WEBVTT

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every day is a

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gift . Uh huh .

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I tell everybody around me that nothing

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can make me aggravated today . Yeah ,

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this is the day I was rescued .

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Everybody had one thing in mind and

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that was staying alive . The heroic

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part of it was secondary . It was just

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staying alive . And making sure your

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team stayed alive and making sure that

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the people that were in the same

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organization stayed alive and and doing

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the job so you didn't embarrass

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yourself or the leaving them

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was there was no compassion I

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think in me , what do I think of the

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marines I served with ? The ones are

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outside the finest men I've ever known .

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Without a doubt . My name is Joel

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Eisenstein . I was a captain in the

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United States Marine Corps Reserves . I

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served from March of 1969

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until June of 1972 . My name is

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ERN E might Benjamin . I

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served in career from

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December of 1951

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till January of 1953 . My name is

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Darryll grounds corporal United States

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Supreme Court . I was a field radio

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operator and my additional mos was , I

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can't tell you the number was naval

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gunfire for observer . My name is

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Anthony paul , Shepard , I go by Tony .

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Uh I was commissioned in 1970

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as a second lieutenant . I served in

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Vietnam as a first lieutenant . I got

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out in 1970 for for about a year and

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some change . There were a lot of young

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men that didn't really want to go and

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didn't have choices . I didn't think it

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was all that difficult . My deferment

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had expired , my appeals had expired

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And I was on the list to be drafted in

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February of 1969 . So in December of

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1968 , I joined the Marine Corps . You

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know , it was two different wars .

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There was a real war and then there was

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the rest of the country that sort of

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ignored the fact that there was a war

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and went on with business . The unit I

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was with was stationed on an army base .

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We did road clearing exercise ,

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clearing mines off the road that the

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Vietnamese was set during the the

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gorillas was set during the night .

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That would build up our convoys

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delivering things from one pause to

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another .

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Yeah . So the colonel asked me so

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I made you do you want to stay ? And I

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said I volunteer so I definitely want

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to stay . So he allowed me to stay in

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Vietnam with some unit one which didn't

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rate a sergeant major . But I felt like

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I was dropped in World War Two gun

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pits , nobody around the helicopter

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left and it to me seemed like a black

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and white movie . We would take a lot

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of booby traps . I'd call in a lot of

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medevacs call in some naval gunfire . I

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know we fired the U . S . S . Oklahoma

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once because the commodore of the

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seventh fleet was on board and he

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wanted to fire mission . Five of us

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were on the hill and three of us got

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off alive , one is missing forever and

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the other one died on the helicopter .

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I found out that that unit . But

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listen , marines was one of the best

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units I'd ever served with by the

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intelligence of the marines that I was

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serving with . Mhm . The brigade

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had gone in and tried to take the

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citadel . So the second brigade got

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thrown up against it . The first

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brigade had joined and they got thrown

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up against it . They got chewed up so

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bad by 1 30 guns because the NBA

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just simply moved him across the taken

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river and they had every square inch of

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that place targeted . And he he just

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looked at me he said they're not there

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anymore . The people that we knew that

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we broke bread with .

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Yeah all gone

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mm . And I also

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take some pride in the fact that I did

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not lose very many men . I Marine corps

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teaches you mission and men and I

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didn't always consider it in that order .

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My job was to bring my people home . I

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did it was a good career sometimes

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looking forward on it . It wasn't as

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good as looking backward on it because

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your mind doesn't remember some of the

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the less fun things but all in all I'm

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quite happy that I did what I did . I

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didn't plan a minute of it . What I

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felt like I say was I'm leaving a unit

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that I wouldn't mind staying with

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forever . So I said earlier today look

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at the guy , you left to look at the

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guy and you're right , those are those

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gonna be your friends forever .