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On with me for this week's podcast is active duty Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD) Damian. We discuss what led him to join the Navy and talk about his career throughout. Damian gives you guys a combat story from his first rotation, and most importantly we talk about those Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice. We discuss what it's like to lose someone you love, and how it can motivate you to work extremely hard as it has done for both of us. Below is an excerpt.

John: Can you share a deployment story with the audience?

Damian: This is from my first deployment. It taught me a lot. My platoon was supporting an ODA from 7th Special Forces Group clearing villages in Panjwayi in southern Afghanistan. We infilled at night. Had an Afghan Commando Unit with us. The commando's said they wanted to go through the doorway. Wasn't my favorite idea, but I said ok. They cleared the doorway. I went into the doorway and was doing a secondary clearance checking for IEDs. I didn't find anything so we made entry. The last two Afghans who went through initiated an IED. He was brought inside one guy lost 3 limbs, with the other guy suffering blast injuries. The MEDEVAC bird comes in and another IED went off as the bird came in. The rotor wash set it off. We were able to get a hoist dropped into our compound. The Afghan Commando didn't make it. We finished our mission and had to bring his body out upon ex-fil. Come day break I did a post-blast analysis of the IED strike. It went off right where I was kneeling. I have no idea how I didn't trip it. I saw it as a mistake, and it changed how I did my job in the future.