The Medal Of Honor Story That Inspired Forrest Gump - Sammy Lee Davis | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 278

WISHLIST SCAVLAND! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3373500/Scavland/ Support CUDGEL: https://gofund.me/2dba5cdc1 We are honored to host Sammy Lee Davis, a Vietnam veteran who received the Medal Of Honor for his service. Watch this episode ad-free & uncensored on Pepperbox! https://pepperbox.tv/joinunsubscribe WATCH THE AFTERSHOW & BTS ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/UnsubscribePodcast 👕 Merch & Shoes https://bunkerbranding.com/pages/unsubscribe-podcast 🔋 Energy Drinks https://drinkechelon.com P. O BOX: Unsubscribe Podcast 17503 La Cantera Pkwy Ste 104 Box 624 San Antonio TX 78257 ------------------------------ THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! HEXCLAD Find your forever cookware at HexClad and get 10% off at https://hexclad.com/UNSUB #hexcladpartner CASH APP Download Cash App Today:https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/5u7gm6rr #CashAppPod Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N. A., pursuant to a license from Visa U. S. A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Cash App Green features, Savings, Direct deposit, Round ups, Overdraft coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. GHOSTBED Get an extra 10% off already reduced prices at https://ghostbed.com/unsubscribe with code UNSUBSCRIBE at checkout. ULTRA Don’t sleep on @UltraPouches . New customers get 15% Off with code UNSUB at https://takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad BLUEPRINT For a limited time only, new customers get 20% off + free shipping at https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com by using code UNSUB at checkout. #Blueprint #ad ------------------------------ FOLLOW OUR SOCIALS! Unsubscribe Podcast https://www.instagram.com/unsubscribepodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@unsubscribepodcast https://x.com/unsubscribecast Eli Doubletap https://www.instagram.com/eli_doubletap/ https://x.com/Eli_Doubletap https://www.youtube.com/c/EliDoubletap Brandon Herrera https://www.youtube.com/@BrandonHerrera https://x.com/TheAKGuy https://www.instagram.com/realbrandonherrera Donut Operator https://www.youtube.com/@DonutOperator https://x.com/DonutOperator https://www.instagram.com/donutoperator The Fat Electrician https://www.youtube.com/@the_fat_electrician https://thefatelectrician.com/ https://www.instagram.com/the_fat_electrician https://www.tiktok.com/@the_fat_electrician ------------------------------ unsubscribe pod podcast episode ep unsub funny comedy military army comedian texas podcasts Chapters: 0:00 Welcome To Unsub! 7:31 Sammy’s Childhood Jobs 17:00 Why Sammy Joined The Army & Volunteered For Vietnam 37:09 Sammy’s Experiences in Vietnam 46:28 Being A Medal of Honor Recipient at 23 Years Old 51:32 Sammy’s Medal of Honor Story 1:37:16 The Pencil Story 1:38:44 Sam & Dixie’s Relationship 1:43:10 Sam’s Harmonica Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:57The Fat Electrician?

  You can correct me if I'm wrong, but it was your Medal of Honor actions were kind of helped inspire the movie Forrest Gump, right?

• 1:03Speaker 02

  It is in my Medal of Honor actions is what they're talking about in the movie Forrest Gump. We got to have a lunch with five of my enemy.

• 1:14Speaker 03

  Really?

• 1:15Speaker 02

  From the night that I earned this.

• 1:17The Fat Electrician?

  What is it like getting to piece everything together from all these different perspectives?

• 1:21Speaker 02

  Part of the reason why I'm doing much better in my soul today was because of me being able to go back to Vietnam.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  They didn't bring in to fight any more wars or anything? You didn't pick up an M16?

• 1:58Speaker 04

  Hey, hey, hey, what's up? We have a video game releasing on September 4th. On Substudios. That's right, we're a video game developer now. Boom! Go add it to your wishlist. You Know Clean and then No Shadow Team, they've been crushing this. We are so, so excited to see everyone's response from it. The game is being so optimized that hopefully soon we can have it on your mobile phone. Just a real quick moment, this game has been in development for six years. At the five-year mark, that's when they reached out to us. They wanted to work with a team or company that could help them produce this or finance it. They did go to us and this is all possible because of all of you and

• 2:38Speaker 04

  we are so thankful of that. And we are so thankful for them working years, five years, on their own time without investing and then giving us the opportunity to make this possible. Getting them across that finish line without them rushing it. We have so much in the works for us. Playable characters, us, some amazing quests, boy gets to help design, multiplayer, and a really amazing experience. Go add it to your wishlist, it comes out September 4th. We can't wait to see what y'all think of this. On Substudios, we are a video game production company now. It's what dreams are made of and it's all because of you. Thank you all.

• 3:19Speaker 03

  Three, two, one.

• 3:28Speaker 03

  Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Unsubscribe Podcast. We're joined today by Eli Double Tap, Nick the Fat Electrician is in town, we have Sammy Davis, Medal of Honor recipient, Brandon Herrera, and myself, Donut Operator. Thank you so much for being here.

• 3:42Speaker 04

  Hello, esteemed gentlemen. Look, he dressed, Sam looks sharp today. Holy moly, Sammy. At breakfast, I was like, I underdressed. I gotta switch from a t-shirt to.

• 3:52Speaker 02

  I'm in work clothes.

• 3:54Speaker 04

  Sammy, you showed up to brunch. You walked up and, you know, I thought Brandon was the sexiest person at brunch.

• 4:03Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 4:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, you took the cake, buddy. You're gonna have to fight off these boys.

• 4:09Speaker 05

  Eli had a t-shirt on earlier, went back to his house and changed.

• 4:16Speaker 04

  I know, I was like.

• 4:17Speaker 05

  Pretending like we wouldn't notice.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  And you looked nice.

• 4:19Speaker 04

  Thank you, thank you. I had to, I mean, you were wearing the Medal of Honor today and I was like, oh, oh, yep, okay, we're super respectful today. We appreciate you dressing up for this and also coming out and being on the podcast. This is absolutely.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  I'm honored to be here with y'all. I'm proud of the job that y'all do. Thank you.

• 4:36Speaker 04

  Nick's the one that set this entire thing up. He was like, hey, got an idea. Nick, why didn't you set this entire thing up?

• 4:44The Fat Electrician?

  Because it's Sammy Lee Davis. What do you mean? Somebody's like, I know how to get ahold of him. I was like, good, give me the phone number. And yeah, we got it set up. I'm really excited. So you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it was your Medal of Honor actions were kind of helped inspire the movie Forrest Gump, right?

• 5:03Speaker 02

  It is in my Medal of Honor actions is what they're talking about in the movie Forrest Gump.

• 5:08Speaker 04

  They've been overlaying his face.

• 5:10The Fat Electrician?

  And I know, because we did a podcast with Gary Sinise earlier this year and we were in his office. Obviously, he's got a ton of pictures, but one of the ones closest to his desk was you and him. And I pointed that out to everybody and kind of that, that kind of got the ball rolling to me tracking you down to get you on the podcast.

• 5:27Speaker 02

  I believe in Gary Sinise. I think he should be President of the United States.

• 5:31The Fat Electrician?

  I don't disagree.

• 5:32Speaker 02

  He has the patriotism and the love in his heart that he's the kind of person we need.

• 5:37The Fat Electrician?

  He's awesome.

• 5:38Speaker 04

  He's one of the most amazing gentlemen we have ever met and he's just nothing but positivity and.

• 5:44Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 5:45Speaker 04

  We got lucky and ran into him at the, just at the airport last month. I just, by chance, Finn didn't realize it was him because Finn said.

• 5:54Speaker 05

  Is that after VIR?

• 5:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:56Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 5:57Speaker 04

  Finn was like, no, that guy's too short. I was like, I don't think so. I just like ran up. I was like, Gary? And he's like, looked at me for a second. He's like, yes.

• 6:03Speaker 02

  What airport were you at?

• 6:04Speaker 04

  Charlotte.

• 6:05Speaker 02

  Oh, Charlotte.

• 6:06Speaker 04

  Yeah. And we just magically ran into him and he was like, oh my God, podcast guy. I was like, that's my name. I'm fine with that.

• 6:13The Fat Electrician?

  To you, yes, sir.

• 6:15Speaker 04

  Yes, sir. He was with his family. They were going on some family vacation. So it was just awesome seeing him again.

• 6:21Speaker 05

  But I didn't know about the bit about them superimposing Tom Hanks' face over your body.

• 6:28Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 6:29Speaker 05

  In the movie. I had no idea about that until I looked it up yesterday.

• 6:31Speaker 02

  Well, look.

• 6:33Speaker 05

  Did they ask your permission?

• 6:34Speaker 02

  They told me. As a Medal of Honor recipient, I am public domain.

• 6:39Speaker 05

  Really?

• 6:40Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 6:41Speaker 05

  I did not know that's how that works.

• 6:42Speaker 02

  Yes, sir. And as long as they're using it properly, everything's good.

• 6:46Speaker 04

  We're gonna make so much t-shirts of you. I'm joking. We actually, so one thing we try to do with every Medal of Honor recipient that does come out, or I mean, even the World War II, any veterans is just above and beyond and done what you guys have done, made the sacrifices you have done. We always try to get you guys gifts. It's like one thing when we start one of the episodes. So thank God you're a watch guy.

• 7:15The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, we're not outdoing his current watch. I hate to break it to you.

• 7:19Speaker 04

  No, 100%.

• 7:21The Fat Electrician?

  That's a watch you can't just get.

• 7:24Speaker 04

  So we got you a Hamilton because they, they've been doing watches in the United States and Illinois, I think, is where they started in the States and they provided the time watches for the naval ships during World War II. And that one is a good.

• 7:45Speaker 05

  Also, we're just not gonna let you get away with saying Illinois.

• 7:48Speaker 04

  Illinois.

• 7:49Speaker 02

  Illinois.

• 7:50Speaker 04

  And then to the misses, if you want to come get yours, we got you a gift too. Dixie.

• 7:58Speaker 05

  Get your beautiful butt over here and take this watch. We have his amazing wife here joining us as well.

• 8:05Speaker 04

  Any side, any side, whatever. If you want to be on camera, you don't have to come on camera if you don't want to. You let us know.

• 8:11Speaker 05

  I wish I wanted to be on camera.

• 8:13Speaker 04

  Get over here.

• 8:14Speaker 05

  I want to too.

• 8:16Speaker 04

  We got you one of those. I wasn't sure.

• 8:19Speaker 05

  That's why I married him, so I get gifts. Oh, this is beautiful.

• 8:24Speaker 04

  We weren't sure if you wanted.

• 8:26Speaker 05

  Whoa. This is beautiful, yes. Let me see yours, Sam. Oh my gosh. Oh, mine's better. Okay.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  We're very military on hit.

• 8:47Speaker 05

  Thank you, guys.

• 8:49Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 8:49Speaker 03

  Thank you all for coming down. You both are amazing. It's been an absolute pleasure and the the community makes this a possibility to do things like this. So, thank you all so freaking much.

• 9:00Speaker 02

  It's an honor to be here with you.

• 9:03Speaker 04

  Now, the honor is entirely ours, we promise you.

• 9:06Speaker 03

  And now we gotta just ask you questions for the next hour.

• 9:09Speaker 05

  Yeah, we get to grill you for an hour, Sammy.

• 9:13Speaker 02

  And I will answer any question you have.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  Let's go.

• 9:16Speaker 02

  Except for my secret fishing hole. And I will take you there, but I'll have to blindfold you.

• 9:22Speaker 05

  The price is right, Elton.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  We already gave you a watch.

• 9:29Speaker 03

  They're like, I got it.

• 9:31Speaker 04

  And if you go to any watch, especially Lee Michaels today, or when you get back home, they'll adjust it for you and get it all taken care of for you.

• 9:41Speaker 02

  You're very welcome.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  Least we could do for y'all.

• 9:45Speaker 04

  Now, the question.

• 9:46The Fat Electrician?

  So, I have questions.

• 9:48Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 9:50The Fat Electrician?

  You worked a lot of jobs when you were a kid.

• 9:52Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 9:53The Fat Electrician?

  How old were you when you first started doing manual labor jobs?

• 9:56Speaker 02

  Twelve years old.

• 9:57The Fat Electrician?

  Twelve? What was your first one?

• 10:01Speaker 02

  Mowing yards.

• 10:02The Fat Electrician?

  Okay.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  But back then, I could make a lot of money mowing yards. I could get fifty cents for mowing a yard. Now, that, back then, that was, wow.

• 10:15Speaker 04

  Bill Gates money.

• 10:16The Fat Electrician?

  So, it ramped up pretty quick, though, because, I mean, you worked, you were a lumberjack. You did some, I don't know if oil rigging is the right word, but you did some well digging.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  Oh, definitely.

• 10:26The Fat Electrician?

  What, like, how old were you when you started doing that stuff? Because, I mean, that's more associated.

• 10:30Speaker 02

  I was fourteen years old.

• 10:34The Fat Electrician?

  Oh, wow.

• 10:35Speaker 02

  Lived in California, and my oldest brother was working up in the mountains. And he said, well, would you like to, it was summertime, would you like to come up and work with me? They'll, they'll pay you a dollar twenty-five an hour.

• 10:56Speaker 02

  That was, wow, unbelievable money back in the fifties, late fifties. And so, I went to work up in the mountains. As the youngest kid, youngest person on the team, I got to do a lot of chainsawing. We were building the road through.

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Sorry, brain's not working, but way up in the mountains, and they were building the road through the big park up there. And I had to go through, cut down the trees. And then, I had to go back and cut the trees up, and then I had to go back and get the trees, the logs, up on the logging truck. So, I got to learn a lot. And it was hard work, and I made, wow, unbelievable, I was making unbelievable amount of money.

• 11:53Speaker 04

  At what age was this, fourteen?

• 11:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, when I turned fourteen. You had to be fourteen years old to be able to drive. I'd moved to California from Texas, and at Texas, at fourteen, you could get a driver's license. So, I had my driver's license, and we moved to California, and I just went down to the Driver's License Bureau and handed in my license, and they just print, they didn't, because you couldn't get a driver's license in California at that time at fourteen years old. But they didn't look, and I had a driver's license.

• 12:26Speaker 04

  And they handed you a chainsaw.

• 12:28The Fat Electrician?

  In their defense, a lumberjack walked in and said, I need to update my license.

• 12:34Speaker 02

  I loved being a lumberjack. What I learned and what it did for my body was amazing. Fourteen years old, and I turned into a man.

• 12:44The Fat Electrician?

  It's just, it's crazy for us to hear that, because, like, I got my first job at fourteen, too, but I had to get permission slips signed and everything by the school, and I had to get a work permit, and that was just to, that was to be a waiter at a pizza place. Nothing compared to being a lumberjack, that, like, you wouldn't be allowed to do that as a kid today, so it's kind of crazy.

• 13:04Speaker 02

  Not, not at fourteen years old, and I think now you have to be at least eighteen.

• 13:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:09Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 13:09Speaker 02

  To be a lumberjack.

• 13:10Speaker 05

  Especially a job like that. But, I mean, starting out at twelve, like, I was cutting grass as well. I'm sure Eli was, too, but we have a certain disposition.

• 13:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:19Speaker 04

  The Mexican upbringing.

• 13:23Speaker 04

  I'm more, again, fourteen, that's my, my son being a year younger would be cutting, or not even cutting grass, but using a chainsaw to make roads.

• 13:35Speaker 02

  Yes, speaking of the big road, too.

• 13:37Speaker 04

  Wild.

• 13:38Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:40Speaker 02

  Was it Yellowstone? It was, oh, sorry, my brain's not working.

• 13:44Speaker 04

  You got Big Bear, I don't know, there's a whole bunch of different areas.

• 13:48Speaker 02

  I'll cut roads in Big Bear, yes.

• 13:51Speaker 04

  There you go.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  Yosemite, yes, definitely.

• 13:57The Fat Electrician?

  So, you, you said it was a dollar twenty-five a day, which is a lot of money back then.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  That was unbelievable amount of money.

• 14:02The Fat Electrician?

  Well, and in your book, it was, you say that, but it, it's hard to convey, like, what is good money. And then, in your book, you say, as a kid, you'd use that money, and you had actually bought a new car and a motorcycle.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 14:14The Fat Electrician?

  At fourteen, fifteen years old with that amount of money. So, I mean, how much were cars and motorcycles back then when you were buying them? And you bought them brand new. They weren't used, they were?

• 14:22Speaker 02

  They were new, yeah.

• 14:23The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah.

• 14:26Speaker 02

  I don't remember, but it wasn't, nothing compared to today.

• 14:31The Fat Electrician?

  That's what I'm saying, like, now, a truck is a hundred thousand dollars.

• 14:34Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 14:34The Fat Electrician?

  And he was, he was buying a brand new car and a motorcycle at fourteen years old from his summertime job.

• 14:40Speaker 02

  Well, the first car I bought was not brand new. It was a nineteen forty-six Chevy. But it looked brand new. It was in wonderful condition, and that's what I drove from where we lived down south of Stockton. And I would drive it up, up in the mountains. That's where I worked all week, and then drive it back home, and it worked great.

• 15:04Speaker 04

  You, it sounds like at fourteen, you were already a full adult, just, how you're speaking about that, even buying a motorcycle, a, a vehicle, and then driving up for the week, coming back home on the weekend, and you're fourteen, fifteen years old.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  At fourteen years old, my daddy said, son, if you want a vehicle, then you have to get a job.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  And he meant it. And so, I got a job. Well, my oldest brother was working, I can't remember the name of the company, but it was cutting down the big, they were going down, cutting the great big,

• 15:36Speaker 04

  Redwoods.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  Redwoods. And so, I got a job. As the youngest guy there, I'm the man that had to climb to the top of the redwoods with at least one chainsaw strapped on my waist, and then start cutting off thirty-foot sections, coming down, coming down, coming down, coming down, coming down.

• 15:57Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 15:58The Fat Electrician?

  Guess who's the inheritor of a new pot? Not Brandon, because he doesn't cook. It's me.

• 16:04Speaker 04

  Notice how it didn't dent even against Connor's hard-ass head.

• 16:07Speaker 03

  I smelled toast.

• 16:10Speaker 04

  He's cooking the meal of his dreams with Hexclad.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  I love Hexclad.

• 16:14The Fat Electrician?

  How was your dream?

• 16:15Speaker 03

  It was great. I cooked grilled cheese sandwich.

• 16:17The Fat Electrician?

  Thanks to Hexclad?

• 16:18Speaker 03

  Unironically support this product, so.

• 16:20Speaker 04

  On a serious note, we all use those. They've replaced even my cast iron skillet, and now I started using that over my cast iron.

• 16:28Speaker 05

  They're, they make a big old wok. I don't know, I don't know the technical term for it, but the big, like, round one?

• 16:33Speaker 04

  No, it is. It's a giant wok.

• 16:34Speaker 05

  But, yeah, no, the, the wok. Dude, get the wok.

• 16:37Speaker 04

  Dude, they, they get hot as hell.

• 16:40Speaker 05

  The heat distribution is phenomenal, too, because, like, that wok, like, if you put it on, if you use a gas stove, like, somebody who knows how to cook and not an electric stove, I'll forgive it if you're renting, but the heat distribution is so perfect. You can drop an egg in, and not only does it glide around, but it's so evenly heated all the way around. Make some fried rice in that wok.

• 17:04The Fat Electrician?

  And it doesn't stick, thanks to Hexclad's anti-stick, what's the feature called?

• 17:09Speaker 05

  Turbine ceramic.

• 17:10Speaker 04

  And that's usually the big trade-off with anything like this, is easy to clean, trash to cook with, or vice versa. This is like, hey, we got you all in one, pan or pans.

• 17:20The Fat Electrician?

  So, if you're planning on spending time behind the grill this summer, don't make it harder than it needs to be. Stop losing food through the grates and upgrade your backyard cooking setup with Hexclad's Barbecue Collection. Through August twentieth until September eighth, you can get up to fifty-two percent off Hexclad and upgrade your kitchen for the new season. Just head to hexclad.com/ unsub. That's H-E-X-C-L-A-D dot com forward slash unsub. Support our show and tell them we sent you. Tell them now. Go. Do it.

• 18:01Speaker 04

  And this is, what was the attachment system? Because this isn't safety of today. There's no OSHA at this point, I'm guessing.

• 18:07Speaker 02

  I had a, a rope, and that was, and then come down, then come down, then come down. And if you came, when you came to the limb, which on the redwoods, there weren't that many limbs on them, and you had to go around to where the limb was and undo your rope, and then put it below the limb and put.

• 18:29Speaker 03

  Sammy, were you gaffing? Do you have the spikes on your shoes?

• 18:32Speaker 02

  Oh, definitely, yes, sir.

• 18:33Speaker 03

  You were gaffing up and down?

• 18:34Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 18:35Speaker 03

  That's dangerous work, too, because if you slide down, there's a, there's something sticking out, it goes through you.

• 18:42Speaker 02

  On those big redwoods, the bark is in slabs, and if you weren't careful.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  You guys ever hear about gaffing incidents?

• 18:54The Fat Electrician?

  They're bad.

• 18:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:55The Fat Electrician?

  Giant splinters.

• 18:57Speaker 03

  Splinters that'll go up in you and hit your heart.

• 19:00Speaker 04

  I'm just, dude, fourteen is wild to be doing this.

• 19:03Speaker 03

  To be gaffing up a redwood and then coming back down, that's insane.

• 19:07The Fat Electrician?

  It seems crazy to us. You lived it, so it probably doesn't seem too crazy, but I mean.

• 19:10Speaker 02

  That's the way it was.

• 19:11The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, I mean, what was, I guess, what was, was there training they gave you to climb trees like that, or did they just kind of be like, here's a rope, figure it out, climb up that tree?

• 19:20Speaker 02

  Well, I can't say it on the microphone, what they told me, but get your, up that tree. So, I got my, up the tree.

• 19:29Speaker 05

  I guarantee you, you can say it on this here microphone.

• 19:31The Fat Electrician?

  You can say it on our podcast, if you want to.

• 19:33Speaker 02

  Get your ass up that tree.

• 19:36Speaker 02

  And that's how I learned to climb.

• 19:39Speaker 05

  And you said this was for a, excuse me, a dollar twenty-five a day?

• 19:43Speaker 02

  No, no, that was an hour.

• 19:45Speaker 05

  Okay, an hour, okay, so.

• 19:46Speaker 02

  I think they started me off at, like, seventy cents an hour, and then went seventy-five cents an hour, and I became relatively proficient at it, and that's when they started paying me a dollar twenty-five an hour. I mean, that was, wow.

• 20:00Speaker 05

  So, by today's standard. If that was nineteen fifty eight, uh, today's standards, uh, what, what would that have been nineteen sixty then?

• 20:10Speaker 02

  Uh, no, I was, I started working up there in, in very, in the late fifties.

• 20:14Speaker 05

  Okay. So in fifty eight dollars, uh,

• 20:17Speaker 04

  Fifty dollars a week.

• 20:18Speaker 05

  That's about fifteen dollars, or excuse me, fifteen dollars per hour, or about fourteen dollars twenty five.

• 20:23Speaker 02

  Today?

• 20:25Speaker 05

  Yes, sir. So in today's money.

• 20:27Speaker 04

  Oh, no doubt. That's about fifty dollars a week, which is.

• 20:31Speaker 05

  That is absolutely not fifty dollars a week.

• 20:36Speaker 04

  I was like a dollar twenty five times forty.

• 20:38Speaker 05

  I thought you were talking about in modern dollars. I'm like, Eli, I know we're talking GED territory here, but that was really far off.

• 20:45Speaker 04

  Like, that's right.

• 20:46Speaker 02

  I was making really good money. I was making almost as much money as my daddy was working, was earning.

• 20:53Speaker 05

  What did he do?

• 20:54Speaker 02

  Uh, he worked at, uh,

• 20:57Speaker 02

  Fishback Moore Construction.

• 20:59Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 21:00Speaker 02

  And did whatever, wherever they sent him, did different, many different jobs. Dad run bulldozers, drove tractors, what, whatever was needed. That's what he did. That's what, the way it was back then. You just did whatever the job was.

• 21:19Speaker 04

  When you had, now, how did this set you up? You probably got in really good shape doing this. And then joining the military, you were probably ahead of a lot of the individuals you were at basic training with.

• 21:34Speaker 02

  Definitely. What, a lot of the men in basic training, what they said, well, I can't do that for twenty minutes.

• 21:45Speaker 02

  I'd been doing it for eight hours a day.

• 21:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're scurrying up trees and down trees all day long.

• 21:50Speaker 02

  Yes, sir. And so I encouraged them and told them, you don't lose till you quit trying. And they, so all of us started doing pretty good.

• 21:59Speaker 04

  That's awesome.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  In fact, our team was a sought after team in Southern California. Because we could really, wow, go in and do the job and get out and then go to the next job and.

• 22:12Speaker 04

  And you joined, now, I know you said in the past that you joined the army just because the line was shorter, but you wanted to go Navy, correct?

• 22:19Speaker 02

  I was gonna go Navy, yes, because my oldest brother was in the Navy and I want, always wanted to join the Navy.

• 22:29Speaker 02

  Their, their line was, it wasn't moving. I, I was, I was gonna join the Marine Corps, actually, and their line was not moving. And so I stepped over and I had to go to work. I kept looking at my watch, looking at my watch, and I just stepped over in the army line and boom, went in and.

• 22:48Speaker 05

  Marine line, it took them a while to look to spell their name.

• 22:51Speaker 02

  No, there were just a lot of people doing it and.

• 22:54The Fat Electrician?

  That has been a recurring thing. I mean, all I do is military history videos. So I've covered a lot of Medal of Honor recipients. And it is, for Army Medal of Honor recipients, it is a recurring theme that either they were gonna go into the Marine Corps or they got rejected by the Marine Corps and then went into the Army. You, Audie Murphy, there's like ten others. So it's, I don't know, it's interesting, over and over and over again. But in your book, you talked about, uh, your, one of your main drill instructors, and you said that he had, uh, he challenged you guys. Everybody else was running in formation and he was running backwards yelling at you. And he said, if anybody, anybody thinks they're good enough, they can try running backwards with them and you tried.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  And I did it.

• 23:37The Fat Electrician?

  I, I believe you, but you, in your book, all you said was, he didn't care for that much. I feel like there's more, I feel like there's more to that story.

• 23:45Speaker 02

  He did not care for at all the fact that I could run backwards with him. In fact, I could outrun him backwards. And that offended him highly.

• 23:55Speaker 04

  Drill sergeant's known for loving when they're getting one up by a private.

• 24:00Speaker 04

  Can't smoke me, drill sergeant, and goes over very well.

• 24:03Speaker 05

  How did he voice this, this, uh, dismay?

• 24:08Speaker 02

  Well, I can't say the words here because there's ladies present, but he, uh, called me young and stupid. Because I could run backwards as fast as he could. But you don't lose till you quit trying. I just.

• 24:24Speaker 05

  This episode is brought to you by PayPal. Holiday rush? Skip the mall traffic and shop online with PayPal. Shop your favorite online stores like eBay, Fanatics, Walmart, Sephora, Target and TikTok shop. And choose to pay now or pay later at checkout. Plus, pay in four with no interest and no late fees.

• 24:44Speaker 05

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• 24:54Speaker 02

  Looking back on it, it wasn't a hard job for me because I'd been working in the oil field. I'd been working in the mountains. I was in pretty good shape. I was in real good shape, actually.

• 25:06Speaker 04

  So did, what was the punishment?

• 25:11Speaker 02

  It was a reward.

• 25:17Speaker 05

  What I love so far, the, the inflection in which you say hua can mean so many different things. It's either like, yeah, hell, yeah, no shit.

• 25:28Speaker 04

  Well, I, I feel like after you, you know, going up the trees and down the trees and doing all the things that you've done in the oil fields, you felt like that was, do you think it was kind of a vacation? Just like, I got.

• 25:38Speaker 02

  Exactly. It wasn't a hard job.

• 25:40Speaker 04

  Easy for me.

• 25:42Speaker 02

  The, the other young men that were doing the same jobs as I was doing, they said, man, this is really hard. I didn't think it was hard. I just kept rolling and kept doing better and better and better and.

• 25:55Speaker 05

  So I'm curious with you, you making, you know, good money very early on, uh, you know, working in the trees and stuff like that. Especially you said that you were making, I think, more than your old man, right?

• 26:05Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 26:06Speaker 05

  What inspired you then to take the jump to join the, the military?

• 26:10Speaker 02

  Well, I went back to high school. I mean, I was doing this in summer, working in the, in summertime. And my dad said, I've lived in California as long as I care to live, we're gonna move back home. And his, the job he got was in Indiana, so that's where we moved. And I went to Mooresville High School. And I loved it. The people were good, the teachers were good.

• 26:38The Fat Electrician?

  Was it in Indiana you started working in the oil fields then?

• 26:41Speaker 02

  Illinois.

• 26:42The Fat Electrician?

  Illinois, sorry.

• 26:43Speaker 02

  That, yeah, well, Indiana, Illinois, but we lived right by the border.

• 26:47The Fat Electrician?

  Oh, I gotcha. So then you didn't, oh, you went from lumberjack to being a roughneck in oil fields.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 26:54The Fat Electrician?

  Is there anything else that happened at work wise in between there and the military?

• 26:58Speaker 02

  Work wise? No, that's pretty much what I did. Well, when I was in school, I went to work at a bowling alley as a cook.

• 27:09The Fat Electrician?

  How was that job interview? Looking at your past job experience, let's see here, you're seventeen, you've been a lumberjack and an oil rig operator.

• 27:17Speaker 05

  Two grown ass man careers for, for years.

• 27:19The Fat Electrician?

  For years.

• 27:20Speaker 05

  Career at this point.

• 27:22Speaker 02

  Well, I found out, well, I'd been cooking at home. Mama taught me how to cook. So I know how to cook. And evidently my food was pretty good because they wanted me to be the cook. I said, okay. So while I was in high school, that's what I did.

• 27:38Speaker 04

  Well, no wonder you married him, Dix. He's got the manliest jobs ever and he can cook.

• 27:43Speaker 03

  But every recipe he makes is for a hundred people.

• 27:48Speaker 05

  So you're eating well.

• 27:50Speaker 04

  I love him more.

• 27:51Speaker 02

  Well, he got these big, that's just what I learned to cook. Everything was in big pots, you know?

• 27:57Speaker 04

  Well, it's gotta come in handy with sixteen grandkids. Eighteen grandkids, okay.

• 28:03Speaker 02

  Babies.

• 28:04Speaker 04

  Wow. Going back to, uh, Brandon's question, like, what was the motivating factor? It was like, I want to, I want to sign up for this and I want to serve the country.

• 28:13Speaker 02

  The military? Well, my, my mama's daddy, John Helly, had been in World War One. And he lived in Dayton, Ohio and visited us, with us a lot. He had come stayed many days with us and then go back to Ohio and he would talk to me. And, when you gonna join the military? Well, soon, grandpa. When you gonna join the military? Well, soon, grandpa. I joined. I wanted to join, you know, I just, I wanted to grow up, be like grandpa Helly.

• 28:46Speaker 02

  I'm still working on it.

• 28:48Speaker 04

  That's, and

• 28:52Speaker 04

  I don't know, it's just amazing seeing like, uh, your grandpa was in the army.

• 28:57Speaker 02

  Yes, no, yes. Grandpa was Army.

• 29:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, and that's during World War One, which is, again, completely, it's, it's wild looking at the different battles. Because I even look at Vietnam, like what you experienced compared to GWAT and what I experienced, I'm like, man, that is crazy. And then when we have these World War Two vets on that are like Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, it, it's insanity to think about that and experience that, because.

• 29:25Speaker 02

  The, the life they had to live just to survive, most people today have no concept.

• 29:33Speaker 02

  No, no concept.

• 29:34Speaker 04

  They don't appreciate life as much. And I think that's the, the war is hell. And I think that, that is a very true statement, but also it does make you appreciate a lot of little things.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  Freedom is not free. It has always had to be earned. And my grandpa and my, my grandpa's grandpa, everybody had had to fight for freedom. And they passed it down to me. They made me understand what the value of it was and what you had to do to earn it. And that's, I'm still doing it today. I'm encouraging America to stand up for what you believe is right and you're heard. I don't preach politics. I want every American to stand up, duty, honor, country.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  Good shirt. I'm sure it exists.

• 30:24The Fat Electrician?

  So when you

• 30:26Speaker 02

  That is a T-shirt. Duty, honor, country.

• 30:30The Fat Electrician?

  And you wanted to go to Vietnam out of the gate because you I believe in your book.

• 30:34Speaker 02

  It was my job.

• 30:35The Fat Electrician?

  It was because it obviously I came well after you did, but after basic training to this day, as far as I know, or at least in 2012, when I graduated basic training, they still did the, give us the three, three locations you want to go to, and we'll try to station you there. But at the end of the day, they're going to send you wherever they want. And you said a lot of people were asking to go to, you know, Europe, Germany, Korea, and you had your number one pick at the time during the Vietnam War was to go to Vietnam.

• 31:02Speaker 02

  Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Simply because of the stories that I had heard.

• 31:10Speaker 02

  I would rather go to Vietnam than go to Korea.

• 31:16Speaker 03

  What was the reasoning on that?

• 31:17Speaker 02

  Well, the way the US veterans were treated in Korea was not always honorable. And what they talked about when you're sitting around the table, what do you talk about? Well, if you're a Korean veteran, you talk about all the bad stuff that happened. You know, how they treated you as a, as a US soldier in Korea. After the Korean War.

• 31:46Speaker 02

  Made me want to do something different. So I joined the military and volunteered to go to Vietnam. And I'm proud of it. I'm glad I did. The Vietnamese people treated us awesome. Dixie and I got to go back to South Vietnam.

• 32:01Speaker 02

  In 2016. And our State Department worked with their State Department. And we got to have a lunch with five of my enemy.

• 32:13Speaker 03

  Really?

• 32:14Speaker 02

  From the night that I earned this.

• 32:16Speaker 03

  Really?

• 32:16Speaker 02

  And the first hour that we're sitting there at this table, how, how many people were there Dixie?

• 32:23Speaker 02

  And the first hour, nobody said a whole lot. I mean, we talked, but we didn't really talk. Well, then started opening up and warming up.

• 32:34Speaker 02

  And it was awesome. It was awesome. I'm glad that they came and I'm glad that we got to spend the time together. What we all found out was that we loved each other.

• 32:48Speaker 02

  Our enemies. We loved each other today. Because wow, and these were five men that were there the night that I earned this. And they started talking about things that happened that night. And I remembered. And then the more I talked, the more they remembered, the more they talked. And it was awesome. We came together as former enemies. And when we left, we left as brothers. It was wonderful. I, I would recommend every soldier. If they could do that, go back to their people, that they do it because it just, it made my heart better. Seriously, I mean, it just, wow.

• 33:30Speaker 03

  I love seeing a lot of those videos where you have like the, for example, World War II, like a German fighter pilot and American fighter pilot.

• 33:37Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 33:37Speaker 03

  70 years later, getting to talk to each other and things like that. It's just, it's, it's very, it's very cool to be able to see those.

• 33:43Speaker 02

  Yes, sir. It is.

• 33:43Speaker 04

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• 35:32Speaker 02

  Dean.

• 35:33Speaker 04

  And I'm sorry, it's one thing, it's just that level of

• 35:41Speaker 04

  their perspective is going to be completely different and how they viewed it during that time. And then seeing what you and it's up again, it's, it's amazing. You guys broke bread and then you.

• 35:53Speaker 02

  Well, what we found was that they felt pretty much the same way that I did.

• 36:00Speaker 02

  About what happened that night, what happened here. And you remember this, you remember that? Wow. And the more we talked about it, the more we opened up about what was really in our hearts. And we all basically felt the same. Now, they were the enemy. I was their enemy, but we were soldiers doing our job.

• 36:20Speaker 03

  I'm not sure Gwatt's going to have exactly the same experience, but.

• 36:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, I don't know. A little bit.

• 36:26Speaker 03

  There might be a little bit more going on, on that one.

• 36:29Speaker 04

  It's that, I mean, you're fighting a different force. I, man, it's beautiful thing. As you're saying, the world, even the Germans, that Christmas, that one battle where they stopped.

• 36:39Speaker 03

  The Christmas truce in World War I.

• 36:40Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. Like that one where it's just, you're just putting a pause on war and you're ignoring like, hey, not today.

• 36:48Speaker 03

  Especially World War I, because World War I, that was just, you know, a lot of, a lot of waste in that one. Just because ideologically, there really wasn't a difference between anybody on the field. It was just, you know, nations treaties, a lot of old men sending young men to die. And so, you know, there's, there really wasn't much animosity outside of they didn't want to get killed.

• 37:06Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 37:07The Fat Electrician?

  I mean, getting to go do that dinner and then obviously meeting and getting to talk with some other guys that were there with you that day over the years. What was it like kind of filling in the blanks? Cause like, obviously you were there, you lived it, but there's a lot going on. You didn't catch all of it. So what, what is it like getting to piece everything together from all these different perspectives?

• 37:28Speaker 02

  It filled in holes in my heart that had been there for many years that were created in Vietnam. Because I found answers and I found out that those, my former enemies basically felt the same way that I felt.

• 37:44Speaker 03

  And what would that be?

• 37:46Speaker 02

  I didn't hate you because you were my enemy in Vietnam. We were soldiers doing our job. And that time together in Vietnam in 2016, we got to come together and open up our hearts.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  And we became brothers. It was amazing. I mean, it was just, I found out they were people just like me. They weren't, you know, the badass enemy. They were brothers. Just like me. And it made, it made my heart feel better. It's, it's helped me be more open.

• 38:24Speaker 02

  What are you going to eat Dixie?

• 38:29Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 38:36Speaker 05

  It was a whole different perspective to take me back with you. Because you had described that country before. It basically was the same as you described 50 years ago.

• 38:51Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 38:52Speaker 05

  Things had not changed.

• 38:53Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 38:54Speaker 05

  And I found the people to be very nice and still very appreciative of American soldiers.

• 39:04Speaker 02

  The freedom we provided them. Yes.

• 39:06Speaker 05

  And they taught the little kids that would didn't even know probably English at all. But they were taught by the generations before that when you see an American, you know, soldiers just look alike. Only the ages differ, but they still look the same. Those little kids would run up and grab Sam's hand and say, thank you.

• 39:30Speaker 02

  And the look in their eye. Thank you. You knew they meant it. It made, they made me feel as they meant it. And it was just awesome, you know?

• 39:41Speaker 03

  And ironically, it was the, the Vietnamese were treating you well, and it was the Americans who didn't treat you well.

• 39:46Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 39:48Speaker 05

  And those.

• 39:48Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 39:50Speaker 05

  The little kids were so great. And I did notice that the women did all the work. They were carrying those, all those big things they wear over their shoulders and carry all that weight. The women did that while the old men sat around in a circle squatting down on the ground, talking and snooping.

• 40:10Speaker 04

  Proper country. Yeah, Dixie, we got to teach American women.

• 40:13Speaker 02

  Joking.

• 40:18Speaker 05

  They were a hardworking people.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  Yes, they are.

• 40:21Speaker 05

  Then they had roadsides where it would be like a rest area for us now. But the roadsides were filled with hocks, just the sling kind of hocks. So I guess.

• 40:37Speaker 05

  People got tired while they were going somewhere, they could just take a nap. Yep. It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen. Of course, it was the men napping. Of course. Well, no, there's the old men that were sitting around smoking and joking because they had the young men off at fourteen, cutting down trees.

• 40:53Speaker 02

  That's right. That's the way it works.

• 40:55Speaker 04

  That's crazy. Well, that's, that's a beautiful story. I just. Again, a lot of times when you look at when opposing forces, it is even Iraq G W A, it is, hey, these people are in your country. How would you react if an invading force was in America? What would we have done? The exact same thing. So it's that weird.

• 41:15Speaker 05

  It was the beautiful piece of American literature known as Red Dawn from nineteen eighty-four.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  Red Dawn.

• 41:23Speaker 05

  This episode is brought to you by PayPal. Holiday rush? Skip the mall traffic and shop online with PayPal. Shop your favorite online stores like eBay, Fanatics, Walmart, Sephora, Target and TikTok shop. And choose to pay now or pay later at checkout. Plus pay in four with no interest and no late fees. Shop now with PayPal. Pay in four is subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com slash pay in four. PayPal Incorporated, NMLS nine one zero four five seven.

• 41:53Speaker 02

  I had the privilege of General Wes Moreland. Sent me to Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen. Wherever we were, he wanted me to go talk to the troops. So I got to go over and spend at least three to five days in each location. And I got to talk to the, to our troops and I got to talk to them. And it was amazing, heartwarming. I mean,

• 42:22Speaker 02

  it was part of the reason why I'm doing much better in my soul today was because of me being able to go back to Vietnam and then to the other countries and talk to them. It was amazing. I'm a better person today because I got to do that.

• 42:38Speaker 03

  That's awesome, man. They didn't bring you in to fight any more wars or anything?

• 42:44Speaker 03

  You didn't, you didn't pick up, you didn't pick up an M sixteen?

• 42:48Speaker 05

  That's classified, Cody.

• 42:50The Fat Electrician?

  Can't talk about it.

• 42:52Speaker 04

  The, now, before getting into your Medal of Honor story, you had, uh, was it Roger? Roger Donlin is the guy that inspired you.

• 43:01The Fat Electrician?

  Yes, sir.

• 43:02Speaker 04

  Because his heroic actions and how he earned his, which is again, wild. You had that story and then you're.

• 43:08Speaker 05

  And I'm, I'm unfamiliar with this story.

• 43:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. Which one? Roger?

• 43:11Speaker 02

  Roger Donlin.

• 43:13Speaker 04

  You know better than me.

• 43:13Speaker 02

  He was the first Medal of Honor recipient from Vietnam.

• 43:18Speaker 04

  He had, his story was, oh man. It was during a giant push. He stood there and fought off like three waves for it was five or eight hours. And when they actually, and he was injured. He got hit with a mortar, took trap and was in the face, got shot. Just.

• 43:38Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 43:38Speaker 04

  Riddled with wounds and.

• 43:40Speaker 02

  But he kept doing his job, no matter what.

• 43:43Speaker 04

  He was the captain that was just in charge and he rallied his troops and was like, hey, we're getting attacked from this way. We need to push this way. At the end, there was fifty-four enemies dead.

• 43:53Speaker 05

  Did he survive?

• 43:53Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 43:54Speaker 05

  Yep, very nice.

• 43:55Speaker 02

  He did well for many years.

• 43:57Speaker 05

  Very nice.

• 43:58Speaker 04

  And it's the one that inspired you.

• 44:00Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 44:00Speaker 04

  And then you

• 44:03Speaker 04

  did your time in the military and then, uh, how long from basic training to deployment for Vietnam?

• 44:10Speaker 02

  For Vietnam, well, basic training, advanced individual training, Vietnam.

• 44:17The Fat Electrician?

  And when you, when you first got into country, you kind of got, uh, diverted to be in a, a guard for the compound initially, didn't you?

• 44:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Guard for the, uh, the ammo, the long bin ammunition dump.

• 44:29The Fat Electrician?

  Yep.

• 44:30Speaker 02

  When we got there, when our group arrived in Vietnam, they pulled, I don't remember how many of us was now. Twenty or thirty and made us guards at the long bin ammo dump. And we thought, oh, wow.

• 44:45The Fat Electrician?

  But that was because there was a fairly successful attack there and everybody thought it was not capable of getting attacked, right?

• 44:52Speaker 02

  Well, it's a big ammunition dump and they had lots of people, our guys guarding it. But the enemy knew that and they, that was where all the ammunition that was being used in South Vietnam was being stored. That's how big this ammunition dump was. Just a big field full of ammo pallets.

• 45:09Speaker 05

  So juicy target.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  Oh, big, big, big target. Yes. So that was my first job in Vietnam.

• 45:16The Fat Electrician?

  You said when you were being a guard that you had started to notice that some of the, some of the local people that were like allowed to come onto the base for whatever reasons, you, you started to notice you could tell who they were gathering intel, trying to like pass it on. There were people that were like walking toe to toe to heel, measuring distances so they could give.

• 45:37Speaker 02

  It wasn't noticeable, but it was noticeable.

• 45:41Speaker 02

  Cause we knew what to look for.

• 45:42The Fat Electrician?

  You caught on?

• 45:43Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 45:44The Fat Electrician?

  And then there was a, a Black Panther on top of the ammo, you said.

• 45:48Speaker 02

  What? Yes, sir.

• 45:50Speaker 03

  I hate that superhero.

• 45:59The Fat Electrician?

  Did you actually see it in person or was that just somebody else?

• 46:01Speaker 02

  No, we seen it. No.

• 46:02The Fat Electrician?

  You saw it?

• 46:03Speaker 02

  The Panther, well, we found out that there were people feeding him and that's what made him come back, come back, come back, come back. And it was cool. I mean, they're a beautiful animal and.

• 46:15Speaker 05

  I'm still just picturing Chadwick Boseman.

• 46:20Speaker 02

  They're much bigger than what you can imagine.

• 46:23Speaker 05

  It's just like the Major Caper story about stealing the, uh, the pythons from the jungle.

• 46:26The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah. You saw, you saw a tiger too, didn't you?

• 46:30Speaker 02

  We did see a tiger, yes.

• 46:32The Fat Electrician?

  That's even bigger than a panther by quite a bit, isn't it?

• 46:35Speaker 02

  At least half as big.

• 46:37Speaker 03

  Like, like an actual orange, like tiger, like a Bengal tiger?

• 46:40Speaker 02

  A real tiger.

• 46:42The Fat Electrician?

  What was that like being a, being a kid from the country, growing up in the woods?

• 46:47Speaker 02

  Country boy, I was used to.

• 46:49The Fat Electrician?

  Well, I know, but I mean, you didn't, you didn't have the internet or, you know, Discovery Channel back in the day. I mean, obviously you probably knew what a tiger was, but it's not like you'd seen a bunch of four K videos of it.

• 46:59Speaker 02

  When I, I heard a noise behind me. I was doing my job on guard.

• 47:05Speaker 05

  Oh, that's the worst place to hear a tiger.

• 47:07Speaker 02

  And I heard a noise behind me. Well, it was kind of like

• 47:15Speaker 02

  so, uh, slowly, slowly, slowly turned around. And when I got turned around, there was tiger eyes this close to me. He had got up that close. Well, what do you do?

• 47:28Speaker 05

  Shit my pants.

• 47:33Speaker 02

  Well, then he closed his eyes and disappeared, but it was amazing.

• 47:37Speaker 05

  And he was stalking you.

• 47:39Speaker 02

  Well, he was just checking me out.

• 47:41Speaker 04

  And he was stalking you and you turned, oh. There, there are four, I just looked, those are four hundred forty pounds.

• 47:48Speaker 02

  Oh, they're big, unbelievable.

• 47:50The Fat Electrician?

  They're the biggest.

• 47:50Speaker 05

  This tall monkey smells like shit suddenly.

• 47:54Speaker 05

  I'm not interested anymore.

• 47:55Speaker 04

  Food spoiled.

• 47:58Speaker 04

  That is, and cats are, whoa, they mess you up really quick. I think, um, Kevin talks about that's the most dangerous animal out in Africa.

• 48:09Speaker 02

  Their hands were so big and their claws were so big. Unfortunately, we had two different times, but we had two guys that got attacked by tiger. And both of them was on the back. And there are cuts on their back, just looked like a big, sharp knife had went in four places. I mean, they're, they're, we got there when it happened, basically just seconds after it happened and the the wounds were laid open.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  We couldn't believe it.

• 48:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, like someone just took a big knife and went like that.

• 48:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, amazing.

• 48:49The Fat Electrician?

  I mean, that would suck, but also name a cooler scar.

• 48:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, fair.

• 48:53The Fat Electrician?

  I mean, how'd you get that? I got attacked by a tiger.

• 48:56Speaker 05

  No, no, no, no. Don't shove it all the way shut. Leave it open a little.

• 48:59The Fat Electrician?

  Pour some lime juice in that, actually.

• 49:01Speaker 02

  Well, I never got to see the guys again. They got sent home, but

• 49:08Speaker 02

  it was amazing.

• 49:09Speaker 05

  There was, there was a buddy of mine growing up, um, had, not to derail, but on that, the, the scar notice or the scar story. Uh, he had the coolest scar ever and it was like he, he, he actually earned it the, the proper way, but you'll hear the story. So he, he actually got bit by a shark.

• 49:26Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 49:26Speaker 05

  When he was swimming as a kid and it was a perfect row of teeth across his torso. Like it was very clear, like anytime like you know, in the locker room or whatever, he takes off his shirt, like you see.

• 49:36Speaker 02

  Survived.

• 49:37Speaker 05

  Perfect row of teeth. And he was like, I don't know, fifteen, sixteen or whatever. So like. taller guy like it was a very big looking shark I think it happened when he was like seven

• 49:48The Fat Electrician?

  oh wow

• 49:49Speaker 05

  so it was a much smaller shark he's still flat out shark attack survivor but the scar grew with him so it looks like a much more dangerous shark

• 49:58The Fat Electrician?

  that's way cooler you're not you're not condensing me on this whole ocean thing

• 50:03Speaker 03

  yeah why'd you tell him about the ocean Brandon I think he knows what a shark is we brought him to the ocean a couple of years ago it sucks he won't come back

• 50:12Speaker 05

  cat maulings average is 200 stitches

• 50:15The Fat Electrician?

  awkwardly enough the only landlocked state to have a shark attack on document is Iowa

• 50:21Speaker 05

  alright what

• 50:22Speaker 02

  there was a shark

• 50:24Speaker 05

  I'm thinking like Jurassic Park shoot

• 50:29The Fat Electrician?

  it's it's all over the internet if you

• 50:30Speaker 03

  it's an actual shark attack

• 50:32The Fat Electrician?

  if you look up the map of shark attacks they have like red dots and it's obviously all around the coastlines

• 50:36Speaker 02

  was it in the zoo or something

• 50:37The Fat Electrician?

  there's one dot I can't I think

• 50:39Speaker 03

  did this dumbass did the shark just get lost and

• 50:43Speaker 05

  it was at the uh the Blue Zoo interactive aquarium in west Des Moines Iowa where an 18 inch bamboo shark bit a staff member's hand oh come on it's like a foot and a half 18 inch bamboo shark bit a oh you got a little fingey fingey herd

• 50:58Speaker 03

  good lord

• 50:59Speaker 05

  Iowans am I right

• 51:01Speaker 03

  you're right he plugs everything on the fucking proportions

• 51:03The Fat Electrician?

  this is the meme this is

• 51:05Speaker 05

  I have I've seen the meme

• 51:06The Fat Electrician?

  it's you can see just the one dot for a shark attack in Iowa

• 51:10Speaker 04

  hey you ever just wake up and felt like your mattress sucks and it beat your ass punched you in the face

• 51:15Speaker 05

  that's crazy does the mattress also [__] your mom you ever wake up feeling like you slept in a swamp because you're disgusting nasty ball sweat I see most of you on Reddit so I know you have

• 51:27Speaker 04

  time to break up with that mattress

• 51:29Speaker 05

  get divorced from your mattress get a ghost bed [__] that hoe you're worth more you're so strong

• 51:35Speaker 04

  well guess what ghost bed just launched their new mattress line it's designed to keep you cool supported in all the right areas if you catch my drift your giant [__] hog and help you get sleep these beds are built with its patented cooling technology Brandon

• 51:50Speaker 05

  so you can keep your giant [__] hog cool

• 51:53Speaker 04

  did you know they're built to last

• 51:55Speaker 05

  that's right none of that drippin' ear nonsense every mattress has a 20 or 25 year warranty that means if I bought one today it will outlive me before the warranty expires I don't have much time left especially with as much as you smoke way to make it real Brandon

• 52:12Speaker 04

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• 52:26Speaker 05

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• 52:43Speaker 04

  hey go use code unsub

• 52:45Speaker 05

  what's happening what's going on

• 52:47Speaker 04

  that's ghostbed.com slash unsubscribe use code unsubscribe sleep better stay cooler

• 52:53Speaker 05

  this is a threat dude okay right now we had a bear just for the bit no joke I could just buy a shark

• 53:01Speaker 05

  and then just have it bite me like one of those little bamboo sharks now it's Texas Texas two San Antonio shark attack

• 53:08Speaker 04

  we have a confirmed barracuda attack in San Antonio because when we were filming um Bass Pro Shop we did that

• 53:14Speaker 05

  oh yeah

• 53:15Speaker 04

  that midnight shoot so we had to film a commercial we did two nights in a row and Jake from corridor decided there's the giant

• 53:26Speaker 04

  uh aquarium that has like all the big fish in there Jake's like oh oh and he reached his hand in there for some reason barracuda immediately snapped his hand started bleeding we're like Jake we told you not to

• 53:38The Fat Electrician?

  Jake Watson

• 53:39Speaker 04

  yeah Jake lawyer Jake

• 53:40The Fat Electrician?

  Jake's been attacked by a barracuda

• 53:42Speaker 04

  yep

• 53:42Speaker 03

  are you talking about the whole BRCC ship

• 53:45Speaker 04

  he got attacked

• 53:46Speaker 03

  it was like five years six years ago

• 53:48Speaker 04

  six yeah probably like six years ago he reached in and got bit on the hand wow blood by a barracuda because he wanted to pet it

• 53:56Speaker 05

  it gets worse the story he told me is he thought he was faster than a barracuda so he's got his finger in it thinking he can pull it out faster than a predatory fish

• 54:06Speaker 02

  you are not faster than a barracuda

• 54:08Speaker 04

  no he wasn't

• 54:09The Fat Electrician?

  in his defense Jake is fast

• 54:14Speaker 05

  famously slow barracudas

• 54:18The Fat Electrician?

  I nobody told me for the first two years Jake is our our friend he lives in town here nobody told me for the first three years I knew the guy that he had like records and track he was like the 13th person to run a sub four minute mile or something

• 54:33Speaker 05

  I think it's because it was like brothers or something like that

• 54:35Speaker 04

  yeah he was the second

• 54:37The Fat Electrician?

  set of brothers

• 54:38Speaker 04

  yeah to break the four minute barrier

• 54:40The Fat Electrician?

  yeah

• 54:41Speaker 04

  that's quick in four minutes

• 54:42The Fat Electrician?

  that's unbelievable yeah

• 54:43Speaker 05

  fast

• 54:45Speaker 04

  that is no see I was never good enough that was my one weakness in the army I could max it by two seconds and I was dying

• 54:53The Fat Electrician?

  I want I want to see you and Jake in a foot race not because I think you'll win but I just want to see the the step counts on on how fast how many steps it takes Jake to run a mile and how many steps it takes you to run a mile

• 55:05Speaker 04

  I'm Naruto running really quick steps arms back

• 55:10Speaker 05

  he he just does the full Naruto run

• 55:14Speaker 05

  attacking area 51

• 55:17The Fat Electrician?

  so one thing that I want to ask you about was you talked about the first time you went to a uh a Medal of Honor Society meetup and the first time you walked in the door you saw Doolittle

• 55:29Speaker 02

  Jimmy Doolittle

• 55:30The Fat Electrician?

  Eddie Rickenbacker and Pappy Boynton all sitting there at the same time three of the biggest legends in military aviation ever and you were what 23 year old kid what was that like walking in and coming face to face with those three at the same time

• 55:47Speaker 02

  blew me away I didn't know what to say I didn't know what to do I just wow you know and they called me the fucking new kid

• 55:58Speaker 04

  I like you've earned a medal of honor and you're the new

• 56:01Speaker 05

  fucking new kid

• 56:04Speaker 02

  but I did I wasn't offended by it that's just the way they saw it I was the fucking new kid you know come and sit down you fucking new kid

• 56:11The Fat Electrician?

  if anybody's gonna call you the new guy it's there they can get away with it

• 56:14Speaker 02

  and well they didn't make it sound negatory it was I was the new kid

• 56:20The Fat Electrician?

  welcome to the club

• 56:21Speaker 02

  yeah it worked good God bless them

• 56:24The Fat Electrician?

  what that is

• 56:25Speaker 04

  what are some of their stories you're the historian so I would love to know more on uh

• 56:29The Fat Electrician?

  Doolittle was like a pioneer in early early aviation and have you ever seen the movie Midway

• 56:35Speaker 04

  yes

• 56:36The Fat Electrician?

  you know the guys that where they have the bombers on the carriers and they the bombers take off and go and bomb Tokyo as revenge for Pearl Harbor that was Doolittle that's the Doolittle raid

• 56:47Speaker 04

  you ever watched that Pearl Harbor movie

• 56:50The Fat Electrician?

  so they they literally took

• 56:51Speaker 04

  he's in there a lot

• 56:53The Fat Electrician?

  they took off carriers on bombers on a one-way trip bombed Tokyo and then they were trying to have enough fuel to make it into China who was our allied at the time but they didn't make it they had to crash land and they escaped into China and he wound up surviving so like that was Doolittle Pappy Boynton was the leader of the Black Sheep Squadron um in World War II badass fighter pilot um Pappy a lot of people don't know this but Pappy Boynton was also prior to being in the Black Sheep he was one of the Flying Tigers

• 57:26Speaker 02

  yes

• 57:26The Fat Electrician?

  that had been sent into China before America was even in World War II so he was fighting against the Japanese before America was involved and then then he joined the Black Sheep had the Black Sheep Squadron they did a bunch of incredible stuff and then Eddie Rickenbacker was originally a race car driver prior to World War One and then got into aviation because the dude just wanted to go fast and in World War One he became America's ace of aces with America's highest kill count

• 57:57Speaker 05

  and you've done videos on like two of these people

• 58:00The Fat Electrician?

  I've done videos on none of them but they've all been recurring characters so like um Eddie Rickenbacker was there and he went and saw um Frank Luke the Arizona balloon buster and he he was there as like the ace of aces at the time that watched the Arizona balloon buster pop two balloons in like five minutes and he was also there for uh Dick Bong and Eddie Rickenbacker had made a bet with all the World War II pilots anybody that can beat my record I'm gonna buy you a case of champagne so he was in Dick Bong's story also

• 58:37Speaker 05

  it's also a little weird knowing you as a friend because all I know in my head like it's not a parasocial relationship like the rest of you guys all I know is that at some point I'm like I've heard Nick talk about these men before and I just assume it's probably in a video but it could have just were out at like a bar or something like that

• 58:52The Fat Electrician?

  yeah no there's they've definitely appeared uh and I I talk about Pappy Boynton I think in my Flying Tigers video but I definitely

• 59:00Speaker 05

  I think he might have talked about one of them on one of the unsub live shows too

• 59:03The Fat Electrician?

  probably

• 59:04Speaker 04

  I think

• 59:05The Fat Electrician?

  yeah so

• 59:07Speaker 05

  this episode is brought to you by PayPal holiday rush skip the mall traffic and shop online with PayPal shop your favorite online stores like eBay Fanatics Walmart Sephora Target and TikTok shop and choose to pay now or pay later at checkout plus pay in four with no interest and no late fees

• 59:27Speaker 05

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• 59:37Speaker 04

  that's a crazy man and you gotta meet all there that would have been wild at that time

• 59:43Speaker 02

  we I was the new kid and got to be good friends with all those men you know it was just amazing that the Vietnam veterans they were allowed to sit at the same table and talk with all these World War II heroes that we'd read about wow and they made us feel part of them so it was awesome

• 1:00:08Speaker 05

  do you feel like that's a lot of what maybe some of the newer GWOT guys feel with guys like you

• 1:00:13Speaker 02

  well we try to treat them the same as they treated us you know it's and I think it's working

• 1:00:20Speaker 04

  you told Clint Ramishe to sit the fuck down

• 1:00:25Speaker 02

  I love Clint.

• 1:00:26Speaker 04

  He just says hi.

• 1:00:28Speaker 02

  Oh, did he?

• 1:00:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, he said hi. I was like, hey. He's like, they're the kindest people. Dude, Clint, we love Clint here. Like Clint's a homie to all of us.

• 1:00:37Speaker 02

  Good man, yeah, sure.

• 1:00:38Speaker 04

  Amazing, amazing human. Now, do you want to tell your story or go into your Medal of Honor story? Because I think that's what a lot of the people would love to hear your perspective of. I know you've told it a million times.

• 1:00:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:00:52Speaker 04

  But I think you telling it is just a piece of history, especially for this audience and us.

• 1:00:58Speaker 02

  Well, that night, November the 18th, 1967, there were 42 of us and 1,500 of the enemy. Reinforced, they had a heavy weapons, reinforced heavy weapons battalion of NVA. Now, at the time, it was not admitted that there were that many North Vietnamese fighters in South Vietnam. It was not politically correct to acknowledge that fact. So, it wasn't until deep into the night that we discovered that they were NVA, had NVA uniforms on. You know, I mean, wow.

• 1:01:42Speaker 02

  And as I told you earlier, in 2016, we got to meet with five of our former enemy and they had been North Vietnamese regulars. And we got to talk to them and opened up to their questions, they opened up to my questions, and we got to find out things that had been important in our hearts all these years, but didn't talk about it. Well, we talked about it. And it helped my soul and it helped their soul because I answered their questions too. Well, why did this happen? Well, how did you do that? And, you know, and just simple questions, but we never talked about it.

• 1:02:24Speaker 02

  It was awesome.

• 1:02:27Speaker 04

  And then you did the, just kicked it all off. What was the initial point of, okay, the battle's beginning? And then leading to you, I mean, your story again, like that night was amazing, or above and beyond, not amazing in that term, but what you did, your actions were amazing. It's, it's why you wear that medal.

• 1:02:48Speaker 02

  Well, I'm not a brave man, but I love my brothers. And the reason why I did what I did was because I loved those men across the river. They were there doing their job and I had to go get them. So, I went and got them and I did whatever I had to do to do it.

• 1:03:08Speaker 04

  Where'd you find the, you had a mattress that you used?

• 1:03:12Speaker 02

  An air mattress that you slept, that the army had given us to sleep on. That was our bed.

• 1:03:16Speaker 04

  The little green ones?

• 1:03:17Speaker 02

  Yes. And that was the boat that I used to get across. And of course, it got holes in it because they were shooting at me. But it still held enough air. Well, I actually, I don't remember if I tied it off or tried to rope around where it was, the holes were. But I got, it got me across and got me, me and my good brothers, the three men that I swam across the river for, back across too. It worked.

• 1:03:46Speaker 04

  How long was that swim?

• 1:03:48Speaker 02

  How long was it?

• 1:03:51Speaker 02

  Dixie, do you remember how far it was across that river? Dick, we've stood at that.

• 1:03:58Speaker 02

  That's all wider than it was?

• 1:04:00Speaker 04

  I mean, when you're getting shot at, that is a football field.

• 1:04:04Speaker 02

  And I was wounded. I was wounded multiple times, but I still did my job. And when we got to meeting with the NVA that were there that night, that was one of the things that, how did you do that?

• 1:04:21Speaker 02

  I said, well, you don't lose till you quit trying. And I just did not quit trying. I just kept swimming. And yeah, it hurt, my back was broken, three different spots, my spine, but I didn't quit.

• 1:04:31Speaker 04

  Did, did any of those men remember seeing you crossing the river?

• 1:04:35Speaker 02

  Oh, definitely.

• 1:04:37Speaker 05

  If you don't mind, for, for those, I'm sure there's a lot in the audience who don't know the story. And I, I only know the Cliff Notes, to be honest with you.

• 1:04:43Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 1:04:43Speaker 05

  Do you, do you mind starting from the beginning of the engagement?

• 1:04:46Speaker 02

  The beginning?

• 1:04:47Speaker 05

  Yes, sir.

• 1:04:47Speaker 02

  That'll take three nights to talk about.

• 1:04:51Speaker 04

  Rough overview?

• 1:04:53Speaker 02

  There were 42 GIs artillerymen and there was 1,500 reinforced heavy weapons battalion of NVA across the river. And they were attacking part of our guys, our infantry. Jim Deister from Salina, Kansas, one of the three men that I brought back across the river, he was across the river. And he wasn't, he was badly enough wounded. He wasn't the man that I seen waving at me and then would hide, wave at me and then hide. But I knew I had to go across the river and get him. So, wow, my brothers are over there. So, I made it across the river with the help of that air mattress and went to where I'd last seen. It wasn't Jim Deister.

• 1:05:38Speaker 02

  Yes, Windell Holloway from Stockton, California. He was the one that was waving at me. And when I got there, there were three men in that foxhole. Well, I knew I didn't have the strength, I'd been wounded quite a bit. I knew I didn't have the strength to make three trips back across. So, I did my very best to bring all three men at one time. And they could hang on, kinda. We all took care of each other, basically, and came back across the river.

• 1:06:11Speaker 02

  We all survived. Windell lives in Stockton, California. Jim Deister lives in Kansas.

• 1:06:24Speaker 02

  Billy Ray Crawford. Yep, yep. He was from Texas and he took his own life. He just, and I had talked to him not that far, not that long before.

• 1:06:38Speaker 05

  He said that you go to Texas to see him. He came from a smaller town and.

• 1:06:44Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:06:45Speaker 05

  He was a black man.

• 1:06:47Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:06:47Speaker 05

  And the country wasn't, even in Texas, not good to a disabled black man. He would sandwich at the house, but Billy Ray would never let him in the house.

• 1:07:01Speaker 02

  We would talk through the screen door.

• 1:07:04Speaker 05

  Would never let him in. And I, I think, well, who can say what goes through somebody else's head? But that poor gentleman, disabled and probably feeling so alone.

• 1:07:18Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:07:19Speaker 05

  And at some point, it was enough.

• 1:07:25Speaker 04

  And when was that?

• 1:07:27Speaker 04

  Roughly?

• 1:07:28Speaker 02

  Well.

• 1:07:30Speaker 05

  He survived for 10 years after the war?

• 1:07:33Speaker 02

  Yep. I was stationed at Fort Hood and that's when I found out where Billy Ray lived and it wasn't that far from Fort Hood. So, I would drive down. He, well, I won't say never, but usually he did not let me in the house. We talked through the screen door and he would stand there and I would talk to him and he'd say a few words back and then it was time to leave. So, I would turn around, go back to Fort Hood and a few days later, well, I'd show up on his doorstep again.

• 1:08:13Speaker 02

  Do you remember if he ever let me in the house?

• 1:08:17Speaker 02

  I don't, I don't remember him ever letting me in the house. We talked through the screen door. Well, I got to talk to his neighbors and they said, yeah, we see him through the window, but he don't come outside. You know? He was, that just, well, now we know it was post-traumatic stress. And he.

• 1:08:38Speaker 04

  Connor, when you used nicotine in the past, what have been your biggest frustrations? Turns out you can't get as much of a pump going when you're, when you got a cig in your mouth at the gym that I go to all the time. Was your recovery time worse on nicotine? Oh, and how? It narrows your blood vessels and restricts oxygen to your muscles.

• 1:08:59Speaker 05

  It makes it hard to breathe and your blood doesn't work.

• 1:09:01Speaker 04

  Counteracts the pump.

• 1:09:03Speaker 02

  Ultra pouches are perfect for athletes, runners, or health-conscious people because they're 100% nicotine-free. You pop one of those bitches five minutes before your workout?

• 1:09:12Speaker 04

  Or your workday and bam, you're gonna be on fire.

• 1:09:16Speaker 05

  A lot of this shit is just actually just good for you, like L-theanine, uh, vitamin B6, vitamin B12.

• 1:09:20Speaker 04

  Also, they help quit your cravings and they suppress your appetite. When do you recommend taking Ultra?

• 1:09:26Speaker 03

  I'm gonna do this before the gym.

• 1:09:28Speaker 05

  Before I'm pumping it, crazy style.

• 1:09:30Speaker 03

  It's got no tropics.

• 1:09:31Speaker 05

  No tropics.

• 1:09:32Speaker 03

  No tropics.

• 1:09:33Speaker 04

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• 1:09:35Speaker 05

  Mine's tropical. I like cool mint.

• 1:09:38Speaker 04

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• 1:09:44Speaker 05

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• 1:09:49Speaker 04

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• 1:09:54Speaker 02

  Stayed in his house, didn't talk to people. God bless him.

• 1:09:58Speaker 04

  It's hard to connect to when he went through that and it is amazing, first off, you, you going out and then seeking him out and talking to him. That, that was super helpful because a lot we've talked about it. It is reaching out, talking to your friends that have PTSD or struggling with those.

• 1:10:17Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:10:18Speaker 04

  Just struggling with what was going on or what they experienced in Vietnam was extremely difficult, especially like your perspective, their perspective. And then coming back to the States where there is zero respect and they didn't know PTSD.

• 1:10:33Speaker 02

  Zero understanding because even the veterans didn't know what was really happening in our hearts and minds. And well, it's been 50 years ago and I'm still learning. You know, it's, it's amazing.

• 1:10:45Speaker 05

  What do you think about Vietnam made it different? You said the veterans didn't even understand.

• 1:10:49Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, the World War II veterans, Korean veterans.

• 1:10:56Speaker 02

  Well, our war was different than their war. That's what they said. That's what they believed. And it wasn't until years later, I understood that, no, our war's pretty much same as theirs, you know? But you don't lose till you quit trying. And that's one of the reasons why I've stayed on the road, traveling and speaking to our veterans all over America. Trying to encourage them to stand, stand up for what you believe is right. What do you believe happened? To you in Vietnam that made you the person you are today? And then go share it with the other person. Because whatever, good or bad, positive or negative, that person over there needs to know about you and how you feel and how it's affected you. And today now.

• 1:11:43Speaker 02

  I have people that come up to me and say, Sam, when you came and talked to me, it just renewed my soul.

• 1:11:53Speaker 02

  Wow. Thank you, sir.

• 1:11:56Speaker 05

  It was so different though in our small towns where if you would go to the VFW or one of the service organizations, the old guys then would say, Sam, come sit down beside me. I'm gonna tell you about a real war.

• 1:12:14Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:12:16Speaker 05

  And so it was just, or they'd say, it wasn't even a war. It was diminished. And it had to make them feel so much worse that what they did didn't matter. And then it wasn't that far in the future that the same old guys were asking them, please come join.

• 1:12:35Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:12:35Speaker 05

  Otherwise it won't be going anymore because nobody will do it. But a lot of those old dudes apologized, but it took a lot of years.

• 1:12:44Speaker 02

  Took a long time.

• 1:12:46Speaker 05

  And um. It was like, what you did didn't matter. And I always thought that was so terribly unfair. What about somebody's son? Did that not matter when they died for their country? It's the second time so far. It's kind of interesting to see that parallel between the difference in, you know, World War II veterans and Vietnam per se, or Vietnam and GWAT. And just how a lot of those attitudes really are kind of very similar.

• 1:13:12The Fat Electrician?

  Hey, I also don't think, I don't think civilians at that time had an understanding of like guerrilla warfare of what you guys were dealing with. Cause I mean, World War II, Korea.

• 1:13:22Speaker 02

  A battle.

• 1:13:24The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, it, well, I guess the point I'm trying to make is.

• 1:13:28Speaker 02

  Vietnam was just a conflict.

• 1:13:30The Fat Electrician?

  Right. But the, it's a lot harder to fight an insurgency instead of a conventional force. You know what I mean? Like when the enemy's all doing military stuff in military uniforms, that's one thing. But when it's an insurgency and it's people in plain clothing that are normal villagers one second, and then now they have AK47, like that's a whole nother level of intricacy and problems that I don't think people grasped at the time that made Vietnam way harder.

• 1:13:59Speaker 04

  And yeah, it's, it's a problem, I think, with a lot of soldiers, even today, when you had GWAT soldiers that didn't deploy or they didn't see combat, or just because they weren't infantry, you would see people talk down. And that's one thing I always tried to, I was very against. It's like, hey, they signed the dotted line just like you.

• 1:14:17Speaker 02

  And they did their job just like you did your job.

• 1:14:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, if they didn't get in a firefight or something, it's, it's so good. Like I, they should be happy, you should be happy for them. They didn't experience that, but don't diminish what they have accomplished.

• 1:14:33Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:14:34Speaker 04

  Cause Ed said one big team, one, one team, one.

• 1:14:37Speaker 02

  And it takes all of us working together, doing our job to get the job done.

• 1:14:41Speaker 04

  What was, uh, for that battle, what was one of the scariest moments in your mind? Like, was it during the crossing? I know during, like, I have had my moments where I can reflect and be like, well, that was the moment I thought, okay. I'm going to, this is it.

• 1:15:01Speaker 02

  When I was on our side of the river and I looked over and seen three GIs in a foxhole and they were waving their hats at me. I knew I had to go get them. Now I was already wounded, but I knew I just couldn't lay there in my foxhole. And what's, because there was enemy was everywhere.

• 1:15:20Speaker 05

  You said you were already wounded. Where, where were you wounded at the time?

• 1:15:23Speaker 02

  Right thigh AK47 around. I had, you know what beehive is?

• 1:15:28Speaker 05

  Not a thought in my head.

• 1:15:29The Fat Electrician?

  Flush that round.

• 1:15:30Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 1:15:30The Fat Electrician?

  Artillery.

• 1:15:32Speaker 04

  We both got shot.

• 1:15:33The Fat Electrician?

  You brought it?

• 1:15:33Speaker 04

  We both got shot in the right thigh by AKs.

• 1:15:36Speaker 05

  Actually, yeah.

• 1:15:38Speaker 02

  Okay, that's one.

• 1:15:40Speaker 05

  Dear God.

• 1:15:41Speaker 02

  Now this one's gold made out of my VA teeth. Uh, but this was, I had, how many of these?

• 1:15:47Speaker 05

  You've got a backup on that one. It's made out of gold?

• 1:15:51Speaker 02

  Thirty of these in me.

• 1:15:53Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 1:15:53Speaker 02

  Oh my God.

• 1:15:54Speaker 05

  You said that one's gold and made out of your VA teeth?

• 1:15:56Speaker 02

  VA teeth, yes. Well, I've, I had the original, which I still got the original that they dug out of me. But I thought, well, I want to wear it around my neck.

• 1:16:08The Fat Electrician?

  Can you, uh, can you tell the story of how you got the one they pulled out of you? Cause that's a pretty interesting story in itself.

• 1:16:14Speaker 02

  Well, at the moment I don't remember. Tell, refresh my memory, seriously.

• 1:16:18The Fat Electrician?

  I think, uh, I, I believe you, uh, you sent a bunch of them back home to your mother and she kept them in a jewelry box.

• 1:16:26Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:16:27The Fat Electrician?

  And then, um.

• 1:16:28Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 1:16:28The Fat Electrician?

  Your, you said that one of your brothers had acquired them from mom and sold them at school.

• 1:16:37The Fat Electrician?

  And then later in life, one of his classmates gave it back to you. And that's how you got it, got it back.

• 1:16:44Speaker 05

  Oh my God.

• 1:16:46The Fat Electrician?

  That thing just kept finding you.

• 1:16:47Speaker 05

  Your brother sold your shrapnel?

• 1:16:49Speaker 02

  It was just shrapnel.

• 1:16:51Speaker 05

  Just shrapnel.

• 1:16:52The Fat Electrician?

  What your brother sold?

• 1:16:53Speaker 02

  His words, yes.

• 1:16:55Speaker 04

  It's a Snickers bar.

• 1:16:56Speaker 02

  My little, he was my little brother.

• 1:16:58Speaker 05

  Did you beat his ass afterward?

• 1:17:00Speaker 02

  No, he was my little brother.

• 1:17:03Speaker 04

  Yo, my brothers.

• 1:17:04Speaker 02

  He didn't, he didn't understand the importance of what the shrapnel.

• 1:17:09Speaker 05

  How old was he at the time?

• 1:17:11Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:17:21Speaker 05

  That deserves a butt whooping. Are you getting your ass kicked?

• 1:17:24Speaker 02

  John was 13. He was 10 years younger than me, so.

• 1:17:29Speaker 05

  Old enough to start climbing trees and cutting them down. You were using a chainsaw at that age.

• 1:17:34Speaker 04

  You're giving a lot of excuses.

• 1:17:37Speaker 04

  Man, so it, it's also just really crazy. You had all that plus the injury to your right thigh. And then you seeing your brothers across the way.

• 1:17:47Speaker 02

  I knew I had to go get my brothers. And I asked the one above.

• 1:17:51Speaker 05

  You thought everybody else was dead and you were the only one left to do it.

• 1:17:56Speaker 02

  Yep, basically, yes. So I knew I had to do it and I did. And when I got over there, well. I didn't know there were three men still living. And when I got over there, there were three men alive. Well, I knew I didn't have the strength to make three trips back and forth. So I had to carry all three of them at the same time and get in the river and then that's that piece of air mattress that still held air. That's where I put them. And.

• 1:18:26Speaker 04

  How were you dr- was it, did you just drag each one to the shore at that time?

• 1:18:31Speaker 02

  From their foxhole, yes, I just drug them over and then put them on the air mattress and we slipped off into the river and made our way back. And well, my guys that were still alive on my side of the river could see what I was doing. So they were taking the enemy. You know, they, they were helping me.

• 1:18:48Speaker 04

  Covering fire.

• 1:18:48Speaker 02

  And we made it across. We made, I can remember the bullets hitting all around us in the water, you know? And I just kept thinking, well, my job ain't done yet. Well, my job ain't done yet. Well, my job ain't done yet. And I just kept doing my job and thank you, sir. I made it.

• 1:19:06Speaker 05

  You said, when you asked about being scared. He tried, he tried to carry all three at one time back to the riverbank.

• 1:19:20Speaker 05

  And he put one guy, one under each arm, put Jim Deister, who they thought was dead, across his shoulders.

• 1:19:28Speaker 02

  Jim Deister was shot through the head, shot through the chest.

• 1:19:30Speaker 05

  Yeah, he had one AK or whatever it was. And so to carry that, he strapped it around his head with that strap, and that's how they went. Um, well, Billy Ray had lost his leg.

• 1:19:46Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:19:47Speaker 05

  And so he used, was it a stick or was there another long gun they used as a crutch?

• 1:19:53Speaker 02

  M14, as I remember.

• 1:19:56Speaker 05

  And then the bad part, this is what really scared me, that war was still going around.

• 1:20:02Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:20:03Speaker 05

  And when he would hear, they were coming waves, when he would hear a wave coming, you know, pretty loud, they're jungle. He would lay those guys down and try to pull as many leaves or whatever he could.

• 1:20:16Speaker 02

  Over them.

• 1:20:17Speaker 05

  There was a lot of foliage down, but then he would lay down, face up on top of them with the gun. And, um, if somebody, most of them ran over them. They didn't.

• 1:20:33Speaker 02

  Physically, ran over, right overs.

• 1:20:35Speaker 05

  Focus is so on what your objective is, they would run right over them. Sam said if they recognized them for what they were, he was just faster with his rifle.

• 1:20:46Speaker 02

  Well, I could see, cause I was watching her eyes and I could see, oh shit, that's a GI. And as they were going to shoot me, well, I'd.

• 1:20:56Speaker 05

  There was one of them really interesting.

• 1:20:59Speaker 02

  And there was enough gunfire going, they, it wasn't.

• 1:21:02Speaker 04

  Was it light out, dark out?

• 1:21:06Speaker 02

  No, it was night, two o'clock in the morning.

• 1:21:07Speaker 04

  So this is, that, that helped with this, but also just.

• 1:21:11Speaker 02

  Lots of flares.

• 1:21:13Speaker 03

  Oh, it's piss black and like.

• 1:21:15Speaker 04

  And you're just waiting there like wide of their eyes and they're like, please run over, but don't.

• 1:21:20Speaker 02

  Well, there was enough gunfire going off that I, that's how I could see the, the white of their eyes. You know, I could see they were looking at me or.

• 1:21:30Speaker 04

  Which also just to have that frame of mind during that stressful situation where you're like, hey, I'm covering my guys. I, I'm not firing unless I need to, so hopefully they just pass out.

• 1:21:41Speaker 02

  Ammo, so I knew not to just.

• 1:21:43Speaker 04

  That's.

• 1:21:44Speaker 05

  The other thing of what you mentioned, actually Jim Deister told us this.

• 1:21:51Speaker 03

  Dixie, do you want to step up here?

• 1:21:54Speaker 02

  Yes, please.

• 1:21:55Speaker 05

  I'm just trying to sit back and explain what to do.

• 1:21:58Speaker 02

  The audio, the audio would be better if you were here.

• 1:22:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:22:02Speaker 02

  Get in there.

• 1:22:03Speaker 05

  This was, I think I have to stop playing on my phone. Um, Jim told us that there was a question at one time on whether Sam, well, this guy had.

• 1:22:16Speaker 04

  Sorry, he's. This way, just so you're nice and beautiful on prayer.

• 1:22:20Speaker 05

  Is my hair okay?

• 1:22:21Speaker 04

  It's great.

• 1:22:24Speaker 05

  Um, that somebody, one other guy was trying to claim what Sam had done. And they all thought Jim was dead because he was shot through the, like through the ears. And then after, the reason Sam brought him back, even though they thought he was dead, because they ran up and shot him, the enemy before he got there.

• 1:22:48Speaker 02

  He was laying on the ground.

• 1:22:49Speaker 05

  Ran up and shot him in the chest. And then Sam was observing what else they were doing to our guys that were already dead. So he brought him back and, um, this was in an interview that Jim did in another publication. And, um, he said, they didn't know each other, the infantry didn't know, um, they were brought in as a support.

• 1:23:13Speaker 02

  We seen each other on a regular basis, but we didn't know each other.

• 1:23:17Speaker 05

  So Jim, but Jim was laying face up on that little piece of mattress and he's, everybody thought he was dead. And he said, in my mind, I was screaming, um, what, okay. Um, shut the damn lights off, somebody's gonna get killed here. And he was, thought he was already dead. And then he said, I looked up and I saw that redheaded kid, it's back when he had like hair with.

• 1:23:50Speaker 02

  Still was redheaded.

• 1:23:51Speaker 05

  Um, I saw that redheaded kid pushing me across that river. And, um, their meeting was, Sam thought Jim was dead. You know, they didn't have that information back then, so he didn't even know he survived.

• 1:24:06Speaker 02

  Dead.

• 1:24:07Speaker 05

  The, um, medics saw.

• 1:24:10Speaker 02

  But I wasn't gonna leave him because I could, I'd seen what the enemy was doing to our dead over there. They were shooting, cutting them up and.

• 1:24:19Speaker 04

  Never leave a fallen brother.

• 1:24:20Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:24:21Speaker 05

  The medic saw a little bubble come out of his chest that next morning.

• 1:24:25Speaker 02

  Where he'd been shot.

• 1:24:26Speaker 05

  And he had a heartbeat of about 20, 25 beats a minute.

• 1:24:31Speaker 02

  Extremely slow, low.

• 1:24:32Speaker 05

  Um, he had a very, very long recovery, but Sam did not know that kid recovered. And he ended up working for the Kansas Department of Rehabilitation at the VA. When somebody walked in his room, they knew, he knew what he was talking about.

• 1:24:48Speaker 02

  Cause you could see Jim been shot, bad.

• 1:24:49Speaker 05

  And he almost looked like he had a, of stroke, like one side of his face was kind of pulled down.

• 1:24:55Speaker 04

  Show off the mix on video. Ah, see, you guys watched it. Ben, play it back of me mixing it.

• 1:25:02Speaker 05

  So it looks like purple drank, but what do you have there, Eli?

• 1:25:04Speaker 04

  I have the longevity mix and this stuff actually tastes really good.

• 1:25:08Speaker 05

  What's the purpose of the longevity mix?

• 1:25:11Speaker 04

  Longevity.

• 1:25:12Speaker 05

  Why would anyone want to live longer?

• 1:25:13Speaker 04

  I don't know.

• 1:25:14Speaker 05

  Well, if having more life is something that's interesting to you, you should try Blueprint.

• 1:25:18Speaker 04

  Now with one scoop, what all do you get and why am I drinking it? Because it comes with everything. Magnesium, glycerin, creatine, you name it, it's in it. And all in one scoop.

• 1:25:29Speaker 05

  How does it taste?

• 1:25:30Speaker 04

  There's no artificial sweeteners in this one.

• 1:25:32Speaker 05

  Can I try it?

• 1:25:33Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:25:34Speaker 05

  No, it's like, it's a pretty like flavorless, which in for something like this is a good thing.

• 1:25:38Speaker 04

  This is blood orange.

• 1:25:39Speaker 05

  That's why it's pink.

• 1:25:40Speaker 04

  It also helps with your mood, focus, sleep, cellular resilience and healthy aging.

• 1:25:49Speaker 05

  It's what Brian Johnson uses, which is why he looks so young.

• 1:25:52Speaker 04

  If you don't know who Brian Johnson is, he's the guy that is trying to live to be 200.

• 1:25:56Speaker 05

  He wants to live to the year 2140, uh, which it means that he wants to be in his prime during the year 2077 because he's a major cyberpunk fan.

• 1:26:04Speaker 04

  And because it is just one scoop, you don't have to have all the pills and the bottles everywhere and even creatine, gone.

• 1:26:10Speaker 05

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• 1:26:13Speaker 04

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• 1:26:18Speaker 05

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• 1:26:25Speaker 04

  That's unsub at blueprint.bryanjohnson.com.

• 1:26:29Speaker 05

  But, um, he, let's see on, oh, finding each other. Some guy, uh, Jim ended up not hearing, you know, it just got worse and worse and eventually he lost his hearing completely. But a friend of his named Jim Cole would make his phone calls for him back in the 60s and 70s, cause all that stuff wasn't invented yet. Did I offend you?

• 1:26:54Speaker 04

  No. The boys are holding it, they're like. Yes, you offended him. Nick just left.

• 1:27:02Speaker 03

  If you could, if you could offend him, I'd be impressed.

• 1:27:05Speaker 04

  Yeah. Everyone in the audience would be like.

• 1:27:07Speaker 05

  Um, anyway, this guy, said his name was Jim Cole and he was a friend of Jim Deister's. And he said, Jim wanted to meet Sam and Sam thought it was a prank. He said, I had no idea, they, you were gonna be speaking in Kansas.

• 1:27:28Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:27:29Speaker 05

  And Jim was going to meet you at the hotel there. So, um, he still thought it was a prank. He said, how could somebody do something that mean and that cruel, thinking that I had saved someone and they'd come back to life? Um, Sam said, he walked into the lobby, looked across the room and he said, I knew that was my Jim Deister.

• 1:27:56Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:27:57Speaker 05

  They just ran to each other and just hugged and cried and I'm sorry I wasn't there to see that, but.

• 1:28:03Speaker 02

  It was awesome.

• 1:28:04Speaker 05

  Um, yeah, that was awesome. That started up a long friendship over many, many years. Um, another one was that mean old sergeant of yours, Sergeant Gant from Lansing, Michigan.

• 1:28:18Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:28:19Speaker 05

  This was at Kokomo, one of you guys mentioned Kokomo.

• 1:28:22Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:28:23Speaker 05

  Indiana, they had that big reunion every year. Everybody was in on this except Sam. They had everybody's stands out in the, this field and he was on stage talking. And he said, it was almost like the Red Sea parting. All the people just slowly split in the middle and this little tiny black man came walking up that aisle.

• 1:28:48Speaker 02

  Just casually walking up.

• 1:28:50Speaker 05

  And he gets to the stage and Sam looks down, he said, Sergeant Gant. And, um, Sergeant Gant said, Sam. And he went running down, Sergeant Gant, they got, were still in the front of the stage, but they just hugged each other and dropped to the ground and they were hugging and crying and.

• 1:29:13Speaker 02

  It was awesome.

• 1:29:14Speaker 05

  Something like that would be just fantastic to witness because here's, he, Sam thought Sergeant Gant was the meanest old guy in the. The world, but Sergeant Gant saved his life. He knew what to teach them on cleaning that rifle.

• 1:29:30Speaker 04

  That's what's crazy. He made you polish the bullets, the weapons.

• 1:29:34Speaker 02

  Oh, yes, everything, everything.

• 1:29:35Speaker 04

  This is before M16 was when they shipped to Vietnam. They didn't even have soldiers thought they were self-cleaning and they would have a whole bunch of issues because they didn't know, oh, clean them. They didn't even have a forward assist at that time. And Sergeant Gant's experienced that at the beginning of the war, correct?

• 1:29:51Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:29:53Speaker 04

  And so he made you guys do all the weapons maintenance.

• 1:29:56Speaker 02

  Yes, we had to tear them apart and clean them every little piece. You had to clean it and he would come by and look at it. And if it wasn't totally sparkling clean, you had to do it again. And we thought, well, this old man's just messing with us, you know?

• 1:30:15Speaker 04

  Twenty-six-year-old man, right?

• 1:30:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was old.

• 1:30:18Speaker 05

  Grandpa.

• 1:30:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, grandpa.

• 1:30:19Speaker 05

  The old hand.

• 1:30:22Speaker 02

  Well, after a month or so, we got to realizing that, wow, Sergeant Gant knows what he's talking about because our weapons were not jamming the way the infantry guys' weapons were jamming.

• 1:30:37Speaker 05

  He made you do that blindfolded?

• 1:30:39Speaker 02

  Yes. Well, after we knew how to do it, yes, we had to do it blindfolded, had to tear the weapon apart.

• 1:30:45Speaker 05

  Without having to do it, that's just, without knowing how to do it, that's just mean. Yeah, that's what they thought. And then Sam told me later, he said, you know, I had no clue why I would have to ever have to know how to clean a weapon blindfolded. He said, but then that night, because they were always in the swamp area, the delta. And he said, that's when I knew why he made us do that. We couldn't see. We had to clean them like that. And so he saved just, Sam said, when I got to be the mean old sergeant, I at least explained why I was making them do that.

• 1:31:22Speaker 04

  Oh, he actually got to tell you, he's like, hey, I had a reason behind it?

• 1:31:26Speaker 05

  Yes. You know, he kind of let you learn it for yourself.

• 1:31:29Speaker 02

  Yep. Well, and that was the best way. I didn't realize it at the time, but I really understood then.

• 1:31:36Speaker 05

  You said, told me, you said, you thought he was making you do that because all the other sergeants went and drank somewhere together and he didn't have anybody, so he just stayed and messed with you guys. So you took back half the things you said about him? Yeah.

• 1:31:51Speaker 04

  It's crazy to have that knowledge for the M16 in that time because they were notorious for just, soldiers didn't know to clean them.

• 1:31:59Speaker 05

  There were a lot of issues with their early adoption.

• 1:32:00Speaker 02

  Yes, their early 16s were not one of the better weapons.

• 1:32:05Speaker 05

  I have another story about the other guy saved. Gwendell Holloway, Stockton, California. This about a year and a half ago, we dedicated a brand-new VA facility in French Camp, California, where he grew up.

• 1:32:20Speaker 02

  Which is Stockton, yep.

• 1:32:21Speaker 05

  And the odd thing about that little town, it was 400 people back then, there were three Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients from that little town.

• 1:32:30Speaker 02

  400 people.

• 1:32:32Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 1:32:34Speaker 02

  Population, 400 people, and there were three Vietnam Medal of Honor recipients. We did not know each other. We knew, because there was just a few years difference in age, but we knew each other's brothers. And it wasn't until, what, many years later, that we sat down and started talking, well, yeah, I'm Bill's, oh, yeah, I'm Bob's brother. Oh, wow, okay. And we did know each other, but we didn't know each other. You understand?

• 1:33:03Speaker 05

  So anyway, this, we're dedicating this and we were in one of these big giant tents outside, you know, we got treated better than everybody else in the community. But we thought Gwendell had died. We could not find him.

• 1:33:20Speaker 02

  Well, even the FBI, I asked the FBI to help me, and let's know, we think he's dead.

• 1:33:26Speaker 05

  So we're dedicating this and going through all the ceremony. Afterwards, we're all standing around talking. This other, I thought Gwendell was like eight feet tall from the way Sam described him, but this little short, another black gentleman came walking up to Sam. Sam looked over at me, his eyes were gigantic. He said, it's Gwendell.

• 1:33:50Speaker 04

  You were dedicating this to this man that was still alive?

• 1:33:53Speaker 05

  Oh, no, no.

• 1:33:54Speaker 04

  Oh, I was, sorry, I missed.

• 1:33:57Speaker 05

  Wouldn't that have been funny?

• 1:34:00Speaker 04

  Is that his own funeral?

• 1:34:02Speaker 02

  But he came to the event and everybody, we thought he was dead. He hid on purpose. He said, I just didn't want to deal with it. So he just totally.

• 1:34:12Speaker 05

  Well, he had had prostate cancer too.

• 1:34:15Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:34:15Speaker 05

  He said the VA took good care of him, but he just couldn't be around people for a long time. We went to American Legion afterward for a little reception and we were all talking then and laughing and just having a great time. And I was standing next to Sam and Gwendell, he had this other, the other guy was a white guy.

• 1:34:38Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:34:38Speaker 05

  Same size, everything. They came up together and the other guy took both of Sam's hands and he said, I just wanted to thank you for saving my best friend since kindergarten. So.

• 1:34:56Speaker 02

  It was awesome.

• 1:34:57Speaker 05

  We get some of those wonderful, wonderful stories that I, I hope other people get them too, to find out after all those years. So he had no family, had never married, had no children. So now I write to him like I'm his sister. And so we just check on him now. And, but he's doing much better. He's recovered. And so he's kind of getting back into life again.

• 1:35:25Speaker 04

  That's awesome.

• 1:35:26Speaker 05

  But you know, these guys, Agent Orange was so horrible. Sam still pays every single day for fighting in that war and so many of them do. And now the list is so long, even Parkinson's disease now is attributed to Agent Orange. And one of my, okay, old boyfriend from high school, Scott, he died from Parkinson's, from Agent Orange, big, solid football player and just, just devastating what happens. The other thing, when you guys were talking

• 1:36:08Speaker 05

  earlier, when you were talking about people's attitudes back then, I think what a lot of people don't talk about is, this was during the 60s and 70s, on TV, we didn't have the social media like they have now. So we was glued to our television sets, you know, every night to find out what was going on. We were talking today with Aubrey, that we didn't have social media, so we didn't have someone telling us what to think. We had Walter Cronkite.

• 1:36:48Speaker 05

  He told it like it was. He didn't have to offer his opinion. I think he thought we were smart enough yet that we could figure it out from the actual truth. Most of our television time was taken up by hippies. That's what was on our TVs, not so much the war. There might be a little clip here and there, but it was what the hippies were doing, what they're protesting was, how horrible the Vietnam vets were that actually were fighting their country and fighting these innocent people. Nothing about communism, nothing about the atrocities of war that was actually happening. It was just how bad these American soldiers

• 1:37:32Speaker 05

  were for what they, for what their country asked them to do. Back then, we had the draft and it was not unusual to be fighting against someone that had been in jail. A lot of it was, you could either go to Vietnam or you can go to jail. What's your choice? And most of the guys were good guys, though.

• 1:37:55Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:37:55Speaker 05

  There are some were not, but I suppose that was the same on each side.

• 1:37:59Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 1:38:00Speaker 05

  We had one nice thing that happened to us. We were talking in Rockford, Illinois, probably 15 years ago, maybe.

• 1:38:08Speaker 02

  At least, yeah.

• 1:38:09Speaker 05

  There was this guy, his name is Don Andre. He was a teacher. And this was Rockford and we went, my sister set that up because she still lives there. So, um, Sam talked and students always love it when he talks. They get so involved and they ask such, they're so smart. They ask such great questions. Well, this man was dressed in all black and as an instructor, he had this big giant peace symbol around his neck on a chain.

• 1:38:41Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:38:42Speaker 05

  Afterward, he came up to Sam and he took hold of Sam's hands and he put that peace symbol in Sam's hand and he said, "I was wrong."

• 1:38:55Speaker 02

  And I could see in his eyes, he meant what he said.

• 1:39:00Speaker 05

  He said, "We were misinformed and I, I just wanted to apologize. I want to give you this. I was wrong." A couple of years later, we took him with us to Washington DC, took him to the wall.

• 1:39:16Speaker 02

  To the wall.

• 1:39:17Speaker 05

  And, um, had just, it was so nice for him to be educated from a different point of view, other than what he was learning from what the hippies, what the kids were doing, doing at the time.

• 1:39:29Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:39:30Speaker 05

  Sam had carried that, um, peace symbol in his Medal of Honor box since he got it.

• 1:39:37Speaker 02

  And with the Medal of Honor.

• 1:39:38Speaker 05

  And, um, that day he took Don's hand and he said, "I want you to have this back." And Don said, "Oh, I was hoping I'd see that again someday." So a friend had made it for him. So he got it back, um, got to know his son real well and, uh, still do, but, uh, Don sadly passed away. And, um, but he, he wrote to us quite often about how glad he was to know the truth. And then he spent all his time just telling American soldiers how proud he was. So it's some, you know, there's a lot of good things that may not happen till a lot later.

• 1:40:15Speaker 02

  Time.

• 1:40:16Speaker 05

  When people get a little bit more education.

• 1:40:18Speaker 04

  That's how it goes. What, Sam, when you had, how, what was the link between, uh, the action and actually the ceremony for the Medal of Honor? Like, when did you find out, "Oh, I've been awarded this"?

• 1:40:34Speaker 02

  One year.

• 1:40:35Speaker 04

  One year?

• 1:40:37Speaker 02

  Uh, uh, the action took place on November the 18th, 1967. I received the medal on November the 19th?

• 1:40:46Speaker 05

  19.

• 1:40:47Speaker 02

  1968. One year, one day.

• 1:40:49Speaker 04

  And then how was that? That's the one where actually they put Tom Hanks?

• 1:40:53Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:40:54Speaker 04

  They actually have the footage and you were superimposed, or his face was superimposed on you.

• 1:40:59Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:41:00Speaker 05

  This episode is brought to you by PayPal. Holiday rush? Skip the mall traffic and shop online with PayPal. Shop your favorite online stores like eBay, Fanatics, Walmart, Sephora, Target and TikTok shop and choose to pay now or pay later at checkout. Plus pay in four with no interest and no late fees. Shop now with PayPal. Pay in four is subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com slash pay in four. PayPal Incorporated, NMLS 910457.

• 1:41:29Speaker 02

  It was awesome. Unbelievably awesome. The other guys that received the medal, there were five of us that received the Medal of Honor that day. And those that were still left alive, well, just Gary and I now, isn't it?

• 1:41:47Speaker 05

  Um, no. Um, Patterson, Patterson, um, from California, Northern California. Jim Taylor.

• 1:42:02Speaker 02

  Taylor, Taylor, not Patterson. There you go.

• 1:42:04Speaker 05

  And one was the

• 1:42:05Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:42:06Speaker 05

  um, conscientious objector, I guess. He was a, um, minister. He gave his back.

• 1:42:15Speaker 02

  Yes, he did.

• 1:42:16Speaker 05

  Lick, Lickie. Was it?

• 1:42:18Speaker 02

  Charles Lickie.

• 1:42:19Speaker 05

  Lickie?

• 1:42:20Speaker 02

  Charles Lickie.

• 1:42:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, he's the only one. He gave his medal back to the United States government.

• 1:42:24Speaker 04

  I did not know that. Yeah.

• 1:42:29Speaker 02

  Charles Lickie.

• 1:42:30The Fat Electrician?

  Um, before you got awarded the medal, when you were in the hospital recovering, you said that you called General Wes Moreland and you actually got ahold of him?

• 1:42:39Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:42:40The Fat Electrician?

  How did you know him at first? Or how did you first get to meet him? Cause I, like I said, I've

• 1:42:45Speaker 02

  He came to the hospital in Japan.

• 1:42:47The Fat Electrician?

  Okay.

• 1:42:48Speaker 02

  And handed me a beehive that they took out of me.

• 1:42:55The Fat Electrician?

  So that's where you got the beehives?

• 1:42:57Speaker 02

  That's where I got, yeah. And that's how I got to know General Wes Moreland. And he was awesome, man. I loved him and he saved my life.

• 1:43:06The Fat Electrician?

  He must be because like I said, I, all I do is research Medal of Honor winners and you know, men that have done things like you. And every time it's a Vietnam war hero, somehow or another that guy pops up in the story every single time.

• 1:43:19Speaker 02

  Took care of his veterans.

• 1:43:20The Fat Electrician?

  He was, he was, he played a big role in, um,

• 1:43:23Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 1:43:24The Fat Electrician?

  Roy Benavides' story too.

• 1:43:25Speaker 02

  Oh, definitely. Yes, sir.

• 1:43:26The Fat Electrician?

  So it's just like, he's just this character that pops up in every Vietnam story that I go through. So that was really interesting to see.

• 1:43:34Speaker 02

  Wes Moreland.

• 1:43:35Speaker 04

  I don't know.

• 1:43:36Speaker 02

  Wife named Kitsey.

• 1:43:37The Fat Electrician?

  You want to hear how badass Sammy is? What'd you call Wes Moreland for? What'd you tell him you wanted to do?

• 1:43:41Speaker 02

  At the moment, I have a blank. I'm sorry.

• 1:43:46Speaker 05

  You told him you wanted to go back to Vietnam?

• 1:43:48Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:43:49Speaker 05

  You didn't want to go home?

• 1:43:50Speaker 02

  I, oh, okay, yes.

• 1:43:51Speaker 05

  I mean, he's getting offered to go home. He goes, "I don't want to go home."

• 1:43:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. I wanted to go back and be with my brothers. Yes.

• 1:43:56Speaker 04

  What did he say?

• 1:43:57Speaker 02

  Huh?

• 1:43:58Speaker 05

  He let him do it.

• 1:44:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:44:03Speaker 05

  He said, "You had to be able to walk to the Colonel, General's office where you were from the hospital."

• 1:44:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:44:13Speaker 05

  Oh, this is a fiasco. Um, Gwendell was at the same hospital recovering.

• 1:44:20Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:44:21Speaker 05

  Is this when you were in Japan?

• 1:44:22Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:44:23Speaker 05

  Okay. He had to three days in a row. He had to walk down a flight or two of stairs, be able to walk to the General's office, clean his rifle. And then, um, if he could do that three days in a row, he could go back to Vietnam. That was the rule. They didn't think he could do it. He was so beat up. And so then he and Gwendell had this great idea. Gwendell actually saved his life, everybody got to the hospital because

• 1:44:54Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:44:55Speaker 05

  This different story. There was no blood left. And, um, they pushed him out in the hallway because they didn't think he was going to make it. He had too much blood loss. Gwendell said, "You do a direct infusion."

• 1:45:09Speaker 02

  Take the blood out of here and put in him.

• 1:45:10Speaker 05

  And he must've been pretty, um, convincing. They did it.

• 1:45:17Speaker 02

  They knew he meant what he said. Yes.

• 1:45:19Speaker 05

  Direct infusion from body to body, saved his life.

• 1:45:22Speaker 04

  Wait, they, that?

• 1:45:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:25Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:45:26Speaker 04

  Did they mention that in the book?

• 1:45:27Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:45:28Speaker 04

  You got a direct, so that was?

• 1:45:30Speaker 02

  Well, the thing of it is, later we found out that his blood type was not my blood type.

• 1:45:37Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, that's not good.

• 1:45:38Speaker 02

  Well, it worked.

• 1:45:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, you got lucky.

• 1:45:40The Fat Electrician?

  Had to have an O negative then.

• 1:45:41Speaker 02

  I, I don't remember.

• 1:45:43Speaker 04

  God, that's insane because again, as Nick says, your body, if you get the wrong blood, it's very, very bad for you.

• 1:45:50Speaker 02

  It quits.

• 1:45:51Speaker 05

  It must've been good enough though, because, or else you, or else you didn't have any of your own blood left and that just filled you up.

• 1:45:57The Fat Electrician?

  I was just changing types.

• 1:45:59Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:46:00Speaker 04

  You're now a diesel car.

• 1:46:03Speaker 05

  So in the hospital, Gwendell said, "Well, you know, my legs work. Your back doesn't work. So why don't you hop on my back and I'll take you down the fire escape so they don't see us do this. I'll set you down in the right corridor and then you could just walk over to the, um, Colonel's office." Well, they fell down the fire escape. That didn't go real well. So that took another day off, a couple more of recovery. But on the day that he actually did it, um, they,

• 1:46:46Speaker 05

  he got in the General's office. I think it was a Colonel.

• 1:46:50Speaker 02

  Colonel.

• 1:46:51Speaker 05

  Anyway, he said, "Okay." Um, Sam said, um, "You can go ahead and call, uh, General Wes Moreland now," which he did from his office. And he let Sam talk to him. And, uh, General Wes Moreland said, "Well, son, I think this is a bad idea, but I'm going to let you do it." Because he knew how important it was to go back and touch survivors.

• 1:47:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:47:17Speaker 05

  And to talk to somebody else that had been at the same place. So he saved your life by doing that. But

• 1:47:25Speaker 02

  Definitely.

• 1:47:26Speaker 05

  Then the only thing he could do was be a cook. He really couldn't do anything else.

• 1:47:30Speaker 02

  That's where I learned to cook.

• 1:47:31Speaker 05

  Well, his first job was slicing bread. That was pretty exciting, wasn't it?

• 1:47:36Speaker 02

  Homemade bread. Yep. Well, that was all I could do.

• 1:47:38Speaker 04

  Hey, back in it. That's, and you still, you went right back to Vietnam too?

• 1:47:43Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:47:44Speaker 04

  That's.

• 1:47:45Speaker 02

  That's where I was slicing the bread was in Vietnam. They made, they made me a cook in Vietnam in my original unit.

• 1:47:51Speaker 04

  And this is after the fact of everything that happened, then you're?

• 1:47:55Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:47:56Speaker 05

  But a lot of your guys were gone already.

• 1:47:58Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. I, most of the guys were the new guys, but they'd heard stories.

• 1:48:04Speaker 04

  I bet.

• 1:48:05Speaker 02

  And the fact that I was back slicing bread for them, whoa.

• 1:48:09Speaker 04

  Especially.

• 1:48:10Speaker 05

  And they were told, "If Davis wants to sit up and talk,"

• 1:48:15Speaker 06

  You sit up and talk with him as long as he wants to talk.

• 1:48:19Speaker 04

  I like, we're like, nope, we're not gonna interrupt.

• 1:48:21Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, you're fine. Go ahead.

• 1:48:24Speaker 03

  Also, that's gotta be wild, just to be, you know, getting chow from the chow hall and your cook has a Medal of Honor dangling.

• 1:48:31The Fat Electrician?

  No, no, I didn't. That wasn't before.

• 1:48:32Speaker 03

  Oh, that's, oh, that's right. Okay.

• 1:48:34Speaker 06

  But that would be funny.

• 1:48:35The Fat Electrician?

  Pending, pending.

• 1:48:38The Fat Electrician?

  Still.

• 1:48:40Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 1:48:41The Fat Electrician?

  Guys, I think Cook's a badass. Only, only a little, a lot.

• 1:48:47Speaker 06

  That's where I learned to make, make everything for a hundred people. He made the kids eat grass soup one time.

• 1:48:56Speaker 02

  My kids.

• 1:48:58Speaker 06

  Yeah, because he wanted them to, they ate everything. I mean, he did growing up, but you ate a lot of wildlife and, um, but you had to eat that grass soup. They didn't ever request that one again.

• 1:49:12Speaker 03

  I love how you clarified. You're like, my kids, I would never do that to my soldiers, but my kids, yes, absolutely.

• 1:49:18The Fat Electrician?

  Back home.

• 1:49:20Speaker 06

  Good one.

• 1:49:21The Fat Electrician?

  That's funny.

• 1:49:25Speaker 06

  I don't think I have any more stories to tell.

• 1:49:27The Fat Electrician?

  Well, I got one more story, but I don't know if, I don't know if you want to tell it in front of your wife.

• 1:49:32Speaker 03

  Uh oh.

• 1:49:33The Fat Electrician?

  You've read the book, right?

• 1:49:36Speaker 06

  I've gotta read that again sometime.

• 1:49:38The Fat Electrician?

  But you've read it? You know everything in there?

• 1:49:39Speaker 06

  I know what it, sure, I know.

• 1:49:40The Fat Electrician?

  Well, we don't gotta talk about it if you don't want to. But the funniest part of the, the funniest part of the book for me.

• 1:49:46Speaker 06

  He didn't know me.

• 1:49:47The Fat Electrician?

  Was why you're still scared of pencils.

• 1:49:51Speaker 06

  I think that's the funniest story ever. The nurse.

• 1:49:54The Fat Electrician?

  You, uh, you're, the nurse with the catheter during your recovery with the pencil.

• 1:50:01Speaker 02

  I don't remember.

• 1:50:02Speaker 06

  Oh, good. Tell it.

• 1:50:04The Fat Electrician?

  Oh, boy.

• 1:50:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, Nick, tell it.

• 1:50:06The Fat Electrician?

  I don't know if I want to tell it. We can, well, we'll edit it out if you don't want it in, but, uh, you had said that during your recovery, obviously, you know, you had a lot of drugs and everything going on, but, um, you had to have a catheter put in and, uh, there was a very attractive nurse that was coming in to put your catheter. And every time you, the nurse came in.

• 1:50:30Speaker 06

  He'd have an erection.

• 1:50:31The Fat Electrician?

  He had an erection and you can't give somebody with an erection a catheter and she, uh, whacked it with a pencil to get rid of that problem. And then every time she came to show up to change the catheter, she stuck the pencil behind her ear. And, uh, he never had that problem ever again. And he said, still to this day, he's a little bit leery of pencils.

• 1:50:51Speaker 06

  He said, I have an unnatural fear of pencils.

• 1:50:55Speaker 03

  So.

• 1:50:56Speaker 04

  So he's like, thank you for bringing that up. Why did I write that in my book?

• 1:51:01Speaker 03

  Number, number two type E D.

• 1:51:07Speaker 06

  No wonder we just have pens in our house. I never thought of that.

• 1:51:13Speaker 06

  I didn't mean to make you spit.

• 1:51:14Speaker 03

  Oh, no, that's very funny.

• 1:51:16Speaker 04

  I love it.

• 1:51:17Speaker 03

  It's been an absolute pleasure. I'm glad you joined us.

• 1:51:19Speaker 06

  Thank you. I pre just, well, I love tell stories on him.

• 1:51:26Speaker 03

  You gotta brag on your man a little bit.

• 1:51:29Speaker 02

  She is the reason why I'm alive today.

• 1:51:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:51:32Speaker 02

  She gave me the reason to live. Seriously.

• 1:51:36Speaker 03

  Actually, when, when did you all meet?

• 1:51:39Speaker 02

  Well, her husband was Vietnam vet and played in a band. And they played, his band played a lot of places that I would go speak. So we seen each other, you know, we weren't friends, but I recognize her. That's Tim's wife. And

• 1:52:00Speaker 02

  Tim passed away first and then my wife passed away and that's,

• 1:52:07Speaker 02

  I better give Dixie a call. She lived in Texas. I lived in Illinois. So I gave her a call. How you doing? And we started talking and then a lot more phone calls. And then I thought, well, I need to go down and see Dixie. And I did.

• 1:52:20Speaker 05

  That's not right.

• 1:52:21Speaker 02

  No?

• 1:52:22Speaker 05

  No, I knew it wouldn't be the right.

• 1:52:27Speaker 04

  It was beautiful the way you told it though.

• 1:52:34Speaker 05

  I thought you were stalking me actually.

• 1:52:39Speaker 04

  That face, his face is like, oh, I went through war and this hurt more than that.

• 1:52:47Speaker 03

  Sliding in that mailbox.

• 1:52:56Speaker 03

  I just like being able to break, Nick.

• 1:52:59The Fat Electrician?

  Sliding in the mailbox is diabolical.

• 1:53:02Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:53:06Speaker 02

  In real letters.

• 1:53:08The Fat Electrician?

  You literally slid in the mailbox. It's.

• 1:53:11Speaker 05

  Then, um,

• 1:53:15Speaker 05

  you asked me if, oh, if I was going to Skidmore, Missouri, um, there's also a big reunion, used to be a big reunion there every year. And, um, I said, no, they were doing a dedication for Tim and, um, his singing partner still put up his microphone even after he, it had been five years after he died. Which is hard because they would do their music and it was hard to go listen. Finally, and the other reason was, um, I was working three jobs because I had a lot of medical bills for him to pay.

• 1:53:55Speaker 05

  So I really couldn't have just afforded to do it. And finally, kind of kept hanging me really, Sam. Um, he finally said, well, okay, if I pay your way, will you go? And I said, okay. See how easy now? Um, so we re-met each other there after probably 15 years. Cause you've both been sick for so long. So that's not where you want to re-meet each other with all the families there. All of our friends were there, both couples.

• 1:54:29Speaker 02

  And everybody knew my wife and everybody knew Dixie's husband.

• 1:54:33Speaker 05

  Was on stage playing with the band and, um, there was this big grassy area out front of the stage. And then all our friends were sitting around here in tents and I was sitting with, um, friends. Sam laid the guitar harmonica then, I don't know why you were, but he laid it down. The band kept playing and he walked across this great big field where nobody was out. And he, um, bows, oh, bows anymore.

• 1:55:08Speaker 04

  He was nervous. He didn't.

• 1:55:10Speaker 02

  I was paying my respect.

• 1:55:12Speaker 05

  And he said, can I have this dance? And I said, no.

• 1:55:19Speaker 03

  Just shot down.

• 1:55:19Speaker 05

  Friends were all doing, and then everybody started applauding. So I had to do it. So, um, that was how we re-met each other after all that. So a year later, we got married there. On stage with all those same friends and family and

• 1:55:38Speaker 05

  that was 21, almost 22 years ago.

• 1:55:44Speaker 03

  See, it started with a little coercion, but it all worked out.

• 1:55:46The Fat Electrician?

  Yes. Hey, you don't lose till you quit trying, right?

• 1:55:49Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 1:55:50Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:55:52Speaker 02

  And I still haven't quit.

• 1:55:55Speaker 02

  A blues harp.

• 1:55:56The Fat Electrician?

  Wow.

• 1:55:57Speaker 05

  You're telling the story.

• 1:55:59Speaker 02

  I learned how to play the harmonica in Vietnam.

• 1:56:03The Fat Electrician?

  No doubt.

• 1:56:04Speaker 02

  My mother

• 1:56:07Speaker 02

  sent me a harmonica because she thought I was bored. The,

• 1:56:13Speaker 02

  she had written a letter to my captain because I had not been writing to her often enough that she knew that I was okay. So the captain came to me and said, you will write home to your mother every day, at least three sentences every day. Well, you're in a combat situation. What do you write home to your mama about? Well, I wrote home to mama about, we had ducks, wild ducks, but we had ducks everywhere because we were in the water all the time. And I wrote about what this little duck would do and what this little duck would do and what this little duck would say to that little duck. And three sentences every day, had to write a letter.

• 1:56:54Speaker 02

  Well, after a month of mom getting a letter every day, talking about ducks and birds and blah, blah, blah. She thought, he must be really bored. So she sent me a harmonica. Says, son, I hope this helps you be not quite so bored. Well, I didn't know how to play it. I just put it in my pocket and went back to my foxhole. One of my sergeants,

• 1:57:16Speaker 02

  Johnston Dunlap,

• 1:57:19Speaker 02

  came to, he heard that my mom had sent me a harmonica and he came over, he thought that I knew how to play, being she sent me a harmonica. He said, Sam, play it for me. Well, I didn't, now I've always been kind of musical, but I'd never really played. My daddy played the harmonica. So yes, I'd bloat on it, but Johnston Dunlap wanted me to play Shenandoah for him. That was his favorite song. That's where he was from. So I started picking it up. Now we were artillery. It was okay that I would sit in my foxhole and play the harmonica. That was another cool thing about 2016 meeting with my former enemy. One of the first things they asked, do you still have it?

• 1:57:59Speaker 02

  Why?

• 1:58:01Speaker 02

  Your harmonica. You guys were way too close. Exactly.

• 1:58:06The Fat Electrician?

  Oh, stop. He's playing. It's so beautiful. Oh, my God.

• 1:58:09Speaker 02

  And I said, well, yeah. They said, would you play it for us? So I played Shenandoah.

• 1:58:17Speaker 02

  Now imagine this come floating through the jungle at two o'clock in the morning. We were artillery. And I played it. What do you do when you're in a combat situation? Well, I played the harmonica.

• 1:59:16Speaker 03

  Now, if, if I were NBA, I would much rather hear that than fortunate son.

• 1:59:24Speaker 02

  Well, that's sitting there at that table in Vietnam that day, and they asked me, well, do you still have it? You know, what you talking about? Your harmonica? And they went, your harmonica?

• 1:59:38Speaker 02

  And well, how do these people know about my harmonica? Well, they listened to me because I played it often, a lot, all night. It helped me be awake. And all the rest of the guys, in talking to my brothers, they knew that if they could hear me play the harmonica, that everything was okay, and that I was okay. So it made God, it gave them peace of heart, peace of mind when they could hear me play. Not just, I didn't play just Shenandoah, but that was their favorite song was Shenandoah. And I still play it for my brothers today, Shenandoah.

• 2:00:17Speaker 05

  Did that sound a little bit scary when you realized how close they were? But you knew they were there, didn't you?

• 2:00:24Speaker 02

  Well, kinda, but we didn't know for sure they were there until I talked to them in 2016. And they, well, they talked about conversations that they could hear us having. That's how close they were.

• 2:00:39Speaker 05

  But yeah, they didn't speak English, they said, yes.

• 2:00:42Speaker 02

  Well, they actually spoke better English than I did.

• 2:00:45Speaker 04

  Just hearing that, though, it'd been a moment when you're, because it's like in a foxhole looking up, especially in Vietnam, it's, you actually see all the stars if it's not storming.

• 2:00:54Speaker 02

  Oh, definitely.

• 2:00:54Speaker 04

  That's just...

• 2:00:55Speaker 02

  Yes, definitely.

• 2:00:56Speaker 03

  It's kinda like when the guy in the urinal next to you says, nice watch.

• 2:01:04Speaker 04

  Oh, I got that.

• 2:01:07Speaker 03

  A little close for comfort.

• 2:01:10Speaker 04

  God dang, thank you for playing, holy moly.

• 2:01:13Speaker 03

  That was awesome.

• 2:01:14The Fat Electrician?

  That was something really cool.

• 2:01:15Speaker 04

  I, Sam, thank you so much for your time. Like, thank you for every...

• 2:01:21Speaker 02

  Well, thank you.

• 2:01:21Speaker 04

  Oh, before, actually, before we close this out, you have Cudgel movie coming out, or they're working on it right now, so you have in the works.

• 2:01:31Speaker 02

  They're, they're putting it together. Uh, Dixie, would you want to help talk about that? The Cudgel movie?

• 2:01:37Speaker 05

  Okay. Um, they're, they're not filming yet, it's...

• 2:01:42Speaker 02

  No, they're not, but they're putting it together.

• 2:01:44Speaker 05

  The fundraising part is, takes like a lot of time.

• 2:01:47Speaker 02

  I had no idea how much money it took to create a film. And Todd and Nathan are working on it and doing the best they can.

• 2:01:56Speaker 05

  The script was written, it's kind of fun to read, and, um, they did, it's called, people can check at cudgelmovie.com.

• 2:02:07Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:02:07Speaker 05

  And there is a short doc, I'm learning Hollywood talk now, a documentary that it's called For My Brothers.

• 2:02:17Speaker 02

  For My Brothers.

• 2:02:18Speaker 05

  And, um, that has won several film awards.

• 2:02:23Speaker 02

  Awards already.

• 2:02:25Speaker 05

  What do they say that was called when you go around to these different, um...

• 2:02:29Speaker 04

  It's like the, uh, film festival, yes.

• 2:02:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:02:32Speaker 05

  And it won, uh, Best Director and, uh, Best Movie in for veteran-related documentaries. And I guess it's kind of just something they do before they put together the actual movie. So we've seen that a few times. Um, and so they, and people, what they're finding is that a lot of the support is coming grassroots, that regular people are donating to this because movies, it'll be about how Sam earned the Medal of Honor, but the perspective will be from how the soldiers cared for each other.

• 2:03:15Speaker 02

  Cudgel.com.

• 2:03:16Speaker 04

  C U D G E L M O V I E, so cudgelmovie.com for it. And then Sam, Sammy's going to send an actual Medal of Honor coin for anyone that donates.

• 2:03:27Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 2:03:28Speaker 04

  His face is like, am I? That's a lot, you can, this audience will get out of control.

• 2:03:33Speaker 02

  I'm gonna have to have more coins, mate.

• 2:03:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, this audience will get out of control fast.

• 2:03:38Speaker 05

  Cudgel is the name of the fire base where he earned the Medal of Honor.

• 2:03:42Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:03:43Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 2:03:44Speaker 02

  Firebase Cudgel.

• 2:03:45Speaker 03

  So it's kind of like the outpost.

• 2:03:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:03:47Speaker 03

  Like that.

• 2:03:48Speaker 04

  Man, and then they can go to cudgelmovie.com in order to, uh, and then donate to help grassroots this movie, because as you said, movies cost, a lot of people don't realize, millions of dollars, and that's on the low end. They get up to a hundred to 500 million.

• 2:04:02Speaker 02

  I know, it's amazing.

• 2:04:04Speaker 03

  Especially a story like this that you want to tell right.

• 2:04:07Speaker 04

  Exactly. And if they're in control, that means the world, because they can tell it properly without, uh, anyone ruining it.

• 2:04:14Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 2:04:15Speaker 04

  Well, who did you say you want to play you?

• 2:04:20Speaker 05

  Denzel Washington.

• 2:04:21Speaker 02

  Oh, Denzel.

• 2:04:24Speaker 03

  As you were saying, that Cudgel movie, brought to you by Netflix.

• 2:04:27Speaker 04

  No one's gonna, if Sam is like, I want Denzel Washington playing, he's like, okay, we're fine with that. Uh, this is A-OK.

• 2:04:35Speaker 02

  We're gonna have to donate more. It's expensive.

• 2:04:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're gonna make this happen. The V. A. Kong ain't got nothing on me.

• 2:04:43The Fat Electrician?

  Dude, Training Day 2 looks awesome.

• 2:04:48Speaker 04

  And then, uh, Sammy, where can the people find you for, uh, if they're looking for any information on you or even this movie? Do you have any social media, or is there any good outreach?

• 2:04:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, we don't.

• 2:04:59Speaker 04

  Nothing.

• 2:04:59Speaker 05

  Everybody finds us anyway. We're everywhere. You can just pull up his name on YouTube.

• 2:05:06Speaker 02

  If you want to find me, go to the Medal of Honor website.

• 2:05:09Speaker 04

  Sam, it's been an absolute pleasure. Dixie, Sam, you guys are amazing humans. Thank you for everything you've done for the country, for us, for veterans.

• 2:05:20Speaker 02

  Well, thank you all.

• 2:05:22Speaker 03

  No, this has been an honor for us.

• 2:05:23Speaker 02

  If all of us do our job, the job gets done, right?

• 2:05:26Speaker 04

  Absolute pleasure. Do you have any words of wisdom for the young individuals out there or veterans that might just be?

• 2:05:32Speaker 02

  You don't lose until you quit trying.

• 2:05:36The Fat Electrician?

  Amen.

• 2:05:37Speaker 02

  That is the secret to life. No matter what you're faced with, you don't lose until you quit trying.

• 2:05:45Speaker 04

  Cody, you wanna close this out, brother?

• 2:05:47Speaker 03

  Thank you, guys, for joining the Unsubscribe Podcast. I was joined today by Eli Double Tap, Nick the Fat Electrician, Sammy Davis, Brandon Herrera, myself, Donut Operator, and Dixie, of course. Thank you for being here today.

• 2:06:01Speaker 04

  We love you.

• 2:06:36Speaker 05

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