This is JoCo podcast number two fifty eight with me, JoCo Willink several AK 47 to open fire before the king bees wheels touch down. Nonetheless, black in the remaining three Vietnamese s-t, Alabama team members exited the thirty four. As the king be lifted off the NBA, gunfire increased significantly and moments later, the laboring Sikorski age thirty four crashed. Although this was Blacks first SOGGE mission into Prairie Fire, he knew the odds were stacked against Stae, 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 bitch 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 Elzy into the jungle. Black Cowboy and the Point Man hô 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 Huwa 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.

S-t Alabama moved cautiously as the team went down the trail. It moved parallel to a small rise on its right. That was about ten to twenty feet above the team. On it, the VA colonel had quickly assembled a force of fifty and VA soldiers who set up a classic L shaped ambush.

The quiet of the early morning jungle was shattered when the VA troops opened fire with their AK forty seven Donetsk's 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 ear in air. What had been a human body milliseconds earlier was being chewed into an amorphous form that hit the ground with a sickening thud.

Arterial blood spurted high into the air, three rounds slammed into the one zero head blowing off the right side of his face, killing him instantly.

Nothing could prepare City, 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 estie, Alabama team members returned fire. The Green Berets stood there, firing us on single shot, picking off inva soldiers. On top of the rise, he loaded his car fifteen and went down the line, shooting them one after another. Sometimes they spun and he shot them a second or third time. As the VA continued to fire on the team, black in cowboy form the team into a circle and directed a barrage of seventy nine grenade rounds and car fifteen fire into the surrounding jungle.

Then startling eerie silence. Black thought he was in his grave as Alabama was in a low spot, with the ground rising ten to twenty feet on both left and right. Both the NBA and 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 twenty five to tell Covey about Alabama's tragic turn of events. Black and thoe scavenged weapons and ammo from the dead Alabama team members.

Fortunately, covid was still airborne. Black reported that he had two kids and two wires and was surrounded by Enova 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 one hundred and VA regulars opened fire on S-T Alabama as enemy troops had reinforced the initial ambush unit. By now, the VA were two rows deep. The front row fired AK forty seven. The second row threw grenades or fired RPGs.

Now, that is a story from the book Across the Fence by John Stryker Meyer, also known as Tell. It's a story of October 5th, 1968, a Special Forces SOG mission over the border into Laos.

The story is also covered in the book Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which is by Lynn Black Code named 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 Köln cowboy dohnt Vietnamese soldier that fought for freedom alongside American Special Forces soldiers from SOGGE Khan. Thank you for joining us. It's an honor to have you here.

My pleasure.

And also joining us once again is John Stratemeyer, the man himself till a Special Forces soldier and member of SOGGE, who has been on the podcast before, one eighty one eighty one one eighty two, one eighty six to forty seven and to forty eight.

Good to be back, sir. Good to be here with Cowboy. Thank you. Can't it's it's awesome to have you here. And um. So your nickname is Cowboy. How do we get the nickname Cowboy. One mission. I have a good name for radio contact. They put me name a cowboy and then I get going. I still survival. So my man, an American man called me cowboy from there. It's a good name.

We always call him that in camp. Uh, nobody called like a cowboy. We knew who Cowboy was. Yeah. Kind and a little bit difficult to pronounce. You should know by American show it easy or you know, like the friendly saying, hey cowboy. And all the time, even my commanding officer boozehound, uh, may just now right. Call when we got information every single morning. Call me cowboy. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody you know who I was and.

Well that's awesome. Before you became cowboy. What. Let's go back to Europe. You know where you're from, where you grew up. What 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 then then been provided. And then, uh, I was very young. I don't know anything but nineteen fifty four.

My family moved to the south in order. The Communists took over North Vietnam. We immigrated to dish out and we lived in Saigon for two years. My family moved up to Dallas City. You know that. I know I shantung that very nice city. Beautiful, beautiful. And the water it like the. Yes, Norma. And you can you can check that out like the young lady, 19 or 20 years old. You like it. You know, we're living there.

What was it like when before you left? What was it like when the communists came and took over over the North Vietnam? What was that like for your family? What did it what did they do? What did that seem like? What happened? Um, I don't know, because I was young, but I understand up to that that a communist plan to kill everybody and they want to collect property from their citizen to be, you know, like the Communist Party.

And that's why my my family moved from not to the south.

What was your father's job? What did he do?

Uh, actually, I do now.

I still don't understand what he did. He only the Bazinet man, but he was in the business of business vision of man. Yes. And he moved now to the south. He vision that. But inside you. You know, the the back rise, the gun in there, but I don't know who who he was. OK, and sometimes he beat the taxi driver, OK, and motorcycle driver to take care of the people. But honestly, now I understand.

Like he said, I know he was an undercover anywhere, anytime. And in 1963, no president. Not in Jim.

You know him, he was assassinated before Kennedy, before Kennedy. Yes, and I I strongly believe that he worked with him and he up to revolution revolution from the from the Vietnamese army. They put my father in jail. And because he worked for the government, he worked for the president. Jim, at that time, I would like to 12 or 13 years.

So 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, to my father. Mm hmm. And then he in jail. But he was a smart man. He told me American got to go to Vietnam when I was young. I studied French. And then when he in jail, he said, hey, I better learn English because now he understand American going to come to Vietnam and study I.

I'm study English at the time. Lucky for me, it my family very close to, you know, the U.S., I mean, Vietnamese American Association. So I study from them and then my father's still in jail and my family, you know, the economic hit it going down a lot. So I try to supply by myself and for my family. And I'm very lucky when I study English. My teacher, he's American and he understand my situation and my family.

And he advised me to join the army. And I but I, I don't know about him, too. But a very nice guy, uh, meaning you don't know what his actual job was.

He only a teacher. Just a teacher. You have to teach you. But I talk in my mind. He was you do extra work for the government some time. She iatse. Yes. He got to go, you know, to pick up the. Who's the bad guy. Who is the good guy in the class. Yeah. He all it all the time asking well where your family would be. Uh one one Hispan you know on situation my family I want the money but you know, how do we survive it.

He learned from us a lot from the student. And I believe, you know, up to that, he picked up the student to become, you know, the the Ambroise for the US government. That's what I talk right now. So he was a recruiter looking for good people that will do a good job fighting for right and good man do something or smart man that 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 showed me the, uh, the movie P.T. 109.

Yeah, I know now. Yeah. About JFK. Yes. Yes. OK, and in a class, you know, he showed the movie, he said you want to be John F. Kennedy. I said, why not? And and not all. At one time he asked me, he asked me a lot and you know, something going on to them to to my family. And he can relate. What are you going to do it say?

Yeah, join the army, but I don't know anything about it. That's what he told. And he called my friend and another friend to say, take him to the. Join with the special forces and see what they have to special for the people crazy because the Vietnam War, we understand situation like, you know, now the Marine or, you know, Coast Guard, you know, like infantry, you like it airborne. So, you know, who's the one?

Which one? The hero and I don't know anything about. See, try it. Try it.

And the written letter to Saigon to through to to some historic quarters. Yeah. Quite a past response to Saigon. Third Street, Saigon. Yes. And I said, yeah I, I go.

So how old were you at this time. Seventeen.

Seventeen. Yeah. And what year was it. Nineteen sixty six to nineteen sixty six. You're 17 years old and you sent or they sent a letter to SOGGE telling that they've got a good recruit and he speaks English and as a hot commodity we need a good English speaking interpreters.

Did you have any idea what you were getting into. No, no, no, I don't know. But you know, when we were young, we were going to be HITO. We're going to be, you know, like a stronger more than another one. Like James. I just joined, like JFK, John F. Kennedy. I can do everything you didn't at the time. You know, from this one you swim. Oh, yeah, I know the Iceland.

I know. But they just man. Yeah. Took this man and saved him. Handsome guy. Yes. I like him very much. So that's why I'm enjoying.

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 guess you want to join and join. Do it whatever they need to me to do it. And, you know, the my men actually, you know, my own behavior, my father, you know, like a ton. But I call everybody in my village, in the county. These are we're top by the nuns, the Chinese. So they know who I was. They know who am I. So they worked together.

We worked together at our time in the camp. So that's why I can go with the French man team right on Beijing. I go with the Rhode Island team. I go with the Mississippi team Alaska before it becomes Alaska. I go anywhere because they say, Hey, cowboy, you good man, we need to learn from him. So that's why, you know, I like to go with him, with them, because I'd be happy, you know, the attitude my family, my family and my father to their family.

So we worked together a long time. Even one day I get, you know, vacation. I want a vacation. You say, 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 other. I'm not saying, you know, I'm good man, but my experience when I was young, I mean younger with my family, we work farmer.

So I'm, you know, strong, little skinny, but strong. Right.

And sometimes sometimes, you know, I'm I'm not.

We got to do it. We got to do it. You can shoot my hand here, scar it. I can cut the bullet and go back to the enemy. So they let him go. That's cowboy catching bullets, the scars to prove it. OK, you're here. I got it. I got it. Wounded everywhere 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 you were hard to shoot at. Yeah, you're right. Not big like a hero. When I saw even the first I saw to him, he said, hey, this guy too big, his foot long legs.

That's what Sal said. Yeah. And normally American the big guy like you and like him. But, you know, when we there we were skinny. A small one like one hundred, one hundred and twenty pound, 100 pound, you know, look look at hey, that baby shot, right, right.

That American coal. My people did it, baby John. The little people, they are 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 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 when he spoke English, unlike the round over here in the city slicker and I need to tell you it, we can smell vishy this smell, because when we go down the jungle, they got a flower, right?

They got a plan to arrive or they got a plan on getting in the jungle. We know we can imagine say what they're going to do, where the they leave it and where the postcard, where the hospital and we we can smell it. Mm hmm. And then my six can understand how communist activity there. They can grow up, they can do anything, become great with local people. Right. That's that's what a Green Berets love our indigenous people.

Yeah. The nuns, like he said he could smell, they had the extra sense that we never had somebody like me, a city slicker. That's why people like him and no one. And they kept us alive. And in the jungle, we we yielded to them. They always made a point, not us.

And they got we with local, local, local people there. And we can smell different like the bird white or chicken. Well, we we can comparison right away into the jungle. You see it quiet and mean. Nobody moved.

Right. That's a problem. That trouble is closed. We understand. Exactly right. I always say, hey, keep your fucking and now I'm sorry that work, but that true. Sometimes people need to keep their fucking heads down. Yeah, that's the fucking truth. But it's true. I'm not telling you lie, you know. Yes.

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 do they just take you up to one of the one of the one of the CCN or something?

Some duck, which was you don't duck. That was the first, uh, SOGGE training base was up by corps and Camp Duck was open, had bad weather, but that's where they did the national training did now border. Yeah.

Very close to the border. How long did they train you for?

A long time.

Even now, when they send you there, you're free to do it. I mean, not in the law, not in the morning. And wake up six o'clock, whatever they needed to train. They call you one or two a.m., one day, two pm. And they let you free and mean tomorrow we got to go Rangin arrange many times. Arrange and then what. What are you doing when you look young the first time you can't have good.

We got it like a tan you know boxed about it. Right. We go out, we set it free um only my friend and say hey how to write about a worthy weapon, how to work the weapon. And then next day we got to go wrangel to find how to clean the weapon.

And yes. Would you what were you carrying an AK or you carrying a car. Fifteen. OK, the first thing when I gentleman what. And Giat and join the only copy.

OK, and then later in and one and two and then after that they changed to uh Sweden k Swedish Swedish K right within K and then Stan O the stance then going to have both standardly silent you know.

Yeah. The magazine will decide. Yes.

OK, and later on we move to the full buy. We usually m sixteen I. And then the car, 15 and then 16, cop 15, because they're are hard to come by, but we were training every weapon that could motor 80 to 60, you know, right here in the leg.

Yeah. To to point to and I make sure we take home kind of weapon or be 40 and 72.

And with these special forces, American Special Forces soldiers that you guys were in charge or some group was in charge of training.

Yes. That was would come at Camp Bucca was the first camp so, so many early saw guys were there. And that was part of the recruitment that came through Saigon. And that's why I cowboy and ended up there and it was training and the camp was so close to the border, we had self-defense at night.

Yes, they would be there would be pods. And the NBA attacked the camp several times prior to May 68 when the camp got overrun. And it was there's a whole book about that called Bait. And after that, they close Camp Duck. And by that time, Alabama was already there will be one.

And when they close, we come back and then jump over to yes, I'll be when I get there in May of 68, later May MacIntire. And these guys came in with his team. And of course, you want to tell them about Alaska. Alaska. Yeah.

What happened with Alaska? They blow out.

Everybody was killed, separate of one zero. John Allen who escaped and he can't he need for two days. And he caught a one of the helicopter pilots brought him back and he said, we want to change the name of the team. They changed it from Alaska to Alabama. And then Tim Shop was the one zero when you were John Allen, John Allen Davis. Dave, I forgot about the Today with John Allen and then keep sharp and then and then October one flow.

Ever be one close later. We we got to go Applebee no deny ever. We find NCCAM but that he to be closed. That will be one. But this is like May with a very incremental month.

So was that, was that where you first checked in. You went to you went to Alaska or had Alaska just become Alabama.

Yes.

The first the first reason why you didn't go on a Mission six turn to miss the mission, or he would have been on that mission with Alaska, right? No, I'm from the hotchpotch, all of us. Right. I forgot my. Sorry. OK, so you started with the hatch it for us. Yeah.

Hateable We work, you know, like at the platoon or company to go with ABTA. He even got a contact with the enemy and the people from the uh from the recon go down to the hatch of looking who the bad with the good.

And they say, hey cowboy, you want to be recon team. I say, why not? I try my best. Yeah. And the first thing I came to the to the team recon team I Skåne, everybody looking bad guy looking because he didn't answer, told the other me team and people say, OK, try, try your best.

And I joined the team at the time, at the time of did Alaska. But now they had a blow out. And when I joined it and they got it ribhi with the team and they're saying, Hey. Alaska had no good too many gorg because too many people died, so we need to change the name and change to Alabama and then we work with it. Alabama and the Appleby one close became to denounce Yishan set in Chicken-and-egg, Alabama, team Datu.

So my name was changed to Indiana.

OK, that was early nine after the close, therefore be one.

And still 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 was just normal thing. But uh, I remember uh we had a contact with the enemy, but we cannot move out to to the to the uh to to our algy we inside the jungle.

And then the chopper came in, throw down the rope, one up, which we had a rope, different rope. But, uh, Torrico for for shape for the team, for a guy come up, pick up the, uh, the drug to hang it up and another fall guy still, you know, keep them set the right security, keep shooting security and then up to the chopper lap, put out the fall guy. We came over and then another four up and throw it down.

We try to hook it up. But I had a John Allen. I know the two Vietnamese guy up the rope when I turn over, you know, I try to whoop, whoop myself into my rope, but I look it up, you know, the tree here to drop a turnover. Oh, tree.

So what happened? What are we going to do? I show I say, hey, look it up. And then, you know, we we had a stable wreck. We don't have a stable record with this SWC. Yeah. We have a tree row to one for and one for. Yeah. And another two. See it. Right. And John Allen show it. You gave me one from him. Oh I hook it up there in the chop.

We're going to cut it down and I drop it back to the, to the plan. I'm gonna die and then they pull up. I only one string in here. Wow. You're the D with the D ring. Hold you in. Yeah. In here. And when they going up like a thousand feet or two thousand feet something and then I got a rush up here, I had a gun, I got a you know the uh my weapon.

Yeah. Yes. And then it's going down turn over to here to my knee. You're upside down then. Upside down. I know that feeling. And then Jon Hamilton wondered what happened.

But but the we cannot be together at the time. So when I was going down to to my my dear. To your feet down here. Yeah. Yes. But luckily we got a jungle, you know, the the from the jungle. But yes, it stayed here and I all the way down.

So you were hanging on the rope by just your ankle and your jungle boots.

Jungle boot. Yeah.

Who and and John Avlon should have become. We got a flag on that we should flag. Yes. And you know the the job was still float and we here we understand that we we we, we don't you know, they might not know something about, you know, you're upside down. Yeah.

So so John Allen was shooting the flare gun to try and get the helicopter pilots to realize what was happening to looking down.

But they did come in and the ground.

So how do we do to, you know, infrared still flew through, flew and then my my body up and down. And until we go to the pool by. And the job would drop out now when when I lie down on the ground, I still understand I'm looking down at my gun magazine, it empty. I change the magazine lock and load and do it.

And then the pilot coming down to pick me up to the put inside the chopper. Right.

And I don't know anything anymore.

You're all conscienceless me from there to the to the dutiful by good Johnson, you know. Good Johnson, right? Yes. The medic at that time, he was all conscious and the medic was Bruce Johnson on that mission or in the helicopter knocking he inside the camp. OK, he he died. Ambush. What do you do with elbowroom in your chest to get your heart going? But I still I still know everything you can I die.

Wow. Then Bruton's and shoot the gun part.

Hey medic and the car coming in. Pick me up to the to the hospital. Right and on the way uh he, he tried to you know, wake me up. You use your elbow when I lie down here, punch in here. You can shoot the bone coming out right.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Bruce was our medic and so he died three times and Bruce told us about that years later. That's how he brought it back to life. And they thought I was dead. They took him down to the field hospital right there. It flew by.

JJ, I beat you up.

You you don't wake up. You are a dead body.

And then you say, I love you very much. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you love me very much, but I don't know anything. But I remember I what he taught me. I remember hunger, the hunger, the team. But I cannot do anything then mean I die for something. And then they brought me to the hospital. Doctors say, hey, I can't do anything to me anymore, but I remember.

Do you remember hearing the doctor say that they can't help you anymore? Yes. That I'm still alive. Even I don't do any I can't do anything for the people that I'm dead, but my family still alive. Well, I hear what you say. I know something going on, not something I live in down.

I feel a bruise on your chest. Yeah, even in my in my chest right here. You can see the bottom here. There it is. The Special Forces medics relentless. They'll do anything to keep you alive. Yes. Yes. Everything. Yeah. The putting you put in here.

Cool company. Wykoff Quambatook. He almost gry. I know that.

But I can do anything. I'm upside down a long time. And then after he tried to wake me up by this one and then and we'll see how big that bruise.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

But he was in shape then after that two hour, three hour I think three hours. I forget three hours my team came back alcohol and he's. Hey cowboy. Good, good and good man. We got to bring him back. Everybody come on down and.

Yeah. And then I can't cry. I took a ride do up to the hospital, point a gun to the doctor, say you better take care of him or you want be you die. So.

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, they're 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 one zero one 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, had to solve that problem. Well, in this case was a car fifteen. Again, we got real thing here with John Wall.

He just tried to beat a game up right now, right in front phone up my jazz claim on my oh carpet. He had Ginnette. Yeah. What did you think? What would you do? Yeah, I'm going to do whatever you want me to do, actually.

And they they came up to the hospital to say, you better take care. Can't. And my friend, you know, the people don't cry miss me. I know you. I hear that. But I can do anything in my you give me a copy, you give me smoke and I don't know, maybe they put the hot water in into my mouth and I feel something go through here and then I wake up, say, hey, what the hell's going on here?

Where's the party?

And let our we come back to camp. Really, this is all before October 5th.

Yeah. Yeah. Did you know, did you did I hear right that you had a relative that was also. Yeah, well his wife's brother was on ti Idaho when Idaho got wiped out in May of 68.

That was your wife's brother. Wife's brother.

Yes. I have a two rounder one up to that to be on the lam way. Hmm. Another one with Idaho team in Las Vegas to a camp that got overrun on Tetteh. I only had the NBA tank and they captured some of our people as well. Some of the indigenous people that took them back up is that family paid a high price.

This shows how often. So now it's nineteen.

How long were you in the job for the total? I'm from 60 to 70 to me now. Sixty six to middle, up to sixty seven. The time was for training and sixty seven. I'm joined the Alabama team due to August. Seventy two. I lost my leg.

Wow.

And so these, so these guys you're going out the whole time. You're just going out on mission. Mission, mission. Mission. Yes, no, I mean, either way, maybe you go back to town, get a little break for a week or something a month, but most of the time it does work.

Yes, sometimes. I like the yes, I used to call it, um, a month for one mission. Total time, sometimes time. Only 10 days. Sometimes one man three times. So that's why we received the money get paid for two times, three times a week. For example, uh, on the first day of the month, we take the money. We go downtown for two or three day and up two, three days.

We have no more money mission, many mission, mission. I say, OK, we go and we stand by there for a week because the weather or whatever, you know, the same reason we we can not go and we went there, but you know, the, you know, the shop low. Right it. When we come up to the algae, the communist, you know we we came back, we are not jumping now. And then after a few day one zero, we get a pass, go pass.

You say OK for one day. And you know, I tried to do it. He understanded know my name.

He took to the last one to get the money and then we on we unpassed for two day or whatever we can. We came back because the reason we stand by for that tired we cannot go, you know, the long trip like a ghost.

Saigon lot just got away. Yes. And then come back for the mission again. We come up there because the weather or whatever for up to a week. We cannot go. I think we can. I say this was October 5th, the beginning of the month. They got through the pay day and the weather broke because we had rains. And some day at the end of the monsoon season, we stand by for for the time get for like a two week, three week, one month.

A lot of reason we cannot go down. Whether or not they committed activity and ground, I, I bet, you know, like it to when we went out the mission, everybody know, even the Pentagon or even the headquarter Asia headquarters in Saigon, the no fly zone or whatever. We have the of the White House.

We work together. I think so. So that's why. But we cannot I cannot remember how many mission I got to go. I cannot remember too many. Because you busy you didn't write a diary. You couldn't read diary. No. We can do anything. We can we we can say, hey, I got it, I got it, I got it now. But when we reshape the mission like the one zero say, hey, we got to go ashow.

We understand our shot, we got to go DMV. We know the DMV when we got to go now we know we got to go. Cambodia and Thailand and Vietnam, the border, we know situation from them because we learn from from training from the north to the south. They got so many secret, Joan, from that and from the communist. And we know when they move from the north to from the north to the south, how are they working on it?

Our people wary, too heavy like Russia, like a we got it like a hundred pound or more. Another pound, right? Some of us. Yes. Close to it. Yes. But the communist, they don't wear anything. Yes. AK 47 and AK vest because they live in there. They do midfoot. They don't carry water.

They don't eat cat food with them because they live and they're like in my house, we came down there, we carried the baby. Then we learned from them. We know how their activity. But our job is to protect this guy.

He told Big and, you know, we were easy to move in with, easy to understand them, but he from here he came to Vietnam. Interesting, he can do anything young and dumb, dumb. But, you know, they good, good. My dad knows so much more than we learn from the Vietnamese. So on this mission on October 5th, the 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 when we come down to four chopper, it made me Jim Strong and I nanotube in a nod to a Vietnamese. We got to go. And now, guy, we came down the communist way. We dropped out the ground. They shoot it.

And we are not surprised by it because we understand she to it, did you see the flag that was flying? Yes, NBA flag, NBA flag, all there is an NBA flag. Yeah, that has to be a little bit of a warning sign.

That's why Lin argued with the one zero saying that Flags is at least 3000 people here. And we're nine. Like it. Yeah, like it. The the flag, according from the flag, we can make it out like the north division. I could reach him like a 3000 guy.

And on the ground, we understand that 3000 Buku, we understand Buku and then Lin Black try to get down to get shot.

That can be up. And another can be they got a tactical from the chopper. They land literally down this way, this way, down this way and shoot another place to make it difficult to for communist adjustment.

Where are we going down. Right. Right. And then another chopper.

Let me study for it. Burn out. Drop it out fast. Yes, crash.

But, you know, we have on the ground help up the chopper. What are you going to do? We got to go and lean back up.

Now, when we drop down, you know that the plane, Algy, we had to move to the jungle. Right way to hide.

And and we got a very quick briefing.

So what are you going to do next, according from the pack working up the up to Kobe?

OK, got I needed the insertion and we got a briefing within the pack. What can you say if the team got one extraction? You have a right to do it. But Jim Streit, the big guy, the one zero seven.

No, see, no, he thought, you know, we were strong, but he he forgot to understand that.

Not in there. Three thousand right there. Mm hmm. And not our homeland.

Then a communist land right there in Laos. Yes. And then they say. To continue March, yeah, that's what he said and Elaine Black told me.

Let's go let's go back to Anderson. And then we go, yeah, that was a wrong decision he made in his life. Yes, I agree. But like a man like 15 feet. We show you the postcard from the communist, the black forgot to tell you we found the AK 47 magazine. Really? Oh yeah. And then we found, you know, the raincoat. Oh, is that right? Yeah. From the from the from the from the communists.

Yes.

And the tree to the it, you know, very clean.

So I understand, you know, yet they sit there for the photograph from the come.

It is an Elzy watch. Oh man. They had a lot of good stuff in different houses that were because there's always so many layers at that point. So they had Elzy watchers and they had some pretty good platforms. And that's one of the first ones I forgot about. Yes, you read about it. They had a platform. That's what they saw it so distant. They knew that they were compromised by the gunfire.

They saw the platform. So he had to go back. And yet the ones you were go down.

It's real gritty how much they get. Communist hat Pithole. Yes, I did.

So what was the one Xeros background right now like in this operation?

He had come from Germany, so he assigned to Germany stateside duty, but never been to Vietnam. So he was not familiar with working with our Vietnamese counterparts, listening to people in Cowboy and listen to little then had a whole year experience. 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 big decision he made in his life to put a team into it. I still told him.

Yeah.

And then we're not, you know, going out the trail of GI, you go by in the jungle.

So when you're down that trail him that a big mistake. Yes.

And never happened.

Would you guys ever have situations where the team would look at the one 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 listen to our our business people are right. If they said don't go to the reason, and that's just the mutual respect we had for there, 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 just take the experience, one zero who had combat experience. He had many missions that Tim Sharp was the one zero prior because the other person, Jim's drive, was more rank.

They appointed him the team and they told Tim to give them another team.

Yeah, this is why when you're in a leadership position, you listen to people as 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 not like these people tell me what to do, it's like, OK, it doesn't work out. Well, you 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. Oh, and you never even trained with him? No, no.

Yeah. We're training the now the haven't passed. Right.

And then I'll get your team job pre training mission. We're pretending for the mission but the team shot another. Oh OK. Is a different one zero. Right. Yeah. So this is just a bad, this is bad all the way across the board.

And this is the one where the Navy saved. Yeah. That's now because they're on a training mission and they had a lot of it's an area where you had Viet Cong and India, but Thailand before Thailand and VA. And so they they got into a world of trouble. Their world was shit with them on a training mission. And they go and the NBA drove down to the South China Sea from their high ground because they had higher ground, drove them down, and then fortunately had a frequency for the Navy and one of the Navy, not a boat, but a boat that had two, two or three fifty caliber.

And they came in and picked the 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 free, you know, it can go in and out fishing.

Let me let me pick this back up from the book on this mission on on October 4th. So where we left off there sorry, on October 5th where this left off was the end of year, two rows deep front row firing, AK 47, second row throwing grenades and. Firing RPGs and then I'm going to pick this back up, says another Vietnamese S-T, Alabama team member was wounded. The team had to get out of the hole or die in it.

The Bold and told the Alabama members to chew Hoy or surrender. Speaking first in French, English and finally Vietnamese as the Alabamas weapons drowned out further to Hoy requests the one. What? So. So they asked you to surrender.

You shot at them and at you who? It was a whole program, right? It was a whole program to get people to switch sides from.

We had to Hoyt and then they knew the program. So they use the same word surrender and settle down and answered it.

And Feinstein hit the car with one hand grenade, one magazine that answered to them.

And then it says the one one continued to pray.

So the one one got he 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.

He on my team. Got it. He was on my team. I need to protect him. He need 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 soldiers were praying. They continue to move around Alabama, some climbing into trees. Cowboy and black crawled fifteen feet toward them, close enough. So that cowboy heard the VA commander tell his troops to prepare to charge Alabama's position. So you actually heard their commander give the order, prepare to charge Datcher.

The commander also told his troops on the long side of the ambush not to fire. Black quickly rigged a Claymore mine in the direction of the pending charge. The fearless NVE mounted a charge toward Alabama, with AK 47 on full automatic black detonated the Claymore mine. It blew a huge hole in the NBA ranks before the smoke cleared Estie, Alabama ran through the human calm carnage, firing car fifteens on full automatic and throwing em twenty six frag grenades while dragging their three wounded team members.

Miraculously, Alabama made it through the end of the wave of attackers and moved back toward the Elzy, leaving their dead behind.

Well, we try to bring them along out, but we could I try to move up to what they and the dead men AK 47 there.

I got to move back and plan by going up. You know, the strike hit a big to behead.

The first guy came up and I kind of them over and they shoot it into the dry body armor and I can feel his body shake when he hit the bullet. Wow.

So you're trying to drag his body and his body is getting shot? Yeah. I understand exactly when I told them last, but they never listen. You never listen to me.

Even there I heard a communist say ambo's, don't give a damn that men don't kill us all because they wanted to capture you. They wanted caps. And then I said, 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 get the helicopters and get out of here. That's where you'll give me a hands the whole time.

Jumper, get the king bees up and then he never lets them to me.

I know he should go. He had to point in the Vietnam, meet him later here in Chimpsky. I'm back up here and then the black right. I know I am 17.

I hear you say go.

Do not you know you know the rule from the team. The first man get up.

First step, second step dog step another man stand up and step to to the boat where where the first man is step and he stand up. I saw, I saw him because I had him. I see. He said no I'm not a time but he never listened to me.

And first step you're going down. Second step dog step. I hear the bullet and he down. I turn around. I'm not stay there for for saving my life. I got to turn around and then the big tree, I lay there and it come and it should again because we were close like here to hear what, ten feet.

I don't know. More than ten feet. Wow. No more than ten feet. The bush he lived there.

And when I try to move in to get it like it, the archway map and then the team for survival right in his pocket survival guide and the radio. They are actually that's why that's why radio frequency. I tried to ho everything in his body given to me even into black and tried to take him out. I say, hey, strut, stretch, try it.

Nothing happen. What do you do? I try to climb 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 deployment. Netta, so what where are we going to do? We can do anything. But when later on, the team leader in here, the gun, you know, like a to to hit back. But he he didn't see it like here.

It had to hear the the AK 47 right here and the communist uprate when he showed it, we got in. We got to find our way. Yes.

Any observation I say, hey, AK 47 pointed the LOC hit anything and hit hit the low right.

Now wait you hit now we're going down here and it should come and it dropped out the AK 47 here so you never know it from here to here.

How do we survive and up and in my mind we got it training in it in chem we say one hand it one magazine that mean you have a hand grenade and you have a magazine. When we throw down hand grenade, we cannot go too far. We told them it made clear communists allow us one hand grenade, one magazine. When we told a grenade to close. We are afraid the communists pick up the grenade, throw it back. So that's why we got a one hand grenade, one magazine, and we try to get it and we got a single shot.

Bing, bing, bing, bing. Sure, the communists keep their head down. They don't have a time or two looking to pick up the grenade.

You don't want to play catch with a hand grenade.

I said one hanging it, one fucking hanging, one fucking magazine.

And when we come, we I drew in it home. Right, right. And we're talking about ping, ping, ping.

We don't help to get you guys out. Yeah. That's what he was talking about. We don't have. But we the communist we have they don't have a time to think in. What are we going to do. And then up to my my get in it empty. He showed it up. Ding, ding, ding. How the communist doing nothing can do anything. And then when we we clear ours.

And another another wave, one negative one magazine, and then Nagati, we got a big company because everybody one throw that one on your neck.

What what are you doing? What are you here for?

So they Skåne, us, how we how we're fighting. So that's why, you know, we try to clear ours. Mm hmm. And then we be shaped at the time.

Meanwhile, going back to the book, Covey says the king bees had to return to food by to refuel. No extraction was possible for at least two to three hours. That battleaxe.

Meanwhile, the relentless and the relentless and bloodied the ran after the spy team, Black planted a Claymore mine with a five second time delay fuse that wreak havoc on the hard charging inva as the smoke cleared and the body parts settled back to the earth. 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. Eerie silence engulfed the team and Alabama regrouped just as suddenly a new wave of NBA soldiers rushed the beleaguered team.

S.T. Alabama had been pushed near the cliff. It was a thousand feet to the ground if they went over the edge. Now online, Estie, Alabama, charged through the weakest and VA flank, killing more enemy soldiers.

So you guys are there's a thousand foot cliffs, there's a thousand foot cliffs that you guys are up against wherever 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, Stae, Alabama, charge through the weakest and VA flank.

That was they did that several times. And that's what the VA used to recon teams charging. Yeah. And that's what saved their lives at that point.

Yeah. That's even 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. You if you stay there, you're just going to die. So you have to attack. Exactly. Exactly.

We will not attack them. They got to the end of us, so we're going to attack them and that they Skåne, 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 in the car 15 handle digging into his chest. So somebody hit him in the head with a grenade. Yeah, we don't know.

Where is that? Where that from? Lucky for him.

And that's from the China is a Chinese and poorly made. Yes, they make it buy them and buy them in the younger kids like a homemade grenade.

Well, he thought he was drowning, but but then he felt feet kicking him and hand 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 gelatin ised rice on the one two legs, arms and chest blacks web gear and what was left of his fatty jacket were lying shredded, bloody on the ground.

The car, 15, was bent over the barrel, meets the receiver and the bolt couldn't be pulled back. One of the team buried it by zero nine hundred. Word of Alabama's precarious position, it spread through five one through FGB one like wildflower wildfire requests were made for an extra assets. It was now an official prairie fire emergency. All aircraft were pulled from their missions and stories to support as the Alabama any gun ships attached to SOGGE were summoned to their aid.

The first gunships to arrive were Marine Hughie's, known as Scarface.

With them was a forty six with a ladder attached for jungle extraction. When the twin rotor helicopter entered the A.O., it was hammered by heavy enemy ground fire, as were the Marine gunships. Green tracers were seen going toward the forty six. The ground fire became too intense in the Marine chopper had to withdraw and make an emergency landing at Camp Eagle in the 101st Airborne compound. Despite this, despite the hit Scarface, gunships made several passes, expending all ordinance before returning to base to reload.

The officers regrouped and prepared to fly back to L.A. to extract what was left of Alabama, the three asked for volunteers for a bright light mission, and every recon man in F will be one volunteered. That's the Idaho was scheduled to insert into the prairie fire and the next day, six 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 the Alabama's situation worsened, the bright light option faded because the original Elzy was now too deadly for any helicopter to attempt an extraction.

So you you were you and were you the one one one zero and still nothing yet done?

So you guys are going like, we'll go. We'll go now.

Yeah, we're getting ready for an October 6th. And then we are already is said you guys are ready. So we're going to do the bright light. And then they changed your mind later because of all the intense fire, another helicopter that shot down in the process.

So Watkins Watkins was the covey, right? They wrote you Watkins then when the topic got low on fuel in spite of class. Yeah, and he got low on fuel. Back to you guys were really familiar with that target.

So here we go. When Watkins, who is the Covey, returned to the FSB for the Cessna 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 and the Elzy, the spotty weather and how smoke from the expended ordnance hung over the Elzy, making it more difficult to spot the team and to deliver air strikes accurately. A resupply of ammo, grenades, Claymore Mines M 79 rounds, water, bandages, morphine's and morphine was placed on a king being launched towards Estie, Alabama.

In Lao's, Cowboy worked on Black's legs. He told Black that the last wave of N had continued onto the Elzy cowboy and Black heard more U.S. Marine Huey gunships arrive overhead and witnessed the NBA on the open fire, hammering the lead aircraft again.

The one one panic's cried and shouted skyward that Vietnamese team members speaking through cowboy told Black that they were going to kill the one one. If you 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 who allowed us to get this far round.

I oh. 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 the air that, you know, when when when the black down, you know, the water in the jungle, we cannot, you know, wave. Right, right. But we still pour hot of water to him to make him wake up. And I mean, we don't know our situation.

We don't know the water, how we ran out of water in the inner jungle. But we still do it because we love him very much.

And the thing, you know, we.

I don't know how to tell you. I don't know how to tell you, but. We got to protect a bike that I don't have time. Divine intervention, yes. Maybe when I. And, you know, we only pray only only pray at the end of the day, when we go on at the end of the day thing, in my mind, we shoot them, they shoot them, and then they go out, not protect me, not protect our team member, not stay here that 100 percent.

That's what I told you. I can tell you that.

I can imagine the time he like now I'm crying. I said, hey, blank, blank, blank. He only won. You know, we can build one one. I cannot tell anything. He can do anything but routine even you know, we respect him a lot. But at the time, what should we do in my mind? God protect us, please. Being out, we have no change. We have nowhere to go.

We can do anything. They got a thousand downs and we have only. Well, the chairman guy. Because we did 200 and 300, I got wounded myself am and I wounded black black when it happened in 79.

Right now the, uh, the ammo, the bullet. And almost we use a knife.

But lucky for us, I mean, we can pick up the AK 47, AK 47 and Aguado from the communists. And we still protect we can protect us on the ground.

So I can tell you it when that's all my heart, you know, in my heart, even, you know, James tries to go back and still back there to retrieve enemy bodies still back there. We can't do anything when we bring up that make me feel, you know, depressed again, only to tell you about. So I don't know why Maya and me still alive in here. I don't know that emerging.

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 shall hell became center focus. The able bodied picked up the wounded and moved toward the Elzy spider. The Covey Rider at the time told Black that the first king bee was in route to the Elzy. But they plan to work the area surrounding Estie, Alabama, with tactical air support.

First in this case, an F4 phantom jet pilot told Black to keep 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 flap fantham he had ever seen. The glide path ratio was critical. Seconds later, he saw the tree line across the Elzy 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 and vuh small arms opened up on all sides of the valley. The four took numerous hits on its armour plated underbelly. Among those shooting at the fast mover were several inva troops about twenty feet from Alabama's perimeter.

As the napalm torch the jungle, dozens of NBA soldiers scurried into the open field to escape the instant inferno that engulfed their comrades as a second jet rolled in for a gun run, the NBA initiated what they called getting close to the belt. In this case, the NBA soldiers move toward or outright charged Alabama to get as close to the team members as possible to avoid being hammered or burnt by the Air Force, Marines or Army air ordnance firing on single shot Alabama picked off each of them as they came out of the burning jungle.

The phantoms returned before returned with two cannon and many gun runs along the team's perimeter before the dust settled. The Vietnamese team later foe, team leader, thoe and cowboy crawled out and recovered several AK forty sevens 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, so that soldier then I know that I pick it up, they it to the member because in order to survive, we have to do it.

We got to do it. We can be my only enemy would make the. But to protect our people, to use an enemy, bodies of sandbags to protect yourselves.

Yes. You go it goes on here.

Two of the nine cylinder king bees came chugging up the valley toward city, Alabama. Black pop, the green smoke marker. The VA popped the identical smoke marker, confusing the pilots with devastating results. The first can be can be followed the VA smoke marker and took a direct hit from a rocket which toppled on its side, smashing each rotor blades into the ground. The approaching Alabama team members narrowly missed getting hit with shrapnel from the crash. Black Cowboy and another team member charged the rocket position, killing the three and Vuh before a hail of inva fire drove them back into the team perimeter.

The second thirty four hit an outcropping of rock on the western side of the knoll after taking heavy enemy gunfire. It exploded and fell a thousand feet to the valley floor below, taking with it estie Alabamas Re-supply.

covid barked, Nice going, black Jack, fuck you, Kavi, 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 Alabama's predicament. Anma was desperately low. The blood trails look like slug slime. The F4 Phantom said expended their ordnance and Covey was belligerent. His nerves were shot training and a man's basic survival instinct had completely taken over. Then the end bugles sounded.

So at this point in this scene, you guys are running out of ammo, 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. What do you think your chances are for survival at this point? There's only can I can say that God protect us.

No one can.

No one can even not only to, uh, to jump, but now we got a lot of support up the air, like a phantom, like a skydiver, like the, uh, 53 Jolly Green Giant.

We can see the bird. You know, it's over the air some time, not only to allow so you can actually see your air support there, flying around there, dropping bombs there, 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 cheer.

And then and then enemy very Skåne. And then we on the ground, we can point. Skywriter bombers in their. And then they were Skåne, that's why we survived.

Another reason that in this day, God came in the form of close air support.

Next on, you can cheat it. Keep your fucking head down. Let me bomb next to me. Yeah. Bomb next to me.

Because they upstair they know what's whoa where we are, you know, in the head. You got a piano. Mm hmm. That we turn over. Yeah. Show the airplane can see where we were. Right. We used to do the same thing. Yes. Yeah. That's another thing the Vietnam guys taught us inside of our floppy hat. We so er panel in there so I could flip it over and let the helicopter gunships know where we want to fly.

Yeah. What were you wearing my little band then. You're too cool for the floppy hat on you see.

Yeah we, we, we, we have a hat. Yes. Inside a hat. We got to the, the panel, the communist they don't, they don't know anything about it and then. Exactly. Bomb to the to the enemy like it was on the radio.

Rodney King holiday on a calling in the airport.

Like it right there they say hey. Now, club, but 200 feet bomaderry away. And I want to hit you and say 12:00 club. Five feet, and that to me, is.

Yeah, we we can't control the airplane because the park and pat walking and in spite of our particular Yes world, we work together.

We we control everything, but.

The people outside say, how do we survive it, easy to survive? Because we there we shot the ball and did it because, like you said, you read earlier and we read it to you to pray for emergency.

So when the first words out of Marine Scarface, when they expanded, then the F ones came in, then the was carburetors. And then later we had Arny. Yeah. You know, judging executioner.

They came out.

Yeah, we understand that. Checkley Communist, you know, very afraid. The airplane even to get a big gun or they got the tongue. They were Skåne you know in 2005. Roko we we on the ground.

They want to keep it very difficult and they want to kill us because they are afraid about, you know, their their area got destroyed by the bomb.

We there we are not authorized to shoot the people, but we can call a even at night or day.

We got to, you know, like communication with the with the air. Right. Like at the at night we got a Moonbeam movie night and then Greenberry Airborne, then airborne. Something to me is OK for all of Southeast Asia.

So we fly over and they do come and check me during the day would be Hillsboro sort of humor. Yes, they stayed close air support. They were way above all, the active in the fast maneuvers so that this one another level of communication, if anything, dropped off like the Covey's were in between, they could stop. The little girl is still directing. Guys just want to talk directly to the guys. If a helicopter for Annalyn did all that, for which he was a good shot, we got it.

You know, they shoot them when witness stand. Exactly. So we're not upraising. We only a small group. They cannot find us, but they got big group. Hey, you there? You got a big tent. Thank you. Hello. How you doing, buddy? 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 we come down there, they're they are free to be tried to house.

So we want to they want to keep us it not not easy, not going to be easy, not easy, because we learn a lot. We're training a lot. We know when when we came down there, we got everything right.

How many enemy on the ground where we can hide and where we can put it to the top. And 14, by the way. Yeah. Top where we can put the blame on mine. We can put it Schiefer. And we know the situation on the ground. We know they were everywhere, especially we got Experion in the jungle. And you American, you know, she's Jewish and, you know, I don't know, like with the American and I'm Benami or whatever, I'm no I'm better than the people from the north.

So we I understand exactly when they movie. I look in the jungle looking the mountain and I can see it now. Where are they in?

And that way you could help them in black, direct airstrike sort of enemy activity.

Yeah, right here. By the way, day by day, we got Experion. I'm not too good, but with my experience, I can look it up to jump on him on here. I can say, hey, I'm right here.

Mm hmm. Hey, Black, we're down here. I prefer the location. And then that way it is.

Then after the vehicle blew up and things got ugly again. Yeah. Here. And then you had your walls built.

Yeah. Let let me pick it up. So the Nova Bugle sounded waves of Nova troops carrying Essex's with fixed bayonets advanced on S.T. Alabama when they were 15 feet away as Alabama opened fire. The semi-automatic cases were no match for the fully automatic firepower of the spy 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 and VA placing the bodies in a circle around them and stacking them high.

The deadly skirmishing continued for several hours before covid told Black that more gun ships and five jolly green giants with heavily armored Sikorsky three were in route blackjack. Covey What you're up against is the regiment you were sent to find over. And blackjack reply's, is that all? Only three thousand of the bastards will I think we made a dent in them. Who's winning? They are covid responded as Black finished his commo. He saw sight he would never forget. The NBA formed a front line of NBA troops who were firing their AK 47 behind them, or several NBA soldiers swinging thongs made of leather and cloth, which held three to five hand grenades, each with a jerk of their collective wrists.

The NBA hurlers launched more than two dozen communist manufactured grenades at S-T, 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 as Alabama looked up, just as the AK started again. And behind them, the thongs whirling overhead like helicopter blades. When the AK stopped, the grenades were released. As the Alabama fired, more grenades were released. Alabama through some back as Alabama was caught in a deadly version of the kid game.

Pop goes the weasel. The AK forty seven continued to roar. Alabama ducked. The grenades were launched to Alabama, rocked catch, duck, throw, duck, catch, throw the VA advanced grenade, shrapnel. Several severed the antenna of the PRC twenty five radio. He quickly black, quickly rigged an impromptu antenna from wire. The relentless NBA continued to advance inch by bloody inch.

Cowboy took to Vietnamese team members over the cadaver walled perimeter, seeking to get another line of fire to direct at the advancing and Vuh, the advance continued despite firing from black and the remaining Vietnamese team members, the NBA were now merely feet away from the perimeter. She's do you believe it? I can't believe you're sitting here talking to me really even now.

Yeah, she's. Throwing bunches of grenades. That's just a horror show. That's crazy.

That's the first time we ever saw that, right? Yes. Yeah. This is a new tactic. We live in here. They here he had a good going down here to put we 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. 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 to cover us and NATO here. So they're throwing grenades over the ridge line at you. And then, as I say, that is it not training? Well, so if you're not going to put it out, come in here.

One, two, three, four. Detroit. We're going to die everybody, but they just they just pulled the pain every that they cookham at all. And we have a time we have a time to pick it up and throw it back. We go because they are not well. And Marquitos, hand grenade, put it out one, two, three to it. When they pick it up, it's going to blow it out. That's why we can get it coming.

Is it not well trained and or whatever. They're not training. I know. They just put it out and control. It is why we do.

Yeah, we do. Survival and the people that they understand that, hey, the guy is a liar. No, he's not a liar, but they are trained. They could not not not not well not good.

So that's why we we here Meyer finally getting it going back to the book at the last moment with the VA, a few body lengths away from the perimeter to huie gun ships from the Americas division, one hundred seventy six aviation company, the Minutemen, muskets of the thirty six. Charlie arrived. The H-1B pilots were codenamed the Judge and the Executioner. They roared into battle first with a mini gun blast, followed seconds later with several two point seventy five millimeter rockets placed in the NBA ranks.

Alabama was saved, if only for a little while. The NBA 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 Estie, Alabama. However, the executioner confronted the NBA head on with both door gunners blazing away with their handheld sixty machine guns. He hovered inches off the ground between the team in the front of the NBA and skipped several two point seventy five millimeter rockets off the ground into the NBA before the bleeding started and VA could respond. The pilot lifted the old one be models gunship over the tree line and ducked down into the canyon, regaining enough air speed to return for another pass at the S.T. Alabama perimeter before city Alabama could celebrate the NBA charged again.

Three more dead and VA 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 one who hadn't fired a single shot continued to prey. 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 Shuhui Dumar.

Give up, motherfuckers, an enemy soldier yelled another, and VA told Black to chew Hoy in English. Black flipped him the bird as a sniper sniper shot Alabamas tailgunner Quong. Is that right?

Clang, clang, clang in the crotch, hitting an artery as though applied direct pressure pressure Kwon's wound and a one e skywriter lumbered into the AoE flown by pilot code named Snoopy. He brought 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 skywriter appeared to be falling, but it actually slipped down into the valley to escape inva gunfire as the Americal One B gun ships and fast movers had maneuvered earlier in the day.

His wingman appeared as he and he as he flew over the team, they could hear the nuts and bolts of God knows what, creaking and groaning as he saw the salvo, the rockets, the NBA were pissed again. The hard shell casings from the airborne warships rained down on Estie, Alabama. Where's John Wayne when you need him? Great, this guy, cowboy, yeah. Oh, and what do you got? You got shot with AK?

Yes. Do you want to see Scar? I'll take your word for it, sir. You've got so many scars that scar.

Yeah, it's crazy to think you're so close to these guys that you're talking to him yelling out to Hawaii, to Hawaii.

Dumar Oh yeah, they all awakened.

They watched the enemy all the way to Hawaii.

Then three small mortars open 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, though, rolled over the cadaver wall toward the mortars, cautiously picking their way through the charred and vah bodies and carnage from the previous airborne assaults. They moved into the jungle within 20 feet of them. First mortar tube, though, drew a plan in the ground. He would hit two, one black would hit tube three and they combine on tube two after the mortar man launched three salvos so opened on his target while Black attacked his target tube and several and HVA several nearby inva soldiers.

The survivors chased black. In the confusion, the NBA opened fire on each other as black headed toward two, one with envy, soldiers still chasing him. Where Thoe was pinned down, Black threw a hand grenade and killed at least three. And with a blast of gunfire to free thoe, they turned on the NBA chasing black and dealt with them. Then he and Thoe wiped out the NBA the second two before they quickly returned to the team, all while picking up ammo and loaded AK 47 magazines from dead or wounded and soldiers.

By now, Watkins had returned to Flying Covey writer above Estie, Alabama. Spider had called the US Air Force Thirty Seventh Air Rescue and Recovery Group in Danang to attempt to rescue the rest of QST Alabama during the Vietnam War, when pilots were shot down in the North, in North Vietnam or Laos and all else failed, the jolly green giants were called the Sikorsky three with twenty two thousand pounds loaded and had two General Electric TI fifty eight GE five turbo shaft, fifteen hundred horsepower engines, extra armament and firepower.

And they were manned by remarkable Air Force pilots and crews. The first heavily armored jolly green giant code, named twenty eight, started its descent to the Elzy from four thousand feet. As it approached, the crew was looking for an orange panel on the southeast side of the Elzy. However, as the aircraft was about to touch down, crew members noticed the second panel, the EVA, had an identical panel. The momentary pause was nearly fatal for twenty eight as the EVA opened fire on it from several sides, the heavy gunfire severed the main fuel line, causing a massive fuel leak inside the helicopter Jayjay.

Twenty eight had to withdraw from the Elzy in a matter of seconds. There were two or three inches of aviation fuel on the aircraft's cabin floor.

The fumes temporarily blinded the crew members. The pilot was able to stabilize and return to Danang as Jayjay ten hovered a safe distance away from the Elzy. Watkins directed a few more air strikes around Alabama with the hope that the communist soldiers would put their heads down long enough for the team to get out after a few ere air strikes. G10, piloted by Air Force Major Vernon Sam Grainier, was called to attempt the extraction for Grainier. This was his first assignment in the prairie.

Fire was Jolly Green. Giant Pilot. Welcome to Welcome to Prairie Fire. When the call from covid came, Grainier knew that there were two US Green Berets on the ground with their Vietnamese team members and that the majority of the team was wounded. He didn't hesitate. Grainier piloted the Jolly Green Giant toward DLs. Unlike Jayjay twenty eight, Grainier knew which side of the city Alabama was on as he approached the Elzy and via gunfire, again reached a deafening roar, despite Alabama directing firepower at the communist soldiers.

As Grainier began to hover over the ten was hammered by enemy gunfire, his crew chief reported that one envir 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. Grainier did a 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 the machine guns as Grainier battled to keep the ship in the air. Time ran out for G10. After traveling several hundred yards, Grenier warned his crew to brace themselves for a crash landing. Both crew members continued firing their weapons until the burning three slammed into the jungle.

State Alabama was stunned, Covey and all the men flying over the target area viewed the horror in grim silence.

What's that for, helicopters have gone down now five. Including the first the first one on insert four for the men back at EFO B one, monitor the radio transmissions on their PRC. Twenty five as covid talk to Black Spig Team, Alabamas radio signal was too weak to hear any response. The word spread through camp that the latest horrific turn of events surrounding Estie, Alabama, the usual hustle bustle of a Saturday at EFO B one, was replaced by quiet, hushed tones as the entire compound feared the worst but continued to pray for the men of Alabama.

Word of a proposed Arclight mission reinforced the gravity of the Alabama situation, and Arclight was a strike by a B fifty two bomber from more than twenty five thousand feet.

Back in Laos, the stunned members of the Alabama returned to their cadaver perimeter once again, nearly out of ammo. One one was facing down metter, muttering The Lord is my shepherd. One of the Vietnamese went about collecting AK 47 and ammo from the dead end vuh as Spider and Watkins' directed more air strikes around the team. Within ten to fifteen minutes after Grenier's burning three crashed into the jungle, Covey learned that there were two survivors from the Jolly Green Giant and asked S-T Alabama if they could locate the remaining crew members.

Grainier had broken his back, but somehow pulled himself from the burning helicopter, the other jolly green giant survivor, Sergeant Ernest Dean Kazmir, 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 VA threw one more curve at S-T, Alabama when Black tried to talk to Covey, he found the primary, secondary and alternate FM frequencies jammed by the VA frustrated black smash the twenty five and pulled out his RC 10 high frequency survival radio, he was told, and 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 sorties into North Vietnam, were diverted to the prairie fire emergency surrounding S.T. Alabama.

covid directed numerous air strikes, including more gun and rocket runs from helicopter gunships Scarface and Hughie's from the Marine Light Helicopter Squadron three six seven returned to make several runs after refueling and reloading and flew by the Minuteman Minutemen muskets returned to wreak havoc on the persistent and VA troops.

They pounded the jungle area between Alabama and Air Force survivors around eighteen hundred. A jolly green pilot, Air Force Major Don Olson, called over the radio blackjack jayjay thirty to over. I'm parked down in the draw. Draw in the trees from you. You have twenty minutes of fuel before I leave. The first person we must see is an American hurry. We're taking heavy ground fire. She's so now it's six o'clock at night. You 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 to lower his profile and to wait.

Yeah, it's a 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 I'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 is 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, OK, we got to go for it.

Yes. The chopper had literally cut away the tree tops and branches to nestle into the thick, dark green foliage, thus reducing its profile to enemy gunners. Olsen had to keep the aircraft stable as there were large trees on all sides. The aircraft, the trees were large enough that they could severely damage the five rotor blades and cause the trapper chopper to crash. If that any of them got hit. covid directed more air strikes in the daisy chain fashion in the portion of jungle between city Alabama and the hovering jolly green giant.

Watkins hope this would drive out or kill. And in the zone, even that task became more difficult as smoke from all the audience continued to hang over the trees, decreasing the visibility for pilots and helicopter gunners as they move toward the hovering helicopter. As the 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 inva troops, Black found an American taking food from one of the pots. He was the flight engineer, Sergeant Ernest Dean Kazmir, one of the two Air Force survivors from the crashed helicopter. Soon, they found Granier, who assisted in directing the hovering jolly green to this area in the jungle, despite his broken back. You want to talk about miracles?

Yeah, randomly running into these guys in the village, in the village chiefs.

But we know we need two guys to survive.

We need to be 44 for to hear the Jolly Green Tamny down here. He crashed. We ran from here all the way down here in the communist house around here. We got a difficult time to join with them. So that's why we take, you know, like crazy decision. We go ah, we go faster, we go slowly or we go, you know, the buy another way to get in to join with them. These from from from the hill here to the kesi it very difficult time of us.

But we got to do it, you know, like at eight o'clock. Right. That little bit down.

So it's starting to get dark and blood and engelke you want to say, hey, we stay here for overnight.

But I thought in my mind if I stay overnight.

I got to die, become my bleeding in the back, every thing in my body, I say, hey, let me let me join first and I run to but we had a tactical to escape from the from here to the Grinchy.

I say go and fight and go on and you got to go. And they fought it.

Ding, ding, ding. And then I ran. So you just kind of went for it.

Yes.

And they stayed where you 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 when you made that they stay there?

I'm deployment, uh, to open the like, get the blood going to let it die if the team got it to be the Shepley. If I run to and then when I get there, I got to shoot back and think and run. OK, so you're going to they were covering for you. Yes. And then when you got there, you covered for them.

Yes.

And when I ran there, I say, hey, I saw the shot to death and then stay there. I say, go when we don't have a radio. But when I shot it, the people understand I'm sceptic.

And then when they got around to my my way, we rejoined them with the helicopter shot that we understand.

I'm stay overnight. I got to die because the bleeding. Sure. And then anyway, I got to I di try tried to looking for a way for survival, right.

So you didn't you were either going to die trying to run there or you're going to die staying there overnight. Yes.

So you might as well get away to eat a thing. I'm gonna die if I'm staying here. And you already had died, what, three times, four times at this point in your career. But, you know, how do we here we still, you know, understand we training well, we're training good. And then we work together really good. If I'm running a Quong and black or whatever can protect me to give you cover to cover fire, I got to die in my way.

So the VA 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 found another one that didn't didn't think things like that, you know, right then.

And you're firing with AK 47 by now. So that way, um, the VA baby wouldn't be so alert if they heard Morphine's, they would come quickly for the car fifteens. But hearing AK maybe they weren't sure that may have helped.

Now we still have one or two. Kapiti really. You know, we you know the way, Captain. The front. Yes. We put we take the uniform. Wrap the objective. Yes. We put in you've got 15 different shot for a different way.

Different OK, different shell.

So when I saw it like it like a like a machine gun right by the top 15. That long one in here. Yes. Very small. But when we shoot it by the I don't know how to call it, but you know the front of the is the is the flash on.

Yes. Yes.

Oh a different philosophy. I about two inches. Yeah. I had the early F-16. OK, Three-pronged. Yes. Yeah. We went very early from France. They changed the flats and the different channels were different.

So different sound very different. Now they're very different. So you know the communist thing to save you. Yeah. One more thing. You're running, you're bleeding and you're firing car fifteens but different sound along with the AK and they knew that.

And then they follow me. And then at the time and they follow me, I got ping pong.

She got just single shots. Yeah. If you pull it through automatic, you don't have a good enough, you know, the ammo. So to begin we count. Maybe we can play games with them. One, two, three. Been one, two, three bingbing sometime and that they Skåne if you push you know the automatic they say hey that guy had no experience in the war was an amateur.

Yes.

And easy to run now the AMA but yeah.

Bing not bing bing bing bing. Different, different way. Different style. So they know the the the people with the anime, they understand exactly those guys that how they learning. So according from the from the training guy doing well. We're doing good. Very good. So any situation anywhere and anytime training counts. Yes. So just you know, just let the people understand that in the army now. You were alone, you better train, don't be don't say, hey, am hero and hero, I'm the big guy.

No, no, we need to training, always trade training all the way. Learn from each other. If Jim stria you listen to me he say, hey, how do we get our. And that is going to chopper, I need a correction, and then we shipped everybody get back to here where you are now.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, well, where we are right now is back to the book. The Inva focused heavily on the chopper, easing the pressure on Alabama as they neared the Jolly Green. Black thought it felt like they were moving closer to the gates of hell itself. The NBA were pouring small arms fire and RPGs at the hovering ship while the door gunners and pilots intermittently fired the minigun. Erm seventy nine and sixties and the helicopter gunships and sky rocketed sky raiders made gun runs around it.

Time was against them. The weather was beginning to close in. The smoke from previous air strikes 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 Alabama herded and vuh running through the bushes around them. Fortunately, the NBA failed to spot the Spike team or the Air Force crewmen. The desperate black had to move his team onto a trail so it could move to the hovering helicopter more quickly.

As the team moved up the trail, the tail gunner was shaking violently and had turned a pasty white team member set Cuong down and proceeded to the aircraft at the crest of the hill. They saw the helicopter taking hits and dealing out its own. The M sixty was red hot black saw someone firing them sixteen out of one of the windows. As Black moved to the chopper, the intensity of gunfire seemed to multiply. The air was so full of lead he could see it.

Fuel and bits of metal skin fell from the aircraft as they reached its underside. The Jungle Penetrator smashed to the ground next to him and raised three feet before he could put three team members on the first load. Granier, the the Air Force flight engineer and a wounded city, Alabama, team member were second. We're on the second hoist lift.

The wounded Vietnamese became entangled in jungle vines, and while it was 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 Kazmir, despite the end of gunfire, Black ran back to the bamboo thicket where he had left the remainder of the team.

Koong, the dying tail gunner, pointed his forty five caliber pistol at the Advancing Inva and said, Toye, Kia, I die.

Yes, he motioned Black to return to the helicopter before shooting himself. Black was running back to the ship when two Inva stepped onto the trail and pointed their AK 47 guns at him to 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 to Hoy, the young and HVA soldiers appeared surprised before they could react.

Black grabbed the AK 47 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 to the chopper where he found the praying one one. The rest of the team was on board, firing any weapon they could get their hands on. As the Jungle Penetrator left black and the one one upward, they were showered with hot spent casings from the 60s 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 Olsen told Covey he was at maximum power as the jolly green giant slowly rose, Black felt the ship making upward surges from b 40 rockets slamming into the armour 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 above the fray.

Watkins 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 and try to make it out of the killing zone, it crossed to ridgelines before descending into a clearing where it crash landed. Olsen had gotten them out of the killing zone, but Jayjay thirty two had flown its last rescue mission. Everyone except black and the one one 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 Alabama and others after everyone, after everyone knew that Black, the remaining personnel from Alabama and the Air Force survivors from Jayjay 10, were cleared from the original target area. They hammered it with everything they had, including more napalm bombs and gun runs. Captain Heartiness, the pilot of Watkins FAK plane, was so mad at that he flew the O2 down into small arms range and fired his two point seven millimeter rockets into the area where the NBA had knocked down G 10.

He and Watkins took a hit to the front and the engine died. Heartiness somehow got this guy, Master Otha, up out of the area and back to flew 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, blackened, the one one buckled up and were soon airborne alongside the jolly green giant returning to Danang. They are 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 Thoe saw black. He raised his right hand in a fist above his head to hold. I do my field surrender, motherfuckers, man.

That's a crazy mission.

What do you think? Just another day in SOGGE.

Absolutely. Yet another day in your.

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 and over and over again.

I mean, the casualty rate for SOGGE was was over one hundred percent. Correct. So if you were going to SOGGE, 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, their their survival rate must have been minuscule for you to be standing here is crazy. Absolutely.

It's a miracle, actually, in our situation that we have no choice. We have no choice. We had to go forward like a Vietnam a Vietnam situation, the Vietnam War country. If I'm not going to the army, I get back home. I cannot survive. I must go with the another unit like infantry on local local army. Mm hmm. Why not? We stay with the shot. We got a lot of firing. We got a lot of money there.

Yeah, we got it. You know, the, uh, a lot of power when we go back to town. Mm hmm.

We we we were back and we uh and va we they form. Nobody can touch it because we have it. Right and yeah.

The car and of the U.S. government. Mm hmm. So nobody can touch whatever they they want to touch it. We got an MP military police there to protect us and we got a gun in that wrong.

We got a pistol in the back. Come on. Whatever that guy or any guy.

Have you watched it Rambo movie or something? We did like one hundred percent like him. We had a claim on my here.

We got to go somewhere.

We pull over here and nobody now with anything else can walk around with a claymore mine on your chest here.

You want to play? Go ahead. Come on, please.

Even going to the police station, 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 you're talk to Kwan was going to go get another.

Yeah, yeah. I had to break him out of jail. Yeah, you did. It was it was there resistance from the jail or did they just let you guys take him when they realized who you guys were?

No, we we went there for free. If nobody can stop, we we went there up in the claymores on your chest.

Come on here please. Just had a couple of guys have 60 and they got fifteen, the whole kind of thing. They look in captivity and they say, hey, what the hell the they. That's right. Yeah. Nobody know. And we got an AK 47 if they shoot at me. Mom, I got to blow out. Yeah. So they let us do free Kwan got out of jail.

He got to get out of jail free. Claymore so he could go on a mission. I think that's where he died. Yeah. Is that also that's when you had to break him out once before this mission, before this mission had broken out of jail.

She's so basically. So, so so basically, you were in that job because you guys were the baddest motherfuckers in Vietnam and you did whatever you wanted to.

Yes, sir. Yes. If did not a strong guy. Hey, Claymore beats a strong guy all day long.

You know, I can count the piece up to the enchante, five hundred fifty five piece ball bearings of the ball bearings inside the claymore.

Help. I can count. And sometimes we play.

Just play the game. Right. Put it down with Chief Orangi. We took out the we took out a sheet for Saturday to take it out of the coffee.

Yeah. Oh yeah. And then we put it in hand. You know, the real effect. It's a little smile. Yeah.

It's good, good psychological operations. When did you because I know you ended up getting wounded badly in your leg. When did 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 to, uh, we don't know on the ground. But the water in that swam in there. And then we get down to.

We're looking for with the people, Experion, like me, we are looking for the ideal place and under the tree to stay there and they want to they wanted me to be be to play with and they want to catch the team.

They the first at. They want to push things like they want to shop like the French man out there to get a pill. They want to they want me to do it. They want me to. They want they want to catch me. But we we we we want to not let them do it.

And but after that, they want but they want to test the team.

They they don't want to kill the team, OK. They say surrender like a juhani and then we enter the body cavity in here to catch your eye. But they are very close to us. They got a bunker out there and they they shoot the guy with the radio before they want to test the team. They got to kill the radio man first.

OK, like the French man, you hear the radio. They want to make the contact with the team.

They're going to kill the radio man first and then my legate next to the radio.

I pu I kick the radio out, but they should hear the radio, including my leg and maybe two or three down into my leg. They, they should buy RPG 30. I get the channel, I know that RPG and then I pull out my leg that time we just get out there for ten minute and I just report to the Bingham Bingham get report to the co VHA team safety team, OK. And they can go home being with the team.

Yes, they can go home, shake them and say and bring him. Yes. And then later on they got a hit right away. And my friend to carry me out the they call back. They go back. They go back to the chopper. Just come back.

But you know I got it. PFC insignia of later on it. No PRC 68 radio emergency. The emergency radio that the PRC 68 that was still around when I came in. Still really. Yeah. It was it was getting phased out and replaced by the PRC one twenty five. But there was like one or two of them that you go look at the Radio Shack.

That's a small one.

We got it now. New York ten. Uh and right. Yes. We got to hotel out and we cannot talk but we can change the frequency to talk. Oh OK. That they can to develop the the new thing. And then when I turn it on, you know, when I pull out the gate, they gonna try to pull me to the LG and then I put it on in the chopper coming back and shoot up to the enemy.

And I turn over my like it it really hurts really bad. I tore my cheek the away I'm dropped somewhere and they thought I'm dead because of the ten minute I cannot and you know, ten hour turn up the past twenty eight.

I mean I am the one day and they want to kill, they want to blow out the PRC 68.

There wont be PRC 68 to do.

They had the enemy and that's why I survived and they, they should allow us to rocket by the missile on conducting an MBA. Don't. You know, like at the job, we know where they are, they move out, they they were scared, they scanned it, they move around and I'm free. I'm not free.

But, you know, yeah, I got accepted the situation and the job, but they now pick me up and a chopper and then now I smell the gas.

Because the enemy should have to jump to the gas tank, I say get out of the way, I cannot shoot because I shoot at the chopper above, burn it downs and I wait my hand.

They say, go, go, go, go, go, go. And I talk to hold the team.

I say, don't shoot anything, anything. And after that, you know, the pilot, they knew, you know, the gas is spread out and they left. I don't know what happened, what happened with the chopper, but the shaking in there now pick me up. They take me to the native hospital and then. Later on today, I got inspection. And then got to cut out my leg to only a tiny minute on the ground, only 10, 20 minutes when we land down, but I'm OK now, I'm OK.

So then what was it like as the war was over and 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 training.

Opta, I got to end it. I was sent to work with the American embassy. OK, so after you got wounded, you went to work at the American Embassy? Yes, got it. My station in Danang at 52, but then U.S. consulate general and one in the.

Until to 1975. Today, we lost. Uh. The end of the March, nineteen seventy five. With my experience with the shop, we understand enemy situation, they fight from north to the south, but I work in the land at the time.

You know, the team, they want to take it. Now, I worked this out. I hit a larger enemy. I can't take a large drop, you know, like at the security or police. What did you think? They moved the attack from the north to the south, but I'm from the south, more up to the north.

They thought I'm their friend. That's why I'm telling you that we need to train.

Mm hmm. So you did the opposite of what they thought you would do. Yes. You went from the south to the north to the north. Then being the people from the north, they not pay attention about the people from the south to the north.

But if you move from the north to the south, they had a checkpoint where you go, what are you name, where do you work? Everything to ask the question. But I'm from the north, from the south to the north.

The reason that my father in law up the way up to four by four by ten, and then we stayed there until two, they took over the Saigon and we almost crazy and we don't know where to go.

We don't want to understand situation. But my family in Saigon and a lot.

And in Binoy. And up to take over to South Vietnam. You know, I usually enemy paperwork, it may be Eiríkur and an enemy cert mean from from the north.

By the way my relieved my uncle, my something delayed my nephew up to not. Going to the south to see me. It mean when when the first thing we 1954, we still have the people living in it or not. And when they came down, they looking for us because between Saigon and North Vietnam, it's very difficult, very difficult.

In Saigon, it rich people and, you know, no one likes people, but in North Vietnam, they only, you know, now like by the combination. Do they limit they made it with the education. So when I when they came down and 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 to get it in, but they have nothing.

But at the time, they asked for the money. They asked for to go. They've asked for the ring. That's why I learned from them, too.

So I'm not the only one place today. I'm each A.J. tomorrow.

I'm not the answer that I got to go to Tennessee and then I got to go to Washington, D.C.. I got to go. Got to keep moving.

Keep keep the communist guessing.

Yes.

And then I buy something everything in in a communist, uh, uh, situation government and everything is not free.

Um, like I want to uh. I want to fish. I got to go now to see some Dylan or somewhere I had to fix it up from there back to Saigon to shout 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 free because they know they knew I was from the Schokman at Oji for free, the ENVI because they got a gun, but they don't know how to do so.

They actually invited you, the communists invited you to let the people in the South Vietnam or South Vietnam. So they invited you to start training them? No, to just do security.

For them to do what? To if we see anything happen in Ovshey, I got to shoot the guard and they just got it.

Then I protect them and then. Until two, 1986. October 067 to come to. Malaysia and how did you do that, my small boat, small boat. Yes.

And you tried 14 times before that?

The last time I did 15 time, I got the paperwork right there.

And what does 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. On boats. I, I thought I got to go. I can go by kitchen, whatever the lounge with my leg can, can 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 be there for wait for the U.N. It mean. Uh. I stayed there, I see the American delegation. Mm hmm. 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, uh, from the U.S. and I mean, giving them a job or intelligence agency. When I came there, I have nothing.

But they asked me and I thought my history. Mm hmm.

They go back here, they go back to check up, right, and up to one man, they say, hey, you come to us. So they did that pretty fast. Yes, because they asked me, they got it, you know, like it looking for the right to be or whatever. Am I right? They asked me the question, do I know any American mission in action or beyond? I said, yes, I did.

I don't know, poking came crying, James Stria, these are all people or teens who got killed, they got killed two of the Americans in Alaska when he got wiped out, when she went out and survived.

Two Americans were crying.

I only I only remember with three. But they asked me, uh, do you know where they are located? And 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 Siegmund for waiting to come back to Vietnam, but I don't know why they didn't send me to the Philippines for education, training and what kind of education, training or learning, learning, you know, like a for orientation for how the American life.

Mm hmm. And in there for Sigmon, I came over here in San Francisco. And then what was it like when you landed in San Francisco?

1988. Something 1988. Yes. What do you do when you landed? Did you have any family here? Yes, I got my sister in in San Jose. And had she escaped from Vietnam? Yes. Already? Yes, 1975.

And how did she escape?

Oh, by because some she had a husband like the, uh, the Vietnamese pilot and the out of Vietnam, by the way, you know, the husband.

Wow.

So what did you do when you when you landed. Just 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.

Yeah.

My sister, she be here like the seventy five and then she got like a few gas station fire, a gas station and Sherborn shall I call. And then I got uh when I came I go for her like a family shop until I got you know, like a I got stroke 15 years ago. Yeah. 15 years, 17 years ago. I got a stroke and then no more. No more job. No. Yeah, I have to.

We all thought Cowboy Finnie, we'll never see cowboy again. 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 going to live forever.

So he has to struggle with Bidstrup but yet he's back my mouth. You know the hobo. Yeah.

And I cannot move. But now I'm still gay. But another problem that ain't. Ah, he's got Agent Orange. I got a kidney problem. I got dialogic. Mm. Now at home and you managed somehow to have kids during all this.

You have children. Yes I do. And how many children do you have. Totally ten. You believe it. I, I don't, I don't, I believe anything you tell me three. Three that in Vietnam. OK, so you lost three kids in Vietnam began when the newborn. They don't have, you know, any food. They don't have any like energy to to stay. Right. Mm hmm. Three day. And then when I with two of my son came up here with me, my wife at the time, it's still like in Vietnam and then I do my paperwork, all my family here right now, I got fashion and took her in here with me in the United States, made me a beautiful one up the exit, one up the North Carolina and three in here with me.

And two of my girls went in here with me and another one that I had, I believe, in Louisiana. Yeah.

And I have a 16. No, 11 broncho, 11 grandchildren. Wow. Little cowboys and little that little 11 little cowboys. So you are going to live forever? No doubt. No doubt.

I try my best. I try my best. I cannot tell whatever, you know, like it when I got shot.

My my my wife would say cold. I go in and say, hey, don't do it. And then my sensei called nine one one. I say, don't do it. Let me stay.

And I cannot see it. I cannot lie down.

This is when you had your stroke. Yes. You said don't call nine one one. Yeah. No. You didn't want to call Prairie Fire Emergency on that situation?

No, I called a chopper and you know, I pu because I have a training when when I was young, I have a training gongfu. I got to training, training, yoga. Mm hmm. And I keep you know, I keep my body, you know, free. Mm hmm. I keep my my going. And later about an hour I back to normal. Not normal that time. You know we can, we can we can use it, you know, medication.

I say, OK, now go. No one can take me to the doctor. But the time of emergency I learned from my father. He cried when I lost my leg. He say he told me why I'm not usually the hope. You know, hope, right? Hope, hope, hope, medication, hope is the medication. Yes, not, you know, used by the American way, medication like a pill.

Get shot that no good. So that's why I say don't call nine one one. Well, and then I survival right now.

You see, I got a lot of trouble. I know it affected by the war. You know, sometimes it make me depressed. I got a lot of medication and, you know, they spent everything in Vietnam. Agent Orange. Mm hmm. We came down there, you know, that we were shot with the water.

We pull out the rock, the water in there, we take an hour drain. Mm hmm.

That's why I got a trauma with my age right now, because the Agent Orange.

Well, I'll tell you what, I don't know. We've been going for two and a half hours till what? What do we miss? What did I miss anything?

Well, the only thing we miss would be if we if you want to talk about the day he was with the Frenchman, that historic day with the Frenchman got shot in the back. Yeah, if you remember that.

OK, so one month later, you guys are on another mission. And I'm going I'm going back into across the fence. Here we go. Later in the afternoon, Childress signal to the team to pull their Claymore mines and prepare to move out due to the combined weight of the rucksack and Webb gear. Létourneau.

Does the Frenchman move to his knees and slung his rucksack on his back just as it landed on his back AK 47 to open fire? Létourneau was slammed to the ground face first face first. The impact so severe he had thought he had broken his nose. Startled, Létourneau 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 end vuh near him. Létourneau remove the rucksack to discover that four AK forty seven rounds had ripped through the twenty three pound PRC.

Twenty five. He reached in to an especially taylored pocket on his fatigue shirt, which was sewn with vertical zippers, one of the left of his shirt, one of the right side between the top and bottom of the pockets on a shirt and pulled out, as you ask 10 emergency radio and broadcast a general alert for any aircraft in the area. West Virginia was declaring a prairie fire emergency. Then there was a sudden, complete silence, eerie, silent.

Amazed at the quietude Létourneau walk to Childress, who asked him what he had done with the twenty five, Létourneau explained that four rounds had ripped through the radio and that it was probably useless. Get the fucking radio, Childress yelled. What if it's working? We leave it behind for those assholes to use stand. Létourneau went back, picked up the rucksack and walked to Childress, who grabbed the handset as NBA troops began firing at Steve 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 VA Whitehill, while Childress and Létourneau continued to argue while standing up oblivious to the AK. Forty seven rounds cracking over their heads, Létourneau yelled back at Childress it won't work while pointing to the PRC twenty five radio where the antenna had been shot off.

No antenna, no commo. Létourneau grabbed a spare whip antenna and handed it. Childress, who screwed into the radio this time Childre screamed in the radio. We need an exfil 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. Set a Covey Rider. Just at that moment, several AK 47, AK 47 opened fire from the wood line near the log. Willerton, who had been unceremoniously slammed on to his face lap and cowboy returned fire. Covey Rider continued, We heard your team declare a prairie prairie fire emergency on guard frequency and I've rallied the cavalry. What's your mark? Do you have an insight? Before Childress said a word into the radio, he turned to Latino and said, See, it works.

Suppose we left it for the VA. Never. I say again, never, ever leave behind a radio. As if to emphasize that point, the VA opened fire again as Lappe began looking for an Elzy while moving the team down the hill away from the most concentrated in VA gun fire. Cutting Létourneau no slack. Childress Rotel Covey will give him five. 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 B can pick us up without missing a beat. Létourneau, who for the first time felt four burning stings in his back, repeated those words to Covey while he and Cowboy began providing cover fire as the tail element of the team létourneau. Then Létourneau nodded to Cowboy, who ignited several Claymore mines that the team had set out on its perimeter. Those mines only slowed the VA for a few seconds before the dust and debris from the blast had settled and VA soldiers were moving through it toward Cowboy and Létourneau without saying a word.

The two men took turns firing at the enemy while moving downhill, rotating around each other. Cowboy would fire several bursts from his car fifteen and then reload. As he reloaded, Létourneau 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 and VA and Létourneau dug out another claymore from his rucksack and placed a ten second delayed fuse on it. When the aid and VA advanced again, Cowboy ignited his Claymore mine, the VA moved towards the team again.

Létourneau ignited his fuse and ran down the hill with Cowboy to catch up to their team before they reach the team to be forty anti-personnel rockets slammed into the trees above them, showering them with shrapnel. A few more exploded as Létourneau and Cowboy moved down the hill. Then the ten second fuse ignited another claymore. It brought precious time for the gun run team of Létourneau and Cowboy to turn to cover ground and catch up to the remainder of Virginia. As Childress called in airstrikes, Létourneau reflected on how surreal the firefight had been.

It wasn't anything like he had witnessed on television or 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 forty seven, first or at the most, an enemy hand or foot. And somehow the NBA found firing lanes where they could launch shoulder held be forty anti-personnel rockets that slammed above them and around them as they raced 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 VA was a tough, resilient opponent. Many had fought against the Japanese during World War Two and against the French driving them from Vietnam in nineteen fifty four. The sounds of king bees in the distance and the crashing thunder of bee 40 rockets slamming into trees above his head shook létourneau out of his moment of introspection and turned his undivided attention to the crescendo of AK forty seven fire from the enemy as Virginia responded with a volley, with volley after volley of full and semi-automatic gunfire.

While Létourneau and Cho fired several seventy nine rocket rounds toward the densest section of jungle where the AK forty seven gun fire was emanating through the gun fire, someone popped the smoke grenade, which brought the king bees closer to Virginia's location in the jungle. Over the din of gunfire, Childress and Cowboy told everyone to put on their swing seats and prepare for string extraction in short order. A king bee was hovering over West Virginia more than one hundred twenty five feet above the jungle for Latino cowboy.

Cho and Horn hooked their D rings into the old McGuire rig that hung from the end of the ropes and shortly were being lifted out of the jungle as a quartet of Rickon Men was being lifted in the air, the VA released another salvo of AK forty seven and b forty rockets. Shrapnel from the rockets hit them with varying degrees of size and velocity. All of them were wounded. It was during these explosions that Létourneau realized his car fifteen and somehow become caught in the rope above him, just far enough away that he couldn't reach it.

He pulled out his seventy nine and launched a grenade toward the NBA positions. Now all he could see of the enemy were hundreds of muzzle blasts from AK forty sevens and green tracer rounds climbing upward toward the quartet of West Virginia men. Before he could reload his seventy nine, the king 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 jungles, 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 Létourneau at the time. Shrapnel from B forty rockets exploded around the West Virginia men, stringing them with pieces of hot metal, stinging them with pieces of hot metal. Further spooking the King Bee crew, Létourneau began to violently collide with the tall jungle trees feeling like a metal ball in a pinball machine. Létourneau careened off several more trees, at least one more, before he exploded in the treetops again, showering him with shrapnel, a tree branch létourneau from one side and turned him upside down in a Swiss seat in a Swiss seat.

As the rope seat began to slip down his hips, little remembered spider telling how a one zero from another team had recently shot out of been shot out of his Swiss seat during a rope extraction. Another tree struck létourneau 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 blow was the jungle floor. Two hundred feet below was the single piece of rope tied into the King B with one final urgent pull, the 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 forties and AK forty seven gunfire while gaining air speed.

Hi. Well, there you go, and cowboy was there for that, had he was still recovering from the wounds from October 5th. Here he is about Thanksgiving.

Yes. So a month and a half later, after your October 5th insanity, you're out there again, but he's almost healed. Yes. The moment you pick out the three of them. One. Yeah, uh, no.

And I don't want to share my village and they want me to go with them. Oh, so there they were from your village and they wanted you to go and help them.

Go help them. Yeah. And then, by the way, the new man that I know, the French man, because it was this the Frenchman's first mission, geographic information we don't trust.

We don't just how he learning. Right. So that's why we got to go strong enough to protect him. Sure. And by the chow chowder, we eat a very good, perfect heap of ackmann. But he only won. And then French man eat the new guy.

We don't know about him, but now, you know, one zero said yes, one zero eight. They got to Experion, item one. And the French man like a striped Jim strike, the first mission he's got and the first mission, easy to go. That's why, you know, I'm volunteered to go with you, but you need to take care. My my three friends share my values. And by the way, that the French men hate, bring new man.

So it's like, yes, maybe Shoun that we call him Baby John. OK, but he perfect. Yeah but he good. He training good. Did you treat him chilidogs.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But you know we, we very like the machine. Yes. When I shoot something he and he knew I'd run out of ammo. He called me and when he ran out the machine at the ammo I covered him so I can adjust it. He like it the number to.

Yes, he never did.

We count the first time. But later on, you know, I know he ran a lot of mission thirteen.

Yes, I know about it. I know he ran a lot of mission. But that's why he's shooting. He's still a survivor and makes you all more amazing.

Yeah. Because he did thirteen and a half a month and a half. Yeah. You go back October and mission. Yeah.

That part of your healed with my scar almost here. Not not really healed. Almost healed. We got new shrapnel too. Yes. New shrapnel wounds from that.

But in order you know, to be called like a you and me right now, I cannot, you know, leave you alone. I got to go with you here because we close friend. Very close friend. Well, that's that's what it's all about.

And it's 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 six. Yeah. Six years of those missions, I thought. Yes, no, no, no.

That's not just normal like somebody else, you know, that's the way that we are today. Yeah, right. And then we got a bonus if we do it a good thing, like we have a, uh, coming around. You remember how much you got paid. One picture at five hundred dollars. I don't know. Find out how much is a piaster worth like 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 five dollar for dollar picture.

Yeah. And then for a recon picture, the Vietnamese currency.

We can learn a lot from the shop like you remember sometime we got a radio, small radio. Right.

We get in the jungle, we throw it and then, uh, some special camera and we throw in the jungle and we learn a lot. We put in the sensors to. Yes. And sensor cameras and sensors come around chancha and radio. You you you got to ask me why you told the radio in the jungle. Right. Right.

I. That was all top secret, OK? You don't even even tell, didn't know then, you know, it's top secret. And another system, another system from the, uh, from the, uh, from the department.

But we don't know or whatever. Do I have authority to speak in that the radio we throw in the jungle? This mean you got to have a question? If the communists pick up the radio, who is the one to use in that squad leader, a platoon leader or company leader?

Blow up? No, they not blow up inside the radio.

They got something when they order anything.

Aplan know what's going on.

There you go. Now we learn from them a lot.

We learn from. We learn. We learn from them a lot. See it, uh, like at the front.

Yes. We taught the jungle. Nobody know. And when we are 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, pass the test.

You should you should pick it up at the end of my tape. Yeah. And HVA got to pick it up or they're going to pick it up. But I'm saying I will be getting it out because you'd have that thing booby trapped. Because you thought that you thought it. Important thing. Just normal thing. The first question, the answer. You see the flashlight in the jungle. Do you pick it up? You say no. There's been something wrong with you.

I say, yes, went out and I pick it up.

And the second question, what what do you do with the flashlight when you pick it up?

Turn on.

Turn it on, you failed the test and we call it, my dear, how did 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, a pretty good job you.

Yeah, I got to learn a lot. I got to learning a lot. OK, moving three NBA. They follow you and enemy for you.

The first question that you want to try enemy that you want to treat three enemy wounded.

If I answer the three a.m. that you go home, you cannot run recon anymore.

You want your targets.

I want a three guy, at least one guy, the wounded. Why? Because all the teams still on the mission, the wounded another and the NBA got to take care of them, right? Mm hmm. So that delay the time that they followed the team. And if you get a piece of w you get a bonus. Yeah, we got a piasters for a BMW. Yeah, BFW a lot. Yeah, yeah we like it. The like 100000 something.

Yeah. 100000 piaster.

Yeah. We only got one of your darvas.

I don't know what you would get here, but the reason that we got a bonus. But now I found that bonnet's before that I don't know anything. I don't know yet. 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 every different guy we got. Yes. Like it. I learned from him. He learned from me.

So we we sit down, we show our spirit. And like I told you, if I show the enemy in the jungle, I kill him it easy.

But in order to complete my duty. I got to stay on the ground by Friday. That's why I'm not the enemy. I just stay there and they they tell you how smart to handle the thing happen.

That's why I want to become you know, the country made very difficult, but especially the first thing it protects this guy like American guy, the first joint protect American.

Right. But we understand that we watch very closely to reveal the American came to the Vietnam. That's why. I can tell you that I am so lucky I'm not good, but, you know, just normal bring everything it 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 to care of it.

Well, lucky. Yeah. Yeah, amazing. It's just an amazing story to sit here and talk to you and and get this information and, you know, get other people to be able to hear this story is just it's awesome. And you got anything else to tell?

No, this is it. It's been a great ride. And thank you for bringing us together. Just a really special day.

It's awesome. You got anything else? Thank you. To invite me to be here today, but. Our country situation right now, I'm very sad. I can tell you that my dad got a day by day, Shosholoza from my father did become unity.

He the capitalist, he not very rich man, but he made Ohgi he made a in the Vietnam War to communism. It no good at all.

Please send a message to the people. Don't trust the communists. That's all I can say that we hear witchetty but. Up to the Hill to vote for president situation right now, I am sure to let the eye at my knowledge, I don't know if true or not, but I know the hand from the. Communism toast to the United States of America. I be here for a.D.A for 32 years, I nager never get back to country, I never visit to Vietnam even I want to go back there.

But for funerals. Yeah, for the from our friends still back in Vietnam. But the Vietnamese government will let me get aid if you don't judge me.

I got a paperwork in here. We trust you, we do that, I work with the General Schmidt, who is the my accounting, his care. He is calm in the Hawaii Schmidt camp. Schmidt, this is several years.

I know it. I like it. The 15, 20 years ago. OK, I worked with him regarding about our people. Yes, yes. I, Klein, Robinson and kinda, you know, like the helicopter.

Yes. Stria. But they won't let me get get there. I have met family with the. Our friend poking, poking and pick up the name the King right now, become a parking. Yeah, poking, yes. He can't be happy poking the king and crying.

And we came last year when John Allen said he.

Well, I can tell you, I think one of the reasons that you start seeing these things in America is people don't understand communism and they don't realize how evil it is. And so you coming on here and then sharing your story and explaining what you went through, what your father went through, what your family went through at the hands of the communists. 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. But in my show, I hear, you know, the communists when they took over the the U.S. because they messed up, you know, the water, they messed up the computer worked for the president. It turned over to me, to Joe Biden. I heard a lot of information. So I Skåne, I went to buy a boat, another boat.

Now, if I got everything in order, you know, I escaped from the United States, you're not going to need another boat to escape from the United States. We will make sure that doesn't happen. And America is stronger than one person and 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 they mess up the country right now, the Department of Defense to exploit the fire and a large man get fire.

They are looking for cover to another country. Why you say very strong, but we got to take care. We got to be careful with it. Remember? Communism control the people, buy food. You don't have a food, you can't do anything. That's what they control, the people in China. They can't control the Cooper. They control the North Korea. Do Al Qaida condemn their country? You see, hey, hey, look good, the good, the good.

But inside the country, no good. It no good. They say you want food, you're going to do it. They want to water. You do it. They want to fish one man for two or three fish. Do you want to do it? I give you the paperwork to go buy from the store. It's not free like here. You know, separate people. You want anything, you have everything.

You go in there, you want anything, you got at least 10 and all buy me what to do, just me about the the way you did.

You say a very strong country. No, you see it it no covid how to government say you need to take the maximum thinking about why you know the expert he commander with the United States Army. He got fired and another three got fired, two. OK, I'm looking back, I ask you the question, American, don't lose anything but why we still get out of Vietnam, why we lost Vietnam.

You tell me politic, because now it's politics. But with my experience part of it, they can control it. You're not the hero guy like it. You like it? Mmm hmm. And then we judge them. We're gonna die like it to the time. You know, Mr. Obama, you see it a, do you see the picture Marine in the boat surrounded with the.

What do you think? Oh, 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 the midterm, they can do anything. Had 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, you know, retired man, 72 years old. I can't do anything. I can make any money, but I pray to my children, my grandchild, grow up living under communism.

Mm hmm.

Well, that's a good point. And I appreciate that point. You know, I'm sitting here, sitting here saying, oh, America is 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. Yes, sure. But verify and the.

Sure, yes. Well, once again, thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing your stories. You're always welcome here. Both of you guys obviously are always welcome here. Thanks for coming and sharing your story. And 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 than you 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. I'm an.

And with that tilt and cowboy can't 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 have room for you at the table. OK, pretty pretty insane, right?

Yes, very much so. Yeah. It's, uh, it's a little bit different when I'm like ex not excluded but not in whatever.

Detached, detached. 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 everyone went 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 in and shared their story. Very interesting.

The crazy thing is that 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 there's no getting out.

So there's this part this might seem kind of random, but there's a part of that I remembered where he said that he could smell. They could smell. Yeah. He kind of up at that. Yeah. Yeah.

So and I was thinking about it was 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 one hundred percent now.

So are you ever using sound 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 speak. You know how you put it this way. That's what I thought, too, 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, like your your furniture will be moved just a little bit and you walk in like I have a little home office or 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 there's a TV in there too.

And so when you're in your home office, you have a couch and a TV.

It's just some other stuff that's cool. And then I make videos. Got a 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 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 you're thinking.

Yeah. And those guys growing up in the jungle, they grow up in the jungle and so they're just one hundred percent in tune with it. And then you got the big gringos coming in, you know, and it kept calling himself a city slicker.

Amazing, amazing guys.

Well, when I hear stories like that, it certainly makes me feel like like we can step up our game, like I can definitely step up my game, like I can do better to better always training like cowboys and 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, noticing how well how well they trained. And he did mention it a bunch.

You know, he did mention a bunch, but 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 got all he's 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 to 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 if you don't necessarily want to think about that part of it all the time, it's it has to do with capability because enemy that can be anything you want to go metaphoric.

I'm you're preaching the wrong guy here. I'm down with all of four.

Oh, 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. Yeah. You put in a water cooler, whatever. Let's say you bring in some of those home, OK, and let's say you don't have a liftgate 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're going to grab it at this awkward angle.

So I'm saying that in and of itself could be an enemy.

Yeah, never mind the VA starring. Your position, yeah, more important, the water bottle scenario. The chances of an NBA storming your position today a little bit lower than you grabbing a water jug, maybe. I don't I don't know. Everyone's different. I get it.

Nonetheless, 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 perform well to perform well. You are actually are performing all the time. It's another way of thinking of things and performing and training all the time because you to learn from your performance. Right? You say it's like a deal anyway. All right.

We're doing it through. Training comes beatings comes breakdowns. More or less, most of the time, actually, all the time. Sometimes I just got to leave you to figure it out. Those statements right there always I can tell you maybe you threw it out there as if you'd get some support. But I did. I do do that sometimes.

But this is not one of those times yet.

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 ever worry about that kind of stuff. So chuckleheads has joint warfare, super oil.

These these are supplements, supplementation for your joints. OK, so the whole line is called JOCO Fuel. So with that job, feel for you. Gizelle has, like I said, joint warfare supercurrent 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.

OK, I'm going to call it a product. We have a product. Don't call it a product.

It's OK. If you mean then just saying, yeah, that's bad.

We have a thing called substance discipline. Right. So it's discipline. You can take this form of supplementation in actually in a few forms. So you got the powdered version. Mix it with water. That's what I had do today.

Yes, sir.

Pill don't mix with what you swallow it this well, maybe with some water, whatever. Keter 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. Help. Actually help.

Yeah. So yes. Sabriel energy. Yes. Not fit. You know what else gives you energy.

Cocaine apparently. All right. That's what I heard.

Fernleigh Cocaine gives you energy, makes you feel like, hey, I'm going to go and work hard right now. Energetic or crystal methamphetamine apparently use your energy to a little bit differently. Now you don't go around saying, hey, oh you need some energy, do some cocaine. We're not doing it's unhealthy.

It's bad if we will 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 OK, maybe not that I understand what you're saying, though, fully.

Yes. So, yeah, a lot of times when energy drink, you're like, hey, let's let's drink like two, three, four or five energy drinks.

You can 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. Yes, I'm saying but this go in the can, may even actually might even kind of look like an energy drink.

It doesn't it's just not like that. It's this is the actual healthy things, real energy, because that's what I say.

Because cocaine it's not real energy.

Well, that depends on what you mean by real and it depends on what you mean by energy.

OK, I mean, in the spirit, we'll have we'll have to get some some somebody with some expertise and cocaine in here to discuss and energy and energy solutions nonetheless. You know what I'm saying? Healthy energy drink.

Don't do cocaine. Yes. Instead, try discipline. Go in.

Can all of the negative benefit. No, you do. No, not others.

They go check it out. I brought I was on Theo Von's podcast and he was drinking discipline go and he said something really funny and he kind of slid under the radar comment, but he said something comparing it to cocaine and he said, actually, I'm kidding. I'm going back on a Coke. That's what's in my brain right now.

Yeah, that's weird because I don't like I don't it. 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 a like a little jolt.

Yeah. Well super fast being how long when you're down it like in three. Four or less hits, oh, that's a that's definitely down in the last one for you. Oh, yeah, for sure. But no, if I if I drink like two over the course of a podcast, like, I would not feel like what I imagine cooking feels like. Yeah. I've never done cocaine. Yeah, me neither. Nonetheless, it's not cocaine.

It's good for you.

It's crystal methamphetamine and cocaine are not good for your unhealthy. Yes. Doctor doesn't go is good for you. OK, well that's what we're trying to say over here.

Yes, it's true. Also, it's been a good for you.

Vitamin D three. Yeah. JoCo fuel. Very good for you. Keep you healthy. Immune system strong. Also immune system, strong stuff. Cold War. It's another one. So boom. You got the whole gambit. Yeah. What gambit. Right.

That's correct. That's good. Good usage, word usage, approval of stuff, you know, for that kind of stuff.

You don't want to worry about him saying plus we got milk, we got warrior kid milk which is protein that tastes good. Plus we got Jack White and plus all the stuff that we're talking about, you can get it at Origin Main dot com or you can get it at the vitamin shop or you can get it. Wah wah wah wah wah in Florida right now and it looks like very soon, wah wah.

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 in Florida has been going out and basically getting after it. Clear. Thank you. Thank you. We're heading in the right direction.

Beach, 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 or Jemaine Dotcom or back towards Jemaine Dotcom. This was where you can get American made stuff including but not limited to just CIG's rash guards. Some hoodies on there, some joggers on there, some shorts on there, which I don't know I've been talking about.

But there aside from board shorts, they're the only shorts I wear.

But, you know, they wear board shorts very often. Oh, yes, I do.

Oh, on the matter of Justice of Justice workout.

Oh, oh. Every single day in Hawaii you go OK.

Yeah, it's either board shorts or that straight up. Got it. Check. I jumped the proverbial gun on that one. Oh good.

Hey we're all here training and learning also because I only see you in the origin shorts.

The shark fin. That's the only shorts I see you in because unless we're on the mats.

Right. Yeah. Of justice. Yeah, it's true.

Also at Augean main, still in our jamaine 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. Yeah.

By the way also boots on their jeans are back in the game but yeah. Delta I'm wearing them right now. Yeah I saw that. Yeah. And I saw you kind of like gave me a you grab the material and kind of pulled it right. What is your assessment.

Yeah. 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 jeans are frequent and they are a little bit new. So we had the original Delta jeans and then during covid we reengineered some stuff.

We got some denim that we liked even more redid the what is it? The cut. The cut.

Yeah. And they're just they're just freaking awesome now. So, um, were they always dark like that dark. You probably see I my og 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 like the dark denim. Yeah. Well it will fade over time. Right on cue. Yeah. So or Jimmy Dockum also boots. I forgot that. Don't forget about the same deal. Yeah. Works of art art for you. If you work for your feet. Three feet in America.

Oh good. Also. Chuckles Stores called Jacob's Door is where you can get disciplined equals freedom shirts, hats, hoodies, lightweight.

And by the way, um the women's stuff on there, some beanies, some rash guards, some soap, some so and more your kids soap or you could sell soap. Trooper soap.

Yeah. Killer. 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 the stuff helps us out.

You know, that way.

That way we don't have to get sponsors in here because this might be annoying, which I'm. Sure, it is this whole thing, right? But OK, maybe not for you, but for a lot of people, this might 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, caught off cowboy. And just start here's a word from, oh, whatever.

We're not doing that. Yeah. So we appreciate it.

When you get if you look, we need stuff.

And I'm not a big what's the what's the middle. I will look where I want to be a minimalist. Right. Want to be a minimalist. Don't want to buy one stuff. But there is stuff that you do need. For instance, do you need a GUI? Yes, you do. Do you need a pair of jeans. Yes you do. Do you need a t shirt? Yes you do. Do you need food? Yes you do.

Do you need supplementation? Yes. Like all these, we're just making stuff that you need. So if you need it, you can get it from us. It helps out the podcast and provides a little bit of that support charge.

So it's yeah, it's like a win win and helps everything. Yeah. You could go to like a local store and buy, right.

Yeah. You could buy a pair of jeans that were made in China. You could do that.

I mean you are allowed to but it's not really, it's not really let's face it, it's not really what you want to do.

You know, it's very questionable for sure. Questionable behavior. Anyways, speaking of this podcast, you can.

Oh, no, no. OK, speaking of subscribing, actually.

So JoCo, subscribe to the.

OK, so we have a t shirt club. We'll call it a subscription scenario where you get like a how should I say like a unique unique I guess.

Yeah, I guess that's a given.

Anyway, you 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, good drugstore.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. It's there only for like you'll see like when you see kind of the examples of someone, you'd be like, OK, this kind of makes sense.

They're fun and they're you know, so 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 very low level scale. Yeah. So, you know, we're doing a lot of those in exclusive scale.

Kind of. Yeah. Women kind of. I don't know. I don't know what you meant by scale.

It's like 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, 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.

That's cool. That has more layers.

There are many layers all infused in that situation. Yes. Chuckles Ah. Dotcom also like JoCo indicated, you can subscribe to this podcast on wherever you subscribe to our podcast. There you go.

Boom. And don't forget about the unravelling podcast that that I. 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 for your 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 Ecotrust manifests itself via explosions, tanks, airplanes.

And if you want to watch a video that's thirty 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 it up, also go there, boom.

Yes, that is true. YouTube channel, good official, by the way. Also psychological warfare. If you don't know what that is, it's an album, audio album.

Tracks of JoCo telling you. Explain 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. 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. Then JoCo version of that. It's actually really helpful. My opinion. We also have a visual version of that flip side canvas, dotcom, Dakota Meyer making all kinds of cool stuff. There's a bunch of books. What books do we cover today? Well, we're talking about SOGGE. So if you're going to jump in SOGGE, you can get across the fence on the ground. And Soga Chronicles by John Striker Meyer. And then you can also get Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by Lynne Black.

You get about Face by David Hackworth.

There's a. 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 this Freedom Field Manual. There's a brand new version of that out. That's that's a good go to for that Christmas scenario, the holiday scenario.

Check that one out where the Warrior Kid for Field Manual is also I think it's live right now. Yeah, it's live where they work it for field. 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 were all trying to be minimalist, but kids need a freaking book to read, so get away the to work, get for real way to work it.

One, two and three. Making the dragons and the extreme ownership and the dichotomy of leadership. I have a leadership consultancy called Echelon Front where we solve problems through leadership can go to ashlawn front dot com for that.

We have Heff online, which is where we do leadership training online, interactive. So you can go check that out f online dot com. We got the master in Dallas, Texas.

You can come check that out in extreme ownership dotcom, we have EAF 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 and check out Mark Leigh's mom's family, she has a charity organization. You can go and donate or get involved at America's Mighty Warriors dot org.

And if you like to torment yourself, well, you can do so with more of my protracted pronouncements or maybe some more of EKOS hyped up hypotheses.

You can find us on the interweb, on Twitter, on Instagram and just Soekarno, because he only refers to Instagram as the gram and also on Facebook EKOS adequate. Charles and I'm an alcoholic. And it should more importantly be known that John Striker Meyer is on Instagram at Jay Striker 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. To Hoy Dumar. Until next time, this is Echo and JoCo out.