December 8, 2025 • 49 mins
For this conversation, we talk to Mike Martinez and Jason Adams, combat replacements to 2/4 Weapons Company. A simple question sat on the table: go home, or go back with your friends into a fight that had already taken lives. Mike and Jason chose to return to Ramadi in 2004 as combat replacements, and their story lays bare what that decision meant—on bad days, on good days, and on the days that never leave you. The result is a raw, fast-moving account of grief, near misses, leadership that mattered, and the strange humor that kept people sane.
• choice between orders and loyalty
• arrival amid loss and tension
• 2003 versus 2004 combat realities
• IED at Habaniyah Dam aftermath
• rooftop pistol ambush near miss
• QRF restraint and detainee handling
• Junction City culture clashes
• leaders who protected Marines
• mortars, gas scares, long bug hunts
• hooch life, cards, crud, coping humor
If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story.
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If you are a member of Weapons Company or someone with a story about Weapons Company 2/4 in 2004, please come tell some stories with us - 20 mins or 20 hours! Help paint the canvas of an archival story for others to know what it was like. Contact us @ RamadiPodcast@gmail.com, or via the podcast website above.
All music used with permission by soundbay: https://www.youtube.com/@soundbay_RFM
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_05 (01:07):
All right, guys, go ahead and tell uh who you are
and what rank you were in 2004in Ramadi.
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
Well, so my my name is uh Mike Martinez.
I was uh one of the combatreplacements in Ramadi.
Uh I I went to Ramadi as acorporal.
SPEAKER_05 (01:21):
So and Jason?
SPEAKER_07 (01:25):
Uh my name's Jason.
Um I was also a combatreplacement from 3.5.
Um and I was a corporal when Igot to Ramadi.
SPEAKER_05 (01:33):
And you guys both went to Sledgehammer Platoon?
And did you guys both come from3-5?
SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
Yep.
Nice.
Yeah, yeah.
We spent, I mean, we met, he andI met sometime around March of
2001.
Yeah, so right after boot camp,after SOI, we met up at 3.5.
Um, this pretty interestingstory about how we first became
or for how we first met and howhe decided that he was gonna be
my friend.
(01:59):
So uh um, but uh but yeah, so wemet then and then we that's when
we just kind of stuck it out, Iguess.
So Jason, I'll let you tell thatstory when you get a chance.
SPEAKER_06 (02:11):
Yeah, go for it.
SPEAKER_07 (02:12):
Right now, yeah, yeah.
I don't remember what happened.
I think I was cleaning my roomand I had a bowl of dry fruit
loops, and I was eating likesnacking on like chips, and he
just walked.
I've never seen the guy beforein my life.
He walked by and took a handfulout of him, and I was like, Who
the fuck was that?
And they were like, that wasMartinez, and I was like, fuck
that guy.
And uh, I think you gave me aride, right?
You had to give me a ridesomewhere.
(02:33):
Uh and you're in his Camaro andhis stereo sounded like dog
shit.
Like it was so bad.
Like, and I was like, it was anice car, and I was like, What
the fuck's going on?
He's like, I was broken, so Ijust had to EQ it for him.
Uh and he was all like, even Iremember you like freaking out,
you're like, How the fuck didyou do that, man?
How'd you make it sound so good?
Pretty much hasn't left me alonesince.
(02:54):
Yep.
That's our friendship story,like in the national.
SPEAKER_06 (02:59):
That uh that that that sounds exactly like most uh
Marine Corps uh friendshipstories.
Something weird happened and andlifelong friends ever since.
So right now, you guys 3-5 was apart of the invasion, right?
Yep, yeah.
So you guys did the uh the wholerace to Baghdad.
Um where did you go up through?
SPEAKER_01 (03:21):
Uh sure.
We crossed the LOD, whateverwhen was it, March 19th or
whatever it was, the the March20th.
Um shoot, I don't know.
Jason, do you have a better?
I know we took we what do youtake, Route One?
I have no idea.
I don't know, I just wrote inthe back.
Um I didn't know that either.
Yeah, I think we took Route Oneall the way up, like through um
(03:44):
Azizia, through uh Adiwania, um,took a few ambushes and stuff
like that along the way, thatkind of stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (03:51):
Very cool.
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
Yeah.
And then, like you said, it wasjust that it was just that that
race to Baghdad, whoever couldget there first.
SPEAKER_06 (03:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
Sure.
SPEAKER_06 (03:59):
And then so then 3-5 comes back, and um, if I
remember your stories correctly,your EAS fell in a time frame
where they were basically likeyou either get involuntarily
extended on the next pump, oryou guys can choose to jump over
(04:19):
and be combat replacements for aunit.
And then you guys chose that, amI remembering correctly?
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
Well, it was a little bit like very close to
that.
So that's the way all of ourguys, the combo combat
replacements work.
So yeah, they all got thatultimatum.
But Jason and I, because wejoined like I was about two
weeks after like our main groupof guys, and Jason was like a
week after me when we joined.
But with our EAS, they actuallytold us we didn't have to go
(04:46):
back.
They're like, um, the way yourEAS is working, we don't need
you, you can go home.
Um, so everybody else is gonnago, all your friends are going.
And uh you get they took us intothe um the San Mateo um gym.
So we all sat in the gym andthey told us this whole spiel
about how we're all they're allgoing back.
And they took us, a few of us tothe side and they're like, you
(05:07):
don't have to go.
So congrats.
So Jason and I had the choice togo home, like get out EAS at the
end of October, or go back withto you guys, meet up with you.
Oh and then and then they werethey were gonna split us up all
different directions, and weknew that.
And so, like all the three, fiveguys, so all right, so let's do
it.
So Jason and I, we had uh, wejust had, I don't know, we
(05:28):
probably had a couple beers anda and a cigar and we talked
about it.
Um, my wife had just had gavebirth in 2003 to my youngest
son.
And uh so I had just got home,like, and now it's April, so
April of 2004, and they're like,Oh, so you don't have to go
back.
So my son's almost a year old,and they're like, You don't have
to go back.
So Jason and I again, we hadthis conversation.
(05:49):
We're like, so do we just letthem go without us or do we bite
the bullet?
So kind of stuck between a rockand a hard place.
Do you do you do you say fuckyour friends and go stay home
with your wife?
Because he he was married also.
Um so do you stay home with yourwife?
I mean, you want to be home withyour wife, or do you or do you
again take the hit and go backwith your friends?
(06:10):
So we we said we were trying toyou have to fight the swamp
monster, right?
Like swamp monster is gonna grabone one way or another.
So we could either run in theswamp and get caught or turn
around and fight.
So so we volunteered to go back,he and I.
SPEAKER_02 (06:25):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
Jason, does it sound pretty familiar?
Sound right?
Yeah, it sounds about right.
SPEAKER_06 (06:30):
Okay.
So wait, so did you guys gotback from your from Iraq the
first time in like early 04 orlate 03?
SPEAKER_01 (06:40):
Late 03, September of 03.
So my son was born July of 03.
SPEAKER_06 (06:44):
Okay.
I see.
SPEAKER_01 (06:45):
Yeah, so I see, okay.
Yeah, so we so we got backSeptember.
I mean, so I missed his birth,they wouldn't send me home.
Um, we got home around, yeah, solate September sometime.
SPEAKER_06 (06:57):
Okay.
So Jason, do you remember howyou ended up getting back over
to uh Iraq?
Did you guys take a uh militaryplane over or commercial plane?
SPEAKER_07 (07:08):
We took a commercial flight, right, Mike?
Yeah, yeah.
Um yeah, we never took amilitary military military plane
either time.
Really?
Um yeah, both times.
Yeah, like like they fed usmeals and shit on the plane.
SPEAKER_05 (07:20):
Dude, I'm so jealous.
SPEAKER_06 (07:22):
Yeah, we we were we were shoved in like sardines on
a C-130 that almost crashed likethree times.
SPEAKER_07 (07:29):
That would suck so bad.
SPEAKER_06 (07:30):
Oh, it was awful.
SPEAKER_07 (07:32):
Uh how long was the flight?
SPEAKER_06 (07:35):
Well, we we literally had it like I'm not
joking that it almost crashed.
Like well, it's not maybe crashis a little too strong of a
word, but we lost an engine.
Uh, we had other mechanicalissues.
Um, so we landed in Jersey.
SPEAKER_05 (07:49):
It had to make two urgent landings and one
unscheduled landing that was noturgent for whatever reason.
And it was uh we replaced anengine in New Jersey, we landed
again in Canada, then we landedin Shannon Air Force Base, and
then we landed in Germany.
We switched planes in Germanyand finally made it into Kuwait.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
We landed in Kuwait in a freaking commercial
airplane.
SPEAKER_05 (08:13):
Yeah, that's that's how we flew out.
We flew out on United, but weflew in on bullshit air.
SPEAKER_01 (08:18):
I'm telling you, like stewardesses like walking
around drinks and and crackersor whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_06 (08:24):
Like well, and if not to jump the story just too
much, but then you guys left.
Did you guys come back with us?
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
No, we they sent us home early.
When did you guys come home?
We came home like in August.
SPEAKER_06 (08:39):
Yeah, we can't we came home in September, the end
of September.
SPEAKER_07 (08:42):
Yeah, I think we left on my birthday, Mike.
I don't know your fuckingbirthday.
Yeah, well, no, I remember Iremember getting jumped by Royce
and Hampton uh before we got onthe on the helicopter.
SPEAKER_01 (08:53):
Oh, you know what?
I think you're right.
I think you're right.
Um yeah, that I remember that.
SPEAKER_06 (08:57):
Okay.
I I thought I had rememberedthat you guys had left a little
you know earlier than than likewhen we got real serious about
the left seat, right seat.
Like I think I think they pulledyou guys out.
SPEAKER_01 (09:08):
Yeah, dude.
So we were there, we were therefrom like late.
So we got there right afterEaster of 04.
Um actually the first, so Imean, again, I don't want to
jump the gun, but we got therethe day the day after um
Jeremiah Savage died.
unknown (09:22):
Okay.
SPEAKER_07 (09:22):
May 12th.
So May 12th wasn't the day afterthe day of.
SPEAKER_01 (09:25):
It might have been the day of.
SPEAKER_07 (09:26):
You guys might have it was the day of.
We're sitting in the uh in theum in the in our on our beds
when uh the platoon came backall super upset and shit.
SPEAKER_01 (09:36):
Yeah, I was on Jeremiah's bed.
SPEAKER_06 (09:38):
Oh yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (09:41):
So we'll we'll we could we could jump to that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (09:44):
I don't want to be able to rewind.
I gotta put the phone down forlike 20 seconds.
I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_06 (09:48):
Yeah, man.
No worries, no worries.
SPEAKER_07 (09:51):
It's always about him.
SPEAKER_05 (09:55):
And you don't even know his birthday.
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I actually do.
I'm just fucking with him.
SPEAKER_06 (10:03):
I got him flowers last year.
SPEAKER_01 (10:06):
I buy flowers every year.
Okay.
SPEAKER_06 (10:12):
No, no, you guys, so I know you and Jason came, but I
think Clark also came at thesame time.
Yeah, we had Brian Fox and RoyceLarson.
There's a couple other guys withRainmaker.
SPEAKER_01 (10:26):
Yeah, we had Royce Larson and Brian Fox went to
Rain.
But yeah, so you're so yeah,Fox, uh Larson, they were with
Rainmaker.
Um Clark stayed with us inSledgehammer, and then Lopez,
Gonzalez, Hampton, and TravisDay all went to map two, yeah
with map two, yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (10:46):
Yep.
Now, were they all previousweapons company guys too?
So you guys okay.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
I knew all of them since SOI.
Okay.
So we all went to SOI together,we all got to 3.5 together.
Say we were all weapons company,3-5, 8-1s together, and then and
then they were the ones who allhad they had to go back.
So their EAS were forced to goback.
SPEAKER_06 (11:09):
Oh, I see.
SPEAKER_01 (11:11):
And that's when Jason and I were like, Well,
fuck.
Like, do you what do you again?
What do you say?
Like you're stuck between therock and hard place.
I have my wife with a brand newbaby.
Like, what do you do?
SPEAKER_06 (11:20):
Oh, I had it.
So I had gotten uh I had gottenMSG orders, and that was that
was all I ever wanted.
When I joined, when I joined, Iwanted to go directly MSG.
Like that was that was my dreamjob.
I wanted to go MSG.
And um I actually had orders inhand.
And uh Gunny pulled me aside andwas like, hey, you have orders
(11:45):
to go, um, but also know thatwe're gonna go get into it.
And so know though, if yourefuse orders, you know, it's it
doesn't look good.
And so if you're planning onmaking a career of this, you
know, you're gonna have a hard,you know, make a decision.
(12:05):
And so obviously, you know, thestory is evident.
I I turned those orders downjust so I could go with the
guys.
But that was a hard I sat onthat for about a week um trying
to decide what I wanted to do.
Because we actually had a coupleguys that chose to go MSG.
Um there was a bunch there wasfour of us, I think.
SPEAKER_05 (12:27):
Only two that I can remember, but one machine
gunner, one 181s.
But if there's a couple others,I don't remember.
SPEAKER_06 (12:34):
I think there was there was a couple other uh they
were from not from weapons.
SPEAKER_05 (12:38):
Oh, line company dudes, yeah, for sure.
unknown (12:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (12:41):
So but uh so I no, I I not not exactly the same
situation because I wasn'tmarried and I didn't have a kid,
but uh it's it was hard.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
You're you're kind of crushing your own dream.
SPEAKER_06 (12:54):
You have a kid Yeah, well, and I couldn't I couldn't
in good conscience.
I mean ultimately I had a coupleof really good conversations
with a couple people that I knewI would never have been able to
live with myself if someonewould have gotten hurt.
Um I mean Savage ended up youknow not making it.
And so, you know, I'd you knowthat hurts as it is, but I don't
(13:17):
know what I would have, youknow, like that would have
probably hurt a lot more if Ichose go MSG.
So I I completely understandyour decision.
SPEAKER_01 (13:27):
Yeah, you're you're sitting in some freaking cushion
job or just hanging out again.
I could have I so that was May12th, I got with you guys.
Um May till October, I couldhave just been hanging out
doing, you know, guard duty orsomething stupid.
Like sure, I could have I couldhave had a cushion.
Just rocks.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm like, fuck, I don'tknow.
So it to me it was the bestdecision.
(13:48):
So, you know, which is funny.
Yeah, go to going to back towar.
That's the that's the betterdecision.
SPEAKER_06 (13:57):
That's sounds uh sounds like a lot of us.
Yeah, by the way.
Fuck awesome.
I mean, yes.
Welcome back, Jason.
Thank you.
We were just we we were justtalking about some of the other
guys that you guys came overwith at the same time.
So um so yeah, so uh you guyscame commercial flight into
(14:19):
Kuwait, right?
Okay, and then how did you getfrom Kuwait up to Ramadi?
SPEAKER_07 (14:26):
I think we're on Grayon buses, right, Mike?
Yes.
Skateboards, actually.
No, uh they weren't grey ones,they're they're buses.
Oh, they were they were thefucking Haji buses.
Yeah, keep laughing,motherfucker.
Oh really?
You guys took a bus up?
Yeah, and they uh they had likeum they covered the windows,
(14:47):
right, with paper so we couldn'tsee out.
I do remember that.
SPEAKER_01 (14:52):
The dude was blaring some fucking Haji music the
whole way.
Yo, like, dude, are we are wefucking retarded?
Did that really happen?
SPEAKER_06 (15:00):
Well, I hella completely believe this.
I mean, that it sounds exactlylike the military.
SPEAKER_05 (15:06):
I mean, they would totally like you definitely
didn't take a bus all the way toRamadi though.
Did you go up to Baghdad andthen catch a bird?
Or you went all the way toRamadi in a bongo.
SPEAKER_01 (15:15):
We got in a helicopter somewhere.
I just don't remember wherewhat, but but I I dude, I hella
forgot about the freaking Hajibuses, like the with the blacked
out windows.
Like we're in we're in a fuckingcombat zone.
Like, but it made sense to totransport us that way too.
And again, I don't remember howlong we did that, but I
remembered that trip.
It was fucking wild.
SPEAKER_06 (15:38):
Because the the the drive up to Ramadi is more than
a day.
SPEAKER_01 (15:43):
Yeah, so they must have flown us into something,
and then we did Haji buses intoRamadi, something like that.
SPEAKER_07 (15:50):
I I think I think we took uh buses from the airport
and then got a bird somewhere umon the way.
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
Yeah, that had to be it.
But but I definitely I dude, Ihella forgot about the Haji
buses.
It's crazy.
That's gonna be some fuckingflashback tonight.
I just remember it being dark,dark because it was at night.
We're we're driving in theseHaji buses at night, blacked
out, and the dude was blaringthe Haji music, and it was just
and you know, just the sight andthe smell just hit just hella
(16:17):
hit me right now.
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_05 (16:20):
That's a crazy way to travel.
It I'm hoping that was just intoKuwait and you got to the Iraq
border and then they flew youfrom there, but it could be all
the way to Baghdad, and thatwould be crazy as hell.
SPEAKER_01 (16:30):
Yeah, no, I don't remember being that long.
I don't remember it being a day.
I remember it being a longdrive, but not a day.
It was a it was a nighttimething we were doing.
It was in the dark.
SPEAKER_06 (16:40):
They might have gotten you to Baghdad because
Baghdad was a it was anundoable.
It was what what was it, nylon?
It was like two hours orwhatever.
SPEAKER_05 (16:48):
Oh, I don't know.
It was more than that, but Idon't remember because Fallujah,
anyways, whatever.
SPEAKER_06 (16:54):
Uh interesting.
So you guys get to get toRumadi.
It sounds like you guys gotthere.
Um, so did you guys go toplatoons based off of your uh
MOSs?
Did you have any choice in thator how did uh no?
SPEAKER_01 (17:11):
They just separated everybody, just they just kind
of shotgunned us out.
Everybody just kind of goeverywhere.
And and then to other um otherbattalions.
We had the friends who go toother battalions, not in Ramadi,
like straight up shotgunnedeverywhere across across Iraq.
SPEAKER_07 (17:28):
Except they let they let four of us stay together,
right?
Groups of four.
Yeah.
If we volunteered to go on thefirst wave, they let us stay
with three of our friends um inthe same platoon.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (17:39):
Oh nice.
SPEAKER_05 (17:40):
I mean, yeah, we got uh Gonzo and Lopez and Day and
Hampton, and they were allmortarmen in theirs.
But uh Gonzo and Lopez arebrothers, so yeah, they they let
them stay together.
SPEAKER_01 (17:53):
Yeah.
Yeah, so they they should theywere together from boot camp on.
Um and then who was who was withRainmaker, uh the sergeant?
Uh was it Lopez or somethinglike that?
Garcia?
SPEAKER_05 (18:07):
Garcia was Garcia?
Yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Felix, yeah, Felix Garcia.
SPEAKER_01 (18:12):
So Garcia, he they they told him he had to pick one
of our four.
Uh wait, we had no, we had five.
We had five that go that went toSledgehammer.
So they told him to pick one andhe picked the pretty one.
He picked Fox.
Um so Fox goes over toRainmaker, and then um uh who
(18:32):
was a Sergeant Major?
Sergeant Major Mack, maybe?
SPEAKER_05 (18:36):
First Sergeant Mack was our company first sergeant.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
First Sergeant Mack, okay.
So he asked he asked Fox, hey,who's your uh what friend do you
have with you in your platoon?
And Fox is like, Oh, I don'thave anybody.
He was like, pick one.
So so he picked Larson, soLarson went to Rainmaker with
him.
SPEAKER_06 (18:51):
Oh, okay.
Okay, oh I see that's where thefive is because then it was you,
Clark, and Jason.
SPEAKER_01 (18:57):
Yes.
SPEAKER_06 (18:58):
Okay.
All right.
SPEAKER_07 (19:00):
How is Clark?
Uh I haven't talked to him since2004.
I saw him like two years ago.
He uh he moved to WesternWashington and he was living
like five miles from where I wasat the time.
Okay.
Um but he's doing good as good.
He's got a family and a houseand stuff.
Good job.
Nice.
SPEAKER_06 (19:16):
All right, so you guys are now you're in Ramadi.
You guys got divided up.
Uh you're over at you over toSledgehammer.
Um what's your uh what's some ofyour first memories of like uh
of Ramadi?
SPEAKER_07 (19:30):
Well they gave us like two days or a day to uh
acclimate, right, Mike?
Yeah.
So we're just chilling and wewere just like sitting on our
asses when you guys came backfrom that patrol.
And we didn't know we didn'tknow what had happened, you
know?
Um and you guys were kind ofbeing dickheads to us, if I
remember right.
Um we didn't know why.
SPEAKER_01 (19:49):
We just know you guys are fucking assholes.
We're like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_07 (19:51):
Yeah, like we're going home, fuck this.
SPEAKER_01 (19:53):
Like, we're just fucking guys, I'm going home.
SPEAKER_07 (19:56):
Uh I just remember you guys came in and we were
kind of just listening.
I was I was just kind of uheavesdropping on the
conversation and we were like,oh fuck, someone just died.
We're like, God damn.
I just remember like being, youknow, like we're not in Kansas
anymore.
This is fucking crazy.
Because the the the first thefirst tour wasn't really like
that, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (20:13):
We yeah, we lost a few guys the first time, but but
it wasn't day one.
We walk in and somebody died.
SPEAKER_06 (20:20):
Yeah.
Well you would have already youwould have gotten there after we
had had our the first battle ofRamadi where we lost, you know,
we had a big we had a big hit.
SPEAKER_07 (20:30):
And then I think that's why we came, is because
when you guys lost the guysduring that battle when we were
replacing that.
SPEAKER_06 (20:36):
Yep.
And then a few weeks beforethat, also we had gotten a
couple decent casualties thatwent home.
They weren't KIA, but they wereuh birded out.
Yeah, they were birded out.
I mean, so they they weren'tthey weren't there, and so we
had you know, you were comingunfortunately coming in when
things were uh a little tense.
(20:58):
And to be fair, and Nylan can uhuh assert to this is that 81s uh
weren't the uh always thefriendliest uh we're we're not
we're not the lovable ones ofthe uh of the company.
And so we we're we might havebeen we were probably treating
you as uh very fairly uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:20):
So that's what Jason, like we said earlier
though.
So that's where we walked, weget it, we we're we're there
sitting.
I'm sitting on a fucking bed,and you guys walk in and I'm the
fucking asshole.
And I'm like, what did I do?
Like, I don't even fucking knowthese guys, you know.
But it turns out, yeah, I'm onJeremiah's bed.
SPEAKER_06 (21:35):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:36):
And they start clearing up his stuff, taking
you know, packing his stuff up,just start boxing home, boxing
it up and sitting at home, andI'm like, Oh, I'm the ass.
I I'm the asshole by default.
SPEAKER_06 (21:46):
Like I get it so yeah, yeah.
Well, that was with Rainmaker,and so you guys would have
gotten so that was prop, andthen after that is when you
would have gotten divided up togo over to Sledgehammer, then
right.
Yeah.
Because our our platoon didn't.
That was again, that was thatwas on Sledgehammer's side.
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
So gotcha.
SPEAKER_06 (22:07):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:08):
So it was uh so it was tough, man.
It was uh it was tough walkinginto that situation and being
like, oh, okay, so again, thisis a new combat thing that we
don't know.
SPEAKER_06 (22:20):
Yeah, yeah.
How how hard of a transition wasthat?
You know, you you guys had youknow, you were already battle
tested, right?
So you already had gone, youknow, you had done the you know,
you had been to war, uh, andcoming back into essentially the
same, in theory, sameenvironment, but you know, very
different circumstances.
SPEAKER_01 (22:40):
It was definitely a different war, it was completely
different.
And the the weird thing is,because like you said, battle
tested, yeah.
Like I got um some medals or amedal or whatever for shit that
I did in Iraq in 03.
Um, but coming back, like now,like not only am I a fucking
boot because I don't know shitabout your guys' combat zone,
but I'm also being treated likea fucking boot as a corporal,
(23:01):
right?
Like I'm a corporal, but I'mbeing treated like a boot
because I'm I'm the fucking newguy.
It makes sense, right?
Yeah, um, so like there's like alot of weird uh feelings about
that, about like, dude, I'm afucking E4 like everybody else,
but I'm being treated like afucking E1 and one of the
fucking boots on can't oncampus.
Like, look, how what the fuck doI gotta do here to prove myself,
you know?
So it was a difficult transitionfor sure for me.
SPEAKER_06 (23:24):
Yeah, yeah.
I could I could see that beingreally I could see that really
being difficult to come into.
Uh you know, we we all knew eachother really tightly.
We'd already gone through a lotof that stuff.
And then, I mean, there'sstories, uh, you know, his you
know, history even comments on,you know, like the whole like
the new guys that are coming in,you don't want to make friends
(23:46):
with the new guy uh for avariety of reasons, you know, uh
not anything to do with theperson themselves, but you're
like, you know, you've alreadylost people, so it's hard to
want to make friends in the warzone.
Correct.
SPEAKER_05 (24:00):
Well, I was gonna say, I'm counting on my fingers.
Uh by that point, weaponscompany had probably lost 10
people.
I mean, you know, two dead andeight went home with significant
wounds like missing eyes,missing, you know, damage to
extremities, stuff like that.
Serious wounds by that point.
So that was that was a lot ofstuff.
What did you guys hear beforeyou came over?
(24:21):
Did you hear anything about whatwe were doing?
SPEAKER_01 (24:24):
Nope.
Nope.
I don't remember shit, dude.
I remember they just said you'regonna go.
It's the same thing.
You've been there before, youknow what you know what you're
getting into.
Get ready for it.
All right.
SPEAKER_02 (24:35):
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (24:36):
Like I didn't know shit about IEDs and freaking
incoming mortars at you know allhours of the fucking night.
I didn't, we didn't know aboutthat shit.
Like, what the fuck do you guysdo?
Like, why'd you piss them off somuch?
SPEAKER_07 (24:49):
They won't even matter if we left no three.
SPEAKER_06 (24:56):
There's a reason why we're called the bastards, man.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (25:01):
Magnificent.
SPEAKER_06 (25:02):
That's right.
Magnificent.
That's right.
unknown (25:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (25:04):
So how so yeah, you we so you you're having to
adjust to IEDs, you're having toadjust to a lot more indirect
fire.
Um, we were also obviously, youknow, you were doing the race to
the Baghdad, but here we're byall pretenses, we were supposed
to be doing, you know, securityand stabilization operations,
SASO.
Um, I think at that point wewere pretty much had put that
(25:28):
down.
Um, I think there was still ahope that we were gonna stand up
the military police and theIraqi police at this point.
Uh that handoff was aboondoggle.
That um, but that was at whatwas that supposed to be the
first of July or whatever?
SPEAKER_05 (25:41):
Somewhere around, yeah.
The police station got blown upon the third of July.
So yeah, that's about right.
SPEAKER_01 (25:47):
Yeah, I remember I think I remember that, right?
We were I think we were on incountry there, so oh yeah, for
that.
SPEAKER_06 (25:52):
I remember that no, I remember you guys helping out
with a couple differentoperations, but um but yeah, so
so and do you do do any of thoseoper any of those operations
stick out to you?
Any of the I mean withSledgehammer, we ended up doing
a couple hits, we did a couplequarter and searches.
Any any stick out?
SPEAKER_01 (26:10):
No, I just it it's honestly to me it's just a big
ass blur of shit.
But I just I remember it wasjust it was again, it was a new
combat zone.
Like, so we're so we're learningon the fly, trying to keep up
with you guys who've been in incombat, been in this in this
fight.
Our fight was different thanyours.
Like it's you know, you talkabout you think about this uh
you know from different wars,how every war is different in
its own way.
But dude, this is within a yearand everything's different.
(26:33):
Yeah, the only thing the same isthe fucking dirt, but otherwise
it's like completely different.
SPEAKER_05 (26:40):
Yeah.
Well, the first big event that Ican remember, and maybe this
will jog your memory because itit I know it stuck out to Lopez
and Gonzalez, and Day was in mytruck half the time.
So I remember talking to himabout it.
Uh we went out.
SPEAKER_01 (26:55):
Did he take his dentures out to talk to you?
SPEAKER_05 (26:57):
Or we called him Colonel the whole time.
We were like, Man, you look likeyou're the oldest old man of the
Marine Corps.
SPEAKER_01 (27:05):
Dude, he would he would have his freaking his
bottle of Mountain Dew andcigarette like at all times.
All the time.
SPEAKER_05 (27:10):
Yeah, that we we bonded because I smoked all the
time too.
So at least we bonded overcigarettes.
SPEAKER_01 (27:14):
For Fox's 40th birthday, we all got together
and uh I I bought a bag ofWerther's originals and I would
sneak them into a uh Colonel'spockets.
SPEAKER_05 (27:25):
That's great.
So on May 29th, there was thisuh idea that the engineers,
combat engineers who had taskedout to us, uh they were going to
sweep the Habania Dam, which wasan el the elevated dam on the
Habania Lake.
SPEAKER_01 (27:41):
Yeah, I remember that now.
SPEAKER_05 (27:42):
Yeah, and that was the first, I think, biggest
worst thing that happened, likeright after you guys got there,
where they were sweeping the Imean, we'd had some minor
skirmishes, a couple pop shots,and a couple small IEDs, but
that was the first big one wherethat big IED blew up on the dam.
And I I know you guys were outthere at the arches.
Do you happen to remember thatthat stuff?
SPEAKER_01 (28:03):
Uh I remember being there um seeing from a distance,
we could see the the IED go off.
I remember seeing this the puffof smoke and everything, and we
were far away um from it.
But I remember that.
And um uh so I know Lopez isactually there, and I don't know
the guy who got injured, butLopez actually cradled him while
he was while they were workingon him.
(28:23):
And I and I I remembered like Idon't know if 100% if it's right
if I remember it correctly, butLopez saying, like, I guess his
nuts got blown off or somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_05 (28:30):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (28:30):
And the guy was just praying, praying to God, praying
to asking Lopez to help him andmake sure that he gets to see
his family again or something ofthat sort.
Um, that one obviously stillhits.
SPEAKER_06 (28:42):
I remember that, but um Yeah, those those engineers
got hurt bad.
SPEAKER_07 (28:46):
Yeah.
You know uh what sticks out inmy mind is I think it was the
second coordinate search, um,right, Mike, when uh I was on
the rooftop with Rocha.
SPEAKER_05 (28:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Tell that one what happened.
SPEAKER_07 (28:59):
What's that?
SPEAKER_06 (29:00):
Yeah, tell what happened.
SPEAKER_07 (29:02):
Yeah, so uh we were up there for a long ass time.
I I don't remember how long, butit was all day, and we were just
worn out and tired.
And um, I just remember therewere so many people in cars and
shit, and we uh I looked down atthis car and I was like, hold
up, hold up.
SPEAKER_01 (29:15):
So I'm not with Adams at this point.
I'm I'm down in a fucking alley,and and I'm down in the alley
watching this alleyway, and Icould only I could look up and
see him and Rocha, and they'retwo fuckers just up at uh up on
this fucking building beingfuckers, right?
Like just normal.
And I'm just looking up andseeing them, and then now go
ahead, Jason, do your thing.
SPEAKER_07 (29:34):
So I looked left down at this car, and I looked
right, and as I looked right,they pulled a pistol out and
shot um several rounds, right?
Micah, a few rounds.
Um, and we just dropped likethat was the fastest I've ever
moved in my life.
And I remember um the the umbricks like in the parapet wall
were like, shoot, they theywould have, you know, they
almost hit us.
I think they're breaking offright like two inches above my
(29:55):
head.
Um and we jumped back up, andyou know, obviously they put the
gun, we didn't have no ideawhich what car it even was, or
there's nothing we could doabout it.
SPEAKER_01 (30:02):
But um, that was that was super scary.
Yeah, so um in 03, I I was therewhen uh when Eric Silva got shot
and he when he died, and Iremember seeing him running
across a berm, he gets hit inthe side, he drops like a bag of
bricks, and it was he was deadon impact.
Um and when I was looking up inthat up from the alley watching
(30:23):
them, and the way I hear thegunshots going, I see Jason and
and and Jamie that I see himdrop, and I'm like, oh fuck.
SPEAKER_02 (30:31):
Oh shit.
SPEAKER_01 (30:32):
It was a exact same body movement, just collapsed.
And I'm like, fuck, my my bestfriend just got fucking killed.
So we make our way up there, anduh yeah, he was he was fine.
He was just like, he's like,dude, they almost hit me.
Like, what the fuck?
I thought you I thought youfucking died.
SPEAKER_06 (30:52):
God damn it.
No, I I uh I remember a coupletimes meeting up with uh after
some really intense ones.
I remember I don't uh the onethat I remember actually more is
uh the time that I met up withNyland, uh, I think it was over
at Junction City.
And I don't know what shit wehad gotten into, but I remember
you you you looked at me and youwere like, holy shit, dude, you
(31:15):
look awful.
Like you went through it.
Now there is uh we definitelyhad a couple of pretty intense
ones.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:26):
Yeah, wild shit.
SPEAKER_05 (31:27):
Based on that description, that sounds like
that was probably June 1st, oursecond big bug hunt.
That was where that wasliterally all day.
That was like 14 hours of ofpeople searching houses and
digging shit up in the yards andcalling for EOD, and like it was
forever.
SPEAKER_01 (31:45):
Yeah, I remember it actually being a bug hunt.
I remember that term beingcalled a bug hunt.
Like, so yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (31:50):
Hey Blake, do you remember um the day that Fox got
hit with that IED?
SPEAKER_06 (31:55):
Brian Fox.
Give me give me a little bitmore.
SPEAKER_07 (31:58):
So I think it was like maybe our third third day
in country with you guys.
Um, and we just got taken off onwhere we were going.
Um and he got hit um in the faceby an IED.
SPEAKER_06 (32:09):
Oh right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (32:10):
He got peppered.
He wasn't like peppered.
Yeah, no, no, he yeah.
And me and Mike guy down, Ithink, right, you did it right,
Mike.
Yeah.
And we we pulled him back and wewere beating the shit out of
him, and you were like, You madea stop, and we were like, we
thought you were joking.
We're like, what the fuck?
Okay, we just kept going.
You're like, no, stop right now,and we're like, what the fuck?
We're like we're just completelylost.
We're like, what the fuck is hesaying?
(32:31):
Is he telling us to stop?
SPEAKER_01 (32:32):
Dude, well, because so Brian, when he got hit, um,
we again we're brand new, wedon't know you guys, and Reeves,
uh, Corporal Reeves, right?
Yeah, yeah, he uh he's on he'son the radio and he and he like
an asshole.
He's just like, hey, uh, one ofyour friends just got hit.
Like, like that.
Like, it was like that's theconversation.
And I'm just like, I mean, Ipunched the Humvee.
(32:55):
I was pissed.
I was like, Bam, fuck it,pissed.
And then we they went anddetained the dude, and and Jason
and I were fucking pissed.
And yeah, you were like, hey, wecan't be can't be doing shit
like that, guys.
SPEAKER_07 (33:07):
I think so proven guilty, and we're like, what the
fuck?
SPEAKER_06 (33:11):
No, we definitely yeah, we we were we would have
been QRF then at that point.
Yeah, and so we would haverolled, we would have rolled out
to help support Rainmaker afterno, I remember, I remember that,
and then yeah, we we we we wouldgrab those guys and then bring
them back to Junction City,yeah.
And drop them off at thecollection point there, and then
(33:32):
grab Chow because uh Yeah, theyhad a nice chow hall.
They did.
They did.
SPEAKER_01 (33:38):
So uh so a funny story of Junction City.
Uh Jason and I we have atendency of being fuckers, and
uh so we go over to JunctionCity and we want to because
that's the army base, right?
Yeah, yep, yeah.
So we wanted to play a game.
SPEAKER_06 (33:52):
Became Camp Ramadi later on, but we called it
Junction City when we werethere.
SPEAKER_01 (33:55):
Yeah, so we played a game that we want to see how
long we could go walking aroundJunction City without a cover
on.
Um just to see who just to seewho would talk to us.
So we're like walking around andwe called it Operation Drawfire.
See who could yell at us.
What's what's the highest rankedguy who could yell at us?
And at first, some likespecialist comes up to us and
he's like, Hey Marines, you guysneed to put on your covers.
(34:18):
And we're like, huh, fuck you,you know, whatever.
So we keep walking around, we goeat chow, come out, and we're
walking around.
Some other, you know, somefucking E4, somebody, you know,
he's like, Oh, hey Marines, puton your covers, and we're like,
whatever.
So finally the fucking basesergeant major sees us and he's
like, What the fuck, Marines?
Where's where's your fuckingcovers?
Blah blah blah.
(34:38):
He's like, and then as it wasactually the day, the day that
the snipers got killed.
Oh so oh yeah.
So we had been fucking aroundlike after that.
We because so we were on the theparty that took the bodies back
to the Air Force base.
SPEAKER_02 (34:50):
Yeah, I remember that.
SPEAKER_01 (34:52):
So we at the back at Junction City, we're doing so.
We're playing this game, andthen the base sergeant major
tells us he's like, That's whyyour Marines got killed, because
you guys are complacent, goofingoff, blah blah blah.
Oh, okay.
So we go back and we talk toSergeant Major Booker.
SPEAKER_07 (35:08):
Remember he was like, he was like, he was like,
Oh, you guys got a problem withthat?
He's like, Why don't you haveyour Sergeant Major call me?
We're like, What's your name?
He's like, You don't need toknow my fucking name on the
Sergeant Major's base.
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
So we go back, say hey Sergeant Major, we need to
talk to you real quick.
Uh we so we told him we fuckedup, we're being stupid, and
blah, blah, blah.
He's like, Who was it?
He wouldn't tell us his name.
He was the base sergeant major,and he told us you know who he
is.
So Sergeant Major Booker picksup a fucking old like rotary
phone, fucking dials a phonenumber and calls this guy, and
(35:39):
we're standing there, like infront of his desk.
And he's like, Hey, SergeantMajor, just want to go.
This is Sergeant Major Booker,just want to talk to you for a
second about some uh incidentthat happened with some of my
Marines.
And uh can't hear the other guy.
He's like, Okay, well, I knowyou wanted to go on a mission
with some of our guys.
Um, so I don't think that'sgonna be a good idea because I
promise you, you're not gonnareturn home.
SPEAKER_03 (35:58):
We're like, Oh, hard motherfucker right there.
SPEAKER_06 (36:06):
Yeah, you don't mess with Sergeant Major Booker.
SPEAKER_07 (36:10):
Other pretty funny shit, too.
He was like, when he got off thephone, he's like, that fat fuck
was trying to fucking go onpatrol with us because they
couldn't see combat.
SPEAKER_06 (36:20):
No, Booker, Booker was a uh yeah, he he was uh he
he took care of his Marines,that's for sure.
SPEAKER_07 (36:27):
Yes, we did.
He asked if we were done when hekicked us out of his office.
He's like, get the fuck out ofmy office.
Get the fuck out of my office.
Yeah, Sergeant Major.
SPEAKER_06 (36:38):
Uh did you uh did you have other interactions with
any of our higher command?
SPEAKER_07 (36:42):
Uh who is the who is the um battalion commander?
Yeah, I was gonna talk aboutthat.
Kennedy.
Yeah, Kennedy.
Me and Mike did on our our lastsecond to last day, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (36:52):
Yeah, that's exactly what I was about to bring up.
So we're at Chow uh lunch orwhatever, and uh Kennedy comes
up and sits with us, just asthese two fucks, right?
Sitting here at Chow justgoofing off.
And he he's asking us what we'replanning on doing.
He's like, So you guys are goinghome in a couple days.
Yes, sir.
He's like, so uh, what's yourplan after when you get out of
(37:12):
the Marine Corps?
And Jason comes up with a I'mgonna go jack off dudes for a
few years or whatever.
So he's so he's like, what aboutyou, Martinez?
What are you gonna do?
And I go, uh, I'm gonna be amailman, sir.
He goes, a mailman?
Why a mailman?
I go, I'm tired of being shotat, sir.
He goes, All right, well, makesure you send me a picture with
(37:33):
you uh wearing your short shortsand your socks up to your knees.
I'm like, I promise you I will,sir.
So whatever.
I come home in 04.
It took me like three months tofind a job.
I was fucking broke, not no job.
And then finally I was like, I'mgonna apply the fucking post
office.
So I applied the post office andI ended up getting hired.
And I worked at the post officefor fucking 18 years.
I was like, fuck, a fucking jokecomes back and bites me in the
(37:56):
ass.
That's too funny.
SPEAKER_06 (37:59):
You never send the you never sent the picture?
SPEAKER_01 (38:01):
No, I never sent it.
Dude, I never I I was so anti-uhpostal uniform.
I I was I was I was the samefuck in the post office.
This causing trouble.
SPEAKER_07 (38:11):
So I had another pretty funny act uh uh
interaction with ColonelKennedy, or Colonel Kennedy.
Um, you remember we didn't haveto take our weapons to the phone
booth for a while?
Oh yeah, it changed it.
So I I never, you know, I alwaysforgot all that shit, you know.
Uh so the first day I was overthere with without my weapon,
and he comes out and he had hiscross arms like, Come here,
Marine.
And I just stopped and I staredat him.
(38:32):
He's like, What the fuck?
Get over here! And I didn'tmove.
And he started walking towardsme.
I just turned around and ran.
I fucking ran.
I just dove into my rack, andhe's like, he's like, Hey, did
anybody see a fucking Marineright in here?
Everybody just keeps their mouthshut.
SPEAKER_00 (38:51):
Oh, that was fun.
That was good shit.
SPEAKER_05 (38:57):
You got the good ones, Blake, man.
My guy has never fucking startedshit.
That was great.
SPEAKER_01 (39:03):
Nylon, you had the fucking like the best of us,
honestly.
I mean Lopez and Gonzalez, likethose are those were our top
tier.
Like, those are the top tier.
Uh Fox and Hampton are right upthere.
Um then it's like Larson, me,and Adams and Clark.
Well, I guess you had Coloneltoo.
He's old.
He doesn't he don't count.
(39:26):
He was in bed by 4 p.m.
SPEAKER_06 (39:29):
No, with uh, I mean, for the most part, uh Gunny Cook
kept us uh pretty pretty on thestraight and narrow.
SPEAKER_01 (39:36):
Yeah, he uh uh and so we knew him as a staff
sergeant.
He was he was a badass,honestly.
SPEAKER_06 (39:42):
Yeah.
No, he was he was great.
Um uh yeah, what did you guyshave any thoughts on um how how
we had broken things up andhaving a uh a staff NCO as a
commander for the platoon, ordid that not really cross your
minds?
SPEAKER_01 (39:59):
It didn't cross my mind.
Honestly, he was such a fuckinghe was so phenomenal at his job.
Like he loved his Marines and hetook care of his Marines.
I don't I don't know.
And then when we came in, uhmean again, we're we're just
dumb fucks, but but he but hedidn't treat us like we were
pieces of shit.
Like he actually he he treatedus with with respect, like we
were we were part of theplatoon, he needed us and and we
we had a job to do.
(40:19):
So he was he was good shit,honestly.
SPEAKER_02 (40:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:24):
Hard ass, yeah, but I mean that's his job.
SPEAKER_07 (40:28):
Yeah, no, he uh sergeant of the guard for that
one ship.
SPEAKER_00 (40:32):
I was just talking about that the other day.
Go ahead.
Yeah, tell the sergeant.
SPEAKER_07 (40:36):
So he was I uh that wasn't my that wasn't for me.
I was I wasn't about that life.
Uh I just picked up corporalright before I got there, which
is another funny story, but umhe was like, Adam's gonna be
sergeant of the guard, and I waslike, listen, Sassar.
I don't know if that's the bestidea.
He was like, What the fuck?
I was like, I was like, I'm I'mpretty good outside the wire,
I'm not really good at that kindof shit.
And he's like, You're a fuckingcorporate NCO, you're gonna earn
(40:57):
your money or whatever, you'regonna earn that rank or
something.
I was like, and Mike was like,Sassar and he's not kidding,
he's not good at it.
He was like, do it.
So uh I did it and it was youknow what it was 0606 or
whatever, and it was like 0547.
I was watching something aboutMary on a fucking laptop sitting
next to Mike in his rack.
He was telling me to shut turnthe turn it down.
SPEAKER_01 (41:16):
No, no, no, no, no, bitch.
I was telling this story theother day to my so I after I
left the fucking post office, Ibecame a history teacher, and we
could talk about that later.
But I'm telling I told thisstory to my students the other
day.
So this motherfucker, he'ssitting next to my rack at
fucking like four o'clock in themorning, and this motherfucker,
he's eating a fucking bowl ofmac and cheese while watching
something.
And he's not just eating it,he's next to my fucking head,
(41:40):
and I'm just like, and I pop myhead out of my bag, but hey
motherfucker, I'm trying tosleep.
And he's like, he's like, andand I talk like this to my
students.
So I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,hey motherfucker, I'm trying to
sleep.
And my kid, and and he's like,what?
I'm not doing anything.
SPEAKER_05 (41:55):
Smacking his lips.
SPEAKER_01 (41:56):
I'm like, dude, I'm fucking dying here.
I'm trying to sleep.
Jason, go ahead.
SPEAKER_07 (42:00):
No, it was like 0545.
And I was like, God, I only havelike 10 minutes, so nothing had
happened, you know.
And all of a sudden I heard thefucking mortars launched, and I
was like, God damn it.
And you're like, you, you, you,boom, boom, boom, boom.
Remember they hit um all aroundour hut.
SPEAKER_01 (42:13):
Yeah, hit around our hut and it blew up the Humvee.
SPEAKER_06 (42:16):
Yeah.
Oh, that's right.
We had the White Strike ourHumvee.
That's right.
Yeah, I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_07 (42:21):
I never even moved, I never even got out of the
chair.
I sat in the chair the wholetime, and everybody's running
freaking out, gas, gas, gas.
I was like, motherfuckers, wecan't run from it.
SPEAKER_01 (42:29):
So I picked my head out of my sleeping bag and I'm
just like, and then I put myhead back into sleeping.
I'm I figure if I got gas, I'mfucking dead already.
So like it wasn't even myproblem anymore.
Um, but yeah, it wasn't gas, itwas just smoke from all the
explosions.
But uh yeah, dude, I I just toldthat story maybe Monday or
Tuesday to my students.
SPEAKER_05 (42:49):
Yeah, there's a lot of fear around that gas shit
because we so my platoon hadresponded to a seren shell
attack out on the highway outsouth of the city on an army
convoy.
They had cleaned it all up bythe time we got there.
We didn't even have to do shit.
Uh, we turned around before weeven got there.
They were like, ah, we'redeconning the area.
If you just leave.
Okay, great.
And then we come back, and onJune 8th, they gas shelled
(43:12):
Hurricane Point.
And uh a bunch of CS rounds hitall around the main palace.
And there's all kinds of peopleare freaking out, just sure it
was nerve agent or whatever, butit ended being nothing.
But uh it sure fucking scary, soeverybody was always scared
about that shit.
We all had to carry our gasmasks from then on out.
SPEAKER_01 (43:32):
Yeah, I remember that too.
SPEAKER_06 (43:34):
Yeah, I can't remember what do you guys
remember this, Jason and Mike?
That so, because I think it wasin June, if I remember
correctly, we got sent northnorth of our AO on a on a on a
suspected uh chemical munitionshit.
(43:59):
Do you remember this at all?
Like we went up because Iremember they we didn't boy I
had completely forgotten aboutthis until just right now, and
so I'm having a hard timepulling this up.
I remember I remember we I thinkwe brought our mop suits, but I
don't think we were donningthem.
But I remember like before weleft, everybody like pulled
(44:22):
their gas masks out to make surethat they fit, you know, like
everybody was good to go.
Do you guys remember this atall?
I do not.
Nile, do you remember this one?
SPEAKER_05 (44:32):
A little bit.
Uh the only parts I remember isso we had those drownings that
were in May before these guysgot there, and May 5th was the
last day of searching for thedudes who had drowned in the
Euphrates.
And we were out north.
SPEAKER_01 (44:45):
Who drowned?
SPEAKER_05 (44:46):
Uh a couple of guys from Fox Company who had tried
to swim across the EuphratesRiver to one of the islands to
search it for munitions.
Well, it was a it was uh an op.
They thought I OperationTreasure Island is what they
called it.
Um, some of our scout swimmertrained folks, they were uh
supposed to be swimming acrossthe Euphrates to these islands
(45:07):
because the intel that we hadgotten was that they had hidden
uh munitions in the tall reedsand bushes on this island.
SPEAKER_01 (45:14):
Yeah, I never heard of that.
SPEAKER_05 (45:15):
Yeah, it was it was literally right before you guys
got there.
So it was like May 1st through5th.
We searched for these guys'bodies uh for a long time.
We ended up having to call in uhNavy Swiftwater Rescue, and they
brought up uh one of those fastlittle crazy, like almost
Vietnam style boats and scubagear and all that shit, and had
to go find they found one ofthem at the bottom of the river,
and one of them had gone prettyfar downriver.
(45:37):
Uh anyway, we searched the banksfor them for days on end with no
sleep.
And as part of that, we found amunitions cache in a uh building
under construction north of theriver that had gas shells.
Uh it just had the containers,but it did not have any shells
in it.
And I think that from someinvestigation after a while,
(46:00):
because we we took pictures ofeverything, we brought back one
of the empty containers, andthen they they sent you guys out
not long after that, maybe amonth after that.
That's all I know.
That's that's all theinformation I got.
SPEAKER_06 (46:11):
That that sounds that sounds about right too.
Because we when we got outthere, it was we just it was a
basically a picture takingexpedition.
Um, it wasn't like the location,the location that we had didn't
have there wasn't anything upthere.
Um so you guys uh um so what doyou guys remember of Hooch Life?
SPEAKER_01 (46:36):
Hooch Life was fucking awesome, dude.
Honestly, it was fucking wild.
It was like the fucking craziestuh it was it was the craziest
like fucking drunken memory ofnot being drunk.
SPEAKER_06 (46:46):
Like that is that is a very accurate description.
Yeah, go ahead.
No, just just it's a fever dreambasically.
SPEAKER_01 (46:59):
Yeah.
There was too many fuckingpeople in too small of a space.
Um, I remember because I meanthis is our first time being
with you guys, so you know howy'all everybody gets to crud
when you first meet up withsomeone like when you go to boot
camp or when you get to yourplatoon.
So now we're new with you guys,and now we get your guys' crud,
and we got I got sick as fuck,like fucking hawking up luggies
and fucking dying.
But it was just and but we'restill doing our thing, right?
(47:21):
And it was just again pokerevery fucking night, or spades,
or spades, yeah, watching somekind of fucking movie.
And you know, there it was justit was again.
I if if if you weren't there,nobody would believe what I'm
telling you.
SPEAKER_07 (47:35):
Or getting molested by Joseph Hersher.
SPEAKER_05 (47:40):
Hey man, he was gifted.
SPEAKER_07 (47:42):
Yes, sir.
Oh, we saw I was laying on my hehe jumped up, I was asleep and
he jumped up and like used thebig spoon and like pushed his
dick into my ass.
And he and I was like, what thefuck?
And he whispered in my ear, it'slike biggest dick in the
battalion, motherfucker.
SPEAKER_01 (47:58):
So so let's talk about let's talk about Hircher's
dick.
We're gonna be doing this.
So I'm I'm sitting on a fuckingtailgate of a Hum V, just like
man minding my own fuckingbusiness.
And this dude walks up andfucking starts whopping his dick
on the fucking tailgate.
Like, and I'm like, and I'mlike, what is he hitting?
It's got it, it's somethingcrazy, something huge that he's
hitting on this fuckingtailgate.
And I look over and it's thedude's dick.
(48:22):
Like you can't unsee that.
SPEAKER_07 (48:24):
Like you're shaking the whole truck though.
SPEAKER_01 (48:27):
That guy should be in the movies, if you know what
I mean.
SPEAKER_06 (48:31):
My favorite uh my my favorite story about Hersher is
uh he so do you know the band uhMeephers and the Gimme Gimmies?
Yep.
Okay, they they're uh they'rethey're they're it's a band made
up of like really good musiciansof other punk bands.
And what they do is they takelike songs that everybody knows
(48:51):
and then punk and then punksthose songs out.
Okay.
They're really it reallytalented group.
I I really enjoyed them.
They made one album though thatwas all show tunes.
And so Hersher, whenever we weredoing like night ops or
whatever, and especially ifwe're inside of houses, he would
sing The Sun Will Come OutTomorrow, but the me first and
(49:13):
the gimme gimme version of it,which is more of a like, you
know, in and there's some slightmodifications to the uh, you
know, the sun will come outtomorrow, bet your fucking
bedroom dollar tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (49:26):
I remember that.
SPEAKER_06 (49:27):
Yeah, and he'd be doing this as he's like kicking
down door, and so he was doinghis own psyops.
SPEAKER_01 (49:36):
I remember that with his with his dick and the son of
the mouth tomorrow.
SPEAKER_06 (49:40):
Yeah, it's he was uh yeah, anyways.
SPEAKER_01 (49:46):
So I I hope he listens to this one.
SPEAKER_05 (49:51):
As I've said, everybody who has ever been in
in 2-4 at that time has a JoeHerscher dick story.
Every single person.
All right, guys, go ahead and tell uh who you are
and what rank you were in 2004in Ramadi.
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
Well, so my my name is uh Mike Martinez.
I was uh one of the combatreplacements in Ramadi.
Uh I I went to Ramadi as acorporal.
SPEAKER_05 (01:21):
So and Jason?
SPEAKER_07 (01:25):
Uh my name's Jason.
Um I was also a combatreplacement from 3.5.
Um and I was a corporal when Igot to Ramadi.
SPEAKER_05 (01:33):
And you guys both went to Sledgehammer Platoon?
And did you guys both come from3-5?
SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
Yep.
Nice.
Yeah, yeah.
We spent, I mean, we met, he andI met sometime around March of
2001.
Yeah, so right after boot camp,after SOI, we met up at 3.5.
Um, this pretty interestingstory about how we first became
or for how we first met and howhe decided that he was gonna be
my friend.
(01:59):
So uh um, but uh but yeah, so wemet then and then we that's when
we just kind of stuck it out, Iguess.
So Jason, I'll let you tell thatstory when you get a chance.
SPEAKER_06 (02:11):
Yeah, go for it.
SPEAKER_07 (02:12):
Right now, yeah, yeah.
I don't remember what happened.
I think I was cleaning my roomand I had a bowl of dry fruit
loops, and I was eating likesnacking on like chips, and he
just walked.
I've never seen the guy beforein my life.
He walked by and took a handfulout of him, and I was like, Who
the fuck was that?
And they were like, that wasMartinez, and I was like, fuck
that guy.
And uh, I think you gave me aride, right?
You had to give me a ridesomewhere.
(02:33):
Uh and you're in his Camaro andhis stereo sounded like dog
shit.
Like it was so bad.
Like, and I was like, it was anice car, and I was like, What
the fuck's going on?
He's like, I was broken, so Ijust had to EQ it for him.
Uh and he was all like, even Iremember you like freaking out,
you're like, How the fuck didyou do that, man?
How'd you make it sound so good?
Pretty much hasn't left me alonesince.
(02:54):
Yep.
That's our friendship story,like in the national.
SPEAKER_06 (02:59):
That uh that that that sounds exactly like most uh
Marine Corps uh friendshipstories.
Something weird happened and andlifelong friends ever since.
So right now, you guys 3-5 was apart of the invasion, right?
Yep, yeah.
So you guys did the uh the wholerace to Baghdad.
Um where did you go up through?
SPEAKER_01 (03:21):
Uh sure.
We crossed the LOD, whateverwhen was it, March 19th or
whatever it was, the the March20th.
Um shoot, I don't know.
Jason, do you have a better?
I know we took we what do youtake, Route One?
I have no idea.
I don't know, I just wrote inthe back.
Um I didn't know that either.
Yeah, I think we took Route Oneall the way up, like through um
(03:44):
Azizia, through uh Adiwania, um,took a few ambushes and stuff
like that along the way, thatkind of stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (03:51):
Very cool.
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
Yeah.
And then, like you said, it wasjust that it was just that that
race to Baghdad, whoever couldget there first.
SPEAKER_06 (03:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
Sure.
SPEAKER_06 (03:59):
And then so then 3-5 comes back, and um, if I
remember your stories correctly,your EAS fell in a time frame
where they were basically likeyou either get involuntarily
extended on the next pump, oryou guys can choose to jump over
(04:19):
and be combat replacements for aunit.
And then you guys chose that, amI remembering correctly?
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
Well, it was a little bit like very close to
that.
So that's the way all of ourguys, the combo combat
replacements work.
So yeah, they all got thatultimatum.
But Jason and I, because wejoined like I was about two
weeks after like our main groupof guys, and Jason was like a
week after me when we joined.
But with our EAS, they actuallytold us we didn't have to go
(04:46):
back.
They're like, um, the way yourEAS is working, we don't need
you, you can go home.
Um, so everybody else is gonnago, all your friends are going.
And uh you get they took us intothe um the San Mateo um gym.
So we all sat in the gym andthey told us this whole spiel
about how we're all they're allgoing back.
And they took us, a few of us tothe side and they're like, you
(05:07):
don't have to go.
So congrats.
So Jason and I had the choice togo home, like get out EAS at the
end of October, or go back withto you guys, meet up with you.
Oh and then and then they werethey were gonna split us up all
different directions, and weknew that.
And so, like all the three, fiveguys, so all right, so let's do
it.
So Jason and I, we had uh, wejust had, I don't know, we
(05:28):
probably had a couple beers anda and a cigar and we talked
about it.
Um, my wife had just had gavebirth in 2003 to my youngest
son.
And uh so I had just got home,like, and now it's April, so
April of 2004, and they're like,Oh, so you don't have to go
back.
So my son's almost a year old,and they're like, You don't have
to go back.
So Jason and I again, we hadthis conversation.
(05:49):
We're like, so do we just letthem go without us or do we bite
the bullet?
So kind of stuck between a rockand a hard place.
Do you do you do you say fuckyour friends and go stay home
with your wife?
Because he he was married also.
Um so do you stay home with yourwife?
I mean, you want to be home withyour wife, or do you or do you
again take the hit and go backwith your friends?
(06:10):
So we we said we were trying toyou have to fight the swamp
monster, right?
Like swamp monster is gonna grabone one way or another.
So we could either run in theswamp and get caught or turn
around and fight.
So so we volunteered to go back,he and I.
SPEAKER_02 (06:25):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
Jason, does it sound pretty familiar?
Sound right?
Yeah, it sounds about right.
SPEAKER_06 (06:30):
Okay.
So wait, so did you guys gotback from your from Iraq the
first time in like early 04 orlate 03?
SPEAKER_01 (06:40):
Late 03, September of 03.
So my son was born July of 03.
SPEAKER_06 (06:44):
Okay.
I see.
SPEAKER_01 (06:45):
Yeah, so I see, okay.
Yeah, so we so we got backSeptember.
I mean, so I missed his birth,they wouldn't send me home.
Um, we got home around, yeah, solate September sometime.
SPEAKER_06 (06:57):
Okay.
So Jason, do you remember howyou ended up getting back over
to uh Iraq?
Did you guys take a uh militaryplane over or commercial plane?
SPEAKER_07 (07:08):
We took a commercial flight, right, Mike?
Yeah, yeah.
Um yeah, we never took amilitary military military plane
either time.
Really?
Um yeah, both times.
Yeah, like like they fed usmeals and shit on the plane.
SPEAKER_05 (07:20):
Dude, I'm so jealous.
SPEAKER_06 (07:22):
Yeah, we we were we were shoved in like sardines on
a C-130 that almost crashed likethree times.
SPEAKER_07 (07:29):
That would suck so bad.
SPEAKER_06 (07:30):
Oh, it was awful.
SPEAKER_07 (07:32):
Uh how long was the flight?
SPEAKER_06 (07:35):
Well, we we literally had it like I'm not
joking that it almost crashed.
Like well, it's not maybe crashis a little too strong of a
word, but we lost an engine.
Uh, we had other mechanicalissues.
Um, so we landed in Jersey.
SPEAKER_05 (07:49):
It had to make two urgent landings and one
unscheduled landing that was noturgent for whatever reason.
And it was uh we replaced anengine in New Jersey, we landed
again in Canada, then we landedin Shannon Air Force Base, and
then we landed in Germany.
We switched planes in Germanyand finally made it into Kuwait.
SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
We landed in Kuwait in a freaking commercial
airplane.
SPEAKER_05 (08:13):
Yeah, that's that's how we flew out.
We flew out on United, but weflew in on bullshit air.
SPEAKER_01 (08:18):
I'm telling you, like stewardesses like walking
around drinks and and crackersor whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_06 (08:24):
Like well, and if not to jump the story just too
much, but then you guys left.
Did you guys come back with us?
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
No, we they sent us home early.
When did you guys come home?
We came home like in August.
SPEAKER_06 (08:39):
Yeah, we can't we came home in September, the end
of September.
SPEAKER_07 (08:42):
Yeah, I think we left on my birthday, Mike.
I don't know your fuckingbirthday.
Yeah, well, no, I remember Iremember getting jumped by Royce
and Hampton uh before we got onthe on the helicopter.
SPEAKER_01 (08:53):
Oh, you know what?
I think you're right.
I think you're right.
Um yeah, that I remember that.
SPEAKER_06 (08:57):
Okay.
I I thought I had rememberedthat you guys had left a little
you know earlier than than likewhen we got real serious about
the left seat, right seat.
Like I think I think they pulledyou guys out.
SPEAKER_01 (09:08):
Yeah, dude.
So we were there, we were therefrom like late.
So we got there right afterEaster of 04.
Um actually the first, so Imean, again, I don't want to
jump the gun, but we got therethe day the day after um
Jeremiah Savage died.
unknown (09:22):
Okay.
SPEAKER_07 (09:22):
May 12th.
So May 12th wasn't the day afterthe day of.
SPEAKER_01 (09:25):
It might have been the day of.
SPEAKER_07 (09:26):
You guys might have it was the day of.
We're sitting in the uh in theum in the in our on our beds
when uh the platoon came backall super upset and shit.
SPEAKER_01 (09:36):
Yeah, I was on Jeremiah's bed.
SPEAKER_06 (09:38):
Oh yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01 (09:41):
So we'll we'll we could we could jump to that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (09:44):
I don't want to be able to rewind.
I gotta put the phone down forlike 20 seconds.
I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_06 (09:48):
Yeah, man.
No worries, no worries.
SPEAKER_07 (09:51):
It's always about him.
SPEAKER_05 (09:55):
And you don't even know his birthday.
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I actually do.
I'm just fucking with him.
SPEAKER_06 (10:03):
I got him flowers last year.
SPEAKER_01 (10:06):
I buy flowers every year.
Okay.
SPEAKER_06 (10:12):
No, no, you guys, so I know you and Jason came, but I
think Clark also came at thesame time.
Yeah, we had Brian Fox and RoyceLarson.
There's a couple other guys withRainmaker.
SPEAKER_01 (10:26):
Yeah, we had Royce Larson and Brian Fox went to
Rain.
But yeah, so you're so yeah,Fox, uh Larson, they were with
Rainmaker.
Um Clark stayed with us inSledgehammer, and then Lopez,
Gonzalez, Hampton, and TravisDay all went to map two, yeah
with map two, yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (10:46):
Yep.
Now, were they all previousweapons company guys too?
So you guys okay.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
I knew all of them since SOI.
Okay.
So we all went to SOI together,we all got to 3.5 together.
Say we were all weapons company,3-5, 8-1s together, and then and
then they were the ones who allhad they had to go back.
So their EAS were forced to goback.
SPEAKER_06 (11:09):
Oh, I see.
SPEAKER_01 (11:11):
And that's when Jason and I were like, Well,
fuck.
Like, do you what do you again?
What do you say?
Like you're stuck between therock and hard place.
I have my wife with a brand newbaby.
Like, what do you do?
SPEAKER_06 (11:20):
Oh, I had it.
So I had gotten uh I had gottenMSG orders, and that was that
was all I ever wanted.
When I joined, when I joined, Iwanted to go directly MSG.
Like that was that was my dreamjob.
I wanted to go MSG.
And um I actually had orders inhand.
And uh Gunny pulled me aside andwas like, hey, you have orders
(11:45):
to go, um, but also know thatwe're gonna go get into it.
And so know though, if yourefuse orders, you know, it's it
doesn't look good.
And so if you're planning onmaking a career of this, you
know, you're gonna have a hard,you know, make a decision.
(12:05):
And so obviously, you know, thestory is evident.
I I turned those orders downjust so I could go with the
guys.
But that was a hard I sat onthat for about a week um trying
to decide what I wanted to do.
Because we actually had a coupleguys that chose to go MSG.
Um there was a bunch there wasfour of us, I think.
SPEAKER_05 (12:27):
Only two that I can remember, but one machine
gunner, one 181s.
But if there's a couple others,I don't remember.
SPEAKER_06 (12:34):
I think there was there was a couple other uh they
were from not from weapons.
SPEAKER_05 (12:38):
Oh, line company dudes, yeah, for sure.
unknown (12:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (12:41):
So but uh so I no, I I not not exactly the same
situation because I wasn'tmarried and I didn't have a kid,
but uh it's it was hard.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
You're you're kind of crushing your own dream.
SPEAKER_06 (12:54):
You have a kid Yeah, well, and I couldn't I couldn't
in good conscience.
I mean ultimately I had a coupleof really good conversations
with a couple people that I knewI would never have been able to
live with myself if someonewould have gotten hurt.
Um I mean Savage ended up youknow not making it.
And so, you know, I'd you knowthat hurts as it is, but I don't
(13:17):
know what I would have, youknow, like that would have
probably hurt a lot more if Ichose go MSG.
So I I completely understandyour decision.
SPEAKER_01 (13:27):
Yeah, you're you're sitting in some freaking cushion
job or just hanging out again.
I could have I so that was May12th, I got with you guys.
Um May till October, I couldhave just been hanging out
doing, you know, guard duty orsomething stupid.
Like sure, I could have I couldhave had a cushion.
Just rocks.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm like, fuck, I don'tknow.
So it to me it was the bestdecision.
(13:48):
So, you know, which is funny.
Yeah, go to going to back towar.
That's the that's the betterdecision.
SPEAKER_06 (13:57):
That's sounds uh sounds like a lot of us.
Yeah, by the way.
Fuck awesome.
I mean, yes.
Welcome back, Jason.
Thank you.
We were just we we were justtalking about some of the other
guys that you guys came overwith at the same time.
So um so yeah, so uh you guyscame commercial flight into
(14:19):
Kuwait, right?
Okay, and then how did you getfrom Kuwait up to Ramadi?
SPEAKER_07 (14:26):
I think we're on Grayon buses, right, Mike?
Yes.
Skateboards, actually.
No, uh they weren't grey ones,they're they're buses.
Oh, they were they were thefucking Haji buses.
Yeah, keep laughing,motherfucker.
Oh really?
You guys took a bus up?
Yeah, and they uh they had likeum they covered the windows,
(14:47):
right, with paper so we couldn'tsee out.
I do remember that.
SPEAKER_01 (14:52):
The dude was blaring some fucking Haji music the
whole way.
Yo, like, dude, are we are wefucking retarded?
Did that really happen?
SPEAKER_06 (15:00):
Well, I hella completely believe this.
I mean, that it sounds exactlylike the military.
SPEAKER_05 (15:06):
I mean, they would totally like you definitely
didn't take a bus all the way toRamadi though.
Did you go up to Baghdad andthen catch a bird?
Or you went all the way toRamadi in a bongo.
SPEAKER_01 (15:15):
We got in a helicopter somewhere.
I just don't remember wherewhat, but but I I dude, I hella
forgot about the freaking Hajibuses, like the with the blacked
out windows.
Like we're in we're in a fuckingcombat zone.
Like, but it made sense to totransport us that way too.
And again, I don't remember howlong we did that, but I
remembered that trip.
It was fucking wild.
SPEAKER_06 (15:38):
Because the the the drive up to Ramadi is more than
a day.
SPEAKER_01 (15:43):
Yeah, so they must have flown us into something,
and then we did Haji buses intoRamadi, something like that.
SPEAKER_07 (15:50):
I I think I think we took uh buses from the airport
and then got a bird somewhere umon the way.
SPEAKER_01 (15:55):
Yeah, that had to be it.
But but I definitely I dude, Ihella forgot about the Haji
buses.
It's crazy.
That's gonna be some fuckingflashback tonight.
I just remember it being dark,dark because it was at night.
We're we're driving in theseHaji buses at night, blacked
out, and the dude was blaringthe Haji music, and it was just
and you know, just the sight andthe smell just hit just hella
(16:17):
hit me right now.
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_05 (16:20):
That's a crazy way to travel.
It I'm hoping that was just intoKuwait and you got to the Iraq
border and then they flew youfrom there, but it could be all
the way to Baghdad, and thatwould be crazy as hell.
SPEAKER_01 (16:30):
Yeah, no, I don't remember being that long.
I don't remember it being a day.
I remember it being a longdrive, but not a day.
It was a it was a nighttimething we were doing.
It was in the dark.
SPEAKER_06 (16:40):
They might have gotten you to Baghdad because
Baghdad was a it was anundoable.
It was what what was it, nylon?
It was like two hours orwhatever.
SPEAKER_05 (16:48):
Oh, I don't know.
It was more than that, but Idon't remember because Fallujah,
anyways, whatever.
SPEAKER_06 (16:54):
Uh interesting.
So you guys get to get toRumadi.
It sounds like you guys gotthere.
Um, so did you guys go toplatoons based off of your uh
MOSs?
Did you have any choice in thator how did uh no?
SPEAKER_01 (17:11):
They just separated everybody, just they just kind
of shotgunned us out.
Everybody just kind of goeverywhere.
And and then to other um otherbattalions.
We had the friends who go toother battalions, not in Ramadi,
like straight up shotgunnedeverywhere across across Iraq.
SPEAKER_07 (17:28):
Except they let they let four of us stay together,
right?
Groups of four.
Yeah.
If we volunteered to go on thefirst wave, they let us stay
with three of our friends um inthe same platoon.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (17:39):
Oh nice.
SPEAKER_05 (17:40):
I mean, yeah, we got uh Gonzo and Lopez and Day and
Hampton, and they were allmortarmen in theirs.
But uh Gonzo and Lopez arebrothers, so yeah, they they let
them stay together.
SPEAKER_01 (17:53):
Yeah.
Yeah, so they they should theywere together from boot camp on.
Um and then who was who was withRainmaker, uh the sergeant?
Uh was it Lopez or somethinglike that?
Garcia?
SPEAKER_05 (18:07):
Garcia was Garcia?
Yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Felix, yeah, Felix Garcia.
SPEAKER_01 (18:12):
So Garcia, he they they told him he had to pick one
of our four.
Uh wait, we had no, we had five.
We had five that go that went toSledgehammer.
So they told him to pick one andhe picked the pretty one.
He picked Fox.
Um so Fox goes over toRainmaker, and then um uh who
(18:32):
was a Sergeant Major?
Sergeant Major Mack, maybe?
SPEAKER_05 (18:36):
First Sergeant Mack was our company first sergeant.
SPEAKER_01 (18:38):
First Sergeant Mack, okay.
So he asked he asked Fox, hey,who's your uh what friend do you
have with you in your platoon?
And Fox is like, Oh, I don'thave anybody.
He was like, pick one.
So so he picked Larson, soLarson went to Rainmaker with
him.
SPEAKER_06 (18:51):
Oh, okay.
Okay, oh I see that's where thefive is because then it was you,
Clark, and Jason.
SPEAKER_01 (18:57):
Yes.
SPEAKER_06 (18:58):
Okay.
All right.
SPEAKER_07 (19:00):
How is Clark?
Uh I haven't talked to him since2004.
I saw him like two years ago.
He uh he moved to WesternWashington and he was living
like five miles from where I wasat the time.
Okay.
Um but he's doing good as good.
He's got a family and a houseand stuff.
Good job.
Nice.
SPEAKER_06 (19:16):
All right, so you guys are now you're in Ramadi.
You guys got divided up.
Uh you're over at you over toSledgehammer.
Um what's your uh what's some ofyour first memories of like uh
of Ramadi?
SPEAKER_07 (19:30):
Well they gave us like two days or a day to uh
acclimate, right, Mike?
Yeah.
So we're just chilling and wewere just like sitting on our
asses when you guys came backfrom that patrol.
And we didn't know we didn'tknow what had happened, you
know?
Um and you guys were kind ofbeing dickheads to us, if I
remember right.
Um we didn't know why.
SPEAKER_01 (19:49):
We just know you guys are fucking assholes.
We're like, what the fuck?
SPEAKER_07 (19:51):
Yeah, like we're going home, fuck this.
SPEAKER_01 (19:53):
Like, we're just fucking guys, I'm going home.
SPEAKER_07 (19:56):
Uh I just remember you guys came in and we were
kind of just listening.
I was I was just kind of uheavesdropping on the
conversation and we were like,oh fuck, someone just died.
We're like, God damn.
I just remember like being, youknow, like we're not in Kansas
anymore.
This is fucking crazy.
Because the the the first thefirst tour wasn't really like
that, you know.
SPEAKER_01 (20:13):
We yeah, we lost a few guys the first time, but but
it wasn't day one.
We walk in and somebody died.
SPEAKER_06 (20:20):
Yeah.
Well you would have already youwould have gotten there after we
had had our the first battle ofRamadi where we lost, you know,
we had a big we had a big hit.
SPEAKER_07 (20:30):
And then I think that's why we came, is because
when you guys lost the guysduring that battle when we were
replacing that.
SPEAKER_06 (20:36):
Yep.
And then a few weeks beforethat, also we had gotten a
couple decent casualties thatwent home.
They weren't KIA, but they wereuh birded out.
Yeah, they were birded out.
I mean, so they they weren'tthey weren't there, and so we
had you know, you were comingunfortunately coming in when
things were uh a little tense.
(20:58):
And to be fair, and Nylan can uhuh assert to this is that 81s uh
weren't the uh always thefriendliest uh we're we're not
we're not the lovable ones ofthe uh of the company.
And so we we're we might havebeen we were probably treating
you as uh very fairly uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:20):
So that's what Jason, like we said earlier
though.
So that's where we walked, weget it, we we're we're there
sitting.
I'm sitting on a fucking bed,and you guys walk in and I'm the
fucking asshole.
And I'm like, what did I do?
Like, I don't even fucking knowthese guys, you know.
But it turns out, yeah, I'm onJeremiah's bed.
SPEAKER_06 (21:35):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:36):
And they start clearing up his stuff, taking
you know, packing his stuff up,just start boxing home, boxing
it up and sitting at home, andI'm like, Oh, I'm the ass.
I I'm the asshole by default.
SPEAKER_06 (21:46):
Like I get it so yeah, yeah.
Well, that was with Rainmaker,and so you guys would have
gotten so that was prop, andthen after that is when you
would have gotten divided up togo over to Sledgehammer, then
right.
Yeah.
Because our our platoon didn't.
That was again, that was thatwas on Sledgehammer's side.
SPEAKER_01 (22:05):
So gotcha.
SPEAKER_06 (22:07):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:08):
So it was uh so it was tough, man.
It was uh it was tough walkinginto that situation and being
like, oh, okay, so again, thisis a new combat thing that we
don't know.
SPEAKER_06 (22:20):
Yeah, yeah.
How how hard of a transition wasthat?
You know, you you guys had youknow, you were already battle
tested, right?
So you already had gone, youknow, you had done the you know,
you had been to war, uh, andcoming back into essentially the
same, in theory, sameenvironment, but you know, very
different circumstances.
SPEAKER_01 (22:40):
It was definitely a different war, it was completely
different.
And the the weird thing is,because like you said, battle
tested, yeah.
Like I got um some medals or amedal or whatever for shit that
I did in Iraq in 03.
Um, but coming back, like now,like not only am I a fucking
boot because I don't know shitabout your guys' combat zone,
but I'm also being treated likea fucking boot as a corporal,
(23:01):
right?
Like I'm a corporal, but I'mbeing treated like a boot
because I'm I'm the fucking newguy.
It makes sense, right?
Yeah, um, so like there's like alot of weird uh feelings about
that, about like, dude, I'm afucking E4 like everybody else,
but I'm being treated like afucking E1 and one of the
fucking boots on can't oncampus.
Like, look, how what the fuck doI gotta do here to prove myself,
you know?
So it was a difficult transitionfor sure for me.
SPEAKER_06 (23:24):
Yeah, yeah.
I could I could see that beingreally I could see that really
being difficult to come into.
Uh you know, we we all knew eachother really tightly.
We'd already gone through a lotof that stuff.
And then, I mean, there'sstories, uh, you know, his you
know, history even comments on,you know, like the whole like
the new guys that are coming in,you don't want to make friends
(23:46):
with the new guy uh for avariety of reasons, you know, uh
not anything to do with theperson themselves, but you're
like, you know, you've alreadylost people, so it's hard to
want to make friends in the warzone.
Correct.
SPEAKER_05 (24:00):
Well, I was gonna say, I'm counting on my fingers.
Uh by that point, weaponscompany had probably lost 10
people.
I mean, you know, two dead andeight went home with significant
wounds like missing eyes,missing, you know, damage to
extremities, stuff like that.
Serious wounds by that point.
So that was that was a lot ofstuff.
What did you guys hear beforeyou came over?
(24:21):
Did you hear anything about whatwe were doing?
SPEAKER_01 (24:24):
Nope.
Nope.
I don't remember shit, dude.
I remember they just said you'regonna go.
It's the same thing.
You've been there before, youknow what you know what you're
getting into.
Get ready for it.
All right.
SPEAKER_02 (24:35):
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (24:36):
Like I didn't know shit about IEDs and freaking
incoming mortars at you know allhours of the fucking night.
I didn't, we didn't know aboutthat shit.
Like, what the fuck do you guysdo?
Like, why'd you piss them off somuch?
SPEAKER_07 (24:49):
They won't even matter if we left no three.
SPEAKER_06 (24:56):
There's a reason why we're called the bastards, man.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (25:01):
Magnificent.
SPEAKER_06 (25:02):
That's right.
Magnificent.
That's right.
unknown (25:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_06 (25:04):
So how so yeah, you we so you you're having to
adjust to IEDs, you're having toadjust to a lot more indirect
fire.
Um, we were also obviously, youknow, you were doing the race to
the Baghdad, but here we're byall pretenses, we were supposed
to be doing, you know, securityand stabilization operations,
SASO.
Um, I think at that point wewere pretty much had put that
(25:28):
down.
Um, I think there was still ahope that we were gonna stand up
the military police and theIraqi police at this point.
Uh that handoff was aboondoggle.
That um, but that was at whatwas that supposed to be the
first of July or whatever?
SPEAKER_05 (25:41):
Somewhere around, yeah.
The police station got blown upon the third of July.
So yeah, that's about right.
SPEAKER_01 (25:47):
Yeah, I remember I think I remember that, right?
We were I think we were on incountry there, so oh yeah, for
that.
SPEAKER_06 (25:52):
I remember that no, I remember you guys helping out
with a couple differentoperations, but um but yeah, so
so and do you do do any of thoseoper any of those operations
stick out to you?
Any of the I mean withSledgehammer, we ended up doing
a couple hits, we did a couplequarter and searches.
Any any stick out?
SPEAKER_01 (26:10):
No, I just it it's honestly to me it's just a big
ass blur of shit.
But I just I remember it wasjust it was again, it was a new
combat zone.
Like, so we're so we're learningon the fly, trying to keep up
with you guys who've been in incombat, been in this in this
fight.
Our fight was different thanyours.
Like it's you know, you talkabout you think about this uh
you know from different wars,how every war is different in
its own way.
But dude, this is within a yearand everything's different.
(26:33):
Yeah, the only thing the same isthe fucking dirt, but otherwise
it's like completely different.
SPEAKER_05 (26:40):
Yeah.
Well, the first big event that Ican remember, and maybe this
will jog your memory because itit I know it stuck out to Lopez
and Gonzalez, and Day was in mytruck half the time.
So I remember talking to himabout it.
Uh we went out.
SPEAKER_01 (26:55):
Did he take his dentures out to talk to you?
SPEAKER_05 (26:57):
Or we called him Colonel the whole time.
We were like, Man, you look likeyou're the oldest old man of the
Marine Corps.
SPEAKER_01 (27:05):
Dude, he would he would have his freaking his
bottle of Mountain Dew andcigarette like at all times.
All the time.
SPEAKER_05 (27:10):
Yeah, that we we bonded because I smoked all the
time too.
So at least we bonded overcigarettes.
SPEAKER_01 (27:14):
For Fox's 40th birthday, we all got together
and uh I I bought a bag ofWerther's originals and I would
sneak them into a uh Colonel'spockets.
SPEAKER_05 (27:25):
That's great.
So on May 29th, there was thisuh idea that the engineers,
combat engineers who had taskedout to us, uh they were going to
sweep the Habania Dam, which wasan el the elevated dam on the
Habania Lake.
SPEAKER_01 (27:41):
Yeah, I remember that now.
SPEAKER_05 (27:42):
Yeah, and that was the first, I think, biggest
worst thing that happened, likeright after you guys got there,
where they were sweeping the Imean, we'd had some minor
skirmishes, a couple pop shots,and a couple small IEDs, but
that was the first big one wherethat big IED blew up on the dam.
And I I know you guys were outthere at the arches.
Do you happen to remember thatthat stuff?
SPEAKER_01 (28:03):
Uh I remember being there um seeing from a distance,
we could see the the IED go off.
I remember seeing this the puffof smoke and everything, and we
were far away um from it.
But I remember that.
And um uh so I know Lopez isactually there, and I don't know
the guy who got injured, butLopez actually cradled him while
he was while they were workingon him.
(28:23):
And I and I I remembered like Idon't know if 100% if it's right
if I remember it correctly, butLopez saying, like, I guess his
nuts got blown off or somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_05 (28:30):
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (28:30):
And the guy was just praying, praying to God, praying
to asking Lopez to help him andmake sure that he gets to see
his family again or something ofthat sort.
Um, that one obviously stillhits.
SPEAKER_06 (28:42):
I remember that, but um Yeah, those those engineers
got hurt bad.
SPEAKER_07 (28:46):
Yeah.
You know uh what sticks out inmy mind is I think it was the
second coordinate search, um,right, Mike, when uh I was on
the rooftop with Rocha.
SPEAKER_05 (28:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Tell that one what happened.
SPEAKER_07 (28:59):
What's that?
SPEAKER_06 (29:00):
Yeah, tell what happened.
SPEAKER_07 (29:02):
Yeah, so uh we were up there for a long ass time.
I I don't remember how long, butit was all day, and we were just
worn out and tired.
And um, I just remember therewere so many people in cars and
shit, and we uh I looked down atthis car and I was like, hold
up, hold up.
SPEAKER_01 (29:15):
So I'm not with Adams at this point.
I'm I'm down in a fucking alley,and and I'm down in the alley
watching this alleyway, and Icould only I could look up and
see him and Rocha, and they'retwo fuckers just up at uh up on
this fucking building beingfuckers, right?
Like just normal.
And I'm just looking up andseeing them, and then now go
ahead, Jason, do your thing.
SPEAKER_07 (29:34):
So I looked left down at this car, and I looked
right, and as I looked right,they pulled a pistol out and
shot um several rounds, right?
Micah, a few rounds.
Um, and we just dropped likethat was the fastest I've ever
moved in my life.
And I remember um the the umbricks like in the parapet wall
were like, shoot, they theywould have, you know, they
almost hit us.
I think they're breaking offright like two inches above my
(29:55):
head.
Um and we jumped back up, andyou know, obviously they put the
gun, we didn't have no ideawhich what car it even was, or
there's nothing we could doabout it.
SPEAKER_01 (30:02):
But um, that was that was super scary.
Yeah, so um in 03, I I was therewhen uh when Eric Silva got shot
and he when he died, and Iremember seeing him running
across a berm, he gets hit inthe side, he drops like a bag of
bricks, and it was he was deadon impact.
Um and when I was looking up inthat up from the alley watching
(30:23):
them, and the way I hear thegunshots going, I see Jason and
and and Jamie that I see himdrop, and I'm like, oh fuck.
SPEAKER_02 (30:31):
Oh shit.
SPEAKER_01 (30:32):
It was a exact same body movement, just collapsed.
And I'm like, fuck, my my bestfriend just got fucking killed.
So we make our way up there, anduh yeah, he was he was fine.
He was just like, he's like,dude, they almost hit me.
Like, what the fuck?
I thought you I thought youfucking died.
SPEAKER_06 (30:52):
God damn it.
No, I I uh I remember a coupletimes meeting up with uh after
some really intense ones.
I remember I don't uh the onethat I remember actually more is
uh the time that I met up withNyland, uh, I think it was over
at Junction City.
And I don't know what shit wehad gotten into, but I remember
you you you looked at me and youwere like, holy shit, dude, you
(31:15):
look awful.
Like you went through it.
Now there is uh we definitelyhad a couple of pretty intense
ones.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (31:26):
Yeah, wild shit.
SPEAKER_05 (31:27):
Based on that description, that sounds like
that was probably June 1st, oursecond big bug hunt.
That was where that wasliterally all day.
That was like 14 hours of ofpeople searching houses and
digging shit up in the yards andcalling for EOD, and like it was
forever.
SPEAKER_01 (31:45):
Yeah, I remember it actually being a bug hunt.
I remember that term beingcalled a bug hunt.
Like, so yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (31:50):
Hey Blake, do you remember um the day that Fox got
hit with that IED?
SPEAKER_06 (31:55):
Brian Fox.
Give me give me a little bitmore.
SPEAKER_07 (31:58):
So I think it was like maybe our third third day
in country with you guys.
Um, and we just got taken off onwhere we were going.
Um and he got hit um in the faceby an IED.
SPEAKER_06 (32:09):
Oh right.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_07 (32:10):
He got peppered.
He wasn't like peppered.
Yeah, no, no, he yeah.
And me and Mike guy down, Ithink, right, you did it right,
Mike.
Yeah.
And we we pulled him back and wewere beating the shit out of
him, and you were like, You madea stop, and we were like, we
thought you were joking.
We're like, what the fuck?
Okay, we just kept going.
You're like, no, stop right now,and we're like, what the fuck?
We're like we're just completelylost.
We're like, what the fuck is hesaying?
(32:31):
Is he telling us to stop?
SPEAKER_01 (32:32):
Dude, well, because so Brian, when he got hit, um,
we again we're brand new, wedon't know you guys, and Reeves,
uh, Corporal Reeves, right?
Yeah, yeah, he uh he's on he'son the radio and he and he like
an asshole.
He's just like, hey, uh, one ofyour friends just got hit.
Like, like that.
Like, it was like that's theconversation.
And I'm just like, I mean, Ipunched the Humvee.
(32:55):
I was pissed.
I was like, Bam, fuck it,pissed.
And then we they went anddetained the dude, and and Jason
and I were fucking pissed.
And yeah, you were like, hey, wecan't be can't be doing shit
like that, guys.
SPEAKER_07 (33:07):
I think so proven guilty, and we're like, what the
fuck?
SPEAKER_06 (33:11):
No, we definitely yeah, we we were we would have
been QRF then at that point.
Yeah, and so we would haverolled, we would have rolled out
to help support Rainmaker afterno, I remember, I remember that,
and then yeah, we we we we wouldgrab those guys and then bring
them back to Junction City,yeah.
And drop them off at thecollection point there, and then
(33:32):
grab Chow because uh Yeah, theyhad a nice chow hall.
They did.
They did.
SPEAKER_01 (33:38):
So uh so a funny story of Junction City.
Uh Jason and I we have atendency of being fuckers, and
uh so we go over to JunctionCity and we want to because
that's the army base, right?
Yeah, yep, yeah.
So we wanted to play a game.
SPEAKER_06 (33:52):
Became Camp Ramadi later on, but we called it
Junction City when we werethere.
SPEAKER_01 (33:55):
Yeah, so we played a game that we want to see how
long we could go walking aroundJunction City without a cover
on.
Um just to see who just to seewho would talk to us.
So we're like walking around andwe called it Operation Drawfire.
See who could yell at us.
What's what's the highest rankedguy who could yell at us?
And at first, some likespecialist comes up to us and
he's like, Hey Marines, you guysneed to put on your covers.
(34:18):
And we're like, huh, fuck you,you know, whatever.
So we keep walking around, we goeat chow, come out, and we're
walking around.
Some other, you know, somefucking E4, somebody, you know,
he's like, Oh, hey Marines, puton your covers, and we're like,
whatever.
So finally the fucking basesergeant major sees us and he's
like, What the fuck, Marines?
Where's where's your fuckingcovers?
Blah blah blah.
(34:38):
He's like, and then as it wasactually the day, the day that
the snipers got killed.
Oh so oh yeah.
So we had been fucking aroundlike after that.
We because so we were on the theparty that took the bodies back
to the Air Force base.
SPEAKER_02 (34:50):
Yeah, I remember that.
SPEAKER_01 (34:52):
So we at the back at Junction City, we're doing so.
We're playing this game, andthen the base sergeant major
tells us he's like, That's whyyour Marines got killed, because
you guys are complacent, goofingoff, blah blah blah.
Oh, okay.
So we go back and we talk toSergeant Major Booker.
SPEAKER_07 (35:08):
Remember he was like, he was like, he was like,
Oh, you guys got a problem withthat?
He's like, Why don't you haveyour Sergeant Major call me?
We're like, What's your name?
He's like, You don't need toknow my fucking name on the
Sergeant Major's base.
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
So we go back, say hey Sergeant Major, we need to
talk to you real quick.
Uh we so we told him we fuckedup, we're being stupid, and
blah, blah, blah.
He's like, Who was it?
He wouldn't tell us his name.
He was the base sergeant major,and he told us you know who he
is.
So Sergeant Major Booker picksup a fucking old like rotary
phone, fucking dials a phonenumber and calls this guy, and
(35:39):
we're standing there, like infront of his desk.
And he's like, Hey, SergeantMajor, just want to go.
This is Sergeant Major Booker,just want to talk to you for a
second about some uh incidentthat happened with some of my
Marines.
And uh can't hear the other guy.
He's like, Okay, well, I knowyou wanted to go on a mission
with some of our guys.
Um, so I don't think that'sgonna be a good idea because I
promise you, you're not gonnareturn home.
SPEAKER_03 (35:58):
We're like, Oh, hard motherfucker right there.
SPEAKER_06 (36:06):
Yeah, you don't mess with Sergeant Major Booker.
SPEAKER_07 (36:10):
Other pretty funny shit, too.
He was like, when he got off thephone, he's like, that fat fuck
was trying to fucking go onpatrol with us because they
couldn't see combat.
SPEAKER_06 (36:20):
No, Booker, Booker was a uh yeah, he he was uh he
he took care of his Marines,that's for sure.
SPEAKER_07 (36:27):
Yes, we did.
He asked if we were done when hekicked us out of his office.
He's like, get the fuck out ofmy office.
Get the fuck out of my office.
Yeah, Sergeant Major.
SPEAKER_06 (36:38):
Uh did you uh did you have other interactions with
any of our higher command?
SPEAKER_07 (36:42):
Uh who is the who is the um battalion commander?
Yeah, I was gonna talk aboutthat.
Kennedy.
Yeah, Kennedy.
Me and Mike did on our our lastsecond to last day, I think.
SPEAKER_01 (36:52):
Yeah, that's exactly what I was about to bring up.
So we're at Chow uh lunch orwhatever, and uh Kennedy comes
up and sits with us, just asthese two fucks, right?
Sitting here at Chow justgoofing off.
And he he's asking us what we'replanning on doing.
He's like, So you guys are goinghome in a couple days.
Yes, sir.
He's like, so uh, what's yourplan after when you get out of
(37:12):
the Marine Corps?
And Jason comes up with a I'mgonna go jack off dudes for a
few years or whatever.
So he's so he's like, what aboutyou, Martinez?
What are you gonna do?
And I go, uh, I'm gonna be amailman, sir.
He goes, a mailman?
Why a mailman?
I go, I'm tired of being shotat, sir.
He goes, All right, well, makesure you send me a picture with
(37:33):
you uh wearing your short shortsand your socks up to your knees.
I'm like, I promise you I will,sir.
So whatever.
I come home in 04.
It took me like three months tofind a job.
I was fucking broke, not no job.
And then finally I was like, I'mgonna apply the fucking post
office.
So I applied the post office andI ended up getting hired.
And I worked at the post officefor fucking 18 years.
I was like, fuck, a fucking jokecomes back and bites me in the
(37:56):
ass.
That's too funny.
SPEAKER_06 (37:59):
You never send the you never sent the picture?
SPEAKER_01 (38:01):
No, I never sent it.
Dude, I never I I was so anti-uhpostal uniform.
I I was I was I was the samefuck in the post office.
This causing trouble.
SPEAKER_07 (38:11):
So I had another pretty funny act uh uh
interaction with ColonelKennedy, or Colonel Kennedy.
Um, you remember we didn't haveto take our weapons to the phone
booth for a while?
Oh yeah, it changed it.
So I I never, you know, I alwaysforgot all that shit, you know.
Uh so the first day I was overthere with without my weapon,
and he comes out and he had hiscross arms like, Come here,
Marine.
And I just stopped and I staredat him.
(38:32):
He's like, What the fuck?
Get over here! And I didn'tmove.
And he started walking towardsme.
I just turned around and ran.
I fucking ran.
I just dove into my rack, andhe's like, he's like, Hey, did
anybody see a fucking Marineright in here?
Everybody just keeps their mouthshut.
SPEAKER_00 (38:51):
Oh, that was fun.
That was good shit.
SPEAKER_05 (38:57):
You got the good ones, Blake, man.
My guy has never fucking startedshit.
That was great.
SPEAKER_01 (39:03):
Nylon, you had the fucking like the best of us,
honestly.
I mean Lopez and Gonzalez, likethose are those were our top
tier.
Like, those are the top tier.
Uh Fox and Hampton are right upthere.
Um then it's like Larson, me,and Adams and Clark.
Well, I guess you had Coloneltoo.
He's old.
He doesn't he don't count.
(39:26):
He was in bed by 4 p.m.
SPEAKER_06 (39:29):
No, with uh, I mean, for the most part, uh Gunny Cook
kept us uh pretty pretty on thestraight and narrow.
SPEAKER_01 (39:36):
Yeah, he uh uh and so we knew him as a staff
sergeant.
He was he was a badass,honestly.
SPEAKER_06 (39:42):
Yeah.
No, he was he was great.
Um uh yeah, what did you guyshave any thoughts on um how how
we had broken things up andhaving a uh a staff NCO as a
commander for the platoon, ordid that not really cross your
minds?
SPEAKER_01 (39:59):
It didn't cross my mind.
Honestly, he was such a fuckinghe was so phenomenal at his job.
Like he loved his Marines and hetook care of his Marines.
I don't I don't know.
And then when we came in, uhmean again, we're we're just
dumb fucks, but but he but hedidn't treat us like we were
pieces of shit.
Like he actually he he treatedus with with respect, like we
were we were part of theplatoon, he needed us and and we
we had a job to do.
(40:19):
So he was he was good shit,honestly.
SPEAKER_02 (40:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:24):
Hard ass, yeah, but I mean that's his job.
SPEAKER_07 (40:28):
Yeah, no, he uh sergeant of the guard for that
one ship.
SPEAKER_00 (40:32):
I was just talking about that the other day.
Go ahead.
Yeah, tell the sergeant.
SPEAKER_07 (40:36):
So he was I uh that wasn't my that wasn't for me.
I was I wasn't about that life.
Uh I just picked up corporalright before I got there, which
is another funny story, but umhe was like, Adam's gonna be
sergeant of the guard, and I waslike, listen, Sassar.
I don't know if that's the bestidea.
He was like, What the fuck?
I was like, I was like, I'm I'mpretty good outside the wire,
I'm not really good at that kindof shit.
And he's like, You're a fuckingcorporate NCO, you're gonna earn
(40:57):
your money or whatever, you'regonna earn that rank or
something.
I was like, and Mike was like,Sassar and he's not kidding,
he's not good at it.
He was like, do it.
So uh I did it and it was youknow what it was 0606 or
whatever, and it was like 0547.
I was watching something aboutMary on a fucking laptop sitting
next to Mike in his rack.
He was telling me to shut turnthe turn it down.
SPEAKER_01 (41:16):
No, no, no, no, no, bitch.
I was telling this story theother day to my so I after I
left the fucking post office, Ibecame a history teacher, and we
could talk about that later.
But I'm telling I told thisstory to my students the other
day.
So this motherfucker, he'ssitting next to my rack at
fucking like four o'clock in themorning, and this motherfucker,
he's eating a fucking bowl ofmac and cheese while watching
something.
And he's not just eating it,he's next to my fucking head,
(41:40):
and I'm just like, and I pop myhead out of my bag, but hey
motherfucker, I'm trying tosleep.
And he's like, he's like, andand I talk like this to my
students.
So I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,hey motherfucker, I'm trying to
sleep.
And my kid, and and he's like,what?
I'm not doing anything.
SPEAKER_05 (41:55):
Smacking his lips.
SPEAKER_01 (41:56):
I'm like, dude, I'm fucking dying here.
I'm trying to sleep.
Jason, go ahead.
SPEAKER_07 (42:00):
No, it was like 0545.
And I was like, God, I only havelike 10 minutes, so nothing had
happened, you know.
And all of a sudden I heard thefucking mortars launched, and I
was like, God damn it.
And you're like, you, you, you,boom, boom, boom, boom.
Remember they hit um all aroundour hut.
SPEAKER_01 (42:13):
Yeah, hit around our hut and it blew up the Humvee.
SPEAKER_06 (42:16):
Yeah.
Oh, that's right.
We had the White Strike ourHumvee.
That's right.
Yeah, I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_07 (42:21):
I never even moved, I never even got out of the
chair.
I sat in the chair the wholetime, and everybody's running
freaking out, gas, gas, gas.
I was like, motherfuckers, wecan't run from it.
SPEAKER_01 (42:29):
So I picked my head out of my sleeping bag and I'm
just like, and then I put myhead back into sleeping.
I'm I figure if I got gas, I'mfucking dead already.
So like it wasn't even myproblem anymore.
Um, but yeah, it wasn't gas, itwas just smoke from all the
explosions.
But uh yeah, dude, I I just toldthat story maybe Monday or
Tuesday to my students.
SPEAKER_05 (42:49):
Yeah, there's a lot of fear around that gas shit
because we so my platoon hadresponded to a seren shell
attack out on the highway outsouth of the city on an army
convoy.
They had cleaned it all up bythe time we got there.
We didn't even have to do shit.
Uh, we turned around before weeven got there.
They were like, ah, we'redeconning the area.
If you just leave.
Okay, great.
And then we come back, and onJune 8th, they gas shelled
(43:12):
Hurricane Point.
And uh a bunch of CS rounds hitall around the main palace.
And there's all kinds of peopleare freaking out, just sure it
was nerve agent or whatever, butit ended being nothing.
But uh it sure fucking scary, soeverybody was always scared
about that shit.
We all had to carry our gasmasks from then on out.
SPEAKER_01 (43:32):
Yeah, I remember that too.
SPEAKER_06 (43:34):
Yeah, I can't remember what do you guys
remember this, Jason and Mike?
That so, because I think it wasin June, if I remember
correctly, we got sent northnorth of our AO on a on a on a
suspected uh chemical munitionshit.
(43:59):
Do you remember this at all?
Like we went up because Iremember they we didn't boy I
had completely forgotten aboutthis until just right now, and
so I'm having a hard timepulling this up.
I remember I remember we I thinkwe brought our mop suits, but I
don't think we were donningthem.
But I remember like before weleft, everybody like pulled
(44:22):
their gas masks out to make surethat they fit, you know, like
everybody was good to go.
Do you guys remember this atall?
I do not.
Nile, do you remember this one?
SPEAKER_05 (44:32):
A little bit.
Uh the only parts I remember isso we had those drownings that
were in May before these guysgot there, and May 5th was the
last day of searching for thedudes who had drowned in the
Euphrates.
And we were out north.
SPEAKER_01 (44:45):
Who drowned?
SPEAKER_05 (44:46):
Uh a couple of guys from Fox Company who had tried
to swim across the EuphratesRiver to one of the islands to
search it for munitions.
Well, it was a it was uh an op.
They thought I OperationTreasure Island is what they
called it.
Um, some of our scout swimmertrained folks, they were uh
supposed to be swimming acrossthe Euphrates to these islands
(45:07):
because the intel that we hadgotten was that they had hidden
uh munitions in the tall reedsand bushes on this island.
SPEAKER_01 (45:14):
Yeah, I never heard of that.
SPEAKER_05 (45:15):
Yeah, it was it was literally right before you guys
got there.
So it was like May 1st through5th.
We searched for these guys'bodies uh for a long time.
We ended up having to call in uhNavy Swiftwater Rescue, and they
brought up uh one of those fastlittle crazy, like almost
Vietnam style boats and scubagear and all that shit, and had
to go find they found one ofthem at the bottom of the river,
and one of them had gone prettyfar downriver.
(45:37):
Uh anyway, we searched the banksfor them for days on end with no
sleep.
And as part of that, we found amunitions cache in a uh building
under construction north of theriver that had gas shells.
Uh it just had the containers,but it did not have any shells
in it.
And I think that from someinvestigation after a while,
(46:00):
because we we took pictures ofeverything, we brought back one
of the empty containers, andthen they they sent you guys out
not long after that, maybe amonth after that.
That's all I know.
That's that's all theinformation I got.
SPEAKER_06 (46:11):
That that sounds that sounds about right too.
Because we when we got outthere, it was we just it was a
basically a picture takingexpedition.
Um, it wasn't like the location,the location that we had didn't
have there wasn't anything upthere.
Um so you guys uh um so what doyou guys remember of Hooch Life?
SPEAKER_01 (46:36):
Hooch Life was fucking awesome, dude.
Honestly, it was fucking wild.
It was like the fucking craziestuh it was it was the craziest
like fucking drunken memory ofnot being drunk.
SPEAKER_06 (46:46):
Like that is that is a very accurate description.
Yeah, go ahead.
No, just just it's a fever dreambasically.
SPEAKER_01 (46:59):
Yeah.
There was too many fuckingpeople in too small of a space.
Um, I remember because I meanthis is our first time being
with you guys, so you know howy'all everybody gets to crud
when you first meet up withsomeone like when you go to boot
camp or when you get to yourplatoon.
So now we're new with you guys,and now we get your guys' crud,
and we got I got sick as fuck,like fucking hawking up luggies
and fucking dying.
But it was just and but we'restill doing our thing, right?
(47:21):
And it was just again pokerevery fucking night, or spades,
or spades, yeah, watching somekind of fucking movie.
And you know, there it was justit was again.
I if if if you weren't there,nobody would believe what I'm
telling you.
SPEAKER_07 (47:35):
Or getting molested by Joseph Hersher.
SPEAKER_05 (47:40):
Hey man, he was gifted.
SPEAKER_07 (47:42):
Yes, sir.
Oh, we saw I was laying on my hehe jumped up, I was asleep and
he jumped up and like used thebig spoon and like pushed his
dick into my ass.
And he and I was like, what thefuck?
And he whispered in my ear, it'slike biggest dick in the
battalion, motherfucker.
SPEAKER_01 (47:58):
So so let's talk about let's talk about Hircher's
dick.
We're gonna be doing this.
So I'm I'm sitting on a fuckingtailgate of a Hum V, just like
man minding my own fuckingbusiness.
And this dude walks up andfucking starts whopping his dick
on the fucking tailgate.
Like, and I'm like, and I'mlike, what is he hitting?
It's got it, it's somethingcrazy, something huge that he's
hitting on this fuckingtailgate.
And I look over and it's thedude's dick.
(48:22):
Like you can't unsee that.
SPEAKER_07 (48:24):
Like you're shaking the whole truck though.
SPEAKER_01 (48:27):
That guy should be in the movies, if you know what
I mean.
SPEAKER_06 (48:31):
My favorite uh my my favorite story about Hersher is
uh he so do you know the band uhMeephers and the Gimme Gimmies?
Yep.
Okay, they they're uh they'rethey're they're it's a band made
up of like really good musiciansof other punk bands.
And what they do is they takelike songs that everybody knows
(48:51):
and then punk and then punksthose songs out.
Okay.
They're really it reallytalented group.
I I really enjoyed them.
They made one album though thatwas all show tunes.
And so Hersher, whenever we weredoing like night ops or
whatever, and especially ifwe're inside of houses, he would
sing The Sun Will Come OutTomorrow, but the me first and
(49:13):
the gimme gimme version of it,which is more of a like, you
know, in and there's some slightmodifications to the uh, you
know, the sun will come outtomorrow, bet your fucking
bedroom dollar tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01 (49:26):
I remember that.
SPEAKER_06 (49:27):
Yeah, and he'd be doing this as he's like kicking
down door, and so he was doinghis own psyops.
SPEAKER_01 (49:36):
I remember that with his with his dick and the son of
the mouth tomorrow.
SPEAKER_06 (49:40):
Yeah, it's he was uh yeah, anyways.
SPEAKER_01 (49:46):
So I I hope he listens to this one.
SPEAKER_05 (49:51):
As I've said, everybody who has ever been in
in 2-4 at that time has a JoeHerscher dick story.
Every single person.
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