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We capture the story from MAP 1's Yancy Harris to trade Ramadi 2004 memories that swing from terrifying to absurd in the span of a sentence. A lot of the conversation centers on how routine danger shapes a unit’s nerves. It's RPG paranoia, the weird routines that kept him going, and what it feels like to come home and the long memories of deployment. 

• a mistaken RPG attack that ends in a weapons cache find 
• the “RPG truck”
• “Pistol Pete” and the one-shot Beretta
• CQB training, confidence in training 
• hooch life culture 
• the Humvee flipped in filthy water, and the scramble to keep everyone safe 
• cordons, bug hunts, and the split-second confusion
• bridge duty mishaps, losing gear, and learning the hard way 
• coming home, driving in civilian traffic, and applying lessons through tactical fitness and security drills 

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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 Ranie Ruthig, one of the original Lioness soldiers who was often attached to Weapons Company, to illustrate how early missions in Ramadi evolve from outreach to intel work and high-risk convoy life. We also get her blunt take on standards, unit culture, and why her view on women in combat is more complicated than people expect. 

• early “hearts and minds” runs to schools and neighborhoods 
• cache searches and a lizard scare 
• mission debriefs and why some unit partnerships stop 
• planning the glass factory visit to receive intel 
• CNN attention and the reality of women already in combat zones 
• barrier missions, wrecker work, and engineer solutions under fire 
• leaving active duty for family care plans and rebuilding life 
• training Marines later on and the long tail of wartime experience 
• her perspective on women in combat 

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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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Straight shooting story from Ranie Ruthig, a mechanic Staff Sergeant who became a Lioness in 2004 Ramadi, building a mission from nothing, learning the culture, and surviving April’s chaos with Weapons Company Marines. The stories are raw, funny, and unfiltered, and full of details that can only come directly from the woman who lived it.

• converting Camp Rifle to Junction City with no infrastructure
• plywood armor, scarce showers, and late-night recovery runs
• why Lioness teams formed and why they always paired up
• early missions with 1-5 Field Artillery and Weapons Company 2/4 Marines. 
• culture and language gaps between Army and Marines
• April 2004 tempo, contact, and on-the-job lessons
• inside Iraqi homes, tea etiquette, and gender roles
• handing over to replacements and selecting the right people

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 two with John Mark Lopez and trace a four-man team’s cordon-and-overwatch role, the shift from highbacks to up-armored, and the thin line between luck and skill. Leadership, loss, and life after service tie the story together with hard-earned lessons that he carries on to his personal goals and civilian career.

• rooftop overwatch and night raids
• improvised armor in highbacks moving to up-armored Humvees
• IED near the train station
• cordon missions with thin numbers and decisive movements
• stress management
• leadership of Lt Stephens and Staff Sgt Coleman
• reenlistment, DI School, and training standards by example
• First LAR mortar employment and Lopez's leadership
• post-service path
• enduring takeaway: young Marines’ capability and relentless preparation

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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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You can feel the choice before you hear it; Sergeant Lopez with a clear path to promotion walks away from the safe bet to stand next to his brother and friends in Ramadi. That decision by John Mark becomes the spine of this story... from a division-level meritorious board to Ramadi as a combat replacement with his brother, tracing how training, discipline, and fast decisions hold a unit together when chaos in everywhere. Hard missions, mixed signals, media pressure, and choices that save lives shape this candid account.

• choosing loyalty over reenlistment track
• insertion via Blue Diamond into Weapons Company
• adapting squad leaders course habits to street fights
• taking charge of dismounts 
• engineers hit, VBIED called in, rapid casualty evac
• rumor-driven next-of-kin notifications 
• recovering fallen snipers under media cameras
• FO skills correcting dangerous illum fires
• hooch life, sandbags, gym, and strict guard standards

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 two with the XO, Duke Wells, going through a near‑fatal friendly fire, a catastrophic VBIED, and the daily grind of raids, politics, and broken systems. The thread throughout the chaos is team, leadership, and the choices that keep people alive. He closes with a view 20 years removed and what that means. 

• a tank round on Route Michigan exposing comms and deconfliction gaps
• the ambush‑magnet intersection at Nova and Gypsum
• cash payments, broken accountability, and moral injury from “projects”
• VBIED mass‑casualty response
• mosque sanctuary abuse, corrupt partners, and two‑faced local politics
• detainee catch‑and‑release and neighbors weaponizing tips
• left‑seat/right‑seat relief failures 
• no decompression, homecoming shock, and coping through gallows humor
• what endures: NCO leadership, unit cohesion, and earned pride

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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

Excellent interview with the Company XO, Lucas "Duke" Wells detailing how a Marine weapons company became a mobile, citywide cavalry in Ramadi, evolving from thin intel and a weak handover to a five-platoon rotation that broke sieges and mastered the streets. The story follows raids, April’s turning points, a midyear enemy shift, and hard choices that made the unit deadlier.

• senior NCO leadership shaping tempo and standards
• rapid shift from Habaniyah plan to Ramadi reality
• mapping the city at night to learn routes and patterns
• five-platoon rotation balancing tempo, rest, and QRF
• early raids culminating in targeted hits with solid intel
• April 6–7 ambushes, PsyOps push, and QRF breakthroughs
• heavy weapons redistribution to match the fight
• staff NCOs commanding platoons effectively
• enemy evolution to more lethal, organized tactics
• limited cross-talk with Army leading to a closed “box”
• reputation as the go-to city escort

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 two with Joe Herscher from Rainmaker Platoon, moving from firefights and improvised humor to the hard road of leaving war, finding sobriety, and building a life that serves others. What sounds like a short story is a life time of change and cultivated rehabilitation, and a story about healing.

• remembering Savage and the chaos of May 12th 
• field versus garrison Marines
• life in the hooch, gym time, and a drink from the river
• IED sweeps, Oliver North sightings, up‑armor saves 
• sniper media anger and shifting to OP missions 
• coming home to silence and heavy drinking 
• meds without support
• relapse, rehab, and choosing sobriety 
• The 2 J's: Jessica and Jesus
• staying connected and helping Marines who struggle

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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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Everyone has a Joe Herscher story, even Joe: a theater student watches Heartbreak Ridge, and joins the Marines, and then finds himself in Ramadi learning decisiveness under fire. We walk through some pre-war Okinawa moments, the first ambush, April’s street battles, and a desperate standoff.

• why a comedy dreamer chose infantry and mortars
• culture shock in the fleet and Okinawa
• language training that didn’t match the mission
• first contacts that flipped hearts-and-minds to survival
• April 6 to 10: ambushes, alley fights, and QRF pushes
• psyops and door-to-door weapon finds
• field hospitals in homes
• lessons from hesitation and earning trust
• the Michigan Street crash

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 with Will Nackers about getting wounded in Ramadi, being evacuated across continents alone, and returning stateside to a system that offered questionable medicine with no follow-up. Humor in the hooch, shifting tactics, near-miss stories, and the weight of legacy close a deep story from this Marine.

• abrupt battlefield evac with no debrief
• wet-to-dry dressings, painful debridement, no PT
• rejoining the platoon
• hooch humor, Xbox, stale brownies
• mortar strikes, tarp roofs, sandstorms, heat
• designated marksman mindset
• javelins, high-back Humvees, adaptation
• breaching plans and Army EOD takeover
• leadership lessons from Sgt Conde
• recognition, reunions, and carrying legacy

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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