Life to the Max Podcast
Welcome to 'Life to the Max Podcast,' where resilience meets inspiration!
Join us on a transformative journey through the life stories of remarkable individuals, including Quadriplegic Army Veteran Maximilian Gross. In this empowering podcast, we dive into tales of triumph, courage, and the human spirit's unwavering ability to overcome obstacles.
Our show is a celebration of diverse narratives, from awe-inspiring achievements to the darkest of traumas. 'Life to the Max' is a testament to the power of living authentically, no matter the circumstances. We believe that everyone has a unique story worth sharing, and we invite individuals from all walks of life to join us.
Discover the profound meaning of living 'Life to the Max'—a concept that resonates differently with each storyteller. It's a journey of perspective, resilience, and finding joy amidst life's challenges. Tune in to be inspired, motivated, and reminded that there's strength in every story.
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Life to the Max Podcast
"Vietnam War Stories" Ft Ted Biever
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Did you ever wonder what it takes to survive a war? Experiences that leave scars, yet foster unbreakable friendships, and tales of bravery that can't be forgotten. Join us in our recent conversation with Vietnam War veteran Ted Biever, as he walks us through the gripping chapters of his life in the military. From the stringent discipline of boot camp, navigating through lethal attacks, to the dramatic changes he noticed in the military, Ted's journey is a testament to the courage and endurance of our brave servicemen.
Our conversation with Ted is not just a retelling of war times, but also a reflection on heroism, camaraderie, and survival. Listen to how he became an A-gunner, his encounter with personal demons while navigating through the traps of Vietnam, and how he lived to tell the tales. Discover the story behind his miraculous survival after being injured, the importance of honoring those who served, and his intriguing recount of teaching English to a Korean Marine using a Playboy magazine.
This episode is a salute to the courage of our veterans and the indomitable spirit of survival. Join us, as we ride along in Ted's American flag-emblazoned vehicle, honoring the brave hearts who remain timeless heroes of our nation.
Survivorship and Veterans
Speaker 1So we're in this bunker and also we heard the artillery coming in. So we all got in the bunker, you know, got down. I want to see one of these fuckers, you know what. That's gotta be cool, you know. So I'm standing up looking out the bunker, in this rock it's coming. All of a sudden it blows up and shwing got there, a piece of shrapnel like that comes flying right by my ear and stuck in the wood in the bunker. But I would have been over a couple inches, I would have lost my face.
Speaker 3Welcome back to another episode of life to the max. Look at the quad father. You know you can't even tell he just pulled an all nighter, maybe a one hour nap before Ted got here. You know he was just so nervous anticipating this interview. He was so excited he couldn't go to sleep. We're gonna get right in the Ted's interview right after the intro.
Speaker 2If anybody's going through something bad right now, anybody's going through something that's where they feel like they're not worthy, like, just remember you are. A lot of things have happened in my life. I've had a shitty guard dealt to me, but you know I'm so persevering and moving on. So can you. So I, analyzed from a neck down, read through a machine, but that doesn't stop me from following my dreams, to doing what I love to do. I don't have any excuse on how they should do. Let's get into this episode. You fucking grudge. I'm proud of it.
Speaker 3We don't. We don't get many, many other soldiers on the show, so, max, is definitely excited.
Speaker 1I'm not a soldier.
Speaker 3You're a veteran.
Speaker 1I'm a.
Speaker 3Marine, all right, soldiers Army. Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1I stand corrected.
Speaker 2I know nothing. I need you to educate me.
Speaker 3I need you and Max to educate me. I'm just the average Joe.
Speaker 1He's a soldier no no soldiers are Army man. You know that, max.
Speaker 2You know what?
Speaker 3You're a devil dog there you go.
Speaker 2You're a devil dog. You're the few that you know. The Marines are called the few and the proud, just because you're fucking a stretcher.
Speaker 3That's what happens when you don't sleep, max you miss the punch lines.
Speaker 2I know, come on, try again.
Speaker 3People want to hear it. No I can't Well, ted, introduce yourself to me and the people. I've only seen you around a couple parties. I noticed you driving up in an American flag ramp to vehicle.
Speaker 1Yeah, that my vehicle. It's the side of it's got a section of Vietnam wall. And the day I got hit over there, september 26th, I got seven of my men were killed and their names are all in bold on there. Then I got the PLW flag on there for my dad. He was a PLW World War two.
Vietnam War and Joining Marines
Speaker 3So you got the people that you served. With that, you lost on your awesome I like that Some of them. It's more than just a decoration.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's. You know, I had it on my first car. I had the wall on there and when I bought the second car I felt guilty. You know, I go up to grab the car handle, get in the car and I didn't see the guys on and I felt guilty, man, nice, weird.
Speaker 3So I did it again. Oh man, so so getting this, rap it, you don't feel guilty anymore?
Speaker 1No, I don't know, I don't know, it makes me feel good, exactly Nice.
Speaker 3Think of them every day. I like that. I consider to that I like that.
Speaker 2It's truly awesome of you to let their legend live on, even though it was a shitty war.
Speaker 3Yeah, tell us a little about Vietnam.
Speaker 1Oh, I don't know what you want to know about it. It was hot the women, the women. Never touched them. I was, we were trained in boot camp Hate, the Vietnamese, the gooks, and I never touched them. I'd rather shoot them.
Speaker 2It's a glove, turkey.
Speaker 3Yeah, be truthful in life to the next. That's what it's about.
Speaker 2So when did you join the military? When did you join the Marine Corps?
Speaker 1I went in December 19th 66.
Speaker 2So that's like towards the end of Vietnam. Right Vietnam ended in like 70s.
Speaker 1Yeah, 74.
Speaker 274 with the next one. Yeah, so what were you? And you didn't get drafted. You said there was a lot of people who got drafted right.
Speaker 1Yeah, I went in when I was 17. I had a little problem in high school. I was asked to leave early. So what the heck? I was going to go on Marines when I graduated, so I just went in early.
Speaker 2So why the Marines? What about the army?
Speaker 1The best.
Speaker 2Screaming Eagles.
Speaker 1The best, nothing but the best. I wanted to go to NAMM and fight and I wanted the best train I could get.
Speaker 3So I wanted the Marines when people got drafted. Could you tell the difference between the?
Speaker 2people that, yeah, I was literally just about there On the same level.
Speaker 3Could you tell the difference between the people that want wanting to be in the military and the people that are forced to be in the military? Because I would imagine if a bunch of people got drafted were forced to go in the military, then you'd be fighting alongside a bunch of cowards that really didn't want to do it.
Speaker 1You know that's a good question. I don't know. I know when I was in NAMM we ran into one of the guys and I don't know if he was drafted or not, but he was he was a coward, I guess.
Speaker 3when, when shit hits the fan, you know you got to do what you got to do, yeah.
Speaker 2What about boot camp? Like you know, were there any people that you can tell, or you got drafted.
Speaker 1No, not really.
Speaker 2Really. Well, I thought there would be. I thought there would be like some like pompous bitch, just like sitting around, like saying why, am I doing this?
Speaker 3I think, that'll be the case if we got drafted today, I think these generations, but I think back then everybody was pretty much on the same page, like we're fighting for our country.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know, our parents all did it and we felt that that was our obligation to go on when this war broke out.
Speaker 2Yeah, like in world war in history and world war two, when we ended the war in world war two there were people coming home and kissing in New York City random girls when people came home from.
Speaker 3Vietnam and the random girls are kissing back.
Speaker 2Yeah, and when people came home from Vietnam, they were spending on soldiers. Do you know that?
Speaker 3No, I thought you were talking about the same thing. Coming home from.
Speaker 2Vietnam. No, it was a whole different side. You don't, you don't know about.
Speaker 3Kent State.
Speaker 2I don't know anything, I'm just you don't know about the tell me about it. I mean I don't know much. I mean I know I know the history of it, kent State University, that they were doing a protest on the Vietnam war and like, I guess, like a few people got shot.
Speaker 1On your hippies.
Speaker 2On your hippies. Yeah, like they were basically saying like make love, not war, you know. And then it was at Kent State University and they were, they were saying they were. They were like it's sort of like saluting soldiers and saying thank you for your service. They were like spinning on it and stuff I didn't.
Speaker 3I didn't pay attention too much in my history class but I did watch for his gump.
Speaker 2The Vietnam war is very controversial, especially because of the way it out happened. Oh yeah, because JFK dies right. So JFK dies in 1963. Okay, the war. The war is like brewing in 1961, I believe.
Speaker 2Right so the reason why we invaded Vietnam is because of the Gulf of Tonk and resolution, which is where there's this conspiracy that a Vietnamese ship shot down an American ship and that was an act of war and that's why we went to Vietnam. And it was because of Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson was JFK's VP, vice president, and then, when JFK died, lyndon Johnson took over and all of a sudden there was a draft and all these Americans were going to Vietnam.
Speaker 1Yeah, I heard that that conspiracy about that Gulf of Tonk, that it wasn't Vietnamese that shot that.
Speaker 2I don't know why he wanted to go to war. Why, well, it's because of the Truman doctrine. The Truman doctrine is we will not let other countries fall to communism.
Speaker 1They started that war because of the money they made on it. There are a lot of politicians that made buku money on that war.
Speaker 2Well, 100%, I agree, war makes money, especially if you're the person making the money. But so JFK was focused on the space race. He wasn't focused on, you know. But Lyndon Johnson was focused on the Truman doctrine, which basically was we won't let other countries fall to communism. Hence like going to Korea in 51-53. We did that because we didn't want them. We didn't want South Korea to fall to communism from.
Speaker 2North Korea from the, the North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong. You know, when you guys were over there, because it wasn't fair, when you were over there, because you had you had people in uniforms and then you had people that were regulars, that could be the Viet Cong, so you could get ambushed by people there being nice to you.
Speaker 1It was.
Speaker 2It's fucked up, like with the things I've read about Vietnam, where it just makes me so angry because there's like I mean like, yeah, you got an experience and stuff, but it was a war that we shouldn't have done and it's just like the Korean War. So like the Korean War is always looked at as the forgotten war, right, no one talks about Korea.
Speaker 1And that was a hell of a war too. It was a hell of a war?
Speaker 2Yeah, it was and it's still a war, but it's still going. They just stopped. There's a ceasefire. I mean the war is still going on Korea. There's a ceasefire. That's why there's demilitarized, that's like the most guarded place in the world.
Speaker 3Really.
Speaker 2Yeah, max knows his history.
Speaker 1Yeah, sounds like it.
Speaker 2So when you went and saw you join the Marine Corps, did you join for three?
Speaker 1Oh yeah, you know, I got out of boot camp and they sent me to the air wing and I hated it. My instructor was a sergeant and I kept telling him. I says you know, I hate this shit. I says I'm going to be on a boat with a bunch of squids. I says I joined Vietnam to go over to Naman fight. I want to be a grunt. And he told me he says if you go to Vietnam, I'll see you back here in the hospital someday, because that was, you know, they only had two big hospitals down there in Memphis, tennessee and Great Lakes. So anyways, I had a week to go and graduate and I would have went to a squadron.
Military Boot Camp Experience and Changes
Speaker 1I found out guys that were flunking out of school were getting sent to Lijun for the grunts. So you flunked, no brainer, I flunked, and you know this is a God's truth. After I got blown away, I was back in a hospital in Memphis and I ran into that sergeant. He was a staff sergeant. I said, hey, staff sir, do you remember me? He says yeah, you're beer, I remember you. I told you I'd see you back here.
Speaker 1That's hilarious yeah.
Speaker 2So bootcamp now is considered like mediocre in the United States. In my defense, like and I was just wondering like, what was bootcamp like back then when going into Vietnam? Like what was the protocols where drill sergeants allowed to hit drill instructors? I'm sorry, that's what Marine Corps people call the eyes. Yeah, yeah, I got it right. Were they allowed to like hit soldiers, like where was it long days? Did you guys rock a lot? Did you bleeding, like your boots? Were they bleeding?
Speaker 1No, they, you know they were legally back then. They weren't allowed to hit you either. You know when I went in 66. But they weren't supposed to hit you because we had this one D I come up and he'd start yelling in your face. Then he'd stop. He looked to his left and look to his right. We knew we're going to get nailed Because he was looking to see if they're running officers around. You know, but they beat the hell out of us. Every day we get hit for something.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, that's crazy because I mean, it's not allowed and right now, I don't know if you know this, but the army is paying for a person to, if they wanted, transition into a man or a woman, and they're paying for them and they don't have to deploy.
Speaker 1You know, Trump stopped that shit. He stopped that, but I don't know it. It must have came back again because the Navy's got one of them transvestite or whatever is a poster on a poster.
Speaker 2You believe that? No, that's unreal.
Speaker 3People don't believe me.
Speaker 1Yeah Wow, people don't believe me when I tell them that, but it's, it's the truth.
Speaker 2No, I believe you because I mean, like when I was, when I was in, I mean I saw a few guys you know in the military and like I mean, like I didn't get to like the transfer to see any of that, but I we didn't get to the point where like people could make, like people can make a complaint and it could be a false complaint and they could get someone that has worked their hearts out and like blood, sweat and tears throughout the military and get them kicked out without retirement just by filing a filing a sexual harassment charge, sexual harassment awareness responsive program, like it's insane.
Speaker 2That's why, that's why Colonel Smith got out.
Speaker 1That's wrong.
Speaker 2The Army changed, you know.
Speaker 1I, oh, when I, when I was working with the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, I had a lot of guys that come to my office and have been in for six, eight, 10, 12 years and they get out, I was like why the hell did you get out after that much time? And, you know, just couldn't take all the BS they were putting out. Now, you know, as far as the gays and all that stuff, I never saw any of them in the military, in the Marines. I never, I never knew they were in there. I mean, when I was stationed down in Memphis they had, you know, it was a Navy base and there was a girl on that base. She was a squid and she was dropped at gorgeous, prettiest girl on the base and everybody said she was gay. Man, you gotta be kidding me, but I never ran across that one. I was in.
Speaker 1I mean, yeah, it's different times, but now like now now the military is proud of it.
Speaker 2The others they're. They're basically promoting it, which is wrong, because I'm not saying it's wrong because, like the person's gay or straight or whatever. I'm saying it's wrong because you're there to do a mission.
Speaker 1You're there to do a job.
Speaker 2You're there to serve our country, to make sure we're safe. That's all reason. So I brought that up because back I mean back then, like that was like all frowned upon and stuff you know I just wanted to like see, like your boot camp experience. You know it was 16 weeks.
Speaker 1Yeah and right. When I went in the, the group of guys that came in right after I went in, they graduated before we did because they cut the boot camp down, because they needed the guys over and not so it was like 14 weeks that was.
Speaker 2That was kind of scary because you wouldn't know, like the protocols maybe have a radio or something like RTO, like your RTO. Maybe you fuck up during, like you know, patrol. I mean I don't know. I mean we still do a Nalgir 1 Alpha, which is the the Vietnam basically. It's basically the Vietnam Nalgir. It's where you, you, you, fire your machine gun. That's that's the hot minute with the machine gun. And then after that, alpha, alpha, yeah, Alpha Squad, which starts shooting, shooting, shooting, and then they would do a ceasefire. There would be a flank on the right or the left and that would be Bravo Squad and they would do that. And then they would do a, a lease to see you know liquid and casualties and you know equipment after, after the, and then they had to, you had to like, burn, like all the weapons to right, is that? Is that true?
Speaker 1Burn them.
Speaker 2Yeah, Like their weapons. You weren't like you know hell.
Speaker 1No, we didn't burn them.
Speaker 2That's what we we have to do now.
Speaker 1Really.
Speaker 2Yeah, so so you get, you get deployed to Vietnam. What year? What year is?
Speaker 1this 68.
Speaker 268. Okay, so you joined in 66. It takes two years for you to get to the top.
Speaker 1Well, I was. I was, you know, 67. I was in boot camp because you know, I went in 66 a week before Christmas. I was in boot camp at 67. I went on a. I was down in Memphis for a while and got kicked out of there. So I went to a LeJune and I was in a weapons platoon in 106. And I went on a cruise and all the guys on the cruise they'd all been a career or a nom, they're all old salts, you know. And then after the cruise was over with I was 18. So I got orders for nom, so I went to the Vance Infantry training again, you know and and got shipped over, not when you went through the advanced infantry training, was that at a fourth bulk?
Speaker 1No, no, it was a hill down Pendleton. No down Pendleton.
Speaker 2Where's Pendleton?
Speaker 1Camp Pendleton in California.
Speaker 2California, it was still okay.
Speaker 1When I was on the cruise, I went through a jungle warfare school that the army ran.
Speaker 2You're welcome, that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's funny, man, and I've got a picture of it too. They had the the green ray were running, they were all the instructors, you know, and they had this one guy standing there telling them had a snake. You know he's talking to us, telling us how you know, if you ever get bit by a snake, don't jerk your hand back because as fangs going this way and it'll rip your hand apart. Sucker got bit. But I enjoyed that. That was a lot of fun. I learned a lot there, okay.
Speaker 2It's so made of that you deploy when, where do you go?
Speaker 1South California went to Hawaii. We stopped there. Something was wrong with the plane. We were on a tiger airlines plane. Something was wrong with the plane. So we're, uh, got laid over for about an hour or so there, couldn't leave the the airport. You know, we're all right there in the lounge. And then we left there and landed in the name and, looking out the windows, you see all these Vietnamese run around and tell what the fuck? There's a goose. I don't even have a weapon, man, I didn't realize it, you know.
Speaker 1But, uh, we got off the plane, went into this big hangar. There was a gunnery star, a sergeant, stand up on his table. He says all right, where does everybody want to go? Me like an idiot. I want to go where the action is. You're going to three nine, all right. So we spent the night there and next day myself, another guy, got on a six by and they took us up to quandary where our rear was, and we're staying outside the CEO's office listening to this guy tell them how they just got an ambush. You lost half the platoon. Holy fuck, what am I doing here?
Speaker 3That's the action. Oh man, that's the action.
Speaker 1So we got on a chopper, got our you know, our weapons and everything got on a chopper and it went to uh, uh, where is it? Where we weren't supposed to be? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1We weren't supposed to have been in Laos and that's where they took us. Chopper took us to drop this off there, on top of this hill, it's raining out, we were on the trees around and we took our ponchos on and put on a weapon. All of a sudden, this guy comes climbing up the hill. He says take that poncho off, that weapon, the rain ain't going to hurt it. And it was our squad. We started there and we did nothing but hump all day long.
Speaker 1I'm telling you, the first night I drank all my water right away in my canteens and got sick. And then, uh, my squire told me I didn't have to have watch that night because, you know, I had a bad fever and stuff. I got sick because I drank all my water Interesting. So he told me I didn't have to stay up and have watch that night. Well, one the guys in the hole fell asleep and Right before that this one guy, miller, one of his good buddies, got killed by a gook because somebody was sleeping on watch, you know, and they cut his throat and he thought it was me. So him and I started getting in a fight and then the squire broke it up right away. Well, later on. It turned out good he was, good buddy he was. He was from LA lower Alabama.
Speaker 3The guy that fell asleep and got it.
Speaker 1No, no, the guy that accused me of falling asleep, that we almost got in a fight, that I almost got in a fight with, and Real hillbilly hell of a nice guy, though man, he knew his shit, you know, yeah, and His dad used to make moonshine and him and his brothers ran it. That's what he did before he came into the Marines Nice.
Speaker 2Yeah, so so now you're in Europe, you're in your platoon, you're in Europe. Did you have a triangle Patrol base?
Speaker 1Quantry was our rear. But, we only never been back there, you know. So I was only there six months when I got hit and got sent back to the states.
Speaker 2Was it? Was it like 50% security at night, or was it like 80?
Speaker 1Oh yeah, it was pretty secure back in quandary.
Speaker 2I'm sure you know I'm talking about when you were in the field. Oh hell, no forest, oh no.
Speaker 1It was never secure. You know, we had a setup make a perimeter and dig our fighting holes and sit them in all night.
Speaker 2Okay, so it's a hundred percent security, like I said, like everybody was off.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, hell yeah yeah, we had to keep people awake. I mean we were, we were up north, you know, down south they got via Kong. You know they're farmers and that and they farm during day and go out and fight at night.
Speaker 2Yeah, you have the north of North.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's north of Vietnamese and and they're trained, they're good, they know what they're doing. I was in a Fighting hole one night and we'd set up claymores out in front of us, you know, and I'm sitting there in the hole and I heard this noise and I grabbed a hellbox. I was getting ready to fire it, you know what's a hellbox? Yeah, that's how you fire the claymore.
Speaker 3Okay, okay.
Speaker 1And the guy in the hole with me says beaver, get your ass down, this is just get down. So I got down firing on, we fired, it came flying back towards me.
Speaker 3So they do. They switch the claymores around.
Speaker 1Yeah, they turn around Face, face us, and then they make noise and if you're boot, like I was, you know you get blown away.
Speaker 3How did they? I thought claymores go off when you get close to them. How did, how did they somehow?
Speaker 1No, you got a wire. It's got a little square box yeah it's not like all hey hey, max, what I say in the beginning, I don't know anything.
Speaker 3All right, talk to me, talk to me. You want to be a history professor, but you're over here insulting the students. What's going? On Fucking moron, I'm not insulting you.
Speaker 2What you think it was blue to you know you did censor.
Speaker 3It's fucking. You get near it, it blows up. I don't know damn. I'm sorry, I'll stay quiet.
Speaker 1Well, they got trip flers to it. You got it. You know, yeah, have a line out and you got to step through it for it to go off. You know, but these are ran by a cordon.
Speaker 2So so you're in your patrol base to you. Do you have vehicles or you just?
Speaker 1Know hell?
Speaker 2no, we walked so you walked, so you walked to where everywhere.
Speaker 1Yeah, just you know it was stupid. We we'd be walking and we get hit and we take a hill, maybe lose a guy. We take a hill, set there for the night, set up, dig our hole and then next morning fill a hole up and move on again and the gooks will be right back on that hill.
Speaker 2You say that like so easily, maybe you lose a guy, like was, that's just like so Just easy to think about, like eat, like it could just brush off your shoulder. They're like when you're there because you're like maybe lose a guy, you know. I mean like that's like huge. Now you know we were talking about the Vietnam War.
Speaker 1Well, we didn't have time, you know you, you just call them FNGs, fucking new guys, you know, and you didn't want to really Get to know them really well, you know, because you figured out he's just gonna be gone.
Speaker 2You know, that's good you know what was your Job like where you are.
Speaker 1When I first got there, I Was on the machine gun. I was an eight gunner.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I'm to ammo. I did a little bit of everything, carried mortars and then towards the end I became a squalor.
Speaker 2But uh, we have team leader squalor squalor.
Speaker 1Well it's not so different Well we know, and you got teams, you know, you got teams and then you got a squad, you know, but we didn't have that many men all the time. You know, we were always shorthanded.
Speaker 2We're you always overmatched with that.
Speaker 1Yeah no, it didn't bother us. No, we took care of it. So you got the job done.
Speaker 2Yeah, so with the attack more at night or the day, Uh.
Speaker 1It is both. You know, a lot at night was kind of cool because They'd smoked that opium and you could smell that. And when we smell that night, knew we knew we were gonna get hit first thing in the morning. You know, and I was on the 61 time machine gun. I swore to God when they started charging us. I Swear to God I had to put 20, 30 rounds in this gook and he just kept coming. I was scared to death. I got to stop this dude. That's crazy. They get high on that, you know, and they just keep coming.
Speaker 2Yeah, you're in the middle of the jumble, right? Yeah, you're not like even close to like Open land, it's just trees and general and what elephant go to rest?
Speaker 1Yeah, they have elephant grass seven, eight feet tall and there's a lot of traps everywhere, right, well, that's mostly down south. They got some, but most of those are all down south.
Speaker 2I know a lot of people got dictates, drugs.
Speaker 1No, we set outside of bill one time is clue. It was a little river going through and we set out there one night and we got new ammo and everything. And the gooks came in, be it, or I mean the Vietnamese came in. They were selling pop and stuff like that, you know, and I bought a quarter smear no vodka for five bucks. I emptied out my canteen and filled up my canteens, you know, and all sudden I Got a five minute nose. My squalor said beaver, take these men and go across the river and set up an ambush. Well, I thought we're gonna get it because we were half in the bag, you know. Yeah, you don't drink over there.
Speaker 1Yeah, really easy perfect timing, but afterwards, In the next morning I guess. So the guys bought some dope and they were smoking it. The CEO found out and he had a meeting. He says if I ever see anybody smoking dope in here, I'll shoot you. How's it?
Speaker 3I mean that was it nobody smoked up again.
Speaker 1We're up north and we're in this shit all the time and you can depend on each other if you're right, yeah no doubt, no doubt, holy fuck.
Speaker 3He said that was it. Nobody smoked up again.
Speaker 2All right, it's like If anybody Again, I'll shoot you Whole squad.
Speaker 1You ain't gotta tell us twice, that's crazy so if the guys were doing it after that I didn't know about it because I never did it. You know, we used to get newspapers from home and the headlines are always about the hippies protesting war. So I hated the goddamn hippies. I want nothing to do with them. I so I wouldn't. Even when I got out and I was going to college I didn't smoke dope. Yeah one, nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2My dad smoked dope.
Speaker 1I know he's a dope.
Speaker 2So You're in the what into. When you were in the ship, basically, your CEO made it clear that there's no smoking and he has to give a fuck about the UCMJ Uniform uniform coat of military justice.
Speaker 1What the hell's that? Yeah, I know, but still what the hell? No just like the Keneva convention. We got a file it, but the enemy don't have to exactly.
Speaker 2No, it's, it's crazy because it's probably, it's probably true, Like you know, like do we really follow these rules when you're out there alone? And like it's you against them, like oh, I have to wait until. I have to wait until I see contact and then I can, then I can return fire or something like no, yeah.
Speaker 3What's the Keneva convention? Is that?
Speaker 2Cheneva, cheneva.
Speaker 1Rules that we're supposed to file for prisoners and all that shit.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I mean you probably, you know like, fuck with the dad though, right.
Speaker 1The first goo guy got. I wanted to cut his ears off, putting them on my dog tag, but one of the guys found me, says don't be right. So why? He says because if you do, they're gonna know who we are and they'll get back at you.
Speaker 3So who's they?
Speaker 1the NBA? Yeah, yeah, because they got a thing with Buddha and they got to have their body intact to go to heaven or whatever.
Speaker 2So, so. So you worked your way up to a sergeant. That's squalid, right.
Speaker 1Well, I just became a squaddle here, pointed squaddle here for a while because you know they needed one.
Speaker 2guys were killed, you know did you ever do point where you ever oh, I used to?
Speaker 1walk point a lot. My first got there new guys always walk point.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's horrible because, you guys, if they walk point, they don't know where they're going because they have to use a protractor, a freaking.
Speaker 1Down the compass and a big bayonet man Chopping your way through, to taking that half hour to get from here to the wall and all through that elephant grass and stuff.
Speaker 2So Well, let's talk about something that you were Very disappointed. You said that you were gonna get Navy Cross.
Speaker 1No, no silver star.
Speaker 2Silver star we're.
Speaker 1We had the whole battalion Up on line on the DMZ one time and our company had point and you know, up there it's like a tree line hundred meters dried up, rice paddies and another tree line, another hundred meters dried up. So we're walking along Double column and we had a tank with us too. That was in front Also and all hell break loose and everything. We had small arms fired machine gun, rpgs, mortars and a mortar and RPG hit the tank and it couldn't move. So we all hit the tree line right away and I was a Gunner on a machine gun, a gun or on a machine gun at the time and we set up in a big crater there with the machine gun.
Speaker 1All of a sudden my squad or squad leader will key Albert Wilkinson, black dude, best guy in the world, him, charlie Brown, phillip D to myself. He called us over. He says come on, miller's laying out there in the middle. He was the guy almost got in a fight with the first day. You know, miller's laying out in the open, he can't move. Every time he moved he got shot. He got shot six different times. So we got up in line and charged the machine gun and we'd run around 10, 15 meters and hit the deck and reload and throw a grenade.
Speaker 2I'm up, he sees me, I'm down. That's how I'm shooting. You're running, you're running, I'm up, he sees me, I'm down, you get down right.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I'm up, he sees me, I'm down.
Speaker 1What.
Speaker 3It's a. I'm up, he sees me, I'm down.
Speaker 1It's a drill.
Speaker 2It's a drill in the military that you're basically talking about. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1So we're running and when we hit the deck to throw another magazine, somebody throw a frag. And all of a sudden the guy ran out of frags. He says Wilkie. He says who's got a frag? I says I got one. He said throw it. So I pulled it off my belt. I couldn't get the cotter pin out Cause we used to bend the ends around the spoon so it wouldn't come out when we're walking through the jungles, you know. So I'm pulling, pulling. He says throw the frag. So I bit the ends together to straighten the cotter pin out. Throw the goddamn frag. So I threw it.
Speaker 1And then we we were closing up we got in there by the machine gun and there was one there and I don't know if I got him or one of the other guys got him, but we shot him. Another one started taking off down the trail and I started to chase him. My squalor called me back. He says forget it, beaver, they're going to have an ambush set up down there. So we went back with our group. They called the chopper and met it back, miller, and they brought us more ammo. We're sitting there reloading our magazines and I was thinking about it. I could hear the bullets cracking by my ear when I was running, you know charging machine gun Pew, pew, pew and I'm standing there shaking so bad thinking about it. And I looked at Wilkie my squalor. I says them, son of a bitches, were trying to kill me. He started laughing. I'm probably gonna be a non beaver.
Speaker 1But some guy came up to us and said hey, you guys did a good job. I thought he said you're going to get a medal and one of the other guys says you're going to be put in for a Silver Star. What the hell? What's a Silver Star? We didn't know what that meant, you know. Well, nobody ever got anything. I checked into it because I worked for the VA, you know. I got everybody's records, you know, and checked into it. None of us ever got anything.
Speaker 1Wilkie the squalor he died about a year after I found him. He's dead. Charlie Brown died in school, decent I are the only ones left and I checked everywhere. I had a senator check out. I've had people check on it.
Speaker 1I even got, when I was in a hospital, the Colonel of the base of the Marines and the Navy base. The name was Colonel JP Bruce. I even got a whole of him called him because he called me and Charlie. Charlie Brown was in the hospital too At the same time. Me and Miller were ran into him and this Colonel called me and Charlie Brown in and said all of us were put in for the Silver Star.
Speaker 1I even got a hold at Colonel. This is 20, 30 years later and the day I got a hold of him his wife told me I'm sorry we just call hospice in on the Colonel so, but I talked to one of the other, one of our officers. He was a Brigadier General. The time when I talked to him I told him the story and he I think he was the guy to put us in for it. But he doesn't remember it and he told me he says you know, after you got hit, we had a big flood back in Coantrain. A lot of records were lost. If the records were lost, how would this Colonel know it back in Memphis, tennessee, and be able to tell us who we were put in for it? So no, we. I checked everywhere. I even have two senators check on it for me. They can't find, nobody can find anything.
Speaker 3Do you know if Miller made it, since he got evacuated?
Speaker 2That's why I was in a religious house.
Speaker 1Well, funny asset, because I know he was living in Florida. I was down in Florida one time. My sisters lived down there. We were down in Florida and I was thinking about him. I called him up here. He only lived about 10 minutes away from my sister. Wow. So he came over, partied with us that night.
Speaker 3What a Hollywood story you start off.
Speaker 1You get in a fight with the guy, you save his life, and then you party with him, 10 minutes away from your sister's house.
Speaker 3That's crazy.
Speaker 2A few years later.
Speaker 1Yeah, more than a few years later, yeah, and then we were all going, my family was all going down to the keys to celebrate. My nephew was getting engaged with his girlfriend, so he went down there with us and partied with us. So we had a great time. And then next time I went to Florida, I went over to his house and his wife says oh I'm sorry, dan, I got divorced. All right, do you know where he's at? No, but I got ahold of him and he was doing really bad and he just passed away here about a year ago.
Speaker 2No, yeah, it sucks. Sorry to hear that.
Speaker 3Yeah, nice and peace.
Speaker 2Nice to meet you. That's all I mean. It's crazy all that. First fire you know, oh really. So is this when you got hit.
Veterans Reflecting on Experiences
Speaker 1We were taking a hill that evening and the gooks were dug in good and we couldn't get up the hill and it started getting dark, so we set in. Well, next morning we had a squalor I mean CP group and all of a sudden a mortar round came in laying on the other side of the hill, or I mean on the other side of our CP group. So we all took off and ran to our fighting holes. I'm in my hole. I got my helmet on my flag jacket. Halfway on I stand up, one of my men's standing up and I'm yelling at him get his ass down about that time. And round one off right next to me.
Speaker 1It blew me over on top of a kitten, my radio man, and I got up and I see just dust flying everywhere and dirt. You know, I looked at my arm and I thought I was gonna lose my arm because all you could see was meat and blood hanging all over it, you know. And all the guys came over to see how I was and I started you know, get the heck out of here, man, because they see a group of guys. They're gonna throw another round there, you know. Well, that time I passed out. I was only out for about a minute or two and kid, my radio man, bandaged me up right away. He had me all bandaged up and then the, the corpsman, came over and shot me up with some morphine. Well, kid helped me up to the, the CP group on top of the hill, and they called in a chopper to medivac me out. And all the guys are coming by saying, hey, corp will be over, don't worry about it. Man, you're going back to the world or you're going aboard a hospital ship with the nurses and all this stuff. You know, everybody said something decent.
Speaker 1We call in some artillery and about 10 clicks away with Camp Carol artillery and three short rounds landed right on top of us. That's when it killed some of my men, wounded 13 of them, as you were getting evacuated. Yeah, before the chopper came out, I was sitting there and I know this is humanly impossible, but our flag jackets we had the old ones with the pieces of flak in it, like tile, you know, and we go through the jungles. They'd always rip out and that would fall out, you know. So we used to cut them and pull that shit out cause it was so damn heavy, you know. But we had to wear them, you know. But I swore to God when we got hit with that artillery I swore I had my whole body underneath my helmet cause that shit was just flying every goddamn worm. It was crazy.
Speaker 3That's unbelievable that that happened.
Speaker 2So they got shot and you were slowing down.
Speaker 1Huh.
Speaker 2So you got shot. They said they were giving you all praises and you're about to go see some hot nurses and then you're going back to mainland. All this stuff. Something terrible happens.
Speaker 1All right, all right.
Speaker 2And that's why they're wrapped on your car.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's the guys that got killed.
Speaker 2So when you went to the hospital and everything, oh, was everything all fine, or did you have like that guilt that some times people feel like they killed, like, oh, I wish I was oh hell yeah, they took me, they'd chopper it up.
Speaker 1you know they call them more choppers, obviously. Take all the guys out, you know. Then, finally, I got chopped out and they took me to the rear and quandary and I guess they operate on me there, all's I last thing I remember is right after I got hit and all the guys got killed, you know. But they took me quandary and operated on me there and then took me out to the USS repose hospital ship and I'm laying on a rack and all of a sudden I wake up and there's this nurse sitting on the end of my rack and I wake up and I see her and she says how are you doing, marine? I said ma'am, I wouldn't be sitting there if I were you. And she said why? I said you know how long has been since I seen a round eye? And she started laughing.
Speaker 1And then the officer the Navy officer came up to me. He says I got some good news for you, marine. I said what's that, sir? He says you're going back to the world. I said excuse my language, sir, but bullshit bandaged me up. I want to go back with my men. Hell, yeah, I didn't want to leave. Well, I had all my buddies back there.
Speaker 2And that was a negative rate. You were allowed to do that. Oh, I should say that well, I didn't get it.
Speaker 1I was in the hospital three months. I went to from the repos. I went up to the Philippines a hospital up there and I was in the room with another Marine in a Korean Marine. That guy was crazy man.
Speaker 2Tell us about him.
Speaker 1He couldn't speak English. And the Korean Marines are bad, you know. Their officers have to have a certain degree in karate. They've got to know a couple of different languages and all that. He was an officer but he couldn't speak any English. We got had a playboy from downstairs so we'd teach him how to say certain words on the female body, you know. And I had bandages all over my arm, my side. I got hit from my knee all the way up in my face and they used to come in and have to change the bandages three times a day. And the nurses they'd come in and they'd soak them down, take the bandages off, put new ones on. But the Air Force nurses guys, they come in and just rip them off. Kind of goddamn hurt, you know. And that Korean Marine, whenever he'd come in, he'd look at him and he'd go you number one, heck off. I'd go, you know.
Speaker 1I'd go you know number one, so we taught him, teaching him, teaching him lingo. And we used to have these squirters, you know syringes full of water. We'd shoot them at each other and one of the guys got them really good one day. So he was. He was sitting under John and the Korean Marine got a bucket of water, opened up the door and just drowned it up.
Speaker 2Oh, he was so rude boys, he was he was.
Speaker 3He was like a friend of mine. Yeah, he was a friend of mine.
Speaker 2That's why we can't have nice things.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1That's what he is that's crazy.
Speaker 2So after that did you get out?
Speaker 1I went back to. They flew me back to the States Clark Air Force Base. My parents and sister came and saw me. Then they took me to hospital Memphis. That's where I ran into Miller. He was there and Charlie Brown, one of the guys that got put up for the Silver Star. I mean, that's when that colonel called me and Charlie and told us we were getting put up for Silver Star. I was there for about three months. Miller's sister came to see us one time and his girlfriend. They brought us a bottle of moonshine and him and I yeah, nice, him and I snuck out of the hospital one night and went over to the YM club with the girls, had that moonshine with us, oh man. Well, we got in a fight that night and next morning, when the doctors had come by, my eye was all bloody and shut, you know, and the doctor says what happened to you? Marine Tripped over my footlocker, sir.
Speaker 2That's funny.
Speaker 3That's funny, isn't it that moonshine gave you strength. Oh man.
Speaker 2So it's so like so I was.
Speaker 1after that I got stationed out at TBS, the basic school in Quantico. Okay, I was an instructor for boot DIs. I used to give classes on all the weapons in Marine Corps head.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1And that was skating duty. I really liked that.
Speaker 2Yeah, teaching people is like the greatest thing. When I was in the military, I loved teaching and, like you know, motivating people to like, not be like me, but to, you know, get physically fit, you know, be proud of yourself, be proud of how you shoot, you know, like because I want to make sure the dude next to me is confident that he's going to be able to hit the guy.
Speaker 1Exactly.
Speaker 2And he's going to try and kill me as well. Oh yeah, you know so that I mean that's the same thing. I mean I've been in stands, a whole different animal compared to Vietnam. Vietnam was insane, like from the books I read, like the things they carried. I don't know if you've read that book.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2You know a clear person that reads books? No, yeah.
Speaker 1I don't like reading. I fall asleep when I start reading. Yeah.
Speaker 2You like party. And yes, it's kind of crazy because my dad met you and I'm a vet, I'm a vet, I'm like kind of a vet.
Speaker 1You're a vet period. Want to be kind of.
Speaker 2I didn't go overseas man.
Speaker 1So what? You're still a veteran. A veteran is a person that served in the military and got arm-lead discharge.
Speaker 2Yeah, you got to understand. Like I felt like I was practicing for football, right, like I felt like I was practicing for football and I never got to play football game yeah, I never started.
Speaker 1Well, I know how you feel, but a lot of guys used to always say that to me oh, I'm not a vet, I wasn't in combat and that don't matter. You spent your time, man. But that's. I know how you feel, cause if I couldn't have gone now I'd be so mad, cause that's the reason I went in, you know.
Speaker 2That's the reason I went in. I literally kind of seemed like you, like I literally went up to the. I was at maps and you know, rose Maul, I went up to the freaking guy.
Speaker 1So where I went in.
Speaker 2Yeah, I went up to the guy and he said what do you want to do? I said I want to blow shit up. And he was like oh so you want to be a love of Bravo? Like, yeah, whatever that is, let's fucking do it Cool.
Speaker 1Right so.
Speaker 2Cool. And then I didn't realize when I was getting myself into and. I was like who came up? And like we, we get the shark attack. You know all this stuff. And then I started like learning a bunch of things you know, and I loved the physical fitness. I loved like the army made me a runner, which was insane, oh.
Speaker 1God, I used to hate running. I loved it.
Speaker 2We had to do it every day. Yeah, me too, but I mean it was. It was a good experience and I wish I was able to go on to see what I was gonna achieve, cause I was trying to do everything possible to go special forces, go ranger, to go ranger.
Speaker 1now, that's what your dad told me.
Speaker 2Like ranger battalion, you know, like I was doing everything possible to do this Like and I was trying to stay physically fit. I shot expert all the time, you know my long rifle Like I wasn't a sniper but I was a long rifle so I was able to like shoot snipers and I was able to hit shots or like hard to hit for a normal person, you know. So I felt gifted.
Speaker 1Oh, hell yeah.
Speaker 2And I was like I can't wait to get over to Syria or Afghanistan, like I can't wait to get there, you know. And then we finally orders and I get this car accident and it's just freaking, just blew my mind, blew my mind. And then my best friend in the military he's the one who gets to go to the show, the one that crashed my car, you know that's just bad. Yeah, I heard that Just.
Speaker 1You know, I had my best friend over there was kitten the guy in the hole with me. You know, when I was down in Quantico, I was coming out of the bar one night and I ran into our old platoon sergeant and we got talking and he said, right after I left him they got in a big ambush and a lot of the guys got killed and I asked him. I said how about Kitten? Did he get it? He says yeah, I think he did so all these years I thought he was dead. Finally, one day when I was at work I wasn't really busy, so I called the VA. I had his copy of the DD 214 and his service number and birded all that stuff. Called the VA, I said they had a file on him because he had two purple hearts. And he says yeah, we got a file. I said I need his name or phone number. We can't do that because of privacy locked. I says what state does he live in? They said Connecticut. So I called the Connecticut Department of Veterans of Paris. I asked the guy you see, yeah, we got him. I says I need his phone number or address or something. I can't because of privacy locked. I said hey, listen, man, this was my best buddy in NAMM For the last 40 years. I thought he was dead. I just found out he's alive. I got to get ahold of him. He says where were you in NAMM? When were you and where were you? I says I was over there in 68. K-sign canteen, quandary, leathernecks Square. He says you're a Marine? I says yeah. He says so, am I Give me your phone number and I'll call you back? He called me back about 10 minutes later, gave me everything.
Living Life With Darby's Rangers
Speaker 1That night when I got home I called him up. His daughter answered the phone. I said is Mike there? She said he's asleep and I said wake him up. She said who is this? I said tell him it's Ted. He comes in the phone. I says how the hell you doing Mike? He says good, and he started talking. I said you know who this is. He says yeah. I said who. He said Ted. So and so I said no, it ain't Well. Who the heck is this? I says were you over NAMM with the Marines with three, nine and 68? He says yeah. He says who is this? I said first platoon, first squad. He said yeah, who the heck is this? And I says did you have a nickname named Kitten. He said God damn, it Is this beaver and man. I almost started crying. We talked for about an hour. He came out to visit me one time and I've got a buddy that I met through my office. He was a. He was in lead Humvee on a 50 cal in Mogadija, so you know what the hell he saw.
Speaker 2Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1But he's a really good friend of mine. So when Kitten came to see me I had a party and he was there too, you know. And back then I had a fight and hold dog in my backyard right by the lake there and next. Well, we had a big party that night. Next morning, kitten stand by the back door. You say beaver, come here, look at this. I looked out there there's Brad, brad Paulson. He says there's your buddy laying in a fighting hall. He slept there all night. And he says to me I'm going to call him Darby. And ever since then you know from Darby's ranges, ever since then his nicknames Darby.
Speaker 2Darby Queen. That's the, the course, or whatever, the physical course, obstacle courses. It's called the Darby Queen.
Speaker 1Oh really.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2I learned a few things for the year and a half.
Speaker 1Well, they had some Darby Rangers or something, didn't they that go to work?
Speaker 2too. So there's a Darby, and then there's Mountain Faze, and then there's Florida Faze. So there's three faces of Rangers school, so Darby and the Darby.
Speaker 1Queen? No, no, I mean they had a group of guys.
Speaker 2Oh, that's probably why it's called Darby's Rangers, that's probably why it's called Darby then.
Speaker 1Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, but it's been great to have you here.
Speaker 3Yeah, thanks for sharing your story. That was definitely impeccable. I feel like Hollywood could make a movie out of that story yeah. But life to the max got it first, so we thank you for that.
Speaker 2So are you living life to the max?
Speaker 1Oh yeah, hell yeah. You know, I'm very fortunate. There were four different incidents in Namor. I should have been killed and I'm here and I've got a really close family and really good friends. Like your old man, I love the hell out of that guy and I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 3We're all glad you're still here and we're glad you're at this table sharing your story. Well, thank you. Do us a favor, look in this camera, say your name and say you're living life to the max.
Speaker 1Chad Beaver is living life to the max.
Speaker 2Such a crunch, I'll break down Barney's sound.