Combat from Echo in Ramadi | Marine Commander Takes Us Inside the Deadliest City in Iraq Scott Huesing - Combat Story

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This was the beginning of one ofthe most complex coordinated attacks
ever to happen in the city of Ramadi.
As we run out of the cp, thereis Tracer Fire in the sky, like
a 4th of July firework show.
There are rounds impacting thecamp snapping off the walls.

(00:22):
As I'm leaving the door of thecommand center it, I mean, you're
just walking through random bullets,smacking walls as you're coming
outta the front door of your house.
Welcome to Combat Story.
I'm Ryan Fut, and I serve warZone tours as an army attack
helicopter pilot and CIA officer.
Over a 15 year career, I'm fascinated bythe experiences of the elite and combat.

(00:44):
On this show, I interview some ofthe best to understand what combat
felt like on their front lines.
This is Combat Story.
Today we have a great interview with24 year retired marine and bestselling
author of Echo and Ramadi, Scott Houston.
Scott led the Magnificent Bastards asthey're called, of two four Marines during
one of the most brutal periods of thepost nine 11 war from 2006 into 2007.

(01:08):
During the surge, Scott went fromself-described terrible high school
student with a 1.24 GPA to enlisted marineto a Mustang, which is a marine officer
who was formerly enlisted, serving on10 deployments in dozens of countries.
In this episode, Scott takes usinto an intense fight to extract
several pinned down marines.
That included bringing M1 A ones alongand then also losing his first casualty.

(01:32):
Just weeks into the deployment as acompany commander of Echo Company.
Since leaving the service, Scott wrotethe bestselling book, echo and Ramadi
has helped others write their ownbooks and runs nonprofits and more.
With that, please enjoy this wideranging conversation with someone who
made it through some of the hardestfighting in the war with Scott Hus.

(01:53):
All right, Scott, thanks so muchfor taking the time to sit down
with us and share your stories.
Yeah, we already started, like,this is the before the show, after
the show is like, oh man, whydidn't we say that on the show?
Yeah.
And so it's cool, man.
Thanks.
Thanks again for the invite, dude.
No, of course.
There was so many of the same people.
So it would bore listeners, uh,if we started name dropping, like

(02:13):
all the same people we know andlike guys here in Texas, like
you've been on Mike Lin's show.
Yep.
Mike's a good friendof mine and great guy.
I, I love that we share,uh, our community freely.
Like, like, oh, you gotta meet this guy.
Uh, you, you should havethis guy on the show.
Uh, because for veterans who makethis weird transition into the

(02:34):
entertainment space, um, you know,it's, there's, yeah, they're out there.
There's guys that soccer mom, their shit.
They're like, uh, well, let me seeif he wants to share his number.
I'm like, I don't play that game.
Yeah.
Like if.
If, if I, if I share Ryan's number,Ryan gets this random text, he's, he
knows like, this guy's been vettedand he is not gonna be trying to

(02:54):
steal my, you know, ATM pin number.
So come away.
No, I'm, I'm glad you're on.
We've got, and for people who are,who are listening and can't see,
you've got your, kinda, your booksin the background, especially Echo
and Ramadi, these cool posters.
I've got one that you sent over my way.
Um, but we, I insisted that we hit recordbecause you were already telling some
stories that I was like, no, everybody'sgonna wanna hear some of these.

(03:17):
Let's start, start withBob Hamer if we can.
Yeah.
So, uh, Ryan, uh, was, uh.
Re me with his, uh, short bio beforethe show, which I already knew.
'cause I've, I've seen a bunch of yourstuff and we know all the same dudes.
But, uh, you were, you were talkingabout how, uh, when you're in, you know,
doing ops, one of the things you tookapart was, you know, pedophiles and like,

(03:40):
that's such a taboo subject to begin with.
But when, when I was still, youknow, stationed in California,
I just retired and, and I was,you know, moved into writing.
I met this great guy named Bob Hamerand one of his things, a among others,
like he was a Marine of course,like we're all this, you know, crazy

(04:00):
brotherhood, but he was also a lawyerin the Marine Corps and he is like,
ah, I don't like being a lawyer.
And then so he gets out and he joins theF fbi, I, he's like, ah, the FBI sucks.
He's like, I don't like any f fbi.
I, I don't wanna do this.
I don't wanna be an agent.
So he wants to be undercover.
So he becomes an under.
Cover FBI agent and his book titledThe Last Undercover by Bob Hamer is

(04:21):
uh, a, a story of his, you know, wholeupbringing through the FBI in his career.
And it was back before computers.
And I was telling you this, he had twophones hanging on his kitchen wall.
The good guy phone and the bad guy phone.
And he had to brief his family, likekids don't ever answer the bad guy phone.
That's just for daddy.
Well, he took down this LA artsyndicate, he did undercover ops

(04:44):
across the board, but his real.
Capstone event was he dismantledthis organization called Nala,
which stands for the North AmericanMan, boy Lovers Association.
And Bob would go to work every daywith one of those crutches that
has like a hand grip and a cuffaround your forearm and the rubber

(05:06):
stopper on the end and it's aluminum.
That was his disguise.
And I was just fascinated by, it'slike when you wanna bitch about your
coworkers, this guy spent, I dunno howmany years Bob was em, you know, embroiled
in the bowels of probably the mostdespised demographic of human society.

(05:28):
And when I say despised, it's not by usin the general population within prisons.
They're the spot.
It's objective.
It's like objectivelythey're the lowest wrong.
They're the scum of the earth.
So anyway, Bob was, uh.
You know, Bob and I have beenlong time friends and we were
eating breakfast one day.
In California, in rain, rainbowCalifornia at this, uh, place owned

(05:52):
this little breakfast place owned by aMarine and I'm sitting there with Bob,
it's me, um, a Navy Seal who is likesuper, you know, tier one operator.
Um, my buddy Jack, who is a multinumber one bestselling author and
also the, has the most confirmed killsof any living Marine Corps sniper.
He, he was my company Gunny.

(06:13):
Uh, anyway, we're sitting there and we'reall just, you know, we're just friends and
hanging out and I was looking around therestaurant and I was just looking at this
table and I was looking at this table.
I was like, I. I wonder if any of thesepeople in here have any fucking idea
who is sitting at this table, but rightthen, like a lightning bull that hit
me, I go, what, what about that table?

(06:34):
Like, what is that old timer story?
You know?
And just 'cause I'm a nosy personas a writer, I always have been,
um, even as a marine, like supernosy, like gear and everything.
But I thought maybe that guy was inthe CIA or maybe this guy invented
the, the eyeglass repair kit andhe's a billionaire or something.
You know, just this random stuff.

(06:54):
Yeah.
And it, it, you know, itjust gives me perspective.
'cause I'm some, you know, poor kid who,you know, barely graduated high school.
From Waukegan, Illinoiswith a stellar 1.24 GPA.
Um, any listener out there?
If there's comments in this on YouTube,if you can beat that, I wanna meet you.

(07:15):
I wanna send you a freesigned copy of my book.
If you had less than a 1.24GPA in high school, um, I
will need proof of transcript.
Yeah, we need a picture of it though.
You can't just, yeah, I dunno.
I I don't care anybody that fucking admitsthat Ryan, like they're getting a book.
Yeah.
Period.
Uh, that's my gift.
Um, and there's nothinggratuitous about that.

(07:36):
I think it's like, I've never spoken infront of a group, but you know, from my
upbringing, from Joaquin and Illinoisand, you know, just being a really bad
kid, you know, drinking underage, youknow, fighting, you know, running from the
cops, getting caught by the cops, gettingthrown in jail, getting bailed outta jail.
Um, I. I, I just led a real high risklifestyle growing up and, you know, I

(08:01):
had, I had some friends and, you know,they're, we ran in similar circles and
I played sports and all that, but I geta phone call one day and I, you know,
I can't remember most people's phonenumbers, but I picked up that phone
on the wall at six six two three four,two seven, and it's my buddy Andy, and
he goes, Hey man, you'll never guesswhat I did today, and I'm thinking
you crashed your Camaro again, or youcrashed your dad's Corvette or something.

(08:25):
That's like, he goes, no,I joined the Marine Corps.
I was like, you're fucking kidding me.
I. And so he says, yougotta meet these guys.
And you know this, any veteranlistening or anybody that's attempted
to join the military knows this.
He goes down to the recruitingoffice and these guys are
trained professionals to sell.
They're the best salesman in the world.
And they got the ribbons, theygot their office draped in

(08:47):
camouflage and these flags and allof this crazy happy horse shit.
And man, I listened to the game,these guys were talking and I thought
to myself, self, I have never met abigger group of risk takers in my life.
And I was like, where do I sign?
And that was it.
I was, you know, 18 years old.

(09:07):
I just then turned 19, wentto bootcamp and um, did well.
I was, you know, the guide,you know, the, the platoon
leader, whatever, as a recruit.
And then went to DesertShield, desert Storm.
And then I realized the, really,the value of an education.
And so I hung up my rifle and I, Ijoined the Reserves as a machine gunner,

(09:28):
went to college at Illinois State.
And I'm not saying that to bragbecause they only let us like
50 or 60,000 in every year.
But dude, I was just happy to getinto, uh, college, you know, so,
um, but I still loved, you know,what I did in the Marine Corps.
I still love being around Marines.
You kind of gravitate towardsthem once you transition at

(09:49):
any point in your career.
And then, um, this youngsergeant got ahold of me.
God loves the Sergeants man, andhe got me a boat space to Officer
Candidate School, and it was just great.
I. Chemistry or kismet orfate or whatever it is.
And I, I still wanted to serveand, uh, you know, some 15 years
later, that's kind of where my storypicks up with the book I wrote.

(10:13):
And then, you know, I retired after24 years and 10 deployments and, you
know, visiting over 60 countries.
So it's been, uh, noregrets ever coming back.
So I'm sure when you were that crazy 17,18-year-old, you were like, one day I'm
gonna be a bestselling author, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Uh, no.
I used to probably MF my English teacherin high school and, uh, actually, yeah.

(10:37):
Does your old English teacherknow what what has become of you?
No.
Ever take it back?
Maybe I'll look her up.
That's a good, I feel like thatcould be an interesting, uh,
little social media segment.
Yeah.
1.24 GPA bestseller meets old Englishteacher or, or my guidance counselor.
I still remember that guy's name for sure.
Did he tell you to gocheck out the Marines?

(10:59):
No, he did not.
Um, no, I I it what's that test youtake, uh, of the job skills you like?
You know, I asked you random question,do you like to fix a door latch?
Do you do this?
Do you pick your nose?
I don't know, but I don't, Idon't, you know, I don't ever
remember getting any guidance No.
From that guy.
So, all right, well, I stilljust lucked into it, I guess.

(11:22):
So before I ask you, I did wantto ask you about James Livingston,
but right before that you mentionedyou go into the recruiter's office.
I mean, usually they share likea hallway with Army Navy, you
got the Air Force, the Marines.
Did you even look in theseother rooms or did you just get
brought, you were straight in.
Straight in, yeah.
And, uh, it, it was a, therewas three dudes, um, two staff

(11:46):
sergeants and a, a sergeant.
And then my guy, uh, he was a littlesought off Puerto Rican dude named Joe.
I won't mention his last name, but, uh.
You know, he, he was a, he was in the airwing, so I, I, I really didn't know any,
I didn't know what a boot band was, man.
You know, those rubber things thatstretch and you wrap 'em around your

(12:06):
boots, keep your pants blouse up.
Like I didn't know anything.
But, uh, you know, come to find out,like we get back and, and he got,
he got arrested for Grand Theft Autogets kicked outta the Marine Corps.
So like, I didn't have a greatrelationship with my recruiter at
that level, but the other two seniorstaff NCOs, they're really great

(12:28):
and I still keep in touch with 'em.
And funny side story, I'mdoing a book signing at Camp
Pendleton a couple years ago.
I'm in the entrance where the slidingdoors come apart and the carts,
and I got the table set up and thebooks and who walks in the door.
But Randy Hines, he's a contractornow, and surprised me, uh, I almost

(12:49):
struck, was, was he your recruiter?
He was my recruiter.
Yeah.
He was like the senior.
He's the guy that did all thepaperwork and all this, you know,
Joe was kind of the sales guy.
And Scott, how, you know, interviewing200 vets, this really only seems to
happen in the Marine Corps where likeyou guys stay in touch with recruiters.
How do you do that?
I mean, you go off into thegiant, you know, Marine Corps.

(13:11):
Yeah.
How do you stay in touch?
I don't, I, I think socialmedia's helped out a little bit.
Um, but, and I don't even think ithas anything to do with the smallest
branch of the military with, you know,sometimes close to 200,000 Marines.
Uh, I don't know.
It's just something that we, withany organization too, you, you

(13:34):
know, there's people that developrelationships and, um, I, I lo, I
love cultivating relationships too.
And like, you know, you can't justsay like, oh, I know Ryan like I.
There'll be times throughout ourrelationship too, in our friendship,
Ryan, we're like, I'll just call you.
And you might think like,oh, it's Scott calling.
I'm not gonna hit the green button.
He's gonna want something.
Yes, I am gonna want something.

(13:56):
But there's a lot of times toowhere I'm just calling like,
Hey, Ryan, man, what's up?
How's your family like, becauseI think that's important and
you have to make time to do it.
Um, it, it sounds a little cliche, man,but that's really how we stay connected.
And I think that's a really importantpart, especially in the veteran space.
But I, I would submit that's a lostart in the, in the private sector too.

(14:18):
Like if they were to adopt that, I thinkyou'd have better businesses, you'd have
better leadership, you'd have betteremployee retention, all those things.
So, no, I agree.
I agree.
It's something cool too.
And like even my drill instructors, um,I've, I had contact with a couple of
them, and then another funny story islike I'm on the phone with Jim Booker.

(14:43):
He's a retired sergeant major.
He was in two four.
He's down in Waco, Texas.
And, uh, we're just chitchatting aboutsomething about the reunion we're having
here coming up in October in Texas.
And, uh, he goes, Hey man,I gotta, I gotta let you go.
He goes, I got this guy comingover, former recon Bubba.
And um, he, he, he tells me his name,he goes, is he a little short sought

(15:04):
off dude with a crooked nose he was in?
He goes, yeah, yeah.
He go, he was my drill instructor.
Like, you have to send him my number.
So like, it's a That's cool.
Yeah, it's a small world man.
For sure.
Alright, let's talk James,retired major General Medal of
Honor winner, James Leviston.
How do you know this person?
And, and the reason it came up,it's on the book that you sent

(15:27):
me, that also to your point onlike cultivating relationships,
you sent a very nice card with it.
Like you could tell the attention todetail and, and touch, but I, I'm a
little bougie like that, but also my mom.
Used to own a Christmas store, soshe taught me how to rap properly and
like it's all about the presentation.
So anyway, I'm glad you agreed with that.

(15:48):
Okay.
He's on your book.
What?
How'd that happen?
Yeah.
General Livingston, um,we share a similar bond.
Uh, he and I, he was the Echocompany commander of Second Batal
fourth Marines during the battle ofDO, which, uh, happened in 1968 in
Vietnam, in in DO and, uh, one of the,the most intense three day battles.

(16:14):
Okay.
Um, two Medal of Honorrecipients came outta that.
Um, you know, JimLivingston and Jay Vargas.
Uh, bill Weis, who was the battalioncommander, was a Navy Cross recipient
second highest award, uh, while BillWeese just passed away several months ago.
Um, so we both shared the same, you know,company flag, the guide on, and, uh,

(16:36):
that's really our connection as command.
That's cool.
He, he in Vietnam and, and myself andRamadi in oh six and oh seven during
some of the most heavy urban combat,you know, in, in modern warfare.
And, uh, that's, uh,something pretty cool.
And another author who gets, you know,tagged to write some of his speeches, a

(16:57):
man's schedule is a army slash marine.
You know, he's a hybrid.
He was in both services, uh, ColinHeaton, um, world War II historian.
He, he really was the one thatread my book first, the draft.
And, uh, he's like, general Livingsis gonna wanna be a part of this.
So General Livingston wrote the forwardand over the years and, and through

(17:19):
the association, um, of MagnificentBastards, which is our call sign,
which we're very, very proud of.
We, we just, uh, havealways kept in touch.
And I, you know, I think it'simportant too, our, our Vietnam
vets are getting up there in age.
General Livingston, I thinkis gonna be 85 this year.
Um, you know, we, we share just a, a, areal cool bond, uh, within the battalion.

(17:44):
And I'll ne I'll never forget, I gotthis phone call from, uh, it was General
Weiss's, uh, radio operator, Steve Wilson,and he calls me, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna
butcher this, but he's got this, I, Ithink it's this, uh, Tennessee or Kentucky
accent where somebody's like, Hey, Scott.
Hey Scott, what's up?
It's Steve.

(18:05):
I said, uh, Hey Steve, what's going on?
He goes, Hey man, I, I want youto, I want you to really, uh, think
about taking over as the presidentof the two four Association.
And I said, uh, no.
No, Steve, I'm like, Ihave a book coming out.
Like I'm just like, I'm needy.
He goes, no, no, no.
He's like, don't gimme an answer today.
He goes, just think about it.
I just want you, like, he'stotally sa salesman to me.

(18:27):
And he used to work for Aramco.
He is this big sales dude in oil and gas.
And, uh, so he just, uh, youknow, he lets it simmer with me.
And, uh, I said, Steve, man,uh, I I love you like a brother.
Uh, but the answer's no.
I said, I'm just too busy.
He goes, okay, man, just,just think about it.
One day goes by and the phonerings, and I look at it as General

(18:50):
Livingston, and this, this is it.
You, you don't get much in all caps,texts or an email normally that says
a YE, like I or like Roger that.
So General Mason calls me, hegoes, Hey Eric, hey Eric, combat,
uh, I'm gonna need you to takeover that association and lead.

(19:12):
And I said two words, Roger, that.
Ah, it's like, then I was stuckhappily as the senior cat herder
for all intents and purposes of,upwards of like 500 Vietnam vets.
Oh my gosh.
So during my tenure of, ofpresidency, it was seven years.

(19:33):
Um, we managed to recruit a lot of theyounger guys and, you know, I'm very
honored when, you know, they're alwayscalling me the young guy and like,
I'm 55 now, so I was 48 at the time.
They're like, yeah, you're the young guy.
Bring the young guys in.
So now we have over 1500 members in theAssociation of Magnificent Bastards.
And, uh, we're, you know, we'regonna get together again this
October for a little, little reunion.

(19:55):
It's, it's always cool.
It's always cool.
Yeah.
That's great.
That is great.
Oh man, you can't say no to that.
All right.
No, no, no one says no to General Lee.
No.
I, I love, I have such a, such agreat relationship with him now.
It's like I, you know, I checkin on him all the time, make
sure he is doing good, but, uh.
You know, he's one of those guyspeople see in public and you know,

(20:15):
he wears the medal very proudly.
Um, and he gets up and he gives hisspeech, you know, and uh, you know,
there's this old gravelly voice andyou know, he is from South Carolina
and you know, Mount Pleasant.
And he gets in part of the story andthey're attacking and they're moving.
And then I told my Marineslike, it's gonna get bad.
And you know what?
I told him next, fix bay nuts.

(20:37):
And he just, the crowd goes wild.
Everyone's just like loving in generalLivingston, and you know, so I know all
that part of him in the, on the front.
But, you know, he, he plays a, agrouch on tv, but he is one of the
sweetest guys I've ever met in my life.
And That's awesome.
There's, there's so many perceptions ofguys who, you know, have this immense

(21:01):
responsibility and have the capacity to.
To wear the Medal of Honor, you know,it's not everybody and you know, general
Livingston is, you know, one of thoseguys and just really humbled to have so
many of these guys numbers in my iPhone.
You know, it's just, it's nuts, man.
From that kid, from Walka Illinoisto where I'm at today, it's uh,

(21:22):
I'm pretty, pretty lucky, man.
That's amazing.
Well, you mentioned, as you weretalking earlier, your kind of career
trajectory that you ended up in.
Desert Desert Shield.
Desert Storm.
What the hell happened there?
What, like what, what were you doing?
I. Well, you know, I always take alittle bit of shit from guys I served
with, but we weren't doing a whole lot.

(21:45):
You, you know, it was a three day war.
I, I'm not diminishing the serviceof anyone, myself included.
No, no, I know.
Yeah.
But it was, you know, I wroteabout this in Echo, Noma.
It is like, in comparison to otherdeployments, it was very pale in
comparison, Ryan, because therewas a lot of sitting around, there
was a lot of fucking off, therewas a lot of filling sandbags.

(22:07):
There was a lot of, a lot ofboredom for months on end.
And then.
Really, you know, sitting on a 50 cal thenight they launched the, the air attack
and our position was like on the egressroute from Shaza Airbase in Bahrain.
I watched a hundred aircraft flyoverhead, just, you know, f fours

(22:28):
and F1 elevens and all these,you know, mag, you know, B twos.
And I was thinking to myself, man,someone's gonna have a bad fucking night.
And they did.
And in three days we mopped that campaignup, brought everyone back and, you know,
so, you know, I, again, you know, it wasjust, it was just one of those things,
you know, and you compare it to, youknow, what I was doing in Ramadi in oh

(22:52):
six and oh seven, man, that was, that wasthe fucking super Bowl of being a grunt.
And, and to be a company commanderin charge of, you know, 250 fire
breathers who were just attacking andcrushing the enemy day in and day out.
It, it's, like I said, it, it's,it's kind of apples and oranges,
but at, at the end of the day too,it's like, it, it's what everybody

(23:15):
who joins the military strives for.
Like, you want your war, like for alot of people, maybe that wasn't their
war, but, you know, it was, it, it'snonetheless part of, part of my career.
You mentioned earlier that you had,you, you go to Illinois State, right?
And then this staff sergeant kind oflocks you in and brings you into OCS.

(23:36):
Was there a chance you would not havegone back in, or was that the path?
No, that's a good question.
I was actually going to work forthe US Federal Marshals and, uh.
So one of the things too, like, youknow, despite the, uh, stellar high
school, uh, academic prowess that Ihad, uh, I did much better in college.

(23:58):
I, you know, worked, uh, asa bartender and as a waiter,
you know, all around town.
Um, I went to day school, nightschool, preschool, summer school, and
I graduated in three years, uh, with athree, you know, just over a 3.0 GPA.
And, uh, that wasn't, that wasn't aneasy thing to do, but I, I, I share

(24:18):
that comparison too because it, itis a real testimony to what military
gives young wayward souls like myself.
It gives them discipline, it givesthem mission focus, and it gives
them the drive to succeed in anyobstacle that's put in front of you.
So these college professors werenothing but a speed bump to me after
everything I'd been through overthe last, you know, four plus years.

(24:41):
So I was.
Approached by a captain on campusand he told me about this program is
called the Platoon Leaders Course.
And so you go to Officer Candidate Schoolone summer and then you go back another
summer and then you get your commission.
And I don't like to do math inpublic, but I'm thinking Bootcamp
plus one summer plus two summers.

(25:03):
That sounds like three boot camps.
And I'm like, no.
And they told me about this otherprogram they had called Officer
Candidate's class where you justgraduate from college and then you go
straight to Officer Candidate School.
I was like, that sounds more mystyle that it's only two boot camps.
So this, that's when Sergeant Connorand I, he, I wish I, I need to find

(25:24):
this guy, Sergeant Connor, if you'relistening to this and you're in the
Greater Bloomington normal area circa.
19 98, 97. You need to getahold of me somehow, but I
wanna thank that kid, you know?
'cause he's the one that really putit all together and, and um, you know,
got me, got me to OCS, but there wasa, there was a hiring freeze, like

(25:48):
there was some federal hiring freeze orsomething, and my internship got delayed.
And, um, you know, oh, for the marshalsnot, not being a math guy like pilots.
Um, I thought like, there's no way Ican wait bar wait tables and bartending
for another, you know, year while,while they free up, you know, their
hiring freeze in the federal government.

(26:09):
So it was, it was really fate, you know,that that kid, you know, called me.
He called me in my apartment and hesays, Hey sir, if you can come down and
run a physical fitness test and take aphysical up at Great Lakes Naval Base,
uh, we could get you to OCS in January.
I'm like, tell me when and where.

(26:30):
That was it.
Yeah.
Geez.
So timing wise, like I wanna spend alot of time on, on Ramadi, of course.
Um, but for kind of nine 11 to thetime you go to Ramadi, what's your
role Optempo like, what are youexperiencing with the Marines then?
Well man, we don't talk about that enough.

(26:52):
That's, I love it that you asked aboutnine 11 'cause it really was such a,
such a fulcrum point in UShistory and world history.
Um, and like, you know, where were you?
We used to ask that,where were you on nine 11?
Like, no one asked that question anymore.
It's like an afterthought.
I was deployed, I was in Okinawa, Japanwith, um, with my unit and I was with.

(27:17):
Third battalion, fourthMarines at the time.
And we were on a unit deploymentprogram, um, you know, doing
theater security cooperation stuff.
And, uh, I'll never forgetit, uh, I was in the barracks.
It was, I can't remember what time, itwas late at night or late in the evening.
And I had this crappy little 14inch, you know, deployment tv.

(27:39):
And I'm watching, it was probably SkyNews 'cause that's all we get over there.
And I'm watching this and they show thiscoverage of this plane hitting the tower.
It's like, holy shit.
And then right after that, you seethe second plane hit and it, like,
I, I don't know if it's somethinginnate in me or it's the training, but

(28:00):
I said, this is a terrorist attack.
Instinctively I knew itwas a terrorist attack.
Like no one parks twoplanes into a building.
It just doesn't happen.
I ran down the hallway of the barracks.
I'm literally banging on the doorsof all the other lieutenants.
I'm like, you have to get in my room.
And watch this, this is world changing.
Wow.
And yeah, you know, there was some,there was some overreaction on, you

(28:24):
know, no one knew what was gonna happen,especially after the Pentagon got hit.
Um, and everything elsethat unfolded that day.
Um, but, you know, therewas some silliness too, and
you can appreciate this.
Um, you know, they had marineson post around Camp Schwab in
Northern Okinawa, as if Okinawa wasa big target manning machine guns.
And I was like, ah, come on man.
Like, this is, yeah, it, it, it'sthe, that boiled down quickly to

(28:49):
a, to a low simmer, thankfully.
But after that, you know,we came back, um, and.
I was getting close to gettingorders, uh, and leaving the unit.
I, I was a senior lieutenant.
I just got promoted to captain and I gotselected to be a platoon commander with
a fleet anti-terrorism security teamcompany, fa we call it Fast Company.

(29:12):
They work for the Navy.
Um, we do anti-terrorism operations.
It's a very hand-selected, uh,assignment at, at the time.
They're very, like, out of all thecaptains in the Marine Corps, there's
like six each year that get picked.
So I, I was lucky.
I don't know if it was luck, but I,I was very fortunate to get selected.
And then, you know, I went to Fast.

(29:33):
Um, we trained up, I waswith Second Fast Company.
We did deployment to Spain.
And at the time, you know, again,this goes back to what we were
talking about, it's like, youknow, everybody wants their war.
Um, so we're.
Doing these, uh, shipboardoperations in the, um, straits of
Gibraltar and going over to Greece.
And we're basically working with, um,amphibious units, navy seals, and we,

(29:58):
we hitch a ride on a, a frigate ordestroyer, and then we do cross deck and
we climbing the rails of these ships thatare transporting munitions and all this,
you know, top secret shit over to the war.
And we're like, man, I wantto go be a part of the war.
Yeah.
But we were doing our part,you know, that was our job.
Like, you can't kill people ina war zone if you don't have
bullets and, and toilet paper.

(30:20):
You just can't.
So I came back, um, and thenI remember I was in Virginia.
It was, it was like a Saturdayor Sunday morning, man.
And, um.
The news came on and they caughtSaddam and remember that picture?
Like, oh yeah, a spider hole.
And he comes out with that fucked up beardand his hair was all ew and disheveled.

(30:45):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
He was a soup sandwichand Saddam was going down.
And I thought to myself, andagain, this is the wrong thing
to think for most people, normalpeople don't think like this.
We do.
I thought, fuck, I missed it.
I'm missing the war.
Yeah.
Well, again, it goes back to, youknow what I tell people all the time,

(31:06):
like, be careful what you ask for.
You just might get it.
So, you know, several deploymentslater that same year, I was in Baghdad
with Fast Company, um, you know, uh.
Doing our mission in, um, in Baghdad.
Uh, we were there for nine, 10 months.
And then I came back,um, and went to school.

(31:27):
And then we found out when I wasat as a, it was a, like a captain's
career course, like the Army has,did you do the one at Benning?
No, I, I went to ExpeditionaryWarfare school in Quantico for,
um, whatever it is, three, sixmonths, something like that.
And, uh, and then, uh, they pulleda bunch of us aside and they said,
say, you, you guys aren't graduating.

(31:48):
And that was like the wrong thing.
So like, what the fuck did we do?
And then they go, you're, you'regoing to your units early.
Like there was even a long pause,like there, it was like this
American Idol type Ryan Seeger's,like, you guys aren't graduating.
You instead are going to yourunits early to fight the war.
And we're like, yes, wemade it onto the next round.

(32:09):
So we left.
And um.
I gotta say something out loud real quick.
'cause I'm thinking it's like,this is one of the best fucking
podcasts I've ever been on.
Like, shut up.
No, I'm not, I'm not kidding.
It's like I never talk about this stuff.
Like, it's always the same, like stufflike, like I always love it when the
guy's like hit that one question.

(32:29):
But anyway, I digress.
I appreci gratuitously either, but,so, um, I go back home and I was, uh,
I packed all my stuff up, like saygoodbye to my family, like checked out.
I was like, I drove my Jeep in atrailer across the country from
Quantico, Virginia to Camp Pendleton.

(32:49):
Parked my Jeep in the parking lot.
This is a Tuesday.
I took command on a Fridayand I. Living in my office.
I wrote about this inthe boat too, by the way.
'cause it's, it's pathetic, but, andthe marines fucking hated me for it.
Like any, any boss you have that likesleeps in the office, you hate that guy.
Um, I mean, I wasn't a tyrant oranything, but they're just like,

(33:12):
I'm never gonna get a moment'srest if this guy just stays here.
But I, I, our op tempo, um, youknow, when I checked in, just
like, that's when it, that's whenwe really put the foot on the gas.
So like from, you know, back toyour question, like from then to
now, like when I checked into two,four before we got into ma, like

(33:33):
that's how quick things were going.
And you know, a little bit of my mindsettoo, like some of the things like,
you know, guys like they wish for war.
Like, who does that?
I don't know.
Yep.
And how, how much time did you havebefore you went to Ramadi with them?
Like was it, you were right in mm-hmm.
Did you get time to train upand get to know these guys?

(33:54):
Uh, I'll, I'll screw this up, but I, itwas spring, so it was like April May,
um, when I drove across country, checkedin, took command like that next week.
So like all, you know, all literally likeboxes and like all my shit is on a trailer
behind my, my Jeep and packed in my Jeep.

(34:14):
That next week we left Camp Pendleton,California, which is like San
Diego for those who don't know.
And we drove like three hoursnortheast to 29 Palms, California,
which is the combat center.
It's this vast expanse of nothingnessthat smells like human waste from the
sewage treatment plan at Lake Bandini.
And we went out, we trained duringa big combined arms exercise

(34:37):
called Mojave Viper back then.
And all the battalions cometogether and they have role players.
And, um, we do all thesescenario-based training.
We do, you know, small arms,we do indirect fire, we have,
you know, close air support.
Um, all of these things are availableat the, at the combat center.
And, um, one of the things that wasgreat too, to my benefit and to the

(35:01):
young Marines that just got dumpedinto the battalion, right before this
pre-deployment workup, we had a bunch ofthe season guys from Ramadi in oh four.
That were now senior Lance corporals,these salty Lance corporals, e
threes, like 18, 19-year-old kids.
Like, but they knew their shit.
And then we got corporals andsergeants and some of the staff,

(35:24):
um, non-commissioned officers.
So there was a balance.
Um, and it, I remember too, like duringthat, um, during that training, I
pulled a bunch of the guys together,other, other guys that had already been
to combat and I said, uh, you know,honestly, man, like how is this training?
Like, is it gonna get us ready?

(35:44):
Interesting.
Yeah.
To go back to Iraq and almostpound for pound all the sergeants.
Um, and, and, and NCOs,like they said, this is good
training, sir. This is good shit.
So I, I was thinking to myself,institutionally, we are progressing,
we're improving and we're addressingthe needs of the war fighter.
And that, that was, I. You know, thatsounds like some officer type shit,

(36:07):
but that's how, that's your job.
You have to like be a forced supplier andyou have to make sure that the training
is good, the gear is good, the, thetoilet paper's soft enough, you know,
like you've got enough garbage bagsto, you know, take the trash away for,
you know, two, 300 Marines like this.
This is what you get paid forin addition to a lot of other

(36:27):
high level responsibility stuff.
But those, the, you know, those livesare in your hands, but hearing that from
the guys was, it was good, you know?
Yeah.
It really validated it.
How about, you know, as you kindof set the stage for us going into
Ramadi, you know, you had alreadybeen an enlisted marine, you
are now responsible for 200 and.

(36:49):
4,250 Marines.
What, what did that feel like havingbeen on the other side of that,
you know, like you're the officernow, you've been the, the private
before any different, I don't know.
I mean, I guess you wouldn't knowit any other way, but any additional
responsibility you felt going in there?
I get asked that question a lot.
Did being enlisted makeyou a better officer?

(37:09):
And my standard answer until I did mybuddy Dave Diaz's podcast, um, I, it was
always no, like, I never thought, like,being enlisted made me a better officer.
And there's plenty of, and,you know, officers who've been
enlisted, we call 'em Mustangs.
So being a Mustang, which is a horse ofmultiple breeds, I, I didn't ever think
it, like, made me a better officer.

(37:30):
But what it did give me.
Was real perspective on how valuablethat young enlisted Marine's time is.
And I never ever wanted their time wastedwith these mundane, uh, you know, chores
or uniform inspections that, you know, Isuffered through as a young enlisted guy.

(37:51):
Like, it's just a complete waste of time.
And I'm not saying that good orderand discipline and being squared
away in your uniform is unimportant.
All first sergeants and sergeantsmajors listening, it's very important.
But I'm saying having six setsof short sleeve shirts where the
buttons are all like covered in aline, like it's a waste of time.
The Marines should be training,they should be at the gym,

(38:13):
they should be chasing girls.
All these things to decompressand get smarter as a war fighter,
that's where the focus should be.
And I, I think we've gotten really.
Good at, um, getting better atthose things, you know, like
getting away from those things.
One of, one of the best was, you know,our new uniform when it came in and
you didn't have to iron that thing.
Yeah.
When you were talking aboutthe, the blouse, like the little

(38:35):
strap that you put on your boots.
Yeah.
Like that's back in the day.
I feel like.
Do you even still need that now?
Uh, I think they still have 'em.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you don't have tostart your cammies anymore.
You don't have to iron 'em.
They're fold and fluff.
You don't shine boots anymore'cause they're all swayed.
And I think about if, if I could,and again, I don't like to do math
in public 'cause I'm went to Illinoisstate, but I mean, think of the hours

(38:58):
of your life you'll never get back.
Spit shining boots and ironing cammieslike that alone was just, oh my god.
So, I dunno, we got off.
Can you, can you set the picture forpeople, like as a commander in, in this
company getting ready to go into Iraq?
Like what are you hearingabout this ao, this situation?
How are you trying to prep guys?

(39:20):
Well, we did a lot of.
Extensive training.
We were a helicopter born company.
Um, so, you know, we, although theonly helicopter ride we got in Ramadi
was from our army brethren on CH40 sevens, um, into, into COR door.
But, um, we wereconstantly doing live fire.

(39:40):
We're constantly doingscenario-based training.
We had to do a lot of rulesof engagement training.
We had legal briefs, like all this stuff.
And then we were part of theMarine Expeditionary unit, uh,
as a battalion landing team.
So, you know, regular battalion,it's like 800 something dudes.
When you become a battalion landingteam, you be, you become plussed up with

(40:02):
your artillery guys, your tank guys,your engineer guys, all these enablers,
and it goes to about 1200 people.
And then you get sent over tothe marine ex expeditionary
unit, which is part of the.
Expeditionary Strike group, whichis, you know, two small deck ships.
And then the, the LHD wewere on the boxer, which is

(40:23):
like a mini aircraft carrier.
Mm-hmm.
You know, can hold, you know, f you know,uh, Harriers at the time, now F 30 fives,
but, um, helicopters and, and jump jets.
And that's where thecommand element lives.
So then we get, we get chopped to the mu.
Um, and our mu commander wasthen Colonel Brian Boudreaux.

(40:44):
He's coming to ourreunion too, by the way.
He lives in here in Texas.
Great dude.
Um, he got us all on the flight deckon November 10th, 2006, which by the
way, was the Marine Corps birthday.
And he announces to the entire muon the ship that we're going to
Iraq, but it wasn't going to be, uh.

(41:06):
Like a traditional deployment,um, because of everything that had
happened, um, up until that point.
But to answer your question, likethe training was very intense.
You know, we're doing all thesehelicopter borne operations, we're
doing live fire exercises and everythingI just talked about, so they didn't
really have a lot of time to rest.
And, but did you know howlethal it was gonna be?

(41:27):
I mean, this book is about likeintense day in, day out fighting.
No.
Did you know that was coming?
Nope.
No.
I had no idea.
And you know what's, what's moreRyan is those salty lands corporals
and the corporals and Sergeants.
I, I, I don't know who it was that saidto me, but it was at some point after a

(41:47):
firefighter Ramadi, someone leaned overand he is like, he's like, sir, this
shit is way worse than it was in 2004.
Despite having the, you know, thebattalion lost a lot more guys in oh
four, but there was less people in thecity of Ramadi at the time in oh four.
But you know, it, it was, I mean, as we'rerambling, we're gonna talk about Ramadi.

(42:10):
'cause this show is calledCombat Stories, of course.
Um, but to the listener, up until thatpoint in 2006, um, which is when the
surge strategy was ordered by general,uh, general Abizaid, uh, Dave General,
Dave Petraeus, um, and George Bush.
Um, the, the war had, had just beenwhat I describe as a, this big game

(42:34):
of Whack-a-Mole, where the insurgentswould pop up in one city like Fallujah
or Baghdad, and, and we just hammer'em down in, into fine powder.
And then they'd go to ground, theywould seep away, they'd reorganize,
and then they'd pick a city oftheir choosing to pop up again.
Well, when.
President Bush ordered an additional20, 30,000 forces to Iraq to

(42:59):
really, um, hammer down on theinsurgency that really allowed us
equal pressure in every single city.
We just happened toget thrown into Ramadi.
Ramadi just happened to be thecity, the city where everybody
wanted to fight that year in oh six.
And when I say fighting it, it, itliterally redefined or defined what

(43:26):
we knew about urban combat, what weknew about street to street, house
to house, room to room fighting it.
It was a city of 300,000 people,men, women, and children that was
under attack every single day inevery single part of the city.
And it was literally likea pot boiling over spilling

(43:46):
into the burners on the stove.
That's how fucking messy it was for us.
And it wasn't.
A matter of if we were gonna get intoa firefight every day, it was when,
how long and how, how, how often.
That's, that's the typeof enemy we're fighting.
And they were very well trained enemy.
We never took 'em for granted because,uh, they were, you know, they were,

(44:08):
they were taking their toll on us.
You know, we lost marines,we got guys injured.
Um, but again, you know, going backto what I said earlier, um, you know,
it was the Super Bowl of combat.
It, it was the SuperBowl of being a grunt.
And I'll tell you what, you know, if,if you want to, if you want a metric of
success, you know, when you're fighting inurban war, like, you know, my, my ultimate

(44:30):
metric of success, Ryan, was bringing asmany guys home alive as possible, period.
But I'll tell you, if it was aboutbody counts, and, you know, my boys
and the army guys, we fought alongsidewith one nine, uh, infantry, you
know, 1 7, 7 armor in the hole.
One, one Ready?

(44:50):
First Brigade Combat team.
Uh, we were lighting up thefucking scoreboard, man.
I mean, it was just,they were crushing it.
And we were, we were a littledifferent than the Army.
Uh, I, I say that non attribution,but when we flew in, I think I had 198
Marines and sailors with my company, pure.

(45:11):
But when I landed the Army hadall, all these cats and dogs laying
around these firm bases, man.
And I was like, what do you do?
Oh, I'm with a biometric andtactical scanning system guy.
I'm retired SF Green bere.
I'm like, you got a rifle?
You wanna go out in combat zone, like,yes, sir. I'm like, what do you do?
Oh, I'm a, I'm a PSYOPs guy.

(45:32):
We do, uh, you know, civil affairs.
I'm like, you got a rifle?
Get the fuck off the fob, let's go fight.
And I would send him all overto my first Sergeant Tom Foster.
And he was just like, Jesus,sir, what are you doing?
So that's how, you know, my organicstrength went from like, you know,
close to 200 to like, I think,I think we had like 249 guys.

(45:52):
Like, I think that was a, howdid you know to do that, Scott?
Like, what, not everybody'sgonna do that, right?
Like, why?
I don't know, man.
Like, I, I, I just, I knew that.
Subscribing to the way things hadbeen done probably wasn't the way.
Got it.
Yeah.
And we were, we were really luckyto be supported by, um, some

(46:13):
really, really great commandersunder the brigade combat team.
Sean McFarland ran one one BCT,I'm gonna see him in January in
oh six in Fort Bliss, by the way.
Um, at the Ramadi reunion.
But I worked, or originally for thisguy, uh, Lieutenant Colonel Chuck Ferry.
Chuck was f SF dude.

(46:33):
Um, so new unconventional warfare,new insurgency, and he just
kind of let me do my own thing.
You know, we, we were, uh, wejust worked a little differently
and in, in comparison to the armycompanies at the company level.
Those guys had like 80 or 90 guysin the company because they'd been

(46:54):
slogging it out for a year in that cityand they'd suffered a lot of losses.
So when we roll in with 198 guys, pure.
We looked like fucking rock starsof the army, and they just wanted
us to go through that city andcreate havoc and just crush guys.
And we delivered.
That's, that's what we were good at.
That's what Marines do.

(47:15):
Marines are, uh, Marines arereally good at breaking shit up.
And then when the war ends, uh, we'renot really great at building shit up.
And, uh, you know, we never had aplan for that in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yeah, it's, we can talk about failureslater on in the show, but as we were
crushing it day in and day out, like,um, you know, the Marines, um, at,

(47:39):
at every level, man, like the, thesergeants and the, the young lieutenants
who were brand new just thrust intothis cas of war, man, I tell you,
I wouldn't be doing this interview.
Um,
you know, had it notbeen for the, the sheer.
Courage and bravery of these kids.

(48:00):
And I call 'em kids becausemost people, like, they're 18,
19 years old, in most cases.
They were playing high schoolfootball six months before they
were kicking doors in Ramadi.
Like, I wouldn't be sitting here ifit hadn't been for them because they
really took care of me, uh, and eachother better than anything, anything
I've ever experienced in my life.

(48:21):
And so when you go back and talk abouthow do you stay connected to recruiters
and your drone circuits, like thesemarines that I fought alongside, like I
still get text messages from, you know,saw gun and you know, just checking
in, you know, so there's a bond.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it is a real cool bond that wecreate and, uh, not everybody wants to
stay in touch and I respect that too.

(48:43):
What was, what was your day to daylike early on in that deployment?
Like as, as the company commander?
I. Oh, it wasn't a lot of sleep.
Um, I'll tell you that much.
Um, you sleep when you can.
Um, you know, we'd goback in the evenings.

(49:03):
I like a convoy would have to jockup and, you know, it, it, it's not
like driving from, you know, like,you know, your house to Walmart.
It's even less, it's ashorter distance than that.
It's like a, a grocery store run.
But to do that in Ramadi wasa significant emotional event.

(49:26):
'cause you have to have, um, firepower,you have to have accountability,
you have to have medical supplies.
So you're driving thesevery short distances.
And the guys would all have to driveme back in the evening so I could
go to the command center and get theintel brief and, and find out what our
orders were for the next couple days.
Um, what we were doing withoperations on the ground.
Um, everything from.

(49:49):
Uh, you know, who we had, who we hadkilled, um, off the HVI list or high high
value individuals or high value targets.
Um, you know, who we were lookingat next, uh, what we were doing.
I'd have to report, you know, ammo counts,casualty reports, um, all the logistics.
Like I do that in the evening.
And then that same convoy would have torun the gauntlet of fire and we'd get

(50:13):
shot at by some insurgent on the way back.
And then we just, you know, wego in and it's like they're, you
know, we're back at our house.
We had four or fivehouses too be occupied.
When I say houses, they'repeople used to live in them.
Like, we'd roll in, we'd patrolthrough part of the city.
We lived in the city, so if someone'sin the city and like they're living
in this house, we're like, Hey man,hope you got some family nearby.

(50:36):
We kick 'em out and, you know, we didn'tdo it maliciously, but obviously you
can't dig fighting holes in the city, man.
Like, so we had to stay in thehouses in the city or buildings
or, you know, abandoned places.
But it also had to be key terrain.
Like you don't wanna live in a Yeah,a shitty building with no protection.

(50:56):
So we obviously we had, you know,we did what we had to do, so we'd go
back and in the morning, you know,if, if we got a couple hours of
sleep that night, um, we'd get up.
I get briefed on the patrols thatwere going out and we were running
anywhere from eight to 12 dismountedfoot patrols every single day,

(51:17):
um, in various parts of the city.
And we would clear systematicallywith maps and numbered houses on
these maps and we'd highlight it.
And then at the end of the day, after,you know, shooting at bad guys and
killing bad guys and, you know, um.
You know, doing what we do, we, youknow, we handed out school supplies
too sometimes and met with the localsand had chai and bred with them.

(51:38):
Like, some of 'em actually liked this man.
They didn't want the insurgents in there.
They wanted us to getrid of these fuckers.
Yeah.
Because they were nothingbut a cancer in the city.
And, you know, I wrote about it.
Uh, you know, I, I alwayslooked at these people too.
It's like they weren't collateral damage.
I fucking hated when the news wouldsay the collateral damage reports.
I'm like, these are people,these are human beings.

(51:58):
These are Iraqi citizens that wantnothing more in life than to grow up in
their city or in their tribe and watchtheir kid play soccer on the weekends.
That's right.
Driver's license, you know,and be successful in whatever
success means to them.
So, um, you know, we'd, we do thatduring the day and then at the

(52:18):
end of the day we'd compare maps.
All the platoon commanders wouldcome to my location, we'd radio
back in, and then we would, um, youknow, prepare for that next night.
So we would kind of sleep and bein the defense during the day.
And then some guys aresleeping during the day.
And then we would gear up andget ready to go out at night.

(52:42):
And we operated exclusively atnight, exclusively because we
had night vision devices and, um,optics and, you know, laser beams
and thermals and we own the night.
The insurgents, theydidn't stand a chance.
And honestly, man, as good a fighters asthey were during the day, they're humans.
And most humans, when that big orangeball drops from the sky, they get sleepy.

(53:06):
And we were very successfulrooting 'em out at night
because we'd pull some of these.
You know, you know h vs.
Uh, out at night after we'd get an intelreport and we'd do a raid on the house or
the compound, and we'd just snatch 'em up.
We'd put the flex cuts on 'emand then we'd ship 'em back.
So would you just pick one of yourpatrols and just go with them?
We operated in zones, so the zonescould have been a couple blocks

(53:30):
or a couple, you know, a hundredmeters away from each other.
So you imagine these little.
Nucleuses of mm-hmm.
You know, Marines and their platoons,and they're, they're kind of bounding
across the city, moving from this houseto this house or this block to this block.
And then we, you know, during thatmorning planning session, we say, this
is as far as we're gonna go tonight.

(53:50):
And so wherever you land on the map,pick a house, kick the family out,
and that's where we'll be, you know?
So, um, and the Marines, you know,Marines being Marines, they're smart.
Like, initially they picked thehouses that were easy and then
they figured out, oh, this housedoesn't have any blankets in it, and
there's no fuel oil for the stove.
So then they would, they'd find thathouse and they're like, fuck this

(54:13):
place, sir, we're going next door.
There's blankets andstoves and there's food.
And like, so we'd, youknow, we had to do this.
I mean, this is how we would survive.
So do you, that was kind oflike the, the daily grind.
Do you recall the firstcasualty you had in your unit?
I. Or severe casualty.
I, I, I would assume you'd rememberthe first, but Oh yeah, it's Corporal

(54:35):
Dustin, Libby on December 6th.
Um, I mean, I, I'd lost, you know,friends in, in, you know, war before,
but you know, when you're, when you'rea company commander, uh, of an infantry
unit in the Marine Corps is like the,you know, we have a special bond.
Like, even, even before we deployed.
And Corporal Libby was a,a Ramadi vet from oh four.

(54:56):
And, you know, I, I, I say this, youknow, and I, I actually wrote about it.
It's like, you know, you are not supposedto play favorites as an officer, but
like, Libby was one of my favorites.
Like, I like this fucking kid.
Very gregarious.
Uh, he was from Maine, kind of a, youknow, just easygoing nature about him.
And he, he didn't have a problemtalking to officers and, you know,

(55:18):
he is still very respectful, but, youknow, told you what you needed to hear.
And, um, so I was at the combatoperation center at Camp Kor.
Um.
When the call came across the radio and,uh, I knew instantly where I needed to be.
And I looked at Colonel Ferry and youknow, Chuck just, he, he, he turned to me.

(55:38):
He's like, Scott, go.
We ran downstairs and on December 6th,um, this was the beginning of one of
the most complex coordinated attacksever to happen in the city of Ramadi
in on December 6th, 2006, as we callmy lieutenant Pete Somerville, who ran

(56:02):
the, the, the vehicles in that platoon.
I said, Pete, get the trucks out front.
Pete gets 'em out there.
As we run out of the cp, thereis tracer fire in the sky, like
a 4th of July firework show.
There are rounds impacting the campsnapping off the walls as I'm leaving

(56:23):
the door of the command center.
I mean, you're just walking throughrandom bullets, smacking walls as you're
coming outta the front door of your house.
And we get in the vehicles.
And I remember just racing down routeMichigan to the, the, the ECP where
he had set up where fourth platoonwas at with Seth Nicholson, and
he was Libby's platoon commander.

(56:43):
And, um, you know, we, I made myway to the roof, um, you know, got
ahold of Seth and, you know, Libbyhad already been brought down.
He was in the, the, theplatoon, uh, operation center.
And, um, we called in a medevac.
But, you know, you know, being a rotarywing guy, like whether you utility or an

(57:06):
attack guy, like you can't land there.
Like there's no, there's no landing zone.
You can't land a helicopterin the middle of the street.
Um, it's just too dangerous.
And flying a helicopter throughthat type of intense small arms
bar, super dangerous, even ifyou're an Apache, not wise.
Um.
So I said, look, we don't havetime to wait for a medevac.
We're the medevac.
I said, get Libby inthe back of the truck.

(57:27):
So we put him in my convoy and almostimmediately we drove him back down
route Michigan to, um, the, the cache,the, um, combat hospital, which was
across the street from Camp Kor.
And again, this is like, you know,2000 meters, you know, like 20

(57:49):
football fields if people can imagine.
We drove through this gauntlet offire and you know, the, the machine
gunner on the top of the Humvee isjust cranking rounds outta the 50 cal.
You know, casings are spilling down.
It's just like out of a movie.
And as we pull into the, uh,combat casualty hospital,
um, there's chem lights.

(58:11):
I remember there's chem lights inthe dirt, like a airport runway, and
they drive us right in there and.
The Marines are, you know, they're just,you know, frantic because, you know,
Libby's dead, they can't get a pulse.
They drag him out of the Humveeand, um, you know, we bring him in.

(58:34):
And I remember Tom Foster, my firstsergeant was there, and, uh, you
know, they, the, the Army medics,they, they put him on a gurney
and they, they push him back.
Uh, Libby had been shot in the,the back of the neck, right
above his Kevlar and his plate.
And, uh, I remember tryingto push past the staff to, to

(58:55):
go into the, the trauma room.
And Tom, he just grabs me, you know,and he, he just looked at me and he
is like, I got it, sir. He's like,you need to get back out there.
And I was like, he's right.
Like, there's 249 other Marines thatneed me, and I trusted that they take

(59:16):
care of him and, and I, and he died.
Just thank, thanks for sharing this.
Like what do you do next there?
Like how do you, from a, I don'tknow, like process and, and
compartmentalize, I assume someof this to get back in the fight.
Yeah, we, we do.

(59:37):
Um, but again, you, you compartmentalizeit, you know, or whatever.
You shift gears, but you know,there's training that kicks in.
There's also like humanity that kicks in.
It's like, you know, there's a lot ofother guys that, um, need your help,
you know, and there's, there's alsohumanistic quality too, that you want

(59:57):
to get some fucking revenge, you know?
So that drives you?
Um, I, I never had that atthe forefront of my mind.
Um, but you know, you get back in thatconvoy and you drive back out there.
And when we, when we hit the ECP again,you know, I got up on the roof and
the Marines were just lighting it up.
And there were there fightersthat were throwing hand grenades.

(01:00:19):
They were with a handgrenade, close disabilities.
And that firefight, after Libby gotshot, a couple other guys got wounded.
Uh, after everything was said and done,we were in contact, direct contact
with Emmy for six straight hours.
Geez.

(01:00:39):
So, you know, the silence at that pointis deafening, as you could imagine.
Um, and we're back in the.
COC.
And I remember I come down there and Igot, I had gotten blown off the roof and
an RPG hit the wall and I fell off thisladder and almost broke my fucking neck.
And I got a bunch of hardware inmy spine to thank the Navy for now.

(01:01:01):
But, um, we're sitting in there and,uh, I remember the Marines were eating
the rations that come out in those cans.
Like it is like Marine Corps ArmyTupperware, but it's more industrial.
They're even the spaghetti, theshitty cold spaghetti, just, you
know, the adrenaline's wearing off.
And, you know, I remember Seth Nicholson,um, who was my platoon commander, he looks

(01:01:27):
at me and he is like, he, he says, uh,
he says it.
He says it.
He goes, this the longestfirefighter you've ever been in,
sir? I said, abso fucking lly.
And uh, you know, now that I thinkabout it almost brings me to tears.
You know, he, you know, you gotthis 24-year-old lieutenant, and
he, he looked at me and said,I'm glad you're here tonight.

(01:01:48):
Wow.
You know, you said something interestingearlier that I assume isn't SOP, but you
said like you got the call on the radioand you knew exactly where you needed
to be, and it sounds like wherever thatguy was, wherever Libby was, what, like,
I assume that's not SOP, but maybe justsomething you felt you needed to do.
Like why go thereinstead of, I don't know.

(01:02:10):
Yeah.
Directing traffic somewhere else.
Yeah, that's a, that's a greatobservation too, is, um, I mean, he
was the first, you know, Libby was thefirst casualty we had in the entire
battalion during that deployment.
So it, uh.
I don't know.
You know, it's just, you know, yourbig brother kicks in, you're like,

(01:02:31):
you gotta go take care of him.
And, um, the other, the otherpositions in the city that we
occupied were under equal, if notmore intense fire, but they hadn't
suffered, you know, catastrophic loss.
Um, they were holding their own.
And, um, that was, you know, we'd onlybeen in the city for a couple weeks.

(01:02:52):
I mean, this is likeearly in the deployment.
Think we, yeah, I mean, think about this.
December 6th, I told you wegot the order on November 10th.
I think I flew ahead to, um, Ramadi,like maybe five days after that.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at Camp Kor,and we were like out fighting in the city.

(01:03:12):
Like it was just literallyjust thrust into it.
So it, like right there, we knew like.
These, these guys were not fucking around.
Like they, this is where theywere gonna stand and, and fight.
And it's part of one of the reasonswhy I wrote the book, man, is not,
um, you know, not just to share the,the, the bravery and, and sacrifice

(01:03:34):
of these young Marines and soldiersand the families that support us.
But this is a very key point during thewar, uh, where Ramadi as the capital
city of Allan Barr Province, man, um,this is where they stood and fight.
And we lost more soldiers and marinesand sailors and airmen in Ramadi

(01:03:55):
than any other city in the war.
So it's, when I say, you know, andI have it printed on the cover of my
book, Iraq's Deadliest City, it's nothyperbole like this, this place in oh
6, 0 7, and throughout the two yearperiod, I think in Ramadi, it was a sine
wave of highs and lows of very, veryintense urban fighting in that city.

(01:04:18):
And, um.
You know, at the end of the day they lost.
I fo I try to follow fairly closelysome of the fighting going on in
Russia and Ukraine these days withthe way drones are changing it.
You got like entire companieson motorcycles and ATVs trying
to evade you got trenches.

(01:04:38):
It all introduces its ownset of challenges naturally.
As you look back on that timein Ramadi, what were some of
the more challenging aspects?
Like you think of Fallujah in oh four,a lot of the civilians were cleared
outta the city, so maybe you didn't havethe same like civilian to enemy ratios.
Sounds like Ramadi is just a bustlingcity where you've got anywhere

(01:05:00):
could be enemy, but also civilians.
I don't know, like what were someof the harder things you had to
wrestle with trying to overcome?
Yeah.
That, yeah, they did not do that.
Like I. Fallujah Operation Phantom Fury.
One and, and two, like, you know,most people imagine, you know, general
Mattis, you know Jim Mattis, who isalso magnificent bastard by the way.

(01:05:21):
You know, you see him on hisbullhorn, like, attention Fallujah.
If you don't want to be killed,leave the city fighters.
If you want to stay, stay,if you do, you'll die.
He makes this broad announcement.
We did not have that, andthe city was not bustling.
Um, but they were still trying tofunction, like the cafes weren't open.

(01:05:44):
You know, they, it was hard for them toget gas and, you know, a nation that has
free oil, by the way, like, you know,they couldn't even get gas in their cars.
They're like driving all the way tothe western border of Syria to get gas
in, in Iraq, and then coming back toRamadi, it's like a two and a half hour
drive to go to the fucking gas station.
It was, it was surreal.

(01:06:06):
But throughout all thisfighting over so many years.
It always kind of, there were theseperiods even during a firefight
where I'd see things and like,you know, this is where movies
get it right, things really slow.
And I would see kids or people outin the street in like the middle
of a firefight, like, or they werewatching us fight as if it was a

(01:06:29):
soccer game and some spectator sport.
And they're watching this and I'mthinking to myself, please go inside.
This is getting bad.
And we were in the middle of thisfirefight, but the enemy, you know,
they blended in with the local populace.
They didn't have a uniform.
Uh, and they were, theywere pretty smart about it.

(01:06:50):
You know, they would leave theirweapons in these houses, they'd
hide them, they'd come out, they'dsee a target of opportunity.
They'd engage the Marines.
We'd fight back a lot of lead beings,you know, slung back and forth.
And, you know, hopefullywe'd kill a few of 'em.
Turn 'em in, get rid of 'em.
And then we know we justmoved through the city.
That was, that was a,that was friction, man.

(01:07:13):
That, that was something thatyou don't get trained for.
It was like, you know, when peopleare dying and getting shot at
around you and there's civilians andkids, it, it, it does become very
surreal in, in that circumstance.
But there's, you know, after all thathappens and it, it, it dies down too.
Like, there's, there's this weirdthing about combat that despite seeing

(01:07:35):
some of the, like the worst thingsthat humanity has to offer under some
of the most unimaginable and horrificconditions, like, there's this odd
beauty that can be born from that.
And I, I don't know if you can seeit, you know, flying, you know, 200
or 1500, but, um, you know, whenyou're on the ground and you're.

(01:07:56):
You're looking at these kids and, andthe people, um, or you're watching
the Marines, you know, hug eachother or high five or bust each
other's balls after a fire fight.
Like, there's just something,there's something beautiful about it.
Like it, you know, it, it's thiscrazy bond and you watch it unfold
right in front of your eyes ifyou take time to realize it.

(01:08:17):
Yeah.
You mentioned something earlier about ifit weren't for these marines, you know,
the courage, the bravery, you know, you'renot here having this discussion right now.
Are there a moment or two that cometo mind like that illustrate that?
Is it you are clearinga building sometime?
Is it just you're on the radiolistening to what these guys are doing?

(01:08:38):
These kids are doing?
Uh, there's probably, there'sprobably a thousand of them.
I. I was pretty aggressive.
Um, a a lot of people look at me now,Ryan, they're like, man, you, you
just don't look like this typicalmarine, like, you know, kicking doors
in and jumping outta helicopters.
Like you're just laid back and, youknow, well look at your hair, man.

(01:09:00):
For people who can't seeyou, the hair is great.
It wouldn't be a, it wouldn't be a podcastif somebody didn't talk about my hair.
But all, um, and you know, Iwas very aggressive and I think
the Marines knew that they kindof fed off of it in some cases.
I wasn't reckless, but I wascalculated and aggressive and, you

(01:09:21):
know, sometimes I would take off notjust, you know, endangering myself,
but the Marines always had my back.
Like they were always there.
Like it, like you feel so.
Invincible when you're protectedby 11 other Marines in a squad
or a company of 250 guys.
And oh, by the way, you've got two tanks.
You've got a section of Apaches, youknow, flying 500 feet above you and, and

(01:09:45):
they're talking to you on this radio.
You, you feel invincible and you've got,so you've got this bubble around you.
And you know, when I talk about thoseyoung guys, like they're all young.
You were young back then, you know, wewere all, I was, I wasn't that young.
I mean, I was, um, you know, I think Ijust turned 30, I was 34 at the time.
'cause I'd been enlisted.

(01:10:06):
I was a little olderthan the average bear.
But, um, I think, and then I turned35 on December 11th in Ramadi.
So, um, yeah, there's so many,there's so many times where.
They, they saved my ass.
Or, or the Army did too.
You know, those guys, we fought alongsidelike, you know, super firefights that,

(01:10:28):
that had happened and you think like,man, I, I am not getting out of this one.
And um, we had, uh, a platoon ofmarines that gotten pinned down
in the shitty part of, of SouthernRamadi and they called over radio.
They're like, we need help.
And you're like, allright, we gotta do it.
And so we jack up a convoy of Humvees.

(01:10:49):
We had two tanks in support.
That's a pretty powerful manlything to have too, by the way.
It's like you own your own tanks.
These M1 Abrams.
So we're rolling in and it wasjust south of this main road
that was called Route Michigan.
And um, you might be familiar with it,but we get to this other part of the city.
So as, as shitty as it was north ofRoute Michigan, it was shitty or south

(01:11:12):
of Route, Michigan for whatever reason,it was like the slums of insurgency and.
We go down there and we're,it is just, it's, it's mayhem.
Well, the Army had done sucha brilliant job of setting
up these defensive positions.
They literally wired us out ofthe area we needed to go to, like

(01:11:33):
triple strand, concertina wire,like barred wire, razor wire.
And we had no way to breach it.
It was like six strands.
It was this massive, uh, hairballof, of tangled, you know,
metal and razor sharp wire.
And we're like, how in the fuck arewe gonna get to our guys through this?
Literally the Marines get outwithout having to be told and

(01:11:54):
they're breaking out whatever.
They had some bull curves, butmost of them had their little
multi-tool, the Gerbers, andthey're cutting the wire and they're
stringing it back like a slinky toy.
So the Humvees can drive acrosscurbs, like cutting across meetings
in the intersection, just bouncing.
And like they get in there, thetanks bulldoze over everything.

(01:12:15):
And you know, we, we find these guys afterthey throw a smoke canister out there
and we're just getting lit the fuck up.
I mean, there are guys from elevatedposition shooting at us and then
there's guys to the south aswe're trying to evac these guys.
They had a couple guys get hurt.
And so I make a mad dash to one ofthe tanks who's just sitting there.
And I, here, here's thedifference for listeners.

(01:12:38):
Um, a lot of active dutyguys don't even know this.
Like there's a difference betweenarmy tanks and Marine Corps tanks.
Back in the day, I do notknow this, I'm interested.
Yeah.
So back in the day, the MarineCorps tanks M sixties and even
the, the newer M1 Abrams, theyhad what's called a grunt phone.
So on the back of the tank there's a boxthat you open it up like a little utility

(01:13:01):
thing on your house and you, you pull thatphone out and you can talk to the crew.
'cause we do tank infantry integrationwhere we're walking behind the tanks.
You've seen it on fullmetal jacket out happens.
But we could talk to those guys.
Army tanks do not have a grunt phone.
They're like, did not know this.
No.
They're like, screw the grunts.
So I climb up on the tank andI'm literally banging on the

(01:13:26):
hatch of the tank with my rifle,trying to get someone's attention.
And all of a sudden the, the lid on thetank that holds the tank commander, you
know, pops up maybe a couple inches.
And I see this little, you know, thelittle googly eyeballs in a tank helmet,
and it's this lieutenant and he is lookingat me and I'm yelling at him, fire down

(01:13:50):
this road, that building right there.
And he can't hear me likewe're getting shot at.
He can't hear me.
And I'm.
I wanted to reach through theslit in that lid of the tank
and rip this kid a new one.
And so he finally takes off his hearingprotection, Ryan, and I tell him, I go,
we are being shot at from this building.
And as I tell him, the tank justgets laced with small arms far and

(01:14:14):
I'm thinking I'm outta here, likestart fucking shooting at something.
And so the tank gets shot at again.
I fall off the tank and I'm thinking,I want to be small right now.
And I'm hunkered up against the, thetracks of the tank, and I make a dash back
to the building and they start firing.
And we, we save the guys andwe, we get 'em outta there.

(01:14:36):
But it wasn't a short process.
And, uh, you know, it's funny as, uh,I, I could, we could talk about a lot of
stuff, but like, as a writer, um, when Iwrote about that in the book, I sent it
to my editor and she sends it back to me.
She goes, what are the tracks on a tank?
I says, really?

(01:14:57):
I says, you don't know thetr and, and no kidding.
So like, as a writer, as a, um,storyteller, I had to describe them
as the caterpillar, like treads thatpropel the tank forward, you know, that
go around the wheels, like things wekind of take for granted, you know?
Are there any other moments like thatwhen you're writing the book, like really
having to relive some of these momentsor talking to guys that you hadn't

(01:15:19):
talked to in a while that brought upsomething you had either totally forgotten
about or maybe amplified somethingthat you already thought back on?
Yes.
Um, but more, most importantly.
When you're writing a story, especiallyone that's, um, you know, it's part
memoir, it's part, uh, you know, history.

(01:15:41):
Yeah.
Um, but infantry guys and pilotsare even, even worse at this.
Like, if you make a mistake, theywill eat you for fucking breakfast.
Like, if you get one thing wrong, like ifyou're doing a qua man, like you're doing
a night qua, you're doing a check on this.
Like, if, if you come back in thehot watch your guys in the aviation
community, they will eat you alive.

(01:16:02):
Like, I know that like, um, in theinfantry, it's, it's much the same.
So as I'm writing all these storiesthat I knew, um, I wanted to make sure
that I was, you know, interviewing theright people and, and really having
them fact check me like, I remember itthis way, like that story I just told.
Did that really happen?

(01:16:22):
Like, is that how you remember like,oh, yes, sir. Like that, that happens.
And so I do, um, I. You know, justlike intelligence, uh, gathering
or information gathering, you know,before it becomes intelligence.
You get certain points of information,you validate it, you put together.
So like that was a long process.
It took me, you know, a year to do that.
But more fun than that waswhen I would interview guys.

(01:16:47):
Um, for example, Sergeant JonathanEspinoza, who's one of my squad leaders,
um, he's coming to the reunion too.
He, he retired as a First Sergeant.
Uh.
He was all businessman,like the Marines feared him.
He didn't talk a lot, but hesaid a lot just his presence.

(01:17:08):
Like he was, you know, he's Hispanic.
Um, just no nonsense, just ball crushing.
Like, but like fair and, uh, justsuper, you know, just the, the, the
epitome of a quiet professional.
Yeah.
I feel like that's a high complimentthat you just delivered right there.
Oh, no.
He, he, I, I would not be the only onein that company to say that or that ever,

(01:17:30):
that ever worked with John Espinoza.
Um, he lives in Texas too.
Um, so John, if you're listening,man, this is, uh, this is no bullshit.
Like everybody thought thatabout you, but he, he got shot
that day, um, in the chest.
By a sniper during that wholetank escapade, by the way.

(01:17:50):
Um, and so he's evaced and, and youknow, when your guys get shot on
the battlefield too, or killed orinjured, like you, you really have
this blind faith and trust that thesystem is gonna just take care of him.
Yeah.
Because when they get shot, whenthey get in that ambulance or that
helicopter, they're just gone.
You keep fighting, you keep surviving,which is what the real word is, it's

(01:18:14):
survival in those types of situations.
So ASBOs shot, they took a roundacross the chest from the sniper.
He's gone.
It wasn't until I called his, hiswife Haiti and, and John and says,
Hey Matt, I'm, I'm writing this book.
I think it's important that, youknow, you help me fill in the gaps.
I'd love to do an interview with you.

(01:18:36):
And as I described him,he's not real chatty Kathy.
So I didn't, and he might've fallen inone of those categories, like, you know.
That didn't have a lot of love forofficers or whatever, but I was a
Mustang, so maybe I got some bonus points.
But when I finally shut up and toldhim that I wanted to hear what he
had to say, he talked for two hours.

(01:18:58):
That's awesome.
And you learn things, putting a storytogether that you never even new happened.
And these are things that youthink only happen in the movies,
but really happen in real life.
And Jonathan is one of those guys who getsseverely wounded on the battlefield and

(01:19:21):
basically breaks himself out of medicalcare to get back to his boys and does it.
Bye.
Hook or crook and yeah, I'msure, you know, hitching a ride.
It was like something straightoutta catch 22 or match of
our generation, you know, so.
Oh man, that's awesome.
Just, just that's, you know, being a,when you start writing stories and, and

(01:19:43):
especially ours is, uh, when I heardthose is like, there would've been no way
I would've ever even knew that happened.
No, I mean, some of the, when we gettogether these reunions too, which
are very important events for guys,um, you know, they're like, Hey,
sir. And like when this, when theconversation starts off with like,
Hey sir, like, you know, someone'sabout to get thrown under the bus.

(01:20:07):
Like, did you know that?
And you're like, you just seethis big ellipsis happening?
Like, yeah, that's great.
This is gonna be embarrassingor incriminating.
Yeah.
I, I used to go, when I was in flightschool, I'd go with my, uh, my old
man flew Huey's in Vietnam, so he'dtake me to some of his reunions.
They were great, man, this islike 25 years ago or whatever.

(01:20:29):
But some of the things, thestories these guys would tell from
being in Nam, just hysterical.
It was the same stuff for allof our units, you know, just a
different, as they like to joke.
Uh, same shit, different toilet,but just same kinds of discussions.
All right.
Listen, for people listening, um, echoand Ramadi, if you haven't already read

(01:20:49):
it, I feel like a lot of people wholisten to this have probably already read
it, but if not, please do pick it up.
And there's more stories.
Obviously one of the things we chattedon just before we hit record was some
of the philanthropic work that you'redoing, and you mentioned this celebrity,
uh, softball classic, so I wanted tomake sure we had a second for that.
Yeah, so.
I get a phone call from this guy, Timclu, we call him tk, he's an Air Force

(01:21:13):
vet, and he invites me to Texas, uh, toplay in this celebrity softball classic.
I says, well, you know, I'm no celebrity.
He goes, no, no, no, Scotty.
And like he, he's like,I want you to play.
And so at the time, it, it becamea, uh, there were two games.
There was a celebrity game and thenthere was a veteran game, and then
it kind of became celebrity veteran.
And then now it's like the celebritiesplay and like the veterans play

(01:21:37):
like the eighth and ninth inning.
And they, they Oh, nice.
Which is was my advice.
I go, Hey, tk, we're nevergonna fill Globe Life Field,
the Texas Ranger Stadium.
If it's veterans, noone's gonna come see us.
They're gonna come see, uh,Terrell Owens and Jimmy Totally.
And, and Michael Irvin.
And like, that's whothey want to come see.
So now, now we do it every year, um,at Riders Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

(01:22:02):
Uh, it will be, uh, Saturday.
October 4th this year.
Um, you can go to celebrity softballclassic.org and see the game.
Um, but the beauty of it is havingworked in the nonprofit world for, you
know, a lot of years as an executivedirector of nonprofit, um, what TK is

(01:22:22):
doing, bringing all these celebrities.
It's a fun day.
It's a family event, and we raisea lot of money and we donate it to
several selected veteran nonprofitslike Adaptive Training Foundation, camp
Shield, um, and a lot of others thatare very deserving, uh, hardworking
grassroots veteran organizations thatare doing the right things for the

(01:22:44):
right people, for the right reasons.
And I think that bringing supportersand donors and people that wanna
come to the game, it, it isimportant to me to, to stay connected
to, to that healing space too.
And we've also had a problem over.
This, this generation too, of allthese veteran service organizations,

(01:23:06):
over 40,000, by the way, registeredwith IRS out of a million.
Um, we, we've, we've created aproblem for ourselves, Ryan, where
it's been this dark, um, boozy,drowning veteran coming back from war.
And it's really done a disserviceand it's, it's hampered our military
recruiting efforts because there's no17, 18-year-old kid like I was, that

(01:23:29):
sees a guy drowning on a commercialin his combat gear or drinking himself
to the bottom of a scotch bottle thatsays, uh, you know, oh, that guy got
his arm blown up and now he's livingunder a bridge, or he is an alcoholic.
Like, where do I sign?
Yeah.
No one's doing that.
And we are, we are suffering fromthat in a military recruiting crisis.
And I think that what TK is doingin the Celebrity Softball Classic

(01:23:49):
every year in Texas is it's bringingbrightness and it's exposing the
greatness of what we're doing.
It's showing.
All these celebrities who thinkthey're someone important, how
important it's to give back.
And, uh, this year, again, weare so lucky that the person and
Warrior sing the national anthem is100-year-old Don Graves World War ii.

(01:24:14):
No way a hundred years old.
Don knocks it outta the park,no pun, every single year.
Um, but there, it's, it's gonna be great.
And we're gonna have a lotof great celebrities there.
And the second battalion,fourth Marines Association is
gonna get honored on the field.
Major General Livingston will be there.
Um, it's just a great day.
Um, it's great weekend,um, for everybody involved.

(01:24:35):
So that's, that's, that's who I'msupporting, you know, specifically
this year when people ask.
And, um, you know, I've, I've beendoing it as a part of the, the, the
softball game for, for eight years.
And, uh, it's, I've met so manyamazing people to that game.
I mean, it's last year Igot to meet Jim McMahon.
Um.

(01:24:55):
Which was a great story.
Um, I had him sign this poster boardbecause I used to go watch the Bears
Practice and my dad used to hang outwith Buddy Ryan when Buddy was off rode
by, and the only guy that didn't signthat piece of Posterboard, the Funky qb.
So I brought it to the game and meand Jim were in the dugout and he

(01:25:16):
goes, oh, I'm fucking signing this.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it is cool.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's, uh, so it's agreat cause to get behind.
It's a great family event.
Um, you get to meet a lot of cool people.
Um, you know, I started workingtoo with a guy I met at that game.
Um, the DOC, um, I, I call him Tracy.
Tracy Curry is one of the plank ownersand founders of Death Row Records,

(01:25:39):
um, you know, with Snoop and Dre and,uh, me and Tracy met at the game.
Uh, we both struck out and we werehanging out in the dugout talking
about life and philosophy andreligion and our paths in life.
And, uh.
His new documentary came out.
Um, you know, it'sjust, it's just amazing.
And so I started working with him athis, um, foundation too, to help Wow.

(01:26:01):
You know, Dallas Fort Worth kids whowant to pursue a career in the arts.
So we're working with those guys too.
Um, to what an an unusualpair, the two of you, huh?
A hundred percent.
Man, that's cool's.
Cool's.
D C's uncle was a Marine though.
So, you know, Tracy and I,ah, uh, we just, you know,
it's, it's all chemistry, man.
You know, it, it really is.

(01:26:22):
And you know, he, he's just a, justa great soul, great human being, man.
Well, we'll put, um, we'll put a link inthere so people can, if they can't attend,
at least donate something to help out.
And then last two questionsI ask everybody, Scott.
One is, when you were down range, isthere anything that you brought with, you,
carried with, you wanted to have nearbythat was something somebody had given you?

(01:26:45):
Good luck, charm.
Something important to youthat you needed around.
No, I wasn't superstitious.
I never carried any of that.
Um, socks was the biggest commodityto just not have wet feet.
Yeah, it was, we were, it was a, a lotof people ask me, because I'm from,

(01:27:06):
you know, Chicago suburbs, like, like,what's the coldest you've ever been?
I'm like, Iraq and, and shocks.
It's like, no, it was so, 'causeit, it was so cold at night.
Like, you'd sweat through all ofyour gear and the next morning you're
just begging the sun to come out.
And it was compounded bymalnourishment and fatigue and, you
know, and, and stress of, of combat.

(01:27:26):
But like, your, your feet man,if you're on the ground and
you're, you're walking so much.
Patrolling is like having clean socks.
Like it's huge.
And so we got these socks and it waslike, I don't know where they came
from, but they were athletic socksand they were like three quarter.
So they weren't military socks.
So I started wearing whitecotton, three quarter socks.
And then when I got back to this day,I wear like three quarter, like I would

(01:27:48):
wear those like throughout the rest ofmy career, I'd take my boots off and
like First Sergeant and walk by like,sir, those socks aren't regulation.
I'm like, whatever, man.
Like, awesome.
All right.
And then last question, I think Iknow the answer to this, but looking
back on 24 years of service, losinga lot of, you know, not a lot of
people, but near death experiencesand losing folks, um, as you look back

(01:28:09):
on that time, would you do it again?
Absolutely.
I would encourage this generation,um, to enlist, to serve in some
capacity to join the military.
I think, um, there's absolutelyno regrets that I have.
I've met, uh, obviously, you know,just during the short interview.
You know, hundreds of thousands ofpeople that have, you know, taken that

(01:28:32):
kid, you know, who struggled in highschool to, to where I'm at, to now, to
being surrounded by so many great peopleof influence that enriched my life.
And, and there's a lotof people that don't.
I, I cut those people out pretty quickly,but, um, you, you know who those guys are.
My, my bullshit meters prettycalibrated at this stage of the
game, and I can smell an imposter.
Um, but I have absolutely no regrets.

(01:28:54):
And I think everybody that'slistening to this show, whether you
were in the military or not, finda way, go to your local high school
and talk to the J-R-O-T-C guy.
To inspire these kids on why it'simportant to serve, because we are
suffering a, a, a severe crisis withour military recruiting command.
Um, and they didn't even talk aboutit this month in front of Congress.

(01:29:17):
Um, they kind of glossed over it, but itis a real cri and I use the word crisis
that's coming from district commandersin both the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.
'cause I'm, I'm working as anadvisory board to try and help
solve that with a tech company.
So no regrets.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Thanks so much, Scott.
I really appreciate it.
We'll have links to the book, to the booksand, um, the classic on, on the site.

(01:29:41):
Looking forward to.
Thanks again, Ryan Semper five.

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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;}Combat from Echo in Ramadi | Marine Commander Takes Us Inside the Deadliest City in Iraq Scott Huesing