Bannon's War Room - May 27, 2024


Episode 3640： WarRoom Memorial Day Special： 'Our Honored Dead' Cont.


Episode Stats


Length

55 minutes

Words per minute

163.76488

Word count

9,105

Sentence count

785

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

20

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Join Steve and Patrick as they remember Memorial Day in Arlington National Cemeteries in the Tomb of the Unknown. Plus, a look at the history of the Jesse Scouts and the role they played in the Mexican-American War.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Thank you.
00:00:30.000 I'm back.
00:00:44.260 It is the 27th of May, year of war, 2024. 0.71
00:00:49.980 It's our Memorial Day reminiscence on our honored debt.
00:00:58.960 I've got Patrick O'Donnell here.
00:01:00.540 We're going to get to Memorial Day, how it came about in the way we commemorate it today over at Arlington National Cemetery in the Tomb of the Unknown.
00:01:09.760 But I've got to talk to you about Mexico because Mexico is a fascination of me after the war.
00:01:13.980 Remember, at Appomattox, the Army of Northern Virginia surrenders.
00:01:19.260 But, hey, out west, once again, they got their own way.
00:01:22.380 They deal with things.
00:01:23.480 And some of them are like, hey, I've surrendered.
00:01:26.480 But it was Major General Joe Shelby up in, once again, Missouri, Missouri, right?
00:01:33.540 He's like, well, let's think about it.
00:01:35.100 They go to, I think, Galveston.
00:01:36.280 They have a couple of things in Shreveport down there.
00:01:39.020 And the boys get together.
00:01:40.300 And a lot of them think, hey, this, you know, maybe we continue on.
00:01:47.760 And they talk about Mexico, which is the time, you know, the French are down to the Spanish. 0.96
00:01:51.880 And they take off as a unit.
00:01:53.380 I think it's 10,000 of them.
00:01:54.980 And they go and they cross the Rio Grande in a place that we do tremendous coverage from, Eagle Pass, Texas.
00:02:02.580 And they leave the guide on, the last guide on, I think, of the Confederate Army, the last battle flag, I think, of the Confederate Army.
00:02:08.400 The myth is that they leave the last battle flag there at Eagle Pass in the Rio Grande, right in the middle of the Rio Grande.
00:02:13.380 Mexico, Steve, is one of the great untold stories in many ways of the Civil War.
00:02:18.780 And it's the Jesse Scouts that play a huge role in this.
00:02:22.220 They're under Sheridan's command at this point.
00:02:24.560 And they are moved down towards New Orleans first and then Texas, where they have to deal with things.
00:02:31.440 And what's going on is this is great power competition.
00:02:34.880 In 1861, France used statistics to determine that the United States would have over 300 million people by 1960.
00:02:43.840 And they were determined to blunt America's power. 0.57
00:02:47.540 And they used Mexico, a debt issue, ostensibly, to just go and invade it. 0.74
00:02:53.300 And they took it over and then they installed Maximilian.
00:02:57.100 And they had tens of thousands of troops down there.
00:03:00.760 Tens of thousands.
00:03:01.380 During the Civil War and then afterwards.
00:03:04.860 And they wanted to figure out, I mean, Lincoln was concerned about trying to figure out how to deal with this.
00:03:09.880 So this is our first proxy war against the European power.
00:03:13.440 And they send the Jesse Scouts down there to basically arm the insurgency. 0.90
00:03:18.800 And they're extremely effective doing it.
00:03:21.760 And the person that's in charge.
00:03:23.380 This is like the pre Zapata, the pre Pancho Villa.
00:03:26.180 This is the insurgency.
00:03:26.820 Yeah, and they're running guns down there.
00:03:28.620 This is Juarez and that crowd.
00:03:30.700 Exactly.
00:03:31.180 And they're extremely effective.
00:03:33.520 They're doing also special operations.
00:03:35.440 They're destroying some bridges and things like that.
00:03:37.320 And then they're demonstrating on the border.
00:03:39.740 They're faking that we have all kinds of troops there, more than we even have.
00:03:44.800 But these are all part of sort of demonstrations.
00:03:47.300 But the main thing is arming the resistance.
00:03:50.120 And you have, you know, a lot of things going on here that's really very interesting that involve the Jesse Scouts.
00:03:58.680 It's also the beginning of intelligence gathering in the sense that on a grand scale, the transatlantic telegram, telegraph, you know, the cable was laid across the Atlantic several years before the Civil War begins.
00:04:16.340 But it was broken through tides and such, and then it gets reactivated in 1866.
00:04:22.260 And Sheridan is brilliant.
00:04:24.280 He realizes that this is a potential means that Maximilian is communicating with France and literally puts his men on to crack the codes that they're using through the transatlantic cable to know what his opponent is going to do.
00:04:38.860 And this is extraordinary stuff.
00:04:41.800 So you've got the Jesse Scouts down there for the U.S. government.
00:04:44.560 You also have a Confederate army that's gone and going to work for Maximilian, going to be an army, a mercenary army.
00:04:52.880 You have many of these Confederates that then go down to Mexico.
00:04:56.220 It's a safe haven.
00:04:57.740 Yeah.
00:04:58.020 And they're looking for work.
00:04:59.380 You have the great people that the Jesse Scouts fight during the entire Civil War, like Jubal Early.
00:05:05.020 And the man that burned Chambersburg, McCloston, is down there.
00:05:10.480 Others, they're fleeing from the north because they're worried about being tried as war criminals.
00:05:17.600 And then they're working for Maximilian.
00:05:19.080 Yeah, because they don't really trust how this amnesty thing is going to work.
00:05:22.260 This is one of the most dramatic scenes in Gone with the Wind when they actually – when she's at Terra and they're working.
00:05:30.080 Ashley's come back from Cobb's Legion, and he feels like a broken man.
00:05:34.440 There's nothing for him to do.
00:05:35.600 He's been defeated.
00:05:36.880 His regiment's been crushed.
00:05:39.140 And he's chopping wood, and she goes back and they have that one scene where they actually get romantic.
00:05:43.780 And she says, let's run away.
00:05:45.780 They're looking for officers in the – in Mexico.
00:05:47.900 We can run away to Mexico, and they're looking for officers in the Mexican Army.
00:05:51.240 Right there shows you what a big deal this was when she wrote the novel, that this was a known – this was a big deal in the Confederacy.
00:05:58.820 This is a huge deal.
00:05:59.900 There's actually like massive colonies down there of Confederates that are also fighting for Maximilian, but also they brought their families down there.
00:06:08.080 And it becomes this –
00:06:10.200 A thing.
00:06:10.900 A thing.
00:06:11.380 And it's the Jesse Scouts that are arming these guys.
00:06:16.360 Arming the guys against them.
00:06:17.700 Against them, yes.
00:06:17.960 The insurrection, the war res type guys. 0.92
00:06:20.500 Yes.
00:06:21.880 And they're running guns to these guys, and this begins before the war ends.
00:06:28.600 They're doing these operations.
00:06:30.820 The only reason Mexico has never really recovered from that.
00:06:32.620 It's still the same – if you – later with the Mexican Revolution, Zapata and Pancho Villa and the –
00:06:38.160 it's very much what they fought in Missouri and what they fought in West Virginia and what they fought in Virginia.
00:06:44.780 It's a partisan guerrilla war of which sides change all the time.
00:06:49.000 People change all the time.
00:06:49.980 You can't trust anybody.
00:06:51.680 This is – Mexico still has that – the roots of that problem go back to that time. 0.97
00:06:56.320 And it's Henry Young and the Scouts that play –
00:07:01.080 What happens to him?
00:07:01.860 This is the sad thing, Steve.
00:07:04.120 He is working for one of those warlords, and he disappears along with dozens of the scouts.
00:07:13.440 And this is one of the reasons why the unvanquished is an untold story.
00:07:17.600 Disappears, and there's one theory that he dies in a Mexican jail from one of the warlords.
00:07:22.760 Others that he was ambushed, potentially by the French.
00:07:26.920 But he never comes home.
00:07:29.860 I mean, that's what Memorial Day is about.
00:07:32.080 It's about honoring the fallen.
00:07:34.320 And it's also about honoring – I wanted to honor the covert warriors that have never come home.
00:07:39.000 And Young was one of them.
00:07:39.920 The final scene in my book, Young had this very special relationship with his mother.
00:07:45.400 And he would write letters to her every week.
00:07:47.700 And the letters stopped.
00:07:50.980 And she would wait by the mailbox for the next letter.
00:07:54.300 And then she would wait – whenever the carriage came into town in Rhode Island, she would wait – she would look for that outside the carriage of her son to come home.
00:08:03.920 And that's one of the final scenes in this book.
00:08:06.740 Incredible.
00:08:07.840 Let's talk about today, obviously, Arlington National Cemetery, The Tomb of the Unknown.
00:08:13.420 You wrote an entire book that focused on this.
00:08:16.780 You're probably one of the living experts in this.
00:08:18.880 Walk us through how did we get to this commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery?
00:08:24.000 How did we get to the – I would argue the most sacred – civically sacred property in all of our country, which is the Tomb of the Unknown and around it?
00:08:34.200 How did that all come about?
00:08:35.380 It comes about in World War I, where there is a titanic clash of armies.
00:08:44.080 The United States loses tens of thousands of men.
00:08:48.980 And there's a belief in the army that there's thousands of unknowns, but they could be brought back or found.
00:08:56.760 We got brought in late and then hit – but we hit with power.
00:09:00.680 We hit with power, and we are the decisive force that changes the course of the war.
00:09:05.420 That's the reason Germans throw the towel in. 1.00
00:09:07.220 Yes.
00:09:07.380 They say the Americans are coming. 1.00
00:09:08.320 But we lose so many men.
00:09:10.380 We have so many casualties in such a short period of time.
00:09:12.680 It's probably the most intense part of combat really in American history because it's so constrained by time.
00:09:19.860 It's concentrated in the largest battle in American history, which is the Meuse-Argon.
00:09:24.440 Talk about that.
00:09:25.240 That goes on for –
00:09:26.060 This thing is a titanic battle that begins in September and then lasts all the way to November 11th.
00:09:32.960 And it's in the Meuse-Argon sector, and the main goal of it is to pierce the massive belts of fortification that the Germans have built in that area 0.94
00:09:44.560 and then sever a supply line, the crucial supply line near Sudan, which they're successful in doing.
00:09:53.980 But it does not go well at all at the beginning.
00:09:57.600 This is Pershing and MacArthur.
00:10:00.920 I think – then MacArthur was awarded – was it five silver stars?
00:10:05.140 Multiple awards.
00:10:06.780 He receives the Medal of Honor.
00:10:07.800 Medal of Honor.
00:10:08.760 And for combat leadership, not for some staff job.
00:10:11.500 I mean he always criticized Pershing, and Pershing had been a combat leader earlier, but Pershing, and particularly General Marshall, his rival, was chief of staff.
00:10:20.040 Many of the greats of World War II, including – yeah, you've got – you also have Wild Bill Donovan,
00:10:27.100 who receives the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor for his actions in World War I, leading a charge.
00:10:34.000 And it's that – those actions that I believe –
00:10:36.520 So people see the slaughter of six million French.
00:10:39.200 They see the slaughter in the United States.
00:10:41.280 They weren't – it wasn't celebratory.
00:10:43.680 I mean people were glad it was over, but it wasn't like, oh – because there was always these questions of how do we get in this?
00:10:49.160 And people should understand that the Zimmerman telegram that they captured was about getting Mexico into the war against the United States.
00:10:58.680 And, you know, we've got to get Mexico's ally just like kind of in the Civil War they tried to do also.
00:11:04.600 That's one of the triggering events with the Lusitania. 0.99
00:11:06.560 But a lot of people were not totally convinced, particularly in Wilson.
00:11:09.800 These guys got the League of Nations.
00:11:11.500 They didn't know if they bought into – what they were being sold.
00:11:14.420 All they knew is that they didn't want to get back in European conflicts.
00:11:18.960 The founders had said we're not going to do this.
00:11:20.880 Next thing you know, we have a massive, massive, massive army over there that's dropping hammer blows on guys.
00:11:27.140 The Marines fight so well at Bella Wood.
00:11:29.800 I think there's a decision made by the Army that we'll never let the Marines go inland like that again because they're too good.
00:11:35.360 They've got to do the amphibious landing.
00:11:36.580 The Marines have only two regiments, the fifth and the sixth, but they have an amazing PR corps.
00:11:41.400 And they do – they certainly do a great job because – and they're also attached to the Army's second division, which is the most elite unit in the –
00:11:51.760 The physical destruction by the machine gun and chemical warfare, gas, artillery.
00:11:59.720 Really, the biggest thing that was not banned, that would people think, is really artillery shelling was – it's a level that you can't imagine.
00:12:06.360 The disfiguration.
00:12:08.100 There's so many unknowns.
00:12:09.200 I mean there's mass graves and where they fought.
00:12:12.520 It's like the landscape of the moon.
00:12:14.480 How did they come up with the fact that we have to, like other nations – because it wasn't something we did.
00:12:19.720 We had – the Civil War was self-organizing.
00:12:22.460 The commemorations there were self-organized.
00:12:25.480 You had Gettysburg.
00:12:26.580 Individual states would build mines.
00:12:28.240 But as a nation outside of maybe the Gettysburg where Lincoln went to dedicate the cemetery, we hadn't come together to do it as a nation like – like England and France were very upfront about this.
00:12:41.440 What happens is it's – as you mentioned, it's England and France that begin this tradition of an unknown soldier, of honoring an unknown soldier.
00:12:49.300 And there's tens of thousands of soldiers that are in graves in France at this time.
00:12:55.960 And the artillery is so intense that it turns bodies – it disintegrates bodies.
00:13:04.220 And trying to determine who they were, those individuals were, it was – first it was France and England that come up with the idea of honoring an unknown soldier to honor all of those veterans.
00:13:16.600 One soldier, one body that commemorate the millions that they can't identify.
00:13:21.980 Right, and it's here in the United States.
00:13:23.700 And you need that – I want to go back.
00:13:25.260 You need that because of the trauma of the folks back home.
00:13:27.840 They've been traumatized.
00:13:28.680 In France, I think it was five million troops they lost in World War I.
00:13:33.160 The numbers are horrific.
00:13:34.660 In England, they lost almost an entire generation and hadn't prepared for this.
00:13:38.140 It's the trauma of the folks back home.
00:13:39.740 So civic society, the leaders have to figure out what do we need to do in the civic religion here to basically start to allow some healing to begin.
00:13:50.620 It's an organic – it bubbles up from organically.
00:13:55.280 What happens is the War Department is convinced that they can bring back all the bodies of these men, of these unknowns.
00:14:00.460 You've got to tell the story.
00:14:01.740 This is very important because the American – it's not isolationist.
00:14:05.340 But the concept of having our war dead buried on foreign battlefields is incomprehensible to people.
00:14:12.300 This is the United States of America.
00:14:14.140 The first thing they have to – they try to work through is we want to bring everybody home.
00:14:18.340 We want to bring everybody home and bury them here, right?
00:14:21.080 Exactly.
00:14:21.980 That was the plan.
00:14:23.300 And then – well, actually, what – the War Department did not, for cost purposes, did not want to bring everybody home at first.
00:14:29.700 Well, it gets down to money.
00:14:30.580 But then there's a popular uprising to bring the men home.
00:14:36.360 This is – this is the United States of America, our Memorial Day, not for our veterans, which I'm honored to be one, but for the honored dead.
00:14:47.460 In May of 2024, we will be back with Patrick K. O'Donnell in a moment.
00:14:53.800 Can your savings weather an economic storm?
00:15:02.340 Think about what you've put away for the future.
00:15:05.400 Inflation can render cash worthless.
00:15:09.240 Real estate can crash like in 2008.
00:15:11.860 Economies built on a mountain of debt can fall like a house of cards.
00:15:15.800 There are very few physical assets you can invest in that can stand the test of time.
00:15:21.080 Gold has withstood this as a valued form of money for millennia.
00:15:26.780 I actually think for 8,000 years of man's recorded history.
00:15:30.640 It's why people are flocking to it now and why Birch Gold is busier than ever.
00:15:34.960 Through a little-known tax loophole, Birch Gold lets you convert a retirement account into a tax-sheltered IRA in physical gold.
00:15:43.320 And the best part, it doesn't cost you a penny out of pocket.
00:15:46.820 Let me repeat that.
00:15:47.980 It doesn't cost you a penny out of pocket.
00:15:49.920 To learn more about this, to immerse yourself in information, text Bannon, B-A-N-N-O-N, to 989898 and claim your free info kit on gold.
00:16:00.160 Let me ask you this again.
00:16:03.340 Can your IRA or 401k weather an economic storm because a storm's coming?
00:16:08.560 If it can't, call the people I trust.
00:16:11.560 That's Birch Gold.
00:16:12.300 Text Bannon to 989898.
00:16:15.420 Secure your savings today.
00:16:17.880 Birch Gold Group.
00:16:18.740 Welcome back.
00:16:31.980 There is a...
00:16:33.740 For cost reasons, they determine pretty quickly, this is going to cost us a fortune if we have to bring back all the war dead. 0.58
00:16:45.760 And how many are they talking about at the time?
00:16:47.180 And they estimate that.
00:16:48.440 How many do they think they have?
00:16:50.020 Over 100,000.
00:16:51.380 The numbers vary.
00:16:52.320 And then there's individuals that die of influenza.
00:16:55.560 Folks, you've got to understand something.
00:16:57.700 There's a massive pandemic.
00:16:58.940 The combat here is a couple of months.
00:17:02.140 That's the intensity of it.
00:17:03.140 That's 100,000 dead.
00:17:04.580 That's not even the wounded.
00:17:05.840 And you had gas.
00:17:06.800 You had the horrible, horrible, horrible.
00:17:09.620 And then the Spanish flu hit.
00:17:11.680 So 100,000, they quickly calculate.
00:17:13.700 Well over 100,000.
00:17:14.780 We don't even have the shipping capacity to bring those back.
00:17:18.020 Those will cost us a fortune.
00:17:19.220 So what happens?
00:17:19.860 What happens is there's a popular uprising to bring the boys home, but also they see what's going on in France.
00:17:26.540 Did they announce that they can't bring them back?
00:17:28.540 I mean, how does the popular uprising start?
00:17:30.260 People just go, where's our war dead?
00:17:32.720 It really, a lot of it comes from an extraordinary woman, again, Marie Maloney, who's got this very popular paper called The Delineator.
00:17:43.140 And she helps, like, stoke this popular uprising.
00:17:47.480 She's an amazing figure. 0.98
00:17:48.280 Yeah.
00:17:48.580 One of the great women.
00:17:49.200 Another amazing woman figure that believes that we need to do what France and England have done, and that is to have a tomb of the unknown to honor all of our dead.
00:17:59.500 And this garners support from Hamilton Fish, for instance, as a congressman up in New York, who was an officer with the Harlem Hellfighters.
00:18:09.460 This is an African-American unit that fought very valiantly.
00:18:12.900 And these in France and England are main events.
00:18:15.980 It's like the Centotaf.
00:18:16.940 It's the center of where, I mean, right near Whitehall and 10 Downing.
00:18:22.800 I mean, it's a beautiful monument in Arc de Triomphe in Paris with the Eternal Flame.
00:18:27.860 I mean, when France and England did it, it was top drawer center of the nation to get the nation to focus on it.
00:18:36.820 Right.
00:18:37.900 And she wants the same thing? 0.78
00:18:39.820 She wants the same thing, and she gets it, along with, you know, Fish is pushing hard.
00:18:44.520 How does she fight it?
00:18:45.300 Because I'm sure there's a lot of resistance to this.
00:18:46.940 And it's through her paper and through, you know, the power of the media, and it sways people in the population.
00:18:54.740 And there is now a belief that we need to have a tomb of the unknown.
00:18:58.840 And the book that I wrote is about the process and, you know, how they found, you know, they looked at all the different major battlefields.
00:19:09.580 Give me the title because we want to get it up on the screen.
00:19:11.500 It's The Unknowns.
00:19:12.360 Yeah, Unknowns.
00:19:13.040 I love this.
00:19:15.100 It's one of the favorites you did.
00:19:16.900 Yeah.
00:19:17.140 The Unknowns.
00:19:17.760 Thank you.
00:19:18.160 Tell me about it.
00:19:19.760 It's one of the most powerful books I wrote.
00:19:22.120 I mean, it's a book that found me.
00:19:23.740 And what I mean by that is when I was in Fallujah, it was a 3-1 Lima company.
00:19:29.920 We, you know, all went through that.
00:19:31.800 And then the commander of that, you know, Willie Buell, was given command of the 5th Marines.
00:19:36.620 A great character.
00:19:37.600 He's amazing.
00:19:38.740 He was in your movie.
00:19:40.500 Yep.
00:19:41.220 And Willie invited me to give a tour of his Marines in the 5th to Normandy, which I was so thrilled to do.
00:19:50.680 But part of the tour was also go to the hallowed ground of the Marine Corps, which is Bella Wood.
00:19:56.060 Yeah.
00:19:56.320 And we walked around Bella Wood.
00:19:59.620 And I'll never forget.
00:20:02.040 We were walking on Hill 142.
00:20:05.400 And our guide, and I was there with him, he said to me and the group that Ernest A. Jansen was the first recipient of the Medal of Honor for the Marine Corps.
00:20:17.880 But he was also a body bearer for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
00:20:24.720 And that was, I mean, I'm like here with all of our guys.
00:20:27.920 And body bearer was a term of our official term.
00:20:30.300 It's a term that, it's an honor term to bring, a pallbearer, to bring back the casket or the remains.
00:20:36.500 And I immediately was like, that's a fascinating story.
00:20:40.680 And nobody had ever told it.
00:20:42.300 And then I wanted to know who the other body bearers were.
00:20:45.800 And it turns out that they were selected by General Pershing himself.
00:20:49.220 But they were selected for what they did.
00:20:51.740 They were some of the most decorated heroes of World War I, distinguished service cross, medals of honor.
00:20:55.980 But each one was part of each branch of service at the time for the American Expedition Air Forces.
00:21:02.320 And they told a segment of the story.
00:21:06.020 And it's like Jansen is incredible.
00:21:09.640 I mean, he helps save Hill 142 from the Germans. 0.98
00:21:14.560 They capture the hill quickly.
00:21:16.320 They go through the wheat field.
00:21:17.920 They go through the Maxim machine guns, which cut down many members of the 49th Company.
00:21:23.020 You know, these Marines are in their green uniforms, and they're advancing through the wheat.
00:21:28.860 They take 142.
00:21:30.620 But what do Germans always do? 1.00
00:21:32.140 They immediately counterattack.
00:21:34.000 And they counterattack, and the Germans are setting up their Maxim machine guns.
00:21:40.440 And Jansen, you know, lets out this war cry and literally bayonets people and kills several of the Germans as they're setting up and saves the hill.
00:21:49.740 And it's a fascinating story because he's got two medals of honor, for one.
00:21:59.060 They give him the Army Medal of Honor and the Navy Medal of Honor.
00:22:02.740 But he also has two names.
00:22:05.340 It's Ernest A. Jansen and Charles Hoffman.
00:22:07.440 And he was originally a member of the U.S. Army that we think he went AWOL for a girlfriend and, you know, had disciplinary actions and everything else, but then joins the Marine Corps under another name.
00:22:20.440 And he becomes this hero of the Marine Corps.
00:22:24.680 Let's go back for a second.
00:22:25.880 How do we even get to the body?
00:22:27.200 You've got a—in England and France, they do it formally.
00:22:33.080 You have this amazing woman that makes it up that, hey, we're not going to leave our young men there.
00:22:39.320 We've got to do something special.
00:22:41.400 You get going with a Tomb of the Unknown.
00:22:43.760 How does it get—how does Pershing then execute it?
00:22:47.180 How do you actually—one of the questions I've always get asked is how do they know they're unknown?
00:22:52.140 How's the whole process of finding these?
00:22:53.880 What they do then is they have a special unit, graves registration unit.
00:22:59.200 The guy's name is Quackenbush, goes out to the major cemeteries in France where the AEF fought, and they specifically select graves of soldiers that are unknown.
00:23:13.240 And they then disintern the grave and bring out the body, and then they make sure that there is no dog tags or diaries or pieces of information or letter, anything that could identify who this person was.
00:23:30.000 They go through and do due diligence on the body itself to make sure there's no way—
00:23:33.560 There's no way to determine it, and then they literally burn the burial card of the gravesite that Quackenbush unearthed that person.
00:23:41.420 So it could be they don't have any idea where in the cemetery it was.
00:23:45.640 Where they were selected.
00:23:46.580 Yes.
00:23:46.900 And how many of those do they—how many of those—how many of those do they take?
00:23:53.280 They take a number—a handful of these men, and then they bring the bodies back to Chalun, France, and they're all flag-draped caskets.
00:24:05.940 And it's in the middle of the city hall, and they initially planned to have the American Expeditionary Force plans—Pershing plans to have a general officer make the selection.
00:24:18.120 But at the last minute, the French say to them, you know, it's the enlisted man that does the fighting in your wars, in our wars, too.
00:24:26.920 He should be the one that is given the honor of selecting the unknown.
00:24:32.760 And the book is about his story, too.
00:24:35.700 He was a member of the 2nd Infantry Division.
00:24:37.800 He was with the Marines at Yellowwood.
00:24:39.260 How was he selected?
00:24:40.960 He was selected basically for his service.
00:24:43.280 He had been there the longest.
00:24:44.420 He had also been combat wounded twice, you know, severely.
00:24:48.640 This is now 1920, 21, and there's still occupation forces in Europe at the time.
00:24:58.380 So they took the man that was the most senior enlisted man and allowed him to—
00:25:03.900 That had fought the most.
00:25:04.840 That had fought the most.
00:25:06.380 And his record is—
00:25:08.040 How does he—what is his memory of selecting—actually choosing the body he chose, the remains he chose?
00:25:16.180 He's given a bouquet of flowers, and he's told to select the unknown.
00:25:21.220 And it's at that point that he literally—
00:25:23.200 By placing the bouquet of flowers onto the flag-draped coffin?
00:25:26.160 Of a series of flag-draped coffins in this room.
00:25:30.860 And—
00:25:31.160 But to select one and put the flowers on one, and that one will be—
00:25:34.740 That will be the unknown.
00:25:35.760 That will be the designated unknown.
00:25:38.640 And he is in the room by himself, and he prays.
00:25:42.160 And I literally found his handwritten notes about what he remembers that day.
00:25:47.640 And he prays, and he said that his hand guided itself to the casket.
00:25:53.920 His hand guided itself.
00:25:55.100 Something was working through him.
00:25:56.640 Through him, and he—
00:25:57.600 He didn't consciously choose this.
00:26:00.000 It was something—
00:26:00.980 And he felt—
00:26:01.100 A power greater than him.
00:26:02.040 He also felt that it was somebody that he had fought with, that, you know, in some manner had been an unknown soldier.
00:26:10.580 How did they—to go from the city hall to get to Arlington, walk us through—then what happened?
00:26:17.040 What happens next is they have a procession that goes from Chalonne to Le Havre, to the docks of Le Havre.
00:26:25.980 And the French know how to do this. 1.00
00:26:27.400 They help us on.
00:26:28.060 I mean, it's quite solemn.
00:26:29.320 It's solemn.
00:26:29.900 It's dignified.
00:26:32.440 And they bring the casket back, the remains back on a warship.
00:26:38.460 And the ship itself, they—the casket's so large that they can't actually put it under deck.
00:26:45.560 So it's on deck, and it goes through a series of, you know, climactic storms.
00:26:51.860 It almost goes overboard.
00:26:53.660 But some of these guys that are there literally help strap themselves towards—on the casket to prevent it from going overboard in one scene.
00:27:02.040 And they bring it back to the Washington Navy Yard, and it's there that the men that I have in my book greet the remains, and it's brought to the Capitol Rotunda.
00:27:12.480 And how are they selected again?
00:27:14.160 They're selected by General Pershing for their service, but also to tell the story of the AEF through their eyes.
00:27:20.360 And it's like Ernest Jansen, but it's also—you have an amazing American sailor that saves his ship from going down that was torpedoed and literally closes the watertight door, is scalded by the boiler, you know, the splashes from the boiler, but saves his ship from going down.
00:27:38.920 And these are to represent all the people that fought in the war.
00:27:44.640 Yes.
00:27:45.020 And these are the body bearers.
00:27:46.640 The body bearers.
00:27:47.600 The body bearers.
00:27:48.140 The unknowns is about their stories.
00:27:50.340 And they meet the body on the warship at the Washington Navy Yard.
00:27:56.140 Yes.
00:27:56.720 Okay.
00:27:56.960 And then they bring it to Arlington.
00:27:59.140 Does it go to the Capitol first?
00:28:00.440 It first goes to the Capitol Rotunda.
00:28:02.200 It lies in state.
00:28:04.280 Yes.
00:28:05.000 And people can come in and say, I'll tell you what, let's take a short break and we're going to continue the details of the story from the unknowns on Memorial Day, May of 2024.
00:28:14.840 Most emergencies come without warning.
00:28:22.320 And when the next one comes, you won't have time to pack and to prepare.
00:28:27.140 You need to get ready now before an emergency strikes.
00:28:30.280 Your supplies should be ready to grab and go right away.
00:28:34.400 Secure these supplies right now at MyPatriotSupply.com.
00:28:38.200 Start with the four-week emergency food kits from MyPatriotSupply, helping millions of Americans, and I mean millions of Americans, prepare since 2008.
00:28:48.160 MyPatriotSupply are experts in self-reliance and preparation.
00:28:52.820 Their four-week emergency food kits offer over 2,000 calories every day, protected by heavy-duty, four-layer packaging.
00:29:00.900 These kits last up to 25 years.
00:29:03.420 Let me repeat that.
00:29:04.500 25 years.
00:29:05.540 Sealed inside, rugged, handled buckets.
00:29:09.200 They're made to grab and go quickly.
00:29:11.840 Now go to MyPatriotSupply.com and save 50 bucks right now per kit.
00:29:16.420 They ship fast and they ship free in unmarked boxes.
00:29:20.220 Save $50 per kit at MyPatriotSupply.com, MyPatriotSupply.com.
00:29:26.220 Take action on this today.
00:29:28.320 Go over there.
00:29:29.240 They're the best in the business.
00:29:30.480 Talk to the consultants.
00:29:31.480 MyPatriotSupply.com.
00:29:35.540 I talk about this trauma.
00:29:43.360 Our country has trauma from World War I, and obviously nothing like England and France and Germany and others. 0.94
00:29:50.720 But there's also still trauma from the Civil War.
00:29:54.360 The Civil War has not totally been healed.
00:29:56.480 Some people say that we fought together in the Spanish-American War.
00:30:00.320 It was still had, I think, under Roosevelt in 1933, the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg.
00:30:11.660 That's how Ken Burns starts the Civil War.
00:30:15.440 Had this woman brought everybody together and have buy-in from the elites in the country and the country itself in this thing called an unknown soldier, the Tomb of the Unknown?
00:30:24.900 Yeah.
00:30:25.200 The who's who of American society shows up for this event, and it's a healing event.
00:30:30.780 You've got, like, the NAACP comes.
00:30:34.120 You also have, you know, Daughters of the American Revolution.
00:30:38.020 But there's medals of honor recipients from the Civil War, from the Spanish-American War.
00:30:45.940 And just, you know, different walks of society are present at this event, and it's a magnificent affair.
00:30:54.660 The body lies in state, lies in state, in the Capitol Rotunda, and then it's removed on a caisson in a very formal ceremony to go across the bridge to Arlington National Summit.
00:31:08.420 And there's a film of these men that are next to the caisson as they walk it towards Arlington.
00:31:17.460 And they follow it down.
00:31:18.640 They follow the caisson all the way down, like President Kennedy.
00:31:22.120 Now, and it's in turn, and that's the, does the, does the, the soldier from the Old Guard that stands ready 24 hours a day in all weather, 365 days a year, is that commence immediately?
00:31:41.660 No, it doesn't.
00:31:42.980 What happens is they have an amazing ceremony at the tomb, and many world leaders are there.
00:31:49.940 I think, but one of the most interesting persons that presides over the final aspect of the ceremony is Chief Plenty Clues, who's a Sioux war chief that, that provides, you know, his war hammer is there, and he provides a ceremony over the, over the remains.
00:32:06.720 It's also kind of a healing between Native Americans and Americans in the, the great conflict that occurred in the West.
00:32:13.000 But what happens is the tomb, you know, has this amazing fanfare, and then it just becomes a tomb.
00:32:22.300 And what happens is people come there, and they picnic, and they.
00:32:25.900 Oh, there's no structure afterwards about the spectrum.
00:32:29.060 There's no, there's no guard or anything.
00:32:31.040 And people come and picnic, and they've, there's some defacing of the tomb.
00:32:34.180 And it's at that point that there is a, you know, a tomb guard takes place, and it's part of the old guard.
00:32:41.420 And they've been guarding it ever since, 24-7, no matter what the weather is.
00:32:46.740 World War II, then Korea, and then Vietnam gets to be controversial because DNA, the ability to, to, for DNA technology.
00:32:56.200 How does this, what happens in World War II and what happens in Korea?
00:32:59.180 They bring a, in, in both of those conflicts, they have an unknown soldier that is brought back.
00:33:06.460 And they have a, you know, an incredible ceremony.
00:33:09.440 They go through the same process of selection.
00:33:11.240 They do.
00:33:11.740 They're very serious.
00:33:12.560 It's very serious.
00:33:13.460 And they make a thing that it can never be, they really go out of the way to make sure this thing can, the remains can never be identified.
00:33:20.460 Right.
00:33:20.760 And, but what happens is with, with Vietnam, they select a, an aviator in, in a crash.
00:33:28.220 And that family believes, or the family of that individual believes ardently that that's their son.
00:33:37.120 They bring him home, they put him in the, in the tomb, and then they protest.
00:33:41.260 And literally, they are correct.
00:33:45.220 They do a DNA test.
00:33:46.480 They do a DNA test.
00:33:47.680 And then they determine who it is.
00:33:49.340 And he is then removed.
00:33:51.400 Disinterred.
00:33:52.140 Disinterred.
00:33:52.760 And, and, and buried, you know, again.
00:33:55.480 But, um.
00:33:56.380 In Vietnam, we have no, because they're so concerned about the DNA testing.
00:34:00.080 We have no, we have no remains of the unknown of Vietnam.
00:34:04.020 There will never be another unknown soldier because of DNA testing.
00:34:08.360 So, the ones that are there are.
00:34:11.420 And in Vietnam, they think, since the DNA testing is so advanced, regardless of when, the remains.
00:34:16.620 There's never been a call to.
00:34:18.260 Even have a call because there's.
00:34:19.420 Yes.
00:34:20.200 I was actually, was, was, was, was 1957 was Korea?
00:34:24.940 That would have been the, the Korean. 1.00
00:34:27.000 Yeah.
00:34:27.300 I was, so I was four.
00:34:29.780 It's really my first memory of life.
00:34:32.000 I remember my dad and older brother.
00:34:33.940 We went to the, we went, we went to the whole thing.
00:34:36.180 And we were outside the Capitol.
00:34:38.200 The thing I remember, two things I remember is one, um, they had the howitzers.
00:34:45.360 The entire time, as I remember as a kid, the entire time it came down and marched down from the Capitol.
00:34:52.100 And the body bearers brought it, put in the case and went, they had these howitzers going off.
00:34:58.200 I guess every 30 seconds or every seat.
00:35:02.120 It was so loud.
00:35:04.420 And I mean, it just, it just, boom, silence, boom, silence, boom.
00:35:11.060 As a kid, you're just sitting there going, man, this is the thing.
00:35:13.980 And then we went over to, we actually got in our car and went over and made it over to Arlington.
00:35:19.400 And I just remember, I think it's the main memorial there for the USS Maine.
00:35:25.220 It's got that huge anchor and it's way off.
00:35:27.980 We did not have VIP seating.
00:35:30.940 We got there.
00:35:31.820 I remember my dad helped me.
00:35:32.900 We got up a little bit on the main.
00:35:34.100 I couldn't, couldn't see because you're so far away, but the crowds, like you couldn't believe.
00:35:38.700 I mean, just the crowds were just enormous.
00:35:40.420 You were, you were there when, when they, I, one of the, I interviewed the body bearer, the last surviving body bearer of that ceremony.
00:35:47.420 His name was Ron Rozier and he was a, he was a medal of honor recipient from Korea.
00:35:52.120 And Ron was extraordinary.
00:35:54.340 He, he, he, um, took out several machine gun positions and he had a, a Thompson.
00:36:00.160 I mean, this guy was amazing.
00:36:02.360 When this book came out, he was the, um, I was supposed to be the keynote speaker for the tomb guard, but they said, we've got somebody, we might outrank you a little bit.
00:36:11.800 And he was the keynote.
00:36:13.660 Yeah, I think he is.
00:36:14.420 Yeah, he's got that one.
00:36:15.420 And it's like, wow, no problem.
00:36:18.020 And he, and I interviewed him and he was extraordinary.
00:36:21.620 And I mean, this guy, I've got his, uh, interview on, on my, uh, my Twitter account, at combat historian.
00:36:28.620 The salinity of the thing, the heat and the noise, but it was not, it was dead silent.
00:36:37.480 The city is a little kid.
00:36:38.860 There was not a word or a peep except for the power of these guns.
00:36:44.200 Right.
00:36:44.540 And then that drama of the case on.
00:36:46.400 So it was, um, you got the last, it was just very moving.
00:36:49.760 And today we, every, you know, every Memorial day, the president, the commander in chief, um, goes up there in our current situation.
00:36:57.140 You know, it is what it is, but, um, just, uh, if people have not been to Arlington National Cemetery, if you have not been to the tomb of the unknown, you definitely owe it to yourself and to your children to go see it because it's, it's absolutely extraordinary.
00:37:12.280 It's one of the most moving ceremonies you can ever experience as American incredible hallowed ground.
00:37:20.360 Uh, where do you, um, you've, you've put your life into these books to bring the stories of these individuals that people that time would have just forgotten.
00:37:34.220 And you go back and you read these stories, whether it's about the revolutionary war or about, uh, World War II or the civil war now, and you're just so blown away about your fellow citizens, every one of your books, although it deals with obviously the catastrophe of war, you feel ennobled at the end of it, right?
00:37:53.480 Because you're not, you don't do books on Grant or on Sherman.
00:37:57.700 I mean, they're, they're, they're participants, Sheridan has a huge role in, in the unvanquished, but you're not doing the stories that people know of these figures and they're going to learn more about what they already know.
00:38:10.100 You're taking people you've never heard of.
00:38:12.220 And if it had not been for the events that you go through and the documentation, they would have never risen to an occasion.
00:38:19.920 They would have been essentially ordinary Americans in every war you look at.
00:38:23.340 They were just led ordinary, fulfilling, good, but ordinary lives.
00:38:26.820 It's being in these moments that some step up and step into the moment, use their agency and become extraordinary figures, right?
00:38:37.080 And others you see are, you know, you've got some people in your books that are quite distasteful, right?
00:38:43.100 Because you're in wars and you do a lot of special operations stuff here where, you know, there's a lot of subterfuge.
00:38:50.060 Yeah, the book is, the books are filled with ordinary people that do extraordinary things, but it's, yeah, you also have villains.
00:39:00.320 You have people that are just scoundrels in some cases that, you know, it's not, we're, I try to, with this history, it's the camera and it just, it tells the story of what it was like.
00:39:12.040 I don't try to sugarcoat it, and within that you have different, various, you know, strands of people that are sometimes traitors.
00:39:21.800 I mean, one of the individuals in The Unvanquished was one of Mosby's greatest rangers, was a member of the 5th New York Cavalry.
00:39:28.780 His name was Big Yankee Ames, and that was his nickname, Big Yankee, because he was this six-foot guy that was this massive from Maine that literally deserts the 5th New York out of Centerville and decides to join Mosby.
00:39:44.880 What was his decision based upon?
00:39:47.300 His decision was based upon the Emancipation Proclamation.
00:39:51.020 He did not want to fight the war for slavery, and he was...
00:39:55.780 That was a big concern at the time, Lincoln and those guys talking about it.
00:39:58.180 He did not like that, and he said, I'm not, I'm not doing it, and he literally joins Mosby, and he shows up, and they're like, who the heck is this guy?
00:40:06.980 You know, but they felt, Mosby felt the sincerity about him and trust, and his first mission was to go to Centerville and steal a horse.
00:40:14.880 This is the power of Lincoln, because when they had the debate about doing it, when he first, after Antietam, because he was waiting for a, he'd actually talked about it before, Antietam was the victory he felt he needed to actually make the announcement.
00:40:27.340 When he did it, when he drafted up and pitched the concept of what he was going to do to his cabinet, there were some pretty savvy guys in there who go, well, hang on for a second.
00:40:36.300 What are we doing here?
00:40:37.660 Isn't this to bring the union back together?
00:40:39.640 And Lincoln was saying, you can't have all this killing and all this bloodshed just for us to unite as a country.
00:40:44.760 It's got to be, we've got to break, we've got to break the bondage, you know, we've got to break the chattel slavery. 0.95
00:40:51.240 We have to do it.
00:40:51.920 That was not, that would, you know, Lincoln got some blowback for that.
00:40:54.980 A lot of it.
00:40:55.440 And it's the Republican Party that pushes through that and makes it happen.
00:40:59.960 And people should remember, though, that in 1864, Lincoln does not run as a Republican.
00:41:07.080 No.
00:41:07.660 People forget this.
00:41:08.660 The war was so, and this is the greatness of Lincoln and the people, the war was so controversial.
00:41:15.400 And even with Gettysburg being a year in the rearview mirror, even with Gettysburg being in the rearview mirror, they determined they could not win on a Republican ticket.
00:41:26.000 He gets rid of his vice president, Hamby, of the governor of Maine or the senator from Maine, and goes back to the territory where your book's kind of about.
00:41:33.500 He goes to East Tennessee, which folks know, the East Tennessee folks, the hardcore Scotch-Irish down there and that whole Appalachian Mountain thing, they ain't a big name in the plantation aristocracy.
00:41:44.100 They never really bought into it.
00:41:45.720 They still have a senator, a Democrat senator, Johnson, who he picks as his running mate.
00:41:49.600 They run as what's called the National Union Party.
00:41:52.280 Correct.
00:41:52.880 Right?
00:41:53.200 He's the Republican, the Democrat, but they run in the National Union Party.
00:41:56.380 And if it had not been for the fall of Atlanta.
00:42:00.180 And as well as the third battle of Winchester, which also makes a huge difference, which the Jesse scouts allow to happen in the book.
00:42:08.540 This is, you've got to get this.
00:42:10.160 And I don't know if I should say to this audience, mail-in ballots.
00:42:14.780 Well, we can go to that too.
00:42:16.500 The first use of mail-in ballots.
00:42:18.080 First use of mail-in ballots.
00:42:19.100 Civil war.
00:42:20.580 Because they say, well, what's going to happen?
00:42:22.060 All the guys have left Ohio and Wisconsin.
00:42:24.220 What are we going to do here?
00:42:24.880 And they go, well, they've got to vote.
00:42:26.900 It was mail-in ballots.
00:42:27.960 And it was the army that overwhelmingly, I think like 90 percent.
00:42:32.600 But who's counting, right?
00:42:34.660 Well, in the Unvanquished, I've got a great article in Breitbart on this.
00:42:39.140 Mail-in ballots were the first time they were used.
00:42:40.960 Civil war.
00:42:42.060 We've got to talk about this.
00:42:42.900 Maybe we get the Breitbart article up.
00:42:44.580 No, it's the mail-in ballots.
00:42:46.440 The army, they come in 90-10.
00:42:50.140 Unbelievable.
00:42:51.000 The history of this country.
00:42:52.160 The history of the people of this country.
00:42:53.640 Remember, it's America first, but American citizens first. 0.97
00:42:57.120 You will get to know your fellow citizens, and you will be honored to know them if you read Patrick K. O'Donnell's books.
00:43:03.480 We're going to take a short break.
00:43:05.180 I want to thank Birch Gold.
00:43:07.160 He's been our sponsor here for years.
00:43:09.900 Sponsor all of our specials.
00:43:12.020 Go to Birch Gold.
00:43:13.080 We don't have, we had Philip Patrick on Saturday.
00:43:15.540 We don't have him on these specials.
00:43:16.920 So make sure you go to birchgold.com to get all the free information we put up there.
00:43:21.120 We'll take a short commercial break, where we return to wrap up Memorial Day here, our annual Memorial Day special in the war room.
00:43:30.260 Next.
00:43:30.500 Can't pay the IRS?
00:43:35.400 You haven't filed in a while?
00:43:37.220 Receiving threatening letters?
00:43:39.780 Hey, it's about to get worse.
00:43:41.520 You know why?
00:43:42.460 The IRS is hiring an army of agents targeting hardworking Americans like you.
00:43:47.420 They ain't going after the billionaires.
00:43:49.140 They're coming after you.
00:43:50.880 And you need warriors on your side.
00:43:53.700 You need Tax Network USA.
00:43:55.480 Tax Network USA has a brilliant strategy to solve your IRS problems quickly and in your favor.
00:44:02.020 For instance, they discover a limited special offer that the IRS is willing to waive $1 billion in penalties.
00:44:09.100 Let me repeat that.
00:44:10.280 The IRS is prepared to waive $1 billion in penalties.
00:44:14.800 But you have to find out today whether you qualify.
00:44:19.320 Never let the IRS come at you alone.
00:44:21.800 Let Tax Network USA's attorneys handle it.
00:44:26.180 They have preferred direct lines to the IRS.
00:44:28.720 They know which agents to work with and which agents to avoid.
00:44:33.040 They've resolved over $1 billion in tax debt and offer a best-in-class guarantee.
00:44:38.540 Let me repeat that.
00:44:39.320 They've already solved for folks, just like yourself, $1 billion in tax debts.
00:44:45.960 Now schedule your free consultation.
00:44:48.040 Let me repeat that.
00:44:48.760 It's a free consultation now.
00:44:50.280 Call 1-800-245-6000.
00:44:54.800 That's 1-800-245-6000.
00:44:57.560 Or visit the website taxnetworkusa.com.
00:45:01.520 Slash Bannon.
00:45:02.500 That's taxnetworkusa.com.
00:45:05.560 Slash Bannon.
00:45:06.240 Hello, I'm Steve Stern, CEO of Flagshirt.com, a third-generation, veteran-owned small business.
00:45:14.680 I believe that the American way of life is for all of us.
00:45:18.220 I'm asking you today to visit Flagshirt.com.
00:45:22.240 Help keep the American dream alive.
00:45:24.760 Be a flag waver. 0.84
00:45:26.520 Carry a nation's heritage.
00:45:27.720 Use coupon code ACTION10 for 10% off site-wide and buy a flag shirt today.
00:45:34.680 Action, action, action.
00:45:36.280 Steve Stern joins us.
00:45:40.560 Steve, it's Memorial Day.
00:45:41.900 We always do a Memorial Day special.
00:45:43.460 We want to wrap up.
00:45:44.480 We've got Patrick Cave down here.
00:45:46.020 A couple more stories to help.
00:45:47.680 But I want to make sure everybody gets access to get to the Flagshirt Company and get to honor our American flag.
00:45:53.880 Well, I was with the 324th General Hospital during the Vietnam area.
00:46:00.620 So I'm a veteran.
00:46:01.540 We're a veteran-owned business.
00:46:03.200 On Memorial Day is for our fallen soldiers.
00:46:05.940 The flag is half-mast till noon.
00:46:08.340 Full staff after that for their sacrifice.
00:46:11.440 When Americans fall in battle, others continue their mission.
00:46:15.240 We live in a land of the free because of our soldiers.
00:46:19.640 Let us not forget them today on Memorial Day.
00:46:21.700 We put flowers on their graves.
00:46:25.300 We use red poppy as a tradition on Memorial Day.
00:46:29.540 Ways to honor our fallen soldiers are visit a military memorial, fly the American flag, sponsor a person that has passed, provide support, donate a grave for a fellow soldier, and many, many other things.
00:46:44.960 We don't want to forget our fallen soldiers.
00:46:47.100 You know, when I was in the General Hospital, many of our friends had relatives that passed during the war and the Vietnam and many other wars.
00:46:56.040 So we're coming up to Flag Day, and we want to celebrate that also.
00:47:00.900 We're going to have a four-hour call on that.
00:47:03.900 If you'd like to get on there, give me an email, sstern1024 at gmail.
00:47:09.940 You're welcome to come on.
00:47:11.160 Last year we had a million people on it.
00:47:13.180 This year it's a little different.
00:47:14.600 We're going to have 24 speakers, rogues, rascals, and ruffins. 1.00
00:47:18.360 We're going to do the history of the flag.
00:47:20.220 The first person is going to speak to the history.
00:47:22.040 Every second person for that era is going to talk about what it means today in that history.
00:47:28.020 We have some famous people coming on, Jerome Corsi, John Rich, the famous singer, Dave Bratt, Donna Fiducia, Errol Robinson, Emeril Robinson, Jeff Cooner, Chris Widener, Tom Rents, Colonel John Mills, Joni Bryan, and many, many other people.
00:47:43.620 And they're going to tell you—
00:47:44.500 And what time—what day is that going to be, Steve?
00:47:48.420 It's the 14th, President Trump's birthday.
00:47:51.520 We're going to have it all day.
00:47:52.920 Yep.
00:47:53.920 This morning I asked Mike if he'll put it on his network.
00:47:56.740 He said he would.
00:47:57.360 I'm sure we'll get it on Getter.
00:47:58.680 We'll get it on the eight people.
00:48:00.420 So get your flag shirt for that.
00:48:02.240 Get your flag shirt for the 4th of July.
00:48:04.140 Go to theflagshirt.com.
00:48:06.320 You know, I just celebrated my 83rd birthday and my 70th year in business, and, you know, I'm working hard to keep our people going.
00:48:13.780 So remember all your fellow people on Memorial Day, and thank you very much for having me on.
00:48:21.000 Steve, always an honor in the way you honor the flag and the way you honor our fallen and our veterans.
00:48:25.860 Thank you very much.
00:48:27.640 Steve Stern, one of the best of the best.
00:48:29.280 Thank you, brother.
00:48:31.460 Two things I want to get to before we grow up.
00:48:33.060 Number one is mail-in ballots.
00:48:34.740 Mail-in ballots.
00:48:35.180 By the Union Army, please tell me Lincoln couldn't have been McClellan, although he kind of went that at the end.
00:48:44.520 It was a close vote, Steve, and it was the battles.
00:48:48.980 They needed all the soldiers' votes.
00:48:50.720 Yes, they did, and, I mean, they also needed all the wins that the Jesse Scouts helped with and the Army in Atlanta.
00:48:58.000 But, yeah, the mail-in ballots, this is the first time they come into being.
00:49:00.620 It's 1864 for the election, and they need a way to allow the soldiers who are in the field to vote.
00:49:07.300 Because McClellan thought they were going to vote on his side.
00:49:10.280 That was his army he had built.
00:49:11.700 Those were his boys.
00:49:13.340 They had loved him at the time.
00:49:15.680 Not really.
00:49:16.740 Yeah, but I'm saying what he thought he—
00:49:18.620 What happens is the Democrats in the North, they don't like this at all, and they fight it tooth and nail in the court system.
00:49:26.020 They lose.
00:49:27.100 Mail-in ballots are a thing.
00:49:28.220 And I wrote in The Unvanquished, I uncovered an entire fraud scheme by the Democrats that's really quite interesting.
00:49:36.900 This guy, Orville Wood, from upstate New York, who's just an election official, wants to go to near Fort McHenry, where his soldiers are based, and make sure that they're voting the right way, that their votes count, and it's legitimate.
00:49:50.080 So he gets there, and then he finds out, you know, there's checker—his quote is, there's checker playing with the ballots.
00:49:58.860 And he finds out that almost all of his soldiers are voting for McClellan.
00:50:03.760 I mean, overwhelmingly.
00:50:05.860 And then there's—and then he pretends that he is a McClellan man.
00:50:10.220 And he gets in on the scheme, and they're forging the signatures of the soldiers.
00:50:14.460 They're doing all kinds of things where it's 90 percent McClellan instead of Lincoln.
00:50:19.120 And then they turn over all the evidence to the Army authorities, and they have a court trial.
00:50:24.660 And remarkably, this Confederate sympathizer is literally—admits to the fraud.
00:50:31.780 Unbelievable.
00:50:32.440 And there were tens of thousands that were changed.
00:50:35.820 Mail-in ballots, problem then, bigger problem now.
00:50:39.300 Real quickly, you've just got The Unvanquished.
00:50:41.700 Where do they go to your site to get all your writings, everything?
00:50:44.220 Patrick K. O'Donnell.com, and then at Combat Historian, at Getter, as well as Twitter.
00:50:50.640 It's at the front of the store at Barnes & Noble.
00:50:52.520 It's on Amazon.
00:50:53.360 It's the book of the month for Amazon.
00:50:55.080 It's a huge—
00:50:55.400 It's a huge—
00:50:55.420 Best bestseller.
00:50:56.100 It's a massive bestseller because it's a fabulous book and it's all—
00:50:59.260 So there's all the reviews are up there on Amazon, too.
00:51:01.420 You can look at the Wall Street Journal.
00:51:01.860 Are you now working on the third—the third volume of the Revolutionary War?
00:51:06.180 I broke my leg in February, and I was like a madman writing my 14th book.
00:51:12.500 I already got a third of it done and turned it in, those chapters, and I'm going back
00:51:16.880 to the Revolutionary War.
00:51:18.220 And that'll be out in a couple of years?
00:51:19.340 It'll be out for the 250th.
00:51:21.200 250th.
00:51:21.680 Yes.
00:51:22.740 I'm very excited about that.
00:51:24.340 President Trump will be the—
00:51:25.240 Who we are as Americans.
00:51:27.820 Thanks.
00:51:28.820 Thank you.
00:51:29.160 Love doing it.
00:51:29.840 Love doing it.
00:51:30.440 Thank you.
00:51:31.200 Fourth of July still.
00:51:32.380 We've got Veterans Day and the combat history of Christmas.
00:51:37.280 We're going to leave you with this very powerful song.
00:51:39.860 Make sure you remember throughout the rest of the day what Memorial Day is about.
00:51:44.580 It's not just the kickoff of summer.
00:51:46.280 We did a little bit of that on Saturday on our weekend special, right?
00:51:50.960 It's obviously the kickoff for a summer.
00:51:54.120 But this day is very—the highest holy day in American civic religion, Memorial Day.
00:52:00.760 May 19, 2024.
00:52:03.340 We'll see you here.
00:52:05.060 Go out with this song, and we'll see you back.
00:52:08.120 We're going to have a replay today.
00:52:09.380 We'll always take the rest of Memorial Day off.
00:52:11.780 We'll be back here at 10 a.m.
00:52:13.900 Eastern Daylight Time.
00:52:15.100 You'll be back in the world tomorrow morning.
00:52:16.540 Oh, my God.
00:52:28.860 We'll be back.
00:52:32.400 Oh, my God.
00:52:37.480 Oh, my God.
00:52:40.000 Oh, my God.
00:52:40.720 Oh, my God.
00:52:41.700 They're called debt traps, and that debt trap you're caught in isn't your fault.
00:53:10.420 You didn't cause inflation.
00:53:12.140 You didn't set gas prices or make credit card companies jack up interest rates.
00:53:16.020 The thing is that debt trap is and will destroy your life if you don't get out now.
00:53:22.160 The only company I recommend is Done With Debt because Done With Debt are brilliant about debt relief strategies.
00:53:31.280 First, they stand between you and your bill collectors.
00:53:33.600 Then they negotiate a plan to get you out of debt permanently without bankruptcy and without taking out additional loans.
00:53:42.020 But listen, some of these strategies are time sensitive, so you need to contact Done With Debt right now, like today.
00:53:50.120 This couldn't be easier.
00:53:51.320 Just get a free consultation.
00:53:52.880 Let me repeat, a free consultation.
00:53:55.340 Share what you're dealing with, and they'll explain a strategy to erase your debt faster and easier than you thought possible.
00:54:01.680 Go to donewithdebt.com.
00:54:03.560 That's donewithdebt.com.
00:54:07.260 Donewithdebt.com.
00:54:08.680 These kills nearly 700,000 Americans every year.
00:54:12.880 Yes, heart disease is the number one killer every year, year in and year out.
00:54:16.700 Heart disease builds over time.
00:54:18.700 Hypertension, high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, diabetes, all of it affects our heart.
00:54:24.000 A healthy heart is key to being energetic as we get older.
00:54:27.800 It is never too early to take care of your heart.
00:54:32.700 You see, heart disease sneaks up on us.
00:54:34.740 You can start in your 30s, and when this happens, you're at serious risk by the time you turn 60.
00:54:38.420 If you want to take care of your heart and those you care about, please go to warroomhealth.com.
00:54:45.060 That's warroomhealth.com.
00:54:47.600 All one word, warroomhealth.com.
00:54:50.160 Use the code WARROOM at checkout to save 67% of your first shipment.
00:54:54.440 That's code WARROOM at checkout to save 67%.
00:54:57.960 Do it again.
00:54:59.400 Warroomhealth, all one word, warroomhealth.com.
00:55:02.740 Go there today.
00:55:04.400 If you're going to be part of the posse, you need a strong heart.
00:55:07.280 You need a lion's heart.
00:55:09.040 How we're going to do that is with Salty.
00:55:11.340 Go there.
00:55:11.980 Do it today.
00:55:12.600 Check it out.
00:55:13.040 Go there.