2022 Memorial Day Special

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
It is the Jesse Kelly Show. Let's honor some heroes
on a Memorial Day show. It is me. I am
live in the chair. I need to set some things
up for you tonight because I realized there's a chance
there are a bunch of new people listening to the

(00:30):
show or whatnot. Normally, The Jesse Kelly Show is a
lot of fun. We laugh, I make your reverent jokes.
We do talk a lot of politics and food, and
I tell stupid stories and it's just it's it's a
political show that put a smile on your face. Maybe

(00:51):
not tonight, Oh, I think you enjoy it because there's
gonna be tons of history and we're gonna honor heroes
and whatnot. But on Memorial Day every single year we
always have, and Lord Willing, we always will. We do
a three hour show to honor the veterans. We don't
do any live ad reads. Obviously we have commercial breaks.
That's fine, but there won't be any live ad reads.

(01:13):
I have as scheduled now four different veterans I know
coming on the show to talk about comrades and arms
they've lost. I have a list here of names people
have emailed in. We're gonna talk history around some of
these battles. We're gonna spend three hours honoring the fallen,

(01:35):
honoring the fallen. That is what today is, and that's
all today is. On Memorial Day. You've heard me say
it before and I will say it again. I know
you're a nice person. I know you're a polite person.
I don't have that burden, but I know you do.
I know all these things. Today is not the day

(01:57):
to think of veteran or our first responder or anything
like that. Those who signed up and went overseas or
at home. Sometimes these things happen in training. Those who
signed up and gave their lives for their country and
gave up the entire rest of their lives, no wife,

(02:19):
no kids, no grandkids, no career, no nothing. They deserve
at least one day a year that's exclusively for them.
Do they for them? Do they not? We deserve? I
should say they deserve. I mean a day that is
unwatered down. And I know unwatered is probably not a word,

(02:39):
but I went to community college, so what's a word. Now?
You know exactly what I mean. Many of you have
emailed in names as I asked you to have people
you wanted honored. Jeremy Griffin, Army Afghanistan, William P. Byrne
Marine Corps training accident, Carl de Nunzio, Army Corporal, Vietnam,

(03:03):
Beckworth USMC KIA, Alan Auger, USMC golf War, so on
and so forth. You will hear me reading names like
that over and over and over and over again throughout
the show. I'm going to read silver Star citations, maybe
a Distinguished Service Cross citations, Medal of Honors citations. I'm

(03:27):
gonna talk about a dog Navy Cross, things you emailed in.
We are going to spend three hours honoring heroes who
gave it all and geeking out on history. Does that
sound like a plan? We got Green Berets coming on
the show to talk about fallen comrades, regular Army guys, marines.

(03:48):
It's going to be It's going to be a show.
I believe we have an obligation to do, and it's
something we're going to do every single year. I'm gonna
begin here because there's so much I can get to
and undoubtedly I'm going to fail to properly honor everyone
the way they deserve to be honored. But all I

(04:09):
can promise to do is the best I can do. Right,
I'm gonna start here with this an email. Actually, Jesse,
this is my grandfather. He's sent over, by the way,
a picture of a bunch of medals. This is my grandfather,
Lieutenant Colonel Eddie Bryan. He bravely fought in the Battle
of Guadalcanal in World War two, a decorated marine shot

(04:32):
twice in the gruesome battle. I can't imagine what he
saw or how hard he fought. It wasn't until I
turned thirty that I realized that hell and heroism our
bravest go through. They just don't make him like this anymore.
Thanks for all you do, Jesse, Semperfy says, I can
say his name. His name is Ike Guadalcanal. I mean,

(04:56):
go give your life on Guadalcanal. What was guadal Canal?
Sounds nice? Right? Almost doesn't sound too bad. Maybe go
there and sip some peanut coladas, right. Guadal Canal was
one of the beginning huge battles of World War Two,

(05:16):
in the Pacific Campaign, where we took on the Japanese.
Listeners of my show will know the Japanese attacked us
in Pearl Harbor, not to defeat us, but to simply
delay US so they could take over a bunch of
islands in the Pacific and fortify them. And they believe

(05:36):
the soft Americans would be too weak to come take
all them out and root them out, especially because the
Japanese fought to the death. Guadal Canal might be the
worst freaking place in World War Two. Look, there's a
lot of arguments. You can make a lot of arguments
for a lot of different places. One of the things
you should know about guadal Canal, on top of the

(05:59):
junk goals in the heat and the disease and the
misery and everything else. On top of all these things,
this is one of our introductory battles to the Japanese,
and how the Japanese would fought. It's not as if
it was more pleasant for the guys who fought later
in Pacific islands. But this is I mean. Americans had
heard rumors that the Japanese would commit suicide, that they

(06:23):
would fake being injured and then blow you up with
a grenade while you're trying to give them aid. They
had heard rumors about these bonds eye charges where the
Japanese would just charge it you over and over as
you slaughter them. They'd heard some rumors, but no one
really knew yet. And then you show up in Guadalcanal.

(06:44):
Marines show up, and these guys just keep charging at us,
over and over and over and over again. No matter
how many of them we kill, they keep charging at us.
And there's more. When it comes to Guadalcanal, stuff you
don't year about. Often it's hard to actually dig up
actual names. In fact, in all the books I've ever

(07:07):
read about Guadalcanal and the men who lost their lives there,
I've heard these stories, there's never a name attached to it.
Did you know we had guys eaten by crocodiles on
guadal Canal? Now, they don't make movies about that, right,
it's not sexy diving on a grenade, charging a pill box,

(07:30):
carrying your buddy five. We're gonna tell these stories too,
of course, but those are all the sexy stories that
make it into the movies. Looked at what he did,
Look at the heroism he killed nine thousand enemy. Yes,
that's heroic, it's awesome, and we're gonna honor those guys today.
Do you know we had guys die going down to

(07:52):
one of the various little creeks and rivers to take
a bath. Imagine what that's like. Imagine that moment of
you're an Iowa farm boy, Pearl Harbor happens, you run
down to the recruiting office like a patriot and sign
up to go fight for your country. Crocodile, You've never

(08:13):
seen a decent sized lizard in your life, and you
end up in a crocodile's jaws underneath the water in
a creek in some hell hole called guadal Canal. Guadal
Canal was a terrible, terrible battle, and it was one
of those things that kind of made the Marine Corps

(08:34):
famous because the Marines dug in there and the Army two.
Army two, but the Marines mainly on guadal Canal dug
in there and put in work fighting off a relentless enemy.
And there's going to be more Pacific World War two
talk during the show. Just inevitably. It was so terrible
those guys ended up winning a bunch of battles. So

(08:56):
I don't need to belabor the point endlessly here, but
think about I mean, just think about this. Conceptually, dying
for your country in a war. It sounds romantic, especially
to young men, right, men want to go off and
have a good fight and adventure and be a hero.
And then look at and if you're a young man
who thinks like that, good countries are built, countries are saved,

(09:21):
countries are one by men who think in those terms.
You're not bad, you're not wrong, you're right. But man
is it terrible when you're there? And man is it
terrible when they don't come home. And a lot of
them didn't come home from Guadalcanal. And again, like all

(09:41):
other battles, we'll talk about this today, guadal Canal, remember,
was mainly about an airfield. We were fighting our way
through the islands of the Pacific so we could take
airfield after air field after airfield and move our guys
closer to mainland Japans so we could take our heavy
bombers and pound those guys to dust. So Lieutenant Colonel

(10:05):
Eddie Bryan, United States Marine Corps, semper five, thank you
for what you've done, sir, Thank you for what you've done.

(10:40):
We're gonna play that a few times throughout the show,
just at various times to make sure we understand why
we are here, why we are here this evening, or
maybe it's the next day and you're catching up on
the podcast. We are here to honor the fallen for
three hours on the Jesse Kelly Show tonight. We'll be
back to do it some more. It is to Jesse

(11:04):
Kelly Show on a Memorial Day. And remember, I mean,
if you want, you can email the show if I'm
sure I've missed names. I did what I could do.
Did we do what we could do to try to
gather as many names at the following as we could
from once you emailed in Jesse at Jesse Kelly Show
dot com. Jesse at Jesse Kelly Show dot com. Look,

(11:25):
we're not gonna throw them away. If we don't get
him today, we're gonna get him next year. I've got
I've got a two different Green Berets coming on the
show to tell stories. If you're if you have some
time on your hands, I would highly recommend sticking around.
About ten minutes from now. I've read you before. The

(11:46):
Medal of Honor citation of Robert Miller. He earned the
Medal of Honor in Afghanistan. We have somebody who was
on that patrol with him. He's going to come on
the show and do a lot more than read a
Medal of honor citation. He's going to tell you in
detail what happened. You might want to strap in for

(12:09):
this one that's coming up about ten minutes or now.
We have Clay Martin still an Air Force PJ B.
K who you know, Braxton McCoy, as much history stuff
as I can possibly get, and we have some Baton
Death March stuff because I feel like that's something that
needs to addrest, be addressed, that's not addressed very much.
We have a lot tonight on The Jesse Kelly Show

(12:30):
as we just honor the fallen again. This is a
different show that much different than we normally do. We're
not even doing any live ads or anything like that.
This is just a show about the fallen. Jesse Chris
should take some pride in this one. He says, my
dad was an Army chaplain rabbi in Vietnam and told
me there were thirteen chaplains killed during the war. Two

(12:52):
of them the first and the last. We're rabbis. How
about that. I didn't know that the first, Lieutenant Colonel
Meyer Angel Army, was thrown from his jeep after it'd
hit him mine and died the next day from heart failure.
The last, Captain Morton Singer Army, was killed instantly when
his transport playing crash shortly after takeoff. The South Vietnamese

(13:15):
ground crew had mistakenly filled it with jet fuel. Both
were on their way to perform services at forward operating bases.
Thank you, Jesse for honoring our fallen heroes. Please say
my name, and more importantly, my father's name. His name
is David Dressen. His father's name was Colonel Sandford Leonard Dressen.

(13:37):
There we go. Let's read a couple of different citations.
We do a lot of Medal of Honor citations. What
we don't do very much of is the other incredible
awards that are earned, silver stars and Distinguished Service crosses
and Navy crosses. You read some of these citations, which
I guess are considered lower than the Medal of Honor

(13:58):
because that's the highest one. You read some of these,
and you say to yourself, my word lower, You've got
to be gidding me. Don Merrill Bierbauer, Army, Air Force,
World War Two Europe, the President of the United States,
authorized by Act of Congress July ninth, nineteen eighteen, takes
pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously to Major

(14:22):
Don Merrill Bierbauer, United States Army Air Forces for extraordinary
heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy
while serving as a pilot of a P fifty one
fighter airplane and aerial combat against enemy forces. On the
ninth of August nineteen forty four, while leading his squadron

(14:42):
on an armed reconnaissance mission in the European Theater of operations.
On that date, Major Bierbauer located an enemy airfield on
which many aircraft were parked. In order to test ground defenses.
Major Bierbauer made an experimental pass at the field, destroying
an enemy plane and a gun emplacement. Then, when his

(15:02):
squadrons swept over the field from one direction, he fearlessly
attacked from another quarter, boldly exposing himself to concentrated fire
from all sides of the field and effectively screening his
comrades from the intense ground fire. Major Bierbauer's airplane was
struck repeatedly and crashed into the ground. The outstanding heroism

(15:24):
and devotion to duty displayed by Major Bierbauer on this
occasion reflect great the highest credit upon himself and the
Armed Forces of the United States. Herbert R. Amy, Junior,
Marine World War two specific Pacific, he won the Silver
Star President the United States of America takes pride in
presenting the Silver Star to the Lieutenant Colonel Herbert R. Amy, Junior,

(15:48):
United States Marine Corps for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as
commanding officers, Second Battalions, Second Marines, Second Marine Division, during
action against enemy Japanese forces on Tara at Gilbert Islands,
the twentieth in November nineteen forty three. After completing organized
organization of assault waves incident to landing on the well

(16:11):
fortified Japanese beachhead, Lieutenant Colonel Amy gallantly led his battalion
forward than the face of devastating machine gun fire and
mortar fire. When the amphibious tractor in which he was
riding reached an unpassable coral reef, he was forced to
abandon the vehicle in order to save it and led
his men through the treacherous waters. Mortally wounded by hostile

(16:33):
machine gun fire before reaching the shore, he refused assistance
and urged his command to continue without him. His brilliant
leadership great personal value, and unrelenting devotion to duty in
the face of grave peril, serve as an inspiration to
the men under his command, and were in keeping with
the highest traditions of US Naval service. He gallantly gave

(16:54):
his life for his country tara While you may not
know much about it, it doesn't get a lot of play.
It was a horrible affair. Remember, landing and amphibious landing
is not as easy as it looks in the movies.
There are currents, there are different depth levels of the water,
and just we just didn't know many of these things.

(17:16):
And our landing craft as we were trying to land
on Tarawa, a lot of it got caught like this
one did out in the coral out there in the ocean. Well,
if it gets caught, your landing craft is vulnerable. They're
shooting artillery, they're shooting machine guns at it, and your
men are vulnerable in it. So you have to get
out of it. And at Tarawa, that's what made it
so awful. So many of our marines had to get

(17:38):
out and wade in through chest deep neck deep water
with their guns held above their heads while the Japanese
were on the shore just raking them to death. With
these machine guns in artillery fire. We had so many
Marines who bravely just kept marching forward as they were
being slaughtered at Tarawa. It's not talked near enough. It's

(17:59):
just an awful affair. But we honor every single one
of them, do we not? All right, now it's time
we have a man, Javier Mackie Green Beret coming on.
He was on the patrol with Robert Miller when Robert
Miller gave his life and earned his Medal of Honor.

(18:21):
We're gonna let Javier have the floor. I have no
idea how long this is going to take. It might
be a while. He's gonna walk us through what happened
with that hero when he gave his life for his country.
You ready for it? Hang on? It is the Jesse
Kelly Show on a very special Memorial Day show where

(18:43):
we take the entire show and just honor the fallen,
honor those who frankly can't hear it, but it's still
important for a country to remember them and honor them.
It's important for the future generations to hear us honoring them.
Joining me now, Javier Mackey, Javier, before we get into

(19:04):
Robbie Miller, who are you. Um? So, I served with
Rob on the Special Forces Operational Detachment for two for
two years, and I was his engineer. He was the
weapon sergeant. And we served together for about two two

(19:25):
and a half years on the on the on our
first both of our first team, and I retired, you know,
I survived the event that Rob gave his life for.
But uh, I got went on to deploy of several
more times after that incident, and later retired out of

(19:48):
the Army back in twenty eighteen. And I've been enjoying
my life as a civilion since. Who was before we
get to uh that day in the incident and whatnot?
Tell us tell us about Rob? Who was this guy?
What kind of guy was he? What did he love?
What did he hate? But what's did you? Guys? Were

(20:09):
you close? Tell us about him? So? All right, So
we first met Robbie the day he arrived to the
team room. And I don't remember, but it was in
two thousand and five. I'm not sure which month of
the year it was, but we had been prepared prior
to his arrival that we were going to get a

(20:31):
eight He was part of the eighteen X ray program,
which was a recruiting effort that recruited perspective green Berets
off the street, and they had to be, like, you know,
there's a lot of criteria they had to fit, one
of which they had to be twenty one years old
with some college experience. Robbie was one of those individuals.

(20:55):
And then in two thousand and five, after having gone
to basic training, completed Airborne School and all his requirements
for getting selected to be a Green Beret and the
Special Forces qualifications, he arrived to our team ready to go.

(21:16):
And when we met Robbie, so a little backstory to
our arrival. His arrival into the Army is a lot
different than ours than the guys who came ahead of him,
So our process of getting into becoming a Green Beret

(21:37):
was a lot different. We had to first have had
at least four years in the Army prior to going
to selection. We had to be an E four or
a specialist or a corporal promotable to sergeant before going
to the selection process. And then once you were selected,

(21:59):
there was no prepperration course provided for us, and we
went to selection and while we were in the Q course,
once you got selected, you go through the Q course
and that's where we started meeting these X rays and
everybody loved them. Um, because by the time they got

(22:20):
to the point where we were at, they were groomed
to be you know, they were they were groomed and
they understood the expectations that got them there. That being said, um,
when we got to our teams, you know, we got
a little bit of hazing from them, the guys when
we got there, and it was it was a little

(22:43):
rough for me. I'm gonna be a it was a
hard transition for myself. And so you know how it
is when you're the You've got just gone through the
gauntlet of being the new guy, and then you get
a new guy on the team. You just waiting this. Yeah,
so we were all waiting to see us younger guys
on the team. We were all having gone to everything

(23:05):
that we've gone through. We were waiting to see what's
going to re reaction. You know, how are they going
to treat how are the older senior guys going to
retreat the new guys. And Robert Robbie was the first
eighteen X ray to walk through that door. And when
he walked through that door, the senior guys treated him

(23:28):
like he had been there for five years and that
he had a reputation like they love and we kind
of looked at ourselves like w two e F dude,
what the heck? And we looked at this kid, and
there's nothing we can do but like them, because he
came in with this effectious smile, a little goofy, but

(23:51):
you can he was in shape and he knew his guns,
and so I was I was like, at first, I
was a little jealous, a little bitter because he didn't
get the same treatment and the same welcome that we
came in with. But I was glad that the team
had moved on from that mentality and welcome you know,

(24:15):
the next generation, and like, hey, you know, it was
kind of stupid to put these guys through what they
what they went through, and it's time to change that.
And so with with that, sorry, sorry to interrupt you
real quick. Uh, the of people listening, they aren't Green Berets,

(24:35):
and I'm certainly not a Green Beret. How big is
a team? What's a team made up of? What's he
walking into? All right? So he's walking into um. Each
operational team has a captain, all right, and then after
the captains you have a warrant officer. So the Captain's
MLSK is A eighteen alpha and that's the Military Army's

(25:00):
Military Occupational Specialty numbering code for that position. And then
the warrant officer is a warrant. A warrant officer is
someone who was an n CEO at one point and
became a tech technician, a technician of sorts. So he's

(25:22):
given the designation of one eighty alpha UM. And the
warrant officer is probably one of the more he's probably
the least spoken spoken about, but probably but is one
of the key leaders within a Special Forces attachment. Why
what makes the warrant officer so important? Again, I'm sorry,

(25:45):
I'm sorry to interrupt again. We're speaking with Navier Mackey,
former Special Forces. He's coming on. He's good to tell
us pretty soon about Robbie Miller Medal of Honor Earner
in Afghanistan. All right, Why why is the warrant officer
so important? Warrant officers like they break, like they analyze
and break down the scope of the mission and help

(26:09):
us understand it better, help the members of the team
and understand it better. And as with that, the captain,
he's the face. He's the face of the team, and
he is the one who who's talking to the He's
the one leading key leader engagements with the local populace.

(26:30):
He's the one selling the missions to his fellow officers,
whereas the warrant officers he's getting. He's diving into the
details of the mission, as far as the personalities of
the guys that we're going after, as far as the
train analysis. I mean, he's connecting the dots of information

(26:54):
and serves as the chief of a chief of mission,
you know, for the with the captain, so the captain
can focus on his work, the team sergeants on his work,
and then the team sergeant, who's the next important figure
on the team. He manages the NCOs the rest of

(27:15):
the team. He is the is the glue that keeps
the team, the glue and the lubricant that keeps the
machine going. Um, he is. He works hand in hand
with each of the seniors on the team. So he's
the zoo. Is the highest rank in NCO and the team.

(27:36):
And then you have the Bravo. The rest of the
peace are just team guys, regular team guys on the team.
From here on, hold on, let me interrupt you again
real quick, we have to go to a quick break.
Will be right back with Javier Macki. He's going to
tell us what this hero did in Afghanistan. Give us

(27:56):
just once, I could be right back. It is the
Jesse Kelly Show, and I don't want to waste any
time here. We have Jabbier Mackie Special Forces on the
phone with us right now discussing a hero who gave
his life in Afghanistan. He just kind of laid out
the situation. What's the team look like? Okay, why do

(28:18):
I have a medal of honor citation in front of
me with this guy's name on it? What did he
do well? Robbie, Robbie, he led an assault. So let
me back up a little bit. We so we were
on the night so some sometime prior to January twenty fourth,

(28:44):
we received some information that there was a high value
targeting in the area that we've been to before, in
that there's an opportunity we can capture, um kill capture
this this individual. So we started our mission planning and

(29:08):
Robert Miller was the junior um weapons sergeant on the
team or the senior weapons sergeant on the team. We
had too at the time, and he his his his
soul responsibilities the weapons and training. So while he spent
the lex that whole week part leading up to the

(29:31):
mission with along with another or other weapons sergeant, getting
our Afghans ready to conduct this mission. Along with myself,
I was the eighth I'm the eighteen, Charlie, the engineer
on the team, and my job basically is to get

(29:51):
the logistics down, making sure we have the vehicles ready
to go, and come up with any obstacle clearing plans
that we will need to to disrupt on along the way.
So come January twenty fourth, we get this mission. We've
we've done the planning, we've done the rehearsals, and we

(30:14):
sent our Afkhan, our Afghans away to go. It gets
a little bit of R and R before this time
before we were about to execute this mission, and we
soon we got the green light to go and the
you know, we the plan was for us to link

(30:35):
up with our Afghans at a place called Checkpoint Delta,
which was about I don't know, eight kilometers north of
the firebase. We get there, Robbie and the team, we
get there and something was kind of off from the
get go, there was some confusion. We didn't recognize a

(30:57):
lot of the Afghans that were supposed to be there.
But nevertheless, we continue on with the mission. So we
hop in our trucks and we continue north and we
get about eight We get another about four or five
kilometers into the validy, and we hit our first obstacle,
which was a boulder in the road. And this is

(31:17):
important because there was only one road. There's no way,
there's no getting around this boat or because on one
side of the boulder is a mountain and on the
other side of the boulder is a river, and there's
no driving around it. So I was tasked to go
blow that boulder up. I blew it up, and we
continue forward and we got to these switchbacks and the

(31:39):
same thing again, approached another border boulder roll sometimes sorry,
sorry to interrupt again. Speak with Javier Mackey green Bray.
He's telling us a story. Is this something that's common?
Are are these boulders in the road? Are you thinking
this is done on purpose or this is just the norm?
I mean it's a roadbut beside a mountain. Well, this
is definitely new. Like we've spent by this point, Rob

(32:03):
myself and the majority of the team has spent two
years in this valley, and we know the people, we
know the patterns, but this was new, totally new, and
so we come across the second boulder and we blew
it up. And in between the interdiction of the first
boulder and the second boulder, UM we get news from UM.

(32:26):
We have some assets available to us that let us
know that we're the guy that we were going to.
Where we were going, he wasn't no longer there. He
had moved across the river and he was hunkered down
on the east side of the river. This river runs

(32:48):
north and the south. So we continue on to this
little plateau and it's still dark outside. It was it
was a very cold night. We had the moon having
quite the moon and hadn't quite crescent over the mountains.
So we're still in the in the shadow of the
lunar skylight, and we're in this deep valley and we

(33:12):
line up for trucks and we did something that not
a lot of people can say that they did during
in Iraq or in Afghanistan, and this set up an
ambush to Normally we're getting ambush, but in this point
we were able to set up an ambush with left
and right security, just like you would do in training,

(33:34):
and ambush our enemy. And this is a very rare occasion,
so we're all but the only differences we had a
terrain feature, this river in between us and the people
we were ambushing, and once it was confirmed that these
guys were walking out, we opened up our ambush and

(33:55):
we unleashed a hell fire of destruction these guys. That
lasted for quite a bit because there was they were
still shooting back at us. And Robert Millner, who was
in our second truck, he was manning the Mark nineteen
and this is an automatic grenade launcher that shoots a
forty millimeter linked grenade and it's it's a it's about

(34:21):
fifty rounds or thirty two rounds of pure hate coming
at you. If you don't you know, if you only
have one can link together, but we usually have two
or three cans linked in one mortar box. And he
was he was getting his gun on on that and
that this firefight he goes on for an undetermined amount

(34:43):
of time. At the same time we're having we have
ISSR or we have an aircraft on station that's identified.
It's marking targets for us, and we're shooting, and Robbie
Miller's pretty much directing fires. Um where the ISSR would

(35:04):
with an aircraft platform would indicate where there were a
troop movement, and he would hit it up with the
mark nineteen and we would um shoot apples at at
his at his markings. UM. Later saves fire was called Javier,
I'm sorry to do it again. It's it's sticking radio.
It's the way it is. Javier Mackey is being good

(35:28):
enough to give us some real, a real story about
a hero that we lost here on this Memorial Day.
We are going to go to another quick break. We're
going to be back so he can continue, and I'm
glad you are taking your time and walking us through
this so people can understand the situation. He's going to
come back and he's going to continue to tell us

(35:48):
what this man did, what he's sacrificed for this country,
for you, for me, for his teammates. Mostly. I'm sure
we'll be right back on the Jesse Kelly Show. It
is the Jesse Kelly Show on a Memorial Day special

(36:11):
to honor the fallen, and I'm gonna go right back
to him. So I know you're on the edge of
your seat. I am as well. Javier Mackie Special Forces
is joining us. He has been telling us leading up
to Robert Miller gave his life in Afghanistan when a
middle of honor doing it. We have a citation. I
can read it for you, but it doesn't even come
close to doing justice to what he did. So I'm
going to hand the floor back to Javier. Javier, please continue.

(36:33):
You guys just ambushed a bunch of guys and you're
making their lives miserable. What continue? So the captain calls
cease fire. Each of the leaders from the truck's consolidate
and has been decided we have to go conduct a
what they call it battle damage assessment. From Harold, I'm
a call it just a BDA. What that basically is,
we're going to identify whether or not we actually killed

(36:57):
who we were going after, or we can capture room
if they're still alive, and positively identify if there is
no other civilian casualties or damage is done. And so
this is numb. This is normally done to cover our butts,
but it's also done to just to reaffirm that we
actually did what we're there to do, and so we

(37:19):
have to go north a little bit and we cross
a bridge and then we head back south where they ambush.
Where we ambush the individuals coming out of the compound
where they were and from what I can tell in
the darkness, they had policed up all their bodies, and
it was really hard to determine people that we hit.
So that being said, just to give them three description.

(37:42):
So as we're walking south down the rivers now on
the right side of our patrol and it's the trail
starts to open up. It's a thin trail, it's about
a meter or so why and it starts to open
up where we have some level terrace agricultural rocky rocky

(38:04):
terrain and to the right, to the left is a mountain.
So they we have this mountain off to our left
gently sloping up into a ridge, a finger like a
finger like land masks that protrudes downward, and at the
tip of the finger would be a like a little draw.

(38:25):
And on the other side of that draw was like
another finger like ridgeline that comes down going towards the river.
At that little intersection where the draw was and those
two fingers met was a boulder, and Robbie's up front
because he speaks Bashtu, he speaks French, he speaks Russian.

(38:47):
The kid when very he came to the team knowing
multiple languages, and while he was in Afghanistan, he pushed
that he learned Dari and Pashtu and he was the
strongest in Darian posture outside of our interpreters who are
also with us. And so he was helping out with
hurting the cats of the Afghans that are in the

(39:09):
patrol alongside us. So we get to this point where
we're crossing this little rocky outcove going towards us where
this boulder is, and the Afghans who are up front,
this is their country, you know, we're putting them up front,
and they you know, you hear this oliwa akbar, and
the next thing you know, you know, you hear automatic

(39:31):
gunfire coming from the boulder towards our direction, and our
patrol opens up. The Afghans who are with us, they
just bug out. They they're gone. They run towards the
river because there was some cover in that area, and
a marine who was attached to us, he's trying to

(39:53):
get them back into the fight. So Robbie is left
in the front of this of the formation with myself,
staff Sargeant Nick McGarry, staff Sergeant Rob gutierres and air
fun our interpreter right behind him. And then behind our
little formation is the headquarters. Like the team sergeant, the captain,

(40:18):
the warrant officer are eighteen Fox who's our intelligence in CEO,
and one other person I can't remember at the time,
but anyway, the captain gets hit in his open volley.
Now we're being ambush. We just walked into a near ambush.
And so immediately Rob, who's up front where that boulder was,

(40:40):
Rob interdicts the guy with a machine gun and he
kills him. And as now this is in the dark now,
and the aircraft that's above has this infrared light that
only to be seen and under our nods, and so
they're marking target that are in our area, and they

(41:02):
flood They actually flooded this little draw where Rob was
kind of stuck at and it was nothing but him
and AP you know, insurgents, and and so he's by himself.
I'm about about fifty meters behind him, and we're dealing
with our own problems that I will go into later

(41:24):
at this time, Um, Rob is he's he's he's operating
the saw a two forty nine. This is a small
squad automatic weapon and it shoots a five five six
round delt fit done and he had a chopped down
version of it, and he did. He was the only
one in our patrol that didn't have a suppressor. So

(41:47):
he is he engaged and killed fifteen to twenty five
people within a three minute SPANUM. He also threw numerous
hand grenades before he was hit. UM. During his exchange
of fire, he was hit in the right underneath his

(42:09):
right armpit. It was a through and through. The last
words he said was break contact. And he was heading
towards me and we and you know, this is a
this is a mission that we did everything according to
our soop and everything went down according to our sop

(42:30):
up until up until this happened. And and so you know,
Rob laid down his final burst of gunfire, killing five
of the remaining guys in his area, which we were
still trying to deal with at the same time. So

(42:51):
at the same time when Rob got he was hit,
he said, you know, break contact. What had been going
on with us is my captain? He was like I said,
he was the first one in the exchange of fire
to get hit, and he was down. And they were
about another fifty meters behind the position where we're apt,

(43:12):
where Utierras and NC Geary and I were. We were
trapped basically in the X and we were still getting
you know, we were taking the back of gunfire at
less than twenty five meters and um, lucky for us,
we didn't have We had suppressed him fours and we
were able to interdict our targets effectively thanks to the

(43:39):
R platform identifying enemy combatants behind a wall that were
that was like five ten meters away from our area,
and it was playing whacking moole for like ten minutes
and during that time backs change the fire. I was hit.
I received my first gunshot to the chest and I

(43:59):
stay in a fight. It hit my magazine I had
we had at the time the army started issuing these
still magazines, and I mean I didn't really build the
impact until I went to go grab for a magazine
and I couldn't. I couldn't use it. I couldn't use
it to shoot my weapon. I hear Rob say, great contact.

(44:23):
So I changed bags and I go straight to you know,
I'm suppressing. I'm going to suppressive fires, and he gives
this last burst and I do I wait for him
to pass me so I can do my automatic verse
and he didn't, and so I look over. I hit
myur floodlight on my rifle to see what was happening,

(44:44):
and he was down. So I remember getting up and
running over to, you know, saying Rob's hit. And I
ran up to him to see if you know, maybe
he tripped or whatever, and he was on his last breath.
And I went quickly went back and I told the guys,
I'm going, hey, look Rob's head. I need you guys

(45:05):
to come help me. So mcgeary, rob Utierrez, and myself
ran through gunfire to go back to Robbie to start
rendering first aid, and Nick McGarry provided covering fire during
that maneuver. He stayed there with the interpreter, who also
provided some security for him. Mind you, we're still we're

(45:25):
still in the X. We're still in the kill zone
of the fired of their of the enemy's ambush, and
we're doing the best we can to get ourselves out
of it. And during this time period, our attacked our
sop wasn't really. I kind of broke our sop at
this point by going to Rob, which under normal circumstances

(45:48):
we would have left them there until we had gotten
the fire superiority and the ability to out maneuver the
enemy and didn't get to him as as possible. But
I broke protocol on that and went directly to him
with the Jay Tech, which was another big no no.

(46:10):
He's the one guy controlling fires, so under gunfire. We
started to render first aid to Rob. And it was
at this time where I realized that Rob was did.
There was a thrilling through. I couldn't find the gunshot
wound at first. When I finally did, it was a
chess you know. I applied chess steal to it, and

(46:31):
from that point on it was there was nothing else
I can do. I didn't find the exit wound until later,
and I mean, there was nothing I can do about it.
I beat myself up over it for years, and I've
come to accept that nobody would have survived that gunshot wound.
And it's important that I continue to tell this story
because hopefully both Rob Gautiers and Nicholas McGarry, who are

(46:57):
both up for the Middle you know they've recommended for
the Medal of Honor as well. Their stories need to
be told, and I'll continue to tell the story as
I know it. Rob Gutierres continue to fight it out
while Nick McGarry continue to deal with the hold on,
hold on, Javier, I'm sorry to do it again, my brother.

(47:19):
I think it's probably a great time. UM, let me
let me pause and bring you back again. I just
don't want to. I don't want to interrupt this story.
I don't want to screw it up. So hang on
real quick on the Jesse Kelly Show. We'll be right
back so Javier Mackie can finish this up. Please. It
is the Jesse Kelly Show, back again with Javier Mackie

(47:40):
telling us the story of Robbie Miller, Medal of Honor
earner in Afghanistan and a couple other Green Brays who
are up for the Medal of Honor. Javier, I'm sorry
to interrupt, had to do that again. Please continue, sir,
So Rob Utiers and ourselves, we're at this point where
we have to make some really tough decisions as to
movement Robbie's body and um figuring out how are we

(48:05):
gonna complete this mission. And so it was determined that
Rob Gutierrez was going to call in some more. He's
going to call in some aircraft, uh strengthen runs with
the A ten, and they were going to be danger close,
and between in between the gun runs, we're going to

(48:27):
attempt to move Rob's body. So the aircraft came through,
they get their cleared hot and you know, they rained
down their weaponarian on top of us. At about it
was danger closed whatever danger close by definition and in
the Air Force rags and Army regulations, we very well

(48:50):
meant that criteria. And in between gun runs, the attempted
to move Rob's body and we just couldn't do it.
I mean, the rob the terrain was rocky, between trying
to get his weapon and all this other stuff. It
was just too hard. And then the second gun run
came in. And after that gun run came in and

(49:11):
came a hell fire of RPG gun fire and small
arms fire from one of the ridge lines, from a
top of one, and so Rob and I we we
interdicted those targets to be suppressed their fires. And by
this time the marine who had been trying to herd

(49:32):
the cats with the Afghans had reappeared and he was like, hey,
I'm here and we you know, I made the determination.
I was like, all right, hey, we're gonna jump over this.
There's a wall behind us, and we're gonna go over
this wall. We're gonna try to communicate to our headquarters
guys who are you know, a couple hundred meters behind us,
that what the situation is, and see if they can

(49:55):
maneuver up to our position. What ended up happening was
I really I gotten shot again, and this time it
hit the shoot to talk, the push to talk to
my radio. Um, the only operating radio that we had
was the J TAX and he was controlling he was
controlling an air with it. The decision was made by

(50:16):
Gautiers that he was going to maneuver with the marine
to a different spot to suppress, to get more casts
or you know, so close air support fires on various
aspects of the terrain so that I can maneuver back
to the CCP and report everything that was going on. Now,

(50:42):
mind you that we still have an element of guys
across the river, you know, pulling security, but they couldn't
fire because in between because we were a positioned in
between them and the enemy. So the only people that
could actually fire were those who were on the ground,
and that was you know, Gautier's mcgeary, what was Rob

(51:06):
Miller who we had to leave behind, and the marine
and the rest of the team. So I eventually made
it back to the CCP and Nick mcgeary he had
made it back. Now, Nick, well, when we went to
go fight it out with to go pull Rob, Nick
was pulling security with our interpreter and Nick was he

(51:27):
had effectively taken out eight guys that were you know,
I mentioned that whackamole situation. He effectively taken out eight
to twelve guys that was behind this wall, but with
by himself, you know, that fighting for Pangern Austin back um,
and we like this is like we're getting back to

(51:48):
the firebase and he's telling us everything that would happen
that happened, um, and he's clearly shaken up. I think
I'm the most damaged at this point, you know, after
being shot twice and now I'm seeing a my you know,
having robbed die in my arms, and now I'm looking
at my captain, my captain this blue and uh kind

(52:08):
of take it all in and uh so Nick Nick McGarry,
he put us in the security posture. We Rob Gutierres
secured the area for a metavac and then on the
first birth that came, they put myself uh in the
in the uh Captain Cusick on the bird because he

(52:29):
was injured. So what happened after that was the Nick
McGarry linked up with Rob Gutierres along with the rest
of the team, and they um organized the counter assault.
Um between the two of them, they used the the cast,

(52:52):
the cast on the aircraft and they're maneuvering on the
ground to out maneuver the out maneuver the enemy, killing
several more and then being able to recover the body
of Rob Miller. So, Javier m is there anything else

(53:15):
anyone else you want to acknowledge really quickly before we
sign off? And I cannot thank you enough for sharing
the story of obviously not just not just Robbie Miller,
of all of all you heroes, My goodness, fan, is
there is there anyone else needs a quick acknowledgement before
we go? Third Special Forces Group, third Battalion is where
we hail. We we have I think right now to

(53:37):
see Rob Miller Matt Williams, rob Ron Schirter. You know,
we have three solid mel of Honor recipients and I
hand you know, there's easily a you know, a couple
of other dozen more that I can say that. We're
outstanding heroes for the last twenty years. And we fought
side by side for twenty years in after a stand

(54:00):
without complaining. We love what we did. Along the way,
we lost a lot of our good friends and you know,
it's really hard to talk about. I'm trying to hold
it back, but that's what today is. That's what this
weekend is all about. It's not about the hamburgers and
hot dogs. Is about remember our buddies and remembering, you know,

(54:24):
the values. In winter, the nation is mounted on a man.
I just want to tell you that was outstanding. I
know that was not easy. The country is better off
for having heard his story and the story of all
you heroes. Simperify. My brother Super five told you it
was going to be a heavier, different show, all right.

(54:45):
We have more a Memorial Day. It is the Jesse
Kelly Show on a Memorial Day, very different show tonight.
This is just a day where we honor the fall
on a show where we will honor the fallen joining
me now, obviously he needs no introduction on this show.
My friend b K, former superstud Air Force PJ and

(55:09):
now host of the World News with BK podcast. B
K First, is there somebody you want to honor here
on this memorial Day or a bunch? Oh yeah, you know, Jesse,
There's there's a lot that I could mention. One who
was particularly close to me was my old supervisor and
good friend, and that would be Para Rescue Chief Master's

(55:33):
Sergeant Nick McCaskill. Nick was a longtime PJ. Obviously he
made it to E nine and he was still in
the reserves while when he started working for the Central
Intelligence Agency and he was a paramilitary officer, ground branch
operator and he hold on real quick, Brik, I know,

(55:56):
you know, but tell people, I mean, we do have
some sivilition to listen. What's that mean? Ground branch operator? Sure,
if you google CIA paramilitary officer. For those of you
guys want to know more. These are the guys at
the very tip of the spear. These are the guys
who are out in the boonies training their men to
go do direct action raids. Accompanying them They often they

(56:18):
work hand in hand with Joint Special Operations Command guys
like Delta Force Seal Team six drone strikes. They are
the tip of the spear. They're made up of very
highly qualified former military members, often guys with you know,
decades of experience in Delta Seal Team six, Joint Special

(56:40):
Operations Command, and they are these are the guys who
are are really out on the front lines. And Nick.
The way actually Nick died is still classified. They do
have a story out and I'm not going to say,
like exactly what happened, but if you google Nick McCaskill,
see that, you'll see a story about how he died.

(57:02):
And all I'll say about it is that's not what happened.
It was different circumstances. And the only way I found
out about it was talking to some other pj's and
some other CIA officers. And I just tell you, he
was He was a very good friend to me. M
He taught me a lot when I was in I
was a new PJ, you know, joining the team, and
he was there. You know, it was funny, Jesse, because

(57:24):
you know, when you're on a small team like that,
whether it's Seal Team or you know, green Berets or
anything else. You kind of forget ranks sometimes and you know,
you're like, because everybody's like first name basis and you're like, hey, bro,
dude all that, and you could be like a you know,
E three talking to an E eight, e nine talking
like that. And you know, once I we were talking

(57:48):
and during a training mission and I kind of interrupted
to say something was stupid. What we were doing was dumb.
And I used to say that a lot and Nick
just turns to me. He's like, hey, why don't you
shut your mouth and gave me the old nice hands
to the face. And I was like, well, and I,
you know, this is like a laid back alley boy.
Never seen him like that before, and I was like wow,

(58:11):
and it's just like I just immediately shut my mouth.
And but you know, despite that though, we were still
good friends and he just taught me a lot, and
it's just it's a bummer. He just missed the people
every day speaking with obviously BK. Everyone knows him on
this show, host of the World News of BK podcast,
former Air Force PJ BK. Anyone else you want to

(58:33):
give a quick shout out too before we let you go.
It's obviously been a heavier show, much different than our
normal conversations. But it's just, uh, that's what today is,
you know. That's it's it's about them. Yeah, it is
about them, Jessee. There's just a lot of guys. There's
too may the list I can think of at a school.
A guy who was a couple classes ahead of me

(58:54):
in the pipeline, Dan Zerbie, and he was killed aboard
Extortion seven team when it was shot down, and that
was the Chinook that was filled with Navy Seals and
Air Force pj's combat controllers. He was on that plane.
And I remember Dan came back when he got to
the jay Stock team and he kind of talked to

(59:15):
our classes we were getting ready to graduate, talking about, hey,
this is where you want to be. And there was
Bill Posh, senior PJ, who is a really well respected guy,
and he went down in a helicopter in Iraq. And
there's so many of the lists, Jesse, So as you are,
I'm sure I'll be thinking about them for the rest
of the day. B K. Thank you so much, my brother.

(59:37):
I appreciate you. Thank you. Jesse. Gonna be look, it's
gonna be a whole day of that. Again, it's a
little different, a little different look normally. Normally we play
this jokingly, but I mean, I hope this is kind
of jarring you awake that it's really not you know,
freedom is not free. It's really not, is it. I mean,

(59:59):
we look around out at all all our blessings that
it's not that you can't country blessings today. You should
your family and maybe some time with a hot dog
and a beer or whatever you're doing today. You should.
They would want you to. But it's it's important, always
will be important that we do this today. I'm going
to read off some more names because I have so
many to read and there's still so much to get to.

(01:00:21):
These are names that have been sent in of just following.
We want their names read on the Air. Major Raymond
ray Estelle the Second Air Force, Afghanistan, Carlisle Carlisle Mendez, Saipan.
Major Samuel Griffith, Afghanistan. PFC. William T. Finley nineteen seventy Vietnam.

(01:00:42):
He's nineteen years old. Kenneth James Snow nineteen forty four, Germany.
Second Lieutenant William bomb At Junior, October twenty sixth nineteen
forty two, Guadalcanal. Pfc. Robert Sewell Barnes USMC, September fourth,
nineteen sixty seven, Vietnam. Lieutenant Colonel Burrus Bagley Air Force,

(01:01:06):
December seventeenth, nineteen sixty six, Vietnam. His remains were actually
recovered in nineteen ninety six. James L. Armstrong Army, nineteen
seventy one, Vietnam, PFC. Edgar Romeo Roy Baton Death March.
You know what, We're gonna pause right there because this
is one of those ones that doesn't get enough talk

(01:01:27):
about anyway. I know you, I know you've heard of
the Baton Death March. Everybody's heard of the Baton Death March.
That's just one of those things that's known. A lot
of people don't understand just how unspeakable that was for
our guys. Remember, we had the Philippines before there was

(01:01:48):
a World War Two. We had the Philippines. We had
a big base there, and this is kind of it's
it's kind of important to the story for the guys
who ended up losing their lives there. The Philippines. Member
we weren't it wore prior to World War Two. Obviously,
it was the cushy assignment everyone wanted. I've actually seen
now colorized home videos from our army base over there,

(01:02:13):
and it was, you know, I mean, what do you think.
It's a bunch of pretty Filipino girls and having a
beer and enjoying yourself. It's the cushy job and the
traffics with there in the tropics, with the pretty girls.
And then it was kind of that assignment. You're you know,
you're not having a bunch of green beret types over there.
This was the kind of softer assignment, or at least

(01:02:34):
they thought these guys were soft. And then the Japanese
began to overrun the Philippines as they did, and they
ended up trapping our guys on a peninsula, the Baton Peninsula.
We had to basically have a tactical retreat back into
a big finger, a big peninsula, and the Japanese were

(01:02:54):
coming at us and coming at us and coming at us,
and our guys didn't turn out to be all that soft.
Our guys head set up an outstand a bunch of
lines where defense by depth really so we'd have a
bunch of fighting holes and stuff like that. And our
guys are on this peninsula and the Japanese are attacking them,

(01:03:16):
and we're shooting back and they're shooting us. But this
is this is one of those things to where as
we get to the you know, the rest the story
in the Baton Death March, this is one of those
things to where your mind kind of plays a trick
on you, at least it does for me, and I
screw up where these guys were and what was going
on because the only America I've ever known, I'm forty

(01:03:38):
years old, the only America I've ever known, is we
were always kind of, if not the biggest and baddest.
It's not like we can't die in places like Iraq
and Afghanistan, but we were never going to be dominated,
taken over, overrun, even if you bought it, who were Look,
I'll call it an airstrike. Someone will, someone will bring

(01:03:59):
out planes, whatever we need. There was always something there
because we're no matter where we've been for all of
my life, we've been the big dog in that area.
Well that wasn't the case in Baton. And actually I'm
going to finish this story here in just a second.
Hang on, it is the Jesse Kelly Show on a

(01:04:24):
very special memorial Day Show. Let's continue our story in
case you missed it. We were talking about some guys
who gave their lives at the Baton Death March. And
a lot of people don't understand. They've heard of the
Baton Death March, they don't understand the circumstances around it.
All Right, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, they declare war.
We have an army base in the Philippines. The Japanese

(01:04:46):
storm through the Pacific, I mean, no one could withstand them,
and they very quickly. We had to have a tactical
retreat back to the Baton Peninsula in the Philippines. Well,
as I was saying, we're used to, I mean for
my whole life. I'm forty, from my entire life. We're
used to being the power in whatever region we're in,

(01:05:10):
the big dog on the block. Picture this, picture this.
You're in the army, Like fifteen minutes ago, you had
a cushy assignment in the Philippines. Now you're being assaulted
by a vicious, relentless enemy who's more than happy to
die for it. You are now stuck on a peninsula,

(01:05:33):
the Baton Peninsula in the Philippines. You don't have enough food.
You very quickly run out of food, and they're eating
snakes and bugs and roots and monkeys, and you're starving
to death. You're sick. Remember the jungle, the jungles, the

(01:05:56):
place that will kill you without anybody firing a shot.
Malaria and yellow fever and dysentery and all the endless things.
So you're stuck on this peninsula, you're starving, you're sick.
You have vicious ways. The Japanese would fight. They would
sneak through our lines. They would slip into your fighting
who at night and knife fight you to death. It

(01:06:19):
was It was horrendous. And again, remember you were on
a cushy assignment fifteen minutes ago. Now you're here, and
that's not the worst part. The worst part is there's
no help coming. There's no navy ships on the way,
there's no big bombers flying. This is prior to satellites overhead.

(01:06:46):
The Japanese are the big dog in this area. You're
on this peninsula, starving, sick, scared, and you're alone. And
that's where they were on Baton and they fought like lions.
They fought really, really great and in the end the

(01:07:06):
commander he actually took a lot of heat for this.
He was told he was not allowed to surrender, but
he thought his men were all going to die if
he didn't, so he does surrender with the assurance from
the Japanese commander that his men would be treated well.
He surrendered with the assurance his men would be treated well.

(01:07:28):
But we hadn't We hadn't had many men captured by
the Japanese yet, and we didn't understand in the world
in World War Two, we didn't understand what exactly that
meant for them. They had a different culture. They did
believe it was they believe. Look, there was there's a

(01:07:48):
lot of race stuff in there. You know. We believe
that we were higher than them, and they believed they
were higher than us. It's just one of those things
they believe. Submitting when they had this kind of Bushido
code type thing they that was disgraceful for a lot
of different reasons. You did not want to fall into
Japanese hands. Remember twenty five percent of the soldiers who

(01:08:11):
fell into Japanese hands in World War two died. I mean,
we can hate the Nazis all we wanted, we should, right,
Nazis suck. I think the number is like two percent
died in the care of the Germans. The Germans would
feed you, clothe you everything. Japan not so much. So
we surrender in mass Now again, this is something else

(01:08:31):
that's not known as I try to wrap this up
here because we have a lot else to get to.
Our guys who are surrendering to the Japanese in Batan.
They're not young, fit ready to go. I mean, they
may be young. Remember I just said, they're all sick
and they're all starving. You're not falling into the hands
of barbarians in your best state. You're falling in the
hands of barbarians, and you've lost thirty pounds from dysentery

(01:08:55):
and you're running one hundred and two fever. Oh and
did I mention it's over one hundred degree free And
then the Japanese begin to line our guys up and
march them miles and miles and miles and miles in
the heat. They oftentimes wouldn't let them drink water. It
was full of unimaginable cruelty. They would ask men if

(01:09:19):
they wanted to drink water, and when the men said yes,
they would lead them down to the water and then
cut their heads off at the water. We had guys.
I mean, look, we're honoring these guys today. We have guys.
Imagine living with this the rest of your life. You're
there with five or six of your buddies, and the
Japanese come up and tell your buddies this guy dig

(01:09:43):
a hole right here and bury them alive. And if
your buddies say no, then they'll just kill all your
buddies anyway, So your buddies have no choice but to
dig a hole in the ground when you're starving and
sick and keeping each other alive. But to dig a
hole in the ground and bury you alive, they would

(01:10:04):
just drive over our guys. They would bayonet them. And
again we tell all these stories like a memorial dawn.
We told some today about valor and charging in and overcoming,
and we tell we tell all these things, and all
those things are wonderful, and all those things matter. We
shouldn't forget how many of our guys die in situations
that are just unimaginable like this. How many POWs did

(01:10:28):
we lose in places like Vietnam, not just Japan. I
mean this goes beyond it. How many POWs did we
lose and they died alone. So many of these guys
they died alone, They died sick, they did not die quickly,
and they gave their life for the country. And they

(01:10:49):
deserve a day again. This is why, this is why
this day is just reserved for them. They deserve a
day to honor them. They deserve a day to onto them.
Kyle Noland USMC December twenty first, two thousand and six.
Wendel Ray Wheat nineteen sixty six, July Vietnam, Private Keegan

(01:11:11):
Stowan Furlong, May seventeen, May seventh, twenty nineteen, Staff Sergeant
Umberto Timoteo, Sergeant Frank Carvill, Sergeant Ryan Doltz, Specialist Christopher Duffy,
all four of those guys. John died on June fourth,
two thousand and four an Operation Iraqi Freedom from an

(01:11:32):
Ied Staff Sergeant William Jerome Brooks May fifth, two thousand
and five, Iraq. On and on and on it goes.
All right, we still have Green Beret Claim Martin coming up,
we have Braxton McCoy coming up. We're gonna get to more.
We're gonna get the Medal of Honor, citations, Distinguished Service

(01:11:55):
Cross citations, as much stuff as I have time to
get to that's we're gonna get to today on a
special Memorial Day episode of The Jesse Kelly Show. It

(01:12:15):
is The Jesse Kelly Show, Final hour of The Jesse
Kelly Show. Gonna do one more hour honoring the fallen
today on Memorial Day. I know it's a different show,
but that's just Look, it's how it's gonna be every
Memorial Day. We're gonna do a show and we're gonna
honor the fallen. Here joining me now is of course,
author of outstanding books like Prairie Fire. More importantly for today,

(01:12:38):
former Marine Scout sniper Marine Vietnam and long time Green
Beret Clay Martin joins us. Now, Clay, who do you
want to honor this Memorial Day? Except for Marine Vietnam
part I'm not that old. Oh yeah, say Vietnam a
long time marine recon Marine scout sniper is what I

(01:13:01):
meant to say. Go ahead, Clay, it's been a long day, brother,
Hey man, Yes, hey, thanks for having me on. Dude.
I wanted to talk about a couple of people the days,
if we had the time. First was Master stars in
Eden Pearl, who was a legend of the Force Freecon community,
coolest dude you ever met? Hold On, hold on once, Clay,
what's force Frecon for people who don't know. Force Freecon

(01:13:24):
back in the older days was the special operations component
of the Marine Corps before Marcock was founded. Please continue,
so Eden Pearl, Like I say, he's the cooles dude, right.
I actually checked into a ricond of the young as
a lance corporal. Sell when I got there and he
was already an old hand, but I just the courlst

(01:13:44):
dude you ever met. Like, that's a rough place to
be a new guy, but he made it so it
wasn't it that way? He stayed in the in the
force Freecon community after I crossed deck and left the Army.
I did tours in like two thousand and four, two
thousand and five. It was actually one of the plant
holders helped to found Marsock. He got really chewed up

(01:14:07):
in two thousand and nine, went to village, got in
this big old gunfight and I actually hit a bomb
on the way out and ended up losing two legs
in an arm right then, as well as received burns
over ninety percent of his body. Yeah, it was awful,
I mean, just absolutely awful. They said, he was probably

(01:14:29):
the most wounded guy that had ever like lived, you know,
like like like recovered for a while. And I ended
up dying of his wound almost six years later at
his home in San Antonio. But yeah, made a terrible sacrifice.
Oh man, that is who else? Clay? Next? I wanted

(01:14:53):
to talk about Nathan Winder, who was a friend of
mine from the especial course of course. Actually I was
actually going a Korea up, came over, joined the Army,
became a Special Forces medic, and was assigned to a
first Special Forces Group. And this is definitely one of
those weird ones in that thes overlap. I hadn't seen

(01:15:13):
in Nate in years. I got called out in two
thousand and seven with a commando company to go down
to south this place called Dwinee in Iraq because this
team had just hit hard, got their teamhouse blown up.
Two people actually died, one of which was Nay Winder,
and so we had to go down and kind of

(01:15:34):
help clean up the mess. Nate actually died in a
contact in that place called Dewinee, which was an absolute
hell hole. Uh why what we put that place? Tell
us about it? It was where a lot of the
ash Sh militia training on their way to bag that.
So they would bring these guys straight out. I ran

(01:15:55):
over there because it's kind of a good a little
training ground. They were very strong down there. They'd fight
with whoever was there for a while and then they
take a lover survived up to the big show and Bagdad.
So I mean, always fresh fighters, always a really nasty place.
And Nate ends up sure coming to a small armor
fire or for another guy who was wounded, which didn't

(01:16:20):
know until after the fact. Yeah, really really wild stuff. Clay,
thank you so much for calling us and honoring a
couple of our falling today. Anything else you want to
say before we sign up? Hey, brother, thanks for having
me on. I appreciate this every year, and you know
this is this is a really good show and I'm
glad that you do this. Are good, my man, you

(01:16:43):
two man stuff. Man, it's brutal. Jesse, my dad was
at Anzio July twenty or January twenty second, nineteen forty
four to June fifth, nineteen forty four. On this day
in nineteen forty four, US fifty fifth Army had been

(01:17:04):
pinned down for one hundred and twenty seven days. It
would take ten more days of hell and help from
the British to break out and take Rome. He says
this is not well known because of something going on
at Normandy. Twenty seven thousand, two hundred casualties, of which
forty eight hundred paid the ultimate price. Please remember them

(01:17:26):
on Memorial days, says I can use his name. His
name is Marvin. In case you don't know what this is,
this whole Anzio Italian campaign. I've often said this, the
Italian campaign, the Italian portion of World War two is
by a mile, the most undertold part of that war.

(01:17:47):
I mean there are parts that obviously when everyone thinks
about the highlights. When you think about World War two,
you think about World War two, you're gonna think about
the Holocaust. You can think about Hitler. You're gonna think
about the invasion of Normandy. I talk a lot about
the Pacific portion of it. You know, the atomic bombs
at Hiroshima and Nagasa. You're gonna know about all these things,

(01:18:08):
or at least have some general base of knowledge. People
do not have a general base of knowledge of the
living hell our guys went through in the Italian campaign
and how many of our guys we lost. Did you
even know forty eight hundred died there? And it's something
you have to understand about Italy. It really came into
play here is Italy when we landed, when we were

(01:18:29):
fighting on the Italian peninsula, we weren't fighting the Italians really.
By this point in time, the Italians had kind of
cashed in their chips and given it up. Well, Hitler,
he knew having Italy was critical because it protected his
southern part of Europe. So the Italians, who were frankly

(01:18:49):
pretty worthless in World War Two, they got bounced and
in came a bunch of highly trained Germans and the
Italian countryside it's all mountains and rivers. It's one gigantic
living hell to fight end all mountains and rivers, and
so fdr He look, the whole thing was probably mostly

(01:19:15):
his fault, but Churchill has to own some of it too.
Churchill was trying to ease the pressure off of them,
and they were trying to figure out how do we
do this? And this is when all that soft underbelly
of Europe came out. Italy soft, it's the soft underbelly. Well,
it may have been the soft underbelly when the Italians

(01:19:37):
were manning the guns. It wasn't no soft underbelly when
the Germans did. And this is post George Patton getting sacked.
A lot of you know the George Patton story. The
greatest offensive general, certainly on the American side in World
War Two, walks in a hospital season guys suffering with PTSD, slaps,

(01:19:59):
one pulls a gun on another, gets publicly reprimanded. Now
they didn't toss him out of the army, but they
basically sidelined him. He went and did some distraction stuff
that was very important for Normandy. Now I only tell
you that to tell you this. We had a bunch
of b team generals in charge who would head up

(01:20:21):
the Italian campaign, and we just had other parts of
the war where we put better guys that didn't look
There's a lot of reasons for it, but I tell
you that to tell you this. When we landed in Italy,
we took Sicily first, and then we started this Anzio campaign,
and we started the Italian campaign. Our guys got on

(01:20:43):
shore and the Germans start bombing us to death with artillery.
Just start lob and artillery. Our guys and our guys
are dying again. Heroes the heroes were honoring today, our
guys are dying well. We had a bunch of weak,
indecisive generals in charge at the time, and they wouldn't
push in and get us off the beach. So our

(01:21:06):
guys were just dug in, getting pounded to dust. That's
why we lost so many guys in the Italian campaign.
And look, that's just a small part of it. Eventually
we broke through. They had to land, he said, He said,
help from the British attacking Italy's east coast. People had
to land north of us to try to distract the

(01:21:28):
Germans and pull us off us. It's a long, awful
story and a lot of brave men went over there
and died in that place because of a lot of incompetence.
And it's a good day. It's a good day to
honor them. It is a good day to honor them.
Getting to as much as I can hear, Hey, Jesse,
I'll be honored if you can read Tom Kennedy's name

(01:21:49):
on the air Monday. He was my ranger brother from
another mother. When we were stationed in Korea together with
the first fifteenth Field Artillery, Second Infantry Division. In two twelve,
he was killed in Afghanistan by a scumbag suicide bomber.
He left behind his wife and two two small children.

(01:22:09):
I think of him every Memorial Day and will never forget,
says Rangers lead the ways as I can say his
name on the air and semplify. His name is Ernie.
Let's shoot. It's it's our honor, Ernie. Please honor my
mother's uncle. Aviation radio man third Class Norman Roland Brissett
on Your Memorial Day Show. He was killed by the

(01:22:32):
atomic bomb in Hiroshima while he was being held as
a pow thirteen hundred feet from Crown Zero. He survived
the initial blast with one other pow and died thirteen
days later from radiation burns. He was only nineteen at
the time. I'm sure many people don't realize how many
American POWs were killed during that bombing. Could be an

(01:22:53):
interesting history segment on the show. We are not done.
We still have Braxton McCoy, we have we have much more.
On this Memorial Day Jesse Kelly Show, Bally, it is
the Jesse Kelly Show on a Memorial Day, and it
is a day to honor the fallen reminder, though you

(01:23:16):
can enjoy yourself today, gather with family and friends, have fun,
it eats, some hot dogs, do your thing. Just make
sure you remember what the days about. It's about them,
It's about the ones we can't think. Frankly, maybe you're
a dog person that look. I wasn't sure if I'm
going to do this, but dogs really have done some

(01:23:38):
really awesome things in combat. And I don't know what
this dog did. We looked, I can't find it, but
Chips the dog in World War two Europe. For his
actions during the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross,
Silver Star in purple Heart. However, these awards were later
revoked due to an army policy preventing official commendation of animal.

(01:24:00):
In twenty nineteen, he was posthumously awarded the Animals in
War in Peace Medal of Bravery. So whatever you did, Chips,
I appreciate it. Good job. All right. This is a
Navy Cross citation for Clayton Leroy Roberts in Korea. The
President of the United States of America takes pride in
presenting the Navy Cross posthumously to Staff Sergeant Clayton Leroy Roberts.

(01:24:25):
United States Marine Corps for extraordinary heroism in connection with
military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations
while serving as leader of a light machine gun squad
and Company B, first Battalion, First Marine's First Marine Division
in action against enemy aggressive forces in the Republic of
Korea on the night of the twenty seventh of October

(01:24:48):
nineteen fifty, when a sudden devastating night assault by a
numerically superior and well concealed enemy force was launched on
the right squad position of his patoon, necessitating the shifting
of the remainder of the platoon to avoid encirclement. Sergeant
Roberts voluntarily remained in position with his machine gun in

(01:25:10):
order to cover the movement of the patoon and protect
several casualties in the vicinity of his gun. Despite the
tremendous danger from hostile small arms and automatic weapons firing
at close range, he steadfastly held his position, continuing to
fire into the face of the massed enemy while his
platoon took up new positions on the main line of

(01:25:30):
defense without further losses. When his position was finally overrun,
he still refused to give up the fight and engaging
the first swarm of enemy in hand to hand combat,
until overcome by sheer strength of numbers, he fell mortally wounded.
By his superb courage and indomitable fighting spirit, he saved

(01:25:51):
the lives of many members of his platoon and contributed
materially to the successful repulse of the hostile attack. His
staunch devotion to do in the face of insurmountable odds
reflects the highest credit upon Sergeant Roberts and the United
States Naval Service. He gave his life for his country. Again,
some of these you read these and you say to yourself,

(01:26:12):
how in the world does that gone not win the
middle of honor? And remember what they're talking about here
in Korea. When we got clear up close to the
Chosen reservoir and we dug in, we kind of discovered
at the end we kept getting intel, but they ignored
it that we were surrounded by hundreds of thousands, hundreds
of thousands of Chinese troops, just human waves. And at night,

(01:26:38):
the Chinese troops would amass close to our positions. Our
guys took these hilltop positions and you formed a perimeter,
and the Chinese would amass and they would blow bugles
and blow whistles as signals to each other of when
to go and when not to go, and they would
just send wave after wave of humans at you. Because

(01:26:59):
there were so many they didn't think they could possibly lose,
and because remember they were communists, so they didn't have
any value of human life. They would send a wave
armed with a weapon at our guys, and then they'd
send a second wave with no weapon, whose job it
was to pick up the weapon of all the people
who died in the first wave, and they would have

(01:27:20):
a wave behind all of them, whose job it was
to sit there and kill anybody who turned around and
ran back away. So the human waves didn't retreat. They
were waves. They kept coming. And it's at night. You're
this guy, you're dug in, it's freezing, it's pitch black,
and all of a sudden you are jarred loose by

(01:27:43):
a bunch of bugles and whistles, and you're looking out.
Remember this is the mountains, this is not the streets.
There aren't street lights. You can't see, so we would
fire flares up into the air to illuminate a certain area.
You're freezing, it's loud, you don't know what's going on.

(01:28:04):
They fire off a flare. The flare pops off, and
you're looking at hundreds of people, often with bayonets, running
towards your position, and you just start firing. And in
the midst of all this, because other parts of your
position are already overrun, you have to move your platoon,

(01:28:27):
parts of your platoon have to move to make sure
you seal up any holes. You volunteer and you stay there.
And it's one thing to go through what I just described,
with the cold and the waves and the noise and
the guns and the bayonets and everything else. It's one
thing to do that. When you have someone by your side,

(01:28:49):
when you have a friend by your side who's going
to be there for you, it's one thing to do that.
It is another thing entirely. I've always I mean, I
admire all these but I've all admire these ones. It's
another thing entirely to do that when you're alone, and
not only alone, when you're alone on purpose, when you

(01:29:10):
say no, everyone else go, I'll stay behind, I'll die,
I'll give it up for you. And at the end
when he knew it, and he knew it was the end,
when you're surrounded and they're all around you and they're
stabbing you and shooting you, and you know it's the end.
You don't curl up in a ball, you don't cry,

(01:29:31):
You just decide no. No, I'm pulling out my hands,
a shovel, a knife, whatever I have, and I'm taking
as many people with me as I can. Clayton, Leroy, Roberts,
remember the name this. Those are the people we honor
on a day like today. No, those are the day.

(01:29:54):
Those are the people we honor. All right, I have
Braxton McCoy. Guy got blown up in Iraq and he
lost a couple of guys he knew over there, a
couple of guys. He wants their names read. He wants
them honored on this day. And we will do that
on this Memorial Day. And again, if you get and
I wanting to email the show anything you want it,

(01:30:15):
you know that's fine, then he's fine on the show.
Jesse at Jesse Kelly show dot com. If you missed
any part of that Javier Mackey interview, obviously I know
that was that was a jaw dropper. We kept him
on for an hour walking us through someone's medal of
honor citation. We're gonna have that as part of the podcast,
and I think Chris is going to separate that out

(01:30:37):
as a separate podcast too, if you want to spread
that around for everybody. All right, Braxton McCoy. Next it
is the Jesse Kelly Show. And joining me now someone
else you probably already know from the show on this
Memorial Day, my friend Braxton McCoy. Braxton, before we get

(01:30:58):
into who you want to honor on this day, tell
people who you are. I'm just a horse trainer in Ottaho.
I spent a little time in the military and wrote
a book, and otherwise I'm just a dad and a
horse trainer. He wrote a book called The Glass Factory
because he got blown up and now he's a bonafide cowboy,
even though his beards pretty weak. But we're not going

(01:31:20):
to go into that today. We are going to go
into honoring the fallen though today. And he has a
couple of people he wants to tell us about. Maybe
you remember he told us about them last Memorial Day,
but most do not. Braxton, who gets honored today? Start?
Adam cann is a marine. He's a dog handler that
was with us and then Lieutenant Colonel Mike McLoughlin was

(01:31:44):
out there we were, we were securing, we were providing
security for some Marines that we were working on recruiting
Iraqi police officers, and Sartain Can came out to help
with he was a dog handler, and came out, why
did the Marines have dog handlers? First of all? Why
did I have him? Brackfast boy? I think it goes
all the way back to Vietnam. But the way we

(01:32:05):
used them, you know, not dog hammer. It's I to
be speaking of school here, but the way they used
them over there, at least in my time, was for
bomb detection and also some crowd control stuff like that.
And this dog, Bruno was his name. He Adam's dog,
Certain Can's dog. He located this suicide bomber in the

(01:32:28):
crowd and grabbed a hold of him, and then the
bomb detonated and U killed Adam and Carl Mack and
the you know, it's it stills terrible to think this way,
but it's um really the actions of Adam and of

(01:32:50):
certain Can and uh Bruno's probably saved a lot of
American lives because if a suicide bomber had got inside
the building and detonated, it had been a whole bunch
worse at least on Americans. So heroes on multiple levels.
And I think back to you know, I like to
bag on officers a lot, for good reason most of

(01:33:13):
the time. But colonel, Colonel mac you know, the fact
that he'd be out there on the line with a
bunch of e fours, fives, sixes, says, I mean, just
there's to a military guy. He really couldn't say anything
bigger about the man's character. He you know, he could
have been just like every other officer not been out there,

(01:33:35):
but he was out there, and he was he was
he was just like that man. He When we got
to Romandi, it was in O five. It was pretty hot,
we were we were pretty dang busy. Hold on quick,
hold on posible, quick brax Romandi, Iraq. The name is
probably vaguely familiar to a lot of people. Explain what

(01:33:55):
Explain what the deal is? Why are you even there?
Why they sitting Braxton McCoy. Well, Ramadi was What really
happened with Ramadi was the Battle of Fallujah. So Ramadi
to college town, kind of the first big city between
Syria and Baghdad, and it's the college town. And if so,

(01:34:16):
in order of succession, would go Ramadi, Fallujah, Baghdad if
you were traveling from west to east. So when the
Battle of Fallujah happened in two thousand and four, the
Marines in the army kind of wiped out a lot
of the insurgency, but a bunch of the others sort
of shuffled over to Ramadi. So in oh five, Fallujah

(01:34:38):
had calmed down a little bit and Ramadi had kind
of gotten super like pretty busy. I mean, it was
just daily gunfights and it was it was it was
a health of place to be, to be honest, it
was it was busy. And so when we got there,
I was on a PFD team at the time and
are off personal Secure Detail. So it's like the guy

(01:35:01):
that goes around and tried to keep majors and colonels
from getting themselves killed and maybe a US dignitary if
they come over and kind of like the military's idea
of a secret service sort of except for what west
training and way less of a budget. And when we
got over there, the upper echelon officer wise was just

(01:35:24):
really not interested in going out and doing much because
it was just that hot. And but Krolmack was never
like that. He ended up, developed his own PSD team,
and he was out doing basically the job of some
other people. He just wanted to be in the fight
all the time. And I think it shows the fact
that he was out there with us, that it wasn't

(01:35:46):
just bluster, you know, he was always really out there.
And I know, for like the average civilian, it's probably
hard to understand the gap between an E five and
a lieutenant colonel, but is so far as in terms
of authority in the military, but it is a tremendous gap.
So for him to just be willing to put his

(01:36:09):
hisself out there like that, it just it speaks just
incredible volumes about it. And I'm a father of four
now and this one gets me sometime. I sorry, um uh,
Colonel Mack was about my age at the time, you know,
about the age I am now at the time, and

(01:36:29):
he had I think three daughters, and man, I just
the the amount of courage it would take, knowing what
you have at home and what you were really putting
on the line is just I mean, it's baffling me.
I was a nineteen year old kid, you know, I
didn't have hardly anything to lose in comparison to this guy.

(01:36:52):
So to see to see someone behave that way, it's
I mean I think about it every day. I mean
every single day. I think about what he was willing
to do and it is and I hope one day
I'm half the man that guy was. That's what they
give up, everybody, that's what they give up. Three daughters

(01:37:13):
will never get to walk him down the aisle, won't
ever get to bounce his grandkids on his lap. Went
out there and gave it all for all of us.
So that's what it's about. Braxton McCoy, My brothers templified,
appreciate you. Thank you for telling us about these heroes.
Thanks brother Doubles. And look, I I hate to keep
saying it that way, but it's true. They gave up

(01:37:36):
so much, and that's why we always that's why we
want to do this show every single year from Memorial
Day because it is about something more and it's about
what they gave up. Lieutenant Peter Kawalski March twenty second,
nineteen forty five, Germany, Dick Passalnot July seventh, nineteen sixty eight.

(01:37:57):
Vietnam Captain Jeffrey Allen Ray December twenty second, nineteen eighty two,
West Germany died in a plane crash. David Gray Prentice
June fourteenth, nineteen seventy two, weeks left on his tour.
First Lieutenant Chris Bull Air Force October thirteenth, nineteen eighty seven,
South Korea in an accident. Charles Castler, Union Army in

(01:38:20):
the died in Mississippi. Raymond Buchan July two thousand and seven, Iraq.
Raymond W. Cunningham Army November fourteenth, nineteen forty two died
in a Japanese pow camp. Guess what he survived, but
Tom the death March I told you about earlier in
the show. William Fletcher, France, World War Two Corporal John J.

(01:38:45):
John G. Joyce February twenty fourth, nineteen sixty nine, Vietnam,
killed within a week of deployment. Lance Corporal Danny Morris
two thousand and seven, Iraqi Freedom Pfc. BOYD Kim Ray
September seventeenth, nineteen forty four, or Northern Italy. Jeremy Wise,
Navy Seal died December thirty, two thousand and nine. Afghanistan.

(01:39:06):
Ben Wise January fifteenth, two thousand and twelve, Afghanistan. Edward A.
Schroeder August third, two thousand and five, died from an
ied Lieutenant journal John B. Tilou June twenty sixth, nineteen
forty five for Mosa. Corporal James Milio, USMC, two thousand
and three, Mark Evan, Corporal Mark Evan, Marine Corps, April third,

(01:39:29):
two thousand and three. Lance Corporal one Venagas USMC, April seventh,
two thousand and five. Lance Corporal Ryan may And USMC
December twenty first, two thousand and six. Lance Corporal Ryan Burgess, USMC,
December twenty first, two thousand and six. On and on
it goes. I will get to as many more names

(01:39:49):
as I can possibly get to in our final segment
here as we honor the fallen on Memorial Day. This
is the Jesse Kelly Show on a Memorial Day. Final
segment of this Memorial Day special show. Hope you have
had a wonderful day today with family and friends. Remember

(01:40:13):
that's allowed. It's not what the day's about, but it's allowed,
and the fallen would want you to have that. But
I hope you also have taken the time I know
you have to honor the fallen to remember the true
meaning behind this day I'm going to read just a
couple more of these before we get ready to sign
off here, and just a heads up after I say

(01:40:35):
that's all, that's normally the end of the show. Tonight,
it's gonna be a little different. I'm gonna say that's all,
and then I'm going to play taps in its entirety,
and it's about a minute long. You have your own life.
It's not my business to tell you what to do.
If you would stay for the entire minute and take
that minute to dwell on all who we've lost, I

(01:40:56):
think that would probably be a very appropriate way to
sign off on Memorial Day, probably an extremely appropriate way
to honor them. No, let's go, let's do another Medal
of honor Jack William Kelso, Marine Korea. He was eighteen
years old. This is nineteen fifty two. The President of
the United States and the name of Congress takes pride

(01:41:18):
in presenting the Medal of Honor posthumously to Private first
Class Jack William Kelso, United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous
gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above
and beyond the call of duty. On the second of
October nineteen fifty two. Serving as a rifleman for Company I,
third Battalion, seventh Marine's first Marine Division, and action against

(01:41:39):
enemy aggressor forces in Korea, when both the platoon commander
and the platoon sergeant became casualties during the defense of
a vital outpost against the numerically superior enemy force attacking
at night. Remember all that Korea stuff. Under the cover
of intense small arms, grenade and mortar fire, Private first
Class Kelso gravely exposed himself to the hail of enemy

(01:42:02):
fire in a determined effort to reorganize the unit and
repel the on rushing attackers. Remember this gets eighteen years old.
Forced to seek cover along with four other Marines and
a nearby bunker, which immediately came under attack, he unhesitantly,
unhesitantly picked up an enemy grenade which landed in the shelter,

(01:42:23):
rushed out into the open, and hurled it back at
the enemy. Although painfully wounded when the grenade exploded as
it left his hand, and again forced to seek the
protection of the bunker when hostile fire became more intensified,
Private first Class Kelso refused to remain in his position
of comparative safety and moved out into the fire swept

(01:42:45):
area to return the enemy fire, thereby permitting the pinned
down marines and the bunker to escape mortally wounded, while
providing covering fire for his comrades. Private first Class Kelso
by his valiant fighting spirit, aggressive determined nation, and self
sacrificing efforts in behalf of others, served to inspire all
who observed him. His heroic actions sustain and enhance the

(01:43:09):
highest traditions of US Naval service, and he gallantly gave
his life for his country. Air Force Cross, President of
the United States, authored by Title nine, Section eighty seven
forty two United States Code, takes pride and presented the
Air Force Cross posthumously to Airman first Class Charles Douglas King,

(01:43:30):
United States Air Force for extraordinary heroism in connection with
military operations against an opposing force as a pair of
rescue Specialist and an H three E rescue helicopter of
Detachment one fortieth Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, third Air
Rescue and Recovery Group nincome Fanom Royal, a Royal Thai

(01:43:51):
Air Base, Thailand, an action near Ban Lathama, Mahaksia District
in Laos on the twenty fifth December nineteen sixty eight.
On that date, Airman King was aboard a helicopter engaged
in the recovery of a downed US Air Force pilot
from an extremely hostile area. With complete disregard for his

(01:44:12):
own safety, Airman King voluntarily descended on a rescue hoist
more than one hundred feet to the ground to aid
the injured pilot. Once on the ground, he carried the
rescue device to the pilot, freed him from the parachute,
secured him to the rescue device, and then used the
cable to cable hoist to drag the pilot to a
point near the hovering aircraft. Suddenly, enemy soldiers closed in

(01:44:35):
and directed automatic weapons fire at Airman King, the injured pilot,
and the helicopter. Though wounded, Airman King, in an extraordinary
display of courage and valor, placed his comrades lives above
his own by refusing to continue their exposure to murderous
enemy fire Without taking time to secure himself to the
hoist cable. He radioed that he was hit and for

(01:44:58):
the helicopter to pull away. Airmond King made this selfless
decision with the full realization that once the helicopter departed,
he would be alone, wounded, and surrounded by armed hostile forces.
Through his professional, dedication, aggressiveness, and extraordinary heroism, Airmond King
reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States

(01:45:21):
Air Force. Picture that alone in Laos, knowingly making yourself alone.
You're down there to rescue somebody. Sorry, I'm under fire,
I'm hurt, I'm scared. I know I'm going to die.

(01:45:42):
No helicopter, you save yourself. I'm going to stay back here.
I'm gonna say one final thing on this Memorial Day
before we sign off. There are countless, countless people, countless
people you probably know who have given their lives for
this country. Honor them today, and remember you're not just

(01:46:05):
honoring them for their sake and remembering their names and
remembering their deeds for their sake. This is part of
protecting the future of your country. Showing the next generation
that that kind of selfless service and duty and sacrifice,
showing them that it is honored, is worth something. It's

(01:46:25):
worth a great something. I sit down with my sons
and I try to come up with the words. I
want to make them be the kind of guy who
tells the helicopter, go away. I'm going to sign out
of here, go away, you save yourself. Let's all be
like that, all right, let's all be like that on
this Memorial Day. Let's honor the fallen. So again, I'm

(01:46:48):
gonna sign off here and then i'm gonna play taps,
and it's entirety as we honor these men, that's all.

(01:47:40):
M

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