Jocko Podcast 148 w/ Echo Charles: "Valleys Of Death", by Bill Richardson

2018-10-24T21:18:42Z

Join the conversation on Twitter/Instagram: @jockowillink @echocharles 0:00:00 - Opening 0:04:29 - "Valleys Of Death: Memoirs of The Korean War", by Bill Richardson Buy the Book here: https://amzn.to/2PSpdev 2:58:49 - Final Thoughts and take-aways. 3:13:32 - How to Stay on THE PATH. 3:42:58 - Closing Gratitude.

AI summary of episode

Imagine if I said, you know, I'm a little bit like, oh, I'm a little bit like, oh, I'm like, you know, I mean, decent work, you know, not exactly eye grabbing though. yeah because I would think but as far as potential problems you might run into like you know how like on the other ones like you can I get you can relate so you know kind of what to say about it you know and you know we have to remember that we all have dragons to fight so and also remember that this book is coming out on jockel publishing why is that the big publishers couldn't get it out in time for kids to have for Christmas that's what I once I had the book in my mind I wanted kids to have it by Christmas and the big publishers couldn't make it happen because they're big you know they got a lot of moving pieces we're nimble over here you know we're nimble so since they couldn't get it out time I had to kind of like they're a big dragon that's what they are so we got special operations and combat aviators that are ready to go out and do work and we're putting them into companies that need leaders so if you got a company or if you're a vet spec ops or combat aviation go to EF Overwatch and you can get in the game there and if you want to continue this conversation that we're kind of having right now you know it's been kind of a long conversation but if you want to keep it going you can find us on the in a webs on Twitter on Instagram and on Facebook keepo echo is that echo Charles and I am at jockel willink and thanks to all of you for making this podcast possible by all of you I mean first of all the military who protects our way of life and who sacrifice so much for our freedom and our security and here at home police law enforcement firefighters paramedics EMTs correction officers border patrols first responders you know who you are those of you in uniform thank you for your service in protecting us here at home and everyone that listens. Like a lot of the time, like, oh, you know, I, you know, my girl broke up with, I don't know, whatever. and it does help what what does about say about I feel bad because one night this was like two nights ago um she got this new unicorn book kids book I don't know where she got it from school or something like this Because that's the kind of thing that you think about like, like, we know the world sometimes seems like it's having a joke with you. And also, you can, you know, one of the parts in that's encompassed, and that is like, oh, you can actually have fun and keep your sense of humor when you're going through these terrible situations, which people ask me that all the time, like, don't you, do you think it's important to have a sense of humor? so he reads the book and in the book the dragon prints there's the king his dead and the boy is now the only one that will defend the kingdom from the dragons that are over the hill in the dragon cave and the boy is scared because he only seven years old and there's no one he's going to do goes and finds his father's war chest pulls out the shield pulls out the sword they're too big for him and now he's even more scared but then he sees a note in the bottom of the war chest and he picks up the note and here's what it says after he finds this note it says to my son if you are reading this now it means I am gone and you are the one that must carry on our kingdom is now what you must save and to do that you have to be brave I know that you think you don't know what to do but remember that I was once a little boy too That's like a little, a little, like I just a little sub note, a little PS, a little post script. right I'm giving you this information you're you get to flank your kid because your kids aren't going to listen to you not 100% they'll listen to you a little bit but that listen to someone that they some some other person that seems like kind of tough you know that they want to listen to Uncle Jake Uncle Jake starts telling them what to do and they're down totally done and so I had to kind of like stand up to the dragons and we can stand up to the dragons in our own right with this with this book so if you want to help fight the dragons then grab a sword or at least grab a copy and together we'll say the dragons you know also we got Ashlan front leaders of consultancy that's what we do we solve problems through leadership it's me and I kind of evaluate I was like this is a good picture because as like all the kettle the you know the sad it kind of scattered about you framed it out but then he gets the courage to read it because he sees a little boy in there too that kind of looks like he knows what's going on so he sees that little boy he goes how I'm going to read it Yeah, so this is like, you got to sit around, you got to imagine what this is like, that they are the Chinese attackers are literally stacked and piled on top of one another. Because like you know it's like go time the whole time. Like they like exactly like quick does because that quick less faces isn't really that great but the strawberry quick is great. Google Play Stitcher and then leave a little review action so we can have a good time with it also don't forget about the war your kid podcast the warrior kid podcast you can ask kids ask questions to uncle jake and uncle jake tell stories about when he was a kid and where he got his way from where he where he uncovered the way also got the warrior kid so from irish oaks ranch dot com a den's up there he's taken advantage of life It's actually an awesome thing because you can feel like you can, I don't know, to me it didn't feel like I was moving slow. That's like get back on the horse, you know the old saying, like you got to get back on the horse. Like, I'm marked, you know, like, today, I felt better than I felt this whole time. There's many, many apps on your phone that you can be like, hey, I want a triple burger double cheese bacon, bacon avocado and you know what I'm going to grill the onions and I'm going to need that the grass fed. Because I'm thinking, hey, if this guy gets encouraged, he's going to be like, I'm going to do a little bit more, right? It's not like you're going to be like, oh, you're always going to remember. and really I mean a sane it makes it sound like oh like almost more dangerous than a really my point is go on there and look at the workouts first I know just because I've never done it I want you to be like, oh man, I could work a little bit more and work a little bit harder and discipline myself a little bit better. 18 pounds how much do you wait I don't know 18 pounds seems a little like it was like he did it easy and then you got psychological warfare little little album with some tracks to kind of help you push through some of those moments of weakness where you're thinking you just want to eat that donut you don't need to no just don't need to so that'll help you out and we're also making a second psychological warfare album and if you want that then you can uh if you want to if you want if you have a special request for that should I do some stop smoking cigarettes I've never smoked cigarettes I think you should And so the same thing's going on here you got fire flight going on at night you got troops moving around and these guys are getting lit up by their own men. I'm not trying to sound like, hey, I want to die or troops on the front line or like, yeah, And now now I was talking to Brian and Brian's got people are like notifying him that they're getting like the nostalgic memories of drinking Nestle's quick because that's when we're at the strawberry one. so those books will help kids get on the path teach me about this one teach them about hard work teach them about eating right teach them about study habits teach about taking responsibility it's like everything that a kid needs to know to be quite honest whether well this is and this is kind of mean We're the kind of, like, really, really like this, you know. I don't know if there's much, I don't know if it can get much worse than the situation that he was in right there and realizing that his mind was a strength realizing that he had no other way to defend, but his mind had to be strong and he had that little split second thought that he could give up and just let it all go. yeah like if I's all threatened I had no chapter tonight you know she scrambles to you know it's falling line So how we're going to get into a worse situation on this little random little Asian country, Little peninsula, like this won't be a factor. but I don't know I think that's the whole thing that's a whole different game I'm not already done like it's you know I don't want to have to like hit the head in the middle of the speech because I drink like a bottle of water right before I went out there. That, you know, no, like if you get it's not like enressing if you wear gold shoes and rest. yeah this one equals freedom field manual so that book is a good you know what this book's gonna be good for Christmas I know it's only what thanksgiving uh Like sometimes people would be like, hey, I got beat up for, for I don't have. so I'm going to send something like Australia in the winter so keep that on the down low of the year but every every monster we've done is sold out and these are going to sell out too so check extra mornishup.com if you want to get into that game of course now we also have EF Overwatch big subject lots of people The seal teams is like, okay, like we're going to take this amount of casualties. Little kids are like, well, like, kind of surprised if you tell them that. So if you're constantly under the, kind of stress, yeah, the stress of like bullet and all this stuff, it's like you're what it, what you call yourself, preservation. and if you while you're in the subscribe mode then also subscribe to the the youtube channel the jacco podcast youtube channel if you want to see echoes videos which he puts all kinds of time and effort into real super he gets super things but crazy about it it makes everything explode and and and sometimes reflecting off of things and music cello music so that's on the youtube channel and we got some other things planned for the youtube channel coming shortly coming quickly we'll see you know quickly it's really a word that we used a lot back in Hawaii and they were laughing they were laughing at these terrified prisoners and the only didn't like that at the time the master sergeant he didn't like that so he yelled he yelled get up don't let them laugh at you get up And then the other thing is if you notice the fear, he's saying that he didn't have time to be afraid, which is definitely something I felt where like once rounds are being shot, you're not thinking, oh, I'm going to get shot. Illuminating rounds from our mortar section soon lit up the area like a bull park, making the North Korean soldiers look like silhouettes on a firing range. yeah definitely you should have rings if you don't have rings you get them you see I said in my opinion like I just know about the even though you were preaching rings from day one now I'm signed on to the ring how's the big stability while still there's stable bad there's stable overstable So you know, when he gets that, like he gets, you know, I can't even believe, just so everyone knows we are in no stretch of the any sort of imagination.

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Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jocco podcast number 148 with echo Charles and me, Jocco Willink. Good evening, echo. Good evening.
[00:00:10] I'm 19. I'm 20 November 1950. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, I regret that I must confirm my recent telegram in which you were informed that your son, Master Sergeant William J. Richardson infantry, has been reported missing an action in Korea since two November 1950.
[00:00:36] I know that added distress is caused by failure to receive any more information or details.
[00:00:44] Therefore, I wish to assure you that at any time additional information is received, it will be transmitted to you without delay.
[00:00:54] The term missing in action is used only to indicate that the whereabouts or status of an individual is not immediately known.
[00:01:06] It is not intended to convey the impression that the case is closed.
[00:01:11] I wish to emphasize that every effort is exerted continuously to clear up the status of our personnel. Under battle conditions, this is a difficult task as you must readily realize.
[00:01:26] Experiences shown that many persons reported missing an action are subsequently reported as returned to duty or being hospitalized for injuries.
[00:01:39] In order to relieve financial worry on the part of the dependence of military personnel being carried in a missing in action status,
[00:01:47] Congress enacted legislation which continues the pay allowance and allotments of such persons until their status is definitely established.
[00:01:59] Permit me to extend to you my heartfelt sympathy during this period of uncertainty, sincerely yours Edward F. Whitsell, major general, US Army.
[00:02:21] So obviously that is a letter from the government about a missing soldier, this missing soldier in this case is William Richardson and William Richardson or Bill Richardson, who was a part of that whole melee that unfolded in the beginning of the Korean war.
[00:02:45] In the 8th Army, he was caught off from the rest of coalition forces and many of those that got caught off as that retreat took place.
[00:02:56] Many Americans and South Koreans as well were captured, were killed or otherwise they were somehow lost or missing.
[00:03:06] This guy, Bill Richardson was one of those men, one of those men that went missing and clearly from this letter his parents were notified about that and he wrote a book on these experiences that he went through the book is called Valese of death a memoir of the Korean war.
[00:03:32] He actually has that letter from the army to his parents inside the book which is a pretty shocking thing to see.
[00:03:41] And you know these days they with with the current way they notify they send people to your house.
[00:03:48] But I can't even imagine that the old days when you just get a telegram or a letter that shows up and says that your your son's been missing for three weeks or four weeks or whatever the case may be.
[00:04:00] But this book, I definitely, there's the combat in this book is out of hand and you're going to see that pretty quick.
[00:04:09] And like every other book that we review on here obviously I can't read the whole thing.
[00:04:15] But definitely this book is worth getting Valese of death a memoir of the Korean war written by Colonel William or Bill Richardson.
[00:04:25] And it's a phenomenal book so with that let's dive right into it.
[00:04:34] He lays out a little bit of his perspective writing the book here in the in the preface of the book and here we go.
[00:04:43] This is not a history of the Korean war.
[00:04:45] It is a down dirty look at some of the soldiers who five years before had experienced combat in the second world war.
[00:04:52] It is the story of the men they would lead a new generation of courageous young soldiers in what would be the last true infantry war.
[00:05:02] The heroes of this story are the young men of the third battalion, eight cavalry regiment and in particular the men of the weapons platoon of L company.
[00:05:13] Most of them died.
[00:05:16] The story is told through my own eyes. I've made a strong attempt to avoid adding to the story what others have said or what I have learned over the last 57 years.
[00:05:30] But there are few truths that are undeniable.
[00:05:34] Korea was a war that neither the country nor the military was ready for and we paid a high price for a lack of readiness.
[00:05:47] The disaster at U-Son written about in this book was caused by a lapse of leadership from the highest echelon down to the battalion level.
[00:05:52] Mistakes we paid for with the blood of the most heroic men.
[00:05:59] I have ever known.
[00:06:02] And when we covered Chester Pillar he talked a lot about that about the lack of readiness.
[00:06:09] And if you remember the Marine Corps throwing together battalions to try and get over there.
[00:06:15] And that was the whole country that was doing this.
[00:06:18] And in the beginning of this book he talks about he kind of introduces the characters that he was with.
[00:06:26] He talks about some of the training that they had been through.
[00:06:29] He was part of a squad that fired the 57 they called it, which is a recoil of rifle.
[00:06:35] The M-18.
[00:06:37] It's a 57 millimeter recoil of rifle.
[00:06:41] It basically looks like a bazooka kind of your traditional.
[00:06:44] If you're in your mind you picture the bazooka.
[00:06:47] That's sort of what it looks like.
[00:06:48] And there's a bunch of different variations of the bazooka.
[00:06:50] And this is sort of one of them.
[00:06:53] And in this point when we pick up the book he's kind of gone through that.
[00:06:57] And they actually are now heading on to California on their way to war.
[00:07:02] So you know he covers the kick off of the war and what that was like in him kind of getting back in the game.
[00:07:09] And here we go.
[00:07:11] They're heading to California to get on a ship to go to Korea for the war.
[00:07:16] Back to the book.
[00:07:17] There was a gravity to it.
[00:07:19] We were on the doorstep of war.
[00:07:21] We all knew it and wanted to be disciplined because when the bullet started.
[00:07:26] The discipline could be the difference between life and death.
[00:07:31] That is indeed true.
[00:07:34] Continuing.
[00:07:35] The war in Korea had reached a crisis level.
[00:07:38] American and South Korean units were fighting for their lives.
[00:07:41] They'd been swept from the 38th parallel and quickly forced out of Seoul.
[00:07:46] The North Korean swept South towards Busan.
[00:07:49] A port on the eastern tip of the Korean peninsula.
[00:07:53] Now our troops were making their last stand along the Natong River in the west.
[00:07:58] And a line north of the Taegu reaching east to the sea of Japan.
[00:08:04] And they were heading on the US troop transport ship called the Pope, which had just been taken out of mobballs.
[00:08:12] If you don't know this, they take old ships.
[00:08:15] When they're not needed.
[00:08:17] They put them up.
[00:08:18] Well, they put them in a couple places around the country.
[00:08:21] But they put them up and they called it Mothballs.
[00:08:24] And then they just leave these big old ships sitting there.
[00:08:27] If they ever are needed again, they can pull them out and kind of get them up to speed.
[00:08:32] So that's what the Pope was.
[00:08:33] It was a vessel that was pulled out of Mothballs.
[00:08:35] And now it was getting ready to sail overseas.
[00:08:38] And these guys get on.
[00:08:40] And the head overseas.
[00:08:42] And then back to the book after eight days on board on board the ship.
[00:08:45] Words spread that we were getting close to Japan.
[00:08:47] We do another month of training before landing in Korea.
[00:08:51] We crowded along the rail looking at the shorelights in the distance.
[00:08:55] The water made the lights from the city look like stars.
[00:08:59] It's Yokohama and we're headed right for it.
[00:09:02] I heard a soldier say.
[00:09:04] Suddenly the ship started slowly turning to the starboard.
[00:09:09] And running south, parallel to the shore.
[00:09:13] I didn't think much of it.
[00:09:15] But the next morning we were informed that we were going straight to Korea.
[00:09:21] There you go.
[00:09:25] That's the way the military works sometimes.
[00:09:28] You're thinking to go train for an extra month and have a little bit more time to prepare for combat.
[00:09:32] And all of a sudden that time's gone.
[00:09:34] And you're going straight into the combat scenario.
[00:09:38] So that's why everyone out there in the military don't wait till tomorrow to train.
[00:09:44] It's not going to come or it may not come.
[00:09:48] So they pull into this port and puisson.
[00:09:51] Back to the boat the smell was unbearable.
[00:09:54] The water around the docked docked puisson was black and slick with oil and sewage.
[00:09:59] Two docks up from where we were was a cattle holding area.
[00:10:03] And when they cleaned the pens they just hoseed everything into the water.
[00:10:07] The punching odor hit us as we approached the pier.
[00:10:10] Most of the guys stayed below out of the smell, but I stayed on the deck mesmerized by the port.
[00:10:17] The 8th Army had established a perimeter to hold off the Koreans people.
[00:10:22] The Korean people's army until enough troops could arrive and organize a counter offensive.
[00:10:28] Set up in August.
[00:10:30] The perimeter's western boundary was formed mostly by the Naktong River.
[00:10:36] The North Koreans crossed the Naktong River.
[00:10:41] And then he says, I know one thing, if you're defending a river and the enemy is on your side, you're in trouble.
[00:10:50] That evening after another dinner of sea rations, I got the section together.
[00:10:55] This is his little section of troops that he's running. He's in charge of.
[00:10:59] And here's what he tells him.
[00:11:01] Everyone in check is gear one more time. We're moving to an assembly area north of the Tegu first thing in the morning.
[00:11:08] And take a moment to write home. You never know when you'll get another chance.
[00:11:14] And that's one of those things that that can be predatory heavy statement when he's saying that.
[00:11:22] And I'll tell you when you're in that situation.
[00:11:24] If you're especially if you're young, at least in my situation.
[00:11:28] If someone would've told me that when I was 19 years old, I would've been fired up.
[00:11:32] And that's just the way it is.
[00:11:35] Yeah, I guess some people think it's crazy to think that way.
[00:11:40] But I'm telling you, there's a whole group of human beings in the world that they have a little genetic makeup that makes them want to go to war.
[00:11:50] And so when you get told, hey, you know, write your last letter home.
[00:11:55] You're actually pretty fired up about it.
[00:11:59] Again, I know that sounds completely crazy.
[00:12:02] And even thing is he was a little bit older.
[00:12:05] So I think for him, he had more gravity for him than it did for his boys.
[00:12:11] The other thing is, I think it's hard for them to have recognized, even though they read it in news, like how bad it was.
[00:12:18] And we've heard this from other people too. We've heard this from other people.
[00:12:21] Like you always think it's not going to be you, right?
[00:12:24] They're going to be me that gets killed. It's not going to be me.
[00:12:27] That's not going to happen to me.
[00:12:28] So you have that little thing in your brain too.
[00:12:30] We just think it won't happen to you.
[00:12:33] So you aren't that concerned about it.
[00:12:36] And the other thing is like, you know, you just got done with World War II, where all this heavy combat.
[00:12:44] And guess what?
[00:12:45] We were back to back World War Champions.
[00:12:47] Right?
[00:12:48] America was back to back World War Champions.
[00:12:50] So how we're going to get into a worse situation on this little random little Asian country,
[00:12:55] Little peninsula, like this won't be a factor.
[00:12:58] So you had to have that in your head a little bit. You had to do.
[00:13:01] I don't think they recognized how serious the situation was, even though they were saying it.
[00:13:06] My point is that even though you're getting told, hey, this is a dire situation.
[00:13:10] And we're holding up a perimeter to try and wait for more troops to arrive.
[00:13:14] So we can actually do a counter offensive.
[00:13:16] Even though you hear that, you're like, all right, let's know big deal.
[00:13:19] We'll handle it.
[00:13:20] In my mind, again, I'm trying to transpose a 19-year-old brain on this situation.
[00:13:25] All right, go back to the book.
[00:13:28] The trains to take you left just after noon.
[00:13:31] I heard a few cheers as the train picked up momentum.
[00:13:34] So there you go.
[00:13:35] I'm right.
[00:13:36] Right?
[00:13:37] The train is heading to combat.
[00:13:38] Where do the boys doing?
[00:13:39] They're cheering.
[00:13:41] The train lumbering down the track for a while and then stopped at a sighting.
[00:13:46] Word came back that we were near the assembly area, but had to make way for a hospital train, headed south.
[00:13:53] The train carrying the wounded stop for a few moments, and we could see the soldiers inside.
[00:14:00] I.V. bags hung next to litters.
[00:14:03] Men with bandaged arms, legs, and heads lined the cars.
[00:14:09] The few walking wounded stared out the windows.
[00:14:13] The wounded Americans had dark depressing eyes and a vacant stare.
[00:14:20] A few of our guys tried to pass them cigarettes and candy from the window, but they didn't react.
[00:14:27] They just stared into space.
[00:14:32] So there's your reality check.
[00:14:35] That's what we're heading for.
[00:14:37] And that's a little wake-up call.
[00:14:39] They got out at the, there was cheers when the train rolled north again.
[00:14:44] And they go from trains eventually.
[00:14:47] They get off trains and next up is they're getting into some troop transport trucks.
[00:14:51] And here we go back to the book.
[00:14:52] As the trucks rumbled forward, we can see American troops moving south down the road.
[00:14:57] They looked like ghosts, frail with torn and dirty uniforms.
[00:15:01] Their black eyes didn't even register as we passed.
[00:15:05] They had the infantry men's thousand yard stare.
[00:15:08] They were lost.
[00:15:10] Gone.
[00:15:12] We were operating under Lieutenant General Walton H.
[00:15:15] Walkers standing order to stand or die.
[00:15:19] Walker, the 8th Army commander, had issued the order in July before we derived.
[00:15:26] And here's the quote from General Walker.
[00:15:30] We are fighting a battle against time.
[00:15:33] There will be no more retreating withdrawal or readjustment of the lines or any other term you choose.
[00:15:41] There is no line behind us to which we can retreat.
[00:15:44] There will be no Dunkirk.
[00:15:46] There will be no Baton.
[00:15:49] A retreat to Pusan would be one of the greatest butcharies in history.
[00:15:54] We must fight until the end.
[00:15:56] We will fight as a team.
[00:15:58] If some of us must die, we will die fighting together.
[00:16:02] I want everybody to understand we are going to hold this line.
[00:16:10] We are going to win.
[00:16:15] Now that's a heavy statement.
[00:16:18] And if you know a little bit of the background about this, Walker General Walker was in World War I and World War II and now he's in Korea.
[00:16:27] And you had MacArthur at the time who was in Japan who was basically saying, hey look, I don't care.
[00:16:34] You can hold the line.
[00:16:35] You're going to hold the line.
[00:16:36] Even though Walker was thinking, hey, I need massive support.
[00:16:41] I don't know if we can pull this off.
[00:16:44] And the order came and he was like, okay.
[00:16:47] And you know what, I mean, I talk about this if you're getting that command, you can't come down and say,
[00:16:53] oh, MacArthur is telling us that we got a but I don't think we can do it. No, he's like, okay, that's what we're going to do our best to do.
[00:16:58] Now, as you actually study what unfolded, eventually he held it as long as he could and then he started to
[00:17:04] tactically retreat to the best of his ability.
[00:17:06] And so he sort of compromised.
[00:17:10] He didn't just state it, didn't stand against slaughter.
[00:17:13] So he eventually made a more organized retreat that he could.
[00:17:17] But still, the eighth arm he was on the run, if you remember this time, this is when
[00:17:20] the Marines were trying to hold the line as well. So it was a very hard situation.
[00:17:26] Going back to the book, thick black smoke rose in a steady stream on the other side of the horizon.
[00:17:31] I could see only a few of the squat huts, but the valley and ridges had thick,
[00:17:36] scraggly bushes, which made it very difficult to see any movement.
[00:17:40] Suddenly, artillery shells and mortar rounds crashed down around us.
[00:17:44] We dove into ditches that line the road and waited for the barrage to end.
[00:17:48] I waved to my section and got them together before we moved out toward the outscore
[00:17:52] to the village.
[00:17:54] A smoky haze with a pungent smell of gunpowder hung over us as we started moving forward.
[00:17:59] I could feel my heart beating and my breath came quickly, almost like I was running.
[00:18:04] But it wasn't nerves.
[00:18:06] It was adrenaline.
[00:18:08] My body was on fire, popping with energy.
[00:18:11] Back on the road, a North Korean machine gun to our right open fire.
[00:18:16] I could see tracer rounds in almost slow motion, dashing into the line of man ahead of me.
[00:18:21] The soldiers ducked and dove out of the way as the rounds bitten to the dirt around them.
[00:18:26] Time is a strange thing in combat.
[00:18:29] Sometimes it moves so fast that you cannot believe it and other times it is moving so slowly that you could scream.
[00:18:36] We dove into the dirt and pressed ourselves flat against the ground.
[00:18:40] Maca B and Maca B at this time is the company commander started moving the other potunes toward the guns while my section,
[00:18:48] part of the weapons platoon, provided supporting fire.
[00:18:51] So there you go. They set up a little cover move.
[00:18:54] This was real combat.
[00:18:56] All of my fears seemed so far away now.
[00:18:59] I didn't have time to worry about how I'd react.
[00:19:03] I just had to act.
[00:19:05] Turning back towards Walsh's gun, I yelled for him to get in position and start firing at the machine.
[00:19:09] Walsh nodded and started calling to his men.
[00:19:12] Like veterans they ignored the machine gun fire and got the gun up and got ready.
[00:19:17] Put some fire on that hill I shouted pointing toward the North Korean gunners with my hand.
[00:19:22] Walsh pointed out the machine gun position and go as the assistant gunner loaded around and
[00:19:27] Hall cited in the gun and fired.
[00:19:29] My section fired.
[00:19:31] It's first shot of the war.
[00:19:34] So a couple key things that I liked about this paragraph of, you know, he talks about time and the weird things that time
[00:19:41] does during combat.
[00:19:42] And that happens during any really stressful situation where you become a hyper sensitive to what's happening.
[00:19:50] And with the way it appears, the way it feels is that time is actually slowing down.
[00:19:54] I think the first time that I ever experienced that was in a car crash, not a bad car crash,
[00:19:58] but I was in a car crash.
[00:20:00] And it seemed like things were moving in slow motion and I wasn't driving.
[00:20:04] I was just a passenger, but I was, that's the first time I ever felt it.
[00:20:08] And then the other thing I see you can be expecting that, be expecting if you're going in a combat that you might have that slow motion.
[00:20:16] It's actually an awesome thing because you can feel like you can, I don't know,
[00:20:20] to me it didn't feel like I was moving slow.
[00:20:23] It always felt like things were moving slow and I could still, it gave me more time to react.
[00:20:28] It's like if you're doing Gigiitsu and you're opponent was moving slow motion.
[00:20:32] But even though you weren't even though you couldn't move faster than them, you could see it and react to it properly.
[00:20:38] Does that make sense?
[00:20:40] And then the other thing is if you notice the fear, he's saying that he didn't have time to be afraid,
[00:20:46] which is definitely something I felt where like once rounds are being shot, you're not thinking,
[00:20:50] oh, I'm going to get shot. You're thinking, okay, we need to get a mind, we need to peel right.
[00:20:54] We need to make a call as opposed to.
[00:20:56] And one of that that's based on in my opinion is training.
[00:21:00] And if you train properly, then you just react. That's just, that's just what happens.
[00:21:04] And this is why, and you heard me say this at the, at the masterminds talking about like from a self defense perspective.
[00:21:09] It's for females that are doing Gigiitsu for the first time I'm like, hey, if you've never done Gigiitsu before,
[00:21:14] you're about to see that this is about as intimate as a sport.
[00:21:20] Or, or this about as intimate as an activity, you can possibly engage in.
[00:21:25] Without actually taking it to the next level, right? Without actually having without being married to the other person, right?
[00:21:34] So, and that's the thing. If you get used to that, you get used to somebody grinding on,
[00:21:40] you get used to someone grabbing you and you want you get used to it, then you don't have to deal with that in the moment,
[00:21:45] because you are not dealing with it. You can just react.
[00:21:47] So it's the same thing here. These guys have trained really hard.
[00:21:50] And so now once this situation is unfolding, what they're doing is just reacting to it.
[00:21:54] As they should. They're not sitting there panicking and getting, getting to it.
[00:21:59] Not that everyone's going to be like that, because you will have some people that will immediately get that,
[00:22:04] that fighter flight, and they might roll into the flight scenario for getting down and hiding.
[00:22:08] And so you might have to deal with that a little bit, but be ready for any of those reactions.
[00:22:14] So now the first, once they get through this first big kind of firefight going on,
[00:22:19] now we're going back to the book. The guys were digging in.
[00:22:21] I told them to set up the guns, but we'd be covering our section with rifles that night.
[00:22:25] We were all wired after our first firefight, and it was good that we had something to do.
[00:22:30] I was happy to see that everybody was digging in with a sense of urgency.
[00:22:34] I was worried about our open flank to the right.
[00:22:38] I ordered the section to dig in some positions facing to the right, in case we had to occupy them.
[00:22:43] When we were done, I told my guys to eat and rest while they got with Walsh and Gray.
[00:22:49] The word is the North Koreans were attacking that night.
[00:22:54] So the most of the, you'll see throughout this book that the North Koreans and then eventually the Chinese,
[00:23:03] they do their attacks during the night. That's what they do. That's how they roll.
[00:23:06] They're, they're, if you remember, even T Fred Harvey was talking about,
[00:23:10] and when he was doing the island happening, op and campaign,
[00:23:13] they was Americans moving in the day, and then at night, the Japanese would attack.
[00:23:17] So similar situation here. Now it's actually the opposite against the enemy,
[00:23:21] because we have, you know, we have night vision capability, so we have a huge advantage at night.
[00:23:25] So that's when we normally work in. And, and in the SEAL teams, that's the way,
[00:23:29] that's the way we always worked. We always worked at night.
[00:23:32] Now when we got to Ramadhi, you know, it was a lot of daytime fighting.
[00:23:35] We had to fight in the day, but the preferred thing is to fight at night.
[00:23:39] And that goes back to the seals in Vietnam.
[00:23:41] And if you remember, Roger Hayden, I think it was Roger Hayden,
[00:23:46] was saying when they were going out at night, no one else was going out at night.
[00:23:50] It was just like seals who go out at night, but other than that, it was only the vehicle
[00:23:54] that were going out at night and the NVA.
[00:23:57] But friendly forces just seals. And I know there's other, there's other ones,
[00:24:01] but he was saying early on, it was them.
[00:24:04] So now the attack comes. Here we go back to the book.
[00:24:08] The attack started with a gutterl scream.
[00:24:11] The North Koreans came out of the brush in waves. We could see them moving towards us like shadows.
[00:24:17] Muzzle flashes exploded out of the darkness.
[00:24:20] There was very little aimed fire.
[00:24:23] Instead, we were firing straight ahead and into their assigned zones.
[00:24:28] Soon, screams came from our wounded.
[00:24:32] Join the chorus of battle cries, orders, and machine guns.
[00:24:37] Illuminating rounds from our mortar section soon lit up the area like a bull park,
[00:24:42] making the North Korean soldiers look like silhouettes on a firing range.
[00:24:46] We dropped several before the flare burned out.
[00:24:50] Since the rounds were in short supply, the mortar's weighted several minutes between rounds.
[00:24:55] During a lull, I could hear one of the engineers to our left screaming in pain
[00:25:01] and calling for his mother.
[00:25:03] His sobbs and screams for help landed harder than the North Korean artillery shells.
[00:25:10] Finally, private zones, one of my young smartasses had heard enough.
[00:25:16] He started to yell and scream.
[00:25:19] I covered walls as he scrambled out to Jones.
[00:25:23] He was on the bottom of Hall's hole crying.
[00:25:27] Walls tried to get him up but he wouldn't move.
[00:25:29] I climbed out and helped Walls drag Jones' ass out of the foxhole.
[00:25:33] You stay with Hall. I told Walls.
[00:25:35] Snatching Jones by his shirt collar, I stumbled with him back to my foxhole.
[00:25:39] He crawled in and huddled against the wall sobbing.
[00:25:42] He couldn't talk even when I asked him a simple question.
[00:25:46] His body heaved with every sob.
[00:25:48] The engineer had finally stopped screaming and now in an ever-dest-revoiced pleaded for someone to come get him.
[00:25:55] Staying your holes, I barked.
[00:26:00] I was sure the North Koreans were lying in wait hoping someone would try and get him.
[00:26:06] God I wish he would just die.
[00:26:11] That fought sent a joke through me.
[00:26:15] Jesus Christ, I didn't really mean that, that poor son of a bitch.
[00:26:20] My only thought now was, please God, bring the daylight soon.
[00:26:26] When the sun's rays finally peaked over the horizon, we started getting the wounded off the hill.
[00:26:38] So, there you go, like I said, there's some people that are not going to react well.
[00:26:45] And you got this kid Jones that can't handle us situation.
[00:26:50] He's done. He's done. What is this night, too? He's done.
[00:26:55] And obviously it doesn't help when you've got to warn of your wounded guys out just ahead of you.
[00:27:00] And he's screaming for help and crying for help.
[00:27:05] And you can't do anything.
[00:27:06] And the order from Richardson, which is, you know, staying your holes.
[00:27:11] And again, this is the same exact thing that T-Fread Harvey talked about when they captured one of his guys.
[00:27:17] And they, the Japanese sat and tortured him.
[00:27:20] It sounded like 30, 40 meters away.
[00:27:22] They tortured this guy the whole night.
[00:27:25] And the whole night T-Fread Harvey's, you know, leaders were saying,
[00:27:29] Stay in your hole, stay in your holes, we're staying.
[00:27:32] What a, what a, what a nightmare that is.
[00:27:42] Back to the book, Walls grabbed me. And here's what Walls says,
[00:27:46] Search, black lost it. He's crying. He's hugging a tree and will not respond to me.
[00:27:51] Black, I didn't know him very well.
[00:27:54] He was one of the company's problem children. He'd gotten drunk after a unit picnic at four devons in the military police.
[00:28:00] It locked him up for being drunk and disorderly.
[00:28:03] This incident confirmed that what I thought already, black was going to be a constant problem.
[00:28:09] I put him in Walls' squad and we both kept on his ass making sure he was doing the right thing.
[00:28:15] When I got to black, he was wrapped around a tree like a vine.
[00:28:19] Every time a shell landed nearby, he began shaking and crying.
[00:28:23] No talking was going to help. I just wanted to get him away from the rest of the men.
[00:28:29] The section had fought well, but after listening to the engineer all night, they had their own nerves to contend with.
[00:28:40] That made two men within 24 hours.
[00:28:44] If this continued, I would lose the whole section to fear instead of the enemy.
[00:28:52] Two guys can't send him to the rear because he can't do anything with this guy.
[00:28:59] That's a tough call to make.
[00:29:01] If I send this guy to the rear, how is that going to affect everyone else on the team?
[00:29:04] Everyone else on the team is going to be thinking, oh, all I need to do is cry and scream and I'll save my ass.
[00:29:11] So, you know, in my opinion, if you're in these situations, I think if you're scared to die, it's going to be a problem.
[00:29:24] If you're scared to die, it's going to be a problem.
[00:29:27] If you basically accept the fact that you could die and you're okay with that, that's how you...
[00:29:35] To me, that's the difference between these two guys and everyone else.
[00:29:39] They want to die, no, I'm not saying they want to die, but they recognize they can die and they're okay with it.
[00:29:46] Maybe okay with this strong word, they accept it.
[00:29:50] I should say they accept it.
[00:29:51] Whereas these two guys are scared and if you're scared to die, then I think this is the kind of thing that happens.
[00:29:58] Obviously, if you're like, okay, you know what, there's a chance I could die.
[00:30:02] And that's the way it is.
[00:30:04] And I'm willing to take that chance and I'm going to do my best. Like, that's one attitude. The other attitude is, I don't want to die.
[00:30:11] And here I am in a situation where death is everywhere around me and that just closes in on your brain.
[00:30:18] Right?
[00:30:19] That just closes in on your brain. I can't imagine...
[00:30:23] I can't imagine how that would affect you psychologically.
[00:30:26] If you are scared of dying, and again, I don't want to...
[00:30:29] I'm not trying to sound like, hey, I want to die or troops on the front line or like, yeah, we don't care if we die.
[00:30:35] No, I'm not talking about that.
[00:30:37] But to be able to psychologically say, hey, look, I could die.
[00:30:41] That's one of the possible outcomes here.
[00:30:44] And okay, I get it.
[00:30:47] And I'm okay with that.
[00:30:49] That's different than being, I don't want to die out.
[00:30:52] If you're main goal is to not die and you're in a combat situation,
[00:30:56] especially a really, really violent, hardcore combat situation like this.
[00:31:00] This isn't going to work out good for you.
[00:31:02] At all.
[00:31:04] Yeah.
[00:31:05] It's like when I, you know, when I used to work with MMA fighters,
[00:31:08] if they were scared of getting knocked out,
[00:31:10] yeah.
[00:31:11] If that's what they were scared of, it's really hard to not be,
[00:31:14] to go into that cage with any level of confidence.
[00:31:16] Because you're scared of that one thing that might happen.
[00:31:18] It's the same thing here.
[00:31:19] If you're so scared of that one thing happening,
[00:31:22] that's going to possess your brain.
[00:31:24] Yeah.
[00:31:26] And even if you're,
[00:31:28] I don't know, if you're new to boxing or something.
[00:31:30] You know, and you,
[00:31:32] it's like you haven't accepted the fact that you're going to get hit.
[00:31:35] Yeah.
[00:31:36] So every time like someone even flint,
[00:31:38] you know,
[00:31:39] if they throw a faint,
[00:31:41] you're reacting to everything.
[00:31:43] So if you're constantly under the,
[00:31:45] kind of stress,
[00:31:47] yeah, the stress of like bullet and all this stuff,
[00:31:50] it's like you're what it, what you call yourself,
[00:31:52] preservation.
[00:31:53] Yeah.
[00:31:54] Uh, mechanism in your brain is just firing,
[00:31:57] firing, firing,
[00:31:58] and then after a while,
[00:31:59] that thing is just like gone,
[00:32:01] hey, why are you ready?
[00:32:02] Yeah.
[00:32:03] It's gone into overdrive.
[00:32:04] That's what's happening to these guys,
[00:32:05] man. It's horrible to see.
[00:32:07] Yeah.
[00:32:08] All right, back to the book.
[00:32:09] The smoke and dust still hung in the air
[00:32:11] when they attacked again.
[00:32:13] The first waves came with rifles.
[00:32:15] Behind them,
[00:32:16] more soldiers followed and picked up the weapons left by the dead.
[00:32:20] So that's a, that's a common battle plan we're,
[00:32:23] we're going to hear is then we've heard it before in,
[00:32:26] in other books about the Korean War.
[00:32:28] Hey, we're going to send the first wave.
[00:32:30] They're going to have rifles and magazines.
[00:32:32] The next wave is just going to come and pick up
[00:32:34] the dead guys gear and use that.
[00:32:37] So part of the plan is the guy's dying.
[00:32:39] Part of the plan is the part of the plan.
[00:32:41] Yeah.
[00:32:41] Yeah.
[00:32:41] Absolutely part of the plan.
[00:32:43] And not a small amount either,
[00:32:45] because you know,
[00:32:47] when you win the military,
[00:32:49] when you plan a big operation,
[00:32:51] you plan for casualties.
[00:32:53] And I can't say this about the seal teams.
[00:32:55] The seal teams is like, okay,
[00:32:57] like we're going to take this amount of casualties.
[00:32:58] The seal teams doesn't do that.
[00:32:59] We're not planning to take any casualties.
[00:33:01] But like you go with a big,
[00:33:03] a big division going in for a airborne drop in World War II.
[00:33:07] They were like, okay,
[00:33:08] 10% of these folks are going to be injured on the drop.
[00:33:12] Boom, that's it.
[00:33:13] So,
[00:33:14] yeah.
[00:33:15] And these guys are just saying,
[00:33:17] hey, we got whatever 300 guys attacking.
[00:33:20] We need about 70 guns or whatever that number is.
[00:33:25] Back to the book.
[00:33:26] Almost every attack the North Koreans tried to slip behind our lines
[00:33:29] and caught off our avenue of retreat.
[00:33:32] Once they did, they would pound our flanks.
[00:33:34] This time the North Korean soldiers charged up
[00:33:36] Hill right into the teeth of our machine guns.
[00:33:39] After the third attempt,
[00:33:41] they quit and we settled in for a tense night.
[00:33:44] We waited all night,
[00:33:46] but they didn't attack again.
[00:33:48] North Koreans instead went around us
[00:33:50] and caught off the road back to Tabu-dong.
[00:33:54] As the fingers of the pink light shot up over the horizon,
[00:33:57] we were ordered to withdraw through the Korean line.
[00:34:00] This was not going to be easy.
[00:34:04] So, going back,
[00:34:06] so they're getting called back.
[00:34:08] Hey, there's a Korean line,
[00:34:09] and they're getting told to fall back past that line.
[00:34:13] They're basically, they're kind of surrounded even at this point.
[00:34:18] And here we go.
[00:34:20] He kind of expands on what it was like from his perspective.
[00:34:24] He talks a little bit about this.
[00:34:26] Just general Walton Walker's mobile defense,
[00:34:29] which was, hey,
[00:34:31] basically use a thin line of people
[00:34:34] to sort of sort of hold up the enemy
[00:34:37] and then as like a screen
[00:34:39] and then the bulk of the force would be ready for a counterattack.
[00:34:42] It was kind of considered a theory at this time,
[00:34:46] but this is what they were trying to do.
[00:34:48] And then he says, for us ground troops,
[00:34:50] it was confusing.
[00:34:51] This game of chess had become maddening.
[00:34:54] I never had a map
[00:34:56] and seldom knew the number designation of the Hills or objectives.
[00:35:00] Now that's crazy.
[00:35:02] That's freaking crazy.
[00:35:04] And you've heard me say this,
[00:35:05] the most important piece of information you can have on the battlefield is where you are.
[00:35:09] If you don't even have a map,
[00:35:12] and he's a section leader and doesn't have a map,
[00:35:14] just FYI, like nowadays,
[00:35:17] when we go out every single guy has a detailed battle map of the whole area of operations.
[00:35:23] To think that you have a section leader that doesn't even have a map,
[00:35:28] that's crazy.
[00:35:30] And then the number designations he talks about,
[00:35:32] when you know you hear about Hills 348 or whatever,
[00:35:35] he doesn't even know what those are.
[00:35:37] Back to the book, we only knew to move, attack,
[00:35:40] and defend unknown Hills that would stop the North Koreans from breaking through and capturing the city of Tegu.
[00:35:45] This was our world,
[00:35:47] following orders fighting for one another, being successful,
[00:35:51] and somehow surviving.
[00:35:57] Now they're sort of in a little low in the fighting,
[00:36:02] and one of his guys comes over, the guy's name is Gray.
[00:36:07] I'm not feeling very good.
[00:36:08] I need to sit down for a few minutes, Gray said,
[00:36:11] his head was pounding and he felt dizzy.
[00:36:13] Try to come over as soon as you can.
[00:36:15] Are you going to be alright?
[00:36:16] Yeah, just give me a few minutes.
[00:36:18] When we got to the other side of the ridge,
[00:36:20] I turned and looked back at Gray sitting on a tree stump.
[00:36:23] He had his head in his hands.
[00:36:26] Now we know what this is a symbol of, right?
[00:36:28] This is a symbol of like a little bit of combat stress happening,
[00:36:31] but he's just trying to get it together.
[00:36:33] Gray and Wall should have been great squad leaders,
[00:36:36] and I hope you is okay.
[00:36:38] I needed him to, I needed him and his leadership.
[00:36:41] I had taken off my helmet to wipe away some sweat,
[00:36:45] when Gray and the stump suddenly disappeared in a fireball,
[00:36:50] and artillery round landed right on him.
[00:36:53] I was stunned and just stood on the ridge looking at the smoking crater.
[00:36:58] Something happens to men who see combat.
[00:37:02] No matter how you try, you cannot make death invisible.
[00:37:06] It is there with you every moment.
[00:37:09] That split second would be seared into my mind for the rest of my life.
[00:37:13] But at that time, we didn't have time to mourn Gray.
[00:37:17] We had to get dug in, start digging.
[00:37:20] That round has us zeroed,
[00:37:23] and the barrage will be coming next, I said, grabbing Walls.
[00:37:26] Get all over and take charge of Gray's squad.
[00:37:28] Tell them I'll be over there to talk to him later.
[00:37:32] For the rest of the day, I kept the men busy.
[00:37:36] Anything to keep their minds off Gray.
[00:37:39] So let's think about that again.
[00:37:43] You can see that Richardson is legit.
[00:37:48] And this is your classic situation where this horrible thing,
[00:37:52] you witness this horrible thing, everyone sees it.
[00:37:55] And what does he say? Hey, look, and this is horrifying.
[00:37:59] You say, oh, they have us zeroed in.
[00:38:02] So where the rest of the next round is going to hit, they're going to hit all around us.
[00:38:05] So what we need to do is dig in and we need to do it now.
[00:38:08] And then he just immediately says, hall, go take over Gray's squad.
[00:38:11] Look, Gray's gone. We need to move on.
[00:38:14] Tell them I'll be over to talk to him later.
[00:38:17] Back to the book.
[00:38:23] What drove me more than anything was a positive outlook.
[00:38:26] And the fact that my men were watching everything I did.
[00:38:30] I often wondered when we were moving down the road went went through their minds.
[00:38:35] This is something that every leader should be thinking about all the time.
[00:38:38] Is that everyone's watching you?
[00:38:40] Your boys are watching you.
[00:38:42] And they're judging you.
[00:38:44] As harsh as that sound, that's what's happening.
[00:38:46] So you know what? Give them a good example.
[00:38:49] I'll tell you what. When I see leaders in the seal teams that didn't act that way,
[00:38:56] that didn't act as if they were being watched all the time, they usually slacked off.
[00:39:02] Like, what does that look like?
[00:39:04] Where? Oh, what it looks like.
[00:39:06] I mean, yeah, like, hey, oh, no, no, I can be a little bit late.
[00:39:09] No one's watching. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:39:11] That's a big one. Oh, it's okay.
[00:39:13] I don't need this piece of gear. Oh, I'll cut the corner on this thing.
[00:39:17] Just all those little tiny things.
[00:39:19] And not to mention when you're in a situation like this,
[00:39:22] when you're watching you, when you say, hey, you know what?
[00:39:24] They got a style then we need to get dug in now.
[00:39:26] Hall, you got that gray squad now. Get to it.
[00:39:29] They're watching that too.
[00:39:30] Yeah.
[00:39:31] And they're seeing and going, okay, they're judging.
[00:39:33] And what are they judging? They're judging positive.
[00:39:35] They're judging that Richardson's got to shit together.
[00:39:37] And he's going to take care of them.
[00:39:39] Mm-hmm.
[00:39:44] Back to the book. It had to be a lot tougher on them than on me.
[00:39:47] While they had only death dwell on, I had dozens of other things
[00:39:52] that I must be thinking about and prepared for what was ahead.
[00:39:55] Where would I be if I were a North Korean?
[00:39:58] How would I react if we got hit from the right or left?
[00:40:00] How was our ammunition? Water was the bore sighting of the gun still all right.
[00:40:05] Where were the men taking care of their feet?
[00:40:07] So he's saying this correctly so, but this is kind of a different twist.
[00:40:12] Is, you know, a lot of times you hear the leader say, well, I was responsible for all these guys
[00:40:16] and that was a heavier weight.
[00:40:17] But for him, he's thinking, I was busy with all these other things.
[00:40:21] All these other guys had to do is think about the fact that they're about to die.
[00:40:24] Mm-hmm.
[00:40:25] And how that's actually hargur on them.
[00:40:27] Right.
[00:40:31] See, if you go into it with the perspective that everything's for you is hargur.
[00:40:36] And for everything, you know, for me it's hargur, because I'm a leader,
[00:40:39] whereas his attitude is fantastic, which is look, I'm the luxury of having other things to think about.
[00:40:45] These poor guys, they're just thinking about them being overrun.
[00:40:49] As opposed to if your attitude was flipped and you were thinking, I have it so hard,
[00:40:55] but these guys have it so easy.
[00:40:57] They will sense that.
[00:40:59] Yeah.
[00:41:00] And that's not going to end up net positive for you and your leadership.
[00:41:05] Back to book, the next North Korean assault started with screams and machine gun fire,
[00:41:10] but we beat it back with mortars in our own machine gun fire.
[00:41:13] Running between holes, I made sure everybody was ready for the next wave.
[00:41:18] Walsh had his section up and ready to fire.
[00:41:20] Hall was also ready, which was impressive, since he had just taken over from gray.
[00:41:26] The second attack was worse.
[00:41:28] The North Koreans were less than 50 yards from us.
[00:41:32] As I fired at the shadows moving toward us, I heard a frantic voice come over the radio.
[00:41:38] Roy Rogers III, the voice said in a deep southern draw,
[00:41:42] I need more firepower.
[00:41:44] I need more firepower.
[00:41:45] I'm about to get overrun.
[00:41:46] It was lieutenant Jim Brown from the bulltune that was on our left.
[00:41:50] I hope to hell he got more fire support.
[00:41:53] We were all hanging by a thread.
[00:41:56] Dead North Korean soldiers were stacking up in front of our foxholes,
[00:42:01] but they kept coming, wave after wave.
[00:42:05] I could hear walls screaming at the mend to stay in their holes.
[00:42:09] I was frantically changing the magazine in my car being as two of the North Koreans were within ten feet of me.
[00:42:16] Walsh and Hall saw them too, and opened fire, cutting the North Korean soldiers down.
[00:42:21] I saw another North Korean to my right and fired.
[00:42:24] He staggered back and dropped to the ground.
[00:42:27] I stayed low in my foxhole and kept firing straight ahead.
[00:42:31] Hall and Walsh kept firing to the rear, hitting the North Koreans attempting to move through our position.
[00:42:38] We had them in a crossfire, and in minutes our position was littered with North Korean bodies.
[00:42:44] Slighting a fresh magazine into my car being, I poked my head up,
[00:42:49] waiting for the next wave, but it never came.
[00:42:53] Stay alert. Some of them may still be alive.
[00:42:58] If you see any movement, shoot them.
[00:43:01] We waited a few minutes and finally climbed out.
[00:43:05] Check around your holes for live Koreans.
[00:43:10] And he goes on to say that we dragged the rest of the bodies away from our position and piled them to one side.
[00:43:19] I didn't even look at their faces.
[00:43:21] And he talks about the fact that his medics would try and take care of the North Korean wounded soldiers.
[00:43:27] That's pretty impressive.
[00:43:30] Back to the book, as daylight peaked over, it's head over the hills.
[00:43:33] A tall scrubby looking infantryman carrying a carbine approach me from out of the mist.
[00:43:38] As you got closer, I saw the small white cross painted on his helmet.
[00:43:43] He stuck out his hand as he approached.
[00:43:46] Chaplain Kapon, he said, giving me a firm handshake. Where are you from?
[00:43:51] Chaplain Amel Kapon from Pilsen, Kansas was a Catholic father who joined the army toward the end of World War II.
[00:43:58] He served in Burma and India until May 1946. He returned home and was assigned a parish in Kansas.
[00:44:06] But he felt his calling was with the troops.
[00:44:09] So he rejoined the army in 1948.
[00:44:12] He joined us in Korea after spending a few months in Japan. His uniform was dirty and he liked the rest of us.
[00:44:18] Needed his shave.
[00:44:19] It was clear he'd spent the night up close to the fighting and not safely in the rear.
[00:44:24] There was a peacefulness about him, though, that put me at ease.
[00:44:28] A quiet confidence he seemed to care where I was from.
[00:44:31] And I watched him as he spoke to the rest of the section.
[00:44:35] Each time he asked a soldier where he was from, gave him a firm handshake.
[00:44:39] It was not long before he had us all smiling.
[00:44:42] When Kapon finished making his rounds, he sat down near my fox hole and took out his pipe.
[00:44:47] It was missing most of its stem.
[00:44:50] What happened to your pipe?
[00:44:52] I asked as he filled it. A sniper he said, shot it out of my mouth a few days ago.
[00:44:57] We both had a laugh.
[00:45:00] I noticed that carbine laying across his lap.
[00:45:03] I thought Chaplain couldn't carry weapons.
[00:45:06] He smiled and nodded. If they're going to shoot at me, I'm going to be ready to shoot back.
[00:45:15] My section was down to eight men.
[00:45:18] We received two replacements.
[00:45:21] They showed up with their gear and clean uniforms.
[00:45:24] One was named Jackson's.
[00:45:26] One was named Jackson, but I didn't catch the other's name.
[00:45:29] Jackson had a lot of questions about the North Koreans and where we were on the line.
[00:45:34] Stay close to your fox hole, partner, and listen to him. I said,
[00:45:38] I didn't see them again until next morning.
[00:45:40] We'd been attacked again, but this time we were able to keep the North Koreans from our lines,
[00:45:44] but not without cost.
[00:45:46] Three men were gone, one missing and two wounded, including both replacements.
[00:45:52] We were taking casualties every night, and soon could no longer hold our position.
[00:45:59] Later that night, we got orders to withdraw,
[00:46:02] withdrawing in the daylight was a bad enough.
[00:46:04] Now we are going to attempt it at night.
[00:46:10] So a couple of things you're going to hear a lot about this Chaplain Capon.
[00:46:15] And well, not a lot as you should.
[00:46:19] He's got his own story that needs to be told about what he did in his service.
[00:46:25] And then, you know, but I tried to pull out a few sections about him.
[00:46:31] And then the fact that these guys, I mean, they're losing guys all the time.
[00:46:36] You get two replacements and they're gone by the next morning.
[00:46:39] That's not a positive outlook on the situation.
[00:46:41] So they finally get the orders to withdraw.
[00:46:43] And it's funny, not funny, but it's interesting that they're actually not looking forward to withdrawing at night.
[00:46:50] You know, whereas me, my instinct is like, I'd rather go at night, right?
[00:46:53] Me, of course.
[00:46:55] But you know what, if you haven't trained that way, because you can train,
[00:46:59] even without night vision, you can train to operate at night.
[00:47:02] You learn the spacing that you need to get.
[00:47:04] You learn, you know, certain maneuvers that you do at night time that are easier at night time.
[00:47:10] So night time is not something to be scared of.
[00:47:13] But these guys, unless you haven't trained that way.
[00:47:16] If you haven't trained that way, man, I can't even imagine what it's like.
[00:47:19] Because I trained so much in the dark room.
[00:47:21] When I first got in the school teams, we did everything in the dark room.
[00:47:23] We just did, we just patrolled in dark.
[00:47:25] How we do, we had closer spacing.
[00:47:27] You learn how to use person silhouette.
[00:47:29] And front of you, you learn how to adapt your eyes to the dark.
[00:47:32] So there's all these things that you can do to make you a more formidable night fighter.
[00:47:38] But if you don't train that way, you're in big trouble.
[00:47:44] So these guys are starting up there with draw, back to the book.
[00:47:48] Let's go, I whispered.
[00:47:49] I was nervous and wanted to get going before another attack.
[00:47:52] Wall standing by looked over me.
[00:47:54] So he was kicking a guy on the ground saying, hey, let's go.
[00:47:58] And he's, you know, Wall says, so that's Johnson. He's dead.
[00:48:01] I felt terrible.
[00:48:03] It hurt to see another one of my men dead in the mud.
[00:48:05] I didn't even know Johnson that well.
[00:48:07] He was another replacement and I only just learned his name.
[00:48:11] The fact that I had a little time to dwell saved me.
[00:48:16] Plus, I knew that if I showed weakness, my men might finally give in and feel sorry for themselves.
[00:48:22] And I couldn't have that.
[00:48:24] We needed to stick together.
[00:48:26] I became stoic and would remain that way for a long time.
[00:48:31] Again, he recognizes that his guys are looking at him.
[00:48:35] There's two points.
[00:48:36] Number one, he recognizes that his guys are looking at him.
[00:48:38] And if he breaks down, he's going to cause breakdowns.
[00:48:41] And number two, the fact that he had a little time to dwell.
[00:48:44] So what does that mean?
[00:48:46] Translate that to your life.
[00:48:48] If something goes wrong and you decide you're going to take a break
[00:48:51] to reflect on that thing, it don't do that.
[00:48:55] That's like get back on the horse, you know the old saying,
[00:48:58] like you got to get back on the horse.
[00:49:00] That's not what does that help you overcome the fear.
[00:49:03] But it's better than sitting around and dwelling on it.
[00:49:06] You know, even if it's something not physical that you're physically afraid of,
[00:49:09] still don't sit around and dwell.
[00:49:11] That's a bad thing.
[00:49:14] Yeah, like what you're saying, it gives you something happens.
[00:49:18] Right, grow it right so with you.
[00:49:21] I don't know.
[00:49:22] And you take the day off from work.
[00:49:25] Right.
[00:49:26] We get to sit down and look at the pillow that's on the ceiling.
[00:49:29] Yeah.
[00:49:30] Yeah.
[00:49:31] Gonna jam you up, wait more.
[00:49:32] You go to work.
[00:49:33] And you know, your mind's occupied by these tasks.
[00:49:36] And you know, you don't have time to dwell.
[00:49:38] And meanwhile, I'll say this, your mind is still processing it.
[00:49:42] Right.
[00:49:43] It's not like it's not like you're at work.
[00:49:44] And so you're not thinking about it.
[00:49:46] It's in the back of it's getting work through your mind.
[00:49:48] It's doing its job kind of getting a grip on the situation.
[00:49:51] And then you get home and like instead of just going home, go train, go directly to the gym.
[00:49:56] You're actually kind of stoked because you're not have that pressure of your girl weight
[00:49:59] No, and you at home to like hurry up and get home like no.
[00:50:02] So we're trying to get some extra rounds and so go get some extra rounds.
[00:50:05] And maybe stop by that little place on the way home.
[00:50:08] Grab a little bite to eat, you know, with one of your buddies.
[00:50:11] Yeah.
[00:50:12] And then go home.
[00:50:13] And when you get home clean your room, you know, when you get home,
[00:50:15] you finish putting together the bookcase or whatever do something.
[00:50:20] And now you're tired and now you go to bed in a meanwhile, like I said,
[00:50:23] in the background, your mind's been processing this and you're starting to realize
[00:50:26] I can't know what.
[00:50:27] I'm just not actually that big of a deal with the she left.
[00:50:30] Yeah.
[00:50:31] Yeah.
[00:50:32] You know what, but isn't there the, I mean, I wonder why this is,
[00:50:35] I'm sure you could kind of figure it out.
[00:50:37] But you know, something like batter, traumatic or whatever will happen.
[00:50:41] And then the person essentially ignores it or whatever.
[00:50:45] And folks don't work, folks don't this, folks.
[00:50:47] And then people close to them are therapist or whatever would be like,
[00:50:51] Hey, I'm scared.
[00:50:53] I'm concerned because you haven't like, yeah, I think there's a dichotomy here.
[00:50:57] I'm not talking about burying it, right?
[00:50:59] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:51:00] I'm not going to talk about.
[00:51:01] You still got to contend with it.
[00:51:02] And you know, at some point, I'll write down like the,
[00:51:06] the protocol, the breakup protocol.
[00:51:09] Straight up, straight up, right?
[00:51:11] And even like the death protocol, like here's what you're supposed to do.
[00:51:15] Now in these situations, they don't have time to do any protocol, right?
[00:51:18] Yeah.
[00:51:19] And so this to your point, this can be a problem because if you're in combat,
[00:51:24] and you lose someone, and then you never have the time to set aside and contend with it,
[00:51:30] then you get back and now you get back to America, now you're, you're family,
[00:51:33] and now you're getting a new job, and you're getting out of the military,
[00:51:35] and you're making all this stuff happen.
[00:51:37] You never contended with what had occurred.
[00:51:39] So yes, you are correct.
[00:51:41] If you don't ever contend with it in face it, then it can turn into a problem,
[00:51:45] then it turns into what we talked about with Tim Ferriss,
[00:51:47] which is they tried, if you tried to bury it, you didn't realize it.
[00:51:51] It was a seed.
[00:51:52] Yeah.
[00:51:53] So you've got to, you got to make sure that it's not a seed that's going to grow out of control
[00:51:57] in the darkness over there.
[00:51:58] You got to, you got to put the shed some light on it.
[00:52:00] Yeah, because, because that's how, right?
[00:52:02] Like a lot of the time, like, oh, you know,
[00:52:05] I, you know, my girl broke up with, I don't know, whatever.
[00:52:08] Like something traumatic, and then they'll be like, hey, I don't want to think about it.
[00:52:11] I want to focus on these other things.
[00:52:12] I don't want to think about it, and they kind of bury it.
[00:52:16] Seems like that kind of happens.
[00:52:17] Yeah, no.
[00:52:18] And that's what I'm saying.
[00:52:19] There's a balance that you have to do.
[00:52:20] Yeah.
[00:52:21] There's a balance, because you can't just bury it.
[00:52:23] Yeah.
[00:52:23] You have to contend with it.
[00:52:24] Yeah.
[00:52:25] But you want to do it.
[00:52:26] What you don't want to do is go overboard and just focus 100% on, I can't believe,
[00:52:32] that this person's gone, whether they died, whether they broke up with you, whether they,
[00:52:35] what, you know, I get little, you know, it's funny.
[00:52:37] I get little warrior kid questions for the warrior kid podcast of my friend is moving away.
[00:52:42] How can I not be sad?
[00:52:43] And it's like the same thing.
[00:52:45] Like, people are going to come in and out of your life.
[00:52:47] And you got to learn to contend with it.
[00:52:49] Yeah.
[00:52:50] And what I'm saying is, don't focus on it 100%.
[00:52:54] Remember it contend with it, but don't dwell on it, because we know what that gets you.
[00:52:59] Yeah.
[00:53:00] And you just down the darkness, the spiral of darkness, which you don't want to go down.
[00:53:05] No.
[00:53:06] We don't want to avoid it, because then it grows.
[00:53:08] Yeah.
[00:53:09] Behind your back.
[00:53:11] Yeah.
[00:53:12] Well, his situation is kind of different.
[00:53:13] That's more of a small picture scenario where it's like, I don't have time to dwell on my guy who just,
[00:53:18] this just happened to him because right now is this important thing going on.
[00:53:23] And again, this is where people get jammed up because they never
[00:53:28] contend with it.
[00:53:30] They never mourn properly.
[00:53:32] They never go through that process.
[00:53:34] And then they look up six months later.
[00:53:37] And they go, oh, I'm sad.
[00:53:39] I miss my friend.
[00:53:40] It's like, yeah, that's okay.
[00:53:41] You know what?
[00:53:42] You got to take.
[00:53:43] That's why you should be able to take the protocol and just enact it when there's, you know, like,
[00:53:48] you get home from the plumbing.
[00:53:49] It's like, okay, we're going through the protocol because we, you know, do.
[00:53:52] Or you lose a friend car accident, whatever.
[00:53:55] Whatever situation.
[00:53:57] You, you want it to come's time to enact that protocol.
[00:54:01] Boom, you, you, you, you press play on the protocol and then you go through the motions and that gets you,
[00:54:06] get you through it.
[00:54:08] Yeah.
[00:54:09] Or at least starts to get you through it because it's always going to be there.
[00:54:12] Right.
[00:54:13] It's not like you're going to be like, oh, you're always going to remember.
[00:54:16] Yeah.
[00:54:17] But don't dwell.
[00:54:19] Don't dwell.
[00:54:20] All right.
[00:54:24] Going back to the book.
[00:54:25] It was another attack.
[00:54:28] And when I say that, he's actually talking about there being told that they are going to attack again.
[00:54:34] And this is coming from his boss, macabee.
[00:54:37] The entire battalion is going to attack hills 570.
[00:54:41] Three ridges go direct to the top of the hill.
[00:54:44] K company will be on the left.
[00:54:46] We will move in the center and I company on the right.
[00:54:49] We will attack at daylight with no artillery or air support.
[00:54:53] Boom.
[00:54:54] Yeah.
[00:54:55] Don't like that.
[00:54:56] He didn't like to know.
[00:54:57] The second and third battunes will attack a breast.
[00:55:00] Second on the right, third on the left.
[00:55:02] Richardson will follow with the 57s in the center.
[00:55:05] The first battoon will be in reserve.
[00:55:07] So there's your plan.
[00:55:08] Boom.
[00:55:09] There it is.
[00:55:10] What does a breast mean side by side?
[00:55:12] Okay.
[00:55:13] Side base.
[00:55:14] Yep.
[00:55:15] And now.
[00:55:17] So they're sort of going through and starting to enact this plan.
[00:55:22] And as they're doing this one, his voice says,
[00:55:25] Sards, we're getting out of here by dark, right?
[00:55:28] I knew the other men wouldn't speak up,
[00:55:31] but I could just look in their eyes and see they were scared.
[00:55:33] I just hope they couldn't see fear in my eyes.
[00:55:36] We're staying here until we get orders.
[00:55:38] I said finally answering a wall, should haul.
[00:55:40] I spoke up loud enough for the whole section here.
[00:55:43] The third down the hill, more than artillery fire was heavy.
[00:55:47] We could see the North Korean positions and they could see us.
[00:55:50] I was hoping we were out of grenade range and two close for their to their position for them to put
[00:55:55] mortar fire on us.
[00:55:56] Dude, what kind of situation are you in when what you're hoping for?
[00:56:00] Is that you're too far for grenade range and two close for mortars?
[00:56:04] Yeah.
[00:56:07] Oh man.
[00:56:09] So that just puts you in machine gun range basically.
[00:56:13] Unless you got some kind of dead space or cover, but not a good situation.
[00:56:18] But you know when that's what you're hoping for,
[00:56:21] Outlook is not good.
[00:56:22] That's your best option.
[00:56:23] Yeah.
[00:56:24] Soon instead of mortars, the North Korean soldiers started sending down taunts.
[00:56:28] We didn't speak the language, but each word had a charge.
[00:56:33] Silence.
[00:56:34] No one talks back.
[00:56:35] I whispered and put my finger to my lips.
[00:56:37] Not that we knew what they were saying.
[00:56:40] As the minutes and then hours ticked off, I realized that slowly, but surely we were moving back a foot at a time.
[00:56:47] A guy would reposition and the rest of the whole section would go off of him.
[00:56:52] At this rate, we might be off the hill by the end of the war.
[00:56:55] A new one thing.
[00:56:57] There was no way we were staying overnight.
[00:57:01] So situation happens.
[00:57:06] They start actually, there's a firing starts.
[00:57:10] And these guys actually start running down the hill.
[00:57:13] And then they start receiving small arms fire.
[00:57:16] And then he rolls into another position.
[00:57:19] And there's a guy in there named valencourt who was another experienced guy in charge of one of the other sections or one of the other elements.
[00:57:30] And he comes in, where's the executive officer I asked valencourt when I caught up with him?
[00:57:34] He was killed along with one of the other platoon leaders.
[00:57:37] The company is regrouped and tried to come back up the hill, but it was ripped apart by heavy mortar and artillery fire.
[00:57:43] We lost two lieutenant and two platoons, took heavy losses.
[00:57:46] So that continues.
[00:57:59] And again, you got to get this book.
[00:58:01] So you can get these details.
[00:58:03] Not reading them all.
[00:58:04] The detailed combat.
[00:58:06] For anyone that's in combat arms of any kind, or to this book immediately, because there's so much good information in it that I'm not covering.
[00:58:14] So these guys, they're retreating from that attack.
[00:58:17] They get to like an orchard situation.
[00:58:19] And there's a kernel that's in charge of the regimen.
[00:58:22] And this guy, macabee, who's the company commander, he comes up.
[00:58:28] And here we go.
[00:58:31] Macabee's kind of talking with and brings Richardson over.
[00:58:35] Sergeant Richardson and his men were the last ones off the hill.
[00:58:38] Macabee told Colonel Johnson how you're men doing?
[00:58:41] The kernel asked looking over my shoulder at the men finishing up their letter to seers that this little joke that they made earlier.
[00:58:48] Okay, but very tired.
[00:58:50] Johnson nodded and shook my hand.
[00:58:53] Trying to get some rest tonight.
[00:58:55] He started to walk away, frustrated with the attack.
[00:58:58] I knew this was my chance to speak my mind and the mind of my men.
[00:59:02] I wanted to know how many more times we are going to have to climb up a hill, only to leave it, and fight our way up another.
[00:59:09] From my point of view, we were just getting our asses kicked.
[00:59:13] How are we doing?
[00:59:15] It seems like we never make any headway.
[00:59:18] Johnson stopped.
[00:59:20] Sergeant Richardson, you tell your men they did a great job.
[00:59:24] Against great odds, we have stopped the North Koreans' main attack.
[00:59:29] I turned away and slowly walked back toward the men.
[00:59:32] I thought to myself how great, wall, hall, and higley were.
[00:59:37] It was their courage and bravery that held us together.
[00:59:41] As I looked at them, it almost brought tears to my eyes.
[00:59:45] Johnson's news had an immediate impact on my section.
[00:59:49] We no longer dragged us instead.
[00:59:52] We seemed hopeful even optimistic.
[00:59:56] So, again, this is a good point that when your in a leadership position, your little words have significant impact.
[01:00:06] And you might not realize it.
[01:00:08] I experienced that a lot with leaders not only in combat, or in the military, but I see that with leaders in the civilian sector,
[01:00:15] where they don't realize the weight that they carry.
[01:00:18] And this will even be like the CEO of a company.
[01:00:21] We'll say something, maybe it's off the cuff, and it's a negative thing, and it has a negative impact.
[01:00:27] But they also don't realize how positive it can be when they say something positive.
[01:00:31] So if you're in a leadership position, everyone's going to say,
[01:00:34] everyone's going to say, well, throw out some love to your people.
[01:00:37] Right?
[01:00:38] I'm not saying, you know, life likes to use the word false cheerleading, which is definitely, yeah, that's a good term.
[01:00:44] You know, which is, hey, you've done a great job when you didn't do a great job.
[01:00:48] And cheerleading is cheerleading is cheerleading is cheerleading pretty much no matter what.
[01:00:52] That's just how you do.
[01:00:53] Yeah, that's just what their job is.
[01:00:54] They're cheering you.
[01:00:55] Hey, good job, even though you're down 47 to 0.
[01:00:58] They don't stop, right?
[01:01:00] I don't think they can.
[01:01:01] They just keep cheering.
[01:01:03] So I guess you don't even have to say false cheerleading.
[01:01:06] You just say straight cheerleading.
[01:01:08] Well, oh, I guess when they're, when it's winning, then it's positive, right?
[01:01:13] Yeah, so hey, let me ask you this about false cheerleading.
[01:01:16] So because I came up with a mustard by the way, someone thought that it was just,
[01:01:20] like, focusing on the positives and not the negatives, then they were like, that's false cheerleading.
[01:01:25] Or they implied that that's what, and life was like, no false cheerleading is when you're cheering for someone,
[01:01:30] even though they're not doing a good job.
[01:01:32] Yeah, or making statements that are factually untrue.
[01:01:35] Hey, echo, you did a great job putting out a bunch of videos this last year.
[01:01:38] Oh, that's actually factually untrue, and I wouldn't be able to say that to you.
[01:01:41] Because you put out a limited number of videos.
[01:01:44] Yeah.
[01:01:45] But if you were to say, hey, those are real quality and not quantity, like that would be factually true, too.
[01:01:49] Yeah, yeah, actually technically that's opinion, but hey, okay, so what about this?
[01:01:54] Here's my question.
[01:01:55] So if we'll let's say, okay, I'm doing, like this, you know, 60%.
[01:02:00] 60% of my workload is great.
[01:02:04] And then there's 40 that's like, hey, you've got to change this.
[01:02:08] And then I sort of, it's just sort of downplay the 40, you, not me, you, like my boss, downplay the 40.
[01:02:15] Just to encourage me whatever reason and you really, upplay the 60.
[01:02:20] Is that false cheerleading?
[01:02:22] It is, but there's a little bit more strategy behind this, because as your leader,
[01:02:28] I wouldn't only talk to you one time.
[01:02:31] Yeah.
[01:02:32] Right? I'm talking to you over a period of time.
[01:02:34] So what, my first comment to you might be something like, hey, echo that 60% that you're over there.
[01:02:41] You're crushed and did that.
[01:02:42] That you're doing a great job.
[01:02:43] It's super.
[01:02:44] So, you know, some of the other stuff, not quite there yet, but, but actually the first time I talk to you,
[01:02:49] might be like, hey, you're crushing it.
[01:02:51] You're doing awesome.
[01:02:52] I might've been mentioning that 40%.
[01:02:54] Because I'm thinking, hey, if this guy gets encouraged,
[01:02:56] he's going to be like, I'm going to do a little bit more, right?
[01:02:58] And yeah, that you just might pick up the sock.
[01:03:00] Anyways, on your own accord, because you're just encouraged by the whole,
[01:03:04] the whole positivity that I'm giving you.
[01:03:06] Yeah.
[01:03:07] So that's cool, right?
[01:03:08] Mm-hmm.
[01:03:08] Well, maybe it doesn't work.
[01:03:10] So now I might have to come just a little bit more direct, right?
[01:03:13] Yeah.
[01:03:14] Hey, I noticed that, you know, this 60% over here that you're dominating,
[01:03:16] and it's awesome.
[01:03:17] Is there something with this 40% over here that's different that, you know,
[01:03:22] that it comes because it seems to be like a different level,
[01:03:25] and it's not up to 60% is there's something that's different.
[01:03:27] Maybe I find it, learn something, right?
[01:03:29] But I give you the opportunity to say, well, yeah, it's because of this,
[01:03:31] whatever, maybe we can correct it.
[01:03:33] And then if that doesn't work, then maybe you have to amplify or escalate a little bit more, right?
[01:03:41] And then it's hey, man, the 60% that you're doing,
[01:03:44] wow, awesome.
[01:03:46] Yes?
[01:03:47] There's also that 40% that when I'm looking at it,
[01:03:50] I'm actually wondering if it's the same guy.
[01:03:53] Because for you to be able to do this over here,
[01:03:55] and still kind of throw this in the mix too.
[01:03:59] Yeah, kind of, doesn't make sense to me.
[01:04:01] And I'm, again, my whole thing would be trying to figure out why you're slacking in that area.
[01:04:06] Yeah, because if you're doing 60% great, why are you doing 40% there?
[01:04:08] Let's hope there's a reason behind that.
[01:04:10] Yeah.
[01:04:11] And so once we find out what that reason is, it's like, okay.
[01:04:14] And so I'm going to slowly escalate and start until I get to the point,
[01:04:18] you know, if we go to six months,
[01:04:20] and I've done and I've pulled out whatever obstacles in your way,
[01:04:23] because it was some obstacles on the 40%.
[01:04:25] Well, we weren't getting that information in time.
[01:04:27] Okay, well, let's now start getting you an information in time.
[01:04:29] And then you say, well, I didn't have the resources.
[01:04:31] Okay, well, then I throw you another person to help you.
[01:04:33] And you're still slacking.
[01:04:34] So eventually, you know, I'm going to have to come a little bit more direct.
[01:04:37] And be less than, man, the 60% I appreciate the 40% is actually starting to hurt us.
[01:04:42] And either you need to step it up, which is why I'm hoping,
[01:04:46] because I see nothing but potential in you,
[01:04:48] and I'm going to actually have to bring someone else in that can kind of handle 100%.
[01:04:52] Do you see what I'm coming from?
[01:04:53] Yeah.
[01:04:54] And it would even escalate from there.
[01:04:55] So yeah, there's, I don't think of things as black and white conversations.
[01:04:59] Yeah.
[01:05:00] Like, hey, I just need to go in and drop the hammer today, because I don't.
[01:05:04] I don't.
[01:05:05] Yeah.
[01:05:05] I'd rather, I'd rather have you recognize it, right?
[01:05:08] I'd rather have you realize that there's a problem with that 40%.
[01:05:12] Now, I might say something and just omit the 40%.
[01:05:15] Like, when I first talked to you, and this 60% of this stuff will read that you're doing is awesome.
[01:05:20] Yeah.
[01:05:21] And I'm giving you the benefit of that out there. You're going to straighten out that out of the 40%.
[01:05:24] Right?
[01:05:25] Yeah.
[01:05:25] Get out your ruler and get it straight.
[01:05:28] Sure. Of course the ruler.
[01:05:29] But, so, okay. So technically, yeah.
[01:05:31] So your whole campaign, yeah, is not false to your leading there.
[01:05:35] No.
[01:05:35] So it's like, but let's say you just stuck, let's say that for that first one.
[01:05:39] That's step one.
[01:05:40] Right?
[01:05:41] Yeah.
[01:05:41] That's a, it's a final five step.
[01:05:42] So if you just stuck with step one, I guess it depends on the reason too, right?
[01:05:46] So if I'm like, hey, great. This 60% is awesome.
[01:05:49] And don't even mention the 40% because I don't want any conflict with that guy.
[01:05:53] Or I'm scared to, you know, confront them or I'm scared for that that conversation.
[01:05:59] What you should be realistically scared of is if you're doing, if you're bust in your ass to do that 60%
[01:06:04] Great, and all I come into say, like, hey, this 60% is good, but the other 40% sucks.
[01:06:09] I discourage you. And now you're like, I can't do anything right for Jockel.
[01:06:13] So now you're, you're not 60% right. There's a good chance that you don't even get the 60% now.
[01:06:16] You're going down to 50% and then 40% is good and 60% is bad.
[01:06:20] Yeah.
[01:06:20] I don't want that. I want you to be on board with the program.
[01:06:23] I want you to be like, oh man, I could work a little bit more and work a little bit harder
[01:06:28] and discipline myself a little bit better.
[01:06:30] And I could actually get 70% and then let's see what Jockel comes in here and says
[01:06:34] when he's all fired up that I did 60% and watch this.
[01:06:36] Yeah. So this is a whole thing. So dank you could almost say, almost.
[01:06:44] That false cheerleading, I guess, okay, I was going to say you could almost say false cheerleading
[01:06:50] cheerleading actually has its little spot in a bigger campaign.
[01:06:53] Can you use the campaign?
[01:06:54] But I guess technically, if it is, it's a, by its very nature, if it's part of a big campaign,
[01:06:59] it's not false cheerleading. It's just a, maybe, strategic, strategic maneuver.
[01:07:05] Like, just think of a little kid.
[01:07:07] Minutes is break it down to the fundamental realities of life.
[01:07:11] A little kid.
[01:07:13] If you take a little kid that does something, okay, let's say the kid tries to draw a rabbit.
[01:07:20] Sure.
[01:07:21] And what does it look like?
[01:07:22] It looks like it doesn't even look like a mouse.
[01:07:24] It really looks like a stick.
[01:07:26] Right?
[01:07:27] So if you say, if, okay, I'm not going to use false cheerleading.
[01:07:31] Hey, kid, that doesn't look like a rabbit.
[01:07:34] It looks like a stick fail.
[01:07:37] Is that kid going to draw another rabbit?
[01:07:40] Not going to want to.
[01:07:41] Not going to want to.
[01:07:42] If you say, oh, I really like that you try to see where the eyes should go.
[01:07:47] You know what I mean?
[01:07:48] And they get a little bit, they're like, oh, can I hang this up?
[01:07:51] I'm going to hang this up on my refrigerator.
[01:07:53] What?
[01:07:54] What does that kid want to do now?
[01:07:56] Draw more rabbit.
[01:07:57] Do you know, yeah, even, like, yeah.
[01:07:58] Does that translate directly to adults?
[01:08:01] Oh, yes, it does.
[01:08:02] It does.
[01:08:03] It does.
[01:08:04] Does it always translate 100%?
[01:08:05] No, of course not.
[01:08:06] It doesn't translate 100%.
[01:08:07] But because there's some people that are, of course, there's some people I just try to
[01:08:10] skate and do the minimum.
[01:08:11] And if you say, like, hey, good job.
[01:08:12] They're like, okay, cool.
[01:08:13] Thanks.
[01:08:14] Now I'm just going to keep doing whatever you told me.
[01:08:15] But if you're, you know, again, for an extrategic or an campaign, we're trying to make things
[01:08:20] happen, it's like, yeah, you know what?
[01:08:22] Hey, echo man, that stuff.
[01:08:25] Picture the first time you ever made a video.
[01:08:27] Yeah.
[01:08:28] Imagine if I said, you know, I'm a little bit like, oh, I'm a little bit like, oh, I'm
[01:08:31] like, you know, I mean, decent work, you know, not exactly eye grabbing though.
[01:08:37] Would you have been excited to make more videos?
[01:08:39] Probably, yeah, probably not.
[01:08:41] Yeah, yeah.
[01:08:42] I mean, you'd probably be like, okay, whatever.
[01:08:44] I guess, maybe this isn't for me.
[01:08:46] Or maybe I won't make videos for this guy.
[01:08:47] Yeah, for this guy.
[01:08:48] Yeah, for this guy.
[01:08:49] Yeah.
[01:08:50] But if I was like, oh, man, I really liked the way that was some good effect.
[01:08:52] That was, you know what I mean?
[01:08:53] Yeah.
[01:08:54] Then you go, oh, yeah.
[01:08:55] I'm like, he's in the game with me.
[01:08:56] Right.
[01:08:57] Also in the weird team, we're not against each other.
[01:08:58] Yeah.
[01:08:59] So I'm just trying to unify things and bring things together.
[01:09:01] Yeah.
[01:09:02] I might even come back to you to improve myself more with the wheels.
[01:09:06] Hey, we think about this.
[01:09:07] Like, yeah, I had, yeah, we're a team now.
[01:09:09] Yeah, that's a good way to do it.
[01:09:10] My best leaders that I had, all I wanted to do is do better for them.
[01:09:14] They, and they never, they might give me critique, but it was like the kind of critique that makes you feel guilty about being alive.
[01:09:21] Yeah.
[01:09:22] Right.
[01:09:23] We're the kind of, like, really, really like this, you know.
[01:09:27] I wish, you know, if we could do this a little bit more, man, that would be really nice.
[01:09:31] I'm like, oh, man, I wish that better.
[01:09:35] And then you have to also remember that people have different levels of sensitivities, right?
[01:09:40] Yeah.
[01:09:41] Because for you, like, especially when it's something that they would deeply care about,
[01:09:45] Yeah.
[01:09:46] When you critique them, there's almost no one that takes that critique well, right?
[01:09:50] Oh, you want to tell me about, oh, you want to tell me about whatever.
[01:09:53] I did this drawing, like a little kid, right?
[01:09:55] The kid tries to do a good drawing.
[01:09:56] Yeah.
[01:09:57] You tell them that their drawings are no good, that breaks their heart.
[01:10:00] Yeah.
[01:10:01] Yes, it does.
[01:10:02] Evil.
[01:10:03] Yeah, man.
[01:10:04] So, you're right.
[01:10:06] Is that false-chalating?
[01:10:08] No, that's part of a campaign plan.
[01:10:10] Is it good if the kid draws a stick?
[01:10:12] And you like that's the most amazing drawing I've ever seen?
[01:10:15] Well, now what's, this is to life's point.
[01:10:17] If you, the kid draws a stick and it's supposed to be a rabbit.
[01:10:19] And you go, that's the most amazing rabbit I've ever seen drawn.
[01:10:22] Now, let me ask you this, is that kid going to try and improve it all?
[01:10:25] No, and he'll probably not take criticism because they start getting used to like never having anything
[01:10:32] I do is great.
[01:10:33] And I think that one applies more to adults because when you say that to an adult, like, man,
[01:10:38] that's the best thing I've ever seen.
[01:10:39] They're like, oh, yeah.
[01:10:40] They're a little bit more egotistic.
[01:10:42] Yeah, they'll believe it more.
[01:10:43] Yeah.
[01:10:44] Little kids are like, well, like, kind of surprised if you tell them that.
[01:10:47] It's supposed to be really, really believe you.
[01:10:48] They look, I'm only six, but that's the stick as far as I'm concerned.
[01:10:51] I tried to make a rabbit.
[01:10:53] I got an ear off there anyways after that.
[01:10:57] I don't know.
[01:10:58] Yeah.
[01:10:59] Yeah.
[01:11:00] I could see that T.S.
[01:11:02] So, there you go.
[01:11:05] Meanwhile, back in Korea.
[01:11:08] Here's what's going on.
[01:11:09] They're under another attack.
[01:11:11] And as you can see, there's a little pattern developing.
[01:11:13] It's just we're getting attacked.
[01:11:14] We're getting attacked.
[01:11:15] We're getting attacked.
[01:11:16] That's what's going on.
[01:11:18] We could see the North Korean spawning over the hill.
[01:11:20] The North Korean artillery fire followed K company down the hill.
[01:11:24] The ground shook like an earthquake as the rounds walked towards us.
[01:11:27] I hugged the bottom of the side of the hole.
[01:11:29] All I could think about was a round landing straight on top of me.
[01:11:32] If that happened, I'd never know.
[01:11:34] I pulled my helmet and gridded my teeth.
[01:11:38] I was starting to lose it.
[01:11:43] Now, again, this is just continuing to continue to get hammered.
[01:11:47] And walls comes always.
[01:11:48] Are we going to stay?
[01:11:50] God dammit.
[01:11:51] Just stay in these holes until I tell you differently.
[01:11:53] I race back to my hole.
[01:11:54] On the way, young Lieutenant ran by me.
[01:11:56] He was scared.
[01:11:57] He was so scared as voice cracked when he screamed at me.
[01:12:00] Get out of here.
[01:12:01] Fall back.
[01:12:02] Who the hell are you?
[01:12:03] I barked.
[01:12:04] There were men still trying to get back.
[01:12:06] And if we left, they wouldn't have a chance in hell.
[01:12:08] So, his group is trying to provide cover fire for the groups that are now retreating.
[01:12:13] He didn't stop and I never got his name.
[01:12:15] He just yelled the fall back.
[01:12:17] I told him, shit, I yelled at him.
[01:12:18] We can't leave here.
[01:12:19] We have to help these men.
[01:12:21] Yeah, this is, he's keeping order in this retreat.
[01:12:25] Several other members of K-Company pass me following the Lieutenant.
[01:12:30] I saw some of my men getting out of their holes.
[01:12:32] You sons of bitches get back in your goddamn holes.
[01:12:35] I yelled.
[01:12:36] Get back.
[01:12:37] They scrambled back.
[01:12:38] Round started to crash around us again.
[01:12:40] I could hear the K-Company men scream.
[01:12:42] A shrapnel shoured them.
[01:12:43] Slicing into their skin.
[01:12:45] Larger pieces, punched holes in their chest or sheared off their limbs.
[01:12:49] Their screams filled in the silence between the crashes of artillery shells.
[01:12:53] I was not going to be able to control this fucking situation much longer.
[01:12:57] Whilst just stared at me with a vacant look, don't lose it now.
[01:13:01] I thought, another barrage landed nearby.
[01:13:03] I put my head down.
[01:13:05] My ears started ringing.
[01:13:06] Smoke was down on the bottom of the hole again.
[01:13:09] The artillery fire finally stopped.
[01:13:12] The screaming for the medics began.
[01:13:15] Go check your men.
[01:13:17] I told wall shaking him out of his stupor.
[01:13:19] I headed over to Hall's position.
[01:13:21] He had the same vacant look as walls.
[01:13:23] Men from K-Company were moving down the ridge, carrying the wounded.
[01:13:26] Everybody was bleeding or bandaged.
[01:13:29] I kept my men focused on the hill, waiting for the north Koreans to counter attack.
[01:13:34] But they never came.
[01:13:37] Neither did the artillery.
[01:13:39] It wasn't long, and I was told the withdrawal off the hill.
[01:13:44] He talks about the Korean augmentation to the US Army or Katusa program, K-A-T-U-S-A.
[01:13:57] So Korean augmentation to the US Army.
[01:13:59] And this was like soldiers.
[01:14:01] He describes it here.
[01:14:02] Katusa soldiers were young men picked up in larger cities, given a couple weeks training in a sign to the American units.
[01:14:08] Despite the language barriers, the Koreans fell right in line with the rest of us.
[01:14:12] When we marched, they kept up when we fought.
[01:14:15] They stood there ground too.
[01:14:22] Over the next few days, we continued to attack to the west.
[01:14:25] It was a knock-down drag-out slug fest.
[01:14:28] The North Koreans attacked us with a band and tried to overwhelm us with numbers.
[01:14:32] They were fanatical.
[01:14:33] One regimental commander said after the war that the North Koreans had no consideration.
[01:14:37] For the loss of life, they have no hesitancy in losing 500 lives to gain a small piece of ground.
[01:14:46] It took us three more days to take two more North Korean positions.
[01:14:50] We uncovered large ammunition caches and killed 72 in captured 200.
[01:14:56] All at a great price.
[01:14:59] I lost two more men and the company suffered a total of four killed with 13 wounded.
[01:15:04] The losses reduced our strength to around 53 men.
[01:15:11] But the enemy was now on the run and we held the river line.
[01:15:15] The morale went sky high.
[01:15:18] They turned to tables a little bit as they went on the attack and the counter offensive.
[01:15:23] And then they're continuing to push and as they're heading down the road, all of a sudden North Korean machine guns started spraying the road.
[01:15:36] They had us in the open.
[01:15:38] The North Koreans had us pin down and unable to push into the village, which is what their objective was.
[01:15:44] I heard the rumbling first.
[01:15:47] Peeking over the diek, I saw three Russian-made T-34 tanks.
[01:15:52] I could tell they were T-34s because of the narrow turret that sat on top of the almost pyramid-shaped body.
[01:15:58] The tanks had led the charge against Nazi Germany and World War II.
[01:16:04] The T-34 dominated the German tanks because the Russian tanks could race over the deep mud and snow of the eastern front.
[01:16:11] After the war, the Soviets sold them to their communist allies.
[01:16:16] The North Korean invasion was spearheaded by T-34 tanks, but North Korean lead tank was almost on us.
[01:16:23] It stopped and the main gun started to slowly turn in our direction.
[01:16:28] I looked at the road and saw a bazooka gun or jump out of the rice paddy run to the middle of the road.
[01:16:34] Stop, shoulder the tube, aimin' at the tank.
[01:16:37] I thought this guy must have nerves of steel.
[01:16:39] It was a modern day David and Goliath.
[01:16:42] WAM! The rocket smashed into the tank and bounced off.
[01:16:47] The goddamn thing was a dud where the gunner was too close and the rocket did not have time to arm.
[01:16:53] A burst from the tanks machine gun opened up and quickly cut the American gunner down.
[01:17:00] I scrambled down the muddy dikes screaming at hegly to get the his gun up.
[01:17:04] Machine gun rounds from the tanks gunner sprayed me with mud.
[01:17:08] Go for the treads I screamed.
[01:17:10] I watched hegly's assistant gunner slide around into the 57 on his shoulder and tap him on the helmet.
[01:17:16] I slid to a stop and buried my head in my hands.
[01:17:19] I felt the concussion before I heard the round race by and hit the tank.
[01:17:24] The armored Hulk tried to shake off the blast, but when it moved I watched the tread roll off the wheels.
[01:17:30] The turret still worked and I could see it moved back and forth searching for targets.
[01:17:35] Staying out of the North Korean sites, I motioned a wall to get his gun on the second tank.
[01:17:40] In minutes I heard another blast from the 57.
[01:17:43] Soon the two tanks unable to get there by their crippled mate, reversed and headed back to the village.
[01:17:53] Just taking out tanks with bazookas.
[01:17:58] Unbelievable.
[01:18:01] The next morning we started out toward the hill in the village.
[01:18:05] A thick early morning fog hung low over the rice patties visibility was zero.
[01:18:10] We were stiff wet and very anxious as we started moving toward the objective.
[01:18:15] Up ahead I saw soldiers walk through the North Korean positions and continue toward the village.
[01:18:20] Climbing like the last dike we ran up on a road covered in North Korean bodies.
[01:18:24] They were in a heap torn apart by shrapnel.
[01:18:27] Mules and broken equipment sat motionless nearby.
[01:18:31] Body parts were strewn on both sides of the road.
[01:18:35] A saw men lying dead and still chained to the machine guns they were pulling.
[01:18:39] As the fog lifted the site became even more gruesome.
[01:18:43] Our artillery had caught them trying to withdraw.
[01:18:48] The same scene played over and over again as we moved up the road into the village.
[01:18:54] We didn't face a fight taking this position.
[01:19:00] Every mile we moved north, my outlook changed.
[01:19:03] The whole section looked and acted more self-confident.
[01:19:06] When we got into a fight we enjoyed it.
[01:19:08] The killing was quickly becoming revend rather than necessity.
[01:19:12] Rather than necessity to gain ground and drive the North Koreans out.
[01:19:16] We were still being killed.
[01:19:18] Only now we were the aggressors and they were dying in their holes.
[01:19:23] I knew we were better fighters and had held them under tremendous odds.
[01:19:29] Now the tables were turned and they did not have the will or resolve to accomplish what we had and
[01:19:35] Pruson during the darkest days of summer.
[01:19:38] The momentum has kind of changed and these guys are feeling good about the whole situation.
[01:19:45] There is something good and something that feels good about being on offense.
[01:19:54] This confidence continues as they continue to advance.
[01:19:58] Early the next morning we were back on foot advancing toward the North Koreans behind the three American tanks.
[01:20:03] We were receiving heavy artillery fire and trying to stay close to the tanks hoping the army would shield us from the strappin'
[01:20:10] final flying through the air.
[01:20:16] One second I was looking back to make sure Walsh's squad was keeping up and the next I was stunned.
[01:20:18] A shell landed on the tank, sending strappin' and fire into the air.
[01:20:22] The explosion was deafening and I stumbled back, dazed.
[01:20:26] Falling down in the tracks behind the tank, I saw the crew crawling out of the escape hatch.
[01:20:31] Machine gun fire was kicking up dirt all around me as I hugged the ground.
[01:20:36] I could see two tankers lying under the tank. They were wounded and couldn't crawl away from the Hulk.
[01:20:42] Walsh I screamed, helped me get these guys. A couple of artillery rounds net landed on the road.
[01:20:48] I felt a sharp hop pain in my left shoulder.
[01:20:52] You alright? Walsh asked, has he raised to my side?
[01:20:56] Yeah. I said shaking my head tried to reassure him. I didn't have time to worry about it.
[01:21:02] The machine gun rounds pinged off the armor as I crawled underneath the tank and grabbed one of the tankers by his collar.
[01:21:08] Pain shot through my arm and my shoulder felt hot and weak.
[01:21:12] I let go but hung on with my good hand. Walsh grabbed the other tanker and we dragged the pair into it nearby ditch.
[01:21:19] Medic, medic I screamed.
[01:21:23] So this again there's a heroism after heroism after heroism in this book.
[01:21:29] And I brought bring up some of them but I don't bring up all of them because we just don't have.
[01:21:34] I'm not going to read the whole book. You got to buy the book.
[01:21:38] Continuing. I squatted down and tried to take off my gear and jackets to the medic could get to the wound.
[01:21:44] Because obviously you got hit in the shoulder. My left hand shook as I peeled off the shirt.
[01:21:48] Now a few shades darker from the blood. The medic arrived with Walsh. He wiped away the blood with a lot of gauze and started to bandage the gash.
[01:21:56] It was on the backside of my shoulder and I couldn't see the wound.
[01:22:01] A few pieces of shrapnel the medic said you can move it right. Probably nothing torn or broken.
[01:22:10] So now he's wounded. It's not too severe.
[01:22:16] Not exactly a good deal though. You think about you think about you're in an athletic competition which is what this is.
[01:22:25] And on top of that there's a massive amount of mental stress.
[01:22:28] And on top of that you got to make decisions. And on top of that you get you get a big gash in your shoulder.
[01:22:35] A couple days later we were we sat overlooking the 38th parallel.
[01:22:40] We'd push the North Koreans back now in a way to order us to attack.
[01:22:44] Sitting in my foxhole I watched as the full moon began to rise.
[01:22:48] I got the feeling that there was something safe and secure as it washed gently over us.
[01:22:53] I felt like God was protecting us or surely trying to help at least he'd kept me alive.
[01:23:00] Even though my shoulder throbbed. If only we were back home we could all go to sleep under the moon's calming light
[01:23:08] and wake up safe to the warmth of the sun.
[01:23:17] Now that shoulder wound that he kind of blew off actually is not all that good. He starts getting a little.
[01:23:25] Starts getting a little infection in it passes out from it. I woke up this time they carried me back to the battalion's aid station.
[01:23:31] The medic set the stretcher on a dirt floor.
[01:23:34] Dr. comes in. You're lucky.
[01:23:36] Had you waited in the longer the infection would have spread.
[01:23:40] Some time goes by the next day I felt fine. The doctors had me on a yellow diet.
[01:23:47] So when the doctor came on his rounds I told him I wanted to leave.
[01:23:51] I need to go back to my unit. I said.
[01:23:55] Typical fashion.
[01:23:57] The American doughboy, the American grunt.
[01:24:02] They get wounded. What do they want to do? They want to go back with their team.
[01:24:07] And that's exactly what he does.
[01:24:11] And a couple days later he gets back with his unit.
[01:24:15] And of course what are they doing? They're going on attack.
[01:24:18] And as they're going on attack back to the book all of a sudden there was a thunderous roar as an artillery barrage hit us.
[01:24:24] I was blown straight up in the air. My feet were over my head.
[01:24:28] I came down on my shoulder in my head. The mud softened the blow.
[01:24:33] Grabbing my helmet I yelled for my section to run forward out of the kill zone.
[01:24:37] Three guys in front of me and two behind me were wounded.
[01:24:41] I could hear the moaning as they clutch their stomachs and legs.
[01:24:49] I checked myself. I escaped without a scratch.
[01:24:53] Medix hurried to the downmen. I looked back and saw heatly standing days to get moving I yelled.
[01:25:01] He looked at me with a funny expression on his face and looked down at his waist.
[01:25:05] He'd been hit by shrapnel and the stomach.
[01:25:08] I could see the blood soaking through his fatigues. I'm hit rich.
[01:25:13] Get down. I said and I hollered medic.
[01:25:17] He glee fell to his knees and rolled over onto his back.
[01:25:21] I was torn. I wanted to run to him but I had to keep the rest of the section moving.
[01:25:27] There was one of those choices that you never want to make.
[01:25:32] I saw the medics coming and turned to join the other men.
[01:25:37] Good luck buddy. See you later. I screamed over my shoulder.
[01:25:41] I couldn't look back but I knew. I'd probably never see heatly again.
[01:25:48] A stomach wound. I thought Jesus Christ. I hope he makes it.
[01:25:52] I wanted to sit down and cry but this was not the time or place for that.
[01:25:58] I had damn near lost a whole squad.
[01:26:02] There was only one way to go at the hill so now they're trying to take the hill.
[01:26:14] There's only one way to go at the hill and it was straight forward.
[01:26:18] I looked across the open space we were going to cross. There was little cover.
[01:26:23] This was going to be tough. There was no time to dwell on heagly or our dwindling numbers.
[01:26:29] The longer we sat behind the rail rolled in beg meant the tougher it would be to get started.
[01:26:34] Braums are waiting to get artillery support. The same guys I had dinner with.
[01:26:39] I hope they remembered what I told them and come through.
[01:26:42] Leaning back against the embankment I saw Alan and the Korean hustling across the field, each carrying two pack boards with ammo.
[01:26:49] Get ready Braums are said. I gripped my rifle and closed my eyes.
[01:26:54] My mind knew going forward was crazy but I willed my legs to move.
[01:26:59] Soon I was running and leading the rest of the section across the patties.
[01:27:03] Mortar and artillery fire crashed around me but I didn't notice.
[01:27:07] I only saw the flashes of the North Korean machine guns ahead of me.
[01:27:10] I stayed close to Mac. I could hear him hollering to add his squad to move.
[01:27:16] To my right I saw that wall was right beside us. He had his squad moving.
[01:27:22] It all seemed almost normal. It was just another day, another attack.
[01:27:29] So you're getting mortar and artillery fire crashing all around you but you're not paying attention to that.
[01:27:35] I'm really paying attention to the dam muzzle flashes from the Korean machine guns at a right in front of you.
[01:27:42] When they they danned up pulling off that attack and again get the books so you can get some of those details.
[01:27:49] When the attack is complete he writes I was not a religious person but I felt like one that day.
[01:27:55] I gave thanks with walls for our gift of life.
[01:27:59] After services that evening we turned in our basic load of ammunition.
[01:28:05] Another sure sign that it was over.
[01:28:09] So just to rehash that last little statement they're turning in their ammunition because they're getting a positive feeling like they've been doing this good fighting.
[01:28:16] They've been on a pursuit. They were kind of on the defensive in the beginning and now they go back on the counter attack and now they're feeling pretty good and now they get hey you know what you can turn in your ammunition.
[01:28:26] Think about that.
[01:28:28] But back to the book that night we got orders to move but not home.
[01:28:34] We were headed north to the town of Ushan.
[01:28:38] I was a corporal when we arrived in Korea now less than sixty seven days later.
[01:28:44] I was going to be a master sergeant the army's highest non-commissioned officers rank.
[01:28:52] The promotions couldn't have come at a better time with the war winding down. I was sure this would be the last of the fast promotions.
[01:29:00] So he's actually again these guys think that they're doing a good job and they kind of think that things are heading in their direction.
[01:29:07] And yeah, 1950 I mean we know just from history that this war is not even close to over yet.
[01:29:13] And yeah, but that's the weather feeling.
[01:29:18] And can you imagine I mean he's at the highest he's a master sergeant right now.
[01:29:23] Sixty seven days he got promoted through all the ranks.
[01:29:26] That's how many guys that's how many guys were wounded or killed that they needed him to be promoted to run these units.
[01:29:36] So they now get sent into a position where they're holding a bridge.
[01:29:42] While they're holding this bridge, he sent a couple guys out on a recon to take a look around and they come back and he says, what the hell is that? I asked him.
[01:29:51] It's just an old glove and a shovel. It's all wet. It's probably been there for weeks.
[01:29:55] He said in a defiant tone and that's one of the guys that were on the recon talking. That was on the recon talking.
[01:30:00] They didn't look like any glove I had seen before it was large and padded.
[01:30:05] What else did you find I shot back? Just some old positions nothing to worry about.
[01:30:10] I was a little concerned now and continued to quism on how many holes there were up there.
[01:30:15] Around five or six the sergeant said, was the dirt wet or dry?
[01:30:20] God dammit I don't know. He was pitch black.
[01:30:23] I'm telling you there's nothing up on that fucking hill. The smug sergeant snapped at me.
[01:30:28] You can guess what's coming. You find a shovel up there. Guess what's going on. They're digging in. That's what's going on. They're digging in.
[01:30:36] These gloves, these kind of heavy gloves probably resupply from the Chinese. That's why they didn't recognize them.
[01:30:44] They hadn't really encountered the Chinese yet. That were about to attack in massive numbers.
[01:30:52] Back to the book.
[01:30:54] Around 4am the hill erupted.
[01:30:58] Four machine guns from the high hills on the south end of the bridge opened up two guns cross firing on each end of the bridge.
[01:31:06] The tracers from the machine gun were skipping off the concrete like firecrackers. My guys quickly man the 57 recorulus rifle and got off a few rounds.
[01:31:15] It did little.
[01:31:17] Immediately we started getting hit with mortar fire. My radio was shot up and I tried to get the company on the landline but it was out too.
[01:31:24] My mind was on my men. I lost two in the opening barrage and I had lost track of the two men on the south side of the bridge.
[01:31:32] This attack didn't make sense too much firepower for a few stragglers.
[01:31:36] So he's again looking back to the recon report that he got.
[01:31:40] It looked like the 4th of July fireworks as tracers skipped off the concrete but I soon realized that some of the fire was coming from our left flank.
[01:31:47] Jesus Christ it was our own company firing at us.
[01:31:51] So we got a little blue on blue going down which again for folks that are in the military.
[01:31:57] Blue on blue is a real thing.
[01:32:00] And if you don't pay attention and you don't plan for it can absolutely happen to you.
[01:32:04] You know, lay foot saying that the other day. If you would have asked him before we went on deployment.
[01:32:08] One of the chances that you're involved in a blue on blue situation.
[01:32:13] The following on deployment, lay foot even like no chance that would never happen to us.
[01:32:17] And during deployment.
[01:32:18] There was there was the I think we talked about three blue on blue possibilities were one real.
[01:32:25] And then two possibilities in the extreme ownership.
[01:32:29] And you know, one is the opening story of blue on blue.
[01:32:32] One is.
[01:32:33] Lave with Chris Kyle who's getting ready to take a shot and you know,
[01:32:38] Lave is basically getting asked.
[01:32:40] Hey take that guy out and Lave puts the brakes on it and it turns out being friendly US Army soldiers.
[01:32:45] And then one where I got guys on the rooftop of a building and there's a Bradley fighting vehicle that's one to engage it with 25 millimeter chain gun.
[01:32:53] And they're looking they're reporting that they're looking at one building.
[01:32:58] But they're actually looking and I'm and all indications are yes, you can engage those are enemy snipers on that rooftop take them out.
[01:33:06] But on the same block a few buildings down.
[01:33:10] And he was actually considered was actually like probably a couple blocks away was my guys and that gunner in that Bradley that was reporting it.
[01:33:20] He just got a little bit off on which building was which building.
[01:33:24] Oh yeah, so he was actually pointing at one building and just thought he was pointing.
[01:33:29] He's looking through they've really good imagery on those buildings, especially the thermo.
[01:33:34] So you can see like white hot.
[01:33:36] And he's looking at a building down this long street and he's reporting out.
[01:33:40] I don't I'd for you with the buildings were but the building he's you know reporting building 50 I got enemy any personnel on the rooftop.
[01:33:47] And my guys were in building 100.
[01:33:50] So he's asking does anyone have any true you know any friendly troops in building 50.
[01:33:54] No no no.
[01:33:55] No.
[01:33:56] Has any troops in building 50.
[01:33:57] Oh there's there's enemy with with scope weapons there.
[01:34:01] And everyone's thinking hey this is the sniper that's been killing our guys by the way.
[01:34:05] Let's take him out.
[01:34:07] And then looking at the yeah and what I actually told him to do I was like hey before and and the reason I I was heads up was because we had below on blue.
[01:34:17] I knew that this was a possibility.
[01:34:19] So I said count the buildings from your intersection up to the target building.
[01:34:25] And so that it just went quiet for a little while.
[01:34:28] And he comes back as extend by because he caught himself you know.
[01:34:32] He's you can see on the battle map it's like okay one two three four five six seven.
[01:34:38] And that's what whatever he gets to twelve he's like oh wait I'm in the wrong spot and you realize that this is I got you know so still down.
[01:34:46] But yeah you don't want to be on rooftop getting hit with 50 or 25 millimeter chain gun from a Bradley fighting vehicle.
[01:34:51] It's not going to be a good situation at all.
[01:34:54] And so the same thing's going on here you got fire flight going on at night you got troops moving around and these guys are getting lit up by their own men.
[01:35:01] All kinds of ways tactically to deconflick these things but you have to pay attention to you and one of the things you have to do is you have to have the.
[01:35:10] Humility to recognize that it can actually happen.
[01:35:14] Yeah.
[01:35:16] Back to the book the Koreans were all over the place Mac was hit worse than he's thought I could feel his back it was drenched in blood he started to choke I talked to him but he didn't answer.
[01:35:27] I laid him down and at the same time hauled to the rest of the men to pull and tighter around the road.
[01:35:33] I had four men left our two jeeps were shot up one was on fire.
[01:35:39] I knew at this point we could not hold the bridge get the breach get the breach block from the 57 and throw it in the river I yelled to my guys.
[01:35:48] So so that's sort of like.
[01:35:52] That's like one of those when you make that call right there which is disabled our weapon permanently because we're going to not make it.
[01:36:02] We don't want the enemy to be able to use this when make capture it in a matter of minutes that's what he's saying is you know get the breach block out and throw it in the river.
[01:36:14] And then of course the North Koreans attacked again and got within 20 feet before we stopped them. I rushed to the other side of the road and got slammed to the ground from an explosion confused I stumbled into a nearby ditch my head was ringing I checked Mac he was dead and so were the other two men on his side of the road.
[01:36:33] With only two men left we had to leave the bridge I shoved the grenade in the breach of the 57 the grenade exploded destroying the gun.
[01:36:42] And we started pushing up the ditch away from the bridge I couldn't see or hear anything.
[01:36:52] We had not gone very far when the point man told me someone was coming down the ditch toward us I took a knee and re-edit my rifle hold your fire until they get closer I whispered.
[01:37:03] The point man yelled quickly back, serge their own guys, two of them from battalion come over here what's going on I barked them.
[01:37:14] The men looked crazed both were talking a mile a minute and I tried to settle them down look take it easy I told them slowly tell me what you know.
[01:37:24] The battalion got hit they were in the headquarters before we knew it the whole damn place was a mess one of the soldiers said.
[01:37:34] There were dead and wounded all over everything was shot up it looked like an artillery barrage made a direct hit it was total chaos.
[01:37:41] What are you two trying to do I asked they said they were trying to make contact with someone.
[01:37:48] Sergeant on Taylor one of Walsers men the other guys from first battalion in the dark I didn't recognize him where's Walsh.
[01:37:58] They're all dead serge Taylor said.
[01:38:09] So they make movement towards that battalion headquarters area and there's still some friendlies there we stumbled into the battalion headquarters area and I introduced myself and asked Jones what the situation was it was not good.
[01:38:27] There were thirty or forty wounded or dead doc Anderson in the chaplain and are in the command post trying to take care of the wounded.
[01:38:40] Jones thought the battalion commander was dead they just walked in on them and shot up the whole damn place.
[01:38:48] So at this point they kind of ziggy out of there into a tree line and we got into the wood line and threw ourselves to the ground completely exhausted.
[01:39:00] And from there the chaplain moved onto another position but before he left he told me we were fighting the Chinese.
[01:39:10] We heard rumors about the Chinese soldiers coming over the border that pretty much confirmed what I had fought for the last couple of hours.
[01:39:18] Jones basically told me when he mentioned that their quilted uniform jackets looked much different than the North Koreans.
[01:39:25] First Lieutenant Phil Peterson and Walt Mayo had also scrambled into our perimeter both officers were artillery forward observers but had lost their radios in the confusion.
[01:39:40] The Chinese soldiers had crossed the Yalu to protect electrical generators along the river. That night Peterson had seen a Chinese prisoner in his quilted jacket but had no idea the danger we were in.
[01:39:56] We had been ordered back to the battalion and then tried to escape when artillery unit tried to save their own hoursers. But the Chinese had already cut the road.
[01:40:09] We were trapped.
[01:40:12] We set up our defenses. We knew the Chinese would come for us that night. So that's it right now they're surrounded.
[01:40:25] They set up a perimeter to the best of their ability and they got a bunch of wounded. They're low on ammunition. They're low on food. They're low on water.
[01:40:35] So a perimeter is basically for those that don't know you set up 360 degree security perimeter. You dig some foxholes. You put machine guns pointing out.
[01:40:43] It's your last stand situation now. It doesn't always last end because when you're on a normal patrol you set up perimeter. Any time you stop you set up 360 degree security.
[01:40:53] And in this situation that's what they're doing. They're set up their perimeter to the best of their ability with what they've got left and then there's a little command post in the center of the perimeter. And here we go back to the book inside the command post. I knew what the officers were talking about.
[01:41:09] It was a forbidden subject.
[01:41:12] What were we going to do with the wounded in the terrible final moment that everyone knew is coming.
[01:41:22] Italian surgeon, doc Anderson and the chaplain were doing what they could for about 40 wounded men. But we couldn't hold out for long without a relief column.
[01:41:31] Meaning people coming to back them up. And if we had to run the wounded officers were going to have to decide whether or not to leave themselves and the other wounded men behind to the mercies of the enemy.
[01:41:47] And once he kind of hears that inside the center of the perimeter during the at the command post there he goes back out to his edge of the perimeter.
[01:41:58] And then here we go back to the book. I saw a group of 20 men running right at us.
[01:42:04] They were Americans and we're hallowing and waving at us. I prayed they were the lead element of a relief column.
[01:42:11] Because of course they're here in rumors that someone's going to come. There's there's friendly on the way. That's what they're getting. They're kind of.
[01:42:17] And I wasn't clear where they were getting those rumors from or whether they were just assuming like hey we're here Americans are going to come to get us.
[01:42:27] They've got to be sending a relief battalion. We just need to hang on.
[01:42:30] So that's what he's saying. I prayed that they were the lead element of a relief column.
[01:42:35] The other guys were cheering them on as they made the short dash to our trench. They slid inside their chest. Chess heaving.
[01:42:43] What unit are you guys from I asked?
[01:42:47] Second of the eighth an officer said between deep breaths.
[01:42:53] The stragglers pushed by us and collapsed in the center of the perimeter. Everyone's morale sank lower than whale shit.
[01:43:01] The energy and excitement seemed to deflate from the men in the trench and all at once their heads hung and shoulders dipped.
[01:43:09] These guys weren't a relief column. They were just more stragglers from the second battalion.
[01:43:17] I couldn't shake the thought that no one was coming for us.
[01:43:33] There's a soldier that he talks about a Polish guy. I mean American guy but of Polish descent last name's a wallock.
[01:43:41] Later that day, well, I saw another in their perimeter. Later that day wallock sent for me. I walked across the west side of the perimeter and saw him standing near a machine gun position.
[01:43:49] He looked concerned and started pointing out towards what looked like an open field.
[01:43:55] Look over there, he said. I watched where he was pointing. I didn't see anything.
[01:44:01] I looked at him and shrug my soldiers. No, keep looking. He said this time staring intently.
[01:44:07] Then I saw it. A faint shovelful of dirt flying right into the air.
[01:44:13] The little bastards were digging a trench. They were about a half dozen or so digging a path right for us.
[01:44:21] Our machine guns had been keeping them at a distance but when their trench was done, they could move under cover right up to the edge of our trenches.
[01:44:29] So that's a determined enemy. They're just going to spend all day digging toward you.
[01:44:37] As clandestine as they can but they can only keep it so clandestine and no one will only only one soldier noticed.
[01:44:45] Back to the book, sunset was a bad time. Night always meant another attack.
[01:44:53] It started with a probe. A few Chinese soldiers would move up to the perimeter followed by a short violent firefight.
[01:44:57] Shortly after the probe, the artillery and mortar fire would start followed by the demonic ball of brass bugles and whistles as the Chinese infantry attacked.
[01:45:11] The now he's talking about his guys. The men looked at me with weary, entire dyes.
[01:45:15] All of us had scruffy beards and our skin was caked with mud and blood. None of the soldiers could look at me.
[01:45:23] They knew that they wouldn't survive unless they got up and fought but they just sat there.
[01:45:29] They were not cowards just frozen by fear. For some, this was their first taste of combat.
[01:45:35] Boys who overnight were forced to become men. I could only imagine the terror they must have been through.
[01:45:41] Must have been going through.
[01:45:43] You've got two choices. I yelled.
[01:45:46] Get up and get to the line or I'll shoot you.
[01:45:51] That shocked them into action. I don't think they thought I would shoot them.
[01:45:55] I had no sooner finish prodding the men out of their interior holes than one hell of a fight took place at the Batayan command post.
[01:46:03] I knew there were mostly wounded soldiers there and I feared for Jones the lone man on the machine gun.
[01:46:09] But I had my own problems. The bugles and whistles broke the silence and the Chinese rushed the east side of our perimeter.
[01:46:15] They came in waves straight into our fire.
[01:46:19] As quickly as they fell more appeared.
[01:46:23] They moved into our fire like they were possessed.
[01:46:25] I raced from trench to trench moving men where the Chinese concentrated their attack.
[01:46:29] When they were attacked on the east side slowed, they launched an attack on the west side.
[01:46:35] Although we were dug in our casualties, we're mounting.
[01:46:37] I kept moving men to where the most Chinese were concentrated. The attack slowed down but it was not long before they began an assault on the west side of the perimeter.
[01:46:45] Now they get this idea as these attack were taken place.
[01:46:49] There's these trucks that were there.
[01:46:51] Kind of abandoned trucks and they figure it's night time if they can set these trucks on fire.
[01:46:57] They'll allow them to see the enemy.
[01:47:01] And so that's what they do. They want one of these attack starts.
[01:47:05] They shot the gas tanks and then shot tracers until all the vehicles were on fire.
[01:47:13] When the Chinese infantry men ran past, we could see them silhouetted against the light.
[01:47:17] It was a shooting gallery. We cut down the first wave only to watch the next one's climb over their comrades and keep coming.
[01:47:25] We mowed down the next wave, but they still kept coming.
[01:47:29] For the rest of the night, the Chinese came at us like waves to the shore.
[01:47:33] But each time we stopped them, they never reached the perimeter.
[01:47:37] The next morning we took stock of our situation.
[01:47:40] Water and food were a problem, but ammunition and the wounded were our biggest concern.
[01:47:46] We had 85 able-bodied men left out of about 200.
[01:47:52] The rest were dead or wounded.
[01:47:56] We were also out of morphine and the screams of the wounded were starting to have an impact on the rest of the men.
[01:48:04] I could see in their eyes a tired, haggard look.
[01:48:08] A relief column is coming for us. They'll get through today.
[01:48:12] I told the men as I walked the line.
[01:48:14] I said it over and over again, hoping to climb them.
[01:48:18] And as I realized in hindsight, probably hoping to convince myself.
[01:48:22] I hope to hell I was right.
[01:48:26] Now, this is just a little report again about Chaplain Coplan.
[01:48:36] He gets a report.
[01:48:40] Richardson gets a report.
[01:48:42] And it says this, the doc said that when the Chinese got into the dugout,
[01:48:46] Chaplain Coplan stopped them from killing all the wounded by surrendering himself.
[01:48:50] The Chinese took him and 15 of the walking wounded,
[01:48:54] including my old company commander Captain McAbee.
[01:48:58] What Coplan did was heroic stopping the Chinese.
[01:49:02] When he left, he was carrying Sergeant Miller.
[01:49:06] So Chaplain Coplan just once again, heroic actions,
[01:49:12] saving the lives of these guys before they were slaughtered by the Chinese,
[01:49:16] by surrendering himself.
[01:49:20] When I got back, I organized about a dozen guys to follow me out of the perimeter and gather up some of the Chinese weapons and ammunition.
[01:49:28] We were out of almost everything, but lying in front of us were weapons and ammunition, including much needed grenades.
[01:49:34] Before we left, I told the men to be careful because some of the Chinese might still be alive.
[01:49:38] It was gruesome business, but the only solution to our most pressing problem.
[01:49:44] Crawling over piles of dead Chinese, the smell was overpowering.
[01:49:48] At time, I could hear gas, seep out of the decaying corpses.
[01:49:54] I could hear men behind me gag and throw up.
[01:50:00] Yeah, so this is like, you got to sit around, you got to imagine what this is like, that they are the Chinese attackers are literally stacked and piled on top of one another.
[01:50:12] And you're so low that you have to go out and gather weapons and ammunition from them.
[01:50:18] And as you're doing that, their bloated bodies are giving off gases, and it's smell so horrible, and the whole scene is so horrific, that your men are dry-heaving and throwing up as you're trying to do this.
[01:50:34] Back to the book. For the rest of the morning, we passed out our new trove of ammunition and dug in deeper.
[01:50:46] As we worked, I heard the faint buzz of an airplane overhead.
[01:50:49] The spotter plane that had dropped a bag of medical supplies was back, so I skipped over this part, but they got some medical supplies from a little plane.
[01:50:57] And this time, instead of dropping supplies, it dropped the message. And this time, the pilot dropped it on target.
[01:51:05] Guru, Guru, open the message. That's one of the one of the other guys, Guru.
[01:51:11] I hope I'm pronouncing that right. G-I-R-O-U-X-G-R-O, open the message.
[01:51:17] I saw the color leave as face.
[01:51:21] I knew what the message said before he told me. We were on our own. No relief column was on its way. Our new order was simple.
[01:51:32] We needed to get back to friendly lines the best way we could.
[01:51:37] While Guru got the officers together, I gathered up a few of the sergeants and we had a meeting.
[01:51:43] Well, we are on our own. That message told us to get back the best way we can. I told the sergeants.
[01:51:53] While I was the first one to speak up, we can't just leave the wounded. What the hell else were we going to do with sergeant I didn't recognize said.
[01:51:57] The meeting was tense. I realized that what I had been telling them was going to happen wasn't going to. No relief. No rescue.
[01:52:07] And if we stayed in this hellhole, we would all die. I don't think we can keep the Chinese out of the perimeter for one more than one more night.
[01:52:17] If we can even do that, I said. There was silence. We were facing death, but bravery is a funny thing.
[01:52:27] It comes in all shapes and sizes and appears in men you would at least expect it from.
[01:52:33] Most of us didn't know one another, but we fought hard together like we would blood brothers.
[01:52:41] What do you say about staying one more night? Maybe somehow they will break through to us tomorrow.
[01:52:47] I said tomorrow. We talk about the wounded. Wallach nodded his head and looked at the others. I'm for staying one more night.
[01:52:59] Everyone quickly agreed. No one wanted to leave the wounded. I told Grow the way the men felt.
[01:53:07] And after he met with bronzer male and Peterson they all agreed. No one was comfortable leaving our wounded or the wounded nearby in the battalion headquarters.
[01:53:17] The Chinese, that night the Chinese attacked three times and three times we held, but not without suffering more casualties.
[01:53:27] After the last attack I literally fell into a hole near the center of the perimeter. I was fighting a losing battle against sleep.
[01:53:35] I could feel myself slipping away. My body felt numb, damp and heavy.
[01:53:43] There was no noise, no sound. I was paralyzed in the hard drive tried to move. The more I felt, the more my body felt like stone.
[01:53:53] I tried to scream. Nothing. I tried harder. I couldn't make a sound.
[01:53:59] Bugles in the distance cleared my hazy mind. I could hear the burp burp of Chinese submachine guns, but the cop, but not the constant rattle of our own machine gun closest to me.
[01:54:11] I instantly got a sick feeling. I bolted out of the trench and crawled toward the machine gun position and fell into the hole head first.
[01:54:17] The gunner was wounded and the assistant gunner was trying to put the gun back in action. There was ammo, but the gun was jammed.
[01:54:25] I racked it back, nothing. The head space was screwed up. The Chinese were within 20 yards of us, and I was screaming for the men to keep firing.
[01:54:35] I pulled the gun into the hole and started to take it apart. I adjusted the head space, put the barrel in chamber and alignment, and reassembled it.
[01:54:43] The A gunner, the assistant gunner, laid the ammo belt in and slapped the cover down.
[01:54:49] I racked the bolt back and pulled the trigger. The gun jumped back to life. The fire immediately had an impact and drove a wedge into the advancing soldiers.
[01:54:57] The first burst took out half a dozen. Some of the wounded and dead Chinese fell into our trenches.
[01:55:05] Others crumbled in a heap near the edge, close enough that we could reach out and touch them.
[01:55:11] I looked down and saw that the gunner was dead. The A gunner was hitting the arms, and I could see blood staining his fatigue jacket,
[01:55:19] but he kept firing his rifle and replacing ammo belts when the machine gun went dry.
[01:55:25] Just as fast as it started, the attack ended.
[01:55:29] There was some sporadic firing from the other side of the perimeter. A couple of guys close to the gun position came over to me and took over.
[01:55:39] As I headed back to my hole, I crawled over several dead American and Chinese.
[01:55:45] Every trench and hole seemed to be filled with wounded men screaming and crying for their mothers.
[01:55:55] Always their mothers.
[01:55:59] We had an added problem now since some of the wounded were Chinese soldiers.
[01:56:05] The dead were not a problem. We just pushed them out in front of the trench,
[01:56:09] but the wounded we had to help if we could.
[01:56:13] The medics did their best, but we barely had enough for our own men.
[01:56:19] The Chinese were all scared to death, crying, and moaning.
[01:56:25] They were the enemy, but they were also soldiers just like us.
[01:56:31] It was difficult to see them that way.
[01:56:37] The next morning, bronzer and grower called me over to them.
[01:56:45] The two artillery lieutenant's male and putters and were also there, grower said,
[01:56:49] what we all knew. We can't stay here any longer.
[01:56:53] There is no doubt my mind that the Chinese will overrun us tonight.
[01:56:57] We need to find a way out. We'll lead a patrol.
[01:57:01] Lieutenant's male and peaters have already volunteered to go.
[01:57:07] I looked at the lieutenant's and nodded my head, yes.
[01:57:13] They're going to find a way out of this perimeter,
[01:57:19] and they're going to do a little reconnaissance tonight,
[01:57:23] or now to try and figure out their route. So that then later they can get out of there and come up with a plan to get out of there.
[01:57:31] Back to the book, because we, and so they're crawling down a trench to try and look for the way out.
[01:57:35] As we crawled down the trench toward the east side,
[01:57:39] word got out that we were going on patrol.
[01:57:41] Peters and crawled by a badly wounded radio operator, lieutenant Petersen, where are you going?
[01:57:47] Looking for a way out, he said.
[01:57:51] Lieutenant Peterson, the radio operator pleaded, please don't leave me here.
[01:57:55] Please don't leave me. You can't leave me here for them to get me.
[01:58:01] Petersen looked shaken, and I urged us forward. I heard him say he was sorry as we crawled off.
[01:58:07] Others reached out to us, patded us on the back, and wished us good luck.
[01:58:15] As we moved down the riverbed, the Chinese soldiers,
[01:58:19] grabbed at us, and held out cops begging for water.
[01:58:25] I took my canteen and turned it upside down to show them that we had no water.
[01:58:29] So there's the enemy. They're also wounded laying in these trenches.
[01:58:33] It's just a total bloodbath, and the Chinese soldiers are asking these Americans.
[01:58:39] And you can even imagine what these guys look like at this point. They've been fighting for weeks on end.
[01:58:45] They have no water. They've had no food. They're out ammunition. They're covered in blood.
[01:58:49] I mean, Richardson's actually wounded.
[01:58:53] And to sorry state therein, you got the Chinese soldiers that are even worse state.
[01:58:58] Begging for water.
[01:59:02] So these guys find a route. I don't want to make it sound like they found some easy escape route that's going to work.
[01:59:10] They found a possible way of getting out of this perimeter. And when they get back,
[01:59:16] they come back and put out the word.
[01:59:22] Like, okay, this is what we're going to try and do.
[01:59:26] And it's a grote talking. He says, we moved it 1700 before the Chinese move in.
[01:59:32] Grote said, word was passed to all able bodied men.
[01:59:37] They were told to make sure that they took what ammunition they had left.
[01:59:42] I got a burp gun and some ammo.
[01:59:47] The wounded men knew what was happening.
[01:59:51] Some broke down, cried, and begged us not to leave.
[01:59:56] Please, dear God, take us. One soldier begged me, grabbing at my shirt.
[02:00:02] Don't leave us to the Chinese.
[02:00:05] Others just watched in silence.
[02:00:10] They knew they'd slow us down.
[02:00:14] They also knew that they'd be dead soon.
[02:00:18] They simply asked that we come back for them.
[02:00:23] But I knew we were leaving them to die or worse, get captured.
[02:00:28] I knew my orders and agreed with them.
[02:00:33] But I couldn't shake the feeling that I was leaving so many good men.
[02:00:38] Men who'd fought well only to be left behind to die.
[02:00:43] I wasn't sure I could ever forget this.
[02:00:49] This was the hardest thing I had done in my short lifetime.
[02:00:58] This is your classic scenario of, hey, what do we do?
[02:01:03] We leave no man behind.
[02:01:06] So then what's going to happen if they do that is everyone is going to die.
[02:01:12] And they make the decision.
[02:01:14] Now we could have a theoretical debate on well,
[02:01:18] maybe if they fought it out, maybe if they stuck together,
[02:01:21] maybe they could defeat the Chinese that are surrounding them.
[02:01:26] In my estimation, this is wrong.
[02:01:31] And you can see these guys already stayed longer.
[02:01:33] They've already done everything that they can.
[02:01:35] They're out of ammunition.
[02:01:36] They're surrounded by Chinese that Chinese have unlimited number of men that are literally in piles around them.
[02:01:42] And they know that if they are going to, if anyone is going to survive,
[02:01:48] then they need to make a break for it.
[02:01:50] And again, it's theoretical for us that it's sitting here.
[02:01:53] It's hypothetical.
[02:01:54] We could say, oh, we'd stay in fight. We could say whatever you want to say right now.
[02:01:57] You're not in that position.
[02:02:00] So now they leave it around five o'clock.
[02:02:04] They start making a move a few hours into the march that rain turned into a downpour in minutes.
[02:02:09] We were soaked to the skin. The temperature was dropping and started to shiver.
[02:02:13] Moving was the only way to stay warm.
[02:02:15] I pushed on trying to get as many miles as possible between us and the old perimeter.
[02:02:23] We were well behind Chinese lines.
[02:02:26] And because of the size of our group, it was likely that we'd be spotted soon.
[02:02:29] Now this is interesting.
[02:02:31] Trying to move with, I think they said they had 80 able bodied men.
[02:02:35] Maybe at 60, that's a massive number of people.
[02:02:38] You can't hide 60 people.
[02:02:40] It doesn't work.
[02:02:42] You can, oh well, I shouldn't say you can't.
[02:02:44] It's very, very difficult to hide 60 people.
[02:02:47] Like a platoon of 40 guys.
[02:02:49] It's hard, you know, in the sealed teams, we have little tiny elements,
[02:02:54] little tiny platoon of 16 guys.
[02:02:56] You can find some terrain that will hide you.
[02:03:00] We've worked in squads with eight guys.
[02:03:03] Like, okay, we can find a place to hide.
[02:03:05] When you have 60 or 80 guys behind enemy lines, that's going to be a challenge.
[02:03:10] I mean, just think about where can you hide that many people.
[02:03:13] Like a perfect terrain feature.
[02:03:16] A ravine, you know, something like that.
[02:03:18] That's a lot of people to put in the ravine and just the noise discipline of people.
[02:03:22] You know, who's going to cough?
[02:03:23] You get 60 people.
[02:03:25] Someone's going to cough.
[02:03:26] I mean, just you and me sitting in this room and we notice one of us
[02:03:29] costs because we're one of us grunts or whatever, because we're recording it.
[02:03:34] But you think about, you know, you nice sitting here for two hours for three hours.
[02:03:38] I would say five times during that one of us will cough.
[02:03:43] Right?
[02:03:44] And you got to go edit it out.
[02:03:46] Sure.
[02:03:48] So if that's happening with two of us, you put 80 people into ravine where they're trying to hide from the enemy.
[02:03:55] And there's how many people are coughing.
[02:03:57] You know, how many people are sneezing?
[02:04:01] Right?
[02:04:02] And it's not, it's not good odds.
[02:04:04] And that's where these guys are saying.
[02:04:06] He is Richardson saying, look, we have a massive group.
[02:04:08] It's not going to be easy to hide.
[02:04:12] Back to the book.
[02:04:13] Get moving to take advantage of the dark.
[02:04:17] I left the house.
[02:04:18] They had been in a little house speaking of hiding.
[02:04:20] I left the house frustrated.
[02:04:22] Sergeant Mayor from the Batyans intelligence section called me over.
[02:04:25] Let's get out of here.
[02:04:26] He said, you and I have a better chance to get back to this group as two large.
[02:04:29] We don't have the fire power to fight and they're slowing us down.
[02:04:33] So here's a guy saying, let Barrow.
[02:04:35] Losers make a run for it.
[02:04:36] He was right.
[02:04:38] I knew that we'd probably make it back to friendly lines together.
[02:04:42] Breaking down in a smaller group would be better.
[02:04:46] But I'd help the Shepherd these men too far to turn my back on them,
[02:04:51] even if it cost me my life.
[02:04:53] Sorry.
[02:04:55] Can't do it.
[02:04:56] Mayor shrugged and disappeared into the darkness.
[02:05:00] So exactly what I just said, this guy made the decision.
[02:05:03] You know what?
[02:05:04] Now, going alone, that's not a good idea either.
[02:05:06] You know, because now you got no one to support you.
[02:05:09] You got no one to watch your sex.
[02:05:10] I mean, that's just a bad idea.
[02:05:12] You can't, you can need to sleep at some point in your by yourself.
[02:05:15] What happens when you start snoring?
[02:05:17] Right?
[02:05:18] Yeah.
[02:05:19] But this guy figured I got a better chance to do it in the spine myself.
[02:05:21] So I'm going to break out.
[02:05:22] Now, you could have given a order like, hey,
[02:05:24] everyone, there's something called a scape and invasion.
[02:05:27] When you're just, everyone's basically every man from self.
[02:05:30] You could do that.
[02:05:32] But at this point, Richardson is like, hey, we made it this far.
[02:05:37] We're going to stick together.
[02:05:39] Back to the book.
[02:05:41] My group climbed to the top of a null.
[02:05:43] I could see the rounds hitting a mountain no more than five miles away.
[02:05:47] We were close for the first time I felt hope.
[02:05:50] Then the hail erupted with machine gun and mortar fire.
[02:05:54] I was knocked flat on my face.
[02:05:56] I quickly got up and just as quickly got back down in the prone position.
[02:06:00] The Chinese were shelling the hail.
[02:06:02] My lower back felt wet.
[02:06:04] And I could feel what I thought was sweat running down the crack of my ass.
[02:06:08] It wasn't sweat.
[02:06:09] It was blood.
[02:06:10] I was hit, but I didn't feel anything.
[02:06:13] There was so much smoke, dirt and dust that I could barely see.
[02:06:16] I stumbled off the hail followed by three others.
[02:06:19] There were about a dozen Chinese soldiers chasing us.
[02:06:22] I prodded myself to think and move.
[02:06:24] We started to head for a village on the other side of the road.
[02:06:27] Behind the village, I could see a massive rice patty that ran up to a hill.
[02:06:31] I figured we could escape it if we got over the hill first.
[02:06:34] The patty had about three or four inches of water in it.
[02:06:38] We stayed on the tops of the dikes and got halfway across the patty before I turned
[02:06:42] to fire back.
[02:06:44] The Chinese soldiers dove for cover when they did we started running again.
[02:06:49] As I was running, I saw rounds hitting the water in front of me.
[02:06:53] It's not good.
[02:06:57] When we got to the other side, we got down.
[02:07:03] We got down behind the dike and started firing at the Chinese again.
[02:07:07] I didn't see anyone behind them.
[02:07:09] If we could take them out, we had a chance.
[02:07:12] But the others didn't have any ammunition left.
[02:07:16] And I was down to a few rounds myself.
[02:07:19] Get going, I said.
[02:07:22] I'll hold them off.
[02:07:24] They looked at me for a second.
[02:07:26] Go, I screamed and turned toward the Chinese soldiers crossing the patty.
[02:07:32] I fired a few shots and then dove behind a dike.
[02:07:35] A few seconds later, I fired two more bursts before I was out of ammunition.
[02:07:41] Between bursts, my mind was searching for an escape route.
[02:07:44] I knew that if I ran straight up the hill, I didn't stand a chance.
[02:07:48] About 30 yards to my right, there was a house.
[02:07:51] A woman in a baby were crying and wailing and a dugout near the hill.
[02:07:55] I went into the house.
[02:07:56] If I went into the house, I was sure the woman would tell them.
[02:07:59] But I couldn't stay behind the dike with no ammunition.
[02:08:02] Jumping up, I ran behind the house and started up the hill.
[02:08:05] I tried to keep the house at my back hoping to mask my movement.
[02:08:09] I went as far as I could go without the Chinese seeing me and then dove into a large bush.
[02:08:15] Rolling onto my stomach with my Chinese burp gun underneath me, I waited.
[02:08:20] I had no ammo, but I had a death grip on the weapon.
[02:08:24] It was like my security blanket.
[02:08:27] I could hear the Chinese soldiers climbing up the hill.
[02:08:31] They were yelling at one another.
[02:08:33] I was trying not to move, not even breathe.
[02:08:37] A fly hovered around my face landing on my nose and mouth.
[02:08:42] I tried to keep my mind closed to everything.
[02:08:46] I closed my eyes as they passed and took my first breath as I heard their yelling behind me.
[02:08:53] In a few minutes, I was sure they were gone.
[02:08:56] But every unit has one.
[02:08:59] A straggler that can't keep up.
[02:09:02] The Chinese straggler was so slow that when he got close to the bush, he saw me.
[02:09:09] I never moved and just shut my eyes.
[02:09:12] He started to holler and drove his bayonet into my butt.
[02:09:15] I felt the tip hit the bone.
[02:09:18] When I opened my eyes, I saw boots all around me.
[02:09:21] My mind went to the burp gun.
[02:09:26] If I rolled over, holding it, they'd shoot me for sure.
[02:09:31] I shot my arms out along the ground and rolled over, leaving the burp gun in the mud.
[02:09:38] They reached down and jerked me up.
[02:09:42] The barrel of the pistol looked like a gun.
[02:09:45] The barrel of the pistol looked like the business end of 105 millimeter hawitzer.
[02:09:53] A Chinese officer with red piping down the side of his pants had the pistol pressed between my eyes.
[02:09:59] He was screaming at me and Chinese, pointing up the hill.
[02:10:02] I was numb and couldn't speak.
[02:10:04] I lifted my shoulders and left them drop.
[02:10:06] I thought of this moment many times.
[02:10:10] And I know that if he pulled the trigger,
[02:10:13] I would never have known it.
[02:10:16] That would have been the end.
[02:10:19] I'd been captured.
[02:10:21] Now when I had no idea what to do, at least when I was on the run,
[02:10:24] I knew where I was going, even fighting for my life was easier than giving up all control.
[02:10:30] I was now at the mercy of the Chinese.
[02:10:35] So there you go.
[02:10:37] Captured.
[02:10:44] There's nothing else you can do.
[02:10:47] Nothing else you can do.
[02:10:52] They muster some other guys that got captured.
[02:10:55] They muster them all together.
[02:10:57] Now we're going back to the book.
[02:10:58] There are about 10 Chinese guards.
[02:11:00] They lined up us.
[02:11:02] They lined up beside us and moved us down the road a couple hundred yards.
[02:11:06] Suddenly the one in the lead started yelling in the whole column stopped.
[02:11:11] The guards grabbed us and made us kneel down in front of a ditch.
[02:11:17] I could hear one of the soldiers barking what sounded like orders in Chinese.
[02:11:22] My mind went on fuller.
[02:11:25] They were going to execute us.
[02:11:29] I felt the guy next to me shaking and another started sobbing.
[02:11:33] My God, this is it.
[02:11:36] This is one of those situations where you expect to see your life flash before your eyes.
[02:11:41] I was ready to really, really have seen from my childhood.
[02:11:45] Good times in Austria.
[02:11:47] Anything to take my mind from Korea and this ditch.
[02:11:52] They didn't happen to me.
[02:11:55] I just closed my eyes.
[02:11:59] Instead of shots, I heard laughing.
[02:12:04] They motioned for us to get up.
[02:12:06] The guy next to me was so emotionally drained that he couldn't get up.
[02:12:10] I tried to help him, but my hands were tied behind my back.
[02:12:13] Get up, I yelled.
[02:12:15] Don't let them laugh at you.
[02:12:18] Get up.
[02:12:21] They get to like a little building and they've been carrying captured rifles this whole time.
[02:12:33] So they get to a little building in back to the book.
[02:12:36] The Chinese dropped the pile of rice on the ground and motioned for us to eat it.
[02:12:40] The prisoners rushed in and started fighting over the grains.
[02:12:44] I staggered back from the melee and angrily watched.
[02:12:47] We've been turned into animals.
[02:12:49] After all we'd been through, why were the others not helping one another?
[02:12:56] Instead, they pushed and fought.
[02:12:58] I refused to join in.
[02:13:00] We needed leadership and control more than ever.
[02:13:03] And I was going to begin leading by example.
[02:13:07] So they get some initial interrogation.
[02:13:14] Of course, that mock execution horrible.
[02:13:22] And then they move into the next chapter, which is called death march.
[02:13:29] We started north up the road at a good clip.
[02:13:33] The guards circled us like sharks, pushing stragglers with their rifles, hitting and kicking anyone who stopped.
[02:13:40] Many in the group were wounded.
[02:13:42] One man had a massive chest wound.
[02:13:45] It was covered by bloodstained bandages.
[02:13:47] He weased as he shuffled down the road.
[02:13:51] My shoulder was a little stiff and the shrapnel in my back was wet and sticky.
[02:13:56] But I felt lucky.
[02:13:57] It was nothing in comparison.
[02:14:00] So, yeah, next time you're thinking you have a rough day, how about your prisoner of war on a death march and you've got a massive chest wound?
[02:14:12] So now one of these, some of the Chinese guards could speak English.
[02:14:16] And here we go.
[02:14:17] Pick up the wounded.
[02:14:19] He kept saying like a broken record.
[02:14:22] Guard started pushing us back toward the back of the formation.
[02:14:25] On the ground, we're about 20 soldiers on Jerry Raked Lidders.
[02:14:28] Made out of burlap bags attached and stretched between poles.
[02:14:32] Ten more soldiers stood around them.
[02:14:34] Pick up the wounded.
[02:14:36] The officer barked again.
[02:14:38] It took four of us to carry one letter.
[02:14:40] I grabbed the closest letter and hoisted it up.
[02:14:43] The soldier in the letter had a horribly mangled leg.
[02:14:46] His calf muscle was long gone and his foot rested on the inner limp.
[02:14:52] On the litter limp and lifeless.
[02:14:55] None of the wounded men had seen a doctor since being captured.
[02:14:58] I heard someone say they'd been in trucks, but were dumped on the road when the trucks were needed elsewhere.
[02:15:03] A whistle sounded and we started to shuffle toward the men.
[02:15:07] None of us were strong enough to carry the stretchers very long.
[02:15:10] My shoulders burned.
[02:15:12] I tried to focus on each step.
[02:15:14] Left, right, left, right.
[02:15:16] Whenever things got tough, my wound mind wandered back to the guy with a sucking chest wound.
[02:15:22] Where I stole a glance at the guy on the litter with a mangled leg.
[02:15:25] I vowed to never quit.
[02:15:28] But soon, my body started to break down.
[02:15:31] I tried to get another prisoner to relieve me, but everyone I asked looked away or moved ahead.
[02:15:38] Most hid in the dark trying to stay as far away from the stretchers as they could.
[02:15:43] You son of a bitch I barked at one soldier who almost jerked away when I asked.
[02:15:48] I was disgusted. It reminded me of the soldiers that first night fighting over the rice.
[02:15:53] We'd forgotten that the backbone of any military was the bond of the soldiers.
[02:15:58] We fought for the guys to our left and right.
[02:16:01] That is why we fought to protect our unit buddies.
[02:16:05] And we expected them to do the same.
[02:16:08] But on a death march, every man was an island.
[02:16:13] There seemed to be no place for anything else.
[02:16:17] I refused to be that way.
[02:16:22] It's heavy burden.
[02:16:28] Each night, the guards were getting tougher.
[02:16:32] They were constantly pushing and hitting men with their rifles.
[02:16:34] If a man fell behind, he was shot and pushed off the mountainside.
[02:16:38] Everyone was rapidly losing weight.
[02:16:40] Lack of food, wounds, and disinterrey were taking their toll.
[02:16:46] Carrying the men on stretchers was becoming even more difficult.
[02:16:49] We looked like skeletons. Our uniform was hung off us like a scarecrow is quote.
[02:16:54] Coach, each time we got topped each time we topped one of the mountains, we faced another one.
[02:16:59] Ears, nose, fingers, and toes were becoming numb.
[02:17:04] At times I felt like I was walking on my ankles.
[02:17:10] I was lucky that my legs had always been the strongest part of my body.
[02:17:15] Many of the wounded men who were strong enough to walk earlier were now in the need of stretchers.
[02:17:21] However, there were none.
[02:17:23] We found ourselves carrying them along between two of us.
[02:17:26] In some cases, we were practically dragging them.
[02:17:30] When I heard a single rifle shot back down the road,
[02:17:35] I knew another man's struggle was over.
[02:17:39] My heart was aching for them, but at the same time my mind kept telling me to move.
[02:17:44] We had two choices.
[02:17:47] March or die.
[02:17:55] My survival mode kicked in, not allowing me to surrender to pain and fatigue.
[02:18:02] The guards shoved us into a cluster of huts.
[02:18:06] So after walking a long time they get to like a little village.
[02:18:09] We were jammed into the room so tightly that my legs rested on another soldier.
[02:18:13] The only thing good about sleeping this way was that we were warmer.
[02:18:17] A cold front from the plains of Manchuria came roaring down and slamming into the very mountains we were struggling through.
[02:18:25] We were facing the coldest winter in 50 years.
[02:18:30] As we got ready to move out the commander of the guards told us to leave the stretchers.
[02:18:37] The wounded were pleading with us to take them.
[02:18:43] I started to move toward one and got a rifle button to gut.
[02:18:47] Others tried to grab the stretchers but the guards pushed them away too.
[02:18:52] I started to move toward the helpless soldiers again but couldn't risk another blow.
[02:18:59] I let my mind drift into a zombie state, hoping to block out the screams of the wounded.
[02:19:06] Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, over and over again.
[02:19:16] I repeated it until I couldn't hear their screams.
[02:19:21] Yes, absolutely horrible.
[02:19:48] absolutely horrible.
[02:19:53] After ten nights we marched into a fairly good size town.
[02:20:01] And this is when he decides that he's going to try and escape pretty early on and he's
[02:20:08] got a couple of buddies and there's some confusion and there's some chaos that happens
[02:20:13] as they're trying to round up the prisoners and he kind of jumps over with a couple of the
[02:20:19] guys into a little ditch and they cover up with some branches.
[02:20:24] And they start talking these three guys start saying, look what, you know, can we make
[02:20:28] a move?
[02:20:29] Well, let's, you know, let's head south and then finally one of the guys says that would
[02:20:35] be suicide in our condition.
[02:20:37] We won't make it over those mountains.
[02:20:39] We don't have warm clothes and we will probably die of hypothermia.
[02:20:43] We knew he was right.
[02:20:47] It was smarter to wait until springtime.
[02:20:50] We needed to try and survive and hope our forces liberated us.
[02:20:58] Now they're starting to get into like a little bit of a routine.
[02:21:01] My goal is to bring back discipline and start acting like soldiers again.
[02:21:05] To see the first night with the rice dropped on the ground was burned into my brain, the only
[02:21:09] way we could survive until spring was an impossible escape attempt was to start working
[02:21:14] together.
[02:21:19] The second wounded suffered the most.
[02:21:21] Our frostbitten feet turned to trench foot and open wounds were infected or gangrene
[02:21:26] and set in.
[02:21:27] For those guys, it was only a matter of time before they died since we had no medicine
[02:21:33] to treat them.
[02:21:35] Finally, from his little group, he loses a guy whose last name is Graves.
[02:21:41] Graves was the first to die.
[02:21:44] The valley had turned into one of death and suffering.
[02:21:48] Soon after Graves death, Chaplin Capon came to the house.
[02:21:54] We were all surprised to see him.
[02:21:55] I'd last seen him at Usan, but when he walked in, I barely recognized him.
[02:22:00] The man I'd met on a raging Pusan was gone.
[02:22:04] He lost a lot of weight and his uniform hung on his frame.
[02:22:09] His tired and worn out eyes, but lied his warm smile.
[02:22:14] Capon told us who his dead are wounded before he left.
[02:22:17] He told us to get organized.
[02:22:19] We'll need to take action when the troops show up.
[02:22:21] He said, have a plan.
[02:22:23] When the troops get close, the North Koreans might try to kill us all.
[02:22:34] Capon never came back to my house, but he continued to visit troops in the valley.
[02:22:38] I know he prayed for each one of us when he could, brought food to the starving until he
[02:22:43] became so weak that the guards took him to the hospital.
[02:22:47] We're going to hear about what that hospital consisted of.
[02:22:51] He died of pneumonia in May of 1951, who was buried in a mass grave by the Yalu River.
[02:23:01] If you don't know the story about Chapin Capon, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his
[02:23:07] actions in the Korean War, and I'm sure we'll cover that more detail at some point on
[02:23:13] this podcast, but at the meantime, you can look it up and read about a hero of war and
[02:23:20] a hero of faith.
[02:23:23] At one point, Richardson tries to steal some kimchi.
[02:23:28] Again, now I'm fast forwarding a bit to where they're a little bit more settled in.
[02:23:37] He steals a bowl of kimchi.
[02:23:40] They start the guards go all nuts.
[02:23:43] They're trying to find out who took the kimchi, who took the kimchi.
[02:23:47] They threaten them with, hey, no one's going to be able to eat until we know who took
[02:23:50] the kimchi and finally he breaks down and says, I did it.
[02:23:56] Only me.
[02:23:58] Now was the officer's turn to shake his head.
[02:24:01] You lie.
[02:24:02] More do it.
[02:24:03] No, only me.
[02:24:05] And the guards, I said, a little son of a bitch looked at me and then nodded to the guards who
[02:24:11] grabbed me and tied my arms behind my back.
[02:24:17] You learned lesson now.
[02:24:18] The officer said, the guards threw a rope over an open truss and pulled me up by my arms
[02:24:26] until my feet barely touched the dirt floor.
[02:24:30] The pain was excruciating.
[02:24:32] I could feel lightning jolt's of pain in my left arm and shoulder where I still had
[02:24:38] sharpened the wounds.
[02:24:39] The pain quickly crept up my arms driving straight to the top of my head.
[02:24:43] I gasped for air. the pressure on my chest allowed me to take only sharp, short breaths.
[02:24:51] I could hear myself moaning and once I cried out and pain before I passed out.
[02:25:00] I woke up on the dirt floor.
[02:25:02] I could barely feel the guards pulling the ropes off my arms.
[02:25:06] I could hear the son of a bitch rattle off a few orders.
[02:25:09] He sounded far away but I could see his boots and knew he was standing over me.
[02:25:14] The guards dragged me to my feet throwing open the door that tossed me on the floor of my
[02:25:18] room.
[02:25:19] I could barely move my legs and arms and stayed where I landed the rest of the night.
[02:25:25] Martin helped me get comfortable and told me that the house had been fed earlier that
[02:25:29] night.
[02:25:31] He had no idea how long I'd been strong up.
[02:25:35] In the next morning, I sat up and started making jokes.
[02:25:40] Some of them laughed with me.
[02:25:42] Others were just scared.
[02:25:43] Laughing hurt my ribs but it was the first time I've done it since you saw.
[02:25:48] I was determined to keep my sense of humor.
[02:25:51] I was tied to my will to live.
[02:25:57] From that point on, I remember to laugh whenever I could.
[02:26:02] Well, I guess we won't be having kimchi anymore.
[02:26:10] After two months in the valley, the guards marches out of the valley and back up to the
[02:26:13] road in Pew Tongue.
[02:26:19] So they're in a different location now.
[02:26:24] In this location, the Chinese finally fully take over the operation of the camp as opposed
[02:26:30] to the Koreans, the North Koreans.
[02:26:33] So now it seems like the Chinese were a little bit nicer to the prisoners.
[02:26:39] The Chinese issued each of us a small drinking cup along with a bowl for a millet or
[02:26:43] our maize.
[02:26:45] No more eating out of a helmet liner.
[02:26:47] We were also allowed to start a cookhouse for each company and we were occasionally given
[02:26:51] soybeans.
[02:26:54] The wells were contaminated from animal and human feces, seeping through the ground and into
[02:27:00] the water well so we didn't have fresh water.
[02:27:05] There were about 3,000 men in the camp.
[02:27:08] Conditions were about as bad as a human being could possibly live with.
[02:27:11] So again, I pointed out that the Chinese were a little bit nicer because they gave them
[02:27:15] like a bowl but it's don't get me wrong.
[02:27:19] This was about as close as you could get to Andersonville in the Civil War, which that
[02:27:24] was a Confederate prisoner of war camp for Union soldiers.
[02:27:31] There was about 45,000 soldiers that were captured in that.
[02:27:36] In that prison camp, about 13,000 of them died from scurvy and from diarrhea and dysentery.
[02:27:46] It's funny we think of diarrhea.
[02:27:50] First of all we think of as a joke and then we think of as an inconvenience.
[02:27:53] And when you're in these situations it kills you.
[02:27:58] Back to the book we were full of lice.
[02:28:00] The farm boys told us they were hoglice growing larger every day on our blood while
[02:28:06] the lice got fat we starved.
[02:28:10] The guards brought us two bowls of millet a day and one bowl of boiled water which
[02:28:16] barely kept us alive.
[02:28:19] And even when we ate dysentery kept us weak and dehydrated.
[02:28:23] Longer can do some strange things to your mind.
[02:28:28] I was at the latrine a slit trench and I noticed that many of the soy beans were passed
[02:28:34] whole.
[02:28:36] I thought if I picked them out of the feces and washed them off I could eat them.
[02:28:44] Then it dawned on me that I must be going crazy or turning into an animal.
[02:28:48] It would be a few days before I was able to get over the fact that I'd let myself sink to
[02:28:52] a disgusting thought like that.
[02:29:02] So next time you're feeling hungry you're not feeling hungry.
[02:29:07] You even know what that feels like.
[02:29:14] They ended up like a former little group.
[02:29:19] He just mentions this one guy in this group named Vincent Doyle.
[02:29:23] Doyle became the leader of this little group.
[02:29:26] An infantryman during World War II.
[02:29:30] He had a wife and a son in fall with River Massachusetts.
[02:29:32] He received a battlefield commission in France and left the army as the lieutenant.
[02:29:36] He opened up a frozen food store in fall river.
[02:29:40] A little ahead of its time not many families had freezers.
[02:29:42] He went out of business and re-enlisted as a master sergeant, not an officer.
[02:29:47] He was an inch too short to be an officer of the army told him.
[02:29:51] Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I left that in there is like the guy's just humble.
[02:29:55] Like, oh, I can't cut his an officer anymore.
[02:29:56] Even though I got a battlefield commission in World War II.
[02:29:59] Oh, that's okay.
[02:30:00] I'll just be honest.
[02:30:01] Let's know for no factor.
[02:30:04] That's like the humility.
[02:30:06] I don't know if you see that kind of humility anymore.
[02:30:09] No man, don't make a big deal out of the generational differences, but that's a pretty humble
[02:30:14] guy right there.
[02:30:15] Back to the book, our biggest problem was our physical condition brought on by the march.
[02:30:23] Men with open wounds, many with gangrene didn't survive long.
[02:30:28] Some were saved from gangrene by maggots eating their dead flesh, which only meant they
[02:30:33] suffered longer.
[02:30:34] I mean, we've been through that before with a forgotten islander who they would actually
[02:30:39] put maggots to get rid of dead flesh to try and save themselves.
[02:30:45] The soldiers had black feet from frostbite and trench foot.
[02:30:48] I watched while one man pulled rod and flesh off his toe bones.
[02:30:53] The soldiers from the second infantry division had it worst.
[02:30:56] They'd been issued shoe packs, rubber boots with felt liners and insoles.
[02:31:02] Their feet would sweat and they were continuously wet while marching and they would freeze
[02:31:07] when they stopped marching.
[02:31:08] Since they never took off the shoe packs, the soldiers got trench foot.
[02:31:13] It's easily understood when men die of wounds or pneumonia.
[02:31:17] It is more difficult to understand when men just lie down and quit.
[02:31:22] I've seen strong men seemingly just give up and die.
[02:31:25] First they would stop eating and stare with blank eyes at the mud walls of the hut.
[02:31:31] Their minds were gone and life just slipped away.
[02:31:37] And after a few days, you heard an all-too familiar death rattle.
[02:31:44] We were dying at a rate of about 30 a day.
[02:31:47] Each morning we took out the dead, stripped them of their clothes and stacked them like
[02:31:51] cordwood and a pile.
[02:31:53] At first we tried to take the uniforms and coats and give them to other prisoners but the
[02:31:56] Chinese guards wouldn't allow it.
[02:32:00] What they did with the uniforms is still a mystery.
[02:32:04] I hated being part of the burial detail.
[02:32:08] The physical part was bad enough but the mental part was much worse.
[02:32:11] Thoughts about the families of the dead men and if they left children behind who might
[02:32:15] never know what happened to them.
[02:32:19] I knew from listening to men talk that what bothered most of them was the thought that
[02:32:22] they might be next.
[02:32:24] That's one thing I never let my mind think about.
[02:32:31] And again he moves around a bit to various places and various camps and gets various jobs.
[02:32:43] And again you have to read this book to really comprehend this level of suffering that
[02:32:50] was endured by these prisoners.
[02:32:52] Back to the book in early spring 1951 the Chinese were building small docs on the river
[02:32:56] and I was unlucky enough to be put to work on the crew.
[02:33:01] The group of us were carrying one of these timbers up a hill when someone in the center
[02:33:04] stumble and the timber fell, pinning me to the ground.
[02:33:10] And when that happens his back gets jammed up and even he makes it through that day.
[02:33:18] It starts getting worse and worse throughout the day.
[02:33:21] Now there's a hospital, right?
[02:33:26] It's a hospital but they actually called this hospital.
[02:33:29] It's just like every other prisoner camp that we've heard about when you go to the hospital
[02:33:32] your dead.
[02:33:33] That's just the place they put you to die.
[02:33:34] And it's the same thing here.
[02:33:36] So his guys are trying to prevent him from being taken to the hospital.
[02:33:41] So they're carrying him back and forth to their formations and finally the Chinese realized
[02:33:46] that he can't walk.
[02:33:48] So the Chinese come to the door and back to the book they were taking me to the hospital.
[02:33:54] We called it the morgue.
[02:33:55] We had never seen anyone return from there.
[02:33:57] I wanted to fight back but I couldn't.
[02:34:00] The guards closed the door to one of the rooms in the cluster of houses that served as
[02:34:04] the hospital and threw me in.
[02:34:06] It was dark and I could not see anyone.
[02:34:08] I landed on top of the wounded and sick lying on the dirt floor.
[02:34:12] They immediately started kicking and cursing me.
[02:34:15] The stench from the wounds and the human feces was unimaginable.
[02:34:18] I started to gag.
[02:34:21] So this is, I mean this is just the, I don't even imagine anything.
[02:34:25] This is going to be worse than the situation is and now this put in this giant room filled
[02:34:30] with shit and wounded people that are going to die.
[02:34:34] And by the way, it's like they've got dysentery and they've got diarrhea.
[02:34:37] So it's just a total nightmare.
[02:34:40] And he's trying to maintain a little bit of dignity and he asks one of the guys in
[02:34:45] room, where's the, where's the latrine?
[02:34:49] He had to use the restroom.
[02:34:51] And the guy tells him, out the door go left to the end of the building left again in
[02:34:56] 25 yards on a no you'll find the latrine.
[02:35:00] The temperature was freezing but I welcome the fresh air.
[02:35:02] I dragged myself out on my buttocks, pushing myself along with my hands.
[02:35:06] I reach the latrine.
[02:35:08] A trench of foot and a half wide and ten feet long.
[02:35:12] The trench sat just outside a strand of wire that separated our camp from the black prisoners.
[02:35:19] The human waste was like putting an almost reach to the top of the trench.
[02:35:24] I managed to get my pants down and had worked my way to the edge when the side cave
[02:35:29] didn't.
[02:35:31] I fell into the trench, finally catching my shoulders on the edge.
[02:35:35] The waste was at my chin as I clawed at the dirt trying to pull myself free.
[02:35:39] My legs paralyzed like an anchor pulled me toward the bottom.
[02:35:45] I yelled out and kept crawling but every second I slipped deeper and deeper into the trench.
[02:35:53] Two black prisoners on the other side heard me.
[02:35:56] They crawled through the barbed wire, grabbed me by my arms and pulled me out a second
[02:36:00] later and I would have slipped under the surface.
[02:36:05] The guards heard all the commotion that were closing in.
[02:36:07] My savior scrambled back through the fence just as the guards arrived to this day I have
[02:36:13] no idea who saved me.
[02:36:15] Fearing I was trying to escape, they started to beat me with the rifle butts.
[02:36:19] I covered my head to try and protect myself as I lay there, covered in shit.
[02:36:25] I lost control of my bowels.
[02:36:31] That was it.
[02:36:34] I was done.
[02:36:38] But giving up meant death.
[02:36:42] I had lived with death every day since coming to Korea.
[02:36:45] The battlefield was like a movie and fast forward.
[02:36:47] There was so much going on and I couldn't dwell on death very long.
[02:36:52] Call for the medic.
[02:36:53] Possibly hold the wounded man in my arms or say a word or two as he passed from life
[02:36:57] to death.
[02:37:00] It was different as a prisoner.
[02:37:03] I had no way of defending myself other than using my mind and what physical capabilities
[02:37:09] I could muster.
[02:37:13] I realized my mind had to be my strength for a split second.
[02:37:23] All of the pain and suffering could have ended.
[02:37:29] No, my mind screamed.
[02:37:33] I could not give up.
[02:37:35] I'd come this far and in that second I set my mind to doing something no one had done.
[02:37:42] I was going to come back from the morgue.
[02:37:46] As the Chinese soldiers landed blow after blow on my back and legs, I banished death
[02:37:52] from my mind.
[02:37:55] Never again.
[02:37:57] I did it enter into it.
[02:38:07] Many lost control of their minds and did things they would never have done under normal
[02:38:12] circumstances.
[02:38:13] I didn't know what to say.
[02:38:16] When I heard stories or saw things where men were mistreating one another, I thought
[02:38:21] of the first night of captivity when the Chinese dumped the rice on the ground.
[02:38:24] What happens to men when they become prisoners?
[02:38:27] Why do they change from helping one another and becoming totally engrossed in themselves
[02:38:34] with totally selfish outlook on life?
[02:38:38] Understand, I'm not talking about all men, but many never come to grips with losing their
[02:38:43] freedom.
[02:38:45] They feel abandoned by their country and are no longer with men they trust and their minds,
[02:38:50] their personal survival becomes paramount and group survival no longer matters.
[02:38:57] So again, I mean going back to that part of the latrine, that's a little, that's a little
[02:39:03] footnote you can put in your brain for the rest of your life because we're all going to
[02:39:08] have bad situations.
[02:39:09] I get it.
[02:39:10] I mean there's going to be horrible things that are going to happen.
[02:39:13] I don't know if there's much, I don't know if it can get much worse than the situation
[02:39:18] that he was in right there and realizing that his mind was a strength realizing that
[02:39:30] he had no other way to defend, but his mind had to be strong and he had that little split
[02:39:39] second thought that he could give up and just let it all go.
[02:39:44] Let that pain and suffering stop, but then he realized no, not going to do that, not going
[02:39:58] to surrender, not happening.
[02:40:13] So eventually, I mean he goes through more hell and eventually gets on a two crutches
[02:40:20] and then one crutch and eventually he makes it, he makes it out of the morgue and he gets
[02:40:25] sent back with the rest of the rest of the team and when he gets bent there, like completely
[02:40:30] missed it, this is a guy that they probably mourned his death because they thought when
[02:40:33] you go to the morgue you're dead and when he gets back, he's with Doyle and smoke.
[02:40:38] These are his boys, Doyle and smoke, SMOAK.
[02:40:42] Welcome back Doyle said, says, no one had ever come back from the morgue the guy's
[02:40:48] peppered me with questions about his treatment, what treatment I said and they all laughed.
[02:40:54] I told them we never received any medicine, got less food in the room smelled like a cesspool.
[02:41:00] I told them how I'd almost drown in the trench and that two guys from the black compound
[02:41:06] save my life.
[02:41:09] It was a shitty situation I said and again they all laughed.
[02:41:15] So this guy does a great job of trying to keep track of that humor.
[02:41:22] Since I'd been in the morgue the Chinese had started putting a lot of pressure on us.
[02:41:26] We were required to spend hours and lectures and discussion groups supervised by Chinese
[02:41:30] political officers.
[02:41:31] This is when their indoctrination is taking place.
[02:41:34] Doyle explained that the political officers began by breaking you down physically so you
[02:41:37] started to agree with them and then just to get them off your back.
[02:41:40] When this happened they would be on you full force pushing you to make a statement against
[02:41:45] the United States government or to make a statement as the next wonderful treatment that
[02:41:49] you're receiving.
[02:41:50] Next you'd be one of the turncotes standing up on stage giving a lecture.
[02:41:56] So they're going through this even though they're getting trying to get propaganda statements
[02:42:00] out of them.
[02:42:01] They're still getting treated horribly.
[02:42:02] We were still dying in great numbers.
[02:42:04] It had just been removed from our site.
[02:42:06] They also tried to improve our diet.
[02:42:08] Prisoners even started to make steam bread by taking balls of dough and placing them on a bamboo
[02:42:13] rack over a pot of steaming water.
[02:42:17] And one of the leaders I just had to note this one.
[02:42:21] One of the interrogation propaganda communist leader said, I will leave 100 men to die to
[02:42:28] save one progressive.
[02:42:33] The main communist.
[02:42:34] The main spoken list, those are the words that they used the Chinese interrogators,
[02:42:40] propaganda people, spoken English.
[02:42:44] And he says, we, I would be challenged the loss of individual freedom under their system.
[02:42:49] The Chinese became quite agitated.
[02:42:51] And I like this part.
[02:42:55] So they're again, I mean, I don't want to say that they're getting the treatments good
[02:42:59] by any stretch, but it's at least a little bit better.
[02:43:02] And it's part of it is them trying to convince them to, you know, be communist.
[02:43:05] They can make statements against American do that or a thing.
[02:43:09] So here's this one part.
[02:43:11] Despite working many hours building the long houses, we were still required to attend
[02:43:16] lectures.
[02:43:18] And one Chinese acting troupe came to town.
[02:43:22] It was their version of a USO show called the White Hair to Girl.
[02:43:25] The storyline was simple.
[02:43:28] A peasant family could not pay the taxes demanded by the dastardly landowner so he takes
[02:43:33] the peasant's beautiful young black hair daughter as his concubine.
[02:43:38] She suffers terribly under his demented date demands, but eventually escapes to the mountains.
[02:43:45] Years later as the people's liberation army frees the people.
[02:43:49] The girl returns to the village, but now her hair has turned completely white.
[02:43:55] The play was well done and the Chinese officers and soldiers hung on every word.
[02:43:59] They saw the girl's story as their own.
[02:44:02] They clapped when the people's liberation army arrived.
[02:44:05] The play of course omitted the fact that Mao would killed thousands and I'll correct him
[02:44:10] there millions of people and his drive to take control of China.
[02:44:16] And this is why I read this part because he says, we laughed and cheered when the land
[02:44:20] lowered drag the young girl away. The Chinese guards were not amused and for days there
[02:44:25] were an awkward silence.
[02:44:30] I kind of got to kick out of that bunch of ram bunkers prisoners of war ruining your
[02:44:36] little play.
[02:44:40] When I got warm enough the Chinese let us stake out a baseball field near the river.
[02:44:44] We didn't have any balls or bats but we went through the motions.
[02:44:46] We made teams and selected umpires. We called balls and strikes. It sounded weird but we
[02:44:52] had a lot of fun. We spent hours out there.
[02:44:55] And then he goes on to tell this story late one afternoon. I got what I read that I was like
[02:44:59] that's kind of interesting. I mean I could see we do something to entertain yourself
[02:45:02] but they had a little bit of a bigger plan. Late one afternoon alone American fighter jet
[02:45:06] came screaming down the river. We were out on the ball field. At first it scared the
[02:45:11] hell out of us and went by us in a flash but doubled back and flew straight down the river.
[02:45:16] We could see the pilot looking down and as he passed the pilot waved and wiggled his wings
[02:45:20] at us. There will no words describe how that incident made us feel. God bless him. He
[02:45:25] probably never knew that's what that simple acted for us. It was very long time before we
[02:45:31] stopped talking about it and we had achieved our goal with the ball field. The Chinese
[02:45:36] refused to identify POW camps but the ball field did the trick.
[02:45:41] Soon after winter set in another going another winter I got sick.
[02:45:50] Started running a high fever and was coughing up green and yellow mucus. Doyle and smoke
[02:45:54] moved me near the stove and kept me hydrated with hot water. A medic told me I had new
[02:45:59] ammonia. I thought of graves and was grateful that I wasn't still in the morgue.
[02:46:04] After a couple days the fever broke and I got better. Doyle and smoke both said they were
[02:46:09] sure I'd make it. Yeah. Yeah Rich some of us thought we might need to dip you in the
[02:46:14] shit house again to make you better as what smoked all of them. In early spring my legs were
[02:46:24] finally in shape to begin thinking about escape again. When I read that I just wrote the words
[02:46:31] long game next to it. I mean bro can you imagine your three years deep in prison camp and the
[02:46:38] whole time you're thinking well if I can take the next year to get my legs healed up enough where
[02:46:43] I can walk then I can try and escape again. Even if first guy captures like okay if I can just
[02:46:47] make the spring time will be a little bit stronger let the weather just talk about playing the
[02:46:51] long game. As they were playing in this escape they were going to take Doyle and smoke and they were
[02:47:06] talking about it and soon smoke was doubled over. Doyle tried to get the Chinese to do something
[02:47:10] but they ignored his please. Soon smoke couldn't talk. He just lay in bed and moan. When it got
[02:47:17] really bad he screamed finally he passed out. His face was locked into torn tortured grimace
[02:47:22] and his skin turned ash and at noon the medic that was helping him turn to us and shook his head.
[02:47:28] He's dead. The words landed on us like mortar rounds. I just stood there staring at his face and
[02:47:37] shock dead. How could this have happened in such a short time only seven months ago man. We're
[02:47:42] dying all around us. It was normal since we'd moved prisoners didn't die anymore. We were the
[02:47:47] survivors. This wasn't supposed to happen to anyone anymore. The shock quickly boiled up into a rage.
[02:47:59] These guys kind of yell at the Chinese and make a little. They kind of call some problems.
[02:48:08] Nothing too drastic but they weren't just cowering anymore. Back to the book the winter of
[02:48:16] 1952 to 53 was livable compared to the past two winters. We were allowed to select our own leaders
[02:48:21] in organized committees to work on different facets of our daily life. A sanitation committee,
[02:48:26] athletic committee, a daily action committee all brought some semblance of order to our lives.
[02:48:32] Food had improved too. We got steamed bread vegetables and rice. Once in a while some fish and meat.
[02:48:38] But it was usually just a scrap. The change in diet was enough to let us gain some weight.
[02:48:52] July 27th 1953 the Chinese had us all in a formation when they announced that a piece of
[02:48:59] agreement had been reached. We stood silently looking at one another. No one said anything.
[02:49:06] This news had been a long time coming. I just stood there a smile plastered across my face.
[02:49:13] I looked down at my rail thin frame like a map it showed my journey. Scars on my back from
[02:49:20] shrapnel, a missing tooth, night blindness from lack of vitamins which luckily only lasted
[02:49:27] for a couple of weeks. I was one of the fortunate ones. I'd survived. That's it. I mean that's
[02:49:39] the just changes immediately. Now they still have to get out of there. To this day,
[02:49:43] when I think of our movement south, I still get butterflies in my stomach.
[02:49:50] They were moving us to the railhead at Mampo. The Chinese gave one of the prisoners a lock and told
[02:49:56] him to close the gates after the trucks pulled out. After we passed, he snapped the lock shut,
[02:50:03] closing some of the darkest chapters in my life. They continued this train planes and
[02:50:13] automobiles to try and get to freedom. We boarded and finally we get to we boarded the trucks and
[02:50:18] proceeded across a freedom bridge to freedom village. When we arrived, I didn't wait for the
[02:50:23] tailgate to drop. I jumped right out onto the ground. There were two American escorts for each of us.
[02:50:29] They grabbed me and I thought holy shit, these guys were big and muscular. I quickly realized
[02:50:34] they were average guys. I was just a little skinny and at one point he gets on a scale and he
[02:50:40] weighed 108 pounds. Our first stop was 10 city in a thousand yard neutral circle in the rice
[02:50:50] patties. We stripped, we stripped, shoured and deloused. Having put on slippers and pajamas,
[02:50:58] we were checked by good looking nurses. We stayed less than an hour before we moving to another building
[02:51:04] to get uniforms and our first meal. After our meal, we were flown by helicopter to a replacement
[02:51:10] depone in John. It was my first helicopter flight and I sat near the door and watched Korea pass
[02:51:16] in a blurb of me. I felt like screaming, singing and dancing. But instead I remained subdued, quiet,
[02:51:24] and happy inside. 57 years have passed and I can still remember how great it felt like being born
[02:51:32] again. Then he gets on the phone and he says, I reach my dad. I could hear the excitement and
[02:51:39] his voice he bombarded me with questions. Are you all right when you come in home? Don't worry about
[02:51:43] me. I'll be okay. There was some kind of calmness inside of me that was difficult to describe.
[02:51:50] I've been through so much that just being free and headed home was enough. After worrying about
[02:51:59] living day in and day out, I wondered if anything would ever bother me in the future.
[02:52:07] The voyage back to California on the Brewster, which was the ship there on was great. They
[02:52:11] served three meals a day. The small things mattered more now than before. We were subjected to daily
[02:52:18] debriefings, which were more like interrogations by intelligence officers. He goes through
[02:52:26] answering a bunch of questions about what he saw and what he went through and they were actually
[02:52:29] trying to figure out if there were more like how many other prisoners, water or other prisoners
[02:52:33] that were left behind. He finishes those interrogations or those questioning or
[02:52:41] intel gathering situations. And then for the rest of the voyage I stayed on the deck. I sucked
[02:52:47] in the fresh sea air and basting the warm breeze. Everything I could hear, smell and see was so full of
[02:52:53] life. As I looked over the rail the ship I remembered three years ago looking down at the sea
[02:52:59] and praying that I would have the strength to lead my men in combat. Now I was returning by myself.
[02:53:06] I've been born again a chance to live for tomorrow to make the most of every day and never look
[02:53:13] back. I had survived the greatest laboratory of human behavior, one that no education could ever equal.
[02:53:26] Weeks later the Golden Gate bridge jutted out of the fog as the ship pulled into port.
[02:53:30] We had a few hours before our flight so I left and walked around the post. My path took me
[02:53:38] to the post cemetery. It was very quiet and my thoughts were on all of the men and friends
[02:53:46] that were no longer with me. Walsh, grrrr, smoke. I could feel them standing above me.
[02:53:55] I hope they were smiling and happy for me because it was my men, my section that had kept me motivated
[02:54:03] and alive. I owed my freedom and survival to them. A number of us food is Chicago where we changed
[02:54:15] planes when the plane left Chicago is the only returning prisoner of war aboard. Although the
[02:54:20] plane was full of people I felt very lonely, I was free and on my way home with mixed emotions,
[02:54:26] I realized that I had just left men that I had lived with 24 hours a day for 34 months.
[02:54:33] They were sad that with all the freedom surrounding me that there was an empty feeling.
[02:54:40] There were also thoughts of the ones who had never returned. The ones whose lives had been lost
[02:54:48] almost before they began. When we landed in Philadelphia the stewardess asked if we would remain
[02:54:57] seated for just a minute while a special passenger exited the plane.
[02:55:02] To my surprise that special passenger was me. I walked down the stairs and onto the tarmac.
[02:55:10] Waiting there were my mother and father. They hugged him kissed me.
[02:55:16] This time, unlike on the street before the war, I realized the act of affection between
[02:55:22] father and son was a wonderful thing. I will never forget the emotion on my father's face
[02:55:29] as tears well-dup in his eyes.
[02:55:31] He goes on and there is a whole story with a story in this about a woman that was an associate
[02:55:50] a friend and several others and there's a whole other realm to this. But he starts to get back on
[02:56:00] with his life a little bit back to the book while I was absorbing the sounds and sights of freedom.
[02:56:04] I was beginning to think about my future. I had been given a second chance and was determined
[02:56:09] that I was not going to blow it. Claire and I had become inseparable and I was falling in love with
[02:56:15] her. My only fear was that the feeling might not be mutual. We had a wonderful Christmas holiday
[02:56:20] and both realized that we were definitely meant to be together during a New Year's Eve party.
[02:56:24] I gave Claire an engagement ring. She said yes. We announced to everyone that we were going to be married.
[02:56:34] There were happy people, sad people, and mad people to tell the story behind this statement
[02:56:40] would take another book but five children and 56 years later were still happily married.
[02:56:45] From there, this is like, as I was researching this whole situation, this is so he gets done with us
[02:57:00] and he ends up going to Officer Candidate School in the Army. He gets assigned to the
[02:57:06] 500 fifth airborne infantry regiment. That's fine. Awesome. Just outstanding. Then he goes to special
[02:57:14] forces at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He becomes a Greenbrain special forces guy. He goes to Vietnam.
[02:57:27] The two-time commander of Project Delta in Vietnam, which is the deep reconnaissance.
[02:57:36] The format, this is how we do deep reconnaissance. This is based on Project Delta.
[02:57:45] Project Delta was also back within it, Charlie Beckworth, who is the founder of Delta Force.
[02:57:52] Richardson just drives on and does deployments to Vietnam going into
[02:57:59] enemy territory, deep enemy territory. He ends up doing 39 years in the Army.
[02:58:11] Like you said, the wife and the kids and the incredible career. After that,
[02:58:20] had a civilian, he's still alive. Then here's what he closes out with. He says every day,
[02:58:29] on this journey, I believed the men of the weapons platoon and my close buddies in prison were watching
[02:58:36] me to see how I looked after my men and prepared them for whatever they may have had to face.
[02:58:43] I tried my best to make them proud of me.
[02:58:58] So, well, I think that Colonel Richardson, I think we can absolutely answer in the affirmative
[02:59:07] that, yes, I think anyone would be proud of how you handled yourself, how you led, and then on top
[02:59:18] of that, how you lived your life. I mean, I think that's just self-evident in every page of this
[02:59:28] book, which once again, valleys of death is an unbelievable book. It should be handed out to people,
[02:59:36] it should be issued in the military, as far as I'm concerned. And I mean, I think in reading the book,
[02:59:45] I mean, it's like your actions, Colonel Richardson's actions is behavior. I mean, how can you not be,
[02:59:53] how can you not think to yourself that you can do a little bit better with the situation that you're in?
[02:59:57] And realize how much human beings are capable of. I don't, I don't see how you could read this
[03:00:10] and not walk away and say, you know what, I'm going to do better. And whatever situation you're
[03:00:17] in looking, I know people end up in the horrible situations, but no matter what that situation is,
[03:00:23] no matter what it is, you can move forward. You can move forward. You can keep your mind
[03:00:32] positive. You can use your mind as your weapon. And also, you can, you know, one of the parts
[03:00:42] in that's encompassed, and that is like, oh, you can actually have fun and keep your sense of humor
[03:00:47] when you're going through these terrible situations, which people ask me that all the time,
[03:00:51] like, don't you, do you think it's important to have a sense of humor? Of course I do. You know,
[03:00:56] of course I do. But again, Colonel Richardson, if you ever hear this, obviously, there is a
[03:01:05] wide open invite for you to come and debrief us and teach us life lessons here and tell us about
[03:01:13] tell us more detail. And the parts that I know I missed and things that I messed up, I apologize,
[03:01:18] but thanks for your service, thanks for your sacrifice and thanks for showing us,
[03:01:28] showing us how to live properly, even in the most dire circumstances.
[03:01:35] With that, that was low. Yeah, I was reading this book and it was just, I couldn't stop.
[03:01:48] I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop. It's one of those books. You just don't, you just don't see.
[03:01:54] It's, it's so hard to understand. Like, some of that combat in the beginning is crazy. It's crazy.
[03:02:01] Just the situation that they were in. I mean, you're surrounded by the Chinese for three days
[03:02:08] and they're just hammering your perimeter on night with waves, human waves.
[03:02:14] And then you get the note drop from a, from a damn plane that says, no relief is coming. Find your way out.
[03:02:22] I appreciate it. Yeah. And then you got to leave your wounded. That's, that's what happens. It's like,
[03:02:30] okay, we either all die. I mean, this is just like, it's incredible. It's incredible. And you should read this.
[03:02:37] So you get some sort of semblance of maybe what your thoughts are going to be when you,
[03:02:41] if you get into a situation like that, whatever it is. So yeah, always learning, always, and for me,
[03:02:52] again, I get done with this and I can't even sleep. Because I think to myself,
[03:02:56] I got so much opportunity as a guess what, oh, I wake up and I can walk around. I don't have
[03:03:02] strap on my back. I get to eat food, whatever you like, whatever you want, whatever you want.
[03:03:10] That's true. Like, people complain about working out. People complain like,
[03:03:16] I don't feel like working out. What are you talking about? I got a good idea. Why don't you just
[03:03:19] be quiet? Just stop. People complain that they got to go to work. Guess what? You're blessed.
[03:03:24] You're lucky. You get to go to work. Yeah. You're lucky.
[03:03:28] I'm proud to think about that yesterday. The working out thing. I like people complain.
[03:03:34] Only because my arm, you have your situations that keep you from working out or training.
[03:03:38] Yeah. And I'm not up. Like, did you check yourself when you get it? Well,
[03:03:43] it was a moment of appreciation. But it was. So you know, when you get, you get injured or sick.
[03:03:49] And you feel yourself getting better. Like, oh, shoot. Like, I'm marked, you know,
[03:03:55] like, today, I felt better than I felt this whole time. Kind of thing. And you get,
[03:03:58] that's when the waves of appreciation come back. Back. You know what? The thing is also for
[03:04:05] those people that, you know, when you get an injury, you think it's going to last forever.
[03:04:08] This one feels like, oh, that feels like it's last forever. And then you realize,
[03:04:12] when you get back, you kind of forget that it even happened. Yeah. So yeah. So the eating,
[03:04:18] and that's a big part every time he mentions eating or starving or all the weight that he lost.
[03:04:24] And we're 180 pounds. Yeah. So that for whatever reason, those that affects me a lot when I hear it.
[03:04:31] It like, oh, man. Because you picture your biceps. What? Yeah. So I think it makes you crush yourself.
[03:04:36] Crushed yourself. Well, you know, just being hungry the whole time. You know, yeah.
[03:04:42] Like, what's the longest you've fasted for? On like 24 hours. Like, yeah, you need to get your 72.
[03:04:49] Hmm. I don't know. I don't know. Because you're saying for me, because because being hungry goes away after
[03:04:55] the one I'm not. Yeah. I haven't done. I haven't done hunger for 34 months. Yeah.
[03:05:01] Well, it goes away like after like seven hours. I think or subsides like to me in my experience,
[03:05:06] it depends on you who you are. I'm sure. But I've had about four or five hours. That's when that's
[03:05:11] peak hunger in my experience. But either way. So you know, when he gets that, like he gets, you know,
[03:05:17] I can't even believe, just so everyone knows we are in no stretch of the any sort of imagination.
[03:05:24] Trying to compare a fast for 24 hours with 34 months, 34 months. And I mean, look at look at
[03:05:31] cap plums six years. I don't know. I helped me eat rice ball in the morning and rice ball in the
[03:05:36] evening with filled with wood chips. What's up wood chips? You know what, you go to a restaurant right
[03:05:45] now. If your rice is like slightly overcooked, you're complaining. Like, can you put it in your
[03:05:50] back? Yeah. Never mind bugs and wood chips in there. Yeah, no, no, it's typically, you know. Yeah,
[03:05:57] it's, yeah, that's rough to say the least. But now, you know, and I look, I'm living, you know,
[03:06:05] we're living kind of this journey with him in a small way, right? And the piece, you know,
[03:06:11] they come to you know, peace agreement. So he's back on the boat, feeling the warm air, eating
[03:06:16] three times a day. Man, it makes you think like now, okay, with 2018, right? But there's like
[03:06:23] more than one, too. There's many, many apps on your phone that you can be like, hey, I want a triple burger
[03:06:31] double cheese bacon, bacon avocado and you know what I'm going to grill the onions and I'm going to
[03:06:37] need that the grass fed. Yeah, yeah, I'm just saying this kind of steak isn't quite good enough for me over here.
[03:06:44] And by the way, can I get the what's that special kind of mayonnaise that has like something else in it?
[03:06:48] Well, there's a few. So it's called an a-o-least. Yeah, the a-o-least. Yeah, the a-o-least. Yeah, the a-o-least.
[03:06:55] Other normal mayonnaise isn't quite in your, you know, you need to stop it. But we just don't want
[03:07:00] that one. Yeah, we don't want that one. We want the good one. So, and so let me go ahead and click this button.
[03:07:04] So spoiled. Yeah. And then it comes to your door. Yeah, about 15 minutes.
[03:07:08] Somebody brings their 15 minutes. Yeah, true, drive seven. If it's even, if it's 22 minutes, you're kind of mad.
[03:07:13] Kind of. That's like, you know, I was hungry. Yeah. You know what you know that? And it'll say 10 to 22 minutes on that.
[03:07:21] Like people, people, they get separated from their phone. And they freak out, right?
[03:07:27] I mean, you imagine this, like what you would even know. What's happening anything in the world. You know nothing.
[03:07:34] You know nothing of what's happening in the world. And that's something with your family.
[03:07:38] Yeah. Nothing. Yeah. So with this, since other people have suffered through that,
[03:07:48] you may be in in our grid. You can, you can try and get yourself on a little bit better of a path
[03:07:56] with a little bit more discipline in the world as what I'm saying. I know I need to step it up.
[03:08:01] Harger, you know, to do more, trying to make more stuff happen. Yeah. Because the opportunities
[03:08:06] they're thinking about. You know, and the crazy thing is, Richardson's one of the people that survived
[03:08:13] because there's thousands upon thousands that didn't that died of diarrhea,
[03:08:19] that died of dysentery, that died of gangrene and infections. Yeah. So,
[03:08:27] man, we got it made. So, you know what, we got it made. So make something. How's that sound? We got
[03:08:33] it made. So make something of what you got, which is everything. Which is everything, by the way, unless
[03:08:38] you're in a next to, unless you're drowning in a trench full of shit, a 108 pounds with no
[03:08:47] with your legs not working with scars in your back. Unless you're in that situation,
[03:08:52] how about you step up and just start moving in the right direction? We're doing all right.
[03:08:57] Yeah. And the helpful or what makes it helpful is perspective when you put into perspective.
[03:09:05] Let's say you live in your life every day, you're all used to it. We're all used to it.
[03:09:08] And you don't feel like doing something. That's really what it comes down to. And of course,
[03:09:14] there's different levels of not feeling like doing something. It's like kind and not feeling like
[03:09:18] just, or hey, that this is straight. I'm not going to happen today. Kind of feel it. Not,
[03:09:22] I feel like doing something. So when you put it into perspective, I don't know if you can, like,
[03:09:27] right after this book. No, it's not, it's not. It's a non-alternative. Exactly. It doesn't hold
[03:09:32] zero water whatsoever. Exactly. Right. You can't get to a place that you don't feel like you can't
[03:09:38] convince me ever that whatever you're saying is is even remotely ways in on the situation,
[03:09:43] at all ever. Exactly. Right. That's where I don't want to, you know, whatever. Yeah, when you know,
[03:09:49] it needs to get done. And you don't feel, let's say, oh, man, I haven't slept in two days. Let's say that.
[03:09:54] That's legitimate in everyday life. Like, man, you get your restaurant. Oh, yeah. But if it needs
[03:09:59] to be done after you read this book, let's say you didn't sleep because you read that book and
[03:10:03] you read this up for two days. You really don't feel like going to the gym. I'll tell you that.
[03:10:10] Physically, but I like to bring it back to just go and do an advice that workout.
[03:10:16] That's whatever, you know, but I hope people I hope people as a bare minimum. I hope people use
[03:10:25] the mindset you can pull from the from the perspective you get from this. I hope at a bare minimum
[03:10:31] you get your workouts at the maximum. I hope you step up and just take over the world. Because it's
[03:10:36] sitting there right in front of you. You're not locked behind barbed wire. You don't have your arms
[03:10:40] as strong up behind your back and hung from the ceiling. So painful that you pass out. So painful
[03:10:45] that you pass out. Which that's just what does that even mean? It means you can kind of do anything
[03:10:52] really when you kind of put into perspective. So what are we doing? Being Dave Burke. Good deal,
[03:10:59] dude. Yes. But you know, well, well, well, he does reads a lot of books to you and he just like,
[03:11:05] man, we didn't. We just are suck. Yeah, we're just pathetic. Yeah, I could hear something. Yeah,
[03:11:10] I'm like, yeah, it's just you can't even. Yeah. Like, I said him a note. I was wanting to know.
[03:11:15] I was like, you did, hey, you had combat. You did combat flights in Afghanistan in Iraq. And he's like,
[03:11:24] he's like, bro, come on. You know, that's just come on. And I'm like, well, he's like,
[03:11:29] yeah, 10. I technically did I drop bombs in those countries. Yes, well, the way they consider
[03:11:33] combat operations. And like, yeah, and he's like, but come on. He's like, he's like, I got two words for
[03:11:39] you, Ewo Gima. And I was like, all right, I get it. But yeah, that's that's how you feel when you get
[03:11:44] done with something like this. And then by the way, he's got a one, one half of a paragraph,
[03:11:50] where he's like, oh, by the way, I did 39 years new army. And by the way, I was in Vietnam. And by the
[03:11:54] way, I was in charge of project delta for two times twice. Yeah. It's not like a little sub. That's
[03:12:00] like a little, a little, like I just a little sub note, a little PS, a little post script. Yeah,
[03:12:07] geez. Talk about getting out of the way. That should be its own book. Each one of those command
[03:12:12] tours is its own book about doing deep reconnaissance in the Vietnam. Are you kidding me? Yeah.
[03:12:19] I didn't even make the cut for the colonel. Yeah. This is said, um, I'm just gonna, yeah, whatever.
[03:12:24] I was like, oh, no, I talked about it. I put a pair of a half a paragraph. Yeah. So he not only did
[03:12:32] he power through it. He went back. Yeah. Cheese. Let's, let's hit me. And he did power through it
[03:12:41] by the way. Yeah. He didn't like, no, he held the line. Yeah. He powered through. He didn't, yeah.
[03:12:47] That part where he's talking about, don't let them laugh at you. Don't let them laugh at you.
[03:12:51] I like, I underlined that and highlighted it and then I put stars by it. Because that's the kind of
[03:12:55] thing that you think about like, like, we know the world sometimes seems like it's having a joke
[03:13:01] with you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, like it's playing like the joke is on you. You ever wake up
[03:13:05] you like the joke is on the jokes on me and everything. Everything. Laughing at me. That's everything.
[03:13:09] Like that's not a good feeling, right? No. Let that happen. No, you don't. And yeah. Thank you.
[03:13:17] See you in keeping the sense of humor all this time. Yeah. Man.
[03:13:21] So it's a humor laughing. It was a shitty situation. It was a situation. Yes, sir. It was never next time
[03:13:27] you think about something being shitty. Now you know what a true shitty situation is. We all knew
[03:13:33] now we all now have a new definition of what a shitty situation is. That's it. That's the standard.
[03:13:38] And that's it. That's the standard. That's where you're at. Yeah. So well, yeah. So we're in the
[03:13:46] path. Like there's no one's off the path anymore. No, I can't be. We can't. You're not allowed to
[03:13:51] not even allowed. You're not allowed to. We're just on the path. All right. So when you when you
[03:13:54] start duty to if you haven't already, which most of us have. Yeah. Holy cow. Most of us have.
[03:14:00] Oh yeah. It's like everyone that's thinking that's still on the fence, right? Just just get over the
[03:14:05] fence because every single person. I don't want to say every single person. There is a
[03:14:11] what percentage. I've heard feedback. I think from a total feedback of three people. And it might
[03:14:18] only be two that actually just didn't like it. You get to actually it's three. One female, two males.
[03:14:25] The one, the one male I went back and forth with for a while. You know, he was like hitting me up
[03:14:30] on Twitter. This was pretty early on. He's just like, I just don't like it. I'm like the person
[03:14:32] I'm grinding on me. And and finally with that guy, he just didn't want to do it, man. And I was like,
[03:14:38] look, you know, hey, cool. You don't want to ruin your life. You don't make this into a living hell
[03:14:43] because you do some of you, you fully hate. It wasn't until the next guy that bitterly complained
[03:14:49] that I was like, listen, okay, here's the point. Keep doing it until you submit someone once you
[03:14:53] submit someone you can stop. I didn't think of that plan yet until the guy number two. And the other
[03:14:58] one was a female that it was two things. It didn't really like it, but more important. Didn't
[03:15:04] have anywhere to train and kind of just got off the path. But yeah. So, but that's three out of many.
[03:15:12] Yeah, many. Many. I mean, most people are like, oh, yeah. I'm obsessed now. I'm obsessed. Yeah,
[03:15:20] winner loose. Like sometimes people would be like, hey, I got beat up for, for I don't have. Well,
[03:15:25] everyone says just went to my first jujube to class. Got choked 28 times by a 14 year old kid.
[03:15:30] Yeah, I love it. Yeah. You know, if you got your ego and check, you say I love it. You know,
[03:15:34] got your ego and check your leg. But you know, I don't know if this is for me. I'll punch him.
[03:15:38] Yeah, I'm trying punch him. Trying punch that 14 year old. See what that triangle feels like then.
[03:15:43] You. Because it doesn't feel good. Yeah. People go hard. We read Dean go hard on a triangle on you.
[03:15:49] Like actually offensively he did a triangle. Me. Yes, he was just showing me something. He locked that
[03:15:54] triangle up. So tight. I felt it in my lower back. That doesn't even make sense. They move my spinal cord.
[03:16:01] Yeah. Yeah. I don't. I don't. That. For sure. Yeah. But. All right. So we are doing jujitsu. That's kind of
[03:16:08] a deal. Yeah. So what, Gigi, you get what Rash, Gard, do you get? Hey, look, there's plenty of
[03:16:12] geese plenty of rash guards. That's not really all from origin. Yeah. There's only one. Well,
[03:16:18] the good news is, and I was talking to some folks at the master about this few times actually. You know,
[03:16:23] hey, what geese should I get? There's still asking that question. Well, that's the thing. They already
[03:16:27] know the origin. Oh, now it's the one. So which one? Gee, which one? I get. I get whatever one you want.
[03:16:33] More advanced in our quest. Yeah. Because it's not the kind even if you get the look, you know,
[03:16:36] there's like levels if you even want to call them that. We'll say price point if you will. Like the
[03:16:41] more expensive one. It's not the kind of where you get that. And then you come in as any white
[03:16:45] color wants to like, oh, you're kind of flossing hard with that. That, you know, no, like if you get
[03:16:50] it's not like enressing if you wear gold shoes and rest. Yeah, that's exactly right. It's not like that.
[03:16:54] It's not like that. Or you die your hair. Or yes. Yeah. That's a little statement. Right. That's a statement.
[03:17:00] Yeah. These are not like that. Right orange hair. Yeah. I'm really good. Yeah. The geese not like that. No.
[03:17:05] No, sir. He's just a geofunctional. Yeah. You know, maybe, you know, I don't obviously, I don't
[03:17:10] go with P and be like, hey, what are we doing this? This is a particular. So I don't know, but I'm assuming
[03:17:15] maybe it took more to make certain ones or whatever, but get the the point is get whichever one you want.
[03:17:20] Yeah. Straight up. Yeah. lightweight, heavyweight, whatever. From origin main.com. True. True. Also,
[03:17:28] you got um, rash cards if you want a rash card that you can get a lip. Shit. Rascard. You got
[03:17:37] T shirts as well at from origin. So basically, like clothing. Yes, what we're making right now at this time.
[03:17:46] Denham. Yeah. Yeah. You guess you said you're a very good. No. I'm double. I'm getting my I haven't
[03:17:52] gotten my period. But yeah, we're making jeans. So just be on standby. It's going to take a little while to
[03:17:56] get that ramped up. But look at the I saw pictures. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's already posted them. Yeah. So
[03:18:03] we will be we'll be make because you know why because everyone needs every human where's jeans.
[03:18:10] Yeah. Because they're functional. Yeah. So every human needs jeans. Yeah. And if everyone does
[03:18:16] then why not get jeans that are made here, made with the highest quality. Not all that stuff anyways.
[03:18:23] So yeah, jeans are common. We also got some supplements. Yep. Jocquo supplements. So what?
[03:18:29] Joint warfare, krill oil, discipline, mulk and worry kid mulk. So what do these cover?
[03:18:37] The most important elements I think of slept supplementation. So joints. Those are going to go out on you.
[03:18:44] That's if you're into lifting heavy and did you do hard? You in to you work cart if you have like a
[03:18:50] manual labor type job. Yep. Moving company. Yeah. I know you were a mover. I was American
[03:18:55] balancer balancer that that wasn't very hard to make. I mean you don't work around. Yes, on your
[03:19:01] like feet and knees maybe depending. But I would say you know just when you're I would say the work
[03:19:07] cops. The workouts get you joints. I think especially over time especially if you're going very often.
[03:19:12] And here's one of the things about the joint stuff. A big part of it is you don't realize how much
[03:19:19] the how much benefit there is to taking krill oil and joint warfare on a regular basis until you do it.
[03:19:25] Yeah, and to all into or into you stop. Oh yeah, big time. Which I haven't stopped. I can't even answer
[03:19:30] that question. But you've told us. Yes. I've stopped. Yes. So you had joint warfare, krill oil,
[03:19:35] discipline which discipline like during the master hydrant call out of discipline. Because like
[03:19:40] you know it's like go time the whole time. Yeah. So that's what now we got something else coming out.
[03:19:45] We got discipline in little pills. Go pills. And I'll tell you why. I can't always pound
[03:19:53] a bunch of discipline drink before let's say I'm going out to speak. Sure. I don't want to have to like
[03:19:59] hit the head in the middle of the speech because I drink like a bottle of water right before I went out there.
[03:20:05] So anyways, I was like hey can we make these things in little pills that I can take that can
[03:20:08] kind of get me in the rock and roll mode real quick. So yeah got those coming out. That's not
[03:20:13] to mention you got to mix it up and stuff. Which is in a big deal. But if you're on the Google
[03:20:17] Go Go. Yeah. So yeah discipline go go pills coming and they got a little bit of new
[03:20:23] trope again. They got a little bit of caffeine and they got a little bit of go. That's the main ingredient.
[03:20:28] The meeting ingredient is go. Hey, also okay. So as we know the warrior kid mook is live and
[03:20:37] as we also know is tasting. Well it's live or it's live. So it was this morning I was
[03:20:45] I was making some strawberry mook for the kids for me but it's the kids mook and everyone in my house
[03:20:51] is freaking going nuts. Everyone in my house is just drinking strawberry mook. Like, except for my
[03:20:57] youngest daughter she's all about the chocolate. But somebody took the mook scoop from the
[03:21:03] board and like they was gone. And this is when I realized there's something going on because
[03:21:08] I said to my wife I said hey, where's I said hey, where's the scoop for the for the strawberry
[03:21:14] quick? I actually called it strawberry quick because it tastes the yeah. And now now I was talking
[03:21:23] to Brian and Brian's got people are like notifying him that they're getting like the nostalgic
[03:21:28] memories of drinking Nestle's quick because that's when we're at the strawberry one. The
[03:21:35] chocolate one doesn't taste as much like it tastes delicious but it doesn't taste the same like
[03:21:40] whatever. Like they like exactly like quick does because that quick less faces isn't really
[03:21:46] that great but the strawberry quick is great. Our chocolate is probably better than the Nestle's chocolate.
[03:21:52] The strawberry quick is almost a replica and this is is illegal to for me to say this is like
[03:21:57] comparing the brands or something like no man. Okay well legally yeah no no no all good.
[03:22:03] And then nostalgia part that is that is something and I felt that you the wapart the Nestle's
[03:22:08] yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yes yes you don't want to get from the 7-11 yeah
[03:22:12] strawberry quick from the 7-11 yeah we got it from a store called big safe uncle I
[03:22:18] oh yeah yeah yeah yeah of course you do but yeah that's for you for the protein and the regular mook
[03:22:24] that's for the protein so oh so there's the other thing I wanted to say as soon as I had
[03:22:30] the warrior can strawberry mook I texted Brian 14 seconds later and said make a dope
[03:22:38] you know mook strawberry so it's in the works oh yeah there's a couple there's
[03:22:45] you can't just say well I'll just double up because there's a little bit more protein in it
[03:22:49] and the you want you want to get a little bit more protein in the adult mook yeah yeah yeah that's
[03:22:55] you can close you that are freaking out in the meantime take two scoops of two scoops of
[03:23:00] warrior kid mook and you still do it all right yeah yeah yeah also if you want to represent
[03:23:09] the discipline equals freedom way because this one does equal freedom I think the more you grow
[03:23:16] up in life and embrace the discipline you understand that more because there are there are levels
[03:23:22] of understanding to the core to the core anyway if you want to represent go to jocco store dot
[03:23:28] com because jocco is a store which sure it's on there putty's in even any second now hoodies more
[03:23:35] hoodies winter hoodies winter hoodies well Michigan hoodies if you're if Iowa winter hoodies
[03:23:43] put Minnesota potentially yeah Hawaii they're not Hawaii it is there mean then uh
[03:23:50] main lander at least we're in the main lander we are in the main lander on these two is
[03:23:53] sure main what about my people probably yeah anyway the point is there's a lot of cool stuff on
[03:23:59] there I think it's cool death core death core stuff to the core all at all things
[03:24:06] technically or death core technically true I'm gonna leave it at that also
[03:24:11] so hats on there and women's stuff also rash guards too and the the hats are legit
[03:24:18] yeah truckers hats by the way yes some of those of you that are more old school in my opinion
[03:24:24] truckers hats are more old school that's what I wore when I was a kid truckers hats yeah they come
[03:24:28] in and out though you know how they go out then they come back yeah that's just the I've been wearing
[03:24:33] you didn't know what style yeah it's for god i forgot anyway flexi hats on there as well
[03:24:37] a lot of good stuff you want something get something good way to represent while staying on the path
[03:24:44] there's some tea on the dockle teas on there and various other things anyway take it up jocester dot
[03:24:51] com yeah and if you want to you can subscribe to this podcast why don't we even save this
[03:24:57] well I guess okay if you're listening right now and you've been listening for three freaking up
[03:25:02] four I don't know three and a half hours if you're if you've done that go ahead and subscribe
[03:25:07] because you're you definitely are part of the team you know if you if you if you haven't heard
[03:25:13] if you haven't listened to this point well then guess what you're not gonna subscribe you don't
[03:25:17] want to subscribe so if you haven't subscribed and you hear the sounds coming out of my mouth right
[03:25:22] now go ahead and subscribe iTunes Google Play Stitcher and then leave a little review action so we
[03:25:27] can have a good time with it also don't forget about the war your kid podcast the warrior kid podcast
[03:25:34] you can ask kids ask questions to uncle jake and uncle jake tell stories about when he was a kid
[03:25:41] and where he got his way from where he where he uncovered the way also got the warrior kid so
[03:25:48] from irish oaks ranch dot com a den's up there he's taken advantage of life yeah guess what you
[03:25:55] got goats you're in California you can't sell goat milk guess what you can do make soap yeah
[03:26:00] that's what a dude is doing young aiden you know i was watching shark tank you know that show
[03:26:05] got your furniture and you know there's a kid on there doing his thing what was he doing respect
[03:26:09] uh well was it some glue okay some washable glue using for legos which was kind of odd but I
[03:26:16] guess if you're you know anyway long but I thought I thought about aiden yeah and the jacco soap
[03:26:21] there you see aiden up there with jacco next to him sure good or whatever you say all the time
[03:26:26] same same anyway yes good and if you while you're in the subscribe mode then also subscribe to
[03:26:35] the the youtube channel the jacco podcast youtube channel if you want to see echoes videos which he
[03:26:41] puts all kinds of time and effort into real super he gets super things but crazy about it it
[03:26:47] makes everything explode and and and sometimes reflecting off of things and music
[03:26:53] cello music so that's on the youtube channel and we got some other things planned for the
[03:27:01] youtube channel coming shortly coming quickly we'll see you know quickly it's really a word
[03:27:07] that we used a lot back in Hawaii but you know we'll do our best and we're gonna we're making it happen
[03:27:12] and then you got psychological warfare little little album with some tracks to kind of help you
[03:27:17] push through some of those moments of weakness where you're thinking you just want to eat that
[03:27:20] donut you don't need to no just don't need to so that'll help you out and we're also making a
[03:27:27] second psychological warfare album and if you want that then you can uh if you want to if you want
[03:27:31] if you have a special request for that should I do some stop smoking cigarettes I've never smoked
[03:27:37] cigarettes I think you should at least yeah do it and then if it's like yeah because I would think
[03:27:43] but as far as potential problems you might run into like you know how like on the other ones
[03:27:47] like you can I get you can relate so you know kind of what to say about it you know like hey
[03:27:52] you're thinking this or whatever yeah with a smoking maybe you could compare it to something maybe
[03:27:57] felt that you might be addicted to in the past but I don't know I think that's the whole
[03:28:01] thing that's a whole different game I'm not already done like it's you know yeah but I think again
[03:28:07] I think it's a different game to really like a crew tons and to be addicted to smoking I don't know
[03:28:13] I've never smoked yeah well yeah that's what that one's available wherever you get MP3's
[03:28:17] iTunes Google Play whatever you know also if you're on the path working out that's part of it
[03:28:24] right my my four things working out was wonderful and you want to vary every workout so this is where
[03:28:30] you get your kettlebells on it on it dot com com it's called on it dot com slash jocco slash jocco by the way
[03:28:38] get some rings kettlebells a mace um um you got it the mace is dangerous if you don't know what you're
[03:28:45] doing so yeah the mace is seem like they're not heavy yeah and you pick that thing up and you
[03:28:49] like you're talking about the big what's the big long thing with the ball in the end called
[03:28:52] oh that's the mace no I'm thinking about the club the club bells yeah the club bells are way more
[03:28:56] dangerous than the mace yeah and that's what I'm saying where the club bells if you drop a club
[03:29:00] bell on your toe you will lose your toe yeah and the work I think that should be called a toe
[03:29:05] remover you're in a hospital and you're like oh you got a bad toe we're gonna have to remove it
[03:29:09] okay cool come over here whack that things gone I like to work out barefoot sometimes yeah
[03:29:15] and like you yes a dangerous proposition so be careful just be yeah and really I mean a sane it
[03:29:21] makes it sound like oh like almost more dangerous than a really my point is go on there and look
[03:29:27] at the workouts first I know just because I've never done it and I still have all my toes I
[03:29:31] will never I've worked out with a bunch and I still have all my toes so it's not that big of a deal
[03:29:36] right but when you pick it up you're like dang this is kind of having the when you swing it and
[03:29:39] you're like whoa whoa whoa let me get the smaller one yeah well that's how I was anyway but
[03:29:43] anyway you can get that stuff there rings are a big deal in my opinion rings yeah definitely you
[03:29:48] should have rings if you don't have rings you get them you see I said in my opinion like I
[03:29:51] just know about the even though you were preaching rings from day one now I'm signed on to the
[03:29:55] ring how's the big stability while still there's stable bad there's stable
[03:30:02] overstable you know yeah I posted a picture of my son I don't really post that many pictures
[03:30:08] like my kids all the time when I went to everyone's walk sure but he was lifting you know when
[03:30:13] you lift and it's like he just jumps in and says my turn he does a dead lift that's pretty good
[03:30:18] kids are good for him by the way yes they do so he does a dead lift on one of the little on it
[03:30:23] cattle does a smaller one Z22 yeah and he's like watch me he did what was a wait 18 pounds how much
[03:30:30] do you wait I don't know 18 pounds seems a little like it was like he did it easy
[03:30:36] well anyway I don't know why why she wants you get him a bigger pedal he can start pushing the
[03:30:40] envelope right but look we're not gonna raise your kidney we can know we're not talking I'm
[03:30:44] just saying that's what he did at that time and I took a picture of it I'm not saying
[03:30:47] we were maxing out me and my two-year-old Maxing out deadlift and he only could do eight
[03:30:52] that's not what I'm seeing okay saying anyway I took a picture of it so you can see it okay
[03:30:58] and it has I looked at the picture and I kind of evaluate I was like this is a good picture
[03:31:02] because as like all the kettle the you know the sad it kind of scattered about you framed it out
[03:31:06] well I'll technically I mean shoot be told I was making a video okay
[03:31:11] which may or may not have were your kid's feet oh to it so while I was doing a
[03:31:17] picture anyway it looks good on it was highly represented in that picture I liked it let me
[03:31:24] tell you this maybe if you would give your kid some jockel white tea he would be able to
[03:31:31] deadlift more than 18 pounds he would might be able to deadlift 8000 pound in fact there's an
[03:31:36] actual guarantee because there's no aged minimum requirement if you get that kid on the jockel
[03:31:41] white tea there's the 8000 pound deadlift actually my girl drink two drinks legitimate drinks
[03:31:47] of my wife jockel white tea and she deadlift did 8000 there you go yeah what's okay later yeah
[03:31:53] proven for sure kids everything jockel white tea you can get the cans which are ready to drink
[03:31:59] or you can get the tea bags that you have to boil water to big oh god I don't know there's a
[03:32:04] boiled water and in that then you have to seep you have to seep it put it in the morning I don't drink
[03:32:14] jockel white tea warm in the morning every morning but there's certain such like at the
[03:32:19] master oh I'm all about it and you know what does seep means you put the tea bag in there
[03:32:26] and you let it sit for a little while and for some people they pull it out I just leave it in the
[03:32:30] whole time you know Alan Alan stages oh Alan from yesterday master Alan he stages he stages like
[03:32:40] when I get up to the podium it's staged and I was like so what what's good about that is it's
[03:32:48] I don't know in the morning time we just have a little warm well guess it's hot technically it's hot
[03:32:53] but I drink it warm yeah I don't know that there's a better beverage for that little morning
[03:32:58] little morning scenario yeah this is a little morning snow just a little a couple of darker white tea so
[03:33:05] you can get that also I got some books I got the way the warrior kid one end two and marks mission
[03:33:14] it's one and two it's the same series and those books I get more incredible heartfelt feedback
[03:33:26] on those two books then I could have ever imagined and it's awesome because kids can relate to
[03:33:35] the books and it is great for the kids and it's great for the parents too and I get parents that
[03:33:41] just say this is making me a better parent because it's all just a big it's all just a covered
[03:33:46] move right I'm giving you this information you're you get to flank your kid because your
[03:33:49] kids aren't going to listen to you not 100% they'll listen to you a little bit but that
[03:33:53] listen to someone that they some some other person that seems like kind of tough you know that
[03:33:58] they want to listen to Uncle Jake Uncle Jake starts telling them what to do and they're down
[03:34:03] totally done and yeah so the warrior kid books one and two obviously get one first
[03:34:10] because it's a it's a story and it kind of continues and you need to grow and it's going to continue
[03:34:14] to grow we're going to see this we're going to see young Mark all the way through
[03:34:18] through high school yeah and yeah so those books will help kids get on the path teach me about
[03:34:26] this one teach them about hard work teach them about eating right teach them about study habits teach
[03:34:29] about taking responsibility it's like everything that a kid needs to know to be quite honest
[03:34:33] whether well this is and this is kind of mean I guess in a way so I've worried kid two
[03:34:41] Mark's mission on repeat in the household helps that for my daughter's kindergarten they suggest
[03:34:49] like all these things that you should do every day and you can kind of choose one and one is reading
[03:34:52] no there you go for sure no matter time so I just read one chapter every single night
[03:34:57] every single night as punishment I won't though which is very pretty rare that's pretty awesome though
[03:35:03] yeah like if I's all threatened I had no chapter tonight you know she scrambles to you know
[03:35:08] it's falling line anyway so the good thing about having it on repeat because obviously we finished
[03:35:15] or whatever I'm on around two like towards the end of the book and she just knows she knows the
[03:35:20] answers now you know she's still excited about it but yeah because well now she knows what's
[03:35:26] all familiar you know so she kind of knows it's almost like now she's just fine I think she's yeah
[03:35:31] that's amazing yeah that's amazing so that's the way the warrior kid and Mark's mission get it for
[03:35:36] your kids get it for your neighbors kids get it for your kids across the streets kids oh I'm sorry
[03:35:41] because why not just help kids out yeah and it does help what what does about say about I feel bad
[03:35:47] because one night this was like two nights ago um she got this new unicorn book kids book I don't
[03:35:53] know where she got it from school or something like this oh yeah from their library whatever you know
[03:35:57] part of the book excited new unicorn book but I read that thing the thing is so lame it's a kindergarten
[03:36:02] level book by the way and so I'm reading it and I'm thinking this thing is lame I'm looking at her
[03:36:08] she's over there playing with Legos while I'm reading it's but she disengaged so quick it's
[03:36:12] some nice yeah she was just off that's the warrior kid books back where all they want
[03:36:17] yeah uh this one equals freedom field manual this was called the master a lot of people this
[03:36:22] this book definitely definitely hit people hard yeah this one equals freedom field manual so
[03:36:29] that book is a good you know what this book's gonna be good for Christmas I know it's only what
[03:36:34] thanksgiving uh Halloween Halloween yeah but this book Christmas time this is the book you get for
[03:36:41] the the person yeah you know who you need it for first then you need to get a little help getting
[03:36:46] on the path so people read page a day two pages a day I read it yeah I I wrote it and I read it
[03:36:53] because it keeps you on the path so this one equals freedom field manual then you got of course
[03:36:59] extreme ownership uh which I wrote with my brother Dave Babin which is just universally
[03:37:06] kind of becoming accepted as a as a as a book that you need to read as a leader and that's
[03:37:12] followed up by the dichotomy leadership which just came out both those books New York times
[03:37:17] both sellers both those books number one Wall Street Journal best sellers both those books
[03:37:21] continue and to be almost less why be it's not that's not through but the big advertising campaign
[03:37:26] that's just the word a mouth people get it for themselves and they get it for their teammate
[03:37:30] then they get it up the chain of command down the chain of command get your get your uh
[03:37:35] get your team in the game with the dichotomy leadership and an extreme ownership and then we got
[03:37:41] Mikey in the dragons which comes out November so here's what it's about Mikey
[03:37:45] young kid scared scared of everything finds a book the book that he finds it's called the dragon
[03:37:54] prints and he scared to read it because there's pictures of scary dragons in it but then he gets
[03:37:59] the courage to read it because he sees a little boy in there too that kind of looks like he knows
[03:38:02] what's going on so he sees that little boy he goes how I'm going to read it so he reads the book
[03:38:09] and in the book the dragon prints there's the king his dead and the boy is now the only one
[03:38:17] that will defend the kingdom from the dragons that are over the hill in the dragon cave and the
[03:38:23] boy is scared because he only seven years old and there's no one he's going to do goes and finds his
[03:38:27] father's war chest pulls out the shield pulls out the sword they're too big for him and now he's
[03:38:33] even more scared but then he sees a note in the bottom of the war chest and he picks up the note
[03:38:41] and here's what it says after he finds this note it says to my son if you are reading this now
[03:38:50] it means I am gone and you are the one that must carry on our kingdom is now what you must save
[03:38:56] and to do that you have to be brave I know that you think you don't know what to do but remember
[03:39:03] that I was once a little boy too I was also small and had fear in my heart and I didn't even
[03:39:09] know where to start I couldn't imagine going over the hill to face the dragons that wanted to kill
[03:39:14] but don't worry son you will be just fine if you can just keep these things in your mind
[03:39:21] and then he goes on to explain to him how he can overcome his fear of the dragons and that's what
[03:39:29] the prince does the prince stands up to his fears and faces the dragons and then the boy
[03:39:39] Mikey learns from the lesson and you know we have to remember that we all have dragons to fight
[03:39:46] so and also remember that this book is coming out on jockel publishing why is that the big
[03:39:51] publishers couldn't get it out in time for kids to have for Christmas that's what I once I had
[03:39:56] the book in my mind I wanted kids to have it by Christmas and the big publishers couldn't make it happen
[03:40:04] because they're big you know they got a lot of moving pieces we're nimble over here you know
[03:40:10] we're nimble so since they couldn't get it out time I had to kind of like they're a big dragon that's what they
[03:40:17] are and so I had to kind of like stand up to the dragons and we can stand up to the dragons in our
[03:40:23] own right with this with this book so if you want to help fight the dragons then grab a sword or
[03:40:30] at least grab a copy and together we'll say the dragons you know also we got Ashlan front
[03:40:35] leaders of consultancy that's what we do we solve problems through leadership it's me it's life
[03:40:42] it's JP Dave Flynn Mike Surreli and Mike Bima don't call us speaking agency to get us we won't
[03:40:51] do it email echelon front or check the website echelon front dot com or you can email info echelon front dot
[03:40:57] com the monster we just got done with the monster good show good show it's awesome awesome to be up there
[03:41:05] awesome to meet all these people coming from all over the world South Africa New Zealand
[03:41:13] right it's interesting to this one woman came from New Zealand and like didn't get a shout out
[03:41:19] life was kind of name in some of the countries where people from from and I don't think what we didn't
[03:41:23] have on the list or whatever we should have done a better job of screening it but she came
[03:41:27] which is like I'm from New Zealand and I was like how's that all that awesome she guys didn't say it I was
[03:41:32] like so we're saying it now New Zealand was represented strongly and I signed a book she had to go
[03:41:39] a chair to do a little like I think she did a coin flip to figure out who gets to go to the
[03:41:44] monster her or husband she won so I signed books for him so yeah come to the monster with it the next one
[03:41:51] there's going to be one echelon in the spring and one in Denver in the fall so I'm going to
[03:41:57] send something like Australia in the winter so keep that on the down low of the year but every
[03:42:04] every monster we've done is sold out and these are going to sell out too so check extra
[03:42:08] mornishup.com if you want to get into that game of course now we also have EF Overwatch
[03:42:14] big subject lots of people it's it's the war it's the war for talent that's what it is
[03:42:20] everyone needs good what if you have a problem in your world what's going to solve that
[03:42:25] problem good leadership where do you go good leaders from well what we figured out is we get good
[03:42:29] leadership from the military so we got special operations and combat aviators that are
[03:42:35] ready to go out and do work and we're putting them into companies that need leaders so if you
[03:42:42] got a company or if you're a vet spec ops or combat aviation go to EF Overwatch and you can get
[03:42:49] in the game there and if you want to continue this conversation that we're kind of having right now
[03:42:56] you know it's been kind of a long conversation but if you want to keep it going you can find us on
[03:43:01] the in a webs on Twitter on Instagram and on Facebook keepo echo is that echo Charles
[03:43:10] and I am at jockel willink and thanks to all of you for making this podcast possible by all
[03:43:16] of you I mean first of all the military who protects our way of life and who sacrifice so much
[03:43:24] for our freedom and our security and here at home police law enforcement firefighters
[03:43:31] paramedics EMTs correction officers border patrols first responders you know who you are those of you
[03:43:37] in uniform thank you for your service in protecting us here at home and everyone that listens.
[03:43:46] Wherever you are and whatever it is that you do teachers investment bankers plumbers engineers
[03:43:54] electricians doctors and nurses and builders and bricklayers and everyone else that is out there
[03:44:01] making their way like I said earlier it can get hard sometimes that's the way life is and sometimes
[03:44:11] you can actually hear life laughing at you sometimes but I say don't let it it's like when the
[03:44:19] Chinese guards conducted a mock execution on Colonel Richardson and the other prisoners that he was
[03:44:27] there with and then the guards they stood there and they were laughing they were laughing at these
[03:44:36] terrified prisoners and the only didn't like that at the time the master sergeant he didn't
[03:44:41] like that so he yelled he yelled get up don't let them laugh at you get up and I recommend
[03:44:55] that if you feel like the world is laughing at you you do the same you get up and get after it
[03:45:05] and until next time this is echo and jocco out