Clay and Buck Say Thank You to All Veterans

CLAY: Right off the top here we want to honor all of you out there who are listening who are veterans who have helped to ensure that the United States is the greatest country that has ever existed in the history of mankind, and that we are able to enjoy the freedoms that we have because of the sacrifices of you and so many others out there.

Many of us out there have family members who have served. My most recent family member who served, my uncle, was in Vietnam, spent substantial time over there. And, Buck, right off the top here, we’re gonna get into a lot of different stories. The Kyle Rittenhouse trial is ongoing. The impact of inflation and the absolutely bonkers argument that spending trillions of dollars more on Joe Biden’s agenda is gonna somehow make things better.

One of the best days that I’ve ever gotten to experience in my life, I got to go to the beaches of Normandy. Several years ago, my wife set up an all-day tour and we took the whole family. We had a tour guide there in Normandy, ended up in the American Cemetery. It is, as a military history buff, an incredible experience because so much of that — beaches of Normandy, all of the areas that we stormed on D-Day, much of it — looks the exact same as it did then.

There are still German bunkers with the weapons inside of them. The farmland still exists much as it did 70 years ago. And when you stand on some of those bluffs and look down at the beaches, what those guys accomplished is truly almost unfathomable.

It’s even more impressive to have seen it in person, and I know you are a history buff as well. And so as we start off this day, this Veterans Day, it’s definitely a moment to ponder, think about, contemplate what everyone has given so that we have the opportunity and be able to have the freedoms that we have every single day.

BUCK: Absolutely, Clay. I remember being a CIA analyst deployed overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and spending a lot of time with military, including those who were going “outside the wire,” risks they were taking day in and day out. I was just there in a support role for them as a civilian. They would come back — and not all of them did come back, and they sometimes would come back with grievous wounds.

I was there when they were calling home to worried loved ones. I sat next to them in the mess hall. I sat next to them in Black Hawks and Humvees and was exposed to what they are having to carry, the burden that they deal with day in and day out as those actually wearing the uniform. They are the reason we have what we have.

I think we remember that now today, but I think we should remember every day. Without them, none of this — the show we do, the people that are living in unbelievable… I know we have a lot of the challenges we talk about on this show, and there are problems that America faces. And, yes, we are at a time when tyranny feels like it is rising, and it is rising, to be honest with you. But this is still, to Clay’s initial point, the greatest, freest country the world has ever known and it is because of — it is only possible because of — those who have worn the uniform. So a heartfelt thanks from both of us to all of you today.

CLAY: No doubt at all.