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Pete Kukurba

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When the B-52s dropped their bombs, the whole ground shook. That helped end the siege of Khe Sanh. Pete Kukurba was in that fight and was glad when the unit moved to Quang Tri. Finally, a shower! Next stop was Dong Ha, another place that was almost like R&R after Khe Sanh. (5:37)

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It happened a lot to Pete Kukurba. The higher ups would put the Marines in bad situations and they would have to fight their way out. In one such firefight, despite being wounded in the arm when a bullet hit his machgine gun, he grabbed an M-16 and continued the fight. His action earned him the Bronze Star. (4:21)

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The good news for Pete Kukurba was that he was going to the Bob Hope USO show. The bad news meant that he had a lousy seat. After a quiet assignment guarding a bridge, he wound up at Hill 190. During that fight, a Medevac chopper was hit by an RPG and came down in a fiery crash. The crew got out but the pilot was trapped. Pete did not hesitate. (7:06)

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Pete Kukurba's mom made Christmas nice for him when she sent a small Christmas tree for his bunker. He had been in Vietnam for a year and it was a couple of months later that he got wounded. A new lieutenant who was clueless led his men into an NVA trap. (5:48)

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After getting wounded by a booby trap, Pete Kukurba recovered in Japan and did not return to Vietnam. He was a driver for an officer on Okinawa. Then they sent him on a Med cruise. This was all like a paid vacation after Khe Sanh and Hill 190. (7:02)

Mike Burke

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When Mike Burke was a teenager, he was at a kegger when he observed two 20 year olds ogling the high school girls and messing with the younger boys. It was an epiphany. The military became a clear path forward. (3:52)

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Montana boy Mike Burke stepped off the plane in Georgia and thought he was going to die. The heat and humidity were unbelievable. He was bound for basic training at Fort Benning, where he had a contract for basic and Airborne school. But his sight was set beyond that. (5:49)

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When you get to the Ranger Regiment, you have to prove yourself as a private before you can progress to Ranger School. Mike Burke just happened to catch the eye of the platoon sergeant and was catapulted ahead of others to go for it. (Caution: strong language) (7:46)

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In Ranger School, you can get peer reviewed out by vote of the others in your training unit. In Mike Burke's unit, all the other guys were officers who all knew each other. He was about to get the shaft. (5:12)

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Mike Burke made it through Ranger School and became a member of the Ranger Regiment. His battalion was on a training exercise in Germany when the startling news of the 9/11 attacks reached them. They were ready to ditch the training and go to war but that's not how it went. (8:23)