Signal Interceptor in Combat | Special Forces Linguist | 82nd Airborne | 7th Special Forces | Clay Jensen

Combat Story

Ryan Fugit

History

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2023

⏱️ 107 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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Today we hear our first Combat Story from a military intelligence linguist and signal interceptor, Clay Jensen. Clay deployed six times to both Iraq and Afghanistan and has spent considerable time helping to get our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan.

Clay was in a Blackhawk when it was shot out of the sky while trying to identify the location of Al-Qai’da’s then #2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan. Clay was also forward deployed in 2007 to identify the location of Bin Laden during what became a failed raid to capture AQ’s leader at the time (listeners will recall that our former guest Mike Rutledge was also on that operation).

Clay supported clandestine and Top Secret operations working alongside NSA and other three letter agencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Latin America as part of both the 82nd Airborne and 7th Special Forces Group in a Special Operations Team - Alpha (or SOT-A).

I hope you enjoy this first ever Combat Story from a signal interceptor who we, as Apache pilots, relied on regularly to triangulate targets, as much as I did.

Find Ryan Online:
- Ryan’s Linktree https://linktr.ee/combatstory
- Merch https://www.bonfire.com/store/combats...
- Instagram @combatstory https://www.instagram.com/combatstory
- Facebook @combatstoryofficial https://fb.me/combatstoryofficial
- Send us messages at https://m.me/combatstoryofficial
- Learn more about Ryan www.combatstory.com/aboutus
- Intro Song: Sport Rock from Audio Jungle

Find Clay Jensen Online:
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/clayton-jensen-793b468b/

Show Notes:
00:00 - Intro
01:02 - Guest Introduction (Clay Jensen)
02:15 - Interview begins
02:48 - Impressions on Iraq 20 years later
04:57 - Japanese upbringing
09:24 - Bilingual for Defense Language Institute
11:31 - Interest in the Military
12:58 - Joining the Military
14:57 - Recruitment
18:15 - Working with Agencies
19:24 - Training for the Signals and Intelligence
23:38 - Joining the 82nd
24:40 - Linguistics in regular MOS
28:08 - 9/11
31:05 - 1st Deployment to Afghanistan
37:28 - Supporting the battle as a Linguist
40:08 - Navigating the outcome of a battle
44:06 - Transfering to Special Forces
46:11 - Proving yourself
47:20 - Definition of SOT-A
49:33 - Difference between standard MOS and Special Forces
51:21 - The Raid for Zawahiri
01:09:33 - Columbia
01:16:59 - The importance of Vocabulary
01:19:37 - Funny things
01:24:19 - Relationship with Interpreters
01:27:03 - Getting involved in the Afghanistan Evacuation
01:34:57 - Most courageous act
01:38:26 - Best and worst MREs
01:40:07 - Sentimental items
01:41:22 - Would you do it again
01:43:09 - Listener comments and shout outs

Transcript

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0:00.0	So we hit the valley and we're flying up and back and we do that right 4 times I
0:05.4	think up and back and each time you know we're hearing the enemy saying hey you
0:10.2	know there's the gunship okay there's the you know the black ock there's the
0:13.5	other gunship you know should we shoot them down should we not and we get we
0:18.0	get in probably five 600 meters into the valley and just start taking
0:21.6	ground fire you can see the tracer rounds coming and then all of the sudden just
0:25.7	wham right into the tail of the aircraft our helicopter pitches up on its
0:30.5	nose you know I'm looking through I'm in the very rear seat facing forward and I
0:35.5	can see all the way through the you know the pilot's windscreen and there's the
0:38.9	rapids like you're like filling the whole windscreen I'm like oh damn we're dead
0:43.5	welcome to combat story I'm Ryan fugit and I serve war zone tours as an
0:47.6	army attack helicopter pilot and CIA officer over a 15 year career I'm fascinated
0:52.6	by the experiences of the elite and combat on this show I interview some of
0:56.8	the best to understand what combat felt like on their front lines this is combat
1:01.9	story today we hear our first combat story from a military intelligence
1:05.9	linguist and signal interceptor Clay Jensen Clay deployed six times to both
1:10.4	Iraq and Afghanistan and spent considerable time helping to get our Afghan
1:14.6	allies out of Afghanistan after the fall Clay was in a black ock when it was
1:18.2	shot out of the sky while trying to identify the location Volkkaida's then
1:22.1	number two leader I'm in Zawahiri in Afghanistan Clay was also forward
1:26.7	deployed in 2007 for a week out on his own which is a few other soldiers at
1:32.0	an outpost to identify the location of Bin Laden during what became a failed
	...

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