This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.

And today we have a story of friendship from a former Marine, Jason Porter.

Here's Jason with a story of his best friend, Forrest Johnson, aka Fari.

I used to go to breakfast several times a week right over here at the Red Hot Inn. And he was always there

every single day at a certain time. And he sat by himself and he had a hat on. And it said

95th infantry on it. And it had a, you know, you see veterans wear pins and stuff on their hat,

but he had a combat infantryman's badge on his pin.

And I knew he was a World War II veteran.

And I observed him for several weeks or months, never talked to him.

And finally, I'm like, I got to go talk to this guy.

We spent a ton of time just talking, drinking coffee.

And through that, he brought me to the veterans group.

And this veterans group was very unique when I got there because I was by far the youngest

guy there.

Most of them were all World War II veterans.

I'm actually seeing guys here at this group.

Like you would read about just incredible events that you would see on the history channel or study about. These guys

were actually there. So I met guys who actually landed at Iwo Jima, who actually parachuted in

on Normandy on D-Day. There was a guy who was on the USS Indianapolis.

I met guys who unlocked the gates at Docow. These are the kind of guys I got to meet there.

And they talked among veterans, among friends, among peers, unvarnished. And these guys are really the greatest generation, my heroes.

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