#348 Frank Wright - The Last Living Original Marine Raider From WW2

Let's be honest, everyone hates bank fees, right? Overdraft fees, monthly fees, fees for not keeping enough of your own money in your own account. It adds up fast and it's your money. That's where chime comes in. Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional banks that love to gatekeep the best rewards and pile on hidden fees unless you have a massive balance. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking, no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, no minimum balance fees. Here's what that looks like day-to-day. 5% cash back on your chime card in a category you pick like gas or groceries. You're building credit through regular everyday spending. No credit check. And if you're ever in a pinch, spot me, let's you overdraft up to $200 fee-free. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com/SRS. That is chime.com/SRS. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and chime card provided by Chime's bank partners, qualifying direct deposits required, terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com/disclosures for details. Mr. Frank Wright, welcome to the show. It's an honor to have you here. Thank you very kind. So I just found out before, right before we sat down that you are the last living original marine raider. That's correct. That's right. I understand now. That is incredible. I had a lot of friends. I have a lot of friends that are marine raiders and I have a deep deep spirit that I know they're going to love this interview. We were a good group. But good Lord says that he wants them on pearly gates. They got him. That's right. Well, let me start you off with an introduction. Mr. Frank Wright, you're a World War II marine veteran who joined the Marine Corps. It just aged 16 following the attack on Pearl Harbor, later serving with the fourth marine raider battalion, one of the Marine Corps's earliest special operations units. You found in some of the most pivotal, pivotal campaigns of the Pacific War, including Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Guam, and Iwo Jima, later serving with the 21st Marines. You're wounded multiple times in combat, including a devastating gunshot wound on Iwo Jima that tore your chest, lung, clavicle, and left arm ultimately earning you the Purple Heart. Among your other citations, Purple Heart with one star, presidential units citation with two stars, Navy unit, Commodation, American Campaign Medal, Asian Pacific Campaign Medal with three stars, Fleet Marine Force Combat Operations Exignia with four stars, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, Combat Action Ribbon with four stars, World War II Victory Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. After recovering from your combat wounds, you went on to serve as a Marine Corps drill instructor training the Dex Generation of Marines. After the war, you built a successful career and a family that now includes children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Later in life, you wrote battles in the Pacific to preserve your firsthand memories of the war and ensure the names and stories of the men you served alongside were never forgotten. You were married for 74 years, you're 101 years old. Most importantly, you're a Christian. Once again, welcome to the show and I'd like to start off by just saying thank you for your service. Thank you, sir. So you joined right after December 7th, 1941, when Pearl Harbor happened, correct? Can you talk a little bit about what it was like when Pearl Harbor happened? Well, first thing, I was sitting at the dining room table making airplanes out of balsa wood. In fact, it was a Walker V8, which what I was looking, I was working on. And I heard this news at first. I said, "Well, that's pretty sneaky, you know, doing something like that." But I didn't know where Pearl Harbor was. It was something out in the Pacific because I was all unnew and really cared for. But then later on, I found out what it actually meant when it was put on television. How old were you when you joined? 16. 16 years old. Yes. And they wouldn't take me. Why wouldn't they take you? I was too young, and I didn't weigh much. But I took care of that by having my aunt, which was my mother's sister, built out the laid birth certificate out of, and it was never certified. But the sergeant didn't care. He was recruiting sergeant. He wanted me. That was it. So he didn't care about that. And then, of course, the weight was concerned. I had gone home and bought five pounds of bananas and stuffed them in my blouse. And so I joined with five pounds of bananas in my blouse, really. How much did you weigh? Do you remember? No, I really don't. Do you remember? It was five pounds. Did it? That made me weigh enough to get in the service. And I still think that the recruiting sergeant fudged a little bit on his papers. But then, who was I to question his great authority he had. So, but anyway, that was one of the reasons that were, why did you pick the Marine Corps? The Marine Corps has a heck of a lot per year uniform, as you could see. And I thought that was a great, well, we call it a chick eater, a chick eater, a chick eater. Yeah. And my day, the girls were chicks. And I needed help, all the help I could get. Don't we all? So, but it got me in a lot of trouble a couple of times. So, but then, when I was stationed in time for Oregon, we had a bar that we used to go to. And one of the, and I was way too young to be drinking, but the guys passed me brandy underneath the table and stuff and so on. And doing so, one of the maybe guy, when I hate to really hate to say this, but the Navy and the Marines did not get longer good in 1941. So, we had problems on it and we, and why I don't know, but of course, I was going to join right in with the reason why. But I say it or came by and knocked my cover off my head. And I reached down and I picked it up and came up with my right fist and I decked it. And the fight was on. The Navy and the Marines both started fighting and stuff. And I was sitting down like that and something, somebody hit me on the shoulder on it. I turned around and just that turned around and the beer bottle would hit me right in the face. There was that cider that I knocked down. He got up and then he took a nice swing and hit me across. I still have a little scar on my beard earlier. Knocked me out, did wrestling guys on the table pulled me over and put me behind the bar and then they went on fighting as the show patrol came by and close the place down locked the door for the little Frank was still behind the bar and I stayed there and behind the bar out till about two in the morning and I woke up no one was around I tried to doors the doors locked I couldn't get out that way so I called the base got a whole one of the guys there had a car and they came over and picked me up put a shoulder to the front door got me up put me in the car and took me back to the base I don't think much has changed between the Navy and Marine Corps since then oh you don't think so I don't think so it's pretty much the same when I was at we didn't get along very well so what did you join the Marine Corps to do was there a specific job you had in mind that you wanted to do in the Marine Corps did you want to go I learned I'm going to be an airplane mechanic an airplane mechanic of course I was building airplanes and stuff and stuff and I had a lot of experience in that and so I joined up and asked for to be in the Air Force on the Marine Corps Air Force on it as a mechanic it did work out of course as I got to an airplane but when they took me in to and I saw him fly over that was about it because they said oh yeah we'll put you in the Air Force Marine Air Force so that was good enough for me Sergeant says that that's true but I never did get close to an airplane doing any work on them at all really and I'm still not that first in it I was a lot better fighting than I was how did you find out you were good at fighting he became a you wound up becoming a Marine Raider very early on how did they choose Marine Raiders the guy was that was ahead of the name was AH alum and he turned out to be my senior drill instructor he knew what I was and what I was capable of doing when when he was training so he put in his bid for me to be a Raider and I was this fourth one I think fourth one out of the whole company that was picked for Raider Battalion and turned out that Jimmy Roosevelt was my Raider officer the president's son president's son he was good and the one thing he said that kind of impressed me we were trained in boot camp to listen to our superiors of course Sergeant Allen was one of the reasons that I remember because he kind of impressed with his training methods too so but when Roosevelt came and contact with the fourth Marine Raiders the first word he said to us we're all hunts down on our butts and he says kill that's what I want you to remember kill we're not here to defend anything else but kill and says and I'll train you to make sure that you do that and you'll be able to do that and he was true every time that he trained us in something it was to kill him it wasn't any we didn't go for wounded or anything like that and we were taught to kill and and we did and we used that method that he taught us do you remember the method very definitely so what was it I like a killer guy and with two blows that's it that's all I needed I was able to break his nose I was able to break his star eggs on and I use that method that he taught us all the time that he was of course you know I'm not only at that time probably 16 or 17 you know I go to church that was not killed but not at the Colonel he was very adamant on it that that's what we were there for and that's what kept me alive going on some of the things that I was doing on it and I had to do so do you remember the first man you had to kill yes who was it out of the Japanese I guess it is I guess the Japs are a derogatory term but there's still Japs to me there are the enemy that's it how did you do it crossed up and just start use my hands kill him with his side in my hands like that cross his throat and only takes two two times to do it you come pretty pretty good at it it's impressive when they say you're gonna do that and you're gonna be able to you know kill a person that what do you when you don't want to but you're gonna do it self-proccipation anyway how old were you the first time you killed him at I think I was 17 17 years old yeah it was from the other guy was young as well and he was he was good but not quite good I've always used power banks especially when I'm traveling filming or running long days but most of them still leave you carrying extra cords adapters and wall blocks Ridge solves that problem in one clean setup with their five and one travel power bank you've got built-in cables mag safe wireless charging an Apple watch charger lightning and USB-C so everything you need to charge your device is built into one power bank with 20 watts of power and a 10,000 milliamp hour battery you can get up to three full phone charges wherever you go it also has an LED charge status indicator and an integrated kickstand so it's actually useful day-to-day and for gifting this makes a lot of sense a power bank is one of those gives people actually use especially if they travel work long days or are always running their phone down and because it's Ridge it feels like a real upgrade built to last free shipping 99 day risk free trial and backed by a lifetime warranty. Ready to get a head start on gifting? You can find Ridge's power bank at Best Buy and Amazon, or head to Ridge.com/SRS for Ridge's friends and family sale, where you can buy two Ridge power banks and get a third one free. That's Ridge.com/SRS. Shop smart this holiday season with Ridge. After you purchase, they'll ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Where is the first place that you deployed to? Our first place was on New Georgia. It was New Georgia. It was first combat right there. And I didn't, I didn't kill anybody there on it, but the boy sure learned a lot there, though, three. Not only myself, but some of the other guys that had gone through a lot. They got ambushed a couple of times, and I wasn't involved in it, but that was on New Georgia. There's really jungle fighting, and between tribes, different tribes, they had the the natives against the natives, and the pride of the native people there on New Georgia. If they had black hair on the lower part of their skull, and on the top of it is about a inch and a half, two inches red hair that grows out. And so they were considered between native groups to be the red head of native for a lot better. And we found, and I didn't go through there, but I found out how they killed and what they did on it. They cut their heads off from the run of soldiers, and placed them on the little statues inside of our small house. And these guys that went through the small house said, "God, it's stunk." From the steps, that's how the headhunters used the, as I said, they were. They scared them of one. I meant two. I couldn't see them cutting the heads off, and all that. They were headhunters. What were you guys doing in New Georgia? I wanted a tattoo myself. I went on my upper right arm, and I wanted to get the marine emblem on it, and it was against the rules, regulations, or we were not. And then they would repeat not to have any tattoos on our body at all, because it's Japanese. Favorite thing was to skin that tattoo off of your arm, shoulder, or wherever it was on it. And skin it, and use them for lampshades. I would cut off the tattoos. I didn't want my skin. Oh, and I wanted the sage, so I adhered to the rules and no tattoos. So I never did get a tattoo. Did you take fire coming ashore? No, in New Georgia. No, not on New Georgia. Now it came in free and clear, none, no fire at all, because it's a few elements in our group. I was one of the, one of the guys that didn't, and run the reason I didn't get any fire at that time, I think, was because we were kind of protected in a way, is the, for the first time that they had the boys and an aircraft, and aircraft, and I did, not the aircraft. Thanks. Yes, boys, boys and a tank rifle on it. 55 caliber. They laid down our covering fire for those in front of them. And we didn't have any fire at all coming in, because they wanted the, they being the Marine Corps wanted to know more about the annotate rifle. We were the first ones to put the annotate rifle in combat, and they wanted to see what we could do. We had five guys in my squad on myself and Floormore. So I, I'm one of the first Marines that had a, and a tank rifle. Wow, it's 56 caliber. And as I say, it was, it was, it was very good, but it was real heavy, and it took two other guys to carry the ammunition for it. I had the opportunity to fire, fired in combat, but I didn't hit anything, because you know, we had no tanks there. Could you see what you were firing at in the jungle? Yeah, you could. You could see that. I knew what it was, and we knew the vulnerable places to fire. What were you firing at? We were firing at the first track. And he hit that track, hit that track, and then knocked it off the, the, where did it go? Tank, out of the tank. What were you doing at Guadalcanal? Guadalcanal? We were first on the way to Guadalcanal. We were instructed to, that we were there for safety to the troops that were fighting there. So they didn't have any, they didn't have to stand guard or anything like that after they were attacked or after they attacked Henderson Field, and I think our orders read the stand guard on Henderson Field. Do you remember clearing enemy positions in hunting holdouts with Major James Roosevelt? Well, there was one there, but it held out for a long time, a couple of years, I'd say they were, but anyway, we had, we had some that were in coconut trees, and then we got a Japanese cocked two squads of marines going through the coconut grove, and they didn't have a good scout, scouts missed the ones that were in the deficits that were in coconut trees, and they ran into a good, a good number of kids that were killed, and that, of course, they all started far away at one time, and our chaplain could come over there, and he wanted to give those guys that were caught in this trap, I guess that the Japanese had set on and anyway I heard all of this commotion so I told my squad that they're still there on landy hang in there and stay good and fire when you need to do it and whatever you need. I'm going to see what all that firing is so I went down the road a little bit further and I came in contact with some Marines that were had gotten and really running away from that particular trap that the Japs had set up and the Chaplain got all of me and he said to turn these guys over and so I can read the rights, barrel rights or whatever they call it on and so I did I'd turn several of them over and see their faces anyway. Maybe one of the guys I recognized that turned them over and he was dead and that shook me up quite a lot because the Chaplain read them I think it's called. He turned the pay, read the rights to them. I couldn't take any more of that, that was too close to home. I stopped and of course he stopped, he had been alright. I guess there's something in there creed that they can't, but you have to see their face to give them the rights I don't know but anyway read that's what had happened there and the next day we went out in our group in Brunner Canal and we got caught in the same position, same head, two guys that were killed out of our 21st Marines and that was a hard, that was hard to take and that's really the first time I'd seen dead guys that were, that I'd knew. They were your friends? Yes, well not close friends but they were known to me. They were friends, we played cards as if like that again or so. But they are good at camouflage, the Japanese are excellent in that particular field. In fact the commander of the, of all four raiders made that recommendation to the warlords that whoever it is that one of the things that we had that the Marines had to be taught and boot kept on out to camouflage yourself better because that was, and it's kind of the thing that we had to do ourselves on it but they were, they were good at it, real good at it. Let's go back to Guam, do you remember, do you want to talk about the first time we landed on the beach in Guam? Yes, what was that like? I was scared. Why were you scared? I was scared. We had, we had, they were shooting at us and I didn't get wounded there on it was next day after that first landing on it but I was scared really because it, when you look at those people and, and then you start thinking, you know, this is, this is what they are released from all their tyranny that they've had before on it, and that was later on they had a lot of caves up against the area that we landed and the Navy was firing at those caves. They were in there, that was one of the things that, on my second trip to Guam I was able to go over there and, and see, and that was close for the, for the Navy had really sheltered the landing area, where we had landed, that was good, all right, we stood in, I, I was able to, on my second trip there, I was able to go in there and, and actually see the entrance of those, of those particular caves on it. We had a lot of, a lot of ships, a lot of ships there in the tanks, Japanese tanks came down the hill from Ahton and, just as the tank battalion was landing and so they were not able to, our troops were, our tanks were not able to get up there fast enough. Because the ships were coming down and the ships were following the tanks right behind them and, this is a got down toward where we were being brought, they jumped out from behind the tanks and, came in the attack, that's just where we were being brought on it. Someone ran past us, went, went on further down to the headquarters company and tanks they were coming in and then some of them stayed there to fight, to fight those guys behind, just gotten out of the box holes and, I started fighting them as it came down. There was 400 of them, plus, yes, a lot of. And I, I got one, was a little feisty on it guy and got a hold of him and that boy was ahead and off. Anyway, he started charging me and then I, I jumped out of the way of his charge the first time, the second time on it, then I went and fasted up and, I stepped backwards. So, for me, for me, for me, dug our box holes on it, we dug them and piled a dirt up around me on the outside of it, like a burr on it and, as I was going backwards through a lot of trip, I fell, this is, I fell, it jumped, the lungs and it stuck me on the stomach, because I was bad at, and I fell down backwards on it and my neighbor, that's two of me on it. I don't know, he was shot him or, or whatever and the jet fell down on top of me and I was in a barbed soul, and he fell down on top of me on it, and as he fell down my hand, as Thanks very much for watching and I'll see you next time! hand went out and I hit my gun hole knife that was that I had been using to dig into the dirt and recognized it and I pulled it at my hand that I pulled it out and all my sitting and swapping and I cut his head his throat and he started bleeding all over me and all over the place on it and he was a he's a little heavy I could move him so I had just hole in my stomach and that was beginning to hurt so where did the hole in your stomach come from? Did he stab you? Yes he gets stabbed me with his bandit and you kept fighting in the top four of my stomach like that and as he went down I turned everything and it turned the blade turned and it went in on a slant and it hurt so he just stayed there on there I think that of course died on laid on top of me we got and I guess the guy that shot him yelled something out that out I don't know why it was I mean I got it before you're right or something like that he saved you now he did he really did he either shot him or stabbed him or something I don't know how it was but it was better I cut his head off and I didn't cut it off I just swiped it across and but anyway it was enough to bleed so he bled lately and then in that evening that night whatever it was I kept bleeding next morning they tried to count all of the people that were wounded and things like me finally they saw me then I was yelling and hollering and to get that bastard off of my stomach and they pulled him off and he was dead and he got me out of what it was on that it really wasn't that deep on it because it was as it said a turn this is it I felt on it and he felt it was it it was I was more scared than then then then I was hurt they called me pulled me out and of course I had all kinds of blood on me my blood and his blood so I went up there and I yelled over for the Corman coming the Corman which came over and it cleaned me up to see that it wasn't a real deep cut and so he put a big piece of tape on it and pulled it together that's how I I stayed and that's why I didn't go in any further than that aid station there there were guys that were a lot worse than me right let's take a quick break if you've ever been in another country and couldn't communicate the way you wanted to you know how frustrating that can be you can know where you're trying to go know what you want to order and still feel stuck because you don't have the words that language barrier changes the whole experience my team and I had this problem when traveling internationally for interviews so to solve that we started using babble babble is built around real-life conversation not random vocabulary lists or endless grammar drills these are the words and phrases you'd actually use with a real person in a real place and babble gets you there faster than you'd think people who use it just 10 minutes a day can start having real conversations in a new language in as little as three weeks it's designed by more than 200 language experts so what you're learning is what people actually say not what they wrote in a textbook 30 years ago and it fits into real life a coffee break a commute 10 minutes before bed babble's bite-sized lessons work around your schedule that's why babble has sold more than 25 million subscriptions and carries a 14 day money back guarantee start learning a new language today with babble right now listeners can save up to 60% off at babble.com/srs that's babble b-a-b-b-e-l.com/srs for up to 60% off rules and restrictions may apply all right Frank we're getting into you wanted to talk about your second trip to Guam yes the governor of Guam and invited me to come to them on a reunion as if they had a group they wanted me to be the grand marshal of the parade that they were having and I was able to see some of the people that were and that we released from prison this is after the war this is afterwards this is way afterwards how did it feel being back there oh it was good really good on I was able to retrace the landing area retrace the steps that I had taken on Guam the first time on and it meant a lot to me later that evening I was able to go to a necklace thing really curl a house for snacks and stuff and we walked out to the to the edge of the hill that we had climbed the first time on it we walked out and I was able to look over the hill at at the hill that we climbed up on it and we dug our our first fox hole there I was able to stand on the same spot that I was able to it looked the same did it look the same no looks different green had more green to it and stuff you know I stuff but but it was there and it was just so real on seeing those there was areas that we came in on then when we got up there before this is before I'm going to release the prisoners on it and the prisoners would come out on like that and take our hands and now if you want to see what freedom looks like you look into the eyes of those who survived it. And they were treated so horribly, but to look in their eyes on it when they hugged. And well, away from here, look down into the special little fellers. You can see their eyes and it reflects hope, freedom from tyranny and everything like that. They had furnished this hotel on Hilton Hotel on River on the 12th floor. And Martin and our photographer were there. They came over to our room and they woke me up. It says, "Frank, I want you to see this." So Martin pulled me out on the patio deck out there and see the sunrise. And see the sunrise on there just out of this world on it. And it started making me talk and say what was in my heart. And so I gave a little speech there. I was standing in my shorts. They were still filming me. But I looked over this side and there's two dorms down on the bottom of the. They were just standing there, just sitting there on their haunches and looking up toward me. And I was talking. And I had to see this beautiful sunset sunrise. And a flock of butterflies came there from underneath the balcony where I was standing. And it started coming up as a flock right in front of me. And what do you think that was? Just like they were standing and listening in terms. And I said, "You can't photograph that feeling." But it was so real. And seeing this butterflies as a group. It flew up right in front of us. And they got it on a film, I think. And they just disappeared. And they were down below, there were two dogs out. And I just got carried away. It was emotional. Didn't later on. We're in the parade. Now it's a leading parade. And the governor came down to the parade. And she stopped the parade. Came over and shook hands with me and thanked me for coming over and all that. And I think the butterflies threw right in front of me and her and put it over there. And then they disappeared. And she said her thing. She presented me with a t-shirt. And she called me Liberator Frank. And it shook hands with me. Well, we're going to have another meeting later on. But to go back, go back into the past and sing all those people that had been in prison. And the nicest of these is that the Romanian showed, especially the Samarro's great people. The Samarro's used to get over us and they did bring a war canoe over and take a squad of us back in the back jungle. Way back there. That's when we saw those places where they had had hunters and stuff. And then we'd get a little bit further on and deeper and deeper. And we'd come across places that they could smell the food that the Japs were building that they weren't going. Japs had going back and further back on it. And it's pulled it in. Let the guys out. We all went out in there looking for those people that were that were the Japs that were cooking that meat or whatever it was that they were cooking on it. The Samarro's could smell it more so than we. You weren't looking for them? Yeah, we were really looking for those holdouts that were back there and about. And we could hear them more so when they would yell at each other that we were coming or something. Did you find them? We found a lot of Japanese that had committed Harry Carey. What is Harry Carey? A self-destruct that could call it, on it? With the sword? He. And they have a ritual that they go through to stick a dial in their stomach and they can't face it. It can't face defeat. It can't face what we're doing. Have you seen them? Yes. Do it? No, not see them. I didn't see what the results were. We saw it afterwards. When we come through there, we see a lot of the officers on their hands would be still clutched to their sword. If some officer hadn't gone by that first and taken the dagger out and used it for a souvenir. And they usually. The officers usually got the better part. But I wanted to. I wanted to let the audience know that freedom is something other than the plain words. If you look at their eyes and you see it, then you know what freedom is and what it looks like. If you ever heard the, the saying, it. Freedom those who fought for it as a flavor of the protective will never know. That's a good saying. I never heard it before, but that's a good saying. How do you remember you, old Jima? We trained, I think it was eight months from the time that we were through with Guam. First it was, we got a little flack and stuff and bombs and different kind of ammunition thrown at us at our landing that we had not been forced with before and we didn't face it. Now now this is entirely different. The landing was different, everything was different that the ground cover was, you couldn't walk on it hardly because it was full of, more like the rocks, small rocks and I'm reheaded for a place that we could stand and hide and out of sight from the guys that were on lookouts. This little building up on the right had a lot of cans and stuff like that and I told the new recruits, I had two new recruits with me. Then there was a B.A. Robin, young, there was a scout and they joined my group, my group. I told the guys, they said, "When you get off, get off on the left side. You're that building up there, there's a spotter and it's got a gun and it can shoot you. Use the LST or the Haken's boat, whichever one you're on. Use it as a protection. Get off on the other side." Two of the guys, they got scared, the first thing, they jumped up on the right hand side and they got shot. Both of them got shot in the legs. Thank goodness we had our medical people. They were able to get them. They would jump off also and banage them up at that time and tell them they were way here and get undercover. They stayed there and evidently they did survive because I didn't see them anymore though, but they did survive. We started moving all those rocks and boulders, really. Where did you go after you landed on the beach? I had a good spot for it, but I got hit in the head with something. I don't know if it was a shell or a board, but I got knocked out. I heard a lot of yelling and howling and hooping and stuff like that. That worked me up. Came out of my stupe or just. That was on the 23rd February. That's when they raised the flag with a couple of new regime. I got up in time to see it. The second flag. I didn't see the first flag. The second flag. You were able to see it. We thought the war was over. The flag went up. We went all that. The jets did the same thing. They said they had one. They were hooping in Harlem because that was their troops that fell in a hill on 28th Marines. They were up on a hill. The other ones actually did the raise on 28th of the fifth Marine. Then we got ready to go. As we were going, then further on up the ridge there, but then the jets realized that it was our troops up on the hill that were raising the flag, not them. They all started running back into their caves and to their places that they had been hiding before. We were following this much as we could. There were several people who went off on their own with a flame thrower. Did you ever go off on your own? No. I always followed my scout. My scout's job was to locate him first. I gave him a person a job, then he did it. I knew that he would have done it. I didn't. My B.A.R.man was the same way. I gave him a job to do. He did it. He did it right. He was the best B.A.R.man I had taken a 21st Marine. My penny. When you were not unconscious, when you got knocked out. Yes. Did you take another helmet? That was something. I don't know why it was. If it was around or if it was a piece of rock boulder or something like that. They were throwing a different type of ammo at us at that time. We were all in a big hole. I guess we could be called. Did you lose your helmet? Yes. You did. Not the helmet at that time. I got a helmet. Did you get a new helmet? Yes, from the equipment all over the place. I don't know why it was or anything. You just picked one up there. I just picked it up and fit. That's where it stayed. I didn't need it at any other time on it, too. I fought with my hands a lot. You fought with your hands? Yeah. In Evil Jemos specifically? Yeah. Same thing. It was that close? It's really habit to get into the point. It's just a habit to do. Actually, I was getting laid with your left or whatever. It's a habit to get into when you're doing something that works the first time you try to do it. I didn't get a chance to do that on Evil. How close were you? Well, we were the fifth, I think, the fifth time to take that hill five times. Yeah. There's a fifth time on it. Going up there and we'd go up there and it'd fight by that and the order would be to retreat. So we'd retreat, go back down there and that would be on the third, the second, second of March. And that's where it. Chris Pratt is back as James Reese in the prime original series, the terminal list. Season two based on Jack Carr's true believer. The season picks up nine months after Reese finishes his vendetta. He's hiding out in Mozambique when the The CIA pulls him back in for one final mission. Track down the terrorists behind a wave of attacks across the West. That mission takes him through Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. And along the way, he reconnects with brothers he thought he'd left behind. But here's what I respect about this series. They've brought in people who actually lived that life to help tell the story. Seventeen military veterans worked on this season, both in front of and behind the camera. That car and former Navy SEAL Raymond Doza were part of that team. With veterans working as writers, directors, technical advisors, and cast members. That matters, especially when telling a story about service and the people who carry that experience with them. There's plenty of action, but what's at the center of it is loyalty, sacrifice, family, and that bond with the guys you served alongside. It doesn't go away because your service ends. Watch the Terminalist Season 2 on October 21st only on Prime. Did you get shot in Iwo Jima? Yeah. Where? I got Michigan across my chest. The guy that shot me, he ran back into his heel box. Got a hold of the Nambu 25, 25 caliber, and just as I was coming over the hill, I had two corpsmen behind me and we were carrying an extra ammo for the BARmen. And just as I came over the hill, then the guy that ran into the heel box, he grabbed it and opened the fire, he fired the first round across my chest. The first two rounds went together and went through my upper right and side of the chest. Went through a crack in our pappacle, pappacle, crossed my lungs. It came out on my left side on a, left to big hole on my left side on it, as the rounds went through on it. And as it came out, I had raised my arm up to fire and this is dead in the rounds. The last rounds went through the muscle of my left arm and took the hole of the muscle out of my left arm and went somewhere. Then I went down and as I went down, the two corpsmen behind me had grabbed the hole of my pack strips and they pulled me back and then one of them pulled me down into a shell hole right below where I had just come from. I was there for not too long, but then about that time, there comes my corps, my BARmen. He had a hangar need that had gone off in his back toward his back and the hangar need throughout a lot of shells on it. The recruits stayed off of his back and he had, I don't know, hundreds or maybe from all these muscles that came from that hangar they didn't do his back, the shrapnel. He was shrapnel hot type and he came in so they told him and guided him down into the shell hole where I was and while we were in there were the jabs were up on top of the hill, dropping off hangar needs and stuff like that into the shell hole on it. About that time he was coming down and he said, right, you know this is, I could get hurt down here, this, can you walk or just, yes I can walk but I have to have someone hold on for me and he said, well let's walk, so we'll go back to the age station on it because I got a whole bunch of hole in my back so I grabbed hole over one of his arms and we started back walking back everywhere, like going back to the third division age station which was just on the other side of airfield number two and we saw, not that time we saw airplane coming down over there right above us and boy that thing is big, it didn't land but it wasn't big, so it went on to another field which was number one field, we had passed number two already, I did that on an area across the field, airfield number two, I led my, me and my squad led the 21st Marines across airfield number two until we came to the sulfur pits, the sulfur pits on the west side of the airfield number two and that's where we got into a little trouble with a lot of field barges there, just on the other side because we had been chasing them all across the airfield, finally caught up with them there, we had one hell of a fight there, Valerie, we cleaned them out, how did you clean them out, we cleaned all of the japs out of the sulfur pits, the japs had kidnapped from different islands that they had been there and they had kidnapped a lot of younger boys, younger men, to gave you sulfur pits on them because that was Ewa Gima's main supplier of sulfur to the Tokyo and we chased them out and they went and on those that we didn't kill they went to went over to hill two twenty seven which was the Mona Yamma called Mona Yamma village and chased them over to there and they were using Mona Yamma airfield two twenty seven as a spotter for the radio station which was Ewa Gima's radio station which was shown two twenty eight if it was and the radio station would be broadcasting what was going on that we were that they had been chased over there and they were they were spotters for the for the other caves that were on the the island so this general that had compostated us told us to follow him and his orders the major generals orders were to clear clear kill and maintain everything every eleven thing would be to narrow language were to be killed so that's what we did It's only one way of doing it, the clear cup, as we called it, was to go down in the path along the further Japanese had made a path all the way down from top to bottom, was to run down and throw hand grenades into the windows and kill everything that was in there. And that's what we did. Boys, girls, women, they all went content disturb. We cleared them all out of there. We went back up to the, up through the area that we had just tossed our hangar nades into and see what we had done. And if there's any live ones in there yet, if they were, what would shoot them? And we got it in there, we got it really bad. Sort of women were in there, they killed them. Boys, they were killed. But it was a clear cut, that we were all just getting rid of them. But we did. And we got up to the top on like that, and then we had the 228, they do the same thing to over this kind of like a neighbor area. And we had to take them the same way. My B.A.R. went inside with his B.A.R. He liberated, he liquidated everything that was alive. And then it then got rid of all the radios that were on the shelves and stuff, which was a lot on it. They were using low powered radios to broadcast what those kids and, and B.A.R. had seen on the airfield and stuff. How did you leave the old G.M.A.? It was terrible. Anyway, we couldn't do us out. And it kind of was going off of the, off of the hill before we got into the 283, 382, that was when I got shot. Anyway, we went through that same way. And all the women that were killed and stuff. I think, my own opinion on it. Japanese used the women as, they called them comfort girls. I say, after we took two of those hills, I say our officers, head officers, took them as comfort girls. I think that's the reason that, that's one of the reasons, but it that way, that we had in you, but they called clear cut. They were then dead as well. That's not, and that was a good thing. But they run in life, which is the Japanese have apologized for kidnapping all the guys and, and stuff. You have to apologize for getting all those boys and stuff, didn't have any of them and the women, but they have not, or if they have not apologized for kidnapping the women, they use as comfort girls. That's still on the docket. They have apologized, now for just the boys and the men that they used for spies or reports of what we want to call it's plus the other things. And I think that's one of the reasons it was ordered to kill them all, clear cut. On one of them we found a, as we was going through, that my B.A.R. man found one of the guys, somebody was trying to crawl out of the, one of the caves, on the bottom of the caves. So he just, he just shot off about four or five rounds and found it, found out that that was the guy in his girlfriend, her digging himself out of the bottom of one of those caves and he shot him. Now you know, that happens all the time and I'm very opposed to it, very opposed to it. And I was quiet in balance. I was given, I was given an interview or a paper on Hathens. I'm a, A.R. Jeanne was Hathens when one of the things that we were asked to do. We went back to the A.R. Jeanne. We were asked to describe who we had done. And at the time it was still, I was still emotional, tied to that second period of time and that time when I was, and I broke down and it started crying. And I told that so I'm not a person. He said, "Well, I want to know how are you shot?" I said, "Well, hell, man, I said, how is anybody shot?" So I want to tell you about how I got shot and why. And he wouldn't let me. He kept buzzing me on it and buzzing me on it. By the way, I just couldn't take it in long enough so I stopped in tears and cried. Marvin was a, he was a, oh, wave, but he was, he was close by, he started to come over and get me to pull me away from that period of time. And I said, "Oh, I just couldn't help it." So he was, he was, he was, he was. I'm picky with I wear because I wear it every day. If it's heavy, slides around, feels cheap, or gets annoying after an hour, I'm dumb with it. Like Roku, I've been wearing these lock hearts and prescription readers and the first thing I noticed is the fit. They're lightweight, they stay in place, and they're comfortable enough to wear all day. And it's not just their prescription I wear, I'm also a fan of their wind-down line, which they developed with my friend, Dr. Andrew Huberman, to promote better sleep and recovery. Roku was born in Austin, Texas. An American designed with zero shortcuts. Their I wear is built for people who are actually using what they buy. Whether you're training, traveling, working, or sitting down to record a podcast. The optics are razor sharp, there's no glare, and I'm not constantly adjusting them like I am with cheap glasses. And I like that Roku does not look overbuilt. It performs like real gear, but still looks clean enough to wear every day. And if you're outfitting a law enforcement unit, military team, or looking for corporate gifts for your team, they'll actually like Roku as wholesale partnerships too. If you're looking for I wear that offers protection, comfort, and performance, Roku is it. Ready to upgrade your I wear? Check them out for yourself at roka.com and use code SRS for 20% off-site-wide at checkout. That's roka.com code SRS. What was it like when you came home? After I got shot, they pulled me over to he and I were, he and P-A-R, and he walked back to the age station, and we got back to the age station, aren't that good, and I went high. Me and I were together, and we stayed together until five. They were looking for all the ambulatory, which he was ambulatory on, and I was too, but of course that, but I couldn't do without help. So he took off and he went back on board hospital ship, and I went back on hospital ship on and I got on, they laid, they put me on a gurney and put me over to the hospital ship. I got laid down on the hospital ship and kept waiting for my time to go into the surgery room, and there's two doctors in the surgery room. I got in, they looked at my arm, and that was the only thing that was showing too much to my arm, because all the muscles were gone, I was shot out, and so one doctor said, "Well, we're going to have to take it off, and we can use it better with our official arm." It woke me up, so he started to grab him for the saw, to cut my arm off, but at that time I woke up really good, and I gave him a right cut, and through his throat I was going to kill him, and he jumped back, and I hit him knocked him across the room, knocked over the surgical tray, and at that time two guards came in, and they got a hole on me on both sides, and they started to knock, and I kept yelling, "I could cut it, you're not going to cut it." So, funny, he said, "That's ours, it's a couple," or whatever it was at that time, and he said, "We won't cut your arm off," and so that just saw me down a little bit, and so I thought it was pretty good that way, but he said, "Ben, it's arrested my chest step, and I had still had my clever core that was still bleeding, I guess." Anyway, he put me back on the journey on the gurney, and put me back down for the guy, so I figured, "Well, let's take care of that," but about that time I looked at my tag, say, "Whenever you get wounded or something like that, and I beat in a. cormon takes care of you, he puts down what he did," you know, he gave me a shot of morphine, or two, or whatever it was, and it bandaged it up and all that, and then that way the next person that sees you, they know they can just look at that and see what it is, and what's happened, and what they did, so you don't get over medicated it, so I looked at it, and I looked at my tag, and I thought I was going to see GSW's gunshot going, the right chest and left chest, but all that said it was combat fatigue. That was it. I said, "Well, hell, that shouldn't be," you know. Anyway, four other dark, four other hospitals. They put me back on a hospital ship, and I went back over to Sipan and went to another place, and then Bonnie went over to Honolulu on an army doctor, but all they would do, they'd take me off my gurney and put me on a deck, and then look at my car, this is combat fatigue. Well, move him over there with the other nuts, and then hit me up, put me over there with him, and I did a four different, four other different hospitals that didn't. SBA, or anything, they just look at the card, and that's what it said, combat fatigue. So they put me in the wrong, no ward, I got into the ward, the long, wrong, long ward on four or five times a month, and finally they gave me in to the, to the nut ward, they called it, and the night we went on, because it was getting dark for that time, and I thought, I thought it had been, it had peed in bed, or something, because I was getting a limb, or it was getting kind of warm and liquid, so I yelled for the light nurse, she came over, I pulled the covers back and then saw what was going on and she put the covers back on top of me and went in there and he got a doctor and came back. And he had said previously that he was going to perform a tap because he could, with a stethoscope, he could hear the water or whatever in my chest. So he wanted to perform a tap, that tap meant that he had to stick after I asked for a nurses of what it was and he said he'd stick a needle in your back or your front, be going to your chest and drain all the liquid out of your chest. So I said well that would be pretty good, I don't know if that, but it would hurt like that. Anyway, I came over and they pulled the covers off of me and I was laying there in blood. I was laying in the water or urine. My chest had rained out and I was laying there in blood from this shot in a check in my clavicle or rubber gloves or whatever and they put something in there and he's cleaned it off, cleaned it out and he said well we won't perform a tap on it. So he didn't, but no one has checked my chest since I left the regimen. I have fluid, I have blood, I should say, in my stool and I keep trying to tell him that he anything but blood, check it, I won't listen to him, they still haven't listened to me. I was in two weeks ago and they all say no he has, you have blood in your stool, I says damn it, look at my chest, well that's another department. So I'm still sitting there with, I have to wear diaper because of that, I still got blood in my stool, I said why don't they check my chest? Oh, that's where I'm sitting, I still got horses and of course that they break down I had and before I went in for the final one, there's another thing too, right, what a drink. Thank you, I should take a drink. Jerson, do you have a message for young Marines today? The last time I talked to their young Marines, I was with one time, do you, I was in an air field office, waiting to go aboard, playing and there's a lot of young kids that came over and we were all standing in the line, their commander was taking them to a place and I told them I said, one thing remember, always do what your D.I. or your trainer is doing or you, they've been there, they've done that, don't put that aside but remember remember what your D.I. says on it, I did that for one reason because I was a drill instructor for six months a month for your tour and I wanted to know that that's what I told my kids, that's what their D.I. usually tells them, remember what they said on it, they train you, they've been there, they know how to handle themselves, listen to them, tell them to all of everyone that I've seen so far. What message do you have for Marines that are seeking help? They're looking for help, well I'll tell you, they're again, listen to the patient, patient knows his body, I knew something was wrong but of course I can't tell them that and it's hard and it's hard when you're trying to keep your cool and tell a doctor or an officer, he's wrong, you just don't do that in the Marine Corps. I have a quote here from you, it says if you need help, seek it out. Oh yeah, God's here, so take it yourself son, seek help, ask someone, let the difference who it is, but tell someone and let them know what you feel and how you feel, they can tell, some of them can tell, but tell somebody, do it yourself, God gave you a good body and he's going to keep it tomorrow, Frank, I just want to say it was an honor to interview you and thank you for your service, seriously, it was my honor, thank you, thank you, thank you for your service, thank you, God bless. No matter where you're watching the Sean Ryan show from, if you get anything out of this at all, anything, please like, comment and subscribe and most importantly, share this everywhere you possibly can and if you're feeling extra generous, head to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review.