Signal Interceptor in Combat | Special Forces Linguist | 82nd Airborne | 7th Special Forces | Clay Jensen

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Today we hear our first Combat Story from a military intelligence linguist and signal interceptor, Clay Jensen. Clay deployed six times to both Iraq and Afghanistan and has spent considerable time helping to get our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan.

Clay was in a Blackhawk when it was shot out of the sky while trying to identify the location of Al-Qai’da’s then #2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan. Clay was also forward deployed in 2007 to identify the location of Bin Laden during what became a failed raid to capture AQ’s leader at the time (listeners will recall that our former guest Mike Rutledge was also on that operation).

Clay supported clandestine and Top Secret operations working alongside NSA and other three letter agencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Latin America as part of both the 82nd Airborne and 7th Special Forces Group in a Special Operations Team - Alpha (or SOT-A).

I hope you enjoy this first ever Combat Story from a signal interceptor who we, as Apache pilots, relied on regularly to triangulate targets, as much as I did.

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Show Notes:
00:00 - Intro 
01:02 - Guest Introduction (Clay Jensen)
02:15 - Interview begins
02:48 - Impressions on Iraq 20 years later
04:57 - Japanese upbringing
09:24 - Bilingual for Defense Language Institute
11:31 - Interest in the Military
12:58 - Joining the Military
14:57 - Recruitment 
18:15 - Working with Agencies
19:24 - Training for the Signals and Intelligence
23:38 - Joining the 82nd
24:40 - Linguistics in regular MOS
28:08 - 9/11
31:05 - 1st Deployment to Afghanistan
37:28 - Supporting the battle as a Linguist
40:08 - Navigating the outcome of a battle
44:06 - Transfering to Special Forces
46:11 - Proving yourself
47:20 - Definition of SOT-A
49:33 - Difference between standard MOS and Special Forces
51:21 - The Raid for Zawahiri
01:09:33 - Columbia
01:16:59 - The importance of Vocabulary
01:19:37 - Funny things
01:24:19 - Relationship with Interpreters
01:27:03 - Getting involved in the Afghanistan Evacuation
01:34:57 - Most courageous act
01:38:26 - Best and worst MREs
01:40:07 - Sentimental items
01:41:22 - Would you do it again
01:43:09 -  Listener comments and shout outs