Legion of Brothers Page #4

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And that's

just the way we are.

That's the way

this group of ladies are.

- Bounce back.

You know, they teach you that

in the q course.

They teach you that in

ranger school, in sere school.

You just have to bounce back.

So I regrouped,

took a deep breath, and...

We're about to go into battle.

- Morning wood.

- I wish we had that...

The froth, you'll see.

- Yeah, whatever.

- Worth $7 a cup.

I want to do something, man.

- You know there's

gonna be a fight.

What are you gonna do,

slap each other?

There's a breaking of a wrist,

A breaking of a finger

that's on you.

There's a chewing

of a nose off.

- We hit one of the compounds,

And you could just tell

right away, you know,

That it was gonna be

a difficult hit.

- They're on building one.

- You had less than one hour

From the time

you left the helicopter,

Because if you weren't on

the helicopter in another hour,

They would fly off for 24 hours,

and you had to stay there.

- Unlike you, we didn't have

any afghani counterparts.

We were--it was us,

on our own,

And we were out

in bad guy country

With no support.

- And we breached

into the house,

And it's all squishy

and everything.

We're walking around,

we're like, "what he heck?"

Well, at the time,

we didn't realize

That they didn't have beds

or furniture.

They just piled rugs.

So we're under night vision.

You could barely see anything.

Your eyes were going glean.

And on the floor,

you saw some movement,

You know, squirming,

like, "what the heck?"

I was a big guy then,

And tony was twice as big as me.

We're looking,

and all of a sudden,

We see two little hands come up

from this blanket

And lift it over,

And looks up

and sees green little eyes,

And she sits up for second,

squeezes her eyes like this.

And I'm like...

You know, you don't want

to say nothing,

Because her dad could be

in the next room.

We all got kids.

Imagine your girl

starts screaming.

So all of a sudden, she did.

She started screaming

and going nuts.

We're like...

- Yeah, yeah, "be quiet."

- So I pick her up.

Starts screaming even more.

One of the other rooms

had caught fire.

So now she's really

screaming and going crazy.

- We could hear it

over the radio.

- Yeah, so you could

hear it on the--

- And I'm like--

'cause we were outside.

- We were all

on different houses.

- Yeah, we were outside

in a gunfight.

- I remember I had

a baby ruth bar,

So I reach in my pocket,

I pull out a little

baby ruth bar.

I'm like--you know,

she doesn't know what candy is.

Going like this,

And she's screaming and turning

her head and everything.

I put it on my lips,

and I put it on her lips,

And she licks her lips,

and she's like, "huh?"

I came around the corner,

Where they were kind of lining

up some other family members.

And I come out of the darkness.

And I think it was

rodney trosco at the time,

Going, "what the f***

are you doing?"

You know, "put the kid down.

We're in a gunfight over here."

I'm like, "I don't know."

I got the rest of my tattoo

colored in.

- Did you really?

Wow, I haven't.

I need to get some more...

One of the big things

about combat

Is being able to

keep your emotion in check.

A lot of people say that

we don't have emotions anymore.

Well, maybe it's

because we're good

At controlling our emotions

And not letting our emotions

overtake everything else.

- Because you suppressed

all those emotions

So much and so long,

You don't know what you're

supposed to be happy for

Or sad for anymore.

Zero emotions,

across the board.

I don't get overly happy.

I don't get overly sad.

I don't get overly excited.

And it, you know,

becomes a big burden

For the family, too, because

they don't know where I'm at.

"did I do a good thing, dad?"

"of course, I love you,

way to go."

- My name is bill howell,

nice to meet you.

Yeah, I worked with jefferson.

I'm a special forces guy.

- Oh, you are?

- Yes, ma'am.

I worked with him there

in 5th group.

Fix the bike,

put it back together,

Get it running, yes, sir.

- That's it, right there.

- Holy--look at that.

September '02.

To be able to do this

for jesse is awesome.

- You know, he was man

that could walk in the room

And tell you how it is.

That's the way the bike is;

it's loud.

You feel it, you know,

the engine was strong,

Just like my father.

- Y'all want to try

to push it back?

- In my head, that emulates

everything my father was

And what I missed about him.

- I mean, there's no way

That anyone could

ever replace his dad,

But if each one of us

can give him a little something

Of what j.D.'s not able to,

Then I believe we're

doing our job as brothers.

I would have never wanted

to be my wife.

I wouldn't have wanted

to be one of my sons.

Back and forth, back and forth,

Not knowing

if you're gonna come home,

Somebody else getting killed.

What kind of--

what kind of father was I?

I was young.

Very hard.

Very mean.

It's the whole intimacy

of family,

That I didn't have it

when I was a green beret,

'cause I was

a good green beret.

Did a lot of things wrong.

Good lord.

And if I could, I'd do

a lot of them different.

I'd sure be a better father

and a better husband.

You know, it's just--

What can you do,

But try to learn

and move forward, you know?

- Is that dad?

- That's dad.

- I just don't believe it.

- I remember when my dad

initially got his paperwork

About how he's gonna be

the team sergeant of 574.

And that was honestly

my dad's biggest dream,

To be a team sergeant.

- Doing the tobacco.

- Working the tobacco field.

- Yes.

That's a real scorpion

right there.

- He left, and then...

It felt...

Normal again in the sense

that that's what he did.

He would leave

and go do his work,

And we would all be here.

Go to school.

And then he would come back

in six or nine months.

We would see him again.

- This is the first letter

I received from him.

"hello, sweetheart.

"today is the 31st of October.

"this has been hardest trip

for me.

"I really didn't want to go.

I just didn't want to leave

you and the kids."

- I've never read it.

- I kept it for you.

- His love for family

Extended to how

he treated the team.

It was an extension

of his family.

- He was a good team sergeant.

He was rather soft-spoken.

He was like a big bear,

until...

Until you pissed him off,

and he'd, you know...

We didn't piss him off a lot.

- The anti-taliban forces

appear to be closing in

On the taliban stronghold

of kandahar.

- Talks on afghanistan's future

began this morning.

- A 44-year-old pashtun

tribal commander, hamid karzai.

- After tarin kowt,

There were all these

terrific indicators

That we had the taliban scared.

- We'd go through a village

and not even fire a shot.

These guys would

come out of the woodwork.

And you--you would be amped up.

You'd be like, "wup, wup."

You know, you're about

ready to shoot.

You know, they'd be like,

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