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Constant Combat
This veteran-led podcast highlights the experiences of Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, starting with their harrowing 2004 deployment to Ramadi; a 9 month combat tour which resulted in the highest casualties in a single deployment - a deployment that most Americans have never heard about. Through candid conversations surrounding these events, the series also explores earlier experiences that shaped the Marines, emphasizing their grit, humor, and humanity while aiming to honor their stories authentically.
Episodes
109 episodes
No Standard Operating Procedure - Shane Nylin (Part 3 of 3)
We close part 3 with Sergeant Nylin on memories that never fit neatly into a timeline, from a traffic stop with buckets of body parts to the moment a Humvee hits a landmine. We also talk honestly about the long tail, grief on deployment, going ...
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No Standard Operating Procedure - Shane Nylin (Part 2 of 3)
We pick up part 2 with Shane Nylin from MAP 2 as first missions in Ramadi turn into minefields, EOD chaos, and an IED. We also walk through the loss of a platoon member and the street fights that follow, including what it feels like when adrena...
No Standard Operating Procedure - Shane Nylin (Part 1 of 3)
We welcome guest Jesse Jordan to podcast cohost recording Shane Nylin’s path from signing Marine Corps papers in a peacetime world to realizing, almost overnight, that he is heading into Iraq with a thin platoon and even thinner margins. We tal...
The Cost Measured in Minutes - Joshua Kohen (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Josh Kohen starts as an RPG hit his position near a mosque in Ramadi, including the small choices and split-second timing that changed who lived and who died. He continues with what followed, from chaotic QRF fights and mass-casualt...
The Cost Measured in Minutes - Joshua Kohen (part 1 of 2)
Josh Kohen of MAP2 trades the polished war-movie version for what it actually felt like to arrive as a new Marine, get absorbed into a depleted unit, and stumble into combat fast. We discuss identity, communication failures, and the small routi...
Never Lead with Comfort - Deverson Lochard
We sit down with MAP3's Deverson Lochard, a Marine sergeant and machine gunner who cross-decks from 3/5 into a deploying unit to prepare young Marines for Ramadi with one uncompromising priority: getting everyone home alive. He shares what comb...
Intensity and Good Faith - Justin Weaver (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Justin Weaver wraps up with the strange gap between what we lived and what the civilian world can understand, and how that gap can push people into silence, booze, and untreated PTSD. We trade memories from Ramadi to coming home, an...
Intensity and Good Faith - Justin Weaver (part 1 of 2)
Part 1 with Rainmaker Mortarman Justin Weaver to trace the jump from rushed pre-deployment training to the first hard weeks in Ramadi 2004, including the moments that flipped the switch from joking around to understanding the stakes. Along the ...
The Cigar Smoke after a Patrol - Sergio Wallace (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Sergio Wallace goes on with the everyday reality of war, from heat and mud rain to the little “keep your head together” routines. He gives a deep look at what it means to accept death at 19, come home changed, and try to lead younge...
The Cigar Smoke after a Patrol - Sergio Wallace (part 1 of 2)
Part 1 with Sergio Wallace of Sledgehammer Platoon. His story tracks a young Marine Corps infantryman who arrives with confidence, friction, and a simple motive, then learns how fast combat erases simplicity, trying to make sense of what ...
A View From Cracked Glass - Michael Hanson (part 2 of 2)
We pick up Part Two with Mike Hanson as he relives Ramadi through the details that didn't fade: from weapons caches and watch posts to split-second calls that still don’t have easy answers. We also talk about what it feels like to come home, ca...
A View From Cracked Glass - Michael Hanson (part 1 of 2)
Part one with Michael Hanson, who shares about becoming a Humvee driver and how trust, training, and tiny details decide whether a patrol goes smooth or goes sideways. We also get honest about the cost afterward, from drinking and stress to VA ...
The First Sergeant - Alphonso Mack
A man who needs little introduction to the Marines of Weapons Company, Sergeant Major Alphonso Mack joins us to give some of his history as a mortarman and recruit depot First Sergeant... then becomes the First Sergeant who holds Weapons Compan...
The Warhorns Curse - Gavin Callais (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Gavin Callais starts with April 7th contact through a wrong turn, an RPG that never detonates, and the slow realization that five hours have passed while ammo runs out. He also opens up about the bridge-post incident, the NJP that f...
The Warhorns Curse - Gavin Callais (part 1 of 2)
Gavin Callais from MAP 2 recounts the whiplash from getting tossed into a unit to rolling up the Iraq highway, where dark humor and constant confusion give way to IED blasts. He paints a vivid picture, from early barracks chaos and field-expedi...
Keep Them Alive - Michael Rakebrandt (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 with Navy Corpsman Mike Rakebrandt about the hidden weight a senior line Corpsman carries in Ramadi, from quiet BAS check-ins to making split-second calls that keep Marines alive. We also discuss what hits hardest on the way home: Gold S...
Keep Them Alive - Michael Rakebrandt (part 1 of 2)
We talk with Mike Rakebrandt about what it takes to prepare Navy Corpsmen when everything is fast, messy, and unforgiving. You can train for trauma medicine, but you can’t rehearse the moment you’re staring at a catastrophic wound and the only ...
High Value Targets - Andrew Kern (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 of Andrew Kern from Mobile Assault Platoon One shifts from a summer lull into intense July and August gunfights, including a rooftop engagement that breaks an ambush and relieves pressure on pinned-down troops. An RPG comes straight at h...
High Value Targets - Andrew Kern (part 1 of 2)
Andrew Kern leads off part 1 arriving as a brand-new Marine in Weapons Company and how the path from San Mateo training to Ramadi changes his view of what “ready” really means. He walks us through the early Iraq War confusion, the shift from SA...
Endurance for One Moment More - David Silton (part 3 of 3)
Dave closes out the days in Ramadi when one unarmored truck, one hit, and one Marine leader’s absence changes the emotional temperature of the whole platoon. We also talk honestly about what comes after, when you make it home with your family b...
Endurance for One Moment More - David Silton (part 2 of 3)
We keep the timeline moving in part 2 with David Silton as he relives the IED on April 2 and the brutal stretch of fighting that follows in Ramadi. We talk through what it feels like to operate with a concussion, how split second decisions get ...
Endurance for One Moment More - David Silton (part 1 of 3)
We start part 1 with Dave Silton of MAP 3 about the long buildup to Ramadi, from broken barracks and platoon hazing to urban combat training and the messy logistics of finally leaving. He shares what it feels like to arrive with a “hearts and m...
When Optimism Meets Combat - Elijah Mann (part 2 of 2)
Part 2 of Eli Mann and he paints how a brand-new Marine grows up fast, from early training and culture shocks to the hard specifics of 2004. His story gets into fear, guilt, and communication breakdowns, then land on what “constant vigila...
When Optimism Meets Combat - Elijah Mann (part 1 of 2)
This interview starts out with Eli Mann about arriving in Ramadi in 2004 and watching early optimism get replaced by a new kind of focus built from heat, mortars, and the grind of convoy life. He walks us through a bicycle IED, the long recover...
Fast Track to the Front Line - James Anderson (part 2 of 2)
We pick up Part 2 with James Anderson as he connects the experience of Ramadi 2004 to the weird contrast of other people's big bases outside of town, ship life, and the small moments that define a deployment. We talk reintegration, leadership t...