Send us a text

Dan Ackles brings us back to the moment he stepped off a van from SOI and into a deploying battalion bound for Ramadi. A rushed workup, 7 ton trucks with sandbags, April’s sudden violence, and the moral weight of changing ROE shape a raw, unvarnished account. This interview is blunt, darkly funny, and deeply humanizing via a lived record of how young Marines adapt fast. 

• boot drop straight into 2/4 without a full workup
• crash-course training at March Air Force Base and Kuwait
• arrival and life at Hurricane Point
• first convoys in highback HMMVs and early ambushes
• April 6 firefights, reinforcements, and medevacs
• rooftop clears with Sergeant Major Booker
• frustrations with armored support and pinned-down claims
• Xbox, dominoes, smoke pit building, and chow hall bullshit
• calls home, pricey phone cards, and care packages
• ROE shifts from tight control to permissive guns free
• ethical stress, restraint, and near-miss civilian encounters
• unit humor, bond, and learning under fire

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