Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / The True Story Of Tidal Wave POW Pilot Lt Ernie Poulson From WWII From Adam Makos
Transcript
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- 0:32Speaker 2: Hey, Arrow.
- 0:33Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on?
- 0:35Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Man, Adam, I got to tell you something. I am
- 0:38Speaker 1: so fascinated with this book and I'm so jealous with
- 0:40Speaker 1: you in so many different ways, especially when it comes
- 0:43Speaker 1: to these journals that you got to read the diaries
- 0:45Speaker 1: and stuff. I am a journal fanatic. I love reading
- 0:49Speaker 1: other people's writing and stuff. And then for you to
- 0:52Speaker 1: be able to have this opportunity, oh my God, it
- 0:55Speaker 1: just blows me away. What was the experience like for you?
- 0:59Speaker 2: Well, it was one thing to find Ernie Polson, the
- 1:03Speaker 2: living hero. He was 97 years old, and I thought
- 1:08Speaker 2: we'd never find anybody. The last survivor of 1,700 men
- 1:11Speaker 2: who flew this incredible mission. But then when Ernie said
- 1:15Speaker 2: to me, well, I wrote my own memoir, and he
- 1:18Speaker 2: gave me that. And then we found out that something
- 1:21Speaker 2: amazing had happened with this crew. After they made it
- 1:24Speaker 2: back to England, after they had been rescued essentially from
- 1:28Speaker 2: captivity in Romania, they all sat down and they wrote
- 1:32Speaker 2: their accounts of what happened. So you had nine men
- 1:36Speaker 2: on one bomber crew all writing about the same battle.
- 1:41Speaker 1: What is that like for you? Because right away, you
- 1:43Speaker 1: just took me back to with my family. We have
- 1:46Speaker 1: eight kids, but all eight kids have a different story
- 1:48Speaker 1: of mom and dad. It had to have been the
- 1:50Speaker 1: same thing that you went through with these guys.
- 1:54Speaker 2: It was fascinating because everybody on a bomber has a
- 1:57Speaker 2: different perspective based on where you are. So we were
- 2:00Speaker 2: able to find out, oh, the navigator is saying, I
- 2:03Speaker 2: saw this gun in the distance and I fired off
- 2:05Speaker 2: a couple bursts. And the waist gunner is saying, I
- 2:08Speaker 2: could see the German gunner shooting at me because they
- 2:11Speaker 2: were flying at treetop level. He said, I could see them.
- 2:14Speaker 2: I could hear their guns and I shot back at them.
- 2:17Speaker 2: Another guy is talking about the damage that's happening to
- 2:20Speaker 2: the plane. It's all happening at the same time, and
- 2:23Speaker 2: it allowed me to build this incredibly action-packed air battle
- 2:28Speaker 2: where it's not just Ernie telling me what happened when
- 2:30Speaker 2: he's working the controls flying this plane. We got everybody
- 2:34Speaker 2: chiming in all at once. You see, and.
- 2:37Speaker 1: That's why it feels like that I'm part of something.
- 2:40Speaker 1: It's not like just me sitting down to have a
- 2:42Speaker 1: one-on-one conversation with the paragraphs. I feel like that I'm
- 2:45Speaker 1: part of something here, and you include us with your writing. Yeah.
- 2:50Speaker 2: I try to put the reader right into the cockpit.
- 2:53Speaker 2: So it's a storytelling that's, instead of telling the story
- 2:56Speaker 2: from bird's eye view or 20,000 feet, I put you
- 3:00Speaker 2: right in the cockpit with Ernie. And because I was
- 3:02Speaker 2: working with him, I was able to say, Ernie, what
- 3:04Speaker 2: were you thinking? What were you feeling? What were you seeing?
- 3:07Speaker 2: And it creates this movie-like, cinematic, visceral experience where You're
- 3:11Speaker 2: not just reading about World War II. You're not just
- 3:14Speaker 2: reading about the craziest bomber mission in World War II.
- 3:17Speaker 2: You're living it. You're riding along with them. Okay.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Now I got to go with you a little because
- 3:22Speaker 1: I know what it's like to be an author and
- 3:24Speaker 1: you put yourself in those positions of thought and you
- 3:26Speaker 1: step into that storyline. How did you, first of all,
- 3:30Speaker 1: you had to coax yourself to do it. But when
- 3:32Speaker 1: it was time to put the writing instrument down at
- 3:34Speaker 1: the end of the day, how did you come back
- 3:35Speaker 1: to reality?
- 3:39Speaker 2: That's a fine question because when I write this story,
- 3:42Speaker 2: I try to work on it seven days a week.
- 3:45Speaker 2: It's how you stay in that world. And you really
- 3:48Speaker 2: face a choice. Do I want to go out tonight
- 3:53Speaker 2: and have a couple drinks and go out for dinner
- 3:55Speaker 2: and go to the mall or whatever? Or do I
- 3:58Speaker 2: want to stay in that world? And so I find
- 4:01Speaker 2: that when I'm writing about a battle like Ploiesti and
- 4:03Speaker 2: Operation Tidal Wave and Ernie's story, I try to stay
- 4:06Speaker 2: as much as I can in World War II. So
- 4:10Speaker 2: you live quietly, you follow a routine and you keep
- 4:14Speaker 2: your thoughts as close as you can to 1943. Oh
- 4:17Speaker 2: my God.
- 4:18Speaker 1: See, this fascinates me so much because my wife and
- 4:22Speaker 1: I are both writers. And one of the things that
- 4:24Speaker 1: we did in the very beginning was that we would
- 4:25Speaker 1: grab cassette recorders and record everything that was going on
- 4:28Speaker 1: so that we would not lose that step of, okay,
- 4:31Speaker 1: this is what we're working on. This is what we
- 4:33Speaker 1: want to do. So for you to be able to
- 4:34Speaker 1: stay in that moment just inspires me so deeply.
- 4:41Speaker 2: The story is just what inspired me, Arrow. It was
- 4:45Speaker 2: the idea that this was the last chance to tell
- 4:48Speaker 2: an important story. This tidal wave mission, 310 young men
- 4:53Speaker 2: died on this. I mean, 45 out of 178 bombers
- 4:57Speaker 2: were shot down. So you lost about 25% of the
- 5:00Speaker 2: people who went there. And so when you think about
- 5:04Speaker 2: the responsibility that comes with that, you have a chance
- 5:07Speaker 2: to bring them back to life, to make sure they
- 5:10Speaker 2: are not forgotten. And to tell about the incredible heroic
- 5:14Speaker 2: things they did. So what drove me, you know, when
- 5:18Speaker 2: you do this, it took three years to write this book.
- 5:21Speaker 2: But what gets you up in the morning and what
- 5:23Speaker 2: gets you working and keeps you going is not money.
- 5:26Speaker 2: It's not holding the book at the end. It's not success.
- 5:30Speaker 2: It's the idea that these guys lived through something incredible.
- 5:35Speaker 2: And it's up to me to keep their legacy alive,
- 5:38Speaker 2: to make sure people know their names. And that motivates
- 5:41Speaker 2: you more than any money than anything else ever could.
- 5:44Speaker 1: This motivates me in so many different ways because my
- 5:47Speaker 1: father also fought in World War II, but he never
- 5:49Speaker 1: spoke of it. And so it's like, oh, my God,
- 5:51Speaker 1: what was it like to even sit down and talk
- 5:52Speaker 1: with Ernie? And number two, my mother lost two brothers
- 5:55Speaker 1: in the Korean War who were on airplanes. And so then,
- 5:58Speaker 1: of course, I'm in there investigating for my mother as well.
- 6:01Speaker 1: So I feel like that I'm taking my parents into
- 6:03Speaker 1: these pages because they've got answers inside your paragraphs. And
- 6:07Speaker 1: it's like, I just want to find it for them
- 6:09Speaker 1: so that they can find peace where they are.
- 6:15Speaker 2: I think the scars that come from these wars are
- 6:18Speaker 2: pretty much impossible for us to fathom, but we can
- 6:21Speaker 2: do our best to tell what they went through and
- 6:25Speaker 2: perhaps to feel the empathy and to just walk away
- 6:30Speaker 2: with an odd sense of respect for the lives they lived.
- 6:35Speaker 2: Ernie survived. Ernie was a lucky one. He was shot down.
- 6:40Speaker 2: He was imprisoned in Transylvania. A lot of people never
- 6:43Speaker 2: knew we had POWs locked up in Transylvania during World
- 6:46Speaker 2: War II. Ernie was a lucky one. But there were
- 6:49Speaker 2: guys on his crew. There were guys around him who
- 6:53Speaker 2: paid the ultimate sacrifice. They never grew older than 21
- 6:56Speaker 2: years old. They gave up all their future that we
- 7:00Speaker 2: get to enjoy. And it just strikes me as too
- 7:04Speaker 2: important to forget.
- 7:06Speaker 1: You know, what's really interesting about your writing is the
- 7:08Speaker 1: fact that, first of all, your opening pages, I don't
- 7:10Speaker 1: know if that was your editor's idea to do that,
- 7:12Speaker 1: where you completely, 100% set us up as readers so
- 7:16Speaker 1: that when we go into it, we have a better
- 7:18Speaker 1: identity of who it is we're going to be reading
- 7:20Speaker 1: about and the maps and everything like that. This is
- 7:23Speaker 1: very creative writing in setting us up.
- 7:29Speaker 2: Yeah, I like to give people the roadmap so that
- 7:34Speaker 2: In the back of your mind, you kind of know, okay,
- 7:36Speaker 2: this is a story about Ernie and that there's going
- 7:38Speaker 2: to be these other characters who come in. In this case,
- 7:42Speaker 2: we have a Romanian princess, Princess Karaja. 50-year-old amazing woman.
- 7:50Speaker 2: She ends up rescuing men from the wrecked bomber. We
- 7:53Speaker 2: follow 21-year-old King Michael of Romania, and he was a figurehead,
- 7:59Speaker 2: but he was secretly plotting to overthrow the dictator who
- 8:02Speaker 2: had taken over his country. to take his country back
- 8:06Speaker 2: and turn them away from Hitler. And we also follow
- 8:09Speaker 2: the princess's cousin, Constantine Cantacuzino, a Romanian prince who is
- 8:15Speaker 2: their country's number one fighter ace, shooting down enemy aircraft,
- 8:20Speaker 2: fighting on the wrong side, but secretly a fan of
- 8:24Speaker 2: the Americans, an Anglophile who wants to come to the
- 8:29Speaker 2: Allied side. And so I like to tell people, That,
- 8:34Speaker 2: you know, you're going to get to know Ernie, but
- 8:36Speaker 2: you're going to have this greater cast that's going to
- 8:38Speaker 2: come in. And to me, the introduction sets it all up.
- 8:42Speaker 2: That way, these people don't just come out of the blue.
- 8:44Speaker 2: In essence, you can enjoy it more. when you sort
- 8:47Speaker 2: of have a little glimpse of where you're headed.
- 8:49Speaker 1: Oh my God. I can just hear my preacher, Stephen
- 8:52Speaker 1: Furtick at Elevation Church, take this story and say, you
- 8:55Speaker 1: got to know who your enemy is and you got
- 8:58Speaker 1: to really get to know who they are because they
- 9:00Speaker 1: could save your life. There's so many stories here, dude,
- 9:03Speaker 1: that you could take and put in your own personal
- 9:05Speaker 1: life today.
- 9:09Speaker 2: Yes. And that's the core message of Tidal Wave. It's
- 9:14Speaker 2: that The enemy sometimes can be the person who in
- 9:18Speaker 2: this case would be your friend or who could be
- 9:21Speaker 2: your savior. Ernie and his crew had just bombed their country.
- 9:25Speaker 2: They destroyed their oil refineries. And yet Princess Catherine, King Michael,
- 9:30Speaker 2: and Buzz, Prince Cantacuzino, that was his nickname, these individuals
- 9:35Speaker 2: were able to look past their nationality and find their
- 9:39Speaker 2: common humanity. And they said, we know Romania is on
- 9:43Speaker 2: the wrong side here. How can we make the best
- 9:46Speaker 2: of this? And in the end, these three figures helped
- 9:50Speaker 2: a thousand American POWs survive and make it home. And
- 9:55Speaker 2: then the amazing part of this story is that Ernie
- 9:57Speaker 2: and his crew never forgot what Princess Catherine had done
- 10:02Speaker 2: for them. And after the war, they came back to
- 10:05Speaker 2: save her when she was in trouble.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Please don't move. We'll be right back with Adam Makos
- 10:10Speaker 1: talking about Tidal Wave. The name of his book, Tidal Wave,
- 10:14Speaker 1: The Pilots, Princess, and the Enemy Ace. We are back
- 10:18Speaker 1: with author and historian Adam Makos. You know, let's give
- 10:22Speaker 1: kudos to somebody who also gave you an opportunity to
- 10:24Speaker 1: find some inspiration, Mr. Frederick Smith. I mean, come on now.
- 10:27Speaker 1: I mean, he made it inside your book. We got
- 10:30Speaker 1: to talk about him as well.
- 10:31Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of the opening is dedicated to how
- 10:34Speaker 2: I found this story, because it's a common question. Where
- 10:36Speaker 2: did this come from? And when the reader goes into
- 10:39Speaker 2: it and they're able to picture where the story was born, well...
- 10:42Speaker 2: You're along for the journey from the beginning with me.
- 10:46Speaker 2: In this case, one of my books was being made
- 10:48Speaker 2: into a movie, Devotion. It was my Korean War story.
- 10:53Speaker 2: And about, yeah, two Navy fighter pilots who go off
- 10:56Speaker 2: and fight. And one is black, one is white. And
- 11:00Speaker 2: they form this bond at a time when America was
- 11:03Speaker 2: still racially divided. And so it's a powerful true story,
- 11:07Speaker 2: just like Tidal Wave is a true story. And I
- 11:10Speaker 2: was working with Mr. Smith, who was the founder of FedEx.
- 11:14Speaker 2: He was a Marine in the Vietnam War, came home,
- 11:17Speaker 2: started this amazing company. And it turned out he never
- 11:21Speaker 2: forgot the value of service and sacrifice. And so he
- 11:27Speaker 2: was making my book into a movie. And I went
- 11:30Speaker 2: to visit him and I said, okay, let's talk about devotion.
- 11:33Speaker 2: And he said, I want to tell you about a
- 11:35Speaker 2: different story. I found your next book. And he told
- 11:38Speaker 2: me the story of Ernie's bomber, the story of this
- 11:41Speaker 2: American crew shot down on the raid who are essentially
- 11:45Speaker 2: have to turn to the enemy. They just bomb to survive.
- 11:49Speaker 2: And he said they were rescued by a Romanian princess.
- 11:52Speaker 2: And at first arrow, I thought, oh, no, not a
- 11:55Speaker 2: Disney princess. I don't want to write a story like that.
- 11:59Speaker 2: But it turned out that. Right. Princess Catherine was a
- 12:04Speaker 2: cool kind of princess. You know, she's helping these guys
- 12:07Speaker 2: survive captivity when they're locked up in Transylvania. She vows
- 12:11Speaker 2: to help them make it home to their mothers. And
- 12:15Speaker 2: they never forgot her. And it formed a lifelong bond.
- 12:19Speaker 2: So Mr. Smith steered me to the story. But the
- 12:21Speaker 2: real win was when we found out Ernie was still
- 12:25Speaker 2: alive at age 97. And he was willing to talk.
- 12:29Speaker 1: What did his voice sound like? I mean, do we
- 12:31Speaker 1: get to listen to it? Is it part of the
- 12:34Speaker 1: audio side of it? Because I would love to just
- 12:36Speaker 1: hear the crackle in his voice and to hear that
- 12:39Speaker 1: man inside there that's still talking to his younger child self.
- 12:46Speaker 2: Ernie was, after the war, he was a colonel in
- 12:50Speaker 2: the Air Force. So he had an authoritarian sort of,
- 12:54Speaker 2: a tone of authority and confidence. So Ernie was a
- 12:58Speaker 2: man who said very few things, but when he said it,
- 13:00Speaker 2: he meant every single word that came out. So he
- 13:03Speaker 2: wasn't like me who just talks a lot. I mean,
- 13:05Speaker 2: every word out of his mouth was just pointed and
- 13:09Speaker 2: intelligent and thoughtful and the absolute perfect source because he
- 13:16Speaker 2: didn't embellish. He was very analytical and he broke down
- 13:21Speaker 2: the attack they made. what happened when he got shot down,
- 13:25Speaker 2: what it was like to be a POW in Transylvania
- 13:28Speaker 2: in very pragmatic terms. And then when it was time
- 13:31Speaker 2: for him to make an escape from this POW camp,
- 13:35Speaker 2: why he did it. And he would even admit things like,
- 13:38Speaker 2: you know, it was actually kind of insane. Because at
- 13:42Speaker 2: the time, you know, looking back at World War II,
- 13:45Speaker 2: we know how it ended. Oh, we're going to win. Okay,
- 13:49Speaker 2: everything's fine. In 1944, when Ernie and his guys are
- 13:53Speaker 2: in the path of the German army and they're afraid,
- 13:56Speaker 2: these Germans are going to come and take us back
- 13:58Speaker 2: to Germany with them. We have to try to escape.
- 14:01Speaker 2: We have to try to get out of here. Ernie
- 14:04Speaker 2: decided to break out from POW camp, and his story
- 14:08Speaker 2: could have ended so differently. What if he just broke
- 14:10Speaker 2: out and he ran into the woods and he got shot?
- 14:13Speaker 2: He got shot by somebody hunting in the woods. What
- 14:16Speaker 2: if he got shot by a German soldier? What if
- 14:18Speaker 2: his story just ended that day and nobody ever found
- 14:22Speaker 2: out what happened to him? So he went on to
- 14:25Speaker 2: this incredible moment where he will escape from an Axis
- 14:29Speaker 2: POW camp, one of two Americans known to escape during
- 14:33Speaker 2: World War II from a European POW camp. But we
- 14:37Speaker 2: all just take it for granted looking back. Oh, yeah,
- 14:39Speaker 2: there's Ernie. He's 97. He's telling me the story. Back then,
- 14:42Speaker 2: it could have ended so differently.
- 14:44Speaker 1: See, and it's books like this that I cherish so
- 14:47Speaker 1: much because we are not who we are today without
- 14:50Speaker 1: people like Ernie. If they did not take that sacrifice
- 14:53Speaker 1: and make it work. But I would still love to
- 14:55Speaker 1: know what it took for him to be able to
- 14:58Speaker 1: pull that energy from himself to do the escape, to
- 15:02Speaker 1: be able to share the story. Because I call this
- 15:04Speaker 1: a Dear Future Reader moment in the way that he
- 15:07Speaker 1: must have known that we right here in 2026 would
- 15:10Speaker 1: be talking about him.
- 15:15Speaker 2: That's a really good perspective. And that is why he
- 15:18Speaker 2: told me the story. When we went to him, he
- 15:21Speaker 2: was at an age where he didn't need to tell
- 15:23Speaker 2: the story. There was nothing. There was no fame to
- 15:25Speaker 2: come from it. You know, he lived a humble life,
- 15:27Speaker 2: a quiet life. As I often said, you know, these
- 15:30Speaker 2: guys didn't come back from captivity and say, oh, by
- 15:34Speaker 2: the way, when I crash landed that bomber, I did
- 15:36Speaker 2: a really good job and I saved this many guys
- 15:38Speaker 2: and I did this and I did that. Give me
- 15:41Speaker 2: a medal. They just went about their lives, went about
- 15:44Speaker 2: doing their jobs. But I think during the war, Ernie
- 15:48Speaker 2: knew they had survived an incredible raid. That was one
- 15:51Speaker 2: of his great hesitancies because when these guys said, let's
- 15:54Speaker 2: start digging a tunnel, let's try to break out from
- 15:57Speaker 2: our Romanian POW camp, Ernie said at first, well, we're
- 16:00Speaker 2: very lucky to be alive. We shouldn't be alive, guys.
- 16:04Speaker 2: We already beat the odds once that we survived this long.
- 16:09Speaker 2: Now we're going to go risk our lives again. And
- 16:10Speaker 2: he really had to think long and hard about participating
- 16:13Speaker 2: in that. It was the kind of guy he was.
- 16:16Speaker 2: He was a 22-year-old outdoorsman from Utah, shot his first
- 16:19Speaker 2: mountain lion when he was 12 years old. Ernie was
- 16:24Speaker 2: raised to kind of read the wind and to think
- 16:30Speaker 2: before he acted. And at the same time, when he
- 16:34Speaker 2: came home, he knew he had lived through something remarkable.
- 16:38Speaker 2: He wrote a memoir of his own. His crew wrote
- 16:40Speaker 2: the memoir. They all knew that they had just dodged
- 16:44Speaker 2: a bullet. They had beaten the odds so many times
- 16:48Speaker 2: over and they lived one of the great stories. They
- 16:50Speaker 2: wrote it down back then. And then they said, you
- 16:52Speaker 2: know what? Let's get on with our lives. We have
- 16:55Speaker 2: other things to do. We have families to raise. And
- 16:58Speaker 2: they went and they built the country that we've been
- 17:00Speaker 2: fortunate to enjoy.
- 17:02Speaker 1: Wow. We got to put this in perspective for the
- 17:04Speaker 1: listener because I want them to understand the importance of
- 17:06Speaker 1: that aircraft in World War II. Because, I mean, this
- 17:10Speaker 1: to me was the Internet of that generation in the
- 17:12Speaker 1: way that it because in World War II, sure, they
- 17:15Speaker 1: had them. It wasn't as big and as overused as
- 17:18Speaker 1: it was in World War II, these aircrafts. And so
- 17:20Speaker 1: to write this story, it puts us right there in
- 17:23Speaker 1: the center of a world changing because of the airplane
- 17:27Speaker 1: and these warplanes.
- 17:30Speaker 2: Yes, the B-24 bomber that Ernie flew was at the
- 17:33Speaker 2: time the latest technology America had. That's why this bomber
- 17:38Speaker 2: was chosen for the Ploiesti raid, the tidal wave raid,
- 17:41Speaker 2: because it could fly the farthest, it could carry the
- 17:44Speaker 2: most bombs, and it could go the fastest. It's still,
- 17:48Speaker 2: no matter how good your aircraft is, you're still in
- 17:52Speaker 2: a great danger when you're flying a 13-hour mission. You're
- 17:56Speaker 2: flying 2,100 miles. You're going without fighter escorts. And you're
- 18:00Speaker 2: going to bomb oil refineries at treetop level. That's what
- 18:05Speaker 2: they did. And Ernie and the guys, they did it
- 18:09Speaker 2: without question. It was the kind of thing that I
- 18:12Speaker 2: would think twice about today. They were given the chance
- 18:15Speaker 2: to bow out. The brass said, if anybody wants to
- 18:18Speaker 2: not go on this mission, we promise it will not
- 18:21Speaker 2: go in your file. You will not be recorded for cowardice. Essentially,
- 18:26Speaker 2: you could live to see another day. And instead, Ernie
- 18:29Speaker 2: and all these guys stepped forward and took off on
- 18:31Speaker 2: that mission. And Ernie's case, he didn't come back. He
- 18:35Speaker 2: spent a year in Romania, a POW in Transylvania.
- 18:40Speaker 1: We only have a few minutes here left. And I
- 18:43Speaker 1: have to ask you this personal question because you said
- 18:45Speaker 1: that Frederick Smith was part of the Vietnam War. And
- 18:47Speaker 1: it associates with something that happened to me over the weekend.
- 18:51Speaker 1: And that was a man came up to me and
- 18:52Speaker 1: I thanked him for being part of our nation, for
- 18:54Speaker 1: surviving with our nation. And he goes, yeah, I was
- 18:57Speaker 1: part of a war that people don't remember anymore. And
- 18:59Speaker 1: I thought, which one was that? And he goes, the
- 19:01Speaker 1: Vietnam War. And when you said Frederick was part of
- 19:04Speaker 1: the Vietnam War, I'm going, we've got to start talking
- 19:07Speaker 1: about this one again. I don't want to hear a
- 19:10Speaker 1: soldier that fought for this nation to say, I was
- 19:13Speaker 1: part of a war that you forgot about. No, no,
- 19:15Speaker 1: we haven't. Do you have any plans on doing anything
- 19:17Speaker 1: like that for the Vietnam War?
- 19:22Speaker 2: I absolutely do, and I absolutely agree with you. I
- 19:25Speaker 2: mean America should not have a forgotten war like Korea.
- 19:28Speaker 2: We shouldn't have a war that's too sensitive to discuss.
- 19:34Speaker 2: I mean what we did with the Vietnam, those young men,
- 19:36Speaker 2: we sent them to die in the jungle. It was
- 19:39Speaker 2: the first war I think that was a political war
- 19:41Speaker 2: where our politicians just said, oh, well, we want to
- 19:43Speaker 2: stand up against communists. We want to do this or that.
- 19:46Speaker 2: And they didn't give our guys the tools they needed
- 19:49Speaker 2: to win it. They didn't give them the free hand
- 19:52Speaker 2: to win it. And, you know, in a lot of ways,
- 19:54Speaker 2: it was the World War II generation that messed that
- 19:56Speaker 2: one up. They had a chance to do it right,
- 19:58Speaker 2: to learn everything about how to bring down an enemy.
- 20:01Speaker 2: And they sent our guys to fight with one arm
- 20:03Speaker 2: behind their back. And so I absolutely want to tell
- 20:07Speaker 2: a Vietnam story someday. Because those guys deserve justice so much.
- 20:13Speaker 2: Right now, I've just been focusing on World War II,
- 20:15Speaker 2: and it's because I've talked with the last survivors, the
- 20:20Speaker 2: last of the Mohicans. I mean, Ernie was the last man.
- 20:24Speaker 2: And so I still have a few years to tackle Vietnam.
- 20:27Speaker 2: finishing world war ii now.
- 20:29Speaker 1: Well you got to come back to this show anytime
- 20:31Speaker 1: in the future the door is always going to be
- 20:33Speaker 1: open for you i love these stories and it's because
- 20:36Speaker 1: of colonel oliver north who told me i'm not a
- 20:38Speaker 1: radio broadcaster until i start sharing the stories so i'm
- 20:41Speaker 1: blessed to have you on this show adam because you're
- 20:44Speaker 1: helping me achieve something that that oliver north told me
- 20:47Speaker 1: do it buddy that's your.
- 20:48Speaker 2: Job hey you run a great show arrow i've enjoyed
- 20:54Speaker 2: chatting with you. I mean, you make me think so.
- 20:57Speaker 2: Thank you for that.
- 20:58Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today? Okay, sir.
- 21:01Speaker 2: You too. Thank you for your time and for spreading
- 21:04Speaker 2: the word.