intervene to say just uncle steve is a good story big boy because this is my buddy max famous financial guru and will she's a little bit different. there well no one knows the last but not least my larger than life. knight and aspiring star rio. with all the drama happening in our country i'm shooting the road to have some fun. meet every day americans. and what's america. and see how things got so crazy i was naked. he did the right thing to hopefully start to bridge the gap this is the great american pill.

it's day two in new england and steven makes his way to a historic restaurant to meet with a local vietnam veteran and a single father who is had more than a few obstacles to overcome come on come on. we're going to go say hi. good afternoon gentlemen how are you doing good what's your name. i'm steve just a real. piece pretty cool ah. you guessed. history a city. you can tell they're really impressed well you want to ask but they need some help when you take him for a walk. thanks buddy yeah. he can probably go right down there by the water. and bruce jr and rio set off to have some good clean fun.

well you do it so bruce as i understand it the old no here is one of your frequent hangouts of my correct yes well. you're like me brother. you're a little smarter than maybe you look. back you know this is heaven yeah it is beautiful it's fantastic told me some more about this neighborhood this town we've been mean some of the folks and just the folks in massachusetts just seem so nice so nice that they have the self-proclaimed nickname mask. west minister of the town it's very nice it's. very quiet small town as you see right now it's very quiet peaceful well as are you too except for that. people got to eat burgers yes they did. were you born i was going nine hundred forty eight forty eight i was born in sixty six. close. nineteen

fifty eight forty eight all not even close. to the reason i'm just the host of the program yep we can agree more when you go to school. in lexington school system graduated then got drafted it was nineteen i was drafted nine hundred sixty eight read i school. no kids i was too. drifted right into the military one nine hundred sixty eight take me through after the draft tell me the story i was drafted in the spring i went through basic training i went down to fort dix new jersey then i was in fort bliss texas far in advance individual training and went from there to california and shipped soviet all in the same year and what. aspect of the military was it was in the me i was in

small it's a little. thing called quad fifties it was cool fifty caliber machine guns mounted on the turret which was on the back of a deuce of a half or five ton i know dennis. and what division were you in and all that she battery sixty fifth that till. now where did you go first a bit no denying then i was shipped up to. and everywhere you went it was just nuts . i was on the front line ninety percent of my time. i was in ash valley i don't know if you ever heard of hamburg until. i was on eagle's nest which overlooked the valley we were surrounded one night and they brought off the magic dragon puff the magic dragon. that was a c one thirty seven napalm c one thirty had many guns and the

whole underneath of the c one thirty. pm nation. told you was just too dangerous to shoot and push everybody back to protect you guys you know they shot all night and then when they ran out of ammunition they brought in cobras then they shot. they were our only protection. and then i guess they drove the v.c. away and then they went up i think to hamburger hill and then that's when that whole fiasco studded they're both hamburger hill. and then were you outside of the hamburger hill sonority or did you have miles away. they had us around if it wasn't for the air force come in there with puffs and helicopters with. us and now they feel. i don't know couple of miles away that was overrun before i came out to this. particular. position. they

lost almost everybody on that hill and then of course hamburger hill that was a massacre. we lost guys there did we hear a lot of your guys in all the movement all this were were ok yeah we just hunkered down and lucky. hey man. i don't believe in luck. i believe in god. absolutely now let's check in with real to see how they're doing on their. looks like it's going. tell me the story you had some problem with a fellow soldier we were out on. had been. placed on the side of the mountain they give you fifty thousand. now that it.

was at that time we had taken. the. hit. they were better and i was the only one left so they had the guy. as a. top of my helmet and told. he. yeah. yeah. yeah. yeah. and did he respond yeah good yeah see now it just goes to show you bruce these days you want to just give your kid a little spank on the bottom in the twenty first century there's probably better

ways to discipline your children what i do is take the phone away or the tablet works even better yeah every day and you don't whack little bruce on the head with a tablet. better when you're in somebody else's easy to hit somebody else's then you know you should probably avoid that as well my question is so. with you and your comrades who are over there what do you do for down playing cards yeah basically. when we had the opportunity of sleep because they would attack at night . and we would sleep during the day no kid night you could smoke because that would be zero in for the be a cause to shoot at you when they see the cigarette they see the flash and they just shoot. yeah and they shoot at that point so at night even if you smoke you smoke like this. so that they couldn't see the cigarette because that

lights up a dead giveaway that could have been a big problem yes but script now. eighteen years. you're a smart man. either they're doing laps around the restaurant or the only travel twenty feet in that time. a lot of famous movies about vietnam. in this one movie that shows like this helicopter come in for some entertainment for the troops you know him or experience one of them no. i'm sorry i haven't the only thing i bring the playboy bunnies into hamburger hill i know what they did was they brought to us so girls in to opposition. for i guess a half an hour and we're just stared in from like a hundred yards away you know we got to talk with them and they just were nice and

they were just nice and we just like sit down and just having a conversation so to speak because we didn't have anyplace else to go actually because the position we were at was on top of a mountain. and then they. lifted back out. how long were you. active in vietnam that was the first tour i was always only there for one tour i extended my time so i could get an early out of the service i stayed fourteen months total because they only had two years of the service if you had eighteen months when he returned to the united states to get out of the mess which i had enough. but she did just got lucky and just did what i was supposed to i did the last two months. running the what we used to call the and the light the showers. were sent me as well as out houses

and they had. fifty five gallon drums cut in half in under me and that's where you went to the bathroom they had holes in the out. that was my duty the last two months. so you finished up the eighteen months. go lucky i got home and nine hundred seventy tell me about that. word that we got when we were still in vietnam as he didn't want anybody to know where you came from. because it wasn't a very popular. so what got my tickets. when i had my uniform on and then i took my uniform off. and got on the plane went home. i called my family from boston and they came up and got me. obviously there's

a lot of bad memories. associated with that being an unpopular war. so how long after you got home could you even start saying yeah i was i was i'm a veteran i fought in vietnam. i would say. up until a couple years ago. when i was a child small seemed wrong. just don't call. me. yet to shape our lives just to become educated and indeed equals betrayal.

when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. the way to the united states is dangerous for moost of the illegal immigrants. crossing. the road a simple they want to. put as many of them look for refuge in the so-called sentry sites the drifter used to share information about undocumented migrants with federal authorities any person as fans. want to see them or you know i didn't have my son i get them in a lot of class and i want that. they had a lot of the options to stay in the country with donald trump in the.

food impulse response both of you out there to do the hope of the. bush jr coming into your life and then how that's affecting things up until now well it's been your single dad he has had some problems and that's why he's with me it's just been tough to. take care of him and then having cancer. my goodness you know cancer when i was in the service. i was exposed to agent orange. how long after that did you find out about i just found out. to see both a year and a half ago you were exposed to agent orange fifty years ago yeah so it was in my body all that time i didn't know. i just couldn't sleep one night when in the hospital. they did

a bunch of blood tests and they came up with the fact that i had bone cancer. told me that. i had only a year to live because it was stage four he asked me if i had been in the service and i told yes then i wanted to know what. branch were you when i said i me he asked me was vietnam i said yes he said agent orange i said really didn't look good i had stage four and i had to go in the chemotherapy treatments and. i guess the chemotherapy can really mess up my course toxic process and i was at the point where i didn't know who i was aware of it was i was double checking everything i was doing because i was you weren't sure if you forgot yeah i thought maybe i didn't have all the time and sort of dementia because my memory wasn't there how will you sixty nine i'm fifty one. and i got the worst dang memory

bruce no kidding you just asked him that ten minutes ago if my kids and my wife make fun of me. i'm fifty one i'm going lord what lives did you just prayed outside yeah it's a a it's a you worry about it's a little bit so in the times you got we got more to be worried about so we forget more yeah. and how you doing today good it's been four months since they had a stem cell transplant today. the technology they have the stem cell transplant says if i was diagnosed ten years ago would have been a death sentence what did you learn about that how did it help you in addition to maybe normal chemo or any of that you go through an awful lot to get the stem cell done i went into the hospital they cut in neck and they put a tube down and they had three poor. so that they don't have to keep sticking you

when you're in rusk but i had to lay in a bed for about six hours. and the pump blood through a machine just goes in a circle and they take the stem cells out and they put them in a bag and then they freeze it. and then when you go to have the transplant i had three days of chemotherapy high dose chemotherapy then they take the stem cells so far out of them and then they put the stem cells back in chemotherapy kills all disease and all the cancer in your body after that when they put the stem cells back in those stem cells a cancer free to right so that when they put it back in. their strength and because the cancer has been beat back so what helps your bones get healthier and stronger faster is the rejuvenated stem cell yes. man in that some.

yeah it is if i told you. back from vietnam we could do something like that you were to believe why would i believed i had cancer in the first place through veterans affairs and all that you have everything you needed you were taken care of no i had to fight for everything. as i've been going it took me quite a while to get recognition stating the fact that yes we acknowledge that you were exposed to agent orange in vietnam and that's what's caused the cancer and that you are one hundred percent disabled. and they finally recognize the fact. that's when i received my first check. and they're going to cover all those costs. i go to fish which is the next town over. go to the v.a. and they take care of anything and everything. that's the way it should be my

friend. so is it accurate to say it's been four months you've been cancer free yes. that's. right well i've notice within the last. months as i progress on my treatment. what a difference i can now balance my check. i got lucky again somehow. miraculously the cancer didn't come soon or just happen to come out whenever it came out like fifty years later so you can immediately go in and get the treatment you needed so that. ten years ago they would have been able to do what they don't want to they know. it's nice to since. you're at a place of peace it seems to me like you're content you're ok with it now you can

just. do your best to take it one day at a time and stay in the solution. so to speak. as we wrap up our interview with bruce. stephen is distracted by a sound that's due to the smart. these bikers are on a pilgrimage of their own and worked up quite the appetite. and it looks like bruce jr has finally gotten tired of walking steven's dog. my friend right. here is here is my man real. things bruce and you guys do to hang out a little bit if you like my body real he's the prince of the pilgrimage. you come sit here young man thank you so much. god bless you guys don't get up bruce you get to shake hands with the rio de janeiro. i'll see you take care. you too buddy.

good afternoon how you all do on a nice day for a bike ride a heard the engines a little bit ago i used to ride bikes and i was younger i'm steve baldwin but your name from my signature or your what your sweater all about offering stealth a time when he takes shelter dogs and train them thank him and see what an hour and a sensor right yeah that's just totally cool i've heard of service dogs for vets but i never heard of what work is shelter dogs being you know taken out cared for trained what's the name of the organization reapers more cycle we're in boston massachusetts or well tell me more about delta docs actually have a brochure for me but today oh well there's a bed for operation doctor that we actually are innocent charity we're going today to raise money for the our our children station on both which will be presented to

them. i'm going to stay. where they have more of their larger events to be old school to the support of the beautiful so today's the blue refers to a bike ride as a fundraiser for operation delta dot correct how many bikers are on the run twenty one beautiful i think it's so amazing i would love to hear more about it if it's already you guys have a safe ride and circle back with you on this one later stuff and i'll be in touch and appreciate it thank you very much you. have to meet with us learning about the long term effects of the vietnam war and also can you ready the other group of veterans who are sponsoring a charity that's close to students' heart it's time for steven to hit the road and meet back up with max who was filming with kaiser. and with our heroes reunited they head into being in town to learn what it means to be boston strong. next time

on the great american pilgrimage there were two of our friends who are running the marathon and we still heard the first bomb go off and how it sounded like a cannon going on a few minutes later the second one off the building. is saw people just running running and people with blood were like what the hell is going on you know when i took the picture of the two the two brothers were in the picture. yet. i still have a you want to see it. everyday

. join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. don't accept the slow drivers will start right to be a little bit it's. the speed. of television way to u.s.c. . and i almost thought i would love me. one of them somebody you know how

does know it's a mask you never know what's happening and what they're shooting with vertica. mistrust out of. love a kind of sad but it. was. also to me you must be just like you know that into you but i'm addicted to sit with your middle class and in the muslims well he's going to win the. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront let it be an arms race in this offense very dramatic development only closely and going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk.

unfortunately the united nations security council in his approach to yemen is going into this into the speech of envoys that affords as many months or two months and then that is into tubes when weeks of their own i mean that imminent to be presented to the security council would make statements which are always ready to.