188 - ATF Director, Medal Of Honor Recipient And Also Clint Romesha | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 188
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Oh, no, no. I just remember calling back to Gregory and I'm like, you guys have got to move and you got to move now. I cannot hold this position. Sanjur, I really strong. I would love to see what kind of you got to do to get a medal of honor in the Space Force. You alien. Do you want to pull it out real quick? You want him to whip it out on a podcast? Oh, yeah. I didn't see this podcast going this direction. I'm being perfectly honest. What's up, everyone? Holy freaking mother of God.

We are at, we'll just say $72,000 in money raised for veteran nonprofits. I'm just truly thankful for being able to do this and that is because of this amazing community. We are at $72,000 to go to three amazing nonprofits, veteran nonprofits.

and it's all thanks to you all. So thank you so freaking much. And that is from the entire team. It is a blessing to be able to do something like this or for autism or for anything that we want to make a difference in. And that is such an impactful, amazing thing. So thank you from the bottom of all our hearts. Let's blow this out of the water. We'll just

Just keep kicking ass. Let's keep these sales going for Veterans Month. And again, 100% of this one, which y'all love that shirt, and undiagnosed 100% of proceeds are going towards those veteran nonprofits. And then a percentage of everything on store will also be going towards those amazing nonprofits. And we have Turkey Day coming up for some amazing sales, which will be automatically applied for this stuff. So, good.

Thank you all. Thank you so freaking much. I hope each and every one of you know how amazing you are and that difference you guys and gals make in individuals' lives through just...

That community-based aspect of hanging out, talking, interacting with each other, being able to see that in person is one of the greatest gifts you guys could have given us. So thank you so freaking much. And now for one of the big episodes with Mr. Clint Romesha. Love y'all. Dude! Oh, I'm so happy you're here.

We haven't got to hang out in so long. So long. I forget you existed. We've told many of stories about you. Angry cops wearing your mask. Oh, God. I forgot about that. Jack. Didn't it break on him? Probably. I threw it at someone. Well, it was already broken, but I didn't tell him that. And I hum chucked it at him. We made fun of him so much. You fucking broke it. You broke that thing. What?

That was basically my introduction to you was chucking the metal at me. I'm like, oh, God. I think I physically started sweating. I don't know if you can emotionally sweat, can you? I was going to figure out a way. Oh, I'm so excited. We're so excited. Cody, you want to kick this bitch off? Oh, wait. We got to do this first. Ready? Everyone. You got to pop it. Three, two, one. Ready? Hold it up to the mic. Three, two, one.

Brandon Herrera, thank you. I love how you... Brandon Herrera, thank you.

Eli, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizard. I know this is an episode where it's like, fuck, do it. Oh, God. It's an honor and then a nightmare at the same time. It's like, oh, this is going to be a really cool podcast. Also, Eli. Eli's going to make this awful.

Started as a joke. It took you two minutes. Full circle. Here we are. We're going to close this chapter after this amazing episode on this joke for you. The Forced Valor Saga. Dude, our live tour is called Forced Valor. Or Stolen Valor. Sorry. I thought it was one of the same. Forced or Stolen? Stolen. Next. That's the third. We'll do Forced, the third.

Man, how? Introduce yourself. So all the beautiful people out there that might not know who you are. I'm Clint. I drink Bush Light. Name one interesting... Name one interesting fact about yourself. What instrument do you play? Bush Light. Yeah, Bush Light. The Bush Light. It kind of goes like this. Thank God Nick is back in town. I haven't had a Bush Light in so long, dude. Alright, then...

48 hours since my last bush light, but that's because I was out in Philadelphia and they don't really have them out there. Oh, I'm sorry. You are right now on tour. I don't even know where to start. This is okay. So long, long. I met you how long ago? 2018, 2017. Would it have been? I'm trying to remember the first time we did meet. Was it on range 15?

Maybe, actually. That might have actually been it. That's what I still didn't realize with all this interweb stuff. And still to this day, you don't. You are a true, you literally just live out in North Dakota still. Yep, Minot, North Dakota. Went up there, got out of the Army chasing oil fields thinking, hmm, this is going to be my life. Because I was out for two, you know, like I was out for two years before I even got that call.

And I'm sitting there in the oil field one day, minding my own business, and I get this call on my cell phone. Look down, and it's like, oh, it looks like a telemarketer number. I'm a field safety specialist at the time, so I'm like, oh, I got time to kill. I'm going to fuck around with this guy. And I answer it, and all of a sudden, it's, this is Colonel Davis, G1 of the Pentagon. It's like, oh, fuck, what'd I do? What did I do? The war crimes are coming back. It's like statute of limitations should be up. Fuck.

No, you have the wrong number. He switches to that voice. Mr. Clint Noisy. No, you get the Windex. No, no lemon pledge. Colonel's just looking at his phone like, the fuck? What is this stuff?

Um, no, I mean, I, you know, did 12 years in the army, um, joined in 99, just like a lot of guys did back then. And in the course of that did three, uh, three deployments, uh, two to Iraq, one to Afghanistan, Afghanistan, oh nine, uh, October 3rd battle of, uh, cop Keating from there. Um, we had a

Little bit of a hectic day that day to say the least but with the help of the 50 other Americans the two Lafayette soldiers and 15-hour firefight after getting almost overran pushed out and for the actions of that day I got I don't know if it's nominated or recommended But for the the Medal of Honor which is again something you don't ever wake up thinking you're gonna try to achieve go do it just I'll be honest that day was

one of the worst but yet best days of my life because i got to see so much awesome from the guys to my left and right so much love and just so much just dedication for something more than yourself um so i might have got selected to wear it but i'll tell you time and time again

It's for those, not, not for me. And I'm always humbled to kind of state that. That's what I think you truly go above and beyond. And you exemplify what that means is you still to this day, even on the call, you're like, you were like, I didn't, that's not, no. And it was your guys that told you like, Hey, like, Hey, you did something. You're like, no, man. Well, I mean, what was really cool though, um,

like the recommendation came not initially um the recommendation initially came because my commander put me in for a dsc and at that time like i said we were treating your service yeah distinguished service cross and at you know that time we were three months into a 12-month deployment and i remember just kind of looking at stony portis and like hey sir we got nine more months left let's get these boys home and worry about awards later um

And we got through that next nine months. So proud of those guys because not a single guy from Red Platoon said this was too tough for me. I couldn't do it. They pulled up their big boy pants and they pushed through. Got home. I'd already made the decision to get out of the Army. Used the last 12 months, made that transition. I said I hadn't heard anything. Like I said, back of my mind, I was just trying to get on with life. So then I went chasing oil fields in North Dakota. And then, like I said, two years later, get this random phone call. Dude, two years later, they call you up.

I don't know if you've ever been around military process. You're not known as the most excited thing unless you owe them money. Who the fuck is that? Gunpoint.

where those pants that you left um it's the only thing the government's good at yeah what's dude what's the first thing you said to him like after all that when they called you up well well the first thing uh talking on the phone to colonel davis he's like hey we need you to come out to dc we got something to tell you like i said in the back of my mind i'm like statue of limitations should be up they've taken two years to track me down here in north dakota no no

But like I said, initially in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, okay, that DSC, the Distinguished Service Cross, my commander said he was going to put me in for, it's probably got downgraded to maybe a Silver Star or something. I'll probably have to go to DC, shake a few hands, probably get a free fricking desserts from the DFAC for life award or something like that. But I told Colonel Davis, I'm like, hey, just tell me over the phone. He's like, no, you got to do it in person.

I'm like, well, I'm working six to seven days a week in the oil fields at that time, making some awesome money. I was like, let me talk to my boss and I'll get back to you. Hung up the phone, immediately called. I can't remember if it was Raz or Lars, one of the guys. And I called them up. I'm like, Hey, I just got this really weird phone call. You guys know what's going on? And they're like, no, hadn't heard anything. Haven't you ever gotten an award for that day? And I'm like, nope, nothing yet, but maybe something's coming down the pipe. Um,

I went and I talked to my boss. It was about two weeks later. It was kind of process and everything. And I finally went and talked to my boss. I'm like, hey, I need kind of a weekend off. I got to go to DC for this thing. So cool. What thing is it? I'm like, I don't really know. Hopefully I'll be back on Monday. But if I can have a couple of days off, the army is going to set travel up and I'll go out. So it wasn't until I got out to DC, show up. First thing I do when I come off the plane, I'm looking around before I clear security.

to see if there's MPs hiding. Oh, I'm still thinking. You're like, these motherfuckers are trying to trick me. And all of a sudden I see this full bird colonel in freaking Class A uniform. And I'm like, oh, okay, so this is real. This is serious. Don't see the MPs. Well, I go up and I introduce myself and he's like, all right, well, we got to head to the Pentagon. I've never been on the Metro before in my life. That's scary shit.

Like, I don't like being underground, but we got on the Metro and headed straight to the Pentagon. The DC Metro too. I know. From Dulles? Reagan. Reagan. Oh, I got it. Beautiful. It's great people. I'm not known for a French. I was more terrified of that fricking Metro ride than anything. Cause it's just not natural. That's how you got your second medal. Yeah.

well so we show up to the pentagon that poor michael jackson impersonated why is that so funny eli nothing so we we show up at the pentagon um

And I realized, okay, maybe it's not so bad because we didn't even go through security. Like they had a secret door for us to kind of just breeze on through. So didn't go through metal detectors and like, oh, this is interesting. And in the back of my mind, I'm still sitting there thinking it's like, okay, they're going to hand me maybe a broad star with the years. So something got downgraded. They're just going to do a quick ceremony, shake my hand, send me on my way.

And they pull me into this room and there's all these colonels, all these fricking generals and stuff. And they're just like, oh, congratulations, Sergeant Romeshay. Awesome. And I'm like, still have no idea what's going on until I sat down. And as I look across the way, they got the PowerPoint presentation going on because the army is never going to do nothing without PowerPoint. And right in front of me. I'm just like, you still hate the military. God damn it.

sitting in front of me are these three posters and one is of Sal Junta the first living recipient since Vietnam the next one's Leroy Petrie yeah and then the third one was Sergeant Sabo posthumously and it's all Medal of Honor Medal of Honor Medal of Honor and I just remember kind of sitting down and looking and they're giving their brief and the PowerPoint's going on and I'm I'm not hearing a word they're saying and I don't know if I was looking down for maybe two minutes or 20 minutes I find they look up and I'm like hey time out boys

And the room, room gets quiet. And I go, what is all this Medal of Honor stuff? And one of the colonels kind of looks over and he's like, oh, you don't know Sgt. Romeshay? And I'm like,

Wouldn't be asking a question I knew the fucking answer to. Like, what is this? I got told. I know you said that too, which is my favorite thing about you. I'm like, I got told I got put in for like a DSC or something by Stony Portis. So what's all this Medal of Honor stuff? And they're like, well, you've been recommended for upgrade. Short of the president signing the award, you'll be receiving the Medal of Honor. And I just remember kind of looking back at the guy and I'm like, for what? I didn't do anything special.

And like I said, I made that trend. I'd been out for two years. I thought I'd put all that stuff in a little box and I put it in the back of my mind. And I remember just as I was talking to the guys almost every day, driving to the oil fields, the guys I served with, they would bring kind of that stuff up.

And that was kind of my processing where I thought I had it all, all kind of behind me. And, and then all of a sudden it was the next fricking day I had a Wikipedia page and then everybody knew. I mean, when I got back to work, I was overseeing the pipeline crews at the time. And one of the pipeline guys comes up to me, a Hispanic fellow. He comes up and he's Mexican.

He comes up and he's like, hey, why did you want me to take that higher? You look straight at me. I don't know. You can just say ****. I wasn't going to say it. He comes up to me and he's like, hey, I heard what you did in the army. My uncle has been kidnapped by the cartel in Mexico. They want $250,000 for his funeral.

Now I'm spacing. You think you were fucking John Rambo? Like you were just going to take a boat down to. He's like, he's like my uncle. Kurtel kidnapped him and it was holding this ransom. Yeah. $250,000 ransom for his uncle. Cause the cartel knew a lot of the Mexicans were coming up, working the oil fields in North Dakota, making that good money. So they would kidnap their families that they were leaving back there. And so,

They literally came up and he's like, hey, we'll pay you the money if you want to get your guys together and go down to Mexico to go get my uncle. I just like to see you on the news and like, the white boy at work, he's a badass. Bring him a knife. It's what we call a culture barrier. I called up Raz and a couple of my buddies. I'm like, hey, do we got contacts in Mexico? We got a quick way to make...

Well, the problem was, and I know Avalos is going to hate me for saying this, but Avalos was our fister. And he's like the one Mexican that can't speak Mexican. So me and Brandon. Sorry, Brandon and I. So we're like, man, if we could get Avalos. Oh, no, he's not going to be an interpreter for us. Man, we don't have a solid team together. What's up, bitches? Most of us Americanized Mexicans are barely monolingual. Yeah, struggle bussing. I just like the first idea was like,

I bet he can save my... He's a hero. We'll just send him down there. Half. Were you just there whittling wood? Just like, I don't do that life anymore. That's behind me. I don't want to turn that back on. It wasn't my war.

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So when you were so fast forward, you get that. And then everyone else, what is that experience like afterwards? Cause we'll rewind to the story. I want to hear more of like some of the other stuff you've done. Cause you, you were in two ID initially. And then, and that was, we were, I didn't realize I was two IDs. I never knew we were part of like, we just, you were in Korea and then I was, you were up in Lewis. Yep.

Yeah, that was... Shoot, that was... Because you were up in Lewis in 05. Just standing up. They stood up in 06. So it was 2CR. Then they stood up to... Then we switched to infantry. And then it was like, okay, 2CR to infantry from 06 to 08 and then whatever they did afterwards. But that's... I was like, oh, shit, I didn't realize that. And then you came aboard as a tanker initially. Well, yeah. Initially, I joined the Army as a tanker because...

Here's how motivated I was. Like I said, when I joined the Army, I grew up in a tiny town in Northern California. I was tired of just milking cows and digging fence posts. Like that was my motivation to go in.

Like I'm tired of smelling like fricking bag bomb. I grew up in this town of a hundred people went to school in a town of like 500. Yeah. I graduated in the top 15 of the 14 kids. Holy. So you grew up like actual, like small, small, small, small town. Um, in California, out of all places. Uh,

But when I came in, like I said, I was 17 when I graduated, not because I was super smart, just because my birthday was in August. And I went to my dad, who was one of Vietnam then. He did two tours over in Vietnam as an infantryman. My granddad, World War II combat engineer. He served, you know, he made it through Normandy, beach landing, Battle of the Bulge. Like he had an impressive kind of resume himself. My oldest brother, he started off in the Army.

had a break in service air force he actually just retired down here two years ago out of the air force no uh second oldest brother which yeah my wife reminded me he's like if you're gonna be down there maybe you go see your older brother i'm like i seen him two years ago when he retired but that's how i think a lot of us are we're like why i got facetime in like three months ago that's like same thing yeah no no news is good news when it comes to family sometimes

And my second or second oldest brother, he joined the Marines. So there was always kind of this lineage of military service in the family generations. But really for me, I was just like, it's 99. I want to go see the world and I'll get that GI bill. Maybe I'll grow up and finally get educated enough to actually want to go to college. I hope nothing bad happens in two years. Yeah. So hold a foresight. Well, and that's my dad. Cause I was 17. I went up to dad and I'm like, Hey,

You got me luggage for my graduation present. Like I understand the task here. And that's actually, that's a real story. Yeah. That was my graduation present from my parents was fricking Samsonite fricking luggage.

which I think they spent like three or 400 bucks. They were, they were pretty impressed on that stuff. They were, I thought that was an expression at first. That's a, that's a old farm town. They're like, son, son, I'm so proud of you. I get to fuck out of my house. You're going to pay rent.

Or go to college, join the military, join the military. So when I, I, yeah, I went to my dad at 17 and I'm like, Hey dad, I got my plan. I'm going to join the army. Um, you just got assigned for me. You got the recruiter already ready to sign or, you know, have all the paperwork set up. And dad looked at me and he's like, Hey, not going to do it. Back of my mind. I'm like this son of a bitch. He went on the youngest of the three boys. He wants me around for one more summer of free fricking labor. Yeah.

And he very quickly followed it up with, hey, it's, Clint, it's 1999. There's not a lot going on in the world. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in 20 years, but if you put that uniform on, you might have to go and do and see things that no one should have to go do and see. I said, growing up, I knew my dad had served in Vietnam. I knew my granddad had served in World War II, but all of the stories they told us,

None of them had to do with combat not a single one about combat or any of the things they seen over overseas and stuff like that it was always the stories of the shenanigans that got in with their buddies and In my mind, I'm like dad you had a great time in the army from all the stories you were telling me I didn't really realize what he was actually trying to say then and then of course join that August ship off get to my first duty station Germany

Well, I got to backtrack a little bit. When I did turn 18 and said, hey, I'm going to go down and sign, the only advice my dad gave me was like, don't go infantry. Go find a job in the army that you can do afterwards. Be a welder, be a plumber, be something like that. And I'm like, no, I want to go combat arms. And he's like, well, just please, son, don't go infantry.

so i decided to sign up for tanks because i'm lazy and i don't like to walk so i can't come back and i told my dad i'm like i didn't go infantry i'm gonna be on tanks and he just looks at me he's like why the hell would you do that you're just the biggest target on the battlefield you idiot i like you're like dude

Don't join combat. It's like, do something that will help you outside the military. Like tanks. Yeah. I mean, those are just, I mean, they're just up and down the street. I mean, if we had more kill dozers, that'd be a popular. Yeah. That's what's holding you back. Which we don't, but we should. That's why he's starting a new group. Oh God. His new nonprofit builds, it builds kill dozers for vets. It's called the

The AR-500 plate donated. The He-Meyer relief fund. Why is this working so well? We're just shipping them out.

So many steel plates today. We've taught 95 veterans how to weld. Do you need to learn how to hook up cameras? Eliminate your blind spots. You've been really cool. Don't go to the library today. Where did it go wrong?

I think it's a great idea. Oh, I love it. So that, I mean, that was kind of my, my introduction to the army and my pathway in was through all that. So I said, I never, honestly, when I came in, I was like, if I can do four years, maybe make corporal and not go to Leavenworth, that would be the high achievement of my life. I like that was your goal. It's like, you got to set them low.

achievable things. I don't want to break big rocks into little rocks. You get past that. Hey, okay. And then your college is paid for. You're like, Hey, the nine 11 kicks off. You fat, you do that. What was that experience? Cause we've talked to a couple of people, but everyone's experience is different. You're in your, in your unit now for a year, two years at that point, just over two years. Like I said, um, it was on tanks. Um,

9-11 kicks off, and of course, right away, it's like, we're going after bin Laden in Afghanistan. It's like, oh shit, I'm on tanks. The one place we learn from the Russians that tanks don't mix is Afghanistan. So kind of new right away, it's like, I'm going to miss it. We'd gotten, you know, shortly after 9-11, we were already scheduled to go back to Kosovo for another Kosovo deployment back then.

And in my mind, I was like, well, shoot, I'll ride my time out here in Germany, probably get out. But we just had 9-11. But that's what you joined up for. You want to go to war. And I'm being young and naive at the time. It sounds so cool on paper. Oh, man, it looks awesome in those Rambo movies.

I can't stress enough. We've talked about it a couple of times. It is the idea. It's like war sounds so cool until one bullet. And then you're like, oh man, that is... No socks, no nose. Wow, that's like paintball, but that kills me. Way worse. Not walking that one off. Eli did. And so did he. There you go. This is way worse than mine.

No, no, Eli, this is about you. Let's talk about you. You're the real hero, Eli. See how this feels? This is real. This is a fight. We're just pushing it back and forth. Cody's like, what the fuck's going on? Dude, I'm just having a great time. All these amazing veterans I'm surrounded by today. That's two donuts.

I will say the running joke is for the year Brandon you explain it because it's done to you it was a fine veterans day I'll set it up so last year

For Veterans Day, Eli's like, hey, do you want to jump on a podcast real quick? We're going to record an extra podcast with, I believe it was Crispy and Jack Vanderbilt. Yeah, sure. I'd love to. Just jump on real quick. I live right down the road. So, you know, jump on the podcast. And Eli didn't tell me the opening bit of the podcast is going to be him attempting to pin his purple heart on me.

for Veterans Day. And I am, of course, I have lived my entire life avoiding any claims of stolen valor like the plague because I was never in the military. I didn't do any of that stuff. You didn't want to be a Tim Walz? Yeah, exactly. I didn't want to claim, when I was overseas, well, I never said that.

asshole but he uh good thing we'll never have to hear his name again uh but and then eli comes over and attempts to pin his purple heart on me i'm like no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

I'm pretty sure a couple of iron crosses. I'm searching Brandon Herrera military. Imagine never serving. Oh my goodness. That is Google images. Everything in the world is just showing you. What's funny is it's mixed in. I know. It's like, hey. It's mixed in with real photos though, which is really bad. There's no way.

Brandon's like, no, no, no. Dude, it was a joke that went way too far. It's all Eli's fucking fault. One year this joke has been a thing. So we were like, we'll close it out with a proper closeout. This is the episode. There's only one. If you're going to kill a joke, you have to kill it, in my opinion anyway, within the universe that it exists.

So the only way possible that I think would be fitting would be in, as Eli has proclaimed it, Veterans Day month with an actual Medal of Honor recipient. So I think that's the only appropriate way. Full circle. Full circle. And it's embarrassing. It's still something like... With friends like these. Yeah.

And this was best. It did bring a lot of good light and negative light in the election. But past that, it was really good light. Everyone's a good sport about it. Even on social media. He has so much people. Like, we did a Veterans Day post. It's like us in service. And it is now Unsub's best performing post ever. Which is something to say about. It's, hey, all the hosts.

My favorite is that's Eli's face there. And all the comments are just talking about Brandon's like, is this his? Dude, one of them got me. The one that got me the most was it was Brandon has Oak Leafs on his Medal of Honor. I was like, bro, you go hard if you have like two or three Oak Leafs on that medal. I was like, our boy has earned his reputation.

As you can tell, he despises this. Yeah. And it almost went away. And then Rich brought it back. That fucking... He got him a purple heart. Fucking dickhead. And then it's up there. Someone sent their purple heart in for him. Like...

I feel like the only way to do it is to lean into it for the live shows and just be like General Zukav from the death of Stalin. Just throw off the cloak. Just have a North Korean general uniform full of fake medals. When your grandkids start going through some of your stuff to learn about you later, though, you think they're going to open that trunk up? When all they have is the internet? You grandpa was a badass! Grandpa's dead bodies! If I keep...

If I keep that in the attic... I never talked about a service! I think it was Connor who was saying, like, if I keep that in the fucking attic, I need to keep it with a post-it note explaining to my kids the joke, like, by the way, if you Google this, you're going to get some conflicting information they'll probably reply with. What's Google? Never bring it up. Just have an actual trunk hidden for your, like, Great Garen kids. It's, like, a uniform...

fake Medal of Honor and some random ribbons in there and they'll be like, "Yo, Grandpa used to..." Yeah, go rent like a safety deposit box for like the next 300 years. "Wow, Grandpa really liked Wolfenstein. Look at this." The fusion of the cosplay scene. Yeah, wow. He's got the armbands and everything. That's it. That's kind of crazy. He's got a cheat book. It's about the final solution. Dude, this dev book's crazy.

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Welcome to the podcast. Clint Show Guffey's like, ah, he's because we've asked for a while to have you on. But you're you are not a big social media guy. You're like, fuck that. Yeah, you can tell it's my social media. Just look at the picture and you're like, what the hell is this random stuff? It's like, no, that's probably Clint. And there's been no activity in nine months. That's how you know it's me.

Are you still doing oil field stuff or the military stuff with it? Powered away from the oil field quite a few years ago before doing the book and then getting more involved with – because, well, that was the other thing with receiving the medal. I said at first I was super embarrassed. Just blatantly honest, it was super embarrassing because everyone's sitting there calling you a hero, saying, oh, what amazing things you did. And back of my mind, I'm sitting there, I'm like, didn't bring eight guys back.

Like those dudes are the heroes. Like I was a warrior. I was fighting alongside other great wars. Um, but to be called a hero and then all the, all of a sudden have that be the, the, the center of attention just was, was super awkward to deal with and process. Um, that's something that I'd love to go back to a little bit. If we can kind of reverse back to where you were saying that you were in that, you were watching that, that PowerPoint, uh, government issued PowerPoint. And, uh,

You were basically you were informed that that's that's what they put you in for what was your reaction to it in the moment? In the moment I just shut down I just like everything just I turned everything off and just got to stop there set their thinking internalizing It's just like Mace isn't here guy a ghost isn't here Kirk isn't here like those dudes were freaking badasses and they gave up more than anything I ever did and

So why am I getting acknowledged? And that's just kind of what I gravitated back toward was why, you know, those guys literally gave up their life for me to be here. So why the hell am I getting the acknowledgement and the attention? Because I made it through. I got to come back home. I got to continue to live my life. And I know,

you know, the nation does need heroes and things to look up to. But it's, as I continue to kind of gravitate back to, I hated being, I still hate being called a hero. Cause for me, those are the guys that don't come home. Like I was a warrior and I'll tell you, like I said, it was bittersweet that day. Cause it's,

things were, it was also one of the best days of my life because I felt like I went through the most ultimate man test with some of the coolest guys I've ever been around and we made it out on top. And that was also what I'd reflect back to. It's like we used to talk kind of that last nine months in country, the year getting out when we would talk about the awards process and stuff like that of guys getting silver stars and stuff.

certain other guys talking about how cool or how badass they were that day but the rest of us kind of like were you though and would sit there and I remember you know talking to Larson and Raz and they're like hey yeah we know what you did yeah well I know what you did and like that was just all we had to say sometimes would be sitting there Colorado Springs hanging out drinking at Hooters or something like that you just kind of share those quick moments where you just look over it or

or over at one of your buddies and you just knew, I know what you did that day and I don't need any public attention. There's no metal that you'd pin on our chest that would equate to what the same meaning was of that look between each other. So when that all, like I said, came to kind of the limelight, I wanted to just put my head in the sand and turn away.

But I also realize I've also been given something that so many veterans never get. That's a platform. And that's the ability that when I, for whatever reasons, I keep going back to D.C. to go up on the hill, I get doors open and I get to go get in front of congressmen and senators. And it's like, hey, look, fucktards, here's that's, you know, not getting taken care of. Please tell me you use that exact language.

That's what goes on in the inner monologue. Normally there's a filter process sometimes. I think more of them need the internal monologue to become the external monologue. Sorry, I meant retarded. You retard. It's like a dinobag. Politicians don't go to heaven. Sorry.

So I was like, you guys are all going to get along so good with Clint. Oh, boy. Loves the government so much. The big flex I had was when John Boehner was still Speaker of the House. Oh, boy. Fucking smoking in his office. You smoked? Oh, yeah. Because John Boehner smoked like a freaking chimney, too. So I got to go smoke in the... Well, he had already just gotten done smoking or something. But, yeah, I got to smoke in the...

Speaker of the house's office. One day. That's kind of cool. That doesn't fly anymore. I don't think anymore. This is dope going through that. It is going back to like your feelings towards it. Cause it is, that is one of the hardest things to put into words for a general person. It's like not wanting to accept something because it is like, no, I, I, I did nothing for that. Especially you, you're yourself is a very like selfless individual. And to have that, um,

where all the lights aren't you, they fly you out and then come to find out your battle buddies are the ones that also put in word for it, right? So that's what I didn't realize till years later. It's like when I would talk to some of the guys going to and from the oil fields, catching up with them, we would talk about everything under the sun and not once did they ever mention that they'd been approached or talked about an upgrade.

And so after I'd gotten notified, I'm, I'm sitting there calling Raz and Larson and them up. And they're like, I'm like, Hey, did the army call you and tell you guys anything? And they're like, Oh yeah, they called like, Oh, about a year ago or something. They just asked, they believe you did something good. That should be, should be awarded. They never said for what or what award. And we just said, yes.

I'm like, well, that was kind of part of that. I didn't think you'd mention that all of a sudden I'm getting recommended for upgrade and you've got someone to call you from the Pentagon eight months ago that said, hey, you think Sergeant Romashay should be recognized for what he did on October 3rd? Oh, yeah. Yeah, he should be. That was like their whole conversation. I'm like,

That would have been nice to know. Those are good. Cool. They didn't say, well, do you think Saint-Romain-Che should be recommended for the Medal of Honor? No. No.

They just said, do you think he should just be recognized for his actions? I was like, well, that's semantics right there on what they're really asking or not. But that was also part of the humbling thing was to find out that the upgrade recommendation came from the guys that were actually there beside me. Like I said, it was very tough to accept it in the first place, but it was kind of,

Really smoothed it over hearing that it was because of their recommendations their first-hand accounts that Kind of kicked it up over the edge I mean I still set back to this day and I think honestly the two guys that deserved the medal from that battle was Heart because when he left out the back of those barracks to try to go get Gallegos that was the last time I'd ever see that dude and unfortunately with the awards process system

is you've got to have, especially for the Medal of Honor, you've got to have two living eyewitnesses that see you do what you did and have to be able to read and write English to write that firsthand sworn statement account. And when Hart pushed up there to go get Mason, Larson, and them, and his Humvee got hit with that RPG, the only guy that survived that was Faulkner.

But Faulkner came back immediately, got medevaced, came back to the States, and Faulkner was dealing with some demons prior to that deployment after getting shot in Iraq previous. He ended up overdosing. So there was no eyewitness account, and it sucked because heart issues.

All we could get him was a bronze star that day. No shit. Just by army regulations since we didn't have those two eyewitness accounts. And I'd always kind of argued, you know, him leaving out the back door, finding that .50 cal ammo, taking those guys over there. Like, that was the action right there. I said, I...

I don't know how the whole awards process goes, but that was my kind of argument with it. And the other one for sure was Brad Larson. Larson, I truly believe, deserved the other Medal of Honor that day. He was stuck up at that Humvee with Gallegos and Mace and Ty Carter and Sergeant Martin. When those guys pushed out, he was trying to provide cover. Him and Ty were trying to provide cover for him. Wasn't able to do it.

Um, when Carter goes up and brings mace, you know, a little, little farther back to cover and puts the tourniquets on them, Larson's providing cover for, uh, for Ty and then him and Ty bring mace back to the aid station. Um, but then Larson comes back to me for the fight.

Larson gets checked out, he shows back up at the front gate area and he's the one that tells us, "Hey, Griffin's just outside the door here. Last I seen Martin was here, last I seen Gallegos was here, have no idea where Hart was." And Larson then came back out in the fight, recovered Griffin, helped recover Martin, Gallegos, brought him back. And then when we couldn't find Hart's body,

Larson was the dude that three times that day left his weapon, left his body armor, and left his Kevlar to run and do the frickin' bullet dance around that outpost to try and find Hart's body. And three times he just wasn't able to find him. And on the fourth time I finally told him he couldn't. So that was the other thing that's always been in the back of my mind. It's like,

Me and Ty Carter is the other living recipient from that fight. But I've always looked at it. I've always thought that Larson and Hart should have been the two guys right there. And that's just like going through that. And it's like...

It is something humbling to hear because, again, like anything I've done will never equate to that. And I never want to be put in that position. And you were lucky to be here because you stood up and then overcame crazy odds to win.

I mean, even save as many people as you do. I know it is that hard mindset to break. It's like, hey, this sucks because I lost this many people. Instead of looking at it, it's like, hey, I saved this many people because it was through your actions and your control. I just had a stupid idea, though. It was like, man, we're getting our asses kicked. We can do something. It's like, oh, here's an idea. Let's go counterattack.

These guys got us outgunned. They've got us outnumbered. They've got the high ground. And honestly, when I came up with that idea, it was just like, well, if we're going to die, let's kind of dictate it on our own terms. And again, that's what truly impressed me was I had those five guys that volunteered. Like, hey, we're going to go do this thing. And Raz, Delaney, Danley, Miller, and Jones, like those five guys were like, well,

We're going and don't have to. And they're like, we'll follow you anywhere. And it's like, well, why don't those five guys get acknowledged for? And I mean, and I'm not saying they'd never got their awards or anything, but I mean, that was just so impressive to see that you could get guys that would, I mean, that was truly a token of, of on a personal level of,

Felt like I was a good leader when you get five guys that'll say I'll follow you anywhere and that did it that came up Recaptured the ammo supply point was able to push the enemy out of the front gate the Shura building area You know, that's that's truly special as like I said as a leader That's I said in the back of your mind You're like you're always thinking I call it like that braveheart moment Like could I ever be tied to that board as they were freaking ripping my guts out? And well that what I set there and scream freedom into the face of those fuckers like

For me, that was those moments that day where I look back and it's like, man, that was going through the ultimate man test to say I could kind of check that block. Even leading to it, for the people out there that don't realize even how shitty that fighting position was and then you guys ran drills in your head where you're like, ah, if we did this, this is how we would do this. Which probably led to a...

For those who don't know, because we were just talking about this earlier at brunch, like just how bad that fighting position was. No, yeah. For people who don't. Dude, you were in a fishbowl. Well, yeah. I mean, it was so bad. Like I said, my granddad had passed away by then. But like I said, I'm old school. I don't do social media, but I'll still write. I still pay all my bills by check and mail them. My times have changed. Yeah.

anyway about a strategic fighting position so i wrote my grandma a letter home when we first got there and it was just a simple quick letter of hey grandma we're here we're settled in the guy's morale is high everyone's looking good we got 12 months here and we'll be home soon

This place is so gorgeous. It reminds me of growing up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Every morning I get to look up and see these beautiful mountains. And I sent that letter off. And a couple of weeks later, grandma sent me a letter back that just said, what the hell are you doing? Looking up. Everybody knows you take the high ground.

grandma even gram gram knew like that was not the most ideal location i mean you just sat at the very bottom of that valley surrounded by mountains on all sides every time we'd go out and do patrols and stuff you'd get just 100 meters up on the hillside and you'd look down and you're like man i can see everything i can see lras too i can see the front gate

This is a badass fighting position. I can just bail over the back here. You'd never be able to shoot me. You'd go freaking 20 feet the next direction. It's like, oh, this is even better. So that's how Graham Graham got a consulting job at the Pentagon. She easily could have. Way better than that strategic fighting point.

What was their mindset? Did they just pick up? I don't know how that came to be. So initially, from what I understand, like I said, I was a staff sergeant that I didn't make foreign policy. I just...

we got told where we needed to be right yeah um but the research I've done since then was it was just supposed to be this kind of stopping area in the natural terrain where they could get uh refuel refit and stuff going to the forces that were supposed to be continuing to attack North and Nuristan but so that happened about right before 2003 they were pushing up in the Nuristan and

What ended up being known as cop keating was just really a grid spot coordinate that they could drop supplies in. Well, we kick off 2003 with shock and awe in Iraq. Now we're fighting a two front war.

And there's not enough beans and bullets and everything to fight two-front war. So they paused the attack in the north in Afghanistan, Nuristan area. And instead of giving up that terrain, they decided, well, we'll just hold on to this. We'll get back to this eventually. Well, eventually it was six years down the road where we found ourselves there. So they didn't want to give up that stuff that was already fought for. What year did they...

Hey, we don't want to fight for it. It was like 2003 you're saying? Yeah, it was shortly after. It was like 2003, 2004. Six years later is when it was like, oh yeah, and you're still there. And like, man, man, that is the US military or government in a...

In a nutshell, he's, well, I mean, even my dad would, when he kind of found out, he's like, oh, I see. We haven't learned anything from Vietnam. Hamburger. I was telling the guys about Hamburger Hill. I was like, like, we will take a, we will have a 90% casualty rate to take something that has no significance on the battlefield just to say we did it and then leave it after a week. You're like, yep, we did it. You're like, there's like everyone's heart right now. Yeah.

We got it though. Yeah, I mean well you seen that with the pullout. I mean that's exactly what the pullout ended up being. Should never pull out. The only thing that should pull out is the couch. There we go. I'm glad all of us feel the same way. No one at this table pulls out. I've got six kids. Holy shit.

Bro, pull up! He's like, "Bro!" "You didn't learn either?" "Mumfucker can't pull out of his own driveway." That's why back in. Oh, f***.

So strategic 2009. Yeah. I mean, we were two weeks away from closing that place down and getting out of there. Bring it up, Jamie. Bring it up right here on the screen. Thanks, Jamie. Jamie. Thanks, Jamie. Thanks, Jamie. This is how ridiculous this fighting position is that you're looking at right now.

They did not consult Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's over, Anakin! I have the high ground! No. Take the high ground. Anakin. Come on. Anakin. Idiot. They were Anakin. He was Anakin. You underestimate my power! Episode 3 had come out by then. That was... There's no excuse. It worked the first time for Obi-Wan, though, when he was fighting Darth Maul. He didn't have the high ground. Oh.

Oh, fair. Oh, my God. My guy's a nerd. For not internetting much, you still got some nerd knowledge, my guy. Get them DVDs. Don't lie. It's VHS. Laser desk. You're still rewinding it after watching it.

So bad fucking, literally the worst positioning possible. Imagine a fishbowl and the bottom of that fishbowl is where you guys are based out of. And it's a cob, right? Yep. So the only way in and out was by helicopter at that point. And oh, by the way. I did not know that. Holy. What? The road. Well, that's how the outpost got named was by Lieutenant Ben Keating. They were trying to move. I believe it was the LMTV outpost.

Back to Faubostik, rolled over and killed Lieutenant Ben Keating, giving the name to the outpost. And that road was no longer serviceable logistically for the U.S. Army. Taliban had taken it over. It had been too narrow. It was just too treacherous. So helicopter was the only way in and out. And, oh, by the way, our landing zone was outside of our perimeter.

And it was in between two rivers that converged together, so you kind of had to land in this peninsula. It kind of reminds me of a less advantageous Harper's Ferry, if you've ever seen that area. But not to oversimplify too much. No, I don't even know which one. Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Like, that area. Where there was a military arsenal there during the Civil War. Oh, okay. I was like, are you just...

I was just not naming just a random place. It was a strategic point in a war. Crawfordsville, Indiana? Yes. I grew up in Alabama. I grew up in Mexico. Gary, Indiana. I was like, I don't know. Oh, no, not Gary. Not Gary. But...

Not to oversimplify it, but with what you just said earlier, wasn't the whole point of that location being chosen that it was a convenient middle ground for running supplies and things? Yes. That's initially how it started. With no way to get in or out except for helicopters. Yep. Just making sure I'm up to speed. And that is, it's the military. Like, this is... Logistics. Logistics.

This seems like a lot of logistics to get in and out of that. So it's funny because, like I said, the Chinook pilots, and we're at elevation, too, so we could only really get Chinooks, and Apaches only had enough kind of power to fly at that elevation. You know how much cargo you could lift with an Apache. Well, enough to bring 25 Mike-Miking Hellfires. We don't need you for your cargo, boys.

Drop the bullets. So when they'd resupply us, though, those pilots knew that was a crappy spot to be. And at elevation, not having the power, a lot of times they would make every excuse not to resupply us. And we were pissed. Like, we would not get resupplied for ammo. Well, we'd normally get ammo and fuel and stuff. But any of the creature comforts, like, they would make every excuse not to drop them.

And we'd go weeks on end without getting resupplied with fricking care packages or razors or hot meals. You're probably like literally every what, three weeks. We got a hot meal kind of once we got one meal once every three days and it'd be either a breakfast or maybe a dinner. We got a shower once a week because our water supply issues were, yeah, not, not the most ideal but,

But we were, like I said, we were always so mad at those shit up pilots. Like, oh, you fricking weenies. You don't want to come here. You guys aren't hard.

And say other things than weenies. I'm trying to be nice. Brandon, use a nice word. I don't feel like I'm in any place to call him anything. But like, well, back in the day, there was a website called poopcenter.com. So we got on poopcenter.com and we sent them elephant dung. Oh, shit. Yeah. Because they're like, you guys, you're not bringing us supplies. So we thought, hey, what better thing? Now we fast forward.

And Brad Larson gets direct selected by, I believe it was McChrystal to go OCS. And Brad ended up being a Chinook pilot.

And so once he graduated school, went on his first Afghan deployment, flying helicopters, I got to ask him, I'm like, come on, dude, tell me the truth. You're at cop kidding. Were those guys little bitches? And he's like, I went through cop kidding and I'd tell you guys to go off. I would not fly a Chinook into that Valley. He's like, those guys were so bad-ass to even show up the times they did to resupply us. Cause what is your C level? Like we were at, now you got me thinking, I think we were,

like at 9,000 feet. Jesus. And you're talking like for the people that do not know this, like helicopters, they're not like planes where they can just kind of, you're looking at less air movement. They become unstable as fuck. It's the old saying. It's like engineers hate helicopters. Cause like, okay, planes use the air.

Helicopters beat it into submission. It's like that. It makes no sense. Like it theoretically helicopters should not work, but somehow they do. And everybody's too afraid to ask questions as to why. Cause it's a gas air, like all those little things. Even think when you're a two stroke engine, when you're like dialing in, like how much air is taking in to not,

run too rich or anything. All that goes into account. Just the engine and then the blades don't have enough air density to push to keep the lift. And then with, like I said, with that valley and those two rivers, like any sort of wind gust that would knock them left or right, they're putting their blades into the side of a mountain.

And also think, anyone will say, do not, if you're camping overnight or anything in the wilderness, it is not camp in the valley because that's the coldest. That's where air travels through. That is the issue for everything. So helicopter, the least favorite place is right there at 9,000 feet of elevation and trying to fight that and deliver one warm meal. Yeah.

Yeah, it was like I said, wait. In hindsight, it was so amazing to see what they did at the time. It was like, fuck you guys, you're getting elephant dung. So they're dealing with that. You're dealing with that. And then you're like, okay, well, here we are.

looking up this beautiful countryside. They were beautiful mountains. I mean, if Afghanistan could ever get their shit together, that would be some of the best whitewater rafting, the best snowboarding. Like, those mountains still to this day are...

One of my favorite kind of memories to look at those mountains and think, think about them. Mr. Mr. You'd be fine. Go down right. Right. Well, we did. We might've had an incident where one of the local villagers were bathing their kids and they lost it in the river.

And all we could do is just call down to Fob Bostic 30 kilometers away. And it's like, Hey, if you find a baby floating through, they wait, they were bathing and come, you know, the, the big water rush time, like,

You might accidentally, if you lose. Yes. And that, well, that was part of Larson's plan when they were stuck at that Humvee and they thought all of us were dead. Their whole plan was they were hoping for night to hit and they were going to try to sneak to the river and just float back to Fobostik. No shit. Yeah. So leading up to like everything you had, you were getting popped off like once a. Yeah, about once a day. You know, and like I said, every day was a little bit different, but typically it would be.

about six o'clock in the morning. We ended up calling that kind of our Taliban alarm clock. Some days it would just be a couple of rounds of AK fire. Just like brands like terms for everything. And it's a great phrase. Yeah. And then called something else over there. And then, I mean, some, sometimes they'd hit you with a little sporadic AK fire on the East. And then all of a sudden RPGs, mortars, B10 hitting you on the West. Like every day was something like,

Not every day was too intense, but it could be. And in fact, we found out right away, it was actually better to be outside the wire on patrol than it was to be down in the outpost. We only took two engagements, direct fire engagements outside of the wire the three months we were there. They didn't want to fuck with us if we were actually out on patrol moving around and stuff. So we always loved being on patrol week because then you could kind of set the tempo and try to go after them. But yet...

when you're only sitting there with 18 guys we were very limited on how far they would let us patrol and it was everything was straight up to freaking mountainside so even though like the the the village of uh camdesh as a crow flew on the map was like a kilometer and a half to actually navigate the terrain ended up being almost nine kilometers because uh there was one time they went after

uh, Surn Kirk and, um, Gallegos and then went after that B10 recoilless rifle they kept pounding us with. And of course,

I'm a seasoned staff sergeant. I know better. I've got a Mark 19 position that I'd set up to help support them. And I'm like, I'll sit here on this and you boys go. You guys are still clear. So I got to ask you, because I ask everybody who's ever operated one. Did you love or hate the Mark 19? It was always a love hate relationship over in every time. I mean,

You just had to know how to treat her. And then when you didn't, she let you know. You never knew what it was going to be like. My bitch ex-wife. Dumb. Thank you, Catherine. If I ever buy a Mark 19, that's what I'm going to engrave on it. Bitch ex-wife. That's interesting because I've never had anybody who's ever said like, it was okay. They always say they either love it or they hate it. Yep. All depended on the day.

I know you can shoot 64 consecutive rounds out of it before you get yelled at.

That's the reel. That's a very short reel. I know this much wisdom from Clint Roach. 2024. That's fucking funny. It reminds me that's the sort of wisdom like the Ron White bit. I've learned two things in my career.

One, you can't unf*** the babysitter. And two, anything's a DUI checkpoint when you crash your car into it. That's solid life advice.

Just peek. So you're looking around. You're like, okay, here's all this shit. And again, what was the elevation change from your point to the top of the mountain size? Just for reference for the people up there. Because this is insane. I mean, there was part of the mountain where you could look at and trees were no longer growing. Yeah.

You hit the tree growth line. You're looking at like 2,000, like 3,000 feet. I thought tree growth was like at, what was it? 16,000 or? So 5,000 feet. You're looking at elevation. You cannot, you're like, oh, this can look down at us. Well, and sometimes it would be a little ambitious when we first got there and like, oh, we'll go to the top. Oh, we can see the top right there. And four hours later.

You're like, I'm not even halfway to that. But now that I can see that is not even the top. That is not even halfway to the top of the top. Like they just went for ever. And in fact, when we're in there doing some overwatch stuff, we have the spot and scope out and we're looking where the trees aren't growing. And there was a family that was raising goats up there.

It's like, how do you raise goats? There's no vegetation. How the hell do you get water up there? I bet they hadn't seen human contact in a generation. Imagine that. I was watching a classic film last night about warfare, Lord of the Rings. There's a lot of mountains, like large mountains in that.

I mean, literally, what? They were at Helm's Deep, but Helm's Deep was in a shittier bowl. And then it was drawers on every side. They're in Helm's Deeper. Oh, no. Helm's Deeper.

Dude, Helms Deeper, the Battle of Helms Deeper. Well, that's on Wikipedia now. Those Uruk-hai are everywhere. It'll be in your Wikipedia for your... Shooting the Mark 19. You fucking Uruk-hai. You dirty fucking Uruk-hai. The sand Uruk-hai are really strong.

I told you you'd have fun. Not that I do sit-ups, but I'm definitely not going to have to do sit-ups after this. Oh, my God. Well, that's the, what, 43rd slur we've invented on the podcast. Sand Uruk-hai. Sand Uruk-hai.

We're alarmingly good at that. It's a great new shirt. It's a picture of a Tuscan raider with an AK. Clint's like, I don't know if I regret this. Clint's like, I was on Fox News yesterday. Fuck.

Oh my God, I love this so much. Right back at home, right? Right back at home. All right, not to press on the MOH thing too much. I just, I had one serious question for you. I didn't get to ask it to you last time we were together. So Eli, he has a purple heart. He gets his little gay ass parking space. All right. All right. What do you, what benefits do you get with MOH?

It's state to state. Like I know here in Texas, like you can get a license plate, but it's your number is based off what recipient you are in the state of Texas. Really? Yeah. What's yours? I don't live in Texas, so I don't know. Damn it. Yeah.

Yeah, so I can't remember how much. If it's 69, you need to move. Yeah, I would move. I'd do it just to register and then leave. Thank you. Be hanging on the wall afterwards. So, well, we get invited to inaugurations. So that's a plus one. Well, the last time wasn't a cool perk, but this time it's going to be a plus one.

This is gonna be pretty rad. This one's gonna be, "Did you get a plus three?" He's my service support-y guy. He's not barking. He clearly is wearing a vest that says "Don't pet." He's working. My service. You get priority on space available flights.

It's another, I guess, perk. Thanks. Delta. Spirit. If there's space, you get first class? No, no, no. I mean for like military flights. Oh, beautiful flights. We're all jumping aboard on those ones. And then other than that, you get TRICARE for life. So you get retirement. The bare minimum medical care.

You gotta pay for your own dental invention, yes. Wait, wait, for real? Well, it's just like being retired, uh, retired insurance. Get the fuck out of here! You, like, you have jank-ass teeth. You just, like, save the world. And they slide it in. And I fill over. Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh. Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh. Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh.

Start taking the teeth back. Man, if this is the best country on the planet, I can't imagine how bad the rest are, man. I always make that joke where I'm like, man, I just know all the gripes and the failed logistics of the American military and all the things that we just suck at.

Imagine having to rely on the Indian military. Jesus. Sorry, sir. We lost your lead form. I need fire on this grid coordinate. Sir, yelling at me is not going to make this run faster.

You get a medal for calling it service. I need an A10 on this. Hello, my name is John with A10. I'll call for fire for five hours. Oh, Jesus. Oh, my gosh.

*laughing* Why do you hit? *laughing* Aw, didn't see this podcast going this direction man, if I'm being perfectly honest. *laughing* *laughing* Oh, I kinda wanna go in bed with the Indian Army now and get on a radio. *laughing*

They're asking you for help. You're like, Oh, Uno reverse. Try turning it off. And I got again. You unplugged it. Oh, so perks. Yeah. All the perks, flights and shit. College. So a lot of it's actually driven from the States, depending on what state you live in. Kind of depends on what kind of additional benefits you get. Um,

Honestly, so that's one of the weird things when you meet someone that has no clue what the Medal of Honor is. The first thing they come back with is, oh, is that like a Purple Heart? Kind of. That's what you reply with. It's a little different. But I mean that a lot of the benefits that it's given out either by the federal government or the states are all kind of tied to the Purple Heart stuff. So I can see definitely the confusion on that.

I mean, it's such a rare award. And, you know, we go out and we talk about ourselves all the time. Totally brag about. I got to burp. Bless you. That's got some hang time. So like we whipped it away real quick.

So we don't do a good job of really kind of explaining to the average, I think, civilian that doesn't have kind of a direct connection to the military of what really the Medal of Honor is. They've got this idea, but since...

I said everything they think about is, you know, Purple Heart or Navy SEALs or, you know, Green Berets, stuff like that. Like, it's hard for the average, I think, civilian sometimes to wrap their head around what the Medal of Honor truly is. As you look at the numbers, and I'm going to, I'm giving general numbers here. Don't go off Clint's actual thinking ability and statistical skills.

I think there's been about 26 million that have worn the uniform of the U.S. Out of the 26 million...

It's what, 30, just under 3,600 have received the medal. 3,600. And out of that, 60% have been awarded it posthumously. Yeah. So it's such a- You're looking at 40% that's alive. 36. And right now I think we've got- 1,400 living. Like that were issued it- From Civil War till now that ever lived. In the last 200 years. Yeah.

you've had 1,440 people actually alive receive that to put that in perspective of how rare that is. Again, out of how many? 30 million, you were saying? 26 million? Yeah, it was like 26, 28 million. I think that...

You were saying that the Medal of Honor was first created in the Civil War? Yes. It came out of the Civil War after the Andrew Raiders. They stole a locomotive from the south, ran it up north, destroying the rail lines. Was that the great locomotive chase? Yeah. Okay. And that was – I want to say I think the Navy was the first –

First awarded or developed it, then the Army came. Because each branch of service has their own. I did not know that. Still to this day? Yep. So each of the three, not three branches, but the Army, Army Marines and Navy have their own. And their designs are a little different. Of course, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard fall under that. Air Force now I think can incorporate the Space Force.

And then the Army's had theirs. I would love to see what kind of shit you've got to do to get a Medal of Honor in the Space Force. Oh, that's going to be rad. You're an alien. You're Ripley. Yeah, exactly. Wait, the alien fucks you? Uh-oh. I think you downloaded the wrong alien movie. Damn it. Not again. Not again. No. I know the Navy's Medal of Honor is a giant penis. Other than that, I don't know what the other branches are.

I'm actually, I'm learning a lot. I didn't know that about each branch having their own Medal of Honor. It would help me learn it a lot better, though, if you put this into a concise PowerPoint. Projected in the back. I would really absorb that information a lot more. If we could just get our PowerPoint behind a sea lion. Yeah, that's next. We're going to charge a lot of money for that. Next slide. Overcharge. Yeah.

There's lots of money dumped into that. Okay. And so we'll get so much viewership once we turn to power slides. And this is what? I don't know. Yeah, so each... Where was that going? You don't want to know what the internal monologue was saying. Oh, I would love to. Moving on. The audience out there would also love that. Just thinking of a Tuscan raider with an AK. The sand people.

Those- Fuckin' saying you're a guy. That's so harsh! I- My thing is, anything can be a slur if you put "you f***ing" in front of it. "I'm just saying!" Oh god. That Tosh skit. Oh yeah, oh my god. "You fuckin' spoon faces." Oh, like... Who said that to me? He's just making up slurs and he's got like a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a- a

Raise your hand if you find this offensive. Made up slurs. Dirty sand Uruk-hai. Anybody find that offensive? Raise a hand. Spoon face does sound very rich. Hands, hands. Show me those hands. Not you, Anakin. Hand. Hand.

I never knew. I'm like, where did we go? I was like, how did I put it back on the story? We've had our nice fun breaks. It's always funny seeing the graph of like where a conversation goes and unsubscribed. It's like, where do you think it's going? Where it goes. Michael J. Fox draw that line?

It's my favorite quote, I think, from his book. He's like, advantages of having Parkinson's. He's like, I don't have to buy an electric toothbrush. He's like, I just put toothpaste on the motherfucker and let it go. Gotta look at the positive. Always look on the bright side of life, you know? Oh, he's living his best life. Fuck. Okay, we'll go back on to... Wait, okay. I know. You...

Like how we can, you kind of talked about it. You're telling a story. You've told it many times. You've gave a different accounts of it. Even here. Like, Hey, at the end of it, this was my buddies. This is where they were placed. And then you, because your actions throughout that is going into a leadership position. You were, how much of a leadership role were you before that event? So I had been the senior scout in that scout platoon and section sergeant for, uh,

Four years? I was not an overachiever. You're like, I'm fine here, brother. And they would ask you to... They're like, you want to go up? Well, and so that day, I was the acting platoon sergeant because our platoon sergeant had already rotated back on a mature leave. No shit. Oh, wow.

Okay, for people in the military that deployed, that is fucking wild to have that happen during mid-tour leave for a NCO in that position. And, well, the double entendre of that, I hope I'm using that correctly, was my lieutenant. I dropped out of high school. My lieutenant was the on-the-scene commander that day because our troop commander, Stoney Portis, got taken away the night before.

And he was a brand new lieutenant first time over overseas. He ended up being the on the scene commander. So for anyone out there, this is a mad Cody for you guys here. Imagine. Fuck. How do I put this in turn? What the fuck? You put in the backup quarterback. It's like if we had Shane Gillis on the podcast and none of the core hosts were here.

I, um, yeah, almost. I mean, yeah, you're, you're having these individuals that have, you've been here forever. Forever. We have chase actually good example. Chase is just editing for a day. He comes to the pockets. We're like, Hey, we're tapping out. And then all of a sudden it's like, we need a podcast done. And then also we just hired a brand new person.

that no one's ever heard of. And then they also have to then step into a leadership position and be like, "Hi, hello." You all have to record a podcast. This is your manager stepping away for two weeks with like, it's a preconceived two weeks, but then a new manager that is secondary is stepping up also at the same time that you just met that day. That is how that works. It is brand new bosses are in this role. One, you kind of know. - Yeah. - You being that one.

But it is somebody not meant for that to stand up and be like, hey, now you're in control of everyone. Plus, this new dude is also standing up in control of everyone. Your analogy makes me angry. It should.

This is, I mean, it is, I don't know. It's probably because I did it bad, but also it's new people just standing up. No, I was talking about the analogy in general. It makes me angry that you didn't explain that better to me because I'm a retard. He's just, no, I understand exactly. He's just mad you're talking. I know. Fuck you. He's like, you f***ing d***. You only stop. I got hit with the beer. No, that's- Brandon and the Browns are talking again. Jesus Christ, dude. I'm surrounded by f***ing d***.

Why do they talk so... You wonder why I don't talk. All these fucking brown people. I can speak English, goddammit. You can speak American. That'd be really cool. Guess who's in office now. Gonna load you up in that...

TREBOUCHER OVER THE WALL! You deborred me and Brandon. I'm like, T-minus two months, you fucking... I'm so happy. Anyways, officers f***ing suck no matter what branch they're in.

That's a synopsis. It is putting people in charge. It's like one kind of knows, but it's not to that level. And the other is a brand new guy that's just like thrown into the mix. They just fucked off and left you? They don't have a chance. It's actually mandated. Yeah, it's not...

like I said, it's one of those things when things go bad, it's not just because one or two things happen. It's a multitude of things. And, and Butterman, who was my Lieutenant. So he was a senior officer for us on combat outpost Keating at the time.

And because we had leave and stuff and guys rotating through, it's just the way it happened to be. And the day before Stony Portis, our new commander had just gotten there. He was taking over the, the, the troop. He is doing sensitive item and inventories goes up to OP Fritchie helicopter gets shot at. They won't bring them back to us. He calls up Bunderman the night before. And he's like, Hey, you've got, you've got the outpost until I get back in about a day or so. And then zero six o'clock in the morning,

the next day that's when bunderman all of a sudden is he's the commander like i said he'd been he'd been in for well we had the advantage that we worked together in that train up going to afghanistan for almost a year which was pretty rare to have an officer that long especially in a platoon leader position but

You know, it's one of those things you just, you don't think you're going to be that guy until you're that guy. And Bunderman ended up being our guy. And I'll tell you to this day, I wouldn't have anybody else in that tactical operations center besides him. I mean, it came to the point at one time, I remember going in and he's, he's sitting there and he's got like this book and he's reading this book. And of course I'm like, Hey sir, what the fuck are you doing? Reading a book. We're kind of, we're kind of getting shot at right now. Dumb Lieutenant. Yeah.

And as he looks up, I can see he's reading the Army's call for fire manual. And he's like, hey, I'm about to start bringing 500 pounders 100 meters away from our position. There's like a good 90% chance because of sitting in that bowl. It'll probably land on us. And I just remember looking at it. I'm like, I'd rather it be our bombs than theirs. And he's like, okay. And he started, him and Schroed started calling in 500 pounders.

dropping them 100 meters away because they also knew that the Taliban was trying to get in tight on us. And typically coalition forces wouldn't call for artillery or indirect fire on yourself. But because of them doing that, it gave us just enough breathing room. They couldn't continue to kind of tighten that noose around us. And it was at risk versus reward. And I know

Like what a fricking, what a pair of balls you got to do to do something like that. And, and Butterman had those balls, big brass ones that bang them together in stormy weather and make that sound. That is again, that is a good, and it's a butter bar at that time.

No, he had been promoted to first lieutenant by then. First lieutenant. So in the military for a year. So this is for reference. You have been in college for four years and then you are in service one year and now you are doing that kind of level of call where you're like, hey, when your NCOs are telling you, it's like, what the fuck are you doing? Because a lot of officers, even captains, you're listening to your NCO. You're listening to your higher enlisted and you're like, hey, what should I do right now?

And for him to be like, I'm calling for fire. For J-Dams, I'm assuming. Yeah. On my foot. In a hundred. At a hundred yards. Yeah. Yep. Is wild. Those who we've talked about in the podcast, like we'd be in the Strikers, like call for fire. We'd call J-Dams in to drop bombs on like bridges or houses. And we'd all stand up 500 yards away and be like, oh, wow. You just feel that? Yeah. Yeah. And you guys were like, yo.

Don't worry. You don't have to look. It's going to, you're going to see wherever this lands. So he, he was so ballsy that he might've cause that, you know, we'd gotten our radios taken out. They knocked out our generator. So our FM comms were didn't exist anymore. So we were talking most of the day on tax app. And of course, anybody in the world that's tuned into tax app can listen in. And in fact, a lot of,

A lot of our former buddies and rear detachment guys back at Fort Carson were hearing all the radio transmissions live and in real time back at Fort Carson because the only link we had for help was on the Afghanistan's tactical satellite frequency. No shit. Yeah, so Bunderman's talking on that and he might have said allegedly shake and bake the village of Armul. Yeah.

And he brought in a B1 bomber as we discovered that Larson and Carter were still alive with Mace. He brought in a B1 bomber to give some bomb support and coverage as they grabbed Mace to bring him back to the aid station with the B1 that went Winchester 800 meters away from our position. And I think a B1, the bone carries like 26,000 pounds of munition. They just dumped it. They just dumped it on that village.

And I'm going to caveat that village was cleared out. The Taliban had kicked all the civilians out of there, taking that town over that morning. There were no civilians in that village. It was all enemy, but he dropped literally 26,000 pounds of bombs.

in the village of our mole to give Larson and Carter that freedom, freedom of maneuver to get mace back to the aid station. Cause you got a call saying like, Hey, cause you thought you lost boat, like two individuals. And then you got a call. It's like, Hey, we have them still. And you're like, what the fuck? Yeah. We'd, we'd been cut off. Like I said, things went from bad to worse. And at that point, when we started the counter assault, we'd been cut off from Larson guy goes from that, those guys out to the West and,

For like six seven hours at that point thought they were all gone thought the enemy had had either taken their bodies Or you know the worst was happening And as we pushed up got to the ammo supply point kicked the enemy off that Open that up to feed everybody else ammo and then got up to the front gate area. We're sitting there kind of in a holding pattern Waiting to make our next push

When we get the call thinking that Larson, who I'd served with on my second Iraq deployment, like I said, me and him were, I mean, boys. Actually, I'd just seen him last week in Omaha. What's up, bro? Actually, I'm going to give a highlight story. So that was October 3rd. Larson just had his youngest son, Solomon, October 3rd of this year to tie back in.

you know, great things still happen coming into the future. So when he gets a look at October 3rd now, he gets to look at his son, Solomon and think, look at the great things that are happening. But to caveat back, thought Larson had long been dead. I said, love that brother to death. Thought he was just over and done with, hadn't heard from him in hours and hours and hours. And then I get the call on the radio, Bunderman's like, you won't believe this, but Larson and Carter are still alive.

Mace is badly wounded. If you can provide covering fire to the north, I'm gonna bring in a B-1 bomber to the village of Armul to the west. And as soon as the bombs, as soon as you hear the bombs drop when they call shot over over the radio, push out, provide covering fire to the north, and they'll bring Mace back. And sure as shit, we hear shot over waiting for splash. We push out, start engaging off to the north.

Bombs start hitting. It was like being the freaking bass drum at a Metallica concert. It was lifting. All those bombs hitting was just lifting that rooftop off that building. We were trying to take us some cover. Then Larson and Carter come running through with Mace on a stretcher. Larson gets back to the aid station.

Calls me up a few minutes later and he's like, hey, medics have checked me out. They say I'm good to go. Where are you at and what do you need? I said, this is what am I? I just I remember this moment so vividly after I said all the other stuff that has gone on is Larson calling me up and saying, hey, where are you at? What do you need? And I'm like, it's been a long day. I'm kind of thirsty and I haven't had a cigarette yet.

And like five minutes later, here comes fucking Larson with a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper under one arm and a carton of Camelites. And he shows up and we give each other just a big ass hug, open up the Dr. Peppers, crack one of those, start drinking, spark up a smoke. And it was like, okay, this is going to be, we're going to make it out of there. Like that moment, just sitting there in that Shura building. I mean, there's still shit going on. I just was like, fuck.

It's just going to be all right. I don't think people understand, like the average person understands the level of ordinance you're talking about. 26,000 pounds of bombs for one, but the other that I'm still hung up on is you're talking about dropping a 500 pounder of high explosives a football field away from you. Yeah. That's insane to me. Like that's, that is insane.

There's danger close, and then there's whatever the fuck that is. Yeah. Well... So danger...

Danger Close, I mean, is you think about it for every pound of explosive, you want a yard of distance. That's kind of the rule of thumb. So you're well beyond Danger Close. You are well beyond Danger Close. Holy shit. And these are like 500 pounds. That's like eating an avocado at the end of the day distance. It's a very distinct taste. Yeah. Yeah.

I just like, it is so military in that midst of everything. You're just like, oh man, it's Dr. Pepper. It's just a lot of smoke. Dope dog. That cherry burning bright and you don't give a. It's middle of the day. I don't think I don't give a fuck. They haven't hit me yet. This lung cancer is going to get me.

Same mindset across everything. When you're in that situation, you're like, I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck this shit. It sucks so bad they're going to have to drag my body back. I'm too tired to walk to shoot me right now. Holy fuck, dude. That is... I mean, and then it is...

how long was that actual full engagement for everything to be done before they were like hey because they were inside the camp at this point they were inside basically within the first hour that's they are inside the cob at this point that's what's crazy is it's not like they're pushing in they are already inside having these battles inside the cob

How big is the Cobb in total? The whole Cobb was east to west was the longest, maybe about 200 meters. And then north to south was maybe about 125 to 150 meters. So not a very big...

Not a very big space. And they're already inside the wire at that point. And like I said, within that first hour, they'd breached by kind of that two hours. They had started burning down most of the buildings. We only owned Red Platoon Barracks, the Tactical Operations Center, and the aid station for most of the day. You said it was like 30% or 40% was under your control. The rest was under enemy. Enemy control. They cut us off from...

Like I said, the mortar position out to the west, we had lost contact with Sergeant Brady and his guys out there cut us off from Gallegos, breached that whole front gate. And then toward the east was where we had about 35 Afghan army guys. And that was kind of their side of the base. First contact, most of those guys just dropped their weapons and walked away. So left that whole east. And that's where the first breach came through was a whole eastern side. They just...

walked on through because there was no one there to defend it other than we had a copus who Was one of our young specialists he would ended up being the only gun left in the fight that day on a mark 19 Holding off that whole eastern side of the camp. Damn he sat in that Humvee for 14 15 hours and most of the time by himself I

Just because we couldn't really put normally would put someone kind of out there by him to help provide like some covering fire when he was reloading. But in the position you had to normally kind of you could get away with putting a man was so triangulated and surrounded. Anybody outside of that up armored Humvee was going to get blasted.

COPUS at least had the advantage of, and I use that term loosely, advantage of being in that up-armored Humvee, sitting down low enough, they just couldn't quite shoot over the kind of side rails of the turret to kind of finish him off if they had the chance. And like I said, he sat there for...

14 hours, lost radio comms three or four times. He thought he was the only person still alive on the outpost for a few hours. And Jesus, but, and I, like I said, no one would ever blamed him for being like, well, fuck you guys. I'm going home. Let me, let me sneak back to go find someone else still alive or someone to talk to me or anything. He's, he literally sat there just slinging rounds. Yeah. All day. God, just, just like that.

Let me load this bitch again. She's being a dirty whore today. I haven't made it to the 64 round mark where they yell at me. 63, I'm good. That comes with the yelling. That's the son of a bitch. I don't want her to get in trouble now.

Holy and then at what point because you also took a it was an RPG shrapnel. Yep. What hit you and then on your arm? I do. Yeah, the right side. So we it came to a point like said things were going from bad to worse still had contact with Gallegos and Larson and them out toward the west on that. They'd already Larson had already gotten the 50 Cal blown out of his hands by an RPG no longer operable and

The 240 that was out there that supported two had long ran out of ammo. And basically those five guys were just in that Humvee kind of holding on. So myself and a specialist Gregory had a machine gun, a Mark 48, and we were able to sneak over and look out toward the West. And we only had about 200 rounds. Cause like I said, we'd already been cut off in the ammo supply point. This was kind of the last of the ammo we had left for that gun.

And threw that up on the, like the 60 K generator and had guy, uh, had a Gregory feeding the gun for me. And I remember just looking out and this is like, this is probably like the first 30 to 45 minutes into the fight at this point and looking out toward the West. And I mean, you could just see they're, they're like ants coming down the hill. I mean, every direction you're looking, there's yuck. Yeah.

They don't run fast. They weren't sending the best. They're shitting at our pod racers. Little Annie, great guy. Sorry, I feel like that needed a little levity. So...

So open up and like coming, coming like ants down the hill. And it's just going from target to target to target. Just there is, there's so much going on. It's like, well, I'll just start aiming that way and going to hit something. And that time I'm, I'm sitting there and trying to call guy. It goes in them still got FM comms. And it's like, Hey, you guys need to move. You can move, move now providing covering fire. And guy goes to just coming back. And he's like,

Brother, you can't bring enough fire. Like we need close air support. We need mortar rounds. We need more than just one machine gun. If just for reference, sorry to interrupt, but if like, what's the rough, like the, the, the count of enemies at that point, like how many, how many dudes are you guys going up against versus yourself at that point? I mean, the ratio, I guess it would have been just looking at thinking of the targets. I mean, there had to have been over 50 on that West side, uh,

going against, you know, our one machine gun, but they got the high ground, they got cover. I know after everything was all said and done, they said it was probably about 400 fighters that hit us that day. And then what was your total capacity on the base? We were sitting at 50 Americans and two Latvians. Shoot.

That's what's insane. You have like that many and it's not this is this is firearms and people that are used to fighting in that terrain. Well, and I mean, those guys, they're

Those weren't like you're just, hey, let me grab an AK and show up today. Squirters. They're not squirters. Yeah. They are. They're sitting there and they're fixing you. And you can see them try to flank your left. Because that's what ended up happening is we're engaging out toward the west, trying to get Gallegos and them to move. Didn't realize that they had breached that front gate just off to our right. And they snuck in an RPG team just to our right.

maybe 30 yards away holy shit um and luckily that that rpg was made on a friday or something at the end of work because they touch it off and it it comes in just a little low and the generator takes most of the blast so blows me over onto gregory we kind of fall down remember grabbing him kind of picking him up dusting him off hey are you good you know he can still move and stuff and

Told him just take off, run it, bud. And I grabbed the machine gun, threw it back up on what was left of the generator, took care of the problem to the north out by the front gate.

He takes off. I throw in the next, the last hundred rounds we got. I just remember calling back to Gregory and I'm like, brother, you guys have got to move and you got to move now. I cannot hold this position. I'm out of, I'm almost out of ammo and I'm just sitting there just trying to lay it down as hard as I can. And, and guy goes, just call it back. And he's like, brother, we can't go anywhere. They got us pinned too hard. I mean, they were just getting pounded from every which way. Like I said, I just remember his last little, little bit of ammo comes through that feed tray cover and,

give him the last call. And it's like, if you don't leave now, if you don't move now, you've got to move now. And he just calls back and he just gives a simple, well, be here when you get here, brother. Like he just kind of knew that that was going to be what it was. And it was just shitty. Cause it's like, man, these roles were reversed. I knew this, this mother was coming to get me. And I just felt like I abandoned him at that point. Cause it's like,

Always had a good mindset of you know, I used to tell my guys like dead bodies attract more dead bodies I don't want you coming out and try to save someone kill the enemy first because if you don't kill them and eliminate the threat if you go out there in a blaze of glory, oh Let me go help my buddy. That's down. You're just gonna be the next guy down So kill the enemy first as much as it sucks to sit there and listen to your buddy say hey help me come save me and

It makes no tactical sense to do that until you've eliminated the threat. And at that point I knew I was, I wasn't going to go run across 200 meters to go or 150 meters to go find Gallegos and try to drag them back. It was just like, I don't have a machine gun anymore. My position's compromised and I'm going to go displace back and figure something else out. But just to hear him say,

we'll be here when you get here knew you know gave me that reassurance that he knew i i would eventually if i could still do it come back to get them that's our part of leadership it is it's that i'm making the right call because you have to say it is that it is the hardest part of leadership is that single moment where thank god a lot of people do not have to go through it is the hard choice it's like hey

you want to no matter what it's like hey i want to do this it's just strategically the worst option and that's where you have to like you have to bite that bullet and live with it but understand it is the right choice at the end of the day there's as i used to say like there's there's no right choices sometimes but even a bad choice is a better better than no choice like to make no decision to make no kind of decisive movement

We'll get you killed every time where at least a bad choice or a bad decision, you can hopefully learn from that, but at least you're doing something to make a difference. And, and I mean, Butterman again, going back to him when he had to make that call of Alamo position, he knew he was going to be isolating like nine guys. When he made that call, it's like anybody that can hear this, you get back to these three buildings and we'll hold these and

But if you don't get back, I'm sorry, we can't send anybody out. We're literally cutting off the mortar position. We're cutting off ORAZ 2. Like, you've got to get back. And if he wouldn't have made that call, and I know that weighs heavily, like you said, on a leader to sit there and be like, do I continue to try to

try to fight this kind of broken shamble of stuff or do i make that call to say hey if you can make it back you make it back if you don't you don't but at least the guys i get back i can figure out where to go with them next where the right call is still objectively shitty yeah i mean yeah there's no there's no right call but you got to make a call yeah there's the hardest part in any of that stuff and being able to do that even for him like what that means he was in for a year at that point

You were in six years? No, I was in. You were a decade at that point. Yeah, I was the old guy. I was a whole 28 years old back then. Which is wild, making those decisions at that age. Yeah, Bunderman, he had been in headquarters troop before coming to us. So he did have a little more time than the average lieutenant did. But I mean, yeah, he'd probably only been in it.

Maybe three years from the time he got done with ROTC to Bullock and all his officer training stuff. I mean, three years to make those kind of decisions. It's a lot. And then not especially officer side. You don't know what you're getting attached to. You're just thrown to the winds of the military. And then was he, did he even have his ranger tab yet? Perhaps or no. Butterman was not a...

I love that guy to death. But you're like, my homeboy made some right choices. Ranger school was not one of the ones he was going to make. He was one of the greatest lieutenants I ever had because when he showed up, he showed up and he's like, I got a history. I've got a major in history. I like to party and have fun.

If you guys don't make me look like an asshole, I'll make sure all the paperwork's taken care of. A good officer right there. Like, great officer right there. Like, he was not going to be the next General Patton. He came in to do his time, to get his college paid for, and then move on.

wild and then closing that up you got how bad was your personal and like because you took shrapnel from the rpg and then you were just you were good to you were like still fighting with that afterwards and just like hey yeah it was just kind of a peppering on the right side um the major thing was just kind of a hole in the forearm i wasn't a through and through it just kind of was there um that was that was shrapnel yeah okay shrapnel from the rpg and then of course just a

lingering of they still come out every now and again in the shower it's like what the hell is this it's funny what's up it's funny crispy all the dudes it's like they like if they've been blown up by an id or something it is like oh yeah it's still it slowly pops out and you're like fuck as more time has gone on less has came out and

It's like, oh, I'm glad most of that generator cowling, though, is frickin' aluminum because that's non-ferrous and it doesn't detect in a metal detector. You just get stopped by TSA like, look, it is a long story.

So you just fought on right after that. You're like, okay, slight pad up and then push it through. Well, when I came back, like I said, finished up that 100 rounds last we had. And I started displacing back to the barracks. And that's where my other buddy Raz, like this 6'5 Minnesotan, he's kind of standing there kind of by the 6'5". Jesus. He's a big fucker.

That's why I would put him as number one guy on the stack team so he could absorb all the bullets. These are the tactics. These are the tactics. He was the one that when I came down, displacing back, sitting there just trying to get a quick sit rep. And he's like, looks down at me and he's like, you got a hole in your arm, dude. And I look and I'm like, oh, shit.

So then he pulls out my Israeli dressing, stops the bleeding, gets it all wrapped up. And then we fast forward. It's like an hour or two later. And I'm sitting there in the tactical operations center, still trying to figure out what's going on next. And all of a sudden, I can't feel my hand anymore. So I'm sitting there trying to manipulate my fingers to get them working again. And First Sergeant Burton comes over and he's like, hey, are you all right? And I'm like, I don't know, my fucking...

I don't think my hands working anymore. And he goes, let me look at it. And he pulls my hand to the side and he starts unwrapping my Israeli dressing. And he goes, who the fuck put this on you? I'm like, well, he's like, he knows this is a dressing, not a tourniquet. He'd put it on so tight that I was losing the use of my hand because of circulation, not because of the injury. I was looking at it. Thank God it's all aluminum. Otherwise the MRI would be real awkward. Yeah.

You make him do push-ups. No. Smoke this shit up. How many times have we... Bro. Did you put two feet on that as you're tugging it? Oh, that feels way better. Thank God it's my right arm that I use for everything. We call that the finisher.

The left is a sustainer. You've unlocked the mysterious stranger perk. Holy shit. This is where I want to transition to. You actually brought this. You actually introduced it by throwing it Brandon first.

before you even shook his hand. Hell of an introduction, by the way. Pleasure to meet you. What did you get tossed at, Brandon? I don't know. It just came at me so fast. No, like a legitimate, well, a replica. So you get two, right? We'll go into that after. Yeah, you get the real one. What occasions would you use that? Just like if you're actually in a formal event or...

No. So the original one's the one that the president gives you, and then you get the duplicate as a backup. For me, my original, I donated it back to 4th ID. So it's setting at 4th ID division headquarters. Oh, shit.

That's why I rock the duplicate because I don't have the original anymore. If you could send that to the unsubscribed podcast. We put it back there. Now it's ours. That little guy? Don't worry about that. That's Brandon. Fuck off. That's actually really cool. I didn't know what the protocol was, like what people did with it.

Yeah, that's like I said, you only get you only get issued a total of two. And like I said, the first one that's issued has your your name, your rank, your location of action, and then the date it was issued.

And that's the one that I keep hitting this damn microphone. That's the one the president actually puts around you. And then the Duke gets as a backup. Are you able to buy more duplicates later? Like if you lost it, you can get more ribbons. But the actual award itself. No, no shit. Now I feel really good that I caught it. He was surprised he caught it. But they say, wow, you caught it.

But they do have an FBI task force, though, if it gets lost or stolen, that will go track and call. No shit. Yep. What? Nope. No shit. So if you're mad at someone, you'll just leave it in their car? It's not a fucking Apple AirTag, but like, well, it is. It's not. So last year, that might have happened, where I'd met a National Guard first sergeant. We were at the Masters.

And we'd met after going to the Masters, having a great time, hanging out. And I decided to drop it into his gift bag, thinking he was coming back to where we were having this after party out. I didn't realize he was driving 45 minutes in a different direction. I love how much you don't give a fuck.

where we might have had to call him and it's like, Hey, I can't remember the kid's name. I'm so terrible space. And I'm like, Hey, where's first our night? I thought he was going to be here. Like, Oh no, he had to go back home at the, I was like, Oh, well he might have a, my medal of honor in his gift bag.

So needless to say, he had to drive two hours out of his way. Asshole! No first person's gonna question you! Hey, where's your get back? No first person, you call. It's gonna be like, you shitbag. They'll be like, whoo, whoo, big. Whoo, Clint. It'll be like, mother... Where's your get back? Oh, I threw it away, man. Why? Why you asking? I don't know. Left it a while ago. So...

Needless to say, we didn't have to call the FBI on that one. That's wild. You could have, though. Self-inflicted. This man stole. Holy shit. He was a stolen Valor. He wasn't one of those Force Valor guys.

Fuck those guys, man. He was stolen, I wanted him. For a true American hero. He did literally, for a period of two hours, steal Valor. Well, is it really stealing if it's unbeknownst? Then it's forced. No.

He got you. Yeah. He got you. And that's why. Force Valor once again. I just like you're like, I got this motherfucker and you dropped it. And they're like, yo, where's that dude at? It's like, where's First Arnett? And they're like, oh, he went back home. Where does he live? Oh, like an hour north of Augusta. I was like, oh, we're not even close to there. We're south. Hey, bro. About that.

Now, one of my favorite things is you bring it everywhere, wadded up in your pocket. It has gone to the wash more times than it should have. Goddamn. I love it. You guys wonder why I love this man. It's moments like that. Ever since I met you, you've been who you are, which is an amazing human. And you brought it today. You tossed it to Brandon. So Brandon caught it. Thank God.

Yeah, I would have felt like the biggest asshole in the world, which I'm pretty sure is why you threw it. Well, and I tried to hum-chuck it. I tried to ear-hole you like a hockey goalie to get that glove side up, but you're surprisingly got quick hands. Little nimble quick hands is what they used to call me in high school for sure. When did you actually get...

get it awarded? Like what year was that? It was February of 2013. Okay, gotcha. Okay, so you've managed to keep up with this one for 11 years. Yep, same one. Had to do quick math there. It's plastic. He 3D printed it. He's like, lost that bitch years ago. Oh, this? That's just the one I got on eBay. Do you want to pull it out real quick? Well, I mean... You want him to whip it out on a podcast? Oh yeah, whip that bitch out. YouTube blur this shit.

I love that it was in your pocket. God damn. Pass it around? We'll pass it around. Brandon, you're going to wear this. Thumbnail.

For the thumbnail, he's painting this on you. And we got to double salute you. Hey, you guys, man. Do you want this joke to die or not? This is how the joke dies. I know what I have to do. I just don't know if I have the strength to do it.

Oh, God, dude. It is so wild compared to every other military, even the distinguished service cross, which is like the second highest one. And you're like, oh, they're downgrading it. And then you're like, why? Oh, they're supposed to downgrade it. I thought it was going to Silver Star. And then you walk in. You're like, what the fuck? Because in basic, don't lie. Basic training, you looked and you're like, that's crazy. Yeah.

Like coming up through the ranks, you're always thinking like, oh, metal, that's an Audie Murphy. That's, I mean, just bigger than life. These, these heroes and warriors that you think about that, you know, the Desmond Doss's and I mean the links and the. It's hard to conceptualize like any of those stories and to be part of that story for eternity. Yeah.

Cause it's not something it's like, as you were saying, like what you said, 1600, how many people have it? 1,440 living 3,600 total period have ever had that. And that, and that's the thing too, though. It's also, it's also not a popularity contest and it's not a lifetime achievement award. Like that was one of the kind of reassuring coolest things when I'd met some of the other recipients, they talked about,

You know, just because you've received the medal doesn't mean that is your life. Learn how to say no, but you're still who you are. And that's what's crazy about it. We put it right there. Oh, God, no. I just need one comment. I just put it there.

I just need one clip for myself wearing it saying I got this fight in the sand you're a guy and Helms deeper even on the microphone it makes me so uncomfortable

I got this at Homes Deeper. Homes Deeper. Your helmet's crooked. Homes Deeper. Now, Homes Deeper is where I found the guys who are remodeling my kitchen.

I was like, I hope he knows what he's getting into on this podcast. I was like, picture the military and that's it. We call him a border year guy. A border year guy. They should put up a wall for them guys. Brandon's your third one.

I got nothing, man. I mean, you're going to have to go to clothing and sales to get a turd Oakley cluster. I've never seen a silver Oakley cluster for a Medal of Honor before. Oh, shit.

All the military people are dying. Do you know how hard it is to make me speechless? I got something for everything, man. That's... Oh, shit. The poorest heist of valor of ever. I mean, how many promotion points do you need? Cody, please send me that picture.

Oh, this is what would be the best way for the thumbnail? Because the thumbnail is definitely going to be you doing this. We want to recreate your photo. But he is now you. So this is immortalized in all of podcast history. You guys are having such a good time with this, man. I love it.

I think I might actually be physically blushing. How much did he tell you about this? Right now, you look like my ex-wife trying to give me a blowjob. You don't even want to get close to that microphone.

Holy shit. I'm so happy right now. Oh, God. So Eli on one throwaway bit a year ago. I was so good. It peaked. This is officially peaked. This is how we close this chapter and all of this is going to be. What would be the most respectful way from your end

to put it on him or do we put it on him you let me know on the respect program because i have zero uh i gave him my purple it's just like this and he was like stop push it away from me i was like why are you being gay and then in that moment eli sensed weakness i know how to ruin your next year and then crispy and jack who got shot but didn't get a purple heart oh they're trying to give you a purple heart

This man that hates veterans over here. Apparently. Oh, by the way, that was... I hate veterans so much that all of my friends are veterans. It's one of those. Do you know what they used against him for his congressman? Oh, wasn't it... You're talking about you hate veterans that commit suicide? I see you watch the news.

It was, I literally, I quoted a joke that Eli was like, oh, you need to make this joke. Because we, earlier that day, we had just done a veteran suicide prevention panel.

and eli's like hey you need to make this joke and i'm like nah it's a little too far and then i said the joke on the podcast that i didn't make while we were doing a veterans charity benefit that morning and they clipped that one seven seconds they're like look at this guy he thinks veteran suicide is funny i'm like all the all the i've done really and now okay that's the one that's the clip you're gonna use

I was laughing and they cut that out. It's just Brandon hates veterans. They're like, well, when you got $12 million to spend it, you can make anything look like anything. Politics is so. It's amazing. When are you getting back into it? Hopefully never, man.

Hopefully they just vote right. Wait, what are we doing? Are we doing no? Are we saying no? To what? Are you not getting back into them? What are we doing, Brandon? Are we allowed to talk about this on the podcast? Chase is right there, so we can tell him to edit this out. Well, the funny part is the most recent thing, by the time this comes out, either is going to be a thing or it really won't be, so we'll see. The ATF director thing? Which, if we had an ATF director, this would be number one.

It started very tongue-in-cheek and then turned very serious very quickly, which is kind of wild. I started getting a lot of calls from D.C. Like, if the Trump administration is based enough to even consider this, I am so excited for our incoming administration. And our tax stamps. $200. So dope. $200. It might be cheaper. I'll just say I've got some ideas. I got plans.

You're like, fuck. I can't wait. Metal, how would we do this? For a thumbnail, what would be the most respectful rate to do that and then do branded service and also for the lols? Trying to think. What would be?

This is why you're in the position and not me, because I would just put it on. But I want to do everyone as the actual respect. Brandon's like, he's sweating. He's like, I was more comfortable when he was throwing it at me. David, get him another drink. A little whiskey. A fucking glass of whiskey. Oh, man.

Welcome to the podcast. Join my podcast, he said. It'll be fun, he said. Clint's like, why is this? Like you're bearing the weight of responsibility. They'll have like a flavor flake chain. We can then hang it like super low. Oh my God. Do we have a chain? We have to have a chain of some type. Okay.

*Gasp* Jake shut the fuck up. No we don't. Oh the cross! Oh! No, no we can't do that. We don't know we take off the cross and then we put it around the cross. Where's the fucking thing? Here it is. Dude, the rosary. You hear your fucking rosary? And then we take off the cross and then it's very Mexican because you got rosary beads and the metal hanging right here. *Gasps*

Or it's way more offensive. It's one or the other. You're either going to piss off a lot of Mexicans or a lot of veterans. You know, there's like five or six moments where you just have that realization in life. You're like, I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing. This is one of those. Thank you. Dear God.

Well, we could compromise and redo it where we present it to your microphone, which you've been talking in for the last 12 months. Oh, we turn it around? Yeah. For the microphone? We're going to do the ceremony for it. We're making the joke, right? Yeah, we're making a joke. So that's why I want to respect, because I know you're going to be big on respecting that, and I just want to respect that part.

So we will figure this out. And if we just put it on Brandon's mic, which will always forever be the Medal of Honor microphone. It's got the Medal of Honor for having to put up with listening to me for hundreds of hours. Do you want to pin it? You do this. Brandon, turn your microphone around. Nope. Nope. Whoa. Turn it that way. There we go. Yep.

Say, but talk to Brandon when you do it. Wait, are we still Brandon's? Yeah, this is Brandon's neck. Eli, are we killing the joke right now? We're retiring. We're not killing anything. That's too tiring. Real jokes don't die. They live on forever.

Oh, I'm so sorry, Brandon. No, you're not. I'm not. As your dedication to service after receiving not only this is your third Medal of Honor, fifth Purple Heart, this microphone that you've speaked in will forever be remembered for its heroics, intrepidity. I don't know what word they use for that.

Oh, shut up! Oh, damn. At least Obama didn't give it to me. Thank you. Eli, hold on. We haven't asked this yet. What have you raised for veterans so far? Oh, shit. Good segue. We're like 60 grand in...

11 days? This is also the 12th. The 12th, 12 days. So 60 grand we have raised in 12 days and I know that's going to go through the roof even more in the next however many days. 17 days? 18 days? 18 days. Oh, for this one, never mind. It's a week-ish.

It's going to be a hundred-ish thousand if we do this right? Question mark? I don't know. We are killing it. All of you are killing it. Chase will put up the actual number raised for this. And then, which is awesome. Great segue. You actually have a nonprofit that you stand behind, which I think out of anyone that knows the trials and tribulations of veterans. I know. Yeah.

It'd be you so you would have a good idea and you actually brought this up. You're like, hey I support these guys because they support yourself and they support other veterans if you want to open up on them So I've been with America warrior partnership for six years now It's a great organization out of Augusta Georgia and what really attracted me to them because of course as a Medal of Honor recipient you get asked to be on a lot of boards and a lot of nonprofits why

I'm joking. Well, maybe other ones do. I was asking Brandon's microphone. I just pictured the board. It's a microphone. Okay, Mr. Hat. It's like the sorting hat from Harry Potter.

The board has deemed you Gryffindor. So I've been with the American Warrior Partnership for six years, and what really attracted me to them is you get a lot of veteran nonprofits out there talking about stuff they're wanting to do. And the big part of AWP's initiative is we hear about ending veterans. Yes, we want to end it, but the reality of it is to get to zero veterans

isn't a realistic goal. So to decrease veterans is not a program. It's a result of doing good work.

and it's not one pill solves it all, not one magic wand. You can wave to do that. And AWP has been amazing with building those relationships with veterans, advocate when they hit obstacles, collaborate with local communities because local communities are going to solve the best problems at the lowest levels. And then

educate the veteran, and then sit there and tear down the roadblocks that might come up as they hit them. Because it's not just a mental health issue, it's relationships, it's financial, it's access to care, it's dealing with the bureaucracy of the VA. And AWP has done that along the way since I've been with them. It's been a great organization to be with.

Because of the fact that they don't look at it, like I said, as just a program, we're going to end veterans, but we're going to decrease it by a result of outcomes. That's, I mean, and that's, we're going to donate at least, at minimum, like we, as much as we raise, we're allocating money.

33% towards that nonprofit. Because again, one of the individuals that knows, that's dealt with the VA and then dealt with the military and then knows about, hey, trials, tribulations, and then the PTSD and everything. Drink on that. An individual that has been through all that at every level, you are the one we want to lead through.

Like if you're the one waving flag, like, Hey, this organization actually does good and needs funds. That is what we will put towards what we're doing this month. And I think all the guys are on board for that.

Dipshits dude like yeah We see her make cum jokes We got amazing people you know like like I'm coming on here and Brandon's awesome, dude Yeah, we're sharing life advice about you know, you only break two or one lot of time

Well, it's just really cool to have organizations that actually like they identify the root of the problem and try to help because like there's so many people like they're still friends of mine that are active duty here in San Antonio. And they're, you know, they're talking about how their superiors want to do a veterans initiative. And I'm dead fucking serious. Their idea was, oh, let's do a 5K and hold signs on the side. It's like, wow. Yeah, I'm sure that's doing wonders for veterans. People shot themselves that day. Yeah.

You know what makes me want to knock myself waking up at 5 a.m. to run five, five kilometers when you're depressed. You're like, and that's why it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be a program. It should be an outcome of resources. And yeah. Yeah. And then they're just like bros being bros. Honestly. Yeah. Just that's what we talked about on our panel in Las Vegas. Bros being bros. It's.

It's what actually makes a difference. And all of you that reach out, we have had hundreds of thousands of messages to this date of like, hey, I was in a bad place and this is what got me out of that place. And that is because it is like hanging out. What we miss, and I guarantee you can speak to this, is the camaraderie from...

The gang, you're just like, man, you are wrapped around these guys. You are enveloped in it. And then you do that for 16 months to three years, and then suddenly it's taken away. I mean, you can sit there, and as I reflect back, I still know what Raz's freaking stinky feet smell like. Sleeping next to that guy for 12 nights. It's freaking corn nuts and freaking onions. Yeah.

Atrocious. And one thing I always get to brag about still to this day, knock on wood, is we have yet to lose one of the members of Red Platoon.

It's been over a decade later. Those, those guys went through that type of shit and are still alive today. And I bet you guys have one of the, I get it. Do all of you stay in really tight? We have this stupid platoon text that goes on and 99% of the time we're just talking shit to each other. But it's those moments when you're like, Hey, so-and-so isn't responding.

And then we start kind of tag teaming. Hey, what's going on? You know, hit them on an individual level and find out, oh, man, you're going through a divorce. You just lost your job. Your car just broke down.

It's maintaining those communications and building those relationships that is key. Because you can't just, like I said, you can't just show up one day and expect to like wave that magic wand and solve those problems. It's knowing what Raz's feet smell like. It's knowing what Copas has been through running out his GI bill and wanting to be a lawyer and go back to school, but finding him help to figure that out later.

And if we're not, like I said, as veterans kind of keeping the pulse on each other, we can't expect the VA to do that for us. We rely on other human connection. That's next year's veterans month t-shirt. Bullying saves lives. Yeah, it truly does. There you go. I love it. That's something that I've harped on, on like Darwin Award and stuff like that. Because sometimes that does come up with, you know, people just deciding to end their own lives. It's like, man,

If you want to stop veterans, you don't need to necessarily donate to groups. You don't need to get agencies involved. All you have to do is pick up the phone, dude. It's free. The answer is free. You just got to utilize it. And that's what I like about AWP. Like I said, we're not trying to end veterans. To get it to zero is an unrealistic goal.

But if we can decrease it, because there, there are going to be those times and I'm just going to be real here that people are going to make that choice. And you're trying to put a rational explanation to an illogical result. Some people are just, that's just going to be what it's going to be. And I'm going to be real and say that like to get it to zero is unrealistic.

But if we can decrease it by continuing those relationships and at times it's either picking up that phone, it's making that derogatory comment. It's letting each and every one of us know that we're not doing it alone and there's always going to be someone to have your back.

Because it's still better to be here and suffering than being gone and all of your other battle buddies over because you didn't give them the opportunity to step in and have your back. What is the saying? It's a... Don't be a bitch. Permanent solution to a temporary problem. Yeah, exactly. That is the saying because it is...

It's a wild one. You have the exact opposite where it's like the guys I deployed with, you have 16 KI and then 28 since being back. And you're like, what the, this, but then it is the individuals that stopped reaching out or talking. And when you're in platoon size elements, you're like, Oh, like,

That guy was in my company or that guy wasn't in my specific platoon and then, or in my team. So you, you don't think about it, but versus you guys, you have that like super tight, especially after that, like that is baptism by fire on a different level.

It is. And that's the thing, too, though, is, like I said, there's guys we're not as tight with as other guys. There's always those cliques in a platoon. But as I sit there and like to describe them, we're all one big happy family. Not going to like you all the time. We're going to have those political discussions at Thanksgiving where we're going to flip a table and throw a chair. But at the end of the day, even though I might not like you in a certain moment, always going to love you.

And I think that's the benefit we get as veterans is that exposure to love more than all the hate you kind of see around the world. And we are abusing that opportunity we've been given just because we think, well, they're probably handling it okay. Or the mentality is I don't want to be someone else's problem.

I don't want to be that guy. That's the other thing that creeps up is the easiest way not to be that guy is I'm going to eliminate myself from the process. That's not the case at all. It shouldn't be the go-to, but that's also kind of the double-edged sword of military service is you've been taught kind of that for so long. That's the easiest way to kind of eliminate that problem. But again, that's where we haven't.

we haven't embraced as much as we should that camaraderie of taking that uniform off and knowing you've got someone that's always going to be there no matter what. You were talking about the World War II vets you just had on. Yep. 99 years old. Yep, 99. Still dying now. Dying now. Our boys. It's such a special thing that we have that so many people that haven't worn the uniform...

That's... Brian's like... That was the part I was okay with. Brian's like, I'm so comfortable. Thank you. Thank you. Take that away from me. I lift this burden and I bring him back. Do you know who you're talking to? Added two years back to my life. Clint, do you know who you're fucking talking to? You stand a parade rest when you rub his back. I thought it was a parade attention for this one.

He's like, hold here. Hold on. Sorry, Brandon. I love you. And again, if Eli stopped doing those, I would think he hated me. There we go. We got to bully our friends, man. Yep. Whenever I was going through anything kind of rough, I would always say, oh, no, as long as I'm joking about something, you guys have nothing to worry about. Oh, yeah. That is a very true statement. If you guys are like, huh, look.

Hey, dog. What's up? What's going on? We good? What's going on? America Warrior Partnership out of Augusta, Georgia. AWP.org is our website. One of the cool things we've done is our partnership with Duke University. We've been doing a study for the last eight years. We're getting into the States because what we end up wanting to do is

is to figure out where kind of the red flags are. And instead of going to fish for veterans that might be at high risk, hey, call the hotline. We want to go hunt for them because the veteran that's committing suicide in Florida doesn't look like the veteran that's committing suicide in California. And when we can kind of start breaking down the data, we're seeing...

Every veteran is unique kind of geographically and everyone needs to be addressed in a different way. And it comes back to building that relationship long before ideal ideations happen. Give you an example. We've been, we've been doing this study in,

For eight years, Florida is one of our biggest case studies. The veteran that's taking their life in Miami is typically a veteran that served four years, non-combat MOS that's been out less than 10 years, and they're dying from drug overdose.

It is wild because we have a higher percentage of people that were non-combat MOSs taking the lives than individuals in combat, right? Yep. And what do you think that is? I actually have no idea because I just read that the other day. It was a weird statistic. Part of that is the psychology of they didn't do anything. That one. Yep.

They didn't contribute. They missed their time. They just, they were there in service support, not direct action. Really do feel like I need this microphone over on your side now. I was just feeling like you, maybe you earned that microphone. Cody closed that beautiful episode out before we do the after show. Bye.

Thank you for joining the unsubscribe podcast. I was joined today by Eli Double Tap, Clint Romanche, Brandon Herrera, myself, Don and Operator. Catch us on the unscribe after show on Patreon. Clint, where do we find you? Or not find you because you never use social media. Minot, North Dakota. I've been known for playing pull tabs and bingo at the Ranger Bar on Mondays at 8 o'clock. That's that.

Let's fucking go. Mwah! Mwah!

Oh, oh, oh.