Major James Capers Jr. - Vietnam Marine Commando Silver Star Recipient | SRS #180

[Music] major James Capers welcome to the show Good afternoon it's good to be here it's good to have it's an honor to have you here thank you so you popped up on our radar I think about a couple weeks ago and um man I just want to say uh I think I mean it is a a real honor to have you here you're the first Vietnam veteran to be on the show and that's uh something that I've been really looking forward to Getting uh somebody on the show that's that's served in that war and to

have you here is just I'm over the moon about it I I'm it's such an honor to have you here we haven't documented this war at all yet and um so so this is uh this is something that I've been real excited about and so thank you for making the trip it's good to be here so I want to get right into it so I want to do a life story story on you and uh from what I understand there's a really good Possibility that uh your Silver Star might be getting upgraded to Medal of

Honor and uh I hope this gets to the right people to make that happen I just want to put that out right up front so everybody listening uh understands you know how important this interview is and um and we want to be a part of making that happen and uh and documenting your life story so everybody starts off with a introduction so here we go major James Capers you are a retired United States Marine Corps officer in true American hero you're a Pioneer in reconnaissance training tactics and recognized for your legendary career that overcame obstacles

and broke barriers on and off the battlefield you're one of the first African-American Marines to serve in the Elite Force reconnaissance companies and the first to receive a battlefield commission you are a recipient of numerous Awards including the Silver Star two bronze stars with vowler three purple hearts and induction into the US Special Operation commands Commando Hall of Honor you are the author of Faith through the storm Memoirs of major James Capers Jr you are the subject of the documentary major Capers the legend of Team broadminded you are a father figure to team broadminded A

specialized group of force reconnaissance Marines and you continue to honor their legacy through annual reunions and your ongoing Involvement in in Special Operations Community welcome to the show thank you all right so we got quite a bit to cover here okay but what I'd like to start with is your childhood M so I understand you grew up in South Carolina MH partly I lived there early years and then my father was put on the Chain Gang This is back in the old days 30s and what is the Chain Gang the Chain Gang is when they

took mostly African-Americans and put them out and they they did hard labor was sort of a uh I don't know I wasn't born back then but mostly black uh individuals was put on this Chain Gang uh tough living they took away from their families my father was on this chain gang but some way he got away and went to uh went to Baltimore Maryland and I had gotten sick before he left he Gave me to a white family this was the family that you know they were all Farmers out in this area and they took

me in and uh brought me back to health and today they're trying to find descendants of that family how old were you when you were given to a white family probably about four four years old do you have any recollection of that well there were days when I thought I could remember a Female who obviously would feed me and care for me and uh In My Memory she look like a blonde lady I could remember a female with blonde hair and so that's all I really remember except I was cared for but at some point

uh I was given back to my family once I've been cured back in those days we had a lot of childhood diseases we lost a lot of young American black Americans from those diseases at that time and uh I was given back to my family completely cured or healed and then uh my mother my sister and two brothers and myself uh at some point at night a vehicle showed up at our Shack that's where we lived back in those days and we picked cotton crop tobacco the ru South and the vehicle showed up and we

uh and up in Baltimore and I was probably five or six or something like that I nobody really knows there's no records there's no records of my being born I don't have a birth certificate wow that's the rule South back in those days and and I finally got to Baltimore and started in school so you were you were working in the fields as a as a five to six-year-old child sure a lot of kids were like that and these bags on Your shoulder and you were out there picking cotton now you had adults out there

that would go along with you but everybody worked you couldn't stay home unless she was sick something like that I picked a lot of cotton and learned to crop tobacco and slopped the Hogs and all the rule work everybody worked wow there was no downtime do you remember the vehicle showing up in the middle of the night at The Shack yeah it was like a old Ford uh like a 29 Ford or something like that one of the old Vehicles thrown into the car and we took off what did your parents tell you do you

remember well they my father wasn't there he was in Baltimore it was an apparently he' arrang for another group to take us to to Baltimore so we got in the vehicle and next thing I know we were in Baltimore as a child those are my memories uh back in the old days you couldn't eat at restaurants you know you couldn't go into the facilities bathrooms things like that you had black and you had white and so these were things my mother told me how difficult it was for her as female andan there's been a lot

of books written on this subject you know how African-Americans made that transition but almost slavery it was not slavery of course we know that that was over but the remnants was still there we were treated like slaves and there were a lot of pieces to that that I saw and I remembered but when I got to Baltimore they put me in school uh as a child that I had no birth certificates nobody really knew who I was and the first James Capers Jr passed Away so they renamed me James Capers Jr but there was always

some feeling that I was reincarnating my older brother but uh no I had no birth cific years later we Tred to find something out but that was a problem that I had and even today I got two birth dates the 25th of August and the 27th of August nobody knows how that happened which birthday do you like better 25 Right on so how was it when you got to Baltimore well it was a Euphoria I loved it buildings and schools and restaurants of course wasn't designed for folks like us coming from the south we didn't

know anything basically we had to learn the system there in Baltimore and uh went to school did well graduated high school there were you welcomed in school yeah they didn't have Any of those Jim Crow laws well not in Baltimore but they it was the all black school everybody teach teachers were blacks students were black so it was hard for me coming from the south it was certainly different from where I had been into Baltimore had street lights and automobills and all those things that I never saw on the Cotton Fields in South Carolina interesting

how long did it take you to Get used to that that culture changed well took me a while because I was a country boy they they didn't readily accept me into the city you know I didn't know the language you know took me a while to learn there were stories on these corner and and you know the school was different uh the children there spoke differently than I spoke for the South what I knew that I could do it and I pressed on how did your how did Your how did your family integrate were they

I mean was there a was there a sense of relief being up there was everybody happier well I happier color my skin skin took that away we worked hard and my father uh got a job and uh us children we were happy about that he got a job in the steel mill you know they uh World War II was was There I remember World War II and he worked in a steel factory and I guess they built ships for the fleet back in those days the Maryland Dry Dock company and you're a pretty good living

and was able to sustain us but when I became little older I sold newspapers and sold junk did anything I could to add to the to the family how old were you when that started about seven 7 years old you started selling newspapers then they stopped because they had a law then that You had to be at least 12 years older as a child of work but no we did all hustling whatever you could do you know to do those types of things to add to the income of the family did you have any hobbies

as a kid or was it just work mostly work but yeah you always find some kind of way to do some shoot Marbles and don't know they don't know about marbles these days but you know we did that and we played all The the games basketball which we didn't have the the hoops and things we had took baskets and put them up on a wall or something and that was our net we had to be you know we had to really be creative cuz they didn't provide anything from us for us so we worked hard

and I learned how to take care of myself cuz in a way it was kind of dangerous you know everybody carried knives and guns and things and many days days there were firefights I Made not like a military firefight but pistols and uh those types of things were dangerous and we kept away from that you kept away from that yeah did you carry a weapon as a kid no no first weapon I had was when I joined boot camp 1956 what got you what got you interested in in the military back in those days everybody

you know after World War well I joined in 56 but World War II was over and Korea we were still digging out of Korea that happened in in 54 and I joined in 50s six and uh I had learned quite a bit we had television there in Baltimore I had never seen a television before uh so we had television and we saw these uh military guys on TV and they were recruiting uh back in those days you had to join or they would draft You you know so if you didn't join somebody would come by

and uh when you turned 18 yeah you had to join some military and I saw the Marine uniform form on TV and I saw some of the uh recruiters that looks pretty good you know I'll go ahead and join him rain so we did my old buddy we joined in in June of 1956 did you want to go to war yeah you did World War II all the newspapers and we were Patriotic love that flag and we have to go protect it we were taught that and I really couldn't wait to protect my country that

was the my thought process as a Young Man were we involved in any conflicts in in the year 1956 the US in the US in 56 bill was peace time correct well I joined the military in 56 yeah and I went to war in 56 you went to War in 56 got out of boot camp and they set me the Suz Canal the Egyptians had closed the Suz canal and so eisenh how was our president and he said you know uh we're not going to put up with that he was a wartime president you know

so we sent send the first Battalion second marins over there and uh we got it done with we didn't land but just the appearance you know of that Battalion coming in with The American flag and they open it back up again I went back in 1957 when the syrians uh started a war we went back and uh we didn't have to land to chase the syrians we just went back as a show force and in 58 I went back and uh we landed in Beirut the Egyptians had closed the Su canal and our job was

to get it back open and that's 19 that was 58 when we actually the syrians and The and the Lebanese started a big war and of course asow was still president and he was President till Kennedy come in and so we went there again we landed and we fought in the mountains and uh you know this fought the snipers and and all of the things that was happening in that time is that the is 58 when you evacuated Americans from Lebanon the airport yeah is that the first time you saw combat yeah firsthand mhm how

did That feel describe that experience well you know I mean I was a marine and it wasn't problem for me we landed we evacuated the airport we took a civilians out the you know the embassies that were there uh we got them out but we had a thousand Marines though and I was a squad leader you know I was in charge of some troops and I had to get it done I was an NCO now and dying for me wasn't that big of a deal I've been Trained by guys that fought in Guana canal and

eima and coming through as a young man so that's what we were trained to do you're going to fight and we went up at the mountains with the old M ones you know threw a lot of hand grenades you know and we learn to make uh parapets and dig fox holes and eat terrible rations and it was a hard tour a duty for us but We all got a nice letter from uh from eisenh how you know Thanking us and then we got one from our commod Thanking us did a good job how long was

that battle few months you were there for a few months a few months wasn't that long was it fighting every day yeah we had to go into to the mountains and that's where they were and some of them had come across from Syria they have to understand how that stuff was back in those days nobody liked this the syrians And but they took our our money and the things that we brought over there now we came in on ships they didn't fly Us in the other guys that came in from Germany Army group came in

from Germany and they sort of give us some some relief and uh but they could fight they had been in Germany since World War I so this 1958 they came in and relieved us and well we were tired though we've been Fighting in those mountains day at night and uh I had my first experiences of killing a human being didn't really bother me I didn't feel any real problem didn't bother you killing a human being I had my first experiences with killing a human being well let's talk about that experience mhm yeah how was the

first human you killed how did that experience go in the mountains up on top of the Mountains they had buildings up there and they had their hideouts and things up there so my job was to go up there and clear it out with my squad and I hit a a small building and a couple of the guys tried to run out and I shot and killed both of them I didn't feel anything nothing No Remorse and then we when we were here at night in the mountains you know we fought them off you know So

never lost a battle in 20 years of my experience in Marine Corps I was never defeated no one ever defeated me what was it like for you to come home after rescuing Americans in Lebanon during that Civil War when when's the first time you went back home to see her family well we were there for a 6 months cruise and after we fought in Lebanon they put us board Ships and they sent us back took us 30 days to get home you know it was enlightening and then when we were told we were going home

we got home and uh part of that was my high school sweetheart uh which I had fallen madly in love with Dy cus we were married 50 years I still love her today never remarried that's my son back there but Any rate I'm sorry when is the first time you went home to your mom your brothers and your sisters oh yeah that was good uh came home from Lebanon I was an NCO uh uh I wanted to see my mom but I want to see you know my wife where was my wife my girlfriend man

in love with Dy capus never loved a woman other than Dy Capers and I we weren't married at that time but I called on her and was a whirlwind type of thing and uh this was 1958 you know December something along there we went into uh we went into the Caribbean for a while had to do some work down there we had some Thugs and whatever so we had to go do that and then the Syrian thing popped up All in this area I don't know if I got the timing right it was a long

time ago but but 59 come around and my three years was up I could either stay in the Marine Corps or I can get out now go home but going home wasn't much of an attraction now I've been with some of the finest military guys in the world I'd fought with them i' shed blood with them I want to stay with Them but I saw a Dy and uh I decided to uh stay with the Marine Corp I reenlisted how did you meet doy she was my high school sweetheart she you met her in high

school I met her in high school first time I saw her I was in love she was walking by I was with a group of other guys and and I saw she had on a yellow dress and I looked at I couldn't believe it I went home and I told my mom I said Mug guess what I saw this girl today and she said sit down son we'll talk we'll talk but I loved her so much and every chance I got to see her in the halls of the school there was a Carver High School

and I try to find a way to sneak around to see her and sometimes in the hallway uh I had to nerve to stop her and I talked to her and fell in love And when I held her hand when she was dying and she winked at me she was dying of cancer I was holding her hand we've been married 50 years but that was that was her strong woman military wives you know back during that time you know they got it done cuz we were gone a lot you know I did 14 years overseas

I fought two Wars include the thing in the Middle East when did you guys get Married June of 1959 so I reenlisted and they paid me a lot of money wasn't much in today we look at it and they say that was no money at all but that was great for me because I was a military guy I didn't need a whole lot of money at the time though when I joined I was sending my parents monies that's what we all did we had allotments and you because I just appreciated what they had done for

me You know coming from the south and all that and they were not really educated folks we were farmers basically but I did well married dnie we went to California I hooked up with first Force Recon company well before we get to First Force Recon you were married for 50 years yeah so I want to ask you what is your in your opinion what is the what is the secret to a successful marriage I will tell you I Lov Dy Capers the first time I saw Her uh we went to hell we raised a blind

child our first child Gary was born blind in special needs and good child he played the flute the melodic of the organ piano but he had other difficult things and uh after we were married or we were married then the military didn't have Schooling for him for my son wonderful child I loved him so much I was holding his hand when he closed his eyes he died of appendicitis then seemed like the next day my wife died of cancer and the demons come home how do you stay happily married for 50 years what's the secret

I loved her so much she kicked K me out once she kicked you out kicked me out once what Did you do did you deserve it yeah I went out with the guys and and stayed overnight and and I didn't call her and I came home I used to wear cowboy hats you know back in the that was one of the things I wore for cowboy boots like have on now and I wore Cowboy ass so she took my cowboy hat and threw it out then went over and stomped on it so I knew that

I was in trouble but I love the she she Let me come back in but she was such a sweetheart I remember when we were a snake bitter she was out feeding a fish at a fish pond she was out there feeding the fish with her hand a snake come up and bit her on her hand this takes away from your what are you talking about there I was telling you about that time when a snake bidder and she didn't panic she scared of Snakes bit her on the finger H so she come in and

said Sweeto I've been bit by a snake I panicked but I did the first aid we had to get down to the emergency room so we went there but the snake was not poisonous and one of my troops uh who Liv next door he wouldn't kill the snake brought it down to the hospital and they looked at it was not poisonous but just the whole idea of her demeanor at that time you know I think I would have I've been Struck close by snakes never got hit by a poisonous snake but I've been around you

know uh pythons and all this other stuff in Southeast Asia but I'm just saying about D she is so brave got her taken care of uh but we went through a lot of challenges together I got sent over overseas for 15 months as a marine pathonor back in the old days and Uh had to send her home put her on a train and sent her back to Baltimore with my child and I was gone for that period of time you know we interesting world back then as far as Marines are concerned yeah and the army

guys too you know which we did work a lot with and and the seals were just coming on board so they came on board was 7061 and uh did you work with the seals yeah how was that it was good because uh They were young guys uh they were UDT guys at first and then they want to move be on a high water Laine see we were all scuba that's what I did for my time in the military you know I did those dive Masters and I combat swms and I did all of that uh

but the seals were new guys they were underw demolition team but they moved them from swimming then they went beyond the high water line which meant that they could go out and blow [ __ ] up Pardon my language um they were good they were young and we had a lot of Marines went over to the seals really yeah oh yeah a lot of the seals were Marines interesting oh yeah I knew a lot of a lot of the seals I worked with them in Vietnam you know of course I was an old guy you

know I was 29 years old I was the Dive Master and you know I did all that cuz I've been in for a while and I Was good at it I did let's go back to 1959 all right where he became the first African-American to join the Marine Corps Special Operations Force Recon that's what they tell me that's what they tell you that's what they tell me I join up and uh to join Force recon at that time you had to be almost a Superman these guys did you know what force Recon was when You'd

signed up for it I'd heard about it how'd you hear about it guys had told me about and it had a newspaper there think it was the Scout newspaper in California and it had an article on them the guy jumping out the airplanes and swimming and Diving and I thought this is pretty cool I'd been in the grunts for 3 years so I went down and took the test they kicked the hell out of me me these guys were nuts damn you think you think SEAL training got to be pretty good you know we didn't

have a whole lot of these guys and I passed of course well actually I didn't pass uh they said I didn't pass they said well come back on Monday this is Friday I took the test said you didn't make it come back on Monday and take it again okay showed up on Monday took it again you know they said put him in you know they took me in see the first sergeant then I had to go See the captain and uh and the captain was in his office and he had a hand grenade on his

window seal I saw it I seen hand grenades before and he said something dumb like what would you do with his hand GR I said I throw it out the window with the window was I was sitting the window was open and this guy jumped up grabbed the Hand grenade and pulled a pen it it was a joke they want to see if I was going to run no I went through all this hell to get here now you're not going to make me run out of this office there but that's a little induction type

stuff I did three years there went over SE with the Marine Pathfinders what was the training like well they sent you to jump school and and all types of pro Uh you had a platoon had a a team and out on the west coast it was crazy PT every day during the day I was I was married at that time but now you had to live in the barracks and for long as I can remember uh we were swimming running and Diving and all kinds of stuff they created you know and the the seals hadn't

come on yet this was 1961 rightly 60 so I went to jump School in that was separate then when I come back I went through the the Recon uh indoctrination and uh I was a pretty good kid I could handle myself but they were tough we had guys from World War II in there not many but you know they were new guys we had some Army in there we had some seals oh not seals but UDT guys and the Corman were uh Or SEALS or navy right yeah Navy guys yeah but first force was my

indoctrination into Special Operation what did it what did it feel like for you to graduate the training well we didn't graduate [Music] from the the training they just put you a platoon you go through all the Indoctrination which is the stuff now that jungle warfare and mine clearing and all kind of stuff we went through um we didn't have a battalion it was one company and the folks that ran that company pretty tough guys and he only took the best guys the uh toughest guys uh had huge guys I don't know where they got those

guys from I mean really when I saw those guys you Know uh and they could fight they could fight but a lot of them were overrated I thought they hot dogs and I came there for a serious tour Duty so I got in a little trouble some of the guys uh thought well I'm a black guy so let's give this black guy a hard time didn't work that way I didn't back down from him no no how would they give you a hard time cuz I black how I was the only Black guy there what

would they do well one time uh after some horrendous program I was tired and I was in I was in the uh Squad Bay and I laid down this bed and the guys came by and with this cross and put a rebel flag on me and you know this stuff know they laughed about it and I saw it you know when I got up cleaned myself up Let it Go you know doctrination and thought they were going to scare me no you don't scare of Jim Capers I'd worked too hard you know to get there

and by that time I had a wife and a child and uh of course they paid you 55 when listed 55 bucks for for jump pay and and I became an officer it went up to $110 I don't know what they do now but it was extra pay so It was incentive and I enjoyed the the tour but a lot of racism back in those days I mean you know those things that I saw and uh it bothered me but it didn't deter me and in 1966 was that your first tour to Vietnam yeah and

so H what did you think when you got orders to go to Vietnam was going I wanted to go you wanted to go yeah I was at that uh when I come back from first Force they sent me back to the east coast to train troops and something we call ITR you know learn they learn to you know to do those types of things in the field so I had that type of work to do I was a sergeant E5 at the time and I stayed there for a few months and Uh Force Recon was

looking for volunteers know I had been in first Force did that job okay now Vietnam guys were bleeding and uh casualty list was high and when I got to Ford me I was on what I don't know they called it hardship I had a blind child at home so the comed on Marine Corps said that you Don't have to go to combat cuz you've got a uh a blind son and a young wife so I went to didn't have to go to Vietnam but I saw the casualty list saw the news Cycles every night I

watched it and all those young men were dying I saw the clips and I'm at home at night and um then they put me on something called a fort M guard it was a ceremonial unit went out to uh Fort me which is where the starbangle band was Written so I had a little group we marched out there every Thursday marched out there and uh twirl rifles and carried the flag around and we had a a band with us the band played and we marched and and at night when we come home I had to

watch young guys carrying the flag in Vietnam and bringing the dead Marines home Soldiers Home and air home And one day I asked daddy she said I know what you're thinking I know what you're thinking said how do you know what I'm thinking you don't know what I'm thinking she yes I do know what you think I see the news also I know you're training I've been there with you I know it's time for you to go and if you choose to go to Vietnam Gary and I will be here when you Come back and

my adant and another officer couple days later came to my house lived on the base army base and they came to my house and said Sergeant uh we know you volunteered to go back to Vietnam or to go to Viet I hadn't been before and I just wanted to talk to your wife about it my wife said you don't need to talk to me if you don't need something eat or drink your night's Over night's over he's my husband I'm American too I'm a citizen too I'll be here when he comes back and he will

come back and gentlemen you're nice over and one said well uh Miss cers we just want to let you know that he doesn't have to go you know the commod got him on a hole she I'm his wife I gave birth to his child and I'll be here they left I got orders to go to Vietnam and uh I join Force Recon and that was hard third force uh was made up of first force and second force and anybody else we can get to have a qualification now I've been in in first FL so I'm

good to go so my job was to train the other guys coming in I already been to Jumping I went I went to scuba school again know uh went To carado I think it was 4we course it was hard but I was Honor Graduate you were the Honor Graduate Honor Graduate you know they uh they worked us hard uh we swam a lot we did a lot of water work you know and I enjoyed it you know cuz I had swam my ass off in first Force you enjoyed diving yeah you're the only person I

know that enjoyed diving in the Coronado Bay well I did that and uh at the end of the course uh one of my guys was going we had 19 marines that was in the class and we were all going to Vietnam so one of my kids uh didn't make the uh the distance swim know when before you graduate you got to make that distance swim and they don't give you any slack on that um and he was a little bit late so the chief says hey sge we can't Gra wa him I said Chief Come

on now you how long have you we known each other he said yeah I know but he didn't make the time swim so he can't graduate he'd been through everything else I said Chief uh he used to be a pretty good man but now you're you're not I said some other words but he was my friend I said tell you what I'll do if you let me do this again I will swim with him I will take the the last this is the last part of the course and U so I he said yeah Okay

all right all right all right and I said I thought you really well candy ass Chief but you made the right decision I got in the water and swam I don't know how far it was I'd already made my my swim I'm good now I'm doing a second swim with him and it wore me out when I we were got about a 100 m where we needed to be my leg cramped up I didn't give up and at the end he was tired and I'm trying to hold on to him I'm trying to deal with

the Cramp and all that but we got through there together cross the line together damn oh yeah I did that and over the years he still thanks me for that no [ __ ] went to war and he survived didn't get a scratch on him Tom Nicholson Tom Nicholson uh I needed to carry as many men as I could and I didn't want to have him come back know so I swam with him that's Documented but that was Jim capus I'm I'm in command I was platoon Sergeant that's a hell of a leader well did

that most of my career got shot to hell some some of the times did you ever get wounded no wonderful that's great that is really great after all the hell you've been through you know I'm glad you came home safe and you got a family and you got a great program they tell me that you had one of the most I've heard Your program have you heard some of the other Marines M have you heard some of the Marines we've had on here from Force reconnaissance and maraso I don't know that time as much when

did you come on anyway what year the show yeah this show started on Christmas Eve of December 2019 I'd gone to California for after my wife and my son passed I moved to California I lost touch with a lot of things but what I've heard about your Show and what I was told to listen listen to it you know I fig you another candy ass seal at first but uh I found out that you weren't you see that sword right there yeah that's uh I interviewed a Don Graves he was a flamethrower in EO gimo

and I interviewed him when he was 98 years old oh great and uh he turns a 100 years old in May he's going to be back here uh I don't know if he's coming on the show or not but he's I'm hoping To have lunch with him at least but he sent me that sword that took that off a uh a Japanese soldier a Nero gima that's lot that's pretty good yeah yeah he's a Marine and then one of my best friends Nick kefalas he was a marso marine M and he was my third episode

Cody Alford he was also a marso marine honor man honor man I think of his sniper class first first the youngest Marine to ever reach E8 uh fought in the Battle of fuia he's a good friend of mine we've had a we've had a lot of good Marines on here yeah well you've got a good show we've had some candy ass seals too though I've seen a few of those in my life go ahead let me interrupt you go ahead yeah but um well let's talk let's get back to you so finished the swim you

passed yeah and you guys go to Vietnam well the other part of it was I had to get my one of my other guys to the finish line also so they wouldn't drop them another one no that would I did that just the one time with my my other Sergeant it wasn't two of them just one okay and then we came back to uh Camp leun then we started training for Vietnam some of the guys had to go to jump school and I i' had taken the swim guys There that we had to go through

um the mine program we went to the jungles down in Panama we went through almost 6 months of training wow yeah and then we uh they put us on a bus at night and sent us to noro and how did you like the how did you like the jungle down in Panama I did training down there too I went through three times I went through with the four guys and I went through when I was Commanding officer with the grunts actually just two times I went through and uh it was hard uh I was the

captain at the time and uh trying to motivate the guys and I took this chicken grabbed the chicken I stretched him out and bit his neck I bit his head off and I threw him out there and the blood was all over me and all over him The gu's going motivating you know we would uh we had one of my trainers we were in a training part of the program in the jungles and uh the instructor said you guys take it easy now we all of us was at the Recon guys we were all in

the in the bleaches and the Instructor reached down in his Boot and pull out this snake and bit his head off and threw him out in the in the sand now I bit the chicken off he had off but that was just show for my guys had a lot of new guys and we're trying to let them know that the old man can get it done no you need to fear me cuz I will kill you uh not they were troops I couldn't do that but you're trying to scare them a little sure you've been

through that but we went through almost six months of Training then we finally deployed in April of 1966 and uh they took us to I forget what they took us and know all of our equipment dive stuff swim stuff and we went over to uh on ship we went over and I think we went straight into Vietnam and dang and started setting up Camp and started operating and it was Bloody what was the mission the mission was to go Behind Enemy Lines and kill those son of a [ __ ] that was the miss that

was my mission that's what we did just kill as many of them as you can kill as many as you can as you could you if you it was a if you killed them Kia if you wounded them you know but we didn't really know if you wounded them Or not a lot of them were wounded and they craw they craw away you see the blood Trails but uh if you were Kia they gave you credit for it and we killed a lot of them let's talk about your first mission after the camp was built

what did that what did that entail well actually the camp was already built you know there was guys there when we came in and they had a mess all set up and all that so we just had to had to uh Get our stuff together we went through some phases and uh launch from a place called fui and that was already built and we took off in area area number five cuz they had all the these pieces of Vietnam in in different areas and I got area number five and it was loaded within you know

with a lot of in INB whatever the guys were you know the Viet Kong uh NVA soldiers uh a lot of them were there and they had been there for a while and the Viet the Vietnamese soldiers couldn't get them out and a lot of the Vietnamese soldiers were cowards they didn't want to fight no kidding they didn't want to fight no they' been there for all these years And and the North Vietnamese come in and wiped them out so now we got to go in and fight the Vietnamese the North Vietnamese there was a

border in 16th parallel and the NVA came across the 16th parallel which is set you know since the earlier Wars in southeast Asia and they came across and was coming all the way down in South Vietnam and we were supposed to stop them there were a lot of things you know a part of that you know we had to Set up ambushes we went into their camps and we ambushed them at night uh there are a lot of individual stories about that I ran 50 missions all of them weren wasn't from foai I went into

Kon I went into folop I went into dang all my guys and we lost guys along the way but uh I had went from staff sergeant we lost the three out three officers the first three Months wow gone so I went from staff sergeant second Lieutenant never spent the day in OCS or basic School Officers Training how would you set up on the camps would you do an L Ambush yeah we did a lot of those we set up how many guys were you with how many guys yeah when you went on a let's talk

about your first would you would you work primarily at daytime or at night when you both both oh yeah You' go out For 5 days or so uh mostly 4 days though cuz if you working hard as we did and had the kind of combat that we had we had guys that was injured maybe not gunshot wounds but it was hard hard terrain MH you and through the jungles and trying to avoid the damn snakes and I had one guy named Miller he got bit twice by a Snake and I had to send him down

to dang for treatment went down there and damn it the guy got bit again when he brought him back to Quan he got hit real bad and we had that last mission at fock and all of us fought for 4 days day and night but go ahead go ahead yeah let's we'll get to full up but I wanted to I wanted I just want to talk about your first your very first mission mhm in Vietnam yeah what was what was the briefing the first mission we made three combat Dives we came on in the ship

and they wanted to make sure that the ship had not been they hadn't placed mines on the bottom of the ship so I took down the divers and the ship was almost 3,000 ft and we went down with scuba gear we didn't have any uh trousers on we just wor the the Jackets and had the the oxygen and all of that and we went there the regular scuba dive and we had to check and see that there was no mines on the ship on the bottom of the ship didn't run into any but we saw

the they had something that that uh I don't know what the hell it was but fire was coming out of it uh uh and we had to avoid that you know the fire was coming out of the had it in the bottom Of the ship and we were trying to get around that cuz I want to check the whole ship and uh one interesting thing that happened we got there uh had pretty air no no problem with that and we got to the end and uh they had these tiger sharks see the Army was supposed

to tell the Navy hey you here now or na was supposed to tell the Army we're here now and let uh don't feed the the the sharks or the Fish cuz we're going to be in the water we got divers in the water holy [ __ ] well it didn't work that way somehow way the tiger shark showed up I'm finishing up my dive now and if you ever seen a tiger shark close they're voracious and they were feeding the stuff that the garbage that the army dropped there uh at the base there so I

had one man his buddy line you all in buddy lons of course and I had 10 men or nine men of myself And his buddy line came loose and he was drifting out to where the Sharks were feeding now as a leader you have to make a decision that's what leaders do you can't sit on it I made a decision right here right now I unhooked my buddy line and swam out there and got him you don't let him die you go out there and you bring him back brought him back he's alive he passed

away a few years ago but that's what I did no no honors No medals wasn't that you save a life cuz those sharks would have eaten them up I've seen tiger sharks before no honors but the decision you make when you're a leader you make that decision right here right now you don't think about it that's what you do and I've done that so many times how about the first mission on the ground well we had to get do the dive missions I Did uh we came in we had to clear the ship then we

uh well we we got in country that was early on it wasn't the first mission we went [Music] on but uh we lost a man oh the Marines that lost a a man and we had to go down and bring his body up and while we were down there we found there was over a couple hundred Rounds of of ammunition down there buried in the mud so uh we brought the kids was much in the kids' body you know they eat them up pretty good so we brought up what was left and then we decided

to go back down and get those rounds because NVA would take those rounds and they could use explosives with them they had them buried there over 200 rounds so we went back down and we pulled up every one of them when you said that the body was Eaten up eaten up by what by sharks by sharks oh yeah yeah now we had the SBO River and they had not just sharks but they had the SBO River was a major river FL where they the ships come down not ships but boats that come down there and

uh the Vietnamese they washed in the river whole bit they were families around there but that wasn't my concern we want to get that boy's body up and we did it and then we found those Rounds we had to get those up now then what to do with it we EOD came in and they took the rounds they took the rounds I didn't lose the in on that one didn't lose a man but it was a hell of an experience we made once we got to uh the Nang we anchored on the ship and we

went down and and did some other War water work we did a lot of water work as as Recons swimmers and Divers cuz the grunts were not divers when they had a problem you know they had to call us I did a lot of that stuff I was an officer by that time no I really wasn't I was a staff S I didn't get a commission till later on but the first ground missions we went on we had to go up in the mountains or go in the jungles and hun down the bad guys and

that's first time they gave us the Dogs uh gave us the war dogs and I had two of them on my first mission and then Argo and King couldn't get along so I kept King King was killed later on in the fop good good dog tough dog would kill you I had him in a big case a big cage cuz you couldn't let him out of the cage and I had a dog handling assigned to him and of course I can pel King we all trained with him and he Would kill an enemy soldier grab

him by the throat Gru whatever that he killed two in folck before he got killed um first missions on the ground said we had Recon zones and and we dropped in by helicopter we were supposed to parachute in but the jungles were you know kind of crazy and and we don't want to get separated especially if you're going in at night you know some of those were Probably done but uh I didn't want to do my take my guys in by Parachute and we had all this stuff there but I didn't I decided to take

the the helicopters put us in and we can drop maybe 10 ft uh on the ground in the jungle and we stayed out for a while then they come and pick us up by helicopter and and we would have the helicopter land maybe two two positions cuz I didn't want the NV To know where we were so he would drop in here drop in there and we were supposed to be at one place and they knew where we were coming in We Ready them so we're going to be here but sometime we would drop a

flare over here we did what we could the so the enemy wouldn't know that we're going to be picked up here and and and jump in on us diversions yeah yeah we did that all of our missions and uh never got Caught but we did a lot of those missions until the first part of it coming in on ground they put us in with first Force they were already there and we became part of first force and we fought with them uh and then we did work with them and then they sent us South and

Colonel Wilder had a battalion there and he was our first coo when we were training back In the States he was coo Recon Battalion and so they put us in with him and they were fed us and took care of things like that and we stayed with with them the whole time first for stay with first Recon battan the same time all the time when was your first firefight in Vietnam seemed like they all came together damn I mean let's talk about the P Rescue Mission ordered by President Johnson yeah he did order it and

the CIA handle It we had one North Vietnam Vietnamese was in the camp and he was a young guy and they thought he wasn't treating the Americans hard enough so they put him in the penalty chamber and he escaped CIA picked him up and brought him to me and uh or brought him to our headquarters from division and uh I took him in his name was lap he was 18 years old and he was a Soldier uh he slept in my tent with me he didn't speak much English didn't speak English but I talked to

him and he had a tent a rack in my tent with me good kid would have been an American kid would have done well but he was a warrior now he' been trained you know by the north Viet to to kill or to harm Americans or treat them bad and he didn't so I got him now and he wasn't a bad kid he would do what I asked him to do I'd Taken the child or I'd sit at night with him I showed him a picture of my wife so she sent me pictures and he

would go he smiled you know and uh one night I was asleep and I woke up I knew something was wrong I looked over and lamp was gone oh [ __ ] so I grabb my pistol I went looking for him I saw him grabbed him said L what the [ __ ] are you doing out here I need to go to the Bathroom I said what I'm going shoot you right now you know cuz I was worried that the guards in the camp if they saw anybody moving at night that weren't supposed to be

moving they thought they were you know enemy soldier cuz they would try to infiltrate infiltrate our our vasis or steal stuff you know you couldn't tell the difference right but I grabbed L lap and I brought her back to my Tent and I said lap you know if you got to go to the bathroom I don't care what time it is you wake me up I'll take you there cuz one of these you know roving centries they'll catch you out there and they won't know the difference but he I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry so

he got to be like a son to me I kept him there for all the training now we had to train for this Mission oh yeah we had the Shooting the shooting and the language stuff and all that uh finally we got it done and they decided that uh the mission was a go and then they pull they said no we're not going and So eventually we we went and uh we were supposed to jump in and we we worked on jumping in we still had our parachutes and all that stuff which we brought with

us and uh then the weather got bad no no We're not going we're not going to jump you know I was going to be the jump master of course cuz I'm jump Master train and all that went in my helicopter and uh was a big operation seals uh they did some Recon somewhere Cia didn't they didn't do the waterwork you know but we did the waterw uh checked the rivers and then it was time to go so we Flew in by a helicopter and uh we landed and the first night we stayed on a hill

watching the area out there we could see the the fishing we could see the guys out in the rice patties but we stayed quiet you know and then the ne next day we got off the hill and move toward the camp and avoiding anybody that might have been out there third day we hit the camp killed the first two guards and uh my job was to Kill the sentry with my knife that was um the knife guy you know uh so I was I was good at that so uh had me scheduled to kill the

first two guards of the centuries with my knife but didn't get that far cuz everything blew up all a sudden everybody was shooting God damn it uh how am I going to find what well they told us where they thought the PWS was in the tent the sentries here the PWS here and it were Something over there there so my job was to kill these guys get in there and get the P W's out five or six of them P ws and uh I got to where I thought there should be nobody there so I'm

pissed and one of my guys saw two guys coming toward the camp and he shot those two and then I'm pissed now everything's happening and no PWS so I said I could blow it up we blew The whole whole base up blew those places where they held American soldiers where they hell them they I going this Camp will not hold another American Marine or Soldier we burned it yeah we burned it but I didn't get the B ws and that was hard on us we trained for so hard and for so long now we're going

home without the PO WS damn it you know we had a captain in Charge you know I this Lieutenant I believe but he was in charge of he's dead now but he was a coward I hate to say it he he didn't he didn't belong in in in Recon for what we did he failed scuba you know he wasn't very good he could run and all that but he he couldn't do the field stuff I think he ran maybe two missions and the uh P thing he got the Silver Star for that he got the

Silver Star he wrote it up himself oh man got it through when I got hit one time he' never come to see me I was in he' never come to see me never asked how I was doing he was out for himself he he want to be the general's aid he didn't get that so he end up in force Recon and uh he wasn't a bad guy but he shouldn't Have been there yeah you mentioned you were good at killing people with a knife yeah I killed a man up in the well one of them

killed we were at Quan which is a bloody military base and we had some troops up there not many but I was doing a mission start off as a recon mission but now we're thinking that these guys are coming in Quesan to reinforce whatever they had there and they were had the base surrounded so I'm looking to see what I can do to get some of these guys out of there and I run up on some soldiers and I killed the first three shot them with my M my M16 and then I looked over and

I saw another NBAA looking out that way and I got him by his by his mouth and I put oh no h him ripped him stuck my knife down in my CES belt I killed him blood was all over the place he uh he wiggled a little bit but then he down I took my 9 mm there was two others that was moving in between the trees and I I saw the first one I shot him double tap Bo boom he fell didn't move and I saw the other one look back and I shot him

boom boom I got criticized for shooting them in the back they're Running I killed both of them I kill them all I cut his throat I killed as many as I could killed a lot of enemy soldiers but it's up close you know where have seven or eight men and you out in the jungle you know most of that time and we used to run those trails at night looking for them we'd catch them cooking you to smell the food we throw a damn grenade in there but unfortunately we Stopped might have been children in

there I had a heart wasn't a very wasn't a very big heart but yeah they tried to tried to kill me once uh when they uh I was black marine and they had some other stuff for me and they put out a reward for me this is what I was told by Intel they said that if you kill me you would Get a cow and you'd get a two weeks in hinoi they come close to killing me they couldn't do it not a lot of black Force Recon sense Marines out there huh no no not

in those days no 50s 60s well a lot of these guys we all know they come from maybe cities and didn't have swimming pools that these kids could go to there's a lot of social stuff goes along with that but a lot of the guys didn't try hard enough I tried Out hard enough cuz I want to be there I knew I could do it you know so how did that make you feel knowing that they had a bounty on your head oh I didn't bother me folks been looking after me all my life you

know they tried to kill me when I was in Hong Kong I went there on RR I mean I knew was set up they brought this girl to my room she knocked on the door And I was on the phone talking to my wife I was waiting on the call because you had had another server to get through to the states and all that and I'm waiting and she come to my room she could either capture me or kill me and nobody would really uh care another American especially being black but no I'm fall for

that and the time uh well there was a lot of Times people try to kill me I mean even in Hong Kong they tried to kill me and they tried to kill me in Hawaii tried to kill my wife and my son how' they try to kill your wife and your son I have a long history I just come back from a year in in Europe and when I was in Hamburg they tried to kill me they they missed when they tried to kill my wife And my son we had gotten a a three-year tour

in Hawaii so Dy n Gary we went to Hawaii and year goes by you know we're doing all she won first place in the hoola contest and we're having a great time you know I'm enjoying it and met a lot of Hawaiian friends and I was out of combat CU most people don't know what happened to me in Germany Yeah but at any rate and uh one day my general called me and uh he said Captain sit down I was the captain then I said yes sir I foret oh [ __ ] I've done something

wrong now General's calling me in he said I'm sending you home I said well G I just got here we enjoying this tour Le see I know but the plan is for I didn't want to mention the name to kill your wife and your son we've Confirmed it and so to keep you out of Harm's Way I'm sending you and your family home then you go home and you talk to your wife and you tell her that you no longer will be in Hawaii went home that is a Tropa now you got to understand who

Dy is uh which you would have loved her cuz she was a real real trooper I said sweetheart uh something come up she oh why is it something always comes up when you want to tell me Something I don't want to hear I said well sweetheart I said I just saw the general and he told me that uh we're in trouble and they figured out that you and Gary are going to be shot on Saturday morning at 10:00 and they were supposed to be there who is they you don't even know that that's a long

time ago tell me some of your stories and then I'll tell you mine now it wasn't a good idea uh for her to Stay in Hawaii um well you were a seal right that's right so you're a tough guy you can handle all this stuff we'll get around to it uh I went back and told the general that my wife don't want to go home she wants stay here this is the first time in a long time we've been Together and uh you know the war was kind of hard on me he said yeah C

I know all about that said I know what happened to you in Hong Kong and and um I knew about them two people you killed by the way I said no I didn't kill those people General he said yes you did I know that I'm lying like B to the general but that was something that happened a long time ago supposed to be secret but he's a general he's got Sources are these the two people that you killed that were running away is that who he's referencing no this was in Hong Kong I'm talking about

you killed two people in Hong Kong that was a long time ago I would thought we talk about my wife and my son but he told me that he knew about the people I killed in Hong Kong who did you kill in Hong Kong some bad guys I'm killing both and I kicked them Off and kicked them in the water come them off they didn't know what they were [ __ ] with yeah kill him they tried to kill me how did they try to kill you they tried to set me up this is Hong

Kong now we're talking about mhm they come to my room well they sent this this girl to my room pretty girl I had a wife at Home is this intelligence H is it intelligence Services had the British there they own the base China China owns it now yeah breach with our allies Sean there's so many things uh they diagnosed me with PTSD and they also declared me insane I'm an old guy now and I have trouble dealing with some of these issues and I know who You are and what you've done and and I appreciate

it and I'm doing the best I can to do this this piece with you but a lot of it you know uh was not known through this channels and when I was in Hong Kong I was on RNR but they tried to kill me they left me alone I wouldn't have bothered them but they didn't leave me alone and had to realize who they were messing with so I did kill them And i k a lot more yeah and know that's what you want to talk about but lot of a lot of this stuff you

know it runs together the timing that was I'm 87 years old I'm going to be 88 this year I spent 14 years overseas I for two Wars I have 19 holes that I bled from both my legs have been broken right now I got six pieces of metal in my body two In my thighs and down in my lower legs were broken I got a piece of metal in my left leg my right leg is shorter than my left leg I got scars all over me I can't hardly walk that's why I didn't stand when

you come in no disrespect I didn't take any well let's move into there was a down B52 correct that that that that supposedly had a nuclear bomb B-57 B-57 excuse Me it crashed in the mountains and uh I was told I know it was nuclear equipped other words you could carry a nuclear bomb on it and I didn't know if they had a bomb on it or not but we were supposed to paracho in left that alone didn't want to drop into an area like that I've been in jumps where there he was smoked um

so we landed on top of the mountain helicopter we dropped in about About 10 ft we dropped in he it was a heavy Landing we had our stuff with us and we went down to the crash and um wasn't much there the Vietnamese had already been there by time we got there U we had got in there at first might have had a chance see what's on this thing but we found some uh goggles and We know that somebody had had this aircraft we brought some of the oxygen bottles back I didn't find any bodies

uh we did look and uh but uh the story is we knew that there's no point looking any further because uh there's nobody here the plan is Crash and hit the mountain and it was SE the tail was SE seated from the body and so I decided okay we need to go Home now this enemy territory and uh Team broadminded so we started went down the mountain and uh started home but it start to rain and uh uh I told him that uh I needed an extraction cuz we could see tracks on around I F

there some bad guys are out there so I call for an extraction and they call back and says no we can't come and get You cuz it's R in and the Choppers can't fly I said well I'll give you a day and I'll stay here for a day roam around and then I either got to stay here until you come get me or I got to come home and after all of that I decided we're going home and I got my team together and little and I uh joski was a very tall Point Man still

around today I said D raski no I said Point man take us home and for the next 5 days we walked through enemy territory went through two Mine Fields swam a river wasn't captured and we got hit the last part of it they they open fire but that was all right not going to bother us cuz the Marines were coming from the other direction to pick us Up so we probably killed a bunch of them but that didn't bother me cuz they weren't going to really attack us and the truck showed up and picked us

up and uh went home and the general said or the colonel said once you get something to eat I wasn't hungry couldn't eat I let my troops go to the messall then I had to go down to Colonel's office to see the CIA guy and the debriefing sure you've been in a lot of Those um but they they briefed me and I told them what I knew uh I didn't find any bodies on the uh on the aircraft and then I uh Colonel said want you go and uh take a nap I was tired I

said I don't know if I can sleep I've been awake for 4 days almost 5 days I'm laying down and my eyes had Closed and I couldn't get my eyes open I had mud and dirt cake everything was in my eyes I was laying there and I couldn't get my eyes open I was moving my head I trying to get and I had had to had to do this my arms were so tired I couldn't hardly reach my face it was a hard physical uh trip for us and finally I got my eyes open then

this young kid was standing there he come in say Lieutenant I got Your mail for you now the staff sergeant I got your mail for you first different voice I've heard cuz I knew my guy's voices and he was different and he shouldn't have been in my tent cuz everybody knows you don't do that but I had to learn to be a human being again I been in the jungle for so long i' was almost turning into that person I could eat anything fight anything sleep in the water those type Of things that was I

had experienced as I was making this you know from a p time Marine mhm until and being totally involved in this jungle thing did you feel more inv more at home in the jungle I did then you did yeah when they when they uh my time come to go out I had about two and a half days in the rear you get some regular child see the dock and all that but I had a doc with me but it was uncomfortable I felt better when I'm out there At watch when I got my knife I

got my pistol I got my rifle at the ready and I know I can kill anything I wasn't afraid I had gotten past that that stage I was only afraid for my men well major let's take a quick break and then when we come back we'll just we'll pick up right here all right do you want to water or anything no you're okay how's it going D no I'm all right All right where have I been I guess I took me back to Vietnam damn took a little bit of trip there huh yeah I'm all

right all good yeah okay I'm all right I know everybody out there has to be just as frustrated as I am when it comes to the BS the rhetoric that the mainstream media continuously tries to force feed us and I also know how frustrating it can be to try to find some type of a reliable news source it's getting really hard to find the truth And what's going on in the country and in the world and so one thing we've done here at Shan Ryan Show is we are developing our newsletter and the first contributor

to the newsletter that we have is a woman former CIA targeter some of you may know her as Sarah Adams call sign super bad she's made two different appearances here on the Shawn Ryan Show and some of the stuff that she has uncovered and broke on this show is just Absolutely mindblowing and so I've asked her if she would contribute to the newsletter and give us a weekly intelligence brief so it's going to be all things terrorists how terrorists are coming up through the southern border how they're entering the country how they're traveling what these

different terrorist organizations throughout the world are up to and here's the best part the newsletter is actually free we're not going to spam You it's about one newsletter a week maybe two if we release two shows the only other thing that's going to be in there besides the Intel brief is if we have a new product or something like that but like I said it's a free CIA intelligence brief sign up links in the description or in the comments we'll see you in the newsletter one of the things we've been wanting to start on patreon

is deep Dives into the guests we found Ben and Jess's Story So inspiring that we actually created a mini doc out of what they're doing right now it's over on patreon you guys can go check it out I've been wanting to do this for a long time and we finally have the team to be able to go and produce these things thanks to patreon I've talked about this on almost every show I thank our patrons without you guys none of this would be possible I'm so excited to bring this to You guys I think you're

going to love it I know you're going to love it and Ben his story is so awesome flipping the Trap houses into halfway houses it's an amazing mini documentary on what they're doing right now like I said we found this story so inspiring we're going to start doing this with more and more guests that we have on the Sha Ryan Show head over to patreon right now you can view the whole documentary all right major you ready to Kick it off again for your TV audience I wear these boots cuz I've got metal in my

legs and it helps me out with stability yeah it's pretty sharp looking kicks well thank you you're welcome but um so we're getting ready to get into Fu lock okay but before we do we didn't cover the the battlefield commission from Sergeant to second Lieutenant yet so I wanted to ask you How that went yeah well before Vietnam I'd applied for a commission they had a program that you could apply for and you'd go to OCS and basis school you come out an officer I applied for that but uh I passed all of the tests

but they sent me a letter and said consider it but not but not select it so I didn't get to go the next year my officer said try again so I did again and I didn't get Selected uh it was hard on African-American Marines at during that time we had very few officers in the Marine Corps uh so they had the enlisted commissioning program so I tried out but I didn't make it but then I guess later on when they considered me for a battlefield commission I mean they just gave it to me all the

off were dead so they gave me The commission I had never gone to OCS or basis school and I had a high school education I'd had some college but uh I was proud of that from my family nobody in my family had ever graduated high school and so this was good for them prove that we could be good citizens my parents insisted on that and uh had a behave Yourself and I did all those things then after I joined the Marines like I mentioned uh I did good and then they decided to commission me took

5 minutes Colonel call me in his office and uh I signed the documents raised my right hand and come out a second Lieutenant you know it sounds like the uh theau bureaucrats maybe got in the way of your Advancement but the men that you're actually fighting with yeah on the ground had a tremendous amount of respect for you is that fair to say most of them I can't say all of them did because the commanding officer of my unit when they were looking at this medal of honor for me he said he'd rather die and

go to hell before I would get to Mel ofor why is that he was a racist he's Gone he was with in my unit he was the captain in the unit but he uh went to the p camp with us didn't fight was a coward he failed schoa school I never saw him make a parachute jump I don't even know whether he even went went to jump school or not cuz I came in as a as a a sergeant then I made staff sergeant there then I made officer there but Ken Jordan was his Name

and his goal was to be the general's aid no he talked about him earlier H he talked about him earlier yeah wasn't a good man and he didn't didn't like me and you know I went through that as a NCO and as an officer but you know I was okay with it cuz I was serving the Marine Corp and I fed I'm good enough to get through I'm good enough to do a good job I didn't make a lot of rank you know I made it up to major I probably could have gone further but

uh I chose to retire know I did not that 20 almost 23 years uh I was up for lieutenant colonel which I'm sure I would have made because my background my War background and other stuff I'd done but when I retired I bought a home In Jacksonville and my son was doing okay my wife was doing all right um but I think my son had a big part of it too you know I couldn't find a school for him and those types of things and course these blind special needs and so I had to deal

with that and general told me that he's going to recommend me for uh Lieutenant Colonel which has been pretty good for me I come In as a Snuffy and uh then I come home from work one day just before I retired and my wife Daddy was crying so man said what's up what's up sweetheart she said Gary got assaulted in school my son was blind special needs and um the demons came home so I had weapons in my trunk of my car I was authorized to do that so I said well this isn't going to

work I went down to the the school and driving down to the school there was a golf course on the left and some housing on the right I was driving down and I hit a light and I waited and waited and the angry more angry I got I'm a settle this you're not going to assault my Child demons that come home should have thought better but that light never changed I one didn't change so I turn around and come back home God once again protected me cuz I have no idea what I have done had

I got there and some kids parents was there and and but anyway God saved me again and uh Gary was okay I Retired the general came there that day he tried to T talk me out of it but I think I was it was time I was hurting all over and I was COO of a force Recon company wow and had a big retirement for me on the parade field everybody come to see me the Navy come to see me and everybody was there and I was a major coming from a cornfield and cotton fields

Dy was There Gary was not there but it was the idea that all these people come to see me retire good friends what I'd known since I was a teenager and they gave me me a couple medals I don't know which one they gave me at that time and uh had the the band was there and they played the music and the marching band was there and the general gave me a medal And everybody applauded that major Capers is going home now the legendary major capus will gave it all then I brought up my EXO

young man he's uh gone now he made Major General but he's dead now I introduced him as my relief and then I waited around I couldn't leave the battlefield or not the battlefield but the parade Field cuz I want to see all my guys I told Daddy I said well you know maybe somebody else will come L the general had gone the Admiral had gone and I was waiting for somebody to come up one of my troops that I want say goodbye to nobody showed so daddy said you know sweetheart maybe it's time for us

to go home I said well let's wait another minute or two and nobody else Came I said okay she drove me home and took off my uniform and I never put it back on again I have it in a seabag somewhere on my shed but those are the memories from beginning as a teenager from the cotton fields to being uh awarded you know on a parade field with hundreds probably thousands cuz the you know the division had their bands and said goodbye to me let's go back to fux loock F loock Yeah all right not

a pleasant thing to do but let's go back to fock you ready for that yeah what was going on there what was the mission know that sort of confusion Sean because uh nobody really figured it out except uh that was my last mission that was the last one last mission how much time had you spent in Vietnam until then 9 months 10 Months almost a year but we did a lot of work with the Navy you know doing the Ship Bottom searches and the diving and the swimming and all that one night I made a

swim of 1500 m in enemy ter territory to do some Recon on the beaches and then swam back 1500 M but fock was a different situation uh I was asked to go in there and the the Vietnamese had a had a base On the reverse side of uh uh long top Hill and uh okay my last mission cuz my time was up pretty much and and I was going to use the last month I guess it was doing some work for somebody helping the new guys coming in but I wasn't commanding officer you know uh

of the unit you know I was a platoon Commander as a lieutenant but I commanded most of the unit because I been around for a while and I was a little older you know some of the young officers and they would come in uh wasn't qualified they wanted the experience of being there but you know that's not a place you go to get experience MH in the areas that we were in but in fock I got to fock and Damn um going into F lock which we stopped off at a at a place where we

had uh some guys that lived in the villages with the South Vietnamese and they would be in the camps with them and they spoke Vietnamese and they would help the Vietnamese fight against the north vietamese forget what they call those guys but they were good so I joined up with them And uh well actually I didn't get up there first I went into one place and we got shot out I mean just blasted all over the place I Chopper got hit so we pull out of there we didn't land uh I don't know how the

hell they knew we were there coming in that place Landing Zone and the next one we got to we weren't going to quit we were going in there and they had these uh pieces of had grenades On on Long poles that was set up with wire around them and they had these grenades with the if you land in in that area the chopper would pull the pin on the grenades and they would blow from each side so it was booby trap the whole land ex out yeah so figured that out we got the hell out

of there and we how did you guys see that In a helicopter uh training I guess we spent so much time in the damn jungles and we saw it and then uh the chopper went up he just kept going up and all of a sudden he just dropped down with auto rotation they called it and and he just turn it loose come on down like that then restart it about 200 ft off the ground differently from where we were with this boobie Traps and we got to where we needed to be and we started operating

uh we're angry this is supposed to be our last mission now I'm taking what ever I have left go home but most of them were gone was a hard hard tour I was enlisted man now I'm in command Jordan who was command at first he went he got TR he got out of there so Lieutenant Capers now gets the Hard duties of taking the guys with me I left I left one man back cuz he had a hernia and but he he didn't want to stay back he came to my tent and said Lieutenant I

got to go you know you can't leave me behind I said no ski you know dooski was his name so you've done a good job you been with me all the way you fought a good War now you go home now and you have a happy life well he was the only Survivor that didn't get killed and I loved him he's still alive you guys keep in touch yeah still alive I talked to him the other day yeah came to my wife's funeral my son's funeral we were they were both buried together wife and my

son but ski was there was always there and I was I got hospitalized a couple years ago in wilington and I woke up one morning and guess who was standing there d Says Hey sir I'm here he was my point man Point man loyal it broke my heart to leave him behind in fock but I made the right decision because the guy that took over got him uh you all right yeah okay uh Nick de Greek I replaced D Roski with Nick de Greek and I gave him M60 machine gun and it got down to

the fact that when we used that M60 he blew up everything he got lost the leg Nick the Greek did the big man had 19inch arms and he used that M60 like it was nothing tough kit but since D Roski wasn't there he came to me and he said Lieutenant uh let me let me me Point man I can do it I said you know nick uh tough job you know I'm going to be up Front he said yeah but I can cover you somewhere along the line I let Nick bead the point man with

the m60sbs is one of them things that you that he killed two enemy soldiers he's a big dog train to kill we had to keep in a cage you know uh only eye and the dog hen could hold on could could hold him and uh Miller got hit everybody was wounded Lost the leg and is this fool lock fool lock what what happened first what happened first there sounds like there were three really bad firefights where he lost one Marine is that correct we lost the brain uh didn't lose a man in F Lo no

no everybody survives EX at the dog but we had other missions where we lost somebody okay all of us experienced that all the platoons and Teams that we killed a bunch of people and some of ours was wounded young stanlin uh he was my point man Lo with dooski but he got shot and killed at quesan your team was ambushed in in fola correct well he was with another team and they went out on the mission and they got hit and uh grenade came in from what I'm told grenade came in and he roll on

it And the grenade blew him up everybody was wounded on that mission but uh he was his Kia young guy I went to see his mother after the war course I wrote the usual letters you know today your son was killed I'm sorry and this and that uh that was hard to do I want to see his mother I apologize to her she accepted it was okay then few years later his brother called me but his brother his mother and his brother Had divorced and he was raised by his father and uh so he wasn't

there but he did call me some years later to thank me you know and he never come to see me but I did go see uh scanner's mother he was hit bad and at the time what I was told I was not in that area that he jumped on a grenade so I put him in for the marijuana that was the right thing to Do and Jordan refused to send it forward the kid's dead and he saved a lot of lives those M 26s that we carried you know were it would would kill at least

two or three people but he J and we knew his sternum was was crushed so we knew that this grenade was under him so now that wasn't at fock that was at Quan but you were talking about fol loock right Yeah a lot of firefights uh Welly that's a long part there how do I simplify it you don't have to simplify it thank you um after the P raid I went to Hong Kong for 4 days they tried to kill my ass in Hong Kong yeah you had mention That so I come back do you

know who tried to kill you in Hong Kong thugs you know they knew that American Marines and soldiers was coming there for P for uh forgot what the hell it was called now RNR RNR yeah and uh they had gang you know gang things uh set up you know we' go to the clubs and sometime you find a dead marine and the MPS which is run by the British would look into it but we had a water Fight we were still fighting in Vietnam and I come back and I heard scandin was killed yeah yeah

we had breakfast one morning the colonel told me he asked me uh had I heard about the qu know the S major asked me had I heard about casan I said no s major he said we had a lot of trouble up there and he said scandin was killed and everybody Knew I love scandin he like a son to me hard freckled face red hair always smiling and he was he was after the war he was coming to live with me for a while so it was kind of personal when scandin got killed now they

sending me to kesan I got there and uh I'm going back to kesan I guess it is and ran some long range Missions I mean and walking and we came home with a python snake about 20 foot long weighed almost 200 lb we put him in a big sack brought him back and we didn't cross the river with him because it was too heavy so we left them on the side of the river and we swam across the river went up the mountain where our base was we left the snake there we got back and

I told the pilot about the snake we had caught he said H you no snake that long I said Well give us a ride with your helicopter we'll go down and and get them so he we rolled down with the helicopter and one of my swimmers jumped out he landed on a big rock there swimmers jumped out went on and got the snake he was loose and we brought him back to the base and some of this stuff you've already read I'm sure but you done your homework but uh we put the snake in a

excavation and he was lying there and I think sard y said well we Got to get him something to eat so he drove down the town and come back with a damn duck and he tied the duck one leg and put the duck in the hole there with the snake snakes lying in there hadn't really moved Ducks inting there quacking I said you know that duck looks tight looks tough he's going to kick the ass out of that snake in There so everybody's laughing the all that's be nut with feathers in it and the snake

going eat eat that duck so everybody's coming by to betting you know troops bet on any damn thing you know who's going to win this fight the next day we look in this hole and the snake was dead as a doornail no [ __ ] laying out this and the duck is quirking perking around yeah the Ducks Peck that snake to Death and everybody was laughing and they believed it for a while that the duck had pecked the snake and it was unbelievable story but it was fun and we took the snake and we gave

him to the Mard was the Mard tribe used to help us with Intel in the mountains there and older Tri Tribe Called mut yards and for them helping us I gave them some of the meat from a Snake and we gave them a skin some of them and we cut the skin off and they made belts and some of the troops made belts out of the skin from the snake but for they named him GMA P which a top popular TV program during that period of time so they named The Snake GMA P so they

had fun with that name and the death of the snake okay guys time to go back killing people kill them all this Time but we had the 320 fourth B division that had come across the 16th parallel and they were going south to going to chase the Americans out but you know Sean you don't chase Marines out of anything it just don't happen that way know even iima and okanawa and all those places that we fought in and we always had Corman with us there's some wonderful stories we had with the Corman uh lost I

got a seal Corman doc Burwell he's still alive he was a Corman good man tough guy and uh he used to hold a deep sea diving record if you ever heard of DRC Burwell but he Serv with as well good man tough guy that's I don't want to get you out of your sequence there but we were talking about fot yeah we're talking about folck yeah fot uh that was my last Mission and we got into we were supposed to destroy the the the base camp the NVA had set up a base camp on the

reverse side of the mountain so I had to get in there uh see how I can blow a hell out that that base camp I run in some of the guards along the way and kill them finally saw uh got to the top how did you kill him H was it quiet were you in a firefight it was a firefight it was a Fir all firefights you know trying to get in there we didn't go in by a helicopter we walked in fought our way in cuz I had to see what's on the other side

of that mountain and I did blow it I called in the Phantoms and they came in and blew the hell out of it and they came out wiggling their wings they come in again it's blew the hell of it dropping uh all kinds of ammunition and then the helicopters Helped us out Attack Helicopters we accomplished the mission that base didn't operate anymore team broadminded you know but we had to find our way there and fock no that wasn't foock that was another mission but fock we all got wounded we actually walked and we couldn't get

the flight in because like I said the They had booby traps and all that so we actually walked in and we linked up uh with a group that lived in with them and I you know a group of Marines that lived with them no kidding and uh we stayed with them for the evening then we left that night and we walked in eny territory we're deadly you know we went around the uh the rice patties and we went to got to a Graveyard and a lot of firing was going on and everybody was shooting with

you you see the tracers races going so I didn't want to walk into that so I put my guys uh in a graveyard had the cement things there so we stayed there and watched the battle so no we're not going to walk into that so we spent the night there good bit of the night and then uh when I thought I could get in do why I needed to go I took off About maybe four to Bo team on it and our dog we took off and looking back on it we we linked up with

some of the Marines that was already out there linked up with them and they' had a hard time and they were going to have a hard time I think it was 13 or something like that but they had a hard time and we just come in there And we started to you know we got into firefights I think we had seven damn firefights in those four days jeez bloody we run out ammunition the second day and the chopper came in and brought some ammunition and grenades to us on the last I think I threw 19

grenades they hit us hard we hit them hard my dog kills some I know I I know how many I kill you don't can't count it up but they used to want to know how Many W wi that you kill and nobody thought about that you you know you're on full automatic you got your M60 you got the m79 you everything you got you're putting it out there because if they if you didn't you could get overrun but there was no chance they overrun us we were all wounded and Uh we had killed most of

them and uh last decision time what do I do now I thought well we knew that the Choppers or the Phantoms that blue on the other side they taking care of that on the side I don't know that I really want to do that uh cuz they might reinforcements from somewhere this is their damn country and they weren't very Loyal well we're loyal we'll fight with the Army we'll fight with the Navy but we're not going to fight with the Vietnamese uh cuz we don't trust them number One never did but explosions was going off

and I started firing and kept firing and I kept throwing hand grenades and sometime they would hit a Tree or something like that and bounce back on the ground and you'd have to make sure that if that thing went off you you were covered so we finally had to make a decision to get out of there and they both my legs were broken I was bleeding all over the place we weren't going to quit we weren't going to give up weren't going to be captured so we got finally got down to the helicopter landed there

was Two of them one was circulating around and then uh uh the other one uh landed and I think you know that story uh but I'll tell it for your audience uh uh the helicopter landed and I brought all my men in and uh I was being helped by one of the troops my dog's body brought the dog's body in King and then uh had a problem getting everybody on that 34 h34 small helicopter got all the Bodies on King's body on but it was um I had nine men and a dog and the chopper

it was too light of a chopper to get me on board so I told the the crew chief get my men out of here I'll make it find a way he said no come on board he grab me and there was noises going on he grabbed me by my harness pulled me on the helicopter and the helicopter went up about 10 ft and crashed bam I Fell off bleeding all over the place but I could stand I had broken leg that was standing but this is Battle your personal injuries don't count he grabbed me again

pull me on board now I don't know I my com had given me morphine so I don't know if he went up another time or if we just went out of there but he did take Off turned around and kept going and one of the the co-pilot was shot and the pilot started going home then it started to rain lightning and the chopper was wobbling a little bit but we're talking about God up in quesan I was on my knees one night after a young Child was injured in one of them firefights at quesan so

I picked the child up and run toward the Aid Station time I got there the child had died in my arms and I laid the child down when her arms was hold on to M my arms I couldn't hardly lay her down but I got it laid her down she was dead I went back to where I needed to be and I saw I saw my Coman I said DOC come here he Said yes sir I said uh I'm going to need you now they'll be I figur they' be coming back in we had this

Bob wire this kon's Bob wire and we had it uh because they would come in at night they throw grenades through that bomb wire and so I told the Corman you stay with me and the Corman Said yes already came around and stood by my right I was standing and he said Lieutenant uh I'm a little tired you know said can I sit for a minute I said yeah doc we got a few minutes and then we heard those bugles America you die and all this other foolishness doc sat down I said Doc they're coming

now Doc fell over dead died on his post damn that's when I said damn he didn't tell me he was wounded a whole in his chest I didn't see it should have but said doc I called him over I didn't know he' been wounded but it's my fault and over the years I grieved about that still grieve about it the boy sat down there and said I'm just a little tired Sir I'll be okay damn it I'll be okay Brave where you get such men from where do we get him from a young sailor I

never knew his name at least I don't remember his name sat down and when I said it's time to fight he was gone he would have fought he had fought I always thought about doc what he might have been what he might become he might have cured Cancer he might have done something for all of us but then for me the demons come home now you got to deal with Jim caper was the warrior I looked up in the sky that night and I prayed to God said God I need help tonight I need help

the little girl I tried to save was gone the warrior Corman was gone and I was on my knees I'm looking up in the Sky I said God I need you please help me I'm praying God didn't say it's going to be okay son but when I needed it God saved my life at another part which I'll tell you later on uh which is confirms my my belief in God I wouldn't be here today if God hadn't answered my prayer he didn't answer it when I was on my knees praying but God answers prayers when

he needs to Answer he'll talk to you then he doesn't do thing when you want him done he does things when he wants them done I've been through the God thing trust me I know what God is and I'll see him again I'll see my wife and my son I believe that I'll see him again may not be a day tomorrow yeah you may jump up and pull a hand grenade I'm all out of hand grenades it wouldn't go off go off God's Got Me kept me alive all this this time this summer I'll be

88 years old where did God show up was it in f loock h where did God show up God showed up and boock he always showed up when he want to show up maybe not for me but other men that would have died and artillery came In that I didn't know was coming but God showed up when I was coming out of fock when the chopper was flying us back to Amed it was raining it was a rough night we've been out there and it start to go down I was sitting in the the doorway

and my wounded guys were holding on to me and the guys in the background were lying down they were crying and you know Moaning and because they would been wounded pretty seriously you know Nick lost the leg and you know the whole bit and um standing in the chopper was flying in and it started going down I know if it been out of fuel it was going down it was kind of a nasty night it was at night and all of a sudden the hand of God reached out and snapped it caught that Helicopter and

kept it flying told I had no fuel and not enough fuel but when I asked God God said now I'll show you that I am God I'll give you my hand and he kept the helicopter flying everybody on that helicopter live those are stories that are real cuz all the men on board saw the same thing we were going down behind the hell there's a helicopter going down all of a sudden God grabbed it and kept it Flying then when they took it to the maintenance folks they said they had no gas they said it

shouldn't have been shouldn't have flown and I'm told they took it to some place it never flown again God can do amazing things that particular night when we were crashing and all those lives would have been lost and I would not have been a 77 year old man by to turn 88 78 uh 88 87 I'm 87 now I'll turn 88 this year what a blessing what a blessing oh I know by God I also prayed when my son was dying in the hospital I was standing by his side and he closed his eyes I

couldn't save him I prayed to God I wanted a miracle but he died my arms But here's what I had to finally see that my son is not blind God has him now he's in the bosom of God my wife does not have cancer now God has healed both of them they're happy they're sitting at the right hand of God and they're waiting on me and I don't know if God will allow a guy like me who hadn't been a nice guy but I want to believe that he'll forgive me well I think he must

Feel pretty fondly of you if he saved that helicopter he didn't just save the helicopter he saved all of us there were human beings on the helicopter I don't know they had prayed like I prayed but when I was in quesan I asked God to you know show me a miracle hit me with a bolt of lightning but he didn't but when that Chopper was going down like I said God reached hand out with his mighty hand and kept it flying Des spite of the Rain and light and everything else was going on I knew

it was going down cuz I saw the blood all over the place it's full of blood was everybody been wounded I mean it doesn't sound like the helicopter should have even been able to take off cuz the first time I couldn't you're right that they took it out of out of service and they said it should been flown that night I don't Know but I can only say that God saved us when we needed to be saved I've had other cases when I prayed I prayed for my son that didn't work but then God has

him now and my wife died of cancer after 50 years of marriage I'll see her again do you think about dying do I think about D no not really cuz I got friends like you to keep me Going no I'm all right I have C serus PTSD so they tell me and um I have nightmares the battlefields come back to me I live alone in my home but I have friends that come to see me the government provides a nurse to see me and old friends come over and help me CU I can't get around

very well anymore I don't drive And no I've had problems I'll say sleeping the demons comes home and I don't know if you know what PTSD is but I'm not a doctor but I know that I've had trouble with it and it takes a lot of people to get me a hand these days I still got a piece of wire in this leg and metal in my low legs and in my thighs I had a heart attack I've had surgery and you know the Doctors doing what they can to keep an older guy alive they

give me purple hearts and now understand they're trying to give me the Malana oh won't bring my men back you got a silver star for Bullock yeah sounds like it's good possibility it's going to get upgraded to Medal of Honor what' you say it sounds like there's a good possibility that's going to get upgraded to the Medal of Honor Well that's what they're telling me you know know I there's a list of 47 senators and congressmen who sent the letter to the president and asking him to give me the uh the M of Honor now

he's a busy man president so I don't know whether he'll get around to that even if he wants to get around to it uh I got nominated in 67 when my general come to see me and After fool loock and uh kissed me on the head forehead and there were folks who I was full of morphia and I don't really know what happened there but what folks told me but that he had planned to give me to mavana or recommend me Congress gives that or the president gives that he got killed in a helicopter crash

so I you know left and went home and did did the family thing and didn't think about it much until a young General named General James Williams used to be one of my platoon sergeants Pon commanders rather uh he was now a two-star general and he'd heard all these stories from at my reunions talked the guys that said well uh major Capers did this major Capers did that wasn't simpath they but they were there and Williams as he come through I'm a Young man he decided to call me back to duty and that's what he

did and he recommended me how many of those men that were on that helicopter with you are still alive today one man that I know of his name was Henry Stanton huge young man black kid he was my m79 man he run out ammunition I was on the explosion hit me and hit him and I would lean up back Against a a tree or something and I reached around I was holding Stanton and I reached around to take the dog tags off of a another Marine that I was holding well Stanton I was holding yeah

was holding Stanton I reach around take his dog tags off and he looked up to me and he said Lieutenant uh I don't think we're going to make it this time you know he'd been hitting lost a kidney and his blood all over the place he's Bleeding out of his mouth some out of his nose said you know we're going to make it you hold on son you hold on one of the bravest things I ever heard he said hand me a rifle I can still fight after all this explosion and whatever said just hand

me a rifle sir I can still fight that's a man that's a patriot that's a marine I can still Fight and say I'm going to get you out of here son and everything just you know went to hell but he lives he's still alive do you keep in touch with them H do you keep in touch with them mhm and call him and tell him that look like they want to give me to Melana he said oh hell so they should have done that 50 years ago I said I understand but this is what What

they're telling me now and I got sent the letter that had all the if you saw that or not that the signatures all the Senators and Congressman I didn't know most of those guys but Bull and the team they've been pulling the strings General Williams and all of the ones that I'm I'm proud I never thought about the marijuana I thought about my troops when they gave me a silver star I figured oh J that's somebody's pulling Strings I never thought I did anything I did my job like I did when that shock was going

to eat the hell out of one of my team members that's what you do sure you've done it or you're trained to do it but uh joski is still alive but he wasn't on the fool loock Mission he had a hery and I sent him back to aid station he pissed about he wanted to go I put Nick in Ski's Place Nick lost the Leg Nick was a big man 19inch arms 50in chest he carried that M60 like nothing but you got H I heard him screaming part of my language you MFS I going you

know he was just firing with the simp which is a large weapon but you got to hit H and he kept fighting stamp kept fighting they all kept fighting there was no quitting team broadminded just my Dog Miller is gone now kpo is gone now you know s y is gone now and a few years ago they put me in a hospital didn't look good for me but God knows I don't worry about it you know after after Vietnam you PR you you were involved with the CIA in the Cold War well there was nothing

to that no no not really what were you doing they tried to Get me on fulltime I had done that stuff in Vietnam I did the CIA thing there in Vietnam and I had help him when I when I was this is not Vietnam but when I was SE Force Recon some of the guys that would about to deploy I'd bring them down to Camp leun so they could go through the the jump Masters course or repelling whatever it was you know I do that for him then course in Vietnam I did that Thing and

in Europe but they're a good group they were a lot of young guys I did the did the FBI stuff FBI gave me two uh Thompson sub machine guns when I retired you know you know I got a young man now he retired two star in the CIA I train a lot of those guys know but as far as operating my operating operations were not very Good and that's not what I'm just supposed to say there's a lot of stuff that I was involved in yeah and you sure you probably have done the same things

not me because of what I look like number one and the way they're set up to operate now the FBI I you know try to help out there I put them to out Jump program and jump master program and martial arts I used to run the martial arts Program for a long time you know for different folks that want to how to kill people What did it feel like when you got inducted into the uh US Special Operations Hall of Honor I didn't know about it you didn't know about it no I had lost my

wife my son I was living in California and uh the general called me Look at his name now and told me they were coming up with a program uh uh and they were looking for names to submit and he said everybody kind of feel like maybe you would would be the first one and I said well I don't know much about it but they flew me uh from California where I was living to I think I was in uh flew me to Tampa might have been Tampa I don't Know little bit of Tampa and uh

Admiral osen was a seal one time and he's still a seal like he still a marine has he's a nice guy he uh he picked me to give me the first one I didn't get the medal at first they had to make this then they sent it to me in the mail then the Marines this the Vietnam metal right here and this is the Commando medal the Raider medal so this is stuff all presented me To me and sometime I forget to wear I don't wear it all the time but I thought I'd wear it

for your show thank you um I wish my wife was here to see this to see me sitting there with a famous guy like you I'm sure she's watching yeah yeah it probably is and your son too yeah he was a musician you know he played the piano the flute the melodica The organ did he really oh yeah yeah he played in church but he had other disabilities he couldn't he couldn't do what I'm doing now as far as hold the conversation Wonderful Child Wonderful Child we used to sit and hug each other before he

went to bed and uh you know a lovable child and one night he knocked on my door out door he said dad I got a Headache no he had a stomach ache that's okay son so went to the hospital doctor says well you know there's not a whole lot we can do so I brought him back the first night and then the second night it got worse so I took him back to the hospital and they said well you know we don't see much we can Do with a stomach AE damn so I took it

back home then I took it back to night then for me now I'm having a problem and they had him laid down on a table and he died right there they let my son die now you see I'm not a bad guy but I was angry my son is gone on now they had me in a little chapel there the Uh Pastor come in my wife was sick and she wasn't there so I'm standing there and I don't know what to do on one way I'm feeling one feeling one way I'm angry my child's lying

there dead and they telling me they're sorry you know um the demons did come home that night I told him all you need to leave me alone now my wife is Coming I'll be all right just leave me alone now and then everybody tried to tell me this that and it got to the point where I you know didn't lose control but if didn't know who they were dealing with I could to kill them all I thought about that but God stepped in says no you don't no you don't my wife finally showed up and

I met her at the car and she came to see our Child then we walked down the this all Hall together and we've been walking down that Hall together together for a long time reason I never remarried I can appreciate a pretty girl but Dy was special a military wife you know but we got through that seemed like the next day daddy dies of cancer now I'm thinking how do I pull This off now the the human being I'm sure you had stress but now I'm in a place where I don't need to be I

made a plan to kill the doctor I called one of my friends in Arizona and he was going to help me blow up the gas station as a decoy policeman and fer would be there and when a doctor come out at hpit is going to kill him with my Knife I was going to kill him with my life what stopped you God stopped me how I'm not good enough to tell you how God works I don't I'm not that good but I know that I pull off the operation my men was ready to go here

volunteers team from my AR Ona but here in Jacksonville we want to blow a couple of gas stations and you know that's easy to Stuff to I'm sure you not do that stuff I could to you know divert the police force you know the fire department then when the when the doctor come out of his office I was going to be parked I was going to grab him I was going to cut his throat that's what I do but I probably mention that kind of stuff too much in your interview but God stepped In and

I came home I was home and I had see my pastor came over to the house about 3:00 in the morning now Dy wasn't crying I didn't know why but daddyy wasn't crying I was crying but I think Daddy had to be tough for me she believed in God too we always went to church you know we built the church one time my troops and I built The church from the ground up stole the wood I hate to say it that way but we got to someplace we stole some old wood got it built Dy

was the first lady and I I had a a chaplain that wasn't too far he was helping with it and my son played the piano in church um daddy was the first lady and we sang every Sunday and my Chaplain prayed and uh it wasn't a big church but we enjoyed that so much and some of the guys who had been been in trouble and it were back in those days we had some serious issues uh and they'd come every Sunday and they enjoyed it so much some sort of a relief I guess by the

commanding officer sitting with him in church and his wife is singing and his son is Playing the piano and my buddy the chaplain it was such a wonderful thing to see nothing to do with you know with anything else but the human Spirit we want the hon of God and we want to build a place and I'm sure you can relate that in the Bible terms but years later I went back to that area I went to see if that church was still it was a Little about this size I guess this room I went

back there and I parked my car and I looked around I said well I think it was over here I started walking over there and the young Marine came out just came over and said Hey sir you all right I said yes son there used to be a church about this area over here he said no sir not that I know of but I'll help you look so he's walking along with Me he said where you come from sir I said well I live in the area but I used to be stationed here and there

was a church over here that we built and I just thought I would visit it he said no sir there's no church here and I've been here for a while I've never seen or heard of a church you wouldn't be lying to me would you son he said no sir I never Marines Never Lie yeah okay uh I got in my car and I drove Home Daddy and Gary were still alive the time sometime it's hard for me to differentiate the timing cuz we're blessed with good years and I've been blessed with good years but

my memory is not all that good which you'll probably see with this interview uh I don't remember everything like I should but then again I'll offer the excuse of being 87 years old now you're doing just fine Thank you sir appreciate that appreciate that well I live by myself and I have I don't talk to a lot of people you know U I have guys come to see me matter of fact on the way up here uh friend of mine a three star general he come to the house to see me and he's probably going

to be the Commite Marine Corp one day nice young man I was this guest speaker at a marineo ball one time so they called me out when I they need me I put my tuxedo on and try to hold my stomach in I saw him the other day but now we're passing the torch know and young people like yourself and the others they give me a chance to say some things and I appreciate that I don't know if I can tell you in Sequence because you never ask ask an 87 year old man to say

something in sequence cuz I'm going to be all over the place you established the Gary and Dy Capers Foundation yeah I did to help G now and uh I thought I'd honor them by establishing a nonprofit organization and I had some volunteers nobody's paid uh to do certain things to raise Money uh well Daddy was there we started for Gary but Daddy was still alive and we started this thing and we'd bring people in friends in raise money for a nonprofit you know there were a lot of homeless people in our town on too many

homeless people so now we got to feed them and we did that we moved some to my home we brought homeless in And Dy cook for them wash their clothes trying to help just like I'd been helped we don't forget those things when that white family took me in and washed my clothes and gave me clothes and fed me put me down at night so I could sleep and stood watch over me as a black man you don't forget those things it's a noble example of what America is what it should be and what it

is not the way it always is where do people donate to that Foundation their time sometime they donated money if somebody wanted to donate money where would they where would they donate we have a website and uh kenat happens to be the president of it he's the young man that came with me he happens to be the president of the organization um well I'll tell you what we'll put the the link to the website in the description of this this interview so if Anybody wants to donate bless your heart they could do it I knew

you had a good heart I knew you just want a mean guy I knew that it would help us because it when the virus hit us you know folks lost jobs and McDonald's closed and I remember uh when couple of my guys came to my house and said major we lost the McDonald's here I said well yeah that's okay but I Don't eat at McDonald's anyway but um they told me that one of the ladies there who had a couple of CH had a couple of children didn't have a job and her rent was due

she was going to get evicted the old man they brought it to the house nice young lady I says how much do you need she said well I need about $2,000 I didn't discuss It gave her $2,000 on the spot I have been homeless not intentionally my folks didn't want to give me away but they thought it would be better with this family and and they took me in but any rate uh the foundation has done good we've had uh we have a young lady named Ashley Casado she did the documentary for us I Don't

know if you ever seen that the documentary and other folks have jumped in to try to help to raise money for the homeless not for me the government gives me a check every month they pay me a lot of money for the purple hearts I have a lot but I have five purple hearts I can only get three here I got so many damn times when I got to the hospital they found holes that I hadn't been they hadn't told me about back on my Legs and I said what the hell that happened but there

so many firefights and and you wounded but you don't go to the hospital the Corman patches you up you know you're not going to yeah you need to be there with your troops always with your troops I did that I'm an 87 year old man and I'm telling stories that happened years ago nobody gives a damn anymore only 2% of our country joins the military Oh I think a lot of people are going to D are going to give a damn about this one so you know been a little tough for the old man been

a little tough they told me I was coming on your show uh I kept calling you Ryan Shaw they said no no know remember now you know he's important you know he has so many people listening to him I don't Screw it up I'm not important I'm just a guy doing what I like to do which I'm happy for you thank you I'm happy to be here I'm happy to be here too and I'm happy you're here and on that note major Capers I just want to say once again it's an honor thank you to

interview you and and to get your story out and um God bless Dy and Gary God bless you that and um I really Hope your Silver Star gets upgraded to a medal of honor be nice are we done we're done you told me you'd beet here till 6:00 thank you thank you [Music] no matter where you're watching sha Ryan Show from if you get anything out of this please like comment subscribe and most importantly share this everywhere you possibly can and if you're feeling extra generous please leave us a review On Apple and Spotify podcasts