[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a platoon commander to at the forefront of conducting these operations, just the efficiency at which you guys were able to do that and created the standard operating procedures.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For, for the entire SEAL teams, including the Sense of Site Exploitation, which is gathering intelligence, you guys actually created that in your platoon on that, that, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think those, you know, you were coming back from that deployment and taking over as our tasking commander with more experience than anybody else out there. And I think that gave us, we were able to harness that to help us really set our tasking up for success and focus on where we could have the most impact strategically.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I see that too, cause I remember when that, when that happened, you know, look when...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we, you know, waterboarding was training when we went through, right? So only when it's used on the worst humans on the planet, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of 9-11, did it become this big deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About this, I'm like, hey, this is a huge deal. We just handed a giant victory to the insurgency by these knuckleheads doing stupid stuff. And these photos are now being used to recruit the next generation of al-Qaeda fighters, uhm, all over the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think that, that strategic perspective that you brought to the table was, was hugely eye-opening for, for me and, and for everyone in Taskin and Brewster and I think help us focus our mission because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had trained to do those direct action missions, those targeted raids or capture kill missions. This was, hey, get intelligence, go out and grab a bad guy, you know, interrogate them, go out and grab another bad guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was Al Qaeda in Iraq battle space, two thirds of the city of Ramadi, this city of 400,000 people was totally controlled by Al Qaeda in Iraq, which is the precursor to ISIS and then, and their insurgent allies. And, and so as we looked at that, it was very clear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really refocus efforts to, uh, to, to help win strategically and that meant, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, you know, you were the first person I ever knew who had read the counterinsurgency manual. What counterinsurgency meant to me before that was, oh, that means non-kinetic operations, which is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, drilling wells or helping people, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Build a building, you know, like a civil affairs type operation, a construction project, you know, winning hearts and minds stuff. And yet you helped us really see the counterinsurgency fight. This is our part is that we can go into areas that nobody else can get into and help secure the populace in those areas and drive the insurgents out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I actually heard of was worse than that though, because it was, well, we might not be winning, but you know, we're not losing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So then you're in denial about where the situation actually is, so then you can't take corrective action to fix the problem so that you are winning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] BTF Tony I think was pretty critical in that, uh, and obviously Chris Kyle in that regard of just making sure that we had, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had trained snipers because they knew how effective that could be and, uh, and so I think getting guys ready were, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, everyone in the vehicle is wiped out. The IED goes off under the vehicle, kills everyone in the vehicle, and I remember talking to Lima Company 38 Marines, awesome group of warriors that we were so fortunate to be able to work with, learned a ton of our tactics from within.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their, uh, their patrol techniques, their snipers and how they set up Overwatch positions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember talking about that and the turret gunner from that ID was ejected from the vehicle and it was, he was thrown like several hundred feet and they couldn't, they couldn't find his body for hours. They were looking for it. Um, and it was, it was just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So hard, it was one of the first things that happened when we got on the ground. I'm hearing these stories. And just, yea, to your point, like these...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just seeing this awesome group of warriors, those Marines, the soldiers that were out there, whatever we could do to help those guys and try to mitigate the extreme risk that they were taking every single day, we were certainly going to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think just want to set the stage about that is we were going into areas that had no coalition forces presence, uh, previously and ever and, and, uh, or certainly not for years at least. And, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't go into these neighborhoods because you're all going to get killed and nobody can even come recover your body to get you out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so this was an extremely dangerous neighborhood that was totally in control of, of by the insurgents. Most of these areas, they had so many IEDs or roadside bombs planted in the roads that you couldn't drive in there. You couldn't even get into the areas. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, one thing that we realized we could do, uh, is how could we support the soldiers and Marines? How could we support this counter-insurgency fight? How could we support this mission of securing the populace, stabilizing the city, lower level of violence was taken a small group of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, heavily armed SEALs and oftentimes we had Iraqi and U.S. soldiers with us. We certainly had, um, uh, you know, Marines with us on many occasions as well, like Dave Burke and his Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. But we would, we would patrol into these areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A hundred enemy fighters can attack your position and overrun and kill everybody. This, this was not a four man, sneaky sniper team. This was a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of times it was a 30 or 40 man element that's going to go in and lock down an entire three story apartment building and you're carrying


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That we had to carry all the firepower we would need in order to defend ourselves from these attacks that we are absolutely going to come our way. Uh, and, and I, we knew that the soldiers and Marines would get to us or try to get to us if they could, but oftentimes they may not be able to just with the IED threat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and so we had to be able to protect ourselves. So we would, we would patrol in undercover of darkness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Park our vehicles and foot patrol in because that was, even at night time, uh, I mean those, the surgeons were just waiting to blow, blow you up in your vehicles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, this was going to the nearest forward operating base that we could as, as close as we could get. You know, sometimes that was across the canal or the river, uhm, and then, and then we would foot patrol in, uhm, under cover of darkness when we had the advantage of night vision and, uhm, and usually things were a little bit quieter, but we're going in areas where there was,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean the enemy had complete free reign and total freedom of movement as we call it in the military to do whatever they wanted to do. There was no one in there to stop them from that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, so we, we, we patrol undercover darkness. Um, you know, usually that was several kilometers into enemy territory set up in, in a position if we could set up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, of U.S. Army and, and, and Marine operations where oftentimes we do this as the lead element on the ground for a giant operation of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A thousand U.S. troops and dozens of tanks and, and, uh, uh, uh, you know, uh, engineering vehicles. So we'd go in there, set up these positions, um, wait till the sun came up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Call it first call the prayer would kick off in the morning kind of, uh, just before the sun would come up, the city would start to come alive. You'd see insurgents moving around with weapons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, maneuvering to attack nearby friendly patrols or setting up for attacks, loading mortars into vehicles and, uh, and our snipers would engage the, the threats in accordance to the rules of engagement. You could see, you could observe hostile acts happening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, uh, or, or our reasonable certain of hostile tennis, we saw them loading mortar tubes and mortars in the back of a truck. Obviously that's well within the rules of engagement. We know they're about to go and attack coalition forces. And so we'd engage them and they would figure out where we were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead of being the sneaky sniper, uh, sniper, uh, uh, uh, mission.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That would transition from a sniper hide to overt fighting position. And so if you were in a large building, you had to have 30 or 40 guys in there with machine guns, with shoulder fired rockets so that you could actually secure the buildings and defend yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the thing that we really learned from them was, unless we had an urgent surgical casualty, we were a hold in our position. That was an overt fighting position. So now as they started to attack us, the worst thing that we could do


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so what we would try to do is hold our position throughout the day and wait till it was nightfall, uh, until we could extract more safely, uh, undercover darkness with night vision.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's hard also for people to understand is, I think, and it's certainly conversations with our commanding officer, his staff and others, was often times the threat of friendly fire was so significant, particularly when we were out there beyond the forward line of advance and we had U.S. forces that were moving into that position where they're getting shot at by enemy fighters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The threat of getting engaged by U.S. forces was so high that we had to, we had to let everybody know where we were. And we would take the insurgents shooting at us all day long over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, a, a 120 millimeter main gun round from a, from a US Abrams tank. So, uh, that was something that we often did. And there were times when we ran up the American flag as well to, uh, to let people know where we were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, uh, and that was when we felt like we were in a good, defendable position and the enemy wanted to, the enemy wants to come attack us, bring it on. This is a, this is a overt fighting position.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, typical, um, uh, special boat teams nearby that could help us and support us. But these, these Marines, uh, were awesome and they, they took us in on those Cirque boats, which is kind of a, kind of a, a, a rear, but very heavily armed. They were putting it out there, hanging it out there on, you know, a canal that's maybe, you know, 40 or 50, 60 yards wide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, they hung it out there for us, dropped us off quietly and enabled us to patrol into those areas of the city without getting blown up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One is that you're 100% right. I mean, this, as the day would, you know, we're sitting in an Overwatch position, as daylight, you know, uh, breaks,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and the city comes alive. There's people out there just trying to live their lives. And you'd see the shepherd boys bringing his herd of sheep down to the river to, you know, water, water the sheep. And you'd see people working on cars and, and, and vehicles driving around. And, and you know, there wasn't, there wasn't a lot of commerce then because they certainly, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there was, there was, these people lived in a war zone. Uh, but yeaah, there were people out there. So you had to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The snipers had to be extremely scrutinizing and, and, uh, positive identification was absolutely key in every aspect. Uhm, the other thing about, about those, the patrols was, you know, people are like, it's crazy, you guys are out there patrolling to contact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, there was a real counterinsurgency reason for that in that, as you said, like we can't do drive-by counterinsurgency as General Petraeus said later. You actually have to engage with the populace. Our mission was to train and fight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Platoon and company size units of Iraqi soldiers, and that was getting those Iraqi soldiers out there to show them that they could actually show the populace that we're here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, was, was, that was absolutely in our mission. I think we, you know, it was dangerous, but we did the best we could to mitigate the risks we can control. We set sniper overwatches in place, uh, in just about every case that we have patrols going on. Or we had bounding overwatches, as you said, of, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The regular conventional U.S. Army and Marine units.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That were engaging, uh, out there engaging with the populace, meeting with them. When I say engaging, that sounds like they're, they're, they're out there knocking on doors, talking to people saying, hey, where can we help? Uh, you know, where are the insurgents? What can we do to help you? We're here to help and protect you with the Iraqi soldiers, with them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and obviously that was a huge piece of their counter-surgency and we did that in order to support that effort, trying to mitigate the risks that we can control in that effort.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was actually one of the most eerie things, and I love the, the, one of the pictures that we've used, uh, I don't know which chapter we used it for in Extreme Ownership, but it's a, it's a picture of task unit bruiser seals to the left and right side of, of a street, kind of a, you know, going down this narrow street with walls on both sides, and you're looking down the street.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a city street and it's totally empty and you knew it was, it was, it was amazing how.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The locals know what's coming. They see, you know, they can see down the side streets, they get the word. All of a sudden, you'd be on patrol, there's people moving around, uhm, there's, there's a family, there's kids checking a soccer ball, there's cars in the street, and all of a sudden it's just empty. And you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, which is also why, you know, you read the rules of engagement and in that escalation of force,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, they're going to move. I mean, an innocent person is going to run. They're going to, they're going to, they're going to like, Oh man, someone's pointing a gun at me. I need to back off, which they did. It was no, no problem if, if they were to, to venture out. Um, and then obviously if they continue towards you, if, if it became a threatening situation, you could utilize a warning shot to let them know like, Hey, you need to back off. And they would, so, so the idea that we were able to, uh, to use those rules of engagement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To absolutely minimize, you know, any kind of collateral damage because they were, uh, the people would disappear, uh, number one, before an attack happened in most cases. Uh, and in other cases, if you've got someone that's, it's a question, you don't see a weapon, but you're not sure why they're maneuvering towards you. You would use that escalation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and, and look, if someone's gonna continue toward your position after they, uh, have been told to back off and that they have a weapon pointed at them and then they get closer and they get a warning shot fired in the street 20 feet in front of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, they're, they're bad. There's no question that they're bad if they're, they're maneuvering in your position. Uhm, and so that, that, uh, that was, the rules of engagement gave us everything that we needed to do to, to protect innocent civilians, uh, in that regard and, and protect ourselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a city with 400,000 people. There's a, there's a, uh, governor, uh, there's a, there's a, you know, there's infrastructure in place. There's people out on the street. There was embedded reporters that were out there on operations. I mean, there was a CNN camera crew with, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a number of the Marine Army units that we worked with, I remember that specifically, Stars and Stripes reporters, uhm, it was, that stuff was, was,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, usually, eh, either, either an Iraqi citizen or, or maybe an American citizen who had grown up in Iraq. These were people that were with us on every single operation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was their homeland. They, they loved these people. There was, they were, they were a part of that on every operation. So, I mean, that was something that we were, uh, uh, that, that it was just the reality of, of, of how we were operating. This wasn't just some,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wanted to just talk about what you just said, which I think is a really powerful, uh, a powerful point. And, and, you know, oftentimes as leaders, we talk about,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What does it really mean to take care of your people? What does that mean? And, you know, as you said, it's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You made it very clear from the beginning. I think it's one of the most important things that you've taught me. Is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This, my job as a leader, my job is the platoon commander, the officer in charge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, is, as much as anything else out there, not just planning and executing a tactical mission out there, but is to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But also to make sure that they're not gonna harm our strategic mission or do something that's gonna, gonna give our al-Qaeda, you know, in Iraq, uh, terrorist enemies


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and the long-term good of the mission. And, and I think for me, it, it was, it's a hard thing. But, but as I've often said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the leader that I have to be and if I'm not doing those things, if I'm not looking out for the long term good of my people, making sure that they're doing everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that is my job as a leader, is to keep my people from doing things that is, that are going to harm them, put them in jeopardy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that are illegal, immoral, uh, unethical, but also things that they might regret for the rest of their life. Things that might affect us and harm our ability to build relationships with the local populace and go out and secure them, stabilize the city, lower level of violence. And that was my job as a leader.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you, you made that absolutely clear to us and, uh, I think that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that, that, it, it, I remember one particular time when, I don't know if it was soldiers or marines, but there had been, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There'd been, there was a protest at the front gate over, over a civilian catch that had happened, uhm, on an operation that, that, this is one that we, we hadn't been a part of, but I remember hearing about it, you talked to me about it, like this is what's gonna happen if we're not following the rules of engagement. And we were to a point where, I remember you and I actually,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember you and I had a big debate about that, like no, actually, uhm, use, use manual tools, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're willing to take some more risk to ourselves, uh, in order to protect the civilian populace to, to make sure that we don't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause, you know, unwarranted collateral damage. And that we don't give the enemy some, you know, recruiting tool to go out and say, hey, look at what the Americans are doing. They're out killing innocent civilians.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a tough situation where my breacher wanted to put an explosive charge on the door and, uh, and it probably made sense to him to be able to do that and I was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I was detached, I was back from the door and I was observing the situation. I saw, uh, I saw a man's pair of sandals, which is the common footwear they wear. Man's pair of sandals, woman's pair of sandals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kids, kids, kids, kids, like there was three or four pairs of kid sandals next to this door and it was kind of a small room that we're about to go into.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and I just, I told my lead breacher, who's a fantastic seal and an incredible guy, I was like, I was like, hey, let's pull, let's, let's manually breach that, get the sledge up here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he wasn't too happy with me for that. He was like, what are you talking about? And we, we almost, we kind of got in, in a back and forth there. Um, and I kind of had to put my foot down that to like, let's sledge the door. So we, we sledge the door, got in the room, we're able to capture the target, uh, that we were after. And of course there was a family around the other side of the door. So it was the right call to be made there. Um, but it was something that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have to be careful about not injuring civilians on this stuff. And so taking a step back to be wary of that and thinking about that. And certainly it was a higher risk. This was a high level al Qaeda in Iraq. Bad guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we pulled, there were, he had beheading videos on DVD.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, this, this was a really bad guy that we're rolling after, uh, that he was directly linked to some, some horrible, you know, torturing civilians and murdering people and in a number of attacks. Um, and so it was a risky move, but I, it was the right call based on the situation that we wanted to minimize collateral damage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we, we were after a particular guy and we, the AC 130 gunship overhead observes him jumping from one building to the next building, the next building, the rooftops were just a few feet apart so he was able to jump from rooftop to rooftop. And so we're chasing this guy, I think we have four or five buildings down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as we, it was, it was a call that I made based on like, okay, this is a high threat guy, uhm, he may absolutely have a weapon or a suicide vest on him, and we, uh, we're going to explicitly breach the charge. When we went into the room, uh, we located, he was another room deep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lined up against the wall was the family and then, uh, what was interesting about that was they stood up and immediately pointed out the guy that was like, he's not one of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and the, uh, the head of the household, the man, uh, was said, I don't need your money. Thank you for getting this bad guy out of our neighborhood. I think he'd, he'd tortured or murdered some of their relatives and, and friends. And, uh, and they were just happy for us to get, get this guy out of there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, we're actually happy to see you. We appreciate the work that you're doing. Uh, and we did send a civil affairs team out there and I think they prepared their door and, and, uh, fixed their windows or at least gave them some money, you know, to, to do that. But you gave me the leeway to make the call, but knowing that, uh, when,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We, we were going to make the call to try to minimize the collateral damage, uh, that could possibly happen at every opportunity. Uh, and that was, that was my job as the platoon commander, uh, was to be detached and observe the situations and make a decision based on what I was seeing and to try to mitigate the threat, the risk that I could to my team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to, to also mitigate the risk to the civilians. We, we prioritize that over the risk to our own team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was horrible to deal with, and I think, I think that's, you know, they were, uh, they were


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were hiding amongst the civilian populace. So you've got, you've got an individual out there, they're wearing a dish dasha, uh, and uh, which is kind of the Arabic robe and, and you might have a kaffir wrapped around their face, which is like the Arabic, Arabic headdress.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, which is a Russian belt fit machine gun. And then, and then they, you know, they dropped that weapon and now they're walking on the street as a civilian. So it was, um, they would constantly try to prey upon the, the mercies and the moral high ground and the rules of engagement of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He did, you know, was reluctant to engage this elderly man who was driving up, he thought maybe it was just a problem, next thing you know, maybe he just didn't know what was going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next thing you know, he blows himself up and kills a bunch of Americans. So they would always do that kind of stuff. They'd use spotters who weren't armed. You know, they'd send them out there looking for enemy territory. You'd have somebody who's looking around the corner of the building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But we know that, that we could, you know, we could use the escalation of force to say, warn him to either get away, utilize a warning shot, uhm, in order to do that. And, uh, but it was, it was, they would, they would,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We got to see that, where they're, they're going to attack one Overwatch position, and I would see, we're in another Overwatch position, we could see it from a different angle, they didn't realize that we were in one position, they knew what the other position was, and we'd see the behind the scenes there, as the spotter's actually looking out in the street, and he's talking to a guy,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and, and to, to paint the picture of what that looks like, you're patrolling down the street, all of a sudden, you just, I would never observe, like, the civilians leaving. All of a sudden, it would just click in my mind, like, hey, they're, they're gone, as we said before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, peeking around the corner and looking and watching you, and you know you're about to eat an RPG rocket or have some 100 rounds of, you know, machine gun burst come in your direction any moment. And, uh, it was obvious that that was hostile. We have every justification for reasonable, certain hostile intent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this was something where they, they would send out a teenage kid to like knock on the doors, knock on the gates. Cause sometimes they would know we were in there somewhere, you know, some enemy fighters got shot and killed. They're shooting back where they're not exactly sure where we are, but they're kind of narrowed it down to a group of buildings on this block and they send a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 12, 13 year old kid who's not unarmed, like knocking on the gates. Uhm, and you know exactly what they're doing. And, and, you know, they're, they're trying to figure out where you are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In that case, we weren't going to just kill some kid. What we did was, we either ignore them, not answer the gate, or in some cases,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we had a, we'd have the interpreter go out there covering for them with like the man of the house, talk to him briefly. Uh, or in some cases we detained the, the, uh, the, the kid. Obviously they're going to know exactly where we were, you know, at that point. But, um, but we didn't, we didn't engage that kid. We, we knew that they were, that kid was being used as, as,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, to, to try to find out where we were so they could kill us and, and try to prey upon, you know, our mercies. Uh, but we, we follow the rules of engagement in that regard and we would, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those kids didn't get engaged. We knew that we were in a position that we were about to get attacked and we would defend that position but we would sometimes attain that kid or sometimes just ignore him or sometimes have the, you know, the senior family member talk to him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, and try to, try to dissuade them in some way. But you, you knew that attack was coming. Uhm, and it was something that we just had to be, had to be prepared for. Uhm, but we followed the rules of engagement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No tactical advantage for doing that whatsoever. And, uh, and that's exactly what they want us to do. A hundred percent. And we knew that, um, and, and we weren't going to do that, but more importantly, like that's not something anybody wants to carry on their conscience. Obviously the immorality of that, that's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's just not who the, the guys that we serve with are. And, uh, and so that, that's not something that, that we, we would have done and, and didn't do, uh, because, um, again, my, my job as,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As, as, as the platoon commander out there was to make sure that people weren't doing something that was gonna, was illegal, immoral, unethical or get them in trouble or something that they would care on their conscious for the rest of their lives. So, uh, that's something that I took very seriously that, and, and it's, it's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, even though our enemies tried to prey upon that, that's something that we were not going to give them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we saw that a number of times and we're talking like an insurgent fighter carrying an RPG rocket over their shoulder who's holding a child, you know, a little 10 year old girl in front of him as a human shield. And again, that's, they want us to shoot them. They want us to shoot them so they can use that as, as propaganda. As I said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like these insurgents were as evil as any enemy that, that America's ever faced in our long military history. Uh, and it's because of stuff like that. It's just, just horrible, horrible stuff. What was awesome about that though is that, you know, if you're a, if you're a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Regularly engage insurgents, headshot on those insurgents, eliminate the threat without actually injuring the kids. And they did that a number of times and it was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, something that I know the Army and Marines are very appreciative of and I was, I was impressed with the skill and discipline of our SEAL snipers who were scrutinizing those shots and able to, able to save the lives of kids that these evil insurgents are utilizing as human shields.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, as they're running across the street, you know, uh, and just, you know, through no fault of their own, this kid is just being dragged along, you know, into horror.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, knowing that they're probably going to get shot and killed and a SEAL sniper will be able to eliminate the insurgent and that kid's able to go run home to their family and not be killed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, when you think about it from my perspective, if I know that my snipers are out there, as I just said, using incredible judgement, incredible discipline, minimizing collateral damage to as much as they possibly can in every situation,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a city. You might have three or four hundred people walk in front of your cyberscope and they're engaging an enemy fighter who's carrying an AK-47 and another guy with an RPG rocket that's clearly either attacking us or maneuvering to attack a nearby friendly patrol.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so we would, we would write that up, uh, and, and in, in these sworn shooter statements, and the JAG, the military lawyer at, at the CJ SOTA headquarters, uh, which was, was two levels up the chain of command for us, and they were like 80 miles away to the north, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where it was, so they're not with us. They don't know what's going on there. They would sometimes ask some questions and I got very defensive about that. And just an example, you might, I might have a, a statement that said, you know, two military age males carrying AK-47s were engaged resulting in two enemy killed in action.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so the, the JAG would, would ask some questions of like, hey, why did you engage these guys? It's like, well, they're carrying AKs, they're retacking people, obviously. But in, under the rules, there's no banks in Iraq.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So each of, each of the household was allowed to have, uh, uh, one weapon per, uh, per, I think the senior male per household. So one weapon per, uh, senior male per household.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're 80 miles away, they're not on the ground, they're not on the battlefield. So how are they supposed to actually know what's going on? There's a, it's a legitimate question. If they're allowed to have an AK-47, how do you know it's not somebody? So I realized that I needed to explain to the jack why we were doing that with those shooter statements. And, uh, and so, um, and so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We made sure that those shooter statements captured what actually happened, which was, you know, with a 22 power magnification night force scope from 250 yards, a SEAL sniper observed two military age males carrying AK-47s.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Determine a reasonable certainty of hostile intent and engage with two rounds of 300 win mag resulting in two enemy killed in action.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because that's actually what happened, but as we described that to the JAG, the JAG was like, awesome, good shot, awesome, keep doing, doing what you're doing. Uh, but that scrutiny was real and, and it's certain that we felt the pressure of that, um, initially and, uh, and, and as we,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Helped the, the Jags see why we're making decisions we're making and explain to them the situation, uh, that was going on. Uhm, those, the question is, they, they understood what we were doing. They understood why we're doing it. They just, they simply wanted to make sure that we were following the rules of engagement. And, uh, and, and so you helped me realize that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That they were actually there to help us, not our enemy trying to put us in prison, you know, for outdoing our job. They're actually trying to help us to make sure we're following the rules of engagement. And that's what we did by explaining that to them, uhm, and by making sure that those shooter statements actually described what the situation was and why it happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Iraqi soldiers are with you for all the reasons that you said, uhm, it was unacceptable to go out there and kill civilians. We're trying to protect the civilians. We're trying to actually, uhm, build the relationship and secure them, uh, so that ultimately we can win in this counter-insurgency fight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that's something that you taught me, the big cover up is always wrong. It's always wrong. I remember that statement. And, you know, one of the biggest lessons that we brought back to help young leaders after that time in Ramadi, uh, to pass on to the next generation of SEALs. As, as you were running training and I was running training to say, hey,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This temptation to like, you think taking care of your people means that like, you're gonna have their, you let them know you have their back no matter what, then that's totally wrong. The worst thing that you can ever do is help, is, is, is, the worst thing you can ever do as a leader.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is let your people know or even think that you're gonna have their back no matter what. Because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, then, I don't have your back. And that's why we gotta follow the rules of engagement. This is why this is black rights, why we have to follow the rules of engagement. And the cover up stuff, you know, the, the idea that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's not. And instead, if, if, instead what you have to do is say, hey, we shot a civilian, you know, this is why we made that decision. Here's why, uh, we had a reasonable, certain, impossible intent. You're gonna get an investigation. There's gonna be an investigating officer. You're gonna, you're gonna, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we had a situation happen where, uh, you know, we had a, uh, an individual, we were sitting in a sniper Overwatch position. We had an individual.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we went in there at night time off the boats from the river. So this was a, uh, a big compound that was, there was, uh, there was some, some mobile buildings in this compound and the buildings had been


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, vacated. So they had been lived in, it looks like not too long ago, but there was no one in them at the time we were occupying them. So we had multiple overwatches. We'd zip-tied the gates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we thought we had zip tied the entire gate, we didn't realize that there was a walk-in gate. We just zip tied the vehicle gate, the larger gate that opened, and there was a walk-in gate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had, the sun had come up, come up, we were observing this was ahead of a big operation that was going to happen with the Marine Corps in a very bad area of Vermont where they couldn't even get to us without some massive clearance operations to dig the IEDs out of the road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But so the sun comes up, uh, we engage some targets, they're shooting at us. They, we knew that the insurgents knew where our position was. And as, uh, all of a sudden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hear one of my cybers yell, Hey, someone's in the compound. There was an individual had opened a walk-in gate that we had not seen at nighttime, uh, to zip tie. They'd opened a walk-in gate and pushed the, so it's a, it's a, it's a military age male pushing a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and it's, it clearly was heavy, he's pushing it up against, he pushes it right up against the building. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the, the steel sniper that was observing this comes off his sniper rifle, grabs his M4 rifle, and engages this individual. Because he has a reasonable certainty of hostile intent that this is a guy who's planting an IED up next against the building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this had been a guy who was, he had been observing our position. He'd been talking to a group of people and pointing in our direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, he drops, he brings the wheelbarrow right up next to the building, and the sniper engages him. We go out there, and as our EOD bomb technician is looking at this wheelbarrow, I mean this wheelbarrow is full of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Heavy equipment, there's like, there was like a sandbag, uh, or like burlap sack filled with piping material with wires coming out of it. And, and, uh, and as he's looking at that,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All we know is now we have, uh, we have a individual who is wounded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and what we thought was an ID isn't an ID. And so what we did was bring that guy inside and our SEAL corpsman, who's got some incredible life-saving skills, goes to work on that guy and does everything he can to try to save that individual, uhm, in accordance with the rules of engagement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the law of armed conflict. So this is what we have to do as, uh, as a, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, and so we actually had two different investigations


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, because of that, it was through our own special operations command and we had a marine, uh, investigation that was conducted. We, we, we sat down with the Jags. We talked about it after that operation was concluded. Um, and, uh, and we brought that individual back. We, we, we brought and delivered him to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, uh, to, to the Marine Corps so that his, his body can be recovered and given back to his family and reparations made, um, in, you know, in every way that they could, they could make them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those two investigations, uh, both cleared us to show that the SEAL sniper had acted in accordance with the rules of engagement. He had a reasonable certainty of hostile intent. As you said, those Marines had just experienced something very similar to that, where a bomb was planted right next to their building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, and killed a couple of Marines and wounded several others. So it was, uh, it was, it was an unfortunate and horrible situation that happened, but we did everything we could to try to save that guy. Uhm, and, and this is the realities of war, that even when you try to minimize collateral damage, there are things like that, that happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when it does happen, you don't try to cover it up or try to make it sound like something it wasn't or plant a weapon on the guy or pretend like it didn't happen because everyone would have known about it. Everyone would have known about that. What you do is, is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is take the investigation, come investigate, see what happens. This is why this decision was made, in accordance with the rules of engagement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We, we, it required a bunch of interviews, it required sworn statements, uh, and, and ultimately we were cleared as a result of that, that it was a, it was, it was a, uh, a shot that was taken in accordance with the rules of engagement because there was a reasonable certainty of hostile intent in that situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and, and disaster. For me, for the platoon, for our mission, for everything. Uh, and I think you, you just crystallized my mind like that is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you're on the battlefield, the right thing can, it's kind of hard to determine sometimes. When you're fighting against an evil enemy, and I remember what you would say was, you can't do what you think is right, you have to do what's legal. And so it made it totally crystal clear in my mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for us in tasking a bruiser out there, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, what is legally, what do we have to do in this situation? So we're gonna, we're gonna do the thing that is legal and moral and ethical.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we're going to do what's right and legal. That's, that makes it clear in my mind. And it helps me understand the decisions I have to make. Not only me, but for everybody else in the platoon, for those in dealt platoon, for all of Tascant and Bruiser.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To all of the, the, the seals that you train through three years of training, you know, to pass these lessons on of like, that is your job as a leader. Is to make sure that your people are following the rules, are not doing stupid shit that's gonna, that's going to,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, get them sent to prison for the rest of their lives, impact our mission, uh, and cause strategic damage, uh, to our mission or our tarnished the legacy and heritage of the SEAL teams. And that was something that you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You crystallize in my mind, uh, and then I went going forward knowing I knew exactly what I needed to do as a leader in order to maintain that standard. And it was very black and white.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I couldn't be more proud of the incredible SEALs that I served with in Tasking a Bruiser and, uh, and how they conducted themselves on the battlefield. I mean, just what an extraordinary group of men, uh, and honor my lifetime to get to serve alongside them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in, uh, uh, an incredibly difficult and violent battlefield and they went out day after day and put their lives on the line. Uh, and some sacrificed their lives like Mikey Monsoor and Mark Lee and, and Ryan Job. And, uh, and I think the, just the.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How they conducted themselves in the midst of that battle is something that I'll always be proud of. You know, the discipline that they used, how they followed the rules of engagement, the collateral damage that they minimized, and the impact that they had as a result of that. And, uh, it's, uh, it's definitely something that I'm proud of. And, uh, and we can be proud of that because, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and uh, and we knew we were on the right side of that conflict. Uhm, and uh, it was, it was the honor


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had that displayed on the old CLT-1 quarterdeck with a B-40 rocket that had been shot at them and, uh, some AK-47s and things like that, you know, uh, just weapons that they'd recover. So there's a, there's a real heritage, uh, uh, thing to it. I think the, the bummer about this is that for really senior people,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to your point, Echo, there's always some jackass that does, you know, uh, if you allow something like that, somebody goes and loots or does something stupid and, and, you know, the, the one person does something bad and prevents other people. Um, you know, but I mean, to me, I look at it as like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, if your grandfather took a Luger off a German officer in, you know, in Bastogne and, you know, World War II, that's a pretty freakin' cool family heirloom, you know, to have around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like that's something to, that thing is, or a flag, you know, I mean, it's not just weapons, but it's, uh, there's some neat things like that that I think are worth having that preserve history.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, Eugene Sledge, you ever talked about that with the old breed where he's like, make it fun of the guys that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then, and then like, oh, now you got these, these guys that are showing up in like clean uniforms that are looking for like, uh, uh, you know, some souvenir to take home. Uh, they obviously weren't collecting souvenirs because they were busy fighting the Japanese. So I think there's those, that those things can be controlled, right? We're not talking about just uncontrolled looting and pillaging.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're talking about following up carefully, you know, crafted rules of engagement. And when you're, when you're talking about captured weapons that were enemy property that they now forfeited and we had a giant armory full of them that it, it, uh, task you to bruiser when we were in Ramadi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, Tim Kennedy's program, it's uh, it's awesome. It's uh, the combatants program is legit. And those origin genes are, everybody in there is trained in origin genes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's a great program, uh, awesome training down there. And, um, yeah, that, that, uh, just quality instruction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He waved it to signify he was ready and I nodded. He crept around the corner of the hut toward the door, my finger on the trigger. I aimed no more than a foot away from David as he tossed a grenade into the room and darted back around the corner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I ducked behind cover and counted out loud. One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand, five thousand. Boom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I walked in arc directly in front of the doorway being sure to shoot into the room at every


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Entering the house's tiny kitchen, I quickly scan for threats. Kill count clear. There were no shoot targets. Open door. I move to the doorway toward the dirt floor that lay across the threshold. Tunnel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I cleared the room and fired into the tunnel now at my feet, then took further stock of the room around me. ISIS sleeping pads and gear. IEDs, homemade grenades, and other explosive components littered the floor. Screw this. It seemed like everything in the room was designed to kill me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're all in that tunnel, and there's no way I'm going down there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Handing his rifle to Shaheen, David drew his pistol and hopped down into the tunnel. I shook my head in disbelief. I had read about the guys in Vietnam called tunnel rats who would go into Viet Cong and NVA tunnels.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that right there is an excerpt from a book called City of Death by Ephraim Mattos. Ephraim served in the SEAL Teams, and when he got done with the SEAL Teams, he joined the humanitarian group called Free Burma Rangers, where he fought in the Battle of Mazul.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's an honor to have him with us here tonight to share some of his experiences, his lessons learned, what he's doing now with Stronghold Rescue and everything that he's got going on. Efrem, thanks for coming down, man. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're kinda just getting warmed up. You're still doing a ton of stuff. So, this story still needs to get out there, especially about what you're doing now. So, thanks for coming man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess we can just start at the beginning. So with this book, you kind of talk about a little bit of where you came from and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is a kind, gentle man. I can't recall any moment in my childhood where he lost his temper or yelled at anyone in our family. Even when his small real estate business bankrupted the family in 2008 after the financial collapse. My father didn't complain or ask for a handout. He simply got back to work and eventually dug himself out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That also loves his country, while working a blue collar job at Milwaukee General Mitchell


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He flew dozens of combat sorties over Iraq carrying troop supplies and evacuating the wounded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My mother Bernice Matos is a terrific homemaker and during dad's multiple deployments she doubled down her efforts and put all of her energy into her two boys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On top of her domestic responsibilities, mom took a job at our school as a full-time secretary earning less than half the pay just to support the family. While I was growing up, mom was a devout Baptist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you have devout italicized. So it's like, I guess that means real devout. As a result, my childhood centered around a small, independent, fundamental Baptist church in Milwaukee. We attended church services Sunday mornings and evenings. There was a Wednesday night service and on Saturday mornings, instead of playing ball with the neighborhood kids, Zebulon and I worked in the inner city


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were usually no more than 75 students enrolled kindergarten through grade 12. That's a small group. Very small. Church practices were notoriously strict, covering most aspects of daily life. Movie theaters were forbidden, and so was music with drum beats. This is the first time I've ever heard of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, I guess bluegrass, some bluegrass. What if something doesn't have drums in it? What if it's a Metallica song without drums?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think when people would say like, well don't you like classical music? And I think part of me, my ego would think that that would sound smart to be like, well yes, of course I like classical music. But then I thought to myself, I'm really lying because I don't like it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alas, the two great influence of my youth were the church, my mom, and the military, my dad. Mom and dad mixed the two worlds together very well in this unique mixture


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Made me who I am today. A fighter who has no problem going toe to toe with ISIS or the Taliban, but also a humanitarian who cringes at the very thought of hurting someone innocent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this is your, this is your life growing up. So you didn't have, uh, an Instagram page? You didn't have, uh, social media? You weren't going to school dances and chasing girls or anything like this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you, when the uh, financial crisis hit, did you guys lose your house?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you, you were raised in this church and then I have a little note in the book here. It says, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their interpretations of the Bible as if it were biblical, as if they were biblical law.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But now I understood. God gave each of us the ability to interpret his word and I could navigate a course accordingly. From then on, when a preacher or a school teacher told me something, I took it with a healthy dose of skepticism. So you had a little bit of rebel going through your heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Band of Brothers series. Uhm, now you start doing research on the internet. Yeaah. You start researching the Green Berets. You start researching, you know, the PJs and Force Recon. And then you get to the SEAL teams. You start researching them. Uhm, you write that it seems like it would have been impossible. Like, you didn't think you could make it. Cause what sports were you playing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you've got one part in the book where you haven't left your, uh, religious school yet and there's, if I remember this right, they're basically having church, you're at church and the pastor's up there saying like, he's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, some girl that was, you know, little Mary Jane that was like, I really, you're so cute. You didn't get to go down that path, you just suck.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I can see that. It's, yeaah, all those guys that are like you, like me, I was the same way, and Jason Gardner. Uh, there's a bunch of guys, but it's rare, cause you don't have the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's probably in dock now. Once you get to San Diego, it's probably in dock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way it goes. Uhm, yeaah. So, I'm gonna fast forward a little bit in the book here. You get to, after your 19th birthday, you go into Hell Week, and for Hell Week, you got...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At some point in the middle of the night, I reached my breaking point mentally. My vomiting had been reduced to constant dry heave unless the instructors gave us water which I puked up within minutes. The pain in my back had worsened and my left hip locked up. My muscles felt like they were tearing as they tried to protect the injured areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this was only a few hours into Hell Week. I still had five more days to go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then it came, lying in the oily, filthy San Diego bay, I began to feel sorry for myself. We were doing rocking chairs, an exercise where you lock arms with the students next to you, roll onto your back in shallow water until your toes touch the submerged ground behind your head, and then roll back over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Coming back up, salt water and sand rush up your nostrils, burning like nothing else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's just one rep. It was too much, and with the instructors busy on the far end of the line harassing some other student, I stopped even attempting to do the rocking chairs, which were nearly impossible with my injured back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I stared at the black night sky, shaking my head as my body sent overwhelming signals to my brain that it couldn't possibly endure five more days. I scrolled through the reasons not to quit. Your country needs you, and what will dad think? But nothing worked. The pain was blinding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then a strange thing happened. In the midst of my misery, at the darkest moment of my life, I had a vision.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] U.S. Army helicopter flying low between two jungle mountains with a lone soldier standing on its edge. I couldn't see his face because it was looking toward the battle he was about to get dropped into. He was the only person in the aircraft besides the pilots and as my mental camera panned around the side of the helicopter I saw the man's face clearly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I was meant to pass this test. Quitting never crossed my mind again. My previous determination to continue training until I fell, unconscious, resumed, and from that moment I was at war. The instructors were my enemy and I would push forward no matter the cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there you go. Yeah. Dude, you had the freaking vision that you were Rambo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, how long do you roll for? Four months. Four months. So two classes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you get into second phase. Yep. Everything cool in second phase.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you got a bunch of veterans, a bunch of guys that have been Iraq and Afghanistan and stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, that's the way it goes. Like you, you, if you're an instructor at buds, you literally get done with your instructor tour and you're going right to a team and you're with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] X number of guys that you just put through training that you either allowed to get through training or you supported getting through training, but they're gonna be there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once while hiking a jungle mountain with a foreign partner force, both my legs cramped due to my inadequate fitness and my knees were completely locked out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] M60 or their mark 48 taking away from them or care, you know, giving up their radio or their rock or their med pack. That stuff happens, man. Like guys go down from heat or whatever. And so you weren't the first. You won't be the last. You might be the first that that openly admits it in a book. So good on you.


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[Assistant] Yeah, well that's the opening chapter of the first book that I wrote.


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[Assistant] Uhm, it's talking about being in a blue on blue and I'm the guy in charge and it's freaking, it's an awful nightmare.


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[Assistant] Uh, you know, it's interesting that chapter wasn't in the book.


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[Assistant] I had a blue, we had a blue on blue with my guys, here's what happened.


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[Assistant] And as we were writing Extreme Ownership, Leif was like, hey, you should put a chapter in about that because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a huge impact to guys going through training to know that, oh, this is, this could happen to happen to you and it could happen to them. And so when I got done writing that chapter, I was like, Hey, yeah, I wrote the chapter. And I'm like, I think it's the bleed chapter in the book and probably the name of the book too. So throwing that, you know, uh, admission and I mean,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look, this is what happens, like you said, no one's perfect. Like, combat is freaking crazy. And the crazier it gets, the more opportunity there is for you to do dumb mistakes and have things happen that you didn't expect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You, you, in that, you're a new guy, and you guys, you know, you get in some gunfights, you have some, uh, you talk in the book about, uh, Afghan get wound, one of your Afghan soldiers gets wounded. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've got, actually there's one part where you guys, you guys are basically, I think you get into a gunfight and then you go into, you back off a little bit and you're kind of setting up a, you set up a perimeter and you're sort of expecting, you're hearing probably radio reports that the enemy is going to attack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You try and get in a good piece of terrain and that's kind of where you're at. You're hearing reports that the enemy is going to attack and then we go to the book here. It says movement 50 meters away at the tree line jutting out the open field. The unmistakable bobbing of heads caught my eye.


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[Assistant] That was fast. Looks like they're here. Should I shoot? No wait until you see a weapon. The bobbing heads were moving swiftly. I placed my finger on the trigger and


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[Assistant] Gently pressed. Come on, let me see your hands. The heads made their way the final few feet to the edge of the tree line. The crosshairs from my weapon scope waited for the fighters to emerge. Adrenaline coursed through my veins while I tried to slow my breathing. Aim center mass. My finger tightened on the trigger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the two little forms came out from the tree line and sprinted toward me. What the hell? Are those girls?


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[Assistant] One was maybe eight years old, the other one no more than six. My scope filled with their faces. Tears streamed down their cheeks as they ran toward me. Both were wearing pink backpacks, IEDs, suicide vests. And this is earlier in the story, there's a


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 10 more feet and I was gonna kill them both. If they detonated their bombs in our lines, they'd certainly kill me and my entire fireteam and more seals would die trying to evacuate our bodies. I kept screaming, my finger on the trigger and scope leveled at the first girl's face, but they kept coming. My heart broke in half. Exhaling, I began pressing the trigger when the girl suddenly stopped.


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[Assistant] I'll never forget the look she gave me. Shock and horror.


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[Assistant] She knew I was going to kill her. I held the trigger and pleaded one more time. Run! Get away!


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[Assistant] This time she got the message and grabbing the other crying girl by the hand, she turned and they both ran back toward the Taliban lines.


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[Assistant] I fumed as I watched them, their pink backpacks bouncing as they ran back to their caretakers.


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[Assistant] In my head I was certainly committing cold blooded murder. I wanted Taliban heads to roll. And for the first time in my life I understood what it was to truly hate.


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[Assistant] And by the grace of God, they stop and turn and run away. But this left an impact on you.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and one of the underlying themes in the book, uhm,


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[Assistant] It's a selfish and cruelty that causes all forms of evil which plagues our world. So,


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[Assistant] And it's like this, now you have this sort of plague of hatred that's welling up in you, uhm.


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[Assistant] From having had convulsions while drowning, it seemed to me there was a 50-50 chance I was gonna die. But the truth was I didn't care.


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[Assistant] I had no fight in me to stay alive because life meant nothing to me. I spent two nights in the hospital and was then driven home by a buddy in my platoon. I spent days alone in silence trying to get my lungs to work properly, this was the lowest time in my life, and the idea of suicide crossed my mind more than once. What was the accident? Would you guys have bad


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you're doing with your life. You pretty much wanted to go back to war. Uhm, and again, you provide a lot of details.


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[Assistant] Ventured. This was actually into the Thailand-Burma border.


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[Assistant] So was that just like an indidge boat? Like a random boat?


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[Assistant] As the BMPs finished spreading out into their battle positions, like setting pieces on a chessboard, General Mustafa, the Bathist-era general from Saddam's army, and the commander of the 36th brigade walked beside his Humvee, shouting orders into his radio, while his entourage of assistants and junior commanders followed close behind in a huddled mass of camouflage, rifle, and notebooks.


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[Assistant] We're setting up for a big massive assault. Well, this is, this is on, on Karbala, right? Yes.


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[Assistant] Fast forward. Boom. Another explosion rocked the ground behind us. We both spun around as the humvee we'd been using for cover less than 30 seconds before exploded. The driver's side wheel right where I'd been.


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[Assistant] So you break- this is just chaos out of the gate. Chaos out of the gate. Yeah. And-


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[Assistant] Your job, I mentioned that you were going to be in the rear with the reserves. Obviously that didn't work out too great for you. Your selection of your rear position wasn't all that accurate. No. You guys start receiving mortars and car bombs, you know, almost immediately. But your goal is, is to provide support


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Primarily medical support, that's the alleged mission. What you're gonna try and do is you're gonna try and provide medical support for the Iraqi troops that are assaulting Karbala. That's what you guys are doing.


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[Assistant] I'm gonna fast forward a little bit. The top hatch of our BMP flew open and a few Iraqi soldiers popped their heads out smiling and shouting at us in Arabic. None of them were wearing helmets or paying attention to the whole ISIS menace only a hundred meters away. I threw up a peace sign and they did the same. They seemed to be having the time of their lives, grinning and waving at the two white Americans taking cover outside their tank.


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[Assistant] The rifle kicked into my shoulder as I watched the bullets tear through the doorways and slam into walls. Cover and move. We made it to the BMP at the edge of the village just as the Iraqi soldiers were dismounting to begin clearing homes. As soon as the soldiers had jumped out, the BMP sped off again.


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[Assistant] There's a whole underlying element to this entire thing that is not going to be clear to people that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, weren't in the military, and maybe even didn't serve in Iraq, and that is, there's like a layer of, you know, when you're dealing with the Iraqi army.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, if this was a story about you and you were with an army, you know, armored battalion going into the city,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'd say, oh I joined them and they would look at you and you'd kinda have some kind of mutual understanding about what the-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It means, you know, what you and I working together as a pair. There's like, and this is, this is with special operations to the, to the Army, to the Marine Corps. Like, I work with the Army and the Marine Corps all the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Iraqis, that doesn't really exist. With the Iraqi soldiers, like, there's, it's a lower level, like, there's gonna be crazy things that are happening. Like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, you're gonna see, like this Iraqi medic that you're talking about, brave as could be, and like, he might just do something that...


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[Assistant] Just not, even less expected. Look, combat is crazy and crazy things happen and troops do things that you don't expect. There's another, there's another multiple of that happening when you're dealing with the Iraqi army. In my experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're sort of like, well, what's going on? What are they doing? What are they thinking? So yeaah, this is mayhem.


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[Assistant] And again, you detail this stuff in the book, get the book, I'm gonna fast forward a little bit towards the end of this thing. You say there have been a few other brushes with death that day, finally the next morning the Iraqi soldiers in Garballa told us they'd heard two explosions beneath the tunnel shaft that had been filled in. This is the tunnel that you guys cleared. Trapped ISIS fighters were blowing themselves up underground.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That meant they'd been with us in the tunnels the whole time, armed with explosives. They'd hidden themselves in the elevated passageway above our heads, only to be buried alive as soon as we left.


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[Assistant] Her father motioned her toward me and she burst into tears, backing away and shaking. Her reaction was eerily similar to Ranger, our self-appointed guard puppy who had been abused by people before. Hey, I said, pulling off my gator sunglasses and smiling.


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[Assistant] Medical follow-ups simply don't exist. Rather than answers or solutions, you often are left with only doubt, confusion, anger and sadness.


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[Assistant] You've got a bunch of characters in here, but I'm not doing a good job of explaining. You've got Skye, who's a former marine. Yea, you've been a marine, yep.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'm gonna fast forward a little bit again.


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[Assistant] In a column and advance toward the back end of Musharifa.


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[Assistant] Mosul neighborhood from the rear while General Mustafa and the men of the tanks of the 36 were tasked with a direct frontal assault against a well-entrenched, mind-protected ISIS fighters.


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[Assistant] BMPs on our left flank erupted in violent explosions from mines and ISIS car bombs as we advanced across the open.


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[Assistant] While enemy mortars and rockets redoubled and exploded around us. A hundred meters to our left, a BMP hit a mine that blew off one of its tracks. Sky and I sprinted across the field to see if anyone was wounded, but the thick armor had saved everyone inside. We reached the top of a small hill with a trench and downed power lines strewn on the ground.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Musharifa was just 300 meters away now and the bullets, rockets, and mortars were too thick to continue advancing on foot. Justin, Sky, David, Shafeen, Shaheen,


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[Assistant] And I recognize this as the assault was happening and I'm watching it on the news from back here.


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[Assistant] Even though I was just trying to explain this sort of underlying chaos that exists within the Iraqi army, it was very impressive.


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[Assistant] To see the level of sacrifice that they were willing to make. You know, in the battle of Ramadi, there was, there was, that wasn't gonna happen. Like, there was a whole battalion that fled the battlefield. They like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They just left. They just up and left. They just were done fighting and they left. I think they, they had an attack on their commanding officer, they had a couple guys get wounded, a couple guys get killed, and the battalion just left.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was a, another, uh, company that got, took a mass casualties and they just disappeared. Like, so when, when I was watching this from, you know, the safety of, you know, my air conditioned house in California,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was very impressed with the fact that the Iraqis were in the lead and they were taking heavy casualties and they'd go back again and they'd go back again and go back again. That was a totally different, that was actually a


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[Assistant] That was good, and maybe that has to do with the fact that this was them in charge and it was their, their deal, you know, and their...


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[Assistant] Dear Lord, what are they doing? Bullets, airbursts, rockets, and mortars impacted at random in the open field beyond the trench where the Bradley and I sat with a dozen Iraqi soldiers. Nazahin.


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[Assistant] The Iraqi soldier said, Bradley, what does Nazahin mean? He responded like he already knew I was going to ask. It's the word they use for refugees who are no longer at home in their country, in their own country. Just like the Karen people in Burma.


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[Assistant] We watched as small, as the small family of Nazahin moved towards us. They had nowhere else to go. ISIS fighters were pouring an ungodly amount of fire into the advancing Iraqi army lines. The bullets and rockets that didn't hit their targets zipped into the vast sea of green before us. The entire field was a giant bullet catcher. We've got to do something. They're going to die.


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[Assistant] At this point, you have the phrase, uh, discretion is the better part of valor. And that came from your, what, your basketball days?


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[Assistant] We're going to the top of the hill too, Justin yelled, taking charge. Medics get in the Humvee. Sky was echoing Justin's command when a bullet snapped past me, clipping Sky's leg. He jumped back and


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[Assistant] He reached and placed his finger on a bullet hole in Sky's cargo pocket. Sky simultaneously did the same thing, but poked his finger into a different bullet hole. One bullet, two holes, no blood.


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[Assistant] I laughed in relief as Sky let out a whoop of joy. The bullet had gone into his pocket and out the other side. The thought that ISIS had just about shot Sky infuriated me.


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[Assistant] It was a small effort and probably did nothing, but I wanted them to know we'd fight back. Stepping back into cover, I saw Sky hold up his iPhone. Beside a tiny scrape with a bullet brushed his leg, Sky had come out unscathed, but his iPhone had not been so lucky. While passing through his pocket, the bullet also passed through his phone. Sorry if I don't call you, babe.


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[Assistant] Even now, sky could lighten the mo-moment. Good dude.


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[Assistant] In the distance, the stream disappeared up the road we had advanced down earlier in the day.


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[Assistant] Delo's phone, fast forward, Delo's phone rang and he picked it up listening first, then speaking a few rapid sentences in Kurdish. Delo hung up the phone and slammed it on the accelerator. Whoa, whoa, I put my hand out to calm him down. Easy buddy.


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[Assistant] It's Shaheen, Delos said, and burst into tears. I told him to wear body armor. What? Shaheen is hit. They shot him. Okay buddy, I need you to stay calm and focused, I said. It's our job to help Shaheen now.


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[Assistant] We reached the top of the hill and I jumped out of the ambulance immediately seeing Shaheen laid out on a stretcher. White bandages wrapped around his waist were quickly soaking through with blood. Gut wound.


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[Assistant] I wanted to run over and talk to him, but the words from my platoon chief in Afghanistan rang through my head. Prioritize and execute in order not to be overcome by events. Shaheen was in good hands. My priority was now to help


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[Assistant] I knew if I raised my voice at him he might break. Listen buddy, I need your help. The rest of the team is trapped. I paused for a moment to make sure he was paying attention. When a man is terrified, it is often wise to give him a task where others depend on him. That may seem counterintuitive, but giving a terrified man an important mission allows him to look behind his own needs and focus on others.


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[Assistant] Part of me felt ashamed. I wished I, I wish I had the brains and courage to think of that myself and hadn't gotten bogged down in the bureaucracy of the battlefield. There is nothing worse than watching your fellow soldiers ride into hell while you sit and watch from safety and comfort. It could have been better to, it would have been better to die with them.


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[Assistant] Then I heard it. The screaming engine of a Humvee pulling more than its fair share of weight. I stood up from the rubble and watched as Justin and Haidar's Humvee pulled the damaged F- the FBR Humvee with a tow strap. The two Humvees drove in a low lying speck of land off the side of the road and everyone dismounted.


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[Assistant] A middle-aged man lay on the ground groaning. He'd been shot multiple times in the legs. Next to him lay a little girl, maybe nine or ten years old, in a bright yellow dress. She'd undoubtedly been, she'd undoubtedly picked her favorite and prettiest dress for today, because today was supposed to be a special day. Today, after three years of living under ISIS rule, she and her father were supposed to finally be free.


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[Assistant] Her yellow dress was stained with blood as she lay unconscious, but alive in a twisted heap of dirt.


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[Assistant] Sky, slowly, and Silverhorn were already working on the man and his daughter.


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[Assistant] Once I realized this, it took me a split second to suppress all the bad things and push them into a dark, hidden corner of my soul where they would fester and infect me until I dealt with them. I could take care of that later. Right now, I had a job to do.


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[Assistant] While the team loaded the little girl and her father into the back of an ambulance, two elderly Iraqi women in black hijabs were brought to us by a few Iraqi soldiers. The woman hadn't been able to make the long walk back to the rear assembly area and they would need to be transported. David helped one of them into the front seat of the ambulance while I steadied the other.


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[Assistant] Before she climbed into the vehicle, she looked at me with tears in her eyes and kissed me on the cheek. Shokran, she said. Thank you.


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[Assistant] So this is uhm, like you know, this is definitely one of the


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[Assistant] It seemed like one of the sketchiest situations in the book that you guys had to deal with, um, you know, a downed humvee.


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[Assistant] It's like, no. I mean, it's the same thing in Ramadi. The civilians in Ramadi absolutely 100% wanted us there. They, they did not want the insurgents. They didn't want, uh, al-Qaeda running their city. They didn't, the al-Qaeda was raping and torturing the, the civilians there. They wanted them killed. They wanted them out of their city. They wanted them dead. Uh, and so,


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[Assistant] You know what's interesting is as I was like making notes for the book, I'm going from like chapter to chapter to chapter and I was trying to use the dates as like a reference.


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[Assistant] But today, while I helped wrap a bandage that held a soldier's guts in, the illusion of that game began to fade. While I wept and held an unconscious little girl's limp hand, that illusion was erased forever. War was real, and it can only truly be described as hell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess mental transition that you make as well.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I was wondering when you reached that point, like uhm, talking to a bunch of guys and guys on this podcast and the one that stands out in my mind right now is a guy named Dean Ladd who is a Marine in World War II who did the Pacific campaign and he was going into Tarawa and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They'd already, he'd already been on two campaigns. I mean, he'd already hit like, I think, one, two.


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[Assistant] Nothing's gonna happen to me, like it might happen to someone else. Uhm, and then you make a transition where it's like, oh no, this 100% can be me and you gotta be ready for that. And then, you know, I, I, again, not a fatalistic thing, but like in Ramadi, I didn't necessarily think I was gonna get wounded or killed, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You are just running the numbers in your head and the odds and.


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[Assistant] You know, every time you leave the wire, every time the guys leave the wire, there's... You just kind of have to...


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[Assistant] Run the odds, even if you're subconsciously doing it, you know, that's what gives you the knot in your stomach is every day it's like,


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[Assistant] Is today going to be an IED? Is today going to be random machine gun fire? Uhm, an enemy sniper? Like what is it going to be today? And it's, that's just what, that's just the way it's going to be, you know, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In that book. Who's the guy that made Restrepo? Uhm, the author. You know what I'm talking about? He made Restrepo. The movie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, the famous freaking author. Uhm, and I can't think of his name. Oh, Sebastian Younger? Yeah, Sebastian Younger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, sorry, I was thinking of Ernst Younger who wrote, you know, Storm of Seal. So I got a little bit confused, but Sebastian Younger, what he writes is, and it's a really cool thing. It's a really humble thing for him to say.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that's kind of a little bit of what you had going on except for that you guys were a You guys had formed a bond that leaving would have been unacceptable. Yeah, so you may not have been literally


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mandated to stay, but your, you know, your own very principles mandated that you stay and finish the job.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's, you know, in Ramadi was about, there would be wounded or killed every day. And what's weird is, and this is not, uh,


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[Assistant] This is a sad thing to say. We countered Americans. Like, we didn't really, like when Iraqis got killed and wounded, it was almost like, they didn't go in our numbers. Matter of fact, it's sad to say this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Builds up, uhm, that builds up, and you're in an even more extreme example, cause this is, you know, dozens of people getting wounded or killed every day, you know, uh, and you're in the absolute midst of it, so it's, it's an exponentially more intense scenario that you're in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, this was the definitely, I mean, I guess Ukraine is going to come back with some more intense combat, but this is the most intense urban combat since World War II for sure.


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[Assistant] I wonder if this house is next. Would I die quickly and painlessly if it collapsed on me? I knew there were dozens, maybe even hundreds of people buried alive under the rubble in the streets beneath me. I didn't want to die that way slowly and pinned down. That thought made me sick. What am I doing here?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, interestingly I just did an event and uhm, an ER doctor asked me a question and the question was basically, I think he was an ER doctor.


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[Assistant] But I can't help everyone, and I can't treat enough people, and I can't save them all.


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[Assistant] Almost gave me like a what, what am I doing type question. And again, I apologize for not being able to repeat the question perfectly, but, but the, but the answer that I gave him is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you focus on the people that, the, the millions and millions of people that are in terrible situations that you can't help, if that's where you focus your energy, I mean, don't do anything, right? Just, just don't do anything, just go freakin', uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, drink a beer and watch Netflix, I guess, and be a loser. Uhm, but if you help one person, you won.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, clearly that's a something that you're, that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Justin asked as he pointed to the rear. He already knew the answer, but the site was so difficult to comprehend it that it was worth wondering out loud. Spanning the field we had crossed earlier that day were the tail lights of a dozen Iraqi army Humvees and half as many BMPs. I wanted to throw up multiple Iraqi army vehicles with their machine guns, guns, ammo. Soldiers were retreating.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The enemy fire doubled, bullets began to ricochet off the power lines, connected.


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[Assistant] The, off the power lines connected to our house and spin off into unpredictable arcs. Knowing if ISIS reached us, they'd be coming from our direct front. I leveled my rifle in my field of fire at the flimsy front gate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could already see into the future, knew exactly what was going to happen. There is no mystery in war. Dude, if the Iraqis are leaving, we need to leave too.


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[Assistant] We're gonna get flanked and then assaulted. And we all know how that's gonna turn out. I said, keep my rifle pointed at the gate. Less than 10 seconds later, after the words were out of my mouth, bullets began to snap and crack from our left flank. I was surprised at how right I had been, but outwardly, I acted confident. See? Someone needs to go talk to David now.


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[Assistant] For running away or a David for not agreeing to leave. BOOM! Another RPG flashed in the same spot next door and sent me to my knees, ears ringing. I stood up and shifted over to guard the front gate from a different angle that would shield me from the shrapnel. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, David said, folding his arms, this is what the free Verma Rangers do. He pointed over to the five Iraqi soldiers who sat terrified in the dark. We're not here to win the war for Iraq, we're here simply to stand with them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The rest of the Iraqi army has left us here with no support and no medics. No matter how bad it gets, we do not run if there's anyone left behind. That's part of the creed of the Free Burma Rangers. He paused a few moments. Tracers continued to light up the sky and snapped his feet above our heads. Despite the noise and danger, David spoke clearly and calmly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The bottom line is this, we will not be led by fear or comfort, and we will always stand with the people who everyone else has written off. We are not leaving these soldiers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were relieved at their lack of initiative to assault us. It probably saved our lives.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where do you, where do you put, when you pull the thread on this, uhm, passion to help other people, where do you, where does it land? Where does that thread lead to? Where does it lead to or where does it come from?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fast forward a little bit, uhm, you get to a point where after that night when you guys do, like, make a stand, it leaves an impact on the Iraqi army, right? They saw that you guys were


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, even in Ramadi, working with the Iraqi soldiers, there was a similar thing of, like, some of the theory was, well, don't just train with them and then have them go do the operations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it seems good in theory because why would you, again, I already said this, why would you risk Americans to go out and do an operation or you could just send the Iraqis out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's, it's the same thing that you talk about in the book is like, you gotta, they gotta see that you mean what you say and that you are with, like with them, not just in word.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But indeed, like we will be out there with you. We will take casualties with you. And we are here to support and help you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, mortars don't. They don't discriminate. They don't, they don't care. They don't care. Uh, you gotta, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have a sniper? Cool, we have a tank. We'll send the tanks out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you, you, you talk about this and this is something that, you know, we got to see on the news a little bit back here. You know, you say it seemed the day would never end as hundreds of civilians flowed through our lines, gruesome casualties poured in both military and civilian. And then fast forward here as the day turned to night, the stream of wounded finally stopped or slowed down. Um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I need water. I sat up in my sweat soaked makeshift bed and scratched at the fresh mosquito welts peppering my face. My bone dry tongue tried to make sense of the moss coating my teeth. Day 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the early dawn light, I could make out a few Iraqi soldiers on their bedrolls, rifles, sweaty arms reach away. Someone's talk was walking past me now, bits of glass and concrete crunching beneath their boots. Despite a poor night's sleep, the dehydration cramp in my side, and the thudding artillery in the distance, I was in a cheerful mood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Though we didn't have many details, Dr. Osama was able to get word to us that our previous report on Shaheen had been false. And again, this is all like part of the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You get into just more, there's more fighting. There's more life saving. There's, there's more work that you guys are doing. More risk that you're taking to save innocent people and helpless people. I mean, just a, a phenomenal story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, when two of the faculties are damaged, it becomes exponentially harder to push through. Imagine a marathon runner whose body is in pain ten miles into the run, and they also can't remember why they're putting themselves through this painful ordeal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shaheen was dead. At first we thought it might be another case of false information. Bradley called Mohammed Ahmed, who was at the same hospital as Shaheen. On the phone, we heard Ahmed weeping as he spoke to us in his broken English. He told us that Shaheen had died suddenly from an infection in his wound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you end up kinda doing the keiko duty, right? Like the casualty, uhm, notification. Not the notification, but you go and attend the funeral, meet the family, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Back out to the front. The city grew eerily quiet as we stood guard at the nearest intersection to the house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Completely exposed, both Sky and I understood that we would be maimed or killed if a suicide bomber ever did show up. So you're basically guarding an intersection. But that was part of the risk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You should have stayed in the Navy, man. Sky laughed. You could be hanging out on the beach in San Diego right now making good money and living that seal rockstar life. Not having to do anything except shoot guns and train. You're the idiot. Good point, I grinned. My finger now resting on the AK-47's trigger.