Constant Combat

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We pick up part 2 with Shane Nylin from MAP 2 as first missions in Ramadi turn into minefields, EOD chaos, and an IED. We also walk through the loss of a platoon member and the street fights that follow, including what it feels like when adrenaline, grief, and leadership collide. 

• first impressions of Ramadi
• Hurricane Point’s design problems 
• early patrol learning curves and why handoffs rarely feel complete 
• backing out of a minefield 
• responding to a convoy attack and changing armor and vehicle habits 
• the EOD robot failure, crowd control, and how fast tension spikes 
• night missions, the March 17-18 blast, concussion, and staying in the fight 
• Morris’s injury, protecting dignity, and the quiet after the news 
• April 6 to April 7 urban combat
• the lasting pull of the combat “flow state” and the cost of sleepless days 

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 welcome guest Jesse Jordan to podcast cohost recording Shane Nylin’s path from signing Marine Corps papers in a peacetime world to realizing, almost overnight, that he is heading into Iraq with a thin platoon and even thinner margins. We talk through the training, injuries, leadership clashes, and dark humor moments that shaped how Weapons Company Marines got ready for Ramadi long before the first shots were fired. 

• joining the Marine Corps before 9-11
• Okinawa training as a proving ground 
• picking up Corporal and Sergeant, then navigating trust, reputation, and platoon politics 
• tearing a knee ligament, and learning from an unwanted camp guard assignment 
• March Air Force Base moments that forced seriousness and standards 
• intel shifts from Habaniya to Ramadi 
• Kuwait arrival and scrounging gear to prep vehicles 
• planning convoy security, dealing with comms failures, and crossing the border expecting contact 

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 Josh Kohen starts as an RPG hit his position near a mosque in Ramadi, including the small choices and split-second timing that changed who lived and who died. He continues with what followed, from chaotic QRF fights and mass-casualty scenes. We wrap up with the strange everyday routines that kept us going, and how those memories shape life 20 years later. 

• the last discussion with Morris
• a night checkpoint that turns catastrophic 
• grabbing a rifle and fighting back wounded 
• April 6th and 7th blur of QRF, RPGs, and house-to-house movement 
• what heroic looks like from the inside 
• mail runs, bad chow, MRE life, caffeine tricks, and tobacco stories 
• Israeli-up-armored Humvees and field-expedient decisions 
• VBIED aftermath, triage reality, and running into a high school friend 
• broken jaw medevac, coming home early, and guilt 
• why perspective after combat can fuel success in civilian life 

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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

Josh Kohen of MAP2 trades the polished war-movie version for what it actually felt like to arrive as a new Marine, get absorbed into a depleted unit, and stumble into combat fast. We discuss identity, communication failures, and the small routines that kept us steady when everything around us stayed unpredictable in part 1 of this interview. 

• getting pulled from security forces, landing in 2-4 by surprise 
• early drinking trouble, owning mistakes
• the strange deployment journey
• stop loss impacts, gutted units, and a “skeleton” company
• short Arabic school and why it became unsafe to use 
• early Ramadi shock, pop shots, weddings, and getting numb to incoming
• hooch life stories
• music as survival, a Kuwait PX boombox, and discovering country music 
• Abrams friendly fire, lack of comms between units, and lessons learned 

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

----------------------------------------------
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 MAP3's Deverson Lochard, a Marine sergeant and machine gunner who cross-decks from 3/5 into a deploying unit to prepare young Marines for Ramadi with one uncompromising priority: getting everyone home alive. He shares what combat demanded of their leadership, how loss and rage tested their discipline, and why the deployment ultimately reshaped his faith and his appreciation for human life.

• why he cross-decked into 2/4 before deployment
• first impressions of young Marines
• training for “controlled, organized chaos” under fire
• discipline, machine gunner philosophy, and convoy survivability
• learning Ramadi through patterns, locals, and hard instincts
• the weight of losing Conde and the struggle to forgive himself
• April 6 and April 7, exhaustion, and immediate reset routines
• the ethical pressure of armed women and children in the fight
• moments of humanity on patrol
• keeping sane through letters, workouts, and Halo tournaments
• transitioning out, choosing electrical engineering, and building a new purpose
• frequency as a way to explain veteran success and spiritual return

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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 Justin Weaver wraps up with the strange gap between what we lived and what the civilian world can understand, and how that gap can push people into silence, booze, and untreated PTSD. We trade memories from Ramadi to coming home, and talk about when things get dark. 

• feeling isolated after service and doubting your own memories 
• PTSD denial, drinking as “normal,” and finally choosing to get help 
• hooch life in Ramadi, sandstorms, smoking pits, and bootleg DVDs 
• the flight over, emergency landings
• night raids, language barriers
• corruption fears, police station stories, and the interrogation tent rumors 
• Junction City as a mythical level comfort
• coming home to loneliness, Walmart gift cards, and chaos
• getting out early, what it means to lose your tribe 
• losing friends after the war 

----------------------------------------------
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 1 with Rainmaker Mortarman Justin Weaver to trace the jump from rushed pre-deployment training to the first hard weeks in Ramadi 2004, including the moments that flipped the switch from joking around to understanding the stakes. Along the way, he talks the dark humor, the unit bonds, and the way combat stress scrambles the timeline even when the details remain in memory. 

• March Air Force Base training and a lost practice grenade 
• last-minute reps with slings and reload drills 
• Oceanside gear-buying stories
• Leaving California, arriving in Kuwait, and when teams get split 
• A suicide at Camp Victory
• Phone calls home... and relying on the platoon as family 
•  the blow-up doll riding in the convoy 
• first impressions of Ramadi, and expectations colliding with reality 
• Early casualties, shifting roles from dismount to gunner 
• First contact near Saddam’s mosque
• April 6 chaos, linkups, and the confusion of detainees under fire 
• How memory blurs sequence

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

----------------------------------------------
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 Sergio Wallace goes on with the everyday reality of war, from heat and mud rain to the little “keep your head together” routines. He gives a deep look at what it means to accept death at 19, come home changed, and try to lead younger Marines with respect while carrying pride, shame, and unanswered “why me” questions. 

• extreme heat and the strange mud rain during sandstorms 
• downtime survival through bootleg DVDs, music, trash talk, and dark humor 
• cigars as a post-patrol ritual 
• VIP visits, reporters, and junior Marines lack of intel briefs
• base-to-base contrasts
• Lioness missions, loneliness, and the social fallout
• movement-to-contact, up-armored Humvees, night ops
• drawdown mindset, vigilance, and the oddly comforting acceptance of mortality 
• coming home and family noticing subtle changes 
• leadership lessons about teaching and treating Marines like people 
• leaving the Corps for family, and the long shadow of pride, shame, and moral injury 

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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 1 with Sergio Wallace of Sledgehammer Platoon.  His story tracks a young Marine Corps infantryman who arrives with confidence, friction, and a simple motive, then learns how fast combat erases simplicity, trying to make sense of what Ramadi demanded. He leads us through early patrol optimism, the shock of IEDs and loss, and the lingering moral weight of night raids.  

• joining 2/4 after SOI and clashing with senior Lance Corporals 
• discovering the Marine Corps through JROTC
• pre-deployment training
• first days in Iraq at Camp Victory and relationship fallout downrange 
• Hurricane Point, patrols, and realizing locals are studying patterns 
• Humvee life in Weapons Company, switching roles, and close calls 
• night raids, door kicks, and the uneasy math of bad intel and civilian impact 
• incoming fire moments, rooftops, and the “spidey sense”
• the first big IED experiences
• bridge posts, bug hunts, and the blur of the first exchange of fire 
• dam mission with engineers, searching for drowned Fox Company swimmers, and questioning command intent 

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

----------------------------------------------
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 pick up Part Two with Mike Hanson as he relives Ramadi through the details that didn't fade: from weapons caches and watch posts to split-second calls that still don’t have easy answers. We also talk about what it feels like to come home, carry the friendships forward, and remember the people who didn’t make it back.

• trying to stop incoming mortars and rockets
• finding buried anti-aircraft rounds and unexpected weapons caches
• near misses on exposed posts
• watching civilian life from the bridge
• night raids, Iraqi compounds, and how clean and empty many homes felt
• the smell of sewage in streets and burning trash near the landfill
• checkpoint shooting where the driver turns out to have no brakes
• responding to major incidents including the Mattis LAV escort aftermath
• escort missions with reporters 
• vehicle recoveries, convoy accidents, and improvised fixes 
• hooch life stories, downtime, money saved, and the realities of forward operating base life
• rushing a badly injured engineer to a helicopter for evacuation
• coming home, welcome-back moments, and what Marine Corps service means decades later

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