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We want to welcome to VeteransRadio today Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee.
We are very honored to have him on.
He is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.
Master Sergeant, welcome to VeteransRadio.
It's great to be here and thank you for having me.
Well we're glad to tell your story and promote some of the things you're working on, but
it's sort of let's go all the way back to the beginning.
How did a nice kid like you from Oklahoma find himself in the military?
I came from a military family.
So I was always very interested in service and whatever movie was out in Hollywood, laborizing
certain parts of it, that's what I was going to do.
I joined the National Guard in high school, kind of lit the fire and ended up in the Marine
Corps.
I have an ADHD and I can't stick to anything too long and decided to run myself through
the Army and see how that was.
Yeah, it's really a fascinating start here.
It is what I wanted to talk about is you jump into the Oklahoma Army Guard, I think you're
at 17 years old and after graduating high school, move into the Marine Corps for eight
years.
What were you chasing?
I was chasing an adventure and I was chasing a challenge.
So the National Guard was kind of a great way to get me started and led me to validate
my belief that I was destined to serve.
I was really looking for that deeper challenge and the adventure.
The Oklahoma National Guard was neat but as I got out of high school I wanted to see other
parts of the world and the Marine Corps promised me that and delivered that.
I think a lot of youth kind of wonder if they measure up and do I measure up to what my
father's generation or my grandfather's generation was, was that a little bit of this as to the
National Guard's okay but do I measure up to the Marine Corps?
Yeah, definitely there was a piece of that.
My father was a Marine and my grandfather beforehand was a Marine and of course they
both told me not to join.
They took that as a personal insult.
They don't think I'm tough enough, I'm definitely going to show them.
Yeah, that's how that works isn't it?
Reverse psychology.
You did the Marine Corps for eight years and then in 2009 you joined the United States
Army but you joined the Army with something in mind I suspect, right?
Again, measuring up.
So I joined the Army as an 18XRA contract which means you go straight to Special Forces
selection, I was you know prepared for that as a For sure Constance Marine it was not
super challenging to pass selection.
The Q Corps caught me off guard but yeah I was a civilian for 12 hours.
The afternoon where I was released from the Marine Corps that next morning I joined the
Army.
It's an unusual and interesting and probably telling sequence of events that get you into
the Army Special Forces.
You have I think a total service record of about 24 years along the way of say you got
promoted to Master Sergeant in the US Army but also along the way we're moving into the
2000s and we're going to find ourselves post 9-11 with fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tell us a little bit more about your career.
So my very first deployment in the Marines the nation transferred to war footing so I
was having a cool adventure traveling around Asia and woke up on the morning of September
11th 2001 and I was in the military at war and the rest of my career nearly every point
of my career was fighting the war on terror which was you know it was it was unique gratifying
I'm glad I got to serve my country and heartbreaking I think every at least once a year I you know
buried a friend in service to the country so that was you know also you spend a piece
of yourself doing that.
Well your time in the Marines had you in I believe Iraq and on on our province if I've
got the notes right here.
So yeah I did live down of Al-Sod both trips and we had a direct action mission as a forces
reconnaissance Marine attacking the mid-level members of Al Qaeda so it was very rewarding
work you know a lot of times you kind of have to be subjective about how valuable your service
is both of those trips I did not have to really look around to see if it was valuable every
night I did something that was you know profoundly valuable and rewarding.
One of the things you've commented about and we're talking to Medal of Honor recipient
Earl Plumlee you've talked about the diversity of people that you served with both in the
Marines and in the Army talk a little bit about why that's important to you.
Well to me as an American I think that every citizen should get the chance to serve and
that's not always possible and should want to serve and I always thought it was really
neat to see the full cross spectrum of the United States and as I always said is the
after boot camp a group of friends I had made there when we got put our civilian clothes
of Gautam town it was hilarious picture because we had cowboys out of Texas you know farmers
out of Kansas surfers out of Southern California and you know kids out of Boston New York and
none of us dressed even remotely the same.
And you thought you yourself I ain't in Oklahoma anymore.
Yeah I'm definitely not in Oklahoma.
You know as you continue to serve and you were sent into Afghanistan there's a particular
battle in August of 2013 at forward operating base.
John Z tell us what happened that day that sort of has certainly changed your life.
Yeah well it's definitely changed my life.
The Taliban decided to make an example out of our camp and do a spectacular attack.
They were hoping to kill enough Americans that maybe we would decide to leave.
Only for them you know my unit was having a change of command so we had a triple the
number of green braids that would normally be on installation.
And they initiated the attack with a 4000 pound truck bomb and 15 members of their unit
with suicide vests and brand new Chinese rifles stormed through the breach they'd made and
fortunately found me and my friends waiting for them on the other side of that wall.
This is one of these things that I don't care how much you think about it.
You can't practice this it's reactive and how did you and the other green braids of
special forces soldiers react here.
Well we didn't know the nature of the attack and we knew with a bomb that size there was
undoubtedly going to be injuries and possibly a fight so we grabbed our stuff and moved
to the point of conflict and unfortunately the Taliban didn't tell us exactly what they
were doing so we parked right in the middle of them.
Another one of those brilliant decisions by who's driving the vehicle right.
Stop here.
Yeah stop here what are these guys doing and they all started shooting us up.
Part of this was the insurgents were dressed in Afghan National Army uniforms if I understand
it.
Yeah so they tried attacks like this several times and they were always changing the techniques
that they were using and this one they decided that they could never pass the American but
they definitely looked like Afghan so they used that to get deep into the camp without
being fired.
And let me just read from the military times article quote without regard for his own safety
his staff sergeant plumly hopped out of the vehicle using his body to protect its driver
while drawing a sidearm he fought off two attackers was wounded by a dead named suicide
vest before he could get to adequate cover he killed two insurgents in his field of fire
but at least eight were still firing on American forces he left his position with only his
pistol in advance on the enemy alone finally reaching a fellow soldier behind cover after
what must have seemed like ours under intense enemy fire he and others the other soldier
no longer alone withdrew to join other American and coalition troops who were preparing a
counter attack and a quote and and both an American and a Polish soldier were killed
in this insurgent attack as as it's reported I'm not going to ask you to talk about this
master sergeant it you know just sort of seems that I'll let the I'll let the article
and your actions speak for itself but coming out of that incident you were awarded the
silver star and subsequently it was upgraded to the Medal of Honor and presented to you
by President Joe Biden in December of 2021 nobody nobody goes into the military for the
decorations right that was never a big part of my plan I was chasing I was taking chasing
the stuff that you would make sure uniform look fancy like jump wings and dive bubbles
you know and go under all the cool schools but yeah it was never my plan to get a purple
heart or a valor award yeah nobody should seek the purple heart yeah if your plan is to get
the purple heart call me and let me talk you down that's a terrible plan is time moved
on and as I said the battle occurred in 2013 and and eight years later it's the silver
star gets upgraded to the Medal of Honor this is I think most people don't understand is
what a rigorous process getting an upgrade or getting the Medal of Honor being awarded
to you is can you talk a little bit about that period of time where hey these other
guys are talking about this should be upgraded and and and your reaction to all of that so
I uh you know at first there was a ton of the of interest in scrutiny and then you know
the award got downgraded to the silver star and and I thought that would be the end of
it and especially as an E6 I was I remember being profoundly relieved that it got downgraded
I was terrified for the eventuality of having to wear the Medal of Honor and you know the
members of the panel gone and the upper levels of the Army would call me from time to time
asking for clarification over the years and I kind of got used to it and it was you know
about six months before I got the Medal of the phone calls you know changed in nature
and they quit asking me about the battle or asking me for access to people for for witness
statements and they started asking me what I was doing and where I was going to be and
that's when I started to kind of think that something was up but you know honestly I
was I remember you know having pursuing my career as a silver star recipient and the
incredible scrutiny of the Medal of Honor was off of me and and I was just really happy
to get back to work as a Green Beret and have my career. I think that's what a lot of people
don't understand that the Medal of Honor is sort of thrusted upon you isn't it?
It is and it's a it's a you know it's an incredibly humbling thing and it's nerve-wracking you
know the rest of the time that I spent in uniform until now you're you're scrutinized
in a positive way but everyone is always going to remember what you said and emulate
your behavior and and that could be you know that could be overwhelming.
There is a Medal of Honor Award process review board the first kind of look at it the board
said hey the guy is just doing his job and it didn't under that review reach the level
of a Medal of Honor it was subsequently looked at again and moved up upgraded to the Medal
of Honor. You at some point get a call telling you it's been upgraded and let's start working
on coordination to meet the president and receive the award. Very few men will ever
get a chance to go through that month or two where that's going on. Tell us what's going
on during that period.
So I got a call from the president he told me I was going to be getting a Medal of Honor
and you know spoke to me for kind of a long time in my opinion I don't know how long people
usually get to talk to the president but immediately after that you know I talked to a woman from
the Pentagon and she was she was like hey this is still a tightly held thing we don't
want to tell anybody but we also don't want you getting deployed or sent into a training
environment where you won't be able to get reached because the day was still not set
after the president called me and I told him yep that's fine don't worry about it I got
all that handled and hung up hung up honor and then immediately deployed on what would
be one of my last orders.
Well the logistics always work out and there is a lot of logistics to get you friends family
members of the unit into Washington for this tell us a little bit about that.
So when we finally got warned hey you need to be in at the White House on this day we
had about 10 days I think to get it done and the Army decided I needed to wear the new
service uniform the AGSU and I didn't have it and they had a piece of it that would fit
me at somewhere at an O base almost completely across the United States.
And let me say you're not you're not a small you're not a small guy.
I'm not a small guy I got big feet apparently but they put one together my boots actually
came in the evening before the ceremony and the honor guard from Arlington they took turns
polishing my boots for me so that I could sleep but the first time I ever put that uniform
on was about an hour before I went to the White House.
Those are the little back room things none of us see but you do get to be in the back
room and talk to the president a little bit before they open those doors and all the lights
are on and the nerves really run how was meeting the president?
You know it was it's amazing whether he's whether you voted for him or not if you're
if you're meeting the president of the United States and you're not just odd you know I
challenge you how patriotic you are so it was really neat the president and the first
lady were you know very gracious to us and treated my family like a million bucks and
uh and you know he was late because of uh an engagement obviously the president was
busy and so we got to just kind of wander around the White House unsupervised for a
few hours uh which my uh my daughter took full advantage of.
Yeah she's got selfies and probably uh you know maybe a maybe a White House ash trainer
purse at that point.
Well she's this is a really neat sword it's George Washington sword.
So I want to talk about you used this word earlier and so I'm going to bring it back
to you and you said hey I was terrified to wear the Medal of Honor that that continues
to kind of roll around in your brain until it's probably becomes a bigger deal and when
they finally put the medal on you where were you in that process were you still terrified
asking yourself do I measure up just like you asked yourself when you jumped into the
Marines?
I mean I still do you know there's a Medal of Honor Society and we have a convention
uh at least once a year and and uh every time I walk into that room with the other recipients
um it's always stunning to me that I blog in there with them um and uh it's uh I think
the Medal it's it's definitely one of those things um you know my actions in 2013 got
me nominated for but you you feel compelled to earn that thing every day.
One of the things once once you have been bestowed this honor it's sort of like a knighthood
I think everybody looks at you differently and and um I know that you were a former student
athlete uh in high school you have an opportunity to talk to a lot of young men and women uh
because of this honor tell us how you wear this responsibility on a daily basis.
So I always try to be uh I try to be a good steward of the profession you know the profession
of arms.
I served for you know 24 years 11 months and I was I was proud the day I put on the uniform
and it was just as proud the day I took it off and uh and I think the country is worth
fighting for and worth sacrificing for and uh the only thing I can do at this point is
serve as a role model for people to emulate that behavior um and you know I like to educate
that you build the country the country doesn't build you and and you don't need a uniform
to serve the country so if uh if something needs fixing don't look around for somebody
else to do it um you know roll your sleeves up get your hands dirty and solve the problem
and make your country a better place.
Earl one of the things I've seen you say in the press before is about the importance of
a positive mentor.
Can you can you elaborate on that both in your own life but but as importantly for our
younger generation?
Yeah I mean a positive role model or mentor you find somebody that you want you want to
emulate somebody you want to be um and they've already made all the mistakes they can they
can explain how things work uh what to expect and how to do do the job better and a role
model and a mentor um if they're genuine should always want to see you surpass them
and uh and once you get one it's just it's such a rewarding experience to be on either
side of that relationship and uh I never um I always I always feel uh sad for somebody
that never had a mentor to kind of help them figure out the best way to get to where they're
going and then for also you know if if you've uh if you've mastered a profession and you
really don't get to uh go hands on with someone and and make them the best person that they
could be that's that's its own reward that you're missing out on.
You've also made and we're talking to uh master surgeon Earl Plumlee retired middle
of honor recipient you've also talked about the role the national guard plays in in bridging
the gap between the military and civilian worlds and then a time where patriotism seems
to wane recruiting seems to be down talk to us about the importance of bridging that gap.
So the national guard is just such a great touch point for the federal government the
state government and the civilian population.
They truly are the the bridge you know when you see the when you see somebody in uniform
you you know you kind of understand what they are but a national guard that's that's somebody
from your community that has chosen to take time out of their life to be there and you
know in Oklahoma every time there's a national disaster or a tornado one of the first things
that happens is they activate the national guard and get them out there to help those
communities recover and I think it's important that's that's something that the country owes
you and that's something as a people we owe the country is to be that person that says
I know it's not safe yet but I'm going to go out there and make it a little bit better.
We want to thank Master Sergeant Earl Plumlee Retard from the United States Army, a Medal
of Honor recipient for taking some time to talk to Veterans Radio today.
Thank you so much.