Feed Drop: An Insurgent’s Nightmare - MSG Earl Plumlee

KEN:

Hi, I'm Ken Harbaugh, host of the Medal of Honor podcast. Today, I want to share an interview from our other show, Warriors in Their Own Words, which features Medal of Honor recipient Earl Plumlee. Plumlee's story is almost unbelievable, and it's even more incredible hearing him tell it. We'll be back with another new episode of the Medal of Honor podcast next week. But in the meantime, enjoy. This interview contains graphic depictions of violence and gore. Listener discretion is advised. I'm Ken Harbaugh, host of Warriors In Their Own Words. In partnership with The Honor Project, we've brought this podcast back at a time when our nation needs these stories more than ever. Warriors In Their Own Words is our attempt to present an unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those who defend this nation. Thank you for listening, and by doing so, honoring those who have served. Today, in a special Memorial Day episode, we'll be hearing from Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee. Plumlee served in Afghanistan as an Army Green Beret and was awarded the Medal of Honor for the role he played in defending Ford Operating Base Gosney. In just nine minutes, he neutralized several enemies, survived multiple close-range blasts, and emerged with only minor injuries.

EARL:

Earl Plumlee, a MASH sergeant, retired U.S. Army, and I was a Green Beret. I started as a weapon sergeant and then ended up as a team sergeant on the ODA. I came from a military family. I was always going to join the military. Where I ended up was kind of up for debate, depending on how my childhood was going and what movies were out. I actually, I found out you could join the military with just a GED. And so I went down to the Marine recruiter to try to join when I was still in high school as a sophomore. And they're like, yeah, no, that's not how it works. It's after your class graduates. If you have a GED, we can take you. So I get out of jail free card. So anyway, he said the National Guard would take you. So I went down, talked to the National Guard recruiter, ended up joining the National Guard as a sophomore in high school and did two years in the Army National Guard. the Oklahoma National Guard as a 13 Mike. So that's a, that's an MLS crewman. So I'm, I'm really enjoying the Ukrainian war. Cause I'm like, see, we told you what it could do. Cause the MLS was a magnificent system and never really got to, uh, demonstrate, uh, what it was capable of on the battlefield. Cause you know, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, it wasn't a big player just because of overwhelming air power. Um, and obviously the, The 20 year occupation, you didn't need a system like that. So, well, what it smells like is, uh, BO because, uh, you're usually been driving around for a couple of days in the cab with no AC. So it smells like, you know, arguably a worse version of the infantry. Cause to me, that stagnant smell of guys just kind of sitting is worse than guys that are out there moving around the brush. It's impressive though. If you're, you're sitting in that track and, uh, you know, that, that big heavy track, I don't know what they weigh, but it's for the lay person, it's a tank and, uh, it shakes every, every bit of it, everything in there. You feel that 300 millimeter rocket jerking out of there. It's, it's impressive. It was a neat job, uh, especially for a high school kid to, to go out and drive a tank on the weekends, but it wasn't my adventure. I wanted to be. out there in the very, very front, sneaking around the weeds. So ultimately, when I graduated high school, I joined the Marine Corps on an infantry contract and had a new manner of suffering defined for me. I mean, some of it was a culture shock, obviously. There is a gigantic gulf in between the Marine Corps infantry and the National Guard Shield Artillery. But, you know, you still have to work with people from all over the country. You still have to get the job done. And so for that, you know, especially after basic training, after the School of Infantry, I was ahead of my peers in like understanding the relationship between the ranks, how tasks were given out and how you get things done. I joined in peacetime, so I was just looking to travel the world and and drink beer and whatever ports that they would put me in. And so 9-11 happened my very first year in the Marine Corps. I was forward deployed in Okinawa as part of a UDP, a unit deployment program. And that's one of my big pivots from military adventure to being a you know, in the profession of arms in a time of war. And that's really one of those first steps where this isn't a cute little adventure. This is, this is a big deal. This is, you know, a real life war. I figured that out fairly early on because even before war, you know, the, the infantry and the field artillery are dangerous places. And, uh, you know, accidents when you're moving around, uh, heavy equipment in the field artillery, you know, if you're not paying attention, and you're taking a lackadaisical approach, you'll kill somebody, you know, you'll drive over them with the track. If you do improper maintenance on that thing and the hydraulics fail, you get smashed by a box that weighs, you know, 40,000 pounds. And especially growing up in Western Oklahoma in the oil field, I think the gravity of your decisions can impact not just your life, but those around you came pretty early. So I think I took that into the military where I was always, you know, kind of fun and cracking jokes, but I also, you know, understood when to be serious and when to tighten it up a little bit and pay attention so that you didn't kill somebody. The infantry is already an arduous life. I was already out living that life, you know, living out of my rock, carrying everything I own, moving, not just every day, sometimes moving a couple times a day and a couple times a night, and distances that most people would consider in an extreme circumstances only, you know, I think every time we started walking, we knew we were going to walk five or six miles. That would be a, you know, a short movement. And, uh, or usually we had a 12 or 15 mile hike at the conclusion of every single training evolution in the infantry. So I was already a fairly hardened person. And then I got to the reconnaissance community and, and it was all the same stuff except for, you know, the tempo was a lot higher. So. You know, I, I think I did, did something fairly physically aggressive every day of the week. And, uh, my weekends became very precious cause you know, things weren't hurting. Um, but it was, you know, it was like jumping into cold water. Uh, but you know, I, I got used to it and you know, within a couple of months it's not different anymore. That's just your lifestyle. And, uh, of course, you know, you're running five miles at, at four o'clock in the morning on Monday, um, because, uh, we have to get our run in. So we'd be ready to swim when the sun comes up. Several times throughout my career, even in the infantry, I was like, I can't believe I get to do this. Um, I remember, um, in the infantry, we hiked to the top of, uh, Mauna Kea on the big island. And I just remember, you know, you know, my every muscle in my body is just, you know, it feels like it's got quick creed in it and blisters all over my feet, but then turn it around and look it off that mountain. And, uh, you know, I got, I got paid to be here today. Recon was the same thing. Um, you know, out driving boats around Hawaii, you know, people pay vast sums of money to get out and ride a, a boat away. It's a little different, you know, it's not a, a, a black rigid inflatable and they're usually doing it in the sunshine instead of the middle of the night. But, uh, I've had that experience my entire career is I can't believe I get to be here today with these people. And, uh, yeah, I don't cry cause I'm too tough, but you know, lesser man would. So my first deployment was about a week after 9-11. We didn't know we were going to Afghanistan when I deployed forward. We didn't know where we were going. But I ended up going to Bahrain and was a shipboard security detachment for the USNS ships, the merchant marines. Every merchant marine ship got five or six marines on it to support the buildup for the invasion of Afghanistan. So I was super pumped because I got to go first. Unfortunately, I was too, I was too soon. So I, I had to support, you know, other, other formations as they invaded, uh, Afghanistan. But even then, you know, I saw neat things, you know, I, I saw the JSOC task force on the carriers at sea, you know, we saw the 160th birds, you know, so I was there for some pretty neat benchmarks in history, except for, you know, I was a private standing a post instead of a, an operator getting to go, go through the door first. What drew me to recon, uh, it was, uh, it was an elite unit or an elite formation inside the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps itself is already, you know, an, an elite organization. So, you know, I wanted to, I wanted to be there. I wanted to work with the, you know, the best guys. And, uh, but you know, really what got me is I wanted to be, I wanted to be the first to go. I wanted the important missions and, uh, you know, recon's where you do that in the Marine Corps. kind of hard. And so I didn't realize the Marine Corps was like, yeah, cool, go do recon, but you promised us four years in the infantry. So why don't you knock that out first? And, and honestly, I, you know, I talked to young, young guys and girls trying to do these, you know, elite formations. And actually, you know, the Marine Corps did me a favor because recon didn't want nothing to do with private Plumlee. They were very impressed with Sergeant Plumlee, but I didn't bring a lot to the table those first couple years that they would have been interested in. We did an extra platoon out of second force, which was, you know, whatever recon Marines they could find from the reserve or active duty, they built a platoon and we deployed to Iraq in 2005. And it was everything that I had been searching for those It seemed to me as a young man, those many years, but now looking back, you know, it only took me really three years to get to the place I wanted to be. But we, we went to Iraq when we had, uh, you know, we had the direct action mission out of Al-Asad and, uh, it was, you know, special operations movie stuff. The, we flew out of a small air or HLZ right next to our living area. We'd fly out, prosecute targets and be back for breakfast. And, uh, it was, you know, I felt pretty important. I had really big bridges. on me at that time and was pretty proud of myself. That was my first warfighter deployment. I think that's when I kind of figured out I was slightly more adept, just emotionally more cut out for combat. The stress of driving over the IED roads every day, the stress of, is this house going to be an ambush or a V-BID or H-BID? Um, started wearing people down and then also we started, you know, taking casualties. So every, every mission wasn't a perfect win. So guys started getting wounded and a friend of mine, Seamus, uh, Davey was killed. And, uh, you know, so you start kind of rectifying that this, you know, this cool wartime adventure has a cost to it. And, uh, you know, I started to see that. That's something that I think everybody, when they get to combat, they think Am I the main character? And then you start seeing, you know, especially more physically fit, more well-spoken, smarter guys, stronger guys, better guys get killed and, and just these, uh, you know, lackluster type of deaths. And you're like, man, that could have been me. You know, the sniper had to shoot somebody and his, his story stops here today at 20, you know? And so my, you know, to insulate myself for a minute, because I saw people struggling, and it served me well throughout my career was, I'm going to make sure that I do the best that I can every time. That way, if one of my friends gets killed, that was the enemy's fault, not my fault. And I think it's really important for warfighters to insulate themselves with that. There was nothing more I could have done on the battlefield to prevent that friendly casualty. Because if you don't know that, it eats at you. And I've seen guys be completely consumed by it, you know, 20 years later. You know, it's one of those, you can explain it to a guy and until he forgives himself, you know, it falls on deaf ears. You can explain it to him a hundred times. You can give them the tools, but until they actually realize that when you go to war, the enemy gets a vote and who gets to go home. And, uh, and it's why we, you know, honestly should avoid war at all, at all costs. Well, not all costs, but, uh, to only undertake it under the greatest of circumstances. But when it is time to go to war, we should go as well prepared and as violently as possible, because you never want to come in as the nice guy and get your unit just absolutely obliterated because you never get to take that back. So, you know, and I've explained it to people I've served with, you know, that wasn't your fault. He got killed. And there's always these what ifs and these tiny minutiae. They're like, if I had, you know, if I had got up and had breakfast earlier, I'd have been more alert and I probably would have spotted that guy. Like, probably not. I don't think you can be more alert when you're rolling up on a house expecting a gunfight. I don't, I've never driven up to my K to safe house and been sleepy as we rolled into the front gate. But you got to throw that to the things you can control, you know, control them well on the things that you can't. You have to understand that you can't. You know, we all take turns walking point. with the knowledge that more than likely somebody's going to sacrifice himself for the formation. It could be you or it could be your buddy. Unless you're a fortune teller, it's not your call. When you get your mission brief, you're excited, or at least I was. Every time I get a good mission, you're like, hey, high probability that this important person is gonna be this place tonight and we're gonna go. You know, that's, that's the purpose of all the selections. That's the purpose of, of all the effort you put to be in an elite formation. Um, so for me, it was always very exciting. And then usually about the time we start infill is when you, when I would start thinking, you know, does he know we're coming? What's his plan? Cause he's got to know we're coming eventually. Like if you're an Al Qaeda leadership position, you know, that we're coming one night, we're going to be there. So to think that they haven't taken any precautions is pretty childish. So you start wondering, like, what's this guy's game plan? Is he a runner? Is he a fighter? What are we going to find here? And then usually I settled down as we kind of left the the last cover and conceal position. And at that point, it's it doesn't matter what his plan is, because what's going to happen is going to happen. Either we're going to catch him sleeping or he was ready for us and it's going to be a gunfight. We've done all the, you know, there is nothing left to think about. We've done our rehearsals, we've made our plan, and now the only thing we have to do is violent execution. And really the only thing you can do to guarantee failure on the objective is to not do violent execution. If you start having, what I always call it, is that you make a good plan before you start drinking, don't come up with a new one while you're drinking. And to me, combat's like that, is when you see where the X is and where the gunfight's gonna happen, That's not the time to let the good idea fairies come in. We made a plan in a room with all of us coming up with the best course of action. And now we're going to do it regardless of how scary your part of that plan is. And next time, maybe you come up with a better plan if this part's too scary. I live for the deployments. Um, I, uh, you know, through one marriage away, she said, if you deploy again, I'll leave you. And I went to work immediately following that conversation and volunteered for the very next deployment. So I wanted to, I wanted to be the guy. And I guess I had some, what I thought was payback that I owed the people I served with. My first battalion ended up going to Fallujah and took a lot of casualties. And I wasn't there for them. I was off chasing, you know, to me, I was chasing delusions of grandeur, I went to become a force recon marine and they all went to war. And if I'd known they were going, I would have went with them. So I spent a good portion of my career just paying back, not being there for those guys. Because that was my first turn. I was a squad leader in the infantry. And I sent my young guys to war without me so I could go, you know, chase my career. It kind of ate at me for years. I put myself in front of every dangerous situation. uh, as often as possible to, uh, you know, pay that, that debt. I felt that I owed those guys and, uh, and, you know, drank too much and drove too fast and gotten bar fights at two in the morning. Uh, you know, 20 year old Marine stuff. I was once again, bummed out. Our site that my ODA had got shut down and I had a choice between go home or work at the company headquarters. No Green Beret is pumped about either of those. Uh, and if he is, he should probably give his beret back. But you know, I was not going to, I was not going to be at home while my guys were deployed again. You know, just like that, that Phantom Fury thing that I missed, I was not going to do that again. So I stayed in the company headquarters on FOB Gosney. and took a support role. I was the weapons sergeant for the company headquarters. That is not a war fighting function. That's logistics, deep logistics for the ODAs. They send broke guns, I go get them fixed at depot level. They send up their ammunition consumption and I try to guess what they're going to use next month so that I can have it ordered and shipped and keep them topped off. And then if they get a bad gunfight, I I have their emergency resupply bundles. So it's really a lot of book work is, uh, if they're out on patrol, I have to look at what their weapons are and their, their manning and build the appropriate bundle for them. So it's maybe interesting to some people, but it's not exciting work. And, uh, as I'm doing that, you know, the Taliban selected Fob Gosney as a site for a, uh, what we call a spectacular complex attack. They knew that we were going to close the Fob, so they figured It's a win-win. They can come in and just eviscerate the camp and we'll leave, or they'll come in, lose militarily, you know, or tactically. But since they know we're going to close it anyway, they can still claim that information victory and say, see, we ran them out of town. I didn't know that at the time. So to me, it was just an annoyance. We were getting indirect fire fairly frequently. I thought it was just for harassment. But what it was is they had informants and Taliban fighters that were on the camp. working as laborers that were recording where the rounds were landing and recording, you know, what steps the camp took when under attack. And in the high density areas of the camp for populations of soldiers, so that when they came in and wanted to get those mass casualties, they knew the areas of the camp to hit. So you fast forward about a month of that, just them harassing us. And they arranged for three truck bombs two 5,000-pounders and one 20,000-pounder maneuvered to the camp. The 5,000-pounder detonated across the camp for me on an exterior wall. And, you know, 15 Taliban fighters with suicide vests, you know, brand new Chinese rifles, brand new Chinese armor-piercing incendiary ammunition, and brand new Chinese hand grenades rapidly maneuvered to that breach point. and headed for the interior of the camp. Yeah, I didn't know that. They didn't give me the warning order. So I just knew the bomb went off and I heard their base of fire. They had two machine guns covering their ingress into the camp. And I know what talking gun sounds like. That's when you have two guns working back and forth to conserve ammunition and the operational envelope of the gun, but to lay down a massive amount of suppressive fire. I know what that sounds like. And, uh, I grabbed my gear and headed toward, you know, the sound of the gun, so to speak. As we're headed down there, I started picking up all my buddies, uh, that were pretty much my team was manning the company headquarters. So my, uh, my old warrant was the company warrant. Uh, my intelligence Sergeant from my ODA was the company intelligence Sergeant. And, you know, Nate Abkemeyer was a support soldier who had, you know, gotten close with in the company headquarters. And we all linked up and moved down to that breach point independently. But we, you know, all got together as we headed down there. I was a sniper and I had a sniper rifle. So as we got to the last cover and conceal position, I had Nate slow down in the vehicle we were in. Matt Hoard and Chief Colbert on a four-wheeler pulled just past us. And as soon as they broke around that corner, they both got hit with small arms fire. And then they were, you know, both obviously hit, and then both very obviously under a huge amount of small arms fire. We could see it hitting all around them, but we couldn't see where it was coming from. But that's fine because we have, you know, we have a battle drill for that. We've rehearsed it, you know, about a million times. We pull the vehicle in between the good guys and the bad guys, dismount, and either load up the casualties and maneuver more, or you fight it out there. Unfortunately, you know, I kicked my door open as we made that turn. And instead of being across the camp or out on the flight line, you know, I thought we had more space. You know, we pulled right in the middle of what was their rally point. So we pulled in literally into the middle of a circle of about 12 fighters. And, you know, they all faced inboard and started, you know, directing their fire into our truck. Pulled my rifle up. and tried to go to work and fired one round and my rifle jammed. Yeah, it's never jammed before and never jammed after, but you know, for this story, it jams. And, you know, I was kind of like, well, you know, I've seen it before. I guess I'm the guy today that dies at the very start of the gunfight and doesn't get to participate. So I've been trained, you know, in the Marine Corps and in special forces over and over again. When the rifle goes down, pistol comes out. And, uh, I just stepped out of the truck and started closing with the nearest group of, uh, enemy fighters. And, you know, my hope was I could buy enough time for, for Nate and Drew to figure something out. So I, you know, just presented my pistol and just started, uh, indexing back and forth between the fighters as fast as I could. Well, not as fast as I could. Cause the, as soon as I pulled my pistol, I broke one round, who knows where it went. And, uh, I had that. just voice it was like, hey, if you don't actually put good hits on the on targets, there's absolutely no way you're getting out of this. So I, you know, steadied up my front side tip and, you know, try to remain as calm as possible as I just indexed from target to target and just started closing with them as I went and slowly moving at an oblique angle off to their left and my right trying to get to concealment. I got right in the middle of them and, you know, ran my pistol was about dry. And, uh, you know, I was shocked and they were surprised as they, they never hit me for whatever reason, I guess they got, got too excited. Um, but left me right in the middle of these guys and I needed time. And, uh, the only thing I could come up with was I'd have five seconds while this hand grenade cooked off. So. pulled a hand grenade out, cooked it off for what I thought in my head was two seconds, but I was probably counting just about as fast as you could count. So it was probably about two hundredths of a second and just kind of stepped out and tossed it in the general direction of the fighters, which it worked. You know, as soon as I stepped out with a hand grenade, everybody, you know, ran for the hills except for one guy who I'd hit with my pistol and can't tell But I have you know, I remember indexing down off of their vests into their pelvic girdle So I think I hit him in the hips and dropped him Because I remember as I broke that pistol round he just dropped like the somebody cut the strings on a marionette I remember being shocked because you always hear you know 9 mil doesn't have stopping power and For me I like I fired one round at him and he you know disappeared out of my side picture But he was still sitting there and just by luck that, that grenade, um, when I tossed it, landed right between the ground and his hip. And he never tried to roll off of it. He didn't try and swat it away. He just pulled his rifle up and tracked me behind that water tank. And then the whole time I was working on my rifle, he was just shooting through that water tank. And, uh, I still remember, you know, very clearly as I was working on my rifle, dumping the mag and locking the bolt, I remember little pieces of white plastic sprinkling down on me. Cause every time one of his bullets would go through it, it pulled just a tiny little, uh, plastic snowflake off with it, but he never hit me. So whoever wrote the manual, you know, concealment is not cover, but it, it serves just as well. The enemy can't observe you. Yep. Totally right, because he shot everywhere except for where I was back there kneeling, working on my gun. I had my rifle up at this point and started hearing rounds hitting the berm behind me. And I turned out to my left and rear, and a fighter is about 100 meters from me in a sling supported prone position, just laying out there, driving him in. I knew it was 100 meters because like that's, you know, we're on base. This is literally where I do sprints in the morning. So I, you know, I dropped to a knee, held my rifle right on the notch of his neck, pulled the trigger and he vaporized off the face of the earth, which, you know, which shocked me. Cause, uh, that doesn't, that doesn't usually happen when you shoot people. They don't usually explode in my experience. Some people have a different experience, but I remember, you know, even a hundred meters is fairly close to be from a, you know, a suicide vest. And it was incredibly loud. I was on my knee and I jumped to my feet. And I was looking around the airfield trying to figure out what just happened. My first thought was that a Polish tank had come up and hit him with their main gun. But there was no tanks out there yet. And I couldn't see any other weapon system. And it kind of dawned on me that exactly when I broke that round, you know, this guy detonated. And I was like, that guy had a suicide vest on and I shot it. And I had like, you know, a little small internal victory because, you know, every sniper wants to put in his logbook, you know, engaged Suicide vest guy and detonated it. So I had that story. I was like, you know, it's a cool and As I was kind of like getting a survey of the land, you know, I'm at this little four-way intersection and You know I saw some fighters run off to my left and I saw a bunch to my right in front had run back down this little alley when I threw the grenade and And I didn't know what their plan was. And, uh, I was aware of like the, the bastion attack on the wrinkler. The whole point of it was they were trying to destroy all the aircraft. It's like, I kind of had maybe a suspicion that they were going after all the, uh, aircraft that the polls had. And, um, I couldn't go back to where my guys were, you know, just around this little corner I'm at, I could hear him yelling for a medic. And I knew if I went back to where they were, if the fighters came back, they'd be right on top of us. So I, you know, I figured I'll develop the, the tactical environment with, uh, one Earl Plumlee and, uh, went down to where I'd seen them take off to. And, uh, I got about halfway down this little alley and, uh, you know, they hung muzzles from cover and started engaging me. And, uh, I was shooting on the move, moving off to a generator panel off to my right. and, uh, try to keep them suppressed as best I could. And I got most of the way to this little panel and my rifle ran dry. And I had this big, you know, huge rifle, 20 inch barrel on it. And I knew my pistol only had like a round or two left and I had all these guys to my front. So I knew if I was going to get out of this, I need that rifle backup. So instead of transitioning to my pistol, I went for a reload on my rifle and, uh, dumped the magazine and super elevated my muzzle. And as soon as I did that, the nearest fighter to me threw his rifle into his sling and broke from cover and just started sprinting toward me. And, uh, lucky for me and unlucky for him is, uh, I practiced reloading vastly more than he practiced sprinting. Cause I put a fresh mag in, sent the bolt home and he was only about half the distance to me, which still put him at around that, you know, 10 to 12 meter line and, uh, you know, pulled the trigger and detonated his vest. And, you know, and luckily, you know, I pulled in behind that generator panel. So it, it, uh, directed a little bit of the blast and caught all the frag and just knocked me off my feet. And I was laying there going, man, that was a close one. And, uh, another fighter came walking up, looking over his sights, trying to finish me off on the ground there. And, uh, you know, he just wasn't using his sights and he was, uh, trying to shoot while walking, which is, you know, kind of an advanced skill. He wasn't quite pulling it off. And all his rounds were landing just a little bit short, about, you know, 12 inches, 15 inches short. So I pulled my rifle back up and hammered away at him, folded him up, got to my feet, and then started engaging his buddies that were covering his movement. And, you know, my rifle ran dry again. So rather than find out if I could pull that feed off one more time, I dumped the magazine and pivoted and ran back to the corner where I was at. I was also kind of curious where all my friends were that I brought with me. I was like, you know, that, uh, that scar is pretty loud and I've been throwing hand grenades and surely somebody heard this suicide vest detonate. They, you know, like where the hell's everybody at? And, uh, and they had their own problems. Cause you know, when I ran around the corner, uh, bump right into drew who gotten out of the truck just as fast as he could, but it's one of those freak of nature things. Every round that missed me either hit drew or hit Nate Abkhamir. Uh, when I stepped out of the truck and then, uh, one of the rounds came through and hit the child safety locks. So it was a civilian vehicle, you know, it was a Toyota Tacoma and it still had the child safety lock mechanism in the door. You know, it had, uh, an upper panels and stuff, but it still had child safety locks on it. And this round came through and hit the lever on it. So drew tried to follow me and I couldn't cause he was locked in the back seat, which I think is funny. Do you know, drew gets aggravated about it anyway. He's jumped out of the truck and he saw me, obviously, you know, advance on him with my pistol. Just doesn't know where I've been since. But I, you know, crash into him and tell him, hey, Drew, I know right where they're at. Let's go get them. And, you know, he's like, all right, let's go. So I stepped back around that lane on the far right side of the alley and Drew takes the far left. And, uh, it's a lot funner doing gunfights with a friend because you only have to look a couple places instead of all the places. And we started going back down this little alley. And the last guy I shot is just kind of laying in the lane there. And he's smoking, you know. Not a lot, but a little. And Drew is looking like he's going to step over that guy. And so, you know, I yell at Drew, like, hey, stay away from him. They got suicide vests on. Which, you know, kind of gets him to flex up a little bit. It's like, what? And I'm like, stay away from the bodies. They all have suicide vests on. And as he's figuring that out, and as I'm telling him, that vest goes low order, which doesn't explode, but it burns, except for it's high explosive. So it's a pretty spectacular type of burn. It was like a 20-foot blowtorch, just as powerful as a match flaring up, except for 30-pound match. you know, Drew, you know, runs over, and I'm back behind this generator panel again. And I got Drew with me. And whether it was this guy's hand grenades, or if they all just started throwing hand grenades at it, eventually it evolved into, you know, they had little buddy teams, one guy would suppress us with his rifle, then his buddy would chuck hand grenades at us, which was working pretty good at keeping me and Drew pinned behind that panel. So we're fighting it out. And Lucky for Drew and I, we were so close, we're fighting at about 15 meters from each other at this point, and everything's on fire, there's smoke everywhere, so you can't see well. I remember moving my head around as though this thick smoke would billow back and forth in between us. And they were throwing their grenades so hard that they would hit the wall behind us and then bounce back into the middle and detonate. So it was equally detrimental to both sides of the fight. If they'd have rolled one slow in there, probably would have finished us off. And we're going back and forth at this. I finally actually got hit in the top of my plate carrier with a hand grenade and was, you know, messing around, flicking that thing back. And they finally got one into the fighting position behind that panel with Drew and I, which was, you know, emotional event for both of us. We were both kicking that thing all over the place. And, uh, you know, drew grabbed me and, and, uh, said, Hey, we got to get out of here. They're going to kill us. He says, he said that I don't, I don't remember that because I couldn't hear anything because everything was just exploding, but I'll take him at his word. But yeah, he grabbed me and jerked me into a run. Uh, we took about five or six steps back toward the, uh, the pickup truck and the little corner. And we both got blown off of our feet. I remember trying to get up and I was trying to get my rifle back into my shoulder. And I couldn't, and the buttstock had been folded up, and I was trying to mess with it. And I looked down inside my buttstock and my sling, and there was a human arm from about just below the elbow down, had ripped in at Mach 5, and hit my buttstock, and knocked my rifle out of my hands, and broke the buttstock of my rifle. And I remember very vividly, it looked like a hand, you know, it had hand figures and an arm, but when I grabbed it, all the bone was just gelatinized. So it felt more like a big squid tentacle, which was offensive to my senses. Cause I remember picking that thing up and just being, you know, grossed out by it, you know, picked it up and ran around that corner, figured out that, you know, a half an arm wasn't going to help me win the gunfight. So I got rid of it. And, uh, we're sitting there, Polish tank drove up and I was like, Oh, easy. Perfect. We'll get this tank spun around in here and have him drive right through the middle of them. And, uh, you know, the battle will be over. And that, you know, the Polish tank commander was sitting real tall on his turret and I was yelling at him and he couldn't hear me. That machine gun base of fire in the house had N amount of fighters. I forget what they said were in there. They also had brought a ton of RPGs. And, uh, as the Polish armor had moved into that gap to kind of block that, what was ended up being like, I think a 60 meter hole in the exterior wall, that base of fire started engaging the Polish armor with RPGs. So they were out there in that gap, you know, fighting it out, you know, catching RPGs to their armor. You know, me yelling at that tank commander was not effective means of conversation. So I was like, I reached down and I picked up a big rock and threw it at him. And I was trying to hit him in the side of the helmet, but even better, it went right across his face, which scared the shit out of him. He turned and looked down. And, uh, you know, I gave him the international sign for pivot this way and, you know, follow me. And he looked and shrugged his arms and said, you know, I got my own job. Sorry. You're on your own. And, uh, pulled his vehicle forward. Uh, and just as he rounded that corner, the insurgents would have, would have been just on the backside of these, uh, sealant containers. And as he pulled his tank around, they, they shot him in the side of the head and killed him. So, you know, well, there, that problem went, uh, the tank buttoned all the way up and, you know, started kind of driving a little bit erratically and then still went to the breach. The crew went to where they were supposed to go. And I was like, well, I guess this is going to be our problem to solve. And as we're sitting there right here, you know, what are you boys doing? And it was, uh, chief Colbert. Oh, last time I'd seen him, you know, he gotten hit and hit the ground. And, uh, I was worried that he was dead or at least grievously wounded. But he's up walking around and, uh, I make fun of him. He got shot in the butt. Uh, and I guess when you get shot in the butt, it hurts a lot and you'll act like you're dead for a little bit, but we're, you know, I'm elated. You know, I ran over, gave him a hug and he's like, what are you boys doing? I was like, chief, we know right where they're at. Let's go get them. And, uh, he's like, well, okay, let's go. Uh, we had one Navy SEAL. On the camp, you know, you can't have a war story without a Navy SEAL. So Lieutenant Turner seed was ours So he comes running up him and drew had known each other and worked together. So they they took that outside track again and I'm gonna lead chief into this mess and I go to reload before we go around this corner Because you know, obviously I keep running out of ammo. So it's you know, I'm like, I'm gonna make sure that stops happening So I go to reload and I can't find any magazines. And I look down and it's because I'm out of ammo. And I pull the magazine out of my rifle and it's only got one round in it. And I was like, well, that's, that ain't good. Uh, so I tell chief, I'm like, you know, he's, and he's stacked up behind me. I'm like, chief, you gotta go first. I'm out of ammo. And you know, he, you know, peeps around. He's like, what? I was like, you have to go, you have to take point. I only got one bullet. So you take point and I'll cover you. And he's like, yeah, you're going to cover me with one bullet. But he does, he steps in front of me, and we move down to that corner. About that time is when Mike Ollis, a soldier from the 10th Mountain, shows up. He was at the MWR with his guys, and checked to make sure they were all good, heard the gunfight, and has sprinted across the camp with just his combat shirt and his Oakley M-frames. So he comes up behind us, and he's like, hey, can we come with you guys? And I remember my first thought was, You only got one magazine, you know, maybe I sit this one out. And then I was like, well, that's, that's bold talk for a guy that's only got one bullet. So, uh, I remember saying, Hey, it's pretty bad, but come on. You know, we stepped around that corner and, um, get all the way back down to that, that generator panel, which is also kind of a three-way intersection. And, uh, we roll up into it and, uh, nothing's on fire. Nobody's shooting at us. Nobody's throwing hand grenades. So, you know, Chief Colbert was probably thinking, these guys really sold. This is a big deal. And it seems not that bad. But as we get down to the little concrete apron, you can start to see body parts all over the place. And, you know, there was heads and arms and feet and legs, unidentified, just little, little grips of meat, little pieces of skin. And I remember looking at probably three or four pieces of spinal cord just kind of laying out there. And we're looking at all this mess. And as we're looking at it, an insurgent sits up behind this pile of dead bodies. further out and bounce passes two hand grenades at us, screams al-Akbar and reaches up and pulls a lanyard on his vest and detonates himself. So at the same time this happens, I assume they had made this plan. Another fighter has taken off sprinting toward the rear of us. And I remember Lieutenant Turnipseed and the Druk ran, you know, towards where this guy just detonated to get away from the hand grenades. Uh, the hand grenades, you know, his rough throw, put one in my front and one in my back. So I was like, well, I guess I'm in the perfect spot to ride these out. And I just remember being very confident that I would be fine. I don't know why. I guess the 15 hand grenades I wrote out before that just had, uh, hadn't hurt me. So I figured what's two more. Um, so I remember seeing what this hand grenade run past me and, uh, I tucked up to the wall and I remembered I didn't have eye pro on. So I was like, well, Probably shouldn't look at it. And I just kind of stuck my face to the wall as that grenade detonated. And I remember it hurting deep in my bones. I remember feeling it in my femurs the most, like it felt like my bones were splintering, but you know, I didn't get hit with anything. And as soon as kind of shook it off and I could hear the AK fire behind us now. So I turned around, fired my last two rounds at this guy. And Drew was engaging him from that far angle with his MP5. And whether we hit him or whether he detonated his vest, either way, the result was the same. His vest detonated within a couple inches or maybe less. It might have actually made it all the way to Mike Ollis. But it detonated and blew Mike Ollis most of the way to me. At this point, I had my pocket knife out. My pistol was empty. My rifle was empty. And, uh, I had my knife out and I got to, you know, looking around at the tanks are still engaged in the space of fire and the RPGs are still shooting back at the tanks. And there's artillery rounds landing all over the camp. And it's like, well, maybe knife fighting isn't the perfect answer for today. So I put my knife up and ran and grabbed Mike and, uh, picked him up by his belt and the collar of his shirt and, and, uh, jerked him over to this, uh, compound for the UAV compound. Started treating him, uh, his injuries as best I could. And, you know, it was bad and, uh, but we're on base. So I figured, you know, instead of keep doing these interventions with my IFAC, I was like, let's just get him to the hospital as soon as possible. Grabbed a civilian and his vehicle had Mike loaded up, got them moving. He got to the hospital like 90 seconds after he was wounded, which is a better chance than almost anybody would have had. And unfortunately, you know, he succumbed to his injuries, which were traumatic. He ate a suicide vest at Point Bike Ranch. The 20,000 pound truck, which was supposed to come in the middle of this grand assault, the truck broke down. So the Taliban attack is kind of stalled out. They have all these fighters on multiple points on the camp. One truck, the second 5,000 pounder was destroyed by an Afghan army. So they don't have this other breach point where it was supposed to be. And then the coup de grace of the camp, this 20,000 pounder, has broke down. So at this point, it's kind of a stalemate. They're out in the city, you know, firing into the camp. The Polish QRF is really hitting its stride. They've got their armor out. They've got their birds in the air. So the tide of the battle is starting to turn. And my commander, Major Caster, has shown up at this point and He's like, yeah, the polls got it. I'm going to consolidate my forces back on the SF camp and figure out what the bill is, which ended up being incredibly cheap for us. I think everybody that participated in the battle got a Purple Heart. Everybody that did anything other than take shelter in a bunker got some form of Valor Award. And I was injured enough that I got narcotics, which was hilarious because I was the only person that would wasn't directly shot. I got narcotics and got to, you know, sleep all night. Nate Drew and Mark Colbert got designated as walking wounded. So they got bandages on their bullet holes and they had a man a machine gun in a tower all night, which was pretty funny to me. Not to them because, you know, chief had to stand up the entire night because he had a hole in his butt. Every recipient wears their medal differently. And I think it When you look at the narratives, that's when you can figure out kind of how that guy's going to feel about it. So, you know, while Mike Aulis was killed, which is tragic, I didn't know him. I met him on the battlefield. So it wasn't my, my core group of friends that would have deeply affected me. And it wasn't a death that hit my family hard. All those guys that were there, you know, my kids call him uncle. So you look at some of these narratives and you, you realize that like, you know, half this guy's friends died and then he gets, you know, put up on this, uh, this altar, uh, that's gotta be very uncomfortable. But I didn't have that experience. I took all my friends to the white house with me and we were, you know, kind of in a celebration mode until we got there. Because, you know, they awarded three medals the day I got mine. I was the only person that was present to receive their medal bar. The other two were posthumous, which is, you know, add some gravity to it because you're, you know, we're sitting there and I got all my friends and we're high-fiving about what a cool event this is. And then you're sitting in between two widows and in two groups of children that their, their father's gone. Um, which, you know, brings some dude gravity to the, the occasion. And then, you know, the second thing that was just a, you know, a neat thing for me is, uh, I took my, one of my, you know, profound leaders in my career, you know, Tony Bell, he was my Sergeant Major at the time. I took him with me and, and he was just, you know, so proud of me. And I, you know, he told me he was proud of me and I could see him, you know, just kind of looking at me. And that's somebody that I held in such high esteem to kind of get that reciprocated, uh, was very humbling. So yeah, somebody told me being a, being a leader is super easy. And he, uh, I can't remember who told it to me. And he's like, being a leader is super easy. I was like, yeah. And he's like, everything that your guys do good, you give them credit and everything that goes wrong, that's your fault. If you do that for your men, you will build a immense following. And so it sounds like a simple thing to do, but then as I'm, as I've gone through my career, Not everybody has the virtue to be able to do that. When something good happens, they want to take credit. And especially as a leader, it's such an easy thing to, you know, in front of your boss, say like, actually, it was this guy or it was these guys. They're the ones that delivered that success. And then to stand in front of that formation, when something failed and take that on the chin and be like, yeah, that was my fault. I let that happen. It's such a simple thing, but it's such a unique thing that leaders just don't have. And I think, you know, just the ability to do that, your, your support, it's instantly notice it and they start to trust you. And then your, your supervisors, they, you know, it's not lost on them either. Such a simple thing. And it works at all levels. I've never been anywhere in charge of anything where if you just apply that One simple thing has all these cast-off benefits. So if you set your mind that if this thing fails, I'm going to take credit for the failure, you will be very diligent in making sure that your formation doesn't fail once you've decided that that's, that is your course of action that you are going to implement. You know, for me, Memorial Day has always been, it's always been an important holiday coming from a military family. You know, I always understood the gravity of it. You know, for my career, you know, 25 years of it, about 20 years was at war. And, uh, I wouldn't say it's, on average, I buried a friend at least once a year since 9-11 has kicked off, roughly. So for me, Memorial Day, I always look at those pictures of those guys. If I get a chance, you know, if they're in, uh, if they're in Arlington, I like to go see them and throw a coin on the headstone. It's evolved, certainly for me, especially when I look back at those pictures. In my mind, you know, we're all these fully mature warriors, you know, that met their fate on the battlefield. And then, uh, as an older guy, retired now, and I look back at those pictures, about half of them, they're, you know, they're kids. I'm astounded that we even let somebody that young go confront the enemy in armed conflict. So it's, you know, it's a special thing for me to look back and think about those guys I served with and think about the cost of, of that war. And, uh, also, you know, that, Something's unique when I do that. About halfway through my career, there started being widows and kids left over. So I always try to track them down if I can and tell them a story about their dad. Memorial Day is obviously special for somebody that spent their entire career at war.

KEN:

That was Master Sergeant Earl Flumley. Thanks for listening to Warriors In Their Own Words. If you have any feedback, please email the team at kharbaugh at evergreenpodcasts.com. We're always looking to improve the show. And if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to rate and review. Warriors In Their Own Words is a production of Evergreen Podcasts in partnership with The Honor Project. Our producer is Declan Roars. Bridget Coyne is our production director, and Sean Ruel Hoffman is our audio engineer. Special thanks to Evergreen Executive Producers Joan Andrews, Michael DeAloia, and David Moss. I'm Ken Harbaugh, and this is Warriors In Their Own Words.