May 8, 2016: Garry Augustine / Clinton Romesha

Clinton Romesha / Red PlatoonThe need for DAV services has never been so great. The number of veterans with service-related injuries and illnesses has skyrocketed to more than 3.6 million men and women today, up from 2 million just 12 years ago. By the year 2020, the number is expected to grow to 4 million. Join our guest Garry Augustine, the Executive Director of DAV’s National Service and Legislative Headquarters in Washington, D.C., who will discuss proposed changes at the VA.We also speak to Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha. In 2009, Romesha of Red Platoon and the rest of the Black Knight Troop were preparing to shut down Command Outpost (COP) Keating, the most remote and inaccessible in a string of bases built by the U.S. military in Nuristan and Kunar in the hope of preventing Taliban insurgents from moving freely back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three years after its construction, the army was finally ready to concede what the men on the ground had known immediately: it was simply too isolated and too dangerous to defend. On October 3, 2009, after years of constant smaller attacks, the Taliban finally decided to throw everything they had at Keating. The ensuing 14-hour battle—and eventual victory—cost 8 men their lives.Red Platoon is the riveting first-hand account of the Battle of Keating, told by Romesha, who spearheaded both the defense of the outpost and the counter-attack that drove the Taliban back beyond the wire, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions.A special song by Kelly Trudell: Sound of Hope