0:01 Normally I don't like dealing in
0:02 absolutes. However, I am extremely
0:04 confident in saying that this is the
0:06 most gangster supply sergeant of all time.
0:08 time.
0:10 Today we're talking about Robert Howard,
0:12 the most decorated green beret in US
0:13 history. He started off his military
0:15 career as a mechanic, then became a
0:17 parachute rigger, then became a supply
0:18 sergeant. After being shot in the face
0:20 and surviving in Vietnam, he then
0:22 volunteered to go out with MV SOG
0:24 whenever they needed an extra guy or a
0:26 strap hanger despite having no Green
0:28 Beret or special forces training.
0:29 Despite his initial lack of training, he
0:31 rapidly went from the extra guy they
0:33 brought along to help carry the radio to
0:35 the man they specifically requested to
0:36 come and help on their most dangerous
0:38 missions. Having been shot in the face,
0:40 blown up, and severely wounded multiple
0:42 times on multiple occasions, he is quite
0:44 literally the human embodiment of the
0:45 Terminator and has been written up for
0:47 the Medal of Honor on three separate
0:49 occasions and awarded at once because
0:50 that's legally the amount of times he
0:52 could earn it. In addition to that, he
0:53 has been awarded two distinguished
0:55 service crosses, the silver star, the
0:57 defense superior service medal, four
0:59 legions of merit, four bronze stars with
1:01 V device, and eight purple hearts. And
1:02 we're going to get into it right after a
1:04 word from our sponsor. This video is
1:05 brought to you by Element. Okay, we're
1:06 not going to over complicate this. It's
1:08 hydration mix. You buy a box, it's got a
1:09 bunch of sticks in it, you pour that in
1:10 your water, you drink it, and then
1:12 you're more hydrated. They got a bunch
1:13 of different flavors. They also sell
1:14 them in pre-made cans. And if you're
1:16 like ultra health-minded, you can get
1:18 just the raw thing and mix it with your
1:19 water, and then it tastes like you're
1:21 drinking salt water. be because you are.
1:23 Element is legitimately one of the few
1:24 products that I approached to see if
1:26 they would sponsor me because I actually
1:28 used their product beforehand and to be
1:29 honest with you, I just wanted a bunch
1:30 of it for free. Let's read the
1:32 ingredient list together. Okay, I
1:33 actually know all of these words. Salt,
1:36 citric acid, magnesium, potassium,
1:38 natural flavors, stevia extract. That's
1:40 it. Okay, there's no artificial dyes.
1:42 So, RFK is happy. The brain worms are
1:44 mad. It's fantastic. On top of that,
1:45 it's used by all kinds of professional
1:47 athletes in the NBA, the NHL, the
1:49 Olympics, and all other kinds of stuff.
1:50 Which it raises the obvious question,
1:52 why are they sponsoring a guy known as
1:53 the fat electrician on the internet? And
1:55 the obvious answer is, well, I'm known
1:57 for drinking copious amounts of alcohol
1:58 on the internet, including at the Pentagon.
2:04 >> Better knowing how much paperwork went into
2:05 into
2:07 >> first one to finish a white clone.
2:09 To be completely honest with you,
2:10 Element is probably the only reason me
2:12 and the boys over at the Unsubscribed
2:13 Podcast were able to finish our last
2:15 live tour because I don't think we would
2:16 have made it to all the venues without
2:17 it. So yeah, if you want to give it a
2:18 try, head over to drinkelement/fatelectrician.
2:20 drinkelement/fatelectrician.
2:21 Doesn't matter if you're an old customer
2:22 or a new customer, you're going to get a
2:24 free sample pack with your order. Let's
2:27 get back to the video.
2:29 All right, our story begins on July
2:31 11th, 1939 when Robert Howard is born in
2:33 Opaikica, Alabama. When he's four years
2:35 old, his dad is drafted to go off and
2:36 fight in World War II in the Pacific.
2:38 And when dad comes back, he suffers from
2:40 what I can only describe as undiagnosed
2:42 PTSD and has a crippling alcohol
2:44 problem. From there, dad works at the
2:45 local cab company for the rest of
2:47 Robert's childhood, and he grows up dirt
2:49 poor in Opalikica, Alabama with his dad,
2:51 his mom, his grandmother, and his six
2:52 younger siblings. The only early
2:53 childhood memory that he ever talks
2:55 about was when he was young, he finally
2:57 got a new pair of shoes, which was a big
2:59 deal for a poor kid in the 1940s and
3:00 five high school bullies were trying to
3:02 take his shoes. And for the first week,
3:04 they would chase him from the bus all
3:05 the way to his house, but he would
3:06 always outrun him and never get caught.
3:09 And got to keep his shoes.
3:11 >> That boy sure is a running fool.
3:13 >> After seeing this, his grandmother
3:14 pulled him aside and said, "Robert, you
3:16 don't run away from your problems. You
3:18 run towards them." The very next day, he
3:19 comes back home from school beat up, but
3:21 he still had his shoes. From here,
3:22 Robert continues to grow up, and he is
3:24 pretty much a brick [ __ ] house of a
3:26 young man, being 6' tall, 170 lb,
3:28 extremely athletic, and good at sports.
3:29 Despite that, he drops out of high
3:31 school to help his family make money and
3:32 goes to work with dad at the cab
3:34 company. When he's 17 years old, he gets
3:36 his GED and then wants to enlist in the
3:38 military. Dad is furious, doesn't want
3:40 his son to enlist. Wants him to go off,
3:42 get a normal job, lead a normal life.
3:43 Robert basically just comes to him. He's
3:45 like, "Look, I'm 17. I need your
3:46 signature to let me go join the
3:47 military, but I'm going to do it in a
3:49 year anyways if you say no, so you might
3:50 as well just let me do it now." Dad
3:53 agrees, signs the paperwork. Robert
3:54 ships off to basic training. Crushes
3:56 basic, crushes AIT, no problem
3:58 whatsoever. ends up getting stationed at
3:59 Fort Hood, and he is a mechanic because
4:01 of his experience at the cab company.
4:02 Now, that sounds all good and fine, but
4:04 this isn't what Robert wanted. Robert
4:06 grew up watching propaganda from World
4:08 War II and the Korean War. He wanted to
4:10 go off and become a paratrooper, and now
4:11 he's stuck inside the motorpool doing
4:13 maintenance on a bunch of military
4:14 vehicles. This is just it's not what he
4:16 wanted, but he's trapped. There's
4:17 nothing he can do. So, he basically just
4:19 lives it up. He's, you know, a lower
4:21 enlisted private than a specialist. He's
4:22 partying. He's drinking too much. He's
4:24 going out with his friends. He's not
4:25 really doing anything to advance his
4:27 military career. After a couple of years
4:28 of doing that, his reinlistment is
4:29 starting to come up and his sergeant
4:31 pulls him aside and is like, "Hey, look,
4:32 if you want to stay in the army, you got
4:34 to get your [ __ ] together and actually
4:35 start doing stuff to advance your
4:36 career, otherwise they're going to kick
4:37 you out." So that's exactly what he
4:39 does. He gets real straight laced, quits
4:41 drinking so much, quits partying so
4:42 much, goes out into town, finds a nice
4:44 girl by the name of Tina. They wind up
4:46 getting married from here. He turns into
4:47 an excellent soldier. Then when that
4:49 reinlistment time finally comes, they
4:50 want to keep him in. So he says, "You
4:52 know, I'll reinlist for another 6 years,
4:54 but I want it put in my contract that
4:55 you're going to send me off to be a
4:57 paratrooper." They agree. He gets sent
4:59 off to Fort Bragg, attached to the 101st
5:00 Airborne. Goes through a paratrooper
5:02 school. Passes through that no problem.
5:04 Gets his jump wings, becomes a parachute
5:05 rigger and a supply sergeant with the
5:07 101st Airborne. From here, his wife Tina
5:08 ends up getting pregnant and he is
5:10 shortly after that sent over to France
5:12 for 2 years straight. Comes back home
5:14 and meets his daughter for the first
5:16 time when she's 18 months old. He is
5:18 then home for about 45 minutes before
5:20 getting sent off to Vietnam.
5:22 >> This is whole other country. As they
5:23 make their approach into theater, he is
5:24 informed that they are going to be
5:26 making an amphibious landing. He's
5:27 pumped. He wants to go into combat. This
5:29 has been his whole thing. In his brain,
5:31 he's thinking D-Day, storming the beach
5:33 at Normandy, enemy gunfire. This is
5:35 going to be awesome. Action hero type
5:37 stuff. As they approach, he's informed,
5:39 oh, it's actually a secured beach. This
5:40 is just the fastest way to get everybody
5:46 >> I bet they shrimp balls in these water.
5:47 >> So, not the excitement he was looking
5:49 for, but whatever. They pull up in the
5:51 Higgins boat. They drop the hatch door.
5:53 He's told that they're on the beach. He
5:56 steps off full of all of his gear, 120
5:58 lbs worth of [ __ ] He then sinks 12 feet
6:00 to the ocean floor and almost drowns.
6:02 From here, it's 6 weeks of just moving
6:04 closer and closer towards combat, and
6:05 it's just a giant nothing burger.
6:07 Nothing ever happens. They're just
6:09 driving the trucks closer, marching,
6:10 getting to where the actual combat is.
6:12 As you get closer, things start to
6:13 escalate. Sometimes there's, you know,
6:15 incoming mortars. Sometimes there's
6:17 enemy sniper fire. But really, it's just
6:18 kind of boring. Nothing ever happens.
6:21 never sees any bad guys, nothing. And
6:22 then one day they get ambushed. Nobody
6:24 was expecting it. It's a giant cluster
6:26 [ __ ] His officer in charge is kind of
6:28 like panicking. Doesn't know what to do.
6:30 He's froze up, not giving any orders.
6:31 Howard runs up to him and is like, "What
6:33 are we doing? What's the plan?" Guy
6:35 doesn't have anything, so he's just
6:36 like, "Point to a spot on the map you
6:38 want me to defend. I'll go defend it."
6:40 Gives Howard a location. Howard grabs
6:42 some guys and sets off to defend that
6:44 perimeter. Once he gets to his position,
6:45 he starts setting up the perimeter,
6:46 getting his guys set up with fields of
6:48 fire. And while he's doing that, he
6:49 winds up getting shot in the face with
6:52 an AK-47 right in the cheek, passes
6:53 through his mouth, knocks out a bunch of
6:55 his teeth, and he wakes up in the
6:56 hospital. And wouldn't you know it, the
6:58 guy in the bed next to him is actually
6:59 his buddy from airborne school that
7:01 apparently has went on to become a
7:03 special forces Green Beret. They wind up
7:04 hanging out the entire time while
7:05 they're both recovering in the hospital.
7:07 Then one day, Green Beret guy is getting
7:09 ready to leave. His colonel comes to
7:10 pick him up and he recommends to the
7:12 colonel like, "Hey, this is my buddy
7:13 Robert Howard. We could use a guy like
7:15 him out in the field." And the colonel's
7:16 like, "Is that so? you think you want to
7:18 do this? And Robert Howard is like,
7:19 "Yeah, anything to get me into the
7:21 action." And he just kind of nods and
7:24 walks off.
7:26 Howard has to spend a little bit more
7:27 time in the hospital recovering. Once
7:29 he's fully recovered, he basically
7:31 forgot that conversation even happened.
7:32 Shifts back off to his unit with the
7:34 101st. Gets there and his commanding
7:35 officer is like, "Howard, there's a
7:37 chopper waiting for you. They got to
7:38 take you somewhere." And he's like,
7:40 "What? Where?" He's like, "I have no
7:41 idea. Apparently, it's special forces
7:43 and it's top secret. They're not telling
7:45 me [ __ ] just to tell you to get on the
7:47 chopper. So he gets on the helicopter
7:49 that flies him to Saigon to the Military
7:52 Assistance Command of Vietnam, aka MACV.
7:54 While he is there, he is offered the
7:56 opportunity to assist the Studies and
7:58 Observations Group, a top secret
8:00 military unit that responds directly to
8:02 the White House and the Joint Chiefs of
8:04 Staff that the government will not admit
8:06 even exists for decades afterwards. From
8:08 here, he is told that this is strictly
8:09 voluntary. He does not have to do this,
8:11 but if he does want to, he'll be
8:13 operating inside of foreign countries,
8:15 Laos and Cambodia, two places America is
8:16 not supposed to be.
8:18 >> Also heard we're in [ __ ] Cambodia
8:18 right now.
8:21 >> Cambodia, man. You're kidding me.
8:22 >> Because of that, on these missions, he
8:24 will be going behind enemy lines with
8:25 nothing that identifies him as an
8:27 American soldier. And if he is killed or
8:28 captured, which there is a high
8:30 likelihood of, the American government
8:31 will sweep it under the rug and say they
8:33 know nothing about it. Now, I can only
8:34 assume hearing this, Robert is like,
8:36 "Okay, so let me get this straight. You
8:38 want me, a supply sergeant, to go out
8:40 with the Green Beretss in a country
8:42 we're not supposed to be in in the most
8:44 dangerous combat that you have with a
8:46 super high casualty rate with no Green
8:48 Beret training whatsoever. And the
8:49 American government is like, "Yeah,
8:51 that's exactly it." And you know, if you
8:53 survive for like 6 months, we'll send
8:54 you back home to America and then you
8:56 can get your Green Beret and we'll get
8:57 you the training then after you've
8:59 already done the job. To which Robert is like,
9:00 like,
9:07 >> Fast forward. Robert shows up to a SOG
9:09 forward operational base and he is blown
9:11 away because it is not like any other
9:13 military operation he has ever seen.
9:15 Robert is straight laced, clean shaven,
9:17 right uniform, right place, right time.
9:18 And everybody else on this operational
9:20 base is just walking around in whatever
9:22 clothes they want. They've got beards,
9:23 they've got ponytails. Don't look like
9:25 the military professional that he's ever
9:27 seen. Yet, these are the best operators
9:29 America has to offer. Despite eventually
9:30 going on to become one of these guys, he
9:32 never really gives up his clean shaven
9:34 straight laced appearance. Which, you
9:36 know what, to be fair, [ __ ] look at
9:38 him. If I look like that, I wouldn't
9:39 give up my clean shaven look either.
9:41 Okay, look at his jawline. Homie could
9:43 get in a katana fight with that jawline
9:45 and probably win. Sorry. Anyways, from
9:47 here, he spends the next 6 months being
9:48 the supply sergeant on the forward
9:51 operational base and operating as a
9:53 strap hanger. Strap hanger is just the
9:55 term for like, hey, we've got a group of
9:57 SOG guys going out. They need an extra
9:59 volunteer to help carry the radio and
10:00 just do what they're told. Robert starts
10:02 doing a ton of that. And to be honest,
10:03 during this period of time, we don't
10:05 have many specifics outside of that for
10:06 multiple reasons. Everything's top
10:08 secret. A lot of the MAC VOG documents
10:11 were destroyed after Vietnam and Robert
10:12 never kept a personal journal. In fact,
10:13 the only reason we have stories on
10:15 Robert Howard at all is because they had
10:17 to document what he did to earn his
10:18 medals. Everything outside of that that
10:21 he did is lost to time. So, we don't
10:22 really know what happened over this
10:24 6-mon span. However, we do know that he
10:26 was in combat because during this
10:27 period, he was awarded the combat
10:29 infantry badge. From here, he goes back
10:30 home and he goes through the entire
10:32 Green Beret training pipeline through
10:35 1966 through 1967. And by the end of
10:37 1967, he is awarded his Green Beret.
10:38 From here, he gets sent back out to
10:41 Vietnam, still operating as part of SOG.
10:43 He is sent to SOG Ford operational base
10:45 2, which is right at a triber area
10:47 between Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. So,
10:49 they can go into both those countries
10:50 fairly quickly and fairly easily
10:52 whenever needed. He is still operating
10:54 as a supply sergeant and he is not
10:56 attached to an actual SOG team. So he is
10:58 still operating as a strap hanger
10:59 whenever they need somebody. Initially
11:01 he struggles to get the opportunity to
11:02 actually go out with the SOG team
11:04 because well they're going out behind
11:06 enemy lines on an extremely dangerous
11:07 mission. Nobody wants to bring the
11:09 [ __ ] new guy for his first time,
11:10 right? Well, somebody finally takes a
11:12 chance on him. He proves himself. He
11:14 starts strap hanging all the time. And
11:16 from here he goes from the [ __ ] new
11:18 guy to the guy that everybody
11:19 specifically requests because he's
11:21 ferocious on the battlefield. and he
11:24 comes up with, we'll say, innovative
11:26 solutions to problems. On one occasion,
11:27 he was strap hanging for a SOG team and
11:29 they were going to go behind enemy lines
11:32 for 19 days straight and plot out safe
11:34 paths for downed pilots to take to get
11:36 back into Vietnam and get to safety. The
11:37 problem was that by this point in time,
11:39 the North Vietnamese had become aware of
11:41 SOG's operations and they were actually
11:43 sending teams out to be counter
11:45 reconnaissance. So whenever they saw
11:46 helicopters coming into country, they
11:48 would have scouts in the area and they
11:50 would just trail the SOG operatives so
11:52 that they knew everything SOG knew.
11:54 Obviously for a mission where you're
11:55 trying to chart a safe path for a downed
11:57 pilot, you don't want the enemy knowing
11:59 where these safe paths are. So they
12:01 needed to figure out a way how to get
12:02 rid of this counter reconnaissance unit.
12:04 So they called up the supply sergeant.
12:06 He then proceeds to take an old foot
12:08 locker. You know that big trunk that
12:09 sits at the foot of your bed when you're
12:10 in the military that you put all your
12:12 stuff in and lock it with a padlock. He
12:14 takes one of those, paints it bright
12:17 red, fills it with 80 lb of TNT, ball
12:19 bearings, nails, all kinds of [ __ ] and
12:21 then rigs it up to explode on a 5-minute
12:23 timer. They fly in on the helicopters,
12:25 get dropped off in this country, grab
12:26 this red foot locker, throw it out the
12:28 helicopter, and then run off into the
12:30 wood line, leaving the foot locker. Now,
12:32 to the enemy, if there is an enemy out
12:33 there that's surveilling them, this
12:35 looks like they were in such a hurry
12:37 that they either forgot their supplies
12:38 or they were in such a hurry, they
12:40 didn't want to be bogged down and have
12:41 to carry them. So they go out, they run
12:43 into the wood line, they're laying down
12:45 watching this chest. Sure enough, an
12:47 entire squad of NVA counter
12:48 reconnaissance comes up and they start
12:50 investigating this Foot Locker trying to
12:52 pry it open. Foot Locker obviously
12:54 explodes. Counter recon guys are now
12:58 gone. Robert Howard said that it blew
13:08 On another occasion, he was part of a
13:10 hatchet force, which is a team that was
13:11 actually supposed to go out and engage
13:13 the enemy. And he thought it would be a
13:15 good idea to run up next to a troop
13:17 transport truck full of NBA soldiers. He
13:19 then rigged up a claymore to explode and
13:21 hucked it in the back before diving in
13:23 the ditch and blowing up the entire
13:24 truck. One of the SOG team leaders that
13:26 he strap hung for consistently later
13:28 described him as, and I quote, "I never
13:31 saw him show any fear whatsoever. He'd
13:34 do anything you wanted him to do.
13:36 Dude was literally the Terminator.
13:38 >> I'm a cybernetic organism living tissue
13:44 >> All right. Late October 1967, Howard
13:46 volunteers to strap hang for a recon
13:48 mission. Super straightforward mission.
13:50 There's a river. Next to that river,
13:51 there's a trail that the NVA is well
13:53 known for using. Military intelligence
13:54 figures there's got to be a
13:56 communication line strung right along
13:58 that trail so they can communicate. They
14:00 want them to go in super sneaky, attach
14:02 something onto this wire so they're
14:04 going to be able to listen to all their
14:05 communications and then get out. So they
14:07 go out on this mission, everything's
14:08 going great. They make it to where this
14:09 river is. They're looking for the
14:11 communication wire and they come up on
14:13 an enormous enemy cache of supplies,
14:15 food, there's a thousand rounds of
14:17 recoilless rocket ammunition, and a ton
14:19 of small arms ammo. They figure they got
14:20 to do something about this, but they're
14:22 a small recon element. They're not going
14:23 to be able to take this out by
14:24 themselves. So they radio back into
14:26 headquarters. Headquarters agrees they
14:28 need to get rid of it. So they send in
14:29 an entire hatchet force, which is like
14:32 30 to 60 guys that are meant to actually
14:33 engage the enemy. They go, they link up
14:35 with the hatchet force. They bring them
14:36 to the cache. And while they're making
14:38 their way to this enemy cash, they get
14:40 ambushed. A concealed enemy machine gun
14:41 position unconceals itself, starts
14:43 opening fire on Howard and all of his
14:45 men. Howard dons his plot armor and
14:48 rushes the machine gun nest by himself,
14:50 gets to the mouth of it, and drops all
14:52 four men inside of this nest. While that
14:53 was happening, another enemy machine gun
14:56 nest unconcealed itself, unbeknownst to
14:57 Howard. And as soon as he clears the
15:00 first one, he blacks out.
15:02 He got lit up by that second machine gun
15:04 nest. And when he comes to, he's shot
15:05 through his left shoulder. He's got a
15:07 broken clavicle, and he's got blood all
15:09 over his face. He was just shot in the
15:11 face again. In hindsight, he thinks it
15:12 was a ricochet because it didn't
15:15 penetrate his actual skull. Regardless,
15:16 he's not doing that great. So, he lays
15:17 there and waits for the medic to come
15:19 help him out. No, I'm just kidding. He
15:21 starts crawling towards the other enemy
15:23 machine gun nest after being shot and he
15:25 starts making his way there and then he
15:27 starts taking fairly accurate fire from
15:28 an enemy marksman off in the distance.
15:31 Grabs his car 15, returns fire, kills
15:33 that guy, continues crawling to the
15:35 enemy machine gun nest, gets right up to
15:37 the mouth of it, and hits it with a grenade.
15:39 grenade.
15:40 >> From here, he runs back to his men,
15:41 makes it to cover, and they start
15:43 getting lit up by that first machine gun
15:45 nest all over again. of more bad guys
15:47 have spawned from the jungle and manned
15:49 this gun all over again. Made a mistake,
15:51 left the machine gun operable. Not about
15:52 to make that mistake again. Looks to one
15:54 of his men, says, "Give me that rocket
15:56 launcher." Hands Bob the rocket
15:58 launcher. Bob pops up out of the ditch,
16:00 fires a rocket launcher directly at this
16:02 nest, blows the entire thing up. From
16:03 here, the hatchet force and everybody
16:05 else moves in. They burn all the food.
16:07 They blow up all the ammunition. They
16:09 xfill. They get extracted by helicopter.
16:11 Bob gets sent off to the hospital. Bob
16:12 gets patched up at the hospital, gets
16:14 out of the hospital, goes gets in a
16:16 helicopter. They fly him to Mac Visog
16:17 headquarters with one other guy that was
16:19 there that apparently did exceptional
16:21 things in the battle as well. And they
16:22 go into a meeting with General West
16:25 Morland, the four-star general that is
16:27 in command of all of SOG. West Morland
16:28 then sits him down, tells him that that
16:30 was one of the biggest enemy caches
16:31 they've ever found, and that this
16:33 mission was an enormous success, and
16:35 both of them performed incredibly, and
16:38 basically does like the Godfather Mafia
16:40 move of like, I owe you one. What do you
16:42 guys want? First guy tells General West
16:43 Morland he wants to get commissioned as
16:45 an officer and go off to flight school
16:47 because he wants to be a pilot. General
16:49 West Morland's like, "Done." Turns to
16:51 Howard. What do you want? Robert Howard
16:53 looks him right in the eye and says, "I
16:55 just want to continue my combat duty.
17:01 >> From here, Bob gets back to SOB2,
17:02 continues his duties as a supply
17:04 sergeant, and the base commander informs
17:05 him that he has written him up for the
17:07 Medal of Honor. He would not wind up
17:08 getting awarded it, though. it would get
17:10 downgraded to a distinguished service
17:12 cross. Second week of December, they
17:13 think they know where a battalion
17:15 headquarters is for the NVA. They want
17:17 to send in a big team and take them out.
17:18 Basically, they're going to send in a
17:20 team, get eyes on headquarters, call in
17:22 an accurate air strike, blow the entire
17:23 thing up. That being said, they're
17:25 expecting heavy contact. Going to be a
17:27 super dangerous mission, call in the
17:29 supply sergeant. So, they go in, they
17:31 get inserted miles and miles from where
17:32 they think this headquarters actually is
17:34 because they want to be able to sneak up
17:35 through the jungle. As soon as the
17:36 helicopters touch down, they get
17:38 ambushed. During this ambush, Bob ends
17:39 up getting shot through the right
17:41 shoulder and getting his forearm sliced
17:43 up from shrapnel. Despite that, they
17:45 fight off this ambush and Bob refuses to
17:46 get extracted. According to him, it
17:48 wasn't that bad, and he didn't want to
17:50 be the reason they ended the mission. I
17:52 am a machine.
17:54 >> From here, mind you, after being shot
17:56 and hit with shrapnel and getting
17:58 attacked by an ambush, they then proceed
18:00 to walk 2 days through the jungle to get
18:01 to where they think this battalion
18:03 headquarters is. So Bob and the other
18:05 nine guys in this 10-man element make it
18:06 to where they think it's at. The
18:08 headquarters is there. They start
18:09 observing. They're looking around.
18:10 They're seeing what's going on. They're
18:12 watching everybody, you know, getting
18:14 intel. And they come to the realization,
18:16 this isn't one battalion. It's two. It
18:19 is now 1,000 versus 10. But that's okay.
18:20 It's not a big deal. They're not trying
18:23 to engage the enemy in a 10 versus 1,000
18:24 battle. They're just there to call in
18:26 the air strike, which is exactly what
18:27 they do. They call in the air strike.
18:29 Bunch of enemy soldiers take off running
18:31 into the woodline, abandoning their HQ.
18:34 They blow the HQ all to [ __ ] At which
18:35 point the air strike is done and Bob's
18:37 looking around like they [ __ ] missed
18:39 some. So Bob goes in there, brings the
18:41 other nine guys with him and they burn
18:42 down all the rest of the buildings and
18:44 tents and blow up the rest of the
18:45 supplies. Then they hight tail it out of
18:46 there. As they're headed back to the
18:48 extraction point, they run into a bunch
18:49 of the soldiers that had abandoned their
18:52 HQ and they adopt a defensive position,
18:53 get in the huge firefight. Over the
18:55 course of this firefight, Howard and
18:57 other estimates say somewhere between 30
18:59 and 40 NVA were killed. Helicopters show
19:00 up to pick them up. Everybody starts
19:02 boarding the plane and wouldn't you know
19:05 it, Bob aka the only guy that's been
19:07 [ __ ] shot and blown up is the last
19:08 one to get on the helicopter. A few days
19:10 later on December 10th, Bob would be
19:12 awarded the Bronze Star with V device
19:18 From here, Bob gets patched up, goes
19:20 back to being supply sergeant on SOB2,
19:22 continues going out on strap hanger
19:24 missions. Like I said earlier, we don't
19:25 really know the details of every single
19:27 mission because all the documents were
19:28 destroyed and we only know the accounts
19:30 of the missions where he earned a major
19:32 medal. The next of which would come on
19:34 May 14th, 1968. He goes out on a
19:36 mission. They wind up getting ambushed.
19:37 During the battle, Bob gets shot in the
19:39 left shoulder, the right leg, and he
19:41 gets blown up and has shrapnel all over
19:43 him. Despite that, none of it pierces
19:44 the plot armor. He continues to fight
19:46 through the ambush. After the ambush is
19:48 over, he gets medevaced and sent back to
19:50 the field hospital. His wounds are too
19:52 serious for the field hospital, so they
19:54 have to send him to Japan to a
19:56 specialized hospital against his will.
19:57 He recovers in Japan until he's stable
19:59 enough for the flight back home to
20:01 America. He is then sent to Fort Bragg.
20:03 While in Fort Bragg recovering, his wife
20:04 comes up from Texas with his daughters
20:06 and they're living in temporary housing.
20:08 And one day, he gets notified that he
20:09 has to come to some awards ceremony.
20:11 Some fancy general's given out a bunch
20:12 of awards to a bunch of people that have
20:14 earned him. So he tells his wife like,
20:15 "Hey, we got to go to this award
20:17 ceremony." And she's like, "Oh, did you
20:18 are you getting an award?" and he's
20:20 like, "Yeah, I'm getting an award or two
20:22 or whatever." So, they show up to this
20:23 award ceremony. The general's calling
20:25 people up, giving out awards, and like
20:26 if you've never been to a military award
20:28 ceremony, if you get an award, they read
20:30 the entire citation for why you're
20:32 awarded the award. They give it to you,
20:34 shake hands, salute, yada yada. Robert
20:36 Howard's turn rolls around. He goes up
20:37 there in front of the general, and the
20:40 general then has to award and read the
20:43 citation for three purple hearts, three
20:45 army accommodation medals, a bronze star
20:47 with V device, and a distinguished
20:49 service cross. It's all back to back to back.
20:50 back.
20:50 >> Oh, is that it?
20:53 >> It's like a 45minute affair of a general
20:55 just reading to a crowd of people the
20:57 stories of Bob basically being the main
20:58 character. And the entire time
21:00 presumably his wife and daughters are
21:02 sitting in the crowd like I had no idea
21:10 He is back at SOB2 and he is no longer a
21:11 strap hanger and supply sergeant. He is
21:14 a full-fledged SOG infantry guy and he's
21:15 going to be leading teams. By November
21:17 10th, a SOG team goes out on a mission.
21:19 They end up getting pinned down and are
21:21 not able to get extracted. The best
21:23 estimates is this is not conventional
21:24 NBA forces. This is some type of special
21:26 unit that has been brought in to go
21:28 toe-to-toe with SOG and they need to go
21:30 in there with a bunch of more guys and
21:31 finish the job. This mission would go on
21:33 to become known as SLAM 7 when a massive
21:36 SOG force, 115 men, all go in to help
21:38 recover this team. So, the choppers come
21:39 in and they're taking fire in the
21:41 landing zone immediately. Howard jumps
21:44 out of the helicopter when it's still 15
21:46 ft above the ground and starts returning
21:48 fire, killing two enemies immediately.
21:49 They continue fighting through this
21:51 ambush. They make their way to the SOG
21:53 recon team and it's a scene out of a
21:55 horror movie. All of the members of this
21:57 recon team have been executed. Every one
21:59 of these guys was severely wounded in
22:00 battle and then they were executed by
22:02 being shot in the head by the NVA. While
22:04 other men are still engaging the enemy,
22:05 Howard and some of the other leaders on
22:07 the ground are examining the bodies.
22:08 They're going to recover the bodies and
22:10 Howard notices that one of the men's
22:12 eyes is tracking him even though he's
22:13 been shot in the head in addition to
22:16 having 19 other gunshot wounds. They
22:17 call the helicopters back in. They start
22:18 coming in. They're loading up the bodies
22:20 and all the wounded men. The helicopters
22:21 are taken off and one of the helicopters
22:23 ends up getting shot down by massive
22:25 anti-aircraft guns. Their best guess is
22:27 that it's an anti-aircraft setup on the
22:28 back of a halftrack. So then they go,
22:30 they rescue those guys, get them out of
22:32 there, and then they call in for orders
22:34 like, "Hey, there's heavy anti-aircraft
22:35 guns. What do you want us to do?"
22:36 thinking they're still going to get
22:38 extracted. The whole point of coming out
22:40 here was to recover the men or the
22:41 bodies of the men. That's what they've
22:43 done. Time to leave. Chain of command
22:44 says, "You need to take out the
22:46 anti-aircraft guns. You don't know where
22:48 it came from. Go find them and take them
22:49 out. Son of a bitch."
22:51 >> Okay, this just turned into an overnight
22:52 operation. They bed down for the night.
22:54 They get ambushed in the middle of the
22:56 night with grenades and mortars, one of
22:58 which peppers Howard's entire backside
23:00 with shrapnel. Howard then calls in air
23:01 support, orders his men to only return
23:04 fire with 40mm grenade launchers because
23:05 that's not going to give off a muzzle
23:07 flash, giving the enemy their position.
23:09 Air strike comes in, the NVA leaves,
23:10 they're cool for the rest of the night.
23:12 The next day, this massive element of
23:14 about a 100 men now is still moving,
23:15 looking for these anti-aircraft guns.
23:16 And the entire time they're just
23:18 thinking like, "This is too big of an
23:19 element. We're too far behind enemy
23:22 lines. This is a horrible idea." Day
23:23 after that, they're completely out of
23:24 supplies. They need food. They need
23:26 water. They need more ammunition. None
23:27 of these guys were planning on this
23:29 being a multi-day operation. So, they
23:30 call in a supply drop. They get the
23:32 supplies. They got food. They got water.
23:33 They got ammo. The only problem is
23:35 they're behind enemy lines. And now the
23:36 enemy has a general idea where they're
23:38 at because they saw the supply drop.
23:40 They get surrounded by the NVA. They
23:42 have to hunker down. A massive firefight
23:43 ensues. And they have to call for
23:45 extraction or they're all going to die.
23:46 Helicopters start showing up. They're
23:48 getting the wounded on board first.
23:49 They're starting to get some guys out of
23:50 there. And then like the third
23:52 helicopter gets shot down and now they
23:54 have to go rescue those guys, too. So
23:55 Howard leads a team and they go rescue
23:57 the crew from the down chopper. Get them
23:58 back while they're still loading
24:00 choppers and getting people out of here.
24:01 Remember, they got a hundred guys and
24:02 you can only fit so many on a
24:03 helicopter. They're trying to coordinate
24:05 the choppers landing in between waves of
24:07 NBA attack. That way the choppers aren't
24:09 getting shot down while they're in this
24:11 massive firefight. And as time passes,
24:12 it starts to get dark out and they're
24:14 going to have to be out there overnight.
24:15 Howard and the remaining men on the
24:16 ground are basically stuck there
24:18 fighting all night long. However, they
24:20 get a ton of air support. They've got
24:22 A-10 Sky Raiders dropping napal. They
24:25 even get a C-47 spooky gunship, which is
24:27 a predecessor to the AC-130. Literally a
24:29 cargo plane that a bunch of grunts just
24:31 cut the sides out of and mounted
24:33 artillery and miniguns that just circles
24:35 around them, mowing down anything that
24:37 tries to get near them all night long.
24:38 During this night, Howard gets hit with
24:40 another grenade and has more shrapnel
24:41 inside of him, which he's pretty much
24:48 >> I am Iron Man.
24:50 >> Finally, morning comes around. It's
24:52 foggy as [ __ ] out. The battle's died
24:53 down. It's really looking like they're
24:54 going to make it out of this alive. And
24:56 through the fog, there's two silhouettes
24:58 coming towards them with their hands in
25:00 the air. And it's two NVA soldiers.
25:02 Howard and the commanding officer both
25:03 yell, "Don't shoot." Because if they're
25:05 surrendering, we want to take them in
25:07 for intel. Because very few NVA soldiers
25:09 have been captured to gain intel.
25:11 Unfortunately, with this massive SOG
25:13 element, there was a large contingency
25:15 of indigenous people that were fighting
25:17 alongside SOG, and those guys did not
25:18 listen and shot both of them
25:20 immediately. At this point, Howard's
25:21 pissed. The commanding officer's pissed
25:23 off and they're just like, "Fuck."
25:24 They're waiting on the choppers to come
25:26 and after a couple minutes, another
25:27 silhouette comes walking forward with
25:29 his hands up. It's another NVA trying to
25:31 surrender and before anybody can react,
25:34 Howard jumps up and sprints at the guy
25:36 and literally picks him off the ground,
25:38 throws him down, makes sure he doesn't
25:39 have anything on him, and then carries
25:41 him back into their position. From here,
25:42 they get extracted, they make it out.
25:44 Howard actually has to go to a bigger
25:46 hospital because the little aid station
25:47 on their FOB isn't big enough to handle
25:49 his injuries. So, he gets sent off to
25:51 the hospital. While he's there, he finds
25:53 out that that is only one of three NVA
25:56 that have been captured by SOG in years.
25:57 And the intel that they gained from him
26:00 led to nine successful bombings of NVA
26:02 bases. For this, he was again written up
26:03 for the Medal of Honor, but it was
26:05 downgraded to a Silver Star and a Purple
26:06 Heart. While at this hospital on a
26:08 larger base, Bob Howard decided to do
26:10 Bob Howard stuff, and he didn't like the
26:12 food in the hospital. So, in his
26:14 hospital pajamas, he leaves the hospital
26:16 and just goes to a normal chow hall.
26:17 While he's at this chow hall, two
26:19 Vietnamese on a moped pull up and throw
26:21 a grenade into the crowd of soldiers.
26:22 Everybody freaks out. Everybody's
26:25 diving. Nobody knows what to do. The MP
26:26 that's standing there with a gun, cuz
26:28 he's the only guy with a gun right now,
26:30 is just like locked up, not knowing what
26:32 to do. Howard in his hospital pajamas,
26:35 grabs the M16 from the MP, gets down in
26:37 a prone position, shoots the passenger
26:39 off the moped, causing the driver to
26:42 crash, and then chases down the moped,
26:43 confronts the driver. They get into an
26:45 altercation, and he shoots that guy,
26:47 too. He then walks back to the chow
26:49 hall, hands the rifle back to the MP,
26:53 and finishes his lunch.
26:55 So Howard recovers, gets back to SOB2,
26:57 starts going out on missions again. His
26:58 next big mission is to go out and
27:01 recover a SOG operative that is MIA from
27:03 a previous mission. So they go in with
27:04 helicopters, and as soon as the
27:05 helicopters come out, they start getting
27:08 lit up by enemy gunfire. It's an ambush.
27:10 They are using this guy as bait. Howard
27:11 ends up making it out of the helicopter.
27:13 He estimates that there was probably two
27:15 platoon launching this ambush. In the
27:17 first opening seconds, eight NBA
27:18 soldiers got killed. In the opening
27:20 minutes of this battle, Howard gets hit
27:22 with a enemy grenade. Up close, it
27:24 launches him 10 ft down a hill and he is
27:26 now unconscious. When he finally comes
27:28 to, he wakes up and he sees red. Not
27:30 like he sees red, he's angry, and he
27:32 just drank a Monster energy drink and
27:33 his name's Kyle and he sees a bunch of
27:35 drywall red. No, like that's the only
27:37 thing he sees is the color red. And for
27:39 a minute, he freaks out thinking he's
27:41 been blinded. He still hears gunshots
27:42 and explosions going off all around him.
27:44 All hell's breaking loose. He has no
27:46 idea how long he's been unconscious. He
27:47 starts wiping his eyes and they're just
27:49 caked with blood. He's bleeding all over
27:50 the place. And his vision starts finally
27:52 coming back. He reaches for his gun.
27:54 It's been blown up by the grenade. It's
27:56 completely worthless. He goes to stand
27:58 up. He can't. He shattered one of his
28:00 ankles. So, he is now behind enemy lines
28:01 in the middle of a gunfight, blown up,
28:03 can't walk, and has no gun. And then he
28:06 hears screaming and smells burning
28:08 flesh. All the rest of the men that
28:09 aren't injured have made their way into
28:11 the woodline off of the landing zone.
28:13 And there is now an NVA soldier that is
28:15 going to all of the wounded men, mostly
28:18 indigenous guys and Robert Howard. And
28:19 he is walking up to them with a
28:22 flamethrower and burning them alive. At
28:23 this point, Howard knows he's [ __ ]
28:25 He's about to get burned alive. So, he
28:26 starts digging around for anything he
28:27 has on him that's going to be helpful.
28:29 He ends up finding a frag grenade. His
28:31 hands are so messed up, he can't really
28:33 use his fingers yet with a lot of
28:35 dexterity. So, he's fighting, trying to
28:36 get his fingers in, and he manages to
28:38 pull the pen on this grenade, and he's
28:40 holding the spoon down, and he figures,
28:42 you know, I'll blow myself up rather
28:43 than get cooked. But he waits. He's in
28:45 some tall grass. Maybe this guy isn't
28:46 going to see him, and he's not going to
28:47 have to blow himself up. So, that's what
28:49 he does. He just waits there, holding
28:50 this grenade spoon down so it doesn't
28:52 blow up. He's got the pin in the other
28:53 hand in case he gets lucky, he shove
28:55 that back in, and it's all good. And he
28:57 waits and he waits and eventually the
28:59 flamethrower walks up right in front of
29:01 him. And he is right there. And him and
29:03 the flamethrower lock eyes and the
29:05 flamethrower sees that Howard's holding
29:06 a grenade and that dude's got a
29:08 flamethrower attached to his [ __ ]
29:09 back. If Howard lets it go, Howard's
29:11 taking this guy with him and he knows
29:13 it. And Howard with his dark veteran
29:14 sense of humor, all he can think to
29:17 himself is, "Fucking gotcha." And this
29:18 flamethrower and Howard are just looking
29:19 at each other right in the eyes.
29:21 Howard's got this big [ __ ] eatating grin
29:22 on his face like, "I'm going to take you
29:24 with me." And eventually the
29:26 flamethrower just kind of nods and
29:28 starts to step backwards. And as soon as
29:29 that happens, the SOG guys in the
29:31 treeine see the flamethrower and start
29:33 shooting at him and he takes off running
29:34 into the treeine. Howard throws the
29:36 grenade after him. Has no idea if he hit
29:38 the guy or not. Turns around and starts
29:40 crawling towards his men. And the crazy
29:43 part in his head, he wasn't thinking, "I
29:45 need to get to my guys to get help for
29:47 me." In his head, he was thinking, "I
29:49 got to get to my guys. They need my
29:51 help." Which is the most main character
29:53 energy [ __ ] ever. On his way there, he
29:55 comes across his lieutenant who's alive,
29:57 but in worse shape than he is, really
29:59 shot up. And he gets his web gear off,
30:01 throws that next to him, and starts
30:03 rendering first aid. And then an enemy
30:05 bullet hits the LT's web gear, and
30:07 detonates the ammunition inside of it,
30:09 launching Howard and the LT all over
30:12 again. He loses consciousness.
30:14 He comes to, crawls back over to the
30:16 lieutenant, and starts dragging him
30:17 towards the men. Finally gets to his
30:19 group of guys. It's not everybody.
30:20 There's only eight guys there, plus
30:22 Howard and the LT. Everybody else is
30:23 scattered out throughout the
30:25 battlefield. Howard takes the LT's
30:26 radio, starts calling in air strikes,
30:28 tells one of the men to hand him a gun.
30:30 They toss him a 1911, not wanting to
30:31 give up their own rifle. >> Demomizer.
30:32 >> Demomizer.
30:34 >> That's what I'm talking about. Noisy cricket.
30:37 cricket.
30:39 >> As he's calling in these air strikes, a
30:41 squad of MVA charge their position with
30:43 bayonets, wanting to take him alive.
30:44 Howard ends up shooting three. His men
30:46 take out the rest. Howard's still on the
30:48 radio. They're sending in gunships. As
30:50 the gunships are approaching, one of the
30:52 indigenous fighters that's with him ends
30:54 up taking a bullet to a smoke grenade on
30:56 his web gear. Freaks out, throws that
30:58 off of him, and over the radio, Howard
31:00 hears, "Where are you in relation to
31:01 that purple smoke?" And Howard's looking
31:02 at this in front of him is just like,
31:05 "That's us." As the gunships arrive, the
31:07 battle kind of dies down a little bit.
31:08 Howard takes a moment to set up an
31:10 actual perimeter, directing his men's
31:12 fields of fire, and he's sending runners
31:14 out to other small groups of SOG guys
31:15 that got separated, and he gets
31:17 everybody on the ground consolidated. He
31:19 now has about 30 men. From here, Howard
31:20 asks the medic how his lieutenants
31:22 doing. The medic says he's doing
31:23 everything he can, but he doesn't think
31:24 he's going to make it. To which Howard
31:27 replies, and I quote, "Make him make
31:29 it." Howard then brings in all the abled
31:30 body men that he has, has him
31:32 consolidate ammunition, and then pretty
31:34 much just tells him how it is. We're not
31:35 moving anymore. We're going to stay
31:36 right here. You're going to fight or
31:38 you're going to die, and if you try to
31:40 run, I will shoot you myself.
31:43 >> Everyone fights, no one quits. If you
31:45 don't do your job, I'll shoot you. He
31:46 then directs his men where to place
31:48 claymores and asks his men if anybody
31:49 has strobe lights. Collects all the
31:51 strobe lights that they have and crawls
31:53 around their perimeter and places the
31:55 strobe lights in place before crawling
31:57 back to the center to man the radio.
31:58 Once back at the radio, he tells
31:59 headquarters that his perimeter is
32:01 marked and they need to shoot pretty
32:03 much everywhere that isn't inside of
32:04 this triangle. They tell him the Huey
32:06 gunships are 15 minutes out. He doesn't
32:08 have 15 minutes. The NVA just launched
32:10 another major attack. The only thing
32:12 they have right now is a Cessna01 Bird
32:14 Dog circling overhead. Mostly there to
32:15 help coordinate air strikes, but it does
32:17 have four white phosphorus rockets on
32:19 board. It's not a lot, but it's better
32:21 than nothing. Robert tells them exactly
32:22 where to fire these rockets. They fly
32:24 by, fire the four white phosphorus
32:26 rockets, and repel this wave of the
32:27 attack. The 01 Bird Dog pilot then
32:29 radios down to Robert. That's all we've
32:31 got. To which Robert replies, "You got
32:33 an M16 up there?" And they're like,
32:35 "Yeah." He goes, "Fly by and drop it
32:37 off. I need one." So now at least he's
32:38 got a gun and he's got to survive
32:39 another 10 minutes before the Huey
32:41 gunships get there. NBA launches another
32:43 attack. This time they're trying to come
32:44 through a creek bed. Robert directs his
32:47 men to use 40mm grenades and just start
32:49 lobbing them into this creek bed and
32:51 repels that way of the attack. The next
32:52 wave comes. This time they're coming
32:54 towards the same place that Robert had
32:55 all of his men place all the claymores.
32:57 They let them get up close, detonate the
32:59 claymores, repel that wave. Finally, the
33:01 Huey gunship show up, but it's getting
33:03 dark out. They can't see much. So Howard
33:05 has to direct their fire from the radio
33:06 on the ground. And this goes on for
33:08 hours. When the Hueies run out of fuel
33:10 and ammunition, they get cycled out with
33:12 a moon beam gunship. And when that runs
33:13 out of fuel and ammunition, they bring
33:15 in F3 Phantoms. They are just cycling
33:17 out whatever aircraft they have to get
33:18 Howard the fire support that he needs.
33:20 And the entire time he is on the ground
33:22 directing their fire. He is quite
33:23 literally like an orchestra conductor
33:26 guiding a symphony of destruction all
33:28 around him. And this goes on for 4 hours
33:29 before Howard gets word that Hueies are
33:31 on their way to come extract him. The
33:32 first Huey shows up. They get it loaded
33:34 up with wounded, dead, and indigenous
33:36 fighters. Howard, even though he's
33:37 injured, refuses to leave the combat
33:40 zone. First Huey takes off. Second Huey
33:42 lands, more men get loaded on that Huey.
33:43 Again, Howard refuses to leave. He is
33:45 the highest ranking man on the ground,
33:46 and he is going to be the last one out.
33:48 After the second Huey leaves, it is now
33:50 just Howard, two other SOG guys, and two
33:52 indigenous fighters. As the third and
33:54 final Huey pulls up, they get the two
33:56 indigenous on board. One SOG guy hops in
33:58 the helicopter as Howard and the
34:00 remaining SOG guy get into an argument
34:02 right at the helicopter. Howard has just
34:05 seen the dead body of his lieutenant off
34:06 in the distance. He was originally
34:08 loaded on the first helicopter and
34:10 because he had passed, some of the
34:11 indigenous fighters decided they were
34:13 going to throw his corpse out of the
34:15 helicopter to lighten the load so the
34:16 helicopter could get out of there
34:18 faster. Robert Howard is not about to
34:19 leave his lieutenant out there. The
34:21 other SOG guy in the helicopter hops out
34:23 and the three of them go out, retrieve
34:24 his body, drag it back to the
34:26 helicopter, get him loaded up. The other
34:28 two SOG guys get loaded in the
34:30 helicopter and then pull Howard into the
34:37 From here, Howard is immediately shipped
34:38 off to a hospital in Saigon to be
34:40 treated for his injuries. The chain of
34:42 command then debriefs all of the
34:43 remaining men that they have, and pretty
34:46 much everybody has the same story. They
34:47 all would have died if it weren't for
34:49 the leadership of Robert Howard. The men
34:51 on the ground were credited with 25 to
34:52 50 kills, and the air strikes directed
34:54 by Robert Howard were credited with at
34:57 least 50, most likely more. For this,
34:58 Robert Howard is awarded a second
35:00 distinguished service cross and written
35:02 up for the Medal of Honor for a third
35:03 time. After the debriefs, a couple of
35:05 days go by. Nobody's really expecting to
35:07 see Robert Howard anytime soon, if ever
35:09 again. He might be going home for good
35:11 after the extent of his injuries. And
35:13 sure enough, like 4 days later, he shows
35:16 up in hospital pajamas to SOB2. He was
35:18 apparently satisfied with how much he
35:20 had recovered in 3 days and thought the
35:22 medics on SOB2 could handle the
35:23 remainder of his recovery. So, he went
35:25 awall from the hospital, hitched a ride
35:28 back to SOB2, and he's planning on going
35:30 back out on missions already. I know
35:31 I've already said this, but the dude is
35:33 literally the Terminator. He just he
35:40 >> I'm back.
35:41 >> The chain of command is like, "Look,
35:43 Bob, look, you're hurt. You're
35:44 recommended for the Medal of Honor.
35:45 You're not going out on missions. you're
35:47 going to be the training NCO and whoop
35:49 everybody else into shape because you
35:50 obviously know exactly what you're
35:52 doing. So he spends the rest of his
35:53 deployment being the training NCO for
35:55 all the SOG operatives going out on
35:56 missions. And apparently he was a
35:58 complete hard ass. He had all of his
36:01 guys out on the highway in cartoon
36:03 running to be in shape. And they're like
36:05 the the base has been attacked before.
36:06 We're going to get attacked while we're
36:08 out here jogging. This isn't a good
36:10 idea. Bob didn't really care. Didn't
36:11 listen. And then one time they take some
36:13 indirect sniper fire. Nobody got hurt.
36:16 And surely at this point, Bob's going to
36:17 reconsider. There's not going to be any
36:19 more jogging along the highway. Nah, Bob
36:21 just orders that they all start jogging
36:22 with loaded guns. Bob finishes up the
36:24 remainder of his deployment. Then he is
36:26 basically volunttold that he's going to
36:28 go off to become an officer. So he goes
36:30 back home to the States and has to go
36:32 through the officer's training course
36:34 with literally new guys fresh out of college.
36:41 >> You're out rule,
36:42 >> which is hilarious. Could you imagine
36:44 being some 23-year-old kid that's got a
36:46 four-year degree from college and now
36:48 you're in officer training school to be
36:49 an infantry officer and you're in the
36:52 same class as Bob [ __ ] Howard, the
36:54 Terminator who's got two distinguished
36:56 service crosses and like five purple
36:57 hearts at this point. Even worse, could
36:59 you imagine being this guy's instructor
37:01 tasked with teaching him how to be an
37:03 infantry officer? Obviously, he passes
37:05 officer candidate school with flying
37:06 colors. From here, they ship him off to
37:08 Ranger School, which is one of the
37:10 hardest programs in any military branch
37:12 ever. He basically walks through it
37:14 backwards and graduates as the
37:16 distinguished honor graduate, meaning he
37:18 was literally the best guy in the entire
37:20 class, which is super impressive
37:21 regardless. But it's absolutely insane
37:23 that Bob Howard was able to be the best
37:26 guy in the entire cycle of Ranger School
37:28 despite having been blown up, shot
37:30 multiple times, all the [ __ ] he's been
37:32 through, and he's like 30 years old, and
37:33 he's just smoking all these new
37:35 recruits. After that, he goes to some
37:36 other leadership school. Then they send
37:39 him off to jungle warfare school. of all
37:41 the schools he apparently needs to go
37:43 to. They send him to Jungle Warfare
37:45 School. After that, they send his ass
37:48 back to Vietnam to cartoon to SOB2. And
37:49 the crazy part, he's pumped. He wants to
37:51 get back and start going out on
37:52 missions. He gets there, he's told that
37:54 he's still waiting for the Medal of
37:55 Honor. They're not going to be sending
37:56 him out on missions. He's going to
37:58 resume his role as training all the new
38:00 guys. From here, he does a great job. He
38:01 knows when a guy's ready to lead the
38:03 team. He knows when a guy isn't. He's
38:04 training these guys, toughening them up,
38:06 getting them ready. Sometimes he takes
38:08 it a little bit too far. There was one
38:10 time he loaded shotgun shells with rock
38:12 salt and was shooting it at people. Um,
38:14 it was it was Vietnam. It was a
38:23 >> Won't complain. That's where I'll stay.
38:24 >> That's where I'll stay.
38:26 >> All right, my little patch of Brussels
38:29 sprouts. Uproot yourselves. Climb out
38:33 the pool. Get some rest. Tomorrow, lady,
38:36 we going to start the hot stuff. So, he
38:37 didn't get to go out on missions, but he
38:39 still did get to see some action because
38:41 multiple times while he was there, SOB2
38:43 was attacked and he got to help defend
38:44 it. On one of these occasions, he would
38:46 actually be shot in the heel during the
38:47 opening portion of the battle. Bob being
38:49 Bob doesn't really give a [ __ ] just
38:50 bounces right off his plot armor. He
38:52 starts directing men and leading the
38:54 defense of the compound. And as he's
38:55 doing his thing, some specialist comes
38:57 running up to him and is like, "Bob, you
38:58 got a phone call." And he's like,
39:00 "Motherfucker, I'm kind of busy right
39:02 now. We're defending the compound." And
39:04 he's like, "But it's General West
39:05 Morland." And he's like, "What does he
39:07 want? I mean, does he know that we're
39:08 under attack right now? What's the
39:09 deal?" He goes, "No, but he wants to
39:11 talk to you. You need to go talk to him
39:13 right now." So he's like, "Fuck." Okay.
39:15 So he like limps across the base, gets
39:16 over to the phone. Bob answers the
39:18 phone. He's like, "Hello." And General
39:19 West Morland's like, "Bob, how are you?"
39:21 And he's like, "I'm I'm good. My foot
39:23 kind of hurts. I'm a little bit busy.
39:24 What's up?" And he's like, "I just want
39:26 to call and congratulate you. You're
39:27 being awarded the Medal of Honor." And
39:29 he's like, "Oh, all right." And General
39:30 West Morland's like, "Yeah, I've got a
39:32 chopper on the way to pick you up right
39:34 now." From here, he pretty much gets
39:36 extracted on the spot, gets swept off to
39:37 Washington, DC, and gets awarded the
39:39 Medal of Honor by President Nixon. From
39:41 here, Robert Howard never returns to
39:44 Vietnam. He spent in total 40 months in
39:46 combat. Instead, he's given instructor
39:47 roles pretty much for the remainder of
39:49 his career. He trains airborne soldiers.
39:51 He trains infantry. He's an instructor
39:53 at Ranger School. All kinds of stuff.
39:54 And while he almost certainly does miss
39:56 going out and doing Robert Howard stuff,
39:58 he also appreciates the opportunity to
39:59 make up for lost time with his
40:01 daughters. as tough and as crazy and as
40:03 violent as he could be, he treated those
40:05 girls like little angels. And on one
40:07 occasion, one of the teachers at the
40:09 military school that they were attending
40:10 decided that he was going to take his
40:13 belt off and whip one of his daughters
40:14 for being loud and disrespectful in
40:16 class. Upon hearing this, Robert Howard
40:18 then instructed his daughter to get in
40:20 the car. They drove to the officer's
40:22 house on base. He walked up to the front
40:24 door, rang the doorbell, made his
40:26 daughter apologize to the officer for
40:28 being disruptive in class, and then sent
40:30 his daughter back to the car, and then
40:32 proceeded to beat the [ __ ] out of him on
40:33 his own porch. He then was stationed
40:34 down in Fort Lewis, where he was an
40:36 officer with the Second Ranger
40:37 Battalion, where he was known for
40:39 training extremely hard with his guys
40:40 and leading from the front. During a
40:42 field training exercise, they were going
40:44 to jump out of a plane simulating an
40:45 airborne mission, and then they were
40:47 going to pack their [ __ ] up and road
40:50 march 26 mi. Upon jumping out of the
40:52 plane, Robert Howard's shoot doesn't
40:54 open properly, and he hits the ground at
40:56 twice the speed he's supposed to. The
40:58 medics overseeing the LZ run up,
41:00 assuming that this guy is dead, only to
41:03 find Robert Howard packing up his chute.
41:04 He looks over at the medics and says,
41:06 "If this [ __ ] gets any harder, I'm going
41:09 to quit." He then proceeds to finish the
41:10 26 milei road march.
41:11 >> How you doing?
41:13 >> I'm back, [ __ ]
41:15 >> Okay, Robert Howard might be the biggest
41:17 badass I've ever covered, which is
41:19 saying an awful lot. I've never seen
41:22 plot armor this thick. It's absolutely
41:23 insane. He continues to serve in the
41:25 military in multiple roles until finally
41:28 retiring in 1992 after 36 years in
41:30 service at the rank of colonel. He would
41:33 then pass away at the age of 70 in 2009.
41:35 And that is a story of Robert Howard,
41:38 the most gangster supply sergeant of all
41:40 time, the most decorated Green Beret of
41:42 all time, and quite literally the human
41:43 embodiment of the Terminator. Thank you
41:45 for watching. Best way to support the
41:46 channel is go buy some merch over the
41:54 Oh, and then there was a story of when
41:56 his son-in-law asked permission to marry
41:58 one of his daughters and he said, and I
42:00 quote, "As I extended my hand to shake
42:02 his, it was the largest hand I had ever
42:04 seen in my entire life." He then
42:06 proceeded to tell me, "I know why you're
42:09 here, and you have my permission, but
42:11 know this. If you ever hurt my daughter,
42:28 I was down at the bottom of the hill and
42:31 there was a medic sergeant named Brown
42:34 who got shot up pretty bad. But he come
42:36 over to me and I said, "Is a lieutenant
42:38 still alive?" And he said, "Yes." He
42:39 says, "We've got him down." He said,
42:41 "I've got an IV in him, but I don't
42:43 think he's going to make it." I said,
42:45 "Make him make it." I said, "You keep
