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RUSH: America’s anchorman firmly ensconced here behind the Golden EIB Microphone. Without any further delay, here’s a repeat of yesterday’s Fourth Hour phone call from Sergeant Clay calling us from the United Kingdom.
BEGIN NOVEMBER 22, 2005 FOURTH HOUR EXCERPT
RUSH: This is Sergeant Clay calling from the U.K., the United Kingdom. Welcome, sergeant, to the program. It’s an honor to have you with us.
CALLER: Oh, my gosh! Hey, Rush. Professor Limbaugh, mega-mega-megadittos if ever such a thing there could be. We owe it all to you, brother. I just wanted to call and to let you know I’ve been listening to you since 1989, and I’ve been a Dittohead since then, and we just so much appreciate all that you do for us in the military and for this great nation.
RUSH: Uh, you know, I… I get… I am… I don’t… I’m speechless every time somebody like you calls and tells me this, because I’ll tell you a little story. National Review magazine had their 50th anniversary bash in Washington about three weeks ago, three or four weeks ago, and I went to it as Mr. Buckley’s guest, and they had a bunch of wounded soldiers from Walter Reed as their guests.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: And a bunch of these guys came up to me and started saying thank you to me, for what I do, and I… You know, I put my hands up and I said, “You know, I appreciate it, but you guys are sort of embarrassing me.” Because look it, one guy had lost an eye, and he was not wearing an eye patch, and he’d had stitches over half of his mouth.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: These guys had been really severely wounded and here’s this guy thanking me, and I said, “What I do is nothing. I sit behind a microphone and I talk,” and —
CALLER: Rush? Rush, if I may?
RUSH: Well, but he admonished me and he said, “Look, we all have our role to play here, man.”
CALLER: That’s right, as he should have done.
RUSH: Well, he did, but I — I still… Look, I’m not trying to reflect or deflect your thanks. I’m just —
CALLER: Sure.
RUSH: It sort of humbles me is what I’m telling you, and I appreciate it.
CALLER: Rush, if I may continue then in that measure of humility that you’re experiencing, you know, I think probably William F. Buckley said the same thing to you — or you said the same thing to him that I’m about to say to you — and that is I don’t think ever that you should underestimate the measure of influence that you have on this nation’s providers of the faith of freedom and democracy, sir. You have to realize, and I know you do, that Winston Churchill was a great orator, as was my hero, which is Ronald Reagan. I was 18 years old when he came into office and inspired me to do that beyond which I thought I could ever do, and that is simply this: That a nation without hope, a people without hope, are just the living dead, the walking dead — and sir, with all my heart, I have to extend the gratitude of my fellow warriors. I served in Afghanistan; I served in Uzbekistan, and when I saw that you came to visit us, I was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude and hope — and Hope, Rush, is what extends freedom and democracy across the globe. You can kill us with bombs and bullets, but what our enemy fails to understand is that this nation, by virtue of people such as yourself, what you provide for us is Hope — and you cannot kill Hope with bombs and bullets and terrorist activity. You cannot. You cannot kill Hope, period — and I think that Winston Churchill understood us.
The greatest nation — I should say the greatest generation, I’m sorry — that ever lived, they understood that, and you provide that hope, Rush, and I pray to God with all of my heart that you’ll never underestimate what you do for us, because what you do for us — that is, us in the military — extends to what you do for this nation, and that is that you provide us with hope. You give us a compass by which we travel. You just do so much for us, Rush, and you’ve done it for my family and I — and, in fact, my daughter’s husband, she’s 23, and her husband after 9/11 joined the Air Force and he’s stationed over here. He’s presently deployed on a forward mission. But your inspiration even touched him, and I just don’t ever want you to lose sight of what you mean to us, what you mean to this nation, and the pride of the providers of the faith of freedom and democracy. Sir, my hat is off to you, and we will continue to fight beyond the circumference of the politics and the politicians and all of the garbage that they spew out. We don’t watch them, Rush. We do listen to you. I can remember when I was in the Army in 1996. After Khobar Towers, we were — my team was — sent over to southwest Asia, and I used to tune my SINCGARS radio in to a satellite (laughs) so I could hear you and get you and get that little shot of hope — and thank you, Rush, so much for what you do, sir.
RUSH: Ah… (chuckles). I just… Look, thank you. I… You know, it’s felt the same way. You know, not just from me, but the people in this country who avidly support you — and it’s far more than that don’t, as I’m sure you know —
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: — have a deep understanding and appreciation for what you do, because you volunteer and you do something, you volunteer to do something that 99-1/2% of the population would never volunteer to do.
CALLER: It’s what I was born to do, Rush. You were born to broadcast; I was born to listen and carry on the pace. (laughing)
RUSH: (laughs) Well, but I’m just telling you the appreciation is as much back your way as you have expressed here.
CALLER: Thank you, sir.
RUSH: Probably, probably as much, if not more so, and the older I get — I told the guys in Afghanistan this. I’m 54 and the older I get, the in awe I am of what people like you have volunteered to do, because I told them. “I had the chance. Vietnam was raging when I was 18 and 19. I had a chance to but I didn’t.”
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: I mean, I can’t change it. I don’t regret it. I’m just in awe of people who did it and who do it to this day.
CALLER: Mmm-hmm.
RUSH: Because it’s something that most people — I really, really am in awe. I mean, what you do — I think from basic training on up, what you do — what you’re subjecting yourselves to, and I know why you do it. I’ve talked to a number of you. You’re doing it because you love your country and this is the best thing you can do for freedom and your families.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: That’s one of the things that you’ve all decided. I just want you to know that there’s every bit as much reciprocal appreciation and love — appreciation for what you all are doing — by the vast majority of people in this country —
CALLER: Hey —
RUSH: — and I’m glad that all these detracting comments from people trying to politicize this have not worn you down.
CALLER: They cannot even begin, Rush. I’m telling you right now. Sir, I’ll let you go. I know you’ve got things to do, but, Rush, a while back, when I returned from Afghanistan, I produced a music video that I sent to you. I hope that you got it. After your visit I sent it to you straightaway. It’s called “The Wings Of Freedom,” and when I came home from Afghanistan for my family, I wrote a song and produced it, a music video for you called, “These Are The Ones,” and after your visit, I sent it to your New York address. I don’t know that you ever got it, sir, and I know with your hearing, that new things don’t particularly appeal to you, because you don’t — you can’t — really hear them for what they are, but I hope someday you’ll get to see the video. I put Donald Rumsfeld in it. In fact, I spoke with Donald Rumsfeld after the production and gave it to him, and it’s now on the Pentagon Channel and goes worldwide, but it’s all because of what you and people like you do. You inspire us, sir, and you give us hope — and I thank you so much, Rush.
RUSH: I’ll find it. Now, let me ask you, before you go.
CALLER: Yes, sir?
RUSH: When I was in Afghanistan, were you at one of the places I got to visit?
CALLER: I’m sorry to say I was not. (laughs) I used to look at the 130 gun ships that would come in. I was in Mazar-e-Sharif at the beginning of the war and we would see the gun ships and I’d always hoped and talked with my commander at the time. I better not say his name but, at any rate, he’s retired now but we always hoped that somebody like you would come along on our USO Tour because you did provide for us that hope — and again, as I said: you can’t kill hope with bombs and bullets. That’s of the spirit, and you cannot kill the spirit — and you provide us with that, sir.
RUSH: Well, thank you again very much. I’m… I’m speechless at that. All I can do is thank you. We will find that video. We were supposed to go to Mushar-Sharif — I called it “Omar Sharif” because I couldn’t pronounce the first part of it — but weather socked us in. We couldn’t get out of Kabul that day so we made alternate plans in Kabul itself and we never got to Bagram because we had C130 mechanical problems. But we did get to Kandahar and a number of other places. (deep breath) Whoo! Okay. That’s — that’s sobering stuff. But that was Sergeant Clay calling from the United Kingdom, and it says on the computer screen here that he is an adoptee of the Adopt-A-Soldier Program at 24/7. So, see? It spreads around that way. He signed up last week. Today’s his first day on the program. He’s calling from somewhere in the U.K..
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RUSH: We’ve found the video, by the way, and we have it. It’s something, actually, that has to be seen. (The Ones | Wings of Freedom) We can play the audio for you — it runs about 4 1/2 minutes — but what we’re going to do is put the link to the video that I was referring to, that he produced, because it is moving. The video, you really need to see it to get the full effect of it, so we’re going to link that at RushLimbaugh.com. Thanks again to Sergeant Clay and a reminder, again, to all of you in the armed forces around the world or family members: Still plenty of time to go on RushLimbaugh.com and register and become part of the database. We can match you up with an Adopt-A-Soldier donor and that way you’ll have the ability to listen to this program in its entirety wherever you are at whatever time is convenient to you with the podcast downloads that we feature. El freebo, I might add.
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