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1:20

right, so this is the Twisted History Podcast. It's the

1:22

Twisted History of Medal Medal of Honor,

1:25

of the Medal of Honor, that's what we'll call it, of

1:27

the Congressional Medal of Honor. Listen,

1:30

it has nothing to do with

1:32

Congress. Nobody from Congress gets it. It's

1:34

issued by Congress or given

1:36

out by Congress, but it's a military medal,

1:39

right? So I'm just going to call it the Medal of Honor. Twisted

1:41

history of the Medal of Honor or

1:44

Medal of Honor recipients. I'm going to work this

1:46

out at some point. I think this is one of the ones

1:48

that we're going to try to keep above board. A lot

1:50

of times I have history teachers and people who

1:52

want their kids to learn about

1:55

certain aspects of history, particularly stuff

1:57

that we cover here, but they can't because

1:59

I dropped lot of C words

2:01

and F words and all that kind of stuff. I'm

2:04

going to try to refrain from that after

2:06

I get done with a couple of DMs. And then I'm going to introduce

2:08

everybody who's on the dais today. I've got two

2:10

DMs, one from a lady,

2:12

I think she hit Annie saying that she thinks

2:15

the recurring sloppy tits joke is getting

2:17

a little bit tired. I 100% disagree. I

2:19

do, I 100% disagree. There's no way I'm ever stopping

2:22

it. I might stop it for this one, but

2:24

there's no way that thing ever stops. I apologize.

2:27

You'll have to go elsewhere. And then the second

2:29

was a young

2:30

lady just started listening to Twisted History.

2:32

She's listening to us on four times

2:34

speed. Do you guys listen to podcasts?

2:37

I listen on two time. I listen on one and a half.

2:39

Yeah. And then when you go back to from

2:41

two times or one and a half, when you go back to regular.

2:44

Oh, it sounds like people are just. Walking

2:46

through mud. Yeah. Yeah. So

2:49

I'm a one and a half guy, two time guys. I try to be sometimes.

2:51

She listens to us on four. That's got to sound like Alvin

2:54

and the chipmunk. Yeah. Four times

2:56

speed.

2:56

She's like, I don't know what block she's

2:58

up to because now we're almost 200 episodes deep. So

3:01

if you're gonna, by the way, a lot of people have hit me saying

3:03

they've been listening to the whole catalog. God

3:06

bless you.

3:07

Tell Erica. But the

3:09

thing is, she's like, listening to you on four times

3:11

speed, all you do is talk about Joe DiMaggio's

3:14

dick. I don't believe that's true.

3:16

I mean, Joe DiMaggio has a wrench and I've spoke. I

3:18

think I would know that. We definitely do not. But I think maybe,

3:21

like, I speak about Liam Neeson's dick much more than Joe

3:23

DiMaggio's dick. Liam Neeson gets, yeah, definitely more purple.

3:25

Who's Milton burrow

3:28

one hundred percent Milton burrow so but

3:30

I told the story that she probably

3:32

hates where Pete Rose Had

3:34

to take a shower with him He's like I turned around and

3:37

I saw you know this giant dick with

3:39

Joe DiMaggio hanging off the end of it Like I like

3:41

that story So perhaps she's just

3:43

in a rut where I've told that three or four times So

3:46

again along with the sloppy tits thing there

3:48

is no moratorium Joe DiMaggio's

3:50

dick, right? He was a great American, a great

3:53

baseball player, took care of Marilyn towards

3:55

the end, even though she was a little bit of a hula. Even after. Yeah,

3:58

so I am a big fan of children.

4:00

Maggio and his dick. All right, so that's it.

4:02

We're gonna try to keep it above board from

4:04

now on. Okay, we're into it. Twisted

4:07

History of Medal of Honor

4:09

recipients. And this episode

4:11

we're glad to have for the first time in

4:13

the seat. Go ahead. No, we're not gonna talk about massive days.

4:15

We're gonna talk about massive balls. Yeah,

4:17

yeah, big, big balls guys. So

4:21

first time on

4:22

is Captain Kons. Captain Kons

4:25

is He's a very close friend of mine, a very close

4:27

friend of Annie's, a

4:29

close friend of everybody in this room. His

4:31

wife Alex is basically crowning

4:34

right now. She's about to have a kid any second. He's

4:37

celebrating his year anniversary just

4:39

this weekend. Annie and I were down at his wedding

4:42

in Naples and just an all around good

4:44

guy. I'm going to ask for the intro and what he did and

4:47

all that stuff in a sec, but I also want to mention that Vibs

4:49

is here. We often talk like when we have a guest,

4:53

whether it makes more sense to be two or three deep,

4:56

but I think this will be a little bit more conversational and

4:59

obviously I always love to have Vibs here for everything.

5:02

By the way, you just set yourself up for such

5:04

a big Joe DiMaggio joke right

5:05

now. Oh yeah, yeah. No, no, for the kids.

5:08

This one's for the kids. I know, that's why I didn't say it.

5:10

St. Anne already busted in on the mic because she can't

5:12

help herself, so St. Anne is here in case you guys

5:14

didn't know, almost 15 seconds without me

5:16

saying it. The JC is on the ones and

5:18

twos, Jack Coleman is here. Con,

5:20

so we're gonna talk about Medal of Honor recipients.

5:24

Tell people what you did for our country.

5:27

As some may know and some may not, just

5:29

like you like to remind people that you went to Notre

5:31

Dame, I think it's important

5:34

that I remind folks that I started my military

5:36

career at West Point, I graduated from West Point, commissioned

5:39

into

5:39

the Army as a second lieutenant,

5:41

as an artillery officer. I went to

5:44

Fort Till, Oklahoma to learn all about

5:46

the artillery and how to fire cannons

5:48

from very, very far away. So you

5:50

could actually say, because there is a science

5:53

to firing the rockets, ipso

5:55

facto, I'm a rocket scientist. I

5:58

wouldn't say that, some might. Right.

6:00

We'll go with it. From there I was

6:03

stationed at Fort Hood, Texas and

6:06

in June of 2008 I deployed

6:08

to Iraq from Fort Hood, Texas. And

6:10

actually if you're listening to this, we

6:13

discussed on Zero Blog 30, the podcast

6:15

I do with Chaps and Kate, our reflections

6:18

because this week was the 20th

6:20

anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the

6:22

start of the conflict there. So we had some interesting

6:25

reflections on that. Got a little emotional,

6:27

I will admit. But yeah, no,

6:29

I served in Iraq for a year, came home, served

6:32

out my time on active duty, and then I

6:34

moved back home to New Jersey where I am from

6:37

and fast forward and here I am

6:39

today. So your blog 30 is

6:41

the podcast. It's the most noble

6:43

thing that we do here at Barstool. I

6:45

just did a finance podcast, family

6:49

office with Tyler Morin and

6:51

Kenny Pulkari, who's one of my old friends.

6:53

love Kenny. Kenny is

6:55

he's a big proponent of

6:57

the

6:58

give me the charity. Headstrong. Headstrong.

7:01

So the Headstrong Project. Which we

7:03

have been very big proponents of and they offer

7:05

free mental health care to post 9-11

7:07

veterans. I apologize for forgetting the name

7:10

I do remember when we first got here I think

7:12

it was Kate who was being honored at one

7:14

of their things one of their evenings

7:16

so we gone we all got pretty

7:18

dressed up I great shoes on, Cated spoke

7:21

at it. And every time I- Oh, so that

7:23

was actually the organization that I am on the board

7:25

of directors for. Okay. Operation

7:27

Heal Our Heroes. Okay.

7:28

So many guys. Yeah. We're

7:31

involved. And I'll tell you, the thing is- We're involved.

7:35

any one of these veteran organization

7:38

functions, it's staggering how

7:40

many vets kill themselves. Flat out.

7:43

It's just absolutely fucking staggering. So

7:45

there are so many things that can't be treated with a prosthetic

7:48

and places like Heal

7:50

Our Heroes and the Headstorm Project do a great job with

7:52

it.

7:53

Ipso facto,

7:55

Zero Block Dirty does

7:57

a great job of bringing awareness from the veteran

7:59

to me. communities perspective. So if

8:02

you feel like listening to that, it's Uncle Chaps, it's

8:04

Kate, and it's cons every week zero

8:06

blog 30. Vibs, have you ever

8:09

served our country?

8:10

Now service comes in

8:12

a lot of forms. That's something you don't have to

8:14

think about. Yeah, no, I was trying to think of a service that I've done.

8:17

I can't even bullshit an answer. No.

8:20

Not even like a community service. Jack,

8:23

anything? I mean, I worked in

8:25

Maniscuan Beach technically for the town, so.

8:27

Right.

8:28

like a rat see or anything like that I

8:30

lived with Roxy kids okay so you're mostly

8:33

Navy though so that's all right you supported

8:35

them oh of course yeah exactly Annie

8:37

I have never served anything like that I mean

8:39

I definitely support them we do

8:42

charity would do volunteer work but nothing compares

8:44

to what we ever promiscuous week boys came

8:47

to town so anyway that's why we does a uniform

8:53

do anything for you? Who

8:55

doesn't a uniform do something? Just about any uniform.

8:58

Sometimes she puts me in a Popeyes uniform.

9:00

She's like, where's my chicken sandwich? I

9:02

don't know. She's like, I don't have any money to pay for

9:04

it. What can we do? I'm like, oh, let's work something out.

9:07

Girls on the floor would go wild for Fleet

9:09

Week. Oh, I'm not sad on that.

9:11

Every time somebody in a uniform would come and ring

9:13

the bell, forget it. I mean, they had options.

9:15

Yeah. Not me because I've been

9:17

with it for a century. One girl in

9:20

particular we worked with, she looked like she just got off a horse.

9:22

When fucking Fleet Week was around? Oh

9:24

god. There were a lot of them. There

9:26

were not a lot of girls on the floor.

9:29

So that's why we have cons in here for some

9:31

perspective. Did you win any medals?

9:34

That's not a rude thing to say, right?

9:35

You know what? Some people might get

9:38

all twisted in their shorts about winning

9:40

because you don't win anything. I'm going to get

9:42

into that. Yeah. Yeah, but do you have any medals?

9:45

Yeah. Okay. If you had to guess

9:47

which branch of the military has the most, Navy, right?

9:50

No, probably not. Just because the army's around

9:52

we can all agree the Navy probably yeah they're

9:54

the He's very pro. No,

9:57

I I I googled the fact it is the army

10:00

around the long list more is titles

10:02

though

10:03

two thousand four hundred and fifty one no

10:05

more national football yeah more national

10:08

championships more Heisman

10:11

Trophy winners yeah I'm not

10:13

sure but half of those were awarded during the Civil War yeah

10:16

well and I'm gonna get into

10:18

all that shit chaps is a Purple Heart winner purple

10:20

heart recipient purple heart recipient excuse me

10:23

I have a bronze star a bronze star

10:25

bronze star yeah okay

10:27

I I try to pay I

10:30

try to pay attention to pronouns and all

10:32

that shit that seems important to

10:33

people nowadays. And I try to do it. So

10:36

if I keep saying winner, then I'm not doing

10:38

anybody any kind of service

10:40

here. I think people

10:42

by and large

10:44

know what you're getting at and don't really

10:46

get upset about that. It's just

10:48

a real hard-o's who will get you for

10:50

it. Like, ugh, you don't actually win anything.

10:52

So don't worry about it. The living recipients

10:54

do not view the Medal of Honor as something that

10:57

was won. I won the National

10:59

Buffalo Wing Eating Contest

11:02

in Buffalo five years ago. Amateur division.

11:04

That's something that they don't. They view the medal as

11:06

something that was bestowed upon them to

11:09

carry as a symbol of the sacrifices

11:11

of all those who served. In the past,

11:14

winter was used a great deal, right?

11:16

But out of respect for those who currently wear the medal, the

11:19

CMOHS Committee S has

11:21

pleased to use the term recipient, so I'm going

11:23

to be aware of that for the rest of this podcast.

11:26

glad that I screwed up a little bit before that. Got

11:29

it out of the way. Yeah, yeah. National

11:31

Medal of Honor Day is March 25th. We're

11:34

amazingly ahead of the game.

11:36

So we're taping this on March

11:39

21st and it won't be out for a week

11:41

from Wednesday, a week from Thursday. So

11:43

we're ahead of the game but know that in and around

11:46

National Medal of Honor Day is when we're

11:49

taping this. There's nothing particularly

11:51

twisted about this episode, right?

11:53

None of these guys were involved

11:56

the bestiality or pedophilia as far

11:58

as I knew it. They were I wasn't paying attention to

12:00

it. This is going to be straightforward history of men

12:03

and just one woman who are certainly better

12:05

than me and quite possibly better than everybody

12:07

who's listening right now. We've gone

12:09

off the beaten path during the past two

12:12

episodes, right? Like we had the gentleman whose father

12:14

had made deep throat. Last week we had a little

12:17

bit Randy all over the place. This is going

12:19

to be sort of right down the middle and I can't wait to do

12:21

it. I will tell you too, one

12:23

of the most difficult things for Annie and I to do

12:25

when we're researching this stuff is

12:28

figuring out who to talk to. I'll get into

12:30

the numbers of it but there are literally thousands of people

12:32

who won this medal and who

12:34

received this medal. Keep

12:37

it up, I'll get there and they then I'm just kidding

12:39

and all of these

12:43

people have great stories for

12:45

the most part you know so it's it's

12:48

tough to to pick and choose.

12:50

I know that in the past we've mentioned

12:53

a couple of Medal of honor recipients. And

12:56

I won't go too far back with naming

12:58

all of them, but Roy Benavidez,

13:01

we did the Twisted History of 1968. Remember when

13:03

we carved out a couple of years that we think we were

13:05

going to do? 1968 was a fascinating

13:07

year. So

13:09

much happened. Oh, fascinating year. And Roy

13:11

Benavidez was one of the more fascinating

13:13

people. So go back and listen

13:16

to Twisted History of 1968, to

13:18

Roy Benavidez and his six hours

13:20

of hell is what it's been called colloquially,

13:23

right? I'm going to say

13:25

the skinny on this. Do you know about this story? I think

13:27

everyone does. Yeah. Benavidez sustained

13:30

seven major gunshot wounds, had shrapnel in

13:32

his head, scalp, shoulder, buttocks, feet, chest, legs,

13:35

had both his arms slashed by a bayonet and had to collapse

13:37

long. He had gone out. And

13:39

so again, listen to the whole thing, right?

13:42

Because he went in to rescue

13:44

a bunch of his comrades that were in the

13:46

suck. And as he was pulling people

13:48

out and getting them to the chopper, he was getting

13:51

more and more hurt to the point where he

13:53

finally just collapsed. They

13:55

put him in a body bag and were about to zip

13:57

it up and all he could manage to do was spit

13:59

at the doc. It's the only reason they knew not to

14:01

zip it up and put this guy on the fucking garbage pile.

14:04

All right Oh, she's my language. He was originally

14:06

awarded the Distinguished Service Cross because

14:09

his superiors thought he would die And

14:11

wanted him to be awarded something before

14:13

his death, right? But in 1981

14:16

his award was upgraded to the Medal

14:19

of Honor and believe me if anyone deserves

14:21

a Medal of Honor It was Roy Benavidez

14:23

a fascinating story and when President Ronald

14:26

Reagan awarded it to Benavidez This

14:28

was 13 years later. He

14:30

accepted it with two pieces of shrapnel still

14:32

lodged in his heart Those are the type of

14:34

stories that you get just

14:36

throughout You know just

14:39

googling Medal of Honor winners, you

14:41

know So that's that's

14:43

the direction that we're gonna hope to take on

14:46

this on this episode There

14:48

are little there are literally thousands

14:50

of stories like that. So if I miss your favorite,

14:53

please forgive me I'm gonna start with facts

14:55

Just some facts we already alluded to some of them

14:57

and this is from the Congressional Medal of Honor service

15:01

org Cm OHS

15:04

org so you can look at that and

15:06

you can get the whole skinny the Medal of Honor

15:08

is the United States highest award for military

15:10

valor and action

15:12

I'm not sure I knew that

15:14

I'm not sure there isn't something secretive No,

15:16

I didn't know about the Medal of Honor is the top. That's

15:18

a very very top Yeah, the standards to award

15:20

the Medal of Honor have evolved over time but the medal

15:23

is always stood for actions that go above and beyond.

15:25

Are we sure there isn't like a secret list the

15:27

president has of men's names? Not

15:31

to my knowledge, but I guess that's what would make

15:33

it secret. Right. So

15:35

above and beyond is something that we hear a lot we talk

15:38

about Medal of Honor winners. The current

15:40

criteria was established in 1963 during

15:42

Vietnam and here is the current criteria.

15:45

The medal is authorized for any military

15:47

service member who distinguishes himself

15:50

conspicuously by gallantry

15:52

and intrepidity at the risk of

15:54

his life above and beyond the call of duty

15:56

while engaged in an action against an enemy

15:58

of the United States. Okay, so that's

16:00

one. There are certain caveats

16:03

to that. If it's not against an enemy

16:05

of the United States, if they're fighting with

16:08

a friend of the United States against an

16:10

enemy, so there's certain caveats to that,

16:12

but it's sort of straightforward. All

16:15

recommendations require thorough reports

16:17

on the act itself for which they won,

16:20

and at least two sworn eyewitness

16:22

statements from it. Right, So that's

16:24

the thing too, I think

16:26

even once you have all of that,

16:29

it still is up for review, right? So

16:31

there's certain times and stories that we've heard

16:34

from, we'll

16:35

just take the last 20 years in Iraq and

16:37

Afghanistan and you would think like,

16:39

oh, well, that's a medal of honor, no doubt.

16:41

But there still is an extensive review

16:44

process. That's

16:46

all to say that they don't hand them out like candy. Recommendation

16:49

packets must be approved all the way up the military

16:51

command Question and then with the commander in chief

16:53

go ahead says authorized for any military

16:56

service member Mm-hmm. Has there ever been

16:58

a civilian that's won the medal of honor? No,

17:00

no, I'm gonna get to her Yeah,

17:04

and I'll tell you there were quite a few

17:06

and they were that their medals were actually

17:08

rescinded

17:09

and then only six of them Were

17:11

were given back their medals Posthumously.

17:14

So yeah, there's there's a bunch of

17:16

like little things on the CMO HS I

17:19

kind of listen I love the stories, but

17:21

I also love the stats. Yeah, I love when

17:23

yeah So by federal

17:25

statute recommendations for the medal must

17:28

be submitted within three years of the

17:30

valorous act And the medal must

17:32

be presented within five years Any

17:34

submissions outside of that timeline require

17:37

an act of Congress to waive the

17:39

time limits?

17:40

Like Ray Benavidez an act of Congress

17:42

got him his medal 13 years later Since

17:45

its first recipient, Civil War Army

17:47

Private Jacob Parrett,

17:49

Parrett, like the bird,

17:51

on March 25, 1863. since 1863, 3,535.

18:00

Medal of Honors, Medals of Honor, I think

18:02

it would be, yeah, Medals of Honor, have been given

18:05

to 3,516 individuals. The

18:09

dichotomy there is that there have been 19 servicemen

18:12

who have received two Medals of Honor, and

18:15

only 65 of that 3,516 are still alive, okay?

18:23

Going forward, we had said, we're

18:25

gonna try and keep up with recipient versus

18:27

winner, Please keep on me for that, okay?

18:30

Do you have to be a, I mean here's a frequently

18:33

asked question, I tore this right from the website. Do

18:35

you have to be a US citizen to receive the Medal of Honor,

18:37

first of all? A US citizen? And

18:40

the answer is no, you fucking idiot. Oh,

18:42

I can't, I curse. You don't have to be a US citizen,

18:44

but you do have to serve in the US military.

18:47

There have been at least 764 foreign born recipients,

18:50

and

18:52

not all of them chose to become citizens.

18:56

Ireland and Germany are the most common

18:58

non-US birth locations for

19:01

non-Citizen Medal of Honor recipients.

19:04

Ireland and Germany, two great places. Absolutely.

19:07

Germany had a little trouble for a little bit, but

19:09

otherwise it's a good place. Not surprising that Ireland's up there.

19:12

The only time members of a foreign country's

19:14

military have been awarded the

19:16

medal was following World War I, when

19:18

Congress passed special legislation allowing

19:21

the medal to be presented to

19:23

the unknown soldiers of some

19:25

of US's allies. So the

19:27

unknown soldiers of Belgium, France, Great

19:29

Britain, Italy and Romania are all

19:31

listed as recipients of the Medal of Honor.

19:34

I think that's cool. New York has the

19:36

most recipients accredited to that state. New

19:39

York with 676 out of the 3500 nearly 700 from New York followed

19:42

by Pennsylvania with 380 followed

19:48

by Massachusetts with 264 followed by Ohio with 253 followed

19:54

by Illinois rounding out the top five with 208. I will

19:56

tell you right

19:57

now.

19:59

New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,

20:01

Ohio, and Illinois, what do they all have in common? The

20:05

big cities in them, like Chicago, New

20:07

York City, Boston, like northern cities.

20:09

Is the South full of cowards? And the answer

20:12

is sort of alluded to what Kans had said. Out

20:14

of the 3500, 1500 or so was issued during the Civil War, and

20:19

you weren't allowed to issue them to the

20:21

losing side. So the Confederate soldiers

20:24

never had received medals of honor. So

20:27

that's why it's so heavily weighted to

20:29

the North. when I call him the South cowards.

20:31

You can, I don't care. I'm okay with that.

20:33

Yellow Belly cowards. I'm okay with that,

20:36

yeah. Lily Lippard. Some guy named Dave D on

20:38

Twitter. I'm not even fact checking this, because

20:40

I hope it's right. So please

20:42

don't fact check it. Weymouth, Massachusetts,

20:46

is that how they pronounce it? Yeah, Weymouth. Has

20:48

five Medal of Honor recipients, the most of any

20:50

town. I don't know if that's true, but I'm

20:52

hoping it is. And by the way, you're

20:55

like, so let's say you're born in Indiana,

20:58

but you're considered a New York Medal of

21:00

Honor winner if where you enlisted was

21:02

in New York State. Makes sense. So people who enlisted

21:04

in Weymouth, Mass, five of them

21:07

is the most of any town. And most notably

21:09

was a guy named Eldon Johnson. And

21:11

this guy, Dave D. said, large he was an

21:13

absolute boss in World War II.

21:16

I checked and he was.

21:17

He was serving as a private in the 15th Infantry

21:20

Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, when

21:23

his unit was ambushed

21:25

near Valmontone, Italy. So

21:28

the deal with this guy, Eldon Johnson,

21:31

is I guess they were all bunking in and

21:33

they were just receiving all this hostile fire.

21:36

So what he did is he had jumped out with

21:38

his machine gun and ran towards the

21:40

fire while 12 of his teammates

21:43

or comrades was able to escape. Like

21:45

shooting from the hip with a machine gun, he killed a bunch of people,

21:47

then pulled out his firearm while he took multiple

21:49

things and he was awarded the

21:51

medal posthumously. And that's a guy from

21:54

Weymouth Mass. So Weymouth Mass is

21:56

the capital of the world as far as I'm concerned for medals

21:58

of honor. He was right. fact quick fact

22:00

check yeah it was way myth yeah way with cool

22:03

for all military service members of

22:05

for whom history is recorded ranks 77% of

22:07

medals of honor have

22:10

gone to enlisted personnel I found that to be

22:12

surprising only 23% went to officers

22:16

cons you're an officer yes um

22:19

interesting yeah I think so

22:22

the army is number one with the bullet with

22:24

the most medals well over 2,000 out of 3,500 army has

22:28

over 2,000. The Navy has 749. The Marine Corps has

22:30

only 300. And the

22:31

Air Force has 19.

22:36

And the Coast Guard has only one. We told

22:38

you how we were looking forward to like

22:40

maybe Mick joining the Coast Guard and then he and I had

22:42

gone down to Cat May and instead he's tearing

22:45

it up. He's the Riz God down in Alabama.

22:47

Yeah he made a good choice for himself. I'm happy for him down

22:49

there in Alabama. And I think what is interesting about

22:51

all those numbers, two things. Number one,

22:53

You know, they're relative to the

22:54

size and the age of

22:57

each branch of the military. Certainly

22:59

the Air Force by nature, it's a little

23:01

bit harder. You know, we're not engaged in a lot of air

23:03

to air combat. So to receive the

23:06

Medal of Honor in the Air Force, I think is

23:09

exceptionally special. And that takes

23:11

a lot for me to credit the Air Force for anything. And

23:14

then also you're like, oh, I would think the Marines

23:16

would have more. Well, the Marines as a fighting force

23:18

are just tiny compared to the Army. So

23:20

it's no surprise that the Army has the most. And

23:22

I think what we should also call

23:25

out, just from a numbers perspective,

23:28

about 3,500 recipients

23:31

in all time. That's 0.008% of

23:34

all people who have ever served

23:38

in the military in the United States are Medal

23:40

of Honor recipients, just to give you some context

23:43

of the nature

23:44

of this

23:45

award. We

23:47

did a Twisted History of Pilots, And

23:50

I didn't tell the story of too many American

23:52

pilots, right? Because there's so many cool like

23:54

German pilots in World War I and World War II. But

23:57

even the few that I mentioned, I don't even remember if

23:59

they were recipients. Like it just sort

24:01

of, I'm gonna pay 10 more attention to it now that

24:04

we're doing this, but it's always been like, if somebody

24:06

said Medal of Honor recipient,

24:08

I didn't give it that much weight. Actually,

24:11

that's not true until I got to meet Kyle

24:13

Carpenter and we'll talk about him in a second. Excited

24:16

pleasure. What are we gonna say, Vibzi? I'm sorry.

24:18

I was gonna ask, Cons, we were talking

24:20

earlier about the 77% of medals, good

24:22

with enlisted personnel versus the 20% with officers. Why

24:25

do you think that is, personally, if

24:28

you had to guess, an educated guess? Again,

24:30

I not that you know, there's just more

24:33

of them. Yes Yeah, I mean so to

24:35

give you context like when I went to Iraq I was

24:37

a platoon leader there was one of me and 33

24:39

of Soldiers

24:41

in my platoon. So I think it's really just a numbers

24:44

thing a numbers game. Yeah, sure. So is that a cowardice

24:46

thing? Yeah No, well,

24:49

all right

24:50

You know as you

24:52

rise up the the rank structure in the

24:55

military especially in today's

24:57

military You see less and less of

24:59

the battlefield you see less and less of combat

25:01

once you get beyond the rank of like captain

25:04

You're really not leading soldiers in combat.

25:07

It's not as common Can you get promoted

25:09

for stuff you do on the battlefield like getting a medal

25:11

of honor like alright? Well, you're a general now

25:12

you can it doesn't really happen anymore It

25:15

was it was a lot more common in past

25:17

conflicts, but it really doesn't happen Yeah to

25:19

put in perspective to when

25:22

cons was saying less than point oh eight

25:24

percent receive it

25:27

college athletes less than 2% GoPro

25:29

so that's an even tighter number. That's

25:32

pretty crazy. I like that fact.

25:34

The one Coast Guard guy was a stud.

25:36

Douglas Monroe. I'm gonna give the Coast Guard

25:38

shine right now. It's the only time we're gonna give him shine

25:40

on this. By the way, the Space Force hasn't

25:42

had one yet. Zero. Pick it up, Space Force. So

25:46

we need like some meteors to be destroyed.

25:48

This guy named Douglas Monroe. We'd gotten to

25:51

see a duplicate of his medal at

25:53

the Douglas Monroe barracks in Cape May, New

25:55

Jersey. ə signs also comes out at IE

25:58

favorite jazz

26:00

Maine, New Jersey, by the way. My first time

26:02

there, when I was with Annie and Mick, we

26:04

went to the Coast Guard Training Academy

26:06

there, which is essentially Guantanamo,

26:09

Paris Island, Paris Island for

26:11

Coast Guard. Everyone goes through there. And

26:14

it's awesome. It's awesome. Annie

26:16

was driving a cutter. She was doing something called 40

26:18

knots, which I learned

26:20

was way too fucking, way too fast.

26:24

The people there were awesome, and Cape May is awesome.

26:26

Cape May's a great little town. The Coast Guard and the Navy,

26:28

it's kind of a cheat code, Because they got to be by water,

26:30

right? So by and large, where you could

26:32

be stationed in either of those branches

26:34

is usually pretty good. Yes, yeah.

26:36

Do they fully embrace the movie

26:38

The Guardian? Bro. Ashton Kutcher in the

26:41

Coast Guard. I have been trying to get Kate and Chaps

26:43

to watch The Guardian going on five

26:45

years now. Great movie. Kevin Costner

26:47

doesn't miss. Like, that's what you need to understand.

26:50

They have it playing on a loop. I love that.

26:52

I love that movie. Yes.

26:53

What's the other movie they have? The

26:56

Coast Guard? There was two Coast Guard movies.

26:58

I'm sorry. You're right. And one

27:02

of them was the Guardian. The other one. I can't think

27:04

of the name of it. Cuba Gooding

27:06

Jr. is the one. Oh, that's the Navy

27:10

Seals. Maybe in the 80s. There's no dogs. I

27:12

don't know. I bet they did. It was somebody's name. I can't think of

27:14

it. I feel bad that I can't think of it. They

27:16

did mention both of them. This guy. Finest hours. That's

27:19

it. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. 2016. Craig

27:21

Gillespie. Yes. Chris Pine

27:23

is in it. Yes. Oh, I might have to check this out.

27:26

Yeah. Maybe that's it. Is it I'm

27:28

sorry. I took a left turn.

27:31

I love this left turns about to go on

27:33

the Coast Guard needs to embrace it I feel like I feel like the

27:35

army is kind of making it they're like recruitment videos

27:37

look like modern warfare, too Yeah, I think the

27:39

Coast Guard needs to embrace the Ashton

27:41

Kutcher Kevin Costner. They do they

27:43

do good good What happened

27:46

with the Navy's recruitment numbers back in the 80s

27:48

when Top Gun came out? Yeah. Yeah

27:50

massive massive influx of recruits

27:54

And then when the when the sequel came out nothing

27:56

now all my boys they they all were

27:58

trying to be top gun

28:00

And only one of them got into the school

28:02

or whatever it was to be able to do it I'll tell you what's even

28:04

more impressive and something that like

28:07

we talked about it jokingly not jokingly

28:09

but flippantly how people join the Navy after

28:11

Top Gun and You know how maybe

28:13

after the finest hours you're more likely to go

28:16

to the Coast Guard What floors me

28:18

is how many of these Medal

28:20

of Honor stories happened because they

28:22

saw Pearl Harbor get bombed and they were

28:24

like, I don't give a shit 13 years old. I want to go to

28:26

war Yeah, I mean it was a different time I

28:29

don't know what needs to happen because I

28:31

sat here during 9-11, right? And

28:36

we didn't see that type of,

28:38

you know, our Pearl Harbor, right? I'm not

28:40

being disrespectful to victims Pearl

28:42

Harbor or whatever. But it seems like back then,

28:44

people were like, Andy, get your gun. Let's go. I

28:47

mean, wasn't the... I'll slightly disagree

28:49

with that. Okay. I think if you talk to a lot

28:51

of service members in the last 20 years, a lot

28:53

of them will point to 9-11 as the reason

28:55

what prompted them to serve. I don't doubt

28:58

it. Maybe it's not. But it's a size thing. It's

29:00

not to the extent, yes. It's not to the extent that it was in 1941. But

29:04

there was a fervor for

29:07

pride in

29:08

being an American and defending our

29:10

country, so. Which is absolutely beautiful.

29:12

But it's. I mean they had similar slogans. A

29:14

Day That Will Live in Infamy, Never Forget. You

29:16

know what I mean?

29:18

They're huge. Yeah. And so I

29:20

have a lot of respect. I have a lot of respect for cons. I'm going

29:22

to joke around with them and stuff like that. It's not a good guy. I

29:25

just I'm in awe with a lot of this shit Douglas

29:27

Monroe the only Coast Guard guy that I'm gonna talk about

29:30

He was in charge of a group of 24 Higgins boats

29:32

Higgins boats should raise a familiarity

29:35

with people who listen to this podcast He

29:37

engaged in the evacuation of a battalion of 500 Marines

29:40

trapped by enemy Japanese forces

29:42

at Point Cruise Guadalcanal in 1942 That's

29:45

what this guy did he brought in the Higgins boats

29:47

and it was under constant strafing by

29:50

an enemy machine-gun fire He

29:52

daringly led five of his small

29:54

craft towards the shore. As he closed the

29:56

beach, he signaled the others to land. and

29:59

then in order to draw the... enemy's fire protect

30:01

heavily loaded boats. He valiantly

30:03

placed his craft with its two small

30:05

guns as a shield between the beachhead and

30:07

the Japanese. When the evacuation was

30:09

nearly completed Monroe was killed by

30:11

enemy fire but his crew carried on until

30:14

the last boat was loaded and cleared the beach.

30:16

That's a stud. That's a stud

30:18

to go in and get people off the beach

30:20

at Guadalcanal. His mother was awarded

30:23

the medal posthumously.

30:26

She was awarded it on behalf

30:28

of the recipient her son and like I had

30:30

said there's a FDR had

30:32

given it to the to the old lady to his mother Edith

30:35

Monroe and as a duplicate of the medal on

30:37

display as I'd said in Cape

30:39

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I'm gonna make a full left turn

31:19

here because Higgins boats Twisted

31:21

History of New New Orleans was June of 2021. I

31:26

can't believe it's June of 2020. It's almost two years

31:28

since. You guys went down to the World War II Museum. It's exactly

31:30

it. Oh, that's a great place. I've been to New Orleans. It's

31:32

my favorite museum in the world. So I'm mentioning it again,

31:35

even for the woman who's listening on four

31:37

time speed, if you're hearing it again for the second time, I really

31:39

don't care. You should get your ass down to

31:41

the World War II Museum in

31:43

New Orleans. It's awesome. In 1926,

31:46

a guy named Andrew Higgins was

31:48

the founder of Higgins Industries, New Orleans,

31:50

New Orleans based lumber company and more importantly

31:53

a boat manufacturer and he designed company

31:55

something called the Eureka boat And it was a

31:57

shallow draft craft used by drillers

32:00

and trappers in the lower Mississippi.

32:03

The way this craft was made

32:07

was to operate in shallow

32:09

waters like the propellers inside

32:11

the hull, all this stuff that made it

32:14

perfect for oil drillers

32:16

and whatnot. As he designed

32:18

a spoonbill bow for his craft,

32:21

he allowed it to be run onto riverbanks

32:23

and then back off of them with ease. Along

32:26

comes the Marine Corps who were interested in finding better

32:28

ways to get men across a beach in an amphibious

32:31

landing so they expressed interest in the Eureka

32:33

boat. So then this guy Higgins

32:35

had stole some designs from the Japanese

32:38

because the only thing that was the problem with his Eureka

32:40

boat was you had to jump off the sides.

32:43

So he had found a Japanese

32:44

design where they were

32:46

able to drop the front. So now he

32:48

combined the Japanese design with

32:51

the Eureka body. The Japanese designed

32:53

bow with the Eureka body and and

32:55

that became the Higgins boat. And the Higgins

32:57

boat as you guys know you saw storm the beaches

33:00

in Normandy and all those kind of things it

33:02

was because of him and blah blah blah

33:04

blah hold on. If it wasn't for those Higgins

33:06

boats that were used to storm the beaches with Normandy

33:08

during World War II, Higgins boats were

33:10

also called LCVPs,

33:12

land and craft vehicle personnel that could carry 36

33:15

soldiers and over 23,000 boats

33:18

were produced during the war.

33:19

By September of 1943 12,900 of

33:23

the American Navy's vessels, 12,900 of the 14,000 Navy

33:26

vessels were designed by

33:33

Higgins Industries. That's

33:36

huge. So I'll put it another way. 92% of

33:39

the US Navy was the Higgins

33:41

Navy. Eisenhower

33:44

is quoted as saying, Andrew Higgins

33:47

is the man who won the war for us. If

33:50

Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs,

33:53

we could never have landed over an open beach,

33:56

the whole strategy of the war would have been different.

34:00

Adolf Hitler recognized

34:02

Higgins and bitterly dubbed

34:04

him as the new Noah and because

34:07

he's a New Orleans guy and that's

34:09

where his industry was that's why the

34:12

WW2 Museum is in

34:14

New Orleans. I actually never knew that. Yeah

34:16

so Higgins boats obviously

34:18

the Monroe story centered

34:20

around them and then the Andrew Higgins

34:23

things goes a little bit more deeper.

34:25

I was gonna say with the Higgins But I understand they

34:28

go up on the beach. They drop the platform You

34:30

can have like a Jeep or a little tank

34:33

rollout But wouldn't it have made more sense for

34:35

the thing to open up from behind and the guys

34:37

like pull out in two lines And go that way because

34:39

I feel like in D-Day and everything I've seen they just like open

34:42

the flap down and they're just

34:44

completely

34:46

Exposed a machine gun. Yeah, I

34:48

didn't think I'd come on the show and just have Vibs

34:50

just completely crapple over everybody Andrew

34:53

Higgins, what's up with this design? Well

34:56

I think first off, and again we're

34:58

just chatting about it because that's what we do. It

35:01

drops them off in shallower water

35:04

because you're going towards the shore, or on

35:06

the beach, which is what they want. And then you can back

35:08

up off it because of that

35:10

hull design. I guess there's

35:13

an argument that could have banged the Yui and backed

35:15

in like Annie does

35:16

to all the... Yeah, do a quick

35:18

Kate's turn.

35:19

If you ever get a chance to go to the

35:21

World War II Museum down in Louisiana, you

35:24

should look up a woman named Sarah Kirksey. She's the

35:26

director of operations there. And

35:28

she's actually a fantastic follow on

35:31

Twitter, at Sarah Kirksey underscore.

35:34

She's amazing.

35:35

And she'll give you like, she breaks

35:37

it down exactly why. Like they have

35:39

a whole entire exhibit dedicated to

35:41

why they did it that way. Okay. I

35:44

don't want to give it away because I guess I would have to go out and

35:46

swim a little bit to get the water isn't.

35:48

I believe they could do it either way. Right, because also you gotta

35:50

remember, Vibs, they're not wearing a swimsuit. Right.

35:53

You know, they got all that gear. They got 50 pounds of gear strapped to their back

35:55

and a weapon. You know what I don't know. You know what I'm thinking

35:57

about, Sarah Kirksey? You know, not this one.

36:00

Not this one. No. Easy JC. Yeah.

36:02

JC. On hold. She's incredible

36:04

and she does a fantastic job down there and

36:07

she really goes out of her way to like really

36:09

spotlight a lot of people like this if

36:11

you go to her Twitter page today she's got an old Navy guy

36:13

on that he's just the cutest thing

36:15

ever. I appreciate you taking some of

36:17

the heat off me there Jim. No

36:20

but you should really go to that museum. I would love

36:22

to yeah there's a World War II museum

36:24

in Indy that I've been to. It was great. We

36:26

went with with

36:29

Mintsy. Well that's interesting. Mintsy

36:31

and his girlfriend. Well him and Sarah are very, they're very

36:33

friendly. They're very close friends. What's up bottle canal?

36:36

This place is amazing. I was so impressed by it. Yeah,

36:39

Mintsy was awesome too.

36:40

And again, if you go to New Orleans, do

36:43

it with Mintsy. He's the king of New Orleans. Guy

36:45

is awesome. King of the South.

36:47

You can't go anywhere without somebody knowing

36:48

him on the street. And he knows all the spots,

36:51

all the food places and stuff. It's honest to

36:53

God. And the girl that was dating at the time was an

36:55

absolute guy named Sweetheart. So yeah, we had

36:57

a couple of good good meals done there

36:59

back to the metal facts the stolen valor

37:01

act of 2005 and 2013 makes

37:05

it illegal to buy or sell a medal of honor So

37:07

somebody has it they were given it to them by a relative

37:10

or something like that You can't buy or sell it. You can't buy its ribbon

37:12

can't buy its rosette and that's including

37:14

replicas of reproductions You can't trade those

37:16

either So if you have a replica of

37:19

the Medal of Honor that you bought you broke the law

37:21

There are no classified or secret Medal

37:23

of Honor recipients that we

37:26

know of. Yeah, presentation of the Medal of Honor.

37:28

Teddy Roosevelt 1905's executive

37:30

order stated that the presentation of the Medal of Honor

37:32

will always be made with formal and

37:35

impressive ceremonial. Therefore

37:38

they're always presented publicly

37:41

and surprisingly only 18 and a half

37:43

percent of medals of honor have

37:45

been awarded posthumously. So over 80%

37:48

of people who have gotten them have

37:50

gotten them in person. That's fucking wild.

37:52

I thought it would be a lot more

37:54

posthumous than, but less than 20% of the

37:57

Medals of Honor are awarded posthumously.

37:59

Is it?

38:00

Is it because if they they pass away there's usually

38:02

not like witnesses to

38:04

it like I

38:07

Mean that certainly can be part of it I mean

38:09

there's a lot of people who are dead on battlefields who

38:11

every witness around them is probably dead But they did

38:14

something just as valiant to win a medal of honor They're

38:16

gonna

38:16

stop in the middle of what they're doing you'd be like note this

38:18

guy. Yeah take note of that job Or

38:22

technology didn't exist then it wasn't like they had a cell

38:24

phone in their pocket Or they could just screenshot

38:26

it like they do now like these guys were in

38:28

the throes of it

38:29

is there is there ever any feelings of

38:32

Not wanting it like Yeah,

38:37

maybe some survivors guilt I would imagine I

38:39

would have to imagine that you know I've never received

38:42

one We've been fortunate enough to interview a bunch

38:44

of them on zero blog 30 and

38:47

I think there is part of that because oftentimes in

38:49

these situations And

38:50

there are a lot of service members that lose

38:53

their life in the

38:56

face of all this danger and in

38:58

the face of this gallantry that these individuals

39:01

demonstrate, it's usually at the cost

39:03

of other people's lives. So I think in

39:06

some ways it might feel like a burden, in others it's

39:08

a tremendous honor. And I will say, you'll

39:11

talk about Kyle Carpenter, Kyle has

39:13

said what an immense responsibility

39:16

he feels to honor the legacy

39:18

of all those other men who

39:20

have been awarded the medal and

39:23

to really live for those

39:25

service

39:26

members that didn't come home.

39:27

I googled who has turned down the Medal of Honor, thinking

39:30

that there was somebody, it was either one of

39:32

those things where it was too painful like you said,

39:34

or it was like a Marlon Brando moment where I

39:36

don't want the Academy Award. Yeah. Like,

39:39

and so I was, and I did. Who turned down the Medal of Honor? And

39:41

this is what I got. Bill Belichick,

39:44

coaching the New England Patriots, turned down the medal

39:46

after the 2021 United States Capillets

39:48

Act. Hold on. Country musician Dolly

39:50

Parton turned down the medal twice. Parton

39:53

said she'd turn it down the first time because her husband was

39:55

ill and the second time because of the COVID pandemic.

39:58

Google fucked up Google

40:00

had messed up Presidential Medal

40:02

of Freedom versus the Medal of Honor,

40:04

which is a joke, right, compared, Bill

40:06

Cosby has a Presidential Medal of Freedom. So

40:09

I'm turning down mine, too, right? That's

40:11

the whole thing. Where Obama's putting it on

40:13

Ellen and she's crying? Yeah, it's like the

40:15

Kennedy Center and stuff. But what

40:17

an absolute gaffe by Google on that

40:20

one. Because it blew my mind, I

40:22

had the same exact thought process, Jack. I

40:24

was like, who turned it down? And I was like, Bill

40:26

Belichick? What don't I, I didn't know about Chuck

40:28

Knoll. Like we had to go back and talk about,

40:30

did Belichick like storm the beaches

40:32

somewhere? He didn't, he did not. He

40:34

just is a grumpy guy with a torn

40:36

up sweatshirt. I mean, but also to your point, I bet

40:38

you there are loads of stories

40:40

in the last 200 plus years of people

40:42

who were probably

40:43

deserving and you know,

40:45

maybe the witnesses didn't make it out of that battle. So

40:47

they had no one to, you

40:50

know, be able to corroborate what happened. Or

40:52

you know, there were some people who probably said, don't tell anybody

40:55

about that. I have to imagine that occurred.

40:57

I imagine there's thousands of them in a drawer somewhere

40:59

where people don't want anyone to see like I'd have

41:01

them above my man I'd have it above my mantle

41:04

rather

41:04

for people to see but I'm sure like to your point

41:07

if you were to walk by it It on your mantle every

41:09

day. It brings back a tremendous amount of PTSD

41:12

I know I know in Vietnam a lot of

41:14

people protested by throwing away their medals Is that

41:17

the first war where people soldiers

41:19

were kind of like I don't I don't want this

41:21

piece of tin Yeah,

41:22

maybe um, you know cuz prior

41:25

to that it was kind of a respectable

41:27

like You

41:29

believed in the country going to war and this

41:31

was the first time I feel like people were like ah Yeah,

41:34

I mean it was the this is a whole other

41:36

twist. Why did we go to Vietnam?

41:39

What was the point of doing that? I'm trying to learn today.

41:41

Yes And then

41:43

you also have the forgotten war the Korean War

41:46

You know folks just don't tend to talk about

41:49

it because they didn't necessarily fully understand what

41:51

we were doing there So

41:53

I mean, I think that's on a case by case basis. The medals

41:56

are

41:56

given based on how you treat

41:59

your... the soldiers with

42:01

you.

42:01

It's not so much why you're at the war. So I never

42:03

really understood, to Viv's point, why they would

42:05

throw them away. Why would they protest?

42:08

Because you didn't get it for

42:10

going to the war. You got what you did for

42:12

your troop while you were there. Right, that makes a

42:14

lot of sense. Yeah, it wasn't your decision

42:17

to be in Vietnam to use your example,

42:19

but you. But it's what

42:20

you did there for your, like I

42:23

feel silly saying teammates, but that's what you are, you're a team.

42:25

No, and that's what the

42:26

problem was. Yeah, they used to work at Comrade a bunch when

42:28

we were doing the research with this. Like

42:30

I thought that was weird. Yeah more used than I

42:32

would think no no What

42:35

did you what did you call them? What

42:39

did you what do you refer to your men as obviously

42:42

other than men? You know my men I

42:44

got to take my man

42:45

my squad my platoon. Yeah.

42:47

Yeah, never comrades. I wouldn't

42:49

think yeah Russia

42:51

a lot of times we say my soldiers, you know our

42:53

soldiers. Yeah I'm gonna

42:55

use comrades a lot. I don't care. It's just

42:57

the ultimate it is the ultimate team

42:59

thing If you don't do your job, you're

43:02

dead or you endanger other people. It's like

43:04

do your job That's what Bill Belichick always preaches

43:06

do your job. Yeah Yeah,

43:10

I'm gonna get into a couple of specifics, but

43:12

if you want to drill down again to see who's

43:14

the first

43:15

Jewish recipient first black recipient

43:18

native American soul first Asian to win

43:20

by the way the first native American guy to win to

43:23

receive it. His nickname was Mad

43:26

Bear. That's a good nickname.

43:28

Native American soldier nickname is Mad Bear.

43:30

I got a couple of terrible nicknames coming up. Prequel

43:33

to Cocaine Bear, Mad Bear. But

43:35

again, cmohs.org.

43:38

And you can actually see the graph of, it's

43:40

a striking graph because the most medals

43:43

were obviously given out during the Civil War, maybe

43:45

not obviously, I don't know if I mentioned it yet. And

43:48

then the precipitous drop off and how it's gotten

43:50

less and less as you had made. As

43:53

manners dictate I'll touch on women first because I

43:55

love the ladies. The only woman to receive the Medal

43:57

of honor was Dr. Mary Edwards

43:59

Walker. and she wasn't a

44:01

soldier. She was a civilian. It's 1865

44:04

for her efforts to treat the wounded in battle

44:07

and across enemy lines during the Civil War.

44:10

She was captured by the Confederate forces after

44:12

crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians,

44:14

and she was arrested as a spy. She

44:17

was sent as a prisoner of war to Richmond, Virginia

44:19

until released in a prisoner exchange. Her

44:23

Medal of Honor was rescinded, right?

44:25

So, following the 1916-1917 review of

44:29

Medal of Honor awards. And she was a civilian

44:31

at the time of her valor. Valor, it

44:33

was rescinded. She refused to give her medal

44:35

back. And she did it every day until

44:37

she died in 1918. Interesting. They

44:39

took it away 60 years later. 1916, Congress asked that

44:42

all medals. To hell with crunch. Yeah, 1916,

44:45

Congress asked that all medals awarded up to

44:48

that point be reviewed to ensure that

44:50

they met the high standards required for the award.

44:52

As a result, 911 medals of honor were rescinded. 900 and

44:58

a lot of them from civilians only

45:00

six were given back by Jimmy Carter

45:02

in 1977 and Posthumously

45:06

obviously forever no living and Mary's was one

45:08

of those so Mary had it taken away In 16

45:12

and she was like I'm not giving it back and she died

45:14

with it and then Jimmy Carter Give

45:17

it reinstated

45:20

it posthumously in 1977 so

45:23

yeah, so that's that number is minus 905 for

45:27

the

45:27

record I would take to it noted that Jimmy Carter's

45:30

already in hospice. Yeah, we did not

45:32

do anything Oh Jimmy Carter's gonna die because of

45:34

us Already

45:37

in hospice in hospice they

45:39

we did nothing to him

45:40

right The

45:46

so another stat the youngest that received the

45:48

award was 11 year old Willie

45:51

Johnston And this is where I think a little bit of difference

45:53

between after 9-11 He was

45:55

an army musician during the Civil War.

45:57

This wasn't obviously World War II.

46:00

Army musicians, you don't see a lot. He

46:02

was a drummer boy. And drummer

46:04

boys to us is an absolute joke.

46:07

I don't appreciate those

46:10

battle scenes with a fife and a this

46:12

and that. I just think they're silly. It wasn't silly

46:14

at all. I think it's sick. They're head bandaged

46:17

up. Before you had like phones or anything,

46:19

like that's your pump up. We're going into music.

46:22

Well it's not only that. Yeah,

46:24

let's ride. When an officer's orders

46:26

were muffled by gunfire, the beats of the drum

46:28

or the drum calls Signaled

46:30

actionable commands. Yeah,

46:32

they were not for show it was yeah, I've

46:34

never helped them advance Yeah, it wasn't just for the pictures

46:37

right so this guy's kind of a stud it's

46:39

wait wait It's a

46:40

it wasn't for pictures, but did did Was

46:44

it also for the pump up to like hey this no

46:46

like how people like no yields no

46:49

it was completely making

46:51

calls they didn't

46:53

flags weren't as As sound

46:55

easier than like waving fly Learning

46:58

about the American Revolution in school. That's

47:00

something they should really Discuss

47:02

more they never I should know they have most teachers

47:05

don't know it. Yeah, don't know Yeah, that's

47:07

like that should be this is one of the episodes

47:09

that should be played. Well. I am

47:11

trying not to curse it I'm cursed already Texted

47:14

you I've signaled you when you're watching when

47:17

you're watching movies It's always like you have

47:19

the drummer boy who has his head bandaged up in the fight

47:21

guy and they're like leading the team into battle

47:23

and that's all you see you don't like see the operational

47:25

stuff on the battlefield yeah like even the bagpipers

47:28

too you sometimes see so anyway

47:30

it was provide guidance amid the chaos

47:33

of warfare it's

47:34

a pretty cool so that's what drummer boys

47:36

did

47:36

Willie participate 11 year old Willie participated

47:40

in the seven days battle a series of conflicts

47:42

fought in 1862 where

47:44

Confederate general Robert E Lee and his troops

47:47

forced Willie's Union side

47:49

to retreat down the Virginia Peninsula. So

47:52

this was in a losing campaign.

47:54

But while the Union Army fled

47:57

the area,

47:58

every soldier and in every

48:00

musician dropped their weapons

48:02

and their instruments to make a quicker

48:04

escape,

48:05

except for Willie. Let's go. Willie

48:07

the 11-year-old was the only one who kept his drum.

48:10

So when they got back to whatever,

48:13

go to whatever point B,

48:15

and the only person who had his thing was

48:18

this little Willie guy, upon

48:20

learning of his actions, President Abraham

48:23

Lincoln, heard of him, recommended

48:25

the young drummer boy for the Medal of Honor,

48:27

which he received at 13 years of age

48:30

for actions rendered when he was only 11. That's

48:33

stud. That's, I mean, I

48:35

know everybody here knows

48:37

who, I don't know, knows

48:39

members of Migos.

48:41

Everybody should know who Willie Johnson is. Everybody

48:43

should know. People love to be like, oh, kids in

48:46

violence in video games. Imagine what

48:48

being on a Civil War battlefield would do

48:50

to you at 11. Seven days battle

48:52

when you just try to keep the beat to

48:55

tell people, you know. We need the movie. Flank,

48:57

yeah, Flank Wright. Yeah. And

48:59

this is the guy who I alluded to before when I said,

49:02

14-year-old Jack Lucas, right?

49:04

One more kid, we're gonna do one more kid. He

49:07

falsified his age, pretended

49:09

to be 17 when he enlisted in the Marines,

49:11

he's 14 years old. He

49:14

was trained as a heavy machine gun crew

49:16

member in the station in North Carolina.

49:19

He was still a half a world away from the war,

49:21

but he was determined to seek combat. His

49:24

real age eventually was found out by the Marines,

49:26

So before he was sent into battle, he was reassigned

49:29

as a truck driver. I think in Hawaii, he

49:31

was sending letters back to his like 15 year old

49:33

girlfriend. And they were talking about like, how

49:36

wild is it? I'm 14 and I'm working.

49:38

So the Marines censor some mail,

49:40

so they'd found out, and they're like, you're done. You

49:43

can drive a truck by the way. 14 year

49:46

old driving a truck first, but

49:48

you can't go to war. It was a pack of sigs. But

49:50

he had an itch to go to action, so he

49:52

snuck on a Navy transport ship. the

49:55

USS Duelle set for Iwo

49:57

Jima while on board

49:59

right before

50:00

the 30 day

50:01

AWOL thing, like you have 30 days before

50:04

you're officially AWOL or a deserter,

50:06

he had turned himself in and volunteered

50:09

to fight in order to not be cited

50:12

as a deserter. Like 29 days,

50:14

he's like, no, I've been in the galley and

50:17

they couldn't turn around to drop

50:19

the kid off, so they sent him into

50:21

battle.

50:22

And that's awesome, right? So he

50:24

was reassigned as a rifleman

50:27

with

50:27

the Charlie company,

50:29

first battalion, 26th Marines.

50:33

I never give these things enough

50:35

credit.

50:36

So I'm gonna try and get those right every time. I have

50:38

no idea what Charlie company is. I

50:40

have no idea what the first battalion is. And

50:42

I have no idea what 26 Marines is. It's

50:45

just organizational structure. That's

50:47

how it is. Yes, but like I could just say he was reassigned as

50:50

a rifleman with the Marines. But

50:52

I think it's cool as shit that this 14 year

50:54

old kid was Charlie company. Absolutely.

50:57

I don't know what that is. You know what I mean? No, I

50:59

think everybody takes a lot of pride though too. And I

51:01

think there are certain units that have distinguished

51:03

themselves over the course of American

51:06

history in battle. So they're more well

51:08

known. You talk about the Medal of Honor, the 442nd in

51:10

World War II. I

51:13

believe somebody can fact check

51:15

me, has more medals of honor than any other unit

51:18

in American military history. So the

51:20

importance is there to distinguish

51:23

different units. They're the Weymouth, Massachusetts.

51:26

Yeah, right, right, right. The

51:28

100th and 442nd. Yes.

51:31

You said, yep, that's it. What you just said the most medals

51:34

were the, what is it? The 442nd. 442nd.

51:37

Who's the most,

51:38

not infamous, but well-known group. Would

51:40

it be the 101st Airborne just because of what?

51:44

Banner Brothers? Yeah, Banner Brothers. Yeah,

51:46

in our country's just colloquialisms.

51:50

Yeah, 101st is probably the most well-known just

51:52

because of the movie. I

51:55

also understand most of my knowledge comes from Hollywood

51:57

movies, so I apologize to everyone.

52:00

A lot of most people know the Ranger

52:02

battalions the different Ranger battalions the

52:04

different special forces groups obviously

52:06

You know, you know

52:08

different teams within the SEAL organization

52:10

so Three

52:15

you know on down the line and You

52:18

know, I seal team six is six

52:21

because there were six of them No, well, no because

52:23

there weren't actually six of them the gentleman

52:25

who started the SEAL teams He

52:28

wanted the enemy to think that they there were

52:30

more of them than there actually were so he's like, ah,

52:32

we're still team six

52:34

So they thought there were five others and they're really

52:36

like the senior prank where you get three pigs and

52:38

you put one Two and four on them and you let them

52:40

in the school Not

52:43

to compare Our

52:46

military is pigs Just

52:51

disrespectful Hey,

52:56

we're gonna get some hate clips going viral. So

52:59

get back to Jack Lucas. He was 14 when

53:01

he enlisted illegally.

53:04

He trained

53:04

for a couple of years. He hopped

53:06

on a boat to Iwo Jima. He

53:09

celebrated his 17th birthday en

53:11

route to the deadliest battle in Marine Corps

53:13

history. Yeah.

53:14

That's crazy. My 17th

53:17

birthday had a bottle of Blackberry Brandy

53:19

and I... Sorry.

53:21

Speaking at Iwo Jima, we had a guest one time, his name is

53:23

Stanley Rubin, and this is the early days of Zero Blog 30.

53:26

This gentleman,

53:27

we had to split it into two episodes. He was 92 at the time. And

53:31

Chaps and I, ultimately, we just kind of sat back

53:33

and listened.

53:34

We stopped asking questions. He had a notebook

53:36

in front of him, and he took us step

53:39

by step of what happened to him during

53:42

that battle. It was easily, you know,

53:44

you say the name Stanley Rubin, and nobody knows who

53:46

Stanley Rubin is. You listen to

53:48

this, and you're like, whoa, that's

53:50

powerful.

53:51

Did he keep a journal or does that is

53:53

that a reflection? I think that was his reflection

53:55

I don't think he had a journal that is you're

53:58

not pulling out a pen and paper during of Iwo Jima,

54:00

the Battle of Iwo Jima, he just went and

54:02

he wanted to make sure he didn't miss anything. So

54:04

he wrote down all his notes and he just

54:07

deliberately told us his story and it was unbelievable.

54:09

I did that with 9-11. Yeah. The

54:11

days right after because I felt like if I didn't, it

54:14

was, I would never remember. I was going to bury

54:16

it so deep. Yes. I don't know

54:18

when he wrote it. We didn't talk about it. And until

54:20

he wrote his blog,

54:22

how many years later, we didn't talk about

54:24

it. I mean, like there were

54:27

issues that, you know, were coming up that we would

54:29

discuss it. That and I never looked

54:31

at that. I don't think I've gone back to that

54:33

journal even when we did Kevin show, right?

54:35

That was gonna be my next question What do you think he did

54:38

that on his own wrote it down or do you think it was like a therapy?

54:40

Like hey, it'll help if you go I

54:42

guess as he did it on his own. Yeah, it might have been

54:44

for our show I don't know. I never actually asked this

54:47

his his grandson. I'm a Medal of Honor recipient. No,

54:49

he wasn't No, he wasn't did he win any other ones?

54:52

I think I think he was awarded some different

54:54

awards, but not the metal apologies

54:56

What's his name? Stanley Reuben. Stanley

54:58

Reuben. Yeah, if you Google Stanley Reuben, zero-bog-thirty,

55:01

it's a great episode. Yeah, absolutely.

55:02

Because they have so much

55:05

passion when they're speaking

55:07

about what they went through, and they have such

55:09

a love for the guys they served with.

55:11

Yes. That was a good part of, and

55:13

I know I go back to Band of Brothers, when they do bring

55:15

the old guys. Thank you for referencing something that

55:18

is probably not real. I appreciate it. But

55:20

Jack Lucas, so he celebrated his 17th birthday

55:23

en route to, again, the deadliest battle in Marine

55:25

Corps history. He landed with the second wave

55:27

on Iwo Jima and immediately pushed

55:29

inland. This was D-Day plus two. His

55:32

fire team attacked a series of enemy pillboxes,

55:34

bounding from one trench to the other and engaging

55:36

Japanese soldiers. At one point his

55:39

rifle jammed. He looked down to fix the malfunction.

55:41

He saw two enemy grenades sitting at his feet.

55:44

He said get out of here to his friends without hesitation

55:46

and then he jumped on one of the grenades before

55:49

a detonator beneath him. His injuries were

55:51

so severe that his fire team thought he was

55:53

dead and they continued to press on. Luckily

55:55

another US outfit was moving up behind him

55:58

and he had the wherewithal to just keep his

56:00

fingers wiggling and that's the only reason they were

56:02

able to see that he wasn't dead, right? He was

56:04

eventually discovered alive and evacuated.

56:06

So this that's so that's a cool story. 14

56:09

year old kid goes to the achievement 17,

56:11

gets blown up, wiggles this, this is the reason

56:13

I put it in there Vibs because I love, remember

56:15

I had you, remember the other young

56:18

soldier and I had us read

56:20

like a script or something. Yes.

56:23

Where he was signing up he was like you better let me go

56:25

and see like you know so this 17 year

56:28

old punk on October 5th 1945 president Harry

56:31

Truman awarded Lucas the Medal

56:33

of Honor and he did it in person and

56:35

this is what Lucas said 17 year old kid of

56:38

course I had to go home and see my girlfriend and get some

56:40

lip sugar mr.

56:43

Truman called me and interrupted my plans

56:45

that's what this 17 year old punk

56:48

hero who jumped on a grenade

56:50

I had to go I go home to see my girlfriend and

56:52

get some lip sugar. Hell yeah. But

56:54

Truman called me and interrupted my plans. Lucas

56:57

left the Marines after the war, after the war

56:59

he was 17, but his actions at

57:01

Iwo Jima made him the youngest Medal of Honor

57:04

recipient since the Civil War at

57:06

Willie Johnston. Yeah, pretty much. I know

57:08

who's gonna

57:08

steal that. Tero LaWan's gonna steal that with his big

57:10

hugs little kisses. I was gonna call it lip sugar.

57:12

Ah, and give me some lip sugar. Where was he from?

57:15

I'm trying to, do we know where Jack Lucas was from? I

57:17

don't know. Jack Lucas. I don't know, Jack

57:19

Lucas. I want to get his I want to know what his accent was.

57:21

Yeah. I go to my girlfriend. He gets

57:23

a lip sugar. You know what? He's from Mass.

57:26

Oh, Mississippi. Never mind. Okay. Wait.

57:28

We're going to do a TikTok with the Pibsy. South.

57:30

Okay. Okay.

57:32

But lip sugar, as far as I'm concerned,

57:34

he's a 14 year old kid from Chicago. I got to go get some

57:36

lip sugar. I'm definitely taking

57:38

lip sugar. Oh yeah. So am I. Yeah.

57:41

But you know, Truman,

57:43

you know, that's awesome. I'm

57:45

going to mention somebody and

57:46

I'll go around if anybody else wants

57:48

to mention people. certainly will but I like

57:51

what ultimately happened

57:52

with this one guy His

57:54

name was General Smedley Butler.

57:57

He was a Marine.

57:58

terrible first name. Shmedley's a terrible

58:00

first name. No, you can't really escape that. Oh my god.

58:03

Shmedley! What are you doing? Yeah,

58:05

his middle name is Darlington. Shmedley Darlington

58:07

Butler. What? Darlington was his mom's maiden

58:10

name, so I... Okay. Even like

58:12

Darlington Butler would be kind of... You

58:13

know, he's like you play paddle with him, but Shmedley Darlington

58:16

Butler. Shmedley, what is your malfunction?

58:18

Yeah. Yeah.

58:20

And like, he was from Pennsylvania, so

58:22

his nickname was the Fighting Quaker. That's

58:24

an awful nickname. I don't think that's as bad as you think it is. Oh,

58:27

I think it's terrible. You don't know what you're talking about with nicknames.

58:29

It comes from your neighborhood and he's your

58:31

guy and he represents you and you're a Quaker

58:34

fighting. He feels like a guy that like you rock paper

58:36

scissors over. It's like, all right, who's taking Smegli?

58:39

Smegli. Whatever his name

58:41

is. Smegli. Smegli.

58:45

Yeah. Why would you put

58:47

respect on this man's name? I'll tell you. He

58:49

was a double medal of honor recipient. How do you feel

58:51

now, Jack? Jerk. And he's one

58:53

of the most popular military generals in US history.

58:56

He came from a long line of politicians. The

58:58

house he grew up in is actually

59:01

a historic landmark because

59:03

all his uncles and

59:06

his dad and stuff were pretty famous politicians.

59:08

He decided to take a different route. He lied

59:10

about his age to enlist in the Marines when he was only 16. He

59:13

served 34 years in the Marine Corps, had

59:15

a role in the Spanish-American War

59:17

in Cuba, the Philippine-American War

59:20

in Manila, the Boxer Rebellion in China,

59:22

the Banana Wars in the Caribbean, the Mexican

59:24

Revolution, and World War I. Wow.

59:27

He knows war. Oh, man. Fighting

59:30

quick. Oh, my God. I can't do

59:32

a chin up. Exactly. Yeah. I'm

59:34

starting to come around on it now. You're right. Butler's

59:36

first Medal of Honor was earned during the Mexican Revolution. He

59:39

fought block to block in the streets of Erichruz

59:41

to rid the city of resistance. His

59:44

second award occurred a year later in 1915 when

59:46

his Marines engaged in hand-to-hand combat with

59:48

the Caicos Resistance, a quote, lower

59:51

society of miscreants.

59:53

I think this guy might be canceled.

59:55

otherwise like who formed a gang

59:57

to wreak havoc in Haiti he recalled

1:00:00

that during his time in Haiti, he and his

1:00:02

troops hunted the Caicos like pigs.

1:00:05

Yeah, yeah. It was a different time. Yeah,

1:00:07

I know. Thank you for your service, Butler, but you

1:00:09

loved war a little too much. Yeah. He

1:00:12

introduced the Marine Corps to their first unofficial

1:00:14

mascot, a bulldog named Jix,

1:00:16

who's still there. So the bulldog,

1:00:18

like my Uncle Terry had the bulldog, he was a Marine in

1:00:21

Vietnam. So in 1922, he

1:00:23

started tradition with the bulldog mascots

1:00:26

for the Marines. the following mascots

1:00:28

being awarded a service contract for life

1:00:30

with only three officially listed duties. That's

1:00:33

all the marine bulldogs have to do. Sit

1:00:35

stay and lie down. That's a pretty cool

1:00:38

deal. Yeah. It's a dream.

1:00:40

Why are bulldogs always picked? Are they really tough? Because

1:00:43

every bulldog I've seen is just drooling and very

1:00:45

lazy. Well the way that bulldogs are made.

1:00:47

They should be the French bulldog. Yeah. So

1:00:50

they don't stop. Like I've seen, yeah, I've seen like, sorry,

1:00:52

terriers that like go into a rat mound and

1:00:55

they're vicious. World War I Terrace in

1:00:57

the trenches. Yeah, they were

1:00:59

something else. But bulldogs were originally,

1:01:00

they were created to bait

1:01:03

bulls, right? So what they did was they

1:01:05

created their bodies to be all front, no

1:01:08

back, and they were able to crouch down below

1:01:10

gouging horns. And then they actually had the

1:01:12

lock jaws similar to what we know as pit bulls. So

1:01:14

they'd be able to come up and grab onto a bull's neck.

1:01:17

And then when the bull would shake them, because their asses

1:01:19

were so small, their backs wouldn't snap,

1:01:21

so it wouldn't snap. So they were

1:01:23

purposely bred to take down

1:01:25

bulls. And since then, since

1:01:28

then, since it's just barbaric to have people

1:01:30

try to take down bulls with dogs and whatnot,

1:01:33

we've

1:01:33

created these fat bastard pets

1:01:36

that I've owned and I've slept

1:01:39

thousands of hours with. But the original

1:01:41

bulldogs, if you saw them,

1:01:43

they were almost cartoonish in their size

1:01:45

and they were stone coat killers. I had no idea. I just

1:01:47

always thought they were named bulldogs because they were just built like little

1:01:49

tough tanks. Tough, yeah.

1:01:52

I'm gonna go on with Smedley outside of the military. He

1:01:54

served as director of public safety in Philly. Okay.

1:01:57

Yeah, for one year. He's like a top cop in Philly.

1:02:00

His impact helped establish police reform in

1:02:02

a city full of corrupt public officials. This

1:02:04

was the 1920s in Philly, so please

1:02:07

think about the untouchables. Think about how

1:02:10

the Al Capone-ish part of Chicago,

1:02:12

this was Philly's answer. It was

1:02:14

corrupt as all hell, so they brought in Smedley

1:02:17

to clean it up.

1:02:18

Instead of being untouchable, he was known

1:02:20

as incorruptible.

1:02:21

He formed a ragtag group of bandit chasing

1:02:24

police that patrolled in armored cars

1:02:26

with radios and carried a sawed

1:02:28

off shotguns.

1:02:29

This is after serving

1:02:32

in all those, you know, wars. Bringing

1:02:34

a different brand of justice to Philly. He

1:02:36

later said cleaning up Philadelphia's vice is

1:02:39

worse than any battle I was ever in. What

1:02:42

does that say about the trash in Philly? In 1931

1:02:45

he validated, he violated diplomatic

1:02:47

norms by spreading gossip about Benito

1:02:50

Mussolini. There was a story that Mussolini

1:02:53

struck and killed a child with his automobile and

1:02:55

then and just kept going. And so Smedley

1:02:57

had heard this,

1:02:58

Sergeant Butler or whatever, General Butler had heard

1:03:00

this, and he got in trouble for it. The

1:03:03

Italian government protested and that piece of shit,

1:03:05

President Hoover, my least favorite president, had

1:03:07

him court-martialed making Butler the first

1:03:09

general to be placed under arrest

1:03:11

since the Civil War. Wow. This guy's pretty

1:03:14

cool. Yeah, distinguished. This guy's pretty cool. In 1935,

1:03:16

he wrote a book titled War is

1:03:18

a Racket. Yep. That's how a lot

1:03:20

of people know him and condemning

1:03:23

the profit motive behind warfare. And

1:03:25

I want to read this quote because I listed the wars

1:03:27

he was involved in at the jump, right? I

1:03:29

had said, Spanish-American War in Cuba, Philippine-American

1:03:32

War in

1:03:32

Manila, Boxer Rebellion in China, Banana

1:03:34

War in Caribbean, Mexican Revolution in

1:03:36

World War I. Here's what he had to say about

1:03:39

his service at each one. This is a quote,

1:03:41

General Smedley Butler.

1:03:43

I spent 33 years and four months in active

1:03:45

military service, and during that period I spent most

1:03:47

of my time as high-class muscle

1:03:50

for big business.

1:03:52

In short, I was a racketeer

1:03:54

and a gangster for capitalism. This

1:03:57

is big balls. I helped make

1:03:59

Mexico.

1:04:00

save for American oil in 1914.

1:04:03

I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent

1:04:05

place for the National City bank boys

1:04:07

to collect revenues. I helped

1:04:09

in the raping of a half a dozen Central American

1:04:12

republics for the benefit of Wall Street.

1:04:14

I helped purify Nicaragua for

1:04:16

the International Banking House of Brown

1:04:18

Brothers in 1902 to 1912. I

1:04:21

brought light to the Dominican Republic for

1:04:23

the American sugar interest of 1916. I

1:04:26

helped make Honduras right for American

1:04:29

fruit companies in 1903. In

1:04:31

China in 1927, I helped

1:04:33

see to it that standard oil went on

1:04:35

its way unmolested. Looking

1:04:37

back on it, I may have given Al Capone

1:04:40

a few hints. The best he could do is operate

1:04:42

his racket in three districts. I

1:04:44

operated on three continents. Holy

1:04:47

shit. Wow, what a flex. What a flex.

1:04:49

This is a double Medal of Honor winner with

1:04:51

a terrible first name. Yeah,

1:04:54

but he overcame that. Yes. He

1:04:56

said, first name, be damned. I'm going to go do something.

1:04:59

Eisenhower

1:05:00

had a similar thing saying the military

1:05:02

industrial complex. Yes 25 years later, right

1:05:05

Smedley was by far the highest ranking

1:05:07

officer before him to speak up on

1:05:10

that general Smedley Darlington

1:05:12

Butler died

1:05:14

in 1940 and

1:05:16

at the time of his death. He was the most decorated

1:05:18

Marine in US history. I love

1:05:19

Do you think they fashioned Jessup after him? I

1:05:22

don't know. Colonel Nathan Jessup?

1:05:25

It's just that you read, you read his court exactly

1:05:27

how you imitate the movie. Really? That's

1:05:31

just me. That's just good stuff. What's

1:05:33

his, Nicholson? Jack Nicholson. Here

1:05:36

we go. Teddy

1:05:39

Roosevelt's the only president to receive the Medal of Honor.

1:05:42

Well that's also true because...

1:05:45

How many presidents do we have to now? 46? Yeah,

1:05:48

how many have served in the military? I think like

1:05:50

George George H.W. Bush was pretty respected,

1:05:53

right? Right, you shut down. Yeah. OZ

1:05:56

by cannibals. Yeah, I'd give him, maybe

1:05:58

he gets it. I feel like George

1:06:01

H.W. Bush was better than Teddy's. Truman

1:06:03

serving in the military? Eisenhower. Eisenhower,

1:06:06

excuse me. Eisenhower. Yeah, yeah, Eisenhower.

1:06:08

But Teddy Roosevelt was looking to get injured

1:06:10

and looking for the

1:06:12

accolades. I think George H.W.

1:06:15

Bush actually. JFK and the Swift Boats.

1:06:18

I mean, no, there's a bunch of them, and

1:06:21

he didn't get it till 2001,

1:06:22

which is unfortunate because he died 80 years before that.

1:06:26

But it was his Rough Riders and that's the thing.

1:06:28

So,

1:06:29

Spanish-American War, he was a colonel in the

1:06:31

first United States volunteer cavalry. He

1:06:33

had to fight in the battle of San Juan Hill, charging

1:06:36

up there with his rough riders. And

1:06:38

it was against orders. So in total

1:06:40

disregard for his personal safety and

1:06:42

accompanied by only four or five men, he

1:06:44

led his unit in a charge up the hill. He was

1:06:46

the first American who made it into the Spanish trenches.

1:06:49

It's pretty cool. He became a war hero. But

1:06:52

people resented him for it. People said he rode

1:06:55

his white horse from Kettle Hill San

1:06:57

Juan all the way to the White House because

1:06:59

there's only three years

1:07:00

between him doing that

1:07:02

and getting to be vice president for

1:07:04

McKinley, right, before McKinley was shot and then

1:07:06

became president. Yeah. So

1:07:09

yeah, 1898 is when he was in San Juan Hill, 1901, he

1:07:11

was VP. And

1:07:14

that's what being the governor of New York

1:07:16

being wedged in between,

1:07:17

right? Teddy Roosevelt. That was actually

1:07:19

DMX's favorite president and that's where the Rough Riders

1:07:22

came from. Little known fact. Little

1:07:24

known fact. Yeah, yeah. He was

1:07:26

nominated during the war but officials in the

1:07:29

army were upset about his disobedience Oh,

1:07:31

yeah, King the hill so they they nixed it

1:07:34

and in 2001 He was finally concerned

1:07:36

confirmed by President Bill Clinton

1:07:38

good on you Billy. Mm-hmm, right? Yeah

1:07:40

I'm gonna just do one more quick Clinton guy

1:07:42

and then I'll take a little bit of a break You ever

1:07:44

hear of Daniel Inouye?

1:07:46

He was one of only seven US senators to

1:07:48

receive a Medal of Honor. Yes. Okay.

1:07:51

He's a Japanese American Mm-hmm. I

1:07:53

don't know how many Japanese Americans have wanted this guy's

1:07:55

cool vibes He was sent to

1:07:57

the European Theatre as part of the 442nd...

1:08:00

regimental combat team. That's

1:08:02

the so there's a lot of Japanese Americans

1:08:04

because the 442nd was comprised mainly

1:08:08

of Japanese. If you were Japanese you couldn't

1:08:11

serve but second generation

1:08:13

Japanese Americans were able to serve so they put them all in the

1:08:15

same one. Was 442nd the one you

1:08:17

mentioned earlier? Okay all right we're all on the same

1:08:19

page. So Daniel Inoue, Inoue shares

1:08:22

their

1:08:24

last name of one of their best fighters alive right now. I

1:08:26

was part of the 442nd regimental combat

1:08:29

team

1:08:29

made up mostly of second-generation Japanese Americans.

1:08:32

His unit was tasked as

1:08:35

attacking a part of the Gothic line, a

1:08:38

German defense line in Europe. As they attacked, German

1:08:40

machine gunners opened fire, pinning them down. So

1:08:43

Inoue was shot in the stomach, but

1:08:45

he ignored his wounds and destroyed two

1:08:47

machine gun nests with grenades before

1:08:49

collapsing from blood loss.

1:08:51

He came to, began crawling

1:08:53

towards the third and final machine gun nest.

1:08:56

He was about to throw a grenade into the nest.

1:08:59

A German blew his right arm off of his body.

1:09:04

So

1:09:05

he, I'll

1:09:07

give the quote. He looked down, he saw

1:09:10

a clench, he saw clenched in a fist

1:09:12

that suddenly didn't belong to me anymore was

1:09:14

my grenade. So he used his left hand

1:09:16

to grab a grenade out

1:09:18

of the right hand that was just blown off his fucking,

1:09:21

excuse me, blown off his goddamn body. And

1:09:23

he pried it out, threw it into the nest and shot

1:09:25

at the remaining Germans with his

1:09:28

Thompson submachine gun one-handed.

1:09:30

That's a cool story. So he blew

1:09:32

his arm off, and he grabbed

1:09:34

his own grenade through it. He was originally

1:09:37

awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, but it

1:09:39

was upgraded to the Medal of Honor by President

1:09:41

Bill Clinton in 2000. I

1:09:44

would have just been staring at my arm. Like, holy

1:09:46

shit, that is my arm. I

1:09:48

say we can give a round of applause because he

1:09:50

certainly can't do it himself. He's only got one arm. You

1:09:53

know what I'm saying? You do like that bullshit thing. Anyway,

1:09:55

so that's Daniel anyway. Tell

1:09:57

me about Kyle Carpenter.

1:09:59

Yeah. Oh, yes, I

1:10:02

got them I was yeah, I was really important

1:10:04

in vids. Sorry filming here. We were

1:10:07

filming like

1:10:08

Yeah, and

1:10:10

I Think you had said you'd

1:10:12

come in you'd be like I've Kyle Carpenter next door. Yeah,

1:10:15

and I was like awesome I love Friday night lights. Um,

1:10:17

I had no idea who Kyle Carpenter was who's the guy

1:10:19

from Friday? Yeah, and

1:10:22

I went in I went in next door and I met the

1:10:24

guy guys one of the most handsome

1:10:26

guys you'll ever see You took your

1:10:27

breath away because not because

1:10:29

of what he had been through but

1:10:31

because of what he said to you. Yeah, his face is

1:10:33

essentially a jigsaw puzzle because

1:10:36

of all the

1:10:37

well, yeah, I'll Cons will

1:10:39

tell you what had happened to him. But you know one of those guys,

1:10:41

you know, is just devilishly handsome and

1:10:44

Man, it was a it was an absolute pleasure And

1:10:46

then I did that that try thank you for your service and

1:10:48

he's like you and your family are worth it And I was like, oh my

1:10:50

God, no we're not, no we're not. We're

1:10:53

pieces of shit. It changed your day. You came home a different

1:10:55

person that day. You should see us on the weekend. On and on, I'm not saying

1:10:57

that. Traffic ticket. I'm not saying that. Yeah.

1:11:00

Flippantly nothing. No. You

1:11:02

came home and you were, he was. Oh, it was an absolute pleasure.

1:11:04

He was affected by it. Cause it was, I think it was a Friday.

1:11:07

I want to say it was a Friday when you had him in. And

1:11:09

that was a day when you guys did Barstow breakfast.

1:11:11

Yeah. Like a, um,

1:11:13

Gentleman's Friday. Oh yeah. And.

1:11:16

I might have been in my feels. No, I

1:11:18

don't. It was like right in the middle of it. But I just remember

1:11:20

you you stopped during a break. You called me and

1:11:22

you were you

1:11:24

were shaken by what he had said because,

1:11:27

you know, we had been through so much and it just it

1:11:29

affected you very, very. So cool. He's the youngest

1:11:31

living Medal of Honor recipient. I think he's 33 right

1:11:33

now. Yeah, he was 20 when he performed

1:11:36

the actions, which ultimately he jumped

1:11:39

on a grenade. Yeah, he jumped on a grenade for

1:11:41

his his fellow Marines that

1:11:43

he was on. I believe it was a rooftop with

1:11:47

and he just without regard for himself

1:11:49

just jumped on a grenade. Yeah.

1:11:51

I don't know how you do that but he did it. And he wrote

1:11:53

a book right? Yes. Yeah, the whole

1:11:56

deal. His story is awesome

1:11:58

and his interview

1:12:00

with the uh zero blog guys it

1:12:03

there goes my my mic you can't see it all uh i'm

1:12:06

glad it was because you can't yep can you move it back it was

1:12:08

one that you guys uh should look up i would

1:12:10

think right yeah you should definitely go check

1:12:12

it out how we had the pleasure of

1:12:14

having him on zero blog 30 we getting all

1:12:16

this uh

1:12:19

i mean i know kyle carpenter went through a lot but

1:12:21

i deal with a lot of stuff here too he

1:12:23

uh he was a guest on the bar

1:12:26

was he yes he was also he's also done a uh

1:12:28

What'd you say fibs? Here's a guest on lowering the bar. Not

1:12:30

only is he Medal of Honor recipient. He was a guest on

1:12:32

lowering the bar guest

1:12:35

on a pizza review with Dave

1:12:37

Shut

1:12:40

up For

1:12:45

any So

1:12:49

now is it the most impressive guy you ever met So,

1:12:53

a loaded question, you've met a lot of guys. Yeah, well,

1:12:55

I've been fortunate enough that I've met

1:12:57

multiple Medal of Honor recipients.

1:13:01

And we've had multiple Medal of Honor

1:13:03

recipients on Zero

1:13:05

Blog 30. So I don't know that I would

1:13:08

distinguish him above any of the other ones,

1:13:11

because I think they're all equally impressive for

1:13:13

the reasons that they were awarded

1:13:15

the Medal of Honor. Do you have a favorite? Mine's Smedley

1:13:17

Butler. And listen, this isn't

1:13:19

trading cards. I don't think but

1:13:22

I think we can say there are some stories

1:13:24

you like I can't get the story out of my

1:13:26

head that if I saw my arm there with the grenade and

1:13:28

then it pick it up and I still launch it and then I start shooting people.

1:13:31

I think that's a cool story

1:13:32

I like the idea of them being trading cards Really

1:13:39

There are some that have been memorialized

1:13:42

in Hollywood, you know if you come to mind the

1:13:45

movie Lone Survivor where you have Lieutenant Mike

1:13:47

Murphy, who sacrificed his body

1:13:50

to call in to let them know their

1:13:52

location of that that SEAL team that was pinned

1:13:54

down by the enemy and ultimately saved

1:13:57

and I apologize I'm blanking on his name right now. the

1:14:00

gentleman who was the survivor, gosh, I'm

1:14:02

so sorry. Marky Mark?

1:14:05

No, Marcus Littrell. Marcus Littrell. Sorry,

1:14:07

sorry Marcus. I didn't think of his name either. Yes, Marcus

1:14:09

Littrell, so that's one. Another

1:14:12

one, there was a movie a few years

1:14:14

ago, Outpost, and it tells

1:14:16

the story of Clint Romachay and

1:14:18

his Medal of Honor that he received when they were pinned down

1:14:20

by 300 enemy Taliban fighters

1:14:23

and

1:14:26

in Afghanistan and the

1:14:28

enemy had every discernible

1:14:30

advantage that you want in in

1:14:32

battle and he continuously exposed

1:14:35

himself to enemy fire kept running

1:14:37

all over the cop and I actually one

1:14:40

of my teammates from college was in that

1:14:42

battle as well and talked about

1:14:45

how he was the one calling

1:14:47

for fire and trying to get them support

1:14:50

for that battle so certainly that's another one that's

1:14:53

there there's a movie that showcases that

1:14:55

bravery you know another

1:14:57

one that comes to mind recently is all when

1:14:59

cash in Iraq where

1:15:01

his vehicle

1:15:04

was blown up by an ID

1:15:06

and it was on fire and all

1:15:08

when cash on first-class all when cash had

1:15:11

fuel all over his body and his body

1:15:13

became engulfed with flames and

1:15:15

I think most people if they were engulfed with flames

1:15:18

they would try to put themselves out. No,

1:15:20

he

1:15:21

proceeded to pull every other

1:15:23

soldier out of the vehicle to

1:15:26

save their lives with disregarding

1:15:29

his safety and his well-being and

1:15:32

then when they were being evacuated from

1:15:35

the incident he said take all my soldiers

1:15:37

first. He ultimately died you

1:15:39

know from the wounds and the burns but

1:15:42

he gave himself so that

1:15:44

his soldiers could live. Now just think

1:15:47

about that. Think about I'm sure we've

1:15:49

all at one point another burned ourself very slightly

1:15:51

now think if

1:15:53

80% of your body is literally

1:15:55

on fire and And he

1:15:57

just continued to go forward in the face

1:15:59

of that. and save all those other soldiers' lives,

1:16:02

truly impressive. And then the only

1:16:05

other one that always comes to mind, and this

1:16:07

is a personal one, why this comes to mind,

1:16:10

my grandfather flew with a gentleman named Bernie

1:16:12

Fischer, and this gentleman was

1:16:15

a pilot in the Air Force, and during Vietnam

1:16:17

there was somebody

1:16:18

down that he landed

1:16:21

his plane in, it was either an enemy

1:16:23

rice paddy or an enemy airstrip,

1:16:26

I think it was an enemy airstrip, and it was a very short airstrip,

1:16:29

under a complete heavy fire, goes,

1:16:31

saves that guy, puts him on his plane, and

1:16:33

then flies him to safety. Yeah, that's

1:16:35

a stud. And that goes to what I was saying about the

1:16:37

Air Force, where you can operate 10, 20,

1:16:40

30,000 feet, and you're relatively

1:16:42

safe, because there's not too many weapons, anti-aircraft

1:16:44

weapons certainly come to mind,

1:16:46

but not necessarily in every single

1:16:48

incident. So you're largely

1:16:51

safe when you're up in a jet. Safer. Safer

1:16:53

when you're in a jet. Certainly there were a lot of jets shot

1:16:55

down during Vietnam, So the enemies

1:16:57

did have those capabilities, but to then

1:17:00

expose yourself and,

1:17:02

and land your own plane

1:17:04

that was fine. And then under fire

1:17:06

rescue someone else. That's incredibly impressive.

1:17:09

And I just thought of one other one that is another movie

1:17:11

that I know a lot of people would know, and that's

1:17:13

Black Hawk Down, Gordon

1:17:16

and Shugart who

1:17:17

sacrificed themselves and said, hey, we'll

1:17:19

go protect that down pilot until

1:17:25

the other parts of that element

1:17:27

were able to reach the crash site.

1:17:30

And they were both killed. And the pilot survived. And

1:17:32

the pilot survived because they went in

1:17:34

to save him. And we've actually, the

1:17:36

gentleman who Josh Hartnett plays, Matt

1:17:39

Chardon Everman in that movie who was Sergeant

1:17:41

Everman at the time, we've also had

1:17:43

him on Zero Blog 30, if you'd like

1:17:45

to hear the real story of Black Hawk Down. So

1:17:48

we've just been so fortunate to meet

1:17:50

these people. I met Flo Groberg,

1:17:53

Dakota Meyer, and these

1:17:55

gentlemen are just everything

1:17:58

that is right with our with our military and

1:18:01

each one of them has distinguished

1:18:03

themselves obviously and carried

1:18:06

themselves in such a way to do honor

1:18:08

to that award. Yeah, I think, and I

1:18:11

remember seeing Black Hawk Down for the first time and knowing

1:18:13

that it was based on a true story and obviously they took some

1:18:15

liberties with it, it was infuriating. Like

1:18:17

you know what I mean, because you fall in love with these guys. Yeah.

1:18:20

Gary Gordon and Stu Gard. I'm gonna

1:18:22

end. I wanna ask you real quick. You wear the

1:18:24

bracelet. Yeah. Who do you wear it

1:18:27

for? This is my buddy PK from college,

1:18:31

Andrew Peterson Keel. He was a captain

1:18:33

who was special forces, third special forces group

1:18:35

in Afghanistan. And he was training

1:18:38

an element and Al-Qaeda, put

1:18:41

on a uniform and was admitted to the base

1:18:43

and shot him. So

1:18:46

he was a great guy. And I'll tell you a really quick story because

1:18:48

we went to college together and he was a

1:18:50

smart dude, very charismatic. Everybody

1:18:53

loved him. And we had a

1:18:55

computer class

1:18:56

my junior year, and I don't know shit from Shigolo

1:18:58

when it comes from two computers and like

1:19:01

coding and all that. So we get paired

1:19:03

up and we're in a group together and I'm all worried about my grade.

1:19:06

And he says to me, Connor, dude,

1:19:08

stop complaining, dude. Stick

1:19:11

with me, I will get you a B or

1:19:13

a B plus. It's not a big deal. And

1:19:15

then I'm like, all right, all right. And I go back to like working on whatever

1:19:17

it is I'm working on. And I caught him under his

1:19:19

breath. He goes, probably more like a C, C

1:19:22

minus. Yeah, we actually it

1:19:24

was March 11th 2013 so it's just ten years that

1:19:26

we lost him great guy

1:19:29

Didn't

1:19:38

that make news wasn't that unlike CNN that

1:19:40

story of someone I think so yeah, yes,

1:19:43

I kind of remember that I think so Wow, we're gonna

1:19:45

close with an old-timer Woody Williams.

1:19:48

Oh, yeah. Yeah, he just died. Sorry. Also

1:19:51

I guess then zero blog 30 He'd like to hear him

1:19:53

chaps speaks very highly of he

1:19:55

had an opportunity to go to the Woody Williams's house

1:19:58

and speak to him and he said it was one of the few times.

1:20:00

he was nervous to have a conversation with someone when

1:20:02

you consider what you're about to tell us. He

1:20:04

was 98 when he died last year. He

1:20:07

was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from

1:20:09

World War II. So when he died

1:20:11

his remains were laid out in the U.S.

1:20:13

Capitol of Rotunda. Yeah, like a head

1:20:16

of state. He did not have an easy life. He

1:20:18

was born the youngest of 11 children at birth. He

1:20:20

weighed only three and a half pounds, wasn't expecting

1:20:23

to live. By the time he was 11 his father

1:20:25

Lloyd had died of a heart attack and several of his siblings

1:20:28

had died of the Spanish flu.

1:20:30

After Pearl Harbor, again, he enlisted

1:20:32

the Marines solely because he liked their blue uniforms

1:20:35

better than the Army's Brown.

1:20:37

That's why he chose the Marines. How often does that happen?

1:20:39

More than you'd think. Swear to God. It's

1:20:42

like UNC over another school. You

1:20:44

want that target blue. But the Marines, he

1:20:46

was just over 5'5". Marines were like, he was too

1:20:48

short. But within a year, they dropped

1:20:50

those height restrictions because we were in war. So

1:20:53

originally he was too small to fight,

1:20:55

short king. So five, six.

1:20:58

He was trained as a demolition man and in the use

1:21:00

of flamethrowers. And that's what makes this interesting.

1:21:02

He was sent to Iwo Jima to take out pillboxes.

1:21:05

Pillboxes, we kind of know, right? Those cement

1:21:07

bunkers, they have only those slivers

1:21:09

that you're able to fire out of. So you

1:21:11

would kind of run up there, pop his flamethrower

1:21:14

in and blow. But we spoke about flamethrowers

1:21:16

in Twisted History of Weapons. They're

1:21:19

time bombs.

1:21:20

You're bigger than everybody else. people

1:21:23

see the flames in the black smoke and

1:21:25

they fire for you tanks on your back and

1:21:27

essentially blow you up. So even

1:21:30

when he was operating his flamethrower, he knew like if

1:21:32

he was in a pillbox, he would start there

1:21:34

and then constantly move because once

1:21:36

the black smoke was, just people would potshot.

1:21:39

Those

1:21:42

fuel tanks were four and a half gallons

1:21:45

and they were only good for 72 seconds

1:21:47

of sustained burn. So he refilled

1:21:49

his tank in Iwo Jima five

1:21:51

times.

1:21:52

So this is it. Afterwards he

1:21:54

was quoted, we talked about the PTSD just

1:21:56

a little bit, but he was quoted later on as saying, A

1:21:58

person's life taking flame is

1:22:01

so, so horrible. There is an odor that

1:22:03

emanates from that that's like no other odor

1:22:06

on earth. And sometimes in the years after

1:22:08

there would be something, an odor from somewhere

1:22:10

that would bring that back to me. So he swallowed

1:22:13

that down with a lot of booze. He'd big time

1:22:15

booze bag for a long time. Then he found

1:22:17

Jesus and that's one of the things that kind of got him

1:22:19

through. So I can't go

1:22:21

too much further into it, but just know Woody

1:22:24

Williams maybe 5'6 and

1:22:27

barely 135 pounds right 5'6 at the age of 21 Herschel

1:22:31

Woody Williams single-handedly operated

1:22:34

six flamethrowers who had you know

1:22:36

fresh tanks six flamethrowers against

1:22:38

Japanese forces for several hours

1:22:41

and ultimately cleared a path for the American troops

1:22:43

lived till 98 and died

1:22:45

last year so we'll closing on Woody Williams.

1:22:49

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