Send us Fan Mail

We catch up with Lance Corporal Ruben Ventocilla as he walks us from pre-deployment training to the heat and chaos of Ramadi in 2004, including IED strikes, gear shortages, and the constant need to adapt. He also leads us through his medevac to Baghdad story and where his service sits with him 20 years later. 

• black ice in New Jersey 
• leadership and training details that stick for decades 
• joining the Marine Corps as a Peruvian immigrant 
• early Iraq moments
• driving versus dismounting and how roles shaped focus
• scavenging and improvising gear
• arriving in Ramadi and making hooch life workable 
• having "a stroke" and the Baghdad hospital trip 
• downtime routines
• reporters in the AO and meeting Oliver North 
• chemical weapon rumors
• coming home readjustment and the uneasy “hero” label 

----------------------------------------------
If you like what you heard, please subscribe on your favorite podcast service or follow our webpage for direct downloads @ https://www.buzzsprout.com/2525088

If you are a member of Weapons Company or someone with a story about Weapons Company 2/4 in 2004, please come tell some stories with us - 20 mins or 20 hours! Help paint the canvas of an archival story for others to know what it was like. Contact us @ [email protected], or via the podcast website above. 

All music used with permission by soundbay: https://www.youtube.com/@soundbay_RFM