Constant Combat

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This time, we talk with MAP2 Lance Corporal Bill Groves about the fast ramp from Okinawa training cycles to the first brutal weeks in Ramadi in 2004, including the moments that made everything feel real. From miserable workups and broken flights to firefights, IEDs, and the uneasy question of who could be trusted, Bill tells the details in the way only he can recount. 

• joining the platoon late in Okinawa and racing into the Ramadi buildup
• Bridgeport misery 
• MOUT Town training
• aircraft breakdowns and surprise layovers
• the convoy from Kuwait 
• first days in Ramadi and the shock of immediate mass-casualty scenes
• half doors and early IED lessons
• April contacts including friendly fire confusion across the river
• extended firefights on April 6 and 7
• decompression rituals after contact and the way habits change
• contractors and interpreters 
• Operation Treasure Island 
• the Habaniya dam sweep, the VBIED blast, and casualty evacuation
• cemetery hill landmine and a later night QRF to an LAV strike

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 bonus 3rd hour with Reagan Hodges as he adds some sharper detail, from reenlisting before 9/11 to the split-second fights that still replay in his head. We talk about why brotherhood can feel like the best and worst part of war at the same time, and what leadership, luck, and grief look like on the ground. 

• returning to the Marines after a break and why it felt like home 
• Okinawa bonding
• pre-deployment training stress
• Jeremiah “Savage” as the guy who gets things done 
• leading Marines hard while trusting the chain of command 
• Weapons Company as the cavalry and why everyone wants the call 
• April fights, rooftop exposure
• interpreter reliability, the mosque camera story
•  the reality of “blue on blue”
• April 10 bug hunt
• a ten-foot gunfight again with a little more detail
• Purple Hearts, and the awards process 

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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 for Reagan Hodges with some gunfight stories and some memories of how the body keeps score. We also dig into what real combat leadership looks like, how grief shows up at strange times, and a little post traumatic growth.
 
• an RPK gunner at close range
• hypervigilance 
• trust-based leadership
• pride in the platoon and the rage behind disrespecting the fallen 
• faith and a grandmother’s war-time mindset 
• losing friends
• the sniper rooftop deaths and why rumors fill information gaps 
• mixed feelings about war stories becoming public through a book 
• coming home, wanting to redeploy
• veteran suicide prevention work and speaking bluntly with love 
• post-traumatic growth and challenging guilt for missing the fight 

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

We bring on Reagan Hodges and talk how a hard-charging Marine who struggled in garrison becomes the kind of fighter everyone counts on when Ramadi turns. We talk through the training, the chaos, the losses, and the moments that still follow you home. 

• bouncing between ranks and learning to own consequences 
• pre-deployment workups
• why the command keeps him despite repeated trouble 
• the Sergeant Major Booker confrontation
• hazing, pressure-testing, and building calluses in infantry culture 
• first impressions of Ramadi
• QRF response and a graphic truck scene
• how constant contact distorts timelines and memory 
• Farhan capture, detainees under fire, and the uglier logistics of the fight 
• April 6 escalation, IEDs, and what it shows about insurgent tactics 
• Lioness attached to the platoon and the reality of women near frontline 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 

Send us Fan Mail

Paul Hess part 2, reminds us that there is no polished and shiny versions of the Ramadi 2004 story: famous names showing up on base, mortars landing close, and memories that still feel foggy or sharp at the wrong times. We also talk hooch life, boredom, friendship, and why coming home can be harder than anyone expects. 

• Dan Rather at Hurricane Point 
• Oliver North riding along 
• First Sergeant Ellis as a leader 
• Early Ramadi operations, the Farhan brothers raid
• The strange guilt 
• Bug Hunts: loudspeakers, exhaustion, and long days 
• Weapons caches
• Hooch life stories, punishments, and bored Marines with tasers 
• Care packages, and the small things that got us through 
• Getting out, missing the guys, and the long road 

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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

Paul Hess starts his story as a brand new join... and straight to combat driver and dismounted Marine. Great recollections including the convoy into Iraq and the first overwhelming sights and sounds of Ramadi. We also discuss early urban combat realities at Hurricane Point, from IEDs and route tactics to the anger of not having a visible enemy to fight. 

• Paul Hess’s background and early Marine life 
• Leading a convoy memories 
• Pre deployment training 
• Remembering Ken Conde’s impact as a teacher 
• Ramadi arrival impressions
• Early mission tempo and route unpredictability
• First IED experience 
• “Pistol Pete” 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

We catch up with Lance Corporal Ruben Ventocilla as he walks us from pre-deployment training to the heat and chaos of Ramadi in 2004, including IED strikes, gear shortages, and the constant need to adapt. He also leads us through his medevac to Baghdad story and where his service sits with him 20 years later. 

• black ice in New Jersey 
• leadership and training details that stick for decades 
• joining the Marine Corps as a Peruvian immigrant 
• early Iraq moments
• driving versus dismounting and how roles shaped focus
• scavenging and improvising gear
• arriving in Ramadi and making hooch life workable 
• having "a stroke" and the Baghdad hospital trip 
• downtime routines
• reporters in the AO and meeting Oliver North 
• chemical weapon rumors
• coming home readjustment and the uneasy “hero” label 

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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 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 

Send us Fan Mail

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 

Send us Fan Mail

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.

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