Against.the.Odds.S02E05.The.Untold.Story.of.the.Rescue.at.Dogshead
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00:00None of us, in our wildest dreams, had any idea of what we had actually stumbled into.
00:12We didn't have any idea that there were some 700 regular NVA soldiers.
00:21The company reported being surrounded nearly right away.
00:26We were running out of all ammo. I told Colonel Conrad,
00:30if you don't give us some ammunition here by 3.30, just send the body bags and don't bother.
00:41We were the closest friendly element to Charlie Company. We had to go.
00:48They would risk their lives and the lives of their men to come to the aid of their fellow soldiers.
00:55Those men moved out knowing what was likely to happen to them.
01:01All those kids were going to die and I had nothing I could do about it.
01:07We fulfilled our mission. That's what we did. We were brothers.
01:11By the early spring of 1970, the United States badly needs to show some strategic muscle inside the no man's land of War Zone C.
01:31An enemy stronghold that American forces have been unable to control.
01:35U.S. command believes their advantages in mobility and firepower will do the job.
01:42Easier said than done in the hellhole called War Zone C.
01:48War Zone C is a thousand square kilometers of tall, heavily canopied jungle
01:55sitting on the invasion route to Saigon, a hundred kilometers southeast.
01:59Deserted of villagers, it is a deadly sanctuary of the North Vietnamese Army.
02:04Aggressive American patrolling outside ever-moving fire support bases
02:09keeps the only lid on an invisible, ever-aggressive enemy.
02:14At its deadly center is a contorted bend in the Cambodian border known only as the Dog's Head,
02:22an ambushes paradise of unmitigated jungle and swamp.
02:25With virtually no areas to operate the mechanized American forces critical to U.S. plans for degrading enemy strength.
02:39The 1st Cavalry Division has earned its awesome reputation in headlong combat through three bloody wars.
02:46It has made a specialty of evolving revolutionary combat tactics on the front line.
02:51It has made a specialty of evolving revolutionary combat tactics on the fly
02:56in dozens of battles decided by courage and inches.
03:00It will be no different in the Dog's Head.
03:05Alpha Troop was mounted.
03:08We had nine Sheridan tanks, 24 ACAVs, three mortar vehicles.
03:15Upon arrival there, we were assigned to an infantry battalion of the 1st Cavalry Division
03:21under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Michael Conrad.
03:24Colonel Conrad inquired about how we might best fit into his combat operations.
03:30My suggestion was to mount the infantry company on the tops of our vehicles
03:36to maneuver through the jungle to search out the enemy
03:40in their areas of operation that he outlined for our use.
03:45He agreed with that proposition.
03:48Captain Poindexter's new jungle-busting effort will provide the firepower to bust through the jungle in search of enemy targets.
03:56It is a radical new approach that merges together two completely opposite methods of war, armor and infantry
04:03in the hopes of multiplying the punch and range of both.
04:08I was informed by my battalion commander that we were going to be attached,
04:14my rifle company was going to be attached to an armored cab unit.
04:18When I met John Poindexter, we introduced ourselves to each other.
04:22He said he told me he knew nothing about the infantry tactics.
04:26And I told him I knew nothing about armored tactics.
04:29And that was probably the opening of a good relationship between him and I.
04:34We weren't sure how this was going to work out.
04:37It was a new thing.
04:39I felt it gave us a little more protection.
04:42And I know they didn't particularly like riding on top of the tracks
04:46because they felt that they were becoming targets and they went crazy about it.
04:54Our vehicles made a lot of noise and the North Vietnamese knew exactly where we were.
05:05A few miles away, newly appointed company commander Captain George Hobson
05:12is troubled as he takes over the 79 infantrymen of Charlie Company 8th Cavalry.
05:18Exhausted and depleted from nonstop search and destroy missions,
05:22morale in the unit is shaky.
05:25What we wound up with before departing north on the 21st
05:29was a company largely composed of either soldiers who had been through very intense combat
05:37for an extended period, had lost most of their senior leaders,
05:42a huge morale problem, and new soldiers who had never heard a shot fired.
05:52We left Firebase Hillingworth, headed northwest on a typical 2nd of the 8th
05:59or any light infantry unit mission.
06:02That was to go off in the jungle and see what you could find.
06:09A search and destroy type of operation.
06:17Charlie Company, in reconning, had the task of moving as stealthily as an American unit could
06:23through the jungle in search of the enemy, looking for trails and evidences of any sort of activity.
06:31In fact, it found some. It found a trail which had sandal prints on it
06:38and which was clearly in active use.
06:45As was the SOP or standard operating procedure for the 1st Cavalry,
06:51the company began to follow the trail, staying off of the trail itself,
06:57lest it be ambushed, and moving through the jungle slowly
07:01and attempting to see the enemy before the enemy saw it.
07:11Now, that's an impossibility.
07:14The North Vietnamese lived there. That was their neighborhood.
07:17They knew the terrain. They had outposts. They had sentinels.
07:23They could smell Americans because our diet was different.
07:27Americans smoked and smoked different sorts of cigarettes, so they could smell the cigarette smoke.
07:41As Charlie Company continues to stalk the enemy down the discovered trotter trail,
07:47there are more and more signs that they're heading for an enemy
07:51far more dangerous than the usual hit-and-run ambushes.
08:02A Kit Carson scout had found a blue communications wire.
08:07That always indicated a battalion size or level communications point at one end of it.
08:15Now I was more convinced than ever that there was a larger, well-entrenched unit somewhere up there.
08:28The jungle became thicker, and we began to have to slow our pace,
08:34as the indicators to me in the field were significant of an opposing force,
08:41which even generally would have exceeded mine in size.
08:46But certainly we were headed into a potential reinforced bunker area.
08:52And no light infantry unit since World War II has ever been successful against a planned bunker unit.
09:03The Company was in one of those areas of War Zone C
09:07where there were no landing zones possible, no outside support possible.
09:13It was literally on its own in no man's land.
09:19Therefore, it was very isolated, and it was in search of an enemy that far outnumbered it.
09:389-0-1-0, adjusting 1-5 to 2-5.
09:41I remember the point element stopped.
09:458-9-0-9, what's your ETA?
09:48And the point element radioed back to Captain Hobson.
09:52We've got a sign of enemy activity up here, and Captain Hobson asked what it was.
09:59And the person on the other end of the radio said,
10:03We've got fresh cuttings and a fresh pilot.
10:07And as soon as that word was out of his mouth, they hit us.
10:16It was just like the whole world turned upside down.
10:20The volume of fire that we started to receive was incredible.
10:24Everyone immediately hit the ground, got behind their packs, out to the jungle, put down suppressing fire.
10:34Captain Hobson's nightmare intuition proves correct.
10:38Charlie Company's 79 men are trapped and outgunned in a bristling bunker complex
10:44and facing an elite NVA regiment of some 700 soldiers.
10:49With no landing zones possible for resupply,
10:53and the nearest help blocked by miles of vicious jungle,
10:57Charlie Company's hours are numbered.
11:00Hobson knows defeat here dooms the viability of any further U.S. offensive efforts in the war.
11:09Roughly two miles away, John Poindexter and the men of his untested new unit
11:15listen by radio to the frantic calls of Charlie Company.
11:19Commanding the closest unit to the battle, Poindexter must make a life-or-death decision.
11:24To send his own men into a no-man's land on a near-suicidal rescue mission,
11:30or listen helplessly to the last desperate cries of Charlie Company.
11:54In the spring of 1970, U.S. forces are attempting to break the critical NVA supply lines
12:01in the hellhole known as War Zone C.
12:04Charlie Company, with just 79 men, is trapped in a heavily-bunkered NVA fortification
12:11and are now in a desperate fight for their lives.
12:14The thick, towering jungle.
12:17If they die in defeat, the last U.S. hope of offensive victory in Vietnam dies with them.
12:24I don't know how they did it, but the people up near the point element
12:28were able to go up and retrieve the men who were hit and bring them back within the group.
12:34And they were able to do it.
12:36They were able to do it.
12:38They were able to do it.
12:40They were able to do it.
12:41They were able to go up and retrieve the men who were hit and bring them back within the group.
12:46And then it was a matter of having to try and form a perimeter
12:52all the same time you're trying to put down a base of fire.
12:56Human instinct tells you to stay on that ground, don't move.
13:02Return fire, don't move.
13:06You can get killed.
13:08None of us, in our wildest dreams, had any idea of what we had actually stumbled into.
13:18We knew the enemy was somewhere close.
13:21Well, they wanted us to find them, and we did.
13:26For some, it was the last thing they did.
13:38The next thing I remember was gunfire broke out a ways away, but we could hear it clearly.
13:49We began to follow the action on the radio.
13:53It turned out, we soon discovered, there was Charlie Company.
13:58We knew something about Charlie Company.
14:00They'd ridden with us a couple of months before.
14:03Following that, it became very clear to us that the company was heavily engaged.
14:10They reported being surrounded nearly right away, which was a death sentence.
14:17That was a literal death sentence.
14:21To be in an area of impenetrable jungle, pinned down, unable to move, and surrounded,
14:30unable to be resupplied, unable to receive additional ammunition, unable to have casualties evacuated.
14:41We could get there before dark.
14:44None of the far more experienced and senior, far more capable officers and the helicopters
14:51at the site of this impending disaster knew we could do it.
14:56But we did.
15:02So John and I started talking, you know, what we should do.
15:06Because we hadn't received any orders to move or anything like that.
15:11So, what do you do?
15:14On the one hand, you know, if you do the thing that the Army says you never do,
15:21which is volunteer.
15:22You know men are going to die.
15:26And many others will be wounded.
15:30If you don't do it, if you say, let this cup pass me by.
15:37For the rest of your life, you're going to know that you let 80 men either die
15:44or we march into Cambodia and kill them.
15:48Either die or we march into Cambodia.
15:52And we had more than enough problems to worry about already,
15:56having been subjected to three deaths just the night before.
16:02We made a decision, and it was a mutual decision,
16:06that we were the closest friendly element to Charlie Company.
16:12And so that we had to go.
16:19On almost no sleep for two days, underfed, exhausted,
16:27those men moved out on command without any hesitation,
16:33right back into the jungle, knowing what was likely to happen to them.
16:39It was still a very long shot.
16:43They would get there in time, and if we got there,
16:47we were ambushed on the way ourselves.
16:51As Captain John Poindexter's A-Team mounts up and heads into the jungle,
16:56and in uncertain fate, Charlie Company is fighting desperately against the enemy.
17:01Little did we know that we had stumbled on to the entire 272nd Regiment
17:07of North Vietnamese Army, but also parts of the 93rd V.C. Regiment.
17:14We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:17We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:20We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:23We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:26We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:28We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:31We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:33We were in the middle of the jungle.
17:36We were about 80-something soldiers facing close to 700 NVA soldiers.
17:43This was going to be a different battle, a very desperate battle.
17:52We just hunkered down, the adrenaline kept pumping,
17:56And it went on and on and on, it never seemed to quit.
18:02And by this time, we had been in contact two hours, two and a half hours, and we started
18:10to run low on ammunition.
18:11I could hear on the radio all the other squads, the other platoons telling Captain Hobson,
18:16you know, we're low on ammo or someone's wounded and, you know, we need men up here.
18:22We're running out of all ammo.
18:28So about 1.30 or 2 o'clock, I told Colonel Conrad, if you don't give us some ammunition
18:35here by 3.30, just send the body bags and don't bother.
18:46Every hour of fading light over the dog's head brings the shrinking perimeter of Charlie
18:51Company closer to obliteration.
19:00Their only hope for survival is itself battling a nearly impenetrable jungle that is exhausting
19:06men, destroying Sheridans, and bringing the rescued to a crawl deep inside a no-man's
19:11land filled with enemy snipers and deadly ambushes.
19:16If they are to survive, Poindexter and his young men of 18 will have to adapt and overcome
19:22both nature and time as they race to save their brothers trapped in the hellhole of
19:28the dog's head.
19:46Deep in the no-man's land of War Zone C, less than 80 men of Charlie Company have discovered
20:01an enemy encampment and are now fighting for their lives against some 700 dug-in NVA.
20:07A defeat here will critically extinguish any last hope of offensive success in the Vietnam
20:14War.
20:18Attempting to rescue Charlie Company are Captain John Poindexter and his 180 men of 18.
20:25With only 4 hours of daylight left, the nearly suicidal mission is battling a brutal, impenetrable
20:32jungle that is slowing the rescue to a crawl.
20:41Not only were we worrying about an ambush on the way in, but also the time, it was after
20:46lunch, it was in the afternoon, in that part of the world, it gets dark about 7 o'clock.
20:53And so time was a big factor here.
20:56Time we wanted to get there before any more of Charlie Company was killed or wounded.
21:02We wanted to have time to get them and get them back out of there.
21:10We were using ammunition at a very high expenditure rate.
21:14I was really concerned about that.
21:17We were not getting any calls from battalion asking about how we were doing.
21:24And I had begun a redistribution of ammunition from those who are unable to engage in the
21:30return of fire.
21:35We're getting lower and lower on ammunition, and then I hear the blades of a helicopter.
21:54On the radio, the pilot says, where are you?
21:58Pop smoke.
22:01The skids were in the canopy.
22:03And it never quite got over us from the east side, but it got very close.
22:10And I could still hear the sound of the small arms and tracers going into that helicopter.
22:24The helicopter was being hit so heavily that they were obviously getting at everything
22:30they could as quickly as they could.
22:37So at any rate, the ammunition comes out.
22:39None of it's in the perimeter.
22:42Who they were, how in the heck they did, I'll never know.
22:46But I can remember watching two guys run out there and grab some of that ammunition and
22:54start hauling it back inside our perimeter.
22:57I didn't think we'd get another resupply.
23:00That was it.
23:02It took us approximately four hours to get to that area with the knocking down jungle.
23:07There was no trail, no road, nothing to go up there.
23:10We didn't even know Charlie was coming to still be there when we got up there.
23:14That's how bad the battle was going.
23:17We knew this was going to be a serious fight, not a hit and run battle like we were used to.
23:23We were going in and going to take the tire on by the throat.
23:35We could not get the wounded out.
23:39We either all stay here and die together or some of us stay here and try and provide a delay force
23:47for those few that might get out of there, remain alive overnight until some help could be brought in.
24:04Hell, that was the only thing I had to do.
24:07What hell else was I going to do?
24:18Oh, Jesus.
24:21All those kids were going to die.
24:24There was nothing I could do about it.
24:47I guess it was probably close to between 4.30 and 5 o'clock, and all of a sudden we began to hear this roar.
25:10What the heck is that?
25:15You're used to the noise and the chaos of the battle, but this was a different sound.
25:25Pretty soon, though, it came over the net that there was a relief column on its way.
25:35It was Alpha Troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry and our sister infantry company who was operating with them that day.
25:44They had taken it on their own.
25:48Their commanders had been listening to the battle four or five kilometers away,
25:53and without being told, they knew that we weren't going to get out of there,
26:00not going to get out of there alive, anyway.
26:08Captain John Poindexter, Captain Ray Armour, made the decision.
26:14They were going to come in there, and they were going to help us, if they could, on their own.
26:20They would risk their lives and the lives of their men to come to the aid of their fellow soldiers.
26:26Charlie Company was flat on their stomachs, or backs if you'd argue, killed,
26:31flat on their stomachs in a very small circle, completely surrounded by the NVA.
26:39To me, it was much like a bullfight.
26:42These are the picadores, and they're getting the bull ready for the kill,
26:47exhausting it so its head hangs down, and it's ready to go.
26:53A lot of us weren't even thinking about fighting.
26:55We were thinking we'd just get them and run home, but we didn't.
27:03With darkness approaching and no time to look for weak spots,
27:07Captain Poindexter makes a fateful decision to set the NVA back on its heels
27:12to cover A-Team's return through the jungle with the help of his men.
27:17To set the NVA back on its heels to cover A-Team's return through the jungle with the rescue Charlie Company.
27:24Against a powerful enemy expecting him to turn tail,
27:27he instead calls for an all-out, straight-ahead armor and infantry assault.
27:35With so many of Charlie Company's men wounded and low on ammunition,
27:39the brash decision will test Poindexter's young soldiers
27:42as they confront head-on an elite NVA force of some 700 entrenched soldiers determined to fight to the death.
28:13Deep inside War Zone C, while attempting to cut off critical enemy supply chains,
28:18Captain George Hopson's 79 men of Charlie Company
28:22are fighting for their lives against some 700 surrounding NVA.
28:27Captain John Poindexter's A-Team of armor-riding infantry
28:31have broken through the jungle to reach the embattled company.
28:35Outnumbered 4 to 1, Poindexter determines he will not just gather the survivors and retreat.
28:40That's just not the cavalry way.
28:42Instead, he will strike the tough enemy bunkers toe-to-toe
28:46to deliver a parting mauling that will tell the enemy
28:49that 1st Cavalry will still be going anywhere it wants in Vietnam as long as the war goes on.
28:56It was at least theoretically possible to turn the troop around
29:00and load the casualties, load Charlie Company up, and leave.
29:06But that was not the mode of operation of the 11th Cavalry.
29:12The 11th Cavalry was a unit that was, it was, it was a unit that was
29:18It was not the mode of operation of the 11th Cavalry.
29:22The 11th Cavalry was a unit that was, that was inculcated with the notion of assault.
29:30When in the presence of the enemy,
29:33the only reaction was to come on line and to assault the enemy.
29:41So John lines up and Ray Armour gets in position,
29:46and they're going to attack into the bunkers.
29:49Again, we didn't have any idea that there were some 700 regular NVA soldiers there.
29:57They pulled up into the bunker complex, pulled on line,
30:01then all hell broke loose when they opened fire.
30:05They tore that place apart.
30:10Gunfire
30:24It could be something that you'd have to experience to be able to comprehend.
30:29Gunfire
30:32The jungle began to erode before our eyes.
30:36Brush splintered. Leaves fell down.
30:40Bunkers began to be visible.
30:44It was an unnerving revelation. That's what was in front of us.
30:50It was a complex of trenches, bunkers, and fortified points.
30:58It was a massive fortification.
31:02Gunfire
31:06The advance began, and it was a fight, an individual duel,
31:11a single vehicle against a bunker or a complex or a group of bunkers.
31:18It was a brawl, a face-to-face brutal brawl,
31:23where the victory went to whoever was willing to stand there and slug it out the longest.
31:29Gunfire
31:33That's when things got real serious because the North Vietnamese were fully in evidence.
31:38They were there.
31:41They began to fight back vigorously from their fortified positions.
31:46Gunfire
31:49Our line advanced slowly to the bunker complex a meter at a time,
31:55a meter, two meters, 10 meters, 15 meters.
32:00The left wing of the advance was completely emet.
32:04It could go almost nowhere.
32:06Gunfire
32:10The ACAVs and the Sheridans were closest to us.
32:13I don't think they ever got more than about 50 yards beyond our perimeter into that bunker complex.
32:19Gunfire
32:27I was beginning to think about this battle being literally unwinnable
32:33and the loss being so catastrophic that we couldn't bear it.
32:39Bogged down in the middle of the complex, unable to withdraw.
32:43Charlie Company still brutalized.
32:46Our men now bleeding to death.
32:49Explosion
32:53Another monster explosion took place right next to me.
32:59I was hurled to the floor of our ACAV along with the rest of the crew.
33:05Explosion
33:09It was time to call Colonel Conrad, our battalion commander.
33:14I told him I thought we were all done.
33:16He said, you're way more than done.
33:19Get out of there.
33:21Explosion
33:26We had done our job.
33:29We had fought the enemy.
33:31We had fought him well.
33:34One of the Sheridans charged back towards and into where I was
33:41with the TC standing up and saying, get your guys loaded up.
33:44We're going to get out of here.
33:46Explosion
33:48We had two and a half miles of jungle to traverse.
33:53The only way out was the way we came in.
33:57No other choice.
33:59I looked down inside my own vehicle.
34:02Big rectangular aluminum box with a cavernous interior,
34:07now almost devoid of ammunition.
34:11It was filled with infantrymen laying at our feet.
34:17Some were dead.
34:21Explosion
34:22We couldn't put any in our turret.
34:24We couldn't function with our weapons with anybody else in there.
34:27But they rode on the back and they rode on the front of my Sheridan.
34:31But I heard some of the other guys say they would get in the bellies
34:34of those armored personnel carriers
34:36and the gunners couldn't even find a place to stand.
34:39In some instances, guys laid on top of guys in there.
34:45The three-hour slugfest has left three dead
34:48and many in critical condition in need of immediate medical attention.
34:52With nothing to light their way and darkness quickly falling,
34:57Poindexter is once again in a race against time.
35:02Had the enemy felled trees across our line of advance?
35:06Were there mines?
35:07Had they put a minefield in behind us?
35:10Was there an ambush?
35:11Were there a hundred of them behind us
35:14waiting for us to try to leave through the same route we'd entered on?
35:23There was no choice.
35:30By 6 p.m., the ragged unit has left the enemy fortifications
35:34but finds itself smothered in darkness,
35:37forcing the slow-moving column to a stop.
35:42Low on ammunition, the belly of their armor,
35:45filled with the wounded and dying,
35:47vulnerable to an enemy that owns the night,
35:50Poindexter and Charlie Company are once again trapped.
35:54But in the coming hours,
35:56one of the greatest displays of raw courage, tenacity,
36:00and brilliant adaptability ever displayed by a U.S. fighting unit
36:04will find yet one more miracle in the darkness of the dog's head.
36:21After hours of brutal toe-to-toe fighting to rescue Charlie Company,
36:26Captain Poindexter's A-Team,
36:28low on ammunition and heavy on casualties,
36:31have been forced to a stop deep inside the dog's head,
36:35surrounded by an enemy that owns the night.
36:39We were called in by Captain Poindexter
36:41and we were told that the dog's head
36:43was surrounded by an enemy that owns the night.
36:47We were exhausted.
36:49The adrenaline was up real high.
36:52The fear is there.
36:54Am I going to get hit again?
36:56Is an RPG going to hit the side of his track vehicle?
37:00Am I going to die before I get back?
37:03At that point, we really couldn't move anymore.
37:07You can't turn your headlights on if there are any left.
37:10I don't think we probably had any headlights left.
37:13We were stuck like a long snake in the intestines of this jungle.
37:20We had to have overhead illumination.
37:24We were lost.
37:26We were lost except we had one last chance.
37:31We had one mortar track left back at the night defensive position.
37:38Captain Poindexter is able to reach
37:40Captain Poindexter is able to reach
37:42the vital mortar team four kilometers away by radio
37:46and tells them,
37:47fire everything you have into the air.
37:50The crew scrambles desperately to find illumination rounds.
37:55They issued the command and as if by magic,
38:04the night began to lighten.
38:08The mortar section actually shot a round
38:11that was close enough to begin to illuminate
38:15a passage through the jungle.
38:20Just a sense of total relief.
38:23We knew we were going to get back to where our buddies
38:25could get evacuated, get treated.
38:29We fulfilled our mission.
38:31We fought like American soldiers should fight.
38:37Although we hated to lose our brothers
38:41and to see our friends wounded,
38:50it was a moment of pride.
38:58It wasn't until many years later
39:01that I began to truly appreciate the sacrifices
39:05the men had made,
39:07men who literally were willing to risk their lives
39:11at a time when we were all in the greatest peril
39:16that anyone could imagine.
39:19These men were brothers in every real sense.
39:26Good afternoon, everybody.
39:50And welcome to the White House.
39:53Welcome to a moment nearly 40 years in the making.
40:03Today we celebrate the awarding of our nation's
40:06highest honor for a military unit,
40:09the Presidential Unit Citation.
40:12We, an entire generation of men and women
40:16who had been unrecognized for their patriotic roles
40:21in a war that the country chose to forget
40:24for a very long time.
40:27This was for us redemption, recognition,
40:31and peacemaking with our past.
40:34I cannot imagine a more fitting tribute to these men
40:37who fought in what came to be called the anonymous battle.
40:41Troopers, you are not anonymous anymore.
40:43And with America's overdue recognition
40:45also comes responsibility,
40:47our responsibility as citizens and as a nation
40:50to always remain worthy of your service.
40:57The epic battle in the Dog's Head still has no name.
41:01But to the men who fought there,
41:03all that matters is the imperishable names
41:06of every one of the band of brothers
41:08who bled and died at their side
41:11as they fought impossibly against the odds.
41:18I saw men in combat rushing to aid other injured soldiers.
41:24People not think of their own self
41:26when they did acts of courage.
41:28They thought of the other person.
41:30And like we said when we were there,
41:32we're fighting for each other.
41:34And that's what most of us did.
41:36We fought for each other.
41:43Forty-five years later, when I go up to the wall
41:48in Washington, D.C., on Veterans Day,
41:56I don't forget these men.
42:01It makes a difference in my life.
42:07Soldiers in both Alpha Troop and Alpha Company,
42:10I don't think that they felt, any of them,
42:13that they were doing anything particularly heroic that day.
42:17I believe that that's also the way that we would have felt
42:21had they needed our help.
42:23But it's undoubtedly true that without the courage,
42:29the foresight, and the good leadership
42:33of Ray Armour and John Poindexter,
42:37Charlie Company would not have survived.
42:45I got to meet these men.
42:47I got to walk up to them, shake their hands,
42:51look them in the eyes, hug them, laugh, cry.
42:56These are the guys who saved my life.
42:59And I can tell you that to a man,
43:04every time I shook their hand and said,
43:07thank you, thank you for saving my life,
43:11they looked me in the eye and said,
43:13you'd have done the same thing for me.
43:16You'd have done the same thing for me.
43:19And he's right.
43:21I would have done it because that's what we did.
43:24That's the American soldier.
43:26That's what we did.
43:27We were brothers.
43:34♪♪