82nd Airborne Fighting in the Arghandab Valley | William Yeske - Combat Story

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
If he wasn't really on, right ontop of that, it very possibly would
have taken out most of the squad.
It already was a mass cow.
Uh, the size of it was just,I was directly across, but
maybe 25, 25 feet away or so.
I was the only one whowasn't knocked over.
Everybody else, you know,Ross was thrown over the wall.
You've got Johnston alsothrown over the wall.

(00:23):
And it was just, for a lot of people, itwas, It's one of the worst days of life.
Welcome to Combat Story.
I'm Ryan Fut and I serve WarzZone tours as an army attack
helicopter pilot and CIA officer.
Over a 15 year career, I'm fascinated bythe experiences of the elite in combat.
On this show, I interviewsome of the best.
To understand what combat feltlike on their front lines.

(00:44):
This is combat story.
Today, we have our second accountof brutal fighting within the
Argandab Valley of Afghanistan.
This time from Will Yeske, former82nd Airborne RTO at the time.
Will went on to write thebook, Damn the Valley.
1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd ofthe 508th PIR, 82nd Airborne in the
Argonau River Valley of Afghanistan.

(01:05):
Will recounts his experiences fightingand surviving in this brutal location,
which takes place at the same timeand just across the river, from the
experiences faced by our former guest,who many will recall, Andrew Bragg,
who was in Charlie Company at the time.
The IEDs, the suicide bombs, theticks, and more come to life in
both this interview and the book.
Since leaving the service, Will hasgone on to write two books, and despite

(01:29):
initially dropping out of college, nowhas an Ivy League degree to his name.
When many other kids in their mid 20swere partying and living it up, he
elected to serve and one year laterfound himself fighting for his life.
I'm sure you're going to enjoy themultiple combat experiences that
Will shares with us in this episode,and if you're like me, you'll be

(01:49):
getting your own copy of his book.
With that, please enjoy.
this very real experience ofthe Argendab River Valley with
none other than Will Yesco.
Will, thanks so much for taking thetime to share your story with us today.
Wow.
Thanks for having me.
It's, uh, it's been great connectingand it's been, uh, just a couple

(02:13):
weeks since I had a chance to sitdown with Andrew Bragg, who's the
one who ended up connecting us.
Obviously, um, very similar pathwaysfor the two of you for a period of time.
Your book is damn the valley.
His is devil's playground.
Both chronicles, uh, your experiencesin a similar part of the world.
So I was just wondering for peoplewho have heard that interview with

(02:35):
Andrew, what's y'all's connection?
How should people thinkof the books differently?
Maybe as we start framing this up.
So I know like even he probably mentionedit in there too, just with the, the
amount of just variables that wereArgendotte river Valley there, um, I
actually mentioned Charlie company.

(02:56):
In my book, they were literallyacross the Argonaut river from us.
So if you look at, I don't know ifyou've put any pinpoints and stuff on
it, but, um, if you look at where theywere, you just go across the river.
And I know I had mentioned because it wasa whole different ball game on their end.
Theirs was much more kinetic.
Like we'd hear gunfights every otherday over there and we'd be begging our

(03:17):
commander, like, Hey, we're walkingthrough minefields every other day.
We're the 82nd Airborne.
We love these gunfights.
This is what we train for.
Like, can we maybe divert, maybedo some patrols over there?
Like, like, let's help assist, you know,because we were just itching to get at it.
So, but yeah, no, uh, many a time withoutactually meeting Andrew until much
more recently, uh, had overheard, youknow, and, and heard of and experienced

(03:42):
a lot of the same things, um, withinthe Valley, but it just was a, it
was a different scene for everybody.
I mean, I know.
He had talked with somebody fromthe 101st that took over their AO,
but through telling these differentstories and through putting this
stuff down, I know the first one whokind of brought the attention to it,

(04:03):
that people would actually listento these stories was yet another
book, Bravo Company by Ben Kessling.
And.
You know, he was a marine journalist, um,you know, officer side, but still one of
us, you know, serves in combat in Iraq,and he had interviewed a lot of us, and
I ended up showing up in his book, BravoCompany, but it was through his stuff

(04:24):
that it really inspired me to write myown stuff down, you know, I talked to
him and I said, you know, there's a,there's a lot of scuttlebill out there,
there's a lot of guys that are here.
upset that it's coming from the endof a journalist and not one of us.
Like, what do you think?
Is there any merit here?
And he's like, I've heard your story,like put it down and see where it goes.
And, you know, as you could seeon the shelf here, there we go.

(04:45):
And then, you know, Andrew Bragghad the next book coming out
with the devil's playground.
We've got something with 101st.
I'm trying to remember the name of it.
It's the top guns.
Um, In the hundred and firstand alpha company has one that
they're gearing up as well.
And they're all starting to realize too,that it was so different because of how

(05:05):
we were broken up in element size and,uh, you know, the saturation of enemy
out there, you know, Bravo company mainlyoperated in platoon sized elements.
Uh, and it sounds like Charliecompany kind of did the same thing
with two Charlie being separatedfrom everything across there.
Uh, and.
You know, a lot of it was small,small kill team, small man

(05:27):
patrols, 14, 14 men out at a time.
So to deal with that and deal withmanning and then deal with the losses and
continually trying to keep guys in thetowers and keep guys to be able to go out
on patrol because if you didn't, you know,you're really giving a foothold there.
And it, it was, however, a lotof A lot of people out there.
I mean, a lot of peopleas this thing develops.

(05:50):
And as these stories are coming out,uh, a lot of people are going, you
know, Hey, the Argon dob, man, Iserved in that, but that place sucked.
Or I heard about that place evenon, uh, you know, and I'm going
to say it for brag, but now forLiberty, um, you know, right.
They love that.
Uh, There's still, you know, talkof, talk of those days, you know, 4th

(06:13):
Brigade, uh, 4th Brigade Combat Team,um, the Airborne and Special Operations
Museum when we, uh, so that was actuallyone of the things that You know, he's
got an event coming up too, but we dida launch event there and the cover of
the book has a flag on it and that flagwas actually I talked about in mind,
but I didn't want to get too in detail.

(06:35):
So it's from one of the guys that wasformer first platoon, but that particular
story is the enemy drove a V bed.
So vehicle.
Vehicle borne ID as close as theycould before they detonated to cop
Brunkhorst where 2nd platoon wasstaying and they, they literally
flattened the compound they were in.
There was pictures somebody was snappingas they were recovering everything and

(06:58):
they saw, saw the guys pulling the flagon recovering the flag to put it back
up and it really just embodied whata lot of us thought was that feeling.
Out there, you know, we're gettingbeat up and we're going through
hell, but dammit, you know,we're, we're in the 82nd airborne.
This is as far as you're going.
We're not moving.
We're here to stay, you know, andit's them pulling that flag out of the

(07:21):
ground and saying, we're still here.
We're here to fight another day.
And that is now actually down at theairborne and special operations museum.
They put it into the, uh, D.
O.
D.
Historical archives for per flaggy.
Yeah, the flag, there's a bunch ofother things in the pictures too.
That's actually something that I'mtrying to coordinate with Charlie
company is, um, having some of theirguys do, but there's, uh, stories

(07:43):
in this book with there's a PMAG.
So a polymer magazine that was in oneof the, uh, you know, Sergeant Lee,
he was a team leader at the time,but it was a suicide bomber who had
gone off and a ball bearing fromthe vest hanged off of this PMAG.
It's really what saved him.
And this this mag is split and itwas spewing bullets out and the other

(08:07):
team leader comes up like after youknow As he's setting in security.
He's like, hey, man, you might want tochange out your mag and he looks down.
He didn't even know Uh, so between thatand just just multiple other things.
There's one guy has a grenade spoon Youknow someone decided they wanted to huck
a freaking grenade over the wall It wasthose old russian pineapple grenades
and it still has the cyrillic on it.
So this is now somethingthat You know, we've curated

(08:32):
something across social media.
Um, we've brought thesestories out in books.
You can go see it.
I mean, not feel it, but you can seeit in person right there in the museum.
And this is stuff that guys can bring,you know, their kids and their grandkids
down and be like, this is what we wentthrough and this is why it's important,
you know, to know your background.

(08:52):
Yeah.
And to stand for something.
That's amazing.
Um, and I have to admit until I hadreally dug in with Andrew, I didn't
appreciate how difficult that fightingwas in the Argonaut, like just from
the aviator perspective, you know, wejust fly over so many areas and it's,
it's just hard to, to understand whatthat fighting was like, God, the enemy

(09:15):
there, the terrain, and I know we'llget into it in this discussion, but
the fact that there are this many bookswritten and being written about that.
Um, it feels like it's coalescing aroundthis, this one area that really was
just diabolical for folks to navigate.
Yeah.
And so there's a, there'ssome controversy there too.

(09:36):
Um, I know it kind of comes out inthe forward, uh, general Ben Hodges
came forward and wrote something that,you know, it was really, I was trying
to find people to tie to, and I hadcontacted general Petraeus actually.
And I know he kind of wasone of the first endorsers.
He, I didn't know that he alsohad that book conflict coming out.
He's like, I, I don't havethe time to write a forward,

(09:57):
you know, but I'll endorse it.
You know, I've read it.
This is a great book.
The story needs to be out there.
And he remembers us.
There's actually guys that were in WalterReed that, um, have said, you know,
he's come up to them, you know, they'vebeen somewhere and he's actually come
up to them and he knows them by name.
You know, it's just to havesomeone that has that much care

(10:18):
and concern for the troops that areunder him, that, that says a lot.
You know, and for, uh, General Hodges tocome forward and write the foreword on
there, I know the first one was, the firstone was actually very damning, uh, and I
kind of was like, I don't know if they'reready for that yet, um, because there's
other, what was controversial aboutit, what, what was so spicy about it?

(10:39):
It just it pointed a lot of fingers andit said, Hey, we went into Afghanistan
and we didn't have a plan on the way out.
There was no exit plan.
There was never an exit plan.
Um, you know, this was just a perpetualwar for the sake of having a war.
Uh, and it was, I mean, he's not, he'snot wrong in, in how he put it together
and how he, he voiced the opinion there.

(11:00):
It just was something that I feltit needed to be more focused on
the, the job that the men did.
Yeah.
Um, This puts a, especially thisparticular thing, you know, it's a lot
of the guys are out there and I knowyou've seen it with Andrew and he has
his own stories about this too, isthere, there's a lot of us still hurting
out there that surprised me most aboutthe, and that's one of the things I'm

(11:21):
very interested to hear your take onas well as we get into this is just
like the, the lasting effects of thatvalley on Andrew and the guys he knew.
Yeah, no, it's, uh, they,there was one of them.
So there's a, justthrough this whole thing.
I mean, people have been comingout of the woodwork everywhere.
There's, so if you go to thewebsite, uh, damn the valley book.

(11:42):
com, there's actually somethingcalled the wall of stories on there.
And I have everything from,you know, there was a, an EOD
guy that contacted me and, and.
He didn't know about this particularbook, and he was on that incident to where
we had our first KIA and Bravo company,and that was December 26th in 2009, the

(12:03):
day after Christmas, and we're out ona patrol and, uh, Specialist Johnston
crossing over, um, They were navigatingacross the wall with Specialist Ross.
They were trying to get onto arooftop to get overwatch, you know,
put the, put the gun in on the roof.
We were setting in the patrol.
We had been out for a little while, butit was one of those, we weren't far off of

(12:25):
where, uh, cop wear was being established.
And they had set up a, um, it was a, itwas a, It was a complex with a tow popper
that was daisy chained to a much largercharge in the wall, and he was directly
on top of that charge when it went off.
Um, and I know some people, you know,they ask, you know, why and why did

(12:45):
it happen this way, but in going backand talking to the EOD teams and the
ones that did the, uh, I guess theevaluations, I can't remember the
exact terminology and stuff for it, butgoing through and doing the assessment
of, Like that was what happened.
Yeah.
And um, if he wasn't really on righton top of that, it very possibly would

(13:06):
have taken out most of the squad.
Um, it already was a mass cow.
Uh, the size of it was just,I was directly across, but
maybe 25, 25 feet away or so.
I was the only one who wasn'tknocked over everybody else.
You know, it was just weird.
Um, But, you know, Rosswas thrown over the wall.

(13:27):
You've got Johnston alsothrown over the wall.
And it was just for a lot of people, itwas one of the worst days of their life.
And for this particular EOD guy, it was.
And here he is in Barnes Noble lookingfor a book through the military section
and he sees You know, on the, on thespine there, he sees the 82nd airborne.
He's like, I wonder, and hepicks it up and he nearly lost

(13:48):
it in the middle of the store.
He just was like, Oh my God.
You know, and he actually, he wroteabout it in a blog and I came across
it or he sent it to me and I was like,this, this should be out there, you
know, and it's through sharing thosethere's, there's Kiowa pilots that
have actually, um, There was a day towhere, uh, Lieutenant Mayfield was hit.

(14:08):
He was in a different platoon.
I think it was second platoon and oneof the Kiowa pilots sent in his, his
journal from that day, you know, asthey were offering support when the,
when they hit this IED and they actuallylanded one of them to attempt to pull
him out, um, because he had a head injuryand it was, uh, you know, he was just
Bleeding profusely from a head wound andthey're trying to get him out of there

(14:30):
before, before he loses too much blood.
Um, so, I mean, it was just somethingthat, uh, I know one of them got
in trouble for it cause there was,they did another exfil like that.
So where there was a Kiowa pilot washanging on the rails and it was actually
a female, you know, they came back.
Yeah, those pilots are just absolutelycrazy, but there's a, it's a whole legend.

(14:51):
There's like a lore behind it.
I haven't tracked everything down on it.
So, but just it was a wild west out there.
That's for sure.
Well, let's, let's, uh,we'll get into the valley.
Um, Real quick though, whatgot you into the military?
Will, like, how did you grow up?
Where did you grow up?
What the hell made you want to go andbe in a valley like that to begin with?

(15:13):
I know, right?
You, you would never think withthe, with the background there.
So I grew up in a littlesmall town up in Connecticut.
Uh, I had actually wanted tojoin the Marines right out of,
uh, right out of high school.
I had a cousin that was in the Marines.
Um, this was pre pre war.
So this was, uh, what?
2000.
And I'd done the ASVAB and stuff, and myparents kind of were like dangling this,

(15:37):
they, my uncle had been in the servicetoo, um, and there was one of her brothers
had been in Vietnam as a, as a medic,and, you know, she was just worried, you
know, as moms would, and they kind ofdangled this, this carrot out there of,
hey, you know what, go to college first,we'll pay for college, and, You know,
if you want to go in as an officer orsomething after that, we're, we're more

(15:59):
than more than willing to support that.
And I'm like, you know, okay,officer pay doesn't sound bad.
Like why not?
Let's do it.
Um, of course life has its way.
And, uh, you know, I ended up dropping outof college doing like I was racing cars.
I had, uh, started up a privateer team,so doing rally racing with Subaru.

(16:23):
So I was in a PGD classwith, uh, guys like.
What, uh, well, I'm trying tothink of the guy that was, Kenny
Barstrom was that year, TravisPastrana, Ken Block, all those guys.
Yeah, this was, uh, what,2006, I want to say?
Between 2006 and then up to 8, whichwas really the heyday of American Rally.

(16:43):
Hmm.
And, uh, You know, I was in a relationshipwith somebody that it just it fell apart.
I was heartbroken.
I let everything I justlet it all implode.
Honestly, it was probably thebest thing that ever happened.
Um, but I didn't see the writing on thewall and I started going into a spiral
and I knew I needed to hit the resetbutton and I had always felt that pull to

(17:05):
be part of something larger than myself.
And I was like, you know what,this is probably the last chance
you're going to get to do it.
You're in the middle of a war right now,but I kind of felt like it was winding
down, so I, I went in on a special forcescontract, because I'm like, they're
always in it, you know, and why not, ifyou're going to, if you're going to go
to fight, why don't you fight with someof the best, the most highly trained, and

(17:26):
um, You know, then I find myself, uh, ayear later in the ground of the Argandob,
uh, doing the same, same type of stuff.
Jeez.
All right, so just quickly then,you mentioned like coming out
of high school that you had thisinkling to go into the service.
Where did that come from?
So, there was, I mean, really,I kind of saw one of the things

(17:52):
where my cousin had come from.
He was sort of this, uh, thisbeanpole kid and everything.
And he was a little bit of therebel and whatnot, couldn't get
totally everything together.
And then I saw him, uh, afterParis Island and everything.
And I mean, he was jacked, good looking,had a good looking girlfriend at the time.

(18:13):
Uh, you know, and was justlike a stud at that point.
And I'm like, man, like thattotal transformation there.
Um, So I mean, really,there was a pull there.
You could see the leadership being exuded.
You could see that thosedisciplines and stuff.
And really, I think a lot of it justwith everything I've learned along
the way and things I've learnedabout myself is probably honestly

(18:34):
would have been the best choice.
I should have gone rightout of high school.
Um, it would have instilled a lotof Discipline that would have saved
me a lot of pain along the way.
That's for sure.
Um, and then it sounds like if youadvanced to 2006, as you were saying,
you've done all these things when you gointo service, I imagine you're the old
guy, you just being ripped on routinelyfor being, I mean, and you're only

(18:58):
what, like 26 or 24 or five at the time.
Yeah.
So 20 was.
So 20, cause I, I was 28in Afghanistan, right?
I'm just trying, I'm, you know,I'm trying to like roll it back.
And so you must, you must've just beenlike, Hey, old guy, get over here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was, if you can make it, I think thesame age as our, our CEO, you know?

(19:19):
So it was,
oh, geez.
And you said within a year, you're inthe valley, basically from signing up to.
Yeah, it's, uh, yeah, it, I mean,it was, it was fast track because
we, we came in, I came in, in March,uh, it was just after my birthday.
So it was, um, like mid to late March.

(19:41):
And then, you know, you go throughthe pipeline of, you know, we had
basic training and we had airborne.
We had some guys pulledback out of that and stuff.
They just, it was, they werejust doing paratrooper things
before they had the skill badge.
So don't get me wrong.
We were all doing stuff.
They were just the ones that got caught.
Um, but.
They went airborne school and then, uh,it was, uh, SOPC, so they dropped us off

(20:03):
with a, with a white bus off at the, uh,SF Compound stuff, and we started doing
SOPC, and I had gotten hurt during SOPC,and of course, you're hearing all this
stuff with selection, uh, and it wasOctober timeframe, and I'm like, man,
like, I, I don't know if I'm gonna beable to do the the track at the end of it.
You know, my legs really hurting So Iwent to sick call and they were like,

(20:25):
yeah, we should definitely sit thatnext one out You're gonna be ready
for the next, you know, not a problem.
Talk to the commander.
Not a problem and two weeks later,uh, the sergeant major had come
down and said there's too manymalingers, you know, and they just cut
everybody No, that was in Met Hold.
No questions asked.
There was like 400 some odd people.

(20:45):
I don't even know how they getthat many people in Met Hold.
Um, but they were breaking alot of people off at the time.
And, you know, ended up 4th Brigade.
We trained up, uh, you know, itwas, I showed up Christmas time.
It was, uh, ITC.
And then JRTC and then see you later.

(21:08):
Oh man, just mentally, how did youhandle that getting cut from, from.
I was, you know, I, I, there was somethingthat was told to me and looking back.
I can see both sides of it because I saw alot of those guys from my basic training.
There was actually quite a few ofthem that made it forward to group.

(21:29):
Uh, we got beat on.
It was almost like it was an experimental.
There was 70 or 80 people who showedup to our basic training class.
And it was like 42, but askingaround and continuing to ask around
a lot of them were 18x program.
So I'm like, are they beatingthe dog crap out of us to, you
know, weed out the herd now?
Like, I mean, it would make sense.

(21:49):
Um, but.
I, you know, that rejectionand everything else.
I was just like, you know what?
I'll come back harder.
I'll come back with more knowledge.
Uh, but one of the cadre thereStarting and uh for guys out there.
You've probably heard that name beforethis is a seventh group guy him and
uh him and were over the the the Thatpart of the schoolhouse at the time and

(22:11):
they were Their games were ridiculous.
Um There's a chapter I cut from thebook, you know, just because I'm
like, this is not a special forcesbook, but oh my God, uh, the Halloween
massacre was, that'll be somethingthat'll show up in something later on.
Can you give us likea taste of that, Will?
Uh, so, I mean, imagine here is one ofthe, Most barrel chested freedom fighter,

(22:40):
you know, hoorah type person gettingup out there, but showing up completely
obliterated, uh, and knowing that hecan't smoke us because he's drunk, but he
brought his like eight year old kid along,uh, there was a lot to just scream wrong
there, uh, from a lot of the guys and, um,It was just, I mean, he was like, we're

(23:03):
going to be out here until X amount quit.
I don't care.
We can only send this many.
And that is, I mean, all of those,uh, camp McCall games, but they're on
Fort Bragg, like rolling in the mud.
Uh, I was in med hold at the time andI'm looking out my window cause I heard
it and I was just like, oh my God.

(23:24):
Like, I know my buddies are out there.
I'm like, that has got to suck.
They're just getting smoked.
Yeah, it was just, it was purely a smokingto, to smoke to get people to drop.
Okay, well, um, you know, it justoccurs to me like the fact that
you, you know, you get med holded,then they just cut everybody.

(23:44):
And then you find yourself withina year in the Argandob, like the,
the trajectory of your life probablychanged significantly based on that
decision by that sergeant major.
Oh, for sure.
Uh, for sure.
But at the same time too, you know, that,that other one I was mentioning, you know,
and he's like, I'm, he had said, causehe was that old school guy who was, you

(24:06):
know, they wanted guys with experience.
And he, he literally said, I'm doingyou guys a favor, you know, a lot of
you guys are going across the streetto the 82nd go learn, go learn now and
come back with some knowledge underyour belt and you'll be all right, you
know, so when I showed back up, therewas actually a cadre there that had been
there and he recognized me and is like,Hey, you know, it took a while, but how

(24:27):
you been, I'm just like, well, that wasfun, you know, and he, we talked to a few
and he's like, well, glad you're here.
So it sounds like you had a goodattitude for it, which is awesome.
Um, if we talk then about you gettingready to go downrange, like a lot of
these guys, had they already been inthe unit together before you arrived?
Are you kind of the new guy?

(24:48):
Definitely new guy, butthere was a, there was a mix.
I was kind of given when I showed up,they had said, you know, Hey, we're
You're in shape who's going to rangerschool like the 82nd normally does and
I was sort of in between going to rangerschool with one of the other guys, but
he had been there for a while or stayingfor ITC and you know, whatever else

(25:09):
might may and I was I opted to stay justto be able to train up with those guys.
I'm honestly glad that I did, uh,because when we got overseas, you know,
it was to the point of we had trainedso much and been pushed so hard by, you
know, the command team, which was, um.
Yeah.
Lieutenant Colonel Genio andCommand Sergeant Major Puckett.
I mean, they really, they pushed usout, but they knew what we needed.

(25:32):
They knew that it was goingto be tough out there.
Um, so it was really good that whenthose tough times came, that we had
the experience that we had in, in ITC.
And I mean, it was, it was cold, youknow, there was guys that, uh, we had
one guy go down from, from hypothermia.
It was, uh, it was so chilly and you'rethinking North Carolina, but, uh, Then
you find yourself in the Argandab, youknow, shivering, burning cow manure to

(25:55):
try and stay warm, uh, in one of thelittle compounds, you know, as we were
infilling into the Argandab, and itwas like, hey, you're staying here for
three days now that we, we have a spot.
This is where we're building it.
You know, like, okay, where's resupply?
We only came in with assault packsthat, you know, two MREs a piece.
Well, we'll get here when it gets here.
And when, yeah, when guys are pullingradishes out of the ground, cause

(26:18):
you're in a radish field is where weestablished the, uh, the outpost, we're
pulling radishes out of the ground, just.
Gnawing off pieces of them.
You start to start to wonder like,what, uh, what's going on here?
Oh my gosh.
All right.
So we, we have an idea, obviouslyfrom listening to Andrew and then
what we're about to hear fromyou, how bad the Argandob is, is

(26:40):
you're getting ready to go in.
What are they, what's your impressionof this valley, your AO, what is
the command team telling you abouthow hard this is going to be?
So really, you have to, you haveto back up because my book doesn't
just go straight into the Argandab.
It kind of follows the journey of,you know, that talks about, Hey, this
is, this is the journey of somebodyjoining up lower enlisted straight

(27:03):
from the bottom and ends up in war.
So, I mean, I kind of talk about the basictraining and jump school just briefly, uh,
but we started out in Helmand province.
So when we showed up to Afghanistan, itwas, Direct cut like executive orders
from President Obama that was we wereactually slated for Iraq, you know And
that's really what the type of fight thatwe had trained for it was door to door

(27:26):
door kicking like clearing out and thenit was Like hey, you're going out there
to do a training of advise and assist.
Wait a minute What so we ended up inHelmand province, you know a bunch of
Hungry paratroopers waiting for action,uh, and we were thinking Lashkar Gah,
they were trying to get us into theshaping operations for Marjah, and the

(27:47):
Brits didn't want us there, the Marinesdidn't want us there, so we ended up
up and down Highway 1, or not, I'm notsure if it's Highway 1, but it's one
of the highways out there, and I justsaid Highway 1, I don't even know why,
but um, It's often highway one, right?
Like maybe it was actually,I talked to Vietnam vets.
They got their highway one.
Like there's always one of those, butwe're, we're going up and down the

(28:10):
highway, you know, and it's like, youjust clear every other culvert because
there's definitely an IED and everysingle one of them, uh, we had gotten
into a small tick, uh, which actuallycoincided with the release of the book.
You know, the book came out in Halloweenand that was our first, I did that
intentionally, you know, it was.
Uh, that was our first firefightwas on Halloween back in 2009.

(28:33):
To talk us to it.
Will, this is like your firsttime in combat or like this is
your first engagement, right?
First engagement.
Yep.
Talk first.
Ever tell.
And we are, so we're, we're in a vehiclepatrol, you know, so we're mounted and
there's a, one of the M wraps up frontis cougar and we're trailing behind.

(28:53):
Uh, I'm with the lt, RTO, uh,we're in a Humvee and we've got,
we're all dual mounted out there.
Uh, so we had a mark 19and a, and a two 40 up top.
And I'm driving and.
Upfront.
You know, you kind of see the gunnerduck down a little bit and then our
gunner starts saying, Hey, well, we'rein contact, you know, and you're just

(29:16):
starting to hear the zips and thepops, uh, and everything stopped, you
know, burp, truck stops in front of us.
We stop trying to gauge the situation.
These two Afghan police officers,you see their, their little
high lux or their little rangercrashed off into this little side.

(29:38):
Part of here.
They just, they got ambushed.
It was this, uh, they took off from us.
They went off ahead.
They got ambushed.
It was really meant for them.
Easy pickings, you know, twoguys in a truck, light skin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, and they, what?
There was a, it was a squad based.
I was like 14 guys with a support by fire.
So they had a PKM and RPGs.
Yeah.
Out of a wood line.

(29:58):
And we're good.
We're here and I'm like, all right,so we got this Mark 19 on our truck,
but we're stuck to this villagesin our way and we're hearing stuff.
So I'm like, Hey, you know, I look over,Hey, sir, like we got to get around.
We need to get our gun into the fight.
And he's like, just don't get us killed.
Um,
that's a goes without saying, sir.

(30:19):
But famous last words, got it.
Okay.
You yell up to the gunner becauseyou're coming around the truck.
I know he was, uh, one of the kidsthat was from the 173rd and he had some
experience, but He's still, you know,Hey, we're moving, don't hit the truck
because we're coming around the backsideof this MRAP and we're on a raised road.
And as we're crossing around, I'mlooking at the truck and the gunner

(30:41):
from the other truck, uh, specialistBrett Cannon, he grabs, you know,
he jumps up into the turret.
So one of the scouts from underneathhad grown the, um, M249 SAW up to him.
He couldn't, they were so close,he couldn't traverse the 50.
You know, or the 240 down on the guys.

(31:01):
Yeah, we were on a raised road andhe jumps into the turret and just
like smokes two guys right there.
You know, I'm just like, whoa, like thisis real, you know, and we come around
the front of the truck and here I am justtrying to In my head, it's, you know,
just because all this stuff, hey, stay inyour lane, you're with the truck, watch

(31:22):
for RPG trails, watch to see if you gotmuzzle flashes and stuff where you could
call it up to the gunner, like, look atthe radio and ask them, you know, hey,
like, stay, stay listening, like, here'sall these things popping off at once, but
like, slow down and, and think through it.
Don't, don't get crazy.
Don't start yelling.
You already have enough peopleyelling in the truck right now.

(31:43):
Stay in your lane.
And I mean, it just endedup to where we came around.
He started dumping Mark19 into the wood line.
Uh, and then the, the second I hadthrown a box up to him and it ended
up to either where someone, he eitherfumbled it or whoever had loaded those
boxes of, uh, you know, the 40 Mike,Mike, and that's in there, which is,

(32:06):
uh, you know, High explosive grenaderounds that goes into the Mark 19.
So it's just chucking them out there.
They have loaded it upsidedown with the links.
Wrong side up and he chunk,you know, and it's got nothing.
So he moved to the two 40 and cause he'sscreaming, I can't get it up, you know,
and there's your, your largest casualtyproducing weapon and what we needed.
But I guess we had pounded the wood lineenough to where the two 40 did its job.

(32:31):
You know, I was just.
Looking from the truck stand onthe radio, hearing what's going on.
We had dismounts come out.
So we essentially had used the trucksfor a support by fire dismounts
came around and cleared through.
And, uh, you know, I just started waitingfor the casualty count to come in.
You know, you're like, all right,like that was a pretty good tick, but.

(32:53):
Somebody's got to be hit.
And crazy enough, nobody, you know, itwas, there was one guy had a, uh, bullet
hole in the, the, so Sergeant Anderson hada right in the pocket of his armpit, which
is weird because it was, you know, thisis how he was and it's right through here.
Like that, the smallest, anysmall deviation from there.

(33:13):
And he would have been, youknow, it could have been right
in here to where, you know, popsaround in your, in your rib cage.
Uh, you know, I've seen it happen.
Yeah.
Um, that and, uh, one guy had a, hadsomething skip off his helmet, you know,
so it's, yeah, you know, we even had a,our medic out there was, uh, he saved
one of the, one of the enemy, you know,he had one of the, he didn't even want

(33:36):
to, you know, he's like, sure, tryingto kill us, you know, and he's like,
hey, save him, we're doing a battlefieldinterrogation after, yeah, Roger, yes,
and, um, You know, we bring him backand then toss him off at last, but it
was just like the weirdest experiencebecause we were coming back from, you
know, extended patrol that was out there.
We were just wanting to get home.

(33:56):
This whole thing pops off, but thenwithin, I mean, it was really within
like three hours after that, our platoonsergeant had had it and we just, we threw
three bodies or so into some bags, youknow, after we took pictures and we tossed
them in the trunk and the next Afghancheckpoint, he was like, Bro, I'm at the
doorstep and we just, we hucked them out.

(34:17):
Waved and onto Lashkar gone.
We were, uh, since it was Halloween,they had a little Halloween celebration
and one of our guys, uh, specialistCulp and, and Sergeant Kornegay dressed
up like pirates, uh, with some stuffthey fashions, you know, Culp was
the, the female persuasion and, uh,the other one was, Who knows what?
And they were just a bunch ofscallywags jerking around the fire

(34:41):
and eating burgers with the British.
No shit.
Um, you know, it's funny the way youmentioned like, Hey, you guys were
coming back from an extended patrol.
And I think this is definitely somethingyou can't appreciate until you've.
Been in combat, maybe where, you know,you watch a movie and it's, you know,
some tick kicks off and everybody'slike on it and they're ready, but

(35:03):
it really depends where you're atin your day or week or whatever.
And like, you're just comingback from something else that
happened or you're bored out ofyour mind and you're complacent.
You just want to get home and get a mealin like, yeah, you want to get back for
the Halloween party or whatever it is.
Yeah.
There's something to that where youhave to switch it on and really.
Focus as you were saying, like,Hey, just stay in the moment.

(35:25):
I, my role is to drive,set up sport by fire.
Look for RPG trails.
Like that's not just a naturalinclination for anybody.
And it, it did actually have a placein the Argendable later because how
that happened and how that went down,like, you know, we're pulling apart
here just so suddenly, you alwaysthought in the back of your head,

(35:45):
like, don't, don't let your guard down.
That's that.
And that's how Bravo company was.
We were wound really tight.
You know, the, uh, I mean, it was, youknow, regiment type type, you know,
you just, you knew, I mean, Bravocompany, you could not mess around,
uh, or you'd get booted, but everybodywanted to be part of Bravo company.

(36:07):
Um, but I know that, you know, in talkingwith the other guys and stuff, uh, with
talking with Andrew, um, About anything,because Charlie company had that same
thing, you know, Charlie was the best,you know, and probably was the best, but
that falls under that mentality of if youdon't train your guys up to think that
way, you know, what are they thinkingthen if you're going into a firefight,

(36:28):
you know, if you're in Charlie, man, Iwish I was with Bravo, those guys would,
uh, you know, really wrecked house.
You really have to have faith in yourguys and that you trained up to be the
best, you know, and essentially as you.
Go in there or if we can kick thatdoor and you better be the best
because if you're not, um, there'sa lot weighing in the balance there.
How did it feel that night asyou're sitting around the campfire

(36:48):
like this is your first timein an environment like that?
The highest of highs.
I mean, you have, when you startbreaking it down and realizing what
really just happened, you know, thatyou could have been those guys that
were lying on the, on the pavementout there getting pictures taken of.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, and this is not meaning inthe way of like pictures to where it's

(37:10):
something derogatory, these were all,you know, pictures being taken to be sent
forward, um, for other agencies and stuffto go through, but that could have been,
that could have been you, you know, and,and here you are to live another day,
um, but you're in a country to where,you know, that just made it very real,
you know, there are people out therethat are ready, willing to go after you.

(37:35):
And then, obviously, you go fromthere, you're doing this highway
patrol, people don't want you, and thenthey send you to the Argonaub, like,
what's, what's that discussion likewith leadership when they send you in?
So, they, we didn't see a lot ofeverything, you know, and this is how
I kind of kept the book, too, to try tokeep it from, uh, the lower enlisted's

(37:55):
perspective during a lot of it.
But, in, in doing all ofthis and learning a lot.
So, Lieutenant Colonel Genio had, youknow, he was with, uh, McChrystal at
one point, so with General McChrystal,and he was the ISAF commander at the
time, and again, that's where he'slike, hey, I just have a bunch of hungry
paratroopers that are going up and downthis highway on a training mission,

(38:17):
like, this is not what they need to beused for, like, what do you have, um,
That's when we were handed the Argen.
Do you know, that's, uh, one 17 wasthere, they had already been, you
know, labeled as combat ineffective.
They hadn't left the wire, I guess,in a month by the time we showed up.
Um, so we set out to refit at, uh, FWalton and I was on that initial push

(38:40):
in, so we took a, a Chinook over thereand did a, did a side-by-side patrol.
And going down, like seeing them atwhat became the OCD or OCCD, they,
there's so many different terms toit, but a lot of the guys that were
there know what I'm talking about.
You could just tell, you know, thelook on the one 17 guys faces and.

(39:02):
You know, how they presented themselves,how they looked, you could just tell
that they had been through hell, youknow, and getting anywhere within the
valley just to go down, uh, to wherewe started actually being able to
get into the village, um, you know,they were, it was very deliberate.
It was very slow, right?

(39:24):
What's going on here?
You know, why?
I mean, it was we, it wasn't very longbefore we were there that we found
out, you know, and it was just, itwas just that we knew better than to
go anywhere in that valley mounted.
Which I, that was probably the bestdecision that was ever made, you
know, it was all breaking up into, uh,you know, what light infantry does,

(39:46):
which is usually a very heavy loadon one's back for a very long time.
Yeah.
The irony of that term, huh?
Right.
So what's, what's your unit'smission going into that part of
the Argonaum, like, as you set out?
I mean, everything that we were toldis just, hey, we're going to, we're
going in, denying enemy movement, um,you know, assisting the, the local

(40:10):
populace, uh, who's being harassed.
And.
Really, it was a question of who'sharassing who, you know, when
you have strikers with search anddestroy painted on the side and,
you know, a lot of the other, theywere very aggressive, the tactics.
I know there's that kind of stems insome of the controversy and stuff.
I know, uh, there's a actuallytalking, I brought it up to my

(40:34):
editor at casemate, but there's a.
Canadian, uh, professor at the War Collegeat the Canadian War College out there, and
he had written a three book series aboutthe Argandum, and they wouldn't publish
it like so as normal, he would normallypublish to the college, they would not
publish it, uh, due to some of the namesand some of the things that were mentioned

(40:54):
there, you know, Canadian General Menard.
I know there was, um, General Nick Carter.
There's a just a whole lot of Stuffthat was pulled apart in there and
they're like, no, but, um, with talkingwith some of the editors, the casemate
and reaching out and stuff, there'sword that those are coming in actual

(41:15):
book form instead of just a PDF now.
So I think it's, this is cracking,you know, and this is really
about to start unfurling in frontof people just for what it was.
Um, could you take us to a coupleof the harder moments that you guys
saw in the Argandob and just like.
I don't know the ones you thinkback on the ones that really impact

(41:35):
people may have been tough to writeabout even I can only imagine how
hard it was to write this book.
Yeah, I mean, the, the main ones youhave there, um, probably the worst,
I mean, it was probably three, threedays worth of incidents, just one after
another, was really kicked off with, uh,with a private, private vets, and we're

(41:58):
coming back from, you know, an extendedpatrol, uh, out at, uh, I think we were
at Antenna Checkpoint, but we were inand out of the town of uh, Diakashe.
And there's always, there was always,it kind of seemed to be the epicenter.
That's where you know,Sergeant Thomas was hit.
That's where, um, you know,anytime we went into Diakashe,

(42:19):
you know, we started, um, startedexperiencing one thing or another.
It was they, and what they haddone is there was a, an IED belt.
Around, you know, it was really, itreally was the epicenter and that's
where, you know, the cover pictureand stuff comes from is, um, that
was actually in that town where theyestablished a, uh, you know, cop
Brunkhorst this particular, I guess this,this particular, um, there was a bunch

(42:46):
of incidents, you know, within thesethree days, it was kicked off with bets.
We're coming back during the nightand just walking back to cop Johnson
following, following through and.
There's a muffled boom, you know,it was two people in front of me and
this kid goes down yelling, screaming,holding his leg, you know, me and doc

(43:08):
run up and, uh, it was a toe popperthat was buried too deep in the ground.
So it shattered hisankle, um, did some other.
You know, I'm just small stuff, butyeah, I guess he had some shrapnel
that came up and hit him in the innerthigh and he's screaming about his,
uh, his ball sack and, um, you know,doc, I come over and I'm like, doc, you

(43:30):
know, what's, what's going on with him?
What's up?
I got to send up the call,you know, for the bird.
And he's like, everything'sstill here, what?
And it went from this moment of, you know,high concern to like, hey, shut up, man.
Like you're going toget us killed out here.
You're giving away our position.
Uh, you know, so we kind of beratedhim a little bit and I make the
call and the bird comes in and weload him up and the bird takes off.

(43:55):
And, uh, one of the other, sincewe had been out for a while,
They had to do battle drillassessment on what had happened.
So the platoon sergeantgets a squad together.
They roll out and take over ourposition and we go back to cop Johnston.
Well, as the sun's coming up in themorning, they start looking around
them and they realize like they'reliterally in the middle of a battle.

(44:17):
of a freaking minefield.
There's just flags everywhere.
They're seeing tripwire stuff.
It's just like, holy heck, howdid they land the freaking bird
in here and not just disappear?
You know, and how do you clear an HLZ?
You know, myself and the, um, Oh, privateMartinick, he was, uh, he was on the.

(44:37):
One of the fisters that was with us,you know, we did a zigzag pattern
if we had done the zigzag patternanywhere else, it would have been toast.
Uh, so just a lot of thingsthat came together for us there.
Um, But sun's coming up.
There's a, there's an EOD coming withthe commander from another location.
I know this gets, it getstricky in the book too.

(44:59):
There's a lot of fog of war here andthere's a patrol that's going to meet one
of the, the, one of the teams is goingto push out, meet the patrol, bring them
in to where they are and start pullingapart, you know, pulling apart the mines,
getting everything marked, getting,you know, figuring out what happened
the night before, um, and certainly.

(45:20):
Crossing over and he grabs the minehoundfrom the kid that was doing it.
He's like, you're not moving fastenough, you know, and he goes to
cross across the, uh, the canal.
There was a little spot to where it was.
It was small enough to where hecould cross who's thinking of an I.
D.
In the water.
Well, they had figured it out,you know, and they had wrapped it.
Um, what ended up saving him wasthe fact that yeah, It wasn't

(45:44):
they hadn't mastered it yet.
So the charge didn't fully go off So alot of the same thing what happened with
that kid the night before the chargepartially went off broke his ankle um And
here he is kind of, you know down in thisin this little wadi um rolling around
in a creek bed and You know, and thenit's just the the patrol that's coming

(46:08):
to them with eod uh specials eddingerYou know, boom, that one went off.
Uh, another one.
So you got another one instantly leggone, you know, and it's just one after
another, after another, and right.
I can't remember exactly.
Cause as we were pulling apart thistimeline, this is where it kind

(46:28):
of, there's two trains of thoughtshere, but as this is happening.
A huge charge goes off that other patrolthat was moving with the commander
that continued on to diakash a um theBomb team there had set up a false
false id site or false bomb site towhere it looked like Hey, this is

(46:52):
where they have been watching our ttps.
They have been watching how eod wasutilized and Instead of the team going to
check it out Sauron Brunkhorst was thereand he goes to move in the same type of
pattern that they did and hits the realcharge and just completely disappears
to where they had to call a dust one.
They could not find, um,Sauron Brunkhorst's body.

(47:15):
You know, I think what ultimately whatthey found was a rib cage and side plates.
And so, so Will, are you saying that, thatthe enemy had set up almost like a fake?
Area that that would lure us in to goin and excavate almost the the mines and
then knowing the path that we would taketo go in put a massive one in that route.

(47:39):
Yes.
Yeah, they they were I mean reallymasters of human psychology It wasn't
like it wasn't that the charges oranything were anything too complex It
was the fact that they they really knewhow humans moved how they thought Uh,
we would come across stuff and it wasn'tuntil you started getting that mindset.

(47:59):
Um, Like have you ever seen morehunters and stuff will kind of?
Cut the brush away to create a lightpath to sort of have like a deer move to
the side of somewhere It was like that.
Wow.
Oh, yeah, they they were justthey were on it That is right.
And at this point, there's no gunfire.

(48:20):
This is just
Small isolated incidents, um, like,like I was saying, we had one to where
someone chucked a grenade over the wallat us and we just went full on in it.
Uh, we came across the bomb teamthat was, um, well, actually
it was a suicide bomb team.
They were shaving, uh, uh, Shavingone of the guys out in the orchard and

(48:41):
getting ready to put a vest on them.
And we found, uh, I think it waslike 40 some odd initiators or, you
know, in that, uh, in that orchard.
They had stuffed it into ahole in the tree, you know?
So, I mean, it was like, they havelittle caches everywhere and stuff.
So, it wasn't, you wouldn't get intoa gunfight in our AO unless you came
across them in the middle of something.
They wouldn't attack us directlybecause of just, just how tight we were.

(49:02):
We never gave them.
We never gave them that.
We never gave them enough slack.
I'm thinking just in this three dayperiod you're talking about that starts
with bets, like at this point you'redescribing bets gets hit in the night.
The next day you've gotthis sequence of IEDs.
You like, there's no enemy contactin that period of time, right?
This is just IEDs you're wrestling with.

(49:23):
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, our, our battalion, uh,actually our battalion commander,
so he flew out, um, Colonel Jones.
So during, this was another part of thecontroversy in there is our, our command
team got, you know, um, they got removed.

(49:44):
They got removed.
Like replaced?
Yes, they got replaced.
Wow.
Um, back in, it was right afterSpecialist Johnson was hit.
So they got replaced backin December, early January.
I had gone on leave, uh, like right after.
It was, it, that was one of the weirdestthings actually is, you know, here
I am on a patrol with Johnston, thishappens, and within two or three days,

(50:07):
I rotate out for my, um, mid tour.
You know, and it's the guys thatwere coming back from mid tour
that were taking, they're waitingon the next bird into the valley
so they could be dropped off.
Um, that was when, you know, the incidentwith Johnston happened and they're,
they're running to roll three down in,in calf to find out, you know, they,
there was, we had more than just Johnstonhitting that, um, the one that hit the

(50:31):
initiator, the toe popper, uh, privateTowery, he's down at roll three and
they're asking him, you know, hey, whathappened, you know, what's going on, who
was hit, like what happened out there?
Um, You know, so for them to comeback to that too, you know, they left
during either Helmand or Walton andthen all of a sudden it's like, whoa,

(50:51):
we're coming back to this new AO andwe've already experienced casualties.
So to be on that high and then thatextreme low, especially the day after
Christmas, you know, and here I am goingout, you know, it takes about a month.
And as I'm coming back, there's a,there's a whole new, uh, I think it
was Command Sergeant Major Sturtevantwas, uh, On the plane ride back there,

(51:13):
you know, and there was all talk of thecommand team being replaced and stuff
and I'm like, wait, what, you know, andhere's when it all starts to hit, you
know, and to me, it doesn't mean muchbecause I'm just the kid on the ground.
You know, I'm uh, just either aprivate or a specialist at the time.
Um, and all I want to do is, you know,get back there, find out what the
heck's happened since I've been gone.

(51:34):
still there.
Um, yeah, it was, uh, itwas interesting for sure.
How was your midtour leave coming offof the, like, day after Christmas event?
I had a little bit of timeto decompress in Kuwait.
Um, not much, you know, and it was lonely,you know, I mean, really, I, I Kind of

(52:01):
kind of isolated on there, you know, andgoing back home saw family and they're
like, you know, how is it over there?
I'm like, well just came back fromthis, you know, and I could I could
talk about it and they were all justlike You know wide eyed like holy crap.
Yeah, that's heavy.
That's heavy to go back and knowingyou're going back down to that place

(52:24):
I didn't have an issue with that.
Matter of fact, I I I knew I onlyhad two weeks, so it was like a,
a, spend a week with the family.
And then I went up snowboarding fora week and I'm like, you know, I'm
just going to blow a bunch of moneyat this ski resort and have fun.
Cause who knows?
Yeah.
Uh, I missed my connection flight.

(52:45):
In Atlanta, you know, so I had an extra,yeah, you know, I'm glad it came down
to where it was close and I'm like, youknow, an extra day out here, uh, I'll just
slowly walk to the gate because I onlyhave like an hour, um, you know, so they
put me up, the USO put me up and the nextday, you know, I ended up, uh, I ended up
in the international terminal, and I wentto the sushi place that was there, and the

(53:09):
craziest thing is, is, um, somebody paidfor my meal, you know, and I went over
to say hi, and he introduced himself, andit was, uh, it's like Colonel Grossman.
I had no idea.
No way.
I had no idea, you know, who it wasor who I was talking to, you know,
but then coming back and I say,yeah, some guy paid for my meal,

(53:32):
you know, a Colonel Grossman and theguys were like, are you kidding me?
He had actually spoken to,uh, Bravo Company 2508.
Before they had left.
I don't know if it was before they lefton the previous one But he had spoken
to our particular unit and our guyswere like you dumbass How awesome though
that he did that that's great that hedid that, you know Small token cool.

(53:54):
Damn.
All right.
So will you go back?
Um, Yeah, please take us throughsomething else that goes, goes
on down range in that fight.
I mean, I know from, from the book, youguys sustained 50 percent casualties.
I think that was, uh, I thinkit was actually somewhere.
I always said 52 in the interviews, butthen one of the guys like pulled me aside

(54:16):
and say, I think it's either 54 or 56.
Like, it's just, I know it was over.
So, I mean, you take half of peopleand you say, you know, What's an
infantry company to roughly 200 people?
And you're like, Hey, a hundredof you guys are coming back.
Very different.
Um, some aren't coming back at all,but every single one of you is going
to be affected in one way or another.

(54:38):
What was your closest call?
Um, my closest, honestly, that wouldprobably be, I mean, if you wanted
to pull it apart and everything,um, from what I could see, probably
the one that Johnston was in, I hadstepped right over that particular
initiator, maybe 20 seconds prior.
You know, I had just set up thelong whip and was calling in our

(55:00):
next frontline tracer, our nextposition, uh, when it went off.
Um, And, you know, it's just that wehad gone over it with the, with the
minehound, you know, he had, he hadkind of followed the lead team in.
I was in the middle of thestack, uh, followed them in.
And so it's rear team coming in as I'msetting all this up and that goes off.

(55:21):
But I mean, you have, uh, You alsohave the suicide bomber with, um,
with Sergeant Thomas, you know,we talked about it briefly before,
but we're going into to do a KLE.
So a keelier engagement withthe village elder out there.
Really I don't even know if itwas the village elder, it was just
some like ridiculously old guy.

(55:41):
Um.
Yeah.
Um.
Who were coming through the area and, uh,you know, we bring the interpreter up and
they wave to him, you know, the LT andstuff and the guy spoke perfect English,
like, I mean, like, so he had actually,um, studied at Oxford in England.
Wow.
Yeah.
And, you know, why are you here, youknow, to be back in Afghanistan and

(56:06):
I'll totally, you know, at this point,I kind of question, you know, I'd
love to know everything behind it.
Maybe, maybe one day.
Well, I don't know.
You know, that's for, but, um,we're, we're in there in this little
humble compound to where there'sa, you know, Russian missile, like
I'm not kidding, like sickle andeverything leaning against the wall.

(56:28):
And the LT is like, youwant us to get rid of that?
You know, it's been there forever.
It's not going to go off.
It's okay.
And we're there for maybe five minutesand they're at a T intersection and
Sergeant Thomas has the squad blockingoff this T intersection to just kind
of monitor who's coming through town.

(56:48):
And, um, one
of the positions, Where, uh, PrivateFlake was, he's on a machine gun, and
there's an Afghan police officer with him.
Somebody kind of comes up, and he'slike, something's wrong here, this,
this guy is, something's not right.

(57:09):
You know, something doesn't look rightabout this guy, he looks nervous,
he's kind of shuffling towards us.
And he yells at him, the guy keeps coming,he yells again, and as he's yelling
again, the Afghan, uh, police officerthere kind of bring, draws down on him.
And the guy puts his hands up.
And goes to his knees and just explodes.

(57:34):
Uh, he had taped the initiatorsto his knees and he had a vest on
full of ball bearings and nails andeverything else you could imagine.
And crazy enough, Flake being, youknow, maybe between 20, feet from him,
nothing, not a scratch, but the squadleader, maybe another, I don't know, 20

(58:01):
meters back, you know, Sergeant Thomasgot a ball bearing that just obliterated,
went right through his body armor.
Um, just through and through.
Are you serious?
What's that?
It hit a guy like Behindthe the closer person.
Geez.
Yeah.
I don't know if maybelike spall or something.

(58:22):
It just you know, because I mean you'reIt's just like they're they make all
this homemade stuff And I I know therecollection from flake is just he's
like I just see a rib cage flying myway through the air Um to see someone
disappear like that, you know, and whenI get you know so this thing goes off
and we're inside the compound in this kleand it's like You Whoa, like we flow out

(58:49):
to find out what's going on out there.
And.
You know, the medic is with, uh, withSergeant Thomas who this ball bearings
through collapses, collapses lung.
So he's out there trying toneedle decompress his chest.
Uh, and then behind him, SpecialistRoss was on a 240 position and
he's kind of, kind of sitting therelike, you know, nursing whatever.

(59:13):
And I'm like, what's going on, man?
And he, I, it almostseparated his shoulder.
So he had another, uh, pieceof something paying off.
Yeah.
And cut right through and they werelike, uh, the guys at Walter Reed
were just like, if it had been anydifferent to their, your arm would
have just busted right off, youknow, any, any small variation there.
Um, you know, so, I mean, he washit, uh, that's when, that's when

(59:36):
he kind of left us, but it's justincident after incident to where.
And we, that's, that's the one time thatwe didn't have, um, Pedro on station.
So a lot of what we had wascombat search and rescue.
So Pedro with, uh, with the airforce was PJs are awesome, man.

(59:58):
But this one particular timethey sent out regular army.
I mean, it took him like 45 minutes.
They doc really, I mean, he, hesaved Sergeant Thomas for sure.
I mean, he ended up.
re needle decompressions.
Uh, and from what I understand, theguy flatlined on the bird on the way
to calf and they brought him back.
Um, so yeah, just an, an overallhorrible, horrible place to be in.

(01:00:26):
What was the tough question, but whatwas the most kind of courageous or
bravest thing that you saw there?
There was so many of them.
Holy crap.
I mean, like that incident alone, youknow, the, one of the, so one of the
local nationals, our interpreter Gucci waswith us, you know, he, it's a good name.
Yeah.
I don't know what the whole deal is withthe Italian fashion houses, but we had

(01:00:49):
a Gucci and Armani, um, It was Johnny.
Is it because they wore all the gear?
Like, did they have likeknockoff Gucci stuff or what?
No, I don't know why you just,you know, and he was just
an overall good guy though.
Uh, we had him, I think he was acommander's interpreter when we were
in Helmand and he had switched outat one point, but he had trained up

(01:01:12):
with the, he had been attached witha, with an ODA at one point, you know?
So, I mean, we were, We kind of trustedhim tactically to, um, he knew to a point,
you know, what to do, what not to do.
He definitely knew how to handle a weapon.
We ended up tossing him the, uh, Iknow you're not supposed to, but we
ended up tossing him the Afghan policeofficer's weapon, you know, cause

(01:01:32):
as all this is going down, peopleare popping their heads out in DK.
Everyone is at, you know, level,level 10, you know, they're here.
Here he is rolling around, you know,sticking the AK in their face and
like, get back inside, you know,we're just like, go to work, man.
I hear that a lot actually, uh, uh, youknow, the more folks I've interviewed,

(01:01:54):
like they'll say we had this interpreter.
He was a great guy.
We trusted him.
We gave him a weapon.
We weren't supposed to, but youjust build that level of trust,
but I mean, really anyone wholeft that wire, um, just due to,
due to what, everything that had happenedout there and, and how it was, There were

(01:02:17):
some people, you know, there was a, andthis didn't make it into the book at one
point, but there were some people, we hada cook attached to us and you know, he
was, he was, he doesn't even leave thewire and he's talking about creating a
wound on himself as he's cooking the mealsjust so we can get out of there and he's
like, it's only a matter of time till weget overrun and like this and it's just

(01:02:38):
like, what, like, you gotta be kidding me.
So you're going to slice a finger offso you can leave like, that's sad.
Yeah.
There's another guy ended up, um, youknow, a weapons malfunction when he
was at home, you know, up shootinghimself in the leg at home, like in
the States or in his room on mid tour.

(01:02:59):
Yeah.
One on mid tour didn't even come back.
Um, but I mean, that's,that's a level of what it was.
The.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The courage for the guys thatactually you would hear it, you
know, and I put it in a chapter too.
Um, I did, I wasn't even aware of it.
You know, I was so busy as an RTO tryingto keep comms up and then the amount

(01:03:19):
of patrols I had to be on, uh, becauseyou always had to have communication.
You always had to be there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I was on so many of 'em.
We started, towards the end, westarted flipping off with, uh,
myself and the, and the fister.
Um, because it was, uh.
I mean, Manning was a problem.
At one point, we were down to 28 guysand still having to do a patrol, still

(01:03:40):
having four towers to man and an ECP.
You know, it just becamealmost impossible.
Um, but the guys that could facethat, you know, was, that takes
someone special to do that.
You know, either that or downright crazy.
What, um, for you, uh, You know, writinga book I think in general is hard, but

(01:04:05):
something like this close to home andpeople that you served with, what was the
hardest part about writing this for you?
Honestly, the hardest, the hardestpart Was wanting to get it right
and make sure that it was right.
And it was something that was goingto be, that the guys could hold to
their, you know, it, it wasn't aboutme and, you know, and it really
hasn't been the whole way along.

(01:04:25):
Um, that's been something that's beenrewarding to see, you know, and, and
help foster that with the other guys.
You know, I know me and Andrewhad talked, uh, along the way
as well and ended up making someintroductions and stuff and ended up
under the case, my umbrella as well.
Um, But helping guys go through that andface that again, because a lot of the

(01:04:47):
people that we would talk to be like, Ohman, like we're going to put this down
on paper, like, you know, and havingthem bring that feedback back and say
to, like, I'm getting the smells of thevalley coming through as I'm reading
this stuff and proofreading it and Ithink you sure you want to do this,
but at the same time, like afterwards,everybody's kind of looked at it and

(01:05:10):
it's been a way for them to improve.
Yeah.
Unpackage the trauma.
I know for me, I'd always been ableto talk about it, But I never really
faced all of it until I slowed downenough to write a book about it Um,
it wasn't it was challenging to writeit But it wasn't as challenging as you
think because it really came from here.
So in bringing those stories forwardAnd unpackaging and and probably like

(01:05:34):
some of this i'm i've got tears justrolling down my face as i'm writing
these have to imagine that yeah, butknowing that You have to go through that
those emotions are going to transferover to the pages and there's some stuff
that I wrote in there that I honestto God completely forget about from
time to time just because like it's

(01:05:56):
my it's almost like mymind's like okay with it.
They're like, you know what?
I'm at peace now.
You've gone through that andyou've sort of seen it from
all these different angles.
You understand it.
And it's okay to just let that go.
So I think that's been the mosttherapeutic part for a lot of the guys.
And it's good to go back and tell thesestories with one another, because it's,

(01:06:18):
we grow through facing hard things, youknow, and that I can't think of much
harder than what we experienced out there.
And, you know, if you have someonethat's done that, they've been forged.
It's not, you know, where alot of people PTSD or they're
broken, the broken veteran.
I hate, I hate that stereotype thatthey put out there because we're not.
You know, and even the ones that are stillhaving a tough time and maybe it's, you

(01:06:43):
know, that day to day battle to get upand roll out of bed is tougher for them.
They just don't realize it yet.
They have people that care andthey've been through something tough.
Doesn't have to knock you down for good.
You know, to that point, Andrew hadmentioned as he was reconnecting with
a lot of these guys he had served with,like the Valley, as he put it, you
know, is just still there and really,you know, I talked to a lot of vets.

(01:07:07):
You know, I've, I've heard a lot ofstories and not everybody carries that
maybe like a negative weight the way thatAndrew might have been describing some of
it, um, that, that it really is this placethey don't want to think about again.
They don't want to go back to.
It really has altered the course oftheir life in, in a pretty dramatic way.
Did you also notice that asyou were talking to guys.

(01:07:30):
With some of them, yeah, there's a few ofthem that I couldn't get in touch with,
um, to where I've tried to, or tried to atleast figure out where they're at in life.
And they're like, man, that, that guyhas gone off the reservation, we can't
find him, he doesn't talk to anybody.
We know he's still around becausehe still pops up here and there.
You know, but um, i'm hoping that'sone day, you know, it's uh, he either

(01:07:54):
comes around, you know, or he findspeace in his own way Yeah, I love that.
Well, damn.
Well, this has been awesome.
Um, I got a couple questions.
I ask everybody Just two quick questionsat the end One is is there anything
that you carried with you when you weredownrange that had sentimental value?
Good luck charm or something thatsomebody gave you that you just wanted

(01:08:14):
to have on you Yeah Oh man, uh, youknow, they're long gone now, uh, but I,
I definitely had the set of lucky boots.
Did you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
There was a set of boots that Ijust, um, oh, you know, and there's
a, I actually still have this oneand it's, it's over there, but.
Can you, is it small enough to grab?
It is.

(01:08:35):
Yeah.
Let's see it, man.
That'd be awesome.
That one right there.
So for people listening who can'tsee it's the 82nd airborne patch.

(01:09:00):
So that patch not only, uh, wason every patrol and stuff, it was
on every jump that I ever did too.
That's cool.
That's really cool.
And then what's the deal with the boots?
Like, are they the ones you wore?
Like every patrol?
Most of the ones that werelike, I would try to stick with
that particular set of boots.
Yeah.
That was just like a, you know what?

(01:09:20):
These things have not.
Done me wrong.
And, uh, we're just going to stickwith the, this particular pair.
Was there a day where you werelike, damn, these things are lucky.
Like what, what happened that madethem have this special value to you?
It literally was a, so Ithink this particular set was.

(01:09:41):
The set that I had worn, um, I had themmodified for, for SOPSI, you know, they
call them the SOPSI specials out there.
And I mean, they were worn down and then Ihad them resold again before we left, but
they were a set of Belleville 390 desertsthat they were lighter than Nike's.
Um, Because they switched out to asuper, super lightweight shell and,

(01:10:03):
um, or the, the sole on the bottom,but they were just, they were awesome.
You could run in them.
It was like wearing moccasins.
You were nice and quiet in them too,you know, instead of tramping around.
Um, but yeah, that was,uh, the lucky set of boots.
And in fact, they mightactually be at the museum too.
If they still, if they still hadleather on them, they're over there.

(01:10:24):
If it wasn't worn off.
Okay.
And then the last question I askeverybody looking back, and I know we
didn't even cover all of your career,obviously we're just talking about the
Argonaut, but as you look back on yourcareer and that decision you made to go
in later in life in your mid twenties,um, looking back, would you do it again?
Oh, absolutely.
That's I mean, especiallyeven like if someone was like,

(01:10:45):
would you do the Argonaut over?
Absolutely.
Um, It's not just me who said this,but there's been a lot of the guys
who have said it, that as hard as itwas and as tough as it was, a lot of
them understand that, like, at leastmyself, I can only speak for myself,
is that I, I really, I felt likethat was where I needed to be there.
I was right where I needed to be atthe time and there was a purpose.

(01:11:08):
And why I was there, I wasn'tsure why God, trust me.
I have no idea why.
Um, but at the same time, you know,I'm, I'm glad I went through it.
I'm glad that I got to meetthe particular group of people
that I served with over there.
I can't say that, uh, I've everreally met another group like
that ever again in my life.

(01:11:28):
Is there a world 20 years fromnow where you would go back
there if it were safe to do so?
Like wild enough again.
Um, I have, I've looked into it.
Uh, there's actually a, there wassomebody who through social media,
we've got Afghans that are fans too.
Um, he popped up on social and sent me adrive by right where cop wear used to be.

(01:11:49):
And it was, you could only see the,uh, the big, what, I don't know if they
call them try wall barriers or whatever.
There's a few of them stillsitting out in this field and you
can see the remnants, but it's.
Cop wear now is just dissolvingback down into the into the dirt.
The Hesco barriers are gone, and itwas just the weirdest thing to see,
but he was eight years old at thetime when we were there and, you

(01:12:11):
know, to hear from those people.
And we actually heard from anotherone to through social media, um,
those younger kids and stuff,uh, we stood for something.
Out there to them and they were actuallyextremely appreciative of what we did.
They saw us I think really thatthat particular valley that
Conflict area that year that wewere there that almost a year.

(01:12:35):
I think it was nine months or so
I don't think there was any way aroundit other than having to bleed to win that
battle, you know, and In the way of seeingthat like the local populace they it's
a warrior culture They respect things alittle differently and when they saw us
Side by side and actually like puttingin effort and experiencing losses But not

(01:12:57):
degrading to the point of being someonewho had hate towards them and was still
trying to do something You know for thegreater good or for at least if anything
give them a peaceably night's sleep.
Yeah, um, it meant somethingto them That's awesome.
Um Will how can peoplefind you on social media?
You The easiest way, uh, damn thevalley book, yeah, damn the valley book.

(01:13:19):
com.
Uh, that's kind of a, there's just allyour links in there, but I mean, it's
just at damn the valley book acrosssocial, there's Instagram, Facebook, Tik
TOK, um, and we had a Tik TOK go viral.
It was like something, 9 millionviews or something on this.
Nice.
Oh, yeah.
No, it's a bunch of guys recorded stuff.
So during the whole formulation of thisThere's a whole google drive with stuff

(01:13:40):
and i've been posting for over a year andit's all stuff from the argandob so, I
mean go check it out between that and uhYou know, you have the devil's playground
there too those those two books Um,well, the three, you know, bravo company
as well, but damn the valley books.
com.
Uh, I'm also linked in William Yasky W.
Yasky on Twitter.

(01:14:00):
If you do that sort of thing,I'm getting away from that.
It's a
lot of toxic stuff out there.
Uh, ain't it true?
Okay, it will.
Thanks so much, man.
This was a blast.
I really appreciate it.
And, uh, thanks for taking thetime to have written the book.
And I know it's, it'shelping a lot of people.
And I think probably longer term.

(01:14:21):
I hope some of those guys who didn'tconnect with you when you're 60 or
70 at some reunion, they show up.
Thanks for helping me share thestory and getting it out there.
I really appreciate it.
Sure.
All right.
Sorry.
Well, go ahead.
So you, you've also got anotherproject you're working on.
So there's a little side project outthere that I kind of started through

(01:14:42):
this whole thing and it was, um, Iunofficially launched the first podcast
episode with Andrew Bragg, uh, butit's called Veteran Success Story.
Um, And it, it really has to dowith something that I'm pivoting to.
I wrote a book five years prior to Damnthe Valley that had to do with things
that I found to be successful withincollege and with everyday life, you know,

(01:15:05):
starting out at the foundation of likefitness and eating and then going into,
you know, I mean, you were saying toolsfor Titans, uh, when we were off camera.
Love it.
Love that book.
Indistractable.
I mean, a bunch of the, I hadan hour commute to school.
So I would get on long form podcasts andthen I would start reading these books
that were being pushed out by there.
And, you know, I mean, Iwent from I finished business

(01:15:27):
school in two and a half years.
Um, and really a half semesterthere was a throwaway anyway.
Uh, then I went on to dosome stuff over at Cornell.
And then I was like, you know, let'sshoot for the stars and let me see if I
can, you know, get some classes over atColumbia and now I'm freaking Columbia
alum, um, you know, so from nothing toIvy League, that's just the difference

(01:15:49):
on, on what the success frameworks andwhat the military can do if you use that.
Those type of disciplines and habitsto, to sort of accelerate yourself.
So I want to have other people on,um, I know there's some, there's that
episode with Andrew, which didn'tfollow the framework or anything.
It was really just a conversation withus, but, um, I want to start having
other people on, maybe you can suggesta few people and stuff, but in talking

(01:16:13):
about what they found to be helpful fromtheir time in service and translation
over to the civilian side of things.
So yeah, uh, Spotify, YouTube, again,the rest of them just following the
same formula that worked on here.
And that's, uh, at Veteran Success Story.
Got it.
Awesome.
Thanks so much, man.
I hope you enjoyed that combat story.
The Archidon Valley isa nasty place, clearly.

(01:16:36):
So we heard from not just Will,but also Andrew Bragg before.
And I think we're going to hear a lot morewith some of these other books coming out.
Um, as always, you can check outour newsletter at combat story.
com slash newsletter.
And wherever you are in the world, Ihope you have a good rest of your day,
week, weekend, wherever you may be.

(01:16:57):
And as always, stay safeand you can stay tuned.
And we're gonna play that clipthat will mention that went viral
on TikTok if you're interested.
Thanks again, y'all stay safe.
Okay?
Okay.
Couple things have happened today.
One Rangers crash the helicopter.

(01:17:17):
Not unlike a movie you've probably seen.
Right behind us here.
We've been, we've been sittinghere since 2 o'clock this morning.
Uh, we've been attacked about 30 times.
RPG almost hit me and my boy.
Right over here, about 10 15 meters away.
Scared the crap out of me.
And uh, now basically we're justwaiting on them to attack again.

(01:17:38):
Because, sun's starting to go down.
We'll see if they attack around this time.
Um, but we're ready for them.
I guess it's all over here.
And, uh, we got rangers fillingaround the, uh, the helicopter.
I don't know if they're working on it.
There they are.

(01:17:59):
Go ahead and get the gun up.
I guess it's gonna be a long night.

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82nd Airborne Fighting in the Arghandab Valley | William Yeske

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}82nd Airborne Fighting in the Arghandab Valley | William Yeske