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We sit down with Blake Pepper, a MAP-3 machine gunner in Ramadi. LCpl Pepper was nineteen, standing behind a .50 cal in a raw highback Humvee called Old Yeller; rolling from Kuwait into Ramadi with armor they welded themselves with gunner's view, from Easy Street to the palm groves, and a VBIED that “missed” by heartbeats. Training, trust, and small-unit leadership carry the story, along with names that still matter.

• convoy north from Kuwait and early vehicle setups
• scrounging armor, welding plates, and adapting highbacks
• April 6 QRF to Easy Street and casualty runs
• Sergeant Conde wounded yet pushing to rejoin the fight
• RPG near miss, Halal and Gentile loaded into trucks
• April 7 bounding with Golf Company near the fields
• April 10 palm grove contact and Cummings wounded
• sniper hunt in the marsh and recovered rifle
• escorting General Mattis, Oliver North filming, VBIED near miss
• Library OP fight, Mark 19 suppression, and gas can detonation
• hooch life under mortars, rockets, and dark humor
• games, golf balls across the river, and unit morale

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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Some battles make headlines; others build the leaders who carry a generation. Our continued conversation with Hector takes us from the rooftops to the hooch, tracing how a single moment under fire with a sergeant major and an M14 recalibrated his idea of leadership for the next two decades.
We talk about memorial bands that never come off. Survivor’s guilt that doesn’t fade. Early counseling, numbness on Zoloft, and the quiet fear of being labeled unfit around recruits. Hector explains why he volunteered again and again: the mission and the team felt more honest than the silence at home. That choice had a cost, but it also forged a leader determined to pass on what he’d seen done right under pressure.

• why Ramadi 2004 rarely gets credit compared with Fallujah 
• survivor’s guilt, memorial bands, and the cost of coming home 
• counseling, Zoloft, stigma, and identity after deployment 
• volunteering for more tours to find belonging and purpose 
• leadership moments that shaped future Sergeants Major 
• letters home, care packages, music, and smoke pits 
• shifting from highbacks to up-armor and how it changed risk 
• interpreters’ stories, house searches, and life inside the city 
• the “bench warmers” slight as fuel for excellence

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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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The map is fuzzy, the feelings are not. We sit down with Hector Fernandez to map a foggy but powerful memory of Ramadi 2004, from April 6–7 to sniper evacs and two IED blasts a week apart. The dates blur after traumatic brain injury, but the brotherhood, the field-learned tactics and the bond of 2/4 remain sharp.

• unit placement in Weapons Company 2/4 and Rainmaker 81s
• the pivot from SASO to urban combat on 6–7 April
• breaching with donut charges and stubborn doors
• highback patrols and the sniper evacuation in Sophia
• VBIED near checkpoints 295–296
• chasing triggermen during curfew
• two IED strikes, blackout, TBI and medical stops
• loss of Savage at Nova and Gypsum and aftermath
• counter‑IED training with an Australian instructor at Junction City
• why this deployment forged a lifelong bond stronger than later tours

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 share raw, funny, and hard memories with Louie "Fuey" Fuentes about raids in Ramadi, field life defined by chow and improvisation, and a harrowing detour through Balad that ends with a midnight flight back to Hurricane Point. Every detail is tactile: dust in your teeth, a McDonald’s on the horizon when the chow hall is closed, and the kind of laughter that only shows up when the stakes are unbearable. The talk closes on grief, therapy, and why telling these stories keeps people connected.

• raids, rooftop overwatch, and a high-value target capture
• locked gates, cultural misreads, and a lesson in knocking
• Bridgeport training, heavy guns, and field leadership
• the Balad hospital detour and a hitchhikers story
• chow as morale: powdered eggs, bacon, and protein mishaps
• Afghanistan later, friends lost, and honoring names over dates
• why Ramadi is underwritten in books and official histories
• mental health, therapy wins, and open-door peer support

Supplemental link to a TED talk we reference from former Weapons Company commander, Marine Officer and former midshipman Chuck Smith: https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_p_smith_how_the_us_can_address_the_tragedy_of_veteran_suicide
(Semper Fi sir, thank you for sharing your leadership and thoughts!) 

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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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Having a laugh with Louie "Fuey" Fuentes as we trade hooch humor for hard lessons from Ramadi, from convoy ambushes and botched handoffs to the training that saved lives when plans fell apart. Between a Humvee in a sewer and a colonel on a rooftop, we cut through some bullshit and put names with some of the moments we still carry.

• boot camp starts and variable first days
• hooch banter as stress relief - the legend of Joe
• first convoys and early IEDs
• civil affairs rollover and leadership in the sewer
• LAR night fallout and risky door-knocks
• market ambush, Bradleys, and split-second calls
• left-seat right-seat with 2/5 and “cowboy” labels
• training, MOUT drills, and muscle memory
• UFO sightings in Ramadi !! 
• compound fire, civilians, and restraint
• fog of war and first rounds under fire
• farm cordon, getting separated, and re-linking

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 

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In part 2, Joe walks us down some school of hard knocks education from Ramadi 2004, where platoons welded armor and learned tactics under fire, to later deployments with drones, MRAPs, and precision fires, and how those lessons shaped his leadership and training. 
From LCpl Latham to SSgt Latham: he learned counterinsurgency in real time, codified lessons, and handed a better playbook to those who followed.
Stories range from a Nokia-triggered IED and an overpowered breach, to a Javelin through a window, all grounded by humility and a focus on legacy over accolades.

• Lioness teams engaging and the tempo of constant firefights
• near misses from IEDs, RPGs, and landmines, and the cost of contact
• transition from improvised armor to MRAPs, drones, and HIMARS
• calling fires, precision targeting, and the maturation of tactics
• government center escorts, leadership presence, and media on patrol
• personal boundaries with memory, privacy, and why legacy matters
• training platoons hard to save lives and pass on hard-won lessons
• awards, recognition gaps, and valuing bonds over medals


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 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

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

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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

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