COMBAT STORIES FROM OTHER

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  Bob Ratonyi +17 Total Videos

  Hungarian Civilian

  On the spur of the moment, Bob Ratonyi sent a transcript to MIT. He'd never heard of it but one of his professors said it was one of the best engineering schools in the world. As a Hungarian refugee in Canada, he was unaware of it's reputation and he surely could not afford it. When he was accepted, he faced a hard choice. (Caution: coarse language.)

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  Michael Boyce - Marines +3 Total Videos

  USMC, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expedition Brigade, 1st-4th Air Wings

  Mr. Boyce discusses working with many Kurds and Iraqi civilians for about a year following the end of the first Gulf War.

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  Bill Pearson - Army +11 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Bill Pearson had been to Vietnam twice and returned unscathed, but the Army wasn't done putting him in danger. He was assigned as an aviation consultant to Iran, advising the Shah's air force on it's supply of American aircraft. The day he arrived, martial law was declared and it wasn't long before there were mobs outside trying to burn down the building. The embassy was no help. Escape seemed impossible.

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  Bob Ratonyi +17 Total Videos

  Hungarian Civilian

  The student led march to the parliament building had been exhilarating for Bob Ratonyi and he got up the next morning to go to his classes but there were no streetcars running. Then he saw two dead Russian soldiers in their vehicle. The peaceful march had turned into the bloody Hungarian Uprising. Part 2 of 4.

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  Robert L. Stewart - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Somewhere along the line, Army test pilot Bob Stewart had filled out an application to NASA and they called him. He went to Houston for a week of testing and an interview as a mission specialist.

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  Kyle Wise - Marines +20 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  His father had told him the Air Force or the Navy would give him the best chance to see the world, but when Kyle Wise saw the poster in front of the Marine recruiter's office, he walked right in.

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  Bob Ratonyi +17 Total Videos

  Hungarian Civilian

  It was a shakedown. Bob Ratonyi saw that he had to go off the trail and around the soldier collecting the money. Along with six others, he was making an attempt to escape communist Hungary after the brutal putdown of the Hungarian Uprising. He stumbled through the dark and found a group of peasants, but they were part of the operation, too. Part 4 of 4

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  In his business career, Geoff Farrell applied a lot of things he learned from the military and from his combat experience. Develop and nurture your people and always expect the unexpected.

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  Robert L. Stewart - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Bob Stewart was walking on air. He just got a call from NASA that he was accepted as a mission specialist on the space shuttle program. He was going to be an astronaut, but first he had one more flight in his capacity as an Army test pilot.

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  LTG (Ret) John Le Moyne - Army +15 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  John Le Moyne never had a bad assignment. That's the way he looked at it, anyway, and it had a lot to do with the excellent leaders he encountered throughout his career. They helped him crack the code on how to win the trust of soldiers.

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  Robert L. Stewart - Army +16 Total Videos

  NASA Astronaut

  Bob Stewart arrived in Houston as the first active Army officer to become a space shuttle mission specialist. After a year of classes, he was given a technical task, develop the shuttle's entry flight control system. The first flight was scheduled for two years out but he had to give management some bad news.

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  LTG (Ret) John Le Moyne - Army +15 Total Videos

  24th Infantry Division

  John Le Moyne had come in to Saudi Arabia leading an advance team. Starting from scratch in the desert, in the summer, huge operating bases were established. The locals were amazed at the way the Americans adapted to the environment. It was during this conflict that many innovations in troop care and comfort were devised.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  After the battle, the men of the 2nd Armored Cavalry did humanitarian work for the Iraqi civilians, then it was time to return to Germany. For Geoff Farrell, a feeling of unreality set in on the flight home. How do you decompress from combat? At least those who fought in this war were not going to experience the humiliation that Vietnam veterans had faced.

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  Robert L. Stewart - Army +16 Total Videos

  NASA Astronaut

  Bob Stewart was more nervous going to Vietnam than he was going into space the first time. You could get maimed in combat but in space you were either A-OK or completely gone. He made two flights on the space shuttle and, along with Bruce McCandless, made the first EVA with the new MMU, the Manned Maneuvering Unit.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  Thermal imaging had been around for a while and Geoff Farrell was very familiar with it. GPS, however, was new and expensive, and no one was familiar with it. Both were integral to the swift victory in Desert Storm. Before his deployment he declined a dose of an experimental drug that was supposed to protect against chemical weapons and he wonders if that drug contributed to Gulf War Syndrome.

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  LTG (Ret) John Le Moyne - Army +15 Total Videos

  Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)

  During Operation Just Cause, John Le Moyne was assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as a liaison officer to other agencies. In this capacity, he was able to observe some high level command operations that were very impressive. It was only a short while after this brief conflict that Saddam Hussein began to make noise in the Middle East.

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  Robert L. Stewart - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  After the Challenger tragedy, NASA mission specialist Bob Stewart returned to the Army where they made him a general. He worked at the Strategic Defense Command, a legacy of Ronald Reagan's SDI program. At some point the Army wanted him in Washington DC, at which point he promoted himself to ski bum.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  He considered it the finest education available. Geoff Farrell went to West Point, where he soaked up all the history and knowledge available there. He was assigned to Europe, where he patrolled the German border as Soviet Communism was dying. There was a brief period of jubilation when the wall came down, then they heard about Saddam Hussein.

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  LTG (Ret) John Le Moyne - Army +15 Total Videos

  Ranger School

  It was lessons learned in Vietnam that John Le Moyne tried to pass on as an instructor in Ranger school. The candidates would soon have the awesome burden of being responsible for the lives of others.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  When the cease fire was declared, American units had not yet reached Baghdad. In his command track, Geoff Farrell had the graphics on his screen to guide him right in, but it was decided we would not go. Looking back to that critical moment, he reflects on the decision.

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  Robert L. Stewart - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Some of his pilot friends were recruited by the airlines but Bob Stewart had other ideas. He became a test pilot. They got the money but he had the fun. He was instrumental in bringing the Apache and Blackhawk helicopters into the Army's fleet of airships.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  They had prepared for the wrong war. Geoff Farrell's armored cavalry unit was going to the desert to confront Saddam Hussein, but their vehicles and uniforms were green and all their training was for fighting in European forests. Once they got to the staging area in Saudi Arabia, they adapted well.

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  Bob Ratonyi +17 Total Videos

  Hungarian Civilian

  His family was not very religious, but they followed all the Jewish traditions and holy days. Bob Ratonyi had barely survived the Holocaust and then he was faced with more oppression of religion when Hungary became a Communist satellite of the USSR.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  For Geoff Farrell, who fought in Desert Storm with the armored cavalry, it was obvious. It was technology and training that ensured victory. We had a lot of it and the Iraqis had very little. Our weapons had a longer range and, when a sandstorm came up in the middle of a battle, we had GPS and thermal imaging.

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  Bob Ratonyi +17 Total Videos

  Hungarian Civilian

  It began as a simple student march in Budapest permitted by the communist government. Overnight, it became a bloody uprising. Bob Ratonyi was an eighteen year old freshman who was swept up in the moment. It began a course of events that would lead to a brutal crackdown and to his eventual escape to the West. Part 1 of 4.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  Lt. Geoff Farrell was sleeping in the command track when he heard it on the radio. We were at war with Iraq. His armored cavalry unit crossed from Saudi Arabia into Iraq where they were greeted by friendly children in the middle of nowhere.

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  Bob Ratonyi +17 Total Videos

  Hungarian Civilian

  It was near anarchy in Budapest following the fall of the Nazis. Many were starving surrounded by rubble. Bob Ratonyi was overjoyed when his mother returned from a labor camp but then he watched as communists turned Hungary into a Stalinist dictatorship.

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  Bill Greinke - Army +18 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  The Berlin Wall was not the same everywhere. Bill Greinke had to keep tabs on the condition of the wall and any changes made. He describes different sections, from the fancy to the sloppy.

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  Geoff Farrell - Army +8 Total Videos

  2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

  The rumor was that the Iraqi's Soviet made tanks were superior to ours. Geoff Farrell had this on his mind while rolling across the desert to engage them. Just as they got near, a sandstorm came up. Then the Iraqi artillery began to fall. Then the first Iraqi tank was destroyed, shattering the myth.

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  Bob Ratonyi +17 Total Videos

  Hungarian Civilian

  For Bob Ratonyi, living in communist Hungary meant only one inevitable outcome, moral decay. When you have to lie, cheat and steal, just to have a decent life, it begins to affect your soul. Still, there were true believers in the utopian fantasy.