The Ben Shapiro Show - June 25, 2026


He Earned The Medal of Honor. Here’s What He Wants Americans To Know.

Hosted by
Ben Shapiro
Mentioned
Pure Talk Clint Romache Peer Talk Chuck Norris Mark
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Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

204.38

Word count

2,473

Sentence count

152

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Clint Romache is a former Army Staff Sergeant, combat veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, and serves as a board member for America s Warrior Partnership, working with Pure Talk to support the veteran community. In this episode, Clint shares his story of how he became a hero in the military, and how he continues to advocate for veterans.

Transcript

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Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 There's no better way to celebrate America's 250th than to take some time to thank and appreciate our veterans.
00:00:05.000 Joining me on the line is Clint Romache.
00:00:06.000 He's a former Army Staff Sergeant, Combat Veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, and Pure Talk brand ambassador.
00:00:12.000 And today he continues to advocate for veterans and serves as a board member for America's Warrior Partnership, working with Pure Talk to support the veteran community.
00:00:20.000 Clint, thanks so much for taking the time.
00:00:21.000 Really appreciate it.
00:00:23.000 Oh, Ben, thank you so much for having me today.
00:00:25.000 So obviously you were awarded the Medal of Honor.
00:00:28.000 There's no higher honor in the United States.
00:00:30.000 Tell that story.
00:00:32.000 You know, being called a hero is always kind of an interesting thing, Ben, because for me, like, true heroes are those that don't come home.
00:00:40.000 We lost eight great men that day.
00:00:41.000 And to give a quick snapshot, it's 2009, Afghanistan.
00:00:47.000 We're at a combat outpost feeding 50 Americans, two Latvians.
00:00:51.000 Six o'clock in the morning, we get hit with 300 Taliban fighters.
00:00:54.000 Odds are not in our favor.
00:00:56.000 What ensues out of that is a 15 hour firefight.
00:00:59.000 Again, like I said, we ended up losing eight amazing men.
00:01:03.000 But yet, it's kind of weird when you kind of go through combat, how much love you see for your fellow soldiers to your left and right as kind of the dust settled on that outpost because it's set in such a vulnerable spot.
00:01:16.000 The military deemed it an indefensible position, but I can tell you this I got to watch 50 Americans defend the indefensible.
00:01:22.000 And it wasn't because of politics or any of that, it's because they loved each other so much and the enemy hated us.
00:01:28.000 And it was that love overcoming and knowing you have someone to have your back thick and thin when you have a uniform on.
00:01:34.000 And more importantly, when you take the uniform off, you still have.
00:01:37.000 Those that are always going to have your back.
00:01:41.000 So, you know, your specific actions obviously ended with you being awarded the Medal of Honor.
00:01:46.000 What was that day like for you on a specific level?
00:01:49.000 You know, for me, it was, it kind of sounds weird, Ben, when I say this.
00:01:53.000 It felt like the first day I did my job in the military.
00:01:56.000 You know, we always, growing up, you know, you think I grew up, my dad was a Vietnam vet, my granddad in World War II.
00:02:04.000 I grew up in the 80s.
00:02:05.000 You think of war heroes and stuff as Chuck Norris and all these combat action videos.
00:02:10.000 But it was really a sense of just doing your job.
00:02:12.000 And for that day, it felt like I got to do it.
00:02:15.000 And it was leading guys, you know, at one point the enemy had breached our perimeter, was inside our wire.
00:02:22.000 We knew that there were guys that were cut off, isolated.
00:02:25.000 We had no idea if they were alive or dead.
00:02:27.000 And the big fear became, you know, thinking about coming back home and having to tell a Gold Star family, didn't bring your son home.
00:02:35.000 So initially it was leading a group of guys to go counterattack the enemy that had us outnumbered, had us outgunned.
00:02:42.000 Pushing them off our ammo supply points so we could continue to fight because we were running out of ammo, shut the front gate so they couldn't just keep pushing in on us and then go into recover those followed heroes so the enemy couldn't get them.
00:02:55.000 It was kind of one of those surreal things where you're kind of just living life by the moment, but you also understand that, you know, we don't need to win this here now.
00:03:05.000 We just need to take those steps.
00:03:06.000 And that's really what it was for me that day was to break it down.
00:03:09.000 Here's the first thing we need to do.
00:03:10.000 If we can accomplish that, we can take our next step.
00:03:12.000 And like I said, that was initially.
00:03:14.000 Getting guys to believe in me to follow me when I asked them to basically go on a what was potentially going to be a one way mission of counterattacking an enemy that had us outgunned eight to one odds.
00:03:25.000 Um, that had us you know out, out, you know, just out manned, out situated, out maneuvered.
00:03:32.000 They had the high ground, there was no place you could be outside where you weren't exposed, but they trusted enough in me to follow.
00:03:39.000 Um, and I was just so proud to be along their sides to be able to provide that support.
00:03:44.000 Um, again.
00:03:46.000 Just goes back that that's what I think we do as Americans so often.
00:03:50.000 We don't realize the potential we have.
00:03:52.000 And it does take kind of some of these over the top things to really unlock that and challenge us.
00:03:58.000 And we just continue to see it time and time again.
00:04:00.000 What impressed me was the 18, 19 year old kids, guys like Copas, 19 years old.
00:04:05.000 He was the only gun left in the fight on our defensive perimeter.
00:04:08.000 He sent them a Humvee for 15 hours, most of the time by himself, holding the whole eastern side of the camp on lock with his Mark 19.
00:04:16.000 No one would have blamed him for saying, hey, I need to displace and abandon this position.
00:04:20.000 But that kid did it that day.
00:04:22.000 So proud of him.
00:04:23.000 And now he's a guidance counselor out in Cleveland, Ohio for a high school.
00:04:27.000 Like what he's done afterlife has been amazing.
00:04:30.000 Every generation of Americans inherits something precious.
00:04:33.000 The freedoms we enjoy, the opportunities we pursue.
00:04:35.000 Those things were preserved by people willing to sacrifice on behalf of others.
00:04:38.000 Men and women who put on a uniform and answered the call when their country needed them.
00:04:41.000 As America approaches its 250th birthday, that's worth remembering.
00:04:45.000 It's also why Pure Talk is partnering with America's Warrior Partnership to raise $250,000 for veterans by the end of July.
00:04:51.000 America's Warrior Partnership is on the front lines of preventing veterans suicide by helping veterans access housing, transportation, counseling, VA benefits, and other essential services.
00:04:59.000 They focus on practical support that helps veterans build Stable, successful lives after service.
00:05:04.000 This month, you can help.
00:05:05.000 When you switch your cell phone service to Pure Talk, you'll have the opportunity to round up your bill in support of America's Warrior Partnership.
00:05:11.000 Pure Talk will match donations until they reach $250,000.
00:05:14.000 So, you'll be supporting veterans while getting unlimited talk, unlimited text, and unlimited high speed data for just $34.99 a month, a fraction of what the major carriers charge.
00:05:23.000 As we celebrate 250 years of American freedom, let's make sure we're standing behind the people who helped defend it.
00:05:28.000 Go to puretalk.comslash Shapiro to make the switch over to Pure Talk.
00:05:31.000 Again, that's puretalk.comslash Shapiro to switch to my wireless company, America's wireless company.
00:05:36.000 Pure talk.
00:05:37.000 Patriotism isn't just something you feel on the 4th of July.
00:05:39.000 It's how you choose to support the people who've served this country when they come home.
00:05:42.000 You can help out by joining Pure Talk.
00:05:44.000 So let's talk about that transition back to civilian life.
00:05:48.000 So, obviously, we hear all the time about how difficult it is for a lot of veterans to transition back to civilian life, being from the firefight back into what we would normally consider normal life.
00:05:59.000 How does that transition go?
00:06:01.000 And how is it that America's Warrior Partnership helps out?
00:06:05.000 You know, each veteran, um, You know, we look at them kind of overall as a mass, you know, and we understand they have certain difficulties, but really it comes down to 1v1.
00:06:15.000 Each veteran has their own unique experience.
00:06:18.000 And as you make that transition, one of the biggest things we've noticed is just that, that lent, uh, that loss of kind of self-identity.
00:06:25.000 You're part of something bigger and then all of a sudden you're out.
00:06:27.000 Um, the guys, like I can still tell you to this day what Raz's feet smell like. 0.92
00:06:31.000 They're freaking ranch corn nuts.
00:06:33.000 Like you're so embedded with these guys and you know them so deeply. 0.84
00:06:36.000 And then when you take that uniform off the next day, they're gone.
00:06:39.000 They're half a country away.
00:06:41.000 And losing that kind of sense of identity and connection really kind of makes it hard for veterans to kind of trust to going out and experiencing something that many of them haven't done.
00:06:53.000 That's the one thing in the military as a leader that you're trying to tell your soldiers what to do.
00:06:58.000 Because leaders always lead from example, lead from the front.
00:07:01.000 But that's the first thing you do as a leader in the military that you've never done, that you're trying to lead your guys' advice on.
00:07:08.000 And so when a lot of them get out into the civilian world, Most of the time, they just don't know what they don't know.
00:07:13.000 And that's where America, where a partnership steps in.
00:07:16.000 And we've understood like there's so many great nonprofit veterans out there that specialize in certain things.
00:07:22.000 We don't need to reinvent the wheel, but we need to know these veterans and we need to plug them in with those, you know, those opportunities, those earned benefits, help them navigate the VA, help them write resumes, help them find proper employment, not just hiring veterans to hire veterans.
00:07:39.000 That's one of our great initiatives if you know a vet, tell a vet.
00:07:43.000 There's what almost 16 million veterans out in the US.
00:07:48.000 We need to know all of them because each and every one of them are very unique and the challenges they face.
00:07:56.000 Yeah, when it comes to you personally and reintegrating into civilian life, obviously a lot of people struggle to find a purpose after experiencing what for a lot of folks would be sort of the height of camaraderie and the height of sort of visceral experience of life.
00:08:11.000 How did you find purpose coming back?
00:08:14.000 For me, it was, you know, I got up to North Dakota, I started getting work in the oil fields.
00:08:19.000 And for me, I'd understood that even though my time in the military was precious and I Will never, you know, never have that taken away from me.
00:08:28.000 That's not who I was going to always have to be.
00:08:31.000 And I had the mentality that when I got out, the only thing I was ever owed was the opportunity to prove myself.
00:08:37.000 And I knew I had to start from somewhere and just prove it.
00:08:40.000 And like I said, I didn't know what I was actually going to be doing in the oil fields.
00:08:43.000 And I went from little man on the totem pole to managing eight hydro excavator trucks, learning how to be a safety guy.
00:08:50.000 But it was those tools the military gave me that so many veterans bring to the table.
00:08:54.000 We just don't know how to convey that, how we can convey, Hey, we've got initiative in the absence of orders.
00:08:59.000 You know, we, we know what wrong looks like and we can confront it.
00:09:03.000 We have tact to be able to talk to various different, you know, people from around America.
00:09:09.000 Um, those are those soft skills that you kind of take for granted getting out of the military and the breakdown of communication.
00:09:15.000 That's what was hard for me.
00:09:16.000 I was thinking to myself, my first job, it's like, okay, I'm a reconnaissance guy.
00:09:20.000 Who's going to hire someone that can throw 60 pounds on their back, run up and down mountains, shoot a weapon?
00:09:26.000 Um, I could be maybe a mall security cop at best.
00:09:29.000 But it was really those small things the attention to detail, rules and regulations, enforcing standards, being a team player.
00:09:36.000 Those are what got me through.
00:09:39.000 And more importantly, it was two other veterans I worked with that mentored me in my journey because they had been through it.
00:09:45.000 And that was a critical thing.
00:09:46.000 That's what helped me.
00:09:50.000 So, yeah, obviously, Pure Talk is partnered with America's Warrior Partnership in order to help veterans.
00:09:55.000 Maybe you can talk a little bit about what that partnership looks like and why it's so important for people to support it.
00:10:00.000 You know, Pure Talk's been an amazing partner with America's Warrior Partnership.
00:10:05.000 The roundup that they've been doing with their customers.
00:10:07.000 I mean, so many Americans always come up and, you know, want to thank you for your service.
00:10:13.000 And they, you know, I didn't serve, but felt like I should do more.
00:10:16.000 Well, service to the country doesn't have to come from wearing the uniform, it comes from showing up and doing what you can.
00:10:21.000 And I think to date, right now, just what the roundup of the customers from Pure Talk have been doing has raised almost $750,000 for America's Warrior Partnership.
00:10:31.000 It's been amazing.
00:10:33.000 One of the other great things that has come out of the partnership with Peer Talk and AWP is one of our initiatives known as Deeds Not Words.
00:10:41.000 So there are so many veteran nonprofits out there.
00:10:43.000 There are a lot of resources available for veterans, but there are always those one offs that they come against the challenge and there's nothing to really fill the gap.
00:10:53.000 One example, real quick, was we had a veteran that had got into a new work opportunity, was trying to pursue that, and he needed $300 to buy the tools to get to his new job.
00:11:04.000 So he's trying to come off his disability, trying to Improve himself.
00:11:08.000 He didn't have the $300 for these tools to work this new job that was going to lift him up.
00:11:12.000 And Deeds Not Words stepped in.
00:11:14.000 And it's great to see those Americans that will step in, like Peer Talk and the military leadership that they come out of, to say, hey, sometimes we need to do something, not just talk about doing it.
00:11:28.000 Like, let's make action when others talk about action.
00:11:32.000 And that partnership between Peer Talk, America Warrior Partnership, and all of those that are supporting it has been just hands down so amazing.
00:11:42.000 Well, Clint Romache, former Army Staff Sergeant and a Medal of Honor recipient, thank you so much for your time.
00:11:47.000 And obviously, thanks so much for your service and everything you continue to do for America's warriors today.
00:11:52.000 Really appreciate it.
00:11:54.000 Thank you so much, Ben.
00:11:56.000 What an amazing video you just watched.
00:11:58.000 Wasn't that amazing?
00:11:59.000 Well, you know, if you think so, head on over to dailywire.comslash subscribe to watch the full show ad free or check out this crazy story here.