An Extra Dose of Morphine - Mike Bundeson (part 1 of 2) - Constant Combat

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:38):
All right.
Well, let's start with the easyshit, man.
Uh tell everybody who you areand uh what rank you were and
and who you were with in 2004.

SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
Okay.
Um I am Michael Bundesen, um,retired chief after 24 years
when I joined Mach 2.
I was uh I was an E3.
I was an HN, I was a boot.
So like uh that was uh my firstexperience actually being with a
um you know true line companyand stuff.

(01:08):
So other than that, I was justpretty much just like kind of
going off to FSSG, is what wecall it back in the days, which
is like a service support group.
And then um I went to EdsonRange, and um that's actually
where I got mapped from.
MAP is a medical agmeteeprogram.

(01:29):
Um that's where I guess umduring that time, like when this
whole thing actually erupted in04 or 03 and 04, they were
hurting for bodies to actuallyyou know fill in for the uh line
units.
And um yeah, um I remember umthey were asking for volunteers,

(01:49):
and during that time I didn'thave anything.
I was just like I was by myself,I didn't have no kids, didn't
have no, you know, didn't haveanybody, no, no attachments
whatsoever.
So, you know, lo and behold, Iraised my hand.
So volunteered.

SPEAKER_03 (02:03):
Um then ended up so you were the corpsman, you were
the medical for Edson Rangebefore you came to us?

SPEAKER_00 (02:09):
Yes, yeah, I was the corpsman over at Edson Range
over at uh boot camp.
So I don't think I I don't thinkI knew that.

SPEAKER_03 (02:15):
That's that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 (02:17):
Yeah.
Yeah, I was uh I was one of thefield corpsmen over there, and
um from there I went to T4, andthat's where basically I joined
up with the guys.

SPEAKER_01 (02:27):
When would have that that would have been in in 03,
you said?
That would have been in 04.

SPEAKER_00 (02:32):
Oh I think it was was it in oh no, that was in uh
that was that in 04?
It was it was like right beforeyou guys left to um to that
deployment.
So I didn't even get to go toCAX, they didn't go to go to
anything, it was just like theydropped us off.
I think you guys just got backfrom from a workup, and um we

(02:52):
left pretty much right afterthat.

SPEAKER_03 (02:54):
So yeah, I think we picked up Bundy.
If my memory serves correct, itwas either late January or early
February.
Yeah, he he was he was with us.

SPEAKER_01 (03:05):
Oh, like right after it was so what you're talking
about is right after March AirForce Base.

SPEAKER_00 (03:09):
Yes, yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 (03:11):
That was I was fresh.
Yeah, I was brand new.
I didn't I didn't know anybody.
Um, I didn't know anybody.
Like I I went in there, whatdidn't know what to expect.
I actually came over there, mymy cameras were all starched,
like I had creases on my yeah,yeah.
I was boot boot camp.

(03:32):
You're a boot camp, man.
That's good.
Yeah, I still had my um I stillhad my boots all polished up,
like it was nice, dude.

SPEAKER_01 (03:39):
But then you're making introductions as you're
uh and the sticks to get ontothe C130.
Yeah, exactly.
Damn dear.

SPEAKER_00 (03:48):
Oh, that's a story right there.
That C130, fuck that thing.

SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
Yeah, go for it.
What do you remember of that?

SPEAKER_00 (03:55):
Well, I remember um just this thing was fucking
packed.
So right before I um I left, Iknew I was gonna go, I was gonna
get deployed to Iraq.
So what I did is I raided thepharmacy over at Srange, right?
So I took all the medicationsthat I needed.
I took uh it was a whole sea bagworth of medications and medical

(04:18):
supplies, right?
Enough to actually last shit uhtwo, three years, right?
So I had all sorts of stuff inthat um sea bag and um um ended
up, we actually ended using allthis stuff up.
I only had like a quarter ofthat bag left when I uh when we
left uh country, and on top ofthat, I ended up like uh giving

(04:41):
the uh the rest of it to the uhcorpsman that was actually
relieving us.
So I just left it over in thehooch for them to actually take
advantage of.

SPEAKER_01 (04:47):
But um, yeah, that's a perfect devil doc story.
I love it.
Just like a marine, just like amarine, steal the shit out of
whatever exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (04:57):
Yeah, majority of my medical spies over there, all my
high speed stuff was from thearmy.

SPEAKER_03 (05:04):
Yeah, now I'm curious when you were going
through the the lockers at EdsonRange, what did you think was
going to be important?
What medications did you graband what supplies?
Well, I mean, obviously, gauzeand that kind of stuff all make
sense, but but what kind ofmedications did you think you
were gonna need?

SPEAKER_00 (05:19):
Oh, dude, uh I had all sorts of stuff.
I didn't really know, so I juststarted grabbing a bunch of
shit.
Um I had atropine in there forsome reason.
I had atrophene in there.

SPEAKER_02 (05:30):
Nice.

SPEAKER_00 (05:30):
Um, I had a lot of like uh crash fire medications.
Okay, I had a lot of um, likeyou know, regular sit-call
medications, like you know, justuh regular stuff mochin.
I had fenogrin, a lot offenogrine.
So that actually came in handyum one day.
So um what else did I had?
Um muscle relaxants, I had um Ihad a whole bunch of different

(05:54):
stuff that I actually got, andit was in bottles, it wasn't
just like packages and stuff, itwas actual bottles.
So I had like six bottles ofMotrin, you know, three bottles
of uh Naperson, you know, just awhole like I had I think during
that time they were justintroducing Mobic.
So I had bottles of that.

(06:15):
Um and then um I had Haldol forsome reason, Half Herodol.

SPEAKER_03 (06:20):
Yeah, just in case, just in case somebody went
psychotic, you could uh helpthem out.
That's good.
I'm glad we didn't need that,but I'm glad you had it if we
did.

SPEAKER_00 (06:29):
Yeah, yeah.
But I had a whole bunch of stuffthat I actually took with me.
So I had two sea bags, right?
I had one for my gear, uh, onefor the medications and medical
supplies, and obviously I had myum my rucksack, um, which is all
filled to the brim with all thatstuff.
Um, all the gear, all the issuegear pretty much went into the

(06:51):
um the rucksack and the um thethe sea bag didn't need anything
else.
Um yeah, so hopping on thatplane from March Air Force
Space, right?
That's when we that's where weleft that, right?
March Air Force Space?

SPEAKER_03 (07:04):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (07:05):
Yeah, dude, that plane ride was fucking
ridiculous.
I was like, luckily I'm short,right?
So my knees didn't really likeum hit anybody's like nuts
across the you know, across thestreet, across the uh jump seat
from me.
And it was like um, I was asmall guy, so it was like

(07:26):
shoulder to shoulder, likesitting there on the jump seats,
uh, just on that plane ride.
Um I don't remember how long itwas, it was like a few days that
we actually like uh rode on thatdamn that that plane because I
know um it broke down in incountry actually.
It broke down and we ended up uhlike um getting in down to uh

(07:47):
one of the air force bases andwe stayed there for a day or
two, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 (07:51):
Yep, and then hop back.

SPEAKER_00 (07:52):
We were in New Jersey for two days, yeah, and
hopped back on the actual umplane.
And at that time, everybody hadyou know Air Force food, and
everybody was just like chowlingdown and shit, right?
That's when everybody got sick.
So the person to my right, theperson to my left, the person in

(08:14):
front of me was like actuallypuking, and everybody had to
like shit.
So everybody was like freakinghad diarrhea.
I don't know what uh and then itstarted spreading on that plane.
So, you know, I had um what Ithink four bottles of lapermai,
right?
At the end of that flight, I hadtwo left.
So that's how much I was givingthat shit out.

(08:35):
So it was insane.
I was like giving out fanagroom,I mean, I was giving out a whole
bunch of shit, you know.
So yeah, it came in handy.
Luckily, I actually did, youknow, raid that shit.

SPEAKER_03 (08:46):
That's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_01 (08:47):
Yeah, so so in general, like if you wanted to
grabbed, like obviously, uhbeing in the infantry, I don't
know what it's like to be adevil doc, but uh like how do
they kit you out like for themedical supplies?
If you wanted to grabbed all ofthat stuff, we're like, do is
there like a basic loadout thatthey give you, or do you have to

(09:08):
make it up yourself, or how howdoes that work?

SPEAKER_00 (09:10):
There is, but the basic loadout that they give you
is barely anything because itwas it's uh it it's the whole
thing was his and it's in his uhinfancy, right?
So um they didn't they don'tknow exactly what to put in
those uh medical kits of medicalbags nowadays.
They actually, I think on my umeither my second or third

(09:31):
deployment over there, theyended up having this whole med
pack, even had actual like um uhstretchers on there, a foldable
litter, a foldable stretcher.
Um, it had um a whole bunch ofdifferent stuff already uh
packed in there all for trauma,right?
The stuff we got was they didn'teven give us a med pack, really.

(09:51):
You're they give you a bag andthen you're just supposed to
load up whatever you want inthem.
So we ended up like acquiring alot of our stuff.
Um, they did give you like gauzeand stuff like that, but it's
only ones, two Z's, it wasn't alot, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (10:07):
So did you load did you get that before you got on
the plane or once you got tolike Camp Victory?

SPEAKER_00 (10:12):
Before we got on the plane, so um, and then um when
we got into country, when we gotinto Iraq, that's when they
actually started getting a lotof supplies.
That's when they get startedgetting the money.
So all these supplies startedcoming in and we started waiting
that stuff.
So um at that point, we alreadyknew exactly what we needed and
stuff, you know.

(10:33):
So it was it's kind of going inthere blind, we didn't know
exactly what to expect.
So the um the basic kit that wegot um during that time, even I
think now, because they give youthe small, I um small pack
nowadays, it's um it's barelyanything in there.
I mean, it's enough to actuallyprobably save, I would say, one

(10:55):
life, I guess.
Like um maintain their lifeuntil they actually get to the
uh operating table just for oneperson, really.
And then um after that, um, youknow, you're pretty much like
stuck.
If you don't have any moresupplies, you're you're fucked.
So my my deal was is I had whatthree bags, I think.

(11:16):
Yeah, I had three bags.
I had my main pack, right?
Uh, which is gigantic.
It was like uh a big ass, it'sit's probably the size, half the
size of a uh um a full ruck set.
And then I had my um my CTB bag,which is the one that slings
across your body.

(11:36):
And um that one right there isjust like you know, stuff that
you need like right away.
It had your morphine in it, youhad it had all the stuff that
you need to actually, you know,treat um treat uh bleeding.
Um if you want an i if youwanted an IV in there, then you
have an IV.
But at that point, I have my IVin my main pack.

(11:57):
So um I usually stay close tothe truck.
So whenever something happens,uh my uh my bag is uh readily
available.
So uh but now uh when I went outin deployment um the second
time, I learned from I learned alesson from that, and I started
putting med pack on every singletruck that I had.
Every single truck had a fullloadout.

(12:19):
Like um that's smart.
Like, yeah, so whatever truck Iwas close to me, I'll just grab
a med pack on there because Iknow exactly what's in the med
pack.
And that's another thing too.
Um, as far as like uh the medpack that you have, you gotta
know what's in it, right?
You gotta memorize exactly youhave to be able to actually grab
that stuff when it's dark, youcan't see.

(12:40):
So it's actually you know bestpractice to just do it yourself,
like pack that stuff up yourselfbecause you'll know exactly you
know where to reach at wheneveryou need something.

SPEAKER_01 (12:51):
So yeah.
That's fascinating.
You know, uh some of our otherconversations, uh, we've we've
brought up the fact that youknow early 04.
I mean, you you you werementioning it here, and I just
want to expand upon it is theidea that we went over before
there was the updated tactics,updated philosophies, updated
gear and stuff like that.

(13:11):
And so uh two, you know, 2-4Ramadi 04 was just the age of
invention.
You know, we were coming up withit on the fly.
Um can you can you talk alittle?
I mean, you already just did,but I I I I find this
fascinating to think about itfrom the Corman side of the
world.
I just it never occurred to meto be like, well, you guys were
also having to swing for thefences uh because you also

(13:33):
hadn't had that kind ofintensity since Vietnam Korea.

SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Um well the gear that we had, itwas it was it was a testing
ground.
Like uh it was basically there'sjust so many injuries that we
actually get over there,different types.
I mean, I've had malaria, um, Ihad a broken jaw.
Um, those things right there isnot something that you know you
really prepare for, you know.

(14:01):
Um so it was kind of like atesting ground of what what we
needed in um in our medicalpacks.
It was uh whatever it is that weget and stuff like that, um we
use or or try to make up um youknow something to actually treat
an injury.
Like I think I've seen somebodyuse a uh an MRE box to uh use as

(14:27):
a uh uh as a uh neck brace atone point.
So um it's just a whole bunch ofdifferent things.
Like um I've used uh MRE heatersto actually heat up uh an IV,
you know, like uh for for a uhum yeah for a uh um a cold
injury.
Um I've I've dug up like umlet's see, I use the poncho

(14:50):
liner, um not a poncho toactually dig a hole in the
ground and drop it in there tomake an ice bath to actually
jump somebody in there when uhwhenever they're getting a heat
injury, like just a whole bunchof different things.
I mean, I've seen somebody whouse a ratchet strap to actually
stop bleeding.
Yeah, those are the things thatyou actually, you know, you kind

(15:15):
of you kind of have to make itup as you go and try to be as
inventive as you can to actuallytry to save somebody's life, you
know.
Absolutely, and it's notsomething that's like readily
available to you.
I think it wasn't until um twodeployments after um you know
Ramadi that I started seeing uhKing LTs in there.

(15:36):
Oh, yeah in the um met packs,yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (15:39):
So what's that?
King LT is a yeah, go ahead.
You're the doc man.
Go ahead.
No, go ahead, bro.
Yeah, I got it.
Uh King LT is a type ofsupergaladic airway, which
basically means you can stick itin blind in someone's mouth.
And for 99% of people, it willseat in a way that you can

(15:59):
deliver direct ventilation uhwith like a bag valve mask, or
or you can you can blow into itif you want to just do mouth to
tube or whatever.
It's a way to keep somebodybreathing when they're not
breathing on their own, or ifthey just can't protect their
own airway because they havefacial trauma.
It's another good way to justshove it in there to kind of
ensure that as the swelling goesup, there's something that makes
it so you can get air in theirlungs.

(16:20):
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (16:21):
That would have been useful for a couple of our guys.

SPEAKER_03 (16:23):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (16:23):
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, we even had like um what isit?
What's the uh what's the toolthat you actually use for uh
regular um um et tube umlaryngoscope?
Yeah, laryngoscope.
We actually had a like anin-clinic laryngoscope um in a
bag in a kit that you canactually take with you.

(16:45):
Now they actually have theportable ones, yeah, which is
nice.
I actually have like a set in myhouse right now.
So but yeah, it's it's amazingthe the stuff that they have
now.
They even have like um back thenthe stuff was um that stuck
together was quick clot.
That shit is so damaging to theum to the the surrounding

(17:05):
tissue.
Whenever you give somebody uhquick clot, it just burns
everything.
So they started developing thestuff that um it's made out of
uh trim shells.
And um that stuff right there,it's amazing.
Um, you put it in there, itactually goes into the actual
injury and just kind of stopsbleeding in each and every

(17:26):
single orifice that's actuallyopen stuff.
So, and it doesn't do any damagewhatsoever.
So that stuff you can actuallywash off whenever the uh person
is on the medical table, is onthe uh surgical table, they can
just wash it off and actuallylike start working as a person
without any damage whatsoever tothe tissue around it.
So it's pretty amazing the stuffthat they actually came up with

(17:49):
now.
Yeah, the the shrimp shells,like they found out that uh
people that are allergic toiodine or shellfish, right?
Um, is only allergic to the meatof the actual print, not the
shells themselves.
So the shells, um the theshells, um, the powdered shells,
whenever you put it in theactual injury, the blood itself

(18:09):
actually it absorbs the bloodand it kind of acts like a foam
to where it just seals offeverything.
It's amazing stuff.

SPEAKER_01 (18:18):
Is it kind of like a c a coagulate or is it
definitely a coagulate?

SPEAKER_00 (18:22):
Yeah, it's a coagulate.
So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (18:25):
I can get real nerdy and tell you all the steps, but
I won't.

SPEAKER_00 (18:31):
So I mean, obviously, you don't want to put
it in like arterial bleeding,you'll just like you know, uh,
just kind of push that clot outreally easily.
So you have to slow it downfirst, you know, you have to put
your tourniquet on, put that um,put that stuff on, and then um,
you know, slowly release, youknow, whatever, you know, to
actually work on the person'shouse.

SPEAKER_01 (18:50):
So it's great.
So along those lines of the likethe tactics, uh we were able to
go to a couple differentdivision schools.
Obviously, if you were a bootand coming off of Edson Range, I
don't know if you is it the samecase where there's a like
special schools you can go to togive you get you spun up.
And were you able to do any ofthat before going over to Iraq?
Or are you just coming?

SPEAKER_00 (19:12):
Um well, no, uh when I was in Edson Range, um, the
the schooling that they offer iswasn't really a lot.
So they did um like prior tobecause I'm an um I'm an 8404
quad zero.
Now it's a different NEC thatthey actually have now.
It's like some crazy 95 some or80 82 something.

(19:34):
It's uh something else, but uh8404 Quad Zero is a combat
corpsman, so a uh fieldcorpsman.
Um, those are the guys thatactually go out with the grants,
you know, go out with uh withthe Marines and actually so they
get special qualification andtheir their training is centered
towards uh trauma, uh combattrauma.

(19:54):
So also prior to that, when Iwas in Okinawa, I actually um
went to EMT school, uh EMTB, andthen I got qualified as an EMTI,
um, as an instructor, EMTinstructor.

SPEAKER_03 (20:08):
So yeah, that's the same, that's the same as like
it's almost the same level oftraining as a uh EMT in the
United States as a paramedic.
EMTI, the only thing you'remissing is just some of the
advanced cardiac care, but forthe most part, you're like
you're like 90% there to being aparamedic.

SPEAKER_00 (20:25):
Okay, yeah.
Oh, okay.
So um, yeah, that what whatpeople have have to understand
is like um the the civilian sideof uh the training on um emt and
the like you'd be surprisedactually how many corpsmen
actually fail out of EMT school.
The reason why is because theirmentality is geared towards

(20:46):
trauma and combat, right?
So their um triage and their ummentality is totally different
from a paramedic.
Paramedics, um, they they'relimited to certain things and
they always think about like youknow, person is gonna survive.
They need to be able to get thatperson in the rear as soon as
possible, which is this prettymuch the same concept, but the

(21:08):
separation is uh basically thethe mentality of uh keep as many
Marines, as many guns as youcan, right?
That's the mentality of umCorman, the the combat, the the
combat medicine um combatmedicine aspect of uh corra
training is um okay, when youtriage somebody, who do you go

(21:30):
first?
You go to the person that youcan actually put on a gun as
fast as you can to treat andthen you send them out.

SPEAKER_03 (21:36):
The best medicine is best medicine is fire
superiority.
Exactly.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (21:42):
That's fine.
I love this is good.
This is I love thisconversation, man.
This is fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 (21:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (21:49):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
So so yeah, the uh the mentality is totally
different.
Um, so a lot of corpsmenactually fell out of EMT school,
you know, because the thecivilian side of it, they they
look at it as um like, well, no,that's wrong.
We were taught this way.
So you have to, you know, have adifferent mindset going into
that in order to actually passthe course and stuff.

(22:11):
So it was it's pretty difficulttrying like you know, in in core
school, it they drill it intoyour head, you know, this is
what you need to do.
And next thing you know, you goto um EMT school, it's totally
different.
Like, oh crap, you know, wait, Ihave to actually call somebody
to give them an IV.
What's going on?

(22:31):
You know, right?
It's it's it's weird.

SPEAKER_01 (22:34):
Not just string a 550 chord and uh drop a bunch of
IVs in a bunch of people becauseuh it was a little too hot
outside.
Exactly.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 (22:42):
I mean the populations are different too.
Uh as a combat corpsman, you'retreating 18 mostly 18 to 20 year
olds with a traumatic injury,and as an emt you're mostly
treating grandma and grandpahaving a heart attack or a
stroke.
Absolutely.
Like it's just not it's just notthe same focus at all.

SPEAKER_00 (23:01):
Yeah, it's it's a different world, it's a
different way of like looking atthings and stuff, you know.
So, yeah.
I mean, you're able to tell aMarine to like uh grab a straw
and suck it the fuck up, youwon't be able to sell out to say
that's a civilian.
Nope.
I mean, fuck you, you'll getyour license yanked right away.

SPEAKER_01 (23:19):
Here's a new pair of socks, here's your motron, walk
on.
Exactly, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (23:24):
So it's totally different.

SPEAKER_01 (23:26):
So do you feel like you had like even though the
tactics maybe weren't there andmaybe the gear wasn't completely
there, do you feel that you wereknowledgeable?
Prepared, uh prepared, you know,going into Iraq in 04?

SPEAKER_00 (23:40):
That so the basic knowledge that I had that we had
um is it's really good enough tobe able to actually like um
carry you through a combatscenario like that.
But a lot of those uh things youlearn as you go.
Like when when I was uhthroughout the whole deployment,

(24:02):
my mind was going a thousandmiles an hour.
Basically, what's going throughmy mind is different scenarios,
right?
Different scenarios of injury.
It kind of messed me up a littlebit because um it's like you're
using a marine, like one of yourguys, to actually go through a
scenario.
Um, say for example, one of thescenarios will be like, okay, if

(24:22):
I if this guy has a traumaticamputation of the right leg or
um traumatic amputation of theright leg, what do I do?
What's my what's my next step?
What's uh what do I grab?
So you have your med bagmemorized, right?
So this is where I grab, this iswhat I do.
And those scenarios areconstantly going on in your
head, like every second, um,even through even through

(24:44):
patrols and stuff like that.
Like um, you're in the truck,I'm in the truck, like looking
out, like um keeping an eye out,having my head on a swivel, and
my mind is racing, going throughdifferent scenarios all the
time, especially when you knowyou're about to get into you
know into a firefight.
You know, there's times whereyou know, and you know for a

(25:06):
fact you can get into afirefight.
So your mind doubles.
It it like the speed doubles inyour mind.
You just like go up and like,okay, what's gonna happen if I
get like uh uh somebody getsdisinvolved or somebody you know
takes a uh takes uh a bullet tothe neck.
Those are the things that'sgoing through your head.
You wanna know, you wanna, it'sbasically kind of like a I guess

(25:28):
um practice for you to be ableto handle a scenario when it
does actually go down.
I have gone through all sessionsuh certain types of like I've
gone through all types of likescenarios on my head that I
covered pretty much everything,you know, after that when I at
the end of the deployment andstuff, because I would hear
about injuries from otherplatoons or something like that.

(25:50):
I would play it in my head,okay, what do I do during that
situation?
And that would go on my headlike repeatedly, you know, all
day for that whole day until youknow I actually get it down to
like okay, so when this happens,it's gonna be muscle memory that
actually doing stuff.

SPEAKER_03 (26:06):
So now I'm gonna give you a little bit of credit
because uh if that was yourlevel of stress and your level
of mental load, I had a highcognitive load as leadership as
well, but I certainly didn'thave that level of medical
planning, uh mental load in thedeployment.
From the outside, you lookedvery happy.
You were one of the happiestfucking dudes I can remember,

(26:29):
literally every day.
Smiling and jokes and dancingaround and having a good time.

SPEAKER_00 (26:35):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's that's how that'show I dealt with it.
So that's good.

SPEAKER_03 (26:40):
You you your outward facing persona was the opposite
of what you're describing thatyour inward monologue was was
doing for you.

SPEAKER_00 (26:48):
Absolutely.
I mean, I mean, I couldn't showthat, you know, I couldn't show
that like um specifically duringlike um like when some one of
our guys get hurt, you know.
I I I can't be freaking out,right?
Just imagine a corman.
Yeah, just imagine a cormanfreaking out one day, you know,
you got a boil woman throughyour chest.
I'm like, yeah, okay.
Yeah, oh shit, oh shit, anybodyknow what to do?

SPEAKER_03 (27:09):
Yeah, can someone call a corpsman for the
corpsman?
Yeah, that doesn't work.
Can we time out for a second?
Now, on top of that, just uh layan extra layer on that.
What kind of weapons trainingdid you have prior to that
deployment?
Because you came to us so late,and one of the things I remember
being at least jarring to mefrom a planning standpoint was

(27:31):
we're short people, we need toadd as many guns to this platoon
as possible.
Oh, we're issuing the Cormanrifles.
Like you guys are, and weweren't going to initially, but
Gunny Gunny Muraki comes overand he grabs us all aside and
he's like, We're not getting anyreplacements anytime soon.
He's like, We've all had acommand, whatever.

(27:52):
He's like, I have more rifles.
We're given the Corman rifles,they're gonna be in the stack,
they're gonna be shooters.
If you enter a house, they'regonna be in the stack.
And I was like, uh fucking okay,great.
I don't know that that ourcorpsman have ever done that.
So now I'm curious, did you haveany weapons training prior to
that?

SPEAKER_00 (28:10):
FMTB actually took you through um weapons training.
That's that's about it.
No, nothing like a CQB oranything like that.
I learned that in country, uhjust by um observing you guys
and um doing doing those things.
I I'll just jump in to whateveryou guys are doing and you know
learn it as I go, you know.
Um, other than that, there wasnone.

(28:32):
There was no no type oftraining, um, Navy boot camp.
They should just startedactually doing this now.
This would be actually takingthem to uh rifle and pistol
calls.
When I was when I was in RDC,well, uh it's a uh drill
instructor for Navy, yeah.
I push boots, and um theyactually started doing uh rifle
and pistol qualification inthere and stuff.
And I was like, what?

(28:53):
What is going on?
You know, like it was it wasweird.
When I I went through, I didn'tdo any of that stuff.
Um the first time I everactually got any kind of uh
weapons training is um isthrough FMTV.
So FMTV taught me, you know, thebasics of um weapons handling.
Uh after that, I learned throughexperience through you guys, you

(29:15):
know, um what I needed to do incertain situations, like you
know, close quarters combat, allthis stuff.
You know, it was just like I Itook everything that you said
and get like kind of uh it wasgold to me.
Like I learned everything that II kept everything, you know,
that you guys taught methroughout my whole entire

(29:36):
career.
So because it's it's needed,it's really needed.
Like you said before, uh we'rerunning, we're running low on
personnel.
And funny story is like uh whenI first got there, I remember uh
my TO weapon was a uh nine mil.
Yeah, and that's the only thingwe can have.
And I'm like sitting there, likelooking at this thing, getting

(29:56):
into those firefights.
I'm like, what the fuck am Idoing, dude?
It's like I got a fucking peaceshooter, and these guys are
fucking shooting at me withfucking you know sniper rifles
and like RPK, and like what thefuck, dude?
And um, so I started uh Istarted uh talking to the uh the
gunners.
Gunners want a nine mil.
That was their thing.

(30:17):
They wanted a nine mil becauseit's so easy to actually take
out and shoot whenever an enemygets close, right?
Yeah, instead of like shooting acruiser weapon, where you know,
if you have enemy.
So close to you, firing a uh youknow a Mark 19 is not really
gonna be conducive, you know, toit's gonna hurt you, but yeah,
it's not gonna hurt a lot.

(30:39):
So they um I started tradingthem.
It's like, hey, you want myNightman?
Let me get your like uh let meget your musket, you know, your
uh what is it, M16A?
We had M16A4s, A4s, yeah.
These giant fucking weapons andshit.
That's like out there.
Full length rifles, yeah.
Exactly.
So I started trading.
I think Webster uh was the one Iwas uh traded with Calais, I

(31:02):
think.
He was uh Calais was uh he wasuh on the gun, right?

SPEAKER_03 (31:07):
Calais did both.
He was gunning and driving.
He drove a quite quite a lot.

SPEAKER_00 (31:11):
Yeah, I I started trading those guys and stuff.
Like, hey, you want my nine mil?
I'll take your uh you know yourrifle and stuff.
So JD was getting pissed offbecause I had a rifle walking
around.
I was like, what the fuck areyou doing with a rifle, dude?
I was like, I don't know, I'mI'm not gonna get fucking stuck
shooting the fucking, you know,shooting the pistol.
Like, no, you're not combatant.
It's like, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 (31:33):
I bet the enemy would have adhered to that rule
too.

SPEAKER_00 (31:36):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Uh when uh they told me that uhwhen JD came up to say, hey doc,
come with me.
I was like, what the fuck isgoing on?
He's like, am I in trouble forthe fucking, you know, for the
for the rifle again?
Takes me to the armory and he'slike, pick whatever you want.
I was like, fuck yeah.
It was like fucking it was likeit.
I was happy.
I was like grabbing all sorts ofdifferent shit.

(31:58):
I had like fucking like 20 mags.
I was just like putting in mypocket, putting in my drop, my
my uh drop pouch and putting inmy uh cargo pocket.
Like I was just loading up,dude.
I was like, yes.
Yeah, so I after that I got myown rifle.
Um the nine mil, I uh you know,whenever uh the uh the gunners
like needed it, they I I justgive it to them, you know.

(32:20):
But ended up by towards the endof the deployment, they started
getting uh um nine mils.
Um we did, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (32:25):
We got a case of nine mils in July or something
like that.
Yeah, because I finally got onetoo.

SPEAKER_00 (32:31):
Yeah, it was uh it was it was uh it was a learning
curve, it was a huge, hugelearning curve and stuff.
So my mentality is back then islike um as far as like having a
rifle is is preventive medicine,right?
Uh preventive medicine is likeyou shoot you shoot them before
they shoot you guys.
Yeah, you can't do that with anine mil.

SPEAKER_03 (32:53):
Yeah, well, especially not the old you you
got uh 2nd Battalion 4th Marinesarmory issued nine mils, which
were had 50,000 rounds putthrough them and the barrel
rattled.
And so it would probably the thebullet's gonna go somewhere in
that direction.
Yeah, it's not gonna it's notgonna hit what you're aiming at.

(33:14):
Yeah.
You'd almost hear the bulletrattle down the barrel.

SPEAKER_01 (33:18):
Sorry area targets.

SPEAKER_03 (33:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (33:21):
And that's that's one thing too.
Like, um, I want to give adviceto the uh the corpsman that's
out there now.
It's like um they always like uhtry to use medical as a uh
scapegoat to get out of things,right?
Um they'll they'll come up withdifferent, you know, they'll
come up with different reasonsnot to actually do things that

(33:42):
the Marines are doing.
But if you actually do thethings that the Marines are
doing, you'll know exactly whatthey're going through and you'll
appreciate it a lot more.
I was doing watches, I was doingtruck watches, I was doing uh
watches up on the uh bridge.

SPEAKER_03 (33:56):
Yep.

SPEAKER_00 (33:57):
Um I was doing everything that they did because
uh um it's it's a way toactually help them out too,
because um that I'm one moreperson to be able to do those
things so they can get rest.
It's like uh it's one of thosethings, like do like be part uh
be part of the platoon, not thisperson that's special or

(34:20):
whatever.
Like when when it comes down toit, lay down some rounds when
somebody gets hurt, you know,put your rifle down and treat
them.
That's basically what you needto do.
So you can't just be onemindset.
I've seen people just sit in sitin the vehicles the whole time
waiting for an injury to comein.

(34:40):
It's like fuck that shit, youknow.
Like one, the vehicle is prettybasically a giant target, so
there's no way I'm gonna besitting in there the whole time.
So I'll be I'll be dismounting,you know, might do my 525s, you
know, get the fuck away from thetruck.

SPEAKER_01 (34:57):
You did mention that you uh you you know you would
hear about the other injuriesfrom other platoons and and
whatnot.
Yeah, but did you like did youhook up with and uh you know sit
down with like Hinkle and uhContreras or Rake Brandt and
stuff like that and be like, allright, let's figure stuff out.

SPEAKER_00 (35:13):
Oh yeah, constantly, constantly.
Well, not figure stuff out, butum listen to their story.
Uh one, it's it's good becauseit actually they're able to
actually uh um kind ofdecompress by telling the story
and stuff like that, and you'reable to be there for them and
say help them through it becausethey just went through that and
um their Marines are still goingthrough that, and you know it's

(35:35):
it's a very emotional time.
So being able to sit there andlisten to their stories, you
know, just sit there and listen.
Um, you're able to help themout, and on top of that, you're
able to uh learn from thoselessons and actually put that
into your little toolbox, youknow, later on.
So it's okay, so that happens,this is what I'm gonna do
because either they, you know,this is what they did and stuff,

(35:59):
this is what they saw.
Um, so those scenarios startsback up again, you know.
The um gunner height IEDs, youknow, those are fucking killers,
right?
Gunner height IEDs, the um thegunshot wound from shoulder to
shoulder, that was a good one.
That took me a while to figurethat shit out.
Like uh entrance wound rum.

(36:20):
What is it?
Entrance wound on the right.
No, I'm sorry, entrance wound onthe left, exit wound on the
right shoulder.
Just imagine the damage iscaused on the way out, you know.
So, what do you do in certainscenarios like that?
You know, a uh an arterial bleedright on the groin area.
That's that's actually a hardthing to do.

(36:41):
You know, after that, I startedcarrying hemostats with me and
stuff like that.
Because those things are intheir goal, you know, that stops
bleeding.
Just grab it, make sure that theuh the actual artery doesn't
like retract because it willspasm.
So right before it retracts,grab that too, they grab that,
and then you know put a uhhemostat on there to stop the

(37:02):
bleeding because the groin areais is an area where it's hard to
get to.
So it's just it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 (37:11):
That was that uh that was the wound that was made
famous in the Black Hawk Downscenario.
Black Hawk Down, yeah.
They covered in the movie, butthat uh a whole bunch of, and I
imagine you probably learnedthis at some point.
A whole bunch of militarymedical SOPs all changed after
they went over and over andover.
They were like, this guy wouldhave survived easily had we been
able to control that bleed.

(37:32):
And there was a whole bunch ofdifferent devices that were
invented to try to figure thingsout, and and a lot of them came
back to exactly what you said isif you have to cut down and
clamp that artery with a set ofhemostats, was what they came
down to.

SPEAKER_00 (37:46):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
It's it's it's pretty amazingall the things I've learned.
Actually, I took all the stuff Ilearned from our deployment and
created it on through my career.
I became a um I became a uhcombat trauma um instructor.
I uh I started training Marines,even in country too.
I started training like for myplatoons, every single person.

(38:10):
Well, I was doing it when umwhen we were over there
actually.
Like every single person Itrusted that they'll be able to
actually save my life if I godown because the training that I
gave them, I know I feelconfident that they'd be able to
do that and have no problemsdoing it.
Yep.
Uh it actually happened duringthat one time uh with um I don't

(38:31):
know, it was golf company or uhit was a high back that got that
got hit.
Yes um outside the marketplace.
Um and you guys did amazing whatyou guys did.
So Navi was over there, Ibelieve, with you guys, right?
Yes, and um, like uh I think itwas somebody that came up to me,

(38:52):
he's like, Doc, the trainingthat you gave us was invaluable.
And I still get people nowadaysthat that tells me it's like
dude, I was in a club and thisguy gets shot, and I did this,
and it was pretty amazing.
These are all the things youtaught me, and I was able to
save their lives.
I was like, dude, that's good.
That's good.

SPEAKER_03 (39:08):
I do remember going through those scenarios with you
in the hooch where we weredoing.
I mean, now they have that wholeAmerican College of Surgeons
campaign called Stop the Bleed.
And it's funny, I laughed when Iwent, I like read through it all
and I went through it all withsome different people, and it
was identical.
I was like, Oh, this is exactlywhat we're doing with the Corman
in 2004.
Like it they didn't do anythingany different.

(39:30):
It was, you know, directpressure and tourniquets and all
this kind of stuff.
And that's all the same stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (39:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
It was uh it was a it is a greatlearning experience, but at the
same time, you know, I wish Ididn't have to go that far, but
it was it was very invaluablethroughout my whole career as
far as like uh being able totreat Marines.
Like after that, I did pour moredeployments.
You guys know that, right?

(39:57):
I did four to uh four tours.
I actually got to the pointwhere I actually volunteered in
country to extend um extendmore.
I did a one-year, I did aone-year tour over there.
I just didn't want to go back.
That's how I dealt with things,you know.
So people dealt with things, butpeople deal with things like
different ways, um, likedrinking, you know, doing all

(40:19):
that stuff.
I I didn't do any of that stuff,so I um just kept volunteering,
just kept raising my hands, likeyeah, I'll go, I'll keep going.

SPEAKER_03 (40:26):
So where else did you go?

SPEAKER_00 (40:29):
Um, all in Iraq.
Um I went through a lot like allthe phases in uh of Iraq.
I went through it was a uh umthe CQB uh phase of it, the the
um urban terrain, uh then itbecame a police action, and then
it became a support action.

(40:49):
I went through all that.

SPEAKER_03 (40:50):
So what years were you there in what cities do you
remember?

SPEAKER_00 (40:54):
So I went to TQ.
Um then from TQ went to TQTakatam Airbase.
Tacatum Airbase, yeah.
Okay, um, Al-Assad.
I I got dispatched out fromthere because um um I got
attached to the different unitsand stuff.
I got attached to I think theone in Al-Assad.

(41:15):
Um, I was doing ops with CIAbecause that was a police action
already.
So we were actually doing um, Iwas actually doing medical
investigations and stuff, goingout there looking at the
injuries and stuff like that,writing it down, and at the same
time patrolling to try to getinformation um on people.

SPEAKER_02 (41:32):
Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 (41:32):
Um what year was that?
That was in 06, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 (41:37):
Okay, I was thinking that would be later, but that
okay, yeah, 06.

SPEAKER_00 (41:40):
Yeah, 06.
And then um, wait, oh man, ohseven, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 (41:46):
This is what happens when you this is what happens
when you get old, man.
All starts to blend together.

SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, um, but um, all theoperating, like I've I've been
to a Mitt and Pit team, Met Bitand Pit team, which is the Iraqi
training team, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 (42:01):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (42:02):
I did uh coverage for that.
I I did that.
I was a corner for that.

SPEAKER_03 (42:06):
Were you teaching were you teaching medical to the
Iraqis?

SPEAKER_00 (42:09):
Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 (42:09):
I bet that was very interesting, actually.

SPEAKER_00 (42:11):
Oh, dude, it was it was it was hair-raising China.
Like these are the guys thatactually you were like uh
shooting at and in 04, right?
Next thing you know, you gotthese guys covering your back,
like fuck, dude.
I'm gonna die.
I was just like, You lookfamiliar.

(42:32):
Yeah, no.
So yeah, um, like uh, wheneverwe go on patrols, I go in there
with them, you know.
Like uh, yeah, it was uh it waspretty air raising.
I did the uh police action, likeum medical investigation with
CIA.
What is it?
Uh secur um security um ISF,individual security forces, uh

(42:52):
for the big dog.
I did one, I actually did onefor um for uh Barack Obama
actually when he was like goingaround the country and stuff
like that campaigning before hebecame president.

SPEAKER_03 (43:04):
Yeah, 2009, right?
That was uh presidentialcampaign.

SPEAKER_00 (43:07):
Yeah, I believe so, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (43:09):
I didn't I was in Baghdad at that time and I
remember.

SPEAKER_00 (43:11):
Oh, you were yeah, I think I I was actually uh one of
the stops we made is actually inRamadi.
So think about like going backto the place that you you know
it all started and stuff, andlike, oh shit, all right.
And uh remember uh Radsky uhtore off like a limb off of this
tree that we had um in front ofour hooch, right?

(43:33):
Yes, and he planted it on theground and started watering it
every day.
Yes, right?
That thing is that thing isgigantic now.
Huge.
Yeah, that thing actually grew.
That's it grew pretty big.
That's hilarious.
Yeah, I went back over to um Iwent back over to Hurricane
Point and I saw it.
I was like, Holy shit, what thefuck?
It's a big ass tree now.

SPEAKER_03 (43:54):
I forgot about that.
We talk shit to that guy everyday.
He would go out and pour acanteen of water on that tree
every day.
He's like, I'm I'm watering mypet and like talk all kinds of
shit.
That's hilarious.
I hope he listens to this and heand he gets a good laugh that
it's treeless.
I hope so.
Yeah, he was the only one thatwas right.

SPEAKER_01 (44:12):
Yeah, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 (44:14):
So it's pretty persistent.
He's like, it's gonna grow, it'sgonna grow to that gigantic
tree.
I was like, No, it's not.
So every time I'm like, I thinkwho was it that would actually
try to pull it out?
It was Groves that would try topull it out.

SPEAKER_03 (44:25):
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, they'd fight over it, and we'd
go out and pee on it at night.

SPEAKER_00 (44:29):
We did all kinds of stuff, yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah, that thingsurvived, dude.

SPEAKER_03 (44:35):
So not to not to drag you back to 2004, but I am.
I mean, obviously that's thefocus of the podcast.
But also, if you wish to gothrough some of it, I'm curious
when you used your medicalskills some of the time or any
memories you have of anything,realistically.
But what was the do you rememberthe first time you treated
anybody?
So here, I'll try to jog yourmemory.
The first time I remember ourplatoon, since we were in the

(44:57):
same platoon, the first time Iremember our platoon getting to
a place where anybody got hitwas March 31st.
We went out way north of thecity on a different highway, and
there were five Army Brigadeengineers who had been hit by an
IED, and that vehicle wasdestroyed.

(45:18):
And as far as I know, those fiveguys were in pieces, but there
were other casualties, peoplethat were hit.
I don't know if you had to treatthem at that time.

SPEAKER_00 (45:26):
I did, I did, but I don't remember the actual the
actual injuries that theyactually had.
Um was that the the LAD one?
No, it was the LAD.

SPEAKER_03 (45:37):
No, that was way later.
This was these was this was aHuman This was a Humvee column,
and one of the Humvees got hit.
And the the five of the guysthat were in that Humvee were
were dead right there.
But there were but other peoplegot hit in the vehicle behind
them.
That was what I remember.

SPEAKER_00 (45:52):
I created so many that I don't even remember most
of the majority of them.

SPEAKER_03 (45:56):
Well, then let's go.
What was the first one that youremember?

SPEAKER_00 (45:59):
Okay, um, I remember that that what I just said as
far as the um oh well there'salso those guys, uh, the uh the
engineers, combat engineer guysup in um Dan Road.

SPEAKER_03 (46:12):
That's a great one.
That was um if you wish to tellthat story, I'd love to hear it.
Yeah, um that was on that waslater in the deployment, but
that was May 29th, was when theengineers were uh hit on the IED
May.
Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (46:28):
Yeah, like a lot of these things that are actually
like um like when I waslistening to you know Jesse's uh
uh podcast, like he he correctedsome of my memory, you know,
because um yeah, like as far aslike um you know cohen actually
getting blown out of there, Idon't I don't remember that.
I don't remember um him actuallygetting like he was on the

(46:50):
ground um right in front of thetruck when he actually got hit.
For for the life of me, Ithought it was when he he was
inside the truck that heactually got hit when he and and
he was in the gun at the time.

SPEAKER_02 (47:02):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (47:03):
And for some reason, I I thought I remember pulling
him out of the the the Hum Vbecause that's when I saw and I
hope it was uh injury day memoryis one of those things where you
could both be you could both bewrong and you could both be
right.
And it's really hard to it'sreally hard to know.

(47:23):
Yeah.
Uh all I know and you're talkingabout when Morris got hit uh
specifically on April 4th, andMorris, to my understanding,
again, I showed up aftereverything, but from what I saw
of the vehicle and what you guysdescribed, Morris was on the
ground because he had alreadyclimbed out of the truck and he
was hit in the back basicallywith that RPG, and it bounced

(47:46):
like most of the impact he took,but some of it hit the truck.
And that's Miranda was in thedriver's seat, I guess, and he
got hit.
And according to Jordan, Cohenwas in the gun, but I didn't
know that he was in the gun.

SPEAKER_00 (48:01):
Yeah, see, uh those things right there is what I
mean.
Like, I'm this thing is prettytherapeutic for him because it's
actually like jogging some ofthe uh the memories that I I
thought, you know, I like I Iforgot, or um, I have it in the
wrong sequence or something likethat, you know.
Or I kind of mix everything upbecause like all those
deployments, I'm I'm actuallymixing some of the deployments

(48:23):
uh like after that into thisone.

SPEAKER_03 (48:26):
Of course, of course, that's that's natural.
Yeah, so so you talked about theyou talked about the engineers
on the dam.
Let's talk about that one first.

SPEAKER_00 (48:36):
So it was crazy because um I remember you guys
like uh arguing um and JDgetting pissed off because he
didn't want to do that up,right?
The reason why he didn't want todo one of the didn't want to do
that up because he didn't wantto put us in danger, because
that road, uh that dam, it's itwe called it dam road, right?

(48:58):
That's what it was.
Yeah, it was like elevated fromthe actual main road, and I
think that's about Michigan onthat main road, correct?

SPEAKER_03 (49:07):
Main road was Michigan, that's correct.
And this were this is theHabanya Dam that was out east of
the city of Ramadi, in betweenHabanya and Ramadi.
The elevated road that you'retalking about is actually the
dam itself.
That area the the area just tothe south of it naturally
flooded multiple times a year,but definitely during the rainy

(49:29):
season, and would trap hundredsof millions of gallons of water
that all the farmers in thelocal area would siphon off and
use for their fields.
Yeah, and so what our theengineers were tasked to do was
to clear that dam because therewas intel that there was going
to be somebody try to blow upthe dam.
And the task order we were givenwas to make sure that the

(49:52):
engineers could walk down thatdam with metal with metal
detectors, yeah, yeah.
And you you could go ahead andtell your part of what you saw
the argument.
I remember the argument becauseI remember arguing.

SPEAKER_00 (50:05):
Yeah.
Um, JD was pissed off.
He didn't want to do thatbecause he didn't want to put us
in danger.
Because one, we're in anelevated position, a sniper can
get us, no problem.
Two, um, there was like blindareas on Route Michigan that a
triggerman could be to actuallyset off the actual IED when we
get closer.

(50:26):
He didn't want to put trucks ontop.
So he ended up like, I guess youguys ended up like putting some
of the trucks on Route Michiganand putting dismounts out away
from Route Michigan to see uhsee if there's any triggerman,
trigger man that's actuallygonna be, you know, like setting
up IEDs on Route Michigan and onthe damn road.

(50:47):
I think it was uh my truck, um,my truck that actually ended up
going up on the top of that thatround on top of the damn road
and um basically following theengineers.
There was two guys, twoengineers that were just
following.
And um, I keep overhearing it onthe radio, it was like, hey,

(51:08):
keep your distance, keep yourdistance.
And um it was Rabbit that wasdriving that truck.
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (51:14):
So Hampton, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (51:16):
Hampton, yes, yeah, Hampton was uh driving that
truck.
And um he kept getting too closeto them.
JD and you kept yelling at him,it was like, what the fuck are
you doing?
Back up, back up.
So he'll back up, he's like,This is bullshit, you know.
It's just fucking he had one leghanging out, and he had like one
uh he had the door open, and Iwas patrolling, I was on foot,

(51:40):
um, patrolling right next to theuh the truck.
So I was behind the actual dooritself, and he just kept
driving.
This is fucking boring, youknow.
He's just drinking his uhdrinking the uh Gatorade, and he
keep reaching back and grabbingsome more rippets and stuff, and
I was like, hey, give me some ofthat, you know.
So I grabbed rippet now and justdrinking rippets while I uh I

(52:01):
patrol because to my left it'spretty much all open.
You can see everything, right?
So there isn't really nothing toworry about, right?
And I had the truck to my right,so he was providing cover.
Basically, I was just keeping aneye on the um the engineers.
So JD, um everybody kept yellingat um at Hampton to back away.

(52:23):
So he would like, you know, pushhis brakes and he just wait
until those guys actually um youknow get a distance and then
he'll go, he'll he'll bouncebasically.
That's what he was trying to do.
I remember um stopping becauseum the engineer guys stopped and
they were both of them are overthis um over this little spot on

(52:47):
the road that they they keepgoing, um like hearing some
beeping on there, and um theythey were like uh jabbing it
with their shovels and stuff,right?
And I looked over to the left tomake sure that there's nobody
trying to take them out oranything, and then as soon as I

(53:08):
looked over to the right, nextthing I know, it just explodes,
right?
These guys were directly on topof that IED and it was just like
a cloud of dust, just theydisappeared, right?
It was just a cloud of dust andyou couldn't even see them.
Um one of their one of the guys'thumb actually hits me on my

(53:30):
flat, right?
So as soon as I um as soon as weas soon as we um as soon as that
happened, I started running allthe way.
Um I started running towardsthat area, um, not even not even
caring about like a secondaryIED or anything like that.
I was just like, you know, run,run.
Um so I just started running.

(53:51):
And the first person I saw umwas this this uh one sergeant, I
believe, and he just kepttelling me, he's like, don't
worry about me, don't worryabout me.
This guy is pretty fucked up.
I mean, his I think his arm, um,his right arm was uh was missing
and um his right leg was hisright leg was gone.

(54:17):
And I remember him telling me,he's like, don't worry about me,
help him out, help him out.
I was like, what the fuck?
Yeah, you pretty fucked upyourself, but all right.
So I go over and get to this guyand get to his um his buddy, and
he was he was pretty gone.
Um his legs were his legs werethe crazy the the way the blast

(54:44):
hit him because he was standingon top of the ID, the blast hit
him from underneath andbasically took all the meat off
of his leg, his thigh, and justit was gone, right?
So there was like a couple of uha couple of muscles still
attached to his legs, buteverything else in the inside

(55:07):
was gone.
It was it was it blew off,right?
Now, IDs when they hit, it'sactually a pretty pretty dirty
but clean injury at the sametime because it cauterizes booms
right away, right?
Because the uh the the heat justcauterizes it.
So like you see this burnt flashand all that stuff, right?

(55:28):
And um I started grabbing thisguy, and for some reason, for
some reason he can still lifthis leg up, right?
And I was trying to uh put atourniquet on him and um he just
kept keeps uh lifting his legup.
So I had to grab his bone andjust like put it down and

(55:50):
actually sit on his legs to forhim to not move his thigh
because I was still until I canactually get the uh tourniquet
on him.
So I put the tourniquet on him,and then I was calling, I
remember calling out and say,give me the stretcher, give me
the stretcher.
And um, I think it was Rabbitthat pulled up and uh got the

(56:11):
stretcher out and um we put iton the ground, got this guy on
there, but during that at thattime, um Natividad, the other
corpsman, um was actually therealready, and he was treating the
other guy.
So the guy was um the person Iwas treating, he was losing a
lot of blood.

(56:32):
So uh yeah, um, I think he waslosing a lot of blood.
I put the tourniquet on, stoppedthe bleeding, and I um tried to
give him well, I attempted togive him uh morphine, but when I
uh I gave him morphine, the uhinjector was upside down.
So I put my thumb right over theinjector, right?

(56:55):
I put my thumb right over thatinjector and I jabbed it in
there.
I was like, oh fuck.
I see I see the needle gothrough my actual like uh my
actual nails.
Like, oh shit, I done fucked up.
So next thing I know, I pulledup a little bit and then it
emptied out of my thumb.
My thumb oh no, my thumb justlike fucking swelled up like

(57:17):
crazy.
It was huge, right?

SPEAKER_03 (57:19):
And um what's funny is you didn't seem to care about
your thumb being huge.

SPEAKER_00 (57:24):
No, no, but uh um we got this guy in the stretcher,
and luckily those Bradley's thatwas actually um in the area.
We got this guy loaded up in aBradley, and they took him
straight back to um.

SPEAKER_03 (57:37):
Yeah, I think you I think you messed that memory up,
my friend, because we did notwhich one you stuck the guy, you
stuck the guy with thetourniquet thighs in my truck,
in the back of my truck, and theguy with the missing arm and
missing leg went in the back ofuh either your vehicle or
Harden's vehicle, but Hardenjumped in the vehicle and we

(57:59):
drove them to Combat Outpost.

SPEAKER_00 (58:01):
Okay, okay.
I thought for some reason it wasBradley that pulled up.

SPEAKER_03 (58:05):
Not for that, not for that up.
And the only reason why, andhere is why I remember is
probably the morphine.
Well, I was gonna say exactlyyou actually have a really good
reason not to remember you wereand that was I was I was
oscillating between terrorbecause the guy you put in my
truck, his eyes were missing.

(58:27):
Um, most of the muscle of theone side of his chest was
missing.
You you could see exposed bone.
Uh the your description was veryapt.
His as I remember, his rightthigh was open like a book, all
the way down to the bone.
You had put a tourniquet on it,but all the muscle was just wide
open, and it literally lookedlike a fanned out encyclopedia.

(58:51):
It was the craziest thing I'veever seen.
And uh both of his eyes weregone.
He was blind, but he was stillable to talk.
Yeah.
And the whole way back, he washe was issuing his last rights
essentially.
He was saying, Please tell mywife that you know I did well,

(59:13):
you know, I'm I'm very sorry,and I don't think I'm gonna make
it, and all this stuff.
And we're we're yelling at him,no, you're gonna make it, you're
gonna be fine, not having anyclue if he's gonna make it.
He looked that was the worstthing I had seen to that point.
And that was even after April,after seeing all those other
guys get wounded.
But that was the worst overallwounding I had seen.

(59:34):
I don't remember what happenedto the other casualty, but uh me
and Harden linked up at combatoutpost and brought the vehicles
back.
But that was the same day uhwhere after we came back, uh
Sledgehammer, which was Blake'splatoon, was at the arches and
they were securing RouteMichigan at the arches.

(59:57):
And we drove past that VBIEDthat later got the uh Echo QRF
high back and blew them up onthe road.
It was on that same day.
That was on the same day, sir.
That was a very busy day.
So, right after we got all ofour guys together after evacuing
the engineers, we went up to thecemetery mountain and were

(01:00:18):
parked up there, and that'swhere the VID got the high back,
and we drove down withLieutenant Wells, and everybody
was treating everything.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:26):
Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:28):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:28):
Okay.
Wow.
That was that's yeah.
Memories really, really mixedup.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:34):
Okay.
Well, you've been busy for 20years.
It's uh easy, it's easy to getthings a little bit uh confused.
I only have this one medicalmemory of Bundy injecting
himself with morphine and beinghigh for the next four or five
hours.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:50):
Yeah, so anyways, uh I would do remember when it
actually kicked in because Iremembered all the stuff prior
to that, and then um we get himon the stretcher, and I was um
on the front of the litter onthe um on the front right, and
um we're running, and I rememberlike just like straining.

(01:01:13):
I was like, oh fuck, you know,I'm having a hard time
breathing, you know, becausewe're running.
We got this guy, and um, I'mtrying to keep in step with
everybody else because if youdon't keep in step, obviously
got the uh casualties gonnafall.
And on top of that, we weregoing downhill because it's
pretty steep, huge, steep, steepincline.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:30):
It's a it's a dam.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:31):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So and we were trying to run himdown over there, and we got to
keep in step, you know, in orderto not lose the patient, um, to
the uh evac vehicle.
And it was when we got to thebottom of that decline that all
of a sudden everything juststarted slowing down.

(01:01:52):
It was like I was like, Oh yeah,it's kicking in.
So, well, we they give us twomorphines, so just you know, for
situations like that.
Well, it's not really meant forsituations like that, but um um
I ended up giving them the othermorphine, but um it was just
like my my breathing juststarted slowing down, and

(01:02:12):
everything was just like oh inslow motion, and I was just like
smiling for some reason, I don'tknow why.
And got to the highest shit,yeah.
I was high.
And I remember I'm not a doctor,but I know why.
I kept looking down on my thumband like, oh my god, that
thing's gigantic.

(01:02:33):
It's just like I was likelooking down while I'm running,
looking down on my thumb, it'slike, oh my god, that is huge,
you know.
And I just kept it was likehyper focused on my thumb.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:43):
Right.
That's what I remember laughingat you, then looking over and
being horrified at the guyyou're loading in my truck,
yeah, and then laughing at youand like, what the fuck is going
on?
And you were just giggling.
Oh my god, it was the weirdest,most surreal moment ever.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:00):
Yeah, um, I remember uh big boy uh coming up to me,
like after we got him loaded up,and I guess you guys uh took him
back to the room.
Um, big boy um going up to me,he's like, Are you okay, Doc?
He's like, No, not at all.
I was like, I'm not okay.
And he's like, he's like, Whathappened?
And I showed him my thumb, itwas like gigantic, right?

(01:03:22):
He's like, he's like, I stuckmyself with morphine.
He's like, Oh fuck, that thingis huge.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:30):
If you like what you've heard, this is a multi
part episode.
Make sure you listen to the restof the story.

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An Extra Dose of Morphine - Mike Bundeson (part 1 of 2)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}An Extra Dose of Morphine - Mike Bundeson (part 1 of 2)