WEBVTT

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In 2013 , I was uh operating on F

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Gosney , which had been chosen to be

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closed uh for our drawdown at that time .

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Uh Unfortunately , for us , the Taliban

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um heard that rumor also . And so they

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decided to conduct a spectacular attack

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on the camp . They uh positioned a , a

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cement truck with 4 to £5000 of

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explosives in it detonated it and then

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had uh 10 to 15 assaulters uh move

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through that breach . We uh pulled up

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right in the middle of , of , of their

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orp . Um And almost everybody was

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wounded except for me uh instantly and

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I , you know , pulled my rifle out , uh

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started to engage the enemy , fired one

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round and it jammed . Um At that point ,

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honestly , I didn't think I had a lot

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to contribute left of the battle

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because I was staring at about five

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people uh down their muzzles . Uh So I ,

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I pulled my pistol and tried to buy as

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much time as I could . And when I ran

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that ammunition , uh the nearest

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fighter um sprinted toward me trying to ,

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to detonate his suicide vest um on me

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and I luckily I practiced reloading a

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lot more than he practiced sprinting .

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Uh So I got my rifle back up , uh

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killed him also detonating his vest .

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Uh Which didn't do me a whole lot of

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good . Uh It was worse for him though

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and , uh , you know , started , uh

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fighting back to my feet as the

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insurgents behind him were trying to

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maneuver on me as I was down , uh

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killed one more , suppressed the rest

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of them and uh then ran out of ammo

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again . Um So I ran back to the corner

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where I left , uh , left my buddies .

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Uh They'd kind of shaken off their

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wounds and we link back up and pushed

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back into that force and , and

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eliminated them . My training

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ultimately led me to be very successful

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on the battlefield . I have no doubt or

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illusions that without the high level

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training and equipment that I got from

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the Marine Corps and the army , I would

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not have been successful at any point

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in my career , especially earning the

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medal of honor . All the tasks that led

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me to be successful during that

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engagement were basic infantry tasks

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that I just perfected over my time in

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the military and my time in special

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forces ,

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I didn't learn anything new from

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getting the medal of honor . You know ,

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people defer to my judgment a lot more

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than they should . Uh And then on the

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other hand , I've been respected in an

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organization that's elite , has always

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been fairly humbling experience for me .