Constant Combat

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Part one with Michael Hanson, who shares about becoming a Humvee driver and how trust, training, and tiny details decide whether a patrol goes smooth or goes sideways. We also get honest about the cost afterward, from drinking and stress to VA support, blast exposure, and hearing loss. 

• moving from Rainmaker to Sledgehammer
• getting picked as Gunny Cook’s new driver 
• learning to drive, motor pool training, and the attempt at climbers course
• ropes, knots, and why “simple” skills wash people out 
• coming home, partying too hard, and finally going to the VA for help 
• living with blast effects, possible TBI symptoms, and tinnitus 
• convoying into Iraq, first impressions of Ramadi, and early expectations 
• interpreters, accuracy, and the friction when translation gets crossed
• Hurricane Point life, the smoke pit, workouts, and guard rotations 
• early firefights, the Battle of Ramadi timeline, and what IED patterns looked like 

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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A man who needs little introduction to the Marines of Weapons Company, Sergeant Major Alphonso Mack joins us to give some of his history as a mortarman and recruit depot First Sergeant... then becomes the First Sergeant who holds Weapons Company 2/4 together before, during and after Ramadi 2004. We talk about trust, standards, grief, and the moments leaders carry for decades after the shooting stops. 

• getting thrown into the first sergeant role at MCRD San Diego
• managing unique unit cultures outside of the infantry
• trading billets to leave MCRD and arriving at 2/4 
• his origins becoming an 81mm mortarman and early leader
• the 110% rule and why being “average” is a choice 
• treating Marines as people by learning their stories
• the family brief promise and how it changes his leadership on later deployments 
• adapting the Weapons Company Mission and fighting for fair promotions during wartime 
• carrying memories of loss, moments of second guessing, and the cost of decisions made under pressure 
• hooch life stories with some humor and hijinks in the COC
• grief after losing his wife and rebuilding through training and routines

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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 Gavin Callais starts with April 7th contact through a wrong turn, an RPG that never detonates, and the slow realization that five hours have passed while ammo runs out. He also opens up about the bridge-post incident, the NJP that followed, and what these memories mean more than 20 years later. 

• learning the city under fire 
• the wrong turn and heavy contact 
• an RPG lands nearby... failing to detonate 
• Sergeant Neill’s calm under fire
• Operation County Fair searches
• “Bug Hunts,” rooftop attacks, and supporting exhausted line Marines
• heat injuries, IV bags, and the physical cost after engagements 
• sweeping the dam with engineers
• responding to a VBIED scene and the devastation up close 
• taking contact on Michigan
• stopping in a minefield and backing out in the same tracks 
• Hurricane Point hooch life
• near beer raids, and the humor that keeps people steady 
• end-of-deployment moves, combat takeoff, and the flight home 
• the stress of later deployments, and being forced into leadership fast 
• the bridge post, alcohol present, shots fired, and lessons about speaking up

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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

Gavin Callais from MAP 2 recounts the whiplash from getting tossed into a unit to rolling up the Iraq highway, where dark humor and constant confusion give way to IED blasts. He paints a vivid picture, from early barracks chaos and field-expedient Humvee fixes to the night several Marines were severely wounded and confusion, blood, and radio problems compress time into fragments. Gavin get into details of what it’s like pushing forward while outnumbered, watching the effects of heavy weapons up close, and coming back to reload magazines you forgot you emptied.
 
• arriving through Hawaii and deployment timelines the hard way 
• working parties and constant tasking 
• pre-deployment training, gear issues, and what actually helped
• barracks shenanigans
• the Humvee breakdown story
• cargo net flights, layovers, and the surreal shift in Kuwait 
• the convoy into Ramadi and Hurricane Point 
• early left seat-right seat patrols and the routine of IED sweeps 
• first IED experiences and the blur of rapid escalation 
• the night Morris is killed and the scramble to regroup 
• April 6 contact, casualty movement, ammo realities

If you like what you heard, this is a multipart episode, please follow for part 2

----------------------------------------------
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 Navy Corpsman Mike Rakebrandt about the hidden weight a senior line Corpsman carries in Ramadi, from quiet BAS check-ins to making split-second calls that keep Marines alive. We also discuss what hits hardest on the way home: Gold Star families, survivor’s guilt, and a system that does not follow up when the war is over. 

• how BAS conversations keep doubt from spiraling 
• the homecoming moments
• talking with Gold Star families and answering impossible questions 
• missions that stand out, including Bug Hunt and House Party 
• Operation Traveler and keeping a badly wounded detainee alive
• friction between field medical care and medical staff 
• non-combat medicine that impacts readiness, from flu to abscesses 
• the Purple Heart curse 
• handoff lessons to the incoming unit 
• survivor’s guilt, anxiety, and feeling like two different people 
• the lack of meaningful post-deployment medical follow-up 

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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 talk with Mike Rakebrandt about what it takes to prepare Navy Corpsmen when everything is fast, messy, and unforgiving. You can train for trauma medicine, but you can’t rehearse the moment you’re staring at a catastrophic wound and the only objective is “get him to the bird alive.” We also dig into the hidden work: medevac planning, moral injury, and the quiet counseling Corpsmen do so Marines can stay focused and make it home. 

• rebuilding a battalion Corpsman team after turnover
• gearing training and medical loadouts for IEDs, blast trauma, and head injuries 
• scrounging supplies from hospitals
• carrying every loss personally and the leadership mindset behind it 
• the cluster minefield incident and how discipline beats panic 
• Kuwait transit problems, illness management, and early deployment friction 
• planning medevac sites and integrating corpsmen input into raids 
• psychological first aid, grief control, and being the “rock” for Marines 
• moral ambiguity in an insurgency and a role for faith 

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

Part 2 of Andrew Kern from Mobile Assault Platoon One shifts from a summer lull into intense July and August gunfights, including a rooftop engagement that breaks an ambush and relieves pressure on pinned-down troops. An RPG comes straight at him and he has enough time to think, “Well, I’m dead,” before it blasts into the Humvee instead. We also get candid about Iraqi security forces, the randomness of getting wounded, and what service means when the paperwork never matches what happened.

• an Iraqi unit’s reputation 
• rebuilding Iraqi police and army forces 
• the July 13 government center run-in and the July 14th aftermath
• a Route Michigan battle and the rooftop overwatch
• the moral debate around a wounded combatant
• an RPG strike on a Humvee door and a Purple Heart story
• bridge duty, rockets, return fire, and the boredom between chaos
• left seat right seat, the handover to the next unit
• looking back after 22 years on brotherhood, identity, and meaning

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

Andrew Kern leads off part 1 arriving as a brand-new Marine in Weapons Company and how the path from San Mateo training to Ramadi changes his view of what “ready” really means. He walks us through the early Iraq War confusion, the shift from SASO to a more kinetic fight, and some key moments from April 2004 and Hurricane Point. 

• checking in as a boot and learning the personalities fast 
• pre-deployment training  including MOUT Town and control techniques 
• Arabic benefits and fails 
• March Air Force Base;  early-war training gets improvised 
• chaotic flight overseas 
• Kuwait staging then the cold convoy North
• first impressions of Ramadi
• early hearts and minds patrols
• Morris’ death, the Farhan brothers raid, and kicking the hornet's nest 
• bug hunts, loudspeaker taunts, and the mortars 

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

Dave closes out the days in Ramadi when one unarmored truck, one hit, and one Marine leader’s absence changes the emotional temperature of the whole platoon. We also talk honestly about what comes after, when you make it home with your family but your body still remembers and reacts like you haven't left combat. 

• Recounting late June and July contact and casualties
• What Sgt. Conde represented as a leader, mentor, and friend 
• The way grief shows up as rage, focus, and routine work 
• How constant contact blurs together and makes you numb 
• July 21 QRF memories and the ethics of firefights near a mosque 
• Left seat right seat missions
• Coming home with a new baby 
• Compartmentalizing for years and getting cracked open by a reunion
• Starting therapy, finding the right fit

----------------------------------------------
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 keep the timeline moving in part 2 with David Silton as he relives the IED on April 2 and the brutal stretch of fighting that follows in Ramadi. We talk through what it feels like to operate with a concussion, how split second decisions get made in combat, and why the rules and the reality sometimes collide. 

• IED strike, shrapnel injuries, and getting knocked unconscious 
• Concussion symptoms, memory gaps, and still going out on missions 
• April 6 heavy contact near Easy Street
• Improvised breaching, close quarters shooting, and finding a weapons cache 
• Army 113s arriving under fire 
• Mark 19 and .50 cal employment
• Time perception in long firefights and what it does to recall 
• Rules of engagement: compassion vs survival mode, and civilian casualties 
• April 10 bug hunt, Cobra support, lioness teams, and getting stuck under fire 
• Operation Treasure Island drownings, sleep deprivation, and hallucinating while driving 
• Training Iraqi police and doubts about the handover plan 
• Constant incoming and becoming numb to mortars 

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