A Chiefs Logbook - Manuel Gonzales (part 1 of 2)

Manny Gonzalez talks about his third deployment in 4 years. This time to Ramadi as a combat replacement. He went from advising a Marine Corps video game to landing in Ramadi and learning the Mark 19 overnight. The story moves through shifting IED tactics, hard losses, small wins, and the leaders who kept him steady.

• combat casualty replacement orders 
• reflections as on the invasion as a mortarmen
• rapid shift to patrols, raids, overwatch and medevac
• evolving IED threats, pressure plates and trip beams
• arrival in Ramadi, early KIA and Fox wounded
• water tower blast, VBIED mass casualty and triage
• Mark 19 crash course with Ritchie and Coleman’s morale leadership
• door‑kicking failures, stealth OP exfil and restraint
• sniper ambush impact and rising tempo of attacks
• daily life notes, mortar fire on Hurricane Point 

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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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Cool, man. Well, let's tell everybody who you are.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

All right. Uh Manny Gonzalez. I was a corporal. I was assigned with Map Two, Hum V number five, with Staff Sergeant Coleman.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

That's very specific. Nice.

From Punished Gamer To Advisor

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yes. I was a combat casualty replacement. Yeah, man. And um we were part of the first 100 to get sent back. And um it's interesting how I found out I was going back to Iraq. I don't know if I told you this story before, but no, I had never heard of it. Robert Hampton and I were in Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their Marine Corps is making a video game called Close Quarter Combat First to Fight.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

I do remember that video game. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

So they sent, I believe, 12 Marines from uh the West Coast and 12 Marines from the East Coast to go sample this game and give us give our two cents. You know, the uniform, how you would enter a house, uh, you know, rush down the hallway, go upstairs, how you would exit a building, you know, how you would stack. Uh, they wanted us to give feedback on the way the uniform look. Is this the way we would put our magazines? Is this where we put our, you know, whatever it may be? Um, did the Eagle Globe and anchor look correct? Did our boots look like they're tied correctly? You know, the left over right, the the lacing. They wanted every little detail, every little feedback. So we were part of that team that went out there. And believe me when I tell you, I've always hated video games. I got sent there, I got sent there as a punishment. I got an argument with my lieutenant, and he took someone off and put me on there to go with these guys because he knew I hated video games. I tell you, that's too funny.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

That's that's awesome. That's a very Marine Corps punishment. That's fucking hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

I tell you, I was so mad and that I had to go. And uh, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I got an argument with a lieutenant, uh no, yeah, Lieutenant Colonel, because I didn't want I did not want to play the video game. And he's like, Come here, Marine, you need to play this game. I was like, it's not I'm not playing this stupid stuff, I'm not doing this. So he allowed me just to get a notepad and just take notes and just write how I would enter a room, how we go up the stairs, how we clear a hallway. Um, you know, I would look at their uniforms, I listen to the sound of all the grenades, the weapons that were being fired, and I just gave my feedback.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

What did you think of the game?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

I would done playing video games.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

I'm curious what what did you think of the game at the time? Just I mean, that's it's not related to that, but it's an interesting anecdote, man.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Well, uh, they let me play on God mode because I kept getting killed in the first five seconds of the game. Um I think if you are a gamer, you would enjoy it.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Uh I believe they made two versions, one a military version and two a civilian version.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Yeah, they did it.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

One with blood, one without blood.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

And uh when you actually when you get assigned to your team, you can actually see our faces and our names on the characters. Oh, yeah. If you actually type in close quarter combat first to fight, you can find Hampton. I think that's the only one I've been able to find is Hampton's name and face.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Okay, fine.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Uh, so you can still see that. Uh, our names were in the credits.

The Call To Return To Iraq

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Uh that's super awesome, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Uh, so well, we were there when I get a call from the exo, Lieutenant Dunkelberger, and he said, Hey, we got some bad news. There's uh there's been a lot of casualties in Iraq, and uh they're looking to send a hundred people back. And uh we're going back to replace wounded and killed Marines. And I asked if we can fly back that day so we can start preparing for that deployment. And he said, no, the Marine Corps ready to pay for you to stay there three more nights, and uh you're not leaving because it's already paid for, and your tickets are gonna get changed, so we had to stay there three more nights. Um, of course, now you're just going crazy, just thinking what's gonna happen next. Uh, we returned from Minnesota. We attended several briefings about the deployment. The command wanted us to know that the Marines were needed all over Iraq, including Najaf, Baghdad, the Syrian border, and Ramadi. They also stated that they did not know where any of our teams would be deployed to. That decision would be made when we got to Kuwait.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

The one thing they knew was there's going to be a four-man team, and your four-man team would not be separated.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Huh. You know, it sounds it's funny because when we talked to Fox, who is in kind of a similar uh situation, it seems like and and it may have been because he was fapped out and was coming off of a fab, that he didn't get very much information. Sounds like you got a lot more information than he did, which is probably probably a lot easier on you, at least.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Well, at the time, I was the FTC chief and acting section leader. So I had, you know, I talked to the exo and the the gunny all the time. So I think I'm able to get a little bit more information.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Uh now, Fox, that's a different story. He got fat out without me knowing, uh got mad at Fox. That's that's a different story, don't fapped out without yeah, he got an argument with the staff NCO, and next thing you know, he's gone. I was like, where the hell is Fox? He's gone. I was like, how the hell did he get out of here? I did not see that coming. Uh, but of course, just to throw it out there, this would be our third deployment in three years.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

You know, of course, we did the initial Mew, uh, 31st Mew to Okinawa, and then we did the initial evasion, and then heading to Ramadi. And I think each time was about between four to six months of rest and heading back. Yeah. Um, so but I will say this during the briefings, they did talk about um some of the uh firefights that took place, you know, specifically uh the IEDs, um, you know, adding more ammo to your um you know, LBV or your flag jacket, and specifically to wear goggles or glasses that were ballistic. Uh, we started getting information that people were losing their eyes.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Um, and that was that was probably the scariest thing I heard at the time. It's like, holy smokes, I never thought about that. Because I never wore glasses or goggles, anything. The entire time I was in the military, and that's when I finally decided to purchase my first pair of glasses, and they said make sure you're drippalistic. So I think I got some wall-y axis. Is that what they called?

unknown 8:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that's like so. That's what I did. And I went out and purchased more magazine pouches, uh, because I wasn't sure what we were going to get when we arrived to our destination. I had no idea where we were going, but I was making sure I had my own extra magazine pouches just in case I was wanting to carry more ammo.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

So and and this is this, so you were at you're up in Minnesota in like the end of March, early April. Is that right? Okay. Yes.

Briefs, Gear, And Goggles

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Yes. And I was just dying to get back so I could figure out, you know, what else can I find out about this deployment? And initially, the XO said I did not have to deploy because he wanted me to stay behind and help train all the new um, you know, boot drop. And we also received some new guys from security forces uh that were coming in. Um, so he said, no, no, I want you to stick around and help us train. Um, and initially I was like, I I don't know what's happening. Like, I haven't talked to my brother yet. I don't know what he's doing. If he's going, I'm going. And of course, you're telling him the same thing, and he's telling them the same thing. If he's going, I'm going. And yeah. Uh at the end of the day, we both end up deploying.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

So Yeah, I mean, you you were in a unique situation where you were in not just the same company or the same battalion as your brother. You're in the same platoon with your brother in the same in the same job.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yes, actually, from day one, uh, we actually went through boot camp together. Uh, I was Lee series, he was follow series. We did not let anybody know that we were brothers until halfway through. My brother was um loved by all the freaking, what was it, Gunny? What was his name? Gunny. He was a big old strong guy. My brother was a house mouse, a house mouse. Is that what they call it? Yeah, house mouse, yeah. That's what he is with with the company Gunny. And uh so the company gunny was giving them snacks and talking to him, just having small talk, and what he told him that he had a brother here, and he's like, Are you serious? And so they called my senior, and I got to talk to the company Gunny. He gave me the option to stay in my platoon or reconnect with my brother.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

No shit.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

And uh, I wanted to leave so bad and go to his platoon, but my senior threatened to kill me if I left. We were the booger platoon, we were last in everything, specifically PFT. It was the most embarrassing thing ever. I think we averaged like a I bet it was the boot camp low average of 220 or something like that. Oh wow, it was embarrassing. Wow. Oh, yeah. They did for two months, they made me stay up and do pull-ups with all the fat bodies. Um getting ready for final PFT. No, they had they woke me up at midnight and they said I could not go to bed until two o'clock. And they had a list of all the fat bodies that couldn't do more than three pull-ups. Oh, it's embarrassing. Uh so every day we were doing pull-ups. He had me, they were hanging on the bar. I had to give them like daily updates on the fat bodies. Have they improved? Are they getting fatter? Are they getting worse? Uh, if I told her that they were getting worse, the drill inspection would thrash the body because he said they're getting they're gaining too much weight, they need to lose some. It was terrible. So they would not let me leave the platoon. So I was stuck there. That's funny. But same thing. We went through the school of infantry, uh, we got to the fleet, we were assigned to the same um company, same platoon. Yeah, and uh, you know, we got to deploy together all of our tours.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

I'm surprised that they let that happen, man. I mean, I'm very happy for you. I'm just surprised that it same.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

No, it's and at one point there was discussion about deployment to war. Uh, if we could both deploy, and they said since we did not have someone in our generational uh family tree that died in a war that we could both deploy, uh, that was their excuse, but I don't know. Interesting. We weren't complaining. We're ready to deploy.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Yeah. And so when you guys were at 3-5 and you were part of the initial invasion, uh, do you happen to remember what route you went up through? Did you guys go up through Barwana? Is that that's what I remember, I think.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Well, uh, I didn't bring those notes, but no, no, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

I was just curious.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Now, I will say, I know you guys mentioned before in your previous podcast that you guys, you know, went through the line of departure. You guys had a pretty long um, you know, convoy.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Oh my gosh, when the initial evasion happened, I can't remember how many miles of convoy we had going through. It was like nine miles or six miles or something outrageous, right? So it's a log train. Uh, I know when we crossed, we um we had the 7th Marines went in first. They were the assault element, they did an excellent job. Of course, we're 5th Marines, we were not far behind them. But you know, I I think I have a map of where we went through, but I cannot remember.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

No, it's it's okay. I was just I was just generally curious.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

No, and I actually wrote some notes. Uh, you know, one of the things the big difference right off the bat between our second and third deployment was we were actually allowed to be bordermen, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Um, you know, uh, you know, myself and Hampton are both FDC. Fox is FDC, my brother's an FO. Mike Martinez is an FO. And I actually documented our first um mission. I was gonna go over that real quick.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Um, of course, we had an Illum round pop up because it was a night mission. And we we dropped a couple of rounds just to get on target after our adjustments. We hit our target, and they said fire for effect, and we dropped 35 rounds on our target.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Uh I didn't write down, I did not write down what our target was, but we did fire for effect, and then the FO called us and asked us to do another uh 20 rounds shake and bake. So some H and R P. So that was the uh first mission that we had. And uh I mean I think that's a dream mission, man. It was, it was to do that in your initial uh mission to have a shake and bake put in there. That was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Blake is now dying with jealousy because he was the he was our FDC chief, so that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Uh and I never got to do shit. No rounds in anger. I'm so pissed off about that.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

No, like even in my current journal on our deployment in Ramadi, I think I documented every single round that was fired uh by you know, Sledgehammer Rainmaker when they registered in a loom or they uh dropped in a loom round or they dropped something. I have it documented in my journal because of course I'm an FTC guy, so I I like to know those things. What's our count? You know, what's our target? What are we looking for? Why do we do it? What's our time to fly? You know that boring stuff. But um, no, we I loved it. Uh we actually dropped the most rounds out of all the mortar uh weapons company out there. So we end up getting the presidential unit citation. Uh we dropped a lot of rounds out there, it was a lot of fun. Uh, we got to work with naval gunfire. Um, we got to mark some targets for CET. Um that's awesome. You know, it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Of course, it's a different uh of course. Let me keep to keep in mind that only lasted for about three weeks. After about three weeks, we didn't drop any more rounds after the initial war. After that, it came down to you know patrolling the cities, you know, yeah, uh taking the civil affairs group out, you know, checking on the schools and agriculture buildings, a government center, stuff like that. Uh so that changed everything. But being a mortar man, it lasted for about three weeks, and that's about it. More than I got. Well, after that, it changed to what we see now is you know, training for, you know, patrolling, kicking doors, suppressing the enemy, um, you know, movement to contact stuff. So everything changed. Um, and you know, it's it was completely different, I'll say that.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

And so if I remember correctly, you guys came to us May, like around May 12th, May 13th, somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

May 11th.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

11th, yeah, good.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Yes, yes. Um, and I I I think it happened pretty fast. Uh, from the time we left March Air Force Base, it was uh May 4th, and we got to Romati May 11th. Um now I I will say this, they were very prepared for us to arrive. I mean, it was it was completely different. I think when we got there for the initial war, there was a lot of cluster. Um there wasn't they weren't prepared for people coming in and staging where where to send us, but uh I thought things were very organized when we got to Kuwait. You know, some of my notes said we flew from Germany to Kuwait. Uh March Air Force Base took 23 hours. Once we arrived, we had buses waiting on us. They were on time. I mean, we were escorted by the army to Camp Overine. And then from there we had to attend a 30-minute safety brief. Um, and then they told us we're going to be flying to Al-Assad Air Base. Uh, once we got to their airbase, we were assigned to 7th Marines at the time to stage. Um the commanding general came out and spoke to all the combat casual replacements, and he described all the hotspots in Iraq. And uh after that, uh, we ended up taking a C-130 to TQ.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Uh let's see, we stayed there for two days before a seven-ton took us and escorted us to Ramadi. And that was actually my first time to ever be on a seven-ton.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah. So they gave us 60 rounds each. And we're gonna drive a seven-ton. And keep in mind, our brief told us that Ramadi is the most dangerous city in Iraq. And they said, hey, all we're gonna give you is 60 rounds. Here you go. Keep your head down. Oh my gosh, that was that was scary. That was scary. I think that was the scariest. That's probably the scariest I've ever been. Just traveling in a seven-ton from you know TQ to Bramati in a seven-ton.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

Yeah.

Mortars, Missions, And Shake‑And‑Bake

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Uh no, but as soon as we arrived, we we beat up with Sergeant Major Booker. And I mean, he was he was awesome. You know, he greeted us, he shook every single person's hand, he introduced himself and explained to us why we were there, and he explained um where he needed some bodies, and he asked what our MOSs were and what company we came from. And I explained to him that we were weapons company, we love to stay with weapons company. And uh he said, Well, good, you guys go to map two.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

And uh uh as soon as we got there, we met up with uh the team. I mean, I felt like I'm I think the first three people we met was Nylon, Randall, and Swede. That sound right, yeah. And uh you guys were I mean, amazing. You guys said first thing you said is what do you need from us? You know, what can we do to help you get comfortable? What can we do to, you know, I think you sent someone to grab our gear. I mean, I think you sent someone to grab something that we had in our hand. And um, and then I think the first thing I said is, Do you guys have any ammo? They gave us they gave us 60 rounds. And uh, you know, someone had one of your junior Marines come out there and take all my magazines and load them up, and then Randall got mad uh because he said, What are you doing? You don't know how he wants his tracers. Yeah, uh I think it doesn't matter. I I'll deal with my tracer out later. Just fill them up.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

That's such a Randall thing to do. That's really funny.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Uh yes, and um, you know, I end up bunking, I think, the second bed from the front door. Who was I next to? Was it Metroca and Miranda?

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Uh I believe. I feel like Miranda was closer to my end, back uh towards where the bathroom would have been. And but I but Montroca was definitely on the end. I know we shoved all the beds down and made space for you guys when we found out you were coming.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yeah, I know Hampton and John Mark went to the back.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Uh and I stayed in the front. Um I I don't I remember right next to me was Metroca.

unknown 22:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

I don't remember who was on the other side.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Um, but uh no, so as soon as we got there, we checked on on the 11th, and they told us we needed a couple days to get used to the timing and you know, um get used to the desert again, and and then they'll let us back out when they think we're ready. Um I believe we were, I think we were coming back from Heading town when um last corporal savage was uh heading out and he says, See you guys later, motherfuckers. He said something like that, and it wasn't long before an ID hit. I'm not sure it was an ID and RPG, but um you know, we found out that the guy that just was talking to us, you know, as a gunner was just hit and was killed. We were like, wow, that happened fast. We were I mean, that just that we just got here. And he seemed like a you know, a gun ho kid. He seemed like he was just you know, just built for this. He loved it.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

He was yeah, he was a good marine.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

He was a good marine.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

And he was just tell he was a terrible barracks marine, he was an outstanding combat and field marine. Terrible barracks marine, which is which is okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

That's absolutely true.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Oh man. No, but you you can absolutely tell he loved this. He loved uh the just being where he's at, and this is what he signed up for. He had that attitude. Uh but it well, it wasn't long after that, it was uh May 20th, that uh, of course, Brian Fox is with us, and we found out that Brian Fox uh was involved in hitting an ID and he hit Shrapnel hit him. So we were only there eight days before he got hit with this first ID. Now, you know, speaking of IDs, and our deployment the initial evasion, our last 30 days is where we started seeing these IDs, but they were not made like they were made in Ramadi.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Uh they were made where they would get a carcass of a cow and shove it in their body, they would gut it out and put some mortar rounds in there, or they would pile up some trash on the side of the road and they would mix it up with that. And you can the wires were all above ground at the time. If not, they only dug it inches, not feet, inches. Um, you know, so those were the locations of IEDs back then in a carcass or pile of trash.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Uh that's what we were briefed on um during that second tour.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

And uh it's funny because that's the when we uh Blake has lamented a couple of times about our terrible PowerPoint presentation that we got on IEDs before we deployed, which was it was probably three or four weeks before we deployed. It was put on by the battalion or the regimental gunner, not even the battalion gunner, the regimental gunner. And uh that he was telling us that that they were in carcasses. They also showed us um soda cans that were full of like like comp B with a blasting cap stuck in it and other random shit. And we were like, and it was it and probably pictures you guys took, and that was what we were expecting, and that was not what we found.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

No, no, they were way more advanced uh in Ramadi. There, you could actually see wires hanging and dangling everywhere. It was over obvious uh that it was an ID, or you see a you know, a cow, you could actually see where a cow was gutted out, and it was it did not look its normal self. Um so that was the information we were seeing and uh getting during the other deployment. Now, this this time around, of course, they have better technology, uh, they were more prepared, they have they were timing the movement of the vehicles. Yeah um, you know, they had more than one person involved, you know, someone doing the lookout, someone counting, and someone calling. So it's a lot different.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

And a couple of the initial TTPs that we had were they were also using uh like the invisible laser beams like you have for garage door openers, and where trucks would drive by and it would trip that laser beam and that would trigger the IED. We found a couple of those that didn't go off, but we found them when they when we were out searching. Uh and the other one was I'm trying to remember, they used like a modified pressure plate where it was basically like just two metal pieces that were underneath the asphalt. And when a tire would go over it, those two pieces would touch and trigger the IED.

Arrival In Ramadi And First Losses

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah, absolutely more advanced. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, you know, one of the first things um I remember is meeting Staff Sergeant Coleman and Lieutenant Stevens, and uh Staff Sergeant Coleman told me I would be in his vehicle, and he's like, Hey Pimp, what do you know about Mark 19? I was like, not much. I don't think I've ever fired one. He goes, Well, you got 24 hours to learn it. And he said, Richie, was that his name, Richie?

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Yeah, Matt Matt Richie.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Yeah, tooth. And I tell you, he's the smartest guy uh I've ever seen work on a Mar19. Uh this guy, he explained so much to me in a short period of time. I felt like I learned that gun as well as you can possibly learn it. He was a great teacher.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Uh I was so impressed with him. Uh, you know, you would think that he was the type of guy that was just like, yeah, I'll get there when I get there. No, you put him behind that gun, and he was just pure focus, and you could tell he he loved that Mar19. So I was very impressed with him. Um, but I tell you, Stas Sergeant Coleman, that he made my deployment to Vermont a blast. That guy right there was the biggest character uh of all. Uh he he loved to uh you know focus on morale. You know, he could tell when things were low and he knew how to get everyone up and going. Uh, because you know, there's a lot of ups and downs, you know, during these deployments. And you know, he can he can see that. He came in there with a lot of experience. He was a great man.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Um he was one of our he was one of our few leaders who had combat experience. Uh it was him and Mararkey and uh Neil in our platoon also had combat experience, but there there was not there was not very many leaders that had combat experience, and Neil wasn't in a leadership position initially. But uh yeah, there was not very many people, and he he brought a lot of that, as you said, a lot of that energy of taking care of people, which was good.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Well, you guys also had two other guys from 3-5 that we knew really well. And uh McCabe.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Uh so Lechard and I, you once again, we started from boot camp. Nice. So I've been Lashard from from day one, and you know, Lachard and I have always been very competitive in fitness the entire time through the Marine Corps. You know, we wanted to know we had the biggest biceps, who could run the who had the best PFT, how many pull-ups can you get? It was like that the entire time.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

That sounds like Lachard.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Oh, he was super fit. Uh, great guy, great leader. Uh, love that guy. You still do you still talk to him at all? Uh it's been a while. Um actually, might have been Brian Fox when he turned 40. I'm pretty sure we stopped by Lechard's house in San Diego. Nice. So that was probably about three years ago.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

He's one of the few people. I I interacted with him almost every day when we were in Ramadi, and I have not talked to him since then at all, which is it's real weird when that was like almost every day.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

So Oh, yeah. So I know while we were there, I know I've heard this a few times that once you're assigned to your your platoon, you kind of just stuck to your platoon.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Uh I felt like I connected to, of course, map two and map three the most, uh, mainly because I knew Lishard and he introduced me to his guys. And I mean, he you know, he loved his guys and he introduced me to everyone. And of course, they're always cracking jokes.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

So he kept us entertained. Um now on May 26th is when I was involved in my first IED. We were escorting the battalion commander, and the ID hit between my Humvee and my brother's Humvee.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Oh no, good.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Holy, yeah. So uh when it went off, um, it was, you know, of course, smoke and dust and rocks everywhere. And of course, my brother vehicle directly in front of me, and you know, he's in a high back.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

And I just wait for the dust to settle to see, you know, what's on the other side. That's when you realize, man, this they're they're going after those highbacks. They're absolutely aiming for those highbacks. Um, that was that was scary, but I I had pictures of all the uh vehicles that we drove out there, and those highback pictures are people just think they're from Vietnam.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

Uh I mean so many different layers, so many different sheets of metal. Um, you know, people don't believe this is what we was was used during the Iraq war. Uh, you know, people think that has to be from Vietnam. There's no way they would send Marines out there with that type of truck. Um, that that is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

One of our one of our first ones that Sledgehammer had had uh was from one of was one of the first variants that they had uh left in a cave in uh in Europe and they had our they un mothballed it and sent a bunch of that stuff so they could resupply the caves with new gear. Um and so uh that thing was a piece of shit.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

It fell apart almost like but by the time we got it, it was 40 years old.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

I mean it wait well it never used it had like it only had like a hundred miles on it, but it was like it was literally from like like eight 1987 or something like that, or six or whatever. Like transmission took a shot immediately, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Oh no, I got so lucky to have the vehicle that I had. It was like a brand new army vehicle uh with Sasser Coleman. I said, How the heck did you we get we get lucky and get this vehicle? He goes, Oh, I get I picked my own truck. I get to pick my own truck. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Did you get hurt on that blast?

SPEAKER_00 33:19

No, no, I I think more than anything, I felt like my heart stopped because I couldn't see the high back. Sure. Um, that explosion went off, and um it's just like everything just like stopped for a second. Like, wow, uh where's that high back at? When when it does settle, I think it was just uh uh uh you know rocks and stratinole just falling down, but I don't think anybody got hurt uh from that. Um far as I know.

unknown 33:50

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Uh none to my memory, but that they we got hit by so many IEDs it's hard to keep them all straight.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Oh no, I was looking through my notes today. Uh gosh, I I I bet I have 25 plus IDs documented uh in my notes that were reported. It doesn't necessarily have to be us, it could have been you know, Rainmaker getting hit, sledgehammer getting hit, or echo company getting hit. It's like it was just never-ending.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Um, and I you know, I think I documented too all the mortar rounds that went over the hooch uh into our compound. Um and they were they were never ending as well.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Um, that is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Especially on Fridays.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Yeah, absolutely. Now looking at my notes here, I'm trying to think who was with me at this time. This is where the uh we went out to watch the guys walk on the levee, the engineers.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

On May 29th. Yep. Um, they sent four of us to the water tower. Do you remember this?

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Yes.

Evolving IED Threats And TTPs

SPEAKER_00 35:03

So we did an overwatch from the water tower, and uh, I'm pretty sure Machoka was with me. I'm pretty sure maybe John Mark and one more. I don't know if it was Neil or Miranda, but we were up there and I was facing the engineers, and I'm watching them uh with the ACOG, and I was wondering, it's like, what is he doing? I didn't know he was actually walking with a metal detector.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Um, and I was asking the guys behind me, I said, What exactly is he doing? They're like, he's looking for an IED. I was like, is he out of his fucking mind? And not long after that, the explosion happened. And I kid you not, one of the engineers blew up as high as I was on that tower.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yeah, I believe that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

And uh, so we get called down to assist with the Medevac. And uh, you know, I remember going after one of the engineers, and uh, you could just see, I mean, how bad he was, you know, blown up, and he was still talking.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

You know, he's still breathing, talking. Uh, you would think this guy was not going to survive this, and we got him loaded up. And I think someone said he lived. They I don't know if that's true or not.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Just recently got confirmation both of them lived.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Uh that is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Yeah, that's that's a real credit to uh our corpsman and our surgeons, because uh yeah, I I would not by looking at their wounds, I would have never expected either of them to live, but both of them lived. One of them even uh uh started a family afterwards, all kinds of stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Wow. I know at that moment is when I decided I wanted a groin protector. Um I I was there when I I saw the effect of how that groin protector saved him from losing his manhood. Um yeah, I I tell you, that was that was something else. And of course, you know, from there, right after that, we did that Medevac. Um we ended up moving to an Overwatch. Remember that?

SPEAKER_02 37:17

Yes, up to the Senate Cemetery Hill.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Yes. And there was some delay on when we were gonna return. Uh, and that's when that car bomb went off, that BBID.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Yeah, on the Echo Company uh highback. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

Yeah, so when that happened, you know, we got called down to assist with uh those Matavacks as well. And I don't know if I ever told you this, but one of the guys that I was actually working on was Benjamin Gonzalez. He's actually a CCR Marine that also went back and uh he died in that car bomb.

SPEAKER_03 37:59

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

And just recently he shaved his head because he had really thick hair. He was one of those Marines that I'm getting out, I'm not cutting my hair, I don't care what they say. You know, he looked like a civilian, you never would have recognized him as a Marine. But when he went to Ramadi, I guess at some point he decided to uh shave his head so you never would recognize him. So when I was I was working on him, I was rolling him over to see what else he had on the other side, and I saw his tattoo. Yeah, his blood, I mean, there was blood all over his face. Uh, of course, he was missing his his hand, and then you can just see his wrist there, and uh, I think he had an eyeball out, but uh I he was still breathing, you know. I I I don't know how these guys are so freaking tough can take on some of these explosions, but he ended up dying. But I recognized his tattoo, and that's how I knew it was Benjamin Gonzalez. Wow. Um, I don't remember how many died on that uh explosion. Do you remember how many died?

SPEAKER_02 39:09

I don't have it written down here.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Yeah, because I remember when we loaded the the vehicles up, it was it was a terrible sight.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Or that may have been 10 for the day, it may have been eight from the high back and the two and and I think they counted um somebody else from a different different uh thing that happened that day. But uh yeah, it it may have been I'm not a hundred percent sure. So now I'm gonna go look that up. But uh yeah, quite a few, a lot more than you would have expected. I remember going through that blast radius and the smoke as it was clearing, and and uh me and Swede were doing expedient triage, and there was a few that were dead right there, and quite a few that were critically wounded.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Oh yeah, and that's definitely the biggest VBID. That do you think that one cost the most um casualties?

SPEAKER_02 40:00

As far as I know, it is. Yeah, it was the most immediate casualty producing.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Wow. Let's see, what else I have on my notes here? Uh looks like June 1st we did Bug Hunt 3 in the Sophia area. Um we finally got an upgrade on our rifle. They gave us an M16A4 with an ACOX scope.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

Actually, I might have got that mixed up on another date, but we got it around that same time frame.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Well, what were you carrying before? Wasn't an A2?

SPEAKER_00 40:35

An A2. Yeah. Yes. Uh let's see. Well, not long after that, uh I got June 16th. Cohen broke his jaw playing volleyball by Webster.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

That's a good note.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Oh man, that is terrible because I remember I mean I had a hurt. I think it was wired shut, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 40:58

Yes. Eventually, yes.

unknown 41:01

Oh God.

Learning The Mark 19 And Leadership

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Initially, he initially he would not leave. He stayed for a couple of days for that broken jaw, but he was having so much pain and difficulty eating that we we like forced him to leave, basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

Yeah, I I have note here at uh June 17th, uh last couple last Corporal Coleman was Medevact in Baghdad with my bayonet. Oh no. I don't know why. That's a good note. I don't remember I don't know why he had my bayonet. I uh he needed it for something, and uh when he was Medevact, uh he took my bayonet. I was like, um all right, uh, I'm missing a bayonet now. Okay. That's a good note. I'll have to acquire one later.

SPEAKER_04 41:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

Let's see. Uh have June 17th at 0530. We got hit by a mortar attack at the back of map three. Map three got hit quite a bit. They had their their sights on map three's hooch quite a bit.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Uh back of map three's hooch got hit. One of the mortars landed near the COC, and some of the mortars landed in front of the hooch, hitting the mortar pool. Uh but yeah, like I'm I was reading some of these uh mortar attacks. So many happen next to map three.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Yep. Um yeah, they were the very end hooch. And so I again I you you're a mortarman, so you would know more than me, but as far as what I remember for the ones that didn't go off, often they were not putting charges on them, knocking the knocking the tail fins off, so the mortars were just tumbling through the air.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

Oh, yes, absolutely. Yeah, yes. I remember being outside hearing them coming, and uh, you know, I saw people running, I just stood still. I was like, where am I running to? I don't have anywhere to take cover. I'm just gonna stand still and see what happens. Um let's see what I have here next. Oh, the next one's a good one. Uh June 19th at 02, we conducted a raid on a guy that set up the VBID on Echo Company. Uh, we were the assault element. We drove we drove through that front gate, and I remember we got to that door, and I was like, Oh, I got this door. And I ran, I kicked that door as hard as I could, and it did not budge. Uh, you know, we didn't have any breaching tools, so I thought I could absolutely kick that thing in, and uh, it did not even budge. And we kicked on that door. I remember, I think there's two of us. I think Miranda might have jumped in on it. Um, and then the owner just opened the door. Uh but uh no, it was it was a good, it was a good raid. Uh noted here that we located boxes of cell phones, money, wires, and maps of Ramadi. Um, but uh no, I thought that was a funny one where uh initially we couldn't get the gate open, so we ran it with the truck. We get to the door, we couldn't kick it down, and we had to uh kick on it with multiple guys, and finally the owner came out and opened the door. It's like, can we help you?

SPEAKER_01 44:17

I think anybody that had to do a kick element has been humbled by one of those doors. Those things for sure.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

Oh, and I, you know, I thought I I've been to mountain school, I know how to. Uh I know how to break this lock. No, it was nothing like that. I could not open that door. It didn't budge. It didn't even nothing.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Well, that's funny you say it was you and Miranda, because like there's you're a very muscular human. Even at the time, you were extremely well built, and so was Miranda. So, like, if the two of you can't do it, I don't really know who else could have.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Oh, we were we tried everything, and I I tell you, I I think by the time that guy opened a door, I was probably out of breath. I was trying so hard, and I I tell you, we couldn't get in. He opened a door. Um, but you know, you we thought the night was over with, and it wasn't. Uh, we got assigned to do that uh that OP in Rock Michigan. I know Jordan talked about this a little while early on when you guys did his. And uh that was a fun one. Um, you know, there was I don't remember if it was four of us or five of us, and I don't remember the individuals that went on it, but I know myself and Joe Mark was there. Uh if Jordan said he was there, then he was there. I don't remember who was all there, but we were able to sneak into that house without the family hearing us or seeing us.

SPEAKER_03 45:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

And we got to that roof. I don't remember how long we stayed up there. I don't know, it was two hours, 90 minutes, three hours, but we stayed down there. And of course, LT tells us to come back down. Um now coming down, my my story's gonna be a little bit different than Jordan's. Um, you know, I was the last man out, and I was hiding in the stairs. And as John Mark goes right through me, you know, I hear some noise, and there's some movement coming into that kitchen area. And uh there's a little girl, she kind of froze, she didn't make a sound, and then the man of the house comes in and he starts walking towards John Mark, and he doesn't see me. I'm still in the shadow of the stairs. You know, he doesn't see me. John Mark looks back, and I actually have to butt stalk the guy across the his neck or head. I'm not really sure. He falls to the ground, we leave, we exit, we bound back, no shots were fired.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

That's good.

First IEDs And Relentless Attacks

SPEAKER_00 46:46

Uh that was that was a lot of fun because you know, getting there and getting out and getting back without making um any noise or firing one single round. I mean, that was uh a crazy little thing there, too. Uh but that was yeah, that guy was a lot bigger than me, too. They were they were heavy set guys.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

There were some, yeah, for sure. They were they were only built two ways. They were tiny people or huge. Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Let's see. What do I have here? Oh, of course, yeah, June 22nd when the snipers uh were Echo Company snipers. Uh let's see, four snipers attached to Echo Company were killed.

SPEAKER_03 47:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Uh the execution style, the insurgents took. Of course, I wrote down in my notes everything that they took. The four and sixteen rifles, four pistols, two sniper rifles, MVGs, other optics, radios. Um the insurgents videotaped it when they ambushed the snipers, and it was on you know, Iraq CNN by 1700.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Yep. Um, yeah, it was on Al Jaze Al Jazeera by afternoon, and then the full I mean, I wouldn't say the full video of the execution, but partially some of it was online. Uh yeah. Yeah, just it looked like, at least from the video that we got later, was uh everyone was already dead, but they showed them shooting one of the dead bodies basically. And it was it was pretty brutal and pretty disheartening to see uh you know mid-deployment.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

Well, and it sounds like some of you guys, you know, grew up with those guys, or you know, you guys knew some of those snipers.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:25

Um, I never got to meet any of those guys, so but uh, you know, I know how it is to to know these guys. Sure. You know, I know with 3.5, I got to know several of the snipers there. Uh we worked out and went through a lot of training together. I went to Hirschmasters with all the snipers.

SPEAKER_03 48:41

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

Um that was fun. Um let's see what I have here. Let's see. Not long after that, June 24th. Uh the 0615, the government center, ag center, Iraqi police got attacked. Uh 0730 documented that VBID hit Rainmaker. Do you remember this?

SPEAKER_02 49:04

I don't, yeah. But he might.

unknown 49:07

I do.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

It's a hit Raymaker. The convoy did not have any major casualties, is what I wrote down. But you know, of course, we talked about how many IEDs and VBIDs that we went through. It was like another week IED.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Right. It was it was easily in the mid-20s to low 30s for each platoon for that whole deployment. It easily. And might be even more than that. And we were we got popped a lot.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

Oh yeah, it like not long after that, I have June 27th. Uh 1530, we hit an IED on Route Michigan on the way to Blue Diamond. This one hit Hampton's vehicle, but no injuries and just damage to the Humvee. It's like the 27th. 28th. Uh what is this one? Oh, the 28th. You know, we we you mentioned about funny stories or crazy stories. Now, this one here was uh a little out there. Um we we went to Blue Diamond to go to their PX, and uh Hampton ran into one of his drill instructors. Uh you know, you know, and Hampton was pretty excited. You know, hey, I get to meet my drill instructor while we're in combat. This is pretty exciting. Let me go say hi. And I'm not gonna mention the guy's name. Um if you ever interview uh Hampton, maybe he will.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

Uh but uh that that guy was a staff sergeant and he was a complete dick. I mean, Hampton was like, hey, I was one of your recruits. Uh I don't know if you remember, I told you I was going infantry, and you know, I thought very highly of you, and and the guy pretty much said, get the fuck away from me.

SPEAKER_04 50:56

Jeez.

SPEAKER_00 50:57

And Hampton lost his mind. Hampton cussed him out, was ready to kick his ass. We had to hold Hampton out, pull him out, take him to the Home G.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

Yep, that's accurate.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Uh and uh what a what a freaking yeah, he was a complete dick to Hampton, and that's complete terrible. You know, you run into someone that was your first drill instructor, you had a lot of respect for it, he treated you like that was terrible.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

I was like, all right, let's not get Hampton arrested in Iraq for punching a thousand CO. Yeah. Uh see. Uh course, here it is. Uh July 1st, Matt 3 got hit by an ID. Um, I think this is the one that uh Sergeant Kenneth Cundy. It is junior. Now, so I got to spend a lot of time with Cundy because of Lachard. Uh Sergeant so Lachard, Cundy, and is it Williams?

SPEAKER_02 51:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Yeah, so I talked to those guys quite a bit with Lachard, and I I thought very highly of that team. Um, and you know, Lachard, you know, he's a pretty solid guy. He spoke very highly of those guys too. So um, that was that was a tough one. That was definitely a tough one for the entire, you know, not just map three, I think for the entire company.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

No, that one hurt.

SPEAKER_02 52:24

Yep. Yeah, they uh they were all a big deal, but uh I mean, I again I can only speak for map one, two, and three as far as this goes, but we all trained together and had spent uh we had done that horrible Okinawa deployment right before that, and Condi was there, and it was funny because when he first showed up, he was he was the same person, he was very vocal and he had opinions, and we used to talk shit, and everybody, you know, and it ended being a bonding moment, right? Like it went from like we're fucking with you, and then it was like, No, we're we're friends with you and fucking with you. And it was uh yeah, dude, just uh he was a big personality, but uh uh a great leader of that platoon, and it was a I don't know, it was a big loss for everybody. It was just weird. It was weird. He was bigger than life, so it was hard to imagine he was the one that went down.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

Well, one of the stories we heard during our pre-deployment briefing was his story of being shot uh in the shoulder and staying into flight. So that was one of our um briefings that we heard.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 53:32

Uh that was uh along with the course people losing their eyes. I remember those two being very uh important to me. Uh, you know, of course, you know, of course, I wanted to get there and meet the guy that was shot and stayed in the fight, you know. Yeah, uh that was pretty cool. The shards don't want to tell me it's like, yeah, this is the guy. So no, that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 53:54

Yeah, we didn't like we didn't have anybody lose an eye in our platoon, uh, but Blake's platoon had two or three people lose an eye.

SPEAKER_01 54:04

Just dwarf.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Well, in your in Sledgehammer, but I'm sorry in Sledgehammer and Lane Maker come all right. The eight the 81's platoon, yeah. It was two or three. I think it was three.

SPEAKER_00 54:14

Oh wow, man, that was that was scary. Yeah. Um, I know initially I wanted to wear tenant goggles because it was so bright outside. Um, but when we would enter a building, it's like some people could switch from you know tenant to clear and run into a building because it was so dark. I couldn't do that, so I only wore clear goggles the entire time.

SPEAKER_03 54:37

Yeah, I didn't know. I did the same. Yeah.

Water Tower Overwatch And Medevac

SPEAKER_00 54:40

You run into a building, it's so dark. Um, you just wanted to just continue moving on. And I I think I heard Blake say this before. Uh, I think one of my objectives was to get to the roof a lot of times when we get into a house, uh, because specifically that's where the gunfire was coming from. So that was typically my objective. And um I remember one time I had to switch my goggles out and I was fumbling. I was like, I'm gonna just I think screw this. I've never worn these tinted goggles again. I threw them in my bag and never saw them again. But uh no, that makes that makes a lot of sense. Um I have documented here July 2nd. General John Kelly came in and spoke to us for a few hours.

SPEAKER_03 55:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

Um uh now here's my notes say that uh Sas Sergeant Coleman and I were comparing biceps and we measured them. Masured at 16.5, his measured at 18.5.

SPEAKER_02 55:47

These are these are important notes. This is the real shit. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 55:55

Uh, you know, one of the things I can, you know, I God bless us so, you know, Coleman. Um what made my time worthwhile there was him. We grappled probably every week. We measured our biceps every week, and we would have bench press competitions every week.

SPEAKER_03 56:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Uh first sergeant would join in too, but he wasn't part of our bicep competition because he would he would roll a book.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

I was gonna say because I think we measured his was like 22 or 25. Some ridiculous number, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:30

He was in the 20s. Yeah. Um, no, that was uh that was that's what I have documented that Coleman and I were measuring our biceps. Uh see, I have July 4th. Uh we did a raid with ODA.

SPEAKER_04 56:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 56:48

I have documented that they shot down the door with the shotgun and shot two guys. One guy was shot in the stomach, one guy was shot in the thigh. Uh of course I documented we completed the raid, returned to Hurricane Point. But two o'clock that day, we had a bench press competition. Nice. Of course, it's me versus Coleman. Uh, I said, I should have won. He bounced it off his chest.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

Uh, but no, that was uh that's how that went. Uh July 6th, Rainmaker hit by an ID right next to Raider OP. Same place we hit one. Um I even have a documented too when you know uh I'm gonna have to find it in a minute with one of the guys that fired an AT4 and a javelin. I can't remember who did that, and I was like, wow, that's that's crazy. Yeah, you know, to fire that at the same day.

SPEAKER_02 57:51

Yeah, that was uh I'm gonna assume the one that fired both would be Cox. I think Cox fired both. Only two people on our deployment fired a javelin. It was McKenzie fired a javelin at a VBIED, and then Cox fired an AT4 and a javelin. I don't know that they're in the same day, but they probably were if that was what your notes were.

SPEAKER_00 58:13

Let's see. I don't have it on this one yet, but I have that on July 7th. Northbridge had an RPG uh fire at them from a house. They fired back with the 240, and then they fired an AT4 at the house. Um map one shot up four cars and found several AK-47s. Let's see. Oh, here we go. July 9th, North Bridge took small arm fire. North Bridge fired an AT4 and a javelin. Yeah, that was July 9th. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 58:49

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 58:50

We got called out for QRF and we cleared the building, and all we found was AK casings. I think Jordan talked about this one a little bit. Yeah, uh, we searched every single room. Was that a hotel?

SPEAKER_02 59:02

I don't know, but it had a lot of rooms, that's all I know.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

It did. I remember we were I was exhausted. Um Sledgehammer registered six alum rounds that day. And I was mad. I was like, I want to know the data. Well, I was like, why didn't I know about this? They didn't even know you were a mortarman, so yeah, and and that's the one thing I I wish I would have done a little bit more was go out there and kind of meet the uh you know, the equals to me, the FTC guys there and kind of get a feel for you know how it going from mortarmen to their new role and how that was and uh you know how they're using their mortar skills now.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

Yeah, well I mean you you can ask Blake. That was the only mission they fired.

SPEAKER_01 59:57

Yep. No, and they did and they and I didn't even get to shoot it. I was the FTC, I was the FCC chief, and they didn't even pull me in. And so like I was pretty bullshit on that one. We were we were we were yeah, anyways. I won't I'm so I'm salty on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

No, no, I I get it, I get it. Uh I think I felt the same way too. I was like, hmm, I don't know about these mortars going out. I was like, uh, who's responsible for this? Uh oh, here was uh July 10th. Um uh 0730 north side of Hurricane Point was hit by mortars. One hit near the north bridge door, uh, one near ACP. And Sergeant Williams just left the north bridge when the mortars hit. If it would have been any earlier, Sergeant Williams would have got hit. He was that close to getting hit. Uh yeah, that was that's those mortars, they were just scattered all over the place.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:59

Yeah.

The Echo VBIED Mass Casualty

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

July 11th, we went to the Ramadi hospital to pick up an EPW. He was shot by our snipers, he was shot in the groin area. Uh it sounds like he was a high-value target. He was met back to Baghdad. Um, we also received word that Echo Company flipped a Humvee last night. I don't know how they did that, but uh that's all I wrote down. Let's see. Of course, another card bomb here. July 12th. Joker got hit by VBID. It was reported that there was one casualty. Um the surgeons had another VBID in combat outpost. Joker fired a small and an AT-4 and missed both times. Finally, Matt 3 shot it with a javelin.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:47

Yep, that's that's the one Mackenzie shot with the javelin.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

Okay, yeah, so that was July 12th. Yeah. Now here's uh July 14th where everyone got sent out.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:59

Uh so this is where I think uh we missed out, but everyone else went out. Uh says 1400, the agriculture center and and a couple of OPs on Michigan took small arm fire. Map one, map three, sledgehammer, and the army QRF responded. We were left behind with nothing but highbacks, but we geared up ready to go. Oliver North was with Sledgehammer. Um a weapons cachet was just found with RPGs, RPKs, AKs, nine millimeter machine gun, shotguns, a 3030 rifle, several swords, and material to make IEDs. Was that your was that Rainmaker that did or Sledgehammer that found all that? Uh we were the big weapons cachet?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

No, no, we weren't that we we we were on a we were on a cordon on that one when they were there. The if you if you get the first book that he uh Oliver North did, there's some pictures in there, and there's a picture of uh a bunch of the guys lined up against the wall. It was like some sort of it wasn't the government center, but it was something else. And they were as they were inventorying that, we were already on a outer cordon, and so that was down some alley.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:21

It was like, and I don't remember that I'm gonna totally butcher it, but it was like the Coalition for Iraqi Unity or something like that. Like it it was some it was like a uh meant to be a political party, but they weren't, they were arming people. Yeah, so yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story.