āSomeone Has to Go Firstāļ¼ Glenn Beckās Inspiring Speech from the USS Midway
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
2
sentences flagged
Toxicity
8
sentences flagged
Hate speech
19
sentences flagged
Summary
Glenn explains why being prepared isn t paranoia, it s love. He also talks about the power of being a mother and how important it is to have a good relationship with your mother. Glenn is a comedian, actor, writer, and public speaker. He is the host of the Mobs for Liberty podcast and is a regular contributor to the New York Times and CNN.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
I think about providence often these days, the idea that we're stewards of our families, our communities, our own safety.
00:00:08.160
It's woven into the fabric of who we are as Americans.
00:00:12.140
It's called BURNA, B-Y-R-N-A, and it's changed how I think about personal protection.
0.92
00:00:18.120
Most people assume self-defense is complicated, that you need training, licensing, you know, government approval.
00:00:27.000
Because your right to protect your family shouldn't require anyone's permission.
00:00:34.220
That's real distance that gives you time to think, to move, to get your family safe.
00:00:38.800
It's simple enough that anyone can use it, anyone.
00:00:41.560
And it's built in Fort Wayne, Indiana, right here in America, in American hands, American craftsmanship.
00:00:46.960
And that matters to me, and I think it matters to you.
00:00:50.420
I'm here to tell you being prepared isn't paranoia.
00:00:53.600
It's what we do for the people that you'd do anything for.
00:01:08.320
I want to thank the city of San Diego for giving us a time limit so I can now follow the big finale.
00:01:18.080
California, it makes more sense every day, doesn't it?
00:01:25.020
I was backstage trying furiously to edit my speech.
00:01:30.460
All the printers are busy just printing up new ballots
00:01:53.080
I said in 2008 or 2009, I was on the air and I said,
00:01:56.980
you know, there's going to be two groups of people that save the world
00:02:04.240
Although I am pulling for the alcoholics at this point.
00:02:06.760
But, and mothers, because how do you argue with a mom?
0.99
00:02:13.160
They've found a way to do it, but not very effectively.
1.00
00:02:19.260
We get so much from our mothers. We learn our values and our principles from our mothers.
00:02:28.100
Mothers have played a huge role in all of history, and they are playing a huge role again.
00:02:35.680
And, Tina, thank you for you and your organization.
00:02:42.080
I love history. Somebody asked me ā this is probably the number one question people ask me about history.
00:02:47.600
Have you always loved history? No, no, actually no. Bored to tears with history as a kid.
00:02:56.560
I love history because of David Barton. David Barton showed me history, and when I said that
00:03:04.980
can't be true, he pulled out the document and said, well, you can argue with me, but
00:03:09.020
here it is in their own handwriting. And I started to learn stories of history,
00:03:14.820
And I started learning the men, not just memorizing the names and the dates of history.
00:03:22.700
So, David, thank you sincerely and wall builders for everything that you do.
00:03:29.820
I want you to close your eyes here for just a second.
00:03:35.760
And I want you to imagine that you are on a ship in the Pacific.
00:03:47.340
You're on a ship in the middle of the Pacific, and it's 1859.
00:03:52.960
And it's endless and isolating, a little bit terrifying,
00:03:58.880
and it's an expanse of blue water that just seems to go on and on and on.
00:04:04.900
And you are thousands of miles in any direction away from any kind of civilization.
00:04:10.280
And then, suddenly, you spot out on the horizon what appears to be an island.
00:04:33.720
This island has something moving on it as you get closer.
00:04:38.840
And you realize they're birds, they're albatross.
00:05:03.380
and he sees the albatross on this just bleak island.
00:05:10.380
And the reason why he thinks this is a great find
1.00
00:05:18.140
And in 1859, we were having a shortage of fertilizer.
0.99
00:05:26.760
he thought, I claim it in the name of the United States of America.
00:05:33.380
And they named that island, those three islands, Midway, because it was midway between California and Asia.
00:05:46.060
Nobody could have known at that time that some seal hunting captain would find an island full of crap and that island would change the course of the world.
00:06:03.380
60 years after, nothing happened except birds pooping and removing it and putting it on our corn.
00:06:19.640
Don't I tell history in just a really very scientific way.
00:06:35.420
But now growing tension is happening with the Japanese,
1.00
00:06:38.080
and so we decide we need to take that two-and-a-half square island
0.97
00:06:51.980
We need to have a seaplane base there at Midway in between Asia and California.
0.98
00:06:59.340
A few months after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, the Navy codebreakers, they realize they're coming for our bird crap.
0.99
00:07:14.780
And they find out that they're attacking, they're going to take Midway from the United States.
0.98
00:07:21.140
And so Admiral Nimitz sent three aircraft carriers out, the only three that the U.S. had left in the Pacific, and it was going to surprise them at Midway.
00:07:35.500
So now it's 1942. It's early in the morning. It's in June, June 4th.
00:07:43.180
108 aircraft from Japanese carriers attacked the base at Midway.
00:07:49.220
heavy damage, except on the runways. So I don't know what they killed or what they did, but
00:07:55.940
they missed the runways. Good for us. Meanwhile, on our side, the carriers, the Enterprise,
00:08:03.220
the Hornet, and the Yorktown send 41 torpedo bombers. What people don't realize is how good
00:08:11.340
we are right now, how accurate we can be, and what war used to be like.
00:08:24.040
They are low-flying, they are lumbering, and they don't have any protection.
00:08:33.920
And they are supposed to go out and take out the Japanese aircraft carriers.
00:08:40.220
The night before, John Waldron, he's 41 years old, he's the commander of the Hornet Squadron.
00:08:55.100
And he said this, my greatest hope, men, is that we encounter a favorable tactical situation.
00:09:01.680
But if we don't, and worse comes to worse, I want each one of us to do his utmost to
00:09:09.540
If there is only one plane left to make that final run in, I want you to be that man, to
00:09:22.940
May God bless all of us, good luck, happy landings, and give them hell.
0.95
00:09:31.360
The next morning, they found themselves right before they took off being served steak and
00:09:42.160
And all of the pilots looked at each other and said, we're condemned men.
00:09:47.240
Thirty-five out of those 41 planes were shot out of the sky.
00:10:01.220
Some of them had enough fuel to turn around and try to get back to the aircraft carrier.
00:10:08.700
Most of those had to ditch in the middle of the ocean, shark-infested waters.
00:10:15.980
Thirty-three of the 41 pilots of the first wave were killed, including the commanding
00:10:25.400
As they were then mopping up, the Japanese were mopping up what was left, and we were
00:10:39.340
These dive bombers had come from three other U.S. carriers.
00:10:43.740
And they all left at different times, and they all came from different routes.
00:10:52.120
Each group was on a separate mission to attack and search for those Japanese carriers.
00:10:59.140
And suddenly, they all came to one place, and just beneath them were the Japanese carriers.
00:11:11.360
When the Battle of Midway was over, Japan had lost four aircraft carriers, 275 planes,
00:11:19.240
and 3,000 men, including almost all of their most experienced pilots.
00:11:25.820
The Americans had lost one carrier, 132 planes, and 307 men.
00:11:41.940
One Japanese officer who saw it, he said, because they were describing this as all of
00:11:47.460
these planes. Remember, there are these beautiful silver planes in the sky. He said it looked like
00:11:53.740
a silver waterfall. He said he saw all these planes up above and suddenly they started to
00:11:59.900
dive down one after another. And it was as if it was a waterfall coming down to the carriers.
00:12:06.360
He said the American dive bomber success was only made possible by the earlier martyrdom
00:12:38.840
and the trust that I have placed in some people
00:12:54.600
and that's why I started realestateagentsitrust.com.
00:13:02.460
to introduce you to one of the thousands of agents
00:13:10.280
have the most successful and good real estate transaction possible. Our network agents share
00:13:16.280
our sensibilities, have great track records, are good and decent people, and I trust them to help
00:13:22.040
you with your real estate needs. So whether you're moving across town or across the country,
00:13:26.160
visit realestateagentsitrust.com. The name says it all, realestateagentsitrust.com.
00:13:32.200
The first group of people we should remember and salute tonight are the 41 American pilots
00:13:43.020
that had to ditch their plane and didn't hit anything.
00:13:50.620
Also today, June 6th, 82nd anniversary of D-Day.
00:13:55.740
I want to talk to you a little bit about D-Day.
00:13:58.760
160,000 Allied troops, 5,000 ships, 13,000 aircraft, 9,000 Allied troops killed or wounded on D-Day.
00:14:12.520
Largest operation, amphibious operation in the history of the world.
00:14:24.080
My father tried to join right after World War II.
00:14:27.800
he had flat feet. And then I met my wife, Tanya. And her family is Italian. Very Italian.
00:14:44.660
And I was sitting at a wedding. I was dating my wife for probably about six months.
00:14:54.360
and her uncle leo who is like right off the boat italian um used to call me michelangelo
00:15:03.240
every time i'd see him he'd be at the house and i'd come over and he'd i'd walk in and he'd say
00:15:10.940
michelangelo six months into it i said uncle leo why do you call me a michelangelo and he said
00:15:32.240
So we're at this wedding, and it's me and Uncle Leo.
00:15:45.860
how did you get here? He said, I was born in America, lived in America till I was two.
00:15:56.540
He said, then the family moved back and they lived in Italy.
00:16:02.900
And then the war came and the family, they were afraid, would be completely wiped out.
00:16:09.400
and so somebody had to keep the family going and i was the only american
00:16:15.260
so i went to america he was 18 or 19 years old went all by himself
00:16:20.800
i said oh yeah so did you experience mussolini and he said mussolini a good man i said keep it
00:16:30.800
But when he got to America, he joined the military.
00:16:41.660
But because he was right literally off the boat, they thought he was a spy.
00:16:47.860
So he was one of the first people, whenever there was danger, his commanding officer said,
00:16:59.080
He was one of the first people on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
00:17:05.120
He told me a harrowing story of courage of not just him, but all of those around him.
00:17:18.020
Telling me exactly what it was like on the beaches on that day, running for the cliff, trying to stay alive.
00:17:24.760
seeing all of your friends his best friend couldn't swim they had these huge backpacks on
00:17:31.640
they were ill designed and they actually floated and forced when they would float
00:17:37.500
it forced you face down not face up all the way over his friend kept saying i can't swim i can't
00:17:47.320
swim. I can't swim. Didn't matter. When the gate came down, he and Uncle Leo got off the ship
00:17:56.080
and his friend went down and never came back up. Somebody has to go first.
00:18:09.360
I don't know how many of us have seen the D-Day Memorial. I don't know how many people even know
00:18:15.320
where the D-Day Memorial is, but it's tucked away in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
00:18:22.400
Why would it be there? It's there in a small town in Virginia called Bedford.
00:18:30.260
It's located there because the town of Bedford, in proportion of the population,
00:18:38.900
no community lost more people than Bedford, Virginia on D-Day.
00:18:45.320
it lost dozens of people. If you saw Saving Private Ryan, that was Company A. Company
00:18:57.500
A was from Bedford. There were 34 men that went. Out of the 34 men that landed on Omaha
00:19:08.020
Beach that day, 23 of them died on the very first wave of attacks. Six weeks after D-Day,
00:19:18.120
the young telegraph operator at Green's Pharmacy in Bedford was overwhelmed at the news. She's
00:19:31.220
there in the pharmacy and she also works the telegraph and the telegraph kept going off
00:19:38.740
and it was the deaths one after another of all the people in her town that she knew there were
00:19:45.940
so many telegraphs that were coming in she couldn't deliver them and so she asked the customers that
00:19:52.980
were in the store this one is for this family you live right by them can you deliver this
00:19:59.060
this one is for this family and the whole town delivered the news name after name
00:20:07.380
all of the people in the soda shop in bedford among those that were killed in action from bedford
00:20:14.900
were um bedford the name and raymond hoback they were brothers um bedford was the older brother
00:20:24.420
kind of rambunctious. He had a fiance that was home waiting for him to come home. Raymond was
00:20:31.400
the quiet one. He was more disciplined, and he was the one that could usually be found quietly
00:20:37.920
reading his Bible at home. He had just fallen in love with a British woman that he had met
00:20:43.400
before D-Day. They were planning on getting married. High prices are here to stay. Gas,
00:20:50.160
groceries, insurance, and if you're a homeowner, you've probably thought, should I call American
00:20:54.060
financing to refinance and pay off this credit card debt? And then you second guess yourself
00:20:58.340
because of your current low mortgage rate. Listen, that low rate, it's not saving you if
00:21:02.860
you're drowning in credit card interest at 25% or more. That's the math nobody wants to face.
00:21:07.880
But it's costing you thousands. And here's the truth. If you're only making minimum payments,
00:21:12.400
that debt will follow you for years. That's why people are calling American Financing because
00:21:16.620
they're saving customers an average of $800 a month by using their equity to finally break
00:21:21.660
free from credit card debt. You owe it to your family to see what's possible. No upfront fees,
00:21:26.780
no pressure, and it costs you nothing to find out if you could save something big every month.
00:21:30.840
And if you start today, you may be able to delay up to two mortgage payments. So call
00:21:34.740
American Financing, 800-906-2440. That's 800-906-2440 or visit AmericanFinancing.net.
00:21:42.660
NMLS 182334, NMLSConsumerAccess.org. APR for rates on the 5 starts at 6.327%
00:21:48.980
Call 800-906-2440 for details about credit costs and terms.
00:21:53.500
Average savings based on borrowers who save over $200.
00:21:57.140
Bedford and Raymond barely made it out of the ramp,
00:22:01.380
as a swarm of bullets came and cut through them.
00:22:05.660
There was also Ray Stevens and his twin brother, Roy.
00:22:26.900
He fought for several weeks in northern France until shrapnel from a landmine took out his shoulder, parts of his jaw, parts of his neck.
00:22:37.020
He lived, but he carried the wounds and the scars with him the rest of his life.
0.72
00:22:43.720
But his greatest loss with his brother, Ray, like the Hoback brothers, Ray never made it off of Omaha Beach that day.
00:22:52.420
Bedford and Raymond Hoback's mother, Macy, learned about her son's death, the first one on a Sunday, and the next son the next day.
00:23:04.580
Their younger sister, Louise, or Lucille, I'm sorry, said mom was devastated and dad just went out to the barn because he didn't want to see, he didn't want anybody to see him cry.
00:23:21.540
These are the people that we celebrate and we forget about all too often.
00:23:29.340
Without those 41 torpedo bombers, there's no perfect timing.
00:23:37.700
But without those 41 bombers at Midway, we lose to the Japanese.
0.99
00:23:44.140
Without the Higgins boats and all of those men from Bedford that died, we don't march
0.98
00:24:40.180
But God surely was not a foreign concept at the time.
00:24:55.740
He makes the watch, sets the time, and then puts it away and never looks at it again and is completely uninvolved.
00:25:04.360
Every one of our founders talked about the miracles that they saw.
00:25:09.000
You don't believe in miracles if you're a deist.
00:25:13.720
You only believe in miracles if you believe the truth that God is God, God is active then, now, and in the future.
00:25:25.740
The day after D-Day, a soldier from West Virginia, not from Bedford, but from West
00:25:40.100
Virginia, was walking along Omaha Beach, and he saw something jutting out of the sand.
00:25:55.740
It was stuck in the sand. He reached down to pick it up. It clearly didn't save this soldier's life. It apparently had fallen out of his backpack as he fell.
00:26:11.080
The inside cover said, Raymond S. Hoback, from Mom, Christmas 1938.
00:26:24.180
He wrote a letter and took the Bible, he packaged it up, and he sent it to Raymond's mom in Bedford, Macy.
00:26:36.200
It was her most cherished possession and the only personal belonging that she ever got back from her son.
00:26:51.060
But here we are in a different time and a different age.
00:26:54.180
And in this black hole of globalized technology, atheism seems to be thriving right now.
00:27:02.680
Or worse yet, maybe you do believe in something, but it is the ultimate darkness.
00:27:12.680
We are now more connected than man has ever been connected before.
00:27:22.680
things. We need to be plugged into something much, much bigger than our internet, our devices.
00:27:35.420
We need to plug in to God. So how do we honor the men of D-Day and Midway and those like them
00:27:50.620
and those ships now just across the water from us.
00:28:11.980
It is a commandment to us over and over and over again.
00:28:16.440
And he instructs us from Adam and Eve all the way along to construct an altar, to build a monument, to remember.
00:28:30.980
We live in a society now that's tearing down our monuments, tearing down our statues, tearing down the things that help us remember.
00:28:41.320
And if we don't remember, and we don't remember the stories, we forget who we are, where we came from, and where we're going.
00:28:53.200
By remembering, we become better citizens, better people, and we can be the caretakers of freedom.
00:29:11.320
I don't know about you, but I went back to say thank you to the two guys that unfolded
00:29:21.440
Coe, the older gentleman, the shorter gentleman, was truly remarkable.
00:29:50.460
We were just at Ellis Island with a Statue of Liberty and everybody was talking about
00:29:56.200
It's time that we start talking about our responsibilities.
00:30:01.180
Right now, we are the first time in human history can actually be entertained every
00:30:06.120
waking hour of our life. There was a book out in the 1980s, Amusing Ourselves to Death.
00:30:15.080
He was worried about television. Look at what we're facing now. What has technology done to us?
00:30:23.560
It has made it very hard for us to look at our responsibilities, to look at sacrifice.
00:30:34.960
It can all be better, even though I'm not going to work for it and I'm not willing
00:30:48.140
He wrote to his family after they lost their house, their belongings, we all have to be
00:30:52.500
content to suffer the loss of all things in this life rather than tamely surrender the
00:31:05.600
How many of us remember, how many of us remember what we're even living in today and the value
00:31:17.020
The things that we see, the things that we're able to accomplish, the God we can praise
00:31:26.660
For the first time in human history, men live like they've never lived before.
00:31:44.620
Remember those who have sacrificed so we can say, meh.
00:31:49.160
for more than 12 years patriot mobile has been living their values and standing for
00:31:55.680
every american who believes freedom is worth fighting for they were founded with a simple
00:32:00.080
conviction if culture is being shaped through commerce americans deserve a real conservative
00:32:05.140
alternative patriot mobile is america's only christian conservative wireless provider offering
00:32:10.160
premium priority nationwide service on three major u.s networks with unlimited data plans
00:32:15.660
international roaming, and 100% U.S.-based customer support.
00:32:19.320
You can even have two separate networks on one phone,
00:32:22.040
giving you unmatched coverage that you can't get with other carriers.
00:32:25.460
And what truly sets Patriot Mobile apart is their mission.
00:32:28.200
Patriot Mobile contributes millions yearly to organizations defending free speech,
00:32:32.940
religious liberty, and the sanctity of life, the Second Amendment, and America's future.
00:32:37.040
Patriot Mobile is not sitting on the sidelines.
00:32:41.400
Go to PatriotMobile.com slash Beck or call 972-PATRIOT.
00:32:44.640
Use the promo code BECK, get a free month of service.
00:32:47.120
It's patriotmobile.com slash BECK or call 972-PATRIOT.
00:32:54.040
Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, he gave us his marching orders, our marching orders today.
00:33:00.540
It is rather for us here to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us,
00:33:05.200
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion,
00:33:12.660
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain,
00:33:20.120
that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom,
00:33:23.920
and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
00:33:31.280
This, he said in the 1800s, this I beg of you today.
00:33:43.200
Let us be the first to remember and honor the past.
00:33:46.400
Let us resolve to prepare the next generation for the future just ahead.
00:33:53.200
A future that is brighter than today, is better than today, is more glorious than today.
00:34:01.880
We're only defeated when we believe we're defeated.
00:34:05.360
We're only defeated when we can't see a better chapter that is about to be written by Americans who will once again change the world.
00:34:36.240
as the country that is, was, and will be again tomorrow