Send us Fan Mail

Ben Thibeault’s story starts fast, and it only gets faster from there. He describes what it’s like to arrive in Iraq as a new Marine with big briefings, blurry timelines, and the sense that you’re stepping into something nobody can fully explain until it’s already happening. Ben talks about how he kept steady at Hurricane Point, then the warning signs of trouble, and first big fights that make the mission feel 'real'. 

• arriving to the fleet through Hawaii and Pendleton chaos 
• joining the Marine Corps at 22 after a wake-up call 
• March Air Force Base training
• Kuwait as the first reality check
• first impressions of Ramadi
• sandbags, smoke pit culture and why cigarettes became currency 
• how he killed time in the hooch
• care packages
• “absence of the normal” and the city going quiet before April 6 
• convoy roles, rear security, and fragmented awareness
• April 7 alleyway security under small arms fire and warning shots 
• IED strikes, evacuations and the shift from abstract risk to personal loss 

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