Constant Combat

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We sit down with Joe Latham from MAP-3 to trace Ramadi 2004 through first contact, running dry, and the strange comforts that kept us human.
Death felt certain on the flight in - and continued through a city that kept producing gunfights, dead ends, and hard-won momentum.
Cigarettes before firefights, javelin top-attack chaos, and the loss of Sgt Kenneth Conde frame a raw, unvarnished story of fear, grit, and brotherhood.

• Lucky troll charm and accepting mortality
• C-130 dive, first firefight, bullets like bees
• April 6 street battle and Army resupply
• Mark 19s changing momentum
• Love Actually as a release valve
• AT4 misfires and VBIED javelin shot
• North Bridge counter-fire and Mattis visit
• Hooch culture, humor, and coping
• Conde’s mentorship and death on Michigan
• Grief, bonds, and staying to lead others
• Summer operations

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

To read an excellent book by our guest, now known as Dr. Latham, check this link: https://a.co/d/hRpn0cM

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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 open on a quiet patrol that turns into an IED ambush on Route Nova and follow the split-second decisions that shape a platoon’s fate. Felix opens up about loss, leadership, near misses, and the broken path home—and what real support can look like.

• LCpl Savage wounded during a concrete-layered IED blast on Route Nova
• Doc freezing then snapping into care under pressure
• Night ops chaos with live power lines and concussion injuries
• Training river escape drills for up-armored Humvees
• QRF firefight, restraint under fire, and controlling chaos
• Interpreters’ risks, “Wilbur,” and the cost of allegiance
• Siloed platoons, downtime rituals, clippers and call centers
• Abrupt transition to civilian life, alcohol, and drift
• Then vs now: poor debriefs versus robust modern support
• Responsibility to those who served with us and to ourselves

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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 

Send us Fan Mail

We start out with Felix Garcia’s path from Ramadi to the drill field and reckon with the quiet cost of leadership, fear, and healing. Then, we start with the Lioness teams, ad hoc tactics, and the moment a book helped name what years of silence could not. This is a story about leadership in combat that refuses easy answers and finds dignity in honesty, mentorship, and accountability.

• combat to drill instructor transition with no debrief
• coping with PTSD and isolation with alcohol
• integrating Lioness teams and mission-first culture
• redefining human response to fear
• small-unit leadership under fire and accountability
• training adaption with British advisors and drills
• mentoring a Marine who chose to speak up
• faith as anchor and the weight of command
• graveyard ambush and QRF actions


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 

Send us Fan Mail

In Episode 2 with Justin Stadelman, we revisit Ramadi 2004 through the eyes of a Humvee driver bound to perimeter security, evolving tactics, and days that turned on a single blast. Between heat, boredom, and sudden violence, we weigh culture, loss, and the question no one answers the same way twice.

• Humvee-bound roles in cordons and raids
• Heat, exhaustion and staying alert at night
• Delta taskings, Operation Traveler, and July task orders
• Training for stability ops vs urban combat reality
• Government center posts and Iraqi police interactions
• Checkpoints improvised without proper training
• Armor upgrades, welding and convoy north from Kuwait
• Platoon culture, strict NCOs and hooch life
• Habbaniyah Dam blast, VBIED day and casualty rhythms
• Foreign fighters, shifting intel and prisoner releases
• Houses in disrepair vs palaces in excess
• The enduring “was it worth it” question

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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 

Send us Fan Mail

Justin Stadelman from 81mm Mortars platoon takes us down the path from boot camp to Weapons Company 2/4, through 9/11, Okinawa, and into Ramadi, where Humvees, IEDs, and long nights on the bridge posts tested him. We reflect on loss, broken vehicles, burn pits, and how to build a life after.

• boot camp ties and Infantry School assignments into Weapons Company 2/4
• rapid changes after 9/11 and QRF posture
• gear transitions -- ALICE to MOLLE and digital cammies
• Humvee School, high backs, and first IED strikes
• Ramadi patrols, ambushes, and vehicle mishaps
• illumination, friendly fire risks, and fire support lessons
• bridge security, thermal observation, and guard rotations
• government center standbys and coordination with local police
• losses in the platoon and battalion, evacuations, and media impact
• handovers, wounds, and decompression at Junction City
• early outs via school cut and tough civilian transitions
• burn pits, depleted uranium finds, beating Cancer!... and VA claims
• hearing loss, missing protection, and lasting effects
• rebuilding: degrees, federal service, and family

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 

Send us Fan Mail

Part 2 of sitting down with Jesse Jordan (AKA Tweeter) opening with the final stretch in Ramadi: staying behind, tangled orders under fire, and the gate rush on September 12. The stories land on leadership, language, and how Weapons Company’s QRF role shaped experiences.

• late-stage ambush at the government center and confused orders
• disabled vehicles, suppression under fire, and Golf Company’s rescue
• rockets and mortars inside the wire, sleep loss
• patrol math that didn’t work and shifting tactics across Ramadi
• interpreters, accent risks, and door-kicking roles
• near-miss RPG, heat extremes, and improvised armor
• Sept 12 assault on Hurricane Point and Snakepit with SMAW overwatch
• leadership remembered: humor, hard truths, and holding standard
• Weapons Company as QRF, wide AO, and siloed units and partners
• Oliver North embeds, VBIED tow shot, and Operation Traveler threads

If you are looking for tasty cup of coffee, get a bag of beans from Jordan's business Axhead Coffee Roasters here: www.axheadcoffeeroasters.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 

Send us Fan Mail

We sit down with Jesse Jordan (AKA Tweeter) to unpack the early days of Mobile Assault Platoon concepts in Ramadi, how planning gaps forced on-the-fly doctrine, and why drivers were the unheralded heroes. The stories are raw—RPG near misses, comms that failed, AC pranks, and the mindset shift that saved lives.

• shifting from CAAT to MAP
• reenlistment twists, Okinawa detours, and crew roles
• Easy Street driving, IED medians, and urban traffic
• mapping gaps, sand tables, and better planning
• April firefights, RPG strikes, and rapid resupply
• market dismounts, high-backs HMMVs, and grenade risks
• comms failures and human antennas
• ammo realities and hoarded cans
• training muscle memory, terrain models, and rock drills
• leadership choices, humor, and keeping cameras away

Make sure you listen to part 2 of this multipart interview!

If you are looking for tasty cup of coffee, get a bag of beans from Jordan's business Axhead Coffee Roasters here: www.axheadcoffeeroasters.com

----------------------------------------------
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 

Send us Fan Mail

This is our introduction and setting the stage. There are very few show notes, as Major General Kennedy’s speech grounds the story in raw detail. Please listen closely. 

This conversation sets our mission forward: to record Weapons Company stories with fidelity. Every story is vital to paint the picture, and we hope every Marine from Weapons company, and any associated observers of Weapons company will help us in this archive.

If you are interested in further reading, there are a few private books that have captured some pieces of the story. The most complete is mentioned in this episode and listed here first:
"Unremitting" by Gregg Zoroya

"The Magnificent Bastards in Ramadi & a Father's Journey There" by Gregory Janney

"Joker One" by Donovan Campbell

"No True Glory" by Bing West

"First Fights in Ramadi" by David Kelly

"War Stories" by Oliver North, and also the TV series of the same name. 

Numerous Army and Marine Corps leadership publications available from military command libraries and archives. 

----------------------------------------------
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