Lima Charlie, Episode 25 with Jeremy Phillips

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hm, I've got no reason, the chief of a killing

(00:24):
seating with the need.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
To please you.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Where the light goes bring let's believe them in the
zone to be from a end of my yanko a
yange s good. Agree us here when you came the malice,
because all weird. I'm a one of a kind, and
I'll bring death to the glacier about to meet another
river of blood running under my feet, forging to Fred
long ago, stand next to me. You'll never stand alone,

(00:46):
my last to leave, but the first to go. The
Lord make me death before you make me old feet
on the fear of the devil inside of the enemy
faces in my sight, being with a hand shoe, with
a gill, with a heart light Our jam guys, soldier mart.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
I am a warrior, and song.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
They to the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
I read you, Lema Charlie, loud and clear. All right, everyone,
welcome to another episode of Leamit Charlie, Episode twenty five.
And I have with me mister Jeremy Phillips. Probably the
first time I ever used the term mister.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Fellow Westion, I think so. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
I probably I probably prepended your name with lots of terms,
but I'm not sure mister was one of them. But
uh yeah, so it's my fellow Western New Yorker, So
of course I gotta support the Bill's hat because they're
gonna be kicking Ravens about this weekend. And with that, Jeremy,
welcome to the show. But thanks for coming on.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Thanks, yeah, glad I'm here.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
I'm glad you are too, uh and excited to have
you on. So let's talk about uh, let's talk about
kind of who you are. And you know, this is
Leema Charlie, so it's people that have served and deployed
at some point. So kind of give our listeners and
viewers a little bit about who, what, what when you joined,
why you joined, what you did, kind of how did

(02:28):
all that come to fruition.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I guess it all stems back from like my grandparents
because my uh my grandfather on my dad's side jumped
on Normandy on D Day. My uh my grandfather on
my mom's side was a tanker in Korea. My uh
my aunt was in desert storm, my dad was in
a desert storm. It's just uh, you know, family business.

(02:56):
Mom was in the Navy, you got a couple uncles
in the army, and I wanted to do it. I
just had to. I wanted my own footsteps kind of thing.
And the big thing that led me to the Marine Corps.
Funny enough, I was I think I was thirteen or fourteen.
It was right after we moved up to New York
from Texas and I had to do a book report

(03:18):
on a famous person. And I found this book called
ninety three Confirmed Kills and read it and I did
my book report and that's what led me to the
Marine Corps and slid yep.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
Yeah, the premiere sniper and longust time.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yep held held the world record for I want to say,
like closed it close to like sixty years before that,
uh before that Canadian sniper in Afghanistan.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
So yeah, I bust the tail and all through high
school and got to graduate a semester early graduated January
twenty eighth, and shipped to boot camp February eighth and
wonderful old Paris Island.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
So was your dream to be a sniper in the
Marine Corps? Did you want to follow Carlos?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
That's that's that was kind of what I wanted to do.
That's the that was one of the avenues I wanted
to go for and you know, I wasn't part of
the cool kid club. So I took the I took
the stay in doc twice and got failed on it twice,
even though you know, I made it to the end

(04:37):
kind of the story in my life bust tail and
get kicked in the nuts.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Well, I can imagine that book, and Carlos himself has
probably imagine there's a lot of people that served in
the Marine Corps especially that probably had him inspiration. Also,
I gotta imagine it motivated a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Oh yeah, I would. I would have to say, so, yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
So were you a big shooter?

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Were you? Were you? You know, as strange as it is,
I never never hunted. I never got into other other
than archery during Cub scouts. I never got into firearms
or anything else. And I never fired my first rifle.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
Tell boot camp, really, and uh were you a good shot?
Were you a good marchman? I?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
I uh, Now you're asking hard questions. What did I score? Well,
I mean I scored, I scored expert, and I was
I was a few points short of expert or perfect.

Speaker 4 (05:38):
Well, you know, sometimes you take, you know, a raw
piece of clay, right, you can shape it however you want,
because you don't have bad habits and all that. Yeah,
so you just you listen to D I S and
and you get you know, the fundamentals down.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, and that's they know what they're doing.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Yeah. Yeah, So how long were you in the Marine Corps?

Speaker 2 (05:56):
So I did? I did four years and change I.
Uh my plan was to reenlist, be you know, be
a lifer and uh kind of get out of the
infantry and either go l a V which is a
light armored vehicle reconnaissance vehicle or Amtrak crewman those fun
little floating tuna fish cans and just the stars never

(06:20):
aligned and they changed the tattoo policy in the Marine Corps,
so I had to get out. Yeah, you couldn't have
anything below the elbow or below the knee, and I, yeah,
I way exceeded that, and so I had to get out.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Yeah, you got a little ankass for sure, just a
little bit. So that's what that's what while you got
out was the tattoo po. I did not realize it
was a Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
I thought I thought I would be safe with the
with the grandfather clause, and there was no grandfather clause
at least that's what I was told when I got out.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
When you came in, that policy obviously wasn't in effect.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Right at uh at, I remember, right, that policy went
into effect on January first of two thousand and two,
and I got uh and I got out in the
in the middle of February of two thousand and two.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
You would think by then they knew they would know
what was going to be on the horizon and they
would try to keep as many people as possible, right,
I mean, if you were if you would have said, like,
you know, January two thousand and one or anything, brout like, yeah, okay,
they had no clue what was coming. But yeah, so
by four years and something all as an infantrumen yep
a grunt.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Uh yeah, it was. Uh well, I'll back up a
little bit. And the uh so, when I went to
SOI in Campbell June, I tried out and took the
U the recon in doc test and because I could
swim and I was a pretty good shot, and my
uh my SI instructor told me I should try out

(07:51):
for it, and I did, and I just wasn't one
of the guys that got picked. There was only a
handful of us that finished it. And I had, you know,
I had a good pf he score and a good
good swim call and good rifle call and just didn't
get picked. So and we're so I got, I got,
I finished up Sawai at Campbell June and got orders

(08:15):
to Marine Corps based Hawaii in Connie Oa Bay.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
That was It was cool when you get the orders
and like, dude, I'm going to Hawaii. But you know,
it's kind of I And I guess it all depends
on who you are, because I know a lot of
guys that really loved it, and I was one of
the guys that hated it. It was, you know, it
was fun for a couple of months and then it
was just you're stuck on a rock.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, was that was it? The isolation?

Speaker 2 (08:45):
It was it the you know, I think it was
a little bit of the isolation, a little bit of
because you know how leave works. You get leave, and
at least back in the late nineties and early two thousands,
it was it was over two thousand dollars to fly
home round Tripp, right, you know, and you're e two

(09:05):
e three. You can't afford two thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
Right, And if you take leave there. Everything's expensive and
a tourist haven like that, So it's not like short
of getting a military guest house and then you're not
really have left the military to feel like you're right.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
You know, like I could go to what was that place,
Fort t Rusi over on over in Waikiki and phenomenal
hotel rooms and and you pay by rank. So yeah,
I could have stayed there for dirt cheat being E two,
e three, But you know, I'm still on a rock.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
Yeah I did. A lot of people don't realize. I'm
assuming you went over and trained. Uh what is it, Paca?
What's that? What's the big training here in the.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Training area on the Big Island?

Speaker 4 (09:52):
Oh yeah, oh yeah those up there.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yes, it does. I I've told plenty of people, you know,
I've I've frozed my butt off and seen snow in Hawaii.
Oh you didn't, Yeah I did.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Yeah, Yeah, that's uh, that's for sure. So so that's
pretty much where you're stationed rest of your time.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Uh So we did uh rotation, pump, deployment whatever you
want to call it, to uh to Okinawa, Japan and
from so it's a it's a seventh month deployment and
we went from uh Okinawa to mainland Japan to Korea.
Some guys got to go to Australia or Guam. Where

(10:38):
else do we go? You know, honestly, it's been so long,
I really don't remember everywhere I've been.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
Are these like tours on? I mean at the Marines, right,
you guys go in the boats.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
With yeah, like when yep, so like when we uh,
when we left Japan and went to Korea, we got
on a boat and yeah, it's like, I can never
do what my dad did. My dad was on a
missile cruiser and you know, he was on a boat
for I remember him telling me the story of being

(11:08):
at sea for ten months without seeing any dry land.
And we did it for five days and I n
I'm done. I'm ready to get off of this thing.

Speaker 4 (11:18):
So there's no risk of you joined the navy to
be in a submarine or something like that.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
No, uh huh, I'm not built for that. Yeah, yeah,
I'll keep my feet on the ground.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
So how were those when you think of young marines?
You know, in eighteen nineteen, twenty years old, pocket full
of money in a foreign, exotic land, was there a
lot of opportunity to get in trouble.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Oh yeah, there as a lot of opportunity to get
in trouble, you know, And like I'll I remember my
squad leader telling me my first apployment to Okinawa, you're
going to be one of three things. You're either going
to be a bible thumper, an alcoholic, or a gym rat.
And I kind of got in the middle and became
an alcoholic in a gym rat for a while. And

(12:01):
but yeah, I would like I remember we used to
go over to Kadina Air Base in Okinawa, and it
finally got to the point where the Marines were starting
so many fights in Kadina that Marines weren't allowed on
Kadena Air Base anymore. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
They have had a reputation of leaving a wake up
destruction behind themselves just a little bit. Yes, yeah, And uh,
it's funny you mentioned those three things you could become.
I heard I heard something very similar when I went
to Korea. But also I've heard from people been to
prison kind of the same thing. It's like Jim Rad
Bible dumper, like you're just gonna be in trouble, doing bad,

(12:40):
keep getting thrown a lock up.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
But uh, yeah, so you got out four years and
uh and then you were out for a while, and
what made you come back into military?

Speaker 2 (12:50):
I got So I got out, like I said, in
February of two thousand and two, and I got a
job and a plastic factor and it's the only thing
that was hiring at the time. And it was just miserable.
And I hated civilian life. That's not what I was
built to do. And tried and tried and tried, and

(13:11):
everybody had the same rules and regulations with all these
weird tattoo policies. And then I found good old staff
star in Harrelson and or Harrison sorry and introduced me
to this whole new world and all right, sign me up,
let's rock and roll.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
So ran into a National Guard recruiter in Chuck was
was a good one at that and he yes he was,
and uh now we and of course his National Guard
at the time, you know, just it's part time, so
he still had to kind of work. But just it
gave you that taste of military life that you had missed.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yep. And uh so I kept the job at the
crappy plastic factory, and I was given a lot of
opportunity unities to do different in state rotations of different things,
and I took everything I could take and just do
what I had to do. And I don't even remember

(14:13):
what was it. It wasn't even did you do like
power plants? And yeah, did the bridges and tunnels and
the power plants?

Speaker 4 (14:20):
And I was watching that, don't know, I mean the
New York National Guard. So just full clarity. I guess
I should have said this upfront. So Jeremy and I
used to serve together and in the New York National Guard.
After nine to eleven, like the entire Guard became active
duty pretty much again, it's built to this day there

(14:40):
are National Guard soldiers at Grand Central and New York
City and things like that. But I mean pretty much,
after nine to eleven, they took the National Guard and
deployed them at every nuclear power plant, sensitive location, base,
you name it, right and all over the city. Yeah,
oh yeah, a lot of opportunity for young National Guard
members to uh make some extra money, uh and do

(15:03):
something and contribute back and protect their state and all
that kind of stuff. So so you did a lot
of those. I I kind of remember when you came in.
I don't remember exactly obviously, when but he had to
be was it was it two thousand and two when
he came back in?

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, I think yeah, August or September something like that.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Yeah, I remember this young marine guy just I think,
did you come in marine cammis.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
The first Yeah, because that's all I had I got.
I think it was I think it was senior that
told me that when I showed up for formation that
evening that I needed to have some type of utility
uniform on. And I showed up in cammis because that's
all I had because I didn't get to go to
Army boot camp. And I pushed I pushed Chuck so hard,

(15:53):
like I want to go, like I you gotta send me,
and he's like, we can't. You're you're already active duty
Marine Corps. We can't send you to too Army basic training.
You've already done it, right, Yeah, So.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
You came in with like globe and anchor, yep, cd
us and YEP, I do somewhat remember that, and they're like,
oh great.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
I was like and I I remember my first interaction
with you yelling at me because I was wearing green
jungle boots and green jungle boots don't belong in the army.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Oh, we they must have been outlawed by then, yeah, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, those were good boots.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
Yeah yeah, Wow, So you came in and so two
thousand and two, and then how was your how's your
time in the National Guard?

Speaker 2 (16:41):
It was great.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
Time.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Here you tell me how it well, no, it's it's uh,
you know, there's only honestly, pre Iraq, I only really
remember one or two bad things, and everything else was great.
I got along with everybody, I learned a lot. I
was afforded a lot of opportunities that I wasn't afforded

(17:06):
in the Marine Corps that like I wanted to do
and asked to do, and and you and the Skipper
gave me the opportunity to do it. And it was
it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
And then uh, and then two thousand and four came and.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
You know, two thousand and three.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
Two thousand and three, you can go into how that
interesting story happened a route, but actually we got we
went to Germany, right, you can went this when we
went to Germany, that wasn't a great opportunity. I assuming
that's one of the way you're talking about that was.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
That was a phenomenal opportunity. The only thing, the bad
part of that is we missed October Fest by a
couple of weeks. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
They they timed that perfectly, didn't they.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yes, they did.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
They knew what they were doing. Yeah, but uh so
went that and then came back. Do you remember when
you got the when we got a lot of alert orders?
Do you remember when the actual.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Week we got well, I'll bet you we got probably
eight to ten alert orders and nothing ever happened, and
kind of reminded me of being on MSc and the
Marine Corps, like okay, yeah, okay, here we go, here
we go, and nothing ever happened. And then all of
a sudden we got the legit order. You're going.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
And that was probably what December November, December of that timeframe,
maybe October November somewhere that No, it was, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Want to say it was end of September, beginning of October,
because I met my wife October fourteenth. I think it
was October tenth or October fourteenth when we got the No, yeah,
it was October because we got the the Ralph Wilson

(18:59):
Stadium gave us the tickets to the free football game
and they played the Houston Texans, and that's.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Where you met your future wife. Yep, your children, yes, yep,
on on free tickets because you were deploying. Yep.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
And forty six days later. It's wild to say it,
but yep, forty six days later we were married. H
two days after that we left, and here it is
almost twenty three years later. Yeah, twenty three years later. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:30):
The interesting is if you remember not when we were
in Germany, you remember the Battalian commander at the time
and the OP sergeant came over to Germany and we
were like, oh, kind of boondoggle is this? They're just
trying to get a free trip to Germany from New York.
But they came over to get everyone together to say
you're deploying. That was like number seven time.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
I think that was like the sun three time, and
they were.

Speaker 4 (19:52):
Like your deployer, We're like okay, this is okay. The
like they flew to Germany to tell us this, like okay,
and U if you remember that, we came back. We
got off the buses after being in Germany for three
weeks and like families and signs and everyone's hugging. They
were like, yeah, everyone's loading back up tomorrow. We're going
to Syracuse. They're mobilizing for Iraq. And that was I

(20:13):
was not a popular person during that time, but uh,
but then that one turned out not to be real.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
So that was.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
And that's when everyone finally went, yeah, sure, we'll believe it.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
When yep so.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
Came October met your wife kept getting ready pushed out
and uh did you ever think, would you when you're
in the Marine Corps? Could you ever imagine that I'm
gonna go to war one day it's going to be
in the New York Army National Guard?

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Absolutely not.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
Yeah, especially after nine to eleven had happened.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Probably would have, Yeah, because we got because I was
in Hawaii on MSc on September eleventh, and we got uh,
we got these tiny little pagers and I don't remember
what all the numbers meant, but like one one one
you had to call the duty NCO or two to

(21:08):
two you had to report back to the base. We
could never be more than thirty minutes from the base,
and uh, and September eleventh happened and it was I
think it was like three thirty or four thirty in
the morning, and the duty NCO is beating on the door.
We're going to war. We're going to war, Like, no,

(21:29):
we're not. It's it's it's another pager and I would
I rolled over and went back to sleep, and a
few minutes later, the duty comes back through beating on
the door and everybody in the reck room. So we
all piled in the rec room and there it was,
the second plane hit in the second tower. I'm like, okay,
I guess maybe we're going somewhere. And then you know,

(21:52):
fast forward a couple of years later and here we're
doing the same thing all over again. Go to here,
go to there, go to here, go to there, and none.
It finally happened.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
Yeah, so uh, let's let's talk about that. So you went,
you went to Iraq, and uh, I think by the
time you went through pre mode and all that kind
of stuff, right, you went over about February March of
Is that about right? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (22:18):
I think it was about the middle of February somewhere
in there.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
Yeah, by the time he went to Fort Hood trained up.
How was that? How was the training at Ford Hood
h mobilizing and preparing to go? Was it what you here?
Were you impressed or were you like, let down.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
The Uh, I don't really know. I mean it was
you know, probably some guy with shiny stuff on his collar.
But the training and Fort Hood minus some of the
Bradley stuff that we got to do was a joke.
It was like, none of this is real, none of

(22:56):
this is gonna work. And then we left Hood and
went for a Polk and that's when it got serious.
And the training was legit training. It was it was
good training. We you know, we were in the mount facility,
we did some hum V stuff. It was that the

(23:16):
Fort Polk was good training. Texas not so much.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
Okay, Yeah, and then uh that was kind of like
your last thing that was kind of like your test
right before you went was was for real. So you
get into the country, I guess just talk about that.
What stands out? You had to kind of unique tour
the unit got also without getting technical detail with everybody,
but I mean the unit that went over a couple

(23:41):
patuons of instrument got split apart in different directions and
and did different things. But how was that? How was
that to point for you what really stands out? What
are some of the things that stand out for you
on that at one year deployment.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
So I guess we'll start at the beginning to go,
We'll start back at Fort Hood. So a few days
after we get to Fort Hood, back to the whole
Carlos Hathcock story, the sniper platoon section leader I don't
not really sure what he was called, went from platoon

(24:16):
to platoon through the two companies that were there and
asked for volunteers, and I volunteered and was told no,
we can't give up a body. You gotta stay here,
and I said okay, and I left it at that,
And I still have a really bad taste in my
mouth for that whole story. But so Fort Polk, no problems, kuwait,

(24:39):
no problems. And I was in our platoon commander's truck
is his machine gunner, and we got to Camp Taji
and we started doing right seat rides from Camp Taji
to this little ip station and it was funny because

(24:59):
they had a tank turred on the roof of the
building because I guess it scared people.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
I don't know, and he being I'm a jump in is, oh,
you're good Iraqi police. Just so people know, we have
a lot of savenes that watch this. So okay, But yeah,
so a racky police station.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Keep going, and I was told when we get back
to Taji, I need to go see the CEO. And
here I'm thinking, uh oh, what did I mess up?

Speaker 4 (25:32):
And you've been told you got to go see the CEO.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
No, not at all. I can never find him. And
we ended up getting packing up and convoying over to
the FOB and platoon sergeant comes back in and says, hey,
the CEO's in his office. You need to go see him.
And so I go see him. And he had no

(25:55):
idea why I was there, absolutely no clue and and uh,
I said, sir, the only thing that I can think
of is uh platoon start and doesn't want me here.
I I asked to be transferred to the sniper platoon
because they were looking for volunteers, and uh, I guess
he doesn't want me here, and he's like, all right,

(26:17):
well you're gonna be my ro O, which radio operator.
So I was a radio operator for the the company
CEO for a little while, for I don't know, maybe
a week, and uh he put me in in fourth
platoon and made me the designated marksman and sent me
next door to the uh Iraqi police station. That was

(26:40):
right adjacent to where we were at. Our FOB was
at forward Operating base for all the cities watching, and
I just kind of flourished from there. I got I gotta.
I missed the guys in my platoon, missed all of them.
We'll talk to him, you know, still hung out at

(27:03):
the chow hall whatever when we could. But I ran.
I ran missions with fourth Platoon, and I was I
was in the platoon startingst truck there and fourth platoon
and ran the fifty cal there and and when we
did foot patrols, I was a d M for him,
and it was it was just a great opportunity.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
So when you're designated marchman, did you carry a different
weapon system?

Speaker 2 (27:28):
So I uh, I was. I was definitely a a
hoarder of weapons systems, so I I uh. I carried
my issued bred a nine milimeter. I carried an M
four with a two O three, and I carried the
M fourteen. All at the same time.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
You're packing some weight. There's a little bit that's as
much AMO as you could carry him.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, I oh, what was it? So? I carried one
magazine in the still four magazines in reserve, one magazine
and I am for eight and reserve uh four h
DP forty mike, Mike, two parachute players and one smoke grenade.

(28:15):
And then I carried six magazines for the un fourteen.

Speaker 4 (28:19):
Yeah that good thing.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
You're at one hundred and fifty five pounds.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Yeah, and one hundred degrees heat if that?

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (28:27):
So how did uh did you? How did you get
to be how'd you get tagged to be? Dosney Marshman?
Was it because you told the commander you volunteered and
he said, well, okay, sure.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yep, And that's that's pretty much how it how it
rolled through, is you volunteered, you want to do it,
We're going to send you over here at the IP
station and see how you shoot and we'll go from there.
And I don't know, I guess I impressed them or
made them happy or what.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
But did you have to kind of qualify? Did you
have to show your shooting skills before that?

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah? That uh yeah, we had to get the the
because you know, other old Vietnam Era on fourteens and
had to get them zeroed and had to qualify out
the four hundred, and he was pretty impressed.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
So, okay, so you're with fourth Patoon, so not you know,
like I say, not only did the batoon you went
with out of New York get split off and go
into other states. There was you know, an Arkansas battalion,
there was an Oregon brigade, and then you got split
off to a different batoon. How I mean you you
met all different guys, got to meet other people, and

(29:28):
you were with You were with the organ guys, right,
you were with them?

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, yep?

Speaker 4 (29:33):
How was uh? How how was that tour? How I
mean it was it?

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Where?

Speaker 4 (29:38):
I mean, let me back up when it first happened.
Were you because you got to be in the position
you wanted kind of the sniper designated marksmen, but you
weren't with the guys you deployed with.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
Was it right? And it was? It was heartbreaking? Yeah,
you know, because I've been friends with these guys for
the last couple of years. We you know, as cliche
as it is, we've been to hell and back with
the tr raining that we've done, and now here I
am with my ass and the Breeze, don't know nobody.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
But doing the job you wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
Yeah, a little bittersweet, I'm assuming, because.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, that's that's definitely one way to put it.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
Yeah, so when you look back and and you spent
your rest of you the whole tour with them.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
In that I did the entire tour with Fourth Platoon
until maybe two weeks before we started packing up the
head to Kuwait, and then we got extended for I
think we were extended for a little over.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
Sixty days, right and then when but you still saw
a lot of the guys from from the you know,
are you back in New York? You still ran into.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yeah, I mean we were. We were all next door neighbors. Uh,
you know, I I used not going to say his name,
but I used the old platoon barber from from second
Platoon and he was still in my barber. You know.
It's still hung out with a lot of those guys
when I could, when you know, when the opportunity arose, I.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Mean that's better than just being on a coal different
fob or something like that. Yeah, last two weeks and
then show up like where have you been? What's been up?
You know that kind of stuff. So, so, how is
it thinking back on that tour? What what's kind of things?

Speaker 2 (31:19):
What? What?

Speaker 4 (31:19):
What have you never forgotten about? What stories tell?

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Really? Stated? The two big ones would probably be June
fourth and November twentieth, and I know I can't change it,
but you know, November twentieth always hits me hard because
I was home on mid toor leave and you know,
what if I would I lived with what if I

(31:45):
was there for years and years and years and you know,
I'm a little older and definitely not wiser, but come
to the come to grips with reality that even if
I was there, it wouldn't have changed anything.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
Yeah, I can. I can relate to that as that
was something I care to me for a while too,
wondered if the leadership over there did all they could
do to to to you know, protect and and enable people.
And you know what, you know, could I have done
anything different? So I'm with you. What what was it
unique about the June date?

Speaker 2 (32:19):
So the June date is uh wow, okay, give me.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
A second if you if you don't want to go
into it, we don't have.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
No We're good. We're good. So June fourth was a
typical every day because we did uh we did weekly
rotations and uh so it was just your your normal
every day. Split the platoon in half and you guys
are gonna go watch this mosque. And you guys are
gonna go watch this mosque, take the interpreters and and

(32:50):
go see what the emams have to say. And ah
on Route Pluto, as far back as I can remember,
it was always a black route, and for whatever reason,
we heard a loud explosion and we were only I
don't know, maybe three or four blocks from Route Pluto,

(33:12):
and you could see the smoke in the air. And
LT said, let's go investigate. So I was. I was
with the platoon sergeant, and he took the three trucks
one direction, and LT took the three trucks the other direction,
and we met in the middle, and it was one
hell of an ambush. They had. For again some strange reason,

(33:37):
there were only two MP hum v's on this rope,
and one had a fifty cow and one had a
two forty and two forty wasn't even loaded. That was
that was a wow. I can't even emphasize enough how
how ridiculous MPs were back then. And we rode and

(34:01):
the guy's inn. LT's truck saw the wounded MPs in
the street, and they piled out of the truck and
they detonated a briefcase bomb basically a claim or mind
the size of a briefcase and killed two of them
instantly and LT. As the smoke cleared, I saw LT stumbling,

(34:22):
get up, collapse, and everything I was worth I wanted
to run towards him, but I know it was a
bad idea, and we ended up getting him META backed
out and he died later that day. Yeah, June fourth
was a rough day. And but you know when they

(34:43):
tell you those those near death experiences, time slows down,
and they weren't joking because I got stuck driving that
day and I hated driving. And I just watched this
ball bearing fly right at my face and it hit
the window, hit the windshield and puckered the wind shield
and hit the hood and rolled down the hood and

(35:07):
it was right at eyeball level with me. And uh,
I'm like, okay, well, I guess today ain't the day
time to go to work.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yes, so you were driving the LT today?

Speaker 2 (35:22):
No, I was driving up the toon sartin that day
that day.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
Wow. Yeah, so uh obviously something that like you said, well,
we'll be with you forever and never forget and and
uh but you stayed on task, and you know it's
why we do that training. We do, right, so everyone
state and continues their mission. But uh so you know
we we went to go into November. That's something that's

(35:46):
near and dear boat both of our hearts, for sure,
But you had probably had many other experiences any other
closer to New York, Jeff. That was that pretty much
the one, the one or that you care about because
after why you're getting dumb to him, You're like, oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Like the one. The one that I always find comical
and I told the story a million times just because
it's so funny. Is the Uh we got tasked with
escorting EOD to a power station in the middle of nowhere,
and it took us. It was like a good five
hour drive. It was. It sucked. And we get out

(36:26):
there and it's all you know, civilian contractors and like, hey, Phillips,
you're gonna go. You're gonna go provide bodyguard back up
for the the EOD guys. We're walking around and we
finally find this rocket. It's like six feet out of
the ground and he walks up and starts shaking it like, man,

(36:47):
I don't give a shit what rank you are. You
kill me, I'm gonna be pissed. I'm gonna come back
and I'm gonna kill you. And he looked at me
and he's like, it's not our problem anymore. If it
blows up, it's not our problem anymore. Like, dude, I
really don't like you. But it was. It was too
late to dry, it was dark, and it was too

(37:07):
late to drive back that night the ALTI didn't want
to drive back, so I got a really good homemade
spaghetti and meat Paul Dinners or eod yeap. No, the
civilians made it. It was. It was. It was a
really good dinner that night. And it wasn't even on
a cardboard plate. It was on a real plate. Wow.

(37:28):
So it was.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Was it a rocket that was shot that was just
a dud?

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, it was just a dud or whatever. The warhead
it had like disintegrated when it impacted. And yeah, I was.
I was not a happy camper being five feet away
from this thing. And he's shaking it.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
No, no, not at all. The what did so I'm
assuming they blew it in place or or did something.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
No, he just he he made a triangle frame on
top of it, pulled it out of the ground, and
loaded it up in the humvy and there it sat.
Didn't even blow it in place. Wow.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
I guess they were really confident what it could or
could not do.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
I gots so, but hey, they those guys know what
they're doing.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
So next day you just have to full belly a
spaghetti dinner to roll back and just roll back the uh.
And then later on in life you look back and go, oh, man,
I you know it could have turned out so many
different ways.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
True that that's it could have had fifteen to twenty
different ways I could have turned out.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
Yeah, Guardian Angel was working overtime, Yes, yes he was.
Well I imagine with you that that that Angel probably
got a lot of overtime pay.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Oh yeah he did. It may still but I think
so the way that I drive, I think so.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
So Yeah, that was that's an interesting one. Any and
what anything else, any any involvement with the locals, any
that that you know, befriend any or get to know
any or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Just our interpreter really, I mean there was it was
like every once in a while we had to pull
guard duty over at the IP station and one day
there's eighty of them and the next day there's three
of them. So you don't really get to you know,
know anybody. I Mean, the only the only local National
that really sticks out to me is the is the

(39:23):
gas huffer at the at the hotels when we had
to go do guard duty at the hotels, and he
always sat right by the back gate on his crutch
huffing gas and he was he was there day in.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
And day out, just huffing gas and getting hot.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
Was he was he an amputee? Was he missing eleven?

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah? He was?

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
What was Yeah? He was missing his right leg from
the knee down and he just sitting there huffing gas.
It was. It was definitely a strange. Even even in
the places that I've been to and the things that
I've seen, that was still strange.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
And that was at the back gate of the hotel area.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, where the uh what was that? The Bagdad National?
The bag Dad shared and oh, I don't remember the
third one we had that little hotel complex right at
the overlook the traffic circle where Saddam statue fell.

Speaker 4 (40:23):
How long was that was that assignment?

Speaker 2 (40:27):
What did we do there? We did? I think we
did seven days or ten days every other month something
like that.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Did you get to stay in the hotel. Did you
have to sleep yep, oh you did.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yeah, great showers, flushing toilets, real food.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
It wasn't really a pass, but it was kind of
a little bit of R and.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
R in the fact, Yeah, a little bit.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
It lived well, Uh you know, you still had to
guard it.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
Yeah. So did you ever ever do any work with
any of the Iraqi police of the training stuff for
the Iraqi National Guard?

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Never did the We worked with them, but never did
like any of the training or stuff that the MPs
that lived next door did most of their training. But yeah,
we did. We did do some some door knocking and
door kicking where we worked with the IPS and and
the uh what were the I n g? The Iraqi
National Guard?

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Yeah, how was that experience? I heard mixed reviews.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
I never had them behind me?

Speaker 4 (41:30):
Yeah you were. You weren't gonna let them. You were
going to be the number one man in the stay.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
No, no, never, like if I could help it, I
I stayed in the truck on the fifty cal like
there was there was no way I was letting any
of those guys behind me. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Did you ever get to employ the uh the M
fourteen once? Okay? All right, So you got to at
least you got a little.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Time behind the a little bit of trigger time.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
That's good. That's good. Uh So, any anything else that
stands out any other.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Moment, probably a story I shouldn't tell, But I think
the statute of limitations are over. Is the going across
the parking lot and scamming beer from the Australians when
we were at the hotels.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Oh yeah, that's way you're you're way good. The Australians
got to bring beer and they weren't so uptight that
they didn't bring No.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
They had like a little a little dance club on
the on the the penthouse, and we'd go up there
and scam beer from them and go back down and
back across the parking lot. As long as you weren't stupid,
I don't think that the chant of command really cared.

Speaker 4 (42:43):
Right right they? Uh now was this on base or
is this at the hotels?

Speaker 2 (42:47):
This was at the hotels?

Speaker 4 (42:48):
Oh okay, so they had like a permanent floor at
the hotels.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah, I think the I mean we heard rumors, but
you know how rumors are with the uh you know,
there's there's press over there, there's Cia over there, there's
you know, there's there's guys in black pajamas and black
s uvs. We never really saw any of them, but.

Speaker 4 (43:12):
You know it's being kind of like the Blackwater types
that were there.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, that's we heard the same thing. Don't know if
it was ever true.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Always hanging pool side.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
And we were never allowed in the pool. Had had
three swimming pools there and we were never allowed to
utilize any of them.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
Kind of like a marine not allowed on the air base.
Yeah right, yeah it uh yeah, you guys didn't bring
some trunks and they probably knew the army guys were
just jumping butt naked.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
I'm sure probably that's most likely the reason why.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
Did not care. Yeah, but uh yeah, so I mean
that was probably not because there was no other R
and R right, there was no pass or we got
It's some like Donna Cutter or Boterrain or anything.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
So I got I got a I think it was
three days, three or four passed to go to the
Green Zone. And you know, some guys, I don't know
if they were higher ups or what, but some guys
did did get to go to Qatar. Uh, some guys
got to go to Kuwait. But like I went to Uh.
I went to the Green Zone for a couple of

(44:15):
days and got to swim in Saddam's pool and jump
off the high dive and had some decent grub and
but yeah, it was definitely weird with with incoming mortars
and incoming rockets and you're standing there in a pair
of shorts. Yeah, they take your rifles, they take your
body armor. Oh so you don't have any of that

(44:37):
with you literally shorts, a T shirt and sandals and.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
Yet incoming Yeah, yep, I got to find a bunker
somewhere or.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Oh we didn't even have those there. They like, I'll
just go get in the pool, It'll be okay. I
hope that.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
Should slow shrapnel down. But uh no, I know when guys,
you know, I wasn't guess they would. People got to
go to like Guitar or Baharain or something like that.
Even when I was in Desert Storm, Uh, there was
some of that. And yeah, they would check their weapons
and take everything like they were Savillians with short haircuts.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
You know.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
Just it was pretty much it. But I didn't realize
that Green Zone was considered an R on our point. Yeah,
I mean, but makes you wonder how the people that
were permanently stationed here got over with getting still getting
combat pay and danger pay. Yeah right, they lived in
a if they lived in a r in our position

(45:32):
full time. But then again people did that quait right,
So but yeah, so, uh, how did that? In looking back,
do you feel like the year flew by?

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Or was it?

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Was it just a lot of slow boredom of just
trying to occupy yourself, which is you know.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
It's it's that's a great question, because there there was
some time where it just it flew. You'll you'll wake
up on Monday and you go to bed on Friday
and there's no Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then there's thursdays
where Monday feels like it's six months long? Right?

Speaker 4 (46:10):
Was that because you guys were on routines do certain
types of yeah, you know, like we did.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Uh, you know a lot of the a lot of
the weird mission tempo that we had. Sometimes it was
it was just back to back to back, and you know,
you lose track of days. You don't sleep for a
couple of days, and then you're off for a day
or two and you sleep the day or two and yeah,

(46:39):
but yeah, it was just it was Uh, it was
a little bit of both.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
Yeah. Yeah, the h do you stay in pretty good
contact with the guys from the platoon that are from.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Oregon most of them, okay, i'd say probably at least
a dozen of them.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
Have you ever been out there to see him?

Speaker 2 (46:58):
No, that's that's the hard part. I I've been invited
out there a few times. And one of my platoon Mats,
lives on top of a mountain that he's got a
elk migration route that runs right through the right through
his front yard, and he shoots giant elk every year.
And I just if I ever ended up out there,

(47:20):
i'd probably never come back.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
Yeah, you probably would. You'd probably tell your wife to
sell everything and come on.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:27):
But yeah, that's that's good. I mean, I know they
do do reunions out there. They've done some. Some of
our fellow former soldiers, teammates, some that aren't here anymore,
have went out there and that kind of stuff. But yep,
I i'm't sure if you ever had had the chance.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
But I'd like to go. But you know, it's kind
of one of those things that I know, if I go,
I probably, like Texas, I grew up in Texas and
I ended up down there for a little while. And
if I ever got the opportunity to go back, I
probably wouldn't come back to New York.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
Well, free state Texas. I can't, I can't, you know, right, yeah,
from this state. But uh yeah. So you know, a
lot of guys when they came back, they felt I
call it chasing the ghost, right They they want to
turn right around and go right back. They feel like
they you know, when you're over there, all you do
want to do is get home to family and stuff.

(48:20):
But then when you get home, you realize just how
do I put it, the different I'd say sometimes slower life,
but simpler life it is in combat. Did you find
yourself wanting to go back as soon as you came
back here or not?

Speaker 2 (48:34):
And that's you know, and then and that's a very
valid statement because I mean, what what we were home
for what a week and a half two weeks and
you guys were going on a on your the two
week annual training to I think it was Pennsylvania, and
I'm like, I'm going, sign me up, let's go.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
I remember you came because I remember I was like, Wow,
you guys were not back long and it was like
you're like, no, obviously didn't have to do it. I
mean you you had like ninety days where even had
to show back up to drill and you you came
right along.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Yeah, I was got to go back to work.

Speaker 4 (49:09):
Yeah, they did, you know, her inclination want to go
back over there.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Well we got that, uh what was it? Shortly after that,
we got the warning order for Afghanistan and I was
ready to go. And that's when I got diagnosed with
the TBI and had to get medically retired. So that
was you know, I was a kick in the chops.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Yeah, But you know, and I've been asked this question
numerous times, would you rather go back to Iraq or
would you rather go to Afghanistan? And I mean, you
were in Afghanistan, and honestly, I'd rather go back to
Iraq because we had we had air support. You know,
it was it was definitely a three hundred and sixty

(49:54):
degree battlefield like Afghanistan is, but we definitely had things
in Iraq that you guys didn't have in Afghanistan. And honestly,
if I had the opportunity to go back to Iraq,
I probably would have back.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
Then yeah, yeah, it's uh. One of our fellow soldiers
did both. Well, a lot of them did both. But
I talked to one of them when they came back
from Afghanistan. I think I told this story on this
on here not too long ago, and I asked him
at the air at the Buffalo Airport, I was picking
them up and getting on buses and I and I
asked him, I said, so you've done both. I'm like,

(50:30):
which one you know, which one was worse? Which was better?
And he said, I'll go back to Iraq all day.
He goes, the ied S and the e FPS in
Iraq are nothing to those Triple stacks in Afghanistan. He said,
they were ripping apart the biggest m raps we got.
And he goes, I'll take what Iraq through at us
all day long before I want to deal with that again.
And that was pretty lightning. I mean, I had a

(50:52):
different tour than most, and obviously you guys did, going
over as an ETT in Afghanistan and everything, but you know,
it's like everything else new normal. It's like that's what
we had. So you just dealt with it, you know,
you that's but him comparing the two you know, almost
two tours pretty close to together, felt that Iraq was
a safer place.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Yeah, and you know, I mean honestly from from some
of the stories that I've heard come out of Afghanistan,
I'd rather go back to to Iraq and a thin
skin hum v.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
Yeah. Yeah, it's uh, it was definitely a little bit
different and like say, very austere and not as not
as much infrastructure for sure, but yeah, yeah, I know,
let's say, guys I was with it, you know, they
they some went back a couple of times, and uh,
I know a lot of guys that wanted to and
we would talk about it, and I'd be like, you're
chasing the ghost. You can't. You're not going to get

(51:44):
what you had for last time because it's about the
people to your left. It's not about the the enemy.
It's not about that. What made the experience where you
want to go back is the the guys that were
to your left and right, you know, absolutely not gonna
be there on the next tour even go with the
same need it people rotating and now it's.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Just gonna be Yeah, I got I got a real
good friend from the Marine Corps that uh he did
nine tours in Iraq, and he did six tours in Afghanistan.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
Wow, And uh all was he just the units he
was in because they were rotating, or was he volunteering
all the time.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
I'm pretty sure he was. He's a couple of them
were because of the unit he was in, but most
of them were I'm ready to go, let's go. Because
in the Marine Corps you do a six month deployment.
And he was just just one right after the other
after the other, and you know, and then he his
guardian angel took a break that day and yeah, you know,

(52:42):
but he's he's still doing good. He's coaching baseball and
you know, living a dream.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
Awesome, awesome, Yeah, it's uh, it is. It's a simpler life,
you know, when you don't have to deal with absolutely
you don't have to deal with dogs peaking on a
carpet and oil changes and build collected on the stuff,
and you just get up every day and go, all right,
what mission am I going on? Or am I just
gonna sit here and play the xbox?

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Yep?

Speaker 4 (53:10):
I wonder what's at the chow hall? Oh, today's steak night?
All right, go ahead, like night? So well, awesome Jeremy.
Anything else for I let you wrap where we wrap
up that just story, anything that you just want to
just give our listeners and viewers just a glimpse of
kind of what your tours like. That just stands out.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Good, batter and different honestly, not to the you know,
I mean, it was just the same. At least for me.
It was just the same thing every day. Get up
and go to work and go home, take a shower
and go to bed. You know, nothing we did. We
did stuff just like everybody else. You know, you still

(53:52):
have US Army on your chest. It doesn't matter what's
before it, whether it's active duty, National Guard, reserve. Everybody
did the same job. And you know, you just get
up and go to.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
Work, gotcha, gotcha? Well awesome man, Thank you so much, brother,
Thank you for for coming on and sharing some of that,
and uh, you know, for for your service and and
and uh not only with that, but also your service
still because you're staying in contact a lot of guys
and and that's important too, right for all of us.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Too, absolutely, you know, and uh it's uh, I I
you know, just speaking from my experiences, it's a lot
of those guys that I still talk to we you know,
we we tend to talk to each other off the
ledge sometimes.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
Yeah, we prop each other up for sure, and uh
and and that that makes a difference that uh, the
others just can't relate to. So hey, man, I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for coming on, Jeremy. He's good
talking to you, brother.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Yes, sir, Yeah, and we hope you have a good
night you too.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
By Paris by Front by Paris by FMN B fifth
time a front by fifty fifth fIF