Mater Artium Necessitas - Blake Musser (part 2 of 3)

WEBVTT
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It says part two with Blake Mussard from Sledgehammer 81s.
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Now it's funny, you guys did way more of the interior cordon and entering houses than we did for all the same reasons.
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You had more dismounts than we did.
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I I am curious because we did some CQB training prior to going over, and what I watched you guys do was not what we had been trained for sure.
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Was there I'm I'm curious about the planning part, but then also what tools did you have?
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Because this is what I found after fighting in every single fucking neighborhood.
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Every bit of construction was different in every single neighborhood.
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You get in one neighborhood, and the doors were iron and this, some had gates, some were this, some were that, and it was you really had to change your tactics every time you go in.
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Some had a huge entry room, some you came into the house, and it was a fucking tiny little hallway that branched off immediately, and which was a CQB nightmare.
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So I'm I'm curious about your guys's like how did you develop it, or did you just was it just on the fly and you just had good fundamentals?
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Or what was the what was the planning?
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Because if I remember correctly, and I could be wrong, you did like 60 door kicks, something like that, Blake.
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I don't remember.
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Yeah, I was a part of it's gotta be up there, yeah.
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Yeah, I was I was it was 68, it was it was a total of 68 door kicks that I was either the first or second man in on.
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Um, and that's across, you know, that's me getting pulled over to golf company and box and stuff like that, kind of being a a weirdly dedicated asset.
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A lot of that, and that's not because I was like just to be clear, that wasn't because I was like some sort of like ninja with door kicks.
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It was that it was my it was my basic Arabic understanding.
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I was gonna say you could say 10 words of Arabic and everybody else could say zero.
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So yeah.
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And so it was it it it was a lot of it was a lot, I think it was a lot more, a lot more that than anything else.
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Um but I don't know.
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What do you remember, Wade?
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I I I remember early on doing tape doing a lot of like practicing of tape, tape rooms and you know, drawing some stuff out.
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But then after that, I remember I don't remember really doing much planning and just being more organic of being like, okay, you guys stay out in the courtyard.
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This element's gonna go inside.
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If we need more help, you guys are the first ones, you know, this element is the first one that comes in if we if we're calling for extra help.
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But I just remember stacking up and just kind of being I remember very specific, I remember at least being very clear.
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I'm making my way to the roof first, everybody behind me help clear as you know, as we go through, but wanting to get to the rooftop to secure that and then working my way back down because because a lot of times when we were doing the hits, it was we were trying to capture, we had good, we had intel that there was somebody there, and we were and our goal at that time was don't try to identify anyone, just anyone between the ages of 16 and 60, we're taking.
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And so my my directive or the part that I took was get to the fucking roof, and that then secures the the back end of the like of our ability to get out.
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Because sometimes, like you said, all the buildings were slightly different, and sometimes they were up close enough to the wall that they would be able to, even if this courtyard was secured, somebody could jump and get across to an uh to another side.
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But what do you remember, Wade?
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Yeah, I think the the the answer is right in the question.
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You know what I mean?
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It's it's everything was different.
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So, like the fundamentals, like when we did the tape houses and stuff like that, just to make sure that you, you know, your fundamentals when you entered the room was right.
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But like as far as actually getting into the buildings, I mean, there was times that we pulled vehicles up and just ran up the hood and jumped over the wall.
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There was times that we tied changed the doors and ripped the doors off, and we did uh you know stuff like that.
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We had to be ready to do any of that type of stuff to breach the out the outer uh security of the house.
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But once inside, yeah, like you said, there was the the basic rules get to the roof, secure the house.
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You know, you had the outer and inner cordons in the back, so squirters weren't gonna get far.
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Um, you had guys that were really good on machine guns and really good with optics out there on those trucks, so they were not gonna get far.
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Um, so yeah, like that whole bomb bursting into it, and it looked ugly on a lot of things.
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I'm I'm sure it did.
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But once we got inside, everything slowed down, and every and you know, you you kind of moved like a methodical tactical uh um unit as opposed to you know how it looked getting in the place because getting in the place was always the the the most choke point and uh the the most dangerous part was to right you know get that initial breach, gain that foothold, you know.
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Yeah.
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I I think it's undersold and under said about getting to the roof, and that we learned that we learned that organically.
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It when again reading unremitting and hearing other people's stories, especially from Echo and Golf, they got in some crazy engagements when they were trying to get on roofs of uh houses and stuff like that, where people are like you know, having gunfights at a in a three-step stairwell trying to get on the roof of a house.
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And so the tactics you guys had of like again, yeah, maybe it looked ugly.
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I don't know.
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To me, I always called it like a hornet's nest.
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You guys would run in, and a couple of guys would get to the roof, and then it was done, right?
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Like the rest of the house would get searched methodically, carefully, all that stuff.
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Right.
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But uh Well we we really relied on surprise.
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Yeah.
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Like it was, it was it was get you know, while they're still trying to wake up, because we did it.
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I mean, you got you gotta remember, I mean, we're doing we're doing so I the number of times I remember camping out at combat outpost for several hours just to keep our cover that we were gonna go out later, you know, um, and then you know, hit hit a place at two, three in the morning while they were still sleeping.
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Yeah.
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Um really really allowed us.
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I mean, you know, you had that you had the lead driver that threw out the uh IR chem lights in front of the gate, you know, and hopefully they put it in front of the right gate.
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Um, but um not always.
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Not always, that's right.
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But but you know, we we would we would we would just absolutely, you know, like you know, kind of the Marine Corps philosophy of violence of action, you know, and just you know, just overwhelm them before they they knew, you know, which way was up.
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Um I think it prevented us from getting into a lot of firefights uh inside the house, you know.
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That was I mean, that's my next question.
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Did you ever catch contact in a house?
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I only remember I only have one memory of pulling a trigger inside of a house.
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Um I only have one memory.
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And I didn't even and and the guy threw down after it.
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I mean, I I I shot, I I was coming up a stairwell and he shot at me, missed, I shot back and he threw his weapon down.
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That was that now.
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What about you, Wade?
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Do you did you ever catch do you do you remember?
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Yeah, to to like add to what you were saying before, though, is like the shock and awe thing, you know what I'm saying?
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I think we weren't really worried about the like the low caliber stuff, like the AK-47s and stuff like that.
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When once you made entry in uh into the house, like that was like we trust our sappy plates to stop the the round or or something like that.
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The the worst thing that we could possibly do is uh get into one of those situations where the intel was bad and you end up on the roof, and then all it's roof-to-roof contact, and something very much bigger is set up on the roof that jeopardizes our guys in the cordon down below.
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You know, the last thing I wanted to see was like an RPG shot come from the roof and hit one of our guys that's providing the cordon for us.
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You know what I'm saying?
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That's that's what scared the shit out of me.
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Like I wasn't scared of the small caliber shit.
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You know, you know, you know, you saying that I uh I had forgotten.
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I I actually was more part of my goal too was I was worried about IEDs.
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I was worried about them having the in the house, right?
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That they would pop something off while we were in there and wanting to wanting to secure the place before somebody had the ability to to take the house down around us.
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I was way more worried.
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Because again, I and I uh you you're right.
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I, you know, right or wrong, trusted my sappie plate, you know, and was just like, all right, fuck it.
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We're gonna, you know, if you do this slowly, we're gonna be for screwed.
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And so let's let's get in there, take, take what we take what we need and everything.
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So just as a contrast, and uh this is actually now I I had not talked this through or thought this through until this moment, but even I watched Echo Guys Clear Houses, I watched golf company guys clear houses, I watched Army Dudes and Delta and every different unit clear house, and everybody did it a completely different way.
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I watched and I I commented on yours because it was part of you know, you both of you were in a lot of door kicks together that I watched as well.
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Everybody did it so differently.
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I don't know that the insurgents could have planned for a specific plan.
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That's fair.
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Because I mean, just I what I remember for us, we didn't have as many people.
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So we did it the we did it the security forces style way, right?
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Where you were out, you had like a four-foot standoff, you were pying off everything.
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I would throw a grenade in before I would send a man into a room.
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Like it was like very careful, very surgical, very methodical.
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The opposite.
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It was the exact opposite of what you're describing because we didn't have a choice.
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Well, well, actually, towards that, actually I remember later on kind of being like, I mean, because our NVGs were such shit that that I remember I remember later on talking with Gunny about it and being like, why don't we just start flipping on the lights?
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And you know, like we're we're you know, like once we have the element of surprise and we're breaching in, like, let's stop trying to do this in the like secret squirrel style.
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And I remember running in and like finding light switches and like as I'm going through, like flipping on light switches, so we'll be able to see.
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Um everything you're mentioning is like the exact opposite of the Marine Corps CQB manual, but it and it worked so well.
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That's the fucking funny part, is that like you were taught all these things, but it worked so well.
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But I but again, I think going back to what kind of like I think it is important, and I did never thought about it this way, but we had so many guys.
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Yep.
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I mean, we just I mean, like when we were when we were gonna hit a place like this, we weren't providing inner cordon really.
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I mean, we had our trucks, and so we would do a little bit, but all of our dismounts were were available.
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I mean, we had 20 some odd guys to flood a house.
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Yeah.
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To flood, to flood a house.
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I mean, we could hold everybody could be holding the holding the mice up for uh for ransom while we were in there.
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Yeah.
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I don't know where are you gonna go when there's 25 guys in your courtyard.
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Exactly.
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I mean, yeah, it was one of the most violent things I've ever seen in my life is when these guys started funneling through doors and like everybody's in flexi cuffs seconds where we go in.
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God, I've never thought about it that way.
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Can you imagine having because you have to like remember like we were bigger than they were just in general?
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Plus, you put all of our gear on, we look like goddamn fucking monsters, yeah, and then have 20 people like 20 marines just flooding into your house.
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I mean, no wonder we never fought much combat and contact because like why would you why would you fight a god?
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Well, and those those Ramadi Arabs only came in two flavors.
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They were tiny and skinny, or they were eight-foot giants.
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There was no in-betweeners.
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There was nobody our there.
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We everybody our size didn't exist.
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Right.
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So yeah, if you found a big guy, he was huge, and he wasn't gonna move very fast anyway.
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Oh actually, so I have I have uh I have one more uh uh door kick story.
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Um so it was it was midway through, and uh we were hitting a house, and it was a bigger, I think it actually was the door, the the the one with the big wooden door, but it was a the the the out outer wall was taller than usual.
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And by this time we had had figured out the idea that we want to you know get somebody over the wall, open up the gate type situation.
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And so uh I had I was going over the wall first, and so I got up and I had to get up on top of a I had somebody pull a Humvee up next to the to the wall, and I had gotten up on the cab and I had jumped up and I had I was pressing myself up over top of it and I swung my leg over, but I must have swung my leg too hard or too fast or something like that.
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But I threw, I threw myself off of the top of the wall and I fell down into the courtyard and I landed on my back.
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And I remember it just completely knocking the wind out of me.
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And I remember laying there inside inside of this, and I'm the only one inside of there.
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The corner was set up, but I remember not being able to catch my breath and looking up into the night sky and being like, I'm inside of this compound, I can't breathe or move.
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There might be like I don't know if there's enemy going to try and kill me, and I cannot catch my breath.
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And I remember just trying to be like, just breathe, motherfucker, breathe.
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And catching that that first breath and rolling over and slowly crawling myself over to the to the to the to the uh the gate and then opening it up and then sitting down against the wall and everybody coming in.
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And I don't remember, I think it was Doc Hinkle that came up to me.
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He's like, You alright, Musser?
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And I was like, I knocked the window out of myself, I just need a moment.
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I wish I would have saw that because I'd have walked right past you and been like, get up, pussy.
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Oh shit.
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Good times.
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Well, I mean, a lot of times, and for some reason, it was I don't know if it was just the the luck of the draw, but like Muster said, there was a lot of guys that we were told we need to capture this guy.
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So our tactics were yeah, we're gonna flood the room, and then that dude's gonna get tackled by a bunch of corn fed, you know, Midwestern uh white boys.
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That's get beat up on his way down the stairs.
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No, we grabbed oh man, we grabbed a lot of guys.
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Oh yeah.
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We made a lot of trips to the detention center, I can tell you that.
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Oh my god.
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Yes.
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Several up to Alice side, too.
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Oh yeah.
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I'm curious just because uh you haven't touched on it, and it's different than door kicks.
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I would love to hear your version of what happened uh uh for the early April shit for fourth, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, tenth, whatever.
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Yeah.
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Um so we were on camp uh guard that week, and um I wasn't I would help out with Sergeant of the Guard uh somewhat, but usually I was in uh I was in the HQ uh helping with radio.
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So that was nine times out of ten.
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Um if I wasn't doing that, I was like getting tasked out to do you know stuff either with the you know, with my weird little Arabic thing.
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And so um on I was on the radio when uh on the first on the first full day, and that was hard.
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That was that that was that was rough because there was literally nothing I could do.
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Um, but I was listening to everybody call it in.
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And I was, you know, I was you know, we we we were we had we had three hooks in there.
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And um it was, you know, I was doing my best to, you know, keep keep uh HQ informed of what was going on and at the same time realizing that there was a lot of guys uh that were you know good friends that were out there.
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And I um yeah, I I don't know what else to say.
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I mean it was it was that sucked because I I and I I remember when they grabbed some guys from Sledgehammer to go to roll out and being very uh I don't know a word, uh just I don't know.
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I wanted to I wanted to get out there.
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I wanted I wanted to be I wanted to be in the fight, but knew that I needed to I needed to stick with the radio.
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And so that was hard though.
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Now I'm curious who was helping you man the COC?
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That for uh I guess especially the first day.
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The again, the seventh, we kind of you everybody knew what was gonna happen, right?
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Because we had the sixth.
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But on the sixth, nobody knew what was gonna happen.
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Who was helping you run the COC?
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Because this the commanding officer was out on the field.
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And if I remember correctly, the the first sergeant and the XO were out on the field.
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So who was in the COC with you?
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Um I honestly don't I don't remember having a s I don't remember having anybody in there with me other than uh Gunny Cook.
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Yeah, so that's um and I'm pulling the thread for that reason.
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Yeah, I remember I remember he and I having to like relay a lot of stuff back to the guys.
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Wow, I guess I d huh.
00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:32.000
I guess I didn't really fully realize that that was just you've never you've never said that out loud, and I've listened to you relay this story a couple of times.
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Yes.
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I yeah, I guess that was us that was doing that.
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But yeah.
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Um that was rough.
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I mean, literally you had you had three platoons on the field, four eventually.
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You had an I mean out of our company, 80 wounded on the sixth, I think.
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Uh we had nobody KIA on the sixth, fortunately.
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No, we had a lot of we were and a lot of movement.
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We had guys all across the city.
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Yeah.
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I remember coming back on the night of the sixth.
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This is how I know you were busy.
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There are little tiny, there are notes about this big, about the size of a three by five card, everywhere.
00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:19.519
Fucking everywhere, like a crazy person had been in there.
00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:26.159
And there was all these little like marks on the map that were that was in there.
00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:30.720
And I I I knew there was some frantic thing.
00:20:30.879 --> 00:20:35.119
I actually I did not know until 20 years later it was just you.
00:20:35.919 --> 00:20:39.359
And I I assumed Gunny Cook was in there, but I did not know.
00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:48.960
And so, yeah, just the two of you ran our hundred and whatever 60-man company essentially, because there was no one else.
00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:51.039
Our entire command element was out.
00:20:53.279 --> 00:21:01.439
Yeah, there wasn't even any Lance Corporals to come in and help them out because everybody was running to the posts to double up the posts.
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:10.720
Uh, there was guys jumping in vehicles uh when someone needed someone, somebody would be wounded, and and the platoons would come back and all of us would be to the winds, man.
00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:18.960
And and uh how you keep track of something like that in the COC blows my mind because I there was there was times where I was out there with golf company.
00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:21.839
There was there was times I was out there with a map platoon.
00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:41.359
I was out there uh you know doing crazy things with people I didn't know like I did my own platoon, but you know, hey, this resupply had to happen, this Medavac had to happen, this uh extra guard force had to happen, this uh, you know, all these things, and everybody got pulled to to man all these different things.
00:21:41.439 --> 00:21:50.159
So to how a platoon sergeant keeps track of his guys, or how the COC keeps track of where all the elements are at, man, that kudos, man.
00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:51.519
My hat's off to you.
00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:54.240
Yeah, I guess I didn't huh.
00:21:54.480 --> 00:21:57.759
Well, that was that was intense.
00:21:57.919 --> 00:21:58.879
That was intense.
00:22:00.399 --> 00:22:02.879
Go back to hey, 81s are ready to do anything, man.
00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:03.519
I'm telling you.
00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:11.439
Well, but but I but but kind of going back to kind of the weird uniqueness of the situation, I mean that's that's what an FTC chief does, right?
00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:23.119
Like, like functionally, like functionally in conventional war, like if you think about it functionally, what what it what the the 81s become secondary HQ.
00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:39.199
If the if if if battalions, if battalion headquarters gets overrun, secondary battalion headquarters the fallback is the 81 Splatoon specifically because of our because of our calm situation becomes because we also know order of battle and everything else because we need to know who to support.
00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:41.679
And so who trains to that though?
00:22:42.319 --> 00:23:05.679
Well I mean to that that's fair but I mean like in like the pat passively you know I mean you remember being in the pit and you having two hooks on your shoulders and you constantly turning your head back and forth trying to listen to two and you know and you know some of the training evolution is definitely pushing you towards you know Fox Company calling something in golf company calling something in and then you prioritizing because you understand you know order or battle and stuff like that.
00:23:05.919 --> 00:23:09.919
And so um but you're correct.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:22.079
I mean like it's not like I had experience experience but uh it was a weird set of circumstances to have somebody that was used to the radio at least uh being on the that day.
00:23:25.039 --> 00:24:02.720
Yeah I I remember seeing uh guys from we because we didn't have a hose and water like like you would have in your front yard but I remember watching guys from Sledgehammer uh taking a uh Leatherman and pop holes in the top of those one and a half liter water bottles and squirting blood out of the back of trucks and then getting them ready to go back out because we thought when everybody came back in the afternoon everybody thought we were going right back out and the evening called a prayer hit and the battle stopped and but that wasn't what we thought was going to happen.
00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:04.960
We thought we were going to be fighting for 24 hours straight.
00:24:05.199 --> 00:24:17.039
And I I just I mean I just remember crazy amounts of people everywhere but again it has not been said who ran our COC on April 6th and I do remember that.
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:33.039
I do remember your voice on the radio and I remember thinking I don't know what the fuck he's doing but that's the only voice I hear I hear Major Harrell on the other side and I imagine those F shop dudes were I I can't even imagine what the battalion COC looked like.
00:24:33.199 --> 00:24:35.279
It had to have been a mess.
00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:51.599
But I remember Major Harrel in my one ear and I'm like flipping back and forth between channels trying to figure out where Echo was because we were trying to get those guys and I remember hearing your voice on the weapons company radio dead steady as though nothing was going on.
00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:57.279
It was like we could have been we could have been calling in just our our checkpoint position.
00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:02.720
It was nothing yeah so it was it's under said that's all I was meaning.
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:20.240
Yeah yeah now you guys did get to participate later while you were not out specifically on the sixth I know a half of your platoon was out on the seventh like Wade was talking about tasked out and literally picked apart they took twozies and threes and put them everywhere.
00:25:20.399 --> 00:25:27.039
You were supplementing everybody but on the eighth and tenth you guys were out on the field.
00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:27.919
Yeah.
00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:30.240
Because we would have transitioned by that point.
00:25:30.399 --> 00:25:30.799
Yeah.
00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:38.159
Uh and so um well there's that plus like a lot of the Shop guys were pushed up onto the posts and stuff like that too.
00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:45.599
Yeah oh yeah by that time we had yeah truck company the engineers and the Shop guys all took over the the bridges and the front gate.
00:25:45.839 --> 00:26:58.639
Yeah exactly so we were actually freed up at that point where we could actually start you know mobilizing as our own unit again and you know but yeah like you said we were initially we were we were pulled apart and guys went out as they pull in who's ready my gear's right here I'm I'll go well that I and that was I remember now that you now that you have my brain thinking that way I remember we left some of those poor bastards up on some of those posts for almost the entire day but then but then we realized we could start pulling uh some of the supplemental guys that were on the base to help hold the post and pulling down infantry guys to actually go outside the wire but then that was what we were also we were so because we were yes we were still helping out in the in the HQ but we were also technically uh in charge of the guard and so we were we didn't have somebody that we didn't have a sergeant of the guard at that time that could even go and replace guys but once we did we were able to on the I remember later on the seventh and I think people more people were in the back but I I was on the radio for the next for that next day.
00:26:58.799 --> 00:28:02.399
But then when we went out to do some of the cleanups um we were just I don't have any really specific memories of that but I do remember that would have been um when we did that big cordon search um on the 10th right yeah the first bug hunt yeah the first bug hunt we weren't a part of we were on the we were one of the outer cordons for that um and that's the day that we almost died from uh friendly fire um because they decided to drop he uh to start the mission um and they spun the data up wrong and dropped mortars basically right on top of our uh our checkpoint we were holding a checkpoint way out on the north side and we had a there was an elevated road next to the palm trees and uh there was a building of some sort and then a berm and uh it was myself Doc Hinkle I think Rocha was with me.
00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:37.839
I don't remember I think there was three or four of us that was behind a berm because we were we were the um we were going to be the element that made contact with any of the vehicles um that we were going to stop and there was a berm that was sitting right next to us and I remember that first round landing it was it was too close and I remember hunkering down and remember curling up into a little bit of a fetal position uh and I think they dropped like three rounds and thinking very specifically I'm going to be so goddamn pissed that I'm the FDC chief and I'm gonna be killed by mortar by friendly mortar fire.
00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:48.399
And um especially since I never got to drop a round in anger um the entire time they took away they took away my one job that I trained for my entire time.
00:28:48.639 --> 00:29:00.480
But um nevertheless that was also the time that that poor bastard uh came flying up and uh we tried to they tried to flag him down and he didn't stop.
00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:07.439
And so every last one of us opened up and shot this truck just all the hell and yeah the tow truck with no brakes.
00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:39.839
The tow truck with no brakes and I remember flying up on top of that you know coming up on top of we were we were contact element coming up on top I opened up the door I grabbed the guy pulled him out he was still alive somehow some net like he got hit so many times he got shot the fuck up and uh Doc started working on him right away good old Doc Hinkle and uh asked him like what the like why didn't you stop and he he said he didn't have any breaks and I was like well that's too bad for you got him to the hospital.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:42.319
I think he made it I mean none of them were life threatening wounds.
00:29:42.399 --> 00:30:33.679
He got shot through both of his hands got got both of his legs all shot up but wasn't somehow never hit his nothing nothing in his body and nothing in his head so that's because that dude got below that he got underneath that dashboard with the quickness yeah I I would be I will never get a chance to talk to anybody who would even remember this mission because uh out of all the missions the first bug hunt while it was extremely productive for uh golf company specifically the and echo company they got into a ton of shit um whoever designed the kicking off of that that raid was it's a it's stupid enough it could be a movie in and of itself because you had the they were dropping those 81s in an empty farm field.
00:30:33.919 --> 00:30:45.279
We had two cobras doing gun runs in the river not shooting anyone just in the river like looking scary right like it was like a tropic thunder like going back and forth.
00:30:45.519 --> 00:31:13.839
And then we had the the uh army dudes with the big speakers and they're playing you know that's right yeah yeah slayer and fucking uh drowning calling and calling them bitches and like you know your sisters could fight better than you and all the crazy shit they were saying over the radio and it it's just like it was like it did a 13 year old Call of Duty player design this that's what this seems like like this sounds real scary but it it was ridiculous we never did that shit again.
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:15.599
We never did any of that shit again.
00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:42.720
But it was yeah that first bug hunt we were like we're gonna do all the fun stuff you uh you saying that I uh I remember one or one or two times when they did get over the the they'd captured mosques and they were yelling over the speakers there's I don't remember I don't remember when this was it was it would have been in probably May maybe June I don't know it doesn't matter to the story.
00:31:42.799 --> 00:31:57.119
The point is is that and I don't know if and you'll have to tell me if it if it what your feelings were about it but when you were hearing it and not being able to understand it did it I I I wonder if it was different because I could understand what they were saying.
00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:27.679
I I didn't need a translator to tell me that you know like they're calling out the Americans specifically and you're you're gonna make the blood run, you know, make the streets run with your American blood you know and we're you know death to all you know like we we we show no mercy you know we'll kill every last one of you um I don't know if it was I mean it didn't fuck with my head at all but it was I I I wonder if it like I just remember very specifically being like I don't like knowing what they're saying.
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:38.720
Like this is a different this feels different being able to hear like know what you're saying versus like like you're just you're I know you're talking shit I don't know what you're saying and uh moving forward.
00:32:39.199 --> 00:32:47.759
I I don't rem specifically remember the the that region's word for American but it was like American or something like that.
00:32:47.839 --> 00:33:08.399
Anyway Mikey yeah yeah there you go and I remember I could I could hear that and I knew the word for death and I was like okay yeah good enough they're they're talking shit again but just to frame that out the first time they called for like the streets to run red with blood and all that but and I remember Rocco telling us March 26th.
00:33:08.720 --> 00:35:04.079
We we had not been there even a full month before the mosques started calling to kill us all at prayer yeah that was that was a my Arabic wasn't nearly as good as yours I I I guess uh you picked it up better than I did but uh I remember when that's that's that kicked off and I was understanding you know 25% of what they're saying or whatever and I'm like oh yeah here we go yeah that was my feeling too yeah boredom just went out the window fellas we're about to get uh about to get sporty out here that's too funny uh no I I you know I I don't know why I picked up the Arabic I mean even from the beginning I I mean uh there was quite a few of us that that went right and yeah you and I went together yep and I Hersher went um and several others but uh our our instructor Mohammed I don't know if you remember him but um he was uh an Iraqi refugee and I remember when we were asked to go in the first place we were being told that we were again kind of remembering back the the to the earlier mindset is we were going over winning hearts and minds we were going over for sasso operations and so I remember like hearing his story about how bad Saddam was and his you know his his journey and uh becoming an American and wanting to help and uh and kind of taking to heart this idea that we were going over to help and like really really wanting to help the Iraqis and I I kind of took that as an in and in uh to heart to to to figure out the Arabic language to be able to help out not just our our mission but to help out the Iraqis.
00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:25.440
But then getting over there uh I don't know I I I got linked up with the interpreters that were there right away and um and so we were helping one another for at first trying like they were trying to get better with their English and I was trying to get better with my Arabic.
00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:31.920
And so I think it was just a like more largely an exposure thing.
00:35:33.360 --> 00:36:12.880
And then once I think kind of somebody else mentioned it once that there was like a point where I think our uh like Gunny uh Maraki was very good also at being like if this motherfucker knows what's going on we're gonna you're we're gonna you we're gonna leverage any small advantage we have and saw that I was kind of leaning into it and so I think I wonder if he wasn't somebody that because he's the one that assigned me to be to watch over the guys later in when when the roofs got put on yep uh I was I was a I was assigned their babysitter.
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:22.639
Yep and it was it was you Cohen and I don't remember who the third person was but all of you had like again rudimentary Arabic training.
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:33.279
Yeah yeah I remember I remember uh Captain Weiler getting a little uh annoyed because uh I was able to get our roof on like super fast.
00:36:33.759 --> 00:36:41.199
Like it took everybody else like a like a two days or three days or however long because they would work like really really slowly.
00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:47.519
And so I went out and I was like talking to the guys and uh actually I just remembered this one.
00:36:47.679 --> 00:36:54.799
So I was talking to them and uh just being like hey can we just you know this is where I live you know you we're friends and all this other stuff.
00:36:54.960 --> 00:37:16.239
And I don't remember who came over but started like messing with me and like we started like you know like wrestling in the in the uh off to the side but they didn't understand that that's just how Marines are that we just you know like we weren't fighting and they started like jumping down because they thought like I was in a fight and they were gonna try and like help me because they thought I was being attacked.
00:37:16.319 --> 00:37:24.719
And I was like no no no no like we're we're we're friends that's fine I think their interpretation of friend was a little different than yours.
00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:28.079
I was just gonna say were you flirting with them?
00:37:28.239 --> 00:39:12.639
Because I I know how some of these uh river riverside uh meetups go yeah yeah a little feeky feeky huh actually do you remember wait do you remember them do you do you remember the time that that drunk Iraqi was trying to uh trying to kiss uh Gunny Cook and me on the patrol like he kept pulling up his mandress and showing you his wiener like he like he was drunk off his ass and he kept like being like I love Americans I love Americans and like kept trying to hug us and like and both like they were like get the fuck away from me I finally was like let me just kill this guy poor guy was just trying to enjoy his drunk man you're trying to oh man he was ham sauced oh man he was on the wrong deployment he should have been in Okinawa with us that's yeah yeah exactly it was oh man yeah well I I I why do you remember going through the summer I'm curious about your your version of the things that happened and I I can always throw out dates and key events if you can't remember anything but I I very vividly remember uh coming into June because uh we were on the backside of the engineers getting hit I remember I remember we had to go out several times because they were they were making a and again this is where kind of where I got pulled off to do some weird shit and so they were starting to get kind of frantic in June because of this handoff.
00:39:13.279 --> 00:39:43.119
And and so the training for the ICDC and the Iraqi police was was really really like it wasn't going how they wanted to and there's a bunch of a bunch of reasons they weren't treating they weren't training leadership appropriately and et cetera et cetera and so I remember I remember quite a few missions both with sledgehammer and with um getting pulled to go with other like with I don't know who it was all helping.
00:39:43.199 --> 00:39:47.039
I don't remember who it was with it was either golf or fox or something like that.
00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:52.239
Where we kept going to the police station and trying to get them more spun up on stuff.
00:39:52.319 --> 00:40:29.199
I remember like helping to lead like exercises and stuff like that and and um I know Fox Company did a ton of that shit too they even brought him over onto their onto snake pit and like did training and stuff yeah okay then it must have been with Fox but I remember getting pulled I remember like getting dropped off and being being with that element for the day being at the police station in June trying to get these guys spun up and um and it just not it's I mean it just wasn't working right for there's a but there's a whole bunch of reasons for that.
00:40:29.440 --> 00:41:11.519
But then that's when um the governor got kidnapped that's when we fired the police chief um and you know those were those were really big deals right and uh again I I again kind of the weird spot that I was in it it it I was I think I was more aware of what was going on on this part like on that specific part of like like our our our like this large large scale mission that we were being asked to do in Rumadi like very specifically that part I was weirdly tied into and being aware that this was this was going this was a like like going down as a just a giant goat fuck and it was not working out.
00:41:11.759 --> 00:41:38.000
And then obviously the handoff never happened right and so then Condi got hit and then that's when I remember and then that's when uh and I don't remember there was something wasn't something larger happened where all of a sudden anyway the point of it is is that in June we started seeing some actual fighters like we had people that like actually knew what the fuck they knew what was going on.
00:41:38.079 --> 00:41:56.319
Like we were seeing complex ambushes we were seeing uh we were seeing more people willing to be ten toes down with the fights I remember I remember being I remember it being a little bit I remember it being a little bit hairier during that time and I remember our op tempo going way up.
00:41:56.639 --> 00:42:07.759
I think in retrospect probably that shit that happened on the dam with the engineers was the first complex plan that we had seen.
00:42:08.079 --> 00:42:18.239
Because realistically if you literally look at like look at it in a rearview mirror 20 years later they brought out a bunch of people they put an IED out on the dam.
00:42:18.400 --> 00:42:24.319
We had got intel however the hell we got this intel that there were IEDs on the dam they're gonna blow the Habaniya dam.
00:42:25.279 --> 00:42:48.239
We used engineers to do it and made a casualty producing event they knew where we were going to take the casualty we they knew we were going to combat outposts they knew we were going to go west not east they put a giant V-bid west we avoided it you avoided it but Echo Company didn't and you know however many dudes died on that one.
00:42:48.480 --> 00:42:59.599
Then fast forward not long after that you had a gas shell attack which would we had never seen a gas shell attack but they had fired gas shells onto Hurricane Point and Blue Diamond.
00:42:59.920 --> 00:43:32.400
That's right and then we had the snipers killed on June 21st like the complexity the boldness and complexity ramped up very quickly and you're right throughout June and July the black pajama dudes when they showed up they would stay in the fight they'd run right at you they would and they would use tactics they weren't just yeah it wasn't the firing over the wall of the suicide squads yeah I actually I don't know why that made me think of it.
00:43:32.480 --> 00:44:21.679
I re one of my uh memories of you nylon was uh we we were getting chow at Junction City and we pulled in and we must have been we must have been engaged somehow some way or whatever because I remember I jumped out of the vehicle and you came over to me and you're like you okay and I was like I th yeah I just want some chow and he's like okay anyways um no I I I don't have any once we get into like I don't remember to be perfectly honest I remember a lot my memories surround the Iraqis a lot more than I remember the fire like any of the engagements or any of the missions more specifically just because I was so I was it was just that was just my reality.
00:44:21.840 --> 00:44:29.279
I was just around the Iraqis I was inner I was interfacing with the Iraqis at a very very high High amount.
00:44:29.360 --> 00:44:32.000
And I didn't really realize that until like 20 years later.
00:44:32.079 --> 00:44:48.480
That like I kind of knew it, but as I've talked with people and I've was thinking about doing this podcast, I was like, Jesus, I was I was being asked to interact with the Iraqis and at a at a very high level at a very high frequency.
00:44:48.639 --> 00:44:57.759
Um and so and I think that really shaped the like that that has shaped my feelings about the war very differently, also.
00:44:58.480 --> 00:45:01.679
Um again very hate.
00:45:01.759 --> 00:45:02.400
Yeah, go ahead.
00:45:02.480 --> 00:45:02.639
Sorry.
00:45:02.880 --> 00:45:04.000
It's very understated.
00:45:04.079 --> 00:45:17.920
And you you can if we pulled up every episode that we've done, you could almost take everybody's statement about what they thought about Ramadi, like their first impressions, and that would kind of tell you how they felt about the war.
00:45:18.239 --> 00:45:20.799
Uh your your first thing you said.
00:45:21.759 --> 00:45:30.719
Oh, this is like a there's a weird duality here of a beautiful building and an agrarian society, right?
00:45:30.799 --> 00:45:37.360
Like and and and where it's a very old agrarian society, where other people are like, it looked like a shithole and it smelled like shit, right?
00:45:37.440 --> 00:45:38.559
And like that's what you remember.
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:42.079
You remember all the bad things, and other people being like, I thought it was great.
00:45:42.159 --> 00:45:48.400
It was, you know, people were super nice, and it was like, okay, well, you have very different memories, like everybody's memories are just super different.
00:45:48.880 --> 00:46:08.159
Well, and I think some of that is because I was interacting with because I was interacting with kids and I was interacting with the women, well, you know, not women directly, but you know, I was often going into the area where the women were before when we didn't have lionesses, doing my best to say, so that's calm people down.
00:46:08.559 --> 00:46:15.920
That's what I remember from your June, and then there's two things for June specifically for Sledgehammer.
00:46:16.079 --> 00:46:24.559
You guys, Oliver North was coming out a ridiculous amount until they realized that the government handoff wasn't gonna happen, and then he disappeared.
00:46:24.799 --> 00:46:27.440
Now, maybe that was maybe that was on purpose.
00:46:27.519 --> 00:46:32.159
We didn't want coverage of how bad it was going when the police station blew up and the governor was kidnapped, right?
00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:38.000
But or maybe, right, things were just getting so dangerous we couldn't bring out escorts, right?
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:39.679
That wasn't one or the other.
00:46:39.840 --> 00:46:44.159
But you guys always had the lionesses with you, always had them through June and July.
00:46:44.239 --> 00:46:46.079
You and Rainmaker both.
00:46:46.880 --> 00:46:52.639
The other thing, and you've talked about it a little on other podcasts, but I am curious in detail.
00:46:54.239 --> 00:47:02.400
This is another one of those 81s was super mo super flexible, did did you unusual shit.
00:47:02.480 --> 00:47:03.279
Was it a weird mission?
00:47:03.440 --> 00:47:04.480
Give it to 81s.
00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:13.440
The snipers were killed, and somebody somebody had to do the I I don't know if honor's the right word.
00:47:13.599 --> 00:47:15.199
Someone had to do the right thing.
00:47:15.519 --> 00:47:16.079
Yeah.
00:47:16.400 --> 00:47:17.920
And y'all had to do it.
00:47:18.159 --> 00:47:18.799
Yeah.
00:47:19.920 --> 00:47:23.199
I feel like I remember you had to go into the building.
00:47:23.679 --> 00:47:24.319
Yeah.
00:47:25.039 --> 00:47:26.319
Yeah, we both did.
00:47:26.559 --> 00:47:29.360
Uh yeah, please.
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:32.559
Um, yeah, that sucked.
00:47:32.880 --> 00:47:38.159
Um we helped.
00:47:38.639 --> 00:47:46.159
So we were we we ultimately what our part of the mission for that was, um, we were on day taskable at the time.
00:47:46.319 --> 00:47:53.119
And so we brought we were we brought the the the bodies up to Al-Assad.
00:47:53.759 --> 00:48:02.880
And so um we went in and we were helping, we were helping getting getting the bodies pulled together.
00:48:02.960 --> 00:48:06.400
Um, well not pulled together, but you know, in the body bags and carrying them down.
00:48:07.119 --> 00:48:10.880
Um one of my I don't know.
00:48:11.039 --> 00:48:21.679
I this one the this is a memory that pops in my head every once in a while that I don't always I don't know if I don't appreciate it, but it's definitely sticks really very vividly to me.
00:48:21.759 --> 00:48:29.519
Is that I remember we were putting the first the first Marine in and putting them, you know, we were we part of it is because we still had our high backs, right?
00:48:29.599 --> 00:48:37.279
And so we had the we had the ability to uh to bring them up um in a more dignified dignified way.
00:48:37.440 --> 00:48:51.199
And so we were putting putting the marine in there, and um I remember the first guy that we put down, his uh I felt like his head hit the the deck too hard.
00:48:51.599 --> 00:48:58.079
Um, on the the bed of the truck.
00:48:58.559 --> 00:49:13.039
And uh I remember very specifically, everybody else like I made sure that I was on the side where the head was because I wanted to make sure that I was able to you know hold his head and lay it, lay it on the on the deck a little bit.
00:49:13.279 --> 00:49:16.559
You know, I didn't want his head bouncing off the deck.
00:49:16.960 --> 00:49:20.880
Um yeah.
00:49:21.119 --> 00:49:30.000
Um that that was that that that was a that was a rough mission.
00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:40.159
Um and then I remember unfortunately making a some some Marines had to stay in the back with the bodies.
00:49:40.480 --> 00:49:44.960
Um uh that was unfortunate for them.
00:49:45.199 --> 00:49:52.159
Um but drove drove move up to uh to the mortuary up in Al Assad.
00:49:52.480 --> 00:49:58.159
And uh unfortunate, but the right thing to do, right?
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:02.880
Uh again, this is one of those things.
00:50:03.279 --> 00:50:04.400
It's a weird mission.
00:50:05.279 --> 00:50:08.000
You know, send send the 81s, they'll they'll figure it out.
00:50:08.079 --> 00:50:11.039
They've got they got the right people, right, to do it.
00:50:11.360 --> 00:50:36.079
And this is where right or wrong, Gunny Cook probably is almost the perfect like he always he had the public lens in his mind, he had the mission statement in his mind, he had how do I take care of this motley crew of of crazy mortarmen in his mind all at the same time, and so it was done right.
00:50:36.159 --> 00:50:37.360
That's what I remember specifically.
00:50:37.599 --> 00:50:43.519
So I was out recording for that, and I was trying to keep everybody from shooting Al Jazeera.
00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:56.960
That was basically all I was trying to because everybody was furious, everybody was furious, and the reporters were everywhere and filming literally everything, and so we knew we were under a microscope anyway.
00:50:57.039 --> 00:51:08.400
That's the other thing, you're under a microscope under international, and you guys bringing down the bodies never made it on the news because it was unremarkable, which is perfect.
00:51:08.480 --> 00:51:10.559
That's exactly what you would want, right?
00:51:10.719 --> 00:51:16.960
You would want it to be as innocuous and unremarkable as possible, so that way it's not a major news event.
00:51:17.119 --> 00:51:25.840
Look at these Marines throwing the bodies off the off the roof or something stupid, you know, something yeah, there's a lot of awful ways this could have gone, and it didn't go that way.
00:51:26.159 --> 00:51:37.759
But also to your credit, and if I remember correctly, because you had a camera and someone else had a camera, you guys took the only pictures of the crime scene.
00:51:38.719 --> 00:51:39.360
Yeah.
00:51:39.759 --> 00:51:43.759
And that's what got turned into the investigators, correct.
00:51:44.960 --> 00:51:52.639
So whatever came of that is from your footage because we have no official battlefield investigators of any sort.
00:51:52.880 --> 00:51:53.119
Right.
00:51:53.360 --> 00:52:06.880
That's that's a weird a weird position to put you in as a as a corporal, especially, like to be a crime scene investigator, essentially, for what has now ended up being extremely famous, right?
00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:10.239
There's all these books written just specifically surrounding this incident.
00:52:10.719 --> 00:52:19.360
No, I I I was unfortunately because of that that stupid camera, uh, there's a little tiny digital one.
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:25.840
Um I was taken out to a lot of crime scenes.
00:52:26.319 --> 00:52:31.039
Well, not crime scenes, but you know, a lot of after I was pulled out to a lot of act uh after action.
00:52:31.119 --> 00:52:44.799
I have I took uh lots of pictures of dead bodies, um, having to flip them over and handle the dead bodies to take pictures of the faces and take pictures of of how the IDs were set up and stuff like that.
00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:48.880
And so saw a lot of a lot of shit.
00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:55.440
I remember when you bought that camera in Tokyo and uh it was the absolute top of the line now.
00:52:55.519 --> 00:52:57.679
And the any$15.
00:52:59.199 --> 00:53:04.319
Yeah, any cheap ass phone you buy at Walmart right now would destroy the capability of that thing.
00:53:04.639 --> 00:53:08.639
Yeah, your iPhone has got a better camera on it now by a thousand degrees.
00:53:09.199 --> 00:53:13.840
You were so proud of that camera when you bought it in Tokyo, and it was top of the line.
00:53:14.159 --> 00:53:18.159
Oh, it was it was fancy, it was it was highfalutin, then yeah.
00:53:19.279 --> 00:53:20.559
I gotta be honest with you.
00:53:20.639 --> 00:53:34.960
That that whole that whole thing, that whole mission, um was a very big turning point because it was uh I had a I was involved with like the bringing those guys out and stuff like that.
00:53:35.119 --> 00:53:40.319
And it like I I can remember shaking, my body was shaking.
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:53.519
I was so pissed off that that had happened that maybe him going in the Humvee roughly like that was uh a response to me not being able to control my arms at that point.
00:53:53.679 --> 00:54:05.599
Because I'm telling you, man, that that was a turning point for me in all of my entire Marine Corps career because I got angry that day, and that anger didn't go away for a long time.
00:54:07.039 --> 00:54:09.279
Like it was a visceral response in my body.
00:54:09.360 --> 00:54:18.159
Like I couldn't even control like lifting these guys, and and you know, when I grabbed the body bags and stuff like that, it was it was a response in my body, man.
00:54:18.239 --> 00:54:19.920
It was it was terrible, it was terrible.
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:27.119
It was the easily one of the worst days of that deployment, or worst days of my career, to be honest with you, worst day of my life.
00:54:28.079 --> 00:54:32.079
No, that was that was a hard one.
00:54:32.239 --> 00:54:39.840
That was there's a lot of rough days, but that one that one sticks with me for a very long time.
00:54:40.079 --> 00:54:41.199
I just remember it.
00:54:44.400 --> 00:54:45.679
You're just gutted.
00:54:46.480 --> 00:54:48.079
Just absolutely gutted.
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:51.759
I don't I don't know if you remember.
00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:57.679
Do you remember the uh morgue at Al-Assad?
00:54:58.639 --> 00:54:59.840
Yeah, I do.
00:55:00.159 --> 00:55:01.039
I don't know.
00:55:01.279 --> 00:55:09.599
I was gonna say, I remember both, actually I remember both of you telling me that you were like, there's a hundred people in there.
00:55:09.920 --> 00:55:11.039
That's that's what I remember.
00:55:11.119 --> 00:55:18.239
I just remember you saying there is there's more there's more dead Americans in there than you are real than you realize.
00:55:18.559 --> 00:55:23.759
That's that's I remember again, I remember it coming from both of you because both of you helped to unload them and and take them.
00:55:25.039 --> 00:55:25.360
Yep.
00:55:25.599 --> 00:55:28.559
And uh yeah, it was anyway.
00:55:28.639 --> 00:55:28.960
That's it.
00:55:29.039 --> 00:55:30.960
I was just curious if you had remembered that.
00:55:31.279 --> 00:55:37.920
Well, as painful as it was, I I I had it in my body that I I had to make sure these guys got home.
00:55:38.159 --> 00:55:43.279
And when we got to where we were going, and they started packing those bags with ice.
00:55:43.440 --> 00:55:45.360
Yep, and it's it's instant.
00:55:45.519 --> 00:56:01.360
Yep, and it was just it was just like I don't know how to say it's like industrial, the way that they were like bringing these guys in, and they and you could tell just like when you know we would clear a room, they would do everything methodical.
00:56:01.679 --> 00:56:11.759
They would do everything the same way that they they start cleaning these guys up and like packing them in ice, and and dude, it's I that's something I don't wish on anybody to ever have to see.
00:56:12.719 --> 00:56:13.679
Horrible.
00:56:14.079 --> 00:56:31.599
No, I now that you said that, I I do remember being to your point, Wade, of like the kind of I I was I understood, but also was upset with how like how uh how impersonal it was.
00:56:31.840 --> 00:56:39.360
How impersonal it was and being and wanting and and wanting and wanting to be like, no, these were friends, these are friends of mine, man.
00:56:40.480 --> 00:56:41.360
These are friends.
00:56:41.440 --> 00:56:53.679
I I don't I don't know how to send I don't know how to send them off with a little bit more Yeah, but if you work in the morgue man, you it can't be oh well but I mean even if they didn't I don't blame them.
00:56:53.759 --> 00:57:06.079
I mean just to be clear, I don't I that was not uh that's not an that's not an indictment against them by any means, just absolutely not, but it's it's th these these guys were our brothers.
00:57:06.239 --> 00:57:07.840
Yeah, you know what I mean?
00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:16.480
Like, yeah, you can be you know methodical and everything with these other guys, but these guys deserve something different because we just chewed the same dirt with these guys, man.
00:57:16.559 --> 00:57:26.239
We we felt the same pain with these guys, and and for the Utah just like oh yeah, just send them over here and yeah, no, no, not these guys, not these guys.
00:57:27.599 --> 00:57:28.239
Yep.
00:57:30.400 --> 00:57:32.880
Wasn't angry with them, but we were angry with the situation.
00:57:33.119 --> 00:57:34.880
Yeah, no, that's that's well said.
00:57:37.199 --> 00:57:40.559
That was yeah, yeah.
00:57:40.880 --> 00:58:15.279
I remember I was I I remember also not not nearly at the same level, but I I remember a couple times coming after like IEDs that got civilians, and there was a couple times that was some younger people that kind of having the same I don't know, I don't I don't know what emotion it was, but it was just kind of like god damn it, you know, like it's it's different, it's it's different when like I had no problem shooting and killing the adults that were wanting to fight.
00:58:15.440 --> 00:58:17.599
Like if you were fighting me, fuck you.
00:58:17.759 --> 00:58:34.319
You know, I'm you know, like let's take this care of and not a not a second thought, but it was if it was an unfair situation, or if it was a couple of times when it was when there was kids that were too young, that that was that those those stick with me.
00:58:34.719 --> 00:58:36.079
Those stick with me.
00:58:39.519 --> 00:58:51.599
While we're on the topic of memorials, I I guess I'll pick at your hard strings just a little more, although this may not be as uh as painful, uh, only because I I do think the snipers are a painful point for almost everybody.
00:58:51.920 --> 00:58:57.279
Um you guys had weird, again, weird taskings.
00:58:57.519 --> 00:59:05.119
I remember you going over to provide security for Fox Company when they were doing one of their memorials.
00:59:05.440 --> 00:59:06.079
Right.
00:59:09.119 --> 00:59:13.039
Only because I I remember just seeing it and pictures and stuff like that.
00:59:13.119 --> 00:59:14.480
I don't actually remember anything of it.
00:59:14.559 --> 00:59:26.719
And then not but a week later, maybe two weeks later, you um that Cobra pilot that was shot, you guys were supposed to, and again, this is where 81s gets the weird details.
00:59:26.880 --> 00:59:36.159
Yep, you guys were supposed to attend the the service and funeral service at Tacotam Air Base for correct um Cookie was his uh call sign.
00:59:36.400 --> 00:59:37.440
Colonel David Green.
00:59:37.519 --> 00:59:37.759
Yes.
00:59:37.840 --> 00:59:38.159
Yeah, yeah.
00:59:38.239 --> 00:59:41.519
I had to look at my notes because I I remember he was a colonel, I couldn't remember his name.
00:59:41.679 --> 00:59:47.759
Yeah, yeah, the pilot that was shot by a small arms fire that was supposed to be providing that support for us, but they never made it.
00:59:48.079 --> 01:00:00.400
That was a crazy mission out because we got hit with two IEDs on the way out, and we couldn't stop we couldn't stop for for them uh because we had to make it to the to the to the services.
01:00:00.639 --> 01:00:03.679
And so we just had a we just called it back at that time.
01:00:04.239 --> 01:00:05.920
Did you guys actually make it to the service?
01:00:06.079 --> 01:00:07.920
That's I don't I don't think I ever have heard.
01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:09.519
You made it all the way out to TQ.
01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:10.639
Yeah.
01:00:10.880 --> 01:00:11.199
Yeah.
01:00:11.440 --> 01:00:12.960
Yeah, we made it out there for that.
01:00:13.199 --> 01:00:16.559
And we didn't go, I don't, I don't, uh I don't think a lot of us went in.
01:00:16.639 --> 01:00:22.319
I know I know the XO went in, and I think I don't remember going in.
01:00:22.400 --> 01:00:25.599
I remember I I don't I remember staying at the trucks personally.
01:00:25.759 --> 01:00:28.880
So I don't know if other people went in, but I don't remember I didn't go in for it.
01:00:29.199 --> 01:00:29.679
Interesting.
01:00:29.840 --> 01:00:35.279
I wonder if they just sent in like key leaders to like as like a show of appreciation, and then yeah.
01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:39.519
If you like what you've heard, this is a multi-part episode.
01:00:39.679 --> 01:00:42.000
Make sure you listen to the rest of the story.