Epic Medal of Honor Battle Description | Marine Force Recon | Army Special Forces | Earl Plumlee
Combat Story
Ryan Fugit
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2024
⏱️ 144 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we have a once in a lifetime Combat Story with one of the few living Medal of Honor recipients from the war in Afghanistan: Earl Plumlee. Earl was a Marine infantryman, Force Recon team leader, and Special Forces Weapons Sergeant in the pre- and post-9/11 era.
Earl would deploy multiple times with the Marine Corps and the Army, to include combat deployments with Force Recon and a historic deployment in 2013 with the his ODA where he would earn the Medal of Honor.
In this episode, we touch on both of Earl’s Recon deployments but spend a considerable amount of time walking through the battle in which he earned the Medal of Honor and in which his fellow Green Berets earned other medals for valor. It’s an amazing story to hear firsthand that includes a coordinated and lethal attack of a US installation in Ghazni, Afghanistan; suicide bombers; injured Americans; and several Green Berets who had never fought together operating as one element to repel the attack.
Earl’s work during this assault is amazing and almost impossible to imagine he didn’t get more gravely wounded. He had over 300 rounds of enemy fire directed at him from very close range, dozens of grenades lobbed his direction, and suicide vests detonating meters away.
He now speaks out about civic duty and service and provides motivational and public speaking for customers around the world. Please enjoy this selfless story of a rare and living Medal of Honor with Earl Plumlee.
Join hundreds of others with our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan each week about the show, life, and the military.
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- Guest Speaker Website www.earlplumlee.com
- Instagram earl_plumlee_official https://www.instagram.com/earl_plumlee_official/
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- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle
Join hundreds of others with our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan each week about the show, life, and the military.
👇 Show Notes:
00:00 - Introduction
01:02 - Guest Profile: Earl Plumlee
02:25 - Start of Interview
02:33 - Life As Medal of Honor Recipient
07:02 - Childhood
12:38 - Military Family History
14:07 - Deciding to Serve
16:33 - Recruitment Story
22:26 - Basic
24:58 - Mad Rabbit Tattoo Ad
26:22 - Graduation from Marine Corps.
31:14 - First Time Down Range
39:14 - S.E.A.R. School
39:42 - New Guy In Recon Unit
43:04 - First Time Outside The Wire
45:08 - Give Legacy Ad
46:30 - Formative Moments
53:38 - Losing Teammates
55:35 - Hindsight Advice
59:49 - Second Deployment
01:0:52 - Second Deplyoment Difficult Moments
01:01:52 - Special Forces
01:07:21 - First Special Forces Deployment
01:12:36 - Having Kids At Home While Deployed
01:14:25 - Medal OF Honor Story
02:06:58 - Battle Afterthoughts
02:16:49 - Sentimental Items
02:17:35 - Would You Do It All Again
02:19:33 - Listener Feedback
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And at that point I had about five or six guys to my front, you know, two or three off to my left and rear, but I figured that Nate and Drew, we're going to have to sort this out and I buy them as much time as I could so I just started advancing all the enemy |
| 0:15.3 | with my pistol out. Every time I line up my sights and break around I just figured it would be my last one |
| 0:21.1 | and then as I got you, close that gap with them |
| 0:24.4 | and started running my pistol closer to empty |
| 0:26.7 | and having effect on my enemy. |
| 0:28.6 | Then I got right there in the middle of them |
| 0:30.4 | and my pistol only had like two rounds left in it. I was surprised that I wasn't dead and the Taliban was |
| 0:35.8 | super upset. So to buy some time for all of us to kind of think about what we're going to do next |
| 0:40.7 | and I pulled out a hand grenade and tossed it in between us. |
| 0:43.4 | Welcome to Combat Story. I'm Ryan Puget and I serve War Zone Tours as an Army |
| 0:47.6 | Attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15-year career. I'm fascinated by the experiences of the elite in combat. |
| 0:55.1 | On this show I interview some of the best to understand what combat felt like on their |
| 0:59.5 | front lines. This is combat story. Today we have a once in a lifetime combat story with one of the few living Medal of Honor recipients from the war in Afghanistan, Earl Plumlee. |
| 1:10.0 | Earl was a Marine infantryman, Force Recon team leader, and Special Forces Weapons Sergeant in the |
| 1:14.8 | pre and mainly post 9-11 era. Earl would deploy multiple times with the Marine Corps and the Army |
| 1:20.5 | to include combat deployments with Force Recon and a historic deployment in 2013 |
| 1:25.3 | with his ODA where he would earn the Medal of Honor. |
| 1:27.7 | In this episode we touch on both of Urals Recon deployments but spend a considerable amount |
| 1:32.2 | of time walking through the battle in which he |
| 1:34.0 | earned the Medal of Honor and in which his fellow Green Berets earned their medals for valor. |
| 1:38.6 | It's an amazing story to hear firsthand that includes a coordinated and lethal attack of a US installation in |
| 1:44.2 | gosney Afghanistan, suicide bombers, injured Americans, and several green berets who |
... |
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