¶ Survivorship and Veterans
So we're in this bunker and also we heard the artillery coming in . So we all got in the bunker , you know , got down . I want to see one of these fuckers , you know what . That's gotta be cool , you know . So I'm standing up looking out the bunker , in this rock it's coming .
All of a sudden it blows up and shwing got there , a piece of shrapnel like that comes flying right by my ear and stuck in the wood in the bunker . But I would have been over a couple inches , I would have lost my face .
Welcome back to another episode of life to the max . Look at the quad father . You know you can't even tell he just pulled an all nighter , maybe a one hour nap before Ted got here . You know he was just so nervous anticipating this interview . He was so excited he couldn't go to sleep . We're gonna get right in the Ted's interview right after the intro .
If anybody's going through something bad right now , anybody's going through something that's where they feel like they're not worthy , like , just remember you are . A lot of things have happened in my life . I've had a shitty guard dealt to me , but you know I'm so persevering and moving on . So can you .
So I , analyzed from a neck down , read through a machine , but that doesn't stop me from following my dreams , to doing what I love to do . I don't have any excuse on how they should do . Let's get into this episode . You fucking grudge . I'm proud of it .
We don't . We don't get many , many other soldiers on the show , so , max , is definitely excited .
I'm not a soldier .
You're a veteran .
I'm a .
Marine , all right , soldiers Army . Okay , okay , okay .
I stand corrected .
I know nothing . I need you to educate me .
I need you and Max to educate me . I'm just the average Joe .
He's a soldier no no soldiers are Army man . You know that , max .
You know what ?
You're a devil dog there you go .
You're a devil dog . You're the few that you know . The Marines are called the few and the proud , just because you're fucking a stretcher .
That's what happens when you don't sleep , max you miss the punch lines .
I know , come on , try again .
People want to hear it . No I can't Well , ted , introduce yourself to me and the people . I've only seen you around a couple parties . I noticed you driving up in an American flag ramp to vehicle .
Yeah , that my vehicle . It's the side of it's got a section of Vietnam wall . And the day I got hit over there , september 26th , I got seven of my men were killed and their names are all in bold on there . Then I got the PLW flag on there for my dad . He was a PLW World War two .
So you got the people
¶ Vietnam War and Joining Marines
that you served . With that , you lost on your awesome I like that Some of them . It's more than just a decoration .
Yeah , it's . You know , I had it on my first car . I had the wall on there and when I bought the second car I felt guilty . You know , I go up to grab the car handle , get in the car and I didn't see the guys on and I felt guilty , man , nice , weird .
So I did it again . Oh man , so so getting this , rap it , you don't feel guilty anymore ?
No , I don't know , I don't know , it makes me feel good , exactly Nice .
Think of them every day . I like that . I consider to that I like that .
It's truly awesome of you to let their legend live on , even though it was a shitty war .
Yeah , tell us a little about Vietnam .
Oh , I don't know what you want to know about it . It was hot the women , the women . Never touched them . I was , we were trained in boot camp Hate , the Vietnamese , the gooks , and I never touched them . I'd rather shoot them .
It's a glove , turkey .
Yeah , be truthful in life to the next . That's what it's about .
So when did you join the military ? When did you join the Marine Corps ?
I went in December 19th 66 .
So that's like towards the end of Vietnam . Right Vietnam ended in like 70s .
Yeah , 74 .
74 with the next one . Yeah , so what were you ? And you didn't get drafted . You said there was a lot of people who got drafted right .
Yeah , I went in when I was 17 . I had a little problem in high school . I was asked to leave early . So what the heck ? I was going to go on Marines when I graduated , so I just went in early .
So why the Marines ? What about the army ?
The best .
Screaming Eagles .
The best , nothing but the best . I wanted to go to NAMM and fight and I wanted the best train I could get .
So I wanted the Marines when people got drafted . Could you tell the difference between the ?
people that , yeah , I was literally just about there On the same level .
Could you tell the difference between the people that want wanting to be in the military and the people that are forced to be in the military ? Because I would imagine if a bunch of people got drafted were forced to go in the military , then you'd be fighting alongside a bunch of cowards that really didn't want to do it .
You know that's a good question . I don't know . I know when I was in NAMM we ran into one of the guys and I don't know if he was drafted or not , but he was he was a coward , I guess .
when , when shit hits the fan , you know you got to do what you got to do , yeah .
What about boot camp ? Like you know , were there any people that you can tell , or you got drafted .
No , not really .
Really . Well , I thought there would be . I thought there would be like some like pompous bitch , just like sitting around , like saying why , am I doing this ?
I think , that'll be the case if we got drafted today , I think these generations , but I think back then everybody was pretty much on the same page , like we're fighting for our country .
Yeah , you know , our parents all did it and we felt that that was our obligation to go on when this war broke out .
Yeah , like in world war in history and world war two , when we ended the war in world war two there were people coming home and kissing in New York City random girls when people came home from .
Vietnam and the random girls are kissing back .
Yeah , and when people came home from Vietnam , they were spending on soldiers . Do you know that ?
No , I thought you were talking about the same thing . Coming home from .
Vietnam . No , it was a whole different side . You don't , you don't know about .
Kent State .
I don't know anything , I'm just you don't know about the tell me about it . I mean I don't know much . I mean I know I know the history of it , kent State University , that they were doing a protest on the Vietnam war and like , I guess , like a few people got shot .
On your hippies .
On your hippies . Yeah , like they were basically saying like make love , not war , you know . And then it was at Kent State University and they were , they were saying they were . They were like it's sort of like saluting soldiers and saying thank you for your service . They were like spinning on it and stuff I didn't .
I didn't pay attention too much in my history class but I did watch for his gump .
The Vietnam war is very controversial , especially because of the way it out happened . Oh yeah , because JFK dies right . So JFK dies in 1963 . Okay , the war . The war is like brewing in 1961 , I believe .
Right so the reason why we invaded Vietnam is because of the Gulf of Tonk and resolution , which is where there's this conspiracy that a Vietnamese ship shot down an American ship and that was an act of war and that's why we went to Vietnam . And it was because of Lyndon Johnson .
Lyndon Johnson was JFK's VP , vice president , and then , when JFK died , lyndon Johnson took over and all of a sudden there was a draft and all these Americans were going to Vietnam .
Yeah , I heard that that conspiracy about that Gulf of Tonk , that it wasn't Vietnamese that shot that .
I don't know why he wanted to go to war . Why , well , it's because of the Truman doctrine . The Truman doctrine is we will not let other countries fall to communism .
They started that war because of the money they made on it . There are a lot of politicians that made buku money on that war .
Well , 100% , I agree , war makes money , especially if you're the person making the money . But so JFK was focused on the space race . He wasn't focused on , you know . But Lyndon Johnson was focused on the Truman doctrine , which basically was we won't let other countries fall to communism . Hence like going to Korea in 51-53 .
We did that because we didn't want them . We didn't want South Korea to fall to communism from . North Korea from the , the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong .
You know , when you guys were over there , because it wasn't fair , when you were over there , because you had you had people in uniforms and then you had people that were regulars , that could be the Viet Cong , so you could get ambushed by people there being nice to you .
It was .
It's fucked up , like with the things I've read about Vietnam , where it just makes me so angry because there's like I mean like , yeah , you got an experience and stuff , but it was a war that we shouldn't have done and it's just like the Korean War . So like the Korean War is always looked at as the forgotten war , right , no one talks about Korea .
And that was a hell of a war too . It was a hell of a war ?
Yeah , it was and it's still a war , but it's still going . They just stopped . There's a ceasefire . I mean the war is still going on Korea . There's a ceasefire . That's why there's demilitarized , that's like the most guarded place in the world .
Really .
Yeah , max knows his history .
Yeah , sounds like it .
So when you went and saw you join the Marine Corps , did you join for three ?
Oh yeah , you know , I got out of boot camp and they sent me to the air wing and I hated it . My instructor was a sergeant and I kept telling him . I says you know , I hate this shit . I says I'm going to be on a boat with a bunch of squids . I says I joined Vietnam to go over to Naman fight . I want to be a grunt .
And he told me he says if you go to Vietnam , I'll see you back here in the hospital someday , because that was , you know , they only had two big hospitals down there in Memphis , tennessee and Great Lakes . So anyways , I had a week to go and graduate and I would have went to a squadron .
I found out guys that were flunking out of school were getting sent to Lijun for the grunts . So you flunked , no brainer , I flunked , and you know this is a God's truth .
¶ Military Boot Camp Experience and Changes
After I got blown away , I was back in a hospital in Memphis and I ran into that sergeant . He was a staff sergeant . I said , hey , staff sir , do you remember me ? He says yeah , you're beer , I remember you . I told you I'd see you back here . That's hilarious yeah .
So bootcamp now is considered like mediocre in the United States . In my defense , like and I was just wondering like , what was bootcamp like back then when going into Vietnam ? Like what was the protocols where drill sergeants allowed to hit drill instructors ? I'm sorry , that's what Marine Corps people call the eyes . Yeah , yeah , I got it right .
Were they allowed to like hit soldiers , like where was it long days ? Did you guys rock a lot ? Did you bleeding , like your boots ? Were they bleeding ?
No , they , you know they were legally back then . They weren't allowed to hit you either . You know when I went in 66 . But they weren't supposed to hit you because we had this one D I come up and he'd start yelling in your face . Then he'd stop . He looked to his left and look to his right .
We knew we're going to get nailed Because he was looking to see if they're running officers around . You know , but they beat the hell out of us . Every day we get hit for something .
Well , yeah , that's crazy because I mean , it's not allowed and right now , I don't know if you know this , but the army is paying for a person to , if they wanted , transition into a man or a woman , and they're paying for them and they don't have to deploy .
You know , Trump stopped that shit . He stopped that , but I don't know it . It must have came back again because the Navy's got one of them transvestite or whatever is a poster on a poster .
You believe that ? No , that's unreal .
People don't believe me .
Yeah Wow , people don't believe me when I tell them that , but it's , it's the truth .
No , I believe you because I mean , like when I was , when I was in , I mean I saw a few guys you know in the military and like I mean , like I didn't get to like the transfer to see any of that , but I we didn't get to the point where like people could make , like people can make a complaint and it could be a false complaint and they could get
someone that has worked their hearts out and like blood , sweat and tears throughout the military and get them kicked out without retirement just by filing a filing a sexual harassment charge , sexual harassment awareness responsive program , like it's insane . That's why , that's why Colonel Smith got out .
That's wrong .
The Army changed , you know .
I , oh , when I , when I was working with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs , I had a lot of guys that come to my office and have been in for six , eight , 10 , 12 years and they get out , I was like why the hell did you get out after that much time ? And , you know , just couldn't take all the BS they were putting out .
Now , you know , as far as the gays and all that stuff , I never saw any of them in the military , in the Marines . I never , I never knew they were in there . I mean , when I was stationed down in Memphis they had , you know , it was a Navy base and there was a girl on that base .
She was a squid and she was dropped at gorgeous , prettiest girl on the base and everybody said she was gay . Man , you gotta be kidding me , but I never ran across that one . I was in . I mean , yeah , it's different times , but now like now now the military is proud of it .
The others they're . They're basically promoting it , which is wrong , because I'm not saying it's wrong because , like the person's gay or straight or whatever . I'm saying it's wrong because you're there to do a mission .
You're there to do a job .
You're there to serve our country , to make sure we're safe . That's all reason . So I brought that up because back I mean back then , like that was like all frowned upon and stuff you know I just wanted to like see , like your boot camp experience . You know it was 16 weeks .
Yeah and right . When I went in the , the group of guys that came in right after I went in , they graduated before we did because they cut the boot camp down , because they needed the guys over and not so it was like 14 weeks that was .
That was kind of scary because you wouldn't know , like the protocols maybe have a radio or something like RTO , like your RTO . Maybe you fuck up during , like you know , patrol . I mean I don't know . I mean we still do a Nalgir 1 Alpha , which is the the Vietnam basically . It's basically the Vietnam Nalgir . It's where you , you , you , fire your machine gun .
That's that's the hot minute with the machine gun . And then after that , alpha , alpha , yeah , Alpha Squad , which starts shooting , shooting , shooting , and then they would do a ceasefire . There would be a flank on the right or the left and that would be Bravo Squad and they would do that .
And then they would do a , a lease to see you know liquid and casualties and you know equipment after , after the , and then they had to , you had to like , burn , like all the weapons to right , is that ? Is that true ?
Burn them .
Yeah , Like their weapons . You weren't like you know hell .
No , we didn't burn them .
That's what we we have to do now .
Really .
Yeah , so so you get , you get deployed to Vietnam . What year ? What year is ?
this 68 .
68 . Okay , so you joined in 66 . It takes two years for you to get to the top .
Well , I was . I was , you know , 67 . I was in boot camp because you know , I went in 66 a week before Christmas . I was in boot camp at 67 . I went on a . I was down in Memphis for a while and got kicked out of there . So I went to a LeJune and I was in a weapons platoon in 106 .
And I went on a cruise and all the guys on the cruise they'd all been a career or a nom , they're all old salts , you know . And then after the cruise was over with I was 18 .
So I got orders for nom , so I went to the Vance Infantry training again , you know and and got shipped over , not when you went through the advanced infantry training , was that at a fourth bulk ? No , no , it was a hill down Pendleton . No down Pendleton .
Where's Pendleton ?
Camp Pendleton in California .
California , it was still okay .
When I was on the cruise , I went through a jungle warfare school that the army ran .
You're welcome , that was pretty cool .
Yeah , it's funny , man , and I've got a picture of it too . They had the the green ray were running , they were all the instructors , you know , and they had this one guy standing there telling them had a snake .
You know he's talking to us , telling us how you know , if you ever get bit by a snake , don't jerk your hand back because as fangs going this way and it'll rip your hand apart . Sucker got bit . But I enjoyed that . That was a lot of fun . I learned a lot there , okay .
It's so made of that you deploy when , where do you go ?
South California went to Hawaii . We stopped there . Something was wrong with the plane . We were on a tiger airlines plane . Something was wrong with the plane . So we're , uh , got laid over for about an hour or so there , couldn't leave the the airport . You know , we're all right there in the lounge .
And then we left there and landed in the name and , looking out the windows , you see all these Vietnamese run around and tell what the fuck ? There's a goose . I don't even have a weapon , man , I didn't realize it , you know . But , uh , we got off the plane , went into this big hangar . There was a gunnery star , a sergeant , stand up on his table .
He says all right , where does everybody want to go ? Me like an idiot . I want to go where the action is . You're going to three nine , all right .
So we spent the night there and next day myself , another guy , got on a six by and they took us up to quandary where our rear was , and we're staying outside the CEO's office listening to this guy tell them how they just got an ambush . You lost half the platoon . Holy fuck , what am I doing here ?
That's the action . Oh man , that's the action .
So we got on a chopper , got our you know , our weapons and everything got on a chopper and it went to uh , uh , where is it ? Where we weren't supposed to be ? Yeah , yeah . We weren't supposed to have been in Laos and that's where they took us .
Chopper took us to drop this off there , on top of this hill , it's raining out , we were on the trees around and we took our ponchos on and put on a weapon . All of a sudden , this guy comes climbing up the hill . He says take that poncho off , that weapon , the rain ain't going to hurt it . And it was our squad .
We started there and we did nothing but hump all day long . I'm telling you , the first night I drank all my water right away in my canteens and got sick . And then , uh , my squire told me I didn't have to have watch that night because , you know , I had a bad fever and stuff . I got sick because I drank all my water Interesting .
So he told me I didn't have to stay up and have watch that night . Well , one the guys in the hole fell asleep and Right before that this one guy , miller , one of his good buddies , got killed by a gook because somebody was sleeping on watch , you know , and they cut his throat and he thought it was me .
So him and I started getting in a fight and then the squire broke it up right away . Well , later on . It turned out good he was , good buddy he was . He was from LA lower Alabama .
The guy that fell asleep and got it .
No , no , the guy that accused me of falling asleep , that we almost got in a fight , that I almost got in a fight with , and Real hillbilly hell of a nice guy , though man , he knew his shit , you know , yeah , and His dad used to make moonshine and him and his brothers ran it . That's what he did before he came into the Marines Nice .
Yeah , so so now you're in Europe , you're in your platoon , you're in Europe . Did you have a triangle Patrol base ?
Quantry was our rear . But , we only never been back there , you know . So I was only there six months when I got hit and got sent back to the states .
Was it ? Was it like 50% security at night , or was it like 80 ?
Oh yeah , it was pretty secure back in quandary .
I'm sure you know I'm talking about when you were in the field . Oh hell , no forest , oh no .
It was never secure . You know , we had a setup make a perimeter and dig our fighting holes and sit them in all night .
Okay , so it's a hundred percent security , like I said , like everybody was off .
Oh yeah , hell yeah yeah , we had to keep people awake . I mean we were , we were up north , you know , down south they got via Kong . You know they're farmers and that and they farm during day and go out and fight at night .
Yeah , you have the north of North .
Yeah , it's north of Vietnamese and and they're trained , they're good , they know what they're doing . I was in a Fighting hole one night and we'd set up claymores out in front of us , you know , and I'm sitting there in the hole and I heard this noise and I grabbed a hellbox . I was getting ready to fire it , you know what's a hellbox ?
Yeah , that's how you fire the claymore .
Okay , okay .
And the guy in the hole with me says beaver , get your ass down , this is just get down . So I got down firing on , we fired , it came flying back towards me .
So they do . They switch the claymores around .
Yeah , they turn around Face , face us , and then they make noise and if you're boot , like I was , you know you get blown away .
How did they ? I thought claymores go off when you get close to them . How did , how did they somehow ?
No , you got a wire . It's got a little square box yeah it's not like all hey hey , max , what I say in the beginning , I don't know anything .
All right , talk to me , talk to me . You want to be a history professor , but you're over here insulting the students . What's going ? On Fucking moron , I'm not insulting you .
What you think it was blue to you know you did censor .
It's fucking . You get near it , it blows up . I don't know damn . I'm sorry , I'll stay quiet .
Well , they got trip flers to it . You got it . You know , yeah , have a line out and you got to step through it for it to go off . You know , but these are ran by a cordon .
So so you're in your patrol base to you . Do you have vehicles or you just ?
Know hell ?
no , we walked so you walked , so you walked to where everywhere .
Yeah , just you know it was stupid . We we'd be walking and we get hit and we take a hill , maybe lose a guy . We take a hill , set there for the night , set up , dig our hole and then next morning fill a hole up and move on again and the gooks will be right back on that hill .
You say that like so easily , maybe you lose a guy , like was , that's just like so Just easy to think about , like eat , like it could just brush off your shoulder . They're like when you're there because you're like maybe lose a guy , you know . I mean like that's like huge . Now you know we were talking about the Vietnam War .
Well , we didn't have time , you know you , you just call them FNGs , fucking new guys , you know , and you didn't want to really Get to know them really well , you know , because you figured out he's just gonna be gone .
You know , that's good you know what was your Job like where you are .
¶ War Stories
When I first got there , I Was on the machine gun . I was an eight gunner .
Yeah .
I'm to ammo . I did a little bit of everything , carried mortars and then towards the end I became a squalor .
But uh , we have team leader squalor squalor .
Well it's not so different Well we know , and you got teams , you know , you got teams and then you got a squad , you know , but we didn't have that many men all the time . You know , we were always shorthanded .
We're you always overmatched with that .
Yeah no , it didn't bother us . No , we took care of it . So you got the job done .
Yeah , so with the attack more at night or the day , Uh .
It is both . You know , a lot at night was kind of cool because They'd smoked that opium and you could smell that . And when we smell that night , knew we knew we were gonna get hit first thing in the morning . You know , and I was on the 61 time machine gun . I swore to God when they started charging us .
I Swear to God I had to put 20 , 30 rounds in this gook and he just kept coming . I was scared to death . I got to stop this dude . That's crazy . They get high on that , you know , and they just keep coming .
Yeah , you're in the middle of the jumble , right ? Yeah , you're not like even close to like Open land , it's just trees and general and what elephant go to rest ?
Yeah , they have elephant grass seven , eight feet tall and there's a lot of traps everywhere , right , well , that's mostly down south . They got some , but most of those are all down south .
I know a lot of people got dictates , drugs .
No , we set outside of bill one time is clue . It was a little river going through and we set out there one night and we got new ammo and everything . And the gooks came in , be it , or I mean the Vietnamese came in . They were selling pop and stuff like that , you know , and I bought a quarter smear no vodka for five bucks .
I emptied out my canteen and filled up my canteens , you know , and all sudden I Got a five minute nose . My squalor said beaver , take these men and go across the river and set up an ambush . Well , I thought we're gonna get it because we were half in the bag , you know . Yeah , you don't drink over there .
Yeah , really easy perfect timing , but afterwards , In the next morning I guess . So the guys bought some dope and they were smoking it . The CEO found out and he had a meeting . He says if I ever see anybody smoking dope in here , I'll shoot you . How's it ?
I mean that was it nobody smoked up again .
We're up north and we're in this shit all the time and you can depend on each other if you're right , yeah no doubt , no doubt , holy fuck .
He said that was it . Nobody smoked up again .
All right , it's like If anybody Again , I'll shoot you Whole squad .
You ain't gotta tell us twice , that's crazy so if the guys were doing it after that I didn't know about it because I never did it . You know , we used to get newspapers from home and the headlines are always about the hippies protesting war . So I hated the goddamn hippies . I want nothing to do with them . I so I wouldn't .
Even when I got out and I was going to college I didn't smoke dope . Yeah one , nothing to do with it .
My dad smoked dope .
I know he's a dope .
So You're in the what into . When you were in the ship , basically , your CEO made it clear that there's no smoking and he has to give a fuck about the UCMJ Uniform uniform coat of military justice .
What the hell's that ? Yeah , I know , but still what the hell ? No just like the Keneva convention . We got a file it , but the enemy don't have to exactly .
No , it's , it's crazy because it's probably , it's probably true , Like you know , like do we really follow these rules when you're out there alone ? And like it's you against them , like oh , I have to wait until . I have to wait until I see contact and then I can , then I can return fire or something like no , yeah .
What's the Keneva convention ? Is that ?
Cheneva , cheneva .
Rules that we're supposed to file for prisoners and all that shit .
Yeah .
Yeah .
I mean you probably , you know like , fuck with the dad though , right .
The first goo guy got . I wanted to cut his ears off , putting them on my dog tag , but one of the guys found me , says don't be right . So why ? He says because if you do , they're gonna know who we are and they'll get back at you .
So who's they ?
the NBA ? Yeah , yeah , because they got a thing with Buddha and they got to have their body intact to go to heaven or whatever .
So , so . So you worked your way up to a sergeant . That's squalid , right .
Well , I just became a squaddle here , pointed squaddle here for a while because you know they needed one .
guys were killed , you know did you ever do point where you ever oh , I used to ?
walk point a lot . My first got there new guys always walk point .
Yeah , that's horrible because , you guys , if they walk point , they don't know where they're going because they have to use a protractor , a freaking .
Down the compass and a big bayonet man Chopping your way through , to taking that half hour to get from here to the wall and all through that elephant grass and stuff .
So Well , let's talk about something that you were Very disappointed . You said that you were gonna get Navy Cross .
No , no silver star .
Silver star we're .
We had the whole battalion Up on line on the DMZ one time and our company had point and you know , up there it's like a tree line hundred meters dried up , rice paddies and another tree line , another hundred meters dried up . So we're walking along Double column and we had a tank with us too . That was in front Also and all hell break loose and everything .
We had small arms fired machine gun , rpgs , mortars and a mortar and RPG hit the tank and it couldn't move . So we all hit the tree line right away and I was a Gunner on a machine gun , a gun or on a machine gun at the time and we set up in a big crater there with the machine gun .
All of a sudden my squad or squad leader will key Albert Wilkinson , black dude , best guy in the world , him , charlie Brown , phillip D to myself . He called us over . He says come on , miller's laying out there in the middle . He was the guy almost got in a fight with the first day . You know , miller's laying out in the open , he can't move .
Every time he moved he got shot . He got shot six different times . So we got up in line and charged the machine gun and we'd run around 10 , 15 meters and hit the deck and reload and throw a grenade .
I'm up , he sees me , I'm down . That's how I'm shooting . You're running , you're running , I'm up , he sees me , I'm down , you get down right .
Yeah .
I'm up , he sees me , I'm down .
What .
It's a . I'm up , he sees me , I'm down .
It's a drill .
It's a drill in the military that you're basically talking about . Oh , okay .
So we're running and when we hit the deck to throw another magazine , somebody throw a frag . And all of a sudden the guy ran out of frags . He says Wilkie . He says who's got a frag ? I says I got one . He said throw it . So I pulled it off my belt .
I couldn't get the cotter pin out Cause we used to bend the ends around the spoon so it wouldn't come out when we're walking through the jungles , you know . So I'm pulling , pulling . He says throw the frag . So I bit the ends together to straighten the cotter pin out . Throw the goddamn frag . So I threw it .
And then we we were closing up we got in there by the machine gun and there was one there and I don't know if I got him or one of the other guys got him , but we shot him . Another one started taking off down the trail and I started to chase him . My squalor called me back .
He says forget it , beaver , they're going to have an ambush set up down there . So we went back with our group . They called the chopper and met it back , miller , and they brought us more ammo . We're sitting there reloading our magazines and I was thinking about it .
I could hear the bullets cracking by my ear when I was running , you know charging machine gun Pew , pew , pew and I'm standing there shaking so bad thinking about it . And I looked at Wilkie my squalor . I says them , son of a bitches , were trying to kill me . He started laughing . I'm probably gonna be a non beaver .
But some guy came up to us and said hey , you guys did a good job . I thought he said you're going to get a medal and one of the other guys says you're going to be put in for a Silver Star . What the hell ? What's a Silver Star ? We didn't know what that meant , you know . Well , nobody ever got anything .
I checked into it because I worked for the VA , you know . I got everybody's records , you know , and checked into it . None of us ever got anything . Wilkie the squalor he died about a year after I found him . He's dead . Charlie Brown died in school , decent I are the only ones left and I checked everywhere . I had a senator check out .
I've had people check on it . I even got , when I was in a hospital , the Colonel of the base of the Marines and the Navy base . The name was Colonel JP Bruce . I even got a whole of him called him because he called me and Charlie . Charlie Brown was in the hospital too At the same time .
Me and Miller were ran into him and this Colonel called me and Charlie Brown in and said all of us were put in for the Silver Star . I even got a hold at Colonel .
This is 20 , 30 years later and the day I got a hold of him his wife told me I'm sorry we just call hospice in on the Colonel so , but I talked to one of the other , one of our officers . He was a Brigadier General . The time when I talked to him I told him the story and he I think he was the guy to put us in for it .
But he doesn't remember it and he told me he says you know , after you got hit , we had a big flood back in Coantrain . A lot of records were lost . If the records were lost , how would this Colonel know it back in Memphis , tennessee , and be able to tell us who we were put in for it ? So no , we . I checked everywhere .
I even have two senators check on it for me . They can't find , nobody can find anything .
Do you know if Miller made it , since he got evacuated ?
That's why I was in a religious house .
Well , funny asset , because I know he was living in Florida . I was down in Florida one time . My sisters lived down there . We were down in Florida and I was thinking about him . I called him up here . He only lived about 10 minutes away from my sister . Wow . So he came over , partied with us that night .
What a Hollywood story you start off .
You get in a fight with the guy , you save his life , and then you party with him , 10 minutes away from your sister's house .
That's crazy .
A few years later .
Yeah , more than a few years later , yeah , and then we were all going , my family was all going down to the keys to celebrate . My nephew was getting engaged with his girlfriend , so he went down there with us and partied with us . So we had a great time .
And then next time I went to Florida , I went over to his house and his wife says oh I'm sorry , dan , I got divorced . All right , do you know where he's at ? No , but I got ahold of him and he was doing really bad and he just passed away here about a year ago .
No , yeah , it sucks . Sorry to hear that .
Yeah , nice and peace .
Nice to meet you . That's all I mean . It's crazy all that . First fire you know , oh really . So is this when you got hit .
We were taking a hill that evening and the gooks were dug in good and we couldn't get up the hill and it started getting dark , so we set in . Well , next morning we had a squalor I mean CP group and all of a sudden a mortar round came in laying on the other side of the hill , or I mean on the other side of our CP group .
So we all took off and ran to our fighting holes . I'm in my hole . I got my helmet on my flag jacket . Halfway on I stand up , one of my men's standing up and I'm yelling at him get his ass down about that time
¶ Veterans Reflecting on Experiences
. And round one off right next to me . It blew me over on top of a kitten , my radio man , and I got up and I see just dust flying everywhere and dirt . You know , I looked at my arm and I thought I was gonna lose my arm because all you could see was meat and blood hanging all over it , you know .
And all the guys came over to see how I was and I started you know , get the heck out of here , man , because they see a group of guys . They're gonna throw another round there , you know . Well , that time I passed out . I was only out for about a minute or two and kid , my radio man , bandaged me up right away .
He had me all bandaged up and then the , the corpsman , came over and shot me up with some morphine . Well , kid helped me up to the , the CP group on top of the hill , and they called in a chopper to medivac me out . And all the guys are coming by saying , hey , corp will be over , don't worry about it .
Man , you're going back to the world or you're going aboard a hospital ship with the nurses and all this stuff . You know , everybody said something decent . We call in some artillery and about 10 clicks away with Camp Carol artillery and three short rounds landed right on top of us .
That's when it killed some of my men , wounded 13 of them , as you were getting evacuated . Yeah , before the chopper came out , I was sitting there and I know this is humanly impossible , but our flag jackets we had the old ones with the pieces of flak in it , like tile , you know , and we go through the jungles .
They'd always rip out and that would fall out , you know . So we used to cut them and pull that shit out cause it was so damn heavy , you know . But we had to wear them , you know . But I swore to God when we got hit with that artillery I swore I had my whole body underneath my helmet cause that shit was just flying every goddamn worm . It was crazy .
That's unbelievable that that happened .
So they got shot and you were slowing down .
Huh .
So you got shot . They said they were giving you all praises and you're about to go see some hot nurses and then you're going back to mainland . All this stuff . Something terrible happens .
All right , all right .
And that's why they're wrapped on your car .
Yeah , that's the guys that got killed .
So when you went to the hospital and everything , oh , was everything all fine , or did you have like that guilt that some times people feel like they killed , like , oh , I wish I was oh hell yeah , they took me , they'd chopper it up .
you know they call them more choppers , obviously . Take all the guys out , you know . Then , finally , I got chopped out and they took me to the rear and quandary and I guess they operate on me there , all's I last thing I remember is right after I got hit and all the guys got killed , you know .
But they took me quandary and operated on me there and then took me out to the USS repose hospital ship and I'm laying on a rack and all of a sudden I wake up and there's this nurse sitting on the end of my rack and I wake up and I see her and she says how are you doing , marine ? I said ma'am , I wouldn't be sitting there if I were you .
And she said why ? I said you know how long has been since I seen a round eye ? And she started laughing . And then the officer the Navy officer came up to me . He says I got some good news for you , marine . I said what's that , sir ? He says you're going back to the world . I said excuse my language , sir , but bullshit bandaged me up .
I want to go back with my men . Hell , yeah , I didn't want to leave . Well , I had all my buddies back there .
And that was a negative rate . You were allowed to do that . Oh , I should say that well , I didn't get it .
I was in the hospital three months . I went to from the repos . I went up to the Philippines a hospital up there and I was in the room with another Marine in a Korean Marine . That guy was crazy man .
Tell us about him .
He couldn't speak English . And the Korean Marines are bad , you know . Their officers have to have a certain degree in karate . They've got to know a couple of different languages and all that . He was an officer but he couldn't speak any English . We got had a playboy from downstairs so we'd teach him how to say certain words on the female body , you know .
And I had bandages all over my arm , my side . I got hit from my knee all the way up in my face and they used to come in and have to change the bandages three times a day . And the nurses they'd come in and they'd soak them down , take the bandages off , put new ones on . But the Air Force nurses guys , they come in and just rip them off .
Kind of goddamn hurt , you know . And that Korean Marine , whenever he'd come in , he'd look at him and he'd go you number one , heck off . I'd go , you know . I'd go you know number one , so we taught him , teaching him , teaching him lingo . And we used to have these squirters , you know syringes full of water .
We'd shoot them at each other and one of the guys got them really good one day . So he was . He was sitting under John and the Korean Marine got a bucket of water , opened up the door and just drowned it up .
Oh , he was so rude boys , he was he was .
He was like a friend of mine . Yeah , he was a friend of mine .
That's why we can't have nice things .
Yeah .
That's what he is that's crazy .
So after that did you get out ?
I went back to . They flew me back to the States Clark Air Force Base . My parents and sister came and saw me . Then they took me to hospital Memphis . That's where I ran into Miller . He was there and Charlie Brown , one of the guys that got put up for the Silver Star .
I mean , that's when that colonel called me and Charlie and told us we were getting put up for Silver Star . I was there for about three months . Miller's sister came to see us one time and his girlfriend .
They brought us a bottle of moonshine and him and I yeah , nice , him and I snuck out of the hospital one night and went over to the YM club with the girls , had that moonshine with us , oh man .
Well , we got in a fight that night and next morning , when the doctors had come by , my eye was all bloody and shut , you know , and the doctor says what happened to you ? Marine Tripped over my footlocker , sir .
That's funny .
That's funny , isn't it that moonshine gave you strength . Oh man .
So it's so like so I was .
after that I got stationed out at TBS , the basic school in Quantico . Okay , I was an instructor for boot DIs . I used to give classes on all the weapons in Marine Corps head .
Okay .
And that was skating duty . I really liked that .
Yeah , teaching people is like the greatest thing .
When I was in the military , I loved teaching and , like you know , motivating people to like , not be like me , but to , you know , get physically fit , you know , be proud of yourself , be proud of how you shoot , you know , like because I want to make sure the dude next to me is confident that he's going to be able to hit the guy .
Exactly .
And he's going to try and kill me as well . Oh yeah , you know so that I mean that's the same thing . I mean I've been in stands , a whole different animal compared to Vietnam . Vietnam was insane , like from the books I read , like the things they carried . I don't know if you've read that book .
No .
You know a clear person that reads books ? No , yeah .
I don't like reading . I fall asleep when I start reading . Yeah .
You like party . And yes , it's kind of crazy because my dad met you and I'm a vet , I'm a vet , I'm like kind of a vet .
You're a vet period . Want to be kind of .
I didn't go overseas man .
So what ? You're still a veteran . A veteran is a person that served in the military and got arm-lead discharge .
Yeah , you got to understand . Like I felt like I was practicing for football , right , like I felt like I was practicing for football and I never got to play football game yeah , I never started .
Well , I know how you feel , but a lot of guys used to always say that to me oh , I'm not a vet , I wasn't in combat and that don't matter . You spent your time , man . But that's . I know how you feel , cause if I couldn't have gone now I'd be so mad , cause that's the reason I went in , you know .
That's the reason I went in . I literally kind of seemed like you , like I literally went up to the . I was at maps and you know , rose Maul , I went up to the freaking guy .
So where I went in .
Yeah , I went up to the guy and he said what do you want to do ? I said I want to blow shit up . And he was like oh so you want to be a love of Bravo ? Like , yeah , whatever that is , let's fucking do it Cool .
Right so .
Cool . And then I didn't realize when I was getting myself into and . I was like who came up ? And like we , we get the shark attack . You know all this stuff . And then I started like learning a bunch of things you know , and I loved the physical fitness . I loved like the army made me a runner , which was insane , oh .
God , I used to hate running . I loved it .
We had to do it every day . Yeah , me too , but I mean it was . It was a good experience and I wish I was able to go on to see what I was gonna achieve , cause I was trying to do everything possible to go special forces , go ranger , to go ranger .
now , that's what your dad told me .
Like ranger battalion , you know , like I was doing everything possible to do this Like and I was trying to stay physically fit . I shot expert all the time , you know my long rifle Like I wasn't a sniper but I was a long rifle so I was able to like shoot snipers and I was able to hit shots or like hard to hit for a normal person , you know .
So I felt gifted .
Oh , hell yeah .
And I was like I can't wait to get over to Syria or Afghanistan , like I can't wait to get there , you know . And then we finally orders and I get this car accident and it's just freaking , just blew my mind , blew my mind .
And then my best friend in the military he's the one who gets to go to the show , the one that crashed my car , you know that's just bad . Yeah , I heard that Just .
You know , I had my best friend over there was kitten the guy in the hole with me . You know , when I was down in Quantico , I was coming out of the bar one night and I ran into our old platoon sergeant and we got talking and he said , right after I left him they got in a big ambush and a lot of the guys got killed and I asked him .
I said how about Kitten ? Did he get it ? He says yeah , I think he did so all these years I thought he was dead . Finally , one day when I was at work I wasn't really busy , so I called the VA . I had his copy of the DD 214 and his service number and birded all that stuff .
Called the VA , I said they had a file on him because he had two purple hearts . And he says yeah , we got a file . I said I need his name or phone number . We can't do that because of privacy locked . I says what state does he live in ? They said Connecticut . So I called the Connecticut Department of Veterans of Paris .
I asked the guy you see , yeah , we got him . I says I need his phone number or address or something . I can't because of privacy locked . I said hey , listen , man , this was my best buddy in NAMM For the last 40 years . I thought he was dead . I just found out he's alive . I got to get ahold of him . He says where were you in NAMM ?
When were you and where were you ? I says I was over there in 68 . K-sign canteen , quandary , leathernecks Square . He says you're a Marine ? I says yeah . He says so , am I Give me your phone number and I'll call you back ? He called me back about 10 minutes later , gave me everything . That night when I got home I called him up .
His daughter answered the phone . I said is Mike there ? She said he's asleep and I said wake him up . She said who is this ? I said tell him it's Ted . He comes in the phone . I says how the hell you doing Mike ? He says good , and he started talking . I said you know who this is . He says yeah . I said who . He said Ted .
So and so I said no , it ain't Well . Who the heck is this ? I says were you over NAMM with the Marines with three , nine and 68 ? He says yeah . He says who is this ? I said first platoon , first squad . He said yeah , who the heck is this ? And I says did you have a nickname named Kitten . He said God damn , it Is this beaver and man .
I almost started crying . We talked for about an hour .
¶ Living Life With Darby's Rangers
He came out to visit me one time and I've got a buddy that I met through my office . He was a . He was in lead Humvee on a 50 cal in Mogadija , so you know what the hell he saw .
Yeah , I do .
But he's a really good friend of mine . So when Kitten came to see me I had a party and he was there too , you know . And back then I had a fight and hold dog in my backyard right by the lake there and next . Well , we had a big party that night . Next morning , kitten stand by the back door . You say beaver , come here , look at this .
I looked out there there's Brad , brad Paulson . He says there's your buddy laying in a fighting hall . He slept there all night . And he says to me I'm going to call him Darby . And ever since then you know from Darby's ranges , ever since then his nicknames Darby .
Darby Queen . That's the , the course , or whatever , the physical course , obstacle courses . It's called the Darby Queen .
Oh really .
Yeah .
Yeah .
I learned a few things for the year and a half .
Well , they had some Darby Rangers or something , didn't they that go to work ?
too . So there's a Darby , and then there's Mountain Faze , and then there's Florida Faze . So there's three faces of Rangers school , so Darby and the Darby .
Queen ? No , no , I mean they had a group of guys .
Oh , that's probably why it's called Darby's Rangers , that's probably why it's called Darby then .
Okay , yeah .
Yeah , but it's been great to have you here .
Yeah , thanks for sharing your story . That was definitely impeccable . I feel like Hollywood could make a movie out of that story yeah . But life to the max got it first , so we thank you for that .
So are you living life to the max ?
Oh yeah , hell yeah . You know , I'm very fortunate . There were four different incidents in Namor . I should have been killed and I'm here and I've got a really close family and really good friends . Like your old man , I love the hell out of that guy and I'm very fortunate .
We're all glad you're still here and we're glad you're at this table sharing your story . Well , thank you . Do us a favor , look in this camera , say your name and say you're living life to the max .
Chad Beaver is living life to the max .
Such a crunch , I'll break down Barney's sound .