Vietnam Veteran & Former President of MTV, Douglas Greenlaw

The reason I wrote the book, initially, the first reason was that I was tired of hearing these generals talk these four star generals, way up the top of the peak, the pecking order, talking about, well, you know, Vietnam, we had the domino effect there, you know, the dominoes fall and they all become communists, we have to stand our ground in there, blah, blah, blah.

It's easy to talk about, but I wanted to write a book that's what it's like down on the ground and I was just like the privates.

I wasn't any better than them or no worse, but I was the leader and they became to trust me.

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Well, hello everyone.

I am back from my travels overseas and from my family reunions.

What I expected to be such a simple task of publishing episodes, well, it turned out to be quite costly due to data usage.

So I sincerely apologize for not releasing an episode in November and for missing the holiday message in December.

How Ever.

I am so thrilled to introduce my guest today, who has remarkable insights and such meaningful stories to share.

Well, my guest served as the national commander of the military order of the purple heart in the United States, but he's not only a recipient of the purple heart, but also holds the silver star and bronze stars.

And has been inducted into the United States Military Hall of Fame for his service as a 1st Lieutenant Infantry, Platoon Leader, and Infantry Company Commander in Vietnam.

Well, as we know, War is brutal, bloody, and graphic.

Doug will share some of his experiences as these have profoundly influenced his thoughts and actions following his return from the war.

In addition to his military accomplishments, Doug, this is, you are just so incredible.

Doug has had an incredible career in the entertainment industry.

industry, having served as the former president of MTV networks in New York City, and he has a passion for the outdoors, something of course you all know I love, enjoying the hiking, the climbing, the backpacking, and just simply relaxing in nature.

He believes in the tremendous power of positive thinking and embracing life at any age..

As a veteran, his words resonate deeply across every continent and nation.

"All gave some, but some gave all."

Douglas Greenlaw, I salute you with the absolute utmost respect.

Welcome to the show, Douglas Greenlaw.

Doug, hello.

Hello.

Thank you.

Glad to be here.

Oh, thank you so much.

You have such a past a, a lightning bolt past . Literally.

Yeah.

But that's

true.

Yes.

So where are you right now?

I'm in my home.

I have a home office and a home gym.

So I work out, uh, four days a week and I play golf twice.

And, uh, I, I try to stay in shape.

I just turned 80 years old.

It's, it's a, uh.

It's a very interesting age.

You'll, you'll find out someday it's the entrance into old age, and I've never been old before.

So this is all new for me.

So I'm embracing it.

And I'm going to stay in shape as long as I can.

And, uh, live a healthy life.

You have such a great attitude, and I enjoyed speaking with you before the show, and just hearing the positivity and the joy in your voice.

Well, that's true.

I've, I've had a very interesting life.

I have to admit, uh, everything that I've done has been done by somebody else.

In other words, , I climbed Mt.

Aconcagua.

In Argentina, a lot of people have climbed Mount , , , Aconcagua.

, not just me.

, a lot of people have been struck by lightning, just like I was.

A lot of people were killed on the battlefield and revived, just like I was.

But all of this happened, I've never met anybody in my life where it all happened to one person.

And that's, that's where I think I'm unique,

it

happened to one person, all of it.

And I, and I, the book is, is, is very graphic.

I don't hold back.

, I'm not going to get graphic here unless you want me to, and I won't.

But, , when you're an infantry, I was a 23 year old infantry company commander with 158 men under my command in the jungles and swamps and valleys.

Mountains of South Vietnam.

Now, how could that not be a life changing event?

, here I was 23 trying to figure out what to do.

And my, , battalion commander who promoted me to that job, , I told him, sir, I, , I, I'm not trained to be a company commander.

He said, don't worry about it.

Nobody is.

And I said, well, , you know, I, I hope I can do it.

And he said, you can do it.

You just ran a fine company.

Now you're just going to run five fine companies and shut up and get out there to work.

And I did.

And so I jumped in with both feet.

And I learned on the way.

And it took me a couple of weeks to get the hang of it.

But, , he was right.

If I, if I could do one platoon, I could do five.

When I was reading your book, absolute fabulous book, by the way, and it is, it is graphic, but you have to be graphic in order for the reader to really understand what on Earth really happens at war.

, One of the things that you just said is that you're you were told you'll you'll learn it But the difference is I can go into an office a safe office and learn something which is so different from life and death situation.

You just have to deal with it or you do die.

And your book was so clear on the decisions you had to make.

Listeners need to hear the honest, recounting of.

What you went through,

I'm happy to be graphic because I agree with you.

It's how you really get the point across.

I don't have to drop a bunch of F bombs here to make myself graphic.

I can tell the story is graphic enough.

And so, um, uh, just tell me where you want me to start.

And I, I could, I could talk for an hour, but I, I want to respect your podcast, you're running it.

And by the way.

Congratulations on your podcast.

I looked into it.

I checked in with , , my friends and neighbors in the business.

And you have a good reputation and , I wish you the best.

Oh, thank you so much.

You have your book, and you start with your childhood, and I think that's a great place,

and by the way, I was also struck by lightning.

You were?

I was, I was.

Yeah.

One in 700, 000 people.

Yeah, and not in the same way you were, it was, I was on the telephone, and the lightning went right, and my mother kept telling me to get off the phone, and I could not hear in my ear after that for a little bit, and then it started to clear up it hurts when it gets cold, so, but anyway, Doug, let's go to you!

Yeah,

it was a, uh, it was a hell of an experience.

It really was.

And it was life changing.

All lightning strikes.

I mean, a hundred percent of lightning strikes survivors and a lot more survive than you might think.

You know, you figure a lightning bolt hits you like it did me right in the chest.

How could you live through that?

I don't know how, but I lived.

And, and a lot of people do.

I was raised on the beach on Lake Michigan.

In an area just, , west of Chicago, about a one hour drive to Chicago, right on the beach, these big sand dunes, we had 150 foot sand dunes right in front of our house, run down to the beach, we were having a family reunion.

So it was witnessed by, 20, 30 people.

And it was one of those days you can hear the thunder in the, in the distance.

It got closer and closer and we decided to get off the beach and head up to the house.

Got up to our house and, my best friend and cousin, first cousin, Danny came up to, , say hi, he was just arriving and I reached out and I, , I rubbed his head cause he just got a buzz cut.

And right then, the lightning struck me right in the chest, and it was very loud, uh, you know what it's like, you hear that crack, you can, you recognize that crack sound, very loud, and then the boom, and it went through me into Dan, and into my uncle, who was behind him, and it went down his right leg, and hit the ground, and , you can see where it followed a root to a tree, Up to the tree and it blew the tree up right in half a small tree.

I was totally numb, my entire body was numb.

I couldn't feel a thing.

Every inch, my eyes, my teeth, my mouth, my ears, everything was numb.

And it finally started to come back.

, I had some hearing problems for a little while.

, it knocked us all out on the way down.

We don't, I don't remember anything, my family, extended family, they said it looked like , we fell in slow motion and I don't remember any of that, but when I woke up, my mother ran out.

And I tried to keep her at bay because I was a kid.

I was 13.

I thought maybe I had this electricity still in me.

And if she touched me, she might get shocked.

And she's, she didn't buy into that.

She picked me up and carried me to the car.

Of course the family did the same for the other people that were struck.

And took us to the hospital and we turned out there when you're struck is as intensely as we were, , they check your heart because it can, it can throw your heart off rhythm and a lot of people have heart problems after they're struck by lightning, but we were all fine.

Went home that same day and, , it was, , an amazing event.

And that was the first real, transformational event that I've ever had.

Lightning strike survivors have a feeling of good luck, a rosy future.

We feel very good about ourselves.

And it's that, it's that survival of a lightning strike that I, it has to be the reason we all feel that way.

I lived a life of good luck and luck is surrounding us at all times, but you have to reach out and grab it and you can make your own luck.

Can't make 100 percent of it, though.

So I believe in good fortune and good luck.

, I try to inject that into the people that work for me and the people that I know and love.

, it wasn't my first, , dramatic accident though, as even as a child, I, when I was four or five, I fell out of our car driving down the highway, 65 miles an hour on a way to visit and family, I fell out of the car , obviously survived that too.

I was banged up really bad, , I healed and didn't think anything of it.

And then I was, when I was six or seven, I was attacked by a German shepherd.

, it was a really mean dog that lived in my neighborhood and every day from school I would, , watch out for this dog and if he saw me, hopefully I was close enough to home where I could beat him to my house before he got me.

One day I was walking from the school bus to my house and I looked and there's that dog staring like 10 feet away.

I said, Oh, I'm not going to be able to outrun him, but I was a little kid.

So I tried to outrun him.

I took off and of course he tackled me and it was, he was trying to kill me.

Had me by my leg, got up to my neck and finally the owner, caught the dog and got, got it off of me.

So I've had a lightning strike.

I've had certain things happen to me along the way that, , I'm not the first guy to be attacked by a dog, but it goes into my, my resume, , which builds up after a while, you know, so, , so that was it.

But the big one was the lightning strike.

It really changed my life because I was 13.

I was old enough to understand.

a little bit about life, and I could self analyze what happened to me.

And I remember it like it happened yesterday, very clearly.

I was a lifeguard and I observed several, people getting struck on, , Lake Michigan beach, we got to get them to the hospital as fast as possible if nothing else.

Yeah, people have been killed when they're on the phone and the lightning strikes.

People have been killed in the shower and lightning strikes.

So we never ever take showers and people say, but you're not outside.

Well, Still, as we know, that, that lightning went through the phone line

it followed that route to that tree for me.

Yes.

It searches out for a form of escape and me had found a tree and yours had found the line into your house.

Yep.

It does.

We were, we're, my husband and I are.

Our outdoors people like yourself.

We were mountain biking and we were way out in the middle of nowhere in this high mountain and it started to get cloudy.

So we started the trek back down and we were almost down when.

Suddenly, the lightning struck between my husband's bike and my bike and we heard it.

It deafened us.

It didn't, we didn't feel it anywhere.

It was far enough away not to shock you.

Yeah.

And, but the deer, oh my gosh, the deer that we didn't even see were suddenly there and running and darting everywhere from that lightning and.

And we're trying to, keep from getting hit by the deer.

Cause they're just running, you know, they're panicking, they're running.

So that was, that was incredible.

And I'm so glad it didn't hit us because we were on those bikes and it was just, you know,

miles from nowhere, right?

I have not the same insight you do with the lightning,

I know.

Do you have a fear of lightning now

I respect it, but I don't fear it.

I don't, uh, now we're getting into my Vietnam, uh, era.

Uh, you know, what happened is I went to college at Indiana university and I did terribly.

I was, I was a steel mill kid.

I was raised in the mills.

My father worked in the mills.

I worked in the mills when I was 16, 17, and 18, and you had to be 18 to work there, and I lied and wrote down that I was 18.

Of course, in those days, nobody checked.

So,

it's been no kid working full time in the steel mill.

I did that and I, I, so I was the first one to go to college and I totally blew it.

I mean, I, I missed my grades three semesters in a row and I said, this college isn't for me.

So I quit and joined the Army and it's the best thing I ever did.

I went through the army, I loved it.

It fit me like a glove.

, I was put into leadership positions and excelled.

And I went back to college after I was seriously wounded in Vietnam.

It blew me out of the army, actually.

, so when I healed, , I went back , home and went back to college and got all As once I figured it out, it wasn't that hard.

So, uh, yeah, you know, the, this, the.

I don't know if you want me to get into the Vietnam thing, but I

do.

There are some stories that, , now of course, the different readers who read your book are going to feel different areas than I do, but I'm going to choose a couple of them because I really was struck with emotion as I was reading it.

Even though your, your intent wasn't to bring emotions, your intent was just bringing the truth in what you lived.

Ford, Buick, and, and their names, Studebaker,

Ford, Studebaker and Buick.

Everybody's lives were at stake.

job was not only to kill people, which we did, my job was to save the lives of my men.

And I didn't lose that many, relatively speaking.

So my job was to try to save as many lives as I could.

And that's, and I, and I did, I did that.

Every day,

yes, and every, in every, uh, military organization, there are people we call duds.

You know, that just can't do it.

They don't, they don't understand it.

They don't like it.

Sometimes they got politics, whatever it might be.

That Vietnam war wasn't very popular.

So there are a lot of bad politics going on in the military too.

So, , you see people from all walks of life.

I met one kid, it, , when we first went in, who had never had a haircut in his life, his mother put a bowl on his head and just cut around the bowl.

And shaved it.

And that was it.

That was his haircut.

All the clothing he had on was handmade by his mother.

Even his shoes were made by his father.

So this kid was from the hills of Kentucky.

So everybody, and I got there and, and in my company, , my, Training company.

I was a nothing.

I was, you know, a little private.

I was a private.

, so I got to meet all of these guys and we had probably in our company.

We probably had 150 trainees

and I was one.

In my platoon, there are about 50 people in a platoon.

So you got three to five platoons in a company.

And, , I had four, I have private Ford in mind and I met later on private Buick.

And private Studebaker.

So I had Ford, Studebaker, and Buick were the biggest duds in our company.

And my platoon sergeant, uh, I was, I was strong and played college athletics.

And I went into the military in great shape, which was a huge benefit.

You know, I was having fun.

So they, , my, they gave me, they put me in leadership positions, even at early on.

And so, , my platoon sergeant said to me, Greenlaw, you got Ford.

Now, nobody fails out and nobody fails in one of my platoons, so make sure he graduates.

So he was smart.

I didn't have to worry about that.

He went to a fancy school in Chicago, but he had zero experience.

, he didn't have any real life experience at all.

His family were wealthy and they treated him with kid gloves.

I never, never got into the details of his childhood, but he had never done anything.

He never bled a drop in his life.

He came to me with these dop kits, you know, you have it for shaving and keeping clean as bar soap in there as a razor and, you know, certain things.

And he said, I've never shaved.

, show me how to shave.

I said, I said, Ford, you never shaved in your life.

What do you mean?

Didn't your father teach you?

He said, no, my father has a beard.

I said, well, okay.

So I got, it was one of those, those old, uh, razors that you.

Open it up at the top.

You drop the razor in the middle and you use to close it again, back down.

And I showed him how to do that and he did it.

He was fine.

You put shaving cream on your face and then you go very gently, very gently down the sides of your face.

It just sort of goes smoothly.

You don't have many whiskers.

Don't worry about going rough with it.

Nice and smooth.

Well, he didn't understand that and he took the razor and slammed it into the side of his face.

He let go of it.

It was hanging.

The razor was hanging on his face.

And I said, Oh my God, what did you do?

So I reached over to pull it up and out, you know, before I could get there, he ripped it off and just ripped it off.

Well, a big, a big tab of about an inch across and maybe three quarters of an inch down flap just opened up on

the space.

And you know, I don't know how, if you've ever been hurt in the face, but the face bleeds a lot.

Can't get it to stop.

You know, it's, it's, uh, so you can imagine how he bled.

Blood was all over the place.

And I said, my God, Ford, what did you do?

And we cleaned him up and I got him down.

My platoon sergeant was angry with me.

He punished me for letting it happen on my duty.

I said, he said, take him down to the hospital.

So I took, took Ford to the military hospital on base.

Fort Knox, Kentucky.

And they stitched him up 16 stitches, four, four down, , each side and eight across the top.

Wow.

And.

He was, he was proud of that.

He said, you know, that's the first time I've ever bled in my life.

And I said, well, come on, you fell off your bike or so I didn't have a bike.

Well, you can't skin your knee when you, I didn't skin my knee.

He never bled a drop in his life.

This is first time he ever saw his own blood or maybe any blood.

I don't know.

, he said it wasn't that bad.

I thought it was going to be a lot worse than that.

And I said, you know, cutting yourself like that, it doesn't hurt like you think it would.

If you ever punched in the face, you really don't feel it.

You get punched in the face, you know, you really don't feel there's no pain.

He said, well, I've never been punched.

So I surprised him with a left hook to his eye.

I was careful not to hit his bandages and all that, and I didn't want him to hurt his eye.

So I gave him a nice big fat black eye and he was proud of that.

He said, wow, that's cool.

He said, I got the stitches, I got a black eye.

And I said, yeah, your first day in the military, he bled

and that punch doesn't hurt.

He said, it didn't hurt at all.

I said, there's a lesson learned.

I said, this guy in my mind, I'm thinking this guy gets it.

He's not going to be a dud.

I'm going to make him a superstar.

Cause he was tall.

He was 6'3 He was 6'3 And he weighed, I don't know how much, 125, 130, he's rail.

Yeah.

No muscle.

Never did anything athletic in his entire life.

So I, uh, patched up and he's going and, and, , so I made him eat a lot, a lot of heavy protein, got him working out and, , basic training is an eight week course.

In eight weeks, he gained 25 pounds, solid muscle.

And he said, , I want to go into infantry and I was on the way to infantry too.

Let's do it.

I said, well, do you need to sign up for infantry advance?

technical school.

And he did, he got in.

So he went to infantry school for another eight weeks.

He gained another, , 30, 35 pounds in that time period.

So now he gets out and I, and he got so tough.

I nicknamed him Mustang, Mustang Ford.

Even the, even the, uh, student sergeant was calling him Mustang.

He's 6'3 He's built like Clint Eastwood and all muscle and skin for you.

And bone is all he was and he turned into be at one hell of a, uh, a good soldier and when he graduated from infantry basic training, he joined up with 101st airborne and I lost him when he went to Vietnam.

I don't know if he ever made it back or not.

He probably did.

But here's a kid that couldn't even, he can barely walk.

When he got to let alone run and jump and do the things in the army, he couldn't do any of that when he left he was one of the best in the company and he looked fantastic.

So that's what the military can do to anybody.

I think I saw it now.

Studebaker.

And Buick didn't work out so well.

, I nickname everybody by the way.

If I get to know you a little better, you're going to have a nickname.

Studebaker, Larva, because he didn't have any bone structure, any muscle.

He was all fat.

And they made him eat at the fat table, which they did back then.

I, they probably still do in the, in the army.

And the fat table is where the heavy guys are.

They need to lose weight.

So they only eat so much of the meals.

The young, younger guys can eat all they want.

Buick was very, very nice young man.

Everybody loved him, but he was just so stupid.

I mean, I can't think of another word to use.

I don't know how he got in the army.

He was so nice, nice guy.

He actually made it.

, Studebaker didn't make it.

So, you know, another, another bite out of life was joining the army.

It was, I absolutely loved it.

I, I may have stayed in, but I don't, I didn't have an education.

I only had a year and a half at Indiana and I needed to get educated to have a successful career.

And then all the protesting and everything that was going on about the Vietnam War.

I decided to get out I did, I did just fine when I got out.

So that brings you up to my, my military experience.

I, I was a, uh, uh, first Lieutenant when I got to Vietnam.

My first command, I was all excited.

I'm going to get my first combat command.

I was nervous as can be.

So I, they dropped me off in a helicopter out in the jungle and they said, you know, you're on your own.

I saw one soldier down there.

I said, where's the company commander?

I'd like to, uh, see him and he said, he is right over there by the tree.

And I looked and I didn't see anything.

I saw his jungle and then he moved and I saw him.

And here's this young 25-year-old company.

Commander Infantry company commander, just came through a horrible battle.

I was replacing a, a lieutenant that was killed in the battle.

And so I walked over to him and I introduced myself.

I didn't know how military I should be out there in the jungle.

I know I would, I didn't make my people.

Call me, sir, or they called me law.

My nickname is law.

They'd call me law.

And I called, I made up nicknames for them and that's the way we did it.

And so I didn't know how formal to be out there.

So I was fairly formal.

I salute saluted him.

He said, okay, you've got, you, your men are over there between nine o'clock and 12 o'clock in the circle, like a clock, , my men were in the area between

So I went over there, the first soldier I saw, and by the way, when I graduated from officer candidate school, they made me a tactical officer.

I trained candidates and I, I, I told them what my, my management told me when I was in officer candidate school.

When you graduate from here, you're going to have a little gold bar in there.

shoulder.

Don't let it go to your head.

You know, platoon sergeant, somebody that's been there, it might be a second war.

When you get your first command, it might be a second war, Korea, now Vietnam, you know, and he'll help you.

He'll put you under his wing, take care of you until you understand what's going on.

And then you'll be what we call large and in charge.

It takes a couple of weeks, but look for that platoon sergeant.

Go in there low key.

So I'm telling myself low key all the way as I flew over.

So now I'm walking over to my, my men, my first command, and I see a private there.

I say, private, I'm Lieutenant Greenlaw, your new platoon leader.

Get the platoon sergeant, bring him over here.

I want to talk to him.

I'm expecting Rambo, you know, I'm expecting, uh, Clint Eastwood,

John

Wayne.

You probably don't even know who John Wayne is.

He came back in the day.

You know, that's what I was expecting.

, come on over here, Lieutenant.

I'm going to teach you the ropes.

This guy sloshes because we overweight guy.

I'm being clean now.

Overweight guy sloshes his way over to me before I can say anything.

He said, are you the new platoon leader?

I said, yes, I'm Lieutenant Greenlaw your new platoon leader.

He said, thank God.

He said, I know nothing about running a platoon.

It's all yours.

That's how I learned.

It's war, right?

It's

real.

We're killing people.

getting killed.

So I fired the guy on the spot.

I said, I relieved him what they call it.

I relieved him.

I said, Sergeant, I'm relieving you of your duties.

, get your, get your stuff.

And, and the helicopter that dropped me off is still there is unloading supplies for the company.

Get your ass on that helicopter and, and get out of you're history.

And instead of arguing with me, man, he, he didn't even bother with his equipment.

He just grabbed his rifle and ran and jumped on that helicopter.

I found a really good sergeant, out of my squad leaders who'd been there nine months.

He knew what to do.

He's a smart guy, young guy, sharp as a tack.

I mean, I promoted him from three, three stripe sergeant to a staff sergeant.

I say, you're now a staff sergeant , you're now platoon sergeant.

Everybody from here on out call you platoon sergeant, and he was happy about that.

My company commander came, and he swung me around by the army, and he said, Greenwald, what the hell did you just do?

You can't fire your platoon sergeant.

You can't promote somebody.

You don't have any authority to do any of that.

And I said, I stood up as strong as I could look, and I looked him right in the eyes.

And I, and I stared him down.

I said, sir, this is war.

That guy, it wasn't worth a shit.

The only swear word I'll use today.

And I fired him and it says, you know, this important on life's online.

And I got a guy that's really good.

And he stood there, this captain didn't know what to do.

And finally, he finally said, okay, I'll cover for you this time.

But next big decision you make.

Check with me first.

I said, yes, sir.

So I got away with it, but I, I was a, I was a young first lieutenant.

I didn't have any real authority.

You know, we were only real authority we had was to kill the enemy and we knew how to do that.

So that was a management experience for me.

There are things that happened to you in Vietnam.

They were horrible.

They were horrible.

But there were things that happened that also made you Progress in the way you did when you returned home.

And those are the things that we need to learn from you, even though they're graphic,

but people can get that vision as to what war really looks like for you.

The reason I wrote the book, initially, I learned other reasons as I got along with it, but the first reason was that I was tired of hearing these generals talk these four star generals, way up the top of the peak, the pecking order, talking about, well, you know, Vietnam, we had the domino effect there, you know, the dominoes fall and they all become communists, we have to stand our ground in there, blah, blah, blah.

It's easy to talk about, but I wanted to write a book that's what it's like down on the ground

Douglas Greenlaw continues his story and his positive imprints on the next episode of your positive imprint.

To learn more about Doug, go to thegreenlawFoundation.org, and that's

GREENLAW, theGreenlawFoundation.org

dot org.

This is a free podcast.

And right now I'm starting a new campaign to help fund the production of this podcast.

If you'd like to support this production, go to buymeacoffee.com/yourpositiveimprint and any support you offer will be greatly valued.

Thank you so much for your support and for listening to 'your positive imprint'.

And again, join Douglas Greenlaw for the next episode of Your Positive Imprint.

Your Positive Imprint.

What's your PI?