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May 22, 2024

Tel Aviv, Part 5: Gaza

Tel Aviv, Part 5: Gaza
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"Echo" Frayne joins us on a journey that is anything but ordinary. Today, we peer into the shadowed world of diplomatic security in conflict zones, starting with a tale of an anti-tank mine at Erez Crossing laid by Hamas. The tension couldn't be higher as we explore the fraught dynamics within elite security teams, and the resilience of individuals like John Banchizio, whose leadership steers life-and-death decisions amid chaos and danger.

Our conversation then transports you to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, painting a vivid picture of the chaos reminiscent of the Mogadishu standoff. You'll be on the edge of your seat as we recount the strategic disguises, the silent coordination of air support, and the profound courage of DSS Agents like Vaughn and Eric. The stakes are palpable, and the narrative is a raw reminder of the complexity and rapid-fire decisions essential for survival in one of the world's most volatile professions.

But it's not all about strategy and survival. We also delve into the deeply human side of these operations, sharing the emotional toll these events take on the operatives and their loved ones. You will hear about the comfort found in the camaraderie and humor amid adversity, and how individuals like Jim and Linda Rosenblum provide strength and solace in the darkest of times. Join us for this profound discussion on the trust, safety, and unbreakable bonds formed on the front lines—a true testament to the indomitable human spirit.

Support the show

Chapters

00:01 - MSD Detachment Mission Gone Wrong

13:37 - Intense Situation at the Embassy

26:47 - Navigating a Dangerous Situation

37:22 - Emergency Ambulance Retrieval Operation

47:50 - Crowd Control During a Hostile Situation

55:16 - Emotional Aftermath of Embassy Tragedy

01:01:59 - True Friends in Times of Crisis

01:06:31 - Notification of Tragic News

01:10:30 - Memories of a Tragic Event

01:16:01 - Survival Stories Shared With Ambushed Dad

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:01.481 --> 00:00:05.631
And we are back, and with me again is Echo Frame.

00:00:07.982 --> 00:00:08.503
I'll take it.

00:00:08.503 --> 00:00:09.127
I'll take it.

00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:13.785
Sometimes you know when you're talking about shit.

00:00:13.785 --> 00:00:14.428
That's not funny.

00:00:14.428 --> 00:00:16.051
It's got to be a little bit funny.

00:00:16.051 --> 00:00:40.055
So, as we left off, the last time we were at the Erez Crossing, which is the checkpoint, the northern checkpoint to the Gaza Strip on the Israeli side and quick recap we had one of our teams from the embassy in Tel Aviv was hit by an anti-tank mine.

00:00:40.055 --> 00:00:43.801
It was laid in the roadbed by Hamas Excuse me, it was laid in the roadbed by Hamas, excuse me.

00:00:43.801 --> 00:00:50.304
And this was all subsequent to an attack on another agency's team in July.

00:00:50.304 --> 00:00:53.325
So this was October and July.

00:00:53.325 --> 00:00:58.587
Our sister agency takes an attempt on them did not result in loss of life.

00:00:58.587 --> 00:01:12.612
So just to reiterate this, because it's kind of a sticking point for me definitely, we worked with some really, really awesome State Department Diplomatic Security Service agents, some fantastic ones.

00:01:12.612 --> 00:01:17.355
Well, this particular mission was supposed to be my team.

00:01:17.355 --> 00:01:23.197
The night before we got tasked with what was deemed to be a higher priority, higher risk mission.

00:01:23.197 --> 00:01:27.019
So we switched the pieces right, switched out the board a little bit.

00:01:27.019 --> 00:01:55.313
So now, last minute, there's a team supposed to be an elite protective services team, from wherever they come from, and State Department MSD Mobile Security Detachment, mobile Security Douchebags, kind of what they turned out to be, and I say that with all sincerity because I've worked with some of the best that that agency had to offer.

00:01:55.313 --> 00:01:57.406
These guys were not it.

00:01:58.460 --> 00:02:05.433
To start it off, john Banchisio, who was the team leader of Bravo team at that time.

00:02:05.433 --> 00:02:09.008
He was just such a good guy.

00:02:09.008 --> 00:02:15.127
So he's excited, he's going to take this mission and I guess that's the irony of it.

00:02:15.127 --> 00:02:19.747
It's like we operated as one team would take hot seat and it would take any mission that came up that week.

00:02:19.747 --> 00:02:25.891
The other team would be standby, but it just speaks to the character where nobody really liked to sit out.

00:02:25.891 --> 00:02:32.793
So you know, thursday I'm sorry, tuesday night, the night before the attack, you know another call comes in.

00:02:32.793 --> 00:02:36.099
It's supposed to be a higher risk mission.

00:02:36.099 --> 00:02:43.228
So the hot seat team, which was Alpha Team, we take that one, which means Bravo Team takes the one we were supposed to take.

00:02:43.228 --> 00:02:44.050
So be it.

00:02:44.539 --> 00:02:47.790
Now this MSD detachment is up in Jerusalem.

00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:59.530
They're new, relatively new in country, so their instructions are they're going to ride along with our teams, get a familiarity to the Gaza Strip Super.

00:02:59.530 --> 00:03:04.623
So John is given their number, told to call their team leader.

00:03:04.623 --> 00:03:06.044
He calls them up.

00:03:06.044 --> 00:03:08.707
So John is given their number, told to call their team leader, he calls him up.

00:03:08.707 --> 00:03:10.909
And again, john was outgoing friendly, funny, good, solid dude.

00:03:10.909 --> 00:03:13.473
He calls him up and he's like hey is this so-and-so?

00:03:13.793 --> 00:03:15.995
Yeah, I'm John Parchesio, you know, team leader from Tel Aviv.

00:03:15.995 --> 00:03:24.990
Yada, yada, I was told to give you a call and at some point early in the conversation this guy says to him are you a contractor?

00:03:24.990 --> 00:03:27.177
And John said, oh, yes, I am okay.

00:03:27.177 --> 00:03:28.401
What's that have to do with?

00:03:28.401 --> 00:03:29.745
Anything, right?

00:03:29.745 --> 00:03:31.348
And John says, well, yes, I am.

00:03:31.348 --> 00:03:36.451
At that this State Department guy says, well, have your RSO call me.

00:03:36.451 --> 00:03:37.979
I don't talk to contractors.

00:03:37.979 --> 00:03:39.061
And he hangs up on him.

00:03:39.061 --> 00:03:45.949
Right, excuse me, but so he hangs up on him.

00:03:45.969 --> 00:03:49.294
So john calls our state department guys.

00:03:49.294 --> 00:03:51.161
He says, hey, this is what happened.

00:03:51.161 --> 00:04:05.454
So they call up the msd team leader, they straighten him out and they agreed a rendezvous the next day at the yad mordecai truck junction, which was like their version of uh, of uh, breezewood, I guess you could say.

00:04:05.454 --> 00:04:14.042
You know, it was like um ashdod ashkelon, uh, some of the beach communities along, uh, you know the, the prior entry into gaza.

00:04:14.042 --> 00:04:16.706
So that's where they linked up.

00:04:16.706 --> 00:04:20.521
We weren't going to be moving for a little bit longer.

00:04:20.521 --> 00:04:21.702
You know, we were still in tel aviv.

00:04:21.702 --> 00:04:26.821
So, long story short, um, john configures the, the motorcade.

00:04:26.821 --> 00:04:30.922
Now he still has, you know, tactical command, and these guys are only along for familiarization.

00:04:30.922 --> 00:04:38.516
So, uh, and and we covered this the last time, but I really want to review it for anybody that missed that one in a in a three-car motorcade, a standard.

00:04:38.536 --> 00:04:42.427
You know you're not trying to fool anybody motorcade embassy suburbans.

00:04:42.427 --> 00:04:49.389
You would have a lead vehicle, you would have your high value pack in the middle vehicle and then you would have your follow vehicle.

00:04:49.389 --> 00:04:52.105
So the lead and the follow are kind of like your maneuver elements.

00:04:52.105 --> 00:05:00.334
You know the lead is going to clear the way, follow will move as it has to and ultimately your only goal is to cover the package, right.

00:05:00.334 --> 00:05:21.062
So the way we always ran with two vehicles was the high value pack is up front with the State Department agent from our embassy in Tel Aviv, an embassy driver, and these guys were intimately familiar with the Gaza Strip, the good, good guys, embassy staff, and then we, the contractors.

00:05:21.062 --> 00:05:30.495
We would follow and the team leader in the follow vehicle would have tactical control of the mission, right.

00:05:30.495 --> 00:05:35.130
So making the right call, john, was like look, you guys are along for the ride.

00:05:35.130 --> 00:05:37.644
You don't know the streets, you've never been here before.

00:05:37.644 --> 00:05:39.444
You're going to be in the third vehicle.

00:05:39.444 --> 00:05:44.747
We'll be in the middle Like we're going to roll as we always do Package up front us, behind them.

00:05:44.747 --> 00:05:47.713
You'll be our gun truck, our maneuverability.

00:05:47.713 --> 00:05:48.524
You're like a trailer.

00:05:48.524 --> 00:05:54.028
You know Well what it did for the trigger man on the device was.

00:05:54.108 --> 00:05:57.074
It gave him a perfect picture of a three-vehicle motorcade.

00:05:57.074 --> 00:06:08.869
He made the assumption that the high-value pack was in the middle and when the first vehicle rode over, the X second vehicle got over our guys, boom, he command, detonates it and destroys the vehicle.

00:06:08.869 --> 00:06:14.213
So I think I already covered our response time.

00:06:14.213 --> 00:06:15.713
We got down there as fast as we could.

00:06:15.713 --> 00:06:17.935
We had Alpha Team intact.

00:06:17.935 --> 00:06:29.687
We took with us a State Department agent who jumped in another vehicle at the embassy and drove down with us.

00:06:29.687 --> 00:06:30.249
Steve is his name, very, very.

00:06:30.249 --> 00:06:45.220
He had just gotten in country, quiet, reserved, just like strangely quiet, but he was just a good and it's coming from somebody who's not strangely quiet but very solid operator, good guy, guy, but very, very quiet.

00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:56.512
And you know and for the life of me I don't remember the makeup, who else was in his vehicle on the way down, I don't remember.

00:06:56.512 --> 00:07:03.226
But we get down to the Erez Crossing and it's things that you remember like oddities.

00:07:03.226 --> 00:07:05.136
You know that you remember like oddities, you know that you remember.

00:07:05.136 --> 00:07:09.189
We get down on site, um, we get.

00:07:09.189 --> 00:07:10.892
Yeah, vic was our team leader.

00:07:10.892 --> 00:07:13.319
Okay, uh, former LA county sheriff.

00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:25.012
Prior to that he was a marine and when we got word that the there was a Palestinian ambulance bringing the, the sole survivor, back to the crossing, we, we were like, okay, great.

00:07:25.012 --> 00:07:28.749
So Vic looks at me, he was Alpha 1, and I was Alpha 2.

00:07:28.749 --> 00:07:32.067
He looks at me and he's like Rock, you're taking over.

00:07:32.067 --> 00:07:32.951
He's like when?

00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:35.588
And a lot of things happening at the same time.

00:07:35.588 --> 00:07:41.685
Right, we had our IDF Israeli Defense Force Liaison Officer, a really, really good guy.

00:07:41.685 --> 00:07:43.004
I'll call him Captain Joe.

00:07:43.004 --> 00:07:47.822
His name really was Joee captain at the time.

00:07:47.822 --> 00:07:57.447
So he comes over and and I, I I told him about this months later, at we were at a party, uh, in tel aviv, and I said, man, I have to ask you something.

00:07:57.447 --> 00:07:58.531
This is going to sound weird.

00:07:58.531 --> 00:07:59.281
He said, yeah, what's that?

00:07:59.281 --> 00:08:00.764
I said that day, we're, we're, we're planning to.

00:08:00.764 --> 00:08:01.687
You know what are we going to do next?

00:08:01.687 --> 00:08:02.028
What's happening?

00:08:02.028 --> 00:08:03.172
You know we don't know where the other three bodies are.

00:08:03.172 --> 00:08:04.254
Um, we to you know what are we going to do next?

00:08:04.254 --> 00:08:04.896
What's happening?

00:08:04.896 --> 00:08:07.024
You know we don't know where the other three bodies are.

00:08:07.024 --> 00:08:08.548
We know that.

00:08:08.749 --> 00:08:11.062
You know the last we heard was three dead, one living.

00:08:11.062 --> 00:08:22.807
We know that Oscar is inbound, simply because the only thing that happened was there was a Palestinian ambulance that was coming out of one of the refugee camps and there was a and I don't remember which was which.

00:08:22.807 --> 00:08:28.812
One was waterside, oceanside, and the other one was inland, but virtually right across from one another.

00:08:28.812 --> 00:08:34.361
The attack occurred almost in between the two of them, on the road, the single main road that leads into gaza city.

00:08:34.361 --> 00:08:46.951
So, um, by coincidence, this palestinian ambulance just came up over the hill, sees the wreckage and he sees one man moving around on the street right.

00:08:46.951 --> 00:08:58.029
So they pick him up, they take him to the hospital, they get him cleaned up, stabilized and then they make contact, you know, their people make contact with the IDF at the crossing.

00:08:58.029 --> 00:09:00.225
They're like, hey, we have a survivor, we're bringing him back.

00:09:00.225 --> 00:09:02.626
No word yet on the other three.

00:09:02.626 --> 00:09:05.105
So all this is spinning right.

00:09:05.626 --> 00:09:08.283
So vick says to me he's like rock, you're in charge.

00:09:08.283 --> 00:09:09.246
He's like there's a.

00:09:09.246 --> 00:09:13.299
There was a medical helicopter orbiting like 500 feet overhead.

00:09:13.299 --> 00:09:23.419
It wouldn't land until oscar got to the landing zone, because they wanted to coordinate this fast, like they're gonna land, cross over and off they go, you know, to get him to the nearest hospital.

00:09:23.419 --> 00:09:25.403
It's like, okay, great, and I remember thinking that I was like you know, to get him to the nearest hospital.

00:09:25.403 --> 00:09:25.629
It's like, okay, great.

00:09:25.629 --> 00:09:29.875
And I remember thinking that I was like you know, yeah, man, I got you.

00:09:29.894 --> 00:09:32.322
But first things first, like, where are the other guys?

00:09:32.322 --> 00:09:36.871
Like we've got three unaccounted for, so super.

00:09:36.871 --> 00:09:41.706
So in the interim we get a call from the embassy, right.

00:09:41.706 --> 00:09:48.424
But as this is happening, joe is right beside me and he was like, okay, he's like we want to brief this.

00:09:48.424 --> 00:09:50.870
You know, first, you know the the.

00:09:50.870 --> 00:09:53.946
There are no more survivors, but the bodies, right, what's next?

00:09:54.827 --> 00:10:01.124
As I'm talking to him, it's kind of like I hear what he's saying and I'm comprehending it, but it was almost like, you know, like in a fog a little bit, wah, wah, wah.

00:10:01.124 --> 00:10:21.705
You know, like in a fog a little bit, but I do remember this clearly he was in his everyday uniform, which would be like Marine Corps, army, navy we all have a different name for it, but in the Navy we would have called it working khakis, like at the officer and NCO level, working khakis.

00:10:21.705 --> 00:10:28.908
So it would be like khaki trousers, khaki short-sleeve shirt okay, he was in that equivalent and we're like um, green trousers, like the us army green.

00:10:28.908 --> 00:10:30.832
Okay, like green trousers, not fatigues.

00:10:30.832 --> 00:10:34.607
But you know, crisp pleat, you know uh, what do you call it um?

00:10:35.529 --> 00:10:37.072
um, yeah, like they're ironed out.

00:10:37.072 --> 00:10:38.861
Yeah, yeah, just like pristine.

00:10:38.942 --> 00:10:47.634
I dress, dress trousers, but like a uniform, right, right and an open collared, light green shirt with his shoulder insignia and his beret.

00:10:47.634 --> 00:10:54.823
And we saw him in that all the time, like that was his everyday uniform, I kid you not.

00:10:54.823 --> 00:11:01.227
In less time than it took me to turn and take a phone call, right, I turned back around same guy.

00:11:01.227 --> 00:11:14.010
He's now standing beside me in fatigues a helmet, body armor and a rifle and I'm like play a cartoon almost like you turn right I kid you not.

00:11:14.552 --> 00:11:17.849
When, then again, I did that, stuck in my head I was like what?

00:11:17.849 --> 00:11:18.190
And?

00:11:18.190 --> 00:11:21.422
And I realized like I didn't black out and the phone call wasn't that long.

00:11:21.422 --> 00:11:33.988
Right, one of the first calls I got was from the RSR, the regional security officer at the embassy, and he had recently arrived and replaced you know, they do a rotation and this guy was legit.

00:11:33.988 --> 00:11:40.928
This guy was legit, ironically, he was one of the founding members, as I recall the story.

00:11:40.928 --> 00:11:42.913
He was one of the founding members of their MSD.

00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:53.964
Recall the story he was one of the founding members of their MSD when they realized there was more of a need for more capable, more tactically sound security detachment for some high risk posts.

00:11:53.964 --> 00:12:00.788
He was one of the founding members and you could tell I mean, you could tell the way he carried himself, you could tell his sense of humor, his bearing.

00:12:00.788 --> 00:12:04.913
He was a good guy and I guess what ended up happening was he.

00:12:04.913 --> 00:12:08.947
I don't know who he called first, but I think he attempted to call Vic.

00:12:08.947 --> 00:12:17.817
Vic's not answering because he's on a helicopter, right, so he calls me and I remember still looking for the bodies.

00:12:18.357 --> 00:12:20.206
We had every reason to believe they were at the hospital.

00:12:20.206 --> 00:12:23.399
That was our next like okay, the ambulance came and picked up Oscar.

00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:24.601
He makes a call.

00:12:24.601 --> 00:12:26.764
They had to have sent more.

00:12:26.764 --> 00:12:28.525
They took him to the hospital.

00:12:28.525 --> 00:12:31.048
In fact, I think we may have gotten word that they were.

00:12:31.048 --> 00:12:34.951
The other three bodies were taken to the hospital in Gaza City.

00:12:35.011 --> 00:12:38.895
Now, we had been all over Gaza City for the last year and a half, right?

00:12:38.895 --> 00:12:44.950
So you bet, everything worth knowing where it was.

00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:53.423
We already taken gpa, coordinate and gpa yeah, see what I mean and you know what this, seriously, this is only coffee with a little cream and honey, because I got a sore throat.

00:12:53.423 --> 00:12:58.850
Gps we've taken.

00:12:58.850 --> 00:13:02.081
Gps hits on everything worth knowing where it was right.

00:13:02.081 --> 00:13:23.966
Um, so in my mind I'm like like well, the mission's clear, we're getting cleared, we're going to roll into the city, you know, take an alternate route and we're not waiting for anyone, we're not being escorted by the same assholes that would have led our guys into an ambush, right, because that's you have to be a genius to figure that out the Palestinian Authority, who had already been infiltrated by Hamas.

00:13:23.966 --> 00:13:25.528
That was 20 years ago.

00:13:25.528 --> 00:13:29.844
That was 20 years ago, when Hamas was still kind of pretending to be like a group for the people and all that.

00:13:29.844 --> 00:13:33.114
So we're going to go get our guys.

00:13:33.114 --> 00:13:33.855
That's it.

00:13:33.855 --> 00:13:35.980
You know, we didn't have to be told.

00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:40.884
Now the embassy's thinking the same thing and I remember this.

00:13:40.884 --> 00:13:44.027
It gave me like I don't know, like I can't say, chills.

00:13:44.027 --> 00:13:51.672
I mean, it was just, it was what I was thinking, right, and Mark was like he's like Rocky, get those boys.

00:13:51.672 --> 00:13:54.333
This will not become another Mogadishu.

00:13:54.333 --> 00:13:58.758
And I'll tell you like he hit right on that because it was running through my head.

00:13:58.758 --> 00:14:14.269
I was like man, I can't imagine, because we're already getting feedback, we're already getting word that there's a crowd of 400 to 500 at the attack site and they're like celebrating in the wreckage, you know, throwing bumpers and shit up in the air and hooting and hollering right.

00:14:14.269 --> 00:14:17.509
And I'm like, okay, all right, that's how this is going to go.

00:14:17.509 --> 00:14:19.519
Well, no, they're not going to turn this into Mogadishu.

00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:22.610
We're not going to have our boys dragged through the fucking streets of Gaza City.

00:14:25.580 --> 00:14:33.640
And I was like, okay, so now, as this is percolating, I turned here's, here's Joe, and you know, from his, from his everyday office apparel.

00:14:33.640 --> 00:14:37.428
Now he's in his, his kit, and I'm like what?

00:14:37.428 --> 00:14:39.919
Now, interestingly enough, we put a pin in that.

00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:43.943
But months later, when I was able to say, hey, I can't get this out of my head Like.

00:14:43.943 --> 00:14:46.605
But months later, when I was able to say, hey, I can't get this out of my head, like, how did that happen?

00:14:46.605 --> 00:14:49.389
And he starts laughing and he goes oh Rocky.

00:14:49.389 --> 00:14:53.231
He said you know, he's like, I realized what we were going to do.

00:14:53.231 --> 00:14:59.057
And he said you know, he's like I didn't have my weapon, I didn't have anything he's like and I didn't want to go back to my office.

00:14:59.057 --> 00:15:00.441
It was too far.

00:15:00.441 --> 00:15:09.455
He ran across the parking lot, ran into the processing center, looked around and I wasn't familiar enough with Israeli rank devices at the time.

00:15:09.855 --> 00:15:10.115
Right.

00:15:10.740 --> 00:15:12.006
It wasn't his uniform.

00:15:12.006 --> 00:15:16.690
He looked around, he found a soldier that was roughly his size.

00:15:16.690 --> 00:15:27.323
He goes you come here, they switched clothes and I guess, or he took the kid's clothes I mean boots and all clothes, I mean boots and all you know, boots and all.

00:15:27.323 --> 00:15:31.299
And then I guess the kid had like a you know a sweatsuit or something in his locker.

00:15:31.299 --> 00:15:36.792
So he went and changed but, um, what, what was really kind of wild at that point.

00:15:36.831 --> 00:15:40.544
So we've got our, you know, we got our, our general orders.

00:15:40.544 --> 00:15:43.210
Don't let this turn into another mogadishu.

00:15:43.210 --> 00:15:44.292
I'm like, yeah, roger, that.

00:15:44.292 --> 00:15:51.469
So now I come back out and I've got, uh, steve, kurt, nason myself.

00:15:51.469 --> 00:15:59.010
Steve was from the embassy, um, kurt and nason were my teammates and I said, um, all right.

00:15:59.010 --> 00:16:00.456
I said who've we got available?

00:16:00.456 --> 00:16:01.480
Like, who've we got available?

00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:03.027
Because we're gonna one.

00:16:03.027 --> 00:16:07.143
I'm like you know, punching the uh, get the gps location.

00:16:07.143 --> 00:16:10.028
We got to roll in the hospital's, the place to go.

00:16:10.028 --> 00:16:15.672
How we're going to load them up, what we're going to load them into, we'll figure that out when we get there, but we got to go fast.

00:16:16.302 --> 00:16:17.985
Next thing, you know, I get tapped on the shoulder.

00:16:17.985 --> 00:16:19.730
It's joe and he's like rocky.

00:16:19.730 --> 00:16:26.493
This is general so and so and I'm like, sir, well, he didn't speak english and I don't speak hebrew, right?

00:16:26.493 --> 00:16:28.884
So joe's translating, and I kid you not.

00:16:28.884 --> 00:16:39.581
We lay a map out over the hood of a suburban and he was like, okay, he's like we've got a gunship orbiting at, you know, between 500 to a thousand feet, you know helicopter gunship.

00:16:39.581 --> 00:16:44.148
He's like we've got special forces 300 meters inland.

00:16:44.148 --> 00:16:49.456
And he was like, when you make your move, what we're going to do, and I mean this is no bullshit.

00:16:49.620 --> 00:17:02.250
Now there was a and you know how I feel about first and last names, right, vaughn was the RSO who was on that mission, right, one of the best, most solid guys I've ever known.

00:17:02.250 --> 00:17:08.164
So I want to be crystal clear when I throw dirt, I know exactly who I'm throwing it at.

00:17:08.164 --> 00:17:10.148
It's not these guys, right.

00:17:10.148 --> 00:17:15.846
So Vaughn was one of the Tel Aviv RSOs who would roll with us quite often.

00:17:15.846 --> 00:17:24.789
Eric, in the center of that picture up there, he was one that we rolled with most of the time, but again, in part of the rotation.

00:17:24.789 --> 00:17:28.396
He was one that we rolled with most of the time, but again in part of the rotation.

00:17:28.396 --> 00:17:29.700
His time on the road with us had come to an end.

00:17:29.700 --> 00:17:31.501
Vaughn had kind of stepped into that role.

00:17:31.501 --> 00:17:37.213
Well now Eric was back, still part of the project, but he was really operating it at the next highest level back at the embassy.

00:17:37.760 --> 00:17:39.647
And this actually becomes kind of funny in a minute.

00:17:39.647 --> 00:17:41.527
I did not know this for 20 years.

00:17:41.527 --> 00:17:43.807
I just he was able to come up.

00:17:43.807 --> 00:17:48.564
He and Jim were in country last October for the 20th anniversary.

00:17:48.564 --> 00:17:57.032
Just by coincidence it was lined up with the 20th anniversary just a little bit after the 20th anniversary of the attack and I did not know this until then.

00:17:57.032 --> 00:18:05.538
But while all this is going on, like all I can tell you is my piece of it from being where I was on the ground Well, well, everybody had their piece.

00:18:05.538 --> 00:18:07.683
Jim was already in iraq, okay.

00:18:07.683 --> 00:18:11.069
Eric was back at the embassy coordinating efforts.

00:18:11.069 --> 00:18:13.314
So like, okay, great.

00:18:13.861 --> 00:18:20.421
So now one thing in another, translating through joe the general says okay, these are the assets we have for you.

00:18:20.421 --> 00:18:22.042
We've already launched a gunship.

00:18:22.042 --> 00:18:24.527
It's orbiting between 500 to a thousand feet.

00:18:24.527 --> 00:18:31.296
It'll be above you when you move in, roger, that now we have no direct communications with them, right, right.

00:18:31.296 --> 00:18:42.229
Nor do we have direct communications with the sf assets you know, concealed like 300 meters inland joe, levy and vaughn.

00:18:42.229 --> 00:18:45.335
Now Vaughn had already been.

00:18:45.335 --> 00:18:49.229
He was in the lead vehicle when this attack happened.

00:18:49.229 --> 00:18:59.125
So he reloads, right, they get in an IDF armored vehicle with a driver and they follow us.

00:18:59.125 --> 00:19:00.229
That's their plan.

00:19:00.229 --> 00:19:06.184
They're going to follow us at a safe distance so that if we get in the shed, I make a radio call.

00:19:06.184 --> 00:19:09.988
Vaughn picks it up, joe hears it because he's right beside him.

00:19:09.988 --> 00:19:15.404
He relays exactly what I say to Vaughn whatever we need, you know we're in.

00:19:15.619 --> 00:19:17.326
And listen, I'm not stupid, right?

00:19:17.326 --> 00:19:18.390
This is not a movie.

00:19:18.390 --> 00:19:21.105
There is no such thing as a.

00:19:21.105 --> 00:19:22.681
Well, that's not entirely true.

00:19:22.681 --> 00:19:32.853
I was reluctant to call for gunship support because, whatever happens, we're going to be right in the middle of it, right, right, it's not like an airstrike where you could go.

00:19:32.853 --> 00:19:35.576
There are 50 meters to my east.

00:19:35.576 --> 00:19:36.517
You know what I mean.

00:19:36.517 --> 00:19:38.059
You're going to be in the middle of it.

00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:38.701
So that would have been the last.

00:19:38.701 --> 00:19:57.241
But listen, in that moment, you know, such was my mindset at that time, in that moment, you know, such was my mindset at that time, there's no doubt about it, we weren't going out quietly and if that was the call, that would have been the call, you know, and I think I would have gone out with a smile on my face, thinking all right, fuckers, you know you're going to pay dearly.

00:19:57.241 --> 00:20:01.644
I think the special forces option would have probably been maybe more practical, but at that point we're still.

00:20:01.644 --> 00:20:04.465
You know, our plan right now is they're at the hospital.

00:20:04.465 --> 00:20:05.287
We've got to go get them.

00:20:06.807 --> 00:20:07.008
Go.

00:20:07.008 --> 00:20:10.809
So just to be clear, so just put everything into my mind here.

00:20:10.809 --> 00:20:15.133
So the convoy with John gets hit, correct.

00:20:15.133 --> 00:20:16.433
Middle vehicle gets hit.

00:20:16.433 --> 00:20:18.595
There's no follow-up attack at that time.

00:20:18.595 --> 00:20:24.340
There's not like, no, no fighters running out anything to clean up the survivors, no, Okay, no Okay.

00:20:24.641 --> 00:20:24.721
No.

00:20:24.721 --> 00:20:50.530
So then we have three casualties, one injured, and those three casualties are taken to the hospital and then maybe under good pretext, but you think, maybe what's going to happen to reference Mogadishu is that folks are going to parade the bodies around as a sort of I don't know a display of four of success or something exactly whatever you want to say, exactly, and I'll tell you, I think, what.

00:20:50.651 --> 00:21:19.733
What concerned me the most was and again, you know, I mean, you could, you could certainly jump to conclusions, right, but and if I maybe I didn't say this, or if I did, maybe I wasn't clear they had already, they being the the crowd that came out of the refugee camp on the water side, the beach side, they had already converged on the attack side and as they were like literally celebrating through the wreckage, my concern was it just, it was in my head.

00:21:19.733 --> 00:21:20.141
I couldn't.

00:21:20.141 --> 00:21:23.250
I'm like, I'm not counting it out as an option.

00:21:23.250 --> 00:21:33.765
It's just a matter of time until they find out where the remains are and they make their way there, or even once word travels, you know you're going to.

00:21:33.765 --> 00:22:00.650
What I didn't want to do was I didn't want to have to fight my way into and out of the city, right, but and this probably in hindsight or not hindsight, I mean, I know how it, you know I've carried this for 20 years, but to someone else it might sound stupid, all right, but there's no way.

00:22:00.650 --> 00:22:05.714
Fuck, they were not getting left behind.

00:22:05.714 --> 00:22:13.218
Fuck, they were not getting left behind Alive or dead.

00:22:13.218 --> 00:22:18.182
So what I kept thinking was I'm saying yes to everything right now.

00:22:18.182 --> 00:22:23.353
Greenlight us, let us roll, because the longer we stay here, all that had to happen was someone changed their minds.

00:22:23.353 --> 00:22:25.481
All that had to happen.

00:22:25.481 --> 00:22:26.746
And I mean I, I've got respect for this.

00:22:27.449 --> 00:22:37.211
The rso, at the time mark, it would have been very difficult for me to not comply if he had said stand down, right, he was that kind of guy.

00:22:37.211 --> 00:22:46.344
It would have been physically impossible had he said that, because the israelis would have shut down the checkpoint and not allowed us to cross right.

00:22:46.344 --> 00:22:50.718
So, that being said, I was like yes, sir, yes sir, like in my mind.

00:22:50.718 --> 00:22:57.217
I'm like, before somebody changes their mind, let's go, because once we roll, I'm not coming back.

00:22:57.217 --> 00:23:05.512
I mean, you can call me back and I'll have a radio malfunction or we all will right, right, that you could work around.

00:23:05.512 --> 00:23:07.983
You know, there's, there's a little bit feasibility.

00:23:07.983 --> 00:23:09.807
And if not, then you face the music.

00:23:09.807 --> 00:23:12.684
When you're back, you know, but but to, to, not.

00:23:12.684 --> 00:23:15.134
You know, hey, the border's closed, you're not going anywhere.

00:23:15.134 --> 00:23:17.221
We, we didn't want that to happen, right?

00:23:17.221 --> 00:23:23.925
So we're like okay, we got this, um, but in the meanwhile, what was really, really messed up now?

00:23:23.925 --> 00:23:28.647
Now, bear in mind like I want to tell this part of the story now, because this is what happened chronologically.

00:23:28.647 --> 00:23:31.541
I didn't find out about this until later.

00:23:31.541 --> 00:23:34.949
So now you got all these moving parts right.

00:23:34.949 --> 00:23:46.924
We're coordinating with the embassy, we're coordinating with the idf, and it wasn't lost on me even in that moment that Joe and Vaughn are, and I realized I'm like, ok.

00:23:46.924 --> 00:23:48.931
So Vaughn was in the lead vehicle.

00:23:48.931 --> 00:23:52.549
The gun truck right behind him blew up.

00:23:52.549 --> 00:24:06.352
He was the one Boom, boom, boom, making the next calls, all right To get back to safety, and then to jock up and go right away to do it again to support us.

00:24:07.784 --> 00:24:10.731
There's nothing in the world I can say about this guy.

00:24:10.731 --> 00:24:11.493
That would be enough.

00:24:11.493 --> 00:24:13.460
There's not, there's not.

00:24:13.460 --> 00:24:19.173
He's got his own station now, the last I heard, and I wish him all the best and and he is just.

00:24:19.173 --> 00:24:19.641
That's.

00:24:19.641 --> 00:24:19.922
That's what.

00:24:19.922 --> 00:24:22.086
That's what guys in that line of work should aspire to, to emulate, that's that's what.

00:24:22.086 --> 00:24:26.057
That's what guys in that line of work should aspire to, to emulate.

00:24:26.057 --> 00:24:27.544
That's what they should want to.

00:24:27.544 --> 00:24:29.088
That should be the role model, okay.

00:24:29.088 --> 00:24:37.901
So, matter of fact, he's the one that took me aside later and filled me in on everything that I'll tell you now, because this is chronological.

00:24:37.901 --> 00:24:38.481
Okay.

00:24:39.522 --> 00:24:47.470
So primary mission of of, uh uh, psd personal security detachment.

00:24:47.470 --> 00:24:53.055
Nothing happens to that high-value package.

00:24:53.055 --> 00:24:54.336
That's the mission.

00:24:54.336 --> 00:24:56.116
That is the mission, okay.

00:24:56.116 --> 00:24:57.792
So now remember the order.

00:24:57.792 --> 00:25:16.210
Right, there's Vaughn and the high-value pack in the lead vehicle with Paul, the embassy driver, and our guys in the follow, and then the high-speed wonder kids in the third vehicle the minute boom detonation takes right.

00:25:16.210 --> 00:25:17.967
So Paul is like anybody else.

00:25:17.967 --> 00:25:20.048
Paul's like what the hell right?

00:25:20.048 --> 00:25:25.724
So Vaughn, in his own words, as he told me, he looks in his mirror and he just sees black smoke.

00:25:25.724 --> 00:25:28.825
Can't see anything else, doesn't see anything else.

00:25:28.825 --> 00:25:38.119
Now, the next thing you think you would see, unless they took out both vehicles, there's got to be another vehicle coming through that smoke any minute.

00:25:38.119 --> 00:25:40.202
There's not.

00:25:40.202 --> 00:25:48.855
So and and you know again, this is as I heard this from vaughn paul says what do we do?

00:25:48.855 --> 00:25:51.204
It's not a bad question.

00:25:51.204 --> 00:25:52.848
I don't challenge that question.

00:25:52.848 --> 00:25:53.991
I don't say what do you mean?

00:25:53.991 --> 00:25:54.579
What do we do?

00:25:54.579 --> 00:25:58.969
Hey, man, he's the driver, you're in charge, what do we do?

00:25:58.969 --> 00:26:03.188
And vaughn was like okay, so you're thinking like this pretty fast.

00:26:03.188 --> 00:26:05.339
He's like gaza city, straight ahead.

00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:21.288
We don't know, as your earlier question, is there a secondary follow-on attack, if you recall in that story from july that first thing that showed up when our guys and they were, they were, they were buzzed, they I can't say they were out cold, but they were they were rocked.

00:26:21.288 --> 00:26:30.048
When they came to directly across the street, in front of them was a Palestinian Authority police vehicle, Two jokers getting out with their AKs.

00:26:30.048 --> 00:26:34.310
Again, were they getting out in an aggressive fashion to come finish the job?

00:26:34.310 --> 00:26:38.406
Or were they getting out with their weapons Because, hey, there was just an attack?

00:26:38.406 --> 00:26:47.044
You know, maybe, maybe they were good guys and they just went to stage there, you know, for whatever I don't know good guys and they just went to stage there, you know, for whatever I don't know.

00:26:47.044 --> 00:26:47.865
But there there wasn't, you know.

00:26:47.884 --> 00:26:50.330
So now vaughn's like are we driving in to a, a bigger ambush?

00:26:50.330 --> 00:26:54.424
You've got camps on both sides there.

00:26:54.424 --> 00:27:00.422
And and again, I want to be crystal clear on this you know we worked in gaza for two years.

00:27:00.422 --> 00:27:03.145
We met a lot of palestinians.

00:27:03.145 --> 00:27:08.115
You know there are regular working class people there as well.

00:27:08.115 --> 00:27:08.840
There are.

00:27:09.522 --> 00:27:13.631
And right now, what's going on globally, what's going on in israel?

00:27:13.631 --> 00:27:18.929
I do feel for the civilian population that gets caught up in it, 100, I mean you.

00:27:18.929 --> 00:27:20.711
You have to understand that.

00:27:20.711 --> 00:27:40.183
But at the same time we quickly degenerate from pro-palestinian to pro-Hamas because now they're like the fucking Robin Hoods of Palestine or some bullshit to anti-Semitism at a level higher than I've ever seen it in my lifetime, to anti-American sentiment.

00:27:40.183 --> 00:27:49.803
Okay, you know, it's a slippery slope, right, right, and the irony of it is under the very banner of freedom that we provide.

00:27:49.803 --> 00:28:00.065
So I'm a little, I'm a little slow to accept that, right, but so vaughn's like, stop the vehicle, turn us around, go back.

00:28:01.968 --> 00:28:15.760
At that point you got a shit sandwich and, as, as my friend white boy said, first time I ever heard this expression was from him and, if you recall, he was with us for a while and left like six weeks prior.

00:28:15.760 --> 00:28:34.593
You know, due to, well, due to, to think about it, it's not like he was clairvoyant but everything we all, all the, all the concerns we had led up to that moment, time and place, predictable, roger, that Easily being led, you know, by the Palestinian Authority that had, at that time probably been compromised, right.

00:28:34.593 --> 00:28:39.366
So all the red flags that you know we had all seen.

00:28:39.366 --> 00:28:45.227
But you know, chris was the one who was vocal and pointed it out and I will never forget.

00:28:45.227 --> 00:28:50.960
I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but you know, as I told you, roger passed away from natural causes after that sometime.

00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:53.084
But the smug arrogance.

00:28:53.084 --> 00:28:55.930
I'll tell you what you don't like it.

00:28:55.930 --> 00:29:09.169
There's the door and it wasn't funny and I didn't really laugh out loud because I didn't want Chris to leave, right, but that smug son of a bitch if you don't like it, Chris, there's the door and right then.

00:29:09.209 --> 00:29:12.651
And there he's like well, all right then, consider this my two-week notice.

00:29:12.651 --> 00:29:17.674
And, true to his word, he was gone, you know, but yeah, so he used to say it.

00:29:17.674 --> 00:29:24.146
He was like when you get a shit sandwich, take a big bite.

00:29:24.146 --> 00:29:25.830
So here we are, and you know, vaughn's like okay.

00:29:25.830 --> 00:29:26.833
So, tactically, what's the?

00:29:26.833 --> 00:29:31.965
You got a refugee camp to the inland, you got one to the seaside, gaza City, straight ahead.

00:29:31.965 --> 00:29:41.864
The refugee camps, the threat that they presented was the ease for a hostile element to blend in with a local population.

00:29:41.864 --> 00:29:54.326
Right, because, again, most of the people that were at the attack site once that celebration got underway, they were just kind of like I hate to say it like pawns on the chessboard.

00:29:54.326 --> 00:29:57.256
You know, they were just in it, right, and why are you doing that?

00:29:57.256 --> 00:29:58.715
I don't know, because he's doing it Woo-hoo.

00:29:59.109 --> 00:30:00.855
You get a mob mentality, exactly.

00:30:01.136 --> 00:30:02.431
Yeah, exactly so.

00:30:02.431 --> 00:30:05.220
Vaughn says you know, turn us around, get us out of here.

00:30:05.220 --> 00:30:11.160
So they turn around and they drive back and it's still smoke and fire and debris everywhere.

00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:16.384
Now there's no sign of the MSD guys, None One vehicle.

00:30:16.384 --> 00:30:22.878
It looked like somewhere, I have pictures of it, but it was literally mangled.

00:30:22.878 --> 00:30:26.817
This was a level 4 Suburban, like just twisted and mangled right.

00:30:26.817 --> 00:30:34.073
No sign of another Suburban, no sign of the MSD element.

00:30:34.113 --> 00:30:39.269
So Vaughn gets on the radio and I don't know what call sign they gave themselves.

00:30:39.269 --> 00:30:44.862
But, um, you know, let's say it was like cat, like counter-assault team or something.

00:30:44.862 --> 00:30:46.673
You know, he's like cat.

00:30:46.673 --> 00:30:47.555
You know this is lead.

00:30:47.555 --> 00:30:48.236
Where are you?

00:30:48.236 --> 00:30:54.836
The team leader comes back on the radio and he says we're clearing the path to the north.

00:30:54.836 --> 00:30:58.903
Clearing the path to the north.

00:30:58.903 --> 00:31:06.200
They were not two kilometers inland, I mean two kilometers south of the crossing.

00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:08.096
There is nothing to the north.

00:31:09.211 --> 00:31:11.819
Now, on the other hand, well, what if the attack was coming from there?

00:31:11.819 --> 00:31:16.419
Highly, highly unlikely, because it's desolate, like I said, I can still see it in my mind to this day.

00:31:16.419 --> 00:31:17.769
It's desolate, not to say it couldn't, but it's desolate.

00:31:17.769 --> 00:31:18.191
Like I said, I can still see it in my mind to this day.

00:31:18.191 --> 00:31:23.224
It's desolate not to say it couldn't, but it's highly unlikely you would have been coming from the israeli side.

00:31:23.224 --> 00:31:29.381
Yeah, you know, they ran, they turned and they ran and that's exactly what happened.

00:31:29.381 --> 00:31:33.894
And, vaughn, you know, as this is happening, they're still moving right now.

00:31:33.894 --> 00:32:01.942
Paul the driver, as you can imagine, um, paul's a good man, he was a driver, he wasn't tactical, he wasn't a special agent, he was a driver and we had been there for a year and a half and we really bonded, you know, like he was a friend of ours, you know, and I think that was very hard for him to comprehend, um, so, but to his credit man, credit man he stayed in the fight and got him out right.

00:32:01.942 --> 00:32:17.219
But Vaughn's on the radio and as they're driving by, he sees the bodies laying in the street among the wreckage and he sees a couple of them moving and he was like Cat, this is lead.

00:32:17.219 --> 00:32:18.493
He's like get back here.

00:32:18.493 --> 00:32:21.593
You've got americans on the ground, get back here.

00:32:21.593 --> 00:32:26.864
No, the reply was no, they're not coming back.

00:32:27.625 --> 00:32:30.050
I'm like now, we didn't know any of this.

00:32:30.050 --> 00:32:32.234
We didn't know any of this at that time.

00:32:32.234 --> 00:32:49.320
We I don't know if I mentioned this the last time or not, but when we rolled in to the checkpoint, before everything that I just told you before, that we rolled on site before we linked up with Joe, before I briefed with the general, before Vic said hey, you're in charge, I'm going to.

00:32:49.320 --> 00:32:50.875
You know, I'm going with Oscar.

00:32:50.875 --> 00:32:54.948
I look over and I see those guys.

00:32:54.948 --> 00:32:56.471
We didn't even know who they were at that moment.

00:32:56.510 --> 00:32:57.532
I was like who are those guys?

00:32:57.532 --> 00:33:01.919
And I don't remember who told us they're like oh well, they were in the third vehicle.

00:33:01.919 --> 00:33:05.565
I'm like, oh, right on, I don't know Were they hurt, was their vehicle disabled?

00:33:05.565 --> 00:33:12.435
And that's one of the things in motorcade operations.

00:33:12.435 --> 00:33:21.076
You know if you are too close to the vehicle in front of any vehicle could damage, you know the vehicle's too close proximity to it.

00:33:21.076 --> 00:33:22.797
So I don't know what's happened, right?

00:33:23.810 --> 00:33:26.298
So at that point we're like okay, we're getting ready to go back.

00:33:26.298 --> 00:33:27.381
Who do we have?

00:33:27.381 --> 00:33:28.795
What vehicles do we have?

00:33:28.795 --> 00:33:31.036
So we've got two Suburbans.

00:33:31.036 --> 00:33:33.696
Steve came down with us from the embassy.

00:33:33.696 --> 00:33:34.599
He's like yeah, I'll go.

00:33:34.599 --> 00:33:47.395
And the simple, simple reason for taking two vehicles if anything should happen to one, we're not running out, right.

00:33:47.395 --> 00:33:48.038
So we're like okay now.

00:33:48.038 --> 00:33:50.086
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but this was somewhat embarrassing.

00:33:50.086 --> 00:33:59.104
We had just gotten a new deputy regional security officer, drso, and so new that we had yet to meet him, like our team had not crossed paths with him.

00:33:59.104 --> 00:34:01.715
He's new to the embassy, not new to the state department.

00:34:01.715 --> 00:34:06.613
Good guy, you know good guy, but we hadn't met him yet.

00:34:06.613 --> 00:34:11.403
So these suburbans have three seats, three rows, three rows.

00:34:11.403 --> 00:34:14.797
I couldn't tell you how far away from the embassy we were.

00:34:14.918 --> 00:34:19.873
This is backing up a bit, far away from the embassy we were this is backing up a bit.

00:34:19.873 --> 00:34:20.514
We get in the vehicles to roll.

00:34:20.514 --> 00:34:27.393
Vick's in the front seat, kurt's driving, nason and I are in the back and we're monitoring our radios like for updates.

00:34:27.393 --> 00:34:35.452
And 40 mile drive from tel aviv to the aires crossing and we're running fast.

00:34:35.452 --> 00:34:40.711
But it wasn't tactical, like we're not, like you know looking, you know, for we're rolling.

00:34:40.711 --> 00:34:43.197
I don't know what possessed me.

00:34:43.197 --> 00:34:45.103
It's like I felt something behind me.

00:34:45.103 --> 00:34:47.172
I turn around.

00:34:47.172 --> 00:34:54.954
There's a guy sitting behind me, never said a word, right, and I, literally I go who are you?

00:34:54.954 --> 00:34:56.717
And he introduces himself.

00:34:56.717 --> 00:34:58.543
He goes oh, I'm so-and-so the DRSO.

00:34:58.543 --> 00:35:09.521
I'm like sir, you know, and I'm thinking like why wouldn't you say like hey guys, I guess he got in our Suburban in the courtyard at the embassy before we rolled.

00:35:12.351 --> 00:35:15.614
And you know, just to his credit, man, he's going with us and I appreciated that.

00:35:15.614 --> 00:35:16.155
It was great.

00:35:16.155 --> 00:35:21.820
So all this is happening, right, get the phone call.

00:35:21.820 --> 00:35:23.422
Now we need assets.

00:35:23.422 --> 00:35:32.336
And in my mind I'm thinking, well, we're going to go get these guys, like, let's go Before we can even move.

00:35:32.336 --> 00:35:45.958
It was Joe, it was Captain Levy, and I'm trying to remember the time frame because in my mind we're Joe, it was Captain Levy, um, and I'm I'm trying to remember the timeframe because in my mind we're pressed, we've got to go, we've got to get to the hospital, get our boys and get out before anything changes.

00:35:46.990 --> 00:36:03.695
I take a walk over and I said, um, hey guys, you know and there I mean some of them, as I recall, and this is, you know, sometimes when you're blinded by pure hatred, like I am, things get a bit foggy.

00:36:03.715 --> 00:36:29.041
What I don't forget was this, though it was an odd makeup I go over and there were a couple of the guys sitting on the steps that just looked like probably rather not take them anyway, right, you know, like they look visibly shaken, but not like no man, I'm good, I'm good, yeah, uh, they look like they would be of no use, and I don't mean that in a bad way or facetiously, they just look shaken to the point that we need to leave them here.

00:36:29.041 --> 00:36:36.916
The team leader still seemed like a dick right and I was like hey're going to roll back in who's coming.

00:36:36.916 --> 00:36:44.081
This guy kind of doesn't step up to me, almost aloof, like that's what kind of?

00:36:44.081 --> 00:36:50.027
Made me even more pissed, was almost dismissive and he speaks for everybody.

00:36:50.027 --> 00:36:52.496
He goes, we're not going.

00:36:52.496 --> 00:36:59.079
And I said something In hindsight I wish I would have said it with more intent.

00:36:59.099 --> 00:37:07.831
Yeah, but I think it came out very matter of fact, right, and I was like, all right, well, I don't see you there, I don't want to see you again.

00:37:07.831 --> 00:37:20.876
And I turn around and, like you know, it sounded in my mind, like in my mind I was like, and if I don't see but it probably was more glib, you know like, well, I don't want to see you again, you know, off we go.

00:37:20.876 --> 00:37:30.496
The next thing I know and again it's not like I'm not trying to like we weren't like the Keystone cops, everybody was, you know, from Mason to Kurt.

00:37:30.496 --> 00:37:33.617
Kurt's ready, he drove down, so he's making sure the vehicle is ready to go.

00:37:33.617 --> 00:37:35.777
Steve's making sure his vehicle is ready to go.

00:37:35.777 --> 00:37:38.860
Mason's ready to go.

00:37:38.860 --> 00:37:39.465
Steve's making sure his vehicle's ready to go.

00:37:39.465 --> 00:37:42.043
Nason's like working the gps, like hey, you know the hospital in gaza city, what are the coordinates?

00:37:42.043 --> 00:37:43.972
Let's bring it up like we're gonna make this quick alternate route.

00:37:43.972 --> 00:37:47.824
I don't think he knew nason.

00:37:47.824 --> 00:37:48.748
I don't think he knew that.

00:37:48.789 --> 00:37:53.608
I went over and asked because the next thing I know, I speak to joe, we come up with.

00:37:53.608 --> 00:37:54.590
All right, this is what we're going to do.

00:37:54.590 --> 00:37:59.976
I turn around, n Mason comes back over and he goes these fucking guys aren't going with us.

00:37:59.976 --> 00:38:12.440
And I mean I didn't think it was funny at the time but looking back I guess it was kind of funny, because Mason was just still, to this day, man, he's a good guy.

00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:16.373
But I guess he didn't realize I had already asked and I didn't tell him.

00:38:16.373 --> 00:38:21.320
He goes over and he's like hey, you know, like, grab your shit, we're getting ready to roll.

00:38:21.320 --> 00:38:26.146
And they said no again, hey, these fucking guys aren't going with us.

00:38:31.269 --> 00:38:37.378
I'm just like in the midst of all of this, like we're just about to roll, and the next thing, you know, my phone rings and I'm like okay, you know again, like, is this the embassy?

00:38:37.378 --> 00:38:38.581
I don't recognize the number.

00:38:38.581 --> 00:38:40.597
I answer the phone and it's Jim.

00:38:40.597 --> 00:38:42.175
Now Jim's in Iraq.

00:38:42.175 --> 00:38:46.219
So I'm like you know, hello, this is Rocky.

00:38:46.219 --> 00:38:48.356
And he's like Rocky, it's Jim.

00:38:48.356 --> 00:38:49.349
Dude.

00:38:49.349 --> 00:38:49.891
I tell you what?

00:38:49.891 --> 00:39:02.193
At that point I felt like I held it together, didn't shed a tear, was completely and totally focused, didn't shed a tear, was completely and totally focused as soon as I heard him on the phone.

00:39:02.213 --> 00:39:04.257
I was like you know, and he's like what's going on?

00:39:04.257 --> 00:39:06.961
And I was like they're gone, brother.

00:39:06.961 --> 00:39:09.391
And I was like bravo, team's been hit.

00:39:09.652 --> 00:39:24.041
And I said we're at the aires crossing right now and he was like roger that now what was kind of wild was we had already had the brief with the general, everything ready, but the green light like go right.

00:39:24.041 --> 00:39:25.152
And I was like.

00:39:25.152 --> 00:39:30.623
So I said you know, vic took off in the helicopter with Oscar.

00:39:30.623 --> 00:39:33.358
I said we're still looking for the other three.

00:39:33.358 --> 00:39:38.141
I said you know, I think they're at the, I think they're at the hospital waiting for, waiting for word, right?

00:39:38.141 --> 00:39:41.809
So, roger, that, and uh, you know which again it was.

00:39:41.809 --> 00:39:50.574
It wasn't really small talk or anything, but what was wild was now I'm getting the wave like hey, you know, come here, I go, jim, we're about ready to move.

00:39:50.574 --> 00:39:55.440
I think I got to go and I remember just like it was yesterday and I'll remember it till the day I die.

00:39:55.440 --> 00:39:57.304
He goes, all right, listen.

00:39:57.304 --> 00:40:00.536
And like it was like everything stops, like listen.

00:40:00.536 --> 00:40:03.090
And I was like, yeah, he goes, you know what you have to do.

00:40:03.090 --> 00:40:06.157
He goes, take a deep breath and do it.

00:40:06.157 --> 00:40:08.802
And I was like Roger, that I got this.

00:40:08.802 --> 00:40:09.931
And he's like I know you do.

00:40:09.931 --> 00:40:16.539
And later he would tell me he was like I had both of your numbers in my phone and I knew that the teams had been split up.

00:40:16.539 --> 00:40:21.925
And he's like when word went out that a team had been hit in the Gaza Strip.

00:40:21.925 --> 00:40:24.759
He's like, brother, I had two numbers in my phone.

00:40:24.759 --> 00:40:26.737
He goes I knew one of you would answer and one of you wouldn't.

00:40:26.737 --> 00:40:30.119
And I was like, yeah, that's accurate.

00:40:30.119 --> 00:40:38.655
So, while this is going on and this happened a lot faster than the retelling of it it's kind of boom, boom, boom.

00:40:38.655 --> 00:40:42.003
In the meanwhile I'm thinking, here we go, we're rolling to the hospital.

00:40:42.003 --> 00:40:44.916
Next thing, you know the wave, I'm getting the call.

00:40:44.916 --> 00:40:45.378
I'm getting.

00:40:45.378 --> 00:40:49.052
They're like stand down the other three.

00:40:49.052 --> 00:40:56.054
And this really, and kind of dovetails into the part that Eric told me this last October that I did not know.

00:40:56.054 --> 00:40:59.952
Know, while we were still waiting, are we going to the hospital?

00:40:59.952 --> 00:41:01.539
Let's get the bodies right.

00:41:01.539 --> 00:41:02.764
Like we're ready to roll.

00:41:03.485 --> 00:41:07.561
Eric is on the phone with the palestinian authority from the embassy.

00:41:07.561 --> 00:41:08.907
Okay, he's at the embassy.

00:41:08.907 --> 00:41:14.759
He's calling gaza and they're giving him this kabuki jug fuck of.

00:41:14.759 --> 00:41:16.661
We don't know where they are, what.

00:41:16.661 --> 00:41:18.811
We heard an ambulance, but you heard an ambulance picked them up.

00:41:18.811 --> 00:41:22.222
You're in charge, find them right.

00:41:22.222 --> 00:41:28.538
So eric says to them he goes listen, motherfucker, he was like you know what drone strikes are?

00:41:28.538 --> 00:41:37.460
Right, he's like I'm telling you right now, if anything happens to one of those bodies, I will call in a fucking drone strike on your headquarters within the minute.

00:41:37.460 --> 00:41:40.572
And then meanwhile he's telling us that and he goes.

00:41:40.572 --> 00:41:46.239
He didn't know, I didn't have access to that, like he had no way of knowing that that's not gonna happen.

00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:48.449
And he's like here I am threatening him with a drone strike.

00:41:48.550 --> 00:41:54.331
I was like that's cool man right on like I wish I'd have known that I would have probably had a little bit more swagger.

00:41:54.331 --> 00:41:59.858
You know, on the on the ground at the time, you know, see this, I got eric on speed dial, you know.

00:41:59.858 --> 00:42:04.914
But, um, yeah, he threatened them with a drone strike, but but I guess what ended up happening.

00:42:04.914 --> 00:42:10.835
So you know, I'm getting motion like hey, come here, come here, okay, great, he's like they're on their way here.

00:42:10.835 --> 00:42:12.780
I'm like what, what?

00:42:12.780 --> 00:42:13.440
What's happened?

00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:23.483
So the hospital, I guess, between the threat of the drone strike and more the reality of the, of the I hate the word optics, but you know the threat of the drone strike.

00:42:23.483 --> 00:42:38.295
And hey, if that crowd does come to the hospital, they're not going to be indiscriminate, they're probably going to trash the hospital in an attempt to get to the guys and then that's going to be all over the news and then, whatever, you know, blow for fucking liberty.

00:42:38.295 --> 00:42:47.106
These guys think they, struck by killing three Americans, is kind of going to go out the window if it's followed up with some like Somali, like savagery, you know.

00:42:47.106 --> 00:42:49.898
So we're like, ok, they're coming back.

00:42:49.898 --> 00:42:59.105
And I have to tell you, like you know, in that instant I was kind of, you know, like almost a mini, like adrenaline dump, like you're go, go, go, then stop.

00:42:59.105 --> 00:43:12.164
But in the meanwhile and this is just tactically very, very sound there is no way the IDF was going to let one, let alone three, palestinian ambulances cross over unchecked.

00:43:12.164 --> 00:43:14.557
So they're like okay, here's what we're going to do.

00:43:14.557 --> 00:43:16.532
They're going to bring the.

00:43:16.592 --> 00:43:30.041
I think I told you there was like maybe a couple hundred meters of no man's land between, like where you would cross the Israeli point, and then like desolate, and then there was like a gate arm with a couple Palestinian soldiers, you know.

00:43:30.041 --> 00:43:32.844
So what they would do was one at a time.

00:43:32.844 --> 00:43:34.827
They would send an ambulance halfway.

00:43:34.827 --> 00:43:37.280
They would send an ambulance halfway.

00:43:37.280 --> 00:43:44.916
They needed somebody who knew the team to visually identify the bodies, acknowledge and then send them up one at a time.

00:43:44.916 --> 00:43:47.094
I was like, well, I'll do it.

00:43:47.094 --> 00:43:54.016
So I kind of just double-time it down into the middle of nowhere, right, and I'm standing there like an idiot.

00:43:54.016 --> 00:43:55.954
Here comes one ambulance.

00:43:55.954 --> 00:44:00.313
They open the door, I look and I'm like, yeah, that's, that's johnny lind.

00:44:00.313 --> 00:44:10.235
So, okay, roger, that, um, and if you know what, if I'm not mistaken, I went down on foot because I didn't know any better.

00:44:10.235 --> 00:44:14.652
Right, well, no, shit, right behind me comes an israeli ambulance.

00:44:14.652 --> 00:44:17.717
So now the plan's making more sense, right?

00:44:17.717 --> 00:44:20.643
Because here I am, like I'm thinking I'm going to identify it and give him a thumbs up.

00:44:20.643 --> 00:44:24.378
No, they kind of cross-loaded.

00:44:24.378 --> 00:44:25.601
You know, palestinian ambulance.

00:44:25.601 --> 00:44:26.893
Here, israeli ambulance pulls up.

00:44:26.893 --> 00:44:30.056
Beside it, corman from the IDF gets out.

00:44:30.056 --> 00:44:31.996
I identify the first body.

00:44:31.996 --> 00:44:33.155
I'm like, yeah, that's John Lind.

00:44:33.155 --> 00:44:38.170
They're like, okay, so I could spell that for me, yeah, sure.

00:44:38.170 --> 00:44:39.733
And like, okay, so I could spell that for me, yeah, sure, so he.

00:44:39.733 --> 00:44:41.599
He fills out, you know, his, his paperwork, little little clipboard packet.

00:44:41.599 --> 00:44:46.873
They cross load the stretcher from one to the next and, um, you know, boom, off they go.

00:44:46.873 --> 00:44:53.672
I still wait, both ambulances, they, they kind of turn, you know, palestinian goes back that way, israeli goes that way.

00:44:53.672 --> 00:44:54.715
I'm standing there.

00:44:54.715 --> 00:44:56.177
Next one comes up.

00:44:56.177 --> 00:44:58.181
Next idf ambulance comes down.

00:44:58.181 --> 00:45:01.733
Next one is mark right, I positively identify him.

00:45:01.733 --> 00:45:03.757
Third one's john branchizio.

00:45:03.757 --> 00:45:05.300
All good, right.

00:45:05.860 --> 00:45:08.952
So now the last of the ambulances returns.

00:45:08.952 --> 00:45:11.219
I double time it back up to the border.

00:45:11.219 --> 00:45:19.902
I'm thinking, well, let's grab our shit, let's head back to the embassy, because now no next of kin had been notified.

00:45:19.902 --> 00:45:29.923
There's a lot that we have to do, okay, but in the meanwhile the powers that be decide that they want to investigate the attack site, right?

00:45:29.923 --> 00:45:40.632
So the DRSO who was in the third seat, he's on the phone with the embassy now and he says to me he's like look, I know you guys have had a very rough day.

00:45:40.632 --> 00:45:46.614
And he was like but we're considering this a crime scene and I have to go take pictures for investigation.

00:45:48.097 --> 00:45:51.351
And at that moment it was kind of in my head, it was like surreal, you know.

00:45:51.351 --> 00:45:55.476
And I remember I said to him I was like Sir, listen, I said you're the investigator, not me, right?

00:45:55.476 --> 00:46:00.322
And I said but you do understand that that crime scene's already been overrun.

00:46:00.322 --> 00:46:04.773
I mean, four or 500 civilians have already like partied through the wreckage.

00:46:04.773 --> 00:46:10.074
And I said so I would think any evidence you could get would be contaminated by now.

00:46:10.074 --> 00:46:12.481
And he was like well, I still have to try.

00:46:12.481 --> 00:46:19.161
And I was like no, roger, that and I wish I could say this with more um, like nobility of purpose.

00:46:19.764 --> 00:46:20.351
But there wasn't.

00:46:20.351 --> 00:46:22.155
You know my whole thing was all right.

00:46:22.155 --> 00:46:24.360
You know americans just got killed.

00:46:24.360 --> 00:46:26.211
You're going to go in there.

00:46:26.211 --> 00:46:28.942
Highly likely there's going to be violence.

00:46:28.942 --> 00:46:32.072
I'm going to kill every motherfucker that I can.

00:46:32.072 --> 00:46:42.702
That's how today, that's how my afternoon is going to go, and that's what was on my mind and I wish I could say, you know, for the cause, or for the, you know, for discovery of truth or something.

00:46:42.702 --> 00:46:43.523
There wasn't any of that.

00:46:43.523 --> 00:46:47.059
It truly was not one of my better moments.

00:46:48.449 --> 00:47:07.043
But again, you know, a skeleton crew it was Steve Nason, myself, same loadout that we described myself, same loadout that we described and, to their credit, as advertised, the idf vehicle stayed, yeah, a couple hundred meters behind us.

00:47:07.043 --> 00:47:08.425
But, uh, I mean you want to talk about you know?

00:47:08.425 --> 00:47:11.893
Um, uh, totally outgunned.

00:47:11.893 --> 00:47:22.666
I mean, this is an idf, a marked idf vehicle, with two soldiers in it and Vaughn simply to communicate and relay our need for help.

00:47:22.666 --> 00:47:28.150
I'm like, man, this is, in hindsight, probably one of the dumbest things we ever did, tactically speaking.

00:47:28.150 --> 00:47:36.336
But and the only thing that was, you know, the most important thing, with the limited assets we had, and I just kept repeating this I was like all right, steve, you're driving one vehicle.

00:47:36.336 --> 00:47:37.920
I said, kurt, you know you've got the other one.

00:47:37.920 --> 00:47:44.594
I said, guys, once we get in, and we were told that the again, the fucking, oh, the Palestinian authority has the scene secured.

00:47:44.594 --> 00:47:45.900
Fuck those guys.

00:47:45.900 --> 00:47:47.936
That's going to probably be the first few people.

00:47:47.936 --> 00:47:49.871
I shoot, you know so.

00:47:50.652 --> 00:48:01.094
But they had a perimeter around the wreckage keeping the crowd at bay and I said, um, all right, when we get down there, drive into the perimeter.

00:48:01.094 --> 00:48:15.795
And I said, before anybody cracks a seal, gets out of the vehicle, drive into the perimeter, turn the vehicles around facing out and remember to leave side by side, but leave enough distance that both interior doors can open, because we got to move fast.

00:48:15.795 --> 00:48:19.483
You don't, oh, I can't, get in and it becomes a, you know, a clown show.

00:48:19.483 --> 00:48:33.364
So we roll in and, just crazy, there are familiar faces that stand out simply because, you know, like the old, you're probably man, you're probably too young to even remember Sesame Street.

00:48:33.364 --> 00:48:37.139
One of these things is not like the others, right?

00:48:37.929 --> 00:49:00.554
So, news crews we would run into news crews all the time and there was a news crew from norway, I remember, because they were both like seven feet tall, blonde hair, fair, you know, the reporter was a female, the cameraman was a male and both, like you know, look like, um, look like any of the crossfit games athletes from iceland, you know, like, like.

00:49:00.554 --> 00:49:29.461
And in that crowd, and again like, appropriately dressed, like the female, was across the board, like they would always wear like headscarves out of respect, you know, but your headscarf or not, you still see, you know, bright blonde hair, you know, and I remember that in this sea of, like, olive skin, dark hair, as soon as we get out of the vehicle, the first thing I see is that reporter and I'm like like this just happened.

00:49:29.461 --> 00:49:31.827
Like this, literally, this just happened.

00:49:31.827 --> 00:49:35.119
Were they covering another story or what we'll come to find out?

00:49:35.702 --> 00:49:40.838
Hamas put out the word to all the news services that something big is happening in gaza this morning.

00:49:40.838 --> 00:49:45.193
You think, like anybody had the courtesy to give us a heads up.

00:49:45.193 --> 00:49:52.014
But I understand that that's all part of like, um, what is it responsible journalism or some bullshit like that?

00:49:52.014 --> 00:49:53.518
Right, oh, we can't share that.

00:49:53.518 --> 00:49:54.719
Oh, fuck you.

00:49:54.719 --> 00:49:58.298
You know, next time you get your ass kidnapped, don't call us.

00:49:58.949 --> 00:50:04.199
Yeah, I'd make sure that we'd go anyway, but you know, it was just, it was odd, it was very, very odd.

00:50:04.199 --> 00:50:08.777
But so we get out, and we didn't get out with an aggressive posture, but we got out like, fully armed.

00:50:08.777 --> 00:50:12.253
You know, like I think I mentioned to you before, it was almost laughable.

00:50:12.253 --> 00:50:19.780
I'm not poking fun at the SOPs, you know, the SOPs for diplomatic security are a bit different.

00:50:19.780 --> 00:50:25.907
This is, we're not hostile towards Palestine at that time, you know, or any time.

00:50:25.907 --> 00:50:32.313
I mean they've never been an enemy of you know what I'm saying like an official enemy state.

00:50:32.313 --> 00:50:41.724
So we would have a pistol covered, you know, concealed, and the rifles and body armor would always stay in the truck you know, in the gun bag in the truck.

00:50:41.764 --> 00:50:42.545
Well, not this time.

00:50:42.545 --> 00:50:48.777
I mean, we were kitted up and expecting the worst.

00:50:48.777 --> 00:50:49.438
So we get out.

00:50:49.438 --> 00:50:54.117
And now, as I recall well, first and foremost, the drivers never get out of the vehicle, ever.

00:50:54.117 --> 00:51:03.382
So the limited assets that we had, and rightfully so, because if the driver gets out and if the driver goes down, now who's driving?

00:51:03.382 --> 00:51:04.224
What's happening?

00:51:04.224 --> 00:51:07.432
So kurt and steve stayed in their respective vehicles.

00:51:07.432 --> 00:51:12.563
We hit the ground it's nason, myself and the drso, and that was it.

00:51:12.563 --> 00:51:18.083
And we're moving around, and the drso's got his digital camera and he's click, click, clicking.

00:51:18.391 --> 00:51:26.240
And I mean, I do understand in hindsight there was a fucking crater, like you wouldn't believe where the device went off.

00:51:26.240 --> 00:51:38.851
The remains or parts of the Suburban were, you know, there was like a piece of it that was still together, but the rest of it was scattered all over, you know, and he's taking pictures and you could see like there was.

00:51:38.851 --> 00:51:42.364
It was scattered all over, you know, and he's taking pictures, and there you could see like there was, just everything had been overrun.

00:51:42.364 --> 00:51:46.233
Well, then what starts to happen is the crowd starts to throw rocks.

00:51:46.233 --> 00:51:49.119
Never saw anything like it in my life.

00:51:49.139 --> 00:51:54.032
All right, the volume, the volley and the damage that they did.

00:51:54.032 --> 00:52:22.443
I mean, you know, think about this the vehicles are armored so you're not going to hurt anybody inside, but, you know, a rock thrown at an appropriate enough distance, these things are hitting the metal skin of the vehicles and like, not just denting but, like you know, putting holes in the metal right, right and, as I recall and this was just divine intervention, man, nobody got hurt.

00:52:22.443 --> 00:52:32.240
Everybody but me got hit, and not for any reason, wasn't like I was some kind of super ninja, it was, you know the hand of God, you know just wasn't.

00:52:32.240 --> 00:52:32.889
And nobody got hit.

00:52:32.889 --> 00:52:35.056
Bad, you know a couple guys, you know, I think.

00:52:35.096 --> 00:52:44.782
I think I'm not sure who, if it was nation or the DRS, so gotta go glancing, blow off the head, you know a couple guys, you know, I think um, I think I'm not sure who if it was nason or the drso guy got a little glancing blow off the head, you know, with a rock, nothing, nothing to put him down.

00:52:44.782 --> 00:52:46.534
But that's the essence of it, right?

00:52:46.534 --> 00:52:49.773
It's not a matter of throwing rocks for harassment, it's throwing rocks to bring you down.

00:52:49.773 --> 00:52:54.753
You get hit, you go to the ground, then you get overrun, and that's how it works, right?

00:52:54.753 --> 00:52:58.521
So after and and again, what made me think of this?

00:52:58.521 --> 00:52:58.891
I didn't.

00:52:58.891 --> 00:53:03.380
I didn't think what started to happen was that we're surrounded.

00:53:04.070 --> 00:53:09.554
So the first volley comes from what would have been my right-hand side, and again to his credit.

00:53:09.554 --> 00:53:14.994
You know, nason and I are both orbiting around the DRSO, kind of trying to like.

00:53:14.994 --> 00:53:25.376
Moving targets are harder to hit, but we're trying to move in such a way that the deputy is always between us, right.

00:53:25.376 --> 00:53:26.420
So high volume is coming from this direction.

00:53:26.420 --> 00:53:27.786
In hindsight it might have looked funny, but it wasn't the intention.

00:53:27.786 --> 00:53:28.989
High volumes coming from here.

00:53:28.989 --> 00:53:32.114
So I raise my rifle and I turn and I sweep the crowd.

00:53:32.114 --> 00:53:37.083
As I do, the entire crowd drops, all right, great.

00:53:37.083 --> 00:53:40.938
Now the volume of rocks picks up from behind me.

00:53:40.938 --> 00:53:45.259
So I turn and I lift my rifle and I sweep that side right.

00:53:45.259 --> 00:53:49.092
So wherever the heaviest volume was coming from, I just sweep.

00:53:49.092 --> 00:53:53.177
Never fired a round, but as soon as I'd come, guns up they would drop.

00:53:54.250 --> 00:54:19.494
And the craziest thing and I remember this like it was yesterday, about my third turn, you know we're constantly taught I'm like Nason, you know, tell him we've got to go Like this isn't going to last forever right On my third, like one, two, three, this time I scan over the crowd drops and I see three fuckers right in the middle, maybe 50 yards away from me.

00:54:19.494 --> 00:54:30.376
They don't drop, they're like this and I'm like that's it, that's it right there Instigators within the crowd keeping everybody else fired up because civilians will drop.

00:54:30.376 --> 00:54:39.016
Civilians who have been exposed to that type of potential violence would just get down.

00:54:39.016 --> 00:54:45.751
These guys were the initiators, the instigators, and you know what it did.

00:54:45.751 --> 00:54:48.271
And I didn't see a weapon.

00:54:48.271 --> 00:54:50.987
You know that was the thing I was kind of like.

00:54:50.987 --> 00:54:54.376
Well, shit, man, I trust myself enough to take that shot.

00:54:54.916 --> 00:54:55.036
Right.

00:54:55.405 --> 00:55:07.539
But you know, and at that point it was just you know, then, like my, they realized I'm not pulling the trigger and then it was kind of like they're getting less and less apt to drop the volume picked up and I'm like we have got to go.

00:55:07.539 --> 00:55:08.623
And that was it.

00:55:08.623 --> 00:55:12.411
I think even the deputy realized at that time he was like let's get out of here.

00:55:12.713 --> 00:55:14.478
You know, there's not much more for him.

00:55:15.126 --> 00:55:16.427
No no, nothing, he.

00:55:16.427 --> 00:55:33.913
What was crazy, though, was and I don't remember who asked for it I think the idf did, because there was a liaison between the IDF and the Palestinian Authority, and they're like, hey, what was in the vehicles, besides your teammates, what was in the vehicles?

00:55:33.913 --> 00:55:38.125
And I was like, well, I mean, you got full gear, loadouts, times, four operators, right.

00:55:38.125 --> 00:55:40.293
So you got four M4s, four Glock 19s.

00:55:40.293 --> 00:55:46.806
I couldn't tell you Like our minimum loadout.

00:55:46.806 --> 00:55:48.530
I could tell you that but nobody carried the minimum, the minimum.

00:55:48.550 --> 00:55:49.431
No one carried the minimum.

00:55:49.431 --> 00:55:51.878
So now you're looking at magazines.

00:55:51.878 --> 00:55:54.989
You know how many rounds per.

00:55:54.989 --> 00:55:59.297
You know how many mags per tear gas canisters.

00:55:59.297 --> 00:56:00.865
You know any?

00:56:00.865 --> 00:56:06.768
Any personal effects were long gone, gone, I mean, we recovered wallets and identification, but there was no.

00:56:06.768 --> 00:56:09.396
You know, surprisingly, no one traveled with cash.

00:56:09.456 --> 00:56:22.034
I guess you know um, but I do remember this, when they brought back the wreckage uh and, and you know, again, the problem I had with state were the clowns that you know, made that I don't talk to contractors, and that little goofy bastard, you know that's it.

00:56:22.034 --> 00:56:22.936
That's where my problem begins and ends.

00:56:22.936 --> 00:56:26.505
You know, made that I don't talk to contractors and that little goofy bastard, you know, that's it.

00:56:26.505 --> 00:56:28.192
That's where my problem begins and ends.

00:56:28.192 --> 00:56:33.373
You know the ones that we worked with, the Yvonne, eric, mark.

00:56:33.373 --> 00:56:34.996
You know the deputy.

00:56:34.996 --> 00:56:39.184
I mean I could have asked for more, could not have asked for more, and they were.

00:56:39.184 --> 00:56:44.547
So I don't know what the word is, I don't know what the word is.

00:56:45.367 --> 00:56:49.510
They showed such foresight when they sent a flatbed truck to recover the vehicle.

00:56:49.510 --> 00:56:50.650
They had.

00:56:50.650 --> 00:56:54.012
You know the military like camouflage nets that they have.

00:56:54.012 --> 00:56:55.673
They sent one of those down with it.

00:56:55.673 --> 00:57:03.398
So when they loaded the wreckage on the flatbed and strapped it down, they would have the netting over it so it wouldn't draw unnecessary attention.

00:57:03.398 --> 00:57:04.739
You know you don't want it to be a spectacle.

00:57:04.739 --> 00:57:09.001
So we get a call and they said hey, do you want to come to the embassy here?

00:57:09.001 --> 00:57:20.789
The vehicle they just I don't know where they sent that, but again, I believe they actually sent it back to the States for forensic investigation.

00:57:20.809 --> 00:57:32.047
But they had folding tables in one of the conference rooms at the embassy with all the guys' belongings on it, and I do remember that and this was just not using my head.

00:57:32.047 --> 00:57:39.456
We get there, we start looking through their things and I'm like, okay, I remember taking Ziploc bags and I was like, all right, we'll divide these.

00:57:39.456 --> 00:57:42.260
This is Mark's wallet, put it in here.

00:57:42.260 --> 00:57:45.726
And I go, that's a key chain he always carried.

00:57:45.726 --> 00:57:48.813
And boom, and I'm touching all the stuff and it's emotional.

00:57:48.813 --> 00:57:51.128
So you're touching the stuff and you're starting to cry.

00:57:51.128 --> 00:58:00.632
And I'm starting to cry and I'm rubbing my eyes and all of a sudden I'm like, oh sweet, fuck, the tear gas canisters had gone off in the explosion.

00:58:00.632 --> 00:58:09.697
So now there's tear gas residue over everything and you know, nobody's gloved up like well, I'm just picking stuff up and bagging it, you know.

00:58:09.697 --> 00:58:13.730
And I'm wiping my eyes and I'm like that was a rude, rude little awakening.

00:58:13.730 --> 00:58:17.777
But um, yeah, I mean I, I will never forget that.

00:58:17.777 --> 00:58:19.146
It was just the most.

00:58:19.146 --> 00:58:22.992
Um, it was just, it was bizarre, you know.

00:58:23.773 --> 00:58:31.090
But on the drive back, I remember I'm like, okay, vic asked me before he took off and he said listen, I'm going to give you a phone number.

00:58:31.090 --> 00:58:32.054
It's my brother in LA.

00:58:32.054 --> 00:58:43.478
He was like as soon as you get a chance, please call him, because this thing is going to take, however long it takes, and the news will not release the names until next of kin are notified.

00:58:43.478 --> 00:58:51.737
So in the meanwhile, my family, his family, every one of our families, is like well, is that my son, is that my husband, is that my?

00:58:51.737 --> 00:58:52.257
You know?

00:58:52.257 --> 00:58:55.492
So I was like, yeah, yeah, no problem, no problem.

00:58:55.492 --> 00:58:57.815
So, long story short, you know we get back.

00:58:57.815 --> 00:59:00.387
I told um kurt and nason.

00:59:00.387 --> 00:59:05.858
I was like, guys, listen, man, get to a phone call, call your families now, let them know.

00:59:05.858 --> 00:59:06.666
You're okay.

00:59:06.666 --> 00:59:09.333
First phone I got to, I called vick's brother.

00:59:09.333 --> 00:59:10.715
I still hadn't called my wife yet.

00:59:10.715 --> 00:59:13.349
You know, um, I didn't know.

00:59:13.528 --> 00:59:19.786
I think I told that story the last time, where my sister threw dumb luck in a pair of oakley sunglasses.

00:59:19.786 --> 00:59:29.389
A friend of hers saw me on television choking a reporter, and you know what, if I saw him again and he did the same thing, I'd fucking choke him again.

00:59:29.389 --> 00:59:33.378
But um, yeah, that was that's that's.

00:59:33.378 --> 00:59:59.554
You know I, I it's bad enough as it is, but we're trying actually, when, when that whole choking, alleged choking incident occurred, um, we're trying to get the lone survivor off of an ambulance so that he could be put on a medical helicopter, so that he could be flown, you know, for life-saving, you know medical care, and these assholes are trying to push us out of the way to get a good shot.

00:59:59.554 --> 01:00:10.554
I'm like, oh, you'll get one, you'll get one, but anyway, I didn't realize that my parents already knew and I didn't know that Jennifer didn't know.

01:00:10.554 --> 01:00:13.373
You know, because again, it's all kind of processing pretty fast.

01:00:14.106 --> 01:00:19.577
But I will share this part of the story because this is something that just things that you don't Jump rope.

01:00:19.577 --> 01:00:24.235
There's a training going on on the second deck.

01:00:24.235 --> 01:00:33.536
There's a training going on on the second deck and, uh, got some, got some tie tie fighters up there doing some jump rope.

01:00:33.536 --> 01:00:35.041
It's very rhythmic, kind of cool, you can probably hear that.

01:00:35.041 --> 01:00:36.547
But um, it's better than the tire flips.

01:00:36.547 --> 01:00:42.389
Tell you what, when you're sitting down here and the tire flips start, I'm like diving for cover.

01:00:43.413 --> 01:01:09.014
But um, at the time my wife was a membership director at a beautiful health club here in Pittsburgh that is no longer even here, right, it was the health club that I worked at as an undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh and, of course, when I was an undergrad at the University of Pittsburgh, my wife was in junior high grad at the University of Pittsburgh.

01:01:09.014 --> 01:01:14.108
My wife was in junior high, so we didn't know each other, but I worked there as an undergrad.

01:01:14.108 --> 01:01:15.351
She worked there, didn't you know?

01:01:15.351 --> 01:01:29.228
We didn't know each other, of course, after I left for the Navy, but she was then, at that time, a membership director at the club and her office was, you know, right in the main area, like um, like in, I guess, the lounge area.

01:01:29.228 --> 01:01:42.094
I guess you know they had like a big sofa cafe, um blast in you know, racquetball courts, pro shop, membership office, right next to like the sitting area with their flat screen TV and all that.

01:01:42.094 --> 01:01:50.570
So only after the fact I get her on the phone and she's like hey, honey, what's up, how are you?

01:01:50.570 --> 01:01:56.219
You know she had no idea what happened, so she thought this was just a regular call, so now I have to tell her.

01:01:56.219 --> 01:01:58.226
Well, she obviously she's shaken up.

01:01:59.407 --> 01:02:03.052
And when I was able to talk I said listen, I don't have a lot of time, I just want you to know I'm okay.

01:02:03.052 --> 01:02:06.436
You know I've got a lot to do right now, so all right.

01:02:06.436 --> 01:02:08.380
Well, when I talked to her.

01:02:08.380 --> 01:02:11.432
Later on she said, you know, she's like this was so strange.

01:02:11.432 --> 01:02:17.150
And she was like but Jimmy, and it was a family owned, husband and wife owned a racket club or health club.

01:02:17.150 --> 01:02:27.869
And I and I will say this first and last name because I will never forget this Jim and Linda Rosenblum, pittsburgh, natives, dear, I consider dear friends to this day.

01:02:27.869 --> 01:02:31.818
All right, and I I worked there as an undergrad.

01:02:31.878 --> 01:02:41.771
Jim was the owner, like basically I worked for him when I was a kid, you know, and uh, when he saw the news he knew where I was and he knew the magnitude of it.

01:02:41.771 --> 01:02:43.715
Again, no names are released.

01:02:43.715 --> 01:02:50.639
So he came downstairs from his office, he went to the front desk and he told the girl at the front desk.

01:02:50.639 --> 01:02:55.711
He said listen, if a call comes in for membership, put it through to jennifer.

01:02:55.711 --> 01:03:01.088
If a call comes through and asks for her by name, you call me first.

01:03:01.088 --> 01:03:07.039
Because he was convinced that if they reached out to her at work, he doesn't want her to get that news by herself.

01:03:07.039 --> 01:03:12.317
But then don't believe that it was that he didn't trust the young lady at the desk.

01:03:13.246 --> 01:03:15.351
He stayed in the lobby all day.

01:03:15.351 --> 01:03:31.675
He like took Jen, was like it was so weird, because they usually had the news on, I guess he took the remote and put on like pbs or like turner classics, like something that, no, no news would break into, you know.

01:03:31.675 --> 01:03:41.507
So he changed the channel, took the remote and just hovered around that, that lobby lounge area all day, until you know, until she found out.

01:03:41.507 --> 01:03:57.414
So I always, uh, you know, it's those things that, in the grand scheme of things, I of course had no idea, no way of knowing, but it's those things that speak volumes, you know, about the character of the people that we cross paths with.

01:03:57.414 --> 01:04:00.431
I think you know, but it's crazy.

01:04:00.431 --> 01:04:02.148
So we got back.

01:04:02.148 --> 01:04:04.193
Did you know?

01:04:04.193 --> 01:04:06.358
As much communication, as many calls as had to be?

01:04:06.358 --> 01:04:10.610
And the next thing, you know two of our people.

01:04:10.630 --> 01:05:00.969
Well, roger, from Jerusalem, he came down with a dear friend of ours, maxie Williams, right, one of the best guys I've ever known, and they both came down and they get a moment with me as when we, when, basically when we rolled up to the embassy, you know, and Max was a big, big, scary dude, you know he comes over, he just grabs me in a bear hug and he's just, you know, holding on and I'm and at that point I think what happens is you, you get so much adrenaline going through you during the course of a day, like that, you know, and and then it just drains you and then you know, adrenaline dumps and now, like, your emotions are just right and I'm like just a mess, you know, and so we kind of calm down, recover, you know, and all this and um, he was like rock.

01:05:00.969 --> 01:05:04.514
He was like would you give me your pistol?

01:05:04.514 --> 01:05:08.967
And I'm like, what the fuck would you give me my pistol?

01:05:08.967 --> 01:05:12.474
I'm like sure you know it's clear.

01:05:12.474 --> 01:05:17.469
Here you go, he goes all right, he's like now I'm gonna tell you this because I want you to know.

01:05:18.431 --> 01:05:29.206
And then he basically laid out a very quick version of the story and I'm like, and now I'm thinking like what the fuck did you take my?

01:05:29.206 --> 01:05:32.954
You think I just run amok and like started shooting people in the embassy.

01:05:32.954 --> 01:05:40.456
I'm like no, but I thank you, you know, because you're probably you know what I mean like safety first right.

01:05:40.456 --> 01:05:49.050
But uh, and I remember digesting it for a minute, and roger, and again too, you know, in that moment I mean you know two versions.

01:05:49.050 --> 01:05:53.827
Right, none of that story, but the version of roger where if you don't like it.

01:05:53.867 --> 01:05:59.786
chris, there's the door and really like if he didn't tee it up like that, it wouldn't have been as funny.

01:05:59.786 --> 01:06:18.264
When chris just went all right, this, my two, you know, that kind of had that dick move, kind of had to happen in order for that response to be so classic, right, but you know, in this moment he was like I don't know if he was trying to be fatherly or trying to be helpful or whatever, but he's like man, you know what Rocky he's like.

01:06:18.264 --> 01:06:20.550
It's enough to know that they're going to have to live with this.

01:06:20.550 --> 01:06:24.717
And again, like he's trying to, I'm like, dude, check.

01:06:24.717 --> 01:06:31.177
Like right now I don't give a fuck, because here's the thing I still have my pressing matter in my pressing task.

01:06:31.197 --> 01:06:37.637
At that moment, um mark had a girlfriend, uh, and a beautiful, uh, wonderful israeli girl.

01:06:37.637 --> 01:06:47.498
And um, uh, born in israel, grew up in boston, family moved back to is and she was just the sweetest, most wonderful girl.

01:06:47.498 --> 01:06:57.856
And I'm like, oh no, she's not next of kin, so nobody's going to tell her, it's going to make the news.

01:06:57.856 --> 01:07:01.431
And I'm like, well, that's not going to happen, that is not going to happen.

01:07:01.431 --> 01:07:07.791
And then I'm like, now you start to scramble, because I'm like well, wait a second, I don't have her phone number.

01:07:07.791 --> 01:07:11.876
Why would I have my best friend's girlfriend's phone number?

01:07:11.876 --> 01:07:14.016
That's how guys don't become best friends anymore.

01:07:14.016 --> 01:07:15.302
You know what I mean.

01:07:15.302 --> 01:07:18.072
You know me well enough to know that I have stupid.

01:07:18.072 --> 01:07:19.027
Do you remember?

01:07:19.027 --> 01:07:24.847
It was a mobile phone carrier it might have been Verizon, t-mobile or whatever Years ago.

01:07:24.847 --> 01:07:27.570
Years ago, it was like you could have five people on your plan.

01:07:27.891 --> 01:07:29.833
Oh yeah, the five, the five.

01:07:29.833 --> 01:07:31.114
Yeah, t-mobile Mm-hmm.

01:07:32.215 --> 01:07:40.306
And two guys are sitting there talking and all of a sudden it's like the Mariah Carey secret lover Ringtone Secret.

01:07:40.306 --> 01:07:42.831
He's like why is my girlfriend in your phone?

01:07:46.117 --> 01:07:49.302
but yeah, I'm like, so I, I really I'm like, okay, wait a minute, wait a minute.

01:07:49.302 --> 01:08:08.434
When an american citizen starts to date a local working in a foreign embassy, you've got to fill out forms, um, like letting the embassy know that you're in contact, close contact with a foreign national, and I'm like okay, I'm like, if need be, I'll get her contact information from that.

01:08:08.434 --> 01:08:14.130
And I'm like, oh, my god, I'm like he filled that out a while ago and I know she just moved.

01:08:14.130 --> 01:08:15.713
She had just recently moved.

01:08:15.713 --> 01:08:18.609
So does, is there a phone number on the form?

01:08:18.609 --> 01:08:18.949
I didn't.

01:08:18.949 --> 01:08:19.872
I never did one of those.

01:08:19.872 --> 01:08:20.814
I don't know, you know.

01:08:21.515 --> 01:08:22.947
And then all of a sudden it hits me.

01:08:22.947 --> 01:08:28.457
I'm like, about a week or prior, I get a call from an unknown number.

01:08:28.457 --> 01:08:30.109
Like I had a number I don't recognize.

01:08:30.109 --> 01:08:33.850
I answer it, it's Mark, and I go, hey man, I go, what?

01:08:33.850 --> 01:08:35.610
Like I had his phone number saved.

01:08:35.610 --> 01:08:36.273
It should have come up.

01:08:36.273 --> 01:08:38.851
He goes man, my battery died.

01:08:38.851 --> 01:08:40.867
He's like this is a TARS phone phone.

01:08:40.887 --> 01:08:46.194
I'm like, great, well, I didn't save it under her name, but it was still in the call log.

01:08:46.194 --> 01:08:51.140
So I just went scroll, scroll, scroll, and I didn't get numbers from people I didn't know.

01:08:51.140 --> 01:08:59.667
So like scroll, scroll, scroll there, it is Right.

01:08:59.667 --> 01:09:00.689
So, um, I do remember.

01:09:00.689 --> 01:09:05.845
Uh, max was still with me and uh, so I call her up and he and God bless him, man, he was like, he was like rock, he's like how about I stay here with you tonight?

01:09:05.845 --> 01:09:08.271
And in that moment I'm not really thinking.

01:09:08.271 --> 01:09:09.194
But I'm like man.

01:09:09.194 --> 01:09:17.179
I lived in the same house, we, we, when we reconfigured the teams, we didn't move houses, so I was still in the house.

01:09:17.179 --> 01:09:24.436
I was in when I was bravo, but now I'm alpha team living with the other three Bravo guys, right.

01:09:24.436 --> 01:09:27.309
So never occurred to me Like he's like man.

01:09:27.751 --> 01:09:32.310
Maxie he's like man, why don't I, uh, why don't I just stay with you, you know, why don't I just stay here tonight?

01:09:32.310 --> 01:09:33.750
And I was like no, brother.

01:09:33.750 --> 01:09:35.664
I said, listen, we got, you got a big day tomorrow.

01:09:35.664 --> 01:09:40.377
Like we got to be back here to prepare everything for the service at Plainside, their side.

01:09:40.377 --> 01:09:45.159
Their bodies are going to be flown back home and then we're going to follow one, each, you know, to escort them to their homes.

01:09:45.159 --> 01:09:47.860
And I said, did you bring a change of clothes?

01:09:47.860 --> 01:09:49.082
He's like no, I didn't bring anything.

01:09:49.082 --> 01:09:52.206
And I'm like, well, you sure as shit not going to fit in any of my stuff, you know.

01:09:52.206 --> 01:09:57.091
So I said, but if you don't mind, I said would you go with me, you know, to give the news to a tar?

01:09:57.091 --> 01:10:00.456
And he said, sure, so he drives me over.

01:10:00.615 --> 01:10:09.676
And and I called her first because I I remembered her new apartment, because mark and I had helped her move some stuff over, but I didn't know, I don't remember the unit, right.

01:10:09.676 --> 01:10:10.457
So we pull up.

01:10:10.457 --> 01:10:14.212
I call her from the street and she was like rocky.

01:10:14.212 --> 01:10:15.936
And I'm like hey, sweetie.

01:10:15.936 --> 01:10:16.677
I said are you home?

01:10:16.677 --> 01:10:19.229
And she said I am.

01:10:19.229 --> 01:10:20.653
She's like where is he?

01:10:20.653 --> 01:10:27.726
And I was like can I come up and she was like sure, and I'm like honey, I don't remember what number it is.

01:10:27.726 --> 01:10:29.551
So she tells me we get up.

01:10:30.552 --> 01:10:42.033
And I remember I remember standing in her kitchen and she's on one side of the room, I'm on the other and maxi's right over here and she's just looking at me and she was like where is he?

01:10:42.033 --> 01:11:00.627
And frayne, honest to god, like I couldn't say it, I like I couldn't form the words, and I remember just standing there staring at her and in my mind I'm thinking all right, any second now max is going to tell her, or my silence is going to cause her to figure it out herself.

01:11:00.627 --> 01:11:08.546
And I swear to god, like the instant hung, like like days, you know, and nobody said anything.

01:11:08.546 --> 01:11:15.550
And finally I just I knew like I've got to do it and all I could think to say I was like honey, he's gone, you know.

01:11:15.550 --> 01:11:18.564
And then, of course, you know she reacted the way you would expect.

01:11:18.564 --> 01:11:20.166
And, um, I remember thinking, and I think it was Max that suggested it.

01:11:20.166 --> 01:11:22.567
He was like listen, and I remember thinking and I think it was.

01:11:22.627 --> 01:11:23.966
Max that suggested it.

01:11:23.966 --> 01:11:27.868
He was like, listen, you know, we don't want to leave you here, you know.

01:11:27.868 --> 01:11:31.070
And she was like, well, we, you know, called her parents, right?

01:11:31.070 --> 01:11:37.132
So she called her parents, we stayed with her until they drove over and picked her up to take her back to their house, you know.

01:11:37.132 --> 01:12:05.992
And then Cheese had a fiance who lived, um further north, and she got word, of course, and then she was coming in to his apartment and I was like, okay, well, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll meet her there, Cause then, uh, she called my number and Elizabeth Elizabeth was her name is her name and, um, I was like, hey, I'll meet you over at, I'll meet you at John's, you know.

01:12:05.992 --> 01:12:06.956
And I was like, hey, I'll meet you over at John's.

01:12:06.956 --> 01:12:11.198
And she was like well, a friend of mine, a friend of ours, is going to meet there too, so she'll probably be there when you arrive.

01:12:11.782 --> 01:12:12.225
I said okay.

01:12:12.546 --> 01:12:22.490
Well, it turns out, their friend was a British bartender at another place that we used to go to quite often, and Emma is her name.

01:12:22.490 --> 01:12:25.609
She was just a wonderful, wonderful girl and we used to joke around.

01:12:25.609 --> 01:12:32.011
There was a show, a British TV show, called the Avengers not the superhero Avengers, they were more like spies or whatever.

01:12:32.011 --> 01:12:41.215
But there was a female in the Avengers called Emma, emma Peel and I was like, hey, I'm Rocky and she's like I'm Emma.

01:12:41.505 --> 01:12:46.908
And she goes, oh, emma Peel and Rocky Balboa, and I was like it sounds better with a british accent, you know.

01:12:46.908 --> 01:12:58.166
But what was wild was like, you know, she's just one of the regulars, you know, we were regular customers and she was a a very nice, uh, oh, young andrew just showed up.

01:12:58.166 --> 01:13:00.671
It is time almost for us to sign off.

01:13:00.671 --> 01:13:06.854
But yeah, man, that that part of it was far worse than anything, that anything I think we faced all day.

01:13:06.854 --> 01:13:20.555
You know, I was able to spend a lot of time, you know, with Atar until her parents came, and then I spent quite some time with Lisbeth, and then over the next few days, you know, we had the Plainside Memorial Service at Ben Gurion.

01:13:20.555 --> 01:13:29.408
They flew the boys into Dover, delaware, for processing, and then that's where three of us flew.

01:13:29.408 --> 01:13:39.408
But we were able to bring Attar and Lisbeth with us because they you know, each of them flew to the home of record for the memorial service.

01:13:39.408 --> 01:14:03.114
And it's just wild because and strangely enough, mark was from New Jersey, so from Delaware, alan flew to Missouri with Johnny Lind, vic flew to San Antonio with John, and then for me I remember the conundrum the planning is like the, the mortuary is like.

01:14:03.114 --> 01:14:10.418
Well, I mean, from where we are in delaware to drive to the nearest airport to fly to new jersey.

01:14:10.418 --> 01:14:14.751
We're better off driving, so we're like, right on man.

01:14:14.751 --> 01:14:22.774
So instead of a hearst, which I thought was more appropriate, they they loaded uh mark into a van, more just a plain panel van, you know, like a hearst inside but a van, just a plain panel van.

01:14:22.774 --> 01:14:25.579
You know, like a hearse inside but a van on the outside.

01:14:25.579 --> 01:14:40.594
And I had a rental car and driving up to New Jersey, you know, from Delaware to New Jersey in mid-October, and I remember being on the interstate and I pass a line, you know, welcome to New Jersey.

01:14:40.594 --> 01:14:48.645
And fucking Bruce Springsteen comes on the radio and I'm just like man, this is the most fucked up drive I've ever taken in my life, you know.

01:14:48.645 --> 01:14:52.408
But yeah, man, I mean you know.

01:14:52.408 --> 01:15:04.322
So I think the craziest part about it is looking 20 years ago at that experience and seeing what's happened and how Hamas has grown in power over 20 years.

01:15:04.322 --> 01:15:07.385
And they're everything that they tried to be, you know.

01:15:07.385 --> 01:15:15.337
They're everything that they, you know, intended to be when they were pretending to be this benevolent group, you know.

01:15:16.386 --> 01:15:21.587
And yeah, I think for the next episode we'll fill in some gaps, because there were.

01:15:21.587 --> 01:15:24.636
You know there were some things that happened on the ground.

01:15:24.636 --> 01:15:27.349
You know, again, just telltale, signsale signs.

01:15:27.349 --> 01:15:28.291
You know that led up to it.

01:15:28.291 --> 01:15:34.971
But, um, you know the follow-on is oscar the, the only survivor from that ambush.

01:15:34.971 --> 01:15:44.676
He and I deployed together to iraq the following July.

01:15:44.676 --> 01:15:45.037
Yeah, yeah.

01:15:45.037 --> 01:15:59.550
So this guy had a broken leg, broken back was just pretty bad, recovered full mobility and was able to deploy again the following July.

01:15:59.550 --> 01:16:01.792
So, crazy, crazy.

01:16:01.792 --> 01:16:09.177
And the next episode, when I tell about the time he and I were ambushed together, I will never forget my dad was like, wait a second.

01:16:09.177 --> 01:16:12.279
He's like that's the same guy that got blown up in Israel.

01:16:12.279 --> 01:16:15.021
I was like, yeah, dad, it is Only this time I was right beside him.

01:16:15.021 --> 01:16:28.164
He goes, son, he's either the luckiest or unluckiest man I've ever heard of.

01:16:28.164 --> 01:16:29.837
He's like so I don't know to tell you to stay close or far away, just not sure you know.

01:16:29.761 --> 01:16:30.260
But uh, all right, man.

01:16:30.260 --> 01:16:30.643
Well, thank you for that.

01:16:30.643 --> 01:16:32.421
Yeah, no, I think that was definitely another heavy discussion there.

01:16:32.443 --> 01:16:36.771
Yeah, it was, it was wild, it was wild.

01:16:36.771 --> 01:16:44.333
So, all right, thank you all for tuning in and, uh, if this was a little bit more than you expected, cowboy, the fuck up.

01:16:44.333 --> 01:16:46.198
All right, we're out.

01:16:46.198 --> 01:16:54.158
Wait, I want to see the little thumb icon, see, that would have cheered me up today and it's not happening now.

01:16:54.158 --> 01:16:55.002
All right, we're out.