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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  The C-130 had a bad engine so there was a long delay waiting to take off for Saudi Arabia. This made Paul Berry very uneasy. It was going to be a long flight and you tell me there's engine trouble? The 36th Medical Battalion made it just fine, though, and got right down to business with immunizations and pills.

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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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  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Wounded three times as a PFC in Vietnam, John Bates came back to the Corps as an officer. He was there at Desert Storm and he remembers the chaos of the week following the attacks on 9/11.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  The 514th Ambulance Company got orders for Desert Storm. Medic and driver Paul Berry was ready to go. His experience there would be very different from his experiences in his Army career after he returned.

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  Clarence Dodd +4 Total Videos

  US Army

  In 1946, Clarence Dodd left the Merchant Marines and went back to the farm. He was called back to service in 1952 and sent to cryptography school on the strength of his test scores. He never used this skill while he was in the Army. They put him in personnel instead.

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  John Bates - Marines +8 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  The Marines sent him home after he received three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. John Bates then served a few months at Camp Horno before they sent him home. He was not done with the Corps, though, and would return as an officer.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  Paul Berry was looking for the French Foreign Legion. It was pitch dark and his destination was a post on the Saudi side of the border with Iraq. He was leading a convoy of ambulances when, suddenly, they were confronted by a lot of men waving AK-47's. (Caution: strong language)

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  Clarence Dodd +4 Total Videos

  US Army

  Clarence Dodd had to get a security clearance while he was working in the headquarters at Fort Polk. A buddy of his told him the Army was looking for volunteers to witness an atomic test up in Nevada. They both thought that was pretty cool and got on the list. As he crouched in the trench waiting for the blast, he began to have second thoughts.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  It was a bad sandstorm. It blew away all the tents and injured one soldier's cornea. For Paul Berry it was just another fact of life in the desert, like scorpions. His ambulance company was the designated "dirty" company that kept going in case of a chemical or nuclear attack and, as the youngest private, he had a special duty that no one would want. (Caution: strong language)

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  Blair Dell - Navy +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Navy Corpsman Blair Dell had been a member of some elite special operations teams but he had to take himself off team status for health reasons. He continued for a while working for the Special Operations Command but finally left the service and started his own consulting business, finding a rewarding role training law enforcement personnel.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Paul Berry was at Fort Polk opening his clinic at 0600. It was just a normal day until someone yelled to put the TV on CNN. As people gathered, the second plane struck the Twin Towers. Then the alarms began to sound around the base. He heard the Sgt. Major yell to get your gear on. Our gear? What are we going to do?

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  Shawn Patrick - Marines +11 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment

  It was going to be just four years. Shawn Patrick wanted to check a box in his life that his father and grandfather had checked with military service. He joined the Marines because they're supposed to be the best. During his first Marine Expeditionary cruise he was dispatched to Somalia.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  Paul Berry's squad from the 514th Ambulance Company was attached to a POW camp for Iraqis. It was just across the border in Saudi Arabia and they were there to provide medical care and triage the incoming prisoners. He always asked anyone he examined if they spoke English. One soldier said in perfect English, "No, I don't speak English." This started quite a scene.

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  Shawn Patrick - Marines +11 Total Videos

  3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment

  Shawn Patrick found the same thing in Somalia that he would find later in Afghanistan and Iraq. You could not tell who the enemy was. It could be anybody. When he got home and went on leave, he was recalled almost immediately to deploy to Haiti. After that brief affair, he heard about the Recon Marines and was determined to get in.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  Not long before he left Saudi Arabia after Desert Storm, Paul Berry created a lot of trouble for himself when he did something he thought was no big deal. He called his mama.

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  Shawn Patrick - Marines +11 Total Videos

  1st Reconnaissance Battalion

  When he got to the pool part of the Recon tryout, Shawn Patrick was the only prospect left. He refused to give in, stayed in the water and kept fighting and was rewarded with a slot at Amphibious Reconnaissance School. It was tough but he made it through and joined the Recon Marines.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  When Paul Berry was driving an ambulance in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, he had an accident and flipped it over. He was not injured, he thought, and it would be three years before a problem with his neck was discovered. This would eventually cause him to leave the Army.

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  Blair Dell - Navy +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Recon Marines somehow always wind up as villains in Hollywood movies. Former Recon team member Blair Dell says that dates back to when the teams were under the direct control of the Commander in Chief. He recalls how his team used to get pumped up with heavy metal music before an operation and how surprised he was when the younger Marines started playing a very different kind of music. (Caution: strong language)

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  Scott Wealing - Army +7 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Scott Wealing recalls two notable characters who were legends in the elite world of long range reconnaissance and surveillance. Bill Butler and Pat Tadina were, in different ways, two of our greatest warriors.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  Of all the wars we've been in, Desert Storm was the one in which we did everything right. Paul Berry explains why he believes this is so.

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  Scott Wealing - Army +7 Total Videos

  151st Infantry Detachment (LRS)

  After a couple of years as a drill sergeant at Fort Benning, Scott Wealing became interested in a long range surveillance unit he'd heard about. He had to lose rank to join the elite unit. Not a problem. It was worth it, although he wasn't crazy about the jumps.

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  Jim Teixeira - Marines +9 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  The post-Vietnam period was not a great time to be a Marine. Jim Teixeira remembers how no money was available for training or much of anything. Then he got a chance to go to Ranger School and he jumped at it. It turned out to be the best training he ever received and it led to the regular commission he wanted.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Paul Berry reflects on what it was like to be gay in the Army. It was not easy, with the witch hunts and the gossip. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was supposed to stop some of that but, in his experience, it didn't help much. He did get a measure of revenge against two NCO's who assaulted him. (Caution: strong language)

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  Paul Berry saved a few t-shirts from his time in the Army but there is one that is special. From the Desert Storm deployment with the 514th Ambulance Company, a shirt that only a select few have.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  They were supposed to be getting eight bodies but twelve body bags came in. Paul Berry was in the Saudi desert next to the Iraqi border and he was fortunate he didn't have to deal with those extra four bags.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  As his unit's role in Desert Storm was winding down, Paul Berry received a mountain of mail and gifts in a long overdue mail call. It was so much that he came up with something nice he could do for everybody. (Caution: strong language)

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Paul Berry worked hard to get into college. He made it but, once he was there, it wasn't working out for him. He didn't want to go home so he joined the Army. At basic training he learned responsibility and camaraderie and he was the fastest runner in the group.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  Everybody had been through EMT training, thanks to the foresight of the commander of the 36th Medical Battalion. Paul Berry was a medic and ambulance driver who made a little investment before the Desert Storm deployment. He stocked up on something that he could sell for a tidy profit.

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  514th Ambulance Company, 36th Medical Battalion

  While treating Iraqi prisoners during Desert Storm, medic Paul Berry had a couple of experiences that really disturbed him. One was having to peel the skin from a badly burned soldier. The other was when a group of children were brought in. They had been hit by a cluster bomb. (Caution: strong language)

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  Paul Berry - Army +16 Total Videos

  Multiple Units

  Education is something that Paul Berry eagerly embraced in the Army. It got him cushy jobs and kept him out of dirty ones. Especially valuable was the esoteric science known as typing. He also absorbed all the medical knowledge and skills that he could.