Combat Story

Join our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan for people who love and support our veterans, service members, and their families. It has info on a significant event in military and/or intel history, a funny military joke, an update on a current event I'm following, something I'm doing that week in my life, a book I'm reading, a look at an upcoming interview, a reflection on a past episode and more! Jimmy Settle is a retired Air Force Pararescueman ("PJ") credited with saving 38 lives and assisting in saving 28 others in combat, in addition to saves in the Alaskan wilderness. He racked up over 270 combat search and rescue hours in Afghanistan, where he earned an Air Medal with Valor for his life saving heroics and a Purple Heart after being shot in the head (and returning to combat 24 hours later). Jimmy catalogues these and other near death experiences in his book, "Never Quit: From Alaska Wilderness Rescues to Afghanistan Firefights as an Elite Special Ops PJ," where he shares the friendships, hardships, pranks, and events that changed his life, from being an elite athlete competing at the Naval Academy to completing the daunting PJ pipeline to live saving ops in the most austere environments. 5:47 - What is a PJ and the military's pararescue. 13:33 - Introduced to PJ by Chris Robertson. 19:43 - "Cardiac Event" aka the first (of many) near death experience. 27:56 - "19 year old decision" to leave the Naval Academy after invasive surgery on the heart. 30:46 - The PJ "Pipeline" of elite training, INDOC (80%+ attrition rate), Combat Divers Course, Airborne, Free Fall, SERE, Pararescue EMT and Apprenticeship. 48:05 - "Cones" aka unfortunate trainees going through the pipeline (better than a Toad, not yet a Maroon Beret). 50:17 - Covertly free climbing Fort Benning's 250' Jump Towers for a prank. 52:48 - The "Green Feet" image used by PJs, an homage to Vietnam helos. 58:13 - The first time working on a live patient (intubation) in Philadelphia in a paramedic apprentice program. 1:05:51 - The first rescue from an aircraft as a PJ in Alaska at night in the wilderness to help a woman who had an accident with an ATV, chainsaw, and a scalping. 1:09:51 - Another near death experience while training in Alaska's Cook Inlet at night. 1:27:29 - Supporting Operation Bulldog Bite in Kunar province, Afghanistan in November 2010. 1:29:21 - Another near death experience getting shot in the head. 1:36:29 - Going back into combat 24 hours after being shot in the head to rescue dozens of people. 1:48:48 - Saving two soldiers on a chopper and thinking, "This is my purpose in life." 1:49:17 - Losing memory after getting shot in the head and how it creeped in "insidiously." 1:53:12 - Describing the difficulty in transitioning from the service to the civilian world and the loss of identity. 1:56:36 - Living in a car in the Commissary parking lot until a senior enlisted airmen intervened. 2:02:06 - "Without hesitation" would do it again.

Join our weekly Combat Check-In Newsletter (www.combatstory.com/newsletter) to get a short email from Ryan for people who love and support our veterans, service members, and their families. It has info on a significant event in military and/or intel history, a funny military joke, an update on a current event I'm following, something I'm doing that week in my life, a book I'm reading, a look at an upcoming interview, a reflection on a past episode and more! Vince "Snapper" Sherer is a retired Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt "Warthog" fighter pilot. Over a 20 year career, he flew 300 combat missions and logged 1,300 combat flight hours in the A-10 and MC-12 across four deployments to Afghanistan. Vince supported troops in contact at danger close range, at times without a wingman, over a decade of evolving combat and technological change. He's the personification of the A-10 pilot and gives an inside look at what combat felt like from the cockpit. Another great set of stories from Vince can be found here on Task and Purpose. 1:57 - Call sign "Snapper" comes from the Sensitive New Age Pilot moniker (Urban Dictionary link). 4:57 - The inspiration to fly came from time with a sibling and watching Top Gun. 7:02 - A key tragic and defining moment with a significant accident in the family. 10:32 - Flying for the Navy or Air Force? 12:22 - Competition and path to get from college into the aircraft you want. 22:17 - Stereotype of the "Hawg" (A-10) pilots, F-16s, F-15s, etc. 24:20 - Hardest part of his Air Force career at Sheppard AFB. 27:22 - First flight in the A-10. "The better your preparation, the less your anxiety." 31:50 - T-38 second hardest aircraft to land in the Air Force (hardest is the U-2). 33:24 - How to do a checkride in a single-seat aircraft? 36:52 - First combat flight was September 2005 in Afghanistan in a Squadron led by now Senator Martha McSally. 40:40 - Normal weapons load in combat on an A-10. 42:49 - A standard engagement planning and execution. 51:22 - First engagement while supporting a convoy that hit an IED in southern Afghanistan in Winter 2005. 57:01 - Engagement in 2014 on fourth deployment supporting Wing Staff at Bagram AFB and flying with 303rd Fighter Squadron from Kansas City. 1:01:01 - Near fratricide incident in combat until something didn't feel right. 1:07:11 - Carrying an American flag on each flight. 1:09:34 - Being in a unit with the first female A-10 Fighter Squadron Commander who flew in combat (Martha McSally). 1:13:32 - Advice on when to start flying in your life. 1:15:21 - Would you do it again? 1:16:39 - A great story about an A-10, a photograph, and the "south end of an unneutered bulldog." 1:19:51 - "I was so fired up that I got to go fly a jet again one more time."