Podbit · The Shawn Ryan Show
Clark typically carried 400 rounds of M60 ammunition on top of the gun itself. His team was supposed to be five men — but often it was just him. He never had a spare barrel, so when the gun went white-hot he'd pee on it or pour a canteen to cool it down. His .45 was so neglected it rusted shut the one time he needed it. He carried a K-Bar and a Bible wrapped in plastic.
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At 1:12:30 · chapter starts 1:08:20
In the aftermath of Troy Bridge, Clark begins volunteering for 3-man killer teams assigned to stop NVA death squads that were beheading village chiefs' children to enforce rice quotas. These tiny units moved silently where platoons could not. The most harrowing episode comes when a patrol expecting a small enemy squad suddenly finds itself paralyzed as 200+ NVA soldiers file past within arm's reach [1] — Johnnie Clark "On a 3-man killer team ambush, Clark's squad expected a small enemy patrol. Instead, over 200 NVA soldiers marched within inches of their p…" 1:19:10 . One Marine had already pulled the pin on a grenade in anticipation of a fight; when the column finally passed, he released the spoon in relief, detonating it harmlessly beside them. Clark also recounts his first confirmed kill — lingering at the body of an NVA officer long enough for the moment to carve itself into memory — and the chapter he calls 'Mercy Killing': a female NVA soldier with a skull cracked open by grenade concussion, still breathing, her full ID later recovered by a sergeant who showed it to Clark 30 years later at the Big Red memorial.
On a 3-man killer team ambush, Clark's squad expected a small enemy patrol. Instead, over 200 NVA soldiers marched within inches of their position. One Marine had already pulled the pin on a frag grenade thinking they'd have to fight out. When the column finally passed, he let go of the spoon in relief — setting off a grenade right beside them. Nobody got hurt. Everybody wet themselves.
During a 3-man killer team ambush, over 200 NVA soldiers walked so close that Clark could smell garlic and see their Ho Chi Minh sandals — and none of the Marines dared fire or move.
After 17 straight days of combat contact, Clark was dozing on ambush when he heard the Young Rascals playing 'In the Midnight Hour' — and thought he was dreaming about home. Then an NVA soldier, already shot by a teammate, tumbled on top of him. The enemy was carrying a boombox tuned to Armed Forces Radio Network, which played that song every night at midnight. Clark reached his K-Bar. Decades later, he told the story to Felix Cavaliere of the Young Rascals at a party.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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