November 16, 2025 • 56 mins
In part 2, we get more of Ramadi through Blake Pepper’s eyes: river searches, javelin shots from bridges, a Mark 19 jam under fire, and the day Conde didn’t come back. Between firefights, we find the small rituals that kept a platoon human and the long road from anger to remembrance. It’s the texture of a deployment you won’t find in an official military publication, told without bravado and without flinching.
• night patrols with face paint and bridge overwatch
• two-day river search with no sleep
• javelin engagements on a stalled car and enemy buildings
• hooch grappling, volleyball mishaps, and downtime mixtapes
• candy for kids from ammo-can boxes
• chow hall clashes, saluting in combat zones
• weapon malfunctions, lubrication, and field fixes
• Okinawa and Philippines training to rebuild the unit
• "the Blue Mile", Arlington visits, and honoring Gold Star families
• Sergeant Kenneth Conde’s leadership, loss, and the crew’s aftermath
• mental health dips, reunions, and brotherhood as lifeline
----------------------------------------------
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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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:34):
This is part two of our interview with Blake Pepper
from Mobile Assault Platoon 3.
SPEAKER_03 (00:40):
I don't know.
I got a I got a cool photo ofall of us.
One uh night mission, we all putuh like face paint and stuff on.
That was uh that was still inJune because I think I took the
photo and like everyone else iswearing face paint and stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (00:55):
So yeah.
Yeah, that was in June.
I do remember that photo becauseCondi was still in it.
So yeah, yep.
Let's see.
I'm trying to think of otherstuff.
There was uh you know, one thingthat uh nobody else has
mentioned.
We'll see if you have anymemories of it or not.
Do you remember did you doanything during May when uh they
had those guys that were tryingto swim across the river?
(01:17):
Were you guys out there helpingsearch?
SPEAKER_03 (01:19):
Yeah, I mean that was the longest two days ever.
No sleep.
Yep.
Like we were out therepatrolling.
I remember hitting probably twoor three different like winds to
stay awake.
That man, yeah, that was thatwas pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (01:33):
Yeah, so were you up and down the riverbanks or where
were you at?
SPEAKER_03 (01:36):
Yeah, yeah, we were on both sides.
Um, I remember that was thefirst time we went on the north
side of that.
We crossed over the bridge, andbecause that wasn't really our
AO, but we went over there.
SPEAKER_00 (01:47):
Yeah, technically that was we used to joke that
the uh the Marine Corps band wasthe one that was patrolling that
area.
It wasn't, it was some that wasa combined army and uh marine
unit that was out of bluediamond.
SPEAKER_03 (01:58):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
But that's where most of the uhthe rockets and mortars that
were coming from.
I remember being on that bridgeand uh a couple times or we
actually shot a javelin fromthat bridge.
I don't remember who shot it.
Um, but yeah, they they actuallyshot a jab.
I got the photo of the impact ofthe building like afterwards
(02:23):
with a crappy camera.
But uh yeah.
Oh, another cool thing is umtalking about javelins is a time
that some idiot parked or hisvehicle broke down right in
front of a combat outpost.
And uh so we weren't sure if itwas you know laced with
anything.
Yeah, that's when CorbinMcKenzie uh was uh tasked with
(02:45):
uh shooting that sucker with ajavelin, and I got the whole
thing on video.
I jumped somehow.
I guess they weren't they werefine with it.
I got out of the turret and wentdown like right next to him, and
like I had my camera, Ivideotaped it, and it just I
just remember it like like itmakes this funny like noise,
(03:05):
like it just comes like poop,and then it just the the
freaking jet just and justseeing that live was like crazy.
Like the the the whole missilejust like pops right out and
then it just and then I wentlike this with the camera and
then I uh aimed it as it's andjust the explosion.
You see the front hood justflying like about I don't know
(03:28):
50, 70 something feet up in theair.
And then I I was taking a videoas we were passing it.
I'm like, this thing's like gotsmoked.
It was it was great.
SPEAKER_00 (03:38):
That's awesome.
I didn't realize you got a videoof that.
That's cool.
I do remember seeing that videowhen we were over there.
I didn't know where who'd whohad taken it.
I think I thought it was calledColonel North's crew, but I
guess not.
Well, that's the other funnystuff.
SPEAKER_03 (03:50):
I don't know, just messing around in in the hooch,
I guess.
A lot of time, I think one timewe had like the all the Lance
corpals trying to grapple someof the corpals.
And uh, I remember uh Shelton,like tall, lanky, long-arm dude,
and uh, I was a pretty goodgrappler.
And uh I was like, I'm not I'mnot gonna let this dude win.
So I think I don't know if hehad a hold of me or something.
(04:13):
Um and that was the one timethat I actually like uh drew
blood in combat.
It was like I scraped like my Iscraped the like my hand or
something like that while wewere wrestling on the concrete.
And I'm like, yeah, of all thetime, you know, all this this
bullets and bombs and like Idraw blood by wrestling in the
(04:35):
in the hooch.
That's about it.
SPEAKER_02 (04:37):
So well during one of our other conversations,
wasn't there somebody that gottheir nose broke while playing
the volleyball or whatever?
SPEAKER_00 (04:45):
Uh that was in my platoon.
That was Cohen.
He broke his jaw.
SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
Jaw, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:49):
Didn't he get sent home early?
He got sent home early becausehis jaw was broke through and
through and he couldn't eat ordrink.
I mean, he could kind of drink,but he was having a real hard
time.
SPEAKER_03 (04:58):
Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in a combat zone with
like yeah, that would that hardmotherfucker refused.
SPEAKER_00 (05:04):
We tried to send him home for days until finally uh I
think it was Rake Brandt cameover and was like, you don't
have a choice, you're gonna getan infection, you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_03 (05:13):
Wow, dang.
You know, just the we kind of wea lot our our company as a
whole, like we really had a lotof fun together, like different
platoons and stuff.
Just kind of we had littlecompetitions, you know, like map
three, map two, it always, youknow, uh play some volleyball or
dodgeball.
And then I know I think all ofthe platoons ended up, you know,
(05:35):
doing a bunch of stuff together.
It was kind of neat.
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
What'd you do in your what did you do in your
downtime to pass time if you haddowntime?
It seems like a lot of peoplefelt like they didn't have much.
SPEAKER_03 (05:47):
Hmm.
I do I remember I had a CDplayer and I had some like
burned a bunch of burned CDs.
I don't know if I had a book,uh, if I might have made them be
I before I left.
So I listened to a lot of music.
Um, I know Corporal Vigilactually had a laptop there, so
he did.
Like it was sometimes that I I'dgo get some burned CDs and like
(06:11):
uh I think I made some likemixed CDs like off of his laptop
just to kind of making combatmixtapes, man.
SPEAKER_00 (06:19):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (06:19):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, you know, I'd go to I wentto the gym.
That was that was a you knowkind of a good stress relief.
Yeah, just heck it didn't seemlike we really had a whole lot
of downtime while we were there.
SPEAKER_00 (06:31):
Sure.
You probably had more than youcan remember, but it just
doesn't stick out, right?
SPEAKER_03 (06:36):
Yeah.
Now one thing that people mightremember me uh for is my mom
would send boxes full of candyuh and food and stuff, and so
it's cool.
The funniest thing was is Ialways kept uh like a box, uh
pretty good size box, uh, on topof my ammo crates in the Humvee,
(06:57):
like especially like when I gotthe armored Humvee.
Yeah, I literally had a boxsitting right there, so I was
always giving candy out to likeIraqi kids or any other you
know, Marines.
It was just kind of funny.
I never was issued any grenades,so I always had candy stuffed in
the grenade pouches.
SPEAKER_00 (07:16):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (07:18):
So but yeah, they kind of called me the candy man,
uh, because I was always had youknow candy on me and I got it
from my mom, so got a sweettooth.
SPEAKER_02 (07:28):
I'm always amused by uh if that someone does have a
uh a good luck charm.
SPEAKER_03 (07:34):
Did you did you have one?
No, not really.
One thing I wish I could havebrought home is like I kept a uh
a casing from every single likemajor firefight that we had.
I actually I had it in my flakjacket, but they told us that we
weren't gonna be allowed to likebring any brass home or anything
(07:55):
like that.
So I had to like write the dateson them like in a sharpie, and
then like I took a picture of itjust so I could, you know, still
remember it.
So I was kind of bummed.
I really wanted to, or I reallywanted to take those home with
me, like every single like DiddyCal and even like the Mark 19
casing, like just the empty,yeah.
(08:17):
Yeah, but yeah, not really anygood luck charms, I guess.
Um I've never been like big onjewelry or anything.
I mean, yeah, I didn't have likea any kind of religious
medallion, but did you guys uhno?
SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
I know we went on some pretty long runs every once
in a while, taking out to likeTacotum and and whatnot.
Did you uh I'm sure you guys didtoo.
Any of those think out to you?
SPEAKER_03 (08:43):
No.
I mean, yeah, I remember goingto them, just kind of sitting
around doing patrols and stuff,but um I think the best thing
that we looked forward to islike getting to go to the where
the the the chow hall rightright next door.
SPEAKER_00 (08:56):
Junction City.
SPEAKER_03 (08:57):
Yeah, Junction City.
Oh my gosh, man, they had theyhired all those uh Filipinos to
work in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:04):
And um man, that food was amazing.
I remember we we'd we'd all goin, we'd all be like drenched in
sweat, walking in there alldirty, and like everybody that
that you know is stationed waswas there, they'd be kind of
like looking at us, but thenlike they just like let us do
our thing because we knew thatwe were actually like the real
(09:27):
ones doing the jobs out there.
SPEAKER_01 (09:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (09:30):
We're gonna have uh um uh two of our combat
replacements for Sledgehammer onhere in a little bit, and they
have a great story with that onewhere uh an army uh sergeant
major tried to tell them thatthey couldn't get chow because
they were too dirty orsomething.
I guess Sergeant Major Bookerjust just blew up on them.
(09:55):
It's a great story, I'm notgonna tell it because it's not
mine anyways, but it's a it'shilarious.
Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_03 (10:00):
That's yeah, I've I've I remember hearing some
some grumblings and some likeofficers might, you know.
But then I think that was whenlike our gunny, our platoon
commander, was like, all right,let just let them eat.
Like we literally been out onpatrols all day, just just leave
us alone, basically.
And then, you know, just anotherinstance of like we were on Camp
(10:25):
Blue Diamond.
I remember we were just sittingthere chilling, waiting for the
higher-ups.
Um I don't know what we werethere for.
Then there was like uh one ortwo army officers, might have
been like captain or hire,walked up to us and were like
they expected us to salute.
Yeah.
When like we were like, We're ina combat zone, sir.
(10:46):
Do you want to get shot?
It's like I I I didn't do anyconfront, I didn't like confront
him or whatever, but I was likethere in this vicinity, and we
were like, I don't know, thisguy was taking uh uh such a huge
offense that we weren't salutinghim.
Okay, uh good luck.
I guess you know let's not leavethis base at all.
SPEAKER_00 (11:06):
Uh also interesting.
Like, again, I don't know armydoctrine.
Yeah, I never served in thearmy, but it's Marine Corps
doctrine not to salute in acombat zone.
Like it doesn't matter what thesituation is.
Yeah, so uh it's weird for themto not understand the difference
in culture.
SPEAKER_03 (11:24):
Yeah, and the fact that he had like shiny brass on
too.
I'm like, I know most of ourofficers got the blacked out.
Absolutely, yeah, you know, orthey didn't wear it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:33):
I mean or wear nothing, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (11:35):
Yeah, because I mean we all know who our officers
are, so I mean, this you know,real combat or infantry guys,
yeah.
And you know, a lot of peoplelike say, like, oh yeah, you
guys are you Marines are justcocky and stuff.
And I'm like, Oh, I I meanactually I could just consider
it confident because we knowwhat we're doing.
(11:56):
You have to be a little bitcocky.
If not, then I mean, what areyou gonna do?
You could be timid, right?
SPEAKER_00 (12:01):
Right, the job doesn't call for that.
SPEAKER_03 (12:03):
Sorry, I wasn't trained that way.
Uh I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
Now remind me, when did you come to the battalion?
Were you were late in Okinawa,yeah?
SPEAKER_03 (12:14):
Nope.
I was one of the last ones, uhOctober of 03.
So right when actually it wasNovember because I was in so I
graduated boot camp in likeearly September of 03.
Then I got stuck in SOI, andthen a whole bunch of us were
(12:34):
the ones that we got sent to2-4.
Like um, I graduated with uhHoratsky in boot camp, but he
went through SOY like two.
I had to sit in SOI for like twoweeks because they only took
like a group of us.
Yeah.
And so that's why like when I,you know, got to two four, I was
(12:56):
like, hey, dude, what's up?
Um, but yeah, and it was thathappened to a bunch of us.
Um they just took whoever, it'sbecause they're they packed so
many, uh, so many of us into SYjust to get us to these units.
SPEAKER_00 (13:11):
Um trying to spin everybody up, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (13:13):
Yeah.
And so that's why we only hadlike what, not even three months
to train with the unit.
SPEAKER_00 (13:19):
Very short.
And then with the holiday breaksand stuff, too, because you
know, some people took time offor whatever.
It yeah, it made it hard.
SPEAKER_03 (13:26):
Yep.
So yeah, that that lead up tothat deployment was was just
crazy.
Very interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (13:33):
Nylon and I had a little bit of a different
experience towards the end ofthe deployment because we
stayed, we were left seat, rightseat.
Um but you would havetransitioned over to Junction
City right away, right?
unknown (13:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:45):
Hung out in Junction City for a while for uh
decompression.
SPEAKER_03 (13:50):
Yeah.
We were there for what, maybe aweek or two.
Um, but did you guys you guysstayed in uh hurricane point for
a little bit until 2-5 gotthere?
SPEAKER_00 (14:00):
Yeah, there was a bunch of us that that uh
initially some of the 2-5 guysrode with us and then we rode
with them, and we stayed yeah,for about a week with them.
SPEAKER_03 (14:12):
Yeah, I remember you remember uh you posted that
video of uh Captain Rapico orRapico.
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
It wasn't me, but I did comment on it because I
caught yeah, I was you guys werethere, and I don't remember why
I was with you, but I was in theI was there as well.
I remember that explosion hit ithit Captain Rapico, but it also
burned prior.
SPEAKER_03 (14:32):
Yeah.
I remember uh yeah, that was Idon't know who was filming that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
Um it was Vigil, I believe.
I think that was Vigil's video.
SPEAKER_03 (14:42):
I think that was his video, and I was in the gun
right behind that vehicle.
And uh when we got back toCombat Outpost, yeah, prior was
like he yeah, they had to gotreat him because like he had
some burns on him.
And Baxter, I think, was thedriver.
SPEAKER_00 (14:56):
Baxley, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (14:57):
Baxley, yeah.
Yeah, I don't and yeah, becauseRapico, he was the V he was in
the VC seat, wasn't he?
SPEAKER_00 (15:04):
He was, and he had his window down, that's why he
got really badly burnt.
Yeah, he actually got hit byliquid gas or whatever, whatever
liquid was in there, but itstuck to him and burned him.
SPEAKER_03 (15:14):
I think it was like another one of those, they just
put a bunch of fuel cans, likekind of like the one that I've I
blew up.
Yeah.
So I don't know, they reallyliked their fuel cans, uh, to
you know, as an accelerant, Iguess.
SPEAKER_02 (15:27):
But they got plenty of oil over there.
SPEAKER_03 (15:32):
I guess they're gonna use it for use it for
something.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
Well, there was uh a period of time right there
around around that time, becausewhen Rapco got hit, that was
July 14th.
And right in the mid-summer waswhen I I don't remember what
happened, but basically uhstolen gas tankers were popping
up everywhere, and people werefilling gas cans and selling
(15:58):
fuel as a way to make moneybecause it was the middle of a
war, there's no way for Iraqisto make money, and so during the
Intel briefs, they were tellingus they're like, hey, there's
gonna be some of these, youknow, unauthorized gas stations,
which is literally just a guywith a barrel and a pump, like
pumping gas into cars for cash.
And they're like, let them do itbecause it's the only way they
(16:21):
can make money.
And if they can make money, theywon't be an insurgent.
And it's like, okay, theinsurgents also are just gonna
put bombs in those fucking gascans, and and they did, right?
They did it to you, and they didit to to this one that hit
headquarters platoons Humvee.
SPEAKER_03 (16:36):
And remember, there's a still picture of that
explosion, and it looks like aalmost like a demon like blowing
fire like towards the Humvee.
Yeah, I don't know how like hemanaged to do that, but yeah, it
was yeah, crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (16:51):
Yeah, so weird.
This is a weird question, but uhsomebody else was telling a
story.
Do you remember any time whenand not when people got hurt
necessarily, although if theydid, that also is part of the
story.
But do you remember a time withthe equipment failures or
anything breaking or going wrongand what you had to do to get
through it?
SPEAKER_03 (17:10):
I do remember um my Mark 19 during uh right after
that explosion, like I said, Iwas right by uh Sergeant Major
Booker, we were engaging thatbuilding.
Yeah, I do remember uh havingto, yeah, my Mark 19 went down
actually for a little bit.
I had to like the rounds thatjust weren't seating, uh the
(17:30):
belt was messed up.
So I I yeah, now that you saythat, I remember I had to uh
basically climb up there andfigure something out.
I don't know if they were seatedwrong or whatever, but uh yeah,
I remember for a time that myyeah, my gun went down.
SPEAKER_00 (17:46):
Did you guys have did you guys have backup weapons
for that?
Uh because so we carried a spare240 just for that reason.
If one of our guns went downhard, like it could not be
fixed, then the goal, or if itran out of ammo, we had that
too.
Then we took it down, we put upa 240.
SPEAKER_03 (18:04):
I think I remember we had at least one, but in the
hooch, I think it might havejust stayed there, or if we if
we had another.
I remember at one point duringthe deployment, I think one of
our vehicles went down, likeneeded maintenance, so we had an
extra gun.
So there was only a couple timeswe ran with like four vehicles,
I think.
Oh, but it wasn't very long.
(18:25):
Um, no, we didn't have too manyuh malfunctions.
Thankfully, we had enough likelubrication and stuff for the
weapons.
SPEAKER_00 (18:33):
I don't know where Gunny Murray got all the shit
that he got, but he had extra weall had extra lube because of
him.
We all had extra bullets becauseof him, we had extra radios
because of him.
Uh when that connex box blew up,part of it was extra armor for
the vehicles, the other part waslithium batteries for the radios
(18:54):
and stuff like that.
He part of it was what he hadsquirreled away, yeah.
And he was really mad because itwas his fucking gear stash.
SPEAKER_03 (19:02):
I think that was supposed to go to uh the next
unit coming in, too, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00 (19:05):
I think yeah, well, I mean he was gonna pass it
along, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:08):
Um, see another funny thing.
You since you guys, I don't knowif you spend a whole lot of time
up on the the bridges, you beinga sergeant, you didn't have to I
never went up there, I went upthere one time just to see what
it looked like.
Yeah, Muster, did you have tospend time up on the No I was on
radio?
Lucky I was a corporal, and so Iwas okay.
(19:29):
Well, here's a funny, funnystory.
Like the one the bridge um onthe far end.
SPEAKER_00 (19:36):
Um yeah, there was a north bridge and a south bridge.
One that went the north bridgewent over the Euphrates and the
South Bridge went over the smallcanal that went between the
glass factory and hurricanepoint.
SPEAKER_03 (19:47):
Yeah, well, so the bridge that went towards
Junction City, yeah.
The South Yeah, um there was acouple times that they they even
stuck uh our docks up there onpost just because we were on a
on a rotation.
We'd stay up there for uh ourcorps there too.
I think it was six hours shift,I believe.
And even now that that doesn'tseem short at all because like
(20:10):
um, yeah.
Anyway, but there there'd belike uh the card some like not
cardboard, but um uh likeplywood, you know, just as a
little bit of cover, and dudeswould be writing all over this
stuff.
Like I got a picture of me goinglike with my thumbs up in a sign
right above my head that sayscomplacency kills.
(20:34):
I'm like, I was covered, but I'mlike just thinking back, I'm
like, hmm, yeah, just uh youknow, being stupid and stuff
like that.
But uh yeah, I mean we werepretty careful for the most part
because we were pretty exposedup there.
I mean, what you don't reallythink of like if someone might
(20:54):
be watching you through a scopeor something.
SPEAKER_01 (20:56):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:57):
Hindsight, you're like, oh man, especially
especially after hearing like Iguess when we were there, who's
that uh Chris Kyle um was overthere trying to hunt those you
know snipers.
And I didn't realize this tilllike after the movie and stuff
came out.
That I remember going on thosemissions and like dropping off
snipers and stuff, not knowingthat dude was probably one of
(21:21):
them.
Like, heck, he probably rode myhome V a time or two, and I
didn't even know the guy.
SPEAKER_00 (21:26):
I think his missions were in 2006, I don't think they
were in 2004.
Our snipers that you weredropping off were the battalion
asset snipers.
SPEAKER_03 (21:34):
Okay, yeah.
Well, he was there in 04 inRamadi, I believe so.
Yeah, I mean, and I don't quoteme on that, but I I think you
know I know I never met him.
SPEAKER_00 (21:43):
I met us, I met two other Navy SEALs that were
there.
Uh the only reason why we knewis because we shot near their OP
and they made themselves knownand then they came down and
we're like, oh well, we justfucked up your hide, sorry.
SPEAKER_03 (21:57):
Hey bro, yeah, um, friendly fire.
SPEAKER_00 (21:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (22:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaking of friendly fire, didyou guys have any?
Because we had some issues withthe army.
SPEAKER_03 (22:10):
I think we got not that I remember.
No, I think we got lucky, but Idefinitely hurt or some some
issues with yeah, some the restof our unit.
Yeah.
Yeah, not that I can remember.
Like I said, lowly lancecorporal on a machine gun.
I don't I get to hear a wholelot of chatter.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (22:29):
That's fair.
SPEAKER_03 (22:30):
I mean, I could from my turret, I mean I could hear a
lot of stuff, you know, from theradio.
There was a few times where I,you know, I had to with the
driver was busy, like I, youknow, helped him by I rarely
ever like said anything on theradio.
Um that was just because thatthat we I think our plan was the
(22:50):
the driver was you know they'rein charge of the vehicle and the
radio if the vehicle commanderis away from the vehicle.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
Right.
Well, shifting gears just alittle bit, did you stay in for
four years or did you stay inlonger?
Uh four years.
Four years.
And so at that point when we gotback, we've got back to Camp
Pendleton in or I guess MarchAir Force Base is where we
landed, uh, late September.
And almost all of us got 30 daysof leave in October.
(23:22):
It was kind of like a freeleave.
You you know, welcome back.
Do you remember what it feltlike coming home?
SPEAKER_03 (23:29):
Yeah, it's kind of weird.
I think I went to like a malldown like around San Diego and
just feeling like, man, thesenasty civilians, like they don't
even know what like like what wejust did for them, like type of
feeling.
Sure.
I went back home and my firstlike I guess run in with like I
(23:50):
guess uh shell shock, PTSD,whatever you want to call it.
SPEAKER_00 (23:53):
And where was home from?
Sorry, I hate to interrupt.
SPEAKER_03 (23:56):
Um in uh well then it uh Michigan, Western
Michigan.
Okay, yeah.
And I went to one of my sisters'uh cross country meets.
And if anyone knows how theystart uh a meet to a cross
country, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So I was just in the field, youknow, just and then all of a
sudden, pow.
(24:18):
I hit the deck so dang fast, Iturned around, I was like, what?
And like my family is like halfkind of like laughing, half
like, what is going on?
And I'm like, I was like, I wasjust getting heated.
I was like, dang it, could theywarn me or something?
Oh yeah, it was not that waslike right after I flew back,
(24:42):
and I was I don't know, not evenlike a day after like when I got
there.
I was like, man, didn't have toomany uh issues after that.
Kind of just that's the only onethat I can remember.
SPEAKER_00 (24:52):
That's good, and that's I mean, that's
acceptable.
I think uh probably at thatpoint, 30 days prior, you may
have been you know in agunfight.
So yeah, it's uh yeah, that'sgood.
And so you stayed with 2-4 afterthe deployment because most
Marines don't move around toomuch unless there's a good
reason to.
I assume you picked up and movedon with leadership, but how just
(25:14):
curious uh from yourperspective, as you you started
junior but moved to senior, howdid the lessons from your
experience in 2004 uh how didyou pass those down to your
junior Marines afterwards?
SPEAKER_03 (25:28):
Well, we did we stayed uh in Pendleton and
trained, picked up a bunch ofyou know new guys, and then we
went to Okinawa um actuallypretty pretty quick after it was
like February.
We all went to Okinawa for aboutseven, eight months.
And uh so it was a weird liketransition.
(25:49):
I I did pick up Corporal likeabout halfway through that
deployment over in um MountFuji.
Actually, I got I got promotedlike with Mount Fuji in the
background.
Yeah, it was like we kind of alllike we were definitely salty
and we could, you know, just allof us that kind of came in
together, um almost like we justfelt like we're almost like
(26:10):
untouchable.
But I think we definitely feltlike we had a responsibility to
train up the next ones becausewe figured war's still going on,
we're gonna we're gonna be sentover the next chance we get.
Because I know from what I heardthat they sent our unit to
Okinawa because of how bad wegot hit, like all of our
(26:30):
casualties and stuff like that.
Oh, okay.
So they almost pretty much sentus to Okinawa deployment to
regroup and and actually have aunit with jungle training uh
warfare just in case somethingpopped off.
And it probably is probablybetter that we didn't go
directly to another combat tour.
Um how you know badly we gotlike we got hit.
(26:53):
And so I don't know.
You know, there's a lot of newpeople, a lot of new faces
turned over like just about allof the the the leadership, um,
or they kind of moved todifferent spots, but uh who
stayed?
Sergeant Williams, he stayedwith us.
Everybody else, he was like themost like senior one that pretty
much stayed with our ourplatoon, and I think there was a
(27:15):
lot of a few other NCOs in thecompany that went to the Okinawa
deployment too.
Um yeah, as far as training, Imean we kind of just took it in
stride.
Okinawa was kind of boring forme because uh I'm sure after
that kind of deployment.
Yeah, and so like I found myselftrying to keep busy.
Like I joined, we uh mate gotlike a softball team while we
(27:38):
were over there.
Yeah, cool.
Yeah, they kept us busy withwith uh training for sure.
I don't know, rifle range, youknow, gas chamber, all that type
of stuff.
And then I think I think it wasjust our company.
We at some point we went to wetook a boat to over to the
Philippines and we did sometraining with the uh Filipino
(27:59):
Marines.
That was pretty cool.
Like, so we flew into thisairbase off of like the Navy
ship.
Uh we had these little jeepsthat we mounted guns on, they're
like way smaller.
We landed, we did some liketraining immediately with them,
and then we kind of just stayedthere, hung out, like just out
in the middle, like in thisfield, and did this huge
(28:20):
training exercise with these uhFilipino Marines.
And uh yeah, just being in we'reI forgot the name of the mount,
like the volcano, but it waslike way back in the 80s, there
was a volcano that erupted, andthey had to, I guess uh they had
to all the the Air Force peoplethat were there stationed there
had to like leave.
(28:41):
Evacuate.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
And uh so I guess the base wasstill functioning, though they I
don't know what they didafterwards, but yeah, just doing
that try type of training waswas really neat, kind of you
know kept us busy, I guess.
SPEAKER_02 (28:57):
No, I know there is uh talking with a a lot of nylon
in my peer group.
We a lot of us either wereEASing or getting orders to
other places, and a lot of ushad some insanely tight
turnaround, so I can't imaginehow decimated those our ranks
would have been looking likeearly January, especially
(29:17):
because everybody left.
SPEAKER_03 (29:19):
So yeah, and I don't even really, you know, thinking
back like how many peoplebecause I really didn't know.
I mean, I know other like thecompanies and stuff, I don't you
know, I didn't know like thatmany of them, but like for our
company, yeah, there was most ofthe leadership like took off.
Yeah, because some of them likecame in just before that
deployment and didn't have muchtime left and or they had
(29:42):
already gotten extended.
Well, yep, and then uh afterthat deployment came back and
trained for another one.
Our battalions they theyactually split our battalion up
in 06, 07.
Half the units, I think it wasFox and Echo, went to back to
Ramadi, and then Gulf Weaponsand Headquarters went to
(30:06):
Barwana.
So that was yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
That's a weird split.
SPEAKER_03 (30:12):
Yeah, it was weird.
I was kind of bummed because Ihad a lot of buddies in Echo
Company and just like being likenot even knowing what's you know
what's going on and stuff likethat.
You know, it's kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00 (30:24):
Were you friends with people in Echo and golf and
stuff when we were in there in04?
SPEAKER_03 (30:28):
Yep.
Yeah, quite a bit.
A lot of guys from uh justinfantry school and stuff like
that.
SPEAKER_00 (30:34):
So yeah, I was gonna say you seem to know their names
pretty well, which is uh again,I I know a lot of guys.
There was a few of them that wetrained with when we were doing
our workups and stuff when wefirst got to the unit, but man,
I just really did not.
I felt like I did not know theline companies as well.
And it seemed like I don't know,seemed like we were having two
different experiences almostjust uh because we're at
different camps and stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (30:55):
Yeah, well that's why any change any time I got
like we got to go to combatoutposts, I'd be you know, but
like trying to find some of themand you know, and like even some
of them I didn't really evenknow till after the deployment.
Like uh I mean I knew like my mybuddy like uh Corporal Thomas,
he's from Michigan, like kind ofhome state.
Pre-deployment, like I kind of II hung out in the Echo like
(31:20):
companies like Hoochary becauseone of my best buddies uh from
SOI, uh his last name's O'Wynn.
Dude's from uh country countriesall get out from Arkansas, and
and uh it was weird because Iended up marrying like uh a gal
that went to school with him.
She's my ex now, but um that'show I ended up in Arkansas, like
(31:44):
because of him, because like wewere like really good buds, and
um yeah, just hearing somestories from what they went
through and like who like you asMatt 2, I know mostly talk about
a lot of stuff, like but asweapons company, like I found
out from Thomas like what youknow, platoons from weapons
(32:06):
company was kind of assistingdifferent parts of Echo Company
and like some of the the 81splatoons uh were you know
helping out during that sametime and we're just all over the
city.
It was crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (32:21):
Since you were close with Echo, did you get a chance
to I mean, probably differentbecause you're hearing it from
you know guys that are that werethere, but uh did they talk a
lot about the their concerns?
I know we always heard rumorsabout what was going on with
Captain Royer, but I I don'tknow what I don't know what they
said to you since you were closeto him.
SPEAKER_03 (32:40):
Um if it has, it's been a long time.
I don't yeah, I haven't reallydiscussed anything.
I do remember that there wassome there were some issues.
Even Thomas was telling me aboutlike when he got when he got hit
and like one of his theirsergeant just basically just
took off and left Marine to likewho got shot up just pretty much
(33:02):
to to die.
Well, I don't I'm yeah, like Isaid, I'm not naming like names
or anything.
SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
No, no, and I don't I don't think you need to.
It's not necessarily your story,but I I I was just curious if
they expressed their concerns toyou since you're technically an
outsider from their company.
SPEAKER_03 (33:16):
Like, did they say like, oh, morale's bad or
whatever, you know, like we Idon't know, like yeah, maybe uh
maybe after I'm I'm actuallygonna go hang out with uh with
him on Monday.
SPEAKER_00 (33:29):
Uh oh for the birthday?
That's good.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
Maybe I'll maybe I'll get some more stories.
SPEAKER_00 (33:33):
Um yeah after the fact.
SPEAKER_03 (33:37):
Yeah, it's that's about like just having the
connection.
Um, like I ran the MarinquaMarathon, and the there's that
um the picture that somebodyposted.
They have like this blue mile,like run for the fallen.
Yeah, and they put up posterslike along the entire mile.
(33:59):
And I don't know how you get onthere, like I'm not sure, but
they said like you can likemaybe request this uh some
service people or whatever, Iguess, like way ahead of time.
But I was running, and all of asudden I see you know one of our
guys didn't know him personally,but I remember like being at the
reunion, Lance CorporalLayfield's mom like spoke to
(34:20):
everybody, and her story wasjust amazing.
And just to be like so strongand just so like her and in uh
Miss uh Halal, like after that,I and like gave her a big hug
too.
But like I stopped during therace.
I literally like was running andI saw his poster right there,
(34:42):
and just instincts, I just likejust jumped off the course and
just like I was so full ofemotion, like already.
Like I just like just knelt downthere and like I don't know,
just felt this all this weightlike down on me.
Like I didn't like I said, Ididn't personally know the guy,
but he he's still my brother,and that's that's you know who
(35:04):
we are, not just weapons, butlike all of us Marines, like we
would have done that for any ofus.
Um and so for him, yeah.
And so for him to I don't know,I just felt honored to that I
could do that.
It was the weirdest thing duringthe race.
I I looked, uh I went to get up,I looked, and like there's this
camera guy like taking mypicture.
I'm like, this is weird.
(35:25):
Like, I I didn't plan this,didn't it was just a spontaneous
thing.
Later on, I messaged um MissLayfield and told her uh told
her I asked her if she was therebecause there were some gold
star uh families like at the endof that mile, like holding flags
and stuff.
Yeah and I couldn't I couldn'tsee if she was there.
(35:47):
And so I was like, yeah, wereyou there?
And uh she said no, but then Itold her about like her son
being on the poster and whatnot.
And then I guess uh somebodythat's associated with that um
organization like reached out toher.
And so maybe I guess this cameraguy was with the organization
and then sent her the photobecause she was like, she sent
(36:10):
me the photo.
Is this you?
Holy cow! Like, I didn't realizelike someone took my photo and
like now she has it, and she wasjust like overcome.
She was just like so happy andproud that like you know, I was
honoring her son, and I waslike, Yeah, it was just felt
even more like emotional, justlike being able to do that for
(36:33):
you know, not only a two-fourbrother, but you know, just
yeah, I was that's what it's allabout, man.
SPEAKER_00 (36:39):
If you if we stop talking about them and stop
doing stuff like that, thenthey're gone, forgotten, right?
That's that's the worst part.
SPEAKER_03 (36:46):
Yeah, and that's why I like I was even like I'm like
I going to Arlington for sure,like because then I didn't know
exactly who all was like buriedthere, and so like I got um you
know, I took picture of uh ofSavage's gravestone.
Um I actually just sent thepicture of me in it to uh his
(37:06):
mom uh just a little bit ago.
And then uh, you know, SergeantMajor Ellis, you know, he got he
got blown up um in 07.
Yeah, that was he's there, andthen there's a couple other guys
that I didn't like personallyknow, but I'm like, you know, I
just it just felt good like kindof just spending some time out
(37:28):
there.
It was yeah, it was reallygreat.
SPEAKER_00 (37:32):
It's I think you did that.
It's very humbling too.
SPEAKER_03 (37:34):
You start going out there and you see, I mean, it's
just miles and miles ofheadstones of of everybody who's
sacrificed from all the wars,and it's uh there's a huge
section for the global war onterror, and it's they're all on
the same spot, like within thesame no, and what was even like
while I was there looking forsome of the other guys from our
(37:56):
unit, like there was a uh a momand dad that were had fold-out
chairs, blankets, and they werespending time with their son.
So that was really neat.
And like I even told my wife Iwas like she was getting tired,
so she kind of sat down in thegrass.
So like I took that opportunityto like kind of go back uh to
(38:18):
some of the guys and you knowhave a little bit of one-on-one.
So but in my head, like I don'treally didn't really say much
because I was like, I don'tknow, what do you say to a you
know, a grace or whatever?
It kind of in a weird like, butit's just a just a reflecting
time was you know was great.
And I can't wait to go back nextyear because I'm I already
(38:41):
already got it planned.
I'm I'm running the nextmarathon.
What I'm gonna try to do is tryto get a couple more gold star
families, or or at least likesome more of our our guys' like
posters on the race.
Oh, yeah.
And see if see if like you know,maybe somehow they want to come
out.
Like that would be amazing tolike spend time with some of our
(39:02):
gold star families like thatthat weekend.
Really awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (39:06):
Be good for them to see.
Yeah, that'd be real cool.
SPEAKER_03 (39:09):
Yeah, the Marine, the just the event is amazing.
Like, dude, we know how to likeit might might have seemed a
little inorganized at time, butlike like there was a bunch of
butterbar second lieutenantslike almost at every turn
throughout the race, you know,cheering you on.
Like the streets were like justpacked full of people.
It was it was just an amazingexperience, the whole thing.
(39:32):
I just felt it was just uh yeah.
But the this the greatest thingwas like coming in, coming into
that mile.
Like I almost like sort of likehyperventilated a couple times
because I was just like, allright, just breathe.
Yeah, and like right after I Igot up from uh his poster, you
(39:57):
know, I was like all just Idon't know, tearing up or
whatever.
And like there was a ladyrunning, and she was like, she
said something to me, like, ohwas he like was he close to you
or I don't know something.
I just I couldn't answer, I justkept running.
But it was just for someone toeven notice, you know, like it
was a very emotional time.
It was it was very sombering,like it's so quiet, like
(40:21):
nobody's just like chatting oranything throughout the whole
race.
You know, you hear peoplechatting around and stuff, but
like during that whole time,everyone's just like really
quiet and very respectful.
So that was the coolest coolpart too.
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Well, while I've got you deep in your feelings, yeah,
man.
I feel like talking to Condi alittle bit.
SPEAKER_03 (40:41):
Yeah, and we we can talk a little bit.
SPEAKER_00 (40:43):
Yeah.
Tell me a little bit about whatyou remember.
I mean, he was your truck, hewas in your truck, man.
SPEAKER_03 (40:47):
So uh oh, yeah.
I mean, just like from theget-go, like when I first got to
the platoon, like I could telllike he he was a leader.
He was only like I think 22,which is crazy to think.
But you know, back in that day,22 was like seasoned.
SPEAKER_00 (41:06):
You're an old man at 22.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (41:10):
Yeah, like he wasn't he he was just I don't know, uh,
you know, everyone says, Oh, hewas a Marines Marine.
I mean, he was a different kindof Marines Marine, though.
He he could get on to you whenhe had to, but then he also took
you aside and was wasrespectful.
You know, there was very littlebit of a training time, training
(41:34):
period, so that's kind of kindof small to go off of.
But man, once we got over incountry, um, like not just him,
but like, yeah, all of oursergeants were just like you
know, had had had good heads ontheir shoulders, um, which was
you know definitely a goodthing.
SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
Yeah, Sergeant Connie was just you have any
specific stories where he had toget after you, or on the other
side where he had to where hetaught you something, either
one.
SPEAKER_03 (41:59):
No, uh well, because well, when we got there, they
they separated us into squads,and so the drivers and gunners
were in our own squad, which iskind of weird.
So I was with our personalguard, and yeah, he was a little
bit harder and because he hadbeen over with three five
before, so he had some combatexperience already.
(42:20):
So I think maybe that's why hewas trying to be a little harder
on us.
Um but yeah, Connie was myvehicle commander, and so yeah,
most of the time, like in ourvehicle, like if we were
training or on the drive up,yeah, it was pretty like
lighthearted stuff, like talkabout normal conversations, um,
(42:41):
uh just different stories andstuff.
That was before we really gotinto you know into combat um
situations.
Uh just overall, like you know,he'd just be standing up in the
turret, he'd be walking by, hey,how's it going?
You know, he really looked afterhe looked after all of us.
(43:03):
You know, that was a goodfeeling to have for sure.
Didn't catch me on the spot, butI'm trying to trying to like
generate some some stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (43:12):
It's whatever you remember, don't matter.
SPEAKER_03 (43:14):
I'm kind of I'm kind of going off of like some
pictures that I have, like himjust sitting there like playing
cards or um, like I said, thatpicture with the holding up the
IED.
SPEAKER_00 (43:24):
Um do you remember the impact?
Do you remember the impact ithad the day he got hit?
SPEAKER_03 (43:30):
Oh man.
Yeah.
Um, I actually I I took apicture of his bronze star set
uh citation too when it was onhis rack.
Um I think I don't know if hegot awarded that before or after
he died.
SPEAKER_00 (43:44):
It was after, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_03 (43:46):
Yeah, because I have a picture of his empty rack, and
then we put the bronze star likecitation like on his rack.
SPEAKER_00 (43:54):
Um I don't think I knew that.
I remember coming over there,but I don't remember I don't
remember seeing that.
SPEAKER_03 (43:59):
Yeah, I'm not sure how long it stayed up.
Yeah, but um yeah, well, afterhe got shot initially, like he
he took only just a couple weeksoff.
Like I remember he, you know, hewas just walking around, had a
bandage on.
He took it off a couple times.
You could see like the almostlike the hole that went through
his his trap muscle.
(44:20):
And uh I don't think it I don'tthink it messed up his tattoo,
his ride or die tattoo that hehad across.
SPEAKER_00 (44:26):
No, it was right above it, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (44:28):
Um but uh and dude was just like always motivating.
Like I don't even he wasn'treally he wasn't a negative guy
at all.
That's that was a cool thingabout it.
Like, just always positive.
Yeah, the effect that it had onso like July the 1st, like that
(44:49):
night, like you said, we wereout on patrol, uh the night
patrol that whole night.
You know, so we were gettingkind of tired.
And uh, yeah, for whateverreason, like nobody's fault, but
yeah, Captain Wiler told us,like, yeah, just to go down
Route Michigan, all the way downto like the arch and then just
come back, just do one last likeuh ID sweep.
(45:14):
And so we were coming back goingtowards combat outpost, and
yeah, all of a sudden it hit.
Like I remember I think we tookI think knackers because he got
hit with a piece of shrapnelright in his inner thigh.
And so we had to get we had toget him out.
(45:35):
I think vigil had like ashrapnel piece like on his wrist
or his arm.
And somehow the other the gun,somehow the gunner Campos was
sitting down because they at onepoint they told us to actually
sit down.
That's what that's why I said ifI was in that gun where I
probably should have been, yeah,I probably would have refused to
(45:56):
sit down and I probably wouldn'tbe here.
I probably would have been likestanding up.
SPEAKER_01 (46:01):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (46:02):
So we took those guys, I think, and then we we I
wasn't, I was still in the gun.
So whoever grabbed Condi put himin the back of another Humvee,
and then we just like booked itto Conn Outpost.
And then I remember being up inthe turret and they took him out
(46:25):
and just him just laying there,like, you know, couldn't they're
they're calling a burden forEvac and just seeing him just
like not even be able to um justyou can't do anything for him.
So I at that point I didn't knowthat he had a shrapnel piece
(46:47):
that you know got him right inthe right in the head.
That was yeah, so we didn'tknow.
We thought, oh yeah, you know,maybe he'll they're gonna send
him out.
So I think we went to JunctionCity to eat, and then we got
back to Hurricane Point is whenCaptain Wyler came out.
(47:09):
Captain Wyler came out, I think,with with First Sergeant Mac and
told us that he had passed andlike the bird um going towards.
And like, yeah, we justimmediately all got we were
pissed.
Like, I think Lechard like threwsomething through like his
(47:29):
helmet down, or I don't know.
Everyone was just like, yeah, wewere just more pissed off than
anything that you know they gotour best guy.
That was pretty rough.
And then I think I remember youguys you guys came out to kind
of like console us.
Um yeah.
Uh I do.
I remember, yeah, we we werebringing our our vehicles in and
(47:51):
you guys kind of come out.
I don't remember like all ofthat, but I think, yeah, you're
definitely one of them.
And uh after that, guys werejust I think we went in the
hooch, just I don't know, someof them cried, some of them got
pissed off.
Yeah, it was that was prettyrough.
SPEAKER_00 (48:10):
I'm surprised you guys went to eat at Junction
City, but I now that I thinkabout it, I guess you had to
take your wounded somewhere.
You probably took them toCharlie Med and to go get looked
at.
SPEAKER_03 (48:20):
You probably took you said knackers and vigil and
um yeah, to be honest, I don'tremember that.
I don't know if we left knackersif if he flew out.
SPEAKER_00 (48:30):
He may not have flown out, but he might have got
because there was the only placewith any advanced medical
equipment or any advancedmedical training, realistically.
I mean, technically you had ourbattalion surgeon at combat
outpost who they could do somethings, but a level of equipment
was very low.
Yeah, and but the the x-raymachine and all that stuff was
(48:53):
at combat outpost.
SPEAKER_03 (48:54):
Yeah, and yeah, I don't remember if we left our
wounded there at combat outpostor but I know like we're already
headed to Junction City to go togo eat.
That's crazy.
We already like that's we weregonna go because we were out all
night.
SPEAKER_00 (49:09):
Mission completion.
SPEAKER_03 (49:11):
Yeah, which yeah, that was crazy though.
Um, just I don't remember, it'sone of those hazy fog things.
I couldn't even tell you like ablur, and then we got I just
remember rolling into HurricaneWhite and just getting that news
and just yeah, yeah, that waslike the worst thing ever.
(49:35):
We were really just pissed off.
SPEAKER_00 (49:38):
Well, I don't know where to go from here.
Blake, you got anything?
Well and then Blake, haha, Blakeor Blake.
SPEAKER_03 (49:47):
Yeah.
Well, I remember after I gotback from the States though, I
got I got a tattoo.
I I got the tattoo with uh withhis name on it.
SPEAKER_00 (49:55):
Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_03 (49:57):
Yep.
And then I kind of I added to itbecause we had um his combat
replacement actually meantCorporal Ryan.
SPEAKER_00 (50:05):
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (50:05):
Uh yeah, so like yeah, he was he was a good guy
too.
And yeah, he ended up, you know,he got killed with Captain
Rapico.
SPEAKER_00 (50:16):
Yes, yeah, Captain Rapico and and Ryan got killed
in November, uh, right after weleft.
SPEAKER_03 (50:21):
Yeah, so and like I think December of that year, I I
added his I added his name.
SPEAKER_00 (50:26):
I don't guess I realized that Ryan was his
replacement, but that does makesense.
So you got Ryan like July-ish?
SPEAKER_03 (50:34):
Yeah, I believe so, because I think he replaced
well, it was him, and then theyalso gave us uh Sergeant Sakaki
uh replaced him too, becausebecause we lost knackers, and
then I think uh I think Campoended up going to headquarters.
SPEAKER_00 (50:51):
Campo went to headquarters, yeah.
And then so and knackers wentout wounded with the the
shrapnel.
SPEAKER_03 (50:58):
Yeah, he yeah, he didn't come back.
Okay, yeah, he he went back tothe States.
I guess he had a huge gash likein his thigh.
SPEAKER_00 (51:06):
Sure.
I don't think I remembered thatSakaki had joined you, but I
know he went out with severaldifferent platoons, so that does
doesn't surprise me either.
SPEAKER_03 (51:13):
Yeah, no, he was a good guy to to join us.
Good salty guy.
SPEAKER_00 (51:18):
Yeah, Sakaki's good, he's a good leader as well.
SPEAKER_03 (51:21):
I don't know.
Well, I mean, I'm sure we canfinish up.
SPEAKER_00 (51:24):
I I mean I can probably come up with a bunch of
other stuff, but uh, man, thishas been no there's there's no
pressure to push and go longer.
That's uh shit.
I think we've been talking for90 minutes or maybe longer.
SPEAKER_02 (51:38):
No, it's right at two hours.
SPEAKER_00 (51:40):
Oh, it's two hours, yeah.
Shit.
Yeah, I haven't been payingattention.
That's how when I'm enjoying it,I don't give a shit.
I don't know how long it's been.
SPEAKER_03 (51:47):
Yeah, man.
I mean, it's always just good totalk to somebody else, some some
other guys that have been therein the same stuff, because like
I don't get that.
Like, you know, I can I add alittle bit like the first 10
years after I got out, I wasn'ton social media.
I I didn't, I kind of justwithdrew from everything, not
really on purpose, but it wasjust I don't know, different
(52:12):
mindset.
Like, I I I regret getting out,probably but three deployments
in four years kind of like woreme out, and I think I just
wanted to move on to the nextstage in life.
Yeah, then I definitely regretthat because I just moved on to
Arkansas, went to college, andjust I don't know, seemed like I
(52:32):
wasted 10 years of my life.
Yeah, finally got on, like, didmy own Facebook thing, kind of
like hooked up with a bunch ofyou know uh Marines from 2-4 on
there, you know, and that wasdefinitely a a good help because
going through some mentalissues, you know, a while back
definitely helped like justhearing from you know guys like
(52:57):
you and just some other buddiesthat I you know I knew just to
be like, hey, don't don't giveup.
Just you know, I'm sure you youyou remember me saying saying
some stuff like negative stuffand just sound like you're going
through it, man.
SPEAKER_00 (53:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (53:14):
Not maybe not hundred percent necessarily like
suicidal, but like I wasliterally hit rock bottom, you
know, went through divorce,going through all kinds of
child, you know, issues andstuff, and it was it was rough.
But you know, now that I'm I'vegotten older, that's that's what
this is what helps me like talkwith with fellow brothers like
(53:35):
you guys, yeah.
And I I haven't done enough ofthat in the last 18, 20 years.
And that's why going to thatreunion like a year and a half
ago, oh my gosh, that did somuch for like my mental health
and my my heart.
That was even though I barelygot to spend time with like most
(53:56):
most of you guys or any at all.
Yeah, uh just yeah, just beingaround.
That's that's what I missed.
SPEAKER_00 (54:05):
It's weird how fast that fills up your gas tank,
man.
I I we had the same or I can'tspeak for muscler, but it I feel
like that's the same thingbecause we drove in together.
It really was, man.
It was a that was good, it wasreally good.
And I didn't realize that it wasgonna be that way.
SPEAKER_03 (54:20):
Me neither, because right after the ceremony, like I
went up to the condies and justlike just gave them a huge hug.
That was yeah, hadn't hadn'tseen them since like we had a
dinner.
Map three had like a dinner umafter we got back with them.
And I but I didn't really sayanything to them.
(54:40):
I yeah, I did, but it just feltweird then.
Just like, oh, we're your s Imean you know, your son got
killed.
It was just it was just weird.
But like growing older and justlike, you know, I I told her
like, yeah, I was I was thegunner in you know, in she she
(55:02):
always calls him like Kiki orsomething like that.
I'm not gonna say yeah.
Yeah, um, I was like, yeah, Iwas his I was his machine
gunner, like and she's like, ohI can't remember what she said,
but just just the the fullembrace was just like you know
amazing.
And like same same kind ofthing.
(55:23):
Like I never I haven't yet liketold like Mrs.
Halal.
Um I think I might havementioned like I was I helped
like I helped get your sonsomething like that.
Like I helped your son, youknow, get back to the state.
Like I was the the gunner in theHumvee that we we took him back
(55:45):
and just that just that embraceof like you know, nothing that I
didn't need, I don't need anykind of notoriety, but just
maybe them like that that senseof like he was taken care of.
And so that that that was thebiggest thing that kind of you
know helped helped me out.
And yeah, that's why I couldn'tI can't wait for the next
(56:08):
reunion all that already, likejust you know, having more
relationships and then likebeing able to spend some more
time because I I missed the10-year because I wasn't even
on, I didn't even hear about it.
Like it was like the year afterI went on social media.
I was like, what?
I would have been to the I wouldhave gone if I would have
somebody would have contacted meor whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (56:29):
All right, man.
Well, this has been great.
I'm gonna hit stop and all that.
And uh, dude, if you ever wantto come back, you're welcome
back.
SPEAKER_02 (56:38):
If you like what you heard, make sure you subscribe
for future episodes on yourfavorite podcast service.
This is part two of our interview with Blake Pepper
from Mobile Assault Platoon 3.
SPEAKER_03 (00:40):
I don't know.
I got a I got a cool photo ofall of us.
One uh night mission, we all putuh like face paint and stuff on.
That was uh that was still inJune because I think I took the
photo and like everyone else iswearing face paint and stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (00:55):
So yeah.
Yeah, that was in June.
I do remember that photo becauseCondi was still in it.
So yeah, yep.
Let's see.
I'm trying to think of otherstuff.
There was uh you know, one thingthat uh nobody else has
mentioned.
We'll see if you have anymemories of it or not.
Do you remember did you doanything during May when uh they
had those guys that were tryingto swim across the river?
(01:17):
Were you guys out there helpingsearch?
SPEAKER_03 (01:19):
Yeah, I mean that was the longest two days ever.
No sleep.
Yep.
Like we were out therepatrolling.
I remember hitting probably twoor three different like winds to
stay awake.
That man, yeah, that was thatwas pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (01:33):
Yeah, so were you up and down the riverbanks or where
were you at?
SPEAKER_03 (01:36):
Yeah, yeah, we were on both sides.
Um, I remember that was thefirst time we went on the north
side of that.
We crossed over the bridge, andbecause that wasn't really our
AO, but we went over there.
SPEAKER_00 (01:47):
Yeah, technically that was we used to joke that
the uh the Marine Corps band wasthe one that was patrolling that
area.
It wasn't, it was some that wasa combined army and uh marine
unit that was out of bluediamond.
SPEAKER_03 (01:58):
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
But that's where most of the uhthe rockets and mortars that
were coming from.
I remember being on that bridgeand uh a couple times or we
actually shot a javelin fromthat bridge.
I don't remember who shot it.
Um, but yeah, they they actuallyshot a jab.
I got the photo of the impact ofthe building like afterwards
(02:23):
with a crappy camera.
But uh yeah.
Oh, another cool thing is umtalking about javelins is a time
that some idiot parked or hisvehicle broke down right in
front of a combat outpost.
And uh so we weren't sure if itwas you know laced with
anything.
Yeah, that's when CorbinMcKenzie uh was uh tasked with
(02:45):
uh shooting that sucker with ajavelin, and I got the whole
thing on video.
I jumped somehow.
I guess they weren't they werefine with it.
I got out of the turret and wentdown like right next to him, and
like I had my camera, Ivideotaped it, and it just I
just remember it like like itmakes this funny like noise,
(03:05):
like it just comes like poop,and then it just the the
freaking jet just and justseeing that live was like crazy.
Like the the the whole missilejust like pops right out and
then it just and then I wentlike this with the camera and
then I uh aimed it as it's andjust the explosion.
You see the front hood justflying like about I don't know
(03:28):
50, 70 something feet up in theair.
And then I I was taking a videoas we were passing it.
I'm like, this thing's like gotsmoked.
It was it was great.
SPEAKER_00 (03:38):
That's awesome.
I didn't realize you got a videoof that.
That's cool.
I do remember seeing that videowhen we were over there.
I didn't know where who'd whohad taken it.
I think I thought it was calledColonel North's crew, but I
guess not.
Well, that's the other funnystuff.
SPEAKER_03 (03:50):
I don't know, just messing around in in the hooch,
I guess.
A lot of time, I think one timewe had like the all the Lance
corpals trying to grapple someof the corpals.
And uh, I remember uh Shelton,like tall, lanky, long-arm dude,
and uh, I was a pretty goodgrappler.
And uh I was like, I'm not I'mnot gonna let this dude win.
So I think I don't know if hehad a hold of me or something.
(04:13):
Um and that was the one timethat I actually like uh drew
blood in combat.
It was like I scraped like my Iscraped the like my hand or
something like that while wewere wrestling on the concrete.
And I'm like, yeah, of all thetime, you know, all this this
bullets and bombs and like Idraw blood by wrestling in the
(04:35):
in the hooch.
That's about it.
SPEAKER_02 (04:37):
So well during one of our other conversations,
wasn't there somebody that gottheir nose broke while playing
the volleyball or whatever?
SPEAKER_00 (04:45):
Uh that was in my platoon.
That was Cohen.
He broke his jaw.
SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
Jaw, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:49):
Didn't he get sent home early?
He got sent home early becausehis jaw was broke through and
through and he couldn't eat ordrink.
I mean, he could kind of drink,but he was having a real hard
time.
SPEAKER_03 (04:58):
Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in a combat zone with
like yeah, that would that hardmotherfucker refused.
SPEAKER_00 (05:04):
We tried to send him home for days until finally uh I
think it was Rake Brandt cameover and was like, you don't
have a choice, you're gonna getan infection, you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_03 (05:13):
Wow, dang.
You know, just the we kind of wea lot our our company as a
whole, like we really had a lotof fun together, like different
platoons and stuff.
Just kind of we had littlecompetitions, you know, like map
three, map two, it always, youknow, uh play some volleyball or
dodgeball.
And then I know I think all ofthe platoons ended up, you know,
(05:35):
doing a bunch of stuff together.
It was kind of neat.
SPEAKER_00 (05:40):
What'd you do in your what did you do in your
downtime to pass time if you haddowntime?
It seems like a lot of peoplefelt like they didn't have much.
SPEAKER_03 (05:47):
Hmm.
I do I remember I had a CDplayer and I had some like
burned a bunch of burned CDs.
I don't know if I had a book,uh, if I might have made them be
I before I left.
So I listened to a lot of music.
Um, I know Corporal Vigilactually had a laptop there, so
he did.
Like it was sometimes that I I'dgo get some burned CDs and like
(06:11):
uh I think I made some likemixed CDs like off of his laptop
just to kind of making combatmixtapes, man.
SPEAKER_00 (06:19):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (06:19):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, you know, I'd go to I wentto the gym.
That was that was a you knowkind of a good stress relief.
Yeah, just heck it didn't seemlike we really had a whole lot
of downtime while we were there.
SPEAKER_00 (06:31):
Sure.
You probably had more than youcan remember, but it just
doesn't stick out, right?
SPEAKER_03 (06:36):
Yeah.
Now one thing that people mightremember me uh for is my mom
would send boxes full of candyuh and food and stuff, and so
it's cool.
The funniest thing was is Ialways kept uh like a box, uh
pretty good size box, uh, on topof my ammo crates in the Humvee,
(06:57):
like especially like when I gotthe armored Humvee.
Yeah, I literally had a boxsitting right there, so I was
always giving candy out to likeIraqi kids or any other you
know, Marines.
It was just kind of funny.
I never was issued any grenades,so I always had candy stuffed in
the grenade pouches.
SPEAKER_00 (07:16):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03 (07:18):
So but yeah, they kind of called me the candy man,
uh, because I was always had youknow candy on me and I got it
from my mom, so got a sweettooth.
SPEAKER_02 (07:28):
I'm always amused by uh if that someone does have a
uh a good luck charm.
SPEAKER_03 (07:34):
Did you did you have one?
No, not really.
One thing I wish I could havebrought home is like I kept a uh
a casing from every single likemajor firefight that we had.
I actually I had it in my flakjacket, but they told us that we
weren't gonna be allowed to likebring any brass home or anything
(07:55):
like that.
So I had to like write the dateson them like in a sharpie, and
then like I took a picture of itjust so I could, you know, still
remember it.
So I was kind of bummed.
I really wanted to, or I reallywanted to take those home with
me, like every single like DiddyCal and even like the Mark 19
casing, like just the empty,yeah.
(08:17):
Yeah, but yeah, not really anygood luck charms, I guess.
Um I've never been like big onjewelry or anything.
I mean, yeah, I didn't have likea any kind of religious
medallion, but did you guys uhno?
SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
I know we went on some pretty long runs every once
in a while, taking out to likeTacotum and and whatnot.
Did you uh I'm sure you guys didtoo.
Any of those think out to you?
SPEAKER_03 (08:43):
No.
I mean, yeah, I remember goingto them, just kind of sitting
around doing patrols and stuff,but um I think the best thing
that we looked forward to islike getting to go to the where
the the the chow hall rightright next door.
SPEAKER_00 (08:56):
Junction City.
SPEAKER_03 (08:57):
Yeah, Junction City.
Oh my gosh, man, they had theyhired all those uh Filipinos to
work in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (09:04):
And um man, that food was amazing.
I remember we we'd we'd all goin, we'd all be like drenched in
sweat, walking in there alldirty, and like everybody that
that you know is stationed waswas there, they'd be kind of
like looking at us, but thenlike they just like let us do
our thing because we knew thatwe were actually like the real
(09:27):
ones doing the jobs out there.
SPEAKER_01 (09:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (09:30):
We're gonna have uh um uh two of our combat
replacements for Sledgehammer onhere in a little bit, and they
have a great story with that onewhere uh an army uh sergeant
major tried to tell them thatthey couldn't get chow because
they were too dirty orsomething.
I guess Sergeant Major Bookerjust just blew up on them.
(09:55):
It's a great story, I'm notgonna tell it because it's not
mine anyways, but it's a it'shilarious.
Yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_03 (10:00):
That's yeah, I've I've I remember hearing some
some grumblings and some likeofficers might, you know.
But then I think that was whenlike our gunny, our platoon
commander, was like, all right,let just let them eat.
Like we literally been out onpatrols all day, just just leave
us alone, basically.
And then, you know, just anotherinstance of like we were on Camp
(10:25):
Blue Diamond.
I remember we were just sittingthere chilling, waiting for the
higher-ups.
Um I don't know what we werethere for.
Then there was like uh one ortwo army officers, might have
been like captain or hire,walked up to us and were like
they expected us to salute.
Yeah.
When like we were like, We're ina combat zone, sir.
(10:46):
Do you want to get shot?
It's like I I I didn't do anyconfront, I didn't like confront
him or whatever, but I was likethere in this vicinity, and we
were like, I don't know, thisguy was taking uh uh such a huge
offense that we weren't salutinghim.
Okay, uh good luck.
I guess you know let's not leavethis base at all.
SPEAKER_00 (11:06):
Uh also interesting.
Like, again, I don't know armydoctrine.
Yeah, I never served in thearmy, but it's Marine Corps
doctrine not to salute in acombat zone.
Like it doesn't matter what thesituation is.
Yeah, so uh it's weird for themto not understand the difference
in culture.
SPEAKER_03 (11:24):
Yeah, and the fact that he had like shiny brass on
too.
I'm like, I know most of ourofficers got the blacked out.
Absolutely, yeah, you know, orthey didn't wear it.
SPEAKER_00 (11:33):
I mean or wear nothing, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (11:35):
Yeah, because I mean we all know who our officers
are, so I mean, this you know,real combat or infantry guys,
yeah.
And you know, a lot of peoplelike say, like, oh yeah, you
guys are you Marines are justcocky and stuff.
And I'm like, Oh, I I meanactually I could just consider
it confident because we knowwhat we're doing.
(11:56):
You have to be a little bitcocky.
If not, then I mean, what areyou gonna do?
You could be timid, right?
SPEAKER_00 (12:01):
Right, the job doesn't call for that.
SPEAKER_03 (12:03):
Sorry, I wasn't trained that way.
Uh I mean, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
Now remind me, when did you come to the battalion?
Were you were late in Okinawa,yeah?
SPEAKER_03 (12:14):
Nope.
I was one of the last ones, uhOctober of 03.
So right when actually it wasNovember because I was in so I
graduated boot camp in likeearly September of 03.
Then I got stuck in SOI, andthen a whole bunch of us were
(12:34):
the ones that we got sent to2-4.
Like um, I graduated with uhHoratsky in boot camp, but he
went through SOY like two.
I had to sit in SOI for like twoweeks because they only took
like a group of us.
Yeah.
And so that's why like when I,you know, got to two four, I was
(12:56):
like, hey, dude, what's up?
Um, but yeah, and it was thathappened to a bunch of us.
Um they just took whoever, it'sbecause they're they packed so
many, uh, so many of us into SYjust to get us to these units.
SPEAKER_00 (13:11):
Um trying to spin everybody up, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (13:13):
Yeah.
And so that's why we only hadlike what, not even three months
to train with the unit.
SPEAKER_00 (13:19):
Very short.
And then with the holiday breaksand stuff, too, because you
know, some people took time offor whatever.
It yeah, it made it hard.
SPEAKER_03 (13:26):
Yep.
So yeah, that that lead up tothat deployment was was just
crazy.
Very interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (13:33):
Nylon and I had a little bit of a different
experience towards the end ofthe deployment because we
stayed, we were left seat, rightseat.
Um but you would havetransitioned over to Junction
City right away, right?
unknown (13:44):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:45):
Hung out in Junction City for a while for uh
decompression.
SPEAKER_03 (13:50):
Yeah.
We were there for what, maybe aweek or two.
Um, but did you guys you guysstayed in uh hurricane point for
a little bit until 2-5 gotthere?
SPEAKER_00 (14:00):
Yeah, there was a bunch of us that that uh
initially some of the 2-5 guysrode with us and then we rode
with them, and we stayed yeah,for about a week with them.
SPEAKER_03 (14:12):
Yeah, I remember you remember uh you posted that
video of uh Captain Rapico orRapico.
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
It wasn't me, but I did comment on it because I
caught yeah, I was you guys werethere, and I don't remember why
I was with you, but I was in theI was there as well.
I remember that explosion hit ithit Captain Rapico, but it also
burned prior.
SPEAKER_03 (14:32):
Yeah.
I remember uh yeah, that was Idon't know who was filming that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:38):
Um it was Vigil, I believe.
I think that was Vigil's video.
SPEAKER_03 (14:42):
I think that was his video, and I was in the gun
right behind that vehicle.
And uh when we got back toCombat Outpost, yeah, prior was
like he yeah, they had to gotreat him because like he had
some burns on him.
And Baxter, I think, was thedriver.
SPEAKER_00 (14:56):
Baxley, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (14:57):
Baxley, yeah.
Yeah, I don't and yeah, becauseRapico, he was the V he was in
the VC seat, wasn't he?
SPEAKER_00 (15:04):
He was, and he had his window down, that's why he
got really badly burnt.
Yeah, he actually got hit byliquid gas or whatever, whatever
liquid was in there, but itstuck to him and burned him.
SPEAKER_03 (15:14):
I think it was like another one of those, they just
put a bunch of fuel cans, likekind of like the one that I've I
blew up.
Yeah.
So I don't know, they reallyliked their fuel cans, uh, to
you know, as an accelerant, Iguess.
SPEAKER_02 (15:27):
But they got plenty of oil over there.
SPEAKER_03 (15:32):
I guess they're gonna use it for use it for
something.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
Well, there was uh a period of time right there
around around that time, becausewhen Rapco got hit, that was
July 14th.
And right in the mid-summer waswhen I I don't remember what
happened, but basically uhstolen gas tankers were popping
up everywhere, and people werefilling gas cans and selling
(15:58):
fuel as a way to make moneybecause it was the middle of a
war, there's no way for Iraqisto make money, and so during the
Intel briefs, they were tellingus they're like, hey, there's
gonna be some of these, youknow, unauthorized gas stations,
which is literally just a guywith a barrel and a pump, like
pumping gas into cars for cash.
And they're like, let them do itbecause it's the only way they
(16:21):
can make money.
And if they can make money, theywon't be an insurgent.
And it's like, okay, theinsurgents also are just gonna
put bombs in those fucking gascans, and and they did, right?
They did it to you, and they didit to to this one that hit
headquarters platoons Humvee.
SPEAKER_03 (16:36):
And remember, there's a still picture of that
explosion, and it looks like aalmost like a demon like blowing
fire like towards the Humvee.
Yeah, I don't know how like hemanaged to do that, but yeah, it
was yeah, crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (16:51):
Yeah, so weird.
This is a weird question, but uhsomebody else was telling a
story.
Do you remember any time whenand not when people got hurt
necessarily, although if theydid, that also is part of the
story.
But do you remember a time withthe equipment failures or
anything breaking or going wrongand what you had to do to get
through it?
SPEAKER_03 (17:10):
I do remember um my Mark 19 during uh right after
that explosion, like I said, Iwas right by uh Sergeant Major
Booker, we were engaging thatbuilding.
Yeah, I do remember uh havingto, yeah, my Mark 19 went down
actually for a little bit.
I had to like the rounds thatjust weren't seating, uh the
(17:30):
belt was messed up.
So I I yeah, now that you saythat, I remember I had to uh
basically climb up there andfigure something out.
I don't know if they were seatedwrong or whatever, but uh yeah,
I remember for a time that myyeah, my gun went down.
SPEAKER_00 (17:46):
Did you guys have did you guys have backup weapons
for that?
Uh because so we carried a spare240 just for that reason.
If one of our guns went downhard, like it could not be
fixed, then the goal, or if itran out of ammo, we had that
too.
Then we took it down, we put upa 240.
SPEAKER_03 (18:04):
I think I remember we had at least one, but in the
hooch, I think it might havejust stayed there, or if we if
we had another.
I remember at one point duringthe deployment, I think one of
our vehicles went down, likeneeded maintenance, so we had an
extra gun.
So there was only a couple timeswe ran with like four vehicles,
I think.
Oh, but it wasn't very long.
(18:25):
Um, no, we didn't have too manyuh malfunctions.
Thankfully, we had enough likelubrication and stuff for the
weapons.
SPEAKER_00 (18:33):
I don't know where Gunny Murray got all the shit
that he got, but he had extra weall had extra lube because of
him.
We all had extra bullets becauseof him, we had extra radios
because of him.
Uh when that connex box blew up,part of it was extra armor for
the vehicles, the other part waslithium batteries for the radios
(18:54):
and stuff like that.
He part of it was what he hadsquirreled away, yeah.
And he was really mad because itwas his fucking gear stash.
SPEAKER_03 (19:02):
I think that was supposed to go to uh the next
unit coming in, too, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00 (19:05):
I think yeah, well, I mean he was gonna pass it
along, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:08):
Um, see another funny thing.
You since you guys, I don't knowif you spend a whole lot of time
up on the the bridges, you beinga sergeant, you didn't have to I
never went up there, I went upthere one time just to see what
it looked like.
Yeah, Muster, did you have tospend time up on the No I was on
radio?
Lucky I was a corporal, and so Iwas okay.
(19:29):
Well, here's a funny, funnystory.
Like the one the bridge um onthe far end.
SPEAKER_00 (19:36):
Um yeah, there was a north bridge and a south bridge.
One that went the north bridgewent over the Euphrates and the
South Bridge went over the smallcanal that went between the
glass factory and hurricanepoint.
SPEAKER_03 (19:47):
Yeah, well, so the bridge that went towards
Junction City, yeah.
The South Yeah, um there was acouple times that they they even
stuck uh our docks up there onpost just because we were on a
on a rotation.
We'd stay up there for uh ourcorps there too.
I think it was six hours shift,I believe.
And even now that that doesn'tseem short at all because like
(20:10):
um, yeah.
Anyway, but there there'd belike uh the card some like not
cardboard, but um uh likeplywood, you know, just as a
little bit of cover, and dudeswould be writing all over this
stuff.
Like I got a picture of me goinglike with my thumbs up in a sign
right above my head that sayscomplacency kills.
(20:34):
I'm like, I was covered, but I'mlike just thinking back, I'm
like, hmm, yeah, just uh youknow, being stupid and stuff
like that.
But uh yeah, I mean we werepretty careful for the most part
because we were pretty exposedup there.
I mean, what you don't reallythink of like if someone might
(20:54):
be watching you through a scopeor something.
SPEAKER_01 (20:56):
Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:57):
Hindsight, you're like, oh man, especially
especially after hearing like Iguess when we were there, who's
that uh Chris Kyle um was overthere trying to hunt those you
know snipers.
And I didn't realize this tilllike after the movie and stuff
came out.
That I remember going on thosemissions and like dropping off
snipers and stuff, not knowingthat dude was probably one of
(21:21):
them.
Like, heck, he probably rode myhome V a time or two, and I
didn't even know the guy.
SPEAKER_00 (21:26):
I think his missions were in 2006, I don't think they
were in 2004.
Our snipers that you weredropping off were the battalion
asset snipers.
SPEAKER_03 (21:34):
Okay, yeah.
Well, he was there in 04 inRamadi, I believe so.
Yeah, I mean, and I don't quoteme on that, but I I think you
know I know I never met him.
SPEAKER_00 (21:43):
I met us, I met two other Navy SEALs that were
there.
Uh the only reason why we knewis because we shot near their OP
and they made themselves knownand then they came down and
we're like, oh well, we justfucked up your hide, sorry.
SPEAKER_03 (21:57):
Hey bro, yeah, um, friendly fire.
SPEAKER_00 (21:59):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (22:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaking of friendly fire, didyou guys have any?
Because we had some issues withthe army.
SPEAKER_03 (22:10):
I think we got not that I remember.
No, I think we got lucky, but Idefinitely hurt or some some
issues with yeah, some the restof our unit.
Yeah.
Yeah, not that I can remember.
Like I said, lowly lancecorporal on a machine gun.
I don't I get to hear a wholelot of chatter.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (22:29):
That's fair.
SPEAKER_03 (22:30):
I mean, I could from my turret, I mean I could hear a
lot of stuff, you know, from theradio.
There was a few times where I,you know, I had to with the
driver was busy, like I, youknow, helped him by I rarely
ever like said anything on theradio.
Um that was just because thatthat we I think our plan was the
(22:50):
the driver was you know they'rein charge of the vehicle and the
radio if the vehicle commanderis away from the vehicle.
SPEAKER_00 (22:57):
Right.
Well, shifting gears just alittle bit, did you stay in for
four years or did you stay inlonger?
Uh four years.
Four years.
And so at that point when we gotback, we've got back to Camp
Pendleton in or I guess MarchAir Force Base is where we
landed, uh, late September.
And almost all of us got 30 daysof leave in October.
(23:22):
It was kind of like a freeleave.
You you know, welcome back.
Do you remember what it feltlike coming home?
SPEAKER_03 (23:29):
Yeah, it's kind of weird.
I think I went to like a malldown like around San Diego and
just feeling like, man, thesenasty civilians, like they don't
even know what like like what wejust did for them, like type of
feeling.
Sure.
I went back home and my firstlike I guess run in with like I
(23:50):
guess uh shell shock, PTSD,whatever you want to call it.
SPEAKER_00 (23:53):
And where was home from?
Sorry, I hate to interrupt.
SPEAKER_03 (23:56):
Um in uh well then it uh Michigan, Western
Michigan.
Okay, yeah.
And I went to one of my sisters'uh cross country meets.
And if anyone knows how theystart uh a meet to a cross
country, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So I was just in the field, youknow, just and then all of a
sudden, pow.
(24:18):
I hit the deck so dang fast, Iturned around, I was like, what?
And like my family is like halfkind of like laughing, half
like, what is going on?
And I'm like, I was like, I wasjust getting heated.
I was like, dang it, could theywarn me or something?
Oh yeah, it was not that waslike right after I flew back,
(24:42):
and I was I don't know, not evenlike a day after like when I got
there.
I was like, man, didn't have toomany uh issues after that.
Kind of just that's the only onethat I can remember.
SPEAKER_00 (24:52):
That's good, and that's I mean, that's
acceptable.
I think uh probably at thatpoint, 30 days prior, you may
have been you know in agunfight.
So yeah, it's uh yeah, that'sgood.
And so you stayed with 2-4 afterthe deployment because most
Marines don't move around toomuch unless there's a good
reason to.
I assume you picked up and movedon with leadership, but how just
(25:14):
curious uh from yourperspective, as you you started
junior but moved to senior, howdid the lessons from your
experience in 2004 uh how didyou pass those down to your
junior Marines afterwards?
SPEAKER_03 (25:28):
Well, we did we stayed uh in Pendleton and
trained, picked up a bunch ofyou know new guys, and then we
went to Okinawa um actuallypretty pretty quick after it was
like February.
We all went to Okinawa for aboutseven, eight months.
And uh so it was a weird liketransition.
(25:49):
I I did pick up Corporal likeabout halfway through that
deployment over in um MountFuji.
Actually, I got I got promotedlike with Mount Fuji in the
background.
Yeah, it was like we kind of alllike we were definitely salty
and we could, you know, just allof us that kind of came in
together, um almost like we justfelt like we're almost like
(26:10):
untouchable.
But I think we definitely feltlike we had a responsibility to
train up the next ones becausewe figured war's still going on,
we're gonna we're gonna be sentover the next chance we get.
Because I know from what I heardthat they sent our unit to
Okinawa because of how bad wegot hit, like all of our
(26:30):
casualties and stuff like that.
Oh, okay.
So they almost pretty much sentus to Okinawa deployment to
regroup and and actually have aunit with jungle training uh
warfare just in case somethingpopped off.
And it probably is probablybetter that we didn't go
directly to another combat tour.
Um how you know badly we gotlike we got hit.
(26:53):
And so I don't know.
You know, there's a lot of newpeople, a lot of new faces
turned over like just about allof the the the leadership, um,
or they kind of moved todifferent spots, but uh who
stayed?
Sergeant Williams, he stayedwith us.
Everybody else, he was like themost like senior one that pretty
much stayed with our ourplatoon, and I think there was a
(27:15):
lot of a few other NCOs in thecompany that went to the Okinawa
deployment too.
Um yeah, as far as training, Imean we kind of just took it in
stride.
Okinawa was kind of boring forme because uh I'm sure after
that kind of deployment.
Yeah, and so like I found myselftrying to keep busy.
Like I joined, we uh mate gotlike a softball team while we
(27:38):
were over there.
Yeah, cool.
Yeah, they kept us busy withwith uh training for sure.
I don't know, rifle range, youknow, gas chamber, all that type
of stuff.
And then I think I think it wasjust our company.
We at some point we went to wetook a boat to over to the
Philippines and we did sometraining with the uh Filipino
(27:59):
Marines.
That was pretty cool.
Like, so we flew into thisairbase off of like the Navy
ship.
Uh we had these little jeepsthat we mounted guns on, they're
like way smaller.
We landed, we did some liketraining immediately with them,
and then we kind of just stayedthere, hung out, like just out
in the middle, like in thisfield, and did this huge
(28:20):
training exercise with these uhFilipino Marines.
And uh yeah, just being in we'reI forgot the name of the mount,
like the volcano, but it waslike way back in the 80s, there
was a volcano that erupted, andthey had to, I guess uh they had
to all the the Air Force peoplethat were there stationed there
had to like leave.
(28:41):
Evacuate.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
And uh so I guess the base wasstill functioning, though they I
don't know what they didafterwards, but yeah, just doing
that try type of training waswas really neat, kind of you
know kept us busy, I guess.
SPEAKER_02 (28:57):
No, I know there is uh talking with a a lot of nylon
in my peer group.
We a lot of us either wereEASing or getting orders to
other places, and a lot of ushad some insanely tight
turnaround, so I can't imaginehow decimated those our ranks
would have been looking likeearly January, especially
(29:17):
because everybody left.
SPEAKER_03 (29:19):
So yeah, and I don't even really, you know, thinking
back like how many peoplebecause I really didn't know.
I mean, I know other like thecompanies and stuff, I don't you
know, I didn't know like thatmany of them, but like for our
company, yeah, there was most ofthe leadership like took off.
Yeah, because some of them likecame in just before that
deployment and didn't have muchtime left and or they had
(29:42):
already gotten extended.
Well, yep, and then uh afterthat deployment came back and
trained for another one.
Our battalions they theyactually split our battalion up
in 06, 07.
Half the units, I think it wasFox and Echo, went to back to
Ramadi, and then Gulf Weaponsand Headquarters went to
(30:06):
Barwana.
So that was yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (30:11):
That's a weird split.
SPEAKER_03 (30:12):
Yeah, it was weird.
I was kind of bummed because Ihad a lot of buddies in Echo
Company and just like being likenot even knowing what's you know
what's going on and stuff likethat.
You know, it's kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00 (30:24):
Were you friends with people in Echo and golf and
stuff when we were in there in04?
SPEAKER_03 (30:28):
Yep.
Yeah, quite a bit.
A lot of guys from uh justinfantry school and stuff like
that.
SPEAKER_00 (30:34):
So yeah, I was gonna say you seem to know their names
pretty well, which is uh again,I I know a lot of guys.
There was a few of them that wetrained with when we were doing
our workups and stuff when wefirst got to the unit, but man,
I just really did not.
I felt like I did not know theline companies as well.
And it seemed like I don't know,seemed like we were having two
different experiences almostjust uh because we're at
different camps and stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (30:55):
Yeah, well that's why any change any time I got
like we got to go to combatoutposts, I'd be you know, but
like trying to find some of themand you know, and like even some
of them I didn't really evenknow till after the deployment.
Like uh I mean I knew like my mybuddy like uh Corporal Thomas,
he's from Michigan, like kind ofhome state.
Pre-deployment, like I kind of II hung out in the Echo like
(31:20):
companies like Hoochary becauseone of my best buddies uh from
SOI, uh his last name's O'Wynn.
Dude's from uh country countriesall get out from Arkansas, and
and uh it was weird because Iended up marrying like uh a gal
that went to school with him.
She's my ex now, but um that'show I ended up in Arkansas, like
(31:44):
because of him, because like wewere like really good buds, and
um yeah, just hearing somestories from what they went
through and like who like you asMatt 2, I know mostly talk about
a lot of stuff, like but asweapons company, like I found
out from Thomas like what youknow, platoons from weapons
(32:06):
company was kind of assistingdifferent parts of Echo Company
and like some of the the 81splatoons uh were you know
helping out during that sametime and we're just all over the
city.
It was crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (32:21):
Since you were close with Echo, did you get a chance
to I mean, probably differentbecause you're hearing it from
you know guys that are that werethere, but uh did they talk a
lot about the their concerns?
I know we always heard rumorsabout what was going on with
Captain Royer, but I I don'tknow what I don't know what they
said to you since you were closeto him.
SPEAKER_03 (32:40):
Um if it has, it's been a long time.
I don't yeah, I haven't reallydiscussed anything.
I do remember that there wassome there were some issues.
Even Thomas was telling me aboutlike when he got when he got hit
and like one of his theirsergeant just basically just
took off and left Marine to likewho got shot up just pretty much
(33:02):
to to die.
Well, I don't I'm yeah, like Isaid, I'm not naming like names
or anything.
SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
No, no, and I don't I don't think you need to.
It's not necessarily your story,but I I I was just curious if
they expressed their concerns toyou since you're technically an
outsider from their company.
SPEAKER_03 (33:16):
Like, did they say like, oh, morale's bad or
whatever, you know, like we Idon't know, like yeah, maybe uh
maybe after I'm I'm actuallygonna go hang out with uh with
him on Monday.
SPEAKER_00 (33:29):
Uh oh for the birthday?
That's good.
SPEAKER_03 (33:31):
Maybe I'll maybe I'll get some more stories.
SPEAKER_00 (33:33):
Um yeah after the fact.
SPEAKER_03 (33:37):
Yeah, it's that's about like just having the
connection.
Um, like I ran the MarinquaMarathon, and the there's that
um the picture that somebodyposted.
They have like this blue mile,like run for the fallen.
Yeah, and they put up posterslike along the entire mile.
(33:59):
And I don't know how you get onthere, like I'm not sure, but
they said like you can likemaybe request this uh some
service people or whatever, Iguess, like way ahead of time.
But I was running, and all of asudden I see you know one of our
guys didn't know him personally,but I remember like being at the
reunion, Lance CorporalLayfield's mom like spoke to
(34:20):
everybody, and her story wasjust amazing.
And just to be like so strongand just so like her and in uh
Miss uh Halal, like after that,I and like gave her a big hug
too.
But like I stopped during therace.
I literally like was running andI saw his poster right there,
(34:42):
and just instincts, I just likejust jumped off the course and
just like I was so full ofemotion, like already.
Like I just like just knelt downthere and like I don't know,
just felt this all this weightlike down on me.
Like I didn't like I said, Ididn't personally know the guy,
but he he's still my brother,and that's that's you know who
(35:04):
we are, not just weapons, butlike all of us Marines, like we
would have done that for any ofus.
Um and so for him, yeah.
And so for him to I don't know,I just felt honored to that I
could do that.
It was the weirdest thing duringthe race.
I I looked, uh I went to get up,I looked, and like there's this
camera guy like taking mypicture.
I'm like, this is weird.
(35:25):
Like, I I didn't plan this,didn't it was just a spontaneous
thing.
Later on, I messaged um MissLayfield and told her uh told
her I asked her if she was therebecause there were some gold
star uh families like at the endof that mile, like holding flags
and stuff.
Yeah and I couldn't I couldn'tsee if she was there.
(35:47):
And so I was like, yeah, wereyou there?
And uh she said no, but then Itold her about like her son
being on the poster and whatnot.
And then I guess uh somebodythat's associated with that um
organization like reached out toher.
And so maybe I guess this cameraguy was with the organization
and then sent her the photobecause she was like, she sent
(36:10):
me the photo.
Is this you?
Holy cow! Like, I didn't realizelike someone took my photo and
like now she has it, and she wasjust like overcome.
She was just like so happy andproud that like you know, I was
honoring her son, and I waslike, Yeah, it was just felt
even more like emotional, justlike being able to do that for
(36:33):
you know, not only a two-fourbrother, but you know, just
yeah, I was that's what it's allabout, man.
SPEAKER_00 (36:39):
If you if we stop talking about them and stop
doing stuff like that, thenthey're gone, forgotten, right?
That's that's the worst part.
SPEAKER_03 (36:46):
Yeah, and that's why I like I was even like I'm like
I going to Arlington for sure,like because then I didn't know
exactly who all was like buriedthere, and so like I got um you
know, I took picture of uh ofSavage's gravestone.
Um I actually just sent thepicture of me in it to uh his
(37:06):
mom uh just a little bit ago.
And then uh, you know, SergeantMajor Ellis, you know, he got he
got blown up um in 07.
Yeah, that was he's there, andthen there's a couple other guys
that I didn't like personallyknow, but I'm like, you know, I
just it just felt good like kindof just spending some time out
(37:28):
there.
It was yeah, it was reallygreat.
SPEAKER_00 (37:32):
It's I think you did that.
It's very humbling too.
SPEAKER_03 (37:34):
You start going out there and you see, I mean, it's
just miles and miles ofheadstones of of everybody who's
sacrificed from all the wars,and it's uh there's a huge
section for the global war onterror, and it's they're all on
the same spot, like within thesame no, and what was even like
while I was there looking forsome of the other guys from our
(37:56):
unit, like there was a uh a momand dad that were had fold-out
chairs, blankets, and they werespending time with their son.
So that was really neat.
And like I even told my wife Iwas like she was getting tired,
so she kind of sat down in thegrass.
So like I took that opportunityto like kind of go back uh to
(38:18):
some of the guys and you knowhave a little bit of one-on-one.
So but in my head, like I don'treally didn't really say much
because I was like, I don'tknow, what do you say to a you
know, a grace or whatever?
It kind of in a weird like, butit's just a just a reflecting
time was you know was great.
And I can't wait to go back nextyear because I'm I already
(38:41):
already got it planned.
I'm I'm running the nextmarathon.
What I'm gonna try to do is tryto get a couple more gold star
families, or or at least likesome more of our our guys' like
posters on the race.
Oh, yeah.
And see if see if like you know,maybe somehow they want to come
out.
Like that would be amazing tolike spend time with some of our
(39:02):
gold star families like thatthat weekend.
Really awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (39:06):
Be good for them to see.
Yeah, that'd be real cool.
SPEAKER_03 (39:09):
Yeah, the Marine, the just the event is amazing.
Like, dude, we know how to likeit might might have seemed a
little inorganized at time, butlike like there was a bunch of
butterbar second lieutenantslike almost at every turn
throughout the race, you know,cheering you on.
Like the streets were like justpacked full of people.
It was it was just an amazingexperience, the whole thing.
(39:32):
I just felt it was just uh yeah.
But the this the greatest thingwas like coming in, coming into
that mile.
Like I almost like sort of likehyperventilated a couple times
because I was just like, allright, just breathe.
Yeah, and like right after I Igot up from uh his poster, you
(39:57):
know, I was like all just Idon't know, tearing up or
whatever.
And like there was a ladyrunning, and she was like, she
said something to me, like, ohwas he like was he close to you
or I don't know something.
I just I couldn't answer, I justkept running.
But it was just for someone toeven notice, you know, like it
was a very emotional time.
It was it was very sombering,like it's so quiet, like
(40:21):
nobody's just like chatting oranything throughout the whole
race.
You know, you hear peoplechatting around and stuff, but
like during that whole time,everyone's just like really
quiet and very respectful.
So that was the coolest coolpart too.
SPEAKER_00 (40:35):
Well, while I've got you deep in your feelings, yeah,
man.
I feel like talking to Condi alittle bit.
SPEAKER_03 (40:41):
Yeah, and we we can talk a little bit.
SPEAKER_00 (40:43):
Yeah.
Tell me a little bit about whatyou remember.
I mean, he was your truck, hewas in your truck, man.
SPEAKER_03 (40:47):
So uh oh, yeah.
I mean, just like from theget-go, like when I first got to
the platoon, like I could telllike he he was a leader.
He was only like I think 22,which is crazy to think.
But you know, back in that day,22 was like seasoned.
SPEAKER_00 (41:06):
You're an old man at 22.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (41:10):
Yeah, like he wasn't he he was just I don't know, uh,
you know, everyone says, Oh, hewas a Marines Marine.
I mean, he was a different kindof Marines Marine, though.
He he could get on to you whenhe had to, but then he also took
you aside and was wasrespectful.
You know, there was very littlebit of a training time, training
(41:34):
period, so that's kind of kindof small to go off of.
But man, once we got over incountry, um, like not just him,
but like, yeah, all of oursergeants were just like you
know, had had had good heads ontheir shoulders, um, which was
you know definitely a goodthing.
SPEAKER_00 (41:50):
Yeah, Sergeant Connie was just you have any
specific stories where he had toget after you, or on the other
side where he had to where hetaught you something, either
one.
SPEAKER_03 (41:59):
No, uh well, because well, when we got there, they
they separated us into squads,and so the drivers and gunners
were in our own squad, which iskind of weird.
So I was with our personalguard, and yeah, he was a little
bit harder and because he hadbeen over with three five
before, so he had some combatexperience already.
(42:20):
So I think maybe that's why hewas trying to be a little harder
on us.
Um but yeah, Connie was myvehicle commander, and so yeah,
most of the time, like in ourvehicle, like if we were
training or on the drive up,yeah, it was pretty like
lighthearted stuff, like talkabout normal conversations, um,
(42:41):
uh just different stories andstuff.
That was before we really gotinto you know into combat um
situations.
Uh just overall, like you know,he'd just be standing up in the
turret, he'd be walking by, hey,how's it going?
You know, he really looked afterhe looked after all of us.
(43:03):
You know, that was a goodfeeling to have for sure.
Didn't catch me on the spot, butI'm trying to trying to like
generate some some stuff.
SPEAKER_00 (43:12):
It's whatever you remember, don't matter.
SPEAKER_03 (43:14):
I'm kind of I'm kind of going off of like some
pictures that I have, like himjust sitting there like playing
cards or um, like I said, thatpicture with the holding up the
IED.
SPEAKER_00 (43:24):
Um do you remember the impact?
Do you remember the impact ithad the day he got hit?
SPEAKER_03 (43:30):
Oh man.
Yeah.
Um, I actually I I took apicture of his bronze star set
uh citation too when it was onhis rack.
Um I think I don't know if hegot awarded that before or after
he died.
SPEAKER_00 (43:44):
It was after, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_03 (43:46):
Yeah, because I have a picture of his empty rack, and
then we put the bronze star likecitation like on his rack.
SPEAKER_00 (43:54):
Um I don't think I knew that.
I remember coming over there,but I don't remember I don't
remember seeing that.
SPEAKER_03 (43:59):
Yeah, I'm not sure how long it stayed up.
Yeah, but um yeah, well, afterhe got shot initially, like he
he took only just a couple weeksoff.
Like I remember he, you know, hewas just walking around, had a
bandage on.
He took it off a couple times.
You could see like the almostlike the hole that went through
his his trap muscle.
(44:20):
And uh I don't think it I don'tthink it messed up his tattoo,
his ride or die tattoo that hehad across.
SPEAKER_00 (44:26):
No, it was right above it, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (44:28):
Um but uh and dude was just like always motivating.
Like I don't even he wasn'treally he wasn't a negative guy
at all.
That's that was a cool thingabout it.
Like, just always positive.
Yeah, the effect that it had onso like July the 1st, like that
(44:49):
night, like you said, we wereout on patrol, uh the night
patrol that whole night.
You know, so we were gettingkind of tired.
And uh, yeah, for whateverreason, like nobody's fault, but
yeah, Captain Wiler told us,like, yeah, just to go down
Route Michigan, all the way downto like the arch and then just
come back, just do one last likeuh ID sweep.
(45:14):
And so we were coming back goingtowards combat outpost, and
yeah, all of a sudden it hit.
Like I remember I think we tookI think knackers because he got
hit with a piece of shrapnelright in his inner thigh.
And so we had to get we had toget him out.
(45:35):
I think vigil had like ashrapnel piece like on his wrist
or his arm.
And somehow the other the gun,somehow the gunner Campos was
sitting down because they at onepoint they told us to actually
sit down.
That's what that's why I said ifI was in that gun where I
probably should have been, yeah,I probably would have refused to
(45:56):
sit down and I probably wouldn'tbe here.
I probably would have been likestanding up.
SPEAKER_01 (46:01):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (46:02):
So we took those guys, I think, and then we we I
wasn't, I was still in the gun.
So whoever grabbed Condi put himin the back of another Humvee,
and then we just like booked itto Conn Outpost.
And then I remember being up inthe turret and they took him out
(46:25):
and just him just laying there,like, you know, couldn't they're
they're calling a burden forEvac and just seeing him just
like not even be able to um justyou can't do anything for him.
So I at that point I didn't knowthat he had a shrapnel piece
(46:47):
that you know got him right inthe right in the head.
That was yeah, so we didn'tknow.
We thought, oh yeah, you know,maybe he'll they're gonna send
him out.
So I think we went to JunctionCity to eat, and then we got
back to Hurricane Point is whenCaptain Wyler came out.
(47:09):
Captain Wyler came out, I think,with with First Sergeant Mac and
told us that he had passed andlike the bird um going towards.
And like, yeah, we justimmediately all got we were
pissed.
Like, I think Lechard like threwsomething through like his
(47:29):
helmet down, or I don't know.
Everyone was just like, yeah, wewere just more pissed off than
anything that you know they gotour best guy.
That was pretty rough.
And then I think I remember youguys you guys came out to kind
of like console us.
Um yeah.
Uh I do.
I remember, yeah, we we werebringing our our vehicles in and
(47:51):
you guys kind of come out.
I don't remember like all ofthat, but I think, yeah, you're
definitely one of them.
And uh after that, guys werejust I think we went in the
hooch, just I don't know, someof them cried, some of them got
pissed off.
Yeah, it was that was prettyrough.
SPEAKER_00 (48:10):
I'm surprised you guys went to eat at Junction
City, but I now that I thinkabout it, I guess you had to
take your wounded somewhere.
You probably took them toCharlie Med and to go get looked
at.
SPEAKER_03 (48:20):
You probably took you said knackers and vigil and
um yeah, to be honest, I don'tremember that.
I don't know if we left knackersif if he flew out.
SPEAKER_00 (48:30):
He may not have flown out, but he might have got
because there was the only placewith any advanced medical
equipment or any advancedmedical training, realistically.
I mean, technically you had ourbattalion surgeon at combat
outpost who they could do somethings, but a level of equipment
was very low.
Yeah, and but the the x-raymachine and all that stuff was
(48:53):
at combat outpost.
SPEAKER_03 (48:54):
Yeah, and yeah, I don't remember if we left our
wounded there at combat outpostor but I know like we're already
headed to Junction City to go togo eat.
That's crazy.
We already like that's we weregonna go because we were out all
night.
SPEAKER_00 (49:09):
Mission completion.
SPEAKER_03 (49:11):
Yeah, which yeah, that was crazy though.
Um, just I don't remember, it'sone of those hazy fog things.
I couldn't even tell you like ablur, and then we got I just
remember rolling into HurricaneWhite and just getting that news
and just yeah, yeah, that waslike the worst thing ever.
(49:35):
We were really just pissed off.
SPEAKER_00 (49:38):
Well, I don't know where to go from here.
Blake, you got anything?
Well and then Blake, haha, Blakeor Blake.
SPEAKER_03 (49:47):
Yeah.
Well, I remember after I gotback from the States though, I
got I got a tattoo.
I I got the tattoo with uh withhis name on it.
SPEAKER_00 (49:55):
Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_03 (49:57):
Yep.
And then I kind of I added to itbecause we had um his combat
replacement actually meantCorporal Ryan.
SPEAKER_00 (50:05):
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (50:05):
Uh yeah, so like yeah, he was he was a good guy
too.
And yeah, he ended up, you know,he got killed with Captain
Rapico.
SPEAKER_00 (50:16):
Yes, yeah, Captain Rapico and and Ryan got killed
in November, uh, right after weleft.
SPEAKER_03 (50:21):
Yeah, so and like I think December of that year, I I
added his I added his name.
SPEAKER_00 (50:26):
I don't guess I realized that Ryan was his
replacement, but that does makesense.
So you got Ryan like July-ish?
SPEAKER_03 (50:34):
Yeah, I believe so, because I think he replaced
well, it was him, and then theyalso gave us uh Sergeant Sakaki
uh replaced him too, becausebecause we lost knackers, and
then I think uh I think Campoended up going to headquarters.
SPEAKER_00 (50:51):
Campo went to headquarters, yeah.
And then so and knackers wentout wounded with the the
shrapnel.
SPEAKER_03 (50:58):
Yeah, he yeah, he didn't come back.
Okay, yeah, he he went back tothe States.
I guess he had a huge gash likein his thigh.
SPEAKER_00 (51:06):
Sure.
I don't think I remembered thatSakaki had joined you, but I
know he went out with severaldifferent platoons, so that does
doesn't surprise me either.
SPEAKER_03 (51:13):
Yeah, no, he was a good guy to to join us.
Good salty guy.
SPEAKER_00 (51:18):
Yeah, Sakaki's good, he's a good leader as well.
SPEAKER_03 (51:21):
I don't know.
Well, I mean, I'm sure we canfinish up.
SPEAKER_00 (51:24):
I I mean I can probably come up with a bunch of
other stuff, but uh, man, thishas been no there's there's no
pressure to push and go longer.
That's uh shit.
I think we've been talking for90 minutes or maybe longer.
SPEAKER_02 (51:38):
No, it's right at two hours.
SPEAKER_00 (51:40):
Oh, it's two hours, yeah.
Shit.
Yeah, I haven't been payingattention.
That's how when I'm enjoying it,I don't give a shit.
I don't know how long it's been.
SPEAKER_03 (51:47):
Yeah, man.
I mean, it's always just good totalk to somebody else, some some
other guys that have been therein the same stuff, because like
I don't get that.
Like, you know, I can I add alittle bit like the first 10
years after I got out, I wasn'ton social media.
I I didn't, I kind of justwithdrew from everything, not
really on purpose, but it wasjust I don't know, different
(52:12):
mindset.
Like, I I I regret getting out,probably but three deployments
in four years kind of like woreme out, and I think I just
wanted to move on to the nextstage in life.
Yeah, then I definitely regretthat because I just moved on to
Arkansas, went to college, andjust I don't know, seemed like I
(52:32):
wasted 10 years of my life.
Yeah, finally got on, like, didmy own Facebook thing, kind of
like hooked up with a bunch ofyou know uh Marines from 2-4 on
there, you know, and that wasdefinitely a a good help because
going through some mentalissues, you know, a while back
definitely helped like justhearing from you know guys like
(52:57):
you and just some other buddiesthat I you know I knew just to
be like, hey, don't don't giveup.
Just you know, I'm sure you youyou remember me saying saying
some stuff like negative stuffand just sound like you're going
through it, man.
SPEAKER_00 (53:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (53:14):
Not maybe not hundred percent necessarily like
suicidal, but like I wasliterally hit rock bottom, you
know, went through divorce,going through all kinds of
child, you know, issues andstuff, and it was it was rough.
But you know, now that I'm I'vegotten older, that's that's what
this is what helps me like talkwith with fellow brothers like
(53:35):
you guys, yeah.
And I I haven't done enough ofthat in the last 18, 20 years.
And that's why going to thatreunion like a year and a half
ago, oh my gosh, that did somuch for like my mental health
and my my heart.
That was even though I barelygot to spend time with like most
(53:56):
most of you guys or any at all.
Yeah, uh just yeah, just beingaround.
That's that's what I missed.
SPEAKER_00 (54:05):
It's weird how fast that fills up your gas tank,
man.
I I we had the same or I can'tspeak for muscler, but it I feel
like that's the same thingbecause we drove in together.
It really was, man.
It was a that was good, it wasreally good.
And I didn't realize that it wasgonna be that way.
SPEAKER_03 (54:20):
Me neither, because right after the ceremony, like I
went up to the condies and justlike just gave them a huge hug.
That was yeah, hadn't hadn'tseen them since like we had a
dinner.
Map three had like a dinner umafter we got back with them.
And I but I didn't really sayanything to them.
(54:40):
I yeah, I did, but it just feltweird then.
Just like, oh, we're your s Imean you know, your son got
killed.
It was just it was just weird.
But like growing older and justlike, you know, I I told her
like, yeah, I was I was thegunner in you know, in she she
(55:02):
always calls him like Kiki orsomething like that.
I'm not gonna say yeah.
Yeah, um, I was like, yeah, Iwas his I was his machine
gunner, like and she's like, ohI can't remember what she said,
but just just the the fullembrace was just like you know
amazing.
And like same same kind ofthing.
(55:23):
Like I never I haven't yet liketold like Mrs.
Halal.
Um I think I might havementioned like I was I helped
like I helped get your sonsomething like that.
Like I helped your son, youknow, get back to the state.
Like I was the the gunner in theHumvee that we we took him back
(55:45):
and just that just that embraceof like you know, nothing that I
didn't need, I don't need anykind of notoriety, but just
maybe them like that that senseof like he was taken care of.
And so that that that was thebiggest thing that kind of you
know helped helped me out.
And yeah, that's why I couldn'tI can't wait for the next
(56:08):
reunion all that already, likejust you know, having more
relationships and then likebeing able to spend some more
time because I I missed the10-year because I wasn't even
on, I didn't even hear about it.
Like it was like the year afterI went on social media.
I was like, what?
I would have been to the I wouldhave gone if I would have
somebody would have contacted meor whatever.
SPEAKER_00 (56:29):
All right, man.
Well, this has been great.
I'm gonna hit stop and all that.
And uh, dude, if you ever wantto come back, you're welcome
back.
SPEAKER_02 (56:38):
If you like what you heard, make sure you subscribe
for future episodes on yourfavorite podcast service.
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