Reflecting on Gaza: Tragedy, Teamwork, and Legacy

Transcript

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Good morning.

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Today is Tuesday, october 15th 2024.

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Today is also the 21st anniversary of a very cowardly attack launched by Hamas against some friends of mine in the Gaza Strip against some friends of mine in the Gaza Strip.

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We were assigned to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.

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I had been there for about a year and a half and we had only recently had a bit of a larger turnover on the team.

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So I had been Bravo team from the beginning.

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So I was those of you anyone familiar with GRS operations.

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We work in teams of four and I was Bravo three.

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All right, our team leader, my dear friend and brother Mark Parsons, was Bravo 2.

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I was Bravo 3.

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But, as in any kind of team dynamic, when you have three out of eight team members turn over, you've got to restructure.

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You can't keep all the experience on one team.

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So our team leader, bravo One, had moved on to another project in Iraq, changing up the dynamic.

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I then became Alpha Two, moved over to our sister team and Mark stayed as Bravo Two.

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So anyway, that's not just how it was.

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It changed the dynamic a little bit.

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We had some newer arrivals that we worked into the team Still working with great guys, no doubt, but I think it's.

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I don't know, I wouldn't trivialize it and call it superstition, but you're on a roll.

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You've been Bravo team from the beginning and we had a really good wave going.

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So, anyway, team makeup is set up and the way we operated the mission the tragedy as it turned out to be that was intended to be Alpha Team's mission because Alpha Team was the hot seat team that particular week, which meant any mission that came along.

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We got it.

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Now, if a second mission came along, then a determination would be made as to which of the missions was more of a high risk.

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The high risk mission would go to the hot seat team, secondary mission or the second mission that came up on the calendar would go to the standby team and we would alternate weekly.

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So, up until the night before, the very night before, this particular mission was supposed to be ours, supposed to be alpha team's mission.

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So, and of all things, it was a one-stop escort for us, uh, diplomatic personnel, to a venue that we had been to relative safe, uh, relatively safe venue.

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And I mean I, I say relatively safe, I mean, and I mean I say relatively safe, I mean the reality of it is, there is no such thing, all right, there's no such thing in the Gaza Strip.

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Certainly not now, but not even back then, all right.

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So remember, I'll be very, very crystal clear on this I worked with some State Department personnel who I would trust with my life to this very day, to this very day.

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That's just how it is.

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I've trust with my life to this very day, to this very day.

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That's just how it is.

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I've worked with others.

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If I saw them crossing the street, I'd run them over, plain and simple, all right.

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But but the ones that I served with at the embassy, I couldn't say enough about them.

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They were right there with us through it all, and you know, part of I mean like this right, like this, like part of our team.

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But anyway, we hit the word the night before A change in mission, assisting the military attache's office, which we didn't do very often at all.

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My team was tasked with doing a long-range route reconnaissance, very, very low profile, a long-range route reconnaissance from the northern tip of the gaza strip to the egyptian border.

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We would, and I'll tell you I think you know when you, some of you, understand this, when you get a mission like that one, it's not the norm, it's not usual.

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It's not a simple escort of US Embassy personnel to conduct interviews in a semi-passive environment.

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We were excited about it.

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Each one of us on Alpha Team was excited about the opportunity because this route would take us into areas of the Gaza Strip that, at the time, even enter themselves because they were under Hamas control.

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You know radicalized elements and you know you're kind of in the zone at that time and in support of the global war on terror.

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That was a mission.

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That was a mission to have.

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So you know, if anything, um, we're excited about it.

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We're excited about the opportunity to do something different.

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And now, having said that, I switched over to alpha team, but I stayed in the same house.

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So I was living with my teammates, my, my brothers, my former teammates from bra team and um.

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I remember the night before, mark was out with his girlfriend and I was.

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I was watching um.

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I don't know why, I don't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I never forget this as long as I live.

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John Lindy, um, one of the one of the new team members who was now on Bravo team.

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He and I watched um the movie Cadillac man with Robin Williams the night before and just two guys sitting there watching the silliest of movies, just grown men laughing like kids at a great comedic actor.

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And so the next morning the timetable changed.

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They launched earlier.

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I hear them getting ready to go.

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I'm, you know, uh, just up having my coffee, checking my email, seeing what's happening with my family back home.

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Anyway, uh, long and short of it.

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Uh, tragically, three out of four of my brothers were killed in that attack.

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There was one survivor god bless him, oscar, he's, he's still healthy and he's still doing the job.

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So, um, one of the things that I'll never forget and I do want to share this and it was, uh, it's kind of uh again, one of those things that just sticks with you.

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The Christmas prior to that, so almost a year prior, the Christmas prior to that, based on a conversation over coffee or dinner, small talk we were all Bravo team at the time small talk and our team leader, jim.

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I don't remember how it came up, it might have even been in reference to the HBO series, band of Brothers, but Jim quoted, quoted the the st Crispin Day speech from Henry V and shared with us that that was one of his favorite all-time.

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All-time, I don't know, for lack of a better word poem.

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And Mark, who was the best of us, remembered that.

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So rolling up to Christmas he went and he found the poem in its entirety.

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And his girlfriend, wonderful, wonderful girl, was an artist, a calligrapher.

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She's awesome.

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She got some parchment and in calligraphy, in this beautiful calligraphy, she did the St Crispin's Day speech from Henry V.

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Mark took it to a framing shop, had it blocked and framed.

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Calligraphy.

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And this beautiful calligraphy, she did the St Crispin's Day speech from Henry V.

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Mark took it to a framing shop, had it blocked and framed, and that was Jim's Christmas gift from Mark that year.

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And the last time I saw it was 11 years ago when we went, we were at Jim's house, some of us got together for the 10th anniversary of the attack and he has this beautiful, beautiful bar room set up in his home with memorabilia from decades of service and that framed piece is the centerpiece.

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It's wonderful.

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I mean absolutely wonderful.

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But those of you who know it, I won't read the whole thing, but I do want to share the brunt of it with you.

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It's right before an epic battle against the French, and King Henry V says to his men we few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.

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Be he ne'er so vile.

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This day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed.

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They were not here and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks that fought with us upon St Crispin's day.

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I never forgot that and I don't believe I ever will.

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24 years and I don't just remember them on their anniversary.

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I think about them every day, every day, I think, call it what you want.

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I think that had we not changed the team dynamic, or at least had I still been a part of that team and I don't say this with any arrogance, and I don't say this because I believe I possess any type of tactical superiority or anything like that, I just believe to my very core it would not have gone the same way, probably because I have this uncanny luck, probably because I have this uncanny luck it's the strangest thing I've ever seen.

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But I've had more near misses and close calls and ridiculous, and I think you can carry that for a while and then it gets heavy.

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But 21 years later, I do believe this.

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I think one of the things that I committed to, not knowing what else to do was you decide.

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You decide definitively and once and for all that this is the hand you were dealt and you will make every minute count.

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You just don't live your life At least, I'm not trying to tell anyone else that this is what they ought to be thinking, but this is what worked for me.

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This is what got me out of a dark, dark place.

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I decided that I would not only live my life for me, but I would live my life for all three of them as well, and seize opportunities by the throat, squeeze every ounce out of it and just keep moving along, one step, one round at a time.

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I'm that's the least I can do.

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So, as always, boys, I love you, I miss you so.

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So, uh, as I always ask, save my place, I'll see you when I get there.

Reflecting on Gaza: Tragedy, Teamwork, and Legacy

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