At first, I was offended that Evan didn't stand and salute...but then I realized that in the presence of the MOH he was fully hard and didn't want the video to get flagged and removed from youtube. Thank you Evan.
It's like when your best friend is awarded the highest honor in valor. Earl is a cool guy anyone would want to have a beer with. Thank you for your service Earl
Earl has one of the most intense combat stories I’ve ever heard. And he tells it all so nonchalantly with a great sense of positivity and humor, and is much better looking than Evan. Evan is very short.
I understand about being accosted about 'stolen valor.' I served 24 years, with the first half being in special ops. Due to knee and back issues, I re-trained into a computer job after seeing limited action in 5 different combat zones, and seeing 25+ countries, which put me in contact with loads of other computer people, and they dont normally see so many medals (even though most of my awards were fairly pedestrian within the special ops community). I constantly had people 'pulling my rip' (verifying my medals). And I didnt have a MOH, and cross-service badges, so I can imagine that making him a huge target. Big respect for him. Humble, but a real badass!
Small world, I bumped into Earl multiple times when I was in 2/1. Crazy to think he was two doors down from my office. Take care dude and keep crushing it!
Amen...bottle to throttle. Hardest hurdle (for me ) when I was Med Retired. Thank you for sharing that very short note. That monster is always there. Certain months where brothers were lost....have to pre-plan for those.
I initially thought this Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee might be related to Command Sergeant Major Basil Plumley. Both of these Men are indeed Warrior Legends. Both served exemplary careers and will forever be enshrined within the lore of the US Army. However, the spelling is just a letter off. Regardless, both of these Men are exactly why America can sleep in relative safety every night. God Bless MSG Plumlee (MoH) and RIP CSM Plumley (Silver Star).🇺🇸 (CSM B Plumley was the right hand man/CSM for then Lt Col Hal Moore at the first battle in the Ia Drang Valley.... colloquially known today as the "We Were Soldiers" battle)
@@jayjones6904 They both have quite the dry, direct and sardonic wit in common. Then when he told the story about how his Dad corrected him after he had squared away that younger private, I immediately thought of the personality of CSM Plumley with his young troopers. I disagree with his Dad however. I'm assuming Plumlee had every reason to correct what he saw, as all Senior Non Coms do. I doubt this kid who got an earful from a MoH recipient is going to think less of MoH guys, but rather will tell the story as how he once had a MoH Master Sergeant put his jump boot in his ass as a Private. Lesson learned. These guys are no BS types and absolutely expect to see the same standard throughout the system. Send it, I absolutely agree. As it should be. 🇺🇸
Thank you sir for your honesty and your story. Remember your service is to yourself first for you are a part of the country and thank you for serving our country! Taking care of me, Randy
“Let’s not keep bouncing dice , I need your feedback.” All leaders , military and private sector can learn from those words. Awesome dude. Much respect!
This was so fun to watch what a pleasure …I’m 56 and beat the hellup but would still go static line again… great interview made me laugh so hard thanks guys
Y'all are all awesome. Huge thanks to all Veterans, not just Mr. Plumlee. Awesome history, awesome man, to include Mr. Hafer. Keep "Gittn'-er-done" in all things.
My 4th. Time watching this video and Earl seems so relaxed and good natured. Seems like a guy you’d like to know and hang out with. These guys make it seem like signing up so you can serve with them. What a great group of guys to serve with.
@@nmr6988 the flag doesn’t mean anything unless it has a group of people to uphold the ideals for what it stands for. You don’t understand that anything can mean anything, but it’s not worth anything unless it brings value to a group of people. Once the good people in this country move away, the flag means nothing as it once was known to stand for something.
@@Thawhitestguyeva the medal is just a symbol of an action thematic brings great respect to the person. But it itself is just some cheap metal. The person who is deserving of great respect is the value. Keep being incompetent.
I was at FOB Shank when this happened. I was part of an ISR drone unit that had a sister unit at Ghazni. I saw the videos and pics of that place afterward. There were dead Taliban all over the place. They breached the wall, entered the camp and blew up as much stuff as they could including themselves. It was a horror show for sure. The shot cards he is talking about, the Afghanis had those on Shank. They also had cell phones. This why you don't let the locals on your camp. They will try to kill you! Biggest mistake I ever saw letting the locals on with comms.
Drew should stay away from you. LOL! Hands down the best story I have ever heard in my lifetime. Amazing! Thank you! Your honesty and valor is amazing! The dry sense of humor? LOL! You made me laugh at something so horrific, and yet you can not only tell the story but punch line it! That is amazing!
Thank you for your service and I wish all current and retired veterans peace and a life of blessings. I do wonder if a Medal of Honor recipient could ever loose the medal for any reason and if anyone ever has?
Your jumper who did seven static lines in three armies into three wars is incredible. But he world record for most operational jumps is held by Corporal Des Archer of 1 Commando, Rhodesian Light Infantry. He did 73 operational jumps between 1977 and the end of the war. Towards the end the tempo was so high and so close to base, some troops did three round jumps in one day from DC3s.
My friends and I share you guys spirit. Different category (concrete guys) but we share a lot of the same attitudes. Maybe because the ole man was a marine corps staff Sargent. Thankfully he talked my individual thinking ass out of joining. He's right they'd had a time with kid like I was.
The men ive known from iraq and Afghanistan who saved a mucker and ended up taking a round dont feel they are heroes or anything special. Ine i served with lost his lower leg after drawing fire so we could get to cover. In my eyes he went above and beyond his attitude was he is lucky we all got home. In my eyes all these men are heroes
A guy who had been an aa instructor, green beret, sniper worked at a private security company I was employed by. He told us his students laced jump boots like he did, even years later. He should have picked his nose... 😂 brilliant!
Amazing top brass had a hard time justifying his actions to warrant MOH. Congressman and SF community had to fight to get this done. Teamwork Earl. Just like your time as a crayon eater. Well deserved!
I feel that 90% of the guests on your show are well deserving of the MOH. I only say 90% so as allow for leaving some inherent value of the award, itself. Otherwise it would have zero value. It's somewhat of a conundrum because ALL of you deserve the full weight of its rarity.
Yea, a CAR on an Army uniform might draw some criticism, I suppose, especially with the extra USMC things. How would you like to be the one to eat crow after accusing him of stolen valor?
Earl I hope you come to Gainesville, Tx for the MOH days I've around 50 of you guy's Because of what I do I have been given 2 challenge coins- I would like for yours to be my 3rd.
Yeah, platoon 2102, SSgt. Agurs, and for me the experience was valuable, but I had to leave because I was no longer a "True Believer" and the crayons suddenly tasted like wax. I saw "Polar Express" and got the clue.
It is so interesting to hear his Marine stories because I was in the Army infantry 91-95 with a former Marine FAST Team member. It was an early Marine socom unit. He said they were just high speed guards all over the globe. Other than taking down the arrahan tank farm in Panama they didn't do much.
There's a man in England, Lord Ashcroft, who has amassed the world's largest private collection of Victoria Cross and George Cross medals. As of this writing the collection contains over 10% *(230+)* of all the medals ever awarded, and is housed in the Imperial War Museum in London, along with documentation on each recipient and why the medal was awarded. I was kinda amazed that *the average value, at auction, for a Victoria Cross medal is in excess of 400,000£ ($488,000).* *It's too bad there isn't some equivalent type of Medal of Honor collection displayed in an American museum with full accompanying documentation on its recipient and what that person did to justify its award.*
In regards to his back surgery outcome (1:23:17) and what his step-father told him, I had a surgeon tell me basically the same thing about 20 - 30 years ago. I'm going to write it down this time, and present it to any other doctor in the future who thinks cutting me is a good idea. I wish I had it for the most recent (two weeks ago) doctor I saw. Also, I agree with his comment regarding the bottle of hooch. I'll cite him, his Medal of Honor, and this video. Aside from this remark, I loved his story. Great guy.
I’d sit in on or take leadership speaking courses from Earl. That’s a guy I’d follow. Can’t say that about a lot of guys I’ve worked with or for. Especially not my current boss lmfao
Is there a across the bored medal for all combat veterans? I know they have combat badges but I think they all deserve a medal for their bravery and the thanks for what they done. No matter how bad ass you are 99.9% of combat vets will suffer some kinda mental wounds. I also think the purple heart is given out to willy-nilly and I've heard many WW2 and Vietnam Vets talk about how they believe that also. Thanks to all that have served or serving even if you never seen battle because even if you join in peacetime a war can pop off overnight. ❤ GOD BLESS THE USA!!!!
@@davidkohler7454 thank you for explaining that. I believe anyone that serves their country either has honor and patriotism before joining or will have when they get out but those who serves in combat has a stronger sense of honor and patriotism either before or after. My childhood best friend and I were going in the Navy after high-school but we had a BAD wreck, I broke my neck but he was perfectly fine. That was the end of my dream but he served 7 years in the Navy, 13 years in the Marines and I'm still so proud of him for that, he was kind of a shit head growing up lol He would call me from Iraq and either cry or not say much but I always told him I didn't care that it was 2-3 o'clock in the morning here, he could call me anytime. Thanks again for explaining this for me.
There are two special medals/units that are at the top of the heap of medals: The Medal of Honor and the Sentinels of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. None other can touch them.
Garrison's crap. Always loved training, and going out being productive. Uniform b.s. was always second fiddle to me. Boots, Hershey bar was fine. That reflection stuff I can, have and still do. But it was for important things. Not just because I'm showing up.
I can relate to his experiences being accused of stolen Valor. Except I don't have a MOH. I did, however, serve in the USAF for 12 years, and the Army for 8. So my ribbon rack looks ridiculous. Even though none of them really mean a lot. Still, a lot of civvies think I am some sort of war hero 😂
Perhaps a wealthy person might purchase a MOH to help a recipient that fell on hard times . Displaying the MOH in a museum with instructions to return it the recipient or family might be tolerated. Better to assist a recipient in another manner.
Earl is hilarious. This guy is a patriot, hero and funny as hell. His dry sense of humor killed me. Great interview.
At first, I was offended that Evan didn't stand and salute...but then I realized that in the presence of the MOH he was fully hard and didn't want the video to get flagged and removed from youtube. Thank you Evan.
Notice the same thing while I have a hard on also
Lmao!
LOL
This comment gives me solace...I'm not normally throbbing erect during these types of podcasts (I always am).
Nah bro he didn’t want us to see how short he is next to that giant with the big medal on his neck
Heard his story on another channel. He's telling it again here and I'm still listening to the whole thing again. Earl is a great interview.
It's like when your best friend is awarded the highest honor in valor. Earl is a cool guy anyone would want to have a beer with. Thank you for your service Earl
This dude is my idol. I haven't laughed so much during a combat story type podcast ever.
I guarantee Evan is going to hire Earl 😂 his face lit up when he said he didn’t know what he was wanting to do.
We can only hope just heard of this guy today and he’s amazing I hope to hear more from him
I hope so, that’d be dope
Hearing these outstanding men's stories is amazing! Thank You Evan for providing us with this.
Earl has one of the most intense combat stories I’ve ever heard.
And he tells it all so nonchalantly with a great sense of positivity and humor, and is much better looking than Evan.
Evan is very short.
@internet_internet this made me laugh way harder than it should have 😂
I really wish he would have referred to the 40mm grenade launchers as "noob tubes"
I understand about being accosted about 'stolen valor.' I served 24 years, with the first half being in special ops. Due to knee and back issues, I re-trained into a computer job after seeing limited action in 5 different combat zones, and seeing 25+ countries, which put me in contact with loads of other computer people, and they dont normally see so many medals (even though most of my awards were fairly pedestrian within the special ops community). I constantly had people 'pulling my rip' (verifying my medals). And I didnt have a MOH, and cross-service badges, so I can imagine that making him a huge target.
Big respect for him. Humble, but a real badass!
Small world, I bumped into Earl multiple times when I was in 2/1. Crazy to think he was two doors down from my office. Take care dude and keep crushing it!
Finally another one over an hour 😂 y'all are busy, but these are great. Thanks Evan 🇺🇸
By far one of the best interviews of all time. I have great respect for this man. He's a humble killer.
The dry humor is deep among us. Much appreciated.
An HONOR to just hear this story, from the mouths of the guys that actually did the work. THANK YOU !!!
Thank God Earls on our side ! God Bless 🙏 America !
That retirement and slow down of tempo after retirement is so on point.
Amen...bottle to throttle. Hardest hurdle (for me ) when I was Med Retired. Thank you for sharing that very short note. That monster is always there. Certain months where brothers were lost....have to pre-plan for those.
The most interesting conversation / interview I've heard this year.
I initially thought this Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee might be related to Command Sergeant Major Basil Plumley. Both of these Men are indeed Warrior Legends. Both served exemplary careers and will forever be enshrined within the lore of the US Army. However, the spelling is just a letter off. Regardless, both of these Men are exactly why America can sleep in relative safety every night. God Bless MSG Plumlee (MoH) and RIP CSM Plumley (Silver Star).🇺🇸
(CSM B Plumley was the right hand man/CSM for then Lt Col Hal Moore at the first battle in the Ia Drang Valley.... colloquially known today as the "We Were Soldiers" battle)
Thinking same thing at first
@@jayjones6904 They both have quite the dry, direct and sardonic wit in common. Then when he told the story about how his Dad corrected him after he had squared away that younger private, I immediately thought of the personality of CSM Plumley with his young troopers. I disagree with his Dad however. I'm assuming Plumlee had every reason to correct what he saw, as all Senior Non Coms do. I doubt this kid who got an earful from a MoH recipient is going to think less of MoH guys, but rather will tell the story as how he once had a MoH Master Sergeant put his jump boot in his ass as a Private. Lesson learned.
These guys are no BS types and absolutely expect to see the same standard throughout the system. Send it, I absolutely agree. As it should be. 🇺🇸
Thank you sir for your honesty and your story. Remember your service is to yourself first for you are a part of the country and thank you for serving our country!
Taking care of me, Randy
“Let’s not keep bouncing dice , I need your feedback.”
All leaders , military and private sector can learn from those words. Awesome dude. Much respect!
I love Earl…Marine, A team , B team , Medal of Honor
earl is great. if anyone needs a podcast, this guy does.
What an amazing story and career. Semper FI! I wish you the best in Retirement!
This was so fun to watch what a pleasure …I’m 56 and beat the hellup but would still go static line again… great interview made me laugh so hard thanks guys
Y'all are all awesome. Huge thanks to all Veterans, not just Mr. Plumlee. Awesome history, awesome man, to include Mr. Hafer. Keep "Gittn'-er-done" in all things.
My 4th. Time watching this video and Earl seems so relaxed and good natured. Seems like a guy you’d like to know and hang out with. These guys make it seem like signing up so you can serve with them. What a great group of guys to serve with.
The medal is not the value. The value is in the person.
That’s super deep. You should totally write books man.
Actually, there's value in both. The same could be said of our flag.
@@nmr6988 the flag doesn’t mean anything unless it has a group of people to uphold the ideals for what it stands for. You don’t understand that anything can mean anything, but it’s not worth anything unless it brings value to a group of people. Once the good people in this country move away, the flag means nothing as it once was known to stand for something.
Says the guy without the medal…
@@Thawhitestguyeva the medal is just a symbol of an action thematic brings great respect to the person. But it itself is just some cheap metal. The person who is deserving of great respect is the value. Keep being incompetent.
I was at FOB Shank when this happened. I was part of an ISR drone unit that had a sister unit at Ghazni. I saw the videos and pics of that place afterward. There were dead Taliban all over the place. They breached the wall, entered the camp and blew up as much stuff as they could including themselves. It was a horror show for sure. The shot cards he is talking about, the Afghanis had those on Shank. They also had cell phones. This why you don't let the locals on your camp. They will try to kill you! Biggest mistake I ever saw letting the locals on with comms.
Thanks for preserving this American history
Thanks for your service and thanks for telling your story.
PLACE AT THE TABLE!!! STARTING DEFENSE !!!! Great reference. So intense for a young Marine. Glad you found your calling.
Nice interview thank you gents. Earl, your a beast.
Awesome interview!
Drew should stay away from you. LOL! Hands down the best story I have ever heard in my lifetime. Amazing! Thank you! Your honesty and valor is amazing! The dry sense of humor? LOL! You made me laugh at something so horrific, and yet you can not only tell the story but punch line it! That is amazing!
both these guys are awesome dudes. thank you for your service boys.
Thank you for your service and I wish all current and retired veterans peace and a life of blessings.
I do wonder if a Medal of Honor recipient could ever loose the medal for any reason and if anyone ever has?
Your jumper who did seven static lines in three armies into three wars is incredible. But he world record for most operational jumps is held by Corporal Des Archer of 1 Commando, Rhodesian Light Infantry. He did 73 operational jumps between 1977 and the end of the war. Towards the end the tempo was so high and so close to base, some troops did three round jumps in one day from DC3s.
Ty to all of our past and present veterans and service members God bless ya'll
Great interview and an honor to listen to
"Or... God takes care of drinks and fools and I'm dual qualified." 😂😂
Great interview and I also like how Earl quoted the character Steve Latimer from a movie called The Program at the 13:46 part of the interview 😂😂😂
I didn't remember my DI's names 30 days after bootcamp was over, but I do remember my service number assigned in 1969.
Very good interview.
Such a humble hero who wouldn't want to go into the breach with this man.
Sirs thanks for the smiles!! And also not going rouge lmaooo
My friends and I share you guys spirit. Different category (concrete guys) but we share a lot of the same attitudes. Maybe because the ole man was a marine corps staff Sargent. Thankfully he talked my individual thinking ass out of joining. He's right they'd had a time with kid like I was.
Great episode! Just realized Evan doesn't blink! Possible Alien:)
Great episode
The men ive known from iraq and Afghanistan who saved a mucker and ended up taking a round dont feel they are heroes or anything special.
Ine i served with lost his lower leg after drawing fire so we could get to cover. In my eyes he went above and beyond his attitude was he is lucky we all got home.
In my eyes all these men are heroes
This guy is great
A guy who had been an aa instructor, green beret, sniper worked at a private security company I was employed by.
He told us his students laced jump boots like he did, even years later.
He should have picked his nose... 😂 brilliant!
Federal law says the medal is priceless. BUT it costs less than $60 for the Ait Force which is larger than the Army & Navy
He's only 40 years old. Few live to see their medal at all but it definitely took some years off this guy
Awesome interview!! He reminds me of Josh Rowson
I like how he said I was just lucky
I glad Even sat down to talk to the lead singer of Bloodhound Gang.
Semper Fi! Keep at it Bother.
BRO EVAN I WAS ALSO IN BRAVO 2-54 “Bulldogs!”
I mean it’s infantry OSUT, who really cares right but now I feel like we are kindred spirits.
Amazing top brass had a hard time justifying his actions to warrant MOH. Congressman and SF community had to fight to get this done. Teamwork Earl.
Just like your time as a crayon eater. Well deserved!
We deployed to right where bales did his summer of love event immediately after the event for 9 months it was a wild time
Evan's laugh is the best.
I feel that 90% of the guests on your show are well deserving of the MOH. I only say 90% so as allow for leaving some inherent value of the award, itself. Otherwise it would have zero value. It's somewhat of a conundrum because ALL of you deserve the full weight of its rarity.
🏆🙏🇺🇲🤗🎖️
Thank you for sharing
I’m going for stem cells Monday!
Great video
Yea, a CAR on an Army uniform might draw some criticism, I suppose, especially with the extra USMC things. How would you like to be the one to eat crow after accusing him of stolen valor?
Earl I hope you come to Gainesville, Tx for the MOH days I've around 50 of you guy's Because of what I do I have been given 2 challenge coins- I would like for yours to be my 3rd.
Yeah, platoon 2102, SSgt. Agurs, and for me the experience was valuable, but I had to leave because I was no longer a "True Believer" and the crayons suddenly tasted like wax. I saw "Polar Express" and got the clue.
It is so interesting to hear his Marine stories because I was in the Army infantry 91-95 with a former Marine FAST Team member. It was an early Marine socom unit. He said they were just high speed guards all over the globe. Other than taking down the arrahan tank farm in Panama they didn't do much.
Great episode I want to see Mike Glover interview Earl now
There's a man in England, Lord Ashcroft, who has amassed the world's largest private collection of Victoria Cross and George Cross medals. As of this writing the collection contains over 10% *(230+)* of all the medals ever awarded, and is housed in the Imperial War Museum in London, along with documentation on each recipient and why the medal was awarded. I was kinda amazed that *the average value, at auction, for a Victoria Cross medal is in excess of 400,000£ ($488,000).*
*It's too bad there isn't some equivalent type of Medal of Honor collection displayed in an American museum with full accompanying documentation on its recipient and what that person did to justify its award.*
“Most stressful el prez” hahahaha
The average grunt makes do, but the recons got the really good stuff.
Nice work.
In regards to his back surgery outcome (1:23:17) and what his step-father told him, I had a surgeon tell me basically the same thing about 20 - 30 years ago. I'm going to write it down this time, and present it to any other doctor in the future who thinks cutting me is a good idea. I wish I had it for the most recent (two weeks ago) doctor I saw. Also, I agree with his comment regarding the bottle of hooch. I'll cite him, his Medal of Honor, and this video. Aside from this remark, I loved his story. Great guy.
When did you graduate bravo 2/54? I was 2/54 late 1997.
The crazy guy was SSG Bales I wasn’t in his unit but they were attached on our Brigade, and boy did IEDs increase after that.
I’d sit in on or take leadership speaking courses from Earl. That’s a guy I’d follow. Can’t say that about a lot of guys I’ve worked with or for. Especially not my current boss lmfao
FYI, a Victoria Cross awarded to Cpl John French posthumously for his actions at Milne Bay 1942, recently sold at auction for $1.46 Million.
Is there a across the bored medal for all combat veterans? I know they have combat badges but I think they all deserve a medal for their bravery and the thanks for what they done. No matter how bad ass you are 99.9% of combat vets will suffer some kinda mental wounds. I also think the purple heart is given out to willy-nilly and I've heard many WW2 and Vietnam Vets talk about how they believe that also.
Thanks to all that have served or serving even if you never seen battle because even if you join in peacetime a war can pop off overnight. ❤
GOD BLESS THE USA!!!!
Yes there is. You get a campaign ribbon for deployment. And of course the ataboy buttons. And the participants award...
@@davidkohler7454 thank you for explaining that. I believe anyone that serves their country either has honor and patriotism before joining or will have when they get out but those who serves in combat has a stronger sense of honor and patriotism either before or after. My childhood best friend and I were going in the Navy after high-school but we had a BAD wreck, I broke my neck but he was perfectly fine. That was the end of my dream but he served 7 years in the Navy, 13 years in the Marines and I'm still so proud of him for that, he was kind of a shit head growing up lol He would call me from Iraq and either cry or not say much but I always told him I didn't care that it was 2-3 o'clock in the morning here, he could call me anytime. Thanks again for explaining this for me.
Actual medal cost is cheap, the meaning behind them is invaluable
Cool dude. Cool story!
I have absolutely no idea what my drill sergeants names are
He sounds like the guitar player from slayer Kerry king . But this guy is a bad ass
So, um, he basically used the exploding taliban mod for video games irl.
Humble
I cant hear the name plumlee/plumley without thinking of ia drang
everybody remembers their Sr Drill Instructor. Ssgt Imes.
Y'all might not want surgery, but, check out the M6 artificial disc.
Good talk. I guess I'll leave it there.
Quality control at the HME lab 😂
Very good interview
Dude God had his hand covering you should just go ahead and testify to his Goodness
There are two special medals/units that are at the top of the heap of medals: The Medal of Honor and the Sentinels of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. None other can touch them.
Yeah well I have master.drivers badge lol nah your absolutely correct.
Military collections would create value. For instance collecting everything I could from the great war. Or something
Garrison's crap. Always loved training, and going out being productive. Uniform b.s. was always second fiddle to me. Boots, Hershey bar was fine. That reflection stuff I can, have and still do. But it was for important things. Not just because I'm showing up.
$150-200K
My brother in Christ that is what we call MARK-UP. Holy shit.
I can relate to his experiences being accused of stolen Valor. Except I don't have a MOH. I did, however, serve in the USAF for 12 years, and the Army for 8. So my ribbon rack looks ridiculous. Even though none of them really mean a lot. Still, a lot of civvies think I am some sort of war hero 😂
Nice.
Perhaps a wealthy person might purchase a MOH to help a recipient that fell on hard times . Displaying the MOH in a museum with instructions to return it the recipient or family might be tolerated. Better to assist a recipient in another manner.