John Irwin

speaker

968 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 30 Jun

John Irwin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe · 492: Jon Erwin—Young Washington · 30 Jun 2026 podcast

But he he was horribly burned.

He lived through the war bec m mostly because my grandmother, when she came back, uh, uh, kissed him, said welcome home and uh and it gave him the will to live.

But he was very much like like um like Phantom of the Opera, like like, you know

the right side of his body completely burned, his arm fused in place.

And I remember he said to me, um, I held his medal when I was like seven years old, and not knowing at the time what what this would mean later on, but you know, he said over my shoulder, Freedom isn't free.

And, you know, he bore the marks of this statement.

And uh but it did lead me later on in life, after his funeral, to ask that question of like, you know, what would I be able to do this?

What I learned

in that exploration, talking to uh some of the other members of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Because the Medal of Honor is like these these guys that do these superhuman th you know, things in like the blink of an eye without thinking twice and and uh where does that happen?

What I learned w my grandfather, his dad died, he had to provide for the family when he was eleven.

He signed up so his brothers wouldn't have to.

What I learned was I I remember asking Gary Luttrell, the the Medal uh who's at the time uh president of the Medal of Honor Society, like, how do you make this decision?

And the idea is that you don't.

You don't.

Whatever you are up to that moment manifests.

Yeah.

So it's actually about in the preparation of what has life taught you to become.

So when there's moments of these great pressure and stakes, my grandfather had lived his whole life just sacrificing himself for the people he loved.

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