Jocko Podcast - 258: Impossible Missions Across The Fence in Vietnam, with Kingbee Pilot, "Cowboy" Khanh Doan

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

0:00:00 - Opening0:06:13 - Across the fence with Cowboy Khanh Doan.2:51:27 - Final thoughts and take-aways.3:01:47 - How to stay on THE PATH.3:23:53 - Closing Gratitude.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 258 with me, Jocko Willink. Several AK-47s opened fire before the King B's wheels touched down. Nonetheless, Black and the remaining three Vietnamese ST Alabama team members exited the H-34. As the King B lifted off, the NVA gunfire increased significantly, and moments later, the laboring Sikorsky H-34 crashed. Although this was Black's first SOG mission into Prairie Fire, he knew the odds were stacked against ST Alabama. He and Cowboy argued vigorously for an immediate extraction. The team had been compromised.

The element of surprise was gone. The other American who had not gone through Special Forces qualification course at Fort Bragg remained silent. No, said the new one zero. I'm an American. No slant-eyed son of a big. is going to run me off Watkins offered the one zero a chance to extract the offer was declined the team was to continue the team leader ordered the point man to walk down a well-traveled trail away from the LZ into the jungle black cowboy and the point man Hoa argued against

heading down the trail the first rule of recon was to never use trails especially well-traveled once. The one zero pulled rank and ordered the team to move down the trail with Hoa leading the way and the elder Green Beret following a short distance behind him. The trail wound into the jungle and curved to the left. ST Alabama moved cautiously. As the team went down the trail, it moved parallel to a small rise on its right that was about 10 to 20 feet above the team. On it, the NBA colonel had quickly assembled a force of 50 NVA. soldiers who set up a classic L-shaped ambush. The quiet of the early morning jungle was shattered when the NBA troops opened fire with their AK-47s and SKS rifles.

The AK rounds ripped into the point man's chest and face. The fatal impact of those rounds lifted the canteen covers around his waist, appearing to keep his body suspended in air. What had been a human body milliseconds earlier was being chewed into a amorphous form that hit the ground with a sickening thud. Arterial blood spurred it high into the air. Three rounds slammed into the one zero's head, blowing off the right side of his face, killing him instantly.

Nothing could prepare ST Alabama for the grisly horror unfolding at that moment. The one one buried his face in the dirt and started praying. Black and the remaining ST Alabama team members returned fire. The Green Beret stood there firing us on six. single shot, picking off NVA soldiers on top of the rise. He loaded his car 15 and went down the line, shooting them one after another. Sometimes they spun and he shot them a second or third time. As the NVA continued to fire on the team, Black and Cowboy formed the team into a circle and directed a barrage of M79 grenade rounds and Car 15 fire into the surrounding jungle.

Then, startling, eerie silence. Black thought he was in his grave. ST Alabama was in a low spot with the ground rising 10 to 20 feet on both left and right. Both the NVA and ST Alabama tended to their wounded while the living combatants slammed loaded magazines into their hot weapons. There was moaning and groaning, human suffering on both sides. Black got on the PRC 25 to tell Covey about ST Alabama's tragic turn of events. Black and Tho, scavaged weapons and ammo from the dead ST Alabama team members. Fortunately, Covey was still airborne. Black reported that he had two KIAs and two WIAs and was surrounded by NVA troops.

Covey responded, you're not a doctor, nor for that fact a medic. You can't determine who's dead or alive. Bring out all bodies for verification of death. Then more than 100 NVA regulars opened fire on ST. Alabama as enemy troops had reinforced the initial ambush unit. By now, the NVA were two rows deep. The front row fired AK-47s, the second row, through grenades, or fired RPGs. Now that is a story from the book Across the Fence by John Stryker Meyer, also known as Tilt.

It's a story of October 5th, 1968, a Special Forces Sogg mission. over the border into Laos. The story is also covered in the book Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which is by Lynn Black, codename Black, Jack. And for a variety of reasons, Lynn was not able to join us on the show, but through Tilt

and his friends in the special operations community, we are absolutely honored to have with us tonight Khan Cowboy Donne, a Vietnamese soldier that fought for freedom alongside American Special Forces soldiers from SOG. Khan, thank you for

joining us. It's an honor to have you here. It's my place, and also joining us, once again, is John Stryker Meyer, the man himself, Tilt, Special Forces, soldier, and member of SOG who has been on the podcast before

180, 181, 182, 186, 247, and 248. Good to be back, sir. Good to be here with Cowboy. Thank you. Khan, it's awesome to have you here. And so your nickname is Cowboy?

How do we get the nickname Cowboy? One mission, I have a code name for radio contact. They put me name Cowboy. And then a lot of guy is going. I still survival. So my man, an American man, called me a cowboy from them. It's a good name. We always called him that in camp.

Nobody called him Kahn. It was like, hey, cowboy, we knew who cowboy was. Yeah, a little bit difficult to pronunciation by American. So it's easy or, you know, like a friend, they say, hey, cowboy. And all the time. Even my commanding officer, Bucelne, or Major Snell.

Right. When we got information, every single morning, call me Cowboy. So everybody will know who I was. Well, that's awesome. Before you became cowboy, let's go back to your,

you know, where you're from, where you grew up, that what that was like a lot of a lot of Americans we don't know what that's like growing up in in Vietnam so what what year were you born I was born from North Vietnam the Ninh being provided and then I was very young I don't know anything but 1954 my family moved to the South in order in the communists took over Vietnam. We immigrated to the south and we living in Saigon for two years my family moved up to Dalla City you know Dalla

with High Central they're very nice city beautiful beautiful and the weather like it the just normal and you can see it you can see it you can see Dalaat like the young lady, like 19 or 20 years old. You like it. So we're living there. What was it like before you left? What was it like when the communists came and took over? Took over to North Vietnam. What was that like for your family? What did it, what did they do? What did that seem like? What happened? I don't know because I was young. But I understand up to that that the communists went to everybody and they want to collect you know property from their citizens to build you know like the Communist Party and that's why my family moved from North to the South

what was your father's job what did he do actually I still now I still don't understand what he did. He only the business man. He was in the business of business. Business of man. Yes. And he moved down to the south. He busied but inside, you know, the back rise, the gun in there, but I don't know who he was. Okay. And sometimes he be the taxi driver and motorcycle driver to take care of the people. But I understand, now I understand like he's spite. Now he worked under cover anywhere, anytime. And 1963, President Gordon Jim, you know him?

He was assassinated. Before Kennedy. Before Kennedy, yes. I strong believe it. He worked with him. And after revolution from the Vietnamese Army, they put my father in jail because he worked for the old government. He worked for the president, Jim. At that time I was like 12 years old or 13 years old.

I still don't understand it. But when I visit him, the time he was in jail, I learned something. I learned something about him. And I'm thinking about, you know, what I'm trying to do to pay back the people you know, did to my father. And then he in jail.

But he was a smart man. He told me American Ghana go to Vietnam. When I was young, I studied French. And then when he

in jail, he said, hey, I better learn English because he understands American going to come to Vietnam and study I'm studying English at the time lucky for me it my family very close to you know the usage that means Vietnamese American Association so I study from them and then my father still jail. And my family, you know, the economic is going down a lot. So I try to survive by myself and for my family. And I'm very lucky when I study English. My teacher is American. He understands

my situation and my family. And he advised me to join the the army and I but I bit I don't know about him too but he's very nice guy uh-huh meaning you don't know what his actual job was he only teacher just a teacher just a teacher but I thought in my mind he was he do extra work for the government sometimes yeah yeah he's something yes yes he got to go you know to pick up the who's the bad guy or who is a good guy. Because in the class, he always

all the time asked where your family, what happened, you know, or a situation in my family. How about the money? How about, you know, how do we survive?

He learned from us a lot from the student. And I believe, you know, after that, he picked up the student to become, you know, the, the

employees for the U.S. government. That's what I talk right now. Oh, so he was a

recruiter looking for good people that will do a good job fighting for the South Vietnamese.

And good man or do something or smart man. That's the way I'm talking about my teacher.

So when you, when he told you to join the army, how did you feel about that idea?

Oh. He's, He showed me the movie. PT 109. Yeah, PT 109. About JFK? Yes. Okay.

In the class, he showed the movie. He said, you want to be John Ep. Kennedy? I said, why not? And not only one time he asked me, he asked me a lot. And he knows something. going on to my family and he can read

what are going to do it. He said, just join to the army. But I said, I don't know anything about it. That's what he told. And he called my friend another friend and say, take him to the join with the special forks.

I said, what the special fork? The people crazy? Because the Vietnam War, we understand situation. Like, you know now the Marine or you know Coast Guard, you know, like an infantry, you like airborne. So you know who's the one, which one is the hero? And I don't know anything about it. Say, try it, try it.

And they written letter to Saigon, to pastor, to, to sock his water. Yeah, here quartered on Pastor Street in Saigon. Yes. And I say, yeah, I go. So how old were you at this time? 17. 17. Yeah. And what year was it?

1996. So 1966, you're 17 years old, and you send, or they send a letter to Saug telling that they've got a good recruit. He speaks English. And that's a hot commodity. We need a good English speaker interpreters. Did you have any idea what you were getting into? No.

No. I don't know, but, you know, when we got young, we're going to be a hero. We're going to be, you know, like it's stronger more than another one. Like JFK. So I just join it like JFK, John F. Kennedy can do everything. During other time, you know, from this one, he's swimming to another Iceland. I love it. He saved this man.

Yeah, took his man in, saved him. Handsome guy. Yes. I like him very much. So that's why I'm joining. So what was your view of America at that time? You must have had a pretty positive view of America. You knew you were going to join the Army,

and you were going to support the American efforts there. I don't pay attention anything. I just want to join and join. Do it, whatever they need to me to do it. And he's, you know, the, my man, actually, you know, my, on behalf of my father, you know, most of Nung, like a ton, high, cow, everybody in my village, it means the county. He's all, we're talking about the Nungs, the Chinese. So they know who I was. They know who am I.

So they work together. We work together at all the time in the camp. So that's why I can. go with the Frenchmen team. Right, Virginia. I go with the Rhode Island team. I go with the Mississippi team. Alaska before it becomes Alabama.

In Alaska. I go anywhere. Because they say, hey, cowboy is a good man. We need to learn from him. So that's why, you know, I like to go with them. Because on behalf, you know, the attitude, my family and my family. and my father to their family. So we work together a lot of times.

One day I just, you know, vacation, I want a vacation. He said, hey, cowboy, tomorrow I got to go. You got to go with me. I said, yes, I do. And then I quit my vacation. I go with the team. So to training each order, to learning from each order. I'm not saying, you know, I'm a good man.

But my experience, when I was young, I'm in the younger. With my family, we work farmer. So I'm, you know, strong. Look skinny, but strong. Right. And sometimes, sometimes, you know, I'm thought, we got to do it, we got to do it. You can see my hand here, scar.

I can cut the bullet. throw like to the enemy so they like to me Cowboy catching bullets Cowboy catching bullets Got the scars to prove it You can sit here

I got wounded Yeah I got wounded every way in my body But I still survival And I'll tell you You're lucky you were skinny Because if you were any bigger Those bullets would have hit worse spots

You were hard to shoot at Yeah You're right Not big like a hill When I saw him, the first I saw now to him, he said, hey, this guy's too big. And his foot, it's longer. That's what Sal said. Normally, a Moroccan, the big guy, like you and like him.

But, you know, when we there, we're very skinny and a small one. Like a hundred, 120 pounds or a hundred pound, you know, look at, hey, that baby Sean right right that American call my people baby Sean little people yeah little people yeah affectionate term yeah yeah and but you grew up in the jungle so for you being in the jungle was just just normal that's just yeah nothing to get used to you're just that's the way you lived that's the way you grew up so that's a real advantage yes and he spoke English unlike the round eye over here the city slicker I can't honor to tell you, we can smell vicious.

This smell. Because when we go land down the jungle, they got a flower, right? They got to plant the rice or they got to plant whole kind of thing in the jungle. We know, we can imagine, say, what they're going to do, where they leave it, and where their post. where the hospital and we can smell it. And then my sixths can understand how communist activity there. They can grow up, they can do anything because we're local people. Right.

That's why the Green Berets love our indigenous people. The Nungs, like he said, he could smell. It had the extra sense that we never had, particularly somebody like me, a city slicker. That's why people like him are number one, and they kept us alive. In the jungle, we yielded to them. They always ran point, not us, and they got us in a cell of trouble. That because we local, local, local people there. We can smell different, like the bird, wet, wet, wet, or chicken, we can, we can

comparison right away. inside the jungle if you see it quiet that means nobody moved. That's a problem. That's a problem. The trouble is close.

We understand. Exactly right. I always say, hey, keep your fucking hat down. I'm sorry. It's okay. But that's true. Sometimes people need to keep

their fucking heads down. That's the fucking truth. But it's true. I'm not there you're a liar. You know. And then what was the training like that you went through to get you ready to work with the Special Forces team? Did you go into the regular army? Did they process you into the regular army?

Or did they just take you up to one of the, one of the CCN or something? Cam Duck, which was, you first with the Camduck. That was the first SOG training base was up by ICOR. And Cam Duck was open, had bad weather. But that's where they did the initial training. Next to a loud border. Yeah, very close to the border. How long did they train you for?

Long time. Even now, when they send you there, you're free to do. It means not in the law, not in the morning, wake up, 6 o'clock, whatever they need it. To train it, they call you 1 or 2 a.m. or 1.8.m. or 1.2 p.m. And they let you free. And mean, tomorrow we got to go arrange. Arranged many times.

And then what are you thinking when you got young, the first time you cat a gun, we got like a 10, you know, boxed off the bullet. Right. We go there, we sit free. Only my friend has said,

hey, how to, How to work the weapons. How to work the weapon. And then next day, we gotta go range to fire. How to clean the weapon and nice. Was you carrying an AK or were you carrying a car 15? Okay, the first thing when I enjoy it, enjoying that, only carbine. Okay.

And then later carbine the M1 and M2. And then after that, they changed two. Sweden K Swedish K Right Swet and K And then Stan Oh the stand

The stand The stand gun to have both Stand the line silent You know The magazine Out the side Yes

Okay And later on We moved to the Fubai We usually M16 AR 15 And then the car 15 And then M16

Right And then car 15 Because they're hard to come by But we training every weapon, like a motor, 82, 60, put on, you know, right here. On the leg, yeah. To punch to the enemy. Sure. We train a whole kind of weapon or B40, M72.

And were these special forces, American special forces, soldiers that you guys were in charge or some group was in charge of training? Yes, that was a combat. At Cam Duck, it was the first camp. so many early sod guys were there and that was part of the recruitment that came through Saigon and that's why a cowboy ended up there

and it was training and plus the camp was so close to the border you had self-defense at night. Yes. There would be prods and the NBA attacked the camp several times prior to May 68 when the camp got overrun and there's a whole book about that called

Bait and after that they closed camp dock and by that time Alabama was already at F-O-B-1 when they closed Camp Duk. We move, come Duk and then jump over to F-O-B-1. I get there in May of 68, late in May McIntyre, and these guys came in with his team. And of course, you want to tell him about Alaska?

Alaska, yes. Yeah, what happened with ST Alaska? They blow out. Everybody was killed, separate 1-0, John Allen, who escaped. And he needed for two days, and he caught, and he wanted a helicopter policy. brought him back and they said we want to change the name of the team they changed it from Alaska to Alabama and then Tim Schoff was the one zero when they were training

John Allen John Allen first David David I forgot about Davis Davis Davis and then Tim Sharp and then October 5th we won't close ever be one close yeah later we we got to go F-O-B, no, the nine, F-O-W-FORN, CCN. But that was after we closed, F-O-B-1, but this is like May was a very incremental month? So was that where you first checked in,

you went to Alaska, or had Alaska just become Alabama? Yes, the first... The only reason why you didn't go on a mission, he had just turned and missed a mission, or he would have been on that mission with Alaska. No, I'm from the Hachia Falls. Oh, that's right, I forgot.

I'm sorry. Okay, so you started with the hatchet force. Yeah, hatchet force. We worked, you know, like the Playtune or company, to go with, after the team got a contact to the enemy. And the people from the recon go down to the hatcherfolk, looking who's the bad, who's the good. And they say, hey, cowboy, you want to be a recon team?

I say, why not? I try my badge. Yeah. And the first thing I came to the team, recon team, I scanned everybody, looking, you know, bad guy, looking. Because the nuns are tall than the other B&M on the team. And people say, hell, okay, try, try your best. And I joined the team. At the time, at the time of that, Alaska is burned out.

They didn't blow out. And when I joined it, they got to rebuild the team. And I say, hey, Alaska is no good. Too many goals because too many people died. So we need to change the name and change to Alabama. And then we worked with it, Alabama, until F.O.B.1 closed. We came to Danang, 6'YN. In CCN, they got an Alabama team there too.

So my name got changed to Indiana. Okay. That was early 69 after they closed F-WB1. And Tilt was telling me about one time when you were getting taken out on strings. And somehow you ended up upside down or something like that. Yes, Swiss. Just normal thing, but I remember we had a kind of. with the enemy, but we cannot move out to the, to the, to the, to the, to the,

our, we inside the jungle. And then the chopper came in, throw down the rope, one of each, we got a different rope. Mm-hmm. But tactical for, for, for safe. for the team, four guys come up, pick up the rope to hang it up, and another four guys still, you know, keep them safety. Right.

Security. Keep shooting. Security. And then after the chopper lap, pull out the four guys, we came over. And then another four rope, throw it down. We tried to hook it up. But I, John Ellen, another two Vietnamese guy, hook up the rope. When I turn over, you know, I try to hoop myself into my rope.

But I look it up. You know, the tree here, the rope turned over. Oh. The tree. So what happened? What we got to do? I saw, I say, hey, Elin, look it up. And then, you know, we got a stable wreck.

We don't have a stable wreck at the time. It's the Swiss seat. Yeah, we have three rows, one for seat, and one from here, and another two for seed. Right. And John Allen saw it. He gave me one from him. Oh. If I hook it up, that, you know, the chop, we're going to cut it down, and I drop it back

to the plant I'm going to die. And then they pull up. I only one string in here. Wow. You're the D-ring holding you in. Yeah. In here. And when they're going up like at the thousand feet or two thousand feet something.

And then I got a roof shop here. I got a gun. You know, the, my web gear here. Yes. And then it's going down, turn over to here, to my knee. You're upside down. I know that feeling. I know that feeling.

And then John Evelyn want to warp it. But the wind cannot be together at the time. So when I warp it, it's going down to my ear. To your feet? Go down here, yeah. Yes. But luckily we got a jungle boot. You know the form of the jungle boot.

Yes. It's still tight here. And I all the way down. So you were hanging on the rope by just your ankle and your jungle boot. It's jungle boot. Yeah. And then John Allen shoot up because we got it flag. We would shoot flagging.

Yes. And, you know, the chopper still flowed. And we hear, we understand that we, we thought, you know, they might not know. something of you know you're upside down yes yes so so John Allen was shooting the flare gun to try and get the helicopter pilots to realize what was happening to look and down but they did the communist underground so how do we do to you know it flew that still flow and then my my body is up and down and until we close to the Fulbeye and the jumper drop up

When I lie down on the ground, I still understand. I'm looking down the my gun, the magazine is empty. I change the magazine, lock and low again, and do it. And then the pilot coming down to pick me up to the, put inside the chopper, and I don't know anything anymore. Because you're unconscious. From there to the Fulbeye. Brut Johnson?

You know Bruce Johnson? Right, yes. The medic. By that time he was unconscious and the medic was Bruce Johnson on that mission or in the helicopter. No, he came out. He inside the camp. Okay, he died. And Bruce, what do you do, his elbow in your chest to wait, get your heart going?

But I still know everything, even I die. Wow. Then Bruce Johnson shoot the gun. Hey, medic! And the car coming in, pick me up to the 80 feet hospital. Right. And on the way, he tried to, you know, wake me up. He used the elbow when I lie down here, punch in here.

You can see the bone coming out right here. Yeah, Bruce was our medic, and so he died three times. And Bruce told us about that years later, about how he brought him back to life, and they thought he was dead. They took him down to the field hospital right there at Fubai. Say, hey, I beat you up, you don't wake up, you rather die about it. You say, I love you very much.

Yes, he loved me very much. But I don't know anything. I remember what he told. I remember who got a thing. But I cannot do anything. Then I mean I die for something. And then they brought me to the hospital. The doctor said, hey, can't do anything to me anymore.

Do you remember hearing the doctor say that they can't help you anymore? Yes. I'm still alive. Even I don't do anything. I can't do anything. The people thought I'm dead. But myself, I still alive. Wow.

I hear what you say. I know something going on, knock something. I live in there. You feel bruise on your chest. Yeah, even he beat in my chest right here. Right here. You can see the bone here. There it is.

The special forces medics, men, they're relentless. They'll do anything to keep you alive. Yes. Everything. The first thing he put in here, wake up, grab up. He almost cried. I know that. But I can't do anything.

Upside down, a long time. And then after he tried to wake me up by this one. And then elbow. You see how big the bruise, right? Oh, yeah. He was in shape then. So after that, two hours, three hours, I think three hours. I forget.

Three hours, my team came back to club, alcohol, and he said, hey, cowboy, a good man. We got to bring him back. Everybody drunk, John Allen. Yeah, John Allen can't cry. Took a zip. Right. drew up to the hospital, pointing a gun to the doctor,

say, you better take care of him, or you want to, you die. So John Allen went to the doctor and brought a gun and said, you either take care of our boy, cowboy. Sometimes the doctors, the American doctors there were reluctant.

John Walton did that, had the same problem after his mission in August. And with Cowboy, they heard they weren't getting the right treatment, the 1-0 went right down there, and they addressed the doctor because they had a policy. No indigenous people at the hospital.

And that's what they were up against. And our team leaders had to get a little aggressive and getting the problem. Well, in this case, it was a car 15. Yeah, we got, we got the team. Yeah, with John Walt, he's just threatened to beat him. Okay, you MP right now, right? In the front of my chest,

claim on my car 15 hand Gennett what do you think what will you do? Yeah I'm going to do whatever you want me to do actually They came up to the hospital saying

You better take care of cowboys And my friend You know the people drunk Crying Miss me I knew I hear that but I can do anything. And,

Ma, you give me a coffee, you give me smoke, and I don't know. Maybe they put the hot water into my mouth. And I feel something go through here, and I wake up, say, hey,

what the hell are going on here? Where's the party? And then later on, we come. come back to camp. This is all before October 5th. Yeah, yeah.

Now, did you, did I hear right that you had a relative that was also? Yeah. Well, his wife's brother was on ST Idaho when Idaho got wiped out in May of 68. That was your wife's brother. Brother, your wife's brother. Yes. I have a two brother. One of the, got the PLW at the Lamway.

Mm-hmm. Another one with Idaho team. And LangVay was the A Camp that got overrun on Tet when he had the NVA tank and they captured some of our people as well as some of the indigenous people that took them back to POWs. That family paid a high price. Jeez. How often, so now it's 19, how long were you in the job for? The total line from 66 to 72. In 66 to middle up to 67, the time was for training.

In 67, I'm joined the Alabama team until to August, 72. I lost my leg. Wow. And so these guys, you're going out, the whole time, you're just going out on mission, mission, mission. Yes. No, I mean other way, maybe you go back to town, get a little break for a week or something, a month, but most of the time it's just work. Yes, sometimes.

You know, like the, yes, I just count a month for one mission, total time. Sometimes only 10 days, sometimes one month, three times. So that's why we received the money, get paid for two times. three times. Okay, for example, on the first day of the month, we take a money. We go downtown for two, three days. And after two, three days, we have no more money left. Mission. Mission. Many mission. Mission. I say, okay, we go. And we stand by there for a week because the weather or whatever you know the some reason we can not go and then we went there but you know the you know the shock law right when we come up to the

algae the communist shoot up we we came back we not jumping down and then after a few days one zero we got a path go past. He said, okay, for one day. And, you know, I tried to do it. He understands it. No money. He took to the S-one to get the money. And then we on, we on pass for two days or whatever weekend. We came back. Because the reason we stand by for that target, we cannot go, you know, the long trip, like you go, Saigon or, or, you know, we can't God. Just go away.

Yes. And then come back for the mission again. We come up there because the weather or whatever. After a week, we cannot go at the weekend. I say... That's why it was October 5th. It was beginning of the month. They got through the pay day and the weather broke.

Because we had rains and some... Yeah. At the end of the monsoon season. We stand by for the target for like two weeks. like two week, three weeks or one month, a lot of prison we cannot go there. Weather or the community activity underground, I bet, you know, like when we went out the mission, everybody knows even the Pentagon or even, you know, the headquarters in Saigon, then the White House. The White House.

Yeah, the Ta-Shored Shaghan or whatever. Yeah, the White House. We work together. I think so. So that's why, but we can't, I cannot remember how many missions I got to go. I cannot remember. Too many. Too many. You didn't write a diary. You couldn't write a diary. No, no, no. We can do anything. We can, we can say, hey, I go there, I go there, I go there. But when we received the mission, like the one zero, say, hey, we got to go our South. We understand our South.

We got to go DMV. We know the DMV. We got to go Laos, we know. We got to go Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The border. We know situations from them. Because we learn from training, from the North, moving to the South.

They got so many secret zones from the communists. And we know when they moved from the north to the south, how are they working on it. Our people were too heavy, like a root shack, like a web gear, who got it, like a hundred pounds, or more than hundred pounds, right? Some of it, yes, close to it, yes. But the communists, they don't wear anything.

Just AK-47 and AK-Fest. Because they live in there, they don't need food. They don't need care of water. They don't need care of food with them. Because they live in there, like my house. We came down there, we carried things to heavy. Then we learned from them. We know how they're activities.

But our job is to protect this guy. He told big. And we're easy to move. And we're easy to understand them. But he, from here, he came to Vietnam. In the younger, he can't do anything. Young and dumb. Young.

But, you know, they're good. Good more than else. So, uh, they sma more than else. We learn from the Vietnamese. So on this mission on October 5th, the helicopter puts you guys on the ground. You're getting shot at before you land. One of the helicopters then gets shot up and crashes. And, and the one zero says we're still going.

Correct. Yes. When we came down to the foot shopper, it made me, James Strang, and another two Vietnamese, we got to go in that guy. We came down, the commonest way we dropped down the ground, they shoot it up. And we are not surprised about it because we understand the situation. Did you see the flag that was flying? Yes.

The NBA flag? NVA flag. Oh, there's an NVA flag? Yeah. That has to be a little bit of a warning sign. That's why Lynn argued with the one zero saying that flag is at least 3,000 people here and we're nine. Yeah, like the flag, according from the flag, we can make it out like the, not division, like a regime, like it. 3,000 guys on the ground.

We understand that 3,000. Buku. We understand Boku. Yeah. Then, then Black tried to get down. They got shot. Then King Bee lived up. And another king bee, they got a tactical from the chopper.

They land this way, down this way, land this way, down this way, and shoot another place to make it. make it difficult for communist adjustment where we're going down. Right, right. And then another chopper, that means it's 34, burn out, drop it down. Cress? Yes, crass. But, you know, we help on the ground, help up the chopper.

What you're gonna do? We gotta go. And the limb black drop down. drop down. When we dropped out, you know, that a plan, LG, we got to move to the jungle right way to heighten. And we got a very quick briefing. Say, what you got to do next? According from the pack walking of the COVID. Okay, got it. Okay, got it. And we got a briefing with them. The pack, what can say? If the team got an attraction, you have a right to do it.

But James Stride, the big guy. The one zero says no. He said no. He thought, you know, we're very strong. But he forget to understand that not in there, 3,000 guys there. And not our homeland. That the communist land, right? Layout.

Yes. And then they say. To continue to march. Yeah. That's what he said. And then Lynn Black told me. Let's go. Let's go back.

And he said, and then we go. Yeah, that was the last wrong decision he made in his life. Yes. And we moved about like 15 feet. We showed, you know, the postcard from the communists. Lynn Black, forget to tell you we found the AK-47 magazine. Really? Yeah.

And then we found, you know, the raincoach. Oh, is that right? Yeah, from the, from the, from the, from the communists. Yes. And the tree, they let, they sit it, you know, very clean. So I understand, you know, the post. They were sitting there watch. Yeah, they sit there for the post-graph from the common.

There's an LZ watch stand. Oh, man. They had a lot of those set up with different LZs that were, because there's only so many in lay us at that point. So they had LZ watchers and they had some that were beginning to get platforms and that's one of the first ones I forgot about. Yes, you forget about it. But they had the platform, that's what he's talking about.

They saw it. So in addition, they knew that they were compromised by the gunfire. They saw the platform so he had to go back and yet the one zero said, go down the trail. with a helmet, the communist common is hat. This helmet. So what was the one zero's background right now like in this operation?

He had come from Germany. He'd been assigned to Germany. He had stateside duty, but he'd never been to Vietnam. So he was not familiar with working with our Vietnamese counterparts, listening to people like Cowboy, and listen to Lynn. Lynn had a whole year experience

to comment. And so he was one of these old school guys. I'm the leader, we're going to do this. And that was the last bad decision he made in his life. Took the team into it. I still told him. Yeah. And then we're not, you know,

going out the trail anymore. We go by in the jungle. So when you're down that trail, that's a big mistake. Yes. That never happened. Would you guys ever have situations where the team would look at the

zero and say no we're not doing that well that's what they had there and the one zero overruled them and most of the times are we would listen to our our indigenous people are little people if they said don't go to the reason and uh that's just the mutual respect we had for yeah um particularly once you're on the ground so it's just a matter of the rapport between this was a new team that come together and They had just taken the experience one zero off, who had combat experience. He had many missions that Tim Schoff was the one zero prior. Because the other person, Jim Stride, was more ranked.

They appointed him the team, and they told Tim to give him another team. Yeah, this is why when you're in a leadership position, you listen to people. You listen to your team. I mean, this is why. There's nothing. If you let your ego get in the way, And you say, I'm going to let these people tell me what to do. It's like, okay, it doesn't work out well.

You've got to stay humble as a leader. Yeah, any leadership class, if you want to show what you shouldn't do, this is a classic example. But we don't have a training with him. No. No. No. No. Yeah.

We training at the Hiven Pass. Right. And then Team Shop. Yeah. Team Shop. Team shop. Pre-training for the mission. But the team shop.

Oh, okay. It's a different one zero. Right. So this is just a bad, this is bad all the way across the board. And this is the one where the Navy saved ST Alabama. Because they were on his training mission. And they had a lot of, it's an area where you had Viacom and NVA.

But Thailand before, but Thailand, NVA. And so they got into a world of training. trouble there, a world of shift with them. On a training mission. And the NBA drove them down to the South China Sea from their high ground. Because they had higher ground, drove them down. And Lynn fortunately had a frequency for the Navy. And one of the Navy, not a PT boat, but a boat that had two or three 50 calories.

And they came in and picked a team up. Otherwise, they would have been wiped out. On a training mission. It's a rough training mission. It was. Cowboy wasn't happy about that either No, I like it Because it's free

You know It can go Yeah now Fishing Let me Let me pick this back up from the book On this mission on October 4th So where we left off

Or sorry on October 5th Where this left off was The NVA are two rows deep The front row firing AK-47s The second row throwing grenades And firing RPGs and then I'm going to pick this back up. It says another Vietnamese ST Alabama team member was wounded.

The team had to get out of the hole or die in it. The bold NBA told the ST Alabama members to Chouhoy or surrender, speaking first in French, English, and finally Vietnamese. ST Alabama's weapons drowned out further Chuhoy requests. The one one. So they asked you to surrender and you shot at them. And the Chuhoy was a whole program, right? It was a whole program to get people to switch sides from...

We had a Chuhoy, and then they knew the program. So they used the same word, surrender. And ST Alabama, answered it in fine style. With a carpet. One handgunet, one magazine. That answer to them. Then it says, the 1-1 continued to pray

so the 1-1 got he kind of lost it a little bit totally and he was curled up in a ball he was putting his face in the sand and he was trying to pray I can tell got it because he on my team got it he was on my team

I need to protect him he needs to protect me yeah he on my team well it says here black couldn't believe it then black says this is no time to pray do unto others before they do unto you he yelled whether or not the NBA soldiers were praying they continued to move around ST Alabama some climbing into trees cowboy and black crawled 15 feet toward them close enough so that cowboy heard the NBA

commander tell his troops to prepare to charge ST Alabama's position or you actually heard their commander give the order prepared to charge that's her the commander also told his troops on the long side of the L ambush not to fire. Black quickly rigged a Claymore mine in the direction of the pending charge. The fearless NVA mounted a charge toward ST Alabama with AK-47s on full automatic.

Black detonated the Claymore Mine. It blew a huge hole in the NBA ranks. Before the smoke cleared, ST Alabama ran through the human carnage, firing Car 15s on full automatic and throwing M-26 frag grenades while dragging their three wounded team members. miraculously ST Alabama made it through the NVA wave of attackers and moved back towards the LZ

leaving their dead behind we tried to bring them out with us but we could I try to move up to wrap the hand the dead man okay 47 I got to move back I'm glambike by going up you know the strike he's the big guy too big he's the fast guy I tried to clam over. And when they shoot it, hit to the dry body. And I can feeling his body shake when he hit the bullet. So you're trying to drag his body and his body is getting shot. I understand exactly when I told them a lass, but they never listened.

He never listened to me. even there I heard hey communists say ambush don't kill them that means don't kill us

oh because they wanted to capture you they wanted to capture and then I do it a lot so for those of you that are just listening to this Cowboy keeps giving the hand signal for hey we need to

circle up and get out of here get the helicopters and get out of here that's what you're giving the hand signal the whole time Jumper. Get the king bees. Up. And then he never listened to me. I know.

He said, go. He, the poignant, the Vietnamese team leader here, and James strike, back up him. And then Lynn Black, right. I know the Am 179 here. He said, go. You know the rule from the team. from the team. The first man get up, first step, second step, third step, another man stand up. Okay. And step to the boot where the first man is stepped. And he

stand up. I show, I show him because I hate him. I said, he said, no, a lot of time, but he never listened to me. And first step, he's going down, second step, third step. I hear the bullet, and he down. I turn around. I'm not staying there for a safe my life. I got to turn around, and then the big tree are like there. And the common is shoot again.

Because we're very close, like here to here. What, 10 feet? He thought no more than 10 feet. Wow. No more than 10 feet. The Bush, he lived in there. And then when I try to move into Gathers, like the SOA, map, and then the thing for survival in his pocket.

Survivor were at the radio. Oh, the radio, regular SOI, SOI, right? S-O-I radio frequency. I tried to cry to cry out whole everything in his body given to lean, given to blood, and try to take him out. I say, hey, strike, strike, strike. If nothing happened, what will you do? I try to clam up and they should be again.

I'm lucky, I'm very lucky because, you know, his body is very big. when I try to move it, especially the department, that's too. So what we're going to do? We can't do anything. But when later on, the team later in here, the gun, you know, point to his hat, but he didn't see it. Because here, hit hit here, the AK-47 gun right here. And the common is up, fresh.

When he shoot it, we gotta find out where he got. And then observation, and say, hey, AK-47 pointed the lock here. And he said, and hit, you know, the lock down, hit down, going down here. And I shoot the comment, it dropped out the AK-47 here. So you never know it from here to here. How do we survive? And open in my mind, we got training in the camp.

We say, one handgunet, one magazine. That means you have a handgunet and you have a magazine. When we throw down, hangaract, we cannot throw it too far. We throw it down, it means clear communists around us. One hand grenade, one magazine. When we throw the grenade too close, we upright the communists, pick up the grenade, throw it back. So that's why we got one hand grenade, one magazine. And we throw the grenade, and we got a single shot.

ping, ping, ping, be sure the comedies keep their head down. They don't have a timer to looking to pick up the gunhead. You don't want to play catch with a handgunette. Yes. I said, one handgunet, one fucking handgunet,

one fucking magazine. Because we AI drill in home, right? Right. And we throw the gunnet, ping, ping, ping. We don't... So that helped to get you guys out of the hole. That's what he was talking about that.

We don't have a, we, the communists, they don't have a time of two, thinking, what we gotta do? And then after my, my magazine is empty, he shoot it up, ding, thing, thing, how the communists doing, nothing, can't do anything. And then when we, we clear around us, and another, another wave, one negative, one magazine, And then like the, we got a big company because everybody one throw the one, one, one hand, what do you think? What do you hear? Boom, boom, boom, boom.

So they scary us, how we, how we're fighting. So that's why, you know, we try to clear around us. And then we be saved at the time. Meanwhile, going back to the book, Covey says the King Bees had to return to Foo Bye to refuel. No extraction was possible for at least two to three hours. That bad luck. Meanwhile, the relentless and bloodied NVA ran after the spike team. Black planted a Claymore mine with a five-second time delay fuse.

It wreaked havoc on the hard-charging NBA. As the smoke cleared and the body parts settled back to the earth, ST Alabama split in half again and charged through the battered torn ranks of the NBA warriors killing any standing enemy. They counted at least 50 NBA dead. Again, Erie's silence engulfed the team and ST Alabama regrouped.

Just as suddenly a new wave of NBA soldiers rushed the beleaguered team. ST Alabama had been pushed near the club. Cliff. It was a thousand feet to the ground if they went over the edge. Now online, ST Alabama charged through the weakest NBA flank, killing more enemy soldiers. So you guys are,

there's thousand foot cliffs. There's a thousand foot cliffs that you guys are up against? Whatever you believe or not, but it's happened. Yeah. And then so you guys, this is an important lesson for people is every time you guys are put into a tough situation,

you go on the attack. You attack through the flank. You attack through the ambush. And right here, ST Alabama charged through the weakest NVA flank. They did that several times. That's what the NVA, they're not used to recon teams charging. And that's what saved their lives at that point. Yeah, that's even though the Vietnam guys that taught us when I was a young seal,

they would say if you get caught in an ambush, you have to attack them. If you stay there, you're just going to die. So you have to attack. Exactly, exactly. if we not attack them they're going to run over us so we're going to attack them and that they're scanning

we can run over to them exactly about I'm continuing on here something hit black on the side of the head knocking him to his knees he was scrambling to get up when the grenade went off the last thing he remembered was being slammed into a tree face first and the car 15 handle digging into his chest

saw somebody hit him in that head with a grenade Yeah, we don't know where is that. Where that's from? But lucky for him, from the China. There's a Chinese hand grenade. They're poorly made. Yes. They make it by them show in the genre.

Oh, okay, it was like a homemade grenade. He thought he was drowning, but then he felt feet kicking him and hands slapping him all over. It was the team. They were beating black back into consciousness and pouring water in his face. He tried to get up, but his legs didn't work. From the knees down, there were no fatigue pants just surface bleeding. One of the guys started smearing gelatinized rice on the one, two's legs, arms, and chest. Black's webge gear and what was left of his fatigue jacket were lying shredded bloody on the ground.

The car 15 was bent where the barrel meets the receiver and the bolt couldn't be pulled back. One of the team buried it. By 0900, word of ST Alabama's precarious position had spread through Fob 1 through Fob 1 like Wildfower. Wildfire. Requests were made for an extra assets. It was now an official Prairie Fire Emergency. All aircraft were pulled from their missions and sorties to support ST Alabama. Any gunships attached to SOG were summoned to their aid. The first gunships to arrive were Marine Huey's known as Scarface. With them was a CH-46 with a ladder attached for jungle extraction. When the twin rotor helicopter entered the AO, it was hammered by heavy enemy ground fire,

as were the marine gunships. Green tracers were. were seen going toward the CH-46. The ground fire became too intense, and the Marine Chopper had to withdraw and make an emergency landing at Camp Eagle in the 101st Airborne compound. Despite the hit, Scarface Gun Chips made several passes, expending all ordinance

before returning to base to reload. King B officers regrouped and prepared to fly back to Laos to extract what was left of ST Alabama. The S3 asked for volunteers for a bright light mission, and every recon men and FOB1 volunteered. ST Idaho was scheduled to insert into the Prairie Fire A.O.

The next day, 6 October. Because the team was ready to go, there was some initial discussion about Idaho being the bright light team. As the day dragged on, however, and the perilous nature of ST Alabama's situation worsened, the bright light option faded because the original LZ was now too deadly for any helicopter to attempt an extraction. So you

were you in S, were you the 1-1? Were you the 1-0 in ST? Yeah, Don Wolfen was the 1-0. So you guys are going, leg, we'll go, we'll go now. Yeah, we're getting ready for our mission on October 6th, and then we were all ready. They said, you guys are ready, so we're going to do the bright light, and then they changed

their mind later because of all the intense fire and another helicopter got shot down in the process. So Watkins, Watkins was the Covey? Right, they rotated. Watkins then when the cubby got low on fuel and spider parks was there and he got low on fuel Pat went back back back so they were both the two cubby guys were there because they were really familiar with that target so here we go when watkins who's the covey returned the FOB for the

sessna to refuel he told the others that it didn't look good he wasn't sure if they'd be able to get them out he explained the low sunken area in the lz the spotty weather and how smoke from the expended ordinance hung over the lz making it more difficult to spot the team and to deliver airstrikes accurately. A resupply of ammo, grenades, Claymore Mine's, M79 rounds, water, bandages, and morphines, and morphine was placed on a king bee and launched towards ST Alabama. In Laos, Cowboy worked on Black's legs. He told Black that the last wave of NVA had continued onto the LZ.

Cowboy and Black heard more U.S. Marine Huey gunships arrive overhead and witnessed the NVA on the LZ open fire, hammering the lead aircraft. again the one-one panics cried and shouted skyward the Vietnamese team members speaking through cowboy told black that they were going to kill the one-one if he didn't shut up black agreed i'll pull the trigger myself god forgive you the one-one responded tearfully you and your god have no place here black retorted cowboy grabbed the startled black by the throat and lifted a catholic crucifix from his neck and shoved his lips to it it's the god to have allowed us to get this far round eye So this is just a nightmare of a situation. What are you guys doing on the ground while all this close air support is coming in? I can tell you the first thing in here that, you know, when the black down, you know, the water in the jungle, we cannot, you know, wave it, right? But we still pull a whole kind of water to him to make him wave. up. I mean, we don't know our situation. We don't know the water, how we don't out the water

in the jungle. But we still do it because we love him very much. And the thing, you know, I don't know how to tell you. I don't know how to tell you, but we got to protect by God. I don't know time. Divine intervention. Yes. Maybe when I pray You know, we only pray Only, only pray At the end of the

The way we go or at the end of The thing in my mind We shoot them They shoot them And then if the God not Protect me Not protect our team member We not stay here

that 100% for true. That's what I told you. I can tell you. I came amazing. The time he lied out, I'm crying. I say, hey, black, black, black. He's only one, you know, we can believe. One, one, I cannot tell anything.

He can't do anything through to him. Even, you know, we respect him a lot. But at the time, what should we do? In my mind, God protect us. Please, because we have no change. We have nowhere to go. We can't do anything. They got a thousand, thousand.

We have only few guys, only seven guys. Because we dead two already, and three wounded. I got a wounded myself. M-79 wounded. Black. Black wounded. M-179 run out the ammo, the bullet, and almost we use a knife.

But lucky for us, I mean, we can pick up the AK-47. The AK-47 and the weather from the commonness. And we still protect. We can protect us on the ground. So I can tell you it because when, that's all my heart and all in my heart. Even, you know, James Stry is still back, still back there,

two, three Vietnamese body is still back there. We can't do anything. When we ring up that, make me feel, you know, depressed. I can honor to tell you about So I don't know Why Meyer and me

Still alive in here I don't know That's a magic By the way this isn't even over yet That's not even close Going back to the book The Sound of the Approaching King Bees Ended the religious debate

As the realities of a surviving A shall hell became center focus The Able Body He picked up the wounded to move toward the LZ. Spider, the Covey Rider at the time, told Black that the first Kingby was en route to the LZ, but they planned to work the area surrounding ST Alabama with tactically air support first.

In this case, an F4 Phantom jet pilot told Black to key your handset for 10 seconds and put your head in the dirt. Black acknowledges his radio transmission and told his teammates to put their heads down. As he looked into the sun, he observed the slowest moving, full-flapped phantom he had ever seen. The glide path ratio was critical. Seconds later, he saw the tree line across the LZ explode into sheets of white, yellow, and orange flames, setting the jungle on fire with napalm.

The ship banked sharply, appearing to stand its wingtips on the ground. The pilot cranked the burners, dropped down into the valley below, and then began a vertical climb. NVA small arms opened up on all sides of the valley. The F4 took numerous hits on its armor-plated underbelly. Among those shooting at the fast mover were several NVA troops about 20 feet from ST Alabama's perimeter. As the napalchched the jungle, dozens of NVA soldiers scurried into the open field to escape the instant inferno that engulfed their comrades. As a second gent rolled in for a gun run, the NVA initiated what they called getting close to the belt. In this case, the NVA soldiers moved toward or outright charged ST Alabama to get as close to the team members as possible to avoid being hampered.

or burnt by the Air Force Marines or Army Air Ordinance. Firing on single shot, ST Alabama picked off each of them as they came out of the burning jungle. The Phantoms returned with two cannon and mini-gun runs along the team's perimeter. Before the dust settled the Vietnamese team leader Tho and cowboy crawled out and recovered several AK-47s and precious ammunition from the dead enemy soldiers as their car 15 ammo was dwindling to a few precious rounds. So you're crawling out and actually grabbing the enemy weapons and grabbing enemy ammunition.

From the dead soldiers. Dead soldiers. They lie down there and pick it up. Deliver to another team member. Because in order to survival, we got to do it. We're going to do it. We carry body, enemy, put up, make the chain back to protect. people too. Using enemy bodies as sandbags to protect yourselves. Yes. It goes on here. Two of the nine-cylinder King

Bees came chugging up the valley toward ST Alabama. Black popped a green smoke marker. The NVA popped a identical smoke marker confusing the pilots with devastating results. The first King Bee followed the NVA's smoke marker and took a direct hit from a rocket

which toppled it on its side, smashing each rotor blade into the ground. The approaching ST Alabama team members nearly missed getting hit with shrapnel from the crash. Black Cowboy and another team member charged the rocket position, killing the three NVA before a hail of NVA fire drove them back into the team perimeter. The second H-34 hit an outcropping of rock on the western side of the Knoll. After taking heavy enemy gunfire, it exploded and fell thousand feet to the valley floor below, taking with it, ST Alabama's resupply.

Covey barked Nice going black jack Fuck you Covey he replied Cowboy told the one one to pray for everyone except black Because he was going on the devil's side Black broke into laughter as he assessed ST Alabama's predicament Ammo was desperately low The blood trails look like slug slime

The F4 Phantoms had expended their ordinance And Covey was belligerent His nerves were shot Training and a man's basic survival instinct had completely taken over, then the NBA bugles sounded. So at this point, this scene, you guys are running out of ammunition, you got three wounded, you got two dead, no, more than two dead, you're taking enemy weapons off the ground, you're building a bunker with enemy bodies, the helicopters finally show up to get you out of

there and they both get shot out of the sky. Yes. What do you think your chances are for survival at this point? Just only can I can say that God protect us. No one can. No one can. Even not only to chop it down, we got a lot of support of the air. Like a phantom, like a skyd rudder, like the sea.

53 Charlie Green Giant. We can see the bird. It's over the air. Not only to, a lot. So you can actually see your air support. They're flying around. They're dropping bombs. They're dropping napalm.

But it doesn't really help. I mean, the fact that you guys are on the ground, even though you can see them. Yes. I can see it. And then enemy very scanning. And then we on the ground, we can point. Skyrider, bomb is in there.

And then they're very scanny. That's why we survive. Another reason that. In this day, God came in the form of close air support. Yeah. Absolutely. They want Skyraver next. You can see that.

Keep your fucking hat down. That means bomb neck to me. Yeah. Bomb neck to me. Because they upstairs. air, they know what's where we are. You know, in the hat, you got a panel. Mm-hmm. Yep.

We turn over. Yep. So the airplane can see where we were. Right. We used to do the same thing. Yes. Was there right? Yep.

That's another thing the Vietnam guys taught us inside of our floppy hat. We would sew an air panel in there so we could flip it over and let the helicopters or gun ships know where we were. What were you wearing? My little bandana. Uh, you're two. cool for the floppy hat, huh? Yeah, we have a hat.

Inside a hat. We got the panel. The communists, they don't know anything about. And then exactly bombed to the enemy. And that's black. It was on the radio running all the... Calling in the airsport. Like it, right there, they say, hey, now club.

But 200 feet, bomb it there right away. And I want to hit you. I say 12 o'clock, five feet. And next to me, you see it? Jeez. Yeah, we can control the airplane because the pet, and pet walking, and then spider out there. Put a cubby, yes.

We're able to give them the control. We work together. We control everything, but. The people outside say, how do we survive? It's easy to survive. Because we're there, we showed the bomb. Because like you said, you read earlier in the story, they did the period of Prairie Fire Emergency.

So when the first ones out of Marine Scarface, when they expanded, then the F-1s came in, then the A1 Sky Breeders, and then later we had Army, in judging executioner. They came out. Yeah, we understand exactly. I understand exactly communist, you know, very up-freyed airplane.

Even they got a big gun or they got a tank. They're very scanny. Yeah, they're 2.75 rockets. Because we on the ground, they want to kill us. It's very difficult. And they want to kill us because they're afraid about, you know, their area got destroyed by the bomb. We're there, we're not authorized to shoot the people, but we can call airplane even at night or day.

We got a, you know, like communication with the air, right? At night we got a moonbeam. And then Greenboro? It's the airborne. Airborne something? Oh, okay. For all the Southeast Asia. So they would fly over and they would do college checks at night.

Right. the day would be Hillsboro. So they stayed close. They were way above all the activity to Covey and the Fancy Movers. So that's one other level of communication. So if anything dropped off, like the covey's were in between.

They could still talk to Hillsborough and then still direct the gunshots when I talked directly to the gunshots for a helicopter crew. And Lynn did all that. Yeah. When he was, yeah. Good shock we got it.

You know, they shit them. We understand exactly. So we're not upbred it. We're only a small group. They cannot find us. But they got a big group. Hey, you there. You got a big town.

Thank you. Hello. How you doing, buddy? Goodbye. Yes. Well, I'll tell you, speaking of communications, I can't imagine a more horrific sound to hear than the sound of the bugles

from the communists getting ready to attack. That's got to be a nightmare. Well, we, we come there, their house. They are afraid to detroit their house. So we want to, they want to kill us. It's not easy.

Not going to be easy. Yeah, not easy. Because we learn a lot. We're training a lot. lot. We know when we came down there we got a briefing right how many enemy underground where we can hide them where we can put it the top it means m14 mile where top where we can put it play more mine we can put it C4 and we We know situation on the ground.

We know everywhere, especially we got experience in the jungle. And you, American, you know situation, you know our knowledge with the American. I'm Vietnamese or whatever I'm known, I'm better than the people from the North. We, I understand exactly when they're moving. I look in the jungle, I look in the mountain, and I can see it. Where are they? And that way you could help Lynn Black direct the airstrike. Got it.

You saw the most enemy activity. Yeah. Right here, by the way, day by day we got experience. I'm not too good. But with my experience, I can look up the journal. The mountain here, my on here, I can say, hey, I'm right here. Say, hey, black, we're down here. I read the location for him.

And then that's the way it is. But then after the bugle's blue, then things got ugly again. Yeah, here. But then you had your walls built. Yeah, let me pick it up. So the NBA bugle sounded. Waves of NBA troops carrying SKS with fixed bayonets advanced on ST Alabama. When they were 15 feet away, ST Alabama opened fire.

The semi-automatic SKS were no match for the fully automatic firepower of the spike team. After the first burst of full automatic fire, the team went to single shot. It was another turkey shoot without a word, a look, or a plan, acting solely on instinct, all of them, except the one one, scurried forward and dragged back dead NVA, placing the bodies in a circle around them and stacking them high. The deadly skirmishing continued for several hours before Covey told Black that more gunships and five jolly green giants with heavily armored Sikorsky HH3E's were en route. Blackjack, Covey, what you're up against is the regiment you are sent to find, over?

And Blackjack replies, is that all? only 3,000 of the bastards well I think we made a dent in them who's winning they are Covey responded as black finished his commo he saw a sight he would never forget the NVA formed a front line of NVA troops who were firing their AK 47s behind them or several NVA soldiers swinging thongs made of leather and cloth which held three to five hand grenades each with a jerk of their collective wrists the NVA hurlers launched more than two dozen communist manufactured grenades at ST Alabama. The sky was full of grenades.

Fortunately, they weren't U.S. grenades. They hit the ground and threw dirt, smoke, and dust all over the place. ST Alabama looked up just as the AKs started again, and behind them, the thongs whirling overhead like helicopter blades. When the AKs stopped, the grenades were released. St. Alabama fired. More grenades were released. Alabama threw some back.

ST Alabama was caught in a deadly version of the kid game. Pop Goes the Weasel. The AK-47s continued to roar. Alabama ducked. The grenades were launched. Alabama rocked. Catch, duck, throw. Duck, catch, throw.

The NBA advanced. Grenade shrapnel severed the antenna of the PRC-25 radio. He quickly, black quickly rigged an impromptu antenna. from wire, the relentless NVA continued to advance inch by bloody inch. Cowboy took two Vietnamese team members over the cadaver walled perimeter, seeking to get another line of fire to direct at the advancing NVA. The advance continued despite firing from black and the remaining Vietnamese team members. The NVA were now merely feet away from the perimeter.

Sheesh. Do you believe it? I can't believe you're sitting here talking to me. Really, even now, yeah. Jeez. Throwing bunches of grenades. That's just a horror show. That's crazy.

That's the first time we ever saw that, right? Yes. A new tactic. We live in here. They're here. Here the bell is going down here. the first thing we are at the top

so there's a so there's a little ridge line yes and they're on one side of the ridge line yes you're on the other side of the ridge line and then they shoot up

we're going down here we move to you know we got a high in here the cover us and grenade throw here so they're throwing

grenades over the ridge line at you and then as you I say that Carmen is it not training well So if

You know They throw it in here One, two, three, four They throw it We gotta die everybody But they just pulled the pen They just pulled a pin and throw it They didn't cook them at all

Yes and we have a time You have a time to pick it up and throw it back Because they are not well training But with us hand grenade it, put it out. Thomas, one, two, three, throw it.

When they pick it up, it's a grenade blow it out. That's why we can suggest it. Communists is not well-training or whatever they're not training at all. They just know put it out and throw it. That's why we still... Lucky for you. Yeah.

We still survive. And the people they don't understand, they say, hey, the guy is liar. No, it's not a liar. But they're training it not well, not good. So that's why we hear, Meyer. That's why we hear it. Going back to the book, at the last moment with the NVA, a few body lengths away from the perimeter to Huey gunship. from the Americal Division, the 176th Aviation Company,

the Minutemen muskets of the 36th Charlie arrived. The UH-1B pilots were codenamed the judge and the executioner. They roared into battle first with a mini-gum blast, followed seconds later with several 2.75 millimeter rockets placed in the NVA ranks. Alabama was saved, if only for a little while. The NVA backed off for a few moments, briefly licking their collective wounds,

although they were far from whipped. new assault lines of the NBA troops formed. Before the NBA opened fire on ST Alabama, however, the executioner confronted the NBA head on. With both doorgunners blazing away with their handheld M60 machine guns, he hovered inches off the ground between the team and the front of the NBA and skipped several 2.75 millimeter rockets off the ground into the NBA. Before the bleeding startled NBA could respond,

the pilot lifted the old UH1B model gunship, over the tree line and ducked down into the canyon, regaining enough airspeed to return for another pass at the ST Alabama perimeter. Before ST Alabama could celebrate, the NBA charged again. Three more dead NBA were added to the cadaver wall. Silence dominated the battlefield. No bird chirps, no speaking, no noise of any type. Even the aircraft over the scene had flown far enough away that their absence amplified

the empty air. The one who hadn't fired a single shot continued to pray. Black patched up a bleeding cowboy. He gave him some morphine before bandaging a wound on the right side, on his right side from an AK-47 round. Where's John Wayne when you need him? Cowboy asked.

The others laughed. Chewoi do ma. Give up, motherfuckers. An enemy soldier yelled. Another NVA told Black to Chu Hoy in English. Black flipped him the bird as a sniper shot Alabama's tail gunner. Quang, is that right, Kong?

Quang in the crotch, hitting an artery, as though a pride direct pressure to Kwan's wound, an A1E Skyrater lumbered into the AO, flown by pilot codenamed Snoopy. He roared in from Black's left, brushing the treetops, full flaps, working his throttle. The aircraft was so close to the team

that Black could hear the distinctive metallic click-click of the napalm canisters being released from the old Korean War era plane. The Sky Raider appeared to be falling, but it actually slipped down into the valley to escape NVA gunfire as the Americal UH1B gunships and fast movers had maneuvered earlier in the day. His wingman appeared as he flew over the team. They could hear the nuts and bolts of God knows what, creaking and groaning as he salvoed the rockets. The NBA were pissed. Again, the hot shell casings from the airborne warships rained down on ST Alabama.

Where's John Wayne when you need him? That's a great line That's why a cowboy Yeah And where Did you got you got shot with AK? Yes You want to see a scar

I'll take your word for it, sir He's got so many scars Many scar Yeah it's crazy to think you're so close to these guys That you're talking to him Yelling out Chew Hoy Chewoy, Chewoy do ma they all the way

They what? The enemy All the way Chiohoey Then three small mortars opened fire Black knew there was no way in hell Any of the teams

Could catch the mortars And throw them back He and the Vietnamese team leader Tho rolled over the cadaver wall Toward the mortars Cautiously picking their way Through the charred NVA bodies And carnage from the previous airborne assaults

They moved into the jungle Within 20 feet of them First mortar tube Thou drew a plan in the ground he would hit tube one black would hit tube three and they'd combine on tube two after the mortarman launched three salvos though opened on his target while black attacked his target tube and several NVA several nearby NVA soldiers the survivors chased Black in the confusion the NVA opened fire on each other as

black headed toward tube one with NVA soldiers still chasing him where Tho was pinned down black threw a hand grenade and killed at least three NVA with a blast of gunfire to free Tho they turned on the chasing black and dealt with them. Then he and Tho wiped out the NBA at the second tube before they quickly returned to the team, all while picking up ammo and loaded AK-47 magazines from dead or wounded NBA soldiers. By now, Watkins had returned to flying Covey Rider above ST Alabama. Spider had called the U.S. Air Force 37th Air Rescue and Recovery Group in Denang to attempt to rescue

the rest of S-T-Alabama. During the Vietnam War, when pilots were shot down in North Vietnam or Laos, and all else failed, the Jolly Green giants were called. The Sarkorsky H.H. 3E weighed 22,000 pounds loaded and had two general electric T-58 GE-E-5 turbo shaft, 1,500 horsepower engines, extra armament and firepower, and they were manned by remarkable Air Force pilots and crews. The first heavily armored Jolly Green giant, codenamed J.G.28 started its descent to the LZ from 4,000 feet.

As it approached, the J.G. crew was looking for. for an orange panel on the southeast side of the LZ. However, as the aircraft was about to touch down, crew members noticed a second panel. The NVA had an identical panel. The momentary pause was nearly fatal for JG28 as the NVA opened fire on it from several sides. The heavy gunfire severed the main fuel line,

causing a massive fuel leak inside the helicopter. JG28 had to withdraw from the LZ. In a matter of seconds, there were two or three inches of aviation fuel on the aircraft's cabin, The fumes temporarily blinded the crew members. The pilot was able to stabilize and returned to Danang. As J.G.10 hovered a safe distance away from the LZ. Watkins directed a few more airstrikes around ST, Alabama, with the hope that the communist

soldiers would put their heads down long enough for the team to get out. After a few air strikes, J.G.10, piloted by Air Force Major Vernon Sam Grenier was called to attempt the extraction. For Grinier, this was his first assignment. in the Prairie Fire A.O. It's a Jolly Green Giant pilot. Hey, welcome to, welcome to Prairie Fire. When the call from Covey came, Grineer knew that there were two U.S. Green Berets on the ground with their Vietnamese team members and that the majority of the team was wounded.

He didn't hesitate. Grineer piloted the Jolly Green Giant toward the LZ. Unlike JG28, Grineer knew which side of the LZ ST Alabama was on. As he approached the LZ, NVA gunfire again reached a deafening roar, despite S.T. Alabama directing firepower at the communist soldiers. As Grenier began to hover over the LZ, JG10 was hammered by enemy gunfire. His crew chief reported that one NVA round

had tore a six inch hole through the floor. The round apparently slammed into one of the engines. Both engine warning lights went on. Both engines were on fire. Grineer did 180 degree turn and moved to damaged aircraft away from the deadly enemy fire and away from the team, struggling to keep it airborne,

calling upon all the training he had received to continue flying. Both crew members continued firing their machine guns as Grenier battled to keep the ship in the air. Time ran out for JG10. After traveling several hundred yards, Grineer warned his crew to brace themselves for a crash landing. Both crew members continued firing their weapons until the burning HH3E slammed into the jungle. ST Alabama was stunned. Covey and all the men flying over the target area viewed the horror in grim silence. What's that four helicopters? have gone down now? Five?

Including the first one on insert? Four. Four. The men back at FOB1 monitored the radio transmissions on their PRC 25s as Covey talked to black. Spike Team Alabama's radio signal was too weak to hear any response. The word spread through camp that the latest horrific turn of events surrounding ST Alabama, the usual hustle bustle of a Saturday at FOB1 was replaced by quiet, hushed tones as the entire compound feared the worst.

but continued to pray for the men of ST Alabama. Word of a proposed arc light mission reinforced the gravity of ST Alabama's situation, and arc light was a strike by a B-52 bomber from more than 25,000 feet. Back in Laos, the stunned members of ST Alabama returned to their cadaver perimeter once again, nearly out of ammo.

One one was facing down, muttering, The Lord is My Shepherd. One of the Vietnamese went about collecting achyllovered, AK-47s and ammo from the dead NBA as Spider-N-Watkins directed more air strikes around the team. Within 10 to 15 minutes after Grenier's burning H-H-3 crashed into the jungle, Covey learned that there were two survivors from the Jolly Green Giant and asked ST Alabama if they could locate the remaining crew members. Grenier had broken his back but somehow pulled himself from the burning helicopter.

The other Jolly Green Giant survivor, Sergeant Ernest Dean Casimir, had been thrown clear of the crash. Neither knew the location of the other. Watkins told Black where the Air Force survivors were and that they'd run a daisy chain between his position and the men, hopefully to clear the area enough for the team to get to both of the survivors.

The NBA threw one more curve at ST Alabama. When Black tried to talk to Covey, he found the primary, secondary, and alternate FM frequencies jammed by the NBA. Frustrated, Black smashed the PRC-25 and pulled out his

URC 10 high frequency survival radio. He was told an arc light strike was being planned for this area as soon as possible. By now all air assets. Navy, Marine, and Air Force, which had been scheduled to fly sword. He's into North Vietnam were diverted to the prairie fire emergency surrounding ST Alabama. Covey directed numerous airstrikes, including more gun and rocket runs from helicopter gunships. Scarface and Huey's from the Marine Light Helicopter Squadron 367 returned to make several runs. After refueling and reloading and foo by, the Minuteman muskets returned to reek habit on the persistent NVA troops.

They pounded the jungle area between ST Alabama and Air Force survivors. Around 1800, a Jolly Green pilot Air Force Major Don Olson called over the radio. Blackjack, JG 32 over. I'm parked down in the draw in the trees from you. You have 20 minutes of fuel before I leave. The first person we must see is an American. Hurry, we're taking heavy ground fire. Jeez.

So now it's 6 o'clock at night. You've been there all day on the ground, four helicopters down. You've got two survivors that you're going to try and link up with. Jolly Green just came down to the jungle and hovered in the jungle. Just waiting there. Lower his profile and to wait. Yeah, it's a counterintuitive. thing that when you're in an aircraft and when you're in a helicopter or a plane, when you're

up higher, it makes you an easier target. It's better to get low where the enemy can't see you. So I know it might not make sense. People might think, oh, it'd be better to go up, but it's actually, in a lot of cases, better to go down. And that's what this guy's doing. Anything that couldn't be carried was thrown over the side of the cliff. As quickly as the wounded could move, they headed toward the jolly green giant.

Could you guys hear the helicopter? Did you know where it was? Yes. So you could hear it and you're like, okay, we got to go for it. Yes. The chopper had literally cut away the treetops and branches to nestle into the thick, dark green foliage, thus reducing its profile to enemy gunners. Olson had to keep the aircraft stable as there were large trees on all sides of the aircraft.

The trees were large enough that they could severely damage the five rotor blades and caused the trapper to crash if any of them got hit. Covey directed more airstrikes in a daisy. chain fashion in the portion of jungle between ST Alabama and the hovering jolly green giant. Watkins hoped this would drive out or kill NVA in the zone. Even that task became more difficult as smoke from all the ordinance continued to hang over the trees, decreasing the visibility for pilots and helicopter gunners. As they moved toward the hovering helicopter, ST Alabama entered a cool ravine before

climbing a final hill to the chopper. There they encountered a village. with hooches built on 10-foot stilts, complete with large pots, cooking rice and vegetables. Instead of NVA troops, Black found an American taking food from one of the pots. He was the flight engineer.

Sergeant Ernest Dean Casimir, one of the two Air Force survivors from the crashed helicopter. Soon they found Grenier, who had assisted in directing the hovering jolly green to this area in the jungle, despite his broken back. You want to talk about miracles. randomly running into these guys.

In the village. In the village. Jeez. But we know, we knew with two guys, two survivors. We knew that before. Yeah, you know that. L.G. is here. The Johnny Green Tandy drop down here.

It crashed. We run from here all the way down here. You know, the communist house around here. We got a difficult time to join with them. So that's why we take, you know, very crazy decision. We go or we go fast or we go slowly or we go, you know, by another way to get in to join with them. This from the hill here to the car side,

It's a very difficult time for us, but we gotta do it. You know, like at 18 o'clock, it's a little bit dark. So it's starting to get dark. And black and Ango Kee want to say, hey, we stay here for overnight. But I thought in my mind, if I stay overnight, I got to die because my blood. out my bleeding in the back, everything in my body. I say, hey, let me join first. And I run through.

But we had a tactical to escape from the, from here to the grass side. I say, go up fight. And Quang, and you got a two gun. This fought, ding, ting, and then I run. So you just kind of went for it. Yes. And were you trying to get to where the helicopter was? Yes.

And you were just going to go by yourself? Yes. Because otherwise you were going to bleed out. Yes. At what point did the rest of the team decide to go with you? They stayed there. They stayed there. I'm the appointment.

Uh-huh. to open the blood way to let if I'm die, either team got it to be the safety. If I run through, and then when I get there, I got a shoot back, ting, thing, and the team run.

Okay, so you were going to, they were covering for you. Yes. And then when you got there, you covered for them. Yes. And then when I run there, I say, hey,

I saw the drop there and I stayed there. I say, go. When we don't have a radio, but when I saw it, the people understand I'm safety. And then Kwong, they got to run through my way. We rejoin there with the helicopter side. We understand if I'm staying overnight, I gotta die because they're bleeding.

Sure. And then any way I die, let's try. Let's try to looking for the way for survival. Right. So you were either going to die trying to run there or you were going to die staying there overnight. Yes. So you might as well go for it.

Either thing, I got to die. If I'm stayed there. And you already had died what, three times, four times at this point in your career? But, you know, How do we hear? We still, you know, understand we're training well. We're training good.

And then we work together really good. If I'm running, if Kwong and Black or whatever can protect me. They give you cover. Yeah. I got to die in my way. So that's why I went. The NBA wasn't used to you guys running. Yes.

They didn't expect it. No. Again, they just, before they charge through the ranks several times, and then this one here, he's running, and then the others follow. Another one, ding, ding, ding, thing, straight up, you know, right there. And you're firing with AK-47s by now, so that way the NBA baby wouldn't be so alert. If they heard car 15, they would come quickly for the car 15s, but hearing AK, maybe they weren't sure. That may have helped. No, we still have one or two of car 15.

Really? You know the way Car 15, the front, we put, we take it in the front of the M16. Yes. We put in Car 15, different shout. For a different what? Different shout. Oh, okay. Different shout.

So when I started, bam, like a machine. Right. But the Car 15, the lot. one in here. Yes. It's very small. But when we shoot it by the, I don't know how to call it, but you know, the front up the... It's the flash on the end. Yes. Oh, a different flash. 15. Right. Right here. They had the early M16. Oh, okay. Three prong. Yes. Yes. Very early M16 with a three prong. They changed the flash and I was a different sound. Different sound. Different sound. Very different sound. Yeah, very different

You know, the common is... One more thing that saved you. Yeah, one more thing. You're running, you're bleeding, and you're firing car 15th but different sound, along with the AKs. And they knew that, and then they follow me. And then at the time they follow me, I got ping, ping, just single shots. Just single shots. Yeah.

If you pull it full automatic, you don't have good enough, you know, the ammo. So the ping, we count. We count. Maybe we can play game with them. One, two, three, ping. One, two, three, ping, ping. Some time. And they scan it.

If you fool, you know, the automatic, they say, hey, that guy has no experience in the war. He's an amateur, yes. And it's easy to run out the ammo. But ping, ping, bing, different different way, different style. So they know the people with the enemy, they understand exactly those guys

how they're learning. So according from the training, we're doing well, we're doing good, very good. So any situation, anywhere, and any time. Training counts. Yes. So just let the people understand it in the army now, you better learn, you better train. Don't say, hey, I'm hero, I'm hero, I'm the big guy, no.

We need to train it. Always train. Training all the way. Learn from each other. If James Stry, he listened to me, he said, hey, how do we get out? And that's easy, right? call the chopper I need attraction

and then we shape the everybody let's get back to hear where you are now yes sir well where we are right now is back to the book the NVA focused heavily on the chopper easing the pressure on ST Alabama as they neared the jolly green

black thought it felt like they were moving closer to the gates of hell itself the NVA were pouring small arms fire and RPGs at the hovering ship all the door gunners and pilots intermittently fired the mini-gun M-79s and M-60s and the helicopter gunships and Sky Raiders made gun runs around it. Time was against them. The weather was beginning to close in. The smoke from previous airstrikes hung over the area for longer and longer periods of time before clearing enough for the next attack

from the air. On the ground, the men of ST Alabama heard an NVA running through the bushes around them. Fortunately, the NVA failed to spot the Spike team or the Air Force crewman. Desperate, Black had to move his team onto a trail so it could move to the hub. Lovering helicopter more quickly. As the team moved up the trail, the tail gunner was shaking violently and had turned a pasty white. Team members set Kwong down and proceeded to the aircraft. At the crest of the hill, they saw the helicopter taking hits and dealing out its own. The M60 was red hot.

Black saw someone firing an M16 out of one of the windows. As Black moved to the chopper, the intensity of the gump fire seemed to multiply. The air was so full of lead he could see it. And the fuel and bits of metal skin fell from the aircraft as they reached its underside. The jungle penetrators smashed to the ground next to him and raised three feet before he could put three team members on the first load. Grenier, the Air Force flight engineer and a wounded ST Alabama team member were on the second hoist lift. The wounded Vietnamese became entangled in jungle vines and while he was being hoisted upward. The Air Force hoist operator had to stop the hoist, lower it, and give him enough time to untangle himself.

When the hoist moved up toward the aircraft, the Vietnamese was not sitting in the seat, but hanging on with assistance from Air Force Sergeant Casimir. Despite the NBA gunfire, Black ran back to the bamboo thicket where he had left the remainder of the team. Kuang, the dying tail gunner, pointed his 45 caliber pistol at the advancing NBA and said, Toy Kiet. I die. He motioned Black to return to the helicopter before shooting himself.

Black was running back to the ship when two NVA stepped onto the trail and pointed their AK-47s at him. Chu Hoy, one of the soldiers, shouted. Black stretched out his arms and continued walking towards them. When he was only a few feet away, he said Chu Hoy. The young NBA soldiers

appeared surprised before they could react, Black grabbed the AK-47s by their searing barrels and stripped them from their soldiers. He backhanded the soldier on his right and smashed the other soldier in the face with one of the weapons. He left the stunned soldiers lying there as he sprinted the chopper where he found the praying 1-1. The rest of the team was on board firing any weapon they could get their hands on. As the jungle penetrator lift Black in the 1-1 upward, they were showered with hot spent casings from the M-60 and other weapons being fired from inside the aircraft. The entire team, fired out the windows and from the back door as the overloaded helicopter began to lift out of the jungle

Major Olson told Covey he was at maximum power as the Jolly Green giant slowly rose Black felt the ship making upward surges from B40 rockets slamming into the armor-plated underside of the aircraft it felt like it was a giant it felt like a giant slugging the ship in the stomach boosting it upward with each rocket blast from his view of rub the Wockens couldn't believe the bird kept flying. Somehow, the pilot got the jolly green giant out of there. Once clear of the jungle hole, the ship began its ascent out of the valley and the shadow of death. The door gunner removed his helmet and placed it on Black's head.

The pilot told him we're on our way home. Not quite. From above, Watkins saw the crippled ship catch fire and try to make it out of the killing zone. It crossed two ridgelines before descending into a clearing where it crashed landed. Olson had gotten them out of the killing zone, but J.G. 32 had flown its last rescue mission. Everyone except Black and the 1-1 were transferred to another Jolly Green giant piloted by a Coast Guard exchange pilot, Lieutenant Commander Lonnie Mixon. Mixon took over 30 hits picking up ST, Alabama, and others. After everyone knew that Black, the remaining person,

from ST Alabama and the Air Force survivors from JG10 were cleared from the original target area They hammered it with everything they had including more napalm bombs and gun runs Captain Hartness the pilot of Watkins FAC plane was so mad at that he flew the O2 down into small arms range and fired his 2.7 millimeter rockets into the area where the NVA had knocked down JG 10 He and Watkins took a hit to the front and the engine died Hartness somehow got the Skymaster O2 up out of the area and back to Foo by. There was no engine pressure when he landed. A cobra gunship landed and opened the armament compartment doors which had seatbelts attached to them.

Black and the one one buckled up and were soon airborne alongside the jolly green giant returning to Danang. They were flying so fast that Black had to turn his bloodstained face away in order to breathe. Within minutes he was so cold, he was shivering uncontrollably. the Cobra landed at a marine medevac site where the Americans were wrapped in poncho liners and helicopter to Danang. At the Danang infirmary, everyone was getting patched up.

When Tho saw black, he raised his right hand and a fist above his head. Chewoy do ma, he yelled. Surrender, motherfuckers. Man, that's a crazy mission. What do you think? Just another day in Sop. Sog?

Absolutely. Yeah, it is. Another day in Shaw. And that was, I mean, that's one mission, but that was your life. That was your life. That's what you did every day or multiple times a month over and over and over and over again. Over, over and over again. I mean, the casualty rate for SOG was over 100%.

Correct. So if you were going to Saug, you were going to get wounded probably more than once. You may be killed, obviously. I can't imagine that the survival rate for the Vietnamese that aren't going back to America. You're just staying in that job for years. I mean, the survival rate must have been minuscule. For you to be standing here is crazy. Absolutely.

It's a miracle. Actually, in our shoot. that we have no choice. We have no choice. We gotta go forward. Okay, Vietnam is a situation in Vietnam War country. If I'm not joined to the army, I get back home, I cannot survive. I must go with another unit, like infantry or local,

local army. Why not we stay with the shock? We got a lot of offering. We got a lot of money. Yeah, we got a lot of power when we go back to town. We wear the NBA uniform. Nobody can touch it. We have it, the court, employee of the US government.

So nobody can toast. Whatever they want to toss it, we got an MP, military police there to protect us. And we got a gun in the front, we got a gun pistol in the back. Come on, whatever, 10 guy or 20 guys. Have you watched it a Rambo movie or something? We did like 100% like him. We got to Claymore Mine here. We got to go somewhere.

We pull over here, nobody knows. Anything happened? Just walk around to the Claymore Mine on your chest. Right here. You want to play? Go ahead. Come on, please. Even, you know, the police.

whatever they want to do with us. We joined together with one team, three American and nine Vietnamese. We went together. Nobody can stop us. If the time the Kwan was in jail, you had to go get him out of jail? Yes. Had to break him out of jail? Yeah.

Was there resistance from the jail or did they just let you guys take him when they realized who you guys were? No, we went there for free. Nobody can stop. We went there, up in there. Claymore's on your chest. Come on here, please. And then we had a couple guys in the M60s.

Count 15, we got a whole kind of thing. They look in car 15, they say, hey, what the hell the gun is that, right? Yeah. Nobody know. And we got an AK-47. If they shoot out, Claymore might got a blow out. Yeah. So, they asked us to do it for free.

Quang got out of jail. He got to get out of jail free Claymore. So he could go on a mission on October 5th. And that's where he died. Yeah. Also, that's when you had to break him out, was before this mission. Before this mission, they broke him out of jail. Jeez.

So basically, so, so basically you were in that job because you guys were the baddest motherfuckers in Vietnam, and you did whatever you wanted. too. Yes, sir. Even you know the strong guy. Hey, Claymore beats a strong guy all day long. You know, I can count the piece of the inside 555 piece of the ball bearings. Of the ball bearings inside the Claymore. Yeah. I can count. Sometimes we play, just play the game. Put it out with She for inside, we took out the, we took out the she for. Yeah, sometimes they take it out and cook your coffee stuff. Oh, yeah.

And then we put it in here and nobody knows. Did it real work out of the fake. It's a little science. Yeah, good psychological operations. When did you, because I know you ended up getting wounded badly in your leg, when did that happen? It happened August 30th, 1971. And then what happened? Did you get shot?

I got shot. And how did you get out of the, how did you escape the situation? The, we don't know on the ground, but the water in there, squam in there. And then we get out there. We're looking for,

with the people experience like me, we're looking for the, I, the place, and under the tree, to stay there. And they wanted me to be PLW. That means they want to catch the team. The first thing they want the first thing like it,

they want to shop like it to hear a Frenchman. You want to get a POW? They want to. They want me to do it. They want me to, they want to catch me. But we want to let them do it. But after that, but they want to cast the team. They don't want to kill the team.

Okay. They say surrender like a Chihuahuei. And then we answered by the Car 15. Here, the Chiolhoi. But they're very close to us. They got a bunker around there. And then they shoot the guy with the radio. Before they want to cast the team.

They got to kill the radio man first. Okay. Like the Frenchman, he went the radio. They want to make the contact to the team. They got to kill the radio man first. And then my leg is next to the radio. I pull, I kick the radio out. But they shoot the radio, including my leg.

Oh. And maybe two, three round into my leg, they shoot by RPD. I hear the sound I know it, RPD. And then I pull out my leg. That time we just get out there for 10 minutes. And team, I just report to Bingham, Bingham just report to COVID, say team safety, team okay, and they can go home. Bingham was the team leader.

Yes. They can go home, Shay and Bingham. Yes. And then later on, they got a hit right away. And my friend, they carried me out the, they call back. They call back to the chopper.

The chopper come back. But, you know, I got it. PRC 68. Oh, later on. No, PRC. The PRC 68 radio. Emergency radio? The emergency radio.

The PRC 68. That was still around when I came in until, yeah. It was getting phased out. It couldn't replace by the PRC 125, but there was like one or two of them that you could go look in the radio shop. Yeah, it's a small one. The first one we got at the Earth 10.

We got an octane. Octane we cannot talk. But PRC 68, we can change the frequency to talk. Oh, okay. that they got to develop the new thing. And then when I turn it on, you know, when I pull out the, they got to try to pull out me to the LG, and then I pulled it on and the jumper coming back and shoot up to the enemy. And I turned over, my leg, it really hurt, really pain.

I told my PSC 68. away. I'm dropped somewhere. And they thought I'm dead because after 10 minutes I cannot end you know turn off the PRC 28. That means I am the one dead and they want to kill they want to blow out the PRC 68. They don't want PRC 68 to do the hand to animate it. And then that's why I survived and they shoot around us by the rocket, by the missile, own kind of thing, and the NVA thought, you know, like the chopper know where they are.

They move out. Oh, they were scared. They scared that they moved out. And I'm free. I'm not free, but, you know, I got a safety situation. And the chopper lay down, pick me up. And the first chopper landed out, I smelled the gas. Because the enemy shoot up the chopper to the gas tank.

I say, get out of the way. I cannot shoot because I shoot it. The chopper got to burn it out. And I wait my hand. I said, go, go, go, go, go. And I talked to hold the team. I say, don't shoot anything. Don't shoot anything.

And after that, you know, the pilot, they knew, you know, the gas spread out. And then they left. I don't know what happened. What happened with the chopper? But the second gun land out picked me up. They take me to the 95th hospital. And then later on, the day, I got inspection. And then the doctor cut off my leg.

Only 20 minutes on the ground. Only 20 minute when we land down. But I'm okay now. I'm okay now. So then what was it like as the war was over in America was leaving and the communists are taking over? I mean, you had to be kind of a marked man being this former, you know, special operations guy that was working alongside the Americans.

They must have wanted to find you. That's why I told you that we need a training. After I got wounded, I was sent to work with the American embassy. Okay, so after you got wounded, you went to work at the American embassy. Yes. Got it. My station is in Danang. There are 52 Badang U.S. Consulate General 1 in Danang until to 1975.

Today we lost Danang at the end of the marks, 1975. With my experience with the shock, we understand enemy situation. They fight from north to the south. But I worked in the Danang. At the time, you know, they want to take the Danang. I move up to the south. I hit a lot of enemy. I contact a lot of, you know, like the security or police.

What do you think they move? moved, they attacked from the north to the south, but I'm from the south, move up to the north. They thought I'm there, their friend. That's why I'm told you that we need to train. So you did the opposite of what they thought you would do? Yes. You went from the south to the north. To the north.

That means I'm the people from the north. They're not paying attention about the people from the south to the north. But if you move from the north to the south, they have a checkpoint. Where you go? What is your name? Where do you work? Everything they ask the question, but I'm from the north, from the south to the north. The reason that my father-in-law of the way, of the Fulwai camp,

and then we stay there until, until to they took over the Saigon. We're almost crazy. We don't know where to go. We don't understand situation. But my family in the Saigon and Dalla and in Binhua. And after they cover to South Vietnam, you know, I used enemy paperwork.

That means enemy ID card. and an enemy certificate, that means from the north. By the way, my relief, my uncle, my something relive, my nephew of the north, going to the south to see me. That means when the first thing we, in 1954, we still have the people living in the north. And when they came down, they're looking for us. Because between Saigon and North Vietnam,

it's very difficult. Very difficult. And Saigon, it rich people. And knowledge people. But in North Vietnam, they only, you know, knowledge by the combination. They limit it with education. So when they came down,

When they came down to the south to see our family, they don't have nothing, but they still say, hey, we got a TV over the town, we got all kinds of things. But they have nothing. But at the time, they ask for the money, they ask for the gold, they ask for the drink. That's why I learned from them, too. So I'm not staying only one place. Today I'm in San Jose Tomorrow I'm down to the Los Angeles

I got to go Tennessee and then I got to go Washington D.C. I got to go You got to keep moving Keep the communist guessing Yes And then

I buy something Everything in the communist Situation, government Everything is Not free Like I want a fish. I got to go down to sea some Danang or somewhere.

I buy the fish. I took from there back to Saigon to sell the black market. So I found out the way. By the way, I'm looking for the way to escape from Vietnam. They give me some time of free because they know. They knew I was from the shock man, SOG for free. They invite us because they got a gun,

but they don't know how to do. Oh, so they actually invited you, the communists invited you to... No, the people in the South Vietnam. Oh, South Vietnam. They invited you to start training them? No. To just do security for them?

To do what? To, if we see anything happen in all, overseas, I got to shoot the communists. Got it. Got it. Let I protect them. And then until to 1986, October,

I was successful to come to Malaysia. And how did you do that? My small boat. Small boat? Yes. And you had tried 14 times before that? The last time, I did 15 time. I got a paperwork right there.

And what is that? You tried to escape, so you tried to escape 14 times, you were successful on your 15th time. Yes. What were the other methods that you tried to do? Was it always by boat? By boat, yes. Always by boat. I thought I got to go, I can go by a kitchen, or whatever the lounge, with my leg, cannot walk. Because I know where the way to go. Right. I know where the way to go, but, you know, my leg. Go west, but you couldn't walk. No, yes.

And then what happened once you got to Malaysia? I'd be there for, wait for the UN. I mean, I stayed there. I see the American delegation. And they come to interview me. So they say And then they take me to the To come to the United States

How do they go How do they confirm who you are I have nothing but you know They got a special interview From the people from From the U.S It means GVA They mean joint volunteer agency

When I came there I have nothing But they asked me and I talk my history they call back here they call back state to check out and after one month

they say hey you come who asked so they did that pretty fast yes because they asked me they got a group like looking for the for the P.O.W or whatever

MIA they asked me the question do I know any American mission in action or I said yes I did I talk poking can cry James strike these are all people are teens that got killed they get killed the two other Americans on Alaska when it got wiped out when Jan was survived the two Americans were crying and came I only I only remember with three but they asked me do you know

with the location, I said, yes, I did. Sure. And they tried to bring me back to the Vietnam to tell them. But they could because the time I stayed there for, sick men for waiting to come back to Vietnam. But I don't know why they sent me to the Philippines for education training. And what kind of education training is that?

Learning, you know, like it for orientation, for how the American life. And in there for six men, I came over here in San Francisco. And then what was it like when you landed in San Francisco? 1984, something? 1988? Yes.

What did you do when you landed? Did you have any family here? Yes, I got it. My sister. in in San Jose. And had she escaped from Vietnam? Yes. Already?

Yes, in 1975. And how did she escape? Oh, by, because some, she had a husband like the, the Vietnamese pilot. And they out of Vietnam by the way, you know, her husband. Wow. So what did you do when you landed? you have to start get a job and I mean you couldn't strap a claymore to your chest anymore and walk around town taking what you wanted my sister she'd be here like at the

75 and then she got like a few gas station five gas station a show one a shell echo and then I got when I came I work for her like a family job until I got you know like a I got stroke 15 years ago 15 years

17 years ago I got stroke and then no more job no more work yeah that happened we all thought cowboy Finney will never see cowboy gang we all heard that

I don't know I'm I don't think there's anything that can kill cowboy at this point. Cowboys gonna live forever. So he has a stroke there was a bad stroke, but yet he's back. My mouth, you know, the hobo here, and I cannot move. But now I'm still okay, but another trouble with, uh, eight inch order, Agent Orange, Agent Orange. I got a kidney problem. I got dialysis. Mm-hmm. Now at home. And you manage somehow to have kids during all this. You have children?

Yes, I do. And how many children do you have? Totally 10. Do you believe it? I don't, I don't, I believe anything that you tell me. Three dead in the Vietnam. Okay, so you lost three kids in Vietnam. Because when the newborn, they don't have, you know, any food.

They don't have any, like, energy to you. to stay live, three days. And then when I had to get with the two of my son came over here with me. My wife, at the time, still like in Vietnam. And then I do my paperwork. All my family here right now, I got five sons and two girls in here with me, in the United States with me.

Oh, beautiful. One of the Texas, one of the North Color and three in here with me and two of my girls one in here with me and another one that I believe in Louisiana yeah and then I have 16 no 11 grandchildren Wow 11 little cowboys out there 11 little little little little cowboys so you are going to live forever no doubt No doubt. I try my best.

I try my bad. I cannot tell whatever, you know, like it. When I got shocked, my wife said, call 911. I say, hey, don't do it. And then my son said, call 911 when I say, don't do it. Let me stay. I cannot sit. I cannot lie down.

This is when you had your stroke? Yes. You said don't call 911. Yeah, no. You didn't want to. want to call a prairie fire emergency on that situation? No, I call chopper. Call P.C.

And I pull, because I have a training when I was young, I have a training in Kung Fu. I got a training in yoga. And I keep, you know, I keep my body free. I keep my mind going. And later about hour, I back to normal, not normal. That time, you know, we can use it, you know, medication. I say, okay now, call 911, take me to the doctor.

But the time for emergency, I learned from my father. He's crying when I lost my leg. He said, he told me why I'm not using the hope. You know, hope, right? Hope. Hope? Medication. Hope is the medication.

Not, you know, use it by the American way medication. They could take pill or get shot. That's no good. So that's why I say don't call 911. And then I survival right now, you see it? I got a lot of trouble. I know it's affected by the war. You know, sometimes it makes me depressed.

I got a lot of medication. And, you know, they spread everything in the Vietnam, ancient orange. Mm-hmm. We came down there. You know that we were very soft with the water. But we pulled out the rock, the water in there, we take another drink.

Mm-hmm. That's why I got a trauma with my AIDS right now. right now. Because of the agent orange. Well, I'll tell you what, I don't know, we've been going for two and a half hours. What do we miss? Did I miss anything?

Well, the only thing we miss would be if you want to talk about the day he was with the Frenchman, that historic day when the Frenchman got shot in the back four times. Yeah. If you remember that. Okay, so one month later,

you guys are on another mission and I'm going back into a cross- the fence here we go later in the afternoon children signal to the team to pull their claim or minds and prepare to move out due to the combined weight of the rucksack and webgear Laterno this is the Frenchman moved to his knees and slung his rucksack on his back just as it landed on his back AK 47's open fire Laterno was slammed to the ground face first face first the impact so severe he had fought he had broken his nose startled Laterno jumped up with his car 15

pointing it toward the AK-47 gunfire that was near the front of the team. Surprised that there were no NVA near him, Leiterno removed the rucksack to discover that four AK-47 rounds had ripped through the 23-pound PRC-25. He reached into an especially tailored pocket on his fatigue shirt, which was sewn with vertical zippers, one of the left of his shirt, one on the right side, between the top and bottom of the pockets on his shirt, and pulled out his URC-10 emergency radio, and broadcast a general alert

for any aircraft in the area. ST Virginia was declaring a prairie fire emergency. Then there was a sudden complete silence. Eerie silent. Amazed at the quietude, Laterno walked to Childres who asked him what he had done with the PRC 25. Laterno explained that four rounds

had ripped through the radio and that it was probably useless. Get the fucking radio, Childers yelled. What if it's working? We leave it behind for those assholes to use. Stoned, Laterno went back picked up the rucksack and walked to Childress, who grabbed the handset as NVA troops began firing at ST, Virginia, and yelled into the radio, we have a fucking Prairie Fire Emergency. Get us the fuck out of here, or I promise we'll, I'll kick your ass all the way back to Saigon. As the firefight raged on, the remainder of the team was lying down on the ground, the firing at the NVA while Childress and Letterno continued to argue while standing up, oblivious to the AK-47 rounds cracking over their heads. Laterno yelled back at Childress, it won't work, while pointing the P. CRC 25 radio where the antenna had been shot off.

No antenna, no camo. LaTrono grabbed a spare whip antenna and handed it to Childress who screwed it into the radio. This time, Childress screamed in the radio. We need an ex-ville. Now, I'm declaring a prairie fire emergency. Is anyone out there? Within a second or two, there was a response. Calm down, Childress.

I realize you're under fire, said a Covey Rider. Just at that moment, several AK-47s opened fire from the wood. line near the log where Laterno had been unceremoniously slammed onto his face. Lap and cowboy returned fire. Covey Rider continued. We heard your team declare a prairie fire emergency on guard frequency and I've rallied the cavalry. What's your mark? Do you have an LZ in sight?

Before Childress set a word into the radio, he turned to Laterno and said, see, it works. Suppose we had left it for the NVA. Never. I say again, never ever leave behind a radio. As if to emphasize that point, the NBA opened fire again as Lap began looking for an LZ while moving the team down the hill away from the most concentrated NBA gunfire. Cutting Laterno no slack, Childress Roared, tell Covey, we'll give him a fix in five minutes. We'll probably need strings to get out of here. I doubt we can make it down to the valley where a king bee can pick us up.

Without missing a beat, Laterno, who for the first time felt four burning stings in his back, repeated those words to cover. while he and Cowboy began providing cover fire as the tail element of the team. Laterno, then Leterno nodded to Cowboy, who ignited several Claymore mines that the team had set out on its perimeter. Those mines only slowed the NVA for a few seconds. Before the dust and debris from the blast had settled, NVA soldiers were moving through it toward Cowboy and Leterno. Without saying a word, the two men took turns firing at the enemy while moving downhill.

Rotating around each other, Cowboy would fly them. fire several bursts from his car 15 and then reload. As he reloaded, Laterno would open fire providing covering fire for the team. During one short lull, Cowboy even planted a Claymore mine in the direction of the advancing NVA, and Laterno dug out another Claymore from his rucksack and placed a 10-second delayed fuse on it. When the NVA advanced again, Cowboy ignited his Claymore mine. The NBA moved towards the team again. Laterno ignited his fuse and ran down the hill with Cowboy to catch up to their team.

Before they reached the team, two B-40 anti-personnel rockets slammed into the trees above them, showering them with trapnel. A few more exploded as Laterno and Cowboy moved down the hill. Then the 10-second fuse ignited another Claymore. It brought Pet Precious time for the gun-run team of Laterno and cowboy to cover ground and catch up to the remainder of ST Virginia. As Childress called in airstrikes, Laterno reflected on how surreal the firefight had been. It wasn't anything like he had witnessed on television.

in any movie instead of men charging each other and killing each other in plain sight here in triple canopy jungle he observed green tracers from AK 47's first or at the most an enemy hand or foot and somehow the NVA found firing lanes where they could launch shoulder-held B-40 anti-personnel rockets that slammed above them and around them as they race down the hill again the voices of his special forces instructors echoed in his mind They had told the young aspiring green berets at Fort Bragg that the NBA was a tough, resilient opponent. Many had fought against the Japanese during World War II and against the French, driving them from Vietnam in 1954. The sounds of King Bees in the distance and the crashing thunder of B40 rockets slamming into trees above his head, shook Laterno out of his moment of introspection and turned his undivided attention to the crescendo of AK-47 fire from the enemy.

ST Virginia responded with a volley after volley of full and semi-automatic gunfire while Latterno and Cho fired several M79 rounds toward the densest section of jungle where the AK-47 gunfire was emanating. Through the gunfire, someone popped a smoke grenade, which brought the king bees closer to RT Virginia's location in the jungle. Over the din of gunfire, Childress and Cowboy told everyone to put on their Swiss seats and prepare for string extraction. In short order, a king bee was hovering over ST, Virginia, more than 125 feet above the jungle four. Leterno, cowboy Cho, and Hawned hooked their D-rings into the old Maguire rig that hung from the end of the ropes and shortly were being lifted out of the jungle. As the quartet of recon men was being lifted into the air, the NVA released another salvo of AK-47 and B-40 rockets. Strappinal from the rockets hit them with varying degrees of size and velocity. All of them were wounded.

It was during these explosions that Leterno realized his car 15 and somehow become caught in the rope above him just far enough away that he couldn't reach it. He pulled out his M79 and launched a grenade toward the NVA positions. Now all he could see of the enemy were hundreds of muzzle blasts from AK-47s and Green Tracer rounds climbing upward toward the quartet of ST Virginia men. Before he could reload his M-79, the King Bee began to move away from the target area, surprising him because the men had not cleared the jungle yet. Instead of continuing to climb out of the target, moving straight up until the men cleared the jungle's triple canopy of trees and vegetation, the King Bee was moving away from the target area due to the heavy enemy ground fire.

In recent months, at least two King Bees were shot down during the string extractions from hot targets, but these facts were unknown to Laterno at the time. Shrapnel from B-40 rockets exploded around the ST Virginia men stringing them with pieces of hot metal, stinging them with pieces of hot metal, further spooking the King B crew. Laterno began to violently collide with the tall jungle trees. Feeling like a metal ball and a pinball machine, Laterno crooned off several more trees, at least one more B-40 exploded in the treetops, again, showering in with shrapnel.

A tree branch hit Laterno from one side and turned him upside down in his Swiss seat. in his Swiss seat. As the rope seat began to slip down his hips, Laterno remembered spider telling how a one-zero from another team had recently been shot out of his Swiss seat during a rope extraction. Another tree struck Laterno before he was able to muster the surge of strength and momentum to reach up and grab the rope above him as his body finally cleared the tree tops. The only thing between him and certain death below was the jungle floor 200 feet below

was the single piece of rope tied into the King Bee. With one final urgent pull, Laterno was able to move himself upright in the Swiss seat as the King Bee continued to climb higher into the sky, distancing itself from the fury of exploding B-40s and AK-47 gunfire while gaining air speed. Well, there you go. And Cowboy was there for that.

He was still recovering from the wounds from October 5th. Here he is around Thanksgiving. Yeah, so a month and a half later, after your October 5th, insanity, you're out there again. Almost healed. Almost healed. Yeah, almost healed. Because the tree of them, Juan, Noon, and another one that shamed my village. And they want me to go with them.

Oh, so they were from your village and they wanted you to go. go and help them. Go have them. And then, by the way, the new man. Black? No, the Frenchman. Was this the Frenchman's first mission? Yeah.

The first mission, we don't trust how he's learning. So that's why we got to go strong enough to protect him. And by the child, child, he's very good, perfect. He's perfect man. but he only won. And then Frenchman, he's a new guy. We don't know about him, but, you know. You know, one zero had run several missions.

Yes, one zero, they got experience. I don't want the Frenchman like James Stride. James Stride, the first mission is gone. And the first mission is easy to go. That's why, you know, I'm volunteered to go with the Virginia to take care of my three friends, same my village, and by the way, that the Frenchman, he's a very new man.

So that's why, yes, baby Shan. We call him Baby Shan. But he's perfect. Yeah. But he's good. He's training good. Did you train him and help to kill the dogs? I don't know.

I don't know, I don't know, but, you know, we very like the machine. Yes. When I shoot something, he knew I ran out the ammo. He covered me. And when he ran out the machine, the ammo, I covered him. So I cannot judge it. He's like the number two. He's number two.

We come at the first time. Later on, you know, I know he run a lot of missions. 13. Yes, I know about it. I know he run a lot of missions. But that's why he still survival. But that makes you all the more amazing. Yeah, because he did 13.

A month and a half. Only a month and a half. Yeah, you go from October 5th to this mission. Yeah, that's part of your six years of song. Almost healed with my scar. Almost healed. Not really healed. Almost healed.

Well, you've got new shrapnel too. Yes. You have just new shrapnel wounds from that. But in order, you know, to, because like you and me right now, I cannot, you know, leave you alone. I got to go with you. Sure. Because we close friends, very close friends.

Well, that's what it's all about. And it's amazing to be able to sit here and talk to you. I can't believe that I'm sitting here and talking. to you. I can't believe that you survived one of those missions, never mind. Yeah, six years of those missions. I thought just normal. No, no, it's not just normal. Like somebody else. No, that's no one else doing that. We got paid, right? And then we got a bonus. If we do it a good thing, like we have a camarad. Do you remember how much you got paid? one picture

it's $500 Pia. No, 500 piaster. How much is a piastra worth? Like it. What time of day it is? Maybe a dollar. So you go and do these missions for a dollar. You're a cheap date. Like a $5.

$5 for a picture. Yeah, okay. And then... For a recon picture? We can learn a lot from the shop. Like you remember sometimes we got a radio, small radio. Right.

we get in the jungle, we throw it. And then some special camera. And we throw in the jungle. And we learned a lot. We put in the sensors too. Yes, and the sensors. Cameras and sensors. Camera and sensor and radio.

You got to ask me why you told the radio into the jungle, right? Right. I never knew about that since this is all top secret. Okay. Even Tilt didn't know. Then you know it's top secret. Another system. Another system from the department.

But we don't know or whatever do I have authority to speak in that. The radio we throw in the genre, that's being you got to have a question. if the communists pick up the radio who's the one to use it that's squat leader a platoon leader or company leader

They blow up? No they're not blow up inside the radio they got something when they order anything Airplane know what's going on there you go

now we learn from them a lot We learn from them a lot. You see it? Like the flash line? Yes. We tore the jungle. Nobody know.

And when we're training to throw the flashlight in the jungle, the first question that they asked me, if you see the flashlight in the jungle, do you pick it up? I'm going to say no. You say no, you know past the test. You should pick it up. The NBA might pick it up.

Yeah, NVA got to pick it up. Oh, they're going to pick it up, but I'm saying I wouldn't pick it up because you'd have that thing booby trap or something. Because you thought it's an important thing, just a normal thing. Okay, the first question they asked you, you see the flash light in the jungle, do you pick it up? You say, no. That's been something wrong. with you. I say, yes, why not? And I pick it up. And the second question, what do you do with the

flashlight when you pick it up? Turn it on. Turn it on. You failed the test. Because it's mine in there. How do you know? When you turn it on, it blows up. So many, so many learning from, I don't know how to tell you, but, you know. You did a pretty good job. Yeah, I got to learn a lot. I got to learning a lot. Okay, team moving, three NVA that followed you, enemy followed you. The first question, you want a three enemy dead or you want a three enemy wounded?

If I answered three enemy dead, you go home. You cannot run recon anymore. They want POWs. I want three guys, at least one guy, the wounded. Why? Because the team still on the mission. The wounded, another NBA got to take care of them, right? So that delay the time that they follow the team.

And if you get a PLW, you get a bonus. A lot of piastres for a P-O-W. P-F-W, a lot. Buku P-A-S. Like the, like a hundred thousand something? Yeah, 100,000 piastres. Yeah, we only got 100,000, so I don't know what you would get. I didn't hear about that side of it.

The reason that we got a bonus, but now I filed that bonus. Before that, I don't know anything. I don't know. Just exactly just empty. I don't know anything about it. But we learn We learn from him. We learn from you. We learn from him. We learn a lot every different guy Yeah, like I learned from him he learned from me. So we we sit it out. We saw our experience Like I told you if I saw the enemy in the jungle kill him

it easy but in order to complete my duty I got to stay on the ground about

five days that's why I'm not kill the enemy I just stay there and

they test you how smart to handle the thing happen that's why

I want to become you know the recon team is very difficult but Especially the first thing is protect this guy, protect American guy.

The first choice, protect American guy. But we understand that we were recused to refuel the American came to the Vietnam. That's why I can tell you that I am so lucky. but you know just normal bring everything it's normal better better than for me well you're definitely

you're definitely lucky and I can tell from everything I've seen you're damn good too perfect well lucky yeah amazing it's just an amazing story to sit here and talk to you and

get this information and you know get other people to be able to hear this story is just, it's awesome. Indeed. Do you got anything else, Tilt? No, this is it. It's been a great ride and thank you for bringing us together. This is really a special day.

It's awesome. You got anything else, Con? Thank you to invite me to be here today. Our country situation right now, I'm very sad. I can tell you my dad got to die by the social liberal. liberal. My father, dead, become unity. He's the capitalist. He's not very rich man, but he's

middle guy. He made her in the Vietnam. But the communism is no good at all. Please send a message to the people. Don't trust the communism. That's all I can say. that we're here, we're safety. But after the vote for president situation right now, I'm set to let the, at my knowledge, I don't know it true or not, but another hand from the communism, touched to the United States of America. I'd be here for 88 for 32 years.

I never get back to country. I never visit to Vietnam. Even I want to go back there. For the funerals? Yeah, from our friend is still back in the Vietnam. But the Vietnamese government will let me get in. If you don't trust me, I got a paperwork in here. We trust you.

We do. I work with the General Smith, who is the M.I.A. accounting. He came in the Hawaii, Smith, Camp Smith. This is several years ago, right? No, like it, 15, 20 years ago. Okay. I worked with him regarding about our people, yes. Can cry, Robinson, and Hokka, the helicopter.

Yes, stride. But they won't, let me get there. I have a met family with our friend. Paul King, Polking. I'm pick up the name the King right now because... Because Paul King. Yeah, Paul King. Yes.

Be called him behaved of Polking. There's King and crying in Rakeya in Alaska when John Allen was seen. Well, I can tell you, I think one of the reasons that you start seeing these things in America's, people don't understand communism and they don't realize how evil it is. And so you coming on here and sharing your story and explaining what you went through, what your father went through, what your family went through at the hands of the communes. I can assure you that there are, look, there might be some Americans that don't understand, but there are plenty of Americans that do understand, and we will never let that evil form of government control take over this country. It will never happen.

I believe so. I believe so. But in my side, I hear, you know, the communist, when they took over the U.S. because they mess up, you know, the voter. They mess up the computer. For the president, it turned over to Mr. Joe Biden. I heard a lot of information. So I scan it.

I want to buy a boat. Another boat now if I got a money in order to happen. You know, I escape from United States. You're not going to need another boat to escape from United States. We will make sure that doesn't happen. And America is stronger than one person, and our roots are deep, and we will stay a free country. And because of men like you, we're able to be here today.

Absolutely. How do they mess up the country right now? The Department of Defense, Mr. Expert, got fire, and a lot of men get fired. They under cover to another country. Why? You say very strong, but we got to take care. We got to be careful. Remember, communism, control the people by food. You don't have food. You can't do anything. That's what they control the people in China. They control the Cuba. They control the North Korea. the country, they're going to them, their country.

You see, hey, hey, look good, look good, look good, but inside the country. No good. It's no good. They say you want food, you're going to do it. They want water, you do it. They want to fish. One month for two or three fish, you're going to do it. I gave them to you the paperwork to go by from the store.

It's not free. Like here, United States people, you want anything, you have everything. You can work. In there, you want anything, you got to listen and obey me. What to do? Trust me about the way it is. You say, very strong country, no. You see it?

It's no COVID. How the government say, you need take a mask. Thinking about why, you know, Mr. Exburg, he, commander

with the United States Army, he got fire, and another three got fire, too. Okay, I'm looking back. I asked you the question. American don't lose anything, right? But why we still get out of Vietnam?

Why we lose Vietnam? You told me, politics. Because now it's politics. But with my experience, they're politics. They can control, you know, the hero guy like a you, like a myth. And then we trust them. We're going to die. Like at the time

Mr. Obama You see the Do you see the picture Marine in the board Surrender with the What do you think? That was not a good situation At all.

But why? Why we still have a picture? Because the people back in the Washington Mm-hmm. Like Mr. Trump they can't do anything. We're a soldier.

We got to do and we got to follow with the order. But they order us to come to die. So I'm not a politic guy. I'm, you know, retired man, 72 years old. I can't do anything.

I can make any money, but I afraid of my children, my grandchild, grow up, living under combination well that's a good point and I appreciate that point

you know I'm sitting here sitting here saying oh America's strong but your point is we can't get arrogant and think that it can't happen to us we have to remain vigilant all the time trust but verify

indeed yes sure well once again thank you for coming on thank you for sharing your stories you're always welcome here both you guys obviously are always welcome here con thanks for coming and sharing your story and thank you more importantly for your service to your country to this country to defend

freedom and democracy in the world and thank you for taking care of your big american brothers on the battlefield and your vietnamese brothers as well and and thank you for you and your families sacrifice on the altar of freedom. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Amen. And with that, Tilt and Cowboy Khan have left the building, leaving nothing but respect and admiration for incredible service, incredible men and everything that they've gone to, everything

they've gone through. Echo Charles, you were sitting in the corner. Yes. We didn't have room for you at the table. That's okay. Pretty insane, right? Yes, very much. So, yeah, it's a little bit different when I'm like X, not excluded, but X, not in on the table, whatever.

You were detached. Detached. Yeah, I'm detached even more. So, yeah, it is interesting. You can sort of see and imagine really kind of what's going on and what, like, everyone went through and how it was being like in a different culture, you know, and with military and stuff. And then you kind of compare it to all the people that have come on and shared their story. Yeah, very interesting. The crazy thing is all those back to back to back to back to back years of doing these missions.

I mean, the SOG guys could barely get out of there alive. Yeah. And here's, there's no getting out. Okay. So there's this part. This might seem kind of random, but this is a part of that I remembered where he said that he could smell. They could smell. Yeah, he kind of opened up with that.

Yeah. Yeah. So, and I was thinking about it where it's like, yeah, I see. how that could be really when you're so used to a certain environment you can tell just a little differences like 100% man so uh you ever here's things out like when you're at home right and if someone just came over and just left you come in i don't even know if you can smell them but it's probably has something to do with smell you can definitely smell you know how you put it this way that's what i thought to that you could smell them but i can't smell something specific

I know it just smells different. You know that feeling. So it almost does feel like a little bit of a sense, you know? So imagine that like, or like, you know how like your, your furniture will be moved just a little bit. Yeah. And you walk in like, you know, I have a little home office, whatever. And there's this couch. And when I put it in there, it is, it's the perfect.

Like I painstakingly put it a certain distance from the, there's a TV in there too. And so. So in your, in your. home office you have a couch and a TV. Yes. Some other stuff. That's cool. Hey man, I make videos. Got it. Good. Good point. Anyway, so one time I was fixing something underneath the couch and I just, you know, I had to apparently move it just a little bit and just didn't think about it. And then when I walked in, like later that night or whatever, I was like immediately felt it. It was, it was off by like literally

one inch. Literally. And I could feel it. I looked at it. It was like threw me off, you know? So That's kind of the kind of stuff he was thinking. Yeah, and those guys growing up in the jungle. They grow up in the jungle. And so they're just 100% in tune with it. And then you got the big gringoes coming in, you know, and he kept calling himself a city slicker. They're amazing, amazing guys.

Well, when I hear stories like that, it certainly makes me feel like we can step up our game. Like I can definitely step up my game. Like I can do better always training like Cowboys said Oh man Cowboys and you know what I don't know if we captured it because we were talking before we pressed record But he started getting really into training You know just like how well they trained yeah and he did mention it a bunch you know he did mention a bunch but he he He gave kind of the foundational

Part about training before we pressed record you know like the foundational How much it meant so he kept saying it and he really reiterated it especially at the end you know he was reiterating it, but yeah, it's no doubt. Always got to train. Always got to be prepared. You never know. You never know what's going to happen. Train harder.

Yeah, kind of applies to everything too. Even if you don't necessarily want to think of it in terms of like, oh, there's an enemy out there, you know, literally. Or even figuratively, if you don't necessarily want to think about that part of it all the time, it has to do with capability. Because enemy, that can be anything if you want to go metaphor. I'm, you're preaching the wrong guy here. I'm down with, but the metaphoric and the real enemy.

Well, let's face it. If you have a, let's say you're bringing home a, you know those big water jugs, five gallon water jugs, you put in a water cooler or whatever. Let's say you bring some of those home. Okay. And let's say you don't have a lift gate on your truck or you just have a car, you have a car, but it's in the back seat. And now you've got to reach in there and you've got to grab it at this awkward angle.

See what I'm saying? That in and of itself could be an enemy. Yeah. Never mind the NVA storming your position. Yeah. More important, could be a water bottle scenario. The chance of the NBA storming your position today, a little bit lower than you grabbing a water jug.

Maybe I don't know. I don't know. Everyone's different. I get it. Nonetheless, the point still remains. Look, we're trying to keep ourselves capable. We're trying to train. We want to keep training.

Regardless of how often you are. What's performing? Performing. We'll call it a perform. Well, you actually are performing all the time. It's another way of thinking of things. And performing and training all the time. Because you've got to learn from your performance, right?

Is you know what you're saying? It's like one of those deals. Anyway, all right, we're doing it. Through training comes beatings, comes breakdowns, more or less, most of time. Actually, all the time. Sometimes I just got to leave you to figure it out. Like those statements right there. I can tell you're maybe you threw it out there as if you'd get some support.

No. But then it didn't come. I do do that sometimes, but this is not one of those times. Yeah. Anyway, when we build ourselves back up, the benefits of training, sometimes we get little nagging things in our joints or other places, whatever. We don't want to worry about that kind of stuff. So, Jocco has joint warfare, super cruel oil. These are supplements.

supplementation for your joints. Okay. So the whole line is called jocco fuel. So with that, JoccoFuel has, like I said, joint warfare, supercure oil. We also have for your brain and body, by the way, is a, I don't want to call it a product, even though it is a product. Okay.

I'm going to call it a product. Don't call it a product. All right. Okay, you feel me then? Well, a thing. Yeah, that's better. We have a thing called substance. Discipline, right?

So it's discipline. plan. You can take this form of supplementation in actually in a few forms. So you got the powder version, mix it with water. That's what I had to do today. Yes, sir. Pill, don't mix it with what, just swallow it. Just swallow it.

Maybe with some water, whatever. Quick hitter. Or in the cans. Kind of like an energy drink, if you will. Except for one that's literally good for you. Actually healthy. Actually healthy. So yes.

It's a real energy. Yes. You know what else gives you energy? Cocaine, apparently. Right? That's what I heard too. Apparently cocaine gives you energy. Makes you feel like, hey, I'm going to go and work hard right now.

Energetic. Or crystal methamphetamine. Apparently that gives you energy too. A little bit different, but yeah. Now, you don't go around saying, hey, you should, oh, you need some energy, do some cocaine. We're not doing that. It's unhealthy. It's bad for you.

We'll say it's unhealthy. Yeah. Sure. There's other, the category that you just used, quote, energy drinks, which are in the same realm. Potentially, not quite, but. Okay, maybe not quite. I understand what you're saying, though, fully.

Yes. So, yeah, a lot of times when energy drink, you're like, hey, let's drink like two, three, four, five energy drinks. You're going to be like, I don't know about all that. Shouldn't we not be drinking energy drinks? It's kind of you have that feeling a lot of them. Yes. You see what I'm saying?

But this one go in the can may even, actually might even kind of look like an energy drink. It's just not like that. Yeah. It's the actual healthy thing. is what I'm saying. Real energy. That's what I was going to say. Because cocaine, that's not real energy.

Well, it depends on what you mean by real, and it depends on what you mean by energy. Okay. I mean, in the spirit of fairness. We'll have to get somebody with some expertise in cocaine in here to discuss. And energy. And energy drinks. Nonetheless, you know what I'm saying. Healthy energy drink.

Okay, so don't do cocaine. Yes. Instead, try discipline going in a can. All of the Z. None of the negative benefits. No. Dude, Do you remember what?

No. Not all those things. No, check it out. I brought, I was on Theo Vaughn's podcast. Sure. Hell yeah. And he was drinking Discipline Go. And he said something really funny.

And he just kind of slid under the radar comment. Mm-hmm. But he said something comparing it to cocaine. And he said, actually, I think I'm going back on a cocaine. That's what's in my brain right now. Yeah, that's weird because I don't like, I don't pout well. I have. I won't like drink the whole thing super fast

But then actually that's not true I have But when you drink it super fast Then yeah I think you'll get like a little jolt Yeah Well super fast being how long When you down it like in three Four or less hits Oh that's a that's definitely

You're gonna feel that one for sure Oh yeah for sure But no if I if I drink like two Over the course of a podcast Like I will not feel like what I imagine cocaine feels like. Yeah.

I've never done cocaine. Yeah, me neither. Nonetheless, it's not cocaine. It's good for you. Yeah. Crystal methamphetamine and cocaine are not good for you. Or unhealthy, yes.

Jock-D-Megel is good for you. Okay. I think that's what we're trying to say over here. All right. Yes, it's true. Also, speaking of good for you, vitamin D3. Yeah.

Joco-fuel. Very good for you. Keep you healthy. Immune system strong also immune system strong stuff cold war is another one So boom you got the whole gambit yeah what gambit right that's correct that's good good usage It's good use of stuff you know for that kind of stuff you don't want to worry about You see what I'm saying yeah plus we got mulk we got warrior kid milk which is protein that tastes good Plus we got jocco white tea and plus all this stuff that we're talking about you can get it at origin main.com or you can get it at the vitamin shop or

You can get it at Wawa in Florida right now and it looks like very soon Wawa all over the East Coast it looks like we're heading in that direction Yeah, so everyone that's been oh by the way everyone that in Florida has been going out and Basically getting after it clearing shelves. Thank you Thank you. We're heading in the right direction beach have beat the beach head is under the process of being secured at this time, which we feel good about. Yeah.

Yeah. Also, yes, so you mentioned orangeymaine.com. Or back to orjimane.com, this is where you can get American-made stuff, including but not limited to, jujitsu geese, rash guards,

some hoodies on there, some joggers on there, some shorts on there, which I don't, haven't been talking about. But they're, aside from board shorts, they're the only shorts.

I wear. But you don't really wear board shorts very often. Oh, yes, I do. Oh, on the mats of justice? Mats of justice. A workout. Oh, okay. Every single day in Hawaii.

Okay. Yeah, it's either board shorts or that. Straight up. Got it. Check. I jumped the proverbial gun on that one. All good. Hey, we're all here, training, learning.

Also, because I only see you in the origin shorts, the shark fin short. That's the only shorts I see you in. Unless we're on the mats. Right. Yeah. Of justice. Yep. It's true.

Also, at Origin Main, still in Orange of Maine, jeans, American-made denim. From the, from the cotton grown to make the fabric, to make the denim, to make the jeans, all made in America. Yep. By the way. Also, boots on there. Delta Gines are back in the game, by the way. Delta 16.

I'm wearing them right now. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. I saw that. And I saw you, you kind of like gave me a. you grabbed the material and kind of pulled it. Right. What was your assessment?

Yeah. Well, my assessment was that they have some give, some legitimate give to them. And I just reflected on the fact that I don't have any. I'm really sorry, but the new Delta genes are freaking, and they are a little bit new. So we had the original Delta genes.

And then during COVID, we re-engineered some stuff. We got some denim that we liked even more. read the what is it the cut the cut hell yeah yeah they're just they're just freaking awesome now so um were they always dark like that dark you probably see i my o g pair of deltas that i just wore i wear them all the time and so they they're like jeans because they fade a little bit they fade as time goes on so the pair that you're seeing right now are basically brand new gotcha no i i like the dark denim yeah well it will fade over time right

Right on. Cool. Yeah. So or jameen.com. Also. Boots. I forgot that. Oh yeah. Yeah. Don't forget about boots. Same deal. Yeah. Works of art. Art for your feet. For your feet. For your feet. Made in America. Oh, good. Also, jaco store is called jaccoo store. This is where you can get discipline equals freedom, shirts, hats, hoodies, lightweight and heavyweight, by the way. So women's stuff on there. Some beanies. Some rash guards. Some soap. Some soap. Some warrior kid soap. Where you can soap, jocco soap, trooper soap. Yeah.

Killer soap. By the way, all this stuff that we're talking about, if you want to support the podcast, you want to provide some level of support. All this stuff helps us out, you know, that way we don't have to get sponsors. Yeah. Yeah, there's that for sure. Because look, this might be annoying, which I'm sure it is. Like this whole thing, right?

No, no. But, okay, maybe not for you, but for a lot of people, this might be. be super annoying. But the cool thing is you don't have to listen to it. We didn't put it in the middle of, you know, cut off cowboy and just start, here's a word from whatever. We're not doing that. Yeah, that is true.

So we appreciate it when you get, look, we need stuff. And I'm not a big, what's the, what's the minimum? Well, look, we all want to be a minimalist, right? We want to be a minimalist. Don't want to buy a bunch of stuff. But there's stuff that you do need. For instance, do you need a ghee. Yes, you do.

Do you need a pair of jeans? Yes, you do. Do you need a team? shirt yes you do do you need food yes you do you need supplementation yes you like all these we're just making stuff that you need yeah so if you need it you can get it from us it helps out the podcast it provides a little bit of that support so yeah it's like a win win it helps everything yeah you could go to like a local store and buy right yeah you could a pair of jeans that were made in china yeah you could do that I mean you you are allowed to yeah but it's not really

really it's not really let's face it's not really what you want to do no it's very questionable for sure questionable behavior anyways speaking of this podcast you oh wait wait wait no okay speaking of subscribing actually so jocco store back to jocco store okay so we have a t-shirt club we'll call it a subscription scenario where you get uh like a how should i say like a unique unique i guess yeah i guess that's a given anyway you're get a shirt every month that's kind of more like it's different but it's still in the game on the path etc anyway go to jocco store.com and you can check them out see if you like that one but yeah that's a cool little thing people been doing that we offer it's pretty cool and then if you get a t-shirt from

this thing you can't get it anywhere else no you can't even really get it on the store really if they're only for like you'll see like when you see kind of the example of someone, you'd be like, okay, this kind of makes sense. They're fun and they're, you know. So yeah, we have, there's always all kinds of cool ideas that come in for shirts, for this, for that. But we can't just execute them all.

No, they're varying levels. Yeah. So, you know, we're doing on an exclusive scale. Kind of. Yeah. What do you mean, kind of? I don't know. I don't know what you meant by scale. That's a. On an exclusive scale, meaning we're not doing it

on a mass scale. Hey, everyone that wants one of these. No, it's on a more exclusive scale. Like, oh, we don't have to make whatever, however many, whatever the number of T-shirts is. Yes. Because we know what someone's going to order. Yeah. Yeah.

You're correct. If they're in the game, then we know it. And you get a shirt. Yeah. That looks cool. That has more layers. There are many layers all infused in that situation. Nonetheless, yes, jocco-sor.com.

Also, like Jocco indicated, you can subscribe to this podcast on wherever you subscribe to a podcast. There you go. Boom. And don't forget about the unraveling podcast that I also record. And don't forget about the grounded podcast, which we are supposed to record, but we haven't recorded a lot of. Don't forget about the Warrior Kid podcast, which hopefully during Thanksgiving, when some people don't have to work, I'll be able to slip in there and record some

Warrior Kid podcast. So we're going to work on that one. Don't forget about we have a YouTube channel, a YouTube channel. And this is where. the creative mind of echo trolls manifests itself via explosions, tanks, airplanes, and if you want to watch a video that's 30 seconds long that has a lot of stuff blown up, go there.

If you also want to watch a video that's four hours long with nothing blowing up, also go there. Yeah, boom. Yes, that is true. YouTube channel. Well, good. Official, by the way. Also, psychological warfare, if you don't know what that is,

it's an album, audio album. with tracks of Jocko telling you, explaining to you how to get past your moments of weakness in the event of them arising, which they do from time to time, let's face it. But yeah, have Jocko there just tell you, hey, you shouldn't do this, you should do this. See this thing you're thinking about doing

that you won't want to have done? Don't do that. Don't do that thing. Jocko version of that. It's actually really helpful, my opinion. We also have a visual version of that. flipside canvas.com, Dakota Meyer making all kinds of cool stuff.

There's a bunch of books. What books did we cover today? Well, we're talking about SOG. So if you're going to jump into SOG, you can get across the fence on the ground and SOG Chronicles by John Striker-Meyer. And then you can also get Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot by Lynn Black.

You get about-faced by David Hackworth. There's a new version now, a re-release that I wrote the forward to. There's leadership strategy and tactics field manual there's the code the protocols and the evaluations there's discipline freedom field manual there's a brand new version of that out that's that's a good go-to for that Christmas scenario yes it is the holiday scenario check that one out way the the warrior kid for field manual is also I think it's live right now yeah it's live

way the word could for field minute here's the thing on all these from what I understand Intel. There's going to be a shortage of aircraft, trucks, and laborers, drivers, pilots during Christmas, because everything is going to be shipped. So if you want to get any of this stuff, even though I know you, we're all trying to be minimalist, but kids need a freaking book to read. So get him way of the warrior kid four, field manual, way the warrior kid one, two, and three, Mikey and the Dragons, and then extreme ownership and the economy of leadership.

I have a leadership consultancy called Eschelon. front where we solve problems through leadership you can go to eschlamfront.com for that we have eF online which is where we do leadership training online interactive so you can go check that out eFonline.com we got the muster in dallas texas you can come check that out in extreme ownership dot com we have eF overwatch which is executive leadership for your company that understands the principles that we talk about. If you want to help service members active and retired, their families,

gold star families, if you want to help out veterans, and if you want to help out American service men and women, then check out Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee, she has a charity organization. You can go and donate or get involved at America's mighty warriors.org. And if you like to torment yourself,

Well, you can do so with more of my protracted pronouncements or maybe some more of Echo's hyped-up hypotheses. You can find us on the interweb on Twitter, on Instagram, and just so Echo knows, because he only refers to Instagram as the gram. And also on Facebook, Echo is at Equich-And I'm at Jockle-Willink. And it should, more importantly be known that John Stryker-Meyer is on Instagram at J-Stryker-Meyer. And once again, thanks to Tilt and Cowboy for their incredibly heroic. We need a new word beyond heroic for their service to America and freedom. We will not forget the sacrifice or the legacy of these warriors. And thanks to all the warriors all over the world in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard.

and also to those foreign nationals that we fight alongside. Thank you for defending freedom. And the same to police and law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, border patrol, secret service, and all first responders. Thanks for keeping us safe here at home. And to everyone else out there, I've got one thing to say. Chewoy, do ma. Until next time, this is Echo and Jocko.

Out.