December 3, 2025 • 46 mins
Part 2 with Doc Bundeson from Mobile Assault Platoon 2 to trace the most violent stretch of Ramadi in April 2004, when Marines were pinned in houses, snipers were trapped by the river, and convoys fought through ambush after ambush in the Sophia and industrial districts. Then the focus turns to the ethics that define real combat medicine.
There’s humor and heart here too. Hooch pranks, sunsets, and a misreported “face shot”. Twenty years later, we finally admit we all could have called each other sooner.
• early-war gear limits and cutting flak vests to reach wounds
• April 6–10 ambushes, sniper rescue, route fights
• running out of Mark 19 ammo and forced resupply
• treating wounded Marines and prisoners under Geneva Convention
• mental detachment to do care, reflection afterward
• misreported injuries and comms blackout
• leadership with a soft edge in chaos
• hooch pranks as a pressure valve
• sunsets on the Euphrates as a reset
• breaking 20 years of silence and validating memories
** Warning - These episodes discuss traumatic injuries in graphic detail **
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:34):
This is part two of our conversation with Mike
Bundison, Combat Corpsman,Mobile Assault Platoon 2.
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
Big Boy has a soft side.
He does, yeah, for sure.
Not a lot of people know this.
Not a lot of people notice itbecause he's constantly yelling
at you guys.
That's where my that's morecomedy, like that's where I'm
constantly laughing at the shitthat you know some of the guys
do and uh he gets mad at.
And um I uh I remember uh he'sgot a soft side, and um I have
(01:03):
blood.
SPEAKER_03 (01:03):
And for anybody listening to this, big boy was
our platoon sergeant.
It was uh staff sergeant PatrickColeman.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (01:10):
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11):
Uh yeah, so I uh I remember uh like he like looked
at me, he's like, You got bloodall over you, you got blood over
your face, your hands, and stufflike that.
So he grabs his canteen, right?
And it starts washing my faceoff, washing my hands off.
And I was like sitting there,it's like I I kept looking at
saying, like Stafford, I'mfucking thirsty.
(01:33):
And he's like, he's pouring thiswater on me.
And I go over, I think I was inmy truck already.
I I look over at Numer and he'slike drinking his uh frozen
Gatorade.
I was like, hey man, can I havesome of that?
And he's like, no, so you can'thave you'll suck all the juice
out.
It's like like leave me withjust ice and water.
(01:54):
I was like, fucking dick.
So I just grabbed my hot assfreaking, you know, uh canteen
and just start drinking out ofthat.
I was just so thirsty, and itlasted, I didn't even know how
long that thing lasted for it,but it lasted for quite a bit.
And that whole situationhappened as far as like you
know, the the high back gettinghit.
(02:16):
And um, at that time, I think Iwas we were we were on um um
we're still on dam road, weren'twe?
SPEAKER_03 (02:23):
Uh when the when the high back got hit, we were up so
above the dam was that cemeteryhill where there's a bunch of
old there's old families ofRamadi, but there's also some
war casualties from theirIraq-Iran war.
Okay, and we were up on top ofthat hill overwatching Michigan.
Okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (02:45):
So I just remember just like being thirsty that
whole fucking day.
And hearing that, um, that'swhen I actually came to is when
that whole situation happened onuh uh with the highback.
That's when I came to it.
They tried to get me in troublefor that too, by the way.
(03:07):
Oh, I didn't know.
No, oh yeah.
When we got back to the rear thenext day, it's like, hey, I
heard um you injected yourselfwith morphine.
Like they're trying to look atme like I actually did it on
purpose, right?
I'm like, like, yeah, Iaccidentally, you know, hit
myself with morphine, like mythumb.
You know, it was still a littlebit swollen, but it wasn't crazy
or anything like that.
But he's like, Yeah, I I uhinjected it upside down.
(03:30):
He's like, and they're like,Well, you gotta write a report
about it.
I was like, report for what?
He's like, Well, youaccidentally injected yourself,
you need to actually write areport.
So I had I had to sit there andactually write a report saying
what what happened and all thatstuff.
Nothing came of it, but uh surethey're looking at me like I'm a
fucking criminal, like I did iton purpose or something like
(03:52):
that.
I was like, dude, what why wouldI do something like that?
That's not the first time theytried to uh they tried to
actually do something like uhthose flak, the flak jackets
that we had, they didn't have aquick release on the uh the
shoulders, right?
Right, right.
So it's not like you can takethat, it's not like you can take
it off.
You have to actually like openit up in the front and um get
(04:13):
somebody's arm and shoulder off,and you know, get get their get
it through the shoulder and thenget it through the back and then
uh take it off in order toactually look for any kind of
like injuries and stuff.
Nowadays they have the quickrelease where you can actually
take the whole front end offeasily, right?
And still use the the sappyplate on the back as a uh C uh a
C spine or uh a spineprecaution, right?
(04:35):
Right.
So that the stuff that they havenowadays is nice, but um back
then we had those those uhcrappy ones, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (04:43):
The full piece vest.
I did not think about that.
But now that you're talkingabout that, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (04:48):
They did try to get me in trouble with that because
I cut one off.
Oh, really?
What I cut it right off of thetop top of the shoulder.
That was what what else are yougonna do?
Of course you're gonna cut itoff.
Yeah, yeah.
I that was in uh in uh Morris'sum Jeffries' uh Jeffrey's case
where I cut it off on the top,cut it off on the other side,
and just I took the whole thingoff, right?
Uh to get off of him and um toactually see the injuries that
(05:12):
you actually had.
SPEAKER_01 (05:14):
And um when we got was it the battalion that was
going after you?
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it was battalion.
Um well, obviously, you know,chain of command.
They talked to sure, yeah.
We talked to medical and stufflike that.
Medical pose man, it's like, whydid you cut it?
I was like, I was trying to getto the injury.
He's like, Well, that's youknow, I believe they said
something about it, it was likea thousand dollars uh piece of
uh uh um gear and you cut itwith value scissors.
(05:40):
It's like, well, yeah, I waslike, Well, you shouldn't be
doing that, you shouldn't bedoing that.
I was like, Okay, I try not todo it next time, I guess.
But yeah, it was like they weremore weird about like that stuff
than you know, somebody's life.
I don't know, it was weird.
It was well again.
SPEAKER_03 (05:59):
This is one of those points where it was so early in
the war that no one was readyfor that level of sustained
combat.
We didn't have the medicalsupplies, we didn't realize how
smart it would be to cut off aflak jacket, and so now,
unfortunately, the lessonslearned by uh E3 Bundy uh were
(06:20):
written in, and now they'relike, Oh, yeah, well, instead of
cutting off flak jackets, whydon't we just make a quick
release on the top so it comesoff so you don't have to twist
him and and manipulate limbs ofsomeone who's critically
injured?
That's that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
Yeah, it falls it falls in that same category of
us getting in trouble wheneverwe go to the nicer bases and try
and get chow and they'd be like,You're too dirty.
SPEAKER_04 (06:47):
Oh remember that, right?
I do remember that.
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (06:52):
Let's custom and courtesies need to take pri take
priority to uh to thewarfighter.
Got it.
SPEAKER_00 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah.
So Major Booker was pissed.
Oh you threatened somebody'slife, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:07):
Well, if you're talking about the time that uh
he uh it was actually we'rewe're gonna be talking to Adams
and Martinez here in a minute.
If you're talking about the timehe called over to Blue Diamond
and like threatened the life ofthe sergeant major over there,
yes.
SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
Yeah, I do remember that.
I do remember that.
Yeah, I remember rocking inthat.
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
That was my that was that was Sledgehammer that had
that one.
SPEAKER_00 (07:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was pretty yeah, it'spretty cool.
I mean, we we had we had a lotof good um support from you know
higher ups.
SPEAKER_03 (07:39):
I felt like our command was uh yeah, I was gonna
say I felt like our in ourimmediate chain of command all
the way up to battalion waspretty good.
People did not routinely get introuble for things that didn't
make any sense.
And that's exactly that that'sgood.
I mean, I do remember some timeswhere they were like, okay, you
guys all need to cut your hairevery Sunday.
(08:01):
And it's like, but really that'sthe most important thing.
Okay, all right, fine, fine.
SPEAKER_00 (08:05):
That and the blouse, the uh the blouses, yes, yeah,
yeah, I can like uh blouse inyour boots.
SPEAKER_03 (08:10):
Yeah, you gotta blouse your boots, you gotta
make sure you can't roll yoursleeves, doesn't matter that
it's 140 fucking degreesoutside.
SPEAKER_01 (08:16):
Yeah, yeah.
I got in trouble for having mymy amazing mustache and uh and
too long, and my I kept cuttinga horseshoe over there.
But I had but I had like two anda half inches, and so and like
when I got in trouble, it wasafter a mission, and so I ran my
(08:36):
hair, my hand through my hair,but I had so much salt in it
that it basically stuck itstraight up.
Yeah, and Gunny was like, Whatthe fuck?
SPEAKER_00 (08:46):
Cut that right now.
Well, Gunny Maraki, Gunny Marakiuh understood, you know, the
whole like how everything was,and he always like backed us
out.
That dude, dude, was a good man,he's a good leader.
Um, I remember uh when I firstgot to 224, that guy did
(09:09):
everything to make fun of me.
He would like just single me outfor some fucking reason.
He's like called me a fuckingsquid.
Like, get the fuck over you,fucking squid, you know.
It's like fuck, dude.
SPEAKER_01 (09:20):
That's just gummy's long love language, though.
It really is.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (09:24):
You learn later he only fucks with the people he
loves.
SPEAKER_00 (09:26):
Yeah, yeah.
And then um after that, like uhit was during the fire fight
that we were in, and it was thattime when he had his wrap around
fucking sunglasses, right?
Yeah, uh, just fucking walkingdown the middle of this fucking
fire fight, like he was windowshopping, just shooting.
Whenever you see our target, hejust pop, you know, pop a couple
rounds.
SPEAKER_03 (09:46):
And he didn't miss, he didn't miss.
No, he did not.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (09:49):
It's amazing.
When I saw that, I was like,fucking awesome, dude.
So that's why I use my ChuckNorris, right?
Um, yeah, he's uh I remember uhlike uh he goes over to the
side, he hugs the wall, and Iwas like securing this one
alleyway, and um he's like, Duh,you got me?
(10:12):
I was like, got you, gunny.
And then he gets up, he runsacross and gets into the middle
of the street.
So I was like, Fuck yeah, dude.
I'm gonna do the same shit.
So next thing you know,everybody just stands up.
That was like all like huggingthe wall.
Everybody just stands up andeverybody just started walking
by him.
He's like right in the center onthat fucking formation.
It was amazing.
(10:32):
But um, it was uh it was afterthat that um he was he was so
cool with me.
He was like um every time I diduh truck watch, he was sitting
over there just hanging out withme, you know.
Fucking they were smokingcigarettes.
SPEAKER_03 (10:47):
Oh yeah, yeah.
He he smoked.
He what's funny is he neversmoked before that, but uh on
that deployment, I thinkeverybody was a packaday smoker
by that point.
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Um, he would uh he'd smokecigars with me just bullshit and
tells me uh like that tells meeverything about himself, and he
was he was great, dude.
And he keeps asking me everyday, doc are you okay?
Like, yeah, I'm fine, I'm good.
So he was very involved.
Um, yeah, he had that soft sideon him, yeah.
(11:18):
Like after he gets to know him,but before that, you know, stand
the fuck by.
SPEAKER_03 (11:23):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that time that you'rereferencing was April 7th, which
was one of the middays of themain battle of Ramadi.
Do you remember much from April6th, 7th, and 10th, basically?
Those are the three biggest daysof the Battle of Ramadi.
Anything that stands out?
SPEAKER_00 (11:42):
I remember pulling those guys out from that house.
They were pinned down.
It was Barger's uh platoonactually that was pinned down in
that house.
Um, I remember him uh sittingthere after we uh pulled them
out, sitting there and like umtelling me the story, like
telling me the story that theywere inside the house and um
(12:04):
they were receiving fire fromlike they were receiving enemy
fire and they thought that wasit for them.
I and they're they were likefuck man, we're gonna die here,
right?
And he said that all of a suddenhe starts hearing fucking heavy
weapons, like boom, boom, boom,boom.
This us fucking and um likefucking unleashing 50 cows, Mark
(12:28):
19s and shit like that.
And then after that, they it wasjust like this one sigh of
relief from everybody, justthey're here, you know.
And I remember him saying, Thankyou guys, thank you guys so much
for doing this, for doing, youknow, it was pretty it's pretty
amazing.
It was a great feeling that youknow we were able to do that uh
to actually help them out.
(12:50):
And wasn't there somebody thatwas stuck in a pump house or
something like that?
SPEAKER_03 (12:55):
Yeah, that was the snipers that had gone across the
uh across the field.
Um if I remember correctly.
I know Stay Skull was one ofthem.
I do not remember, I thinkSantiago was the other one.
Um I we had to go find thembecause they were they were
pinned down out there and andkind of separated from the main
element.
Yeah, they were shot to shit,one thing.
(13:16):
Yeah, I mean Stay Skull was shotfor sure.
I don't remember, I don'tremember who else was wounded.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Um that was April 6th,specifically.
You're talking about the it wasway north of the Sophia
district.
We had got ambushed on our wayto get them, and I don't know
how long we fought, three, fourhours before we actually got to
(13:36):
them.
Yeah, uh just basically constantbarrage of being surrounded,
completely surrounded, uh, byfighting on all sides.
And my understanding of whathappened at the time based on
the after actions reports ofpiecing everything together from
Major Wiley and Major Harrelland the debrief that we got is
(13:57):
that our push pulled the mainassault off of them.
They still got sporadic contact.
I mean, they weren't not incontact, they were still getting
heavy hit.
But that our main push took themain elephant off of them, and
the main element came and andtried to attack us, which is why
we were surrounded by so manypeople.
(14:17):
Okay.
And then uh we fought our waythrough and moved north and met
up with them.
Rainmaker joined us, and we diduh an initial push through the
fields.
There was like you know, ahandful of guys, four, five,
six, I don't remember how manyinsurgents, but not many.
And we lit all them up out inthe field, and then that was
when we started you guys went inand started getting the guys out
(14:40):
of the house, and we went andfound the two guys in the pump
house.
SPEAKER_00 (14:44):
Yeah, uh Rudy, Rudy was the corpsman for that.
SPEAKER_03 (14:46):
Uh for rain for rainmaker rainmaker.
SPEAKER_00 (14:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because I remember seeing Rudyand the high back, and um, he
had uh they had an Iraqi uh highuh high value target.
That's where I um that's where Iremember people using like the
craziest fucking things for asuh as a medical implement.
Um he used he used a uh um heused a uh an MRE box as a uh um
(15:13):
a makeshift uh neck brace forthis guy.
I remember that.
Yeah, I do remember that.
So uh that's one of the timeslike, yeah, I do remember like
um he implemented that and uh hewas just smiling, like, what is
going on here?
He's like, I said neck brace,bro.
I was like, cool.
And then uh they just rolledout.
Uh yeah, and we had like a lot,we captured a few people during
(15:37):
that time, didn't we?
SPEAKER_03 (15:38):
We captured quite a few.
Uh only one ended up being ahigh value target.
He was some general uh in theRepublican Guard.
I don't know, I don't know hisname.
He wasn't as important enoughfor me to remember his name.
But we ended up throwing thoseguys out on the ground and uh
loading up the the woundedMarines.
The woman did, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:55):
And um, I remember having to treat those um having
to treat the Marines and thenhaving to treat the uh the
prisoners that we had too.
SPEAKER_03 (16:04):
So yeah, initially you guys all I don't know what
you did, but you bandaged allthose guys up enough to where we
could throw them in the highback, and then we stole we stole
Rainmaker's high back and uhshot our way through Route Nova
and made it all the way back toJunction City and got them to
Charlie Med.
And what I was told again, Ileft, but that was the goal was
(16:25):
that you guys were gonna patchup the Iraqis.
Uh one of them was one of themwas dead.
He was dead at the back of thehigh back.
Yeah, but but the other Iraqisthat were wounded got put in the
Bradleys and taken to JunctionCity.
SPEAKER_00 (16:37):
Yeah, uh, I I was uh I was feeding those guys and
stuff when um when before weloaded up in the Bradley.
I do remember that.
It was uh it was right next tothe river, wasn't it?
Yes, some kind of a waterfeature, yeah.
Yes, yes.
That was right next to theEuphrates River.
Yep.
Yep.
So yeah, I was uh patching themup and stuff, and um uh I
remember Marines.
Uh there's this one thing too.
(16:58):
It was uh one of the Marines wasuh was pissed off um because um
I was treating um I was treatingtheir uh I was treating the
prisoners and I remember I don'tknow he wasn't he wasn't with um
weapons company that platoonwasn't but they were saying like
(17:19):
you know fuck that guy don'tdon't fucking worry about him
like I can't believe you'rewasting your your uh medical
supplies on that fucking guy islike you know and you can uh you
can use that as an you can usethat on our Marines.
Like this is the time when wealready got the Marines loaded
up and patched up and androlling and um they're getting
pissed off because uh we we werecreating you know we were
(17:40):
treating the uh the prisonersand stuff.
And um I I understand, Iunderstand their perspective at
it, but at the end of the day,you know, it's it's an un
unarmed combatant that that'salready down and done.
You still gotta treat them.
You know, maybe they'll havelike they'll have like some kind
of some kind of information toactually give us or whatever,
(18:02):
you know.
You still gotta make sure thatthey're okay.
And um I think it was that daywhere yeah, I remember that.
I remember that.
And what a lot of people don'tunderstand is like uh that's
that's why that's why uh medicalpersonnel protected uh under the
(18:24):
Genevieve Convention duringwars, because they don't
differentiate within like whenat the end of the day when
everybody's down, they'reunarmed, whatever.
Um you can't differentiatebetween you can't differentiate
between uh um enemy or friendly,you know.
You have to treat everybody, andum that was uh it is it's pretty
(18:50):
hard trying to find thatbalance, but you have to, you
know, that's part of your job.
You have to find that balance.
SPEAKER_03 (18:58):
That's uh something I want to kind of elaborate on
if you got a minute, becauseliterally minutes before you
were treating those people, youwere in sustained ambush for
multiple hours.
I if I my memory serves, it wasabout three to four hours of
(19:19):
straight gun fights where themajority of our platoon, more
than half, received wounds.
Yeah, uh, multiple people hitwith shrapnel, uh, people hit
with bullet fragments, all kindsof things.
I think you were even wounded atthat time.
Wasn't that that was yeah, thatwas a day.
That was a day.
You caught a bullet in the ass?
(19:41):
Yeah, uh shot me a booty.
Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:45):
That was a funny story, though.
SPEAKER_03 (19:46):
But uh I mean, I don't know that it's that funny,
you got shot the ass, butanyway, yeah.
So you yourself are wounded bythese very people.
Lit probably, I mean, it couldhave even been the very guy you
were treating.
Not that you would know forsure, but it very well could
have been.
Uh, because we were snatchingguys out of houses, we were you
know taking people down and theywould throw their weapons aside
(20:07):
and we would tie them up andthrow them in the back of the
highbacks, especially onceRainmaker arrived.
Was it a hard mental shift foryou that you were literally you
were probably shooting andkilling this guy and be or
people just like him, and thenminutes later you're bandaging
up his holes so he can surviveanother day.
SPEAKER_00 (20:27):
Yeah, it's it's see the the mental shift didn't come
until afterwards.
This is I I always replay theday.
Um, at the end of the day, Ialways replay what happened
throughout the day, and that'swhere that's where you get
better.
Like, what what can I do?
What could I have done betterduring that time, you know?
And um during that time, it waslike basically just muscle
(20:51):
memory.
It's like, okay, um I need to dothis because this is what I need
to do, you know.
Um, don't really have any kindof like emotions attached to it.
And that's one thing I havelearned to actually do is uh to
detach myself from emotions umduring situations like that.
(21:11):
Uh, because if you allow youremotions to actually get in the
way, you won't be able to doyour job.
You know, emotions can be youcan feel all those things until
after when when everything'sdone.
You can feel all those things asmuch as you want until
everything's done.
And it's it's a it's a shittyway to go about it, but that's
(21:33):
that's what needs to be done,you know.
You start attaching emotions toit, you'll you're pretty much
just worthless, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (21:40):
It's not my job to evaluate or argue with you, but
I disagree.
I don't think that that's uh Idon't think that's a bad way to
go about it.
I think that's an extremelymature and intelligent way to go
about it is to be removeyourself from the situation.
Yeah, and you had a perfectexample in your story.
There was a Marine there who wasallowing his emotions to dictate
(22:01):
what he was doing, and whatwould have been a better choice,
pull security or help out one ofyour brothers rather than get
upset with this guy who is nolonger a threat.
Yeah, yeah.
And so I I I think you had a youhad your point is very well
taken.
SPEAKER_00 (22:17):
Yeah.
I experienced that that uh Idon't know, I guess uh that that
uh just just being uh being likeI guess uh being hated at that
moment um because um you werecreating the animation.
So I was like, oh shit, dude.
(22:37):
All right, and this is real.
And these are the things thatthey teach you in in uh FMTV,
film every training battalion.
Um like uh they teach you thisstuff like yeah, this is what
happened.
You never really believe ituntil it actually happens, you
know.
It's like holy shit, it's a realdeal, you know.
So yeah, like the experiencethat people had in the past,
(22:59):
like take that, you know, takethat in like call it as like as
something valuable because it itwill happen, and once you
realize it's true, then you'llyou'll be surprised, you know.
It's it's crazy.
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
I was uh just I was just reading uh this uh so it's
a book called uh the three thethree black war, and it's uh a
lot, it's about 2004, 2009 timeframe.
And uh there's a section,there's a chapter on our
battalion in there.
And uh there's actually athere's a longer section
(23:37):
paragraph talking about that itwas recognized by the enemy that
that we were such a threat inthat we fought so feroc like
with such ferocity, but wetreated that prisoner so well.
Like as soon as as as soon asand and and it was actually
quite jarring to the enemy.
(23:59):
It actually did psychologicalthings to them, uh, but it also
helped us in our larger missionbecause the Iraqi populace that
hadn't you know gone against uswas like, okay, well, they're
not mindless, you know, yeahpeople.
(24:19):
And so um I think there's acouple of us that you know I I
know I take a lot of pride inwhen the enemy was the enemy, no
worst enemy.
But when it was but but when butwhen it was time uh and the
bullets stopped flying or it wastime to take them in, I was uh
(24:42):
tried to do my best to make surethat they were safe.
SPEAKER_00 (24:46):
So no better friend, no worst enemy.
Yeah, damn right.
So yeah, I I do remember thattime frame.
Um uh help me out on theseventh.
What happened on the seventh?
Well, you kind of you kind oftalked about it.
SPEAKER_03 (25:03):
That was, I mean, we went right back to the same
area.
We were fighting in the Sophiadistrict, just a we were
fighting a little bit moresouth.
Um, the way that a few otherpeople tell it is that Randall
made a wrong turn and we endedup getting ambushed at the wrong
turn.
I don't I don't know that thatwas true.
I was in the fifth vehicle inthe column, so I don't know if
(25:24):
we made a wrong turn or not.
I guess Randall eventually willhave to spring up out of hiding
and defend himself.
I don't know if he made a wrongturn or not.
But uh we were in between theindustrial district and the
Sophia district, and that waswhere we got hit real hard, and
we were we were out there allday.
And uh that was when GunnyMuraki was with us specifically.
(25:44):
That was when you weredescribing going down those
roads on foot, yeah.
Uh because the vehicles wouldn'tfit down those narrow corridors
uh initially.
Um yeah, and there's a lot ofstuff.
SPEAKER_00 (25:54):
Um that was what everybody had to be everybody
had to be dismounted to actuallyprovide security for the trucks
because uh those alleyways,yeah, they were popping out of
alleyways and uh shooting at usat the same time.
Yeah, that's when I got poppedwhen I got shot because I was
we're taking fire from the rear.
So I started laying suppressingfire to the rear, and I had my I
(26:16):
had my back turned towards thatalleyway, and um somebody was
covering that alleyway.
Somebody popped around andactually shot an AK and big shit
right into my my booty.
So nice that was fun.
That was funny when they gave methat award.
SPEAKER_03 (26:36):
I mean, you were shot.
What's funny is we talked a lotof shit about you getting shot
in the ass.
We made fun of you, I think, forthe rest of the deployment.
Yeah, but you got shot.
It wasn't like you fell down andhurt yourself, which you know,
some people got purple heartsfor falling down when indirect
fire happened.
No, nobody that I know, but Iknow that did happen.
(26:57):
Uh you got actually shot.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:02):
Uh that take you out of the fight for any length of
time.
SPEAKER_00 (27:05):
Nope.
Uh, we ended up going back tothe rear because we had to
resupply an ammo.
Um, because we ran out of ammothat day, right?
SPEAKER_03 (27:12):
Yep, we went belly up on Mart 19 ammo, and that was
our that was our best weaponwhen they were hiding behind
those big fat stone walls.
And so we had to go back andresupply before we could go out
again.
SPEAKER_00 (27:22):
Yeah, and then uh like when we were in the rear, I
was um I was like uh I was uh uhI was loading up the mag my
magazines and um staff sergeantColeman uh came up and said,
Doc, you need to go to medical.
I was like, What?
I'm good.
He's like, No, you're gonna go.
So um Navi, uh he told Navi totake me to medical.
(27:43):
I'm like, what the fuck?
I'm a Corman dude, I can go tomedical and but uh it took uh
told Navy to take me down tomedical.
So uh Navi ended up taking medown to medical and they
recorded my name down uh as uhbeing uh a casualty um for that
day.
I'm like, what the fuck?
But we went back out that sameday.
It was like it was a couple ofminutes that um they banished me
(28:05):
up and then we ended up goingback back out.
I didn't want to I didn't wantto go down, it was you know, it
wasn't anything big.
So I remember uh when uh thecasualty report came out that
night and we were at the COC.
Um they reported my injury asgetting shot in the face, right?
I was like, fuck, dude.
And then they reported it to therear as getting shot in the
(28:28):
face, and I was like, uh I waslike uh I was like critically
injured.
They told my parents that.
Oh shit, yeah.
And this is the this is themessed up thing, is um my I told
my I told my mom and dad that wewere over there building schools
and shit like that.
How the fuck you get shotbuilding schools?
(28:50):
I was like, I don't know, I'msorry.
And we couldn't use the sapphonefor a few days because it was
River City.
Yep, right, and um like uh wehad to wait until uh like a few
days until they were allnotified, including my parents,
saying that I was criticallyinjured.
SPEAKER_03 (29:08):
Yeah, they shut down all comms, nobody was allowed to
call out, and most people'sfamilies got notified long
before they were ever able tocall.
I don't think the first callswere able to go out until like
April 14th or 15th.
It was way after all the bigfights.
SPEAKER_00 (29:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (29:24):
It was that was because so many guys died.
They were, I mean, they theMarine Corps liaisons were
having to go to people's housesand and deliver the news.
Yeah, they were having a hardtime tracking people's families
down.
Like, I remember getting thosebriefs every day.
They're like, the phones aregonna be on tomorrow.
You'd go to the brief in themorning.
Yeah, the phones will be ontomorrow.
We haven't got a hold ofeverybody yet.
It's like, fuck man, I'd like tobe able to tell my wife I'm not
(29:46):
dead.
SPEAKER_00 (29:47):
Yeah, that it became pretty morbid after a while,
too.
Like that River City thing.
Like, we would actually likepeople would actually get it's
kind of messed up because peoplewould get pissed off because
they're not able to actually gouh talk to their you know family
after somebody dies and stufflike that, you know, is it got
pretty morbid.
Um, nobody could use thesaffron, nothing like that.
(30:08):
Because yeah, like people arecomplaining, like this is
bullshit.
I was like, I should be able tocall my family.
It's like, dude, somebody justdied bro.
SPEAKER_03 (30:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I wonder if somebody recordedthat it was your face just to be
funny, and then it ended up thejoke got worse.
No, there were so many things.
Things like that though.
Coleman got hit on that sameday.
That was when he got hit in theface.
It hit a little artery in hisface, and he was spraying blood.
(30:36):
Like he had so much blood onhim.
And I'm like, You're not good.
He's like, I'm fucking fine.
Leave me alone.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:42):
He wouldn't, yeah, he wouldn't stop.
I was like trying to get uh getat him, and you were chasing him
down the road trying to get himto stop.
SPEAKER_03 (30:48):
And he's like, Leave me the fuck alone in the middle
of a gunfight ambush.
And like, here's Bundy with likea med bag.
Oh my god, it was great.
SPEAKER_00 (30:57):
Yeah, but some of you guys just won't quit, man.
Like uh you guys get injured,you just keep going.
I'm like trying to chase youguys down and actually patch it
up, like do a real quick job totry to get it stopped somehow,
you know.
And uh you just keep going.
I was like, What are you guys?
I was like, All right, cool.
I'll just stay set.
Yeah, I'll just uh take thisrifle and uh provide security.
(31:19):
Yeah, so yeah, it was uh it's uhdid you guys pretty amazing.
So the things that you guys did.
So what else you got, man?
SPEAKER_03 (31:30):
Any other memories?
Any other memories stand out?
They don't even have to becombat memories, they can be
goofy shit that happened in thehooch, whatever you want to talk
about.
SPEAKER_00 (31:37):
Oh, dude, the goofy shit, like I was always in the
center of that shit, dude.
Like as far as like uh the goofyshit that happens in the hooch.
I always like uh it alwaysinvolves me, um, or new meyer,
one of the two.
But you it was Twitter, you andfucking Jim.
Um you guys would always fuckwith me.
(31:59):
You guys would do the fucked upmost fucked up things to me.
And it was it was it's all fun,obviously, you know, and looking
back, it's just fuckinghilarious.
I remember um you guys weregetting um um you guys were
getting um you guys were gettingum packages from home, and I'm
(32:19):
like the only one that wasn'tgetting anything.
I was like, fuck, man.
It's like I'm a fucking loser.
Everybody's like getting mail,getting packages and stuff like
that.
And um, you know, Jim decided,you know, he'll take advantage
of that fucking weakness andshit.
So he fucking gathered all threeof you guys up and says, like,
hey, let's uh let's take hisfucking cover and uh put it in a
(32:43):
uh put it in the box and smellit back over to us and shit,
right?
I was like, uh I remember Iremember you guys stole my cover
and I was looking for that covereverywhere because that was the
only cover I had for me toactually go to Chow and shit.
So I had to I had to walk aroundlike I had an extra booty.
That was that I was walkingaround a fucking boonie cover
(33:05):
and shit, and uh then likecouldn't find that cover for the
life of me for like a week ortwo, I think.
I was looking everywhere forthat thing.
And then um, next thing I knowwas like um like it was a mail
call, and they said, Hey, yougot a package?
It's like doc, you got apackage.
It's like cool, I got a package.
No, that that can't be.
I never get packages, right?
(33:25):
Like in I was all excited, likeholding my package and like
trying to fucking brag out, bragto everybody.
I fucking told you somebodyloves me, you motherfuckers.
I was like, and I and I go inthere, fucking flip my knife up,
open it up, fucking.
It was all like uh it had likenewspaper and like all crumpled
(33:46):
up paper in there.
I was like, Oh, what is that?
Must be something good, right?
Open it up, it's my fuckingcover.
And I fucking I was like, whatthe fuck?
And the first thing I look at isyou guys is fucking corner over
there where uh Jim, you guys aresleeping.
I was like, you motherfuckers,you guys are just fucking over
there, just laughing your assoff, dude.
I was like, fucking dicks, dude.
SPEAKER_03 (34:08):
We gathered up, we we passed around a helmet, and
everybody threw in all the theNCOs threw in their aphies pogs,
those fucking bullshit bullshitcardboard coins.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they threw all those inthere.
That's how we paid to mail thatto you.
It was we actually took it toJunction City and mailed it to
(34:29):
them.
SPEAKER_00 (34:30):
Yeah.
Oh man, there's uh there'sanother time when um like I
remember uh I remember I waslike going to the gym every
fucking day.
That was like my my um mydecompression time.
I would just go to the gym, justbeat the shit out of myself and
(34:50):
just pass out that day.
Um it was uh one day when I wason the sat phone and uh my
girlfriend at the time likebroke up me over fucking in the
sat phone, right?
Right, and given this wasrockets coming in, fucking like
motors coming in, like blowingup in the background, like hey,
can't be together.
I'm like, fuck, dude.
(35:12):
So I was all like butthurt aboutit, right?
So I was like, you know what,I'm gonna go to the gym and just
like work out.
And so I go over to my rack andum I started changing out.
And I tell it's like Jim, like,no, he's like, hey dude, are you
okay?
It's like no man, my girlfriendjust broke over me.
(35:34):
It's like, are you fuckingserious?
And his face, like he had asmile when he first approached
me.
And when he heard that mygirlfriend just broke over me,
he's like fucking it was likethis weird, sad, like happy type
of fucking uh emotion in hisface.
I didn't know what it was,right?
Like, what the fuck is going onwith him?
(35:55):
And then uh he goes over to uhhe goes over to Twitter and
tells Tweeter, and I think heoverheard it, tells Twitter is
like, hey dude, you just brokeover this girlfriend.
Like, oh my god.
So Tweeter just stays over inthe corner and uh and Jim just
sits over in his rack and justlike staring at me.
Like, and um as I popped it, I'mjust gonna go to the gym.
(36:17):
I just need to decompress.
So I started tripping down, gotmy boots off, put my fucking
socks on, and then um I uh putmy shoes on.
These fucking dickheads put babypowder into my fucking my
GoFasters and shit.
And when I put it on, this thingjust fucking explodes like
fucking baby powder everywhere.
(36:38):
I was like, what the fuck?
Right?
I was like, dude, I really don'tneed this right now.
And I looked over to uh whereJim was fucking sitting at and
uh tour was sitting there.
It's like they want to laugh,but they couldn't.
They wanted it it was just thisweird base that they actually
made.
It's like you guys are fuckingdickheads, man.
(37:01):
I was like, fuck you guys, andthen it's like one of those, uh
one of those things, like youknow, you uh you kind of like uh
uh hurt somebody and you try tomake it feel better, right?
Like so Jim's like, oh, there'sthe dude, it's okay.
And he's just fucking laughing,he's like trying to hold a smile
back.
He's like, it's okay, buddy,it's okay.
(37:21):
What the fuck, man?
They glued my um they glued myprotein drink, my uh it's like
this jug of protein, um like uhpowdered protein onto my make my
makeshift fucking shelf that Ihad like hanging on the wall,
like 550 cord.
So the 550 cord uh basicallyheld this thing up, and the 550
(37:43):
cord was hooked onto a sandbagthat's outside, that's uh
holding the actual tarp roofthat we had, right?
So I just tied that shit up, youknow, somehow, but it's staying
in you know, I had like a littleshelf that I was putting shit
on, including my protein drink.
These fucking dickheads likeactually took super glue and uh
(38:04):
they super glued my fuckingprotein drink on there.
So when I grabbed it, everythingjust fucking falls off.
It's like, dude, like took me awhile to get that fucking shelf
like working and shit.
The shit that they would do,bro.
Yeah, but yeah, that's whythat's why I was um that's why I
(38:25):
was always happy over there.
It's like looking forward tolike you know things like that.
I didn't take it very seriously.
I was just like, you know, itwas all fun.
SPEAKER_03 (38:33):
There is everybody fucked with everybody all the
time.
There was no there was no end tothe pranks and the humor, which
I mean again, like you said,people might have just died, but
we were still making jokesbecause fuck it.
Exactly.
There was nothing else to do.
SPEAKER_00 (38:47):
Yeah, you gotta just make the best of what in the
situation.
So I mean at one point, like uh,I don't know who it was that
actually got the supplies forit.
Um, we had like a little cornerjack shack, but that thing was
like fucking the Cadillac of allfucking jack shacks.
It was like it had like allsorts of like different
(39:10):
magazines that you can choosefrom, right?
Oh yeah, it's got somebody hadlike a pumper magazine in there.
It was fucking weird.
That was rabbit.
SPEAKER_03 (39:18):
That was rabbit.
I can I know exactly who thatwas because he used to always
bring it out and be like he'dflip through to the nastiest
picture and be like, You tell meif she was here right now.
You wouldn't say yes, and we'relike, You fucking nasty
motherfucker.
SPEAKER_00 (39:32):
I know uh that thing had lotions, like three
different types of lotions.
I was like, Well, okay, this isawesome, dude.
It was it was bougie, it wasbougie.
unknown (39:44):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (39:46):
And everybody thought that they were being
fucking um being stealthy, likegoing into the jack shack at
like two, three o'clock in themorning.
So like everybody fucking knowsyou're going, they just go.
SPEAKER_03 (39:57):
Yeah, at one point we did put a uh a sign out sheet
on the door.
Yeah, like you can stop hidingit.
There's a sign out sheet thatway.
Nobody will go in when it's yourassigned time.
SPEAKER_00 (40:08):
Yeah, like we had um we uh we had E my.
Well, I don't know.
Uh uh it was that was so weirdwhat he does though.
He would stand up and on on theurinal, and he would actually,
you know, fucking jack off.
They were like, what the fuck,bro?
And he would look like at firstwhen you when the first time
(40:31):
that's that I walked in on thatshit, I thought he was just
taking a piss.
Right?
I was like, cool.
So I go right next to the fuck,I go right next to the urinal
next to him, and I just startedpissing.
Oh no, it wasn't it was the toyuh next time he started pissing,
and he just like stared at me,and then I fucking realized that
this dude's just fucking justjacking off, dude.
(40:52):
What the fuck?
And he's made he made eyecontact, dude.
He made eye contact, it'sfucking weird.
I was like, oh fuck, dude.
All right, well, yeah, okay.
Like, how's it going?
And he actually we actually hadlike a small bit of
conversation, like what's up,and I was I was like, What's up?
I was just like, we're makingeye contact during this time,
(41:14):
and he wasn't stopping, we justkept going, right?
Like, what's going on, dude?
He's like, nothing, cool, and Ijust fucking walked out, dude.
I just didn't, I could not likeput a lot.
It was like the whole day.
I was just like, I was like,what the fuck just happened?
I was like, did that justhappen?
Like, no, it didn't just happen.
It's like, dude, it was it wasunbelievable, it was fucking
(41:35):
hilarious.
The shit that happened, dude.
Oh man.
Yeah, if it's not, if it's not,if it doesn't involve me or
somebody else, it's always it'salways something to actually uh
smile about.
Um like even even like uh whenwe're on patrol, um the place is
(41:56):
hot, uh it's shitty, it smellslike shit.
I mean, everything everything'sjust fucking horrible over
there, but the sunrise and thesunset is beautiful.
So it was like you know, thatthat sunlight, that the the the
sunrise and sunset, like hittingthe Euphrates, like it was it
was amazing, you know.
It's like that brief moment, youknow, it's uh everything just
(42:21):
goes away.
You don't you don't try to thinkabout like anything else, but
it's just that brief moment thatlike wow yeah, it just kind of
it's kind of like a break fromeverything.
So it's pretty amazing.
Um that's why I've always foundthe simple um I've always found
the simple lining of everything,even though things are hard,
it's it's you know, it's nothingto worry about because there's
(42:44):
always something there that'swill you know hold the memory
for you no matter what.
SPEAKER_03 (42:48):
So dude, that's awesome.
That's a good way to think of ittoo.
Yeah, bro, it's been great.
It's been great catching up.
I'm really glad to see you.
And uh I'm glad to see you guys,man.
SPEAKER_00 (43:01):
It was it's like you, yeah, it's pretty amazing
to see you guys.
SPEAKER_01 (43:05):
Um I really appreciate you sharing, and uh
that's especially given someinsight.
I it's what's been fun is we'llbe talking to you know people
from different platoons and thenyou know, yeah, yeah, different
ranks and everything.
And uh you're our firstcorpsman, and so it's it's
fascinating, you know, like youdon't know what you don't know.
(43:26):
And there was that that thefirst part of our conversation
was a lot of fun for me.
I'm going, oh man, I neverthought about that part of it.
Yeah, so yeah, so thanks forthat.
SPEAKER_00 (43:35):
Yeah, no problem, yeah, no problem.
Just thought, let me know, letme know, and then I'll I'll do
the same thing.
SPEAKER_03 (43:41):
Sounds good, perfect.
And you know, you you started totalk about it before we ever
pushed record, but uh I'm sorryyou felt like you couldn't talk
initially.
That sucks.
And I wish you would havereached out, but guess what?
We're 20 years out, so now youcan, all right?
SPEAKER_00 (43:57):
Yeah, no, no, no, no.
Um what what I'm veryappreciative about is like as
far as like you guys being beingvery so so accepting because you
guys went through the samething, you know, uh for for a
long time.
I thought I was I was the onlyone, and you know, my my seemed
very um like my seemed veryarrogant.
(44:20):
Like I thought I was the onlyone that was experiencing this
thing, but I didn't realize thatyou guys were too.
And now that kind of makes mefeel guilty because I could have
reached out and could havehelped you guys out too time,
you know.
SPEAKER_03 (44:31):
It's like it it goes both ways.
I yeah, so the same exactfeeling.
I didn't, you know, other peoplehave said the words
embarrassment or whatever.
I don't know.
I have not been able to talkabout this for 20 years either.
Oh yeah, because I just didn'tthink anybody would understand.
I who who was I gonna talk to?
And kind of the same thingyou're saying, I could have
(44:51):
reached out to you, I could havereached out to to Jimmy, I could
have reached out to anybody, butI never did.
I never did.
Yeah, I just I did what wealways do.
I put my head down and I put myfeet forward, and I and here I
am 20 years later, and I but Inever have unpacked any of this,
and so it's yeah, it's workingout that it's that we're able to
talk about it now.
SPEAKER_00 (45:11):
Yeah, it's uh like I'm listening to podcasts and
everything.
Like, as far as like all thosethings that these guys are
telling the saying, the storiesthat they're saying, it's
actually one, it's um kind ofverifying all the things I
remember because for a while Ithought, like, did that really
happen?
You know, it's like the memorythat your memory lies to you,
(45:31):
and um yeah, and um just gettingthat verification that that it's
it's amazing.
So I mean, my wife, my wife uhis a therapist, and um, you
know, she she's helped me out alot, she's an amazing person.
Uh she's like my rock, and um,you know, whenever I'm going
through this and I'm justdotting my memory and all that
(45:54):
stuff, she would help me out,she would like uh walk me
through all these things, andit's helped out a lot, dude.
It's uh good.
And now this is helping outmore, you know.
So just kind of verifying thosememories and stuff.
So nice.
SPEAKER_03 (46:10):
All right, man.
I won't hold you up.
It's been good talking to you.
SPEAKER_00 (46:13):
Uh it's great talking to you guys.
SPEAKER_03 (46:14):
We'll we'll talk again soon.
SPEAKER_01 (46:16):
Yeah, all right, man.
You well, buddy.
If you like what you heard, makesure you subscribe for future
episodes on your favoritepodcast service.
This is part two of our conversation with Mike
Bundison, Combat Corpsman,Mobile Assault Platoon 2.
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
Big Boy has a soft side.
He does, yeah, for sure.
Not a lot of people know this.
Not a lot of people notice itbecause he's constantly yelling
at you guys.
That's where my that's morecomedy, like that's where I'm
constantly laughing at the shitthat you know some of the guys
do and uh he gets mad at.
And um I uh I remember uh he'sgot a soft side, and um I have
(01:03):
blood.
SPEAKER_03 (01:03):
And for anybody listening to this, big boy was
our platoon sergeant.
It was uh staff sergeant PatrickColeman.
SPEAKER_00 (01:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (01:10):
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00 (01:11):
Uh yeah, so I uh I remember uh like he like looked
at me, he's like, You got bloodall over you, you got blood over
your face, your hands, and stufflike that.
So he grabs his canteen, right?
And it starts washing my faceoff, washing my hands off.
And I was like sitting there,it's like I I kept looking at
saying, like Stafford, I'mfucking thirsty.
(01:33):
And he's like, he's pouring thiswater on me.
And I go over, I think I was inmy truck already.
I I look over at Numer and he'slike drinking his uh frozen
Gatorade.
I was like, hey man, can I havesome of that?
And he's like, no, so you can'thave you'll suck all the juice
out.
It's like like leave me withjust ice and water.
(01:54):
I was like, fucking dick.
So I just grabbed my hot assfreaking, you know, uh canteen
and just start drinking out ofthat.
I was just so thirsty, and itlasted, I didn't even know how
long that thing lasted for it,but it lasted for quite a bit.
And that whole situationhappened as far as like you
know, the the high back gettinghit.
(02:16):
And um, at that time, I think Iwas we were we were on um um
we're still on dam road, weren'twe?
SPEAKER_03 (02:23):
Uh when the when the high back got hit, we were up so
above the dam was that cemeteryhill where there's a bunch of
old there's old families ofRamadi, but there's also some
war casualties from theirIraq-Iran war.
Okay, and we were up on top ofthat hill overwatching Michigan.
Okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (02:45):
So I just remember just like being thirsty that
whole fucking day.
And hearing that, um, that'swhen I actually came to is when
that whole situation happened onuh uh with the highback.
That's when I came to it.
They tried to get me in troublefor that too, by the way.
(03:07):
Oh, I didn't know.
No, oh yeah.
When we got back to the rear thenext day, it's like, hey, I
heard um you injected yourselfwith morphine.
Like they're trying to look atme like I actually did it on
purpose, right?
I'm like, like, yeah, Iaccidentally, you know, hit
myself with morphine, like mythumb.
You know, it was still a littlebit swollen, but it wasn't crazy
or anything like that.
But he's like, Yeah, I I uhinjected it upside down.
(03:30):
He's like, and they're like,Well, you gotta write a report
about it.
I was like, report for what?
He's like, Well, youaccidentally injected yourself,
you need to actually write areport.
So I had I had to sit there andactually write a report saying
what what happened and all thatstuff.
Nothing came of it, but uh surethey're looking at me like I'm a
fucking criminal, like I did iton purpose or something like
(03:52):
that.
I was like, dude, what why wouldI do something like that?
That's not the first time theytried to uh they tried to
actually do something like uhthose flak, the flak jackets
that we had, they didn't have aquick release on the uh the
shoulders, right?
Right, right.
So it's not like you can takethat, it's not like you can take
it off.
You have to actually like openit up in the front and um get
(04:13):
somebody's arm and shoulder off,and you know, get get their get
it through the shoulder and thenget it through the back and then
uh take it off in order toactually look for any kind of
like injuries and stuff.
Nowadays they have the quickrelease where you can actually
take the whole front end offeasily, right?
And still use the the sappyplate on the back as a uh C uh a
C spine or uh a spineprecaution, right?
(04:35):
Right.
So that the stuff that they havenowadays is nice, but um back
then we had those those uhcrappy ones, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (04:43):
The full piece vest.
I did not think about that.
But now that you're talkingabout that, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (04:48):
They did try to get me in trouble with that because
I cut one off.
Oh, really?
What I cut it right off of thetop top of the shoulder.
That was what what else are yougonna do?
Of course you're gonna cut itoff.
Yeah, yeah.
I that was in uh in uh Morris'sum Jeffries' uh Jeffrey's case
where I cut it off on the top,cut it off on the other side,
and just I took the whole thingoff, right?
Uh to get off of him and um toactually see the injuries that
(05:12):
you actually had.
SPEAKER_01 (05:14):
And um when we got was it the battalion that was
going after you?
SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it was battalion.
Um well, obviously, you know,chain of command.
They talked to sure, yeah.
We talked to medical and stufflike that.
Medical pose man, it's like, whydid you cut it?
I was like, I was trying to getto the injury.
He's like, Well, that's youknow, I believe they said
something about it, it was likea thousand dollars uh piece of
uh uh um gear and you cut itwith value scissors.
(05:40):
It's like, well, yeah, I waslike, Well, you shouldn't be
doing that, you shouldn't bedoing that.
I was like, Okay, I try not todo it next time, I guess.
But yeah, it was like they weremore weird about like that stuff
than you know, somebody's life.
I don't know, it was weird.
It was well again.
SPEAKER_03 (05:59):
This is one of those points where it was so early in
the war that no one was readyfor that level of sustained
combat.
We didn't have the medicalsupplies, we didn't realize how
smart it would be to cut off aflak jacket, and so now,
unfortunately, the lessonslearned by uh E3 Bundy uh were
(06:20):
written in, and now they'relike, Oh, yeah, well, instead of
cutting off flak jackets, whydon't we just make a quick
release on the top so it comesoff so you don't have to twist
him and and manipulate limbs ofsomeone who's critically
injured?
That's that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (06:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
Yeah, it falls it falls in that same category of
us getting in trouble wheneverwe go to the nicer bases and try
and get chow and they'd be like,You're too dirty.
SPEAKER_04 (06:47):
Oh remember that, right?
I do remember that.
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (06:52):
Let's custom and courtesies need to take pri take
priority to uh to thewarfighter.
Got it.
SPEAKER_00 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah.
So Major Booker was pissed.
Oh you threatened somebody'slife, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:07):
Well, if you're talking about the time that uh
he uh it was actually we'rewe're gonna be talking to Adams
and Martinez here in a minute.
If you're talking about the timehe called over to Blue Diamond
and like threatened the life ofthe sergeant major over there,
yes.
SPEAKER_00 (07:21):
Yeah, I do remember that.
I do remember that.
Yeah, I remember rocking inthat.
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
That was my that was that was Sledgehammer that had
that one.
SPEAKER_00 (07:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was pretty yeah, it'spretty cool.
I mean, we we had we had a lotof good um support from you know
higher ups.
SPEAKER_03 (07:39):
I felt like our command was uh yeah, I was gonna
say I felt like our in ourimmediate chain of command all
the way up to battalion waspretty good.
People did not routinely get introuble for things that didn't
make any sense.
And that's exactly that that'sgood.
I mean, I do remember some timeswhere they were like, okay, you
guys all need to cut your hairevery Sunday.
(08:01):
And it's like, but really that'sthe most important thing.
Okay, all right, fine, fine.
SPEAKER_00 (08:05):
That and the blouse, the uh the blouses, yes, yeah,
yeah, I can like uh blouse inyour boots.
SPEAKER_03 (08:10):
Yeah, you gotta blouse your boots, you gotta
make sure you can't roll yoursleeves, doesn't matter that
it's 140 fucking degreesoutside.
SPEAKER_01 (08:16):
Yeah, yeah.
I got in trouble for having mymy amazing mustache and uh and
too long, and my I kept cuttinga horseshoe over there.
But I had but I had like two anda half inches, and so and like
when I got in trouble, it wasafter a mission, and so I ran my
(08:36):
hair, my hand through my hair,but I had so much salt in it
that it basically stuck itstraight up.
Yeah, and Gunny was like, Whatthe fuck?
SPEAKER_00 (08:46):
Cut that right now.
Well, Gunny Maraki, Gunny Marakiuh understood, you know, the
whole like how everything was,and he always like backed us
out.
That dude, dude, was a good man,he's a good leader.
Um, I remember uh when I firstgot to 224, that guy did
(09:09):
everything to make fun of me.
He would like just single me outfor some fucking reason.
He's like called me a fuckingsquid.
Like, get the fuck over you,fucking squid, you know.
It's like fuck, dude.
SPEAKER_01 (09:20):
That's just gummy's long love language, though.
It really is.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (09:24):
You learn later he only fucks with the people he
loves.
SPEAKER_00 (09:26):
Yeah, yeah.
And then um after that, like uhit was during the fire fight
that we were in, and it was thattime when he had his wrap around
fucking sunglasses, right?
Yeah, uh, just fucking walkingdown the middle of this fucking
fire fight, like he was windowshopping, just shooting.
Whenever you see our target, hejust pop, you know, pop a couple
rounds.
SPEAKER_03 (09:46):
And he didn't miss, he didn't miss.
No, he did not.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (09:49):
It's amazing.
When I saw that, I was like,fucking awesome, dude.
So that's why I use my ChuckNorris, right?
Um, yeah, he's uh I remember uhlike uh he goes over to the
side, he hugs the wall, and Iwas like securing this one
alleyway, and um he's like, Duh,you got me?
(10:12):
I was like, got you, gunny.
And then he gets up, he runsacross and gets into the middle
of the street.
So I was like, Fuck yeah, dude.
I'm gonna do the same shit.
So next thing you know,everybody just stands up.
That was like all like huggingthe wall.
Everybody just stands up andeverybody just started walking
by him.
He's like right in the center onthat fucking formation.
It was amazing.
(10:32):
But um, it was uh it was afterthat that um he was he was so
cool with me.
He was like um every time I diduh truck watch, he was sitting
over there just hanging out withme, you know.
Fucking they were smokingcigarettes.
SPEAKER_03 (10:47):
Oh yeah, yeah.
He he smoked.
He what's funny is he neversmoked before that, but uh on
that deployment, I thinkeverybody was a packaday smoker
by that point.
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Um, he would uh he'd smokecigars with me just bullshit and
tells me uh like that tells meeverything about himself, and he
was he was great, dude.
And he keeps asking me everyday, doc are you okay?
Like, yeah, I'm fine, I'm good.
So he was very involved.
Um, yeah, he had that soft sideon him, yeah.
(11:18):
Like after he gets to know him,but before that, you know, stand
the fuck by.
SPEAKER_03 (11:23):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that time that you'rereferencing was April 7th, which
was one of the middays of themain battle of Ramadi.
Do you remember much from April6th, 7th, and 10th, basically?
Those are the three biggest daysof the Battle of Ramadi.
Anything that stands out?
SPEAKER_00 (11:42):
I remember pulling those guys out from that house.
They were pinned down.
It was Barger's uh platoonactually that was pinned down in
that house.
Um, I remember him uh sittingthere after we uh pulled them
out, sitting there and like umtelling me the story, like
telling me the story that theywere inside the house and um
(12:04):
they were receiving fire fromlike they were receiving enemy
fire and they thought that wasit for them.
I and they're they were likefuck man, we're gonna die here,
right?
And he said that all of a suddenhe starts hearing fucking heavy
weapons, like boom, boom, boom,boom.
This us fucking and um likefucking unleashing 50 cows, Mark
(12:28):
19s and shit like that.
And then after that, they it wasjust like this one sigh of
relief from everybody, justthey're here, you know.
And I remember him saying, Thankyou guys, thank you guys so much
for doing this, for doing, youknow, it was pretty it's pretty
amazing.
It was a great feeling that youknow we were able to do that uh
to actually help them out.
(12:50):
And wasn't there somebody thatwas stuck in a pump house or
something like that?
SPEAKER_03 (12:55):
Yeah, that was the snipers that had gone across the
uh across the field.
Um if I remember correctly.
I know Stay Skull was one ofthem.
I do not remember, I thinkSantiago was the other one.
Um I we had to go find thembecause they were they were
pinned down out there and andkind of separated from the main
element.
Yeah, they were shot to shit,one thing.
(13:16):
Yeah, I mean Stay Skull was shotfor sure.
I don't remember, I don'tremember who else was wounded.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Um that was April 6th,specifically.
You're talking about the it wasway north of the Sophia
district.
We had got ambushed on our wayto get them, and I don't know
how long we fought, three, fourhours before we actually got to
(13:36):
them.
Yeah, uh just basically constantbarrage of being surrounded,
completely surrounded, uh, byfighting on all sides.
And my understanding of whathappened at the time based on
the after actions reports ofpiecing everything together from
Major Wiley and Major Harrelland the debrief that we got is
(13:57):
that our push pulled the mainassault off of them.
They still got sporadic contact.
I mean, they weren't not incontact, they were still getting
heavy hit.
But that our main push took themain elephant off of them, and
the main element came and andtried to attack us, which is why
we were surrounded by so manypeople.
(14:17):
Okay.
And then uh we fought our waythrough and moved north and met
up with them.
Rainmaker joined us, and we diduh an initial push through the
fields.
There was like you know, ahandful of guys, four, five,
six, I don't remember how manyinsurgents, but not many.
And we lit all them up out inthe field, and then that was
when we started you guys went inand started getting the guys out
(14:40):
of the house, and we went andfound the two guys in the pump
house.
SPEAKER_00 (14:44):
Yeah, uh Rudy, Rudy was the corpsman for that.
SPEAKER_03 (14:46):
Uh for rain for rainmaker rainmaker.
SPEAKER_00 (14:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because I remember seeing Rudyand the high back, and um, he
had uh they had an Iraqi uh highuh high value target.
That's where I um that's where Iremember people using like the
craziest fucking things for asuh as a medical implement.
Um he used he used a uh um heused a uh an MRE box as a uh um
(15:13):
a makeshift uh neck brace forthis guy.
I remember that.
Yeah, I do remember that.
So uh that's one of the timeslike, yeah, I do remember like
um he implemented that and uh hewas just smiling, like, what is
going on here?
He's like, I said neck brace,bro.
I was like, cool.
And then uh they just rolledout.
Uh yeah, and we had like a lot,we captured a few people during
(15:37):
that time, didn't we?
SPEAKER_03 (15:38):
We captured quite a few.
Uh only one ended up being ahigh value target.
He was some general uh in theRepublican Guard.
I don't know, I don't know hisname.
He wasn't as important enoughfor me to remember his name.
But we ended up throwing thoseguys out on the ground and uh
loading up the the woundedMarines.
The woman did, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:55):
And um, I remember having to treat those um having
to treat the Marines and thenhaving to treat the uh the
prisoners that we had too.
SPEAKER_03 (16:04):
So yeah, initially you guys all I don't know what
you did, but you bandaged allthose guys up enough to where we
could throw them in the highback, and then we stole we stole
Rainmaker's high back and uhshot our way through Route Nova
and made it all the way back toJunction City and got them to
Charlie Med.
And what I was told again, Ileft, but that was the goal was
(16:25):
that you guys were gonna patchup the Iraqis.
Uh one of them was one of themwas dead.
He was dead at the back of thehigh back.
Yeah, but but the other Iraqisthat were wounded got put in the
Bradleys and taken to JunctionCity.
SPEAKER_00 (16:37):
Yeah, uh, I I was uh I was feeding those guys and
stuff when um when before weloaded up in the Bradley.
I do remember that.
It was uh it was right next tothe river, wasn't it?
Yes, some kind of a waterfeature, yeah.
Yes, yes.
That was right next to theEuphrates River.
Yep.
Yep.
So yeah, I was uh patching themup and stuff, and um uh I
remember Marines.
Uh there's this one thing too.
(16:58):
It was uh one of the Marines wasuh was pissed off um because um
I was treating um I was treatingtheir uh I was treating the
prisoners and I remember I don'tknow he wasn't he wasn't with um
weapons company that platoonwasn't but they were saying like
(17:19):
you know fuck that guy don'tdon't fucking worry about him
like I can't believe you'rewasting your your uh medical
supplies on that fucking guy islike you know and you can uh you
can use that as an you can usethat on our Marines.
Like this is the time when wealready got the Marines loaded
up and patched up and androlling and um they're getting
pissed off because uh we we werecreating you know we were
(17:40):
treating the uh the prisonersand stuff.
And um I I understand, Iunderstand their perspective at
it, but at the end of the day,you know, it's it's an un
unarmed combatant that that'salready down and done.
You still gotta treat them.
You know, maybe they'll havelike they'll have like some kind
of some kind of information toactually give us or whatever,
(18:02):
you know.
You still gotta make sure thatthey're okay.
And um I think it was that daywhere yeah, I remember that.
I remember that.
And what a lot of people don'tunderstand is like uh that's
that's why that's why uh medicalpersonnel protected uh under the
(18:24):
Genevieve Convention duringwars, because they don't
differentiate within like whenat the end of the day when
everybody's down, they'reunarmed, whatever.
Um you can't differentiatebetween you can't differentiate
between uh um enemy or friendly,you know.
You have to treat everybody, andum that was uh it is it's pretty
(18:50):
hard trying to find thatbalance, but you have to, you
know, that's part of your job.
You have to find that balance.
SPEAKER_03 (18:58):
That's uh something I want to kind of elaborate on
if you got a minute, becauseliterally minutes before you
were treating those people, youwere in sustained ambush for
multiple hours.
I if I my memory serves, it wasabout three to four hours of
(19:19):
straight gun fights where themajority of our platoon, more
than half, received wounds.
Yeah, uh, multiple people hitwith shrapnel, uh, people hit
with bullet fragments, all kindsof things.
I think you were even wounded atthat time.
Wasn't that that was yeah, thatwas a day.
That was a day.
You caught a bullet in the ass?
(19:41):
Yeah, uh shot me a booty.
Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:45):
That was a funny story, though.
SPEAKER_03 (19:46):
But uh I mean, I don't know that it's that funny,
you got shot the ass, butanyway, yeah.
So you yourself are wounded bythese very people.
Lit probably, I mean, it couldhave even been the very guy you
were treating.
Not that you would know forsure, but it very well could
have been.
Uh, because we were snatchingguys out of houses, we were you
know taking people down and theywould throw their weapons aside
(20:07):
and we would tie them up andthrow them in the back of the
highbacks, especially onceRainmaker arrived.
Was it a hard mental shift foryou that you were literally you
were probably shooting andkilling this guy and be or
people just like him, and thenminutes later you're bandaging
up his holes so he can surviveanother day.
SPEAKER_00 (20:27):
Yeah, it's it's see the the mental shift didn't come
until afterwards.
This is I I always replay theday.
Um, at the end of the day, Ialways replay what happened
throughout the day, and that'swhere that's where you get
better.
Like, what what can I do?
What could I have done betterduring that time, you know?
And um during that time, it waslike basically just muscle
(20:51):
memory.
It's like, okay, um I need to dothis because this is what I need
to do, you know.
Um, don't really have any kindof like emotions attached to it.
And that's one thing I havelearned to actually do is uh to
detach myself from emotions umduring situations like that.
(21:11):
Uh, because if you allow youremotions to actually get in the
way, you won't be able to doyour job.
You know, emotions can be youcan feel all those things until
after when when everything'sdone.
You can feel all those things asmuch as you want until
everything's done.
And it's it's a it's a shittyway to go about it, but that's
(21:33):
that's what needs to be done,you know.
You start attaching emotions toit, you'll you're pretty much
just worthless, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (21:40):
It's not my job to evaluate or argue with you, but
I disagree.
I don't think that that's uh Idon't think that's a bad way to
go about it.
I think that's an extremelymature and intelligent way to go
about it is to be removeyourself from the situation.
Yeah, and you had a perfectexample in your story.
There was a Marine there who wasallowing his emotions to dictate
(22:01):
what he was doing, and whatwould have been a better choice,
pull security or help out one ofyour brothers rather than get
upset with this guy who is nolonger a threat.
Yeah, yeah.
And so I I I think you had a youhad your point is very well
taken.
SPEAKER_00 (22:17):
Yeah.
I experienced that that uh Idon't know, I guess uh that that
uh just just being uh being likeI guess uh being hated at that
moment um because um you werecreating the animation.
So I was like, oh shit, dude.
(22:37):
All right, and this is real.
And these are the things thatthey teach you in in uh FMTV,
film every training battalion.
Um like uh they teach you thisstuff like yeah, this is what
happened.
You never really believe ituntil it actually happens, you
know.
It's like holy shit, it's a realdeal, you know.
So yeah, like the experiencethat people had in the past,
(22:59):
like take that, you know, takethat in like call it as like as
something valuable because it itwill happen, and once you
realize it's true, then you'llyou'll be surprised, you know.
It's it's crazy.
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
I was uh just I was just reading uh this uh so it's
a book called uh the three thethree black war, and it's uh a
lot, it's about 2004, 2009 timeframe.
And uh there's a section,there's a chapter on our
battalion in there.
And uh there's actually athere's a longer section
(23:37):
paragraph talking about that itwas recognized by the enemy that
that we were such a threat inthat we fought so feroc like
with such ferocity, but wetreated that prisoner so well.
Like as soon as as as soon asand and and it was actually
quite jarring to the enemy.
(23:59):
It actually did psychologicalthings to them, uh, but it also
helped us in our larger missionbecause the Iraqi populace that
hadn't you know gone against uswas like, okay, well, they're
not mindless, you know, yeahpeople.
(24:19):
And so um I think there's acouple of us that you know I I
know I take a lot of pride inwhen the enemy was the enemy, no
worst enemy.
But when it was but but when butwhen it was time uh and the
bullets stopped flying or it wastime to take them in, I was uh
(24:42):
tried to do my best to make surethat they were safe.
SPEAKER_00 (24:46):
So no better friend, no worst enemy.
Yeah, damn right.
So yeah, I I do remember thattime frame.
Um uh help me out on theseventh.
What happened on the seventh?
Well, you kind of you kind oftalked about it.
SPEAKER_03 (25:03):
That was, I mean, we went right back to the same
area.
We were fighting in the Sophiadistrict, just a we were
fighting a little bit moresouth.
Um, the way that a few otherpeople tell it is that Randall
made a wrong turn and we endedup getting ambushed at the wrong
turn.
I don't I don't know that thatwas true.
I was in the fifth vehicle inthe column, so I don't know if
(25:24):
we made a wrong turn or not.
I guess Randall eventually willhave to spring up out of hiding
and defend himself.
I don't know if he made a wrongturn or not.
But uh we were in between theindustrial district and the
Sophia district, and that waswhere we got hit real hard, and
we were we were out there allday.
And uh that was when GunnyMuraki was with us specifically.
(25:44):
That was when you weredescribing going down those
roads on foot, yeah.
Uh because the vehicles wouldn'tfit down those narrow corridors
uh initially.
Um yeah, and there's a lot ofstuff.
SPEAKER_00 (25:54):
Um that was what everybody had to be everybody
had to be dismounted to actuallyprovide security for the trucks
because uh those alleyways,yeah, they were popping out of
alleyways and uh shooting at usat the same time.
Yeah, that's when I got poppedwhen I got shot because I was
we're taking fire from the rear.
So I started laying suppressingfire to the rear, and I had my I
(26:16):
had my back turned towards thatalleyway, and um somebody was
covering that alleyway.
Somebody popped around andactually shot an AK and big shit
right into my my booty.
So nice that was fun.
That was funny when they gave methat award.
SPEAKER_03 (26:36):
I mean, you were shot.
What's funny is we talked a lotof shit about you getting shot
in the ass.
We made fun of you, I think, forthe rest of the deployment.
Yeah, but you got shot.
It wasn't like you fell down andhurt yourself, which you know,
some people got purple heartsfor falling down when indirect
fire happened.
No, nobody that I know, but Iknow that did happen.
(26:57):
Uh you got actually shot.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:02):
Uh that take you out of the fight for any length of
time.
SPEAKER_00 (27:05):
Nope.
Uh, we ended up going back tothe rear because we had to
resupply an ammo.
Um, because we ran out of ammothat day, right?
SPEAKER_03 (27:12):
Yep, we went belly up on Mart 19 ammo, and that was
our that was our best weaponwhen they were hiding behind
those big fat stone walls.
And so we had to go back andresupply before we could go out
again.
SPEAKER_00 (27:22):
Yeah, and then uh like when we were in the rear, I
was um I was like uh I was uh uhI was loading up the mag my
magazines and um staff sergeantColeman uh came up and said,
Doc, you need to go to medical.
I was like, What?
I'm good.
He's like, No, you're gonna go.
So um Navi, uh he told Navi totake me to medical.
(27:43):
I'm like, what the fuck?
I'm a Corman dude, I can go tomedical and but uh it took uh
told Navy to take me down tomedical.
So uh Navi ended up taking medown to medical and they
recorded my name down uh as uhbeing uh a casualty um for that
day.
I'm like, what the fuck?
But we went back out that sameday.
It was like it was a couple ofminutes that um they banished me
(28:05):
up and then we ended up goingback back out.
I didn't want to I didn't wantto go down, it was you know, it
wasn't anything big.
So I remember uh when uh thecasualty report came out that
night and we were at the COC.
Um they reported my injury asgetting shot in the face, right?
I was like, fuck, dude.
And then they reported it to therear as getting shot in the
(28:28):
face, and I was like, uh I waslike uh I was like critically
injured.
They told my parents that.
Oh shit, yeah.
And this is the this is themessed up thing, is um my I told
my I told my mom and dad that wewere over there building schools
and shit like that.
How the fuck you get shotbuilding schools?
(28:50):
I was like, I don't know, I'msorry.
And we couldn't use the sapphonefor a few days because it was
River City.
Yep, right, and um like uh wehad to wait until uh like a few
days until they were allnotified, including my parents,
saying that I was criticallyinjured.
SPEAKER_03 (29:08):
Yeah, they shut down all comms, nobody was allowed to
call out, and most people'sfamilies got notified long
before they were ever able tocall.
I don't think the first callswere able to go out until like
April 14th or 15th.
It was way after all the bigfights.
SPEAKER_00 (29:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (29:24):
It was that was because so many guys died.
They were, I mean, they theMarine Corps liaisons were
having to go to people's housesand and deliver the news.
Yeah, they were having a hardtime tracking people's families
down.
Like, I remember getting thosebriefs every day.
They're like, the phones aregonna be on tomorrow.
You'd go to the brief in themorning.
Yeah, the phones will be ontomorrow.
We haven't got a hold ofeverybody yet.
It's like, fuck man, I'd like tobe able to tell my wife I'm not
(29:46):
dead.
SPEAKER_00 (29:47):
Yeah, that it became pretty morbid after a while,
too.
Like that River City thing.
Like, we would actually likepeople would actually get it's
kind of messed up because peoplewould get pissed off because
they're not able to actually gouh talk to their you know family
after somebody dies and stufflike that, you know, is it got
pretty morbid.
Um, nobody could use thesaffron, nothing like that.
(30:08):
Because yeah, like people arecomplaining, like this is
bullshit.
I was like, I should be able tocall my family.
It's like, dude, somebody justdied bro.
SPEAKER_03 (30:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I wonder if somebody recordedthat it was your face just to be
funny, and then it ended up thejoke got worse.
No, there were so many things.
Things like that though.
Coleman got hit on that sameday.
That was when he got hit in theface.
It hit a little artery in hisface, and he was spraying blood.
(30:36):
Like he had so much blood onhim.
And I'm like, You're not good.
He's like, I'm fucking fine.
Leave me alone.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:42):
He wouldn't, yeah, he wouldn't stop.
I was like trying to get uh getat him, and you were chasing him
down the road trying to get himto stop.
SPEAKER_03 (30:48):
And he's like, Leave me the fuck alone in the middle
of a gunfight ambush.
And like, here's Bundy with likea med bag.
Oh my god, it was great.
SPEAKER_00 (30:57):
Yeah, but some of you guys just won't quit, man.
Like uh you guys get injured,you just keep going.
I'm like trying to chase youguys down and actually patch it
up, like do a real quick job totry to get it stopped somehow,
you know.
And uh you just keep going.
I was like, What are you guys?
I was like, All right, cool.
I'll just stay set.
Yeah, I'll just uh take thisrifle and uh provide security.
(31:19):
Yeah, so yeah, it was uh it's uhdid you guys pretty amazing.
So the things that you guys did.
So what else you got, man?
SPEAKER_03 (31:30):
Any other memories?
Any other memories stand out?
They don't even have to becombat memories, they can be
goofy shit that happened in thehooch, whatever you want to talk
about.
SPEAKER_00 (31:37):
Oh, dude, the goofy shit, like I was always in the
center of that shit, dude.
Like as far as like uh the goofyshit that happens in the hooch.
I always like uh it alwaysinvolves me, um, or new meyer,
one of the two.
But you it was Twitter, you andfucking Jim.
Um you guys would always fuckwith me.
(31:59):
You guys would do the fucked upmost fucked up things to me.
And it was it was it's all fun,obviously, you know, and looking
back, it's just fuckinghilarious.
I remember um you guys weregetting um um you guys were
getting um you guys were gettingum packages from home, and I'm
(32:19):
like the only one that wasn'tgetting anything.
I was like, fuck, man.
It's like I'm a fucking loser.
Everybody's like getting mail,getting packages and stuff like
that.
And um, you know, Jim decided,you know, he'll take advantage
of that fucking weakness andshit.
So he fucking gathered all threeof you guys up and says, like,
hey, let's uh let's take hisfucking cover and uh put it in a
(32:43):
uh put it in the box and smellit back over to us and shit,
right?
I was like, uh I remember Iremember you guys stole my cover
and I was looking for that covereverywhere because that was the
only cover I had for me toactually go to Chow and shit.
So I had to I had to walk aroundlike I had an extra booty.
That was that I was walkingaround a fucking boonie cover
(33:05):
and shit, and uh then likecouldn't find that cover for the
life of me for like a week ortwo, I think.
I was looking everywhere forthat thing.
And then um, next thing I knowwas like um like it was a mail
call, and they said, Hey, yougot a package?
It's like doc, you got apackage.
It's like cool, I got a package.
No, that that can't be.
I never get packages, right?
(33:25):
Like in I was all excited, likeholding my package and like
trying to fucking brag out, bragto everybody.
I fucking told you somebodyloves me, you motherfuckers.
I was like, and I and I go inthere, fucking flip my knife up,
open it up, fucking.
It was all like uh it had likenewspaper and like all crumpled
(33:46):
up paper in there.
I was like, Oh, what is that?
Must be something good, right?
Open it up, it's my fuckingcover.
And I fucking I was like, whatthe fuck?
And the first thing I look at isyou guys is fucking corner over
there where uh Jim, you guys aresleeping.
I was like, you motherfuckers,you guys are just fucking over
there, just laughing your assoff, dude.
I was like, fucking dicks, dude.
SPEAKER_03 (34:08):
We gathered up, we we passed around a helmet, and
everybody threw in all the theNCOs threw in their aphies pogs,
those fucking bullshit bullshitcardboard coins.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they threw all those inthere.
That's how we paid to mail thatto you.
It was we actually took it toJunction City and mailed it to
(34:29):
them.
SPEAKER_00 (34:30):
Yeah.
Oh man, there's uh there'sanother time when um like I
remember uh I remember I waslike going to the gym every
fucking day.
That was like my my um mydecompression time.
I would just go to the gym, justbeat the shit out of myself and
(34:50):
just pass out that day.
Um it was uh one day when I wason the sat phone and uh my
girlfriend at the time likebroke up me over fucking in the
sat phone, right?
Right, and given this wasrockets coming in, fucking like
motors coming in, like blowingup in the background, like hey,
can't be together.
I'm like, fuck, dude.
(35:12):
So I was all like butthurt aboutit, right?
So I was like, you know what,I'm gonna go to the gym and just
like work out.
And so I go over to my rack andum I started changing out.
And I tell it's like Jim, like,no, he's like, hey dude, are you
okay?
It's like no man, my girlfriendjust broke over me.
(35:34):
It's like, are you fuckingserious?
And his face, like he had asmile when he first approached
me.
And when he heard that mygirlfriend just broke over me,
he's like fucking it was likethis weird, sad, like happy type
of fucking uh emotion in hisface.
I didn't know what it was,right?
Like, what the fuck is going onwith him?
(35:55):
And then uh he goes over to uhhe goes over to Twitter and
tells Tweeter, and I think heoverheard it, tells Twitter is
like, hey dude, you just brokeover this girlfriend.
Like, oh my god.
So Tweeter just stays over inthe corner and uh and Jim just
sits over in his rack and justlike staring at me.
Like, and um as I popped it, I'mjust gonna go to the gym.
(36:17):
I just need to decompress.
So I started tripping down, gotmy boots off, put my fucking
socks on, and then um I uh putmy shoes on.
These fucking dickheads put babypowder into my fucking my
GoFasters and shit.
And when I put it on, this thingjust fucking explodes like
fucking baby powder everywhere.
(36:38):
I was like, what the fuck?
Right?
I was like, dude, I really don'tneed this right now.
And I looked over to uh whereJim was fucking sitting at and
uh tour was sitting there.
It's like they want to laugh,but they couldn't.
They wanted it it was just thisweird base that they actually
made.
It's like you guys are fuckingdickheads, man.
(37:01):
I was like, fuck you guys, andthen it's like one of those, uh
one of those things, like youknow, you uh you kind of like uh
uh hurt somebody and you try tomake it feel better, right?
Like so Jim's like, oh, there'sthe dude, it's okay.
And he's just fucking laughing,he's like trying to hold a smile
back.
He's like, it's okay, buddy,it's okay.
(37:21):
What the fuck, man?
They glued my um they glued myprotein drink, my uh it's like
this jug of protein, um like uhpowdered protein onto my make my
makeshift fucking shelf that Ihad like hanging on the wall,
like 550 cord.
So the 550 cord uh basicallyheld this thing up, and the 550
(37:43):
cord was hooked onto a sandbagthat's outside, that's uh
holding the actual tarp roofthat we had, right?
So I just tied that shit up, youknow, somehow, but it's staying
in you know, I had like a littleshelf that I was putting shit
on, including my protein drink.
These fucking dickheads likeactually took super glue and uh
(38:04):
they super glued my fuckingprotein drink on there.
So when I grabbed it, everythingjust fucking falls off.
It's like, dude, like took me awhile to get that fucking shelf
like working and shit.
The shit that they would do,bro.
Yeah, but yeah, that's whythat's why I was um that's why I
(38:25):
was always happy over there.
It's like looking forward tolike you know things like that.
I didn't take it very seriously.
I was just like, you know, itwas all fun.
SPEAKER_03 (38:33):
There is everybody fucked with everybody all the
time.
There was no there was no end tothe pranks and the humor, which
I mean again, like you said,people might have just died, but
we were still making jokesbecause fuck it.
Exactly.
There was nothing else to do.
SPEAKER_00 (38:47):
Yeah, you gotta just make the best of what in the
situation.
So I mean at one point, like uh,I don't know who it was that
actually got the supplies forit.
Um, we had like a little cornerjack shack, but that thing was
like fucking the Cadillac of allfucking jack shacks.
It was like it had like allsorts of like different
(39:10):
magazines that you can choosefrom, right?
Oh yeah, it's got somebody hadlike a pumper magazine in there.
It was fucking weird.
That was rabbit.
SPEAKER_03 (39:18):
That was rabbit.
I can I know exactly who thatwas because he used to always
bring it out and be like he'dflip through to the nastiest
picture and be like, You tell meif she was here right now.
You wouldn't say yes, and we'relike, You fucking nasty
motherfucker.
SPEAKER_00 (39:32):
I know uh that thing had lotions, like three
different types of lotions.
I was like, Well, okay, this isawesome, dude.
It was it was bougie, it wasbougie.
unknown (39:44):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (39:46):
And everybody thought that they were being
fucking um being stealthy, likegoing into the jack shack at
like two, three o'clock in themorning.
So like everybody fucking knowsyou're going, they just go.
SPEAKER_03 (39:57):
Yeah, at one point we did put a uh a sign out sheet
on the door.
Yeah, like you can stop hidingit.
There's a sign out sheet thatway.
Nobody will go in when it's yourassigned time.
SPEAKER_00 (40:08):
Yeah, like we had um we uh we had E my.
Well, I don't know.
Uh uh it was that was so weirdwhat he does though.
He would stand up and on on theurinal, and he would actually,
you know, fucking jack off.
They were like, what the fuck,bro?
And he would look like at firstwhen you when the first time
(40:31):
that's that I walked in on thatshit, I thought he was just
taking a piss.
Right?
I was like, cool.
So I go right next to the fuck,I go right next to the urinal
next to him, and I just startedpissing.
Oh no, it wasn't it was the toyuh next time he started pissing,
and he just like stared at me,and then I fucking realized that
this dude's just fucking justjacking off, dude.
(40:52):
What the fuck?
And he's made he made eyecontact, dude.
He made eye contact, it'sfucking weird.
I was like, oh fuck, dude.
All right, well, yeah, okay.
Like, how's it going?
And he actually we actually hadlike a small bit of
conversation, like what's up,and I was I was like, What's up?
I was just like, we're makingeye contact during this time,
(41:14):
and he wasn't stopping, we justkept going, right?
Like, what's going on, dude?
He's like, nothing, cool, and Ijust fucking walked out, dude.
I just didn't, I could not likeput a lot.
It was like the whole day.
I was just like, I was like,what the fuck just happened?
I was like, did that justhappen?
Like, no, it didn't just happen.
It's like, dude, it was it wasunbelievable, it was fucking
(41:35):
hilarious.
The shit that happened, dude.
Oh man.
Yeah, if it's not, if it's not,if it doesn't involve me or
somebody else, it's always it'salways something to actually uh
smile about.
Um like even even like uh whenwe're on patrol, um the place is
(41:56):
hot, uh it's shitty, it smellslike shit.
I mean, everything everything'sjust fucking horrible over
there, but the sunrise and thesunset is beautiful.
So it was like you know, thatthat sunlight, that the the the
sunrise and sunset, like hittingthe Euphrates, like it was it
was amazing, you know.
It's like that brief moment, youknow, it's uh everything just
(42:21):
goes away.
You don't you don't try to thinkabout like anything else, but
it's just that brief moment thatlike wow yeah, it just kind of
it's kind of like a break fromeverything.
So it's pretty amazing.
Um that's why I've always foundthe simple um I've always found
the simple lining of everything,even though things are hard,
it's it's you know, it's nothingto worry about because there's
(42:44):
always something there that'swill you know hold the memory
for you no matter what.
SPEAKER_03 (42:48):
So dude, that's awesome.
That's a good way to think of ittoo.
Yeah, bro, it's been great.
It's been great catching up.
I'm really glad to see you.
And uh I'm glad to see you guys,man.
SPEAKER_00 (43:01):
It was it's like you, yeah, it's pretty amazing
to see you guys.
SPEAKER_01 (43:05):
Um I really appreciate you sharing, and uh
that's especially given someinsight.
I it's what's been fun is we'llbe talking to you know people
from different platoons and thenyou know, yeah, yeah, different
ranks and everything.
And uh you're our firstcorpsman, and so it's it's
fascinating, you know, like youdon't know what you don't know.
(43:26):
And there was that that thefirst part of our conversation
was a lot of fun for me.
I'm going, oh man, I neverthought about that part of it.
Yeah, so yeah, so thanks forthat.
SPEAKER_00 (43:35):
Yeah, no problem, yeah, no problem.
Just thought, let me know, letme know, and then I'll I'll do
the same thing.
SPEAKER_03 (43:41):
Sounds good, perfect.
And you know, you you started totalk about it before we ever
pushed record, but uh I'm sorryyou felt like you couldn't talk
initially.
That sucks.
And I wish you would havereached out, but guess what?
We're 20 years out, so now youcan, all right?
SPEAKER_00 (43:57):
Yeah, no, no, no, no.
Um what what I'm veryappreciative about is like as
far as like you guys being beingvery so so accepting because you
guys went through the samething, you know, uh for for a
long time.
I thought I was I was the onlyone, and you know, my my seemed
very um like my seemed veryarrogant.
(44:20):
Like I thought I was the onlyone that was experiencing this
thing, but I didn't realize thatyou guys were too.
And now that kind of makes mefeel guilty because I could have
reached out and could havehelped you guys out too time,
you know.
SPEAKER_03 (44:31):
It's like it it goes both ways.
I yeah, so the same exactfeeling.
I didn't, you know, other peoplehave said the words
embarrassment or whatever.
I don't know.
I have not been able to talkabout this for 20 years either.
Oh yeah, because I just didn'tthink anybody would understand.
I who who was I gonna talk to?
And kind of the same thingyou're saying, I could have
(44:51):
reached out to you, I could havereached out to to Jimmy, I could
have reached out to anybody, butI never did.
I never did.
Yeah, I just I did what wealways do.
I put my head down and I put myfeet forward, and I and here I
am 20 years later, and I but Inever have unpacked any of this,
and so it's yeah, it's workingout that it's that we're able to
talk about it now.
SPEAKER_00 (45:11):
Yeah, it's uh like I'm listening to podcasts and
everything.
Like, as far as like all thosethings that these guys are
telling the saying, the storiesthat they're saying, it's
actually one, it's um kind ofverifying all the things I
remember because for a while Ithought, like, did that really
happen?
You know, it's like the memorythat your memory lies to you,
(45:31):
and um yeah, and um just gettingthat verification that that it's
it's amazing.
So I mean, my wife, my wife uhis a therapist, and um, you
know, she she's helped me out alot, she's an amazing person.
Uh she's like my rock, and um,you know, whenever I'm going
through this and I'm justdotting my memory and all that
(45:54):
stuff, she would help me out,she would like uh walk me
through all these things, andit's helped out a lot, dude.
It's uh good.
And now this is helping outmore, you know.
So just kind of verifying thosememories and stuff.
So nice.
SPEAKER_03 (46:10):
All right, man.
I won't hold you up.
It's been good talking to you.
SPEAKER_00 (46:13):
Uh it's great talking to you guys.
SPEAKER_03 (46:14):
We'll we'll talk again soon.
SPEAKER_01 (46:16):
Yeah, all right, man.
You well, buddy.
If you like what you heard, makesure you subscribe for future
episodes on your favoritepodcast service.
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