
Speaker 1: home are largely existential problems, cultural problems that I think

1014
00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:14,880
Speaker 1: America as a country needs to face. Um. And so

1015
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:18,839
Speaker 1: what I'd like I'd like to see is that I'd

1016
00:56:18,880 --> 00:56:23,359
Speaker 1: like to see our politicians be more careful with America's

1017
00:56:23,400 --> 00:56:26,640
Speaker 1: sons and daughters. Number one, Um, I'd also like to

1018
00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 1: see America like our country as a whole. And that

1019
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:32,839
Speaker 1: means like these little communities that we all live in,

1020
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:36,319
Speaker 1: like do everything that we can to recognize for men

1021
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:38,040
Speaker 1: and women and serve and that, and I think it

1022
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:40,400
Speaker 1: needs to we need to go beyond like thank you

1023
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:44,480
Speaker 1: for your service. Like I think we need to to

1024
00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:48,839
Speaker 1: bring these people like into a high school gymnasium and

1025
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:51,319
Speaker 1: have them tell their story if they're willing, in front

1026
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:53,640
Speaker 1: of a bunch of high school students, so that those

1027
00:56:53,719 --> 00:57:01,480
Speaker 1: kids not only learn about what it means to defend freedom, uh,

1028
00:57:01,560 --> 00:57:04,640
Speaker 1: the legacy of that soldier and the people that that

1029
00:57:04,680 --> 00:57:07,760
Speaker 1: person lost lives on in the and and the people

1030
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:11,440
Speaker 1: to hear that story. Like as I think as a society,

1031
00:57:11,520 --> 00:57:14,960
Speaker 1: we need to do more with regards to bringing our

1032
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:19,200
Speaker 1: our men and women home. And so yeah, be more

1033
00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:22,320
Speaker 1: careful with America's sons and daughters in American society getting

1034
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:26,040
Speaker 1: in the fight from a cultural standpoint to appreciate and

1035
00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:28,240
Speaker 1: love our bets. Well, that's why I really wanted to

1036
00:57:28,280 --> 00:57:31,160
Speaker 1: have this conversation with you, you know, one not only

1037
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:35,920
Speaker 1: to just you know, obviously to honor that you know,

1038
00:57:35,960 --> 00:57:38,360
Speaker 1: those who have served and have lost their lives serving

1039
00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:40,680
Speaker 1: this country and defending this country, but really just sort

1040
00:57:40,720 --> 00:57:44,720
Speaker 1: of bringing awareness to what it takes and what you

1041
00:57:44,720 --> 00:57:47,600
Speaker 1: guys go through, and why we should be judicials and

1042
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:50,800
Speaker 1: why we should be careful with our our people's lives.

1043
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:53,080
Speaker 1: And I think our you know, our lives are the

1044
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:55,880
Speaker 1: or military men and women or our own people, like

1045
00:57:56,160 --> 00:57:58,280
Speaker 1: their lives, that's the most important thing, right that's a

1046
00:57:58,360 --> 00:58:00,920
Speaker 1: most cherished asset, Like we off the bunch of weapons

1047
00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:04,320
Speaker 1: whatever beyond in Afghanistan. Obviously that's a challenge, but it's

1048
00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:06,880
Speaker 1: the lives, it's our people that we should cherish and

1049
00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:09,320
Speaker 1: be careful with. And so, you know, that's why I

1050
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:12,520
Speaker 1: really wanted to have this conversation with you about that.

1051
00:58:12,600 --> 00:58:16,440
Speaker 1: And again, your your petun was sober received purple hearts

1052
00:58:16,480 --> 00:58:18,720
Speaker 1: for wounds they incurred in battle, and I wanted to

1053
00:58:18,720 --> 00:58:21,160
Speaker 1: get you on this real quick before we go. You

1054
00:58:21,240 --> 00:58:23,560
Speaker 1: talked about sort of that that brotherhood that brought you

1055
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:25,840
Speaker 1: guys together day in and day out, didn't matter what

1056
00:58:25,880 --> 00:58:29,480
Speaker 1: you're facing. You know, you looked beyond. It wasn't about

1057
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:31,600
Speaker 1: looking at you know, race or religion or any of

1058
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:33,280
Speaker 1: these other things. You just saw him as you know,

1059
00:58:33,320 --> 00:58:36,280
Speaker 1: your brother, more or less. Right. And now it's like

1060
00:58:37,040 --> 00:58:39,840
Speaker 1: we're sort of injecting all these things in the military,

1061
00:58:39,920 --> 00:58:42,520
Speaker 1: whether it's critical race theory, whether it's things like you know,

1062
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:45,240
Speaker 1: gender pronouns, and what kind of impact does that have

1063
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:51,400
Speaker 1: on on our military? It's devastating. It's devastating because again

1064
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 1: it's not like the military is not about diversity, Okay,

1065
00:58:57,280 --> 00:59:02,800
Speaker 1: like it, I'm grateful to have intellectual diversity in my

1066
00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:06,680
Speaker 1: platoon I'm in, or in my units that I commanded.

1067
00:59:06,720 --> 00:59:10,520
Speaker 1: I'm grateful to have racial diversity or people from a

1068
00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:13,880
Speaker 1: lot of different backgrounds, like that makes us better. But

1069
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:16,800
Speaker 1: the problem with a lot like critical race theory being

1070
00:59:16,840 --> 00:59:19,840
Speaker 1: injected into the military or some of these other like

1071
00:59:20,440 --> 00:59:23,000
Speaker 1: I got these people with their pronouns and their bios

1072
00:59:23,040 --> 00:59:25,080
Speaker 1: and stuff and all this other stuff, and like, hey,

1073
00:59:25,200 --> 00:59:28,040
Speaker 1: do what you wanna do. But the military is about

1074
00:59:28,120 --> 00:59:33,120
Speaker 1: unifying beyond those differences, not celebrating them so any times,

1075
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:36,520
Speaker 1: Like the whole point of going through basic training, right,

1076
00:59:36,600 --> 00:59:38,880
Speaker 1: the whole point of it, Lisa, is you go in

1077
00:59:38,920 --> 00:59:42,480
Speaker 1: there an individual. You know that you come out a

1078
00:59:42,520 --> 00:59:45,200
Speaker 1: member of a collective team. The whole point, the reason

1079
00:59:45,240 --> 00:59:48,520
Speaker 1: why you have drill sergeants screaming in your face and

1080
00:59:48,600 --> 00:59:51,000
Speaker 1: yelling at you the whole time is to whittle down,

1081
00:59:51,320 --> 00:59:54,720
Speaker 1: break down your sense of individual self and teach you

1082
00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:58,320
Speaker 1: in a very like rubber meets the road kind of

1083
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:02,800
Speaker 1: way that the individual doesn't matter here anymore. What matters

1084
01:00:02,920 --> 01:00:05,520
Speaker 1: is the collective and you're only as fast as your

1085
01:00:05,520 --> 01:00:11,320
Speaker 1: slowest person. And going to Afghanistan the way that we

1086
01:00:11,400 --> 01:00:15,280
Speaker 1: did and experiencing the things that we did. If if that,

1087
01:00:15,760 --> 01:00:19,920
Speaker 1: if our dedication to our team and our unit wasn't

1088
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:24,360
Speaker 1: first and foremost, we would have not survived. Guarantee you,

1089
01:00:24,840 --> 01:00:30,520
Speaker 1: we would have not survived. And so this focus on oh, like, oh,

1090
01:00:30,600 --> 01:00:33,560
Speaker 1: look how diverse we are, because this is a strength.

1091
01:00:33,840 --> 01:00:36,960
Speaker 1: Yeah it is, but it's only a strength, and in

1092
01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:39,800
Speaker 1: a military, if you unify beyond it, that's where the

1093
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:43,720
Speaker 1: strength is. And so I think it's I think it's dangerous.

1094
01:00:43,760 --> 01:00:45,960
Speaker 1: I think it's real dangerous is there anything else you

1095
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:48,440
Speaker 1: want to leave us with before we go. A lot

1096
01:00:48,440 --> 01:00:50,000
Speaker 1: of people you're gonna see a lot of people on

1097
01:00:50,080 --> 01:00:53,880
Speaker 1: Memorial Day talk about like, well it isn't for barbecuing,

1098
01:00:54,040 --> 01:00:56,920
Speaker 1: you know, And I would just say, like, you celebrate

1099
01:00:56,960 --> 01:01:01,320
Speaker 1: Memorial Day the way that you want, because is you know,

1100
01:01:01,520 --> 01:01:07,840
Speaker 1: I feel like my soldiers who haven't been a who

1101
01:01:07,960 --> 01:01:11,360
Speaker 1: you know, who didn't make it back, they don't get

1102
01:01:11,360 --> 01:01:14,520
Speaker 1: to celebrate at all, you know, And I think it's

1103
01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:17,200
Speaker 1: incumbent upon all of us. I think it's really our

1104
01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:22,360
Speaker 1: duty and responsibility to live freely and and and enjoy

1105
01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:25,840
Speaker 1: the freedom that they sacrifice themselves to protect. I mean,

1106
01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:28,200
Speaker 1: of course, you know, if you get a minute, like

1107
01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:30,640
Speaker 1: you know, if you're drinking a beer, or walking on

1108
01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:32,560
Speaker 1: the beach, or reading the book, or just sitting on

1109
01:01:32,600 --> 01:01:35,720
Speaker 1: your deck or watching your kids play, like just stay

1110
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:37,840
Speaker 1: a sign in prayer and just for for the men

1111
01:01:37,880 --> 01:01:41,080
Speaker 1: and women who didn't come home. But you celebrate the

1112
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:43,800
Speaker 1: way that you want in America because that's what the

1113
01:01:43,800 --> 01:01:46,120
Speaker 1: men and women who sign up and volunteer to serve

1114
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:48,040
Speaker 1: this country, that's what they gave their lives to do.

1115
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:53,880
Speaker 1: So just just don't forget, never forget them and and

1116
01:01:54,040 --> 01:01:56,400
Speaker 1: have a have a good Memorial Day. Sean, It's an

1117
01:01:56,440 --> 01:01:58,480
Speaker 1: honor to have you on the show. You are a hero,

1118
01:01:59,120 --> 01:02:00,960
Speaker 1: and I think you so much for your service or

1119
01:02:01,080 --> 01:02:03,760
Speaker 1: and just sharing you know, what you went through in

1120
01:02:03,800 --> 01:02:07,920
Speaker 1: Afghanistan and the bravery of your platoon with my audience

1121
01:02:08,040 --> 01:02:09,920
Speaker 1: and me, And thank you so much for coming on

1122
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:22,120
Speaker 1: the show. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Lisa,

1123
01:02:22,920 --> 01:02:25,880
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I

1124
01:02:25,920 --> 01:02:28,400
Speaker 1: think I was one of the most fascinating conversations I've

1125
01:02:28,440 --> 01:02:31,000
Speaker 1: ever had with anyone in my entire life. And I

1126
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:33,040
Speaker 1: just think it's so helpful towere it's left back with

1127
01:02:33,120 --> 01:02:36,200
Speaker 1: Sean about what you went through with his platoon and

1128
01:02:36,240 --> 01:02:39,320
Speaker 1: what show many people went through in places like Afghanistan

1129
01:02:39,440 --> 01:02:41,680
Speaker 1: during a time of work. You know, we're either disconnected

1130
01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:43,680
Speaker 1: from it, you know, when we're here in America and

1131
01:02:43,680 --> 01:02:46,440
Speaker 1: we're living her everyday lives and they're out there on

1132
01:02:46,600 --> 01:02:49,240
Speaker 1: the battlefield, you're fighting for freedom, fighting for their own

1133
01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:51,720
Speaker 1: lives and the lives of the rest of their platoons.

1134
01:02:51,960 --> 01:02:54,160
Speaker 1: So I think what better way to honor at the

1135
01:02:54,200 --> 01:02:56,680
Speaker 1: fall and than talk to someone like Sean for now.

1136
01:02:57,000 --> 01:02:59,320
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it. I loved it. I want

1137
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:01,360
Speaker 1: to thank you guys were listening. I hope you enjoyed

1138
01:03:01,400 --> 01:03:03,760
Speaker 1: the podcast. Tell your friends, tell your family, you know,

1139
01:03:03,800 --> 01:03:06,640
Speaker 1: share on social media. We'd really appreciate it. And I

1140
01:03:06,680 --> 01:03:09,120
Speaker 1: also just think anyone who's listening who has served, or

1141
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:11,560
Speaker 1: who was a family member who has served, and if

1142
01:03:11,600 --> 01:03:13,800
Speaker 1: you have a family member whos paid the ultimate sacrifice,

1143
01:03:13,840 --> 01:03:16,240
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry if you're lost, and I'm praying for

1144
01:03:16,280 --> 01:03:19,080
Speaker 1: you today. Uh And be sure to listen every Monday

1145
01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:21,160
Speaker 1: and Thursday. The Truth with Lisa Booth