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Part two with Heath McKenzie of MAP 3. He leads us thru the memory of Ramadi: VBIEDs, RPG ambushes, and his rare Javelin shot... and then recounts the long, messy work of coming home, sobriety, and leaning on people who answer the phone. 

• VBIEDs and the life-saving impact of up-armored Humvees
• The government center as a constant contact point
• Hooch life with volleyball, golf, Xbox, and rom-coms
• New joins... and close calls with power lines
• A sanctioned Javelin strike on a VBIED
• Lioness teams’ role in raids and sudden removal from missions
• Ramadi’s escalation
• The crash of homecoming, heavy drinking, VA struggles, and rehab
• Brotherhood, marriage, and learning to ask for help

If anyone reads this, we apologize; there is a mistake in this recording. There were 4 men killed in the March 31st convoy attack. Rest in Peace... we do remember Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Mike Teague. 

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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

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Heath McKenzie's story comes with a lot of laughs sprinkled into a good recounting of some busy days. The streets emptied and everyone knew what came next. If you listen closely, he gives an excellent account of tactical changes made from lessons learned. We walk through April 6 and 7 as Golf pinned down... QRFs ambushed from both east and west, and a small team surging ahead to break the line while the rest of the convoy wrestles contact on every block.

• joining 2-4 on the heels of 9/11
• Okinawa extension, stop-loss, MP assignment
• Kuwait training with Brits
• improvised armor and welded gun mounts
• April 6–7 ambushes
• casualty evacuation under fire
• April 10 bug hunt and a bridge overwatch mortar find
• partnering with ODA for raids and cordons
• patrol rotations, QRF rhythm, daily grind
• Conde’s death on Route Michigan and survivor’s guilt

If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story.

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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

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We revisit Ramadi 2004 with Jon Wade to trace how hard lessons learned became durable leadership in his later career as a senior NCO and Staff NCO. We end on brotherhood, nerves at the finish, and what it means to bring people home.

• early raids blocked by chains, walls, missing tools
• switch from textbook CQB... to shock and overwhelm
• April 6–10 battle: motorbikes, shifting ROE
• intel gaps and rare feedback on detainees
• HVT hit with Delta and Oliver North present
• corrupt cop raid with large caches and documents
• unit culture built through a new family and trust, repetition
• leadership lessons carried to Afghanistan
• final weeks’ nerves, rituals, and an IED close call
• reflection on ego, stewardship, and bringing everyone home

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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

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We catch up with Jon Wade from the 81mm mortars platoon. He details some sharp turns from the workup and flight over.... to the long, slow convoy into Iraq, where a medevac on the highway snaps everyone into a new reality. A reality that shaped how we fought and how he led in the future. 

• joining 81s in Oki
• Super Bowl bet, broken jet, snow PT in Jersey
• acclimatizing in Kuwait
• the long convoy, first medevac seen, stress and luck
• living under daily mortars and calm under fire
• Seabees welding, improvised armor, morale and protection
• evolving IED threat, bad briefings, learning from craters
• Warth’s evacuation
• static crews, MAP tactics, and machine gunners’ impact
• curfew stop with foreign nationals and command discipline
• first sustained gunfight, rooftop shooter, controlled clearing

If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story.

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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

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Part 2 with Dan Ackles from Rainmaker Platoon to recall Ramadi’s chaos, the missions that went right... until they didn’t, and the people who made it possible to keep going. Language barriers, split-second choices, and the loss of a close mentor anchor a hard look at meaning, duty, and memory.

• language barriers
• raids with potential intel issues and gestures over words
• the IED that wounded 2 Marines and a stalled recovery
• the blast that killed Savage
• leadership under fire and Doc Contreras’ lifesaving work
• culture shocks and unit humor as relief
• sandstorms, broken roofs, and improvising logistics
• the Barwana MEU follow-up deployment
• weighing whether Iraq changed and what brotherhood means now

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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

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Dan Ackles brings us back to the moment he stepped off a van from SOI and into a deploying battalion bound for Ramadi. A rushed workup, 7 ton trucks with sandbags, April’s sudden violence, and the moral weight of changing ROE shape a raw, unvarnished account. This interview is blunt, darkly funny, and deeply humanizing via a lived record of how young Marines adapt fast. 

• boot drop straight into 2/4 without a full workup
• crash-course training at March Air Force Base and Kuwait
• arrival and life at Hurricane Point
• first convoys in highback HMMVs and early ambushes
• April 6 firefights, reinforcements, and medevacs
• rooftop clears with Sergeant Major Booker
• frustrations with armored support and pinned-down claims
• Xbox, dominoes, smoke pit building, and chow hall bullshit
• calls home, pricey phone cards, and care packages
• ROE shifts from tight control to permissive guns free
• ethical stress, restraint, and near-miss civilian encounters
• unit humor, bond, and learning under fire

If you like what you've heard, this is a multi part episode. Make sure you listen to the rest of the story.

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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

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Part 2 with Mozey is a very candid look at the aftermath of Ramadi through stigma, medication, and a near-suicide. This is an unpolished conversation and the deeper takeaway is simple and hard: recovery isn’t a medal. It’s a practice, a conversation, and sometimes a long quiet run through the woods. If you’ve ever carried something heavy and silent - PTSD, grief, addiction - you’ll find some tools here: speak up, seek community, move with purpose, honor the fallen, and build spaces where you and others can heal.
We close with a ton of good memories and laughs from 2004, as it wasn't all trauma. The brotherhood remains and we remember why.

• unprocessed trauma after Ramadi and a fractured return
• stigma, weak PTSD support, and a suicide attempt
• Okinawa isolation and toxic drinking culture
• meds, numbness, and redeployment while sedated
• discovering ultrarunning as a coping tool
• building meaning through themed endurance events
• honoring 2/4 with the Magnificent Bastards Challenge
• ongoing recovery, speaking openly, rejecting machismo
• lighter memories from 2004 that kept morale alive

To learn more about Jason Mosel's organization and events, go here: https://racemozey.com/

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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

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Jason Mosel tells the story of arriving in Ramadi as teenagers on a “peacekeeping” mission; then living through April 4th thru 10th, and the long grind of sustained combat. It's a blur of close-range engagements where a single turn can bring an RPG screaming into your vehicle's grill. We also unpack gear gaps, improvisation, the famous Ollie North night mission, and the politics that shaped the city and missions.

• rushed training at March Air Force Base and minimal turnover
• building hooch plumbing and fixing broken infrastructure
• April 4 loss of Morris 
• April 6-7 sustained fighting with TOWs and heavy weapons
• daily reality of IEDs, mortars, heat, and hydration
• gear shortages, half doors, and ad hoc tactics
• the Oliver North "War Stories" close-range TOW shot
• contrasts with Fallujah and the politics of Ramadi
• memory, coping, and the nine-to-five of urban combat

If you like what you’ve heard, this is a multi part episode make sure you listen to the rest of the story

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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

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With Part 2, Jose Miranda starts with a streak of fire and close encounter with an Army unit during a friendly fire incident. He moves through several blasts, and carnage that defined a brutal summer in Ramadi. Jose closes with coming home, and the slow work of finding small joys and trusted voices.

• the Army engagement
• Operation Treasure Island and body recovery on the river
• May 12 KIA and the May 29 engineer IED and Echo VBIED
• checkpoint split‑second decisions and civilian misreads
• rumors, alcohol accusations, and SOG duty
• leadership under pressure
• stand‑down anxiety and distrust during handover
• homecoming and social withdrawal
• career moves to Edson Range and a quiet Fallujah tour
• why personal accounts complete the larger picture

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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

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Jose Miranda’s deep account includes a handover in Ramadi that felt hollow,  and the platoon building their own picture from scratch. From there, it’s a street-level view of the Sofia district fights, rockets fired at a suspected Vehicle born explosive, and the hard call to his mother. Before part 2 starts, Jose recalls what it meant to carry a fallen Marine’s story back to his family.

• joining the Marine Corps
• Okinawa miles that built grit
• thin handoff in Ramadi and designing the guard
• first IEDs and a fast escalation
• the day PFC Geoff Morris was hit
• triage under fire and the medevac sprint
• grief turning to resolve and the Sofia district fight
• TOWs, 203 breaching, and AT4 shots
• reloading by hand, rationing ammo, holding ground
• loudspeakers, shows of force, and blue on blue risk
• why the unit became a family in combat

This is a multi part episode, make sure you listen to the rest of the story. 

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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