Hometown Hero Outdoors
Welcome to the Hometown Hero Outdoors Podcast, where we’re more than just a show—we’re a mission. As a non-profit dedicated to enhancing mental health through life-changing outdoor adventures for military service members, veterans, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel, we bring you stories of resilience, healing, and community.
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Hometown Hero Outdoors
Valor Under Fire: Clint Romesha's Journey of Courage and Commitment - Part 1
Clint Romesha, a Medal of Honor recipient, joins us on the Hometown Hero Outdoors Podcast to share his remarkable experiences from the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clint opens up about the intense and harrowing battle at Combat Outpost Keating, a defining moment of valor that earned him the nation's highest military honor. Beyond the tales of courage, Clint offers insights into his life after service, balancing family, veteran outreach, and the profound impact youth sports have on character development.
We also explore a family legacy of military service that stretches back to World War II. Beginning with stories of Grandpa Smith, a combat engineer who traded a promising rodeo career to serve at Normandy Beach and the Battle of the Bulge, this narrative unveils the lasting influence of camaraderie and brotherhood across generations. The decisions of subsequent family members to join the military, from Vietnam to modern-day service, highlight a shared commitment to duty, shaped by tales of friendship and sacrifice.
Immersive accounts of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan paint a vivid picture of the evolution from armored to cavalry operations, the challenges of uniting fragmented countries, and the enduring spirit of heroism. We delve into the personal stories of soldiers, revealing motivations, leadership under pressure, and the emotional toll of loss. With stories of courage, sacrifice, and the unyielding drive to honor fallen comrades, this episode underscores the incredible resilience and brotherhood forged in the crucible of military service.
This is the first of a two part podcast.
Produced by Phil Ewert Productions
Theme Music: Hero's Journey
Joel Loopez Tunepocket.com
Licensed by: Phil Ewert Productions
hometownherooutdoors.org
In the land of 10,000 lakes, a remarkable movement was born. Welcome to Hometown Hero Outdoors. We are dedicated to honoring our military service members, veterans and first responders by providing them with unforgettable outdoor recreational opportunities. We believe those who have served and sacrificed so much for our country and communities deserve a chance to reclaim their spirit and find healing in the great outdoors. This is Hometown Hero Outdoors. Welcome to the Hometown Hero Outdoors Podcast. Here is your host, chris Tatro.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome back to the Hometown Hero Outdoors podcast. I have an awesome guest today that I had the pleasure of meeting this last year at our gala. If you follow us on social media or have been involved with our organization to any extent, we have the pleasure and the honor of having Clint Romaché come to our gala last year and Clint is a Medal of Honor recipient, so thanks for being on the show, clint.
Speaker 3:I appreciate thanks for having me, chris yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:Let's do a quick introduction with your bio and then we'll hop into it. We'll talk about you and I got some you know some of those hard-hitting questions that I never asked. I'm just joking, I don't have any hard questions, but I have some. Uh just some. Get to know you. You know people and who our listeners are and understand who you are. Get some of your opinions, uh, about the afghanistan withdrawal and whatnot, but uh really hearing about who you are, what your life is, what life is with the medal of honor and what that uh has spelled out for you for your years to come in your family life. So I think I think it's all very interesting to people to uh hear what that looks like. So staff sergeant romashay deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and once to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Clint received the Medal of Honor for Conspicuous Gallantry in Intrepid. Oh man, this one's going to get me Intrepidity, yes.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Intrepidity. That's a terrible intro on my part already.
Speaker 3:You know that an officer wrote that with those big syllables, totally.
Speaker 2:In action, at the risk of his life, above beyond the call of duty, while serving as a section leader with Bravo Troop during combat operations against an estimated 300 armed enemy fighters at combat outpost Keating in Afghanistan on October 3rd 2009. Outpost Keating in Afghanistan on October 3rd 2009. In the day-long battle, staff Sergeant Romachet was hit with shrapnel as a result of a rocket-propelled grenade hitting a generator he was using for cover. Undeterred by his injuries, staff Sergeant Romachet continued to fight, exposing himself to heavy enemy fire and destroying multiple enemy targets. With the help of his team, he helped recover the injured and fallen under overwhelming fire. Staff Sergeant Romachet's heroic actions throughout the day-long battle were critical in suppressing an enemy that had far greater numbers.
Speaker 2:February 11, 2013, staff Sergeant Romachet received the Medal of Honor in a ceremony held at the White House. His book Red Platoon A True Story of American Valor that was released in 2016, became a New York Times bestseller. Staff Sergeant Romeshade now spends his time supporting veteran initiatives and traveling the country doing veteran and youth outreach, enjoying time spent with his wife, kelly, and their six children. So that's a mouthful, but, man, we got to say it and tell the story. So thank you for being here once again. What's going on for you today? What's on the docket?
Speaker 3:Today was getting dog food for the dogs this morning Just like the rest of us, I love it.
Speaker 3:Quick trip to Tractor Supply and then I got a little yard work done and getting prepped for this coming weekend. Got some traveling coming up, Got some football coming. Her oldest it's his senior year of high school Said I was playing the number one team in their region, Velva, this Friday. So we're undefeated right now. So this will be their first real big test coming in to see how far, hopefully in state, we can go this year. So always excited to see what the kids are doing and what their kind of future holds. Because it's those small things, you know. I remember growing up I played a soccer and baseball, Um. The school I grew up in was too small to have even a nine man football team, Um, but I always do remember back to those days of playing sports in high school that really set some of those values and teamwork that followed on later in military. So it's always cool to see our youth be involved in sports and activities like that in our communities.
Speaker 2:Totally yeah, I got. I got two daughters in soccer right now and I miss some of those days in my youth when I was able to run around like that and do the things they don't care about Now it all hurts.
Speaker 3:Yep, Now it's like oh man, do I really want to try to sprint, or am I going to pull something? Or I mean even waking up, sometimes you're worried about what's going to be aching and hurting that day.
Speaker 2:No kidding, I was walking into our daycare provider yesterday and I got halfway to the door and all of a sudden, something to my my pop, my back popped and everything seized up in my muscles and I'm like I didn't even do anything. I was just existing and I'm in pain and went to the chiropractor today. Super cool, but, yeah, no, it's exciting, though those days you'll never get back with the kids and being able to watch them do the sports There'll be good memories to look back on. Oh, absolutely. So, yes, again, thanks for coming on. It was awesome to have you out here in Stillwater for our gala. I know a lot of people got to listen to you and your presentation as a keynote that night, but I really want our listeners to get to know who Clint is and talk about your upbringing, and you talked a little bit about your youth sports right now. Who are you? Where'd you come from? How'd you get in the military?
Speaker 3:So initially I grew up in Northern California and I grew up in a part of a part of the state where we were very agriculture agricultural, grew up like seven miles away from the Nevada state line and about 15 from the Oregon state line. Miles away from the Nevada state line and about 15 from the Oregon state line and that was where my family from, coming from Scotland and England, crossing with the covered wagons on the Oregon Trail. That's where they just kind of stopped at the end of that process. So my family had been there since kind of the start of California and that portion of Northern California, multiple generations coming through there, and said it was awesome. At the time I didn't really like it because I was growing up in a town of 100 people. I went to school in a town of 500. Every morning we were milking cows by hand before going to school and a lot of manual labor, which you know just what it is, and said at the time I didn't really appreciate it, but I knew every day I could look back and see something I did. So that was a great experience. You don't really know until you're kind of looking back in retrospect what it meant and then you know my family, like I said, had been there from you know the covered wagon days and really our military, our military experience and our family started with my, my grandfather, uh, grandpa smith, world war ii. Um, in fact he was one of eight kids, uh, but him and his oldest brother were the only two boys and the rest were girls. So at the start of world war ii, granddad was still 17 and his oldest brother was 19. Uh, our great grandpa, sm Smith, had passed away by then and at the time his older brother, william, was the only one that could actually do legal stuff on the farm. So granddad actually took his spot to go to World War Two, trying to preserve, you know, the ranch and the farm and have William take care of it.
Speaker 3:So granddad joined. He was an old buckaroo, um, he was bareback riding champion, kind of ended his career early to go to world war ii. Uh, initially, when he he signed up and joined, he was a calvaryman because of his experience with horses and all that. Well, I don't know if you ever watched that movie, the pursuit of honor with don johnson, oh, yeah, yep. So granddad was kind of part of that whole. Um, let's remodernize and get rid of the Calvary and traditional horseback um and move into the armor branch. Well, of course, once they downsized, kind of his MOS and stuff um, first thing they wanted him to do is jump out of airplanes, cause he's a smaller frame guy like me and of course he didn't care how much they were paying him extra a month, he just wasn't going to do that. But again, with his background of ranching and farming and working heavy equipment, he ended up becoming a combat engineer. He ended up surviving the Normandy Beach landings, the Battle of the Bulge. That's incredible. He came back, you know, restarted his life after his time in service and in fact once the war in Germany kind of died down, his commander found out he was an old rodeo guy. So for a lot of the occupation time he spent over there he put on USO rodeo shows for entertainment for a lot of the troops waiting to either get deployed back to the Pacific and stuff.
Speaker 3:Then we fast forward and, like I said, my father, he ended up joining the army out of high school. He knew his draft number is going to be low so he just he went ahead and signed up to go to Vietnam. He ended up doing two tours over in Vietnam. My oldest brother. He ended up joining the army initially got out, had a break in service, then re-entered the air force, just retired two years ago after 26 years of military service. Second oldest brother ended up going into the marines, did his time there for about four years down at Pendleton. So there was always this kind of background of family, military, family service.
Speaker 3:But growing up I don't remember it ever being like a prerequisite for us Romeshay boys to join. It was always grandpa and dad always talking about you know, we're one of the greatest countries in the world and you don't have to wear that uniform to serve it, but you do need to give back. You know, contribute back to all the just benefits you get just from being here. And I said when it came time for me to graduate high school I'm a, I'm a product of C's get degrees Me and college weren't really going to be a thing.
Speaker 3:I remember growing up listening to Grandpa Smith and Dad's stories of their time in service and they never once talked about combat. We all kind of knew they'd probably seen some stuff, but back then you just put it all on a shelf and you went on with life and they never really talked about what combat truly was, what combat truly was. But they always talked about their comrades and their brothers and the guys they served with. And all those most of them were just funny shenanigans, stories of almost getting in trouble or arrested for doing something dumb or inappropriate or but it was always these uplifting kind of just, you know, just a reinforcement of what that brotherhood and teamwork and camaraderie really meant and how, even years and years down the road, how they could reconnect with one of the guys that served with their noon known at one point in their military service and they'd pick up after not seeing them after 20, 30 years, like they just talked to him yesterday, and that really always impressed me.
Speaker 3:So, like I said I, I ended up joining, like a lot of people. We joined for one reason, we served for another. But I joined because I was tired of smelling like bag bomb and digging fence posts and knew that if I went to college I'd probably just fail in the first semester and have a whole bunch of student loans that I wasn't going to pay back. So as soon as I graduated I joined up for the Army in 99. I was 17 at the time when I graduated Again, not that I was super smart, but my birthday just happens to be in August.
Speaker 3:So when I graduated that spring I'd already talked to the recruiter, had things set up to go. I just needed my parents' signature. And that was the first time I remember approaching my dad and actually talking to him about military service directly. And I just kind of overhearing some of the stories and immediately, as I told my dad, hey, everything's set up, ready to go, Just sign for me, I'll be out of here in like two weeks. Dad just kind of looked over at me and he's like hey, clint, it's 1999. There's not a lot going on in the world. But if you put that uniform on maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in 20 years, but there is a chance and a possibility you might have to go and do and see things that no one should have to go to. And see back of my mind, I'm thinking I'm the youngest of the three boys. He's just wanting to keep me around for another damn summer to get free labor out of me. Um, and so I did, uh, but on my, the day after my, my 18th birthday, I went to the recruiter, signed on that line on September 11th of 99 is my initial enlistment date. Oh no, kidding. So I said back then everyone was I mean, if you were joining, you're doing it for the college money, right? Just sign up, get the college money.
Speaker 3:You know, desert Storm was starting to be kind of a long memory. We'd been like, I said, relative peace for a long, long time. Not a lot had been going on. But after I graduated basic training, went to Germany as my first duty station, I got sent to Kosovo back then, um, shortly after the invasion of them, um, and air war and all that. So that was my really kind of first, first kind of taste of I. You know that was more directly peacekeeping operations but kind of combat.
Speaker 3:But more importantly, what I thought as an 18 year old kid how selfish and just dumb I was for taking for granted how much I'd been given just being born in this country.
Speaker 3:I remember our first couple of missions of being over there in Kosovo. Missions of being over there in Kosovo we were escorting Albanians to Serbian towns and Serbians to Albanian towns just to get fuel for their tractors so they could farm, because they didn't have a military escort, because of the mass genocide and stuff going on and the deep kind of hatred between those two ethnic groups that they would get murdered. You know, and I used to think, man, I grew up in such a tiny town. It took me 45 minutes to get to McDonald's and I thought that was a tragedy in my life, and I was in my late teens before I ever had a Big Mac in my life and I thought, wow, that was truly tragic. But then I seen stuff like that firsthand and it put in perspective what granddad and dad talked about giving back to this country, showing the world what this country stands for are we are trying to improve the lives of those around us totally, totally.
Speaker 2:So what years were you in kosovo?
Speaker 3:first time was uh 99, 2000, and then I went back again in uh 2002 and 2003 okay, so you, I was in Bosnia in 2003.
Speaker 2:That's when all the big riots kicked off over in Kosovo, right About 2003?.
Speaker 3:Yeah, toward the. It was later in 2003, because we went there, yeah, like December, right before Christmas of 2002. And then I had left, by what was it? March 2003, headed to Korea for my next duty assignment, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hear you. I mean what you're saying about taking things for granted. I mean, definitely it is eye-opening. You know, we live this lifestyle where we're so everything's so comfortable for us. I mean, we don't realize that until you get over there. And the biggest eye-opening thing for me in Bosnia was how it looked like home. The biggest eye-opening thing for me in bosnia was how it looked like home. Uh, you know, very green trees, um, rolling hills, farms, you know, but very third world, you know, blown up homes, bullet holes, everywhere, people barely having good clothing, I mean and and and they looked like you and I and it was just kind of mind-blowing at like, just wow, like this is, this is how life could be. We are really lucky, and I remember that changed a lot of my perspective when I came back yeah, that was like I said, it was eye-opening.
Speaker 3:That's that they're like, and I, like I said, think back to even today. I remember me and my wife were having a conversation about a month ago or so on what kid gets the next upgraded iphone and like, how, how big of a problem that is that we're having a discussion of who gets the newest iPhone when there's literally people all over this world that don't even know where their next meal is coming from because they're living under tyrannical just BS governments and situations.
Speaker 2:Amen, no, you're not wrong. Yeah, I mean that those are young years and really paved the path and changing things in your career. I'm sure you know so. Then you said your next duty station was in Korea.
Speaker 3:Moving forward, did you deploy to Iraq directly from Korea or Yep, like I said, I joined, thought I'd do four years, get out Right Right away. For me the Army was the best experience of my life away. For me, the army was the best experience of my life. Um, I again met, met guys that you can't find friendship and brotherhood like that. And for me the army was super easy, like they told me what to wear, where to be and how to do everything. So with that kind of structure, that's where I where I thrived and said I never planned on making it a career or anything like that. In fact, when I first joined my only goals were hey, if I can make it four years in the army, maybe pin on corporal and not go to Fort Leavenworth. That would be the most success, successful thing I could ever do in my entire life. But, like I said I, I I'd gotten a kind of taste for the military.
Speaker 3:Of course, by then 2001 had happened. We went into Afghanistan. At the time I was still on the Abrams tanks, so I knew the chances. We learned from the Russians pretty well. Tanks in Afghanistan don't really mix. But I wanted to still stay in for a bit and that's why I re-enlisted for Korea, because they were offering a good bonus. I was re-enlisting out of Kosovo so I could get it tax-free. As you know, as you do that, joe math, you got to figure out how you can save that 28% in taxes. So Uncle Sam doesn't get it. And so I went to Korea thinking, okay, I'll go there, do a 18-month hardship assignment. And I had a guaranteed return assignment coming back to Fort Irwin after that and the thought was save that bonus money, do my time, go to Irwin. I'll be in trade-off environment since, like I said, iraq hadn't kicked off at that point. But I'd probably just get out and then finally figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
Speaker 3:Well, of course, on my way to Korea, just getting there, that's when the ground war kicked off, the shock and awe and everything that kicked off in Iraq. So I got to Korea sitting there thinking, well, I'm going to miss everything, you know, especially at that time to reenlist, to be in. You know we're at war. That's what I, you know, in my mind, that's what I joined to do. I had a great first sergeant that I'd met later on in my career. But you know, I used to always have the saying like, all you guys do is just waste taxpayers' money because you don't do your job until you're actually getting shot at. All you do is practice to do your job and that's at the time what I really felt like I'm here in Korea, I'm just practicing to do a job. North Korea is probably not going to attack all the actions going on in Iraq. Right now I'm going to Fort Irwin. I won't get deployed from there and I'll finish my time and never see a day in combat. But, like I said, you don't know what life's going to bring for you. You just got to show up for it every day.
Speaker 3:As I was in Korea, I got pulled over from a tank I'd been assigned to. I'd actually had my own tank as an E five over in Korea, kind of fast tracking, uh. But since it was a new E five shot top, uh, top gun and our, our uh gunnery that year our Colonel's gunner was going to SF. I was a young, hot E five that could shoot really good. I got pulled over to be the colonel's gunner and about 15 months into that, um, uh, deployment we had gotten orders that we needed to send two tank companies and we were going to be the first, first kind of forward deployed uh army unit that got deployed to another hostile environment.
Speaker 3:So they were piecing together part of uh. What was it? Second brigadend Brigade, 2nd ID, back then 1st of the 506, 1-9 infantry, 2-7-2 armor, 1-7-2 armor. They were piecing together a unit out of Korea to forward deploy it to Iraq. Well, and of course I was the colonel's gunner. So if they were going to take two tank companies, they weren't going to take the headquarters element with the colonel. So if they're going to take two tank companies, they weren't going to take the headquarters element with the Colonel.
Speaker 3:So again I thought I was going to be missing, kind of missing out, and just by happenstance, um, about a month before we found all this out, one of the greatest NCOs I ever served with um as a young PFC he was at NCO I just looked up to. I always wanted to be him was a staff sergeant, gary Antes, and he was just that and my old unit that I'd left. When they came back from Korea they got sent to Iraq. And Sergeant Garriott, as they were going into Baghdad International Airport area he ended up getting killed. So as soon as we kind of had the opportunity to come up, since I was a colonel's gunner, I decided to go up to Colonel Jost and talk to him. Hey, here's the deal One of my dear NCOs that I really admired and respected got killed last month over there. I know I'm assigned to you, but could you give me a transfer to one of the tank companies deploying, because at that time I wanted to go back for revenge. That was my motivation to get into combat. I wanted to go avenge Sargariantis Colonel. We had a good discussion and he gave me the approval, so I got shipped Alpha Tank 272 armor, and that's where my first deployment began.
Speaker 3:15 months in Korea, I did about a month's train up, so 16 by the time I was done there, and we got sent to Iraq from 2004 to 2005. We ended up being in a place called Havana, which is kind of in the middle between Ramadi and TQ. That was the same year we helped support the Marines to go back in for the Battle of Fallujah. We were the heavy armor support for that, and that deployment really put into perspective, though, what my dad had talked about going over and having to do and see things that no one should have to go do and see.
Speaker 3:Um, on the flip side of that, though, I got to see so many heroic and just amazing things from my, my battle buddies to my left and right. Um, as much tragedy and heartache and loss that had happened, I'd also seen a lot of just amazingly, just over the top, brotherly love and compassion and and sacrifice for for something better and more than just yourself. Um, that, to me, really was the epitome of combat, was that, when you can serve with those guys to your left and right, you know, as you kind of boil it down, at the end of the day it's not about politics or why or who you're there with. You're not thinking about who's in office, but you're truly thinking about those to your left and right and they're there with you and that's what you're doing it for, and you think about their families back here back home. You know supporting us all every step of the way, and you're doing it for all those things, not because whoever might've been elected or not, or whatever the geopolitical kind of spectrum was at the time.
Speaker 3:You know you get over there and you realize the guys that are serving, that are wearing that uniform I don't care if you're yellow, pink you know what your religion, creed, background is when you're in the foxhole. Can you do your job, cause I'm going to do mine? Do you have my back, cause I'm going to have yours? And if that's yes to all of it, I don't care anything more than that. And you build such a tight bond that I think sometimes we get distracted with with all this division and stuff. But when you're put in those moments you really see that the testament of what this country and all those values come together stand for.
Speaker 2:No, totally Like you just said. You know it doesn't matter race, creed, religion. You're all one color, all one race. You know it doesn't matter Y'all bleed red.
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, exactly. Wow, you know, I didn't know that you were a 19K. I feel bad for not knowing that I also was a 19K, but I was referred to as a twat for all my deployments tanker without a tank. But, um, there's another gentleman that I am familiar with. Uh lives just west of me. Actually, I think you guys probably know each other. Um, his last name is Grunhauser. He was uh in tanks in Germany as well.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, ring a bell, oh, grunty, yeah, yeah, no kidding so he was in house about a way yep, so he was actually married to one of my co-workers that passed away from breast cancer and now he's a police officer locally here. So he just lives, oh, five miles west of me oh man, you gotta give him my best.
Speaker 2:I have a small world sometimes yeah, I remember when I first met him I went into his house with my friend Chelsea she's a coworker past and they were dating at the time engaged and I saw all of his stuff on the wall and he was on a podcast down here locally with one of our friends, eric Reeds, who does a podcast as well. He told this story about Iraq and the battle of Fall infusion tanks and lost his tank commander and all this stuff and just wild stories. So it's just a small world that you brought up being in tanks over there and just how the world connects is crazy, crazy stuff. So so then you get that deployment out. Then you had another deployment to iraq, or did you go to afghanistan right away after that?
Speaker 3:no, uh, we came back from there. That's when we got stationed at Fort Carson. We're at Fort Carson for about nine months and then we pulled orders again to go back to Iraq. So that was my 2006 to eight, because that was the time we hit during the surge. We were just transferring over from being armored to cavalry at that point, so I'd been reclassed by then to be a 19 delta um. So then we spent majority of our time kind of down south of baghdad, near salman pak um, and then we were jumping like every four months. So by the time we got done with that 15, 16 month deployment, we were just outside of solder city on that one.
Speaker 3:Okay, that one was totally different mindset though, you know, because it was always the weird thing, you know, just cause you had combat under your belt. Every deployment was unique and different because, as the first one, we are very kinetic. Uh, that one was a lot of, you know, the hearts and minds of let's rebuild this place, um. So it was interesting to kind of see the, the, the changing of the times and and how you. Still, you know, we're trying to go after the bad guys and break up a lot of the terrorist cells and try to prevent some of those IDs and stuff. You were still very much more involved in the local communities of trying to get them back on their feet, um, cause we didn't want to be there forever. So unless we and that's what I think a lot of a lot of people forget is we are really good Americans are really good at rebuilding nations, um, but it doesn't happen overnight. But you can look to see I mean, just look at a satellite map at night of, uh, north and South Korea. I mean the lighting difference, um, you can look at Japan, one of the the the largest economies in the world now after world war two, after we literally dropped two nuclear bombs on that country. You can look at Germany I think that's the biggest economy in Europe right now too.
Speaker 3:But we didn't get there in a few years. It took long, long-term planning and I think that was the good intent of which we were going over there and trying to provide. You know that was the good intent of which we were going over there and trying to provide. But I'm also a realist that you know there's certain places that the mindset is just not willing to embrace that and it's got to be done over generationally. Like I said, what I've seen in Iraq, I think we had the opportunity there to really establish that, but it was going to take a full-time occupation over the course. I mean, we still got troops over in South Korea, we still got troops in Okinawa, we got guys over in Europe. Iraq still yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But Afghanistan now going on, that deployment in 2009 to 10, that was just the mindset was, I just don't think, ever going to be there to truly change them, because they didn't. They didn't look at themselves or, as far as my opinion was, they didn't look at themselves as the country of Afghanistan. It was a village of Armul, it was a village of Wanat. It was the village of Kamdash, it was the village they didn't look at themselves as oh, we're even the providence of Nuristan or Kunar. They were so secular and divided at such a small level to even come close to uniting them and to kind of what we take for granted, because our life has been so comfortable that it's hard to wrap your head around the mindset of something like that, your head around the mindset of of something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's. I never made to afghanistan, but I've heard those stories and the difficulties you know, even you see some of it in iraq to some extent, with the, the being secular and stuff like that, with, um, the sunnis and shiites. But it it's uh, definitely felt like they had the uh, some optimism there to be able to help with each other and potentially work together. But I've heard that a lot about Afghanistan. Like I said, I was not there and you would see it firsthand, but Afghanistan was kind of a life-changing deployment for you. So let's tell our listeners a little bit about your deployment to Afghanistan, where you're stationed, and the battle of Camdish. Is that how you know? The battle of Camdish? Is that how you say it? Yep, camdish, yep.
Speaker 3:So, like I said, for me coming into that deployment, I was coming up on about 10 years of service at that time. Again, never thought I'd make it a career, so I had already made the decision. It's like, let me do one more hitch, let me go deploy one more time, cause when I can get the tax free money and get the hostile fire pay, you know, try to be a little bit more financially stable. Uh, transitioning out of the military, um. So I'd already made that decision to to get out after that deployment, one on a personal level. I wanted to go on that deployment cause I'd already done the Iraq thing. So it was kind of like check the block, get all the tickets punched on your frequent flyer punch card or whatever.
Speaker 3:And I had the benefit of Sergeant Kirk. He's one of my team leaders that came to us prior to that deployment. He was a 173rd Airborne guy. He had just gotten back from that part of Afghanistan and listening to his firsthand accounts and telling us like, look, when we go over there we're fighting seasoned fighters. It's not like Iraq where you know, some of the time you're just having a guy jump out from somewhere and spraying AK and running off and then you're playing, you know, chase around, chasing ghosts and stuff like that. He's like these guys will sit there and they will fix you with one, one fire team and they'll flank you with another fire team and they'll put support by fires down. They'll coordinate with the RPGs and indirect fire. Like these guys are seasoned warriors. And just on a personal level that's like, I think, for a lot of, a lot of men. You want that kind of man test in your life. You want to know if you've got the guts to be able to go toe to toe and you always want to play to a skill level equal or greater than yours to improve yourself.
Speaker 3:So, going over to that deployment, I knew it was going to be totally different than anything I'd seen in Iraq, getting the intel reports and the briefings and stuff leading up to it. We knew the location we were going to was going to be lack of a better term less than ideal. We'd known the history of how Combat Outpost Keating got its name, with Lieutenant Ben Keating passing away in a vehicle rollover trying to just maneuver a piece of military equipment to and from the road linking Fob Bostic to combat outpost Keating. And knowing that at that location the only way in and out after that because the road had been basically inserviceable for military support vehicles, that the only way to get resupplied or any help was going to be by helicopter. We knew that it kind of sat down in this little valley area. Um, generally we'd heard about some of the attacks uh in the area before, not too much directly was was quite as extensive as combat outpost keating as you had, like other uh little outposts in the area like uh, what not? Uh, fertile king, those ones getting heavily attacked and overran, partially overran stuff like that. So we had all this kind of things going on.
Speaker 3:And I just remember I remember the first time getting there we flew in on the Chinook and they'd only fly in at night because you put a big Chinook down in a valley like that, it's a very easy target. So you could only fly in at night and only when there was zero illumination, no moonlight, hopefully you had some cloud cover to kind of drown out the starlight. And I remember coming off the back ramp of the Chinook, had my night vision goggles on coming off, linked up with the unit we're replacing, trying to just get our bearings about us. And I remember kind of scanning out over the LZ, and I remember kind of scanning out over the LZ and I remember thinking to myself, these night vision goggles must be broken, cause, as I'm kind of giving a quick scan, get my bearings, you know, with a set of MVGs you can always pick up the horizon, right yeah. And I don't remember seeing that it was just all kind of black and I was like, oh, this is kind of weird.
Speaker 3:And it wasn't until the next morning, waking up in the daylight and stepping outside for the first time, that I realized I just didn't look up high enough, but those mountains surrounded us on all four sides and they were straight up. My first thought is like who the hell picked this spot? Remember one of the things I'm an old school guy. So one of the first things I did when I got there I always would write handwritten letters. I never liked to email or call back home or anything. Just for me it was therapeutic to put pen to paper.
Speaker 3:I wrote my grandma, because by then my granddad had passed away. I wrote my grandma, smith, and I just sent her a quick letter. Hey, grandma, hey, we're all settled in here. Guys, morale's looking high. We've got 12 months. We'll be home soon. This place is gorgeous. It reminds me of growing up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I get to look up every day at the sunset and it's just, it's beautiful. Love you lots, talk to you soon. And grandma had sent me a letter back a few weeks later and it just started off with what the hell are you doing Looking up Everybody? Weeks later, and it just started off with what the hell are you doing looking up? Everybody knows you take the high ground.
Speaker 3:My grandma even knew that location was just less than ideal. Um, and then and then, then, very quickly, it was very inspirational and just amazing to watch, like a lot of our younger soldiers, copus and mace and jonesy you know that was their first deployment ever and their 18, 19, 20 year old kids, first time kids, first time being overseas, first time being in a combat zone. Everybody from the lowliest private to the commander, everybody knew that location was just terrible. But to watch those young soldiers sit there and they didn't just say, oh well, this sucks, poor me, and had this pity party, they really embraced. Um, there was a saying written up on one of the one of the beams that our barracks had just said it never gets better. And they embraced that saying, not as a negative, like, oh man, life's so horrible it can never get better. It was no, they were going to make every day the best damn day possible, so there's no possible way it could get better. And I mean just to embrace that kind of mentality, to understand that they couldn't change the location, they couldn't change their situation.
Speaker 3:This is what they volunteered to sign up for and, like so many servicemen and women that raised that right hand, you get asked to go do things that are less than ideal. They're truly challenges and they're sometimes it's the choice of the two of the less evils. But you still got to. You still got to perform, you still got to come through it and it was. They're just positive mental attitude of yep, we all know this sucks. We don't have to sit here and complain about how it sucks. We don't have to dwell on it and let it get us down. We're going to make every day the best day possible. So it can't get any better and it will never get better. And it was really cool to see that and that's what I think part of what led into what happened on October 3rd of why we ended up being able to get out of that situation.
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Speaker 2:October 3rd is a big day. It is. You guys had a lot of success, but also a lot of tragedy at the same time. You know, and I'm sure that you're still day-to-day I think about it. You know, and uh, I mean when I, how I got connected with you too is um, you know, um kind of was revolving around that day, obviously, and um, I was in dc for police week and uh, this uh medal of honor show came up on netflix and we sat there and watched it and uh, just like, wow, absolutely inspirational, you know, to watch um, but also super sad, based on all of the friends that you lost and that day. But uh, I know there's that show. Um, but also you have your book.
Speaker 3:But uh, talk about that day a little bit oh, that day, like I said, uh, you know, we'd been there for three months, about three months at that point. You know it was one of those weird things where every day we got the same report. A S2 guy came in, the intel would come in. Hey, you guys are going to get attacked tomorrow Anywhere from two to 500 fighters be ready to get overran. Like I said, three months, that kept happening On average every day, happening every, on average every day and and I mean every day, would get attacked. And I mean some days it was just some ak fire coming in some days was pretty well coordinated with. They'd hit us over in the west with some, uh, some small arms, fire rpg, and then just start pounding us from the east with the b10, recoilless, rifle drop and mortars. So I mean, every day you were expecting some sort of contact.
Speaker 3:So, going to bed the night of October 2nd, our platoon Red Platoon, we were force protection, we were security for the outpost. We never really seen anything, indicated anything out of the ordinary. You know, to most of us it felt like just a regular night leading up to the next morning and I had just been pulled off, or I just got relieved off, sergeant of the Guard, by Sergeant Stanley. It was about two or three o'clock in the morning, um, so I just got back to my bunk, started getting wound down, just started falling asleep and zero six incoming fire happens. And, like I said, normally that was a normal thing and in fact we started just dubbing at our taliban alarm clock because around six o'clock every morning anyway, you know, something typically would kick off at that time. But as I kind of heard the incoming fire, well, waking up, getting my kid on, powered my radio up, like just listening, and it was like wait, no, this is different. Um, because normally you'd get hit and your defensive positions would go into a cyclic rate of fire. Try to get that fire support superiority like gain that momentum to help beat the enemy back. Well, like I said, just in the first couple of 30 seconds you could tell there was more incoming fire than there was outgoing fire by a huge margin. And as that radio finally powered up and I could start hearing what was going on over the force protection comms, every defensive position was calling overwhelming enemy fire, overwhelming accurate enemy fire. Hey, we need reinforcements, we need close air support. I mean, every position was calling that all 360 degrees around us was just getting just hammered Very quickly.
Speaker 3:You know, we'd heard right away that Kevin Thompson, up at the mortar pit, had been hit. The enemy, like I said, had suppressed our 120 mortars. We had OP Fritchie up on the mountaintop. They set just far enough back though that couldn't give us direct eyes on, but they normally could get well, they could always give us the their one 20 mortar support, but at the exact same time the enemy had hit them and they were on the verge of getting overran right off the bat. They were in a hell of a knife fight themselves and so, like I said, just trying to get, get a a handle of the situation, knowing our mortars were down, then starting to hear you know these, our defensive positions were running black on ammo. They're trying to go cyclic, they're trying to hit everything they can, with them not making a dent.
Speaker 3:Um, it's one of those things when things go wrong. It's never just one or two things that go wrong, it's a multitude of things. Just so happened the night before our troop commander stony portis. He was flying up to op fritchie on the we call it the elevator lift, when they'd resupply us and they just hop up there and they should bring them back. But the helicopter got shot at while it was up at OP Fritchie and the pilots, for their own safety and security, wasn't going to return him back to the bottom of the valley because they already knew the enemy had that helicopter kind of pinned in. They took him back to Fob Bostic. So our troop commander wasn't even there that morning and it happened to be Lieutenant Bunderman.
Speaker 3:Um, my, my Lieutenant got the call the night before and said hey, sir, you're the senior guy on the ground. Now you're going to be in charge of cop Keating till I get back. Well, I said better, bunderman, that was his first, his first time in combat, his first deployment. We had had the benefit, though, of being teamed up as section sergeant platoon leader for over a year at that point. So we had built a lot of trust and kind of knew how each other's thought process worked. That Bunderman, minnesota boy, who was born and raised up in Blaine, used to tease him because he's got a history degree in the University of Minnesota, and he said he really just went there to party and hang out. So now it seems like a degree to get, if that's what you want. But I wouldn't replace him with anybody else that day, but I mean, he ended up brand new lieutenant, first time overseas.
Speaker 3:He's the on-the-scene commander for what ends up being the deadliest attack on coalition forces for the global war of terrorism. Um, also prior to that normally would have drone support kind of over watching us, because, as we sat in that valley, we didn't have the ability to detect the dead spaces of enemy kind of infilling on us, and typically would have close air support, about 20 to 30 minutes at the most away. Two weeks before our attack, though, the lovely soldier Bo Birddahl decided to take off. So they scrambled all those, they took all those air assets away from us in order to go find him, and of course we didn't know back then what was going on. You just knew you had a soldier missing.
Speaker 3:So it's one thing the military is always going to be good about we're not going to leave anybody behind. But because of that, normally, our drone support that would be giving us coverage overnight was gone, allowed the enemy to push in on us, and then, because the air assets got pulled farther south, we knew it was going to be probably at least an hour before we could get any sort of a rotary wing support Because, as we said, in that valley it was very tough to have fixed wing support, because if you're dropping bombs at 30,000, 40,000 feet and you're dropping into a valley, you're literally dropping into a teacup, so it's very easy to hit the center or roll into the center coming off the sides. So typically the helicopters were always our kind of go-to for close air support, but we knew they were going to be about an hour away, if not more.
Speaker 2:An hour is eternity.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it's, it is, I mean, a second's, an eternity in combat, right you? Just, I mean time doesn't really exist at that point either. No, but, like I said, very quickly we heard Kevin Thompson was hit. Uh, things were going just from bad to worse. The eastern side of the outpost was normally secured by the Afghan National Army. That morning there was about 35 of them. Basically that morning. First contact hit, most of them just dropped their weapons and left. They just walked off, let the whole eastern side of the camp open.
Speaker 3:Sergeant, uh, sergeant kirk, uh, who, like I said, had just been over in that part before, uh, normally in contact, one of his roles was to take a team over to reinforce that western side where gallegos was at on lraz 2, as they were trying to move in position coming through the front gate, sure building area. Uh, that's when we heard Sarn Kirk had been hit. Uh, hit with RPG, hit with a small arms fire. Uh, blue platoon, who was the other maneuvering platoon on the outpost that day. Their role was typically to resupply the battle positions with with ammo, and so the enemy had done their job. Um, as soon as they were trying to kick out guys to go to the ammo supply point to resupply the the battle positions. They had a sniper trained on the door. So guza was one of the first guys to try and kick out a blue platoon, and he was. He was hit by sniper fire and things just bad to worse, bad to worse.
Speaker 3:Uh, I remember just trying to get an idea of who we still had in the fight, what the heck was going on, what assets we had available. Very quickly, like I said, things just went from bad to worse. Within about the first hour they breached, like I said, they breached our perimeter. We got overran the front gate area. We ended up getting isolated from about nine of the guys.
Speaker 3:At one point me specialist gregory were able to find um, some 240 ammo, had about 200 rounds, tried to maneuver it over so we could put cover on the west, trying to get gallegos and larson and that, that team that was cut off and stuck out of ammo. I shoot larson that had the 50 cal blown out of his hands on that truck. 240 was down so we had five guys stuck in this Humvee. It just couldn't go anywhere. So me and Gregory snuck over, put the gut up on a little 60K generator, used that as a battle position and I just remember looking out to the west on the putting green and the switchbacks and kind of the waterfall area and it was just like ants coming down the hill, um, muzzle flashes everywhere and just trying to go from target to target, um, and calling gallegos, and it's like, hey, I'm giving you a suppressive fire, you got to move, you got to move, you got to get those guys out of there. Now and he just kept would call on back. It's like, brother, we can't go anywhere, you're not bringing enough firepower, there's too much going on. And just chattering back and forth and, like I said, ran through that first 100 rounds, reloading the second one, said at that time I didn't realize the front gate had been over, overran and abandoned.
Speaker 3:Enemy was able to sneak in out, flank us to the right, set up an rpg team and I said, as we're engaging with that, next, the last, last hundred rounds that we had available, they hit us with RPG, blew me on Gregory. I remember just picking him up, patting him down, make sure he was good, told him hey, take off running. Brother covered him and then called, called the IA goes back and said I'm, I'm almost at ammo. They got me pinned in this position. They got me figured out. If you can move, you need to move right now. And he just said, brother, we can't go anywhere, we'll see you when you get here. And it was heartbreaking because it was like I knew if I was out there, that dude was going to do everything in his power to come get me. But at that time it's like we're out of ammo. They've got us outflanked. Um, I'm sitting here by myself like it makes no sense to sit there and fix a bayonet and run into the open field to try and save them, because that's, you know, that's tactically just not not smart. Um, but at the end of the day it still felt crushing because it felt like I was abandoning them, like I said. He just said, hey, we'll hang out till you get here. And we displaced back at.
Speaker 3:Shortly after that, um, I said sergeant hart came up to me. He's like, hey, we'd found some more 50 cal ammo. I said at this point we went from being. The outpost was maybe 175 200 meters from the the longest two points and maybe 120 to 150 meters at the widest two points. We we own three buildings at that point we own red platoons, barracks, the aid station, then the tactical operation center, everything else had been overran, enemy was already burning down the blue platoon barracks. It was just total chaos. And, like I said, sergeant Hart came up to me and he's like hey, we found some more 50 Cal ammo. I think I can sneak out and get a group of guys, we'll put it on the truck two and we'll use the armor of the truck two to run over to try and support Gallegos and get those guys back.
Speaker 3:And I don't know if I argued with Sarnhart for two minutes or 30 minutes, just remember going back and forth and it's like brother, I can't secure your left right, I can't secure anything around you. You're going to be the biggest target out there. You got limited ammo, like just giving them all the cons of what he was trying to attempt to do. And I just I know Hart was always one of those guys, though no was never going to be in his vocabulary. You couldn't tell him no. He knew that if there was any sort of slim chance whatsoever, the risk was always going to be worth the reward. And that's when I finally realized that I wasn't going to convince him otherwise. And so I finally told him okay, go ahead and I knew as soon as Hart left out the back of the barracks that was the last I'd ever see of that guy and miraculously, somehow it comes up on the radio. They made it out to that truck, they got it fired up, they got it reloaded and they started pushing west to go get Gallegos and them. And that's when I told them hey, you guys talk to each other.
Speaker 3:At the time Copas, who was the only gun left in the fight at that point young 18-year-old kid from Worcester Ohio, the only Mark 19 left to defend the entire eastern side. He had had a sniper that had just been causing him problems. I went to the aid station to check on Sergeant Kirk. I was able to find one of the Afghan Dragunov sniper rifles and I was going to reinforce Kopis and playing a little peekaboo with his sniper as Hart was trying to move over to get Gallegos and then I heard it come across the radio and Hart just calls up and he's like, hey, they got an RPG pointed right at me and then nothing that eliminated what was bothering.
Speaker 3:Copas came back to the the aid station trying to figure out what's going on, went into the barracks. At that point alamo position had been called. Basically meaning anybody that could hear the call they needed to hold up into those three buildings and basically that was going to be our last last stand. Um, and I remember looking in the barracks when I went in there and it was just like I said guys just pointing weapons at the door and if you weren't speaking in an american, if you weren't speaking english in an american accent and wearing an american uniform, you'd get shot. Coming through the door and it was just like man, this can't be. Like, yeah, we were cut off, we were running out of ammo, like things were just going and to hell in a handbasket. And I just thought to myself it's like no, we still got. We still got fight left in us. We're going to dictate where this thing goes. We're not going to sit here and just let them impose their will and take us.
Speaker 3:So I ran back to the tactical operation center where bunderman sitting there trying to coordinate everything and I remember just looking at him I'm like, hey, sir, I got an idea. And he said what are you thinking? And I said, hey, we're going to take this back. And he said, okay, what's your plan? And I said, well, we're, we're almost out of ammo. First thing we We'll feed ammo back, because if we don't have bullets we can't fight. We need to shut the front gate, because if we don't shut the front gate they're going to keep squeezing us. We need some breathing room. I said okay. And I said the third thing, most important we need to go find our guys.
Speaker 3:Because in the back of my mind I don't remember being scared about getting shot or dying or any of that. What scared the ever-living crap out was thinking, if I, if I make it through this and I got to go back to the States and tell a gold star mother, gold star family, a widow, I couldn't bring your son home, I couldn't bring their body home. Um, I, I just that scared the ever living crap out of me. Cause I I'd tell my guys on every deployment hey, we're all going over, we're all not coming back alive. Like that's the nature of combat. Like going over, we're all not coming back alive, like that's the nature of combat. Like you sit there and you want to bring everybody back alive, but the reality of it. I always believe that if you have that mindset of, oh, I'm going over, I'm bringing everybody back alive, and you lose that first guy like it just crushes your soul in it and it weighs so heavy on your heart because you're you're setting really unrealistic expectations In my mind. I would say you know, we're all going over but we're all not coming back alive. But I never once thought I wouldn't be able to bring everybody back, to bring that soldier home, to give their family closure and that peace of mind and to be able to sit there and have those final moments at their funeral. That's what was scaring, just the ever living crap out of me.
Speaker 3:And so butterman said okay, do it. Um, so I went in the barracks and I just said I need a group of volunteers. And I had five guys that stood up. They had no idea what I was asking them. I just said I need a group of volunteers and Raz Delaney, jonesy, miller, um, and and now I'm spacing Raz Delaney, uh, raz Delaney, dantley, jonesy and Miller. These guys stood up and I told them the plan. Basically, I'm asking you to counterattack an enemy that's got the high ground, that's got us outgunned, um, like it's a suicide mission, um, I, and I told him that that and I said you don't have to do it. And every one of them, just looked at me and said, hey, we'll follow you anywhere. And for me that was such, I mean just a proud moment Like that's that's as you think of, kind of the, the brave heart moments, like when you get guys to rally behind you and trust that I knew in the back of my mind it's like, dude, we're dude, we're probably going to be pretty screwed, but you guys at least believe my, my cockamamie bs right now that you would trust that, say you'll follow me anywhere. Man, that's just so. I mean, it's indescribable.
Speaker 3:Like I said, we pushed up. We kicked the enemy off the ammo supply point, started feeding ammo back, pushed up, kicked him out of the front gate, pushed, pushed them off there, secured that, locked them out and then we were able to finally push up and start getting our heroes. But Larson and Carter were still alive. Got word that they were still alive. Mace was badly wounded. We gave them support by fire so they could bring Mace back through our lines. Sergeant Larson came back out to me and said hey, griffin is just outside the Shura building door here to the left. Martin last seen him by the laundry trailers. Gallegos got hit down by the latrines. I don't know where Sergeant Hart is. Like I said, we were able to push up and we got Griffin, we got Martin, we got Gallegos.
Speaker 3:At that point we'd extended ourselves a little too deep and we couldn't find Hart. Like I said, it's crazy what you kind of go through in moments like that. Like I said, we were just terrified that the enemy had taken Hart because that was their tactic. You know, if they could get an American body like that was such a huge propaganda thing for the taliban. And I got to watch things like larson that day. Dude was from chambers, nebraska, um farm boy like me. He played a junior college growing up before he joined the military. He was a strong safety. So larson was fast and I watched him three times that day. He left his kevlar, he left his body armor and he left his weapon and he ran around that outpost fully exposed doing the bullet dance to try and locate Sartre Hart and unfortunately, three times he couldn't do it, could not find him and we just thought the worst and we thought he was gone.
Speaker 3:And as the QRF finally was able to land up at OP Fritchie and work their way down, just as it was getting dark, as the sun was setting, they had made far side link up with us and was sweeping through the outpost and they finally came across, sergeant Hart, and after about 15 hours we finally had 100% accountability and all personnel at Combat Outpost Keating personnel at combat outpost Keating, you know. And then in retrospect you look at it and you know the army did their 15-6 investigation and they came back and said you know, this outpost shouldn't have been there. All this, you know, it was an indefensible location and so that always kind of chapped me. It was like no, we might have lost, you know, some ground that day. We never lost that outpost and I watched 52, 50 Americans, two Latvian soldiers defend what you Yahoo's called the indefensible.
Speaker 3:And they didn't do it because of politics or or a hatred. I mean, they didn't even do it because of that hatred of the Taliban or the enemy. They did it out of pure love of each other. And, as I say, you know, duty will get your guys to do a lot of things, it'll get them to do their job, but that loyalty and love that you build, that bond, will literally make a guy drop all of his body armor, leave his freaking weapon no Kevlar and go run around three times and do the bullet dance just to find his friend. It's an amazingly. It's a tragic thing that has to happen, but in the silver lining of it, man, you see so much beauty of love for your fellow brother that you won't see anywhere else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, 15 hours, that's a long time to be fighting. What did it man? So many questions, what? What did it, man? So many questions? So, after the, the battle and you guys get accountability and um how many were kia total?
Speaker 3:we ended up losing eight that day. Um, I said stephan mace, um, we ended up losing him about four o'clock that morning I said, and it was kind of weird, just really hard to kind of wrap your head around at first, because they said he had gotten hit same time gallegos did. Uh, he laid out there and out in the open for six hours, um, with minimal. At one point uh, ty carter was able to go out and uh put some tourniqu on him, pull them a little closer to cover, but for all intents and purposes he was out for six hours without any medical treatment and then, when Larson and him were able to bring him back, brought him to our aid station. And of course we're very remote site. It's not like we had full trauma surgeon or anything like that. We didn't even have plasma on hand. But what they did is they they put a call across the radio anybody with ab positive blood um come to the aid station and I watched guys come off the line in the middle of a firefight that had the same blood type and they did direct blood transfusions into mace to keep him going. Um, and, like I said, when we finally got the qrf. There we kind of got the situation a little under control. We started started bringing in the Medevac helicopters.
Speaker 3:We put Mace on that helicopter. He was giving thumbs up, cracking jokes, talking about drinking Coors Lights. When we seen him back at Fort Carson and that it was four o'clock in the morning, we got the call that he died on the operating table. And it wasn't until years later. Uh, his mom, just a phenomenal lady, vanessa, has been just such an anchor and a rock for for all of us. She she might have lost one son but she gained so many other. Um, after that day, and you know, talking to her and I asked her that it's like you know, how does, how does your son survive all of that with the most minimal, barestst things, giving thumbs up, and then he goes. You know he dies on an operating table with some of the best surgeons we've got. That you know. And she just said you know he was with his military family. So when he said goodbye to you guys on the helicopter, you know he could go back to his heavenly family and his God.
Speaker 2:And that's deep know he could go back to his heavenly family and his God.
Speaker 3:That's deep, just truly a special thing that, like I said, you don't see anywhere else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sorry for your losses, man, that's a lot, that's a lot.
Speaker 4:This is your financial cop Money Minute Yo. For cars, we recommend that you add all the engines in your home up, so boats, atvs, cars, et cetera. The value of your engines in your household should not be worth more than half of your current take-home pay and that's an indication that you don't have too much tied up in an asset that's going down in value with an asterisk. I tell people all the time you know I don't like buying brand new cars because of the depreciation factor. We do a whole lesson on this in the class. But when you become debt-free with an emergency fund, you're saving for retirement and you're the you know assets minus liabilities, you're officially a millionaire. If you want to go splurge on a car, go splurge on a car. You've earned that right Pay cash for it.
Speaker 4:Cash for it. Yeah, exactly, cash for it. We tell people after financial phase four, you're debt-free with a fully funded emergency fund and you've got nothing but the house left. You want to fly? First class Fly first class. Fly first class right. Go drop $150 on a stake, live a little. You deserve that. It's about the sacrifices early. Right, you want a boat. You can buy a boat. It just needs to be in the right phase, not when you get out of the academy, right did you lose any um friends or anyone close to you?
Speaker 2:I know you lost a sergeant nco when you're in korea, but when you're on your other deployments, did you lose anyone in your platoons, your companies?
Speaker 3:um, my second deployment, that was really what kind of? I don't think if I would have went, if I wouldn't have went through what I went on my second deployment, I don't think I would have been able to handle Afghanistan. And and to give the background of that story, I had a soldier, eric Snell, uh was his name, trent, new Jersey, um, and his, his resume was stacked right, like he came to us and I think he was like 28 at the time, um, as a brand new you know, brand new soldier. To have a 28 year old, brand new soldier like that's an old dude, right right yeah, totally uh.
Speaker 3:And he came to us and was like okay, you know what's your story and come to find out. You know, he's a hell of an athlete and in high school he got drafted by the cleveland indians. Um, he could speak French and French and Portuguese yeah, he could speak like two or three different languages. He had a degree in poli, sci. He had worked as a big manager for AT&T in South Africa for a while. He was a freaking mail bottle for a while, like he was just a whole package.
Speaker 3:And when Snell got to us and found all of this stuff and it's like dude, why don't you join as an officer? You easily could have been making three times as much and telling us what to do, and now you're just a lowly, lowly guy on the totem pole. And his, his response was always well, I, I want to become an officer someday and I want to go, uh, see if I can become a green beret. Um, but I never wanted to get in those roles. Unless I served time as someone, I was going to tell them what to do. I didn't. You know, he very much embraced the role of I'm. I didn't want to be a leader of people that I didn't already have the, the hadn't already already kind of walked their path before? Yeah, I wanted to wear those boots and that that just blew me away. And snell was like I said, he was one of those guys that, no matter what, he was always going to do the right thing. His integrity was second to none. And our second time in iraq we'd been there for about 10 months or so, coming up on well, yeah, maybe coming closer to our year mark because we'd already gotten extended uh, I just finally gotten was able to get him promoted. Um, just put his hard stripes on about two weeks before and we pulled a mission where at the time we're just outside of uh, yeah, we're just outside of sadr city, just outside the iz.
Speaker 3:At that point the Sunnis and the Shias were in a civil war, right, and they would keep driving fricking car bombs into the marketplaces to kill each other. So to counter that, we started putting up these huge Alaskan barriers along the marketplaces to prevent them from being able to just drive in and give people kind of that blast protection of the big Alaskan barrier. But of course the locals would sit there and use their equipment and move them because it was inconvenient. And then all of a sudden you'd have another car bomb go off and kill a whole bunch of civilians and stuff. So we'd gotten tasked then with bringing the local contractors to tether them all together with a big cable. So they couldn't do that.
Speaker 3:Well, the one day and normally how the mission would work is you'd send a platoon out in the morning that would provide overwatch for the local contractors, and you do it for maybe three to four hours tops, and you'd you'd stop because the sniper issues were, you know, pretty, pretty high risk at the time and literally you're just driving in a straight line as they connect them, so it's very easy for them to sit there and set up an ambush on you. Well, this day just happened to be, white platoon was already out there. They'd been out there for quite a few hours. The good idea Ferry I don't know who, I'm not going to pass blame but said hey, red platoon, you need to go replace them. We made our protest. Hey, this is not a great idea, something bad's gonna happen. Sniper in the issue, you know. And we're just following a straight line down the road. Like this is not, this is not good. You know that, overruled by higher command, you know, you gotta kind of accept orders sometimes, right? Um? So we rolled out I was lead truck at the time um, we replaced white platoon, kind of got a sit rep of what had been happening.
Speaker 3:The last few hours been very quiet and I just remember as we pulled and got into our security position I just told my my crew. I was like we're not even getting out of the truck, let's just sit here, stay buttoned up, stay low. And of course nell's like no, we need to get out. Do our fives and 25s meaning let's clear five meters, 25. At that time that was yeah, yep, and I'm like no, we really don't have to do that.
Speaker 3:Bud, like white platoon had been sitting here for the last 40 minutes. There was something here probably would already went off. Now we've got to do this. Like I said he was. He was always going to do the right thing. And I was sitting there thinking I'm like I'm being a shitty leader because I'm being that little negative. Nancy, I'm having a little pity party because I lost the argument with higher command on how dumb this thing is that we're about to do, and I said all right, and I got out and I did the fives and twenty fives with him. I wasn't going to let him do it by himself. And after that I'm like man, you're such a great soldier.
Speaker 3:Took him behind the Alaskan barriers because there was a little ice cream shop over there, bought him an ice cream cone we had a little ice cream together Just told him hey, really appreciate all the great shit you're doing, keep it going. Come back to the truck. And I'm like, hey, just get inside, because at that time I was training him to be my new dismount team leader. And snell's like no, I need to pull local, local security because we're all going to be buttoned up. You know we're at risk of someone being able to sneak in close on us and do something bad like now we should be good, like we haven't had one of those kind of attacks here. So and he's like no, I need to stay outside, pull local security.
Speaker 3:Well, I said all right, and he was sitting there with about three quarters cover behind the Humvee. Snell was like six foot three, I mean like 270, just chiseled, just an ox of a dude. And I opened my door and I was sending up my grids and stuff and doing my sit reps on the FBCV2. And all of a sudden it sounded like my gunner dropped a can of ammo down inside the turret. And I just remember looking up at Bowman I was like what the was that? And he goes, it wasn't me. And as I look back over my left shoulder I seen snow lying there. Um, I've been shot through the head and he he was killed immediately, which thank goodness he didn't didn't suffer any of that.
Speaker 3:And I remember coming around the corner starting to return fire direction of the sniper. I remember just feeling terrible because our medic come running up doc wood and, like I said, smells now lying there kind of open in the, without cover in the street. I just remember, as doc wood came up, I grabbed his ass and I'm drugging behind the humvee with me and it's dude, there's nothing you can do for him, you need to get cover because more rounds were coming in. At that point we pushed the enemy off. They basically did the DC sniper tactic on us. They had a car waiting there with the taillight kicked out of it and shot from the trunk of the car and then sped off.
Speaker 3:I was able to put Snell inside the Humvee, took him to the, the green zone, cause that was, uh, at that time the closest major trauma center, um uh, aid station for us and, like I said he was, he was gone when we got there and, as they were kind of getting him ready to be shipped out, I took me and my driver and my my gunner we're sitting there cleaning our Humvee out. I took me and my driver and my, my gunner we're sitting there cleaning our Humvee out. I mean you, just, you can tell, just, I was pissed, just like how can something, someone that awesome had that happen to him, and angry at the command, because it's like I fricking told you something bad was going to happen. Uh, and that's when, first, arno Vera came up to me, though, and he just kind of pulled me to the side and he's like, hey, you just got to know this that you can have the best equipment, the best soldiers, the best plan, the best everything, bad shit's still going to happen in your life.
Speaker 3:It's what you do about it. It's the only thing you can influence and change, and I don't think, if I went through that, because that that hit me hard, that resonated so so well, like you can have everything perfect going on your life or you can have a whole bunch of shitty I mean bad shit's just always going to happen. Some things are just totally out of your control, and when it's out of your control to sit there and waste your time on the what ifs or the what should have, what it could have, well, you can't change any of that. The only thing you can change is what you do going forward. And if it wasn't for that life lesson I don't think you know October 3rd could have been successful, and I don't think now, almost 14, 15 years down the road, you'd still kind of be going forward without that mentality and that kind of motto to live by in my life.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry about that too, man, but I mean you're right, though I mean, unfortunately, tragedy does help you learn and strategize for new things in the future. You know, and when things are at their worst, it can only get better. But uh, wow, yeah, you've been through a lot. How you doing over there, you okay oh, I'm always good all right, just making sure. I know it's kind of tough to open up those deep dark places at at times.
Speaker 3:But so that's how we we honor and keep them alive, those by sharing that. Because you know, as less and less of a serve and as time is going by and you know global war of terrorism went on for 20 plus years and kind of came to an end, you know the Americans mindset, I mean our attention span is pretty minute and if we're not sharing those stories, talking about those guys we're not living up to, we'll never forget and we'll always remember that, even though it's it kind of tugs on your heartstrings. Thinking back in those moments, I also sat there and I think about that damn ice cream we shared, sitting on the other side of the, the, the Alaskan barrier, that I got for for 50 cents. You know, two ice creams for 25 cents, right um?
Speaker 2:memories those moments. Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Well, how are you doing on time? Yeah, I know you got some other stuff to do today, but I got a million questions for you. Either we can keep going here for a little while or otherwise we can maybe do a to be continued and up to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we probably got to get wrapped up here pretty soon. Yeah, I'm coming up to some some hard stops here shortly absolutely so.
Speaker 2:Is there any chance I could potentially have you back on sometime and we'll do the? To be continued, I have a handful of different questions. I kind of want to talk about what it's been like to be a metal vaughn recipient. Uh, difficulties, the highs, the lows. Talk about the Afghanistan withdrawal. I just got a handful of different questions for you. Can we do another?
Speaker 3:follow-up. Yeah, we can absolutely do a volume two or whatever they call it now I think it'd be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's awesome, so let's do that then. So, hey, thanks for telling us your story today. I know you've told it a lot, but you know it's great for people to hear and have that memory of those who did give everything you know with the Afghanistan withdrawal and how things went down there. I'm sure that was incredibly difficult to watch and I know a lot of the veterans that I'm friends with who were in Afghanistan had a really hard time with that and I'd like to talk about that down the road here. But thank you for sharing, letting us into your life and your home and being able to talk about those things, and thank you for your service, everything you've done. You're a great man and I love that. You're a family guy and you're going to get some hunting in this fall, I hope.
Speaker 3:We'll see with the schedule hunting in this fall, I hope we'll see what the schedule that's. That's always difficult things. Hopefully uh, I know I've got a weekend planned, hopefully to get some pheasant in, but other than that it's going to be tight till we get to february.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm hoping to get to february, then we can get some ice fishing in again hey, you should go up to that lake of the woods trip that we host every year. Would you like to go to that?
Speaker 2:yeah, that would be an awesome one yeah, they do about 40 ice castles up on lake of the woods for a full weekend and, uh, they catch some good fish. Otherwise, I can get you connected with dan brassfield up in north dakota too. I don't think you guys are very far from each other, but he's hosting a couple pheasant trips and maybe, maybe, if your schedule's aligned, you guys can figure something out. Yeah, that'd be great. All right, brother. Well, thank you again for coming on. I'll let you get back to your day and move on, but let's touch base and follow up and we'll get a volume two together with Clint Romashay. So, thank you very much. And, for our listeners, thanks for tuning in. You guys got to take a deep dive and peek into Clint's life and his heroic efforts, with his friends and their heroic efforts as well, you know for for the battle of Kondash. So, thank you, clint, we will see you. And, to our listeners, we will see you on the next Hometown Hero Outdoors podcast, thank you. Thank you, chris.
Speaker 1:The Hometown Hero Outdoors podcast is made possible by the following sponsors O'Neill Electric Contractors. The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. Relentless Defender, apparel and Financial Cop Financial Advisors. Thank you for listening to the Hometown Hero Outdoors podcast. For more information, visit our website at hometownherooutdoorsorg.
