Name: Fan Request: Medal of Honor Recipient, Sergeant Dakota Meyer | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-11-10T16:00:47.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Fan Request: Medal of Honor Recipient, Sergeant Dakota Meyer | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-11-10. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Fan Request: Medal of Honor Recipient, Sergeant Dakota Meyer | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-11-10. Transcript available.

Our first guest is the only living Marine since Vietnam
to receive the Medal of Honor,
our nation's highest award for valor.
Please welcome Sergeant Dakota Meyer, ladies and gentlemen.
Have a seat, Sergeant.
That is a very good-looking uniform.
Thank you.
Do you get to wear that much in the Marine Corps?
You know, when I was in, I didn't get to wear it a lot,
but I seem to be wearing it more often here lately.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I know you're from Kentucky, is that correct?
Yes, sir.
What city in Kentucky, what town there?
Columbia, Kentucky.
Where is that located?
South Central, it's about an hour and a half south of Louisville.
And life down there, good for you, everything all right?
It is, we live on a big farm, you know, not a big farm, about 300 acres.
What are you growing in Kentucky?
What are we growing?
Okay.
Now wait a minute here, what's going on down there?
Well, you know, well, we raise beef cattle.
Oh, beef cattle.
Yeah.
Good for you.
So you're a kid, you're in high school, just about ready to graduate from high
school,
is that correct?
And you're thinking about what you might want to do with your life, and you
have some options.
I know you played some football in high school.
I did, I did.
What position?
I was a running back in pretty much anywhere.
A pretty good athlete?
I don't know.
It just depends on what day it was.
And so you're thinking, maybe I'll go to college and play some ball, you don't
know.
And there's a recruiter in your high school, is that correct?
Yeah, yeah.
He was sitting out, he was in the lunchroom, and he was sitting in the same
uniform I'm in
right now.
And, you know, I was a smart aleck, so I went up to him, just talking to him
and just kind
of feeling him out.
And he said, so what are you going to do when you get out of high school?
I said, well, I'm going to go to college and play football.
And his response to me was, well, that's what I would do, too, because there's
no way you
can be a Marine.
And I turned around and walked off, and I came, I thought about it for a minute,
and I was like,
no, I'm going to do it.
So I went back about five minutes later, and I said, let's go sign, I said, if
you pack
your stuff up right now, I'll sign the papers.
Wow.
Did you later think that maybe you had fallen for a ploy that this guy, that
maybe you had
been duped into this a little bit?
Is that what it was?
Well, I don't know.
No, and then the good part was, so I was 17, and we drove up there about an
hour to get
the paperwork, filled it out, and I had to have my father sign, so, you know, I'm
sitting
there at the kitchen table, and my dad gets off work with a Marine recruiter
right next
to me, and he just starts shaking his head, and he looks at me and says, well,
what are
you doing now?
And I said, well, I think I'm going to join the Marine Corps.
He said, well, did you really think this out?
I said, I thought the whole way there and the whole way back here, I'm ready to
do it.
Was he a grandfather also a Marine?
Yes, sir.
And that must have been some influence for you to make this decision?
Well, it wasn't.
You know, he never really talked about it a lot, so I never, I mean, I'd hear
some here
and there, but not a lot.
All right, so now you're committed to the Marine Corps, and you go off to basic
training.
Where did you do basic training?
At Parris Island.
Parris Island.
Yeah, we were on the right coast.
The legendary, notorious Parris Island, and was boot camp as hard and difficult
as you want
it to be?
Well, it definitely wasn't a vacation.
Yeah.
But, yeah, no, it was, it was hard.
It was a wake-up call, and, you know, at the time, you thought it was the
hardest thing
you, you know, you could ever do, but now looking back, after everything in the
Marine Corps,
it was definitely the easiest thing in the Marine Corps.
Oh, my goodness.
That's really some comparison to be able to make, isn't it?
Because not, you know, look at me.
I didn't go through boot camp at Parris Island, but I know a little bit about
it, and if that
was the easiest part of your deployment with the Marines, that really is
incredible.
Yeah.
When, when they called you about the, by the way, did you ever run into the
recruiter
who said, you'd never make it as a Marine?
No, I haven't, but I'm still looking for him.
Yeah.
So, you get the call.
Who calls you about the Medal of Honor?
Well, you know, it's, it's been going on for two years, back and forth, just,
you know,
it'll peak up, people will talk about it, and then it goes away.
And, you know, then finally, we were like, oh, it's getting more serious
because they assigned
someone to start talking to me about it, the planning.
And then I get a call on a Friday, and I'm on the lake, I was wakeboarding, and
they said,
the president will call you at 1150 on Monday, and they're like, listen, now
you need to have,
you need to be on a landline, be there an hour prior, you know how the Marine
Corps is.
And I said, well, there's no way that's going to happen, because I got to work.
So, I said, we're going to have to get him to call my, call my cell phone, and
I'll try
to arrange my lunch break around that.
I'll see if I can't squeeze that Medal of Honor phone call in around lunch.
And who did you talk to once that happened?
Well, so I'm sitting at this gas station waiting, you know, I'm in this gas
station, I'm all
dirty, I've been greasing the Bobcat, and...
Wait a minute, is that a...
Stop it.
Sorry about that.
Something they do in Kentucky, right?
You've never done it?
No, I...
Well, I don't know.
I'm not saying I have.
I'm not saying I haven't.
All right, so you've taken care of that.
And you're...
Now you're on the phone with somebody.
Who are you on the phone with?
Some woman called, and she's like, you know, let me say, they were late.
They were late.
So, some woman called, and then we were talking about it, and, you know, they're
like, the
president's here, he wants to talk to you.
So then I'm talking to him, and he's just, you know, congratulating me, telling
me he signed
off on it, read about it, and said he'd be looking forward to meeting me.
And then, uh, then that was it.
How did that feel?
You're talking to the president of the United States.
Uh, you know, it was really, it was impressive.
But, uh, you know, he's a great guy, but, uh, I have work to get done.
Thank you.
Sergeant Meyer, you've just greased your bobcat.
Now what are you going to do?
You asked, uh, the president, or asked someone about, uh, an appointment with
the president,
uh, meeting with him at the White House.
What did you want to do, and how did that go?
Well, uh, I was, I was speaking to the, uh, the president's speechwriter for
his remarks,
and he said, is there anything else you want to say?
I was like, well, actually, would you ask the president if he wants to have a
beer?
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, you know, I, I figured they were going to be like, you know, I can't
do it.
He's busy, this and that.
And then two days later, three days, two or three days later, I get a call, and
they're
like, uh, be there at 530.
And, uh, so, I went and had a, had a beer with the president.
There you go.
How was that?
That must have been, I mean, historically, I think that's, uh, unprecedented.
What a, what a lovely moment for, for both of you, frankly.
Did you enjoy yourself?
I did, I did.
It was great, you know.
Uh, I got to sit down and talk to him, and, uh, ask him his opinions on, you
know, like,
how to be successful and stuff like that.
What, what advice did he have for you?
You know, make sure to go get an education.
Uh, you know, he, uh, he talked about don't make any rash decisions.
Keep greasing that bobcat.
Uh, so, you're, you're now in the, in the Marine Corps, and you, uh, you,
first, you go to Iraq, is that correct?
Iraq.
How long were you in Iraq?
Uh, a month and a half, two months.
I got, uh, I got bit by a spider.
A spider, and it, uh, what kind is, I mean, is, are there, are there poisonous?
Obviously, poisonous spiders.
I don't know, we're still looking for it.
Oh, really?
And what was your reaction to the spider?
No, uh, well, I, I, I got bit right here on my hand.
I had lost feeling in my last three fingers for a while.
They did, uh, two surgeries in Fallujah, and then they, uh, shipped me out to,
I was in Germany for a couple weeks trying to figure out what was wrong, and
then it took
me a while to rehab from it.
Wow.
So they did the, the surgery because they knew it was a spider bite, or they
weren't sure
what it was?
They weren't sure what it was, they were, cause it, my hands swole up all the
way up to here,
and, uh, so you finished up, uh, you healed up, you're fine, uh, you finished
up your first
visit to Iraq, and, and then you now have the possibility of being deployed
elsewhere,
is that correct?
Yeah, I was gonna go, we were getting ready to head back to Iraq again, uh, I
was a sniper
team leader, and then they come in.
Sniper team leader.
Tell me what that, what are your responsibilities as a sniper team leader?
I was in charge of five other guys, and, uh, you know, I'm in charge of, uh,
doing mission
planning for my team, executing the missions, so.
And in terms of sniper, that's exactly what we think of, uh, that's what you
guys would
do.
That, that, that's what I was in the Marine Corps, I was, uh, I was a Marine
sniper.
Uh, so, so you are going back to Iraq, you decide not to go back to Iraq?
Well, we were getting ready to go, we were out in 29 Palms finishing up our
training, our
workup training, and, uh, they came in and said they had slots to go to
Afghanistan on
an embedded training team.
I didn't know what it was, but, uh, I was like, well, I want to go.
Uh, you know, Iraq was slowing down, not a lot was going on, we really didn't
have a mission
there when we were going.
Uh, so I said, I raised my hand and, uh, 15 minutes later I was ready to go.
Uh, and immediately Afghanistan was different from Iraq?
Oh, way different.
In what respect?
Uh, the Taliban serious.
Uh, you know, we, we, uh, we trained up, it was a different mission.
You really didn't really, it was a unique mission.
So we lived with the Afghans, Afghan soldiers, four Marines and about 80 Afghans
on a base and
you operated with them.
So that, that was your mission.
And we, yeah, when we got there, it was way different.
We, uh, I was up in the, the hills of, uh, Kunar province and the terrain was
different.
The people were different, it was, uh, a lot different.
Uh, it's interesting.
This is a bit of a coincidence.
Uh, the mission that we're talking about now, September 8th, 2009, so almost,
uh, this time,
uh, three years ago, four or two years ago.
Two years ago.
Yeah, yeah.
And what was that mission?
Oh, you know, what, what we were doing, we were going to go in and do a key
leader engagement
on, uh, with this village called Gansgol.
They're real famous for fighting the Russians and, uh, so we were going to go
back in there
and they, they, they had actually, actually asked us to come in and, uh, they,
they wanted
to renounce themselves from the Taliban and become back and start supporting
the government.
So it was a really big deal for us and, uh, that, that's what we were supposed
to be doing.
So basically we were going to go in there and speak with the leaders and drink
some tea with them.
Now, did, did this turn out to be, uh, there was an ambush subsequent to this.
Was that part of the ambush or was that on the, on the level?
You know, they had set us up, uh, they, uh, something got leaked out, uh,
basically every
position that we had set up, they were above it.
And so, you know, we, we were set up 100%.
So irrespective of what their intention was, it was known that you guys were
coming somehow.
They, they were, I, I would be, you know, I'm going out on a limb here.
I'd be willing to bet that they were the ones who, it was all, the whole plan.
So, uh, to, to the best of your memory and to the best you want to talk about
it,
tell us, uh, what happens when you realize an ambush is underway.
Well, you know, I was sitting outside the kill zone.
I was sitting at the trucks and the team was in there and they, they were
getting hit real bad.
And, uh, we waited, they were calling for air support, 15 minutes.
They said, 15 minutes, 15 minutes.
We weren't getting it.
And then the artillery stopped for some reason.
So, you know, I, I mean, uh, Staff Sergeant Rodriguez Chavez looked at each
other and said, you know, we, we know what we got to do.
We got to go try to help them.
So we jumped in the truck, drove in, ended up making five trips in there, um,
linked up with some other guys.
And then, uh, about six hours later, you know, we, I found, we ended up finding
the bodies of my guys and, uh, you know, the, the whole team was killed.
So the, the fight, six hours long, that, that seems unfathomable that people
can see their way through something like that.
Yeah, it's, uh, it was amazing.
You know, I, I, I didn't, um, the whole time I was in there, I just remember
the feeling of, you know, I didn't really think I was, you know, I didn't, I
didn't think I was going to die.
I, I went ahead and accepted it that I was going to, it was just a matter of
when.
The, uh, the important statistics here, uh, you saved 13 Marines and Army
personnel.
And 23 Afghan soldiers in, uh, making those trips back and forth.
That's a remarkable accomplishment under any circumstance.
Thank you.
And, and then, uh, when, when it was finished, and, and as I understand it, you
were now on foot, you had gotten out of the Humvee,
and you were not armed with that, uh, automatic, yeah.
Uh, and you're looking around and you discover, uh, friends, the remains of
friends that were lost in the fight.
Uh, five guys.
Yeah, four, four of the guys were there.
One of the other guys died later on, uh, from the, uh, wound sustained in that
battle.
Yeah.
Sergeant First Class Westbrook.
Yeah.
Uh, and, and how, how, how are you now?
Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm fine.
It's, uh, you know, it's, it's something that you struggle with every day.
Not, not, not, I wouldn't say struggle, I think that's the wrong word, but, uh,
you know, every man and woman that's, that signs up and, uh, you know, has a
uniform on, whether it's us or firemen or, or, uh, police officers, you know,
we all accept the risks that we, we go through.
And that's, that's, that's part of our job.
That's why we do it.
So we just got to accept it.
Um, in a situation like that, does it come to you that, well, by God, I better
do this because it doesn't look like somebody else is doing it?
Or do people function the way they're trained to function in a situation?
Oh, that's a, that's a, that's a good question.
Um, you know, it's, it's really interesting.
They, it's not as you think it would be, um, but we can leave it at that.
Okay. Uh, I'm, I'm fascinated by your, uh, scholarship initiative, Sergeant,
tell us about that.
Yeah, I wanted to go out.
So, you know, the Marines have given so much to me, they've given so much to
America.
So I wanted to go out and find a way to give back.
So I started up, I linked up with the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and
started the Dakota Meyer Scholarship Initiative.
And you can see that on www, uh, on Dakota Meyer.com.
And, um, you know, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to raise money to give
back to Marines who are injured in combat.
They're children to go to college.
And, you know, we know that America, you know, the way to pay the road to
success is through education.
So I went out and made the $1 million challenge.
And what I'm doing is I, I pledged to make a million, to raise a million
dollars by next, uh, May.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm, I'm, I'm, uh, challenging Americans.
How are, how are you doing on the fundraiser?
Oh, well, I just started a week ago.
So we're, we're doing all right though.
You know, in the last week we're up to $31,000.
Oh, good for you.
And, well, and we're, we're learning more and more about a problem that I think
we should have known about earlier,
which is people, men and women coming out of the service.
Uh, life doesn't, uh, always, it's not really there waiting for them.
After they've been gone, uh, serving their country, things aren't that great
when they get home sometimes.
So what you're doing is, uh, admirable.
And, and again, everything you've done, uh, in uniform has been admirable.
Great, great pleasure to meet you.
Thank you, Sergeant.
Sergeant Dakota Meyer, ladies and gentlemen, Medal of Honor winner.
We'll be right back with Sofia Vergara.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.

Fan Request: Medal of Honor Recipient, Sergeant Dakota Meyer | Letterman

Our first guest is the only living Marine since Vietnam
to receive the Medal of Honor,
our nation's highest award for valor.
Please welcome Sergeant Dakota Meyer, ladies and gentlemen.
Have a seat, Sergeant.
That is a very good-looking uniform.
Thank you.
Do you get to wear that much in the Marine Corps?
You know, when I was in, I didn't get to wear it a lot,
but I seem to be wearing it more often here lately.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I know you're from Kentucky, is that correct?
Yes, sir.
What city in Kentucky, what town there?
Columbia, Kentucky.
Where is that located?
South Central, it's about an hour and a half south of Louisville.
And life down there, good for you, everything all right?
It is, we live on a big farm, you know, not a big farm, about 300 acres.
What are you growing in Kentucky?
What are we growing?
Okay.
Now wait a minute here, what's going on down there?
Well, you know, well, we raise beef cattle.
Oh, beef cattle.
Yeah.
Good for you.
So you're a kid, you're in high school, just about ready to graduate from high
school,
is that correct?
And you're thinking about what you might want to do with your life, and you
have some options.
I know you played some football in high school.
I did, I did.
What position?
I was a running back in pretty much anywhere.
A pretty good athlete?
I don't know.
It just depends on what day it was.
And so you're thinking, maybe I'll go to college and play some ball, you don't
know.
And there's a recruiter in your high school, is that correct?
Yeah, yeah.
He was sitting out, he was in the lunchroom, and he was sitting in the same
uniform I'm in
right now.
And, you know, I was a smart aleck, so I went up to him, just talking to him
and just kind
of feeling him out.
And he said, so what are you going to do when you get out of high school?
I said, well, I'm going to go to college and play football.
And his response to me was, well, that's what I would do, too, because there's
no way you
can be a Marine.
And I turned around and walked off, and I came, I thought about it for a minute,
and I was like,
no, I'm going to do it.
So I went back about five minutes later, and I said, let's go sign, I said, if
you pack
your stuff up right now, I'll sign the papers.
Wow.
Did you later think that maybe you had fallen for a ploy that this guy, that
maybe you had
been duped into this a little bit?
Is that what it was?
Well, I don't know.
No, and then the good part was, so I was 17, and we drove up there about an
hour to get
the paperwork, filled it out, and I had to have my father sign, so, you know, I'm
sitting
there at the kitchen table, and my dad gets off work with a Marine recruiter
right next
to me, and he just starts shaking his head, and he looks at me and says, well,
what are
you doing now?
And I said, well, I think I'm going to join the Marine Corps.
He said, well, did you really think this out?
I said, I thought the whole way there and the whole way back here, I'm ready to
do it.
Was he a grandfather also a Marine?
Yes, sir.
And that must have been some influence for you to make this decision?
Well, it wasn't.
You know, he never really talked about it a lot, so I never, I mean, I'd hear
some here
and there, but not a lot.
All right, so now you're committed to the Marine Corps, and you go off to basic
training.
Where did you do basic training?
At Parris Island.
Parris Island.
Yeah, we were on the right coast.
The legendary, notorious Parris Island, and was boot camp as hard and difficult
as you want
it to be?
Well, it definitely wasn't a vacation.
Yeah.
But, yeah, no, it was, it was hard.
It was a wake-up call, and, you know, at the time, you thought it was the
hardest thing
you, you know, you could ever do, but now looking back, after everything in the
Marine Corps,
it was definitely the easiest thing in the Marine Corps.
Oh, my goodness.
That's really some comparison to be able to make, isn't it?
Because not, you know, look at me.
I didn't go through boot camp at Parris Island, but I know a little bit about
it, and if that
was the easiest part of your deployment with the Marines, that really is
incredible.
Yeah.
When, when they called you about the, by the way, did you ever run into the
recruiter
who said, you'd never make it as a Marine?
No, I haven't, but I'm still looking for him.
Yeah.
So, you get the call.
Who calls you about the Medal of Honor?
Well, you know, it's, it's been going on for two years, back and forth, just,
you know,
it'll peak up, people will talk about it, and then it goes away.
And, you know, then finally, we were like, oh, it's getting more serious
because they assigned
someone to start talking to me about it, the planning.
And then I get a call on a Friday, and I'm on the lake, I was wakeboarding, and
they said,
the president will call you at 1150 on Monday, and they're like, listen, now
you need to have,
you need to be on a landline, be there an hour prior, you know how the Marine
Corps is.
And I said, well, there's no way that's going to happen, because I got to work.
So, I said, we're going to have to get him to call my, call my cell phone, and
I'll try
to arrange my lunch break around that.
I'll see if I can't squeeze that Medal of Honor phone call in around lunch.
And who did you talk to once that happened?
Well, so I'm sitting at this gas station waiting, you know, I'm in this gas
station, I'm all
dirty, I've been greasing the Bobcat, and...
Wait a minute, is that a...
Stop it.
Sorry about that.
Something they do in Kentucky, right?
You've never done it?
No, I...
Well, I don't know.
I'm not saying I have.
I'm not saying I haven't.
All right, so you've taken care of that.
And you're...
Now you're on the phone with somebody.
Who are you on the phone with?
Some woman called, and she's like, you know, let me say, they were late.
They were late.
So, some woman called, and then we were talking about it, and, you know, they're
like, the
president's here, he wants to talk to you.
So then I'm talking to him, and he's just, you know, congratulating me, telling
me he signed
off on it, read about it, and said he'd be looking forward to meeting me.
And then, uh, then that was it.
How did that feel?
You're talking to the president of the United States.
Uh, you know, it was really, it was impressive.
But, uh, you know, he's a great guy, but, uh, I have work to get done.
Thank you.
Sergeant Meyer, you've just greased your bobcat.
Now what are you going to do?
You asked, uh, the president, or asked someone about, uh, an appointment with
the president,
uh, meeting with him at the White House.
What did you want to do, and how did that go?
Well, uh, I was, I was speaking to the, uh, the president's speechwriter for
his remarks,
and he said, is there anything else you want to say?
I was like, well, actually, would you ask the president if he wants to have a
beer?
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, you know, I, I figured they were going to be like, you know, I can't
do it.
He's busy, this and that.
And then two days later, three days, two or three days later, I get a call, and
they're
like, uh, be there at 530.
And, uh, so, I went and had a, had a beer with the president.
There you go.
How was that?
That must have been, I mean, historically, I think that's, uh, unprecedented.
What a, what a lovely moment for, for both of you, frankly.
Did you enjoy yourself?
I did, I did.
It was great, you know.
Uh, I got to sit down and talk to him, and, uh, ask him his opinions on, you
know, like,
how to be successful and stuff like that.
What, what advice did he have for you?
You know, make sure to go get an education.
Uh, you know, he, uh, he talked about don't make any rash decisions.
Keep greasing that bobcat.
Uh, so, you're, you're now in the, in the Marine Corps, and you, uh, you,
first, you go to Iraq, is that correct?
Iraq.
How long were you in Iraq?
Uh, a month and a half, two months.
I got, uh, I got bit by a spider.
A spider, and it, uh, what kind is, I mean, is, are there, are there poisonous?
Obviously, poisonous spiders.
I don't know, we're still looking for it.
Oh, really?
And what was your reaction to the spider?
No, uh, well, I, I, I got bit right here on my hand.
I had lost feeling in my last three fingers for a while.
They did, uh, two surgeries in Fallujah, and then they, uh, shipped me out to,
I was in Germany for a couple weeks trying to figure out what was wrong, and
then it took
me a while to rehab from it.
Wow.
So they did the, the surgery because they knew it was a spider bite, or they
weren't sure
what it was?
They weren't sure what it was, they were, cause it, my hands swole up all the
way up to here,
and, uh, so you finished up, uh, you healed up, you're fine, uh, you finished
up your first
visit to Iraq, and, and then you now have the possibility of being deployed
elsewhere,
is that correct?
Yeah, I was gonna go, we were getting ready to head back to Iraq again, uh, I
was a sniper
team leader, and then they come in.
Sniper team leader.
Tell me what that, what are your responsibilities as a sniper team leader?
I was in charge of five other guys, and, uh, you know, I'm in charge of, uh,
doing mission
planning for my team, executing the missions, so.
And in terms of sniper, that's exactly what we think of, uh, that's what you
guys would
do.
That, that, that's what I was in the Marine Corps, I was, uh, I was a Marine
sniper.
Uh, so, so you are going back to Iraq, you decide not to go back to Iraq?
Well, we were getting ready to go, we were out in 29 Palms finishing up our
training, our
workup training, and, uh, they came in and said they had slots to go to
Afghanistan on
an embedded training team.
I didn't know what it was, but, uh, I was like, well, I want to go.
Uh, you know, Iraq was slowing down, not a lot was going on, we really didn't
have a mission
there when we were going.
Uh, so I said, I raised my hand and, uh, 15 minutes later I was ready to go.
Uh, and immediately Afghanistan was different from Iraq?
Oh, way different.
In what respect?
Uh, the Taliban serious.
Uh, you know, we, we, uh, we trained up, it was a different mission.
You really didn't really, it was a unique mission.
So we lived with the Afghans, Afghan soldiers, four Marines and about 80 Afghans
on a base and
you operated with them.
So that, that was your mission.
And we, yeah, when we got there, it was way different.
We, uh, I was up in the, the hills of, uh, Kunar province and the terrain was
different.
The people were different, it was, uh, a lot different.
Uh, it's interesting.
This is a bit of a coincidence.
Uh, the mission that we're talking about now, September 8th, 2009, so almost,
uh, this time,
uh, three years ago, four or two years ago.
Two years ago.
Yeah, yeah.
And what was that mission?
Oh, you know, what, what we were doing, we were going to go in and do a key
leader engagement
on, uh, with this village called Gansgol.
They're real famous for fighting the Russians and, uh, so we were going to go
back in there
and they, they, they had actually, actually asked us to come in and, uh, they,
they wanted
to renounce themselves from the Taliban and become back and start supporting
the government.
So it was a really big deal for us and, uh, that, that's what we were supposed
to be doing.
So basically we were going to go in there and speak with the leaders and drink
some tea with them.
Now, did, did this turn out to be, uh, there was an ambush subsequent to this.
Was that part of the ambush or was that on the, on the level?
You know, they had set us up, uh, they, uh, something got leaked out, uh,
basically every
position that we had set up, they were above it.
And so, you know, we, we were set up 100%.
So irrespective of what their intention was, it was known that you guys were
coming somehow.
They, they were, I, I would be, you know, I'm going out on a limb here.
I'd be willing to bet that they were the ones who, it was all, the whole plan.
So, uh, to, to the best of your memory and to the best you want to talk about
it,
tell us, uh, what happens 