Vietnam Veteran Colonel Nelson Modrall | Mike Ritland Podcast Episode 118
Mike Drop
Mike Ritland
4.9 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2022
⏱️ 153 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Who is Nelson Modrall? He's a former teacher, Silver-Star Colonel, and he just so happens to be the very first Vietnam Veteran to ever grace the Mike Drop studio. That's why Mike's sitting down with him to talk about his tour in the ill-fated country - the tunnels, the injuries, and all the Agent Orange you could stand. What did Nelson find out there in the jungle? Tune in to find out.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:00 - Platoon and Forrest Gump
03:30 - Expert Marksmanship
06:30 - The Case for Christ
08:30 - Morning Routine
10:00 - Born and Raised in Saginaw, Michigan
12:30 - Anticipating Vietnam
16:30 - Ukraine & Russia
19:30 - Collegebound
25:00 - In the Army Now
31:30 - Draft Recruits
34:00 - Landing in Vietnam
36:30 - My First Mission
47:30 - Finding the Hidden Enemy
52:30 - Going Loud
59:30 - Agent Orange
1:01:30 - Ambushing the Ambushers
1:06:00 - Fighting the Jungle
1:16:30 - Injured by Contact
1:27:30 - A Field Hospital in Saigon
1:33:30 - Lasting Injuries
1:38:30 - Recovering Stateside
1:42:30 - Chasing the Aviator
1:44:30 - Aviation Intelligence Officer
1:54:00 - Missions In Flight
1:04:00 - On Leaving Vietnam
2:09:00 - The Vietnam Memorial
2:11:00 - Teaching the Next Generation
2:18:00 - Strategic Intelligence
2:20:30 - Bucket-List Items
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | That's basically at Mike. |
| 0:02.0 | They were called Surption Destroy and very interested in body count. |
| 0:09.0 | Technology back in the 1960s when I was commanding the Ecclatoon has changed so much. |
| 0:17.0 | You know the jungle, nothing ever dies in the jungle. |
| 0:20.0 | It's always hot, it's always raining. |
| 0:22.0 | Nothing dies, little H and Horn kills the jungle. |
| 0:25.0 | It was difficult to find them, tunneling. |
| 0:28.0 | They were experts at it building even hospitals under the ground. |
| 0:33.0 | They were very good at hiding. |
| 0:35.0 | Basically when you control the air and you have E-52 strikes, arc lights going in, they don't want to be found. |
| 0:43.0 | When the reporters showed up in your base camp and early in the morning, they'd been to the briefing and say, |
| 0:49.0 | I got it and you knew if you were going on patrol, reporters are there for a reason. They expect you to have contact. |
| 0:57.0 | So you take a good drink coffee in the morning and say, |
| 1:00.0 | It's good to go time. |
| 1:02.0 | Yeah, it's a good time. |
| 1:03.0 | We're probably going to find something to do. |
| 1:06.0 | Welcome to Mike Drop, the podcast where relevancy is irrelevant and we don't give a shit about your feelings. |
| 1:21.0 | Ladies and gentlemen, as always, it's both an honor and a pleasure to welcome my next guest to the podcast. |
| 1:27.0 | You spent a total of 26 years as a Marine Army infantry officer and an aviator, |
| 1:33.0 | multiple branches serving multiple combat tours in Vietnam. |
| 1:38.0 | He's been given the silver star, the brown star with a V. |
| 1:42.0 | He spent time at the Pentagon and the Navy yard as an analyst with working with the DIA and CIA. |
... |
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