The Spear

As a lieutenant, Maj. Jesse Lansford was deployed to Afghanistan. A Kiowa helicopter pilot assigned as an aviation platoon leader, he rarely found himself on foot outside the wire. But on one day his helicopter had to land. He spent a brief time on the ground, but it was enough for him to encounter an IED. He joins this episode of The Spear to tell the story.

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi speaks to Capt. Jason Pomeroy. In 2011, he was a platoon leader in Kunar province, Afghanistan, and he joins the podcast to tell the story of Operation Strong Eagle III, a mission during to expel enemy fighters from a rugged valley that quickly turned into a grueling fight.

In this episode of The Spear, MWI's John Amble is joined by Maj. Tyson Walsh. In 2013, during a deployment in Afghanistan, he found himself fighting hand to hand against an enemy combatant in an unexpected place: inside the heavily secured Bagram Airfield, the largest US and coalition base in the country. Listen as he tells one of he most intense stories we have featured.

This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Capt. Lindsay Heisler. An aviation officer and Apache pilot, in December 2015 she was part of a mission in Afghanistan supporting a ground force. Just as Chinook helicopters arrived to pick up that force, they came under fire from 360 degrees around them. The two Apaches overhead, including Capt. Heisler's, immediately took action to protect the ground force, and she tells the story in this episode.

This episode of The Spear features our first ever conversation with a US Army medic. On Oct. 3, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating was attacked by three hundred enemy fighters. Half of the fifty-seven US soldiers there would be wounded by the time the fighting ended. Master Sgt. Shane Courville was a medic at the COP, and he describes what it's like to be a combat medic in the middle of one of the most intense battles of the war in Afghanistan.

This episode of The Spear is the second in a two-part series featuring three guests who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book Black Hawk Down and the movie of the same name. This episode picks up where the last one left off, with our guests—from the Army's most elite units—describing how they react as the battle quickly intensifies. (This episode originally ran in 2018.)

This episode of The Spear is the first in a two-part series featuring three guests who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book Black Hawk Down and the movie of the same name. Even if you've read the book or the movie, you're certain to learn much more about that fight from these three practitioners from the Army's most elite combat units. (This episode originally ran in 2018.)

In the second of a two-part conversation with Ryan Hendrickson, our guest shares a story from 2016. Six years and a couple deployments after nearly losing his leg in an IED blast, Ryan was once again in Afghanistan and found himself in an intense fight, part of a grueling 18-hour mission that he recounts in this episode. Note: This episode was originally released in August 2018.

In this episode of The Spear, we're joined by Capt. Lucas Gebhart. An aviation officer, he was deployed to Iraq during the Battle of Mosul. That battle involves intense fighting on the ground, but the pace and complexity of the fight was equally intense for the pilots engaged from the air.

This episode features the first of a two-part conversation with Ryan Hendrickson. In this part, he shares a story from a 2010 deployment. On a mission in a particularly restive part of Afghanistan, Ryan stepped on an IED. Listen as he described that day and the aftermath of an incident that nearly cost him his leg.

In 2008, Maj. Emily Spencer was an EOD platoon leader in Iraq. In April, she and one of her teams accompanied a route clearance patrol that was planned to approach Sadr City, a notorious safe haven for militants. As the reached the edge of the dangerous neighborhood, IEDs began detonating and they began taking fire. Listen to Maj. Spencer talk through the fight.

In 2008, British Army officer Will Meddings was part of a team deployed in Helmand province, Afghanistan, tasked with partnering with, mentoring, and training Afghan forces. That job brings with it a host of unique challenges, many of which come to the fore when things go badly—like they did for Will and his team on one particular day in July.

In 2004, Tim Strabbing was a lieutenant and platoon commander in the Marine Corps, deployed to an area just outside Fallujah in Iraq's restive Anbar province. Listen as he tells the story of one particularly eventful 48-hour patrol.

Dave Eubank is a former US Army special forces officer and the founder of the Free Burma Rangers, an aid organization that works extensively in conflict zones. At the height of the fight against ISIS, he and members of his organization were in Iraq. They were there to provide help, but in that environment, they also regularly found themselves as participants in the fighting that raged all around.

The battle to wrest control of the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS involved some of the fiercest urban combat since World War II. Throughout the battle, US forces partnered with Iraqi security forces, advising and assisting them as they fought street by street to retake the city. In this episode of The Spear, we hear from two of the US officers who took part in that mission.

In this episode, we talk to retired US Army Apache pilot Dan McClinton. He tells two stories from a 2007 deployment to Iraq. Together, the stories demonstrate powerful lessons about how military units learn, how they improve, and how that improvement requires servicemembers and leaders to be honest and, at times, self-critical.

This episode of The Spear features a conversation with Lt. Col. Coley Tyler. In late 2004, he was a captain serving as a battalion fire support officer in Iraq. That meant that when the Marines asked for his battalion to take part in the Second Battle of Fallujah, he had an important role to play. He coordinated artillery, mortars, and fire from supporting aircraft to do something, in the Army, we call shaping the battlefield. As he describes, in Fallujah, that meant destruction.

Col. Phil Ryan is an Army aviator who has spent much of his career in the Army's most elite, special operations aviation units. In 2003, in the first days of the invasion of Iraq, he was a pilot in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, part of a fourteen-helicopter mission deeper into the country than any coalition forces had yet made it. When enemy forces on the objective engaged the helicopters, an intense fight broke out. Listen to Col. Ryan tell the story of that mission.

In 1968, after one season as a professional football player, Rocky Bleier was drafted by the Army and sent to Vietnam. During a firefight, he was wounded twice. In this episode, he shares his story of combat, recovery, and ultimately his return to the NFL, where he had a successful career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In this episode, MWI's Maj. Jake Miraldi is joined by retired Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta. In 2010, he became the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Listen as he describes the 2007 mission in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, and the actions for which he received the award.

In this episode, Col. Bill Ostlund tells the story of what he calls the most honorable mission he took part in over more than three decades of Army service. When a soldier from an adjacent battalion, Staff Sgt. Ryan Fritsche, was reported missing in action after a firefight, Col. Ostlund led a force composed of his battalion's soldiers to find him. The story is an example of a vital part of the Army's ethos—to never leave a fallen comrade—in action.

In March 2018, after a dangerous nerve agent was shockingly used in the British city of Salisbury, authorities looked to the armed forces to play a role in the response. Maj. Clodia O’Neill was part of that response. An engineer officer in the British Army, she explains the mission that she and her soldiers were given. The discussion also touches on some pretty major questions about how we conceptualize combat, military operations, and war.

In 2010, Maj. Patrick Dubois was a lieutenant deployed as a Kiowa helicopter pilot to Afghanistan. One day, a mission to provide support to a ground force changed quickly when he and his co-pilot were asked to do something Kiowa pilots almost never do: land and evacuate a casualty.

In 2007, Tony Luberto was a maintenance platoon leader deployed in Baghdad. Early one morning, he awoke to the devastating sounds of a Katyusha rocket attack. He talks through the attack, his soldiers' efforts to save the lives of their friends, and the lingering impact the attack had on his platoon.

For seventeen years, the US military has been at war in Afghanistan. The guests on this episode were there at the very beginning. Jason Amerine and Mark Nutsch were both Army captains and in command of the first Special Forces detachments on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. They share stories from the earliest days and weeks of what would go on to become the longest war in American history.

In 2012, Capt. Nick Dockery was a platoon leader in Afghanistan. When his platoon was attacked during a mission, an intense fight ensued. Capt. Dockery was recently recognized as the 2017 recipient of the Alexander Nininger Award for Valor at Arms by the West Point Association of Graduates for his actions during the engagement.

This episode of The Spear is the second in a two-part series featuring three guests who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book Black Hawk Down and the movie of the same name. This episode picks up where the last one left off, with our guests—from the Army's most elite units—describing how they react as the battle quickly intensifies.

This episode of The Spear is the first in a two-part series featuring three guests who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu, made famous by the book Black Hawk Down and the movie of the same name. Even if you've read the book or the movie, you're certain to learn much more about that fight from these three practitioners from the Army's most elite combat units.

In 2007, Patrick Melton was a military police soldier on his first deployment in Baghdad, when his combat outpost was hit by a barrage of improvised, rocket-assisted munitions. He was sitting inside a vehicle as he and others in his unit prepared for a mission when the vehicle suffered a direct hit. Listen to him tell the story of how they reacted when the attack destroyed everything around them.

In October 2008, Maj. Nick Eslinger was a lieutenant on his first deployment as a platoon leader in Iraq. While on patrol one day, he turned his head just in time to see an incoming grenade. He only had time to react reflexively, and what he did likely saved his life and those of his soldiers.

In 2007, a destructive new weapon appeared on the battlefield in Iraq: the improvised, rocket-assisted munition. Also called a lob bomb because of the way it is launched high into the air to land on its target, the first attack with the weapon was aimed at a combat outpost in Baghdad where a battalion of US soldiers lived. One of those soldiers was John Chambers, and in this episode, he talks us through that attack.

In 2007, Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment deployed to the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Over their months in a combat zone, they would see some of the most intense fighting of the long war. Chosen Company's commander and first sergeant and one of the company's platoon sergeant join for this episode to discuss the fighting their company experienced.

On October 3, 2009, several hundred Taliban fighters attacked Combat Outpost Keating, an isolated outpost manned by B Troop, 3-61 CAV and a small number of Afghan National Army soldiers. The ensuing battle would become one of the fiercest fought during the war in Afghanistan. Three US Army officers who were involved in the COP's defense and relief discuss the battle and their roles in it.

In 2003, Maj. (ret) John Spencer was a platoon leader in the 173rd Airborne. In this episode, he talks about the very first mission after his unit jumped in northern Iraq. He also described a complex ambush in which enemy forces targeted his platoon. Listen as he reflects on the experiences and what lessons he took from these experiences about combat, training, and fear.

In the second of a two-part conversation with Ryan Hendrickson, our guest shares a story from 2016. Six years and a couple deployments after nearly losing his leg in an IED blast, Ryan was once again in Afghanistan and found himself in an intense fight, part of a grueling 18-hour mission that he recounts in this episode.

This episode features the first of a two-part conversation with Ryan Hendrickson. In this part, he shares a story from a 2010 deployment. On a mission in a particularly restive part of Afghanistan, Ryan stepped on an IED. Listen as he described that day and the aftermath of an incident that nearly cost him his leg.

In February 2012, Capt. Jannelle Allong-Diakabana was a military police platoon leader deployed in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. One day, as she and her platoon prepared to respond to an incident outside her small base, an Afghan soldier appeared, took aim, and fired on her and several of her soldiers. Listen as she recounts the green-on-blue attack and its aftermath.

On July 13, 2008, around two hundred Taliban fighters ambushed American and Afghan soldiers in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan. The ensuing fight would become one of the deadliest battles for American soldiers during the United States' long war in the country. In this episode of The Spear, the battalion commander of the forces engaged in that fight reflects on the battle, the challenges that would follow, and the sacrifice of the paratroopers he commanded.

In 2008, British Army officer Will Meddings was part of a team deployed in Helmand province, Afghanistan, tasked with partnering with, mentoring, and training Afghan forces. That job brings with it a host of unique challenges, many of which come to the fore when things go badly—like they did for Will and his team on one particular day in July.

This episode of The Spear features Brian Humphreys, a former US Marine Corps officer who shares stories from two deployments. In the first, to Iraq’s Anbar province,the ambush he describes is indicative of the tough deployments the Marine Corps was facing around 2004 and 2005. Later, in Afghanistan, Brian was tasked with training Afghan soldiers, and his experience is something many veterans of our post-9/11 wars can relate to: long periods of tedious work punctuated by intense, violent, and sometimes chaotic combat.

In 2004, Tim Strabbing was a lieutenant and platoon commander in the Marine Corps, deployed to an area just outside Fallujah in Iraq's restive Anbar province. Listen as he tells the story of one particularly eventful 48-hour patrol.

In 2003, Alex Perez-Cruz was a company executive officer during the invasion of Iraq. He returned as a company commander during the Surge. Now a lieutenant colonel, he shares stories from each of those deployments, compares the two experiences, and reflects on the leadership lessons he learned during combat.

Dave Eubank is a former US Army special forces officer and the founder of the Free Burma Rangers, an aid organization that works extensively in conflict zones. At the height of the fight against ISIS, he and members of his organization were in Iraq. They were there to provide help, but in that environment, they also regularly found themselves as participants in the fighting that raged all around.

Col. Bill Ostlund is the director of the Department of Military Instruction at West Point. In 1990, as a lieutenant, he arrived at his first unit as an officer and almost immediately got the order to deploy to Saudi Arabia. Shortly after, he and his battalion air assaulted into Iraq as part of Operation Desert Storm. Listen to him recall his experiences and the lessons he learned from them.

In this episode, we talk to retired US Army Apache pilot Dan McClinton. He tells two stories from a 2007 deployment to Iraq. Together, the stories demonstrate powerful lessons about how military units learn, how they improve, and how that improvement requires servicemembers and leaders to be honest and, at times, self-critical.

In this episode, Maj. Jake Miraldi walks listeners through the 2009 Battle of Barg-e Matal in eastern Afghanistan's Nuristan province. He was part of a small US force sent to retake a village captured by Taliban forces. They expected to be at the village for 96 hours. His battalion ended up fighting there for two months.

Col. Phil Ryan is the commander of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. In 2003, in the first days of the invasion of Iraq, he was a pilot in the unit, part of a fourteen-helicopter mission deeper into the country than any coalition forces had yet made it. When enemy forces on the objective engaged the helicopters, an intense fight broke out. Listen to Col. Ryan tell the story of that mission.

This episode doesn't feature a combat story. But the conversation with FDNY's Chief Joseph Pfeifer is strikingly similar to the story we've heard in past episodes about combat. Like those, it covers crisis decision-making and leadership under stress. On 9/11, Chief Pfeifer and his firefighters were just blocks away from the World Trade Center when the first plane hit. Listen to him talk through the emergency response and how FDNY leaders navigated an incredibly challenging day.

In 2003, Maj. John Spencer was a platoon leader in Iraq. One night, while waiting in an ambush position, he gave the order for his platoon to move to interdict a group of armed men. When his lead vehicle, his soldiers did what they had been trained to do: they returned fire and assaulted the objective. But there was a surprise in store for them.

On August 16, 2013, Capt. Brandon Thomas was a troop commander deployed to Kandahar province, Afghanistan. That day, during an unplanned halt on a mission, Capt. Thomas and his soldiers were hit by a suicide bomber. In this powerful episode, he talks about that day, the wounds he suffered, and his recovery.