Broadcasting on Grove Street FM, brought to you by Media Squatch. It's Life, Liberty, Happiness with your host Brian Schly with Strenth Waterer. All right, everybody, welcome to the David Honaker State Farm Studios, live here in beautiful Bedford, Virginia. We have a phenomenal program together, put together for today. There's a train coming in right on time. Comes of rolling through, joining me in the studio. Trent Warner, Addie Ehm up back there pushing buttons hell And a little later on we will have a special guest on our show. Sergeant Steve Bozeman will be coming up. Can't wait to get to that, but first we'll get to backwards and forwards. What happened this weekend? Anything good? Oh? Big time graduation. Oh that's right. I've been praighting for that for a week and family came in, friends came over, and we had the graduation party Friday night. But because graduation starts at I mean you get doors open up at eight thirty, so you couldn't we still do it on It was a good party. So she had a bunch of her friends over and nice. It was one big roar for a long time, so it's wonderful. Yeah, but Lily over at V and T cafe. Man, she did it, oh man, all like cow. It was so well done. That's awesome. Yeah. So we had a good old time and let's see, it's just a blur, man, it happens so fast. And then she spoke at graduation nice ye you know, she's class president for her class. And then our speech was so good. We've got that coming up at the end of the show. Yeah, so everybody stick around for that. Yeah, it's really really well done. So that was about it. All right, we spent My wife does things sometimes that made me scratch my head, but I understand why she did it. So D Day is coming up for the D Day celebration, and every year she always likes to help somehow, some way because our neighbor works at D Day, And so this year Ashley has volunteered herself to make all the reefs for all this h Army Navy, Air Force Marine. They are the reefs that go in the front. Really cool. Yes, so it is neat, and so she's been clipping and snipping. That's all night long, man, I swear eleven o'clock she's in there. I'm like, Ashley, come on. That's one of those jobs though, that you know, to just stay away from. Oh yes, I know better. No, I'm not given no, no chance. I always I learned very early on when I got married. That's nice. Yeah, I don't get her any ideas, that's nice. So but she's been working on that. That is coming up soon. Now. You have never been to a D Day celebration, have you? No, you need to do it. It is phenomenal to have it in her own backyard. And this year Glenn Youngkin will be back. It will be the speaker. So let's see the seventy fifth it was Mike Pence and of course the inaugurate inaugural event it was George So anyway, it'll be good. Youngkin speech last year was phenomenal. So he's such a natural anyway, he is good at speaking. Man. He just even when he's just off the cuff, it's so polished. But I mean, at the same time, so just organic. I don't know how to explain it. I like the behind the scenes. So my wife again volunteers, so she's helping. I have I'm a what's I'm trying to make sure I get the right term here. I'm a D Day National D Day Memorial member, so I do that with my company and so I get two tickets, but I never sit where I'm supposed to sit because I like the behind the scenes stuff. I always I saw your logos on the Memorial Day stuff they had this weekend. I told him they don't need to do that. Yeah, that's all. It's nice that they did. So I always like to go behind the scenes because I like to see, like especially Youngkins. You know, he's got his people there, you know, and just watching Secret Service or whatever it is. I would love to see you get taken down. Last year, there was I think it was a thunderstorm or something that was coming through and you could hear them on the radio. We got to get people moving, you know, stuff like that. So anyway, yeah, that is coming up, so make sure if you can, you should attend. It is really really nice. Think about that. I want them to. I've tried to pitch this to them a couple of years ago. They had it in New York for a short time and then I think some things happened, but I think they should do it here. And I can't remember, Emma, you might know the term. You're young enough to know these things. It's like a sphere where when you're looking at it, you're seeing people in the portal. Yes, thank you. Yeah, I'm on it, Emma, she's not well you didn't fish out your well, well I knew it. He's picking up what I'm putting down. Yeah, a portal so where you could visually see the other side. Oh, you know how cool it would be to see Normandy and let them because they're celebrating it too. Yeah, here, that's a good idea. Nothing. Well, I told Woody he should know what. I'll go to Normandy and I'll go on FaceTime. There you go, we'll just move to each other. You think we get Woody to pay for that? Yes, come on, still looking for our press pass? Yeah all right? Uh and then coming up this weekend, well I think we're going. Oh you still got stuff? Well quickly, my sister came down, which was odd. She never comes down, and I was glad she did. You should have told her had a party going on. She was enjoying herself visiting her brother, Okay, her baby brother. So now we had a good time. Her and her husband came down and we uh, we did a cook out or if you want to call it that Sunday and Monday. So that was nice coming up. We're supposed to have short tracks. Oh man, I was so looking forward to it. I got permission and everything to be able to take two days with you, and now rain. I'm still available. Like you know, rain doesn't bother me. I know it doesn't bother you. But first off, they don't have box seats. That has been scary. Yeah. So if it's yeah, but maybe if the weather clear, I've got permission, I can go do go. So the last minute, even if we say we're going to the race, doesn't mean we have to end up there. True, and we can figure out something else to do. We can do that, all right. I've got the time open. Hopefully we can go if it's not raining. Did you do anything this weekend? My sister got married. We keep forgetting about this. Yeah, but you forget a lot of things about me. No, No, I have included you. That's nice. Well, every time I say, you're like, oh, I forgot you. So did you catch the No, she didn't throw one. I don't blame her though. I don't like these weddings where they change things. That's not really changing. Well, of course you have to throw the bouquet. Was it a nice wedding? It was beautiful that out in Appomatox at the Spring Grove. A lot of good food. We had barbecue, Oh, wonderful. So it was great. Now that that's over, what are you doing this weekend? Working? Oh? Oh yeah, nice work on this show. Yeah, thanks guys, thanks all right, moving on this day in history, On this day in nineteen thirty seven, Yeah, Volkswagen was founded. Did you know that? I did not. I tell you. The piece of interesting fact that I found when I was looking this up was it was a state owned, first state owned car manufacturer. Of course, that was Germany. And Adolf Hitler was like involved than. That, huh. And I think it was thirty eight, maybe maybe forty. Yeah, he actually had them start using the manufacturing for military purposes for vehicles. So interesting. They were a machine for sure. After the war, Great Britain took over that. Huh, Volkswagon, I never knew that they're crazy. Yeah, go ahead. Nineteen seventy two the plumbers went into Watergate to bugles and n and see, I'll be darn this day in history in nineteen seventy two, which think think about them going into Watergate. I mean today's scandals just seeing larger than Watergate. Yeah, I mean Nixon just blew out. I mean he won by a landslide the previous selection. Why would he cared? I've often wondered that, Yeah, why would he do that? See? I see right? Now? Do we get rid of them? Good? I'm not saying that conspiracy. Let's make make sure we understand which Mike that was that said get rid of the CI. Warner? Now it's that's interesting there. Yeah, anyway, all right. Now coming on the best part of the show. After this commercial break, we will have our special guests, Sergeant Steve Boseman. The American dream is something that makes our country so special, the fact that you can choose your path, set your goals, and achieve success however you define it. That is why we're known as the last place on earth to escape to. Well, that comes with a cost. The cost of freedom is paid for by our veterans. Fife, Liberty, Happiness is happy to be playing a small part in capturing our heroes stories. Our series called Veteran Voices. We'll focus on to know the men and women that have sacrificed so much. We hope you enjoy this series like we are. If you're a company that wants to sponsor this segment, please contact our staff at four three four four four four, eighteen seventy four or email Emma at mediasquatch dot com. Be a part of preserving our history for future generations. Stay tuned as Veteran Voices is about to begin. How many cuts? How many cuss did that take you? I did on the first one, Now, Emma. Emma, I could hear the merge. I knew that that's not true. There's a there's a merging of Emma. What how many cuts did it take me? All I know is I was splicing recording for a long time. You're not helpful over that. I'm sorry, I just it's I just thought of Joe Biden when Ed did that little piece where he tried to tout Trump to get him to come debate, and they kept doing different clips and they realized later they had to merge them all together. YEA, go ahead, I'm sorry, I nailed it. Come on, yeah, all right, Welcome to the show, Sergeant Steve Boseman. Well glad to be here. Thank you. So for those I'm sure most people who do know you probably know you for your the monument steps right. Yeah, momentary sonatrally every Friday from twelve to one. So I don't know. I don't do a lot of research on purpose because I'm curious about your life. So tell me, tell me kind of where your journey began. Where you were born and raised Montgomery, Alabama, nineteen September twelve, nineteen forty six. I was probably one of the first baby boomers born that year. My dad was a World War Two Navy vet, and he was stationed here in Lynchburg, Virginia, at the Preston Glen Airport. And that's where you met my mother. She lived here, born here, and they somewhere in the movie house they met and threw popcorn at her, and the next thing you know, they got involved and became a boyfriend girlfriend. And when the war ended, they moved back to Montgomery and got and got married in Montgomery. And I was born in September forty six, and then two other of my siblings, Pat and Gail, So we stayed at the stay down in an old country of Alabama for a while, and he was a mechanic at the airport, actually fixing, repairing air aircraft, and kind of ironic that I here, I am the next generation. I'm a helicopter aircraft mechanic myself. Wow. So high school years, Uh, when did you start thinking military was was going to be in your future? Well? Typically, I had a girlfriend and i'll beat up card that I drove around, and the Vietnam War was heating up in nineteen sixty five, and we had an old black and white TV and my actually my brother and I were living with my grandmother. I had moved back to Montgomery after I stayed here for a few years when I was ten or twelve thirteen years old. So here I am back in Montgomery, and my dad was in construction and so he kind of pawned us off to Grandmama, a big i'll call it granny, So she took care of us for about four or five years until I joined the Marine Corps. So at the time I had a part time a full time job making a little peanuts and girlfriend. I was pretty happy. And then to Uncle Sam sent me there noticing come for your induction to check out your physical and see if you're a one to be ready to fight the war. So that was probably summer, late summer of sixty five. That were you scared when you got that? No, no, no, it was just where I was living in the projects, okay, government housing projects, and a lot of the guys in there had joined the Marine Corps in an army and before they got drafted, they just joined the service just to get out of the environment they were living in. So when I got my induction, I went to the physical and there was about, of course, you know, about two hundred people in the physical taking the guys, and within a couple of days we were done. Back home and then within a week it comes to Marine Corps recruiters dress blues, knocking on my door and he saw my car out front. I had actually raised the hood and working on it, and he said you're a mechanic. I said, well a little bit. He said, well, the Marine Corps needs helicopter mechanic aircraft mechanics, and we need if you join us, we'd like to have you. And where I was living, I was, you know, my grandmother. We were poor, and I said, well, myles, well join and make some money and send back to her. Nice. Yeah, So I enlisted they call it the delayed Entry. In October sixty five, raised my right hand and Montgommery, Alabama then signed up and then I hit Paris Island and January second, nineteen sixty six. And then from there after basic training where do you what do your travels take you? Then typically the Marine Corps, it's about twelve thirteen weeks at Paris Island, but Vietnam was pretty hot, so they were trying to rush us through. Oh okay, so we we did everything and expedited in motion method and we didn't have mess duty or anything. We just did all the grunt training and everything that the Marine Corps boot camp is about. And then after that it's about ten weeks. Then we caught a bus to Camp Tiger, which is up near Camp Rejune. Camp Geiger is the Marine Corps Infantry Advance Infantry Course. You stay there about three weeks going through all the infantry training, and then you go and leave and then you report to your next duty station, which was Millington, Tennessee, where they taught how to do electronics, mechanics and all kinds of stuff on aircraft. So I stayed there about four months five months, and then September, I was in Camp Penington going through another two week infantry training. So even though your MOS is different throughout the Marine Corps, you're basically a rifle and no matter what you do. So I enjoyed infantry part of it. And then of course I had signed up for the aviation guaranteed. I was thinking, my gosh, I should have just stayed infantry. But I didn't know what was waiting for me on the aviation side of it until I got to Vietnam. And then I had orders to the helicopter squadron through HMM three sixty one, which was old reciprocating engines kind of left over prior to the I guess at the Korea Sikorski had made another kind of helicopter that was perfect for Vietnam. So when you get when you get sent to Vietnam, we're at in Vietnam or you at this point do you do recall like where are you getting dropped in? At? Where you land in d Nang Airport? Okay? And thank god, I flew over commercial airlines, so made in about two hundred of the Marines flew over landed and during the daylight and then of course, when the door opened up and the heat and the smell of Vietnam hit you, everybody remembers that until you know, you just remember that. Yeah, and then you off board and then you go through processing and figure out the which unit needs you the most. And I guess this particular helicopter squadron needed a mechanic and I was assigned to that one, and they were stationed down in near Juli, which was about fifty miles south of d Nang. So I had to catch a C one thirty hop down there and then find my way to the squadron and then report in. Are you when for you just being in Lynchburg a little bit in Alabama going to Paris Island? Were you before you even get to Vietnam? Was it? Were you ready for that? Or you you know the war is coming, so that you're ready to go, and then you travel to Vietnam and probably hadn't traveled a lot in your life. Now you're only nineteen years old. Yeah, I just turned nineteen, and I never have been on a commercial aircraft, never have flown here. I was eventually going to be flying a helicopter. So were you ready? I mean, did you feel ready, or you're like you're nineteen and don't know what is even about to happen to you. I was, you know, still thinking that I was a young man. I had dropped out of high school to kind of help with your finances with my grandmother, and plus I was bored in high school in eleventh grade, so I said, Okay, I'm out of here. And back in those days, they didn't have any counselors trying to keep you there. They just say, well, you dumb ass, go ahead and drop out. So I in long story short, I did get my four year degree in college education later on after the Marine Corps. But anyway, back to your question, I was well trained as a Marine infantry going through all the different training jungle for warfare warfare, and then uh, when I got to Vietnam, I wasn't really scared at all. I just figured I felt like I was invincible. But I found out later you're not. Yeah, but reported to my squadron and started to becoming a mechanic. But all the others, you know, I've seen other reports and other people who you know, the draft draft dodgers, and they want to they just mentioned Vietnam. They're going ahead to Canada. But I thought that was just my duty. And of course President Kennedy his his words were what can not what you can do for your country your what what the country can do for you, but what you could do for your country, And that resonated with me back and when I was thinking about, Okay, do I want to join the just let the army you draft me, or join the rink Corps or even the Navy if I had that time, that time, I had a choice. I could go all four branches if I joined. But I wanted to be a marine because I've sold all the Pacific landings. They did all the heroic duties, you know, the Iveachima. And the dress Blues and the dress they hooked. They hook you every time, You're right about that. Yeah, they do get you. How long were you mechanic? I mean, is this the whole time you're there or what? Uh? Just that first part? Take us through your well time while you're at Vietnam. Good question. I was a mechanic right off the bat. So I was trained on a reciprocate engine and the aged thirty four. You aged thirty four had a eighteen cylinder UH engine and a big powerporn engine Sikorski built and they could carry about eight fully armed loaded Marines and maybe ten or twelve Vietnamese type troops. But yeah, when I got there at at KiHa, Vietnam, which is just north of July, I was a mechanic for about three months and they didn't let you let me fly until about January February. As a door guner. Oh lord, So you're on the side. So the each aircraft you had two pilots and two door owners, one of a crew chief and the other one is a on the other on the other side of thirty four was a window and that was my job to make sure that anybody is shooting from their position. I shot back with my M sixty machine gun. Went and you picked up that training while you were before you got the Vietnam or you got there and they said, hey, jump up on the sixty and just start shooting. Fortunately they did let us go out over the ocean and shoot at some barrels with the M sixty machine gun. Oh, you know, we had about probably three hours of training. Kind of you know, it depends how fast the helicopter's flying. Yeah, you kind of you you figure out how to lead. Uh and now yeah, yeah, and every fifth round is a tracer, so you can see your your red tracer going word your barrel's point. You know, most people don't know that. When you're like watching the movies or watching video, you see the tracers running, but there's bullets in between those that are going to. Yeah, it's just bullets and one tracer. Yeah wow. So anyway, I had enough wherewithal to point and shoot properly. Yeah. So, once you got your first flight as a door gunner, of course you're very anxious. Nonetheless, I'm still okay at that point, I'm going out in a jungle and we're going to a hot and then that's where you figure out all this training is going to pay off or not. So would you like so you were a mechanic, so you work on the fleet and you're a gunner. You're doing both things. Yeah yeah, yeah. So yeah, when you get back the aircraft, you had to clean up, get it ready for the next mission, and then if there's any technical issues with your engine or anything it could be fixed right away you start working on that, or some wheels or a flat tire or anything that relates to the aircraft. The helicopter. I imagine you being in that hole and you're the gunner. They certainly know you're either bringing supplies or marines. The ones that are on the ground, the Vietnamese. They also know that you're the guy with the sixty. The lifespan of the gunner was not much, right, I mean it. Says about two weeks. If you a door gunner you were what's the boy to start flying? You're about probably a couple of minutes. So that was a question that I wanted because I've off I mean, you're getting in this thing. You know the dangers obviously, But if you go out and come back, are you are you upset if you don't get some sort of action? I mean no, no, not really. Are you happy just to get back. I have to get back to the squadry, to get back to your hooch and check out, and then come back next day and do it again. So that my first mission was, like I said, January of February, I'm not sure of the date, and sixty six, yeah, no, sixty seven, I'm sorry. So it was it went to a hot zone and we were just offloading some water and five gallon jugs, some bullets, and some sea ration sea ration, So. You're supplying the ground trips. We are, and that's what they're basically marines and the air wing do we support the infantry on the ground, either the fixed wing or the air helicopter. And typically you have probably for every grunt on the ground in the junkle, you probably got ten to twelve marines back in the rear taking care of supporting that guy. Yeah wow. So in our case we were supporting the infantry and bringing in supplies and taking out the wounded or dead if needed. Wow. Was there when you had to work on the helicopter that you just landed on the next day or that afternoon or whatever. Did you ever see like a hole a bullet or something like Wow, that was a little close. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. Typically is a big the skin of a helicopters by a stick as of paper. It's very light, very thin wow yeah wow, And bullets come in and it's a very noisy environment when you land and when you're flying your land So once you get in the zone, the polystypically got full of throttle to take off on a moment's notice, so you're either off loading or loading up doing that quick. You know, it could be a minute that the longest, or two the really longest. In this case, my pilot on you had s he had headsets, and he's telling me to shoot. Once we got on the ground, and I'm looking out this tree line and I don't see anybody shooting at me. And I wasn't told you could just freely shoot, so I was going to hold my trigger. So I'm thanking god he's yelling at me shoot, And then I was getting ready to pull the trigger, and thank god I did not, because about twenty feet in front of me was two Marines helmets and behind a bunker type thing, and my barrel at that time, because I was so dagon nervous, was pointing at their dagon heads. So I quickly raised the barrel just enough to shoot over the heads into the tree line. And that moment right there, when when we took off, I thought to myself, I just could have I just could have killed two Marines on my first dag On mission. Wow, And that would halt me forever. So yeah, yeah, So I learned real quick on the job training, make sure you know where that barrel is pointing and not at a friendly marine. Yeah, wow, so. Do you did you did you have any that you started taking fire that became a hot mess that quick. Well that protective ones. We didn't take fire, but yes, the pilot won't make sure. So we both throw me and the crew chief. We shot out and then we took off and we landed back at the base and we looked chucked the aircraft. There was no bullet holes in it, so we assumed that we did get did not get shot at on that mission, but in future missions we did. Yeah. So how many I mean, how long did you stay? How long were you there? Well, the Marine Sir thirteen months, and everybody else Air Force, Navy, Army served twelve months, the Marine Corps. For some reason, it felt like that we're gonna keep you there one month longer, which means you get shot at one month longer for a chance to get to caroll On. But you went. You volunteered to go back, am I right? Yeah, and a lot that's another long story. Yeah, yeah, sure, well we're here. This is your story is we want to hear this And just to let you know, by the way, I know you have grandkids and great grandkids. And the reason Brian and I want to do. This is if I could go back and listen to my grandfather talk about being in the Philippines and the tanks in World War Two. I do everything that I could. These things that you're telling, we want your grandkids and great grandkids to be able to hear, or even their kids to be able to hear. It'll be on YouTube and it'll be here forever. So tell the stories that you want to tell. That's really what it's about. I'm gonna try to be very honest and not too much bes y'all. No, no, exactly, yeah, yeah, sure, thing. So you did you did decide to go back, Well, the first tour was exciting. I put it that way. More more I flew as a door gunner, the more the more you found out that you're picking up dead marines and barely warned marines, and you're thinking, okay, this is real, and you're getting your hands bloody, You're you're getting shot at, and you're shooting back and and and you're going back to the base afterwards, and you're decompressing and you and you and typically we didn't really talk that much with each marine unless there's the same guy you flew with that that day. You might want to share some of the anxiety you have if that, but typically just you did did not. I'm not sure if that that generation was different than what it is now. Yeah, So after many months into June and July and August, well actually May twenty, May fourth is when I got shot down on my metovac, And that was May fourth, nineteen sixty seven, about five o'clock in the afternoon, and we were on the Army had typically they had the rigged red cross metovacs and they would fly particular missions, but Marine Corps didn't do that. They had if you were in the area and you had an infantry calling to help you, that particular helicopter was spin off and go down to help, or you would have dedicated helicopters like that day we had. We had two helicopters dedicated for medovacs. So we were supporting these infantry just not too far from where we were at the base. And we did it all all morning, all early afternoon, and it was starting to get in routine because they were taking a lot of casualties. We'll get shot at. And then at five o'clock we got called again to go back out, so we had to back out there, and of course I know we're gonna we're gonna get shot at, but we didn't get shot at going into the hot zone. But what the grunts did. They had them at the air. Four phantom jets come in and kind of they couldn't drop any napalm because they were too close to the Marines, but they just flew like treetop level, you know, four hundred miles an hour and making a hell of a noise. So I'm watching all this going on in the air and then I'm here the pilots talking to each other, and then as we rotate down into the hot zone, I'm just expecting fire, but we didn't get any. So we landed in the zone. And what the enemy does. They know if you keep coming back, they can set up another place to shoot at you later as you exit. But a lot of times they try to They try to shoot you in the zones so they could shut the zone down to keep any helicopters coming in. So anyway, we got one valley stretch of patient big black marine with he got shot in the chests, and then this other marine and he got shot in the leg, so he kind of hopped up on the chopper himself. So we took off, flew about treetop level maybe I thought about four football fields links maybe a quarter mile. All of a sudden, I'm hearing fire, you know, bullets, and I'm looking at my window and I don't see anybody on my side shooting. But all of a sudden, I hear my crew chief on his side shooting. Sixty fired away. And then I look up and the what they did all that the enemy had shot the transmission fluid in a helicopter transmission and it caught fire. It was dripping down into our compartment. So I looked behind me and I moved the stretcher patient a little bit to get the dripping fire out of off of him, and then I went back to my gunt, thinking okay. Then I heard the policys we're going down. I said, okay, get ready, and I would make sure that the grant was okay behind me, So I moved him by the way. I picked my machine gun up, grabbed about you know, two feet of ammo, and then he got ready to hit the ground. So just as I got to the ground, it hit hit pretty pretty pretty hard. So I just kind of fell out of the door. Actually, I didn't know if I had jumped or what. I just hit the rice Patty and I had my sixty hugging like you wouldn't believe, real close to me, and I got banged up pretty pretty good there. And then, uh, my first thought was was, Okay, the helicopter's on fire. We got two wounded inside. We got you know, two pilots and then the crew chief. So I guess we're all gonna get out somehow. And the helicopter did not roll over on the side, so the polot was able to control it enough to hit the landing and bounce and roll. So I went to the nearest dyke, rice petty dyke, just to get behind the rice Patty expected the more see, you know, a couple of dozen or so goots coming at me, and nobody's coming at me. I'm looking around. I don't see any enemy nowhere. So then I, uh, you know, this is a split seconds. So I'm looking around, and I turned around, looked back at the helicopter and I saw this one hand still hanging waving, and I knew he was still in there. So I rushed back over to the helicopter and you don't think about it. You just split second. You want to save somebody, That's what we do. So he was in a burning helicopter and it was burning pretty good, so I rushed over. I tried to get the structure out first, trying to keep yanching on it, and they wasn't moving, so then I had we had to reach up, and I my crew chief finally came over and started helping me, and I reached up inside unbuckle the uh strutcher and then and then we was able to drag him out of the helicopter. And about that time, the we had bullets in our in our animal box, and I guess one of the bullets the boxes we was on. It was in the heat, so we're starting to cook off. So here we're gonna get shot by our own egg on bullets. So we dropped him on the ground real quick, and then the pilot and someone else rushed over, and the four of us grabbed two arms, two legs and hauled the ass across the rice paddy and got probably about fifty yards away, and then another helicopter. Always fly two or two helicopters for this purpose. If one gets shot down, the other one can come in and get you out. So he came in and we just loaded up the two wounded, and then I was I had fire. I had burns on my arms and hands from reaching up in the fire, and a few cuts on my face and that blood coming down, so I kind of looked like I was hurt, but I wasn't really filling that bed. So all the crew stayed on the ground, and then we had infantry come over from the ground and to help security, so they kind of gave three hundred and sixty degree security around us, and at that time we still weren't getting any enemy fire coming in, so I guess we were pretty lucky. We landed somewhere of a safe zone him where that enemy lines anywhere it's not safe. Yeah, yeah, wow. So anyway, were another helicopter came in about a half hour later, and then I boarded up and we all got on the chopper flew back to Marble Mountain and then I got off and they wanted me to go to the hospital get patched up. So I got a ride over to the hospital and I went in there and I kind of I didn't know how bad it was, but then it started hurting my second third degree burns on my arm and leg. So anyway, they started patching me up and stayed there about two or three hours, and and then I got ready. The doctor says, okay, you't go ahead to leave now. I said okay, And the corman he slipped me a little you know, the small bottles of whiskey. Yeah, he slipped me a bottle. He said, you probably need this. Wow. So when I got back to my hoot, within the half hour, I popped that thing opening, drank them one big group, one big slug, and then I had to go. Uh So, anyway, everybody's okay, the crew, the crew chiefs okay, two pilots and we all didn't We didn't talk at all. We just went our separate ways. So the next day, apparently I found out later long ago that they interviewed the two pilots and the garner about what happened. They didn't interview me for some reason. I'm not sure why, but I had to go. I had to go to the doctor the next there's a day or two later to get a mental checkout where you're okay physically and merely to fly again as a door garner. And I got okay to fly again. So within two days I'm back flying again. Yeah at this point, are you hoping? The doctor says, no, you're not. No. Well, even though it was a nearer death situation, and I think about it almost every day, how close we all could have been killed that day, just crashing and burning or just getting shot, I didn't feel like okay, I felt like I was gonna I could have been killed, but I felt like, okay, my job is to be a mechanic and door garner and help marines on the ground infantry. So I just got back in the fight and was willing to keep flying as a door garner. So anyway, of course, the other crew member, other helicopter mechanics and pilots kind of because at that time, I think we were the first one to get shot down by the enemy. So it was quite a something to be talked. About enlisting, life, liberty, happiness. We are talking to Sergeant Steve Boseman the United States Marine Corps at his time Vietnam. So now that you've you've got that under your belt. So this was your first tour, right that this all happened. So that wasn't enough for you, You thought let's go back again. Well, after that happened May in June, about July, yeah, July, I went on orn R to Bangkok. They give you every marine a week to go somewhere orn R restom relaxation, and so I got Bangkok, Thailand chosen. So I went to Bangkok. I wasn't gonna go to Australia and I had orders for Australia. But this pilot came to me. He says, I really want to go to Australia. Better if I give you a case of beer, you go to Bangkok. I read up, so I why not? So I got a case of beird and went to Bangkok and he went to Australia. That's amazing. So when I was going for that week, my squadron had orders to go up to the DMZ at Doangha, which is only eight miles from the DMZ, to help support all the infantry up there. So when I got back from or and R, well, first of all, when you fly from Bangkok, you stop. I forgot was it Guam or could have been in Guam to refuel and you could go to the PX and get four bottles of alcohol and Ted Lensky my buddy of mine. We flew a lot. He was a crew chief and I was a dual gunner. He said, when you go an on or get me a two bottles of cotch, and I got two bottles of bourbon, and at that time they were only a buck bucket a quarter, so I got four bottles and we caught the hawk. Back to the day. Then I had to catch one thirty hop up to Dong Hall. So I landed that afternoon, probably about six o'clock. And Dog Hall is on eight miles away, so the enemy was constantly shelling with the one twenty two rockets and right off across the border. And of course we couldn't go to DMC and and fight them, I mean to destroy their their weapons. So they rocketed us all the time. So soon as we landed, the rockets were coming in and one just turned around took off again, and I offloaded. So I knew I did not know where my squadron was. They had the helicopters there, but I didn't know where my hoochs was, so I had to go find Mike Hooch and I finally found it and Ted was there, and Ted said, well, we got incoming so the grab a bottle each and head to the bunker. So we did, and we didn't. We're not we're not expected to be overrun or anything. We just knew that after about half an hour they're gonna quit and come back and do it again around midnight. So we went to the hoots and we started u t everyone to know how my own order was, and I had to go in a little good time what I had, well, in fact, I had six hundred dollars. I said, up, six hundred dollars, wow, And it wasn't much you think about now, but back then, in nineteen sixty seven, six hundred bucks was a lot of money. And when my squadron rotated up there, I knew that when I came back to Vietnam, my life expecteds was gonna was not gonna be very good. So my goal was to spend every penny of the six hundred dollars, and I did, and I spent every penny of it. So when I came back, I was broke until next month. But when I got back to the Dung Hovey that night, I got rocketed and I reported next morning to the radio shack to check in, and the the mission, I call it the radio shack was where all the you're checking to find out what your flight patterns are and what you're going to do. So I was assigned the fly gunner that day, so here I am got half a little hangover going on. So we flew up the DMC area and just supported grunts up there. So every day we got rockets, you know, four or five, six times a day. And then on August, the last week of August, we got hit real bad. They destroyed probably two or three helicopters, and I was getting shell shocked a lot. We were starting to get non immune to the rockets coming in, but we were getting you know, any minute this when you hear all these big rounds coming in and exploding, you're starting to get a little fearful that the rocket's gonna fall on top of you, no matter where you're hiding at. So that August the week of the destroyed helicopters, so the general flew up and decided to keep us there for another you know a little bit longer. So September third, which was only a week later, the enemy hit the fuel dump animal dump, and the U and the helicopters in the hoots, so everything was blown up. So that morning I had flu at night on Medowvac, so I just got in the hoots, just got my clothes off, just got ready to lay down on the cot and it comes in coming about probably seven o'clock and then real quickly jump up, run to the back door, and the hooch is about four about forty feet long, and I hit that back door and behind us was a big fuel bladder, like big as a tanker, and they hit the tanker and fuel batter up, so it knocked me back on my butt. I didn't get burned or anything. But then I turned around and hit the front door and jumped in a bunker. And then that day was a long day. They hit the Amo Dump fuel dump. So September, third of forty four of us in the squadron got wounded with swapnol, burns, all kinds of injuries. So after about four hours up from jumping from bunker to bunker, after each one collapsed on top of you, the last one I was in was about six feet deep and it was about just shoulder wide. So I got into that one with about six seven marines. And then because all the Amo Dump fuel dump. All the hooches were catching on fire. You know, we've got ten roof, but we got plywood. So all the plywood's catching on fire, and it's falling on top of the hoot of the bunkers, which is cloth, the cloths catching on fire. So then here we are in the middle of this big rock attack, and we didn't know where to get overrun or not. And I didn't have any weapons when I when I hauled outside of the I didn't grab a weapon down, so we had to All of a sudden, the smoke was so bad that we had to get out of that bunker. So then I was the last one out. And when I went out, I had to dive through a fire again to get out of it. And I had a shirt on. I'm not sure where I got a shirt from, but it caught fire and I rove on the ground, put it out, got up hauled but to another bunker, and stayed there for another hour, and by that time going my gosh, we'll go be here all day. So then it quite a down. The AMMO was still cooking off. So then at that time the story assessing who's hurt who's not, and I was hurt enough to where they said to go to the first aid, which was a big underground bunker where they do surgeries. So I went in there and they patched me up with galls on my burns and arms and my hand, and then they went back out top side, and then they had another helicopter come in and they loaded all us up. At different times it took us out to the helicopter, I mean a hospital ship USS repose, and we used to fly when we took wounded out to the repose, we would take them out and fly and land a little small spot on the navy ship. And here I am, September third, I'm a landing on it. So they went down below they patched you up, and I felt like, okay, I'm safe, Thank god, hear him. So about four days later, here comes a marine general come around and we about six of us lined up, and he's given about purple hearts. So he comes up to me and he looks at me and he says, what do you think about these female nurses? And of course I my mouth that big smile on it. And then someone took a photo which I some reason another how I got it, still have it. I don't know, but I did. So that question was what do you think about the female nurses? And then here I am thinking, I'm alive and I love it, so it gives mis purple heart. So anyway, two purple hearts near death, and I'm thinking my life is getting pretty Uh gosh, what am I gonna get killed the next yesh? I go on. And on. In one instance, we were on this one supporting his one grunts on this hills and what not a tree on the hill or nothing, And we kept going into every hour, almost breaking up food, water supplies, bullets, and sea rations and then taken out the wounded and dead because they were getting watered constantly. And then when we landed again and we believed me the helicopter pilot was to be in and out quick, so we were throwing water out the door, bullets and sea rations, and then all of a sudden the big explosion and then what happened when watar came in hit right underneath the engine compartment and the shrapnel came up, and uh, we had put three quarter inch thick still placed underneath the engine for that purpose, but one of the some of the swrapnel went up into the engine and got a couple of cellinders, so we lost power. So as soon as he went full power on the helicopter, he knew he couldn't fly back to base. So we had to kind of fly out of rotate down into the valley. And I had enough time then to think, okay, grab you m sixty, get ready again because it's not going to be a nice, nice landing again. So we landed and the pilot saw another company of marines down there and he was able to land right smack in the middle of him. So we were okay. Yeah. So that afternoon, more helicopters came out from my squadron, so me and the crew chief we helped peel the blades back. You could do that. Where a big aircraft would come in, a big helicopter could come in and pick up on a sling and take you take the helicopter back to Oh wow. So that one was okay, yeah wow. We landed okay, and but that one could have been another tragedy. It's amazing what your mind and body adapt to, you know, adapt and overcome. I know is a philosophy there of but it's it's just amazing to me that your mindset and to go back. So when in that in that timeframe, when did you a second tour? Did you go back to all of that again? Tell one more story, But sir, sir, we typically everybody, all the listed crew members, all the officers. This is something that was normal. You know, we weren't out in the jungles with the infantry doing their thing, but what we were doing was pretty normal. And believe me, a lot of infantry when they get on the helicopters after you drop them off and they get back on the helicopter glad to get on the helicopter and get back to their rear. And I think that when I had the chance, that I chose my path in the Marine Corps was aviation because I support, I have, I regard for anybody that was on the ground, on the infantry and just God bless them. Yeah. So the next I'm I was getting near my thirteen month and listening and let's get like September again, Yeah, September and I and typically you get a little nervous the last thirty thirty days. But then again here I am down marine and I was going to re up again, stay with my squadron. You could do that they will let you real not re up, but actually extend your tour of thirteen months to stay with your squadron, because they will go and get ready to go off on a ship and cruise up down Vietnam and support the infantry. So I was going to do that, and I was going to extend six months, and you get to either fly back to the States or you can go any place for thirty days. And I. Just going to fly back to the States, but anyway for then about two more, another week or two, a close incident scared the heck out of me, and I then decided not to extend. We were doing a milk run flight with some high ranking officers going out to the hilltops just to give a hourah and a few metals and shuck a few hands, and we had corn and a major and then we were just flying back to the base that evening and I was sitting where I was set set like this, and I'm looking out the window over sixty and right behind me is a little small engine, like a lawnmower engine, and we call it the auxiliary power unit. And we had to start that up first to get juiced to the power of the short engine. So it's a little small engine, so it's right behind me. It's got to be a little muffler, and the muffler goes outside of the aircraft. So we're flying about thousand feet maybe less, flying back to Marble Mountain. I forgot to tell you when we got this rocket and attack, we only lost We lost so many aircraft. We had about four left helicopters. So the flew what was remaining of the crew and everybody else back to the Marble Mountain that night, and then we kind of stole helicopters from other squadrons to kind of bringing our We typically had twenty four helicopters, but we only had like maybe eighteen or nineteen. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So anyway back. A little engine behind you. Oh yeah. So then the somebody on the on the ground, some little Vietnamese or NBA, he decided to shoot at this helicopter right, so he kind of points his rifle and he shoots, and that bullet came up in the fuselage into the through the fuel bladder. But then it split second and he hit the fuel and hit the power unit behind me, exploded, and the and the muffler hit my back and I got a flag vest on, but typically you're leaning over. You got about that much four or five inches exposed of your spine, and that muffler hit my back spine flat. Thank god. It had it been sharp, it would have probably cut into my spine and I could have been in paralyzed or I could have been shot by that particular bullet because it was had my name on it. But I found out later than my mother and my grandmother both prayed every day. Oh yeah wow. So we got back to Marble Mountain. We have fuel bladder, which is kind of like a self ceiling. So I told the pilot I couldn't see no fuel leaking out. We're okay. So that night I spent probably four o'clock in the morning taking up thousands of boats, pulling the old fuel bladder out, putting you fuel bladder in, put the boat back in. So, yeah, your mechanic duties is not over just because you got shot shot. At back to the mechanican. So at that point I went back that night and I said, you could have been paralyzed or dead. You know, God send you a signal, Yeah, get the heck out of Vietnam. Yeah, you got your sign so I said, okay, I'm rotating, and I got orders to glen View Naval Air Station, which is a small base up in just north of Chicago. It's kind of a cushy job because it was a fourth Muon Air Wing headquarters. The fourth Munion Air Wing was just a reserve unit, and he had two star general and he had two aircraft which were reciprocating engines. One had one was CE fifty four with four engines and one was to see one seventeen with two engines. Because the goody bird. So I reported in and that was typically maybe twenty of US mechanics and pilots and so forth, and then a whole bunch of Navy guys. And of course we didn't know it in Chicago. We're only twenty miles away. So I got a chance to drive down to Chicago. I bought me a car. I had some money, so I bought a car. And then living a good life, but being a combat marine and seeing all the carnage, death and everything kept eating at me. And even Ted Defensive happened. I was watching them my barracks. This is January thirty first and February first, Ted Defenses when nineteen sixty eight when the enemy came out and tried to overrun all the bases and try to convince the South Vieta mes, here's your chance now to overthrow these ugly Americans and join us. But it never worked that way. So we they killed a lot of innocent Vietnamese and we killed probably a million, not a man, but a lot of the enemy, and then we won the won that particular battle of all the all the Teed offensive. Yeah. And I'm watching this on TV and I'm taking I'm seeing all this helicopters and all the infantry. I'm thinking, hey, I could be back in that. I've been pretty good. But then I just going into the springtime of sixty eight in the summer, I finally I guess I didn't know I had pts D. I didn't know that. And and what it is the drilling, Yeah, the drilling that you have in combat. You just. Yeah, it's hard to get get away from it to a normal life. Yeah. So I kept went to my first sergeant. I said, I'm want to go back to Vietnam. He said, hell, no, you just got here six months ago. So he said, you're supposed to be here for another two years and then your listener might be up. So I said, I want to go. No, you're not. So Then a few more weeks I just kind of nudged him here and there. He's hard. You think you change my mind yet? So after about two months I guess he felt like, Okay, he is crazy. He wants to go back to Vietnam. I gosh, maybe if he goes, somebody else won't we will not have to go. So anyway, run more, run the orders up my request, and they got approved to go back to Vietnam. And I wanted so bad to get back in helicopters for god knows what. I just wanted to get there. So when I when I got the orders, I had to go back to Camp Pendanton again. I had to go through two or three weeks jungle training again. And I asked the sergeant major there, I said, why am I going through this again? He said, well, now you're in CEO. You a corporal. Oh wow? So before I was just a PFC. Yeah. Can I always count on the Can I always count on the train? So I did that and I got back to Vietnam. And like I said, they depend on who needs you the most. And when I got there in the helicopter squadrons didn't need me. So I see when seventeen down in July, I needed me, So I had to catch a flight down there. Well, first of all, long story was, see when seventeen was sitting out in the Nang airport with a blown engine, That's why the need was a mechanic. And then the gunnery sawyer was already out there working on it and the UH. So I just took my sea bag, took it out to the UH airplane and said, I'm a new guy. What can I do? So I started working on right there. We got the engine changed out and fixed up a little bit, and then we flew from there back to July. Wow. And then that's where I stayed for the next thirteen months. Wow, and became a crew chief on that aircraft. Now did you find like when you went to Camp Pendleton and you're going through that training again, did you feel like your experiences that you were probably as good at teaching them. Or what is it? So? I felt the actual what the real reality is? I felt very salty. Yeah. Yeah. Here it was a corporal E four and there was only probably two other marines recycling back going back to Vietnam. Yeah, all the rest of Marines were brand new. They were heading to Vietnam. So I was a squad leader. My rank then was E four, So I was a squad leader and I had to go through all the grunt training as a squad leader. Yeah, and I didn't know nothing about being a squadly, but I had to quickly learn. But here, I still had the old combat boots for the first tour, so we convinced the first sergeant to let us wear our old combat boots, which was jungle fatigue jungle type boots. Yeah, and everybody else had black boots, so we felt like, hey, we're pretty cool here. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So when did you become sergeant? When is that? Well, yeah, when I got to Chu Lie. I flew as a crew chief many times on flights and see what seventeen was used primarily to do the hopscotch pretty much from Chu Lie to the name, which is fifty miles away from the name to Fu Buys another fifty miles Fu Buy up to Dong Hoo's another forty miles. So in helicopter wise, is that a long distance or short distance, short distance okay, yeah, I don't know, like a helicopter, what's a long one hundred miles? Well, before we reported to Dangha back in the summer of sixty seven, we would fly. We would have four aircraft every morning fly from the nang Or Marble Mountain up to Dongha because we didn't have any helicopters up there, but the infantry up there needed us. This is prior to Kaison, all the build up the Kaison, So we flew four helicopters every morning and fly back every night. Sometimes we would go over to Kaison and spend the night there on the base and then fly back to Marble Mountain. So this was needed to have a whole squadron up there, but it didn't turn out to be a good decision because we got tore up and destroyed pretty much. So see what was seventeen The other duties It was to take off the door, put a big pile of the flares in it, and go support the infantry on the ground at night when they needed some night vision night to lightlights. So my hoots we actually had a phone in my hut and at night when the infantry needed us, they would call and they would relay the next thing, you know, I'll get a phone ring, and then I had to jump in the vehicle and drive to the airplane, crank it up, wait till the two pilets get there, then get ready to taxi out. And by that time we had a crew of guys who would take the door off, put the pallette of flares in, which is about three and a half feet tall, almost four feet tall, and then we would fly over to the besieged area and throw out flares and then we'd get a few pot shots that way too. So I got fifteen air metals the first tour and three air metals and the second tour. And typically it's about twenty to twenty five missions to get an air metal. Yeah, so so the second tour was a piece of cake, really was. I mean literally, you're throwing illumination rounds out right, so they can see. Obviously the enemy doesn't once you throwing light out, so I'm sure you're taking fire on that too. Yeah, we turned the lights out on the aircraft, the lights. Uh but but yet, Yeah, when when you throw the flare out and it pops and they can hear the they can hear the engine two engines of this aircraft, and they probably they shot just randomly hoping to hit us. Yeah, and but the other side of us was Yeah, if a bullet came up and threw that palette and hit those flares, we were flaming rocket. Yeah, wow, we would be one charred up Marines. But it didn't happen, Thank god. We did get shot a few times. When I read your bio is over three hundred missions combat missions. Yeah, three four hundre is somewhere in the area. It's just amazing, amazing things. I mean, I know where in the middle of this, but I mean that just makes me want to say thank you for your service. That's just incredible. But that was something that it was just part of my early life that I never thought much about. You did it, and you just like any of the soldiers, Marines, sailors, airman from World War you know, one two career Vietnam. You just stepped up. You did what you did. You did it, and you know, I have all the respect for the World War two guys. My gosh, I had my dad's World War Two, but you never did go to overseas. He was stay side because he came in right at his age was such a He came in right at the end of World War Two, but my mother when he died, my mother remarried twice, and she married another Navy guy who served stateside, but then he died of ironically, both of them died of pancreatic cancer, my dad and my stepdad. And then my mother waited a while she remarried again. This time she married an army guy from Bedford. Yeah, he joined the army before D Day boiled Earl Wilson, and he landed in Africa. He went with the Big Red One, and then he went to Sicily, landed there on D Day, and then he went to Normandy, landed on D Day. There he had three D Day lands and he got a purple heart on D Day Normandy. So his wife died and so anywhen they married. So I was able to be at the dedication of this memorial in two thousand and one with him and my mother to see that he was so happy and for you. So when you transition back out for it, So you're done and you finished your second tour, did you have thoughts about making it a career or were you had had enough and you're ready to go to Lynchburg, Virginia. How to what happened? And you're thinking, there, life comes at you, not as plan. My plan was then just one day at time actually, and then as I've been getting near my four year listment and this went up in my thirteen months in Vietnam, again, I'm thinking, well, back up a little bit. I think I met a young lady in between tours in Vietnam, and she was a nurse and a student nurse. And long story short on this one was my other buddy of Vietnam Vet Marine helicopter mechanic combat related. He and I were buddy, and so we go out drinking a lot in Chicago area and in clear View. So every month, toward the end of the month, we broke So the local hospital will give you fifty dollars a pint. So we went to the local hospital and we met these two young nurses. One was my future wife Jan So we gave pint of blood. We got fifteen bucks, and typically marines, we say, what y'all doing tonight? You want to date? So we took him out for a pizza and beer. Blew the fifteen dollars, so he that woman the lady young nurse was his girlfriend for a while then my well, we were a girlfriend boyfriend. But really I had that time, I already had orders back to Vietnam. I had cut and dry. I was going back to Vietnam, and I did not want to get in a relationship at all. Yeah, but she got pregnant. Oh wow, Yeah, same thing happened with my dad. My dad went with my mom pregnant the second time. Yeah. So I learned about that on my way back to Vietnam, and kempt hometon and she was able to fly out to Camp Penitans to uh say goodbye, and she probably thought of that. I never never gonna come back. But I married married her. Well, I didn't marry then I should have, but to make sure my child had a last name. So when I got to Vietnam at July, let's see about December, yeah, late to say, almost Christmas time. It probably was Christmas, I gotta call go into my captain's office, and I'm thinking, what in the world four So I got I got in there and he said nighttime. He looks at me sternly. I heard you got someone pregnant, And I went, oh, how'd you know? That. So he says, I got orders here. Now I got a request, and you don't have to do this. You're in Vietnam, your marine, we need you. But the request is for you to take emergency leave and fly back to Chicago and marry this young lady. No kidding, yep. Apparently her mother was able to find out somehow through the Red Cross that this could happen. Wow, yeah, this could happen. Never would have thought that. Nope, I didn't either. I think I was the only and I'm not sure if I was the only one in Vietnam they got this request. That's incredible. So here I am looking at this. Cant you think about it? Did you think about it any? Or did you just kind of a. You know, I had to. Well, he's looking at me, and he said, here's your decision. That most decisions, the best decisions you have to make a worse. Do you want to do it or not? You don't have to. You can stay right here and just stay in the Marne War, or you can go. An honorable man. Hmm, that's a great. I said, well, it is my son, and I didn't know it was her son. Here's my baby, so I will go back, so I had I had one week to get to Chicago and get married and get back. So we got married January eighth, nineteen sixty nine. She was still going to nursing school in her last year, so by the time I got orders back to the States, she was six The baby was six months old. As the boy. Yeah, so I found out he was a boy went in Vietnam. Someone I know that I found me a good ball of whiskey and nice the tours. Anyway, we were married and then so here I am going back to coming back from Vietnam on my thirteen month tour, had orders to andrew Was Air Force Base to be with the presidential fleet. And I guess, like I had a bunch of medals, and I guess they just want to use me as a you see they listed as they step off the helicopter to salute the president and so forth. So I was headed that way even though I had only three months left on my thirteen month tour. But I was gonna go to Andrews and just find out what's going on, what's going to happen. But when I got to Okinawa, we've always processed in and out through Okinawa and the lieutenant came up and said, anybody with three months or less, even though you have orders somewhere, you can't get out. And I knew my wife wanted to be out, and I knew it was probably the best thing for me to be Outah, raised my raised my hand and got to Camp Pounding and processed out in about four days and flew to just Lockport, Illinois and became a civilian. Yeah. Yeah, and then right away I had to get a job, start making money and take care of the wife and the kid. And while she's still going to school her fourth year of degree there. So how do you get from Illinois to Bedford County? How's that true? Well, like I said, my mother's from Lynchburg and I lived here twelve thirteen years old as a young boy when they got divorced, and my father's in Montgomery. My mother's up here. So when I was thirteen, I went back to Alabama just to visit my grandmother, not my father, just to see her that summer and then come back up. When I got there, he had already remarried his third wife and he had two she had two young daughters, and my brother Pat was already living with him. He already moved down a year earlier. Now, I just had a good time in Alabama with him and my dad and then decided of stay. And there was a very cheerful moment when I had to call. When my mother called me and said, well, you're coming home on the bus. I said, no, Mamamilla stayed out here all day. I was thirteen years old and stayed down there. And then my father was construction guy. So we got divorced with his third wife and he started construction. Then that's why we got handed off to my grandmother to take care of us. Were he well, as he said, I'm gonna get you later, and later that ever happened. Well, my grandmother took care of us very well. Yeah, incredible, incredible stories. I'm so glad that you took the time out to spend with us today. Before you leave, though. How did you get involved in monument Terrace? Tell us a little bit about that. Well, when I I went to school, I went there. My first job at the year I went to I was a security guard at Joliet Stay Penitentiary and Joe and I worked my way up pretty good. I was in charge of the whole in six months where they shipped all the inmates in who were really the worst of the worst. So I was in charge of the hoven day shift and it was a cushy job, but I had some incidents here and there that I knew that this was out my career path. I wanted to go back to school and get my AMP license, which is airframe and power plant license to work on any aircraft commercial or private. And I went to Joe Lit I mean Lockport, Illinois, who had a university there called Lewis University, and they had four year degree and a two year degree program. And I went a year and a half, got my AMP, took my federal license, passed it, and then I was going to work on my two years later on if I got my I got a job at ol'd Hare Airport, which I did not because the airline industri was going through a slump and I couldn't get a job nowhere. So I worked as a technician at Joliet mobile O Refinery and making gas, making light gases and for about three years, and I was couldn't stand the weather. It was miserable, coal snow, and my mother down here in Lynchburg was getting ready to sell her house and downside is to a condo. So I came down here that summer prior to moving down here, and she said, this is going to her husband had died here, her second third second husband died, so she's going to sell. And I looked at the house and how much and she said raisable. So at that time, it was in nineteen sixty, nineteen seventy one, no, seventy five, I'm sorry, seventy five, December seventy five. So I bought the house for fifty thousand bucks and moved down here. So my wife and I went back and forth talking about it. And she was a nurse by the time, or in so she got a job here in a Virginia Baptist and sports general. So our marriage was not perfect. We weren't made for each other. So we stayed marriage seventeen years, had three wonderful children. But then I found my soulmate, Debbie, Debbie Winebarger and married her. So then I got a job with Framatonma. I came down here with no job opportunity. I just knew I could find a job. Don't sure of them. So I got a job with BMW nineteen seven actually seventy six January seventy six, and then retired twenty years ago at the twenty nine years as a retired as a purchase purchasing agent. And it's a good job I had made. But then I just retired. And so I got involved with veterans organizations. Back in nineteen eighty six when they dedicated the monument Terrace downtown, they dedicated World War Korea, World War Two, and Vietnam memorials. At that time, they did not have any memorials for particularly World War Two, because ever since World War Two ended in forty pretty much forty five forty six, it took them another forty years to build a memorial for one hundred and eighty something men that died from Lynchburg. Wow. Yeah, I did not know that. Yeah, but the city limits of Lynchburg was small back then in World War Two. So one hundred and eighty six men died in World War Two. So you were part of the group that does the rally every Friday. Yeah, and you guys have been doing that since November December two thousand and. One, November thirty of two thousand and one. Wow, after nine eleven. Yeah, So I got with the Biting no Vets and the Marine Corps League, and then the American Legion and then Davy. Next thing, you know, I kind of came out of my bunker in nineteen eighty six when they dedicated the three memorials and I felt like, Okay, life is good, get on with it. And I started being more active in helping organize the yearly Veterans Day Memorial Day, and all the World War two guys have been doing it. So they need someone else younger, Yeah, step up, And I was. I just couldn't say no. The next thing, you know, I've gotten I was putting charge of a lot of stuff. So when nine eleven halven, uh, that was our that was our pro Harbor Day. Yeah yeah, wow, Well, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing with us and taking time out of your schedule to do that. Before you go, you've got the toughest question to answer yet. We always ask our guests if you could spend twenty four hours with anybody, whether it be past or present, who would it be and where would you hang out with them? That's easy, okay, my grandmother. Oh. Yeah, that's awesome. The one in Alabama, yep. Oh, man. What a story, Sergeant Steve Bozman. We appreciate you coming on the program again. Thank you Again. Is more than a podcasting platform. It's a media theme park. We have sports, politics, music, and so much more. If your business is looking for a more effective way to advertise, why throw your money away on old fashioned ways. We can target your money to specific audiences. Our podcasters have a national audience, and life Liberty Happiness is ranked in the top ten percent in the world. Contact us today so that Media Squatch can get to know you and your needs. Become a part of the Grove Street FM Family Tech Jamie at Jamie Jami at mediasquatch dot com. That's Jamie Jami at mediasquatch dot com. Meet Insurance in Bedford. I'm David Honeker, local State Farm agent. Whether it's home, auto, or life insurance, We've got you covered with personalized service and great rates. Let us help you protect what matters most with the reliability and trust of Statefarm. 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I swear sometimes I hear some of these stories, or you know, I have lunch with some of the people that might come on and I feel like I haven't done anything in my life. You know. Yeah, there are Yeah, you feel like, man, wow, uh what a fighter? I mean, just a badass and the dude is still serving Yeah, I mean serve this country. Yeah, that's phenomenal. There's people you run across that are just honorable and you know what, it's just an honorable man there. All right, moving on to drama. What are you laughing at? It just seems like, I mean, we did the veteran voicest thing. We talked about this, but I don't know, it just makes everything else feel insignificant that we do, you know, I mean anyway, that's that's what I really hoped this would be, is just hear there's stories and just you know, and now we get into drama part of it. Yeah, yeah, all right, moving on And granted, if this show wasn't as popular as it was, we wouldn't be able to do some of these things. That's true. All right, what are you watching on TV? You're still doing NPR. No, that's the old one. It was busy, like last night you got to the farm, the Clarkson Clarkston farm. I started it and stopped because Logan with his house now is basically farming, right. Yes, he's got he's become him. So I went by there the other day and I literally and Emma knows she can relate to this. They have like eighteen chickens, Sima is that right? What? Oh my, I have no idea. Oh it's living in their house or something. No, they've got a chicken coop. God, why do I even try? I tried bringing you into. The show, and I know I didn't know. I didn't know how many. It's impossible. I didn't know how many. They have, like eighteen chickens, chickens and like pigs, three horses now over. There and dogs. They got some cats, goats. They're living my life. It's ridiculous. So she can see you. I got no. Gene it wants me to do that anyway. It's clark So Clarkston Farm is something that I laugh at because it reminds me of people who never farmed. Right, I grew up you know, part of my second I would say, starting thirteen year old on a farm. Right, so you kind of we did tobacco and. Stuff like that. So you kind of you know what you hate, right, which you hate the early mornings because you got to do it. Then why do you have. To feed at freaking six am? I'm thinking about that now, like why did we have to get up? Well, most of the time it was because you also did other things. We have to get the food out of the way, the feeding out of the way so that you could go work on the garden. So you could work on the buildings and the tractors or maybe your job. So I started watching the season and then I thought, you know what, I would rather watch that with Logan since we're together in Charlottesville working. I said I'd rather watch it with him, just because dude laughed so hard at the first thirty minutes at what an idiot like? And I know it's not I mean, he's trial and error, right, but it's like a goat. I'm just gonna tell you a goat bit him and he's by himself trying to feed and they keep biting his leg, which does happen, and he gets so he looks down and he goes one more time, and you're in the You're in. You're gonna end up at an Indian restaurant. I was like, man, this is perfect. So anyway, yes, Clarkston Farm is my next to do. That's cool. What is yours? I did? I finished up the NASCAR Season two. Actually, I really enjoyed that Netflix. I need to check it out because the first one wasn't so good. The first episode of the first season. Yeah, the first season wasn't as good, and even the first episode of season two was not as good. Because I'm not a big Daniel Suarez fan. So Tyler Panell had actually mentioned something about Daniel Suarez and the life of Daniel Suarez and what a bee she was, and that's a good description. I got you. Hello, Kevin. Yo Yo. Was very random. I was expecting him. I had told him that we would move his segment up to UH sports, but we're not there at sports. But no, it's perfect timing. I'm glad you could join. Us and see he said. Emma, he told me he's not asked me, but he told me he. Does the same thing. She reminds me all the time. It's my show, Kevin. Kevin, did you enjoy the coke? Did you? Did you go to the six hundred? It was pretty good? No, you know I didn't. You told me you were going, and. I didn't end up going. I had free tickets, but I didn't end up doing because I had yard working gold. That was as good as six hundred that I can remember seeing in a while a long time. Yes, like I don't even know what was going on, because I mean, everybody's like saying the coverage was great. I did not think the coverage was that good. It was. They kept showing. I mean, they showed the front. The front had action, but honestly, you had no idea what was going on in the back at all, mainly because the front was good. And I'm saying the racing was good. For the lead, that was really good. Yeah, Byron dominated, but yet at the same time. But he didn't really dominate in the fact that Hamlin was on his rear the whole time. He run about every ten laps or something, he'd pass them and then he'd getting back ten laps later. It was pretty You don't see that very often. No, No, I listen. I laughed because you know, I'm not a big Hamlin fan, but I laughed out loud because the announcers made it sound Steve Lettart being one of them. How genius it was of Hamlin's crew to calculate the fuel and so that he would be on Pitt Road the shortest time, right, And how fitting. It was that they didn't get the second kill. They screwed it up, the genius of it to the point where he was the only one that was of gas at the end. And I'm like, that's perfect. I mean, not to always be down in the broadcast, because I would love a broadcast to be great, but Latarte, Man, he over analyzes the team wherever. You know why he doesn't. It's like he doesn't want to give the driver the credits. He's always trying to over embellish what the teams do and always, man, I get it, but he does it all race long, and okay, I get you were the strategist, but then kind of like I'm doing now, he just over talks and you don't get to hear Junior at all. You speaking of that, Kevin. Have you watched any of the Dale Earnhardt documentary on Amazon? I forgot what he was talking. Has been three minutes. I was a little over talked by somebody. I guess I'll just take a break, young, young, finish it up. Have you watched the Dale Dream I'm just playing. Have you watched the Dale Earnhart documentary on Amazon Prime? No? So I have not. It's pretty good. It's well, it's not over with or is it? No? No, there's four episodes. They dropped the first two before Memorial Day weekend. I think the next two the final two or after Memorial. Okay, yeah, it's it looks very interesting. A lot of stuff I didn't know. Like I texted you, Kevin, did you have any idea that Neil Bonnett drove for Richard Childers. I did not know that either. I had when I saw the black number thirty one, yeah, and Neil Bonnet on the side, I was like, when did that happen? And I didn't know. It was after he had had an awful wreck and Earnhardt pretty much got him to come out and dude, did you see he's talking to the in car camera, he's talking to the studio or whatever the the announcers are and racks. Yeah, while he's talking to him. A bad wreck, like a flipping, almost died wreck. Correct. Goee? Can you imagine when Ernhart must have thought when he was driving around the track and seending that thirty one car torn up after he had just talked him into racing again. Yeah, I guess that's why he didn't go. To You know who used to smoke cigarettes in the race? Oh? Yeah, Dick Trickle. Dick Trickle, David Pearson. When we talked about Big Trickle he buried up here at the cemetery out Well, that's. Right, Kevin. When we went to South Boston when earn Hart was there. You went in somebody's hauller that night because we lost you. Whose was it, Drew Pearson? Drew not Drew Pearson. Was David Pearson? Oh, Chattanooga too. He drove with I remember that because you had a They gave away these eleven eight and a half by eleven postcard hard thing, and I remember you had signatures and stuff and came out of the hauller. I remember that. And he had a car Earnhart wrecked. You know when when you come out of turn south as Yes, it's a massive crowd and you come out of turn too when you're going on the backstretch is where they come into the track right. He hit that wall where it turns it blunt. Yeah, it was nasty. Kevin ends up with a piece of his car. Now wouldn't that be worth a pretty penny today? But he has no clue where that is. Center's basement. Kevin could be could be at their house. We grew up where we buried the Dukes the Hasard lunch box with baseball cards and stuff. And now. We did do that, and he is there there in the in the dirt somewhere, and me and Brian had one of those lunch boxes. It was Dukes that hazard. We put some coins in there, some baseball cards, and we buried there and the Grant take a metal detect over there and knock on the door. Just tell the people we got a time capsule out there as work. Like me, mhmm. The thing I liked about the Earnhardt the two episodes for me, it was my childhood because I hated del Arnhart. Like in fact, we had done a top ten list of people we hate the most, he would have been number one because I was a Darrell Waltrick fan. What's crazy is obviously I remember racing then, but I wasn't a fan the way I am now. I had no idea how awful he was not not I'm talking about hitting people, wrecking people. And they complained about Chastain a couple of years ago, and I'm like, do you realize I mean, imagine if they did to Earnhart what they did to Chastain. I mean, we wouldn't have had the greatness that we've we've had. And like real race fans want Chastain to keep doing it exactly, we want that. Yeah, m he raced really well. Your people are a little bit pout of puffs more than they are back then. Back then, you want no puff puff like man, you just went over and took a licking and kept on taking. Yeah, the saying those calls back in though, Brian, they won't made of plexic glass and fiberglass and plastic. They were made out of actual metal. You could beat that call around. They'd take a hammer and knock it out and keep driving. I mean, oh yeah, it was totally different than these calls now. I couldn't. The one thing that shocked me more than anything was how puny Junior was. Yeah, tiny, like he was an outcast. I didn't know that he went to a military academy. Oh, I do remember that. I didn't know he did that. And I didn't know his sister then also enlisted in the military academy because she was worried about him. I watched him interview Ward Burton, right, and Ward's parents had sent him to Hargreat. Yeah, and when he had him on his show, Junior goes, well, you went to a real military academy, Like Genia said, ass was fake, like we had to wear the uniforms, but you guys really had everything more. Didn't last there either, yeah, but yeah, yeah, that's where I found out that they both went to military. Yeah, Earnhardt was Martin. Yeah, Mark Martin is a little dude. Mark Martin was a little tiny guy. And I mean Kyle Lowerson's a little small little guy. I bet you don weigh one fifteen one twenty. Ready, he's small. I felt bad for Kyle Larson man all the hopes, and of course it's a rainy ind which sucked to start with, and it starts late. But man, he'swed. She sure screwed the pooch. He uh? Is he done? Man? I feel like he needs to still have a nice day. He needs to have another good run. I'd let him do it again. I think Junior said that he wished he would focus on Charlotte, Win Charlotte and then go back to it that, don't wear it out to where you're just driving and finishing wherever. Well, he stalled in the pits and then he down shifted the wrong time and wrecked himself and then wrecked someone else. So I'm sure that I'm sure the wrecking someone else probably bothered him more than him not having a good day himself. Yeah, he seemed like he was really dejected after that. Yeah, but I mean, oh clean step same way. Yes, I loved watching that cleat McFarland. Was that an archa rac er? Next viinnity? It was Arca okay, and he was starting on the outside row. Yeah, and spun the tires and dude, he took out half the field. Yeah, he said that thing took off like a ball eagle, you know. Seeing that. I'll tell you what. I was not a big fan of this guy, but I'm telling you, man, in our lifetime, this might be blasphemous versus all the drivers that are out there with Junior and Earnhardt and all that stuff and d w But Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart finished in the top five. He finished fifth at Indy. Yes, right, he led I think they said forty seven laps and the one that he finished fifth in. That guy was a NASCAR Champion Day two five winner, and he's won a top fuel Yes, and how many how many outlaws do is he won? Correct? I he might be the best driver of our lifetime. You might be right, you know, amazing. Yeah, I could say that. Kevin U, Hey, your crops taking a beating with all this rain. No, none, came out today. Nice. They reached the fort the stars, very nice. Like I gave him some vaguara. They're gone reaching for the stars. That's awesome. So you got eggplant growing? She got the. Emma, are you paying attention? Yeah? I was gonna tell them I actually started a garden. Hey, look at that, Kevin. You're inspiring at people. I did zucchini, zucchini, squash, green beans and cucumbers. Nice. Yeah, we'll see if they live. You call them snaps, right, snaps? I never call them snaps. Oh god, you never had the snap beans? Well I did, but I don't call them snaps. What do you do with them when you well? Snap beans? All right, I didn't call them snaps. I guarantee you Barber call them snaps. You might have if I didn't snap them, She smacked me. All right, Kevin, we're gonna wrap up. We've got a whole nother show to get to. Yeah, yep, we still. Got We went really long in an interview, and you've got to hear the interview of this marine that fought in Vietnam. It was amazing. Let me tell you one thing, one last thing for I get off. I had a girlfriend one time, and she said, Honey, I want to donate some of my clothes to the starving people. I said, they anybody who fits in them is installving. Just phone drops. That is hilarious. All right, moving on quickly to sports doom doom? All right, what was your monico? Just boring? I agree, they gotta do something different. I mean do a different track then, well, like we're doing it with NASCAR now, finally just changing things up a little bit. Yeah, and I mean, there, what are you gonna do. You're gonna take down condos? Swimming pool now? I think you just find a long stretch where you can have passing in there and then you're good. There's nothing better though than the drone and helicopter footages. Yeah, that's the best part of that race when you could just see there was a condo building that had probably four swimming pools tiered. Yeah, like the different elevations had swimming poles. Ridiculous, It's crazy. Uh yeah, lets see, Alex Pulo, that's my favorite race of the day is supposed to be. I just I was getting irritated because at the end of the race there was two lap cars that stayed in front of the leaders yeah, and I was like, come on, man, figure it out and get out of the way and let them go up front, because essentially it just meant nobody could pass because they all had dirty air, you know what I mean. You know Alex Polow Yeah ended up winning. So I got a real quick interesting story about that. Yeah. So Alex Polow drives for Chip Ganassi. Yep. After his first I think two years, Ganassi had a third year option to keep him, so he released a statement saying that he was keeping Polo for his third year. Pelo said he hadn't agreed to anything. And literally that day, Zach Brown announced that McLaren had hired Plow. Wow. So Chip Knassi says, no, you didn't. I've got the paperwork, you know, he's with us. So literally what had happened was after he had so Polo lied, I mean, he had resigned, but then Zack Brown had approached him and dangled f one. Okay, which is what he wanted to do. Yeah, because he's Italian, right correct, no Spanish Spaniards. So after this fell through, Zach Brown basically he was going to be the test driver, you know how they have those, and so after so then Polow kind of backed out of that and and Zak Brown sued and it just it became a massive mess. So I'm just I'm curious to see what Chip Kanassi thinks of Zach Brown and how you know. So that was that was an interesting tidbit that I found out about that too. And then of course the last race of the night was the six hundred, which was phenomenal of the day. Yeah, now I've got a one minute clip, and I know we're running along today, but this is a good show. We've had a terrific show today. Are you and a her? You look like you're ready to leave, Emma, You're good. Good. So this is a one minute clip, but I wanted Emma to know, like the six hundred is a big deal. It's not just another race. They spend a lot of time and money on really celebrating and understanding the importance of Memorial Day. And so I found this clip Trent, and it's it's a minute long, but I I had no idea. Do you remember when at the end of the race, Chesting grabbed the picture? Yes, all right, well this is the story of that. Again, it's just a one minute clip, cut one. This is a true story behind the real meaning of a Memorial Day weekend. This past weekend, I was invited with my family to attend the Cooke six hundred, our first NASCAR race, but it had a very special touch through Trackhouse Racing Jockey partnered with Folds of Honor to honor a fallen military member during this Memorial Day weekend race, and my dad was chosen to represent Folds of Honor. I worked with the team to customize elements of the car. One specific detail was the inclusion of my dad's favorite catch phrase, be a sponge. Our family's name was featured on the sides of the car, and my Dad's rank and name was featured on the windshield of the car. Before the race, I had the opportunity to give Ross Chastain, the driver of the number one Chevy, a special galuc term. It was a picture of my dad on the prayer card from his funeral. Ross tucked it in the race and said it would ride with him, and after starting in last place in the longest race six hundred miles, Ross came in first place. This made history. It was record breaking, and Ross pulled out my dad's prayer card right at the end of the race and recognized him. We could have never imagined we experienced this kind of comeback and win at our. First ever NASCAR race. But I know my dad was looking over Ross during this race, and Ross made sure that he was included in every part of it, saying that this is the true meaning of Memorial Day weekend. So a huge thank you and congrats to Rosschastin in track house racing. You're truly the best. That's really cool. Okay, I mean we don't even recognize you know what I'm saying. Yeah, but that's what I love about that race. It just means more like it's just really cool. So I was telling you coming up, you know in top tens that a lot of things that I see are the Mount Rushmore. You know you got doing that soon. Yeah. What would you call the crown jewels like they keep calling the Coca Cola six hundred. What to you is the crown jewel. To my I just had this conversation with someone the other day about this. My crown jewels are the Daytona five hundred, the Southern five hundred, which is Darlington, the Coca Cola six hundred, and that would be it for me. I would put Talladega in there. See I don't and you know why, because it's just I don't know Talladega five hundred. But the reason I say that is because those are the four that I would pick, right, so that that's how I would do it. One that has lost its luster that I thought was great at one time was Bristol, the Summer Race, the Night Race, the Sury Night Race. That was great. And then the list. The reason and I said that is because they didn't have Talladega in theirs. They put the Brickyard, not just that is not a crown jewel. That was kind of a gimmicky start in the beginning anyway. So they just keep one that they keep pushing on it like it is, but it doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't have Now then five hundred, that's four hundred thousand people. Yes, I saw a stat that said you sent that to me, and it blew my mind. I did the math to make sure one in every thousand people in the United States went to that race. That's unbelievable. That doesn't even sound fathomable what the math works. Wow? Yeah, all right, Yeah, that's enough of sports in the NBA. You got your three to one three to one Indie and uh okay, see okay, see that's probably who we have in the finals. Yeah, be a good matchup. But like you said, ratings will suck. That's what uh Clayon Travis said. I think it's gonna be the worst ratings ever because it's the smallest little towns, yeah that are in the Midwest. That's wrong with that though. I mean, I want to see good basketball. It's probably gonna be a good game. Get games to watch. Yeah, yeah, all right, moving on to what's happening. Yep, it's time for news, and i'll. This is the media just so you know, this is a clip of the media on how Biden uh couldn't handle the border, Remember that whole thing. Yeah, so play that clip cut too. Republicans keep saying Biden doesn't need Congress, he can stop what's happening at the border all by himself. Can you fact check that for us, because we here all, No, that's not true. Republicans have been saying largely wrongly right because it's saying that the president can close the border unilaterally on his own. President actually doesn't have the authority under law of there's. Only so much President Biden can do with executive action, and he did try to do whatever he could. They actually are doing everything they can. President Hans aren't. There's only so much that he can do. President Biden has issues certain executive orders, but there's only so much he can do within his purview. What an intractable a problem this is for the president with no easy solutions. No easy solutions here. There are no easy solutions here, folks. The president insisting there's only so much he can do without Congress. How much can actually be done quickly without Congress acting? How would this happen without the power of the purse without Congress getting involved. They need Congress to act to fix the broken immigration system. This cannot happen without Congress resourcing this. There's only so much a president can do with his pen in his phone. It's amazing. That's using the Obama term. Yes, the pen in his phone, but I mean it's stupid magic wand like we all know. That's why in Trump's speech it was awesome when he said all you needed was a new president. Yeah, it's I mean, it's unbelievable. And listen, I keep seeing polls. It's like you and I the math never did add up when they said, you know, oh, you know Republicans and his approval ratings are going down, and yet I'm here in this week that his approval ratings among men and young men just it keeps increasing. I don't I don't know if you have this on your agenda, but did you see where the Dems are trying to spend eight million. Or twenty million how to speak to men? Yeah, good luck if you're using Pete Buddhaji. Well, first off, yeah, stop telling me that I can milk a baby, right, stupid idiots like no, let him keep doing No, No, I get that. Spend twenty million, and I mean it's just absurd. God, But I mean those are the people that, like you said, the polls that are coming out, they're just liars. I just don't even care to listen that. David Mure. As much as I like that. Guy, I mean, you're a liar. You're just you're spitting out propaganda life. Yeah, it's awful. All right, Uh, moving on Trump. Did you see where Trump pardon you say? You don't know who the chrislies aren't. I don't know what this. The lady sort of looked familiar. The girl was she on. Was she at the Republican convention? She was? Okay, that's what I was sorted in the back of my mind. But I don't know who who they are. So the Chrystalies had a TV show, right, Okay it was They were just a family and they were funny. I liked the TV show. I can see why you would never watch it. I didn't even hear of it. Uh, it was wildly popular. Did you ever watch the Chrystalies, Emma, I don't know that is okay, see uh, anyway, it was. It was a real popular show. But they were They were wealthy Nashville, and then all of a sudden they were in trouble for a fraud, you know, in banks, right, similar to what. Went on with with Trump, like Letitia James going after it correct. So in this particular case, their business partner and what it all looks like when you step back and look at it is he had a business partner. I think that was screwing him over doing bad business loans. That dude got caught and decided to cooperate with the authorities against his business partner. That I really don't think. I think deep down they neither one of them knew anything about it, but they were conservative, they were Trump supporters, and they went to jail. So he pardoned them yesterday. And what was so cool? And this is what I love the most about the Trump administration is he does this stuff live like. They're not sitting there. Remember Kamela, you know they built a studio for her to do a deg On podcast in a fake studio like Trump's calling them the daughter to let them know that he's pardoning her parents. He didn't use an auto pen, Nope. And she and she knew nothing. She was walking into Sam's when she got the phone call, and they televised the phone like they're showing Trump and it's all raw, it's all you know. I read you something here for someone that we would probably trust a lot, Elizabeth Warren, here's a recap of Trump's big beautiful bill. Kids go hungry so Jeff Bezos can go buy a third yacht. Kids lose healthcare so Zuckerberg can buy a second Hawaiian Island. Seniors lose their nursing home care so Elon Musk can go to Mars. We must fight back with all we've got. Okay, here's why I'm happy that they do that because Trent, Let's just be honest. Who is Elizabeth Warren's favorite person ten years ago? Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Yeah, everybody. She just named Zuckerberg. Yeah, I mean that's how friggin the vic Yeah exactly. I'm telling you, man, they're just they're nutsos. It's yes, it's absolutely crazy. All right, Moving on last thing of what's happening. Yeah, when we're gonna win, win, win, and we're gonna make America great again. What is a woman and why is it important that we understand the difference between. Men and them? Well, it's sort of easy to answer for me, because a woman is somebody that can have a baby under certain circumstances, can she has a quality. A woman is a person who's much smarter than a man. I've always found. A woman is a person that doesn't give a man even a chance of success. And a woman's a person that in many cases has been treated very badly because I think that what happens with this crazy, this crazy issue of men being able to play in women's sports is just ridiculous and very unfair to women and very demeaning to women. Happened today, Yeah, I think it's state finalists in the high JOm right, all right. We went on to oh you had a thing to hear about the Diddy trial? Are you watching the did trial? Just bit some pieces I keep getting from it. I just wonder what's what's going on with the cameras here? Emma, how come his keeps messing up? True? O me? Anyway, Yeah, I'm not really following it because you and I both know nothing is ever gonna come. Like they don't. Just stop wasting my time. He's gonna be found not guilty. Right, just like listen, I'm on your side on this. I just saw where the Congress opened up an investigation into the Hunter Biden cocaine or the cocaine in the White House and uh Hunter Biden and Jill Biden and something else the auto the auto pen and stuff. And I'm like, I just stop, because you're not gonna do anything exactly. Just stop, let it go or do something or do something correct. That's the part we're waiting. That's that they have to know. That's what we're so pissed about, right the grounds, because stop bringing up an old story. Oh somebody said something this week looked at did we ever find the gold at Fort Knox? Of course, did anybody go Now, like those things keep circling back. You know, why don't we bust through the way they bust through an immigration? Yeah, just go force your way into Fort Knox? What the hell? Anyway? All right, moving on to today's top ten. This one I love it. I know you don't. And we have listeners. This is not about you, okay. I think I have a thumb on the pulse of the listeners. Really yeah, thank you, Emma. I don't know what this crap is, so thank you, Emma. There's even a hot dog on here. All right. So when we go to the river, yeah, we eat obviously, and there's there's certain foods that we eat that most people are probably could relate to. So this is like a good's the most. Trains we've had coming through. What are you laughing at? The number nine? Exactly? Exactly? So these are the things that you eat at the river. Number ten is vienna sausages. Oh right, what's a puppy pecker? I don't know that. I didn't know what that was either, he wrote, puppy peckers, that is sausage. I had no idea. I've never said that in my life, nor would I open one. But I like a Vienna sausage. Have you known, now take the slime off of it? Have you ever had a Vienna sausage? Emma? I can't eat on a cracker that's not really a sausage. It's like a it's like a raw hot dog. I can't eat hot dog. I can't eat meat like red meat. Oh okay, all right. Number nine is just noodles. Umber nine spaghetti with no sauce. Noodles. Who has noodles on the river? This comes from how my brother made a skillet spaghetti that soaks up all the sauce and it's kind of a dry spaghetti. Essentially spaghetti with no sauce. But I like it. Okay, Yeah. Number Number eight taco soup? Who eat soup on the river? Actually, I will say the taco soup is good, but this is what we eat at the cabin, right yeah. Number seven? Now, number seven is a Brad Warner invention that is phenomenal. It is cheese with cracker mostly it's the one are those things called the trisk its? Not invent that? By the way, who did. What we used to make that? So you're stealing it from him. I didn't steal it. Oh so you're s I mean, okay, well the only never went to the river, but that's where we used to serve, but we would do a jalapeno instead of the pepperine. Well, yeah, the pepper assini is terrific. Okay, thank you. Number six pistachios. Like if you, Emma, if you go to the river, especially hunting season, you'll know exactly where we sat and hunted. There's a pile. Of pistachio shells out of everybody's window, not that we hunt from our vis when we take breaks. Number five is Southern style ribs. What's Southern style? Uh? It is the meat. It's a little bit thicker, I mean like a Saint Louis rib Yes, okay, yep, put them in the crock pot. You have a grill. We do have a grill. Our kitchen a grill. What do you mean you guys can different than I do. It's a house on the river. Yeah, that's not how I camp. Okay, we did. Yeah, I'm in the middle of woods in a tent with no shower and your bathrooms like a you're. Not doing that at the river, do it? On a lake. Do you freeze your Number four biscuits and gravy? Definitely, I must love it. Number three is jllopena poppers. On's the grace that makes Yes, they're grilled tenderloin terrific, jalapeno delicious. Number two I guarantee you Emma has never had this ramp goulash isn't goulash? Isn't there meat in there? What the heck does a goulash? Does he have meat in it? I know it's potatoes, and it's potatoes and ramps. Do you even know what ramps are? No? I thought it was just a name you called it. It's the onions that you pull, the wild onions. Oh, they're called ramps. That sounds terrible. It hasn't meat in it, though, doesn't it? I think of a bacon maybe. I don't know. It's delicious? Is it not trimp? No? I love it. I just can't remember what's in it. You know what's not on this list? Is that water crescent salad? Oh? Yeah, never again. I wouldn't touch that. And number one, Yeah, it is Uncle Perry's deer tenderloin fried and pounded, dude, hounded and fry. It's I don't know how he does it. It's good. You can if anybody else can replicate how good he makes it, I can't. I tried. Yeah, I didn't see Kale on the list. That. No, Kal's not on that. That was a terrible list. No, this is a good list. I never have even anything off this list at the lake. You're not a man, what would be on your list? We make banana boats bananas and you put chocol chips and marshmallows in the middle of it, wrap it up in a loom foil and put it over the fire and roast it. Roasted bananas well, so like it gets all gooey, so like the inside gets all goody. How do you eat it? It's covered in a luminfoil. You get fork. Uh, never heard of such thing, me neither. If you like bananas. What's a big marshmallow? We call it banana. Boats m because you literally just take a banana, cutting half, put marshmallows, chocolate chips, rolling an aluminum foil. What's the boat part. It's shaped like a. Boat a banana. Have you not seen the banana boats that you will ride in the ocean. It's not cutting half. Okay, you're missing the point of that story. You're missing the point. Of that Okay, all right, moving on to the section of the show that people are probably tuned out by. Now. Have I just got three things to say? God, bless our truths, God bless America stock God. All right, let's jump right into the dumbasses perfect this person, this person was just a few million votes short of us getting this every single day. Cut in. We are an optimistic people. We are an optimistic people. Americans by character are people who have dreams and ambitions and aspirations. We believe in what is possible, We believe in what can be, and we believe in fighting for that. That's how we came into being, because the people before us understood that one of the greatest expressions for the love of our country, one of the greatest expressions of patriotism, is to fight for the ideals of who we are. Jesus. It was that thing where somebody said, she forgets what the next words she's going to say are. Yeah, she was on Oprah. Right, listen, if listen, we all know that Oprah got paid how much was it? Three million? Yeah? Do you think even with her getting paid that Oprah is sitting there going Jesus man. Yes, the look on Oprah's face right there, how did we get here? Oprah is sitting there thinking, how are you the one running? And I'm not. I mean, Oprah would be a challenge, be honest. I agree. She's definitely a smart enough woman that could could run for office. I'm glad she hasn't because she could win. All right. So man, So at the end of the show, I'm playing the graduate speech that I heard this weekend that I love the most right, and I love graduation speeches. Yeah, I mean some of them are memorable in my mind. The guy that said Texas the admiral and he was in the hunt for Osama. But Redline, have you seen that yet? Yeah, you watched the show. Oh my god, man, that guy was up there and I was like, I had to look him up. I was like, that has to be the that did the make your bed speech at Texas A And yes, okay, so my daughter spoke this weekend. I would take what and I'll play it at the end of the broadcast. But this dude, this is that Scott Pelly guy. So he's the one that's on sixty minutes. Do you remember him a couple of weeks ago, Oh yeah, I know, yeah, where we played where he said that the producer is stepping down and he was a man of honor type thing, a man of honors who we had on today. Correct, that's a man of honor. Listen to Scott Pelley talking to graduates of Wake Force Cut twelve. But in this moment, this moment, this morning, our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack, universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack, and insidious fear. Is reaching. Through our schools, our businesses, our homes, and into our private thoughts, the fear to speak. In America. Power can rewrite history with grotesque, false narratives. They can make criminals heroes and heroes criminals. Power can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. Diversity is now described as illegal, Equity is to be shunned. Inclusion is a dirty word. This is an old playbook, my friends, there's nothing. New in this. This guy's a liar. No, no, he just described his whole career. He literally did. It's shocked. Your channel just got busted for lying during the presidential campaign. You didn't even get up there and apologize for that. No, this is what we did wrong. You should never do this again. Do not do what we did. Instead, he's up there lying, channeling his bs. Okay, he is saying free speech is in jeopardy, right, right? Is he up there saying it? Right? That's what I'm saying. You have all the free speech in the world, but when you lie, you get sued because you got caught. Correct, That's what the lesson is. Their kids, And. I'm trying to figure out when they say the universities are under attack, what do you like, just explain yourself. What do you mean? Are you going to take the side of Harvard that would let Jews get murdered? Right about inclusion? Yeah? They need to call him out. So, man, I am so tired of the media being poor trade and then for him to go on sixty minutes later and do a hit piece on whatever, You're the same liar. Correct, I'm not listening to you. How's your mental focus? Oh it's like a fly that was him? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Of course he just comes running up here. Here's a scene just like you played earlier in What's Happened? Before you play this. Yeah. Yeah, you notice who are the ones screaming the loudest right now? The people like him. Do you know why because they're about to lose their job. Oh yeah, because what's gonna happen is the CBS parent company is gonna pay billions or millions or whatever they are to Trump for Lyon, by the way, and he's gonna lose his job, and he knows that new people coming in are gonna clean house. And what's probably also already happening is in the boardrooms when they're sitting there talking about the next story they have to do, there's somebody over there going, hey, we can't do that story because that's a lie and we could be held liable for that where they've been having a free run for thirty years. Correct. Yeah, I'm telling you they're screaming because they know what's next. Yeah, and listen, gosh, this was twenty five years ago. Maybe I mus had the head of CBS on and he said, is there you know, is your news compromise? Like you know? And of course the guy laughed it off, right, and at the end of the day he finally admitted that it. You know, ratings, you have to sell Advertisement. I keep waiting for that to catch hold. You don't think it is no, No, I mean they still keep doing the same stuff. I mean, we still have climate change as our number one story every night on ABC News. I just I look at it and oh, you remind me before you go onto this next clip. Yeah, I had it on my agenda and I took it off. The Sierra Club was started back in night eighteen eighty. I think it was right. That's a climate yeah, global climate. Yeah, global one. So you should google their Wikipedia and look at all the accomplishments they've had as a anti whatever, right, And I'm not I'm not making this up. If you google it, Emma, you will laugh your head off. They brag that they have shut down coal, they have shut down wind, they have shut down nuclear, they have shut down every foe of dams like uh water, every form of power. They brag about it, how they have stopped housing developments, and eventually you you go, wait a minute, dude, if you've shut down all of this stuff, how do we live as a society? What have you accomplished and you're bragging about it? It's so sad, so sad. Yeah, this is uh, this is the same mainstream media. Listen to all of them talk about this was this is when President Trump called out South Africa for allowing Africa what they call him Africas Africa the farmers that are white that are being potentially murdered. Okay, so here is mainstream media. I'd ex seen in the Oval Office today, the tense confrontation President Trump ambushing the President of South Africa. Next another Oval office meltdown, President Trump ambushing the President of South Africa. President Trump is being accused of conducting something of a diplomatic ambush of South Africa's president in the Oval Office. To be with you, I'm Katie, sir, President Trump orchestrated another Oval Office ambush today. Today Donald Trump meeting with the President of South Africa and attempting to ambush and humiliate that leader. To Zelenski territory, where essentially he was a bit ambushed inside the Oval Office. Felt like an ambush in there, kind of like the President's Lensky meeting in. The Oval Office. This was an ambush. It was orchestrated. The room opposed. Brought his best diplomatic self to this meeting, but nothing could have prepared him for this multimedia ambush what started as. To some degree in ambush, Well, Katie, I mean it wasn't ambushed, ambush, ambushed, ambushed and ambushed, ambushing, ambush. And ambushed inside the oval off it. So what's coordinated? You know how those are different channels we see it all the time. How I still want to know, how does that happen? How does that word disseminate to all of those channels to use the same phraseology, What coordination do they have? Like I don't think you could do a montage with Newsmax and Fox News and get the exact same high lighted word. If I just did this the other day, and it's almost shocking. And I think it was the Uhboum or the Osama bin Laden document that triggered it. I looked up somebody in that docum. I can't even remember who it was now and lo and behold, he's married to head of CBS, this, that and the other. And you just you start. Connecting the dots and they're all married, yeah, to someone in the government. And that's how is your answer? There's got to be you know, like the ap Associated Press they used to send out the news and then all the local channels would get the AP It has to be something like that. It's done from the DNC. It just has to be. Yes, there's no other way. So we found out, like, that's what they were doing with social media. Why can't they do that with hard print? Yeah, or not hard print, but you know so, this is one of my favorite guys on TikTok. Yeah, I love listening to him. Listen to this guy talk about the money that the Biden administration spent after losing the election. Cut thirty out that in the seventy six days between when the day Democrats lost the election to when Donald Trump took office, Biden's Department of Energy gave out nearly one hundred billion dollars in grants and loans. Now, look, I realize one hundred billion dollars might not sound like a lot when you're talking about the government spending, but just for context, that is more money handed out than in the previous fifteen years combined. In just the seventy six days between the election, Donald Trump taken over, the Department of Energy gave out ninety three billion. And what's even wilder than that, the vast majority of that money went to companies and individuals that had no business plan, they presented no financials. In fact, when it comes to more than half that money, it was given to individuals who didn't even start the business yet. Like, these are people who got like five to fifteen billion dollars and they just said, you know, give us the money and sooner or later we'll create the company. Ninety three billion dollars out the door in seventy six days, more than the last fifteen years combined in just seventy six days. Well, yeah, you know what, you liberals are right, we don't need those We don't need to look into this no. Corruption, that's infuriating. Have you noticed that the Democrats use the courts, Well, we all know they use the courts to stop the administration from doing things. Yeah, but you also notice they use it for their talking points. Yeah, Like, I don't know if you saw Leez Elden on Capitol Hill explaining the waste of Leez Elden's great right. Yeah, and have you noticed that now they keep saying but there was no evidence of that, yeah, and he would say, well, yeah it is, and he starts reading it and they go yeah, but none of this was in court. The judge said that there was no evidence, and so this is what they use the judge. You know what they forget to tell you and they don't tell you. And I just found this out, so you you obviously know the Trump administration thinks that these are liberal judges that are just stopping stuff, right, and we know that's true. They're not. They're not wasting their time. The Trump administration does not waste their time going to court to fight these things because they know it's gonna go up the ladder, and that's when they spend their time and money. So they don't waste their time and money. And I found this out in a Pambondy did this. So the judge got mad because and I'm just gonna use you as an example. It would be like you getting a phone call from Pambonding saying, hey, you know the district court judge in Lynchburg is holding up. Can you go down there and just present our case. Just using it. They don't they don't spend the time and. Resources and so just to go to the next round, right, So you send. So they kept saying when the judge said there was no ev they're not wasting their time. Here's the evidence. You don't like it tough. This is true, I do. Think and we've talked about this before. When somebody can tell you that the fraud was. Spent one hundred billion whatever, how about going on the back end of the that and telling me who got it? Yes, and then prosecute people, you know what I mean? I agree, they got to start prosecuting it. Yes, there's got to be some of that, all right, dude. I just wanted to end on a lighter note before the end of the show. I saw this and man, these things when they hit my scroll, it is the funniest guy. I missed this guy. Let's do when comedy was real? Cut thirty five two four six, Hey, don't make fun way fun. Fun one two three four. You're gonna fall through the floor. Okay, I get it. The no, ma'am. Guys sent you guys over here, isn't they It's the birthday gag. Weren't you supposed to jump out of a cake? But you it on the way over. Bundy. We are activists, oh, I say, not quite active enough. It so happens. We marched yesterday, shoe shmuck. What the million pound march. My hams across America? Oh gosh, that is one of the best. You remember my favorite line from that show, Emma, You should google and watch that show. It was phenomenal. Married with Children, Mary with Children. That's right when Peg came in and she said, ow did you miss me? And he said with every bullet eye. I still use that line at the house. All right, folks, great episode today. Next week we have well that's you're gonna work on judge grants if he can make it? Gotcha? So or got to give her and well we might get a break. Or go back and listen to the interview that we had today with Sergeant Bozeman. Yes, just phenomenal, what a story, terrific. Yeah, so what I'm ending here my daughter, So I'm just using it because it's your show, but I get in the show she was freaking amazing, And I talked about how shitty that Scott Pelley was at that graduation. Imagine being a guy at the graduation. You're getting ready to graduate to go start your life, and this guy is telling you that you have no freedoms. That's what those democrats nowadays. It's just what are you doing? Demoralizing? Right? So I found a couple of clips of my daughter talking here at the end of hers and I just was inspiring. I heard, in fact, I heard a lady behind me doesn't even know who we were two rows back. Go Amen, awesome, yep, congratulations, and we will see you next week. Be here. But leaving isn't just about walking away from our time together. It's about stepping. Forward into our new realities. We're leaving behind our favorite stories, familiar hallways, and maybe even parts of ourselves to then make room for the lives we will build for ourselves after today, whatever options lay before us, we have the freedom to choose our paths and our passions from this point forward. So, class of twenty twenty five, let's celebrate who we are right now, and let's keep building on that foundation as we become America's next generation. I want each and every one of you to keep three words in mind. Authenticate, advocate, and appreciate Authenticate In a world of misinformation, take time to verify what is real and what is true. As we might know, chat, GBT and AI can never replace your unique ideas, your voice, and your vision. Advocate for yourself for others. Have faith in your own beliefs, and get comfortable with being uncomfortable and finally appreciate, appreciate, JF, the lessons, the people, the growth, and how it's shaped who you are. We are JF, but we are also so much more. Thank you and congratulations to the class of twenty twenty five.
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