Colorado Home of Heroes and its Medal of Honor recipients

Scott: 00:00:00

The squadrons and dets ended up getting assigned, you know, overseas.

Scott: 00:00:03

But Clark Gable actually trained there.

Scott: 00:00:05

I think he was an officer, maybe

Jenn: 00:00:07

I think he was an officer, maybe a major.

Scott: 00:00:08

Yeah.

Scott: 00:00:09

When the public found out that he was training there, the phone lines would

Scott: 00:00:12

get jammed up for hours every now and then with his fans trying to get a

Scott: 00:00:16

hold of him, trying to kind of wish him

Scott: 00:00:18

luck, or girls trying to call him, or whatever it was, because

Scott: 00:00:21

he was still a famous movie

Scott: 00:00:22

star.

Scott: 00:00:32

Welcome to talk with history.

Scott: 00:00:35

I am your host, Scott here with my wife and

Jenn: 00:00:38

Hello.

Scott: 00:00:39

this podcast, inspired world travels, YouTube channel journey,

Scott: 00:00:46

deeper conversations with the curious,

Scott: 00:00:53

Now I don't have any like fancy wordy intro tonight, but I do want

Scott: 00:00:58

to continue to ask folks for reviews.

Scott: 00:01:00

We've been kind of getting an uptick in downloads for the past couple

Scott: 00:01:03

listening, I'm always looking for feedback for And also, and now

Scott: 00:01:11

have two membership Now there's no.

Scott: 00:01:16

Really, the benefit And both tiers are similarly priced.

Scott: 00:01:22

And I called the one tier coffee contributors.

Scott: 00:01:25

So if you are a coffee fan, much like myself,

Scott: 00:01:28

can

Scott: 00:01:29

be a coffee contributor.

Scott: 00:01:31

And then the other tier, which is the exact same price, tipper.

Jenn: 00:01:37

So

Scott: 00:01:37

So you can be a coffee contributor or a tea tipper.

Scott: 00:01:39

So, if you're interested in, in supporting the podcast that way

Scott: 00:01:43

you can go to talkwithhistory.

Scott: 00:01:44

com.

Scott: 00:01:45

We do have a link in the show notes for this and you can check

Scott: 00:01:48

out the, either those, that's kind of like a monthly thing.

Scott: 00:01:51

It's like two

Jenn: 00:01:52

Oh, we would.

Jenn: 00:01:53

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:01:53

I appreciate

Scott: 00:01:54

Yeah, it's, it's, it's two bucks a month.

Scott: 00:01:56

It's not, not a big deal.

Scott: 00:01:57

It's probably less than would actually But I got nice pretty pictures.

Scott: 00:02:02

It looks really cool.

Scott: 00:02:03

Or if you just want to contribute something, buy a

Scott: 00:02:05

cup of coffee just one time.

Scott: 00:02:06

There's a one, there's a one time option as well.

Scott: 00:02:08

And we'll kind of call your name out and give you a little recognition.

Scott: 00:02:11

But for those who do decide to join monthly, monthly, we

Scott: 00:02:16

will call those people out.

Scott: 00:02:19

say thank you to them by So that, that is what, if you want to contribute

Scott: 00:02:24

to the podcast and you want to join our membership, you can be a

Scott: 00:02:26

coffee contributor or a tea tipper.

Scott: 00:02:29

We will call each of those out, each of those groups out at least once a

Scott: 00:02:32

month on the podcast So, Jen, we are talking, people kind of saw the show

Scott: 00:02:45

title about Medal of Honor, so tell us a little bit about, kind of, why

Scott: 00:02:49

we're talking about Medal of Honor

Jenn: 00:02:57

Tell us a little bit about Medal of Honor recipients tonight.

Jenn: 00:03:01

highest recognition bestows

Jenn: 00:03:03

the United States military bestows on a service member and

Jenn: 00:03:09

Teddy Roosevelt really lobbied for one and never received it and General

Jenn: 00:03:12

George Patton when said I would sell my immortal soul for that metal Yes

Jenn: 00:03:17

The Medal of Honor was first authorized in 1861 for the sailors and Marines, and

Jenn: 00:03:23

the following year for soldiers as well.

Jenn: 00:03:25

So it was first authorized during the Civil War and

Scott: 00:03:28

Okay.

Scott: 00:03:29

So that's, that's when it started.

Scott: 00:03:31

So the medal of honor began coming out of the civil war, 1861.

Scott: 00:03:35

It looks like from what I can see here, the efforts of Senator James

Scott: 00:03:39

Grimes and the secretary of Navy Gideon Wells, we actually,

Jenn: 00:03:45

or

Jenn: 00:03:45

twice we have mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:03:47

and.

Scott: 00:03:49

inspire sailors to valorous service, and each of the, what I, one of the

Scott: 00:03:56

things I found interesting, and I've found this over the course we've talked

Scott: 00:03:59

about but each service, each service's actually is a little bit different.

Scott: 00:04:09

you see each one, they're not all the exact kind of actual metal, right?

Scott: 00:04:15

The Army's is that's one thing that until I started making videos,

Scott: 00:04:21

I actually didn't realize that.

Scott: 00:04:22

They still have that classic kind of ribbon collar with the stars square and

Scott: 00:04:28

then the metal that hangs down from it.

Scott: 00:04:29

But each service

Jenn: 00:04:31

Yes.

Jenn: 00:04:31

And you were thinking of the first formal system for rewarding acts of

Jenn: 00:04:35

individual gallantry by the nation's fighting men was established by General

Jenn: 00:04:40

George Washington, August 7, 1782.

Jenn: 00:04:44

And that was designed to recognize any singularity meritorious

Jenn: 00:04:46

recognize any singularly , meritorious

Jenn: 00:04:48

action.

Jenn: 00:04:49

And the award consisted of a purple cloth heart.

Jenn: 00:04:53

So it's kind of how the purple heart started.

Jenn: 00:04:56

It's not what the purple heart Is, is now

Scott: 00:04:59

started.

Scott: 00:04:59

it's for

Jenn: 00:05:00

wounded in action.

Jenn: 00:05:01

So, But the, but it was started by George Washington recognized, but

Jenn: 00:05:06

the actual title medal of honor did not come around until Civil War.

Jenn: 00:05:11

And you remember us talking about Secretary of Navy Gideon

Jenn: 00:05:15

Wells because of the ironclad.

Jenn: 00:05:17

So and because we talk about Mary Lovestry.

Jenn: 00:05:21

She presented the plans for the ironclad to him.

Jenn: 00:05:24

So if you wanna listen to any of those episodes, the Battle of the Ironclads and

Jenn: 00:05:28

Mary Vetri, she was the spy down here.

Jenn: 00:05:32

African American spy who got the plans when they were building

Jenn: 00:05:35

when the south was building their

Scott: 00:05:36

and pretty pivotal to but to bring it back to the Medal of Honor while

Scott: 00:05:40

we're talking about it today, again, this is another thing that we got to

Scott: 00:05:45

see on our jam packed Western road trip when we were again in Pueblo, Colorado

Scott: 00:05:51

at the Pueblo Weisbrod Air And one of the displays that they had there was

Scott: 00:06:03

kind of this whole section to service men and women mostly historical stuff.

Scott: 00:06:09

They had a Medal of Honor

Scott: 00:06:11

section, and we, we weren't expecting

Jenn: 00:06:12

We weren't expecting that.

Jenn: 00:06:13

And what's very interesting is Dwight D.

Jenn: 00:06:17

Eisenhower, Upon presenting one of these Medal of Honors to one of these recipients

Jenn: 00:06:23

from Pueblo, Colorado, said to him in

Jenn: 00:06:28

1953, What is it?

Jenn: 00:06:30

Something in the water out there in Pueblo?

Jenn: 00:06:32

All you guys turn out to be heroes.

Jenn: 00:06:35

And so, Then in 1993, there was a congressman who read

Jenn: 00:06:40

into the congressional record information about Pueblo and its

Jenn: 00:06:43

recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Jenn: 00:06:44

And he cited at the time, it was the only city in a record to have

Jenn: 00:06:48

four living recipients of the Medal of Honor from the same hometown.

Scott: 00:06:53

And so we actually open our video with John Hill,

Scott: 00:06:57

who's one of the docents there.

Scott: 00:06:58

And he taught, he showed us the picture of all four recipients,

Scott: 00:07:03

you know, living at the time.

Scott: 00:07:05

I think today, which in June, you know, for us a I think there was

Scott: 00:07:09

only one that was, that was still

Jenn: 00:07:11

There's only one still

Jenn: 00:07:11

living

Scott: 00:07:12

still living so who were, who were the four?

Scott: 00:07:15

That we're from

Jenn: 00:07:16

So Pueblo, Colorado has since been called the home of heroes because of this.

Jenn: 00:07:20

So you have four Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.

Jenn: 00:07:23

You have William J.

Jenn: 00:07:24

Crawford, Army, World War II.

Jenn: 00:07:26

He's the one we Ok we're just going to go through what happened in Vietnam, and I

Jenn: 00:07:40

want to share These four gentlemen are all from Pueblo, Colorado, and what they did.

Jenn: 00:07:50

So when you read about what they did.

Jenn: 00:07:54

it's why

Jenn: 00:07:55

the Medal of Honor is such a prestigious, you know, award.

Jenn: 00:08:01

It's that next level, right?

Jenn: 00:08:04

And we we focus on Crawford.

Jenn: 00:08:06

because his story is just so interesting.

Jenn: 00:08:15

Crawford is a World War II fighter.

Jenn: 00:08:19

He basically disarms three machine gun nests of the Nazis during

Jenn: 00:08:24

World War II single handedly.

Jenn: 00:08:27

Just kind of runs out there, throws grenades.

Jenn: 00:08:29

His grenades happen to be spot on.

Jenn: 00:08:31

Blows up these nests.

Jenn: 00:08:32

He's able to, basically, his men are taking so much

Jenn: 00:08:35

fire that they can't get by.

Jenn: 00:08:36

He takes a ton of fire.

Jenn: 00:08:38

And it's almost like he says, like, the bullets were going between his legs

Scott: 00:08:42

he, and he says it himself, in some of the video that we cut in, because for

Scott: 00:08:45

a lot of these Medal of Honor that are more modern there's a site, and it's, if

Scott: 00:08:51

you Google it, you can find it pretty but it's a lot of them telling their story.

Scott: 00:08:55

And so we found that video, and I, I kind of cut it in to, to

Scott: 00:09:00

John talking about it as well.

Scott: 00:09:01

And, and he literally says, like, I, I ran, he's like, and I.

Scott: 00:09:05

He basically sounds surprised he didn't get shot.

Scott: 00:09:07

He's like, bullets must have been going between my

Jenn: 00:09:10

And it's just like.

Jenn: 00:09:11

Totally badass, but so he does this.

Jenn: 00:09:15

He's in Italy at the time and subsequently he gets captured and he

Jenn: 00:09:19

spends 19 months as a prisoner of war.

Jenn: 00:09:21

But during those 19 months he is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Jenn: 00:09:26

And so because he's a prisoner of war and they actually think he has

Scott: 00:09:30

thought he was

Jenn: 00:09:31

they posthumously present the medal to his father and

Jenn: 00:09:34

Truman presents it to his father.

Jenn: 00:09:37

And so again, and then he's He's, you know, he's at least as a

Jenn: 00:09:41

prisoner, he comes back home, gets the Medal of Honor from his father.

Jenn: 00:09:44

So he's never given his Medal of Honor from a president, which is how you

Jenn: 00:09:48

should receive the Medal of Honor.

Jenn: 00:09:49

You should get it from the sitting president.

Scott: 00:09:51

and he actually, I did a little bit further research.

Scott: 00:09:53

He comes back and he finishes a full career in the army.

Scott: 00:09:57

retires as a Master Sergeant Which is in, which is incredible to me.

Scott: 00:10:01

So here he, here he is, he comes back, you receives his medal of honor from his dad.

Scott: 00:10:06

Right.

Scott: 00:10:07

You know,

Jenn: 00:10:07

Oh yeah, while you're a prisoner, I got this from the

Scott: 00:10:10

right.

Scott: 00:10:10

And then finishes a full career, retires as a master sergeant.

Scott: 00:10:14

And then how, so how did we, how

Scott: 00:10:16

did, how did

Jenn: 00:10:17

after retirement, he takes a job as a custodian at the Air Force Academy,

Jenn: 00:10:21

because it's not far from Pueblo,

Scott: 00:10:23

45 minutes

Jenn: 00:10:24

And so he's, you know, he wants to mentor young cadets and he's a,

Jenn: 00:10:28

you know, he's the custodian there.

Jenn: 00:10:30

And then one of the cadets writes a paper.

Jenn: 00:10:33

And I.

Jenn: 00:10:34

And he writes his paper on the janitor's lessons and leadership.

Jenn: 00:10:38

And then they start to look up his background and realize that he

Jenn: 00:10:44

has achieved the Medal of Honor.

Jenn: 00:10:46

But

Scott: 00:10:46

he was doing

Scott: 00:10:47

research for

Jenn: 00:10:47

he was to be for, for the

Scott: 00:10:49

he recognized the name.

Scott: 00:10:50

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:10:51

, and went and asked him.

Scott: 00:10:51

He's like, Hey, are you the William J.

Scott: 00:10:53

Crawford?

Scott: 00:10:54

Who's the William J.

Scott: 00:10:55

Crawford in this Medal of Honor book over

Scott: 00:10:56

here?

Scott: 00:10:57

And

Scott: 00:10:57

he was like, yeah, that's me.

Scott: 00:10:58

Yeah.

Scott: 00:10:59

. And

Jenn: 00:10:59

that's when they came to realize he never received his Medal

Jenn: 00:11:01

of Honor from a sitting president.

Jenn: 00:11:03

So at the Air Force Academy graduation, President 1985 at that ceremony.

Jenn: 00:11:12

Presents him with the Medal of Honor.

Jenn: 00:11:13

Cool.

Jenn: 00:11:14

It was pretty cool.

Jenn: 00:11:19

Mm-hmm.

Jenn: 00:11:20

. Scott: Reagan presents him with the clip of Reagan speaking,

Jenn: 00:11:22

calling him up on stage.

Jenn: 00:12:46

Now, he, he knew.

Jenn: 00:12:47

He was in, he was in, William Crawford was wearing his but he calls him up on

Jenn: 00:12:51

stage, you know, gives him the medal.

Jenn: 00:12:53

And then, of course, Reagan has to be Reagan.

Jenn: 00:12:55

Like, he like, He, he finishes that whole little mini presentation, then he looks

Jenn: 00:12:59

around because everybody's standing up for presentation, and he kind of looks

Jenn: 00:13:03

and speaks to someone off to the side, and he's like, I think everybody can

Jenn: 00:13:05

see, sit down, right, and you hear from the, from the side, he's like, oh, yes,

Jenn: 00:13:08

sir, yes, sir, he's like, okay, and he just tells everybody, yeah, sit down, sit

Jenn: 00:13:10

down.

Jenn: 00:13:11

and everybody just kind of laughs because Reagan has that aura, right, he has that,

Jenn: 00:13:15

that presence and that timing, and then he just says, , sometimes I don't know my

Jenn: 00:13:19

own power, right, just because he asked everybody to sit down, and he's always

Jenn: 00:13:23

cracking jokes, right, it's, it's Reagan just kind of, Making moments light.

Jenn: 00:13:27

And he, Reagan also humbles himself in that moment, as most presidents do

Jenn: 00:13:33

when they present the Medal of Honor, that that person is actually like the highest.

Jenn: 00:13:38

Achiever of America's respect at that moment even more than

Jenn: 00:13:41

the president in that moment.

Jenn: 00:13:49

We talked about Drew Dix He's the one who's currently still living.

Jenn: 00:13:53

He was army during Vietnam What he did is totally badass too during

Jenn: 00:13:58

the Tet Offensive of 1968 Although outnumbered at least 30 to 1

Jenn: 00:14:05

He led a small contingent of troops on a harrowing 56 hour battle

Jenn: 00:14:09

against two Viet Cong battalions.

Jenn: 00:14:12

And he rescued a ton of civilians.

Jenn: 00:14:15

He rescues a young nurse, eight volunteers, two Filipino workers,

Jenn: 00:14:20

a young Vietnamese girl, a wife and children of the chief in the area.

Jenn: 00:14:26

And acting alone, he assaulted enemy strongholds, secured key buildings, and

Jenn: 00:14:31

captured over 20 prisoners, including one of the highest ranking officers

Jenn: 00:14:35

ever seized during the Vietnam I know.

Jenn: 00:14:39

That's why the Medal of Honor is like next level.

Scott: 00:14:49

That's why the in the, in military former military that

Scott: 00:14:54

and throughout my career and

Scott: 00:14:55

throughout your you get to every now and then we kind of say, Hey,

Scott: 00:14:59

this is one of those kind of Navy heritage they'll talk about some and

Scott: 00:15:06

they'll read the official citation.

Scott: 00:15:09

and I did that when I was in command, right, every now and then, once the

Scott: 00:15:15

Medal of Honor And it's just so hearing these stories thinking about, like,

Scott: 00:15:25

it's true self sacrifice because that person is not, almost at a point of

Scott: 00:15:30

not thinking of themselves whatsoever.

Scott: 00:15:33

The only thing they're is saving those around defeating the enemy.

Scott: 00:15:40

it's,

Scott: 00:15:40

It's,

Scott: 00:15:41

I, it's, it's difficult to even understand and

Jenn: 00:15:44

to even understand it.

Jenn: 00:15:49

People from Pueblo, Colorado.

Jenn: 00:15:56

He was a Korea Marine, and during the winter of 1950, General Douglas

Jenn: 00:16:02

MacArthur declared troops will be home by Christmas, but unknown to the

Jenn: 00:16:07

commander, the 1st Marine Division was being surrounded by over 120, 000 troops.

Jenn: 00:16:12

thousand Chinese troops.

Jenn: 00:16:14

And so on November 29th at the Chosin Reservoir, Carl Sitter received

Jenn: 00:16:18

his faithful orders to take East Hill and in frigid 60 below zero

Jenn: 00:16:24

conditions, and that's no joke,

Scott: 00:16:26

I've heard of this.

Scott: 00:16:28

The Battle of Chosin is very

Jenn: 00:16:30

Sitter and his men ended up on East Hill outnumbered at least 20 to 1.

Jenn: 00:16:35

They engaged the Chinese troops for three nights, many times in hand to hand combat.

Jenn: 00:16:41

And during that battle, Sitter remembers feeling as though he was

Jenn: 00:16:44

protected by an invisible shield.

Jenn: 00:16:48

He was able to strategically maneuver his men to take and hold East Hill.

Jenn: 00:16:53

He yelled words of inspiration to his fellow soldiers, and several

Jenn: 00:16:58

times Sitter refused evacuation and determinedly led his men out of the

Jenn: 00:17:02

Chosen Reservoir, leaving no one behind.

Jenn: 00:17:06

One of his boys, they were, they're called Carl's boys now retired.

Jenn: 00:17:11

Remember, it is the highlight of their life.

Jenn: 00:17:13

And he was a highly respected Marine colonel.

Scott: 00:17:17

of their Someone, you know, I'm not the history buff, but I remember

Scott: 00:17:21

learning about the Battle of You know, even, so at the Naval Academy again,

Scott: 00:17:26

hearing about it a couple times.

Scott: 00:17:28

I, I didn't, I don't think I even realized when we were talking about it because it

Scott: 00:17:32

was a relatively short segment when we recorded of it because we just weren't

Scott: 00:17:35

expecting And he kind of, and it's cool because in the video, again, the video

Scott: 00:17:40

will be linked in the, in the show notes, they actually have his backup.

Scott: 00:17:45

His like, I guess, replacement or whatever they call it, Medal

Scott: 00:17:48

of Honor there in the museum.

Scott: 00:17:50

And it's on kind of his, that's his uniform.

Scott: 00:17:54

Which, that's pretty incredible that a museum like this in Pueblo, Colorado,

Scott: 00:17:59

you know, home of heroes, gets to have this, something that's so significant.

Scott: 00:18:05

Because the Battle of Chosin, I mean, everybody

Jenn: 00:18:08

Yes.

Jenn: 00:18:09

And what I really appreciate about these gentlemen is most of them are officers.

Jenn: 00:18:15

And you know, you hear, we, we always laugh about how officers are kind of

Jenn: 00:18:19

depicted in movies, how they're kind of, Oh, we don't know what's happening

Jenn: 00:18:23

and other people doing the job.

Jenn: 00:18:25

These are guys leading from the front.

Scott: 00:18:26

time.

Scott: 00:18:27

He was a major at the

Jenn: 00:18:28

He was a major at the time.

Jenn: 00:18:29

Like they're out in front.

Jenn: 00:18:31

They're doing it.

Jenn: 00:18:32

And like you said, he felt like he had an invisible shield to what

Jenn: 00:18:34

you had said before these, a lot of these recipients of Medal of Honors.

Jenn: 00:18:39

They

Jenn: 00:18:40

have really just completely put their lives out there on the line, right?

Jenn: 00:18:44

I think it's part of the saying when you read it, you know, to, to completely put

Jenn: 00:18:47

your own life at risk for the betterment of your troops and your people that

Jenn: 00:18:53

you, you really thought you didn't really think of your own personal life.

Jenn: 00:18:58

You were thinking of everyone else's life.

Jenn: 00:18:59

Like that's part of the verbiage, I think, of the Medal of

Scott: 00:19:02

Yeah.

Scott: 00:19:02

I wish I would have had a little more time to kind of read that and to soak that in.

Scott: 00:19:07

anybody listening, if you ever get a chance to, to visit, you know, the

Scott: 00:19:10

Denver area, Pueblo is not too far away.

Scott: 00:19:13

I highly recommend heading over to the museum there to kind of take that all in.

Scott: 00:19:16

It's an amazing You can spend, easily spend an entire there if you

Jenn: 00:19:24

And the, the last one, the Lieutenant Raymond Jerry

Jenn: 00:19:26

Murphy, he's Korean, 1953 he was a Marine, and there was a raid on

Jenn: 00:19:36

I think it's Ungok Hill in Korea.

Jenn: 00:19:38

And it was a cold day in February, 1953, again, these ungodly.

Jenn: 00:19:43

Cold temperatures it turned very grimly very quickly for the first and

Jenn: 00:19:48

second Marine platoons of able company.

Jenn: 00:19:50

Second Lieutenant Raymond Murphy was the third platoon leader with

Jenn: 00:19:53

the assignment of evacuation.

Jenn: 00:19:55

As the raid progressed, he became uneasy and he felt something might be wrong.

Jenn: 00:19:59

So defying direct orders, he kind of climbed up.

Jenn: 00:20:02

on the hill to assess the situation.

Jenn: 00:20:04

And it was just as he suspected.

Jenn: 00:20:06

The assault had been stalled because all the officers and NCOs of the

Jenn: 00:20:09

first two platoons had been killed.

Jenn: 00:20:12

So what he did knowing the raid had failed is he led his a very heroic rescue

Jenn: 00:20:18

mission to get everyone out of there.

Jenn: 00:20:20

And so under his command, he took enemy fire.

Jenn: 00:20:23

He made countless runs up.

Jenn: 00:20:24

the Hill.

Jenn: 00:20:25

Think of like Forrest Gump going back.

Jenn: 00:20:27

This is what he did.

Jenn: 00:20:28

He pulled other men back, provided cover.

Jenn: 00:20:31

He would provide a kind of air cover.

Jenn: 00:20:35

And this is the person who Eisenhower is presenting the Medal of Honor to

Jenn: 00:20:39

when he makes the statement, what's in the water with you guys in Pueblo?

Scott: 00:20:43

Pueblo?

Jenn: 00:20:44

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:20:44

And so, He just, he received numerous wounds, refused treatment until everyone

Jenn: 00:20:50

else had been evacuated and treated.

Jenn: 00:20:53

So again, like you had, you said, there is a moment with soldiers where

Jenn: 00:21:00

they're just so a part of the mission that it really isn't about them.

Jenn: 00:21:04

their life anymore.

Jenn: 00:21:06

It's about everyone else's life and the, and seeing the mission through.

Jenn: 00:21:10

And what I appreciate about him as a young officer, because he's a

Jenn: 00:21:12

young lieutenant, is he is defying orders to figure out what's going on.

Jenn: 00:21:17

And when he sees that the mission has changed, he completely takes

Jenn: 00:21:22

the leadership upon himself to take control and evacuate everyone

Jenn: 00:21:26

from that from that offensive.

Jenn: 00:21:27

So, those are the four.

Jenn: 00:21:29

medal of honor recipients from Pueblo, Colorado.

Jenn: 00:21:32

It's their hometown.

Jenn: 00:21:34

And then we also showcase one in the video who is a civil war medal of honor

Jenn: 00:21:41

recipient, but he's buried in Pueblo.

Jenn: 00:21:44

He's not from Pueblo.

Jenn: 00:21:45

So there's basically five in the area and So again, at the time they were,

Jenn: 00:21:52

the four were living, and I think that's what made it the hometown of heroes,

Jenn: 00:21:56

because there might be other towns that have more Medal of Honor recipients

Jenn: 00:22:01

from that hometown, but because those four were living at the same time,

Jenn: 00:22:06

it's because they got that name.

Jenn: 00:22:08

And so it's just amazing.

Jenn: 00:22:10

Those stories, they just, I mean, you can see why that is the highest award.

Jenn: 00:22:16

It's not even an award.

Jenn: 00:22:17

The highest recognition you can get from our country for your military service.

Jenn: 00:22:23

And then we also showcased in that video the World War II

Scott: 00:22:31

Yeah.

Scott: 00:22:31

so they had a phenomenal section of just wouldn't call it memorabilia, right?

Scott: 00:22:39

But it's, it's items from World War II Korea and Vietnam and, you know,

Scott: 00:22:44

communi And they set it all up to, you know, it's even interactive for the

Scott: 00:22:48

kids.

Jenn: 00:22:49

Kind of have the aircraft that coincide with the kind of theaters

Jenn: 00:22:54

they were a part of in the military.

Scott: 00:22:57

Kind of those World War Two propaganda posters that some of

Scott: 00:22:59

them, like you said, I had never

Jenn: 00:23:01

And they were all original.

Jenn: 00:23:03

So of course they had the G, I wish I was a man, I joined the Navy, which I love.

Jenn: 00:23:06

I have the magnet of it on the refrigerator.

Jenn: 00:23:08

But they had one of Dory, Dory Miller, who is the, he was the cook on the

Jenn: 00:23:14

ship during Pearl Harbor attack.

Jenn: 00:23:17

When the gunman was killed, he took control of the surface to

Jenn: 00:23:21

air guns and shot down a plane.

Scott: 00:23:24

they just named an aircraft carrier

Jenn: 00:23:25

Mm hmm.

Jenn: 00:23:26

Yeah,

Jenn: 00:23:26

he was...

Jenn: 00:23:27

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:23:28

And so, there was a poster of him.

Jenn: 00:23:30

There was some really cool ones there.

Jenn: 00:23:31

I always loved those

Jenn: 00:23:32

posters.

Scott: 00:23:33

then they had the kind of whole display of all the female That was neat.

Jenn: 00:23:38

So they really do.

Jenn: 00:23:39

I say it in the video.

Jenn: 00:23:40

They really do a good job of honoring women in service.

Jenn: 00:23:44

And there was about...

Jenn: 00:23:45

eight mannequins with full dress military uniforms.

Jenn: 00:23:49

They had Marines, they had Coast Guard, they had Navy, they had

Jenn: 00:23:52

Air Force, they had WASP uniforms.

Jenn: 00:23:54

So it was very neat to see a full female uniform from the, from that era

Jenn: 00:24:01

and and for the different services.

Jenn: 00:24:03

And then the last thing was the flight jackets.

Scott: 00:24:05

Yes, the flight jackets were really cool and, and I got some really fun shots

Scott: 00:24:09

of those and I have a feeling that if we'd have been able to spend more time on each

Scott: 00:24:13

one of them and the significance of why they were on display, we called out one.

Scott: 00:24:18

It was from the, the aircraft called Witchcraft and I guess it was called

Scott: 00:24:22

Witchcraft because it had done, you know, kind of an ungodly amount

Scott: 00:24:25

of successful missions without getting hit or ever pulling back.

Scott: 00:24:28

It's like 135

Jenn: 00:24:29

Yeah, and they thought there must be some kind of something

Jenn: 00:24:31

special, some kind of witchcraft about

Scott: 00:24:34

So this flight jacket had kind of witchcraft written

Scott: 00:24:36

on it and some of them had more decorations, kind of drawings on 'em.

Scott: 00:24:40

Yeah.

Scott: 00:24:40

Some of 'em were a little bit more plain.

Scott: 00:24:41

But it was cool seeing those old leather flight jackets.

Jenn: 00:24:44

Yes.

Jenn: 00:24:45

So, and most people know that I was a Navy pilot, so I was a naval aviator.

Jenn: 00:24:49

And when you get your wings, you get a brown leather.

Jenn: 00:24:53

Maybe issue flight jacket.

Jenn: 00:24:55

They're hard to get.

Jenn: 00:24:56

They're very expensive if you want to buy them off market.

Jenn: 00:24:58

And so to to receive it when you get your wings is a great

Jenn: 00:25:02

honor because you only get one.

Jenn: 00:25:04

And it's a throwback to this old era where you would fly in open cockpits or freezing

Jenn: 00:25:10

cold cockpits and you'd have to You have to be issued a brown leather jacket

Jenn: 00:25:16

because you'd be freezing in the cockpit.

Jenn: 00:25:19

And so now it's really just very ceremonial.

Jenn: 00:25:22

I flew with it one time over the Rockies.

Jenn: 00:25:24

I was freezing.

Jenn: 00:25:25

I put it on and I actually flew with it in the T 34.

Jenn: 00:25:29

But most time you don't really fly, you get it, you get another military

Jenn: 00:25:33

jacket issued to you to fly with, but you, now we put patches on it and you

Jenn: 00:25:36

wear, you pass it down and you have it in your family, but it's a throwback to

Jenn: 00:25:40

when they really were used as part of your gear, as part of what you flew with

Jenn: 00:25:45

because of the cockpits being so cold.

Jenn: 00:25:48

And and it's just very cool to see the ones that were in action.

Jenn: 00:25:53

And actually people have put stuff on them from the, you know, the flights they flew.

Jenn: 00:25:56

And so they have a nice collection there at the Pueblo Museum.

Jenn: 00:26:03

, but one more thing I wanted to talk about real quick before is and

Jenn: 00:26:06

you just mentioned it real quick in the video, is that Clark Gable

Scott: 00:26:10

Yes.

Scott: 00:26:12

So the old Hollywood actor Clark

Scott: 00:26:15

Gable.

Scott: 00:26:16

Yes, the famous, you know,

Jenn: 00:26:17

Gone with the

Scott: 00:26:18

Gone with the Wind, Frankly Scarlet, I Don't Give a Damn.

Scott: 00:26:22

Right?

Scott: 00:26:22

That guy.

Scott: 00:26:23

He, right, because a lot of these You know, during World War Two,

Jenn: 00:26:27

joined the

Scott: 00:26:27

they joined the military, And so he trained, and you actually

Scott: 00:26:31

didn't know this until after we left.

Scott: 00:26:33

So I was talking with, I think, the museum president.

Scott: 00:26:36

She was hanging out with me and the kids while you were sitting doing, filming

Scott: 00:26:40

with some of the other gentlemen.

Scott: 00:26:42

And she told me And it's it's actually, it's on their website.

Scott: 00:26:46

So if you go to, to their website, PWAM, P W A M dot O R

Scott: 00:26:49

G they, they show this on there.

Scott: 00:26:52

So that's where I pulled it off of.

Scott: 00:26:53

But Clark Gable actually trained there because that in Pueblo, there was a,

Scott: 00:26:57

there was a big training site there.

Scott: 00:26:59

And a lot of these air kind of, you know, the, the squadrons and dets ended

Scott: 00:27:03

up getting assigned, you know, overseas.

Scott: 00:27:05

But Clark Gable actually trained there.

Scott: 00:27:07

I think he was an officer, maybe

Jenn: 00:27:09

I think he was an officer, maybe a major.

Scott: 00:27:10

Yeah.

Scott: 00:27:10

And her story to me, and it says it on the website as well, is that when

Scott: 00:27:15

the public found out that he was training there, the phone lines would

Scott: 00:27:18

get jammed up for hours every now and then with his fans trying to get a

Scott: 00:27:22

hold of him, trying to kind of wish him

Scott: 00:27:24

luck, or girls trying to call him, or whatever it was, because

Scott: 00:27:27

he was still a famous movie

Scott: 00:27:28

star.

Jenn: 00:27:29

luck, or girls trying to call him, or whatever it was,

Jenn: 00:27:33

because he was still a famous

Scott: 00:27:36

that's only, it's only a few years later.

Scott: 00:27:37

So here he is in Pueblo, Colorado, training, you know,

Scott: 00:27:41

in flying and stuff like that.

Scott: 00:27:43

And people are trying to get ahold of him, jamming up the entire town's

Scott: 00:27:46

phone lines for multiple hours at a

Scott: 00:27:48

time.

Jenn: 00:27:49

can totally see that happening.

Jenn: 00:27:51

What would be neat too is like, he probably is, you know,

Jenn: 00:27:53

he's flying, so he's probably making radio calls and stuff.

Jenn: 00:27:56

So if you're on a tower, if you're in control in Pueblo, it would be his

Jenn: 00:28:01

voice on the radio making radio calls.

Jenn: 00:28:03

So that's really

Scott: 00:28:04

That, that was neat.

Scott: 00:28:05

That was just kind of a quick call out that I put in the beginning of

Scott: 00:28:08

the video when I'm kind of, I'm doing kinda like a pop-up video thing,

Scott: 00:28:11

kind of talking about the, the little bit of the backstory of the military

Scott: 00:28:15

training sites in Pueblo, Colorado.

Scott: 00:28:17

If you're ever in that area, I highly encourage you guys to, to visit, let

Scott: 00:28:21

them know that, that we sent you that, that you came from walk with history.

Scott: 00:28:25

If you guys want to support the show we love it when you share

Scott: 00:28:28

the show , with other folks

Scott: 00:28:30

or you now you can be a coffee contributor or a tea tipper.

Scott: 00:28:34

And if you do join one of those membership tiers, I'll kind of give you guys those,

Scott: 00:28:38

those members in those membership tiers, a shout out once on the podcast, just

Scott: 00:28:42

to say, thank you for the support.

Scott: 00:28:45

or three, two or three bucks.

Scott: 00:28:47

But we really do appreciate it.

Scott: 00:28:48

So if you know someone else that might enjoy this podcast,

Scott: 00:28:51

please share it with them.

Scott: 00:28:52

And especially if you think today's topic would interest a friend, shoot

Scott: 00:28:56

him a text and tell him to We rely on you, our community to grow, and

Scott: 00:29:00

we appreciate you all every day.

Scott: 00:29:02

We'll talk to you next