Marine Force Recon Legend & The Medal Of Honor Upgrade | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 238

Get your Veteran’s Month shirts! https://www.bunkerbranding.com/pages/unsubscribe-podcast LIVE SHOW TICKETS: https://unsubcrew.com/liveshows DRINK ECHELON: https://drinkechelon.com/ Watch this episode ad-free and uncensored on Pepperbox! https://www.pepperbox.tv/ WATCH THE AFTERSHOW & BTS ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/UnsubscribePodcast P. O BOX: Unsubscribe Podcast 17503 La Cantera Pkwy Ste 104 Box 624 San Antonio TX 78257 MERCH: https://www.bunkerbranding.com/collections/unsubscribe-podcast ------------------------------ THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! TRUE CLASSIC Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at http://trueclassic.com/UNSUB #trueclassicpod PONCHO OUTDOORS Gear up for fall with Poncho, every piece is built for comfort, performance, and lasting style. Go to http://ponchoutdoors.com/unsub and enter your email for $10 off your first order. DRAFT KINGS Download the DraftKings Sports book app and use code UNSUB. That’s code UNSUB, bet five bucks and get 3 months of League Pass plus get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with Draft Kings — The Crown Is Yours. Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred Gambler. In New York, call eight seven seven eight HOPENY or text HOPENY (four six seven three six nine). In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit https://www.ccpg.org/ Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (Kansas). Pass-thru of per wager tax may apply in Illinois. Twenty-one plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive Bonus Bets which expire in 7 days. Minimum odds required. NBA League Pass auto-renews until cancelled. Additional terms at https://www.dkng.co/audio Limited time offer. GHOSTBED Get an extra 25% off when you use code UNSUBSCRIBE at checkout. Go to http://ghostbed.com/unsubscribe to get started. ------------------------------ UNSUB MERCH: https://www.bunkerbranding.com/pages/unsubscribe-podcast ------------------------------ 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 #podcast #comedy #funnypodcast Chapters 0:00 Welcome To Unsub! 6:09 Major Capers’ Military Background 15:20 The Python 22:57 The Panama Jungle 25:50 Force Recon 27:33 Jump School 29:08 Diving School 36:10 Major Capers’ Marriage & Family Life 45:45 Dealing With PTSD After War 53:14 The Medal of Honor Mission 1:03:40 Ask A Marine Campaign 1:16:10 War Stories 1:20:45 The POW Mission 1:27:55 Lap 1:32:00 Major Capers’ Son 1:35:45 Jim’s Books 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

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone. And including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage, HMO, and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Coleman ran over and jumped on me and said, "Lieutenant, you've been shot." I said, "Damn it, Doc, I know that. Bleed the whole place."

• 0:37The Fat Electrician?

  I've read a lot of the stuff your guys have said about you.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  All lies, all lies.

• 0:41The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, right.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  How many grenades did you end up even throwing?

• 0:43Speaker 01

  I threw 20.

• 0:44The Fat Electrician?

  We would've got along and more. I understand that you captured a 20-foot python?

• 0:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:49The Fat Electrician?

  All right.

• 0:50Speaker 04

  I'll buy it.

• 0:50The Fat Electrician?

  This is a marine.

• 0:51Speaker 01

  It's in Vietnam. In Vietnam, man.

• 0:58Speaker 05

  Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous and random. His hair is fucking fabulous and donut. A dark oak disposition and there's a fat electrician. Welcome to unsubscribe.

• 1:18Speaker 03

  Hey, what is up, everyone? It is our favorite month. It's November, which means we are doing the Veterans Month. Two new pieces of merch, amazing pieces of merch. We have TBI Fridays. The sun will come out tomorrow, unfortunately. 100% of the profits will go towards nonprofits at the end of the month. That's right, we're donating everything we make off of these at the end of the month to some amazing veteran nonprofit organizations. We are also doing a golden ticket, which we will fly you out to one of the last two live shows in December. Your choice. That trip and hotel is on us, of course. And we will be giving away some Turtle Beach headsets, the new unsub jump out side zips, some merch, some Pepperbox subscriptions, and some Echelon.

• 2:03Speaker 03

  And anything else you buy on that website, a portion of that will also be going towards these amazing causes. And we're doing the same With Echelon, a portion of any Echelon purchased will be going towards those nonprofits. And during Veterans Day month, we are doing an amazing deal with the subscription program. 10% off plus free shipping and then use code unsub to get 10% off of any of your orders on single cases. Got it. You are entered for the golden takeout on either site. So go snack some TBI Fridays, snack some Echelon. Let's raise some money and change some lives in the veteran community. You all ready?

• 2:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, let me just check this out.

• 2:40Speaker 03

  You get it first, brother. You get it first.

• 2:45Speaker 03

  Did you do good?

• 2:46Speaker 01

  I have one comment.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  I've had coffee all over the world.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  This is the best coffee I've ever I've ever tasted.

• 2:58The Fat Electrician?

  He's trying to steal my wife.

• 3:02The Fat Electrician?

  He's stealing sound.

• 3:04Speaker 04

  Today on the podcast, we have Mr. Steal Your Girl.

• 3:08The Fat Electrician?

  Major Steal Your Girl in the house right now.

• 3:14Speaker 04

  Major Steal Your Girl goes crazy.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  Major loves this coffee. That's what it is.

• 3:21Speaker 03

  Readjust this and you're good. Boom.

• 3:25The Fat Electrician?

  And then we'll start with this countdown.

• 3:27Speaker 03

  All right.

• 3:28The Fat Electrician?

  Everyone ready?

• 3:31Speaker 03

  Ready? Three, two, one.

• 3:34The Fat Electrician?

  I accidentally popped. I pre popped. Nick?

• 3:38Speaker 04

  It happens.

• 3:40The Fat Electrician?

  Well, I suppose.

• 3:43Speaker 03

  Oh, you're good. You're good. You're good. You got your coffee, brother.

• 3:46The Fat Electrician?

  All right. Hi, welcome to the unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined here today by Eli Double Tap, Major Jim Capers, Brandon Herrera, and myself, Nick.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  And today is going to be an awesome episode. We have.

• 3:58The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, I'm excited.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  Dude, we are set. I'm gonna get this adjusted for you. So you're taking care of brother and you just get to have fun and chat.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 4:05The Fat Electrician?

  We have Major. Major Jim, brother, we.

• 4:10Speaker 03

  I told the guys the first time we met in DC, I was like, oh, my God. I met one of the coolest humans and holy shit, his story is amazing.

• 4:19The Fat Electrician?

  Oh, I didn't know you guys already met.

• 4:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:22The Fat Electrician?

  Okay.

• 4:22Speaker 03

  That was how, yeah.

• 4:23The Fat Electrician?

  Gotcha.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  The whole team after meeting him was like, oh, 100%. So when I went down to DC for the Purple Heart, um, they honored 100 Purple Heart recipients, I believe, right?

• 4:36Speaker 03

  And then I walked over shaking hands and then I seen him. I'm like, holy shit. You got me beat, bro. Yeah, like a stack of, you got three Purple Hearts. Yeah. It should probably be more. Yeah. Oh dude, yes. Brandon, do you know his, how in depth do you know some of his stories?

• 4:56Speaker 04

  I've seen some of the interviews, uh, but I don't know the full story front to back. So I'm, I'm excited to, I'm excited for this episode. Sounds like you've got a, quite a storied history or a service record, rather.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  Well, it's good for me to be here.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  Oh, thank you so much. You and your team coming out. Oh, we unsub got in the audience, got you a doorbell. We got you. We got you a little gift.

• 5:24Speaker 03

  Open that thing up, brother.

• 5:28Speaker 03

  This is from all of us.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  Well, it looks pretty good so far. Let's see what we got in here.

• 5:41Speaker 04

  Hope you love boxes.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:49Speaker 03

  Now Frank said that you just have no watches.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Sound like Frank.

• 5:59Speaker 03

  He said you have trash taste. I think that was his choice of words.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Hey sweetheart.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  Boy.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  It is a watch.

• 6:12Speaker 03

  We got you, you figured OD green. You like that color?

• 6:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:18Speaker 03

  Good.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Boy, this is really nice.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  That is a, it's a Hamilton. It's a military watch. And one thing from unsub, we would, we always just try to pay our respect to y'all for what.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Well, thank you so much. I'll put this back in here if you don't mind.

• 6:33Speaker 03

  Oh, of course.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  And I want to put it on right now.

• 6:36Speaker 04

  That's really nice is a much better review for Hamilton than, uh, well, this is a watch. Put that on their website.

• 6:43Speaker 03

  Oh, it's upside down. There we go.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  See that?

• 6:46Speaker 04

  Cause that's.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  That's my niece who just walked in. She's an air force veteran.

• 6:51Speaker 03

  Oh, well, thank you for your service.

• 6:55Speaker 03

  Dude, the family of veterans. We'll put this.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:59Speaker 03

  Boxes out your way. Okay.

• 7:03Speaker 04

  Because isn't that how you guys first started talking at the Purple Heart thing? Is he made a comment about your watch?

• 7:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, so it was him and Zach and then Zach was helping. He's a J-Tech and of course, one degree of separation. Zach and I were talking, he seen one of the watches, he like, best and nice watch. We started talking, then he's like, man, you actually watch unsub, but you should have Jim on. It's like done and done. And then he told me the story because as Zach said, he was like, this is the only dude I know with a confirmed knife kill. I was like, what? I'm like, holy shit. I was like, done, we are going to get him on then. And then he knew my buddy Holtz, they served together and Holtz is the one I deployed with and they trained together.

• 7:51Speaker 03

  And now he helps from time to time, help with your guys' team. So I was like, tiny ass world. And now we get you, the literal poster boy of the Marines and the first African American.

• 8:08The Fat Electrician?

  To be field commissioned.

• 8:10Speaker 03

  Holy shit.

• 8:10The Fat Electrician?

  During Vietnam, when field commissions were not normal anymore. After World War II in Korea, field commissions are not a normal thing and he's still got one.

• 8:21Speaker 03

  That is wild.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. I was a staff sergeant and all the officers were killed in the first three months. So my Colonel called me in his office and took off my staff sergeant shovens and put on lieutenant bars. And I walked out in the rain and there were some guys out there that saluted me for the first time. It was interesting.

• 8:49Speaker 03

  I bet going from enlisted to that and no OSAT or anything.

• 8:53Speaker 01

  No, they didn't send me home for any officers training.

• 8:58Speaker 03

  So wild.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:01Speaker 03

  That, so you joined as Marine.

• 9:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:05Speaker 03

  And now you did basic training during the much harder times.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 9:09Speaker 03

  What was even basic training, what was that like?

• 9:13Speaker 01

  You're kidding me?

• 9:16Speaker 01

  For, for Marine training.

• 9:18Speaker 03

  Boot camp, sorry, holy shit, I am so sorry.

• 9:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, boot camp for Marines back in those days, I joined in 1956.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  Just when they had lost six, six Marines who drowned in Paris Island, which is a notorious boot camp. So I went through the three months and did pretty good. And after that, they sent us to combat training for a month, but we didn't get the month in because there was a war in the Middle East. Uh, Syrians and Egyptians were fighting. So they sent my unit over to the Mediterranean, through the Mediterranean. And we didn't land or anything, you know, we just went over there to show, show force, say, hey, we're here now and you better behave

• 10:12Speaker 01

  yourself. Eisenhower was president and we were prepared to land, but we didn't finish up our combat training. So they brought us back to the States. And, uh, we started all over again. And my first three years, that's what we did. But every six months, we deployed to the Middle East. And now they're still at it. You were in Lebanon, the first time? Yeah, Lebanon. Yeah, I went to Lebanon. Lebanon, Lebanese and Assyrians and everybody was, was at battle over there during those days. I don't remember what the problems were,

• 10:54Speaker 01

  I'll tell you the truth, but they've been fighting over there for 2,000 years.

• 10:58Speaker 03

  See, I don't think they remember what the problem started as either. I hate how true that is. Why are we fighting?

• 11:03Speaker 01

  It's just what we do.

• 11:05Speaker 04

  What's your name? Tony. You, Tony?

• 11:10Speaker 03

  Now, you going into it, I know all, all Marines are infantry. Did you actually go in being like, I want to do infantry. I want to be a grunt. I want to do like reconnaissance.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  Well, I did the three years as a grunt.

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Then I thought, well, I'm doing pretty good. So rather than be discharged, I decided that well, I'll go ahead and reenlist. So I reenlisted for six years. And then they sent me, uh, what the hell they sent me? Sent me to California and I joined the special organization, the First Force Reconnaissance Company. And they did pretty good. I went to jump school and became a diver and, you know, all of the various things you learn to kill people 50 different ways. And I spent three years there.

• 12:12Speaker 04

  So you told me on the way here, you had 550 jumps?

• 12:15Speaker 01

  I made 550 parachute jumps.

• 12:18Speaker 03

  Uh, static and then halo or?

• 12:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, static and free form.

• 12:22Speaker 03

  Oh my. And then you did combat diving too?

• 12:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:26Speaker 03

  Scuba? My brother. First off, aren't you black? How can you swim?

• 12:31Speaker 04

  And we're almost 10 minutes in.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  Come on. No, no, I can swim. I'm a master diver.

• 12:43Speaker 03

  Dude.

• 12:44Speaker 01

  I mean, I made three combat swims in Vietnam. Yeah, we did a swim under an aircraft carrier. Almost a thou- almost a thousand meters. And we did that. And while we went under the aircraft carrier, there was a school of, uh, sharks showed up. And this was in Trang, Vietnam. And we swam the whole distance of the ship, looking for mines under the ship. Cause the USS card had been blown up by the Vietnamese divers. So we wanted to make sure that we had 3,000 marines and sailors aboard that aircraft carrier.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  So I took my team of divers down and we swam the whole length of the aircraft carrier. And at the end, we saw the shark show up and one of my men, uh, everybody was tied in with a buddy line. His buddy line came loose and he was drifting out where the sharks were. And this is where you, you have to make a decision. You don't think about it, you make the decision. And he was drifting out where the tiger sharks were. And I unhooked my buddy line and swam and got him and brought him back.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  Holy, how, was it hard even navigating in the pitch black essentially at that time?

• 14:12Speaker 01

  Well, uh.

• 14:13Speaker 03

  And no buddy line, that's wild.

• 14:15Speaker 01

  Well, he was drifting toward the sharks and I made a decision, right here, right there, to go out and get him. And I swam out and got him and hooked him into my buddy line and came back.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  Which, uh. We made three combat dives in Vietnam.

• 14:31Speaker 03

  What was the other two? And just for everyone watching, this man, oh, that's the thing you always did is put everyone else above yourself. You have so many stories of that and it is literally why we're so stoked for you and honored for you to be here is because you, it's rare to meet an individual like you where you're like, hey, these are my brothers in arms. They, their lives are more important than my own and you do that every time.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 15:01Speaker 03

  It's an honor to meet you, brother.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  Well, that's good to be here. It's honored to be alive.

• 15:05Speaker 03

  So what, what were the other two combat dives you did?

• 15:09Speaker 01

  Well, two Marines at a base that was not too far from where I was in country. We'd gotten to shore by that time. And, uh, two of them were blown up by a mine. And so I was asked to go out there and find the bodies. And, uh, bring the bodies up. So took my team of divers and I had a a young Navy SEAL, Doug Burwell, he was a corpsman. But he was one of the SEALs that I took with me.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  And of course we were around long before the SEALs were. You know, that's what we did and the SEALs come along, uh, later on. And I had a couple of them with me, good guys. Burwell's still alive.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  But we uh went out to where the the uh kid was and we went down and got him and brought his body up. The sharks had eaten him, not the sharks, they were fish, regular fish, they had eaten his body up. What was, you know, there wasn't much left. Then rather than make it graphic, but we got him and brought him up. And while we were down there,

• 16:31Speaker 01

  we found mines and explosives in the bottom of the river. So I figured we couldn't leave that stuff down there because they could use it against us. So I went back and got all the equipment and we went down and we drove, dove for two days and brought up over 200 rounds of ammunition and mines and they, they had stored down that they use against us. We brought it all up. Every round, we brought it all up. How long did that take? It took us two days. Damn.

• 17:09Speaker 03

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• 17:11Speaker 04

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• 17:23Speaker 04

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• 17:25Speaker 03

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• 18:06Speaker 03

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• 18:50The Fat Electrician?

  So you've done a lot of incredible things. But one of the things that I do in my videos and my research is I like to find the crazy things and the funny things that people have accomplished. I understand that you captured a 20-foot python?

• 19:10Speaker 06

  All right.

• 19:11Speaker 04

  I'll buy it.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. We named him Goma, because Goma Power was a popular TV program back in those days. So we were coming back from a mission, and my point man stopped. He said, "Uh-oh, what's going on now?" And he run across this snake. So I went up and looked at him. He was huge. He was huge. So I figured, well, let's grab this son of a bitch and take him back. But then we had to cross a river, and I didn't know we could get this snake and

• 19:56Speaker 01

  cross the river and climb the mountain back up to the base. But what we did, we took a poncho, and they jumped on the snake, on his head, and tied him up and put him in a sack. So we're gonna try to get him back, cross the river. So we go in with this snake. He was huge, and he was heavyweight, about almost 200 pounds.

• 20:21Speaker 04

  This is just for shits and giggles? This is a marine event.

• 20:25Speaker 01

  In Vietnam. In Vietnam, man. We got to the river.

• 20:33Speaker 01

  I love this. Yeah, we got to the river and how the hell we gonna get this snake across the river? Sciquest. Pretty, pretty fast. So we figured, oh, we can't do that. So we dropped the snake. And we swam the river and climbed the mountain and got back to our base. So while we're, this is a place called Khe Son, it was a bloody bowels up at Khe Son. And we were holding back the North Vietnamese with our small base. So we climbed the mountain and we got back there and some of the guys said, hey, where's that snake you guys were talking about? I said, well, we couldn't climb the mountain, couldn't swim the river with him. So a helicopter pilot heard about it.

• 21:15Speaker 01

  And we took my team and put it in a helicopter and we, he flew down to and landed on the river, rocks in the river. And our team jumped out and got the snake. And yeah, Marines do a lot of stuff like that. And put the snake back on the helicopter and we got up to the, our base on the mountain. Then we took the snake out and we dug a hole and put the snake in, in this hole. It was huge and long and we took some pictures with him on our shoulders and like that. I got a, a few. And his head was huge, you know, big head. And we had a dog named King.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  King was a extremely large German shepherd. So he was our war dog. And as a matter of fact, I saw him kill two enemy soldiers. Rather than make it graphic, but he jumped on him and ripped him pretty well, but I'll leave that part out, but that's what he did. He was a killer. He was trained to do that.

• 22:19Speaker 00

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet, like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone and including dental, vision and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage, HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  But he was a scout dog also. He could smell different things. But anyway, we got up there and King smelled the snake. And he started getting agitated to, you know, what the hell is this? And we had a, had a snake in the hole. So we figured that, well, I don't know what, how to feed this damn snake. So Yereman, Sergeant Yereman, took the Jeep and went out in town and come back with his duck.

• 23:20Speaker 01

  He had this duck. Yeah, I'm laughing too because it's funny as all hell.

• 23:24Speaker 03

  Dude, I'm dying.

• 23:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  This is Marines. Want to feed it ducks? I don't know. You're in like a heavy combat zone and you're like, yo, this snake though. And then they flew a helicopter. He's literally repelling enemy ambush. Like, guys, we gotta feed the snake. Go get a duck.

• 23:41Speaker 04

  Go, go to town and get some shit. I don't know.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Well, we brought the snake back, brought the duck back. And, and the snake is in this hole. We brought the snake back and the guys, uh, put the duck in this hole with the snake. And they tied his leg, one leg of the duck. Now he was quacking. And the snake was over there by himself, wasn't bothering anybody. So we figured that the snake is probably going to eat this duck. Because, you know, snakes don't eat any canned food. We couldn't give him something. He had to eat live food. So this is a riot. All of the guys are coming around, taking pictures of this damn duck in this hole with a snake, whatever. But the good part was, yeah, no, the good part was we come back to see if this snake had eaten this duck.

• 24:31Speaker 01

  And we looked in the hole and the duck, uh, was there quacking, quacking. And the snake was dead as a door down. Laying there dead. And the snake was still alive, quacking. And we thought the snake was going to eat the duck. But somehow, I don't know why the snake died, but he was there, uh, alive. And, and, and the duck was there quacking, so we.

• 24:56Speaker 01

  Got the snake out of the hole and they they skinned them, took the skin off a snake and they gave the meat to the villagers. And we took pictures of that, but you know, it wasn't funny, but you know, I felt sorry for the, I don't want it to happen to the duck, that that another story, it never happened to the duck. But Goma or the snake there, we got a lot of pictures of them. And we took the skin off of it and and some of the guys made belts out of out of snake skin. He was a python, what we call boar stricken and large.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  But I took a picture of him with the snake around my shoulders and he was heavy. And they put the snake on my shoulders to take a picture. So I felt the snake trying to constrict me and I was holding his head as his head in my left hand and he was squeezing me and I told, sorry, you know, get this damn snake off of me because he just may, he just may try to eat me or something. But I I kept him on my shoulders and we took some pictures. He was huge, about eighteen feet long.

• 26:14Speaker 04

  Well, I'm sorry he died before you could get any useful information out of him.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. He didn't, he didn't talk, he didn't talk much.

• 26:22Speaker 03

  That's so wild, a duck is what? Walking back, I'd be like, wait, why is the duck alive? What happened when we were gone?

• 26:29The Fat Electrician?

  Dangerous.

• 26:32Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oh, my God.

• 26:34Speaker 04

  Somebody made a lot of money on that betting pool.

• 26:36The Fat Electrician?

  So I remember another story, there was some kind of competition or a course where you had to lead a group of men and traverse part of a jungle. And I think I heard that your team broke the course record in some, because you had commandeered some canoes.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  We did that in Panama. They dropped us in Panama before going to Vietnam. And I had a team. Uh, it was pretty good.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  And, uh, the whole company had to traverse miles of jungles and mountains, things like that. And my team, uh, we took off and we got some canoes and we, uh, canoed across the river.

• 27:29The Fat Electrician?

  How'd you, uh, how'd you get the canoes?

• 27:31Speaker 01

  They were belonging to the Vietnamese, uh, I'm sorry, the Panamanian civilians.

• 27:37The Fat Electrician?

  Acquired them?

• 27:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, we acquired them. The Marines never steal anything, so we quietly acquired them, got in the boats and went across the river. And, uh, we broke the record for that type of course, you know, in the jungles. And I was their leader. And that's one reason that they looked at me through the training and through the operations in Vietnam to get this commission. Everybody didn't get those types of battlefield commission. And I was a staff sergeant.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  And, uh, Sergeant Major came to get me one day and said, Sergeant, the Colonel want to see you. I said, uh-oh, am I in trouble? It's the canoes, isn't it? Yeah. The what? Never mind.

• 28:32The Fat Electrician?

  No damn canoes. You know what's better than burning the boats? Stealing them. These are my boats.

• 28:39Speaker 01

  Acquiring.

• 28:40The Fat Electrician?

  Acquiring.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Well, I got in the Colonel's office.

• 28:46Speaker 01

  And, uh, he was a good guy. His name, I forget his name, he's gone now. But he commissioned me, took off my staff sergeant Chevins and put on Lieutenant Bars

• 29:02Speaker 01

  and, uh, shook my hand and had me sign some papers and, uh...

• 29:11Speaker 01

  Sergeant Major said something to me, I can't remember what it was now.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  But Sergeant Major Skinner was a good man. He was our battalion sergeant major.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  And he walked me out at the colonel's office. And pardon my language, and my niece is here. He said, "Don't get up."

• 29:43Speaker 01

  And I didn't.

• 29:46Speaker 03

  As for damn sure you. You were one of the first Force Recon? It was a newer... How long had Force Recon been around when you actually joined?

• 29:56Speaker 01

  It was four years.

• 29:57Speaker 03

  Oh, that's wild.

• 29:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, I joined and went to jump school and scuba school and demo school and martial arts and all of this shit. The commandos. And we had a couple of British commandos that helped us with our training.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Years later, I went to England and trained with the British commandos.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  SAS?

• 30:22Speaker 01

  Good bunch, good bunch of guys.

• 30:25Speaker 03

  How'd you get selected to be one of the first Force Recon Marines? I mean, was there like a tryout process? It was so new at the time.

• 30:32Speaker 01

  Well, you volunteer. And you go in with the CO. And the one I had, he's kind of a crazy guy. I'm in there being interviewed, see if they're gonna select me. And he had a grenade on his window seal. I mean, I knew what a grenade was, because I'd fought in Lebanon. He's sitting there looking at me. He reached over and pulled his grenade and pulled a pin. It was a phony grenade, it wasn't real, and threw it on the ground to see what I was gonna do. I walked over and picked it up and handed it back to him.

• 31:16Speaker 01

  And they selected me.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  Approved. Yeah, yeah. It's like to me that I went off to demo school and all the things you can think of to make your commando. I went to demo, went to, I went to Fort Benning for the jump program.

• 31:39Speaker 03

  And you did again, static, but what's crazy is free fall.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:44Speaker 03

  And this is when there was no wind tunnels. You had to do the little board on your, the

• 31:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:50Speaker 03

  That is wild.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:52Speaker 03

  It is, is you, like floating's hard. You find that out really fast. When you're in free fall, it is one of the hardest things. And to, the only training up to that point is that board. And then you're jumping out of a plane at 20,000 feet is wild to me.

• 32:07Speaker 01

  We weren't at 20,000 at first. You know, the free fall program, oh, you know, you jump out and you stabilize your body. And then you have your toggles, which help you maneuver the parachute. And you hit the ground at about 15, 20 miles an hour. That's why my legs, legs don't work now. Knees are shot. But the parachute program, uh,

• 32:38Speaker 01

  uh, I became a jump master. Where, you know, my job now is to get my guys in on the drop zone and make sure they didn't die of getting there. But I did that for 20 years.

• 32:51The Fat Electrician?

  So you're a master diver and a jump master.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  And a jump master, right.

• 32:55The Fat Electrician?

  Okay, cool.

• 32:55Speaker 03

  Two opposite ends of the spectrum there.

• 32:57The Fat Electrician?

  It's the highest and lowest point a human can be. All right. He's gonna go get him.

• 33:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, I never thought about that. You fight below sea level and well above sea level.

• 33:06Speaker 04

  We'll see about getting you that Space Force commission.

• 33:10Speaker 06

  Brandon, what kind of shirt is that?

• 33:11Speaker 04

  I'm glad you asked, Eli. This is a poncho.

• 33:14Speaker 06

  Brandon and I actually wear ponchos so much, we constantly end up wearing the same nice poncho shirt.

• 33:20Speaker 04

  Good thing nobody's ever pointed that out before.

• 33:23Speaker 06

  Now, if you guys have ever seen one of our live shows, or this podcast in general, you'll see Brandon and I wearing these incredibly comfortable, great-looking shirts all the time.

• 33:31Speaker 03

  Finn, pull it up with pictures. They're literally always wearing the same shirt.

• 33:36Speaker 04

  I got turned on a Poncho like a year ago. Been wearing them ever since. Personally prefer, I think this is the western, because it's got the pearl snaps, because it's hot in Texas and I like something breathable.

• 33:45Speaker 03

  Here's the thing I find really cool. Brandon, do the glasses trick.

• 33:49Speaker 04

  So Ponchos have this neat little thing in the pocket where you just take your glasses.

• 33:53Speaker 03

  Nope, the other one.

• 33:54Speaker 04

  Be more specific!

• 33:55Speaker 03

  Who gives a shit about that?

• 33:57Speaker 04

  Alright.

• 33:58Speaker 03

  Watch everyone!

• 33:59Speaker 04

  So if you've got fat fingers and you smudge your glasses all the time, the bottom of the shirt actually acts. It has like a microfiber, so you can clean your glasses.

• 34:07Speaker 03

  I make him clean my phones.

• 34:09Speaker 04

  He does.

• 34:10Speaker 06

  I like the hidden little pocket on the breast.

• 34:12Speaker 03

  Wait, what?

• 34:13Speaker 04

  Right over here. Got a little zipper pocket.

• 34:16Speaker 03

  I didn't even know about that one. Is that where you hold Cody's heart?

• 34:19Speaker 04

  And his drugs.

• 34:21Speaker 03

  Things you might need to know. Poncho has put a lot of thought and detail into each one of their shirts.

• 34:26Speaker 04

  Oh, holy sh- They're soft. They're really soft.

• 34:29Speaker 03

  Yo, what?

• 34:31Speaker 04

  That's my one, like, thing is fucking fabric sensitivity. I don't wear uncomfortable shirts.

• 34:35Speaker 06

  This is comfy as f- That's why we wear them all the time.

• 34:39Speaker 03

  So Poncho's got a bunch of great styles. The original, western, denim, and ultra-light.

• 34:44Speaker 06

  If you're looking for the perfect shirt, something breathable, and stands out in a good way, give Poncho a try.

• 34:50Speaker 03

  Go to ponchoutdoors.com/unsub and get $10 off your first order.

• 34:55Speaker 04

  That's P-O-N-C-H-O outdoors.com/unsub.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  That, what was the harder school for you? Was it jump, or was it diver?

• 35:05Speaker 01

  I think the diving program was a little hard. I went through that in Florida.

• 35:10Speaker 03

  Gravity doesn't do the work for you in diving.

• 35:15Speaker 01

  It was about a month course.

• 35:19Speaker 01

  And down in Key West, Florida. Beautiful area. Yeah, well, I did that for a month. Lot of it, you're in the classroom. And a lot of it, you know, uh, you're in the water. I mean, you're in the water all the time. And we did hydrographic surveys. When they drop you in and you have to see how close the, you know, the water is to the lands we can land our troops. So it was a hard, hard program for me because I'd been a grunt. I hadn't been swimming like that. And when I first got there,

• 36:00Speaker 01

  I was the only black guy in the class.

• 36:04Speaker 01

  And you alluded to some of those funny things.

• 36:09Speaker 01

  But I got there and the commander of the school told me he was sending me home. I said, may I ask you why? He said, because we have medical documentation that can't swim. I said, which were you talking to, commander? He said, we're just going to send you home. We don't want you to drown in our program. I said, you're making a mistake. I can swim. And I can swim. You know, a little bit of bravado, said, I can probably swim better than anybody you got in this class. He said, well, you're not going to drown here, so I'm sending you home. I didn't want to kiss the guy's ass, but I just says, hey, you know, just

• 36:54Speaker 01

  give me a shot at it. If I don't make it, I don't make it. But I guarantee you, I will make it. He said, well, I'm going to give you a, a, a program, give you an opening program, but, you know, I think I'm making a mistake. Said, no, you're not. So I start the program and the first week was kind of difficult.

• 37:17Speaker 01

  Like your hell wig program you read about, they kill you. I mean, they do. I mean, you do more pushups and, you know, and situps and just running and running and swimming. And then at night you study. Then at night they take you back to the water and put you back in the water again. Then you have to do the night swims, you know. When they take you out on a boat. Uh, took you out on a boat. Then you had to swim the shore. And you have to like a boat, then you have to swim the shore and hit a target at night. So, you know, it was tough, but I was honor graduate.

• 37:56Speaker 03

  No.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was honor graduate.

• 37:58Speaker 03

  Oh, when you're swimming, are you in full kit when you're swimming? Or are they have like, uh, are you in uniform or what are you wearing at that?

• 38:06Speaker 01

  Well, when we first started, you know, we're in shorts.

• 38:09Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  Shorts and I was, it was January in nineteen sixty-six. And it was cold as hell down there. I think the whole citrus fruit in Florida froze. But we swam, went through the whole course in January nineteen sixty-six. Then I come home from school to school.

• 38:31Speaker 01

  And then we left to go to, uh, Panama. Then we left to go to Bermuda and places like that. So it's just training, you're ready to go to, uh, to go in country.

• 38:45Speaker 03

  I'm still reeling on the idea that there was medical documentation in the United States Marine Corps.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. This was the Navy, he said that.

• 38:55Speaker 03

  Or Navy.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  Good swim, uh, you know.

• 38:57Speaker 03

  I'd love to see that doctor's note.

• 39:01Speaker 01

  And that was what he said to me. And it just made me a little, little irritated, irritated, but I knew I had to get in this course. I was the only black guy here, but, you know, I was angry now.

• 39:13Speaker 03

  Oh, I bet.

• 39:14Speaker 01

  You know, because, uh, he's challenging me. And, and the sad part about it, after we graduated, went through the whole month program. And we all lined up to, uh.

• 39:28Speaker 01

  So graduate and the chief came up to me and

• 39:33Speaker 01

  uh told me I was honor graduate. But the commander, we were lined up getting our certificates. He walked past me. He didn't shake my hand. Even though you were, ah. Nineteen sixty-six. Honor graduate, but he didn't shake my hand. He walked past me. Garbage human. But, you know. I would have saluted your ass. I'd be like, yo, what the, holy shit. That was a world for black guys back in those days. But I had to suck it up because I had a lot of men that had trained with me. And now we're, we're going to war. You know, the training is over. Joke's over now. We're gonna go fight and kill people.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  Or a lot of us got killed. And also came home. Matter of fact, on the way from the scuba program. We were flying home. And the aircraft caught on fire. And the crew chief came back and said, we're gonna have to land. And they had, it was a commercial plane. They had other senior citizens on the plane and we were teenagers and mostly young guys. So they had the plane in an open field and my guys uh

• 40:55Speaker 01

  didn't get off the plane until they went and got all the civilians off. They got the elderly citizens off. And we stayed out there and the plane was burning. But the ambulance came and they took care of the plane. Then some vehicles came and took us to Miami. And we got a, a bus came and took us to Miami. Then we got another plane and flew us to North Carolina. So it was always something, but we overcame it.

• 41:30The Fat Electrician?

  Always training. That is, and again, I can't, for the individuals out there that don't understand going through combat diver, halo, jump, everything, and then back to back, especially at that time is like tip, tip my hat to you for that level of dedication and how difficult that would have been.

• 41:50Speaker 01

  Thank you, thank you.

• 41:51The Fat Electrician?

  Especially in the sixties? This was in the sixties.

• 41:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, sixty six.

• 41:58Speaker 01

  And in sixty seven, we were in combat.

• 42:01The Fat Electrician?

  You were, you were already married at this point, right?

• 42:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was married at a show.

• 42:05The Fat Electrician?

  So I mean, what, I get, and that's the part that I haven't really seen anybody touch on in your interviews and stuff. Like you've done all this incredible stuff in the military, but you also did that at the same point in time that you were married. You had a wife and son back home. Your son had special needs.

• 42:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:22The Fat Electrician?

  And it's the nineteen sixties and the civil rights movement's going on. So you're leaving home to go fight in war with your wife at home and there's like civil unrest going on at the same time. How did you deal with that mentally?

• 42:37Speaker 01

  I was a patriot. I believed in this country from day one.

• 42:42Speaker 01

  When I was a child, I was, had gotten sick.

• 42:47Speaker 01

  And my father gave me to a white family. This is just the history that I was told. And it's probably true, because back in those days, childhood diseases were common. We lost and mostly African Americans who were just, you know, weren't that long out of slavery. And we ran the, um, picked the cotton, cropped the tobacco. Uh, working for the white guys and say the white man. Uh, but some of them were, weren't all bad. And this family that when I got sick took me in and obviously, uh, I was cured.

• 43:31Speaker 01

  And then I came back to my family and we end up leaving South Carolina and moving to Baltimore.

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• 44:10Speaker 01

  Where I went to school, then the Korean War started and I saw the Marines all over the TV. We didn't have TVs in the South, but we got to Baltimore, we had our first TV, the old black and white TVs. And the kid over here was not born at that time, but you know, we got there and moved into what we call the ghetto, which is where the Germans were during World War II.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  The ghetto and I didn't look at it as a ghetto, it was a South Baltimore. And we brought our habits from the South to the city and there were not many jobs and it wasn't a good life, but we made the best we could. And so.

• 45:12Speaker 04

  When you say you brought your habits, what exactly do you mean?

• 45:18Speaker 01

  Survival, but I, the goodness that I found along the way, like I said, that white family, I don't know who they are and there's some research now, they're trying to figure out, you know, who it was, they're trying to figure out the doctor that attended me. Probably wasn't that many doctors at that time, but there's some folks in South Carolina who are trying to figure out what happened to this guy? How did he live? And now that I've been up for the Medal of Honor.

• 45:54Speaker 01

  You know, people send me flowers these days. I get flowers, I get cards, I get letters. Uh, I wonder if they know something that I don't know. You know, they say, I'm getting my flowers before I, before I get out here. But it's been nice. My house is full of flowers that folks have sent to me.

• 46:17Speaker 03

  Flowers are one thing. It's usually the only time you receive flowers is at your funeral. So it's a really good gesture. Feels good getting flowers as a dude. You're like, oh, thank you.

• 46:25Speaker 01

  Well, my place is already preparing up in Orange National Cemetery. While I'm joining my wife and my son. They're there waiting for me. And I'm not worried about it because I think I got a good chance of, uh, getting into heaven. My wife and my son are waiting for me. But on the other side, I wasn't the nicest guy. I was not the nicest guy. Because I was trained to kill people in the, in the worst way. And I did that for too long, maybe. Uh, but I feel that God will have mercy on me and let me get into the pearly gates.

• 47:09Speaker 01

  But then again, he might say, hey, you should have done that. But I don't think so. I believe in God and I think I'll see my wife and my son again.

• 47:20Speaker 03

  I believe the same. You got forgiveness and that's the one thing.

• 47:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:24Speaker 03

  Especially Jesus, that's what he sacrificed himself for. So I think you're good to go.

• 47:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I hope so.

• 47:30Speaker 04

  All of your favorite NBA players are black. I mean, back.

• 47:33Speaker 03

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• 47:48Speaker 06

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• 47:53Speaker 03

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• 47:53The Fat Electrician?

  If I know.

• 47:54Speaker 03

  Boards.

• 47:55The Fat Electrician?

  I don't know, but you're also gonna win $300 if your bet wins in free bets. Paid in pons bets? Correct.

• 48:01Speaker 04

  Now, something I do understand. You can't say that word. Understand?

• 48:05Speaker 03

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• 48:09Speaker 04

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• 48:39Speaker 03

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• 48:43Speaker 04

  What? Yeah.

• 48:45Speaker 03

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• 48:46Speaker 04

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• 48:49Speaker 03

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• 49:03Speaker 04

  You can't win big if you don't bet big. Sun Tzu said that.

• 49:06Speaker 03

  What's one of your favorite stories for your wife and for your kiddo?

• 49:10Speaker 01

  Well, uh, I met her in high school. I saw her walking down the hall. And I looked at her and I fell in love. First time I saw her, I was in love. I went home and I told my mom. I said, "Ma, guess what?" She said, "Sit down, son. We'll talk about it." And we went through high school together. Her name was Dorothy and I called her Dottie. And I was, you know, I still write to her. She's been gone some years now. But sometime I have the desire to tell her what I'm doing.

• 49:50Speaker 01

  And when I get back on Friday, I'll write to her about how well you guys treated me. I'll tell them who you, I'll tell her. I can't mail the letters, but I just tell them that, you know, "Guess what, sweetheart? I was in San Antonio." And she knows all of this anyway. She's watching me. But I do write to her and I have the letters. Uh, someone, Frank told me the day and I should put them in the mailbox.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  Maybe God will find a way to get him to Donnie. You know, I knew right to her. It's a relief for me. I'll sit down right up to her when I get back on Friday about this experience. And I'll say, guess what?

• 50:40Speaker 01

  My niece was there listening.

• 50:44Speaker 01

  Even though she joined the Air Force.

• 50:48Speaker 01

  I thought maybe the kid would join the Marines, but no, she joined the Air Force.

• 50:52Speaker 04

  That was whiplash.

• 50:53Speaker 03

  Hey, Donnie, thinking of you. By the way,

• 50:58Speaker 03

  Air Force, what?

• 51:01Speaker 04

  To my understanding, you got to share over 50 years with her, which is fantastic.

• 51:05Speaker 01

  We were married 50 years.

• 51:06Speaker 03

  Damn.

• 51:07Speaker 01

  And she died a week after we celebrated our 50th anniversary.

• 51:11Speaker 04

  Condolences, brother.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  She died in the hospital there in my

• 51:16Speaker 01

  in my town. And she died of cancer.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  And I was holding her, holding her hand, standing by her bedside.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  And I was holding her hand.

• 51:31Speaker 01

  And she winked at me.

• 51:34Speaker 01

  That was Donnie Capress. She, and she winked at me, squeezed my hand, then she closed eyes. But I'll see her again. Uh, uh, you know, she's the love of my life, and I'm still single. Hadn't been able to find any another Donnie Capress, so I've been widowed all these years. And I thought about it. But I don't go on dates or things like that.

• 52:02Speaker 04

  We can't find you on Tinder?

• 52:04Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no. But I had a great marriage. She stuck with me all those years when I deployed overseas and.

• 52:19Speaker 01

  When I came home to Bethesda, uh, I was all shot up. And she came there and she asked for me. And they said, no, there's no black lieutenant here. I was there, but they had never seen a black wrinkle also before. So eventually, uh, me and Dottie Capers, she found me. I was on the fourteenth floor of Bethesda Hospital. And she had my son with her.

• 52:58Speaker 01

  And my son, some kind of way, walked into the room and walked to my bed. And he put his hand on my body and he said, hello, Dad. He's blind special needs, but you know, we wondered, how did he get into the room? He got away from Dottie and got into the room. He'd never been there before and put his hand on my body and said, hello, Dad. You know, these are things you wonder about special needs and, and, and how in the world did a child like that, you know, get into that room? Dottie was right with him. She was chasing him.

• 53:37Speaker 01

  And she came in and they, uh, you know, I wanted to see them, but I was angry. The demons had come home. And, you know, I lost all those men. I'd been banged up. Both my legs were broken. I still had bullet fragments in me. And I looked out the window. I didn't look at her. Cause I was ashamed, cause I'd, in a way, you know, in those letters, I told her that, well, when I get home, we're gonna go dancing. You know, we're gonna go to different places. We're gonna enjoy the rest of our lives.

• 54:22Speaker 01

  This is over now. This is over. But then I come home, I couldn't walk, couldn't hardly talk. You know, I only weighed a hundred and twenty pounds. I lost all of the weight. My body was scarred and they had.

• 54:42Speaker 01

  The corpsman had cleaned me up because I was, blood was all over my bed. And I couldn't use the bathroom, so they'd come in and cleaned me up, put a pot under me. And that was the world that I saw. But when Dottie came in, she was okay with everything. And she held my hand and kissed me and said, "Welcome home." But me, I was still in combat. I was still in those jungles. I could still hear those cries of men dying. You know, but Dottie Capers was Dottie Capers.

• 55:23Speaker 01

  And she sat there with me and told me it was gonna be okay. We're still gonna go dancing. I was never a good dancer anyway. But the thought was being with him, and it happened. I don't know, after a year, you know, of, uh, being there in that hospital, I look out the window. And a matter of fact, one day, and I was in pain, you know, they had, you know, they were doing surgery on me of this or that. And I looked out the window.

• 56:02Speaker 01

  I said, "You know, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to do this anymore." Said, "If I can open the window, just get me to the window, and I'll jump out." So you understand why warriors do this, why you commit [BLEEP]. Because the pain was so severe. You know, I thought I was pretty tough, but after a while, when they gave me shots for the pain, uh, I got to the point where I was so weakened that I would set my clock up. Because I got shot to be four hours.

• 56:46Speaker 01

  So what I would do, I would take my clock and set it up. And I'd call the nurse and tell the nurse, "Hey, it's time for my shot." She said, "No, it's not four hours yet." I said, "Yeah, come look at my, my watch." That was a time when I was at my weakest. When I looked out the window, it didn't matter anymore, because the pain was so severe. You know, and I thought I couldn't deal with it anymore. But God stepped in and said, "Yeah. Let's stay with it. Let's keep it going." And I did. But the nights in that little room there.

• 57:24Speaker 01

  I could hear the sounds of battle. You know, I couldn't, I only weighed one hundred and twenty-two pounds. You know, scars all over me.

• 57:34Speaker 01

  And I'd lie there at night in that little bed there. And the wounds began to seep in the, in the bed. And I still had blood on my hands from the war. Blood was all in my, my hands because I couldn't take a shower. They wouldn't give me no showers. So they just sort of dib and dabbed, you know, to keep the blood from flowing. They had some bandages on me, but they didn't stick. I had skin grafts and all those things. But when I came through Kason. And they, uh, they hit us hard with those one-twenty rockets.

• 58:20Speaker 01

  And I run across this Marine who was lying there. It was getting dark and, and his head was crooked. I said, "Damn," you know, "he was dead." And I took his head to try to straighten his head to be perpendicular with his body. And when I grabbed his hand, his whole...

• 58:45Speaker 01

  His brains fell out in my hands. His whole head was cracked. And the blood and, and I was just trying to straighten his head, but now I'm trying to deal with the brains in my hands. And I didn't have enough water to wash it off, so I kept that, his brains in my hands.

• 59:04Speaker 01

  You know? And sometimes I'll get up at night and go to the bathroom and wash my hands. Thinking that I've got to wash these brains and blood off my hands.

• 59:16Speaker 01

  But those are the things that bothered me and I wish I could have saved that Marine, but he's gone now.

• 59:24Speaker 03

  You are a strong, strong individual.

• 59:27Speaker 01

  I was weak.

• 59:28Speaker 03

  I'm weak. Brother, shut up right now, brother. The life you have lived and what, again, you put everyone else first. Even right now, it is those dark thoughts. It's like, especially veterans, it's, it's hard. If you've seen stuff, been to war, everyone glorifies war, but then reality of wars, it's, it's hard. War is hell. And you came out the other side and then with your family, and you said you did therapy too, but look at you now, look, like you, you came out clean on the other side. You went through hell and it was a probably a long process and journey and you still have those moments, but look at the lives you're changing now.

• 1:00:08The Fat Electrician?

  He didn't just get through it. He brought a lot of people with him.

• 1:00:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:11The Fat Electrician?

  I've read a lot of the stuff your guys have said about you.

• 1:00:14Speaker 01

  All lies, all lies.

• 1:00:16The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, right. You want to know one of the coolest things this guy has said about him? One of his guys said, I heard capers swear one time, the entire time I was with him in Vietnam. The rest of the time when he was mad, he'd just call you a knucklehead. But when he called you a knucklehead, it felt like your dad and Jesus Christ called you that at the same time.

• 1:00:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:43Speaker 03

  Hey, you want to borrow my ghost bed pillow? Does it smell like you?

• 1:00:47Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:00:50Speaker 03

  Do you feel that cooling technology? It's definitely not a hot pillow. I gotta get out of here.

• 1:00:55The Fat Electrician?

  Give me my pillow. I'm the one that has to sleep here. You guys have your own houses and your own pillows. Quit touching it.

• 1:01:01Speaker 03

  All right, real question. Can the gang do a pillow fight?

• 1:01:05The Fat Electrician?

  Not with these. They're fucking heavy. It'll hurt.

• 1:01:07Speaker 03

  Pillow fight?

• 1:01:08The Fat Electrician?

  No, they're heavy. It'll hurt.

• 1:01:09Speaker 03

  Are they really?

• 1:01:10The Fat Electrician?

  Yes, they're premium.

• 1:01:11Speaker 03

  Dude, that would actually suck. Actually, I don't think I'd want to get smacked with that.

• 1:01:15The Fat Electrician?

  I'm swinging it hard, okay?

• 1:01:17Speaker 03

  Your son, you walk up and just tee off on your kid?

• 1:01:20The Fat Electrician?

  If I smack you with this, you're gonna be a ghost.

• 1:01:22Speaker 03

  And get this.

• 1:01:24The Fat Electrician?

  They're built to last with a 20 year warranty and they have a three month free trial period.

• 1:01:28Speaker 03

  What do they do with all the used mattresses that get returned?

• 1:01:31The Fat Electrician?

  Not black lights.

• 1:01:33Speaker 06

  They have a complete sleep setup.

• 1:01:35The Fat Electrician?

  For spooky sex.

• 1:01:36Speaker 03

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• 1:01:37Speaker 06

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• 1:01:44Speaker 03

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• 1:01:54The Fat Electrician?

  Ew.

• 1:01:55Speaker 03

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• 1:02:04Speaker 04

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• 1:02:05The Fat Electrician?

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• 1:02:13Speaker 03

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• 1:02:17The Fat Electrician?

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• 1:02:20Speaker 06

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• 1:02:23Speaker 03

  I don't even know what story. Like, you have a Silver Star with V-Device.

• 1:02:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, Silver Star.

• 1:02:30The Fat Electrician?

  Bronze Star, Purple Heart.

• 1:02:32Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, three purple. Like, this, this is so stacked over here.

• 1:02:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:36Speaker 03

  Like, just zoom in on that rack right there. You're like, oh, man, this dude has been through it. And then being Force Recon at the same time in Vietnam is wild. And you're, the mission, I was, it's wild reading that mission. Or even hearing glimpses of your stories, like, oh, hey, with a knife. Oh, hey, like, this happened. And then also that mission leading up to, I think that was the Silver Star with the, where you broke your legs and everything? Was that that mission or is that a separate mission?

• 1:03:10Speaker 01

  No, that's the Melavanna mission.

• 1:03:12Speaker 03

  That's?

• 1:03:13Speaker 01

  In a place called Phulok.

• 1:03:16Speaker 03

  You wanna, you wanna talk? Would you be open to telling that story?

• 1:03:20Speaker 01

  Sure. Phulok was a place in, in Vietnam. It was my last combat mission.

• 1:03:31Speaker 01

  We're gonna go home now.

• 1:03:34Speaker 01

  We've been deployed almost a year. So now we survived this. It was a five-day mission.

• 1:03:43Speaker 01

  And when I got to mission.

• 1:03:47Speaker 01

  See, uh, Doroski, which was my point man.

• 1:03:54Speaker 01

  Uh, I left him behind.

• 1:03:58Speaker 01

  Cause he'd been with me. And I picked up a guy named Nicolau, who was huge. Nick had twenty inch arms and a fifty inch chest. And he could carry the M sixty machine gun with one hand. So I took him along.

• 1:04:15Speaker 03

  That's a strong dude.

• 1:04:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's a big guy. Yeah, he's a big guy. And I took him along. I had a kid named Stanton who survived it. But he got hit real bad.

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  Lost a kidney and he's still alive in Louisiana. So the team, all of them are gone now, says Stanton and, uh,

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  and Doroski. We went out on the mission. You know, we went out at night. And, uh, we crossed the, uh, rice paddies.

• 1:04:55Speaker 01

  We ran into some of the bad guys, we smoked them. Kill them all.

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  Then we went into, uh, with another group. And to try to help them out. I think that was First Battalion, Third Marines. We was, and we went in and

• 1:05:21Speaker 01

  all hell broke loose.

• 1:05:24Speaker 01

  And we called in artillery. And, uh, they dropped them in, uh, they gave us fifty meters grace. Other words, I told them, you know, give me that fifty meters because don't drop them on me. So they did. They started walking them back toward me and they were, uh, keeping the bad guys, um, from attacking us. So they, they dropped them in about fifty meters. And then I called in airstrikes.

• 1:05:57Speaker 01

  We fought for three days.

• 1:06:01Speaker 01

  We fought for three days. And we killed as many as we could, we could. Uh, my point man Nikola, he lost his leg. My war dog King, he killed two.

• 1:06:16Speaker 01

  He, he, he jumped on this Viet, Vietnamese and he grabbed the throat, ripped it out and they grabbed his groin. He killed two of them.

• 1:06:26Speaker 01

  And, uh, we got Nick out. He was a huge guy. Then everybody was wounded. The whole team, but that was one of the greatest days of, of heroism and combat. You know, that I saw our last mission. They fought for three days. And they were good. They were good. I mean, I did the best I could. When I, when I got home, I had three rounds of ammunition left. Had gone through all the ammunition that I had. And, uh, you know, my right leg was broken to the point where I couldn't hardly stand up. And the blood was flowing down into my boots.

• 1:07:12Speaker 01

  But I used my rifle, you know, best I could and the helicopter dropped in and landed. The small helicopter dropped in out of the sky. The other one was flying suppressing fire. And I got my team there and my dog's body.

• 1:07:32Speaker 01

  All wounded. Got everybody on the aircraft. I didn't get on.

• 1:07:41Speaker 01

  Take my men home.

• 1:07:44Speaker 01

  Uh, figured out some way I'll make it. I got all my guys on and then the helicopter had tried to lift off. And it wasn't, it wouldn't make it. So the, the crew chief grabbed me and he pulled me on as they were trying to get up, pulled me on.

• 1:08:06Speaker 01

  But he was struggling, so I jumped off. Get my troops home. That's what I was thinking about.

• 1:08:16Speaker 01

  Matter of fact, one time I was talking to a group and I told a story about getting my guys home. And my wife said, did you think about me? Did you think about you trying to get home?

• 1:08:31Speaker 01

  I said, no, it didn't matter at that time. She didn't speak to me for two days.

• 1:08:37Speaker 03

  Pissed Dottie off real quick.

• 1:08:42Speaker 01

  But my guys all on the aircraft now, they pulled me on. We went up about 12 feet. And it dipped and it went south and landed in the hospital yard. And they took my bodies. Well, the one guy that who was there at the hospital, he reached King, my dog, by the collar. And pulled him off and he, King hit the ground. And I told the corpsman, I said, hey, you know, pick him up and carry him. Don't drag him. He said, well, the damn dog is dead. I said, yeah, but carry him.

• 1:09:22Speaker 01

  And I had my M16 across me. And I told him, if you don't,

• 1:09:28Speaker 01

  if you don't pick him up and carry him, I'll kill you right now. And I pointed my M16 at him. I only had three rounds. But, I mean, you know how many rounds you got. You know, he had 20 rounds in these magazines. So I always knew pretty much how much I got. And I had three rounds left, but I, I didn't kill him.

• 1:09:51Speaker 01

  I didn't kill him.

• 1:09:52Speaker 03

  He carried him.

• 1:09:54Speaker 01

  He carried the dog.

• 1:09:55Speaker 03

  Really quickly on that one.

• 1:09:56Speaker 01

  He carried the dog and that's the last time I saw King. He took us all then. And the doctor came in to me. I asked him, how are my men? He said, they're all gonna live. And I thanked him. He was a young doctor. They had sad eyes. I looked at his eyes. He had sad eyes and he'd been crying. Young guy. And he, I was lying there and he looked at me and he said, Lieutenant, I got good news and I got bad news.

• 1:10:33Speaker 01

  He said, "It looks like, uh, you're gonna live. Look like you're gonna live." And I said, "Well, Doc, that's good news." So what's the bad news? He said, "He's gonna take off my right leg." He said, "Gangrene's gonna set in and it'll probably kill you." And so, that was the worst thing I ever heard, take off my right leg. I was just so damn disappointed. And, uh, he left the room. I'm lying there, "What the hell's going on?" But at least I knew I was gonna live. That was a question mark at first. I was kinda wondering, "Is this it?"

• 1:11:15Speaker 01

  But he came back in and said that if he could get me to, uh... The getting where he said, Dang or wherever it was, he might be able to save that leg. And then he came back in and said, uh, "They're gonna take me to Japan." And they did, they flew me to Japan. And from Japan, they took me to Alaska. It was cold as hell. They took us off the aircraft and refilled it. I was lying out there on the tarmac. It was raining, it was ten degrees below zero. It was snowing. And, uh, I was shivering, coming out of a jungle area.

• 1:12:00Speaker 01

  And they picked me up, picked the stretcher up. And I was the last man to get on. And I looked back to make sure that nobody had been forgotten. I wanna make sure all my men was on the aircraft, you know? Leave me out, but take my guys. It was always my guys. And they came out, got me and put me on the aircraft. It took us four, five days to get home. You know, from the combat zone to stops along the way. And they took me to, uh... Where did I... Took me to Alaska and...

• 1:12:48Speaker 01

  Getting home. Then we finally made it to Bethesda Hospital and I spent a year there. Learning to walk, learning to get rid of the anger that I felt. You know, I didn't trust anybody.

• 1:13:04Speaker 01

  I didn't want anybody behind me. You know, I didn't trust these guys here. They look like they rob banks.

• 1:13:10The Fat Electrician?

  It's fair.

• 1:13:11Speaker 03

  Fair enough. Brandon because he's Mexican.

• 1:13:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, also fair enough.

• 1:13:17The Fat Electrician?

  How, how long after that was that picture taken?

• 1:13:23Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, I came home as an officer and they sent me to Marine Barracks Foot Meet.

• 1:13:30Speaker 01

  And the Marine Corps at that time, or the military was trying to bring more minorities in. Uh, in the Marine Corps. And they weren't doing very well. So I got a call from the secretary, I was in, I was in. You know, they sent me to Marine Barracks Foot Meet. As an officer.

• 1:13:59Speaker 01

  Then the secretary of the Navy called me and told me I'd been selected. To head up a campaign to get more African Americans and minorities into the Marine Corps as officers. Or just get them in.

• 1:14:16Speaker 01

  And I said, well. Mr. Secretary, you know, however you think we want to do this thing, I'll, I'll help out best where I can. He said, I've got a program going down where.

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  We're gonna make you a superstar. Said, what the hell is that, Mr. Secretary? And he said, well. Uh, we got a company that Jay Walter Thompson Company in New York. And they came down for three days and they took six hundred pitches. They had me on a golf course. And I mentioned the sad part about this whole thing is the guy was holding me up in the rear. I couldn't hardly walk, but I was standing there and this rain there was talking to me.

• 1:15:06Speaker 04

  The one in the, the back left of the photo. Uh, you probably, it's probably better on the big one.

• 1:15:10The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, show the big one, Eli.

• 1:15:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:15:16Speaker 01

  So the gentleman right. Right. He was holding me up because I couldn't stand and he was saying to me.

• 1:15:23Speaker 03

  Here Brandon, can you hold it?

• 1:15:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:15:24Speaker 03

  Same shot.

• 1:15:26Speaker 01

  So that gentleman there. Yeah, I heard him say Lieutenant, it's okay. I got you. And he had his hand in my back. You know, my legs had been broken and, you know, I didn't really want to be there. But I told the secretary, Navy secretary, that I'd do what I could. The kid there, he didn't make it. He died.

• 1:15:49Speaker 01

  Then the demons come home again.

• 1:15:53Speaker 01

  And

• 1:15:56Speaker 01

  I couldn't make sense of it all.

• 1:15:59Speaker 01

  You know, I come home from this war zone and the boy is holding me up saying, it's okay Lieutenant.

• 1:16:09Speaker 01

  I got you. I still hear him today. He helped me stand up. Because I

• 1:16:16Speaker 01

  they had me all dressed up and my blues, you know, blue uniform. When I went to Quantico

• 1:16:27Speaker 01

  to get the officer's uniform, they told me no. He said, you don't look much like an officer.

• 1:16:36Speaker 01

  I was skin and bones, my skin was scarred and and they said, well, go home and come back.

• 1:16:46Speaker 01

  I was turned down from getting the uniform that I'd already been on. My wife was in the car.

• 1:16:53Speaker 01

  When we went to the car, she said, you okay?

• 1:16:59Speaker 01

  I said, yeah. I didn't get the uniform. They're very expensive uniforms. But I was enlisted, man. Now I'm an officer. I gotta do all this stuff officers do. She said, that's okay. We'll, we'll go home.

• 1:17:17Speaker 01

  And I'm gonna fatten you up.

• 1:17:20Speaker 01

  And we're coming back.

• 1:17:23Speaker 01

  We're coming back. And we did. And we did. And I came back. And they took me in and measured me and they

• 1:17:36Speaker 01

  got the uniform out and

• 1:17:39Speaker 01

  and I looked in the mirror.

• 1:17:42Speaker 01

  I didn't recognize that person. That was not me.

• 1:17:47Speaker 01

  But they had about three or four guys measuring and doing all these kind of things and with this historical Marine Corps uniform.

• 1:17:58Speaker 01

  Now I've got it on me.

• 1:18:01Speaker 01

  And what do I do now? I've got it. I went back to Fort Meade. Where I was stationed at the Army Base. And they took me to a golf course along with some rings there. And they had me marching around.

• 1:18:19Speaker 01

  With that uniform on and they took 600 pitches. And this is the one they decided to go with. I believe it's called Ask a Marine.

• 1:18:29Speaker 03

  How was that the first time seeing that and knowing the impact? Especially at that time because as you said, it's like you're going to be a superstar and you're like, what even is that?

• 1:18:40The Fat Electrician?

  You're the face of the Marine Corps for a minute. You're the face of the Marine Corps for a minute. What did that feel like?

• 1:18:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, well.

• 1:18:48Speaker 01

  Took me a while to understand it because I was a wounded warrior. I couldn't hardly stand up. And the uniform didn't, you know, I only weighed 122 pounds, a little bit more than that. You know, so it was a and they decided to discharge me.

• 1:19:08Speaker 01

  From the Marine Corps. They said I wasn't going to be able to be a Marine anymore. And I'd been a Marine since I was a teenager.

• 1:19:16Speaker 01

  What happens now? I got a wife and I got a son. They're going to kick me out.

• 1:19:24Speaker 01

  And then I got a letter from the commander in Marine Corps. And he said he's gonna keep me. Said my combat record was exemplary. And we're gonna, I'm gonna stay in the Marine Corps. And I stayed in and I made first lieutenant. Eventually I made captain. And they sent me to Europe. And I was a commander in a ring detachment on the aircraft carrier. And I did that for a year. And traveled the world on this, on this aircraft carrier.

• 1:20:09Speaker 01

  But go ahead and ask me questions. What do you got?

• 1:20:11The Fat Electrician?

  I'm living, brother, you are. I'm gonna adjust this just a little closer for you. You, so you married for 50 years to your high school sweetheart.

• 1:20:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:20The Fat Electrician?

  What's the best advice you got to a young guy that looking to get married and have a happy marriage for 50 years like you did?

• 1:20:27Speaker 04

  When she asks if you thought of her, lie.

• 1:20:37Speaker 01

  Well.

• 1:20:40Speaker 01

  You know, I think we were driving around, I'd gotten out of the hospital. And we were driving around one Sunday afternoon. And there was a little Volkswagen that was beeping behind us. So Dottie pulled over. And it was a guy that I, I met in Vietnam. And he went, hey, Jim Capers. He recognized me. And I pulled over and he said, I don't live but a mile down the road, come down. And I went to his house, Dottie and I, we had dropped the baby off at the school, Maryland School for the Blind. And I went to his home. And.

• 1:21:27Speaker 01

  At first, he said he thought I was dead and word was around that I didn't make it. But obviously, I did. Then he start telling the stories about in-country. And Dottie heard all these stories and we had a good afternoon. Then on the way home, I think I told a story about, I forget what it was, but what Dottie said that I didn't know you, oh, I had a chance to come home. When I was in the hospital, they told me that because of my wounds, you know, I could get sent home.

• 1:22:06Speaker 01

  But I couldn't do that. My men was still there, was still have some still alive. And when I was there at the hospital there, now in the country, when I was wounded, I told the coordinator to get on the phone and call my unit. Instead of going home, I got a Jeep and it sent me back to my unit. I couldn't go home, you know, because my men was still there. And when I told that story, you know, Dottie said, well, you said you loved me in all those letters and you had a chance to come home and you stayed.

• 1:22:49Speaker 01

  And I told her, well, these Marines were like my sons and I couldn't leave them. She said, yeah, but I'm your wife. You said you loved me. I said, I did love you, but at that time, I didn't. I love my troops and that caused a problem. You know, she didn't speak to me for a while, but we got through that. But it was just PTSD. Those guys meant so much to me and the only two were still alive now. And I did the best I could to keep them alive. You know, I swam with them, I fought with them, I climbed mountains with them, I sweated

• 1:23:32Speaker 01

  out in those jungles, that was 100 degrees, I killed snakes. You caught snakes? Yeah. Captured and interrogated snakes. And then made a duck kill a snake.

• 1:23:41Speaker 03

  That's crazy.

• 1:23:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, we uh, we came face to face with a Asian tiger.

• 1:23:52Speaker 07

  Oh.

• 1:23:53Speaker 01

  And D- D- D- Duraske.

• 1:23:55Speaker 04

  Just a tiger that can do math.

• 1:24:00Speaker 01

  I got it.

• 1:24:02Speaker 04

  It has one of the math.

• 1:24:04The Fat Electrician?

  It's like a normal tiger, but with an abacus.

• 1:24:06Speaker 04

  Roar.

• 1:24:08The Fat Electrician?

  Holy shit.

• 1:24:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was huge.

• 1:24:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, cats don't mess around. That is. With also, Brandon, this confirmed this during the big three day firefight. You guys ran out of ammo at one point.

• 1:24:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:25Speaker 03

  Had to have ammo resupplied during the firefight.

• 1:24:28Speaker 04

  I was thinking that because yeah, the combat loadout for three days. That's a stretch. Like that's, that's gotta be tough.

• 1:24:33Speaker 03

  You threw, how like, I, I read it and the amount of ammo, but like, how many grenades did you end up even throwing?

• 1:24:41Speaker 01

  I threw 20 on the uh, yeah, I threw 20.

• 1:24:46Speaker 03

  We would have got along and more.

• 1:24:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, the problem was sometimes you would throw a grenade and it either didn't go off or it hit a tree and it might bounce back. So we threw a lot of grenades and hoping that uh,

• 1:25:06Speaker 01

  you'd kill enough enemy soldiers that they would back off. And, you know.

• 1:25:14Speaker 03

  They don't.

• 1:25:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, there were a lot of, I won't say a lot of guys, but there were some who,

• 1:25:22Speaker 01

  you know, who uh,

• 1:25:25Speaker 01

  didn't pull the pin or, or just threw it, it hit something and bounced back. A lot of casualties. But I, I carried about 20 and I threw them all, that last, every one of them. I had three rounds of ammunition left. We we fought for three days and they resupplied me on the second day.

• 1:25:46Speaker 04

  What we were talking about a little bit beforehand was you were so you were issued the the original M16.

• 1:25:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:52Speaker 04

  And you also had your your nine millimeter, which you said was a it was a FN Browning High Power?

• 1:25:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:58Speaker 03

  No shit.

• 1:25:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:59Speaker 03

  And you actually, I want to say Zach even brought up you you even used your actual sidearm in combat during that, which is for now, like at G Y, I'm sure you've talked to a couple G Y veterans, but it's so rare to. Most of us don't have a sidearm unless you're an officer. But then I had never seen one get used in service, especially in combat. We were just like shooting. We do the mark. Why I say we get along. It's like one firefight. I don't even think I talked about on here, but we did. In one exchange, we did, I think we fired 22 or 20 HEB DP grenades, like from the M203, and we laid down, like, we laid down a lot of hate during that firefight. But it was like open field and we were just,

• 1:26:43Speaker 03

  as you said, you're just hoping that they leave.

• 1:26:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:26:46Speaker 03

  Or they pull away. And then when they stick in the fight, it becomes an actual engagement.

• 1:26:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:51Speaker 04

  If I'm not mistaken, the the sidearm was in the same, it was two people with a sidearm and one with a knife in that one engagement? Or am I wrong on that?

• 1:27:03Speaker 01

  Well, I killed the first one with a knife and Bill is, Frank is over there saying, and maybe I shouldn't tell these stories. I don't know. He's.

• 1:27:16Speaker 03

  Frank, it's your call.

• 1:27:18Speaker 07

  Guys, I think he could kill.

• 1:27:21Speaker 03

  I I, as long as it's okay with you and you, these stories, it's it's one.

• 1:27:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:27Speaker 03

  It's, again, it's you were in the midst of combat. You went through hell and you came out on the other side. And now you are helping people. But it also, a lot of people don't understand what war is like, or when you're like, oh, it's war, it's hell.

• 1:27:43Speaker 03

  That doesn't ju- it doesn't do justice to what you go through mentally in those situations or taking a human life. It's like this and it's also you're fighting for your life. You're fighting for your brothers. That's all that matters at that point. You're not thinking about that little shit. You're just like, I have to protect these people. I have to get them home and I have to get home too.

• 1:28:04Speaker 04

  But totally you guys call on that, that front.

• 1:28:07Speaker 01

  Well, um.

• 1:28:11Speaker 01

  You know, we were coming back from a mission at a place called K Song.

• 1:28:19Speaker 01

  And we run up on some bad guys and I grabbed the first one, sneaked up on him and I grabbed it in my mouth and I took my knife and I cut his throat. Then I ripped him down.

• 1:28:36Speaker 01

  And blood gushed from everywhere. And I killed him.

• 1:28:43Speaker 01

  And then I saw, you know, before I killed him, I had killed three with my M16.

• 1:28:53Speaker 01

  I cut his throat. And then I took my nine millimeter and there was two others and I shot the first one. I hit him, double shot, bam bam. And he fell. Then there was another one come running over and I shot him. So the one I killed with my knife and the two right there, you know, I killed a bunch of them in just a matter of minutes. They didn't know we were there. And when we jump on guys, we kill everybody. Now, my chief of staff over there, Frank, he thinks that I shouldn't tell these gory stories. Like my niece is sitting there thinking, oh, Uncle Jay, I never heard that.

• 1:29:36Speaker 03

  And I think a lot, even when we have like Don or these, the like the World War II veterans at Iwo Jima, hearing him tell that story, he's like, yeah, he just, he's like, well, I got my flamethrower.

• 1:29:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 1:29:48Speaker 03

  You just kill.

• 1:29:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:49The Fat Electrician?

  Don't have a choice.

• 1:29:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not, it's the best way to say it's you're in war. It's not a choice. It is survival.

• 1:29:56Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:29:57Speaker 03

  To get your, that is the only way you're going to get home. That is the only way you're gonna get your buddies home is that. And using knife, guess what? That if, is day or night, if you sneak up on somebody and you're trying to do it quick and efficient. It's like, hey, I don't, I can't give away my position. So it's boom, let's act now. Force recon, I guarantee you trained. Very much so on that surprise element and then violence of action or violence of force.

• 1:30:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30:22Speaker 03

  Violence of force.

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, we got a mission from the CIA to go into a POW camp. We had some American POWs that had been captured. It was being held. And, uh, my team was selected to go in there by the CIA and, and get them out. So we trained for a week or so and, and, uh, they drop us into the camp. Uh, well, not in the camp, but a little ways from it that we had to walk to the camp.

• 1:30:54Speaker 01

  And we, yeah, we killed the guards. And all hell broke loose. And some of their reinforcements came in. But

• 1:31:10Speaker 01

  we didn't get the POWs. We were out there for about four days, you know, getting to the camp. And looking for the POWs, American POWs. Now they had some other prisoners there and we were led to the camp. The CIA gave me a guy named Lap.

• 1:31:34Speaker 01

  Lap had been in the camp. And the North Vietnamese thought that he was too easy on the Americans. So they put him in the camp, teach him a lesson. And Lap escaped and was picked up by our guys in CIA. They brought him to me. So I kept Lap with me and he went into the, into the camp. We repelled them. And, uh, you know, we were trying to find the CIA. Said they probably were this, the POWs was probably in the middle camp.

• 1:32:14Speaker 01

  Uh, we got to the first one and we killed the guards. But we didn't see any POWs. Then their reinforcements come in, we killed all of them. So we're thinking, uh, how the hell we're gonna get out of here? You know, we're in the middle of the jungle and we don't have any POWs. And so they decided to get us out of there. So they dropped, they dropped a horse down. So we had to get into the horse.

• 1:32:45Speaker 01

  And be lifted up one at a time. So I got everybody in a horse and they, the helicopters moving around and everybody is shooting and uh, I got them all in and I was the last man

• 1:33:03Speaker 01

  to get in the horse. I wanted to make sure everybody, nobody's left on the ground. So I got my horse in. And, uh, the chopper was, was moving around and, uh, I got my foot in a hole. And I had the horse around me.

• 1:33:24Speaker 01

  You know, when you think about God, those were the times that I knew that God was there. And I.

• 1:33:34Speaker 01

  I was the only one on the ground. And who was putting a horse around me. Because everybody had gone. And Sergeant Yerma and he yelled back down to me. Hey, if you get hit, I'll come back and get you. Then he left, so I'm on the ground by myself now. And I'm stuck there. My foot had got into a hole. But then I figured that. Somehow I got out of the hole and my horse was on me. God did that. God was with me. He helped me get that horse on. And I took off up in the air. And they were firing and my guys unloaded from the helicopter. The helicopter was mostly smoke because they were just shooting on the ground. And I got hit.

• 1:34:20Speaker 01

  I got hit in the face. And uh. And my head exploded, god damn. And then my right eye closed. And they pulled me up. And my SEAL corpsman pulled me in. You know, and I was, I was, I was alive. But I wasn't quite sure. I thought, boy, this is it. It hurt like hell. My whole face swollen up. And they laid me down. Uh. In a helicopter. And we flew back. And they dropped us off at the. Hospital. So I was in the hospital now. And they told me they were going to uh send me home. I said, Doc, I can't go home.

• 1:35:05Speaker 01

  You know, I gotta stay with my troops. He said, no, but you can't hardly see and you.

• 1:35:12Speaker 01

  Your body's not in good enough shape. So we're gonna send you home.

• 1:35:18Speaker 01

  And when they left. I called the corpsman. Young black kid.

• 1:35:26Speaker 01

  I say pardon, get me a jeep. He said, what you want a jeep for, sir? I says, get me the jeep. And he come back with his jeep. And I got in the jeep and went back to my unit. You acquired a jeep just? Yeah. Well, and I got to my unit. I stayed with them. They had moved up to Kason.

• 1:35:48Speaker 01

  And I had a vantage on my eye, but I could see. And I figured I'll get to Kason and I'll stay with my troops if I'm gonna die.

• 1:35:58Speaker 01

  I'll die fighting with my troops. I went to Kason, but before I went to Kason.

• 1:36:08Speaker 01

  One of my guys says, hey, hey lieutenant. I got a flight going to Hong Kong.

• 1:36:16Speaker 01

  Where'd you like to go? I said, yeah, what the hell? I don't mind. So I got on a plane, went to Hong Kong. And, uh. Yeah.

• 1:36:25Speaker 04

  I don't mind.

• 1:36:26Speaker 01

  What'd you do in Hong Kong? Yeah, that's my niece is here. I don't want to tell that story.

• 1:36:32Speaker 01

  I don't want to tell that story. Yeah, it was interesting, but I spent five days there.

• 1:36:40Speaker 04

  Hour and hour.

• 1:36:42Speaker 01

  But.

• 1:36:45Speaker 01

  Uh, the British owned Hong Kong at that time.

• 1:36:50Speaker 01

  But.

• 1:36:52Speaker 01

  There was assassination attempt.

• 1:36:56Speaker 01

  On my life.

• 1:36:59Speaker 01

  I never told her these stories.

• 1:37:03Speaker 01

  Her son graduated from MIT.

• 1:37:07Speaker 01

  Damn. Yeah.

• 1:37:09The Fat Electrician?

  You don't look old enough to have a son graduating from MIT.

• 1:37:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. MIT. Yeah. Good job, huh?

• 1:37:17The Fat Electrician?

  So. How, how long was, uh, Lap with you guys? Cause I remember hearing another story that you had him sleeping in your tent with you.

• 1:37:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:26The Fat Electrician?

  And he went out to use the restroom one night and you were worried the marine guards were gonna shoot him because they think he was a NVA spy.

• 1:37:34Speaker 01

  You know, uh, Lap was nineteen years old.

• 1:37:39Speaker 01

  Uh, young guy. And CIA had given him to me. So I kept him in my tent with me. And he knew some English. And when I got a picture from my, my wife. I showed it to him. And he laughed, you know? And, uh, we had fun talking about things that he could talk about. And I asked him, why did he escape from the the POW camp that he put him in? And he said he was tired of being in North Vietnam. He want to, you know, Americans were helping the South Vietnamese.

• 1:38:24Speaker 01

  So he want to come to South Vietnamese. So he could enjoy all the things that the Americans had. We had a lot of stuff. And he wasn't getting anything in the POW camp. So, uh, he escaped. CIA picked him up. So I got him now. And he want to talk about America. But a little bit of English he had. And he thought that we had all, everything. All the food in the world. And these couple of things. And I said, yeah, America's worth fighting for. And I gave him a rifle. Didn't put ammunition in it.

• 1:39:09Speaker 01

  I was a little concerned, but I didn't, I don't know. This guy might, he might turn on us. But I thought I had him. I thought I had him. He was asleep there with me and, you know, sometime I'd wake up just to check on him. And at night when he got up, went to the head and, and I thought that, uh, they were going to kill him. So I went and got him and told him, hey, Lap, don't wake me up. Let me, he said, but you were tired. You know, we've been training all day. So I was a little tired. So he thought he would go by himself where they'd wake me up. But.

• 1:39:46Speaker 01

  When we were at the camp, the POW camp, I made sure I got him in a horse to get him out of there. And somebody somewhere along the line said, "Well, if you were trying to get in the aircraft, why you leave him behind?" Couldn't do that. You know, he trusted me and I trusted him. You know, I just thought that the time we spent together and what he said about the pitcher that I sent to him, you know, I think he could have been any American teenager. He would have done well here in America. But he never got a chance. Now, when we brought him back, I gave him back at the CIA.

• 1:40:30Speaker 01

  And I wondered whatever happened to that. I wished I could have brought him home. You think about these things. You know, but we survived it, the POW operation, and came back empty-handed. We grieved for a few days that we went through all this training and kill all those NVA, we didn't get the Americans. But we had made a good effort.

• 1:41:02Speaker 03

  Did a really good effort. What is one of your most proud moments as a Marine? What is one moment during either war, back at training, or with your guys where you're like, "This is when I was the most proud"?

• 1:41:15Speaker 01

  Well, a lot of moments. At my age, I'm 88 years old. I fought two wars. I have 19 holes that I bled from. I spent time in the Middle East. But there are a lot of moments that I was proud of. Uh, you know, as a family man, too. I had a son.

• 1:41:39Speaker 01

  I was proud of him because he was born blind. And he learned to play the piano.

• 1:41:47Speaker 01

  The flute, the melonica, the organ.

• 1:41:50Speaker 03

  Whoa.

• 1:41:50Speaker 01

  Uh, he could write in Braille. And I was so proud of him. Uh, he died in my arms. I was holding him when he closed his eyes. Died of appendicitis. I sued the federal government. And I won the case. I went to court. I went to court. I told them that my son should not have died. You failed him. And they paid me a lot of money. I won the court case. And, uh,

• 1:42:26Speaker 01

  you know, uh, I took that money and I went to, went to, uh, I gave a lot to charity and things like that. Then I went to California. And that's when I did the documentary and all those things. But it wasn't the money on my son. Uh, I was so proud of him because he learned to do a lot of things. You know, I missed him so much. He's buried up in Arlington with my wife and my son. With him, my, buried up in Arlington. And there's a place for me.

• 1:43:01Speaker 03

  What's your son's name?

• 1:43:03Speaker 01

  Gary.

• 1:43:03Speaker 03

  Gary. That sounds like an amazing individual.

• 1:43:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, he was good. He was good.

• 1:43:10Speaker 03

  Guys, your parenting also, just to have a blind kiddo still crush life like that. Learn piano. I can't play a single instrument, so he's leagues above me. That's amazing.

• 1:43:22Speaker 01

  Well, you're talking about the most important

• 1:43:26Speaker 01

  parts in my life, my God. There are times that, you know, like when I was given to a white family, when I got sick, had some sort of childhood sickness in my folks who were farmers. Uh, somehow they must have given, must have had some connection with that family. Uh, they were probably the owners of the farm. And they took me in. As the story goes, I mean, I don't know for sure, but that's the story that was passed down to me by my aunts and uncles, who all pretty much lived together. And uh, must have helped me out. I live and I got to Baltimore and then went to school

• 1:44:10Speaker 01

  and joined the military. So collectively, that's a proud moment for me, but when you say the most proud, it's hard to say because I've had a lot of proud moments and a lot of folks that, you know, uh, a lot of folks that impacted my life and I would not be here had it not been for, say Sergeant Yermin, who was my platoon sergeant. He covered my ass more than once. You know, when we run up on that, run up on that tiger. Tigers

• 1:44:54Speaker 01

  at that time, when they heard the combat, they would search out these areas and they would eat the bodies that were left behind. Yeah, but anyway.

• 1:45:10Speaker 03

  Tigers would be terrifying. Large cats in general are terrifying. Tigers are the worst though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like 700 pounds. Large, large. What? Tell us about the book. You wrote this. How, when did you write this? How long ago did it come out? Because this is.

• 1:45:29Speaker 01

  It came out in 2018. Yeah, I wrote this, some of it based on the, the letters that I wrote home to, to Donnie. And I wrote a second one that's a little bit more personal.

• 1:45:46Speaker 01

  But this book, Faith Through the Storm, well, I don't know, I just named it that. And it talked about.

• 1:45:58Speaker 01

  You know, going to war. And there's some things in here that, you know, I think that you could learn from. This is a young family man going to war to defend my country. And in some places in the United States, I couldn't get a drink of water at that time. I couldn't walk up to a fountain and get a drink of water. They had white and colored. You know, I couldn't sit in a bus. You know, there were things that, you know, that I couldn't do. Uh, because that's the way the country was. At that time, you couldn't vote and all those things. Say, well, a lot of racism. You know, when I figured that's not going to stop me.

• 1:46:40Speaker 01

  And a lot of the units I was in, you know, I saw racism. But, you know, like, nobody thought I could swim. You know? I made three combat dies in the defense of this country. You know, I swam miles and miles. I taught Marines a swim. So, uh, I would define the odds. Folks said I would never make it as an officer. I made it to major and got selected for lieutenant colonel. But, you know, those are things that in spite of what folks thought that I could not do as an African American, I could do. All I wanted was an opportunity. Just give me a chance. You know?

• 1:47:23Speaker 01

  Don't say that I, I can't do it because of the color of my skin. I could do it, but now, when I got the chance, damn it, I had to get it done. You can't sit back and say, well, I'm here. I fought in a year in those damn jungles. I fought in Lebanon in nineteen fifty-eight. Killed my first human being in the mountains.

• 1:47:47The Fat Electrician?

  What was it that your dad told you that you always remembered?

• 1:47:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. If ten men start up a flight of steps, you believe that you'll be the one to get to the top. You have to believe that. There are a lot of things that he, my father was not an educated man. Neither was my family, you know, we were farmers. You know, and, uh, but he had a philosophy. And, uh...

• 1:48:20Speaker 01

  I didn't know my grandparents, never met them.

• 1:48:25Speaker 01

  But in the family, you know, I'm sure we were descendants of slaves. You know, that's probably the way it was. I don't, you know, they came from Africa and and landed here in this country. I went to a place called Bishopville where I was born a couple of years ago. And that's where the slaves came in, South Carolina from Africa. And you read the stories, how they were treated. And all that is documented now. They've got a museum down in South Carolina that talks about how the slaves came from Africa and became slaves and

• 1:49:09Speaker 01

  and learn to survive. And my family is a part of that.

• 1:49:16Speaker 01

  And I don't have memories of that. I wasn't born then, but they're descendants. Like, I didn't know my grandparents. I know who they were, but I was just told that. And like this child here, she's learning because

• 1:49:35Speaker 01

  we carry that history as best we can. I don't have it all, but you know, I do remember certain things.

• 1:49:45Speaker 01

  Didn't know my grandparents, but I'm sure their grandparents were probably slaves and whatever, or descendants of slaves. But in spite of all of that,

• 1:50:01Speaker 01

  I became the best that I can be.

• 1:50:04Speaker 04

  And having that opportunity here to record this history, to be able to pass down is that's it's a it's a major honor to be able to have you here to to be able to share.

• 1:50:14Speaker 03

  You're never a victim, which is you just crush life no matter what adversity you faced. You're like, I'm gonna be the best at this. I'm going to crush it and I'm gonna come out on top and then lead from the front. And you do like proper leadership. It's like you'll be the first one to battlefield, last one to leave. Care about your guys and holy shit, is that so?

• 1:50:37Speaker 03

  And awesome.

• 1:50:38Speaker 01

  I still hear from them. You know, I had one the other day come up from Georgia and brought his wife.

• 1:50:47Speaker 01

  And his daughter. Came up and spent the day with me. You know, uh.

• 1:50:54Speaker 01

  I get flowers. I get. Calls from troops that I fought with. Uh, that survived, not many of them. But it's wonderful for me at my age to think back. And know that I did the best I could. Cause I feared no man.

• 1:51:19Speaker 01

  I didn't fear anybody. I fought at day and night and I swam the oceans.

• 1:51:29Speaker 01

  I didn't get that fear because I knew that I was a Marine. I was the best there was, goddammit. You're not gonna defeat Jim Capris. You can't do that. No.

• 1:51:42Speaker 01

  Uh, no, you can't do that. I'm right now, I'm in a damn wheelchair, goddammit. Frank is wheeling me around. But it wasn't always this way. I ran from Philadelphia to Camp Lejeune. 550 miles. Why?

• 1:52:04Speaker 03

  That's so far.

• 1:52:07Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:52:10Speaker 01

  Say, let's go do that.

• 1:52:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, we did that and we survived it.

• 1:52:16Speaker 04

  I think here in front of us, we've got. A pretty detailed account of exactly how hard you were to kill.

• 1:52:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:52:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:52:23Speaker 03

  Also, that boa constrictor are hella big.

• 1:52:27Speaker 01

  There's a picture of it in there?

• 1:52:30Speaker 04

  Big ass snake.

• 1:52:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 1:52:33Speaker 04

  Well, for those of, uh, those who are watching this that want to read more about your story, where can they find, uh, your books?

• 1:52:42Speaker 01

  Frank has a bunch of them.

• 1:52:43Speaker 07

  Frank does have a lot of, but you could also.

• 1:52:45Speaker 03

  Frank's phone number is.

• 1:52:49Speaker 07

  But you can order them on Amazon Prime.

• 1:52:51Speaker 03

  Okay, so these are on Amazon then?

• 1:52:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:52:53Speaker 03

  Perfect. Okay. Amazon Prime, faith through the storm. Oh, brother. I can't stress.

• 1:53:02Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:53:03Speaker 03

  How thankful we are for you to be here. I will have Nick close.

• 1:53:07Speaker 01

  I'm sorry, hold on, I have a question.

• 1:53:10Speaker 03

  This picture says Gomer number two.

• 1:53:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, Gomer number one, we caught down in Panama.

• 1:53:17Speaker 03

  There was a second snake.

• 1:53:19Speaker 01

  It was the first snake.

• 1:53:20Speaker 03

  Sir, a second snake.

• 1:53:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, we caught Gomer number one down in Panama.

• 1:53:27Speaker 01

  And we brought him home. And then we decided to take him up to a zoo in Washington. And he died on the way up. It was cold and he died on the way up. He didn't make the trip. So he was him.

• 1:53:44Speaker 03

  How big was this one?

• 1:53:45Speaker 01

  Uh, he was about seventeen feet. Quarter of a meter panel. Yeah, we got him.

• 1:53:52Speaker 03

  Just rolling up on big ass snakes. I'm keeping this.

• 1:53:58Speaker 03

  Guys, I got an idea. Oh, the most craziest.

• 1:54:01The Fat Electrician?

  You all know what snakes and canoes have in common?

• 1:54:04Speaker 03

  I'm taking them. Getting to base and be like, can we borrow the helicopter? Bring us an A-10. And they're like, and then, yeah.

• 1:54:19Speaker 03

  Just dudes being dudes.

• 1:54:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, right. It was a wild time up on that mountain out there, son. They hit us one night with one twenty-two rockets.

• 1:54:33Speaker 01

  And, uh, I had, I wasn't sick, but I wasn't able to move like I would normally move. So I was in my rack.

• 1:54:43Speaker 01

  Uh, we had some little cots there you laid on. And I could hear the artillery coming in. I could hear some of the, uh,

• 1:54:52Speaker 01

  buildings being crashed. I'm lying there and Sergeant Yermin hit the door and he said, Lieutenant, get out of here.

• 1:55:01Speaker 01

  I said, I can't move.

• 1:55:05Speaker 01

  And he left. And another building got hit by a rocket and and I figured, oh gee, they were trying to walk, walk these rockets in. And I'm lying there and I could hear him being walked on the other side. And Sergeant Yermin came in. Still Lieutenant. You all right? I said, no, I came over. So he came over to me. This is Sergeant Yermin, my platoon sergeant, came over to me. And he sat down on my rack. I said, Sergeant, you gotta get out of here, they're getting close, you better get out of here. One of the bravest things I ever saw or heard, he sat down on my rack.

• 1:55:50Speaker 01

  And he took my hand. He said, Lieutenant, I'm with you. I'm with you. I said, Sergeant, you need to get out of here, they're getting close. He said, well, if I gotta die. Let me die with the only friend I ever had. And then Lacey went out. He sat there with me. He died in Arizona. Last year, alone, they found him dead in his tent. But he was a hero, my platoon sergeant. And what he said to me that day, if I have to die.

• 1:56:32Speaker 01

  Let me die with the only friend I ever had. But we survived it. We survived it. And he survived it. Then we didn't see each other for many years. And then I hired a company to locate him. And he was living by himself in a mountain in Arizona. And I flew out there and lived with him in his little hut there. For two weeks. I caught pneumonia while I was there. My wife said, you know, you shouldn't be going out there, it's cold. But I went to see my platoon sergeant.

• 1:57:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, and he's gone now.

• 1:57:14Speaker 01

  Matter of fact, I gave him that high powered pistol that I brought home from Vietnam.

• 1:57:20Speaker 01

  But anyway, those were powerful moments for me and my memories because he was a hero.

• 1:57:27Speaker 03

  I will, if I can, and I've asked the guys too, it was if there's any of the guys that are still around with your team that you ever want to just fly out or have them fly out to see you. We will cover that. Yeah.

• 1:57:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:57:41Speaker 03

  We will cover their hotel and their travel to come visit you and hang out. I will let you know that if you guys have any other people he's with, that's, I'm speaking for the community and all of us, we would love to cover something like that. Least we can do. We appreciate your time.

• 1:57:54Speaker 01

  I've never heard anything like that.

• 1:57:58Speaker 01

  No, I've got, uh, Corporal Stanton, who's my M79 man. And he got hit real bad and, and matter of fact, when he got hit, he fell back on me. I was already kind of banged up, leaning up against a tree. And, uh, I reached around him to take off his dog tags because I thought he was dead. And blood was coming out of his mouth and his nose.

• 1:58:28Speaker 01

  And I said, Corporal, we're going to get out of here. He said, I don't know, Lieutenant, I don't think we're going to make it this time.

• 1:58:37Speaker 01

  I said, yeah, we will. We're going to get out of here. He said, yeah, we're going, we're going to get out.

• 1:58:43Speaker 01

  And another bravest thing I ever heard, he said, hand me a rifle, sir. I can still fight. Just hand me a rifle. I can still fight. He's lying on me. No, and my corpsman ran over and jumped on me and he said, Lieutenant, you've been shot. I said, damn it, Doc, I know that, you know, I'm bleeding all over the place. He gave me the news, Lieutenant, you've been shot. Well, damn it, Doc, I know I've been shot. Get off of me. And he bandaged up what he could, put bandages on us and he even looked at the dog, but the dog was gone, you know? But he checked every man. Everybody was wounded.

• 1:59:24Speaker 01

  No casualties except for King, the war dog, but everybody was wounded badly. And we called in the helicopter and they landed in the middle of chaos.

• 1:59:36Speaker 01

  But, you know, we got on and there were so many stories about individual troops, ones that I knew, you know, and they were like my sons, you know, like the, the, you know, the kid who did the mail, he'd come over sometimes, "Hey Lieutenant, you got two letters from your wife," you know, and, and when I got wounded, you know, whatever time it was, I was in my tent, couldn't get out, he'd come into my tent, the mailman, bring me mail, or sometimes the guy from the mess hall, that we were out for, you

• 2:00:19Speaker 01

  know, four or five days and didn't eat very much food, they'd bring me food from the mess hall, you know, you hear the mess, mess cans dangling, and they'd come in there and, and give me, give me a meal, you know, just everybody's helping each other, you know, the, the, the motor T guys, you know, they, I had a jeep there that I used to run around the area, they'd make sure my jeep was always ready to go, you know, all these, the comm guy, the radio guys, everybody was working to keep us alive in the field, you know, and when we came back, they gave us food, or they'd come back and every man

• 2:01:04Speaker 01

  was, was able to have one beer, you know, and when I got commissioned, I decided, well, I walked down to the officers' club, so I went down to the officers' club, I had never been in the officers' club before, and, and it was different, kind of dark in there, there was a little bit of music playing, so I walked in, and I looked around, all white guys, of course, they all looked at me, but they went back to doing what they were doing, I walked over to the bar, and I ordered a rum and coke, and I stood there

• 2:01:46Speaker 01

  and looked around, damn, this is the officers' club, I'm an officer now.

• 2:01:52Speaker 01

  And then the door came open and this huge guy at the door. And he started walking toward the bar and I'm at the bar. I'm thinking, oh shit, it's on now. He's gonna say something and I'm gonna tear this damn place up. I'm standing at the bar and he walked over. He looked at me, stopped in front of me and he looked in front of me and I'm thinking, how do I take his throat out or something shit like that?

• 2:02:22Speaker 01

  Thinking about killing this guy. Just choosing violence. Yeah. I love it. He told me and he, he said, hey lieutenant, god damn, it's, it's so good to see you. It's about time. And he shook my hand, said, let me buy you a drink. He'd never seen a black officer before, but he's, I'm thinking about killing this son of a bitch and he's, I mean, just natural because he walked over at the bar and I thought it was gonna be a fight. So I'm prepared to kill this guy. Uh, cause I'm good at that kind. I have a third degree black belt in karate and savate, akito and judo. And so. Nine millimeter. Yeah.

• 2:03:04Speaker 01

  Said black belt and click out. Five five six, third degree black belt, five five six.

• 2:03:12Speaker 01

  But the guy was a pilot. And he was so kind to me. He said, I've never seen anyone like you in this club. But he said, anytime I can help you, it's about time. And I felt foolish because I felt I'm gonna kill this guy. Slowly put the knife down. Yeah.

• 2:03:37Speaker 01

  Put the knife down, but you know, that, that moment, you know, I learned something. Everybody's not bad. You know, and here's a guy there buy me a drink and saying kind words to me. You know, and I felt guilty because I'm the bad guy. I should not have been thinking that way. But in my whole life, I never had folks that, you know, that said those kind of things to me. You know, they were always trying to shoot me and kill me or something like that. But I learned something about how to be a gentleman. And that didn't last long. But it was a good experience for me. Welcome to a community that I had no knowledge of.

• 2:04:21Speaker 01

  I didn't know anything about being an officer.

• 2:04:25Speaker 01

  But there were people like that who learned me a long way. It's a learning experience. And I used to teach my troops. After I became a senior officer, I would teach my young officers. Everybody's not bad. You got to give this guy a chance.

• 2:04:40Speaker 03

  Man, well said.

• 2:04:43Speaker 03

  I have, I that was, this is one of my favorite ones.

• 2:04:46The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah, me too.

• 2:04:46Speaker 03

  These are.

• 2:04:47The Fat Electrician?

  For sure.

• 2:04:48Speaker 03

  Hands down, these are. You.

• 2:04:52Speaker 03

  I'm speechless.

• 2:04:52The Fat Electrician?

  You said you weren't good at this podcast stuff before we started. You're showing all of us up.

• 2:04:58Speaker 03

  This was amazing.

• 2:04:59The Fat Electrician?

  Happy to listen.

• 2:05:00Speaker 03

  Yeah. We were just locked in.

• 2:05:03The Fat Electrician?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:04Speaker 03

  You crushed it, brother. Crushed it. Nick, you ready to close this up?

• 2:05:09The Fat Electrician?

  Absolutely. Uh, thank you for coming to one of, and maybe my favorite episode of the unsubscribe podcast. I was joined here today by Eli Double Tap, Major Jim Capers, Brandon Herrera and myself. See you guys later.

• 2:05:22Speaker 03

  Fat electrician, not donor operator.

• 2:05:25The Fat Electrician?

  Bye, guys. I didn't notice. Bye. What, we taste the same?

• 2:06:07Speaker 00

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