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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.
Constant Combat
Running with the Candy Man - Blake Pepper (part 1 of 2)
We sit down with Blake Pepper, a MAP-3 machine gunner in Ramadi. LCpl Pepper was nineteen, standing behind a .50 cal in a raw highback Humvee called Old Yeller; rolling from Kuwait into Ramadi with armor they welded themselves with gunner's view, from Easy Street to the palm groves, and a VBIED that “missed” by heartbeats. Training, trust, and small-unit leadership carry the story, along with names that still matter.
• convoy north from Kuwait and early vehicle setups
• scrounging armor, welding plates, and adapting highbacks
• April 6 QRF to Easy Street and casualty runs
• Sergeant Conde wounded yet pushing to rejoin the fight
• RPG near miss, Halal and Gentile loaded into trucks
• April 7 bounding with Golf Company near the fields
• April 10 palm grove contact and Cummings wounded
• sniper hunt in the marsh and recovered rifle
• escorting General Mattis, Oliver North filming, VBIED near miss
• Library OP fight, Mark 19 suppression, and gas can detonation
• hooch life under mortars, rockets, and dark humor
• games, golf balls across the river, and unit morale
If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story
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If you like what you heard, please subscribe on your favorite podcast service or follow our webpage for direct downloads @ https://www.buzzsprout.com/2525088
If you are a member of Weapons Company or someone with a story about Weapons Company 2/4 in 2004, please come tell some stories with us - 20 mins or 20 hours! Help paint the canvas of an archival story for others to know what it was like. Contact us @ RamadiPodcast@gmail.com, or via the podcast website above.
All music used with permission by soundbay: https://www.youtube.com/@soundbay_RFM
Alright, man. Well, tell everybody who you are and what platoon you're with.
SPEAKER_01:Uh my name is uh Blake Pepper. I was with uh Mobile Assault Platoon uh number three.
SPEAKER_02:All right. What ranks were you at when we were over in Ramadi? I can't remember.
SPEAKER_01:Uh Lance Corporal.
SPEAKER_02:You were a Lance, that's right.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. I was uh one of the main uh machine gunners. Uh so I first half of the tour I was uh behind the 50 and then I switched over to the Mart 19.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like there was a lot of that, a lot of swapping back and forth between roles and everything. Did you stay in the gun the whole time?
SPEAKER_00:Yep, um the entire time. And with the same team too, or when you switched guns, did you end up getting a new team?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was with uh Sergeant Condi was actually my vehicle commander. Um I was on the 50. And then before he got blown up, I was somehow not on that gun. I was on Mark 19 in a uh in a different vehicle. So I don't know what kind of uh fate or whatever, or just swap swapping right uh you know vehicles. Yeah, I I I feel like I probably would have should have been in that same vehicle that that he got hit on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that is unusual, but uh sometimes that happened with us too. We would just reshuffle and be like, all right, man, just jump in the truck, who cares? I imagine that's what happened to you. But you guys are out all night that night, and so you may have just reshuffled in the morning on the way to Chow, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't know. I just yeah, just remember uh Captain Wyler wanted us to go on one last uh IED patrol before we went to before we went to breakfast. And that that's what it was. But yeah, that's right. You know, I didn't mean to get into the heavy stuff right away, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02:We just go wherever, bro. It doesn't matter to me. Yeah, so so you were in uh condi's truck initially. So who else was in that truck?
SPEAKER_01:Um see Ortiz, old Mexican dude was a driver. Yeah, uh, let's see, um Valenzuela, older guy.
SPEAKER_02:I forgot about Valenzuela.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um Corporal. My goodness. I'm blowing another uh Hispanic dude. Corporal. I think it's Vigil, yeah, Vigil. Oh yeah, yeah, Vigil was in that truck. Um and then I think it might have been Privatar. Okay. Yeah. Kind of goofy, goofy dude, but uh I think knacker might have been in that vehicle too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. So you were in were you guys in a high pack? That's a lot of dudes.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, yeah. We it it was called Old Yeller because it was it was yellow at a pedestal mount, and uh yeah, and it took it actually got a couple purple hearts too, because it took a couple of rounds in the uh vehicle itself, too. And somehow it kept up on it. It didn't it missed the engine block or something, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02:When did it be?
SPEAKER_01:I think most of the platoon oh go ahead.
SPEAKER_00:I was just gonna say, I think most of the platoons had a uh had a tan vehicle that ended up becoming a little bit more of a uh of a target and uh yeah got blown up several times.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it might not be true, but I think uh I don't know if uh somebody might have accidentally hit it with a round like friendly fire, but I'm not gonna name any names just for you know may or may not may or may not have been an officer. I don't know. Like I said, not naming any names.
SPEAKER_02:That sounds about right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh but yeah, I remember like uh starting out in Kuwait and uh like uh taking all our vehicles in that huge convoy. I'm sure you guys did with your platoon too. Um, yeah, I was the lead vehicle with our platoon commander, Gunny. I think it is Crutch Vehicle.
SPEAKER_02:Crutcher, yeah, Gunny Crutcher.
SPEAKER_01:Crutcher, yeah, I knew, yeah. And so like I was literally like just remember, just on the open highway with like 100 something vehicles, just chilling out, being the lead vehicle, the lead gunner. I had like all this like open view and stuff like that. I was like, wow, this is this is nuts. Yeah, that wasn't a long crazy drive up. Oh, yeah, it was. My gosh, we had to we stopped halfway and like slept like outside or wherever we could, and then you know, got going again.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what was the name of that place that we stopped? I'm trying to remember.
SPEAKER_01:I have no idea. All I know is I saw the the lights on the side of the highway. We pulled in room enough for like all of our vehicles. I don't know how, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was it was set up as largely a private contractor resupply point, and they were coming into it was a lot of the big resupply trucks were not driven by military, they were driven by private contractors, even early in the war. And that was their resupply point where they stopped to get gas and food and all that. And so I I don't remember the name of that place, but it that was what that place was, and that was why they were so I don't know if you remember them at all, but they're all super friendly. They came out and like brought us all like like random pastries and shit. Like they were just super nice people, and trying to be like, hey, you guys are going to war here, take some pastries and lay it. Yeah, yeah, it was awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Probably they're used to the the guys that came through the year before.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. All right, so you drove up with Gunny Crutcher and then and then we got to Ramadi, obviously. And then did you immediately uh you just stayed with the high back the whole time, or did you get reshuffled around a bit?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I stayed with that high back, and then they finally gave us, you know, we're uh what was it probably like May or so? Um that they we started uh like welding the the armor the the plates to make it a little bit higher. IG armor, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um so when you initially took the highback up, you didn't have any armor plates on the side?
SPEAKER_01:No, not at all.
SPEAKER_02:You guys were driving with a with a raw highback. There was a few of those that were just raw highbacks. Did you guys not have those? So we had armor plates. We had gotten a set of plates in Kuwait, and there was there were two different working parties that happened. One in Kuwait where we bolted on some armor that we got from the National Guard. And that was where we got the plates for our high back that uh that we took. And then there was the second working party. I I don't remember when it was. April, May, whatever it was, and we went and uh a whole big group of us, like 15 people, went over to Junction City and Gutty Maraki traded some MREs for a plasma cutter and a welder, and we welded all that shit on.
SPEAKER_01:I I do remember staying one night at yeah at a welding shop, but I don't remember if that was beforehand. Yeah, maybe we did along the railings. That might have been it along the railings, and then like later on after all all the IEDs and stuff, uh, we took a bunch of casualties after the 6th April, and then even maybe before uh Savage got hit. I don't know if we started welding even higher like pieces.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I don't we we had started uh the the company. I don't know about you, so I won't speak for for you guys, but I know we had started putting on armor in April because it was a c it was a couple weeks before Savage got hit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I couldn't remember if I I'd have to even look back at my photos to maybe even like compare. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, so I have a picture of your high back uh with Latham, Muniz, Cox, and Mackenzie standing out in front of it, and there is no armor on it. And so I didn't really think about that, but now that you say it, like there it's like there's somebody in the back that's pulling like a pack off of the the truck, and it has no armor on it. It's just the stake bed. And so that's that's pretty fucking crazy, actually, considering what we ran up against.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no kidding. And well, and I I found oh go ahead. No, you're good. You're a man. I was just gonna say that uh I had found a letter that I had written home recently and actually talking about this armor. There was a there was a dump off depot at Camp Victory that people that were convoying back down would dump their gear. And uh for much I I was talking to a guy at the Chaw Hall apparently, and it would have and he said that the rest of their convoy was gonna come in at like either like 2100 or 2200, and they were gonna go immediately to the dump off. And so Aponte and I like hit hit off into the back until they rolled in, dumped all their gear, and then drove up with the truck and like was able to grab like a ton of armor and brought it back. Otherwise, we would have droven up with almost nothing. Yeah, yeah. Like we were able to grab like something like I think it's like nine new tires and a bunch of armor, and it's wild to think about us driving like leaving the as we did with as little gear as we did.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And I wish I would have taken more photos during that like that crazy week in April, um, just for like you know, historical, but like I felt like I that wasn't the right time. Like, there's so I I still remember a lot of things I could have taken pictures of. Like Did you have a camera? Yeah, I had a camera. Like, I I got a bunch of the I don't I don't know if you have you seen the photo of uh Sergeant Condy and like our platoon. We were at the government center that I took. Um they're holding up like IEDs and stuff, they're all like smiling, and I was like, Hey, it's the IED. Well, I haven't been there and I wanted to go, but in in Quantico, there's a building called Condi Hall. Uh and his dad like told me about it. Well, yeah, that picture is is in like with a bunch of his other stuff.
SPEAKER_03:That's cool.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, holy cow, like I realized I I took that photo, but it was kind of weird and ironic that we took that photo, and you know, sure, sure. That's what that's what gets them. But um, yeah, just and then another thing, like like I said, like I kind of wish I had I took more pictures because then maybe I could have like, you know, I can still remember it, but maybe you know, later on the road down if we don't remember stuff, you know. But I still got a lot of photos. But like after we we were taking all the brass out, like I I could have taken a picture of how much how many like spent rounds of 50 cal and ammo boxes in the back of my OV. I'm like, oh my, like that would have been nuts. I just remember like cleaning that up with a couple of the guys and like how bad that hurt my ears. Like it was so bad. Like just the the ringing and the tinging. Oh man, I can I can still to this day like just think how piercing that felt. That that really sucked. But uh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you guys were very busy, obviously. Uh the first battle of Ramadi, April 6th and 7th, and 10th, were what that was the main three days. Some things happened on the 8th and 9th, but not much.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh, you want to talk a little about the April 6th?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man, we can get into it. Um yeah, you I can kind of tell you like where I kind of like from map three's perspective.
SPEAKER_02:I'd love to hear your perspective. The uh the official account, golf company went out midday and got ambushed off of easy street in the south side of the city. And uh golf sent out a QRF of their own, but they got ambushed on the way to reinforce and it did not work out. And so you guys were the next out of the gate. And you ended up uh not quite making it all the way to golf before you were ambushed. And then the rest is that's the that's my stage setting for you. Everything else is all right.
SPEAKER_01:Here it goes. Um, so I kind of was playing through this in my head earlier just so I can like maybe try to remember some like the points. So obviously from my perspective, like I didn't I couldn't see like every single like you know part of my uh platoon at certain points down that down the street.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, there's no way.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like we our platoon was QRF that day, and yeah, we got the call that uh golf was was in contact, so we we immediately booked it out. And uh don't remember what street we are on, but we went and picked up uh Lance Corporal Letterman, who had got shot 76-2 right to the gut. Um he actually that uh later on uh I had his uh his flak jacket with the two uh magazines that had like the round went through both magazines.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And just seeing that was just like you know crazy after all that. But um, so we picked him up. We were kind of like in a staging point uh at like a T intersection. My vehicle was like not all the way up to that that intersection.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, but then I was just manning the gun, everybody was dismounted. We started taking some some rounds. They're just kind of you know pop shots coming down the um the road. And so I went and uh talked to be like, hey, it was Sergeant Lachard. Uh he was my uh section leader, yeah. Um like strong, tiny, short little, strong little uh black French guy. He he was wild. And so I'm like, hey Sarge, like they're shooting at us. What you know what what do you want me to do? He was like, well, shoot back. All right. I cracked, I cranked that 50 back and I just let a few birds, let a couple of burst down, and like a couple other guys that were up there, you know, took a couple shots too. And uh that was my first, like the feeling of that was just like I wasn't nervous, I wasn't scared. I had the butter, I had butterflies in my stomach because I was so excited. And I sometimes I tell I told like some regular people that they're like, Are you insane? I was like, No, we were just trained. That's that's how good our training was. Like, I wasn't scared. I knew the guys right next to me would do the same thing. Yeah, so they had my back. So we got uh they actually loaded up uh Letterman in my vehicle. Uh so he's just laying, laying right there. I don't know what kind of aid that he got. They bandaged him up. Um, he was still conscious. He was conscious for the majority of the time. Yeah, he didn't he never lost lost conscious. Um so then we we uh loaded up, and that's I think that's when we got the call about the other um golf platoon in contact down easy street. And uh I'm glad you actually said that because I was trying to remember the name of that street, but because I know it was off Route Michigan just past the Saddam Mosque. So yeah, we rolled down Easy Street. We're going pretty kind of slow because we were like trying to look out for, you know, trying to find the guys. All of a sudden, about halfway going down that road, there's like a little median, probably I don't know, a couple feet wide. Um, all of a sudden, from the other side of the road, out pops this like I guess you want to call him Iraqi dude had had an AK, swung around, he was aiming it right at me, and he was he was shooting. But the dude's like he sucked, obviously, because he was hitting the median, like all of his rounds were hitting like halfway across the road. I'm like, so like it was like not even a split second. I told uh two guys that were sitting off to my left. I'm like, all right, get down, duck. It's like because I'll start swinging that 50 cal barrel over to the left. Yeah, so our convoy stops about that same time. So we had about three or four heavy guns literally aimed right at this one guy, and so we started engaging, and then all of a sudden, I see like I think one or two vehicles behind me. Uh Lance Corporal uh Matthew Brown, uh uh rest his soul. Dude hits hits the guy right in the chest with the Martin 19 round. And I'm like, man, that was my guy. I was like, he shot at me first, but I'm just glad we we just blew that sucker away. It was and I don't know if there was any more that came out at the same time as him, but that's all I remember seeing is just one guy with an AK. Like so I don't know if he was like the initial start of the their little the uh their little ambush. Yeah, so we blew him away and then we just kind of kept rolling.
SPEAKER_02:Probably never wonder what you have to wonder what he was thinking. If he told his buddies, like, I'm gonna go out there and shoot, you guys follow me, and nobody followed him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he just got stranded. Unless there might have been, but like from my vision, like that tunnel vision, that's the only guy you can see, yeah. Yeah. Um, because I was just so baffled that the dude sucked that bad at like shooting. I was like, he must, yeah. But anyway, uh so then we we continued on and we got to like the end of that street. I don't I don't remember what the name of like the next street is, but before we got there, there was a couple of um uh almost like half-length like palm trees like blocking the road.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So right then and there we knew there was something up. So like that was them like setting up their little ambush for whoever. I believe we we uh we got to the end and I think we started taking more contact. Um so then I think we started moving back down that road where we came from. And then at that point, I think uh at uh golf company finally from the side of the road we are on, uh finally like look linked up with us. And um that's when this is kind of where it gets like kind of cloudy because of like stuff was happening so much, like so quick, and it's like there was just stuff happening everywhere.
SPEAKER_02:True definition of the fog of war, man.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh yeah. I do remember like for a little bit before I think we moved down, my vehicle was the far vehicle like holding security down. And I remember like rounds coming down the road, like pinging almost like ricocheting off the road. And the only thing I kind of did, I was standing up tall in the gun. All I kind of did was like kind of shrug my shoulders like down just a little bit. Yeah, just so I didn't, you know, maybe in case a round started coming up, I didn't really yeah, a little smaller target. Yeah, just a little bit. That was probably the only time I in my head was like, all right, I'm just gonna be a little cautious. And so so at some point we we ended up back in the middle of the of Easy Street, and then uh we had Humvees and guns basically like you know all over the place. So everyone dismounted, like the guys that um in our platoon that weren't either the driver or the gunner, everybody dismounted and uh they started like going into houses. This this is kind of where like my perspective, like I don't know exactly what happened, you know, like uh McKenzie, uh uh Condi and all like their teams, they kind of went in. I know they engaged a few people. Um that's that's about the time when uh Sergeant Condi got shot through the shoulder.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um during all that, my vehicle was staged kind of in the middle. Uh golf company brought like some of their casualties. Um it was uh uh PFC halal who who had gotten shot. I I was just standing in the Humvee when they kind of brought him up and they they loaded him up into my Humvee. So I'm still like manning the gun while he's you know, they they got his body like sitting literally right there next to my feet. And like, you know, to this day I'm I I won't tell anybody like what I saw. It was just, you know, I didn't know who it was until I got back to we we dropped all the casualties off at Charlie Med. And like I then I found out who it was, and um I was like, man, I I went to SOI with him and uh you know had some conversations and you know and stuff with him. He was he was a really good guy. Um but uh that's crazy, man. And so so after we picked him up, the craziest thing, uh there was I was just like still manning the gun, you know, and trying to engage like you know, if there's any uh any enemy coming around. But but for the most part, I was just like holding security down because I'm I'm they're bringing out more casualties, guys that um got shot, or like one uh one guy blocked a grenade, like basically from blowing up his face, and so he had his hand bandaged up. Um but before that happened, I do remember like a loud screeching, like a loud, but anyway, there was basically uh an RPG like went right over my head, and I wasn't sure how close. I kind of like looked, but it was like a palm tree or something, so I couldn't really see where it was coming from. Yeah, I hear this loud like sound, and so I freaking like ducked, I wasn't sure where, and then all of a sudden it goes and explodes, like hits a building, like right on the other side, and I'm just like, oh crap, and uh yeah, but so for some evidence later on that deployment, we went down easy street. I had to take a picture of uh the impact site, yeah. And I'm just and I wasn't sure how how much higher above it was from my head, but I was like, man, I gotta get evidence of that. That was that was crazy. But um, so then we loaded up some more casualties, I think from golf company. I think I still remember their names. Uh another guy named Ortiz had his hand bandaged up. Let's see. My gosh, no, I'm Jonah.
SPEAKER_02:The fact that you can remember their names at all is impressive to me. Yeah. Were these all guys that you went to infantry school with?
SPEAKER_01:No, no. No, they just they just happened to be loaded up in my home V. Um, and actually uh uh Gentilly, uh guy from golf company. Yes, um, he's the one who got shot in the jaw.
SPEAKER_02:I I know him very well, yeah, and know his story well.
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, and uh so I helped him up. It was somebody else that kind of helped him up. Yeah, I'm just like sitting here seeing like dude literally like has a hole in his jaw, and he's just sitting there like just spitting blood out and stuff. And I'm just like this the whole rest of the time we're there. I'm just like you know, trying to give him like words of encouragement, like, hey that man, stay with me, you know, you're good. Like, let's uh you know, some of us though I I can't even really like remember, just kind of just trying to be positive anything while I'm yeah, while I'm sitting there behind the gun. And uh yeah, it's just so we after we loaded all of them up, we we didn't stay long. Thankfully, we had a couple of uh escorts though.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna I was gonna ask you and actually kind of pin you down there for a minute. How long do you think you were out there while they were loading everybody up? Oh man, it's hard to tell because I know it feels like it feels like 10 years and 10 minutes at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:I know. I've probably at least 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. If not that's not too bad, especially when you got somebody bleeding.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, and I'll like to backtrack a little bit. I think just before they loaded those casualties up, I this is the one thing I remember I will never like ever forget. Like after um after Condi got shot in the shoulder, Doc Dialka was in the vehicle right in front of me, um, in the back, bandaging him up. Uh, I don't remember whose Humvee he he was in, but it was close enough for me to see and me to hear that he was like, hurry up, Doc, I gotta get back out there. And I'm like, that's that's just the type of person that Condi was. Like, dude was like, I gotta get back out there. Like, my boys need me. And then I think there was he was quoted saying like uh something like the guy the the enemy was was laughing at him because the they shot him. And uh he was like, Yeah, that they're not gonna they're not gonna get the better of me or or something to that effect. And I'm like, yeah, that's that's exactly who who Condi was.
SPEAKER_02:Very much a lead from the front, Sergeant, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. Like for him to take a bunch of us, you know, boots, like and and train us just like we we had been you know with him for the last two plus years, and like still give us a you know a little bit of respect, but yet you know put us in our place. Um, you know, that that definitely uh helped out the the cohesiveness of of our platoon because you know we didn't have a lieutenant, you know, we didn't have like like everybody else. So we were kind of like a misfit platoon. And uh him and like those three, you know, those three sergeants kind of like really held us together.
SPEAKER_02:Um yeah, it was an interesting chain of command structure that a lot and there was you and Sledgehammer did not have a lieutenant. You guys had Gunny Crutcher as your platoon commander, and you had Staff Sergeant Rapazzo as your platoon sergeant, and then Sergeant Williams, Sergeant Condy, and Sergeant Lasarge were your was your chain of command. I mean, that's those are people holding very high billets for for the experience and ranks that they were.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02:And how many trucks were you running? Do you remember? Was it four or five?
SPEAKER_01:Um, I believe five. Yeah, we had we had a five. We had, I think, three fifties and two marks, I believe. And so, yeah, and I'm so I remember uh so the last guy was uh Corporal Hayes from uh golf company, who I guess, yeah, he was up. I think he just got like shot in the wrist or the hand or something like that. But anyway, the the Army Bradleys showed up, and uh, you know, I don't know the communication between them and us. It somehow they escorted uh us because we had five casualties and we went all the way to Charlie Med. But I think the rest of the platoon and golf company like basically finished uh that little fight with shortly after because they they they weren't behind us for too, you know, too much too long. And I don't I wasn't even thinking of like, oh man, we just left like the rest of our platoon behind. I was too busy like with all these casualties in my Humvee to even like really think about that.
SPEAKER_02:Right. So the Bradleys escorted you back to uh Junction City?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah, then we we got them got them unloaded at uh Charlie Med, and then we pretty much just I think it was just myself and uh Ortiz, like my driver, we just kind of waited around probably not even like 30 minutes later, and everyone else showed back, showed up there.
SPEAKER_02:No, it's good.
SPEAKER_01:And none of our guys, I mean, yeah, uh you know, other than Connie getting shot, I don't think any of our other guys likely had a scratch on us, which is just nuts.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I I remember a few guys taking some shrapnel and stuff like that, but nothing. I don't remember any. They were all walking wounded, if anything. Nobody was seriously injured.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. You know, our company, like everybody else, like did have like a lot of like minor scratches and stuff like that, but like I still don't know how like I made it out without a scratch, just being so exposed, like up in the turret and and just in the high back like that, too.
SPEAKER_02:Especially, yeah, yeah, yeah, wide open. And so you made it the whole deployment without uh without being wounded.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, I don't have an enemy marksmanship badge.
SPEAKER_02:Uh-huh. No uh no purple heart for you. Well, that's it's it's interesting who got one and how, and a lot of people, it's random. Some people got two, three, you know, earned or earned four, and only what got one. And uh a lot of a lot of interesting stories surrounding surrounding that as well. It's it's interesting that you did not get one as well, especially being in the high back and being a gunner. So then you went, you guys were done on the sixth, you went back to Hurricane Point after rallying at Charlie Med, and then what'd you do overnight? Clean up the trucks and retool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, pretty much just refilled everything up and then you know went back out there.
SPEAKER_02:Um I was gonna say then the seventh was was just as busy.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah. Um, I don't remember as much from the seventh, but I do remember the biggest thing about the seventh is like we went back out and linked up with golf company again because they went back out in that same neighborhood.
SPEAKER_02:It was similar. Uh You guys were a little further down. You were closer. This, and this is from the official accounts. You tell me if I'm wrong. This is just from the official. I wrote things down so that way I wouldn't forget it. Uh the seventh, the XO actually joined your platoon, uh, Lieutenant Wells, and you guys all went out. Uh, you were the first out again, and you guys went and linked up with golf uh near the soccer fields in the south of the city. The fields, not the stadium. The stadium was further out by combat outposts, but there was a huge bunch of uh I don't, I don't know, just fields by themselves that had soccer goalposts.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yep. And just like I said, it's a little the the leading up to it, I don't quite remember, but I do remember like the coolest part of um I guess you want to call it cool, but uh was we actually were able to we right there right alongside golf company, I don't remember what platoon or whatever, but uh they were just kind of bounding from from street to street. And the coolest thing that what we did on our home bees is we were kind of like going back and forth. One of us would like cover the road, uh cover the street with our gun, and then we'd almost like the next one would cover, and then we would we would basically were covering the uh the 11s as they bounded down the street, and just to kind of work in like connection with them, it was just an amazing process, just going down this whole street. And I mean, if somebody was taking pops at us, I just it was I was just just sitting up there behind the 50 and just like letting a burst or two down the road and like seeing these uh 0311s, just like, oh man, get some. And uh, I was like, Yeah, gotcha.
SPEAKER_02:I think your first words are right. That's pretty fucking cool. Uh that that's the way vehicle combat's supposed to be. We didn't get to practice that all the time. Oftentimes you end up being a modified gun position or an O311 yourself, but that's that's pretty fucking cool. I didn't get to experience that, so I'm jealous.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was amazing. Like, I just remember like me and the other gunners and the and the drivers, we had it was like we were such in sync that it was almost natural. Um, like we were the gunners were hollering, like, hey, I got this one, you know, you get the next one, or whatever the communication was, like, yeah, it just seemed like it was just like awesome. And that's the coolest part of about and then I think we were bounding going back towards combat outpost, and then the last thing I remember, I was like the very last vehicle in the convoy down Michigan. So what I had to do, I had to like turn my gun all the way to the rear. I had to sit almost like on a little bar on the roof.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say you're sitting on the roof. Yeah, yeah. That's some true cowboy shit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my roof behind me and ground. I'm just like, I was like, yeah, hey, that was that was pretty cool until like we all got to yeah, combat outposts, and then I guess we chilled there for a little bit and then went back. But yeah, other than that, I don't remember a whole lot about um the seventh. Like, that's yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I love that you brought up that. Uh, I completely had forgotten about that every once in a while when you're in the thick of it, having like almost a telepathic link with everybody else that you're fighting with. I got to experience that uh myself too. Of that, and it's just one of the coolest experiences. Like where you again, you're not on the comms, but you just kind of almost like you know where everybody's at.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it was me, uh uh Lance Corporal Kelly, Brown, uh Gordon. And uh yeah, it wasn't I think that was another one. But uh yeah, we just crazy. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome. Now, if I remember correctly, and I I could be wrong, you'll have to remind me. I think so. There was a small cordon search uh on April 8th. It was called Operation County Fair, is what we called it. And I don't think your platoon went out. I think they actually had you guys stay back for that one. And I think we did some outer stuff, and the 81s did the actual search, and you know, we found some weapons, we found some guys, but not nothing. And we found uh one of the field hospitals where there was lots and lots of wounded, but outside of that, we didn't find much else. And then on the 10th was the first big what we called a bug hunt, and that was when uh I know you guys were out there for that one because literally everybody in the whole battalion was out for that one.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. We were out by uh, I think Nova, um, I believe we remember who was with us. The XO might have been, I'm pretty sure he was with us too. But um biggest thing I remember going out there is we were in the palm groves. There was this house um out there, and all of a sudden we took a couple of the RPG shots, and but they're from high up. And yeah, they're I guess these two guys were like up in the palm trees and they just like shot a couple RPGs down at us. Uh I guess they didn't impact any, like they didn't hit us directly. Um, but then all of a sudden we dismounted, and uh I don't remember what squad it was, um, but they went towards the this house, and all of a sudden, they from what I remember is they them come back from the house off to my left. I don't remember who else was with them. All I remember is uh seeing Cummings. Uh when Cummings uh turned and he was running back is when um all of a sudden a guy from the far end of the house like opened up on him and Cummins took a round to the uh just under his sappy plate on his side, like it went actually it punctured his lung.
SPEAKER_02:I remember that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the split second, like he hit the deck. Oh my gosh, I unloaded my entire freaking can like in that vicinity of that house, and I could tell you like how fast like I ripped that box open, threw another one in there, and I did that. I went through three cans of ammo of 100 rounds of 50 cal in probably less than five minutes. I probably it might have been less than that. Like I was just so pissed. Like I seen him, I seen them fall, and I'm like, oh I start, yeah, I just started laying into that that house, and um, I don't remember what other vehicles because uh the ones that were farther off to the left, I don't they couldn't engage. Um, but I know it was me and at least um Mark uh one other Mark 19 that was like shooting at the house. Um so the the suppressive fire that I laid down was able to they were able to pick them up and you know carry them to the Humvees. And then as soon as we loaded them up, like we we booked it to uh Charlie Med. Well um I think it was Doc Dialko. Yeah, yeah, it was because he made a comment uh about Cummins, I guess, when he was like patching them up. He was like, Oh god, man, you stink. I don't know whether like the the sweat or whatever, but like that's all I can remember him saying, like in a joking like manner. I'm like, dude, like to because I wasn't in the vehicle, he didn't he didn't put Cummins in like my vehicle, but uh yeah, back at Charlie Med. He was like, Man, dude, stunk.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, he had been fighting for three or four days straight, so you know, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Washing machines wasn't exactly uh, you know, priority that week. So from what I remember, we brought him to Charlie Med. I think they airlifted him because they sent him, he went, he was gone for about a month.
SPEAKER_02:That's what I remember. I remember him being gone for a month.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he was gone for a month, so they had to have airlifted him to like Baghdad or something. I don't know. That's the only thing about like being like a lowly little Lance Corporal. I didn't get to I wasn't privy to like all the you know the communication and all that type of stuff that that I it would have been kind of neat to like that'd be that would be the kind of reunion that I would like to have is with like if most of like the higher ups there, we all kind of like get together and like I don't know, just knowing all that type of information would be kind of neat.
SPEAKER_02:But if if we're lucky, that's the hope is that some of those guys will come on this and tell that side of it. I mean, I can tell you from a sergeant's perspective, and I was often in the battalion headquarters and interfacing with the intel people and stuff like that, but I can't tell you their level, I can't tell you a captain's level or a major's level of of what was actually going on. I don't know. But that's actually a a really good point in that you never had access to a radio. Uh, so you probably didn't hear all the things that were being called in, like the army showed up. You don't know how they showed up, right? You linked up with golf company. I don't know how we linked up with golf company, but we did.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Did did it seem disorienting, or did you just focus on your mission as a gunner?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I think for the most part, I think that's all I could focus on was my job in my sector of, you know, just what I can control. We were fully trained, but I was still only 19 years old. I didn't, you know, that's all I that's all I knew. And so just based on instincts, the past couple days, that definitely hardened us and like got our minds and our you know, our thought process like changed, obviously. And so I think we were more aware like after that first that first contact, like our heads were definitely on more of a swivel for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, every day you went out after that, I'm sure you prepared for those same kind of fights, whether that was what you did or not.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. But any other uh uh I mean we've talked about the the big ones of the uh early April, but do any of the other missions stick out to you that you were a part of? Any of the other bug hunts or any of the hits that we did or um yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:We were farther down in the palm groves on the outskirts of town, like way past combat outpost, okay. When they had the the cobras showed up.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And I think we had some vehicles that like actually got stuck out there.
SPEAKER_02:Was it the only actual time that we had close air support with Cobras was on April 10th.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Uh the only other time that air support was called in and tried to arrive was far later, and you wouldn't have seen them because the pilot got shot by small arms fire and they returned to Taco. Yeah, they they never made it. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So okay, so then when Cummins got hit, like I'm that might have been at the tail end of all that. I I I'm hoping that that was the same day.
SPEAKER_02:It's all good, man. Still the story was correct, whether you got the day right or not.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, definitely a story, but like, because I'm thinking now is when we are, I don't know if it was Echo Company we went to go help, but we were way out like in this the marsh field, like in between the palm groves. And I I remember, oh my gosh, I remember uh first Sergeant Mac was out there with a freaking shotgun. And uh man, uh we at some point we were like coming back, and all of a sudden, like somehow in this tall brush, there was like a sniper. The only reason I know that because um there was a couple of impact rounds like on the side of my Hum V, almost almost kind of where I'm like was would have been standing behind the gun. And also there was a uh impact round near the on the driver's door. So like the dude was like within range, and so we kind of um I think it was me and two other vehicles, we were coming back when we we had this sniper was like shooting at us. I just remember we kind of turned our guns to this open field and we weren't quite sure what where it was at, but we started shooting that direction, and then I think once there was no more rounds, like we weren't getting any contact, we went that direction with the Humvees, you know, some on foot, and then we eventually found the the dude and we got his sniper rifle. I have a picture of me holding that sniper rifle up. Wow. Um, and so that was that was pretty cool too. And in the middle, like I said, we're in the middle of us like patrolling, somehow first sergeant Mac was like by a tree. I remember him, like we were driving kind of slowly driving past him. He's sitting there with his shotgun. I'm like, what's up, first sergeant? Yeah, I was like, this dude's badass, like just out there, you know. Well, that was yeah, that was pretty neat seeing him out there and pretty sure Gunny Maroc was. I don't know how like headquarters, like their platoon or whatever was out there with us. Yeah, maybe maybe they're like along with uh Captain Wiler.
SPEAKER_02:They randomly attached out and usually they spread themselves out, they usually didn't all stay in one big cluster. So, like uh the CO would be with one platoon, the XO with a different platoon, and and kind of doing different things, or if all of them were out, and often it wasn't even all of them are out, they all had different different roles and jobs. But yeah, uh on the sixth, the seventh, the tenth, especially, and all the other big ops, they all went out with different platoons.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, just that's why that's the only thing I couldn't remember if that happened before we were coming back down route Nova, or if that would have been like the certain day. I'd have to, you know, I'd have to maybe talk to some of the other guys that would sure.
SPEAKER_02:If you remember cobras, again, the only time we had cobras on station was the 10th.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I remember being I remember like watching the cobras and hearing them, and I was like, Yeah, get some because they were like, Yeah, was that was cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what was interesting is they were firing and not firing at any actual targets. Uh they were hitting uh nothing on the side of the river, uh, because they were ordered not to fire in the city.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, still scared the crap out of the enemy, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but it scared me.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, I definitely like, oh I was just glad they showed up because that was uh yeah, that was pretty neat.
SPEAKER_03:Good job force. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um uh yeah, Muster, you act asked about um some other dates. Um, I mean, I go into more detail about like probably a couple more other you remember, whatever you want to go through.
SPEAKER_00:Anything that pops out or you know, anything weird, funny, strange, any ghosts.
SPEAKER_01:Um now the funny stuff really didn't happen until like we were you know about to about to leave, but uh it's just goofing around and stuff like that. But uh oh yeah, no, the coolest, like another one of the actual the coolest stories was I believe it was July the 29th. We were escorting General Mattis uh through the city from I think he was at Hurricane Point. I'm sure he probably started at Blue Diamond, and then somehow we escorted uh him. But also the coolest thing about that, well, we had battalion headquarters, so Sergeant Major Booker was was there because I have uh I got video because Oliver Oliver North's camera crew was riding with our our platoon. Yeah, yeah. I had a camera guy literally like sitting in the seat right below me. So we had this big long convoy. This by the time this is the time where I was in a different home V, they actually gave us like those up armor home V's uh by this time. Uh I think I was in a green one.
SPEAKER_02:You finally got an upgrade.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no kidding, which kind of sucked. We they actually gave us those like soon after uh Sergeant Connie got hit. Of course. Which yeah, which if he was riding in one of these ones, yeah, it probably wouldn't have wouldn't hit him. But uh we're just a little too late. Yeah, so we were driving, we left Hurricane Point, and I just remember it was hot as crap that day. Like I could feel the heat like just hitting my face. I'm just standing up in the turret. And uh so my gun was kind of pointed maybe towards like two o'clock, because normally we just kind of you know alternate what direction that we're pointing. Um I was probably the middle of the convoy, and uh I see uh this Iraqi taxi, orange and white car, sitting off on the side of the road. It was kind of in a weird spot, so that's kind of it kind of triggered like in my head, like this looks a little weird. And so as I'm I'm watching it, it was probably about uh 50 yards at least, and I'm we're slowly catching up to it. And as I'm I'm watching the whole thing, I'm I'm keeping my eyes on it. Soon as it leaves my vision, probably like half a second later, like the sucker detonates, and yeah, like huge explosion, like right in between my vehicle and the the next one behind us. Thank god, like it it missed. And uh what I can remember is on video, like I all I can say is like it I was yelling out, it missed, it missed, F you, you didn't get us. Yeah, I was just like so pissed at that time. Literally, all you can see is like the explode, like my leg, and you can like you know see it kind of like rocking a little bit, and then after that, like uh Sergeant Lachard's on the radio, like saying to whoever, like, yeah, it missed us. Um, we all we stopped the convoy. I think we kind of just I don't know if the whole convoy stopped. I believe so, maybe for a little bit. I would have hoped so. Made sure like you know, both vehicles were good, and then we kept going. And so, yeah, that was the loudest thing I've ever heard. Like, it was it was so stinking loud. Uh, it was just I don't know what they had in that thing, but it was yeah, it was a loud boom.
SPEAKER_02:I think I remember seeing that. That was on uh Colonel North's War Stories show, right? There, there was the video, and it's Lachard. All that all you see is a dust cloud, and Lachard's on the radio, and he's like, VB ID, VB ID, it missed, and he like throws the radio. He's like, damn, you look so mad.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was okay. So yeah, Oliver North, like he put that video out, and then my parents actually played that video. Well, because they they had to bleep out, like, you know, some stuff. My parents played that video at our church. Like, this is what my son's doing in Iraq. He's on Oliver North. Like, I was like, Oh, that's kind of you can see this is just his leg, but you know, I was like, that's but it was it was crazy. But uh, okay, so then the convoy kept going, and then once we got to Saddam Mosque, like that's when like all hell broke loose again. Like they started open them up. I was on the left side, I was kind of near the the the back of it of the convoy at that point, but we were engaging like a couple of some buildings just before you got onto easy street. Yeah, like it was really it was probably like a three or four-story uh building.
SPEAKER_02:That was the the library, I think. It was that was uh library op, but they you guys end up shooting through, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and uh so at that point I was on the Mark 19 during that, and uh I started uh hitting that building with a bunch of Mark 19 rounds. Uh I and I have also on the on the far right side we had a couple vehicles that were kind of coming over on the the right flank a little bit, suppressing it. And uh I got video footage of um Latham videotaping himself while he's driving with Cummins up on the 50 cal, shooting at that building. And then Latham is literally saying, Cummins is back in the shit, Cummins is back in the shit. Like he's getting some he's like, Yeah, I was like, that's it was it was hilarious. Yeah, so I was I was back there in the battalion headquarters vehicle was like right in front of me. I'm in the I'm in the turret. All of a sudden I see Sergeant Major Booker pop his head up in the turret, and like I don't know if he's got his his sniper rifle or not, but like his M14. Yeah, but uh yeah, like Battalion Sergeant Major's just sitting there like up in the turret, just like, all right, I'm gonna get me some more. It was just great. And had a couple of like little pogues that were kind of like hiding behind the Hum V or whatever, must have been the driver or the RTO or whatever. All right, I guess like as we were engaging, uh at that point the we kind of kept the convoy like rolling, and I was like the second to last vehicle, and all of a sudden, like in the middle of the the media, the the road, I kind of look over my right shoulder a little bit, and I see like a pile of like some gas cans. I don't know how nobody else saw these, but I saw some gas cans in the in the middle of the road. And I asked Sergeant Lachard, I'm like, hey, can I shoot those? And like all of a sudden he was like, I don't know if we took like some binoculars and looked, we couldn't see, but like he got the clean he got the clearance for me to to to shoot. We just had to move one vehicle out of the way. So the convoy was going like let's say east. Well, I was the the it was met back more towards the west, so I kind of was facing the other direction. And I didn't know this, but Oliver North's camera crew, like yeah, he was down there, he video he like I guess he videotaped it, and um so my first burst like was a little high, and then like the second to last round of my next burst, like I could see it flying through the air, and all of a sudden it hit it, and that loud that humongous um just fireball came from it. I was just like, holy crap, I could it was probably about maybe 40 yards from me or so. I I could like I could feel a little bit of the heat from it. So I don't know if you like still had the have you ever seen that the disc that they sent us of the 2-4 of that deployment.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but yeah, I don't know where I have it, but I have it somewhere.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that little that big fireball, like yeah, that very just briefly shows that's yeah, that was me like shooting that sucker.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome. And I I didn't even know what I just took a hunch and just like what the heck, you know, are these gas cans sitting here for? And and so I was like, hey, let me shoot it. So yeah, just another one of those, like I'm kind of curious or just an instinct type of thing. But um, yeah. So then after that, we ended up the whole convoy went back to a combat outpost, and uh I got a picture of map three and General Mattis. So that's yeah, pretty sweet.
SPEAKER_02:That's super awesome. Yeah, cool, man. We were talking about there were some funny things towards the end of the deployment. I'd love to hear some of those too. I remember playing uh we played dodgeball outside you guys hooch and stuff. Like I remember that shit was hilarious. I remember a lot of funny map three.
SPEAKER_01:I got a video of you wearing a mask and what's uh I forgot it starts with an M.
SPEAKER_02:Matroca?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Matroca. And he says on there, oh, they're scared of fucking mask man, and you're sitting here like your skinny ass was like throwing a dodgeball. Yeah, yeah. Uh let's see. I mean, I just remember, yeah, I was uh it was great playing volleyball and horseshoes and stuff, like on some downtime.
SPEAKER_02:But uh oh yeah, I forgot about the horseshoe set. That's right. You guys had a horseshoe pit like right in front of the hooch.
SPEAKER_01:Let's see. I don't remember what I have I have it dated on a photo. It's not funny, but um kind of it would be funny to us, you guys would um that the fact that how many of us idiots went outside when we heard mortars or rockets shooting off instead of instead of taking cover. Uh but you know, we're all like, well, it's the ones you can't hear, is the are the bad ones. So I mean and then were you there when rocket hit one of those comics boxes? Oh yeah, like set on fire.
SPEAKER_02:I was right next to it. We were getting on the trucks, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was uh right across the street from yeah, from our hooch, probably what, 50 feet, maybe not not far, right?
SPEAKER_02:Literally right across the road.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And uh, well, and then some other times before that, we're lucky that we put sandbags all along our back because we got it got peppered by a couple of rockets, like uh on the whole back side of our hooch.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I was just flipping through some pictures the other day, and most of the hooches have like huge shrapnel marks on them where we just there's always stuff hitting right next to it.
SPEAKER_00:I got a I got a great one where there's an impact just maybe 18 inches off the side of a wall between two of the hooch to between our hooch hooch and uh I guess it would have been the company office, but anyways, that would have sucked because that was also when we still had the uh the soft coat yeah, soft copper. Yeah, tight flap just straight in.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and I was thinking, like, even after they took those off, they put like uh what this so like thin metal roof. Oh, yeah, it was like a shed roof.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was nothing. That was not inflated shed roof.
SPEAKER_01:That was not gonna stop anything either. We were like, oh yeah, we're so much more protected. Maybe it like you know, it helped the if the air conditioning was working, you know, maybe it you know cooled up.
SPEAKER_02:Right, it kept it a little cooler.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was that was kind of funny. Um, I got some video of us like hitting golf balls across the the river.
SPEAKER_02:Oh like trying to hit I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_01:A couple guys like actually got it across over to Blue Diamond. Like I wasn't ever good at golf, but like, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I uh I remember I distinctly remember that sitting on the edge of the Euphrates and using I think it was like a one-wood or two wood to hit golf balls at blue at the at the division headquarters where all of the generals were hit the generals' offices with golf balls.
SPEAKER_01:Probably just the motor pool, but you know, yeah. That's awesome. See, I don't know. Maybe you can like I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_02:That's a pretty good one. I forgot about that. I think I remember remember Silton hitting the building. That's what I remember. He was a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of pretty good at. Yeah, he was he was good.
SPEAKER_00:Big dude was pretty good at hitting them golf balls. I remember we got some uh tasers at one point and uh started doing some uh experiments on uh on on what tasers can do. Nice. That's just training.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, that was ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00:If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story.