AM Show Hr 3 - More Outstanding Speeches

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Michael Berry Show.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Doctor Hale Kushner rolled in the US Army while a
medical student at the Medical College of Virginia in nineteen
sixty five. In August of sixty seven, he deployed the
Vietnam as an Army flight surgeon. Not four months later,
during a dark and rainy evening, Kushner was a board
of helicopter that crashed into the side of a mountain
in South Vietnam. Kushner was quickly picked up by enemy soldiers.

(00:24):
He spent the next few years in the jungles of
South Vietnam, surviving with other POWs on spoiled rice and
incredibly desolate conditions. In twenty eighteen, he gave an incredibly
powerful Memorial Day speech at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It's
a long one, but you're going to want to hear
the entire thing. We'll play some of it now and

(00:45):
then the conclusion in the next segment. You're going to
want to hear this.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Good afternoon, General MacNair, General Williamson, Colonel Black, Mister Knots,
my family, Sharon, Debbie, Maddie, Gail, thank you so much
for being here, and particularly you GoldStar parents. We're all
so grateful for your sacrifice. Thank you Jim Knotts in

(01:12):
the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Fund for allowing me this singular honor.
I am humbled and privileged to be able to speak
on this sacred day at this sacred place where we
honor our fallen and particularly those from the Vietnam War.

(01:33):
I personally have a close association with many too many
names on this wall of polished granite. Memorial Day for
me is a time of somber reflection and profound gratitude.
As the Rabbi told us, the first Memorial Day was
called Decoration Day, and Major General John Logan of the

(01:56):
Union Army declared that it should be on May thirty,
sixty eight. And on that first Memorial Day, the new
Arlington Cemetery held the graves of about twenty thousand Union
dead and a few hundred Confederate dead, and the Custus
Lee Mansion, which had been owned by Confederate General Robert E.

(02:18):
Lee and his wife, who was the step great granddaughter
of George Washington, was solemnly bedecked with black mourning crape.
General and Missus Grant presided and after the speeches. The children,
newly orphaned by the war, walked through the cemetery, strewing flowers,

(02:41):
saying prayers, singing hymns, and honoring the fallen, honoring those
who made the ultimate.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Sacrifice for their country.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
It was in an attempt at national reconciliation after a
very divisive war which ripped in two the fabric of
our nation. And now the gently rolling six hundred and
twenty four green acres just across the Potomac, with its
mute white stones, hold over three hundred thousand grave sites.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Many of those grave sites.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Enshrined the fallen from our conflict in Vietnam, which this
wall behind me commemorates in our time. The Vietnam War
was a terribly divisive conflict which became more acrimonious and
disruptive the longer it went on, and it went on
for a very long time, almost three times as long

(03:43):
as our Civil War. The Vietnam War was unique in
our history in that many Americans who were against the
war focused their anger on those in the military who
had answered the call of their government and gone and
halfway around the world to fight and die in jungles

(04:04):
and swamps and rice paddies in what became an increasingly
unpopular cause.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Have we finally learned in the.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Last fifty years that the military's mission is to execute policy,
not to make it, and soldiers don't get to choose
their wars. I went to Vietnam on a United Airlines
contract flight as a twenty six year old doctor in
starch khakis.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I left Vietnam as a thirty three year.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Old in pow clothes who hadn't seen his family in
six years, but had seen unspeakable horrors and suffering. I
served with many soldiers whose names are ashed into this wall,
and ten of those ten I held their heads in
my hands as they passed to the other side. These

(04:57):
are the men who died in my arms and terrible
conditions in a pow camp. Francis Cannon panel thirty three,
E line eighty, Richard Williams panel forty three, W line
thirty two, Robert Sherman panel twenty two, east line fifty nine,

(05:19):
Russell Grissett panel four, east line eighty two, Fred Burns
panel thirty two, east line fifty six. William Port Medal
of Honor panel thirty four, east line thirty nine. Joe's
Autake panel thirty eight East line forty two, Dennis Hammond

(05:44):
Panel thirty eight East line twenty nine, and Captain William
Eisenbrown Panel two, East line twenty seven, who died shortly
before I arrived at the camp. And I know those
names mean a lot to my brother David Harker, who
is on this diace. These are the men who died

(06:08):
beside me before captivity. Steve Porcella Panel thirty one East
line sixteen, Griff Bedworth Panel thirty one, East line nine,
Kenneth McKee, Panel thirty one, East line fourteen. My name,

(06:28):
My name should be on panel thirty one East. But
I survived a non survivable helicopter crash, severe wounds, five
and a half years, sixty four months, one nine hundred
and thirty two days in a pow camp. I come
here today to honor all fallen warriors. But I think

(06:49):
about these very brave heroes who suffered and died, and
I realized how lucky I am, and how much I
owe my country and my fellow prisoners like David, for
if it hadn't been for all of us, none of
us would be alive today. I have been to this

(07:11):
wall many times, and I have looked with wondering gratitude
at the edge names shining in the black granite, and
I've placed my hands on it, and I have felt
its electric coolness, and I realized the miracle that my
name is not on it. This magnificent monument was almost

(07:34):
as controversial as the war itself. Maya Lin, the anonymous
applicant whose design was chosen, spoke of taking a knife
and cutting a great gash in the earth, the wound
which was Vietnam, which with time, she said, would heal
and bring reconciliation. And indeed it has become a place

(07:56):
of redemption and healing and resolution. But I don't see
this wall as a wound. I was here yesterday, I
looked at it. I see this wall as a giant chevron,
a PFC stripe, a Marine Corps lance corporal stripe that
honors all soldiers who left the comfort of their home

(08:19):
and family and went to a strange and distant land
to help in the global struggle against communism.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
That's why I went.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
And these fifty eight thousand plus names remind us of
the costs and the sacrifice of that struggle.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
You're listening to the Michael Berry's show.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Let's get right into the conclusion of doctor Hal Kushner's
twenty eighteen Memorial Day speech in front of the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
I went to Vietnam in nineteen sixty seven, and I
was assigned as flight surgeon for a very famous unit,
the Mighty first Squadron, ninth Cavalry, which was involved in
daily combat. I replaced Captain Carl Chanelle, killed in action
April sixty seven, Panel eighteen east, line thirty six.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Excuse me.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Each day my medics went out on operations, and they
returned with those gray green body bags and wounded soldiers
whom we treated and or evacuated. And we received enemy POWs,
which we treated just like our own, and evacuated them
to more advanced facilities if required. Too many of our

(09:29):
medics were killed or wounded badly enough to be evacuated
from the theater. Three days after a helicopter crash in
which I was the only survivor but very seriously injured,
I was captured by the viet com I was shot,
I was tied up. I was march barefoot for over
thirty days to a pow camp in the jungle, where.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
We lived for three and a half years.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Most of the time we had nothing, no shoes, no clothes,
no medicine, no blanket, no tobacco, no soap, no toothpaste,
and very little food. And it was cold. It was
very cold. It was in the mountains. We were shackled,
beaten and starved. We suffered. Half of us died. The

(10:17):
enemy attempted to separate us by race and indoctrinated us differently.
They gave up on that early. We were Americans, and
we stuck together. We slept on the same bamboo palette
as much as twenty men, and we were sick together.
We nursed and we cleaned each other. We got no letters,

(10:39):
no Red Cross packages. We got nothing. We had one
book for a while, a Catholic missile that was issued
by the United States Marine Corps, from which the enemy
had torn out the first two pages, the one with
a picture of the American flag on page one and
the first stands of the star spangled banner on the

(11:01):
second page. When a man died, we wrapped him in bamboo.
We dug his grave, we buried him, we eulogized him.
We marked his grave with bamboo and rocks.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
And I can report to you today that thanks to JPAK.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
The Joint Pow Mia Accounting Command, every single one of
our dead brothers has been repatriated where they lie in
the shadow of their families, in the soil of their country,
where they belong. I remember each one of them, and
I remember the prayers we said over their graves. And

(11:50):
the mystic chords of memory which President Lincoln spoke about,
are not mystic at all.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
They're real, and they're strong, and they never go away.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
After three and a half years in the jungle and
thirteen desks, we walked five hundred and forty miles to
North Vietnam.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
We walked to jail. We spent two more years in
a cruel jail. In the summer, we roasted. In the winter,
we were cold and damp.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
We had a thin pumpkin soup, bread, a little piece
of bread, and two cups of water.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Twice a day. We were six to a room.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
We had a bucket for a latrine, and we were
forbidden from speaking to anyone not in the room. Finally, finally,
after the B fifty two bombing of Hanoi, Operation Linebacker two,
the piece was signed on twenty seven January nineteen seventy three.

(12:50):
I left Hanoi on the sixteenth of March. I returned
to American control. When I saw that magnificent C one
forty one Starlifter with our American flag on the tail
USAF on the fuselage, I was overcome.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
I was absolutely overcome. I almost fainted.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
I had not seen our flag in five and a
half years. I thought of that old Negro spiritual we
learned in grammar school. Swing low, sweet Cherriot coming forward
to carry me home. A little over a week later,
at Valley Fords General Hospital in Pennsylvania, I met my

(13:30):
five year old son for the first time, and I
saw my nine and a half year old daughter for.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
The first time since she was three and a half.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
I was in and out of the hospital for four
months in a casualty status. I had four surgeries, and
I went back to duty in August of nineteen seventy three.
I lost five and a half years of my life,
fifty pounds, seventeenth, ten brothers, and I missed my children
growing up. I have no bitterness at all. I feel fortunate,

(14:03):
I'm proud, and I'm honored that I could serve my
country under the most difficult circumstances, and I returned with
even more love and devotion for my and your exceptional America.
There were twelve survivors in our camp in the jungle.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Three have died, six were able to come to a.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Banquet that my wife, Gail and I hosted just a
few months ago in October twenty seventeen.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
David came.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
There were six men, three white, three black, with their families.
Several brought children and grandchildren, so there were sixteen of
us in all. We had a great banquet and a
fancy restaurant in Orlando, and each man, every single man,
spoke spontaneously of his love for the others, and how

(14:57):
we had nurtured and sustained each other, and how none
of us would have survived if it hadn't been for
all of us. In these days of racial division, identity politics.
I wish the whole country had seen our banquet. Shakespeare,
as usual has it rightew we happy few, We band

(15:19):
of brothers. For he that sheds his blood with me
this day shall be my brother.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
And indeed those men, those six men, they are my brothers.
And Shakespeare knew.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
About veterans too, for he says that he that survives
this day and comes safe, safe home, will stand a
tiptoe when this day is named, and.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Strip his sleeve and show his scars.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
We all have scars, physical scars, maybe mental ones. But
I am so grateful and so fortunate that I was
able to make a contribution, and unlike the over fifty
eight thousand men and eight women on this wall, I
came safe home. We have humble gratitude for their service

(16:12):
and their enduring sacrifice, not just Memorial.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Day, but every single day that we live.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
President Reagan reminded us, He said, we see these soldiers
as old and wise, but most were boys.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
When they died.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
They gave up two lives for their country, the one
they were living and the one they would have lived.
They gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers
and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be like us,
revered old men. They gave up everything for their country.
And all we can do is remember, remember and be grateful.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Thank you, God, Bless you, God, Bless America. You've got
Barry Show.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
John Willing, known as Jocko, retired US Navy officer who
served in the Navy Seals. Former member of Seal Team three.
Willingk's military service includes combat actions in the Iraq War,
where he commanded Seal Team three's Task Unit Bruiser, the
unit that fought in the battle against the Iraqi insurgents
in Ramadi. Willing was honored with the Silver Star and

(17:27):
Bronze Star for his service. He's known now as a
podcaster and a motivational speaker. And you are about to
find out why.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
In a country that most people would struggle to find
on a map, in a compound that few possessed the
courage to enter, men from my previous life took the
fight to our enemy. In that compound, they found men

(17:56):
that pray five times a day for your destruction. Those
praying men don't know me, they don't know you, and
they don't know America. They don't understand our compassion, our freedoms,

(18:16):
and our tolerance. I know it may seem as if
some of those things are currently missing, but they remain
at our core and always will. Those men don't care
about your religious beliefs. They don't care about your political opinions.

(18:36):
They don't care if you sit on the left or
the right, liberal or conservative, pacifist or warrior. They don't
care how much you believe in diversity, equality, or freedom
of speech. They don't care. I'm sorry you've never felt
the alarm bells ringing in your body, the combination of

(19:00):
fear and adrenaline as you move towards the fight instead
of running from it. I'm sorry you've never heard someone
cry out for help, or cried out for help yourself,
relying on the courage of others to bring you home.

(19:21):
I'm sorry you've never tasted the salt from your own
tears as you stand at flag draped coffins bearing men
you were humbled to call your friends. I don't wish
those experiences on you, but I do wish you had them.

(19:48):
If you had them, it would change the way you act.
It would change the way you value, It would change
the way you appreciate. You would become quick to open
your eyes and slow to open your mouth. Most will
never understand the sacrifice required to keep evil men like

(20:11):
those from that distant compound away from our doorstep. But
it would not hurt you to try and understand. It
would not hurt you to take a moment to think
of the relentless drain on family, friends, and loved ones
that are left behind, sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months,

(20:34):
sometimes for years, sometimes forever. Ideas are not protected by words.
Paper and ink may outline the foundation and principles of
this nation, but it is blood, only blood that protects it.

(21:05):
In that dusty compound, a man you have never met
gave everything he had so that you have the freedom
to think, speak, and act however you choose. He went
there for all of us, whether you loved or hated

(21:27):
what he stood for. He went there to preserve the
opportunity and privilege to believe, to be and to become
what we want. This country, every single person living inside

(21:47):
of its borders and under the banner of its flag,
owe that man. We owe that man everything. We owe
him the respect that his sacrifice deserves. Saying thank you
is not enough. We send our best and lose them

(22:12):
in the fight against the worst evil this world has
to offer. If you want to respect and honor their sacrifice,
it needs to be more than words. You have to
live it. Take a minute and look around, soak it
in all of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

(22:40):
Do you have the choice every day as to which
category you want to be, in which direction you want
to move you have that choice because the best among us,
the best we ever had to offer, fought and bled

(23:01):
and died for it. Don't ever forget that.

Speaker 5 (23:08):
This is me, Michael Berry the show.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch had a moment of fame during
the Iraq War. Then staff sergeant Popoditch was assigned as
a tank commander and platoon sergeant participating in the two
thousand and three invasion of Iraq. His unit gained fame
when it helped topple the statue of Saddam Hussein. On
April ninth, two thousand and three, Popoditch was photographed in

(23:36):
his tank's kappola smoking a cigar with a statue of
Saddam looming in the background. The image, which earned him
the nickname the Cigar Marine, appeared on the front pages
of newspapers around the world to describe the Battle of Baghdad.
He would later reveal that his smoking was a celebration
of his and his wife's twelfth wedding anniversary, as well

(23:57):
as the victory. Following his return the US, he was
promoted to gunnery sergeant and volunteered to return to Iraq
in two thousand and four.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
The following year.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
During his second deployment, Popaditch commanded tanks again in the
First Battle of Fallujah in April of four. During the
Battle of April seventh, supported dismounted infantry with a pair
of M one one abrams and turning onto a narrow street,
he opened his hatch for better visibility to despite the
constant RPG seven attacks, he was wounded in action in

(24:30):
an ambush when a rocket propelled grenade struck him in
the head. Blinded and deafened, he struggled to maintain consciousness
until his tank was moved out of danger, then he
was evacuated to Germany. After a prolonged stay, he was
sent to the United States, ultimately losing his right eye
due to damage to the optic nerve and hearing in

(24:51):
his right ear. At Naval Medical Center San Diego, some
of the vision in his remaining left eye was restored
by the hospital's medical professionalst God Bless them, while his
ocular prosthesis features the eagle globe and anchor instead of
a pupil. He was awarded the Silver Star for Actions
in combat and medically retired at the rank of gunnery searching.
When you hear his Memorial Day speech. It will be

(25:14):
immediately obvious you've ever seen a single movie portraying this
type of character, that he was a gunnery search.

Speaker 6 (25:21):
Allah, I run, thank you. I am honored.

Speaker 7 (25:30):
I'm humbled to be up here in front of so
many great Americans, amongst so many honorable veterans, so many
great Americans, and to be able to speak with you
today on this Memorial Day. I love our veteran history.
I went to recruit training not too far from here,
a couple of miles from here, and that's when I
first started learning about our veterans history. They told us

(25:50):
about great Americans. In World War One and Bella Woods.
As the French forces were retreating out of the woods
under the fire of German.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
Machine guns, a Marine.

Speaker 7 (25:59):
Captain said, retreat, hell, we just got here, and into
the breach they went. World War Two, the Japanese said
he would Gimo would last for a thousand years. We
raised a flag out in three days. In Korea, forces
surrounded by communist Chinese out number twenty to one, Colonel.

Speaker 6 (26:22):
Chesney Puller said, fellas.

Speaker 7 (26:23):
We got him right, we want and we could shoot
any direction hit the enemy. In Vietnam, Quisan five hundred
Americans stood on a hill and said, you will not
take us off.

Speaker 6 (26:35):
Here out number thirty to one.

Speaker 7 (26:37):
North Vietnamese force attacked him for seventy seven days and
finally said, forget it.

Speaker 6 (26:43):
We can't take them. You can have it. They went home.

Speaker 7 (26:46):
I rah, that's the history passed down to our generation.
And when it came my time, I was honored. I
was privileged to serve with the first Mareen Division. I
was part of the march up to Baghdad in this war.
On ten we got to bad Dad. That's where a
Memorial Day truly came home for me. We were in
a place called Ferno Square. The Iraqi people embraced us

(27:09):
as an ally, and together we toppled a dictator. And
when I watched these people in that street of Baghdad,
I watched them celebrate.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
I watched them rejoice.

Speaker 7 (27:18):
I looked in their faces, and what I realized I
was looking at was liberty. I was looking at people
who grown up under a dictator, had never known a
day's freedom their entire lives. I was in my late thirties.
I realized I had never known a day in my
life without it. I had never known a day in
my life that was their daily reality, and that freedom

(27:40):
was not free.

Speaker 6 (27:41):
I was born in nineteen sixty seven.

Speaker 7 (27:43):
I was born those Vietnam veterans, you Vietnam veterans out
there when you were off fighting the spread of communism.
I was born on your watch under the liberty you
were providing. That generation before that fought in Korea stopping
the spread of communism, that greatest generation that stopped those
totalitarian regimes, that not only defended liberty around the world

(28:04):
in the Gray Wars, but came home and built the
greatest prosperity this nation's ever known.

Speaker 4 (28:09):
All wrong.

Speaker 6 (28:09):
I like that. So we have a motto in the
Marine Corps.

Speaker 7 (28:17):
We say Semper five always faithful, faithful to God, Country
and Corps.

Speaker 6 (28:21):
And i'm Memorial Day. I want to tell you a
story of Semper five.

Speaker 7 (28:24):
I want to tell you of a man named Corporal
Evnen's just sort of a marine that won't be written
about in history books.

Speaker 6 (28:30):
In a battle that you'll never read about. And it
was at a place called al Coot.

Speaker 7 (28:35):
We were assaulted from the flank and we did what
we did what Americans do.

Speaker 6 (28:38):
We turned their ambush side into their kill zone.

Speaker 7 (28:41):
We turned in and attacked into the ambush, Amtrak's dropped ramps,
marines charging to the Palm Grove. Corporal Evening was one
of those marines on his way into the grove because
it was a horrible fight. It was close range, hand grenades,
machine guns, nasty fight. On Eviden's way in, he was
struck down by an AK forty seven around just below

(29:01):
the flat jacket, right in the lower abdomen region. Bad
wound was still alive. He was pulled out onto the road,
Meta backed out onto the road. Marines around him, corman
around him were applying first aid.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
But it was a horrible wound. He was probably not
gonna survive.

Speaker 7 (29:16):
Those individuals admitting the first administering the first aid knew it,
and more importantly, Corporal Evnon knew it. We all talk
about courage, honor, commitment, but the real deal, American, that
real deal, guys at one, when you're up against the wall,
up against adversity, do.

Speaker 6 (29:31):
You believe in it?

Speaker 4 (29:32):
Then?

Speaker 7 (29:33):
So they looked down at Corporal Evnon, knowing he was
going to die, and they just wanted to make his
life a little bit more comfortable. On the way out
the door and they said, Ebnen, is there anything we
can do for you anything, just trying to ease the pain.
Evnen looked up with the clarity, the courage, honor, commitment
that we all hope we have at that moment, and
he said, no, I'm right where I want to be.

(29:55):
I'm here with my brothers and corporal evening passed.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Day.

Speaker 7 (30:00):
I'm privileged to stand in front of so many great
Americans as you honor those fallen and say thank you,
thank you for my freedom, thank you for this great nation.

Speaker 6 (30:12):
God bless America, God bless you.

Speaker 5 (30:16):
If you like the Michael Berry Show and Podcast, please
tell one friend, and if you're so inclined, write a
nice review of our podcast. Comments, suggestions, questions, and interest
in being a corporate sponsor and partner can be communicated
directly to the show at our email address, Michael at

(30:37):
Michael Berryshow dot com, or simply by clicking on our
website Michael Berryshow dot com. The Michael Berry Show and
Podcast is produced by Ramon Roeblis, the King of Ding.
Executive producer is Chad Knakanishi. Jim Mudd is the creative director.

(31:02):
Voices Jingles, Tomfoolery and Shenanigans are provided by Chance McLean
Director of research is Sandy Peterson. Emily Bull is our
assistant listener and superfan contributions are appreciated and often incorporated
into our production. Where possible, we give credit, where not,

(31:24):
we take all the credit for ourselves. God bless the
memory of Rush Limbaugh. Long live Elvis, be a simple
man like Leonard Skinnard told you, and God bless America. Finally,
if you know a veteran suffering from PTSD, call Camp
Hope at eight seven seven seven one seven PTSD and

(31:50):
a combat veteran will answer the phone to provide free counseling.