Oh man, Wow, every single story. I gotta tell you, we
honor our veterans every single Wednesday. Here with Wednesday's Hero brought to you by
a horse Soldier bourbon founded by members of US Special Forces ODA five ninety five,
first feet on the ground in Afghanistan after nine to eleven, and every
bottle forged in fire as the as it's pressed by the mold from the steel
of the original twin towers. Plus did I mentioned awarded double gold? It's
the best damn bourbon you have. And one of the horse Soldiers is actually
in the room with us in the studio. It's my dear friend Bob pennyfe
How you doing, Bob? You look terrific, man, look at you.
Thanks Joy had I appreciate you. So you're in town for this week.
By the way, if I know that Father's Day is in June,
but you what the perfect Father's Day gift? Get it now? I'm talking
about an autograph bottle from one of the hosts Horse Soldiers. Bob's going to
be out. I'm going to be with him tonight. As a matter of
fact, he will be at three pm to five pm at Fort Knox.
I guess on base signing bottles and then join Bob and myself tonight from six
thirty eight thirty at Kroger in Middletown Thursday tomorrow, who have just one stop
and that's Total Wine in the Paddocks from four pm till six pm and then
Evergreen Liquor tomorrow and Prospect four pm to six pm. But let's get right
to it, Bob, Yeah, go ahead. Let's make sure people buy
two bottles, one to drink and one to sit on the shelf. No,
that's what I did. Yeah, everyone wants to buy a bottle and
let it sit there. You have to enjoy this. Such a good bourbon.
Yeah, it really is. It really is such a great bourbon.
And we were, my wife and I were somewhat bourbon novice until we got
with you guys, and I got to tell you it's so enjoyable. It's
such a good bourbon and double Gold right, and we'd like to say it
doesn't suck. It doesn't. It doesn't, it doesn't suck. Uh.
You want to come out and meet Bob and again buy your bottles. Yeah,
Double Gold. Let's talk about the horse soldiers. You do? Are
you still doing your you would do things called whiskey and war talk or whiskey
and war stories. So you're still doing that. But let's go ahead and
go back to the beginning because you're the detachment commander at the time. We're
going back to September tenth, before nine to eleven. You're actually here in
Kentucky and you in a group, you go out on an exercise in the
Cumberland River. It's quite cold and coming back you almost get taken out by
a barge, right or I know that's is that right? Did we talked?
We didn't talk about this one, but I do my research, Bob
Enny. Let me tell you, manh yeah, last time you were fact
checking. Man. No, I'm not the fact checker. I tell you
you're doing it again. No, but listen, but it is and you
know the Cumberland River is actually fast flowing. Yeah, so even in September
it was really really cold water. And but that night we had a heavy
fog that came down on the river itself and we couldn't see ten feet in
front of us. Oh wow. We were on these these RB sevens.
We call them zodiacs. It's a rubber boat that we use for stealth infiltration
and it'll hold like twelve twelve men, twelve OHDA members, which is that's
what a team is, twelve men. And the rangers use it a lot
when they do boat ops. We use it a lot. And so we
had three of those boats and we're going down the Cumberland River. Fog has
set in, can't see ten feet in front of you, and there's a
Boston whaler that's actually leading the way for us, and we almost get taken
out by this huge barge. He blows his horn, you know who winks
us all up as we're screaming down this river. And finally we decide,
hey, look this is a bad idea. Let's uh, let's pull to
the side and dock. And so we pull on the banks and actually just
caught up some sleep. Yeah, but okay, but you're not prepared.
You're not prepared to stay. No, not at all. And it's cold.
And by the way, the bodies of those damn boats are illuminum,
right, they're illuminum, that's right, So they make it even colder.
Oh, it's a lot colder. Uh. And some of us brought and
some of us brought uh uh some warming gear. I had brought some gortex
jacket, jacket and pants, and uh, some guys had brought what we
call a wooby or a wooby. Yeah, it's like his blanket. That's
right, it's a puncho liner. It's for my wife. Never mind,
I got to go ahead, so you'll go ahead. So some of us
have brought stuff, and but others did not. They you know, it's
always that some guys think, you know, uh travel, travel, light
flight, you know. And so uh, after you know, we all
settle on the bank. Everyone's crashing and it's really cold and everyone's shivering.
And the next morning when I wake up, I happen to see my intel
Sergeant Andy Marshall, probably one of the greatest sergeants in Special Forces. Guy
has done, had a remarkable career. And I look over and I see
this, this pile of life preservers, life vests, and they're all tied
together and it's moving and I'm looking over and going, what the hell is
that? And I realized he's peering through one of the openings of the life
so he's trying to stay warm, and he's trying to stay warm. He's
got all these life preservers on top of it. He's using it as a
blaket. He goes, oh my god, it's so cold. But you
eventually make it back nine to eleven you find out, hey, this happens,
and nine to eleven. How soon after nine to eleven, because you
guys were picked out, specifically, I believe, on the fourteenth for this
mission, right, we were, and the mission itself was to conduct personal
recovery. That was the first mission, okay, And once we got into
country, they realized that the Air Force, the pair rescue guys could do
that mission, so they actually took that mission from us, So we didn't
really have a mission there, but because we had done extensive studies of the
area on our own, and one of the teams in fact, did fail.
When they did their brief back to the commander, they reached out and
they said, well, who's who's here? Who's ready to go? And
they said, well, A five ninety five has been here since the beginning.
They were tasked with this mission, and this mission was pulled away from
them, but they've been studying and training this entire time. And so then
Colonel Mulholland, he said, we'll bring him in here. Let's let's see
what they can do. And so we did our brief back to him and
also one of the CEA reps, and they loved what we talked about.
So, okay, here's what happens. Then correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm going off my own research. You guys take a helicopter into Afghanistan.
It's about a four hour flight. But the problem is the helicopter's flying in
a higher altitude than it's design for Number one, extremely dangerous correct number two.
When you get on it, you realize, well, there's no oxygen
and there's no heat, and so you're freezing your lack of oxygen. You
touched down in Afghanistan and a little groggy, I got to imagine, but
not to mention. Not to mention. You guys were up for about twenty
four hours before the flight to begin with. Right, that's correct. So
you get on this flight, lack of sleep, lack of oxygen. You
touch down Afghanistan as you and eleven other guys. What is that feeling like
when you see the helicopter take off and leave you in Afghanistan? Just you
and eleven men. And by the way, you're surrounded by people that hate
you and want to kill you, and you're isolated. Is this the worst
feeling in your life? Or does adrenaline just take over right then? In
there? Well, you're really focused. Yeah, there are thoughts that come
through your head. But all in all, the guys are focused. They
know what they have to do. They have to secure the area that they
land the drop zone or landing zone, and be prepared to meet their counterparts,
which was the CIA. And you know, you sit, you sit
there and you're praying for this guy to walk up. I bet right,
Oh yeah, yeah, no kidding. Okay, So so you're in Afghanistan
and but but here's here's something else. You know, when you go back
to the helicopter and the insertion piece, which to me, the most dangerous
part of the mission itself, is the insertion is coming in. And when
we started talking about weights, you know, the weight of each man and
and you know all the all the ammo he was bringing in, the frag
grenades, the water, the meals. Uh, and then we had body
armor and as they they the the commander of the ship itself he said,
hey, look we're we're way overweight. Uh, there's no way I can
get you up over the mountains. This is this is going to be an
ardwords twipp and so we ended up ditching the helmets and also the body armor.
Oh my god, So we I like to say, we go in
skinny. Of course. The good thing is is when we go in that
way, Yeah, we look like our counterparts, uh, and we fight
like them. And we built a lot of rapport that way because we had
no body armor whatsoever. Wow, And I think that was that was key.
And by the way, so your mission, and correct me again if
I'm wrong. Your mission is to find in Afghanistan, there's only twelve of
you guys, but you're you're tasked with getting twelve, for lack of a
better term, tribes, rebel tribes, four factions, four factions. I'm
sorry, I say twelve, that's four twelve, you're right, Okay,
no, no, But you were tasked to get four rebel factions that absolutely
hate each other, by the way, you're tasked to getting them to work
together as one unit with you guys in tandem and and disrupt a Taliban.
But the problem, if you asked me, as many times as we put
in and out of Afghanistan, that's got to be a difficult task, Bob,
know, Well, what makes special Forces. Unique is there were really
diplomats. You know, we're key of going into some countries and actually working
with the populace, UH, learning their culture and then talking talking to them
and and trying to work out a common goal is basically what we try to
do. And for us, you know, getting those four factions together that
was key. We actually had two meetings with the each each of the factions
and their commanders they're they're they're higher and UH and bringing them in the second
meeting was kind of was really key because that was that was before we were
going to take Mazar Sharif uh and capture that. But it was it was
very key. Uh. They had we had moved so fast and they were
they're really rare to go, but they wanted to go on their own and
we listen, let's we got to stay together here. When we first landed,
the army itself was probably about fifteen hundred. They had about one thousand
cavalry and about five hundred infantry, and once we brought all those factions together
to complete the mission, it was about five thousand. We had about three
thousand or thirty five hundred cavalry and the rest infantry we're getting close to a
break. I got to ask you this question real quick because the whole mission
is just absolutely unbelievable. But you get on the ground and you say to
your team about this, show no remorse and show no jubilation. That's correct.
Is it really that easy to compartmentalize stuff and viewed as a job?
Yeah? Where'd you read that one? At you? I do my research
job. Listen. If I got an interview like Bob Pennington and I'm doing
my work, baby, Yeah, I did say that you have to focus.
If I always I always looked at it as the enemy is watching us,
even from Afar, and if we if we show that we've got them,
you know, can I say that, Yeah, we've got the balls.
Yeah, we've got the bulls. Yeah. And they see it,
and there's no reaction to us that we are just there to sling and slay.
They take it. They'll look at it and go, holy crap,
these guys are not here to play. Hey, listen, it's Bob Pennington,
horse soldier Bourbon. Stick around more with Bob. And by the way,
if you're in Fort Knox three to five pm, get your bottle signed
by the Bob Pennington and also join me with Bob Pennington tonight at six thirty
to eight thirty krogerm mintal Town. Get two bottles, one signed and one
to drink. You're gonna love this bourbon and you're gonna love your Shady Rays.
Oh man. I was in there yesterday and bought two more per days.
How many now I'm up to thirty five pair right now. But listen,
Shady Rays is the perfect sunglasses for you. They're idiot proof, and
I'm an idiot. If you lose them, if you scratch them, if
you break them, if they're stole them, no matter what the reason,
they replace them. Plus, I want you to go by the Oxmore Center
and I want you to try specifically the color Rush. It's mine and Susan's
favorite, all of the colors. They just pop. There's so much more
vibrant when you have these sunglass on. Don't know about the technology, but
it works. Plus Shady Raised if you use code w h as you get
fifty percent off two or more pair. They're risks, they're wrisk free.
I gotta tell you you're gonna love your Shady Rais Shady Raise in the Oxmore
Center or shady raised dot Com stick around really in the years, then more
with Bob Pennington, Horse Sogier Bourbon, who's radio eight forty whas? What
kind of dumb ass doesn't name is horse? No kidding? Red one Bob
read one Bob and it's ready to eight forty wh as. That's Dave Jennings,
I'm Dwight Witten, and that's Alex and that's Bob Pennington, one of
the twelve Strong of Horse Soldiers. If you haven't seen the movie, watch
the movie, which, by the way, when that comes out, none
of your names or public knowledge. So do you go in a bar and
you go, hey, you know that movie twelve Strong's about me? And
no it's not. Then I get a big laugh and then you kill them.
Bob Pennington part of ODA five ninety five, first boots on the ground
in Afghanistan. Helicopter dropped off himn and eleven other guys, just twelve guys.
They were tasked with uniting four rebel factions that hated each other to fight
with them. It's an amazing story that three years, two to three years,
war planners said it will take to get this done. These guys get
it done in three weeks, absolutely amazing. But the part of horse soldiers,
why we have horse soldier Bourban is less than less than forty eight hours.
And by the way, just to recap, you've been up for twenty
four hours, prepping, packing, preparing for this trip. You got to
throw your body armor out the helicopter because it's too much weight. No,
we actually didn't even bring it, just bring it and bringing it all.
Okay, let's let's go throw it out. It's more excited. Let's see
that. See why. That's how rumors starting. I know you're right.
Yeah, yeah, you're right, but no kidding. So you hit the
ground. And by the way, it was less than forty eight hours.
They tell you, oh, your transportation is going to be horses. How
many of you I had horse experience? Fun for me, yeah I had
to. I always tell people I had quarter horse training. Oh no,
look at me, and they go, wow, that's great hor horse training.
I said, yeah, that's that horse in front of kmart where you
throw I had and you get bucked a couple of times. You get what
you're bucked. Okay, okay, you I'm watching you. I'm watching so
okay, but any rate, no kidding, though, they're not just horses.
They're stallions. They're stallions. If you know any thing about stallions,
If you have two stallions together, they're gonna fight each fight. And we
had that problem, did you all the time? Yes? What the thirty
stallions you all had? Is it awesome? I mean, how many?
There's twelve of you? I thought there were twelve stallions. No, there
was, but yeah, well other people from the factions. I mean I
guess there's oh there's well there's more. Yeah. Yeah, we're talking thousand,
thousands of horses. So you got this rugged and it's high altitudes,
rain, you're in the mountains, and some of these paths, you know,
you drop over and you're dead. Oh yeah. Are the horses biting
each other? Bucking each other? Well, you know when we were riding,
we call them goat trails, and they're about eighteen to twenty four inches.
Why that's it. And you're up you're riding, Uh, these these
goat trails going up these mountain sides two three thousand feet high. My gosh,
and if you were sweating, if that if that horse bucks, so
we had to try to keep space. If they bucked, they're taking you
down so our our sop for it, our standing operating procedure, was to
pull our pistol and shoot the horse. Serious we have. You had to
otherwise he'd drag us down, stomp on us, kill us. Okay.
So it's dangerous enough that you've got zero horse experience. You're on a stallion
around other stallius. So they're bucking, they're fighting, they're biting each other,
and they're biting me. Yeah. Wow, mine was reaching back and
biting me. He didn't like me too much. You know, here's a
guy who didn't like Bob Pennington. I'm about two hundred and thirty pounds.
Yeah, at that time, I have two percent body fat, and I'm
carrying all this AMMO and food and water, and this horse is pissed off
because I've just crushed his leg right exactly. And he's used to carrying an
Afghan who weighs about one hundred and thirty five hundred and forty pounds, and
he's got two magazines half full of AMMO. That's it. Wow, Wow,
Okay, I see why heves pissed. Yeah, I do too.
But it's dangerous not just hopping in a stallion, especially with zero experience,
but what kind of situation do you get At least, can you build rapport
with the stallion and you get the same stallion every day? Or is it
horse roulette? No, for most of us, it was horse roulette.
And the way it happened is one of the cavalry men would give us their
horse, and he would follow behind us on foot, and once we stop,
he'd take his horse, he'd feed it, cover it, you know,
put the blanket on it, and take care of it, and then
we'd get another horse the next day. Only Mark was the guy that,
because he was the commander, got the same horse, and over I got
screwed every day. It's so dangerous. Listen, if you haven't seen the
movie, twelve is strong. It's Bob Pennington and eleven other story I could
talk. I've literally got hours of notes about this mission is absolutely incredible.
But I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about this bourbon. Oh, we
got to talk about that. Oh. And by the way, if you
want to meet Bob Pennington and get an autograph bottle, you want a special,
a very special Father's Day gift that you can't get anywhere else, you
got it, you can get it tonight. Tomorrow or Friday as an autograph
bottle from one of the horse Soldiers, the Bob Pennington. He'll be at
Fort Knox today from three pm to five pm, six thirty, eight thirty.
I'll be with him tonight at Kroger Middletown Tomorrow Total Wine the Paddock from
four to six I'll be with Bob then two and then Friday Evergreen Liquors in
Prospects. Get two bottles, one signed as a gift and one to drink
because this stuff one double gold. Oh yeah, that's incredible. Oh yeah,
And you know, and here's the thing. All our SKUs, all
three of the skews one double gold the same year at the San Francisco competition,
which is the premier company. You got to be proud of that.
And here's why this the horse Soldier bourbon in story and there's you just go
to the website and read the story. It's not one of these deals where
a rock star says I want to run and they smack a name on it.
This was not pre prepared barrels. You all. Actually you went so
intense with this. You went to Ireland to see how Irish wissy was made.
That's correct, you went to uh Scotland to see how Scottish Scottish Scotch
you even worked? You all worked in warehouses? Or did you here in
Kentucky? We did. We we bottled ourselves. We we uh. We
actually put the labels on most of those labels that I put on our cricket.
So if you ever see one of those, is it true, by
the way, that you all wanted to know everything about it so much to
the point that you started making your own barrels? We we well, we
went we went to uh uh to study to make barrels. As far as
the barrels go for ours, we actually have a company that actually makes the
barrels for us, and they do a great job. Okay, now you
know, and what's weird about making barrels is you know we're kind of running
out of white oak. Yeah, you know, And that's it's it's I
know, it's not just ourselves, but other bourbon companies out there are looking
at the same thing. Dave, can you make a note and you and
I are going to start a white oak tree? Okay, yes, okay,
but I want to talk about because no kid, will you give me
a deal? Absolutely I will, But no, listen, this bourbon is
absolutely terrific the taste and it says forged in fire. And what's beautiful about
that is you guys actually honored the tragedy of September eleventh with the pressing of
this right. Talk about the steel and how that came about. Yeah,
that's the World Trade Center steel and the Port Authority guys actually took care of
us on that one. You know, back then when we were starting,
we we didn't have a whole lot of money. And the bottle molds for
pressing out a bottle is actually they're expensive. They're like sixty grand or yeah,
they're about they're close to sixty grand, and you need seven of those
for a rack. Oh wow, to produce bottles, you know, yeah,
quickly. Yeah. And so we were looking for this steel and we
just we found out the type of steel we needed was a very dense steel
and the Porterthorty guys had it and they had extra World Trades in Heer steel
and they said, would you guys like to have this? And they gave
us a couple of tons and I'll tell you we have plenty for years to
come. Well, I'll tell you this horse Soldier bourbon, best Dan bourbon
you're gonna get and the bottle is absolutely beautiful? Is that gorgeous? God?
So it's so beautiful now. Elizabeth Pritchett, who is John Coco's wife,
he or she did a phenomenal job designing that and putting it together for
us. So yeah, Susan and I we have all three at our bar
and it's absolutely beautiful looking. But again, if you want the very perfect
gift or think ahead, thank for Father's Day, you got it right here
as an autograph bottle of horse soldier bourbon from one of the horse soldiers.
Here's your opportunities today Class six at Fort Knox three pm till five pm.
Bob's gonna be signing horse Soldier bourbon. I will be with Bob tonight from
six thirty to eight thirty. A Kroger Middletown. Tomorrow Total Wine at the
Paddock from four pm to six pm, and then Friday Evergreen Liquors in Prospect
from four pm to six pm. Folks get two bottles, one autographed and
then one to drink. I promise you, I promise you you won't be
disappointed. Is it's gonna be a little sampling going on while we're here.
Oh absolutely, and we'll talk a little treason. Come on out, Come
on out and sample this bourbon. You're gonna fall in love with it.
If you missed the dates in the Times, just go to the White Witten
Facebook page. I'm going to have them up there all three days, Bob
Penny to good to see them, meg as you and I appreciate it.
Thanks for your time and having me here. And let's have some more fun
now, You're damn right we will and I'll see you tonight and tomorrow.
By the way, all right, hey, listen, people ask me all
the time. I want to start cooking outside. I want to start smoking.
I want to start grilling. Where should I start? Well, start
with the pros. The pros they're grill Master's supply. You've heard me talk
about the fireplace for over a year now, Well now they have the grill
Master supply at the fireplace, all of the rubs and all of the seasonings
and sauces that you need. Plus they'll get the smoker or grill that's right
for you. Have you ever thought about having an outdoor kitchen. Let's make
that a reality. Stop by the fireplace, give them your plans there.
We will make a blueprint from it, and they're gonna give you all of
the plans, the costs, the whole bit to make that dream come true.
You can actually have that outdoor kitchen with the fireplace, all things grilling,
smoking. They even have the Weatherbe's island rub that I use for salmon
that I gave to Bob over a year ago and he still hasn't used yet.
I'm sorry to what hey, it's the grill Master Supply. It's in
the same shopping center on Roosters at Shelbyville Road. I'll see you there,
and i'll see you tonight with Bob Pennington and the horse Soldier bourbon More on
the way on news. Ready to wait forty whas