# Ep. 238 | Neal Fauver | Marine Rifleman, Iraq Veteran, Podcaster

An episode of [Former Action Guys Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1475060182), 8 Dec 2025, 1 h 50 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/68940184/neal_fauver_marine_rifleman.mp3

Neal Fauver is a former Marine Rifleman who served with 3rd Battalion 6th Marines in Iraq. Neal is also the co-host of the Tales from the Corps Podcast. Support the show https://www.jcramergraphics.com https://www.ANGLICOshop.com https://www.patreon.com/formeractionguys Neal's links https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3pIOrn5w9pk4YtERb83Kww https://www.facebook.com/share/1ACVRp858R/?mibextid=wwXIfr https://www.wwiibeyondthecall.com/s/order#most-popular

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: All right, Neil, it's kicked us off. Really appreciate you
[0:02] Speaker 1: coming on the show today. Another three six veteran had
[0:06] Speaker 1: Mike on before, have you on now? You guys both
[0:10] Speaker 1: host the Tales from the Core podcast and then working
[0:14] Speaker 1: on the Shaker app which is cool both infantrymen three
[0:18] Speaker 1: six alumni and uh, I really appreciate you coming on, dude.
[0:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me. Man, it's awesome. It's always
[0:24] Speaker 2: an honor to come on and be able to share
[0:27] Speaker 2: stories if it might help some other people.
[0:29] Speaker 1: Man, yeah, straight o three eleven So the riflemen, you know, yeah,
[0:35] Speaker 1: I know every Marine is a rifleman, but you are
[0:37] Speaker 1: the rifle So right, what O three elevens feel? I mean,
[0:43] Speaker 1: I know how they feel about it, but let people
[0:44] Speaker 1: know how three elevens feel about that. Like every Marine
[0:47] Speaker 1: is a rifleman.
[0:48] Speaker 2: Man, I you know, I take I take pride in
[0:52] Speaker 2: being a part of that that that fraternity and that
[0:54] Speaker 2: lineage that you know, we do emphasize shooting and shooting
[0:58] Speaker 2: straight right for sure. But it is funny the word
[1:04] Speaker 2: a versus the word the you know, like the the rifleman.
[1:09] Speaker 2: You know, it's it's yeah, there is there is a
[1:12] Speaker 2: difference you live that life. You can shoot. Sure, every
[1:15] Speaker 2: marine can shoot, everybody knows that. But some of us
[1:19] Speaker 2: do live in the dirt, and you know, if we
[1:21] Speaker 2: have to, will eat bugs and all that good ship.
[1:23] Speaker 2: You know.
[1:25] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's like saying, you know, I don't know
[1:28] Speaker 1: every every marine is a s one clerk, because we've
[1:31] Speaker 1: all right, every Marina Janitor, Yeah, Marina Janitor for sure.
[1:37] Speaker 1: That's actually every enlisted marine at least.
[1:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, I mean, when you join, did you want
[1:46] Speaker 1: to be a rifleman? Is that what you came in for?
[1:48] Speaker 1: Did you just say infantry? I don't care.
[1:50] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So I guess I could start. I guess
[1:54] Speaker 2: I could start with my earliest memories or my earliest
[1:56] Speaker 2: introduction to like military life.
[1:59] Speaker 1: It's my dad.
[2:00] Speaker 2: My dad is he was a career navy man. He
[2:02] Speaker 2: was he was a sailor and he was I didn't
[2:05] Speaker 2: know it at the time, but he was a he
[2:06] Speaker 2: was a CT. He was crypto, so he you know,
[2:08] Speaker 2: he did the Morse Code and everything back then, and
[2:11] Speaker 2: he would just go off to work in his uniform
[2:13] Speaker 2: and not thinking anything. I mean, I'm my earliest memories
[2:17] Speaker 2: when I was like maybe four years old and you know,
[2:20] Speaker 2: I'd see him go off to work and he'd be
[2:22] Speaker 2: gone all day and he'd come home and you know,
[2:25] Speaker 2: it his playtime, man, it was it was time to
[2:26] Speaker 2: you know, kick it with dad for a little while.
[2:28] Speaker 2: And he never never mentioned, you know, what he did,
[2:30] Speaker 2: but uh later on found out that he did the
[2:33] Speaker 2: Morse code stuff, and you know, he, uh he talked
[2:37] Speaker 2: to me a little bit about the military. As I
[2:39] Speaker 2: got older. I would always catch him watching like Saving
[2:42] Speaker 2: Private Ryan in the living room, and you know, i'd
[2:46] Speaker 2: always you know, PLoP down next to him and you know,
[2:49] Speaker 2: watch it with him and I and I always I
[2:51] Speaker 2: always remember thinking to myself, man, that's that's a pretty
[2:54] Speaker 2: noble and honorable you know undertaking, you know, for the
[2:58] Speaker 2: selfless acrifice that's made by those guys, specifically the World
[3:04] Speaker 2: War two guys as you know, watching that movie. And I,
[3:10] Speaker 2: you know, I always thought it was really it was cool,
[3:14] Speaker 2: it was honorable. And I knew my dad was in
[3:16] Speaker 2: the military as well, but I didn't. I still wasn't
[3:19] Speaker 2: there yet, like you know, I really want to join
[3:21] Speaker 2: the military. But he, you know, he talked to me
[3:24] Speaker 2: a little bit about his his his great d botches
[3:27] Speaker 2: and all that and all the fun he had while
[3:29] Speaker 2: he was in hitting the ports and all that good stuff. Man.
[3:31] Speaker 2: And I just remember saying, man, I don't know, Dad,
[3:35] Speaker 2: I don't know if it's for me. And he goes, well,
[3:37] Speaker 2: how do you know? How do you know if it's
[3:39] Speaker 2: not for you, if you've never even tried. It's like
[3:41] Speaker 2: it's a good point. You know, it's a great point.
[3:44] Speaker 2: So you know, fast forward, I got it. I graduate
[3:48] Speaker 2: high school. You know, I was on that five year program.
[3:51] Speaker 2: You know, I wasn't the best student, so I went
[3:55] Speaker 2: an extra years. I always did everything a little bit late.
[3:58] Speaker 2: So you know, I'm nineteen twenty years old and I'm
[4:00] Speaker 2: working this job it as a dishwasher and making like
[4:05] Speaker 2: bread and uh not money, actual bread, you know, just
[4:10] Speaker 2: doing doing that just the odd jobs within a restaurant
[4:12] Speaker 2: overnight kind of stuff as well. I did that for
[4:14] Speaker 2: like four years. Man. And then you know, my I
[4:20] Speaker 2: remember one of my buddies that that worked there with me.
[4:24] Speaker 2: He you know, his dad was a career marine, and
[4:27] Speaker 2: he's like, yeah, I'm gonna join the Marine Corps. Man,
[4:29] Speaker 2: Like you know, it's it's kind of in my blood,
[4:31] Speaker 2: you know. And I was like, Okay, cool, and you know,
[4:35] Speaker 2: he he joins, maybe it was about eleven months before
[4:38] Speaker 2: I actually signed up, and you know, it's it was
[4:43] Speaker 2: something that finally it came around. I was like, you
[4:45] Speaker 2: know what, man, there's there's a war going on, Iraq
[4:47] Speaker 2: was going on. I'm you know, I'm twenty three, twenty
[4:52] Speaker 2: three years old. I'm like, man, it's this this thing's
[4:53] Speaker 2: gonna pass me by, and I just I feel like
[4:55] Speaker 2: I have to do something, you know. And that's when
[5:00] Speaker 2: I said, you screw it, you screw it. You know,
[5:02] Speaker 2: I'm gonna go down to the recruiter's office, and there's
[5:04] Speaker 2: these all there's all these building. There's this one long
[5:06] Speaker 2: building and it has obviously has like you know, multiple rooms,
[5:10] Speaker 2: and they're all the branches, you know, his Air Force, Army,
[5:13] Speaker 2: you know, Navy, DA, DA DA, and they all got
[5:16] Speaker 2: these signs, these billboards outside their their doors, uh, guaranteeing
[5:20] Speaker 2: this bonus or that bonus. You'll see this and that
[5:23] Speaker 2: kind of loud, you know. And then way down at
[5:26] Speaker 2: the end on the corner, it's just a red sticker
[5:29] Speaker 2: on the door and a pull up bar, and I'm like,
[5:33] Speaker 2: I said, yeah, that's that's where I'm gonna that's I'm
[5:35] Speaker 2: gonna I'm gonna go. Look, I'm gonna go check this
[5:36] Speaker 2: out down here. And I expected, yes Marines, and I
[5:40] Speaker 2: went in there of course that you know, the recruiters
[5:43] Speaker 2: in there. He's like, oh, oh, what can I do
[5:45] Speaker 2: for you? Said, I want to go infantry, and I
[5:49] Speaker 2: want because I want to be in the fight. I
[5:51] Speaker 2: know there's a war going on and I want to
[5:53] Speaker 2: go as soon as possible, and that's just what I
[5:56] Speaker 2: want to do. And he, you know, he's looking down,
[5:59] Speaker 2: he's kind of like on paperwork as I'm telling him this,
[6:01] Speaker 2: and he stops and he looks up and he goes,
[6:04] Speaker 2: are you sure. I'm like, yeah, I'm sure. Don't you
[6:08] Speaker 2: can't talk me out of this. You're not supposed to
[6:10] Speaker 2: do that, right, But yes, I'm sure. I'm sure. And
[6:15] Speaker 2: get through the whole thing, the whole process. Uh. He's
[6:18] Speaker 2: talking to me about, you know, I guess he was.
[6:21] Speaker 2: He was wanting to just put it out there. I
[6:23] Speaker 2: don't know if he had to, but he just kind
[6:25] Speaker 2: of put it out there like other jobs, potentials, potential,
[6:28] Speaker 2: you know, jobs and stuff like that that I might
[6:30] Speaker 2: be able to look into. But even laid out the
[6:33] Speaker 2: little the name tape looking things that has like challenge travel.
[6:36] Speaker 1: And oh yeah the tiles, yeah, yes, And.
[6:39] Speaker 2: I didn't even bother really to put anything in order.
[6:41] Speaker 2: I'm just like, I just I just I know where
[6:44] Speaker 2: I want to go, I know what I want to do,
[6:46] Speaker 2: and I want to start it as soon as possible,
[6:48] Speaker 2: as soon as I can get out of here.
[6:50] Speaker 1: And it's it's funny. I was talking to Mike about
[6:52] Speaker 1: this as well, how it's people have this misconception that
[6:57] Speaker 1: the recruiters are trying to trick people into joining the
[7:00] Speaker 1: infantry and going off and fighting a war. Yeah, and
[7:03] Speaker 1: everybody I've talked to, almost everybody I've talked to that's
[7:06] Speaker 1: an infantryman or like, yeah, my recruiter tried to talk
[7:09] Speaker 1: me out of it. Sure you want to do infantry,
[7:12] Speaker 1: And I'm like people, it's like people have a misconception
[7:15] Speaker 1: about that. Most I don't know, maybe there's some, I mean,
[7:20] Speaker 1: the infantry you have to volunteer for, Like, I don't
[7:22] Speaker 1: know how you could get screwed into joining the infantry.
[7:24] Speaker 1: I mean, did you did you meet anyone that felt
[7:27] Speaker 1: like they weren't supposed to be in the infantry when
[7:29] Speaker 1: they got there?
[7:30] Speaker 2: Uh? No, No, I think the I think the I
[7:35] Speaker 2: think the only guys who felt like they were like,
[7:37] Speaker 2: damn it, why did I do this? Were the guys
[7:39] Speaker 2: that they said they went open contract and they kind
[7:42] Speaker 2: of got just thrown in there.
[7:44] Speaker 1: So I don't even think that's the thing. Because I
[7:47] Speaker 1: went open contract and I was trying to get an
[7:49] Speaker 1: infantry contract out of that, and they told me that
[7:52] Speaker 1: open contract and this may or may not be true,
[7:55] Speaker 1: who knows, but they told me that the open contract
[7:57] Speaker 1: guys can't get infantry because you have to volunteer for it.
[8:00] Speaker 1: And I was like, that's what I wanted, you know. Yeah,
[8:03] Speaker 1: and when I joined there was no boat spaces. I
[8:05] Speaker 1: was gonna have to wait yeah, oh wow, Yeah, but
[8:09] Speaker 1: but yeah, infantry, bro, that's uh, you're in it now.
[8:12] Speaker 1: You're a rifleman. You're a marine rifleman. You're going through
[8:15] Speaker 1: boot camp, you go through s O I, you know,
[8:18] Speaker 1: and this is at a time where you're right, there
[8:20] Speaker 1: is deployments going on. Were your were your instructors guys
[8:25] Speaker 1: that had just returned from from deployments or had they
[8:28] Speaker 1: not even deployed yet.
[8:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, my senior he was over there, and I think
[8:35] Speaker 2: he was I think he was ordnance and he had
[8:38] Speaker 2: that table that's by the you know, the duty the
[8:41] Speaker 2: porthole of the window there table, Yeah, the moto table.
[8:45] Speaker 2: He had all this stuff out there, and it was
[8:47] Speaker 2: pretty cool to look at, you know. When we got
[8:49] Speaker 2: the time, he yeah, he he. He'd been there, he'd
[8:52] Speaker 2: been deployed. I'm not sure how many times by that point.
[8:56] Speaker 2: But there was another man. There was a few of
[9:01] Speaker 2: them there. There was uh, I think I think maybe
[9:07] Speaker 2: three of our three of our joinals just st Our
[9:09] Speaker 2: platoon alone, three of ourginal instructors went there. They'd already
[9:12] Speaker 2: been uh.
[9:13] Speaker 1: What about I though, s O.
[9:16] Speaker 2: I yes, I think there was. I think there was
[9:20] Speaker 2: a couple there. And you know, those guys you can
[9:21] Speaker 2: just you can just kind of you can just kind
[9:23] Speaker 2: of tell, you know, like it's there's a demeanor that
[9:27] Speaker 2: can't be like practiced. There's like a it's like an
[9:30] Speaker 2: almost lethargic kind of a laid back, you know way
[9:34] Speaker 2: of about them. And their camis are like always white,
[9:38] Speaker 2: their deserts are always like they're white. You know, they're
[9:40] Speaker 2: they're they're faded. It's like, dude, they just man, they're
[9:44] Speaker 2: they're they're they're haircuts barely in rags. You know, it's
[9:47] Speaker 2: like you just you can tell these guys have been
[9:49] Speaker 2: they've been there, they've been there and done that.
[9:51] Speaker 1: They're letting you know, they're putting out all the signs.
[9:54] Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, you you figured this out later on
[9:57] Speaker 2: and then you look at your own camage like, oh man, yeah.
[10:00] Speaker 1: There's always little there's always little things where you can
[10:03] Speaker 1: tell somebody got to go do something there for a
[10:06] Speaker 1: little bit. The only time you saw somebody wearing the
[10:10] Speaker 1: Danner boots, I don't even know. You probably weren't even
[10:13] Speaker 1: in when the Danner boots came out. Were you the
[10:16] Speaker 1: ones that had the leather toe on them and the
[10:18] Speaker 1: leather heel?
[10:21] Speaker 2: I'm not no, I don't think I saw it.
[10:23] Speaker 1: It had like a reinforced toe and a reinforced heel.
[10:26] Speaker 1: When those first came out, the only people that had
[10:29] Speaker 1: those were people that had been Afghanistan. So if you
[10:31] Speaker 1: were walking around Bass and you saw a dude with
[10:33] Speaker 1: those on, you knew that guy had just gotten back
[10:36] Speaker 1: from Afghanistan. If they were beat up, yeah, brand new,
[10:38] Speaker 1: he's getting ready to go.
[10:40] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[10:40] Speaker 1: And it was those little things. So when you come
[10:42] Speaker 1: back to Afghanistan, you're like, oh yeah, checking my boots,
[10:44] Speaker 1: you know, like hey, by the way, Yeah, it's all
[10:50] Speaker 1: those little things where guys are like kind of flexing
[10:52] Speaker 1: on each other.
[10:52] Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, yeah, that's funny. Man. Yeah, well we
[10:56] Speaker 2: actually he wasn't. He was one of our opportunonis drilling structures.
[10:59] Speaker 2: He was from another another deck, but he and he's
[11:04] Speaker 2: actually in a like in a man I can't remember.
[11:09] Speaker 2: I think the I think the documentary is called Anvil
[11:12] Speaker 2: of God, and I think it aired in like like
[11:15] Speaker 2: two thousand and nine. It was like Anderson Cooper, you know,
[11:18] Speaker 2: that kind of a thing. But he was actually in it.
[11:21] Speaker 2: A guy named uh Ramirez, and I remember him. I
[11:24] Speaker 2: remember him and his voice in his face, and he
[11:26] Speaker 2: came up under our deck and he was talking about Fallujah.
[11:29] Speaker 2: He was in the push and I believe he was
[11:31] Speaker 2: with one eight, so you know, he he'd made that,
[11:35] Speaker 2: you know, he'd made phantom Fury. And he came back.
[11:38] Speaker 2: He came, he came up to our deck and he's like, yeah,
[11:41] Speaker 2: you motherfucker's. Oh, y'all sloppy ass ship bag. Y'all would
[11:45] Speaker 2: have gotten murked in fucking flush y'all would have fucking died.
[11:47] Speaker 2: I was like, damn dude. But you know he kept
[11:50] Speaker 2: he kept talking about it, you know, he would keep
[11:51] Speaker 2: he would have mentioned it, you know, Fallujah and that.
[11:53] Speaker 2: Of course that was man, you know, almost exactly a
[11:58] Speaker 2: year you know, prior, you know, whenever I made it
[12:02] Speaker 2: to boot camp. You know, it was damn near like
[12:04] Speaker 2: to the day. You know.
[12:05] Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a good time to be going through
[12:08] Speaker 1: like training though, because all the cool videos are coming
[12:10] Speaker 1: out from Oh yeah, you know, they'd show you that
[12:13] Speaker 1: like that that moto video from Fallujah, you know where
[12:16] Speaker 1: they're like, I don't even remember the name of the song.
[12:18] Speaker 1: I have it going in my head, but I don't
[12:20] Speaker 1: even know the name of It's got the guy smashing
[12:22] Speaker 1: the mirror with his rifle and stuff. People know what
[12:24] Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like, yeah, yeah, it starts out with
[12:29] Speaker 1: the guitar riff at the beginning. Yeah, good one though,
[12:35] Speaker 1: if I could find.
[12:35] Speaker 2: It, is that what it was? Yeah?
[12:42] Speaker 1: Forever? Yeah it was. That's crazy.
[12:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, So that was a good motive video.
[12:48] Speaker 1: Three six three six was your first station when you
[12:54] Speaker 1: got there? Where were they at? Where were they at
[12:57] Speaker 1: on their deployment cycle? Did you show up right before
[12:59] Speaker 1: deployment or after they could just got home. How did
[13:01] Speaker 1: that look? Uh?
[13:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, so they had I believe it was it was
[13:08] Speaker 2: the Iraq deployment where iron Fist and Steele Curtain had
[13:12] Speaker 2: went down. Uh, And I want to say they redeployed
[13:16] Speaker 2: back to the States and either late I think it
[13:19] Speaker 2: was late O five or maybe it was, you know,
[13:22] Speaker 2: or maybe been maybe been early O six. I know
[13:25] Speaker 2: that they were they were back. They were already back,
[13:28] Speaker 2: but they were either and I can't remember now, man,
[13:29] Speaker 2: for the life of me, if they were in if
[13:31] Speaker 2: they were in the field, or if they may have been,
[13:34] Speaker 2: you know, starting to go to the rifle range or what.
[13:36] Speaker 2: But they a lot of the senior guys, they weren't
[13:37] Speaker 2: there yet. They weren't there to welcome us just yet.
[13:44] Speaker 2: That's always a good fucking time, the anticipation, right. You
[13:47] Speaker 2: just see other Lance corporals maybe and PFC is running around,
[13:51] Speaker 2: you know, the quad and ship, and you're like, damn, dude,
[13:54] Speaker 2: just it's it's like, fucking Lord of the Fly's a
[13:56] Speaker 2: bunch of children running around here.
[13:57] Speaker 1: But uh, dude, that's what it is. Eighteen and nineteen
[14:02] Speaker 1: year olds being led by nineteen and twenty year olds.
[14:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, but it was it
[14:10] Speaker 2: was a very it was a very seasoned unit. A
[14:14] Speaker 2: couple of guys have been on like two or three deployments,
[14:16] Speaker 2: you know by the time I got there to the fleet,
[14:19] Speaker 2: so you know, there was a lot of a lot
[14:22] Speaker 2: of good a lot of good experience that went you
[14:25] Speaker 2: know into the training. Uh what what we should expect.
[14:29] Speaker 2: Uh we you know, never been before, so they're telling
[14:32] Speaker 2: us everything they know as far as the deployments go,
[14:37] Speaker 2: what to expect. It's just it's just it's just a
[14:41] Speaker 2: wealth of knowledge. Man. But I know, I'll never forget
[14:45] Speaker 2: when we when we trucked out there because like when
[14:47] Speaker 2: we graduated, it b it was like a it was
[14:52] Speaker 2: a it was a very unceremonious thing. There was like
[14:55] Speaker 2: maybe it was like four bleachers high, and there was
[14:58] Speaker 2: like a couple of families just sitting there kind of
[15:00] Speaker 2: like let's hurry this up. It was very where's the
[15:06] Speaker 2: like the parade and ship, but.
[15:09] Speaker 1: This is camp. All the funds over now.
[15:10] Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, and uh so you know we get
[15:14] Speaker 2: done with that and then it's immediately like the trucks,
[15:16] Speaker 2: these these these you know, these trucks are already waiting for
[15:19] Speaker 2: us to throw our sea bags and ship in there,
[15:21] Speaker 2: and you know, load up and get get going across
[15:24] Speaker 2: the river. And we get there and into onto L
[15:28] Speaker 2: Street and and then we pull into a into a
[15:31] Speaker 2: three six into the into the three six like headquarters,
[15:35] Speaker 2: you know, right there on that sidewalk, and you know
[15:37] Speaker 2: the buildings there and the barracks are right here, and
[15:40] Speaker 2: I'll never forget, man. We get there and a bunch
[15:43] Speaker 2: of US boots are standing there in formation waiting for
[15:45] Speaker 2: whoever to come out and address us. And we look
[15:49] Speaker 2: up and you know, behind us, and there's you know,
[15:51] Speaker 2: some there there. They've been there. They've clearly been there
[15:55] Speaker 2: for a while. It may have been like other senior
[15:56] Speaker 2: marines from a different different company maybe, I want to say.
[16:00] Speaker 2: But they're up there on the third second, you know,
[16:04] Speaker 2: decks the cat walk there, and they're kind of like
[16:06] Speaker 2: leaning over the railing and some of them have their
[16:08] Speaker 2: shirts off with like their boots on, still their boots
[16:11] Speaker 2: and camera, you know, trousers and shiit on, and they're
[16:13] Speaker 2: all like leaning. Some of them are in civvy. They're
[16:15] Speaker 2: like leaning over looking at us, man, and it's it's
[16:18] Speaker 2: it's a it's like that cliche jailhouse movie where like
[16:22] Speaker 2: the fresh meat comes in and you know they're looking
[16:24] Speaker 2: around like, fuck, dude, where are we at? Like damn,
[16:26] Speaker 2: I should have never I shouldn't have fucked up in life,
[16:29] Speaker 2: you know, and they're all like looking at it.
[16:32] Speaker 1: It's like that meme I wanted to be funny in class.
[16:34] Speaker 2: Now I'm saying, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, but
[16:39] Speaker 2: that that was funny, that it was a it was
[16:41] Speaker 2: a funny fucking thing. And I was like, dude, this
[16:42] Speaker 2: is this is it. I guess these guys are not
[16:46] Speaker 2: even they're not our seniors. You know, I had an idea,
[16:49] Speaker 2: you can just tell, like a lot of the guys
[16:51] Speaker 2: I knew. They just they looked really young, man, really
[16:55] Speaker 2: fucking young. Now I was older getting in, but still, man,
[16:58] Speaker 2: and I know I didn't I didn't look old by
[17:00] Speaker 2: any means. You know, I still look like a kid
[17:02] Speaker 2: at twenty three. But I just remember, man, that just
[17:05] Speaker 2: the youthful appearance of a lot of them. But then
[17:08] Speaker 2: when the seniors came in, you know, you could they
[17:11] Speaker 2: had that same SI instructor a kind of demeanor, but
[17:15] Speaker 2: they were gonna be a little bit more strict, you know,
[17:18] Speaker 2: they're gonna be a little bit more on our ass,
[17:20] Speaker 2: you know, because they want us to learn as quick
[17:22] Speaker 2: as possible, you know how how we do it in
[17:25] Speaker 2: the fleet, you.
[17:26] Speaker 1: Know, yeah, I mean you're literally the people are gonna
[17:29] Speaker 1: fight with you know. So yeah, yeah, if we're if
[17:32] Speaker 1: we're going to go get in a fight, then you
[17:33] Speaker 1: better be ready. And it's on them to make you ready.
[17:36] Speaker 1: You know, if you learn anything that you didn't pick
[17:38] Speaker 1: up in training. Do you think your training at SI
[17:41] Speaker 1: was pretty adequate for what you rolled into in your
[17:44] Speaker 1: training at three six?
[17:47] Speaker 2: I think it was. I think it was a good
[17:51] Speaker 2: maybe a good baseline, you know. But you know, every
[17:55] Speaker 2: unit has their own SOPs. I guess based on their
[17:59] Speaker 2: on their on that specific units that their own experience,
[18:02] Speaker 2: I mean, and they can differ from company to company,
[18:04] Speaker 2: you know. You know, it's just based on what they
[18:08] Speaker 2: what they encountered on their latest or their most recent deployment,
[18:13] Speaker 2: or they could even draw back on the deployment before that,
[18:16] Speaker 2: you know, and and and take from that and combine
[18:19] Speaker 2: them and you know, just do all kinds of other
[18:20] Speaker 2: you know, wild ship you know, just to kind of
[18:23] Speaker 2: get you up to speed. But you know, a lot
[18:25] Speaker 2: of it a lot of it was retain it. Remember it,
[18:32] Speaker 2: you know, remember the training. I mean it's good. Yeah,
[18:35] Speaker 2: but you know, cemper fucking gumby. You know, be ready
[18:39] Speaker 2: to be flexible, and you know you're gonna you're gonna
[18:41] Speaker 2: learn a lot more shit, a lot more. It's probably
[18:43] Speaker 2: gonna be more advanced, you know that kind of Yeah.
[18:46] Speaker 1: Essentially they're going to introduce you to like basic concepts
[18:50] Speaker 1: and then you're gonna build from that when you get
[18:52] Speaker 1: on into the fleet. Yeah.
[18:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think it was. I think it was good.
[18:57] Speaker 2: I mean I I I enjoyed it. I think you know,
[19:00] Speaker 2: I enjoyed all the training. You know, it was h
[19:02] Speaker 2: I thought it was pretty good ship.
[19:04] Speaker 1: When you were at at three six How as an
[19:07] Speaker 1: O three eleven as a rifle man, how often are
[19:10] Speaker 1: you shooting or is it mostly maneuver training or do
[19:13] Speaker 1: you do you guys get to shoot quite a bit.
[19:17] Speaker 2: We uh, the way I remember it with with the training,
[19:22] Speaker 2: we we would do a lot of like a lot
[19:23] Speaker 2: of it was room clearing, but when we went to
[19:26] Speaker 2: the when we went to the field, we did a
[19:28] Speaker 2: lot of like a lot of like trench we cleared
[19:32] Speaker 2: trenches a lot and I don't know if I don't
[19:37] Speaker 2: know if if maybe that was get used to being
[19:40] Speaker 2: hunched over, maybe staying low as you're moving and maneuvering
[19:44] Speaker 2: and shit like that. I don't know, maybe there was
[19:46] Speaker 2: that's that was a purpose or even even helping with
[19:49] Speaker 2: with room clearing, you know, because you're not gonna just
[19:52] Speaker 2: walk straight up a flight of stairs if you know
[19:55] Speaker 2: somebody's in there, You're kind of going to be crouched
[19:57] Speaker 2: down to where you can quickly pop up if you
[20:00] Speaker 2: have to, you know, and engage the target that could
[20:02] Speaker 2: be standing right there, not just walking straight up, you know,
[20:05] Speaker 2: high porting your fucking weapon or whatever. But yeah, as
[20:08] Speaker 2: far as far as like the movement the movement goes,
[20:11] Speaker 2: I think a lot of it was getting us used
[20:14] Speaker 2: to moving as fire teams at first to make it
[20:18] Speaker 2: a lot easier for man fire teams, and then expanding
[20:24] Speaker 2: that to like squads and then moving you know, say
[20:27] Speaker 2: you know, one fire team moves up and the other
[20:28] Speaker 2: two fire teams on the flanks are providing that covering fire,
[20:32] Speaker 2: and then that's that say that center fire team will
[20:35] Speaker 2: provide cover fire while another fire team moves up. And
[20:37] Speaker 2: it was just like they would say, we want you
[20:40] Speaker 2: to do. We want you to do it this way,
[20:41] Speaker 2: and that's the way you ran it. And you might
[20:44] Speaker 2: go through three or four or five damn dry runs,
[20:49] Speaker 2: you know before you actually get to really count it.
[20:52] Speaker 2: You know, your your wet runs, so to speak. Yeah,
[20:56] Speaker 2: but uh, a lot of bounding covering like danger areas
[21:01] Speaker 2: like crossing highways or you know alleys, corners and ship
[21:05] Speaker 2: like that. A lot of it was there. There was
[21:09] Speaker 2: a good a good amount of of you know urban
[21:12] Speaker 2: urban warfare training, you know Mounttown and you know door
[21:17] Speaker 2: to door that kind of thing. Clearing flights, uh different
[21:22] Speaker 2: you know, decks and ship like that. Man, But.
[21:25] Speaker 1: That makes sense considering they had just gotten back from
[21:28] Speaker 1: doing still Curtain. Yeah, doing all of that clearing and stuff.
[21:32] Speaker 2: Yeah. And we would even we would even take like
[21:38] Speaker 2: if we couldn't go to the armory for whatever reason,
[21:40] Speaker 2: we would take broomsticks and clear the barracks rooms and
[21:42] Speaker 2: ship you know, you clear clear the the the ladder
[21:47] Speaker 2: wells and all that kind of ship. Man. But uh,
[21:50] Speaker 2: it was it was good ship man. They they did
[21:53] Speaker 2: they they wanted us to stay busy. I remember my
[21:56] Speaker 2: first squid lader. He's like, man, if I if I
[21:57] Speaker 2: come into yalls fucking room and you're what, you're playing
[21:59] Speaker 2: video games or some ship. I'm gonna kick the ship
[22:01] Speaker 2: out of y'all fucking put on the news, current fucking affairs.
[22:06] Speaker 2: If I come in, I see you watching some ship
[22:08] Speaker 2: like that, you're good. You know. If you're not gonna
[22:10] Speaker 2: be doing something, then watch the news or see what
[22:14] Speaker 2: the fuck's going on over the you know, in Iraq
[22:16] Speaker 2: and Afghanistan and ship keep up with that ship, you know,
[22:19] Speaker 2: so you get the general idea. But yeah, man, it
[22:24] Speaker 2: it was. It was good. It was, it was really good.
[22:27] Speaker 2: They they did a great job. I think, man, I
[22:28] Speaker 2: think that's what that's what made I think that's what
[22:31] Speaker 2: made the that that O seven deployment to Iraq. I
[22:36] Speaker 2: guess it could have been I think it probably could
[22:40] Speaker 2: have been a lot tougher had it not been for
[22:42] Speaker 2: you know, their experience, you know. And yeah, they're being
[22:46] Speaker 2: able to, you know, kind of lay it all out
[22:48] Speaker 2: for us and and you know, essentially tell us that
[22:52] Speaker 2: they've experienced the same things. You know.
[22:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and everybody is a boot at some point,
[22:58] Speaker 1: right you don't know anything, So they know the best
[23:01] Speaker 1: leaders are understand that, like new guys you just don't
[23:05] Speaker 1: know what you don't know. I never understood guys that
[23:07] Speaker 1: would just yell at a dude for not knowing something
[23:10] Speaker 1: that they've never been taught. It's like, dude, teach the
[23:12] Speaker 1: guy and then if he doesn't fucking pick it up,
[23:15] Speaker 1: then start adding some pressure to it. But if you're
[23:18] Speaker 1: just a dick from the beginning, like, how do you
[23:20] Speaker 1: expect him to learn it? Likes that's like a horrible
[23:22] Speaker 1: way to try to learn something to somebody. Uh yeah,
[23:26] Speaker 1: I never got that. So it's like the best people
[23:29] Speaker 1: are the ones that understand that, Like, this kid doesn't
[23:31] Speaker 1: know anything, so we got to teach him, you know,
[23:33] Speaker 1: And that's what that's Hey, that's your job, corporal, you know,
[23:36] Speaker 1: that's you're the manager of the Junior Marines. You're supposed
[23:39] Speaker 1: to be the direct supervisor providing that you know, knowledge
[23:43] Speaker 1: that you've picked up and then go from there. But yeah, man,
[23:48] Speaker 1: I mean that's good. Did you guys have any opportunities
[23:50] Speaker 1: as an O three eleven? Is there many opportunities for schools?
[23:53] Speaker 1: And if so, what schools would there be?
[23:56] Speaker 2: I know there was a couple of guys man that
[24:00] Speaker 2: they they went and of course they had I remember
[24:02] Speaker 2: they came out. I think I think it was actually
[24:05] Speaker 2: before the fleet. I want to say we were Yeah,
[24:10] Speaker 2: I want to say, damn was it in the fleet.
[24:12] Speaker 2: I can't rememb if it was in the fleet, if
[24:13] Speaker 2: it was an SI. But we actually had some guys
[24:14] Speaker 2: from like Recon and Stay and all that. You know,
[24:16] Speaker 2: they would come out and you know, get you know,
[24:19] Speaker 2: throw their pitch out there. Yeah, and if you wanted
[24:22] Speaker 2: to give it a shot, you were more than welcome
[24:24] Speaker 2: to come up in front or whatever, and they would
[24:26] Speaker 2: you know, get your name and all that ship and
[24:29] Speaker 2: you can go and do that if you give it
[24:31] Speaker 2: a shot, if you and if you don't, if you
[24:33] Speaker 2: wash out or whatever, you just come back to the
[24:35] Speaker 2: unit whichever wherever we were, you know. So there were
[24:38] Speaker 2: some guys that that did that, you know, Snipers and
[24:40] Speaker 2: Recon was they were the two big ones. I remember
[24:44] Speaker 2: that that.
[24:44] Speaker 1: Guys, did you have did you ever have any desire
[24:47] Speaker 1: to try for like snipers or anything?
[24:50] Speaker 2: No? I I kinda kind of sort of but not
[24:55] Speaker 2: I didn't really. I didn't know, because it's gonna sound
[24:58] Speaker 2: kind of like a cop out, but I didn't know
[25:00] Speaker 2: I was gonna be in long term, you know, what
[25:01] Speaker 2: I mean, Like, if I was going to make a
[25:03] Speaker 2: career out of it, and I was like, well, if
[25:05] Speaker 2: I don't, I'd hate to you know, I'd hate to
[25:09] Speaker 2: go and and and and try to do that if
[25:11] Speaker 2: I if I wasn't going to make a career out
[25:13] Speaker 2: of it, you know, but I and honestly, man, I
[25:17] Speaker 2: I did. I enjoyed. I enjoyed you know, the the
[25:22] Speaker 2: training and everything that I got out of at A
[25:24] Speaker 2: being an eleven. You know, it was I thought it
[25:27] Speaker 2: was pretty good.
[25:27] Speaker 1: Ship.
[25:31] Speaker 2: It would have been cool. I think, so, yeah, it
[25:35] Speaker 2: would have been cool. But you know, I don't know
[25:38] Speaker 2: if I don't know if my eyesight would have allowed
[25:40] Speaker 2: me to really go from snipers, you know what I mean.
[25:44] Speaker 1: Bro, I you know the thing is is like people
[25:48] Speaker 1: can hate on that and like yeah, but you wanted
[25:50] Speaker 1: to go, you know, like whatever. But I would much
[25:53] Speaker 1: rather someone be like, hey man, this isn't for me,
[25:55] Speaker 1: than waste a spot for someone that may actually want
[25:59] Speaker 1: to do it, Like joining the marine, that's something you
[26:02] Speaker 1: gotta want. You gotta want to go to cyper school
[26:05] Speaker 1: or if you don't know what you're getting yourself into,
[26:07] Speaker 1: you're you're about to go through misery, like those guys
[26:10] Speaker 1: aren't fucking around. So yeah, if you don't want it,
[26:14] Speaker 1: then you're you're setting yourself up for failure from the beginning.
[26:17] Speaker 1: So right, hey, I appreciate it, because not everybody's perfect
[26:21] Speaker 1: for every job, you know.
[26:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so.
[26:24] Speaker 1: Yeah, man, So let's talk about let's talk about when
[26:27] Speaker 1: we're moving up to the deployment timeframe. So, now, when
[26:30] Speaker 1: did you hear about the deployment? Did you know where
[26:32] Speaker 1: you guys were going to go? How did you feel,
[26:34] Speaker 1: as like a newer guy, like this is the first deployment,
[26:37] Speaker 1: here we go. Do you remember how your family reacted
[26:40] Speaker 1: when you told him?
[26:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, so, of course it was still early. It was
[26:45] Speaker 2: still early on after we after I had been dropped
[26:48] Speaker 2: into the fleet. They already because you know, the the
[26:52] Speaker 2: the the optempo was so insane at that time. Man,
[26:55] Speaker 2: it was it was get you know, work up for deployment,
[27:01] Speaker 2: deploy come back after your seven months, seven to ten months,
[27:05] Speaker 2: however long you're gonna be gone, work up for like
[27:08] Speaker 2: another seven or eight months, deploy again, maybe even maybe
[27:11] Speaker 2: even sooner than that. You know. It was just back
[27:14] Speaker 2: and forth, back and forth, back and forth, just deployment
[27:16] Speaker 2: after deployment after deployment. So you know, we all had
[27:19] Speaker 2: an idea. We all we knew you know, that it
[27:22] Speaker 2: was coming, but uh like and I you know, I've
[27:26] Speaker 2: we all look forward to it. It's what we It's
[27:28] Speaker 2: what we signed up, you know, it's what we signed
[27:30] Speaker 2: up for. It's what we signed up to do. And
[27:33] Speaker 2: I remember they they they they told us it was
[27:36] Speaker 2: gonna be Iraq, but they didn't know specific specifically where
[27:40] Speaker 2: in Iraq. It wasn't until a little bit later on
[27:44] Speaker 2: they were like, yeah, we're going to it's gonna be
[27:45] Speaker 2: a place called Hobbaniah and it's a it's just a
[27:48] Speaker 2: it's like a rural kind of a town area so
[27:52] Speaker 2: many miles you know, Uh, it's so many miles east
[27:56] Speaker 2: of Ramadi and west of Fallujah. It's like right in
[27:58] Speaker 2: between them. And it was gonna be we were going
[28:01] Speaker 2: to be operating. The AO was gonna be that whole
[28:04] Speaker 2: area around the Euphrates, and so we you know, we
[28:09] Speaker 2: had an idea then where we were going and more
[28:13] Speaker 2: specifically in in the area of the region whenever we
[28:17] Speaker 2: were you know, like wrapping up cacs and you know,
[28:20] Speaker 2: that's that's where we got I think that's where we
[28:22] Speaker 2: started getting like maps of the area as well, Like
[28:24] Speaker 2: we you know, our squad leaders might show us a
[28:26] Speaker 2: map and so, yeah, this is where we're gonna be
[28:28] Speaker 2: running our AO, this is where our A was gonna be,
[28:31] Speaker 2: This where we running ops. And that was pretty much it.
[28:35] Speaker 2: And you know it, my my, you know, my parents
[28:39] Speaker 2: they expected it.
[28:42] Speaker 1: They come, you know, the dreaded moment.
[28:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's inevitable. It's just it's just a matter of time. Yeah, man, my, Uh,
[28:54] Speaker 2: I'll never forget it. Man. They went before, you know,
[28:57] Speaker 2: before we were to take off. My parents, my sister,
[29:02] Speaker 2: they had come up for. It was it was that
[29:04] Speaker 2: weekend and then I think we were going to take
[29:07] Speaker 2: off like during that week. I don't know if it
[29:09] Speaker 2: was like Monday. I don't think it was Monday. It
[29:11] Speaker 2: may have been like a Tuesday or Wednesday or something
[29:13] Speaker 2: like that. But uh, you know, they'd come up for
[29:15] Speaker 2: that last weekend. We all had a great time and
[29:18] Speaker 2: it was fun, man, And I don't it didn't. I
[29:21] Speaker 2: don't think it really hit my mom until I went
[29:25] Speaker 2: to the airport with them because they were going, you know,
[29:27] Speaker 2: they're flying out a Jacksonville airport. You know, a little
[29:29] Speaker 2: cookie cutter airplanes and ship there, and I remember, you know,
[29:33] Speaker 2: it's so small that you can see them walk to
[29:35] Speaker 2: the terminal, you know, So I go as far as
[29:37] Speaker 2: I can, and I you know, kind of hug them
[29:39] Speaker 2: and kiss them by. And my I think my dad
[29:44] Speaker 2: he rounded the corner first, you know, kind of like
[29:47] Speaker 2: waved out, you know, did the wave. And then my
[29:50] Speaker 2: sister she was behind my mother. So my mother is
[29:52] Speaker 2: about to round the corner. She kind of stops and
[29:54] Speaker 2: she looks at me. Man, she's got the saddest and
[29:56] Speaker 2: she's like crying, like she's trying not to cry, but
[29:59] Speaker 2: she is crying. I'm like, oh man, you know, like
[30:04] Speaker 2: that's gonna get me. But yeah, so I see her face.
[30:07] Speaker 2: It's full of dread and worry, and and I wave,
[30:11] Speaker 2: and I'll get I'll get choked up now just thinking
[30:13] Speaker 2: about it. But she kind of waves, and you know
[30:16] Speaker 2: I waved by. My sister's kind of like, you know,
[30:19] Speaker 2: she she knew mom was gonna she knew that his
[30:21] Speaker 2: mom was gonna be the emotional one. But my sister
[30:24] Speaker 2: gave me like the reassuring you know, like bye, and
[30:26] Speaker 2: you know it's it's not by. It's well we'll see later,
[30:29] Speaker 2: you know. And then man, like I'm not gonna lie, dude.
[30:35] Speaker 2: When my mom when they when they all around the corner,
[30:37] Speaker 2: that's whenever I turned I went to the restroom, I
[30:39] Speaker 2: fucking cried, man, because I killed me seeing my mom
[30:42] Speaker 2: like that. Dude.
[30:44] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough. People don't realize how tough it is.
[30:47] Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but it's almost like it's almost you don't
[30:50] Speaker 1: want them to be there when you leave, but you
[30:52] Speaker 1: want them to be there when you get back, you know,
[30:53] Speaker 1: because that's like fun.
[30:54] Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, oh yeah yeah yeah man. Yeah. And then
[30:59] Speaker 2: that was it, man. And then I think it was
[31:01] Speaker 2: like maybe maybe that week, man, But later in that
[31:05] Speaker 2: week we took off to a camp pap Ania. Man.
[31:11] Speaker 2: I remember.
[31:11] Speaker 1: So when I deployed with three six in twenty eleven,
[31:16] Speaker 1: my mom, my sister, my brother in law came down
[31:19] Speaker 1: and dude, I remember, they were all standing there and
[31:24] Speaker 1: I had to, like, you get on the bus to leave,
[31:28] Speaker 1: and I'm like waving at them through the glass or whatever,
[31:31] Speaker 1: and then you're there for like five or ten more
[31:33] Speaker 1: minutes and it's just like, yeah, I'm just sitting here,
[31:38] Speaker 1: like can we go move up fifty feet?
[31:41] Speaker 2: You know, like, yeah, yeah, something, give us something. Damn.
[31:44] Speaker 1: It's just so weird because you're just like I could
[31:46] Speaker 1: see you, but what am I gonna do there? Make
[31:47] Speaker 1: faces at you? You know, I don't know. It's tough, man.
[31:52] Speaker 1: It sucks when you're leaving, you know, yeah, when you
[31:56] Speaker 1: have family there. You know. I was married with a kid,
[32:00] Speaker 1: so my kid would get all emotional and stuff like
[32:03] Speaker 1: even when sometimes when I remember one time I was
[32:05] Speaker 1: going to Oklahoma for either Chiefs course or some other
[32:08] Speaker 1: school and my kid they were taking me to the
[32:11] Speaker 1: airport and my kid was like, oh, man, come and
[32:14] Speaker 1: watch what movie was like, come and watch Nemo or
[32:17] Speaker 1: something with me, And I'm like, I gotta go, buddy.
[32:20] Speaker 1: You know that like destroys you. You know, it kind
[32:23] Speaker 1: of kills you a little bit on man.
[32:25] Speaker 2: I don't know how you and those guys did it.
[32:26] Speaker 2: Man with kids, dude, I dropped my daughter off, you know,
[32:31] Speaker 2: on the weekends or whatever, and I'm like, man, dude,
[32:33] Speaker 2: I miss her so much.
[32:35] Speaker 1: Yeah it sucks, dude, Yeah, it sucks. That's why at
[32:40] Speaker 1: the end when I got when I got to the
[32:42] Speaker 1: point where I wanted to get out, I was just like,
[32:44] Speaker 1: this isn't worth it anymore like to leave my kids
[32:46] Speaker 1: to go because I was doing muse at the end.
[32:49] Speaker 1: I was like, I'm gonna leave to go sit on
[32:51] Speaker 1: ship for seven months where there's no job for a jaytach.
[32:54] Speaker 1: I answer a phone. That's about it, you know. Ye
[32:57] Speaker 1: what a waste my fucking time. And I just didn't
[32:59] Speaker 1: feel good about leaving my kid anymore like that. So yeah,
[33:03] Speaker 1: but it's tough, but gotta do it, man. So then
[33:06] Speaker 1: you guys, you know, I remember, and let me know
[33:08] Speaker 1: if you remember this at all. I remember when I
[33:11] Speaker 1: left with three six. There was when we had everybody
[33:15] Speaker 1: there to like get their bags and all that stuff.
[33:20] Speaker 1: There was a dude that didn't want to deploy. He
[33:24] Speaker 1: was like getting upset, like he was like super nervous
[33:27] Speaker 1: about the deployment. He was all like I don't think no, man,
[33:30] Speaker 1: like I think he started crying and stuff, and I
[33:32] Speaker 1: was like, bro, like relax, you know, Like that was
[33:35] Speaker 1: kind of crazy. Did you see anybody that was like
[33:38] Speaker 1: kind of nervous about it and kind of like, oh man,
[33:41] Speaker 1: I really don't want to do this, you know? Or
[33:42] Speaker 1: was everybody even if they're faking it, like keep it
[33:45] Speaker 1: out like yode, let's do this.
[33:47] Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, I think everybody was was pretty gung ho. Man.
[33:51] Speaker 2: They were they were ready to do it.
[33:53] Speaker 1: You know.
[33:53] Speaker 2: We we trained pretty hard, you know, for it, you know,
[33:56] Speaker 2: and and I think everybody was just thinking about all
[33:58] Speaker 2: that training and we're like, man, let's let's let's it
[34:00] Speaker 2: to you sign like yeah, yeah exactly. It was kind
[34:02] Speaker 2: of like a yeah, like a it's like you're gonna let.
[34:05] Speaker 1: Us right from the training.
[34:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get away from the barracks, not
[34:09] Speaker 2: knowing that seven months later than barracks look was sweet,
[34:12] Speaker 2: you know.
[34:13] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah. After you go out to twenty nine
[34:15] Speaker 1: Palms and do all that, do CACS the what is it,
[34:18] Speaker 1: Combined Arms Exercise and EMV. So for people that don't
[34:22] Speaker 1: know what that is, CAx Combined Arms Exercise swap it
[34:25] Speaker 1: interchangeably pretty much for EMV or MAHAVI viper, it's MAHAVI
[34:29] Speaker 1: viper and enhance MAVII viper. All of that is like
[34:32] Speaker 1: pre deployment. It's like a month of pre deployment training
[34:35] Speaker 1: in twenty nine Palms that Marines would do before they deploy.
[34:38] Speaker 1: And you do like it's like a crawl walk run
[34:42] Speaker 1: kind of deal where they start with like your lower
[34:45] Speaker 1: Like you said before, you started training with your fire
[34:47] Speaker 1: team and got comfortable there, and then you move up
[34:49] Speaker 1: with squad tactics and it's the same thing in twenty
[34:51] Speaker 1: nine Palms for those that don't know what we're talking about,
[34:53] Speaker 1: and it's then they move up to company and battalion
[34:56] Speaker 1: level maneuvers and combine again combined arm for bringing in
[35:00] Speaker 1: live fire aircraft or shooting actual artillery. You probably saw
[35:04] Speaker 1: at least once they shoot the mikliic the mind clearing
[35:08] Speaker 1: line charge, which is like, I don't even know, hundreds
[35:12] Speaker 1: of pounds of C four on a string. Basically, yeah,
[35:15] Speaker 1: those things are bad.
[35:15] Speaker 2: Ass, so cool. I always loved I always loved the
[35:19] Speaker 2: and I believe that's I think that's what that was.
[35:20] Speaker 2: At the very beginning, when the when the when the
[35:23] Speaker 2: when that final exercise kicks off, they you breach, they
[35:26] Speaker 2: they breach, you know, like a burmh Yeah again. Yeah, yeah,
[35:30] Speaker 2: it's like, oh, here we go. You know, they really
[35:32] Speaker 2: kicked it off. I'll never forget that, man, that was
[35:34] Speaker 2: always my favorite part because the rest of it sucked.
[35:38] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, all the maneuver when those miklicks are bad ass, though,
[35:45] Speaker 1: one of those off oh.
[35:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, man, Yeah, they're they're really they are bad ass.
[35:49] Speaker 2: It's it's really cool to watch.
[35:51] Speaker 1: I guess they had like a backpack version of it.
[35:54] Speaker 1: There's it's called something pop or something. I don't even
[35:56] Speaker 1: someone in the comments can tell me what it's called.
[35:58] Speaker 1: But there's like a backpack version of the Miklick that
[36:01] Speaker 1: three six carried when they were in like Marja, and
[36:04] Speaker 1: they would use that if they thought there was like
[36:05] Speaker 1: a danger area that could have that could mind, they
[36:08] Speaker 1: would pull it out. And but man, imagine you're doing
[36:12] Speaker 1: a clear of an area and you're all, you're all,
[36:14] Speaker 1: your ship's on your back, and you got to carry
[36:16] Speaker 1: that miklick backpack and.
[36:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, all your shit too. Yeah. Man, damn.
[36:21] Speaker 1: I've interviewed a couple of guys that had to do that,
[36:23] Speaker 1: and it just sounds fucking miserable.
[36:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, just yeah, can we hurry up and fire this
[36:28] Speaker 2: fucking thing.
[36:29] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's getting an engagement, so we can light this
[36:31] Speaker 1: load a.
[36:32] Speaker 2: Little bit, am or something. Give me something, let me
[36:35] Speaker 2: throw some rounds down, rage something.
[36:38] Speaker 1: When you guys flew into Iraq, I assume you guys
[36:40] Speaker 1: went through Kuwait and then into Iraq, where you guys
[36:43] Speaker 1: did did you guys do the standard like day or
[36:45] Speaker 1: two in Kuwait and then fly into Iraq to like
[36:48] Speaker 1: a big base and they move you out to your
[36:51] Speaker 1: whatever your main base you're going to.
[36:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, so of course, you know, we we we
[36:57] Speaker 2: took off. We we we we bust up the Cherry
[37:01] Speaker 2: Point from Cherry Point to Maine, you know, bangor and
[37:04] Speaker 2: then all you know that that whole deal man where
[37:06] Speaker 2: all the like the Vietnam veterans and all those guys
[37:09] Speaker 2: are out there and they're you know, letting you use
[37:11] Speaker 2: you know, their their cell phone so you can call
[37:13] Speaker 2: home one more time and all that. Yeah, yeah, so
[37:15] Speaker 2: cool man. And then from there it was like it
[37:17] Speaker 2: was like Ireland, which was a tease. I'm like, damn dude,
[37:20] Speaker 2: my second home is like right down the way.
[37:23] Speaker 1: But did they let you guys drink on your way in?
[37:26] Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, we got two that the two beer limit,
[37:29] Speaker 2: not knowing that you know, uh it two beers two pints.
[37:34] Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, maybe sneak some ship on the damn flight,
[37:36] Speaker 2: but uh uh yeah. So from there and then you know,
[37:40] Speaker 2: from there it was uh it was off to uh
[37:42] Speaker 2: Kuwait and then that's when you know, we got that's
[37:45] Speaker 2: when we got the Ammo and all that ship, and
[37:47] Speaker 2: that was one of those like eye opening moments. It's like, oh, damn, okay,
[37:50] Speaker 2: we're we got I got Ammo, you know, and of
[37:54] Speaker 2: course you get you know, you get in get in
[37:57] Speaker 2: the sea one. I believe it was the C one
[37:59] Speaker 2: thirty the first time we went there from Kuwait into
[38:04] Speaker 2: into Iraq and UH land land at Uh. I believe.
[38:10] Speaker 2: I believe we landed in TQ probably. Yeah.
[38:13] Speaker 1: TQ is right next to Lake Habania.
[38:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and then I forget. It's so weird man,
[38:22] Speaker 2: like because TQ is isn't that TQ is Like it's uh,
[38:30] Speaker 2: it's west of Fallujah, right.
[38:34] Speaker 1: Yes, I believe it's southwest of Felujah. Could be wrong
[38:37] Speaker 1: about that. It's like within forty five minutes of Fallujah.
[38:40] Speaker 1: It's pretty close.
[38:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, because we we drove through the middle of Fallujah
[38:45] Speaker 2: at night to get out to Camp Habania. For some damn.
[38:49] Speaker 2: I was like when I thought about it later, yeah,
[38:51] Speaker 2: I'm like, well, how the hell do we that?
[38:54] Speaker 1: Does that make sense? Because I'm pretty sure those are
[38:56] Speaker 1: opposite directions, but I could be right. Yeah, yeah, it's
[38:58] Speaker 1: been so long.
[38:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I'm I'm like what the hell is going
[39:01] Speaker 2: on with that? But like you know, in retrospect, when
[39:03] Speaker 2: I'm thinking about it, I'm like, dude, we we drove
[39:05] Speaker 2: through Fallujah. Now my direction may be way off. We
[39:08] Speaker 2: may have been coming from the other way, but but
[39:11] Speaker 2: camp but Camp hob Andia would have been it's it's
[39:14] Speaker 2: west of Fallujah.
[39:15] Speaker 1: So I just remember weird because Hobbinias were right across
[39:19] Speaker 1: the lake from TQ, right.
[39:22] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's yeah, it's it's not it's
[39:25] Speaker 2: I remember not being very far at all.
[39:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, But for whatever reason, it's when you first get there,
[39:32] Speaker 1: because you're like, what, yeah, you know, especially if it's
[39:34] Speaker 1: your first deployment, you don't even know what that was
[39:36] Speaker 1: happening at that point.
[39:37] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, man. And it was at night, and you know,
[39:38] Speaker 2: we were in seven tons and uh, they had the
[39:41] Speaker 2: flaps over the sides, and I remember I remember peeking
[39:44] Speaker 2: up under that ship and seeing like the the silhouettes
[39:47] Speaker 2: of the damn buildings and ship. You know, of course
[39:50] Speaker 2: there's no electricity. It was dark as fuck. The sky
[39:53] Speaker 2: was like maybe it was like an orangish color. Uh,
[39:56] Speaker 2: but I just remember seeing that creepy ass, you know,
[39:58] Speaker 2: the skyline you know, just the the buildings, the taller
[40:01] Speaker 2: buildings and ship. I'm like, damn, this is We're like,
[40:03] Speaker 2: we're in the middle of this fucking city.
[40:05] Speaker 1: We're here and here we go.
[40:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, man, that's that's what it was. Man. And uh,
[40:10] Speaker 2: you know, for whatever reason, we went that way and
[40:13] Speaker 2: we ended up. You know, we we trucked to Camp
[40:15] Speaker 2: hob and that's where we unloaded.
[40:19] Speaker 1: When you when you got there and you started doing
[40:22] Speaker 1: your rip, which is the relief in place for those
[40:25] Speaker 1: that don't know, we started doing your rip. What were
[40:29] Speaker 1: the guys saying that you were relieving. Were they like, hey,
[40:32] Speaker 1: it's been pretty active or was it not? I mean,
[40:34] Speaker 1: how what was the feedback that you were getting.
[40:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, from what from what I remember, From what I recall,
[40:40] Speaker 2: they were saying that they they took casualties. Of course,
[40:47] Speaker 2: the the area was really it was bad with I
[40:49] Speaker 2: d s, especially I d's and snipers there, you know
[40:52] Speaker 2: them to them two fucking things were you know, they
[40:55] Speaker 2: were always terrible. They they got, they got, they got
[40:59] Speaker 2: in to a couple of firefights. It wasn't it wasn't
[41:02] Speaker 2: gonna be it wasn't gonna be like head up all
[41:05] Speaker 2: the time. You know that they're they're shifting tactics. Was
[41:09] Speaker 2: all right, we'll we'll just throw a whole bunch of
[41:12] Speaker 2: I d S around and hopefully they'll step on them
[41:14] Speaker 2: and we'll take potshots and you know, we'll drive we'll
[41:16] Speaker 2: do drive bys and ship like that and use our snipers.
[41:20] Speaker 2: But they they they would point out specific areas you
[41:24] Speaker 2: know that might that may have been you know, a
[41:26] Speaker 2: little worse than others as far as like engagements go.
[41:31] Speaker 2: And then this area over here was really bad with
[41:33] Speaker 2: I D's over here. We found a lot of snipers,
[41:36] Speaker 2: you know that we get a lot of sniper fire
[41:38] Speaker 2: from here. And it was it was being you know,
[41:42] Speaker 2: being new. When you hear that ship from your squad leader,
[41:44] Speaker 2: it's like, fuck, dude, okay, I mean, you know, this
[41:46] Speaker 2: is this is kind of what we expected. You know,
[41:50] Speaker 2: it's it's what we're here for. Mm hmm. And then
[41:54] Speaker 2: you know, then then it was then it was kind
[41:56] Speaker 2: of like, all right, well, I I think we done.
[42:00] Speaker 2: I think we did a good enough job with with training,
[42:03] Speaker 2: you know, and I think the the the experienced guys,
[42:06] Speaker 2: squad leaders, team leaders, I think they did a great
[42:08] Speaker 2: job with with you know, you know, getting us and
[42:11] Speaker 2: getting us up for it. You know, I don't remember
[42:15] Speaker 2: anybody being like scared or even even like nervous, But
[42:18] Speaker 2: that's that's probably just fucking naivety, you know.
[42:21] Speaker 1: It's yeah, not nothing, nothing had happened yet.
[42:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but uh yeah, it was. It was
[42:28] Speaker 2: it was cool to get that first brief, man, and
[42:30] Speaker 2: then we're being told, yeah, here, you know, here's what
[42:33] Speaker 2: we're going to do. We're gonna get you know, we're
[42:37] Speaker 2: gonna go and and patrol for our what's going to
[42:40] Speaker 2: be you know, our our battle positions or or patrol bases, whichever,
[42:44] Speaker 2: whatever you want to call them. That's how we did it, man.
[42:48] Speaker 2: They just we dropped all of our sea bags off
[42:50] Speaker 2: and ship ship we didn't need at at the at
[42:55] Speaker 2: at the at camp hop and every you know, every
[42:58] Speaker 2: squad had their own room, so that's where all the
[43:01] Speaker 2: ship was staged. And then it was you know, take off,
[43:06] Speaker 2: you know, go out, go out and fucking patrol and
[43:09] Speaker 2: get your get your your vps and see if you
[43:11] Speaker 2: can get to a fight while you're doing it.
[43:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's crazy, man, that's uh yeah, close with you know, yeah,
[43:20] Speaker 1: get in there, final boys. Yeah, but how often I
[43:23] Speaker 1: mean you you you obviously said it that they weren't
[43:27] Speaker 1: really standing and fighting though, because they know they're not
[43:29] Speaker 1: going to sit there and fight with a squad or
[43:31] Speaker 1: a platoon or a company of Marines. That's just a
[43:35] Speaker 1: suicide mission. So how often did that? Did it happen
[43:39] Speaker 1: at least a few times where you guys got into
[43:41] Speaker 1: like a sustained or like an actual firefight or was
[43:44] Speaker 1: that almost exclusively pot shots and sniper shots with IDs
[43:48] Speaker 1: mixed in?
[43:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, So I guess I could start from from the beginning,
[43:53] Speaker 2: from the beginning when we got to we got to
[43:56] Speaker 2: this I think it was called Blue it was. It
[43:59] Speaker 2: wasn't our Plato Dunes. Uh, it wasn't our r BP
[44:02] Speaker 2: where we were gonna be operating. Uh. We just essentially
[44:05] Speaker 2: kind of we stopped there and got the lay of
[44:08] Speaker 2: the of there. I guess they're a AP platoon's a O,
[44:11] Speaker 2: you know, just to be familiar with it. And we
[44:14] Speaker 2: were sitting there in this this little kind of like
[44:16] Speaker 2: breezeway area, and I remember there was a big fucking
[44:19] Speaker 2: explosion out like it was off to my I remember
[44:22] Speaker 2: being off to my left, and I saw this little
[44:24] Speaker 2: mushroom cloud come up like oh, ship. That's fucking crazy.
[44:28] Speaker 2: First time I ever heard and felt an explosion like that,
[44:31] Speaker 2: you know, And uh, a few minutes goes by, and
[44:34] Speaker 2: then our squally squalater comes over. He goes, yeah, so
[44:38] Speaker 2: we're about to take off. We're gonna go off, you know,
[44:40] Speaker 2: and and and we're gonna we're gonna patrol until we
[44:42] Speaker 2: reach our our our our patrol base. And you know,
[44:46] Speaker 2: obviously they knew where what building that was and where
[44:49] Speaker 2: it was, and of course it was in the direction
[44:52] Speaker 2: of the fucking smoke. You know, I'm like, oh cool,
[44:56] Speaker 2: we get to we get to fucking patrol out here
[44:59] Speaker 2: towards this fucking explod And we heard all about these
[45:02] Speaker 2: I d's and ship, but you know, as far as
[45:06] Speaker 2: like as far as like the as far as like
[45:10] Speaker 2: the the engagements go and and them want to stand
[45:15] Speaker 2: and actually you know, duke it out with us, not
[45:21] Speaker 2: I know one of one of I think it was,
[45:23] Speaker 2: I think it was second platoon. They actually got into
[45:26] Speaker 2: a little skirmish across the euphrates with with maybe maybe
[45:32] Speaker 2: a little more than a fireteam sized element that was
[45:34] Speaker 2: over there. And they were up there. They were stupid, man,
[45:36] Speaker 2: they were They were in the prone apparently, and they
[45:41] Speaker 2: were firing their machine guns across at the marines, across
[45:44] Speaker 2: the river, and it's on video. It's it's it's a
[45:48] Speaker 2: little motive video. It's actually been it was recorded, and
[45:54] Speaker 2: when you're looking, you can see the muzzle flashes. You know,
[45:56] Speaker 2: there's like multiple muzzle flashes across the damn this little
[46:01] Speaker 2: and uh, as soon as the mosa flash happens, you
[46:03] Speaker 2: see a little plumes of dirt that moon dust ship
[46:05] Speaker 2: come up. It's like, oh, fuck, I'll just aim over there,
[46:08] Speaker 2: you know, just just that give us there. It's a
[46:09] Speaker 2: smoke signature that fuck, let's go ahead and take them out.
[46:12] Speaker 2: So like you know, and Mike has actually mentioned this before,
[46:16] Speaker 2: like in Afghanistan that the Taliban was a lot smarter
[46:18] Speaker 2: with it. They would piss around or piss or take
[46:21] Speaker 2: water and muddy the fucking sand where they were gonna
[46:25] Speaker 2: lie prome so it wouldn't kick up that damn moon dust.
[46:28] Speaker 2: You know, difference and tactics and and and you know,
[46:31] Speaker 2: I q awareness, but that that was one of the
[46:34] Speaker 2: few and it got caught on you know, it was recorded,
[46:38] Speaker 2: so it's it's pretty cool to see, but I don't know,
[46:44] Speaker 2: I don't know how. I don't know how long that lasted,
[46:47] Speaker 2: but uh, that was that was one case. You know,
[46:51] Speaker 2: we we our platoon are squad specifically, we patrolled up
[46:56] Speaker 2: North's hoards of euphrates and we reached the Berm because
[46:58] Speaker 2: we were getting word that there was a lot of
[47:00] Speaker 2: of a there was a lot of activity up that way,
[47:04] Speaker 2: so they just they wanted us to go check it out.
[47:06] Speaker 2: And you know, we get up there on this burn,
[47:08] Speaker 2: we spread out and there's an I D team. We
[47:11] Speaker 2: got lucky and there was an Ied team that came
[47:14] Speaker 2: up and they were gonna emplace a fucking bomb. Uh.
[47:18] Speaker 2: And they came up in a bongo truck and I
[47:20] Speaker 2: think they there was two dudes. Uh, there was a
[47:23] Speaker 2: driver and of course the two guys who were going
[47:26] Speaker 2: to actually in place the bomb. Our squad leader, you know,
[47:32] Speaker 2: he's like he calls it up. He's like, man, this
[47:34] Speaker 2: is legit. It's an I D. There's wires and ship
[47:36] Speaker 2: coming out of this fucking this device. And there's a
[47:39] Speaker 2: guy that's in a hole. He's standing in this fucking
[47:41] Speaker 2: hole and he's about to take the device from this
[47:44] Speaker 2: other asshole that's in the that's in the truck bed
[47:47] Speaker 2: and he's gonna put it down in the dirt. So
[47:50] Speaker 2: got permissioned, We got permission to engage, smoked him, killed
[47:54] Speaker 2: both of them like instantly, you know, it was it
[47:56] Speaker 2: was quick, It was it was every maree a rifleman, right,
[48:00] Speaker 2: I mean, it's the rifleman. These guys ambus ambushed. The
[48:05] Speaker 2: ambush tactic was, you know, uh, it's my buddy eye corn.
[48:08] Speaker 1: He he was.
[48:09] Speaker 2: He had the he had the he had the rifle.
[48:12] Speaker 2: He fucking had had a trace around set a first,
[48:16] Speaker 2: so he knew where he was gonna be, where he
[48:17] Speaker 2: where his rounds were going, so he didn't have to
[48:20] Speaker 2: use it to to see where his rounds landed, because
[48:23] Speaker 2: that fucking he said, the tracer, he goes, dude, he goes.
[48:26] Speaker 2: When I pulled the trigger, the tracer, it was almost
[48:28] Speaker 2: in slow motion, the fucking tracer it was going down.
[48:32] Speaker 2: I could I could see that it was heading right
[48:34] Speaker 2: towards his fucking ass. So when it hit him in
[48:35] Speaker 2: the fucking dome, and he said, it clacked him in
[48:39] Speaker 2: the fucking dome, and the fucking trace around went like up,
[48:43] Speaker 2: like exited out the top of his head, and it
[48:44] Speaker 2: fucking flew out into the fucking the nether world or whatever.
[48:48] Speaker 2: But he said that dude just fucking folded. And then
[48:51] Speaker 2: uh my, buddy Green he was the other sawgunner. He
[48:54] Speaker 2: uh he let off like a fucking five or eight
[48:57] Speaker 2: round burst or some ship man he about to saw
[48:58] Speaker 2: this dude in half. The other guy.
[49:01] Speaker 1: And that was that was.
[49:03] Speaker 2: I don't know for sure if that was the first
[49:06] Speaker 2: two you know, animy Kia. Is that the the unit
[49:08] Speaker 2: had gotten It was pretty early on. But the driver
[49:13] Speaker 2: he took off and there was there was very obviously
[49:16] Speaker 2: a sniper on on their end that was providing overwatch,
[49:20] Speaker 2: and he saw.
[49:21] Speaker 1: Where we were not very good over right, right right, yeah, yeah,
[49:27] Speaker 1: and so he.
[49:28] Speaker 2: Took he took a shot at a at at icorn
[49:31] Speaker 2: and and the round he just missed. It was in
[49:33] Speaker 2: between his because he was up on the burn like this,
[49:36] Speaker 2: and the round hit like right here in between his
[49:38] Speaker 2: elbows and then like kicked the dirt of the ship.
[49:41] Speaker 2: He's like, oh fuck. So we pulled back, pulled down
[49:44] Speaker 2: off the off the burn, maybe maybe one hundred yards
[49:47] Speaker 2: back up to a building, get on the rooftop, and
[49:51] Speaker 2: we were hoping to get like you know, some air
[49:53] Speaker 2: support because we knew we knew where the sniper was,
[49:56] Speaker 2: what building he was in, so we're quickly trying to
[49:59] Speaker 2: call this ship up and we can hear I remember
[50:03] Speaker 2: hearing the fixed wing. It was on standby, and it
[50:05] Speaker 2: was just kind of like fucking like roving, you know,
[50:08] Speaker 2: you can hear it going.
[50:10] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and we're like.
[50:11] Speaker 2: Oh, oh shit, you know, like, oh, this is gonna
[50:15] Speaker 2: be fucking great. Uh. But they they fucking they denied it.
[50:19] Speaker 2: They shut it down because there's just there was too
[50:21] Speaker 2: many other buildings they were afraid of, like collateral damage,
[50:24] Speaker 2: civilian you know, casualties and shit like that. Man.
[50:26] Speaker 1: But uh, that was another People think that's a point,
[50:31] Speaker 1: And you know, I always like to bring that up
[50:33] Speaker 1: when someone says something like that. I always like to
[50:35] Speaker 1: bring it up that people always talk about on like
[50:37] Speaker 1: TV and the news and stuff. They make it sound
[50:39] Speaker 1: like we're just slinging hell fires into wedding parties and
[50:42] Speaker 1: just nonchalantly dropping bombs into neighborhoods, and they don't really
[50:46] Speaker 1: understand that the targeting process is actually pretty robust. And
[50:52] Speaker 1: I've had so many things get shot down denied because
[50:55] Speaker 1: there's like a mud wall nearby, there's a compound nearby,
[50:58] Speaker 1: there's a moss nearby, you know, there's kids nearby, like
[51:03] Speaker 1: you know, like we literally tracked two guys. Was it
[51:07] Speaker 1: two guys, I think it was two guys ended up
[51:08] Speaker 1: being one, but they had kids that were they had
[51:11] Speaker 1: them following them because they knew that we wouldn't do anything,
[51:14] Speaker 1: and they just kept this group of kids with them
[51:16] Speaker 1: for a while and we watched them until as soon
[51:19] Speaker 1: as those kids got away from them, hit them with
[51:21] Speaker 1: the hell fire. Yeah, it was like we would literally
[51:24] Speaker 1: wait hours to confirm that this is the right person,
[51:27] Speaker 1: this is the right you know.
[51:28] Speaker 2: It was.
[51:29] Speaker 1: It's way more in depth than a lot of people realize.
[51:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's not it's not and it's not
[51:35] Speaker 2: it's not indiscriminate. It's it's it's it's very much. It's
[51:38] Speaker 2: all done with a purpose, man with a clear with
[51:40] Speaker 2: a clear objective, a clear target. You know.
[51:43] Speaker 1: Obviously, mistakes happen, and that's it's which sucks. It's war,
[51:47] Speaker 1: it's you know, and unfortunately, when a mistake happens, and
[51:50] Speaker 1: you're talking about fire support, that's a pretty big mistake.
[51:52] Speaker 1: Dropping a bomb on something you're not supposed to or whatever. Mistakes,
[51:56] Speaker 1: you know, but I've never seen any one like willfully
[52:02] Speaker 1: or maliciously try to drop on something you know that
[52:07] Speaker 1: shouldn't have been dropped. That's just not something that is done.
[52:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, because I means for obvious reasons, right, it would be,
[52:16] Speaker 2: it'd be fucking wrong, it'd be fucked up, And it's
[52:18] Speaker 2: just it's another thing. It's just it's it's not something
[52:21] Speaker 2: that we do.
[52:22] Speaker 1: You know, you're making enemies, you know when you do
[52:25] Speaker 1: every time you blow up someone's house, obviously not very
[52:27] Speaker 1: happy about that.
[52:28] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's and people don't realize just how
[52:32] Speaker 2: fragile it is. Man. It takes it takes it takes
[52:36] Speaker 2: like ten damn years to make five damn allies, and
[52:40] Speaker 2: it only takes a singular fuck up in the span
[52:43] Speaker 2: of like five seconds to make a thousand fucking enemies.
[52:46] Speaker 2: You know.
[52:46] Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's just it's huge. Remember when like this
[52:51] Speaker 1: happened in Afghanistan. I think they supposedly they said they
[52:56] Speaker 1: they there was a claim that they found a bunch
[52:59] Speaker 1: of burnt on like an air force base or something
[53:02] Speaker 1: like that, and like all these riots, I think some
[53:06] Speaker 1: people had gotten killed. There were like attacks, there was
[53:08] Speaker 1: all this crazy stuff and then it came out that
[53:10] Speaker 1: that never even happened. It wasn't even a true story.
[53:13] Speaker 1: It was just a fucking yeah, it was an IO
[53:15] Speaker 1: campaign that went around and all these like Middle Eastern
[53:18] Speaker 1: countries like were fucking furious about it. They thought it
[53:21] Speaker 1: was all true. And I think we made the mistake
[53:24] Speaker 1: of apologizing before realizing that we actually didn't do anything wrong.
[53:29] Speaker 2: I take that damn apology back.
[53:31] Speaker 1: We didn't need yeah, because again, I you know, there's
[53:36] Speaker 1: assholes out there, and I'm sure there's people that are malicious.
[53:39] Speaker 1: There are people that are malicious in the military, but
[53:42] Speaker 1: it's not like it's it runs rampant. I would never
[53:44] Speaker 1: if I ran into someone they're like, yeah, wanna burn
[53:46] Speaker 1: all these corns, I'd be like, what the fuck? Yeah
[53:48] Speaker 1: are you talking about dude? Yeah, you know, most people
[53:50] Speaker 1: would be like, you know, come on, why yeah, why
[53:54] Speaker 1: what are you trying to do? What are you trying
[53:55] Speaker 1: to do here? But yeah, dude, So after you don't
[54:01] Speaker 1: get your air support, you know, which happens, was that
[54:06] Speaker 1: it you just kind of you guys kind of hung
[54:08] Speaker 1: around waiting to see if you could pick up that sniper.
[54:10] Speaker 2: Or yeah, yeah, we we just yeah, we did we
[54:14] Speaker 2: we kind of hung out for a little bit and
[54:18] Speaker 2: then of course it was very uneventful. After that. He
[54:21] Speaker 2: probably just said fuck it, picked up a shit and
[54:23] Speaker 2: left and then uh that's when we you know, that's
[54:26] Speaker 2: when we rt B And that was pretty much it, man.
[54:29] Speaker 1: But we did a lot of.
[54:32] Speaker 2: During that stay. I'd say, I think we got there.
[54:36] Speaker 2: I think we got there on the eighteenth of January seventh,
[54:40] Speaker 2: January ten seventh. I think it's when we got there first,
[54:43] Speaker 2: first got there. But we stayed running ops, you know,
[54:46] Speaker 2: patrols and all that good ship and providing you know,
[54:49] Speaker 2: uh security and you know, running posts and ship like
[54:53] Speaker 2: that out of this little this this house it was,
[54:57] Speaker 2: I guess considered a nicer house for that for that area.
[55:00] Speaker 2: But we of course, you know, told the family, hey
[55:03] Speaker 2: we really could use this. We will we will pay
[55:06] Speaker 2: you rent while we're here if you have family to
[55:08] Speaker 2: go live with for the time being, which we did
[55:11] Speaker 2: of course, sandbags and everything up and maybe just made
[55:15] Speaker 2: it a just a it's it's a military operation now.
[55:19] Speaker 2: And uh, you know, we we ran we ran operations
[55:22] Speaker 2: out of there for ship maybe maybe a month and
[55:27] Speaker 2: a half, almost almost two months. I want to say,
[55:31] Speaker 2: month and a half two months uh before we uh
[55:36] Speaker 2: actually went on a on an operation uh north of
[55:39] Speaker 2: these rates that had never been there was no American
[55:42] Speaker 2: presence there before since the invasion mm hmm. And that's
[55:45] Speaker 2: where we for that for that whole time we were
[55:47] Speaker 2: there at this little uh five nine two is what
[55:50] Speaker 2: the patrol basis called. For the time that we were there,
[55:54] Speaker 2: we were taking a lot of the drive by you know,
[55:55] Speaker 2: pot pot shots and fucking sniper fires. There was I
[55:58] Speaker 2: d's all up and down the damn the main one
[56:00] Speaker 2: of the main roads.
[56:03] Speaker 1: You know.
[56:04] Speaker 2: We ran We ran an operation we called Big Snatch.
[56:07] Speaker 2: Obviously it's a a marine uh marine term. It was
[56:12] Speaker 2: marine made. Yeah, but we just we rolled up a
[56:16] Speaker 2: bunch of dudes at night man kicking in a bunch
[56:17] Speaker 2: of doors around this house, uh with informants. We had
[56:21] Speaker 2: I think I think we had like two or three informants.
[56:23] Speaker 2: You know, they were mashed up because they didn't want
[56:24] Speaker 2: to be recognized. So we we you know, we they
[56:29] Speaker 2: were just they were literally going up this house here,
[56:32] Speaker 2: you know, Ali Baba, bad guy, all right. Fuck, So
[56:35] Speaker 2: we fucking kicked the damn door in and we were
[56:37] Speaker 2: doing this as a as a platoon, so you would
[56:38] Speaker 2: have three squads of marines broken down to like fire
[56:41] Speaker 2: teams and ship like that, sweeping and clearing as fast
[56:45] Speaker 2: as we could. Just in the middle of the night.
[56:47] Speaker 2: People are trying to sit and we're just fucking making
[56:49] Speaker 2: all this noise boom, kicking indoors and ship. And one
[56:52] Speaker 2: guy was fucking standing behind the door and the door
[56:55] Speaker 2: got kicked in. And this sounds bad, but uh, the
[56:59] Speaker 2: door got kicked in and as he's standing right there,
[57:01] Speaker 2: and because they don't wear shoes or nothing, so his
[57:04] Speaker 2: his fucking I think his toenail on on on the
[57:07] Speaker 2: big toe got caught underneath the door as it was
[57:09] Speaker 2: being you know, flung open, peeled his ship back.
[57:13] Speaker 1: So, you know, we I think fortunate.
[57:16] Speaker 2: I can't, I can't. I don't know the number. I
[57:19] Speaker 2: can't remember the number now. But we rolled up some
[57:21] Speaker 2: legit dudes, man, that.
[57:22] Speaker 1: Were al Qaeda.
[57:23] Speaker 2: They were they were affiliated, Yeah, they were affiliated with
[57:25] Speaker 2: al Qaeda, and they were doing bad ship. We I
[57:29] Speaker 2: think we rounded up like thirty something fucking dudes. It's
[57:32] Speaker 2: just just around the fucking area, man.
[57:34] Speaker 1: It was.
[57:35] Speaker 2: It was a lot. I remember it being a lot.
[57:38] Speaker 2: But you know that's the kind of ship we were
[57:39] Speaker 2: doing for that first month month and a half, you know,
[57:43] Speaker 2: going out show a force, you know, a presence and
[57:46] Speaker 2: and you know really just trying to you know, get
[57:48] Speaker 2: into a fight. You know, they please shoot at us.
[57:50] Speaker 2: You know, we want to know where you're at that
[57:53] Speaker 2: kind of thing.
[57:53] Speaker 1: Did it feel like you did you feel like you
[57:55] Speaker 1: guys were doing something or did it feel like, man,
[57:57] Speaker 1: what do we do? Or we you know, because sometimes
[57:59] Speaker 1: it's like what are we doing?
[58:00] Speaker 2: What is this?
[58:01] Speaker 1: You know what this mission? Yeah?
[58:03] Speaker 2: Like that? Yeah, that was especially when we were told
[58:07] Speaker 2: just what we had done. You know, we we rolled
[58:10] Speaker 2: up legit dudes, you know. Now. So of course there
[58:13] Speaker 2: were some who they weren't you know, I don't know
[58:16] Speaker 2: if maybe the fucking informant didn't like the guy was like,
[58:20] Speaker 2: go fucking that's hit Bali baba. Yeah, but yeh know
[58:23] Speaker 2: they're they were good. They were actually pretty good, these
[58:25] Speaker 2: these guys that that told us, you know, here's the
[58:28] Speaker 2: houses you know that you need to you need to
[58:30] Speaker 2: look at and uh by look at just kick the
[58:33] Speaker 2: ship in and go fucking round them up.
[58:35] Speaker 1: And what was it like the first time you did that?
[58:38] Speaker 1: Were you like, holy ship we're about to yeah, somebody's
[58:41] Speaker 1: door down.
[58:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because I've I've never done it before, you know,
[58:45] Speaker 2: I'm like, oh the fuck, this is all right? Well fuck, okay,
[58:49] Speaker 2: of course you're you're always you know, you're you're in
[58:52] Speaker 2: the mindset that they're gonna they're they're expecting you. You know,
[58:56] Speaker 2: if you're go in with that mindset, even though they're
[58:58] Speaker 2: probably not because it's the middle of the night. It's
[59:01] Speaker 2: like fucking I don't know, one or two in the morning.
[59:03] Speaker 2: You know, everybody's asleep, it's dark. But when you're going
[59:08] Speaker 2: with that mindset, man, I don't I don't think anything's
[59:10] Speaker 2: gonna take you for surprise. You know, nothing's gonna surprise you. Yeah,
[59:15] Speaker 2: And that's that's I remember it just being like that.
[59:17] Speaker 1: It was fast.
[59:18] Speaker 2: I remember being it was. It was right next house,
[59:21] Speaker 2: next house, next house. You know, we got this guy,
[59:22] Speaker 2: all right, this is the guy you sure?
[59:24] Speaker 1: Yep?
[59:24] Speaker 2: Okay, blindfolded, you know, fucking bird lap or whatever goggles
[59:29] Speaker 2: if we had to. You know, we started running out
[59:30] Speaker 2: of burlaps, so we had to use some of our
[59:32] Speaker 2: goggles and ship. Yeah, and so that was that was
[59:38] Speaker 2: that was that was pretty cool getting to do that,
[59:41] Speaker 2: and then of course finding out the results just it
[59:44] Speaker 2: just it was a sense of gratification, you know, like it's.
[59:48] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know yeah, when you find out it's
[59:51] Speaker 1: a legitimate guy, You're like, oh cool.
[59:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, good.
[59:54] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[59:54] Speaker 2: And and and then on top of you know, I mean,
[59:57] Speaker 2: I think I'm just gonna say, you do you want
[1:00:02] Speaker 2: to kill bad guys? You know, like it's just it's
[1:00:05] Speaker 2: what you signed up.
[1:00:06] Speaker 1: To do, and that's the game, dude.
[1:00:08] Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know, I figured, you know, if if
[1:00:12] Speaker 2: we didn't kill him, at least we have him for
[1:00:15] Speaker 2: some intel, you know, and you think about, damn, if
[1:00:17] Speaker 2: this guy has this intel on this particular incident or
[1:00:21] Speaker 2: whatever it may be, that's one source. And you're talking
[1:00:24] Speaker 2: about yeah, close to thirty something fucking dudes who can
[1:00:26] Speaker 2: give you different kinds of intel, you know, if they're
[1:00:29] Speaker 2: willing to talk. And now I thought the whole catch
[1:00:32] Speaker 2: and release thing was bullshit. I think we could only
[1:00:33] Speaker 2: hold him for like forty eight hours, you know, detain
[1:00:36] Speaker 2: him for forty eight hours or some shit like that.
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: But there was some some intel that was gathered from that,
[1:00:42] Speaker 2: from those those kinds of operations, good man, it helped.
[1:00:46] Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, I mean again, I think anytime you
[1:00:49] Speaker 1: know that the person that you've gone after or whatever.
[1:00:53] Speaker 1: So I did a high mar strike, my second high
[1:00:54] Speaker 1: mar strike I did in afghan I think it was Yeah,
[1:00:57] Speaker 1: it was my second high mar strike I did in Afghanistan.
[1:01:00] Speaker 1: When I was with three six, actually smoked these guys
[1:01:05] Speaker 1: that were in placing an I d and when we
[1:01:10] Speaker 1: got the intel about who they were, one of the
[1:01:13] Speaker 1: guys was confirmed to be the IED maker that had
[1:01:17] Speaker 1: created that had built an ID earlier in the deployment
[1:01:19] Speaker 1: that had wounded one of the officers had blown up,
[1:01:25] Speaker 1: like one of the platoon commanders got injured enough. We
[1:01:27] Speaker 1: had Charlie won six attached to us. When I was
[1:01:29] Speaker 1: with three six, we had Charlie one six attached to us.
[1:01:32] Speaker 1: And right after they got there, they lost a couple
[1:01:34] Speaker 1: guys from sniper fire Corman and then one of the
[1:01:39] Speaker 1: lieutenants got hit. It was I think it was one
[1:01:41] Speaker 1: of the platoon commanders. It may have been a company commander.
[1:01:44] Speaker 1: But they they hit an ied and fucked them up
[1:01:46] Speaker 1: enough where they had to metal back them back home.
[1:01:49] Speaker 1: And then a few months later, fast forward, we see
[1:01:53] Speaker 1: these guys in placing IDs. I call in Heimer's strike
[1:01:56] Speaker 1: on them and then we get the intel them they're like, yeah,
[1:01:58] Speaker 1: that was the guy that built the idea that so
[1:02:00] Speaker 1: and so, and I was like, fuck that dude. Yeah,
[1:02:02] Speaker 1: I was like I didn't you know. That's why I
[1:02:04] Speaker 1: was like, no, I don't feel bad. I'll go to
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: sleep at night and not care. Like, yeah. The thing
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: is is like when people it sounds weird, maybe the
[1:02:11] Speaker 1: people that have never been over there, but that's the game,
[1:02:14] Speaker 1: and it sounds it sounds messed up to call it
[1:02:16] Speaker 1: a game, but they're literally trying to kill me and
[1:02:20] Speaker 1: I'm literally trying to kill them. That's what it is
[1:02:23] Speaker 1: at the end of the day. That's what it is.
[1:02:24] Speaker 1: And anyone else that wants to pussy foot around that
[1:02:27] Speaker 1: is someone that probably didn't get into that part of
[1:02:29] Speaker 1: the game. They sat on the base and they went
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: to Green Bean Coffee and they talked about how they deployed,
[1:02:34] Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with that because those people are
[1:02:37] Speaker 1: setting up the people out front for success or you know,
[1:02:40] Speaker 1: providing them supplies and stuff like that. But it's that's
[1:02:44] Speaker 1: the game. You're fighting these people, you know. And I
[1:02:46] Speaker 1: remember on my advisor team deployment when we had the
[1:02:52] Speaker 1: Icon and we had our interpreter there. We would our
[1:02:57] Speaker 1: linguist was like talking shit to the Taliban, Like we
[1:02:59] Speaker 1: had videos where we could talk to them and they'd
[1:03:01] Speaker 1: be like, we're gonna cut your head off, like we're
[1:03:03] Speaker 1: going to kill you. And it was like back and forth,
[1:03:05] Speaker 1: like Zap, stop talking shit to the like you getting
[1:03:08] Speaker 1: them all riled up. It's like yeah, So it's like
[1:03:12] Speaker 1: it's such a weird and if you haven't been there,
[1:03:15] Speaker 1: then it's hard to like put yourself in that mindset.
[1:03:17] Speaker 1: But you got to understand they're literally trying to kill me. Yeah,
[1:03:20] Speaker 1: I'm literally trying to kill them. And that's the game.
[1:03:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, man, I mean that's I mean, that's it, right,
[1:03:25] Speaker 2: that's war, you know, like what somebody's coming home, you know, it's.
[1:03:30] Speaker 1: Not it's not all banners and parades and you know,
[1:03:34] Speaker 1: cool stories and stuff like that. There's some killing that happens,
[1:03:37] Speaker 1: you know. Then that's just that's the name of the game. Yeah,
[1:03:41] Speaker 1: And that's why someone like you know, I think you
[1:03:46] Speaker 1: see a lot of people that have been in combat
[1:03:49] Speaker 1: are some of the biggest people that push peace, yeah,
[1:03:52] Speaker 1: because they're like, dude, you don't want to do that,
[1:03:53] Speaker 1: like me seeing the war in Ukraine and the thousands
[1:03:56] Speaker 1: and thousands of people that are getting killed there weekly,
[1:04:01] Speaker 1: it's like, dude, that needs to stop just for the
[1:04:04] Speaker 1: mere fact that the body count those like that, so
[1:04:08] Speaker 1: many lives waste it for nothing, you know, And it's
[1:04:11] Speaker 1: like that's what kills me about it. Yeah, you could
[1:04:13] Speaker 1: say whatever about Russia, Ukraine, whatever. At the end of
[1:04:17] Speaker 1: the day, all these fucking young men are dying for
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: fucking nothing, and it's crazy that we're just people are
[1:04:25] Speaker 1: so nonchalant about it, want to like encourage it, to
[1:04:27] Speaker 1: keep it going and stuff, And it's like, dude, you've
[1:04:30] Speaker 1: never played the game. If you're fucking you know, trying
[1:04:34] Speaker 1: to keep that kind of thing going and you're not
[1:04:36] Speaker 1: over there in it, yeah you know.
[1:04:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, Like how about you can get over there and
[1:04:41] Speaker 2: fucking do something then, you know what I mean, Like,
[1:04:42] Speaker 2: if you really wanted to keep going, you see how
[1:04:44] Speaker 2: it is for yourself, go ahead and get over there
[1:04:46] Speaker 2: and get your boots on the ground and fucking go
[1:04:48] Speaker 2: see you know.
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: Yeah, man, go be one of those fucking dude the
[1:04:51] Speaker 1: drone videos and stuff that come out. Dude, are you
[1:04:53] Speaker 1: not happy that you weren't in when it was all
[1:04:56] Speaker 1: drones coming in at you. Dude.
[1:04:57] Speaker 2: Fuck that man.
[1:04:58] Speaker 1: Fuck all that.
[1:05:00] Speaker 2: Like I I the horror of fighting trench to trench,
[1:05:07] Speaker 2: like it's fucking World War One, but then you fucking
[1:05:11] Speaker 2: intertwine the damn technology of today. Like how fucking terrifying
[1:05:15] Speaker 2: is that? Dude? You imagine like just imagine you think
[1:05:20] Speaker 2: you're you're good, You're in a trench. You're like, Okay,
[1:05:22] Speaker 2: that was a fucking rough firefight. I'm in this trench.
[1:05:25] Speaker 2: I'm good. What the fuck dude, Fuck it's at the drones.
[1:05:29] Speaker 2: They're fucking here, you know. Fuck all that. Fuck all
[1:05:33] Speaker 2: that ship.
[1:05:33] Speaker 1: Dude, imagine the PTSD for the rest of your life.
[1:05:36] Speaker 1: You're gonna anytime you hear a drone, yeah, that's gonna
[1:05:40] Speaker 1: set you off. And that's just gonna become more and
[1:05:42] Speaker 1: more common hearing drunes.
[1:05:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, that's all. It's all, you know, It's all
[1:05:45] Speaker 2: you hear about anymore is drones.
[1:05:47] Speaker 1: That's gonna be like the new firework Veterans come back
[1:05:50] Speaker 1: they don't like they don't like seeing fireworks. Now they're
[1:05:51] Speaker 1: gonna come back and be like, oh ship the drone show.
[1:05:54] Speaker 1: Yeah you know, yeah, dude, I am so I am
[1:05:58] Speaker 1: so glad I was out before any of that was happening,
[1:06:01] Speaker 1: because yeah, I would hate to be not only taken
[1:06:05] Speaker 1: out by some little drone, by some nerd like one
[1:06:08] Speaker 1: hundred miles away or whatever, fucking smoking cigarettes and just
[1:06:10] Speaker 1: looking at a screen. Yeah, man, but I don't want
[1:06:14] Speaker 1: my death to be in four K and then uploaded
[1:06:16] Speaker 1: for casual, casual consumption on social media. Yeah, man, like that.
[1:06:21] Speaker 2: The it's you know, the softening, the softening of everything
[1:06:26] Speaker 2: that's so terrible and brought on by fucking, you know, voyeurisms,
[1:06:29] Speaker 2: because it's just so easily accessible, you know, it's it's
[1:06:32] Speaker 2: it desensitizes, you know, you don't look at at these
[1:06:36] Speaker 2: you don't look at these, these these these soldiers as
[1:06:38] Speaker 2: as human beings. They're more like fucking like stick figures
[1:06:43] Speaker 2: or some ship many they're they're they're toys, you know,
[1:06:45] Speaker 2: is what it is.
[1:06:46] Speaker 1: And it's crazy when I see people like laugh about
[1:06:49] Speaker 1: it and stuff. They're like, oh, look out, you like
[1:06:50] Speaker 1: fell before that drone hit him, you know, like hahaha,
[1:06:53] Speaker 1: It's like, what the fuck are you talking about?
[1:06:54] Speaker 2: Like, yeah, how fucking twisted man, you know, Like.
[1:06:58] Speaker 1: I yeah, and I would talked about it with Michael
[1:07:02] Speaker 1: pack at the few episodes ago or a couple episodes ago,
[1:07:05] Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, we can't really say
[1:07:07] Speaker 1: anything because we started this. We started this with like
[1:07:10] Speaker 1: the switchblade drones, which were something that So Calm started
[1:07:14] Speaker 1: using and which were little one way you know, it's
[1:07:17] Speaker 1: a little aka suicide drone or whatever you want to
[1:07:20] Speaker 1: call it, and you fly it to your target and
[1:07:23] Speaker 1: hit it. And then it moved from that to now
[1:07:26] Speaker 1: they're all using these quad copter style drones. This wasn't
[1:07:29] Speaker 1: a quad copter. It was like a little plane kind
[1:07:31] Speaker 1: of deal with the essentially a forty millimeter grenade on
[1:07:34] Speaker 1: the front, if I remember correctly. And yeah, dude, I
[1:07:38] Speaker 1: don't know. It's it's crazy to like hear people talk
[1:07:42] Speaker 1: about it so casually though, And again I think someone
[1:07:46] Speaker 1: like you, you know, all these people that have been
[1:07:49] Speaker 1: in combat understand what it really entails when you're saying
[1:07:52] Speaker 1: we should send more troops, we should do this, we
[1:07:54] Speaker 1: should do that, And it's like you may not know
[1:07:57] Speaker 1: what you're actually saying and asking other people to do
[1:08:00] Speaker 1: on your behalf. It's very easy to tell someone to
[1:08:02] Speaker 1: go fight a war when you're sitting on the couch
[1:08:04] Speaker 1: and you're not involved.
[1:08:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, you're when you're arm sharing the ship, you know. Yeah, yeah,
[1:08:10] Speaker 2: I mean because you know it sucks, man, It's it's
[1:08:14] Speaker 2: a loss. It's fucking heartbreaking his loss.
[1:08:16] Speaker 1: You know, did you on your deployment? Did you guys
[1:08:20] Speaker 1: lose anybody on that deployment?
[1:08:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, we did, we did. As a matter of fact,
[1:08:26] Speaker 2: I think it was I don't even think we were
[1:08:29] Speaker 2: there for three weeks before we lost or we had
[1:08:32] Speaker 2: our We took our first k I a Brandon Van
[1:08:35] Speaker 2: Perry's is his name. I believe he was.
[1:08:38] Speaker 1: I believe for a second there.
[1:08:40] Speaker 2: Brandon Van Perry's okay, and uh I was actually in
[1:08:45] Speaker 2: boot camp with him and we we trained body hardening together.
[1:08:50] Speaker 2: We repaired up to kick each other, to kick the
[1:08:52] Speaker 2: ship out of each other's legs and yeah, yeah, forearms
[1:08:55] Speaker 2: and all. That ship was the worst, dude. Yeah, yeah,
[1:08:59] Speaker 2: but I'll never forget that, man. And I remember I
[1:09:02] Speaker 2: heard about that ship, and that's whenever it became very real,
[1:09:05] Speaker 2: you know, oh for sure, that's I was like, fuck that,
[1:09:09] Speaker 2: this this is what it is, and this is what
[1:09:12] Speaker 2: it does.
[1:09:12] Speaker 1: You know, was this before or after you guys had
[1:09:15] Speaker 1: taken out those I D in places.
[1:09:20] Speaker 2: That it may have been.
[1:09:24] Speaker 1: Ship.
[1:09:24] Speaker 2: It may have been around the same time. Actually, it
[1:09:26] Speaker 2: may have been maybe a week maybe a week, uh
[1:09:31] Speaker 2: maybe a week after he had had he had gotten killed.
[1:09:34] Speaker 2: I think this is when about the time when we've
[1:09:36] Speaker 2: we've found those dudes.
[1:09:38] Speaker 1: That makes that even better.
[1:09:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because you want to say.
[1:09:41] Speaker 1: You feel like you got some retribution.
[1:09:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I want to say that's that's when it happened.
[1:09:46] Speaker 2: I could be the details get kind of hazy after
[1:09:48] Speaker 2: almost twenty years, but it was it wasn't.
[1:09:52] Speaker 1: It wasn't.
[1:09:53] Speaker 2: It wasn't uh far apart either before or after. But yeah, man,
[1:09:59] Speaker 2: it that was an eye opener that that really solidified it.
[1:10:04] Speaker 2: You know, that's the ship's it's it's real. It's very
[1:10:07] Speaker 2: fucking real. And uh it wasn't long after that man
[1:10:11] Speaker 2: that we lost. We lost a captain, uh Captain Siebert
[1:10:17] Speaker 2: was his name. Uh. I think it was an I E.
[1:10:19] Speaker 2: D In a hum hum vy or mortar round I
[1:10:23] Speaker 2: I can't remember which. It was an explosion of some
[1:10:25] Speaker 2: kind that that that that killed him, But those two
[1:10:30] Speaker 2: K I A's man from our unit. It was it
[1:10:32] Speaker 2: was early on and we were like, fuck, dude, is it.
[1:10:35] Speaker 2: We still have like six more damn months of this
[1:10:37] Speaker 2: ship and you know how much how much more? When's
[1:10:40] Speaker 2: it gonna when's it gonna happen to one of our
[1:10:42] Speaker 2: guys in the platoon, you know, Yeah, And it did,
[1:10:46] Speaker 2: unfortunately it did, you know, we.
[1:10:50] Speaker 1: We it it was.
[1:10:53] Speaker 2: It was February, so we actually made a push through
[1:10:56] Speaker 2: Ramadi in February, late February. It was actually on the
[1:10:58] Speaker 2: heels of that battle back in oh six and they
[1:11:03] Speaker 2: were they tasked us with clearing out a sector of
[1:11:06] Speaker 2: the city and I can't remember now what what part
[1:11:08] Speaker 2: of the city it was, but we you know, it
[1:11:12] Speaker 2: was a legit, you know, door to door, kicking doors,
[1:11:15] Speaker 2: try to find, try to find the bad guys and
[1:11:17] Speaker 2: fucking fight them. It was. It was. It was free fire.
[1:11:22] Speaker 2: Anybody that was you know, military age, if they had
[1:11:25] Speaker 2: a weapon in their hand, take them out. That's that's
[1:11:29] Speaker 2: how free it was at that time. And I remember
[1:11:33] Speaker 2: we first when we first insert we were inserted by
[1:11:35] Speaker 2: trucks overnight and we had to clear a fucking wall.
[1:11:40] Speaker 2: We had like ladders and ship that we used for
[1:11:42] Speaker 2: just this one wall, and then we ditched the ship.
[1:11:43] Speaker 2: We're like, we're using this ship and I remember, you
[1:11:47] Speaker 2: know that of course it's a night, it's dark, can't
[1:11:49] Speaker 2: see ship. You know, mvgs they kind of give you
[1:11:51] Speaker 2: so much. And I remember we cleared the first building
[1:11:55] Speaker 2: that you know, our opportune had hit, and we kind
[1:11:58] Speaker 2: of spread out, and I remember I was standing there
[1:12:01] Speaker 2: and I looked down and I'm standing on top of
[1:12:04] Speaker 2: this big fucking dark spot, and I'm like, what the
[1:12:06] Speaker 2: fuck is that? And I you know, I took my
[1:12:08] Speaker 2: nods off and I looked down and it was a
[1:12:10] Speaker 2: fucking it was blood and it had drag marks like
[1:12:14] Speaker 2: going away from it, it with little fucking it almost
[1:12:18] Speaker 2: looked like nine millimeter shell casings. A few of them
[1:12:21] Speaker 2: kind of scattered around it. I was like, oh shit,
[1:12:24] Speaker 2: and I'm standing on this ship, you know, I'm like,
[1:12:26] Speaker 2: oh fuck, all right, this might be fucking bad.
[1:12:30] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:12:30] Speaker 2: That was the first That was the introduction to Ramadi.
[1:12:33] Speaker 2: But fortunately, man, I mean, it was a week long,
[1:12:37] Speaker 2: a week long operation. I think what took so long
[1:12:43] Speaker 2: it was we were finding I eds like it was,
[1:12:46] Speaker 2: I ed after, I D after I D after. It
[1:12:50] Speaker 2: was fucking crazy, dude. You know. We we get to
[1:12:54] Speaker 2: the end of the op, man, and I think we
[1:12:56] Speaker 2: had one one resupply. I think that's all we were
[1:12:59] Speaker 2: able to get for whatever. I think probably because the
[1:13:01] Speaker 2: id's were so fucking bad. But uh, we had a
[1:13:04] Speaker 2: gunny train come through one night and he kind of
[1:13:06] Speaker 2: throw the m R reboxes out and the bottle of
[1:13:08] Speaker 2: the water and shit like that. But uh, at the
[1:13:11] Speaker 2: end of the hot Man, we I'd run out of water.
[1:13:13] Speaker 2: I didn't have any fucking water left. And I remember
[1:13:15] Speaker 2: we were sitting there waiting for the rest of the
[1:13:17] Speaker 2: company to pull up online, and I'm like, fucked it.
[1:13:21] Speaker 2: I'm so fucking thirsty, so fuck it. There's a there's
[1:13:24] Speaker 2: a dude that came out. We were in the backyard
[1:13:27] Speaker 2: and I'm sitting on his fucking chair and this fucking
[1:13:29] Speaker 2: dude comes out of the house. I guess that the
[1:13:31] Speaker 2: man of the house. He comes out and he has
[1:13:32] Speaker 2: a fucking tray of like chiglasses with water and it's
[1:13:36] Speaker 2: just like little shot glasses, and I'm like, oh, dude, fuck, okay,
[1:13:39] Speaker 2: it's it's cold. The glass feels cold. That feels good
[1:13:42] Speaker 2: to me, you know. Yeah, the water's cloudy as fuck,
[1:13:46] Speaker 2: But I don't give a ship. I'm thirsty, so I
[1:13:48] Speaker 2: fucking shot it. I was like, that had actually fucking
[1:13:51] Speaker 2: tasted really good. Man. And I don't know how many
[1:13:53] Speaker 2: guys drink the water man, but uh, we get done
[1:13:56] Speaker 2: with his fucking op, dude, we go back to uh,
[1:13:59] Speaker 2: I believe it was. There was a camp right outside
[1:14:01] Speaker 2: of it, small fucking shitty ass like a shantytown fucking camp.
[1:14:06] Speaker 2: It had a bunch of dam broken up, broken down
[1:14:08] Speaker 2: like hum v's and vehicles and ship and it was
[1:14:10] Speaker 2: it was muddy and fucking cold, and we had to
[1:14:13] Speaker 2: sleep out and that ship. But I remember I woke
[1:14:16] Speaker 2: up that that damn that morning, dude, and I had
[1:14:19] Speaker 2: this fucking surging like heartburn and reflux and shit like
[1:14:22] Speaker 2: it was. It was almost like I was puking, but
[1:14:25] Speaker 2: I wasn't. It was so it was so fucking backed up.
[1:14:28] Speaker 2: I was like, oh, dude, I feel like.
[1:14:30] Speaker 1: Shit, he actually poisoned you guys, right, yeah yeah.
[1:14:34] Speaker 2: And uh dude, we like we we all get up
[1:14:37] Speaker 2: and we have like we have like stubbles and ship
[1:14:40] Speaker 2: like that because we couldn't really shave, you know, we
[1:14:42] Speaker 2: didn't have any fucking water like razors or anything on us.
[1:14:45] Speaker 2: And I remember just looking at everybody and everybody just
[1:14:49] Speaker 2: had that fucking just kill me, please, just fucking kill
[1:14:52] Speaker 2: me now. Like look, you know they were duce puking
[1:14:55] Speaker 2: and ship and like I never Luckily I didn't throw up,
[1:14:58] Speaker 2: but I had the ship. Dude. It was the word
[1:15:00] Speaker 2: took out a whole squad with the whole shot glasses. Man. Yeah,
[1:15:05] Speaker 2: I was like, man, damn, this is fucking terrible.
[1:15:07] Speaker 1: But yeah, you can't have that. You can only have hot.
[1:15:10] Speaker 1: Try if you're gonna drink their stuff, it has to
[1:15:13] Speaker 1: be a hot drink that's been boiled for sure.
[1:15:15] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, this dude gave us straight up fucking water.
[1:15:17] Speaker 2: He's like, I bet these guys will drink this ship
[1:15:20] Speaker 2: that did Yeah, yeah, man. But we went back to
[1:15:23] Speaker 2: Camp pap Andia. We truck there and we're like, well,
[1:15:26] Speaker 2: before we get on the trucks where we're in formation
[1:15:28] Speaker 2: inside this little fucking compound and uh uh, First First
[1:15:33] Speaker 2: Sergeant Baits at the time, I think he was the
[1:15:35] Speaker 2: one addressing us man and telling us what we were
[1:15:37] Speaker 2: gonna do. And one of the guys, one of the marine,
[1:15:40] Speaker 2: steps out and he goes fucking throw us up during
[1:15:42] Speaker 2: this brief and he just didn't say anything because he
[1:15:45] Speaker 2: knew everybody felt like shit. So he's like, all right, man,
[1:15:48] Speaker 2: we'll just get on the trucks and we'll get back
[1:15:50] Speaker 2: to camp. Hop we can all, you know, rest and recover,
[1:15:52] Speaker 2: get for this bullshit. And you know, Doc will stick
[1:15:55] Speaker 2: you with ivs if they have, you know, if you
[1:15:57] Speaker 2: need them. That's that's kind of how it was. Man.
[1:15:59] Speaker 2: We got back. Think we were there for three days
[1:16:01] Speaker 2: and that's when he pushed back out. But man, yeah,
[1:16:05] Speaker 2: I spent I spent maybe thirty six hours, dude, Like
[1:16:08] Speaker 2: I think it was like it was thirty six hours.
[1:16:10] Speaker 2: I kept track of the ship thirty six hours, getting
[1:16:13] Speaker 2: up out of the rack, running to the fucking shitter
[1:16:16] Speaker 2: and just like all it was was fucking yellow water,
[1:16:19] Speaker 2: like oh it was. It was. It was terrible, man,
[1:16:22] Speaker 2: it was terrible. I want to dude. Yeah, man, but
[1:16:27] Speaker 2: like I had to. I missed my buddies, Uh miss
[1:16:29] Speaker 2: my fire team, my fire team leader. I missed his
[1:16:31] Speaker 2: uh his pinning to corporal because I was so fucking sick.
[1:16:34] Speaker 2: I wouldn't have been able stand in formation, dude, but
[1:16:37] Speaker 2: I went running by it. Uh they were, they were
[1:16:40] Speaker 2: information in my ass. Went to hauling ass to the
[1:16:42] Speaker 2: shitter and they're all standing there I'm like, oh, so sorry, congratulations.
[1:16:47] Speaker 1: We had a lieutenant in twenty thirteen on my advisor team.
[1:16:50] Speaker 1: So when we're on the advisor team, obviously we're sharing
[1:16:53] Speaker 1: meals with our Afghan partners pretty regularly.
[1:16:57] Speaker 2: So you know, armor bread, footbread, and foot bread.
[1:17:00] Speaker 1: Yeah, we called it foot bread. Dude. It was so
[1:17:02] Speaker 1: good though. It's so good, like their bread and rice
[1:17:07] Speaker 1: and French fries, French fries that were better than any
[1:17:11] Speaker 1: French fries high some pretty high quality French fries. Yeah,
[1:17:17] Speaker 1: I was shocked. I'm talking about out in the middle
[1:17:18] Speaker 1: of nowhere at some patrol base. You know, they knew
[1:17:21] Speaker 1: we were coming, so they would like try to make
[1:17:23] Speaker 1: us a like a special meal. It would be like rice,
[1:17:27] Speaker 1: some kind of meat. Never asked what they were what
[1:17:29] Speaker 1: the meat was, foot bread and then the bread and
[1:17:35] Speaker 1: then chai, and then sometimes it was a special occasion
[1:17:39] Speaker 1: they would bring out the French fries and dude, we
[1:17:42] Speaker 1: loved it because we were starving. We were all like
[1:17:45] Speaker 1: we weren't getting enough hot you know, the normal food
[1:17:47] Speaker 1: we were getting was like a ladle of food, you know,
[1:17:50] Speaker 1: from the hot trays. So we were like, hell, yeah,
[1:17:55] Speaker 1: they're breaking out lunch like hell, yeah, we get to
[1:17:56] Speaker 1: eat and we would just pick out. But one of
[1:18:00] Speaker 1: our lieutenants something something he ate. His stomach couldn't handle it,
[1:18:04] Speaker 1: and he was the same way. We had to iv him.
[1:18:06] Speaker 1: Like we thought for a minute they were gonna have
[1:18:08] Speaker 1: to metavac him because he was becoming so dehydrated from
[1:18:12] Speaker 1: his issues that he was having. Yeah, but yeah, dude,
[1:18:15] Speaker 1: you gotta I mean, you gotta be careful with that stuff.
[1:18:18] Speaker 1: But when you're in a situation like that where you
[1:18:19] Speaker 1: haven't had water, you know. I've talked to other three
[1:18:22] Speaker 1: six guys that were in the Marja push and they
[1:18:24] Speaker 1: had the same kind of deal where they had a
[1:18:27] Speaker 1: inability to get resupplied or whatever, and they were out
[1:18:29] Speaker 1: of water. And some of these guys were drinking water
[1:18:32] Speaker 1: out of the waddies because they were like, dude, I'm
[1:18:35] Speaker 1: just I'm so out of like I'm thirsty, like dying here.
[1:18:38] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:18:39] Speaker 1: Man, it's kind of a desperation move, you know.
[1:18:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, gosh, dude, that's the worst thing. Man. If
[1:18:45] Speaker 2: you're the hydrat, your body's gonna want to take that
[1:18:47] Speaker 2: in as fast as possible to just get.
[1:18:49] Speaker 1: Some wady water.
[1:18:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, some water.
[1:18:52] Speaker 1: There's a cow being bathed up the river from it.
[1:18:56] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, there's a strange tint of this water.
[1:18:58] Speaker 1: Man, Dude, I've seen Yeah, I've seen everything from animals
[1:19:02] Speaker 1: to people bathing in using the bathroom man, some of
[1:19:05] Speaker 1: the rivers and the waddies, And I'm like, no, because
[1:19:08] Speaker 1: people like swim in them. I'm like, no, no, that's
[1:19:12] Speaker 1: probably not healthy.
[1:19:14] Speaker 2: No, not at all, not at all, man.
[1:19:16] Speaker 1: Yeah. So, you know, as the deployment goes on, guys
[1:19:19] Speaker 1: are getting killed. The stress of just being there just
[1:19:24] Speaker 1: is what it is. Could you when you got towards
[1:19:27] Speaker 1: the end of the deployment, was it like a feeling
[1:19:29] Speaker 1: like let's just get the fuck out, you know? Was
[1:19:31] Speaker 1: it like was it kind of like that? Or were
[1:19:33] Speaker 1: you guys feeling how was morale towards the end? Yeah?
[1:19:38] Speaker 2: So I guess I guess. I guess I can go
[1:19:41] Speaker 2: to when we when we lost when we lost Rosa
[1:19:44] Speaker 2: Angel Rosa is his name, And when we went north
[1:19:48] Speaker 2: to the Phraates that that was it was a place
[1:19:51] Speaker 2: called Albu Bali and it was I mentioned it before.
[1:19:54] Speaker 2: There was no there. There hadn't have been American presence
[1:19:56] Speaker 2: there since the invasion. And that's where we were taking
[1:20:02] Speaker 2: a lot of the contact from like the drive bys
[1:20:04] Speaker 2: and you know, popshots from snipers. There was boats like
[1:20:07] Speaker 2: wooden boats that were pulling up to the banks and
[1:20:09] Speaker 2: we would find them there. Of course we would destroy
[1:20:13] Speaker 2: them like blow them up grenades or some shit, but
[1:20:16] Speaker 2: it was it was enough of a problem to where
[1:20:20] Speaker 2: our command wanted us to go into that area and
[1:20:23] Speaker 2: disrupt you know, whatever was going on up that way.
[1:20:26] Speaker 2: And since there had been no American presence, man, they
[1:20:30] Speaker 2: didn't you know, they they essentially they didn't like us.
[1:20:34] Speaker 2: They were sympathetic towards al Qaiedo, and I think we
[1:20:39] Speaker 2: felt it right away. But it was cool. We got
[1:20:42] Speaker 2: to actually do a legit amphibious operation. We you know,
[1:20:44] Speaker 2: we inserted by boat overnight. I don't know if it
[1:20:47] Speaker 2: was the Marine Corps, Navy it was.
[1:20:51] Speaker 1: It was.
[1:20:51] Speaker 2: It wasn't like a big, super big boat. It was
[1:20:54] Speaker 2: kind of I guess, if you want to say, medium,
[1:20:56] Speaker 2: a medium sized boat. But I wish, I wish I
[1:21:02] Speaker 2: knew was it like a boat like a boat boat
[1:21:04] Speaker 2: or like, yeah, it was enough to fit. It was
[1:21:07] Speaker 2: enough to fit like like I think maybe a squad
[1:21:11] Speaker 2: of marines, so you could you could probably fit like
[1:21:13] Speaker 2: maybe fifteen marines on there.
[1:21:17] Speaker 1: There was a lot of Riverine ops happening around in Iraq.
[1:21:20] Speaker 1: People may not realize that boat teams from both like
[1:21:23] Speaker 1: Swick or I think those kind of guys, but there
[1:21:25] Speaker 1: was also marines that they trained and they're like, hey,
[1:21:28] Speaker 1: you're gonna run patrols up and down the Yeah.
[1:21:32] Speaker 2: If I had to say, if I had, if I
[1:21:34] Speaker 2: just just for remembering or just for like just for
[1:21:36] Speaker 2: arguments sake, I'd probably say probably Riverines that that that
[1:21:39] Speaker 2: did that for us. But yeah, man, we we uh
[1:21:43] Speaker 2: again at night, we were going across the Euphrates and
[1:21:47] Speaker 2: we were inserting as I believe it was just our
[1:21:49] Speaker 2: company that ran this operation. But you know, it took
[1:21:55] Speaker 2: it took a while to get us up there, you know,
[1:21:57] Speaker 2: because we we would you know, the disk and then
[1:22:00] Speaker 2: we would we would line up, you know, get online
[1:22:03] Speaker 2: and wait for the rest of the company to get
[1:22:04] Speaker 2: up there and you know, set set down security, get online.
[1:22:08] Speaker 2: As soon as the whole company was there, it was
[1:22:11] Speaker 2: essentially pushing north, you know, through that through that area,
[1:22:16] Speaker 2: finding whatever we could. Weapons, cache kept cash cache's it
[1:22:20] Speaker 2: was pronounced. I don't know how it's pronounced differently, it
[1:22:22] Speaker 2: seems like every time I hear it. But which we
[1:22:26] Speaker 2: we found. We found a lot a lot of weapons, man,
[1:22:29] Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of weapons system by the
[1:22:31] Speaker 2: i D. Making material like wires, fucking phones. We even
[1:22:37] Speaker 2: found like weapons with like bayonets attached to him and
[1:22:40] Speaker 2: ship like they were wanting to get close.
[1:22:41] Speaker 1: I guess. But like the old s ks where they're
[1:22:45] Speaker 1: like built in or that was the sk S right
[1:22:50] Speaker 1: that built in?
[1:22:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it ca yeah, it would flip. Yeah, it
[1:22:54] Speaker 2: was long. It was like a long fu It almost
[1:22:56] Speaker 2: looked like a damn almost like a sword, like a needle.
[1:22:59] Speaker 2: You know, it was really thin. But yeah, we a
[1:23:04] Speaker 2: whole bunch of that was found. But you know, it
[1:23:10] Speaker 2: didn't take long for us to figure out that we
[1:23:12] Speaker 2: weren't liked, you know. And it was a very it
[1:23:15] Speaker 2: was a very eerie feeling. If I had to, if
[1:23:18] Speaker 2: I had to equate it to I guess, I guess
[1:23:22] Speaker 2: another war maybe maybe maybe Vietnam because there was a
[1:23:25] Speaker 2: lot of vegetation. You know, it wasn't it wasn't the
[1:23:30] Speaker 2: I guess the typical imagery that's somebody who's who's ignorant
[1:23:34] Speaker 2: to it would would would would conjure up in their
[1:23:36] Speaker 2: mind like, oh it's desert, you.
[1:23:38] Speaker 1: Know, yeah you think sand dunes and yeah, yeah.
[1:23:41] Speaker 2: Not at all, man, I mean it was it was
[1:23:42] Speaker 2: farmlands and it was there was there was orchards and
[1:23:45] Speaker 2: ship like that huge palm grove. Man. Yeah, it was
[1:23:51] Speaker 2: because it was very very lush man and a lot
[1:23:55] Speaker 2: of good places to hide ship. And that's that's where
[1:23:57] Speaker 2: we found a lot of ship. Man was all in
[1:23:59] Speaker 2: the in the red line and this vegetation, you know,
[1:24:01] Speaker 2: the places that had a lot of trees and ship.
[1:24:05] Speaker 1: Did you face any resistance when you were finding these
[1:24:08] Speaker 1: uh you know weapons stores?
[1:24:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, there there was. Uh so I guess I guess
[1:24:15] Speaker 2: I can get into I guess I can get into
[1:24:18] Speaker 2: uh whenever our platoon actually got hit, but there there
[1:24:22] Speaker 2: there was other instances of of guys from other other
[1:24:26] Speaker 2: platoons that were you know, getting wounded, uh shrapnel from
[1:24:30] Speaker 2: blasts and stuff like that.
[1:24:32] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:24:34] Speaker 2: I think that's I think that's where our unit are.
[1:24:36] Speaker 2: Our company caught the majority of of the where a
[1:24:39] Speaker 2: lot of the Purple Hearts came from, you know, uh,
[1:24:42] Speaker 2: in this unknown area.
[1:24:44] Speaker 1: It was.
[1:24:46] Speaker 2: It's unknown, it really is. It's unknown. I think it's
[1:24:47] Speaker 2: still unknown to this day. But I mean you can
[1:24:52] Speaker 2: look it up on like Wikipedia or something like that
[1:24:54] Speaker 2: and see its operation. Northern Forge is what the name
[1:24:57] Speaker 2: of it was in Albu Bali. There's it might have
[1:25:01] Speaker 2: like a paragraph about it. But yeah, man, uh, you know,
[1:25:07] Speaker 2: there was there was one time where we were we
[1:25:09] Speaker 2: were on patrol, our squad through this area. I remember
[1:25:14] Speaker 2: it was across we were. We were on one side
[1:25:17] Speaker 2: of a little waddy here, like it was one of
[1:25:19] Speaker 2: the waddy is like an irrigation ditch, and there was
[1:25:21] Speaker 2: this this this mom and this kid that were out
[1:25:25] Speaker 2: there kind of she was doing her her her wife
[1:25:28] Speaker 2: lee out in the farm kind of thing, and the
[1:25:31] Speaker 2: kid was sitting there or he was standing next to her.
[1:25:33] Speaker 2: I remember, the little fucker looks right at me. He
[1:25:35] Speaker 2: looks right at me. He goes like this with his
[1:25:37] Speaker 2: fucking hand. Uh, and I'm like, dude, you little shit man,
[1:25:41] Speaker 2: a little punk. Yeah, and like I raised my weapon
[1:25:45] Speaker 2: a little bit, like like in his direction. Didn't pointed
[1:25:47] Speaker 2: at him, but I raised it up enough to where
[1:25:50] Speaker 2: his mom was like, oh fuck. So she slapped him
[1:25:52] Speaker 2: in the head and he was idiot. Yeah, slapped him
[1:25:55] Speaker 2: in the head and told him to get inside. But
[1:25:58] Speaker 2: that kind of you know, it just it just solidified
[1:26:02] Speaker 2: the fact and the feeling that they didn't like us there, man,
[1:26:07] Speaker 2: and you know the entire time because it was so
[1:26:11] Speaker 2: I think because of us, it was open, but there
[1:26:13] Speaker 2: was a lot of good hiding spots, vegetation and ship. Yeah,
[1:26:18] Speaker 2: I think for that, man, it's just because of that
[1:26:20] Speaker 2: and the feeling, the overall just feeling they're the sentiment man,
[1:26:24] Speaker 2: and and and the looks and ship that we got. Man,
[1:26:27] Speaker 2: you just had that that feeling of like the hairs
[1:26:29] Speaker 2: on the back of your neck just standing up all
[1:26:31] Speaker 2: the time. You know.
[1:26:34] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they know the area, they know where Yeah, yeah, exactly, man.
[1:26:38] Speaker 1: And we were at the disadvantage for that big time.
[1:26:40] Speaker 2: We are definitely the visitors on this one. And yeah, man,
[1:26:45] Speaker 2: you know that was one instance where it was it
[1:26:47] Speaker 2: was kind of it was it was, Okay, they don't like,
[1:26:50] Speaker 2: we're not liked here, so just be ready for anything
[1:26:52] Speaker 2: at any time. And then you know, we were we
[1:26:56] Speaker 2: were at this damn this this house I think it was.
[1:27:00] Speaker 2: I think it was only it was two stories, but
[1:27:02] Speaker 2: for whatever reason, you know, your you know, your memory works,
[1:27:05] Speaker 2: it seemed really tall, but you know, there was it
[1:27:09] Speaker 2: was just these two houses that were kind of next
[1:27:12] Speaker 2: to each other the course separated by a courtyard wall
[1:27:14] Speaker 2: because there were two different properties. And at this other
[1:27:18] Speaker 2: house there was like kids and ship there were there
[1:27:20] Speaker 2: was a lot of people. I remember there were being
[1:27:22] Speaker 2: a lot of people over there, kids and you know,
[1:27:24] Speaker 2: some adults. We were I remember we were pulling down
[1:27:28] Speaker 2: from this house to go move to the next one.
[1:27:32] Speaker 2: And as soon as two of our squads got out,
[1:27:34] Speaker 2: because we were there as a platoon, two of our
[1:27:36] Speaker 2: squads had gotten out and patroled to the next place
[1:27:38] Speaker 2: we were going. And I remember, I can't remember if
[1:27:42] Speaker 2: were this the first or second, but I remember being
[1:27:44] Speaker 2: at the building that we were that we were going
[1:27:46] Speaker 2: to next and I heard, I hear, you know, a
[1:27:49] Speaker 2: couple of explosions. What happened, man was next door in
[1:27:55] Speaker 2: the middle of the kids and people there were there
[1:27:57] Speaker 2: was fucking there was bad dudes there and they were
[1:28:00] Speaker 2: watching us. So what they did was they threw grenades
[1:28:03] Speaker 2: up on the rooftop where there was a couple of
[1:28:05] Speaker 2: marines that they're holding you know, you know, uh, providing overwatch,
[1:28:09] Speaker 2: and then they threw some in the courtyard below because
[1:28:11] Speaker 2: they knew there were some arenes that would hang out
[1:28:13] Speaker 2: there when kind of resting or whatever. Well, luckily there
[1:28:17] Speaker 2: was nobody in the courtyard, but on the rooftop of
[1:28:19] Speaker 2: my buddy Ben, he actually caught a piece of shrapnel
[1:28:22] Speaker 2: right above his his his ballistics that caught him in
[1:28:25] Speaker 2: the eyebrow. It was nothing, you know, too crazy, nothing
[1:28:29] Speaker 2: really serious. Uh So Doc came over and you know,
[1:28:31] Speaker 2: and he was able to pluck it out, but we couldn't.
[1:28:35] Speaker 2: They couldn't engage, man, because they just it was so quick.
[1:28:38] Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure these motherfuckers like did like this and
[1:28:40] Speaker 2: through the ship and then like just blended in with them,
[1:28:42] Speaker 2: you know, like we knew where it came from. It's
[1:28:45] Speaker 2: very obvious it's these assholes here next door, but we
[1:28:48] Speaker 2: didn't see who fucking threw them. That's just how that
[1:28:51] Speaker 2: one was being fought. You know. They were very they
[1:28:53] Speaker 2: blended in. They were very fucking sneaky about it. They
[1:28:55] Speaker 2: were always watching us, and so that that kind of
[1:29:01] Speaker 2: ship was going on. Man, So we were already you know,
[1:29:03] Speaker 2: we were on edge and and and this is a
[1:29:06] Speaker 2: let me see day. I want to say we'd been
[1:29:10] Speaker 2: there for almost I think this is day eight or nine.
[1:29:14] Speaker 2: On this this push where you know, we we So
[1:29:20] Speaker 2: it was March the night of the twelfth, March the twelfth,
[1:29:23] Speaker 2: I remember we were pushing through this WADDI our squad
[1:29:26] Speaker 2: was and we were kind of just we were wrapping
[1:29:29] Speaker 2: up a patrol coming back to to the go firm
[1:29:32] Speaker 2: house and you know, we get back and we kind
[1:29:36] Speaker 2: of rest up a little bit and there's I can't
[1:29:39] Speaker 2: remember if there's any more patrols going out at that time.
[1:29:43] Speaker 1: Uh.
[1:29:44] Speaker 2: But the next day, uh, my, my fire team, we
[1:29:47] Speaker 2: go up to the rooftop provide overwatch and Rosa uh
[1:29:52] Speaker 2: the squad that he's in there in the shoot at
[1:29:54] Speaker 2: the bottom, you know, and I could see them standing there,
[1:29:56] Speaker 2: standing down there getting ready to take off on patrol
[1:30:00] Speaker 2: and they they they're about to take off and staff
[1:30:03] Speaker 2: our opatune. Huh. Staff started Fowler. He comes out and
[1:30:08] Speaker 2: he's like, he's like, Rose, you forgetting something. And he
[1:30:12] Speaker 2: forgot his ballistics. And that was so unlike him, dude,
[1:30:15] Speaker 2: Like he doesn't forget anything, like never forgot, never forgot shit,
[1:30:19] Speaker 2: like nothing. You know, He's always he was shit hot
[1:30:21] Speaker 2: like that. And me and him we always joked, we
[1:30:25] Speaker 2: had a little inside joke and it was just like
[1:30:27] Speaker 2: one word. It was just good good. You know, this
[1:30:30] Speaker 2: will be did back and forth to each other, kind
[1:30:32] Speaker 2: of devil dog in each other, just because it was funny.
[1:30:34] Speaker 2: And I remember whenever I overheard that and I saw it,
[1:30:40] Speaker 2: and he was going back inside to go get his
[1:30:41] Speaker 2: his ballistics, and I was like, oh good, good, Rose
[1:30:44] Speaker 2: are good. And he looks up at me. He's like man,
[1:30:46] Speaker 2: he asks, you know, asshole. And he comes back out
[1:30:50] Speaker 2: and I see them take off and they they patrol,
[1:30:54] Speaker 2: you know, out of sight, passed all like the read
[1:30:55] Speaker 2: lines and shit. And that's when relief came up for us.
[1:31:00] Speaker 2: And I remember I got down and I you know,
[1:31:03] Speaker 2: I just took off my blouse and and I went
[1:31:05] Speaker 2: to the room that we were building in, uh, that
[1:31:08] Speaker 2: our squad was builded in. I was like, something just
[1:31:11] Speaker 2: doesn't feel right, man. I mean, this whole fucking operation
[1:31:13] Speaker 2: didn't have a good feeling, but something really just feels off.
[1:31:17] Speaker 2: Something told me, man, just just take your just take
[1:31:19] Speaker 2: your flat kevl on, your weapon to the stairwell, you
[1:31:22] Speaker 2: know where I came from, the rooftop, you know, just
[1:31:25] Speaker 2: just sit there, uh and get an MRI and I go.
[1:31:29] Speaker 2: I'm saying fuck it, I'll eat my MRI on the stairs.
[1:31:32] Speaker 2: I just don't have a good feeling. And no, sooner
[1:31:34] Speaker 2: after I opened the m R is when I hear
[1:31:35] Speaker 2: the fucking ambush. I think it was. I think it
[1:31:40] Speaker 2: was I think he I think he walked in the
[1:31:44] Speaker 2: wadi that we were in the night before. Yeah, and
[1:31:49] Speaker 2: it was there was a pressure plate in there. It wasn't.
[1:31:51] Speaker 2: It wasn't either either we got lucky and missed it
[1:31:54] Speaker 2: or the the the assholes that that put it there
[1:31:58] Speaker 2: figured we'd use that that same area, you know, yeah,
[1:32:03] Speaker 2: maybe use the same route, hope to get lucky. And
[1:32:07] Speaker 2: there was a pressure plate in there, and I don't
[1:32:09] Speaker 2: I don't know if if I don't know if it
[1:32:11] Speaker 2: was initiated by like mortars or what. But I heard
[1:32:15] Speaker 2: explosions that that that's before I heard any kind of gunfire.
[1:32:19] Speaker 2: Just I heard explosions like boom, boom. You know, it's like,
[1:32:21] Speaker 2: oh shit, And I fucking high poorted up the fucking
[1:32:25] Speaker 2: stairs as I'm coming up. As I'm going up the stairs,
[1:32:28] Speaker 2: h Sergeant Ammon's at the time, he was coming down saying, hey,
[1:32:32] Speaker 2: we need some marines up on the rooftop. That's you know, slowly.
[1:32:36] Speaker 2: Squad had just taken contact, and you know, we get
[1:32:41] Speaker 2: up there and uh, I can't see ship. I'm I'm
[1:32:44] Speaker 2: I'm scanning my sectors and all that, but they're so far,
[1:32:47] Speaker 2: they're so far out and behind all that vegetation. I
[1:32:50] Speaker 2: can only hear it. H So what happened, man, is
[1:32:55] Speaker 2: at that point in the war, I think that the
[1:32:57] Speaker 2: bad the bad dudes fucking you know, they they they
[1:33:01] Speaker 2: watched us long enough to where they could actually pick
[1:33:04] Speaker 2: up on our tactics and what we used and what
[1:33:08] Speaker 2: was effective. That the they actually caught this, this squad
[1:33:12] Speaker 2: in an L shaped ambush, so they were they were
[1:33:15] Speaker 2: fucking getting it, man, you know it was. It was bad.
[1:33:19] Speaker 2: And this is after you know the I E. D.
[1:33:23] Speaker 2: So there they you know, they they're duking it out,
[1:33:25] Speaker 2: duking it out, and I'm up, I'm up on the roof.
[1:33:29] Speaker 2: But by this time, there's you know, there's there's maybe
[1:33:31] Speaker 2: a squad sized element on the rooftop kind of looking
[1:33:33] Speaker 2: out every which way. And I just remember I remember
[1:33:39] Speaker 2: hearing the radio traffic, uh, you know, going from Maine
[1:33:43] Speaker 2: to this. You know the CEO, you know, he was
[1:33:46] Speaker 2: out there, and I believe it was well our our
[1:33:54] Speaker 2: radio operator on the rooftop, those next to us, So
[1:33:57] Speaker 2: it's it's going back and back and forth with between
[1:34:00] Speaker 2: those those three. And I remember we, you know, we
[1:34:06] Speaker 2: were listening to the zap the zap codes, you know,
[1:34:11] Speaker 2: Lima Romeo, Da Da Da Da last four and I'm like, fuck, dude,
[1:34:17] Speaker 2: uh and R and R So it's an R name
[1:34:20] Speaker 2: who funck? Who was it?
[1:34:21] Speaker 1: Fuck?
[1:34:22] Speaker 2: It was a Rosa. So we knew that he'd gotten hit.
[1:34:26] Speaker 2: And I remember hearing, you know a little later, it
[1:34:29] Speaker 2: seemed like an eternity. Man, it could have only been
[1:34:31] Speaker 2: maybe ten minutes long, just just all all this shit unfolded.
[1:34:34] Speaker 2: But I remember hearing Maine saying something to the effect of,
[1:34:40] Speaker 2: you know, well, do what you can to find the
[1:34:42] Speaker 2: casualty's leg. And we're like, fuck, dude, that's you know,
[1:34:48] Speaker 2: his life is just changed forever, you know. And you know,
[1:34:53] Speaker 2: some time goes by, and you know that the firefight stops,
[1:34:58] Speaker 2: and I stay up there until I can see them
[1:35:00] Speaker 2: come back. As they're patrolling back in, they get closer
[1:35:04] Speaker 2: and closer, and they're you can just tell man that
[1:35:07] Speaker 2: that you know, they've been through some ship. And that's
[1:35:11] Speaker 2: whenever I'm able to see. You know, I think there
[1:35:15] Speaker 2: was like three marines in dock. Uh were covered in blood,
[1:35:19] Speaker 2: you know, from from helping them out. And they were
[1:35:25] Speaker 2: I believe three marines short Rose of course went to
[1:35:28] Speaker 2: t Q Surgical and two other marines Thorn and Morse,
[1:35:33] Speaker 2: and they'd been knocked unconscious by the blast. And you
[1:35:39] Speaker 2: know when they come in, you know, I I pulled
[1:35:42] Speaker 2: down and the rest of the fire team pulls down
[1:35:44] Speaker 2: and you know that we're we're relieved. And I get
[1:35:49] Speaker 2: down there, man, and you know, I'm like, fuck, man,
[1:35:52] Speaker 2: I I can't say anything, you know. The only thing
[1:35:57] Speaker 2: I can do is it could just be present, you know.
[1:36:00] Speaker 2: And I go into their into their building room, and
[1:36:04] Speaker 2: everybody just kind of like slumped against the wall and
[1:36:06] Speaker 2: sitting there, just kind of staring, you know, into nothing.
[1:36:10] Speaker 2: And you know, I I remember hearing Doc. I think
[1:36:17] Speaker 2: I think it was Doc as a matter of fact.
[1:36:19] Speaker 2: I think he said, you know, what the fuck are
[1:36:20] Speaker 2: we doing here? You know, it was just that kind
[1:36:23] Speaker 2: of like what what the fuck for? You know. And
[1:36:28] Speaker 2: then maybe a few hours later, that oppatune commander was
[1:36:32] Speaker 2: Sennant Jones. He super fucking awesome, awesome, fucking guy, great officer.
[1:36:38] Speaker 1: Man, he.
[1:36:40] Speaker 2: He comes around to each and every marine individually and
[1:36:44] Speaker 2: and informs us that Rose died, you know, and and
[1:36:48] Speaker 2: uh a TQ surgical and he would look look as
[1:36:52] Speaker 2: you know, look, you know, look you in the eye
[1:36:54] Speaker 2: and be like, are you okay? You know, are you feeling?
[1:36:57] Speaker 2: Are you okay? And and man, you could hear a
[1:37:01] Speaker 2: fucking pin drop. It's it's it's it's the only time
[1:37:03] Speaker 2: I've ever heard a platoon of marines inside such a
[1:37:06] Speaker 2: confined space, you know, just be so quiet.
[1:37:09] Speaker 1: You know, m hmm.
[1:37:11] Speaker 2: I'll never forget that. That's you know, it went silent,
[1:37:17] Speaker 2: but that's when you started hearing like the sniffles and
[1:37:19] Speaker 2: the crying. You know, we just you know, we lost
[1:37:22] Speaker 2: one of our brothers. And yeah, man, it uh it
[1:37:30] Speaker 2: uh that that was that that was new. And it sucks, man,
[1:37:37] Speaker 2: Uh it sucks because I mean, obviously he's he's not
[1:37:42] Speaker 2: here anymore. But we were close to leaving that area.
[1:37:46] Speaker 2: We were about wrapped up with that operation, you know.
[1:37:49] Speaker 2: And yeah, that was on the thirteenth, that was March thirteenth, man,
[1:37:55] Speaker 2: and we were back, I think we were back on
[1:37:56] Speaker 2: Saint Patrick's Day Camp hob And yeah, man, it. It sucked. Man.
[1:38:04] Speaker 2: That was so we were there for about twelve I
[1:38:06] Speaker 2: want to say twelve days, and it was that was
[1:38:10] Speaker 2: the twelve days that that that had the most impact
[1:38:14] Speaker 2: on me. You know, I'm sure, I'm sure you know
[1:38:18] Speaker 2: everybody else feels the same way, but uh that that
[1:38:23] Speaker 2: was the worst day in you know, of my life
[1:38:26] Speaker 2: as a marine. Uh and yeah, the hardest twelve days
[1:38:31] Speaker 2: I ever had as a marine.
[1:38:33] Speaker 1: And a little known Yeah, completely understandable. I mean completely understandable.
[1:38:37] Speaker 1: You lose a guy, like immediately, people are going to
[1:38:40] Speaker 1: start wondering, like, what are we doing? This obviously isn't
[1:38:42] Speaker 1: worth this guy, my best friend, my good friend.
[1:38:46] Speaker 2: You know, like yeah, yeah, man, yeah, and then you
[1:38:50] Speaker 2: know we you know, coach, we get back and we're
[1:38:52] Speaker 2: it's it was. It was just heavy, you know, it
[1:38:54] Speaker 2: was just heavy being there, and you know, the higher
[1:38:58] Speaker 2: ups they tried to I guess they you know, God
[1:39:02] Speaker 2: love them. I think they tried to boost them around
[1:39:03] Speaker 2: a little bit. At Saint Patrick's Day, They're like, yeah,
[1:39:05] Speaker 2: go ahead, you know, you guys can jump in your jungles,
[1:39:07] Speaker 2: you know. Grain for Saint Patrick's Day, they were like
[1:39:12] Speaker 2: all right, I mean I did it, and I was like, fuck, dude,
[1:39:16] Speaker 2: it's no, it's don't help at all, dude.
[1:39:19] Speaker 1: You know, but it's you know, I thought you were
[1:39:22] Speaker 1: going to say they gave you a couple of beers
[1:39:24] Speaker 1: on things, right, Yeah, yeah.
[1:39:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, man, you know that that that was rough man.
[1:39:33] Speaker 2: That that was the hardest. And that's that's the thing
[1:39:38] Speaker 2: to this day, man, that you know, and I had
[1:39:40] Speaker 2: to figure it out. I was like, damn, why you know,
[1:39:43] Speaker 2: what was it that was so heavy? It wasn't anything
[1:39:46] Speaker 2: that I that I it wasn't anything that I uh
[1:39:51] Speaker 2: experienced as far as like being in danger. I've seen
[1:39:57] Speaker 2: you know, decomposing human beings, smell them flies that swarmed them.
[1:40:03] Speaker 2: I've had them bounce off my damn you know, off
[1:40:07] Speaker 2: my arm and ship and you know almost I've almost
[1:40:10] Speaker 2: been shot. I don't know how many times we stepped
[1:40:14] Speaker 2: over Id's but that none of none of those things
[1:40:18] Speaker 2: are a second thought, man, like you know at all.
[1:40:21] Speaker 2: It's always the guys that didn't come home. That's that's
[1:40:24] Speaker 2: that's d that's the d thing. And I think they
[1:40:27] Speaker 2: I think they attribute you know, that to It's like
[1:40:31] Speaker 2: survivor guilt is like one of the I guess one
[1:40:33] Speaker 2: of the least talked about things when it comes to
[1:40:36] Speaker 2: what post traumatic stress or. And I'm like, I don't.
[1:40:39] Speaker 2: I don't feel like I have that, you know. But
[1:40:43] Speaker 2: the guilt, for sure, you know, it's you know, it's
[1:40:46] Speaker 2: damn some guys didn't come home and you know, I
[1:40:49] Speaker 2: don't have a scratch on me. But at the same time,
[1:40:53] Speaker 2: I know that these guys wouldn't want any of us
[1:40:56] Speaker 2: to to to be sad and depressed and just sulk
[1:41:00] Speaker 2: all the time. Man. They were you know, they they
[1:41:04] Speaker 2: would want us to live well. And that's that's what
[1:41:07] Speaker 2: I'm doing now. Man, I'm doing whatever I can to
[1:41:10] Speaker 2: live a life that they would approve of, that they would.
[1:41:13] Speaker 1: Be proud of, you know.
[1:41:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, you know it's it's it's for them and any
[1:41:19] Speaker 2: other way, I think any other way, you know, besides
[1:41:22] Speaker 2: that living that way I think would just be selfish. Man.
[1:41:26] Speaker 1: That's a good way to put it, man, I mean,
[1:41:28] Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people come back with
[1:41:30] Speaker 1: you hope that people come back and they if they've
[1:41:33] Speaker 1: had a situation like that where they've lost somebody, that's
[1:41:36] Speaker 1: what they do where you remind yourself, you know, rather
[1:41:41] Speaker 1: than sitting here and being upset about it, Like do
[1:41:43] Speaker 1: today for that guy? Yeah, you know, yeah, and like
[1:41:47] Speaker 1: make it as good as possible, do the best. I
[1:41:50] Speaker 1: had a guy on Rodriguez is his name. He was
[1:41:53] Speaker 1: an army guy. He was in the what is the
[1:41:57] Speaker 1: battle name? He was the one that Jake Tapper wrote
[1:41:59] Speaker 1: about the outpost. He was in that battle, and one
[1:42:04] Speaker 1: of him and another guy that he was there with
[1:42:07] Speaker 1: we're talking about. I think it was the other guy
[1:42:11] Speaker 1: told him that he should play football when he got
[1:42:13] Speaker 1: out of the army or something like that, and that
[1:42:16] Speaker 1: dude was killed in the battle. So after he got
[1:42:19] Speaker 1: out of the army, he like trained and sent tapes
[1:42:22] Speaker 1: out to everyone and ended up walking on to like
[1:42:25] Speaker 1: Clemson and ended up getting to play and like ended
[1:42:28] Speaker 1: up getting drafted in the NFL, I'm pretty sure for
[1:42:31] Speaker 1: a little bit. And now he's an actor doing war movies,
[1:42:35] Speaker 1: and I'm like, and that's kind of what he was
[1:42:37] Speaker 1: talking about. Like, you know, I felt it was like
[1:42:40] Speaker 1: my duty to honor them by living the best life
[1:42:45] Speaker 1: I possibly could. Yeah, you know, and you know, not
[1:42:49] Speaker 1: waste it. And man, I really don't think it should
[1:42:53] Speaker 1: take one of your friends getting killed for someone to
[1:42:56] Speaker 1: get that kind of mentality I think you gotta have
[1:43:00] Speaker 1: that anyways. Yeah, you know, I think you got to
[1:43:03] Speaker 1: put that that kind of perspective out there. Where What
[1:43:06] Speaker 1: am I going to do with today? You know, Today's
[1:43:08] Speaker 1: Today's an important day. It's the only day of my
[1:43:11] Speaker 1: life that I'm gonna get this day. Yeah, what can
[1:43:13] Speaker 1: I do with this singular day and then make the
[1:43:16] Speaker 1: most of it? Yeah, I just I hate it when
[1:43:20] Speaker 1: guys come back from stuff like that and they sulk
[1:43:23] Speaker 1: and it's and I get it, and I get it,
[1:43:25] Speaker 1: and it's it's sad and it's but like you said,
[1:43:28] Speaker 1: many your dude don't want you to live like that.
[1:43:30] Speaker 1: They want you to fucking you know, seize the day.
[1:43:33] Speaker 1: And it's tough. I mean, I'm I'm speaking from ignorance
[1:43:37] Speaker 1: because it's not an issue I'm going through. I know
[1:43:41] Speaker 1: guys that have been killed. I was never there when
[1:43:44] Speaker 1: when they were killed, but it's I've I've always thought,
[1:43:48] Speaker 1: like you said, you know, like the best way you
[1:43:50] Speaker 1: can honor them is to remember their name, say their name,
[1:43:53] Speaker 1: and then just do what you can to be a
[1:43:56] Speaker 1: good person and a good American and a good you know,
[1:44:00] Speaker 1: make the most of your life, make the most of
[1:44:01] Speaker 1: your day. Yeah, it's like that scene at the end
[1:44:04] Speaker 1: of UH, at the end of Saving Private Ryan, where
[1:44:07] Speaker 1: he's like, did I live a good life? You know?
[1:44:08] Speaker 1: Yeah kind of deal.
[1:44:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, did I earn it? Yeah?
[1:44:15] Speaker 1: I think you're doing good stuff, man, and I think
[1:44:17] Speaker 1: there's a good spot to wrap it up. You know,
[1:44:20] Speaker 1: hopefully somebody takes some stuff from that, you know, maybe
[1:44:23] Speaker 1: make tomorrow a little bit better than today, you know,
[1:44:25] Speaker 1: you take that next step. So for sure, like I said,
[1:44:28] Speaker 1: I think you're doing great stuff. You're you got the podcast,
[1:44:31] Speaker 1: you got everything else going on. Where can people find you?
[1:44:33] Speaker 2: Thanks?
[1:44:33] Speaker 1: Man?
[1:44:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, it's all just any anywhere like Facebook,
[1:44:37] Speaker 2: Instagram mainly, it's just my name. There's no like spaces
[1:44:41] Speaker 2: or capital letters. It's just any A L, F, A, U,
[1:44:44] Speaker 2: V E R. That's that's the handle for both of
[1:44:46] Speaker 2: them things. That's where I'm gonna be found if anybody's looking.
[1:44:52] Speaker 2: And if I could, man, can I shut out be
[1:44:54] Speaker 2: on the call?
[1:44:55] Speaker 1: So yeah, go ahead, Yeah dude, for sure.
[1:44:56] Speaker 2: So this is them right here. It's Tracy Hunt her
[1:45:00] Speaker 2: good friend and she I'm I'm pretty sure Mike's told
[1:45:04] Speaker 2: you about her. She had she runs uh the nonprofit.
[1:45:09] Speaker 1: This year.
[1:45:10] Speaker 2: They're they they're getting funds together to get some World
[1:45:13] Speaker 2: War two veterans out to Pearl Harbor. And that's what
[1:45:17] Speaker 2: that's what it centers around, getting World War two veterans
[1:45:20] Speaker 2: out to my battlefields, museums, different you know, different events,
[1:45:25] Speaker 2: just getting getting those guys out and about I think, man,
[1:45:29] Speaker 2: because you know, she's she's saying that the biggest one
[1:45:31] Speaker 2: of the biggest problems is isolation. You know, a lot
[1:45:34] Speaker 2: of them, you know, their their spouses, you know, predeceased them,
[1:45:39] Speaker 2: and they're kind of isolated and lonely, kind of feel
[1:45:42] Speaker 2: like they have no purpose. But she whenever she can, man,
[1:45:45] Speaker 2: she finds these guys and girls, you know, and and
[1:45:49] Speaker 2: you know, tells them, you know, hey, we got this
[1:45:51] Speaker 2: going on. If you'd like to do this, Uh, we'd
[1:45:53] Speaker 2: love to have you. If not, I'd like to stay
[1:45:56] Speaker 2: in contact with you and befriend you. You know. So
[1:45:58] Speaker 2: she she's amazing with what she does there. And uh,
[1:46:04] Speaker 2: Scottie Gibson, you know, he's he's also affiliated. You know,
[1:46:07] Speaker 2: a great guy. He was the he played Captain how
[1:46:08] Speaker 2: Dane in the Pacific.
[1:46:11] Speaker 1: You know.
[1:46:11] Speaker 2: Another he's he's affiliated with be on the call as well.
[1:46:15] Speaker 2: Great guy man, and he's he's all about he's all
[1:46:18] Speaker 2: about with you know, the veterans as well and that community. Yeah,
[1:46:23] Speaker 2: world War two be on the call. Yeah if if,
[1:46:28] Speaker 2: if any I mean, if you have a dollar, you know,
[1:46:31] Speaker 2: it's it all goes. Tracy doesn't get a cent, It
[1:46:34] Speaker 2: all goes towards veterans and and getting getting them to
[1:46:38] Speaker 2: these these events and you know, helping them feel the
[1:46:42] Speaker 2: the love and admiration and respect that they that they
[1:46:45] Speaker 2: very very much deserve. You know, these guys, these guys
[1:46:47] Speaker 2: and girls, man, they save the world.
[1:46:49] Speaker 1: So for sure, man, and everything I've heard from you
[1:46:53] Speaker 1: guys and what I've seen, it sounds like that's a
[1:46:55] Speaker 1: great organization. Because sometimes there's organizations out there that sound
[1:46:59] Speaker 1: good but they ended up being kind of shady. Yeah yeah, yeah,
[1:47:02] Speaker 1: but this one sounds legitimate. I mean, I know you
[1:47:05] Speaker 1: guys did a trip out to Peylou and stuff like
[1:47:07] Speaker 1: that and worked on a documentary. Like what a great
[1:47:09] Speaker 1: opportunity you know there, Like sounds like they're doing awesome
[1:47:13] Speaker 1: stuff over there.
[1:47:13] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, just amazing, amazing.
[1:47:17] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:47:17] Speaker 2: I don't know if I just just from pel Loup,
[1:47:21] Speaker 2: I just I have to cause it's it's as a
[1:47:23] Speaker 2: piece of shrapnel from eighty years ago, eighty plus years ago.
[1:47:27] Speaker 2: I just kicked it with my boot man. I was
[1:47:29] Speaker 2: just walking outside of the uh it was the the
[1:47:32] Speaker 2: Japanese Admin building, I believe, and I just I just
[1:47:36] Speaker 2: it was just there, like just above the surface. I
[1:47:39] Speaker 2: thought it was like a it may have been a limb,
[1:47:41] Speaker 2: a tree limb or something. But I'm like, there's no
[1:47:43] Speaker 2: trees like near here the spot. So I just started kicking.
[1:47:46] Speaker 2: I was like, oh, it's heavy and it's moving. So
[1:47:48] Speaker 2: I just kept kicking it and that that that thing
[1:47:50] Speaker 2: came out. It's like damn it shrouding crazy. Yeah yeah,
[1:47:54] Speaker 2: and uh yeah man, we uh it was a good
[1:47:57] Speaker 2: time out there. You know, it's pretty heavy, but.
[1:47:59] Speaker 1: You know always is when you're visiting a battlefield.
[1:48:03] Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, you go and visit those places, you just
[1:48:08] Speaker 2: you wonder how they did it. Man, it's just crazy.
[1:48:11] Speaker 1: You know what was in that kind of like spirit?
[1:48:15] Speaker 1: I guess I went to In the summer of twenty nineteen,
[1:48:19] Speaker 1: I did a cross country road trip and part of
[1:48:22] Speaker 1: that I stopped and saw where the Battle of Little
[1:48:25] Speaker 1: Big Horn was Custer's last stand. Oh yeah, yeah, and
[1:48:28] Speaker 1: it was really interesting to actually see the terrain and
[1:48:31] Speaker 1: how the Native Americans like moved through the hills to
[1:48:34] Speaker 1: like move without being seen. And yeah, it was really
[1:48:38] Speaker 1: When you actually get to go see a battlefield like
[1:48:41] Speaker 1: in person, it's so much different because you can read
[1:48:43] Speaker 1: a book and like, you know obviously, but when you
[1:48:45] Speaker 1: can like see it and you can see the terrain
[1:48:48] Speaker 1: and it's not just described, you can actually see what
[1:48:50] Speaker 1: they're talking about, it's like, oh man, yeah, it becomes
[1:48:53] Speaker 1: way more like wow, I can't believe they did that,
[1:48:55] Speaker 1: you know, or.
[1:48:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah man, and you can't. It's it's hard to describe,
[1:49:00] Speaker 2: all right. You can imagine it all you want, man,
[1:49:01] Speaker 2: but to see it, you know, with your own eyes, man,
[1:49:05] Speaker 2: to be actually feel it, literally feel it. You know.
[1:49:07] Speaker 2: It's it's there's nothing like it. It's powerful.
[1:49:11] Speaker 1: Yeah. So that's crazy though. Well that's good man. Yeah,
[1:49:15] Speaker 1: people check that out. Check out my stuff former Action Guys,
[1:49:18] Speaker 1: former Action News on Instagram. My website is jacremographics dot com.
[1:49:22] Speaker 1: And that's it, dude. I really appreciate you coming on today.
[1:49:24] Speaker 2: Thanks for having me man. I appreciate it. Brother, You're
[1:49:26] Speaker 2: doing great. Thanks doing great things.
[1:49:28] Speaker 1: I love it.
[1:49:28] Speaker 2: I love it.

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