[Music] This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. All right, guys. We got a very special guest on the podcast today. His name is Colonel Paris Davis. So he is a retired and highly decorated veteran of the United States Army Special Forces, otherwise known as the Green Berets. He served in Korea and then he saw combat during the Vietnam War. So he was first nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1965 after the battle in Ben Dean Province. It was Bong in Vietnam. And he was not awarded the medal until March 3rd of 2023. So, he's the author of the new book that I've got right here, Every Weapon I Had, a Vietnam Vet's long road to the Medal of Honor. And so, the thing about this interview today is, you know, you're talking to a guy that has seen some incredible things, and you've got this super detailed autobiography where he gets into his upbringing, how he, you know, goes to school and then he gets into the military and kind of what these deployments look like. And we just couldn't get to all of it. I mean, I had so many questions for him and we just didn't really have the time today. And there is just, you know, as an aside, there is a mild explicit language warning, especially towards the end. So for anyone listening with little ears, just keep that in mind. But the thing with uh Colonel Davis that I thought was so interesting is especially, you know, middle to the end of the interview, you can see he's going off on a lot of diet tribes about a lot of different subjects because you can see he's just firing and thinking of this story and how it attaches to this story now attaches to that story. But it was easy for me to follow because I've read the book. So, this might be one where you actually read the book uh a little bit or you know go through the book every weapon I had before you actually listen to this interview. But we do get into the exact mission where he ended up saving three people off the battlefield whenever his commanding officer had commanded him to leave the battlefield. So, he went against his commander's wishes to stay on the battlefield to save three men. And it was those actions that he did that uh you know led to him eventually getting the Medal of Honor. And in the book, it goes into all the detail about, you know, kind of what happened to his Medal of Honor packet and why it took so long and how he should have got it, you know, decades before he did, but how he did eventually get it. But I did want to read this one quote because it gives us an idea as to, okay, where do we even get the title for this book, and it'll kind of give you a sense of what this guy lived through and what he did. By midm morning, we had been out here for about 4 hours trying to avoid being overrun. I had fought in every way possible that morning with my rifle and my fists, with grenades and the butt of my rifle. I used every weapon I had. I wasn't sure how many Kong I had killed that morning, but I was certain there would be more. So guys, without further ado, let's get into it. Colonel Paris Davis, welcome to Undaunted Life of Man's podcast. >> Well, thank you very much for saying that. I appreciate it. Well, I've been uh I've been very excited to get into this interview for a while because I read your book. So, uh it's actually fantastic, guys. It's a new book. It's out now, guys. Check out the show notes. Every Weapon I had. And so, the subtitles, A Vietnam Vets Long Road to the Medal of Honor. And guys, we're going to get into all of that. But I don't know, uh growing up in Cleveland if you ever thought you'd be an author, right? Published with a major publishing house or something like that. So, uh, we'll get into the details of your life in the book here in a little bit, but let's just talk about the process of getting your life down on paper. >> Okay, good. Well, you know, there were a lot of things that happened in my uh in my life, especially uh uh with special forces. I got a chance to uh write a a letter to uh Kennedy who president or be was going to be president telling that I read his article in the paper but there wasn't a lot of detail and that I'd like to uh throw my name in the hat uh to being a part of that if that's possible. I didn't get a reply. I did get a letter from the Department of the Army saying that I was going to IOBC school, Infantry Officer Bases School, and that's in Fort Benny, Georgia. And that happened and they gave me a time to be there and who's going to meet me, so forth and so on. All that came to pass. And uh so, you know, it just went on from there. There were a couple of NCOs that were there uh to to see me and uh wanted to find out who I was, so forth and so on. When they got my name and so forth and so on, they put me in the in the system. >> Well, and it's very interesting because, you know, your book is is certainly an autobiography, but it's also a history book. And so being able to see kind of the generation of these things and at the time you didn't know you were becoming part of history with with Vietnam and Vak Mak Visog and and the Green Berets and things like that. But I do want to go back to something because I always I'm kind of interested in what makes people tick and you you know there's a lot of leadership lessons in this book as well. You just talking about what it was like to lead your men uh you know downrange and in combat. But you talked about uh you know growing up in Cleveland that your brother Barney you know he was he was arrested uh he was tried for murder convicted and was actually sentenced to death and executed. And there's just a very poignant line uh in the book. It just says there's no doubt that Barney's death changed my life. And so in terms of like so what specifically do you mean? Was it just did it change the trajectory of your life? Did it just change what life meant to you because you realized in that moment like, oh, your life can be taken from you, you know, in an instant. Was that kind of what you were going with? >> Um, sort of. Let me let me tell you where I I think I was deal where I where this whole thing started. When my brother would get into trouble with other people, he would always say, and you have to excuse my English, I'm going to have my little brother come here and kick your ass. >> Yeah, >> that was me. I was in more fights than Joe Lewis. And you know, the the whole thing is once he put you in the ring, there's nowhere to run except towards the enemy. >> That's right. >> And so it it was one of these things. A lot of times I I I handled myself well and there were times when uh uh the enemy was uh more I I prone to be bigger than me. This that and the other. And so the whole thing is you go in there, you say a little prayer, you hope for the best. Sometimes you got it, other times, you know it might be even and then so forth and so on. And uh I just learned that the one thing that you have to be in in a situation like that with my brother is to tell the truth. >> The truth never moves. And and when you're in a situation like that and he's saying, "Okay, you're on your own. You know, this guy wants to take care of me. Well, in instead you're going to take care of him." You know that talk like that. And I just uh sort of ate that up. Uh I knew that I was probably a little bit over my head when I was in a situation like that. But you know, you you do the best you can with what you got. And you know, that's the whole army saying, you know, you go to war with what you have and and go from there. And that's just the way it was. And I didn't put uh I didn't make that an excuse for win, losing, or whatever it is. Uh the the fact of the matter is love my brothers and sister and and and the fact is you know it was a Davis name that he was really putting out there win lose or whatever and so you you you don't have a choice you know and so uh uh you get out there and you try to move the best you can with what you got and uh look I I the one thing I learned about that whole thing is when you're in a situation like that, you want to find the opening, whatever that is that you can have an advantage over him, that's where you want to go. And you know, if it's if it's moving, if it if it's jabbing, whatever it might be that gives you an an advantage, that's where you want to go. And I used to carry that with me in the special forces, too. If we're out there fighting and uh we see where there's a a movement one way and let me give you anam example. We were coming into a a situation with the enemy and it was going to be a fight and the the one thing I wanted to do I took a other I took a another 15 minutes to move around him so he had the sun in his eyes and I had the shade behind me. Follow me. and and that that's taking advantage of something that you can control if you can get him to move the way you wanted him to. And so it was little things like that, not big things, but just little things that gave you an advantage for maybe about 15 or 20 minutes. And if you can do that, then you've got a chance of winning. Well, and Colonel Davis, I mean, when you look at your early life, uh, growing up, some things that you experienced and went through, you have to cultivate resilience or you simply won't make it. And so, you're learning how to roll with the punches or I I love that that quote, the truth never moves. But there are certain times where the truth can be the truth, but if you're not resilient enough to stand up to it or stand even next to it, it's going to become really really uh it's going to be a bad situation for you. But for you, I'm curious because obviously, you know, you went to school a little bit, but on June the 1st of 1959, you actually received a letter from the Southern ROC. That was your commission into the United States Army. And so, you did what most of the US population has not done. You raised your right hand and you swore to protect this country from enemies, foreign and domestic. So, for you, what was the decision-making process for, you know, not only going uh into the military, but specifically the army, and then we'll make our way to special forces? Well, what happened there was that I did get to uh to Fort Benning, Georgia. >> There were about somewhere between 16 somewhere between 12 and 16 guys. They were in the same situation I was in. And that is why am I here? What is going to happen? Who's in charge? All those kind of things that you you find out about the military that you don't know. And and the other thing is the military in a situation like that, they're not nice to you. They, you know, they come at you like like you're zero and and they treat you that way until they can prove in their minds that you can handle yourself because the whole thing is you're in a situation where you're going to have to go to war one way or the other. And I can remember initially all the the the the so soldiers or or will be soldiers that were there, they didn't take a liking to me. They were very cord uh very very nice to me, but at the same time they wanted to be part of the part of the unit that was that was going to be uh uh making itself available. And once uh I got there and um they were my friends. I can remember the first time we had a uh uh how do I say a a combat a sort of combat with each other. I can remember that the guy that was my partner was about I don't know 6'2 or 63. We got into a boxing match and he busted my lip in about three or four places. I couldn't even speak to him for a while. I get my lip all fixed up and you know and and he wasn't kind because at that time everyone was trying to find a place you know it's like being trying to be on a basketball team and everybody's better for you so you want to take out the ball and you want to do this you want to make friends as as quickly as you can and it was one of those situation after the fact after they they they sort of brought me into the group and they one night I can remember we were very close to graduating and a couple of three of them came and said look here's a deal nobody this isn't racism I don't care what color you are orange green whatever the fact of the matter is if you want to be in part of this organization the one thing you have to have more than anything else is courage and that's we've seen that you can do that you can use it to your advantage so you you're one of the group now we didn't even have a name. I mean, we're just running around together with with no name or whatever. So, you didn't have a a a sense that you have a part of anything because nobody made you a part of anything. And the whole thing, the more we start training, I can remember one night and and it was uh it was Kennedy who was doing this, he just came out and said, "I have a name for you. is gonna be special forces. Now, why is it special forces? Because I can't think of a damn thing else. And so, that's how it started. And we we were over at the the cemetery when he was in charge. And you remember the one thing when he died, the one thing that was available for us at that cemetery was a how do I want to put this? a living situation about what he had had tried to do to make us better. And that was a fire and it was right by his grave and was lit all the time. Uh you could walk by it day, night, rain, shine and uh everybody knew what what what that uh that fire was about. And so, you know, you you come to grow towards things that you understand and away from things that you don't have any business knowing. And and that's the other thing is when you get in a uh a situation like that, the best thing you can do is keep your dog on mouth closed. When when orders are being given or this is being given or that, you just listen. you listen for what they say and how they want you to do it. And once you get into that kind of situation, friendship comes towards you because others don't know either. And and the more you can find people that you can talk to or be around that are part of the same unit you're part of, it just works. It just works. Colonel Davis, I remember, you know, from reading the book, some people get this idea, you know, civilians, they get this idea that in the military, it's it's all top down. It's it's always shut your mouth and just do exactly what I say. Now certainly there are times like that but as you described as your leadership style and other things you would welcome a lot of feedback to make sure that your ideology or your philosophy or your plans uh were the best ones for everyone involved because again if you know mistakes can end up in body bags uh as we've obviously seen throughout the history of military combat but for you eventually Vietnam becomes something uh that's you know maybe no one even knew where Vietnam was on the map and now all of a sudden everyone got real familiar with it because you had deployed to South Korea, you you had done a few things, but at the end of 1962, you make your way to Vietnam. You were there for 6 months. Uh I just want to talk about that first deployment because, you know, we'll get into the the subsequent deployments and some of those things, but were there any surprises during that first deployment? What was the the the opo like? Was there a lot of fighting at that time or were we just kind of getting our feet wet in the conflict? >> Well, the interesting thing it it was really late 1960. Okay. I and and I had uh I had been accepted into the uh the organization. But 60 is when special forces still started to come into its own. And and the thing is we were working in groups. We had plans that we made for each other because we're still in a situation where the higherups had not been made available to us. Everyone was watching us, but nobody was telling us what to do. They're letting us do it on our own. It's like being on a basketball court and everyone has a basketball and everybody wants to make sure it goes into the hoop. And if those that don't go in the hoop end up being the guys who are going to pass the people that go in the hoop, you know, it's just one of those things. You you you take what's available and you use it to your advantage. That's the way you have to do it. And uh when push comes to shove, you you can't push, you can't shove. You got to do both of them. >> Absolutely. And so you you're in country, you get some experience there in Vietnam. And and obviously we'll get to Thursday, June 17th of 1965 here in a moment, but we're in Let's talk about your second deployment to Vietnam. Uh leading up to that fateful day in June of 1965, was there anything different from first deployment to second deployment in Vietnam in terms of what you guys were doing kind of leading up to the conflict on that day? >> Well, a lot. And and let me tell you why. During that v period there, it was about three four months or whatever it might be. And we were learning how to use our weapons and how to do this, how to do that. We made a lot more jumps out of airplanes that weren't really necessary, but it was just part of the how do you get paid? And one of the things you do to get paid in uh in jump school is is to is to make the jumps. And the other thing is the the training of moving from point A to point B was really important because you had to do it with some stealth, some information that uh you could make up on your own to see if it worked or it didn't work. And and the fact that you knew that there were areas in that jungle that no one had been to. I I mean there there were times when a couple of guys actually sat on snakes and didn't realize it because the snake were all baldled up and we were tired and I mean it just worked out that way. But I tell you one thing, once we found out what a snake was, we made sure we moved in a different direction. And the whole thing is once you start seeing things like that, the group responds. If they see a snake or something like that, they don't keep it to themselves. They allow you to know that because they they're in danger too if something goes wrong and a snake can bite you and kill you or whatever it might be. So the whole thing is groups come together for different reasons. And the and the fact of the matter is if you're out there in the middle of this or that, whatever it might be, whatever is available for you to help you, you're going to pass it on to others so that everyone has the same kind of advantage if we get into a fight. And that's how we started moving through the jungle and doing this weapons and all the other kind of things. It became a us thing. Not a you thing, but a us thing. because it was all of us at the time were trying to figure out the best way of making this group work because we didn't have a lot of people from higher up coming down to tell they were watching what we could do on our own and that's one of the things that you find out at least I did in special forces and that is being the person who can handle yourself in a situation like that and you can bring others along to help you and if you think you're going to go out there and do it by yourself, then I tell you, it won't be push or shove. You'll just be by out there by yourself trying to think you you can go through something without any help. It doesn't work that way. It does not work that way. >> Hey guys, real quick. 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In my personal home gym, I have the Sorinex Outfitter rack, the heavy version in military green. Also, I have some of their center mass bells. I've got their Nordic glute ham developer and their patented landmine attached to my rack. So, guys, stop fighting the riff raff at your local gym or bench or squat rack or whatever. And if you're going to build out a home gym, you may as well get one that will last you and one that you could even pass down to your kids. Begin your buildout by going to sax.com. That is sorenex.com. s o r i ne x.com. Take control of where and when you work out. sorenex.com. Yeah. Yes, sir. I'm I'm reminded of uh some guys that are, you know, kind of modern modern day warriors. And so these guys could be, you know, whether it's Navy Seals or Green Beretss or Marine Recon or something like that. Some of these guys have have built an entire platform based on themselves and their personalities and the things that they can do. And then when you talk to guys in the community, right, that they were with, whatever, you know, branch or whatever group they were a part of, they're like they have a terrible uh, you know, reputation in that community. Oh, yeah. Because of what you just said. These were guys that were out for themselves. everything they did was for themselves to make themselves look better to elevate their status. And that just doesn't work. And it especially would not have worked uh with Mak Visog with uh the Green Berets and the stuff that y'all were doing in Vietnam. And so I I do want to go ahead and get on to Thursday, June the 17th of 1965. We're going to go through uh that day in in a bit of detail. We're going to use the book as the scaffolding for that. But uh Colonel Davis, if you wouldn't mind, please just set the scene for us. Uh what was the plan for that day? because things kind of started to go sideways pretty early the morning of that day. But go ahead and set the scene for us of what what that day was supposed to look like and then we'll get into what actually happened. >> Okay. I had a uh a team sergeant, his name was Wall, and he had an in with um with a lot of different agencies um especially the the the ones that had um power to to do things or to move things. uh um people uh uh that uh were there to make sure that we did our best. Here was the deal. When Wall came back from one of his meetings because before we left uh Fort Benning, um where uh uh Colonel Munger was our our uh our company commander in special forces. We had a lieutenant colonel was our was our company commander and he called me in and said, "Look, there's going to be four different units. The one you're going to have to really worry about and do you the best you can with working with them is Wall. Wall has uh uh has a a a real good relationship with the CIA and some other uh uh known uh units that had inside information about uh intelligence and so forth. He's going to be with you. He's going to be one of your people that is probably going to really give you a hard time because he's going to be able to move in and out without you knowing it. He's going to be able to do this, that, and the other and you'll never know about it. There's going to be other people on the team and they're going to wonder why is this guy able to do this and you're not. And the fact of the matter is one of the things you have to be able to to do and to say, look, we're all one team. Maybe there's one guy who's getting information for us or against us. We need to have him where he needs to be. And once we we uh got that uh into the heads of the other people on the team, it really worked. He came back and said, "I just have the information. We understand that we're going to be going. Uh we had about 19 clicks, maybe 20 clicks from where our camp was was where the the the the Vietkong were having their uh RNR. And so we knew that sooner or later that was going to be a time when uh well push comes to shove and we're going to either push or shove and vice versa for them. When Wall came back, he said, "I just got some information from higherups and there's going to be an attack in about two days by the uh the the the people that the Vietkong that had come down. They're bringing they were bringing their machine guns and stuff on bicycles because it we didn't have anything better than that." And at that time one thing became very uh uh available to me and some others. And that was that the French who had been in charge of uh uh helping uh um us fight the the Vietong had decided that they they had gone to America and talked with the president. the president had given an okay that we could help them because the French said they'd had enough with them. And once that happened, uh it changed everything. We had a chance to uh work with the uh the the the via uh the not the Vicong, but the people that were on our side. And once we were able to do that, everything started working a lot better. We were we trained with them. we did this with that and and everything else. And once that came be once that was apparent to everyone, the teams started working well together. And one of the things that the French had done uh with with what was going on in in that part of the world is the fact that initially they really train um the people that were on our side to to really do better than what they were doing. But at the same time, for some reason, there was a a sis schism between um the uh the the Vietkong and all the other uh uh team of people that were in different parts. For instance, the Russians and so forth and so on. There were twice in uh that short period of time when we were out there uh uh working and fighting and uh the first time we ever saw uh one of the enemy who had a red beard and was in a tank so and when we reported everyone was really uh surprised that something like that could go on and I said to myself if they're the enemy why aren't we surprised and that gave me the idea that we need to be really quick on to to make decisions, right decision to make to look at what's around you and and take that information and come up with what you wanted to do with it. And so all these and we I wasn't the only there were others and we uh we just worked as a team and if you had a better idea, we could run it around something uh around the table or wherever we were and see if that was going to help us to get better. And uh and it did. And so, uh, when Wall came back and said he had information that in about two days, uh, the Vietkong were going to come after, uh, we're going to have a major attack. And when that attack started, they were going to try to stay take over certain parts of, uh, Vietnam that they could handle and keep under their control. They had weapons and other things that were coming in via um boats and uh other other uh uh uh abilities to u to move things around with the people that were uh that were there. One of the things that I learned right from the beginning in Vietnam, the people that lived in that that country, they were in charge. They were in charge because this is their country. They know what they want to do and they know what they don't want to do. And part of the the falling out between the French and Viet Vietnam was the fact that the French wanted to do it their way and uh Vietnam wanted to do it their way. And so there was a split. And that's when um a couple people from the French came to us and said, "We're having a problem. Do you think you can handle taking care of the the nam and uh and keeping them in in in the the fold until we can come up with a way that they'll help us more and we can help them more? And that was that was the beginning because it was two days later that we found out that we were on a march starting at about uh I don't know 1:30 in the morning because we always fought at night and uh it took us almost two and a half hours to get to where we were going to be fighting in Bong because that wasn't very far from our camp. And once all that stuff came into being, we were in a position. We were on a on a on on the road to to to fighting the the Vietong. They had their they had about a tal a battalion that we found out that were there. We did not know there was going to be almost a uh three or four times more of them than there were going to be of us. And so that's when uh we got to where we were supposed to be. We actually two things happened there. Number one, we got into their uh their camp and it was about the middle of the night and one of the and I'll just do it as quickly as I can. One of the people that uh we uh woke up in the middle of that fight was uh this woman who was uh only only thing she was wearing when she jumped up in the middle of the night was her bra and she had a gun in the other hand and she was trying to put on her bra and and and start fighting us at the same time and that's when Wall took a shot at her killed her and the uh the leader the general there he was really a colonel uh saw me and uh I got a shot off before he could get his off and so the war was on and it just lasted and lasted and lasted and the if you can imagine this we had people on bases. I was at home plate Brown who had been shot in the head was at uh second base. Wall was at uh was on third base and then uh um Ronfeld was on on on the uh on the first base. So we had all the bases covered at least the areas and each each of these areas had a a platoon plus on their troops that they had behind them. And so the the the war really sort of evolved from that. uh uh we were winning sometimes. We had already talked with uh the Navy and they were they had taught us how to do a naval uh call in a naval gunfire. We we were we did the same thing with the uh um artillery that we had that was available that we could use and also there the 105 uh fighter squadron was there. So all this was out there and uh we used all that I just mentioned. The enemy used whatever it could um come up with with their the spies and everything else uh uh sabotaging any equipment and stuff that we had and we fire back to do it our way as opposed to you know just let them go on and do what they wanted to do. So this war was really taking shape. It was almost like a little uh war of uh um during the World War II, you had all kinds of people on your side, they had all kinds of people on their side and uh and God only knows how it was going to end up. one, I think that's it's interesting how how slowly you move in the autobiography through everything because, you know, you get to the mission, you have your first kill, and then things start to go sideways. You weren't exactly sure how many of them uh there were, and they didn't have any idea uh how small of a force that they were going against, but I want to read a couple of quotes from the book. As we pressed westward through the camp, flames billowed from the huts. From out of the smoke and noise, four more North Vietnamese soldiers charged at me. I used my rifle butt and my fist to fight back. I killed all of them. As I dashed between the buildings, I surprised more panicked North Vietnamese who still had no idea of the relatively poultery force they faced. I used my rifle, my fists, my rifle, but I killed everything that came at me. And then um you know, there was a quote a little bit later that in the hours since fighting broke out, you had killed 18 or 19 North Vietnamese. And at this point, this is such kinetic action in a very truncated period of time, right? And I'm just wondering what's going through your head at this point. Do you think, okay, at this point we're an hour in, you've killed 18 or 19, there can't be that much more of them, or were y'all pretty well aware that this was going to be a fairly serious elongated fight. Was there any like thought, okay, maybe we should get out of here, regroup and come back in at these early stages? What was the mind the thought the thought process for you? >> Let me tell you where I where I was then. When we went to the camp, we had Vietnamese of all persuasion that were in the camp. One of the first things I did that first night was to sleep. We only had one way in and one way out was asleep right at that doorway. And what I was trying to prove is the fact that if you're going to be on our side, we're going to protect it. We're going to do this and we're going to do that. But if we can do it, you can do it. And the the whole thing was every time we would do something, I would make sure that I was there or someone that I sent to help out would be there. Because when you're in a country like that and people can see what you're doing, after about the second or third thing that happened, they know that they have to do it, too. If you have to go across that field, they're going to have to go across that field. if you're going to have to do this, that, and the other, they better be prepared to do what you're what they're saying because that is what the way that you're going to have to go and fight together to be together if you're going to try to win this thing. And the old thing is, let me show you and then we can move together. And once we got into that and I got became really good friends with the district chief, he had his lieutenant to be with me all the time. And a lot of the information that uh we used was because the lieutenant that the uh uh district commander had uh given to be with me was always available. And we always would uh if we had a big battle or something like that and we could give him a card of cigarettes or this or that, we always made sure that the chief and that's what I called him who was in charge of the of the Vietnamese knew about it. We gave him cigarettes and stuff like that and some American dollars. And so he was on our side to help us do what really was ne uh necessary. And he never faltered. He uh when we were fighting, he was there. And one of the things that really um uh bothered me about some of the writing, they never said that we had good troops. They said we had troops that were not uh that were not trained. They were untrained troops and all that. They were trained, but others didn't know about it. And and and the fact of the matter is I was really happy that most of the the the people that were on our side couldn't read English or whatever, so we could go ahead and move accordingly. But we got them into different formations uh when we were fighting or doing this or doing that or uh uh out there trying to get information about where the enemy might be because even though it was uh it it was their part of the country, you know, we had people from that part of the country too. And uh so you you you get some information about this that and the other. you had to weigh it, make a decision on what you wanted to do with it, and then go forward with what you had on your side. And so the whole thing was that because we knew what we what we were getting into, we had to really get to where uh where Bong was, where the fighting was going to be before they could bring in their other troops. We knew that they had maybe um a small group uh a via Kong that was with them, but we knew that there because they had we had gotten the information that they were going to have uh it was going to be their uh RNR place and they already had people that were building hooches and so forth and so on. When we got there, all this was going on. And I can remember the first part of that battle. Once we got there, they weren't really a uh uh sure of what we're going to if we were going to be there. Once we got there, we must have uh been into uh uh with grenades and whatever else uh explosives we had going into about 30 40 of those uh little hooches that they made for themselves or their teams. And I'm talking about the Vietkong now. And we took advantage of going to those who just trying to drop uh uh grenades and everything else in it to to lessen the their ability to fight us back. But during that period of time uh more troops from the Vietkong were coming down and were fighting and so it really became a a a major battle. >> Yeah. The battle kept escalating and escalating. And I want to go back to the book here and read this section. After he tossed a smoke grenade, I saw the red plumes billowing from the hut, but didn't realize that the spotter plane had taken fire. We had our hands full on the ground. Two North Vietnamese soldiers charged at me and one threw a grenade. I got a shot off at the one who threw it and he fell and he got up with a knife. I shot him again and then the grenade went off. After it detonated, I looked at my hand. The blast had blown off the top of my middle finger on my right hand and ripped open the tip of my index finger, my trigger finger. I saw the tip of my middle finger on the ground. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. I tasted blood in my mouth. I eventually realized that the explosion had knocked a tooth down my throat. I shot that tooth out later, a little bit later here. Blood was everywhere. Mine, my attackers, and god knows who else's. Blood mixed with the sweat and soaked my uniform. And now we were caked in dirt and mud. The loss of my trigger finger was a problem. I needed to be able to fire a weapon, and I wasn't proficient with my left hand. I tried to wipe the blood from my hands and curled my injured fingers. so I could use my pinky to pull the trigger. A kind of calm came over me. Something happens when you get wounded on the battlefield. There's no way to explain it. If your body is still working, you find that you can keep going in a way that you couldn't off the battlefield. Even as the blood pours from your wounds, and you find pieces of yourself no longer there, you keep going. So, at this point, you had been through hard training. You had been through hard workups. You had been through, you know, uh, the equivalent of the Q course or whatever at the time. Maybe you had seen battle. Now you're wounded, right? And for those uh for the overwhelming majority of the population on the planet that has not been wounded in battle before, we can't even fathom what that could be like. And so let's go back there and let's talk about you've been in the battle. You've been in it for hours. You're exhausted. You've got all these things happening. Now you're wounded. >> Okay. Let let me start right there. Can you see my hand? >> Yes, sir. >> You see the finger that's missing? Yeah. You see the van right there? It's been split in two or three pieces. >> If you see my thumb is I mean my forefinger has been cut. So the only thing that I had that I could use was my little finger on my other hand. >> I mean what you're reading I'm I'm showing you. And and the fact of the matter is when you see this and and you you go back to high school when you were when you were learning how how to differentiate this uh situation from that situation and you're all in the science room. And so you you you you you start using whatever available that the teacher says that you can use that will allow something on you or with you to stay alive. And that's what we were doing. All the different things that we could use to keep us alive, we were put I was putting in my pocket to say, "Okay, when I get back to from from the battle, I I can give it back to him and the doctor can sew it on." He he tried and he said, "It ain't going to work. It ain't going to work." And he looked at my finger and he said, "It ain't going to work." So you can throw that finger and I don't care where you throw it. It ain't going to work because what what the the time differential from the time you got shot got it was shot off and the time that you you were in this fight. He said it was hours. It was days. I mean, you're falling into dirt and dirt's in your pocket and all. How do you expect this this part of your finger to be available to be put back on your on your hand? And he said, "It's just be you can use a BS or that you want." And he said, "Look, let we're we're not going to go there." And so the the whole thing was you fight with what you got. you know, there was I I remember uh when the the uh our our our government was come together and um I was trying to remember Cheney who was a vice president so forth and uh with the with with our government and and the fact that he he used to always say you go to war with what you got and uh if if you if you can't go to war with what you got, you ought to get the hell out of because they were coming after you. And so you just learn those little things and you got to do it in a way that makes sense to the people that are still on your side. And you have to make sure that you spread them out, train them correctly because they know that they're going to be in a fight that you uh you never expected. I can remember we were coming back and it might be in the book there. I was sort of in charge with wall and we were walk we were walking by this little village and this uh wall went up and asked the mama son questions about you know what was going on and uh who was there and she said oh there's nobody here I'm by myself family's gone so forth and so on we took about I don't know another 15 or 20 minutes and wall said we stop here and I said why the hell are we stopping in here and he said, "You'll see in about 20 minutes." That whole Viet Kong that she had been feeding came there for lunch. And so we we had another fight right there. And the whole thing is when you're in a situation like that, you had better be cognizant of the fact that everything around you is suspect. And uh that's the way I learned. uh uh and uh I didn't back away once. I I really felt strongly about it. But the other thing is you you have a chance to be with other soldiers and you're not always the one that has the right answers. I can remember a couple, one was 18 and the other could have been 19. They somehow got into special forces by lying about their ages and all that. When they uh came across certain situation, they were the first to come as a sir. I don't know if that's going to work. And let me tell you why. And you have to listen to everyone because if you don't, uh you you giving every you putting everyone at a disadvantage. And so uh that's what we did. Uh we we worked together to make sure we were getting it right the second time because the first time would right itself would be uh available to us. Absolutely. And that's kind of the name of the game. And you're you're doing that from a training perspective, but also you're needing to do that in the moment because it's hard to prepare yourself for different moments until they happen. So you can't really prepare yourself for what it's going to be like when you're wounded until you're wounded. You really can't prepare yourself for the feeling of we're about to be overrun until that process is kind of happening. But for you, and again guys, you're going to have to get the book, Every Weapon I Had. There's so much more detail in the book. We we're just barely flying over it right now. But there was a time during the battle, Colonel Davis, where you had an opportunity to leave the battlefield. Um, so I actually want to read this section here. I was relieved to see Cole was in the chopper. God, I'm glad to see you, I told the major. I explained to him the situation on the ground and that there were still men unaccounted for. I'm sending you out with the chopper," Cole shouted under the noise of the engine. "I'm here to replace you. You need medical attention." I was stunned. "There was no way I could leave in the middle of a firefight. It would destroy the morale of the company. They would never trust me again. I had to stay." "Sir, please don't do that to me," I shouted. "I'm not hurt that bad. I've got to get my guys out of this predicament. We have another air strike on the way. I refuse to go." There was another reason, a more personal one. The night before the operation, Brown had handed out candy cigars to all of us to celebrate his baby's birth. I had a responsibility as a commander to bring everyone in, but I also had a responsibility to Brown's wife and his new baby to make sure he got home. Cole could see how distraught the order made me, and he backed down. "You've got it," he yelled. "Good luck and God bless you." And he got back onto the helicopter. I crouched under the rotor wash and watched the helicopter return to Bong Song. So again, hard for me as a civvy to read something like that because this is just stuff you read in in military poetry. This is just stuff that you see in movies or whatever, but this is something that you actually experienced. You had a ticket out of there, but you didn't know where all of your men were. And this led to you saving Ryberg and Wah and Brown and which, you know, led to, you know, later ramifications for your life and career in the military. But let's let's let's go back there and then we could go to the the bases as it were with Ryenberg Wah and Brown. What made you stay? Because you have internal constitution. You've you you've got you've got balls. You've got vigor. You got all those things, but you're injured now, right? You you could go get cleaned up, get patched up and all that, and maybe they can bring you back out, but that was just seemingly not even a consideration for you. Well, what what was really important was the fact that I had the three Americans all in different positions, all part of the of of our war and and and I wanted to make sure that uh we could still rely on them because even though we had uh uh radios and stuff like that, if you're losing the leader to that that has helped you to get there, there, then you got a problem in terms of being able to take that the the information and and the people that you have on your side and put them to good use to keep you going while the war is going on. And so my thing was the best way I could do that is to go to the furthest person that was out there and and get that person first and that was Brown. And so I remember I'm at home plate now. look at second base where it is and you're moving around like the other thing is and and and and when you just say that you think well this is not a problem. If you go to any place where dogs are allowed to to run loose and and and do their thing, you're going to find you know what everywhere. And when you start crawling with your arms and all, you're going to have [ __ ] just everywhere. You might even swallow a little bit of it because you're trying to get to to Brown as soon as you can because the shrubbery and all the other kind of things. The enemy still has positions there and they're in one side. And this is why you call in for air strikes and everything else to put them at a disadvantage while you're trying to move from there or the other in your elbows in your knees. I mean, they they they look like they were red something that uh in color because you you got scratches and and and everything you can imagine with the with what you're crawling with and it's it is with your elbows and your your knees and trying to be while why while you're once you get to to Brown trying to turn him over because his face is just saturated with blood. And he's got this uh uh uh bullet hole uh in his temple. And I can remember when I get there, he says he know he recognized me and he says, "Sir, am I going to die?" And I the first thing I thought about was no, you're not. But I said, "Don't worry. Um I'll be right here for you. uh you know, I'm I'm going to be here and we're going to get out of this thing. And once I said not before me, he uh sort of relaxed a little bit. And then the the the whole thing was to get him on his if you can uh picture that to turn him over. He's been shot in the head now. Okay. Blood is running profusely all over his body. When that happens, when I turn him over, his chest and everything else from the wound that he has in his head is just all blood. I mean, I couldn't even see the color of the uniform he was wearing. But once I do that, I turn him over and I put my arms under his arms and try to put them together so I could then start pulling him back. and we could take about two or three steps and then I'd lose a group because there was so much blood on him. And we did this for an hour and a half, two hours, whatever it took to get him back to get him to the uh to to to the helicopter to to get him out there. and and and and and the thing about it is um he would be in and out of uh of talking to me about this or that or about the baby and about this. I wasn't really sure initially if someone or how did he find out that his wife had had a baby because I had been out in the field and I just uh I just took it upon myself that someone had told him that. And so, uh, you know, you you just work on that assumption because you don't want to have an argument when you're trying to pull a guy back to safety. And so, the whole thing was to keep him as calm and collected as possible while we were moving from point A to point B. The other thing is when when you're wounded like that, your body your you you you your body will allow itself to come to some kind of semi-normal position. And when I say that, I'm talking about breaking wind and doing all kinds of other things while you're trying to pull him back. Now, think about that. You're pulling him back. When you're pulling him back, you're also pulling him back whatever thing he might be be he might be doing with his body. And uh we would laugh every every couple of uh times. I can remember him even saying, "Well, this is what you get if you come and get me, you know, with just thinking farts and all this kind of stuff. You want to say, "Wait till we get back. I'm going to kick your ass." This is true as God made little green apples. And so, you know, we're we're talking about this while we're while we're move. And and it and it really took up some time. And let me tell you why. When you have a a person like that that's wounded and you and and uh you you say something about uh breaking wind and all that, it gives him a chance to be Bob Hope or someone else where he can just say something funny and and you have to respond to it and you know and it goes on for and it helps because he has to think longer about saying something back to you as you do to respond whatever he's saying. I mean, and you're just pulling him back and every time you would lose one, he said, "What's wrong?" You know, have ice cream on your fingers or, you know, something like that. And I'm trying to still move him and he he's coming up with all these smart remarks and we just go there and I'll tell you, you might think it's not that far, maybe 180, uh, but 90 ft to one base, so that's 180 whatever it might be for going. And it took him two and a half hours to get from second base to home plate. And the whole thing is that uh he's in and out of uh consciousness and you know wants he wants to get up and he wants to use the bathroom. I mean all kinds of things that he might be saying that you're you you you're saying I hear you saying we'll do that in a minute. But the whole thing is to keep moving, not to stop. Because we know once we stop, if they have a if the enemy can see you anywhere, he's going to he's going to start firing at you. And so that that whole thing is sort of comedic uh situation where people are are laughing at the same time we're trying to do the right thing to get him back to get him out of the way. And as as you well know after all that trouble and two and a half days later he passes. You know the whole thing is that uh you're just doing what you can to to to to move him around. And the same thing with uh with Wall when he was shot five or six times in the in the leg and and then in the uh and in his ankle, you know. And uh I mean he had this conversation with God that was just unbelievable. uh about uh uh what about me? You know, I've been shot at uh what's going to happen to me and and and things like that. And it's it's amazing when you get in a situation like that, how narrow your thinking is about everything else is out the window. The only thing that's alive and well is his comments to you about what's happening to him. Not you, to him, everything. Well, you're okay. And and and and you can do anything and I've been shot and I mean, you just have to turn that around. And it uh it's one of those things. And and and I'll tell you, it it does two things. Number one, it gives you something to talk about, but number two, it allows you to be in his mind in the fact that he knows that something's wrong with him and uh he needs to be helped. I mean, all these things are going on at the same time. But if you get if you start talking about him, then you got a problem right here in River City because that brings it right to where you are. And right to where you are as you're in the middle of battlefield and you're trying to move him, he's got blood everywhere. I mean, every time that you you you you pull on him and you lose grip, that means that you lost a few seconds about having your hands together, they're claps together so that you can keep him together so you can keep pulling him every time you take a a step with the heel of your your shoe. And it it just goes on. And the thing about it, you know what's going on around you, but the thing that's most important is what do I do with Brown? How do I get him back? And finally, that that happens. And then the next thing is what's next? Who's next? And then the next person I think was was wall when I went to get him. And then lastly, it was Ronberg who had brought the ammunition in and uh had put it on the on the ground and stood up and got two rounds right to his chest. So, I mean, all these things are going on. And the thing about it is you can't forget what's happening and you can't take your mind off of the immediate things that are going on. The war still going on. You still have two people out there, Wall and and Reinberg, and uh you you're getting air support and you're getting uh support from the uh um some of the other availability of of American hardware. And so you you you you just have to keep going and you can't stop. And I tell you, Reinberg was uh about 61s, maybe a little bit taller when uh when he got shot, when he dropped the um uh put the the the ammunition on on the ground. When he turned, he he he turned into me. And when he turned into me, he knocked me down. He was on top. And I'm trying to figure out how the [ __ ] do I get out out of this and he's not moving because he's been shot. He's not saying a dogone thing. And so I'm trying to turn him over so that I could get a little get out and and and move him back to get to the to the aircraft. So all this stuff is going on. And then Wall is saying, "What about me? There's that sniper up there and he keeps shooting me." And I said, "Where is he?" And he and he tells me. So I uh I go around and and try to get behind where I think wall has said the fire the uh the sniper is. And finally we I get a shot and a good shot at him and we get him. But the whole thing is he's putting bullets in into his leg because his leg is the only thing in that uh buffalo rub that's available. I can't get it I can't get that leg down. And so his leg is up there and his foot's up there and that sniper is just uh I mean he put five or six rounds in that one leg, that right leg and and and we couldn't get that right leg into the the the buffalo rub. Oh, this is a ruffle rub. It's a big hole. you know, you you're trying to get its body all out of range for the uh for the sniper not to be able to shoot it again. So, all this stuff is going on and then uh what do you do? Do you do you stop the war and say, "Hey, let's take a break and when we come back, we can be where we were." No, it doesn't work that way. And the other thing is, I don't care what you tell me, a situation like that requires immediate attention. You got to do something right away. And you got to either lie, cheat, or you got to do something. And when when a guy who is about 20 I don't 10 12 lb and you're about 160 or whatever and he's on top of you and he start bleeding on you and you're trying to move him off to pull it to put a rope around him so that you could once you get close enough to the aircraft to throw it to them so they can pull him up on the aircraft. All this stuff is going across your mind and you got to do it all at one time. And so it's it's this thing about just doing it. And the other thing is you never get into to the situation where you say, "Hey, you're dying or you're this or that." That you know that's not part of the conversation. And uh and and when you get to the helicopter, how do you get him? There's there's a distance between the the helicopter itself and where the where the where the person is have been shot. If you've got to put him get him on the helicopter, there's going to be a a portion of that time when his whole body is exposed to the enemy. And so what do you do then? How do you fight? and you you're trying to get you're talking with aircraft and you're fighter the 105 fighters and so forth and so on and uh you're just to get him up there. I mean a a guy that big it's going to be and you finally get the rope under him so that you can pull him up and uh you got two or three guys inside that uh uh helicopter trying to pull him up. And the the the thing is that the pilot of the helicopter said, "No, uh-uh. You keep firing. Don't stop firing. If you do, we're dead." And so what do you do? You do exactly what he says. And so, you know, he his life is depending on trying to get the hell out of Dodge. And then he if he can't get out of Dodge, then nobody's going to get out of Dodge. And so all this stuff is going on. And then the last guy, you know, Wall just seems to had this conversation with God. What about me? I mean, you know, he he sort of loses his consciousness about what's going on and it and and it turns to what about me? You know, why am I here? That guy is firing at me. He's got all these rounds in my in my leg. Uh what what what did we do? what do I do? And and he spotted the guy now and he tells me exactly where he is. And I I uh I get my weapon. We go around to the other side. I have a M1 uh and I get a good shot. And uh I'm not really sure I hit him, but let me tell you what happened there. When I get that shot off, I could hear a clunk of of uh of limbs and everything else that uh that uh if he has something that high up, he would make. And that happened and uh and I I'm I'm still trying to make sure that I I got so I I stay there for a few minutes and I don't move or anything else until I am pretty positive that I've shot the guy uh or the enemy or the sniper because Wall is calling this guy everything but a child of God. And you know, I'm trying to um to find out exactly where it was. And finally, we were able to pinpoint where he was. And and the only thing that really helped us is the fact that there was a lot of leaves in that tree. And in order for him to get a shot off, he had to create a fire uh a way to fire uh a weapon uh at at at uh at Reinberg. I mean at wall that that could hit him because he he had to be at least 100 maybe 100 maybe 200 feet away. But he had a good shot because he had a great weapon and that weapon somewhere in uh in our archives. But he had a good shot at it. And so once I I I I see the hole. I shoot the hole and not him. I want to be very honest about that. I see the hole. I shot I shoot the hole and not him. And finally I hear this clatter and everything. You could see that uh he must have been uh uh had some weight with him because he uh he went through the the the limbs on on the tree and finally it's it's quiet and then we uh we we go back and take care of him. But the the other thing is and he takes a shot at me once I I I I shoot him and so all this stuff is going on and the other time and and and the war's still going on the other place. the war still going on in the other place. >> So that's and and as soon as you you hear the clump and you and you and you wait a few minutes and you go back and and you don't feel a shot coming towards you, you know we got it. And uh uh once uh we we we we uh we get uh um our our our our person out and uh and he is still bleeding and well there's just an extremely amount of blood just is everywhere. I mean the the the tires and one of the wings or or not the wings but the uh yeah the wings on the aircraft everything's red. Everything's red. And and when when finally when we take off, you see blood up in the air, you know, it was it it is that heavy that that that just for a couple of seconds the the wind and everything else when the aircraft takes off, you could see the blood, you know, coming off almost like it's a painting. But it only lasted for a couple three seconds and then they're gone. and then we have to take care of the other person. But the whole thing is you don't want to get over uh excited about the the people that are wounded. You got to take them one at a time and the fighting issue going on. And then believe it or not, I go back to the war. We we go back and uh uh Colonel Cole's there and so forth and so on. and he has already uh told me that he uh he wanted me to leave and uh and I I told him I wasn't going to leave and so all this stuff is going on. But in in the middle of a fight like that, you know, it it's it's almost like you're in uh in a situation where uh you're you're in an orchestra and all of a sudden there's a moment of silence. And so you you've got all this stuff stuff going on and you you just have to, you know, put it in some kind of uh of of uh situation where uh you can do one thing at a time and get it done and get get ready for the next. At least that that was the way I saw it. I might have been wrong. Nobody's told me that was right or wrong. I just did it. Well, I mean, at this point, because of your actions, that's why Rey, Wah, and Brown were able to get off the battlefield alive. And, you know, that wasn't the end for you. I mean, there was more fighting for you. There was a guy that had snuck up on you after all this. You talk about that in the book. Uh, but eventually the the battle does come to an end. You are evacuated back to base. That's not the last battle of your life. You have other battles where you you're wounded and and you take some rounds and some different things like that. Um, and then I know we're running a little short on time, so again guys, you have to get the book, Every Weapon I H. You go into a lot of detail. You talk about the public outcry against Vietnam, some of the protests when you got home, you know, some of the names you were called, baby Killer, a woman spitting in your mouth, and all those types of things. You you spent some time talking about the transition kind of out of the military or first of all off the battlefield, uh, you know, uh, where you're still in the military and then transitioning out of the military. and you get into a lot of detail on your thoughts there. But, you know, for anyone that knows your story, and obviously it's the subtitle of the book, you received the Medal of Honor. And so, people might be thinking, "Oh, there's probably a picture of Colonel Davis with, you know, either Kennedy or maybe Nixon or uh maybe Carter or maybe Reagan." No, the pictures of you and Joe Biden because it was just in the last few years that you actually received the Medal of Honor. And so, uh, that that's where we'll we'll kind of park here at the end of the interview today is talk to us about the the process because obviously there was stories of your packet being lost and oh, okay, it was shuffled over here and oh, it got messed up over there, but there was a ground swell of support that you had going back to this battle to be like, no, these actions were so clearly recognized that day as being worthy of the highest military honor that we have, which is the Medal of Honor. But it wasn't until uh just the last administration before the second Trump administration where you actually received that honor. So, let's just talk about the the process of of getting you back in front of uh uh the the committee or whoever makes that decision and then all the way up to the day where you go to the White House and you're actually presented with it. Well, what happened there was the fact that um I wasn't really sure of what they were talking about about the Medal of Honor. Um, I was more concerned about the people, especially um, David Morgan who was with me when uh, when we went across the battlefield and he was uh, he was killed and and the and the and and to to to my I I I can remember Munger her and some others coming to talk with me and they was saying I can remember the first thing he said and then he shut up was well you know that's over now and I said to him what the [ __ ] do you mean sir and he said I'm sorry because he knew that I was talking about Morgan that Morgan had been killed and that that that thing and the other thing that uh he didn't say anything but someone else did when they finally and I don't know if I've said it to anyone before or not. Finally, when they um uh that helicopter that we were in and uh and Morgan was killed, I can remember getting shot from one door that was open where Morgan was and uh and had uh fallen down. I was holding him when I that I fel that that that one uh round was I could see coming. not to see coming, but I could hear the flash or see the flash that and then getting shot from that one door up in the air across the helicopter to where I fell on the other side. And the only thing that kept me alive was that the door gunner on the other side had been killed and was blocking the the u blocking the passageway. That's the only thing that saved my life. And at that time I uh I I was unconscious and I can remember someone telling me uh that uh there were so many bullets in me that the surgeon wherever hospital I never did find out the hospital that there were so many bullets in me that the surgeon told the uh the people in on the aircraft unscrew the seat and bring the seat in. leave the seat there and bring him in in the seat back into the hospital. And that's how I got in the hospital. They they took the and this was all told to me because I wasn't uh available to to do it on my own. But the nurse said, "Yeah, we uh unscrewed that uh that suit that uh seat from the the chopper and we brought the seat in and everything else uh into the hospital with you in it." And that's the way you got in the hospital. So that's that's the way I got in the hospital. >> And so the thing >> Yeah. Go ahead, please. >> No, I was going to say war is hell or war is so different from almost anything you can do in your regular life. I mean, you do not control very much in a war. I mean, you're fighting and all that, but what's happening is the elements are controlling you. And if you don't believe that, and I can remember uh um the the company commander coming back and he says, "You know what? That's uh that was probably the dumbest thing I've ever said." And I said, because I was so [inaudible] off, "You're [ __ ] a you're [ __ ] right." when uh when he mentioned that uh Morgan uh or David uh hadn't uh uh you know he's dead now we need to talk about the living and I was really [inaudible] about that comment. So anyhow, that's that's what I wanted to say there because uh you just never know. And the thing about it is not once during that whole period of time did I uh think that uh that we weren't going to make it. I just thought that we were good enough to make it. The only other thing that came out was after the fact the they had been saying there was another guy who was the first black to to receive uh to be called uh black and and uh in the war and he came and saw me and I got I'm going to try to find out because he made a a disposition to say that I was the first black to be in special forces and if I can get a copy of that only because you and I have gotten to be good friends here that I would send it to you so you could do whatever whatever the hell you want. But that's that's the only other thing and I'm saying that to you because of you know just the conversation you and I have been having over there. But I just learned a lot. And now, um, you know, the other thing is I had a couple of guys that were from Mississippi and a couple of guys that were from Alabama. And I I told them early on, you know, don't call me any names and I won't call you any names and we can get this thing done the best way we can because we're all Americans and I'm not a [ __ ] I'm not a this, I'm not a that. And don't call me any of that. and we can get along just fine because we're on this all in this thing together and we all are going to end up one way or the other together. And so that was the last thing I can remember saying, but one of the first things that I can remember thinking because it just is that way. You never can really tell tell in a in a situation like that how the hell it's going to end up. I mean it it's like shooting dice and don't you don't know if you're getting seven or 11. You don't know if it's one snake eyes or what. I mean it's still up in the air and you're waiting for it to land and people want want the re the results of whatever whatever that might be when you when it hits the wall and and and and spins around before you see the two ones or whatever it might be. So that's just the way it is. Well, Colonel Davis, uh, I it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you and to hear about your story, and I mean, I feel like I got to know you through your book. Uh, again, the the level of detail, uh, in storytelling here is substantial. But, uh, for now, that's all for me. Is there anything else you want to get off your chest? >> Well, one of these days when it's all over, I sure like to have lunch with you. >> Hey, I'll take it. So, where where are you located? Because I think we can make that happen, sir. Well, I I'm located in in V in Virginia. Uh uh we can still talk some more about it, but I just like talking to you. I think you're a smart guy. You've been very honest with me. Uh it's not one of these, oh, well, you know, you weren't there. You I I hear that you were there, but I honest honestly you weren't there. Let me just tell you this. Biden had 19 writers. I was told they were following everything that I I did and he wanted to make sure that the information and I had that. Did you get a white book? >> Yes, sir. >> Yes. >> That's what he had those 19 people doing. They followed me around or uh for a long time just to make sure that we had everything correct. That's all I wanted to say. Well, and I' I've read enough military history and military memoirs and I found out about some guys that maybe embellished or lied about some things and they kind of have a stink to it. You know what I mean? And kind of like earlier whenever you were making the comment, hey, courage doesn't really have a color. Courage doesn't have a race. Well, heroism uh doesn't either. And that's one thing I called you a hero off air before we got started and you seem a little uncomfortable with that title, but it's a title that fits. And uh sir, again, I'm just so thankful for you. I'm thankful for your service to this country that I love so much and for your service to your men. And hopefully this isn't the last time we talk. >> You got that one right. Please stay well. And I tell you, every time I would see someone, they ask me where I'm from. I'll say I'm from America. You take care. Take care of your family and you and I will get together later on. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. There you go, guys. I hope you enjoyed my interview with Colonel Paris Davis. But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost. Adam undaunted life. Our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. So, I've got a link to where you can buy your copy of every weapon I had. And then I've got a link to his web page which basically says, okay, via, you know, army.mmill what what the things that he did was and some of the things that he was recognized for. And then I've also got a video where you can watch where he received the Medal of Honor. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive five-star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast or shoot me an email to info@undanton.life, that's info@undanton.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way. Just go to www.undton.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is their song Perpetual, which is off their self-titled debut album on Faceown Records. The links are in the description. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness. Keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. Keep seeking the Lion of Judah. [Music]